Aurigan Reach Mission: Mess with the Bull....

**Big Sky Mining Facility, Northern Polar Region, Ahlat**

**Aurigan Reach, Rimward Periphery**

**7 April, 3151**

"Sir, we have a situation...."

Col. Warren "Longcoat" Dalton set his coffee mug down on the map table and nodded to the young officer approaching him . "Alright, let's hear it."

The young officer nodded back and approached. The Colonel wasn't big on formality, so Subaltern Parker didn't bother to salute. The twenty-fiver years old had only served with the former Federated Suns soldier for a few months, but he understood that the man had little use for things that got in the way of the job. Things like snapping to attention and saluting were "little things" he didn't have time for.

Parker grabbed the coffee pot on his way and refilled the senior officer's mug before summoning the nerve to give him the report. Parker damn well knew that if you were going to give him bad news, you better give him something to soften the blow, and Colonel Dalton loved his coffee.

Col. Dalton looked up at Subaltern Parker, raising an eyebrow. "Aww hell, it must be bad." his gaze falling back to his now full mug of Regulan Black Parker took in a deep breath before speaking "Well sir, we cleared out the pirates in the southern pole, and the black market at the equator has been secured..."

"Bless your heart, Parker, just spit it out, I ain't gettin' any younger." Dalton said before taking a sip of his coffee.

"It's the Taurians, sir. They started firing as soon as they saw our delegates approaching."

The Colonel took a drink from his coffee, his eyes staring at the map of the planet's northern pole. Parker paused waiting for the Colonel to say something.

"...and?" Dalton said gruffly, eyes never leaving the map. His free hand moved to the controls on the table to enlarge and enhance the images of the area as he brought the mug up to his lips again.

"3 injured, 5 dead. Including the diplomat that had contacted them earlier and arranged to meet with the Outpost Executive."

The Colonel emptied his coffee mug in one pull, Parker could see his grip tighten on it until the his knuckles had turned white. Without warning the mug slammed down on the map table, cracking the glass. The entire crew jumped in surprise as a long pause filled the room. It felt like forever before Dalton finally growled in a low tone filled with frustration.

"Those damn cowboys had no intention of negotiating with us. They don't think we're serious."

Exsperated Datlon grumbled as he moved to one of the comm-stations and motioned for the crewman's headset. "Make sure we're on a secure channel." he turned back to Subaltern Parker pointing "They're the ones that agreed to the damned meeting! They want play wild west? Fine." The senior officer put the headset on turning back to the comm station angrily. "Fine. I'm you're huckleberry, you sonsofbitches."

As soon as the crewman confirmed, the old man spoke into the headset. "Rampart One to any available lance. I have a job for you."

After a few minutes the static cleared and a voice came over the channel "Rampart One, this is Rampart Alpha....what do you need?"

"Rampart Alpha, If you got the time I got some bulls up north that need to turned into steers, you boys think you can handle that?"

There was a long pause.

He smirked to himself as he knew they were trying to figure out what the old man meant. Parker shot him a look not sure if he understood the request either. Dalton, just smiled more. Having grown up on an agricultural world, he was the son of a rancher. His family dealt with herds of cattle, 300 to 400 head. It's how he learned to handle a mech, running a Cattlemaster for the family before joining the AFFS.

Eventually, he'd end up fighting the Taurians on more than one occasion and took great pleasure in referring to them using ranching terms. He knew that right now, the pilots in Rampart Alpha were probably looking up what he said trying to figure out what he wanted. In this case, he wanted someone to go remove the Taurians will/ability to fight, i.e. castrate them.

"Roger sir. We can do that. You want us to brand them too, boss?"

He chuckled at the reply. "No, just round them up and put them in their place. We'll send you the info you need shortly. Boys...we're about to mess with some bulls."

## Game Set Up

These missions are intended for play groups to use to help get new players familiar with the rules while letting experienced players take them on with "one arm tied behind their back" so to speak. Veteran players will note that as the defender, they will often have the advantage in numbers, but that the attackers have that better equipment. The primary focus for veteran players should be to help the new players learn, so don't make winning the only thing that matters and give them lots of do overs. The Taurian forces are not the best and are rent-a-cops for a reason.

### Deployment

The Taurian Mining Company forces are spread out over three locations. To give play groups flexibility to set up in whatever fashion that best fits their play style and group, no maps are included other than the one above and some basic setup descriptions in the links for each individual location below. The Northern Polar region of Ahlat is mostly barren rock with little to no vegetation. There are a few gravel roads laid out between the Landing Pad and the Mine. The Mine itself is a large strip mine with a few building around the edge and some make shift ones below for storage. In the pit there are large piles of ore waited to be scooped up and transported to the dropship waiting at the Landing Pad.

### Defender

Intelligence confirms that the Taurian Mining Co. has their forces split into three groups. Not thinking that the Aurigan force is any real threat and that the pirates will be more than they can handle, they are operating business as usual and do not expect an attack. There are three objectives for Rampart Alpha to achieve:

- Seize Big Sky Mining Outpost

- Destroy incoming supply convoy escorts

- Destroy Taurian Mercenaries at LZ

### Attacker

For these scenarios, the players are the attacker. They will represent the mercenaries under the employ of the Aurigan Reach Republic. For the operation on Ahlat, they are operating as Rampart Alpha, part of a company of mixed mercenaries. These missions are intended to be run as three separate fights happening simultaneously, with Rampart Alpha splitting it's forces to prevent any of the Taurians from linking up and causing the most chaos.

Ideally this is the beginning of a campaign, so if your players want to choose the mechs for this mission, then they have 7500 BV to pick from no restrictions other than what your group places. If the players are having a hard time making a decision, Rampart Alpha is made up of the following:

Summoner (Alt Config M) - Ryan Sorenson *Gunnery 3 Piloting 3*

Black Knight BL-X-KNT - "Sir" Isabela Madsen *Gunnery 3 Piloting 3*

Shadow Hawk SHD-2Ht - Deven Galea *Gunnery 4 Piloting 4*

Valkyrie VLK-QT2 - Abby Walker *Gunnery 4 Piloting 3*

### Special Rules

For the Taurian Mining Company forces, Forced Withdrawal rules are in place. They talk a big game but at the end of the day, they're not paid enough to get themselves killed for the company and will either flee the battlefield or if that isn't possible, eject/shut down/surrender.

The Taurians have no way of communicating with each other due to some interference from Aurigan forces. In all of these missions, the Defender will place first to reflect this handicap.