Kaengarr had opted to take a couple of the debilitating grenades just in case, but otherwise kept his kit the same, and at Walter's announcement he pulled the hood of his suit shut to signal his readiness.

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 89):

Vonon wasn't so much surprised at the act of the scoutship going into jump -- he'd noticed the subtle markings on the scoutship's hull that marked it as part of the Core Fleet. This ship was from the Heart of the Imperium, and he'd expected it to be cutting edge; he remembered all those Imperial Liason Debriefings back when he was in the Space Patrol, and those cocky Imperial officers claims that Imperial Navy tech was generations superior to anything in Cassandra's Belt. He listened to the whispered rumors of defensive energy shields and meson blasters and even jump drives that could make in-system micro-jumps that took hours, not days. And he'd believed...

So he wasn't surprised.  Not much.

When the scout came out of micro-jump and Sharik said she was getting a passive sensor feed from the scout, Vonon asked,

"Are they picking up anyone using active sensors in this area? Any comm chatter? Any active ships in the area of operations?" Vonon asked, "I don't really expect any -- Miz Blue said the Longshot was working a remote area of the belt -- but with Rock Miners you can never be too sure. So, if you can, ask the scout to give a listen for anything active in the comm signal broadband -- personal comms, suitcomms, y'know, the small stuff."

"Remember that the perps are probably doing the same as us; they have someone watching with passive sensors -- if they are scanning with active sensors, then they are morons, giving themselves away -- so try not to use your suitcomms until we're out of the ship. And be careful using any personal computers -- they might occasionally try to remote connect to this launch's onboard computer, to access it's bigger library files -- and that Wi-Fi signal could be detected. Basically, until we make our move on the Longshot, if it's electronic and you do not have immediate need of it, shut it off. Every electronic device generates some kind of signature, and that signature could be picked up by a really good sensor-dog."

"Sharik, you get to be our sensor-dog, I'm afraid that that is what you'll probably spend most of your CPU power on -- with your wonderful toy, there, you'll need to use the basic comms and sensors of this launch to try and reduce or disguise the electronic signature we're presenting for any passive sensor, out there, to read."

"If you can actually make us sensor invisible, great! But I wouldn't trust this tubs electronics to be that good. More than likely, you'll have to try and manipulate the signals we can't stop ourselves from generating into looking like something else.  In the past, I've made Patrol Cruisers look like system navigation buoys, and once I made us look like a derelict -- right until we opened fire!"

"Sir Walter, all I can suggest is go forward nice and slow -- give us the speed of a drifting chunk of rock, or maybe make us look like a two-man rockhopper, the kind of patchwork vessel independent miners use."

Vonon looked at everyone else,

"The very first thing we need right now is to find out how the perps got aboard the Longshot. We need to see if there is another ship -- or ships -- along side the Longshot, or if the SDB is all alone out here. Once we determine if there are other ships out here, then we can determine the best way for us to get aboard the Longshot."

"Until we get within visual range -- and a telescope is a passive sensor, y'know -- and can see what's happening at the Longshot, we can only make general plans."

Vonon is used to less sophisticated ships, because there is no electronic or energy leakage from the Scout or the launch, and chances are there won't be any from the Long Shot. In any case, the launch's sensors don't pick up anything, and neither did the Scout's sensors.

Walter has no problem inserting the launch into the asteroid field, nor any trouble slipping the ship through the asteroids, making sure he keeps behind an asteroid at all times. It's only at the end that he runs into a problem. Coming up on the asteroid where the Long Shot is thought to be 'landed', Walter slips past a blocking asteroid and immediately spots the Scout ship!

It only takes a moment to realize that the markings are different, and there are even a few design differences. It's a mining ship, and it's landed on the asteroid. There's no sign of the Long Shot.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:36, Tue 27 Oct 2015.

When the launch entered the asteroid cluster, Pablo got up, and moved to the airlock, opening the interior door and stepping in, hooking his suit tether to a ring inside. If they were going to be boarding the Longshot, that was where he needed to be. The rest was up to others.

Just for safety's sake, he checked the main seals on his suit, and checked the status of the thruster array on his LSP. It was almost showtime.

"Sharik, passive scan of the area, please." Sir Walter said as he ducked the launch back behind cover.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 93):

"Hmmm...okay, that fits with the intel we have." Vonon says, looking over everyone's heads and out the forward viewscreen.

"Okay. Fact: the Longshot was converted to an asteroid mining vessel. Therefore, Fact: it was crewed by Asteroid Miners. If the Longshot had settled down onto that asteroid to do some mining, they wouldn't have thought twice about another mining vessel in the area -- they would have just warned them away from this asteroid, which they were working. The perps then fly away, but come back on an approach that uses the asteroid to hide behind, they land, then walk around the asteroid and board the Longshot with surprise."

"So, assuming they didn't manage to get the Longshot off the asteroid, the old SDB is probably on the opposite side of the asteroid."

"Of course, since we've spotted the converted scoutship, there, it's a good bet they've spotted us. What we need to hope, now, is that all the perps abandoned the scout for the Longshot, and there's nobody down there. Unless that turret spins around and targets us, I'm believing that ship is empty."

Vonon looked at everyone else, "I'm all for passing this up and continuing to look for the Longshot, but I allow for the possibility that we might find something important down there, too.  So, what's the majority? Keep going or stop and check this ship?"

Sam looked at the ship briefly as it hove into view, trying to note anything of interest.

Listening to the others she piped up

"If we take out their backup, might make them fight harder. Might make them lose hope" she shrugged "Anyones guess which, without intel on the people. But as we're here, we could try for it. If we capture it, we've got a Q Ship to use..."

ooc
can Sam actually see out of the ship to spot the Scout ship?

If so, she is trying to see if there are any signs of occupation or activity eg is it obviously powered down, did the turret look armed, if so with what, did it move? realize might be too far to spot, but she'll try

08:15, Today: Samantha Kilgore rolled 9 using 2d6+1 ((2,6)). +1 for INT assuming. Recon 0

  Kaengarr had remained silent when the discovery of the scout-miner was announced and remained so as Vonon provided a tactical assessment of the situation, his thoughts turning over a concern that hadn't been raised. With a slight wave of his hand toward the scout ship (or at least the rough direction in which it lay), he finally put the question to the group. "Who owns that one? Might matter later, or right away, if we've been given bad information."

  "Besides that, if it's their ship and isn't occupied then we can use it and its weapons to persuade the hijackers or just to pin the Long Shot down if nothing else works, and if they do have someone aboard, we'll be in the same danger ourselves. We can't risk leaving it at our backs."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:18, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

Pablo listened to the discussion, then said, "It might be worth going EVA and confirming the Longshot is on the other side of that rock as Vonon suspects. A vacc suit is a lot harder to spot than a launch, and if we haven't already lost it, it might give us an element of surprise if we do locate the Longshot. Anyone else have thrusters on their suit?"

In reply to Pablo Esteban Ryzov (msg # 97):

"Nope, old buddy, no thrusters, just magnetic boots." Vonon responds to Pablo, then turns to Sharik, "Shar'r, can you detect anything from that ship? Heat, power, minor air leakage? Anything that might indicate the ship is occupied? And by that I mean heat and power levels higher than those for a ship that's been put on standby; a ship that's got life support running at levels need to keep folks alive."

To Kaengarr, Vonon says, "Well, yeah, we can get all that info from that ships transponder, the problem is that we'd have to use an active sensor to get the data." Vonon shrugs, "Now, if the Longshot is on the other side of the asteroid, like I think, the bulk of the rock will probably prevent them from detecting our sensor beam, but if there should actually be someone aboard that scoutship, who for some fool reason has not yet detected us, then once we point an active sensor beam at them, they will definitely know we're here."

"Like I said, I don't think there is anyone aboard that scout. I believe that once the perps got control over the Longshot crew, they all moved aboard the bigger SDB, so I think we should continue on. But, if everyone feels the need, I can get behind boarding that scout, now.  The main airlock is aft -- there, between the thruster nacelles. There is also a dorsal hatch and a ventral hatch which are equipped as very basic airlocks."

"My recommendation for assault is to put a team on the ground, to approach the ventral hatch -- remember, that hatch will only be able to cycle one person at a time into the ship -- so, as a distraction, a second team should approach the aft airlock in the launch and attempt to couple with the lock and board there."

Vonon looks at Pablo and drops his lower jaw in a Vargr smile, "Unless the Marines happen to have a breaching charge with them...? Then all bets are off."

Sir Walter listened to the conversation behind him. "Well, we could pop over to check out the scout and if there was someone still there we would hear them trying to call home." he suggested. "For the time being, since time is running on the vacc suits, lets land near the vessel and the rest of you can head across the asteroid to check out the SDB if it is there. If the scout craft is unoccupied, I can take a few key parts off the engines while you are gone so it is not going anywhere nor a threat to us."

The mining scout has a single pulse laser in its only turret. This is typical for such mining ships at is often used to cut out ores and rocks.

Passive sensors can pick up the neutrino emissions of an active fusion reactor, but the ship isn't giving off any other energy.

The launch also registers the mining scout's transponder code: IMS Rockhopper out of Tharill, registered owner is Taralis Manathorn. And has the usual maintenance and medical record current as of 7 months ago.

"Breaching charges? Yeah, I have a couple here, but I don't know if they'd be enough to punch through the ship's hull." A faint smile crossed Pablo's face. "Y'know, we're gonna be pretty embarrassed if we force our way aboard that mining ship and find out that they have nothing at all to do with the Longshot."

That said, inspired by what Walter had said, he set his rather comprehensive comm system to scan ship and suit channels, looking for any signal traffic, drawing on everything he'd learned over the years of marine duty and privateering.

OOC 11:06, Today: Pablo Esteban Ryzov rolled 13 using 2d6+2.  Comms/edu roll to scan comm traffic. Comms 1, Edu A/+1

Getting nervous again with the males planning to possibly go into combat with a unarmed or armored launch Khea shouts from the passenger area "Just leave it be. Once we are inside the mining ship they can't touch us anyway.

  Kaengarr, also still seated in the passenger area, studied the increasingly twitchy Aslan; the suit was cutting off his sense of smell, but he was pretty sure that he picking up a fear-scent if it wasn't. "You mean that scout can't? Only if they don't have orders to 'capture or destroy'."

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 103):

"See? Even the Cat agrees with me!" Vonon snickers, lightly punching Pablo on the shoulder, "Once again proving that their females do have all the brains!"

"Sir Walter and Khea have hit the salient points, here. Unless that scout either starts shooting at us, or starts broadcasting a warning, or lifts off of the rock, it is no threat to us."

Vonon pauses a moment to look over at the back of Walter's head, "Although Sir Walter does bring up a good point. If we disable the grav engine on the scout, we'd be trapping any perps here, on the rock. However..."

Vonon subconsciously taps his holstered automatic pistol, "I am no longer a Patrolman, and we are not here as law enforcement. We are recovery agents. If we can chase the perps off the Longshot -- which would be easier if we leave them an escape route, via the scout -- that's no care of ours. We are here for the Longshot and her crew. Capturing and/or killing the hijackers is not in the contract."

Vonon turns to Darrel, subconsciously straightening in place as he does so,

"What shall it be, My Lord? Investigate the scout, or continue on to find the Longshot?"

  "Capturing them would be a bonus. If there's something going on that we don't know about, maybe insurance too. And if we're intent on chasing them off, they don't have to know that their escape route has been disabled," Kaengarr pointed out as an unsettlingly toothy smile spread across his muzzle.

  "Whatever else, I still don't like the idea of leaving an armed ship for them to return to and come after us with."

Sam shook her head

"I disagree Vonun. The ships an unknown. Could be a friendly, could be neutral, could be a threat. Ignoring it until it decides what to be leaves us potentially having to react to it at a time not of our choosing. I suggest strongly we work it out now. Unless we can approach the Long Shot without going past it" she looks at Walter " then it will know we're here once we approach the Long Shot, and we'll be allowing them to take the initiative. NEVER, a good idea..."

Taking in the differing opioions, and the pros and cons..."The Longshot is the contract. While leaving a "potential" threat behind us presents it's own problems, I think we'll be creating more by interfering with the mining ship. If it's possible, let's get to the Longshot, trying to avoid detection by the mining ship."

Walter can see no way to approach the far side of the asteroid where to be out of sight of the mining scout they wouldn't be detectable by the Long Shot's sensors. One way or the other, they need to take a chance.

"There is no way to avoid the mining ship and the Long Shot without tipping our hand. We either need to land and you hoof it over there across the asteroid, or I do a speed run and hope to dump you all in front of the Long Shot, your call." Sir Walter said.

  Kaengarr's toothy smile had shifted into a set-teeth stare at the viewport even before Walter's announcement. It wasn't a snarl - his lips were only just barely parted, for one thing - but he clearly did not like Darrel's decision, even if he wasn't going all cultural Vargr about it.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:31, Mon 02 Nov 2015.

By now Khea was standing and not able to keep quiet with the constant bickering which has the very real chance to get her killed.

"Walking around an asteroid in microgravity will take hours. By then they will certainly have full control over the ship."
Not waiting for a reply, Khea attaches her spare armor and toolkit to a cord and ties it to her suit and dons her helmet. This has the potential to go south very fast and she won't be caught in an unsealed suit when it does.

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 107):

Sam took a deep breath, she'd been expecting this for a while, but hoped it wouldn't happen.

"Sorry Baron, but what Combat experience do you have that wasn't scripted? Because In a tactical situation I don't think you get to call the shots. Pun intended." She smiled quickly.

"We should have sorted this out before starting, but who gets to call it? We need to decide now. And fast. And, bluntly, actors aren't top of my list for tactical calls. Seems the options are deal with the Mining ship, or go straight to Long Shot. I say deal with the mining ship, but I'll go with  the majority."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:32, Wed 04 Nov 2015.

Sharik kept her eyes fastidiously glued to the sensor displays in front of her, watching the stream of data cascade along the screen for her to keep track of.

She had absolutely no desire to try and insert herself into the chain of command argumentdiscussion that was brewing.  The diminutive socialite had little experience (despite having served in two separate Imperial services) with the more rigid authority structures.  And she kind of liked it that way; she'd seen all types of command structures work (and fail).

And while she might personally prefer a more open or free-form chain of command.  Sharik also knew that indecision (or worse miscommunication) in battle could get them all killed.  She preferred that not happen - but, she also knew that a number of her companions had much more formal tactical experience than she did.  As such, she was more than willing to take her cues from them.

So, ultimately, she wasn't going to do more than follow orders here.  It seemed reasonable to her.  And Shar had always prided herself on having a decently level head on her shoulders.  Which was telling her to keep her mouth shut at this point; so, that is precisely what she did.

At this point, the thin cosmopolitan operative was actually quite happy that she'd been designated along with Walter to be on standby and help drive the getaway vehicle...