Durgama Takeover

Zhou Shiwen, functionary of the Party’s Political Work department, surveyed the staging area at Cameliard. Once a fortress of PanOceania’s Military Orders, it now stood under control of Yu Jing, and just in time! The so-called ‘Hyperpower’ lacked the fortitude to resist Combined Army assault, while the StateEmpire stood ready to hold the line against the alien invaders here, and ensure the relics secreted in these vaults would not fall into enemy hands or be hidden away, but rather be shared and put to use in service of all humanity!

After they had been properly vetted by the Party, of course. Which was why he was here. The Glottenburg Incident, and the Yanjing’s pursuit of the perpetrators, had revealed PanOceania had hidden data from that incident, leaving only smouldering ruins behind on Paradiso. What secrets, one wondered, had they thought so valuable they must be the only ones who could know of it? And how could that secret be recovered to properly serve humanity, either openly shared immediately or put to use in advancing the position of humanity’s only hope: the StateEmpire of Yu Jing? The relics of Cameliard would need to be analyzed one by one, and their

Which was why the chirping alert from his comlog brought a frown to Zhou’s face. Potential hostile units approaching… Tunguskans? Yu Jing and the Nomad Nation were ostensible allies under the DCC, but it was unsurprising the Sphere’s illicit bankers might be looking to collect on debts now that NeoTerra’s control here had been hobbled. That would not do at all.

Quick connections were made, available forces assessed: a mighty Guijia, elements from the White Banner army. They would serve the purpose well, this Nomad incursion would be deterred.

Mission: Looting and Sabotaging (Assured Support, Depot)

Under some Shaolin smoke cover, the Guijia advanced directly up the field, exchanging fire with the enemy TR bot, link team HMG, and a motorized bounty hunter who had decided to bring along their own HMG. The results were not ideal, the TAG suffering damage, but it and a surprise-revealed Daofei did clear the three HMGs and then two additional motorized bounty hunters. More damage was suffered by the TAG.

The tactical conundrum now was that it would take two orders for the Guijia to reach and strike the objective. A potent enemy hacker, hiding in full cover, would be able to ARO both. To prep for this eventuality, the Guijia had been accompanied by a Tian Gou killer hacker (masquerading as a Jujak engineer, in hope of luring enemy hackers to approach). She was, alas, out of range to hack brain directly without moving, and there was a camo token waiting in wings. An all-or-nothing gamble was taken, the ‘Jujak’ advanced towards the objective, ending up in the open.

On their turn, Tunguska’s Kriza Boracs proceeded to dismember my midfield, revealing itself as Lieutenant to circle around the edge of the board, taking a wound from the Guijia in so doing but escaping to shoot down a Guilang, the Daofei, and the Warcor. Here, despite a hardcopy of my list right in front of my face, I mucked the game up completely: for some reason I was convinced the Daofei was my lieutenant (it was not, there had been previous imaginings of the list where leveraging Lt. Order to stab objective had been considered). I thus went through turn 2 thinking I was in Loss of Lieutenant, and by the time the mistake was realized I’d already gone through my turn 2 in LoL. With no real way to rewind, the error stands, Party political commissar Zhou Shiwen clearly had overidden the White Banner’s standard organisational doctrines in gathering forces for this skirmish.

The advance of the StateEmpire continued… or attempted to continue. The Tian Gou, having miraculously survived a surprise Red Fury Heckler assault (which was put down by the Guijia), made an attempt to Killer Hack… and had her brain fried. Not ideal. The Shaolin monk continued to bound impetuously upfield, though was able to coup-de-grace the Heckler and secure a Classified Objective, while a Guilang gained a thermoptic camo module from a panoply and the Zanshi link shifted away from the AC2 to end the Kriza threat with its HMG.

The Guijia fell at last, to a surprise attack from an ***interventor?***, though retaliation meant the attacker too was felled. Things were dark for Yu Jing now, with the only remaining anti-materiel CC weapon the D-Charges on Chief Jeong. But the foe likewise seemed poorly placed to assault Yu Jing’s AC2… and then, Moon Knight i mean Raoul Spektor dropped, to try and close the VP gap while the StateEmpire was out of position. Guilang fell, enemy link team took out the Tian Gou, though it took enough orders the foe couldnt close in.

This left Yu Jing’s position less than ideal. The Shaolin perished advancing against the enemy link team, and then the Zhanshi link popped out to take out its most potent member Perseus with an HMG before looting a panoply and withdrawing back to cover the Yu Jing AC2. With few orders on hand, Spektor made a charge to try and assault the objective, but fell to a shockingly successful burst of fire from the defenders.

As the smoke cleared, Tunguskan forces could be seen to withdraw, whatever use they had hoped for Cameliard’s relics deemed less valuable than their own lives when faced with the strength of the White Banner’s troops. Zhou Shiwen’s head had of course been exploded like an overripe durian by a round from a Kriza Boracs heavy machine gun, but the Party ensured a new lhost awaited, and he would return to his work at Cameliard soon enough. The StateEmpire’s ascent to leadership of the Human Sphere continued.