Durgama Takeover

I had just selected a bottle I was interested, and took of my mask to take a swig of the burning liquor, when an urgent alert popped up on my comms. The communication antenna we had connected to caught some traffic from the combined forces on the Raveneye station. They had been attempting to break into some highly classified data which was linked to their ground invasion at Darpan, and a detachment of the Combined army had broken off from the main force and was converging on our location.

The team quickly scrambled, and I called in some back up from a nearby Tohaa squad on the the station. At first the fast moving contacts indicated that we were dealing with just some of the combined's shock creatures, dangerous up close, but easy enough to deal with at range. Suddenly warnings flared on our comms, and my blood ran colder than the space outside the station. If this is signature warning was correct we were ill equipped to deal with it.

The Avatar stalked through the remote hanger, the strange buzzing aura of its voodoo tech could be felt from across the field of battle. The Medtech was worming its way under a walkway junction nearby. Guarding the doorway to the remote hanger was a Taigha, and further back in the bay was an Imatron. Guarding the walkway junction between the medical bay and the remote hanger was another Taigha and a Gaki. Inside the medical bay were two more Gaki and on the far left flank hiding on the edge of the walkway junction were the last two Taigaha. A small gun turret monitored both exits to the hydroponics bay and a strange alien mutation.

The Digger took up inside the cantina module behind the bar, rapidly putting together its multi sniper rifle, should he need to protect our business contact from any long range threat. Guarding the walkway junctions and entrances to the module a Kaauri hid behind a small food stand and laid down suppressive fire. One the junction just behind the Kaauri, the Kerail and Surda took cover. Inside the Hydroponics bay a Chaksa and another Kaauri took cover around some of the planters. The Draal took up a standing position on the a raised walkway in attempt to cover the entrance from any rush from the many Combined beasts. The rest of her Triad was further back taking cover so as not to provide an easy target for the Avatar. The Kealtar took cover inside one of the larger planters. The of the impersonator monitored the situation from above on a maintenance walkway. A small gun turret monitored the entrance to the hydroponics bay on our right flank.

All of the Gaki and Taigha surged forwards, with the Draal managing to injure a Gaki enough to make it explode, and put down the Taigha that emerged from the remote hanger, and killed another outright. With a speed unnervingly graceful and fluid for something so large, the Avatar left its position and began to saturate the Draal's position with machine-gun fire. After several attempts the Draal was hit by a lucky shot, but the symbiomate's fatal effort bolstered the Draal's symbioarmor to the point it could not be hurt. However, without the extra protection of the symbiomate the Draal decided it would be best to hide from further shots.

With the Draal no longer providing overwatch, the Avatar advanced with the Medtech to offer protection, killing the Surda and eventually got into a close ranger firefight with the Kaauri behind the food stand. After several exchanges the Medtech could advance no further into the cantina without crossing the kaauries line of fire, and the Avatar could not bring down the Kaauri. The Avatar then began setting up a wave of covering fire to saturate the area. The remaining beasts ran forward, one of the Gaki moved into the sights of the gun turret and was destroyed. The other Gaki ran into the hydroponics bay stopping just short of the Kaauri's position. The two Taigha in skirting along the side of the walkways made their way just below the entrance to the hydroponics bay.

Seizing on an opportunity the Kerail shifted its position to throw smoke at onto the Kaauri's position. The Kaauri then placed two e/m mines before shooting at the Avatar from the cover of smoke. The Avatar shot at the Kaauri, and both artificial creatures missed, but the Avatar was disable by the blasts of the mines.

Hoping to prevent the Avatar from rebooting its systems, the Kaauri ran into contact with it, but the Avatar was able to reset as the Kaauri placed its last mine. However with the Avatar distracted by its combat with the Kaauri the Digger took the opportunity to kill the medtech, though it suffered a wound in return.

The Kamael lieutenant stood from its position and fired at the last of the Gaki and killed it before ducking back into cover. The Digger then ran into the combat with the Avatar an managed to damage the construct with its mining harness.

Unfortunately, this left our business contact unguarded and a Taryot parachuted into position and stuck her with some strange concoction.

One of the Taigha raced across the entrance of the hydroponics bay and was killed by the turret. The last decided it would be best to advance cautiously to prevent the gun from noticing it. Across the station the Taryot made its way over to the downed Taigha and revived it with its medikit.

The Draal leapt off the walkway it was on and moved to a position to fire on the turret, taking it down after a few bursts of her marksman rifle. The Chaksa made its way towards the last of the Taigha to try to kill it, but the creature dodged out of the way. The Draal raced to one of the power units in the middle of the walkway junction joining the hydroponics and medical bays and detonated an explosive charge to disable it.

The Draal then moved into position to kill the Taigha under the walkway with a few rounds of viral ammunition.

Taigha just recently revived by the Taryot rushed for wards, dodging the shots from the Draal, and made a berserk charge into the Digger. Both adversaries shrugged off the other's blows, but after another reckless, furious attack the prospector was torn to shreds and the Taigha was down.

The Taryot moved to shoot the Kaauri and disable the construct with a round from its shotgun. The Taryot then shot a medikit to revive the Taigha again. The Avatar stood still for a moment and walked to the Kaarui to extract its memory core, as the e/m mine disabled it once more.

Out of sight of the remaining combined forces, I dropped in and made my way over to the strange alien mutation, and inoculated the strange abomination.

With the situation at a stalemate, the Kerail ran forwards SMG blazing at the Avatar, but only managed to damage it slightly before the EI could reestablish connection with its aspect. From across the table the Draal attempted to put the final blow on the Avatar, but was casually blown apart by the terrible adversary.
With little left to appose it with, the Avatar stalked off with its prize.

I was still hyped by the time I got back to my requisitioned office. Before I entered I check to see if there had been any tampering while I had been out, and once I was in, I checked and double checked all my fail safes just in case something had got in without using the door. Only after my third sweep for listening devices did I think I was reasonably secure enough to begin analyzing what had happened to my cube memory. My nerves had calmed down since close encounter with the Avatar, but I ever since I took on this job they had been far from normal. After nearly forty-eight hours of analyzing and researching the taboo subject of cube editing, my nerves shot past were they had been during the encounter with the Avatar, lodging somewhere in the ceiling, and my was heart pounding louder than the so recent machine-gun fire. I uncovered who was behind the editing, and I was standing in the room with him. What had I found that I thought would be better to edit out of my memory? Had I kept this information to myself before the edit or had I told anyone? The room swirled around me, who can you trust when you cannot even trust yourself?