0005 Tremous Dex and the Hippity-Hop

[Eris]

The countdown to emergence continues while the crew does all the searching they can. No more bombs or booby traps are found aboard.

Yes, there are a couple of half ton storage spaces that weren't listed as such, each empty, containing neither bombs nor hidden packages.

Bob and Doug tinker around and find that under the access hatch in the Garage deck that gives access to the fuel intake pipes there is a false side wall that opens into a 3 by 3 meter space that is a little under a meter high. This is not empty. There is a backpack, a vacc suit, and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed in there! The backpack contains several days rations, water purification tablets, and other survival items. The vacc suit is standard TL 12, nothing special. One cardboard box holds a 9mm auto pistol and 3 filled magazines of rounds for it. The other cardboard box has what looks like a small electronics kit and something that looks like a block of modeling clay wrapped in cloth. OOC: If Sigrun see it she recognizes C4 and a detonator...enough to easily breach a hull. The detonator is not attached to the explosive, though, they are just sitting there in storage.

This occupies everyone's time for a few hours, but the countdown continues. You should be emerging right around 168 hours after entering jump, give or take a couple of hours. So at 165 hours, or T-3, everyone is at their Ready Stations.

OOC: Flighty is at the controls. Donovan is on Comms/Sensors. Doug and Bob are in Engineering. Where exactly are Zaki, Karcsi and Sigrun stationed?

[joertexas]

OOC: Flighty is at the controls. Donovan is on Comms/Sensors. Doug and Bob are in Engineering. Where exactly are Zaki, Karcsi and Sigrun stationed?

Zaki is in the common area, suited up and armed.

[terrymixon]

The countdown to emergence continues while the crew does all the searching they can. No more bombs or booby traps are found aboard.

Yes, there are a couple of half ton storage spaces that weren't listed as such, each empty, containing neither bombs nor hidden packages.

Bob and Doug tinker around and find that under the access hatch in the Garage deck that gives access to the fuel intake pipes there is a false side wall that opens into a 3 by 3 meter space that is a little under a meter high. This is not empty. There is a backpack, a vacc suit, and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed in there! The backpack contains several days rations, water purification tablets, and other survival items. The vacc suit is standard TL 12, nothing special. One cardboard box holds a 9mm auto pistol and 3 filled magazines of rounds for it. The other cardboard box has what looks like a small electronics kit and something that looks like a block of modeling clay wrapped in cloth. OOC: If Sigrun see it she recognizes C4 and a detonator...enough to easily breach a hull. The detonator is not attached to the explosive, though, they are just sitting there in storage.

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

He hands her the key to the arms locker. "You two are to be armed however you see fit, and the rest of us will be unarmed. If there is trouble, I'm counting on you two to end it. The hidden pistol means the saboteur--if there really is one--will hopefully be unarmed."

He sighed. "I hate mistrusting anyone on this crew, but it's hard to argue with the evidence. If anyone sees another possibility, feel free to trot it out."

Flighty

[terrymixon]

OOC: Flighty is at the controls. Donovan is on Comms/Sensors. Doug and Bob are in Engineering. Where exactly are Zaki, Karcsi and Sigrun stationed?

Zaki is in the common area, suited up and armed.

Flighty might be confiscating that pistol. Sadly, now we have a mole and we don't know who. Sigh.

[joertexas]

The countdown to emergence continues while the crew does all the searching they can. No more bombs or booby traps are found aboard.

Yes, there are a couple of half ton storage spaces that weren't listed as such, each empty, containing neither bombs nor hidden packages.

Bob and Doug tinker around and find that under the access hatch in the Garage deck that gives access to the fuel intake pipes there is a false side wall that opens into a 3 by 3 meter space that is a little under a meter high. This is not empty. There is a backpack, a vacc suit, and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed in there! The backpack contains several days rations, water purification tablets, and other survival items. The vacc suit is standard TL 12, nothing special. One cardboard box holds a 9mm auto pistol and 3 filled magazines of rounds for it. The other cardboard box has what looks like a small electronics kit and something that looks like a block of modeling clay wrapped in cloth. OOC: If Sigrun see it she recognizes C4 and a detonator...enough to easily breach a hull. The detonator is not attached to the explosive, though, they are just sitting there in storage.

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

He hands her the key to the arms locker. "You two are to be armed however you see fit, and the rest of us will be unarmed. If there is trouble, I'm counting on you two to end it. The hidden pistol means the saboteur--if there really is one--will hopefully be unarmed."

He sighed. "I hate mistrusting anyone on this crew, but it's hard to argue with the evidence. If anyone sees another possibility, feel free to trot it out."

Flighty

Zaki hands over her pistol to Donovan without comment.

[ateno]

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

Karcsi makes his pistol safe and hands it over with the ammo.

GM: Can Karcsi use streetwise or army time to figure out how long those boxes have been there? Dust, Age marks, disturbance of underneath?

Karcsi

[Tiglath]

The countdown to emergence continues while the crew does all the searching they can. No more bombs or booby traps are found aboard.

Yes, there are a couple of half ton storage spaces that weren't listed as such, each empty, containing neither bombs nor hidden packages.

Bob and Doug tinker around and find that under the access hatch in the Garage deck that gives access to the fuel intake pipes there is a false side wall that opens into a 3 by 3 meter space that is a little under a meter high. This is not empty. There is a backpack, a vacc suit, and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed in there! The backpack contains several days rations, water purification tablets, and other survival items. The vacc suit is standard TL 12, nothing special. One cardboard box holds a 9mm auto pistol and 3 filled magazines of rounds for it. The other cardboard box has what looks like a small electronics kit and something that looks like a block of modeling clay wrapped in cloth. OOC: If Sigrun see it she recognizes C4 and a detonator...enough to easily breach a hull. The detonator is not attached to the explosive, though, they are just sitting there in storage.

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

He hands her the key to the arms locker. "You two are to be armed however you see fit, and the rest of us will be unarmed. If there is trouble, I'm counting on you two to end it. The hidden pistol means the saboteur--if there really is one--will hopefully be unarmed."

He sighed. "I hate mistrusting anyone on this crew, but it's hard to argue with the evidence. If anyone sees another possibility, feel free to trot it out."

Sigrún collects up the vacc suit, pistol and explosive for secure storage.

She checks the sanitary couplings on the vacc suit to determine the sex of the user (that's if the suit is set up for endurance use).

She also looks for depletion of the rations, stored waste and litter indicating current use of the "priest hole".

She then checks the hidden crawlspace for any other hidden exits "A hide within a hide is sometimes a thing when... smuggling people".

She adds "This hide's existence works two ways. It could be gear cached by an agent within the crew - but vacc suits are freely available aboard. Still, it could be their escape and evasion kit as well as emergency life support. The other way this works is that this gear belongs to a sabotage agent who is a stowaway now active aboard and for reasons unknown is separated from their gear. However, for me the most obvious solution is that they were put aboard to plant a bomb to destroy the ship in jump and, having completed that task, then successfully evaded from the ship abandoning their redundant mission gear".

"There's something else. Foringi Flighty if you believe this gear is owned by one of our crew now still aboard then you have to accept that they were willing to kill themselves along with everyone else when the bomb caused our jump transition to catastrophically fail. Doug told us there would be no possible escape".

"If the saboteur remains aboard it seems odd to abandon their gear but I can think of reasons - the first being that they have suffered the same psionic influences we have and have been driven to hide elsewhere. Secondly the agent is moving through confined spaces or close machinery that would foul and snag on a vacc suit".

"However, we have a simple solution here - suit up and void the ship. At battle stations warships often evacuate compartments to avoid explosive decompression and fire. We will have that advantage and also flush our suitless stowaway out of the confined spaces. I will be waiting. If you still suspect the crew then turning off the ship's gravity likely limits the mobility of nearly everyone else aboard except me".

"Donovan you will be on the Bridge so close all the ships hatches and once we are all at our battle stations lock down Bridge and Engineering as our strongholds. Alert me as soon as any other hatches are opened. I'll start the hunt in the Crew Common area".

[Eris]

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

Karcsi makes his pistol safe and hands it over with the ammo.

GM: Can Karcsi use streetwise or army time to figure out how long those boxes have been there? Dust, Age marks, disturbance of underneath?

Karcsi

Can Karcsi? Well he can certainly try. Roll 2d6 + (let's say total terms in all careers) against a 6. And while we're at it, anyone else who wants to attempt this can do the same 2d6+terms against a 6. If anyone succeeds they will be able to make an accurate guess as to how long the pistol and boxes have been in the hidey hole.

[terrymixon]

The countdown to emergence continues while the crew does all the searching they can. No more bombs or booby traps are found aboard.

Yes, there are a couple of half ton storage spaces that weren't listed as such, each empty, containing neither bombs nor hidden packages.

Bob and Doug tinker around and find that under the access hatch in the Garage deck that gives access to the fuel intake pipes there is a false side wall that opens into a 3 by 3 meter space that is a little under a meter high. This is not empty. There is a backpack, a vacc suit, and a pair of cardboard boxes stuffed in there! The backpack contains several days rations, water purification tablets, and other survival items. The vacc suit is standard TL 12, nothing special. One cardboard box holds a 9mm auto pistol and 3 filled magazines of rounds for it. The other cardboard box has what looks like a small electronics kit and something that looks like a block of modeling clay wrapped in cloth. OOC: If Sigrun see it she recognizes C4 and a detonator...enough to easily breach a hull. The detonator is not attached to the explosive, though, they are just sitting there in storage.

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

He hands her the key to the arms locker. "You two are to be armed however you see fit, and the rest of us will be unarmed. If there is trouble, I'm counting on you two to end it. The hidden pistol means the saboteur--if there really is one--will hopefully be unarmed."

He sighed. "I hate mistrusting anyone on this crew, but it's hard to argue with the evidence. If anyone sees another possibility, feel free to trot it out."

Sigrún collects up the vacc suit, pistol and explosive for secure storage.

She checks the sanitary couplings on the vacc suit to determine the sex of the user (that's if the suit is set up for endurance use).

She also looks for depletion of the rations, stored waste and litter indicating current use of the "priest hole".

She then checks the hidden crawlspace for any other hidden exits "A hide within a hide is sometimes a thing when... smuggling people".

She adds "This hide's existence works two ways. It could be gear cached by an agent within the crew - but vacc suits are freely available aboard. Still, it could be their escape and evasion kit as well as emergency life support. The other way this works is that this gear belongs to a sabotage agent who is a stowaway now active aboard and for reasons unknown is separated from their gear. However, for me the most obvious solution is that they were put aboard to plant a bomb to destroy the ship in jump and, having completed that task, then successfully evaded from the ship abandoning their redundant mission gear".

"There's something else. Foringi Flighty if you believe this gear is owned by one of our crew now still aboard then you have to accept that they were willing to kill themselves along with everyone else when the bomb caused our jump transition to catastrophically fail. Doug told us there would be no possible escape".

"If the saboteur remains aboard it seems odd to abandon their gear but I can think of reasons - the first being that they have suffered the same psionic influences we have and have been driven to hide elsewhere. Secondly the agent is moving through confined spaces or close machinery that would foul and snag on a vacc suit".

"However, we have a simple solution here - suit up and void the ship. At battle stations warships often evacuate compartments to avoid explosive decompression and fire. We will have that advantage and also flush our suitless stowaway out of the confined spaces. I will be waiting. If you still suspect the crew then turning off the ship's gravity likely limits the mobility of nearly everyone else aboard except me".

"Donovan you will be on the Bridge so close all the ships hatches and once we are all at our battle stations lock down Bridge and Engineering as our strongholds. Alert me as soon as any other hatches are opened. I'll start the hunt in the Crew Common area".

"Or they were meant to disable the ship once we arrived at a location where we could be attacked. Then the hidden saboteur could wait for rescue after killing us in a vacuum loss. That would give them the ship back. That's millions of credits, so I'm betting on that. I agree that putting the ship in vaccum and cutting the gravity for a while would be good. We'll all suit up and wait in the galley for you to finish."

He looked at them all. "On the other hand, if one of us is a plant, then they'll still be here. Unless we find a body, nothing changes in our circumstances. Oh, we should check our cold sleep pods, and even the scavenged ones. We never cleared the ones without power and they could be a good hide. If someone was messed up by the Zhodoni device, they could be curled up there or actively in cold sleep."

Flighty

[terrymixon]

"This sucks," Flighty said grimly. "It implies that someone on board is working for the bad guys to potentially sabotage us. Sigrun, you are the only person we can be absolutely sure isn't a mole. Donovan, you're almost as safe a bet, so you'll be helping her keep an eye on things."

Karcsi makes his pistol safe and hands it over with the ammo.

GM: Can Karcsi use streetwise or army time to figure out how long those boxes have been there? Dust, Age marks, disturbance of underneath?

Karcsi

Can Karcsi? Well he can certainly try. Roll 2d6 + (let's say total terms in all careers) against a 6. And while we're at it, anyone else who wants to attempt this can do the same 2d6+terms against a 6. If anyone succeeds they will be able to make an accurate guess as to how long the pistol and boxes have been in the hidey hole.

OOC: I have four terms, so Flighty meets six+ with no roll. Even so, here is my roll.

[Tiglath]

Sigrun examining the boxes, vacc suit and hide (saves a GM response to some of my last so at least economy there! )

[2d6+5]=7+5=12

She's three terms (military), streetwise (smuggling background) and recon (tracking).

[ateno]

Karcsi

Can Karcsi? Well he can certainly try. Roll 2d6 + (let's say total terms in all careers) against a 6. And while we're at it, anyone else who wants to attempt this can do the same 2d6+terms against a 6. If anyone succeeds they will be able to make an accurate guess as to how long the pistol and boxes have been in the hidey hole.

Inspection [2d4+4]=8+4=12 Streetwise [2d6+1]=10+1=11

Nice rolls!!

Karcsi

[Eris]

OOC: If anyone else wants to roll, go ahead, but all three who have rolled so far were 6+ so, at least, they have a good idea of when the pistol, vacc suit and boxes were left in the hidey-hole.

Flighty, Karsci and Sigrun all guess it has been several years since those items were placed there. From the signs, the panel has been opened and things have been put in the hidey-hole more recently, but the items in there now have been pushed back and not disturbed in a long time. What *that* means is up to you to decide...

[Tiglath]

"I'll store these things away but this gear has been here so long as to rule out involvement with this crew - even if the use of this hide has not".

Sigrún then turns to her crewmates with a wry smile "What exactly is the saga of this "new" ship of yours? She has dual fuel tankage for extended range double jumps or, put another way, blockade running. Also smuggling voids and this stowaway compartment - either for secret passengers or for simply hiding from onboard searches. Oh, I like her - but I'm willing to bet her original crew might now be on a prison planet! Just who did you get her from?"

[terrymixon]

"I'll store these things away but this gear has been here so long as to rule out involvement with this crew - even if the use of this hide has not".

Sigrún then turns to her crewmates with a wry smile "What exactly is the saga of this "new" ship of yours? She has dual fuel tankage for extended range double jumps or, put another way, blockade running. Also smuggling voids and this stowaway compartment - either for secret passengers or for simply hiding from onboard searches. Oh, I like her - but I'm willing to bet her original crew might now be on a prison planet! Just who did you get her from?"

"Okay, that's strange. We got the ship from the people that sent us to pick up the cargo. No names were mentioned but it felt like an Imperial Megacorp. It's weird that the other stuff was here, but someone was storing something in here. What that could be, I have no idea. Maybe we need to pair up and run through the ship one final time, looking for anything new."

Flighty

[Tiglath]

"I'll store these things away but this gear has been here so long as to rule out involvement with this crew - even if the use of this hide has not".

Sigrún then turns to her crewmates with a wry smile "What exactly is the saga of this "new" ship of yours? She has dual fuel tankage for extended range double jumps or, put another way, blockade running. Also smuggling voids and this stowaway compartment - either for secret passengers or for simply hiding from onboard searches. Oh, I like her - but I'm willing to bet her original crew might now be on a prison planet! Just who did you get her from?"

"Okay, that's strange. We got the ship from the people that sent us to pick up the cargo. No names were mentioned but it felt like an Imperial Megacorp. It's weird that the other stuff was here, but someone was storing something in here. What that could be, I have no idea. Maybe we need to pair up and run through the ship one final time, looking for anything new."

Sigrún nods agreement then adds "Maybe we need to keep our stolen Zhodani artefact in here before it attacks some nosy customs officer and gets us all locked up?"

She muses "The only new thing we know to be missing from the ship is the bomb. If it was planted by a crew member they could have hidden it here until they had opportunity to install it".

[terrymixon]

"I'll store these things away but this gear has been here so long as to rule out involvement with this crew - even if the use of this hide has not".

Sigrún then turns to her crewmates with a wry smile "What exactly is the saga of this "new" ship of yours? She has dual fuel tankage for extended range double jumps or, put another way, blockade running. Also smuggling voids and this stowaway compartment - either for secret passengers or for simply hiding from onboard searches. Oh, I like her - but I'm willing to bet her original crew might now be on a prison planet! Just who did you get her from?"

"Okay, that's strange. We got the ship from the people that sent us to pick up the cargo. No names were mentioned but it felt like an Imperial Megacorp. It's weird that the other stuff was here, but someone was storing something in here. What that could be, I have no idea. Maybe we need to pair up and run through the ship one final time, looking for anything new."

Sigrún nods agreement then adds "Maybe we need to keep our stolen Zhodani artefact in here before it attacks some nosy customs officer and gets us all locked up?"

She muses "The only new thing we know to be missing from the ship is the bomb. If it was planted by a crew member they could have hidden it here until they had opportunity to install it".

"Wasn't it kind of small for all this space? As far as moving the artefact, I think that's a great idea. It might take all of us to move it since we tend to have reactions to it, but count me in. We should do that soon."

Flighty

[Tiglath]

"Okay, that's strange. We got the ship from the people that sent us to pick up the cargo. No names were mentioned but it felt like an Imperial Megacorp. It's weird that the other stuff was here, but someone was storing something in here. What that could be, I have no idea. Maybe we need to pair up and run through the ship one final time, looking for anything new."

Sigrún nods agreement then adds "Maybe we need to keep our stolen Zhodani artefact in here before it attacks some nosy customs officer and gets us all locked up?"

She muses "The only new thing we know to be missing from the ship is the bomb. If it was planted by a crew member they could have hidden it here until they had opportunity to install it".

"Wasn't it kind of small for all this space? As far as moving the artefact, I think that's a great idea. It might take all of us to move it since we tend to have reactions to it, but count me in. We should do that soon."

"I'll help".

She shrugs "A hide is a hide. Volume only limits its commercial viability - what you can smuggle using it. An individual crewmen on the grift might shift a few kilos of street drugs with a niche method but will inevitably get caught - just unlucky or sold out. If you can move tonnage or high value passengers as your "dark" cargo you work for a smuggling cartel, planetary government or an Intel agency - or have them as your customers. If you do you operate a vessel like this. If your shady Imperial employers knew this ship's history then so would any agent they put aboard".

"We should still go to battle stations and void the ship just to be sure but the mystery of who recently accessed this hide is going to remain unsolved for now".

[terrymixon]

Sigrún nods agreement then adds "Maybe we need to keep our stolen Zhodani artefact in here before it attacks some nosy customs officer and gets us all locked up?"

She muses "The only new thing we know to be missing from the ship is the bomb. If it was planted by a crew member they could have hidden it here until they had opportunity to install it".

"Wasn't it kind of small for all this space? As far as moving the artefact, I think that's a great idea. It might take all of us to move it since we tend to have reactions to it, but count me in. We should do that soon."

"I'll help".

She shrugs "A hide is a hide. Volume only limits its commercial viability - what you can smuggle using it. An individual crewmen on the grift might shift a few kilos of street drugs with a niche method but will inevitably get caught - just unlucky or sold out. If you can move tonnage or high value passengers as your "dark" cargo you work for a smuggling cartel, planetary government or an Intel agency - or have them as your customers. If you do you operate a vessel like this. If your shady Imperial employers knew this ship's history then so would any agent they put aboard".

"We should still go to battle stations and void the ship just to be sure but the mystery of who recently accessed this hide is going to remain unsolved for now".

"Agreed. Let's get the relic moved now and then get to venting the ship. You take lead on this and I'll help. Maybe keeping it in the case will reduce the effect."

Flighty

[ateno]

In preparation for leaving jump, Karcsi will put on the vacc suit, make sure he has some patches, put a boarding axe across his back and carries his throwing spear.

He will be in the common room buckled in.

Karcsi