Duty Roster:

Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (CommJunkee)

Miner Infraction

Ella looked over the map of the mine tunnels provided by Ducote, and leveraging her tactical experience, decided which approach the Crew should take when assaulting the outlaw’s enclave within. They discussed up-armoring themselves, but the idea of riot shields or similar portable cover was eventually abandoned as too bulky. They discussed the use of drones to scout ahead, and Ducote offered the use of a microbot swarm canister and associated gear—normally used for locating trapped miners. Not wishing to drag out the affair any further or allow the enemy any more time to dig in, the Crew returned to the Spinward Star to depart.

The ship was landed some distance away, out of sight of the tunnel entrance they intended to use, and the Crew approached on foot. The door was shut, locked down and stuck fast by years of wear and neglect. Buck brought out his tool kit and forced the gate open, though he damaged the mechanism in the process, such that he had to cut through.

As Buck worked on the door, the canister was opened, releasing the hundred or so microbots, which, as directed, squeezed through the tiniest openings and quickly spread throughout the mine complex, reporting sensor returns to Abe via the control computer, which was also configured to feed positional data to Haank’s TacNet software. The microbots indicated 12-15 humanoids were within the complex in various defensive locations around a central hub—presumably their headquarters. As the microbots continued their search, Abe observed that some of them were disappearing, one by one, as it turned out, being smashed by the outlaws—they knew the assault was under way. Once the mine entrance had been forced, the Crew approached the elevator leading down into the tunnels with some concern, as its transit would probably not go unnoticed by the occupants. There was some discussion of a more stealthy option, bypassing the elevator and climbing down, but Ella didn’t trust their luck with a potential hundred-foot drop, and they were a reasonable distance from the hub, so they decided to risk the elevator; she also wouldn’t allow the team to be split up to scout ahead, lest the scouts be caught too far from help. At the bottom, Buck threw the switch to turn the lights on—the microbots sensors suggested the guards were wearing helmets, which meant they probably had some kind of night vision, so darkness wouldn’t be to either side’s advantage. The Crew crept forward down the mine tunnels, using the map to help keep their bearings, while Abe kept an eye on the microbots’ display.

Keeping the group together, they approached a tunnel-corner around which they expected a couple of sentries. Haank peeked his gauss rifle around the corner to spot the enemy on his scope’s video feed, while Sae maneuvered into position to follow him up, but the weapon was spotted by the sentries, who called out an alarm and assumed defensive positions at the other end of the rough-cut hallway. One of the sentries peeked out from cover, and Haank fired a memory-baton shotgun round into his faceplate, knocking him to the ground. The Crew immediately pressed forward, around the corner. Abe tossed a B-cell ahead between the sentries and called, “Frag out!,” hoping to trick them into running away. The sentries were joined by two more from further in, and they all sprayed ineffective gauss fire in the Crew’s general direction, ricocheting off the rock walls, but leaving the Crew untouched. Sae bounded forward of the rest of the group and planted a memory-baton double-tap in the second sentry’s sternum before bearing left at the “T” to pursue a third to cover. Buck trailed close behind Sae and shot down the second. Haank took the right-hand tunnel to pursue the fourth, who was fleeing back the way he came. Seeing the severely injured sentry-two, Abe immediately sprang forward to render medical aid; Ella ordered the Crew to remain in place to cover Abe, as he worked frantically to save the fallen enemy’s life, forcing his fellow sentry-one (who wasn’t able to flee) to help. Sae exchanged fire with sentry-three, dropping him with his UAW, and covered Sam as he slipped forward to drag the now-unconscious enemy back to the medic—as he did, Sam spotted a fifth fighter around the next corner, who hesitated to shoot. To the right, Haank, Buck and Ella engaged the fourth man as he popped in and out around a far corner, eventually resorting to poking his rifle around the corner to spray gauss fire blindly down the tunnel; Buck shot through the rifle and the hand that wielded it. To the left, Sae pursued the new fifth man, who fled before him; he loosed a memory-baton shotgun round into the back of the fleeing enemy’s leg, shattering his femur.

Haank and Buck attempted to convince the wounded sentry-four to surrender, but he stubbornly refused, having slumped seated to the floor. From a chamber beyond him, a young woman, not wearing armor or environment suit, rounded the corner with empty hands raised, saying that one of them needed medical help, before sentry-four angrily pulled her back. As the Crew continued to attempt to talk the sentry down, the girl reappeared and got free of him, and cautiously approached the Crew; Haank waved her forward and handed her off to Ella, who took her back to Abe. She explained that Amelio had been wounded nearly to death in the elevator (Buck’s doing); he had been dragged out and bandaged as well as they could, but his condition continued to worsen beyond their meagre ability to treat him. Abe was focused on his desperate attempt to repair sentry-two’s torn artery, and told the girl that Amelio would have to be brought to him. Buck and Haank pressed forward down the hall and, with no fight left in him, sentry-four finally surrendered where he sat. There were a dozen others in the chamber beyond, of various ages and armament, including the bedridden Amelio; after laying down their arms, Haank ordered a couple of them to take up Amelio’s bed and carry him back down the hall to Abe. Meanwhile, a call was placed back to Ifogi, to fetch medical personnel to the mine to help; Sam was tasked to go take the Spinward Star back and pick them up, along with Ducote and whatever law-enforcement officers he saw fit to bring along. Sam got a bit turned around in the mine tunnels, and ended up back where he started before being directed out properly.

Abe was still working on the sentry when Amelio flatlined; Buck started emergency resuscitation procedures, aided by Haank, and managed to bring him back, just in time for Abe to finish closing up the other one, and switch patients.

Shortly thereafter, Ducote and his people arrived to take custody of the surrendered outlaws. After the wounded had been stabilized enough to move, they were all taken aboard the ship and flown back to Ifogi to be locked up. At town, Abe followed the doctor and his patients into the hospital facility and continued to help out; he was later asked if he could stay on for a while, as they were a bit short-handed at the moment, and he agreed to do so, with the captain’s permission granted. The rest would take the next couple of days to sort out where and how their quarry, Valerie Vaskor, had gone.

Notes

• Buck’s player rolled a critical failure opening the door; the GM decided it would just take longer—we have no idea whether or not it had any special effect on the situation
• Sae showed his Overconfidence by splitting off from the group more than once, earning some annoyed looks from Ella
• In the last session, Buck sprayed automatic fire down the elevator shaft after the escaping Amelio; when the elevator returned, there was blood all over, but no Amelio, presumed to have been dragged out by his comrades
• When Sam decided to head back to the ship, solo, the GM asked for an IQ roll to navigate the tunnels, and he rolled a “17”
• Amazingly enough, none of the outlaws were killed in this entire affair, though several would spend a comparatively-long time in the hospital