“Where the hell are you Malcolm!?” Dask hissed into his comm as he crept closer to the perimeter of the Follower’s compound while Midori, Whilem, and Shoutheri following close behind.
“Our diversion has drawn too much attention, Estra and I have almost evaded the enforcers,” Malcolm’s voice crackled over the comm.
Dask growled then gestured his team forward.
“Okay, we can’t wait for you. We’ve got the local muscle closing in fast. We have to go loud now. Join us as soon as you can, my scans have detected that they’ve brought a heavy hitter.”
“Okay everyone, move up!” Dask commanded.
Dask and Shoutheri went left while Midori and Whilem smashed the windows of a nearby control shed and mantled into the building.
“Shoutheri, go left and get your gun up!” Dask called out.
“Got it!” Shoutheri replied, then dashed across the open ground and threw himself into cover next to a power unit. He propped his laser on the low cover and aimed it at the incoming mob of smugglers. Leading them was a chromed up homunculus with a heavy calibre burst gun at the ready.
“Dask, eyes on the primary tango. He’s coming in fast!” Shouteri bellowed.
Shoutheri aimed at the chromed up merc and blazed away, catching him across the chestplate with a few shots. The merc growled and dashed into cover, while his auto-repair systems kicked into action.
While Shoutheri laid down fire Dask ducked over to a datapad and package sitting by the landed shuttle.
“Paydata!” Dask hissed in delight and scooped up the valuable package.
On the other side of the shuttle, Whilem and Midori burst from the control shed and dove into cover by a grav-truck.
“I’ll get set up here!” Whilem bellowed as he braved his auto-rifle on the truck’s thruster pod and aimed it downrange.
The chromed up merc charged right into view as Whilem ready his weapon.
Midori went right and brought her laser up just as Whilem sent a volley of fire at the oncoming merc. While the merc staggered from the incoming fire Midori went right and lined up a single, precise, shot with her laser. The beam clipped the merc square in the head, and he went down in a heap.
On the other side of the shuttle, the smugglers pushed hard on Shoutheri, blazing away with their weapons as they came on. Shoutheri returned fire in panic, but a volley of buckshot slammed into his upper torso. He gurgled as he tried to breath, then went down.
The smugglers exalted at this success, then charged forward.
“Dask, this is Malcolm. Estra and I are on site.”
“About time, We’re about to be overrun! Get in the fight!” Dask replied, just as a volley of gunfire smashed into the forklift that he was using for cover, and a few shots hit him. He collapsed mid sentence and fell silent.
Malcolm and Estra dashed forward and took cover by a speeder car as the smugglers advanced forward, right into a crossfire. Whilem swung his auto rifle around and fired at the smugglers. Estra racked her shotgun and fired volley after volley of buckshot into the smugglers while Malcolm strode forward with his gun pod arm raised and spat fire at the mob. A few of them went down immediately under the withering weight of fire.
The sole surviving smuggler of the group broke and fled, all the while Whilem strode forward with his gun arm raised and cut down the fleeing smuggler without remorse.
On the far side of the field the last couple of smugglers advanced on Whilem and Midori.
Midori and Whilem cut them down and pushed forward.
“We’re clear! Dask are you up?” Midori called.
Aftermath
Dask lay in the sickbay, a sheet of mediplas wrapped around his torso which mostly kept his insides on his inside. He rolled his head to the left and gazed at Shoutheri’s body as it lay on the sickbay’s operating table. Shoutheri’s eyes were still open, staring up at nothing. Midori had done an admirable job of cleaning up the worst of the blood, but there was little that could be done to disguise the damage the buckshot had done to his throat.
Post Battle Injuries
Shoutheri - Dead
Dask - Serious Injury - 4 Turns
“Fuck,” Dask cursed at himself, then rolled his head to the other side and stared away, he blinked away a few tears.
First P’Hol, now Shoutheri, not to mention the throbbing pain in his guts where the sickbay’s autodoc had to cut out the bullet fragments and had done a passable job of stitching him back together. They had won, the smugglers were dead or driven off, the pay had come down as promised and the money was good, but it was money drenched in blood, both his and Shoutheri’s.
Midori walked into the medbay with a body bag.
“Hey, Dask. Are you awake?” Midori called out.
“Yeah,” Dask replied.
“Shoutheri has no end-of-life instructions. So I’m going to have him cremated. We’ll scatter his ashes in orbit next time we break atmo. I don’t know if he has any family or friends, I don’t know what to do about his personal effects, or his accounts.”
Dask sighted and stared at the ceiling.
“We’ll take a vote to split it amongst the crew, or figure out something else…” Midori said.
“Yeah, sounds good,” Dask replied again.
“I’d ask how you are feeling, but I was in your position a month ago. So, I think I have a pretty good idea about that already.”
“More pain than I’ve ever felt in my life,” Dask murmured.
“Listen, today wasn’t your fault, we just got unlucky. Malcolm and Estra being delayed and all…” Midori said.
“I know, we had a plan that was as good as it could get. Yet when it happened two of us got delayed and the smugglers had a merc. We weren’t prepared.” Dask interrupted then sighed in frustration.
“If it makes it any better, that datapad you swiped came up good. There was some decent paydata on it. Something that Singh was willing to take off our hands for a decent price. And Whilem managed to find some decent weapons amongst the smugglers' stash.”
Curious Item - Salvage worth 1 credit
Battlefield Finds - Usable Goods - Hand Laser, Infantry Laser
“Listen, have you got a moment?” Dask asked.
“Sure,” Midori said as she walked over to Dask and sat down on the chair by his bead.
“If I buy it, you should become captain, hell. I should turn that role over to you right now.”
Midori blinked with surprise at this.
“I’m serious, Midori. You’re born to this life, you know what you are doing. I’m just a two bit hacker that couldn’t cut it in the core, so now I’m out here on the frontier playing as captain. You are the real deal.” Dask said, then blinked away a couple of tears.
“Dask, I’m flattered but I think that may be the trauma and the drugs talking.
“Maybe, but it’s true and you know it. I’m out here because my father told me… he told me after I caused some bad times with a long standing family ally, that I would spend at least a year out here on my own before I was allowed to set foot on my family’s estate again. After that I am to come crawling back and beg forgiveness for my fuckup… you see Midori, that’s what I am, a fuckup that is good at pretending I’m not.”
Midori reached out and gave Dask’s hand a gentle squeeze.
“Whatever else you may be, Dask. I don’t think you’re a fuckup. But I’m just a hayseed frontierswoman, what do I know compared to an uppity Core Worlds magnate, am I right?”
Dask looked Midori in the eye for a moment, unsure of what she meant.
“What I’m trying to say is that when I first met you, I didn’t like you much. You Core Worlders come out here to the frontier and think they know all the answers and talk down to the likes of us who were born to this life. But you proved to me that you were the exception. You’ve kept an open mind, listened to me, and respected me and the crew. Acknowledged that maybe you are the one that has things to learn out here… You started strong and have grown into this life so fast and so quickly. Give yourself some credit, man. You’re doing all right.” Midori said.
Dask considered this for a moment, then sighed and dried his tears.
“Thank you, Midori. I don’t think I’d want to continue this without you. I think this ship and crew would fall apart without you.” Dask said as he gave her hand a slight squeeze.
“It’s a team effort, Dask, and we work well together.” Midori said, then got up.
“I have to make arrangements for Shoutheri, but we’ll talk later, yeah?”
Dask nodded.
“Yeah, I’d like that a lot.”
Crew Event - Heart to Heart (Dask & Midori)
Later that evening Dask awoke to Midori shaking him awake.
“Huh? What’s up?” Dask murmured as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“Don’t worry, space cowboy. We’ve got something planned for this evening and I thought I’d wheel you into the crew lounge so you could join in.
“Oh, sure,” Dask said, then let Midori help him into the ship’s one wheelchair.
As Midori wheeled him into the lounge he spotted Whilem, Malcolm, and Estra lounging on the couch across from the main screen passing a bowl of fried doughballs between each other.
“What’s going on?” Dask asked.
“Movie night, captain. Turns out Malcolm has been using his old converter chrome to store a vast library of classic movies.
Malcolm waved at Dask and indicated to a data port in his neck where he had jacked directly into the lounge’s viewscreen.
“I’m ready to begin,” Malcolm said.
“All right, I like this, what’s on?” Dask asked.
Campaign Event - Watching Movies and Playing Cards
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