The Greasy Six – Protection

Dressed in a tank top and brightly colored yoga pants, a sweaty Claire was swinging a huge wrench with some serious grunts.

“What are you doing?” asked Ginny.

Claire replied, “I’m training, the next time a monster gets close to me, I’m going to bash its head into the ground.”

Betty asked, “Are you coming dirtside with us?”

“Nah, I’ve got to stay and get good with this thing” said Claire.

“Where’d she get that huge wrench?” Betty asked while walking to the flight deck.

“You mean the adjustable spanner? She found it in that Bioware facility” replied Ginny.

“Adjustable spanner? That, dear sister is a big-assed monkey wrench. They must’ve played the wrong language tape while you were in the vat,” said Betty.

“On the contrary, I just know the proper name of the instrument she has chosen to use as a weapon” Ginny retorted.

The argument continued until they got to the shuttle’s hatch. “Will you two muff divers quit squabbling and get aboard?” Denise’s words were more command than question. Soon the hatch was closed and the ship’s shuttle craft, the Go Bo Baby, launched clear of the station and began its descent to the surface of Nicarro. The ladies had decided to check out Nova Kananga to score better jobs. Nova Kananga was the largest city on Nicarro and also the capital of Sparkstone Province.

Ginny and Trish drew decoy duty. “Can’t I at least wear a sweater? It’s chilly down here” pleaded Trish.

Ginny laughed and said, “It’s not that cold, besides the cool air will make you look perky.”

While Ginny and Trish distracted any probable rivals, Betty hit the trade market and procured a high-tech camo cloak capable of blending the wearer into any nearby terrain. Rachel explored the city’s vast “arts” district and made a useful contact.

Finding a patron, however, proved to be more difficult than it had been on Bishop One. Late in the afternoon, Denise met with Benjarri Palakko, human relations department head for the regional office of Synergistic Logistics. She landed the job, but it had conditions.

The night before the job, Rachel gave the crew their final briefing, “Tomorrow, we report to the Synergistic Logistics office building at oh ten hundred hours. From there we will travel with their assistant director, Ms. Francine Russell, to their new warehouse where she will inspect the facilities and attend a luncheon. Now Ms. Russell discovered their purchasing manager was rigging the bidding of contracts in favor of a local crime syndicate. Not only did she fire him, but he and most of the purchasing department are sitting in a cell. The syndicate has made recent threats against Ms. Russell. She’s not high enough on the corporate ladder to warrant a full-time security detail. However, since the warehouse is located in a rough neighborhood, the corporation has requisitioned our services to keep an eye on her. Any questions?”

“How much are we getting paid for this?” asked Betty.

“Without getting into the numbers,” Denise replied, “we don’t get all of the pay or any bonuses or benefits if we fail.”

Rachel added, “Whether we fail or succeed, the syndicate will probably come after us. By the way, I want Ginny to take the machine pistol.”

“Wha – why?” moaned Betty, “She couldn’t hit a barn even if she was standing next to it.”

Claire laughed, “Maybe if she shoots more bullets, she’s bound to hit something.”

“Hopefully, not one of us” said Trish.

On the way to the warehouse, Rachel and Denise rode in the limousine with Ms. Russell, the rest of the crew followed in a van. As they entered the neighborhoods near the industrial park, Rachel couldn’t help but to notice the poverty. The streets were filled with the poor, aliens, and mutants alongside their predators, the gangs, religious cultists, and hate group militias. Though the bulk of the armed conflict occurred on the other side of the planet, these neighborhoods would soon see the influx of refugees. Ms. Russell and her secretary conversed about her agenda, what remarks she should give and what was to be served at the luncheon. They were oblivious to what was going on around them. This meant Rachel’s team had to really be alert.

When they reached the industrial park, Rachel tried to seize the imitative and get Ms. Russell to the warehouse as soon as possible, but Ms. Russell insisted they wait to see if any members of the press showed up. They wasted several valuable minutes.

Not only did the press not show up, Rachel noticed there were no employees at the park’s entrance to greet Ms. Russell and reports from Ginny and Betty indicated no one moving about in the park. She mentioned her concerns to Ms. Russell, but they were dismissed.

“Let’s get some height for a better look,” Rachel said over the comm, “Trish, Claire, go topside.” Rachel herself also climbed to the roof.

“We’ve got company, heavily armed,” said Betty. She fired at the lead figure but missed. The leader returned fire and Betty collapsed to the ground.

Another shot rang out. “That one was close” Trish said, “Hostile on roof of tallest building.”

With Ms. Russell and company pressed against a wall for cover, Denise dashed across the road to the corner of the Synergistic Logistics’ warehouse and waited.

An assassin’s bullet hit the building’s edge sending pieces of masonry and dust flying everywhere causing Rachel to duck. From a roof across the street, Claire fired at the assassin but missed.

Denise didn’t have to wait long before an assassin appeared at the far corner of the warehouse. She squeezed off a shot and the assassin fell to the ground.

Trish new she had to risk moving closer to the assassin on the high roof to be able to get into range. After all, he had a rifle and she only a pistol. He fired again with the round landing next to her foot. She didn’t dare stop, she didn’t even aim, she just fired a shot in his direction and kept running.

When Trish reached the edge of the roof, she hunkered down under what little cover was there. The assassin on the taller building was moving closer to the edge to get a better shot. Trish fought through her feelings of desperation and allowed her training to emerge. She calmly aimed and squeezed off another shot. Her lips formed a sheepish smile as the assassin dropped his rifle and collapsed.

Meanwhile, Denise reached the warehouse door, it was locked. She pressed the door’s buzzer while banging on it and shouting for someone to open the door. Ms. Russell and her driver joined her pressed against the wall. Ginny dashed to the doorway across the street to give them some much needed covering fire.

From her perch, Claire noticed the assassin keeping Rachel pinned down was some kind of weapons specialist armed with an auto rifle, a large ammo drum and a high rate of fire. With the assassins armed with rifles and the crew only with pistols was almost like the proverbial “bringing a knife to a gun fight,” Claire took careful aim and fired. She didn’t hit the assassin outright but forced the assassin to duck behind the building giving Rachel time to move. However, Claire had attracted the attention of two other assassins whose gunfire pushed the stunned Claire away from the roof’s edge. To make matters worse, a third assassin climbed on top of the roof just twenty feet away from Claire.

Trish climbed down from the roof. In trying to decide where to go next, she noticed an assassin hugging the wall of the building across the street. The assassin was facing away from her and had no idea Trish was behind her. Heroes in movies would have called out to the assassin in fairness, but fairness was not the goblin way. Squeezing the trigger, the assassin’s body slid to the ground, Trish smiled.

Claire’s right arm felt as though it was on fire where the bullet had passed through. She couldn’t see the assassin’s eyes behind the dark glasses, but she saw the woman’s lips curl in a sadistic grin. Claire reached behind her back and wrapped her hand around the handle of the giant wrench. “Claire, get out of there,” Rachel’s voice boomed over the comm set. Claire fought back the urge to charge the assassin and dropped over the side of the building.

An assassin and Denise traded fire both using the corners of buildings for cover. Eventually, a shot hit and spun Denise to the ground. Seeing her crewmate fall horrified Ginny. She ran across the street to Denise’s side and took up where Denise left off, firing around the corner at the assassin.

“Are you okay?” she asked Denise.

Denise replied, “Yeah, bullet grazed my hip, burns like hell.”

Ginny laughed, “That’s what you get for having such a wide ass.” The machine pistol made an almost burping sound as Ginny sent round after round toward the assassin. Ms. Russell and her driver continued to bang on the warehouse door shouting to be let in. Denise stood up and leaned against the building with a hand pressed on her hip trying to staunch the bleeding. Then without warning, Ginny stopped firing.

“Did you get him?” Denise asked.

“I don’t know, he’s gone” answered Ginny.

“What do you mean, ‘he’s gone’?”

Ginny said, “He’s not there. I might have hit him, but he just isn’t there.”

It was at that moment when Denise saw Claire drop to the ground beside a building across the street. She surveyed the roof tops and realized an assassin was above them. She turned to Ms. Russell and her driver. “You can stop pounding on the door, either they can’t or won’t open up. We’ve been here long enough, it’s a set up, you need to get to the car and leave.”

Ms. Russell’s horrified face drained of color as what Denise said sunk in. Someone in the corporation was still tied to the syndicate. She nodded and said to her driver, “Richards, get us out of here.” As they scampered across the street, the leader of the assassins stepped out to take a shot, but Claire was in place and fired first, the assassin toppled to the ground.

The remaining assassin moved to the corner of the roof which gave her a commanding line of sight of the crew including Ms. Russell’s car. She fired at Rachel who was pinned down on the roof across the street but missed. Denise fired and stunned the assassin. Ginny ran out into the middle of the street and sprayed the rooftop with bullets from the machine pistol taking down the last assassin.

As soon as the shooting stopped, they rushed to Betty’s side. “How is she?” Trish asked.

“Nothing critical, but she’s going to be laid up for a while” announced Ginny.

“I could use a good rest myself” said Claire as she sat down on the pavement. They heard car doors slam and an engine start. Ms. Russell was on her way to safety. The sound of sirens filled the air coming closer.

“Looks like we’re going to have some explaining to do” said Rachel.

Post Battle

This was the second encounter in my Five Parsecs from Home campaign. The objective of this battle was to Protect a V.I.P. To win, the V.I.P. had to spend at least one full round three inches from the center of the table.

I have some of the worse dice ever, they never roll high unless you need a one. In this case, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the constant poor results negated the assassins’ Combat value advantage. Though fighting assassins turned Betty’s minor injury into a serious injury.

If you are interested, additional encounter detail can be found on the Encounter Log Sheet and updated crew information on the Crew Log Sheet.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome. Let me know what you think. Until next time, remember gobbo girls rule!