< Turn 21
By the time the crew gets the Hammer of Sisu spaceborn word that Kheeme’s bioweapon missile has already struck a nearby colony. The missile detonated its biomass, creating an instant void ripper spawning pool. The resulting swarm has multiplied quickly and has already decimated the colony and Unity has declared the site a Black Zone - off limits to public due to the dangerous conditions of the swarm.
Knowing Unit’s response would be slow in coming, the crew reaches out to a nearby system defense outposts and offers their services to deal with the problem before the void rippers multiply to a number that can’t be contained any longer.
After signing half a dozen waivers the crew finds themselves on a transport to the overrun colony. Their mission is simple - use the provided det charges to detonate the spawning pool before the void rippers overrun their position.
The Unity transport launches a few sonic beacons to the outreaches of the colony to draw the void rippers - at least temporarily - before dropping the crew in the center of the settlement near the spawning pool.
Despite the distraction there’s still a large number of recently birthed void rippers, so the group decided to split up. Jshal takes Dozer and Thero with him to one flank with the intent of drawing as many bugs their way as possible - which they should be able to handle between Jshal’s hand flamer and the number of bullets Thero and Dozer could spit down range.
Once those three engaged, Willow lead the escort squad up the opposite side, with her, Shadowfang, John, and Reya covering Nisi as the engineer hoverboard’ed her way into the facility as fast as possible. Willow herself begins wading into the fray with her shatter axe while the others post up behind a barricade and unload with heavy automatic weapons to announce their presence with a hail of lead.
As Nisi zips past, the distraction team runs into problems as Jshal’s hand flamer jams, forcing the trio in to hand to hand combat. Although they lacked Willows skill and equipment the team managed to drive them off with only Dozer suffering some minor damage to his new chassis.
Nisi plants the bomb and flees, signaling the others as she does so. After a tactical retreat Willow triggers the bomb, blowing up the spawning pool and killing all of the nearby void rippers in the process.
Jshal triggers the signal flare, and after a few minutes of holding out the Unity transport returns, evac’ing the crew from a successful mission.
With their spawning pool destroyed, the swarm would eventually die out and the colony could be repurposed. It wasn’t a clean win, but it was a start.
Kheeme had escaped and was likely not finished with her vengeance. And there was no telling how many other longer-ranged delayed strikes she had sent before the crew stopped her. But for now, at least… victory.