Durgama Takeover

Okiro nervously paced up and down the ship’s small command bridge, more similar to the interior of a truck than that of a spaceship. Oleksandr, the laconic Tunguskan pilot, gestured for him to sit down. They were starting the final approach manoeuvres to the Cameliard fortress.
Feeling the full pull of Concilium Prima’s gravity for the first time in two weeks made him feel uneasy, and the size of the great fortress ahead of them certainly did nothing to relieve him of his worries.
Diplomat Xi, their Yujingese guest, had been silent the whole trip from the station, save for what courtesy required, with a hand resting on the frame of the Pangguling remote unit that had accompanied him.

There definitely was something up.

Him and Commander Asuncion had agreed on that point.
But from that to sending him back planetside to check what the Empire’s real intentions were there was a hell of a lot of a difference, especially in such a critical moment for the station’s defence!
True, he had with him just a few soldiers from his original detachment, so the combat effectiveness of the 404 wasn’t severely diminished, but still, he would have much preferred to be fighting for humanity’s future against the Combined Army.

And yet, there he was, ready for yet another clandestine espionage mission, this time against their supposed allies. He let out a heavy sigh, while the ship’s landing skids made contact with the ground with a loud metallic sound.
- Mister ambassador, we are here. - he said to Xi, who had already started unfastening his security straps, and preceded him down the narrow stair that led into the cargo bay, and then outside. The pangguling, letting out a worried beep, followed him down clumsily.
Okiro was already on the first steps, when Oleksandr called him:
- Hey, Brigada boy. You have two hours, then I’ll leave you for dead. -
He turned around
- Yeah, that sounds about right. I would also stay with the engines ready, just in case we come back in a hurry. -
- Copy that. - the pilot paused to take a long sip from his drinking flask - And good luck. -

The small group of Nomad soldiers followed their guest up the steep pathway that connected that landing pad to the main fortress. The green-yellowish Yu Jing banners mockingly waved over the captured PanOceanian stronghold. There was something ominous in that sight, almost as if they were walking into a prison they would never be let out of.
“Or into a tomb.” Thought Okiro gloomily while they approached the great gates, where the familiar figure of a Daofei was waiting for them.
- Reverend Diplomat Xi, we are pleased to see you well. - He bowed to him, then addressed the Nomads - Welcome to Cameliard. Please, come inside while we prepare the supplies we promised to be loaded onto your ship. - He guided them to a small courtyard - Of course, we are happy to help the fighters on Raveneye Station in any way we can. -
- We are thankful for your assistance. - Replied Okiro, in what he hoped was a neutral tone.
- Of course. Please wait here a moment, I’ll be back shortly. -
The forced courtesy of the Yujingese official was almost suspicious, but they had no time to worry about it: that was their chance to act.

Ottie positioned herself as a lookout on top of a slightly elevated structure that looked like a storeroom of some kind, while Gero and Ana watched both sides from ground level.
Dayo moved further forward, going beyond a two story building that probably used to be a PanOceanian Xenotech laboratory and stopping near a temporary equipment cabinet, placed there to quickly outfit the troops in case of an emergency.
Jazz quickly found a network interface and connected to it, hacking into the military datasphere and starting to look for clues about Yu Jing's plans for the "Coordination Program".
- I think we are onto something. - she said after a couple of seconds - There’s a gigantic data storage unit where they have gathered all the information on the mock fights, from sensaseries to ballistic data… it kinda looks like… - she hesitated for a second - Training data for an AI? -
- Holy shit. - whispered Widget - Maybe Yu Jing got tired of ALEPH and wants its own plaything? This could be big. -
- Or maybe they want momma ALEPH to learn how we fight. - Hypothesised Okiro - In any case, it’s better to delete those data and get out of here. -
- Mmmh, I can’t access them from this thing. - answered Jazz, typing away on her interface - They are in a “read only” secure memory unit; I corrupted the backups, but we must physically wreck that one. -
She brought up a map of the area - It’s located in the storage unit here. -
Okiro watched a point light up in his tactical display, and opened the secure communication channel:
- Dayo, it looks like the target is close to your position. Can you get to it and make some fireworks? -
- Sure thing boss, on my way. - Responded the Moran, sending a couple of koalas to idle nearby, in case he had to cover his retreat. Meanwhile, Jazz had installed a Black Hand jammer in the Yujingese console she was connected to. It quickly analysed the data flux, and started clogging all the available bandwidth with useless information, to prevent commands from getting through and activating the security systems or the anti-aircraft batteries.
The muffled sound of a controlled explosion came from further ahead. Dayo’s voice followed it on comms:
- Team, I think we might have a problem. This thing’s heavily armoured, my demolition charges barely scratched it. But why would they have reinforced it so much if they didn’t expect us to… -
Suddenly, the channel became filled with static, and the audio feed cut off a second later.
- Deyo? Deyo do you copy? Damn, are they disrupting our comms? - Asked Okiro, turning back towards Jazz.
- Doesn’t look like it… - She answered, her eyes darting across the screen. Then they saw the vitals monitoring window: the Moran’s parameters were all set to a black zero.

- Movement on the right flank! - Signalled Ottie. Okiro sprang forward, cursing under his breath. He spotted the haze of a cloaking device near the laboratory wall, so he immediately aimed and let loose a shot, followed by the detonation of an antipersonnel mine.
- Everyone take cover! Widget, if we get you to the storage thing do you think you can damage it? -
- Are you kidding? - answered the EVAder - I’ll blow up this whole damn castle if you let me. -
- Then we have a plan. Ottie, Gero, cover our avance. -
Widget moved forward, peeking from the corner of the wall - This path looks clear… Ok, maybe not! - He jerked back into cover, and high calibre bullets drilled big holes in the point where his head had been.
- It’s a fucking Hac Tao! Why do they have an Hac Tao? -
- Calm down Widg. - Came Ottie’s voice - Gimme a hand, and I’ll show this guy what an ass whooping looks like. -
They both sprung up from their positions at the same time, Ottie firing her panzerfaust, and widget saturating the roof ahead of them with spitfire bullets.
However, their enemy was ready.
And it was faster.
A bullet split open the EVAder’s left forearm, cutting through armour as if it wasn’t there, and he rolled back behind the wall screaming in pain.
Ottie didn’t manage to scream.
A hole bigger than her fist opened below the sternum. Then another near the shoulder. One of her arms flailed wildly, almost detached from her body. She was dead before hitting the ground.

They had no time to mourn.
- They’re on me! - Shouted Gero, his chain rifle roaring from the opposite side of the street. He too was hit, and collapsed to the ground. The bloodied figure of a helot appeared from behind the corner, shotgun in hand. Okiro grabbed Widget and they jumped to the side, feeling the blast grazing their armour.
The Omn then turned his attention to Jazz, who stayed further behind. She threw herself down, dodging the first salvo, while she desperately sent instructions to the nearby transductor unit.
The remote skidded around the corner, training his blinding wide spectrum lasers on the assailant. The liberto covered his eyes, staggering backwards, where one last bullet put an end to his life.
Another figure was making its way towards them from the opposite side: Okiro, who had unknowingly backed off into view, looked at the mercenary beasthunter pointing his flamethrower towards him, and he suddenly realised what had happened to Dayo.
The fire roared around him like waves of molten metal, and his armour immediately started letting out a high pitched hiss, trying to keep the temperature under control. He desperately fired his gun towards the centre of the flame, and luckily the bullets found purchase: the raging inferno abruptly died down, and he saw the beasthunter splayed on the ground.
Still smoking, the Brigada ordered his team to move forward. The protective layer of his suit was severely damaged, and alerts were popping up everywhere in his overlay, but they needed to move, or they would all be massacred. The path on that side of the building really seemed clear, save for the beashunter’s corpse, so they moved behind one of the delimiting walls.

The Hac Tao was on the other side of the building, moving towards the last survivors and the jamming device. Doing so, however, he had come into Jazz’s hacking range. While the girl tried to overcome his quantronic defences, Okiro opened the equipment cabinet, hoping to find something to repair his armour with. He immediately saw that the storage compartment was just full of weapons, so he took the biggest thing he saw: a bulky heavy machine gun that he slung across his back.
- Goddammit! - Blurted out Jazz, sitting in the corner - Dayo and Ottie are dead, Gero is bleeding out on the ground and I can’t even get this stupid thing to work. - She looked like she was unsure whether to start screaming or crying. She closed her hacking suite and hugged her knees. - We are going to die here, aren’t we? -
Okiro reached her near the wall, and crouched beside her. He put a scorched gauntlet on her shoulder
- We are going to make it. None of us will die on a dumb muddy planet, the stars are where we belong. We’ll get their cubes and bring them back home. -
- And we’ll make sure these Yujingese snakes know that they have made a huge mistake trying to fool us. They’ll hear it loud and clear. - Added Widget, arming a demolition charge.
- Wait, we don’t know how many of them are across this wall. -
- You can bet your ass they are not enough to stop me. -
The EVAder bolted around the corner, sliding to the storage unit. Numerous Kuang Shi noticed his presence, and started moving towards him with slow and stiff motions. He quickly placed all the explosives he had around the console, connecting the fuses to a single detonator.
The Empire’s zombie-slaves aimed their weapons at him.
He triggered the D-charge.
The shots pierced him multiple times, making him collapse on the ground, but it was too late: with a huge blast, the memory unit shattered, its pieces flying high above the oblivious Kuang Shi’s heads.
- Widget! Damn it, we need to get him out! - Shouted Okiro, but suddenly, a cloud of smoke erupted beside them. The Brigada took cover, aiming in the smoke - Jazz! You need to get out of there! -
But the girl seemed frozen in place. Only when the obscured form of a shaolin monk emerged did she seem to come back to her senses. Dodging the shots from Okiro’s rifle, the martial artist jumped onto the woman, who parried his staff with her knife. Jazz’s lhost was fast and resilient, but it was no match for the monk’s skill: blow after blow, her limbs started to lose nimbleness, and, in the end, the staff hit her head with a sickening crack. With her neck bent at an impossible angle, Jazz slumped to the floor.

The monk immediately tried to cover his retreat with another smoke grenade, but was hit by a volley of fire from Okiro’s rifle that left him bleeding on the ground.
He had no time to recover Jazz and Widget: the Hac Tao had just destroyed their transductor, that had courageously held him at bay for precious seconds, and was moving purposefully towards the tampered console. He opened the maintenance compartment with the point of his sword, immediately spotting the Nomad device that was disabling their security system. He lifted his blade.
- No you don’t. - Okiro had managed to sneak behind him, keeping the bulky console between them. He pointed his rifle at point blank, and squeezed the trigger.
From that distance, not even the Hac Tao’s advanced cloaking device could mask his silhouette, and an armour piercing shot found one of the eye sockets of his helmet, piercing through it.
The elite soldier fell on the spot.
- Ana, get Jazz and the others, we are getting out of here! - Shouted Okiro, climbing on a flight of stairs to provide covering fire with the machine gun. He mowed down any Kuang Shi that came into view, while the doctor, abandoning her hiding spot, extracted Jazz and Ottie’s cubes.
Then, hauling Gero’s unconscious body on his shoulders, he started running for the exit, followed by Ana and Akram, who had been hiding in a corner during the battle.
Alarms were still silent, so they managed to reach Bears before the Yujingese reinforcements arrived, and hurriedly took off.

Not-the-Real-Jazz, whose name once was Lily, slowly regained consciousness.
She felt like she was floating around in a pool of ink: everything was smooth, featureless darkness.
More precisely, she realised that she felt nothing.
Not her body, not her breath, not her heart.
Then, suddenly, light.
Cold, blinding, painful light, and pricking all over the skin, like a thousand needles piercing her.
Her skin?
She knew this feeling, of waking up in a new body, same as after the surgery.
Her eyes finally managed to focus.
A white room, humidity staining the ceiling tiles. Then she felt stale air, the smell of disinfectant.
Praxis. Again.
What had happened?
It did not matter, not really.
She was alone again. “Lily the obsessed”. Even on Bakunin she was shunned, just because she wanted to be someone else. Her hero.
A sudden noise startled her, making all her nerves fire off painful stings to her now cybernetic brain.
She lowered her eyes.
Someone had moved, someone who was sleeping on an uncomfortable office chair next to her. Edward.
She smiled.
He was holding something in his hand, it looked like a small, physical note, printed on pinkish paper.
Strange.
Curious, she cautiously took it from his hand. Even more strange, it had handwriting on it.

“Get well soon dear Jazz. Love, Jasmine Caticovas”