2-02 Meeting The Harrow or Watching for Retribution

[Ndreare]

1d54: [24] = 24 = Spade

The smoothness of the Remorseless mercenaries as they completed the maneuvers, timing perfectly with the opening of the rift was something no one would believe. Teleporting onto a moving starship as it flew through a Rift within a planetary atmosphere was something of legends. Only the video logs could ever prove what happened and even then, there would be doubters for certain.

Now it is time to go see The Harrow...

Getting off the planet was pretty simple for Death Otter compared to the strain she had just put the ship through. As they left the planet and the ship’s sensors began calibrating to the new location she saw they were only a couple hours from the Duleer Asteroid Field where The Harrow was known to operate. She was known to operate on a UWW super dreadnought that had broken down a century ago. No longer able to move under its own power, it was abandoned for scrapping before being stolen by the Harrow.

The mercenaries confer with one another on if the better tactic would be to monitor the system around the asteroid field or if they should land and try to make contact with The Harrow themselves. While conferring the ship's approache came within sensor range of the former UWW giant.


INSTRUCTIONS: Plan on you approach to the problem, are you going to land and work with The Harrow and her crew on the dreadnaught, are you going to patrol the system and attack when she ship comes, or are you going to do something else?

Galied is excited seeing you all arrive so much faster than Retribution's Fury and it shows. Any discussion of attacking his ship will have him arguing against it. He is too smart to threaten with Sabreck and Grazz on board, but you can tell the idea of damaging the ship he needs to recover does anger him.

[Death Otter]

"Cool your ROCKETS, Galied!" Death Otter snapped. "No one's going to hurt your baby."

She whirled around and paced down the length of the crew lounge, where the tables and chairs had been moved to form a kind of conference table. Activating her holocom, she projected an image of the Harrow belt, with the former dreadnought-turned-space-station centered in it.

"We have a couple of options. First, we can send the shuttle to dock with The Harrow and lay some groundwork. We'd need to try to do some social engineering to slow down any deals they try to make and buy time for the ground team to break onto the ship, overcome whoever they leave guarding it, and steal it. The big risk here, aside from dealing with whoever's on board, is that they'll probably be on comms the second they get in-system, trying to get a buyer lined up. They know they have a lead on us, but they don't know how big a lead...so they won't take CHANCES."

"If they GET a buyer before we steal the ship, then we're technically stealing it from the BUYER, not THEM. And depending on who the buyer IS...that could have consequences."

The projection rotated, and a sphere appeared superimposed over the asteroid belt, encompassing, but not centered on, the space station.

"Option two...we don't dock. We go silent, stealth cranked to maximum and we wait. The circle there is the Arvot Limit; the boundary where the belt's center of mass is dense enough that a jump drive will dump a ship out automatically. We don't know EXACTLY where they'll come out, but it won't be inside that limit. Also, they're coming from the direction of the last point of call..."

The map shaded then, a large portion of it greying out slightly, leaving a clear wedge shape open.

"...so they'll most likely come out somewhere in that arc. Narrowed down to that stage, we can probably pounce on them within minutes of their arrival. Jam their comms and sensors, and send the shuttle out with a boarding party. Take them in deep space, where the Harrow won't care what we do, and before they get a buyer who'll come after us if we take it. The risk here is that they'll see us too soon, or they'll penetrate the jamming, and suddenly we have a battle in space where we're not allowed to damage them too much, but they have no limits. ALSO, boarding will be harder, because they'll ALL be there, instead of just SOME of them."

"So, my proud herd of cats...thoughts?"

[Sabrek Vek]

"Cool your ROCKETS, Galied!" Death Otter snapped. "No one's going to hurt your baby."

She whirled around and paced down the length of the crew lounge, where the tables and chairs had been moved to form a kind of conference table. Activating her holocom, she projected an image of the Harrow belt, with the former dreadnought-turned-space-station centered in it.

"We have a couple of options. First, we can send the shuttle to dock with The Harrow and lay some groundwork. We'd need to try to do some social engineering to slow down any deals they try to make and buy time for the ground team to break onto the ship, overcome whoever they leave guarding it, and steal it. The big risk here, aside from dealing with whoever's on board, is that they'll probably be on comms the second they get in-system, trying to get a buyer lined up. They know they have a lead on us, but they don't know how big a lead...so they won't take CHANCES."

"If they GET a buyer before we steal the ship, then we're technically stealing it from the BUYER, not THEM. And depending on who the buyer IS...that could have consequences."

The projection rotated, and a sphere appeared superimposed over the asteroid belt, encompassing, but not centered on, the space station.

"Option two...we don't dock. We go silent, stealth cranked to maximum and we wait. The circle there is the Arvot Limit; the boundary where the belt's center of mass is dense enough that a jump drive will dump a ship out automatically. We don't know EXACTLY where they'll come out, but it won't be inside that limit. Also, they're coming from the direction of the last point of call..."

The map shaded then, a large portion of it greying out slightly, leaving a clear wedge shape open.

"...so they'll most likely come out somewhere in that arc. Narrowed down to that stage, we can probably pounce on them within minutes of their arrival. Jam their comms and sensors, and send the shuttle out with a boarding party. Take them in deep space, where the Harrow won't care what we do, and before they get a buyer who'll come after us if we take it. The risk here is that they'll see us too soon, or they'll penetrate the jamming, and suddenly we have a battle in space where we're not allowed to damage them too much, but they have no limits. ALSO, boarding will be harder, because they'll ALL be there, instead of just SOME of them."

"So, my proud herd of cats...thoughts?"

"Knowing who their buyer is would be helpful. If we can find out who, how, when and where of the plan to purchase, we could send a fake transmission asking the buyer to postpone or meet elsewhere and pose as the buyer. If that is not an option I am more than willing to board and introduce them to my Blade and Shield." Sabrik uses his thumb to point at the items on his back. "But definitely would rather anger the miscreant thieves than I would the buyer, because they, may be a big player and therefore a bigger headache."

[Vinghab]

Vinghab grins. "Social engineering I can do. Play at being a buyer, mimic their contacts if I'm close enough to read their minds, even...strongly encourage returning the property to its rightful owner in exchange for good will and not being dead." He shrugs. "It might come to violence anyway, but it would be on our terms."
He thinks a moment, then offers another suggestion. "I wonder if I could pull off an imitation of The Harrow. Maybe convince them I don't like the deal anymore and they should return the thing before payback lands. That might give us enough pause to board the ship and remove the thieves."

[Lawrence Benson]

Lawrence leans back in one of the chairs in the lounge and laces his fingers behind his head. Again, the chair is dangerously close to tipping over and for a moment it looks like the shifter is starting to doze off during the discussion. Almost sensing the point where Death Otter will lose patience with him, he rocks the chair back forward onto the deck.

"The best time to make our move is the time we have the most control over. We need to dictate the time of the buy, the place of the buy, and the terms of the buy. We do this by being the buyer. Vinghab is on to it. We pose as the interested party and set up the deal. A few of us go in posing as buyers, probably those of us used to such delicate negotiations. The rest, well, maybe you misunderstood and assume the deal has already concluded. You cannot be faulted for defending and taking what is obviously our property ...or at least you assume will be.

And if something like that were to happen, it would put such a damper on negotiations. I mean, we cannot be expected to discuss in good faith without the property present, now can we? Of course we will understand and accept their apology for the inconvenience, but there is no sense in wasting anymore of each other's time..."

[Grazz]

"Maybe if Grazz starts eating people, the people will give the ship back. Otter knows Grazz is hungry since Otter won't let Grazz eat rookie."

[Sabrek Vek]

"Maybe if Grazz starts eating people, the people will give the ship back. Otter knows Grazz is hungry since Otter won't let Grazz eat rookie."

“I would think that I had some say in that as well, Dragon. We have a plan, but Captain, it’s your call. I will go and do what you tell me, and if they will not return the ship or turn it over to us, they will break upon my shield.”

[Ndreare]

Having a plan in hand and ready the mercenaries set up a solid position that will allow them to remain undetected while "listening" to the electronics chatter. Should be a simple task to keep the Remorseless off the sensors of other ships while being able to listen.
I mean, sure line of sight is always bidirectional. But that does not mean the noise around an object is always the same. After all, stealth is a thing.


Instructions: There are two tasks here. You may contribute to one of them. To contribute to both would require a Multiple Action Penalty as you are distracted.

1) Keep the ship as low profile as possible. This will require a Piloting roll and can only be supported by Piloting. The roll will be contested by the enemy's Electronics.

• Critical failure will turn the tides they will have preparations in place for boarding and will gain the Drop on your ship.
• Fail will let them see you coming and have preparations in place.
• Success will keep them from noticing you until it is too late. This will let you try to board and get the ship back.
• Raise will allow you to gain the Drop on your first action.

2) Watch for the ship. This will be a group roll, you need 5 tokens. As the Electronics systems are able to pick up everything. This is more a matter of perception as you filter through the noise.

• Critical Failure will cost the team two Tokens as you do something that damages the sensors, spill a drink, trip on a cable, or something.
• Failure will gain no tokens, but have no consequence.
• Success will gain a token for the group.
• Raise (or multiple raises) will gain two tokens for the group as you are able to help filter through the noise.

[Sabrek Vek]

Sabrick says, "Captain taking a turret position for adding a set of eyes and in preparation for possible combat." Sabrick heads to the Turret. He slides into the pod. Using the turret's targeting system the scopes out the area. First for ship and secondarily any indication that the Remorseless has been spotted.

Roll Notice: 1d6!: [1] = 1 , 1d6!: [5] = 5
Bennie Reroll: 1d6!: [6!, 2] = 8 , 1d6!: [3] = 3 ,

Success with a Raise = 2 Tokens!!!!!!

[Death Otter]

On arrival, Death Otter immediately rerouted power to suit a 'running silent' mode, activating the Remorseless' stealth systems, keeping the engines, sensors and life support running, and otherwise powering down to further enhance stealth by reducing their signature. The lights on the ship went to dim red, and the everpresent hum of multitudes of systems running in the background quieted; leaving the ship eerily silent to its crew.

"Yep yep," she said to Sabrick distractedly, most of her attention still focused on controlling the ship. "But no active scans or weapons fire unless ordered. We're going silent. Passive only."

Rolls: Pilot 18

Piloting with Machine Control and Interface
1d12!! 1d6!!: [6]+[4] = 10
Genius Reroll
1d12!! 1d6!!: [14!!]+[5] = 19

So with Interface and Ace, that's 18, and enemies are -4 to spot us.

[Lawrence Benson]

Lawrence goes to the forward viewport and puts on the goggles that he normally wears around his neck.

"Just to be sure, I will scan the area for anything that might elude mundane detection methods."

Once the goggles are in place and adjusted properly, the Shifter gives them the the needed magical energy to power them up, granting him the ability to see in the black void of space, extend his visual range, and pick up anything that might be hiding with magical or supernatural means.

1d6!!: [21!!] = 21 1d6!!: [15!!] = 15 +2

OOC: OK, well that's 5 tokens right there

[Vinghab]

Vinghab knows when to stay out of the way. Still, this is a delicate task, and if he can contribute anything to @Death Otter's efforts, he will. So gently reaching out with his mind, he reads a little of what she's trying to accomplish. He manages to

Piloting: 1d6!!: [4] = 4
WD Piloting: 1d6!!: [3] = 3
Benny Piloting with Elan: 1d6!!+2: [5]+2 = 7
Benny WD Piloting: 1d6!!+2: [2]+2 = 4
2nd Benny Piloting: 1d6!!+2: [5]+2 = 7
2nd Benny WD Piloting: 1d6!!+2: [3]+2 = 5
3rd Benny: 1d6!!+2: [1]+2 = 3
3rd WD Benny: 1d6!!+2: [5]+2 = 7

to further reduce their sensor signature without complicating her other efforts. "I used that trick one time on a damaged ship. Life support was dwindling, but rerouting the power through...well, you know."