Short cleverly written crime story with a riddle. A French farmer girl asks for your help.
Important: The riddle leading to the hostage's location no longer applies correctly, you must add +1 to the result to arrive at the correct solution. This quest was written for an older Ascii Sector version, which had one less entry in its list of planets.
Author: Quaker2k9
Space combat: moderate, don't try this in a Tarsus
Character combat: oh yes, be well trained and equipped
Length: short, maybe 20 min
Prequel: none
Sequel: A Lady in Trouble - Part 2
File name: lady1.qst
Walkthrough
A bartender tells you a woman on Manurhin (Vichy System) named Sandrine Grosjean is looking for a mercenary. Meeting her in the bar there, she promises 2400 credits to kill a man, who is threatening her family.
If you actually do, she ridicules you and refuses to pay, looks like she just cheated you into doing her dirty work. Instead, you must talk to him, who turns out to be CIS agent Rick Deckard in pursuit of the simple French farmer girl Sandrine Grosjean a.k.a. devious mafia drug dealer Sandra Grinder. You agree to help set a trap for her on Pyrdion (Loye System).
Arriving there, Bianca Brunelli, a fellow CIS agent, runs up to inform you that Deckard has been abducted by Grinder's gang. For whatever reason (who knows how criminals think) they have left a mathematical riddle pointing to their location, in short: Retros transport 68 t weapons in 52 h, Kilrathi 7 t in 4⅓ h, the difference after 26 h is the entry number in the Quine. At this point you can also secure a later date with Ms. Brunelli, if you feel like it.
68t in 52h /2 = 34t in 26h; 7t in 4⅓h x6 = 42t in 26h ⇒ 42-34 = 8. As stated above, this was for an older ASCII Sector version, we need to add +1. ⇒ The 9th entry in the list of planets is BPD-89 in the Belle System.
You haste to the rescue and are attacked by two Demons and a Centurion as soon as you approach the base. They register as Pirates, which makes sense for drug dealers, and they do use missiles. You should too, you can restock on BPD-89. Take out at least one of them quickly so they don't overwhelm your shields.
After you land, you are immediately rushed by five gangsters (2 knives, 2 machine pistols, 1 assault rifle). A smoke grenade can help pick them off one by one, or try a regular grenade, but watch out not to hurt innocent bystanders on the base. The bad guys have "(Gangster)" added to their names.
If you survive head to the bar to find Deckard.
Achievement
???