Sunday, 28 February 2016

The Kinunir of Regina - Part Two

It takes a day for Oliver's contacts to get hold of the equipment that they need, including an Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR) and ACR ammunition for both Tommy and Vann.  Wilhelm expresses a concern that for an initial, stealthy, scouting mission the others seem to be preparing for an assault on the office block.  All the same though, Wilhelm packs his auto pistol, cutlass and laser rifle into the air/raft along with a few other essentials that might be needed.  Bucky asks if they should maybe get some stun grenades, Vann says yes but the rest say no to that idea.

The trip to the shipyard is swift and uneventful and Wilhelm manages to find a concealed position from which they can overlook the factory.  During the day the group manage to identify security camera positions and patrol routes by the few guards that they see on site.  They also manage to identify the actual manufacturing buildings, but cannot see the disused slipway that Wilhelm's contact mentioned, and none of the buildings seem large enough to hold a Kinunir class ship.  That night the shipyard seemed very quiet, with just a couple of security guards patrolling the grounds, using IR goggles though, the group could see that the security cameras did have an IR facility, though the sweeps with it seemed to be very random.  Getting into the offices was going to be a tough job.

The next morning, shortly after the workers had started work at the factory, a large Grav Carrier arrived and settled down at the rear of the shipyard, several workers hurried out and began to load what appeared to be crates of components onto the carrier.  Thinking that it might be heading to another General Shipyards site, the group packed up and discretely began to follow the G-Carrier.  After about ten kilometres the carrier crested a ridge and dropped from sight, when the group approached the ridge, Wilhelm landed the air/raft and together they quietly approached the crest on foot.  In the middle of a small valley sat what appeared to be a large scrapyard, the G-Carrier was located at one edge of the debris field, the workers hastily off-loading it then re-boarding it they left.  The interesting thing about the scrapyard was that almost in the middle of it sat a very rusty, pock-marked, hull of a Kinunir class battle cruiser.  After the G-Carrier had departed the group tried to decide on what to do next, after ruling out the more homicidal plans it was decided that going down and asking about the wreck might work better.

The security guard that greets them is quite straight forward, no the group cannot enter and if they want to buy any scrap then they would need to talk to the owners of the scrapyard, General Shipyards, for authorisation.  So, the group decide to return to their rooms to get some rest and to plot their next moves.

The discussions about their next moves are long and detailed, Oliver suggests that the best move would be to hit both the office and the scrapyard at the same time as that will reduce the chances of increased security at either site if one or the other of the break-ins is detected.  Wilhelm is impressed by Oliver's thinking about this plan, but the only drawback is that there are only five of them and splitting the group into two uneven teams could be problematic especially if they are about ten kilometres apart.  Ultimately, it is decided that Tommy and Vann will go to the General Shipyard office in the starport to see about the possibility of getting authority to get access to the scrapyard.  Meanwhile, Bucky will try to get his hacking program fixed and running properly this time to try and access the General Shipyard data archives, and Wilhelm will go off and kick the daylights out of the contact that gave him false information about the disused slipway.

The trip to the General Shipyard office is unprofitable for Tommy and Vann, the secretary does not think that the company sells it's scrap but that she will check.  After a quick phone call to the main office it is confirmed that General Shipyard does not sell its scrap to third parties.  So, the two adventurers return to the group to discuss plans to break into the scrapyard.  That night Oliver, Tommy, Vann and Wilhelm leave Bucky puzzling over what went wrong with his program, and head out to the scrapyard in the air/raft.

Once they get there they spend a few hours familiarising themselves with the layout, the patrol routes of the guards and looking for a suitable entry point for the team.  It is decided that Wilhelm, Vann and Tommy will be the ones to break in, whilst Oliver provides radio support and cover in case of trouble, which surprises Wilhelm as he is the only one equipped with effectively a silent weapon with a long range capability, his laser rifle.  Oliver just has his short ranged, very loud submachinegun. So, the three intruders set out and with some good support from Oliver calling out the guards positions, they manage to make it to the Kinunir unseen.

They enter the ship through one of the cargo loading ramps and what they find is a totally dark ship, the floor covered with litter and debris.  Using their Light Intensifier goggles they see that they only structures that seem to be in place are the bulkheads, work must have been discontinued before all the internal fixtures were put in.  After studying the aft portion of the deck they decide that there is no pinnace dock here, so the Black Globe Generator fittings must be on a higher deck.  As they make their way up a ladder, Wilhelm stops them and draws their attention to the very large cat-like creature which has suddenly appeared behind them.  The creature stares at them and emits a low, menacing, growl, very slowly the group resume their climb to the next deck with Wilhelm keeping one eye on the creature to make sure it is not following them.  The search on the next deck also proves fruitless, so they carry on climbing to the next deck.  This deck looks more promising as it has a dock on it large enough to hold a pinnace, a quick search soon finds the mountings they have been told to look out for.  Measurements are quickly taken to pinpoint the precise location, and as a back up Tommy takes some photographs.  Just to be on the safe side they check out the other side of the pinnace dock to make sure there are no mountings on that side.  Finding none, the group decide to leave.

As they finish descending the ladder and are about to enter the cargo dock, the creature pounces out from behind some debris and attacks.  Wilhelm was first down the ladder this time and is greeted by a swipe from the creatures large claws across his chest, wounding him deeply.  Wilhelm and Tommy both draw their cutlass and begin to hack away at the creature.  Vann tries to get into a position to get a shot at the cat.  The fight loud though fairly short, with Wilhelm suffering another wound but managing to finally kill the large creature.  The noise of the fight though has attracted a couple of security guards, who suddenly appear in the doorways across the cargo area with their revolvers drawn, pointing them at the intruders whilst yelling for the group to lower their weapons.




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