The Peek-a-Boom Read on, for the spirit of Genesis can be said to stalk the land, and the Covenant are their vessel.

Prologue

The war between the Wolf alliance and the Covenant alliance had driven the Wolfs from their home. They had sought refuge with the alliance of the Immortals. The Wolfs had previously assisted the Immortals when they were under attack, and now it was time to return the favour. The Wolfs however were in no mood to leave the protective territory on the Immortals. Having an entire alliance in your back yard, while it is under attack from another alliance was an intolerable situation for the Immortals. That and political tensions between Covenant and the Immortals forced the Immortals to expel the Wolf from their territory.

Our story starts with the following situation:

The Wolf cunningly did not leave the Immortals territory by gate, rather they settled between the Immortals and the Odium Triad. Covenant was covering most of the Sphere with scouts waiting for the Wolf to gate out. So for the moment the Wolf had the upper hand, and was pushing Covenant back. Eventually it became clear that the Wolf were no longer trying to gate out, and in fact seemed to have found a nice little space between two impenetrable territories and the edge of the world. This is when the idea of trying a sneak attack started to stir. It had been considered in the past but no avenues of approach had been available. At this time still no openings were available, but the council decided that is was about time to create some. So the harassment of the Wolfs’ neighbours started, by incessantly dropping scouts in both territories. The planning of the attack started, and Covenant continued to fall back in order to lengthen the Wolf supply lines and draw their forces away from home.

Planning the impossible

The planning of a sneak attack through impenetrable terrain may seem folly, but lady luck seems to smile at those that create their own luck. It wasn’t long before Covenant learned that the Wolfs western neighbours, the OT, might be joining a larger campaign to the north. And the gamble paid off, the halls of the OT were seen leaving the OT territory and gating north. The OT clearly had enough on their hands to bother with a few Covenant units inside their territory.

A small Borg scout landed in the southern OT territory, it took up position near the Wolf border and waited to die. Half a turney went by without the scout even saw another titan. The plans for the sneak attack were put into motion. The plan in its simplicity was to put a lot of pressure on the front, drawing the enemy’s resources where you want them to go. While putting a lot of fighters right next to the enemy’s halls, well, close enough to still remain undetected. So Covenant regrouped, stopping the Wolf advance and started to push back.

D-Day

The following is the situation the day before the sneak attack:

Large scouts were gated in near the two eastern gates, with orders to move onto the gates. Should they succeed in getting to the gates it would force the Wolf to either destroy their only escape route, or allow Covenant to see where to they jumped. To the dismay of Covenant only the northern scout made it. It was allowed to sit there for a few days, until it and the gate were killed. In the mean time intelligence reports from the southern gate called for a change in tactics.

The Wolfs had all gathered at the southern gate waiting to jump out. However they had nowhere to go. Covenant controlled the territory to the north and west. To the east Motley and Immortals were fighting. With eight movement points, the prospected drop zones were limited. The only other gate in the area, to the northwest, was under control by a single Borg unit that kept shelling the drop point adjacent to the gate.

A new direction

A discussion between Biscuit and Borg caused Borg to pull out the plans for a daring manoeuvre: the Peek-a-Boom. Inspiration came from Mapmakers missile titans and is very simple build, long range, high movement, and unshielded titans to penetrate the enemy defences and if at all possible cripple them.

Originally only three Missiles were created, with a range of nine hexes and twenty movement points, they could be launched from behind the front and still reach the hall area. They were put as close as possible to the front, while still being undetected. But no, they were a single hex short. Though only one enemy unit could see the hex in front, should they be seen the element of surprise would be lost. Time was urgent, could the enemy see the units from another vantage point? Would they find a place to jump to? Daring seemed to have worked before, so it was decided to try it once more.

Units from three clans Biscuit, Kimbrion, and Borg all fired upon the offending enemy unit, while the three missiles moved the one hex forward.

Yes! No cover fire. No enemy fighters with sufficient scan range to see the units trying to approach undetected.

Launch!

The preparation time meant that the original three were joined by yet another missile. And the stage was set. The orders were given. The pilots flicked the switch and pressed the big red button.

The plan worked! Only the fourth missile was hit by cover fire and had its movement truncated. The rest went through undetected, undamaged, and within range. Oh, what a beautiful sight.

Six halls, five in flight mode, but only four of them belonging to the enemy. Fate had played a cruel trick on the Immortals, though Covenant had no interest in the Immortals halls, this was clearly the wrong place to be. FIST moved off, Kindred elected to stay, this would later prove to be an unfortunate decision.

The blood bath ensued. All the missiles were killed several times over. Though not without making fourteen direct hits to Shannaras hall, killing the gate underneath it. Neos hall was also hit. New laws of physics however saved it from more damage, the hall reconfigured and the newly configured shields were automatically powered up. The fourth missile, not within range of any hall, settled for destroying a HAN fast-breeding strain, damaging a Hermit fast-breeder, and crippling a Hermit artillery. On the same day the northwestern gate was destroyed by the Borg unit, just before the area fell into the hands of the Wolfs.

Now no gates existed in the area, the Wolfs were trapped. Yet they had apparently learned a lesson. Previously the Wolf had not bothered with cover fire, now they did. This did not deter Covenant, in its celebratory state several members talked about doing it again. However the time was not right. The Wolfs would not fall for the same trick twice in a row, that quickly.

Then again!?

Not a week went by, before a new gate appeared. Intelligence reports indicated that the Wolfs were moving towards this gate. Two new Borg missiles were created and put into a northern position. Cover fire reports collected by Kimbrion indicated that a mountain approach would be most likely to work. This information was relayed to the Borg pilots, who once again charged ahead.

And wouldn’t you know it, the Wolfs hadn’t leant that lesson.

This time Hermit was on the receiving end. And yet again no gates were available to the Wolfs.

The Wolfs would not let this happen a third time, several rows of cover fire were laid down every turn on the entire front. A turney went by and the gates reappeared, but this time on the Covenant side of the front.

The Peek-a-Boom had a dual effect, trapping the enemy and terrorizing them into wasting huge amount of fire defending against three or four meager units. The result was that the main force were able to advance relatively problem free.

Epilogue

The campaign had lasted almost a year, unfortunate military actions and political acts had only to strengthen Covenants determination to seek the utter destruction of the Wolfs. But it would seem that the Wolfs had also become pray for Gryphon, who had joined the carnage. Imminent destruction seemed assured; it is believed that this was the reason for the Wolfs declaration of war upon Kindred. Kindred had not moved his hall away from the action in time, and now it was trapped surrounded by hordes of desperate Wolf units. It did not stand a chance, not even a time warp caused by Serva had any impact. Kindred turned around and started to slaughter Wolf units in droves.

As of this writing all halls of the Wolfs are confirmed dead, through cannibalism, lack of funding, or direct suicide. The remaining units are nowhere to be found, whether they have entered stasis or have left the Sphere entirely is unknown.

How we love the manouvres of alliances and armies. The planning, the use of terrain, truly the Covenant should be feared.... or hunted?