18. Gimmet Y

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Arrival

It wasn’t difficult to get to Muscovite 2. A smooth run for a change though we picked up something interesting on the way. We came across an Abandoned Space Station. We didn’t have time to stop and investigate it though. Given what we know about the movements of Gimmet Y, we just couldn’t risk it. He could be gone at any moment. We were pushing our luck as it is. With Doc’s history with Gimmet, the entire crew was taking this personally. The space station could wait.

The location that Doc had for Gimmet was a small farming community. True to form this psycho droid was holed up out in the ass end of nowhere. A place he could do maximum damage to the uneducated folk that live there. The more I found out about this robot the more I wanted to kill him. Bad enough for what he did to Doc and his brother, but as I read into his exploits it just got worse. Imagine your worst surgical nightmare, this thing has done it for real.

I landed The Stone Shark a long way away from the settlement. It was a calculated risk and we talked it over first. If we landed closer, we might spook Gimmet and he’d disappear. If we landed far away, he might be gone by the time we got there. In the end, we decided to land further away but I put through a radio call to say we were coming in with a wounded man. That we needed medical assistance. That ought to keep the little fucker hanging around. I figure he wouldn’t pass up the chance to brutalise another sentient.

The Approach

We approached from the south and discovered that Gimmet was not alone. Somehow, he had convinced, coerced, or flat out paid for a gang of twats to protect him. We weren’t going to walk in there and kill it. Not a problem though, every single one of the Void Dragons was spoiling for a fight right now. Doc was all but foaming at the mouth. Nitro was so fired up I half expected him to open up with the rapid-fire plasma chain and level everything taller than a blade of grass.

We split into squads, Starburn and his support to the west, me and mine to the east.

I powered up my Energy Shield, any extra protection was going to help here, meanwhile Wolf gets the party started out on Starburn’s side. He lines up a beautiful shot on one of Gimmet’s Sentries and blows the guys head clean off his shoulders. No hiding now, not that the crew was trying to anyway.

Getting to Grips

I could see some of Gimmet’s crew trying to close in on me so while Sarge checked the Co-ordinated Fire sight on his carbine I dashed into combat with Hunter backing me up.

The guy we ran into combat with looked so shocked I think he must have been a raw Recruit. Probably hoping to get signed on with Gimmet and get out of here. Too bad, so sad. He pulled his knife but we were already too close. Hunter dove in to grab the Recruit’s knife arm. Instead of just stabbing Hunter the idiot pulled his arm back and turned away. I arrived with his back to me, so I grabbed the knife arm to keep it safe then pulled my Concealed Firearm and dropped him with a shot to the spine.

Didn’t have much chance to do anything after that. The body had barely hit the dirt before a Burner stepped around the corner and opened up his Flamethrower on the two of us. Hadn’t seen him coming but he certainly saw us. Next thing we know, Hunter and I are surrounded in heat and black smoke. My Energy Shield fizzled out as it dissipated the heat away from my body. Hunter though, not so lucky. His fur went on fire and he passed out from the pain, still on fire. I immediately started putting the fire out before it could take hold on Hunter and cook him through. Don’t get me wrong, dog’s a fine meal, but not when it’s a crew member that’s saved your life a dozen times.

I wasn’t worried about a second shot from the Burner because I figured what was happening next. While Hunter and I were killing the Recruit, Nitro had blasted another into pieces. As the flames died down he stepped back out of cover and blasted the Burner into pieces. There was so little left of him they’d be able to send him home digitally.

The Other Side

Out on Starburn’s side of the field things were going much the same way for us. Wolf wounded a Runner slowing him down enough for Doc to finish them off with a pistol shot. Starburn spotted another Runner making a break for it and fried him with a burst of flames from the Caesium Sprayer.

While Lo-ball and I were heading into combat with another Sentry, Doc was still on the rampage. He took out another Sentry with his pistol. For a man that spends most of our missions running around with a med-kit I don’t think I realised how violent he can be.

Lo-ball had reached the last Sentry slightly ahead of me. They were grappling over each other’s weapons with the arms up high. I kicked the sentry on the knee and heard a satisfying crack, he screamed as his leg gave way. He didn’t quite go down though so I punched him in the gut and he doubled over. He stopped screaming, mostly because he couldn’t breathe, and Lo-ball swung his Stone Shard club into the back of the man’s skull. Now he didn’t scream because, well, hard to do that when you don’t have a head.

Really Switch!?

While all this was going on, Switch, way out to the side, managed to draw the attention of a Sentrabot when he cracked into a piece of shiny gear he found. I mean, I know his job is to get the shiny stuff for us, but seriously, this was not the time to activate a Sentrabot. I hate those things, almost as much as I hate water planets. In an attempt to take the Sentrabot down, Starburn tried to immolate the thing. He didn’t succeed but did manage to cook an Innocent Bystander. Oops.

I climbed up onto one of the buildings to get a better look at the battlefield. It was strewn with the bodies of Gimmet’s gang. A quick look around revealed that there were only Gimmet, a Commando, and the Sentrabot left. A lot of things were on fire, a lot of people were hiding.

The End of Gimmet Y

I decided to activate the Power Spike mechanism on my carbine. I don’t often use it because it overheats the weapon and can burn your hands. Regardless, I had a clear line of sight on Gimmet and wanted to make the shot count. That psycho droid was not getting out of here in one piece.

Turns out I didn’t need to bother. While the weapon was charging, Wolf blasted Gimmet with a headshot. He blew the asshole back 2 metres into a wall and turned him into so much scrap.

At the same time Nitro took out the last of Gimmet’s gang. A Commando by the look of him, had that sort of lean ready-violence vibe that Wolf has. Hope they didn’t know each other. With that Commando dead, the only remaining thing that wasn’t us was the Sentrabot. I had my weapon charged and with that additional damage available blasted the Sentrabot into pieces.

Closure

I spun around looking for danger when I heard some swearing and gunshots. There was nothing left alive. Doc was by Gimmet’s body, yelling his pain to the sky and blasting pieces off the robot. His gun ran dry and he started punching and kicking it. Wolf, Sarge and I pulled him off, calmed him down, let him absorb that it was over. Gimmet was gone, he had his revenge.

We downloaded some data loot from Gimmet’s terminal, might be information there of use to someone. There were also some things left that we could trade. I gathered the evidence we’d need of Gimmet’s demise to transmit it to the Keepers and get the bounty.

I looked around at the farmstead as we left, most of it was on fire, with bodies lying around everywhere. Can’t say I feel too bad about that. This one was personal.

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Stargrave is published by Osprey Games and was created by Joseph A. McCullough