With the GPS of Justev's comm device, getting to the location is fairly easy and quick. Not having to hunt for the base means the submersible arrives on site a few minutes shy of midnight local time.

Based on the underwater topographical maps, there really is no way to approach the dome discreetly. It's sitting out in the open, apparently, just covered by 30 feet of water. It's a gradual slope of sand up to the shore, and another thousand feet beyond the dome before the island drops off into the deeper water.

The best Grev can do is come up behind a nearby reef (600 feet away) and park the submersible.

He doesn't recommend activating the treads and crawling along the seafloor because they make noise that sonar systems can pick up.

However, he does have a periscope that he can raise to peer over the reef. Night-vision imaging systems can get a reasonable view through the water because there's a full moon out at the moment.

The view does reveal what was guessed at/estimated: two domes side by side, connected via airlock. The slightly smaller dome has a single large 'garage door', wide enough to accommodate two submersibles side-by-side.

The other dome has a single airlock on the same side as the garage door, but it does have viewports around the whole dome. These aren't tiny portholes, but large windows. You can't see all of them, of course, but the ones you do see appear to have blackout curtains over most of them.

You can also see that the top of the dome is a large viewport, but no light is coming through it.

The dome entrances are facing away from the shore. There are no exterior lights, and the interior lights only seep through the curtains in small spots.

There is camouflage netting draped over both domes.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 1):

"Right. Everyone who's going for a little stroll, out there, let's suit up!" Vonon says, "Shar'r -- who ended up getting the job of over-riding the personnel airlock controls, so we can get into the dome? Double check your equipment is ready for underwater use ... or was our inside guy gonna open the lock for us?"

Darrell is somewhat embarrassed, he's been portrayed many times, as that sort of person the group would need now. A hero. Separating the fact from fiction can be illuminating, even if it only shows our own truths.

"How can I help"

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 3):

Vonon had separated a pair of 'steamer trunks' from his gear, then stripped down to bright magenta silk shorts and a similarly colored silk undershirt. Then, dragging the trunks with him, he disappeared for a few minutes.

He came clumping back a few minutes later wearing a matte black Boarding Vacc-Suit. However, the matte-black finish of the suit had been ... augmented ... with the addition of other colors. The helmet had a white skull face painted over it, while the boots and gauntlets had each been sloppily painted in bright red to look like they were covered/splattered in blood. The chestplate was adorned with a pair of splashes of neon-green paint -- just about where nametags would be located, on a military uniform -- as well as several Vargr pictograms in cyan, each threatening some form of death, destruction or mayhem.  The fingers and knuckles of each gauntlet were equipped with small razors/spikes that looked like they could do some damage. His large service Automatic sat snuggly in a built-in holster on the outside of the suit's right thigh-piece.

Vonon -- now a couple of inches taller than when he left the room, stopped next to Darrel. The faceplate of the helmet split open and slid aside.

"You want to invade the dome with us, Yer Excellency, or command from back here?" Vonon said, "If you're coming with, might I suggest taking one of these lovely stun-sticks you bought..." Vonon reaches over and takes one of the weapons in his gauntleted hand, "I don't know how these will work in the water, but once we're inside, they should do nicely!" he finished with a feral grin.

Walter took a look around with the periscope while the others were getting ready.

Taking the visual information information into account, he turned to the group. "Target is the smaller dome, it looks like the docking port for the subs is in that one. While splitting up the group is not a good idea, I would suggest two divers head to the smaller dome to enter the sub bay in order to secure it for the rest of us in the sub, while two others that are more stealthy gain access from the single airlock on the larger dome. There looks to be a connecting air-lock between the two domes and it would serve as a natural choke point. Most likely the guards are there. We will want their attention drawn to the smaller dome so that the group in the larger one can secure the data with less interference."

"I would suggest that the divers stay low on the floor bottom to hide from any sonar so that it will help mask them. Come up when you are underneath the domes but be careful as there is netting over the domes to hide them. Give the team going to the larger dome some extra time to get in position before trying to access the smaller one, say a minute before going in. " Walter said

"Captain Grev, how long would it take to cover the distance to the smaller dome and dock?"

Looking at Vonun, and checking her comms, Sam said

"I am not sure - I haven't heard from him yet."

She tapped on her comms

Grev thinks about Walter's question for a moment before answering.

"It'll take about two minutes to get up over the reef and cover the distance. Assuming the bay isn't already flooded, it should take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to fill and let the outer door open. Same amount of time to expel the water. It all depends on the system they have. Military systems work faster. Civilians aren't usually in a hurry."

It takes a few minutes for Samantha to get a reply from Justev.

[Don't carry comm. Busy. All peeps bugout by 6. Packed. Docs being destroyed. Sm airlock alert broke. Best I can do. Send tone at breech. Will use to distract guards.]

While sam was tapping on her comms, Vonon said, "Hey Sam, if you get in touch with this guy, we have to arrange some method of identification, once we breach. Tell him to wear some distinctive item -- a beach shirt, or a cap, or a flower in his button hole, just something that will let us know who he is, while not letting on to his companions he's working with us."

Khea stands close to the bulkhead to the cockpit to not get in the way of preparation. She is especially watching Vonon and getting more and more unruly until she finally blurts out.
"Keep in mind that many items you brought with you will not work under water and will be destroyed when you try to use it. Keep them in a dry container until you are inside the dome.
Also our radios might not work under water. As soon as we see that the submarine doors open we will steer towards it. There is no need to signal us.

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 10):

"Thanks for the tip!" Vonon responds to the unruly Aslan woman, as he waves the stun baton, "I think I mentioned that I grew up in an asteroid belt, so I'm not used to being exposed to all this water. Thank you."

Vonon then clips the baton to a utility clip on his left hip.

Sam looked at her comm "We need to move fast, they've already started destroying documents. Its seems they're aiming to bug out by 6. Our contact has managed to break the alarm on the small airlock, and will set off a distraction when I tell him to - but that's all he can do. I'll tell him to wear something obvious."

She tapped on her comms

"Lets get moving then." Sir Walter said "Team A, start cycling the dock when you get there so the sub can enter. That will draw others to that side so team B, enter the large dome to keep the scientists busy."

"Count, I'll be sticking close by you to protect you. So, if you want to go for a swim, we'd better suit up right about now. If you want to stay in the sub, that's fine too. Though you might want me on the field anyway, where my skills will be more of use."

Pats Tolman on the shoulder, "At this point, the best way of protecting me, is to assist my associates in securing the dome, so, I'll stay on the sub, waiting for the signal, once that's given, we'll head immediately for the sub-bay."

"Given the time-frame, we'll hold back here and give the breaching team a few minutes to get in position, then we'll go forward, if we detect an outgoing comm from the facility, we'll jam it...once we get our signal...in we come."

"How's that sound."

OOC: Pretty sure we can have our comms set up without interfering with jamming?

Justev's first call was a video so Samantha saw what he looks like. Unless specifically deleting the picture from her comm, it was automatically captured for future reference. She can show it to everyone else.


"Would you like me to go along on the walk to the dome?" Tarl asks. "Just in case there's a problem along the way."


"It's likely that the garage doors have a remote access to let the submersibles in," Grev offers. "It doesn't make sense for someone having to exit the submersible to activate the doors. The real issue is that when it is activated, a signal probably sounds throughout the dome to alert everyone that it's cycling."

"Also, if they have two submersibles already docked in the garage, there won't be room for a third."

"The floorplan for this type of dome is usually rooms around the perimeter, a circular hallway connecting them all, and then a large central open area. Based on the location of the airlock and the garage, it should only be a quarter of the way around to the left, if even that, to reach the garage access."

"Remember, the garage has to be flooded before the doors will open to let the submersible in, and then has to be emptied before people can exit the sumbersible. Even if you disabled the alarm, everyone in the dome will probably be able to hear the water pumping. So that's not really a practical assault point."

"Of course, I have no idea what the set-up in this place may be, but from my experience, that's how underwater facilities tend to be done. Centuries of trial and error, design and development."

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 16):

Vonon nodded his armored head.

"That's what I was thinking. Designs for vaccuum tend to run similarly, and I have plenty of experience with those." he said.

"So, our buddy, here ..." Vonon points at the small image of Justev that Sam's showing around, "Did he say he'd try to meet us at the personnel airlock? 'Cuz if he does, he can direct us to the lab where Doctor -- Shanara, was it? -- has the data we're after. That would be a big help."

Sharik rolled her shoulders to relieve a touch of tension building; it was always like that before an op got underway.  It was that strange mix of anxiety and anticipation that always preceded insertion.

Like Vonon, Shar already had her suit's helmet fastened.  "She-narra." she corrected her Vargr companion, before reiterating their quarry's full name, "Doctor Shenarra Vanager."  Her voice was slightly tinny as it was filtered through the helmet's speaker.

A hefty cunningly-crafted, curved piece of hardened metal was strapped to the diminutive dilettante's left thigh.  On the right side, she'd strapped the heavy-bladed, rubber-handled diving knife that she'd obtained from Tarl back at the shop.  Her hands rested casually on her belt, touching the two large implements that were there.

She glanced at Justev's picture to try and commit the face to memory.  Then Sharik responded simply to Vonon's query, seeming to agree with him, "That'd be nice..."  But her tone made it rather apparent that she really didn't expect the operation to go that easily; in her experience, nothing ever really went that easily.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 18):

Vonon gives Sharik a wink as she corrects him, then raises his arms, so he can access the suit computer input on his left forearm.

"Say, Grev, shoot me the heading for the dome, relative to our position, so I can lock it into my systems.  We wouldn't want to wander off in the wrong direction."

Once he's recieved the data, Vonon seals up his faceplate and turns his helmeted head from side-to-side a few times.

{{Right, got it. Direction to dome locked in.}} his electronically modified voice says, as he turns his head to face in a certain direction, then points that way.

{{The Dome is over there.}} he says, {{Okay, I'm gonna step outside and get used to the environment. Between my years of Zero-G and Vacc-suit training, I don't expect any problems, but there have to be some differences, so I'm gonna go play for a few minutes.}}

Khea leans over to CountDarrel and whispers in a neutral voice "This reminds me of home. Let us just hope that they will be able to secure the research and open the hangar doors at the same time."

There's map of the domes under Map 1.


So the following characters are going for an undersea walk: Quinzella, Sharik, Tolman and Vonon.

The submersible has a moon pool. This is a hatch in the bottom of the vehicle where the air pressure in the room can be increased to the point where it keeps the water from coming in. It makes exiting the vehicle for undersea excursions easier than trying to send everyone through the airlock.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 21):

OOC: Nope. No map. Mighty cool looking starship, but no map of a Dome.

Sam shakes her head "He's not meeting anyone, but will set off a distraction to try and draw people away from the lock. Let me know when your ready to try and get in and I'll tag him"

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 23):

"Tell him we're on our way. Maybe ... what? ... ten-or-so minutes to get there?" Vonon says.

"I'll tell him to start in 15 minutes - sound ok?"

Sharik gave Samantha a 'thumbs-up' for the timing; she seemed quite confident that they'd be able to cover that distance in time.  "Sneak in, meet up with Justev, secure data and the dome, let everyone else in...." she repeated the objectives quietly for her and everyone else's edification.  That sequence may require revision after the first item, but that remained to be seen and the items themselves didn't seem to be in debate.

Then the diminutive socialite turned to give her other EVA companions the 'thumbs-up' as well, to inform them of her readiness.  A gentle touch to the side of her helmet and the face-plate began to cloud over, transitioning to a polarized, semi-reflective surface that occluded the details of her face.  With stunstick in hand, Shar waited by the portal that would allow them to step into liquid.

Walter assisted the others in getting ready to make the dive, acting as an extra set of hands and double checking to make sure the diving equipment was secured correctly.

Sam returns the thumbs up "good luck to you all, I'll be with the pilot" and returns to the main cockpit

On the way she taps on her comms

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 28):

Vonon steps up to the edge of the open hatch, then steps off, dropping down into the water. Upon landing on the sandy surface below, he overcompensates for his bouyancy and trips on his own feet, slowly falling down upon the seabed.



OOC:
Not sure what other DMs there might be, but just a basic Zero G plus DEX roll produced:
07:13, Tue 05 May 2015: Vonon Ronkunu rolled 7 using 2d6+2 ((4,1)), with Zero G skill.

Once Vonon got the hang of the buoyancy issue, it was a bit like EVA, the difference being with EVA you could make sudden moves, but they weren't avisable, while here, you couldn't make them if you wanted. Most EVA was done in a zero-gravity environment, and the buoyancy of the water almost replicated that.

Vonon, Sharik, Quinzella and Tolman drop down through the moon pool to land on the sand beneath the submersible. Once Vonon regains his feet, the four of you are able to walk out under the back of the submersible, then walk around to the front and climb/swim/jump over the coral reef that was keeping the submersible hidden.

One at a time, just in case there was some sort of observation, you make it over the reef and head for the dome.

Quinzella and Tolman are actually swimming, of course, using SCUBA gear, but not bulky airtanks--they are using a rebreather unit. Without the tanks, they also don't need a weight belt. They can maintain their depth just by swimming.

Quinzella and Tolman can swim faster than Sharik and Vonon can walk, so they reach the dome first. Oddly, there's a sort of doormat in front of the airlock, but they realize this is to prevent the sand from getting into the airlock.

The airlock is operated manually from outside. Its design seems rather antiquated, but it is also quite practical. Any kind of electronic and electro-mechanical airlock could malfunction, and then either not open or not close.

Okay, Quinzella, you're up!

Quin swam into the outer entrance area (in a pressurized system an outside door is usually open so you can close it and release the pressure, or water, and open the inner door.  If this is an incorrect assumption for this instance then she goes to a control panel).  She begins to check to make sure all is set before the others arrived, others, she sighed in her oxygen less way, at one time her friends might have been a more appropriate word.

Khea enters the submarines cockpit and while standing inside the doorway asks
"How fast can we be at the dock? When the team gets spotted there is no need to hide anymore and if we are standing right outside the doors they wouldn't be able to escape if they can manage to hold of the males."

The outer door of the airlock was closed and the airlock itself was filled with air, since that was the way it was left the last time someone entered. The exterior control is just a wheel valve--as you begin to turn it, it activates the flooding of the airlock. There are electronic systems inside, but nothing directly on the outside.

The outer door does have a viewport in it. You can look through and see that the airlock is empty.

The flooding of the airlock probably does create some sound, but more so when the water is pumped out.

There is no way to tell if the alert signal/internal alarm has been deactivated, as it is on the other side of the nnner door, which is closed (most likely as a safety precaution). In any case, your man inside, Justev, was going to create some sort of distraction or diversion so that the sound of the airlock flooding wouldn't be heard by those inside. Also, the dome is of quite modern construction, so there is sound insulation and baffles to cut down on the noise of the airlocks cycling.

Quinzella has no difficulty in spinning the control wheel, and can watch through the viewport as the airlock fills up with water. When it's completely filled up, a small puff of air is purged from the seal, indicating that the outer door can now be opened.

Walter watched from the cockpit as the others headed towards the dome. "Well, we are now committed. Lets get ready to board. We should start heading there in say three minutes since it will take two minutes for the sub to get there and about five for the dock to flood if we are lucky. Let hope that there is space for us to dock or we will have to swim in." he said.

Sharik trundled along the seabed beside her wingman, Vonon.  She made no effort to move faster or slower than her vargr companion, simply matching his pace.  Her own vacc suit was tailored and would be considered high-tech, even by Imperial standards.  It weighed no more than a heavy set of clothes and protected her at least as well as any Imperial Standard HEV suit - let alone anything that Beowulf itself could actually manufacture.  And though, the vacc suit wasn't as tough as the military-grade Imperial combat armour, it was more than enough for the task at hand.

She'd considered using the fins that she'd requisitioned back at Grev's dive shop, but had settled on just strapping on the dive knife instead.  Strapped to her other thigh was cunningly shaped piece of metal, which most salvage crews referred to as a 'wrecker', or the equivalent of a crowbar-sized, space-age multitool.

As Shar moved, she tried to keep the illumination to a minimum, lest they be seen before seeing the dome.  Still, some light was needed, otherwise navigating on the sea floor would be nearly impossible.  Well, nearly.  The diminutive socialite still had her sensorshades on inside her helmet.  With it linked to her personal network, her glasses gave her an HUD-enhanced, augmented reality view with access to a more extensive visual palette outside of just the visible range of the E-M spectrum, which helped her effectively see in the dark - by giving her access to both heat patterns and the UV spectrum.

Plodding on, she moved inexorably closer to the location where the dome should be, Shar glanced in Vonon's direction and gave her friend a 'thumbs-up'.  "Show time..." Sharik chimed in casually on her commlink to him.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 34):

Sam nodded at Walter. "Good point. We should probably have a plan b in case of that"

Waiting for some signal or comms to move towards the sub airlock. Monitoring for any SOS transmissions and will jam as needed.

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 37):

Vonon, in an effort at a stealthy approach, had simply turned the Light Enhancement function of his helmet up to maximum -- barely providing enough light to see by, here on the seabed, at night. Sharik's muted suit light helped a lot, there.

Approaching the outer airlock door, Vonon gave Quinzella a thumbs-up for cycling the lock, then pointed at himself, then Tolman, then Quinzella and Sharik before pointing at the airlock.

After this, he stepped forward and opened the airlock door, stepping inside and crossing over to the inner door.

OOC: Assuming he doesn't get blasted by an autogun that we didn't see ^_^

Quin reared back, aghast.  She sent a general message in text back to the ship, Is Vonon now leading and I was unaware?

However aggravated this afront caught her by she still waited until the appropriate time to enter, if for no other reason than to have a familiar face watching her back.

Quinzella, keep in mind that Vonon is a Vargr, who tend to be a bit aggressive, and he's also an ex-Patrolman, so he's used to leading the charge, so to speak. While the technical definition of 'leader' is one that others follow, in present-day usage, it now also means the one who gives the orders. He just thinks that the one who should be in the front is the one with the heaviest armor.


Baffles, sound proofing and modern pumps make filling up the airlock with water to be relatively silent. If you were listening for it specifically, you might hear it. But these domes are also meant to be habitats, so they are designed and built with the idea of not having sounds that annoy those living in them.

There are also viewports on both the outer and inner doors, so you can see what is transpiring on the other side... within reason, of course.

Once the airlock is full of water, the outer hatch opens and everyone moves inside. Last one in closes the outer hatch, and then the internal controls are activated to pump the water out of the airlock. Once that is done, the inner hatch can now be opened.

Vonon will stubbornly refuse to let anyone else go first, since he's the better armored and protected.

As the inner hatch swings open toward him, no one is in sight.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 40):

Vonon waits for the door to finish opening -- expecting a hail of bullets any second -- and when said attack doesn't come, he steps out into the central chamber; taking a step to the left, towards the doors into the kitchen.

He looks around the central chamber -- which he has been assuming would be a laboratory of some kind -- as he pulls the stun baton from where he had attached it to his suit.

~I hope these are really as water-proof as The Count was told they are~ he thinks, as he activates the baton.

The large central area has the appearance of an operating theatre. There is a large flat table in the middle with an assortment of control stations along both side. Perhaps of more concern is the large dead carcass still on the table. It's easily the size of a small whale.

You also notice that there is another door off to the right and yet another one further along that side of the curve.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:41, Fri 15 May 2015.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 36):

"A bit late to come up with that." Khea replies while staring at the dome in the distance.
"We can always hover our vessel in front of their docking bay and threaten to destroy that glass windows. But I am more concerned that our advance team is shooting the place up including the data we need to recover.""

Visibly excited, she pushes herself away from the chair she was leaning against and without waiting for an answer leaves the cockpit, shouting. "Anyway, we need to get prepared to board".

With a twitching tail she goes to the stored equipment, takes one of the leftover stunners and her old Khaifealate which she loads and checks. She thought about trying out her new humaniti gun, but decides that she first needs to take it apart to understand it before using it.

Sharik is backing up Vonon as he makes his way into the structure.  She nods to Quinzella and then Tolman to ensure that they are both ready to enter.  Then the diminutive socialite pulled her own stunstick from its thigh holster and brandished it, moving to back up Vonon as necessary.  Her own vacc suit started to wick the water away, causing it to bead and then drip off quickly as high-tech smart fabrics were want to do.

She tested the weight of the rod, knowing that it wasn't exactly a fencing blade, like she was used to.  However, the stun stick did have an end that could be used on the target - so, perhaps some of those fencing lessons that her father paid for might come in handy.  If not, Shar still had the diving knife strapped to her other thigh.

Entering the room, the auburn-haired dilettante regarded the carcass in the room for a moment.  She hrumphed quietly, then turned slightly towards Tolman prompting him, "A grendal, I presume."  She moved to see if she could get a visual capture of the scene on her hand computers camera without removing her vaccsuit glove.

Then Shar motioned from Vonon to cover the two large doors on the far side and wait there.  The she gestured for Quinzella and Tolman to check the single door off to the left.  If the floorplan, which her virtual personal aide had overlaid HUD-fashion into her glasses lenses, held true, the near doors were likely the kitchen and the far doors led to outer ring and ultimately to the docking bay.  But the area at the near doors would need to be secured first.

Sharik herself moved to the other side of the table with the autopsy corpse, which gave her a view of both doors and the potential to be able to rush to either, as necessary.  She motioned for Quinzella and Tolman to proceed when they were both ready.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 44):

Vonon similarly had a schematic of the dome displayed on the inside of his faceplate, and nodded as Sharik issued a few quick instructions.

"Good plan." he responded, quietly, through his suits external audio, as he headed left, around the big table.

"Remember, there are windows looking into this chamber!" Vonon added, pointing at the window into the kitchen as he passed it, "Keep an eye on them."

Vonon paused at the end of the second window on the left -- the one after the kitchen door, behind the desk -- and peeked around the edge to look into the hallway, before he heads on to the double doors.


OOC: first, does Vonon see anyone in any of the hallway that he can see through the window? second, are the double doors solid panels, or do they have windows -- and if they do have windows, can they be seen through?

The doors are solid... no windows in them.

Looking through the windows to the hallway, you don't see anyone. However, you do catch a glimpse of movement through one of the windows at the opposite end of the operating table.

Quin quietly walked over to Sharik as she stood at the corpse, she whispered something.    She sighed, "I am sorry."  She placed her hand on the carcass and closed her eyes a brief moment.

She eye scanned the room for surveillance gear, to her knowledge it could be anywhere, independent or not, cameras and the like.  Then she slowly made her way to the door she was asked to penetrate, she stood at the ready waiting for Tolman's signal he too was ready.

My bad! Don't know my left from my right sometimes!


There are four doors out of this central room, plus the airlock. The two that are shown on the map, plus there's a door to the right where the second window would be, and there's another door behind the desk on the right.

Quinzell and Tolman can hear arguing through the door behind the right side desk. The door muffles it so that you can't quite make out what is being said, but it's loud enough to penetrate through the door.

While putting back the stunstick she was examining, finding it lacking, Khea shouts to the cockpit.
"Have you gotten any message from them yet? I think we should start heading towards the dome"

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 46):

Vonon steps over to the next window, between himself and the double doors, and pauses to look through it, before he continues to the double doors -- his ultimate objective-of-the-moment.

Vonon, looking through the second window, can see the lab off to the right. There are two people working in what appears to be a lab of some sort.

Quin stands at the ready to breech the door, she sends of a message to the craft, Hold.

She looked over to the group, "This room, residents or workers present, should we breech?"

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 49):

"No message yet, we'll give it another minute or two before we start aproaching."

ooc
How much time has gone since they left the sub? The idea was to head in after as et time of them leaving, but not sure if its been that long yet?

It's been that long now. Departing when they reached the dome was the plan, so it's taken a few minutes to cycle the airlock and enter the dome.

Quinzella texted the submersible to hold for the moment. Probably means they haven't been able to secure the garage yet. Things may not have been what they expected inside.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 54):

With the external audio system of his suit turned very low, Vonon adds "Looks like a lab on otherside of double doors. Looks like two techs working. No sign of any Security, yet. According to the map, this..." Vonon points at the double door, "...is the way to the sub dock."

Vonon pauses a moment, watching the techs in the lab, to see what they are doing.

"Shar'r? Tolman? Secure the sub dock or secure the labs?"


OOC:
To Vonon's non-technical eye, do the two in the lab lok like they are just "working", or do they look like they are "destroying" files and/or samples?

Those in the lab appear to be running some equipment, perhaps processing one final dose or whatever it is they are doing. They are monitoring the equipment, probably making adjustments as they go.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 56):

"These guys don't look like they're destroying anything --" Vonon adds, "but they could be watching the computer erase itself, for all I know."

Vonon consults the chrono display in his helmet, "We're falling behind, folks. Gimme a consensus on what we all wanna do, here, or I'm gonna make a straight run at the sub dock."

Vonon pauses a moment, then adds, "Actually...y'know, that might work. I crash through the double doors, here, and make a straight run for the sub dock, just crashing through any doors along the way. You guys come along behind me, and grab those startled residents who are focussing their attentions on my passage. That sound okay to you guys?"

Tolman replies back in the same low tone.

"That should work. Sharik can watch your back. Quinzella and I are guarding this door. We'll take care of anyone that comes through."

He quickly holsters his gun and pulls out the stunstick.

"How about it, Quinzella? Are you ready for a fight?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:46, Wed 27 May 2015.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 54):

Sam will wait about 90 seconds then say

"Ok, I think we should get the sub going now"

In reply to Tolman Jackstadt (msg # 58):

Quin smiles, a chance to relief the constant building stress, of course she was ready.  "You better believe it."  She relayed to Tolman's query.

To the ship she sent a message, Exceptable risks on landing, move when ready.

Glancing back from her station, Sharik nodded to Tolman.  Then passing by the other windows on the left side to make sure that there wasn't anyone looking in, she made her way over to where Vonon stood ready.  She took a brief moment to center herself with deep breath and a roll of her shoulders.

Then stunstick in hand, the diminutive brunette gave her vargr friend a 'thumbs-up' to let him know that she was ready when he was.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 61):

At Sharik's signal, Vonon stepped over to the end of the dissection table just in front of the double doors. Then, with his back to the table, he readied himself, mumbling the mantra...

"... through the door one step, turn left ... race down hallway at full speed ... hit door at end of hallway with left shoulder leading ... hope not to bounce back ..."

Vonon raises his right hand, holding up three fingers ... two fingers ... one finger ...

Vonon builds up as much speed as he can in only 2-or-3 steps, then straight-arms both doors open, rushing into the open space beyond.

Chinning the volume level of his external audio up to three-quarters of maximum, he growls "Freeze, Gofers!!" before turning left and running down the open hallway that the map displayed in front of his face says should be there.

Sharik nodded curtly to Vonon, holding her weapon at the ready and pushing though the door once her vargr companion had forced it open.  She attempted to keep two steps behind her friend and only paused momentarily to ensure that the two people they were pushing past did not move to follow them.

As wingman, Shar knew her job was to watch Vonon's six and keep anything and everything off his back.  Which is what the diminutive socialite intended to do.  If any of the opposition made a move that she might be forced to interpret as aggressive, Sharik intended to engage...

Exceptable risks on landing, move when ready. came over the communications system on the sub. "Lets get moving Captain Grev." Walter said to the sub operator, before the sub kicked into motion

"Estimated arrival in 2 minutes. Make last minute equipment checks."  he said to the remaining team members.

At the signal, and as the sub moves forward, Darrell positions himself near the airlock...ready for a quick coupling.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 64):

Sam checks her gear but stays in the cockpit so she can see what is going on.

Vonon has no difficulty bursting through the double doors, shouts at the two lab techs that he can see, and then turns and runs down the hallway. It's almost exactly as the floor plan indicated, with one exception--there's another door at the end of the hallway that probably leads to the kitchen area.

He heads over to the airlock that leads to the garage dome. As expected, there are controls there for activating the garage airlock. He is able to activate it so the garage starts filling with water.


Meanwhile, back in the central area, the three security guards come running down the hallway.

Through the doorway where Quinzella and Tolman are on guard comes another person on the run. It's Justev. His eyes widen in surprise when he sees you there, but he smiles.

He'd been talking to the guards. Well, they'd been doing the talking... and searching him. They found the commphone, of course. He'd set it back to normal ring tone after deleting all the messages and history. Not that they couldn't trace them back with the right equipment, or so he thought, but he didn't think that they'd have that capability here. Besides, the cavalry was on the way... right?

It was a chance he had to take, kind of. He hadn't been able to think of anything else to cause a distraction. When the commphone chirped its receipt of a text, one of the nearby guards had heard it... and recognized it for what it was. That was what Justeve was counting on. They'd want to know where he got the commphone.

Not being able to have or use a commphone had not been part of the agreement he'd signed. That was a restriction placed on him once they'd arrived at the dome. While he didn't think they'd do anything... violent to him, he still resented that restriction, so he'd managed to sneak his in. They'd only confiscated his second phone; it was an older model that he just hadn't got around to recycling.

With the phone turned off and the battery removed, scanners hadn't been able to pick up the signal or the GPS. He didn't put them back in for awhile, mostly because he'd actually been busy, mostly enjoying his work. It was the other stuff that bothered him.

Then he heard someone shouting. It was amplified; that wasn't normal. He was hoping it was the cavalry, but, in any case, it drew the guards away. As interesting as the place was for him to work, it was twice as boring for the guards, so that's why all of them had been checking him out. Also, the whole group was about to bug out. He'd not only been told that they were leaving, but he could sense it, even if they wouldn't tell him why.

So as the guards ran after the shout, he slipped out of the lab and through the door into the central operating room.

As soon as he dashed through the door, there were two people--one to either side. Armed.

Surprised to see them there, he was also happy that the chance he took might actually be paying off.

"Hello. I'm Justev. Fancy meeting you here," he quipped, hoping to disarm their intimidating if not outright aggressive stance.

Quin just reacted, not much time to act afterall.  She pressed outward and pushed the new comer, Justev, toward Tolman.  "Hold this," She said to Tolman.

She locked her eyes on Justev, "Who are you?  A worker?  Why so casual upon seeing what are best described as militants?"

For a moment, Justev looked a bit confused.

"I'm your inside contact; I'm the one that disabled the airlock alarm and distracted the guards," he replied. "You are the cavalry, aren't you?"

"If by worker you mean one of the typing monkeys, yeah, that'd be me. Lab tech extraordinaire. And a doctor to boot!"

In reply to Justev Wreedav (msg # 70):

Vonon begins to cycle the sea dock to let in the sub. Knowing that he won't be able to open the outer door until the dock is flooded, he watches the dock (through a window or via monitor screen), also checking to see if there is space inside the dock for their sub to occupy.

OOC: is there room?

Noting Sharik's presence, Vonon says, via comm, "It'll take a few minutes to get the others inside. We just have to hold this position until then. So far, so good, though.  Once the others are inside we can start loading the data we've come for -- hopefully nobody'll start deleting anything before then."

Something occurs to Vonon, and he slowly turns to face his friend, "Say...you did secure those two people in the lab, back there, didn't you?"

In reply to Justev Wreedav (msg # 70):

Quin growled at Justev, she had always disliked turncoats, so dishonorable where was their integrity?

"Distraction complete I see, what has been done with them?  How much time do we have before we are overrun or the system comes back online?"

"Done with what? The guards?" Justev answers Quinzella, not quite sure what she was asking.

"I distracted them for a bit until the airlock cycled so they wouldn't notice. It's not completely silent, but a lot of the equipment in here makes noise. Anyway, they went running after your friend who was shouting. He is one of yours, right?"

"There's still a guard in Lab 3."

"Who's going to overrun you?"

"Well, I supposed the airlock doesn't really have an alarm... more like an alert for when it's cycling. You could call it a doorbell."

"If you don't want them destroying data, you'd better get in there and stop them."

As Vonon activated the garage airlock, Sharik was covering his back, which was a good thing as three guards came running down the hallway.

The lead guard was carrying a riot gun; the other two had pistols though Sharik couldn't tell what kind. When the lead guard spot Sharik, he raises his gun.


Vonon sees that there is both an inner airlock and an outer airlock. The inner airlock provides access to the garage dome when it is flooded. Seems more of a convenience if the submersibles are there--you don't have to empty the garage of water to get inside that way.

There is only room for two submersibles in the garage, side-by-side, and there are two parked there. The far one appears nearly identical to the one you came in. The second one is smaller and sleeker, more recreational than functional.

So, normally, there's not going to be room for another one... unless you park it on top of one of the ones there. The good thing about that, though, is that the garage airlock will cycle faster due to submersibles' displacement.

"Vo..." Shar gasped, as she trotted behind her vargr companion, "Company."  Another glance over her shoulder and she slowed a bit, calling out to Vonon, "Three security.  One sawed-off, two with stunners."

She started to unzip her vacc suit and slipped her hand into the lining where her own stunner was holstered.  Her other hand continued to grip the stunstick.  Though the rod wasn't a blade, Sharik held it lightly in her hand more like how a fencer might hold a light fighting sabre even if the weighting was all wrong.

The diminutive dilettante began to slow further.  "Freeze!" she called out to the three approaching; she turned to face them, raising her own sidearm and training it upon the one in the lead.  She widened her stance slightly to brace herself and bar the way, as best she could while she brandished her stunstick in her off-hand with a flourish.  Sharik squared her shoulders, knowing that it was a moment of false bravado.  Yet she knew that she had to buy time for Vonon to complete the cycling of the lock; a standoff would likely serve them better than the guards.

At least, in the long term.  And for the rest of the group as a whole.  In all honesty, three on one combat odds was not quite what Shar had in mind when she woke up this morning...
This message was last edited by the player at 14:02, Thu 04 June 2015.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 75):

Vonon, having just noticed that the sub dock is already occupied by a pair of subs, was about to comment about that, when his thoughts were interrupted by Sharik.

"Vo..." Shar gasped, as she trotted behind her vargr companion, "Company."  Another glance over her shoulder and she slowed a bit, calling out to Vonon, "Three security. One sawed-off, two with stunners."

Vonon turned just as Sharik produced her own weapon, pointed it down range, and shouted "Freeze!"

Vonon jogs over next to his diminutive human friend -- taking note that the three guards are all Human...and that all of them are armed with firearms; one of them is even pointing a shotgun at him and Sharik.

*...well roll me in poop and call me a puppy...* shoots through his thoughts as he spots the immense-looking (as it's pointing at him) barrel of the shotgun.

However, despite what he may be thinking, what he says over his suit audio, in a growly voice, is...

[[That popgun...]] Vonon raises his arm and points at the shotgun, [[will not penetrate this suit! It's been tried before. Now, be smart rent-a-cops and toss those weapons over here, then sit down on the floor...or this situation is gonna get very, very bloody, and I guarantee you guys ain't paid enough for the ass-wooping I'm gonna drop on you, if you shoot at me. Now DROP THOSE GUNS!!]] the final three words are at the maximum battlefield amplification his suit can generate.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:45, Fri 05 June 2015.

Quin grins at Justev, "Where is Lab 3 from here?"

She tensed a bit, her body firming as though ready for something unknown.

"Lab 3 is just through the door here, across the hall," Justev replies to Quin. "Careful, he's got a gun, but it's only a stunner."

He was half tempted to ask for a gun, but realized that this woman didn't trust him and so probably wouldn't give him one. Besides, he didn't really want to get into a gunfight.

He looked around the room for a hiding place. Didn't really see one More shouting out in the hallway.

And then there was the other rescuer. He just shrugged and stepped aside, out of any potential line of fire.

Although the three guards are a bit surprised to see space-suited people in the dome, particularly people that they KNOW aren't supposed to be there, Sharik's command to 'Freeze!' actually spurs the lead guard to action. He promptly fires his riot gun at Sharik, even as Vonon comes up and begins his bellowing.

05:45, Fri 05 June 2015: StarMaster rolled 8 using 2d6+1 ((3,4)). That's a hit.

06:01, Fri 05 June 2015: StarMaster rolled 10 using 4d3 ((3,2,2,3)). Damage.

Sharik gets hit with a single rubber bullet. It doesn't penetrate her suit, but 2 points get through her protection. The impact is enough to drive her back a step or two, but she needs to succeed at a Dexterity check or get knocked down.

AS the sub approaches the airlock, Sam seems relieved to se that the airlock seems to be cycling.

"Looks like things are succeeding so far" she says to anyone in the cockpit. "We'd better get ready to dock. IS there anything you need help with?" she asks the sub pilot.

"Justev, there are more coming through the airlock, go wait for them, I recommend to wait in a posture that shows you mean peace lest you want to be greeted by a blast to the face."

Quin smirked, at last something, a moment she could feel useful.  She stealthily moved along the hallway attempting to get as close to this lab 3 as possible without alerting anyone.

Sharik grimaced as she saw the lead guard pull the trigger on his weapon.  She grunted as the 'non-lethal' bullet hurtled into her left shoulder causing a flash of pain and forcing her to take a step backwards.  Her grip on the stunstick slacked for a moment, but the rod's lanyard kept the weapon from slipping away.

A single Solomani expletive escaped from her lips, though through some miracle, the diminutive socialite kept her feet and the two weapons in her hands.  Jerking backwards, she moved to line up her shot, trying to draw a bead on the leader through the reticule cross-hairs in sight on weapon.

Her finger moved to pull the trigger.  It seemed so much easier on the range...

[OOC:  Ouch... that hurt...

  22:47, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 8 using 2d6. Athletics/Dex Check: Trying to stay standing!
  22:55, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 5 using 2d6+1. Gun Combat (energy pistol)/Dex: Riot Gun Guard, if applicable.

That would be a miss...  But, at least she stays standing (though perhaps not for long).]

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 82):

OOC: C'mon!  It's just Stun.  You'll recover in an hour-or-so. Mebbe quicker. ^_^


As the blast of the shotgun silences his tirade, Vonon cast a quick glance at Sharik to see that she's still standing after taking the hit, then he looks back at the shooter.

[[Oh, you just had to ruffle my fur, didn't ya dipwad!]] Vonon powers up the stunrod in his left hand with a crackle, [[I am gonna shove this stunrod so far up your sphincter it'll make yer eyes glow!]] he growls as he rushes forward to attack.


OOC:
I mean, even with the suit, it's obvious he's a Vargr...he's not big enough to be an Aslan male, for one thing....

Anyway, I'm not positive, but if the guards are where I think they are, Vonon should be able to get into Close Range of the shotgunner with a single minor action move of 6 meters.  If so, he will then take his significant action to attack.  If a single move won't do it, however, he'll forgo the attack and take another minor action to move up to another 6 meters.

If he can attack:

Initiative: 13
Melee Attack: miss!  Miss Effect -3; Average failure
07:32, Sat 06 June 2015: Vonon Ronkunu rolled 5 using 2d6-2 ((6,1)), in an unskilled use of Melee(bludgeon)-3 and DEX +1, to hit the Guard with the stunstick

With the sub finally moving Khea positions herself on the opposite site of CountDarrel next to the airlock to stay in cover in case that they are greeted by someone else than their strike team when the airlock opens.

Unlike the others she does not wield the stunner the Count bought, that one is hooked into her belt, but  her Khaifealate set to full auto fire. In her excitment she also has her claw extended which aslan guns are luckily designed to accomondate.

Timing is nearly perfect, as the dome's garage door begins to open just as the submersible reaches it. There's a hitch at that point, as there are already two submersibles parked within the dome. One is almost identical to yours, while the other is a smaller, sleeker model. There's no horizontal room for another one, but you could probably park ontop of the smaller one.

Sam talks to the sub pilot

"Can you land on top of the little sub safely?" she says pointing.

Admiring the beauty of the smaller sleek sub, "Can we nudge the large one, it would be a shame to ruin that."

Sam turns to Darrell and raises and eyebrow "we're here to do a job, not take care of pretty things. Collateral damage is acceptable if it gets the job done"

With a crestfallen look, "I suppose you're right, but if it doesn't make a difference?"

The Count readies himself, and gives a half-smile towards Sam, "Anyways, one should try to appreciate beauty wherever it can be found."

"Maybe we can get the subs out of there and sink them so the dome crew can not report what happened until we are long gone?" Walter suggested

"If we have time while extracting, that sleek sub might be brought along...a couple of grappling hooks, some elbow grease, it's a fine addition to craft aboard an exploration ship..."

Quinzella stepped through the door, and was pretty much right in front of Lab #3. She can hear a bit of noise from inside the room because the door is open. Then she hears:

"Subdirectories A through Z... purge."

She can tell the voice is coming from in the lab, just around the corner to the right.

Tolman is right behind her, keeping watch down the hallway to the right and through the safety door on the left.


In the garage, the submersible can probably be parked on top of the sleek submersible without seriously damaging it. These are meant to be able to take the pressures of the deep. The treads might scratch the paint a bit.

Grev sets the submersible down on top of both of them really, making it slant a bit to the right.

There are probably sensors, like the safety beam on garage doors, for no sooner has the group's submersible cleared the garage door that it begins closing. By the time Grev sets it down, the water is already being pumped out.


For Vonon and Sharik, the guards are about halfway between the double doors and the single door at the end of the hallway. That door has been fastened open.

Vonon can't reach the guards in one round because he was farther back at the airlock controls.

Sharik has some cover by being around the corner, and that's as far as Vonon can get this round. If he steps out into the hallway to rush the guards, they'll get a free shot on him.

Sam says to Grev "I suggest you wait here, and try not to notice too much of what goes on, if you catch my drift"

She then heads to the airlock, and checks her kit

"Everyone ready?" she asks the others

Readying his Sonic Stun Carbine, "After you my dear."

"Lets go." Walter says, grabbing a stun stick and testing it out like it was a rapier. "I guess we need to get to a computer and see if we can lock the network so they will have a harder time deleting any files and maybe see if there is any backups we can salvage if they have." he added.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:04, Tue 16 June 2015.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 95):

Sam looked at Walter and said "You do that. I'll make sure the personnel on the base don't interfere with you."

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 92):

Quin pears into the room, carefully trying to hide herself against the wall.  Hoping to see where eyes were before she did anything rash, although her primary thought was to save the files and take out the speaker, but she needed to know what she was up against first.  She had been in a similar position before and acted too rashly then, it caused a quite literal break between her and her employer that time.

Sharik shook her head and held out an arm to impede Vonon's motion around the corner of the hallway.  She didn't want her friend sticking his head into the crossfire (even if it was very well armoured).  Of course, the fact that she was reeling from that riot gun hit might also be an explanation for why Shar was holding out an arm and shaking her head for a moment.

Pushing herself against the wall, the diminutive brunette steadied her body by placing the hand with the stunrod against the wall.  Through her visor one could see that she'd taken a deep breath to center herself, right before she burst into action.  Crouching slightly, Sharik thrust her right hand and part of her face place around the corner and squeezed off a shot from her stunner at the nearest available target.  She hoped that the guards weren't just dug in and sitting there waiting for her head to pop out - but, that would tell them (or at least, her partner) something as well, if Sharik suddenly slumped down under a barrage of enemy fire.

[OOC:  Popping her head and arm around the corner to minimize her exposure and squeezing off a stunner shot at the closest/first available target...  Dice don't fail me now!

  11:59, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 9 using 2d6+1. Gun Combat (energy pistol)/Dex: Riot Gun Guard, if possible.
  12:01, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 10 using 2d6+3. Damage: TL-A Stunner, if applicable.

*crosses fingers and hopes it is enough to even the odds*]

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 98):

OOC: Okay, I think I got it. These are Vonon's modified actions:

Vonon had been standing at the airlock when Sharik came running around the corner, behind him, calling a warning about guards coming behind her.

((Initiative= 13. 12+1, because Sharik warned him the guards were coming, so he is now "prepared"))

Vonon turns from monitoring the airlocks progress and stalks over to the corner where Sharik has taken a defensive position. ((Minor Action #1: move up to 6 meters))

Just as Vonon gets to Sharik, she is hit by a rubber slug from a shotgun blast. However, she waves Vonon to halt, indicating she is okay.

"Shar'r," Vonon says over the comm, "Uh, it looks like I kinda screwed up -- the only non-lethal I have is this damn stunbaton." Vonon says, raising the baton and activating it with an electric crackle ((Minor Action #2: ready a weapon)), "I gotta close with these jokers, otherwise I'm pulling my ten-millimeter and putting big holes in things.  I gotta do this..."

Vonon steps away from the corner, exposing himself for the first time to the guards. He activates his suit audio and growls at them.

[[That popgun...]] Vonon raises the stun baton (which is now in his right hand) and points at the shotgun-wielding guard, [[will not penetrate this suit! It's been tried before. Now, be smart rent-a-cops and toss those weapons over here, then sit down on the floor...or this situation is gonna get very, very bloody, and I guarantee you guys ain't paid enough for the ass-wooping I will open up on you if you shoot at me. Now DROP THOSE GUNS!!]] the final three words are at the maximum battlefield amplification his suit can generate.  ((Minor Action #3: prepare to React/Dodge when they start shooting!))

Sharik is able to hit the guard with the riot gun, and the guard almost immediately slumps to the floor.

However, as soon as Vonon steps out into sight, the other two guards shoot him at before he can get half his speech out.

03:08, Mon 22 June 2015: StarMaster rolled 5,10 using 2d6+2,2d6+2 ((1,2,3,5)).

Although Sharik's stun damage was only 10, the guard is only wearing mesh, so there's no way he can succeed at an Endurance check. Fortunately, he goes down or else would have rolled a 13 to hit Vonon!

The two remaining guards fire their stunners at Vonon; the first misses, the second hits.

03:51, Mon 22 June 2015: StarMaster rolled 15 using 2d6+3 ((6,6)). Wow. Some hit.

Vonon needs to make an Endurance check with a negative DM equal to the damage (after
armour is subtracted). If this Endurance check is failed, Vonon is knocked unconscious. If the Endurance check succeeds, it has no effect. So 15 minus 12 armor is 3; so he has to roll 11 to succeed?


Quinzella peers into the room and sees a guard sitting at a console against the wall with his back to Quinzella.


The submersible is docked, a bit awkwardly, and the water has pumped out of the airlock.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:26, Tue 23 June 2015.

Sam says "Shall we?" and opens the Subs airlock, heading out toward the main entrance from the dock into the dome as quickly as she can, stun stick at the ready

Quin smiles, slowly and as silently as her trained duck walk will allow, approaching from behind the man.

If able to remain unnoticed she grabs the man around the neck and tightens her grasp, forcing a gradual sleeper hold on the man.

Darrel follows Sam, ready to stun any non-party-crashers.

Walter heads out with the others, looking for a computer terminal.

Sharik grimaced, and it was her turn to feel the flash of anger and the flush of righteous frustration.  She'd momentarily exalted in the evening of the odds, only to have that feeling dashed when Vonon took the hit.  It looked like a solid stunner shot, though in the heat of battle it was tough to tell.

Her first instinct was to charge, but there were two of them and they were ready and armed with ranged weapons.

And with the lock cycling already, Shar knew that time was on her side.  Those men needed to charge her position, if they were going to override the entry of the sub at this point.  Which meant, that the diminutive operative was going to simply hunker down and be ready to fire at whatever came around that corner.  She took a deep breath to steady her pounding heart and center herself.  Then Shar knelt and braced her firing arm with her off-hand at the elbow and the stunrod as a make-shift strut in anticipation of the guards' rush; the low profile should give her the advantage.

While tempted to find out how Vonon was doing, Sharik knew that there wasn't much that she could do to help him right at this very moment.

And while, the guards could be retreating and helping the other scientists destroy evidence, Shar also knew that she couldn't do much about that either at this point.  She had to rely on Quinzella and Tolman for that - at least until the others in the sub arrived.  And she trusted Q, they'd worked together before.

[OOC  Ready to fire at any guard that comes around that corner.  Both actions held, for snap fire, presumably.]

Khea tries her best to imitate a roar like the males do when charging into battle to let the enemies know that an Aslan is coming. While fully aware that her stature was far less impressive she hopes that at least her roar would fool them and maybe make them surrender before realizing that they are not going against a 7 ft. tall warrior.

And if that fails, maybe the MP she frantically waves around instead of a stunner like everyone else will make them think twice.

When coming out of the sup she falls a bit behind the others though as she taps the walls to gauge if they would withstand a firefight or if they are a cheap civilian construct which is hardly holding together.

[OOC: Is there any check required?]

01:43, Tue 23 June 2015: StarMaster, on behalf of Quinzella, rolled 12,5,5 using 2d6+2 Stealth,2d6-2 Grapple,1d6-1 Damage ((4,6,5,2,6)).

Quinzella has no problem sneaking up behind the guard. There is some background noise in the room and the base, and he's rather focused on his task.

Because of that, she is also able to grab him. She has no significant melee skill, but surprise and superior position just barely make up for that lack of skill. She is able to grab him around the neck and begin choking him.

01:53, Tue 23 June 2015: StarMaster rolled 6,5 using 2d6-2 Perception,2d6-2 Endurance check ((4,4,5,2)).

The guard is wearing a mesh body suit, but it doesn't really protect his throat, so he has no protection against the 5 damage she does. Within seconds, she's rendered him unconscious.


02:16, Tue 23 June 2015: StarMaster, on behalf of Vonon Ronkunu, rolled 3 using 2d6-3 Endurance check ((5,1)).

Vonon goes down unconscious.


A couple of things kind of happen all at the same time at this point. The cavalry arrives as Sam, Darrel, Walter and Kheai exit the submersible and enter the habitat dome through the second airlock. Almost immediately, they spot Sharik ahead, crouching down and watching around a corner.

The second thing that happens is there is gunfire from the central area of the dome.


Kheai inspects the dome material in passing; it doesn't feel like it is very flimsy.

Quin inspects the unconscious guard, leaving the sounds to her companions, looking for anything (ANYTHING) in his pockets or hidden on his person and scooting it away.  She then positions him beside her where she stands ready to boot him in the face if he should awaken.

She starts to look at the computer readout, trying to determine what he was doing and what was done and if she managed to save what was necessary.

In reply to Quinzella (msg # 108):

"Gurk!  Ack!" *crackle*

Darrell will move forward to help Sharik.

Walter heads forward with the others, trying to make sure there are large pieces of machinery between him and the gunfire.

Sam moves up behind Sharik, as she get close she talks loud enough for Sharik to hear, but not to carry.

"Sharik, we're here. Whats the state of play?"

As she moves forward she looks for any CCTV cameras or other sensors that could be tracking them

ooc
10:48, Sat 27 June 2015: Samantha Kilgore rolled 6 using 2d6+1 ((1,4)).

The guard that Quinzella took out was carrying a stun pistol; that was the only weapon he had on him.

At the computer, she can see that there was a directory on the screen, and he appears to have been killing files. It required a command password for each file; there is currently a dialog box open requesting that password.


Samantha doesn't spot any cameras or other security systems in use.

There's no equipment for anyone to hide behind, but they are around the corner from the armed guards.

Around the corner is a hallway. There's a door right around the corner on the left that's been propped open. At the other end of the hallway on the right is another door, closed.


There's the sound of a stun gun from down the hallway, and one of the guards falls to the floor.

Coming out of the airlock Kheas spirit drops instantly when she sees Vonon lying on the floor. Not knowing if he is wounded, dead or just stunned she runs over to him, grabs whatever part of him she can grab while staying in cover and tries to pull him around the corner.
"Useless" she curses in Throk, meaning less her vain attmpts to drag the big Vargr with his combat armor with just one hand but instead his lackluster performance on the field.
While putting down her gun to grab Vonon with both hands she notices the additional door to the kitchen which apparently no one pays any attention to. Still speaking Throk she shouts "Someone watch that door".

OOC:Strength check if needed. 00:15, Sun 28 June 2015: Kheaiftouaw rolled 7 using 2d6+1 ((1,5)).

Kheai has no problem dragging Vonon from out of the line of fire. Generally, you can drag 5 times what you can lift because of your body's leverage capabilities.

You've got five people in the area, so I'm sure at least one of them is watching the previously unknown door.

Sharik glanced quickly over her shoulder, noting in the corner of her eye the arrival of the rest of the team through the airlock.  She otherwise, tried to keep her attention trained on the hallway in anticipation of the guards trying to rush her position.  She grimaced slightly, as she still felt slightly winded.  The bruise on her ribs from riot gun bullet was causing her tightness in her chest and more than a touch of discomfort.

She held up a hand to try and stop the rest of the team from pushing around the corner.  And was about to try and stop Khea from grabbing Vonon's prone form for fear of the Aslan female placing herself in the line of fire.  But, since she couldn't physically stop her and wasn't quick enough to give a verbal warning, Shar remained silent.

"Two guards with stunners just around this corner." she warned Samantha, appraising team's security specialist of the sitrep as requested, "About three to four metres down this curved hall on the left."  The diminutive dilettante paused for a moment, her eyes never wavering, then posited, "Perhaps a reasonable time to use one of the Count's grenades..."  Sharik hadn't carried any of them herself, since the space in her tailored suit was limited and she wasn't if they were actually waterproof.

"If I remember one of your early vids, you took a grenade and counted to three before throwing it into the room in "Sands of Io 9". How long are the fuzes on these?" Walter asked, never handling one before

Sharik nodded to Walter, "It will have a countdown fuse of a few seconds."

"But wait." the diminutive operative ordered, holding up a hand for a moment, before they dispersed any munitions.  Khea's move (and the lack of fire that it drew) emboldened her.  Shar took a couple of deep breaths and then thrust her pistol and right side of her face plate around the edge of the corner to get a quick look and better gauge the range to the enemy.  There was little sense in wasting their limited resources.

"I Like your style Sharik" says Sam and quickly runs out into the corridor, and fires at any guard she can see

ooc
Minor action - move 6 metres around corner
Significant action, fires tranq rifle at any guard (in order of preference, a guard facing her way and armed with a ranged weapon, any guard with a ranged weapon; any guard facing her way, any guard at all!

08:26, Mon 29 June 2015: Samantha Kilgore rolled 14 using 2d6+2 ((6,6)).

The only guard Sam can see is laying face down halfway into the hallway.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 120):

Ssm call to the others "Hallways clear, lets move in" as she speaks she covers any doorways she can see in case guards come out.

ooc
damn wasted  double 6

Having calmed down a bit asks an anglic "Stay together or split up?" while pointing at the door to the kitchen with her gun.
And with a slight tap with her boot on Vonons shoulder she adds "And what about him?"

Walter headed over to Vonon to look him over and see if some smelling salts might help revive him. "Time to wake up Sleeping Beauty." he said


16:15, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 9 using 2d6+2. First aid on Vonon Medic 0 + EDU mod.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:49, Tue 30 June 2015.

Once Walter unfastens Vonon's helmet, smelling salts are able to revive him, but he'll be groggy and unsteady on his feet for a minute or so.

Kheai, Sam and Sharik catch a whiff of something burning...


Quinzella almost has a good laugh at the guard's inept computer skills. Although he's deleted half the files, he was using the personal version. 'Delete' doesn't actually erase the file, it just moves it to the recycle bin. Even deleting it from the recycle bin doesn't actually get rid of it from the computer; it just wipes out the addressing. The actual data is still on the computer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:01, Tue 30 June 2015.

Sam looks at the others - "Burning - not good. Lets see if we can locate it" She tries to follow her nose to the location of the burning, watching for danger or others in their team as she moves

ooc

guess that's Recon + Int?

08:31, Tue 30 June 2015: Samantha Kilgore rolled 7

Tracing the burning smell isn't particularly hard; it just takes a bit of orientation. It's not coming from behind you, and it's not coming from the kitchen area, so that means it's coming from down the hallway. It seems probable that one of the scientists is 'frying' some of the equipment or samples or data... or all three.

Sam will motion to the others "This way I reckon. We should split up - half on each side of the corridor" and starts heading towards the burning smell, her tranq rifle at the ready.

She will hug one side of the corridor, moving carefully and checking any doors or windows she encounters to see whats behind them.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 127):

"Wuzza-frackin-daggo-jazz-mucker!  Wa-choo!!" Vonon growls incoherently, as he comes awake with a violent sneeze, his armored right hand scrabbling for his sidearm -- an uncoordinated action that simply results in the heavy autopistol falling out of its holster and onto the floor.

"Who?  What? Did I get 'em?" Vonon asks, looking around the group a little dazedly.

Walter shrugs his shoulders. "No idea but you should be very glad that it was not a slug thrower that they hit you with, or worse a beam weapon." he said. "If you are able to get on your feet, I would suggest that you do so." he added, handing the pistol to Voron

Sharik nodded in agreement, then affected a colonial drawl, "Something is a-burnin' and Time is a-wastin'"  She gestured for Khea and Darrel to follow Sam and held out and arm to help Vonon up and steady him.

"C'mon." she chided her old vargr friend playfully, "No sleeping on the job..."  The relief that he was none the worse for wear was apparent in her voice.  The diminutive dilettante motioned for Walter to join them as she took her trio towards the kitchen door.  If she understood the layout, it would lead back to original central room.  A bit round about, but their path should eventually join up with Sam and the others (and hopefully Quinzella and Tolman as well).  Assuming that they didn't run into anyone else - of course.

She lead with her pistol, bracing it in two hands as she moved to push through the kitchen door with Walter and Vonon.

[OOC:  23:29, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 10 using 2d6+4. Security/Int Check: BioDome Sweep via Kitchen (+2 Security, +2 Int) - as necessary. (Only and '9' if it is Recon instead of Security)]

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 130):

"Wasn't sleeping..." Vonon mumbles, getting groggily to his feet, "I was strategizing..."

Vonon re-holsters his pistol, "Thanks Sir Walter." he says, just before re-sealing his helmet.

[[Where'd those guards from down the hall go?]] he asks, as everyone heads for the kitchen.

Quin chuckles at her fortune, activating her com unit.  "Sub landed yet?"

She began to transfer the recycled files back into active files, in order to make any transfer easier.

With the trio already covering the kitchen door Khea follows Samantha down the corridor.

So Sharik, Walter and Vonon go through the door into the kitchen area. It's empty of people, and they continue on through the kitchen door that gives them access to the central area.

There's only one person there: Justev, hiding behind the large operating table.


Sam, Kheai and Darrel advance down the hallway. Tolman steps out through the double doors to join you, and immediately gets shot at from the lab across the hall. Sam glances around the corner into the lab and sees to scientists in there. One has a small body pistol. The other one is tapping at the machine in the center of the room, which is smoking.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 134):

"Theres two in there, one armed, one destroying stuff" Sam says to the others "I'm gonna take down the destroyer, does someone else wanna have a go at the gunner"

Sam quickly looks in round the corner and fires at the scientist tapping on the key board with the tranq rifle



ooc
08:21, Thu 02 July 2015: Samantha Kilgore rolled 11 using 2d6+3 ((2,6)).
Don't have the stats handy so don't now how damage works

Khea sprints towards the wall to the lab into cover, then leans around the corner and fires a a full auto burst into the wall and floor close to the two scientists taking care not to hit them... yet.
"Think whats more important to your clan. Destroying the data or your life"

[OOC: Minor action, move to the wall next to the door, using Burst of Speed when necessary.
Major: Full auto burst (16 shots) to intimidate. Is there a roll required.

Recoil penalty to next initative is -2

I assume that the lab is the room at the 1o clock position on the map?

Samantha can actually shoot the person to the right of the machine without exposing herself to fire from the person to the left of the machine. She hits him easily, particularly since he's focused on his task.

The tranq rifle fires a tranquilizer dart, so it doesn't really do any damage. The tranquilizer chemical within the dart, however, puts the scientist to sleep in seconds.

Yes, the lab is at the 10 o'clock position, though more like 11-12 o'clock, directly opposite from the double doors. Kheai's burst from her automatic weapon is intimidating all by itself. The female scientist holding the body pistol immediately drops it to the floor. Although the scientists don't know who you are, it seems like they think you are pirates.

That's three scientists accounted for, leaving one left somewhere.


As Quinzella transfers the files back out of the recycle folder, she realizes that this computer uses a different operating system than anything she's seen before. It's possible it's a custom design. In any case, she sees that there's a Purge icon on desktop. So it is possible that the Purge command works like a 'Kill' command. She's not quite sure why the guard didn't use it, though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:40, Fri 03 July 2015.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 137):

As Vonon once again steps into the central chamber of the dome, he sees movement from the other side of the big operating table.

[[You there! Stand up and put your hands on your head!]] Vonon says, taking a step closer and resting his hand on the butt of his pistol.

However, in stepping a bit closer, he is able to get a better look at the person hiding.

[[Hey!  It's you!]] Vonon addresses his companions, [[Hey guys, it's our CI...uh...our guy on the inside.  It's about time we found you! Get out here, buddy!  Nice job with the airlock alarm, by the way.]]

Actually, Justev was hiding on the near side of the operating table, his back to you, when you came into the room.

"Thanks," Justev replies. "And thanks for the rescue. This wasn't anything I'd signed up for." He gestures to the operating table behind him.

Sharik's slightly crooked smile could be seen through the (current) transparent faceplate of her protective vaccsuit.  She nodded curtly to Justev, "Yes, thank you for the diversion.  And you're quite welcome, Mr. Wreedav."

Then after a suitably pregnant pause, the diminutive dilettante asked rather deadpan, "Hmmm ... Just what exactly did you sign up for?"  Though she waited for an answer (for it would be telling to know such information and how far it deviated from the truth), Shar was still diligent in covering the far side doors with stunner; she'd had enough surprise ambushes for one op.

She can hear that there is still some conflict occurring further on.  So, the auburn-haired socialite gestured to the others to advance, prompting Justev, "What's beyond these doors?  And how many people can we expect?"

Quinn sighs and turns to the door, keeping watch out the door.  Activating her com again, "So I found this guard, he was deleting stuff on a computer, I rescued the stuff, but the computer is weird to me."

She chuckled and then booted the unconscious guard in the head for good measure.

Seeing the scientist drop to the floor Khea sprints inside the room to grab the scientists gun (or arm).

The scientist that Khea was trying to intimidate just dropped her gun to the floor; Khea can pick up the gun with no problem. It's a body pistol.

"Read you, Quinzella," Tolman replied to Quin over his comm. "Keep your head down and eyes open. We think there's one more person unaccounted for... probably a scientist. One of the brains had a gun, so that one may, too."

"We're securing the other labs and people and we'll sweep our way to you."


With Vonon and Sharik and Walter entering the central area through the kitchen, Tolman didn't need to hang around any more in there. Also, Khea, Sam and Darrel had secured what he guessed was Lab #1, so it was time to get back to Quin.

He crossed the room again, back to the door Quin had gone through. He made one last glance back.

"Yo, Quin... Tolman coming through."

He pushed the door open and quickly stepped through. He spotted Quin behind the desk. He nodded to the door in the hallway that should lead to Lab #2.

"Ready?" he whispered to her.

"What I signed up for was a research project into studying an aquatic lifeform on the planet here to see if a psionic suppression drug could be developed," Justev replied to Sharik.

"They said I would be the lead. The money wasn't important, but it was... a lot. I had no idea they meant the grendels, or that it was possible the grendels were... sentient."

"The front was anagathics. And it wasn't psionic suppression drugs... it was psionic boosters!"

Hearing that there might be an issue with the computer, he headed over to assist. "I am heading over to join Quinzella to see what is going on, please be so kind as to not get shot up too much." he said, flicking an eyebrow towards Vonon.

"What seems to be the problem?" he said to Quinzella, starting to look over the system.

OOC:Check Computer 00:02, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 13 using 2d6+3. Computer-1, +2 EDU helps if I roll the right dice.

Shar frowned slightly when Justev revealed what was seemingly going on behind the scenes here.  Psionics were not illegal outside of the Imperium - and somewhat tolerated on the frontier.  But she was a bit of an Imperialist, having served in two of the Imperial services; so, for Dame Kaagira-Mepede there was slightly instinctive repulsion to mention of them.  She didn't fear the Zhodani for no reason.

Sharik nodded curtly to Walter.  Then she gestured to her vargr friend, "Well, Vo, looks like we follow Jackstadt on his 'quest' ..."  She gripped her stunner tightly and moved to follow in Tolman's footsteps to see if they could locate the last scientist.  She didn't see Dr. Vanager - so, Shar sort of presumed that she would be the last one they'd find.

The diminutive dilettante snapped her fingers, for that was what had been bugging her - the niggling thought scratching at the back of her mind.  "Mr. Wreedav..." she turned to talk to Justev just before following Tolman, "If you were the technical lead, then what has become of Dr. Shenarra Vanager?"

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 143):

Sam follows Khea into the room, and examines the machine that was burning, seeing if there is an obvious way to switch it off, and remove any material from it so it stops cooking.

She'll ask the scientist for help as well

ooc
I am slightly confused as to who is where. Looking at the map, I think me and Khea (only) have gone north (as in towards the top) of the dome,out of the submersible area and the others have gone south into the kitchen - is that right?

A suggestion for maps - maybe label things as room A, B, C etc - as it helps identification a bit. Just trying to make it simpler for us all to keep track

OOC: Okay, a new Game Map has been uploaded... with labels. The main reason there weren't labels on the old one is that you really didn't know what the layout was. You've now seen about 75% of the layout, and can easily fill in the blanks for the rest.


Group 1 (north) was Sam, Khea and Darrel in the back.

They've secured Lab #1. Professor Thedan Rayle is unconscious on the floor to the right of the MedRex 6000 Consolidated Lab machine in the center of the room.

Sam has the drop on Dr. Shenarra Vanager, who is standing to the left of the machine.

The machine has a thermoblast oven in which an assortment of vessels were burning, but the oven can easily be shut off. However, the heat doesn't die down instantly.


Group 2 (south) was Vonon, Sharik and Walter... and Justev.

They are in the Central Operating Room, though Walter has crossed the room to get to Lab #3 where Quinzella is, and Tolman is standing just outside in the hallway.

Technically, no, psionics aren't illegal outside the Imperium, but there are usually a few laws in place to 'control' them. And the Imperium is known to actively pursue any whiff of psionics in the surrounding regions.

Also, while psionics themselves aren't illegal (how can you keep someone from thinking?), psionic groups and psionic drugs are illegal.


Group 3 (east) was Quinzella and Tolman.

With Quinzella in the room and Tolman in the hallway, they are joined by Walter.

Walter can see that the computer is running some sort of custom operating system; at least, it isn't one he's familiar with. There are about 28 different operating systems known to exist, though all but one of them have provisions for translating other OS into it. The reason Walter thinks this is a custom job is because it has no such translation capability.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 149):

Vonon was just following along, recovering from his stun-shot; happy that he wasn't in charge of a raid on a drug lab, for once.

And then Justev mentioned psi-boosters, and Vonon's ears literally pricked-up -- even inside his suit.

*...Psi-drugs!...* he thought to himself, *...back home that crap is heavy duty action...like Joy Juice or Griff, or...what's that stuff that Solomani go wild over...some crap from their homeworld...right, Heroin...the Imperials were always telling us to watch out for that stuff...and nuke any production labs we found...now where did I put that pocket thermonuclear device...*

Vonon switches his suit-comm to a line-of-sight transmission to Sharik.

"Shar'r, if this place is messing with psi-drugs, we're in deep drekk." he said over the private channel, "The Imperial navy always encouraged the Cassandra Space Patrol to nuke any such labs, scatter the ashes, bury the datafiles and summarily execute the perpetrators."

"But this planet ain't the Imperium -- as I recall, it was settled by a bunch of Caledonians.  You travelled more than me, during your stint in the Navy -- what's the Caledonian spin on psionics?  And, more importantly, d'ya think Mizz Blue and her employers know this?  Y'think we're gonna get paid, or have a bullet put in the back of our heads to keep us quiet?"

Khea Was about to turn off the oven but then stops for a moment. After hesitating she turns back to the remaining scientist, holds her extended claw in front of his face and tells him "Get then out, NOW", showing her teeth to underline her threat.

Walter looked over the computer system. "I think we are going to need to take the computers with us. Lets see if we can shut the whole thing down and grab every computer, disk and anything else we can take with us." he said, checking the system to make sure that the files were not going to be destroyed if the system was shut down suddenly

OOC: Checking to see if it can be shutdown and the data saved on the hard drive without losing anything or a means to make a backup if we can not.
01:14, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 9 using 2d6+3. Checking computer for shutdown. 

"As I recall," Sharik noted rather dryly and a touch distantly, "they 'strongly' recommended such measures..."   Scorched earth was the rule rather than exception for such situations, it seemed.  She recalled the scrutiny that her discovery, those many years ago got her while in the Scout Service.  And that hadn't been psionics-related at all; though, when that wasn't immediately obvious, 'caution' (re: paranoia) ran rampant in the initial investigation.  The memories were still vivid and caused a shudder to run down the diminutive dilettante's spine.  It forced Shar to have to take a deep breath and refocus her attention on the matters at hand.

"Like Cassy," she noted grimly, agreeing with her vargr friend over the focused channel between the two.  Her lips pressed thin enough to whiten them, which showed through her faceplate, "Grendal is close enough to the Imperial frontier to mean real trouble."  Shar left unspoken, but obviously implied that trouble was a euphemism for intervention.  Intervention by Imperial (or Imperial-backed) troops was a possibility, if they got wind of this.  Even across the official Imperial border.

It would have been nice think of themselves as that Imperial-backed set of operatives; that they'd been contracted to deal with the threat.  But that was highly unlikely; they had been contracted to preserve the records and everything that they could get their hands on - not destroy it on contact.  Which meant that either Blue and AcquireCorp or their client (or both) knew - or, at least, suspected - what was going on here and wanted it for themselves.  She took another long, deep breath before speaking again, "No guarantees about Blue."  Their handler and her employer were in pretty deep - whether or not they actually knew psionics was involved.  "But,"  Sharik added softly, even if it was a private line, "we need to tread carefully; she may not double-cross us, but this situation just got a whole lot messier..."  The ex-Scout, ex-Naval enlisted, ex-corporate operative could see a whole heap o' interested groups that would love an invitation the party.

And she was well aware that all of those same groups would be quiet upset as well, when no such invitation was offered.  Sharik let out a plaintive sigh and while slowing, didn't stop from starting to move towards the laboratory beyond.  Yeah, she thought glumly, a whole lot messier, indeed...

Quin looked to Tolman, "For what?"

She was ready for a lot, but that always raised more questions.  Her life was always a gogo of 'stop this', 'end that', this was another one, and was welcome compared to some of the triteness that led up to it.

"Secure the next lab," Tolman replied to Quinzella even as he pushed through the door while Walter stepped into the 3rd lab to take over for Quin on the computer.

The door was down on the right, so he decided to rush past it so he could turn once he was on the other side and get a better view.

The remaining scientist in Lab #1 with Khea is a woman. When Khea threatens her and demands she get the items out of the oven, she just looks at Khea disdainfully.

"Do your worst, cat-woman. Your kind doesn't scare me," she responds to Khea.


Walter sees that the computer has no wifi, so it's a closed, self-contained system. He doesn't think that there's any problem with shutting the computer off. It looks like the computer is a standard model, so no files should be lost by shutting it off. However, he can't really see inside it, so he has no way of knowing if it's been modified. Some security-enabled computers have so-called 'dead man' switches hardwired inside--shutting off power in the wrong sequence or not entering a code every so often triggers a melt down of the hard drive, destroying any files.

None of the files will be destroyed just by shutting the computer off. There could be hidden files and encrypted files in there, though, so taking it with you is probably a good idea. After all, you were asked to recover the data. If the scientists here file a complaint about their equipment being stolen, it can be returned.


Tolman has no problem dashing in a crouch past the opening to Lab #2; no one shoots at him. He didn't see anyone in there, and even when he peers around the corner from the other side he doesn't see anyone. However, it appears as if the equipment in the room is active.

Walter looked over the computer system. "Are you good with checking computer systems to make sure that there are no anti-handling devices? Need to make sure that it does not go up in smoke when we shut it down." he asked Quinzella. "I think that might not have done so since they would have triggered it when we showed up, but we need to make sure before we take it with us."

Sam tries to be good cop

"Not scared is good. How about being smart though? You are caught, and will be going to trial. Anything you do now to aid our investigation will count for you in that. So help us to help yourself."

ooc

20:44, Sun 12 July 2015: Samantha Kilgore rolled 12 using 2d6+2 ((4,6)).

Dr. Shenarra looks surprised for a moment at Sam's words. The surprise quickly turns to confusion before she recovers.

"I doubt if you are that naive," the scientist responds to Samantha. "The trial is more apt to be yours... trespass, assault... This is my abode--you have no right to be here. If you leave right now, I'll forget you were ever here."

"see you in court" Sam says

Then looking back at the machine, she will look for some sort of oven glove, and use it to remove the items from the oven, after turning it off if it at all obvious how to do so.

After Sam and Shenarra finish their exchange, a light, rather dismissive, snort emanated from the doorway to the room.  Sharik had made her way there past where Tolman and Quinzella are and towards were the last conscious opposition seemed holed up.  "If either of you really think this is going to trial..." the diminutive operative piped up, "you're deluded."

"There are psionics involved, for Ifni's sake." Shar vocalized, "They might be quasi-legal here.  But we aren't more than a four jump from Imperial space."  Which was the minimum range of even the older covert ops craft.  If any pro-Imperial faction caught wind of this, there could  ... no there would ... be serious backlash.

And even the legality of the operation seemed questionable to her.  Dr. Vanager and her crew were destroying evidence, after all.  Impending court order or not.  And for the lead researcher to be so willing to see records lost meant that most of it (or the vital stuff) either wasn't there or was already locked away in her head.  Sharik quirked her head for a moment and her eyes narrowed.  She looked from Shenarra to Justev and back, "Who were the primary subjects?  Where are they now?"  She did not like the hairs on the back of her neck sticking up the way they did.  Something screamed at her that she fervently hoped that Dr. Vanager hadn't done something ... unethical.

She focused her attention back on Justev, knowing that Vanager would probably just lie.  "How far in the manufacturing and testing cycle had you gotten?" Sharik prompted Wreedav.

Sam spun round as Sharik started to speak, starting to raise her rifle, but lowering it when she saw who it was.

A brief look of alarm crossed her face as Sharik spoke, but was quickly masked, as Sam turned back to sorting out the oven

"Psionics? What do you mean?" She said as she continued trying to switch off the oven and remove the items form it without burning herself.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 162):

[[Among other things, it seems the Doc, there, was working on making Psi-boosters.]] Vonon's amplified voice said from behind Sharik.

[[Only question I need answered is -- is the psionic crap part of the data we need to recover?  Remember, we're only here to get the data for the 'Shenarra' Project. We take anything else, and it's stealin.]]

[['Course, anything to do with psionics gives me the space-crawlies.]] Vonon added, [[So I'm all for a warm, toasty Fuel-Air Explosive, right in the middle of the damn dome!]]  Vonon raises his armored hands and gestures meaningfully, [[Boom!]]

Not wanting to let this insult slide Khea slashes her claw along the womans shoulder before turning her attention so Samantha and her work on the oven.

OOC: As everyone is replying to each other, are we still split up or is everyone in the lab? Or are we shouting through the whole dome?

Tolman, Quinzella and Walter are over on the right side of the dome, in those two labs.

Sharik was out in the central area, and presumably dragged Justev up to where the questioning was going on, and Vonon followed.

Intercommunication between these two groups would be via radio.


The oven isn't all that complicated until you get into timing issues, so Sam has no problem turning it off. Looking around, she sees there are thermal gloves hanging on the side of the machine, so she can use them to remove the contents.

The rack of vials appear to be intact, though the content of the vials is probably destroyed. The other two jars are also intact with the contents in the same shape. Presumably there was a liquid in the containers, but its burnt slag now.

Sam put the vessels to one side. She had done what she could. Whether they were of any use, someone else would need to work out.

Pointing at the conscious scientist she said "She's Shenarra I believe. Perhaps we should just take her. Or we could leave her for the Imperials to find and mind wipe"

Looking at Shenarra she smiled dangerously "Which would you prefer? Helping us - or the Imperials?"

Dr. Shenarra winces at Khea's claw slash, but doesn't change her expression.

However, at the mention of being mind-wiped, she turns white.

Quin looked at Walter, "Usually, but better at clearing, their system is weird."

She stepped after Tolman, preparing to bash some more heads, "Zeller be aware, that guard is alive, just unconscious."

"Got some restraints?" Walter asked, flicking his eye over to the unconscious guard, before stepping over to the prone figure, touching him with the stunstick to make sure that he was not faking it.

Quin stopped and sighed.

Without turning back around, "No, but I am sure there are cords in the walls, wires, or even your shoelaces, I thought to apprehend him and then repair what he had done, I did not yet have time to tie him up.  Besides you have that stunner, if he wakens you can knock him out again."

She continued on after Tolman leaving Zeller to do what he will.

Not use to the applied use of force as he has read in his studies, Walter started to secure the prisoner, tying his hands, feet and gagging him.  Once that was done, he started looking for a means to help make transporting the computers in one load easier rather than having to lug them back to the sub one at a time.

OOC: Taking some power cords that is not part of the computer first. Then looking for a hand cart or dolly next. Even a chair with rollers will do in a pinch.

With the situation with the oven resolved Khea takes a few steps back and keeps an eye on the scientist.

Walter doesn't see any handtrucks or similar items in the lab, but there is a wheeled chair. If he's planning on putting the computer on it, he's out of luck. The computer is built into the large piece of laboratory processing device. This item is about 3.5 meters long, 3 meters wide and 3 meters high. It's a type of universal processor. Raw materials can be inserted into a dozen different areas, and, internally, the machine combines them in the proper sequence under the proper conditions programmed into the machine.


Quin and Tolman are flanking either side of the opening to Lab #2. Tolman did not spot anyone when he dashed by, nor does he see anyone when he peeks in. Quinzella does not see anyone either when she peeks in. However, as she processes in her mind the glimpse she got, she realizes that she did see the toe of a shoe peeking out from the back of the main lab machine. It didn't move, but if there is a person attached to it, he would have to be crouched down behind the machine.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 167):

Sam growls "Looking scared isn't an answer, talk, quickly, or we'll leave you for the Imperials. Tied up like a present"

"There is little to tell that you do not already know," Shenarra replies to Sam with a reluctant sigh.

"I was hired to run this top secret project. There is nothing illegal about it. Some might consider our actions morally objectionable, but science has always had to contend with small minds."

"That is the main reason for secrecy, plus corporate espionage. I conceived these security measures. There is no connection to the outside and there is no way for anyone to sneak in."

"I assigned the other scientists to each of the three projects based on their skill set."

Sharik assumed that Vanager's definition of 'sneaking in' differed from hers.  Of course, they had had some inside help, though Shennara didn't necessarily know that.

She listened to exchange between Samantha and Shenarra and had to smirk slightly, duly noting that it seemed that the thought of the mind-wipe was the most potent threat.  Something to be cataloged for later, if they ever crossed paths again; she seemed inclined to leave there good doctor trussed up no matter what she told them at this point.

Shar glanced at Sam and a quizzical eyebrow shot up for her young companion seemed to be searching for additional information at this point.  Information that Dr. Vanager might or might not have; but, the diminutive brunette would back Sam's play.  She fingered her stunner, holding it casually, but at the ready.

Your work here is obviously done. But if you are smart you might continue with this project elsewhere, maybe even under better conditions. But it would be a shame if you would have to start over with parts of it, wouldn't it?

"Once this gets out, there's nowhere on this planet the project could be continued," Dr. Vanager replies to Khea.

"Besides, you aren't in charge of this operation--you're just muscle. You can't guarantee anything."

"You'll be lucky if your face is only known through this subsector. But your right, we're hired muscle, so we know how to keep our mouths shut - for a price. And right now information is your best currency, so help us get the information our employer needs and we might forget what you look like. Or even forget to secure this place once we leave."

Sam catches Kheas eye as she speaks and taps her wrist comm as if to say time? Hoping he'll get the hint

Tolman was still standing outside Lab #2, along with Quinzella. A glance into the lab hadn't revealed anyone, and even a longer look didn't turn up the missing scientist.

"We're still missing a scientist, people," Tolman told the others via comm. "Anyone keeping an eye on the airlocks?"

"Information? What information? You already have it all!" Dr. Vanager replied to Samantha.

"Let's secure everyone, gather all the computers/tablets/info sources...take pictures of all the other gear and get out of here. We're taking too long."

Quin looked at Tolman, "Enter low and slow, be on guard."

She then began to do the same, stay low and enter slowly.  If she was right that there was someone in here with luck one of the two would be spotted and the other not, or maybe neither of them.  And a Tolman watching her back was better than most she could think of at the moment, even a few that had been at her back before.

Two steps into Lab #2 and Quinzella spotted a stray foot!

It was behind the autolab machine--the scientist was half-seated against the back of the device, legs pulled up against his chest while he silently tapped on the computer he was holding.

"Except whatever was in the vials you cooked" Khea says while giving Dr. Vanager a slight push towards the central room where the others are.

"Time is running out, so better decide soon if you want to help and maybe have a chance of continuing this project with whoever is interested in this data or be dumped at a dock and left for yourself. Don't expect your current boss to reward you for that."

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 185):

Vonon had followed Sharik into the side lab, but he'd stopped just a step into the room, holding the door into the central lab open.  As he looked back into the central lab, while Sam and Sharik confronted the Doctor, a thought occurred to him.

[[Hey!]] he called out, to get everyone's attention, [[If you suckers were doing psionics pharmaceuticals research...what the frack did that have to do with the Grendle, there?]] Vonon pointed at he large beast on the dissection table.

[[And, now that I think about it, didn't I hear that those beasts are a protected species?]]

Sam gathered up the vials, assuming they had cooled enough, and anything else that looked science, and follows Khea and the Doctor.

Pointing at the Grendal, she says "Should we take it?" to anyone nearby

Khea keeps her gun pointed at the scientists while looking over the Grendal. "They would not have kept it if they wouldn't still need it. So better take it.
And if our employer doesn't want it, I am sure I can make something out of it to celebrate our victory. With so few hunting grounds on this world this is sadly the freshest meat I would be able to get anyway.

The grendal is a large creature, about 12 feet long. Fortunately, it is in a sling that's lying over the table. That's clearly how they got it in here through the main airlock.

It'll be a bit tricky and difficult to get it into the submersible but it can be done.

Sharik seemed skeptical, to say the least.  "I dunno," she responded to Khea's enthusiasm about taking the grendal as either evidence or foodstuffs. "We could be in a whole heap o' trouble with the local authorities, if we get caught with that physical evidence..."  It seemed to her to be a lot less damning, if all they had was photographic evidence; so, she prompted the others, "Why don't we just document and photograph the cadaver?"

Shar brandished her stunner for a moment, "I'd rather take her..." and she pointed to Dr. Vanager, "than the grendal."  It seemed far more likely to her that the Dr. Shenarra Vanager was going to be worth far more to either their employer (or otherwise - to say, any other interested third party).  Still, that was for Samantha to work out with the good doctor.  Sharik suspected that the group could probably take Dr. Vanager with them no matter what; she, personally, simply preferred the non-violent method - but, that wasn't always her call alone.

The cosmopolitan socialite took a few minutes to break from the negotiations and move to take some visual evidence with her dataglove's built-in camera and recorder.  Clearly, Shar wasn't keen on the idea of moving the thing - especially into the already cramped quarters of the submersible.  Notwithstanding that they hadn't cleared it with Grev yet.  The diminutive socialite took no action to move or aid in moving the dead grendal, but merely walked around the table to document the experimentation that they'd discovered that had been going on in the underwater laboratory.

Then she returned to the lab to see if Vanager was coming peacefully or not...  Or even, at all.

She reminded Samantha and the others of the group, speaking loud enough that Shenarra couldn't help but overhear, "We ready to scuttle this facility?"  It might be a bluff, but the possibility was discussed and it could help to 'motivate' the negotiations.  Especially since their submersible had made the others parked in the docking bay less ... uh, ... attractive as potential methods of escape.  It did make sense to her that they should not leave the facility intact after all.  Sharik actually suspected that Vanager wasn't going to leave it intact anyways; they might as well, let the doctor know that her original ride might not be feasible anymore...

When Quinzella escorted the last scientist out, Tolman followed carrying three small boxes.

"I found these hidden in the wall. This guy here didn't do a very good job of sealing it back up," Tolman announced.

Having heard the tail end of Sharik's comment, he offers his two millicredits.

"As I understand it, weren't you merely supposed to secure the premises until the authorities arrived? Mostly to prevent the destruction of proprietary material?"

Sharik shrugged slightly diffidently to Tolman and his comments; the gig was up.  And that was okay with her.  "Right." she noted off-hand, though there was a touch of bite in her tone, "Secure the prisoners.  We'll need to guard them until the proper authorities arrive."  Though it was patently obvious that the diminutive socialite wasn't going to be on watch and that 'we' seemed to refer most specifically to Tolman.

She motioned for Jackstadt to place items with the others that were going to be needed to be placed on their submersible.  Shar returned to her cataloging of the grendal corpse.  She seemed to be under the impression that some things were still going to be transported off-site.  In her mind, if everything remained as it was, all of them wouldn't need to remain here on the undersea facility.

"I'm just saying... You seem to be running around in circles," Tolman replies.

"If you take anyone off this station, that would be kidnapping. You don't have the authority to detain anyone."

"I'm guessing you have about 6 hours before the authorities arrive. Once the court decides, it will take a bit to muster forces to get here. If you recover the material and report to your employer, they can inform the authorities that it's been recovered and no one needs to be sent here."

"So what is it that you want to accomplish?"

In reply to Tolman Jackstadt (msg # 193):

[[Did Miz Blue say she was waiting to hear from us?]] Vonon asked, [[I must have missed that part of the briefing...uh... I had had a few drinks, by that time.]]

Sam said "It wouldn't hurt to contact Ceruleanne, and then secure this facility here. We shold scan the comm logs - see if any sort of message or distress was sent out. Including any personal comms we find."

ooc
Just scanned the thread on the job, and I think we need to secure the site, not shift anything. So I suggest we

1) group the detainees together, after searching them for weapons/comms/project materials

2) Secure the facility and check for any comms to see if messages have been sent

3) Contact Ceruleanne and discretely tell her mission accomplished

4) Keep a better watch outside for anything approching than these guys did - maybe patrol around with the submersible(s) - ie using the bases as well?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:57, Wed 05 Aug 2015.

"There was no contact contingency...until after the job. Like I said, gather what we came for, plus what we have found on site, plus their comms/videos logs...etc....There was no "secure of the site" involved."

Helps securing the stuff and prisoners. "We came for a specific job, let's do that, plus, then get the hell out of here. Keep in mind, we have bigger things to accomplish, and sitting in an underwater dome on some minor mission discussing the pro/cons of abstraction is useless and time-consuming.It falls under amateurism, we have a task and miles to walk...this should not be a speedbump that ends us up all incarcerated or dead."

Makes sure that the main computers/personal drives are located, logged and stored aboard our submersible. "You all know the mission, let's go."

Sam nodded at Darrell

"Might be worth securing these guys, at least in a way that will take them a while to get free. The last thing we want is any interference with out exit"

Sam moves into the central area and quickly looks over the consoles, looking to see if there appear to be any controls for things that might be used to attack them when they leave - weapons systems, harpoon systems for grendals, etc

ooc
ok ignore my last suggestions - re-reading the thread more carefully it is a smash and grab mission

With a concerned face Khea addresses the group while pointing her gun towards the body of the Grendal.

We violated their territory so we should certainly not stay and wait for anyone to come and investigate. Lets take what we can and tie everyone up. I doubt they will be able to destroy anything we missed unnoticed with this planets agents being here, especially when they find this body.

"Remember, I was hired as security for Count Cromwell mainly because I have local knowledge," Tolman adds.

"As I understand what you've been saying, the scientists here were given data that was considered to be proprietary to your... client. There's no way to know--or prove if we did--whether these scientists were actually aware that the data was stolen."

"Given the nature of it, I would think they might have guessed it, though. I think it's one of those situations where everything was fine unless and until the shrack hit the fan. That would be us."

"There aren't really any laws being broken, just minor infractions. The grendals are protected, but that's still being batted around in the courts. At the most, they'd get a hefty fine."

"The scientists might have been using the grendal for their research, but I doubt if they actually killed it. That would be the guards' doing."

"I don't really see any point in tying anyone up. If I was one of the scientists, I'd take the submersible and bug out... cut my losses. The corporation they are working for probably already got a couple of shipments, so from here on out, they'd just write this place off."

"They'll tap the scientists for what they did find, but they don't have any incentive to be vindictive. I'm sure the corp already has someone lined up to take the blame for the stolen data."

"We have what you were supposed to get, probably with a bit more. All you need to do now is leave and deliver."

"Unless I'm missing  something."

Sam doesn't find any weapons systems in the facility, not even any sensor controls that could detect an approaching craft. There are no controls that she can find that would activate any hidden weapons.

There is a pair of harpoon guns on the large submersible out in the garage.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 200):

[[Well alright, then!]] Vonon says good naturedly, [[If our local legal expert, here, says we're golden, then we're golden!  He says we should jet, so we should jet!  He's the expert.  However...]]

Vonon walks over to Justev and grabs him up by the scruff of his shirt collar,

[[I don't care what anybody says, I'm gonna take this one with us -- as insurance.  As long as nobody here in the dome does anything funky, we can just drop him off on the beach.]] Vonon leans his white skull-painted helmet close to Justev's face, and in a slightly less amplified voice says [[But I do hope somebody tries something...I don't like you...]]

Then, momentarilly shutting down his external speaker, Vonon sends via comm to everyone on the team coded channel,

"Just kidding, folks.  We promised Justev we'd get him out of here, and I'm laying a cover that we took him so he won't get sued for breach of contract, later.  Of course, at the moment, he doesn't know that, but all of you play along."

Sharik paused before taking the last still photo that she was going to of the grendal corpse.  During that pause, the diminutive, cosmopolitan brunette call over to her shoulder to Tolman, asking rather idly as she lined up the shot with her dataglove's camera, "Why the change of heart, Mr. Jackstadt?"

She knew that he was 'simply' hired help, and that he was the local expert on customs and seemingly certain aspects of the Beowulf legal system - but only moments before he had questioned her desire to pack up and leave.  And now he was doing an about face; which did puzzle her slightly.

Her photography done, Shar returned to main group and unholstered her stunner again.  Personally, she would still have liked to have taking Dr. Vanager with them, or barring that, secured (and possibly even stunned) any remaining personnel that they were leaving behind in the facility.  But having voiced that opinion already, the diminutive operative was willing to go with the majority opinion on those matters (even if it went against her personal desires).

And she was ready to go.  Looking to see if anything else needed to be carted away - though she definitely wasn't the strongest of the group, Sharik surveyed the evidence and pile of computers and files.  "Shall we?" she prompted the rest of the group.

Sam wanders back into the area the others are in, in time to hear some of Tolman's spiel

"The reason for tying people up is to stop them interfering with us as we leave. They may not, your right, and you she gestures at Tolman can bet your life on that if you want. I'm not going to."

Pointing at the prisoners shes continues "If one of you watches them, I'll see if I can find some restraints" and heads off towards the laundry looking to grab some sheets and towels to tie people up with.

"What change of heart is that?" Tolman answered Sharik, clearly confused by her question. "I go where the Count goes, or where he sends me."

"I heard three different proposed courses of action from three different people. I was just suggesting a bit of focus."

Quin stood there, feeling a lot more angry and bored than she looked, which was plenty.

*smack*

She leaned down and smacked a doctor.

Annoyed be the more and more Aslan like behaviour of Vonon and now Quinzellas rising aggression Khea feels the need to finish this as fast as possible, or at least get them to do something.
Just hit them with a sleeping dart. That should quiet them long enough for us to get everything we need and leave

OOC: When I said securing the prisoners...that meant tying them up and rendering them unable to interfere with our tasks.

Glances at Quin's abuse of an unarmed and defenseless scientist, "Does that serve a purpose?" Shaking his head, the Count (if no-one else helps)personally makes sure all appropriate mission/task oriented materials are taken back to our sub.

Then, he will ensure that the dome's and inhabitant's comm systems is disabled, then, he will disable the other sub's propulsion/comms systems, then, he will ensure erasure/destruction of all security systems audio/video, then, destruction of the total computer core, other than life support, to ensure any "back-up/keystroke/ghost" programs are utterly useless...after all that, perhaps lastly...say, "Anyone else have any ideas before we leave?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:48, Fri 07 Aug 2015.

Tolman looks around at the battalion of armed troopers that the Count wants to tie up and/or put to sleep. Oh, wait... there was no battalion!

"Just what do you think these people are capable of doing to interfere with us?" he asked because he really wanted to know what the Count saw that he didn't.

"They aren't armed, there are no weapons in the base other than what the guards had, and we've already relieved them of those. We've taken all the computers they have. They don't even have any communication equipment unless there is some on their submersibles."

"There's no explosives or self destruct system... that we've been able to find."

"They can't even take any pictures of you to sell to the media."

"I'm sure you've had many death threats, sir, but other than glaring at us as we leave, I don't see that they have any such capability."

"If Vonon keeps an eye on them, the rest of us can load up the submersible. When we're ready to go, Vonon can cycle the garage airlock, and once we're out, he can exit via the front door and we'll be waiting for him outside."

"That's my suggestion."

Sharik smiled slightly at Tolman's sudden expressiveness, but kept quiet herself.  She simply started to help pack up the equipment and information that they had ... er... confiscated; pretty much following the plan outlined by Darrel and Tolman - at least the parts about packing up.

Then she joined Vonon in cycling and then exiting dome.  She wasn't about to leave anyone alone, if she could help it.  And especially not her friend; she'd known Vonon for over two decades.  Shar apparently seemed to strongly believes in the Buddy System™.  At least, when it came to corporate espionage...

OOC: Ok, the Count has a tendency towards the dramatics, obviously ;-) ....but, has anyone actually checked if there was a security system, and if there was, do we need our faces splashed everywhere...Any serious scientific organization, especially dealing with potentially "illegal" or high-profit, there will be without a doubt, some sort of recordings...without audio/visual proof, everything is hearsay. Get my point?



"I'm just saying, let's make sure that we cover all the bases...there is no such thing as undue caution, correct? We need time, and the best way to accomplish that is to ensure these folks(pointing at the dome crew), can't communicate or leave for the next 8-12 hours. I am sure, if you give it proper consideration, that it makes prudent sense."

OOC:If there is anything I had mentioned previously that could be done, I'd do it. NOTE: I never mentioned drugging or shooting, only tying up and disabling comms and exit craft!

The Count boards the sub.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:17, Sun 09 Aug 2015.

Sam made sure the prisoners were secured with whatever materials she could find (ie tied up) regardless of what Tolman thought. He was right there were limited things they could do to harm them. That didn't mean they couldn't if they really wanted to and had time to think about it. Giving them something more to ponder - like free-ing themselves - removed the opportunity for them to interfere.

She made sure she left a knife nearby, and visible to them, though it would take them a while to wriggle over and get it and then get free.

She smiled as she left "Hope we don't meet again ...nothing personal" and then she too boarded the sub.

Heading to the cockpit she spoke to the pilot

"Home please, and quick as you like"

OOC: Last chance to do anything else before you all leave...


So the plan was for everyone but Vonon and Sharik to board the submersible, then Sharik would activate the airlock and let the sub out.

Vonon and Sharik would then exit via the main airlock and board the submersible underwater.

Leaving the garage flooded would require the dome's occupants to cycle it before they could leave.

Also, in the passage to the garage, there were lockers with SCUBA gear in them. So remember that a person can hold his breath while the main airlock cycled and swim up to the surface.

While Samantha is securing the prisoners Khea only mutters I still think we should drug them. They might even appreciate that more than being tied up.

When it looks like Sam is finished soon Khea makes one final round of the base to see if any of the machines appear to have been broken or are otherwise behaving strangely before getting back to the sub.

Khea's last sweep of the dome produces nothing of importance, though it does give her a bit of information about who was living where in the dome and other minutiae about living arrangements. Not too many clothes, but a lot of lab smocks.

The exfiltration plan, as simple as it is, works without any problems.


The submersible heads back to the dive shop. Grev calls ahead to make sure there's nothing wrong at the shop--there isn't.

Back in the hold of the submarine Khea yawns heavily. Ancestors be thanked it is over and not a moment too soon. Now if I could only get a decent meal and a long sleep among the tahiwihteakhtau

Walter headed to the engineering section so he could feel a bit more useful as he is the first to admit that he is too old to play at being a secret agent.

Sam turned and looked at the motley crew.

 "Well we survived, but that could have gone smoother. Anyone contacted our employer yet?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:03, Wed 12 Aug 2015.

Now that he was safely aboard the other submersible and away from the threat of the guards, though he had to admit he didn't have any real reason to fear them, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

He really didn't have any reason to trust these people, but so far, they'd played square with him.

So when he got a chance, he explained to the group everything that he knew about the operation.

"I was hired to be the lead developer on an anagathic program. At least, that was the way I understood it. The undersea dome was supposed to be for security, though they didn't really explain why they felt it was necessary. I think they hinted at corporate espionage."

"Once I was here, things turned out to be completely different! I was still sort of lead on the anagathic project, but not overall lead."

"Shenarra was working on psionic dampening serums, and Dr. Mataran was working on psionic boosters. While the grendals eat the seaweed from which I was supposed to be developing the anagathics, they were using the grendals for their psionic drugs."

"Dr. Volar, however, was working on his own side project. Most of us didn't know, or if the others knew, they weren't saying anything. He was making psionic stimulants."

Using the contact info, Darrel sends the following messages, "We met the other folks and have what you requested, will send details reference to transfer shortly. "

Listening to Justev, the Count was contemplating a number of factors...but, the one thing that stuck out...."Our goal is to get Ms. Blue her information and get paid for that task and anything beyond that, is not applicable.

One step at a time, there is no room for complications at this point."

EDIT NOTE: Have been thinking about things...will edit this post shortly.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:54, Wed 12 Aug 2015.

Sam listed to Justev attentively.

She appeared to be thinking carefully, but said nothing, yet

Khea only pays as much attention as politeness requires. Spending so many resources on pursuing fairy tales is silly, but when it finances her travels she couldn't complain.

Sharik had had the benefits of the buddy system drummed into for as long as she could remember.  Even simply swimming back on Gaargir required it - and, of course, almost a decade of Imperial service had definitely driven it home.  Even as a corporate operative, where there were many lonely missions and sociopathic colleagues sometimes, back-up was still part of the general SOP.  So, it was a natural pattern for her to simply stick with Vonon for the retreat from the underwater base; operating solo wasn't required and therefore was unadvised.  Besides, they worked well together; as if they'd known each other a long time.  Even if they'd served in different military organizations when they'd first met and hadn't seen each other in a while, there was a bond of trust there that allowed them to work well together.

The slog back to the others in the sub was slow.  Or, at least it seemed that way to the diminutive socialite.  Perhaps it was merely that she was tired and out of practice - either mentally or physically.  Or both.  The first thing that Sharik did once she was back in the main body of the submersible was to sit down and take in a deep breath to center herself.  Even the recycled tang in the submersible was welcomed into her nostrils, despite that it wasn't as clean as there air in her suit which had much more efficient filters.  That was probably the point, the air in the sub felt more lived in - which was not surprising given that it was crowded.

Sliding into the co-pilot's seat next to Grev, Sharik listened to Justev go through his spiel.  The corners of her mouth twitched and she muttered softly, "I knew we should have taken Vanager with us..."  Her tone was only a touch facetious.  The diminutive brunette cast a glance over her shoulder towards Dr. Wreedav when he discussed his area of expertise, making a mental note to talk more with him later.  It was a professional courtesy, of course; Sharik had more than a passing knowledge concerning certain aspects of the man's research.  She knew a lot about plenty of things - at least, on a superficial level - but, the topic of anagathics was not one of those superficial things.

"Well," she noted simply to Justev, "we will be meeting with our employer post-haste."  Sharik shrugged slightly, "And after that, who knows?"  The group hadn't really decided what to do after that.  Or even if they should stay together.  But, she knew that he'd taken a chance (at great personal risk, no less) and thrown his lot in with them; so, she extended the courtesy back, "You are welcome to accompany us, Mr. Wreedav."  The cosmopolitan socialite was more than happy to have him along - not just for the meeting with Ceruleanne, but beyond; and if she had any doubts about it - none of them surfaced.

"We should probably make sure that we have our own copy the available data..." Shar prompted the others.  If no one else stepped up to do so, she would eventually though she kept to the co-pilot's seat for the moment.

In reply to Sharik Kaagira (msg # 222):

[[Well, that was fun!]] Vonon says, as he starts removing his armor,

"A little slow, for a raid, but still fun!" he says, removing his helmet, then the torso clamshell, then stepping out of the lower section -- now only wearing fluorecent orange silk shorts and undershirt.

"Hey, Justev, sorry about the threats, back there.  Just giving you a cover for later, so your former employers can't sue you.  Y'know, you can always blame us for, y'know, kidnapping you. Hurr-hurr."

"So, you're into the anti-aging science stuff, huh?  You got anything for Vargrs? Hurr-hurr-hurr"