"Sorry for being jealous, I have no reason to be, she's the best! Sorry Varca, sorry everyone. I know I got nothing to worry about, it's a big step down to any of you lot!" he says with a grin and kissed Ingrid on the cheek, "Sorry dear, I just love you and fear losing you. Nothing to fear!"

With that out of the way, Ghent wasn’t sure where he would serve best. He gave the pair a stoic look, nodded, then absentmindedly scratched his chin. “Why must we split up,” he asked finally. “I want in on the boarding action, and I sure could use the five star meal at the Blue Diamond. We even have a good reason to be there,” he said nodding towards Ted and Ingrid. “They haven’t proposed properly, and I don’t see why they’d miss a chance of doing it in style…”

In reply to Ghent Bel-Andis (msg # 943):

     "We don't necessarily have to split up." Varca responds, "Of the two missions, going after Mercifuge has the greater priority -- and is the most time critical.  The longer we wait on going after that ship, the greater the chance that the crew aboard that ship will hear that Silverhand is dead.  And once they hear that, they'll launch as soon as possible, to go back and tell Redthane."

     "Meeting with The Admiral is a secondary option, now.  Yes, there is a potential there for getting on The Admiral's good side -- assuming he ever had one.  I mean, hey, who doesn't want one of the most dangerous Pirate Lords in the entire Sector in their pocket?"

     "Truthfully, Ghent, I thought to have you go see The Admiral for two reasons -- one; you've said yourself you're not that great with a gun.  At least, that's what I thought you said.  And two; while I'm impressed as all get-out with your knife skills, I gotta tell you -- that frikkin glowing blade of yours scares the crap outta me!  You not only cut a damn machinegun in half, but you also cut open an airlock door made from Hullsteel!  I'm just a little concerned about letting you loose on a starship with vacuum on the other side of the hull!"

     Varca gives Ghent a grim smile,

     "But there's no doubt in my mind, now, that you're good in close quarters combat.  So, if you wanna help capture Mercifuge, you're welcome to tag along."

     Varca looks around the luxuriously appointed lounge the group is scattered across -- his eyes finally settling on a woman standing off to the side,

     "Taliesa!  With BB gone, you may be our last ex-Space Marine.  Can I assume you've got the vacc-suit skills to help Ghent, here, initialize one of our Raider Suits to his personal specifications?  I think we have one-or-two still unassigned."

     "Anyone else wanna speak out against meeting The Admiral?" Varca asks, "The man doesn't even know we're planning to try and meet him.  And we can always try the same ploy again later, if we need to."

     "So, what's it to be?  We all make a play for the Mercifuge, or a few of us split off and try to make nice with The Admiral?"

"Sure, I can adjust the suit for Ghent," Taliesa replies.

"I don't recommend ALL of us assault the Mercifuge. Without any idea of the layout of the docking bay, we'll probably wind up getting in each other's way."

"Unless one of the three remaining crew is John Wick, they aren't going to take out even half of us. If we have to assault the ship, we've probably already lost. We're just not equipped for that sort of effort... and we'd probably destroy the ship in the process."

"That'd be okay if Redthane was aboard. Don't think that's the case."

"Just my marine two-credits."

In reply to Varca Lexand (msg # 944):

"Perhaps we have time to do both? We might need all of us to take the Mercifuge."

"The whole idea is to not have to storm the thing in the first place!" Zhouth began to throw his hands wide, then caught himself doing so halfway before the comm could go flying and took a couple of seconds to juggle it back into his grip. A blink and a breath, and he continued with just one hand thrown out, the other firmly clutching the comm. "You've got codes and two of their crew and a convincing reason; just let yourselves in and let them know that you've had a... a..." The free hand pinwheeled as he sought the words, which transitioned to a slap as he found it (or at least thought he had). "Sticky promotion, or whatever that navy term was!"

He calmed down a bit as he continued, once again carefully cradling the comm in both hands. "I still think that we should be four at the table. It's more traditional, and we need a formal security guard, and an extra witness if this is going to be the formal proposal event between Theodore and Ingrid." One hand ventured off of the comm long enough to do an index-and-pinkie point toward the repeatedly redeclared couple. "I mean, sure, I can be a witness, but I'm not a very convincing bodyguard, you know?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:45, Mon 14 Nov 2022.

"Meeting the admiral seems like a good idea, I'm a lot better at talking than shooting, especially high-class. And it makes sense; in the Sword Worlds, women handle a lot of the ah, informal contacts. As long as they don't know about my father." Ingrid said. She blushed when Varca teased her about a boytoy. "Bodyguard would work, or male relative..."
She looked a little askance as the topic switched to potentially ordering her into mortal peril. "Sword World girls aren't afraid of life's hazards" she said proudly but added "but this still isn't a subject I'd like to dwell on."
She shared a kiss with Theo. "You needn't worry, dear" she added, smiling encouragingly.

She gasped when Ghent proposed that Theo, well, propose. "Oh, my!"

"Ha-ha!" Viridian couldn't help laughing at the sudden turn the conversation had taken.

"Don't worry, Ingrid. It doesn't have to be for real... unless you want it to be. It can just be for show... like a stage play for the benefit of the Admiral. And, like real ones, you can wind up breaking up with Theo tomorrow, next week, or a year from now."

"So, we've got Theo, Ingrid, Zhouth and Ghent going to the Blue Diamond."

"We've got Varca, Taliesa, and Rayjay taking the Mercifuge. Who else? Rejji? Krrsh? Donio? He's got sneaky skills, doesn't he? Or how about Collyn? Doesn't he teleport?"

"I suppose Aaron and I are the back-up in case something goes horribly wrong. Right?"

"If all else fails, I can teleport into the ship and let you in."

"I wasn't objecting! I think it's a lovely plan" Ingrid said happily. "Assuming Theo still wants to formally propose after seeing me knee-deep in some engine's guts."
She paused and added "Although if you asked me a few years ago how I thought I would be proposed to, I wouldn't have expected 'on a distant world, surrounded by pirates and interstellar warriors.' Life is just funny sometimes"

"Pretty sure Varca said t'e Captain, Ingrid, myself, and Ghent were goin' to t'e Diamond, myself namely for my Navy 'istory and Ghent because Varca's afraid of 'is knife ventin' t'e Mercifuge. T'ough 'e may 'ave opened up t'at slot." He said with a shrug.

"While Z'out' was suggestin' 'e could play witness to a public proposal in Ghent's place if 'e wants to join t'e reclamation crew. Wouldn't really want to call it a boardin' party, cause if it 'ad to become one, you'd 'ave far more worries t'an just gettin' in. Like t'em undockin' and or tryin' to use t'eir vessel guns." Rayjay said pointing out the real dangers present with taking the Mercifuge by any means other than subterfuge.

"Not to mention, a large group approachin' t'em might raise too many questions while bein' of token assistance wit' gettin' aboard in t'e worst-case scenario. After all you only 'ave to put one of t'em down to get t'e rest in line." He said adding his two creds against them all going.



Before adding some credit to Collyn's emergency plan. "Worst case scenario, but certainly more viable t'an tryin' to cut t'rough an airlock mid undockin'."

"By t'e way, t'em two got suits right?" He asked, not sure if they were present or not after considering the worst-case scenario, would be a shame to lose new crew even if they were former pirates to hard vacuum.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:54, Thu 17 Nov 2022.

OOC:  Re: Msg #901, the prognosis for Drem and Gwyr was that they would be laid-up for a week.  So, Varca hasn't really been including them in his plans.  Oh, and Rayjay -- these two guys did have suits, but, uh, somebody blew them all too hell with Accelerator Rifle rounds!  Just sayin...  ^_^

---

     "Play Witness, play the Science Officer, play a useless Hanger-On, doesn't matter to me." Varca says, "Just remember we've already started the rumor, back on Torpol, that Vultan is the plaything of a Drinaxi Nobleman who's got it into his head to go out and 'play Spaceman'.  Any position you wanna give yourselves in that kind of entourage should sorta play off of that."

     "Ingrid can either just be the Nobleman's Trophy Girlfriend -- or, as you just mentioned, Ingrid -- you could be something like his Social Secretary.  Similarly, Zhouth, you could be anything from the Nobleman's Scientific Advisor -- a Science Officer -- or you could pass yourself off as his Administrative Assistant.  Rayjay -- yeah, he's obviously there as muscle -- but between his gruff demeanor and his Naval background, his presence will help sell the message that, while this Nobleman may be in over his head, he's still surrounding himself with capable people."

     "As for Ghent ... yeah, you nailed it.  I'm just afraid he'll poke a hole in the hull." Varca grins, "But I have the same fear from Collyn and his glowing blade!  The other reason, Ghent, that I suggested you go with the Team meeting The Admiral is because, well ... you clean up pretty well, and another sharp-looking person around our Captain-the-Baron might help sell the bluff.  If you wanna come help secure Mercifuge, then come along."

     "Ideally, we'll figure out how to use Silverhands overrides to open the ship's airlock.  We do that, sneak aboard, find the Crew and subdue them -- all hopefully without any violence.  Nice and quiet, like."

     "As far as I know, there isn't anything 'suspicious' about us relocating Vultan up to the base on The Skull..."

     Varca pauses and looks to Viridian,

     "Is it on The Skull, or in The Skull?" Varca asks, "I didn't pay much attention to it, when we approached the planet."

     "Anyway, we fly up to The Skull and dock just like anybody else.  A few of us, armed and wearing suits, but not acting like we're performing a Tactical Assault -- we just peacefully make our way over near where Mercifuge is docked.  Once there we keep things looking casual, as we try to remote open the airlock with Silverhands overrides."

     "If they work, and we open the airlock without setting off alarms, then we quickly and quietly slip aboard and do what we gotta do -- as peacefully as possible."

     "If the overrides don't open the airlock, but can disable the ship, then we do that, and come up with another plan.  Maybe disable the ship -- lock it down -- and then ask those guys to surrender."

     Varca shrugs, "Again, if the overrides won't open the airlock, but will shut down the ship systems, maybe we spook 'em into undocking and making a run for it -- we follow them, chase them away from The Skull, and then we use the overrides to shut them down out in space.  Then we just board 'em any which way we want."

While Varca was speaking, Zhouth took a moment to set down the comm unit on a shelf (securely toward the back of it, at that) before returning his attention to the discussion, and by the end of it he was ready to hold up his hand and offer a little wave, along with the suggestion that, "Just because they're not in any shape to go to the Mercifuge themselves doesn't mean that they can't give us the info necessary to get in, right? Codes, retinal patterns, genetic samples..." He trailed off for a moment with his hand doing a slow little twirl, which ended abruptly with, "Oh, and procedures, of course."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 04:38, Tue 15 Nov 2022.

"There are probably a hundred or more different security measures a captain can take to prevent access to his ship," Viridian offered, "but the majority of them aren't practical."

"Unauthorized entry will set off the alarm, but while no alarm will be sounded with authorized entry... assuming the codes we retrieved are valid... there will still be an indicator on the control panel... and maybe the airlock itself... that it is being opened."

"You can't sneak in that way... unless nobody's on watch. And even that depends on whether anyone or anywhere else on the ship is notified."

"I can't think of any reason why the remaining crew of the Mercifuge would be paranoid beyond normal precautions. The Skull may not be all that secure from within, but there's no reason--that we know of--for anyone to send an assassin up to the ship. So, we shouldn't expect a tripwire inside the airlock or any other kind of trap like that."

"Time is of the essence--the crew isn't going to wait for very long for Silverhand to return. She might even have a safety program in play--the ship can't take off until she enters the code... or a certain amount of time has passed. I'm just saying... those are possibilities."

"Okay, the Skull is the name of the moon because it looks like a skull. However, the Highport was built there and about the only name anyone remembers calling it is The Skull."

"Coming up from the planet shouldn't be an issue, but we should still have a good reason. ATC's going to want to know why... you know, the usual docking request... they'll transmit a vector to one of the internal docking bays."

"Oh, I've got it... transferring crew to the Mercifuge... Krrsh! Don't panic, Krrsh... it's not for real. I doubt if the Mercifuge would buy that anyway, but anyone else is going to wonder what could possibly have changed."

In reply to Viridian Starfire (msg # 955):

     Varca nods along in agreement with Viridian's words.

     "Right, that's what I'm getting at with the Mercifuge job being time critical.  We need to move now!" Varca says, "So, if we are going to go ahead with meeting The Admiral, then everyone involved with that needs to relocate to the hotel room."

     "Look, we're gonna need three Teams -- one for meeting The Admiral, one for seizing the Mercifuge, and one to stay aboard Vultan keeping it ready to either chase after Mercifuge, if she manages to launch, or to drop back down to the planet, should the team meeting The Admiral need any support."

     "So, Zhouth, tell us again just exactly what you found on Silverhand's comm.  Is it what we're hoping for -- override codes for Mercifuge?  And if that's what we have, can we use them now, or do they need to be futzed with a little more?"

"Well, it looks like a ship code, and it's a code as-is, but please keep in mind that I can't guarantee that it's for the Mercifuge rather than, say, Redthane's ship, or just what it gives access to." Zhouth pointed toward the nearby holodisplay and refocused it on the piece of data in question: 540PD-5/4

"So you'd better consider it to be a maybe-passkey, not a guarantee that you can just walk up and take over their systems with one little set of digits." He shrugged while waving one hand in a dismissive gesture and making button tapping gestures with the other. "Actually, I was thinking that we should get the codes from the two crewmembers that we have here, and maybe take a look at their comms if there's any question about how truthful they're being?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 18:27, Tue 15 Nov 2022.

"That'd be Silverhand's personal command code," Krrsh offers. "The rest of the crew wouldn't have the same one."

"Viridian was probably right--that code locks down the ship so that it can't take off. If you use it to unlock the airlock, it might also release the ship."

"The thing is... there's something familiar about that code... I can't quite figure out why, though..."

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 957):

     "It's my understanding that Drem and Gwyr are currently in coldsleep...?" Varca questioningly looks to both Ingrid and Aaron, before continuing,

     "But even if they aren't, they still should be unconscious and in bed, so, just go take their comms -- assuming those comms survived Rayjay's gyrojet bombardment..."

     Varca casts a grin towards Rayjaynul, "Just bustin your chops, Rayjay.  You did an excellent job stopping those two.  Rejji -- go rifle through Gwyr and Drems stuff and see if you can find their comms.  Even if it's only pieces of comm.  Then give what you find to Zhouth."

     Varca addresses the group,

     "Hopefully slicing those comms won't take long -- and neither will comparing their coding to Silverhands comm.  As I said, we need to move fast on the Mercifuge, but this is something we have to figure out, before we can make that move."

     "I can help you, if you think it'll help, Zhouth.  I'm not bad with either comms or computers, and I'm a fair hand of a mechanic."



     "Well, please do try to remember what's familiar about it, won't you, Krrsh?" Varca snarks, "It could be really important towards you becoming Mercifuge's next Captain, y'know."

     "But, if I get what you said, Silverhand likely activated that code when she left Mercifuge, in order to lock it down at the dock.  And if the airlock is locked, it'll be the work of the guys onboard.  So, if we tried to use the code we have, it might open the airlock, but it more likely would just release the lockdown on the whole ship?"

     "Alright, okay, not a total stopper, here.  I've got years of experience getting stubborn locks to open..."

     Without turning to look, Varca swings his gloved left hand around to present a halting gesture towards Theo -- and his expected snippy comment,

     "...Without having to use explosives!  Thank you very much!" Varca adds.

---

OOC: Varca's offering to Assist.  As I understand the Skill Chain process for "working together", Varca would an appropriate Skill Check (say, Mechanic to make simple repairs) and the Effect # of Varca's roll would then be counted as a Bonus to Zhouth's E:Computers skill check, to work with the coding.  Ditto for any further work on Silverhand's comm.

“Years of experience getting stubborn locks to open…?” Ghent guffawed as Taliesa looked over his new vac suit, which now had several scuff marks and scratches from his first away mission to retrieve Silverhand. “Then why did I have to resort to my can opener on the last one, Mr. with ‘years of experience’ getting locks to open? Huh?” Ghent gave Varca a rueful grin as the marine tugged at his suits straps, and double checked he had the correct comm settings, and HUD display.

“I mean, okay… you look like you can open a beer and tear off the lids off a pickle jar, but… locks..? Really? That I have to see. Whoever’s going with you *has* to film this attempt, else it never happened. I want proof, and no… you ain’t borrowing my can opener. You’d likely slice your arm off and try to impersonate Silverhand… or slice someone’s nuts off…”

Ghent looked at Varca, then considered Ingrid and Ted, “I mean shit, I’m actually torn. I really want to see you work a lock, but I think Ingrid might need my help to ensure Ted has her ring.”

He looked up at Taliesa,  “100 quid that Ted doesn’t have a ring, and another 100 on Varca picking that lock takes over 5 minutes..?”
This message was last edited by the player at 03:38, Wed 16 Nov 2022.

In reply to Ghent Bel-Andis (msg # 960):

Teddy blinked his eyes at Varca, "What'd I do now Varca? I didn't say a thing! As far as you go Ghent, hand over the 100cr, I got it on Drinax! I'm prepared for my lady!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:34, Wed 16 Nov 2022.

“Show me,” Ghent said, hoping to appraise the ring, “you can’t do this with a zircon, man!”.

Well they shouldn't have run lol but good to know, missed the part with them not being present. Though can't we fix their suits?

Rayjay smirked in return before nodding. "Good to know, and I guess t'ey'll learn t'ere's no runnin' in my sector." He chuckled softly before simply listening to the rest of the plans for both operations, or three operations now seeing as they might need to keep the ship primed to chase a fleeing target.

Zhouth waved a hand side to side while snapping his fingers with the other as he interjected to Ghent, "If it's from Drinax then it probably isn't zircon. If it is, it's got some story behind it that still makes it more valuable than any random piece of synthetic carbon crystal."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:05, Fri 18 Nov 2022.

Teddy reddened a bit, he had bought a Zircon necklace, but a diamond ring when he was by himself.

In reply to Theodore McFarlane (msg # 965):

OOC: Not sure if Ted handed it over, but if he did Ghent would look at it carefully and all. He wouldn't know for sure since he wasn't an appraiser, but he would nod appreciatively. Then he'd glance up at Taliesa with a roguish grin, "Time to see if Varca can pick a lock then."