Ships and folks come and go thru the week, no big deal. Heck, drop by on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday night and you will find folks is so nice its like they want you to marry into the family. But Mondays are special, not in a good way.
I don't know what it is about Monday. Do the independents and alliance patrol other areas on Monday? Are we on a calendar by reavers or pirates or somesuch? Dunno.
A couple of profanity-spewing rough openly hostile guys who were armed to the teeth with assault weapons land in an empty firefly without radioing for permission to land.
If the regulars in Hale's Moon are a little jumpy and twitchy on Mondays, its a conditioned response.
Gallagher approached them in the usual, "What's your business in Hale's?" attitude and the rest of us watched on. We gathered about the same way Emma and I did just a couple days earlier to look at Reese's Firefly. Emma observed the Alliance Logo on Reese's ship and the Blue Sun Logo on this one. "Wow, they really do make everything," she said.
Sandra, Emma, Gabe and I were a little on guard, but Gallagher and LilyBell were wired for sound. LilyBell called for the locals to disperse and hide.
There are a few things I learned about coflict avoidance:
1. LILYBELL IS NOT A CAT
2. Give LilyBell candy
3. Give Lilybell shiny things.
They should have it posted or put it in the brochures.
Regretably, one of the bad guys got to calling LilyBell a cat, very persistently so.
Lily MAYBE got a little pushy in explaining that she is not a cat. Push quickly came to shove and the other Raider immediately armed up and then there was a firefight in the street.
The firefight got away from Emma and I at one point and we doubled back to check out their firefly and see if maybe we could prevent their departure. No such luck. They had no cargo and no candy, this did not bode well.
The fight continued after a brief pause and I ended up taking a red puddle nap in front of the Mayor's ship. I dreamt of being a girl working at a dull job at a bank on an island back on old Earth That Was. As I lost consciousness, I saw at least one of the raiders take off in his Firefly. Thanks to Ash the Medbot for patching me up all peaches.
When I was finally all medbayed and medpacked, I found Gabe and Sandra in the neighboring wastelands. Sandra and Gabe filled me in on giving the raiders hell and "what for". Sandra then left for Shadow and it all seemed to be over except for debriefing with Emma, Gallagher and LilyBell.
We not did find Gallagher or LilyBell, I supposed they were searching for the raiders or whatnot. And we searched about for Emma, she climbs rocks and spelunks mines and caverns for fun, so she can be as difficult to find as it is to chase Gallagher or LilyBell.
We get a ransom demand on the Hale's Resident channel for 2000 platinum from the raiders in exchange for Emma.
The interplanetary cortex wave is down and I can't find anyone local either. It's Gabe and I, with no backup or cavalry. A certain overarmed imp would have been helpful. I couldn't find Krenshar or reach Duncan either.
We accept the limitations of the circumstances, shuttle up and find the Raider base.
I park the ship at a discrete distance, but neither Gabe or I see anyone out in the open. I use my EVA grapple/tether to get to the top of the building while Gabe keeps her rifle trained for someone on the ground.
I find Emma, sorta. I am quickly gunned down face down in yet another red puddle. This is why I wear kevlar undies, else I would have been dead a long time ago. When I come to, Gabe is still holding her own and I am on my feet just in time to see Gabe defeated and dragged to where they held Emma.
I was too far to hear what is being said and they neglected to shout for my benefit, hardly surprising. I move my shuttle into position and put a grapple line in position for a quick evac. I am in no condition to fight, so my only hope is that I can get Gabe and Emma to make a break for it while they are chasing me.
Sadly, this did not work out so well. Turns out that they put some sort of exploding collar on Emma, so we couldn't just run away without her head being blown off.
Emma and Gabe were herded/dragged into holding cells in the raider base. Slavers I suspected.
After a few more pathetic laps around the camp, I finally go away enough that I could get in my shuttle and try and get backup. None was available, I medbayed up and made a second go.
On my approach back to the raider camp, I was fired upon by a raider fighter of some sort. Remarkably I evaded with only a partial damage to my shuttle.
Turns out that running around like an idiot is a valid strategy. Strategic Maneuver 1&2, Run & Hide.
Mostly being chased around their basecamp some more. At one point I am able to get to Gabe and Emma's holding cells and let them out just in time to be gunned down again. Sigh, I really am no good at this. At least Emma and Gabe were able to fight them off. When I came to, one of the raiders were down and I promptly handcuffed him.
By the time I staggered outside the building, Gabe and Emma had taken down the other raider. I promptly handcuffed him also. I, uh, found the handcuffs if Gallagher's desk drawer, I figured he wouldn't mind. Hey, I'm like militia or something, right? yes? no? dunno? Anyway, I gave out a few other pairs of cuffs to Emma and Gabe, for security or recreational purposes.
One of the raiders said to Gabe as I was off in the distance, "...tell that ranger that I rememeber him from the old days, and there's going to be a reckoning coming."
Anyone feel like clueing me in about who the ranger is, please let me know.
I called around again to see if I could find someone who could get the exploding collar off Emma. After a few incentivizing rounds of "Guess how many toes the Raider has", one of them volunteered how to remove the collar. The raiders were deposited in the jail and a bag of mixed toes were left in the medbay freezer for Bel. I hope Gabe or Emma left a note.
I medbayed up and went to sleep it off in Desse's nice soft bed. I dreamed of being an obscure little girl that no one ever shoots at and whose friends are never taken hostage.
I drop by Fook Yoo's later to check on Emma, she's healed up ok. Turns out reavers attacked also in the evening. I didn't get much in the way of details and I think battle fatigue had people not feel like talking about it.
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