A Gateway Too Far?

Rules set: Dirtside II, slightly modified

Miniatures: Anglican Forces, Mikos' Marauders, The Spaceork Waagh!

The second opening of the Parallax Gateway went much more smoothly than the first. Well, almost anything would have been "more smoothly" than releasing a horde of giant insect aliens that killed the research staff and flung bio-agents everywhere. But the project had consumed far too many resources to be simply dropped. And the remarkable success of actually contacting another universe whose physical laws are compatible with our own was a lure humankind could not but follow.

After careful probing, researchers settled on a terrestrial mass-center in a different part of the same galaxy to which they had previously linked. There were difficulties with the mass-sensing equipment, attributed later to a quasi-extra-spatial phenomenon that showed up as nonstandard mass distribution. (See the GateWay Universe briefing for scientific details.) A micro-sized hole was first used and, when nothing challenged the initial probes, it was expanded to allow human and vehicular traffic.

This second planet, unlike the first, was quiet. The gateway emerged near the ruins of buildings that looked as though constructed by humans or similar creatures and bore writing in a language remarkably like old Latin. This excited the Quantum Universe theorists - parallel history was a staple of that theory. If it proved correct the exploration possibilities could be endless.

Researchers selected a complex of ruined buildings as base-camp and set to work on every sort of data collection possible. Owing to prior experience, Anglican military units were brought through for security along with a private merc team. And it's a good thing they were …

Part of the Anglican forces stand at the ready among the research station's buildings. You can see American artillery and VTOL cavalry, along with a supply unit. A platoon of Aussie engineers sit to the left, taking a well-deserved break after the cumbersome task of getting the buildings safety-cleared. The front-line units are out on close-area recon; some recent spurts of unidentified radio-band emissions have gotten the team a bit nervous.
It seems whatever ruined those buildings had never left! They tried to hide their advance behind terrain, but it's hard to conceal vehicles that big. And that garishly painted! Haven't these - guys? things? - ever heard of camouflage?
They came in a horde, chubby green humanoids with pointed teeth, riding a clown's toybox of bizarre vehicles. There was no attempt to negotiate, no warning. Just a pre-emptive attack. Anglican command could see they were outnumbered and actually considered a withdrawal through the gateway - but the greenies were coming too fast. If they had been willing to negotiate - or even been a little more circumspect! - they might have driven us off. As it was, our only course was to stand and fight.
This was the advance group. Driving fast, light vehicles they tried to come up an old sunken roadbed out of sight of our guns.
Fortunately Mikos' Marauders - the merc unit - had brought through a couple of strike VTOLs. At the signal they came swooping in and ran the entire length of the roadbed, scattering Multiple Armor Killers among the vehicles. They left the roadway choked with wreckage.
This huge thing came lumbering out at the head of a loose mass of armored vehicles. It's as big as a building! And that paint job probably glows in the dark. There was an MBT platoon in position to call in artillery - probably one of the easiest calls they've ever made. The target had a sort of energy shield that absorbed a few salvoes of fire, but pretty soon those 450mm shells were scoring direct hits on the hull. It was wrecked and smoking before it could bring any weapons to bear.
The stand of trees you see provided perfect cover for a platoon of Schwartzkopf grav tanks and a pair of Tlingit gunships. The Tlingits are converted cargo craft and not very nimble, but the greenskins still seemed to have a hard time hitting them. The Schwartzkopfs ducked in and out of the woods, taking shots on the fly and vanishing into cover before many enemies could return fire. The enemy tanks seemed to have little or no gun stabilization - they needed to roll to a complete stop before they could hit anything.
A lucky hit took out one of Mikos' tanks, but that was the only loss. Quick as they had come the remains of the attacking force turned tail and ran. Field HQ has requisitioned some recon drones so they can keep an eye out for a more coordinated assault. But the likelihood of any serious threat is minimal.

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