S11 Assault on the Short Walk


Docking Bay 94, Shadira Highport, Collace/District 268/Spinward, 168/1105

The group planned their operation with enormous care. Moath had arranged to lend them a squad of Scout Security who - while not as good as Marines, of course - were pretty capable. Their leader was a corporal, Jeanice Schwartzbach, and she fitted her men into the plan that evolved.
Used a Starship Geomorphs docking bay for this, not least because I couldn’t resist the James Bond gantry around the upper level!
Just Allan, Pete and Steve tonight so no Wales or Sturnn.
As the Short Walk made its final approach to the highport, the PCs and Scouts tucked themselves into hiding around the docking bay she’d be directed to. Nevada was located up on the gantry with his terrifying sniper gauss loaded with AP, while the other two waited at deck level. All three were wearing borrowed IISS combat armour with plenty of extras, and all three were rather salivating at the potentials of it.
Combat Armour
The ship docked, and the cargo door opened to let the ramp down into the dock. A young woman wandered out clutching a datapad, looking around in a puzzled way, presumably for the SPA service staff. Behind her, two guards took position at the top of the ramp, bulky in their combat armour. Nevada kicked off proceedings by shooting one of them; he stood no chance and dropped dead on the spot. Both he and Cpl Schwartzbach began broadcasting and bellowing directions to surrender.
TacMaps of Various Types - click it for larger image!
The crew of the trader were caught utterly flat-footed - though actually not as slow to react as Wombat. In a very few seconds, both guards were down or wounded, and Corporal Schwartzbach had rather ruthlessly riddled the blonde as the latter stood open-mouthed in shock. 

As the attackers charged across the bay and up the ramp, two more guards emerged from the shadows of the bay, and one tagged Feng with a light wound before she burned his head off with her laser rifle. Passing the downed crewwoman, Feng noticed absently that she was not in fact armed at all. She shrugged. 

A short exchange in the cargo bay dropped the last of the guards, and the attackers spread out across the bay and into cover. A minute or so later, two figures appeared in the corridor leading for’ard from the port side of the Jump room; a guard and a crewman, clutching longarms and making best use of the cover of the wall.

As they reached the corner and took in the four guards smeared across the walls and floor in a bloody mix of smashed CA and body parts, Feng levelled her rifle and barked “Drop your weapons and hands up!” After only a second’s hesitation, they did, and she crossed over and rammed her rifle into the crewman’s ear. “Tell the others to surrender!” she snarled. A few moments later it was all over as the remaining crew emerged. 

Shadira Highport, Collace/District 268/Spinward, 184/1105

The ship was sealed and forensic teams sent in, and some days later the PCs were invited to a meeting with Moath - and Ostergaard, for the first time. 
Commissioner Ostergaard
The IISS and police had done well in their raids, collecting both small fry and important people as well as mountains of evidence. Several dozen police officers of various levels had been ‘invited to internal investigations’. Sandoval, Burst and several other locations had been cleaned out. 
Captain Brian Pinera of the Short Walk
The crew of the Short Walk turned out to be, basically, just a tramp trader crew who’d taken the wrong job. Their usual life was travelling the Collace Main and trading at the various worlds along the J-1 route. This didn’t pay enough, so when a stranger offered them a KCr500 top-up each time they smuggled some boxes to an iceball in the Collace system, they snapped it up. They didn’t know or want to know what the boxes contained.

Their recruiter called himself David Branson, and they met him on Talos. The captain described him as 5’7” 143lb, medium build, shaved head, green eyes, acne, and a bit of a blowhard.

The boxes were picked up on Fram, a moon in the Trexalon system. All the crew knew about it was that a corporate called Nanodev Pharmaceuticals Corporation had sole occupation of said moon. They shipped them to Collace and ran them into the wreck with the provided stealth drones - the same as the Sandoval ones - in the same way as they were later retrieved.

Ostergaard was generous with her thanks and praise. As well as their agreed pay, she handed over the ownership papers of the Short Walk - confiscated, cleaned up, serviced and removed from the Scout stop-and-detain list. While the return of the haul from Cartiff’s was expected - and welcomed - there was tacit tolerance for some ... rounding errors ... in the amounts. On hearing the group’s plans to go into secuirity work, both Moath and Ostergaard indicated that recommendations would be available. 

Wombat took the chance to settle his medical debt, to Moath’s approval.

Nevada proposed that they purchase the armour they’d been issued, and with some very successful haggling from Feng, managed to arrange this to happen. Moath warned them against wandering around in it where the local law was - well, more than nothing.

And finally the day came, the PCs took possession of their first starship. The SPA had done a good job, and the battered old ship was clean and tidy and relieved of bloodstains. See Reference for the ship details.
Session Date: May 2nd, 2023