Traveller Sunday - The Rescue of Purity

Over breakfast on the day Purity was to return so that they could go to the Scout Way Station, our Travellers got a frantic call from Purity as she was approaching the starport in the grav APC.  She got cut off in the middle of warning about an incoming object.  Travis, Boris & Li rush to the starport administration building, and call the prison Warden.  He has just found out that the APC was shot down on the east end of Startown, and has no further word.  He urges our adventurers to contact the Marine and port Authority.  The Marines convene a quick meeting.  Due to the political situation, they cannot mount a heavily armed response to this situation.  They do not want a repeat of the riots from 5 years ago, which is what brought the Marines in the first place.

However, lending them Pennity and Pagille, along with a modified ACV (air cushion vehicle or hovercraft) cargo van, our heroes sally forth from the port.  Both characters managed to fail negotiating with the customs official for exiting the port; however, a fortuitous roll by Pennity let them pass through the gates without much more of a delay.  They had their guns in hidden ports - handy having access to high technology which can bypass the local authority's scanning devices as the Marines have discovered for several covert excursions.

I had 3 encounters listed in my maps. The got through customs easily enough.  The warehouse district I managed to roll citizens, and only 2 of them.  So while the reaction roll was pretty low, 2 locals against 4 in a hover van are not good odds so they just gave our group dirty looks.  Finally closing in on the light industrial area, I had everyone roll for surprise.  No one surprised anyone.

As our group approached the rising plume of smoke that they could now see, and noticing people walking in what was obvious to our Marines as a search pattern, they were stopped by 2 well armed soldiers. A brief conversation lead nowhere when there were suddenly shots heard against the roof of the van.  Fortunately, the van had been updated to carry armor. However, the two soldiers in front pulled back and started shooting as well.

At this point Pennity, at the urging of one of the players (sad I can't recall who now...) managed to speed up and take out one of the gunmen, while Pagille rolled down hos window and started shooting as well, managing to take out the other gunmen.  It was at this point more shots were being fired, and Pennity, seeking cover closer to the downed APC, smashed through the loading dock of a small warehouse, crashing to a halt next to several barrels of beer. 

Pagille had been shot during this maneuver, and Dr. Duk-Lyle was using first aid to stabilize him.  At first, due to the positions of Pagille in the front, it was not a particularly successful staunching of the wounds. While Boris moved the injured Marine to the read seats, Travis leapt out the front and grabbed Pagille's gauss rifle. Pennity had left her side with a trusty laser rifle, and was going out the other side of the vehicle.

Pagille was stabilized, and Travis shot very badly several times. While not hitting anyone, he came close to hitting his boots.  Pennity manged to take out at least one gunman but then was almost fatally wounded by a very successful shot.  Boris was quick to the rescue and managed to ably stabilize her. At this point they got unexpected help from above - apparently the APC driver and Purity were in this building, and the driver was lending support from the second floor.  Purity came over to the doctor and Pennity, and getting the Marine's gun started shooting as well.

Travis got hit hard, and falls unconscious to the ground. Purity is not particularly successfully shooting either, but the gunmen are falling back, and the Marines do have more support coming in.

With a lucky shot, the pilot takes down the leader of the group, and the rest flee as the Marines finally show up. 

All are rushed back to the port and get hospitalized and taken care of. Pennity will be recuperating for some time (she was down to 1 point left). Travis opted for the medical slow drug and is hooked up to intravenous feeding for the next 24 hours.

The doctor gets a commendation for his aid, Travis gets free medical care.

Also discovered that these soldiers are actually from the Blade mercenary group from Kryslion. Aphix hired them as plausible deniability several months back, for both training and covert acts against the rebels. Fearing that Purity had discovered something at the prison (she did not) she wanted her killed before she could report anything. 

Fortunately the APC has great airbags as both Purity and the pilot survived without injury.  THe Baldes commander is getting sent to Imperial Prison.  All this fits in with the latest issue of the Freelance Traveller where the mercenary group is described.  As this takes place in 1104, and in the article the leader of the 2nd Platoon is in Imperial Prison, this worked out well to bring in some flavor from some one else's OTU.