"Since we'll be approaching from astern of the vessel. I would suggest that we perform our boarding action there, also the superstructure will conceal us from the majority of the deck and since the funnel is immediately behind it it will block sight from the pilot house too. From the size of the crane located amidships I'm guessing that it would be noticed instantly if it was activated."

Definate point, alright, so we're closing on the aft of the ship, launch or throw boarding hooks and scramble up. Major magic is going to have to be last or second to last up the ropes so the boat doesnt lose speed, or should we let the speed boat keep up?

"Admitedly it wouldn't be very sneaky but couldn't Sigurd just banish the spirit. Slowing from 200 to 20 will get their attention but it might knock them around enough to make up the difference."

Not even waiting for a reply Englishman poses another question. "You know, as long as there isn't some kind of 'alarm' spell or a ward on the crate we might be able to just grab it, load it on the life boat, and blow some really big holes in the ship before anyone notices we're there." He looks around at the others expectingly. "So, can we do it?"

"Based on the data we have on the opposing team I would suggest that its very likely this will not be possible. It would perhaps be possible if we knew more information on where abouts the package was located and the security measures surrounding it, but searching this ship stealthily... by all means try to stay stealth for as long as possible but we should plan for being spotted"

Absynth looks at the schematics in front of him and tries to find an area of the ship that he would store the cargo, somewhere with many doors to open or hard to access, even somewhere that the ships internal security system is strongest if he can see any evidence of one on the plans.

"I have to agree with Absynth, if we mess with the crate, or bannish the spirit they are going to know about it, and thats assuming we can bannish the spirit." Wolfgar said nodding his head. "Alright, how about this, we come up from the aft of the ship using the crane to hide us from the wheelhouse. We then sweep forward stealthily," he says gesturing to Absynth, "and use speed shock and surprise to take out whomever we have to. We have three hull breachers, so if push comes to shove we place on aft, one forward and one midline beneath the water line and blow them, taking out the guards as they surface with the crate."

"So your suggesting that we attempt to sink the ship to encourage the crew and the guards to bring the crate up on deck? just clarify this for me please"

"Not initially no, but that is part of the plan, once we take out the crew or at least the mage guards, i have the charges to put in below the water line to sink her and in doing that remove all the evidence that we were there." Highlighting sections of the diagram that is under the water line and on the external bulkheads Wolfgar continues, "The charges can be stuck on the external bulkhead at these three places flooding the ship fairly evenly and sinking her quickly. Me and two others will take and the charges and if any of us go down the others now know where to put them and can take over. I'll leave the detonator with the captain so none of us die with it making us unable to detonate as well as giving everyone reason to get the frag off the boat."

"I'm proposing two different ideas, one is go the sneaky we-were-never-there approch, the other is the direct throw-everyone-onboard-into-the-nearest-wall-at-150-200kn approch." He sets up a simple simulation of the ship with wireframe people in it being tossed at said speed. "Of course the sneak-in-kill-everyone-loot-the-corpses-blow-the-place-up method is always a good standby. Is there anything a spirit summoned by us could do to mess with the ship, like envelop it in a giant vacuum and knock out anyone without an air tank?"

The orc pauses for a moment considering something. "By the way, what happens to the spirit adding that 150-200kn to the ship's speed when we kill the mage that summoned it?."

"If they are using a leviathan great spirit and if my memory serves me correctly, they have the ability to also hide things. Kind of a magical shell game mixed with just all out messing with your perceptions." Wolfgar replied answering the questions. "Once we kill or even knock out the mage that is controlling the spirit, the boats gonna stop going that fast and slow down big time. Now what happens after that depends on what the mage has the spirit ordered to do. If he is in good with the spirit and has asked it to defend him at all costs, we're screwed. But i have yet to see one of these types ever really think that far forward and secondly, these types are never that friendly with their spirits."

"Now another thing that could happen," Wolfgar continues. "Is that we attack the mage and he calls in the spirit to hide the crate, himself and his team, or attack us. If that happens the ship also slows down to normal speed, the spirit can only really concentrate on one thing at a time. Now, if we go in all quiet like, take out the mage first we can then go all helter skelter on the rest of them because it will have neutralized the spirit as well. The problem there is that we do have to get on quietly, if we go on all hell bent for leather and loud, the spirit can be called upon to add to their defenses."

You chat through plans until you come up with some solid ideas, then head to cabins to rest for a while, or onto deck for spray and fresh air.

You're about four hours out from port when a message comes over the comms.

"This is the Captain, if you could all gather in the briefing room there's something you should see."

Doc Bones gets roused by the incoming message. He yawns. scratches his head and grabs his backpack with the first aid gear before he makes his way into the briefing room.

Absynth finishes getting his gear ready for action, grabs his sidearm and heads for the briefing room. We can't have caught up to the other ship yet I wonder what it is

This better be important Englishman thinks as he tinkers with some gaget. He pats his holster to make sure his pistol is there and heads back to the briefing room.

Grabbing his gear Wolfgar hot foots it back to the meeting room to wait for the others.

Once you all arrive, the captain starts to speak, "Our target seems to have stopped, dead in the water, we should be on her in about twenty minutes. I thought you would like to know, we have no sign of any other craft near her, and no sign of why she has stopped."

"Would you be capable of detecting a submerged vessel at that range captain?"

Absynth pulls up the charts for the area that the vessel has stopped in looking for anything unusual.

assuming the mage is present:
"Do you know if there is anything magically significant about that place they have stopped in?"

"Probably not," says the captain, "but it seems an odd place to be stopping. Way to much chop out there for loading if you got any sense."

"They probably plan to use magic to stabalize as they cross load. Drek, speed boat in 5 minutes use it to get close and then all out assault. Gods i hate that operations order, i've used it or something similar to often."

Englishman says to the captain "You have a sat link I can use from here?"

Without waiting for a response he starts looking for one via AR.

The captain nods and send Englishman a comm code for the satlink.

He subscribes to the satlink and starts running a scan for the other ship's network.

Sigurd enters the cabin slightly late. "Sorry about the delay, had to settle in the elf. If there's something magically significant out here, I wouldn't know. I could check out the area from a distance though, if people think it's likely to be that. It's a bit far out for most magical sites though, no people, so no imprinted mana. Considering loading, any water spirit capable of moving them that fast could likely keep the boat stable as the earth for moving goods." Sigurd moves to a seat with a back, and sits down.

"Well you missed the news." Wolfgar says as Sigurd sits down. "Our target has stopped and we'll be in range in about 15 more minutes, grab whatever gear you need and be ready to rock and roll." Thinking for a minute Wolfar then asks, "Hey could you tell if another vessel, like a submarine was meeting them there?"

Englishman's search finally shows something up, an empty signal running across the emergency channel.

"Sure, I'll check out the area now. Be back soon" Sigurd slumps back in his chair and his eyes slide closed. This sounds weird. Ah well, time to check things out then.

Sigurd moves through astral space, at first all there is is the bright glow of the life of the sea and the wild almost salty tang to area. Then it change. The wildness becomes more so, a feeling of alien dread begins to pervade Sigurd, he feels his tie to his magic weaken the flow disrupted by the alien force.

"Guys, I have something, one signal on the emergency channel but they aren't actually broadcasting anything, just a lack of static." A couple of horror trids flash through [b]Englishman's[b] mind. "This could be good as in their ship broke down at 200+ knots and they won't be getting it fixed anytime soon, or it could be bad as in something broke their ship down at 200+ knots and we are heading right toward it."

Captain i would suggest we cut your ship's speed and slip up in the boat that was provided by our team mate here. That way we dont possibly endanger your ship with whatever they crossed paths with.

The Captain nods, and as if in response the engines begin to drop in pitch and the ship begins to decelerate.

"Alright people, lets get comms up." Wolfgar says as he sets his to a conference circuit with the others "Six" he sub-vocalizes

"Five" Absynth replies after activating his comms.

Doc Bones activates his commlink and replies. "Four."

With a couple twitches of his hands while still messing with something in AR he links his commlink with the others. "Three." Englishman says inattentively.

He also checks to see if the other node is open or closed. It is probably just as secure as anything else, but it's always worth checking.

Sigurd moves back through the ship to his body, shaking himself off slightly as he comes around. "There's something very odd going on out there, but no sub that I could see. The magic is definitely being twisted by something, although I couldn't tell you what. Oh, conference call." Sigurd grins, "Whatever number I should have said, I was away at the time.", and joins the link.

"Your number 2 magic man." Wolfgar said going through his weapons and chambering a round into each before reholstering.

"Well we won't accomplish anything by standing here. So i'm off to suit up see you all down by the boat in 5 mins." and with that Absynth heads off to get his armour on and load for combat, then heads down to the dock where the boat is moored.

Wolfgar picks up his gear and heads for the door, then realizing that he had no clue where the ship's wet deck was, "Captain, we need guides down to the wet deck, and hopefully we'll be back soon with a bit of extra weight."

Englishman leaves the briefing room to get the rest of his gear. He returns a couple minutes later carrying an assault rifle across his chest with a doberman following behind. An already small backpack is dwarfed on his broad back. "We heading out?"

Seeing Englishman return, Wolfgar responded, "I'm right behind you come on people." and stepped over to where Englishman was to follow him.

Sigurd stands up, briefly touching the small hammer necklace around his neck. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, but the magic's going to be tricky to throw around down there. Not as bad as it could be, but harder. On the plus side, it's harder for them too, since I doubt very much that the middle of the sea is an Aztec site." He then does his coat up fully, and follows the others down.

You board the small smuggling launch, and the tension in each of you slowly rises as the winch lowers you into the water. Once clear of your 'mother ship' the sea is rough, and it takes some work to pilot the vessel over the short distance to your target. However the voyage is both thankfully short and successful. Your boat slides along side the stricken ship and you start to sort out your boarding gear.

Absynth studies the ship as we approach trying to spot if there is anybody or any movement on the ship. (assuming that I don't spot anything)
Ok guys i'm going to fire my grapple over the side, be ready for anyone hearing it or looking over the edge, silencers if you got 'em.
As we arrive under the stern of the target Absynth readies his grapple gun and geko tape gloves and fires the hook over the stern of the ship trying to put as little power behind it as possible to avoid it making too much sound when it lands. Then stop to see if I can hear anyone reacting to the sound it makes when pulled taught.

As Absynth climbs over the side he ducks down scans round and seeing no one,
Ok guys all clear, secure the boat and follow me up.
he then looks for the nearest cover and positions himself there waiting for the rest of the team.

Before boarding the small boat the method of entry finally hit him. Englishman had to leave the drone behind. He instructed it to go back to his cabin and wait for him to return.

Now boarding the large ship he lets the assault rifle, the unsuppressed assault rifle, hang by it's sling as he climbs the grapple rope.

Wolfgar eased over the side and looked around. His normal vision showed nothing, and the background count in the area was fragging the astral up so much that he couldnt make a blasted thing out as he scanned the deck. Putting his smartshades back on he pulled out his pistols and secured his shotgun.

"Everything looks clean, but the astral is so fragged it isnt funny, Six moving forward and right, pistols hot, bring it up by the numbers and lets get this over with, something isnt right here today."

Easing his body along the rail, Wolfgar moved to the right, covering his zone and watching for enemies, and for whatever had caused the ship to stop.

A crashing noise, short and alone echoes from the bowels of the ship.

"Well, that sounded good." Sigurd says, climbing onto the back of the stricken ship. "I really don't like the look of the mana around here, but I should be able to work through it ok."

Absynth looks around and seeing no one,
I'm going to head up to the bridge down the right hand side to see if I can find any indication of what happened to the ship and to get a good vantage point to see the front deck areas. Please cover me.
He then crouches up to the back of the superstructure and starts making his way around to the right and up the external stairs.

Wolfgar nodded, it sounded like as good a plan as any, Roger that five, three and two, accompany him and give him cover. Three, see if you can hack their net and get their security feed and database to tell us whats going on. Four you stay with me, we'll cover our exit point.

It was as cohesive a plan as he could come up with at the moment, and it felt right.