Campaign Turn 15 – Marduk Station – New Beginnings
In order to escape their persistant rivals, the crew traveled to the furthest corner of the Fringe - Marduk Station in the Discord sector.
But, trouble followed them anyway.
"Jaxx, we are arriving at Marduk Station."
"Thank you, Kazi. We'll dock, get the lay of the station, then look for our next job. Vonthos - make sure none of our 'friends' have followed us, and if they have, try to keep them off our backs."
"Yes sir, Captain", Vonthos replied. The lumbering uplifted Rhino, created by a megacorp for logistics work, would be very visible, and be able to lead any of their rivals away.
"Villem and Miak, hit the docks, see if there's anything we can trade. Selene and Kazi, go look around; keep your eyes open, stay safe, stay together. And Ginerva..."
"I'm going to be training. I need to keep up with you bums."
"I was going to have to come with me to find work. And I can't tell if it's your abilities as an Empath that are making me agree to you training, or if it just makes sense. But, go train."
"Jaxx - I would never use my abilities on the crew. Because if you ever thought I did, I'm sure I'd be gone, and the Renegade Pidgeon has become home."
Jaxx smiled. "I know. It's not much, but it's freedom."
"Anyway, enough chit chat. We'll dock in 10 minutes. Let's do our thing, then meet back at the RenPig."
A few hours later, the crew met back at the RenPig.
"Kazi, Selene - what's the lay of the station?"
"Well, I heard a fun little rumor about a lost star yacht. Loaded with art and other nice things."
"I found an arms dealer. Military weapons, not terribly expensive."
"Fantastic both of you. How are we for weapons?"
"We actually have more than we need at this point. It was tough walking away, though."
"Villem, Miak?"
"Hey Captain - if we got more weapons than we need, I found a guy looking to buy. He's obviously a little sketchy, but as far as I can tell, not a criminal. At least, not yet."
"Pick the bottom of the bin stuff, just make sure we're fully equipped, and that no one can trace them back to us."
"Aye aye cap."
"And how about you, Villem?"
Villem smiled. "I got sweet, sweet toys. Including a suit of surplus combat armor."
Villem frowned a bit. "Sadly, it's too small for me. Should fit one of you little guys, tho."
"Dibs", Selene called. "What color is it?"
"Ground-pounder special. Brownish-green."
"Ick. Well, that can be fixed."
"How about you, Cap?"
"Found a job with local company - PinnacleAir. One of several that does air processing on the station. Apparently, they need some repair work done, and they need their techs to be protected. They said they'd contact us shortly."
As if on cue, the radio buzzed.
The transmission was static-filled and the message was only audible after post-processing.
"Renegade Pidgeon, please transit to docking bay Nz99-450 Alpha Sixer Voth. Rendevoux with team."
"I don't like this, Cap", Selene said. "Something's up."
"I trust your opinion, but whether it's the job or not, we'll go check it out. If it's not Pyramidair, then I'm curious as to whom it is. We'll leave the RenPig here and take good old Speckled Jim. Kazi, stay here with the ship. The rest of you, suit up, full bore."
"Aw, I didn't even have a chance to paint my combat armor. Sad!"
"Will you survive, Selene?"
"Maybe. I may die of embarrasment."
"Ok, let's go."
The crew of the RenPig boarded their shuttle and took off for the odd docking bay. From the external view, the bay had not been used in years. "Vilem, Ginny; grab suits. There's a maintenance hatch just a hundred meters or so from the bay. As we approach, hop over there and meet us in the docking bay. Just hurry - no clue what we're going to face."
Vilem and Ginny donned their suits and jumped from the shuttle, using their thruster packs to maneuver towards the hatch. As they floated in space, the shuttle approached the bay. The cavernous doors opened, and the Speckled Jim maneuvered in and landed.
As the docking bay doors closed, Jaxx and team opened the shuttle doors and looked around. "Just be careful. Stay close until we know what we're dealing with."
At that, a pair of grenades arced through the air, and exploded on contact. They didn't land close enough to cause damage, but they did get the crew's attention.
"Well, well, well - lookey gang - it's the people who blew the crap out of our bosses' office building. They even launched some grenades in the office building. Grenades. In an office building. Who does that?"
The crew identified three fire teams at the far end of the bay.
"I take it you aren't with Pyramidair?"
"Don't worry about it, morons - you won't need air soon."
[Crew seized the initiative]
Jaxx nodded to the team, who took off. They were ready for this.
Vonthos and Miak took point, Miak ripping out a burst from his Rattle Gun, hoping the suppression fire slows down their opponents' movement until the group gets in position.
Unfortunately for him, the opponents were well trained and well led. They started to advance up, and three fired their rifles at Miak. Two shots hit him. Both would have taken him down, but his StimPak injectors kept him on his feet. The crew could tell from the sound that the other opponents were moving up, trying to flank from both the right and the left.
And there were a lot of them. At least nine.
"Ow! Damnit, Cap, I didn't want to get shot today!"
"Sorry, Miak; Pull back, get to better cover."
Jaxx started to move forward, to find a good spot in cover, while Selene moved up towards some storage containers, peeked between them, and saw one of the leaders of the opposition. She aimed her Fury Rifle and let off a shot, dropping him. "Cap, they have a gene dog. Hello doggie!"
"Oh goodie. A gene dog. These guys brought the zoo. Ginny, Vilem - where are you?"
"On our way, Cap. They didn't leave a trail of bread crumbs, you know."
Selene fired again, taking the Gene Dog out. "Bye bye doggie!". Vonthos, who had hopped up on top of the Speckled Jim previously, hopped down - he was feeling too exposed. Miak opened fire again with his rattle gun, dropping two opponents.
"Miak! I said fall back"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
The enemy, who appear to be corporate security types, opened fire again. Miak took another graze. "Miak!" "Ok Cap. I'll move."
Jaxx moved up. The CorpSec guys split into three groups. Selene was taking out the group to the left. The center group was the group that lit Miak up, so Jaxx fired at them, as well -dropping a third member of that group. However, more were arriving.
And still no Vilem or Ginny.
Miak did finally duck behind cover, while the enemies in squads one and two advanced firing, but their shots didn't land. Their third squad was moving up the right flank, currently unopposed. "Watch the right flank team!" Jaxx shouted. 
Selene fired again at the first squad, dropping the last member of that group. "On my way", she called out.
Jaxx continued to move forward, keeping to cover, and took out another CorpSec guy.
Suddenly, to his right, Jaxx caught motion. "Did someone say 'right flank?'" Ginny called out, as she and Vilem popped out of a maintenance hatch far to Jaxx' right. "Good timing!" He replied.
Jaxx fired again, his shot hitting true, but the CorpSec's armor saved him.
Selene, Vilem and Vonthos dashed behind cover towards the right. The two survivors in Squad 2 - the center squad - took shots at Vonthos and Jaxx. Jaxx took a solid hit, the group's last StimPak keeping him on his feet.
The flanking squad, which Jaxx was calling Squad 3, noticed Vilem and Ginny, and fired at Vilem, hitting him square in the chest. However, his armor held up. Miak dropped another with his rattle gun, and Ginny fired her own shell gun at squad 3, but the blast didn't affect the CorpSec stooges.
However, several of them had had enough, and fled the fight.
The crew continued their offensive, and finally - finally - dropped the last one.
Looking around after the fight, they realized that they fought 12 CorpSec guys and the gene dog. "Shit", Selene said. "That's my lucky number!"
"Let's take a quick look around, and get out of here." Jaxx said.
The crew rummage around quickly, picking up one of the CorpSec's military rifles, and a Duplicator. "I told you thirteen was my lucky number!" Selene said as she lifted the duplicator.
Returning to the Speckled Jim, the crew flew back to the docking bay with the RenPig. Unfortunately, their patron, PyramidAir, couldn't wait and the crew lost that job. But, Vilem bumped into an old flame, and found that she knew someone who could set them up with another job.
As they patched themselves up, they managed to sell off some drek from their cargo bay for good money. All in all, they survived, those CorpSec guys wouldn't be bothering them any more, and they made some money.
It was a good day.
