The Project - IC Thread

[Monky]

"Aww man... hostages?" Damien grumbles sleepily. That would mean he'd be really pretty much entirely on silenced weapons, no sonic blasts for him... He mumbles under his breath sourly as the briefing continues, clearly not much of a morning person.

 

[Sherwood]

The LT reassures you, "We are getting all that information for you as we approach. By the time we get there, we will have much better solid information to answer your questions. I am sure that there are cameras, it just depends on if the security has been hacked and where the cameras are. For now, get some rest as we have at least an hour more of flight time before we get to the coast."

As promised, it is an uneventful flight to a staging area at Kessler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi. You are ushered into a smaller helicopter hidden away in a hangar to keep you out of sight of the personnel of the base. You are a secret project, after all. As you fly out to the waiting Coast Guard ships that are forming a perimeter around the rig, you have a computer tablet given to you. With it, you can video chat with the Coasties and the oil rig personnel that are blockaded up in their control room.

Who do you call first?

 

[Silanon]

"If they know what they're doing, there won't be any useful cameras left for us. The personnel might be our best bet to get some kind of intel, if they're still safe. Might even be able to tell us if there's a way to get to them without too much trouble." He pauses for a moment, mustering the tablet handed over to the team. "Might need to split up - one team tries to safe the hostages, the other group hunts down the explosives. Whoever pays the control room a visit should make the video call, so that they know who's trying to break through to them. And I'd start with that, personally - the coasties are always reachable, those inside will probably break contact at some point."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

"Splitting up seems dangerous," Meniru says. "As long as the bombs are armed, saving the hostages won't matter. I agree to talk to the crew first though. I'm still waiting on the rig plans, if we can get a set. I would greatly like to go over them."

OOC: (If Meniru gets a set of plans, I want to roll demolitions to see if she would be able to guess where the bombs would most likely be.)

 

[Sherwood]

Detailed blueprints of the facility are provided, and Meniru can see several places that she would move to in order to cause the biggest bang with a bunch of explosives. The best location that you think would be easiest for a bomb to be placed is in the main pumping room, where the crude oil and compressed natural gas is pulled up from underground and then sent by pipeline to the shore. Even a relatively small bomb there could be catastrophic.

When you call the men in the control room, you can see on the tablet six men with worried expressions on their faces. As the call starts, they all scramble to be as close to the screen on their end as they can. "Yes, yes! We're still here. Are you going to come get us out?"

Some things that they can tell you directly. First, they have seen a total of eight men, all armed with assault rifles involved with the takeover. They are all wearing overalls that mark them as members of the British Petroleum resupply ship that they used to sneak onboard with. While the six men in the control room are not trained in military hardware, they have seen enough movies to recognize the distinctive AK-47's that the bad guys are carrying. From what they have seen, there does not appear to be any body armor on them, but it could be lightweight stuff that can be concealed under their overalls.
Second, the eight men all have radios that they are using to keep in touch with one another.
Third, twenty workers of the rig are being held in the cafeteria under guard by at least three gunmen at any one time.
Fourth, they can see that the gunmen are taking turns catching some sleep, to keep them from being too strung out and groggy.
Fifth, there is usually two men up on the top levels of the platform, keeping watch on the Coast Guard and any signs of a rescue attempt.


OOC I have no personal knowledge of how a real life off shore oil rig works, so if I completely go south of reality, forgive me.

 

[Silanon]

Are you going to come get us out? "That's the plan, though it'll take a while - we'll need ya to hold yer ground for a couple more hours. Just stay calm and safe in there - we'll let ya know once we've got things under control." The dingo then listens carefully to their descriptions, trying to spot a hole in their defense. "Those who take a break - where are they sleeping? In the cafe, or somewhere else? You're in the control room right - do you have control over security cams, and more importantly, could they have access?"

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

"Okay, so I have an idea on where the bomb could be," Meniru says. She point to it one the map. "Best guess would be the main pumping room."

After the conversation with the crew, Meniru says, "So, eight people took over the rig. Two people stand guard up top and three with the hostages means the other two should be sleeping, otherwise there wouldn't be enough hands to go around at all times. Which means one of two things. Either we have free reign of the rig where the gunmen aren't, or there's something - or someone - we aren't seeing."

 

[Sherwood]

The men in the control room say, "From what we can see on our monitors from the cameras still working, the halls are all empty. Besides us, there are some guys locked in a repair shop, but they aren't going anywhere. It looks like they are using the threat of killing the hostages and the eco disaster of blowing up the rig to keep the authorities at bay."

Monty gives a toothy grin. "This sounds good to me. Arachne, assuming that these guys are all normal humans, can you jerk them around pretty well? Make one guy shoot his buddy, that kind of thing?"

 

[Psychie]

Arachne smiles. "I think I see where you are going with this. Use the gunmen against themselves. I can't guarantee that I can make one snap and shoot his fellow gunmen, but yeah, for one moment, I think I can puppet one while we take down some other targets at the same time. I am thinking that the real threat here is the possible explosives on the rig. If we can locate and defuse them (assuming its not a bluff) the act of taking out the guards around the crew of the rig will be easy enough. Especially when we have the security cams working for us to say just where the various hostage takers are at during any one time."

 

[Silanon]

The dingo nods. "The explosives are the biggest threat, since they can cause more damage than any gun alone. They might have brought a ton of them, though, and spread them across the entire thing. Maybe we could defuse the main charge if it's where Maniru would have placed it - but after that, we'd be better off to take out those who can blow them up. In fact, that's why I'd want to split up - let two of us get rid of the charges, and the others can make sure that it's worth something in the end."

 

[Psychie]

"So we split up. What are the teams, then? Do we have two different groups looking for the potential bombs, or have all our EOD experts together?" Arachne looks to her fellow team members with interest, to see what they say.

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

"If you are dead set on splitting up," Meniru says, "then I suggest Damien and I hunt down the bomb while Arachne and Scott eliminate the terrorists. I would suggest waiting until we know for sure where the bomb is, and if there are multiples or not, before engaging the terrorists, but you would be in a better position than we will for the judgement call."

 

[Silanon]

"Of course, we could all stick together as well - don't think that running around in a group of five will give us too much of an advantage, though, other than having everyone enjoy Monty's charming presence and overkilling every group of two or three people we might run into. If we split, we'd have a few more options, just in case things don't go as planned. Think that'd be the best way to do the split, though - we'll need Arachne against the hostiles, and I wouldn't help you all that much in terms of defusing demolitions. Maybe Monty should join both of you, just to make sure you can get rid of the bombs? As you said, not much point in saving hostages if the whole thing gets blown apart regardless."

While he speaks, Scott starts to open his medkit and counts a number of pills for the squad - no need to wait with that, after all. He'll then hand out painkillers for everyone, as well as stims, though only hesitantly. "Just one per person, not two, not three. Only take them if you absolutely have to, they're for emergency cases only." Noone wants any stim addictions - but you never know what kind of shit might happen.

 

[Sherwood]

So what party split (if any) are you deciding on?

 

[Sherwood]

So with the team splitting up to be Arachne and Scott in one set, with Monty, Damien and Meniru in the second, you are ready to move out to the oil rig. Suiting up with your SCUBA gear, everyone is ready to slip down into the water with your gear. Even being in the open ocean, the water is not that rough at the moment, so the non-amphibious members of the team don't have any trouble traversing the space between the water and the oil rig's main leg. There is a ladder leading up to the habitable levels, all of which you have maps of to aid you in your mission.

With your knowledge of the layout and the most likely locations of the bombs, you know that the most dangerous place to go is the pumping room where the liquid fuels and natural gases are transferred from underground to the pipelines to the shore. An explosion there would be catastrophic.

There is also the group of workers being held under guard in the cafeteria, with two to three gunmen watching them at any time. According to the men barricaded in the control room, they can see on the cameras that there are two men on the top of the rig, keeping watch with radios. The last three are currently awake and moving about the rig, also using radios to keep in touch.

Where do you go first?

 

[Silanon]

Some places just feel wrong: Way too much water around, no space to move really. Good thing he didn't bring his sniper rifle, even though he misses the familiar weight of the weapon as he carefully climbs up the ladder. After all, this would be one of the first places to look if you're expecting an attack - hopefully, they're too confident for that. If they're watching the ladder - well, darn. It's not like there are many other options to get up there without being seen by the ones on top. Just gotta take the risk, silenced pistol at hand. If he manages to get up there without any sign of enemies, he'll watch the surrounding while the others follow; meanwhile considering the options. "I'd say we're headed towards the hostages, just to make sure they don't make something stupid while you take care of any demolitions - make sure that noone can be seen from above, those two are probably the hardest to get rid of without announcing that we're aboard."

 

[NemoTheSurvivor]

Meniru follows Scott up the ladder. "Don't worry about me," Meniru says. "Not being seen is my specialty. Just try to avoid shooting anyone until I can confirm all of the bombs are clear." If the way is clear, Meniru is going to use her Camouflage ability to blend into the environment as she makes her way to the pumping room.