NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This RP is completely closed. No posts allowed from anyone not taking part, excepting TAGs.

IC:
There were lifeforms as far as the eye could see, two hundred thousand soldiers and equipment, none of whom had any idea how they had got there. Those that apparently came from future periods were more aware, and had spoken with others. It seemed that everyone remembered a bright white light obscuring everything, but no-one remembered anything after that point.

What was slightly worrying was the fact that there were hostile aliens around, as well as dinosaurs. What was even more worrying was that the sensor arrays were showing similar numbers of troops in two other locations. Some bright spark announced that maybe divine entities were having some fun, throwing different groups together to see who was better.

Various aircraft were present in the force, and a couple of these made quick dashes towards the enemy forces.

A pair of X-wings identified their target as belonging to P3X1299, a pair of MiG-29s found themselves over a force from Kzuu Mai. They reported these facts to their compatriots on the ground, who spread the information around. Of course it made no sense to most of them, they had never heard of either of them before. The few that had knew that neither group could be considered a friend, and both had been overly hostile at some point in the.., well was it the future or the past?

They resigned themselves to their fate, and made plans, moved troops and tried to control bloodthirsty aliens and dinosaurs.

Centurion Quintinius Octavius blinked, then sat up rigid with terror as a huge towering behemoth, like a colossal lizard, wandered past him placidly. His horse whinnied, but other than that seemed perfectly calm. Octavius looked around him. There were soldiers and organisms everywhere; enough to give even the might of the Roman Army a run for its money. His Legion were behind him, he was flanked by Roman Cavalry, and behind the Legion, looking unnaturally tiny when compared to the monstrous lizards - dinosaurs, he had heard a usually despised Greek hoplite call them - were the Roman Catapult. After this, all familiarity stopped; huge machines made of metal, eight feet tall furry giants, cats the size of tigers with foot long teeth, and walking trees surrouned him, among other things.

* * *

A short, stocky creature with huge hairy feet looked up from the chicken leg he had been chomping on and looked around him. His mouth dropped open, and a piece of half-chewed chicken dropped to the floor. Terror quickly set in, as he realised there were thousands of Orcs - wait, no, they were bigger than Orcs - stomping around with their eyes crossed and a pained expression of actually having to think on their faces. However, for the moment, none of them seemed all that violent, so he turned back to his chicken leg.

* * *

After a bit of shouting, shooting into the air and blowing up nearby rocks, the modern soldiers asserted their control. They told the rest that everyone was Kzuu Maian from now on, and started the painstaking process of organising the confused organisms, and sending out scouts.

Tag for reply. Hey, it's so I can find the thread.

The confused mass of people, horses, tanks, and cannon that had appeared, began to sort itself out. Troops from ancient Greek hoplites to infantry in powered armor began to form into orderly ranks.

The nineteenth century cavalry, artillery, and machine guns were just getting set to repulse a charge by the armored cataphracts, when a blue flash eliminated the ground between their lines,more or less halting both sides in their tracks. A massive tank, accompanied by several men
in powered armor had interposed itself between their lines. Fortunately, some of the Mobile Infantry had a knowledge of ancient languages and they began to address both sides.

As that was going on, the general commanding the modile infantry had sent messengers to all of the other sub categories that he could distinguish, managing to convince at least their commandersnot to kill each other.

The mob of hundreds of thousands of soldiers gradually began to organize itself, as Mobile Infantrywere dispatched to locate other forces apparently, if slighty different composition.

In the Free Eaglian camp, very few of the more aware troops spoke older languages, and resorted to forcing them around at gunpoint. There were several narrowly avoided incidents involving large aliens trying to kill humans, and dinosaurs naturally hunting for food, which happened to be the humans as well.

However, some bright spark in the anti-grav Rapier missile tanks realised that their neural threads had translation software. The tankers were immediately sent around, listening to sort snips of conversation for the software to decode the new languages, then explained things to the more primative groups.

Unfortunately, before the message got through to the Aliens, bugs, dinosaurs and those wierd looking stealth creatures (Predators), a number of humans were killed. The less intelligent dinosaurs and mammoths were fitted with control collars that happened to be aboard the Aerial Dreadnaughts, and some of the apparent leaders of the groups were injected with translator nanomites, also randomly found on board the Aerial Dreadnaughts.

By this time, the recon units had noticed units heading in from the other groups, presumably on recon missions of their own. Now came the first major decision. A group of generals from the advanced groups had taken de facto control of the armed mass.

"Kill the scouts," announced a General of Stormtroopers.

"Let them in. They might not be hostile," countered a General of Rapier Tanks.

"They may not be scouts. If they're carrying nukes we're dead," threw in a General of Lancer bombers.

"Hate to tell you, General, but we've got weapons far worse than the pitiful nukes of your era. If they have nukes, some of our more advanced units may survive. If they're carrying some of the weapons in our arsenal, well, let's just say there won't be any pieces to pick up," A General of Demon fighters informed him.

"We don't have any weapons like that, do we?" asked a General of the SAS.

"No," replied the Demon General, "We'll have to hope that they don't either."

"Okay. Here's a plan. We try to deter them, using our most advanced units. If that fails, we blow them away," suggested a Helghast General. Nods greeted the suggestion, and soon afterwards, an already noisy marshalling area became more so, as engines were started and AG units powered up.

"Ah." said one of the scouts over his radio, a modern Kzuu Maian, in a way that suggested he would've said more if he knew what he talking about.

"What?" asked a fellow pilot.

"Look! There's a whacking great....thing, there, coming straight for us!" he replied. "Wait...there's more!"

"Right, let's go."

"Wait, d'you know where they're from?"

"Yeah, look at 'em, they're Free Eaglians."

"And you know this because...?" asked the first pilot, as they turned round and headed for hom- well, the area where they were currently at residence.

"Yeah, they got a blue star."

"Where?!" screamed the first pilot in frustration.

"On the planes. Now let's go!"

Muttering darkly to himself, the pilot followed his inarticulate friend back to base.

* * *

An ancient Greek hoplite protstrated himself in front of one of the Kzuu Maian generals.

"Sir'll do." muttered the general, which was swiftly translated by one of the few soldiers who spoke dead languages. Speaking with the wookiees was even trickier, and speaking with the dinosaurs was impossible.

The hoplite stood up and gave his report.

"He has found evidence of P3X1299 civilisation." said the translator.

"How in the hell does he know that?"

"He doesn't. He described the insignia to me."

"Oh." the general hesitated. "Call a council of war!"

"OK sir." muttered the translator, who disappeared into the crowd.

"What we need is a babelfish." said the general to himself, then wondered hopefully whether the TIE pilots had any.

* * *

Two dozen differing strategies for war were being yelled as loudly as possible around a large table constructed from a tree cut down and hewn in half. The translators had given up and were helping themselves to some of the fine wine the leaders were drinking.

However, eventually, an agreement of sorts was reached. The leaders stood and shook hands; a Roman shook hands with a Wookiee, an Orc shook hands with a Kzuu Maian, a Greek shook hands with a TIE pilot and the hobbit shook hands with everyone.

OOC: Three things, Kzuu.
1. Is the "whacking great... thing" supposed to be an Aerial Dreadnaught?

2. What "plus sign"? I think you're confusing my 5-pointed star (pale blue), with History Lovers plus sign (yellow) from our previous RP.

3. I like the babel fish reference. I did think about using some Krikkit robots in my force.

The Mobile Infantry officer had taken effective command of the force once
it became clear how superior the equipment of the mobile infantry, and
their tanks was to that of the other forces

Reports from his scouts began to filter in, and the officer was beginning to
obtain some understanding of what was happening. Apparently, there were
a pair of forces made of mixes of troops that were just as bizarre as the one
that he had commanded.

***

Under orders from the Mobile Infantry officer, the 5000 M2A1 tanks were forming up into a line, in an attempt to at least give some semblance of order to the mob. On their wings lurked the 500 combat cars, their fans, raising clouds of dust underneath their armored chassis.

***

From the commander's perspective from behind the tanks, on the left, the weapons that he recognized at equipment from the late 18th century was forming up on the flank of the combat cars.

OOC: 1. It's simply one of your "most advanced units" that you sent to scare off the scouts. If you sent an Aerial Dreadnaught, then yes.

2. It appears I am. I'll just fix that...

3. Krikkit robots! :D Nice idea.

OOC: In that case, no, chances are it's not an aerial dreadnaught. They stay low to the ground, although there are some there. It's more likely to be a mob of X-wings and Death Gliders.

IC:
The fighters streaked after the two Kzuu Maian jets, a couple of X-wings cycling off laser bursts which narrowly missed their target, but the Kzuu Maian jets had too much of a headstart, and their orders were to remain over the Free Eaglian forces for now.
***

"Enemy jets turned tail and ran as soon as we got visual on them," came the report.

"So they were scouts," said the Stormtrooper General triumphantly.

"Yes, but that's really not a good thing," shot back the Demon General, "Now they know who we are, and quite possibly what we have. We need some more scout missions."

"Indeed. If any more scouts come at us, kill them before they can report in," ordered the Helghast General.

"Too late," announced the Lancer General. He indicated the sensor plot transmitted from the X-wings. Two blips were disappearing off the edge. "They're P3X scouts."

"That's it. Kill anything and everything that comes near us," bellowed the Americans.

"That's so typical," the SAS general observed quietly to the Russian MiG General. "Americans always want to kill everything."

The orders were given and filtered out to the troops.
***

Out in the ranks, the soldiers from the past treated the humans from the future as though they were gods. Well, they must be gods, they said to themselves, They have magic death sticks. This actually made things easier for the overall leaders, their orders were followed without question, due to the fear of eternal damnation by the gods.

OOC: Free Eaglian Casualties: 14 Cavemen, 71 Greek Soldiers, 39 Chinese Sung Soldiers (due to aliens and dinosaurs).

A second council of war had been summoned, this time with considerably more organisation.

"So, what do we know?" asked the commander of the Kzuu Maian forces. One of the TIE pilots had found some sort of translator, which was placed in the middle of the table and listening intently, before translating what was said into a dozen different languages. The required additional languages had been downloaded from the Internet.

"There are people from P3X here, and people from Free Eagles here. Anything else?" he answered his own question. There was an ominous silence.

"We fight them, yes?" he said. There was a loud cheer.

"How?" said Quintinius, single-handedly deadening the cheer at a stroke.

* * *

The ordinary soldiers were perfectly content to stay with people from their own time as the leaders discussed tactics. The dinosaurs had eventually been knocked out by tranquilisers, but 121 assorted soldiers had been caught by "Friendly Ingestion."

Four X-wings barrelled in at full power towards the group identified as being Kzuu Maian. They were skimming dangerously close to the ground, only forty metres separating them. They were on a recon mission, to acquire detailed, accurate information on the composition of the force. Radio silence was being observed, and the four craft were in a tight diamond formation.

They streaked over the first echelons of Kzuu Maian troops at several times the speed of sound, shock waves creating a huge bang and knocking people over, their sensor devices recording everything in sight.
***

Four more X-wings were performing a similar mission in the direction of the P3X forces, again the fighters were low to the ground and travelling very fast.
***

Secret IC (So you know they are there):
Far above each of the two flights of X-wings, a pair of Demon fighters were following the same flight path, but at fifty-thousand metres higher up. As the first flight of X-wings began overflying the Kzuu Maian troops, the two Demons opened their weapons bays and released their payloads of reconnaissance devices. The reason the X-wings were involved was to provide a decoy, hopefully hiding the Demons from notice.

The sensors fell slowly towards the ground, retarded by miniature AG units, recording everything beneath them. They would provide the same data as the X-wings, but, to be perfectly honest, the Generals expected the X-wings to be shot down, so they would not receive the data from the X-wings.

OOC: FE, what are these sensors like? Are they tiny, or microscopic even?

"Enemy...uh, aircraft!" screamed the commander. "Launch the TIEs."

The TIE Interceptors took off with a loud hum, then twisted in the air and shot after the X-Wings. The high-pitched screech of the Empire's laser fire tore the sky apart as they attempted to close in on the X-Wings.

* * *

"Recon?" asked the commander.

"Quite probably. A bit crude, though, don't you think? A bit obvious, especially with all the soldiers falling over and the like." replied the TIE commander, putting one finger to the little tube inserted into his ear.

"Yes...a distraction, maybe?"

"Again, quite probably. But a distraction for what? That's the question."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

* * *

The soldiers were being organised, and all of them were going through rigorous training exercises. As well as the training they went through in their own era, they were also being taught how to fire a gun so they could pick up their fallen comrades' weapons and continue the fight.

A group of warg riders had been dispatched to get the feel of the land, with two Eurofighters above them.

The Mobile Infantry commander noted the blips approaching on his
HUD. He smiled as the heavy tanks, from some future era,
mix went to wor. The smaller weapons on the tops of their turrets
vomited cyan bolts of lighting toward the approaching aerospace
fighters

***

The bolts of energy shooting out of the tanks sent the ancient Greek hoplites
cowering, and attempting to worship the tanks.

***

A Byzantine cataphract was heard to say, "Truly, God is on our side!"

***

The 19th century troups noticed, and stared in wonder as did the troops from the 20 the century.

OOC: Pretty small. Varies between penny-sized and football-sized. You probably won't see them with your own sensors, but the Demons are pretty visible.

Oh, Wookiee Bowcasters require huge strength to arm, so that's probably a no-no.

IC:
"Ah. An enemy we know and understand," transmitted an X-wing pilot. No sense in radio silence now, they know we're here, he had decided just before transmitting.

"True. But they outnumber us about six-to-one. Lets just run, okay?" replied the flight leader.

More TIEs appeared ahead of them.

"Ah, crap. Might as well go down guns blazing," the leader told them.

He selected his proton torpedoes and dropped the HUD over the shape of a TIE interceptor. The instant he got a lock, he pulled the trigger, the missile riding a streak of blue flame as it chased the fighter. The other three fighters fired their own missiles. The green lasers of the TIEs hissed past them, and the trail X-wing was suddenly engulfed by flame, the wreckage falling in a downward arc.

The remaining X-wings got off another missile each, then switched to lasers, ruby-tinted bolts lancing out at the agile Interceptors. As the distance closed, the engagement developed into a dogfight, with an outcome as certain as the setting of the sun. Sure enough, the X-wings fell one by one to the mass of enemy fighters, their flights ending in rapidly expanding balls of red-gold fire and falling wreckage.
***

The other X-wings were dodging ground fire from an as yet unidentified source. The powerful beams punched straight through the shields of one, destroying it instantly, and melted off the port-side laser cannons of another. This second X-wing selected a random ground target, fired two missiles at it, then turned around and began heading for home. The other two carried on with their mission, seeing no airborne threats, they felt they could continue to dodge the ground fire until they were out of the danger area.
***

The two pairs of Demons, their mission accomplished, adjusted their course and began a leisurely cruise back to their designated landing zone. They would, however, still be under possible threat from enemy attack for several more minutes. The problem was, that if they accelerated, they were more likely to be noticed on someones sensors. So they cruised slowly, and hoped for the best.

OOC: Do they? I always thought they looked a little small for the Wookiees. No worries, I edited my post.

IC:
"Yeah!" the lead TIE pilot punched the air as the last X-Wing tumbled towards earth. "Nice."

They had lost four TIE Interceptors in the process, which was really far too much, but for the moment he just excelled in the joy of victory.

"Sir..." a voice crackled over the radio.

"Yes?" he said, still grinning inanely.

"Um, there's a blip on my sensors, sir. Two, in fact."

The captain shot a glance at his own sensors, and swore.

"What are they?" he asked.

"No idea, sir..."

"Go check 'em out, we'll return to base. Be back soon."

* * *

The lone TIE pilot speeded through the air towards the two blips on his sensor. He shook himself, wondering if it had been worth mentioning to the captain after all, as they didn't seem all that significant. He continued on his way, though; the captain had given him orders. You didn't disobey orders.

* * *

OOC: Kzuu, can the TIE not catch up in your next post, and may I kill it? I have an interesting idea for a kill.

IC:
The attention of the trail Demon pilot was drawn to her sensors, as new data was processed. Oh, shit, she thought, They found us.

The Demons' datalink was operational, enabling them to communicate without using normal comm units, so the two pilots were not under the radio silence order of the X-wings.

"Lead, possible bandit inbound, bearing one-eight-one, down fourteen. Altitude two-five-kay and climbing, range two-four-point-three-kay and closing fast."

"Crap. Go to full power. We can't outrun the bastard, but we may be able to get him before he gets us."

For several seconds, nothing changed. Then two huge blue cones of plasma appeared from the rear of each of the Demons, their twin engines blasting out superheated fusion waste. The two heavy fighters shot forwards, accelerating rapidly, but not fast enough to escape the speedy Interceptor.

OOC2: The size of the sensor contacts will jump up hugely when the Demons accelerate. And the plasma exhaust will be very visible.

OOC: Yes, I wanted you to kill it.

IC: The blips on the pilots sensor flared and grew to several times the size, and they suddenly had a trail, like a comet; they were aircraft, and they knew the pilot was there.

"I'd like to see you outrun a TIE Interceptor," he smiled to himself, accelerating and shooting through the sky after the two Free Eaglian aircraft.

OOC: I might extend the post later, but I have to go now.

The TIE Interceptor swiftly closed the distance to the still accelerating Demons. It was still climbing steeply, coming up from almost directly underneath the two large fighters. Despite their rapidly increasing speed, the Demons were making no evasive manoeuvres, maintaining straight and level flight. No challenge for even a rookie pilot to shoot down.

The TIE pilot transmitted his findings back to the main formation, then dropped his targeting reticule over the shape of the leading Demon. He selected quad-fire for the lasers and placed his finger on the trigger.

As he fired, a long clunk sounded through the TIE's hull, and something heavy bounced of the top hatch, deflecting the TIE downwards. Lighter clunks could be heard as other things hit the solar panels, with the heavier ones deflecting the TIE even more.

He didn't know it, but the pilot was flying through the cloud of still dispersing sensors released from the Demon's weapons bays. Something large hit the cockpit canopy, creating a large crack in it. More of the objects hit the canopy, each causing damage to it, until a fine spiderweb of cracks covered virtually the entire canopy.

The pilot stopped worrying about the enemy fighters at this point, if his canopy shattered, he would be knocked out by the wind blast, and the fighter would crash, killing him. His hands went to the throttle and repulsor coils, his aim was to cut the Interceptor's speed to zero and float vertically back down to the ground using the repulsor coils. As he did so, a flash outside the frosted canopy caught his attention and he finally heard the alarm that had been sounding for several seconds, a split second before an explosion ripped the fighter apart.
***

The trail Demon fighter deactivated his missile targeting system again. It had been a risky tactic, but it had worked. The two Demons had maintained straight and level flight so that the Interceptor would fly through the clusters of sensor devices, distracting him from his combat systems, allowing the Demons to obtain missile lock.

The Demons, like most fighter craft in the FEAF in the 4300's, had all-aspect targeting systems, allowing them to shoot at targets behind them. The missiles lost much of their range and manoeuvrability when used in the 'over-the-shoulder' trajectory, so called because the missile was launched forwards, then it looped up and over the launch craft and back towards the target, and almost required the target to be unaware if it was to hit.

The gamble had only just paid off. The Interceptor had only just entered the sensor cloud when he fired. Had he fired a split second earlier, the lead Demon would be no longer flying. As it was, most of the starboard stabilizer was missing, and the fighter had some shrapnel damage to the starboard engine, causing the engine temperature to creep up. And that was with the shields at full power, although not reinforced.

The two Demons reduced power, the plasma trails shrinking and eventually vanishing back into the engines, to avoid putting unnecessary strain on the damaged engine. Besides, they would easily be able to outrun any more TIEs for long enough for support to arrive if it was needed.

OOC: Nice.

IC:
A warg pawed at the wreckage scattered for several hundred metres around, turning over a piece of metal, then yelping loudly as the heat burnt its paw. With as much curiosity as its bestial mount, the Uruk prodded the wreckage with its spear. Finally, it signalled to the Eurofighters flying above them, and they turned back towards the camp.

* * *

"Unprovoked aggression!" roared the commander, on hearing the news.

"Um...we did shoot down their X-Wings. And we did send a fighter after them." pointed out the Commander of the TIE Interceptors.

"Ah, yes. Well, I suppose the question is, what were those two..things...doing there?"

"Recon?" suggested the TIE commander.

"I thought the X-Wings were Recon..."

"Well, we did say that we thought it was a bit crude. Perhaps they were a diversion for these two."

"But they must have been too high up to see anything of any use."

"We don't know what these aircraft are like. We'll just wait and see."

The two Demons made it home without further incident. Having landed in the designated area, the damaged craft was examined, and declared 'Unfit for Ops'. They had no spare parts, so it could not be fixed, and was effectively relegated to being a large, expensive helicopter gunship, running off its AG units.

The other Demon was undamaged, so was refitted for combat operations once again.
***

In the Command Area

"So, we lost four X-wings and, effectively, one Demon. We killed five TIE Interceptors, and got complete data on the Kzuu Maian forces. Was it worth it?" asked one General (Demons).

"Yes," stated another (Rapiers) flatly, "Now we know that their force is as varied as ours, if anything we have the edge. We know exactly what they've got, so if they make a move, we can find out if anything is missing."

"What of the other mission?" asked the first.

"One of the X-wings was shot down, another returned to base after sustaining damage. The other two are unknown as yet. As are the two Demons. Although the first part was a success, as we are receiving data from the sensors," reported a third General (X-wings).

"Excellent. Now we must prevent the same from happening to us," declared the Helghast General, "I want plenty of patrols, on several tiers to prevent the same trick we used. Cover all approaches and altitudes. And send out a fast ground unit to find those missing craft."

The Helghan had spoken, the others issued the orders.

The tank commander smiled as he watched the missiles on the tracking display. The 2 centimeter powergun mounted on the top of his tank traversed and engaged the target.

It spat out a lavender bolt of energy at one missile.

Another of the tanks traversed its powergun and engaged the other missile.


The Byzantines, Greeks, and other soldiers from the more primitive eras shook their weapons in the air at the missiles.

The two missiles launched from the X-wing shot in towards their target. The ground fire targeted on them stood very little chance of hitting a missile travelling at well over nine times the speed of sound, but one of the gunners was obviously having a lucky day. One of the energy beams clipped the missile, deflecting it and sending it careering wildly across the sky until it self-destructed.

Probability won out with the second missile, it slammed into the target, exploding in a brilliant flash of white light. [OOC: You pick. It was a random target.]

The launch aircraft was already well on its way back 'home', and was out of danger. The other two X-wings finished their run and took the long route home, looping around the back and down the side of the force, all the while out of weapons range.

Far above, the two Demons just reversed course and took exactly the same route out as they did in.
***

Four miles away from the Free Eaglian camp, a Defender containing four members of the SAS spotted the two X-wings returning and sent a short radio message back to base, before swinging the Defender around and driving back.

OOC: FE, could you describe the land around your position a little for me? The scouts I sent earlier would at least have noticed that, but it would be godmodding to choose what terrain there is near there.

OOC: These scouts would be the jets I chased off, right? Well, basically my entire force sits on a large plain, which extends for a fairly large distance in all directions. Around my position are a number of low hills with small clumps of trees on (where I have scouts hidden). In the centre of my group is a similar hill, which is wider and flatter with no trees, creating a sort of plateau in the middle (which is where the command has been set up).

The plan was for everyone to have roughly similar terrain, but you can change it so long as there's no sea or mountains. I think I said something like that near the beginning of the thread, if not, check the sign-up thread.

The tank crew cheered as the missile they had been firing at detonated in mid air.

The second missile, however, had been fired on a slightly different trajectory. The commander frowned as it headed toward a line of infantry toting spear and shield. He didn’t know it, but they were Greek hoplites.

The Greek hoplites thought that the missile heading toward them was lighting of the gods. They cowered as the missile came toward them, some falling to their knees. In spite of their pleas, the missile kept coming, exploding among them, and send spears, shields, limbs, and heads, flying onto the other Greeks.

OOC: Eagles, you don't know much about the Hammer's Slammers tech do you? Not a big deal.

OOC: Thanks.

IC: After careful consideration, a small group of scouts were dispatched to the Free Eaglian position.

A squadron of TIE Interceptors cruised slowly relatively low to the ground towards the Free Eaglian camp.

"Now!" roared the captain, and they all accelerated suddenly, shooting through the sky at several times the speed of sound, their pointed solar panels cleaving the air. The Free Eaglians rushed into view, and the captain gritted his teeth, keeping the TIE on a straight course.

OOC: No, I don't. But IMO, any gun stands very little chance of hitting a missile at M9+, I don't care what tech it is or how it's controlled. If you can prove otherwise, I'll accept it, but until then, missile > gun. Computer controlled gatling guns have an optimal rating of 50% against cruise missiles, and they chuck out thousands of rounds.

IC:
"Skipper, I got a couple of possible contacts," transmitted a MiG pilot, flying at high altitude to improve radar resolution and range.

Seconds after he made the transmission, the faint contacts became much clearer, and accelerated rapidly.

"Definite contacts, looks like twelve. Low level attack profile," confirmed the commander.

They were using common radio channels to communicate, and a ground controller immediately vectored some craft on to the targets, which were rapidly approaching the ground troops.

Two squadrons of X-wings rolled over their stabilisers and into a dive, screaming down towards the Interceptors. Just a few more seconds and they would be in range. The HUD on the leader's fighter went green, he pulled the trigger, sending a volley of laser fire chasing the enemy TIEs. More laser fire leapt from the other X-wings, all trying to reduce TIE fighters to molten wreckage.

Two Aerial Dreadnaughts swivelled their weapons mounts in the direction of the approaching fighters, and waited. Close to the ground and currently motionless, they would be hard to detect at anything other than extremely short range, and their weapons were just waiting for the Interceptors to come within range.

OOC: Here's what a powergun is. (http://david-drake.com/HSHandbook/HSHandbook5.html) There's also an explanation of why airpower is no good.

OOC: Okay, that's acceptable. It does however say that hypervelocity weapons were too fast to be intercepted by gunfire, and Mach 9 borders on the low edge of that, sort of. Plus the missiles carried by my own designs are both smaller and faster. Hitting an object about half the size of your hand, travelling at 7000 metres per second is extremely difficult, no matter how you try and do it.

It is worth noting that laser beams are near-light-speed weapons, and they miss fairly regularly. And although AI's are much better than humans at targeting extremely fast airborne objects, they are not infallible.

I accept the points you are making, I'm just trying to say that doesn't necessarily make my points wrong.

OOC: At planetary distances, anything is going to have problems hitting something moving at 7000 meters a second. Just for reference purposes, what is the explosive output of one of those missiles?

OOC: I was refering to the missile being launched from a low flying aircraft. My missile warheads are a 5g antimatter warhead (900 Terajoules of energy), the X-wing missiles I have no idea. I'll get back to you on that. Anyway, back to the IC war, soon.

EDIT: Rechecked my numbers. It's a 0.5g antimatter warhead producing 9 Terajoules of energy, or roughly 3.5% of the Hiroshima bomb or 700 tonnes of dynamite. The blast radius is limited to a few cubic metres in volume to increase effect.

The captain winced as a TIE to his right disappeared in a shower of twisted wreckage. Then, suddenly, from an entirely different direction, another TIE was shot down, almost blown in half.

"That was never an X-Wing!" yelled the captain, fear starting to gnaw away at the back of his head. "It was that...thing." [OOC: That's the Aerial Dreadnought].

"Alright, go high, and accelerate. Get out of here!" he ordered, before shooting off into the sky almost as fast as he could.

* * *

A lone figure padded through the wilderness, grumbling and complaining to himself. He pulled an Elven cloak a little further around his shoulders, keeping his head down.

OOC: I realise an Elven cloak is hardly going to be impervious to sensors, but it adds to the effect.

OOC: I want this to be interesting, so I'm going to ignore the hobbit for the moment. Plus, one person, and a short one at that, is hardly going to show up on most sensors.

IC:
The two Aerial Dreadnaughts were temporarily obscured as their various weapon systems fired in unison at the incoming fighters. Missiles would reach their targets first, then the laser beams and finally the hail of depleted uranium from the gatling guns.

As the first missiles hit, the TIEs wavered, then vectored upwards, several still being chased by missiles that were closing rapidly, even against the speedy Interceptors.

The manoeuvre took the X-wings by surprise, forcing them to activate their repulsor coils and vertically invert their craft, not easy to do when at high speed. Fortunately, above the X-wings were a number of Death Gliders, their energy blast weapons firing at the TIEs, which were slowed by gravity, allowing greater chances of the blast weapons hitting their target.

Unfortunately, the hail of fire from the Dreadnaughts did not exclusively hit the enemy TIEs. Two X-wings disintegrated in a blast of X-rays as antimatter warheads annihilated them, and a third was so seriously damaged the pilot had to eject.

Both the Dreadnaught crews and the command structure made mental notes to plan more carefully when using weapons like that.

The TIEs were still attempting to retreat from the Free Eaglian forces, but, as another one crashed to earth, it seemed less likely that they would succeed by the second.

"Looks like we aren't coming out of this one alive," murmured the captain to himself, pulling round and sending a hail of laser fire at the nearest X-Wing. "I just hope that the little guy makes it." He flicked a switch on his control panel, opening communication with the remaining TIEs. "TIEs, engage the enemy." Then he flicked a second switch, requesting support from base.

* * *

The hobbit had been told he was at most risk in the wide open; despite what he may think, he was told, it was safer to be right in the centre of the Free Eaglians. The commander had tried explaining why to him, but in the end gave up.

"Just don't be seen," he'd said, in the end.

And so, the tiny figure hurried along the plains, always on the lookout for the Big People.

Three more X-wings fell to the TIE Interceptors, the Dreadnaughts had corrected the targeting problem and the missiles were no longer attacking friendly contacts. Almost as soon as they had attacked, the Death Gliders had disengaged, knowing that their craft were inferior to the Interceptors. This occured at about the point that the X-wings got back into the fight, so the threat did not slack off at all.

The Death Gliders resumed their patrol positions while the 18 remaining X-wings and 2 Dreadnaughts continued to attack with huge firepower.
***

They did not know it, but the Kzuu Maian Commanders had been exactly right. At that precise point, the SAS scouts located on the various hilltops scattered around the Free Eaglian camp were scanning the plains with thermal goggles. These particular goggles had been borrowed from Helghast soldiers, so they were far superior to the standard SAS issue.

Fortunately for the Kzuu Maian hobbit, they did not see him yet.

The TIEs were, unsurprisingly, losing, and fast. However, two further squadrons had been dispatched after the Captain's cry for help, although he personally didn't think it was particularly generous of them. They shot through the air towards the Free Eaglian encampment, their engines humming menacingly.

The camp came into view, and the TIEs desperately fighting their aerial battle became visible.

"Engage the enemy." the two captains told their squadrons, almost in unison.

* * *
The hobbit continued onwards over the plains, completely unaware of the SAS scouts.

A Demon pilot high up in the stack of patrolling fighters noticed the arrival of the extra Interceptors first. He informed his squadron leader, who transmitted the news over the common radio net. He was then told to engage the Interceptors, without breaking patrol pattern. This last was emphasised strongly. The pilot sighed. Launching missiles was not as much fun as dogfighting.

The weapons bay on the underside of his Demon slid open, the attack ladar locked on to all twenty-four targets, and five small items were ejected from the weapons bay. These five items fell for half a second, then tiny motors activated, propelling the missiles at extreme speed towards the new fighters.
***

At the same time, the X-wings engaging the original Interceptors received a nasty surprise, as four of them were blotted out by red-gold fireballs. Two more started to trail smoke and rapidly disengaged, heading for the ground before their fighters gave up. Then they saw the new TIEs, and rapidly rearranged themselves to counter the new threat. There was no change for the Dreadnaughts, their weapons were already aimed in the right direction, the new targets would be targeted when the original targets were completely eliminated.
***

Whether it was their intention or not, the TIE pilots had accomplished one thing, regardless of their survival. The spectacular air battle was being watched by the SAS perimeter scouts. Almost every single SAS soldier was staring upwards, instead of out across the plains they were meant to be watching...

OOC: I'm not sure about the missiles' accuracy, or how many were launched, so I've guessed. If this is really unrealistic, tell me and I'll edit the post.

IC: The last of the original TIEs crashed to earth, a thick trail of black smoke pouring from its engines. The new TIEs flew on towards the camp, screeching laser fire at the enemy. Five had already been blown to pieces by the missiles, and another two, while expertly dodging the missiles sent after them, had crashed into each other.

* * *

The hobbit continued on his way, carefully but quickly. A small clump of trees was ahead, and he hurried towards it.

OOC: Five from the Demon. Fast, powerful and quite accurate, but due to the high speed, its possible to dodge them. X-wings- its a dogfight so probably more laser cannons than missiles. Dreadnaughts use the same missile as the Demons, but when the TIEs are in the dogfight, they have to be a lot more careful. So I think the post is fair.

Oh, the trees. Are they on a hill, or just randomly there? Either way, doesn't matter.

And are we all counting our casualties off the lists we posted?

IC:
The X-wings were now caught up in a dogfight with the TIEs, and were just about outnumbered by the Interceptors. However, they still had the Dreadnaughts sitting a short distance away, carefully trying to pick off targets within the dogfight. Two more X-wings had fallen to the TIEs, one of the pilots managing the eject as his fighter disintegrated around him.
***

One group of SAS soldiers were sitting down, out from under their camouflage netting to get a better view. One shifted himself to a more comfortable position. As he did so, the thermal goggles slid from the pocket he had put them in, and fell to the grass.

"Oops. Need to be more careful with these," he said to himself, picking them up. As he did so, the reason they were there popped up into his conscious thought. Almost reluctantly, he put the goggles up to his eyes and looked out across the plains.

Because the goggles were unfamiliar to him, and because he was not really paying proper attention, a slight blur went unnoticed. Had he been better acquainted with the Helghast device, he would have recognised the blur as a body, still at a fair distance away, but steadily getting closer.

The soldier went back to watching the dogfight above, as another craft, he couldn't tell which fell from the sky with a plume of black smoke coming from it.

The Greek soldiers were still wondering what god the demon weapon that had scattered many of them like so many twigs had come from. They had no clue as to what any of the futuristic technologies that they attributed to so called gods were or how the functioned.

**
The mobile infantry commander had finally organized his force into something resembling order. It was hard because many of the troops wanted to shoot each other and not prepare for an imminent conflict with an enemy. Inside his armor the commander shrugged. He would do the best that he could with the archaic weapons.

OOC: On a hill.

Right, let's see...

24 TIE Interceptors...I really need to stop throwing them around...
56 Greek Hoplites (eaten by dinoaurs)
12 Scythian Cavalry (eaten by dinosaurs)
48 Fighting Uruk Hai (eaten by dinosaurs)
5 Roman Legionairres (eaten by dinosaurs).

IC: The Interceptors continued battling furiously against the X-Wings, one of the captains wondering if anything could be done about the Aerial Dreadnoughts. Deciding that it would take more than a squadron and a half of Interceptors, he shrugged and squeezed the trigger of his laser blaster, the loud shrieking filling his ears.

* * *

The hobbit stumbled into the clump of trees, feeling considerably less exposed now. He looked up, wondering whether the Free Eaglian position was close enough yet. He could see the flashes of light and explosions of the dogfight above it, but he couldn't see much of the position itself; he had no idea what kind of troops they had. Muttering to himself, he sat down for a few minutes, having some food.

OOC: I didn't mean post the casualties. Just making sure we're keeping a record. Although I can post mine so far if you wish.

IC:
Another X-wing vanished in a fireball as a TIE laced it with laser fire. The unlucky pilot's wingwoman hauled her fighter around in a tight turn, managing to get on the tail of the offending TIE. She selected quad fire for the laser cannons as she fought to keep the agile fighter in her sights. When her HUD went green, she pulled the trigger, sending the four ruby laser bolts chasing the spherical TIE cockpit. They missed the centre ball, but melted most of one of the solar panels, destabilising it.

The Dreadnaughts just sat there now, watching for any TIEs to break away from the fight, or for other reinforcements arriving. Their shields took a few hits, but nothing to worry them. It would take a determined attack to breach those shields, as they were designed to take on entire tank formations.
***

On one of the hilltops one of the SAS soldiers thought he heard a noise, so he looked around. The four man team was well hidden, so the soldier did not worry too much, but the noise had sounded unnatural. He briefly considered asking for the thermal goggles but decided that he had probably imagined it.

Then he thought better of it, and nudged the soldier with the thermal goggles, indicating that he should look around. The soldier did so, but without paying any real attention to what he was seeing. He lowered the goggles and shook his head, having completely missed the hobbit sitting eight metres away.

SAS soldiers did not usually make this kind of mistake, but a dogfight directly overhead, almost exactly taken from some of their favourite sci-fi films, was a rather large distraction. And they were tired, unsure if they would ever see their homes again, even if they survived. So the mistake was made...

OOC: Oh, OK. Well, my casualties are there, anyway.

IC: The hobbit tensed as he saw the soldier put the thermal goggles to his eyes, his hand moving towards the Silver Death Stick that he had been given, and which now hung next to his shortsword at his belt.

When the soldier put the goggles down he breathed out quietly, watching them carefully. He wondered if he'd be able to sneak past the Big People; hobbits were meant to be able to, but these Big People were like nothing he'd ever seen. Finally, he decided to try, and began slowly moving through the undergrowth.

* * *

The TIEs still battled ferociously against the X-Wings; they had been told to hang on as long as possible, to give their tiny comrade some time.

"Huh?" said one soldier quietly. The others looked at him inquisitively. "I thought I saw that bush move, and maybe I heard something," he explained.

One of the others snorted. Another shrugged and said, "Hey, we're tired and lost. You probably imagined it." He picked up a large stick and spun it towards the supposed noise. It hit the ground, lightly kicking up a number of leaves. Nothing moved. "See. Nothing there."

"Oh, well. Excuse me a minute, lads. I could do with a piss. And since I'm up, hand over those goggles. I'll have another look around," said the first, standing up, then stooping to pick up his rifle as well. The second held out the goggles, the first took them and pushed them into a pocket on his jacket. He headed towards where the stick had fallen.
***

The X-wing pilots were beginning to wonder why the battle was taking place. The TIE pilots were taking terrible losses for no apparent gain, but still they fought determinedly. As another TIE took laser hits and began a gentle dive towards the ground, another X-wing mimicked it, its pilot killed by a lucky laser strike.
***

The generals were wondering the same thing. It was one thing to send a vastly outnumbered force to accomplish a specific objective, but it was completely pointless to send a vastly outnumbered force just to pick a fight they could never win. What was the objective for the TIE pilots? they wondered, There must be one. The Kzuu Maians were not stupid, indeed they had shown excellent tactical skill in the... whenever it had been.

"It has to be a distraction of some kind," said a Brit, "They have to be planning something. Check with the perimeter posts."

"I say we send out some ranging patrols to search the immediate area," proposed a Russian, "How about some of those big walking tank-things?"

Five minutes later, a number of Metal Gear Ray units left the staging area and headed out of the camp, using tiny onboard radars to search for anything.
***

Back on the hill, the SAS soldiers' transceiver radio gave out a fairly loud burst of static, followed by a quieter order to check in.

OOC: BUMP for response from Kzuu Mai (or P3X1299).

IC:
The Metal Gear Ray units walked out of the camp, four pairs of two. The massive mechs made the ground tremble with each step, covering ten metres every time a foot touched the ground, crushing the plant life, or anything else that happened to be beneath it.

Two of the huge war machines passed near to the hill where the hobbit and the SAS soldiers were concealed. This was one distraction the SAS soldiers could ignore, as they had seen the Ray units moving before they were sent to the hill top.

Three of the pairs were headed in directions from which a possible Kzuu Maian surprise attack could come from. The remaining pair were moving in the direction of the P3X1299 forces, not going close, but there was the possibility that an attack could come from that direction.

OOC: Sorry, I had stuff to do.

IC: The hobbit smiled to himself, but didn't let his guard down, still studiously trying to be as invisible as possible. He almost yelped in horror when he heard the ground shaking from huge, purposeful steps, and he could just see metallic feet through the undergrowth. However, he had a job to do, and he continued towards the Free Eaglian camp.

* * *

Finally, the remaining TIEs were given orders to return home, and, immensely relieved, the single remaining captain relayed the orders to his squadron. Two entire squadrons and five other TIEs had been lost.

OOC: That's fine. I was just making sure it hadn't died.

IC:
The SAS soldier currently urinating by a tree heard the hobbit's stifled yelp over the noise of the Ray units, but dismissed it as a mechanical noise from the mechs themselves. He had already had another look around with the goggles, but had been so close to the hobbit he was looking over him.

The others had replied to the check in request and were now, once again, putting most of their attention back to their lookout duties. The dogfight above had just broken up and was moving out of easy viewing.
***

It was difficult to tell exactly how many X-wings had been lost at this point, since more had joined the fight partway through, but it would be found out eventually. As the TIEs broke away, a number of X-wings attempted to follow them, firing lasers and a few missiles from a chase profile, but the superior speed of the Interceptors meant the chase was short lived.
***

"Well, they've broken off. That has to mean that whatever they were distracting us from is done, or in place or whatever. Since we're not under fire, what were they doing?" said a Stormtrooper Commander.

"Stealth recon, infiltration or hidden force movement, maybe," suggested a general (Rapiers).

"Well, if we've been infiltrated, we need to know about it. See if you can get those wierd invisible alien hunter things (Predators) to have a look around," said the Helghan, "If there's anything out there," he indicated the area outside the camp, "those mechs will find it."

The hobbit smiled to himself as he left the SAS soldiers, and the walking tanks, behind (he thought), and at the time he was blissfully unaware of the Predators loping out of the camp. He clutched the sensor he had been given in his hand, and wondered if it would be worth all the effort.

* * *

The TIEs were landing in the Kzuu Maian camp, and were immediately asked for reports of the hobbit, but none had anything conclusive to say.

((Important Notice: From tomorrow, I'm going to be unavailable until Sunday.))

OOC: Just out of interest, where is this going? So that I know how far to let the hobbit get. Predators wouldn't miss much, but if I like where this is going, the ones sent out can be stupid, blind or just unobservant.

IC:
"The Rays report nothing," announced a comm operator.

"Damn. So we've probably been infiltrated," stated a Stormtrooper General.

"Well, we sent out searchers. We can't do anything more on that front. I say we send out a small attack force, and see if we can't pick off some of the Kzuu Maian force," declared an X-wing commander.

"That would seem an appropriate course of action. What force do you suggest?" inquired the Helghan.

"A mixed one. A couple of these 'Predators', some of those combat droids, a group of the SAS, a number of tanks, whichever kind, and some of those slow attack craft," said the pilot.

"Effective choices. I approve, dispatch this force at once," ordered the Helghan.
***

Down in the camp, the units were picked and formed up with each other. A command structure was issued, so that they all knew who was in charge. Then the mixed force departed, the infantry riding on top of the tanks.

OOC2: The hobbit will probably see them.

Exact force compostion (currently unknown to you):
Infantry: 4 Predators, 20 SK-4s, 8 SAS, 4 Helghast Assaults
Tanks: 8 Challenger-2s, 4 Rapiers
Helicoptors: 4 Apaches

OOC: Despite the amount of time and posts spent on him, originally he was just going to plant a sensor. I may think of something a bit more exciting for him to do, but I haven't had any ideas yet. I'll inform you if I think of something.

IC: The hobbit looked up. He had heard the loud, rhythmic rumbling that he was beginning to assosciate with some of the moving metal behemoths he had seen in the Kzuu Maian camp. He saw some now; they looked very simliar, although these had soldiers sitting on it - uncomfortably, the hobbit couldn't help thinking. Unfortunately for the Kzuu Maians, the thought that they may have been heading straight for his allies never crossed his mind, and he continued studiously on his way.

The small recon/strike force moved rapidly across the flat terrain, the accompanying Apache helicopters staying low to the ground to avoid detection. The SK-4 synthetics had dismounted the tanks and were loping easily along beside them, much to the amazement of the SAS and Helghast troopers, since the tanks were moving at over forty miles an hour. The Predators had temporarily turned off their stealth devices, and had a tank to themselves, since the others were reluctant to be near them.

So far the sensor arrays on the advanced Rapier tanks were blank, but the force was still a fair distance from the enemy camp, and the array was on a low power setting to reduce detectability.
***

Having completely failed to find anything, the eight Ray units returned to the staging area, their operators in a thoroughly bad mood at the pointless exercise. Had they been told it was a patrol, they would not have cared, but they had been told it was an interception tasking. The subsequent lack of an enemy to shoot at had, to put it mildly, irritated them.
***

The hobbit was nearing the area that the advanced Free Eaglian humans refered to as 'the zoo'. It was where all the violent creatures were, currently subdued by the control collars, were being kept. A large dragon on the edge of the area lifted its head, sniffing the air. Everything seemed normal, those little people were running around with their strange metal sticks. But it could smell prey. It couldn't see it, but it could smell it. It was close too. The dragon began stretching out its tail and claws to see if it could find the source of the mouth-watering scent.

The hobbit hurried along, his huge feet flapping on the floor, when he saw something which shocked him to his core. A vast reptilian creature, with powerful leathery wings folded along its back, and a tail studded with spikes, was sniffing the air, eyes alert. The hobbit knew exactly what it was smelling for, and suddenly the head shot round to face the hobbit, who found himself faced with a pair of nostrils.

The hobbit leapt back as the dragon snapped playfully at the air a little way, and rolled on the ground a short way before he began struggling up. Then, with surprise, the hobbit realised it couldn't see him. The Elven cloak!, he thought. The dragon could smell him though, and would probably be able to find him based on smell alone. With fear shaking through his short, stocky frame, the hobbit stood up and threw off the cloak.

The dragon blinked in surprise, but soon decided to eat the hobbit anyway. It shot out its neck, its gaping mouth heading straight for the hobbit. The hobbit braced himself, then threw the sensor down the dragon's throat. It wouldn't choke the dragon, of course, but it surprised it. The hobbit grabbed the cloak, hoped the sensor could withstand dragon-strength hydrochloric acid, and ran.

The dragon lunged for the hobbit, then reeled in surprise as the small device flew into its throat. It swallowed the device, then lunged for the hobbit again, only to find it had vanished again. The sensitive nose sniffed again, but the scent was fading and the dragon was tired.
***

"What the hell?" exclaimed a British Desert Rat. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. "I'm sure I just saw a small figure appear in front of that dragon, then disappear again." The other Desert Rats around him laughed, wondering where their compatriot had found alcohol, but a Helghan colonel overheard the remark.

"Where?" he asked. The Brit pointed at the dragon. It's head was held up, still sniffing the air.
"Stealth! Shit," the Helghan swore, then bellowed at a resting Stormtrooper. "You! Get up and use your goggles to search this camp. Get the word out to the rest of your unit. There are stealth operatives nearby."

The soldier jumped to his feet, spoke into his helmet mike and pressed a button on the side of the helmet. He picked up his rifle and began running over to near the dragon. He looked around, searching for an IR image with his left eye that did not have a visual counterpart in his right eye. He saw one, running directly away from him. There was a group of soldiers beyond the target, so he could not shoot. The Stormtrooper swore and began running after the target.

Other Stormtroopers were also looking around, and many would soon see the fuzzy fast-moving IR image in their goggles or their running comrade and guess what he was running after.

The hobbit's legs pumped endlessly over the plains. He unclipped a radio from his belt and jabbed at a button, breathing heavily as he told them he was coming home. Suddenly he heard the heavy steps of Big People behind him, and he turned and saw the Stormtroopers.

"And I'm being pursued," he added to his report, then redoubled his efforts to get away.

* * *

"Did he plant the sensor?" asked the TIE General.

"We're about to find out," said the Kzuu Maian, flicking a switch on the small console perched on the tree stump in front of them. The Generals leaned in closely to the screen.

OOC: Bump

IC: The vast expanse of the plains stretched out in all directions, and the hobbit cursed at just how far he had to go before he reached safety. There were still stormtroopers behind him, jogging easily in comparison to the desperate sprinting of the small creature. He knew he would never outrun them, nor outfight them - he somehow had to lose them.

OOC: Sorry. Unexpected time constraints prevented access.

IC:
The Stormtroopers still chased the small figure, trying to catch up. One paused to check if the figure was still invisible without the goggles. Yes, no wait. A faint shape, which could only be seen because the figure was running. If it was sneaking, it would be very difficult to spot. He flipped the goggles back on and started running again.

The trooper closest to the figure pushed harder, dropping his rifle and drawing his pistol to allow him to run faster. Slowly, he began to catch up to the figure.

Back at the Free Eaglian camp, two Apache helicopters had just taken off, and were now heading out after the hobbit and pursuing stormtroopers.
***

The small strike/recon force was now nearing the Kzuu Maian forces, and the tanks slowed to allow the infantry to dismount. The helicopters flew low enough to touch them as they flew overhead. The Predators switched their stealth camouflage back on. The infantry checked their weapons.

The hobbit was nearing complete exhaustion; fatigue was making his arms and legs to heavy to move, and he would be unable to carry on much longer. He turned to see the stormtroopers loping onwards with unstoppable energy, and behind them the loud clatter of helicopters, and tripped on a rock jutting out of the ground. His fall sent out a small cloud of dust, easily visible, and he lay face down in the golden grasses of the plains, unable to get up, and hardly able to move. He panted heavily, cursing (he spent a lot of time cursing) his clumsiness and lack of energy.

* * *

Barely a second after he flicked the switch to activate the sensor, and too early to see if the sensor had worked, the commander received a hesitant tap on the shoulder.

"What?" he roared, glaring at the soldier who had dared interrupt him.

"Sir, there's some helicopters over there," the soldier pointed in the general direction of the strike force "And what appears to be some tanks."

"ID? Where're they from?" said the commander, sighing slightly.

"Well, we only know of P3X and Free Eagles people here at the moment, and a Eurofighter pilot said he saw the Free Eaglian symbol."

"Are they looking for trouble or are they hear to talk?"

"I assume it's trouble...we could try negotiations..."

"OK. Send out a force - larger than them, but not massive - see if they'll talk. And if they don't want to talk, kill 'em."

The two leading Stormtroopers reached the fallen hobbit, still using their thermal goggles to see him. The one that had dropped his rifle reached down and grabbed the hobbit, lifting him off the ground. The barrel of the pistol in the other hand was lodged firmly in the hobbit's neck. The other stormtrooper had his rifle pointed at the hobbit. The first trooper holstered his pistol and used his free hand to remove the hobbit's cloak, allowing them to switch off their goggles and see normally. He threw the cloak to a third trooper that had just reached them, who looked at it with interest. The three troopers were breathing faster than normal, the run had tired them.

As the stormtroopers began heading back, complete with captive, the two helicopters clattered overhead, circling around and slowing so that the gunners could see what was happening. Having seen the small prisoner, they radioed the results back to their command, then hovered over the group of stormtroopers, protecting them from attack.
***

The Rapier commander leading the strike force saw the approaching Kzuu Maian force on his sensor display at roughly the same point as the gunners in all the Rapiers.
"Heads up, we got enemy units. It's a larger force, but not by much. We'll see what exactly it consists of, then decide whether to engage or not," he transmitted over the inter-unit comm circuit.
As the tank commanders scanned the enemy force for exact composition, the gunners warmed up their missiles.

In the older Challengers, the loaders slammed Sabot rounds into the main gun, ready to fight if necessary. The Apache gunners centred the enemy units in the view, the nose cannon traking their view. The SAS made no visible move, but their thumbs slipped off the safety catches on their guns. The SK-4s and Predators made no move at all, in both cases because their weapons were armed anyway, and in the latter case, because they were hidden from normal view.

OOC: Force Composition:
10 T-34s
10 Challenger-2s
25 modern soldiers
15 Wookiees
2 AT-ATs
2 Mumakil

IC: The tanks rumbled on slowly, and the soldiers - a mixture of modern day soldiers and Wookiees - scuttled around them, avoiding the hesitant, creaking steps of the pair of AT-ATs plodding behind the rest of the force. When the Free Eaglian forces were clearly visible, the soldiers stopped, the tanks ground to a halt, and the AT-ATs took their last shuddering steps.

Giving his gun to a soldier standing behind him, the man chosen to lead the force took a careful step forward, empty palms spread wide before him. He took another few steps, watching the Free Eaglians intently, still holding his hands out to show he wasn't carrying a huge murderous weapon.

OOC: I'm not entirely sure what you do if you want to talk to someone, if there's a special flag or gesture or something, but that's what I'm trying to do.

"Sir, it may be a larger force, but with what we have here we can go straight through it. The Rapiers could deal with most of it," advised the gunner of the lead tank.

"I know, but let's see what they want first. They seem to want to talk. Stop the tank and let me out. I'll go and talk to them."

The gunner disapproved: "Sir, I'm not sure that's such a good idea. What if..." He was cut off by the commander again: "I'll take a couple of those Predators with me for protection."

The tank floated to a halt, and the commander's hatch swung open. The commander climbed out and stood on the flat missile unit at the back of the tank. Then he jumped down and walked towards the Kzuu Maians, stopping a few metres from the apparent leader. Silently, invisibly, the two Predators stepped up behind him.

OOC: Appears to be fixed now, anyway, so ignore the TG.

"Shit!" muttered a soldier, as he lifted his helmet and peered at the huge tanks ahead of him. "They could easily kill us if they wanted to."

Standing next to him, a friend nodded. "Yeah...we have to hope they don't."

* * *

The captain watched as a single figure detached itself from the Free Eaglian forces and made its way towards him. When he was a few metres away, he spoke.

"Good..." the captain glanced at the sky, noting the position of the sun. "Afternoon. My commander has sent me to discuss a possible ceasefire with you, while we attempt to work out a way of getting us back to the correct place and time. What do you say?"

OOC: The Rapiers are the same size as the Challengers, but they have no main gun, instead having a flat, slightly raised section at the back (missile unit). They're hover tanks as well, if you hadn't worked that out already.

Oh, and for the peace gesture: A white 'flag' and open hands is fairly standard.

IC:
"Afternoon," responded the tanker, the insignia on his uniform indicating the rank of Major. "I think my command would accept something like that. I think the general opinion among our forces is that we were brought here by divine beings, who just want to see us fight." He shrugged, "No-one actually believes that, but it's all we can think of at the moment. Still, trying to get back rather than fighting seems like a decent idea to me. I'll have to send it up the ladder, but I think they'll go for it."

Two of the SAS soldiers standing by one of the tanks were watching the meeting through binoculars, and a third held a sniper rifle, the barrel pointing safely skyward. They were not intending threat, they were just watching, ready to take action if anything happened.
***

The hobbit was being questioned by some officers, after being thoroughly searched by the Stormtroopers.
"Who are you? What were you doing here?" asked a Stormtrooper Colonel.

"I am...a hobbit," announced the hobbit, grinning nervously. "I was here because I was told to come....I...I...planted a sensor."

* * *

"Excellent. Please contact us when your commanders have reached their decision." The captain smiled, "By the way, have you heard anything from the P3X camp? We found evidence that they were here, but as yet they haven't had much contact with us. What about you?"

OOC: FE, I'm going on holiday for two weeks (from today), so I won't be posting. Bye...

OOC: Hope you enjoy it, Kzuu. Where are/did you go?

IC:
"What's your name, hobbit?" growled the Colonel, "What did this sensor do? And wipe that grin off your face. You are under arrest as a spy. Do you know what that means?" he asked, smiling maliciously.
***

"Sir," called out a comm tech, "The commander of the strike force says the Kzuu Maians are proposing a ceasefire so that they can try and find a way home."

"Hmmm, seems like a reasonable idea," stated the Helghan. "Tell him okay."

"Yes sir."
***

The Major looked back at the strike force, waiting for the response. The commander of one of the other Rapiers raised a hand in a thumbs-up.

"Okay," he said, "We accept a temporary ceasefire. We found the P3X force as well, and had some minor aerial clashes with them, but nothing since. I don't know what happened."

OOC2: That's true IC too. I think P3X has dropped out.

OOC: Southwest France, the Pyrenees. :D Was good.

IC: "My name's Kevin." announced the hobbit, who had obediently wiped the grin off his face. "I have no idea what the sensor did. I guess it sensed. There aren't any where I come from, you know." The hobbit paused, glancing around him. "And no, I also have no idea what being under arrest as a spy means. Could you fill me in?"

* * *

The captain contacted his commanders, nodded at his Free Eaglian counterpart, then turned and made his way back to the camp, signalling to the forces assembled behind him to do the same.

OOC: This isn't really working, is it? You wanna dump it and go for the second MT war between us? I'm the aggressor this time.

IC:
"It means that under the rules of war, which we are currently in, you can be executed at any time we see fit," the Colonel informed him, smiling evilly.

He turned to another soldier. "Find that sensor. I don't care if you have to cut that dragon open, find it and disable it," he ordered. The soldier saluted and left.
***

The Major offered a salute, then turned to face his task force. He raised a hand, index finger extended, and twirled it in the air, before pointing back in the direction of the Free Eaglian camp.

The infantry climbed back on to the tanks, as they reengaged their engines and turned around. The helicopters were lifting off and flying away as the Major climbed back into his own tank and closed the hatch.

OOC: If you like. Wait; I'll break the ceasefire, to make things a little more interesting.

IC: The grin, which had been slowly edging its way back over the hobbit's face, vanished again.

* * *

The Kzuu Maian forces were making their way back to their camp; the soldiers scuttled among the huge feet of the AT-ATs, and the tanks rumbled ahead of the main group. The Haradrim soldiers, atop their huge elephantine mounts, began the methodical process of turning them around. One of them co-operated, lumbering after the rest of the Kzuu Maians, grunting happily, but the other did not.

One of the Haradrim swore as the Mumakil settled down to munch at a tough plant. When, several yells later, the Mumakil still showed little sign of wanting to end its meal, one particularly short-tempered Haradrim grabbed a spear and jabbed it viciously into the creature's neck. The tiny Mumakil brain, which before had been thinking only "eat", suddenly thought "pain", which was closely followed by "charge!". It struggled to its feet, then lowered its head at the nearest living things it could see - the Free Eaglian forces.

* * *

The Kzuu Maian forces, which had been moving steadily towards their camp, suddenly heard the loud crashes of the charging Mumakil.

"We're under attack! Those stinking Free Eagle scum, they attacked us!" The captain grabbed a radio. "We're under attack!" he repeated. "Request support."

He dropped the radio, then turned towards the Free Eaglian soldiers. The Mumakil was almost among them.

"That's the way to do it," he grunted with satisfaction, "Come on people, let's get them!"

The Kzuu Maians turned and moved into combat formations, edging towards the Free Eaglian enemy.

OOC: We'll see how it goes. I definitely want to do the second FE-KM war, though. I've got the beginning planned.

IC:
The crashing of the Mumakil went unheard by the tank crews, but the infantry riding on top heard it loud and clear.

"Holy crap. What the hell is that?" cried one of the SAS soldiers.

The soldier that had been ready with the sniper rifle at the truce was next to him.

"I don't know, but I'm betting I can bring it down," he announced as he flipped the cover of his rifle scope.

Another infantryman made a radio call, which the tankers heard. The tanks finally accelerated, the Challengers rotating their turrets to face the threat, forcing the infantry riding them to jump down and run.

The sniper put his eye to the scope of his rifle, setting the aimpoint above and between the eyes of the huge beast. At this range, and with the tank bouncing around under him, he didn't bother with wind readings or exact aimpoints, he just aimed in roughly the right place and fired.

The large rifle jumped in his hands, slamming back into his shoulder as the .50 calibre round shot out of the barrel. Without waiting to see the effect, he cycled the bolt action, ejecting the spent casing, sighted and fired again. The twin boom from the rifle caused some of the infantry to jump, and one of the Challenger gunners assumed that the Kzuu Maians were using mortars.

He depressed the trigger on his controls, the 120mm cannon slamming back into the turret with recoil, a High Explosive round flying towards the creature.
***

"Sir, the task force reports they are under attack. They have engaged the enemy."

"What? I thought they just agreed to a ceasefire?" screamed the General. "Get those choppers turned around. Destroy them. Send them air support."
***

The Apache attack helicopters whirled around in a flurry of rotors, reversing course and heading back towards the task force, where they could see flashes of light.
***

On order from the ground, a flight of four Demon fighters detached from the standing patrol over the Free Eaglian camp and began a shallow dive towards the enemy.

OOC: Great. I look forward to it.

IC: The Mumakil ran straight into the shots from the sniper rifle, forcing them deep into its head; ignorant of this in its beserk rage, it continued a few steps, then unceremoniously toppled over, the Haradrim riders crushed beneath its considerable bulk.

The rest of the forces were still moving closer; the AT-ATs began firing steadily from their cannons, and the Wookiees' bowcasters joined them a few minutes later. The loud boom of the tanks firing tore the air apart, and their shells arced forwards towards the Free Eaglians. The human soldiers were still moving forward to engage the enemy.

* * *

At the base, pilots ran to their aircraft; Lancaster bombers, Spitfires, Eurofighter Typhoons and TIE Interceptors took off with whirrs, roars, and whooshes, making their way to where the two forces clashed below.

"Ha ha!" cried the sniper triumphantly. Then a missile cover snapped open beneath their feet. "Oh shit, jump."

The infantry riding the Rapier tank dived to the ground, clearing the missile pack seconds before the first missile erupted from the launch tube in a burst of flame. It rocketed vertically upwards for ten metres then tilted over and shot towards the advancing AT-AT walkers, whose laser cannons had just melted two Challengers.

The other three Rapiers also launched missiles, only two each, aimed at the enemy tank units. The Challengers swung around so that their weak rear armour was facing away from the enemy forces, then began using their guns to engage the enemy tanks.

The infantry spread out, moving away from the tanks. Any infantryman knows that a tank, as powerful as it may be, draws equally powerful fire towards it. So the infantry were safer if they put distance between them and the tanks. After finding suitable cover, the SAS opened up with SA80 rifles (except for the sniper), the SK-4s fired their laser cannons, and the Predators, now invisible, were using their shoulder-mounted plasma weapons against targets of all descriptions.

The clatter of rotors accompanied the return of the Apaches, which began circling the skirmish, walking 30mm cannon fire around the enemy infantry. Fire from an AT-AT brought one helicopter crashing down, exploding as it hit the ground, and taking two SK-4s with it.
***

"Get them some reinforcements," screamed the General.

Two Metal Gear Ray units, accompanied by four more Rapier tanks and four Tiger tanks, left the camp, as eight Mosquito fighter-bombers took to the air, escorted by four Spitfires, the distinctive roar of the Merlin engine splitting the air again.

"The air will be there in five minutes, the ground in fifteen," a junior officer informed the General.

The Kzuu Maian aircraft arrived at the scene - the Eurofighters and TIEs engaging the Apaches, the Spitfires accompanying the Lancaster bombers a few minutes later as their bomb bays creaked slowly open. The steady clatter of machine guns, the whoosh of missiles, and the shriek of laser cannon filled the skies. Bombs plummeted from the Lancasters down towards earth.

* * *

Below them, two Challenger-2s and a T-34 had fallen prey to their Free Eaglian counterparts, and one of the AT-ATs was now struggling forwards, its side pock-marked with bullets and a gaping hole on its back, just above the head. The remaining Mumakil had been wounded; blood leaked from a long gash where a bullet had grazed its side, and one of its legs was dragging uselessly, but it still did what Mumakil did best: charged around in an insane frenzy.

* * *

A large Wookiee squatted behind a boulder, poking out its bowcaster periodically and selecting targets, then firing confidently. The presence of plasma shots apparently flying out of midair towards its allies confused it a little, and when a human soldier dived behind the rock as a missile obliterated the ground a few metres away, it indicated them with a grunt.

"What the hell?" he muttered, then, experimentally, squeezed the trigger of his rifle in the approximate direction of where the shots were coming from. The Wookiee followed suit, but after only a couple of shots its instincts told it something was wrong and it leaped out from behind the rock, grabbing the human by the shoulder as it did so. A split second later a tank shell exploded at the base of the boulder, and it rocked backwards onto the human's leg. The Wookiee, undeterred, once more crouched behind the boulder, gritted its teeth, and fired.

* * *

Tanks were rumbling out of the Kzuu Maian camp, loaded with WWII US Marines, and behind them two fresh AT-ATs with cargoes of Wookiees creaked towards the battle.

The arrival of enemy air troops was a surprise, if not unexpected. Two Apaches fell to missiles before the threat was noticed and the Apaches began doing what they did best: Flying ten metres off the ground and hiding behind anything large enough to shield them.

One experimentally tried to use Hellfire missiles to attack the jets, the anti-tank missile would make short work of an unarmoured fighter, if it hit. Others fired Hellfires at the Lancaster bombers, their larger size and slower speed making it more likely the Hellfires would hit than with the jets.

Many of the Lancaster's bombs missed, or hit single targets, but one stick fell across four Challenger tanks, destroying them all. A commander in one of the surviving Challengers cursed: "That bomber must have Davy Crockett aiming for them."
Another Challenger commander was using his .50 machine gun to try and shoot down the Spitfires and Lancasters. Another was blown apart by it's enemy counterpart.

The SAS sniper was aiming his rifle at the second huge elephant creature, as it was causing havoc for his fellow infantry, since they had to keep moving to avoid being trampled. He sighted in the same place as before, above and between the eyes, pulling the trigger. The rifle kicked hard, the loud boom obscured by the crash of tank cannons and falling bombs. He would have to move now, the flash would have given away his position.

The Kzuu Maian infantryman had been lucky with his random fire, seven bullets stitching across the Predator's body. It screeched in pain, a loud and terrible sound, as green blood splashed everywhere. Then a bowcaster bolt hit it in the head.

The Rapier crews, seeing how the rest of their force was faring, flipped their weapon systems into 'Auto'. The tanks began firing a missile at every target available, tanks, AT-ATs, even infantry, and in one case, a low flying Spitfire.

Several miles away, the flight of Demons opened fire. Their targets: The enemy Eurofighters and TIEs. Two missiles jumped from each weapons bay (total: 8), each tracking a different target. The Apaches were all identified as ground targets, so close were they to the ground, so the pilots had no worries about hitting their allies.
***

The sensors watching the Kzuu Maian camp picked up the large formations leaving. The Free Eaglians ordered more reinforcements be dispatched.

More fighters left the patrol stack above, an Aerial Dreadnaught was prepped to leave, Assault soldiers were loaded into it, British Boer riflemen were ordered on to the backs of more tanks. The Generals cursed not having any real transport craft, to move the huge numbers of infantry. A company of Roman cavalry was ordered to head in that direction, as quickly as they could.

The Wookiee saw the flash of the sniper rifle's muzzle, and immediately fired the bowcaster, but there was little chance of catching the SAS soldier as he vanished once more.

The Mumakil was almost dead now; it had been deserted by its Haradrim riders, who had scrambled down from the howdah and attempted to get out of the fight alive. The Mumakil was covered in tiny wounds, and its previously-shattered leg was in danger of falling off at any moment; one of its tusks was splintered and broken where it had struck at a tank. Its eyes clouded over, and it swayed dangerously. The sniper bullet hit it slightly to the left of its intended target - inside the left eye. Quietly, inexorably, the Mumakil slumped forwards onto the ground, its trunk sending up a cloud of dust, and its head smashing against the roof of a Kzuu Maian T-34.

Two Lancasters had already spiralled out of the sky, and four Spitfires, but they continued on doggedly, calling for more aerial reinforcements. The eight missiles from the Demons took them completely by surprise, and six of them hit their target - three TIEs and three jets exploded and showered the conflict below with twisted wreckage. The TIEs immediately shot towards the Demons, while the Eurofighters concentrated on taking out the Apaches and the ground-to-air units.

The Rapiers' missiles were causing chaos - infantry soldiers flew in all directions, and the damaged AT-AT fired its last cannon shot then exploded, taking two tanks with it.

"We need more reinforcements! Come on!"

* * *

At the camp, more aircraft were taking off, and some of the less advanced units - some Warg riders, some Uruk-Hai, some Scythian cavalry and even some dinosaurs were ordered - or, in the dinosaurs' case, goaded - to join the fight.

The sniper had just left his previous location when the bowcaster shot slammed into the ground. Whew. Too close, he thought. The massive rifle slung over his back, he held a small SMG in his hands to protect himself as he moved.

The AT-AT's dying shots, along with a shell from a T-34, killed one of the Rapier tanks. The shell blew out the inside, killing the crew and causing the tank hull to fall to the ground. The laser blasts penetrated the damaged missile pack and caused the remaining missiles to explode, the huge explosion destroying four SK-4s and damaging another Rapier.

The last remaining Apache managed to fire its last Hellfire missiles just before a missile from a Eurofighter blew out the main shaft. With it's engines gone, the helicopter fell like a stone, the resulting explosion as it hit the ground killing one SAS trooper and wounding another.

The lone surviving Challenger tank was careening around taking potshots at the enemy T-34s and Challengers, while the commander continued using his machinegun to try and bring down the propellor planes.

The Demons, now closing on the fight, fired another missile each at the oncoming TIEs before switching to laser cannons. The other aerial reinforcements were also closing fast.


OOC: Task force remaining: 3 Rapiers (1 damaged), 1 Challenger, 2 Predators, 6 SAS (1 wounded), 4 Helghast Assaults, 11 SK-4 synthetics. Plus 4 Demons.

Inbound Reinforcements:
Group 1: 2 Metal Gear Rays, 4 Rapiers, 4 Tigers, 8 Mosquitos, 4 Spitfires.

Group 2: 4 Demons, 8 X-wings, 1 Aerial Dreadnaught (with 5 Helghast Assaults aboard), 10 Challengers, 40 British Boer riflemen. And 100 Roman Cavalry (slow).

The battle scene was now a war-torn mess; great craters cut into the plains, the grass was scorched and blackened, and burning wreckage, corpses, and dismembered limbs were scattered everywhere. The soldiers continued fighting ceaselessly, reassured slightly by the news that reinforcements were on their way.

* * *

The TIEs which had torn after the Demons saw the missiles coming towards them, and immediately the pilots broke apart and began the serious business of evading them. The ultra-maneuverable Interceptors should have had little problem with this; that was the theory. In practice, two of them exploded as the missiles caught them, one had a wing torn off and crashed to earth, and another caught a glancing blow and was unable to continue. The remaining pilots squeezed the triggers of the cannons and the bright green laser bolts screeched from their cannons.

* * *

The AT-ATs and tanks arrived at the scene, dropping their cargoes of marines and Wookiees and opening fire at the enemy. The marines and Wookiees sprinted for cover then followed suit, the harsh crack of their weapons completely drowned out by the louder explosions from all around.

OOC: Here are my casualties and the composition of the reinforcements, as much for me so I can remember them as it is for you.

Original Force (Killed/destroyed)
25 modern soldiers (11)
15 Wookiees (5)
10 Challenger-2s (3)
10 T-34s (6)
2 AT-ATs (1)
2 Mumakil (2)

Aircraft Reinforcements
12 Spitfires (5)
6 Lancaster Bombers (3)
12 TIE Fighters (6) (One damaged)
12 Eurofighters (4)

Composition of Reinforcements
2 AT-ATs
30 Wookiees
5 Panthers
5 T-34s
50 US Marines

On their way:
200 Warg Riders
100 Uruk-Hai
100 Scythian Cavalry
2 Albertosauruses
2 Anklyosauruses

The Demons were hit by the Interceptor fire, but in three cases it just splashed harmlessly across reinforced shields. The fourth Demon had not adjusted the shields, and the laser fire punched through and stippled the engines, causing considerable damage. The pilot noticed the change instantly, the craft began sinking and the controls were sluggish.

Knowing that she was going down, she centred the nearest ground target in the HUD and emptied the weapons bay at it. Some thirty missiles were aimed at that one target, and with that, she ejected. The Demon hit the ground and bounced, when it hit the ground again, it skidded along the uneven surface before coming to a stop in a crater. The wings were bent and the hull severely dented, but if it could be recovered, it might fly again.

The three remaining Demons engaged the TIEs with their lasers, the range being too close for missiles. During the ensuing dogfight, one of the Demons suffered mild damage to its wing, marginally affecting its performance.
***

The reinforcements began to arrive, the Spitfires engaging the lumbering Lancasters, then switching to the enemy Spitfires as they approached. The Mosquitos made a pass at the Lancasters with their machineguns, then began dropping their bombs on the tanks on the ground, conserving the bombs so they could attack as many targets as possible.
***

As the two groups of Rapiers joined up, fire from an AT-AT destroyed one, and a tank shell damaged the already damaged Rapier further. The other Rapiers retaliated with a barrage of missiles, then switched the system to 'Auto', firing missiles at all targets.

The Tigers were also engaging the enemy, their heavy armour protecting them from a number of hits from T-34s as they returned the fire.

The Metal Gear Ray units towered over the battlefield, making ridiculously large targets, but ones that were difficult to destroy. The heavy machineguns they carried were used to strafe infantry, and the anti-tank missiles and laser were targeted on enemy tanks.

An Assault soldier was killed as two of them tried to take out a T-34 with their hand held cannons.

A Challenger-2 was trundling along happily before all thirty missiles hit it, vapourising it instantly and engulfing a Wookiee and two soldiers in the fireball. Other tanks were hit by the Mosquito bombs or the Rapier missiles, while one was hit by a falling Lancaster. The three remaining AT-ATs ignored the smaller targets and turned their cannons on the Metal Gear Ray units, the vast machines clashing over the heads of the soldiers.

The captain of the force had called for more air reinforcements, and at the camp Eurofighters started their engines.

The TIEs fired doggedly at the shields of the Demons, hoping to wear them down, while doing their best to evade the return fire. The TIE which had been too damaged to continue had been severely damaged when it hit the ground, and the pilot had abandoned it.

One of the AT-ATs had been hit a dozen times by the Rapier missiles and crashed to the floor, holes torn in its side and back, and a leg blown off.

The tanks were still ceaselessly firing shells at the enemy, while attempting not to be hit by returning shells, or just hoping their armour could handle it.

One of the Metal Gear Ray units let out an inhuman screech as laser fire burned deep into the armour. It spun around, sweeping its tail into the front legs of the offending AT-AT, knocking them out from under it. As the AT-AT fell nose down to the ground, the Ray used its laser to slice through the neck joint, severing the 'head'. It then took a step forward and brought its foot down on the cockpit, crushing a hole through it.

The pilot then proceeded to attempt to stamp on the enemy tanks around it, while spraying infantry with the machineguns. However, his efforts were cut short by the other AT-AT, now behind him. Their heavy laser cannons punched into the back-mounted missile unit, causing the missiles to explode, blowing the huge machine apart.

The other Ray unit tried to exact revenge for his fallen comrade by launching a barrage of missiles at the two walkers, while firing off the cluster devices, showering everything surrounding the unit with bomblets.

In the air, Spitfire clashed with Spitfire, Demon clashed with TIE, and Mosquitos strafed Lancasters as they continued bombarding the ground forces. Two Spitfires, two Mosquitos and another Demon fell to the ground in flames, seeming like small comets. The second wave of air reinforcements arrived, with the X-wings joining the dogfight and the new Demons remaining away from the fight and launching their missiles.

A Tiger tank was disabled by a lucky shot from a Challenger, blasting off one of the treads. The turret was still active, but it was now a sitting duck for other tanks or an airstrike. The damaged Rapier took yet more damage as a shell exploded right next to it, peppering the side with shrapnel.

OOC: Sorry for taking the kill, but it's how a Ray would kill something like that at close range. Dunno if you've played MGS2, but the laser is a cutting laser type, not a Star Wars style laser.

OOC: I haven't played it, but I'll take your word for it. It was a good kill.

IC: The Eurofighter Typhoons hissed across the sky towards the battle, opening fire at the Mosquitoes and Spitfires as they approached them. Another Lancaster fell, and it smashed into a friendly Spitfire in the air, the two vanishing in a ball of flame. The TIEs continued blasting at the Demons, although another had spiralled out of the air after being caught by a barrage of laser fire. Their leader called for another squadron from base a second before his TIE was hit by a missile from one of the newly-arrived Demons, and his engine exploded into flames, sending the TIE plummeting earth.

The AT-AT which had been stamped on toppled onto its side, crushing two soldiers, while the one remaining walker continued firing steadily at the Ray unit. The missiles tore great holes in its flank and back, and it faltered, but didn't fall yet . A couple of tanks - a Panther and a Challenger - joined in, but the Challenger was almost immediately hit by a missile from the Ray and flew into the air, one tread dangling beneath. The blazing hulk hit the ground and rolled onto its side.

The Wookiees had formed a small group and were dashing around the battlefield, taking cover behind rocks, destroyed tanks, or anything else they could find, their bowcasters drilling towards the enemy.

OOC: I still think this is struggling. Any objections if we drop it and move on to the proper war?

IC:
The combination of wookies, tanks and marines was taking its toll on the Free Eaglian infantry forces. There was a total of twelve left, four SAS troopers, seven SK-4s and a single Predator. The SAS troopers were getting pinned down by bowcaster fire, the SK-4s were holding off a group of marines with a constant barrage of laser fire. Where the last Predator was, no-one knew, but plasma fire slammed into things every so often, indicating its continued survival.

The lone surviving Demon from the first flight withdrew from the dogfight under the protection of the X-wings, which ruthlessly hounded any TIEs that tried to chase the Demon. The Demon rejoined the second flight of four, maintaining a safe distance while engaging with missiles.

The Ray unit was surviving the attack from the AT-AT, but a Challenger tank fired its cannon at one of the Ray's legs, severely damaging it. Destabilised, the Ray slowly toppled over, landing on its front and crushing the Challenger underneath its bulk. A second Challenger moved it, lined up its cannon and blasted the Ray's head apart at point blank range, killing it.

Another Rapier was blown apart by a tank shell, as the two on either side of it fired off a salvo of missiles, aimed in the general direction of the surviving AT-AT.

The two remaining Spitfires died within seconds of each other. One was shot down by an enemy Spitfire, the other collided with a Eurofighter, leaving the Eurofighter near-fatally damaged. Three Mosquitos were all killed by Eurofighter missiles, allied X-wings diving on the Eurofighters to exact revenge for their comrades.

OOC: Alright. I'm intrigued as to what it'll be like.

IC: As the Rapier missiles slammed into it, the AT-AT was almost thrown off its feet, and exploded a moment later. The battle was increasingly becoming a complete bloodbath, and, as the captain of the force narrowly avoided being flattened by a falling Eurofighter, he considered pulling back. However, a stray missile quickly changed his mind - or, more accurately, removed it - and the Kzuu Maians continued fighting desparately.

Aircraft crashed out of the skies, tanks were reduced to smoldering wrecks on the ground, and soldiers were blown apart, but still the fighting continued. Eventually, however, a group of soldiers hesitantly raised a make-shift white flag cosntructed from their shirts and stood amidst the carnage.

OOC: The way I plan to start it requires you to have developed a stealth fighter with highly advanced heat-seeking missiles (and presumably radar-guided ones as well), so you might want to think about that. It's set 4 years after the first one, with just you and me.

IC:
The remaining SAS soldiers spotted the white flag, and one of them called out over the radio net.
"Cease fire, cease fire. The enemy are surrendering."

The call took time to filter through, and units continued firing for a few seconds, the last being the crash of the single Challenger's main gun, which missed a T-34 by a few feet. They surveyed the latest damage. Two Tigers, one of them damaged, had been destroyed, as had two X-wings and two more SK-4s. A Mosquito had withdrawn with severe damage, and a Rapier had been damaged.

The Major who had conducted the initial talk had died along with his Rapier battle tank, so a Captain from the same unit gingerly opened his hatch and climbed out, jumped down to the ground and walked over to the group of enemy. The remaining infantry moved closer, their weapons held ready just in case.

OOC: I'll do some research on the net, so I know what I'm talking about, but basically I'm ready when you are.

IC: The rest of the Kzuu Maians gathered behind the flag, dropping their weapons on the ground or exiting their tanks. A soldier was hurriedly shoved to the front as the Free Eaglian captain approached.

"We surrender," she announced, simply.

OOC: Okay. I'll put a link in this thread when I start it. (Probably some point tomorrow).

IC:
"What, completely? The whole army? Or just you?" asked the Captain, surprise evident in his voice.

He had his short range comm active, so the other soldiers could hear his words. One of the other Rapier commanders sent a message back to the HQ, saying the enemy had surrendered, although they had suffered severe casualties. Further details would follow shortly.

OOC: Linkage: Rumours, Spies & A Missing Aircraft (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=413444)

Whether or not we did before, we share a land border. It's necessary and makes some moves I want to make easier.

"Well," the soldier looked embarrassed. "I obviously can't speak for the entire army...So just us. But I would like the two armies to enter proper peace talks. The elephant thing was an accident," she added. She nodded to a man standing beside her, who immediately contacted the commanders of the force.

"Oh, of course not. Do us grunts ever represent the opinion of the commanders? And you're saying this whole fight was an accident? Damn, that's a pretty big mistake," said the Captain.

In the other Rapier, the tank commander was talking to the general at HQ.
"Sir, the surrender only applies to the force here. But the ranking prisoner says that she wants proper peace talks to go ahead."

"Very well. Bring the prisoners in, and we'll see where this goes. If they go for peace talks, we'll listen," said the Helghan.

In the background, the commander heard a faint voice from one of the other generals.
"Why can't we just destroy them?"
***

The Brit glanced at the Russian again, a knowing expression on his face.
"Americans!" said the Brit quietly, shaking his head.

"Da. Always with the shooting and the blowing up. Have they learned nothing?" replied the Russian, in an equally soft voice.