154-1106 Planning
While the So Much For Subtlety fuel processors did their work, the party took a few hours to plan their assault on Rye Olson’s Black Arrow gang. Options to attack from the ground up were discarded, and a classic, spec-ops roof assault was decided upon. Prince Hteilotorl was invited to join the assault, and gratefully accepted the offer.
155-1106 – Ergo
A quick fly-by was used for recon, from more than 100km away, allowing the ship sensors to identify that life forms were present, but that no ships were hidden in or near the building.
Lady Penelope decided to come in hard and fast – so much for subtlety, indeed – approaching at hypersonic speed, flaring late and arriving on the rooftop less than a second after the ship’s massive sonic boom.
Since the SMFS had not provided the correct codes on approach, a set of booby traps went off on the landing pad, adding a ring of concussive explosions to the effect of the combat landing. While spectacular, this also did five points of damage to the ship’s hull and crippled the left-side landing gear, causing the ship to lurch down to the left as the assault party disembarked.
Cauldron quickly used a breaching charge on one of the two rooftop buildings and the party pushed on into the building, finding a large space with a lift service area and many full and empty cargo crates. Two combat robots and a flying gun emerged from a doorway on the other side of the large, multi-storey space, and combat ensued, with the three droids badly injuring Parsifal and Krrsh, while lasers worked poorly on the flying gun’s reflective armour. The drones were swiftly dispatched, however, and the party moved on along the corridor at the far side of the room to push into the next room, with Krrsh instructed to protect Parsifal: an instruction he at least seemed to take very seriously indeed.
The far door was opened enough to allow two tiny surveillance bots to enter what turned out to be a large, abandoned reception area for the floor, with an ancient, dry fountain and old duraplast desks. With the help of the drones, the attackers quickly identified an armed individual, in combat armour above and behind the door, on a walkway.
Fixated on this threat, the Travellers and their team moved into the huge space, with the two Aslan launching smoke and fragmentation grenades up onto the walkway behind the doors while others laid down suppressive fire. The grenades worked to an extent, but the defender the group had spotted shrugged off most of the frag grenade’s effects due to his armour, and he sprayed shots into the smoke. Moreover, two more defenders were in the room, one behind a mobile strongpoint droid, and they poured more fire into the entranceway. Five labour droids were used ruthlessly to draw fire from the party, although they were swiftly overcome by concentrated fire.
The assault seemed to have bogged down, with a wicked crossfire pinning the party in the doorway, but Krrsh recklessly sprinted across the twenty metre width of the room to cover on the far wall, successfully dodging gunfire as he went. Parsifal tried to follow, but lacked Krrsh’s agility and found himself stranded and attacked in no-man’s-land, taking heavy damage.
With Krrsh’s bold move unlocking one flank, Prince Hteilotorl pushed on the other flank, followed by Sharyl. The battle began to swing the party’s way. Demonstrating the hyper-aggression common to his people, what turned out to be a Tezcat jumped down from the balcony, wielding a TL15 chainsaw-sword at close quarters and parrying Timaeus’ arc-sword before being dispatched by Cauldron and Lars.
With the two Aslan pushing up one flank, Cauldron climbed onto the opposite walkway while Lars and Timaeus advanced quickly from cover to cover up the centre, and the party gradually pinned, outflanked and dispatched the remaining two gang members. Without orders, the floating strongpoint deactivated.
Having mopped up resistance, the party located the lanthanum, as well as seizing several tons of other high-value contraband. Parsifal in particular had taken a great deal of damage, but the Black Arrow gang’s hideout was taken. A radio message was sent to Ergo spaceport, where a representative of the Lords’ Council seemed less than delighted at the destruction inflicted.
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