Le Chat Noir Nightclub - Owned by Les Damnés (Watering hole/Recruitment/Message Dump)

[Catbert]

Six months ago...
Private area of Le Chat Noir...
Les Damnés only...

- Did you see how that gunboat took an antimatter shot and exploded?!
- Mais non, wait until the part when I hit that Order bomber with it!
- Too bad they didn't buy that weird blue-ish stuff of us! We would've made some quick francs or at least gotten some guns!
- Wait, did someone say "guns"?

The whole gang has gathered on the second floor in the club's private section to see some recorded videos of a recent fight in Rishiri. The plan was to sell off some randomly acquired alien materials to the group of Sirians known as the Order, but it all went wrong when the Sirians drew the line in the sand: hand over the materials or be destroyed. The resulting battle left both sides crippled, but the brigands called it a victory nontheless.

- Nobody sets terms to us on our turf! - Christine "La Gauloise" Armand, the boss of the crew, stands up, her glass filled with wine. - Here's to us!

"To Les Damnes!" - The entire crew joins her: the strong and ruthless Claude Bertrand, an ex-Maquis Klara Fabento, the young and careless Fraisse brothers and the usually silent Dubois.

"I'll go check the club." - Paul Fraisse, the more serious of the two brothers, who also worked as one of the bartenders at times, walked down to the main floor, where a party was taking place. As soon as he opened the door that separated the calm and shady private area from the dance floor, all his senses were overwhelmed: the stroboscopes hit his eyes, the smell of various drinks and food hit his nose, and the various sounds of an ongoing party hit his ears.

- Aren't you worried about the Corse, boss? - in the meantime Claude and Christine walked away from the rest of the gang to discuss some business. - I heard that they had some problem with us putting our hands on their tech.
- Relax, Claude, the Corse know better than to start an open war! Although we should probably watch our backs...

The communicator in the room suddenly comes to life, with Paul Fraisse on the line: "Claude, Marcel, we have uninvited guests down there! Grab the guns, it's gonna..."

Paul interrupts his own speech with some loud curses in French, a few shots are heard over the comms, and then the bulletproof window, that separates the main floor from the private area of the club, suddenly explodes into shatters that fly into all directions. It takes the brigands on the upper floor a few precious seconds to recover from the explosion: some of them got scrathced by the flying window shards. But apparently the attack doesn't continue: there is no shooting at the dance floor, but the music went silent.

Christine stands up, a few scratches on her face and arms. She grabs one of the hand guns from the table and rushes to cover behind the railing: with bulletproof window gone, the railing is the only thing that separates the private area from the main floor. In the meantime Claude recovers too, the right side of his face covered with blood. Oblivious to that, Claude grabs a rifle and sneaks down the ladder that Paul used minutes earlier: he wants to get an angle on whoever thought it was a good idea to barge into the club like that.

This is my invitation! - a man walks around the devastated dance floor, talking to one of the guards, who lies next to a broken table. Apparently, the attacker stabbed the guard in the stomach with a knife. There's also a used single-shot rocket launcher lying on the floor.

In the meantime, more armed cutthroats walk into the bar, and the man starts speaking loud, so that everyone in the club can hear them: "So, Les Damnés... You thought you owned Boulogne? You thought you owned the entire Gallia? - the man interrupts his speech with a brief chuckle. - Well, that's about to change."

Christine stands up, recognizing the man's voice: "Alain Baudin. Of all the people to barge into my club like that... must've paid big money for these guys to tag along with you!" She keeps her gun ready, just in case, but she knows that the man loves dramatic moments. Alain Baudin was just another small time thug on Boulogne. He did enjoy some level of respect, but this time he managed to bring along a couple of dozens of cutthroats.

- It doesn't matter. Besides, the club is mine now, whether you like it or not. Be a good girl, Christine, and tell your thugs to drop their guns, and I may even let you live to see the first few days of my rule. - He looks at the bar counter, that now serves as a cover for Paul Fraisse, who already fetched his shotgun.

In the meantime Claude sneaks back to the not-so-private-now area of the club and tries to signal Christine that there are too many guys with Baudin - she just makes a quick jesture that could be roughly interpreted as "I know, right?! Think of something!", before turning back to Alain, looking down on him from the balcony.

- Get killed by a broken guillotine!

The not-so-subtle signal phrase starts the fight: Marcel, being the club's DJ and a notorious poser, grabs two handguns from the table and rushes towards the railing, turning the music on as he runs; Paul fires his shotgun from behind the counter, forcing the attackers to find cover - that buys Marcel some time to jump over the railing, guns blazing, and land behind the counter next to his brother.

In the meantime Christine starts shooting at the club invaders from the balcony, Klara joins her shortly, an SMG in her hands. Dubois still hasn't recovered from the explosion, and Claude is nowhere to be seen.

The fight goes on for a while, bottles exploding, stroboscopes flashing, the music playing and shots being fired in all directions. Eventually the attackers push forward, trying to outflank the Fraisse brothers, who still hide behind the counter and shoot back.

This is when Claude reappears, lugging a 5-barrel rocket laucher called Le Grand Gibert: as strong as Claude is, he barely holds one launcher, unlike the legendary brigand who could wield two of those, according to the stories. "Glad that Maquis lass didn't buy you earlier!" Claude sets the 5 autonomous rockets to low damage and maximum spread, and prepares to fire.

Klara is the first person to notice Claude's return. Lost for words, she simply points Christine at Le Grand Gibert. At the same time the Fraisse brothers notice it too; Alain and his thugs are the last to notice this; the voices of all people join into one:

- CLAUDE, NON!

And then Claude pulls the trigger.