Turn four opens with the usual admin, a credit for crew upkeep and three more chipping away at the ship’s debt, now down to twenty-three. The bigger news is a new recruit. A story point is spent bringing George Ruddles, the recently liquidated founder of Ruddles Asset Recovery, into the fold as a seventh crew member. It’ll cost an extra credit in upkeep each turn, but with six crew members rarely all available at once, it looks like a fair trade.
New recruit George Ruddles (right), a keen amateur mycologist
Trading continues the crew’s proud tradition of hauling home broken junk, this time a batch of combat drugs somehow ruined in transit. There’s better luck on the repair front though, with the infantry laser fixed up and handed to Skully, and med patches free up Jaryn for another mission.
The Sticky Tables Have Turned
A cloud of synthetic blueberry-scented mist swirls around Dante Corsaro as he draws on his vape and nudges Dust Kallas in the ribs.
“This is the part where he calls them tossers”, chuckles Corsaro, pointing to the grainy footage on his phone.
They’re about to watch Barry Gibb storming off The Clive Anderson Show on the 30th October 1997, when a LinkedIn notification suddenly pops up on his screen.
Dante is shocked to see he’s been tagged in a post by Ruddles Asset Recovery founder and CEO George Ruddles. In this verbose and self-aggrandising post (which was obviously written with the aid of ChatGPT), Ruddles declares it’s “the end of an era” for his business, and that he’s “excited to see what comes next”.
Dante has a message from Ruddles, too. “Any jobs going mate?” asks the former bounty-hunting entrepreneur, devoid of any preamble. Ruddles Asset Recovery, it turns out, folded within hours of the LinkedIn post – Ruddles is, in his own words, “between ventures.”
Dante gazes round the room at his battered and bruised crew, takes another draw on his vape, and gets his thumbs working on a reply.
Two days later, Corsaro and Ruddles sit side by side in a nearby pub, across the table from three half-drunk pints of cheap ale, and a very wealthy prospective patron.
“It’s a shame the government don’t have any more work for you, Corsaro”, says Tin Martian, leaning forwards in his chair. “But I have plenty.”
“It’s time for Doctor Blight to get a house call he won’t forget”, continues the lion-maned licensee.
Dr Blight outside his country manor house
By the time the pints are empty, the deal’s done. George Ruddles has a new job, the Lucky Strikes have a new gun, and Tin Martian’s empty pubs have never felt closer to full.
The mission is Eliminate, with Blight himself not-so-randomly selected as the target, protected by his own hired militia, the ‘Doctor’s Orders’. Deployment conditions leave the crew caught off guard, all acting in the slow phase come round one, a neat bit of irony given they were meant to be catching Blight by surprise. Dante obviously didn’t expect the Doctor to have company.
The Doctor’s Orders defend Blight’s rotting log at all costs
The battle is tense from the start. Blight’s rattle gun stuns Skully early, and a flamer specialist nearly catches Dante and Tace before Dante guns him down first. Ruddles and Jaryn claim a hilltop position, Dante grabs a valuable stash of loot in the open centre ground, and the pressure mounts on Blight’s remaining troops. A dangerous moment arrives when Blight wounds Jaryn twice with the rattle gun, only for two stim packs to keep him standing. Moments later, Dust lands the shot that matters, killing Dr Blight outright.
A comfortable victory looks assured until a stray shot drops Dante at the very last moment. Jaryn finishes the job, cleaning up the last of the militia and securing the win, but it’s a damp way to end a mission that had gone almost entirely to plan.
The rewards are the best the crew has seen yet, thirteen credits between mission pay, danger money and loot, plus a frag vest and a lead on a new corporate patron.
Dante, meanwhile, should be dead. An eleven on the injury table spells death outright, saved only by his last remaining luck point!
Turn four closes with twenty-two credits, three patrons, two rivals, two story points, and a captain who’s used up his last stroke of good fortune.