Like taking candy... (Part 2)

Posted on Tue Jul 14th, 2009 @ 2:31am by Walter Jones & Tyl'varas Shrive & Charlotte Ashcroft & Martok & Brian Mallory & William "Billy" Decker & Lieutenant Mnheia t'Llaiir

2,833 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Session One - Jailhouse Rock

Shrive took the first group towards the dockmaster's office. He pulled out his new disruptor, and checked it to make sure it was ready to go, and aimed it directly towards the front door to the office. Discharging a shot and destroying the door, he walked through, and politely said, "I believe that we have some business to discuss. If you would be so kind as to step away from your comm."

Dropping his drumstick he turned and looked at the assemblage in his office. "Well... umm... hmmm.." He slowly moved away from the comm panel. "I trust you are enjoying your ship?" He looked around hastily, he couldn't remember if he set up the security protocols on the door in the case of attempted entry, it had been a while since someone broke in and demanded things.

"First things first. You are apparently keen on hoping that we were going to die when going to warp. The engines look like they were worked on by Ferengi infants. Next, the weapons systems were showing online, but I assure you, none of them fire. There are no less than 30 critical hull points that I could kick and lose hull integrity. It took us a month to get rid of only some of the stench from the biomatter that your people did not clean sufficiently. And more important than the rest? You have wasted an inordinate amount of my time." Shrive began to look thoughtful.

"I told you when you bought that tub that what you saw is what you get... you had more then enough time to inspect the wreck before you purchased it." The dockmaster stood defiant, looking at the people standing in the office... HIS office. There where few things that he didn't lightly and people calling him a dishonest business man was one thing that he wasn't willing to take. "NO REFUNDS."

Tyl'varas then grew a smile on his face, and aimed his disruptor down towards the deck. "I would hate for our business arrangements to come to a horrible end. Thus, I have come here to offer you a solution to our woes. Do you recall the shuttle that you brought us down on? We would like it. Also, we are in the market for another shuttle, something that would befit someone of above-average tastes. I would also appreciate it if you would tell us about your current shuttle catalog. If you could appease us, I'm sure we'll be leaving happy, and possibly your account being a bit more hefty."

The dock master stopped and thought for a moment. "Depends on how hefty we are talking.. you aren't going to get that shuttle for free, depends on how fast you can talk. I may have a few.. but they aren't cheap..."

The Andorian sighed, antennae drooping slightly, and shaking his head slowly. "Let me be frank with you. I understand a man's livelyhood is important. I wouldn't want to take that away from you. I also know that I am the only one standing in the way from that happening to you. I assure you, by the end of our arrangement, you will be coming out much better than you thought. I would like you to think of this as an investment on things to come. As per nature of our profession, we are going to acquire ships and equipment that we will not have need for. Whom do you think will be reaping the benefits of this? We'll probably throw in a free one in here and there to show our appreciation. The problem that we run into today is due to your negligence in regards to our ship, we have people that we answer to that think that rather than negotiating with you, we should erase your existence, and change things over so that they become the controlling interest in this dock. I would hate to see this happen, and have told them that I believed you to be a reasonable man, and that we could work out an arrangement that would be beneficial to both parties concerned. Oh, and I also have a bounty hunter in my employ that seems to believe that you have a price on your head. I would really like to give him a reason not to meet you. So, about those other ships..."

The skeezy man sat and contemplated for a moment his options, and looked out the bounty hunter... "Heh, hired guns.. I bet he is only paying you 5%..." He snorted and turned back to Shrive. "Let's suppose for a minute that I didn't have armed guards running here right now. What would be the terms of our little arrangement that you are proposing.?"

"Well, let's keep it simple. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that if we brought you the occasional craft or salvage that we come across, that you would be able to 'magic' away the identification. As a working business arrangement, we can supply you with these types of things, even throwing in the occasional freebie if you will. Also, I really don't have the time nor energy to run a dock yard. Subsequently, I don't want to. I'm also well aware of the price that you're fetching, as I mentioned before. That may be more lucrative in the short term, but I believe that you are worth more to me as an asset. The choice is yours. I'd recommend on the less bloody version of it."

He contemplated his options for a moment. It was obvious that the Andorian wasn't going to leave without something. "Fine fine, I'll take this deal.. there are four shuttle craft out there that are in decent working condition. You can have them but you need to make it look like they are stolen so that I can claim it on the insurance. I'll discharge the registry numbers so they won't come looking for ya'll. Sound like a plan?"

Shrive contemplated for a moment, then stated, "It looks like we have a deal. Do you want any collateral damage?"


--Outside--

On the internal sensor grid, an alarm went off indicating that an explosion had just went off. The two duty guards looked at the screen and frowned.
"What does that mean?" Tim looked over at Eric.
"I think someone or something just blew up."
"We should probably go check it out... might be something." Tim stood up and grabbed his phaser rifle. "It probably isn't anything but hey we get paid for this crap don't we."

The two guards grabbed their gear and slowly started walking down to the dockmasters office.


--Team Two--

The second group, Mallory's team, headed towards the shuttle docks, and began to take note of what was there. There seemed to be a few ships that were in relatively good condition. There also happened to be two guards patrolling the area, though relatively lightly armed.

In the line of ships docked to the civilian ports most of the shuttles and other craft looked like they hadn't seen space in thirty years. In the dock there was a quick looking planetary skiff, a few heavy lift freighter shuttles, and an old lightning bug class federation cargo vessel. The guards patrolled up and down the corridor looking more like hired guns then federation or civilian police units.

The scene took Mallory back many years, to his time with the Syndicate, and "working" for Croft on Kal-Dixas. He shrugged off the wave of nostalgia, but the instincts learned from that life came to the fore. As the guards approached, he motioned his team to hold their position in the shadows. Slipping the small plasma gun from his holster, he pressed himself behind the closest cargo lift.

The guards passed by, oblivious, and obviously not interested in their job. Mallory waited for a moment, and then slid from his hiding place. The others came up with him, weapons drawn. He turned to Lieutenant t'Llaiir and pointed at the computer console. "You're supposed to be a crack computer whiz, right? See if you can disable the alarms on," he paused to look at the line of small vessels, indicated the ones he meant, "those three... no, four shuttles. If you can't bring down the four, crash the whole security system anyway you can."

"Yes sir. Right away sir," said Mnheia in response as she walked over to the computer and looked at all the wires. Thinking what to do, Mnheia soon isolated the wires that fed the alarms. Pulling the wires on three of the alarms she successfully disabled them. But the fourth was a bit trickier. Turning back to Mallory she spoke up at the first break in the conversation.

"Mr Mallory sir, I have, after just brief deliberation, successfully disabled three of the four alarms you requested since this is a very simple system. There is a 'hitch' as you say with the fourth one however. It controls an alarm that goes directly to the bridge. It tells who ever is at the helm and science panel that something is wrong with the security system. If I disable that one our presence will be suspected as a person is about the only thing that can disable the alarm. What do you want me do do? Disable the alarm and we can take our chances with the security team that is sent down here or shall we take our chances with the three alarms that have already been disabled and hope that is sufficient? If we do that, then no security will be sent here as no one knows about us......yet. However there is the remote possibility that by not disabling the fourth alarm we will do something that will still draw attention to our presence and we will be captured, sir."

"Whoa, take a breath, lady," Mallory said, his eyes boggling at both the Vulcan's rapid stream of words, and the disconnected, sparking cables she had ripped from the control console. Not quite what I had in mind, he thought.

Out loud, he said, "Any port in a storm, I guess. It'll do. Go, er, stand guard with the muscle." He pointed to Martok and Ashcroft. "Keep those nerve pinch fingers ready."

That settled, relatively, Mallory looked at Decker. "Ever hot-wired a shuttle before, Billy?"

Before the engineer could reply, Mallory heard the guards' voices from down the corridor. They would be returning this way any minute.

"And you," he said to their team's 'security officers,' "uh...don't let us get caught?"

"Us, get caught, not on your life," Lottie beamed pulling a weapon from the holster and pressing her small shoulders against the door frame waiting.

Martok didn't say anything but he pulled out his disruptor rifle, a Romulan type vii pulse rifle, very powerful.

Sending Decker off to snag the transport shuttle, Mallory ran to the small atmospheric skiff, and pulled out a set of isolinear lockpicks that he hadn't used in ages. After a few moments that seemed to stretch into eternity, the cockpit door slid open, and he climbed inside. The ship's control panel was simple enough, and as he entered a rapid string of commands, he sent up a silent prayer that the alarms truly were disabled. Sliding open an access panel, he pulled out three of the glowing green isolinear chips, and replaced one of them in another slot. Mallory smiled as the skiff's engines powered up, though he knew it would draw attention before long. He activated a short range transponder, and then flipped open his communicator, sending the transponder code to Decker, with instructions to lock his shuttle's autopilot onto the signal.

Mallory slipped out of the skiff, and headed for the lightning bug. Just as he worked the aft door open, two guards came into the dock, a Bolian and a big Rigellian. He quickly ducked inside the hatch and pulled it closed. As he came up to the shuttle's cockpit, he saw that the two guards had been joined by another pair, and there were probably more on the way. And the team had just been spotted. Oh, shazzbot, he thought.

"You take the right I'll take the left" Martok suggested to Lottie. To the Vulcan he said "Stay here and don't get killed." Martok ducked behind a derelict shuttle and opened fire on the Rigellian and vaporized him. He ducked back down under fire and then popped up and killed the other guard.

With a silent nod Lottie did as she was bidden and slipped away to the right treading softly around the shuttle bay taking steady aim at the approaching guards, dismissing them with barley a sound.
She moved on stepping without a pause in her stride around the felled guards.

Mallory finished his work on the shuttle and set the transponder code. He exited the craft, and saw Decker huddled against the cargo shuttle, cut off from the others. Mallory ran to cover under a cargo crane, and fired off a shot, drawing a guard's fire. But he was already running up to Decker. "All good?" he asked.

At the engineer's assent, Mallory flipped open his communicator and signaled Shrive. "We're in business, XO. Are your negotiations complete?"

Over the comm, Shrive said, "Good to hear. There should be 4 shuttles there. We're taking them all. Make it look like a theft, I'll explain the rest of the details later. All four, though. No exceptions."

Closing the channel, Mallory called to his team, and they headed out, leaving the four hot-wired shuttles on standby.

--Dockmaster's office--

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you. We'll be in touch." Shrive headed back out of the hole that used to be a door.

--Shuttle one--

Mallory's group reached the airlock at the same moment another pair of rent-a-thugs rounded the opposite corridor.

Martok opened fire his disruptor pulse hitting and vaporizing one of the guards.

Instantly Lottie had snapped her weapon up wards and loosed an deadly accurate shot flooring the second before he could raise the alarm. She shared a quick glance at Martok before sliding away to cover another entrance point to the shuttle bay that could hamper their efforts before boading another shuttle.

Martok took up a defensive position guarding that entrance.

Inside the shuttle, Mallory fired up the engines, and keyed in the transponder code, overriding the autopilot systems of the four "commandeered" shuttles. He looked at Decker in the co-pilot's seat. "Keep 'em from knocking into each other, we don't want to scratch the paint."

Glancing over his shoulder, Mallory saw the Vulcan, the bounty hunter, and the scary chick enter the shuttle. He called to Martok. "Get ready to cover Shrive, he may be bringing uninvited guests." Mallory's two hands paused over the thruster control. They were just waiting for the Andorian.

As if on cue, Tyl'varas walked up casually, and simply stated, "do we need an additional pilot for any of these craft? If so, I'll take that one."

"I've got them on relay, controlled from here," Mallory said, "but the lightning bug's a temperamental little sucker. Wouldn't hurt to bring her manually. I need Decker for the relay, and we should be able to handle it, but if anyone else in this motley crew can fly one of these tin cans, put 'em on the other shuttles, just in case the autopilot goes wonky."

"I can pilot a shuttle quite well" Martok interjected.

Shrive glanced at the shuttles, then said, "I'll take the lightning bug."

"Oh, and where's Doc Baker?" Mallory said, arching his eyebrows.

"I thought it wise to have him transported back to the ship, as I'm not in the mood to explain to the captain why his doctor had a heart attack due to my negotiation techniques," Shrive said with a smile. "Let's get moving before we have curious onlookers. Rendezvous at jump point beta. We'll pick up the shuttles when we head out of dock. I'd rather them not be immediately traced back to the Warden. Move out."



Martok got out and headed towards the remaining shuttle and hopped in at prepared for take off.

Mallory waited for Shrive and Martok to get set in their respective shuttles, then closed the hatch and disengaged the docking clamps. He set course for the rendezvous point, and hit the thrusters, speeding up to half-impulse when they were clear of shipyard. Nice and slow, he thought. Make it look casual.

Martok disengaged docking clamps on his shuttle, fired up the thrusters and followed Mallory out, matching his course and speed. After they had all breached the arms of the station they broke off into different directions. Martok took the right and headed off away from everyone else.

The other shuttles, either at Decker's remote command, or piloted on board, held formation for a while, and then split, making their roundabout ways to the rendezvous.

 

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