Durgama Takeover

Another LGS game, this time Darpan Highly Classified for Darpan Highly Classified. H20 is learning JSA, while I haven't played Vanilla Haqq in a while and decided to give it a shot. As standard, it's a 300 point game.

For our objectives, we get In Extremis Recovery, HVT: Designation, HVT: Identity Check, and HVT: Inoculation.

Omar Mukhtar loomed. The recreation's reputation had followed him from Novyy Bangkok, alongside the core of Ramah Taskforce troops that made up his command staff. In a division known for unimpeachable moral standards and above-board operations, Omar Mukhtar was a Spook.

Unexplained, black-budget missions. Confused targets and confused goals. Open conflict with other humans on the front-lines with the combined army. Haqq high command trusted him, Omar's troops trusted him, nothing against Haqq values had ever properly been tied to the man, but he wasn't popular and lieutenant Masoud didn't trust him.

And now Masoud's entire platoon had been seconded to this enigma. The lives of everyone under his command, everyone he'd pulled through that brutal contested landing, entrusted to some two-bit spy based on a long-dead war hero.

Still, he had to admit that Omar didn't act like Masoud thought he would.

"-Our target is a member of the Kuge on liaison with the Xenofarm. They have ties to Equinox, but we have reason to believe they're unaware of those ties. We want to keep it that way. We're playing the part of a smash-and-grab team. Act like you're robbing the place, and like the bodyguard managed to drive us off," said Omar, "Shouldn't be too hard. While we play distraction, Jameela will start the scan and our friends in the Hassassins will get the bio-tracers planted. The moment they're done, grab our dead and run for it. Don't play hero, don't stick around, and don't throw viral payloads around. We clear?"

Most soldiers in the room nodded. They'd worked with Mukhtar before, Masoud thought, they trusted him and knew the deal. Masoud's subordinates, however, looked to him, clearly waiting for his thoughts on the mission. A long moment passed as he considered saying something, anything, in criticism before he thought better of it.

"Crystal clear, sir."

H20 won the LT roll-off and picked deployment. I took first turn, going for a deployment that pushed my troops against the edge of the expanded deployment zone, with Al-Djabel in position to strike at his link turn one.

Start of my turn, I do exactly that. Djabel bisects a Keisotsu, then removes another and Musashi from the field before going unconscious to return fire. A Liberto darts out to wipe a Ryuken and its land mines from the field with a shotgun templates, clearing the way for the ghulam's servant bot to rush for the HVT.

Only for a Ninja Sniper to reveal, shooting down the servantbot before it can get into position! My Asawira Lieutenant moves to engage, but I get the range band wrong on the first engagement so it takes two tries to take out the Ninja and the Asawira takes a wound in the process. This drains most of my surviving orders, but as I used the Asawira's lieutenant orders to engage my Al Hawwa manages to reveal and spotlight the HVT, completing Designation.

On his first turn, a Shikami Duo and Shinobu attack my right flank. They kill a Farzan, Ghazi, and Mukhtar before ending their turn. A Keisotsu HMG also drops the Liberto.

On my second turn, I drop a pitcher over the attack team, move a Hunzakut to watch them to counter-act their stealth, and have the Asawira drop one Shikami and get its injury healed.

H20's second turn sees a Shikami get spotlit as it tries to dodge past the Hunzakut's line of fire, fulfilling my secondary. The Keisotsu HMG pivots to try and remove the Hunzakut, but gets flash pulsed. Shinobu tries to sprint past to engage the Asawira, but also gets spotlit. Finally, the Keisotsu LT manages to dart over and fulfill In Extremis Recovery on Djabel.

On my last turn, we're tied on Mains and Secondaries, so I need to get some other stuff done. I drop in a Nahab right in front of the Keisotsu HMG. He gets shot with a pistol, but walks forwards, pistol-whips the Keisotsu, and Recovers him as the next Keisotsu finishes off the Nahab with another pistol-shot.

To finish Inoculation, I need to sprint my doctor all the way across the table, convert an irregular order to regular, and do precisely nothing besides run and press the button. This is all well and good, but a rocket launching Ryuken is going to get two free AROs on the way and I have no way to do anything about it.

Still, a mission's a mission. The doc goes on his run. The Ryuken misses the first shot. The doc makes the save on the second. I succeed on the Inoc roll, and score the objective.

End score: I have 3 Main Classifieds and my secondary, H20 has 1 Main Classified and his secondary. Final score of 9-3 my favor, and he has three surviving troops on the field: A single Keisotsu, the Ryuken, and an Immobilized Shikami.

I don't know JSA profiles very well and so made some really bad assumptions. I thought that Kitsune was NWI, so rather than trying to knock her out for Extremis suicide-dropped the Nahab. I thought Ninjas were much more durable at range than they actually are, so I kept running that servant bot up instead of handling the Ninja then doing Inoculation at leisure. I also forgot that my Liberto was in prime position to just shotgun the Ninja Sniper into oblivion, which would have kept my Lieutenant Asawira safe for a bit longer, and I shouldn't have deployed the Mukhtar quite as far forward as I did, because those Shikami ran up on him really, really easily.

In his spartan office within the AlFutna barracks, Omar Mukhtar reviewed the day's victory.

Heavy casualties. They'd cubevac'd most, and the nameless Fiday who'd fallen during the mission had already inexplicably returned to duty, a beneficiary of whatever the Hassassins had turned to in lieu of cubes, but there was already a months-long waiting list for new bodies, growing longer whenever some priority target bit it and needed to be resurrected ASAP. Nevermind the poor Om who'd died for them.

Omar Mukhtar just had to hope the data was worth it. Masoud's hacker had proven his worth, getting them full data and biometric rips on the Kuge member and his shikami bodyguards. Jamal Islam, the team's doctor, had even managed to inject the bio-tracker into their target against all odds. But all of that might not matter if-

A mayanet message from VV. Two lines and an attachment.

"Analysis finished and attached.

You hit the goddamn jackpot, tracker should lead us right to them."

And even as he downloaded the attachment, Omar uttered a thankful prayer. It had been worth it. They were one step closer to pinning down Equinox.