Durgama Takeover

HNS adh-Dhi’b floated near the Raveneye Orbital. From the outside, it floated peacefully, belying the flurry of activity inside. The quantronic command and control spacecraft was deep into the background quantronic war of the space around the orbital facility. Connected to and working closely with another Nomad quantronic warfare ship, they were trying to keep the EI from taking any control of the Quantronic space. The ships had to both fight back the insidious command and control programs of the ei, while also hiding and obscuring positions of themselves and friendly units to ensure the information war was staying on their side.

Maih and her brother were standing on the bridge watching the view screen of the Raveneye Orbital in worry. The Combined Army had made a major offensive against the weak Panoceanian positions both in orbit and on the Durgama Peninsula and it did not appear the Hyper power was providing reinforcements to their troops. Reports coming were detailing a fortified bow section in control of the EI’s hands.

“Who would have thought the Durgama Defense Coalition would become the primary fighting force on this front?” Fayaz said, as he monitored the bridge’s Al’hawwa units, all 4 working furiously at their consoles.

“I am glad for Yu Jing stepping in to defend the Cameliard complex, reports detail narrow control there, but the bow section of the Raveneye Orbital has been turned into a Combined Army fortress, and from their position of oversight we are seeing offensives into other areas of the peninsula. This is the heaviest we have seen Combined Army activity in years, and ICAF wants us to remain in our respective jurisdictions?!”

Ra’id Maih Aafah’s quantronic computer pinged with a high priority message.

“Combined Army forces moving into the Darpan Research Facility, Task Force 29 is ordered to intercept immediately. More orders to be sent enroute. Prepare for direct action.”

Maih acknowledged the orders and pinged the unit. Nodding to her brother, who waved her off, she turned and walked briskly off the bridge towards the hangar further in the ship.

“We need the drop shuttle prepped, I am sending orders to the individuals tasked with this mission, get your gear ready and meet in the hangar. We are hitting void in 15 minutes.”

14 minutes later the Ramah stealth shuttle slipped into the void from the Haqqislamite ship, and fired its boosters, hurtling itself towards the planet below. On the interior, Task Force 29 was making last moment checks on magazines, ammo, and gear. At that moment Maih received the orders previously detailed.

“Listen up.” she ordered over the comms.

“Combined Army Onyx Strike Force is moving into Darpan. Intelligence services with the Bahram believe that they are trying to evacuate remaining Equinox forces. Due to Operation Dark Wind eliminating or capturing many of them, they are trying to run. We are to eliminate any evacuating Equinox Agents, and ensure the survivability of our informant and planted agent. Second we are to eliminate the Onyx Strike Force. We are not capturing prisoners on this mission.”

“Inshallah!” came a responding chorus.

“Bismillah.” Maih responded.
—----------------------------------------
Obscured by smoke from a burning building, the Suryat stood looking at the complex before them, his heads up display pinging the various humans that had to be extracted. Nourkias stood next to him, a Xeodron looking over the malicious beings shoulder.

“Rescuing humans. It would be easier to simply put them all down.” the Suryat remarked in a deep gravelly voice, artificially amplified by his powered armor.

“This is the will of the EI, Commander.” Nourkias responded, with an uninterested tone, as if he's heard this remark numerous times before.

“This Equinox organization is a backdoor into the Humans' various nations. It is something to cultivate if we wish to see it bare fruit.”

Grunting, the Suryat motioned for the unit to move forward and take positions.

Smoke was rising from the Darpan facility as the heavy fighting was taking its toll. Haqqislam and ALEPH forces were fighting tooth and nail in the complex, neither wishing to yield any ground in their respective missions. Equinox was an existential threat as bad if not worse than the Combined Army. Their link to the EI, and their radical ideology, along with their positions in all levels of society made them a massive threat to the backlines of the Sphere.

The shuttles doors began opening before it hit the landing pad below, and Maih began ushering her troops out the doors, slamming a magazine into her rifle, and racking the bolt. She motioned to her unit to move out into the habitation complexes. Civilians, researchers, workers, and assistant personnel, were running around trying to flee the area to the small shuttle port nearby.

“Ra’id, I have contact. Combined Forces taking position on a market place ahead.” Fahims voice came over the commlog.

“Copy, engage.” she responded.

The Khawariji’s Fahim, and Khadim were accompanied by the lithe figure of Molazim Kepri Mostafa, a newer member of Task Force 29 and a member of the Namurr program. She had a breaker rifle shouldered as she took point and motioned for them to move forward. Her smaller, narrower figure in form fitting armor is in stark contrast to the larger, more armored Runihura soldiers. As they reached the corner of the building they were against, she motioned to Fahim and his Spitfire to take the corner.

Nodding, Fahim moved forward and got sight to the unidrons on the marketplace ahead. With a roar of fire, he opened up. His bullets found their mark in the first Unidron wielding a missile launcher, the heavy rounds tearing it apart. The second Unidron took better cover, and only took damage.

“We still have 2 units on overwatch be warned.” Fahim reported.

“Understood, stan-” Maih started responding before being cut off.

“Don’t worry Commander! I can take care of it!” Kaiko-2’s child like voice cutting over the commlog as the Shihab maneuvered to bring its HMG to bare.

“Kaiko-2 do not engage!” Maih yelled at the remote, but it was too late.

Bullets from the Q-drone and a missile from Unidron impacted into it.

“Sorry Commander…” Came the dejected voice of Kaiko-2’s ghost on the network. “Ill head back to the ship…”

“We’re having a talk after this mission.”

A whine and groan could be heard fading away.

“See, I told you Commander, I am better one-WWAAAGGGHHH!!” Kaiko-1 was cut off by the advance of the Combined Army and incoming fire. The remote tried returning fire before it was riddled with holes.

“I am heading back to the ship Commander…” Came the dejected voice of the Remotes Ghost.

From the top of another building Maih saw the form of a warcor snapping pictures.

“That woman is going to get herself killed…”
—----------------------------
The Suryat motioned for Nourkias to take point.

“Go have your fun demon. I will deal with the right side myself.”

Nourkias and the Xeodron moved forward towards the Haqqislamite left flank. Coming around a small building the Xeodron stopped as an insidious program began probing at its quantronic defenses. Signaling to Nourkias that an enemy hacker was nearby, the Samaritan cybermasked his presence and moved forward. The human with the camera on the building appeared to not be fooled though, but he did not care. Moving to the side of a large building, he saw the signature of the hacker on his web.
—----------------------------
“Ra’id, I have contact with an enemy TAG on our flank, I will try to lock it down.” the Tuareg Deichman reported over the commlog, his thermo optic camouflage falling away as he brought up his quantronic panel, and began trying to puncture the defenses of the small tag.

Suddenly another target appeared on his panel, and immediately struck. He had no time to utter a warning as the program pierced his neural links and in the blink of any eye, he fell to the street dead, blood streaming down his nose and ears.
—----------------------------
“Pitiful.” Nourkias mutters, motioning for the TAG to move forward again.
—----------------------------
“Deichman is down!” Kepri yelled as the form of the Xeodron came around the building.

Its rifle fired, and the two rounds impacting into her chest, knocking her back. Yelling in pain, she crawled into cover, “Doctor!”

The form of the Xeodron moved forward, bringing its rifle to bear on Maih’s team. They were ready for it though. Doctor Palavi hit the ground by the planter she was next to, and brought her rifle up as she saw the bulk of the creature come into sight. Her rifle opened up as Asil’s HMG fired, pushing back the TAG. Her rifle rounds found purchase in one of the Xeodrons optics, damaging the machine slightly.

Up above, Nourkias began typing at the human console, retrieving data.

“Interesting. Commander, I am sending you the information of our target. I lament that I will not be able to get them.” He said, in an almost amused tone.

Khadim, the Khwariji doctor ran up and knelt down by Kepri, taking out the bioscan and providing some quick clot. Luckily Namurr's physiology was stronger than a normal person and she leapt back up quickly. Grabbing her breaker rifle, she nodded to Khadim who backed off as she broke the corner. Raising her rifle up to the Xeodron she popped off several accurate rounds right into the chest of the beast, the TAG collapsing under the damage. She motioned for Fahim to take point again, and he ran along the building, his strong legs suddenly vaulting him up into the air where he got sight to a Unidron, and put several rounds into it.

Moving back on the other side of the building, the team repositioned for Fahim to move into the street, and ducking down under the bridge, the spitfire roared again as he began exchanging rounds with the Q-Drone, finally putting the menace down.

“All over watch units are down, we need to move up.” Kepri reported over the comlog.
—----------------------------
“Fine. I will do this myself.” the Suryat roared in response to Nourkias, hefting his HMG and moving quickly towards the right side of the street. Moving quickly through the streets, he came out of an alley and saw the Khawarij team.

Raising the HMG to his shoulder, the weapon roared. The lithe form of the Namurr shrugged the rounds off as she moved to cover, but the doctor was not fast enough as a round found purchase in his back. From the other side of the truck, a Naffatun raised her rifle and cracked off a shot, the round hitting the Suryat in the kneck.

“Argh! It will take more than that.” the Morat roared as he continued around a building, trying to get to the designated target.

Coming around the corner, and into sight of Maihs squad, the Naffatuns rifle was already raised. The Suryat tried to get shots off at them, but the rifle fired twice, putting the Suryat down as the rounds broke through his heavy armor.

The Nexus Agent tried getting the Q-Drone back online unsuccessfully, so stood up to put fire on the street below, while what was left of the Unidrons moved into a more defensive position around the gaggle of suspected Equinox Agents.

“Fahim, cover me, I am moving up to the public access console.” Kepri said to the Khawarij tapping him on the shoulder.

Nodding, he moved to the corner of the building and raised his Spitfire up, seeing the Nexus Agent a split second before the Alien saw him. The gun roared and the alien collapsed, several rounds in his chest. He motioned to Kepri then to move forward. The lithe woman darted into the street and around a sign to come to a public access terminal.

Quickly, she put in an override code, and uploaded a program stored on her gheist. It worked quickly tearing through the identities of the nearby personnel until it pinged on one, Frederik Gustein. She quickly uploaded the information to the unit's quantronic network so everyone had the information. Just then she looked up and saw the dark presence of the Samaritan above her.

“Die alien!” she yelled, swinging her breaker rifle off her shoulder and snapping it up, she quickly depressed the trigger.

The rounds flew into the parapet of the structure and she heard the laughter, deeply disturbing.

“Fahim, the target is down the street, I will keep this demon pinned, get the Agent!” Kepri yelled.

“Copy, taking care of Equinox.” Fahim replied, moving along the bottom of the building out of sight of the Samaritan, and under the Namurrs shots over head.

The Unidrons were ready though, and plasma rounds came flying down the street at him. Keeping pressed against the cover, he gave several short bursts of fire, by this time his ammunition was running low. He spray rounds down the street, but the targets kept ducking into cover as the Equinox Agent cowered as low as he could get. Finally a round flew true, and the target stopped moving, collapsing as his vital signs dropped.

“Fool! Your weapon means nothing!” the deep, crackling and malicious voice came from above as the Breaker rounds hit his armor.

Pulling back and bounding up the stairs in front of Nourkias, Fahim lowered the Spitfire at the Samaritans chest and pulled the trigger. The heavier rounds broke through his armor and he crumbled to the ground.

“Mashallah. It is good that mine means everything.” he said, looking down the street to see the Unidrons pulling back.

“Ra’id, Combined Army forces are pulling back and the primary target is eliminated. Suspects are escaping.” Fahim said over the commlog.

“Understood, Raqib Yachel, grab Seif, and fall back with Kepri to our location, we are evacuating our informant and the civilians working with him. Well done, we achieved the primary mission parameters.” Maih responded.

Pulling back to the shuttle, the unit ushered the civilians onboard the vessel as they rendered medical aid to Deichman and Seif, the Tuareg and Khawaij. Seif grumbled about his luck but Deichman, unfortunately was critically wounded. His vitals were not stabilizing.

“Palavi, do what you can, we will see if he stays stable long enough to get back to the adh-Dhi’b.” Maih said, checking on the unconscious man.

The shuttle lifted off quickly into the smokey sky, the engines roaring as it blasted off for the dark void above the planet.