Captain’s Log – 9th Day of Etoch, 416/G Ebaran
Arrived MarqIV low on fuel. As much as I’d like to follow-up on Clipper’s lead, we’re going to need to earn first or risk being ground bound.
Most of our contacts went dark in the last purge, but Bryce, weasel that he is, managed to survive. I’d tell him to pound urdenium after the fiasco in Candreen, but he’s attached himself to a merchant cartel that, from what I can tell, has supplanted most of the local crime lords in this sector.
Until we have a better handle on the situation, best not to limit our options. The meet is also at the Rilnax Winery and right now I would sell my left kidney for a meal that didn’t come from a protein recycler. Well, maybe Stiles’ kidney.
Captain’s Log – Addendum
Bryce is still an asshole, but he bought himself a reprieve. Met with the Barrister of Penelope Volta – 15 year old heiress to the hydro infrastructure for the city and most of New Romahan province.
She’s bipartisan, pays well, appreciates discretion, and may have arranged the murder of her parents to assume control of the family dam. Rumor has it they were negotiating surrender to a potential invasion force.
If we can pull it off, she would be an extremely powerful contact to have. Fortunately, she’s also on her annual inspection of the power plant, so we have a few days before we meet for the details. Which gives us time to address the other problem.
Bobi also managed to survive; Kole caught sight of her in the market District and he and Stiles managed to follow her home. Seems our favorite feline fixer found a new racket – cooking Storm Serum.
According to Bryce, she hasn’t made enough of a name for herself to bring the cartels into play – yet – but they are trying to bring a veneer of respectability to graft in this sector, and she is not helping.
Removing her from the field is safer for us. If it also serves as an introduction to the local bosses, all the better. Taking out an asshole that peddles poison to children is icing on the lemon tart.
*Note to self – Next time there’s cash to burn, the vermillion and squab ravioli at Rilnax is to die for.
Captain’s Log – Battle Report
With no intel on the interior of the operation, we had to take the long way in. Suzi and K9 cut a mostly passable path through the eel and leech infested marsh bordering the back half of the lab compound. Some kind of water snake took a shine to Evie before Stiles fileted it. Kole carried her to higher ground and Suzi was able to stop the bleeding, but by then the water was churning with the feeding frenzy. It’s a damn good thing bots aren’t tastier.
As we closed in, the stench from the runoff became overpowering, but it kept the blood suckers back. Whoever Bobi was scoring her ruffage from, the size of the tanks said it had to be a major operation. Most distilleries coverted their stillage to bio gas for cheap heat and light; it took a special kind of crazy to cook it down to Storm.
We approached the southwest quadrant and Suzi sent K9 under the fence to get the lay of the land. Two drones and an ultrasonic pulse cannon were mounted around the perimeter, but they were focused on exterior threats. It was possible they could rotate inward, but I doubted Bobi was dumb enough to risk her entire operation on a jumped up underling’s aim.
Two gangers with scrap pistols worked each of the vats, turning the sediment, while a fifth manned the pulse cannon. Two specialists in gas masks played cards behind a couple tanks of growth medium. K9 couldn’t see their weapons but it was a safe bet they were packing something capable of keeping the underlings in line, should the fumes let them live long enough to be a problem.
No sign of Bobi. Too much open ground for K9 to confirm, but we had to assume she was in the bunker in the northeast corner, possibly with backup. Between Evie’s tourniquet and the fumes, I estimated thirty minutes before we sustained permanent damage. Outnumbered and on the clock, a hostile swamp at our backs, our choices ran thin.
