Durgama Takeover

Up-and-coming sergeant Galak had fought hard and planned meticulously to get this assignment. A wayward snippet of intelligence had suggested to Galak that perhaps their prime goal—the artifact their overlord EI sought above all else in human territory—might be found among the “relics” kept by PanOceania’s warrior-priests under heavy security. While other officers were fixated on securing the naval firepower of the orbital far above, Galak was certain that this would be the place where greatest glory and meaningful victory could be found.

Unfortunately, those above him didn’t see it that way. His stellar performance to date didn’t sway anyone, and his frustration had mounted by the hour. Then, as if by a miracle, Anyat appeared in the forward base where Galak was stationed. She’d seen something in his proposal that convinced her, and suddenly the mission was a go. He was tasked with escorting the notorious Treitak agent and a Rindak Brigade munitions specialist into the perimeter of the human facility called Cameliard. The plan was to infiltrate a small, powerful assault team while Anyat and her Rindak assistant confiscated, sabotaged, or detonated anything that would break or burn in the Cameliard perimeter’s weapon storage. Under the cover of booming explosions, the two operatives would rejoin his team and they would enter the facility in search of their target. A Dartok was attached to the team to ensure access to quantronically secured areas.

He could pinpoint the exact moment when things began to slide out of his control. Kornak—*the* Kornak Gazarot—had apparently caught wind of Anyat’s interest. Just moments before Galak’s detachment was set to lift off for a stealthed flight to Cameliard, the takeoff process paused and then the imposing figure of Gazarot had loomed in the boarding hatch. At the time, Galak was overjoyed. At one point he’d been lauded as a strategic prodigy, but recent events had dulled the angle of his ascent. The unexpected appearance of such an august leader seemed a good omen.

Then everything went to hell at breakneck speed.

…

The first clue that things were not going smoothly was a shout of alarm from the aircraft’s control room.

“Sergeant! Prepare your team for an emergency drop!” The co-pilot had leaned through the forward bulkhead hatch to get Galak’s attention.

“What’s happening? Report!” Galak roared, vaguely aware that his team was already assuming an emergency stance. Behind him the clicks and hums of weaponry and safety systems rose in volume.

“Stealth’s failed” bellowed the co-pilot over a sudden roar of the craft’s engines. She sidled toward Galak, gripping emergency holds and closing the distance. “It took us too long to notice. Sabotage, and I’d bet some damned Shasvastii managed it just before takeoff,” she hissed, a look of fury twisting her features. “It’s a rush job, or we wouldn’t have seen it until too late, but we have little time. Sensors have detected incoming anti-air drones and they will intercept us shortly.”

Galak’s blood ran cold. How? Why? Was he really onto something, and the blasted aliens had decided to eliminate competition for the EI’s objectives? Or was this an attempt to assassinate Anyat or…even Kornak? His mind raced, but he got hold of himself and took a deep breath. It didn’t matter why. What counted was action.

“Put us down here!” he commanded. The co-pilot nodded and moved back to the cockpit as the craft began to shed altitude.

…

After hours of slogging through the jungles of Durgama, the Tarlok team he led finally reached their target zone. A member of the Zerat was nearby, but had not appeared and was not responding to comms, so Galak was operating nearly blind, an unpleasant experience for someone who had come up the ranks of the Yaogat.

Kornak, Anyat, and the Rindak demolitionist had taken up positions among the scattered transport crates surrounding a fortified entry to the munitions depot, while the Tarlok team made their way toward the entry along the walls of darkened outbuildings. Two Suryats moved alongside Galak, surprisingly quiet in their powered armor. Even the hulking form of his Kaitok assault trooper seemed to slip through the misty, darkened jungle facility with a speed that belied its massive stature. Somewhat less adept at jungle movement, a surly Daturazi who had accompanied Kornak onto the aircraft was hanging back, his muscles visibly twitching with pre-battle excitement.

Only a short open space separated the team from their goal, and Galak directed the Daturazi to cover that span with smoke out of caution. Once the opaque vapor had blocked normal vision through the gap, he peeked around the corner, his visor rendering the smoke transparent. A human remote was watching the gap from a rooftop, and Galak rounded the corner to eliminate it with a quick burst of fire from his rifle. The machine jerked, shot sparks from rents in its carapace, and then collapsed…at which point Galak realized that there was a figure next to it, visible due to his advanced optics but so still that he’d missed its presence initially.

“Sir,” a Morat voice sounded in Galak’s audio comms. Not one of his team or those accompanying him. It was his missing Zerat. “You are late. Report,” he growled, peeking around the building in an attempt to get a clearer look and identify the figure he’d just noticed.

The voice of the Zerat was crisp, efficient, professional, and strained. She sounded ready to snap. “We aren’t the only ones here,” she began.

“Yes, I’ve noticed.”

“No. I mean that this facility is already under attack. Multiple assault teams. I’ve been attempting to assess their strength and identify them. I’ve marked them on your HUD.” The labored breathing of the combat scout was loud as data flashed in front of Galak’s eyes.

His team had expected light infantry supporting a handful of heavily armored, delusional zealots. What they were facing instead was a force comprised almost entirely of fast heavy infantry armed to the teeth and equipped with firewall tech that did not match PanOceanian quantronic signatures.

Yu Jing’s Invincible Army. A ridiculous name for warriors from a ridiculous species, but still, the human force closest to his own in tactics, equipment, and mentality. They were tough and, if the wayward scout’s report was to be believed, they had deployed shocking numbers of armored teams across the span of the PanOceanian facility. A heavy formation just around the corner was the closest, armed and equipped similarly to his own Tarlok team. There would be no way to avoid engaging them, but Galak wasn’t willing to back down. He’d come too far and fought too hard for this opportunity, and he was being watched by two well-known Morat who could make or break his career. This was a do-or-die moment.

Cursing unintelligibly, Galak signaled for more smoke and his team broke cover to dart for the nearest facility entry. “Get us inside,” he directed the Dartok, who crouched next to the heavy door and began to pick the encrypted lock.

“Done,” whispered the Dartok, stepping back and readying his weapon for a potential firefight as the door slid open silently.

Plumes of smoke from the last of the Daturazi’s grenades moved ahead of them, and the team cautiously entered the room. It was festooned with weapon storage, including two huge machines in the corners that appeared to be munitions fabricators of some kind. Galak leaned out briefly to check the position of the camouflaged figure on the nearby roof, then assumed a position in cover watching the entry to his left. After him, the massive bulk of the Kaitok pushed into the space and servos whirred quietly as its enormous heavy weapon pods unlimbered and pivoted to cover the other entrances. One of the Suryats followed, taking up a position in cover and aiming his support weapon in the general direction the enemy might appear.

Pausing briefly, Galak directed his instructions to the Dartok outside. “Get into their network, and find me the nearest access to the main facility labs. This building’s just more weapon storage, and we have to…”

Galak’s words cut off as an optical strobe lit up his visor. A human in an outfit that looked like a bizarre imitation of actual jungle combat gear was aiming something at him that was obviously a recording device rather than a weapon, and he reflexively snapped of a double tap of rounds toward her, but his aim was rushed and they just embedded themselves in the building she was using for shelter.

Everything seemed to happen at once. The team’s defensive net lit up to their right, and Galak, the nearest Suryat, and the hulking Kaitok all trained their weapons and fired at the new target…obliterating a light reconnaissance remote on a distant rock outcrop. Then sparks flew as rounds rattled off the Kaitok’s armor, but blood and actuator fluid fountained as a second burst of heavy weapon fire punched through a split second later, and the huge trooper slumped forward into a crumpled heap. Galak was trying to get his bearings and prepare for further attacks when a third hail of projectiles tore the Suryat to his right apart, cutting him in half at the chest.

“Get in here, we’ve got—“ Galak’s words were interrupted as, one after another, several of the Invincible heavy troopers burst into the room, spreading into a fire formation with a speed that caught Galak off-guard. He drew his pistol, leveled it at the first Yujingyu soldier through the door, and pulled the trigger as the Zuyong opened fire.

Galak was filled with rage and shame in a crescendo of emotion. Then, everything went away.

———————————————

I won Initiative and elected to go first, holding my Daturazi and Zerat in reserve. I deployed my Tarlok core team on the left flank in full cover and my Morat haris to the right. My opponent deployed his core fireteam on a somewhat central building on the far side of the armory room, which we had to improvise using terrain at hand since neither of us had one available. I deployed my Daturazi in a position to provide smoke for the Yaogat sniper to use and to cover the main link’s path to the armory doors, then failed to over-infiltrate my Zerat and had to deploy her at the back of my DZ. My opponent docked me two orders with a command token, leaving me with ten regular, one irregular, and an impetuous activation for the Daturazi.

In my first turn the Daturazi dropped smoke and the Yaogat moved up to eliminate one Chaiyi Yaokong remote, then failed to Discover the camouflaged Zhencha next to it. I used more smoke to move the team to the nearest armory door and the Dartok opened it. My last smoke of the round was placed to allow the team to enter the room and assume strong ARO positions in cover, since my opponent had no available MSV, and I passed turn.

My opponent had few good options to engage my link; the mission’s unlimited Flammenspeer ammo made the Kaitok a significant deterrent. The enemy Warcor attempted to flash pulse my Yaogat but nothing ended up coming of it. A second Yaokong remote followed suit, trying to flash pulse the Kaitok and drawing AROs from the Kaitok (lost the FtF but tanked the BTS saves), Suryat HMG, and Yaogat sniper, which totally destroyed the remote. Had the game lasted longer, that had opened up a trooper slot to move a Liu Xing from Group 2 for a later attack. Then the Zhencha exited camo to Surprise Attack the Yaogat, but I won the FtF and the Zhencha survived.

The Invincibles core link (Krit Kokram multi rifle, Shang Ji APHMG, Shang Ji HRL, Shang Ji hacker, Zuyong paramedic) finally moved out, with the AP HMG using weight of dice to send the Kaitok unconscious in two orders, take the Suryat HMG off the table with a single order, and then storm the armory. Krit and the Yaogat had a gunfight as the team moved through the door, but my pistol shots lost to a B4 multi rifle in a full link and Krit took my sniper entirely off the table. I attempted to ARO with the Dartok against the Shang Ji hacker as the last ARO of the turn, but it bounced off his tinbot firewall. We called the game there as the store was closing.