The Miltruck slowed and pulled over causing Captain Travers to jump, he had been on the verge of nodding off. Normally he would care more about being professional, Hirshfanger Private Security bigwigs notoriously lacked any sense of humour about customer complaints, but the fifteen hour drive through monotonous terrain had beaten him long ago. The driver explained the stop, they had reached the outskirts of Gracetown and intel had warned things in Gracetown could get 'lively' for Imperials. Not that Travers and his men were Imperials, the HPS just took the creds, but the new inhabitants of Gracetown thought that anyone without horns or a third arm was an Imperial. Then they castrated them. Travers beat on the cab partition behind him and called out a few imprecations to help his section get it together. They drove on. Pretty soon the Navfinder on the teleport homer had picked up the bank, half a k, Travers signalled the driver to stop and let them debus. They would go the rest of the way on foot.
As the mercenaries poured out of the back most of them took up defensive positions automatically but three, the new guys, looked to their Captain for approval before getting it right.
Porkins was last out, as always.
Lawson hefted the homer, it was a big piece of kit and lugging it half a k through rebel country to a ruined bank was not going to be a walk in the park. Payday better be worth it.
Elsewhere, Ardal Reilly and the Dogpack are fresh from causing mischief somewhere, and are now on the way to a safehouse for a rendezvous with the mysterious rebel general 'Red Axe'.
That safehouse, coincidentally, happens to be the ruins of the Gracetown Imperial Bank. Unbeknowst to Reilly, the south-east room contains the vault entrance buried under some rubble.
The northwest room is used by the Rebellion to cache weapons, food and a voxcaster.
The Dogpack approaches the bank from the east, completely unaware of anyone else in the vicinity. They don't seem to be expecting anything they can't handle.
Security protocols are lax amongst the slovenly rebels and their mistakes are being monitored by an unimpressed third party.
The HPS mercs reach the bank, their own formation is tighter but they have approached from the west and the bank is obscuring the Dogpack from view. Looks like things are going to get messy at close quarters.
The Dogpack get to the bank perimeter, two rebels are ordered to go on point and check the building out.
The mysterious watcher casts a mocking glare over the proceedings and silently waits to see how Reilly will react to the presence of the HPS.
The vault room. What is it the Imperium wants so badly?
Four of the mercs enter the bank, two head up the main corridor while one breaks left into the cache room while a new guy nervously clears the southwest room.
CONTACT! The rebels sweeping the bank and the mercs in the corridor spot each other at the same time, both duos pause in shock before screaming out a warning to their comrades.
Reilly is first to react, he sends two of his men into the northeast room with orders to fight through to the cache room and raise Red Axe on the vox.
Three rebels go around the north side of the bank hoping to flank any interlopers.
Two of the Dogs rush into the vault room, not knowing that this room is the target of their enemy.
The mercs respond by reinforcing the new guy in the southwest room, hoping to push on from here to the vault room. Travers and Lawson hold back, for now, at the bank entrance.
Porkins and a buddy race into the cache room and climb onto the first floor, Travers has never seen the big guy move that fast. He must be spending his pay on suspensors. The third new guy guards the enemy route to that room. Higgins and Baker blaze away in the corridor, though to little effect.
The rebels cautiously continue to advance and some are able to return fire.
Reilly enters the bank and one of the Dogs takes up an elevated firing position.
The flanking force makes progress and remains hidden from view.
Baker buys the farm first, rebel autogun rounds tear through his flak armour and he bleeds out in seconds.
Rebel whooping is cut short as first one Dog goes down in the vault room...
Then a second dies in a hail of shots as he tries to make it to the cache room.
Higgins falls back down the corridor, dismayed at Baker's death, and rallies at his Captain's side. Travers and Lawson are able to rake the corridor with lasfire.
Reilly steps up to replace the fallen rebel near the cache room and brings his shotgun to bear; if a jobs worth doing... Supporting fire from the Dog on the first floor helps keep the merc's heads down.
In a sudden sequence of events things start to turn against the Dogpack. First their flanking force rushes out of cover impatiently, allowing the HPS mercs to react.
The threat is neutralised as all three go down under disciplined fire from Travers and his soldiers.
Next, Porkins finally gets some shots off having gotten a bead on one of the enemy from his position in the cache room. One of his targets goes down and stays down.
Reilly's shotgun and his buddies supporting fire kill two of the mercs in return, but after a series of lucky escapes in the firefight that ensues the Dog pack begins to rout.
They fall back to the bank's eastern entrance.
The victorious mercs push aggressively towards the vault room.
Unable to hold the bank the rebels continue their withdrawal.
The rebel rearguard is shot before he can escape.
The HPS have taken the vault room and the teleport homer is primed.
Travers and his section spread out to secure the area as the Imperial agent and his security team crack open the vault. Whatever was in there remains a secret, for now, as the Imperials hurriedly teleport to safety leaving the mercs to their long drive home.
Ardal Reilly and two of the Dogpack survivors make good their escape...
Except they have some explaining to do, to the Red Axe. Preferably under torture, of course.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it. We had a blast playing it!
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