The Rocky Pass Ambush
Outcome: Eight ragged raiders ambushed the crew's tracked transport on the road to the Roberts homestead and all eight went down. The transport was damaged but drivable and most of the cargo was saved.
Participants
- Six — first out of the vehicle; killed both twin snipers; shot the raider grappling Rock Lavey
- Ronin Sanchez — drove into the ditch; three guns in one volley for three raiders; two more at point-blank range
- Shackleton Magellan — recon swarm on the ridge; stunned one sniper; tracked targets for Six; scorched a raider; missed the thief
- Rock Lavey — spotted the glint; grappled in the driver's seat; drove the transport clear
What Happened
- Ronin Sanchez drove the Tracked All-Terrain Transport south-southwest from Acheron’s Rest across the wilderness of Peric IV D, two pallets for the Roberts homestead in the back.
- Rock Lavey spotted a metallic glint from a rocky outcropping above the path just as the vehicle slid into a ditch Ronin had not seen.
- Six tucked and rolled out of the side, slammed on his helmet and drew his vibro-axe. The others scrambled for cover.
- Snipers opened fire from the ridge, damaging the vehicle’s tracks without disabling it. Shackleton Magellan’s nanobots identified them as a pair of gaunt, ragged, identical twins armed with hunting-style blaster rifles.
- Six obliterated one twin. Shackleton hit the second with his sonic stun rifle. The survivor fled down the far side of the hill; Six pursued on foot with the nanobots relaying the target to his helmet, and killed him with a vital hit.
- Ronin, then Rock, struggled to get the vehicle out of the ditch.
- Three gas canisters launched from the ground and landed around the vehicle on three sides, releasing thick obscuring smoke. Six attackers in mismatched rags and face wrappings leaped out of camouflaged underground trenches on the opposite hillside and charged.
- Ronin fired his grazer pistol and two blaster pistols together and cut down three of them in a single volley.
- Two of the remaining three reached into the cab for Rock, one seizing him and trying to drag him out of the driver’s seat. The third wrenched open the rear cargo door and began rifling through the supplies.
- Six sprinted back down the hill and stopped halfway to fire, burning through the raider grappling Rock. Shackleton scorched one across the chest from the ridge. Ronin finished the attacker on the front of the vehicle at point-blank range and gunned down the second man who had been grappling Rock.
- Rock got the vehicle moving. The cargo thief leaped out of the back with an armful of supplies and ran; Shackleton fired and missed, and the thief was brought down a moment later, the goods scattering across the rocks.
Why It Matters
The crew’s second contract on the moon is unfinished, a borrowed vehicle is shot up, and eight locals are down on a road two to three hours from an outpost whose director forbids gunfighting inside town limits. Nobody has yet said who the raiders were.
Related
- People: Six, Ronin Sanchez, Shackleton Magellan, Rock Lavey — the crew; Harding Roberts — the delivery’s destination; Edward Greenchee — lent the transport
- Places: Peric IV D — a narrow, rocky valley flanked by steep ridges, two to three hours from Acheron’s Rest
- Things: Tracked All-Terrain Transport — the target