IC: Chapter 1

[shaidar]

Jonas

"Something's been off about this job from the start. We should warn the others"

He draws his laser pistol and heads back to the others with Shion, scanning the buildings and vehicles nearby as they go, looking for signs of surveillance

Notice (0): [2d6] = 7

[The_Wanderer]

Disston examines the crates that are sitting on the pallets. They are sealed shut and would require brute force to open. There is a worn stamp visible on at least the first few that says PROPERTY OF TERRAN MANDATE.

Shion and Jonas enter through the opened access door, while Corbeau remains in the truck with Bisharah, keeping an eye out.

Alix takes a look at the wall mounted computer. There is one notification - "Battery Backup Online". Without hacking in, it looks like the overhead door controls are normally controlled here but likely aren't working because of the power failure. Each door has an obvious manual handle for opening the door.

Alix is able to connect his compad wirelessly to the wall computer and doesn't immediately see any significant security built into the computer. Common operations like finalizing a shipment and receiving a shipment are available.

On Hacking in the rules: Assuming a hacker is able to make a connection, they can make an Int/Program skill check to hack the system. If they’ve spent at least an hour planning this specific hack, the skill check requires only a Main Action to execute their prepared code. If they’re performing the hack off-the-cuff, it takes ten minutes

Also, in order to hack in, you'll need to make a roll with a specific goal in mind. Common tasks include answering a specific question, getting general information, complete database acquisition, suppressing a system, subverting a system, or sabotaging a system. Taking this all together, this will probably require at least 10 minutes and I'll need you to make another roll for the specific hacking action you want to undertake.

[cybersavant]

Alix Conzweth

Alix turns to those inside. "Before i open the overhead, are we ready to load? Is there a forklift here?"

[shaidar]

Jonas glances around, taking in the situation

"Somethings not right, the generator outside is off, and it's not a malfunction but been done on purpose...Wasn't there supposed to be 10 pallets, but I count 11?"

[Faanku]

Shion Kuznetsov

"You mean someone broke in, disabled the aux power and took the security offline, to LEAVE something here?" Her tone is flat, but it's clear the woman shares the group's unease with the situation. She takes a breath then shakes her head. "We worry about this later. Our job is to get those crates, and the quicker we load them the quicker we can leave this place. There will be time to inspect them all en route to the evac." If nobody else jumps in one of the forklifts, Shion will take one and make to start loading the pallets onto the truck.

[Samwell Turleton]

Corbeau Boucher

”Bisharah, what are you still doing in here?

Do you know how to operate one of those lifts. Let’s get the overhead door open and get this shipment moving” Corbeau says.

Corbeau looks into his compad for any notices posted on important missing property from the Terran Mandate.

Administer [2d6] = 7

[shaidar]

Jonas

With the loading starting Jonas find a good lookout position and keeps watch.

not sure what to roll for this, but hopefully this will cover it:

Sneak (0): [2d6] = 7

Notice (0): [2d6] = 6

[NJWilliam]

Disston

Disston helps with loading the crates, examining each one closely for any differences from the others.

[cybersavant]

Alix Conzweth

Once the others start to load the forklifts with pallets and drive over, he activates the overhead door opener.

[The_Wanderer]

The eleventh pallet is obviously different. Instead of a wooden crate, there is a blocky form covered in clear plastic shrink wrap. Using your portable lights, you see that inside are neatly stacked boxes labeled as containing bottles of Steel River Distillery Whiskey. You all know that this is a high end spirit and the retail value of the pallet probably is worth thousands of credits. You also notice this pallet is actually not quite lined up with the others, whereas the crates are neatly lined up and staged for shipping.

Finally, there is indeed an automated forklift.

[The_Wanderer]

Shion prepares to begin loading the truck as anxiety mounts. Things definitely are not as expected although neither are they openly hostile. To quell that anxiety, Corbeau throws himself into aggressively researching any recent news on the Terran Mandate.

From the wiki: The Terran Mandate was the ruling power of humanity prior to The Scream. With the death or disability of all psychics and destruction of jump gates the individual sectors of the Mandate found themselves marooned from the rest of humanity. Sigma Chronos is one of those sectors. Over time all administrative vestiges of the Mandate either dissolved or morphed into the governing factions now active.

In short, Corbeau learns that there is no modern day group that is known to call themselves the Terran Mandate. Likely there is too much history tied up in it, both positive and negative, for any new group to go by that name. The Mandate did have storage facilities spread across the sector that have been re-discovered over the years. In fact, it was upon discovering and then exploiting the finds of one of these facilities that The Blood as colonists on Mer were able to succeed and thrive. Multiple storage facilities have been discovered on Mer over the years, although nobody knows or at least talks about exactly how many.

Eventually Alix opens the loading dock overhead door and work commences on loading the truck.

[shaidar]

Jonas

"The two scenarios I can see here is that this is either a test by our employer to see if we will steal from him, or this palette has been placed here by a rival and either the whiskey is not what it seems or the crate itself contains a tracking or bugging device"

[cybersavant]

Alix Conzweth

Alix stays by the controls, but turns to watch the activities. "It is a tempting lure - the value of a crate of old tech could buy a ship. I agree it's probably a test. I don't plan on staying on this world. Credits or a job is my way offworld. And if it is bugged by someone other than our employer, well, that's his concern, not ours. Rule One - never open the package."

[Faanku]

Shion Kuznetsov

Shion will load only the 10 pallets they were sent for, intentionally leaving the mysterious "whisky" for last so it is alone in the warehouse. "If you want to do things by the book, we leave with our farming tech and nothing else. If anyone wants to interfere with this mystery pallet, we do it here and now, or not at all." She hops off the forklift, thinking; if this were truly a test of loyalty, Antonetti would have stressed they were not to take anything but the agri tech. Far more likely that he doesn't know about this crate any more than the crew do. As for a trap from a third party... possible, and if so, they owed nothing to them in way of privacy. She nods, her mind settled. "I vote to at least ascertain this crate's contents before we make a decision. What say you all?"

[shaidar]

Jonas

"I agree. If it's harmless then nothing lost, if there is something up with it then we might get in his good side for finding out"

[cybersavant]

Alix Conzweth

Alix looks at each of the others in turn. "Well, better get to it quick. Don't know how long we have. Just because i found no alarms doesn't mean something wasn't triggered when the door opened."

[shaidar]

Jonas looks at Alix "Are you able to scan it for electronic devices such as trackers?"

Without waiting for an answer he starts to visually inspect the crate for anything unusual (what could be electronics, or an empty space hidden inside the contents, that kind of thing)

Notice (0): [2d6] = 5

[Samwell Turleton]

Corbeau Boucher

Corbeau signals Bisharah with his compad.

“What are you finding in there? Anything that you think you could move discretely in your trade network for a good price?”

How well connected are we with one another for communicating what people are finding?

[The_Wanderer]

I'm going to clarify the situation a bit

As you examine the pallets, it looks like all 10 crates that are lined up for shipping are marked with "PROPERTY OF TERRAN MANDATE" while the final one contains what appears to be whiskey.

Jonas is combing all of the crates, trying to identify what is going on. The 10 marked crates are all pretty much identical from the outside with no way short of opening them to identify what is inside. There are tool marks from a prybar...or something,,,along one edge suggesting that at some point, these were opened. You're also able to tell as you move them onto the truck that the weight is not identical but at least all are heavy. When Jonas gets to the shrink wrapped pallet of whiskey, he sees nothing out of the ordinary.

Bisharah is looking at the pallet of whiskey when Corbeau contacts her. She says, "We got 10 sealed crates...and one pallet of good whiskey...Yeah this stuff should be pretty easy to move. Assuming it's real or at least a good fake...I should be able to find a buyer either on world or off with enough time. It's the expensive or unique stuff that gets difficult to sell." She motions to the others. "We taking this one too?"

I'm kind of surprised but a quick look of the equipment in the rules doesn't show any equipment that would allow you to scan for any kind of traps/snooping equipment/alarms/etc. in the shipment. We could probably house rule some equipment if this was desired.

[NJWilliam]

Disston

“Looks like a bonus to me. I say we take it as well. Would be more suspicious to take just those and leave behind a pallet of whiskey.

‘If we don’t take it, we’re going to end up pointing the finger at our employer. If we do, could be just about anyone that cleaned out the warehouse.”