The crew of the Betty, recently completing a salvage job on Atlas, had returned to Whitefall to perform the standard 3 R's: re-fuel, re-equip and relax. Once the crew was ready to go, they headed out from town to town checking on events and looking for work. That's what brought them to the little town of Sweet Tree on the dry side of the moon.

Willy and Atol were sent to reconoiter, but found the town strangely quiet. A quick stop at the Sheriff's office turned up nuthin' since the Sheriff weren't there. The local Town hall was similarly ghostly, but around the corner at the Lazy Lizard Saloon, folks were found eatin', drinkin' and enjoyin' some revelry.

The Sheriff was there, a bit portly as always and certainly Jolly. The boys queried him as to the goings-on, but the Sheriff reported that things were fairly tame, and that he only had some old wanted posters up to scare the out-of-towners. Willy suggested they might be able to provide some Reaver bits to add some extra scare, which the Sheriff found a bit perplexin'. However the conversation turned to light-hearted once again as they discussed leavin' a "used" hangman's noose hangin' over a chair in the Sherifff's office to let everyone know he meant business. That gave the law man a little chuckle.

The boys moved on and took a brief stop at Madame Santos' place. The Madame was a robust full figured woman with dark hair and dressed in the finest silks. Now to clarify, by full figured, we mean large, but large don't sound as polite, now do it?

She greeted them with all the charm money could buy and quickly introduced them to the three available girls. The first one was a short little number that by all reckonin' was probably about four months pregnant. The second was a tall waif-like redhead, and the third was fairly average in nearly every dimension. For a moment the men contemplated their options, but then they decide it might be best to do their deliberation on a full stomach, so they headed over to Suzy's, the local eatery.

As they entered the restaurant they were greated by a chearful young lass, that weren't much taller than five foot. Margarite was her name and she quickly hustled the boys to a table and got 'em drinks. Willy had a water and Atol decided he wanted some protein in shake form. A confused Margarite brought them drinks while Willy and Atol debated the values of "Bulking up".

Soon after, Suzy came out with Willy's meal (Atol was happy with liquid protein). Suzy looked tired with her dusty blond hair all tied up and a large portion of her body covered in what was probably flour. She thanked the boys for stoppin' in since it had been slow that day. Apparently a large group of the townfolk had road out of town to the SouthWest. She didn't know why, but they weren't makin' much of a fuss on the way out.

Willy and Atol finished their food, and headed out. Peering to the SouthWest in a wish that they might see where the folks had went, they were suddenly taken back by a giant explosion. The sky in that direction had turned a colorful torrent of orange and red. Was like the clouds had take ablaze. The Cap chirped in over their com that they'd better hussle back to the ship.

As soon as they set foot on the boat, Tarney closed it up and the cap took off. Willy headed up to see the Captain, and Atol went to the weight room to watch from the windows, and maybe pump a little iron. They were headin' to the Southwest, Willy recon'd that they had already flown farther than a normal horse drawn group could go that day.

Off in the distance they could make out a vessel that had crashed to the surface. As they came closer they could see that it was a big ship, all torn up and painted red. Reavers.

The cap parked Betty about a quarter mile back and told the boys to get to work. Atol and Willy scampered to the skim bikes and hustled out the dock. The cap took off straight away and from first assumptions you might have thought he was long gone.

That gorram vessle had a sizable crack in it's belly as it laid on its side. From the smoke and blackness, staggered about a dozen or so Reavers. Atol and Willy figured on a pincer move. Each would hit a side, Willy with his gun a blazin' and Atol swinging his favorite pipe wrench as he scooted by.

The boys hadn't gotten more than a few yards when the Betty could be heard zoomin' in. The cap parked in a dead stop right above the busted wreck and nailed it with both grapplers. There was a deafinin' roar as the Betty pulled backwards, rollin' the reaver ship upright and puttin' proper pressure on those that were now beneath it. Leavin' the grapples attached, the Cap brought Betty to a rest next to the broken ship.

Upon inspection, Willy discovered a hatch that was now exposed and realized he had forgotten his tools. A quick trip to the ship and back he was burnin' a hole through the locks. Funny thing was Atol get pretty bored waitin' for Willy, So he had already commenced to poundin' the hinges. Atol never got the hatch open but he certainly made a few dents.

Once in the ship, things started to get all kinds of creepy. The ship weren't exactly level, and there was smoke and stank as well as horrific gutteral howls resonatin' from the walls.

The first door they checked was shut tight, but openin' it revealed a couple reavers who'd been slightly tossed about in the main hold of the ship. The boys got off a few rounds, but with little success. Then they got thinkin' that a grenade might be appropriate, so Willy lobbed one in pretty and Atol shut the door.

Hard to believe, but one of the ruttin' Reavers survived and charged the door. The door was opened and in the ensuing fight, Atol dropped his wrench right on the wong ba duhn's groin. To say the least, he went down in a most horrible fashion.

The joys were short lived as another ching soh jumped Atol from behind and gave him a scrape. The boys didn't take well to this, so they peppered him nicely, and once again Atol's wrench made a final blow to the groin. Actually he crushed the reaver's knee into his groin, which was a point of great amusement with the fellas.

The next two of the creatures to fall were comtemplatin' life or some such in their bunks. The first was taken by surprise when Atol lobbed a frag into his room. That ruttin grenade landed right in an old coffee can and when that reaver jumped at the door, it exploded straight up into his face with a nice pop. Left a few of his teeth in the ceilin' if you are curious.

They didn't get the drop on the reaver in the next bunk, but he went down with similar efficiency. I'm not perfectly positive, but I heard he went lookin' for his nuts as he headed to hell like others before him.

Headin' upstairs, Atol and Willy found what musta been the reaver captain frantically messin' around in the cockpit. Willy had the drop on him, so he took his own sweet time aimin' with his pistol. That gorram reaver was mighty surprised watchin his brain matter fly past his eyes, but he weren't yet down for the count. However, Atol was waitin for his moment and unleashed a flurry of bullets. By the end of him, there was nothing left but a foot and a pile that looked similar to a pulled pork sandwich.

You'd think all this noise would be a problem, but with all the shakes and creaks and explosions, not much was noticed. Suppose that's why the boys were able to sneak up on a couple more creeps in the mess hall. 'Tweren't really a mess hall, but they was munchin' and that makes a mess.

Atol didn't feel like waitin' around so he went straight to lobbin' a couple of frags in the room. That's when there was a bit of a bumble. See the Mess Hall had no door, so the buys had to high tail it to get out of the blast. Willy's peg leg gave him a bit of trouble and he stumpled and slid some distance. Atol turned to run only to find Willy sprawled out in his path. Using all his athletic grace, Atol kept from fallin' but he did so by walkin' straight over Willy, leavin' a nasty scuff on poor Willy's backside that kept him from sittin' proper for a week.

The two grenades pretty much did the job. One reaver was still walkin' but Atol finished him off with a burst of fire that caught the beast's arm which twisted it into a glorious spinning fountain of blood.

What would be the final hallway they would check out was a bit toxic and burnt the skin. It was apparent that they must be near the engine room. Just as they were contemplatin' their next act, they fealt a jerk and their stomachs sink. The Captain called in and suggested that if they were done with their tea party they should get back to the ship, which caused Willy to grumble something about an inpatient bastard as he realized the cap had used the grapplers to start lifting the Reaver ship off the ground.

Willy remembers passin' an access port back at the cockpit, so the boys used it to get on the roof of the ship. Now the cap was drivin' Betty good and slow, but it was still a difficult climb. Tarney had lowered a rope ladder down to our couragious duo, but Willy's peg leg had a hard time with it. Half way up the ladder he slipped and fell. Luckily Atol, the athlete that he is, snagged Willy in the air and got him back to the ladder.

Willy deemed the ladder all kinds of stupid, so opted to hold on while Atol pulled him up to the ship. This they did with success.

The Captain took that beat up reaver ship where he takes all of 'em, straight to the Devil's Crater. Apparently well before this moon had been made liveable, some meteor had hit is right hard and left a sizable dent in the crust. It's a wide, deep hole with tall verticle sides. No man, without outside help, could get out of that crater.

So down the ship went into the small bog at the bottom of the crater. The cap always did this with flair. He'd come in low and then pop over the lip, releasing the grapplers in one smooth motion. The ship would arc for a second in the air over the lip and take a noisy roll across the basin. It was almost poetical to watch.

So job done, they guys took a much needed breather. Turned out the cap pulled the reaver ship up when he caught wind of the locals headin' our way. In order to guarantee our bounty he needed to get it movin'. So he may be a merciless impatient bastard, but in a funny way he was lookin' out for the interests of the crew. You gotta like that.