Five Parsecs from Home: Turn 23 - Get off Deon B!

 EARL had contacted a local trawler captain who was offering to get the settlers offworld. She arrived in good time at the excuse for a landing port on this sector of Deon B. The plan was to fly off together and reach the Moon of Biitas 12, location of a pretty well established, almost official, transit hub. The hope was to aqcuire a freighter and fly off to the fringe in the hope of another chance at a new life. A dust storm was beginning to whip up, reducing visibility quite considerably.

Thanks and goodbyes were underway. It was emotional.

A shot rang out, a settler crumpled. Nova Cartel wasn't done yet! With visibility so low, they had to be almost on top of the escapees!

Baratski fired into the dust at some vague figures. Brenko charged off firing her shotgun. One cartel member was killed and another was sent scurrying under a hail of buckshot. 

Furious laser and plasma fire burnt the ground, put holes in Brenko's coat, and set the scrub ablaze. Brenko was desperately hugging the ground!

Mao had been keeping watch and shot off some accurate needle fire at the attackers, killing one and making the others think twice. One of them did not look like a cartel member! Who was this?

Using her arm implants Phillips lobbed a grenade. The explosion sent parts of one cartel member flying while the other had to duck and hide.

Augustus Holmes flanked around the building and finished the final member of this group off. 

Ulrich Nolan and Phillips started firing on the other squad, pinning one of them down.

Mao jumped out of cover and shot one of the cartel members down, then redirected his fire to the strange other figure.

A cartel member, even though pinned down, managed to fire off some accurate plasma blasts, knocking Ulrich down in a cloud of  burnt-flesh-smelling vapour. That was going to hurt!

Mao startedtaking fire so had to duck back behind the cargo. That cartel member used that opportunity, Mao having his head down, to scarper. He had had enough.

Phillips then started taking accurate machine pistol fire and had to duck. There was just one person left to fight.

In response Holmes snuck around the corner to open fire on the final remaining figure, pinning him.

Mao then charged out and opened fire, killing the remaining enemy. Upon further investigation this person was probably just a gun for hire, looking for a pay day. I guess it didn't pay that well then. Ulrich Nolan was carted back to the Pelican. He was going to have to spend a while in medbay, and even then he might not fully recover. It was going to be touch and go. Those plasma weapons are pretty rough on the human body. 

It was time to launch and get away from Nova Cartel. Life was too short to stay on this rock, and Tonia Wildner and co. would have had to spend the rest of their lives escaping capture. Time to settle elsewhere. Luckily nutripods can be grown in most climates, and there are many, many planets similar to Deon B out on the edge of known space. 

Some time later both the Pelican and the freighter, known as Old Bertha found a place to land on the Moon of Biitas 12. Luckily for the Pelican crew they had a stash of fuel so it didn't really cost them. Both ships clanked down to the ground, groaning and showing signs of their age. While landing one of the landing strut hydraulic systems malfunctioned. Baratski rushed to hold it together and took quite an injury, busting up her leg. She was going to have to spend time in medbay along with Nolan. 

Before looking for work, it was time to set the settlers up with a ship or a flight out of here. While looking for a ship Augustus Holmes decided it was time to upgrade the Pelican. He organised the installation of a merchant link - a device that would allow easier access to some of the more established and perhaps legitimate traders when planetside.