'Ok....' said Devon quietly enough that only Mika and A9 as he reread the instructions on his datapad.  'They said "Small and not distinctive".  I'm thinking we should add "Fast" to that list - might be in a hurry when we leave.' He gave the visibile ships a quick glance before discounting them.

Knowing that at this stage - and in full view of the gate guard - paying too much attention to the spaceport could be disastrous, Devon led his little team away in the direction of a cantina he had spotted on their way in.
Once they were out of earshot of the guard, Devon started talking again.
'Ok, first obstacles:  Getting through the perimeter undetected, and we have no idea whats in those hangers.  Now, if some of those are vessels that are avaialable for hire... there's going to be a publically available list somewhere that tells us what those ships are and their specs - we might be able to settle on a target before we even get inside.'

Devon grinned at the other two.
'Once we have an idea of what we're going to hit.... we'll settle on the how.  I'd like for this to be a bit less improvised than the last thing I 'jacked for the Talons, so tell me if I've missed something.  '

Mika nods, "Fast is always a good thing to add to the list."

She looks around to see if there's a way to access the local net, either via a connection for A9 or some other means, such as a datapad. 

"They might have postings of ships for hire, but I'm thinking it won't be quite that easy.  We might have to ask around, see if there's a ship available for hire and work it backwards that way."

Mika plugs her newly acquired datapad in and starts sniffing around the boards, looking for anyone advertising charter services.  She pays particular attention to the number of passenger berths, cargo capacity and any special notes such as to able to make particularly fast deliveries or people who specialize in avoiding unfriendly attention or any other such notes.



11:59, Today: Mika Trake rolled 31 using 1d20+12. computer use.

OOC: This will take Mika a good 10-15 minutes to do so what do A9 and Devon want to do (if anything) during this time?

A9 heads off to look for a scomp-link terminal, starting off in the non-secure, free-to-roam areas.  He'll avoid going anywhere secure unless he really needs to, which he suspects will be, at this stage, unlikely.

"A9, don't go far." Mika says to the droid while she's busy interfacing with the data pad.  Later, she'd have to tweak the user interface to be a bit more friendly, but that would have to wait.

Wether he heard Mika's call or not was unclear as the little astromech disappeared for about ten minutes while Mika conducted her search.  It proved frustratingly slow as she had to piece different bit of information from various sources.  There was no list of ships at the spaceport she could tap into, short of breaking into the maintenance office that is.  Instead she reviewed bulletin boards where captains offered passage and cargo, holonet sites offering services, etc.

By the time A9 came trundling back through the door, Mika had made some headway.  She could tell that at least three small to medium-sized freighters had to be onsite judging by the information she'd pulled.  It was likely more as she had found a courier business and a few commerical freighter organisations that worked out of that spaceport.  Of course she couldn't tell if their ships were onsite or on jobs at the present time.

For the first time Mika noticed that Devon wasn't with them.  She spotted him in the corner playing with his wrist datapd.

Mika shrugs as A9 comes trundling back.  "I'm not finding much on the public nets buddy, how 'bout you?"

A9 beeps a few times, spinning his dome in response.

Grumbling in frustration, Devon looked up from his datapad, where he had been carrying out a similar search to Mika.
'Nothing.' he announced.  'Well, nothing as good as I hoped.  Ok, so we're going to have to get in there to see what are options are.  Traffic control and Maintenance should both have a list of who's parked what where.  I'd say we hit Maintenance.  We look the part more than we do for Traffic control, plus security would be lighter.  First up though, we gotta get in without upsetting anyone.  Ideas?'

Devon glanced back the way they had come, at the main entrance and the guard, wondering.  If this was a small civilian port, could they just walk straight in?  Friends of ship crew or similar?  He frowned.  Sometimes the simplest approach was the best.  On the other hand, since he and Mika could both easily pass as mechanics...

Glancing around, Devon looked for any other entrances to the spaceport: maintenance accesses, cargo entrances, he'd even settle for an easy to access sewer main that came up inside the port.

Mika looks around.  "There's probably some maintenance crawlspaces or maybe some ducting that we could sneak through."

A9 doesn't say anything in regards to Mika's suggestion but somehow he manages to do it loudly.  He's not really built for crawling.

After a quick examination of the starport from a distance, the trio quickly noted there were only two main entrances.  An administration/passenger terminal where people on foot entered the spaceport and the main gate where various speeders belonging to the spaceport or companies who had dealings with the port entered.  The speeder entrance was manned by a uniformed guard, while the admin entrance had two administration staff behind desks.

The spaceport fence was high and ringed with proximity sensors, making any approach to sneak onsite difficult unless the sensors were dealt with first.  The control tower would quickly spot any speeder trying to fly over the fence, even at low altitude.

Mika shrugs.  "The maintenance crawlways would have to be big enough for droids to get down there and do maintenance.  It's use full grown types that would have to crawl."  Of course at a mere 1.5 meters tall, Mika was hardly one to brag about being tall.

"Looks like we either try to bluff those admin types or we find an way in underground, utility tunnels and so forth."

Mika puts action to word and starts poking around to see what she can find on the public nets about such underground pathways with her data pad.

17:15, Today: Mika Trake rolled 24 using 1d20+12. Computer Use.

'Reckon we're headed underground.' sighed Devon 'I do so love sewers - the smells wonderful for keeping... well, ANYTHING away.  Your best shot for paydata is probably public utilities records.  But, just in case we have to go over or through that fence rather than under...'

Devon let Mika get on with her research.  If there was anything to find, she would find it.  Whilst she worked he leaned against a handy wall and stared out over the spaceport with apparant vague interest in watching a ship that appeared to be readying to lift off.  Occasionally he referred to his datapad and tapped in a note or two.

Only someone watching Devon carefully would realize that he was actually examining the proximity sensors on the fence carefully.  A glance at his datapad would reveal that his notes were actually a short list of ideas on how to disable, sabotage, disarm or otherwise neutralize the sensors long enough for them to get inside.

Devon spent a lot of time staring at the data on proximity sensors.  They were tricky things.  Disabling them was easy, an emp grenade would wipe them out for a hundred metres.  Taking them out quietly was a lot harder.  For before one could even begin to disarm them, they actually had to get close enough!


Meanwhile Mika had not been able to find any information on underground tunnels on the public holonet.  She wasn't surprised, as such information tended to be restricted to government works buildings, but it had to be tried.

Mika sighs.  She'd hadn't expected it to work, but luck tended to happen for those who gave luck a chance.  But there's wasn't much for it, they needed information and could spend weeks tramping about and be none the wiser for the efforts.

She moves closer to Devon, close enough for a low tones to be heard.  "No dice.  I want to try a slice, but we should get ready to bail if it goes south.  Or should I wait a bit?"

OOC:  Just to confirm, we got dropped off here with no effective means of running away accept our feet (Devon and Mika) or wheels (R2), correct?

OOC: That is correct.  It was planned you'd either be leaving in a starship or grabbing a taxi or something.  You could call for a pickup from Jamie's team if needed.  Sheila and Aryan were to dump their speeder when done (as it's stolen).
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:13, Mon 05 Mar 2012.

Mika decides it's best not to risk a hack without better options to get clear if such proves to be necesary.  Since neither R2 nor Devon seem to be kicking out suggestions, she looks to the admin desk and straightens her shoulders.  "Maybe ey've got some job openings."  She moves towards the admin desk to ask after any jobs openings for maintenance personnel.

'Hold up a second.' Devon calls after her.  'What are the odds they'll let us in and give us a tour cos we applied for jobs that might not exist?  Plus our IDs are busted, remember?'

He glares at the notes he'd made on his datapad. 'I'm really starting to think our best bet is sneaking in via the sewers - which isnt saying much.' He sighed and eyed R2 'count yourself luck you dont have a sense of smell.'

A9 beeps and whistles.

Mika turns back, annoyance cleat on her delicate features.  "Okay fine, let's go figure out where we can get into the sewers and if it'll get us in there or not."  She was fine with the idea, as long as the made some headway.

Zyra's voice comes over the commlink.  "Nine to Talons.  Progress report please.  We're on a tight schedule here."

Mika pulls the encrypted comlink out and clicks it on.  "We're working on it.  We hit some road blocks and are considering options."

Encrypted or not, Mika didn't really want to speak aloud about breaking into the airfield and conscripting a vehicle.

She turns to Devon and the droid, "Looks like we need to push ahead.  Let's get out of here."

She leads the way out of the place and she starts looking around for access panels or hatches that might give access to sewer systems, utility tunnels and so forth.  Once a safe distance from the surveillance equipment and assuming that Devon and R2 have followed her lead, she speaks up, "Okay, we need computer access and we need to hack into the city utilities and pull some schematics.  I'm a decent enough slicer, but if either of you are better, I'll let you take it.  Now, where to find access...."  She starts looking for another cafe or other place where they might be able to get a signal.

"Understood.  Just remember if four does his job we'll need your services within an hour or two.  I need to know ASAP if you can't accomplish your mission."