Durgama Takeover

***

Lieutenant Kar’Karan was pleased with his new assignment on Durgama. The Combined Army invasion of planet EPICO had marked the first blemish on his otherwise impeccable record as a special operations commander; the human and Tohaa defenders, despite their infighting, had managed to repel most of 422 Tarlock Brigade’s advances, and kept them on the back foot when they tried to consolidate and hold their gains.

Kar’Karan suspected that this failure was in no small part due to sabotage from within the Combined Army, but he had no proof to back up his suspicions. Despite being a chosen advisor to Warrior-Lieutenant Gorlat, commander of the Supremacy’s 422 Tarlock Brigade, and sitting in on every major briefing of the EPICO campaign, he did his best to avoid the politics that inevitably came when the Combined Army’s eclectic mix of races were forced to fight under a common banner. Kar’Karan was a soldier and a field commander above all else, and those duties left no room in his mind for intrigue.

But even with his self-imposed ignorance, Kar’Karan had noticed the building tensions between the Shasvastii commanders of Task Group Shadowknife and 422 Tarlock Brigade’s commander, as Gorlat committed them to the brutal battlefields of EPICO’s southern theatre. He was not so blind as to miss the resentment aimed at his superior from the Umbra and Urkherit command team of Onyx Contact Force 2A, who had lost command privileges to 422 Tarlock Brigade after an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the human AI.

However, this tension seemed to peak at what was best described as a simmer. After suffering an injury during a failed defense against an attacking Yu Jing force aimed at the Combined Army’s orbital relay on EPICO, Lt Kar’Karan returned from his medical leave to find a cowed Warrior-Lieutenant Gorlat. The normally indomitable commander had caved to the demands of his allies, granting them increased autonomy in their own theatres, and scaling back the tempo of the invasion. Perhaps Gorlat’s attestation that the Central Processor had commanded him to step down his aggression in the face of their mounting losses was legitimate, or perhaps something more nefarious, such as forced-Sepsitorization had occurred while Kar’Karan was away. He had no way to know for certain, but despite his suspicions that there was more going on than just a dressing down of his commander, his only real concern was that Gorlat’s judgement and strategic genius were not impaired. Kar’Karan’s primary aim was, and always would be, to conquer the enemies of Supremacy.

And so, he was thankful when he was given command of two regiment size forces from 422 Tarlock Brigade and redeployed to the Durgama theatre, leaving his commander and their uneasy allies behind to salvage the mess on that now-distant planet. He was equally pleased to learn that his team, dubbed 4 Durgama Mission Group would operate as an independent force, away from the machinations of the greater Combined Army headquarters.

But above all, Kar’Karan was pleased to see that the same Yu Jing forces that injured him on EPICO had followed, moving to reinforce their nation’s positions on Durgama. As he sat in the jump-shuttle that hurtled through the night towards Xiandao Steel Works, Lieutenant Kar’Karan’s thoughts rested on that one blemish that marred his mission record; the blemish that he would soon expunge with blood and fire.

***

Yu Jing wins the Lt roll, choosing to keep deployment and deploy second. Morats choose first turn, and Yu Jing strips them of 2 orders in Combat Group 2 (Sogarat and Oznat link).

***

Talgata held his ground despite the withering fire of the Yu Jing remote. All around him, trees splintered and burst and smaller plants cracked like whips as the high calibre rounds shred the dense jungle, but the bullets that found their intended mark glanced as harmless as raindrops off his Sogarat-pattern armour. Using the remote’s tracer rounds to guide him through the obscuring trees, he held tight to the trigger of his own machinegun and steadily walked it onto target until the incoming fire ceased.

***

Sogarat moves to Combat Group 1. Turn 1 begins with the Sogarat obscured by a Saturation zone, but in position to fire at YJ’s Husong and Weibing remotes. It takes all 3 of the Lt Orders, but he does eventually force the FO to retreat behind a building and knocks the TR bot unconscious, and passes all his ARM and BTS rolls from failed F2F rolls. Sogarat then starts to advance towards a YJ HVT to claim Follow Up but is stopped when a Beast Hunter across the board reveals and causes 2W with Panzerfaust, putting Sogarat into NWI. The Haris team consisting of Suryat (HMG), Rindak (FTO), and Kurgat (Dropbears) takes out the Beast Hunter, then moves up to fight the F-13 Turret. Along the way a Hundun (HRL) reveals and tries to punk the link team, but the shot misses. Suryat HMG manages to hit the turret 6 times in two orders, but the turret passes all of its ARM saves. With the Beast Hunter dead, the Sogarat and Hungries link advance towards the middle of the table, and the Sogarat scores Follow-Up. Turn ends with a coordinated Suppression on the Sogarat, both Tyrok Hunters, and the Dartock.

YJ begins by replacing their EVO Bot with a trio of Holoechoes, identifying the robot as a covert Lu Duan. The Monk uses its Impetuous order and a few others to move up the board and threaten the Hungries link, but doesn’t quite reach. A Monstrucker repairs the downed Husong. The Hundun moves into position to shoot some Gakis and Pretas, but they successfully dodge out of the way. A Tiger Soldier (Spitfire) walks onto the board edge between the Exclusion Zone and the Morat DZ, narrowly avoiding a Preta’s Chain Rifle and the Oznat’s shotgun in the process. It then goes on a rampage, finishing off the Sogarat, then following through by killing the Oznat, a Preta, a Gaki, and a Tyrok Hunter.

A Daturazi spends several of the orders in Group 1 to rush the Tiger Soldier, selling its life to take out the menace with its chain rifle. Only once this was done, did I realize the surviving Preta could’ve done this using the two Irregular orders in its group. Whoops.

The Suryat HMG wants to clear off the F-13 Turret so his fireteam can move up to complete some Classifieds, but instead he gets crit by the Turret two orders in a row, suffering 2 Wounds and falling unconscious. The Rindak tries to revive him, but the Suryat rolls a 17 for his Paramedic PH rolls and dies, leaving me with 3 unusable Lt orders and no long-range gun to fight the turret. With too few orders to accomplish the Classifieds, Morats end up durdling for the rest of the turn. The Preta uses the two orders in Group 2 to move up a little bit, hoping to slow down any YJ units that try to come for my HVTs.

***

Kar’Karan was frustrated. Six years spent at the most prestigious Suryat tactics school made him not just a skilled commander, but among the best gunfighters in the Supremacy. This training was honed to a bleeding edge through 14 years of near-constant deployments, where he always took to the field with his subordinates, leading the assault and securing the victory with his own hands. All the training, all the skills he had earned and refined and tempered in blood… and this fucking automated turret in front of his just shrugged it all off as if he were throwing rocks.

With a head full of determination and a magazine full of rounds, Kar’Karan stepped out again to fight his mechanical nemesis.

A split second later, there was only a hole where Kar’Karan’s determination had previously been.

***

YJ make their move this turn, sending out the Lu Duan to kill the Gaki and Preta guarding my left flank, but the beasts manage to Dodge or stay Dogged to foil his efforts. Instead, a Hac Tao (HMG) reveals from hidden deployment and takes out the Gaki and Preta. This clears the path for the Monstrucker’s peripheral to score HVT: Retroengineering on my central HVT, while the Hac Tao takes the long trek across the board to my left-most HVT and then back home to score HVT: Kidnapping.

***

Kolki was freaking out as much as any Morat ever “freaked out”, which was to say he hesitated for half-a-second before straightening from his crouch over the corpse of his leader. Kolki had been part of Kar’Karan’s personal retinue since his assignment to 422 Tarlock Brigade more than four years prior, and he’d been given the same duty every mission.

“Make sure I don’t die.”

For four years, he had achieved this mission, saving Kar’Karan’s life on more than one occasion with both his trusty submachinegun and his well-practiced field medicine. But the veteran commander’s day had finally come, his skull shattered and his comlog destroyed by a lucky shot from a brainless machine.

He looked over at his companion Juran, the Kurgat who accompanied them since the EPICO campaign. He appeared to be in shock as much as any Morat was ever “in shock”, which was to say he stared at the body for a second before returning his eyes to his assigned arcs. His duties had been much the same as Kolki’s, keeping Kar’Karan in the fight when the commander was tagged by cyber-attacks rather than physical ones, and he’d done so with accolades since joining Kar’Karan’s retinue.

“Tell everyone back at base it was the Hac Tao?”

A solemn nod.

“Turret? I didn’t see no turret.”

***

In loss of lieutenant and with two Remotes turned Irregular, the surviving Morats make a desperate play to score some points. First, the T-Drone tries to kill the Hundun with a direct shot, but instead falls to the Hundun and Monk. The Rindak peeks out at the Turret that killed his commander, and successfully Flash Pulses it. It then moves towards the HVT and attempts to score HVT: Identity Check with his Sensor skill, but the -6 WIP penalty imposed by Extreme mode was too much, and he couldn’t make the roll.

The win already secured, the YJ player decides to push for one more Classified to reach 5 OP and get the offensive bonus. The Hac Tao takes out the Rindak, the last obstacle between his lines and my final HVT. A Daoying Hacker then advances across the board and successfully scores HVT: Espionage, ending the game.

MAF: 1 OP (1 Classified [1])
YJ: 5 OP (3 Classifieds [3], More Classifieds [2])

Not gonna lie, it was frustrating losing my Suryat Lt to two crits in a row from a free turret and a failed Paramedic roll, especially after hitting that turret 6 times and having it pass all of the saves. Still, had things gone differently with that maniacal machine, I think I would’ve forced a draw at best. My opponent played great that game and it would’ve been tight even under the best circumstances; great deployment of his Hundun and smart use of his Tiger Soldier had me in a bind even before the shenanigans with the turret. All in all, a well-deserved and glorious victory for the State Empire.