Freshly arrived on the planet Adion, Randis wasted little time setting his crew about their various tasks. Randis and Zav headed off to trade, Kultak and Oracle did a little exploring, and Vargoth and Aris... well, they managed to stir things up to keep any of their "friends" off their collective tail.
Randis managed to trade for an old military fuel cell, while Zav stayed with the fundamentals and rustled up some grub for the crew. Meanwhile, Kultak meet an alien merchant and Oracle stumbled across a "retired" Unity arms merchant. Credits are tight though, so both decided to pass on making any purchases.
Meeting up back at the Avadora, they found a message from Kultak's patron, Vertex. One of his agents needs to be escorted to a data terminal in a questionable part of the city. To make matters worse, a group of alien thugs from the a local trade union are making trouble there. The information is time sensitive though, so Randis and the crew geared up and headed off for the meet up.
For this game, I grabbed the small 2' x 2' board that I'd boshed together for Deadzone and set up some of the Kaldstrom terrain to make a small urban center. The thugs in this case are technically punks from the criminal element list. Given my minis, reskinning them as unruly alien trouble makers just made more sense. Some day I'll have a bunch of punk minis... but not today.
Next was the agent from Vertex. Since its a data drop, I grabbed an old Rogue Trader era scientist mini that I had. He has some kind of headset/implant thing so he just screamed at me when my eyes landed on him.
The last mini in the bunch was from the notable sights table, which I had skipped over when I first rolled up the mission. In this case, I rolled up a "person of interest" and thankfully I have a mini that can fill the bill for this as well.
With the minis picked out, there was only one thing left to do... play the game!
As they moved into the sector, Oracle was able to interface with the local network and tap into the surveillance systems. Having pin pointed the rabble rousers location, the crew quickly advanced towards their target.
The first step is rolling to seize the initiative, which Oracle was able to do quite handily! Aris and Vargoth head to the left, while Zav uses his jump belt to go to the high ground! The rest of the crew went to the right so they could get the data terminal in sight.
Round 1...
Hearing the cries of the thugs in the distance, the crew decided to hold position so they could respond to their opponents first move.
That's right; it wasn't bad dice, it was a personal choice to go last! And if you believe that... The thugs spread out into three groups. One of the specialists headed to the left with two thugs, the leader went for high ground with the other specialist, and the remaining thugs cautiously moved to the right. No shots were fired, but the one of the thugs was able to get line of sight to Kultak!
Kultak called out "Contact!" and sprinted across the narrow road to cover as the rest of the crew sprang into action.
While Kultak ran over to get back out of sight, Randis moved to a covered position while Oracle headed up to get to the high ground. Meanwhile, Vargoth moved up to the cover of the building to keep an eye on the thugs, Aris sprinted across to make his way up the ladder to the landing platform, and Zav jumped again, ready to make contact with the person of interest they had heard about.
Round 2...
The dice were more favorable this round as the crew rolled three 1's! I quickly assigned these and the crew sprang into action. Randis set himself up for snap fire in case anyone got within range while Oracle scrambled up to the roof and got ready to start sniping. Aris climbed onto the landing platform and rounded the air car, only to see the thug armed with a hunting rifle in the distance.
The hunter thug fires at Aris but the shot goes wide. The other hunter heads up the stairs, prompting a snap shot from Randis which fails to connect. Unfortunately for Randis, the hunter isn't rattled at all as it draws a bead and takes him out of action... or would have if I hadn't remembered about story points! One point spent, and Randis was able to dodge back just in time. The remaining thugs charge forward to close the gap.
Zav talks to the mysterious stranger... while shots are being fired... the way ya do, right? And Vargoth crosses over the road in the hopes of setting up a shot at some point. Curse the short range of scrap pistols!
Kultak peers around his cover but the thugs are still too far away, while the agent runs over to the same cover in the hopes of getting to the terminal quickly.
Round 3...
Aris and Oracle both get the drop on the thugs and choose the perfect target... the enemy leader. The shot from Aris connects but only stuns the leader and Oracle... he shots the side of the building.
In response, Aris becomes the thugs number on priority! Shots rain down on him from the leader, both of the hunters, and three of the thugs but nothing connects. The rest of the thugs charge towards him... and then the shotgun blasts happened.
As the mysterious stranger leaves, Zav steps around the air car and fires on two of the thugs, killing both of them. Randis and Kultak try to lend their own support but unfortunately their shots go wide. Panic starts to run through the thugs and the leader and one of the hunters quickly exit stage right.
Round 4...
This time Vargoth feels his feral instincts burble up and he charges forward towards the thugs, but is still to far away to fire on them.
The closest thug to Aris charges him, beating him back but not taking Aris out of action. The remaining hunter attempts a shot and the other two thugs run up to the bottom of the landing pad.
Regaining his wits, Aris levels his colony rifle at the thug that attacked him and gunned him down. Zav runs over to the edge of the landing pad and lets loose two shots, taking out the two thugs at ground level. The rest of the crew move up towards the center while the remaining hunter decides that he needs to make better life choices and gets out of dodge. The agent retrieves the data, and the crew fades back into the shadows.
Post Battle Activities...
The crew escorted the agent back to Vertex with the data safe and sound. Thankfully there was enough confusion the that labor union don't know who broke up their demonstration so the crew won't have to worry about any future retribution (aka they didn't become yet another rival). Vertex was generous with his appreciation as always, paying the crew handsomely for their help (5cr payment, taking them up to 13cr in the bank). He had also been doing some digging and was able to get Randis more information about the Neknima sect that should help them track down the holy site referenced on their map. Vertex also told them that he was already lining up another task for them and that he would be in touch soon.
Once the crew left, Zav told Randis about his encounter with the mysterious stranger and the information that they provided (plus one story point to take them back to four, and an additional rumor to take them up to two rumors for the Neknima quest). Aris also revealed that he was able to "secure" some essential spare parts when the thugs withdrew (2cr worth of starship parts for future upgrades to the Avadora), while Vargoth found a damaged assault blade and bipod as they were leaving which were added to ship stores. The battle looked sketchy at times, but overall the crew came out wiser for the experience (plus three XP each, except for Zav who earns four). What will the future hold for the Avadora? We will find out soon. Until next time...
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