Personal Security Service

* During the next Jumpspace staff meeting, or at some other convenient time... * Tenalphi. We almost lost a client. I take responsibility. I feel a primary part of my role here is to absorb incoming gunfire and to eliminate it's source. It was sheer luck that our passengers made it out of that station alive. So if you're not going to demand my resignation, I want to propose the following: Mandatory body armour for all clients to be worn at all times when not on board.  Personal medical scanners and auto-medics to be worn at all times.  Thorougher reconnaissance in front of all client movements. All buildings and public places to be scanned.  Armed and armoured personnel to escort clients at all times. We should make this a part of any contract we negotiate. If clients are unwilling to wear armour or be escorted then we won't be held accountable, and they open themselves to a lawsuit seeing that our reputation would be damaged if they were assaulted while under our care.   To make this happen it would be good to pick up some gear; Protec™ or Reflec™ suits and Diplo™ vests, enough for each of the passengers we expect to carry. Advanced Poly Carapace for hostile situations.  Personal medscanner and autodoc attached to each suit. ( p168 CSC ) Recon probes. ( p95 Main Rulebook ) Plenty of them.  Radio Jammers (to stop explosives from being detonated) Anti-personnel Equipment Scanner (Checks for weapons) ( p175 CSC) Electromagnetic Probe (Checks for cyber and bugs) ( p176 CSC ) Neural Activity Detector (detects brains) ( p177 CSC ) We've also got to be a bit sharper. We really got caught flat footed on Tenalphi. If we were doing our job we would have been moving together, we would have seen those swordies coming, and we would have been able to evacuate our VIPs before the shooting started. As it was, we were all over the place, VIPs took bullets, and some of us barely made it out alive.  Proper recon Organized movement Appropriate equipmen. 

Charoux will remind Kayleb that it is up to the clients to determine their preferred level of caution, and us to make recommendations, and to either accept or decline based on the result of negotiations. He will also say that his proposal makes an excellent default recommendation, but that we must be adaptable to the needs of clients. All in all, while the recommendation of the client to be armored at all times is not particularly tenable in many cases, the other recommendations are quite good. Additionally, the divided focus did not help; having to keep watch over the Qithka, the Artifact, and prepare for the upcoming missions proved problematic. Of course, it should also be noted that there are limits to just how much you can prepare for what was ultimately a surprise attack on what should have been a well-guarded starport.

All excuses simply highlight our failures. We need to take responsibility for what happened, learn from it, and be better.  Letting clients "determine their preferred level of caution" - advising us on how secure they should be, and trusting starport security to do the job that we are being paid to do, those are the two critical points that brought us to our current disaster.  The reason our client needs additional security is because we are travelling through a war zone. Even the IISS has declared all systems to be an Amber Zone. So what were we doing while our client was wandering around in an Amber Zone? Busy at the bar? Busy shopping around? We can make all the excuses we want but when a future client looks into our track record they're not going to be able to see this as anything but an utter failure.  If there are things we could have done that would have kept our client safe, but didn't , then we are responsible for their current woes. It's a fail for us. Straight up. At the very least we need to put policies and procedures in place to ensure our clients don't meet the same fate as our current ticket. 

If asked, Gevaudan would certainly help convince his Sister-Dame to wear more protective, civilian armours than her current fashion of Ballistic Cloth w/Reflec now that we are back inside the war zones of the Fifth Frontier War and the distrustful Impy humans who hate Extents Vargr. Edit:  It will be readily apparent to anyone with Psychology that Gev is angry and hurt and fuming that his sister was almost killed.

((OOC: Question for Pakkrat. I was hoping to be able to invoke this principle the next time we are out and about: Possession of a weapon license does not allow a character to ignore local laws. Much depends on the circumstances. A government hiring a properly accredited mercenary unit will normally allow it to retain and use its weapons, whatever laws are in place, since this is necessary for the function desired of the unit. Similarly, bodyguards for foreign dignitaries will usually be permitted to carry weapons. (p20 CSC) So if we sent a message ahead of us letting our destination know that we were coming with a "foreign dignitary" I'm hoping that we'd be able to get away with beefing up the security level. Pack a bit of extra heat. 

This is a great thread. Yeah, we really did take our eyes off the ball, guys. I agree that we have to really tighten our policies and procedures around this kind of stuff, and that we need to establish parameters with our clients. Some stuff we can probably let them decide, and yeah, some of the stuff we should make dealbreakers.  Let's make getting the legal lay of the land and current conditions part of our ship's procedures whenever making port. Just like sensor sweeps and comms to the con? We can include a briefing with the passengers and crew before anybody disembarks. Make sure that all necessary security measures are in place, if called for sweeps the lz, etc. Kayleb, since you've been trying to herd us into better security all along, how about you propose a step-by-step list of embarkation and disembarkation security procedures? (Skills rolls and such where appropriate, too.)

Permits will cost $$$$Cr and signing of Stand Down orders from SPA and such, but yes, willing to uphold that rule.

And btw, Kayleb, if anybody should shoulder the blame it's me. I've been more or less ground ops commander lately. This wasn't officially an op, so I'll share a little bit of the blame with you. This can actually be a good thing, though. It's a wake up call, a nasty one, but everybody is still breathing. Now we've seen what happens when we're too busy navel-gazing to take care of business. Let's just make sure it doesn't happen again.

Icy cold wound-soothing blame-sicles all around...

I confess, it was all my fault and i should be spanked. Or spaced take your pic. hehehe

Wolfen said: Kayleb, since you've been trying to herd us into better security all along, how about you propose a step-by-step list of embarkation and disembarkation security procedures? (Skills rolls and such where appropriate, too.) Mkay.  Just a draft suggestion. Input appreciated.  I'm thinking of a three phase plan, with the second two phases being repeated each time we move a VIP. The primary idea behind these steps is that protecting people is all about looking ahead. Seeing potential and actual threats before any violence occurs should be our main focus. And we have people with the skills to make that our big selling point.  So the three phases are: Investigation Reconnaissance  Secure Movement.  1. INVESTIGATION. When taking on a new client, a full investigation is carried out - on them .  All information gathered on a new client is protected under the company's solid confidentiality policy. They should be able to sue us into oblivion if any private information is leaked because of us. The goal of the investigation is to identify potential threats.  Interview. The client is thoroughly interviewed to ascertain what groups or individuals pose a potential threat to them.  Their line of business, role in society, political affiliations, and previous relationships are all taken into account.   The security of their electronic affairs is "tested". We probe into their electronic records and attempt to find out if anyone else has been probing into them. Who is watching them? Threat flagging. Any potential threats are then investigated.  Their finances and communications are probed. Who are they talking to and who is receiving their money. If they are communicating with or sending funds to mercenaries or to individuals with military or criminal backgrounds those are also flagged and probed.  A full profile is then drawn up of all potential threats. Their possible motives, equipment, movements, affiliations, and pressure points. How can they be avoided? What would make them back off? How is the client best defended against their likely mode of assault? Trip Planning . Threats can be both organized and random. Movement needs to be planned in order to minimize risk to the client.  Local threats to safety need to be investigated. History of piracy, military conflict, and other hostile activity needs to looked into. Natural hazards need to be identified and avoided.  Hazards that cannot be avoided must either be eliminated or bolstered against.  Contact will be made with authorities at the clients immediate and ultimate destination to arrange the maximum level of security for the client.  2.  RECONNAISSANCE The client never goes where our eyes haven't been first.  Electronic. Local information networks are accessed to gain intelligence regarding potential threats.  Security systems accessed and investigated. Who else has access to them? Traffic, berthing ,accommodation and local financial institutions monitored. Have any threats that were flagged during the investigation phase moved into the area?  Tele-operated  Remote probes fitted with advanced sensors are used to search for potential threats.  Visual Security personnel on foot will always travel ahead of VIP party. Scout Vehicles will always travel ahead of VIP vehicles.  Advance parties will always be equipped with the best available sensor equipment, and consist of trained and experienced individuals.  VIP party will not move into an area that has not been cleared by an advance party.  3. SECURE MOVEMENT  All movement is conducted in such a way that minimum opportunity is given to any potential threat to engage in hostilities against the client.  Armour. Clients will leave the ship in an armoured vehicle, and leave the armored vehicle wearing personal body armour.  Armour is to be of the maximum level of protection that the situation will allow. While social and legal settings will be taken into consideration, the client will comply with what the company considers to be an appropriate level of protection for any given situation.  Speed. An indirect, well covered route will be taken to the clients destination at the best possible speed.  The highest level of speed and efficiency of movement is to be maintained in order to present threats with minimum oportunity to deliver an attack.  Local laws and safety factors will be observed.  Decoys High end holographic equipment will be employed to project convincing decoys. Holographic decoys of both vehicles and the VIPs themselves should be projected and moved ahead of the VIP party. They should project in both visible and infra-red spectrums in order to appear on thermal imaging equipment.  Accommodation, travel plans and security will be arranged for dummy locations.  Point Defense  Both area and point defense will be deployed to provide the maximum level of protection against long range ordinance attack, situation permitting.  Contact drill. All staff will be trained to act in response to enemy contact.  Training will include the deployment of obscuration and exit strategies.  Removal of the client from immediate danger will be the focus of all activity during contact.  Shield from threat.  Removal from area. All staff will be equipped with the highest grade body armour, side arms and sensory aids that the situation will permit.  ((still a work in progress. Still hoping to suggest skill chains for each of these points. But now must sleep.))

This is definitely excellent work, but the following should be noted... Under these conditions, Qithka would never have been allowed on Wypoc the first time. It was essentially an illegal search for an illegal Imperium Blacksite on a planet covered in lung-melting acidic gas, featuring suit puncturing birds, the “Wypoc Dragon”, and crazed hunters. Obviously, the terms Qithka agreed to were nothing like the proposed terms; our ability to reason with her about modifying the existing agreement may be limited. Also, she may want front-line footage of the fight with Maarg. She’s a bit of a “gonzo journalist”, and we have to respect that. That being said, Charoux will say to keep it up, this is great work, and definitely how we should deal with clients in the future, and good recommendations for the present, even if they may not be adoptable immediately.

Yeah future clients were in mind when putting this together.  We currently seem to be putting our current passengers in high risk situations though. It may be time to start thinking harder about passenger safety - which probably includes saying "no" when they start thinking about coming with out out into insidious environments or combat situations. If she wants footage she can send witness.  Seriously though, it would be better for us to maintain the right to put our foot down and insist on things. Like the way Princess Dianna's body guard should have insisted on a sober limo driver, and that all passengers wear seatbelts. If clients aren't gong to fall in line with our security measures we should be able to bail on them without having to refund their up front payment. Make it a part of the contract. 

Charoux is definitely interested in striking a better balance, given recent threats, but given that he too was repeatedly holed, there may be limits on what can be done; there’s only so much danger you can avoid all at once.

True , can never stop all threats, but you can at least try to mitigate them. As well as the Vacc suits for all of us we need to put transponders in the suits so we can track them and a good coms unit, med pack, extended air and life support. Even if these are clip on units so that on board or for short trips u can leave the extended life support behind. I would like to give them stunners but that's a 2 edged sword. We might want to consider some of us training ourselves in medic 1 for combat triage. Also maybe some peril sensitive glassed  for some of our more skittish clients.(hahaha). As for recon of areas we are going to, i have Recon 1 and stealth 0 and the +1 from relevant stats. and also as the least known member of the groupi stand a reasonable chance of being effective.

I really like the transponders idea. I believe that all of the crew have good comms, but we should make sure, and make sure that everbody's comms gear is top notch, not to mention making it mandatory to keep your comms with you and active just about always.  We do have a bunch of wrist comms units in the ship's locker, but I don't know if those are good enough. They might be good enough for some circumstances but not for others.  I don't think that passengers should be given stunners as a base policy (or any weapons, nor should be carrying them aboard our ship). But there certainly might be circumstances in which we might want to hand them out, at least to appropriately skilled/trustworthy individuals. I also don't want to make passengers wear vacc suits as a routine measure. I get that there is a risk, but I think we can minimize the risk by issuing suits to all passengers when they board, train them in basic use, and have them keep their suits in their staterooms when not wearing them. We want our clients to feel pampered and protected, but not smothered. 

Besides it being Traveller, I don’t see why any good Comms equipment doesn’t include that as a standard feature. I agree about the smothering thing; it’s up to the client to determine the extent of the protection they want, and up to us to accept or decline. I can’t imagine we could have anticipated the need for our client to wear a Vacc Suit in this circumstance as anything but paranoid before-the-fact. This is something we should plan on having to work around most of the time, but encourage our clients to consider our not having to.

About the smothering issue, I don't think that a vacc suit should be mandatory at all times. But in situations where a vacc suit is an important piece of safety equipment then I don't think it would be wrong to insist.  Take Tenalphi for instance. The Swordies could have saved themselves some ammo by breaching the hull of the station and creating an explosive depressurization. Or if an enemy starship has locked onto us a standard drill should be to get everyone in a vacc suit and to depressurize the ship. There are situations where vacc suits should be a requirement. At other times, body armour like a protec suit or a diplo vest would be an easy way of providing a minimum level of protection without robbing them of any comfort.  I think in each situation there needs to be a "risk assessement", and based on that the client be kitted out appropriately. If there is some reason a client absolutely can't wear any kind of protection - like if they're an entertainer who has to wear a skimpy outfit for example, then maybe we need to negotiate a slight up in the fee. It's going to require more resources to keep them safe if they're not wearing protection.

Is there any sort of “ slowmobile ” appropriate for chauffeuring VIPs around the interiors of starports?