Pablo was pleased to see Sharik, despite the uncertainties of the situation. He grinned as he looked at her. She could make even a vacc suit look good. Of course, her sense of style had never been in doubt, at least in his experience.

"Plenty of backup now, with you here, and Walter and Khea. Just as well, too. Hopefully whatever we run into here, the situation will answer better to your skillset, or Walter's, or even Khea's, rather than mine."

There are some theorists that claim 'spider-sense' is just an amped up intuition, which is your subconscious making connections that your conscious mind hasn't been able to put together.

In this case, the situation is clearly not 'normal' for any other starport, but it is still remotely possible that this is somehow normal for Outpost. Certainly none of the data you have on Outpost suggests this is normal.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 37):

Having similar thoughts to his human Marine buddy, Vonon calls up the data available on Port Outpost -- and the fur on the back of his neck bristles a little bit.

"How in the Emperor's Name did I miss a level two Law Code?" he quietly asks himself.

Looking around the bridge to see if anyone had heard him, Vonon then calls over to Sam.

"Uh, Senior Pilot...sir?" Vonon says, speaking precisely - just in case this crazy ship still has the flight recorder running, "The Tactical Officer requests permission to run a weapon systems diagnostic before the local authorities require weapons lock-down."

***...If they require it...*** Vonon thinks to himself.

In reply to Vonon Ronkunu (msg # 38):

"Fine by me" Sam replied

ooc
Where are you guys getting the planet info from - have I missed it somewhere?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:14, Thu 28 Apr 2016.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 39):

"Thanks Sam." Vonon says, as his hands start tapping out commands on the tactical board.

In moments Vonon has placed the ships weapons on standby; now, with just the entry of a single command, the turrets are ready to go 'hot'. And the anti-hijacking program is loaded and ready to be activated.

"Uh...tactical diagnostic is...um...running." Vonon reports.

Not wanting to wait any longer Khea goes through the door and follows the left corridor to the next intersection.
She doesn't exactly expect trouble, after all the logs say that this port is in use, still the situation looks strange with it being so deserted, especially on such a small but well travelled world. So Khea watches for any signs that there is something unusual going on.

OOC:
Recon for anything suspicious:
22:34, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 4 using 2d6-2 with rolls of 2,4.  Recon +0 Int, -3 Unskilled, +1 Aslan in low light.

In reply to Kheaiftouaw (msg # 41):

OOC: was Sharik sitting at comms? Who's sitting at comms, right now? Is anyone?

Realizing that he'd do more good working along with Sir Walter than staying with the ship, Count Cromwell joins the departing group.

He also sends a comm to Mutt Talbek, requesting a meeting.

In reply to Darrel Cromwell (msg # 43):

"The Tower's been awfully quiet, since we landed, Sam." Vonon says, "Uh, mind if I give 'em a shout and ask for the prices to hook into the planetary info-net?"

Pablo, seeing Khea forging ahead, moved to catch up with her, returning to his own looking about. "Y'know Khea, we have snub submachine guns in the locker now, made for Aslan hands, and patterned on that machine pistol of yours. It would offer both a harder potential punch, and some versatility in ammunition types, if you were interested in trying one out sometime."

Sam looked over at Vonun and winked "IF you could keep your eye on your tactical diagnostic, I'll check up on that"

She pulled up the Comms console on her Pilots station screen and contacted the tower

"Outpost Control this is the Long Shot, can you send us over info and prices on how we connect into the data grid here please? Also, can you give us an ETA on any Customs or other officialdom in-bound to us please? Over."

ooc

15:14, Today: Samantha Kilgore rolled 13 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,6.  Comms to tower.

Sam's effort to contact base control doesn't have any success. Apparently no radio signals will penetrate the walls of the docking bay. This is par for a hardened facility--protection against EMPs. Usually in such circumstances, a ship needs to attach an umbilical. This is usually done automatically, but can also be done manually.


The others that left the ship wind their way through the corridors. The curvature of the walls always tells you that your are getting closer to the center, but you also start seeing people. Some are workers, some appear to be vagrants or homeless.

You only start really seeing 'civilization' when you enter the third ring. You see shops, living quarters, normal people, even an occasional security officer.

"I would prefer not to need to try out a gun at all. But I will look at them. They would certainly solve the problem getting ammunition for my own gun

Unconsciously Khea reaches for her MP on her hip to ensure it is still there.

"I also wouldn't wander this Ruktaha alone. I didn't expect it but now I wouldn't mine an aslan warrior on the crew to întimidate any robber to search other prey. Ours are a bit too small for that I fear."

As the group wandered around the base, the worry that Sir Walter had started to disappear when he noticed others. "I guess lets get the money transferred now that we are here and unload the cargo." He said once he got his bearings back. "However, first stop is my home to check up on my parents."

Pablo nodded. "I'll head back to the ship then, I guess. The sooner we get the hold cleared, the sooner we can wander around. Not you, Sir Walter, go and see your folks. If my people were here, I'd be in a hurry to see them, too."

OOC:Quick question, don't we need a buyer 1st before we unload?

"Sounds good, let's link back up at the ship in a couple of hours."

Darrel will contact the bank(or whatever it's called), to transfer 500,000Cr to each of the crew (minus Valeska) from our group account, leaving 4,012,000Cr to be used as the  ship fund. Note:If GM allows, then at this point everyone should have Crs to spend

Then he'll leave a message with Mutt Talbek, saying he was referred to him by Falko Devlin and would like to arrange a meeting later today (or night?)

BTW, what time reference is it?

"Before we unload Count first has to find a buyer and negotiate a price. Renting storage space on the port itself will be expensive. And I do not believe that our goods will be safe there."

OOC:I figure that it will occur behinds the scenes while we are here, along with a getting a cargo once we figure out where our next stop will be. 

Heading to the core ring, Walter made it to the elevators and up to the business section. Off in a corner along with two other brokers was a sign "Zeller Trading LLC." that he made a beeline towards.

"Is Bertha here?" he asked walking into the shop. While waiting for his sister, he looked over the cargo manifest from the Longshot in order to unload it as profitably as possible.

Once the base starts taking on the appearance of something close to normal, Darrel (and probably everyone else with him) quickly finds that he doesn't have access to the base's communication network.

Khea figures out the problem easily enough: shielding. The concentric-ring configuration of the base means that radio signals won't penetrate very far. On top of that, the base is apparently shielding from EMP.

Your comms work with each other as long as you are still within sight of each other.

Asking someone provides additional information: the base has an internal hardwired info-web that you can connect to by paying a nominal fee (Cr15 per month) for access. There are web nodes all throughout the base so there is almost no place that it can't pick up your signal... once you have access.

Attempting to access a hardpoint in order to purchase produces another problem. Darrel's data isn't accepted. Neither is anyone else's.

This doesn't keep you from purchasing items, though.

Sam stays at the ship, and tries to figure out how to hook up the umbilical.

She tries Comms to Khea to ask if its ok to hook it up before she does so though, presumably getting static.

"Great" she says to Vonun" here 2 minutes, everyones bomb burst all over into the unknown and comms are fragged. Perhaps we should call this ship the SNAFU"

ooc

not sure if anyone else stayed on ship? Apart from Vonun?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:50, Fri 06 May 2016.

Sir Walter spent some time visiting his sister Bertha at the family business and had started setting up to sell the cargo when he found out there was a serious problem for the group.

"What do you mean that my trading license has been suspended?" he said

Pablo, on hearing of the comm access network, buys access for himself, and finds out what it would cost to give the Longshot access to the network, and gets whatever codes are necessary. He'll also see about getting a deal on 10 individual access accounts

Once he has done that, assuming success, he'll pass out the access to all the team members at hand, then head back to the ship and give the info to Sam, in hopes of getting the ship hooked in, and all of us back into our accustomed easy contact..

Just like Darrel's efforts, Pablo is unable to access the network via a hardpoint. More precisely, it won't recognize his comm unit.

The ship cost would be free with the docking fee, as soon as it connects the umbilical, which provides oxygen/'fresh' air, power, recycling and electronic access to base facilities.


Likewise, Sam is unable to reach anyone off the ship.

"Is there a problem?" Jones asked as he entered the bridge.

He hadn't left the ship yet. He'd been waiting to see if Valeska was heading 'ashore'; she'd seemed kind of blue. He wasn't sure if trading one tin can for another tin can (even if it was a lot bigger) would cheer her up. Supposedly, Outpost was a hub of trade and had most if not all of the same amenities a normal planetary starport had. Like getting a drink and eating in an actual restaurant. What was the phrase he'd heard someone say? Oh, yeah: "I just want to go out for lunch!"

A week on a ship wasn't such a long time... until it was you on that ship. It tended to generate a type of claustrophobia known as 'cabin fever'. It preyed on the mind knowing you couldn't leave the ship, even if you had nowhere to go.