Clash in the Canyon
The Map: Bone Canyon
The Players:
Bob_The_Newt: Terran at 5:00
SnowSquall: Terran at 2:00
Prologue:
Bob_The_Newt, was the commanding officer at the command center in Bone Canyon. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the sun was reflecting off the white gravel at the bottom of the canyon. The gravel looked a lot like crushed bones when the sun shone this way, thus the name Bone Canyon.
However, Bob could see none of this. His office was down in the basement of the command center to protect him from the attack of any hostile forces. Not that there will ever be any battles fought here he thought grumpily. Ever since that damned Temple with its "secret powers" had been discovered over in the next system, everyone in this part of space had focused their attentions over there leaving him with nothing but this cursed paperwork...
**Meanwhile, across the canyon...
Commander Snowsquall's Command Center floated down into position next to the local mineral/gas mine that he had chosen for his operation. You see, he had a devious plan. While the Terran confederacy concentrated on its struggle to hold on to "The Planet of the Temple" as it was now being called, he would secretly set up a stronghold on this planet. The only thing that stood in his way was a small Confederacy base on the other side of the canyon. He was tired of the Confederacy's incompetent leadership and soon, he would be in a position to do something about it.
He cackled softly to himself and pushed the button on his intercom, "Lieutenant Joseph, deploy the SCVs for mineral gathering."
**Meanwhile, down on the canyon floor...
Private Jamison was catching some sun on the rocks of the canyon floor. He loved sunny days like this when he could work on his tan. He had his eyes closed when suddenly, a large shadow blocked out the sun. In irritation, he sat up and opened his eyes. What he saw amazed him. A large red command center was setting down right next to the minerals on the canyon's edge. This wasn't right. As he watched, a group of civilians armed with weapons jumped out and began working on securing the command center, setting up the comm links and other important duties.
Suddenly, one of the civilians spotted him. The civilian gestured to one of his companions. They ran over to the edge of the canyon weapons pointed at him.
He took off running across the canyon floor back to his own command center. The sounds of gunfire echoed behind him and he heard a dull thud. He looked down and saw blood coming out of a hole in his stomach. That half a mile back to the command center was a struggle, but Jamison made it.
The shocked civilian controlling the gate ran out to meet him and it was a good thing too because Jamison couldn't walk another step. He collapsed to the ground.
"Private, what happened?" the civilian asked in horror.
"A command center, on the other side of the canyon," he replied softly, and then his heart beat for the last time.
Preparing for Battle:
After hearing of the atrocity committed by the unknown Terran antagonist, Commander Bob quickly deployed his 4 SCVs to mineral gathering and started  production on a 5th one. As more SCVs were produced and resources started rolling in, Commander Bob ordered that construction of buildings commence. A depot next to his mineral patch was followed shortly by another depot and a barrack at his choke to block easy access. He also starts a refinery for gas production. In order to confuse his antagonist, he sent out a broadcast on all bands:
Commander Snowsquall quickly orders 2 barracks to be constructed along with supply depots to support  the newly trained troops. For the first couple of minutes he produces marines. He stationed a total of 11 at the top of his choke while constructing a refinery and an Academy in his base. He also sends out an SCV to find the exact location of the enemy. He finds the choke of the enemy at the first place he looks, however, the base was already blocked off by Commander Bob's barricade.
Commander Bob jumps straight for air, not even bothering to put a machine shop on his Factory. He quickly throws up two Starports and begins producing wraiths. He has not sent out any scouts so he still hasn't even found the location of Commander Snowsquall's base.
Commander Snowsquall, builds a factory with a machine shop and an engineering bay in his base. Once the engineering bay is complete, he begins constructing turrets around his base until the turrets in his base total 4. He also puts a bunker by his mineral line. His next move is to build a bunker and a turret down in the valley where the closest mineral expnasion is located. With that area secured, he begins the construction of a second command center.
The Conflict Begins:
With his first wraith, Commander Bob begins the scouting process. He sends the wraith west to the left bottom corner of the map, then he sends it north to the top left corner. Finally, just as he was beginning to think that this was all just a false alarm, Commander Bob's wraith sent this transmission:
I am heading east ... flying over the canyon now. There's something on the horizon, Holy sh** look at this. **Loud explosion** Damn, I'm hit, reversing-- **Loud explosion** **scream** --end transmission
Commander Bob, now knowing the location of his enemy, sends out another couple of wraiths to nose around. None of them meet the catastrophe that the original wraith met and they are able to locate Commander Snowsquall's second base which is now guarded by a bunker and 2 turrets.
Commander Snowsquall, feeling that his base is now secure from any incursions, begins 2 starports of his own. To compliment the 12 marines, he has also trained 4 medics. He decides that now is the time to strike and sends them down the ramp and into the canyon. They form up into single file formation and begin their mad rush to Commander Bob's fortress. About halfway to their destination, the infantry falls under fire. It is coming from 3 cloaked wraiths who have spotted them while patrolling the canyon. The infantry attempts to  ignore the wraiths' lasers and continues their mad single file rush towards Bob's base. Marines and medics begin to fall. They reach the end of the canyon with 6 marines and 1 medic left alive. They run into a force of 4 marines who are standing guard at the construction of a new command center at the resource node at the bottom of the ramp to Commander Bob's base. With the marines in front and the wraiths behind, Commander Snowsquall's infantry force is destroyed.
With the destruction of this infantry force, Commander Bob feels that it is safe to start another expansion. He sends an SCV over to the 8:00 starting position and begins the construction of a command center there.
Commander Snowsquall's expansion is running strong now and he's building wraiths out of 2 starports. He begins constructing 2 more Starports at his expansion to bring his total to 4. Commander Bob, not to be outdone, begins the construction of 2 more starports of his own.
With the construction of his third expansion well underway, Commander Bob feels like now would be a good time to strike out. His only unit of attack is wraiths and he sends them north to where he knows Commander Snowsquall has set up camp. For some unknown reason, the attack goes awry. As his wraiths cross the canyon, missle turrets lock on and Commander Snowsquall's  newly constructed compliment of 5 cloaked wraiths fly out to engage. Commander Bob's wraiths start falling out of the sky. He scans the cloaked wraiths but they fly back behind the turrets to safety. When the scan from the Comsat wears off, they return. Commander Bob still hasn't cloaked his wraiths. When the dust settles, Commander Bob has 2 wraiths left. After the battle, Commander Bob addressed his staff saying:
Commander Bob immediately begins to work on replacing his lost airforce while also constructing 2 armories for air upgrades. He then sends an SCV down the ramp of the expansion that he built at 8:00 and begins yet another command center at the natural expansion there.
Commander Snowsquall has also been constructing wraiths. He builds an armory and once the armory is built, he constructs a valkerie. He has also been building ground troops and a drop ship. His Comsat station finally locates Commander Bob's naked expansion at the 8:00 position.
With an escort of 1 valkerie  and 6 wraiths, the dropship heads southwest towards 8:00. But Commander Bob hasn't left his expansion completely open for attack. He has his wraiths patrolling the middle of the map and they spot Commander Snowsquall's convoy en route. Commander Snowsquall's wraiths cloak and turn around to engage the threat. The cloak is negated by a quick scan from Commander Bob's Comsat. The battle ends quickly leaving Commander Bob with 5 wraiths and Commander Snowsquall with none. Commander Snowsquall still has the valkerie and  the dropship en route and Commander Bob's wraiths quickly give chase. The valk is destroyed when the wraiths cloak and then the wraiths chase the dropship. The wraiths catch up with the dropship just as the dropship begins unloading its troops. 6 of the eight troops make it out of the dropship, however, the 5 cloaked wraiths are able to destroy the infantry units before they are able to do any significant damage.
 Its at this point that Commander Snowsquall decides that its time to expand his base again. He sends an SCV over to the 11:00 position and puts that SCV to work building a turret. The turret completes and Commander Snowsquall sends 4 wraiths to cover the budding expansion. Commander Bob's patrolling wraiths spot the budding expansion and move in for the kill. Commander Bob's 10 wraiths are able to destroy the expansion attempt with only 4 losses.
Intermission:
Inside Commander Snowsqualls command center...
"Men, the battle does not go well. The Confederacy controls the entire south half of the map, two foolhardy attacks have cost us valuable resources, and our attempts to expand our zone of control have failed miserably. If we don't take action soon, the battle will be lost."
The advisors sitting around the briefing table stare down at their hands, their morale is low. Then, a skinny man with ruffled hair and thick glasses timidly raises his hand. When Commander Bob recognizes him he begins to speak in a high squeaky voice:
"Sir, our tactical displays from our recent scan of the Confederacy's bases show no sign of Missle turrets to protect from cloaking devices. If we strike quickly, we may be able to cripple the resource income of the enemy and buy ourselves some time to improve our economy and create more expansions."
Commander Snowsquall stared hard at the little advisor. "Its a good plan," he said, "if we win this battle, you will be rewarded." He turned his attention to the rest of the group, "I want all wraiths and valkeries at our disposal to head south."
Commander Bob now has 4 starports at his main base with a control tower attached to each one. He has built a science facility with the Physics lab add-on. 3 of the 4 starport's production lights begin to blink signalling the beginning of Battlecruisers. However, Commander Bob has only 12 wraiths, no turrets, and limitted infantry guarding his 4 bases that are spread all the way along the bottom of the map. The 12 wraiths are patrolling the space between his and Commander Snowsquall's bases. When Commander Snowsquall's force of 8 wraiths and 2 valkeries head south, the wraiths are cloaked. They run directly into Commander Bob's wraiths. Before Commander Bob has a chance to scan, 7 of his wraiths have fallen from the sky. The rest are disposed of in short order by Commander Snowsquall's now superior numbers.
 Once Commander Bob's air force has been decimated, Commander Snowsquall immediately presses his advantage by flying his wraiths, now down to 6, straight to Commander Bob's natural expansion. SCVs begin exploding left and right. They begin to run away, but there is nowhere for them to go for cover. Commander Bob has just now begun construction on his engineering bay.
Just before Commander Snowsquall's strike south, Commander Bob had just completed his fifth command center. His plans for that command center was to float it over the canyon wall and into the mineral only expansion on the other side. The cloaked wraiths give up the chase of the SCVs and begin firing on the floating command center. The command center goes into the yellow before it is able to land. Once the Commander Center is on the ground, the wraiths head back over to Commander Bob's natural expansion and begin working on that command center with the 2 valkeries still sitting nearby for support.
Suddenly, a shadow looms over the horizon. Its three big, bad Battlecruisers!!
The wraiths and the valkeries engage the cruisers and when the dust settles, 1 battlecruiser in the red is watching 2 wraiths retreat back to the north.
Feeling like he has bought himself some time. Commander Snowsquall decides that its time to attempt another expansion. He drops 5 SCVs off on one of 4 expansions that have no access by land. He quickly throws up 4 turrets and starts a command center.
Meanwhile, with the wraiths off his defenseless back, Commander Bob is able to resume his battlecruiser production. All 4 starports have there production lights blinking now.
He sends 4 cruisers along with a group of 6 SCVs to the valley below Commander Snowsquall's main base. All 6 SCVs begin constructing turrets.
 Feeling like something is amiss, Commander Snowsquall sends 8 cloaked wraiths down to investigate. The wraiths see the cruisers and start firing. However, a quick comstat forces the wraiths to retreat before any serious damage can be done. The wraiths come around for another pass and this time, one of the battlecruisers falls out of the sky. Unfortunately for Commander Snowsquall, the destroyed cruiser is replaced by 4 more arriving on the scene and the completion of the turrets ends any hopes of another wraith hit and run.
With the turrets for cover, the SCVs for repair and the upgrades reaching 3 armor, 3 firepower, Commander Bob's
7 battlecruisers are pretty much invincible to anything that Commander Snowsquall can throw at him.
Commander Bob decides that he has enough cruisers now and begins producing marines. He has obviously decided that no one will ever take control of the Bone Canyon from him. He begins a slow push with his cruisers across the top of the map. A desperate Snowsquall continues expanding west and building starports. However, his wraiths keep running into the same problem... Battlecruisers. When the dust finally settles, Commander Bob's cruisers have had to fly all the way to the west side of the map to finish the job. All the marines that have been trained are left to play cards and flirt with medics... Oh yeah, and pose for one final group shot.
Epilogue:
Commander Bob_The_Newt earned no recognition for his mighty victory against the rebel Terrans. All of the command leaders were too busy trying to conquer the Lost Temple. Commander Bob spent the rest of his days filling out paperwork in the basement of his command Center.
Commander Snowsquall put on his cloak suit and ran across the open area to the last remaining starport. The battlecruisers were looming closer and the command center that he had been in only moments before exploded with a roar sending debris flying in all directions. He saw the wraith pilot powering up his engines. It was the last wraith that would be flying out of the starport. Commander Snowsquall ran faster. He had almost reached the wraith when the pilot activated the cloaking device. In dismay, Commander Snowsquall watched as the slight distortion in the air flew off to the west leaving him standing in the middle of the field.
Suddenly, a warning beep sounded in his ears. In horror he looked down at his cloaking device, it was out of power. The battlecruisers were very close now. He felt the cloak disappear from around him. A loud static noise filled the air and Commander Snowsquall looked directly up at the battlecruiser who was charging up his yamato cannon. The orange ball of flame threw him back fifty feet before completely vaporizing him. His last thought was, "I shoulda worn clean underwear today."
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to the two players, Bob_The_Newt and Snowsquall for providing this game for the viewing pleasure of our watching audience. Also, thanks to the players for allowing me to choose the arena for this epic match.
Thanks to xNailx, fellow observer, for allowing my command center to hump his command center during the game. Umm, xNailx, Your command center called me this morning, she's late.
As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.
Regards,
Drefsab
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