In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 91):

"Yeah, I'm good." Vonon nods, "The time difference between us walking into that set-up at the other marina, and you talking with this Justev, is just too short. Even if a set-up like I feared was arranged in advance, I just don't think anyone could have triggered it so fast."

Vonon looks over at Sharik and Walter, "So, as soon as these two locate your contact, I'm good to head straight out for the dome."

Vonon pauses a moment to think.

"Now, did you say that Justev already had his own plans to leave the dome at midnight, or something like that? And he wants us to pick him up? Well, okay, I'm just gnawing a bone, here, but once we figger out where the dome is, then we can calculate how fast we can get there. Once we do that, we let this Justev know when we'll be there."

"Now, if I remember right, Sam, you said that Justev told you he wasn't supposed to have a personal comm, but that he'd stashed one, anyway. Okay, then. Let's assume that if he's smart enough to hide a comm, he's smart enough to turn off its ringer. So, once we know where the dome is, we send Justev a text with an innocent sounding message -- something like 'Dannys party has been moved to 2 o'clock', or whatever time we think we'll be there. Then we hope he reads the message before we get there."

"I'm still thinking our best bet for getting into the dome is to walk, or swim, up to it; people-sized targets are less likely to set off alarms, as opposed to big, metal-skinned submersibles. And if we can coordinate with Justev to open an airlock for us, we're golden."

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 91):

"I'm good with that."

Sharik glanced up at Vo's mention of her and Walter.  "Working on it." she quipped with mock exasperation.  Then her expression grew more serious, as the waifish dilettante summarized.  "Almost there, I think.  Two minutes." and Shar gave her noble cohort a glance.

"Oh," she noted off hand, matching Darrel's intonation and accent, "I'm good with the plan, too."  Sharik didn't look up from the display though, and continued to tap away.

While watching Sharik work Khea replies to Vonon "On a planet with aggressive aquatic reptiles I am not so sure that diving to the dome would cause any less of an alarm. Unless it is a military installation I suspect they have more defenses to keep grendals away than submarines."

After pausing for a moment she asks the group

"Is it possible that Justev can do our work for us and bring whatever we need with him when we pick him up?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:59, Wed 18 Mar 2015.

Justev wasn't able to convey the physical size of the project, so it isn't clear if he could pick it up and put it in his pocket. Obviously, though, he could bring the data... for his project. He was able to indicate there was more than one project being worked on.

And it's always possible that he could be shot if he's caught trying to leave.

Walter nodded in agreement to the plan of action, "Sounds good to me." he said, barely glancing up from the work that was being done.

The waffling finally winds down, and there's no longer any excuse to keep from launching the submersible.

The owner, Tarl, comes on board just before then.

"I was led to believe you might require some instruction in scuba diving," he says.

"I can give you a crash course in an hour or two... just to give you a taste. You won't be experts by any means. That requires about 20 hours of training and at least four dives."

"Thanks Tarl, if you could get us under way, Sharik should be able to give you our heading soon. If anyone wants lessons I suggest you chat to Tarl. Does anyone have any other points to raise?"

Ooc
Sorry that fizzled out, Sam should have been leading discussion more but been a hectic week.

To sum up, I think we have agreed that we'll get a message to Justev to get him to help us get in, and find the project. Apart from that, how we are going to actually get in still needs to be agreed (swimming or submersible)

"I myself have some experience with underwater operations. Unfortunately, I don't think it would be feasible for us to swim inside; as our Aslan friend here said, either grendals or the measures taken to defend the dome against them would make our mission impossible." He cocks his head, shrugging. "If I had to cast my vote, I'd take the submersible. Even if it is noisier, it's certainly safer."

OOC: I have also been remiss, RL time constraints have been problematic. However, here I am to rescue the day...;-)

"I agree with Mr. Jackstadt, trying to come up with some sort of "Seal Team 6" underwater operations on the fly with untrained and/or previously uncoordinated individuals is a recipe for disaster, not only for us, but, even dangerous to innocent civilians working in an underwater dome."

Looks around the group, "A simple question, if by our actions either directly or indirectly caused death to someone, is it worth justifying it by some monetary reward? Therefore, our decisions must stress accomplishing this with the minimum qualification that NO ONE DIES."

Leans forward placing his hands on his temples, "We can do this, without a doubt. But, let's try to do it as safely as we can, not just for us but for those folks down there. Meaning, practical and methodical planning."

The Count pauses..."I'm up for this, but, let's just reflect for a moment...if we're going to do this...be smart, efficient and professional. If we can do that, Rock and Roll."

Waits for comments.

Realizing that he had only demonstrated his convictions and not his plan, Darrel said, "Give me a moment, I need to gather some information and then, let me give a possible plan, although professional input is more than welcome"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:42, Sun 22 Mar 2015.

Reviewing the information on these domes...." I was thinking, since the airlock to these domes can be remotely (?)) opened, shouldn't there be an "emergency" override code, and can one of you computer experts find that in the manufacturer's electronic information?"

Having to check her translator from time to time when following CountDarrels speech Khea waits until he is finished to add.

Being able to open the airlock or maybe even submarine hangar remotely would certainly help. Just in case though is anyone here good in electronics? I could do it, but that is not my speciality. And there is still the problem of potential defensive systems at the dome.

She looks over to Tolman and the hatch to the cockpit. Maybe one of the natives can explain what kind of systems the domes have in case of Grendal attacks.

Semi-OOC: Whatever our course of action might be, I'm going with some basic "scuba" training for me.

Tolman smiles when the Count says smart, efficient and professional. "I like how you think, boss."

"However, we have to consider the possibility that things go wrong; we might get caught in the process of breaking inside. It's not an appealing prospect, but it is something we have to plan for. If security starts shooting at us, what are we going to do? Pull out? Press on? For my part, whatever happens know that I will value any member of the team's life -especially yours, Count- above a security guard's."


StarMaster?

Walther nodded in agreement to the Counts suggestion. "It would more likely need to override the computer system but they might also have a manual emergency override by the doors, like an escape hatch. If we can get a copy of the plans, that would be a great start." he said

Sam nodded as people spoke

"I agreee, personally I favour the submersible over swimming." she paused briefly

Perhaps we could use the grendals to our advantage? We could pretend to have had an encounter with one and be unable to surface, and have injured? That could be our excuse for approaching, and may even get them to open the door for us?"

None of the domes come with any kind of weaponry or even places to put such. It'd be kind of pointless, as the domes are hardly a good defensive position.


The grendals attacking human installations is a new and still rare occurrence, so there is little to go on. No one on the planet has suggested declaring war on the grendals, though there has been some talk about declaring the grendals intelligent being.

The few incidences of them attacking a settlement always seems to be when the settlement was in the grendal's feeding grounds. While structures were damaged, no one was ever injured or killed.

Sharik begged off on any scuba training, though she was more than willing to get a rundown on the workings of the submersible.  Her comfortable demeanor and ease with which she moved in her vacc suit seemed to back up her simple assertion that she had had plenty of time in environment suits already and didn't need a refresher.  The thin socialite had also asserted that she had plenty of aquatic experience, though that remained to be seen; still, it was quite possible for anyone that had grown up on Gaargir which had extensive oceans and plenty of opportunities to swim on the resort world.

She looked up at Darrel's suggestion about hacking the airlock.  "Could be tricky..." Shar noted off-hand, "but not impossible.  There is generally a manual override on the air lock itself.  While it may fail closed to maintain integrity, it has to have a low tech way to gain access during all sorts of emergencies."  It was a simple fact, otherwise the airlock would potentially be unusable and no better than a bulkhead.

"We can get on it once we are finished with this triangulation" Shar concluded as she continued to tap away on the virtual keyboard on her dataglove.  The holographic display shifted as a number of datastreams continued to update quickly.

Anyone that takes the scuba training will wind up with Swim-0 and Scuba Diving-0.

Seeing that the others already have a good idea, or at least several guesses, how to get into the dome Khea, growing a bit impatient, follows up on Sharik to drive the discussion forward.

"So once we are inside, what then? Hope that Justev can tell us everything we need to get? Or should we round up everyone in the dome and interrogate them?
Besides, what about their communication systems? If they manage to call for help it can get complicated."

Sharik nodded slightly to Khea's suggestion, "Knocking out comms is probably a good thing.  Unless we can be sure that we can get in and out quickly."  She pauses for a thoughtful moment, "Though as Justev has proven, a p-comm can still be effective.  If he has one, what is to say that any of the others, especially the security guards, don't as well?"  The obvious implication that they could not stop or limit the use of a personal communicator without much more sophisticated methods.

She gave the assembled a 'thumbs-up' and then relayed the triangulated coordinates from the GPS satellite data.  "I think that should be enough for our heading," Shar noted, "At least, good enough to get underway."

The dark-haired dilettante turned local hacker, then turned her attention to the question about the airlock security and schematics.  Sharik h'mmed for a moment sending out her intellect program spiraling out on public search for anything first then started to probe the BioDome's site.  Of course, they could have subcontracted the part, so Shar knew that it was likely to take a little digging.  But once the specs were in, she was pretty sure that she could figure out if it could be cracked or bypassed.  And given the distance to the dome, she did figure that there was ample time to do so...

[OOC:  Let's see what we can see...

  23:32, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 14 using 2d6+3. Investigate/Int Check: BioDome's Airlock Specs (+0 Investigate, +2 Int, +1 Program).
  23:33, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 16 using 2d6+4. Computer/Int Check: BioDome's Airlock Security (+2 Security, +2 Int).

Hopefully, there is a bypass.  But at the very least, Sharik will be really certain there isn't one, if there isn't actually one...:D]

Tolman nods at Sharik; she's made a good point.
"Hm, the girl's right. Do we have some way to jam those p-comms?"

"Timings gonna be everything. if we can jam we need to do it at the right time to make sure it doesn't tip them off too much. With that in mind, we should maybe see if we can monitor broadcasts on our way over, see if theres any regular traffic we need to be aware of. As for Jamming itself, theoretically yes - but do we have the right kit aboard?"

OOC: Didn't Darrell buy some jamming comms stuff somewhere along the line or Tolman said he could get it?