"We have two options in gathering information. We can see about a local port bar to see if anyone talks about the dome or we can try the starport to see if anyone talks about the company. Heading back to the starport also might be a better option so that they think we are leaving."  Walther says, handing Sharik a drink.

Shar ruefully shook her head to Quinzella's story about her interaction with Vonon, but she remained quiet - not defending the actions of either party.  At some point, the two of them were going to have to work it out on their own.  Sharik found it ironic actually, the two of them should probably get along quite well.  If they didn't kill or maim each other first.

"Do it." the thin socialite-cum-executive assistant noted with a curt nod to Quinzella's request to run recon, before adding quickly, "but don't take too long.  We should go."  She glanced back at the guard station, intimating that they still had some appearances to maintain.  It would take her attempt at hacking the remote feed a couple of more minutes (at least) anyways.

A few minutes later, in the back of the limousine , she sat up a little straighter and straightened her hair slightly; though her eyes were still glued to her display.  "Heh..." Sharik mused idly, taking the tumbler from Walter with a salute for acknowledgement, "they still use portions of the mid-range radio broadcast band for personal communication device contact..."  She looked up and tapped one of her dataglove displays.

The small speaker on the computer began to relay the feed from the commdot before she spoke again softly, "Beowulf has a patchwork of cellular networking towers.  A couple of iterations behind the standard Imperial tech..." which her dataglove and own personal comm network was a couple of steps above, "but I was still able to get my commdot signal to piggy back on one of those receiver towers..."  Shar seemed reasonably happy with what she had done, but was well aware that it took her a while to get there.

The diminutive dilettante flicked the speaker off as there was currently only low level white noise.  "I'll have my personal agent monitor the feed." she narrated, before turning her full attention back to the conversation at hand.

Sharik nodded curtly to Walter, "The starport is as good a place as any to be until the rendezvous time..."  Like her fellow nobleman, she could see it going either way.  And they need to get gone for a bit.

"We just need to wait for 'Q' to get back." she noted since her fellow Scout had wandered off to investigate something.  And had yet to report back.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 72):

Vonon flicked his ears back-and-forth, then shrugged.

"Like I said, sounds like a plan to me. I'm not a trained investigator -- back in the Patrol I was trained more to 'Observe first, then Assault'. And I'm always up for a good carouse, Emperor knows!" Vonon said, "But we're looking for information to help us find a secret lab facility hidden a few hours travel from here -- do you really think we'll find info like that at a starport bar?"

OOC: I'm not sure which direction Quinzella is going... the security station is actually on a floating dock, and the two 'thugs' on the docks were farther out on the other floating docks to which the various boats were moored. They appeared to 'vanish' by moving onto one of the boats.

The other two 'thugs' were on the street/wharf. Since that is the direction the group was now heading to get back to the limo, I'm guessing that is the direction Quinzella is going?


If Quinzella goes farther out onto the docks looking for those men, both of them step off a boat, acting as if they are security.

"Cabin locked?" one asks the other.

"Yep. Anchor's down, lines are moored. The Lady Serena is all secure," the other one replies.

"Must have been a false alarm, or maybe just a prank call."

They glance 'casually' at Quin, but otherwise ignore her, walk past and enter the security station to 'report' to the guard there.


If Quinzella heads up to the limo ahead of the group, she sees that the two 'thugs' up there have moved on down the street a ways... not too far. They seem to be window-shopping the boats they can see from the wharf. While they are going through the motions, Quin can tell from their body language that they are 'alert', not so much ready to pounce as to react if something happens.


Sharik is, of course, able to pick up the conversation that the two 'thugs' and the guard have.

"Problem?" the one asks.

"Nah, don't think so," Oolak replies. "They aren't tourists, but... I'm not sure what they are. Wanted some dirt on Ondrac. Don't know why they thought I had some, but even if I did, I wasn't about to bite the hand that feeds me."

"Should we follow them?" the other one asks.

"No need to stir up trouble," the first one replies. "Words don't bother us. We're here in case things get rough. Besides, I know pullin' guard duty is a pain, but that's our job. Let someone else deal with it."

"So we're going to report to HQ?" the other one said a bit too eagerly.

"Nah," the first one replied after thinking about it for a few seconds. "Nothing to report, really. It's no secret that Oolak worked for Ondrac. They was just asking questions. Nothing the authorities didn't already ask... and got nowhere."

"Good job, Oolak. Keepin' your head down's the way to go."


As they others reach the limo, it's not a problem standing around 'discussing' your plans, as you wait for Quinzella to resolve her excursion.

Quinzella, following the street bound 'thuglifes', ducks behind a corner, sending a message via text to Sharik, 'All four that were about seem to still be.  I am inclined to keep an eye on the ones in our travel path until it is no longer needed.  I can keep up my ruse, and ought to still be hidden.'

She kept a watch out, and well listening in case she might hear their voices on the wind.

Her thin burgundy lips were pressed into a tight thin line for a moment.  "++Q.++" Sharik's voice chirped over the comm link, her tone clipped and rather business-like, "++Come back in.  We have what we need.++"  Oolak and his watchers were still on the payroll.  She played back the snippet that she had been monitoring in the back round.  Shar didn't know how long Quinzella would need to get back, but there was no point in wasting any more time here.

The diminutive dilettante sipped from her tumbler idly as the recording played out, letting Vonon and Walter draw their own conclusions for the moment.  "Guess that settles that." she broke the silence, "we aren't the first to come looking."  Sharik stated the obvious, but seemed to feel that it needed to be said.

"Someone at Ondrac has put some forethought into this play." Shar said rather distantly, her gaze turning to look our the tinted window for a moment.  She seemed lost in thought for a pregnant moment.  To her, it seemed rather reminiscent of a past mission, but she was having some problems putting her finger on it.  It was just a niggling feeling, gnawing at her memory.

It was rather annoying actually.  The thin socialite pursed her lips, then turned her gaze back to the others to see their reactions.

PM

Quin bottled an exasperated sigh at the reply Sharik gave her.  She fired back another text, "You know how I get when I am working, no time spent on recon is wasted.  Besides you are the only one among our little group, those at the bar or car, who has made me feel like anything tonight.  If the most comfort I have is working...well that is expected.  They are talking about our crew, they seem recon for the other side.  These guys do not appear to be threat like alone, but they appear to have further contact with a third party."

She grinned slowly, "Permission to take them out?"  It was half a joke, but half not.  While she did look forward to thwarting the other side, it would also be a personal joy if she could.

Sharik gently pushed her earbud into her ear so that she could hear Quinzella's response more clearly.  An eyebrow arched at the end of the first sentence and remained raised for the duration.  A thin crooked smile touched her lips, a touch of tooth showing.

When prompted for a further - more direct - action, the thin dilettante paused for a moment, sitting stock still.  She pushed her mirrorshades down off the crown of her head and over her sparkling brown eyes, sharing them.  The intervening silence, both of her friends knew well.  While, not a trained statistician, Shar could hold her own with mental calculation - and she seemed to be performing one right now.

"++Negative.++" the former corporate operative quipped curtly and with some finality, "++Return home.++"  Jeopardizing the mission was not worth it; no matter that the deal already stank.  Sharik knew that extra blood on their hands wouldn't make it smell any sweeter at this point.  And she left it at that; besides it was time to share more details.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 78):

Vonon settled back into the comfortable seat of the limo and closed his eyes.

It was looking to be a long wait.

Quin recieved the message, a visible frown over her face.  She began to head back, never turning her back on the two men.

A text transmitted as she moved toward Sharik and the vehicle, You know I can style it.  Be stealthy, make it look like an inner dispute, make it seem to be self defense, etc.

She was now in sight of the car, likely in yelling distance, easy enough to be picked up even if the car passed by.

"Well Voron, it might be that someone had came from off planet to bring parts for the facility or maybe had heard a local talk about something strange that happened, you never know." Sir Walter said

"We can wait a while for Q to check the place out but unless this is where they leave for the facility, this is a dead end." he added.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 83):

Without lifting his head or opening his eyes, Vonon responds,

"Oh, I'm not discounting the possibility of a lucky find." he says, "Stars abouve! Quite a number of claim jumper raids, back in Cassandra's Belt, were based on Intel gained from comments overheard at various port bars."

"And like I said, I'm all up for another round of pub-crawling." Vonon raises an arm and pulls back his black jacket sleeve to reveal his wrist chrono, "I just want to point out that, between me and Shar'r going to change our clothes and the drive out here for the crap amount of Intel we got, we've already used up almost half the time we have, before we're supposed to meet-up with the others."

"And, frankly, I am stumped for how to proceed at this point. The Intel source we were going to pump turned up nothing useful, but maybe the others will have better success. My simple Patrolman's brain can only think to head out to the target area and assist in the search for the secret lab."

Vonon finally lifts his head a little bit, as he drops his arm back down to the seat cushion, and cracks open one eye to look at Walter,

"And, while I find the potential business opportunity of hooking up with you all to be quite interesting, remember that I am actually here on vacation. All this criminal-type action on a planet where said actions aren't illegal is just some vacation fun, for me. I'm taking it seriously, mind you, but it's still all fun and games to me."

Sharik took an idle sip from her tumbler, then as slight chuff escaped her lips as Vonon made his pronouncement about this being his vacation.  The sounds was actually highly reminiscent of a vargr sound, it would seem that more than a touch of her vargr companion's mannerisms were available to her.

"Dahling," the diminutive dilettante intoned with an almost syrupy sweet inflection in her voice, "you know me.... I have been 'on vacation' for more than a decade now..."  And it was true; she'd been on her 'Grand Tour' of the sector for more than twelve years.  In that time, living off of family revenue, investment dividends, odd jobs, working passages, grav-cycle racing contracts and tours, and just about any other method that she could manage to garner (though not necessarily keep) income.

As for the seriousness of the situation, Shar had always seemed to take everything with a certain amount of weight.  Vonon was well aware that the youthful-looking socialite took her recreation (of which she might actually count many of those 'odd jobs') with determined seriousness that sometimes bordered on obsessive single-mindedness.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Sharik often seemed to have little else to obsess about.

Or, perhaps, as her long-term friends knew it was something fairly deeply ingrained in her base personality.

A gentle tap game at the window closest to Sharik, it was Quin returning.  Her face still mattered with concern.

"Sharik, things just do not feel right.  You know what I mean?  What did others find out?"

She remained standing where she was and did not enter the vehicle until it was shown she was welcome.

Sharik popped the door for Quinzella, her internal reverie broken by the short rap on the window.  She gestured for her friend to come into the more cozy quarters of the limousine.  She wasn't about talk shop with the window open.

It was then that she realized that she hadn't weighed in on their next destination.  "Bar is fine." the dark-haired dilettante noted simply but rather noncommittally over the rim of her tumbler, "but so is the rendezvous point."  Shar obviously didn't feel that they needed to be there bottleneck timing-wise when it came to rendezvous.  They might as well get a move onto the next destination if there was nothing left here.

Having heard Darrel's beckons, she tried to make sure that Quinzella entered the cabin quickly.  She wanted to get him on the line as quickly as possible, but would not do so with either the door or the window open.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:36, Tue 13 Jan 2015.

Vonon snorted in amusement without coming out of his relaxed position.



Again, with a lazy conservation of motion, Vonon's only reaction is to lift his hand and give a non-commital wave before dropping the hand back onto his chest.

Quin slid into the car beside Sharik, still not sure about the others.  Behind her she closed the door and made sure the window was up.

Deep in thought about the incident, Sir Walter took another sip from his glass and looked around. Noting that the group was in the vehicle, he gave a sigh. "Lets go and meet with the others." he decided. "To the rendezvous point." he said to the limo driver over the intercom before finishing the drink.

"What were your observations?" he asked the group

Walter is probably more used to the convoluted politics of court, or the layered shell game of corporate machinations. Here on Grendel, there's not so much of that. It's still a rather backward planet, but those sorts of things just take place on a much smaller scale. Instead of 20 hidden interconnections, here there may only be 3.

Certainly the current situation is a bit more than it appears (though it was meant to look as it appears), but it's probably not as convoluted as he was expecting.

Quin shrugged, "The Vegr is gruff, the people here are more than they say or appear.  That we were followed, that smatterings of information are being traded already about us."

She looked at Sharik, "That I could not stop."  She chuckled, trying to show she was not truly upset about this.

She turned back, "And that are chaotic little tribe is much too big for such a simple event."

Sharik patched Darrel into the feed, since he had prompted the entire group for feedback.  She simply nodded to Quinzella's summary, then Shar summarized her own findings, "Oolak is plant.  The two pairs that we marked..." one of which was the pair that Q had been watching, "... also continue to be on the Ondrac payroll."  Her thin fingers tapped out a rhythm on her dynamic dataglove display and a repeat of the commdot capture was relayed to everyone assembled, even Darrel, if he is still on the line.

"We can't stop them from relaying our actions to central." she concluded, giving a pointed look at Quinzella, "the alternative of trying to either immobilize or eliminate them would have been outside the mission parameters."

"Be careful, Count Cromwell." the diminutive dilettante noted, after taking another sip from her tumbler, "Del Vinian could also be a plant.  It is a little too convenient..."  She took a deep breath, for the implication was still all too clear to her.  They were being setup as convenient patsies.  Not necessarily expected to fail, but potentially expendable off-world assets.

All the guys receive a comm from Sam

"New development means we have an earlier deadline to meet as well, at Midnight. We need to be at the Submersible no later than 2200 to have a chance of meeting this. Don't be late! Sam.".

ooc

posting this in case yr not following my thread, hope that's ok?
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 17:44, Tue 20 Jan 2015.

No one else is following your thread--they can't even see it as it was set up as a private thread for Sam and Ikram.

So the limo is directed to take them to the Seacraft Marina. I'll start a new thread so that the others can join in as available.