Battle for Earth

After Nick's Imperium forces attacked and captured the Alliance base he interrogated the prisoners to find out more about this strange new planet that was so rich in resources.  It turns out the Alliance is fleeing from another faction they simply call the "Galactic Empire".  They've told us of a vast Empire, well equipped and adept in the ways of war.  Constantly expanding and conquering new planets and galaxies.  The Alliance is on this planet looking for a suitable base but they still do not know too much about it.  They've described the native inhabitants as humanoid, not unlike themselves, but very primitive in technology and weaponry.  The Alliance officer leads Nicks patrols to a small native settlement that they have already explored.

A small suburban town that is about to find out that there is other life in the universe!

It looks like someone has beaten Nick's troopers to this town.  The Patrol leader has taken control of the town and is questioning a native official.  He is told that they call this planet 'Earth' and themselves humans.

But something very strange is going on here!  In addition to the native populace, there are some sort of mutated humanoids with no vital life signs that attack anything that moves and breathes.  They never stop, you simply have to blow them away.  The native official says that they started to appear shortly after the alien (Alliance) visitors appeared.  He thinks there may be some connection.  Maybe a virus brought with the Alliance troops has mutated when in contact with the humans.

All over town the troopers are trying to eliminate the undead threat.  Humans are even joining in.

Many of the humans are calling them 'Zombies' and the troopers adopt the term as well.  It is really difficult to maintain order with those annoying Zombies on the loose.

Troopers escorting unarmed humans through the streets and eliminating more Zeds.

The Galactic Empire Captain has ordered that everyone should meet in the town center for a briefing.  He needs to inform them of their new status as a colony of the Empire and what their obligations are.

The troopers continue to herd the humans and fight off the Zeds.

It is not long before Nick's strike force comes on the scene and he meets with the Empire Captain at the town center.  Curious humans look on in disbelief at these new aliens who are even more intimidating tham the Empire troopers if that is even possible.

AJ's tactical squad enters from another street.

The two officers of the respective Empires talk for a few moments and inform each other that this planet is their property now.  It is not long before the inevitable clash.  The Empire officer gets off the first shots but it bounces harmlessly off Nick's superb power armor!  A moment later the officer lays dead, sliced in half by Nick's chain sword.  I guess the pow wow is over!

All hell breaks loose!  Imperium vs Empire vs Zombies!  The humans are just thinking about the quickest way out of here.

The Imperial troopers are caught at somewhat of a disadvantage because they were already involved in fights with the Zeds when the shooting started.  Plus their officer is dead.

They are killing a lot of Zeds but they start to notice that the more they shoot, the more Zeds they see.  It begins to dawn on them that they are attracting the blasted things!

Plus now they have these strange new troopers at their backs!  This is a very bad situation for the Imperial troopers.

Nick's voice crackles through their com-links:  "Kill anything that moves!"  Now AJ's squad goes into action!

The Imperial troopers recover from the initial surprise and open up on the Marines with their blasters.

With all this shooting they are alerting Zeds from miles around!

With all this chaos, it is likely that there will be a real mess around here shortly!

There is no such thing as a secure flank at this party!

That Priest with the cross really would do better to start looking for a gun!

The three way battle keeps raging and the Imperial troopers even manage to stun Nick and one of his Terminators but they can't finish them off.  The armor is simply too tough.

The native humans have had enough!  They are running for their lives.

Troopers on both sides ignore the humans as they run off, they have much bigger issues right now.

Slowly but sure the Imperial troopers start to lose their fight against the heavily armored Space Marines.  Nick's strike squads start to concentrate and prepare a better position.

These Imperial troopers that are still left are in real trouble.  Marines in front, Zeds behind.

The Marines regroup while the humans flee for their lives.

Nick and a Terminator are still stunned out in the open.  (Nick keeps pulling the markers off too soon, the cheeky little weasel)  While locked in melee with the Imperials, neither side notices a huge hole open in the ground and hell comes through it!  It is a horde of Xenos!

You know how people like to say "It can't get worse"?  Well that is BS, it can ALWAYS get worse!

While the Imperials are busy with the Marines, some Zeds attack them from the rear!

The next street over, Zeds are attacking Marines and humans both.  And they've just noticed the Xenos.  Complete pandemonium is about to strike!

The remaining Imperials have had enough; they make a break for it!  Now to get through the Zeds.
Nick and a Terminator are left stunned in the intersection.

And the Zeds are closing in fast.  AJ better come back and help them fast.

Many of the humans are escaping into the woods.

And here come the Xenos.  That poor Terminator is getting swarmed badly.

Even the Marines have had enough.  Carrying their wounded they start to evacuate.  A couple of Tactical troopers carry the stunned Nick with them.  The stunned Terminator is left behind.

Some of the Xenos have caught up with the fleeing Imperials.  They are having a very bad day.  I wouldn't want to be the one to explain this to Lord Vader.

The Xenos are fully on the rampage now, savaging anything that gets in their way.  The only good news is that they have drastically reduced the Zombie population on Main street.

Hurry Marines, RUN!  Their right on your heels.  Miraculously the stranded Terminator is still alive.  His armor has been saving his arse but this cannot last forever.

Only one Imperial left and he's running like hell.

He makes it!  Boy is he going to have some stories to tell his grand children.

The Marines look like they are going to escape.  More good news, the stranded Terminator recovered from being stunned and managed to jet pack his way out of the mob.

Xenos vs Zeds:  Not much of a contest.

Xenos are relentless like Zeds but they are a lot more dangerous.

The funny part is that this whole thing started as an argument over who controlled this planet; The Imperium or the Galactic Empire.  Maybe the Xenos have some ideas of their own?

Nick wanted another episode in his planet explorations series.  Well, he got it.  This behemoth game actually only took us about 2.5 hours.  Keep in mind though that we are very serious Chain Reaction fanatics and know the system well enough to play while sleeping.  Even so, the last 15 minutes or so I could tell that the boys were getting fatigued fast.  I wouldn't recommend anyone try a game with this many figures unless you really, really, REALLY know the game system well! 

A side note.  We had the question come up while playing whether Xenos would attack Zeds or not.  Our Xenos are heavily patterned after the Aliens from movie fame and they seem to only care about reproduction.  What do you guys think?  Would the Xenos attack or ignore the Zeds?  For today, I asked LTL Mom and she decided they would attack first and sort things out later so we went with that.

P.S.  Just wait until Vader hears about this!