Durgama Takeover

“Brothers and Sisters,” boomed the loud voice of Colonel Wĕi, “Today is a historic day for us! Our wait is at an end and we face the ultimate test! To those of you who have faced combat before, be an example to your juniors and support them! To those who have never seen combat, follow your leaders, remember your training! Do your duty and historians will mark the first battle of the 55th Independent Brigade as a victory! Glory to the StateEmpire! Victory to the 55th!”

And so the soldiers of the 55th had echoed an hour ago when they launched their assault into the PanO bastion of Cameliard. Apparently, the so-called Hyperpower had so many guns and munitions, they had to set up countless depots in the region. Perhaps if they had more troops and fewer guns, they might accomplish half of what they boasted. Dāoyīng Lieutenant Sù’s mission was to lead her detachment to one such depot and capture or destroy it. Interestingly, said depot was located in a town set up by Yu Jing citizens. Her secondary objective, therefore, was to secure and evacuate any remaining citizens. Her force consisted of a single five-trooper fireteam consisting of a mix of veterans and newbies like herself, a single scout, and two remotes. She also had air-deployable reinforcements on stand-by. They were close to the treeline when someone called out over the radio.

“Contact!” her lead scout, Zhēnchá Pan, reported. “The remotes have seen something.”

Sù moved up to join him at the edge of the treeline. She toggled through the remotes’ cameras and saw what they had seen. “Molerats!” she hissed. Pan looked at her for a moment and decided not to bother correcting her. “Pan, head right and cover that flank. I will deploy a remote to assist you. The second will take that hill to our left while …”

“It seems that the brave Yu Jing have encountered something and are preparing to deploy in formation. Let me see if I can get a word from their general!” And then there was the WarCor. Sù had blissfully forgotten about her for the last 15 minutes as Mimi Wordsworth had been at the end of the column, unable to keep up with the soldiers through the dense jungle. “Major, can you tell us anything?”

Ignore her, Sù thought and resumed her deployment. “Sergeant Ashwani and I move up the center for that armory. If we can’t get there fast enough, we’ll at least hold fire lanes to slow or stop the Molerats.”

“There you have it, viewers! The Invincible Army waging war against Pan-Oceanian fauna!”

——–

This game only lasted one turn because we started late and store was closing. Wrangler was also very kind to help explain rules and options as this is only my second proper game and first time with a sectorial. So, time was lost there as I asked questions about the meaning of rules or skills. He won turn order and I had deployment. As there weren’t any proper Armory buildings, one was made using stand-in scenery. I apologize as I do not know any Morat/CA unit names. I just know he has a haris which includes his LT, a lone infiltrator, a guy who has smokes and does lots of running, and a 5-creature fireteam which has a big scary looking fellow, a HMG, a Multi Sniper, a hacker, and a HRL. If I’m missing anything or am incorrect, please refer to the list or Wrangler’s report. I defer to him in these respects.

Wrangler’s infiltrator fails her infiltration role and starts at the back. To allow his forces to move up, my opponent uses a liberal amount of smoke to get his hacker up to the Armory door and open it. Along the way, his sniper uses an MSV and Multi Sniper Rifle to take one of my Chaiyi Yaokongs down to Unconscious 2. An attempt is made to discover the Zhencha but it fails. So, they continue on their merry way while my troops save the StateEmpire some money by conserving their ammo.

Once the Armory doors open, the Morats push in with their heavies and are covered by smoke. By the end of Wrangler’s turn, he is in full control of the Armory with 3 models inside and 3 just outside.

On my turn, the WarCor tries to flashpulse his sniper but fails. My remaining Yaokong attempts to flashpulse the Heavy Gear-esque fellow and fails. For its efforts, the Yaokong explodes after much reactive fire. The Zhecha fires a panzerfaust at the HMG in the fireteam and receives two shots in return. In effect, the Zhencha takes a single hit and shrugs it off.

Since my flanks are failing to make a dent, and we are running out of time before the store closes, I switch to my fireteam of Invincibles and the fellow I have been told is named Shang Jesus. Using his 5 burst AP HMG, Shang Jesus starts chipping away at the Big Guy. It takes 3 orders but he goes down, unconscious. Then, the fireteam starts moving down the steps and Shang Jesus kills the opposing HMG.

From here, using Irregular and LT orders, the fireteam sprints to the door where Sgt. Ashwani (Krit) fires on the last remaining conscious Morat in the Armory and kills him with the Multi Rifle. Using the last LT order, the team forces their way into the Armory, securing it. The final play is a Zone of Control hacking attempt but thanks to Tinbot and Shang Ji BTS, it’s repulsed. Had I more time, I would have used my second short skill order to hack the unconscious Morat and cleared my Classified. But by this point, we were 5 minutes from closing. So, PanO armory secured by Yu Jing and casualties sustained by Morats.

———-

“These aren’t Molerats! They’re Morats!” Mimi Wordsworth screeched as the Yu Jing forces surveyed the battlefield.

“So what if it’s a Morat? It’s dead!” Sù shouted back, blasting the body with her Boarding Shotgun to emphasize the fact. “Um… Sergeant, post a… guard on munitions and secure the township. See if there’s any civilians around. Pan, confirm the aliens, whatever they’re called, are in retreat. I need to call this in.”