Durgama Takeover

Recognizing that some people like narrative and some people like IRL descriptions for their batreps I’ve decided to do both. What follows is a traditional rundown of the battle, which will be followed by a narrative account [see Narrative Battle Report below] of the battle (which will be a partial continuation of my last report). I hope you enjoy reading…

Lists analysis:

O-12

It’s been awhile since I dabbled with Vanilla O-12 so I wanted to try a mix of some things I haven’t gotten around to trying before, and that aren’t available to Starmada (Gamma Feurbach, and Hippolyta). Sadly, as you will see, I didn’t get to try everything…

The army is built around two main long-range pieces, the Epsilon for MSV 2 ranged fire, and the Gamma for anti-armour firepower. They are backed up by a Lambda Dr and yudbot in case either goes down and needs healing. The other attack piece is Hippolyta. While not a major ranged fighter, her mim-6 and bs 13 make her not bad, but more importantly she can advance up the field under eclipse smoke and deal with mim -6 guys the epsilon can’t reach with her sword. Of note this list has access to smoke, eclipse smoke, and white noise so at least to start I can obscure as needed.

In support is the aforementioned doctor, a gangbuster KHD (largely sacrificial), a Raveneye (cheap specialist that helps protect DZ with e/m mines and his e/marat), two Kytta flashbots, an Oko sensor bot (reveal camo and act as a cheap specialist), and of course a Cyberghost HD+. Honestly I can’t make an O-12 or Starmada list without the Cyberghost, it bring so much utility thanks to the HD+ and pitchers (and stealth can also be a game changer from time to time).

Finally, the command structure is composed of an Alpha Lt and Catherine Cho. The Alpha was an obvious choice to get that strategos (completely forgot the extra holdback) and extra command token. In the mission we played he also got an extra lt order, so that was 2 extra regular orders a turn. Cho was there for CoC to prevent loss of lieutenant. She posed as Hector, a bit as a joke rather than as a serious choice.

Combined Army

A quick forward, my opponent and I had been discussing the idea of a double Aspect list prior to this game so I kind of knew the Anathematic was coming. That being said it didn’t make me any less terrified.

The idea behind this list is fairly simple. Present two very tough and scary targets (Charontid and Anathematic) that can benefit from the lt orders while not risking loss of lieutenant thanks to Mneumonica (unless you get isolated). Backing this up are two additional powerful hackers (Bit, and Samaritan), and a powerful hacking net (pitchers from Bit and Kiss, and various REM repeaters). To take advantage of the hacking net is a T Drone for guided missile goodness.

Finally, there are 2 Daturazi and 3 Taighas to provide smoke and warband support. My opponent noted that he is newer to Combined Army and is working on trying to be less aggressive and more defensive with the Taighas.

Deployment:

In this mission the deployment zones were extended by 4”, giving us 16” to deploy in. Combined Army won the Lt roll and chose to go first.

The communal classified objectives were:
- Capture
- HVT: Retroengineering (Neither of us brought Engineers)
- In Extremis Recovery
- HVT: Designation

Combined Army Deployment:

My opponent deployed his Charontid fairly centrally but near the back of his deployment zone standing, with a Daturazi behind a nearby crate in order to provide smoke support. His Samaritan was deployed on his left flank behind a wall, ready to advance up and do classifieds (and hack threats). Bit and Kiss were deployed centrally, with Bit hiding and Kiss standing behind a barrier (post-game we discussed that since he was going first there was no reason to deploy Kiss so exposed).

The Taighas were scattered across the field behind walls, ready to advance if the cost was clear. While the remotes deployed more conservatively hidden prone behind barriers and behind walls. His turret was placed in support of the high ground and its shorter corridors.

He held the Anathematic back and deployed it behind a building on the high ground, seemingly across from my Cyberghost, ready to hunt.

O-12 Deployment:

I forgot the holdback portion of Strategos so only held back Hippolyta. I deployed the Gamma and Epsilon on opposite sides of the field with wide views of the large central area, both watching the advances of many of the impetuous troops, and looking at Kiss and the Charontid. The Gamma also had a strong view of the approach towards him, looking to prevent any hackers or repeaters getting too close. Both gun pieces had a doctor (gamma) or yudbot (epsilon) nearby for emergency healing.

Thinking forward to the active turn, I made sure to have a Kytta and Oko near the Gamma in order to provide a repeater for the Cyberghost to deploy white noise out of in order to give the Gamma the smoke advantage vs the Charontid. The other Kytta deployed to slow advance on the high ground

The Raveneye and Gangbuster were deployed in more forward position so they could put their e/m mine and mad trap into positions where they could help stall the opponent (the gangbuster mad sure to keep the mad trap away from the nearby taigha). The F-13 turret was deployed to help secure the high ground

The remaining troops were deployed back and hidden, trying to weather the storm of my opponent’s first turn. My hold back, Hippolyta, was deployed centrally ready to go whichever direction she was needed.

Combined Army Turn 1: Into the Crossfire!

I used a command token to strip two orders. None of the impetuous troops used their impetuous orders for fear of the overlapping fire of the Epsilon and Gamma. In response the Daturazi near the Charontid dropped prone and crawled to the corner of the crate he was hiding behind and threw smoke onto the Charontid. The Charontid, now in smoke, then opened fire on the Epsilon. After a hard fought struggle a wound go through on the Epsilon and he went unconscious.

With my MSV2 down, the Charontid began to open up on the Gamma. Gauging the distance to be beyond 32, and accounting for the negative modifier for shooting through smoke I dodged with the Gamma. After 3 or so volleys the Gamma emerged unscathed and my opponent decided to change direction.

The other Daturazi activated and threw some smoke to allow a Taigha, and later the Samaritan, to approach a bit closer before being seen. A Taigha then moved up and triggered the madtrap, it failed its dodge but that was irrelevant as the Gamma landed an explosive round in the Taigha and it was left in tiny pieces.

The Umbra moved up and dodged to get behind a rock and out of fire from the Gamma. It then engaged the Gangbuster in a hacking duel, but lost thanks to a lucky crit (however, the Samaritan passed both saves and left unscathed).

Realizing it would be better to engage through a repeater Bit and Kiss activated and launched of 3 repeater collectively. As the Gamma blew Kiss into tiny pieces a repeater was landed near the Gangbuster, and near Hippolyta and the Alpha hiding in my DZ.

The Anathematic revealed itself and melted the brain of the gangbuster with its quadrinity. The Anathematic then turned it’s attention to my DZ and spotlit Hippolyta. The T Drone saw it’s chance and blew Hippolyta up with a guided missile.

The other two Taighas each advanced. One tried to get to the E/M mine, but was killed by the Gamma before it could. The other advanced towards my troops hidden on the high ground, but went down to a shot from the F-13 turret while knocking out my Kytta.

O-12 Turn 1: The Counterstrike

All things considered I got through the first turn pretty unscathed, having only lost Hippolyta (a painful loss), the Epsilon (unconscious with a doc bot nearby), gangbuster (sacrificial roadblock) and a flashbot. I began by letting my Varangian run up (both safely), and threw some smoke on the high ground to provide some extra cover for the doc bot. Not wanting to lose the doc bot to the repeater the Raveneye shot across the river and took it out.

The Cyberghost then activated and threw up white noise (after 2 failed wip rolls) on the platform the Gamma was stationed on. The Gamma then moved forward and back 3 inches to get into good range of the Charontid and took his revenge. The first volley landed a single hit and caused one wound, but my opponent chose to stay standing. The second volley was more successful, landing 3 hits and eliminating the Charontid (who’s mind jumped to the Umbra).

The Doc then activated and healed the Epsilon (with the help of 2 command tokens). The Epsilon then moved out and gunned down Bit. Using the extra speed granted from the mission thanks to his newly earned Climbing Plus, the Epsilon darted backwards and unloaded into the umbra stripping a wound. The umbra failed guts and out of view of the Epsilon. Unfortunately, this meant entering view of the Gamma who blew him up (and the nearby doctor got lucky the umbra’s plasma shot went wide and missed completely).

Finally the Cyberghost entered cybermask to try and weather the assault from the now Lt Anathematic.

Combined Army Turn 2: I Guess it’s up to Annie

My first turn had punched my opponent hard leaving him with mainly just that Anathematic as an attack piece. Unfortunately, the Anathematic could both kill me and complete a number of objectives.

Remembering the objectives, my opponent ran an R Drone over to my HVT. My Epsilon got a shot off, but unfortunately the bot was at long range and the shot missed.

The Anathematic then spent two orders spotlighting my HVT twice, securing the HVT: Designation classified. With this objective done my opponent turned his eyes to murder.

The Anathematic began advancing up my left flank, battling away with the Varangian who kept smoking the Anathematic’s advance. Eventually the Anathematic got in view of my Epsilon (as well as my Raveneye and Oko) and started targeting his true target.

Over the course of some back and forth gunfire and flashpulses the Epsilon stripped a wound from the Anathematic but was utterly annihilated in the process. Like wise the Raveneye officer fell unconscious to the barrage of plasma fire.

O-12 Turn 2: How do you solve a problem like Annie?

In my mind I needed to do two things, 1) stop or slow the anathematic, 2) score some objectives. The unconscious Taigha near my helper bot was a prime candidate for In Extremis Recover, and if I could clear the Anathematic my Cyberghost could move up to get HVT Designation (I sadly forgot his pitchers this game). I used my two remaining command tokens to swap the doctor and Oko to group one, leaving the remianing flashbot behind.

To begin I decided to begin repositioning the Gamma to threaten the Anathematic in the next turn. On the way I decided to take out the R Drone near my HVT. Unfortunately, the R Drone won the first exchange and despite BTS 6 + cover I was stunned.

My doctor activated and unstunned the Gamma, while moving the helper bot closer to the Taigha and Anathematic. The Gamma activated again and after 2 or 3 shots (the R Drone kept passing saves) the bot went unconscious. This was perfect as it meant I could send my Gamma up to it next turn in order to score Capture.

Turning back to the Anathematic, the brave yudbot ran forward touching the Taigha on its way and engaging the Anathematic from behind (also ending within ZoC of the enemy HVT for secure HVT purposes). Not wanting to risk getting hit for free with the bot’s para weapon the Anathematic shot at the bot. The bot performed In Extremis Recover (successfully), and thanks to its mimetism just avoided being hit by the Anathematic’s plasma.

With the Anathematic engaged in cc I saw my opportunity to kill it. The nearby Alpha prepared to move up and send his guard dog to kill it with the burst support of the yudbot. Right before I spent the order I realized, wait with the Anathematic dead my opponent would be in retreat. Which would rob me of my last turn and give him a turn to try and score another classified (he had 4 veteran troops and 2 command tokens to make irregular orders regular, plenty to score in extremis recovery not to mention whatever his secret objective was). So rather than kill the Anathematic, the Cyberghost activated and with the last two orders successfully isolated the Anathematic.

With its order the Kytta ran up to try and defend against whatever last ditch plan my opponent would try.

Combined Army Turn 3: Last gasp…

With the rare occurrence of LoL against Mneumonica, and their main attack piece locked up, my opponent had to make some bold plays. Despite the Veteran and command tokens LoL had stripped him of the 2 Lt orders, and even with command tokens left two irregular order locked to their owners.

For the first time my opponent used his impetuous orders and advanced his Daturazi up. Sadly I had ran out of orders before getting the Gamma back into his position over looking the battlefield.
Looking to free the Anathematic my opponent moved his nearby Ikadron up and unloaded into the yudbot. With the first volley the Ikadron missed both shots and managed to wound the Anathematic, knocking it to NWI. Moving again the Ikadron moved to get the yudbot out of cover (-12 +3 wasn’t serving the Ikadron well). Again the Ikadron missed, narrowly avoiding killing the Anathematic. However, in the process the Ikadron was stunned by the Kyta.

My opponent then moved across the field and began activating one of his Daturazi. The Daturazi moved up and engaged my Kytta in a gunfight (grenade v flashpulse). Sadly, I lost the shootout and the Kytta went unconcious while the Cyberghost targeted the Daturazi. Rather than defending the Kytta had effectively given my opponent In Extremis Recovery. The Daturazi proceeded forward to a position threatening my DZ troops and stopped, out of orders.

The Anathematic spent its order to try and free itself, it struck the yudbot and shrugged off the Cyberghosts attempt to carbonite it. Luck, however, was on my side and the Yudbot shrugged off the Anathematic’s hit, leaving it engaged.

O-12 Turn 3: Time to Score

Going into the turn my opponent had scored 2 of the shared classifieds to my 1, and hadn’t scored his personal objective or secure HVT. To win I just had to score one of the prime objectives as my yudbot was currently scoring secure HVT.

My surviving Varangian used his impetuous to move forward and see the Daturazi. The Daturazi dodged and the Varangian shot back with its SMG. Thanks to the targeted from the previous turn the Varangian knocked the Daturazi unconscious.

Seeing an easy objective my Gamma ran forward, picked up the unconscious Daturazi, and dragged it back to my opponent’s table half (securing Capture at the end of the game).

At this point I had won, but I wanted to try and get one more prime objective to make the game 9-2, instead of 6-4. To do this my Cyberghost had to target the enemy HVT twice. He began by moving back out of the Anathematic’s ZoC and shot at the Ikadron. The Anathematic failed its reset, and after a couple orders the Cyberghost took the Ikadron down.

At this point I should have just shot a repeater to beside the HVT (ideally out of the Anathematic’s ZoC to prevent resets), but I forgot and instead used the Cyberghosts stealth to run past the Anathematic and into ZoC of the HVT. 2 orders later I scored HVT: Designation. As a final act, and more for the narrative, the Cyberghost moved into cc with the Anathematic and paralyzed it with its para ccw.

Final Score: 9-2 for the forces of O-12!

Dramatis Personae:

O-12 Defence Forces
- Ens. Katherine Cho
- 2nd Lt. Yousef Gold (Raveneye Officer)
- Cdr. Marcus O. Rilius (Alpha)
- Maj. Robert Collins (Epsilon)
- Cpl. Mac Thomas (Gamma)
- Dr. Rachel Martin (Lambda Doctor)
o Janice (Yudbot)
- Izzy Amar (Cyberghost)
- Hippolyta
- Agent Ash Johnson (Gangbuster)
- Ewan Guiness (Varangian)
- Natasha McDonald (Varangian)
- Dean Marshall (O-12 Commissioner)

Aspects of the EI
- The All Seeing Eye (Charontid)
- “Annie” (Anathematic)
- “Darth” (Umbra Samaritan)
- Bit & Kiss
- The Gribblies (Taighas)
- Mouth of the EI (Pneumarch)

Prologue: Food for Thought

Lt. Gold stood as the doors of the shuttle opened and the smell of Xenofarm Gamma rushed in. After the successful operation at the Zebu Research Centre, and rescue of Ensign Cho, it had been decided that Lt. Slater would remain with the bulk of their force to help secure the facility while he and a few others would accompany Ens. Cho to support O-12 forces defending Xenofarm Gamma. Enroute Ens. Cho had explained to Gold, Collins and Izzy the situation on the ground.

“We are going to support ongoing defence forces stationed at Xenofarm Gamma. High Command has warned that Alien as well as Human Sphere assets have been engaged in trying to access the facilities”, Ens. Cho had explained, “The farm is a crucial facility working on the use of alien flora to improve food production within the human sphere, and is directly overseen by ALEPH”.

“Why so much fuss over food?”, Izzy questioned, “I realize everyone has to eat, but it seems like a lot of resources being devoted to a non-military resource”

Ensign Cho smirked. “Well that’s the secondary aspect of our mission, and one I need you to focus on. The Oberhaus suspects that ALEPH maybe conducting research of a more military bent, biological weapons designed to target xenophysiology. I need you to try and access the systems and find out what is going on”
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As they four disembarked the shuttle they were met by an Alpha and his guard bot.

“Welcome to Xenofarm Gamma. I’m Alpha Commander Rilius, I’m in charge of the defenses stationed here” the commander greeted.

Gold never understood why the Alpha Corps always had to have ‘ALPHA’ written in big letters across their caps. Were they worried people would forget, they reminded people enough? Granted with everything going on he highly doubted uniform design was a top priority of the Oberhaus.

“Hello commander” Cho smiled back, “I am Ensign Cho and these are my colleagues Lieutenant Gold, Major Collins, and Izzy Amar. We are here to offer support, as well as to pursue our own secondary mission from High Command”.

“O and what may I ask is that?” Cdr Rilius questioned.

“I’m sorry sir, but that information is classified. High Command’s orders. Don’t worry, we won’t be in the way”

Gold could tell that this annoyed the commander, but could tell he wasn’t going to press the matter further and risk censure from High Command.

“Very well, let me show you to the rest of Gamma Squad”, Cdr. Rilius said as he walked towards where a number of O-12 troopers were standing.

As they approached gold couldn’t help but notice that this seemed like a rag tag group hastily thrown together. Whereas the Raveneye Strikeforce had been largely comprised of units that had oft worked and trained with one another Gold expected that most of these soldiers had ever seen each other before this OP.

Commander Rilius walked with the group up to a women loading syringes into a yudbot.

“This is Dr. Martin”, Cdr. Rilius introduced.

“Just call me Doc” the women smiled back to the newly arrived team, “and this is Janice”, she said gesturing to the yudbot who bowed in response.

“Hopefully we won’t need to become too well acquainted” Maj. Collins joked in response, patting the yudbot on its head.

As Gold looked around, he was suddenly taken aback. Off to the side, sparring with some Varangian mercenaries was a legend made flesh, Hippolyta. He turned back to the commander and began to ask about the myrmi…

Waaahhh! – Waaahhh! – Waaahhh!

Suddenly the compounds alarms began to sound. As the assembled troops sprung into action a giant of man and metal came screaming up to the commander, a Gamma trooper. The Gammas were truly astounding. Encased in one of the largest and heavily armoured suits of power armour produced in the Human Sphere these giants were somehow also somehow one of the fastest.

The visor of the suit opened up revealing a stoically calm man.

“Corporal, why are you here, what is going on?” Cdr. Rilius asked.

“Combined Forces sir, they are led by an Aspect. I thought it best to relay this information in person in case comms had been compromised. They are advancing along the southern cliff. Agent Johnson stayed to try and stall their approach and defend Commissioner Marshall”.

“An Aspect?!” Rilius responded in shock, “Everyone report to the southern cliff. Thomas, you take the Doc and our friend here to defend the low lane, try to find a good vantage along the enemies approach. You two” he said pointing to the Varangians “one of you go with Corporal Thomas, the other stay above. Let’s move!”

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to stay on the high ground. Between me and Corporal Thomas we should be able to set-up a kill box” Maj. Collins interjected.

“I can support best from inside too” Izzy chimed in, “I can provide infowar support through my remote”. As he said that the newly repaired Oko Copperbot emerged from the shuttle.

“Fine” Cdr. Rilius said exacerbated, “Doc, leave Janice with Major Collins, they may get better acquainted yet”…

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Chapter 1.1: The EI’s Will

“Initial scans are in from our probes” Bit reported, “O-12 forces are amassing to bare our entrance to the facility”

“No maattter, theeey will not ssstop usss. For we are the Evolved Intelligence, we, are, inevitable” the

All Seeing Eye replied. “Umbra, releassse your petsss. Let them feed. Ssslaughter them all”.

Bit caught a wicked smile from under the Umbra’s hood. “As you wish my master”

“Do not worry little Bit”, the Charontid said turning to the human, “None shall esscape uss”

“For I am unnsseen”, said a formless voice.

“And I, sseee, allll!”
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“Everyone in position” Cdr. Rilius asked over the comms. One by one the newly reinforced Gamma Squad confirmed. “Good, hold your positions. Let them come at us, and then we will return the favour”.

As he said this the enemy came into sight, the hulking form of a Charontid towering behind a fallen pillar. Lieutenant Gold took a deep breath, it was time.

As the form of the giant alien construct came into view Maj. Collins and Cpl. Thomas brought their guns to bare, but before they could get crossing shots off a pillar of smoke erupted around the beast. In a moment Collins’s visor had activated and given him vision on the target…and his heart skipped a beat. It was staring right at him.

Bang – Bang – Bang

Shots rang out from both sides of the field.

“What is going on?” Cdr Rilius called out.

“Smoke down, I can’t make out the target” Cpl Thomas replied.

Bang – Bang – Bang

More shots.

“Maj Russel is down, state unknown” the robotic voice of Janice chimed over comms.

Before Cpl. Thomas could say anything the sensors of his suit picked up incoming fire and the servos of the suit sprung to life dodging away from the fire. A few more bursts of fire came. Those few shots that did land home merely bounced off the Gamma’s thick armour. Slowly the fire stopped.

“Looks like the big guy’s giving up”, Cpl. Thomas joked.

As he said this he saw another cloud of smoke appear this time at the edge of a ruined building. A moment later a slathering beast came bounding out of the smoke towards where Agent Johnson was crouched.

“They’ve got Gribblies” Cpl Thomas warned as he brought his Feurbach to bare.

Just as the Taigha triggered the proximity defences on Agent Johnson’s madtrap the round of Corporal Thomas’s Feurbach hit home, blowing the creature into a mist of gore and viscera.

As he chuckled to himself Thomas thought he saw something else dodge past the smoke, but before he could blink it was gone.
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[What a waste of a madtrap] Agent Johnson thought to himself.

Then suddenly one of his firewalls triggered an alert. Agent Johnson’s eyes fluttered as he entered his neuosphere. In moments he spotted the intruder.

“Gotcha Darth” he said to the neural intruder as he blasted it with a trinity program.

In the real world he hurt the living shadow grunt in pain from around the corner. Going one vs one against an Umbra hacker, now this was a story he’d have to tell the other members of his unit next time he saw them.

As this thought crossed his mind he heard a thud nearby, and then a whisper in his head.

“There won’t be a next time” the voice whispered wickedly.

Agent Johnson’s body slumped to the ground, blood streaming from his eyes.
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“Agent Johnson is down!” Cpl Thomas reported, “Looks like the enemy launched repeaters. I took out one of the remotes launching them”

“Everyone watch your comms, the enemy may be trying to infiltrate our systems” Cdr. Rilius ordered.

Beep – Beep – Beep

Commander Rilius could hear warning beeps coming from the Hippolyta’s comms nearby. Then a wush.

“God damnit” Hippolyta sighed, just as the missile hit home, vaporizing her L-host in an instant.

The boulder Cdr. Rilius was hiding behind shook from the detonation.

“Okay, that’s enough! Doc, get Collins back up. Corporal Thomas, time to bring the pain!”

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Chapter 1.2: Big Guns Never Tire

As the order came through Lt. Gold realized that the Commander was about to walk into the enemy’s trap. Hiding behind the boulder Rilius didn’t realize that there was an enemy repeater just on the other side, in range of Janice. On top of that he hadn’t taken the time to properly analyze the enemy’s weaknesses. Acting quickly Gold aimed his SMG across the river and let out a burst. With a small burst of flames Gold confirmed that the repeater had been taken out. Now to deal with the Charontid.

“Izzy, that Charontid has built in multispectral vision. How about you make it noisy around our new friend with the big gun.”

“Ready to bring the noise, Lieutenant”

Izzy quickly accessed the onboard repeater built into the Oko sitting near Cpl. Rilius. Within moments a buzzing noise emanated from the Oko.

“Corporal, you are now invisible to that beast. Why don’t you give him a taste of his medicine.” Izzy remarked.

“My pleasure”

The Gamma lurched forward, his feurbach springing to life, sending armour penetrating explosive rounds down range. The rounds impacted into the Charontid who wasn’t able to get out of the way fast enough. The Aspect burst a part under the unrelenting fire.

“Kill confirmed”.

With Thomas firing to her side Doc Martin focused on controlling Janice. Janice ran over to the slumped over body of Major Collins. The bot scanned the body and confirmed that he was still alive. Making quick work Janice and Doc Martin stitched the wound and injected Collins with a strong Nanostimm.
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“Holy shit!”, Maj. Collins jerked up, the nanonstimms coursing through his body. Quickly catching his bearings he turned to the yudbot and bowed in thanks. “So, what did I miss?”.

“Well I just took out that big boy for you, why don’t you clear my side for me?”, Thomas joked over the comms.

“My pleasure”.

Looking from his perch Maj. Collins saw his first target. He leveled his HMG at the traitorous human hacker. Just before he pulled the trigger he saw her turn to see the HMG pointed in her direction.

“Nighty, Night”. A short burst and Bit lay sprawled out on the ground.

Taking in the tactical data streaming into his display the Epsilon sped out of the base and down the rocks, his tactical climbing spikes helping to keep his footing on the slick rocks. He had a shadow to slay .
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The All Seeing Eye cursed the wretched humans. His body was destroyed but he would make them pay. He peered through the eyes of his new host, the oh so willing Umbral. He peered around the rock, planning how best to get to the armoured behemoth. He relished the idea of cracking open the armoured shell and devouring the human inside.

As he scanned around formulating his plans his eyes caught the glint of a familiar barrel.

Ratatat – tat – tat – tat

The Aspect leapt around the rock as bullets from the Epsilons smashed into the Umbra’s body and the rock behind.

[That scum should have stayed down] He thought to himself as he caught his bearings…and found the Gamma aiming his gun.
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With a series of micro-explosions the rounds from Cpl. Thomas’s feurbach ripped a part the body of the Umbra as it fired it’s plasma carbine wildly over the Gamma’s head.

“You set them up, I’ll knock them down” He joked to Maj. Collins.

“Good work, but be ready for the counter-attack”, Izzy warned. As he continued to try and access the facilities secret servers he activated his Cybermask. He knew from the data streams that a greater threat still stalked the field, he just hoped that his mask would protect him long enough to get the information they needed.

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Chapter 2.1: The Bill Comes Due

“Commissioner, watch out a bot is headed your way”, Maj. Collins called out. Unfortunately, he has seen the R Drone to late to get a shot off before it passed out of line of sight.

The commissioner’s geist started screaming out an alert, his personal data was being scanned and copied. Who knew what the EI would do with it.
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It was Ewan that first saw the Anathematic as it moved through the complex over looking the ravine where the battle had been raging below. As it advanced the Aspect unloaded its plasma rifle at the Varangian. Superheated ball of came whizzing past, detonating around him as the Varangian through down smoke grenade after smoke grenade. To apply human emotion to something like an Aspect of the EI seemed odd, but Ewan almost felt like he could feel the construct getting more and more frustrated.

Despite the smoke the Anathematic continued forward on his relentless pace. It knew it’s target, that Epsilon that had destroyed its last body and dared to face it when the engagement began. Finally, he could see his target. As he advance to get into range he fired a shot over his shoulder vaporizing the foolish Ariadnan that had tried to slow it down. As he took in the gory remains of the Ariadnan he felt the impact of the Epsilon’s HMG rip a chunk from his new form. This would not go unpunished.

The Anathematic leveled his plasma rifle and unloaded into the Epsilon. As the rounds hit home he watched with glee as the Epsilon exploded into a red mist. As he reveled in his victory he caught sight of Lt. Gold, frantically trying to stun the Aspect with his flash pulse. The Anathematic stepped back to hide from the humans below, firing as he went. A ball of plasma slammed into Gold, slamming him back against the boulder he had been taking cover behind. His head slammed hard, and everything went black.

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Chapter 2.2: The Brave Servant

“We need to stop this thing” Izzy said frantically over comms.

“Janice, I need you to distract it and recover a sample of that gribbly the turret took out near your position” Doc Martin said to her servant bot.

“Roger, roger” Janice responded.

The yudbot sprung to life darting around the wall, past the taigha, and behind the Anathematic. As she went she jabbed a syringe into the Taigha extracting a sample for later analysis. The Anathematic, surprised by the bots appearance fired a shot at the bot, but it’s mimetic field caused it to misgauge the shot and the plasma harmlessly past the bot and into the wall behind.

Now engaged with the giant Aspect the bot began trying to jab it with it’s stun prod. The large construct and tiny bot became a swirl of jabs and dodge, neither able to land a blow, but neither willing to ignore the other.

[Got you now] Izzy thought to himself. He began to frantically try and hack into the Aspect’s system, in order to isolate it both from the local infosphere, and the EI’s communications network. After a number of attempts he finally found his way through, and with a mixture of brute force and subtle slices he was able to isolate the Aspect.

“Annie is cutoff, now while I hold her why don’t the rest of you clean up the rest”.

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Chapter 3.1: Damn Dirty Apes

Losing contact to their driver the EI remotes began acting erratically, most likely based on their underlying default programming. Seemingly programed to rescue the EI’s Aspect an Ikadron scaled the cliff into the facility and began to unload with a pistol into Janice. But, the bot was a small target, especially amongst the jabbing tangle of the Anathematic’s tentacles. As the Ikadron unloaded it’s bullets plinked off of the armour or the Aspect, ripping pieces off of it under the weight of fire. Before it could get a lucky shot of, Izzy directed the remaining Kytta to stun the Ikadron with a well-aimed shot from its flash pulse.

Where the remotes acted erratically the Daturazi acted with purpose. One such hulk raced forward toward the defensive Kytta that had been pushed forward to delay any such advance. The whirling witch soldier quickly dispatched the remote, ripping a data core from it as he went. For a Morat did not need the EI to tell him how to kill, and he could see and smell his enemy ahead. He would have blood…

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Chapter 3.2: Sending them to the Farm

Hearing the Morat’s violent advance Natasha ran forward towards the alien. As their eyes met the Daturazi dodged towards her dipping weaving to avoid her fire. Nastasha unloaded her SMG into the morat, forcing it back. With a thud the alien fell to the floor.

Without skipping a beat Cpl. Thomas darted forward, grabbing the body of the alien as he went. Binding the alien with manacles he raced to secure Commissioner Marshall. Hopefully this prisoner would prove a useful addition to the xenofarm’s research.

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Izzy darted back aiming at the aimless Ikadron. The rounds from his combi ripped it apart. With the Anathematic distracted by Janice Izzy advanced to where the Pneumarch was hiding. He began to scan and copy the Aliens systems as it fled the field. With the data captured he turned towards the greater prize.

Izzy walked toward the Anathematic, drawing his stun baton as he went.

“Night, Night Annie”.

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Epilogue: Valuable Additions

Ensign Cho approached Izzy as the secured body of the Anathematic and Morat were carted away to elsewhere in the facility.

“Good work today” Ens. Cho greeted the Cyberghost, “Were you successful in all your endeavors?” she inquired.

“I didn’t get to everything” Izzy said with a sigh, “but, I can confirm one thing. ALEPH is definitely doing more here than growing crops”.

Ensign Cho nodded understandingly. War on Concilium was bad enough for the physical toll, but in the end that may not be the greatest damage the EI’s incursion would cause. Many secrets were being brought out into the open. If her years in Psi-Ops had taught her anything, the Human Sphere was unlikely to survive if too much light was shown on the shadows.

For the previous tale of Lt Gold and Squad pleas follow this link: https://durgamatakeover.warconsole.com/battles/obyiscus-vs-judgefang-1657860679

To find out what happens next for Lt Gold please follow this link: https://durgamatakeover.warconsole.com/battles/obyiscus-vs-farox-1658374269