Danica smiles slightly at Jack's comment.  She shrugs and notes, "Random acts of kindness will get you trouble all the time..."  The smirk in her tone is as apparent as the brief one that plays on her lips.

She pushes Julianna Biebroeck's name and contact information to Jack at his request.  She also relays to him the timeframes that Kurbatkin and she had previously quoted.  Dani merely nods in acknowledgement to Jack about any arrangements with respect to Helmar Nagel.  "Makes sense." she concludes with respect to them contacting Biebroeck about continued passage.  They should still be able to get them to Tupolev before Kurbatkin could - even if they conceded a three week headstart.

Dani doesn't move to get up to go to the crew lounge.  She hardly feels the need to, the crew had discussed previously the possibility of individual staterooms.  Given their staffing needs and how they intended to position themselves in their business niche, there seemed to be little need to force people to double up unnecessarily.  Whether or not the timing has anything to due with the presence of Doctor Casey Keefe, which Danica had seen the doctor approach previously in the Steel Beach (though she didn't know who Dr. Keefe was at the time), on-board remained to be seen.  The external and internal video feeds on the ship didn't lie when it came to identifying her as the same woman from the Steel Beach.

"I can go instead," she offers simply, though she suspects that Jack will not take her up on it, "if you would prefer to man the helm for now."  She shrugs slightly before adding, "Either way, the 'discussion' can be monitored from here..." and she pulls up a picture-in-picture display on one of the displays to the side of the main one.  Dani still makes no effort to get up, as she continues to monitor the various tactical displays and the statuses of the Gypsy Moth's systems; the lights continue to reflect off of the mirrorshades that she wears, as her head doesn't turn away from them.

In reply to Danica Moreau (msg #8):

Unless anyone has something else for Dagala, Lance, Nino, and Prisa to do, they all report to the crew lounge.

Unless their players state otherwise, Bertrand and Hayden are there also.

So, Danica's on the bridge, Dr. Keefe can be assumed to be in the passenger lounge for now, everyone else is in the crew lounge.

In the crew lounge, Hayden started a large pot of coffee.  It seemed like this could be one of those meetings.  If nothing else, he'd welcome a bit of java to clear the head.  He had been so focused on his broker and purser duties these last few days that only now the reality of performing a rescue op was sinking in.  His mind began to run through all the preparations that would need to be in place if they successfully intercepted the Suzain.

Jack entered the crew lounge and was happy to see Hayden there. The man had been underwater for days and now they were looking into the mouth of what could be quite a nasty beast. Jack joined him at the coffeebot, adding an espresso for himself to the machine's tasks.

"Good to see you, Hayden. Fair warning - I believe I've mightily pissed off the good Doctor." Turning to the rest of the crew he says, "Thank you, everyone. I just want to say that I know you've all been working hard, and it is unfortunate that we didn't get any real shore leave at Box 2. We'll have to grin and bear it, and make the most of it when we return."

He waits, watching the coffee machine, until the Doc arrives.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:32, Wed 04 Jan 2012.

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #11):

Lance shrugs, "We can go to a bar anytime, this is something real."

Prisa murmurs her agreement with Lance and Dagala nods.

In reply to Lance Charpentier (msg #12):

Thera, now in her standard shipwear, agreed.

"What spacer is going to ignore a distress call? Like Lance says, we can party next month. We're here to make sure the Suzain crew can, too."

Doc didn't say much to anyone, as he was busy with a computer.  Once everyone arrived, he dimmed the lights.  Addressing everyone, Jim didn't sound upset at least.  If anything he sounded worn down.

"Ok, you all know we're attempting a rescue …  what many of you may not know is what that can entail when dealing with a Pathfinder exploration ship.  Specifically dealing with unknown pathogens…"

<Jim activates a projection - it depicts images of horribly diseased bodies from his medical library [Note: none of these are 'The Plague']>

"None of us know what brought Suzain to her current state.  She's been out a long time and we have only sketchy details from a poor quality transmission to go by.

All we really know, is there was one survivor at the time of the transmission. She indicated two others, and a limited air supply.  We should make no assumptions she had full knowledge of the situation, nor, was even of sound mind, or body (he indicates the projection), at the time.

The Suzain departed with a full compliment - others, fate willing, might still be found alive."

(The shot had worked well enough - he no longer had the desire to add anything like 'if they hadn't been without air too long because of our wasting precious time'.)

"We should be prepared to take aboard any survivors .. or remains.  Such includes protecting ourselves from the likes of what you see there."  (Jim indicates the projection, again.)

The Suzain may also have samples in her labs or holds that we decide to bring aboard.

Now, the Moth was not specifically designed for this type of mission, but she's a good design and can accommodate it pretty well.

<Jim projects a deckplan with recommended areas highlighted>

"To that end, I recommend we setup the lower deck passenger rooms, cargo workshop and port cargo hold as a quarantine area.  We'll need to rig decon and ensure what we need is down there prior to our arrival.  We've got less than five days to do that in.

I wanted everyone to know about the risks - they are remote, but sadly very real. I'll prep more information for everyone so we all know what to expect and look out for as well as procedures to keep safe.

As to the quarantine area, I'm open to suggestions and alternatives - and I'll need everyone's help."

Jim sat down - he wasn't the best at this sort of thing, but he hoped he'd gotten his concerns across.

Hayden listened and looked over the Doc’s info.  He’d answered a few signal GKs over his career, but none that involved the possibility of virus or disease.  He studied the deckplan with a nod.

”Doc, I don’t know if this will help, but I served with an old chap who use to tell a story about serving aboard a Type R variant that had liquid chlorine leak.  It corroded the seals and seeped through some fuel take inspection ports, turning it into a nasty gas.  It went downhill from there, until most of the ship was inundated with a corrosive-explosive gas, with the Captain and crew stuck on the bridge with just a few hours of O2 left.” Hayden stopped himself before getting too far off track.

”Anyway, point of the story is that they were rescued by a crew who had set up two pressure tents in their cargo hold.  They had run a few lengths of hose from their water tanks to help with decon.  The free standing pressure tents contained a lot of the contaminated run-off water and isolated each separate decon process a bit.  Not sure it will help with this kind of stuff..." Hayden said, motioning to the diseased body on the screen, "but it might be something to consider.  I think the survival kit in the launch has a pair of pressure tents.”

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg #15):

OOC: OK, it's been a couple days and all the active players have logged on at least once since, so I guess that does it for the meeting.

At 1000 on Day 007, Gypsy Moth receives the following transmission:

"Gypsy Moth, this is Reims, no joy our sector.  We are vectoring for return to Boxes.  It's up to you now.  Good luck!  Captain Nadeau sends."

OOC: If there's anything you want your character to do before reaching the search area, other than medical prep and general making sure stuff works and is ready, please let me know.

Otherwise, up to four crewmembers can give me sensors checks (INT) to try to detect Suzain.  Thanks to attribute modifiers, since you guys are so very intelligent, the best four sensor operators on the ship are all PCs: Danica, Hayden, Jack, and Doc.

OOC: 10:25, Today: Dr. Jim D. Jones rolled 7 using 2d6+2. Intercept.

21:24, Today: Hayden Marks rolled 13 using 2d6+3. Sensor Roll.

Hayden peered into his workstation in lower engineering, looking for the Suzain.

Dani had listened quietly to the meeting in the crew lounge and said nothing.  The immediate burn was most important to her, but honestly, she likely could have attended the meeting.  Still, afterwards, she comms the crew and lets them know about the Director Xiu's final instructions on the Plague.  She figures that she knows the Doctor well enough that he will brush up (if he hasn't already) on the early detection signs - so, she doesn't feel the need to remind him or Dr. Keefe to do so.

Dani focuses most of her time on the bridge, but she is willing and ready to do whatever other prepwork needs to be done before docking.  She also appears to spend plenty of time working on her piloting simulations while on the bridge, as well as triple checking the external sensor array diagnostics.  Any anomalies, Danica endeavors to run to ground as quickly as possible - she knows time will be of the essences when they reach the intercept zone.

What little free time she has is spent brushing up on general quarantine and also delving into some of the history of the Plague .

Even though her quarters are in close proximity, Dani makes sure that she is scheduled for bridge duty a number of hours before the arrival time at estimated intercept area.  Well before they enter the target area, Dani is already scanning the sensor readings.  Her displays are configured as a rapidly scrolling set of roll-up metrics and a number of convoluted interactions between raw readings.  Dani's past experience has shown that she tracks such information best, watching almost instinctively, for perturbations which generally allow her to home in on anything of interest.  The four-fold symmetric convolutions have empirically given her the best signal-to-noise ratio in the past.

However, she continues to concentrate primarily on her piloting duties.  She may have the most experience of the crew with sensors, but she also knows what her primary forte is.  And getting the Moth up close and personal with the Suzain, if and when found will be her main duty.

[OOC:
  21:37, Today: Danica Moreau rolled 9 using 2d6+5. Sensor/Int Check - detect the Suzain.
  21:37, Today: Danica Moreau rolled 16 using 2d6+6. Pilot/Dex Check - no diff or time DMs.]

Jack was relieved that Doc didn't belabor the change in sleeping arrangements he wanted. He felt Hayden's suggestion about the pressure tents made a lot of sense and would give Doc a medical theatre separate from the rest of the ship. And, hopefully, everyone would be well-rested when they hit the target zone.

When the Navy ship broke off, Jack rallied himself and turned to his sensors and scopes, running more calcs on the possible intercept vectors and searching for any anomaly against the background stars and radiation.


OOC: 13:22, Today: Jacques Keveloh rolled 7 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 2,3. Sensors/INT - find Suzain. Thank the stars for Hayden & Dani! ;)

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #20):

Gypsy Moth streaks through the 500,000km deep predicted area where Suzain might be.  Nearly every workstation on the ship is manned by a crewmember desperately scanning surrounding space for a sign of the distressed Pathfinder.

The seconds drift by and turn into minutes.  Gypsy Moth clocks past 100,000km into the zone.  200,000km.  Optimism turns to worry, then doubt.  300,000km.  Could they have made a mistake somewhere?  Is the plot wrong?  Did Suzain get deflected however slightly off course?  400,000km.  The growing fear gnawing in the pit of the stomach of every space onboard becomes a cold hard rock deep inside as the far boundary of the search zone approaches.  Suzain may be lost, her crew doomed to drift alone until the end of time...

Just then an elated shout from lower engineering.  Hayden furiously adjusts his controls to focus more tightly on the merest ghost flitting across his scan.  He narrows it down and locks on.  Suzain, cold and dark, hurtling through the void.  A scant heartbeat and Suzain is past, but Hayden got a track and that's what matters.

Reacting to Hayden's contact with seemingly superhuman speed, Danica begins pushing Gypsy Moth's drives to their limit to turn and match vectors as Suzain streaks by, from left to right.  Gypsy Moth overshoots, no way to avoid it at these speeds.  Elation turns to frustration as the ship has to spend long, grindingly slow hours clawing back, but Danica's skill keeps the vector matching to hours, not days.

By 2300, Day 008, Gypsy Moth has matched course and velocity with Suzain and is holding a position a few hundred meters from the stricken vessel.

Optical sensors show Suzain's bow is thirty degrees up and to port as she tumbles slowly.  Suzain's launch is visible, barely, nestled below her nose.  There are no visible signs of damage, and Suzain's turrets appear stowed like they would be for normal flight.  All hatches and iris valves appear closed and there are no gas bubbles, debris, or frost on or around the ship.  Her Pathfinder markings are clearly visible.

Infrared reveals a very slight amount of ambient heat in the forward, port part of the ship.  Otherwise Suzain's temperature is similar to that of background space.  There are no signs of power or heat from her engineering areas and all her lights are extinguished.

Suzain is cold, dark, and quiet.

In reply to Referee (msg #21):

Thera eyes the visuals suspiciously from her turret station and comms the bridge.

"No sign of any combat damage. I thought the Suzain reported being attacked? I've got a bad feeling about this."

OOC: well, somebody had to say it. ;)

"Rule #1 of rescue is 'don't put yourself in danger' - I'm wondering about that Launch... If it's still there and undamaged, why haven't they used it as a lifeboat? It's gotta be better than suits... Something doesn't add up."

"Can we spare a few minutes to check out the Launch before we go and knock on the front door? It smells like possum to me."

"If I were running the show, I'd report co-ordinates, pull back out of weapon range and use our Launch to carry out the rescue mission - or at least to do initial entry and search operations. If everything checks out on board, we can bring the Gypsy in while the Doc's stabilising his patients, but if we find trouble, we don't lose the Gypsy to a honey trap. Just remember, on this vector nobody can help us if that thing's full of pirates. It'd be a clever ruse - and maybe one the Suzain fell for."

Danica was fairly quiet all the way to the Suzain after she reported in to Box 2.  She kne that there was a six hour time lag, but that did not stop her from reporting both speed and positions along with the most accurate timestamp she could.  Dani wasn't looking for advice, they were on their own with respect to that; but, she was looking to document things.  You know, just in case.

Since the approach vectoring was on the order of hours, she took some breaks and catnaps, though the bridge was always manned by someone.  However, for the final approach, Dani made sure that she was up and ready for it.

She listened attentively to Thera's suggestions, "If they have used up all of their avaiable fuel, then the launch will likely be dry.  But, usable, if that is the only thing wrong with it."

As for approaching and investigating the Suzain, Dani noted to the rest of the crew over the comm line, "Am willing to sit tight, bring the Moth in close, and/or be in the boarding party."  Given Dani's past military traiing in the FRA officer cadre, she is no stranger to leading small unit actions - even if actual search and rescue is not her forte.  The raven-haired pilot did add confidently (almost too confidently), "I can get us close and stationary relative to her spin access, if necessary."

She kept her eyes focused on the main tactical displays of the seemingly dead sister ship of the Gypsy Moth.  Thera was definitely right in that respect, there was no reason to place themselves in unncessary danger.  And with the faint heat signatures, the Suzain was not necessarily completely dead.  She readily seconds Thera's puzzlement, "It is strange that Suzain does not appear to be more visibly scarred, given they claimed to have been attacked..."  Danica begins to guide the Gypsy Moth around the Suzain at a safe distance that is well within sensor range, in an effort to view her from all angles while they try to decide on the best approach vector and any boarding tactics.

For some reason Jack didn't send out the usual Search & Rescue transmission once they zeroed in on Suzain. Everything felt weird and wrong, especially when she showed no signs of damage. But even moreso when Suzain didn't hail the Moth. Maybe you were right after all, Doc... He was trying to think of the how the Aslan behaved, Halowon commerce raiders... but he knew he was heading down the wrong road. Something else had happened to Suzain.

Thera's voice over the comm broke him out of his reverie. "I agree with Thera. Let's keep the Moth away and check her more closely with our launch. If we don't learn anything new, we can deploy an away team from Gypsy 2."

Hayden nodded in agreement with Thera.  Using the launch was the best option at this point.

"Dani, why don't you come with us.  I'm sure Prisa can handle station keeping.” Hayden had already counted himself in for the boarding op.

”Guess it’s time to suit up,” Marks said with a shrug.  One way or another, this was going to be interesting.  And hopefully not in the Chinese curse way.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:16, Wed 11 Jan 2012.

In reply to Hayden Marks (msg #25):

Thera nods to herself. "You could be right about the Launch fuel Dani, but it still seems strange. I glanced at the Suzain's specs on the way, and it looked like she had extra fuel tankage built in for mission requirements. If the tanks aren't ruptured, where the hell did all that fuel go?"
"Sorry if I'm a bit jittery guys, but I know the way pirates think. This would be an A1 honey trap setup. Hayden, maybe Dani and I should stay aboard Gypsy in case you need the cavalry in a hurry?"
She hesitates a moment. This was going to be controversial.
"Permission to take out Suzain's turrets before we do anything? If those guys are huddled up in suits, it should be low risk for them, but if it's a trap, a pre-emptive strike before we serve them Launch could give us a useful edge..." She winces at her own bad pun.
OOC: How many turrets does she have?

In reply to Thera Santorini (msg #26):

Dani eases Gypsy Moth around her stricken sister ship.  For about an hour, the crew pores over the sensor feeds using every  input Gypsy Moth has: optical, infrared, RADAR/LIDIR, and comms bands, as you examine Suzain from every possible angle.

Suzain is still hurtling through the void at several million meters per second, velocity which she would have had to already have upon exiting jump, if her distress call is to be believed.  She has a slow tumble, about fifteen degrees per hour, up and to port.

Other than the faint traces of heat in the forward, port part of the ship, Suzain is emitting no other heat, energy, comms traffic, or radiation.  She is silent.  No transponders.  No short range comms on any band.  No signs of gravitrons (Ref waves handwavium wand) leaking from the thrusters.  No signs of heat or electromagnetic radiation from the powerplant.

Her launch is docked and her turrets are stowed for normal flight.  All her hatches and doors are closed.  None show signs of forced entry, at least not that you can see from here.

Suzain has four turrets installed (two chin, dorsal, and dorsal aft), but for a Pathfinder ship on an exploration mission they should only mount defensive armament. You cannot tell if they have been re-armed or altered.

There is one small thing that catches your eye on close inspection, though.  Like Gypsy Moth, Suzain has a mounting for a cargo handling bar above each aft cargo door.  Since the aft doors don't have ramps, these allow handling gear to be rigged to load or unload through the aft doors where starport gear isn't available.  There are signs that Suzain had a cargo handling bar mounted over the port cargo door, and that the bar was burned or ripped off (it shows signs of both) at some point.  It is the only sign of violence on an otherwise eerily silent ship.

As soon as Hayden said "suit up" Jack slapped the clasp on his webbing and left his command couch. He felt like a whole world had been lifted off his chest. He managed to swipe the crew comm and blurt "Prisa please report to the bridge" before he turned to Dani and said "Station-keeping vectors and Box 2 coordinates are locked in tracking mode. Let's go."

As he made his way to the launch he linked his personal comm into the ship-wide band. "Hayden, let me double-check everyone's suits before we head out. We can maintain atmo in the launch but we should keep us in vacc just in case."

Dani nods to Hayden and the invitation to go with the boarding party, "I concur.  We likely will need all the personnel with some medical training when we get over there."  She may only have basic first aid from her time with the rescue militia on St. Croix over twenty years ago, but it was better than nothing.  Also unspoken is that if there are reasons for violent force to be used on the Suzain, Danica likely has the most ground pounding command experience to bring to bear, with the possible exception of Lance.

"Do we want Dr. Keefe with the boarding team," she prompts, "Or setting up triage here?  And should we take either Dagala or Lance?  As I recall, both of them have some medical training.  And Mr. Charpentier has tactical experience as well."  Danica has already released her chair's harness and pushed back from her locked console as she makes ready to don her vacc suit and grab some ordinance.

She addresses Thera, noting, "I know that you are wary, T."  Dani pauses and purses her lips, "And I share some of your qualms that this could be a trap ... But this is still ostensibly a rescue mission."  Another slight pause before she continues, "And the percentages are still that this should be a potential rescue of some Pathfinders in need."  She raises an eyebrow, and then adds, "But stay frosty.  And if you see that main turret so much as twitch..."  Dani left it at that - she knew that Thera would know what to do.

On her way to the armoury in the ship's locker, Dani double-checks to make sure that her own p-comm is properly tied into the correct frequency of the shipboard network.  Then she moves onto the dorsal airlock to don her vacc suit, before she returns to the bridge to board the launch.  She readily submits to any inspection that Jack wants to do.

In reply to Danica Moreau (msg #29):

Thera frowned. This was going pear-shaped rapidly. Their best pilot - her sister - was probably walking into a trap, and there was talk of taking their second gunner too. They were treating the whole thing as a bona fide rescue mission despite the obvious indications to the contrary, and nobody was listening to the one person aboard who had any real knowledge of pirate scams. Nobody was taking any real precautions.

If that was a pirate playing possum, there could be half a platoon of buccaneers in there, armed and armoured to the teeth. Most of the Gypsy’s crew would be taken prisoner and all she’d have left to rescue them with was a part-time pilot who was used to station-keeping duties!

She tightened her lips. What was that? Did she see the Suzain’s main turret ‘twitch’? She thought so. That’s what her report would say, anyhow.

Thera took local control of her turret and brought her targeting computer online. She pinpointed Suzain’s dorsal turret and obtained a targeting solution.  If the crew really were conserving life support and awaiting rescue, there should be nobody sitting in a turret! The mayday said they were in suits, so even if she accidentally holed the hull, rescuees should be safe. However, if it was a pirate ship, a pre-emptive strike would almost certainly make them tip their hand before Gypsy’s crew walked into their trap, and it would reduce the pirates’ firepower into the bargain. She’d been living off her wits and making her own decisions since she left home. She was more than capable of living with the consequences of her actions. What were her friends going to do, sack her?

She let fly with a laser burst to Suzain's dorsal turret.
00:45, Today: Thera Santorini rolled 11 using 2d6+4. Laser to Suzain turret.
00:46, Today: Thera Santorini rolled 3 using 2d6-4. Damage to Suzain turret.

On impulse, she then swivelled her gun to aim at the damaged cargo hatch. It’d just struck her that the damage around that door could be the result of an exhaust - the sort of damage you might expect if a cargo bay were to be used as an impromptu launch bay for a fighter...

If that hatch started to open, whatever was inside it was going to get a couple of hundred megawatts of coherent light frying it before it had chance to exit.
She waited, watching the hatch, but keeping an eye on the rest of the ship too. Just make one twitch...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:51, Sat 14 Jan 2012.

In reply to Thera Santorini (msg #30):

OOC: OK, I'm going to presume that Thera meant "rail gun" where she mentioned laser because the chin turrets mount twin rail guns.  If Thera wants to have used the beam laser in the aft turret, which has in the past been manned by Lance, then the damage roll should be 1d6.  Regardless...

A faint whine and shudder passes through Gypsy Moth as one of her chin mounted turrets super accelerates a tungsten round to over 7,000mph and sends it directly into Suzain's dorsal turret.

Spalls of armor silently fly of Suzain's dorsal turret and optical scans show a distinct hole in the turret's plating and signs of shock damage to the turret mounting.  The turret is most likely out of commission and if anyone is in it they're having a really bad day by now.

There is no reaction to the shot by Suzain.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:23, Sat 14 Jan 2012.

In reply to Referee (msg #31):

OOC: Oops, yes, I'd forgotten Thera's usual position was on railgun (getting mixed up between characters/games).

Thera watched intently for moment after moment, waiting for the retaliation, but it never came. Her eyes widened in amazement, she'd been so sure it was a trap. A wave of emotions washed over her; shame, guilt, embarrassment, but particularly the guilt. There shouldn't have been anyone in a turret in a stricken ship, there really shouldn't, but what if...?

She pushed the thought out of her mind, again and again, trying to cover it with relief that her friends weren't walking into a trap. She'd made sure they were safe - and would continue to do so. She kept her eyes on Suzain.