Iron Stars - lloyd

Mr. Lloyd and his family were respected recipients of the crown’s patronage once. Time, the fleshshaper war, and the infighting of nobles and the agents of the crown have changed quite a bit and devoid of notice and renown, the Lloyd family faded into the background, until now. An apartment on palace grounds is all that remains of the former warm tidings from the office of the king , though today after months of silence , a strong knock rattles the entire door

"hm, i wonder who i could be at this hour" mr lloyd says lazily around his office quarters "yes i am coming" mr lloyd opens the door

3

"hello? how can i help you good sir"

The messenger says nothing, only handing over a paper envelope with the kings seal on it, stamped in a thick wax. Once it’s in your hand he bows slightly and departs around the corner, off to other tasks

"Hmm, strange" I close the door "now what do we have here, I bet it's more royal tariffs..hmm" I carefully open the letter and reveal it's content

The message is a short one, a personal summons to the kings lounge , and a request that you come armed if you’re able. Otherwise the letter is very sort. He has signed it and affixed a smaller seal to the inside for authenticity

what the hell....well alright

09:47

mr lloyd will saddle up and assemble what gear he has and heads to the kings lounge with the letter in tow, just in case any royal guard asks questions

They seem to have been briefed on the matter ahead of time and don’t frisk you. The wooden door enters and you see the king sitting behind a large wooden table. Endless papers and data pads are spread out in neat piles , and he has the look of a very worried man

i enter and bow slightly "hello sir, i came here at your behest as fast as i could, what do you ask of me, is there a problem?"

“Sit. “ He dismisses the guard at the door with the wave of his hand. “I’ve got a sensitive matter for someone like you to handle for me. Your family, they were merchants once. Not nobles but the deeveers family trusted them all the same”

(deevers? who dat) mr lloyd sits down at haste "of course, anything for you, you need connections? business opportunities? what can i do for you?" (edited)

3

(The royal line. Your king and patron)

(ah)

“You might be familiar of the struggle between myself and some of the nobles. We recently had an incident in the NMC council and some of them are targeting another of my agents for his idea to pack the nobility. If you’re willing to act as my agent for a mission to remove one of these plotting noblemen, I’d be inclined to restore the charter your family once held for interstellar trade”

hm "give me the operational details, but i'm interested"

"The Trintas family has been one of the most outspoken critics of the throne, and we've interrupted a plot to have said mis-speaking agent killed. The crown cant move against them openly, there would be an uprising by the rest of the families. Can't move against them openly yet, at least. Getting rid of the family, in its entirety, will ensure the others are less organized and less able to move against the Crown, and my agents. THe issue is, this needs to look like an accident, or a tragedy. They're planning on visiting Viggis tomorrow, taking their space yacht on the trip. We'd like to embed you as one of the crewmen aboard since you know your way around a ship. Once aboard, sabotaging the ship or quietly eliminating them is your decision, and you can use the lifeboat to escape to the planet below, where agents of the Crown will rescue you and bring you back here"

"i've got a couple of questions regarding the op, Q1, will i have any assistance when im on the yacht? do you have anyone else embedded? Q2, would there be a way i could smuggle some supplies into the yacht with me?"

"No one else is embedded. This needs to be entirely clandestine, and more people are more loose ends and more chances to have the plot discovered. Any smuggling will also need to be done on your own if you go that route. We can't risk supplies being traced back to the royal office should you fail"

15:33

"The ship should have a locker and armory aboard, however, assuming you can find a way to get to them"

"ok, how many family members need an accident? where is the space yacht currently dock and do i have time to get some things in order?"

'There are four. The family patriarch, the matriarch, and their two heirs, both male"

21:03

"Its on the platform above Jagrati. They leave tomorrow, as I've said. I'd hope a day is enough to make the arrangments"

21:04

"You'll have a crewman identity supplied for you. What you do on board is on you"

"okay, few more question, how is the security? is this family expecting trouble? how many armed guards will be on board?"

"I dont have any of that information. You're going to need to do the field work yourself, but if you don't think you;'re capable, I can assign someone else"

"im just getting all operational details i need, thats all the questions i have for now, if you dont have anything else for me sir, ill be on my way, dont worry, this operation is in capable hands, you can guarantee it" mr lloyd will stand up and bow slightly

"You'll be rewarded well if you're able to pull this off. Best of luck Mr. Lloyd. I'm looking forward to personally signing your writ of trade and re-empowering your family" (edited)

and with that, Mr lloyd turns around and walks out the door

23:07

(Damn what a hard ass, then again, money)

23:08

(Right...time to get to work, Ima hit up some hit man games)

23:09

Mr lloyd will start heading to the space yacht and start scoping it out, we only got a day so can't waste any time

(sneak/dex)

00:00

(I'll paint the scene depending on how this goes)

(8)

The identity has been added to your compad along with something called a digital ghost that only the top tier intelligence agents have even begun to begin working with. For all intents and purposes you are your cover, even on a digital level. The yacht is docked on the ground for today at the small private spaceport outside Jagrati undergoing the repair and refit necessary for all ships that travel the stars. Three engineers occupy the docking bay , overseeing a fuel line and various ground power stations as the various batteries and engines are provided with what they need to operate

(what sort of ID have i been assigned? technician? engineer? helmsman?)

(Just a generic crewman where most naval ratings start out before learning a speciality. That way there’s no assigned department and you being somewhere in the ship wouldn’t raise suspicion , you’d be doing any number of important jobs - even cleaning) (edited)

(perfect)

mr lloyd will act he belongs and enter the yacht via employee entrance

A small scanner at the top of the ramp clicks open as you approach the closed bulkhead door, requesting identification to enter.

i scan the digital ghost on the scanner

There is a long beep and the machine seems to think for a moment before the hatch opens and you’re permitted inside

17:27

17:27

A map of the ship is sent to your pad as you get aboard

(straight in at the deep end...alright)

20:50

mr lloyd would like to look like he belongs, any sort of uniform or anything i can slip in?

You'd imagine the crew quarters is probably a good place to get crew things. It doesn't seem like there is any noise coming from the room

time to take a peak at the crew quarters, what do i find?

You enter the room to find an engineer asleep in his bunk. He is soot stained, and was probably hard at work until a few minutes ago. He didn't even bother to move the blankets aside. One of the lockers has no door on it, and has clean uniforms wrapped in plastic, along with weight belts for anchoring in zero-g and carrying extra tools.

(

) mr lloyd will take a look around, any private cubicles, areas toilets etc around here?

(The map would have all rooms that are part of the ship on it)

Original message was deleted or could not be loaded.

Pinned a message.

(it looks like a small cubicle in room 4, so ill go in there and change)

(You’re in 4 already, but yeah we can do that) There’s a small privacy area where you’re able to change into your inform and stow your other clothes. Now you look like the rest of the crew

excellent, now...lets go to the engines/engineering area, i'd like to see what were working with

Engineering and the Engineers quarters are both locked down right now since the ship is being worked on. Any kind of tampering with the system while in drydock would kill not only you and the men working on the vessel, but probably destroy half of the Cooperative's capital city in a fusion explosion

with a shrug, mr lloyd turns around decides to check out the executive and passenger suite, to see if anyone is around

The nobles and any other passengers aren't expected to arrive until morning. These rooms are the personal property of those nobles as is the entire yacht, and are locked right now as they are not aboard. You can see red lights blinking gently on the card readers keeping each one closed. (edited)

alright final stop, i take a look around near the front of the ship, passenger seating and cockpit (edited)

The cockpit is open right now since the workers outside need to occasionally come in to check readings. You hear one of them at the ramp now, shouting something to those outside- something technical.

(are they saying anything interesting? anything i can decipher from the jargon? i have fix and pilot if that helps)

It sounds like routine ground work- checking to make sure power levels are within tolerance, and that ground power isnt building up too much static charge in some of the more sensitive systems. Nothing they're discussing sounds like a big job, or outside the norm of things resident ground crew would need to be looking after

im going to need some clandestine supplies for this operation, can i get bugs (mini microphones and camera) and a throwaway compad?

(you have a night before they're expected to leave. Finding a fence and getting these things is part of the adventure)

(could i have used "connections" since ive been on the planet for awhile? or is that out of scope)

(We could use connect to try to generate a contact, but its still part of the adventure. There is an entire night of time between our scene and when these people are leaving- there is time to play this out. ) (edited)

15:22

(what you're bringing in, how you're getting it aboard, and you possibly owing this fence or slightly criminal person a favor are all important pieces of telling a good "hitman" as you put it story)

(but im a shit hitman lol)

15:37

mr lloyd flips through his contacts and see if he cant find some questionable vagrant thats reasonably close-by for some supplies he needs

15:38

(11 on connect)

You remember a fencer from your younger days who was busted, and released, and promptly returned to the streets with a new bag of tricks in how not to get caught. He's a tough negotiator but never says no to a job, especially if the situation can be spun to show him where he might benefit. A bar known as The Huntsman, is where he tends to spend his time, when not in the dark alleyways around it.

well, mr lloyd will text him, saying he'll need some supplies for an OP, and ill meet him at his usual spot and with that, mr lloyd will turn his collar and walk to this "huntsman" bar

The Huntsman is a nice bar, with an outside concrete patio and small natural gas fireplaces around which patrons can sit, enjoy a drink, some light food, and conversation. The interior is a dark wooded bar that is fully stocked, featuring the mid to upper crust of society, and overly friendly wait staff trying to work hard to get gratuities. Your contact, Cookie, is a rough beaten man with a wide face. His weight seems to fluctuate depending on if he;s been jailed for a minor crime recently or not, and judging by things now he's about due to get pinched again. Such seems to be the cyclical nature of life. He sets his drink down after draining it and passes a large tip over to the bartender, nodding his head to the right indicating you should talk outside. A small duffel bag comes with him, held in his right hand.

3

19:54

In the alley, he finally breathes out, breath misting with the cool night air. "Alright Lloyd, Alright. I think your text etiquette needs some work. You're being very direct about what you're up to and I'm probably going to have to deal with the authorities later, so lets get this done. You didn't specify what kind of supplies you needed, so I didn't know what to bring, I just have a few assorted bits. so, what are you after?"

"I'm sure I've got something here no matter what your needs are. You can leave it in the broad strokes if you'd like, but you know me. I won't talk"

( @Nekosmash sorry for the delay past couple days, hectic weekend, hope thats ok)

(all good bud)

i need some supplies for an infiltration mission, ill also need some tools to make people have an "unfortunate accident", the bad news is we'll be leaving tomorrow, so...got anything for me? have any "recommendations?" (edited)

"Unfortunate accident. It depends where they're supposed to be having this accident."

"on a space yacht, discretion is the upmost importance, target is a some nobles thats been getting angsty, plan B would potentially sabotaging the spike drive, but thats messy, and i dont want to go to thoose lengths for this, thoughts?"

“A body turning up or someone going missing for an extended period is going to raise the alarm. Especially during spike transit. He thinks for a moment before fishing out a vac fresher and a few cannisters. “Sabotaging the life support is always possible. Flood the mix with carbon monoxide and just make sure you’ve got a mask on. “

19:16

“I know you know how to fly so you don’t need to worry about keeping the pilots alive”

"this could work, but doesent carbon monoxide take awhile?"

"Concentrations above 200 PPM can cause death within fifteen minutes. This wouldn't be a gradual trickle of monoxide into the air system. You'd be in essence sabotaging life support and flooding the ship with it. These are six hours of clean air each, more than enough for you to get the ship to the ground to vent it"

20:08

"And no mess to clean up either, all you'd need to worry about is body disposal - and even then, you're floating in the universes biggest trash can" (edited)

"i suppose i could jettison, wouldn't there be vac suits and 02 tanks scattered around these ships, i suppose ill have to hide them somewhere, then again carbon monoxide poisoning is tasteless and the human body will just fall asleep"

"You could always wait until they are sleeping, as well. You'd only have to deal with those on watch overnight"

“That’s just one option though. You’re going to be on this ship when you do whatever it is you’re planning on doing , at least until you can make it to a lifeboat. “

"your idea is probably the cleanest and easiest to do, but ill keep an eye on other areas"

"That's the best I got, along with a holdout pistol. I think you take all this stuff and we forget we talked"

"agreed, ill contact you later when the job is done, might be awhile, depends how fast i clean up the grime" mr lloyd gives him a nod and walks away

(so we have an atmofilter, 3 vac freshers, and a revolver that you can stow on your person)

(excellent)

Lloyd walks away from the meeting with the supplies he just bought.

05:55

(Would you be going right back to the ship?)

(yes)

The three technicians are still working on a few last minute repairs when you come back, too involved in their own problems and trying to get off the clock so they can get some rest to pay you much attention

alright, ill just go past them and head to the crew quaters

(anything else you wanted to do before morning when people arrive?|)

(check on the o2 life support)

The life support is on standby right now. You’re docked on the surface of Jagrati where there is air and ample cleaning for it, so it doesn’t need to be run right now. No one else aside from the techs here and likely the flight crew along soon will be here.

i'd like to take a closer look, just want to inspect what can be done to unfix the o2, any weakpoints? any design oversight? anything like that

(It would help me figure out what you’re doing and saying if the post format was followed, if you can start I’d really appreciate it) The life support system is robust and has been through several hundred years of design changes until it’s reached the perfect mechanical state it’s in today. There’s an access panel to change the air mix but it looks like the captains key is needed to change any of the settings on it.

(well we have something to look for, from the map given, there is no captain quarters, so that means he stays in the executive suite or stays with the plebs in the crew quarters or the guest quarters but i think they might be filled)

16:18

Mr lloyd will retire to the crew quarters, and will wait/sleep until the morning as it seems there are only a small number of techs in the yacht

A small bell chimes at 0600AM the following morning for first watch, as your guests are set to arrive. The captain and co-pilot are first, with the chief engineer. They nod to you as they climb aboard, passing over into the crew bunk where they set their gear down. From there, the captain and pilot head into the cockpit to begin checks, while the engineer disembarks to begin walking around the ship outside, visually inspecting the work that was done last night.

Everything seems in order, though he seems the type to clearly be mentally checked out of his work, and the inspection is probably only cursory. He begins climbing aboard