Session 9: The Warehouse Raid
Nov. 13th, 2023 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzNovember 9, 2023 / 058-1104
They spent several days in the Flammarion High Port, and nothing much had changed there. It was still stuffed full of people crowding the bars, looking sour, nursing drinks. Moira and Parappa spent most of their time checking over the repairs the Imperial technicians had done on the Penelope. They made a thorough job of it, checking and double checking seals, going over each item on the repair list and even those things that weren't on there. Parappa made a point of checking the co-pilot's seat to see if that was still squeaky.
Qupar visited the Flammarion shops to pick up some necessities now that he had some cash. He bought a diplo vest and a cloth jacket, both infused with special ballistic fibres to provide protection, and happily shelled out 750 credits for the items. The vest was skin-tight, and usually worn under regular clothing so it wouldn't be noticeable. The jacket would be an innocuous enough garment in spaceports and most planetside visits, but would add an extra layer of protection without upsetting the local laws. Hasta's love for his boarding vacc suit had already proved to be impractical and Qupar hoped that these items wouldn't look so out of place, even when visiting smaller communities like they had on Walston.
Now that they were on the Penelope and settling in Moira walked them all through the routine of space travel and docking, making sure everyone knew what their tasks would be on the ship. It would take some getting used to, but everyone at least knew what was expected of them. They finally settled in to wait for a message from Major Casarii. When he had gone through the data he invited the crew to pop by his office at their convenience.
"Come on in, gang, come on in." Major Casarii waved them in. "How are you? Doing well, keeping yourself busy?"
"I love what you've done with the ship." Moira said.
"Thank you for leaving the chair squeaky." Parappa nodded his thanks enthusiastically.
"We may be a small Scout Station, but the facilities here are really good." Casarii said proudly. "We have a reputation to uphold, well, that goes for every Scout Station in the Imperium but you know..."
"Compliments to the mechanics. They did a great job." Moira smiled.
"I'll pass that down the line, I know they take pride in their work." Casarii waited until they were seated before continuing. "While we're on the subject of work, what are your plans now? Now that the Penelope is all spick and spruce and ready to go?"
"No major plans right now. Initially we want to fly where the cargo takes us." Moira thought for a moment. "Where the interesting jobs take us."
"Funny you should say that;" Casarii waved a hand at Moira; "I have an interesting job for you. We've gone through the Beta Tapes, and there's not an X-Boat going to Caladbolg any time soon."
The Express Boats, often called X-Boats conversationally, were mail express ships flying a fixed route through the Imperium and beyond. From Flammarion an Express Line would go to Caladbolg, but it would pass through the Sword Worlds Confederation, a neighbouring subsector.
"Caladbolg? That's a bit away." Moira mused. "Oh wait, isn't that where the original crew of the High and Dry was picked up?"
"It is a bit away, but we're willing to compensate you the same as a regular mail contract." Casarii said, ignoring the remark about the previous pilots of the High and Dry. "There is a secondary job as well. And I'd rather you didn't go through Sword Worlds territory carrying Imperial Scout Services data. So I'd like you to deviate from the usual course the X-Boat would take, and instead dock at Faldor, then onto Datrillion and Caladbolg. The secondary job is a pick-up of some crystals at Faldor, that need delivering to Caladbolg. That would be a freight contract, for just a single ton of crystals."
Hasta rumbled a question. "What sort of crystals?"
"They are like amber crystals." Casarii explained. "Mined in the desert in Faldor, they're used in the calibration of tools and electrical signals."
"So you want us to divert to Faldor because you don't want us flying through Sword Worlds Confederation territory?" Qupar asked, trying to wrap his head around the navigational aspect of it that was alien to him. Casarii had a map of nearby systems on a wall-mounted screen, showing that the fastest route to Caladbolg would take them to Enos, part of the Sword Worlds Confederation. Going to Faldor was quite a detour, but would mean they would skirt outside the borders of the neighbouring confederation.
"I'd rather you didn't fly through their territory with Imperial Scout Services data, which I will transfer to you. Delivery of that data will pay a fee of 25 thousand credits. It's not hostile space, but they haven't been exactly on our side in the last Imperial war, have they? And of course the crate of crystals from Faldor, to be delivered to Caladbolg as well."
"So five tons of data and a single ton of crystals." Moira summarised.
"Not quite five tons." Casarii corrected her. "Hard drives, suit-case sized, biometric locks. It shouldn't take up any significant space in your cargo bay. There's certainly nothing nefarious to this job. I have included a report on your services to the Scout Services in the data you will be transporting."
"That will leave a lot of room for other cargo contracts." Moira mused.
"I will give you 25 thousand credits for transporting the data and a further 10 thousand for the pickup and delivery of the crystals. If you're interested of course."
Moira checked the crew. Qupar, Myles and Dendr joined Parappa in his nodding.
"It's quite a lot of money for doing very little. Either there's another complication somewhere?" Hasta said. "I don't trust you as much as I possibly could, but I can't see how you might be trying to screw us at the moment."
Casarii looked at Hasta sympathetically for a moment, as if to say 'ah, you poor fellow', but said nothing. Then he turned to Moira again, as she seemed to be doing the negotiating. "Will that payment be sufficient? I believe I'm paying you a little premium on this job. Let's just call it a bureaucratic bonus."
"I think this is a good idea." Myles finally said. He looked bored at the proceedings, or perhaps he was just tired of Flammarion High Port. "We need a jump."
Major Casarii seemed to take that as a confirmation they would be taking on the job. "The name of your contact on Faldor is Rufus Hassenbach. He's a merchant we deal with on occasion when necessary. When you get to Caladbolg, check in with the Scout Services detachment on site or just go to the office there and they will point you toward their commanding officer. Anyway, appreciate your work, team. Off you go."
Major Casarii tapped a few buttons on his computer and Moira's datapad beeped a notification that the credits had already arrived, paid in advance. She raised her eyebrows at Casarii and nodded her thanks as they left.
While Hasta went into a local bar to drink to his leaving Flammarion again so soon, Moira went to the local broker to pick up some cargo for their trip to Faldor. She whistled appreciatively, as there was a large shipment of mail headed that way, and delivering 25 tons of mail would get them a really good pay day. The remainder of the cargo hold was filled with 30 tons of trained animals in specialised packing crates as well as medical isotopes and videogames and entertainment systems. Moira also managed to convince some passengers to join them for the trip to Faldor, and she rented out the seven empty cabins and 6 low berth rack spots to them.
As a final act before leaving Flammarion, Qupar made sure to record a message to his mother and sisters on Iderati, saying he mustered into a job and that he'd be travelling the Third Imperium for a while. He told them not to worry, that it was a good spot, and he would check in with them again soon.
During the trip to Faldor, they each went back to their training, which left Dendr passed out in a chair and Myles, Hasta and Qupar dripping with sweat. It was nice to figure out the new routines on the Penelope. It was larger than the High and Dry, but the ship felt full with this much cargo and passengers taking up all available space.
One evening when it was just the crew sitting together, Qupar brought up something that had been bothering him. "Do we trust this job?" He looked around the crew. "Because it feels like Hasta doesn't. Are you just naturally suspicious or is there a reason why you're so hesitant to trust the major?"
"He's paying us more than the market value for a job that on the face of it seems really easy." Hasta shrugged, playing with his food. "Every time I was assigned such a job while I was in the army, all of the marines... everyone died."
"Well, he's asking us to fly around the Sword Worlds Confederation..." Qupar mused. "So it is a longer trip and we have to make one extra stop to get to Caladbolg. All because he doesn't want what's on these drives to possibly end up with the Sword Worlds Confederation."
"Qupar. We're a ship without any guns." Hasta pointed out. "If this stuff was really that important, it would be flying under armed guard. So there's something. Maybe it's just my mistrust of civilian life, but something doesn't quite feel right."
"Or..." Qupar pointed out. "If you want to sneak something to Caladbolg and stay under the radar, the last place you'll stash it is on an unarmed transport. Because anyone worth their salt would put it under armed guard."
"Essentially, we're a flying decoy. And we just have to hope that this doesn't go tits -- otherwise, we're basically dead. That's my take. It may be an old soldier's intuition playing games with him, but this has the feeling that something is going to go delightfully wrong." Hasta said.
"You just want to play with your guns, don't you?" Qupar asked, smiling. Hasta did always seem happier if he was holding a weapon of some kind.
"So was there ever a mission you went on that everyone didn't die?" Myles asked Hasta out of the blue. "It seems to be like 'and everyone died' is a theme of your life."
"I went on a lot of missions, and some of them did go wrong. Every time I survived, I reported back to my CO but then my squad had died and I had gained another enemy."
"It almost sounds like Myles is accusing you of killing your fellow squadmates." Qupar teased the big man.
"Well, all I'm saying is I did a lot of these things and it may just be chance, it may be something else, but a lot of them went wrong." Hasta replied with a finality to his statement.
"Well, let's hope you broke that streak by now." Qupar smiled encouragingly. He didn't want to find out how badly things could go wrong in Hasta's world. "I can't afford any more medical bills."
"I guess technically, that makes sense with your job though, as a star marine." Myles said.
"I was a star marine." Hasta nodded proudly. "Lots of people died."
"Your job was basically 'go take that really high defensible position, get choppered in, ninety percent casualties." Myles summarised.
If you looked at it like that, it made sense Hasta didn't trust missions such as these.
065-1104 Arrival at Faldor
Parappa was still dealing with the paperwork from unloading the passengers and the cargo when the crew was approached by a man in an old fashioned suit.
"You're the Penelope, right? My name is Rufus Hassenbach. I was told that Major Casarii was sending someone along to collect a shipment to be taken on to Caladbolg. There's been a slight mishap and um, we need your help."
Hassenbach checked his surroundings quickly, making sure nobody was paying them much attention. "Slightly embarrassing for me actually. The shipment of crystals from the mining installation have been waylaid. The convoy was robbed overnight at one of the stops and the crystals have been taken by a well-known gang of thieves and rogues called the Black --"
Hasta caught Qupar's eye and mouthed the word 'waylaid', barely refraining from making air quotes with his fingers. "This is the bit where it all goes to shit." Hasta said.
"We know where the shipment's been taken, we have an opportunity to get it back." Hassenbach continued pointedly, annoyed at being interrupted.
"So you sent Scout Services in to retrieve their cargo, right?" Qupar asked.
"We don't have a team available. People with a certain skill set to recover --" Hassenbach replied, but was interrupted again.
"How about local law enforcement?" Qupar asked.
"Law Enforcement, ah -- we don't want to trust local law enforcement, because you know what it's like: someone's corrupt and we fear it will get back to the Black Scorpions. Before we have a chance to recover the goods they will have moved it."
"So you will pay us to ship these crystals, whether or not they are actually ready to ship?" Hasta inquired. "Sounds like you've got a problem. We'll be in the pub. Let us know when you've recovered it." Hasta glanced around. "Where is the pub, by the way?"
"Major Casarii wants these goods taken up to Caladbolg." Hassenbach put a hand on Hasta's arm to stop him from walking away. Hasta just gave him a blank stare, promising pain. Hassenbach dropped his hand but continued to speak quickly. "If we don't take these goods there, we're not sure what's going to happen to Caladbolg. There could be ramifications, I don't know. But I am willing to pay you a little bit extra to go recover the goods from a warehouse - which we've scouted - 10 miles upriver. A small number of thieves, rogues really, have been spotted there at the moment. So go in, eliminate the competition, and I'm loosely using the word eliminate there, recover the goods, return to the star port and I will pay you another 3000 credits per person."
"For three thousand meagre credits you expect us to raid a warehouse with an unknown number of assailants inside, holed up with weapons... no, dude, I've done this for years, it's not three thousand credits." Qupar stammered incredulously. "It's a lot more than that."
"Well, what is it then?" Hassenbach asked, business-like. It wasn't a no, so he figured they were just hammering out a price now.
"Try eight, at least."
"I'll meet you at four." Hassenbach replied immediately.
"I'm a professional, I don't do this for anything less than ten." Hasta interrupted.
"Okay, so it's four for the rest of you apart from the guy who doesn't want to go." Hassenbach huffed, effectively deciding Hasta wasn't interested enough. "Fine."
"Maybe a silly question, but how many people are in that warehouse?" Moira asked. It wasn't a silly question, really. They would need to know what they were facing if they were going to do this.
"Four, maybe five. Petty thieves. It's in an area we don't like to go into. You know, they keep to their side whatever they do, and I'm not in a situation to upset the law; we just keep apart from each other."
"These people are armed, I assume?" Myles asked.
"I expect them to have revolvers, maybe a pistol or two." Hassenbach replied candidly.
Qupar went over their options in his mind. "It seems like the local law level would prohibit us from bringing our guns onto the planet, so how do you expect us to fix this for you?"
"We may be able to turn a blind eye to certain...guns." Hassenbach said. He seemed uncomfortable at the thought.
"You might be able to get us a permit for carrying our weapons, otherwise we can't even do this." Qupar insisted.
"I think we can work a way... you can smuggle in some weapons." Hassenbach said quickly. A permit would mean a paper trail leading back to him, and that was out of the question. "No laser weapons, no supersonic thermic charges. If you are to do this job, I want you to make it look like the local technology has done it, rather than outsiders. Because if it's outsiders being spotted doing this, it will make it harder for me in the future to do my business, and for you if you want to trade here. So revolvers and blades only."
Hasta moved back to the discussion. "So we turn up, we recover this box of crystals with extreme prejudice, and we burn the building to the ground so there's no evidence of what went down."
Hassenbach looked uncomfortable at the prospect. "I wouldn't recommend burning the building down because you would be 10 miles away from the star port. The more covert the better."
"Fine, we'll set the building to blow, but on a timer." Hasta retorted gleefully. "Got it."
"Join me in my office and we'll look at some intel." Hassenbach started walking, the crew following suit.
"So what we know is this: There's a warehouse 10 miles upriver, two stories high also accessible by jetty." Hassenbach pointed to a paper map on the table. "A front and a back entrance, and we've seen a couple of guards just patrolling the area. We think there's about five people in there, maybe six, normal size for a gang. Not very well armed, blades or daggers, some revolvers hidden out of sight. It's up to you to decide which way you want to go in. We can provide you with transport to the jetty."
"Would this be a good moment to say I do not have any experience in an armed excursion?" Moira said feebly. It started to feel real all of a sudden, and she seemed unsure of whether she wanted to join in the action. Dendr and Parappa had flat out refused to join Hassenbach and had headed back to the ship, so Moira tagging along made it seem like she wanted to help. Now she might not be sure of that any more.
"Now would be better than while we're going in." Qupar said dryly.
"Well then, I don't have any experience in an armed excursion."
"I do." Qupar put a hand on her shoulder, trying to make her feel better. Moira just looked nauseated.
"We need someone to drive the getaway vehicle don't we Moira?" Hasta said; "You're probably the best person to do that."
"It's your choice." Hassenbach said, pointing at the jetty. "You can either take a lorry and walk up or go in with a boat and land here. I think a lorry would be quicker."
"A boat is too exposed." Qupar said.
"Let's go with a lorry." Hasta said. "Let's not overthink this one. We just need to tear it up, cut a hole in the roof, drop in, slay everyone on the first floor, work our way down, get the crystals onto the lorry and we're out. How many tons was it again, five?"
"One ton." Hassenbach replied. "They probably have a lift mechanism inside, so you can use that to load up the lorry."
"I don't think we need to quite burn the warehouse down, do we?" Myles asked.
"I just think Hasta wants to burn something down." Moira said feebly.
"Myles, we're leaving no trace of how we're going to eviscerate these people." Hasta said pointedly.
"Please don't make our job harder by saying you want those guys alive." Qupar said. He would prefer to let them live, but he also saw Hasta chomping at the bit at a chance of violence. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stop Hasta from going on a rampage, and he'd rather not try to restrain him without some proper backup or preferably, horse tranquiliser. Don't get between Hasta and his happy place.
"Just neutralise the guards from the outside and go in. No need to go through the roof, there are perfectly good doors." Hassenbach suggested xxx. "Two sets of doors in the back to allow vehicles to go in and out, and a personal entrance at the front." He paused. "And you'll do the job for 4000 each?"
"Sounds alright to me." Myles said.
"I'll drive the truck." Moira agreed. She could probably manage that.
"I was rather hoping to be done with getting shot at in warehouses, but..." Qupar replied. "Yes, we can do it."
Very early the next morning they made their move. The industrial area was quiet with flickering electrical lights on the streets illuminating the warehouses. There was no movement on the street, but nearer the warehouses sometimes rats scuttled around. Moira was waiting in the lorry several blocks away, hiding behind the steering wheel as the men moved into position. She denied the flak jacket that was offered to her, but in her lap was a borrowed auto pistol. She was hoping she wouldn't need to use it.
Hasta took up position near the double doors at the rear of the warehouse, while Myles and Qupar moved to the front. So far they had spotted only two people, one at each entrance. They were not moving around much. Myles and Hasta were wearing flak jackets that Rufus had provided, while Qupar stuck to his new diplo vest and cloth jacket. It was comfortable, and the armoured fibres of both new garments added a welcome layer of protection.
A noise from the back of the warehouse. Hasta had taken a shot with his sniper rifle, the suppressor masking the gunshot enough to not alarm any people inside. The guard at the rear of the warehouse dropped to the ground as the round hit him, and he started screaming. Loudly.
Twenty metres from the front of the warehouse, Myles was aiming at the guard out front. Hasta's shooting of the guard in the back had given him the signal he was waiting for and he fired off a couple of rounds. The guard at the front of the warehouse dropped to the ground as well, unconscious.
Qupar checked for any other guards, but couldn't see any. He broke cover and sprinted to the front door, taking up position to the side. Myles joined him shortly after. From inside the building, angry voices were building. They were obviously aware something was going down.
At the back of the warehouse, Hasta was lining up another shot. The man he shot before had scampered into the warehouse to hide, but there was movement behind the tall windows of the warehouse. Another suppressed sniper rifle 'thwack' sounded in the night, and the glass from the window tinkled as it tumbled over the windowsill. There was another scream, as Hasta's bullet collided painfully with another person inside.
Qupar checked with Myles and at his nod opened the front door and took a quick peek inside. There was an office door to the left and another to the right, and at the end of the hallway he could see the warehouse proper with crates and boxes stacked up. The door to the left was slightly ajar, and Qupar could see movement behind it. Suddenly a shot rang out from the warehouse, and a bullet hit the door frame next to him.
He gestured at Myles, coordinating their actions to move in. Myles followed closely behind Qupar, covering the other door and the entrance to the warehouse. The door to the left opened and two shots were fired, both missing Myles and Qupar in the hallway. Qupar reacted instantly. He kicked the door open and Myles fired off a burst of rounds with his auto pistol. The bandit inside sank down as the bullets hit him square in the chest, but he was still conscious. Qupar fired two shots to finish him off. Myles quickly checked the office across the small hallway, and found nothing, but moved just inside the door for additional cover. After all, someone had fired a shot at the front door from the warehouse side earlier.
At the rear entrance to the warehouse, Hasta moved up to the doors and took another shot at the man lying on the floor. The first round of Hasta's sniper rifle had severely injured him and he had crawled inside, but Hasta took his assault pistol, firing another burst to finish the bandit off. From the corner of his eye, Hasta saw movement upstairs. There were two staircases leading upstairs opposite one another near the rear entrance to the warehouse. The first floor was shaped like a U with an opening in the middle with a boom and winch to load carts down the centre of the warehouse. Something was moving up there, but Hasta decided they would just have to wait. Instead he moved further into the warehouse, spraying bullets at an injured man hiding behind some crates.
Qupar went on into the warehouse, trying to get a bead on the person Hasta was shooting at, but was surprised by another man hiding behind a stack of boxes to his left. Snarling, the man pulled a blade, and stepped up to Qupar. The knife flashed, tangling into the strong fibres of the jacket Qupar wore.
In a flash, Qupar tried to take the bandit into a choke hold, keeping an eye on the knife. The bandit squirmed and escaped the choke hold, stepping back and raising the knife again. Qupar didn't give him a chance to use it, and just punched the man in the solar plexus, making him gasp. He followed it up with a couple of punches on the man's ribs. The man stumbled, but remained standing for the moment. Next time he'd follow Hasta's example and shoot the man instead. He shouldn't have pulled a knife on Qupar.
Myles sprinted from the office, closing in on where Qupar and the bandit were facing off, and he pulled a cutlass from its sheath. He slashed at the bandit, inflicting a deep cut across the side, but it didn't finish the guy off.
All of a sudden, a large aslan jumped into the fray, trying to hit Myles on the way down. Myles reeled back from the blow, but brought his cutlass up to parry.
Meanwhile, the man with the knife tried to grapple Qupar. He deftly sidestepped the bandit, grabbing the man's shoulders and throwing him over his hip to get some distance between them. He pulled out his auto pistol again and shot him. He must have been more frustrated than he thought, because instead of shooting him in the side of the chest to incapacitate him, the two rounds went into the man's face, ending his life.
In the back of the warehouse, they could hear Hasta firing another burst of shots. It wasn't over yet.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Read the next entry in this campaign.
Read the first entry in this campaign.
They spent several days in the Flammarion High Port, and nothing much had changed there. It was still stuffed full of people crowding the bars, looking sour, nursing drinks. Moira and Parappa spent most of their time checking over the repairs the Imperial technicians had done on the Penelope. They made a thorough job of it, checking and double checking seals, going over each item on the repair list and even those things that weren't on there. Parappa made a point of checking the co-pilot's seat to see if that was still squeaky.
Qupar visited the Flammarion shops to pick up some necessities now that he had some cash. He bought a diplo vest and a cloth jacket, both infused with special ballistic fibres to provide protection, and happily shelled out 750 credits for the items. The vest was skin-tight, and usually worn under regular clothing so it wouldn't be noticeable. The jacket would be an innocuous enough garment in spaceports and most planetside visits, but would add an extra layer of protection without upsetting the local laws. Hasta's love for his boarding vacc suit had already proved to be impractical and Qupar hoped that these items wouldn't look so out of place, even when visiting smaller communities like they had on Walston.
Now that they were on the Penelope and settling in Moira walked them all through the routine of space travel and docking, making sure everyone knew what their tasks would be on the ship. It would take some getting used to, but everyone at least knew what was expected of them. They finally settled in to wait for a message from Major Casarii. When he had gone through the data he invited the crew to pop by his office at their convenience.
"Come on in, gang, come on in." Major Casarii waved them in. "How are you? Doing well, keeping yourself busy?"
"I love what you've done with the ship." Moira said.
"Thank you for leaving the chair squeaky." Parappa nodded his thanks enthusiastically.
"We may be a small Scout Station, but the facilities here are really good." Casarii said proudly. "We have a reputation to uphold, well, that goes for every Scout Station in the Imperium but you know..."
"Compliments to the mechanics. They did a great job." Moira smiled.
"I'll pass that down the line, I know they take pride in their work." Casarii waited until they were seated before continuing. "While we're on the subject of work, what are your plans now? Now that the Penelope is all spick and spruce and ready to go?"
"No major plans right now. Initially we want to fly where the cargo takes us." Moira thought for a moment. "Where the interesting jobs take us."
"Funny you should say that;" Casarii waved a hand at Moira; "I have an interesting job for you. We've gone through the Beta Tapes, and there's not an X-Boat going to Caladbolg any time soon."
The Express Boats, often called X-Boats conversationally, were mail express ships flying a fixed route through the Imperium and beyond. From Flammarion an Express Line would go to Caladbolg, but it would pass through the Sword Worlds Confederation, a neighbouring subsector.
"Caladbolg? That's a bit away." Moira mused. "Oh wait, isn't that where the original crew of the High and Dry was picked up?"
"It is a bit away, but we're willing to compensate you the same as a regular mail contract." Casarii said, ignoring the remark about the previous pilots of the High and Dry. "There is a secondary job as well. And I'd rather you didn't go through Sword Worlds territory carrying Imperial Scout Services data. So I'd like you to deviate from the usual course the X-Boat would take, and instead dock at Faldor, then onto Datrillion and Caladbolg. The secondary job is a pick-up of some crystals at Faldor, that need delivering to Caladbolg. That would be a freight contract, for just a single ton of crystals."
Hasta rumbled a question. "What sort of crystals?"
"They are like amber crystals." Casarii explained. "Mined in the desert in Faldor, they're used in the calibration of tools and electrical signals."
"So you want us to divert to Faldor because you don't want us flying through Sword Worlds Confederation territory?" Qupar asked, trying to wrap his head around the navigational aspect of it that was alien to him. Casarii had a map of nearby systems on a wall-mounted screen, showing that the fastest route to Caladbolg would take them to Enos, part of the Sword Worlds Confederation. Going to Faldor was quite a detour, but would mean they would skirt outside the borders of the neighbouring confederation.
"I'd rather you didn't fly through their territory with Imperial Scout Services data, which I will transfer to you. Delivery of that data will pay a fee of 25 thousand credits. It's not hostile space, but they haven't been exactly on our side in the last Imperial war, have they? And of course the crate of crystals from Faldor, to be delivered to Caladbolg as well."
"So five tons of data and a single ton of crystals." Moira summarised.
"Not quite five tons." Casarii corrected her. "Hard drives, suit-case sized, biometric locks. It shouldn't take up any significant space in your cargo bay. There's certainly nothing nefarious to this job. I have included a report on your services to the Scout Services in the data you will be transporting."
"That will leave a lot of room for other cargo contracts." Moira mused.
"I will give you 25 thousand credits for transporting the data and a further 10 thousand for the pickup and delivery of the crystals. If you're interested of course."
Moira checked the crew. Qupar, Myles and Dendr joined Parappa in his nodding.
"It's quite a lot of money for doing very little. Either there's another complication somewhere?" Hasta said. "I don't trust you as much as I possibly could, but I can't see how you might be trying to screw us at the moment."
Casarii looked at Hasta sympathetically for a moment, as if to say 'ah, you poor fellow', but said nothing. Then he turned to Moira again, as she seemed to be doing the negotiating. "Will that payment be sufficient? I believe I'm paying you a little premium on this job. Let's just call it a bureaucratic bonus."
"I think this is a good idea." Myles finally said. He looked bored at the proceedings, or perhaps he was just tired of Flammarion High Port. "We need a jump."
Major Casarii seemed to take that as a confirmation they would be taking on the job. "The name of your contact on Faldor is Rufus Hassenbach. He's a merchant we deal with on occasion when necessary. When you get to Caladbolg, check in with the Scout Services detachment on site or just go to the office there and they will point you toward their commanding officer. Anyway, appreciate your work, team. Off you go."
Major Casarii tapped a few buttons on his computer and Moira's datapad beeped a notification that the credits had already arrived, paid in advance. She raised her eyebrows at Casarii and nodded her thanks as they left.
While Hasta went into a local bar to drink to his leaving Flammarion again so soon, Moira went to the local broker to pick up some cargo for their trip to Faldor. She whistled appreciatively, as there was a large shipment of mail headed that way, and delivering 25 tons of mail would get them a really good pay day. The remainder of the cargo hold was filled with 30 tons of trained animals in specialised packing crates as well as medical isotopes and videogames and entertainment systems. Moira also managed to convince some passengers to join them for the trip to Faldor, and she rented out the seven empty cabins and 6 low berth rack spots to them.
As a final act before leaving Flammarion, Qupar made sure to record a message to his mother and sisters on Iderati, saying he mustered into a job and that he'd be travelling the Third Imperium for a while. He told them not to worry, that it was a good spot, and he would check in with them again soon.
During the trip to Faldor, they each went back to their training, which left Dendr passed out in a chair and Myles, Hasta and Qupar dripping with sweat. It was nice to figure out the new routines on the Penelope. It was larger than the High and Dry, but the ship felt full with this much cargo and passengers taking up all available space.
One evening when it was just the crew sitting together, Qupar brought up something that had been bothering him. "Do we trust this job?" He looked around the crew. "Because it feels like Hasta doesn't. Are you just naturally suspicious or is there a reason why you're so hesitant to trust the major?"
"He's paying us more than the market value for a job that on the face of it seems really easy." Hasta shrugged, playing with his food. "Every time I was assigned such a job while I was in the army, all of the marines... everyone died."
"Well, he's asking us to fly around the Sword Worlds Confederation..." Qupar mused. "So it is a longer trip and we have to make one extra stop to get to Caladbolg. All because he doesn't want what's on these drives to possibly end up with the Sword Worlds Confederation."
"Qupar. We're a ship without any guns." Hasta pointed out. "If this stuff was really that important, it would be flying under armed guard. So there's something. Maybe it's just my mistrust of civilian life, but something doesn't quite feel right."
"Or..." Qupar pointed out. "If you want to sneak something to Caladbolg and stay under the radar, the last place you'll stash it is on an unarmed transport. Because anyone worth their salt would put it under armed guard."
"Essentially, we're a flying decoy. And we just have to hope that this doesn't go tits -- otherwise, we're basically dead. That's my take. It may be an old soldier's intuition playing games with him, but this has the feeling that something is going to go delightfully wrong." Hasta said.
"You just want to play with your guns, don't you?" Qupar asked, smiling. Hasta did always seem happier if he was holding a weapon of some kind.
"So was there ever a mission you went on that everyone didn't die?" Myles asked Hasta out of the blue. "It seems to be like 'and everyone died' is a theme of your life."
"I went on a lot of missions, and some of them did go wrong. Every time I survived, I reported back to my CO but then my squad had died and I had gained another enemy."
"It almost sounds like Myles is accusing you of killing your fellow squadmates." Qupar teased the big man.
"Well, all I'm saying is I did a lot of these things and it may just be chance, it may be something else, but a lot of them went wrong." Hasta replied with a finality to his statement.
"Well, let's hope you broke that streak by now." Qupar smiled encouragingly. He didn't want to find out how badly things could go wrong in Hasta's world. "I can't afford any more medical bills."
"I guess technically, that makes sense with your job though, as a star marine." Myles said.
"I was a star marine." Hasta nodded proudly. "Lots of people died."
"Your job was basically 'go take that really high defensible position, get choppered in, ninety percent casualties." Myles summarised.
If you looked at it like that, it made sense Hasta didn't trust missions such as these.
065-1104 Arrival at Faldor
Parappa was still dealing with the paperwork from unloading the passengers and the cargo when the crew was approached by a man in an old fashioned suit.
"You're the Penelope, right? My name is Rufus Hassenbach. I was told that Major Casarii was sending someone along to collect a shipment to be taken on to Caladbolg. There's been a slight mishap and um, we need your help."
Hassenbach checked his surroundings quickly, making sure nobody was paying them much attention. "Slightly embarrassing for me actually. The shipment of crystals from the mining installation have been waylaid. The convoy was robbed overnight at one of the stops and the crystals have been taken by a well-known gang of thieves and rogues called the Black --"
Hasta caught Qupar's eye and mouthed the word 'waylaid', barely refraining from making air quotes with his fingers. "This is the bit where it all goes to shit." Hasta said.
"We know where the shipment's been taken, we have an opportunity to get it back." Hassenbach continued pointedly, annoyed at being interrupted.
"So you sent Scout Services in to retrieve their cargo, right?" Qupar asked.
"We don't have a team available. People with a certain skill set to recover --" Hassenbach replied, but was interrupted again.
"How about local law enforcement?" Qupar asked.
"Law Enforcement, ah -- we don't want to trust local law enforcement, because you know what it's like: someone's corrupt and we fear it will get back to the Black Scorpions. Before we have a chance to recover the goods they will have moved it."
"So you will pay us to ship these crystals, whether or not they are actually ready to ship?" Hasta inquired. "Sounds like you've got a problem. We'll be in the pub. Let us know when you've recovered it." Hasta glanced around. "Where is the pub, by the way?"
"Major Casarii wants these goods taken up to Caladbolg." Hassenbach put a hand on Hasta's arm to stop him from walking away. Hasta just gave him a blank stare, promising pain. Hassenbach dropped his hand but continued to speak quickly. "If we don't take these goods there, we're not sure what's going to happen to Caladbolg. There could be ramifications, I don't know. But I am willing to pay you a little bit extra to go recover the goods from a warehouse - which we've scouted - 10 miles upriver. A small number of thieves, rogues really, have been spotted there at the moment. So go in, eliminate the competition, and I'm loosely using the word eliminate there, recover the goods, return to the star port and I will pay you another 3000 credits per person."
"For three thousand meagre credits you expect us to raid a warehouse with an unknown number of assailants inside, holed up with weapons... no, dude, I've done this for years, it's not three thousand credits." Qupar stammered incredulously. "It's a lot more than that."
"Well, what is it then?" Hassenbach asked, business-like. It wasn't a no, so he figured they were just hammering out a price now.
"Try eight, at least."
"I'll meet you at four." Hassenbach replied immediately.
"I'm a professional, I don't do this for anything less than ten." Hasta interrupted.
"Okay, so it's four for the rest of you apart from the guy who doesn't want to go." Hassenbach huffed, effectively deciding Hasta wasn't interested enough. "Fine."
"Maybe a silly question, but how many people are in that warehouse?" Moira asked. It wasn't a silly question, really. They would need to know what they were facing if they were going to do this.
"Four, maybe five. Petty thieves. It's in an area we don't like to go into. You know, they keep to their side whatever they do, and I'm not in a situation to upset the law; we just keep apart from each other."
"These people are armed, I assume?" Myles asked.
"I expect them to have revolvers, maybe a pistol or two." Hassenbach replied candidly.
Qupar went over their options in his mind. "It seems like the local law level would prohibit us from bringing our guns onto the planet, so how do you expect us to fix this for you?"
"We may be able to turn a blind eye to certain...guns." Hassenbach said. He seemed uncomfortable at the thought.
"You might be able to get us a permit for carrying our weapons, otherwise we can't even do this." Qupar insisted.
"I think we can work a way... you can smuggle in some weapons." Hassenbach said quickly. A permit would mean a paper trail leading back to him, and that was out of the question. "No laser weapons, no supersonic thermic charges. If you are to do this job, I want you to make it look like the local technology has done it, rather than outsiders. Because if it's outsiders being spotted doing this, it will make it harder for me in the future to do my business, and for you if you want to trade here. So revolvers and blades only."
Hasta moved back to the discussion. "So we turn up, we recover this box of crystals with extreme prejudice, and we burn the building to the ground so there's no evidence of what went down."
Hassenbach looked uncomfortable at the prospect. "I wouldn't recommend burning the building down because you would be 10 miles away from the star port. The more covert the better."
"Fine, we'll set the building to blow, but on a timer." Hasta retorted gleefully. "Got it."
"Join me in my office and we'll look at some intel." Hassenbach started walking, the crew following suit.
"So what we know is this: There's a warehouse 10 miles upriver, two stories high also accessible by jetty." Hassenbach pointed to a paper map on the table. "A front and a back entrance, and we've seen a couple of guards just patrolling the area. We think there's about five people in there, maybe six, normal size for a gang. Not very well armed, blades or daggers, some revolvers hidden out of sight. It's up to you to decide which way you want to go in. We can provide you with transport to the jetty."
"Would this be a good moment to say I do not have any experience in an armed excursion?" Moira said feebly. It started to feel real all of a sudden, and she seemed unsure of whether she wanted to join in the action. Dendr and Parappa had flat out refused to join Hassenbach and had headed back to the ship, so Moira tagging along made it seem like she wanted to help. Now she might not be sure of that any more.
"Now would be better than while we're going in." Qupar said dryly.
"Well then, I don't have any experience in an armed excursion."
"I do." Qupar put a hand on her shoulder, trying to make her feel better. Moira just looked nauseated.
"We need someone to drive the getaway vehicle don't we Moira?" Hasta said; "You're probably the best person to do that."
"It's your choice." Hassenbach said, pointing at the jetty. "You can either take a lorry and walk up or go in with a boat and land here. I think a lorry would be quicker."
"A boat is too exposed." Qupar said.
"Let's go with a lorry." Hasta said. "Let's not overthink this one. We just need to tear it up, cut a hole in the roof, drop in, slay everyone on the first floor, work our way down, get the crystals onto the lorry and we're out. How many tons was it again, five?"
"One ton." Hassenbach replied. "They probably have a lift mechanism inside, so you can use that to load up the lorry."
"I don't think we need to quite burn the warehouse down, do we?" Myles asked.
"I just think Hasta wants to burn something down." Moira said feebly.
"Myles, we're leaving no trace of how we're going to eviscerate these people." Hasta said pointedly.
"Please don't make our job harder by saying you want those guys alive." Qupar said. He would prefer to let them live, but he also saw Hasta chomping at the bit at a chance of violence. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stop Hasta from going on a rampage, and he'd rather not try to restrain him without some proper backup or preferably, horse tranquiliser. Don't get between Hasta and his happy place.
"Just neutralise the guards from the outside and go in. No need to go through the roof, there are perfectly good doors." Hassenbach suggested xxx. "Two sets of doors in the back to allow vehicles to go in and out, and a personal entrance at the front." He paused. "And you'll do the job for 4000 each?"
"Sounds alright to me." Myles said.
"I'll drive the truck." Moira agreed. She could probably manage that.
"I was rather hoping to be done with getting shot at in warehouses, but..." Qupar replied. "Yes, we can do it."
Very early the next morning they made their move. The industrial area was quiet with flickering electrical lights on the streets illuminating the warehouses. There was no movement on the street, but nearer the warehouses sometimes rats scuttled around. Moira was waiting in the lorry several blocks away, hiding behind the steering wheel as the men moved into position. She denied the flak jacket that was offered to her, but in her lap was a borrowed auto pistol. She was hoping she wouldn't need to use it.
Hasta took up position near the double doors at the rear of the warehouse, while Myles and Qupar moved to the front. So far they had spotted only two people, one at each entrance. They were not moving around much. Myles and Hasta were wearing flak jackets that Rufus had provided, while Qupar stuck to his new diplo vest and cloth jacket. It was comfortable, and the armoured fibres of both new garments added a welcome layer of protection.
A noise from the back of the warehouse. Hasta had taken a shot with his sniper rifle, the suppressor masking the gunshot enough to not alarm any people inside. The guard at the rear of the warehouse dropped to the ground as the round hit him, and he started screaming. Loudly.
Twenty metres from the front of the warehouse, Myles was aiming at the guard out front. Hasta's shooting of the guard in the back had given him the signal he was waiting for and he fired off a couple of rounds. The guard at the front of the warehouse dropped to the ground as well, unconscious.
Qupar checked for any other guards, but couldn't see any. He broke cover and sprinted to the front door, taking up position to the side. Myles joined him shortly after. From inside the building, angry voices were building. They were obviously aware something was going down.
At the back of the warehouse, Hasta was lining up another shot. The man he shot before had scampered into the warehouse to hide, but there was movement behind the tall windows of the warehouse. Another suppressed sniper rifle 'thwack' sounded in the night, and the glass from the window tinkled as it tumbled over the windowsill. There was another scream, as Hasta's bullet collided painfully with another person inside.
Qupar checked with Myles and at his nod opened the front door and took a quick peek inside. There was an office door to the left and another to the right, and at the end of the hallway he could see the warehouse proper with crates and boxes stacked up. The door to the left was slightly ajar, and Qupar could see movement behind it. Suddenly a shot rang out from the warehouse, and a bullet hit the door frame next to him.
He gestured at Myles, coordinating their actions to move in. Myles followed closely behind Qupar, covering the other door and the entrance to the warehouse. The door to the left opened and two shots were fired, both missing Myles and Qupar in the hallway. Qupar reacted instantly. He kicked the door open and Myles fired off a burst of rounds with his auto pistol. The bandit inside sank down as the bullets hit him square in the chest, but he was still conscious. Qupar fired two shots to finish him off. Myles quickly checked the office across the small hallway, and found nothing, but moved just inside the door for additional cover. After all, someone had fired a shot at the front door from the warehouse side earlier.
At the rear entrance to the warehouse, Hasta moved up to the doors and took another shot at the man lying on the floor. The first round of Hasta's sniper rifle had severely injured him and he had crawled inside, but Hasta took his assault pistol, firing another burst to finish the bandit off. From the corner of his eye, Hasta saw movement upstairs. There were two staircases leading upstairs opposite one another near the rear entrance to the warehouse. The first floor was shaped like a U with an opening in the middle with a boom and winch to load carts down the centre of the warehouse. Something was moving up there, but Hasta decided they would just have to wait. Instead he moved further into the warehouse, spraying bullets at an injured man hiding behind some crates.
Qupar went on into the warehouse, trying to get a bead on the person Hasta was shooting at, but was surprised by another man hiding behind a stack of boxes to his left. Snarling, the man pulled a blade, and stepped up to Qupar. The knife flashed, tangling into the strong fibres of the jacket Qupar wore.
In a flash, Qupar tried to take the bandit into a choke hold, keeping an eye on the knife. The bandit squirmed and escaped the choke hold, stepping back and raising the knife again. Qupar didn't give him a chance to use it, and just punched the man in the solar plexus, making him gasp. He followed it up with a couple of punches on the man's ribs. The man stumbled, but remained standing for the moment. Next time he'd follow Hasta's example and shoot the man instead. He shouldn't have pulled a knife on Qupar.
Myles sprinted from the office, closing in on where Qupar and the bandit were facing off, and he pulled a cutlass from its sheath. He slashed at the bandit, inflicting a deep cut across the side, but it didn't finish the guy off.
All of a sudden, a large aslan jumped into the fray, trying to hit Myles on the way down. Myles reeled back from the blow, but brought his cutlass up to parry.
Meanwhile, the man with the knife tried to grapple Qupar. He deftly sidestepped the bandit, grabbing the man's shoulders and throwing him over his hip to get some distance between them. He pulled out his auto pistol again and shot him. He must have been more frustrated than he thought, because instead of shooting him in the side of the chest to incapacitate him, the two rounds went into the man's face, ending his life.
In the back of the warehouse, they could hear Hasta firing another burst of shots. It wasn't over yet.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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