He scratched his shin and considered his list again. Having counted their grenades, he leaves the armory. His boots echoed in the halls as he jogged through the corridors, arriving at the door of the small med bay.

Looking inside, he saw the two top physicians of the Talons. Apparently without thinking of his last conversation with the new droids, he explains his errand. "Ms Masters, 2-1B, just who I wanted to meet. How are we doing on medical supplies? Do we have medical kits and medpacs for the boarding party?"

Darvin headed towards the storage lockers and counted the weapons and explosives, particularly the things that they would need for the convoy mission. Noticing all the firearms, he wondered why he had even bothered to bring his own on board. Perhaps he should go talk to the Trake girl and have her tweak it a bit... More food for thought. Some of the weapons brought him back to his crewman days, but the nostalgia quickly left him. His mind was working on serveral things at once, and mainly on the refinery run.

Satisfied that he had noted all the things that were missing, he closed everything up and decided to go pace a bit in the cargo bay. There he mimicked the sentinel droids as he paced, deep in thought. Some inkling of a plan was brewing in his head, but he wasn't sure how to get it out. The pacing eventually slowed, and his feet led him towards Cor and Mika.

The women seemed deep in discussion, and he decided to turn around but hesitated....
This message was last edited by the player at 02:12, Wed 06 July 2011.

"...is added incentive not to like them, I supp-"  Cor stops mid-sentence as the droid hold door opens, and looks around quickly.  Upon seeing Darvin she smiles, not quite meeting his gaze.  "Hello, Darvin.  It has been quite an interesting time so far, yes?"  A screen behind her flickers with figures and statistics, and from a few scattered droid parts it looks as if she's been tinkering with microrepulsors at some time in the past.

2-1B-D3 looks up from its work which, at the moment, appears to be finalising the stocktaking.  "Boarding party, Mister Togula?  That would depend greatly on how many people are a part of this 'boarding party' you speak of, and how many of them are organic.  In any case," it adds, "Ms Masters has requested a list of the medical inventory along with my recommendations for required equipment.  Perhaps she knows better how much your 'boarding party' requires."

<Next Day - 0800 hours Briefing Room>

Everyone had recieved a message on their Talon comms the night before indicating they should attend breakfast in the conference room at 0800 to discuss their progress.  Mark and Zyra were already in attendance.  Once everyone had arrived, Mark got down to business.

"Several of you were given tasks to complete before we can plan our next strike.  I'd like to hear reports on how each team is progrssing.  Ms Trake, you were to integrate our comm and navigation systems.  Mr Kismet, was to assign his team their fighters.  Mr Pertwee, you were to arrange new equipment.  Ms Masters was to start acquiring convoy information.  Mr Nallis was to prepare a list of equipment the boarding team required and submit it.  Finally Mr Sloan was to begin preliminary intel on the refinery mission.  Ladies, gents, what is your progress?"

Aryan, sitting up teh back, listens intently to the reports

Mika gives Darvin a nod, then looks back at Cor.  "Well, times a wasting.  Did you have any input on my routing comms to the nav console?  Oh, and don't worry about that other matter, I bet there will be enough work to keep you, me and Devon all gainfully employed."  She gives the Umbaran a grin.

Moving on to the next day:

Mika looks at Sheppard, she just couldn't think of the man as Mark, and clears her throat.  "I made a bit of headway and should have it complete with another three to four hours work.  It'll go a bit quicker if Cor or Devon could lend me a hand."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:53, Wed 06 July 2011.

R2-A9 rolls in, settling not far from Mika.  It turns its domed head to look at her and gives a few cheery beeps and whistles before turning back to look at the Commander.  There is a slight hum as its holotransmitter activates, projecting no video but certainly projecting sound.

Cor's voice can be heard coming from the astromech.  "Talon Eleven here, Commander. I have looked further into the matter regarding droid automation and believe I may have thought of a few ways to tighten ship security at the same time.  I shall converse with Talon Two on this and report further when I have more solid plans.  In the meantime I am available to help Talon Ten as best I can, and my droids have been instructed to assist her however she may need it."

Mark nods.  "Thank you Ten and Eleven.  Keep upgrading as time allows.  We generally ran the Nightshrike undermanned so the more we can combine and automate duties the better.  Make sure you leave the ability for crew to run each station though."

The commander looks around to the others waiting for a report.

Merreck drinks his coffee, like the morning before, and like the morning before he doesn´t look in top shape, although his eyes are alert as usual. It had been another late evening, but at least he was getting to know the station.

There was things to report, but he didn´t volunteer anything, leaving it for the others who were there. Instead he looks over at Darvin, Rann and Sheila, in case any of them wanted to begin.

“ If no one minds I would like to do mine ” said Rann as he stood up. “ Me Merreck & Darvin have managed to secure us a supplier how managed to get hold for us 5 missiles, 5 detonite and timers, and 5 frag grenades. The supplier is willing to trade with us in future and is willing to give us a bulk buy discount which with our limited sauce of  income have only started to tap into, furthermore while looking in the small arms armoury I came across 12 riot shields which I think you will find useful as well as this light repeater.” he said as he finished his report and sat down

Mark flicks through the details sent to his datapad then gives Rann an appraising stare.  "Mr Pertwee, I know of every single item within my armoury, I can even tell you where we obtained most of them.  Why did you think these particular items would be of interest to me?"

"I also don't see an AR-1 sniper rifle on here for Mr Nallis.  I specifically told you to acquire a sniper rifle of his choosing.  Care to explain why you have failed to do so?"

Darvin opted for shades this morning, his mug already empty and his hair tied back in a cue. He looked surprised when Sheppard dressed down Rann, but hid his surprise by raising his mug to his lips. He winced, it was empty and he hadn't even noticed he'd gone through his second cup already. He got up, probably breaking Sheppard's eye contact with Pertwee, and headed for the Kaf dispensers where he poured himself another cup while he waited for Rann to explain just how overpriced the riffle was.

Newly armed with a third mug, he leaned against the wall and protected the kaf from any potential intruders...

standing up Rann explained his actions “yes I can with four reasons. One the supplier was charging way too much for the rifle in question. Two the we needed the other items more. Three the convoy raid is a close fire fight and a sniper rifle would be no use in the small spaces in a freighter. Four I want to find more suppliers to get items from sort of keeping our eggs in different baskets, hopefully some will have his rifle cheaper and in time for the refinery raid” he said  “ sir” he finished as he sat down.

Mark allowed a smile to cross his features.  He'd expected no less of a response from Rann.  After all, he'd challenged his ability.  He was training independant specialist, not a team of lapdogs.

"Very good Mr Pertwee.  I appreciate independant thinking and decision making.  I appreciate more that you stand by your decisions.  You must realise though that you are not always made aware of all the plans I am devising.  Opportunities must be taken where appropriate and they call for my specialists to be appropriately equipped."

"Now, if this rifle is severely overpriced as you suggest, find another one that meets Mr Nallis' requirements and specifications.  If you feel your supplier may do a reasonable deal then I will authorise an extra five thousand credits to your expenditures.  Do not waste them and do not leave a sniper rifle off the list this time.  You forsee any problems with this?"

Merreck listen while Mark tell Rann what for, keeping a straight face. Considering how much money they were given to buy black market goods, they came away with more than expected, and the right gear for the mission. Merreck woved to learn to tell the difference between these suggestions, and orders.

He drank his coffee.

Xil frowns a little at the conversation around his sniper rifle, but he had to acknowledge that something like the AR-1 wouldn't be cheap.  "I do have some funds that I can contribute to the cost, let me know" he says to Rann.

He considered what they had managed to aquire so far "I've sent all team 2 & 3 team members what they should have with them for boarding. As we may not get all on that list, I note we still have some medium armour in our inventory which we should have ready for use as well."

Devon leaned forward as Rann finished his report.
'We've got concussion missiles?'  He asked.  'What sort of quality are they?  How soon can you get more?'

Realising he had drawn Marks attention, Devon realised he had better give his own report.
'Not much to say from my side of things, boss.   Fighters are ready, apart from loading ordnance; and I think I got pilot assignments sorted too. Can't really work up too detailed a flightplan till we know more about our targets... got some general ideas though...'

"Maybe I can add to that... he said nodding at Devon. "As you know, I was tasked to look at insertion scenarios for us on the Refinery Strike... Since I can't learn much about the Typhon refinery from here, I had to get to Phindar Prime to do it, and tagged along with Merreck... hence the tired rugged look this morning..." he apologized with a grin. "We had a long night, but managed to find out a few things by various covert means. Given the insertion aspect of my tasks, I was mainly concerned with the Imperial presence in the Area and its strength, as well as the imperial's routines in the Sector to determine if there might be some blind spots in their network that we can use...." Darvin said as he shifted his weight against the bulkhead.

"One thing we found out early was that Typhon crews have been displaced by Imperials. The only time there is a Typhon crew, it's usually when the Imperials are too busy and need to pull a few people around. It happens rarely, and the crews were rather vocal about it. The point is, we wouldn't be up against your usual crew compliments... security is probably going to be tighter than expected."

He let his words hang a bit as he straightened up and walked back over to the Kaf dispenser. "To make matters worse... while Typhon freighters are technically similar to the ones that Phindar Petrochem uses, Typhon has had theirs beefed up," he said as he poured himself another cup, his back was turned to everyone for a bit, and then he continued as he returned to his seat... "Apparently, Typhon freighters have been equipped with shields and four point-defense lasers for starfighter defense, with a complement of 2-4 stormtroopers on board for security, not counting crew complement which is usually 8 for optimal operation.

"If that weren't enough, they're usually escorted by a complement of 2-4 TIE fighters, depending on the convoy size. Larger convoys sometimes have a small capital ship (corvette or light frigate) in defense. Smaller convoys usally have only fighters with them. Those freighters are equipped with docking clamps to carry the TIEs through hyperspace. We found out that these clamps take time to power up after a jump. We might have a 30 second window that we can exploit," the later was followed by a nod, directed towards Team 1's leader, Mr. Kismet.

"Other than that, convoys leave from Typhon refineries at regular intervals. Remember, the usual crewmen are out work at the moment because the Imperials have taken over. They're kept out of the loop on convoy planning, so they don't know many details. I'm afraid that we'll need a whole lot more info, and that we'd need to go directly on Phindar prime to get it." Darvin looked over at Sheppard, "Sir, I'd like us to consider doing a recon mission on Phindar Prime, before any convoy strike."

Merreck smiled at Darvins mention of various covert means. Phinnys Liguor wasn´t exactly a well kept secret.

He clears his throat, and begin with a hoarse voice. "We know how hard it is to defend an Action VI transport, the pirates showed how hard it is to board them. At least we know the ships, we won´t get lost. I´d look into training on one of the Phindar Petroleum transports, between fuel runs."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:53, Thu 07 July 2011.

The red-detailed R2 unit lets out a little squeak of alarm at the mention of the Imperial forces.  Cor's voice joins it.  "But that is...  The Imperials are giving these freighters military escort?  TIE fighters, capital ships and freighters outfitted with weaponry and shields - that sounds more like they are transporting military data or dangerous prisoners than fuel."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:06, Fri 08 July 2011.

Can Cor actually understand what the R2-unit is saying? Curious.

Merreck shrug. "They don´t have that much more escorts than the we brought during the last run. Fuel is expensive, and there are pirates around. I don´t think there´s anything more to it. If a ship picks up cargo at a refinery, then it´s probably carrying fuel."

In reply to Merreck Toluga (msg #208):

"A bit more recon would confirm or deny either way," Darvin added though he agreed with Merreck, "but I don't see why they'd choose to cover up military intelligence in that way given they're the actual law in the galaxy, they don't need to make elaborate schemes to hide things from people, they have their propoganda office for that. The simplest answer is usually the right one... Protecting the fuel makes more sense in this case, but it can be assertained via intel work if there is more to it."

Merreck nod in agreement with Darvin. "When we scout out the refinery, we´ll hear if there´s anything odd going on, besides imperial crews and troops taking over Typhon."

"Oh no," Cor's voice comes forth, "I do apologise.  I do not mean that I think they are moving something other than fuel, I just mean to say that a quartet of TIE fighters attached to armed and shielded freighters seems... excessive.  Paranoid, in fact.  Is this a change that has occurred specifically after Phindar Petroleum's last encounter with the pirates?"  There is a thoughtful pause.  "Because if so then it seems more a response to the Talons' involvement than to any pirate threat.  Which may suggest they expect an attack."