Five Parsecs from Home Turn 3 - Mercenaries!

 

Breaking out the big guns - can the team overcome a merc with a rattle gun? 

The Zouave entering orbit over Lanzerac IV

With the ship finally fueled, and no further jobs, Mireille decides to take the crew to Lanzerac IV, deeper in the subsector. A corporate state where no freelance license is required, it is sure to be a lucrative source of income. 

The trip passes uneventfully, aside from a blip on the edge of scanning range that Ulf thought for a minute might be pirates (1 Story point spent). 

On landing, the crew disperses to various tasks. Hob manages to find some interesting high-end spirits that may be of some value at the next port of call. Yodel hears about this renegade mercenary with a bounty on his red head, and Mireille gets hit on by a nerd who talks her ear off about the minutia of bioscanners. Ulf and Anja stay on board and train up on the simulators. 

The next day Mireille gets a call from the site manager of a mining operation in the north. It's been occupied by mercs hired by a rival operation. The risk of damage to the site is too high for a full scale assault, but a data cache in the residences cannot be allowed to fall into a competitor's hands, and so the manager hires the crew to get close enough to spike a virus into the base's network and irretrievably corrupt the data. Mireille accepts, and the crew head out to the site via shuttle. 

Dropping the scanner bot ahead of their deployment, Mireille discovers that the mercenary Yodel heard about, Marcus Tranh, is leading the opposing contingent! 

Figure: Unit 9 stl 

Not only that, but the rumored bounty has more than doubled - some anonymous contractor wants this guy bad. 

The scanner IDs the rest of the mercenary squad: 

All figures: Unit 9 stls

Visibly well equipped, including a squad machine gun. A risky engagement to be sure - but the Zouave's crew have surprise on their side! 

Terrain: Micro Art Studios, Antinociti's Workshop

The crew approach the staff barracks building through a small parkette. They've got to get pretty close for the hacking device to be able to burn through the network firewall! 

Ulf and Hob are both spotted by a mercenary fireteam, but after a brief exchange of fire, each takes out their respective target without getting hit in return. 

Marcus, having crept close, peeks around the corner, fires, and eats a face full of plasma for his efforts. He falls in a smoking heap. Emboldened, Mireille pops out of cover to try and hit the machine gunner while Yodel covers her left from the parkette. She misses, and the HMG sends her scampering out of the line of fire, and straight in the sights of the specialist's partner, who throws her back. A stim pack keeps her from being stunned, for now. 

The HMG rattles once more, and this time Mireille hits the ground and doesn't get back up. The remaining mercenary leans out of cover and fires at Yodel, sending her groundwards as well. Anja and Ulf, dismayed by this change of fortune and bent on revenge, move into firing position. Ulf's rifle hits but does not down his target, but Anja blasts the machine gunner with her shotgun. Sally activates the hacking device. 

The last remaining mercenary stubbornly holds his ground, but is eventually pinned and killed by concentrated fire from the remaining team members just as the device finishes destroying the data. The mission is successful, but at what cost? 

The crew run to assist their fallen comrades. Yodel turns out to be fine, having struck her head on a bench as she dove for cover. Mireille, however, is not so fine, with bullet wounds to her left arm and shoulder that will require some time in sick bay. 

Ulf recovers a laser sight from the wanted merc Marcus' blasted body, and also a commlink with some encrypted data on it, that might prove useful to the right patron. Hob, meanwhile, finds that one of the military rifles so recently used against them is still functional. He hands it to Sally to replace the colony rifle she lost in her recent scuffle. 

With Mireille in sick bay, Ulf meets with their corpo contact, who pays them handsomely for a job well done - enough for advanced care to speed up the boss' recovery, in fact! 

Returning to the ship, the crew retire to the mess to reflect on their jobs so far, and discuss how they will find the next one. With many promising leads, they are confident that they will have their pick.