9. Upgrades and Fuel
With Shell Shock onboard, and us still out of fuel, we needed to get another score to get off this rock. Happily for us, Shell Shock knew of a place we could raid to try and get some creds. Another frontier town, but this one was abandoned.
We made our way through it easily enough. There was plenty of cover from broken down walls and trees. Given how our last few runs had gone we opted for stealth above all other things. That was working fine as well up to a point.
The point where it all went wrong was when it became evident that the Pirates were still hunting us. They seem to really want that data we’re carrying. They turned up, clearly looking for us and as you can imagine, all the chaos in the underplane broke out around us.
Things went a bit differently this time though. Shell Shock manoeuvred herself behind a tree and started firing frag grenades into the Pirates. I got cover behind a wall and started picking them off with the Hawk Sight. Nitro’s upgraded plasma chain started shredding anything that crossed his path.
A few of us took injuries but Starburn was there and was able to extend his Regenerate ability to Heal crew as we went along.
All of this meant that Tech Light, Flames, and Jammer were able to hunt around and see if there was anything worth picking up. Turns out that there was. Found some Trade Goods and Ablative Armour Plates. When it came time to retreat from the area, Shell Shock dropped some smoke grenades and we faded back under the cover she provided.
While this all sounds great it didn’t all go our way. Wolf and Tech Light went down under the weight of enemy fire. Although heavily wounded, we managed to extract them back to the ship. After a few hours of surgery Doc had both of them up again and fully recovered.
Despite taking the injuries, this feels like a turning point for the crew. We came together and worked far better than we had before. Perhaps we just needed the extra firepower that Shell Shock brought, perhaps we just needed some time. Regardless, we were starting to work like a crew, rather than a bunch of individuals.
The armour plates were serviceable but damaged. We decided to sell them, along with the trade goods. Being farm equipment they weren’t what we needed but someone would. All in we made enough to pick up the supplies we needed, refuel The Stone Shark, pay the crew, and stash some for future lean times. But it was better than that. I took the ship to a repair bay and had them install a better Communications Array. This should help Starburn make more deals and perhaps give us an easier time in any upcoming missions. It would also boast our ability to pick up the Signal making it even easier to find jobs in the first place.
That’s when the really good news came in. Checking out the new communications array we almost immediately picked up a lead on one of the Ravaged Galaxy’s most notorious figures. There was a bounty on his head, and he wasn’t far away.
It’s starting to feel like it’s coming together for us. Long may that continue.
Stargrave is published by Osprey Games and was created by Jospeh A. McCullough