4 Sviftmont - In the Land of the Big Lizards

 The following morning, the triceratops lumbered off. Broneslav tidied up and sorted out his possessions which the massive beast had nosed through. Fortunately, nothing important was broken, and he was soon on his way into the hills and towards his goal. The journey through the hills was easier than through the mountains, and he made good time, while avoiding unfortunate encounters with local wildlife.

As he camped for the first night in the jungle beyond the hills, the sound of crushed undergrowth woke Broneslav. He readied himself in the cover of a tree and watched as a lumbering beast three times the height of a tall man pushed past near his camp. It was a remarkable creature, walking on two legs but having a bill like a duck. He marvelled at it as it disappeared once more into the night, obviously unaware that he was there.

"A True and Accurate Representation of a Duck-Billed Giant Lizard" from the journals of Broneslav Torenescu, Merchant Adventurer*

The next day, Broneslav marched on through the jungle, cursing the large, bloodsucking flies that seemed to be everywhere. Distracted by them, he did not see the massive, sail-backed lizard that bore down on him and only barely managed to avoid getting swallowed whole. As it was, he scored a tiny cut in the beast's flesh as it bit at him and he only just got his arm out of its mouth before it took it off. It was lucky that he had such good armour! With his scattered wits gathered, he focused better on the fight and was able to block the creature's bites with his shield, while simultaneously cutting hard at its neck. Several hard blows saw its head fly from its body.

He leapt back to avoid the spray of blood and looked around for more of the creature. Luckily, this was a lone beast that had fancied a snack, and not a hunting pack of them. Broneslav bandaged his wounds and carried on.

* Historical life restoration of Edmontosaurus annectens (referred to as “Trachodon mirabilis” in the original figure caption): William H. Ballou: Strange Creatures of the Past – Gigantic Saurians of the Reptilian Age. Century Magazine 55(1):15–24 (1897)

Ambushing a Convoy (Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands)

 Tom was pleased they had found a new pilot for the repaired Spider. He would have been happier if Finn had survived the mission. It was not the way of the Lemmings to howl and moan when one of their number bit the bullet, but they all grieved just the same and the pilots detailed for the mission were all determined that the Falcon's would pay for Finn with their own blood.

The noob was Giorgios Tree, a LoaderMech pilot from the town and an enthusiastic hunter. It turned out that he had a yen to hunt Jade Falcons now. Like almost everyone in town, he had good reason after the Falcon occupation. He was pleased to be coming along on this mission.

1. Devastator DVS-2 (Tom "Headcase" Skalle)
2. Mad Cat (Timber Wolf) B (Anne "Goldfish" Rikke)
3. Archer ARC-5R (Turi "Ironwood" Skogen)
4. Phoenix Hawk PXH-9 (Noel "Brickyard" Atterli)

"The mission is as simple as we make it. Goldfish and Brickyard chase them into the waiting arms of Ironwood and me. Don't take chances, but stop those transports. We'll need to focus on the escorts first, so do that, unless the transports fall right into your laps. Then stop the transports escaping. Everyone clear?"

Nods all round.

"Mount up!"

Headcase and Ironwood were waiting with their mechs powered down to prevent the enemy convoy from spotting them. Goldfish and Brickyard were steaming in behind the convoy but the Falcons did not seem too bothered. They had not detailed anyone to address the pursuing mechs. Perhaps the Falcon commander suspected an ambush and was going to try to fight through.

Tom clicked his tongue impatiently. He really hated the waiting part. His hands hovered over the control board waiting... waiting... waiting

"OK, LIGHT 'EM UP, LEMMINGS!" he roared over comms. Matching actions to words, he fired up his Devastator and slapped play on the tannoy system. Old Earth music blared out.

"Let's take this convoy down!" he called to the other Lemmings as he sighted on the oncoming Jade Falcons and let loose with everything he had.

Ironwood's Archer and Headcase's Devastator moved out of concealment and fired volleys at the oncoming Marauder. Brickyard's Phoenix used its superior agility to bounce around and fire into the backs of the enemy, while Goldfish rained missiles from her Timber Wolf onto the hostiles. The psycho chickens fired back but their fire had less effect because it was scattered between the Lemming mechs, while the Lemmings focused their fire and quickly had smoke pouring from the enemy.

Brickyard took his Phoenix Hawk over the top of the enemy and was able to slam a massive volley into the rear of the Summoner. Meanwhile the Howler felt the full effect of Goldfish's ire, and Ironwood managed to catch an APC out on its own. Unfortunately, it was transporting an artillery crew, which dismounted from the burning APC and began their own attempt at retribution.

It did not take long before the escorts were dead, dying or nearly so, and the Lemmings were able to focus their fire on the transports, which suffered as a result. With all its armour gone, one of the Fulcrum Hovertanks ditched its load and ran. The others were not so lucky.

Surrounded by Lemmings, the Jade Falcons fought and scored solid hits, but the Lemmings were tireless in their assault and soon all the enemy mechs had been destroyed with the remaining transport units following quickly after. The Lemmings held the field and the supplies. The Jade Falcons would be hurting now.

Afterthoughts

This scenario took me a couple of goes to win. The first attempt with a slightly different force make-up so three of my mechs destroyed on the first turn, thanks to a series of ridiculously lucky dice rolls on the part of the Jade Falcons. I swear that my Jade Falcon-themed dice almost never roll less than a 7, while my merc dice almost never roll over a 7. The second attempt went much better, although I kept forgetting to roll for motive unit hits on the APCs and hovertanks, so perhaps it could have gone better still and I might have stopped all of them from escaping. Next time, eh.