Five Parsecs From Home

Jaryk was almost expecting it now. On their return to camp, once again, Petev was there waiting for them. Larger entourage this time. In addition to the bodyguards, there were a couple of normal looking people carrying tool cases.

“Jaryk, welcome back, let my engineers repair that droid for you.”

Clearly Petev’s field agent had already called in the result of the mission as there was no debrief, and the engineers were brought along specifically to repair Jim. While they worked on the stricken patrol bot, and the crew settled in to eat around the fire, Jaryk and Petev took a walk to discuss business.

Petev was delighted at the result of the mission and, as promised, handed over the credits. He also went on to explain that as far as his sources could tell him, the invasion threat had subsided for now. The elimination of the enemy cell setting back the Converted’s plans by several months. That would buy enough time for the authorities to prepare proper defences. Jaryk nodded in approval, but had more pressing concerns. “You promised me information”, Jaryk reminded Petev.

“Ah yes, of course. I am a man of my word, and you have earned it. That crate you found, out in the wastes. I ran a check on the government inventories and the results were most interesting indeed. The crate is one of a number of consignments, headed for different destinations, but originating from one source. I am not sure exactly where, and I do not yet know who, but I do know that they were all destined for various prominent but retired senior Unity military personnel. The contents of that crate were pretty high tech stuff, yes? So the rest remains a mystery, why is advanced experimental tech being sent to retired officers? I do not know, but I do also know the last known location of another crate, also lost from its convoy.”

Jaryk’s eyes widened. “Where?”

“Ah, well. This is where we need to make another deal, yes? I have given you information as promised. There is a little more, so just a little price aha.”

“And what, pray, is this LITTLE price?”

“I need you to return, and work for me again. I know you must leave for now. Outrun the authorities and hide from your father, yes? I am mindful of this. But I will contact you and I will need you to come. I promise it won’t be for at least six months, but you must come and come immediately.”

At this point, Jaryk was clear that he would not underestimate Petev. He was far too well informed, and too well connected to take lightly. Jaryk was relatively green in the world of the mercenary. He hoped that getting in with Petev was not a grave mistake. But he had no choice. He also drooled at the thought of acquiring another crate like the last one. If this kept up he could build an advanced armoury and to hell with Petev. He chose to play along, for now, until he had a more advantageous position.

The conversation continued for a while. Petev disclosed that the location of the other crate was on a planet called Nacia’s Landing which was not a very long distance away. So the destination was set, and they would leave in the morning.

[I paid the 5 credits in fuel costs to travel to a new world and rolled up the world traits. The trait rolled was “Expensive Education” which means +3 credits to enrol in advanced training. I hadn’t yet felt the need to enrol the crew in any advanced training, and it doesn’t look like it will be happening here!]

The Enlightenment set down after an uneventful two days travel. It was a desert planet with only a few settlements. Nacia’s Landing was originally just the name for the planet’s spaceport, but over time it became the moniker for the entire world. It’s original designation being far too complex a string of alphanumericals for the average person to remember. It was never intended to be a core populated world, but by all accounts it was doing fairly well for itself, particularly around the spaceport. It had a space flight academy, which was very expensive to enrol in, and therefore there was some wealth in the area and a decent trade. On the approach, however, it was clear that the desert regions were an unrelenting hellscape. Petev’s coordinates showed the potential location of the missing consignment to be a few miles outside of the spaceport, but it was not possible to land anywhere other the port itself. To attempt otherwise would have been too risky.

[The new world routines were performed as per the rulebook. The “Starship Travel Event” was uneventful and resulted in +1XP for Jaryk. No rivals followed the crew from the previous world, but the patrol bots, while exploring, did immediately aggravate a local Brat Gang, creating a new rival. Jase and Leela went out to look for a Patron to see if they could find work, but no luck. Noone was hiring – so we will immediately continue with the quest and look for that crate. The pre-battle routines resulted in an “Acquire” mission, with the enemies being Sand Runners (see previous post).]

The crew travelled overnight as usual, ready to make their approach to the target site at first light. Once again, the main threat appeared to be the local wildlife. In this case the residents of choice appeared to be starving, emaciated wolf like creatures who, in the absence of any meaningful prey, were whiling away the hours fighting and taking lumps out of each other. They looked well past their physical peaks, but highly dangerous.

[The location of the objective crate was the centre of the board as usual. There was also a “notable interest” of “shiny bits” worth 1 extra credit, placed 2D6+2″ randomly from the centre. Right in the Sand Runners deployment area! There was no way I would outrun these foe to the objective so the plan was a more cautious approach this time to try to get as many shots off before the inevitable melee. With only Toughness 3, and only 4 enemy, this has the potential to be a bit too easy, so I painted up an extra 2 enemy to balance things up if needed – two more Sand Runners in reserve! Their fang attacks look deadly though, so if the shooting isn’t accurate this could still end badly. Seize the Initiative failed, so no getting the jump on the enemy]

The crew crept into range and then opened fire. It couldn’t have gotten off to a better start – Jeff aimed and fired his heavy arc rifle, killing a Sand Runner before it had the chance to react. Bloodlust got the better of K’Vani this time, and she immediately charged in the direction of the enemy Alpha, which was equally keen to make a beeline for her. It would take a few moments for them to come together, but in the meantime her path was blocking any chance the others had of loosing a shot in the Alpha’s direction. K’Vani would have to take her chances. Jase waited for the nearest Runner to come towards him before moving into shotgun range and downing the beast with a well-aimed blast. Jaryk and Leela, in cover, waited for the battle to develop. Going for the objective at this stage would have been suicide.

K’Vani closed in on her prey, firing a wild shot from her handgun, but without any real conviction. It was melee she wanted. The beast pounced and they collided in a fierce exchange of blade and claws. K’Vani saw her change and plunged her blade at the chest of the Alpha. But disaster! The blade broke at the hilt! Without missing a beat, the Alpha pounced and knocked K’Vani to the floor.

[This was incredibly unfortunate for K’Vani! She had the advantage in this attack. The blade gives +2 to the combat roll and K’Erin can roll two dice and choose the highest. However, K’Vani rolled snake eyes! Two ones! The Alpha rolled a 6! This meant three hits on K’Vani – one for winning the roll off, one for the Alpha’s natural 6, and one for K’Vani’s natural 1. It couldn’t have been any worse! Only one of the three hits wounded, but that was enough to put K’Vani down. In the post battle sequence, K’Vani would escape lasting injury but would suffer one random broken item. Of course it was the blade! Hence the broken blade narrative as part of this encounter. This game really writes itself!]

The crew were stunned as they watched K’Vani fall. Her blade broken, and bleeding, she tried to roll away from her assailant. Jase was the first to react, and levelled his shotgun at the Alpha before it could rip K’Vani in two. His aim was true and he destroyed the beast. K’Vani would live but she would take no further part in this battle. Jeff aimed and fired the heavy arc rifle and once again downed a beast. The last one…or was it?

Jaryk and Leela hopped over the wall they were hiding behind and made for the crate, thinking the danger had passed. Not so. With the Alpha’s dying cry, two more Sand Runners appeared from inside the buildings. [Those two extra models came in handy! Despite K’Vani’s at this point unknown fate, the battle overall had been quite easy, so a final challenge for the crew!]. Jaryk hadn’t noticed the beast that had appeared behind him. Thankfully Leela was alert to the danger, wheeled around Jaryk’s position and fired at the beast. It went down. The other beast lurched into a full run, leapt over a wall and barrelled into Jase. He was caught off guard, but again Leela to the rescue – she brought her blade round in an arc and plunged it into the monster. Together they brought it down.

With more caution this time, the crew made their way to the crate and the secondary objective and carefully removed them from the area.

…..

Back at camp, Jaryk prised open the crate, eager to see what high tech gadgetry lay in wait this time. Much to his dismay, all he could see was two broken weapons. A blast pistol and a glare sword. The sword looked as though it was a decent weapon in its time, but the blast pistol was junk. There was however something else in the crate, under the broken weapon parts, a personal trinket of some kind. It looked remarkably similar to an item they picked up on New Pallas and was currently stored in the ship’s hold. That was two. Two was a pattern. And so the plot thickened…

[The personal trinket was all the work of the random dice rolls. Two on two planets. That has to be part of the story now!]