Fwurg

[T'Sal]

As Shebi took the initiave T’sal looks to S4 with small eyes.

“Time to tie them up, the old fashioned way!.”

The smile own her face suggests that she has done this before. While Darones takes a defensive stand T’sal has time to prepare her maneuver. She takes the grappling hook and ropes she still carried. Throws a grapple hook with rope to S4 and takes the other end. With one end she holds the line and with the other she takes her ligthsaber. T’sal see that Shebi is charging right into them and gives her a warning.

“Miss Shebi if you would kindly move out of the line droids, you will not get hooked up.”

S4 and T’sal start a sprint together of to the right, make a nice sharp curve like practiced and then go full out towards the droids. S4 takes the inner lane and T’sal the outer lane; they go around the droids with the rope in between them. S4 goes below under T’sal arms when they cross and string them up. They try to pull the droids together and tie them up by circling around them. This will hopefully restrict their movement. When they are getting at the end of the rope they let go of the rope. S4 moving out of the way and T’sal moving in with saber ready to use the momentum she got to cut a droid.

((OOC: No idea how this exactly is going to work, how close the droids are together. As Shebi took two actions I would like to do the same with taking advantage (terrain action) and attacking. Force level 5 + Strength 3 + assistance S4. Attack at the end Shii-Cho attack 1/4/2 defense 3/4/2 ,+ circumstance bonus <= check this?))

[Mercury]

Shebi's arrow shot true, though only barely, the distance this time being bigger than with her first shot. The drone spun around wildly, opening fire in random directions. This time the arrow had not managed to disable it completely, though it was clearly off balance (wounded).

A quick flight, bouncing blaster fire away from her with her lightsaber settled her on a direct course to the unbalanced drone and moments later the glowing blade cut the drone in twain, glowing metal on the edges where the saber had cut through it like a hot knife through butter.

Darones meanwhile moved forward slowly and carefully, his lightsaber ready - which was a good thing too as the other two drones easily noticed the three Jedi and opened fire in their direction. Green bolts bounced off the young padawan's azure lightsaber as he moved forward.

T'sal shared the rope between herself and S4 and launched off towards the drone - noticing Shebi finishing one of the drones, she adjusted her course to cover the other two, flying over the Veolian padawan and around the two drones.

S4 seemed to have some trouble, the drones fire getting awfully close. Not being not equipped with a lightsaber to ward off the drones fire as the padawans were, it was in real danger a moment but luckily Darones' careful approach gave him time to assist the little robot and draw fire away from it.

Moments later T'sal and S4 hooked the rope around the two remaining drones, circling round them like moons and pulling in the ropes, locking the robots together. As they let go, the robots were flung off course, desperate attempts to compensate with their thrusters being in vain as T'Sal lined up for the attack.

S4 quickly dodged out of the way while T'sal slashed her saber through the bound together droids, making quick work of them in a long Shii-Cho styled slash.

((OOC: Your attack / defence stats are actually a bit higher as you forgot to add your Force Level to them. On top of everything, I'm also giving you a well deserved +2 RP bonus because of the cool and well executed attack!))

With the last obstacle eliminated, the team safely floated towards their destination, Asteroid C, planting their flag and claiming victory.

As the flag was planted, the drone that Master Screetor had programmed contacted the team:

"You have successfully planted the flag on asteroid C, completing this training. A replay of your performance has been sent to you for your review. Would you like to be picked up or do you wish to do more training?"

((OOC: This completes the training section of this mission - if you want to finish up here, please feel free, I would like to the start of the actual mission on Saturday before I leave.

ADDITIONAL:

Having successfully completed the training part of this mission, I am awarding all three of you

1 Skill point

to be spent on a skill of your choice. Please don't forget to make a note on your character sheet listing you gained this skill point and the mission in which you did. An example of how to do this is already listed on the character sheet of Shebi Ajava))

[Shebi Ajava]

"You can come pick us up." Shebi Ajava said through the comms.

"Impressive moves, T'Sal." she stated while they were waiting for the small craft to be piloted over here. "I wasn't aware that you had previous experience with zero-gravity manoeuvres. In fact, I distinctly recall you saying you have no experience with such environments. Are you sure about that? It seemed like this was a practised move...", she let the question hang.

[T'Sal]

"Thanks miss Shebi, but I am only good in the roping part. I used to bind my father together with S4 in rope. My father wanted me to learn knowledge and science from a historical point of view. So I started with wheels and ropes when I was a child and finally reached modern space ships and atomic force builders.”

“Thanks Darones for protecting S4. I think installing a force shield for his protection is a good idea. This training missing was very useful. Some things you really have to experience to get a good point of view from.”

((OOC: I think of spending my skill point for my background of being able to use old/historical equipment/tools for using rope tricks, soldering etc. More flavor is more better. Mercy what would you think of historical engineering?))

[Shebi Ajava]

Shebi Ajava asks Quartermaster Nishra to fit a rangefinder in her helmet before the real mission. Preferably one that can track multiple objects at the same time, while not cluttering up the heads up display.

((OOC: Ready to roll on the real mission.

@stuiter: wouldn't that just be Mechanical Engineer? Thought it covers a bit more area, it is bound to cover historical methods as well -- they still work ^_^))

[Darones Rei]

" That was a nice move indeed, " Darones said as he concurred with Shebi's comments about T'Sal rope trick, " and surely a move I had not expected. As for covering S4, you are welcome, if you need a hand installing that shield, I'd be happy to help. "

Darones sends a message to Quartermaster Nishra, stating that he is pleased with the workings of his EVA-suit, however he would like her to fine-tune the controls a bit more for to offer a little more stability and control, and he requested a simple range-measuring system to project information such as distance and (relative) speed on his visar.

He tend uploaded the data he had stored in S4 to his own data-console and compared the data with previously encountered droids and commonly available parts to make an assessment for the frequency range and operating range of his signal jammer, which he would bring with him for them mission. ((OOC: Force level 4 + Reason 5 + Mechanical Engineer 2; data gained from study))

It would be a delicate operation, and it might require an update or additional on S4 as well, since it was likely the signal jammer would also interfere with S4's own transceivers and systems.

[T'Sal]

When T’sal arrives at the she also asks Quartermaster Nishra for the rangefinder.

S4 needs a some major upgrades so she makes all the necessary preparations. All the tools and data required for the upgrade are collected. Furthermore he needs data about other droids and their specifications. While T’sal is collecting the data she got a idea. Not only droids would be protecting the station, so why not collect data on all security systems. It is quite some data and would take quite some space in S4s database. It might be better idea to make a separate data systems for all this, so scientific research and operational information has its own place. T’sal also put the data on her own datapad.

“Darones I would be glad if you and Quartermaster could help me upgrade S4 with a force shield, an extra data system and maybe some more.”

It took quite some time to upgrade S4, the power system had to be adjusted but S4 had enough power as most scientific complicated equipment needs more power than a simple force shield. Everything needed to be balanced and calibrated again. After a few hours S4 was fully operational again and he was able to get the shield up and withstand the shots fired at him.

“I think we are ready to go now.”

((OOC: If you say that doing rope tricks and being able to pull things from the old book is mechanical engineer, okay))

[Mercury]

((OOC: Mechanical Engineering seems by the text to cover mostly vehicles and other complex machines. I think what T'sal wants (correct me if I'm wrong) is more base skill like making simple rope traps, using a soldering iron or welding tool and woodworking, but I think some of that is covered by the skill.

Historical Engineering would be a more focussed skill - it would be applicable in fewer situations, but when it applies, it will have more effect on the rate of success.

I leave the choice to T'sal - Mechanical Engineering covers what you want, I think, and allow additional applications outside of that area, but Historial Engineering would give you a bigger boost on the fewer cases where it is useful.))

Quartermaster Nishra was easily able to equip the team range-finder and speed measuring sensors, to be displayed in their visors. As they had learned in the training, this would be a most valuable tool.

The calculations on the signal-jammer were quite difficult, but eventually Darones' skill as an engineer came through, managing to configure it so it did not interfere with S4 while still jamming all common models of droids.

S4 itself was further upgraded with an energy shield and an external data system - the shield would only be able to absorb a limited amount of fire however before burning out.

Mission

Once they had rested and made last minute adjustments to their equipment, the team boarded the large vessel they had entered earlier and took off, the asteroid shaped ship in it's belly.

The trip to Sector 20 -7 was quicker than they had expected, owing to some fortunate swirls in hyperspace. At the border of the sector, the team changed to the asteroid vessel which wasn't as fast, but which wouldn't draw attention.

Soon, their ship arrived at the outer edge of the 1341-8010J RSP system. Several sensors already warned about dangerous levels of radiation. Fortunately, the station was positioned well away from the actual star, which despite it's overwhelming presence in the area of radiation seemed notable absent in the visual spectrum - being here was similar to being in deep space, billions of stars visible, but impossible to tell which was the closest.

In the distance, the teams sensors picked up on the exact location of the station in the asteroid belt around the neutron star.



Their next step would be to get to the station and look for evidence that it had been used to construct weapons as well as details on those weapons and the facility itself.

((OOC: Objectives:

• Get on board of the station
• Find evidence of weapons production
• Find details of those weapons if weapon production indeed takes place here
• Find detailed blueprints or schematics of the facility itself
• Don't get caught!

))

[T'Sal]

((OOC: Cancel this action as Brends points outs.))

During their flight the padawans had the time to come up with a plan to approach the station. The best way to get in was probably trough one on the garbage/ waste point or one of the side/backdoors. But now that they were on the location they had to investigate with the sensor if the information they had use to formulate the plan was correct or not. If they were doing illegal things the station and the security would be more tight and it would be harder to get in. Darones, S4 and T’sal had together tried to increase the power of the ships sensor arrays to adjust to the radiation so they would be able to detect droid sentinels and sensor/weaponry installed at the station.

((OOC: T’sal Force power 5+ Reason 5 + mechanical engineering 1 and Darones Force 4 + Reason 5 + mechanical engineering 2 and assistance S4.))

Ones they were able to get into the station. The best way would be to hack into the system and get more information on the inside of the station and some hints on interesting location where they might find some evidence.

((OOC: Things have to get moving, so let me know if you agree or have a different plan.))

[Shebi Ajava]

((OOC: 1) I don't think you should take actions for Darones. So unless Gerben gave you expliciet permission, don't control him!

2) I agree with the plan, but I can't say so IC because you did not explain your plan IC.))

[T'Sal]

((OOC: Sorry, I should not be storytelling. I shall redo my post then.))

During their flight the padawans had the time to come up with a plan to approach the station.

T'sal says "The best way to get in will probably be trough one on the garbage/ waste point or one of the side/backdoors. Ones we are in, we could hack into the system and get more information on the inside of the station and some hints on interesting location where we might find some evidence. Miss Shebi, Darones what do you think, do you have other ideas?"

Together they discussed some options and formulated a plan.

"Okay, we now have plan, but need to check whether the information we used is correct or not or outdated. If they are doing illegal things on the station and the security will be tighter and it will be harder to get in."

She asks Darones and S4 to help increase the power of the ships sensor arrays to adjust to the radiation so they would be able to detect droid sentinels, sensor/weaponry or other things installed at the station. She investigates the station thoroughly.

((OOC: T’sal Force power 5+ Reason 5 + mechanical engineering 1 and assistance S4 and Darones if he agrees to adjust the sensors and Force power 5+ Reason 5 + scientist 3 for investigation station))

[Shebi Ajava]

Shebi Ajava nodded her agreement to the plan, and added: "Illegal is a relative term, T'Sal. Especially seeing how this is outside of Union territory... But I'm reasonably sure that the security will be tight, it is a secret research station after all. Let's get to it!"

[Mercury]

T'Sal, S4 and Darones looked at the sensors, focussing them on the station and trying to read its defenses.

The station had four large double barrel turrets - easily enough to take out the small ship the team had come in on if they were discovered, so they would have to be careful. Unfortunately the sensors could not tell them why a research station had such heavy armaments.

It also featured a large sensor dish and antenna array but they appeared to be focused on the neutron star - if the team approached from the other side, they would be able to get the ship much closer without risking detection. The fact that the ship was designed for this kind of thing helped a lot as well.

The outside of the station was watched by security camera's, but Darones was certain he would be able to tap into their feed to send out a false signal. A bit further out several patrol drones circled the station like moons in different orbits. Thanks to the teams training exercise, they easily plotted a path past the drones which would get them to the station uninterrupted.

Besides the main docking port, which would get them noticed for sure, there were three possible points of entry. In the station's front towards the neutron star were three collector arrays, likely used to collect exotic matter ejected from the star. They might be able to get in there, though to get to the collectors they would have to move through the scanning area of the sensors aimed at the star.

A second point of entry was the garbage disposal unit suggested by T'Sal. If someone disposed of any garbage and they were able to sneak in then, they would almost certainly go undetected, otherwise they might have to do some hacking.

Finally, there was a man-sized airlock to the side of the station, used to allow droids or someone in a space suit to exit the station and perform repairs on its outside. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a drone, which had not been given a trajectory and was waiting there patiently for orders - from the dust, it had been there a while, so it was most likely a spare.

((OOC: Feel free to discuss the options and ask questions, as soon as the team decides on a course of action, I'll post the results))

[Darones Rei]

As the results of the sensor sweep came in, Darones considered the options at hand. Since the station had stronger then expected armaments, one would expect illegal activity or research of great importance to someone.

" I don't like those guns, they could easily take us out should we be discovered, so i propose to adjust our heading to approach outside of the detection angle of the deflector dish, and to adjust our speed and course to match those of surrounding asteroids, so that they may provide us cover and serve as camouflage to mask our approach.

I'm not sure on the best point of entry, I don't like the airlock nor the garbage disposal, but these are probably our best bets. I wouldn't recommend the collectors, such systems are usually complex and I think in this case subject to intense levels of heat or radiation. "

Darones adjust the course of their ship to match his earlier comment, before he asked a question:

" By the way, what are we to do with our ship, we can't simply park it somewhere. "

[T'Sal]

“I think we have really have to park the asteroid here. We want to get back unnoticed. Its strange force signature will make it easier to find it back. So let’s look for a good location where it can stay a few hours.

Personally, I would go for the garbage point, but we might have to wait a while before we can get in.”

[Shebi Ajava]

"I think we should use the garbage system as well. However, I do not think that waiting is in our best interests. Every moment we hang out here increases the chances of accidental detection."

Shebi Ajava looked pensive for a moment.

"We should get eyes on the inside as soon as possible. If we know what they can see, we can plan our approach accordingly. How close do we have to be before you two can hack into their feeds? If we can splice in fake feeds we won't have to wait for a scheduled garbage dump, we can just schedule it ourselves and hop aboard when it suits us.

Once inside, we'll probably have better access to their systems, allowing us to find a quiet spot and get some actual information on the inner workings of the base."

[Mercury]

((OOC: I'll continue the action as soon as the team has reached a decision on the plan and someone takes an action - I think most of you agree so go and head on in!))

[T'Sal]

“So your planning to create our own entrance. Good idea! Let’s reconvert the power from the sensors to our transmitters so we can hack their system from afar.

Darones, S4 would you help again?

I think I don’t need the system chart of this ship anymore (to help).” T’sal says with a smile.

T’sal get’s going again on the mechanics so they are be able to hack into the system of the space station without being noticed. She takes great care and studies the signals, codes and languages of the space station before she plants their takeover.

((OOC: T’sal Force power 5 + Reason 5/Intuition 5 + mechanical engineering 1/slicing 1/linguistics 1/programming 1 and assistance S4 (and Darones )))

“Okay, I will set a timer of 30 minutes from when we depart until the garbage points opens. Miss Shebi, do you think that is enough so that we have enough time to sneaks past those droids and get to the garbage point?”

T’sal now gets herself ready to make another space trip.

[Shebi Ajava]

"I think you're forgetting something, T'Sal. The radiation of the neutron star will kill us within minutes. Please adjust the scheduling so we can time our entry exactly -- we need to time our approach so we can ignore the patrolling droids.

The exit will be an issue as well, so make sure you leave a way to trigger a garbage ejection when we're inside."

Shebi Ajava donned her helmet, and checked her enviro-suit's systems.

[T'Sal]

"Okay, I adjusted the time and also installed a switch for our way back."

((OOC: Hope we can now go on adventure. Darones are you still there? haven't seen much posting))

[Darones Rei]

Darones completed the maneuver of the ship as intended and it was now at the other side of the research station as he prepared to shut down almost all the shipsystems. He wanted to get any emissions as low as possible, so that ship seemed like any other drifting asteroids, in which it was currently hiding.

The navigational computer would keep it on a course, and match it with the speed and vectors of the surrounding asteroids, but would remain as close to the station, without falling out of cohesion with the asteroid group.

Coinciding with T'Sal carefully timed programming, Darones added feature for a remote power-up and opening of the airlock in the back of their ship and connected the signal to a small remote transmitter, which looked like a normal key. Pressing the key at any time would power up the shipsystems and make the airlock accessible for the outside. He then assisted T'Sal with her part of the programming.

Once that was finished, Darones checked his gear and his enviro-suit systems.

" Well, " He then said, " Let's do this. "

[Mercury]

T'Sal's skills as a slicer made sure she easily cracked the codes of the garbage disposal unit - the station hadn't thought it important to put a high level of security in it either. With her hack, T'Sal could open and close the unit as she pleased with or without the dumping of actual garbage. Moreover, she could do so without the event being logged by the monitoring systems.

Darones meanwhile put the ship into stealth mode, making it nearly undetectable, and added features for a quick restart.

Once they were finished, the two padawans together put their mind on the security camera feeds, easily misdirecting them by looping old footage on which nothing happened, exactly what had been going on for ages here. Unless someone looked outside through a window as they passed it by, they were certain to go unnoticed by the camera's.

With all preparations made, the team geared up, carefully exiting the ship. Almost as soon as they were out they got beeps and warnings from the radiation detection system warning them of unacceptably high levels of radiation coming from the neutron star.

Having already planned a route and now having knowledge of zero gravity, the team easily made its way past the security drones towards the garbage disposal unit, where with the press of a button T'Sal opened up the unit. It was a good thing they had trained for this, or this phase might have been much more troublesome!

The garbage shute turned out to be surprisingly clean - apperantly all garbage was packaged up first before being dumped into space, keeping the system relatively clean.

Soon they found themselves inside the station in a maintenance corridor, which conveniently came with directions:

Above them along a ladder lay the engineering section, where most of the stations systems were coordinated. To their left, the maintenance corridor led to an elevator which could take them to either the living area, the main coordination and control center or the server rooms. And to their right were the labs and collector station.

As the team removed their helmets after making sure the air was breathable, all three of them could sense something - something that seemed out of place: a disturbance of some sort...

[Shebi Ajava]

((OOC: Shebi Ajava is not removing her helmet. The whole idea of reusable fresh air seals in Onyx Series 5 suit is not to remove the helmet (which then needs to be either stashes or carried around).))

Ajava whispered into the communications system integrated into her helmet: "We'll go to the server rooms; they might be the best choice to obtain further information on the station's layout. If we can keep up this level of cyberinfiltration we might even try a takeover of some of the security systems.

I'm getting a weird feeling from this place. Let's move quickly and silently, once we've established a secure position I'll try to get a feel for what's wrong."

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to get a general sense of direction for the disturbance. ((OOC: Force Level 5 + Intuition 4))

[T'Sal]

Before T’sal leaves the ships she talks to S4.

“S4 when we reach the station I want you to use all your sensors, especially your heat sensors, to see if you detect people/droids or other things nearby and also keep track on our locations and the internal structure of the station. You can use your analyses display (with various lighting levels) to show your results and give low level light signals as you do not have a helmet to protect your voice.

Darones, miss Shebi would you like to come so you get familair with S4 display/ligth signals, so he can make sure everything is clear to you without making a sound.”

S4 incorporates the suggestions and fine tunes the settings. Then it is time to have another space trip.

When they enter the space station T’sal let’s S4 go ahead about a meter to scout. His sensor have quite some reach and he will hopefully detect any tread early. T’sal also gets the strange feeling but leaves it up to Shebi and continues down the corridor silently.


((OOC: Force level 5 + Fitness 3 + stealth 1))

[Mercury]

In the haste to establish a secure position, Shebi wasn't able to make out exactly what was going on with the disturbance, but she did determine it was coming from the direction of the labs and collection station. Likely she would be able to find out more once she got closer, though the disturbance was moving so she couldn't be sure it would still be there later.

The team silently made their way towards the stations server room, following the maintenance corridor to the elevator. The team waited for an R7 series astromech droid to pass and around the corner, spotted in time thanks to Darones paying attention before exiting the maintenance corridor into the hall with the elevator.

As they approached, T'sal noticed the elevator used a keycard access system to restrict access to certain floors, including the server room where they were heading. Being an expert slicer, she would be able to overwrite the lock, but that would risk the chance of accidentally triggering a security subroutine. Alternatively, the team could open the hatch in the elevator cabin ceiling and climb up to the server level. That would avoid the risk of triggering any alarms, but it would take more time and energy.