Since the three of you are seperated from the starfighter battle and are in close enough proximity to chat on your commlinks, I've set up a PM so you can discuss what you guys plan to do in regards to your situation.  That way as soon as the starfighter battle is over we can rapidly fast forward to you guys.

What you know to date (I'll update as you gather more info).

* The shuttle has jumped in front of you and is now closing.  It goes a lot faster then the freighters so will eventually catch you.

* There is no jump point you can reach before the shuttle catches you.

* At full speed the freighters and Z-95's would need 100 minutes to regroup.  This wont happen as the Z-95's are still in combat.

* At full speed the Cloakshapes will need about 110-120 minutes to regroup.

* The shuttle will catch the freighters in approximately 85 minutes (assuming freighters flee from the shuttle at full speed and shuttle maintains full speed)

* The freighters have no shields or weapons.

* Lambda shuttles have shields and 3 x double-blaster cannons (two sets forward, one rear).  They can carry around 20 soldiers with full gear.

Game on!  Better get to discussing!  Aryan, you've been back with us for about 3 weeks now with not a single post.  Please contribute if you wish to continue playing.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:58, Sun 14 Nov 2010.

We run as fast as we can towards our fighters and prepare to be boarded in the meantime.

The freighters had turned and were heading back towards the fighters at full speed.  On the lead vessel, Captain Tobias was having a war of words with his engineer over the comm.

"I don't care about your precious engines.  Rip the guts out of 'em if you have to.  I need speed and I need it now.  We don't outrun this shuttle and your engines will be spread across space in little pieces, or serving some new pirate engineer after they board us, sell us into slavery or if we're lucky just kill us."

The engineer could be heard grumbling but soon had the engines at 110% capacity.  Tobias turned to Xil and shook his head; it wasn't enough.

Exilim nodded to the Captain to indicate that he knew it wouldn't be enough "We can all get to thinking about solutions, we have some time." He called over the ships comm again for the security team, such as it was brief and update them.

He sat down to think for a minute while he waited, however did not come up with any overly brilliant solutions.

Getting onto the Talons secure comm he contacted Sheila and Aryan "I haven't got much in the way of inspiration other than the fact we could split up the convoy. We may not be able to out run them outright but by splitting up we force them into making a decision on who to chase. It may give the others time to regroup with our fighters. What do you think?"

He continued to rack his brains as he waited for a response.

In reply to Exilim Nallis (msg #4):

"if we do that, who has the best chance of surviving, or rather, loses us the least?"

OOC:  There is an equal number of freighter personnel on each ship (1 commander, 1 pilot, 1 navigator, 1 engineer, 2 security, 1 Talon).  There isn't any significant difference in the freighter crews.  Tobias is the most senior captain and the only one do have had combat experience (he served on military transports during the Clone Wars).  If you want specific info on the rest of the crew, tell me what you're looking for.

As far as you are aware, the freighters are essentially the same.



Tobias, hearing Xil's conversation with Sheila, makes a suggestion.

"Not sure exactly what you're planning, but if you're looking to get specific crews on specific shifts, we might be able to set up a temporary cofferdam between the freighters and move crew around.  Downside of that is we have to stop and spend about fifteen minutes setting it up.  Shuttle will catch up to us a lot faster."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:42, Wed 17 Nov 2010.

"If we were to do that Captain we would have to somehow make sure they follow the right freighter. I guess it's possible but we would have to make sure that they don't pick up on that. I'll get back to you shortly on that."

Getting back on the Talons secure comm he relayed the option presented by Captain Tobias to Sheila and Aryan. Could they afford the time that it would take to achieve.

OOC: Was going to wait for Aryan to add something but it hasn't happened yet. This will post will give a little extra time.

Aryan, snapping out of his train of thought, speaks into the comm.  "Wesa have to make sure that they board the right one..if they choose thatsa one, we can put more on that ship and set up ambush points on the ship.  This may cost us a ship, but two will be spared.

Aryan scratches his head, then speaks again. "Setting ambush points should be easy enough...we just have to prepare right.  With teh right defence weapons and luck, we can defend the points.  The only issue is manpower and how well armed they are.  One grenade can alter that plan totally"

In reply to Aryan Jai (msg #8):

"'I'd say we move everyone but an absolute minimum crew, to one ship, let them catch and board it, and hope we can defeat them, or move everyone but the absolute minimum needed to set off the self destruct, let them catch that one and sacrifice the one ship to get them.  We'll have to set up spoofers so they think there's a full crew on that one, or not the overcrew if we fight it out.  If we do the self destruct, I'll volunteer."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 24 Nov 2010.

The commander of Sheila's vessel turns to her as he hears her outlining her plans.

"Uh, these ships don't have a self destruct function.  I think they only put things like that on military ships."

In reply to Master Servious (msg #10):

"Surely we cuold rig something if we decided that was the way we wanted to go, we're sitting on a load of fuel. We could overload the engines.  But it's a suggestion, that's all, not the plan."

A little extra info to help push things along.

After a little number crunching (and a successful astrogation check by Xil) you now know the following:

You know already that at maximum speed, the shuttle will catch you in about 85 minutes.  I've crunched some extra numbers for you to chew.

Based on my numbers, assuming the freighters fly away from the shuttle at max velocity, and the fighters will attempt to regroup at max velocity, in 85 minutes when the shuttle catches the freighter:

* The freighters & shuttle will be about 400km within the gravity well

At this point in time:
* The freighters will be ~40mins from the gravity well at max speed
* The shuttle will be ~30 mins from the gravity well at max speed
* The Z-95's will be about 30 mins from the convoy and about 50 minutes from the gravity well
* The Cloakshapes will be about 40 minutes from the convoy and about 60 minutes from the gravity well


So in short, if the shuttle decides to turn up and destory the convoy you're screwed, totally and utterly.  However, why use a shuttle for such a job when you have fighters?  It is more likely they brought the shuttle to board and capture a freighter (or three) which gives you some choices.

Some logical choices (to me) are to:

* Abandon one or more freighters - this is costly, both to Phindar Petroleum and the Black Talons as both need all 3 freighters intact in order to make money (losing even one freighter may bankrupt the company, and perhaps the Talons).  On the upside, the time it takes for them to board/capture the freighter 'might' be enough time to allow the other ships to regroup with the fighters.

* Attempt to delay the shuttle somehow - if the shuttle is kept 'busy' long enough, the Z-95's can catch up.  On the down side, you'd need to delay them for 15 minutes to make it impossible for a freighter to escape and 25 minutes for the shuttle to escape.  Note these times are after they've caught up to you

* Get bloody!  The only way you can fight them is if they board you.  Then you would have to face armed boarding parties.  Also if they get wise they might blow the freighters away!  Still it offers a chance to fight back and if you're REEEEALY lucky, capture a shuttle (hell you took Nightshrike in a similar way so why not a shuttle)?  This is also very high risk as they could have up to 20 armed and armoured troops on that vessel while you only have one talon, 2 (minimally trained) security guards and some civilian crewers.


Every possibility has strong pros/cons.  Of course you might come up with a 4th option I've missed.  Good luck!
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Mon 29 Nov 2010.

The commander of Sheila's ship nodded as she suggested igniting the fuel.

"So what is the plan?  Aren't you mercenaries here for just this situation?"

Xil shook himself at little to get his mind re-focused on the job at hand. They couldn't really afford to lose even one of the freighters. A fireball might be effective but would in real terms mean that they would still not come out of the overall situation ahead.

He glanced quickly at Captain Tobias and then got onto the Talons secure comm "Three and Eight as much as I love the sight of a fireball it is not going to achieve us our end goal. Three I need you make it look like your freighter had developed some engine problems so that it flies a little slower that the other two. It is going to be our bait." he took a deep breath and continued "We will briefly hook up the three freighters as suggested by Captain Tobias,then get all Talons, security personnel and anyone else that can be spared and can fire a weapon onto the bait freighter. We also need to somehow make it appear that the opposite has occurred and that the bait freighter has lost people not gained them and that the two fleeing ships have got more people on board than they actually do."

Exilim wondered if this gambit would pay off, it heavily relied on a guess that the shuttle didn't want to destroy the freighter but capture it, he hoped he was right.

"Once the transfer of personnel has occurred all freighter will head towards our fighters, the bait ship lagging a little behind. Questions?"

He will wait a couple of minutes before initiating the docking of the three freighters.

I have a few ooc questions!

* How will you sell this deception?  Three ships linking together and then two flying off would make me suspect one of two things:  you're abandoning the freighter to try and escape or you're trying to make it look that way to set up an ambush.  Obviously you're doing the latter but trying to make it look like the former.

* Ships have scanners and the shuttle could scan for lifeforms before boarding.  There are ways to fool scanners (radiation leak, jammers, etc) but it's another deception you have to sell.

* Where do you set up your ambush?  Obviously an airlock is a good place to set up an ambush as you have lots of baddies in a tightly packed area.  Of course this is dangerous as the shuttle could get warning and lock the hatch.  Even worse, a stray shot or explosive could open the area to space.  Explosive decompression!  Yum!  Also there are four seperate airlocks on two decks they could lock on to.

* Whilst more is merrier, do you really want too many of the civilians around in a firefight?  They're more likely to panic then be of great use.  Also you still need crews to fly the other freighters.


I found a declpan for a CEC Action Tranpsort VI (you're on a IV but it's as close as I could get).  Thought it might help a little:

http://deckplans.00sf.com/CEC/Action6.html
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Mon 06 Dec 2010.

OOC:
Sorry in the delay in posting.

You pose some good questions and as for answers any help from Sheila and Aryan would be appreciated.

As for the civilians, you're right, we should limit them. A possible solution to some of the overall number issue is to have the Talons and security personnel replace them.

Any other suggestions team?

In reply to Exilim Nallis (msg #16):

Well, if we put the talons and the security guys on the one ship, yes, that takes care of the excess peoplethen we have to convince the bad guys that this is the one ship they can take.  I'm not real sure how to do that.  We can fake problems, in which case, they might go after the others and come back and get us..

The Navigator on the middle freighter was standing around since Sheila took his station a while ago. The enemy ship were crawling ever closer on the monitors. He had done the calculations in his head over and over, they were not getting away in time.

He leaned over and tapped the Talon on the shoulder. "Miss Talon, if you want help in fooling the pirates, then I might have a suggestion."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:00, Thu 16 Dec 2010.

"I'm listening?"

She can take suggestions,

"To get them to chase the ship we want them to chase, we have to convince them that it´s valuable and easy to take. If we let slip something during radio chatter, perhaps forgetting to encrypt a few messages, then they might attack the ship full of security and mercenaries, thinking it´s civilians with a cargohold full of money. We could dock together and transfer people around, while we make it sound like" *nervous laugh* "You Talons abandoned all the civilians in one ship while running away with the other two. What do you think?"

Sheila thinks a moment.  "WEll, they don't know how many of us there are. But it takes more than one of us to crew a ship. And they probably have a decent idea of the number of people on the ships.  Numbers wise, we're either going to have to have the two ships escape with an absolute  skeleton crew, or convince them that some of the 'civilians' have turned and are coming with us.

"Well, perhaps you took some of us with you to help fly the ship, but not many enough to be a danger." He was painfully aware that he was advicing the Talons on how to best escape by leaving the crew to die, but if the Talons didn´t think it would have been a good plan, then the pirates wouldn´t either.

<OOC: Sorry for my absence guys...i've had 2 weeks now of internet troubles..kinda a bummer.  Sorry for my lack of posts.  i will try to post as often as i can, but until my internet is back up online, that is an unknown>



Aryan, looking out the windows at the battle, remains still.  Snapped from his thought by shelia, he grabs his comm. "The plan he has is sound..pulling itsa off may be risky, but it's a chance we may have to take.

Aryan absently scratches his ear. "Isa will need some good soldiers...some that knows the ships and can fight.  with a small group, isa may be able to hold groups of them iin the halls and give the others time.   whats you think?"

"So, shall we put the plan into action? It will take a little while to syncronize velocities and move people around, so we might as well get moving." The Navigator is leaning on Sheilas seat, itching to get back into his own place and sort things out.

You might need to explain the plan to me!  Xil was proposing having the lead freighter fake engine problems.  I think the plan was to then have the freighters link up in order to evacuate the freighter and 'abandon ship' (which explains why the ships linked up but then you need to ensure they can't detect anyone on board.  Also need to hope they choose a ship with damage - they still have to escape with it after all).

Now Merreck's plan seems to be going in a different direction, with the Talons abandoning a ship full of civilians to the mercy of the pirates.  Has possibility, (most pirates would abandon civilians, so why not mercs.  Would take a good bluff and some careful planning - pirates are gonna expect crew on board so will be wary for trouble).

Either plan has its stengths and weaknesses.  But you actually need a plan that's concrete and agreed upon before you initiate it (and Xil is still in charge so you need him to okay it).


Things I'd recommend you work out before you initiate any plan is:

* How you plan to transfer personnel around (i.e. who is going where)
* What each person on each freighter is supposed to do
* What deception are you trying to sell (i.e. engine trouble, abandoning the crew, etc)
* How you plan to sell the deception (all for naught if the shuttle targets another ship)
* How do you ensure the shuttle board the freighter and don't just blow it up? (you'll need to ensure the shuttle doesn't smell a trap and detach from the airlock)

The pirates clearly aren't stupid (this adjustment to tatics after their orginial ambush failed demonstrates that).  They're not just going to blindly go along with whatever you plan (the veteran Talons can attest to that)!

Better put those planning hats on.

"This is my plan. I´ll tell the other freighters that you Talons said to dock us together, we match speed and couple together the ships. We move people around, gathering anyone who can use a blaster on this ship, leaving the other ships with a skeleton crew. While they fly away, this last ship wait for a while, then start hailing them on the com, telling the Talons to come back and help, show how much credits we´ve managed to gather for them should they return, wail at them for not doing their work, plead to a supposed hostage to rethink helping the mercs. All in all this should make the pirates come to the conclusion that your mercenaries turned on the rest of the crew to save yourselves."

"Lost and abandoned, the ship full of "civilians" consider their chances, they are after all the easiest target. They come to the conclusion that perhaps surrender really is the best plan, and so slow down while sending a few messages to the pirates, trying to come to some agreement, very much desperate. Then it´s just a matter of waiting for the pirates to come onboard, which is when we do your thing, mercenary."

OOC:
Pilots, Commanders, Navigators and Engineers to the two running ships, at most 10, Security, Talons, the traitor pilot, and probably Merreck, perhaps a few engineers too, on the staying ship, at least 11.
Merreck at communication, Talons and security to set up the ambush.
Deception hinge on being convincing on the com, as well as being the easiest target, they could probably take it and catch up to the others later.
Not much guarantee that they won´t blow us up but a sack full of credits should help, they just need to get onboard and get it. An effective ambush that make it harder for the pirates to throw us out of the airlock is to lock everyone into the living spaces, secretly diverting control to us so we can get out if we want to. They have a clear ship, crew confined, ready to commandeer and fly away. If they require us to meet them out in the open then we hide weapons there in case they start shooting people.
Definetly not a perfect plan, so anyone with any other suggestions, please go ahead.

Tobias listened in at the navigator's plan.  When he was done he turned to Xil.

"Sounds like it could work.  Mercenaries are known to cut and run at the sign of danger.  However, I will not order my crew to serve on the ambush ship.  They're not soldiers after all.  I can put the call out for volunteers if you wish but not sure how many you'll get.  You'll have one of my navigators at least, though I'm certainly starting to wonder if he really is a navigator.  He talks and plans more like one of you."

"I volunteer to join the group on the ambush freighter.  If the convoy commander is on board the vessel it should lend strength to your deception."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:15, Mon 20 Dec 2010.

"Well, the idea of leaving them behind means we don't have to hide the total of lifesigns on the ship, but we might have to hide where they are. Because the last thing we want them to do is get the wind up and detach the shuttle.  We would need to take that shuttle first, basically.  They could blow the airlock, and even if they just detached, they have weopons, we don't (IRC"


(ooc diverting control to the living spaces and keeping it diverted would be how hard?)

"Sorry Captain, it looks like I watch too many action holos, but those things sometimes come in usefull. I will use every little scarp of information we have if it helps us get away from those pirates. I´m not dying out here."

"You are correct Talon, we might have to look into jamming their sensors, at least during the counterattack, or lock ourselves in right at the airlock so we can get through to them quickly. We have plenty of time to do the modifications, right? What do we have in regards to weapons?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:31, Mon 20 Dec 2010.

Not really.  The longer you take, the less distance the other two freighters can put between themselves and the shuttle.  The more time you take, the more likely the shuttle might still try to attack them.




Every security officer has a sidearm and a blaster rifle.  Other then that, the only weaponry you have is what the Talons (and Merreck) brought with them.

OOC: Many sorries for not posting promptly, RL has a way of taking over, especially at this time of year.

Have been reading and catching up. Merreck's plan on the balance of probabilities is more feasible and more accurately reflects what hired help would do, so lets go with that plan.

Xil turns to Captain Tobias "Send out your call for volunteers and thank you."

On the Talons secure comm he says "Three, Eight get your crews ready to dock the freighters together and transfer personnel, no time to waste. We will work out ambush plans once the transfer is done, it's not going to be easy to cover everywhere." He hands his secure comm over to Captain Tobias "Use this, we don't want eavesdroppers just yet."

Exilim moved off to the side slightly to begin the task of reviewing who was actually needed on what freighter to make this ruse appear as realistic as possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:01, Thu 23 Dec 2010.

A few things:

Tobias will either need a Talon commlink or to use the freighter comms to co-ordinate the merging of three ships.  The Talon comm lets him do it silently but that might make the pirates suspicious.  So you might want him to brief the crews via Talon comm and then do your 'fake message' over the freighter comms (which the shuttle will hear).

Also need you to work out who is going on what vessel so we can move on.

"Hey, Talon, could you explain the plan to the other captains over your comm? The pirates are definetly listening in on the ship-to-ship communication, so we can´t use that. Tell them we are docking to move civilians from this ship as a means to fight the pirates, we can take the rest later. Oh, and tell their engineers to get ready to help us over here. Now if you would, I have a three-ship docking procedure to plan." Merreck get Sheila to move from her seat and quickly identify a good rendezvouz-point that doesn´t loose them too many minutes.

"Okay, everyone, shut up, I´m using the open comm now, make a sound and the pirates will hear it too."

Merreck looks around until it´s quiet, then activates the open communication, sending a message to the other freighters, easily intercepted by the pirates that are pursuing them. "Hi guys, holding up? Listen, the Merc told me that we needed to dock the ships together, they needed to meet up for something. Waste of time if you ask me but whatever. Let´s just get it over quickly, okay? How´s these coordinates look like?" Merreck sends coordinates for a good place to dock the ships that is ahead of them all, noone has to divert much from their present course. "See you there in a few." He closes down the channel. The second freighter divert its course half a minute later, heading towards the rendezvous point.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:10, Thu 23 Dec 2010.

Sheila will vacate the place for the navigator and go get her stuff, so she can be prepared to do whatever is needed and round up the security men and their guns.

Merreck spend the next few minutes chattering over the comm with the other two ships, coordinating the docking with their pilots. It´s a complicated procedure, docking three ships at the same time.

He makes sure to dock his ship in the bottom of the 3-ship stack, it was supposed to be the ship that the Talons left the civilians in, it´s much easier to contain people in one of the ships on the edge than in the middle because that would leave 2 airlocks to guard, and with artificial gravity, the two ship on top would keep the height advantage.

A though occured to him. "Hey, Talon, what about sabotaging the airlock, or make it look that way? The pirates won´t think it beneath you to leave a detonite trap in our airlock after you disengage. That would force them to dock in the lower airlock, so it takes more time for them to move through the cargo holds to the bridge, but also longer for us if we are boarding the shuttle."

Tobias handed Xil back his commlink which he'd been using to drum up volunteers.

"Well the bad news is I only had one crewman volunteer.  The good news is that is was the engineer on the third vessel.  So you have a minimum crew at least.  I can fly the bird, you've got Merreck in the second chair and our volunteer to work engineering for you.  That frees you up to keep us all alive somehow."

Sheila will grin at Merrick.  "That would be great, you know how to set them or of any on your ship that does? Not my speciality. Or give me the little com back and I'll ask the boss."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:57, Fri 24 Dec 2010.

Merreck gets an embarassed look on his face. "Oh, I was hoping you guys would make the trap, but sure, I can probably throw something together, I´m handy. I just need a confirmation, before we dock the ships together, do we want to rigg the entrance over there," Merreck is pointing to the bridge docking station, "or the one at the cargo hold? Forcing them through the cargo hold will buy us a lot of time when they board, but it´s longer to move if we want to th the same to them."

OOC: Not 100% where the airlocks are, just assuming there is one on the top and bottom, apart from the main cargo lift. Read something about a way to move people without spacesuits using a kind of tractorbeam, does our ship have that? Could be a good way to attack them.

Sheila has the comm, Merreck asked her to forward messages, he didn´t take it from her.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:40, Sat 25 Dec 2010.

Xil gave Captain Tobias a small grin "Willing volunteers are usually hard to come by. At any rate, lets get these ships docked together."

Xil moves away from the Captain & crew. He gets on the Talons secure comm "Three, Eight we have just enough volunteer  crew to fly the ship without having to use one of us. We will have to look at encouraging more to be locked up out of harms way somewhere if we are to sell this deception."

The next ten minutes were a mad flurry of planning velocities, vectors and all the technicalities of linking three freighters together while travelling at speed.  It was a tricky maneuver which required Sheila and Merreck working hard together to crunch the numbers, some precision flying by the pilots and the direction of Captain Tobias, who led it all.  Merreck spent a lot of time on the comm, co-ordinating with the other navigators, throwing in choice comments every now and again about stupid mercenaries wanting to even do this in order to maintain the charafe.

At the end of the time, one minor collision and three failed attempts to dock, all three freighters were joined.

The transfers didn't take long.  The commander of the middle vessel took command of Tobias' vessel and the engineer swapped with the one from the third vessel.  The two security guards and one of the Cloakshape pilots also volunteered when they saw the others coming aboard.  Aryan and Xil also quickly came across.

Soon all of the 'decoy team' were standing on the bridge.  The pilot took the helm while Merreck assumed the navigator's chair again.  Captain Tobias took the commander's chair.

The room was fairly full with Xil, Aryan and Sheila standing near Tobias.  The two security guard stood huddled together talking and the engineer stood in a corner alone, face buried in a datapad.


OOC:  So the centre freighter (which you're all on) has Captain Tobias, Pilot, Engineer, Security Guards x 2, Sheila, Xil, Aryan and Merreck (currently acting as navigator).  The other two freighters are ready to break away when ordered.  Time to put whatever plan you have in motion.

The security guards have a blaster pistol and rifle each.  The captain and pilot both have a blaster pistol.  The Talons and Merreck have whatever weapons and equipment they brought with them.

Merreck turn away from his console, there is no need for messages for now. He takes out and checks his blaster pistol, still at full charge, naturally. "Okay, shall we put this plan into motion? We have a few things to do here after, plant the fake bombs and all that, plan ambushes, perhaps a way to jam lifeform sensors." Merreck hope this works out well, although he has his doubts, it´s definetly the weirdest stunt of his, so far.

OOC: The plan is that the other ships break away at maximum speed while the decoy wait a while before calling out, pretending perhaps that we were trapped, not getting out to reach the bridge until after a few minutes, also makes us the obvious target, being closest.

Xil looked around the people gathered in the room, he hoped that it would be enough to pull off yet another bluff on the Talons part.

"Everyone ready? If not too bad I'm afraid." He turns to Merreck "Instruct the other two freighters to break free and high tail it out of here."

He waits while the instructions are given and then speaks once again "For those that don't remember I'm Four, with me are Three and Eight. Thanks to Captain Tobias and all of you for coming along. To make this simple; we need to make all but one dock appear rigged with explosives of some sort. After ten or so minutes make it sound like we were left behind, plead or beg for the others to return and set up our ambush. Questions?"

"What about the escape pods?" the captain interjects.  "Mercenaries wouldn't just leave them for us.  I guess we either need to eject them or make them look like they've been sabotaged somehow."
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:56, Fri 31 Dec 2010.

"Eject the majority, we'll rig a few to make them look damaged." he didn't add the obvious point that they may well be needed.

The engineer nods at Exilim's comment.  "I better get busy then."  The engineers voice seems a bit high in pitch, almost effeminate...  Just overly young, most likely.

The engineer moves quickly to the nearest escape pod and begins to work.  The thought is to eject all but what's needed for those still aboard and make those appear non-functional.  Stuck actuators the thought hits, perfect.  These old freighters wouldn't be in the best of shape and maintenance on them is down right notorious.  Quickly, the "sticky actuator" is wired to the control to disengage the thrusters.

Merreck turn around in his chair, waiting for now. He wondered if the mercenaries were as cool and fearless as they appeared. Flying an unarmed and slow ship, they were so helpless if the plan didn´t work flawlessly. This would have been a good time for praying if he believed in anything but luck.

The engineer ducked out and went to work.  After less than ten minutes, the engineer was back and gave a quick thumbs up to Xil, indicating the escape pods were ready.

With all in readiness, Tobias nodded to Xil to get things going.

"All right.  The civvies are packed in tight.  We're heading back, let's get out of here." Xil said on ship's comms so the pirates could undoubtedly hear.

Allowing a minute for the faux jailers to run to one of the other free ship, the other freighters detatched.  The decoy crew gathered around and watched as the other two freighters quickly fired up their engines and took off at maximum thrust in the direction of the starfighters.  All stood in silence as the enormity of their task weighed in on them.  They were the bait.  What if the pirates just blew the tanker away or ignored them completely.

Captain Tobias broke the silence, turning to Merreck and Xil.  "Based on our new speed, or lack thereof, I estimate we have less than twenty minutes before they reach us.  I imagine you have jobs for us all to do."



OOC:  Since the ship is essentially adrift, nobody needs to man a station meaning everyone on board is free to do whatever you need done.

"I'll help rig the 'explosives, if you want but I'm not good with explosives."

EIther after the rigging, or if they decline her assistance, Sheila will find the medbay, or what passes for it on the freighter and pull out medpaks.  SHe will also check her guns and powerpaks.

Merreck get down from his chair. "Explosives, right, follow me, Talon 3, I need to get some things together." Merrick gather one of his blaster power packs, as well as some spare wires and simple electronics, for the base explosive device, then get some smaller fuel cells to increase the blast yield beyond the power pack. When he had everything, he made his way to the

While walking, Merreck tries to make conversation with Talon 3. "So, Talons, hunh? Are you a big outfit? Do you do a lot of jobs like this? Guarding freighters, fighting off pirates?"

Xil shook his head, that Merreck really had a thing for wanting explosives. "Three, Four. All I want is something that will pass for a rigged hatch. I don't want anyone getting experimental trying to actually improvise an explosive. It would be preferable if you disabled them at the same time. Understood?" Xil said over the Talons comm.

"Captain Tobias, I want you two," indicating to Mika as well "to seal off any doorways/ hatches that will allow a work around to the bridge area. This will be our last fall back position." he paused and waited for acknowledgment and then continued "Before you head off though, I'd like your idea of a suitable bottle neck that will allow us to surprise the boarders. Needs to be away from their entry point of the cargo bay hatch."

Once he has the requested information he will take the rest of the crew and set up the ambush, planning fall back positions along the way.

In reply to Merreck Toluga (msg #50):

Sheila answered Xil.. "Heard and understood."

"You heard him, no trying to kill ourselves.  As for the group, No, not that big.  THis is my second mission with the group, my first as a part of it,  I'm the medic."

"Okay, something that looks dangerous, but isn´t. Good thing I have you nearby if it blows up on me, right? Okay, so you are new with the Talons? What did you do before and how did you end up with a mercenary outfit?" Merreck makes conversation while thinking about how to put it all together in a way that looks dangerous enough.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:08, Sun 02 Jan 2011.

Aryan, standing on, looks on silently as Merrick and Sheliawalk away to conduct the rigging of the explosives.  Aryan looks at the others.  "Wesa better prepare for the worst."  Aryan points at the two security guards.  "Yousea two...follow me."

The gungan, getting stock of all the weapons, inspects the airlocks.  "Isa wants a defensable position away from here, as ordered, but we need so wesa can bottleneck them before they come in.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:05, Fri 07 Jan 2011.

I've been asked a few questions about the ship outlay so I'm going to give you all my take on the ship.  That way we're all on the same page.  For this I'm using http://deckplans.00sf.com/CEC/Action6.html.  While it's an Action VI deckplan and not an Action IV it's the best I could find.

Important locations
Bridge:  Deck 7 Forward
Engineering Room: Deck 9 rear (though engines mostly accessed on Decks 6-8)


Possible Entry points
Airlocks: Deck 3 forward (1 port, 1 starboard).  I'm assuming the rectangular items on this deck are the airlocks.  This is the logical docking point for them.  Interestingly, from the way the ship layout is, you probably don't need to sabotage an airlock because they both open into the same room so it doesn't really matter which one they use!

Force Cylinder Airlocks: Deck 2 forward (1 port and 1 starboard).  I'm assuming these are smaller, designed for cargo and personnel, not actually docking.

Main cargo ramp (Deck 1 rear).  The large blue rectangular object seems to me to be a freight elevator.  How else do you load the bulk of the cargo on board?  Highly unlikely they'd try to enter here as you'd have to decompress the ship!


Level Access
Now different level can be accessed by:
* Forward Elevator (blue circle): accesses Decks 1-8
* Aft Elevator (blue circle): accesses Decks 4-9
* Freight Elevator (blue rectangle): accesses Decks 1-5



Hope this helps.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:38, Mon 03 Jan 2011.

Mika fumbles in the tool kit and pulls out a small micro-wielder, ready to wield shut whatever hatches are indicated.  "Right, you point, I'll seal."

In reply to Merreck Toluga (msg #53):

"I flew Tie Fighters and I was very good at it.  It took me 5 words and less that 10 seconds to torpedo that career. I worked for a couple other groups, then  hired on as a guide for the last mission and was able to stay with them. "

She will help however she can.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:25, Wed 05 Jan 2011.

Exilim frowns momentarily after learning more about the layout of the freighter. mmm seems the main airlocks  open into the same place. Damn, that's no help to us he mutters to himself.

Having another look he turns to Mika "I want you to lock down all the lifts except the aft one. That's the way we are going to channel them to where we want.  Then we need to make sure that they can't get into any critical areas."

"Hey, Three, could you hold this thing for me? And don´t shake it." Merreck hand over the fuel cell to Sheila while he connect a few cables to a power pack. "So, you were a Tie Fighter pilot? I´m impressed, the Imperial Navy only accept the best! If it´s not too much to ask, why did they kick you out? I hope you don´t think I´m prying." He´s keeping track of the conversation even as he tinkers with the makeshift bomb.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:54, Wed 05 Jan 2011.

She shrugged, then did as she was told with the fuel cell.  "I got tired of having to work twice as hard as the guys and still having to sleep with the superior officers to get the postings or promotions.  Then I questioned an order and decided the better part of valor was jumping ship."

"Hunh? Didn´t know it was that hard for female pilots. What made you leave? That´s a big deal in the Navy, right?" He sounds concerned and slow down the tinkering.

Sheila eyes Merrick.  "What do you think happens to officers who question orders?  And yes, if you turn me in, you'll probably get a reward and if I get caught in a situation where they don't want to use me, I'm probably dead."

He tilts his head. "The Talons have all kinds, don´t they? Don´t worry about me, I won´t tell anyone, problem with authority, rubs me the wrong way." He give Three a mischievous smile and get back to tinkering.

A deserter, the Talons run a strange business.

The engineer nods at the instruction to disable all lifts save the aft one.  Not wanting to permanently disable them, though that would certainly be easiest, Mika opts to attempt to simulate a overload that's taken the other lifts offline.  In fact, while at it, Mika will try to modify a few things on the ship, fluctuating lighting, surges in the grav plates, a few hot gas leaks, trying to make it appear that the ship suffered an overload, affecting a fairly wide spread of systems.

The gungan, returning with his gear on him, looks at the guards and joins the others..  "Wesa need to keep decks 7 to 9 clear...the engineering and the bridge.  Deck 8 has easy access to both areas, so this would be a good staging area for any groups to come.  we need to hold here, givens our limited numbers."

Aryan looks at Captain Tobias.  "I suggest 3 teams.  one here in the bridge, With yourself, Merrick and the pilot.  The engineer, one of the guards and Xil in Engineering, Leaving myself, Shelia and a guard as backup and defence of deck 8"

"Given our numbers, we maysa be hard pressed, but if wesa can sends them where we want, we cans set up defensable positions here" Pointing in the hallway.

"Whens they open the doors, they'll be suprised...before they know what hit them, we'll have the advantage"

He looks at the captain. "If they hit the Bridge or engineering without hittings us, we can access them quickly as backup, as well as hit them on two flanks." The gungan smiles. "Risky, but itsa might work"

Tobias tried to picture the plan in his head, but tactics were not his strength, especially not on the ground.

"I defer to your judgement sir.  My crew is at your disposal, just remember they're not trained to handle firefights, they're civilian crew."

"Though I have to wonder, how do you plan to prevent the shuttle crew from learning of our attack and detatching?  If they suspect a trap surely they will detatch and destroy this ship?  I doubt pirates care if they kill other pirates."

The captain wondered if he was overstepping his bounds a bit; surely these mercanaries knew what they were doing.  They acted like they did.  Still, his primary concern still had to be his crew and his ship.

"Okay, almost finished, I can make it into an armed bomb, connect it to either door, or both, to blow when it moves, or I can sabotage the lines and break connections so it only looks like it will blow. How do you want it?" Merreck has a strange contraption before him, powerpack and fuesl lashed together, with several wires ready to connect.

In reply to Merreck Toluga (msg #67):

On the comm to Exilim.

"He's got it ready, it can be fixed to blow or just to look like it, which way do you want it for sure."

Fifteen minutes passed in a bustle of activity.  Merreck and Sheila were busy in the starboard airlock, rigging up Merreck's explosive on the door.  Wether it was intended to be used or merely look impressive, it should deter the casual onlooker.


Tobias and Mika moved from deck to deck.  Mika quickly disabled the escape pods, the forward elevator and the cargo ramp.  She also hotwired doors in order to channel people they way they wanted.  Tobias followed and helped, his knowledge of the vessel and engineering skill very useful.

Aryan spent his time, walking the pirate's likely route, planning ambush points.  The deck 8 corridor was definitely the best place to bottleneck the pirates as it was the most logical way to reach the bridge with the forward elevators down.  He also had the security guards began erecting hasty barricades in engineering and on the bridge.

Finally everyone grouped back in engineering to discuss final plans.  Merreck noted they had maybe five minutes before the shuttle boarded.  It looked like the shuttle had been comming them but he'd muted the comm since everyone was meant to be locked up.


OOC:  Last chance to make plans guys befor the shuttle arrives.  Still not sure what you plan to do.  If you plan to have 'escaped' this is a logical time to call the shuttle.  If you're all still locked up then you'd best start planning where you're all meant to be.  Are you setting up ambushes in engineering and the bridge like Aryan has proposed?  I need to know ze plan!  I promise I wont tell the pirates!

Xil took a brief moment to picture the layout of the freighter in his mind. There were only two ways to easily get to the bridge; the fore lift which they had disabled, or across deck eight. They also needed to be able to get people to the shuttle to prevent it from disengaging once combat began.

"Ok everyone. We know on which side they are going to dock thanks to Merreck and we have channeled them as best we can thanks to Mika and the Captain. The majority of us will stay up on deck eight. Captain Tobias, I want you on the bridge ready to contact the shuttle to tell them that we just managed to free ourselves and that is why we had not responded before. Also be ready to close doors behind us and get the fore lift online quickly when we need."

He paused and then turned to Aryan and continued "Eight I want you to get down to deck two before they dock along with one of the security guards. It can be accessed from deck three, hide down there until the pirates have come aboard, then do your best to get onto the shuttle and hold the dock open. I am hoping that they want the freighter more than they want to destroy it and so will initially send re-reinforcements once we have engaged them. That will be your time to make your move."

"The rest of us will ambush them once they hit deck eight. We take as many of them out as we can and delay their passage to the bridge on deck seven. As we fall back we close doors etc. Mika, block off engineering as best you can we don't have people to spread ourselves too thin. Once we have fallen back to the bridge we make the decision to get down to deck three and the shuttle or hold there. Questions?"

If there are no questions he will head off with those staying on deck eight to erect more barriers for them to hide behind making sure his weapons are charged.

OOC: From looking at the plans the only real way they have of getting to us is via deck eight. It has a number of what look like bulk head doors that we can hopefully use to our advantage as well as walls already in place for us to hide behind.

Aryan nods at Exilim's orders.  Picking up his blaster rifle, and with his heavy blaster and vibrodagger at his hip, he looks at the closest guard.


"Yousa come with me...and make sure you are well armed."

Aryan nods at the rest with a grim look of satisfaction on his face, yet he seems to have a slight smirk.

"Number Four, two questions, sir. First, I left the explosives intact but not armed in the airlock, they look real enough, and an examination will find that there was a simple mistake in putting together. I could go back and arm them easily, but I need a minute first."

"Second, I wonder if you and the Captain want me to make the call, they allready know my voice from earlier, and I believe I can make a convincing frightened crewmember." Merreck sounds sure of himself, concerning both the bomb and the call.

Turning to answer Merreck's questions he says "Leave the explosives as is, I am hoping that they will leave it alone after determining that it's wired incorrectly. We might be able to use it later on. As for making the call I am hoping that the Captain can pull off the right level indignation & frustration at having his convoy taken and fear of what might happen now." He gave Merreck a wry smile "i wonder how good his acting skills are?"

"Is that a joke?  I'm a freighter captain, not a holovid star."

'Is this a joke? Tobias is a freighter captain, not a holovid star, and Four want him to convince pirates that it´s safe to board them.' He shakes his head at Four, waiting for him to change his mind, or have it changed for him.

OOC: Not spoken but what Merreck thinks is written on his face.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:11, Tue 11 Jan 2011.

Mika gives a nod at the instruction.  "Shouldn't be a problem."  With the added shielding of the engineering deck, a solid wield on the door should handle it.  She moves off to get started.

Merreck stands up and straightens himself to a soliders bearing. "It´s okay Tobias, you can drop the act, good work there, almost had me fooled. Mister Four, my name is Garriel Merreck, Special Agent of the ISB, and I could have you all arrested if I wanted to, but never mind that, out there, is the pirate group I inflitrated as my last assignment."

He shrinks and looks around, haunted. "The horrors I saw with the pirates, I dearly hope I can get the evidence back, so they can finally be caugh." He gets calm again. "You see, they have this cover, they are the Toluga family, gardeners in this fruit orchard on Talon 4, the planet, not him," pointing at Talon Four.

Terrified again, "but should they find me here first they will disembowel me and throw me out of the airlock! Do you know what a happens what happens to you in hard vaccuum when your guts are hanging out?" calm again, "Actually, dying is dying, but it looks worse, all the frozen entrails, gross!"

Turning to Four, smiling, "Come on, tell me I couldn´t be a holovid star? Look, it´s my mad plan, I´ll make it work, if you just give me the com." Hopefully noone is pointing a gun at him.

OOC: If he´s lying then there's no telling what's lies and what´s true, but feel free to roll Sense Motive. Bwahahaha
ISB = Imperial Security Bureau
This message was last edited by the player at 16:20, Tue 11 Jan 2011.

Tobias chuckled.  "Well you're no Jasod Revoc, but you've definitely got talent.  Maybe you should hit the Holonet rather then serving on freighters."

Xil shakes his head and sighs, life was so much easier when actually being a sniper. He was normally more introverted than he had been required to of late, and the thump developing in his head was probably related.

"Fine" he said addressing Merreck while rubbing his temples "Make the call. Your alleged ISB training means you can act and will have more weapons training that the others. Once you've made the call and they've docked, you can get yourself up next to me at the front of the ambush, you should at least be able to shoot straight." The last was said with grin.

Xil left to make sure the corridor on level eight was set up as best they could.

"Hunh? What ISB training?" Merreck sits down on the seat, then call back at the retreating back of Talon 4. "Hey, Four, want me to call'em now?"

He goes over the words in his mind and steady himself mentally. No contradictions, that´s the key, if what the pirates see is true then they will assume that what they don´t see is true as well.

editted.


Sheila takes her two blasters and her power packs and starts to head to deck 8, the turns to look at Merrick.

"Mr Toluga? What are you doing here?  And why is captain tobias acting?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Wed 12 Jan 2011.

"Please, call me Merreck. Tobias isn´t acting, as far as I know. Me, I´m just getting by while getting around. Working as a navigator is cheaper than buying myself a room as a passenger, especially since I don´t much mind where we are going, you know what I mean, don´t you, 'Three'?" Merreck give Sheila a wry smile.

OOC: Sounds genuine, again.

"Then why did you say."  She paused a second to recreate the conversation.  "It´s okay Tobias, you can drop the act, good work there, almost had me fooled."

Almost fooled?

Merreck give a mock bow, like a holovid star accepting an award, then turn serious. "Good luck Three, and be carefull, okay?" He waves at the mercenary, then swivel around to his console.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:26, Wed 12 Jan 2011.

She glances between the captain and Merrick, "Would either one of you care to be a little more specific?"

 then glances at Exil.  She'll back down if he tells her to.

Merreck turns back towards Sheila and talk in a slow voice. "I´m not with the ISB, and the pirates are not part-time fruit farmers, but they WILL come here and rip our entrails and space us unless I make this call. We can talk some more if you want to, but they are coming closer by the second, so..."

Very fooled.

Sheila sighs and heads out.

Merreck stands up and tell everyone present in a loud voice; "Okay, I´m calling the pirates, so everyone shut up, I mean it! Make a sound, any sound, and it´s hard vacuum for everyone!"

He sits down and concentrates, then takes several quick breaths, so that it sounds like he´s scared and have been running. He keys the comm to a general band and begin speaking after breathing out once into the microphone. "Hello? Anyone? Talons? Damn you, get back here! You can´t do this to us! Answer me!"

He waits a moment, as if expecting an answer from them, then key the comm again. "Eh, pirates, sirs? Are you out there?"

A rather angry voice with a hint of confusion comes over the comm.  It's the same pirate who had addressed them all earlier.

"Who is this?  What's going on?"

A short pause for non-existing negotiations between the crew.

"This is Merreck, Navigation. Well, we have a problem over here and we wondered if you wanted to negotiate with us, about maybe not killing us all, please? The Black Talons turned on us, the bloody mercs took our ships and ran in order to save their own skins. So?" Adding a hopefull and pleading tone to the end, Merreck turned off the comm and waited, silently.

"Power down all systems and prepare to be boarded.  Maybe we'll be nice." the pirate said firmly and sounding far from sincere.

"Nice of them to leave you access to the comms isn't it.  Why didn't they just kill you all?" said the pirate suspiciously.

"What do you think? The blasted Talons probably thought you would finish the job for them! They shot at us, dammit!" Merreck sounded almost hysterical and took a moment to calm down. "What will you do? You won´t hurt us, right?"

"As I said to your captain an hour ago.  Turn your ship around, plot an intercept course at full speed immediately.  My patience is at an end."

Merreck couldn't help but notice the pirate hadn't answered his question.

Merreck turns off the comm and turns around to the others on the bridge. "I don´t think I can get any more from them. Do we turn now?" Hopefully this had been been enough.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:16, Tue 18 Jan 2011.

Everyone was gone, he was alone on the bridge. He briefly considered selling them all out, but that wouldn´t increase his chances by much. Squashing that thought, he turned on the PA system, trying to get a hold on Boss Talon. "Talons, they want us to turn around and fly towards them, shall I? They won´t settle for less."

Exilim looked up from where he was busily checking/ adding more usable cover for them to use as they came down the level eight corridor.

On hearing the internal comm message from Merreck he quickly finds a comm panel and replies "Sell them the points that our systems are all over the place, and that you don't have a Captain or pilot anymore. We can help with them docking but aren't really going anywhere."

He turned to continue what he was doing Pretty sure the engineer made it look like that he thought to himself.

"Roger."

Merreck turned on the comm and contacted the pirates again. "Pirate Sirs, I can´t get the ship moving, I´m sorry, I´m not trained for this. The instruments and systems look weird and all the pilots are gone. The Talons took them with them to fly the ships they stole."

Mika shuts off power to the aft lift.  The Talons obviously hadn't realized that the aft lift would give full access to every deck and would allow their ambush to be flanked.  Still, a flip of a switch would restore power should it be required.

Then she let her fingers start dancing over the control panels, seeing what she could do to aid in the effort when the time comes.  She didn't really want to overload the power conduits and cause explosions near the boarders, too much stuff to fix later and too much chance of it getting away from her.

Maybe the atmospheric controls?  Boarders wouldn't get far without air to breath, unless they're prepared for that.  Gravity plating, that might cause them some issues.  There's not much in the way of internal tracking systems though, she might catch the Talons in her efforts, another point to a less then lethal option.  Heck, even varying the light levels might be of help.

The pirate sounds skeptical.  "A navigator not trained in basic flight procedures?  I find that hard to believe.  That's one extra crew I'll have to kll for wasting my time."



OOC:  Pirates will be docking soon and I still need the following!

Exilim, where exactly are you setting up your barricades/ambush etc?  Deck 8 is very long!

Aryan, still haven't told me where on Deck 2 you plan to try and hide the two of you.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:40, Wed 19 Jan 2011.

Answering back, "Wait, wait, just give me a minute! It´s much harder to operate these things alone." They were close, he didn´t need to turn the ship around, but wanted them to think he was unaware of how close they were.

PM
This message was last edited by the player at 22:09, Sat 22 Jan 2011.

"Four, where do you want me." Sheila waits for any direction Exilim wishes to give.  Everything is as locked and loaded as it;s going to be.  although let her to be the first one to have a bad feeling about this. about the only worsening of the situation that she could come up with is the pirates having Jace with them.

The pirates made no more comments as they overtook and docked with the port airlock.  Everyone felt the slight thump and knew it would be moments before the pirates boarded.


OOC:  Just a quick check on positions of everyone.  It seems Mika is in engineering, Merreck the bridge, Aryan and a security guard deck 2 aft and everyone else is on deck 8 (still waiting to learn exactly how you're setting up the deck to defend it).  I'll wait a few days in which time you can adjust things as the pirates will need a minute or two to board, especially when/if they notice Merreck's booby trap.

OOC: Exilim has set up what barricades he can in the following places:
1. Just after the first "bulk head" doors from the aft lift.
2. Half way between the first and second doors.
3. Just after the second "bulk head" doors.

I am figuring, using the scale on the deck plans included in an earlier post, that the distance between the doors is a touch over 12m.

Xil will be at the first doors.

OOC: Which side did they board on? The rigged one or the other one?

The rigged side.

Time to build some trust, which would hold a few minutes, at best. Merreck toggled the comm and contacted the pirates, sounding very frightened. "Hey, wait, don´t dock yet! I just noticed there is something in your airlock, looks like fuel cells or something. The other one looks empty. Can you see anything from your side?"

OOC: How far are we letting them come in before the fighting start? If the gungan is trying to hijack the ship then it should be away from the airlock, or he can´t sneak past behind them.

The pirate's voice was mocking as he replied.  "So you've just 'noticed' something in the airlock while standing on the bridge?  You've got very good eyes.  It will be a shame if I have to cut them out with a vibrodagger."

The shuttle was still docking at the same airlock.

More threats means more desperation and nervousness. Damn it was hard to keep a straight face, bloody pirates. "Hey, no need for that, we don´t want any violence, right? I noticed there was something weird when I looked at the airlock camera, so I told you about it, wasn´t that the right thing to do?"

"You'd better not be wasting our time.  That could prove most. . .painful."

Despite the threat, the shuttle quickly powers up, rolls around the freighter and begins to dock the other side.  Merreck had bought the Talons maybe two extra minutes.  Hopefully they were being put to good use.

Sheila places herself halfway down the first section of the corridor as ordered, both buns fully charged, extra power at the ready.

Xil quickly re-evaluating the spread of people realises that Aryan would need technical help to prevent the shuttle from leaving as he deals with any remaining pirates.

Quickly accessing the internal comm before the pirates complete their docking he says "Mika, get down to where Eight is hiding NOW! Do what you can to stop the shuttle from releasing." he berates himself silently for not keeping the bigger tactical picture in his head.

He then contacts Merreck "Merreck, once they've completed docking get up to my position ASAP. Captain Tobias will stay on the bridge and deal with communication and any other issues."

Merreck quickly acknowledged the order, then waited for the docking to complete.

Mika's answer came back all too quickly.  "Sorry, but I've sealed engineering to keep the pirates out.  By the time I unsealed it, it would be too late.  They're docking now."

Merreck could indeed confirm this as he stared out the bridge viewport and watched the lights from the shuttle approach the airlock.  Even those without the benefit of sensor or viewports felt the shudder as the shuttle docked and the airlock began to seal.

Tobias arrived on the bridge, having returned from engineering without Mika.  He quickly said over the intercomm,  "We've got about a minute while they pressurise.  We might be able to get someone else down to Deck 2 in time but they'll have to rush."

Damn muttered Xil on hearing Mika's reply. The instance Captain Tobias finishes speaking Xil turns to Sheila "Three, move fast, get down to Eight's position."

Xil checks his weapons again, he also makes sure that he has a concussion and gas grenade ready to go. He then takes up position at the first barricade waiting for Merreck to join him.

Xil doesn't have any gas grenades, just concussion. Sheila has 5 mini gas grenades.  Even if you took gas grenades from Sheila you'd also need the grenade launcher or you can't use them.

Merreck tries to tell the computer to link with his wrist comlink, but something seems wrong, different code languages or perhaps a glitch. Giving it up as a waste of time, he turns to the captain. "Captain, I´m heading for the barricades. Good Luck, sir." With that he runs over to where the Talons are preparing their defences.

"I'm going to join Aryan, I have a launcher, and grenades."

Sheila takes off at a run to join the ambush team at the docking level

Sheila ran fast and luckily for her, Mika had not yet powered down the elevators.  She managed to reach Deck 2 just as booted footsteps could be heard on the Deck Above.  They couldn't tell how many people were up there but there was a lot, at least 8.

A gruff voice could be heard.  "Team 1 with me.  We'll secure the bridge.  Team 2 takes engineering.  Team 3, keep the shuttle safe."

"Two teams?" said another voice.  "Wasn't it meant to be one team per ship?"

"It will take too long to catch the other ships." snapped the first voice.  "Besides, I don't want to take chances.  That navigator seems a little too quick with answers.  Keep alert."

The sounds of people walking towards both elevators could be heard.  A third group could be heard talking in low tones.

Merreck run over to the barricade where Talon 4 was stationed. He drew his blaster pistol and sat down behind cover. Looking around, he noticed that someone was missing and asked Xil about it. "You are Talon Four, right? Where is Three?"

"Yes I'm Four." he said more tersely than he intended "Three has gone down to help Eight." He calls out to the second security guard who had stayed with the bridge group.

Once the guard has joined Xil & Merreck "Ok, here's the basic plan; Merreck and I will start off up here near the first set of doors. You'll be at the that set of barricades" he says to the security guard, indicating to where Sheila had recently vacated. "We'll hold them for as long as we can in the lift area, then we stagger our way down the corridor, two of us providing cover fire to allow the third to get to the next barricade. We'll get the Captain to close doors as we retreat past them to hopefully buy more time to set up at the next point. Questions?"

Mika remains in engineering, unsure what to do to keep the pirate ship from getting away, but there are options to keep the boarding party from escaping.  Mika will avoid doing anything to rouse the pirates suspicions, but before they can escape, she'll depressurize the airlock and jam the doors.

SHeila will hand over either the laucher and Aryan's choice of grnade, or the nonlauncher grenades, whichever he wants.

"SO what exactly is the plan?"

"You and me at the front? Okay, I guess. Do you have any fancy mercenary weapons that I could borrow? A grenade would be very usefull to keep them back while we move back." Merreck didn´t seem to like the idea to be at the front of the action. He picked up his blaster and got ready to do some target practice.

He hands Merreck two of his four concussion grenades "Here's a couple of concussion grenades, I figure that we can use them when the pirates first get to deck eight and then as we go back down the corridor. They should reduce the amount of fire we face initially."

"Thanks, I´ll put them to good use, don´t worry." Merreck weigh the grenades in his hand, getting a feel for how to throw them. It looks like he´s used grenades before.

Xil says to Merreck "You throw the first grenade when the lift doors open, get your aim right, and it should mean a lot of pirates down for us to pick off initially. I'll provide the cover fire."

"Count on me." Merreck nod at the instruction and gets one grenade ready to throw the moment the lift opens for the pirates. Listening carefully for the sound of the lift, he takes a deep breath to steady himself for the coming battle.

Now how did he end up here? Fighting off pirates wasn´t his plan when he signed up on this ship.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Wed 09 Feb 2011.

Meeka continues to remain entrenched in engineering, trying to follow the action by monitoring the comms and accessing any internal sensors the ship might have available.

DECK 2
Aryan and Sheila listen until the footsteps on the deck above fade away, though the voices of the third team who have remained to guard the shuttle can still be occasionally heard.


ENGINEERING
Whilst unable to use comms or see what was going on, Mika was still able to get some base ideas of what was happening.  She knew someone had tried to reactivate the forward elevator which she had powered down on Deck 3.  Despite their attempts, they had not been able to regain control of it.

She could also see that someone else was using the aft elevator.  The elevator was heading upwards.  It passed the lower levels, reached Deck 8 and kept rising.  Instantly, she cut the power to the elevator, trapping it before it could leave deck 8 and make it to her.


DECK 8
Xil's team waited impatiently.  Aryan and Sheila had not reported in yet and neither Tobias or Mika had an encrypted comm.  Xil made a mental note to fix that.  Since Cyril had been killed a few weeks back, nobody had been on comms duty.  Cyril would have made sure such things didn't happen.

His momentary reverie was snapped off as the aft elevator began coming up.  It left Deck 3 and passed 4. . .5. . .6 . . .7. . .8. . .  Xil and Merreck momentarily held their collective breath but the elevator did not seem to be stopping.

Then with a sudden whine, the elevator powered down and the lights on it went out.  Xil and Merreck could here shouts of surprise and curses from the elevator shaft, courtesy of the engineer's handywork.

With some grunting a shuffling, the elevator doors began to be pried open.  Xil's team could see the elevator had raised an extra metre but the pirates should be able to extract themselves.

The one pulling open the forward doors suddenly spotted the group and yelled "Ambush!"

Xil and Merreck acted almost simultaneously: the former firing his rifle; the latter hurling a grenade.  The grenade was off target and bounced off the side of the elevator and flew off to the side and exploded.  Xil's shot caught the pirate opening the forward doors in the shoulder and he fell back with a grunt, the doors slamming together.


OOC:  Well combat has commenced.  There is a group of pirates (you'd estimate 3-6 from your quick glance) in the aft elevator which is about a meter above deck 8.  Xil hit one of the pirates but you can't be sure how badly he's hurt.  These elevators have forward and aft doors (as per the picture).  As it's powered down their only egresses are the forward doors, rear doors or top door (into the shaft).

Mika, you know that someone tried to power up the forward elevator (which is powered down on Deck 3) but failed to succeed.

Aryan and Sheila you know that there are some pirates of deck 3 standing guard on the shuttle.

Please remember only Talons have encrypted commlinks.  The others could communicate with the ship's intercomm but you'd essentially be broadcasting to the whole ship.  Only Tobias could comm individual places (as the comms station is on the bridge).


VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 31/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 22/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Uninjured
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured


Enemies
Unknown at present (one injured aft elevator)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:29, Thu 10 Feb 2011.

Xil swore aloud as he took some deep breaths to settle himself. Not the start he had hoped for. He wondered to himself why things couldn't be easy for a change.

Without turning to look at Merreck he says "Be ready for anything, they know we're here now."

He considers options and wonders if Mika could force the lift doors open from engineering. He then wishes that he had given Mika one of the Talons comms.

Turning quickly to Merreck "Think we could get the doors open just enough to get a grenade through without getting ourselves killed in the process?"

He turns back to the lift with his weapon raised ready to fire if needed.

Adrenaline rushing, it was a fight for survival, and he felt the fear of dying. Seeing the doors close again as Four shot the pirate make him breath a sigh of relief, but the problem wasn´t gone yet.

"I´ll try. Cover me."
Merreck move forward quietly to reach the side of the lift, picking up his second grenade, ready to throw it into the elevator if the pirates open the door. He stays quiet beside the door, waiting for it to open, looking back at the Talon, safe behind his cover.

OOC: Approximate distance between our cover and the door, and our cover and the first fallback position?

Xil signals to the guard at their first fall back point to come forward. When he gets to Xil he quietly gives his instructions "Prise open the doors to the lift slightly, let Merreck get a grenade in there. Keep to the side. Once you start I'll provide cover fire through the doors to keep them busy inside the lift."

Xil will focus and take aim straight at the door and will begin firing as soon as the guard starts opening the door.

OOC: About 6 m from lift to the first bulk head doors where we have our first barricades, then another 6 m to the next set.

Merreck quickly moves into position, stun grenade in hand.  He watches as the security guard moves over to Xil and begins to recieve a quick briefing from him.

Merreck's attention is diverted as he hears the noise of someone pulling apart the elevator doors.  Edging closer he clicks the activator on his grenade and flicks it in the doors as a grenade from the pirates rolls out.

The navigator is caught off guard and can only stare at the grenade as it billows out volumes of smoke, causing him to gag.  Moments later there is a muffled thump from inside the elevator as the concussion grenade goes off.



OOC:  The corridor in front of the elevator is filling rapidly with smoke, courtesy of pirates' grenade.  Merreck's concussion grenade just exploded in an enclosed area which is bound to have been messy!

The original plan, if she understood it correctly, had been to wait until the reinforcements went out to help the team that met the obstruction, and then go up, but there were three teams.

She commed Xil.. "They sent out two teams, one toward the forward elevator and one somewhere else." She figures he'll answer when they have time.


OOc can sheila and co hear the fight, or is it too far awaY?  bhow far away is the vargo elelvator from the airlock?  for sneaking purposes.

No you didn't hear the fight or the explosion (I performed listen checks for you guys).  All you can hear is the guys on the deck above you and the hum of the ship's engines.

You can check distances yourself on the schematic at http://deckplans.00sf.com/CEC/Action6.html.  I'd estimate about 30 metres.  Deck 3 & 4 are one huge cargo area and this freighter is full of massive fuel storage cylinders.  So you have plenty of cover.  There is a path down the centre but you could sneak a longer way around cylinders (it will take longer of course).

I'll give Aryan a good hard poke today.

Aryan looks at the launcher that shelia offers and shakes his head.  He looks at the guard and offers him some of the grenades.

"Wesa got to do this fast and quiet.  They will have a team, and maybe the pilot on board." He whispers to them

Aryan loosens the holster on his pistol, and takes out his knife, blade facing down. Lets mesa go first.  Stay a few paces behinds me.  Aryan looks at Shelia.  "Whens the time comes, wesa may need to close the ship door and keeps it locked.  Isa want yousa to deal with that..wants no ones sneaking up on oursa  backs.

Aryan emerges and silently sneaks up to the exit of the hiding spot, opting teh long way with cover than the straight path
This message was last edited by the player at 22:30, Sat 12 Feb 2011.

In reply to Aryan Jai (msg #137):

"keep it locked, yes sir."  just to be sure.

edited to make alot more sense.

ooc, good to see you back, I hope you get better.  THat sounds really sick.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:17, Sun 13 Feb 2011.

Merreck look into the elevator with his blaster ready to fire on anyone that is still awake, hoping to catch them of guard after the grenade blast, maybe even disarming anyone unconcious if the coast is clear.

Aryan looks at Shelia, a hint of a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye.  "If wesa play this right, wesa may get a extra ship outa this."

He looks at the guard and Shelia.  "When we gets in, you work on closing the door to cover our backs.  We will cover you.  Then we cans clean out the ship.  Wesa want to do this quiet so the others can't comes back and so wesa have an element of suprise on ousa side"

Mika remains huddled in the engineering deck, monitoring communications and ships systems to see what she might manage to do to aid in the effort.

Xil was about to fire a volley through the gap in the lift doors, he had kept his focus there, when he paused and said "Merreck, if you can see anything in that lift give  me a report."

He starts to advance towards the lift with his blaster rifle raised ready to fire.

Deck 8
Merreck went to move forward, but the volume of smoke sent him backing off in a coughing fit.  Wrapping his shirt around his mouth and squinting, he moved forward.

It was hard to see in the elevator with the smoke billowing everywhere but it didn't take long to spot the two bodies on the ground.  One was against the side and looked knocked out.  The other was lying almost on top of the grenade, blood was dripping profusely from his ears.

The other immediately obvious fact was the rear elevator doors were open.


Deck 2-3
Aryan quickly fired his grappling gun into the roof near the access to the level above.  Climbing hand over hand the Gungan was quickly on Deck 3.  Sheila gripped the rope and tried to climb but slipped down the rope to the floor.

Aryan could hear voices from the forward section of the ship but they were too far away to get a visual at this point.


OOC:  Skipped forward about 30 seconds.  On deck 8, please remember a smoke grenade is going off.  You all seem to think you can just stand on top of it without starting to asphyxiate!  There are two pirates in the elevator.  One looks knocked out, the other looks seriously hurt.

Merreck, from your initial glance you saw 3-6 pirates in the elevator so at least 1 has escaped.  Also, neither of the pirates on the ground has a shoulder injury (Xil shot one pirate in the shoulder).

Aryan is now on Deck 3 near the aft cargo elevator.  Sheila and the Guard are still on deck 2.  The rope is DC15 to climb.  Aryan you can hear several people talking in the forward section of the deck but you can't see them yet (the cargo is largely in the way).  Up to you wether you wait for the others or move forward alone.




VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 31/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 22/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Uninjured
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

"They got out." Merreck shout the quick warning to Four before retreating away from the elevator, trying to find his way to Four and the others. He yells "Don´t shoot" between fits of coughing.

Sheila will follow Atryan up the rope. Except the's going to be a while. This is embarrassaing, and probably a problem.  (Maybe Aryan or the guard would like to pull her up)

Exilim resisted his initial urge to call out to Merreck to lead him out of the smoke. All it would have achieved is the pinpointing their location.

He starts to retreat to his starting position at the first set of barricades and tries to think up a diversion that will distract the pirates, make them reveal their location and allow Merreck to move in the opposite direction and hopefully clear the smoke. He looks around and on himself and swears silently as he doesn't really have much to use.

He finally takes one of his smoke grenades and throws it to the left of the lift in such a way as to make it bounce while still in the smoke and then roll.

Hope the noise works he mutters to himself as he raises his blaster rifle once more ready to fire and don't do anything stupid Merreck, just move in the opposite direction he continues.

DECK 8
Xil had no idea if the throwing of his grenade had provided any benefit or not.  It had landed with a loud clank and rolled around for a few moments before falling silent.  Either way it didn't matter as Merreck had made it back to the barrier next to Xil.

The smoke had ceased to pout out of the grenade but the room was still full of smoke.  Somewhere near the position of the elevator, Merreck and Xil could hear someone moaning and weakly coughing.  Clearly one of the two pirates in the elevator was beginning to rouse.  Xil also thought he could hear the occasional sound from further aft; quiet voices conversing.


DECK 2/3
The guard with Sheila tried to climb the rope but failed to get more then a metre or so up before slipping.  Not having time to waste, Aryan dropped the launcher down to Sheila.  Maybe she could shoot a rope somewhere that made it easier.

The gungan moved out alone.  He was used to working this way so it didn't really bother him.  He began creeping towards the forward of the ship, using the large petrochem storage vats as cover.

He soon came within sight of the forward turbolift.  He noted that it was shut down and someone had forced the doors open.  Nobody stood near it that he could see though he was still at least five metres away.

He attention turned to the passage leading to the starboard airlock.  There were four men standing there talking to each other.  All had heavy pistols on their belts and one held a rifle.  They were busy talking and none seemed to have noticed Aryan yet.


DECK 9 - Engineering
It was hard to keep track of what was happening in the rest of the ship.  Since someone had tried unsuccessfully to power up the forward elevators all had been quiet until a few moments ago.  First she'd heard a loud sound directly below her and now several of the smoke alarms around the rear elevator on Deck 8 were going off.




VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 31/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 22/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Uninjured
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

Merreck drop down besides Four and update him in a quiet voice. "They got out through the rear door, the ones in the elevator seemed in bad shape but alive. What do we do now? Move forward quietly? They still have to get past us."

Aryan Quickly takes stock of the suituation, noting the men and how heavily armed they are.  Without help, Aryan would have a hard time subduing the 4 of them by himself.

Aryan reached into a pouch, holding a stun grenade.  He looked at it with some grim satisfaction.  Judging the distance, Aryan removed his heavy blaster pistol, and from the cover, primed teh concussion grenade and rolled it towards the group.

PM

Sheila tries the reshoot the rope in such a way to make it easier to climb.  Then she will ask the quard to give her a boost, and assuming that works, she will help pull him up.

Exilim nods to Merreck on his return and hearing his information.

Acting on the need to finish the encounter quickly, and hoping that the pirates had not called back to the shuttle, he whispers very quietly back to Merreck as he pulls out his concussion grenades "Follow my lead, grenades first, then forward firing, me front to right, you cover my left." He signals to the remaining guard and cloakshape fighter pilot to hold their positions, ready to engage the pirates if needed.

Without waiting to see if Merreck agrees or not he moves forward quickly and quietly focusing and straining his senses to get the best location he can on the voices he heard, taking into account of how the lift is positioned in the room.

He throws the first of his grenades and takes steps back to make sure he isn't affected by it. Based on the reaction to his first grenade he will throw the second. As soon as it explodes he moves forward firing to the front and right taking a deep breath just before entering the smoke. He hopes Merreck has followed as directed.

OOC: mmm no more grenades now, hope this works
This message was last edited by the player at 10:24, Mon 21 Feb 2011.

Merreck is out of grenades but he follow the mercenary with his blaster ready, much more at ease now that the professional fighter is there. He follows with a blaster ready, covering the left side and trying to not make too much noise. Like the mercenary he takes a deep breath before entering the smoke.

Deck 2
Sheila refired the grapple launcher at the roof, near the wall and a large series of jutted surfaces.  Another length of liquid cable now hung from the roof.  After a little more grunting and effort the pair finally made it to deck 3, just in time to hear a large explosion sound towards the front of the shift.

Both Sheila and the security guard are now on Deck 3 near the aft cargo elevator.


Deck 3
Watching the guards for a few moments, Aryan waited his chance and threw his grenade.  Unfortunately the cramped nature of the room worked against him as the grenade clipped a pipe and rolled a few metres to the side where it exploded.

While not as spectacular as he may of hoped, the grenade still proved effective with two guards blown of their feet and lying on the ground.  The other two had dropped their weapons and stood, looking disoriented.

<i>OOC:  2 guards are knocked out, 2 are stunned.  Remember that stunned guards are unable to act for 1 round, knocked out guards are unable to act for 1d4 rounds.  It's not long, but it gives you a definite advantage!



Deck 8
Xil and Merreck advanced methodically; Xil using the cover and advance method he'd known since basic training while Merreck did a reasonable jon of mimicking him.  So far there had been no return fire but with the room still full of smoke they couldn't see if they were hitting anything.

They were shocked as a wall comm down the corridor began to beep and then someone began to speak.

"Sir."  shouted one of the guards to Xil.  "You'll want to hear this."

Xil and Merreck cautiously moved backwards until they could hear the comm message.  Captain Tobias' voice was unmistakable.

". . .can't hold them for long.  Came from elevator shaft.  Too many, can't hold. . .ARRRGH!"  The final gasp was coupled with the sound of a blaster bolt.  Clearly the captain had been shot.


If you were wondering OOC where that other team of pirates went, now you know!  Tobias was on the bridge and clearly he has company.


Deck 9
On the engineering deck, Mika quickly determined the smoke was not related to fire as the thermal sensors and environmental controls showed no temperature increases.  However, a couple of minor systems on Deck 8 were showing damage.  First the aft power couplings shorted, then an environmental shunt shut down.  There was no logic to why anyone would sabotage these systems yet they were failing too rapidly to be a mechanical problem.

OOC note - fire weapons inside a ship and you'll hit something!


VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 31/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 22/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:56, Tue 22 Feb 2011.

Mika monitors the situation, noting the malfunctions.  Checking, and just logic, seem to indicate something other then routine systemic failures.  At a guess, it was collateral damage, the others had lobbed grenade and were probably trying to blast each other to cinders.  She'd have some work ahead of her, if they get out of this.

Once she  and the guard finally get up, Sheila will begin using the room to head toward the explosion, where they will probably find aryan and the airlock.  If she meets anyone that is not a member of their crew, she will shoot it.

Merreck stopped at the sound of the comm, listening for sounds of the pirates. Perhaps they would turn braver now that it looked like their allies were coming to help them pincer the annoying crew. He tried not to think about the fact that it was absolutely correct, he and Four were in a bad situation.

"Merreck hold position, watch the smoke." Exilim said quickly as he moved towards the comm. He also signaled to the guard and cloakshape pilot to watch down the corridor towards the fore lift.

Never easy he thought to himself. He had quickly decided that Mika might be in a position to help and there was no choice but to use the internal comm. On reaching the comm he quickly gave instructions "Mika, Four, no questions. Seal the bridge, it's taken. Close the first three doors on deck deck eight from the fore lift. Take what control you can from the bridge and lock them out." He hoped Mika would be able to do what he asked, it would buy them precious time.

Exilim quickly ran through options in his head, take on a fit group or continue to with the one he had hopefully disabled temporarily. He chose the later. Before moving he turned to the guard and pilot and said "Hold at the door half way down this section, shut it at the slightest sign of movement." He returned to Merreck and signaled for him to follow. They would continue with their sweep through the smoke.

OOC: Not exactly sure sure of the comm location, but if we can hear it, it can't be too far away.

Merreck watches Fours back while he´s handling the comm and giving orders, and then follow him after he´s ready again.

PM

Deck 3

Having finally made it to the deck above, Sheila and the guard ran towards the sound of the explosion.  When they got in range they had to stop in shock for a moment to watch.

The Gungan was a whir of motion.  Already a guard was falling backwards, a vibrodagger embedded in his throat.  Without slowing Aryan had spun and hook kicked the weapon out of the second man's hands, following with a side kick that had the man gasping and doubling over.  The other two guards were just starting to recover from the effects of the grenade.

OOC:  One guard is clearly dead, one is disarmed and winded.  The other two are knocked out but recovering.


Deck 8
Exilim finished his comm call.  He knew he'd just announced there intention to the pirates and increased the risk the shuttle would flee but it seemed the lesser of two evils right now.  As he watched the forward three doors closed as he'd ordered.  Behind them the smoke was starting to clear.  Merreck saw that one of the pirates in the elevator was starting to get to his feet.

OOC:  Knocked out pirate is recovering, other one wont be getting up without serious medical attention!  2-4 more are still unaccounted for.


Deck 9
On the engineering deck, things were getting more interesting.  Surprised by the comm call, Mika had quickly obeyed the orders.  However now things were starting to get complicated.  Someone had engaged the engines and was moving the freighter again.  Added to which, the port airlock was starting to go through a depressurisation cycle, which meant it was getting ready to detach.  She couldn't work on both systems at once.




VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 31/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 22/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: One incapacitated, one knocked out + 2-4 more
Deck 3 Team: One dead, two knocked out, one mildly injured (disarmed)

Merreck raised his weapon and advanced quickly on the pirate in the elevator. "Hands up, you are beaten!"

Regardless of where the freighter went, if the pirate ship detaches the freighter could be so much bantha fodder.   She turns her attentions to trying to keep the airlock pressurized, keep the interlocks engaged, whatever she can do to keep the ships locked together.

Aryan coontinues to fight ferociously.

Sheila will have her gun out and go straight past the guards toward the airlock, since Aryan has them  all in hand, to see what she can do about keeping the shuttle from disconnecting.

Exilim glanced towards where Merreck was and then towards the lift. Damn he thought, no time for nicities, I hope Merreck can handle that. If they didn't have an unknown number of enemies in front and behind it would have been different. They didn't have the luxury of being anything more than ruthless.

"Merreck, sorry, no prisoners." He said then turned back moving forward focused, with his rifle raised, ready to fire as the smoke continued to clear.

Deck 3
Hardly slowing, Aryan spun and delivered a tooth-jarring left cross to the already winded guard, sending him sprawling to the ground.  The gungan had no time to celebrate though as the other two guards had now gained their feet.  On the bright side, Sheila and the security guard had moved into range.  The former seemed to ignore the fight, trying to move past but taking a hit to the back of the head from a rifle butt that sent her reeling.  The guard stopped and aimed his pistol, waiting for a clear shot.


OOC:  Sheila is in melee range of the pirates and provoked an AOO from one pirate.  The guard is a few metres away but clearly hesitant to shoot into a melee


Deck 8
Merreck either did not hear or chose to ignore Exilim's words as he approached the pirate who was recovering.  When the pirate went for his blaster, the navigator laid him low with a stun bolt.

The pirate's friends were not so generous as a pair of blaster bolts came shooting towards him from further aft.  One went wide but the other missed his cheek by inches, reddening the skin.


OOC:  The guard has been knocked out, meaning he will be done for 1d4 rounds


Deck 9
Mika worked furiously, her fingers flying across the keyboard trying to keep the primary interlocks frozen and the docking clamps in place.  She managed to override the airlock controls for now.  But if the pirates were good enough, they'd soon compensate and manually override.  She continued to work to hamper them anyway she could.

Over her shoulder she could see that the engines had now powered to full and the freighter was heading for the nearest area of space out of the gravity well.

---

VP/WP
Aryan: 31/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 18/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: One incapacitated, one knocked out + 2-4 more
Deck 3 Team: One dead, one unconscious, two active

Merreck ducked forward and was going for the weapons of the pirates in the elevator, in case they wake up, using whatever cover he could get behind, running around the elevator if it wasn´t too far. He wasn´t just disarming them, he was looking for some grenades, a well-placed stun grenade would turn this battle. Once he found whatever he needed, Merreck retreated to better cover.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:00, Tue 01 Mar 2011.

well apparently Sheila misread how quickly they could get to their feet.  She will turn and shoot at whicever live one is in range and hope Aryan can take care of the other.

Exilim didn't hesitate, he was focused & ready for any incoming fire to give him a direction to shoot. As soon as the pirates shot at Merreck he fired back at where he determined the point of origin of the blaster fire to be.

Once he fired his volley of shots he moved to the side a few steps,  away from where Merreck was at the lift, and knelt on one knee ready to fire again. He hoped that the remaining smoke and his change of position would be enough so that any return fire would go wide.

He didn't look at Merreck as he had to be ready to fire again or move quickly. He hoped however that he was ready to provide cover fire.

Aryan, baring his teeth, springs into action on the closest guard, launching an attack

Meeka continues to work on keeping the freighter coupled to the pirate ship.  Regardless of what else happened, if the pirate ship gets free, it's weapons would smash the freighter to a pulp in seconds.  She wasn't sure what the others were doing, but she hopes they're boarding the pirate ship to take it over.  She couldn't think of any other way for them to survive.

Deck 3
Sheila spins and fires a hasty shot at the pirate who struck her, the poorly aimed shot flying wide.  The pirate's return shot is a lot more accurate, searing the medic's side.  Sheila gasps and clutches her side, waiting for the killing shot.  However when the shot fires, it comes from the security guard who had finally managed to get a clear shot at the pirate.  The shot hit him squarely in the shoulder and sent him staggering.  The distraction was enough for Sheila to take a more carefully aimed shot that took the pirate clean in the chest, fatally wounding him.

To the side, Aryan fell into a comfortable fighting stance while the pirate drew a vibroblade from a sheath on his back.  Undeterred, the gungan moved in landing a solid punch but recieving a long slash across his arm in return.  While Aryan was clearly the better melee fighter, the pirate's blade gave him a reach advantage.


OOC:  Sheila, you have a free run to the airlock now.  You wont draw an AoO from the other pirate.  The security guard could assist Aryan or follow you.


Deck 8
While Merreck took cover, Xil slowly advanced, using his innate sniper skills to calm his mind and track his unseen enemy.  The pirates were shooting from cover somewhere beyond the smoke.  Xil took his time and fired two shots, the first could be hrard to strike a wall, the second definitely hit someone as a pirate yelped in pain.


OOC:  Merreck, fallen pirates each have a vibroblade and blaster pistol.  One of them also has a smoke grenade and blaster rifle.


Deck 9
Mika cursed under her breath.  Whoever was trying to circumvent her was good.  They'd managed to manually release one of the interlocks.  Three more and they'd be free.  They were running out of time.

Mika, the opposed roll is a computer check (you) vs repair check (pirate).  Everytime he beats you he manually overrides a locking mechanism.   Because he's doing it manually onsite, you can't lock it down again.  So basically you're successful rolls are buying the Talons time (else the pirates would have detached several rounds ago).  Too bad nobody knows the dire circumstances but you!



VP/WP
Aryan: 13/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: 48/48VP 12/12WP
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 5/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: One incapacitated, one knocked out + 2-4 more (one injured ?how badly)
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one unconscious, one lightly injured (battling Aryan)
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:20, Mon 07 Mar 2011.

Merreck puts another stun round in the pirate, then drags his body out of the elevator, carefull not to hurt him too much when he hits the floor outside. He grabs the smoke grenade in one hand and ducks down in the cover beside Number Four.

Sheila heads to the airlock.  Time to be the slicer now.   She pulls out the appropriate kit, trying to help keep the sirlock from letting the other ship go.

Mika had not wanted to do anything to draw the pirates attention to her, not more then she could help anyway, but things were getting desperate.  Activating the ship's comms, she announces, "Better get to the airlock unless you want to breath space."

From his current position he fired another round of shots in  the direction of the pirates yelp. He was then on the move again,  forward and to the side, changing his position and cover to keep the pirates confused.

He registered Mika's call over the ships intercomm but didn't let it overly  distract him. He had to rely on the team down on level three to deal with that situation, they afterall had more resources at hand than Merreck and himself.

Aryan smiles a half smile at the man he's facing off.  The gungan alters his stance a little, putting his weight on his back foot and falling into an even rythum.

Deck 3
Aryan strikes out with a circle kick, aiming for the pirate's wrist attempting to releive him of his vibroblade.  The move knocks the weapon out wide but the pirate tenaciously keeps his grip.

From further back, the security guard, eager to help aims his blaster at the twirling combatants.  Squeezing the trigger he lets off a round that misses the Gungan's good ear by mere centimetres.

Sheila meanwhile had moved past the battle and had closed on the airlock.  Both airlock doors were closed and behind the second door she could see a pirate working furiously on a control panel.  THe pirate clearly sees her too because he barks something into a commlink then continues to work frantically.


OOC:  Aryan's disarm failed (he can always try again).  The guard tried to fire into melee but nearly hit Aryan instead!

Sheila, you need a successful repair check to start locking down the airlock.  You'd need to enter the airlock to open the far door asonly one opens at a time though Mika could potentially alter that from engineering (though she'd have to give up her 'battle' for a round to do so).


Deck 8
Xil continued his methodical approach, firing into the smoke.  He was rewarded as he heard a pirate gasp and then gurgle in the unmistakable manner of someone fatally wounded.  The sniper had no time to celebrate his success as a lucky (or skilled) blaster shot caught him full in the chest, sending him hurtling backwards into the wall.  Merreck watched in horror as Xil slumped to the ground unmoving.


OOC:  Well Xil just took the brunt of a critical hit (who set the dice roller to Evil?) and is dying.  One of the pirates is likely dead (or a REALLY good actor).  You still have one stunned pirate in the elevator and at least one pirate down the passage (only two were shooting so there may be only one left, else people haven't been shooting at you).

Don't forget you still have the security guard hiding in a corner to help.  He's been given no jobs to do so he's just taking cover at the moment trying not to get killed.


Deck 9
Mika continued to work frantically, managing to head off a secondary coupling circumvent her nemesis had just tried to slip through.  The engineer was building up a sweat.  Her battle may not involve blasters but the battle was no less intense, the stakes just as high.


OOC:  You won the opposed check this round.  Three interlocks remain in place.


VP/WP
Aryan: 13/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *DYING*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 5/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: One dead, One incapacitated, one knocked out + 1-3 more (only one shooting)
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one unconscious, one lightly injured (battling Aryan)
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:20, Wed 09 Mar 2011.

Sheila and the pirate both work frantically to do opposing things to the airlock, him trying to allow the shuttle to escape, her trying to keep it there.

"Damn it!" Merreck left the pirate on the ground, then shot one normal round into the smoke, at the direction the pirates blaster bolts were coming from. Then he ducked down and tried to pull the Talon our of the line of fire where he could patch him up. He shouted at the security guard. "Get over here and cover me!"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:10, Thu 10 Mar 2011.

DECK 3 - Amidships
Aryan continued to engage his foe with bare hands, making no effort to draw a weapon against the pirate's vibroblade.  Wether this was a move of arrogance or confidence one could not say.  The pirate continued to swing but the Gungan continued deftly dodge.  An overswing by the pirate allowed Aryan to move in close and deliver a midsection punch that he had to retract quickly as the pirate swung his blade back to defend.  The pair backed away, Aryan's punch barely connecting and a small cut on his arm for the trouble.  The pair backed away slighly, the pirate bringing his weapon to a guard position. . .then went flying backwards as the security guard finally scored a hit that took the pirate dead in the abdomen and sent him falling to the ground, blood leaking profusely.  The pirate stared accusingly at the guard for a moment and then his eyes closed, his breaths shallow and his blood flowing away.


OOC: Well who woulda thought it!  The guard hit something!  Last pirate is rapidly bleeding to death.  That means that there are now two corpses, one unconscious and one dying pirate here.


DECK 3 - Port Airlock
Sheila worked frantically at the interlocks, frustration mounting.  She was a slicer, not an engineer.  Still, the pirate had not managed to free anymore interlocks so far.  Wether that was due to her or Mika she hadn't the time to note.  What she did note that another pirate had come to help.  Drawing a heavy blaster, the new pirate had opened the outer airlock door, stepped in and closed it behind him.  Now only the inner airlock door stood between him and Sheila.


DECK 8
The security guard moved forward and began to exchange fire with their foes as Merreck dragged Xil to a safe corner.  Tearing open a trauma patch and grabbing wound sealant, Merreck set to work.  Wether by luck or skill, Merreck did a job worthy of a senior combat medic and soon Xil's life was no longer at risk, at least not from this wound.  The sniper remained unconscious, but he would be okay until they could get him to some bacta.

Merreck then turned and rushed back to the battle.  Taking cover on the opposite side of the wall to the guard he pulled his trigger, but then cursed and pulled back in frustration as his weapon jammed!


OOC:  Interesting.  Merreck rolled a natural 20 to stabilise Xil and then a natural 1 on his first attack when returning to the fray.  Merreck will spend round 19 unjamming his weapon.



DECK 9
Mika had paid little attention to the security camera of the port airlock for over a minute.  There was nothing to see and she'd been busily engaged in electro-mechanical warfare.  Even though one of the Talons had clearly arrived as someone else was trying to lock down the system, Mika was still the one managing to override the attempts to circumvent.

However, she now noticed a new problem.  A pirate had entered the airlock with blaster drawn.  Clearly he was going to 'deal' with whoever was working on the airlock with her.



VP/WP
Aryan: 9/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 5/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: One dead, One incapacitated, one knocked out + 1-3 more (only one shooting)
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious

"Nerfherding dunggrubbers!" Merreck ducked down behind the cover and cursed profusely as he was trying to unjam his blaster. "Keep your aim on the pirates, I will only be a moment. Do you have some kind of restraints on you?"

Sheila called back over her shoulder.  "Nother guy coming out, little help please."

Aryan, hearing shelia's call, springs into action, drawing his blaster pistol.  He looks at the guard "Watch our backs" he says simply  He runs to her side and takes aim at any enemies comming on the woman.

Deck 3
Sheila works to keep the inner airlock door closed but her opponent is faster and Sheila is forced to duck away from her panel as the pirate with the heavy pistol fires a bolt that strikes the wall close to her.  Falling back she sees the Gungan coming towards her, his own heavy pistol in hand.  Aryan and the pirate exchange fire, while Sheila falls back to cover.  While the pirate was now forced to exchange fire with Aryan, she couldn't get to the control panel without exposing herself to fire.

OOC:  Aryan and Sheila have partial cover, as does the pirate.  The panel is a few metres before you but there is no cover to be had there.


Deck 8
The guard shouted to Merreck, "There are restraints in the security locker on deck 7.  Don't usually need to carry them." then fell back as a bolt narrowly missed his head.  Merreck, his weapon now unjammed, began to return fire.  The enemy fire then traced towards him.

With the pirate momentarily distracted, the security guard was able to line up a shot that took the pirate full in the chest.  He fell backwards with a gasp and became silent.  No more fire emerged.

Near the elevator, the stunned pirate groaned and began to stir again.


Deck 9
In engineering, Mika cursed as she accidently bypassed a backup system instead of the primary, leaving one of the interlocks exposed.  Fortunately her enemy didn't take adavantage of this lapse and Mika quickly corrected her mistake.  Three interlocks remained in place.  Hopefully the mercenaries would deal with the problem soon.  Already she could see flashes of what had to be blasterfire from the airlock camera.



OOC:  No more fire is emerging from the aft section.  Either you got them all or they are being very quiet.


VP/WP
Aryan: 9/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: 5/22VP 10/10WP
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one rousing + ?more
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious

"We´ll have to make do without those restraints for now. Keep your eyes open."

Merreck moved closer to the prisoner, keeping his head down while training his gun on the pirate. "No sudden movements! Answer me, how many of you came up in the elevator?"

Sheila will shoot at the pirate, trying to stay under cover as much as possible while doing so.

Aryan will continue to shoot at the pirate

Mika continues her efforts to keep the ships coupled together.  She considers evacuating the atmosphere from the airlock to stop whoever is trying to mess with the interlocks, but she's concerned that doing so would help them pull the ships apart that much quicker.

She takes a quick look to see if she could reroute something else into the airlock, coolant maybe or the spray from the fire extinguishers.

The pirate spits at Merreck and says nothing.

Merreck stun the pirate and wipe away the spit. There was no real restraints to find, but he improvised one with the pirates own jacket.

Deck 3
The battle continues as Aryan and Sheila exchange blasterfire with the pirate.  Laser bolts flew back and forth with such ferocity it was hard to see at times.  After nearly thirty seconds of intense shooting, Aryan caught the pirate full in the face, melting away half the features.

The Gungan moved forward and stared at the body and grinned.  He turned to make a comment to Sheila, but he fell silent, his smile dropping away.  The slicer was lying against the wall, a massive blaster burn on her chest.  Clearly the pirate had got a good shot off too.

On examination Aryan found that Sheila was breathing and didn't appear to be bleeding, the heat from the energy blast had cauterised the wound.  Still she was in bad shape and would need a bacta tank in the next few hours.

Having left the guard watching the prisoner and with Sheila now unconscious, Aryan was alone.  Through the airlock he could still see the other pirate working on controls.

OOC:  Sheila took a nasty hit but has self-stabilised.


Deck 8
It didn't take long for Merreck and the guard to truss up the pirate.  By the time they had done so, the Cloakshape pilot had also joined them.  He'd taken the time to ensure the blast doors were still firmly closed.

The question was, what to do now.

Merreck has 2 x NPC helpers, one unconscious PC, one prisoner, one unconscious prisoner and 2 corpses.  Fun fun.  And whatever happened to that bridge team?



Deck 9
Mika had not had much trouble keeping the interlocks held down as whoever had been trying to bypass her seemed not to be trying at the moment.  Perhaps the mercenaries had finally taken care of that for her.

---

OOC:  And then there were 3.  The Talons are dropping like flies.  Interesting how the low level NPC's are faring better then the 'experienced' mercenaries.  I guess guns don't discriminate!


VP/WP
Aryan: 9/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one rousing + ?more
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:56, Sat 26 Mar 2011.

Xil lay, not moving, where Merreck had stabilised him.


OOC: Had to write something, being nearly dead isn't much fun.

Merreck pick up Four's comlink and contact the remaining Talons. "Merreck here, we´ve repelled the pirates but they took the bridge. Four is down but alive. Is everyone okay?"

He turns to the guard. "You stay, here with Four and the prisoner and watch our backs." He motions to the pilot. "Come, we need to make sure all the pirates are down." He moves towards the smoke to find the pirates, corpses or otherwise.

OOC:  Just a reminder that there are only 3 of the encrypted Talon comms aboard.  Xil's in on Deck 8 (which he is using), Aryan's is on his person and Sheila's is on her's (though I'm kinda sure she wont answer).  Shame Mika or Tobias didn't have one!  Though Mika is directly above Merreck at the moment!

Mika continues to monitor the situation and do whatever she can to hamper the pirates attempts to decouple the airlock.

Merreck and the pilot had finished checking the aft section of deck 8 and confirmed there were no more enemies there when Aryan commed in.  The gungan quickly explained that 'Ten' was down and he'd left the guard with him to watch over a prisoner.  So the Gungan was alone, had yet to breach the airlock while the pirates were desperately trying to escape and he had an unconscious comrade with him.  Worse yet they still didn't know the status of this bridge team.


OOC:  I quickly wrote a post so Aryan and Merreck can focus on plans.  Your troubles now seem to stem from the missing team (? on the bridge) and the shuttle crew who are trying to detatch.  On the bright side most of you can talk to each other!

Merreck used the comlink to plan with the gungan. He made sure to talk a distance away from the prisoner.

"Okay, crazy plan, let´s take their ship. We lost our bridge, we take their ship in return, a ship with weapons. We just need to move everyone there. What do you say? We can come down in the elevator right away, as soon as I use the intercom to tell the engineer to turn them on again."

Aryan, looking at the prone form of shelia, listens to merrick.  "Isa can try..but stills it will leave a stale mate.  Theysa wiill have our ship, we will have theirs.  They have the cargo, we the weapons."

Aryan looks at the guard.  "..but if we take tehir ship and hold it, we can disable this ship and then take them in a bigger group."

"So, do we go ahead with it? We just have to make sure everyone comes along."

OOC: Can Mika get to the airlock?

Mika controls engineering. She can go wherever she pleases!

Aryan smiles, more than a little excitement in his voice.  "Isa think we should do it....wesa may get a ship out of this...if we survive"

The gungan looks at the airlock and a new look of determination crosses his face.

He looks at teh guard.  "Keep him alive...i wants a chat wioth him later"

Merreck keys the intercom. "Mika, can you start my elevator? Then go and meet Eight, understood?"

He turns to the pilot and guard. "Okay, we´re taking the elevator, the Talon is coming, and that prisoner."

Aryan steps up to the internal door, looking at the pirate as he works. Mika....isa need you to open the airlock hatch to the pirate shuttle...right now."

The gungan pulls a vibrodagger from his belt and stands, looking at the man on the other side.

Merreck hits his forehead with his hand at Aryans next message over the intercom, then help the guard and pilot with getting Four and the prisoner into the elevator. He dumps the bodies in the elevator outside, but bring any unconcious Pirates along for the ride down. He hands one blaster rifle to the pilot and one to the guard, and keep the smoke grenade for himself. If there are any easily accessible power packs then he pockets them as well, as long as it doesn´t delay the ride down.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:21, Mon 28 Mar 2011.

With conflicting orders coming from the intercom, Mika hesitates.  First thing, she starts up the elevators, assuming the pirates are down if the Talons are blasting orders in the clear.

Then she turns her attention to the airlock, working to reengage it's functionality.

Lastly, she summons an elevator to engineering.  She ducks behind a console with blaster in hand, ready to ambush or hide if there's anyone on the elevator who shouldn't be.

Merreck gets everyone inside the elevator, guard, pilot, unconcious Talon and any and all pirate prisoners, then commands it to take them to deck 3 and the airlock.

Deck 9
Mika quickly powers up the aft turbolift, behind her she can hear it smoothly rise to her deck where she locks it in place while she quickly turns her attention to getting the airlock door unlocked as requested by the Gungan.  This also doesn't take too long and she quickly has the door opened.

Spinning in her chair, the engineer then runs to the elevator and takes it down to the deck below.


Deck 8
Merreck listens as the elevator powers up and begins to rise to the deck above.  While he waits for it to return, he and a guard man-handle Exilim to the elevator doors while the other guard keeps the prisoner covered.

After about fifteen seconds the elevator arrives with Mika on board.  The four of them quickly get Exilim and the prisoner on board.  With a quick check of his blaster, Merreck hits the Deck 5 button and the elevator begins to descend.


Deck 3 - Port Airlock
Aryan thumbs on his vibroblade and weaves it in the air threateningly towards the pirate, a feral grin on his features.  The pirate gulps and tries to focus on his work but the distraction proves too much as the airlock door slides open thanks to Mika.

The pirate ceases his work and grabs his blaster as the airlock starts to rise.  He fires off a hasty shot as he runs for the rear of the ship shouting to someone.

---

OOC:  Might be a good time for people to review deck plans.  Merreck, Mika, a guard and the cloakshape pilot have just reached Deck 5 in the aft turbolift (which only goes down to deck 5).  They have the unconscious Xil (who weighs 95kg so will slow you down significantly) and the pirate prisoner in tow.  If you want to go further down you'll need to use either the cargo elevator or the forward turbolift (I'm assuming she reactivated one of them).  Even so it's going to take a while to reach the shuttle at this rate.  Carrying bodies and leading prisoners does slow you down.  But then again the 'Gunganaut' seems to think he has this all in hand.

Freighter Deck Plan - http://deckplans.00sf.com/CEC/Action6.html


Aryan you are standing at the boarding ramp which leads into the shuttle (number 7 on the deck plan.  The pirate has just run up the ramp towards the back of the ship (that's the way the ramp faces.

Shuttle Deck Plan - http://starwars.wikia.com/inde...-4a_shuttle_SotG-jpg




VP/WP
Aryan: 9/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 1: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 2: Uninjured (Guarding Prisoner on Deck 3)


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one rousing + ?more
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:12, Sat 02 Apr 2011.

"Let´s head for the cargo lift, it should be fastest." Merreck help the guard and pilot with moving Talon Four. Mika was a welcome addition to the team as well.

Aryan, sheathing his blade and drawing his heavy pistol as he moves, continues up the ramp slowly and causiously, watching for any signs of fire or ambush.

Letting the others handle the hauling of the unconscious Talon and the guarding of the prisoner, Mika moves in the rear of the company, following Merreck's lead towards the cargo lift.  She looks about, seeing what signs of damage might have been left in the aftermath of the battle, if any.

The plan is simple, head for the cargo lift, take it down to the level of the airlock, then hurry out of the hold into the room with the airlocks. Time is of the essence, but they are moving as quickly as they safely can.

Aryan moves cautiously up the ramp alert for trouble.  From the back of the ship he can hear a lot of noise.  It sounds like the pirate is hastily ripping things off the wall.  Alert to the cabin door at his back, the Gungan moves forward.

He hears the cockpit door opening and the Gungan dives behind one of the starboard side seats for cover as a blaster shot goes off.  Aryan looks up to see a pirate hiding behind the doorway, blaster in hand.  The gungan is then distracted as a flurry of shots burn into his cover from the rear.  The pirate had returned and now had a light repeater slung over his shoulder, the barrel pointed his way and shots flying indiscriminately.  Over his other shoulder hung a bandoleer of what looked like thermal detonators.



OOC: Aryan is taking cover behind the starboard bucket seat that is furthest forward.  He has a pirate shooting from behind the door with a pistol (position 6 on the diagaram) and a pirate standing in the aft foorway shooting a light repeater.  He's just spraying wildly but repeaters aren't built for accuracy!

It will be some time before Merreck's team can assist, especially burdered with all the bodies and prisoner.


VP/WP
Aryan: 9/31VP 12/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 1: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 2: Uninjured (Guarding Prisoner on Deck 3)


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one rousing + ?more
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious

Aryan, taking quick guage of his suituation, flings a concussion grenade at the pirate with teh repeater, aware of teh man at his back

Deck 5
Merreck, Mika and the guards manage to carry Xil to the cargo ramp and begin to head downwards.


Shuttle
Aryan primes and throws a concussion grenade which lands just in front of the pirate with the repeater.  The blast knocks him backward into the rear room and he doesn't reappear.  Aryan barely has time to notice this as the blastwave from the grenade knocks him off his feet, though the chair in front of him protects him from the worst of the blast.

It does not however protect him from the blaster bolt that singes his shoulder.  The Gungan ducks back behind cover before the pirate shooting from the cockpit can get another shot off.

---

VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 10/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 1: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 2: Uninjured (Guarding Prisoner on Deck 3)


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one rousing + ?more
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, one dying, one unconscious
Shuttle Crew: One knocked out, one uninjured

Sheila will lie there and wait for someone to move her.

"Engineer, what was your name again? Are you armed?" Merreck takes a few moments to relax while the cargo lift takes them down to the right floor.

"Mika." she replies to Merreck tersely, patting the blaster holstered upon her hip in answer to his second question.  "I can usually manage to not shoot myself in the foot with it." she adds with a grim chuckle.

"Good to meet you, Mika. I suggest you draw and get ready. Have you ever been in a firefight, a real one?" Merreck checks the energy on his blaster.

Exilim continues not being able to do anything, totally reliant on the team around him.

Mika gives a snort as she draws her blaster.  "Why would I have been in a real fire fight, I'm just an engineer."  Her draw is smooth and her grip on the blaster is sure, mute evidence that she's perhaps a bit more skilled at handling a blaster then her words would indicate.

Aryan, wincing at his wounds, turns so as to be able to fire at the second person while staying under cover.

Shuttle

Aryan continued to trade fire with the pirate in the cockpit door.  Blaster fire splashed all around with several of the Gungan's shots flying into the cockpit while the pirate's shots were reducing the chair Aryan was using to much.

'Where are they?' the Gungan thought to himself angrily.  'It shouldn't have taken Merreck this long to get here.  What could be keeping him?'

The Gungan saw off to his left that the pirate he had downed with the stun grenade was getting back to his feet.  The distraction proved costly as a laser blast hit him full in the chest, knocking him over backwards.  The pirate who had hit him stayed in the doorway too long to admire his handiwork and Aryan caught him with a laser blast to the shoulder, causing him to fall back temporarily in pain.

Aryan examined his own wound.  His armour had deflected much of the blast, saving his life.  Even though the bolt had scorched a deep wound in his chest, one that needed urgent medical attention.  His vision was starting to blur at the edges and it was hard to breathe.


OOC:  Well your armour saved your life, just barely.  One more hit and you're gonna go down.  The pirate in the cockpit door is wounded but still fighting and you've got the other pirate getting back to his feet and will be able to act next round.  Doesn't seem like your reinforcements are coming so you're gonna have to get out of this one yourself somehow.


Deck 3 - Midships
The cargo elevator reached Deck 3 and the group slowly made their way towards the airlock, Exilim's weight causing them to puff and pant as they slowly carried him along.  Near the passageway leading to the forward section Merreck could see the security guard who had been with Aryan.  He was standing watch over a group of pirate bodies.  They were too far off with too many things in the way to determine if they were alive or dead.

OOC: You're about a third of the way between the cargo elevator and the forward turbolift (closer to the cargo elevator)

---

VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 2/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 1: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 2: Uninjured (Guarding Prisoner on Deck 3)


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated, one moderately wounded
Deck 3 Team: Two dead, two unconscious
Shuttle Crew: One moderately wounded, one uninjured
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:22, Sat 02 Apr 2011.

"Stay alert"

Merreck call ahead to alert the guard that they were coming. "Hey! We´re coming over! Some of us are wounded. Where is the gungan?"

Aryan, injured and facing two enemied, one well covered and the other heavily armed, looks at his chest for a moment, then at the ramp.  with a nod of defiance, he takes out his two frag grenades.  He lobs the first one into the cockpit, then the second to teh man at teh back of teh ship.  just as the grenbades leave his hands, aryan is off at a run for the airlock at full speed
This message was last edited by the player at 01:07, Sun 03 Apr 2011.

Shuttle
Calling on all the skill, luck and hope he had within him Aryan thumbed the detonator on his first frag grenade and threw it at the cockpit.  It sailed through the door and landed practically at the pirate's feet before exploding.  The pirate made no sound as his body was shredded by the schrapnel.  The sound of exploding consoles could be heard though as the fragments tore into equipment in the cockpit.

Not pausing to savour his good throw, Aryan quickly primed and tossed his final frag grenade at the pirate in the back.  Not even waiting to see it's effect, the Gungan dove for the ramp, rolled once and came up in a run, expecting a blaster bolt in the back any moment.  He need not of worried on that account as the pirate had slung his repeater.

Aryan would have had cause for great concern if he had of seen the pirate arming a thermal detonator as the frag grenade landed at his feet.  He would have been more alarmed as the pirate dropped said detonator in shock.  Fortunately for Aryan he was down the ramp and halfway to the airlock when the grenade blew, followed a millisecond later by the thermal detonator.  If the explosion power of these two weapons was not enough, the fact that the pirate was wearing a bandoleer of detonators, which sparked off with the massive explosion was enough to seal the deal. . .


Deck 3 - Amidships
Merreck had hailed the guard who had left his unconscious charges and moved over to assist Merreck's team with their loads.  He quickly explained that the two mercenaries had headed for the shuttle and left him on guard duty.  He'd seen nothing since though he'd heard the sounds of blasterfire.

They'd made it halfway to the guard's original position when a massive explosion was heard forward.  The force of the explosion was so strong the ship lurched sharply to port, sending everyone falling to the ground.  The temperature suddenly dropped several degrees and everyone began to feel the tug of vaccum, a sure sign of a hull breach somewhere forward.  This settled after a few seconds.  Alarms started to go off all over the ship.

"What the frak just happened?" gasped a guard.


Port Airlock - Deck 3
Aryan brushed himself off and stood up.  He turned to look through the airlock door behind him.  The explosion had fair knocked him off his feet and when decompression had kicked in he thought he was dead.  However, he had realised he was within the airlock as the external door closed automatically in response to the decompression.  Staring through the viewport he could see that the shuttle was still attached. . .well part of it anyway, as the entire rear section of the shuttle had been vapourised.

Admiring his handiwork for a few seconds, the gungan realised he needed to move.  The outer airlock door had been badly bent and pitted and it was a miracle it still had integrity.  What little of the ship he could see was marked with deep streaks, dents and scoring.  It didn't take an engineer to know this area wasn't safe.

---

OOC:  Nothing like a flair for the dramatic Aryan.  I think you probably made our demolitionist jealous with that blast!  Destroying half a shuttle in close proximity to a fuel tanker is gutsy. . .or insane (or maybe a little bit of both!)  Good move using those Force Points Aryan, they saved your barbequed Gungan butt.

Mika, I think you're going to have your work cut out for you.

On the bright side, the shuttle is no longer a threat and all the team (minus Captain Tobias) is back together!  Though Aryan smells a little crispy!


VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 2/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Tobias:  Unknown
Pilot: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 1: Uninjured (with Merreck & Mika)
Guard 2: Uninjured (Guarding Prisoner on Deck 3)


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One incapacitated,
Deck 3: Two dead, two unconscious, one moderately wounded
Shuttle Crew: Very, very, VERY dead, snap frozen then explosively decompressed.

"Infinity's reach. Everybody stay here!" Merreck bolt forward to see what happened at the airlocks, fearing the worst.

Merreck run ahead, finding Aryan and two more unconcious men on the way. After checking that they are alive, he walks into the airlock to find Aryan, and the devastation he caused. "What happened, gungan? Where´s our escape vehicule?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:13, Mon 04 Apr 2011.

Mika rolls to the side and comes up to her knees.  "What the he'll...?". Feeling the tug of a hull breech, she immediately looks around for an equipment locker, hoping for a breath mask or something.  Of course, if they're bleeding atmosphere, she didn't have a lot of time.  Breath mask in hand or not, Mika pushes forward. "Get something I can use as a hull patch."

Aryan, injured and more than a little exausted, allows himself a half smile as he looks at the damaged ship.

"The ship is currently nedings a service..but there is no enemies on board"

The gungan has a smile as he refers to the enemies.  He slides to a sitting position.  "If it'sa ok...can i gets someone to look at this.." pointing to his chest.  "...it'sa kinda hurt a bit"

"We needed that ship! What did you do? Curses. Mika, do we repair or evacuate?"

Merreck goes and checks all the bodies for survivors, and meanwhile gather any weapons he can find, focusing on grenades before other weapons.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:07, Wed 06 Apr 2011.

Aryan frowns.

"Wesa need the ship....why?  We can't claims it as our own anyway."

"The pirates control our bridge! Their shuttle would have been our escape pod and leverage to force the pirates to give up. Now we have to find a way to get them out of the bridge before they self-destruct the ship or arrive at the jump point."

He looks around at the airlock. "Unless the ship gives in first. Help me get these people out of here, gungan."

Mika shrugs.  "I don't know the extent of the damage yet, but we're not breathing space yet.  I say we at least plan on repair until we know more."

First thing, keep the air from leaking into space, then Mika could look at helping other efforts.  Maybe if she cut all power to the control room or try to disable the air for the control room only, or something.

Aryan looks at Mika.  "Disable the engines...that will stop them from jumping anywhere, and it may get them out to fix the problem."

While Aryan and Merreck bickered, Mika examined the airlock.  Fortunately there was no obvious hull breach to repair.  The initial loss of atmosphere clearly occured when the shuttle's integrity was ruptured, but as soon as the sensors detected this, the airlock doors sealed tight.  The seals on the airlock looked solid but she knew she needed to access damage control to get more detailed information.  Either that or suit up and head outside to see the damage first hand.

In the meantime though, they needed to work out where to go and what to do.  They still had hostiles on board, several wounded and some prisoners.



OOC:  Need to work out where you are going guys.  Simply saying 'let's go' doesn't tell me your intended location or your plans.  Mika powered up the aft turbolift and mid-deck cargo elevator so you can go where these go.

Merreck, the pirates on the ground had blaster pistols, one had a rifle.  No grenades to be seen (thought you'd be a little anti-grenade at the moment given Aryan's little escapade!)

To clarify.  All the ship's crew is now together on Deck 3 except Tobias who is likely still on the bridge in an unknown condition.

There are still an unknown number of pirates aboard (the 'bridge team').

On Deck 3 you now have three prisoners (two unconscious, one conscious) and two unconscious friendlies.  There is an additional unsconscious pirate up on Deck 8.  All the others are dead.


VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 2/12WP
Exilim: -2/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

Tobias:  Unknown


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One unconscious
Deck 3: Two dead, two unconscious, one moderately wounded
Shuttle Crew: Very, very, VERY dead, snap frozen then explosively decompressed.

Merreck grabs the blasters and blaster rifle. "We´ll deal with what we have avaliable. I´m taking the elevator and getting those pirates out of our bridge. Mika, are you coming? I could use your help to get the doors open. Gungan, are you up for another fight, or do you stay with the wounded?"

Aryan smiles at merrick.  "As long as i can stand, i'll fight.  you get me patched up and i'll make sure they'll be beggings us to leave them alone."

The gungan unholsters his blaster pistol, then smiles a wry smile.

"...but i'm all out of grenades."

<OOC: Sorry, gungan humour....hehe>

"I have a smoke grenade but that´s all. How do we get up to the bridge, and make sure they don´t get out before?" Merreck is moving towards the cargo hold to hand a blaster and a rifle to the pilot and guard.

Merreck goes and give the weapons to the guard and pilot, them get the Talon Comlink from Talon 3. He hadn´t expected the TIE-fighter pilot to go down, but he´s relieved that she was alive.

When he comes back to the Airlocks he hands the comlink to Mika. "Use this, then we can communicate without giving away our plans."

"Looks like the seals are holding."  Being able to keep breathing is instrumental in pretty much any plan they decide upon.

At Merreck's question, Mika wonders if it wouldn't be better for her to go to the engineering deck, but it was probably better they keep numbers on their side.  "Sure, I'm just as anxious to get the pirates off the ship as anyone."

Blaster again in hand, she motions for the more martial types to lead the way.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:50, Fri 08 Apr 2011.

"Okay, let´s do this. I have a plan for flushing out the rats from the ship. Mika, get to engineering and call me on the encrypted comlink when you get there."

Merreck moves to the cargo hold, shout to the security guard to come over, then enter the third floor forward elevator, looking up into the elevator shaft through the hatch at the top of the elevator, carefull in case the pirates are moving in the shaft.

OOC: What do I see in the shaft? Are the doors open on any of the floors?

Mika looks a bit confused, first her presence being requested to head for the bridge, now being ordered to engineering.  Still, if that's where she can do the most good, that's where she'll go.  "I don't have an encrypted comlink."

"Use the one I gave you, it´s Talon Three's but she´s hurt and incapable of helping us in this fight."

"Oh, okay.  I didn't know it was encrypted.  I'm off to engineering."

Mika turns aside and blaster still in hand, starts heading for engineering.

OOC:  Sorry Merreck, I overlooked the comlink hand-off.

While Merreck examines the forward turbolift shaft, Mika quickly makes her way back to engineering without incident.

Merreck tells the guard to guard the elevator shaft with his blaster, then make his way to the aft turbolift. "Talon, are you coming?"

Once in engineering, Mika does what she can to seal the room and pull status checks on the ship, looking for any damage from the recent explosion as well as trying to figure out where the pirates are and what they might be up to.  She holds off doing anything to alert them to her presence at the moment, but just absorbs data for the moment.

After making sure the guard he met on level 3 and the pilot were keeping an eye on the prisoner, wounded and the elevator, Merreck took the aft elevator to Deck 8, bringing the guard that helped him fight off the pirates earlier, and the gungan if he wants to come.

In the elevator he calls Mika on the secure comlink. "Mika, how´s things? Can you find the pirates?"

In engineering, Mika powers down the aft elevator as soon as Merreck's team reaches Deck 8 as is was the only way to at least partially secure engineering.  Checking her monitors she noted there was some extensive hull damage on the port side but no breaches.  The sub-light drives were operating at full power and were pushing them towards the nearest jump point, about sixty minutes away.  She couldn't tell if anyone was on the bridge as the cams on the bridge had been disabled.  The blast doors on deck 8 were still locked down to prevent anyone traversing the deck.

Aryan, blaster in hand, flinches as he gets to his feet and follows Merrick

Merreck, Aryan and the guard stepped out of the turbolift on Deck 8 while Mika continued upwards.  The deck was exactly how they left it.  The unconscious pirate was still where he lay as where the corpses.  The blast doors were still securely down as Xil had ordered Mika to do earlier.


OOC:  I'd like a weapons/armour check people.  What are you actually all carrying/wearing so I can keep track.  The guard has a blaster pistol, blaster rifle and a stun baton.  He's wearing a blast helmet and vest for armour.

Merreck find a defensive position behind their earlier cover, facing the blast doors. He talks quietly into the comlink.

"Mika, we´re in position, can you get the blast doors open? Do you see anyone on the other side?"

OOC: Merreck has his own blaster, one scavenged blaster, and a smoke grenade.
I have everything except a chewing gum and a piece of plastic to make a personal proton torpedo launcher.

Mika takes a few minutes to check out the current situation.

She grabs the com link and calls Merreck.  "We're not in too bad a shape, but lots of damage.  They're pushing to the jump point at full speed.  Video's out, I can't see what's going on.  I'll see if I can get the doors open.  Stand by."

The blast doors on Deck 8 quickly glide open, showing an empty corridor beyond.

Before Aryan moves, he grabs a med pack.  Holds on merrick.  If i drop, who's gonna save your human ass?

"Wait a second, I need to know where the pirates are."

He turns to the guard. "Can you stay with the Talon, help him patch up?"

In the comlink, Merreck called to the engineer. "Mika, can you stop them from jumping? Turn off the hyperspace engines or something?"

After giving his instructions, Merreck slowly advance, listening for the sound of movement.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:16, Sun 10 Apr 2011.

Merreck cautiously starts moving forward while the Gungan fumbles with the medpac.  By the time Merrekc has reached the door leading to the eating area, Aryan has thrown aside the now-useless medpac which he had been unable to use successfully.


OOC: Aryan and the guard are still near the aft turbolift, Merreck is just outside the door to the room with the large table and all the chairs.  He still couldn't hear anything.

Aryan, in future if you want to use a medpac, just make the roll yourself as per the rulebook.  I've rolled for you in this case and you've failed.

Merreck moves to the larger room two doors away from the dining hall, then whisper quietly into the comlink. "Mika, cut the light in the corridor, and put it at full in the forward compartments of deck 8, then open all doors in the compartments ahead of me, okay?"

EDIT: Changed action since there are no cameras ahead.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:31, Mon 11 Apr 2011.

Mika calls Merreck back, "Sure, I can disable the hyperdrive, but it's an hour before they can use them anyway.  The only thing that disabling them now would do is make me a target.  I'll disengage them before they can jump, but I'll hold off on it for now."

With Merreck's further order, Mika looks to modify the ship's lighting in the fashion instructed and pop the doors as ordered.

"Sure, just making sure that we can stop them if they try to get away." Merreck end the call to Mika, then cover at the side of the wall with his blaster ready against any pirates in the rooms ahead.

<Deck 3>
A moan erupts from Sheila as she slowly regains consciousness.


OOC: I did your hour fort check a little early.  Sheila passed so is now classified as 'disabled' (so you can only perform move or attack actions, though this includes using medpacs and medkits!).  Xil is still unconscious.


<Deck 8>
Merreck watched as the lights blinked out in all sections of Deck 8 except the forward compartments.  However Mika couldn't affect all the doors as only the blast doors could be manipulated from engineering as they were linked to the fire system.  All other doors would have to be managed manually.

In reply to Master Servious (msg #262):

OOC, Oh bless the great and generous Master.

The first thing Sheila will motice, once she's actually awake, is that there are guards, and prisoners, (and her and Xil, but no one else).  She groans, and decides to ask once she's actually useful for something.  Not to mention she'll eventually need a new shirt and a bacta dip, she took that one in the chest.  Sheila will set to using the medpac on Xil.

 on Xil, til he's awake

Sheila's skill pays off as Xil begins to groan and slowly regains consciousness.


OOC: Xil is now disabled but conscious.  Welcome back.

On a side note please note that nobody on Deck 3 has a Talon encrypted comm (Merreck has Xil's and Mika has Sheila's) so you can't communicate with the Deck 8 team or Mika.




VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 2/12WP
Exilim: 0/12WP *DISABLED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *DISABLED*
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

Tobias:  Unknown


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One unconscious
Deck 3: Two dead, two unconscious, one moderately wounded
Shuttle Crew: Very, very, VERY dead, snap frozen then explosively decompressed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:53, Tue 12 Apr 2011.

Merreck swore to himself, then walked forward to the door, listening for sounds. If he doesn´t hear anything, then he´d hit the control on the door and immediately retreat into the darkness. If he hear something he´s retreating again to wait.

It took Merreck less then a minute to determine that the dining area, and elevator area were devoid of pirates.  There were still three doors leading to the various crew quarters he hadn't searched though.

Merreck whisper into his comlink. "Talon, where are you? Can you send the guard forward? I need someone to watch my back."

Merreck then carefully approach the crew quarters, blaster and smoke grenade ready, moving as quietly as he can. Once he´s at the left crew quarters he listens at the door, then checks if he can lock it from the outside.

Xil slowly opens his eyes, he felt as if he'd been hit by a land speeder that had then decided to land on him. "What happened?" he muttered as he tried to get his bearings by looking around.

OOC: I am alive ...... many thanks to my treating Medic.

Aryan and the guard move up to support Merreck.  Meanwhile the navigator hears nothing while listening at the door.  He also discovers the door is lockable but only with a code key he doesn't possess, but fortunately the security guard does.

Merreck asks the guard to lock all doors to the crew quarters and the small rooms outside the turbo lift, and escort him around as he does so, listening for sounds of danger. If everything goes smoothly, Merreck will direct his attention to the lift instead.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:47, Wed 13 Apr 2011.

Sheila isn't feeling so hot as she searches herself to see what's missing, mainly her comlink, then she notes the prisoners.. \she looks at Xil and then to the guard.  "Wanna fill us in? last I remember is getting shot?"

<Deck 8>
It only takes a few minutes if sneaking, listening at doors and swiping of locks to have all the crew areas locked off and Merreck and Aryan confident there are no pirates hiding in there (or if they are, they're very quiet).  The three of them gather around the forward turbolift shaft.  It's still powered down and the doors on both sides of it remain closed.



<Deck 3>

The cloakshape pilot came over to answer Sheila's question while the guard stood watch over the prisoners, though they were both still unconscious.

"Well, in short, the frogman kicked butt.  He took down several pirates in hand to hand combat then blew up the shuttle.  Not sure how smart that was when it was still attached to the ship but the engineer seems to think we're safe for now.  The navigator, the engineer the frog and one of the security guards have gone to the aft elevator.  Not sure the plan but he said something about retaking the bridge and sending the engineer to engineering.  He left us to watch over the wounded, the prisoners and to guard the forward turbolift."

The frog didn't say much, the navigator was ordering him around a lot.  Not sure why one of you mercenaries, especially one who can kick butt so well takes so much crap from one of the crew."

He suddenly looks at Xil and Sheila pleadingly.  "Oh and don't tell him I called him a frog.  I have no idea of his name or number or whatever.  I'd hate to have him reduce me to pulp.  From what I hear he could do it without breaking a sweat."

---

VP/WP
Aryan: 0/31VP 2/12WP
Exilim: 0/12WP *STABILISED*
Merreck: 25/34VP 12/12WP
Mika: 29/29VP 12/12WP
Sheila: -6/10WP *STABILISED
Pilot: Uninjured
Guard 1: Uninjured
Guard 2: Uninjured

Tobias:  Unknown


ENEMIES
Bridge Team: Unknown
Deck 8 Team: Two dead, One unconscious
Deck 3: Two dead, two unconscious, one moderately wounded
Shuttle Crew: Very, very, VERY dead, snap frozen then explosively decompressed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:35, Wed 13 Apr 2011.

Merreck tries to open the doors to the turbolift, calling to Mika if they don´t open, then calling to the guard in the elevator to show who he is so he doesn´t get his head burnt off by a blaster bolt.

Being unpowered, the doors are still, but with brute force Merreck manages to open them.  The turblift shaft is dark and empty.

Merreck wave to the guard in the bottom of the elevator shaft, to show where he is.

OOC: If the doors are unpowered, does that mean that the doors would have been left open if they forced them open on another level?

Merreck doesn´t see the guard in the elevator shaft so he turns to the Talon and the guard. "Do anyone of you two feel like doing a frontal assault against a heavily fortified and prepared enemy?" The tone of his voice makes it obvious that he´s joking.

"Let´s try something else instead." Merreck fires a blaster shot at the inside of the door to the bridge, alerting the people inside and causing sparks to fall down into the shaft. "Hey! Anyone home?"

He´s ready to duck into cover if the guard or pirates start shooting at him.

Mika continues her efforts to glean information.  Her first priority is the pirates, numbers, locations, what they've been up to.  If that proves beyond her abilities, she'll focus on calling up damage reports on the ship, checking atmospheric pressure to verify that the ship is holding air, checking power flows, looking for temperature variations that might indicate coolant or hot gas leaks....

Sheila starts to laugh, the idea of the Gungan blowing up the shuttle just tickled her aching funnybone.  Of course, the pain in her chest stopped her laughing soon enough.  "How badly was he hurt, that might be it." She turned to Xil. "Well, do we want to go try and help?  I have grenades. I'm sure Aryan would like some more."

<Deck 3>
The sounds of a blaster shot echoes through the turbolift shaft, followed by shouting.  It was hard to tell anything other than it was a single shot and it had come from above.

The Cloakshape pilot jumped to his feet and ran for the turbolift, blaster in hand.


<Deck 8>
Merreck waited patiently but no movement occured from Deck 7.  He could make out movement far below as someone ran into the turbolift on Deck 3.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:21, Thu 14 Apr 2011.

PM

Exilim looked at Sheila shook his head and said "Giving him grenades was a mistake in the first place it appears, who know what he will do with more. That shuttle would have been very handy for us. Besides, I'm not sure how much help we would be, probably just get in the way."

He turned to look in the direction of the fore turbolift at the sound of the blaster fire. "Maybe we need to make our position a bit more defensible, neither of us are in much condition to take any damage." He stands slowly, his injuries making even simple things difficult. Looking around he tries to see exactly how they could make their position a little safer.

Sheila hasn't tried to stand yet and she gets a nasty surprise when she does.  SHe's a lot weaker than she thought she was, the little bit of movement she's had to do to get Xil woke up was nothing compared to just standing.

"You have a point about not being much use.  Although I;m not sure the Gungan could have taken the shuttle all by himself.  Having it get away would be far worse than destroying it. I wish they'd left us a comlink."

"Hey, Mika, how are you holding up? I wonder, could you open the doors to the turbo lift without moving the lift? I want to get the pirates attention, try to talk to them, but they can´t hear me through that thick door."

He turns to the gungan.
"Talon, do you have any tactical insights? You must have been in worse situations, right?"

"No worries here." Mika replies to Merreck's query.  She was still trying to glean any information she could about both the pirates and the damage to the ship, looking at secondary conditions when primary sensors fail.  She's monitoring the atmospheric systems attentively in an attempt to see what heat sifgnatures and atmospheric gasses are being supported in what areas.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:47, Sat 16 Apr 2011.