Plotting our way in

Posted on Friday September 20th, 2019 @ 10:33 hours by Mayterial Droz & Alexandria Farron & Clinton Westbrooke Jr & Mercy & Tobie Fitzsimmons
Edited on on Friday September 20th, 2019 @ 11:02 hours

Mission: Hot Couture
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD02 - 14:30 hours
2308 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The engine room was small, made to appear even smaller by the large hulking wolf woman that occupied it. Mayterial carefully knocked on the doorpost entering the room, "Miss Mercy." She called to get the Sirran's attention, "How are you doing?"

Her head was still bandaged, and when she moved she did so with a limp, using an old, modified piece of structural steel as walking cane. "Hanging in there. Headache comes and goes. And I think that knock to my knee did more damage than we originally thought. Eager to give them some payback." came her familiar, warm and thick voice, as she glanced up from a large A2 sheet of paper.

"Well, let's see how we can get that going. I asked everyone to meet up here, away from prying eyes." Mayterial slowly walked further into the engineering bay. The work Mercy had done in the past weeks had really improved the efficiency and the engine was clearly loving it.

Alexandria entered the room, trying to act normal. She didn't know what to make of their mission, but she didn't want May to think that she was having second thoughts about being involved in her criminal activities. But the navigator found it quite difficult to act normal when she never had a good read on what normal was to begin with. She was typically furtive, nervous and suspect. Now she just looked... fake. Like a drunk person trying to act sober.

Fortunately for Alexandria, her feelings of suspicion were masked by her overt fear of the giant wolf lady. She crept up behind May, which wasn't so much creeping as it was creepy, and peeked out from behind the captain. The Sirran engineer didn't look particularly menacing at that moment, but then again, Alexandria had used Captain May as a shield before... from imaginary housecats.

Clint sauntered in, hands in pockets, looking like a cat up to no good, "I got what you wanted, Mercy," He said with a grin. "Plan is good to go... want to uh... want to tell the Captain what we came up with?" He asked, grinning devilishly.

"Yeah." Mercy gave a nod, motioning to the blueprints and schematics in front of her. "They have a layered set of protection. First is a set of shatter sensors on the windows. We can bypass those by carefully cutting the glass without breaking it." She pointed out the windows. "Then comes a laser grid in the corridors, here, here and here. I'm working on a way to bypass those using custom laser pointers on a movable rig. For this to work we'll need to know the EM frequency of the original laser grid, but I asked Clint to work on that." she glanced over at the man.

Clint nods, "Already got that sorted with a buddy of mine... I'll rig up the pointers, we'll be good," Clint replied with a nod.

Mercy nodded. "Right. Next is thermal sensors along the walls here, here and here. We can beat those by holding a thermal blanket between them and us and moving slowly. The final issue is guard patrols. I have their schedules, but the patrols are so dense that we don't really have a comfortable window between patrols and that if we use force to knock them out we run the risk of them noticing something is wrong when patrols start missing rendezvous points here, here and here."

"I may have a better solution for the thermal sensors than a blanket. But that would mean we'd have to narrow the infiltrating team down to a maximum of 3 people." Mayterial was at one time sad and happy that she had held on to the thermal dampeners and that they hadn't been found by the ransacking of the Starfleet teams, or at least not deemed illegal if they did spot them, "As for the patrols, we'll need some sort of distractions to throw them off their route or their checkpoints." She knew they didn't have the latinum to bribe these people, "I hate to be proposing this, but wouldn't they be stretched more thinly during the gala?"

"I got a source on the planet," Clint replied, clearing his throat. "See, uh... I been there before. Just once. Not for too long, but no one noticed till after I was gone," he said, a hint of a too-proud smirk on his face. "I can also get us some uniforms if we want to try and blend in," He explained. He didn't want to admit it, but a gala was not something he wanted to be anywhere near.

Hearing the mention of uniforms Mayterial suddenly turned to Alexandria, "Do you know what state our Type 1 is in?"

Having been hiding behind May, Alexandria shifted awkwardly when the captain suddenly turned around to face her. She reflexively took a step back, finding it more difficult to be close to another while face-to-face. "Umm... probably the same state it was in after it was last used. Theoretically." Her eyes darted as she realized her reply made her sound like a dumbass. Thankfully she was wearing sunglasses. "It has cabin pressure and the batteries hold a charge. Scheduled maintenance tasks have been performed." She shrugged. It hadn't been used for at least as long as she'd been aboard.

"I'll try to find some time to give her a once-over." Mercy flicked an ear. "Though there's only so much I can do with the parts and tools we have."

Tobie scampered in late. "Sorry about that.." she uttered as she came in. "Minor issue now contained."

"How minor is minor?" Clint asked, arching an eyebrow.

"It was alive and munching on cargo and now it's neither," the brunette answered with a wrinkle of her freckled nose. "Nothing big."

"Thanks for taking care of that, Ms. Fitzsimmons." Mayterial gave a nod of appreciation, "We where just saying that the most opportune moment to infiltrate would be during the gala. We use some of us to cause a distraction." May thought for a moment and realised she might know someone that might be able to get them into the gala, "Perhaps it's best if we don't disrupt that event as ourselves though, so I'll see what I can do to get us in, and disguise ourselves. Clint, Mercy, you're probably our best bet to do the actual infiltration, Tobie, you can I can cause a ruckus at the gala, Alex, we'll need you to be ready with our shuttle in order for us to get away before anyone notices"

Mercy gave May a flat look. "Me. In the infiltration team. Have you seen me?" she flicked an ear, quirking a brow. "If I am to go with the infiltration team, anything relying on subtle stealth or disguises is right out."

Alexandria shrugged, a simple gesture to try and hide her unease. Granted, the getaway pilot was probably the best job for her to have. Less chance of leaving evidence behind, or anyone seeing her face. Plus if things didn't go well in the gala she could still escape. But then again, that's never how it went down in the holovids. The getaway pilot was always the first member of the crew to get caught or die... and that was if they hadn't betrayed the crew first. Not that Alexandria would do that. No way. She might be a weasel, but she wasn't a snitch.

"Umm..." Alexandria began, then cleared her throat. "Infiltration is basically stealth and disguise. Unless you intend to become wanted fugitives after you pull off... or botch this heist. On Rangalor the punishment for grand larceny is on average thirteen years in the local penal system. And that's not counting breaking and entering, or anyone getting hurt. And the authorities do have extradition treaties, so if you're wanted for other crimes in other places... yeah." The navigator trailed off. There was no point pointing out the risks. They were going to do this anyway, and she didn't really have a better plan. Her illicit computer skills and athletic ability were beyond what she advertised, but she didn't really feel like volunteering to go in herself. She'd killed people while in the service of Starfleet, and she was too cowardly and jaded to want to do more bad things for another good cause. Plus she doubted anyone would trust her with the job anyway.

"Well we need someone on the ground to crack the security systems, I sure as hell can't do it..." Mayterial looked over at Clint but didn't expect much from him in that regard either, "The thermal cloaks will be able to mask your presence. We just need to get the guards away from their patrols and then it doesn't matter how stealthy you are until you get to the laser grid." She turned to Alex as something registered on the edge of her empathic abilities, "Unless you feel like taking on that particular task, have Mercy in the shuttle waiting with a comm-link."

Mercy gave a nod. "I can do that. I'll even join the infiltration team if you tell me to, but I think chances of success will be far better with me in the getaway shuttle, performing remote shenanigans on their systems and keeping a watch on everything."

Once more settling her gaze on the lithe navigator Mayterial waited for a response from the eccentric woman, "So, what do you think?"

For a few seconds it seemed doubtful that Alexandria would do it. She didn't react well when people put her in an awkward spotlight. She looked like she was going to flee. But where could she go? For operational security Captain May would probably lock her in quarters until the job was over with, and if she was really a pirate... well, Alexandria didn't want to think about what would happen to her after that. Plus there was also the matter of her own conscience. She had just enough of one to feel that if something bad did happen to this Kari person, or to anyone else on the crew, it would be because she flaked out. Lots of people in the Aerospace Corps had thought she would flake on them, until events backed her into a similar corner, giving her little choice but to do her duty. She didn't want to be a criminal, but she really didn't want to be a flake.

"What's the disguise?" Alexandria said with a sigh. "Do I have to wear a dress?" She had never been to a gala, but when she thought of one she pictured well dressed people engaging in mindless chatter over drinks and hors d'oeuvres. She might look good in a flashy gown, but as for all the rest... well, she would rather participate in a gagh-eating contest--at least there it would be socially acceptable to vomit.

Mayterial was happy to get at least a confirmation that she was willing to go along with the plan. Alexandria had always been the biggest unknown factor on the crew, it was good to see there was loyalty in her. She gave her a comforting smile, "I was thinking Vulcan, people tend to avoid chats with Vulcans, we won't seem out of place, the nuances of Vulcan culture and their wardrobe makes is easier to navigate a gala without being called out on small inaccuracies. Plus for most of the people involved it'll be easy to make the physical changes to appear Vulcan on a cursury security sweep." She looked around the room to see if there was anyone that wanted to object to this particular plan.

"Which house is putting it on?" Clint asked, "The Vulcan consulate on the planet isn't big, by any means, but a couple of the houses there are in close with the Ambassadors. That could backfire," He explained.

"The museum isn't run by Vulcans, the consulate will probably send a dignitary but in general there's no ties between the two." Mayterial shrugged a bit, "I was just thinking we'd pose as an interested party, some high end tech analysts for some obscure terraforming firm." She knew how to spin these things, it had to be believable but it had to be subject matter that nobody really had any clue about how that worked. Terraforming in its basics were understood by people, which also made them more reluctant to say they didn't understand something about it, "So better brush up on your technobabble. Also something we might need Mercy in our ear for."

"What about us?" Alexandria said, referring to Clint and herself. "Are we going to be Vulcans too?" She wasn't sure how convincing her portrayal of a Vulcan would be. Alexandria was not a particularly self-aware person, but she did know that she was a bit erratic, and a far cry from stately.

For a moment the question hung in the air as Mayterial looked around, it was refreshing to have someone around where this wasn't almost second nature, "You'll be staff, waitressing the party until an opportunity comes up to sneak out. There's not really a need to undergo a change. With an event like this nobody ever pays attention to staff." She folded her arms and smiled at the rest of the group, this had given her a little bit of confidence that they actually knew what they were doing, "Alright people, let's get this show on the road." She clapped her hands together to cap off this little meeting and turned to step out of the engineering room, she startled a bit as she realised that Alexandria was still hovering very closely behind her, she flashed a short encouraging smile as she stepped past the awkward little navigator.

[OFF]

Mayterial
Captain

Alexandria Farron
Navigator

Clinton Westbrooke Jr.
Quartermaster

Mercy
Engineer

Tobie Fitzsimmons
Boatswain

S.S. Fawkes