I decided that I needed to get to know some of the new employees a little better and saw that Tom "Sawdonkey" Cutter was hanging around the depot. We decided that we could best utilize our time together by flying around and seeing how well we worked together.
No sooner had we taken off from Port Olisar did we get a distress call from a station just a short jump away. Sawdonkey and I agreed that a distress call took precedent over our flight maneuvers.
Sawdonkey spooled up the quantum engines of his Cutlass Red and we headed in to help as best we could. Upon arrival We were informed by the sole occupant of a floating escape pod that the station had been taken over by an unknown mercenary group and that some, if not all, of the other inhabitants of the station had been killed. We gathered what intel we could from the shaken survivor and learned that there were at least 6 assailants.
We knew what had to be done. With no way of knowing when, or if, help would arrive or if there were any survivors on board being held captive we had to move in now. The odds were stacked against us at least 3 to 1 but each of us was confident in our ability in a firefight.
Sawdonkey made a fast approach to a landing pad close to an airlock and touched down. We sprinted from the rear hatch of the Cutlass and cycled through the airlock. Once through the airlock we parted ways, each clearing separate portions of the station but remaining in constant comm contact to avoid a friendly fire situation.
While I was clearing the first room I heard two muffled bursts of gunfire from the direction that Sawdonkey had headed. Before I could request status He keyed up on comm's, cool as could be, "Two down."
I did not reply. We each knew to keep the radio as clear as possible in the event either one of us needed the comms for an emergency.
We cleared the rest of the station slow and steady. Each taking out mercenaries as quickly as we came upon them. Soon we had cleared the station and tallied up seven kills between the two of us without even a scratch on our armor.
As we were doing our secondary sweep and gathering up gear that our prey no longer needed we heard the distinct thumps of two shuttles touching down. Sawdonkey and I immediately took up defensive positions and waited in ambush at the airlocks that we thought the shuttles had landed near. We were wrong or the mercenaries were smarted than we anticipated and ran around to the far airlocks. They swarmed in and were able to spread throughout all areas of the station again.
Sawdonkey and I began again the terrifying and deadly chore of clearing rooms in tight quarters. Within a minute of separating I heard a few short burst of gunfire and Sawdonkey yelled out over the radio, "I'm hit!"
I quickly, almost frantically began backtracking and headed in the direction that I heard the gunfire. Keeping Sawdonkey talking on the comms was a priority to make sure that he was still alive and so that he could update me on his location and situation with nearby enemies. With his help we were able to pinpoint the location of the mercenary that had shot him and get me to his vicinity. I was able to get the drop on the mercenary and make it to Sawdonkey and apply some medigel before he bled out.
After getting him patched up we stuck together and were able to successfully clear the remainder of the station without issue albeit a bit dinged up the second go around.
After all was said and done we had totaled 21 confirmed kills and Sawdonkey had a fully decked out armory aboard his Cutlass (Pictured below).
After we retrieved the escape pod and released the 3 remaining inhabitants from a storage room they rewarded us with some credits and we were on our way with spare armor and weapons to pawn for a further reward.
All in all this little side trip turned out to be better practice and a crash course on getting to know one another than just flying a few maneuvers ever could.
