OOC: I’ve got a long-winded narrative to get you two up to speed here..

Kojo Botha and Sancho Castro, both crewmen on the pirate/smuggler ship the ‘Black Hole’ were leaving the Eros black market to acquire three fake transponder code when the entirety of Eros station shakes as some sort of large explosion occurs somewhere on Eros Station.

Nobody feels the telltale signs of the pressure dropping, so at least there is not any danger of vacuum exposure or loss of air.

But the announcement broadcast over a PA speaker in the corridor is in a female voice, and in several languages, does indicate there is a problem.

[Language unknown: “Ughasthouone Son korsonous di enpeunrind at thileshasion icasonred thuingred. Te ble an linessenc, evfiet lenadi a olet seanpa in nontwe e io anmeus ruthasest.”]

“Attention Eros station has experienced a radiation hazard breach. For your own safety, please proceed to the nearest hard shelter in an orderly fashion.”

[Language unknown: “Yinlesoerder Il ekilpo nti ingear'andwitwhe n venavenceout antsheson altang. Out ti in sanameove, statiored trlaie ss is ionsheort tho eeulto m iv inetio meheev.”]

[Language unknown: “Redectrutdin Isne onesheive ted hourutwhinothis k venwheersain welasa wheciv. Utear waswi nt ndewhiver, thospo artthowhe p tiome manoneiou est anyredfor t u esttiorom rilica.”]

For those who take a look at their hand terminals they get a ‘breaking news' notification. The news notification shows a massive ice hauler in Docking Bay three exploding while in its berth. The accompanying captions at the bottom of the news feed switches between Belter Creole to English that reads: Ice Hauler explodes in dock causing massive radiation contamination of Eros Station.

A few minutes later there is a station wide text notification:
> Due to radiation hazard breach all dockings bay for Eros Station are locked down. Please proceed to the nearest hard shelter immediately. <

---

The two men try to get in contact with their ship, the Black Hole located in docking bay two, but are unable to get a connection before the Eros wireless Network goes dark.

After one look at the radiation shelters where Sancho realizes that the tattoos on several CPM guards indicate they are members of the Ceres faction of an organized crime group known as Sohiro’s Crew, the two realize the hard shelters are not the best place to go and decide to try to reach docking bay two in the hopes that the Black Hole hasn’t left yet.

---

The Casino Level is a maze of Slot machines, Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, and Belter Juice tables. There is even a table playing the newly created game called ‘Remember the Cant’. Interspersed amongst all this are walled off Pachinko parlors, betting halls for races or prize fights occurring throughout the system, as well as small, medium and large restaurants.

About one-third of these places are open, their proprietors acting as if business is as usual, albeit with all transactions being carried out with physical scrip. There are people acting as if things are normal, spending or gambling away their physical scrip. Groups of 2-4 CPM guards patrol the casino area but are not being hostile to anyone.

Massive shutters have closed off all but one of the exits leading ‘up spin’ to docking bay two. This one exit is guarded by a large force of CPM personnel, and about a dozen other individuals. These dozen individuals are wearing an as of yet never seen before type of vac suit/armor that is grayish silver in color. These individuals are armed with and odd type of rifle with what appears to be a top mounted grenade launcher.

---

With the normal way of getting past the Casino level and to the docking level, the two look for another route, and find it in the form of a door marked “Authorized Persons Only” in several languages located on the side of a walled off pachinko parlor that is somewhat situated in the center of the casino level.

Beyond the door is a metal set of stairs the leads into a sublevel of the Casino level that is a massive server farm that supports all (or nearly all) of the computerized gambling devices located on the Casino level.

Outside, within the Casino some sort of commotion occurs which is followed by yelling screaming and gunfire...

"We wouldn't want that commotion to spread into our escape route, right? Give me a hand, let's bar that access door."
"Then we better find a passage to the Docks.", Kojo said as he tried to move a rather large and heavy server cabinet.

He then tried to look for access tunnels for the electrical wiring to gambling machines off the centre and in the direction of the docks.
Somehow they would need to cross the borderline beyond the shutters, climb back up to the casino level and continue onwards from there.
Kojo considered rigging up a distraction on this side of the shutters but since a gunfight had started already such plans had immediately become moot.

Getting somewhat confused as to the route to take and then hitting all manner of obstacles Sancho was actually glad to have someone with him. "Sure, sure..." He grabbed the side of the cabinet and moved it into place.

"I just hope the ships not booked it already. Lets look for another door on the other side."

He stops for a second to see if anyone else was already in here with them, a server tech or the like.


-

Kojo and Sancho head down the metal stairs, behind them someone is already trying to open the door they barred with a server cabinet. Looking back and up, it opens just a crack but not enough to see who is on the other side...

At the bottom of the stairs is the server farm itself, containing several rows of serves that are at least 2 meters high. The room is cold, and it looks like there is no one else present.

OOC: Please make perception roles to look for any tunnels or access panels that may lead to tunnels.

[Private to Kojo Botha: Your thermals will add a +3 to the perception check and they also confirm no one else is down here.]

Kojo checked about and it looked a bit weird to see him looking so intensly at what seemed to be plain walls.

---

rolled 10 using 3d6+2 with the AGE System with rolls of {5}, 1, 2.  Perception[Private to GM: Total 13.
Spend 2 Fortune to raise the 1 to a 2, thus total 14 plus 5 Stunt Points... if useful at all?]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Fri 03 Dec 2021.

Sancho unholstered his handgun as he also began to search for another way out. He also continued to glance up the stairs to the door that seemed to be opening wider while they worked.

Sancho Castro rolled 12 using 3d6+1 (5 stunt points) with the AGE System with rolls of {5}, 1, 5.  Perception.


-

Searching the semi dark sever room Kojo and Sancho find two ventilation grills. Each grill doesn’t look too hard to remove, and both look like they have been removed frequently as the edges are covered in scratch marks.

[Private to Sancho Castro: Among the numerous scratches on one of the grills, you can make out the scratch marks of an old OPA written direction code on one of the grills. The code translates into the word ‘docks’’. ]

"One looks as good as the other. Take a pick, you never know with ventilation which way they turn."
Kojo looked his comrade up and down.
"Then again, you're a brawny fellow, wouldn't want to get stuck in there right behind you.", he said with a wink and picked the one that seemed to kead to the docks.
Just before removing the grille he paused.
"Then again, the servers need cooling and I'd say there's nothing cooler than hard vaccum, so the inlet vent probably come from the outer areas."
He held his hand against the grille determining whether the ventilation was the inlet or outlet, then picking the inlet.
"Unless you have a better idea, I suggest to take this one."

Sancho gave a small smile when he saw the scratches. "This one leads to the docks, it's got an old way code scratched into the grill. Quick help me get it off and you jump in and then we can both pull it on. Hopefully they wont notice." He pulls the second grill off and leans it up against the wall to give the impression they have taken it.

Then he follows Kojo in and after reattaching the grill front he tried to makes some headway along the shaft with speed.



-

The two men find that the vents are held in place with simple screws, which Sancho easily removes with his multi tool. Leaving one vent grill open as a false flag the two close up the other grill behind them.

The ventilation shaft is a little cramped requiring both men to walk half bent over. The shaft goes a ways before they come across another ventilation grill. This grill opens up to and old mechanical line tunnel tha tis about 2 meters wide and high.

[Private to Kojo Botha: There was no need/use for stunt points so you can keep the 2 Fortune. ]

[Private to Sancho Castro: You will need to make perceptions rolls from here on out to find the next marker.

But you get +1 (Due to OPA membership) and +2 (searching focus), so with a 1 in perception your die rolls will be 3d6+4 with a TN of 13.

A failed roll doesn't mean you do not find the marker, but just that it takes longer to find.

]

"There... there should be more of these marker to guide us along. Watch out backs while I look."

Sancho Castro rolled 18 using 3d6+4 (6 stunt points) with the AGE System with rolls of {6}, 2, 6.  Perception.



-

Kojo wondered how his comrade knew of this kind of thing. More specifically: whether he was able to read the markers correctly.
"I have a bad feeling that we will soon be joined by whoever is trying to push that door open. Better leave quickly."
"I'll be watching your back.", he added as he drew his pistol.

Sancho easily finds the marker he was looking for and then at a 'T shaped' intersection easily finds the next one which leads to lone ventilation grill.

On the other side of the grill is a ladder that goes down and into darkness as the dim light bulbs used to illuminate the mechanical tunnels do not provide much light.

"Bother, I was hopimg it would go back up to the general public level, not down."
"Actually I tjink that's even better."
"Only one way to go. Lead on."
[Private to GM: switch on thermal vision]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:28, Thu 16 Dec 2021.

OOC: Due to 'spin gravity' down is actually the way you want to go as it leads to the outside of Eros and not the inner core.

Ah, did assume you already referred to gravitational pull, but wasn't aware that'll be where we want to go.
Awesome.
I edited my previous post
This message was last edited by the player at 05:28, Thu 16 Dec 2021.

"Sure thing, lets hope that other grill put them off the scent." Sancho began to descend via the ladder. As he did he looked down to try and keep his eye on where he was going and if anyone was already there.



-

Sancho begins to climb down the ladder to wherever the bottom of the shaft leads to and is soon followed by Kojo.

The climb takes roughly 30 minutes, when the two get to the bottom, they find a vent grill, and on the other side of that vent grill is yet another large server farm.

[Private to Kojo Botha: With your thermals you were not able to see the bottom of the shaft.

When looking at the server cabinets you can tell that computer servers, and the various wiring all all designed to withstand the vacuum of space.]

"Careful now, those cabinets are vacuum-resistent design. We may be much closer to hard space than we think. We should maybe look for vac suits first before we continue.", he warned his ship mate.

Taking a few minutes to watch and listen to the server farm through the grill, Sancho gives his companion a nod to his warning. Once he was fairly sure no one was in the server farm he would remove the grill and enter the room.

Again taking a few minutes to look and listen.



-

The two men wait a few minutes before removing the vent grill. From the inside the only way to remove the grill is to quickly kick it out, or to slip something in between the grill and wall and slowly pry it off.

Not wishing to create more noise then was needed Sancho looked over his gear for something that could be used to get the vent off.


-

Sancho uses the little knife part of his multi-tool to slowly pry the vent off of the wall.

This takes several minutes and once the two get into the server room can see that there are two exits. One is clearly an airlock, in which the small window shows that it is shut. The other exit is a regular sized door, but there is no window to see what is on the other side.

So you check the doors while I put this back up." Sancho puts the vent back onto the grill and see if he can jam it closed somehow.

He then takes a minute to listen at the vent before returning to Kojo's position. He has a look out the airlock window to see if he could spot any of the damage the station had taken.


-

Kojo looked about for vac suits

Kojo and Sancho find that both the inner and outer airlock doors are closed, and that the airlock itself is pressurized. The inner airlock door is unlocked and within are a few gear lockers. One locker contains eleven emergency vac suits still in their vacuum sealed packaging. A second locker has an emergency vac suit hanging on a hanger, having apparently been used. The ‘helmet’ if it can be called that is simply a clear plastic bubble and the fabric of the vac suit is a thin bright orange fabric. A third locker appears to be storage for bulky heavy vac suits meant to be used in the event of a radiation leak but is empty.

The window of the outer door of the airlock doesn’t have all that great of an angle and all that can be seen is the far end of the docks (a few hundred meters) where a few docked vessels can be seen. The view of the other side of the docks is then blocked out as some sort of odd shuttle passes by. The shuttle is a slate gray in color and the hull has a number of odd angles.

OOC: The emergency vac suits have the fragile flaw, so they are worthless in combat. They have an hour of oxygen, and an emergency blood oxygenator which will allow a character to survive the vacuum of space for 15 second without making any constitution tests.

Feel free to make a perception roll if you want to glean more info about the shuttle.

[Private to Kojo Botha:

Without a perception roll you know the following: While you can clearly tell that the shuttle has a stealthy hull, you do not recognize the shuttle as something the UNN or MCRN has in their inventory of stealth vessels.]

Kojo hissed in annoyance.
"Cannot see our ship. I do hope they are still here.", he commented as he tried to assess where their ship actually might be docked in relation to their current position.
He looked for some sort of communication terminal that might still be active, though he had not much hope on that.
"We could try to get outside and walk but one hour is not much to bet on. Should suffix to reach on of those ships there."

"What is that?", he muttered in surprise as the uncanny vessel passed by, "Never seen such a ship in all the times I hopped the rocks with the captain. That must be stealth technology!"

---

rolled 14 using 3d6+2 with the AGE System with rolls of {4}, 5, 3.  Perception

"Na bugger that for a joke. Lets just keep heading through the station to the ship. To many variables if we take this outside."

Sancho also watched the shuttle for a time as it cruised past.

Sancho Castro rolled 17 using 3d6+1 (6 stunt points) with the AGE System with rolls of {6}, 5, 5.  Perception.

Sancho went to the regular door and tried the handle, opening it a crack to look out if he is able.



-

Kojo watched the strange vessel sime more, chacking what it was heading for.
When he lost sight he followed his crew mate.

Kojo peeks outside the door and sees that it empties out into a long corridor. Signage on a door on the opposite side indicates that this is where a number of maintenance shops catering to spacecraft are located. The corridor only has one direction one can in, left as the going right leads to a dead end.

At the end of the corridor is a corner, that leads right and towards hopefully where some ships are docked.

[Private to Kojo Botha: You noticed that the shuttle doesn’t have an Epstein drive, but it’s armed with a fixed cannon, and has a pair of torpedo tubes (each tube probably only carries one fish).]

[Private to Sancho Castro: You noticed that the shuttle doesn’t have an Epstein drive, but it’s armed with a fixed cannon, and has a pair of torpedo tubes (each tube probably only carries one fish).]

Kojo, still puzzled by the strange design of the vessel, followed Sancho a bit absent-mindedly.
When they approached the corner he cautiously tried to listen before continuing onwards.

---

rolled 17 using 3d6+2 with the AGE System with rolls of {5}, 6, 4.  Perception

"That's very weird that shuttle did not have an Epstein drive, but seemed to be pretty well armed otherwise." He follows Kojo along the corridor and stops at the corner as well.


-

Kojo and Sancho hear some faint voices around the corner. They are both are able to make out the one side of a conversation.

Kojo looked at his companion hoping that he understood the reference.
He stealthily approched the corner and tried a quick glimpse

Kojo peeks around the corner, and at the end of that corridor are the docks themselves. But there are armed individuals present.

At least two men can be seen wearing the same never seen before type of vac suit/armor that is grayish silver in color. Both are carrying an SMG, and neither is wearing a helmet.

Behind them, beyond the thick transparent aluminum windows is a ship of an unknown type with the same design aesthetic as the shuttle he had seen. The size and dimensions of the ship cannot be determined as it fills the entire view beyond the corridor and blocks the view of anything else that is docked.

When his ship mate explained the situation Sancho said "Shit me those guys don't sound like a push over. Sounds like an invasion force with at least two shuttles.... what do you think ?"


-

"I think that part of their crew is going to be picked up by the shuttle we just saw at some other air lock. Once rejoined they will all depart."
"Oscar Whiskey could mean 'on the way' maybe."
"Yes, this is a major endeavour and we cannot possibly commandeer their ship."
"Sneaking onboard? Not really feasible."
"Take these out? Possible, but then what?"
"Looks like our best option is to wait until they have departed and then hope to walk outside to our owwn ship. But I am starting to wonder if it is still here at all."

"That sounds about right and about our ship as well. I am all for waiting and seeing how this plays out, should we go back into the last server farm ? We should be able to see the ship leave from there.


-

Kojo mused.
"All the way back? I think one if those maintenance shops will suffice to stay hidden."
"Then again... we have not really seen any reasonable entry point to this area, right? There's the air lock, there's the big ship and those men and that's it. We must have missed some door."

Looking about it seems like the only way to get to the docking bays (other than the airlock) is through/past the heavily armed guards near the big stealthy looking ship. The corridor they are in has six doors. One leads back to the server farm (and the airlock). The others are all maintenance shops.

Left side shops

• Eros Station Docking Management (Entrance is right before the turn to the docking bays)
• Zeyla's Tool/Machine Shop
• Perkin's Life Support Systems

Left side shops

• Jeff's Rations & Toiletries (Opposite of Docking management)
• Server Farm/Airlock
• Bongo's Computers & Avionics

OOC: Ok I got a simple map up for you guys.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:56, Mon 10 Jan 2022.

"Lets see what information we can get from the docking management office and then try the Life support shop for some decent vac suits."


-

Kojo nodded in agreement, sonewhat chiding himself for not going there right from the start. Communication may be off line, but surely that did not mean that further informationen eould be accessible.

A quick check of the doors show that they are locked, but Kojo easily opens up the Eros Station Docking Management by spoofing the door lock into thinking that his hand terminal has rights access to unlock the door.

The process does take a few minutes though, minutes in which the heavily armed individuals near the ship could come walking down the hall at a whim. None of the heavily armed individuals do come down the hall but Kojo and Sancho do hear some more conversation from the same individual as before and a new voice which is a woman. Both sound like Earther’s.








This message was last edited by the GM at 04:11, Wed 12 Jan 2022.

Sancho got to work on the terminal to see if he could bring up anything useful as to what was going on with the ships. He stops when he hears the part about the "commandeered" ships. "Sounds like they have taken our ride.... and fucken poisoned anyone left."

He started to look for ships that were still docked that they might be able to use.


-
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:21, Fri 14 Jan 2022.

Sancho and Kojo both man a separate terminal and begin sifting through what data they can find.

---

Kojo is able to tap into the live feed of the camera’s on docking bay two (the docks they are currently at). The camera’s show that there is not one odd stealth ship docked nearby but two.

One vessel is roughly 60 meters long and 24 meters wide, and could be classified as a heavy frigate. The hull is a greyish in color is all right angles. It appears this ship has seen some sort of combat action as the hull has a number of pockmarks on its hull, indicating it took some PDC fire. At about the midpoint of the hull, there is a much bigger hole indicating a rail gun round hit the ship and went through it. Along the side are a number of ports that are docking stations for breaching pods, although there are no breaching pods present. The most striking feature of this vessel is that the bow has what is clearly the barrel of a rail gun situated centerline.

The second ship appears to be a gunship and the other ship’s smaller cousin and is about 30 meters long and 12 meters wide. This ship appears to be undamaged.

Through the transparent aluminum windows of the dock, the Earther is able to see two people dressed the same as the other heavily armed individuals. These two are near the smaller ship, and can’t be the same two he and Sancho heard talking.

Panning the camera to the docks, the numerous ships docked have debris floating around/near their drive cores. At the far end of the dock, Kojo spots his own ship and another floating near the entrance to the docks. Near the entrance is the open bay doors of a specialized dock, one in which the smaller stealthy shuttle they saw earlier is entering.

---

Sancho manages to access the archived camera feeds. These feeds show what happened in docking bay two. The 60 meter long ship (a heavy frigate), the 30 meter long ship (a gunship), and the 15 meter shuttle all coast into the docks with their thrusters. The time stamp is roughly the same time the massive ice hauler in Docking Bay three exploded.

With precise PDC fire the stealth ships disable all of the ships docked. The smaller ship looks to have three concealed PDCs while the bigger one appears to have four concealed PDCs. The shuttle has a PDC that is fixed forward. In this video the berth where the Black Hole is docked shows the ship is missing, probably having already been commandeered.

All three ships dock and the personnel disembarking are met by members of CPM Corporation, who are wearing the same gear and weapons the Black Hole smuggled onto Eros.
From the stealthy shuttle a total of 12 individuals wearing the grayish steel armor disembark, all armed with SMG’s.
From the smaller gunship sized stealth ship a total of 8 individuals wearing the grayish steel armor disembark, all armed with SMG’s.
From the bigger frigate sized ship only 7 individuals wearing the grayish steel armor disembark, all armed with SMG’s.

18 of the heavily armed individuals leave the docks with the CPM Corporation personnel. Fast forwarding through the camera’s Sancho watches as 6 of the heavily armed individuals board the shuttle, leaving a total of 6 guarding the two ships.

---

Both men quickly come to the realization that the only way off Eros from Docking bay two is on the two nearby stealth ships. But the odds of just the two of them commandeering one of the vessels is slim....

"Do you think those suits they are wearing could handle the vacuum of space ? Looks as if the two closest ships are the only way off and I'm not to sure we can take the frigate."

Sancho looked to see if it was even possible to vent the docking area and turn off life support.


-

Sancho looks and there are no controls to turn off life support for the area he is in. The only way to really depressurize the area would be to bypass the safeties on the nearby airlock and open it up.

OOC: Depressurizing the area will actually kill the other player characters. So please do not do it.

Also, at this point the best thing your characters can do is collect as much info as possible or go back the way you came and hope you can gather a small army to take over a ship (or both ships).

Yes, it is the GM's intent for the player characters to escape off Eros using one or both of those ships.

Sancho looked for a way to transfer the video files he had found onto an external drive of some sort. He then continued scanning data files for interesting information.


-

"Quite a few of those troops are in that shuttle about to pass that dock. If we can close and sabotage those bay doors after it has passed we hopefully can limit the resources they might bring back. That would remove 6 from the equation, right?"
"The big ship most likely has too many men still on the ship. And it is damaged. We better come up with a plan to commandeer the gunship."
"Check those feeds, who or what has damaged the frigatte? Maybe we have a potential ally put there?"
Kojo tried to find a way to manipulate those bay doors.

---

12+7+8=27 disembark
18 leave
27-18=9
6 enter the shuttle again
9-6=3
? Why 6 to guard the vessels ?
Regardless, we know where 2+2 are, meaning we have another 2 not accounted for?

Sancho and Kojo both have adequate space on their hand terminals to download the video footage.

Kojo does a count of the troops seen and comes up two short. Either they are on one of the two ships or are not in view of a camera. His attempt to manipulate the bay doors for the smaller dock is an effort in futility as it appears that the work station he is at is only for the docking clamps for this small section of the dock.

Sancho looks through the data files and finds nothing of interest that he hasn’t already seen.

Both men review the camera feeds to further look at the damaged frigate. Whatever combat action ship was in it was pretty intense as there are also signs of shrapnel damage that could have come from a torpedo, or debris from a ship. The damage wasn’t enough to completely destroy or disable the vessel, as all four PDC’s were seen firing at and disabling docked ships. What is puzzling is why it didn’t go back to wherever it considers home after getting shot up, which would have been the norm for any specialized UNN or MCRN ship.

OOC: You two still around?

Sancho held up the data file and said "So what now ? Do we go back wait and hope someone turns up ?" He continues to watch the ships and their crew through the feed.


-

Kojo shrugged.
He was still struggling with the numbers and clearly was at a loss about how to proceed.
"We cannot pick a fight. We need to get off this station. We need allies. But gosh, I don't even know if anyone is still there to be considered a potential ally."

Kojo and Sancho wait knowing they don't have the firepower to go up against the men guarding the ships.

While in the server room the two see a drone exit from the ladder/shaft they had climbed down from.

OOC: Sorry for the wait IRL. I've had some busy weeks.

As an FYI, another player is operating the drone. Feel free to either hide from it or get its attention.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:32, Sat 12 Mar 2022.

Kojo's mind ran furiously and he hissed to his companion.
"Did you see anyone of those goons use a drone? I did not. This could be a potential ally."

He stepped forward to draw the drone's attention, then indicated the terminal where they had found the information about the assailants to let the user of the drone immediately get a notion what they were up against

Sancho follows suit and also tries to get the drones attention, more to show there is more then one person present. He then makes sure they are not bing observed by anyone else on the ground.


-
This message was last edited by the player at 23:54, Sat 12 Mar 2022.

Kojo leads the drone to the security station (it follows), where the Earther then points to the video screen and flips through the three camera feeds.

Kojo then signalled that they news help to overcome those enemies to leave the station

The drone goes into a standby hover mode indicating that the operator is probably doing something else at the moment such as climbing down the long ladder/shaft.

This prompts Sancho and Kojo to go back to the server room to see if how may be arriving.

After about 30 minutes four people come out from the ladder/shaft. A man of Asian descent (Van), a Caucasian woman (Alis), a woman of undeterminable ancestry (Kattalin), and a woman of Latin descent (Kala).

The four new arrivals are greeted by a man of African decent (Kojo), and a man of Hindu/Latin descent (Sancho).

OOC: For the new arrivals there is a game map for you to look at.

In reply to Darkside Trooper (msg # 59):

Van, an Asian belter dressed in CPM body armour, stepped out from behind Alis. He was armed with a submachinegun slung across his chest. He kept his hands away from his weapon.

"I am Van. Not with CPM, was disguise. This is Alis. That is Kattalin, and that is Kala. More are coming. Several are armed. Small arms only. Drone is mine.

"Am Captain of cargo vessel Svetlana Savitsakaya, registered here in Eros. Is berthed here in this bay. But have reason to believe engines are now disabled.

"Earlier, saw on CCTV corvette gunship guarded by six sentries. Is now only four. Am intending to set diversion, take out sentries, take control of gunship. Am believing you are of similar intent?"

Kojo smiled.
"Indeed we are. Intent to leave this station, that is. And from the information we were able to gather, those two ships are the only way out. As the larger one is damaged I'd prefer the smaller one but am open to other ideas. The two of us cannot take on those villains. With you, we might succeed."
"I am Kojo, this is Sancho."

"Yes that was what we were thinking. We only have handguns as well." He watched the small group form up.


-

Alis nods, as she looks around at the server room and the two folks awaiting them. As Van and Kojo speak she looks over the CCTV feeds again and scratches her chin.

"That's four on the outside, but...how many inside will be the real kicker. What ever plan we suss up needs to get is inside before they can 'close up shop'." She points out.

"Well, at last, a use for these feckin' suits, eh?" grunts Kala dropping the heavy vac suit she's been lugging for what seems like six months but in reality is probably only an hour or so.

"Though I don't fancy our chances against those guys with just these pop guns. Not unless we can catch 'em totally by surprise. And even then, that armor looks . . . tough."

Neither the first down the ladder nor inclined to rush her assessment of the situation Kattalin skips past the introductions entirely and dives right into the problem.  ”We don't exactly have an alternative, if we can get a communication link to the ship we have the access codes to or even to one of the others we might be able to make them into a distraction of sorts, or at least make entry easier once we do neutralize the guards.”

Van spoke into his hand terminal.

"All clear down here. They are friendly. Please come as soon as you are able."

He spoke to Kojo and Santo, "we have one seriously wounded. And other non-combatants. If my ship is not spaceworthy, that corvette does seem tempting. It seems we have two sentries unaccounted for. Is it possible to rewind CCTV and determine where they went? Or other possible crew of gunship?"

"Katt, please ping Svetlana. See if you can get in, determine ship status."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:45, Fri 18 Mar 2022.

Kojo shrugged.
"We have pretty much tried to locate those unaccounted for but were unable to track those. And we have also been unable to determine how many might be on board. We do think time is of essence as those entering the station might return soon."
"Feel free to check.", he said.
He was pretty confident among themselves they had learned all there was to learn but essentially they were strangers and surely wanted to verify for themselves.
Since he was uncertain if all these people were a joint crew he held back for if they were they most likely were working togetjer like a well calibrated avionics system.

Alis will take a closer look at the feed of the silvery armored individuals, zooming in is able to see if she can get an idea of their kit. She will do the same for the ship looking for PDC panels, external pickup (camera locations etc.) Or at the PDC's themselves if they are deployed.

OOC She looking to see if A (optimal) she knows what it/they are, and thus capabilities) or B: What does she think it's most similar to, so she can get an idea of what they are up against.

Assuming that is the name of the ship she was given the access codes to Kattalin pulls out a hand terminal and begins sorting through some options, intent on her task rather than the conversation around her.
[Private to GM:
Trying first to connect to the security terminal to see if it is already linked to the ships, or if not directly from the combined power of the hand terminal network to the ship directly.
Kattalin Zubiri rolled 16 using 3d6+8 with the AGE System with rolls of {5}, 2, 1.  Technology (Hacking).]

In reply to Kojo Botha (msg # 67):

"Have a few minutes wait while everyone arrives down shaft. Can check."

He nodded at what Kojo was saying. There were six sentries before, now there were four. Unless those two guards literally vanished they could be tracked from the time stamp established back when they saw them on the monitors in the Pur'n'Kleen offices. Either way they had a few minutes while they were gathering their strength.

"Ok, I have feeling these mercenaries will not be impressed with our CPM disguise. IF connection can be established with ship, like Svetlana, then it can be used to create distraction. Like using thrusters, venting reactor coolant, water, steam, waste? Distraction allows one group to get into position to provide crossfire?

"Anyone think of anything better?

"Can push large objects in front of us, to absorb fire?

"Any way to let infected into docking bay, more targets to shoot at?"

"Does your ship mount any PDCs?" Alis asks, almost in saleswoman mode, almost.

In reply to Alis Syn (msg # 71):

"The Svetlana has one PDC. Magazine at 75% capacity. She is not a warship, but has enough to give a pirate pause."

A large Caucasian man with Slavic features appears next from the ladder/shaft, who has a large backpack on that appears to have been modified to carry an unconscious man.

The next person to arrive is an Asian man, who quickly removes the unconscious man from backpack.

The Slavic man then goes back up the ladder/shaft.

[Private to Dr. Abang Kaos: The wounded man's sutures are only slightly loose, an easy fix.  A quick check of his internals with your medical equipment will show that there is no additional internal bleeding.]

Alis looks over the armed individuals. The armor is a type never seen before, and the SMGs appear to more along the lines of a 4.6mm PDW made by Heckler & Koch but appear to be highly modified with an integral flashlight on the left side and a laser sight on the right side. The armed individuals also have a holstered pistol, and web gear that has magazine pouches, and two grenade pouches. Looking at the ships they are a type she’s never seen before.

[Private to Kojo Botha: These people seem to be mish mash of groups, and not quite working together like a a well calibrated avionics system. ]

Kattalin plugs a hand terminal into the security terminal. The terminal is only for controlling the six docking berths a Dock 2 Delta. Only the 2nd and 3rd berths have ships docked (the two stealth ships of an unknown type). The two guarded stealth ships are not fully docked in that neither ship has docking clamps attached to them. Trying to gain remote access to Van’s ship, the Svetlana Savitsakaya is successful, which is over on Dock 2 Kilo. [Private to Kattalin Zubiri: You finds that the ship is unpowered and is running off of emergency batteries. The ships single PDC doesn’t respond, and about all Kattalin has access to are the emergency thrusters which are not powerful enough to break the ship loose from its docking clamps.]

---

After a while, a total of 17 people have climbed down and out of the ladder/shaft. As people come down, they are told to be quiet. All in all, there are 19 people present. Eight appear to be employed by the Pur’n Kleen Water Company. Three appear to be employed by Shíyàn Nóngyé, which specializes in both flora and fauna in microgravity environments, registered and headquartered out of Eros and is an independent subsidiary of Pop-Sanchez. Everyone else doesn’t appear to be affiliated with either of those companies.

[Private to Nguyen Van Loc: If you go into the airlock (see the game map) and look out of its window you can see your ship on the far end of the docks. The ship is venting gasses.]

[Private to Asha Blackburn; Dr. Abang Kaos; Shinsato Hirotsugu: If either of you three go down into the airlock (see the game map), you can see that the special dock for the Zhidao is open. But the Zhidao is not there.]

OOC: There is a game map for this thread.

Ok all the player characters are now in this thread. After posting, please wait for your fellow player characters to post before posting again. I would like to avoid several characters carrying on a conversation and leaving others behind in the brainstorming/planning to gain control of the ships. HINT: There are enough PC’s and NPC’s to crew up both ships, but everyone can fit on the big ship without any issues.

While I have listed everyone below, I am going to list all the PC’s and NPCs in the first post of the Equipment thread. For weapons across all the PC’s and NPC’s there are four long guns (an auto rifle, 2 SMG’s and a shotgun), and 10 pistols.

Player Characters

• Dr. Abang Kaos (Wearing clothing that indicates he works for Shíyàn Nóngyé)
• Alis Syn (Not wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit under CPM armor, and armed with an SMG)
• Asha Blackburn (Wearing clothing that indicates she works for Shíyàn Nóngyé)
• Kala Sui (Wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit, armed with a pistol)
• Kattalin Zubiri (looks a little beat up, armed with a pistol)
• Kojo Botha (armed with a pistol)
• Nguyen Van Loc (Not wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit under CPM armor, and armed with an SMG)
• Sancho Castro (armed with a pistol)
• Shinsato Hirotsugu (Wearing clothing that indicates he works for Shíyàn Nóngyé)

Named NPC’s

• Yuri Ivanovich (Not wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit under CPM armor, and armed with an Shotgun)
• Kaeya (Teenage Belter girl, seems to be Ms. Hirotsugu care taker)
• Ms. Hirotsugu (old frail woman, Shinsato Hirotsugu’s mother)

Unnamed NPC’s

• Unconscious an on stretcher (Wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit, has bandage across stomach)
• Woman with arm in sling (Wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuit, armed with a pistol)
• Man wearing CPM body armor, and armed with an auto rifle
• Four other individuals (Wearing a Pur’n Kleen jumpsuits, no race/gender identified yet, three armed with pistols)

The assessment is quick, likely to quick, then Kattalin looks up from the terminal to report her findings.  ”Without access codes to any of the other ships the hardware we have can't hack into them, and the one ship we can access is almost completely powered down.
 I can rock it around a little bit but not much more than enough to spook anyone on board or provide a momentary distraction.  Even if we do get in it will probably take longer to power up enough ship systems to do anything with even assuming they are undamaged so we should inspect the other ship and hope it isn't cold.”

Alis waves Van over without taking her eyes off the screen and points at the CCTV feed of his ship. "If your ship can be started up enough to get your FCS online, maybe she can nudge it enough to bring your PDC to bear on those guards..who by the way are very well kitted out." She says, tracing a line from one feed to the other with her finger. "Looks like they each have a tricked out 4.6mm and some new type of armor." She rubs her chin as she narrows her eyes looking at the feed. "Honestly, I'd err on the side of caution and figure it a match for MCRN body armor at least." She looks at the feeds for a few more seconds then turns back to the others.

"Hmmmm...Also a thought, we have to pick our prize or prizes well, and then make sure we disable the balance or else they're gonna tear us a new one while we make a run for it." She says with a sage nod.

"Oh! And we'll have to move smart and fast to keep them from lobotomizing their ships computers to keep us from making off with 'em." She looks at Katt. "If you have physical access to the ships computer, even if it is an airlock terminal, you think you can get us the keys to the kingdom?"

She looks at the others and flashes a winning smile. "I'm not trying to be negative, just pointing out potential problems that we'll need to solve if this is going to work." She holds up her finger as if a light bulb has lit off above her head.

"Maybe if we go around the room and let everyone know what your special talent is, we'll be able to tailor this plan to our strengths?" She claps her hand. "I'll go first. I'm the ships purser on the Bandersnatch, which is in dock 3, I help man her guns when I'm not brokering hardware and information." She then pauses, and makes an 'ok your turn' motion with her hand to Van since he is closet to her.

When it was his turn to speak up Kojo said.
"Second in command of Black Hole, which seems to have departed under duress. It was berthed in Dock 2. My main job, however, used to be keeping potential foes from detecting or, if worse came to worst, targetting the Hole. Not much use in personal combat, I'm sorry to admit."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:32, Sun 20 Mar 2022.

The large Slavic Earther spoke up when his turn came. "I left the UNN Marine Corps as a Staff Sergeant and know how to use small arms and weapons on warships."

"Sancho's the name and I fix stuff, either on a ship or in a workshop. I can use handguns small arms sort of thing and I use to fight professionally."


-

Kaeya, as the youngest person present made a rather bold statement, but it didn't sound like the 16 year old Belter was making up a story or lying.

"I, um could probably fly one of those ships. My parents let me fly their ship which I grew up on."

[Private to Shinsato Hirotsugu: You know the girls story isn't BS. She has often asked how hard it would be to get a job with Shíyàn Nóngyè as either a pilot or navigator.]

[Private to Asha Blackburn: Up to you as a player how well Asha knows Kaeya (both are Belters). But seeing as Asha is in a relationship with Sato she may know a bit about Kaeya. Anyhow if you have spoken to her, Kaeya's story isn't BS, and she has asked Asha about engineering duties on a ship, despite being more inclined to be a pilot/navigator.]

OOC: If your character happens to get killed, Kaeya is up for grabs as a partially made character.

The doctor finishes redressing the wounded man's abdomen, closes up the emt duffel and shoulders it, when he finally looks around at the assembled group and responds to Alis.

"Dr. Abang Kaos, ship doctor of the Zhidao," he stands and gestures to Shinsato, "Shinsato Hirotsugu, our XO; Asha Blackburn, one of our mechanics," he then indicates the two civilians with them, "and this is Ms. Shinsato and Keaya her caretaker, who apparently is also a pilot."  He gives her a small reassuring smile and then moves over to look out the airlock, "XO, looks like the Zhidao disembarked.  Probably holding station nearby to render aid once... once whatever is going on here has been controlled by the proper authorities."  As he spoke his bearing became less casual and more military.

Dr Kaos then starts poking around the area, taking stock of what they have on hand.

[Private to Asha Blackburn; Shinsato Hirotsugu: Abang is entering "crisis mode".  He's done this a few times when someone has been seriously injured on the Zhidao or when they under went surprise "emergency drills".  He isn't really a jerk, but he comes off that way a bit when under this sort of stress.]
This message was last edited by the player at 16:43, Mon 21 Mar 2022.

In reply to Alis Syn (msg # 75):

"I am more jack-of-all-trades. Am pilot, also know some engineering."

He moved to observe his ship, the Svetlana, through the lock viewport. When he saw it, he frowned. "Is venting atmo. PDC looks damaged.

"Still no great plan. Use Svetlana to distract sentries. Eliminate exterior sentries. Board gunship. Eliminate crew. Take control. Exit Eros close space. Or find small craft. Hope Zhidao is on station to recover. Third plan?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:24, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

"Yeah, pilot, me too," adds Kala pulling the heavy vac suit out of the pack she has lugged all the way from the Pur N Cleen offices. "Navigator as well," she adds as she lays the suit out and begins to inspect it.

"But that don't mean shit if we can't get past those goons," she nods at the vid of the guards in the very high tech looking armor.

The probable loss of Naomi is starting to set in and she feels a huge wave of depression settling on her. Hopefully there will be action soon to distract her from her own thoughts.

Kattalin looks up from her work into a gap of silence, realizing that the others have stopped and at least some of them are looking at her she answers the same general question everyone else has been before the more specific one asked of her processes.  ”Engineering, with an emphasis in software.

Opening an airlock from the outside is comparatively easy they are designed to do that on some level, but they are almost never directly connected to the ship's main computer for exactly the reason you have noticed, breaching a ship will lead to a firefight, and we don't have enough vac suits to make that possible for either of the soft docked ships.”

Abang opens the locker, "There's eleven vac suits here.  With the three you're carrying, that's fourteen we can send out the airlock and over to the take those ships. Group of eight for the large ship, six for the smaller one.  They have guards out on the dock, they aren't likely to have any on the ships themselves, maybe a few crew to keep things running and ready to go."

He looks at the group to see how well that plan is going over, "If the ships are taken fast and quietly, the dock guards won't even know until the ships depart without them."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:42, Wed 23 Mar 2022.

Kala will look around the dock and see if there are any utility vessels there. The kind of thing the maintenance crews would use to reach a ship that needed repairs from the outside. She knows they will not be enough to get them safely off the station, but if this all goes bad, she would like at least a chance to take out those two merc ships and seal their fate as well.

Alis thinks for a second.

"If we can sneak up on the airlock and slip in behind the guards that could work. But three ships at once might be to big an ask." She says with a shrug, looking over their motley crew. "In any case, maybe use the distraction idea as well, say, just as we are bout to make our push. The Svetlana goes active, which will keep anyone pulling bridge watch looking at that and not in our direction, and same for the guards."

It seems Shinsato didn't need to introduce himself as Abang had graciously done that for him.  In response to the conversation he replied:

"We have 2 XO's and no captains.  It stands to reason that myself and the Earther,"<yellow he says as he points to Kojo, <yellow>"Should each command one of the two ships"

He turns to Kojo.  "What are your thoughts?"

In reply to Shinsato Hirotsugu (msg # 87):

Van looked amused and a bit chagrinned when he realised there had been a miscommunication.

"Sorry, I was not clear! I am a ship Captain. My apologies for any misunderstanding.

"As well, am drone operator, if not already clear. Work drone has no manipulators or weapons, but has sensors, and is vacuum-maneuverable rated in zero-Gee.

"I think as general plan, we should seek to seize one ship. I count two potential hostile vessels, a corvette gunship and a damaged frigate. Plus shuttle. The corvette gunship, if it has crew, aboard will likely have less present than the larger ship. Shuttle is not sufficient in size or capability.

"First we try to get someone aboard unseen. Then with ship's weapons under our control, put sentries in crossfire and take them out. My ship and drone can be used for distraction. Then frigate and shuttle will be disabled."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:00, Fri 25 Mar 2022.

Kojo was just about to answer when Van spoke up.
He listened graciously, nodded in agreement.
"Exactly my thoughts. We have no idea how much damage the frigatte actually took. We only presume that is is still capable to take us off here. It's a risk I prefer not to take."
"And, like already stated, the assessment that the frigatte has more crewmen to overcome is a sound one."
"A distraction will only work, if we are quick. We need to get whichever vessel we take away as fast as possible, for again, we do not know how much fire power, functional that is, isnleft on either one. My guess is, the corvette is fully functional in all regards."
"As I mentioned earlier, too much discussion and those troopers might come back."
"A ruse of an attack on the frigatte, sabotage or whatever, will hopefully draw their attention to allow the commandeering of the corvette."
"Summarized: I'm all for taking on the corvette."
For those who were XOs or above - or indeed used to a clear chain of command in military organisations - it was clear that Kojo's captain had (or still did) obviously prefered to make his own decisions and not have his XO take things in hand himself. Kojo's wording was clearly only suggestive. He probably only had been XO because no one else on the Black Hole had been willing to take the job. Or, Kojo had simply been the one suave enough to placate sufficiently a willful captain.
Any body else might find Kojo's notes helpful.
Either way, it was obvious that a decision was required. And who would be the one to actually make it? Perceptive folk may have noticed that Kojo seemed to expect that of the declared captain as his head seemed to mostly turn to Van. Then again, his hidden eyes may have looked somewhere else completely.

"Whatever we chose to do, remember there will be at least five of us stranded in these offices without suits, so lighting up the dock with PDC fire would be ill advised.  Did anyone check the other businesses for suits or other equipment?"

Alis nods at the good doctor. "Good idea! I think Perkins will have what we need, and I'm pretty sure that there might be some useful things to us, ship wise, in the Avionics and Machine shop. I'll go take a look if anyone wants to come with."

Still fiddling with her hand terminal as the conversation goes on Kattalin looks up once she realizes what direction the plan is going.  ”If we intend to capture one of the military ships we should expect significant resistance, not just in the form of crew and weapons, but also the ship itself.  It is very likely that it will take me a considerable amount of time to take control of the ship systems even if we manage to avoid or solve any distractions and threats.

I would be quite shocked if the other ship was willing to ignore us long enough for that to happen, some kind of significant distraction may be required even if that puts some of our number at threat, it is good to keep in mind that we are already at significant threat and would just be exchanging one for another with a chance of survival.”

"I am not too bad at hacking into a ship system either.", he offered as a comment.

Yuri added some of his own observations. "The bigger ship looks to be some sort of assault ship and probably has enough room for everyone. The smaller ship doesn't look like it can carry all of us comfortably."

"I say we try to take both ships at the same time." Having participated in boarding actions before he offered his expertise. "We should have at least four to five people try to board the smaller ship with objectives to secure the bridge and engineering."

"For the bigger ship we should have double that number, but we do not have enough people or weapons to go around."

"There's fourteen people we can send, so five and nine.  If we only go after one ship, the one we don't move on will absolutely fire on the one we are taking, S.O.P., as we'd be firing on them the moment we successfully commandeered it.  Being boarded would be a significant distraction for the crew.  We should raid the other shops for supplies, if we find more suits, then we'll have more we can send over for the assault."

He moves over to the door, "Miss Alis, Kattalin?, Hope?  We can check for tools, might get lucky and find Kattalin a terminal, or better."

"Indeed." She smiles winningly.

Alis will depart with the others and search the relevant places for usable items.

[Private to GM: And information and or anything else useful (should I make a roll?) ]
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Sat 26 Mar 2022.

OOC: Below post notes where each player character is at, and who they are with. If you are in a shop and want to look for a specific thing, please state as such in your next post.

Perkin’s Life Support Systems
Dr. Kaos, and Hope check out Perkin’s Life Support Systems. They find two working EVA thruster packs, and four intact Vac Suits (+1 armor bonus, but with some help after zipping up, someone could also wear body armor over the vac suit). There are also 4 Vac Suits undergoing some level of repair or reconditioning, but it is clear that it would take several hours of work to get them serviceable.

Zelya's Tool/Machine shop
Alis, and Sancho check out Zelya's Tool/Machine shop. There they find many different tools one would use when maintaining a ship. The only tools of relevance are four manual airlock opening tools, used to manually open an airlock provided the airlock isn’t locked.

Airlock
Getting into the airlock requires individuals to climb down a ladder which brings the airlock to be at the same sub level as the airlocks that connect to the ships. In fact, the whole design of the airlock indicates that before the server room became a server room it was probably used for a ship to dock to the station.

Down in the airlock Kala identifies at least 8 repair skiffs of different makes and models. None appear to be damaged, and the reason why is clear, none are equipped with an Epstein Drive. Getting to any of these vessels would require a spacewalk and the hope that said spacewalker isn’t seen and then subsequently hosed down by PDC fire.

Server Room
In the Server Room, Kattalin and Kojo discuss hacking the ships and realize that with these being vessels built for combat operations, the airlocks would probably be locked to prevent boarding, and cannot be unlocked remotely from the outside. Someone would have to physically be at the airlock in order to unlock the airlock. There is also the fact that once opened, crew in the CIC of the ship would be alerted as soon as the airlock is opened, unless of course the sensor is spoofed. As for the ships systems there is the chance that a crewmember may have a systems access key on them, or an access key may be plugged in. If not, flight control, engineering, weapons, and communications would probably have to be individually hacked and unlocked. Flight control and engineering would be the two priorities as without one or the other the ship(s) would not be able to undock and leave Eros.

Van and Sato are also in the Server Room and listen in to the tech/hacking discussion.

Cameras

• Upon further examination of the smaller ship with the cameras shows it to have two airlocks. One is a large cargo airlock and is connected to the station. The other is a smaller personnel airlock on the opposite side (facing away from the dock) and looks to be one deck above the deck with the cargo airlock.
• Using the cameras to further investigate the larger ship shoes that it too has two airlocks. The larger, cargo airlock is docked to the station. The personnel airlock is several decks away from the cargo airlock and is on the side facing away from the dock. There are also 6 empty breaching pod ports/berths on the same side as the personnel airlock. There are 3 more beaching pod ports/berths on the side of the ship facing the docks.
• Access to both ships from the docks is from a hatch/lift located in the deck, that goes down to a sublevel with an airlock and the connecting tube to the respective ship.

OOC: Please do not magically POOF your character over to Perkin’s Life Support Systems to try and claim a vac suit. I am hoping everyone will be civil about the allocation of the four 'decent vac suits' but it really doesn't matter what type of vac suit a character gets. The vac suits are only a means to get from point A to point B while in vacuum, and I do not intend for any combat to occur while players are in a vacuum at this time.

NPC breakdown:

• Woman w/arm in sling, IDs herself as a Martian and works in corporate security (i.e. investigations) for the Pur’n Kleen Water Company.
• Man wearing CPM body armor, armed with an auto rifle is clearly a Belter and is a demolitions tech assigned to the Salisbury who makes large chunks of ice into smaller chunks of ice.
• The Unconscious man on stretcher is ID'd as a Belter and also works in physical ship security for the Pur’n Kleen Water Company, and is/was assigned to the Salisbury.
• The four remaining NPC's are 2 men and 2 women, all Belters. One is a Navigator/pilot, and the other three are engineering types. All were part of the new crew to rotate onto the Salisbury.

In reply to Yuri Ivanovich (msg # 94):

"You are the Marine, is your expertise. Let's consider taking both ships then.

"We should have 12 assaulters minimum, four on corvette and eight on frigate. We can put together fourteen armed people: three submachineguns, one shotgun, ten pistols. Eleven if you count my personal sidearm. So potentially fifteen. Five on one vessel, ten on the other.

"Is the hole where the railgun breached it large enough to admit someone in a Vac Suit? That might be a way to gain entry by stealth.

"If we clear docking bay of hostiles Svetlana has additional Vac Suits and supplies."

Kojo could not help but wince at the prospect of taking on both vessels. If they all were marines no issue. But they were not.
Still, for him a decision had been made by the captain and that was that.
He looked at Kattalin.
"In that case we better separate to allow for support on each attack. Any preferences?"

Kattalin shakes her head even before she turns to look at Kojo.  ”I don't think splitting our effort like that will be the most effective path, even if we plan to capture both ships and take them both with us it will be more effective to send only combatants with the smaller group, and dedicate our efforts in taking control of a ship to one target, once we have that ship captured, operational, and can secure the area we will then be in a significantly better position to decide if we can take or if we must destroy the other ships.

While it would be preferable if everyone we have already gathered survive the escape the core truth is that if those of us capable of taking control of a ship don't then nobody else will, so we must accompany the larger group and take as few personal risks as possible.”

Kojo mused.
"Soft docked. If we were able to close the clamps from this side we'd restrict their manoeuvreability and thus the fire arcs of their PDCs."
"Those guards don't wear their helmets. Venting would only buy us mere seconds though."
"Lure those guards away and then overwhelm them to get their access terminals."
"But how?"
Kojo was clearly feeling deadlocked himself.

Alis collects up two of the 'air lock tools' and gives the other two to Sancho.

"Lets swing by the management office on our way back, maybe they have some more camera feeds or something like override codes or keys."

Yuri draws and raises a pistol, which is a compact handgun with a with a top mounted visible laser sight. "Twelve pistol." Seeing that Sato isn't armed he hands it to the Martian. "You take good care of pistol Martian, I want back." He then hands over 1 spare magazine for the pistol.

At Van's question regarding gong through the rail gun hole the big Earther of Slavic descent shakes his head. "Rail gun hole not too big. For us to try and climb in would be like Caucasian Shepherd trying to fuck Bolonka Tsvetna."

OOC:
Bolonka Tsvetna only weighs 3-4 kilograms https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolonka_Zwetna
Caucasian Shepherd weighs in at 50 kilo grams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Shepherd_Dog

Kattalin gestures at Sato with handle of his pistol she has been borrowing in much the same way any mechanic would expect to pass off a wrench or other tool to swap out with another one, clearly an offer to trade weapons so he can have his own, that no doubt fits its holster better than the modified one.  ”It sounds like we don't want to finalize the plan until we get more information, that temptation is a risky one, if we wait to long we will be found or they will move and there is no way we can chase those ships after they leave.  We may be in an even tighter time crunch if they are monitoring the spread of the infestation and planning to leave before it gets close enough to threaten them.”

Asha has been listening to the others until it's her turn, not looking up much since she's awaiting instructions from Abang. "I'm Hope, a mechanic from the Zhidao, a Shíyàn Nóngyé ship, like the doc said. I'm just his extra hands right now. I can't do much here. Once on a ship I can help powering it up and fixing things. I'm also decent with drones and other tech. Don't count on me to fight my way onto a ship, but if you can get me on one we're flying out I can do more."

[Private to GM: Hope and Sato have been more like friends with benefits on the ship. So she would surely have heard of Kaeya, but they're unlikely to know each other.]

Having returned with Hope, carrying four more vacsuits and hearing the conversation, Abang adds his input, "These four suits are heavy duty, and you four with armor could put your armor on over them, if we fit you properly.  Split into two groups, two of you on each boarding team, going in first."  He sees Yuri handing over his pistol and Kattalin and Shinsato swapping (presumably*), "Looks like we have a solid fourteen armed individuals, and two others, one for each ship, to do secondary duties, like Hope here once engineering is secured, can start getting the engines warmed up to go."

He holds his hand out to Shinsato, "Boss, my pistol please." (presuming* Shinsato hands Abang's peashooter back) "Shinsato, myself, Hope, Kattalin?  And then two of you in armor and four others with pistols, we can take the large ship.  Mr. Botha, Captain Nguyen, two armored, and two others take the corvette.  Kaeya, Ms. Shinsato, and our wounded fellow remain here.  Once we've taken the ships the dock guards can be induced to surrender, we either bind them here or take them captive aboard the larger ship, move the wounded and elderly onto the ships, undock, and rendezvous with the Zhidao.  If we can take the shuttle by surprise and there are no other hostile ships in the area, we could even return engineers to the Svetlana and begin repairs as long as it's not dangerous, or disembark her and begin repairs on the float.  No need for her to still be languishing in the dock once UNN or MCRN finally show up to restore order."


OOC:  * Presuming... if not I can edit as needed.
Abang's bearing has become a bit rigid, almost "military officer" like as he talks, but there is clear scorn in his voice when he mentions the Earth and Martian Navies at the end...

"Hey, I don't know anything about being a pirate, and takign over a ship, but if everyone suited up and got on the ships at the same time would we be able to get away from Eros faster?"

In reply to Dr. Abang Kaos (msg # 106):

Van nodded.

"This sounds workable. I understand there is no perfect plan. Have many priorities to balance. Our boarding expert, the Marine, thinks taking both ships is possible if difficult and this gives us the capability to evacuate as many people as possible. Therefore this is the primary objective. We can scale our efforts back to securing one ship, if deemed necessary.

"I do not hold out hope my ship can be made serviceable at this time. Eros is not going anywhere! My ship can stay here, at least it cannot be stolen if it cannot be flown. It is insured against theft and piracy, so adjusters can have a look once Eros is secured and order restored."

"Once The UN arrives," Kala almost blurted out and then thought better of it with all the Belters around her. They had no love of Earthers at the best of times, and right now, those mysterious high-tech invaders with their special suits were looking more and more like Inners, and probably not Martians.

She kept her thoughts to herself and busied herself putting on the heavy vac suit she'd been hauling halfway across the rock.

"Where do you want me to go?" she asked Kaos and Loc (sounds like a law firm, right?) -- they seemed to be organizing this little escape plan.

Seeing the plan begin to switch from theory to action Kattalin selects one of the lighter but still fully functional vacsuits for herself and attaches the hand terminal she has been using to one of its tool cords, testing that link even before she steps unto it.

Whether it was a good plan or not remained to be seen. But that there was a plan at all was good in any case.
Kojo followed Kattalin procedure, took one of the fragile emergency vac suits and wished her and the team good luck.
"Ready to go."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Tue 29 Mar 2022.

"Kattalin, Mr. Botha, Captain Nguyen, there may be useful drones and spare terminals in the computer store, there should be time to check while everyone is getting suited up and double-checked.  Also, I have a camera drone that you can use, it's a tourist vacay model, so it's not exactly rugged or vac rated, but it does have a good camera and wireless broadcast capacity."

He pulls it out of his duffel and hands it over to Luc, it's still unopened.  He then starts getting suited up in an emergency suit and helps others if they need it.

Alis will see about syncing the feed from the server room camera's to her hand terminal.

"If anyone can sync the feeds to our terminals, we'll be able to keep an eye out on those guards. And Van, if they get wise maybe have the Svetlana start up to distract them?" She says as she gets into one of the vac suits that they lugged from the Pur-n-Cleen offices.

She also looks for some shop rags and duct tape. Her intent is to make some 'booties' for the mag lock capable boots to muffle their foot falls.

In reply to Kattalin Zubiri (msg # 110):

Van smiled at Kala. "Until we make our move, look for useful equipment. When we go in your gun will be needed."

"Dr. Kaos, it is interesting you have a drone. If you can pilot, perhaps you can take control of mine during the boarding phase? Yours will not be able to function in vacuum." If needed he transfers control of his drone over. The man clearly had some military experience and training and probably functioned very well under pressure.

Seeing her suit up he did so himself, first removing the armour, then trying to get it on after. As he had his SMG he'd probably be in the front and more liable to catch a bullet.

"I can try.  I've done remote teleoperations before, though, that was surgical.  I offered mine as one that could be used here on the docks to monitor the guards, since yours would be better used on the boarding."

He uses some tape to strap the holdout holster for his pistol on the outside of his emergency vacsuit.

Sancho suited up and made sure all was working on the suit before he checked his weapons and did a quick check of his other gear. Lastly he indicated he was ready to go.


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This message was last edited by the player at 05:24, Wed 30 Mar 2022.

"I could run a drone if needed. It's at least something useful I can contribute since I'm not familiar with guns. But once I'm on a ship I'll need to focus on the ship."

Leaving her helmet off until they are actually ready to go Kattalin takes a break in otherwise doublechecking her seals.  ”All the hand terminals are already networked, so any feed sent to one will be visible to anything in range, drone control can be done by anyone not currently engaged in some other activity but whoever is doing it will likely need to actively distribute any important updates as there will be a range of distractions no matter how well this goes.”

Kaeya grabs a pair of the emergency vac suits and helps Ms. Hirotsugu get into it. Once that is done, she dons the other one.

"Hey, we might want to lightly wrap our joints in duct tape, that's where these one time use suits rip the most."

Yuri thought about putting on the heavy vac suit but decided against it. He'd probably be one of the assault leaders and thus needed as much mobility as possible.

First stripping off the set of CPM armor, he gets on of the emergency vac suits. Once that is one he asks others to assist in getting the CPM armor back on, and the shotgun slung back on his body as well.

Vac suits still available (I think)
1 Heavy vac suit (crappy mobility).
1 standard vac suit (Kattalin, Alis, and Van have claimed the other three).

As the heavy vac suit appear it might weight more than she does, Hope dons a standard vac suit. She seems nimble enough getting into it despite her slender belter physique.

Sato had accepted the new weapon and returned the one to Abang that he had borrowed.  He saw nothing wrong with the plan that Abang had presented so didn't bother to alter it.  They weren't aboard a ship so his 'position' of XO meant very little these days.

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OOC:

sorry for the short, likely of little help post.  Things will improve for me in the next week or so.

OOC: Please only post once in this thread if you decide to stay in the airlock. After all player characters have posted I will have the NPC’s post in a respective thread. My general assumption is that the vacuum rated drones will be used to first scout the area before characters try to exit the airlock and get to a ship.

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It doesn’t take very long for everyone to get suited up and determine what other items were available. When it came to mag boots, the life support shop had a large rack of them on display and thus anyone needing a pair of mag boots is able to find a pair that fits.

The wounded man is stuffed into the unused Heavy Vac suit.

The following items were found and brought to the airlock.

• Four airlock/hatch opening tools (in case brute force entry is required)
• 13x safety lines (3 meters long)
• 7x safety lines (5 meters long)
• 3x safety lines (10 meters long)
• 3x safety lines (30 meters long)
• 2x safety lines (50 meters long)
• 3x Vacuum rated drones (no special features, just has a basic video camera)
  NOTE: Dr. Kaos, and Hope are either unarmed, or have a pistol which may not be very useful. Thus they might be the best choices as ‘drone operators' to watch the guards through the transparent aluminum windows.

Thise headed for the small ship exit the airlock first (they have a longer walk), followed by those headed to the big ship next.

OOC: Just posting this here for any PC that stay's here.