IC: Striding the Soul's Edge Options

[Fenris]

The door creaks open with the quiet hiss of a slight pressure change. The interior is silent, and the corridor deserted. Heading down to the engine room, you pass half a dozen passed out crew members, slumped against doors and in hallways where they might have been caught running when the gas hit.

The engine room is full of bodies, almost a full dozen members of the civilian crew passed out over instrument panels and on the floor.

[BishopMcQ]

The moment of decisions...

Activating the comms, Alright, time for the big family talk. Is the crew going to make it until dawn? Loki is starting to move them to the hold, but there may be too many. I've got over a dozen bodies around me between the engine room and the hallway.

"Diesel secure the stations and start clearing out some of these bodies, we need them out of here."

[Fenris]

The aforementioned mage troops by, grinning madly as a small raccoon frolicks on a caravan of half a dozen floating bodies following him.

[Buddha72]

Iblis pushes a body out of the way, looking slightly irritated. Tapping into the comm system as she looks around the bridge. I'm all for more nuyen but I think we should keep the body count low. Whoever owned this tub is going to pissed off enough as is.

[Joker9125]

"Aight boss" Dieselsays with a half grin

Diesel double checks to saftey to be sure its off then goes through and checks every station before beginning to take out the trash.

[Fenris]

All in all, the crew count appears to be around 120 souls. The command crew appears to be limited to the bridge section. Working quickly, the team manages to gather almost 60 of the crew together in the hold before the first members start to groggily shake themselves awake.

[BishopMcQ]

"Ladies, I've got movement down here. Lock the doors and turn the lights off. Let's give the show that no one's home."

Jake thrusts his senses forcefully into the astral plane to make up for the sudden blackness that over takes the interior of the ship.

"Anyone know how to say 'Surrender and we won't kill you'?"

Time to get to work and earn his keep.

воевать и вы стопа не будете поврежены

[Buddha72]

Iblis carries out the orders given and waits to see what happens next. She quickly pulls up the bio-readings for each team member.

[Medesha]

Steel helps with the shuffling of bodies and locking of doors. She seems jittery, moving with quick little movements. Occasionally she winces as one of her wounds ache.

[WinterRat1]

Nameless continues his walk of the ship, keeping to the shadows and looking for any crew members the team might have missed.

[BishopMcQ]

Crouching low with sword drawn and shield forward, Jake begins to creep down the hallway. His ears are open to the slightest sound that may signal trouble raining down upon him from the Seven Hells, the battle shaman peers slowly around the corner to check for movement. He knows that behind him a large troll with a chain and LMG stands ready to mow down any resistance that tries to sneak up on them.

[Fenris]

Both groups moving through the ship find several small clusters of crewmen in areas not locked down by the Master code for whatever reason, but the sight of the crew, obviously armed and armored, quickly disuades whatever hesitant thought of resistance might have been put forward by the minimally compensated ship workers. Several hours later, the only section yet to be cleared is the bridge, the rest of the crew is locked securely in the hold.

[BishopMcQ]

"Fuzzy Bunny I need you to patch my comm signal into the main PA system, it's time to meet the natives. While she does that, I need my ghost and flower to bring our driver up. Big Guy you're with me, we've got to find where I left a body."

Jake moves through the hallways carefully, still unsure if every sailor has been locked down. Now where was the mage's room again?

[Fenris]

Jake
The mage's body lay slumped near the door, one hand stretched out as if to open it, face frozen in a scream.

Iblis
Patching into the PA system is easy enough to do with the Master Security Code.

[BishopMcQ]

"Cover me."

Jake passes his astral gaze over the body and into the room taking in any information he can about astral signatures and presences. This has to have some kind of storage space for his research and knowledge, as well as, summoning circles, perhaps even a couple choice foci.

[Fenris]

The room hums in the astral with the recent signatures of a fairly high force spell and spirit. The mage himself is wearing several small figurines carved from bone and an odd necklace of unburned op-chips. A footlocker near his bed reveals a collection of summoning materials, as well as a smaller lockbox.

[Buddha72]

"You're on the air caller." Iblis marvels at view from the bridge. She takes a moment and double checks all the security lock outs are still in place.

[BishopMcQ]

Jake kneels down and carefully picks up the foci and fetishes before moving to the summoning library. He glances at the powerful magical residue that could have easily smeared his astral form across the ship if he hadn't been ready for it.

"Thanks, love."

Over the ships comms.

"This ship is now under the control of independent contractors. Work with us and you will live. Resist and all of you will die. Please have the highest ranking crew member who speaks English call in to negotiate."

[Fenris]

After a few moments, a heavily accented voice crackles over the internal comm systems.

"My name is Geoff. We understand your statement, what do you want from us?"

[BishopMcQ]

Letting out a slow breath, at least one of them speaks English, Jake switches comm frequencies to his private channel with Iblis.

"Ib, I need you to localize where our caller is and create a path of open doors for him to come out to the main deck. Airlock it so he has to close each door for the next one to open."

Toggling the comm back to the public line,
"Geoff, I'm going to have you come out to the main deck. Leave everyone else where they are. We'll discuss what you need to do there."

The well-muscled Italian turns to his eight foot shadow.
"Diesel have Loki sweep the ship for stragglers and then meet us on deck. I'll need him to watch our negotiator's mood astrally while we talk."

With a brief stop at the bridge to drop off the magical gear and check on his favorite ladies, Jake and Diesel go down to the main deck and wait for the Russian to work his way through the ship one door at a time.

[Buddha72]

"You got it boss." Iblis quickly moves through the system and isolates the needed locks. With a quick but sweet line of code the system is set up as requested.

[Fenris]

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, an older man stumbles out into the main deck, glancing around fearfully. He appears human, probably 40-50 years of age. He carries no obvious weapons, and is wearing a navy blue, button downed jacket, probably heavy enough to ward off the chill in the ocean air at 3AM. He tucks his hands in his coat pockets and glances around.

[BishopMcQ]

"Good Morning. I apologize for any inconvenience we have caused the crew so far. What I require of you is simple, identify the command crew of this vessel and tell me how many men you will need to prepare the life rafts. The command crew will be the last to leave the ship, their lives will be held as collatoral for the crew's cooperation. Each crew member will leave any wallet, watch or form of personal identification such as credstick in the ruck sack we designate. They will then load into the life rafts and launch. Once all the crew is away, the command staff will be allowed to do the same."

Jake rests his hand on the pommel of his sword, looking over his shoulder at the looming troll with a rocket launcher over one shoulder and an MMG in hand. Moving in the shadows on the upper decks, visible to the cold Russian, Steel's coat billows out in the brisk wind clearly demonstrating the twin katanas as she crosses paths with Nameless toting an SMG.

"Are there any questions?"

[Fenris]

The man stammers, "I..I..I am the first mate of this vessel. I will do as you ask, but tell me, how many of our crew are you keeping behind to run this vessel? It takes over 100 men to run this full time, surely you are not planning to do it with just..." he seems to struggle for a word for a moment, and then just gestures at the what group members he can see.

[BishopMcQ]

"We'll keep a minimum crew of hand picked men. The more capable they are, the more of your crew you can see safely off of here immediately."

Shifting over to the radio,

"Fuzzy-Bunny check with our driver to see what his minimum requirement is for able hands.