Hawaii:Sessions:19910427: The Ambush
THE AMBUSH
Brandon and Gerret were up at sunrise and ready to go, but the team had misunderstood, so they did not get out of there until around 8:30 am or so. When they left, they fell into the usual order except this time Brandon was leading the way. They rode southwest for several hours until Brandon came to a stop at the foot of a small hill. He said that the enemy was on the other side of the hill. Thurladeem and Hyllar went up and confirmed that this was so. There were vehicles with a tank among them. The team then dispersed to set up an ambush, using the little pass between the two ridge lines which the vehicles would have to pass through.
Jake took up a position on the hilltop toward the north; this would become the trap's back door. Hyllar took up a position on his horse so he could swing around and come up behind them on the other side. Brodie took up a position south of Jake from which to charge over and down. Laura had dismounted and taken up a position on the top of the hill in the middle. Thomas Black had moved out ahead of them toward the same place Laura was heading. Brandon and Gerret approached a place south of Laura. The rest went to close off the pass through the hills. Durithil and Darr were on the east side of the pass at the top of the hill. Thurladeem waited to move into the pass to put 'Mystic Mist' up to block it. Ariel was still with Darr, and Xumbala was heading to the west side of the pass. Before everyone had had a chance to get set, Thomas Black turned invisible, stood up at the top of the hill, and looked down at the column slowly passing below.
What he saw was a flame-thrower tank in the lead, followed by a domed vehicle pulling a cart full of equipment. Behind it were five people in chains being pulled along. This was followed by another tank vehicle without its turret; the turret was on the trailer that the tank was pulling. All around the tanks marched a motley crew of lightly-armed men. Seven men in small wheeled vehicles served as outriders for the group. Then two of the chained people stumbled and fell and were run over. Black, seeing this, lost it, and said over the net that he was going in. Five people yelled over the net for him not to do it. He went anyway. The team had to spring the trap early. Jake and Darr fired and the others began their charge.
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Darr's shot killed the outrider closest to Durithil and him. Jake's shot took a bounce off the dome. Black killed the side rear outrider at the bottom of the hill. Ariel and Xumbala began a charge down the left side of the column. Thurladeem put up a 'Mystic Mist' in the east side of the pass. Brandon, Gerret, Brodie, and Hyllar also began their charge. Darr took a shot at the dome and heard it bounce off. Jake them picked off some foot soldiers. Laura began using her pistols to pick some off also. Durathil got one with her crossbow. The tank turned and began moving up the hill toward her and Darr. He tried to put some shots into the tank's vision slots but missed. Black moved into the middle of the column and hopped on the back of the cart behind the dome. He did this just after Darr put some shots into the cart. Black called them off and Darr went for other targets. But Jake told him to concentrate on the equipment.
Brandon and Gerret engaged the middle outrider and several of the ragged men. Brodie went toward the prisoners. Hyllar fired as he charged their rear, but first his .38 and then his dart gun jammed. So he drew his force whip and closed on the force dome, after severely wounding the left rear outrider. Laura meanwhile hit an interior outrider several times. Xumbala closed with and killed another on the left side, while Darr picked off another.
Meanwhile, the tank closed on and just missed Durathil with a flame jet. Thurladeem closed with the tank and leaped onto it. Durithil stood up and walked into the tank's next flame blast and seemed unaffected by it. She scrambled onto the tank from the front. While Thurladeem tried to put a dart into the vision slots, Durithil attacked the tank's barrel with her force sword, beginning to damage it. Just as she sliced through the barrel, Thurladeem put the gun into the slot and pulled.
Meanwhile, Black remained on the cart even though something tried to force him to jump off. He tried several things, including using his force shield to cut the cables. He wasn't successful. Two bursts from Jake had missed him, but one bullet from Jake's last burst caught Black in the back. He fell, still invisible, onto the cart.
Laura was picking off enemies below and missed seeing the three coming up the hill at her until they were almost upon her. She yelled for help. Darr, who had just finished a burst at a group, moving his fire from left to right, heard her and put three shots into the one nearest to him. Jake heard and took the one nearest him. Darr was also able to put a slug into the last one just before he reached Laura. The guy was probably already dead when Laura put the last shot into him.
At that moment the tank missed toasting Darr by inches. He tucked and rolled down the hill behind him to the right. Only seconds later Durithil finished cutting through the barrel.
Hyllar had reached the tank and was pounding on it with his force whip. Brandon soon joined him in that effort. The rear outrider began to flee north. Hyllar hit him, as did Jake with an M-16 round, but he kept going. So Ariel took off in pursuit. She caught him just as the main fight ended and finished him off. Brodie had unhooked the prisoners and, with Xumbala's help, moved them to safety to the left of the fight. The force dome finally cracked, and when Hyllar finished off its inhabitant, all of the remaining enemies dropped. The battle was over. Black was found and treated by the healer mages. Durathil and Thurladeem left the tank upon hearing someone inside say "It's gonna blow!" It did, but everyone was out of range by then. Darr and Jake began examining the equipment. A freshly-healed Black got into one of the vehicles and began moving. Unfortunately he was so tired that the effort caused him to pass out. Laura and Durithil went to get and bring the horses to this side of the hill.
Xumbala began bringing a kid and two adults to the group. Ariel re-perched on Darr's left shoulder. Jake began talking to the kid. He found out that the kid's name was Toby, his village had been taken two weeks ago, and they'd been digging. The two adults, a man and a woman, appeared to be out of it. Ariel diagnosed it as mental shock. Durithil came up and did something which snapped them out of it. The woman ran to hug her son by the man Leaf, who had been the village headman. Leaf began to answer questions. It seems that they were about one hour or so from the excavation site (tank travel speed), and that over a hundred villagers were still alive there. Since nothing seemed to be pulling Brandon, he agreed to go to the village.