Pulling Vapour’s
unconscious form from the wrecked transport pod, Bonto, Dar and Algol quickly
backed around the corner of the access tunnel that led to the Susan. Given how
the job had gone so far, they were relieved to be just a few minutes away from
leaving Isotropa Max Secure behind, hopefully for good. Alarms could be heard
blaring somewhere off in the distance as security transports buzzed back and
forth, apparently moving gradually in their direction. As their attention was
fixed on the activity ahead of them, they almost missed the small sound of
movement behind them. As one, the depleted crew turned around, Vapour’s form
slumping to the floor. Further along the short access tunnel lay the
maintenance hatch they had used to gain access to the prison facility; just the
other side was the pressurised umbilical that would take them to the Susan and
a fast escape. Unfortunately, between them and the hatch was the so-called
‘maintenance crew’ Vapour had given the run-around earlier on. There were three
as before, although now their overalls were torn and scorched in places. They
also appeared to be liberally splashed with patches of blood, some of it
theirs, most of it not. The other crew looked up from where they were
attempting to cut through the hatch to the ship beyond, and it was obvious they
were not happy…
Thinking quickly, Bonto began to try to fast-talk the
opposing crew in the hopes of getting past them without a fight. Unfortunately,
his targets were pumped up on adrenalin from their encounters with security as
well as angry at being duped by Vapour earlier on. Drawing a knife, the leader
of the crew, a hugely-muscled amphibian Xeno, launched herself at Bonto and
Algol. Dar’s instincts kicked in, however, and he launched himself in the path
of the charging thug, taking a deep cut to his upper arm in the process. Falling
to the ground, the evenly-matched warriors began to wrestle and claw at each
other with a succession of shouted Xeno curses.
Eyeing the other two thugs, Algol reached out with the Way,
intending to cloud the other crew’s minds enough to allow Dar to overcome his
foe and give his crew the upper hand. Unfortunately, the same anger that had
foiled Bonto’s smooth talking approach meant that his attempt just made them
angrier. Pulling their own blades, the thugs began to move in on them with a
snarl. Bonto and Algol looked at each other and pulled out their hidden
blasters in response. Still wanting to avoid bloodshed, they flicked the ‘stun’
settings on their weapons and let loose, no noting the highly reflective
surfaces behind where the thugs were standing…
Seeing his friends in danger, Dar played his ace card.
Muscles bunching in his throat, he launched his tongue lash at his Xeno
opponent; all members of his species had this adaptation, and the fact that
most of his species were dead meant that knowledge of it was not widespread. It
almost worked without a hitch; his opponent’s large eyes widened in shock as
the stunning toxin spread throughout her system. Unfortunately, as she slumped
to the deck, she lashed out with her blade and cut Dar’s tongue badly.
Rising to his feet, blood pouring down his face, Dar groaned
as he saw his crew’s predicament. Both Bonto and Algol had taken a ‘spray and
pray’ approach with their blasters. Unfortunately, the thugs were trained in
close-quarter fighting and easily dodged the incoming fire. However, the stun
blasts had struck the polished surfaces behind the thugs and rebounded;
although much of the strength was lost, Algol and Bonto had taken enough of a
blast to bring them to their knees. Indeed, Bonto had taken the brunt of the
reflected blast and now seemed all but incapacitated, mumbling to himself as
the thugs held knives to his and Algol’s throats.
Desperately, Dar ran through all of his possible responses
to this turn of events, but none of them had a pleasant outcome. As he did so,
he saw Algol staring meaningfully back at him as he slowly reached under his
jacket. Dar took the hint and continued to look threatening, distracting the
thugs long enough for Algol to pull his hold-out blaster from beneath his
smuggler’s webbing and blast the thug holding him. The thug went down,
seriously wounded, and the remaining thug dropped his blade. Moving quickly,
the crew opened the hatch and dragged Vapour and Bonto back into the welcome
surroundings of the Susan. Debating what to do with their sparring partners,
they briefly considered spacing the survivors but finally decided to leave them
to the mercies of IMS security. As the hatch closed for the final time, they
could see the amphibious Xeno banging on the reinforced plexi-glass with a
murderous look in her eye…
As they considered their next move, Bonto began to stir; a
rare lucky break meant that he’d taken the precaution of wearing a light
armoured vest under his coverall, and could now pilot the Susan, although with
difficulty. Turning the Susan around inside the IMS access shaft proved
challenging enough, so rather than attempt the same stealthy approach taken by
Vapour the elected to simply blast away at full sub-light speed. By some
miracle they managed it, although Vapour wouldn’t be happy; in red-lining the
drives, they’d managed to fuse the induction coils. Although they could land,
they wouldn’t be taking off any time soon without expensive repairs.
Not wanting to run the risk of encountering Legion patrols
around the system’s jump gate, the crew decided to play it safe. They set
course for Amerath, a jungle planet in the Iota system. One of Algol’s contacts,
an artefact dealer named Hicks, made his home there and would be able to offer
them a safe haven for a while. Further,
the Mendicant Order had a significant presence on Amerath, and so medical
attention would be readily available.
The crew spent some time amid the lush, green forests of
Amerath. Their focus was on resting up, both physically and mentally, whilst Bonto
also focussed on getting the Susan ready to fly again. As they rested, they
scanned the comm-nets for their next job. The fallout from their last job was
significant. Hicks reported that the heat on them had increased significantly,
although the presence of the thugs on IMS had proven a blessing. It turned out
that they had been involved in an ill-fated prison break, and much of the noise
caused had been placed at their door. Another interesting story caught their
attention. Sadly, reports of the death of the li Vosa family member being held
on IMS were starting to circulate. Despite being previously healthy, he had
suddenly passed away from a previously undetected and catastrophic neurological
condition. Although sudden, a post-mortem had ruled out foul play. The li Vosa
family had made all the right noises; ‘very sad’, ‘great loss’, et cetera. But
very quickly, Draxler’s Raiders and the li Vosa clan seemed to have gained a
new-found trust for each other. It turned out that IMS had been using their li
Vosa inmate as a source of material with which to blackmail the li Vosa, so his
sudden death was actually very much in his family’s interest.
Glumly, the crew searched for a simple job where they could
be confident they were doing the ‘right’ thing, which played to their strengths
and which wouldn’t immediately bring the SysCops down on them. As it happened,
Hicks pointed them towards a group of Mendicants who wanted to gain entry to
the industrial world of Indri without drawing attention. There was plague there
amongst the worker caste, and the Mendicants wished to provide medical
treatment. However, the Church of the Stellar Flame and their Legion allies
were on the lookout for them. So; a simple smuggling job, in and out: what
could go wrong…right?
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