Prologue
In the blink of an eye, Tiger Troop had gone from the underground bunker to a grim, grey-green landscape with wind howling between the mountains, driving a blinding sleet before it. They moved out from the arrival zone in anticipation of the rest of the battalion coming through The Curtain.
Platoon Commander 2nd-Lieutenant Thruppence Cholmondley-Warner deployed the three troops of her platoon in a defensive perimeter as she and Sergeant-Major Harding reviewed where they had arrived. It was a valley with high mountains on either side, heavily forested even on the slopes. Higher up, snow lay thick on the peaks. A river ran down the centre of the valley and a muddy track ran parallel to the river. That meant people. Scanning further down the valley, Harding pointed out smoke rising from a chimney. Thruppence's binoculars brought the building with the chimney into focus, despite the sleet that sought to obscure everything. The house was wooden, built from whole tree trunks by the looks of things. Other outbuildings of similar construction lay around it. She assumed this was a farm, but the state of it made her wonder how much civilisation had fallen. Noticing the first farm made her aware of others clinging precariously to the hillsides. The valley was populated. Not heavily, but if there were people here, then the platoon should make contact if possible. Friendly locals could be the difference between survival and annihilation, and hostile ones should be dealt with sooner rather than later.
As she considered their situation, she commented to her platoon sergeant, "You know what is missing here, Sergeant Major? The rest of our battalion. I think the boffins have buggered things up again. Well, no plan survives contact with reality, so let's get on and sort ourselves out. We need scouts out, shelter and to orient ourselves. Get the troops setting up a camp first then send Tiger Troop out on a recce."
"Yessir!" Sergeant Major Harding started giving orders while Thruppence continued to assess their location and circumstances.
Into Goose Valley
Thruppence pointed up the valley towards the nearest farmhouse.
"Tiger Troop, you will recce that farmhouse. Make contact with the locals if you can and report back. Take Private Jarlsoy with you. I need Private Moondream to assist the Weapons Team in setting up."
"Yessir!" Pan responded, and started giving orders to her troop. In short order, the troop was equipped, divested of extraneous gear and moving out up the valley. With the rain and the mud, it was exhausting pulling their feet free from the mud of the road, but they soon made it into the treeline which offered shelter and a less muddy route, as well as cover.
It was clear that this area was little cultivated. The undergrowth was thick and there were many large rocks everywhere. As Pan formed up her troop near the farmhouse, she observed that there was a ruined stone building near the objective. The fields near the building were also stone-walled, perhaps built from the rocks they would have had to clear to make the field cultivable. However, the farmhouse itself was wooden. She wondered what kind of ruin had befallen the area that the stone buildings were abandoned and wooden ones been built in their place. Had they lost the ability to build stone structures?
There was a sudden rustling in the undergrowth near her feet.
"Oy! Watch it! You nearly stepped on me!"
A small lizard, about the size of a six-year old child, stepped out from a bush near where Pan was advancing. Pan's jaw hit the floor. What was this?
"Can't a person get any peace and quiet round here?" the lizard continued.
"What?" replied Pan wittily, at a loss for words for once. Not even her usual expletives had prepared her for a short, winged lizard that spoke the Bwendi tongue.
"Oh, wait, you don't look like the locals. Have you fallen through the space-time continuum too?"
"The what?"
"Sarge, the beastie is asking if we have travelled in time and space to get here," Private Smith broke in, "I'm guessing we have given how quickly The Curtain took us from home to here, wherever here is."
Pan sighed. Mary Smith had always been a bit of a know-all. Worse yet, she was often right.
"Yes, that is what I was talking about," the lizard creature replied, "I assume that you were not told where you were going. Perhaps I can help as I have taken time to orient myself already. You are in Goose Valley in the south of the Dire Frost. I cannot tell you when though, relative to your own time coordinates systems. Now, if you will excuse me, I must fly. I am looking for a way home, but perhaps we shall meet again before I do so. Good luck."
The lizard being rose into the air on its stubby wings and then suddenly dissolved into a glittering shower of sparks that raced off at a high rate of knots to the west.
"Smith, stop gawping and focus on the patrol!"
The odd creature had gone and they had a farmhouse to scout now. Unfortunately, it looked like there would be opposition to that. Several groups of lizard-like people were moving through the rough ground around the farmhouse and they did not look like they were inviting Tiger Troop round for tea and cake.
"Adeyemi, take A Team and occupy the high ground. Lay down fire and keep the hostiles away. Bonolo, you and B Team will take the farmhouse area and flank the hostiles. I'm going to take the long run round. There's a few things need investigating here."
The teams did as ordered and were soon moving into position, just in time for them to get a bead on the hostile lizardfolk. The second they were at the edge of the brush, A Team opened fire. The chatter of M23 Assault Rifles mixed with the heavier roar of the M33A TSW and the occasional crump of a 40mm grenade launched from the TAC17 slung under Bjornson's M23. Immaculada and Sofi from B Team had taken up a flanking position and joined in as the rest of B Team moved towards the farmhouse.
"What the heck?" yelled Sofi as a blast of eldritch green light smashed the ground near her, blackening the vegetation in the process. She sighted on the sparkling lizardperson that had hurled the light at her and fired a long burst of 5.56mm death that cut the creature in two.
"Did you see that?" She turned to Immaculada beside her.
"Yup. Weird! Not seen anything like this since we played that online game of Mazes and Minotaurs. Do you think we're in an M&M world now? Who knows what kind of place The Curtain was hiding?"
Distracted by Sofi, Immaculada's TAC 17 grenade flew wide of her target, but coincidentally landed among a different group of them, blowing several to pieces.
Lizardfolk were falling everywhere under a hail of copper-jacketed lead, but still they raced forward at full speed. Despite everything, half a dozen bloodthirsty monsters were nearly at the hill that A Team occupied.
A Team fired for all they were worth as the lizardfolk charged but it was not enough.
"Give it your all!" yelled Adeyemi to her team as the last of the lizardfolk closed. To show that she meant it, she clubbed the first to reach her over the head and the kerb stomped it. It fell and twitched but did not move again. As she did this, Smith kicked a lizardperson back and it tumbled down the hill, only to be cut down by a heavy burst from her M33A even as it tried to stand and charge again. The last of the lizardfolk to reach the hill was also clubbed down by Adeyemi, and suddenly the battlefield was quiet, although the ringing in Tiger Troop's ears would last a while longer.
"Fan out and search the area," Pan called over comms. Tiger Troop did as ordered. With the area cleared of hostiles and scouted, they approached the farmhouse. A (human) farmer and his wife could be seen peering through the windows as they neared the place.
It took a while but Pan was eventually able to convince them to took to her. It was tough, because their Bwendi was very strangely accented. Bjornson helped here. His Scandinavian forebears had left him with an interesting idiolect of Bwendi too, and these people seemed to have a similar background. From the farmers, they learned that the hostiles were kobolds and that the one shooting light bolts at them was a known sorcerer. From the sorcerer's defeat, the farmer presumed that Pan and her people were great heroes too. He was grateful that his farm had been saved by the Bwendi troop, and gifted them with a pile of swords and axes. One of these made a particularly satisfying 'schwing' noise when drawn.
Tiger Troop returned to camp carrying the spoils of war and their report. The lieutenant thought they were making fun of her at first, but was soon forced to believe it.
Hostiles eliminated, locals met, magic sword (+2 to hit / +1 DAM, +3 versus monsters and champions) and a Potion of Ghost Form acquired, and Pan has a surprise to come in the next battle thanks to generating a tonne of Exposure Points this turn. All in all, I feel that this was a successful mission. It certainly went much more smoothly than the training missions in many ways, although I realised that I did Dash moves wrong during this game. Lesson learned and hopefully the mistake will not be repeated, although I imagine different ones will be made.
Private Sofi got lucky that the kobold sorcerer missed her and that she hit with every single shot when firing back. The sorcerer's spell could have really hurt the Troop if allowed to fire every single turn. It also gave the Troop something to report about, so between that and the small, talking lizard, they have learnt that they are not in Bwendi any more and perhaps not even in the same world as the one they started out from. At least the farmer they made contact with told them the name of the place they have landed in: Goose Valley. And they have a rudimentary understanding of the local geography now, including names of major places around them.
Goose Valley now counts as cleared. From there, Tiger Troop can investigate Trout Waters or Sundale, so one of these two will be the mission location next turn.
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