Durgama Takeover

Lupe Balboa led a small squad of troopers into the Ammunition and Supplies module. Crates of military hardware littered the area, jostled and displaced in all of the recent fighting.

Raveneye Officer Finian followed near the back of the troop. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Why was it so quiet? He fingered the stim in a side pocket, which Jo had given him, and considered taking it now, to calm his nerves.

Finian stumbled into the person in front of him, an aggressive looking Moran Maasai Hunter, and snapped out of his distraction. He looked around the Moran and saw that Lupe had given the hand signal to spread out and take defensive positions.

Finian left the stim in his pocket and gripped his submachine gun. He followed the Moran up a set of stairs to take cover in an elevated position, throwing a mine down in a concealed position behind them as he moved.

So far he hadn't seen any sign of an enemy yet. He looked across the way to see Lupe and her fireteam climb onto another nearby elevated position, this one packed with unused heavy ordnance. A fearsome Vostok came up the middle in the space between them and took a position to provide support in either direction.

Lupe stared across the module, eyes hyper-focused on the distance. He could of swore she saw something...

Lupe's breath caught as a large TAG came out from behind a structure a 100 meters away and then paused, as if surprised to detect anyone in this area of the module. Lupe and and the TAG stared at each other downrange. She gripped her panzerfaust tightly and held position, thankful for all of the extra rounds stacked neatly in a crate beside her.

The TAG didn't look alien, or PanO (although who could really tell the difference?). If she had to guess, based on the unique shape, it was a Haqqislam TAG. She thought she could see other remote scuttling around near the TAG as well. But they had been in communication with Nomad High Command. According to the information Lupe had received, Haqqislam support weren't due to be here for another 18 hours to cover Lupe in the case of a retreat from defending against a Moran push.

Why were they here so early?

Lupe didn't have time to think further on this mystery as the TAG opened fire on her squads position. "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" Lupe yelled as she tossed some smoke grenades to the ground beneath her.

Total Reaction bots opened fire on both sides. The Nomad's Reaktion Zond took down a Ghulam HMG after 2 volleys, only to be put down in return by a Haqqislam Shihab Remote. Lupe faced down her own Shihab Remote, as well as the Maghariba TAG, using a combination of Panzerfausts and smoke dodges to slow the enemy down.

The Vostok, with Assisted Fire from a Salyut Zond, advanced and put down one of the Shahib Remotes before taking up a firing position near the middle of the board.

The remaining Shihab took aim and after ~5 volleys, was finally able to put down the Vostok.

In ARO, Lupe was able to put down the Maghariba Guard, blowing it to smithereens with 2 direct Panzerfaust hits. She didn't have much time to celebrate her victory, however, before getting shot by a Panzerfaust herself from a Beast Hunter, failing one of her saves. Instead of going dogged, she just falls unconscious, grateful for the nearby paramedic.

The Beast Hunter then completely wrecks the already down Vostok, turning into a useless pile of scrap.

Despite their losses, the Haqqislam forces were not done. Shortly after Lupe falls unconscious, a Nehab appears from behind a nearby obstruction. A CrazyKoala goes off, but does no damage to this interloper.

The Nehab then attempts to shoot dead Lupe's paramedic, but fails to do so before being forced to hide out of sight.

On the other side of the field, a Sombra successfully extracts data from an enemy HVT, completing "Follow Up" before going back into camo state.

Using the abundance of equipment, a midfield Moran places 2 CrazyKoala's near the Nehab before the paramedic attempts to shoot at it with a combi-rifle. The Nehab dogdes the Koala and passes the armour saves from the combi-rifle.

The Moran then puts down another Koala, and the paramedic tries again. The Nehab passes all its armour saves.

So they do it again.

This time, the Nehab goes down. The Moran then puts down another Koala for good measure.

A Hakim then appears near where the Nehab went down. This time, an Evader from the middle of the board takes a long shot with a Boarding Shotgun, and the Hakim goes down. A revived Shihab Remote advances to try to get a shot at the paramedic, but fails to do so before being taken down by another Koala.

Crouching away from the heated action going on on the other side of the board, the Sombra waits patiently as the Beast Hunter approaches and attempts to spot him. The Hunter peers over a catwalk and sweeps their vision across the area, but sees nothing, and then retreats.

The Sombra softly lets out her held breath, but freezes again as a Ghulam creeps out on the same catwalk. The Sombra remains perfectly still, eyes focuses on the Haqqislam trooper. The Ghulam's gaze pans right to left, and then stops. She raises her rifle quickly and directs a burst of fire towards the Sombra's position.

The Sombra had her Red Fury ready, however, and squeezes off a single round in retalliation, hitting the Ghulam on her shoulder, knocking her to the ground. It didn't look fatal, however.

Lupe's paramedic crouches up the stairs to her fallen body. He pulls out his medikit and shoots their 2 medikit injectors from a distance. The both hit Lupe in her thigh, piercing her jumpsuit. However, only 1 fully latches into her leg, pushing a chemical mixture into her bloodstream.

With a gasp, Lupe's eyes open and she sits upright.

"What's the situation?" She asks over her comms device, getting right to business.

Finian responds into his own comms while peeking out over his covered position, trying to be useful. "It looks like the Haqqislam forces are starting to pull out."

"You wouldn't happen to know why they were here ahead of schedule, do you 'Officer'?" Lupe said the last word with a pointedly sarcastic tone. "This is your station after all."

Finian shook his head, then remembers that Lupe wouldn't be able to see that over comms. "I have no idea."

Lupe looked over her squads status monitor. "Well we only lost 2 Zonds. Whatever they are here for, they didn't come to kill."

"O-12 has always had cordial relations with Haqqislam."

Lupe scoffed. "Yeah, except they've always got one knife behind their back, or a mine hidden in a rock. There's always got an ulterior motive."

"So what was the motive here?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? Get on the radio with HQ and get an updated status report on our Durgama Defense Coalition's talks. See if they can get a straight answer out of the Old Man in the Mountain for once."