The Ace of Spades Campaign - Take a Chance On Me part 5

Little Girl Lost
After Kimberley had flown Julia and Rebecca back to The Ace of Spades, the pair spent the afternoon touring the New Xanadu orbiting space station. Their only stop off was for food at a Chinese takeaway restaurant.

They were heading back to The Ace of Spades when they noticed a teenage female ahead of them. She was dressed in a pale pink jumpsuit with a baseball cap on her head. Her hands were in her pockets and she kept looking around, almost as if checking to see she was not being followed. Her clearly suspicious nature intrigued both women.
"I wonder what her story is?" Rebecca mused.
"Who knows?" Julia replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

When she reached the opening to a side alley a young male lunged at the girl. He grabbed her by the right arm and pulled her closer.
"Let me go!" the teenager screamed.

The shady-looking male had pink and blonde hair and wore a crimson leather jacket. He pulled the teenager further into the alley, just out of sight of Julia and Rebecca. He drew a blaster pistol from a holster on his right hip and jammed it into her stomach. Menacingly, he snarled, "Shut the fuck up! You're coming with us."
His partner, an ugly looking woman with a scar running diagonally across her face from forehead to chin, stepped next to the teenager and slapped her across the face, knocking her baseball cap off.
"If you don't come quietly I'll scar your pretty fucking face," she growled. To emphasise her point, she thrust a long-bladed combat knife at the teenager's left cheek. It didn't break the skin but it was enough to silence the terrified teenager.

Julia and Rebecca jogged the short distance to the alleyway.
"Uh-oh, this doesn't look good," Rebecca said. "We have to help her, agreed?" She had grown up as an orphan and spent a number of her childhood years as a street urchin living a day to day existence. Uppermost in her mind was the thought, "that could have been me."
Julia unslung her Transfarer P43 Fireflash Microwave Sniper Rifle from her shoulder.
"Sure, why not?" she drawled. "The poor kid could do with a guardian angel right about now."
Rebecca cast a quick glance at Julia and shivered. Julia's face looked grim and determined and the way she handled her sniper rifle made Becky think, "you look more like the Angel of Death than a guardian angel."

The kidnappers led the teenager around a corner to a much longer back alley. Not far away were two more street thugs. The closest, a bald headed male in his late-twenties, was dressed similarly to the scar-faced woman and pink-haired young punk in a leather jacket and casual clothing. He held a blaster pistol in his left hand down by the side of his body. The fourth person was a handsome, well dressed male, obviously the leader of the gang. He stood leaning against the back of a black SUV.
"Ooh, nice find, guys," he said, smiling lasciviously. "She'll do very nicely. Bring her closer."

As Julia and Rebecca jogged down the alley, the young cat burglar asked, "How do you want to play this, Julia?"
"Leave the talking to me. There may be more of them out of sight. If they don't let the girl go, I'll start shooting. You back me up if needed. Draw your pistol now."
"Sure. Do you want my phaser on stun or kill setting?"
"I'd go with kill setting. They're kidnappers and they deserve no mercy but it's your choice, Becky."

Rebecca sprinted to take up cover behind a bright orange dumpster.
Julia strode confidently towards the group surrounding the teenager.
"Hey, miss, are these folk harassing you?" she asked.

That caught everyone's attention.
"Oh, God, help me!" the teenager screamed. She looked terrified with wide eyes that darted from left to right. She was streetwise enough to know that she was in a world of shit.
The gang leader drew a Phaser Pistol from behind his back and pointed it at Julia. Bad move!
"Fuck off, bitch!" he snarled angrily. "This is none of your fucking business!"
"Wrong, asshole!" Julia replied assertively as she raised her sniper rifle to her shoulder. "I'm making it my business."

Before anyone could react, Julia snap-fired twice, going for chest hits on the young thug who had grabbed the teenager and on the gang leader. Both men crumpled to the ground in excruciating agony, vomiting messily before dying.
I first rolled for Initiative. It went exactly as I expected it would. Julia scored 27 on 7d6, Rebecca scored 19 on 5d6, the gang leader scored 15 on 4d6, the other three kidnappers rolled 11 on 3d6 (I only rolled once for all three to simplify matters) and the teenager rolled 5 on 2d6. The gang leader had a Ranged Defence of 18 and the other gang members had Ranged Defences of 14. Julia rolled a 21 and a 23 for her two attacks causing 22 points of Radiation damage to the pink-haired punk and 24 points of Radiation damage to the gang leader. Julia's Sniper Rifle caused a frightening 4d6+7 damage per hit! Under the version 1.2 rules of the N.E.W. RPG, weapons or attacks that cause psychic, radiation or sonic damage ignore SOAK scores. Good news for Julia but bad news for the kidnappers who were both armoured. The leader had 20 points of Health and his henchmen had 16 points of Health each, so both men dropped to negative Health scores, knocking them out. Without immediate medical assistance they would quickly die and that is exactly what happened.

Rebecca reacted next and she fired her Phaser pistol twice at the female kidnapper. Despite Julia's advice, she had her Phaser pistol on Stun setting. The scarred female took both hits to her upper chest and went down unconscious.
Rebecca's Pistol attack score was 5d6 and she needed to score 18 or more to hit the female kidnapper. She rolled 19 and 18 for her two shots. Her Phaser Pistol caused 2d6+3 Stun damage. She rolled totals of 13 plus 11 points of damage which was reduced to 9 and 7 points after the kidnapper's 4 points of SOAK for wearing a Leather Jacket was taken into consideration. 16 points of damage was just enough to drop the kidnapper to exactly 0 Health. Scar-face fell down unconscious.

Baldy, the only remaining kidnapper still standing, quickly realised that facing these two strangers would drastically shorten his lifespan. He turned tail and fled for his life. He was fully expecting to feel a shot between his shoulder blades but it never happened. Maybe the Good Lord, whom he never believed in until this point, was looking after him, after all.

Rebecca swiftly holstered her pistol and ran to the petrified teenager. Both woman instinctively hugged one another and as the teenager began sobbing, Rebecca soothed her with gentle words.
"There, there," she said sympathetically. "It's all over now. You're safe once more. We're not going to hurt you."
"Do you want to press charges, miss?" Julia asked after the girl had stopped crying.
"No, no, no!" the teenager quickly replied. "Please, no police involvement,"

"Runaway?" Rebecca quickly surmised.
The girl just nodded in response.
"Don't worry," Rebecca smiled reassuringly. "Julia here and I were both orphans. I grew up on the streets so I understand. I'm Rebecca but most people call me Becky. What's your name?"
"I'm Luna, Luna Covin."
"Well let's get you somewhere safe, huh?" Rebecca took hold of Luna by the hand and followed Julia back to The Ace of Spades.

Watching them leave from high up on a nearby rooftop was a veteran Drahzik Manhunter. He spoke into his communicator. "Target acquired. What are your instructions?"