Mission Planning

Runt's right that we haven't signed on any dotted lines, and that's a damned good thing, considering how dodgy this whole thing is becoming.  Yeah, Sebastien's Ticket does have an Imperial Warrant behind it, but it also allows for taking Maarg down if he resists. Seeing as he's almost certainly going to resist with all he's got, that's probably not going to be a problem. If he does surrender... well, I guess we'll have to see how that goes. I'm sure as hell not going to kill an unarmed, non-resisting Imperial citizen in cold blood. Because we're committed, I won't try to stop anybody from killing him, but that's as far as I can go. And we'd better find a way to make the execution look like an accident if we don't want to become outlaws. I think Sebastien and his backers would be satisfied as long as we can prove that Maarg was behind the nuke on Darrian, and that he didn't get away. Not happy, maybe, but satisfied. I think they'd be much happier if we could also confirm whether or not Duke Norris okay'ed the hit, and that much happier still if could get the name of the assassin and/or catch or kill her. I guess if we're not making a point of trying to keep Maarg alive, Isis won't be so much of a problem. She'll be invested in rescuing whatever unwilling psions we find, as well as those hard copies of the psionics manuals. I'm hoping that will keep her in check, and that Hane and Charoux can keep her from killing Maarg before we can get whatever info we still need from him.  My idea of sending Jeff in with the Stealth Team was that he's more precise with his weapons than either Runt or Gev, not to mention that the two vargr's area of effect attacks would be more useful in the frontal assault than sneaking around inside the institute. All three of us also have grav assist to keep us highly mobile. As far as the remote ops go, I was thinking that Jeff could be using microbots for recon and sabotage, while Dr. Simone can control the Ares 'bots that go with us. I'm worried that Stealth Team might lose comms inside the facility, so I want Jeff to be right there, whereas I'd rather keep Dr. Simone out of the direct conflict in case we need patching up later.  The Support Team will be relatively nearby, linked in by the battle computer, or at least by normal comms and video feeds. The Admiral can help with tactics and computers, with Sebastien covering comms and countermeasures. They'd also be the ride out for at least some of us.  I'm thinking that we're going to need two vehicles. The Assault Team comes in with the Support Team, while the Stealth Team comes in with a separate vehicle with so that they can sneak in thru the secret passage while the Assault Time knocks on the front door. We'll also need the additional room of an additional vehicle for whatever detainees we can rescue. We may also have to fail to stop Isis and the rescued psions from stealing the second vehicle to escape after they kill Captain Maarg.

Well that's another thing that bothers me. This ticket isn't just about taking care of Maarg. It grants Isis students and training manuals to form her own corps of psoinic commandos that don't come under any Imperial chain of command. And she's a Zho.  ... I can't possibly be the only one who has a problem with that.  And I'm still thinking Isis wants to snuff out Maarg because she's covering her trail. That could be why she wants the documents too. They're probably incriminating.  If I can make a suggestion - lets deliver all documents and intel along with Maarg as "evidence". Delivering the docs may boost our rep a bit for going above and beyond. Also keeps that gear out of the hands of folks who could be Zho conspirator moles. 

The “Imperial Warrant” was to capture Captain Maarg; we were hired on to help with that warrant; it’s not our warrant ; our participation in it was completely optional . But out of some naive idea of “killing two birds with one stone to make some extra pay”, the owners at the time voted to accept the additional mission, with the additional, mutually exclusive , requirements. Serves me right for letting them vote. :P The problem with taking on two tickets and knowing we can’t fulfill both inevitably leads to a bad reputation of “fishing for tickets”. It’s completely unacceptable to accept one ticket, only to accept another ticket that is incompatible with the first . It means we can’t be counted on to keep our word in the face of a more attractive, or at least less hazardous, offer. And yes , accepting a ticket is signing on the dotted line; it’s a contract ; it’s legally binding . We’ve put ourselves in a position where we are legally obligated to fulfill both contracts , which, barring extraordinary luck, can’t both be fulfilled, all but guaranteeing a breach of contract, and whatever litigation the party that ends up as disgruntled chooses to engage in. I’m hoping the Duchess of Mora finds a way to amend the warrant to “Dead or Alive”, or can at least respond with some larger reason for Maarg to be captured alive that will be enough for Isis to understand that allowing Maarg to live just a bit longer does have some larger necessity behind it that genuinely could outweigh her need for justice (which is currently absent from any discussion so far). As a company, we are obligated to deliver to our clients the best possible service . Engaging Maarg while being fully committed to killing him means not being fully committed to taking him alive, and vice-versa . No matter which we do, we’re failing a client. I’d rather accept that we’ve already failed, and go into battle fully committed to just one clear objective , than get killed in the process of going in with no clear objective . At least if we decline Sebastien’s ticket now, we’re giving him time to come up with his own plan, giving him the chance to bail out of a busted-ass ship, and doing it outside of Imperial Space . That last one is pretty important, I suspect. Declining Sebastien’s ticket now is the responsible way to salvage our company’s reputation; rolling the dice and hoping for a miracle is not only irresponsible , but suicidally hazardous . As far as the stealth mission goes, we’re necessarily going to have to postpone for as long as possible whether Isis will go on the mission in person, so as to keep our options open for better alternatives. But if it comes down to Isis going, Charoux wouldn’t have anyone else but him babysit Isis; Spycraft is his job, and no one else should have to bear the responsibility for that job not being performed well enough. Suppressing the sale of the Ares is an excellent call; not that Maarg got notice the last time we switched ships, of course. But that may mean he’s going to be expecting us to... Using Gev’s new ship certainly is an alternative, but we’ve got to dispose of that abomination before we deal with Maarg, which means a black hole detour...

Your points about Jeff on the stealth team are quite good; putting him on the stealth team arguably is the better choice, although area of effect works better in confined spaces, where targets are more densely packed, than out in the open; additionally, Kayleb is the only one small enough to fit through the tunnel with significant armor; but yeah, you’ve convinced me. Part of the plan was to steal Maarg’s vehicles for the getaway; a full bust-out from his docking bay would be good as an additional distraction from the narrow Escape Tunnel, which would take a long time for people to evacuate through, and would need something small and maneuverable to make multiple trips over time by itself. Evacuating both ways means we get more people out faster, and still keep a secret way in and out. The Escape Tunnel route would probably have to settle for a small Air-Raft. If and when it is clear that Isis is guilty as well, and that Isis is just trying to cover her tracks, Charoux will put her down on the Colonel’s behalf. But there really isn’t any evidence behind that suspicion, while there is evidence against Maarg having done it, as it was done with a nuke known to be in his possession ; one way or the other, he distributed the nuke that killed the Colonel. If we find something claiming that the nuke was “stolen”, are we really going to believe that was arranged by people other than Maarg, whose formerly secret, secure and illegal base it came from? At the moment, arguments that Isis is somehow responsible are both baseless and really bad ... If Isis wants a fresh start under the watchful eyes of the Duchess of Mora and Sebastien, Charoux has no problem with that. If she wants to train a few students, no problem with that either. The only thing Charoux would have a problem with Isis about is if she killed the Colonel, and caused civilian casualties in the process; and the facts just aren’t there to support that position. To the extent that the Training Manuals aren’t evidence against her or Maarg engaging in something other than Psionics Training, she may have them. I can’t imagine how they would be , though.

I know that Jeff would be more than happy on either team, and with his new fangled Odin's eye he could even just be a sniper for the group. Not only that but if we do the mission after 57-1110 then Jeff would be really good at Remote Ops and controlling the repair bots very well. Also Jeff has no problem with taking the captain prisoner, shooting him, or using the crystal and just turning the whole base into pullers.

1. We cannot risk Maarg getting the crystal; we’re disposing of it first . 2. Lots of innocent people hunt on Wypoc, never mind the involuntary personnel and the forcibly trained psions in Maarg’s facility. 3. As a Psionics research facility, Maarg probably has more than a few means of psionic protection for himself. He wouldn’t become a puller; and he’d sure want to know what “goodie” made that happen, so he could weaponize it. Bad plan.

IC: "Alright ... when I first came on board with this company I received a personal note telling me never to hesitate when it comes to speaking my mind. ... so here it is... First of all, Maarg is never going to be an "unarmed" non-combatant. No psionic cybog ever could be. I think I said this before, while he is conscious and active there will never be a moment where he isn't a deadly threat to all of us. This is why he needs to be KOed and put on ice as soon as possible. Same with his students. If there is even a slim chance that just one of them could cause us grief then we need to treat that as an absolute certainty and act accordingly. I don't care how much ISIS trusts them or how well she thinks she knows them. I trust the best of them less than I trust ... and that's not much. A lot of brainwashing can happen between the time of her "escape" and the moment we come in to heroically rescue them. Leading them out by the hand is like spreading our legs and asking to be kicked in the nads. Number two, Isis "ticket" isn't legally binding. Could never possibly be legally binding. We'd actually have to do an amazing legal dance to be able to carry it out "legally" .. which I'm guessing is a dance we haven't performed yet. We have to take that job "under the table". Not sure how things go out in the Darrian Confederation, but within Imperial borders things like conspiracy to commit murder are generally frowned upon. Is Isis going to take this company to court for not receiving money from a Zhodani to murder someone on the Imperial Navy's roll? A Zhodani who has escaped from an Imperial facility no less! Yeah I can't really see that happening. In fact, if it ever got out that we took her on and deliberately ghosted Maarg instead of doing everything we could to bring him in alive as per the Imperial ticket ... I can only imagine things going very poorly for us both "legally" and reputation wise. Number three .. back to Maag and more practical issues, it may be a good idea to try and anticipate his moves. Maarg is a teleporter aye? So an important task for our recon team will be to figure out where he may teleport out to if he's every in trouble ... if he's even on Wypoc. So we go in and cause trouble, making sure we're ready to catch him in a web we set up at his escape point. 

The problem with “blasting everything that moves” is it leaves hostages in the base. If we can somehow blast Maarg first, and mop up any secondary threats, then we can lead a nice, reasonably safe evacuation, stunning minor nuisances as required... but we can’t stun people and leave them in place; that just leaves them as Maarg’s hostages. Better to get them out , as best we can, and removing the threat of Maarg using them as a bargaining chip. Isis’s ticket is legally binding, it’s just unenforceable due to how much of a grey area it is legally. More to the point, we accepted the terms of her ticket, and trying to decline it now is going back on our word, and all the reputation damage that goes with it.

Gevaudan contributes again, his social gander raised.   "When this one cop-arrest on Regina, police clap an innocent Equal in cuff-mitts and muzzle, in public, on plank that all Vargr are 'armed'.  Armed with scary, salivating teeth and rending claws.  Vargr with Infighting skills are never without weapons.  Same with Aslan cuz of dewclaw and teeth and predatory throwback pouncer genes."  Closing his eyes and inhaling a calming breath, Gevaudan considers his next acusation. "Humies think like Runt says," Gev continues.  "That anything beyond humie-mundane is weaponize.  Have Force Commander Kayleb Groughtk collar-lock to that mindset.  This one calls Chirper Turds!" The Equal stands up to his full height. "According to such wide-accept Solomani Hypothesis, Ancients mold Vargr this way.  Not to weaponize.  Wanna try to say otherwise?" Flexing his claws, the Pilot-Astrogator finishes. "Psionics not weapon.  Tool only.  Like mechanic tool.  Sometimes badly use tool, yes.  Isis already say she test at man-cub age, before she have a say.  Then train like Impy goes to school.  Still not have say." Gevaudan then flashes his ocean blue eyes at Kayleb directly. "Too bad some forget their heritage.  Opinions?  Fine.  Demonize is Chirper Turds."

Oh you've got me all wrong Captain. Think of it the other way around. All weapons are just tools . I totally agree with you when you say " psionics is just a tool ". A tool that can pop your head open like a melon. A tool that can teleport right behind you and stick a knife between your vertebra. It's the motivation behind the tool that makes a tool a weapon. And I think we can all agree that Maarg's motivations toward us aren't all that positive. We have no reason to believe the motivation of his students will be any friendlier toward us than his.  Seems obvious that the entire purpose of this facility is to create psions for war. It's not the "Psi-company" or the "psi-fellowship". It's the "Psi Corps ". Pretty sure if we were to dig up the reason why this little group was put together we'd discover that the point of it is to combat the Zhodani threat. They are weapons. Maybe unwilling weapons ... unwilling tools .. perhaps? Still think its a huge mistake to go thinking that they should all have our trust by default.  And in the end boss ... sorry to get into semantics here .... if power is the ability to do things, and tools help you do things ... then tools are all about empowering the one who uses them. Psionics is almost always power in the wrong hands.  You think you're in change on this ship? Well .. yeah I guess you are. But think about this for a moment - Ithka draws a card, issues some cryptic threats, then tells us to get to the turrets. Now this is no blight on our pal Jeff, but Jeff without hesitation, without question, instantly obeyed her "orders". Instantly . Without hesitation . Without question . Even did his best to get me to fall in line. Tell me of anyone else on board this ship that has that level of power over people's actions?  She has no rank on this ship. No authority whatsoever. But for some reason her word has more power than yours, Charoux's ... anyone's . Did anyone have the guts to send out a signal when she commanded us not to? She hasn't earned that level of authority as far as I know. She's not the captain. She's not a part of the chain of command. Crap she's not even a member of the crew. And yet she has absolute authority here.  Am I "demonizing" psions? Nar. But you can bet your fluffy white arse I'll not be bowing down to them simply because they're psions. Let's stay in control of our own actions yeah? Honor freedom of thought and all those great Imperial values that make this part of the galaxy worth living in.    And while we're on that, I hope it hasn't gone unnoticed that if we had followed through with her prophetic instructions to go to arms against the Ray Eagle that we'd all be ash right about now. If it wasn't for Sebastian's fast talking and important pieces of paper .... we'd be toast. So it's a good thing that not everyone on board is willing to let their will be overridden by fortune tellers and psycics. 

Charoux clears his throat, and makes an effort to clear up a little misunderstanding. Kayleb, you seem to be under the misapprehension that we are trusting Isis to judge whether or not people are at Maarg’s facility against their will. That is simply not the case. As you can see for yourself from the footage, the people there genuinely would prefer to not be there, and clearly are unwilling conscripts.

OK, taking it from the top... While it's true that Sebastien's warrant doesn't command us to go after Maarg, it does give him the authority to commandeer the Ares (or any non-naval vessel in the Spinward Marches) to do just that. That's part of why they RayEagle couldn't touch us. Now, when we get to Lunion, we might be able to talk our way out of that. From what Sebastien told us, though, he's counting on the fact that he needs us all to complete his warrant to convince the nobles to let us all leave Lunion without trouble. Runt's point of view on psionics and Zhodani is one most people in the Imperium share, almost certainly including the nobles. They're sure as hell not going to let Professor Isis leave unless Sebastien can convince them to do so, and the same is likely to be true for any other psion that they even suspect might have been trained by her. So while we could try to "bail out" of Sebastien's ticket, we would still have to take him to Lunion and present ourselves to the nobles there in response to the summons, or we would be fugitives from an Imperial Warrant. That won't hurt our reputation, it will destroy it. It would also force Sebastien's hand. He has been ordered to bring us to Lunion to testify about the Colonel's death. If we refuse to do so, he would have to try to make us go. Aside from the fact that the guy has been nothing by helpful and generous to us so far, I don't want to cross him and see just what he'll do with that Warrant and all of his other resources if we turn on him. I also agree with Runt that we are not legally obligated do anything for Isis. Her Ticket is unofficial and illegal right off the bat, so it has no legal force. Full stop. No debate, it's a fact. Likewise whole idea that re-negging on her Ticket would hurt our reputation. Maybe, just maybe it might hurt our status in the eyes of people who hire assassins, but with any legal or even semi-legitimate patron, it would hurt our reputation if word came out that we did something like what Isis wants us to do. Now, if you want to say that you feel a moral obligation or something to Isis as a former crewmate, for our informal contract, or what ever, that's fine. But neither the legal nor the reputation arguments hold any water. Another point that I've raised before, but I don't think it's been made clearly enough somehow: you don't get to choose to let the owners make a vote, Charoux, we let you continue to play figurehead. For example, you don't get to choose when, how or if we are going to dispose of the Ark. If you can't keep that straight, step down. As for the documents, our deal with Isis is that we get copies of everything and she gets the hard copies. Logistical questions aside, I personally don't have a problem with that. And it's not our job to protect the Imperium from rogue psions. So I'm willing go along with letting Isis and the other psions get away.  That's not to say that Kayleb doesn't have a good point. We certainly could gain serious brownie points (and probably other rewards) with the Nobles by bringing everyone and everything back to Lunion or back to the Nobles wherever. That might be something that we should discuss with Sebastien. Maybe he can offer them some kind of special protection or whatever. Obviously this is kind of underhanded, but then again, we have decided to become contract killers, so nothing's too low for us. Gev, I get your concerns, and Runt has a gift for saying things in the worst way possible, but he has a point that we do have to use caution with the people in the facility, psion or not. While we believe that there may be people there who would like to be rescued, we'll have no way to tell friend from foe in there, and it's sure that some if not all of the folks there will be enemies. There are ways that are smarter and more efficient to deal with them, though. Weapons checks, psi-shields, disruptor units, anti-psi spray and inhibitor darts and/or shots should be used by all members of the Stealth Team. Nobody gets rescued without a shot. That way, the ones that are willing can walk out under their own power, and those who refuse aren't hostages that we need to worry about.

Sebastien has the right to commandeer any ship . Meaning the Ares . Which is a mess . There’s almost certainly an out for a ship that is in a dangerous state of disrepair ; such as the Ares . Either way, we’re intending to not fly the Ares... Meaning Sebastien can commandeer the busted ship all he wants, but he’s not going to get another Crew to fly it... We’ve got a legitimate out that should not be disregarded. Not that I really want it to come to that. It’s important to recognize that the Isis ticket represents us fighting against a villainous figure of authority who has exploited his position of power to kidnap, coerce, and kill innocent people, and that, by backing out of that ticket, we will be seen as bending to the will of that authority rather than fighting for the innocent victims. No one wants a Merc unit that wimps out at the first sign of paperwork; no one . If we back out, we’re done as a Merc unit. The comment about “letting” you guys vote was mostly just snark... but good grief, the pickle you guys put us in... If the Nobles are on Lunion, we’re not going to Lunion before we make a deposit at that black hole. Warrant or no warrant, the abomination is not going to be within “arm’s reach” of a Noble . Destroying that WMD takes precedence. We’ve decided to become contract killers against people who engage in the wholesale slaughter innocent civilians . I don’t think anyone but certain Imperium Nobles have a problem with that. Also, coming from the guy who shot the enraged victim just out for justice dead instead of stunning them... Any deal for Imperium protection that is good with Isis is fine by me; but I don’t expect there to be such a thing.

* during the following, Kayleb seems to be putting a great amount of effort into "proper talk". He's trying to be "serious" so the slang and casual talk has evaporated. * I really don't think we're in a pickle at all. We carry out the imperial ticket - and if in the process of carrying that out Maarg is uncooperative and needs to be killed then we get the fulfillment of the ISIS ticket as a bonus. That always seemed pretty straight forward to me.  I think the point about us being "done" as a mercenary unit if we turn down the Isis ticket is very distant from the truth. Let me explain why. Every legitimate mercenary ticket needs to have a legal foundation. That's why legal experts need to negotiate tickets. Mercenaries don't just roam around killing people. They have to serve a legitimate military role. If they don't then they simply aren't mercenaries. They are just hired guns and thugs. There is a difference. The Isis ticket has no legal legitimacy. It is a job for hired guns or thugs. It's technically not a "mercenary ticket". Some mercenaries may take on "dirty jobs" like assassinations or acts of terrorism and such, but those jobs are really outside of the legitimate role that Mercenaries play.  I think you may have overstated Maarg's "villain" status. Consider these points: The Imperium drafts citizens not gainfully employed into military service. Once drafted you may not leave until you have completed a term of service. I'm not sure how Psi Ops recruits their personnel but I'm guessing if you pass some kind of test then you're "drafted" into the psi-ops. Military training is hard. They don't call marine boot "the grinder" for nothing! The fact that Maarg runs a rough show as a part of a military training program is neither illegal nor immoral. It's normal. The fact that personnel aren't allowed to leave isn't unusual either.  The Colonel was a legitimate military target. We all love the Colonel so please ... hear me out on this one. Ex Imperial military raid an Imperial facility and assist a Zhodani commando escape from her military obligations - that presumably  were a part of her expatriation.  So the Colonel, AWOL Zho commando in tow, with considerable military assets, defeats Imperial vessels in combat within Imperial space ( correct me if I'm wrong there ) The Colonel and AWOL Zhodani commando then retreat from Imperial space and set up on Darrian.  Considering the fact that the Consulate's primary tactic in this war has been to insert teleporting commandos in advance of their assault forces, I would imagine that infiltrating zhodani would be high priority military targets.  Now the Colonel may be friends with Imperial nobility, and Isis may not actually be a Zhodani commando. Neither of those two facts matter. Nobles aren't fighting this war, the Imperial Armed Forces are. And they are currently under the command of Norris, and Norris is the currently handing orders to Maarg.  So joining the Frontier War and killing targets like Maarg at the request of weeping Zhodani women instantly puts us on the "wrong side" of the conflict. The only way we can possibly pull off Isis' ticket without joining the war against the Imperium is by coming under the Imperial warrant. If Maarg buys the farm in the process of us carrying out that warrant then great! But flicking off the warrant and killing Maarg makes us "combatants" in this war. I get the feeling that we've already been marked as such.  The warrant redeems us. We literally can't do this job without it. 

Charoux hands Kayleb a two sentence note: “ Much better. More of that , please.”

      In regards for psionics being illegal, just because its a crime it does not mean that every one is against it. Drugs are a good example of such a situation, yer you can go to prison, but how many people smoke drugs. Being gay use to send you to prison and people were often castrated because of their sexual orientation. There would be people in the Imperium that would be natural psions, hiding to avoid official detection. While yes there would be people who are adamantly against psions, the general population would have as wide a range of views over its legality as people have over the legality of marijuana today.  Yes i agree that a bad person with psi powers is an issue, mostly in my mind, because you don't know who has the power to play with your head, a bad guy with a concealed gun can just as dangerous. The thing with guns over psionics is that guns are everywhere, but psi is vastly more uncommon and its even more uncommon for a psi to be able to play games with peoples head. Also the tech to stop a psion is cheaper and easier than the tech to stop a bullet. As for the abilities of psi spy's and troops, mostly there are tech equivalents to keep the status quo.  Yer teleport and a few specials that cant be done with tech but as a hole tech can do as much as a psi, drugs can be used for mind control and manipulation, micro bots for spying etc etc etc.     As for the what ticket is legit and what ticket is not, we are merc's any ticket that is backed by cash (and lots of it) is legit. "Killing is our business, and business is good" Major Pain  1995. Also if he is a mass murderer, the punishment for that crime would be death in the Imperium, and most other places. Izek for one would not be above killing him for his crimes. That was my home planet he fucked up, and i wouldn't be surprised is i had some one i know glowing in their ash filled coffin ATM. (only i can kill the people i know, not some rogue imperial scumbag).

The Nuking of an allied city is a crime against the Darian people and would be a crime "against humanity". It would also be an act of war against an allied civilization. If he was sent by Duke Noris to do such a thing, then even a social standing 15 duke, soon to be a 16 arch duke would be put against the wall and shot. the last thing the Imperium would want would be for the alliance to break down with the Darian. 1 star trigger at Regina and another for Lunion and the Zodani would then have a lot less to worry about from the Imps.

((out of character)) Well I'd say there is a good amount of "deniability" behind the nuke that was set off on Darrian. We're pretty sure it was Maarg, but that's not solid yet. And if it was him it could easily be said that he "went rogue" and acted outside the duke's knowledge. It wasn't like an Imperial warship delivered a nuclear payload from orbit.  And being pretty sure isn't really enough for some people.  About "any ticket that is backed by cash is legit." ... I can half agree with that. The sound of cash can sometimes silence the voice of conscience. On the other hand, "every action has an equal and opposite reaction". Massive wads of cash can be a great sort term motivator, but you've got to look ahead and see the consequences of your actions. I think that goes for everyone, but especially for mercs. What goes around comes around, Mercs can make some heavy stuff "go around". When it comes back around it's good to see it coming and to be ready for it. Even if you're going go play outside the law the money isn't always everything. In fact, playing outside the law would make it even more important to look ahead.  So lets just say one of us fires a HEAP shell at Maags head and turns his brain matter into a pink mist. Authorities catch up with us - "you killed a member of the Imperial Armed Forces!". We can either say "Yeah but a crying Zhodani woman paid us to do it." or we can say "We were busy working under an Imperial Warrant to bring this guy in. He looked at me funny, like he was about to psionically brain-rape me, so I shot him in the melon." The first answer gets us locked up or shot. The second earns us a medal.... or something. Whatever the opposite is of being locked up is - that's what we'd get. 

      As for "every action has an equal and opposite reaction", i have an EDU of 4, what the hell are you talking about. hahahaha, TBH, if he did come alive and willing into our custody, i was going to strip while escorting him and "accidentally" discharge my shot gun into the back of his head. I mean accidents happen and im not use to wearing a vacc suit in atmosphere. they would need to psi probe me to find evidence to the contrary.      RE Wednesdays meta, i put it to the group that we should employ 10 contractors willing to spend a couple of months in cold sleep. We can hire them in 2 different systems and keep them apart, we then give them the uniforms we have for 2 diff groups, we then send them to Wypoc on diff ships to arrive at diff times, they get there after we are running silent in high orbit. the 2 groups are given different orders to snoop out thing in Wypoc and create a distraction. when all eyes are turned towards the bumbling contractors, we start our missions. I think that if Izek co-ordinates and hire's them, there is less chance that they will be able to track them back to the ares even if psi interrogated. hay even if izek gets an ally in Lunion system to head hunt the contractors there is even less of a link. we put them in cold sleep then mover the sleep units onto our ship and off again they wont be able know what ship they went there in, then they could be off loaded onto separate ships leaving from different systems still in cold sleep. There cover could be they are looking for "kidnapped" citizens of the Imperium. If we don't know the names of unwilling psi students Isis could provide these names. It might also be away of finding out how honest Isis is.  As for Bob i think we should let him out of his fridge after we implant a "brain bomb" inside his head, and hide our nukes better. hahahaha

I do love the idea of drawing him out instead of going in there. If we can draw Maarg out then we have instantly separated the "sheep from the goats" so to speak. The "innocent" students would probably be left back at the facility while the loyal ones would come with him. We would also get to tango with him on our own terms rather than go into his lair where he has all the advantage.  I know it's been said that we have to dispose of the crystal before going anywhere near him ... but ... it is the tastiest piece of bait. If anything is going to make him come out of his hole it's definitely the crystal.  Maybe instead of "contractors" we could set up some kind of ambush so when he bamphs in to grab the crystal he gets pounded. Maybe turn the "Vault" into a massive prison cell for him. Load it up with psi disruptions As well as some furniture and novelty items to make his trip to Lunion comfortable. Would probably have to rig it up with tranq gas dispensers or stun turrets so we can unload him safely.   Once we have Maarg the rest of in the base should be a pretty simple affair. ( famous last words ) All of this assumes that the Psi Ops show is still running out of Wypoc. I get the feeling that they may have moved on by now. A "secret base" that isn't really a secret any more isn't much good. They've probably gone and found another secret location for a new secret base and converted this one into a Bar & Grill or something. 

Oh and your idea about bob isn't such a bad one. Explosive collars rigged up with one of those psi squealer things could really save us a lot of grief. If the squealer goes of so does his head.  ... or maybe just rig it for stun? A little more humane. So if he tries to be psionic the stunner around his neck goes off. Even if it doesn't knock him out it would probably break his concentration enough to negate whatever he was trying to do. Put one on Zenobia too. Heck put one on all the psions!  Put one on Runt too. Rig it to go off when it detects cigarette smoke or bad language. 

Cold sleep if he is on our ship for Maarg

psi collar stunners are an awesome idea for all the people we rescue we will need like 50 of them though haha

(still OOC) I've got a question about anti Psi drugs. Wolfen was talking about using them earlier. The only psi drugs I've been about to find in the books are TL 16+. Would we need to go back to Darrian to pick up that kind of gear or do we already have a stash of it on board? Or are there low tech versions we could get our hands on within the Imperium?

Pakkrat says:  PSI Inhibitor Drugs are found on page 157 of Main Book and page 83 of Psion Book.   Inhibitor Drug (TL 9): Psionic inhibitors dampen the brain’s ability to generate psychic effects. A character who takes (or, more often, is forcibly injected with) an inhibitor drug suffers a –4 DM to all Psionic Strength checks and cannot regain Psionic Strength points. Each hour the character may make an Endurance check to throw off the effects of the drug with a +1 DM for every previous check. Inhibitor drugs have no effect on non-psionic individuals. The drugs cost Cr. 500 per dose.

(( Thanks boss. Yeah the one I was thinking of is on P 170 of the CSC. It kicks in after 2d6 minutes and totally negates all psi activity for 2d6 hours. It's only available at TL 16 though. Funny typo: ... i was going to strip while escorting him and "accidentally" discharge... Still trying to delete that mental image from my mind. 

See, here’s the thing... we can go in fully committed to killing him... or we can go in fully committed to capturing him alive; but we can’t do both . One way or another, we’re failing a client . We either work a plan to kill him until there’s no way it can fail, or we work a plan to capture him alive until there’s no way it can fail; there is no in-between , because that sort of waffling gets you killed . We’re going to do our own recon; we’re good at that. If we want to create a distraction, we’ll distribute a bunch of free hunting armor with the “Artemis Group” logo on it to people hunting near our target location, and leave a nice little wireless tag in there for the authorities, marking it as a giveaway, and not legitimate company armor. No need to spend money hiring people. :)

That's a fair point.  I think having a solid plan to take him alive is our best bet. A plan B that means we kill him in our own defense or if it looks like there is no way taking him alive is going to work. But you're right. Having a plan and sticking to it is the best way ahead.  When we're talking about recon, is there a plan to send an advanced party to check things out first. I mean ... advanced advanced - while we are sorting out our ship a small crew goes ahead to scope out the place. We probably wouldn't need to get too close. We just need to confirm whether or not the facility is still in operation, if Maarg is there, and maybe hack local computer and communication networks. Could spend a few weeks doing that while the rest of the crew catch up.

Recon pretty much will be a mission requirement.

Fully.  I'm actually suggesting that recon could be it's own mission. So much of this show hangs on knowing what's actually going on. Seems pointless to make plans when we go in blind.  And the longer we wait to send that recon mission out the colder any trail we need to follow gets. 

Maarg’s “trail” isn’t really getting “cold”, per se... it’s more on a “slow cook”, if anything.

Yeah? I wasn't even sure if we had a "trail". Do we actually have any idea where he is? I thought it was a solid block of ice right now. We guess that he may be at Wypoc, but that seems like a long shot. 

We have no reason to believe he’s not on Wypoc. While there may be some unknown reason he might not be there, there’s no reason to think he isn’t, either.

A few reasons come to mind.  A secret base that isn't a secret any more is of no use. Makes sense to go find another secret base somewhere else, or go mobile and run the institute onboard a ship.  A psionic institute within the Imperium is a scandal. The folks behind it would be doing their best to cover up that scandal. Either erase the whole thing or set the facility up with some fake docs stating that it has always opperated as a Bar & Grill or whatever, and that anyone saying anything different is a crazy conspiracy nut.  If I had just nuked someone and I knew that that person's nuke equipped crew were after revenge, I'd stay mobile! Wouldn't want to get counter-nuked.  One break out means that the facility is insufficient. It either needs to be improved or moved to somewhere more secure. 

It’s still on Wypoc, a planet with a profanely hazardous environment, and out in the wilderness, with lots of nasty predators. Not the sort of place people who like making trouble would want to visit. Blown secret aside, it’s still a great location for avoiding troublesome visitors.

Yep. Fair point.  Still would be good to send some eyes there while the ship is getting sorted out. The more time spent scoping out the place and doing "spycraft" the better. 

(Not sure if in character or out so that this as in character)          I know I may be... morally questionable at times, but I think it's too inhumane to kill Bob without attempting a psychological treatment by a facility. I believe that there's a pretty easy way to get rid of some memories of a certain football sized crystal(removing certain neurons/brain cells that trigger memories to the Ark), in case you're worried about that spreading a rumor. Also Psions are people like me and you, I don't think that you should judge a person differently if you find out that they're psionic. Also I am all for capturing or killing Maarg, with a preference for killing just cause of that 35Mcr. 

We will deal with Bob only after we dispose of the abomination in the black hole; at which point, it doesn’t matter what he tells to whoever he wants.

... Or maybe we can release Zenobia and Bob with news about the crystal being "safely secured" in our vault. Maarg comes to get it, teleports into our vault, and gets zapped by the awesome trap we set up in there. We may need to let Zenobia see the inside of the Vault first so Maag can read her mind for a "visualized" destination.  The crystal wouldn't be in the vault of course. It's safe somewhere else ... or in a black hole ... or wherever. Maybe hanging above our dance floor with the mirror ball taking it's place in the vault?

We can't, in good conscience, let Zenobia get away. She's got to make up for what she did.

For sure. But maybe she can repay her debt to society by helping bring Maarg in? It's likely that there will never be a courtroom drama for what happened in Bowman. It looks as if the Imperium is doing it's best to make things as if they never happened. And even if things did go through a court, being Psi Corps it's likely Zenobia "doesn't exist" on Imperial files. If we deliver her to the "authorities" it'd probably be the last we see of her. 

I have updated the Posted Missions Job Missions thread with one or two new potential tickets.  They can be used by the next Referee as desired.

Autodoc:  An autodoc is a small self-contained diagnostic, pharmaceutical and surgical system about the size of a Low Berth chamber or large coffi n. Often found on starships, it is capable of diagnosing and treating disease, infection, injuries and other medical conditions as if a qualifi ed doctor (treat as Medical 3 skill) was attending the patient. A restock of basic supplies for an autodoc costs Cr. 100,000. At TL 14, an Autodoc is capable of reanimation , provided no more than 15 minutes have passed since the subject’s death. This period can be extended by extremely cold conditions or placing the corpse in a low berth. Cr. 1,000,000. (p169 CSC) Trama pack: The use of a trauma pack requires a Medic throw 8+ but will give a wounded character back a temporary 1d6 Endurance. This Endurance can be used to bring a technically ‘dead’ character back from 0 or less Endurance (so long as the new total is above 0), so long as they suff ered their last wound within 30 seconds.TL 14: Negligible Weight; Cr. 7,500 I thought our visit to Tenalphi would be a great opportunity to pick up gear like this.  First up, this is great gear any time. Being able to bring dead folks back to life Elysium style would be helpful. But I'm mainly thinking about this for Maarg. Bringing him in alive is going to be hard. Stunners may not do the trick if he's in serious armour. Having the ability to snatch him from the jaws of death could be important. 

Or fooling Isis into believing Artemis has killed Maarg then reanimating him after she pays us.  Win-win on both Tickets.  Make a do.  I like solutions that come directly from the books.

I like that one, too. Nice, Alby! Also wouldn't suck if one of us went down...

So if he eats a grenade .... 

My son said, how much Anti matter can you get, same volume of anti matter to mater will destroy anything. So by by crystal. either that or uts the air lock during jump. Or maybe we eject the crystal and anti matter at the same time.

Well anti-matter isn't exactly easy to get. Tiny particles of it do occur naturally in the Shionthy asteroid belt up near the coreward boarder. A bigger detour than the black hole though. The system is also interdicted, and I get the feeling that gathering enough to destroy the crystal would probably take years to collect or billions of credits to purchase.  EDIT: Hang on ... can Darrians make anti-matter?

As your BFGM, I can give you three people, on board the Ares, that can provide insight and a solution to the Ark - IF you allow them to mull it over collectively and via a chained set of PSI and Psioncology rolls. But I forget.  One is on ice, one is a 'Zho' and one has fur.  Nevermind.

The bigger problem is that the crystal isn’t made from atoms. So we have no idea what form of anti-matter would be “anti” to it. As a gamer, I still associate “BFG” with Doom, and think that going with that for the movie title was a “BFM”: Big $&#**^% Mistake. Naturally, of course, I assumed you meant “Friendly”. :)