The Ace of Spades campaign - Take a Chance on Me part 12

The Assassination of Bianca Covin
Having been dropped off near to the Covin mansion, Julia and Danica slipped unseen into the grounds. Storm and Luna remained on The Jack of Spades shuttle. Luna had been able to provide Julia and Danica with valuable information on staff numbers, security personnel and the layout of the mansion. No more than six guards and four staff would be present along with Luna's mother, Bianca, who would most likely be in her bedroom. Due to a very successful ambush, Julia, Danica, Katja and Jeanette had slaughtered most of the opposition they might otherwise have faced.
Four security guards were patrolling the perimeter of the mansion in two groups of two at the front and the back. Danica beheaded two with her sword and Julia slit the throats of the other two with her combat knife. Both women still wore their invisibility cloaks so the guards never even saw their killers. The three staff members and remaining two guards inside the mansion were taken out one by one either by knife or sword. They all died silently. It was a cold-blooded massacre.

It was Danica who first heard Bianca moving about in her en suite bathroom. She was softly humming to herself as she ran her bath with hot water and scented oils. Julia entered the bathroom first, having deactivated her invisibility cloak. She held her Disruptor Pistol firmly in her right hand. Danica followed close behind with her Phaser Pistol drawn and set to Kill.

"Who the hell are you?" Bianca asked indignantly. "What are you doing here? Guards!"
"It's no use shouting for help," Julia said coldly. "Your staff are all dead. Your security guards are all dead. Your husband and his pet Drahzik are also dead. We killed them all and now it's your turn."

"But who are you? And why?" Bianca wailed in a pleading voice.
Julia did not bother giving her the satisfaction of an answer. She just calmly pulled the trigger of her Disruptor Pistol and shot Bianca between the eyes. Just to make sure she was dead, Danica shot her in the centre chest. Bianca fell backwards and was dead before she reached the floor.

"Job done," Julia smiled at Danica. "Let's get back to the shuttle."
"Indeed. The quicker we can get off planet the happier I'll feel," Danica said sagely.
Julia knew exactly what she meant. They had declared war on The Organisation and eventually "The Big O" would work out what happened here on Golden 4 (Alhambra) and would be seeking vengeance.

Storm flew Danica, Julia and Luna back to The Ace of Spades and then radioed Kimberley to let her know she was coming to pick up her, Celeste and Gwendoline. By the time she had reached the ground based starport at New Xanadu, Kimberley had signed out of her hotel and was waiting for the former UFP pilot.
"What the hell has been going on?" Kimberley fumed. "I made it to the final of the poker contest and was expecting more of a presence from my crew. Where was everyone?"
"Well, it's a long story," Storm sighed apologetically. "Let me take you through the events of the past day."
To her credit, Kimberley never once interrupted Storm as she related what had happened during Kimberley's absence. Afterwards, however, both Kimberley and Gwendoline bombarded Storm with questions, mainly relating to Luna Covin and her parents. Storm answered to the best of her ability but suggested Rebecca and Luna would be able to better inform them.
As the ship's nurse, Gwendoline asked, "How are Jeanette and Katja doing?"
"Apparently they were only lightly wounded," Storm answered. "Judith told me they should both be fully healed after a night's rest. She's keeping them in the medbay for observation."

Soon The Jack of Spades shuttle docked with The Ace of Spades. The departure procedure was swift and smooth. As the ship speeded up for FTL flight, Kimberley realised rather sadly they would probably never return to Golden 4. To her it was a place of happy memories.
As they entered hyperspace, Kimberley was finally able to meet with Luna. Luna was sitting next to Rebecca in the ship's lounge.
"So, Luna, Storm has told me that we will give you safe passage to our next civilised destination," Kimberley said after introductions had been made.
"That's right, Miss Wells," Luna replied. She was clearly in awe of Kimberley, who was incredibly beautiful and had a charismatic presence that was clear to see.
"Call me Kimberley, please. We're very informal on this ship. I have a proposal for you."
Luna looked at Kimberley quizzically, not knowing what to expect.
"How'd you like to join our crew? I can take you on as a space jockey, which will give you a basic understanding of how we work."
Luna's eyes lit up with surprise. "Really? I'd love that. Honestly, everyone here has been so kind to me."
"God bless you, Kimberley," Rebecca acknowledged with a warm smile. "I'm sure you won't regret taking a chance on her."

Conclusion
This scenario was designed by me. I wanted the readers to think that the title, Take a Chance on Me, related to Kimberley's participation in the poker contest but in all honesty that was just the secondary story of the scenario. The primary story and title related to Luna. By the way, there was never any doubt that she would join the crew.
The one thing that I loved the most about this scenario was the amount of dialogue by the crew. I think only Celeste had no dialogue. The dialogue really helped to give insight into the crew's personalities and helped round them out as characters. 
Regarding experience points this was considered a Medium Difficulty scenario so everyone gained 6XP equal to their rank grades. Due to their excellent planning for the ambush, Danica, Jeanette, Julia and Katja counted the scenario as Hard Difficulty and thus gained an extra 6XP. Kimberley for coming second in the poker contest, Rebecca for befriending and supporting Luna, and Luna for securing a place on the crew all passed personal milestones so gained an extra 6XP. Previously, all humans who set foot on a new planet would have gained XP equal to their rank as per the Explorer exploit. However, according to the newly released Galactic Sentience Catalog (review coming in my next post) Humans have lost the Explorer exploit and it has been replaced by the Learners exploit, which allows Humans to start play with an extra Universal Exploit, i.e. three instead of two, one of which must be Aim or Feint. I'm keeping the XP gained by those Humans who made use of the Explorer exploit in my previous two scenarios but for now I'll be adding a free Universal Exploit to all of my human PCs and NPCs. In addition, I'll be advancing Luna from rank grade:3 to 4, to give her more chance of survival in future scenarios and to count for the intensive training she'll receive from the crew in the near future.