S29 The Battle of Nobfork

Newland, Tarsus/District 268/Spinward Marches, 207/1106

Even as the party were reassuring Hagman that they would help him, his hand computer chirped and he took the call. His face fell. “The attack has started!” he blurted. 

Nobfork Ranch, Tarsus/District 268/Spinward Marches, 207/1106

Two hours later, the pink G-Carrier swooped in towards the embattled ranch. High above, the Long Walk lurked in a geostationary orbit feeding sensor data. 
Rick and Loz not present, hence they get to play High Guard. Once Hagman was delivered to the ranch, the players got take command of the defending forces and run the battle. This was a lot of fun, though I’d been a bit nervous my lashed-together battle rules wouldn’t work.
Note I took no notes during this session, as it was complicated and at least one player doesn’t like wargaming - though enjoyed this which was more like skirmish. Foot in the door and all that!
The Battle of Nobfork - click it for larger image!
A klick out, it dipped below the tanglewald canopy long enough to drop off Wombat, Feng and four Shadowcats before hurtling across to the main ranch. They were just in time. An Wilder force, bolstered by hired mercenaries, had been sneaked close to the ranch hidden in stolen grav harvesters. Now they were assaulting the compound from all sides. By the look of it, the rebels had pulled out all the stops with Hagman’s farm, recognizing him as a leader among the ranchers.
Command Car
Groups of wilder fighters, armed and armoured in a mix of plundered equipment, jogged towards the 10m wall. Two better-equipped and organized looking mercenary units were with them; three wheeled APCs looked to be carrying more men. A softskinned command car lurked at the edge of the trees. Lastly, two light ACV tanks were prowling ready to pick off targets. One of the refrigeration stores and the power plant were already burning.

Inside the compound, Hagman had evidently played a bit more on his contacts, because three Dargaaza walkers jutted up above the lower buildings, ready to fight. Two one-man crop sprayers had been tricked out with machineguns for recon operations. Several platoons of irregular nobboys - both from Nobfork and displaced from other destroyed ranches - had been equipped with gauss rifles and reasonable armour. Not enough against tanks though.

As Nevada swooped down into the compound, he snapped off two shots at the northern end of the battle, taking one of the APCs out of action. Some soldiers scrambled out and scattered to cover.  He touched down briefly to allow Hagman to bail out and take command inside the ranch, then lifted and fired again.
Dargaaza Walker
Meanwhile, Wombat and Feng were plying the shoulder launcher they’d brought to good effect, dropping AP missiles into infantry and wiping out another APC with an anti-armour round. A screen of shadowcats protected them, though it wasn’t needed as the enemy never worked out precisely where they were. Once vehicles were accounted for, Wombat switched to his sniper rifle and began removing officers while Feng headed towards the compound, sniping as she went, the shadowcats running silently ahead.

The wall was breached in three places, and Wilder rebels started to charge in. While individual heavy gauss cannon rounds from the Dargaazas made an awful mess of one man, it was concerted rifle fire by the defenders, sensibly directed into buildings for cover by Steve and Pete, that mowed them down. Seeing the enemy reaction, though, it dawned on the crew that the morale effect of a giant, man-like war machine tearing through men, machines and buildings was not to be underestimated. Where the brain insisted tanks were better, there was something deep in the racial memory of a human that shrank in terror from the Giant with a Big Club. 

Searching for a good description of HGC fire, the best I could do was “It’s about that big, and steel, so basically he’s been hit by a hypersonic ferrous metal dildo.” I think it got the idea across.
Armed Skimmer
The two skimmers proved terribly vulnerable and the tanks took both out very early on with their autocannon. Nevada’s fire stripped the missile rack off one tank, preventing it breaching the wall and making it veer off to where the infantry’s breach was. 

Both tanks were destroyed, one erupting into a bloom of exploded fuel, the other grounded with a crewmember surviving. Fire had been concentrated on the mercenary infantry and finally the last three broke for the woods, yelling “Repatriation!” though no-one could hear them. Nevada went across with the G-Carrier and captured them personally - they wanted to ask a few questions.

After that, mopping up the irregular wilder troops was comparatively easy. The survivors surrendered, though four suffered unfortunate and inexplicable deaths before Feng remembered to cancel the Kill order she’d given the cats.

Along the way, their group had decided on its’ name; Cats with Guns.

With the clearing up under way, and some reward from the grateful Hagman banked, interrogation of the surviving mercenaries began. Under the Imperial Rules of War, surrendered mercs were to be treated well; these, however, seemed prepared to discuss things like their unit names and where they’d been hired. Most of it was a matter of record in any case. 
Who the hell is this man?!
The infantry were from Talisman Interplanetary, based on Collace; the tanks were from the IPSN Armour Group, based on Trexalon. Clearly, someone wanted the war either won by the rebels, or to drag on as long as possible. One other detail emerged. Each unit had been hired by a man called Tony Maccaro. He was described as being average height, bald head, green eyes, bad skin, confident, plenty of money. The crew of the Long Walk exchanged glances; this description was getting very familiar. The man behind the Bluey operation. The man who’d had Feaysen kidnapped and tried to blow them up. All under different names, but the description was good enough. 

It looked like they’d made a hell of an enemy somewhere.....

This is the end of Season 1 of Tales of the Collace Main. There will be a second campaign, because we all enjoyed it, but I could do with a rest and to play again before writing some more of this. 
Session Date: Oct 17, 2023