The following morning the group breaks camp and sets out across the desert heading east-southeast in the direction indicated by the kurabanda as leading to an outpost inhabited by others who look like the group. They are back in the icy desert but can see the kurabanda trees far off to the north throughout the long day. The is somewhat reassuring as the group knows that they can retreat into the cover of the trees if needed.
They spend the night in the desert in the shelter of some large rocks and continue the next morning. A strong wind has whipped up overnight from the east-northeast, slowing the group down. The wind is steady at about 20 knots with all too frequent gusts up to twice that speed. It doesn't stop the group but making headway against the quartering wind all day brings about exhaustion much sooner. Some low-lying rocky crags provide shelter for the second night.
S'lch has been using his drone for frequent scouting throughout the two days of travel to prevent the group from blindly stumbling on the pirate outpost and giving them warning of their presence. On the second night, once the wind has died down somewhat, S'lch sends the drone up and to the east to scout around. He does not send it more than a couple of kilometers but that is enough for it to spot land-based lights a dozen or so kilometers a little south of east. S'lch marks the bearing and informs the others.
The following day, the group continues in the direction in which the drone spotted the lights. They proceed cautiously, attempting to always keep adequate cover within easy running distance should a jetcopter or other conveyance be spotted. S'lch sends out the drone frequently. It is not large and is not as likely to be spotted unless the outpost is equipped with highly sensitive scanning equipment.
The group slows as they get closer. The drone spots an ancient drainage canal to the west of the outpost that probably was a river at some time in the distant, and perhaps warmer past. The drone also spots a liquid sea to the north of the outpost. Either the sea is not made up entirely of water or the water temperature is kept above freezing by geothermal means under the water. Beyond the outpost is a massive area of unstable surface made up of lava vents and lava flows making the presence of liquid water less of a mystery.
The group reaches an ancient canal shortly after dark. The sides are steep but not vertical. The canal runs about 10 to 20 meters below the surface of the desert. The group finds a way down and then takes shelter under an overhang on the far side that is also partially screened by boulders.
S'lch has the drone display the area of the pirate outpost.
GM: Maps to follow shortly.
GM: Map 1 is the high overview of the area showing not only the pirate outpost but the gravelly shelf upon which it is built, the lake to the north, desert to the east and unstable lava fields to the west. Bering on the map is North is to the right edge. The red crown represents the location where the group is currently sheltered. Lateral distance is less than 100 meters to the outpost.
GM: Map 2 zooms in on the pirate outpost, which is surrounded by a wire fence topped with razor wire. There is a single large gate on the north side facing the lake. Cameras are visible monitoring the exterior grounds. The drone also spotted a combat robot making frequent exterior rounds before heading back inside via the only visible entrance, which faces the gate.
ALYSON: Alyson says, "Well they are not that dumb. They picked a great place to setup. Enemy has no cover to sneak up on to the base. One question where is the jetcopter?"
S'LCH: As the vrusk watched the images of the base he spoke up. "Standard Opsec for robots on security... For the one you see there is another just like in maintenance for recharge and repair. That of course can be modified by budgets and paranoia. Watching it long enough should tell us if it has a pattern and is therefore predictable."
ALYSON: Alyson says,"That's good news. How do you think it is going to take?"
ALZARIX: Can we get access to the cameras? If so we may be able to loop the feed on one or more so we can get in without being seen?
CIARA: "I like the idea of watching the base for a while to see if we can predict the schedule of the security robots. Do the cameras have a fixed field of vision or do you rotate what they're watching? Are the cameras functional in darkness? I'd be curious to know if they light up the exterior when it's dark. For our techies, how easily can we monitor or hack into their systems? Is that even worth trying?"
CARTER: How confident is he in his ability to hack the cameras and other security measures the Pirates have based on his success with their tech so far?
GM: I will use map perspectives for directions to make it simple. The top of the map will be north (even though north is actually to the right).
The group settles in to observe the base for a couple of days. Being so close to the base, they are very careful not to expose themselves. HAL (the carryall bot) is parked a short distance west along the culvert in the cover of some rocks and a deep overhang.
Although the group does a little scouting themselves, they rely heavily on S'lch's small flying scout bot (Eric, I know you had a name for the bot but, for the life of me, I can't find it.). S'lch sends the bot off to scout from various directions and altitudes and then waits for it to return to study its data rather than having it transmit so close to the pirate base. From the bot they learn more about some of the various defenses of the base.
First, the fence surrounding the base is electrified. (For technicians, this would be considered a level 1 security device.) The fence is made of strong chain-link topped with barbed wire and standing 3 meters tall. The is a control box on the NE corner of the base. If a technician could reach this box, they could cut the flow of electricity to the fence (assuming they make a successful roll).
Second, the gate leading through the fence is protected with a contact recognition lock. (For technicians, this would be considered a level 6 security device.)
Third, the lock on the doors leading into the building looks complex but is not a contact recognition lock. (For technicians, this would be considered a level 3 security device.)
Fourth, there are five external video scanners that rotate to cover a 45 degree circuit. There are some very obvious blind spots in the cameras that indicate that the designers did not feel that there was really that much of a threat of external penetration. For example, none of the cameras ever point at the front gates (one sort of does but is blocked by a corner). In fact, the cameras are blind to two of the four corners and most of the south side of the outpost. The cameras look to be of moderately good quality.
And finally the combat robot. There appear to be two such robots that are generally identical in looks and function but minor differences in scratches and coloration indicate that there are two. Every 30 minutes, a combat robot exits the main doors, turns to the left and commences a patrol around the entire building before heading back inside. The external patrol takes 2 minutes and 15 seconds.
On the morning of the second day, the group observed the roof near the main entry doors slide open and a jetcopter rose up and took off to the southeast. It returned a couple of hours later. The roof closed after it took off and then opened up again when it returned. Obviously it closed again after the jetcopter was inside. The group saw one man in the vehicle.
On the same afternoon, the group saw a man emerge from the main doors, walk over to the gates in the fence and key them open, and exit the compound. With him was a combat robot. The man walked over to the shore of the lake. He pulled on a chain that was anchored to a spike driven into the ground a short distance back from the water. The chain leads into the water and the man pulls out a holed box that he unhooks from the chain and carries back into the outpost with him. The combat bot accompanies him. The box appeared to be plastic and about the size of a large breadbox.
GM: I will send an updated map that shows the visual scanner overlays. You don't know their effective range but a safe guess of at least 100 meters indicates that they can see the top of the gully that you are in. The scanners seem to cover the back (west) side of the outpost pretty well but there are significant gaps in the east side, north side and south side.
ALYSON: Alyson says,"Well looks like their their south side." OOC Their South is our South?
S'LCH: The vrusk has been well please with Vod's scouting. But knowing they have been pushing the little guy he takes some time to do a though check and maintenance of him while the other talk.
S'LCH: Looking at the lower part of the facility he notices the same lack of coverage as everyone else. "The building is close to the fence there. If we could get through the fence and the wall we could be in the building from a direction they are not expecting.." The vrusk had no idea if such an approach was doable though.
ENSIGN FURY: "Didn't someone say that there is some sort of junction box on the northeast corner of the compound? If so, it looks like we can get there also without being picked up by the cameras, just by staying in this trench and heading towards the water and then exiting and making our way to the fence. Hopefully one of the techs could then do something to deactivate the electric fence and we could cut our way through."
ENSIGN FURY: To the techs in the group he asks, "How confident do you feel in your ability to disable the electric fence and then trick the locks on the main entrance to be able to open them?"
GM: The electric fence is a level 1 defense so subtract 10 from your Deactivating Alarms/Defenses skill roll to determine what you would need. The contact recognition lock is a level 6 device so you would subtract 60 from your Deactivating Alarms/Defenses roll to determine your chance of success.
ALYSON: Alyson says,"Am willing to give it a shot. We can try a three man team two shooters and a tech. The others can follow just enough to get their weapons into range. Just in case we need to go hot."
S'LCH: "I am not the right kind of tech for the security locks and gates so I should hang back. However once the security robots are engaged I am going to need to get up close and personal if you want me to try to turn them off. Another alternative for the robots is to try and figure out how they determine friend from foe and fool that."
ALZARIX: "the electrical box should not be a problem if we can get to it, but the door lock.... I could do it, but that is a pretty tough lock. I believe my chance of opening it is pretty low."
ALZARIX: (OOC) electrical box would be 63% and opening the lock would be either 13% with the Deactivating Alarms/Defenses or 28% with the Open Locks subskill in the Technician skill.
GM: Yeah, the lock would use the Open Locks skill.
CARTER: I would have 45% on the Fence but absolutely no chance on front gate unless i go in the XP hole to raise my Technician level to 2. So Fence - Yes. Door - Maybe. Gate - not so much.
1. Can we get to the control box without being seen?
2. Can we stop the flow of electricity from anywhere or ONLY at the box?
3. Can we get to the door to the bldg without having to disable a camera (or is that the way to get a door to open??
GM: Yes, you can get to the control box without being seen due the large lapses in coverage the cameras.
GM: The box is the easiest way to try.
GM: None of the cameras monitor the entrance doors to the complex. Clearly security was not a high priority here and was implemented haphazardly.
ALYSON: Alyson says," Once we shut the fence off. Could we use our robot to crash though the fence?"
ENSIGN FURY: "The fence is metal so the technicians could probably cut through it easily enough once the power is out."
ENSIGN FURY: "If the door is too tough for us to handle, we could let them open it for us. We time it so that we get through the fence a couple minutes before the security robot makes its rounds and then, when it comes out the door, we keep the door open and deal with the robot at the same time. The big question is how comfortable we feel dealing with the robot."
ALYSON: Alyson says,"The bot should go down by fire. First is the electrical power going though the fence. Then the bot. Last getting in."
CIARA: "I like the plan. I can assist by being an extra set of eyes and decent staying quiet. I don't have any sense of our chances versus the robot."
S'LCH: "I can absolutely shut the robot down. It requires me to have up and close physical access to it, and it takes time. Remember when we first found HAL and I shut him down? Same idea just replace the carry-bot with a robot designed to fight and kill. Its going to it is going to fight back and it is going to hurt, but if we can catch it by surprise and keep it distracted and busy while I work it should be do able"
ALYSON: Alyson says,"So we have plan ready to go?" |