Five Parsecs from Home Turn 4: The Dead Drop

 After the run in with the well armed strike team, the crew of The Pelican decided to take on one of their job offers. They needed a big payday, in order to upgrade the ship and get off of Launia. An attack by some kind of properly trained, properly armed team? That didn't feel very welcoming.

The Dockworkers' Guild. An organisation designed to protect the rights of the dockworkers. It had been around for as long as Launia had been a major hub for spacecraft refitting. Occasionally, however, they got involved in...less than legal enterprises and it is at this point that our crew came along. Technology advances, ships fly across space, but somethings never change. The dead-drop. The Dockworkers' Guild needed a package left in a dead drop. It would be picked up by someone. The crew of The Pelican were the people who had been hired to do this dead drop. 

Unfortunately for our crew, another team of scavengers had become aware of this dead drop spot, and were looking to also get paid. 

Out, a few klicks outside of Launia City there led a carcass of an ancient mech. Likely alien in origin, it hailed from a long-forgotten war. This wreckage was the dead drop. It also possibly had an item of interest to the Scrapper's Guild, which would result in some bonus pay.

Brenko and Phillips took the initiative and advanced. Here they all are, looking ahead to the ancient mech. Brenko was holding the package that needed to be delivered.

The other scavengers spread themselves out and advanced slowly, trying to keep in cover where possible. The large, hulking wreckage provided a lot of cover anyway, but they wanted to be sure.

These guys are cautious. They will hug cover as much as possible and stay at the edge of their weapon range. Three of them have Colony Rifles (18), one has a machine pistol (8) and a hand flamer (12). I forgot about the hand flamer and chose a miniature who does not look like he has one.

The rest of the team advanced. They decided it was best to just rush over to the mech and hope for the best. Mao and Holmes decided to flank around the edge. Mao would protect Holmes as he took pot-shots at any scavengers who came into range.

Phillips and Brenko made it to the wreckage. Phillips nestled herself in some cover, where she could protect Brenko, while she dropped the package. 

Taking the initiative, Brenko and Lars Nicolau got into position. 

Brenko moved into the wreckage and dropped the package. Mission accomplished. There are so many holes and places to make a drop anyone else would be hard pressed to find it. She also picked up the item of interest for the Scapper's Guild.

From now on my opponents would need to roll 2D6. Score a 1 on either? They give up and leave. Of course, I forgot this at first.

Lars opened fire on one of the scavs, killing her instantly. The human body seems to have an aversion to being caught in the open by a machine gun...

A couple of the other scavs crept around the wreck and one managed to fire at Nicolau, hitting him. Panting, worried he would be out of action again, Nicolau used his stims, numbing the wound and giving him a shot of energy that kept him going!

I was annoyed until I remembered he had a stim. Basically you take the stim and stay where you are, stunned rather than being knocked out.

At the same time, the scav leader advanced and hosed Phillips down with flames! A little singed, she managed to escape the flames and fell back a little, tucking herself deeper into the wreckage.

She actually was killed, but used her luck point to escape death. She was lucky that her random movement put her further into cover.

One of the scavs panicked and ran off! If any of them ended up surviving, then words would be being had. 

One death meant 1D6. Panic value of 1-3 and I rolled 3, so one of them panicked and ran. It has to be the nearest to the edge, and cannot be a leader or unique individual.

One of the scavs had another shot at Nicolau, who took the hit and went down imagining himself to be a bullet magnet, wishing his stim had been of better use.

Brenko made a retaliatory shot at the scav and managed to send him sprawling, blood soaking the wreckage.

It was nice that Brenko has a pistol better than a scrap pistol now.

The scav leader and their hired killer shuffled their way back, to hide behind some trees. They could both cover each other while planning their next moves. 

Mao and Holmes open fire on the hired killer, but all it does is harmlessly kick up dust plumes. The killer doesn't even flinch.

With Phillips and Mao closing in the scavs decided they had had enough. It wasn't going to be worth it so they skulked away, covering each other as they went. Back at their ship they decided to watch out for this other scav crew. They would be coming back for more.

Lars Nicolau picked himself up, realising his wounds were not serious at all - they were nothing a couple of hours with a med-gel patch wouldn't fix. Picking through the dead, the crew were able to salvage a colony rifle

After heading back into town, Phillips went off to get paid by the Scapper's Guild, while the rest met with the Dockworkers' Guild. With the danger pay, and everything else, along with selling some water from their purifier, they have walked away from this job with 11₹. This would be enough to pay for some sort of upgrade or to pay off the entire ship debt.

While getting paid, Oslan Baratski bumped into an old arms dealer contact and called in a favour that resulted in the acquisition of some small arms. 

One more mission. Pay off the ship and upgrade it. Surely this could be done with just one more mission. Discussions were going to have to be had among the crew to decide about how long to stay. 

This game lasted all of 25 minutes. It was quick. Writing this up and doing the campaigny parts has taken me longer. It is a tough call. They might upgrade the ship and fly off. They have a persistent patron who will be following them to another planet. Maybe it is worth just leaving.