Sharik's lips were pressed thin into a tight moue, her brow knit with concentration as she kept her eyes on the sensor readings and her ears open on the comm lines.  The diminutive brunette motioned to Sir Walter, pressing her earbud into her ear as she strained to hear something over the white noise.  "I think there's something..." she narrated, her eyes narrowing as Shar tried desperately to listen, "possible weapons discharge ... one... maybe two explosions."

The youthful-looking operative cursed the high-tech noise cancelling properties of the commdot microphone once more ... useful in drowning out ambient environmental noise when making a phone call, not nearly as useful in this situation.  Not for the first nor last time in her life, Sharik just couldn't be sure.  "Best be ready to move." she advised the shuttle's pilot.

The man on the left that Vonon shot moves a bit... until the gas reaches him, and then he's out. His vaccsuit took some of the damage, though, so he'll live.

Moving a bit more forward, Kaengarr and Vonon can see two people on the floor over to the right of the bridge... one by the command chair and one at the next chair forward on that side. Neither are moving.

  "Four down on the top deck. Sam, Khea, and Pablo, are you all okay?" Kaengarr called over the group's comm as he advanced toward the bridge at a more cautious pace to take a look inside from the relative cover of the hallway corner, weapon still at the ready. Just because everything was momentarily quiet didn't necessarily mean that it was safe...
This message was last edited by the player at 09:11, Fri 11 Dec 2015.

Sam triggered her comms "We're fine, need help? There may be more of them"

She continues to stay on watch, waiting for Khea to finish fiddling with the engines

  "That's why you're with Khea. Seems clear here, but stay sharp. Pablo?"

  Maybe there were more, maybe there weren't... but where were the hostages?

"I'm behind the chair at the bridge comms position.  Four hostiles encountered, no sign of any of the VIPs, Commander."

That said, and since comms silence was no longer in place, Pablo sent an invitation to Sharik, offering access to his computer and HUD systems, and thus the feeds from his Combination Viewer, Atmosphere Tester, Personal Med Scanner, and Radio (5k km) and Laser (500 km) transceivers, plus the HUD pickups from his pistol, assault weapon, and wrist launcher.

  Kaengarr sidestepped to get a look at the ex-marine's condition and immediately declared, "Darrel, Pablo needs attention," silently thankful that there was a breathable atmosphere as he beckoned the actor turned field medic forward with a wave of his arm. "Vonon and I will take care of these four."

  Glancing toward his fellow Vargr as he unfastened his shield, preferring to set it aside rather than give up his weapon, he added, "I've got the bridge. Get the two in the hallway. Take their weapons and drag them in here. We'll tie them up under guard." Barring something unexpected, that's exactly what he then set about doing, though he had one more question for their comms operator as he worked. "Sharik, any life signs or activity outside the bridge and engineering?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:59, Fri 11 Dec 2015.

Realizing the trang grenades are not necessary, Darrel will move forward to apply 1st aid to Pablo.
12:08, Today: Darrel Cromwell rolled 12 using 2d6+1.  1st aid.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:23, Fri 11 Dec 2015.

Still working on the system Khea asks over the com: "Do all of you have night or low light vision in your suits if you need them at all?"

  "I do." Vargr eyesight was notoriously bad in dark conditions and Kaengarr considered a good set of multi-function goggles to be a basic piece of equipment no matter where he went or what he was doing, and he was wearing them now under his faceplate.

It'd normally be hard to treat wounds while a person is still in a vaccsuit, but in Pablo's case, the wounds were all caused by laser, so they are mostly self-cauterizing burn damage. Darrel quickly determines that no internal injuries were caused, so treatment is standard ABF (anti-burn foam) spray that covers and protects the burn area, keeps infection from occurring, promotes skin regrowth and provides an analgesic.

"Thanks, Lord Cromwell. Did you play a doctor in one of your performances?" While Darrel checked his wounds, Pablo checked his gear. When Khea came on, he answered, "Yes, ma'am." Then, he looked back at Darrel. "Do you think the guys in the companionway were guarding the VIPs in those compartments they came out of?"

Two positive responses were enough for Khea. While she was not allowed to turn of live support because of the hostage (which they weren't paid for saving) she could cut the power to the lights which is exactly what she did.
That should give us an additional advantage in case the hijackers have do not have vision enhancements.

ooc: 21:29, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 6 using 2d6+1 ((3,2)). (should actually be 4 as I forgot the minus)

The lights in the ship suddenly all wink out.

Sam curses and switches on her helmet lights

"something for the shopping list" she mutters

"Everything is clear on the scopes and the dots," Sharik glanced in Walter's direction to confirm that the coast was clear, "but my ability to read your locations is only estimated through the gyroscopic position data posted by your connections.  And I can't get a reading through the hull of any of the enemies' activities."  There was only a touch of chagrin in her voice, though one could almost see lips pressed thin.  She wished she could do more, but the situation was what it was; Shar'd know better for the future.

She didn't bother responding to the Khea's query since she wasn't on the ship and wouldn't be affected by the darkness, in any case; her datashades had the enhanced spectral analysis package and so Sharik had no problems seeing into the infrared and ultraviolet portions of the spectrum as well as in low-light conditions.  Of course, in some ways the real trick was in the filtering and not the data acquisition; but, her glove and shades had that covered.

Since Vo, Pablo and the others had broken radio silence, Sharik asked for a status check, "All Empire.  This is Empire Central; check-in with status please."  The diminutive ex-operative had a fair idea of what everyone was up to, but she also had the luxury of not being under fire.  With the seeming break in action, it might be best to get everyone caught up.

Smiling and patting Pablo on the shoulder "Darrel is fine for now, I'm glad you're ok. That was fine work you did here. We didn't have time to check the compartments, so unknown."


Darrel switches on his lights.


Flipping into assault marine character, "EC, this is E06, Currently, 1 friendly WIA, ambulatory and ready for action. Securing of 4 tangos being done now. No hostages found yet. More later. Out."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Fri 11 Dec 2015.

Pablo smiled faintly as his visuals darkened and cleared, after adjusting not to the change in the ship's lighting, but Darrel's helmet lights turning on.

Sharik, Sir Walter, to quickly report, the bridge is secured, four unidentified shooters are down. No fatalities, though there were a few injuries involved. Ms. Khea has control of the onboard lighting, possibly other shipboard systems. No VIPs found yet, and the ship is not yet fully secured. Commander Vonon, Captain Ruzokh, Count Cromwell, and I are on or near the bridge at this time."
This message was undeleted by the player at 01:50, Sat 12 Dec 2015.

  Taken aback at what he'd heard, Kaengarr couldn't help but send a dumbfounded look Darrel's way - was there a problem with the comms or had the actor really spoken that gibberish? Nevertheless, he recovered his wits in time to add to what Pablo had just reported. "We're getting the shooters tied up right now."

  Once that had been dealt with and Pablo was back on his feet, Kaengarr considered their next steps on the darkened ship. They weren't in any particular hurry now that the drive systems were offline and they had control of the bridge, but the ship itself wasn't secure and the hostages were still missing.

  "Khea and Sam, lock down engineering and come up to us. Darrel, see what you can get from internal sensors. Sharik and Walter, keep watch for anyone leaving the ship. Pablo, guard these..." He snarled the last word as he jabbed a finger toward the four bound assailants. "...and be ready as backup. Vonon with me. We check the rooms on this level."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:28, Sat 12 Dec 2015.

With the lights turned off Khea feels that she did everything she could do here. Though she would want to wait out the rest of this operation in the familiarity of an engine room locking herself in here would hardly leave a good impression on the others.
Besides her suit did not have any vision enhancements or lights. Aslans can see quite well in dim light, but not in the dark and who would have thought that humaniti ships do not have an emergency light on a separate circuit? So she had to follow Samantha anyway. It shouldn't be all that dangerous now. After all how many more hijackers could there be?

Pablo chuckled after a moment, and unconsciously mimicked Darrel by clapping him on the shoulder. "Not bad...Sarge,"

Holstering his gauss pistol, he unclipped the assault weapon from its place across his chest, and smiled with real satisfaction as the boxy thing's rails hummed to life. Deciding that at least looking ready for overkill was the new order of the day, he took just a moment to fix the monofilament bayonet into it's lug on the front, and then went over to watch the prisoners.

"Now that we are out here, anybody feel like trying to pull up a crew manifest for this ship? If any of our shooters here are crew members, than we likely have more hijackers running around loose."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 03:41, Sat 12 Dec 2015.

  "Good idea, Pablo. Darrel on it. Sensors, manifests, security logs... anything relevant!"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:30, Sat 12 Dec 2015.

You already have the crew manifest for the ship:

Captain Thom Galway (pilot)
Marco Kell (sensors)
Valeska Brandenburg (communications)
John-Quincy McBannister (grinder)
Trina Brodsky (digger)
Arkady Vlodnak (digger)


The computer isn't going to be accessible until the security measure has run its course.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 211):

Pablo pulled up the list of crew, and nodded.  Then he decided to do what he could, and started moving the restrained prisoners to the chairs on the bridge. He started with the man who'd beeen sitting in the command chair when he first entered the bridge.

The moonofilament bayonet, and his laser torch, came into play as needed, and he cut away the man's vacc suit, leaving Kaengarr's restraints in place, and checking all the while for any identifying msrks. Once the suit was in pieces, he made a pile of any comms or suit computers found, for those with the right skills to examine when they could.

He then went through the man's pockets, in the process of roughly searching him, for any hidden weapons or gear or most importantly ID, in whatever the prisoner wore under the suit. Anything found was added to the pile of items. Then the man's clothing was cut away. leaving him in his skivvies. Another rough, impersonal search of body cavities followed.

Only then, when Pablo was satisfied that he'd found all he was going to on the man's person, he sat him in the chair, and duct taped the captive to it, very securely.

He repeated the process with each of the prisoners, leaving the female for last, in hopes Samantha would get there in time to process her. Pablo would if he had to, but he definitely preferred to leave her to another woman.

Sam replied to Kaengarr "Roger that. We'll start here, but you folks be careful. My hunch is they'll all be nearer where you are".

She turned to Khea "Shall we? " She said motioning to the Engineering door. "If you open it I'll cover you"

She made a mental note. When this was over, they really need to sort out their chain of command...