5 Parsecs from Home - Turn 9: The Moon of Tarnicus

 Tarnicus - a giant ball of frozen methane, uninhabitable, lucrative. Tarnicus has a single, small moon dotted with various megacorp complexes set up in order to maximise access to the resources on the primary planet. The crew of The Pelican have landed here to lay low for a little while. While in port they heard about another crew who were trying to steal some sensitive information from Centcon Energies to sell to the highest bidder. They decided to try and get in before the other crew and make some quick cash.

The grav train stopped at the warehouse. It was not an official stop but a few credits into the driver's palm convinced him make an extra stop.

The scavenger crew approached the warehouse in two groups, cautious in case there were any security around. 

The four members of The Pelican crew who were not in medbay hopped off the train and took up positions. Lars was ready to cover the rest of them from behind while Brenko, Holmes and Mao would attempt to beat the others to the warehouse and get the files.

The scavengers must have been quite good at what they did, they were all armed with pretty high tech, long range weaponry, energy weapons included. They had some seriously military grade equipment. Long range pot shots were taken while Aralay Brenko attempted to hook around behind the warehouse.

After some back and forth Lars struck home. The leader of the scavenger crew fell to a well placed shot to the abdomen. 

Unfortunately one of the scavenger groups hooked around and opened up on Augustus Holmes who took a few hits and went down. He would be out of action trying to dress his wounds. 

Brenko opened up with her hand cannon, missing wildly, but the scav also missed. 

Seizing initiative Brenko charged at a scav and sliced through her. At the same time Lars took out the enemy sniper. 

Things were looking great...until they weren't. A scav opened up with his infantry laser. At close range it was devastating, Brenko's flak vest somehow managing to disrupt the worst of the energy. She was still going to be needing a stay in medbay though. Mao also took some shots, knocking him down and putting some serious damage on him. He would need emergency surgery but would pull through.

Alone and outgunned, about to be surrounded, Lars decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Parlaying with the other scavengers he was able to hotwire a van, load the rest of the team in and rush them back to The Pelican but not before picking up one of the lasers from a dead scavenger.

I had never lost a battle. It was a strange feeling. Then I realised I had been playing it wrong! I had not been adding the combat score to the attack rolls. This meant there was a lot of back and forth, ineffective shooting where people were unable to roll a hit. I also forgot that Mao had a luck point - meaning he shouldn't have been a casualty. 

Due to this I downgraded Mao's stay in medbay to just one turn. They would return to fight another day.

The rules also say you can't take weapons from dead enemies, but I happened to roll an infantry laser on the loot chart so made it fit into the narrative. Of all the rules I got wrong, this is not one of them.