As the dawning sun rose on Shard's End's horizon, the crew of the Bug-out made final preparations for take-off. Their quest to dismantle Extra-solar Implementations was taking them to another world - Petain. With a final check of the systems complete, Matt ordered Linda to engage the drive and the ship lifted off the ground and then made it's way out of the atmosphere.
The journey to Petain was fairly uneventful. The crew carried out their day to day work around the ship. Bishop was able to finally fix the Cling fire Pistol the crew had acquired a while back. Matt spent his time looking up what he could about Petain in the ship's database. The world was a metropolis. Many large corporations had put their HQs on Petain and the world was bustling with commerce meaning there would be many opportunists looking to hire. Major industrial sectors had made the air a little hazy in parts.
As the Bug-out approached the planet, they were contacted by the planets landing authority. They asked what their business was planet side and Matt responded that they were Freelancer's in search of work. The landing authority notified them that a license would be required and would come at a cost of 6 credits. Matt noted that that was a steep price, but agreed to pay the cost and acquire the required license.
Then the landing authority asked if they were transporting any psionic individuals. Matt was a little surprised by the question, but replied no and submitted the required id's for the crew to confirm. He inquired why such information was required and was told that Petain had recently outlawed psionics on their world.
They were cleared to land at Duplantier's Entry colony space port. After they landed, Matt brought the crew together to decide what tasks everyone would set out to do. Matt decided that Linda, Jeb, and Bishop should stay to guard the ship. Linda thought that would be a good idea and asked Jeb to join her for some training. Bishop nodded and made his way back to the workshop to continue repairing any damaged equipment.
He asked Sebastian and A-113 to hit the market and see what they were working with on Petain and asked Lucas and Tyris to explore the near by sites to see if there was anything of note. Matt then told them he'd look for some work to help get them moving along in finding out where ESI was operating from.
Sebastian and A-113 wandered the markets on their own. Sebastian didn't have much luck while he was out. People were a little on edge and they only thing he came across was someone looking to get some items smuggled off-world. He turned down the opportunity and then made his way back to the ship. A-113 had better luck and was able to grab a new Glare Sword for the ship form a surplus store.
Lucas and Tyris enjoyed their day wandering around the colony. At one point they were approached by an individual offering a bounty on some Neon Barbarian gang member. They were apparently involved in the extortion of the individuals business, which when he couldn't pay, they torched his store. Lucas accepted the bounty and said he'd see what he could do. They then bumped into a K'Erin merchant offering tactical gear. Tyris made a deal to trade their damaged Glare Sword on the ship for a damaged concealed blade and screen generator. After making the exchange, Bishop started to look at the concealed blade to repair it, but discovered he'd need some parts before it could be fixed.
Matt wandered the streets for a bit before he found a promising place to look for some work. In his agent days, there was always certain public drinking locations where someone looking for information could go and subtly indicate they were open to talking. Matt found such a place and wandered in. The inside looked like an old tap house from the historic docs about Terra. Beep green hues and brass railings. He wandered up to the bar tender and said "I'll have the local special."
The bar tender nodded and nodded over to a booth near the back. Matt took a seat and waited. It wasn't long before a nicely dressed man approached as asked if he could sit at the booth with Matt. Matt nodded and offered an open spot with a gesture.
"What brings you to Petain?" asked the well dressed man.
"I'm here on business. I'm working a demolition but need some tools." replied Matt.
The man nodded in understanding.
"Maybe I could help with some tools. But first we'll have to see if something's available."
The man nodded back to the bar tender and the bar tender came over with a drink. The well dressed man thanked Matt for his time and went on his way. Matt finished his drink then popped a hidden data rod out form under the drinks coaster. He then left to return to the ship.
Once back, Matt examined the data rod and discovered it was a surveillance mission op. Apparently there was suspicion about an individual who may have ties to a local Neon Barbarian gang working a racket in one of the commercial sectors of Duplantier's Entry. There was a location of a recently burned down store and the intel indicated that this individual liked to swing by to see the result of the gangs work.
Matt decided that it was best to bring only a small team for the mission, and asked Linda, Sebastian, and A-113 to join him. He explained to them enroute what they needed to do and how to collect the surveillance information.
As they got closer to the location, they split up to cover more ground and come towards the location from different angles. Linda and Matt would come from opposite ends of the street while Sebastian and A-113 would approach from the nearby ally way. This way they wouldn't appear as a group and could observe from different angles.
As Linda approached from the south, her path became blocked by a large group a shoppers that had descended on a local shop for their annual anniversary sale. From the north approach, Matt spotted a member of the Neon Barbarian gang strolling the street. The gang member noticed Matt and came over, brandishing their Boarding saber. Matt simply flashed his beam pistol and the gang member decided it wasn't worth the fight.
Sebastian crept to the edge of the roof of a building at the north end of the street while A-113 wandered down the alley to the south end of the recently burnt building. It didn't take long for the team to spot their target. Unlike the Neon Barbarian gang members with their crude mix of armor and blades, this individual was dressed in a more upscale set of religious gowns. They were standing on the opposite side of the street from the burnt store front and seemed to be smirking as they took in the sight.
Matt and A-113 were able to get into better locations to observe, but Sebastian was too far away to get any good intel, so he decided to keep watch on the team. Linda eventually made her way through the crown of crazed shoppers as the left the store, but then she was being accosted by another member of the Neon Barbarian gang who was offering her a "private" tour of the city. The gang member wouldn't take no for an answer and Linda promptly shot him in the foot when no one was looking. He whimpered off, calling for help, which caused enough of a distraction to alert the individual they were sent to observe. In the distance, sirens could be heard coming closer. As the individual began to come over to see what the commotion was all about, signaling for near by gang members to converge on the block. Matt signaled the team that they had what they needed and it was time to head out and rendezvous back at the ship.
Back at the ship, Matt put together all the information they had gathered sent it off to the contact listed on the data rod. Matt found a 2 credit payment later returned due to the high quality of the data collected.
Bishop later told Matt they'd have to also get more supplies for the Cyber-hand as it had been damaged in his lab while working on some other repairs.