Durgama Takeover

Infinity

Unforeseen Enemies, Unforeseen Allies

300 POINTS
O-12
Obyiscus
VS Combined Army
Judgefang

Unforeseen Enemies, Unforeseen Allies

Dramatis Personae:

Raveneye Strikeforce
• 1st Lt Avram Slater (Raveneye Officer)
• 2nd Lt Yousef Gold (Raveneye Officer)
• Maj Robert Collins (Epsilon)
• Izzy Amar (Cyberghost)
• Sgt Biff Blaise(Raptor)
o Rappy (Devabot)
• Sgt Marius Sharpe (Kappa Sniper)
• Prv Nathan Reynolds
• Prv Mal Filion
• Casanova (Casanova)
• Catherine Cho (HVT)
• Aella (Varangian)
• Aveto (Varangian)

Shasvastii Insurgents
• Scientist Steven (Speculo)
• Researcher Richard (Speculo)
• The Sphinx
• The Mentor

Prologue: The Descent

[I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be leaving], 2nd Lieutenant Gold thought as the shuttle lurched in it’s decent toward the jungles of Durgama. Gold had objected to being sent away from his post on the Raveneye Orbital to investigate reports of Combined Army forces moving on the Zebu Research Center. He had been on the Raveneye since it’s launch and he couldn’t stomach being sent away while the control of the complex was still partially in Combined Army hands.

[Why did I have to be assigned to monitor Zebu and it’s research projects, if I hadn’t insisted on that assignment I could still be helping defend my home]
“Don’t worry, it’ll still be there when we get back”, 1st Lieutenant Slater said, seemingly reading Gold’s thoughts, “The forces of three nations are up there helping to hold back the alien threat, you being there or not will not make much of a difference. On the other hand nobody else has a better understanding of the layout of Zebu and the work that’s going on there, well anyone not already at the station”

Gold nodded, he knew Slater was right, and even more importantly there was nothing he could do about it anyways. He looked around the shuttle to see the squad that Slater had been able to pull together from the Starmada forces stationed on Raveneye. He watched as Major Collins double checked his climbing gear while talking to the Cyberghost Izzy Amar. The two clearly knew each other, and how the diplomat and ghost became well acquainted Gold didn’t want to know. As a rule Gold tried to avoid politics, and everyone knew it was best not to stick your nose into the business of a ghost.

Near Maj Collins were the two Varangian Guard he had apparently brought along. The sturdily built Ariadnans stared straight ahead, what they were thinking about Gold couldn’t say. Being born on Concillium the Ariadnans felt wholly foreign to him. He had heard of the ferocity of this group of mercenaries and while he was glad they were here he wasn’t looking forward to seeing their grizzly work.

Further down the cabin was Sgt Biff Blaise of the Raptor Boarding Squad. Gold knew Blaise well, having spent many a night drinking and playing cards with him during off time on the Raveneye. As always Blaise was accompanied by his loyal devabot uncreatively named Rappy. Blaise seemed to be in conversation with the bot as he did final tweaks to it’s servos and inbuilt flamethrower.

“Who’s that lieutenant?”, Gold was napped out of his wandering by Prv. Reynolds.
“Don’t bother the lieutenant, private”, Sgt Sharpe snapped.
“Sorry, sir”.
“It’s okay”, Gold said calmly. Gold looked to the far end of the cabin where the private had gestured and saw a man in a fine white suit leaning casually with his feet up. “That Private is Agent Casanova”.
“The Casanova?” Reynolds said in a hushed tone.
“Don’t believe everything you hear, that would require his accomplishments to be as big as his ego”.

Gold stared at the Agent. He had heard the stories about the suave spy, many he knew to be exaggerations, others blatantly untrue. Lt Slater had told him he was here because of their high value target; Catherine Cho was apparently at Zebu. Apparently, Casanova knew Cho well and had insisted in being brought along in her rescue.

Suddenly the alarms of the shuttle began to ring, warning that they were nearly at their landing site.

“Okay listen up!” Lt Slater said standing so everyone could see him. “You know the mission, you know your roles. When we land Sgt Sharpe take your squad right and secure a strongpoint, get your self some high ground. Lt Gold and I will be with you. Maj Collins you escort Izzy left and hold down that flank. Izzy make sure the Oko is ready to advance and scan, we don’t know what type of alien forces we will be facing and you know how sneaky they can be. Aella, Aveto, I want each of you on a flank providing support. Sgt Blaise, you and Rappy hold the centre”. One by one the forces nodded as they got their orders.
“And I’ll find our friend” Casanova said with a smirk and a wink.
“Yes”
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

With a shudder the door of the shuttle shot open and the strikeforce streamed out and into position. As the entered the facility, alarms blaring. Sgt Sharpe quickly set-up on the upper floor of a nearby building. As the fireteam set-up defensive positions Lts Slater and Gold threw out some E/M mines to secure the position.

“Sharpe, what do you see” Lt Slater asked over comms.
“Combined targets at range, just remotes so far” Sgt Sharpe responded.
“Izzy jack in and let me know what’s going on”

The Cyberghost’s hands began to flick about as he accessed the facilities cameras and logs.

“Looks like a small Combined Force…I’m not seeing anything aside from ikadrons and a slave drone…Sir this feels like Shasvastii, best be prepared for anything”
“Noted!”, Lt Slater responded, “What’s with the alarms?”

Izzy scrolled through some more information, “O shit, sir there has been a breach. Symbiotes have escaped and are free in the facility”
“Free, what do you mean?” No sooner had Lt Slater asked the question had a glowing organism fallen from the ceiling and on to his chest. “What the heck, is this?”

Lt Slater struggled as he tried to remove the symbiote, but Gold stepped over to stop him.

“Sir, these organisms are intelligent. At least for the time being it’s better to have the protection it offers”

As he said this he saw more symbiotes attaching to other members of the team, binding to their chest armour. In the distance he spied one attaching to Casanova’s suit, causing the spy to panickily try to remove the creature. As he turned back he saw a symbiote approaching him, and reached down to help it onto his chest. [I guess we’re doing this]
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Well hello beautiful”, Casanova said as he approached Cho, throwing out an E/M mine as he walked. “I’m here to save you” he said with a bow.
“Casanova, a pain as always”, Cho jabbed, “How about we focus on the battle at hand, and keep the pleasantries for later”.

Chapter 1.1 – Enemy Unknown

This wasn’t morats. When facing morats you may balk in the face of their unrelenting assault, but you could see the enemy and face them head on. No this was something far scarier, the unseen enemy, the enemy among you. No foe made Gold’s skin crawl quite like the Shasvastii.

“Keep your eyes peeled, there could be Shasvastii in play”, Slater barked through the comms. “Sgt Sharpe call out anything that moves”
“Movement in the central server room, possible enemy. Something is trying to undermine our network. Position tagged” one of the Kappa hacker called out over comms.
“Good keep an eye on them, once we’ve secured our position Sgt Blaise will verify”

There was an unnerving quiet. For a moment that felt like hours the world was still, silent. As though the world was holding it’s breath waiting for the storm to break. Lt Gold hated to admit it, but with the Shasvastii you often had to wait for them to make the first move. He prayed it would come soon, and that the line would hold. No sooner did the thought cross his mind then the stillness broke…

“Contact left, it looks like a scientist. Comm signature, Rick Richards – Researcher” notified Sgt Sharpe.
“Hold until proper verification can be performed” ordered Lt Slater

No sooner had the words left his mouth when the ‘Researcher’ raised a combi rifle and opened up on Sharpe’s sniper position. Being ready for just such a possibility Sharpe reacted with calm precision, dropping behind the cover of his raised position and bringing his Multi Sniper to bare. Two shots cracked off from the rifle…and silence.

“Kill confirmed, speculo agent eliminated” the voice of Sgt Sharpe said calmly over comms.

Before anyone could respond a warning came through from the millicent. “Suspicious movement…tower…12 o’clock sniper position…active camo detected…ready response”. Sgt Sharpe trained his rifle on the tower the millicent had identified. His felt his heart beat, once, twice, thre…a shimmer, the tell tale signs of thermoptic camouflage dropping, a missile launcher aimed from the floor…crack crack.

Lt Gold and the rest of the fireteam reflectively ducked lower as the missile slammed into the roof of the building above, pieces of rubble and dust falling harmlessly from above.

“Kill confirmed. Looks like it was a noctifier”
“Good work Sergeant, sounds like it was a close one”, Major EPSILON remarked, “Hopefully we get some action over here before you kill them all”.

Lt Gold could feel the moment coming. As Sgt Sharpe called out the movements of various unidentified targets, Lt Gold prepared for the order to advance. As usual the Raptor Squad would be leading the way, clearing and sweeping with fire and lead. The opening volleys had been made, and it was time to dive into the unknown. The symbiote creature that had bonded to his chest vibrated, as if responding to his thoughts and emotions. It was almost reassuring, it made him feel…not alone. He wondered if the Tohaa who often bonded with these beings always felt this way, if Tohaa had feelings like humans at all. Maybe after this was all done, he’d propose research into this phenomenon.

“Sgt Braise, advance and sweep that server room!”, Lt Slater’s voice directed over the comms, “Keep your eyes up and your heads down everyone, the enemy likes to hide and there is a fair chance they brought a Sphinx”.

[A Sphinx? Great, as if this couldn’t get any worse] Lt Gold thought. O well there was nothing that could be done about it, time to push up and face this enemy head on.

Chapter 1.2 – Casting the Net

“Let’s go Rappy, time to make new friends”, Blaise joked with his devabot, “Let’s see if you can’t come out of this one in one piece”.

The Raptor and bought stalked forward in perfect sync towards the server room where the kappa had tagged a potential threat. The target was still marked, but the facilities internal systems were still reading the entity as a friendly. Steven Stevenson – Scientist, Blaise couldn’t help but think that sounded suspicious, almost like the jokes other soldiers would tell about a the Speculo posing as Hugh Mann. As they approached the automatic door Blaise directed Rappy to lead the way, if this was a Speculo he didn’t want it dodging past Rappy to get to him. He was confident in his abilities, but knew how skilled and deadly Speculos were in close combat.

As Rappy approached the door to the room the automatic door opened revealing a male scientist standing huddled against the wall. “Thank god a human! I thought I was a goner” the scientist said shakily. As he began to move towards the door Blaise and Rappy aimed their weapons at the scientist in sync.

“Not so fast, don’t move” Blaise ordered. He scanned the scientist up and down looking for any sign, anything that would give awa…there, the slightest creese, not in the scientist’s clothes, their face. A speculo in the flesh, his heart was pounding, he knew he had to move quick and not let on that he knew. He started to move, to lengthen the gap between him and the creature, but it was too late.

An annoyed look fell across the Speculo’s face, “Well it was worth a try” he sneered as he sprung forward with lightning quick speed. Sgt Blaise unloaded a burst at the Shasvastii as Rappy let out a burst of it’s heavy flamethrower, but the alien was too quick and leaped out of the way as the rounds from Blaise’s multi-rifle slammed into the server walls. The Speculo kicked off the wall looking to get through the door to Blaise swinging his blade up seemingly form nowhere, but he misjudged the speed of the devabot. Rappy moved loyally to block the doorway, preventing the vile creature getting to his master.

“Sorry buddy” Blaise whispered as he unloaded his gun into the melee, as the Speculo brought it’s blade up, cutting the remote in half. This time the shots hit home, and the Speculo was thrown back from multiple multi-rifle rounds hitting it square in the chest. Without even waiting to see the alien hit the floor Blaise was moving away towards one of the main data servers to retrieve crucial data, should the facility need to be scrubbed.

“Speculo confirmed”, Blaise reported, “Target down, kill unconfirmed”.
“High ordinance confirmation inbound” Lt Gold replied.
A moment later a missile streaked from the tower where the Millicent was stationed and detonated in the server room. Sgt Blaise couldn’t help but smirk, “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll get you a nice new shell when we get back to base”.

Meanwhile, on the left flank Maj. Collins began to advance carefully up the field. As he went, he directed Aella to provide him smoke as cover, while it may make it harder for everyone else to see it made no difference to him and his Multispectral Visor.

[“Now let’s see who we have hiding today”] He thought as he brought his machine gun around as he scanned the nearby distortion. A short burst of fire rang out. “Mine cleared on left flank barricade”, Maj Collins reported.

This is what he missed. After to much time playing the diplomat, it was nice to get back to some ‘aggressive negotiations’. Another burst rang out. “Ikadron identified, forward left flank. Target still up, dodged behind a building”. Collins gave another scan around the buildings of the complex. Nothing. Something didn’t feel right, he thought to himself.

“Izzy, extend your net. Let’s see how our friends respond.” Maj Collins said to the Cyberghost as he retreated behind a nearby building, propping his gun against the wall and aiming down a diagonal firelane between the buildings on the complex.
“One step ahead of you”, Izzy replied.

As he looked back, Maj. Collins saw the Oko Copperbot, previously behind the building to his right screaming forward past the Varangians smoke. The bot let out a short burst from its combi rifle.

“Ikadron down”, reported Izzy, as the bot assumed a position behind one of the central buildings. The Cyberghost then lurched forward, sliding down the stairs he had been hiding on. He swung around the corner letting the pitcher slung under his combi rifle come to bare. A quick pop and Maj Collins watched as the repeater sailed through the air and embedded itself in the ground near the central building.
“Hackers keep your neuronets active, we have a Sphinx to catch”.

Chapter 2.1 – Riddle Me This

How could something so big move so quickly and so quietly? Lt Gold thought. There was almost no warning. Had it not been for Maj Collins warning of the Sphinx’s approach, as well as the accompanying noise of HMG fire ripping into metal plates, they wouldn’t have even known it was there until it had opened fire.

To his credit Sgt. Sharpe put up a noble effort. He had gotten a couple shots off before the TAG’s oversized gun had shredded the balcony the Kappa was hiding on. There was a horrifying moment where Lt Gold didn’t know what would happen next. He prayed the e/m mines he had placed would stop the beast if it pushed up, but that was a last-ditch effort he didn’t want to rely on. The Sphinx began to stride forward around the corner towards the barricade sheltering Sgt Blaise.

BANG BANG BANG

The sound of bullets striking metal rang out as the F-13 Defensive Sgt Sharpe had set-up early unloaded into the Sphinx. The literal turret miraculously drove the TAG back, firing continuously even as it exploded into pieces as the shots from the retreating Sphinx finally landed home.
Lt Gold watched as Lt Slater grabbed Prv. Filion, “Izzy, Filion, Reynolds, shut that thing down now!”

Chapter 2.2 – Closing the Net

The Oko’s servos sprung to life and the bot darted to it’s left, jabbing the main data server with a data spike as it passed by. Using every ounce of speed in it’s motors the bot darted across the field scanning for unseen enemies. As it zoomed by one of the buildings on the far side of the field it marked a Caliban that dodged towards it as it passed by. As the Oko zoomed towards the last known location of the Sphinx the large TAG disengaged it’s thermoptic camouflage and released a gout of flame towards the bot. The Oko attempted to dodge the flame, but too late, and Izzy watched on his display as the damage reports from the melting remote streamed in.

“There you are”, Izzy whispered, almost to himself. In an instant the Cyberghost was moving up the field, aiming his gun. POP. His second repeater streamed across the complex and embedded in the ground near the Sphinx. Almost simultaneously the eye of the Cyberghost and Kappa Hackers glazed over, almost vibrating in place, their fingers twitching as if playing an invisible piano. Suddenly a bright red light appeared in Lt Gold’s tactical display…the Sphinx!

“Gotcha!” Lt Gold exclaimed as he directed the milicent to fire. Everything seemingly moved in slow motion. The missile launched from the milicent screamed through the air, arcing towards the Sphinx. The Sphinx’s electronic counter measures screamed alive, attempting to divert the missile. The Seed beside the sphinx exploded outwards as a seed-soldier dove away from it’s birthing shell, attempting to make clear of the blast.

… BOOOM…

The explosion of the missile shook the barricade Sgt Blaise was sheltered behind. He looked over the wall scanning for enemies. He watched as the charred Sphinx stood staring back at him…and then collapsed. As he stood in shock that the beast was down he saw Aveto dart around the corner and heard the sound of his chain rifle fire flinging super-heated chain towards the reeling seed-soldier, bisecting the newly hatched alien.

Blaise rose and leapt over the service truck the Sphinx had been hiding behind. As he approached one of the last main data servers his firewalls sprang to life as a hidden Nox hacker attempted to shutdown his armour. That was the last mistake the Shasvastii hacker ever made, as Blaise reversed the stream and sent a nasty trinity assault back, frying the enemies brain. With the threat eliminated Blaise casually walked over to the terminal and extracted the vital research on the symbiots, now clinging to the vast majority of his comrades’ chests.

Chapter 3.1 – Never Leave Empty-Handed

What a failure the Mentor thought. Somehow these humans had managed to takeout almost the entirety of his force. It was time to retreat and prepare to fight another day. He gave the order for his assigned Caliban to grab what data he could before retreating further away into the complex and further into the jungles of Durgama. The humans may have won the day, but they would not win the war.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Epilogue – A Welcome Reprieve

“Get this thing off me”, Casanova ordered to anyone who would listen.

With the help of the retrieved data, and some actual scientist that they had been able to locate, the strikeforce has been able to remove the symbiotes from their temporary hosts and safely back into still intact enclosures. One of those same scientists hurried over to Casanova to help get his symbiote off.

As the scene unfolded Catherine Cho and the two Raveneye Officers stepped aside.

“Good work lieutenants”, Cho praised, “I wasn’t sure I’d get out of that one, let alone the facility and it’s research. Your team did well”
“Thank you maam” Gold replied “I’m glad it’s done”
“Done?” Cho chuckled “O sweety the battle may be over but the battle for Durgama has just begun. Take a breath, I will check in with command and find out where we are heading next”.

As he watched her walk away Lt Gold slumped against the wall. There really was no end to this war with the combined army, but atleast for today this area of Concilium was safe, and for now that was enough…

NTERESTED IN MORE TALES OF LT GOLD?

To find out what happens next for Lt Gold and Izzy please follow this link: https://durgamatakeover.warconsole.com/battles/obyiscus-vs-crimzon-1658012330?block_updated=483452#block_483452

Army Lists Used In This Battle

Register or Login to see the Army Lists

Battle Report Average Rating

star_full star_full star_full star_full star_full star_full star_full star_full star_full star


Log in to rate this battle.

Recommend Commander For Commendation

17 People Recommended Obyiscus for commendation

Share this battle with friends

O-12
Obyiscus
Wins

12 Comments

  • An.No.Ut. says:

    Pretty funny ! I laughted the whole time I read !

  • Vanderbane says:

    Excellent show, Commander!

  • Tristan228 says:

    Great report, the annotations really help to understand the game flow

  • Imp says:

    Great table and mini ! I like the tactical aspect of the report ! Well done commander !

  • Obyiscus says:

    Thank you all for the kind words and feedback. I didn’t realize you could go in after and do all that extra detailing. I’ve updated it with the picture embedded now

  • Sash says:

    O-12 has been taking a lot of hits this week but nice to see them pushing back!

  • Lady Numiria says:

    Very well done Commander! Congrats on your first win and the effort deployed to the retrieval of our beloved Ensign!

  • Lt.Cuddles says:

    Exceptional writing: great effort with great result! Loved It!

  • Camarones says:

    Really well made, excellent narrative and concise reporting. Your photo edits are wonderful as well. I recommend using the “Add More” button to format your reports rather than the default text box entry – it allows for headings and pictures to be dispersed within the presentation rather than at the end. Still, lovely work. Congratulations on the victory, commander – I’ve recommended you for a commendation.

  • Santyago_s says:

    Well written narrative. I agree with the previous commenter, it would be great to have pictures in the text so we can see what is being described.

  • Nolimon says:

    wonderful report

  • Nastya Zoya Shevchenko says:

    Really nice, and some very interesting and unusual terrain on display. May I suggest you move the images to within the text to fit with the narrative?