In reply to StarMaster (msg # 162):

Having confirmed that the forward companionway is clear of opponents, Vonon turns back to Kaengarr and takes a step towards him.

Halting just in front of Kaengarr, Vonon reaches up to the left side of his helmet and opens a tiny compartment; pulling out a light cable with a plug-end on it. This plug he reaches over to Kaengarrs helmet and inserts into a port.

"Pablo is solo up on the Command Deck." Vonon says over the temporary hardline connection, "I'd really rather clear the ship deck-by-deck -- that's how I was trained -- but for right now, we need to get up there fast. If we spot some sign of the captive crew, then we'll deviate to rescue them."

"But for now, we follow the plan and climb up to the engine room and secure it, then we find Pablo. So, into the launch bay."

Vonon suddenly pauses, "However...if Pablo is causing a distraction up on the Command Deck...maybe it would be worth it to chance using the lift...what do you think?"

  Bristling with tension at their circumstance, it nevertheless took only a split second for Kaengarr to process that information and come back with, "Sam and Khea take the hatch to engineering. Darrel with us. We take the lift to Pablo," over the hard-line. He still didn't like the idea of getting caught in a confined space, but if Pablo was causing a distraction then he'd need backup, and five of them climbing two decks via a single set of unaligned hatches would waste precious time.

  There were too many unknowns for his liking, but Pablo making a ruckus would probably distract the hijackers from their use of the elevator, and together Sam and Khea could probably deal with any stragglers in engineering. If not, the elevator would still make for faster backup for both them and Pablo than clambering around via the ladders.

  One thing seemed certain: Pablo going in alone had been a bad idea.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:00, Tue 08 Dec 2015.

With the rest of the team assaulting the mining vessel, Walter took a moment to scan the area around the ship to make sure that none of the hijackers were on the surface trying to come in from behind.

Khea positions herself next to the ladder and waits for Samantha to go first. While she has some Zero-G training getting through the hatch in the bulky space suit with a toolkit in tow would occupy her enough so that she couldn't react to any enemies she might encounter up there.

Darrel follows Kaengarr's instructions.

With Walter doing the visual scanning, Sharik kept her eyes glued to the sensor displays on the console before her.  She remained strapped into the co-pilot's seat ready to move the shuttle should anything come up.

For while she may not have as much experience as Sir Walter with respect to driving the shuttle.  She could make due under duress.  And the auburn-haired socialite had no desire to be caught unawares and unprepared; there were enough things that were dynamic and not in their control.

Tied into Pablo's commdots - the frequency agreed on by the two friends, Shar kept the small electronic sounders audio feeds running as well in the background.  As a centralized location, she could dispatch and relay the information from them easily and not force the others to do the filtering.

Sam waited for Vonun to call his play before moving off.

She tried to grab his attention visually, and if he paid attention she would use a hardwire link to talk to him

.

Walter does not pick up any signs of anyone on the surface of the asteroid, though he's still only using visual sensors, which are passive. He also doesn't pick up any radio comm signals.


Sharik's sensor 'glove' is sensitive enough to pick up the commdot signals, even though they only have about a meter range. Unfortunately, she doesn't pick up any sounds from them.


Khea and Sam have no problem accessing the launch bay and floating up to the ceiling hatch, cycling it, and going through it to the corridor just outside of engineering.


Kaengarr, Vonon, and Darrel squeeze into the lift and activate it, counting on Pablo's distraction, whatever that may be, to distract anyone that might be monitoring the lift.

=================================================================================

Since the man Pablo was shooting at had been behind the command chair, Pablo's shot misses him. While Pablo pulls out a flashbang grenade and prepares to toss it, the world suddenly seems to erupt around him.

The door to his left opens and someone in the room shoots him.

The door on the right behind him opens and someone in there shoots him.

And the man behind the command chair pops out on the other side and shoot him!

23:33, Today: StarMaster rolled 10,9,11 using 2d6+4,2d6+4,2d6+4 ((1,5,2,3,3,4)). 3 hits!

23:43, Today: StarMaster rolled 3,3,4 using 1d6+2,1d6+1,1d6+3 ((1,2,1)). damage.

The first hit does 3 points of damage, the second one does 3 points of damage, and the third hit does 4 points of damage.

Since he was effectively surrounded, clearly it was time be elsewhere. With that in mind, he dropped the armed flashbang grenade, trusting to the non-skid deck covering to keep it more or less in place till it went off, and then moved across the bridge, taking cover himself behind the communications chair.  Holding his gauss pistol ready, his other hand moved to his web gear, coming to rest for an instant on a plasma grenade, before moving with some reluctance to a tranq gas bomb.

In reply to Pablo Esteban Ryzov (msg # 172):

Once the lift doors close on Vonon, Kaengarr, and Darrel, Vonon checks the internal display inside his helmet; checking the air quality -- with a nod, Vonon opens his faceplate.

Turning to Darrel, he says, "You exit the lift last, Excellency. Kaengarr and I will take point." Vonon then extends his left hand...

"How's your throwing arm, my Lord?" Vonon offers two tranq-gas grenades, "It would be great if you'd stay right behind us -- heck, use us as shields! -- and toss gas grenades over our shoulders at the perps as we advance up the companionway -- if you have more than these two, feel free to toss them, too.  The perps are probably wearing their suits, but we might just catch'em with their helmets off."

Vonon pauses a moment to see if anyone responds, then closes up his helmet and turns to face the doors, before they open.

Coming out the top of the stair well, Sam crouched ready and aimed her tranq as her eyes swept the area for any unfriendlies

  Though his ears and whiskers twitched at the absurdity of hearing formal Imperial address during a raid, Kaengarr kept his attention on the elevator doors whilst Vonon was instructing his lord on what to do. By the time Vonon was done talking the elevator was almost at-level and small blades had slid from hiding at strategic points along the limbs of Kaengarr's suit, making him look more like the sort of corsair Vargr that might appear in one of Darrel's films.

  He didn't much like the implication that the two of them were there to take bullets for the Imperial noble, but with Darrel's combat experience being limited to a stage-set he also recognized that there were practical reasons for the arrangement. Still, there was one unpleasant possibility that hadn't been accounted for, and he growled it out for Darrel's benefit as the elevator came to a stop. "Take cover in doorways when you can. They're better for it than we are, and if one of us goes down you'll need somewhere safe to use a medkit."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:01, Tue 08 Dec 2015.

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 175):

[Oh yes, most definitely...] Vonon says via his suits external speaker, turning to look over his shoulder to Darrel -- but catching sight of Kaengarrs suddenly modified suit.

[Ooo! Shiney and sharp! You must give me the name of your tailor!]

  "Gkakhaellan Armory. Mostly." That terse reply was all that Kaengarr had time for before the elevator doors began to move...
This message was last edited by the player at 14:01, Tue 08 Dec 2015.

Darrel readies the tranq grenades, as soon as the lift opens and he sees any enemy (without sealed helmets), he'll toss them.

Not listening to the com chatter Khea detaches the cord holding her toolkit and grabs her gun awkwardly and after some trying with the bulky vacc suit sets it to single fire.
Assuming Sam is ready she then opens the hatch to the engine room.

Khea opens the hatch to the cargo deck, and pops her head up to see a deserted corridor. Both hatches at the corridor's ends are closed. This deck is still in zero gravity. Khea has no problem climbing up to the deck and opening the rear corridor hatch, giving access to engineering.

Sam can climb up right behind her.

=================================================================================

Pablo drops the flashbang and dashes over to the bridge corner where the comm station is. He moves past the man behind the command chair too fast for him to get a shot off, but the woman behind the navigator's chair has a better line of sight. As she moves around to the side, he fires off a shot at Pablo.

22:05, Today: StarMaster rolled 11,12 using 2d6+4,3d6-3 ((5,2,6,3,6)). Laser shot & damage.

Pablo gets hit for another 15 points of damage.

That's when the flashbang goes off.

22:28, Today: StarMaster rolled 6,13,12,8 using 2d6+2,2d6+2,2d6+2,2d6+3 ((3,1,6,5,4,6,1,4)). Saves vs. flashbang.

Pablo can see that it affected the woman that shot him (deafened, blinded, stunned, but not unconscious), but he can't tell how well it affected the others.


================================================================================

The lift stops at the upper deck, with the gravity in the elevator slowly increasing as it rises so that it's equal to the gravity on the upper deck. The door opens just as a flashbang down the hall goes off. It's too far away to seriously anyone in the lift, but the flash is still noticeable.

Whatever sound the left may have made, it's drowned out by the flashbang.

As Kaengarr steps out of the lift, he sees two men peek out of doors down at the end. Their attention is focused forward.

Pablo winced at the new burn, but was grinning tightly as the banger went off, and he saw some effects. In a Peacekeeper operation, doctrine would have called for blowing the woman's head off, since she was the easiest target, and she had now self-identified as a combatant.

But he wasn't here with the Peacekeepers, but with his friends, and their friends, and they didn't want people killed unless it couldn't be helped. So he tossed the tranq gas grenade over by the captain's chair on the bridge, in hopes of at least slowing down the pair on the bridge.

Once in Engineering, Sam does a quick sweep of the area before moving, including the engineers station, before heading to the door.

She said to Khea "I think we're wasting our time, I think they're all going to be around the bridge area, and we should make our way up there - quickly"

ooc
suggest we move to cargo bay 18, and go up onto the bridge through that hatch Khea

Khea gets her toolkit and enters the engineering section, already scanning the room for the reactor controls.

"The plan was to disable the ship in case the hijackers cracked the ships password. If you want to join the fight go ahead, but I am not finished here."

Not looking back to Sam Khea starts to disengage the main power without doing any damage to the ships systems.


19:47, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 8 using 2d6-1.  Working on power systems. +1 Eng; +1 Edu; -3 Vacc Suit.

ooc: I wouldn't hit anything anyway with the -3 from being untrained in vacc suits.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:03, Wed 09 Dec 2015.

Khea has no trouble disabling the power. It takes about 3 minutes, though, since she is trying to disable power to the engines without damaging it. Damaging it would be quicker and easier.

It'll take the same amount of time to 'fix' the disruption, if Khea does it. It could take 20 or more minutes for someone else to find the problem and fix it if they have a spare part.

  Spurred on by the fact that Pablo was clearly in trouble, Kaengarr dashed down the hall as only a motivated Vargr could, taking advantage of the pair's preoccupation with the pyrotechnics on the bridge to approach them unawares and snap off a shot with his stunner. The presumed hijackers had lethal weapons and certainly wouldn't return the favor of using non-lethal fire once (or if) they recovered from the surprise, but if nothing else the presence of new targets would give his besieged pa... compatriot a reprieve.


A Vargr speed burst (8 squares) puts Kaengarr roughly halfway between the elevator and control room, within short range of the two in the hallway.

05:57, Today: Kaengarr Ruzokh rolled 13 using 2d6+2.  Stunner.
05:59, Today: Kaengarr Ruzokh rolled 16 using 3d6+5.  Stun damage.

Any attack against Kaengarr will be at -1 DM for movement and he will dodge or parry as appropriate (for another -1 or -2) if someone takes a shot at him.

This message was last edited by the player at 06:29, Thu 10 Dec 2015.

Sam nodded at Khea "Fair enough, but I can't help with that, I'll stay by the door and keep watch"

Sam waited for Khea to finish, and then said "Shall we head for the bridge now?"

ooc
Khea - Thought that was the plan, but when I was looking through the old posts couldn't find anything.

But in 3 minutes all the combat will be over, I would think, so we should probably hold off posting till we're tagged back in

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 186):

OOC: So, we have "surprise" on these guys? Woo-Hoo! That means we don't have to roll Initiative; we just add 12 to out Dex DM. For Vonon, that would be 12 + 1 = 13. Joy.



Like Kaengarr, Vonon sprints out of the lift and around the corner, heading down the passageway, leading with his big automatic.

After a moments assessment of the situation, Vonon opens the comm-channel that everyone had previously agreed to use as an open channel to all members of the group.

"Now, your Lordship! Start tossing!" Vonon broadcasts for Darrel's benefit, then sends, "Pablo! If you're already dead I'm gonna kick your ass! Location!"

His thinking oddly in sync with Kaengarr, Vonon fires his weapon at almost the same time, but not at the same target -- a loud "BLAM!" comes from behind the two hijackers, as the pistol fires in the confined space of the passageway.

OOC:
Vonon Ronkunu rolled 7 using 2d6(6+1) +0(Range) -1(Recoil) +1(Slug Weapons) to hit a Hijacker with his 10mm Automatic Pistol.
Vonon Ronkunu rolled Damage (wherever it happens) of 11 using 3d6-2 ((2,5,6)).

Kaengarr and Vonon sprint down the hallway until they are within close range of the two men in the doorways, and then shoot--Vonon targets the one on the left, leaving Kaengarr to target the one on the right.

Pablo's flash-bang is still ringing in the ears of the two men, so they can't hear any footsteps. However, they do hear Vonon's gun go off as the bullet slams into the man's back and drives him forward to go sprawling on the deck.

Kaengarr's shot also hits the other man, who drops to the floor.

Pablo's tranq grenade then goes off on the bridge. He can't be sure if it was effective, as he can't see the two people, but the shooting stops.