The day of the assault has arrived, and You and Morrigan have set out with your six armsmen from the local starport in full wargear, headed for the warehouse with your goods in it via a slightly roundabout route to give Mr. Hopkins time to take off again and fly to the warehouse. You make good time, and are soon into position behind the structure, and you decide to give it a good look over before calling in the shuttle.

The warehouse in question resembles three long rectangles set long-side to long-side. The outer two are pure cargo areas, if the piles of boxes and crates visible through the windows are anything to judge by. The center block is all administration, and the only one with its windows blacked out. Kicking in the door will be the only way to find out who is inside, but you recall the maps you've studied as well as you can. From the back of the building, there should be a break room, followed by a hallway with three offices on the left and two restrooms on the right, and finally, at the front of the building, a reception area. Given that there are no doorways between the cargo areas and the administration block, and the poor condition of the areas of roof that you can see from the ground, you estimate that most of the criminals will be in the admin block. that may put them in the break room, which means you will be kicking the door down right in their faces.

So you call in the shuttle. Its landing should distract the criminals, pulling a few of them out to see what is going on. This will also put them on alert, but if you time it properly...

Your thoughts cut off, and you Wave Morrigan and her section forward, pointing at the door to the Admin Block. They hurry across the street, and take up positions on either side of the door. You and your own section move up and join them. One of the armsmen kicks a bit of rubble crossing the street, and you can hear someone shout in alarm form the other side of the door. But the shuttle is also landing with a satisfactorily loud mixture of engine whine and thruster roar probably drawing plenty of attention.

Morrigan nods to one of the armsmen, then puts her boot into the door. The resulting crash as the door nearly flies off its hinges into the room is almost immediately drowned out by the armsmen moving in and the rapid pew-pew-pew of their lasrifles. Two criminals are hit and go down; one clutching a blackened and leaking chest, the other the ashen remains of his left leg. Morrigan moves next, her hellgun's crack-crack-crack cutting through the lighter sounds of the lasrifles. You follow hot on her heels, your foehammer heavy in your hands. Your eyes snap around the room and note seven criminals still standing. With no time for further observations, you snap a shot at the closest foe, and feel the foehammer's massive recoil and concussive boom shake the teeth in your skull. The criminal goes down, most of his face missing. Another crackle of lasfire and gunfire announces that the crew of the shuttle has engaged the criminals who came to investigate.

The criminals begin to react, pulling revolvers and knives and opening fire. one of your armsmen goes down with a pair of holes in his chest. a hired gun steps from the doorway to the hall with a shotgun in his hand and puts a spray of buckshot into the door frame next to your head, reminding you that standing in the open in the middle of a firefight is typically a bad idea. With no cover in sight, and your foehammer spent for the moment, you shove it back into its holster and dive under a table, upending it. It's not much in the way of cover, but it’s something you think, drawing Serpent’s Breath. Your armsmen scatter into whatever scant cover that they can find, still pouring on the lasfire. Another criminal goes down, missing most of his right arm. Morrigan just howls from the doorway and blows the shotgunner away, three overcharged lasrounds burning through his torso and throwing him to the ground.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The four remaining criminals snarl their defiance, and begin to make for the hallway, still firing. None of their rounds even come close to hitting you or your armsmen, so you charge the nearest one and cut his right leg away at the knee. Jace comes charging down the hallway, hellgun slung and his Omnisian combi-tool in hands. Morrigan puts another criminal down with a cratered chest. Your armsmen bury the last two criminals in a barrage of lasbolts, and the firefight is over.

You nod thanks to both Morrigan and Jace, and congratulate your armsmen on a job well done. Jace nods his thanks and moves off to begin loading your reclaimed cargo. You tap your commbead online, "Mr. Hopkins, stand by to depart as soon as all of the cargo is loaded and everyone is aboard."

"Aye aye sir. One of the armsmen took a hit, but he'll live. Engines are hot and I'm scanning comms frequencies in case the local Arbites object to our operations."

"Got it. Let me know if anything else goes awry. Tristan, clear." You turn to Morrigan, "Not bad for our first time out eh?"

Morrigan shrugs, "Should have brought frags and a breaching charge. Tad more noise, but we'd have got all of them right quick. Still and all, what's done is done, and a fourteen-to-one exchange rate, if you count the ones out front, is nothing to sneeze at. Let's leave these scum for the rats and get out of here."

There is not much you can do except agree, so you give the warehouse a quick once-over looking for anything extra that might be worth your time, come up empty, and give Jace a hand loading the last of the cargo. A few hours later, and you are back aboard the Aegis and headed out-system. The local Arbites either didn't notice your little excursion, or chose to ignore it, because they haven't even bothered you once you broke orbit. One other craft is following the Aegis, a tramp bulk hauler by the name of Golden Butterfly. The Altiar-Viking trade lane is busy enough, but something seems off about the Golden Butterfly. you shrug, and order Navigator Yasha to make warp for Viking. The Golden Butterfly can wait, you've a cargo to deliver. The Warp-journey back is thankfully dull and uneventful, and you thank your luck for getting a Nomadic Navigator. Else your warp travels would have been fay more lively and thus dangerous. The Golden Butterfly follows you all the way back to Viking, before reentering the Warp there on a heading for Procyon system. As it vanishes, you get the odd feeling that you will be seeing it again. But there are other things to do, and three contract yet to fulfill.