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Part 4: The Invasion of Mount Melone
It's time for a full-scale assault of the mountain by the troops EllerDrachen. One ninja goes around the west side, chopping up Eric's troops like old shoes in a Ginsu commercial. Eric sends knights and archers on horseback to throw themselves into the path of Federation blaster fire. A second ninja worked around the east side of the mountain, seeking to remove a few archers from their heads.
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Eric's archers and knights quickly realized that their powerful longbows and gold longswords are no match for a hand blaster, and decided to run like hell and regroup. The EllerDrachen troops converged on the grotto where the SCA troupe hid.
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The SCA troupe quickly learned the power of a siege rifle when three of the four remaining men had their atoms intermingled with the surrounding rocks by a well-placed shot. The poor fourth trooper decided that defending the castle was becoming more effort than it was worth, dropped his bow and ran like a little girl as fast as his legs could carry him.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain, the Mech pilot finally succeeded in escaping from his prison. Seeing the pilot make a dash for cover, the driver of the APC (with a medik and a trooper in tow) took off after the pilot, intent on baking a little street pizza. Unfortunately for the Axis pilot, he learned quickly that a gyro pistol is no match for 8 tons of truck running at full speed towards you. Throwing the APC into reverse, the driver lurched backward (dropping the trooper out of the open hatch.) Unfortunately for the last SCA guy, he chose that exact moment to appear on the field and was summarily decapitated by the open hatch of the APC. And unfortunately for the APC driver, he ran backwards into the waiting legs of a mech that the Axis Astromech had been busy building.
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Back in the grotto, the opera continues to play out. The last ninja made his way to the entrance to the cave that held the crystal and discovers a little surprise. Waiting for him was a skeleton defender, bent on random chaos and havok. The ninja is punched backwards out of the cave, just in time to be blown up by friendly fire as the remaining four troopers blasted at the skeleton. Moving faster than a pile of dead bones has any reasonable right moving, the skeleton slips out of the cave and kills two of the troopers.
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Back on the battlefield, the Astromech's handiwork (made up of Dragoon legs, the steering wheel of a civilian car, and two guns from the front of the Rampage) blew off the top of the APC, killing the driver and the medik inside. The remaining trooper on the battlefield, realizing that there went his ride home, finished the Astromech in short order, finally killing the last of the Axis troops.
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The final scene of our little story played out in the grotto. Federation Corporals Sam and Max considered their options. They were woefully underpowered versus this supernatural skeleton, and had no more backup, but they had to get the crystal and complete their mission. After losing a rousing round of rock/paper/scissors, Sam decided to throw himself at the skeleton, to give Max a chance to run for the crystal. Diving at the skeleton, he grabbed on for dear life. The skeleton failed to break loose of the grip of Sam. In fact, by failing three straight Stupendous feats, the skeleton succeeded in burying itself facedown in a crevice with a very angry Sam sitting on his back. Max made a mad dash for the crystal as the skeleton worked to fight itself free. The skeleton broke free just in time to watch Max scamper off the battlefield, carrying the prized crystal in his hands.
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