FFS BOHICA, CAPTAIN'S LOG: Stardate 2111.12, Jarl Ingulf Krestursson reporting.

We touched down on Putnik IV to pick up some trade goods we had been contracted to ship.  The "spaceport", as loosely as the term could possibly apply, was just a large clearing of hard-packed earth, scarcely capable of accommodating more than two or three ships at a time.  After securing the ship, we headed down into the small village to meet the sellers.  The goods were being held in escrow at the local police station, presumably for the security of both parties.  

 

  As we arrived, however, I could sense that something wasn't right.  For one thing, there were no police to be found in town.  Our contacts were two greasy, grey-skinned runts with beady eyes and pointy ears and noses.  On our world, we called these beings kobolds.  I could tell that they weren't representatives of the local law enforcement and the deal was smelling more sour than their sweaty, grimy clothes.

These two "fine, upstanding businessmen" were loitering near a couple of crates in an alley to the north of the police station. 

      

 I set the rest of the crew to reconnoiter the area and to provide cover as I moved forward to retrieve the shipment. 

 It was at that moment that I noticed a group of armed individuals approaching from across the plaza on the eastern side of town.  Their fine clothing indicated to me that they were not affiliated with our contacts, and I thought that perhaps they might be the local constabulary. That is when the shooting began.

  I tried to send a target lock to Bombur, but the transmission failed. 

Freya rushed to engage the kobold on the walkway of the building across the alley, and Ogan gave her a telekinetic boost to get her there more quickly.

  Gunnar sent a burst of gunfire in the direction of their leader, but she managed to evade the attack.  A young man who clearly was a green recruit approached the kobold ruffian near the other crate and stabbed at him, while his leader began to open the crate.

   

Bernard opened up on the group with a jet of flame - once more, their leader managed to leap free of the gout of plasma, but the recruit did sustain some burns.  The kobold cowered behind the safety of the crate, unharmed.

By this time, I had reached the crate on the roof of the police station.  It appeared to have been prepared for loading onto the VTOL atop the building across the alley, and I was unsure who was trying to double-cross whom here.

    Ogan attempted a shot in their direction but his gun jammed.  Bombur launched a grenade toward them as well.  It landed right on target, and the cackling kobold ceased to exist.   The leader collapsed, but appeared to be merely unconscious from the concussion.  The young man had dragged the crate away before the blast, but his luck had run out.

In fleeing from my crew, he had unwittingly left himself exposed to an attack from above.  My assault cannon tore him in two.  I felt a moment of sorrow that this lad's thread had been cut short, but from everything I could tell, these people were here to take the goods we had already contracted to ship.

Freya was engaged in a close-range gunfight with the other kobold as Jonny leaped over the low wall and rushed toward the elevator that would take him to the top of the small tower, where the VTOL sat idling.  Bombur continued to send explosives downrange, hoping to keep the enemy's heads down while Tailchaser rushed forward to retrieve the fallen crate, but the shots were going wide and landing without effect.

Gaetir and Borgar had moved around the other side of the police station to engage our rivals.  They fired upon the enemy gunner, but none of the shots found their mark.  Unsuppressed, the gunner and his fellow trooper opened fire on out Pathfinder, and Tailchaser went down in the street.  Ogan called in a drone to safely recover the cargo.

I could tell by the sounds of the shooting going on all around me that neither our side nor theirs were inflicting any casualties, but my crew were all in good positions to protect the cargo containers, even if we could not safely extract them yet.  The howling of Bernard's flamethrower abruptly ceased, and I could see him hastily scrambling to replace the fuel cannister, well aware that keeping our opponents in cover was the only way to ensure that we could make a safe extraction.

Gaetir and Borgar reported that they had found a secure data terminal outside the front door of the police station, and they were moving up to unlock it, but they were taking fire from the other crew.

      At that moment, a third kobold burst forth from inside the building - were these foul little wretches the police here?  Or what had they done to them?  I honestly wasn't sure I wanted to know.  Borgar rushed forward to engage while Gaetir began working on the terminal. After a brief melee, the runt went down, sliced brutally by Borgar's combat knife.

An enemy scout dashed from the safety of nearby cover toward our drone just as another of Bombur's fragmentation grenades landed nearby. When the blast subsided, I could see that this scout was beyond the help of their medic, who then fled in horror.  Freya gunned down the last of our "contacts" and the field was ours.

Though we had not fully secured the cargo we came to obtain, these rogue traders who had engaged us must have felt that the cargo could scarcely be worth the losses they had sustained, and they dragged their unconscious Captain to safety and melted away into the cover of the buildings to the east of the village.  There was no reason to pursue them, so we set about examining the crates.  As expected, the crate atop the police station held the consignment of trade goods.

        Since our "employers" had been killed in the failed double-cross, it was ours free and clear, and would easily sell for a few hundred credits at our next port of call.  The crate the drone recovered appeared to contain some police-issue ablative armor plates, which I gave to Ogan to reinforce his protective gear.  But the third crate held a strange device.  It appeared to be a mesh of slender antennae, flexible and surprisingly durable.  I was uncertain of its purpose, but it was quite clear that this was some rare and valuable device.  

When we returned to the Bohica, Ogan examined the item.  While he was unsure about what unknown manner of alien technology we had found, he was quite excited to announce that the device appeared to be a sensory enhancement that he could install in my combat armor to improve my ability to acquire and transmit telemetry data from the onboard targeting system.  Jonny reported that the data he had recovered from the terminal on the VTOL launch pad would fetch some decent money from the right buyer, but even more important was the information that Gaetir had managed to recover from the police terminal.  It appeared that the police had been bribed by our contacts to respond to a fabricated incident elsewhere so that they would not be present when we were ambushed.  Apparently these filthy little wretches were hoping to waylay us so that they could keep the cargo and sell it to the other gang we had encountered.  It was a simple matter for Jonny and Ogan to reroute the bribe to our accounts instead of the local police.

All in all, things had gone our way, and with surprisingly little actual danger to us.  The proceeds from the cargo and information we had acquired were sufficient for me to purchase an upgraded assault cannon, with plenty left over to boost our treasury.  Tailchaser recovered rapidly from his injuries, which proved to be mostly superficial, but the shock he had gone into was more than merely physical.  He seems shaken, less confident... certainly less of the flamboyant daredevil that he was when he came aboard my crew.  I am told he is not sleeping well at night.  He seems too ashamed to speak of it and too proud to ask for help.  I am hoping he can overcome the trauma he endured on this mission.

(Thanks to Jon for a really fun game - even though my dice luck was horrible throughout the entire game, it seemed that I was able to outmaneuver your crew and hold the objectives.  I honestly did not expect your rogue traders to bottle!)

Total Experience Gained: +220, bringing the total to 280.

Ingulf uses 200 XP to level up to 17, improving his Shoot to +4 and lowering the target for his Armory power to 8. 

Total cash earned: 750 credits after selling the Secret, bringing the total to 850

Market offers Rapid Fire (+1 damage) for 600 credits, given to Ingulf.

Remaining XP: 80, Remaining Credits: 250