Hi,

my runners are asked with Don Guillaume Bonaparte to help him meet face to face with the people responsible from providing XXXXX in Paris. In order to do so the players are supposed to assault and kidnap a major drug dealer while he is in Monaco for the Grand Tour. The dealer is having trouble with journalist so he is spending all his time in his yacht that is anchored a few miles away from the port.

I manage to get floormap of the yacht on the internet but I am wondering about what kind of defense system they would encounter. I am fairly certain at last half a dozen security team, perhaps 15+ crewmen with cooks and servant. And a high quality security detachment (cybered sams, one spider, one combat mage). It is major opposition and they will have to be creative.

The trouble is : could they manage to do it past this kind of security on such a small and isolated target ? I suppose the mage will have Watchers checking out and possibly a Water Elemental guarding around the boat.

How could they manage to sneak past the magical protection undetected ? I feel they need to get the surprise if they want to be able to push this one out. trying the pink mohawk would probably result in a failure at very best.

Well, i am planning for my group a possible assault on a superfreighter... so

I figured that there are less technicians needed. More robots. But at least one security-rigger on board, and maybe possible spiders can get in through the satelite uplink. Against pirates and awakened monsters there should be turrests. Loaded up with a nonlethal "Pain-Ray" and a grenade launcher with free-chosen ammo (At least: Teargas, Fragmentation, Anti-vehicle and some depths-charges). For my supertanke i thought about 4 of those turrets, for a yacht maybe 2.

If he is rich and/or paranoid at least one mage and patrolling spirits, but not in the waters around, except he is paranoid and anchored the ship for a while (like your dude has).

At least one complete security-team. (On my supertanker there will be two teams of 7 half-elite, one of which is a combat mage, and depending on what they transport more people).

If the ship is modern it might have rail-drones and integrated mage-goggle support in all major hallways.

Then some stewards, captain, engineer (two assistants) and a cook. (Or more... if he lives like a king). And don't forget the sunoil-boy *g*

EDIT: Hm.. and to sneak aboard: VERY hard... first going in astral, trying to coerce the mage astral and kick his ass? Then hacking attack and then physical intrusion? But if anyone hits the big red button.. it's problematic. Best approach: Legwork, blackmail etc.

Do they have to take the drug dealer without his security team noticing, or is fighting past them an option?

As for infiltrating the yacht, my approach would be to check who is entering and leaving the yacht at regular intervals. They are bound to resupply sometime, and maybe the drug dealer needs some entertainment/company, so he has "entertainers" brought in. Either way, I would attempt to impersonate one of those groups, and slip on board undetected. My next approach would be to check out security onboard, get to know the other workers (if part of the supply crew), or befriend the boss (if part of the "entertainment". Now, depending upon the security, I would attempt to create a diversion: poisoning the food supply to give most of the personnel some degree of food poisoning (the mage and spider more than anyone else ), or trigger the fire alarm etc. During the evacuation, swap the drug dealer with a body double (nanite paste works wonders), and get away inconspicuosly (a friendly Doc Wagon contact or a stolen Doc Wagon vehicle). That's how I would go about this.

Hm, yes... i think that is the most clever... Maybe you could also steal a ship of some officials. Coast-guard or something, and do an "inspection". And then switch out the Boss. But this just produces further problems *g*

You guys are seriously overdoing your security for these kind of targets. VLCC's (that super tankers for all you outthere) have a complement of approx 20-30 crew. Crew is unarmed nowadays, but in SR and with extra-territoriality I imagine they got low skill and perhaps a carbine or cheap smg. When passing the Gulf of Aden (pirate infested waters) they take a number of security measures, only involving 2-5 low-grade security personel (bigger group for really high-value target, imagine groups of 8 former Israeli special forces), increased watch keeping, increased speed, barbed wire along the railing, trailing flexible lines across the hull (to get caught in pirates'propellers), safe rooms (crew hides, marines roll in guns blazing), panic button (to warn authorities and shut down ships engines - good luck getting it back to operate).

Now for luxury yachts... they usually have a crew of 3-8, A captain, main engineer, deckhand/cook with more deck hands and a bosun from thereon. Feel free to arm them in case of emergency for SR-purposes (think AK carbine or sidearm). Supplement with a security team consisting of a rigger, a mage/shaman (with water spirits on hand) and the standard group of the dealers bodyguards. Mage deals with all things magical. Security rigger uses two pop-up (mini?) turrets with a mmg or hmg. Imagine high sensors etc to make it difficult to approach the target, but once onboard they should have fairly easy acces all around. Also make sure there is a safe room with panic button allowing for a FRT to join in the fray .

They could fight past security but they have to deliver him to the Don, he specifically tell them that he just want to have a discussion head to head with the dealer (he sound a bit aggresive but he is the Don), he dont want him killed and he kept things on the vague about mistreatment.

They have some face-girls that wouldn't mind playing entertainment (heck, even the Elven Lynx-Chaman like to appear naked on tv shows (usually after she discover the studio got a magical bareer while in lynx-form)).... so this would probably be the approach chosen...

Except the other part of the team like to go in gun blazing at the same time...

Social infiltration is likely the best bet.

Or just sink the ship and go fishing.

Bye
Thanee

A basic luxury yacht is not a military vessel but I can imagine some anti-wildlife systems and equipment to repel boarders.

Crew? 1-5 as some of them might very well pull double duty in different areas as their individual duties might not be a full time job. I can imagine two people with a control rig to handle instructions to the ship drones when needed but there won’t be a 24 hour rigger jacked in.

Unless you are a minor Arabian oil sheik or similar level of richness.

For defenses I can imagine a rail system going around the entire hull with one medium front and aft railmounted drone so both drones can assist each other if problems arise.

Underwater mounted “Pop-Down” turret against possible underwater threats

Possible armament on ship and/or drones?

Anti-Theft – Electro Shock Hull modification against those giant squids and suchlike.
Drone Mounted Flashflood water cannons (ammo aplenty)
Sonic Rifle & Pain Ray for underwater turret (Dual gun assembly)

Crew armament?
Pistols/SMG’s/Shotguns, most likely under lock and key by the captain

Here is the Yacht I would be using :

http://www.mirabellayachts.com/floorplan/enlarge.php

Still think that a 5 man crew is enough ?

And the guy is a major player in drug dealing security will be very decent and well armed. I think that some AAA batteries or even a SAM missile could be in order in the dotation. Railmounted drone would be nice too.

Yes. You might also want to add the rigger and mage perhaps a day before the subject arrives. Basically you want to save on personell costs until you really need the high-level security.

I like the underwater turret idea. Also an increasing trend is to have Luxury yachts support vessels nearby with all the nice toys these guys play around with and for example a FRT. I would focus on defensive measures like a phalanx or goalkeeper (=sentry hun) system. Electric shock systems work wonders too. For underwater security you might consider sound-based security systems which were used to repel divers in ports around Southern America (yes, drug cartels do weld torpedoes filled with narcotics below merchant vessels). The closer you get, the more annoying the beep in your ear ebcomes (until you loose your hearing). Unfortunately such systems were 'forbidden' by local authorities...

IKerensky, can you give a description on the characters your players are playing? Might help a bit to determine their options for the extraction.

There are currently : A Troll Ex-Legionnaire Heavy Weapon specialist (MMG and GL), an Ex-Spetnatz heavily cybered and specialist of Demolition and Assault rifle, an Elf Street Chaman of Lynx (GeMiTo) (girl), an Elf Gun-Bunny-Face Adept (girl) and a human Special Infiltration Adept (with a colt deputy oO).

They probably could be joined by a Human Hacker-Face, a Dwarf Rigger (boating smuggler) and a Troll Enforcer (Mafia goon).

They can probably call on favor from Don Guillaume for backup support or tools but not so many.

Some quick research shows that a superyacht of that size has more crew than it can accomodate guests. Some examples I found actually listed numbers: 12 guests, 16 crew on a 60x10m yacht, for example. About that size seems fitting for the above as well.

Some more examples:

Anastasia
Princess Marina

Bye
Thanee

Perhaps one could count 50/50 crew/guests in 2070 then due to drones and automation. Add 50% of crew into various drones and/or automatic systems.

...and that's without security.

Bye
Thanee

Get aboard with the grocery delivery. His security team isn't going to be eating the caviar and foie gras that their patron is, so a grocery run is pretty well required to restock the boat if it's there for any length of time. Your team intercepts the boat, takes the delivery people's place and states that due to the event their drones are tied up on other deliveries and they warranted a personal crew of contractors - paid for by the grocery store, of course. The lovelies draw off the initial guards, and they can knock out power to the ship to dump the spider/Captain Stubing, and your mage can shut down theirs - if he doesn't have an 'accident' while the team is unloading the food. It may be the only time the banana peel gag is effective.

The mage is going to know something's up when a spirit's disrupted, so the chief alternative is to look like you belong there. Smuggle in composite guns, keep the guys with the chem sniffers busy with the lovelies, CS grenades with the six-packs of Aztek-Cola, DMSO/Gamma in the spray bottle for the produce, chloroform-soaked rags in sealed bags in a pocket - and take whatever you need from the guards as they go down. It's going to be a little pink-mohawk, but this version sells well.

Guy's a drug dealer, eh?

All those nice combat drugs...

How about using one of those HERF gun things. Aren't they a directional EMP?

Or your Hacker could go for nuking the entire ship's matrix environment. That should take down the security rigger and stop the guards from coordinating any defense. Heck, use Black Hammer on the spider, and he can't even warn anyone.

Remember that many who work in the drug cartels, especially in the upper echelons, tend to use their own products. Drug use leads to addiction leads to burnout. Any mage in thier employ would be just as subject to this as anyone else. If there is a security mage, feeb him up some by lowering his essence and giving him a severe addiction.

I'd think that HERFs are a little big for what they want to do. Could just do it the cheap way and get a multi-band tranciever shouting garbage over all the lines and slap an egg timer on it.

Sink the boat.

Have a water spirit grab the guy, engulf him, and carry him out.





-karma

Although remember that some of that crew will be replaced by maintenance drones.

All the house keeping functions will be drone based. The galley will probably be 1 chef, with 2-3 drone appliance assistants.

It's more likely that the whole ship is run by a R5 Pilot program, than actually paying for a Human navigator.
they might have a OnStar! system were a rigger with pilot(water craft) can remote in and take over if need be. (There's a sat uplink so that the ship is never out of range)

The 'real crew'
is probably a chef, a personal assistant, a mechanic, and maybe 2-3 security detail.

Then you have the guy, a bunch of novahot girls, and maybe a guest or two.

Plan B! I missed you!

You should do all the plans at once. Attack from air, submarine, surface, have the face on the boat undercover, pretend to be the cops, and call in his enemies to help. Classic.

Somehow, this reminds me of Smokin' Aces...

This part should help, but make sure you pick someone who hates his guts and not one who wants leverage, no good getting backstabbed in the middle of the run.

I just thought also that a lot of the crew will be catherer/servants/entertainer that are hired from the city and probably doesnt lodge full-time on board.

I dont feel like sinking the boat would be a solution, the guy is a bit upset and his security are on alert against journalist/paparazzo intruder so I guess sonar/radar/magic will be up ready to scan any incomers.

Submarine. Torpedo. Silence spell = sonar invisible.







-karma

Then your big option is to look like you belong there. If a lot of the crew are non-combatants, the grocery scam may be the way to go. Use non-lethal ammo and knock out the power, and you could hustle him out after putting their mage and spider to sleep.

Hum,

I bet the Mages will maintain Water Spirit on guard around the boat 24/24 will only seems logical, and probably ward the whole boat/private areas.

Silence Spell will definitely dont make you invisible from Sonar, if will show you as an incoming blank spot on active Sonar.

Oh, noes, an incoming blank spot in an ocean of blank spots.

Sonar works by interpreting a return echo bouncing off incoming objects.

If there's no object, there's no return echo.

If an object is cloaked in Silence, there's also no return echo.

It'll look just like the rest of the ocean.

It's not like looking at someone in the water using your eyes, who has Invisibility up. In that case, you can see a "hole" in the water because light is interacting with the water around him and you can see that.

With sonar, there's no return signal at all. No sound-reflective medium around him to "look" at to see a hole.


-karma

Active Sonar work on return, Passive Sonar work on sound produced.

As amazingly as it can be when you send a ping with an active sonar in a direction you got a return... that is called the ocean bottom or the coast or even the thermocline (more usual in GIUK than in med).

We are speaking here of a boat docked in shallow mediteranean waters near a coast. Not of middle atlantic high depth submarine hunt. suddenly not getting return from coast, other ships will permit the Spider to notice something is wrong.

Silence spell will provide a malus to the detection of the sonar it is not a 100% sure thing. Especially as it is an AREA spell... not very good at hiding a moving submarine and a fast moving torpedo.

Spirit's still gonna spot it. He's probably been told to report anything bigger than a barracuda, and deter anything human-sized and up.

Hm. Good points.

So you'd have to make sure you were approaching from a vector where the target is unlikely to be receiving a return signal from the background. Much like approaching a target while making sure you're not being silhouetted by a light source.

Also, remember the ranges torpedoes have and how fast they move. Will a spirit be able to even move before it hits? How about stopping a half dozen at once?



-karma

Im pretty sure you could create a silence spell that works on a single object.

sink the boat like a rock.
3 torpedoes, and launchers; 15,000

task a water elemental with keeping the mark alive.
Force 6 water elemental 0
headache powder 3


scoop him up after the boat is on the ocean floor.
tranq patch 20
rescue pole 60

having the marlin you caught while the run was going down, be more dangerous that the run.
priceless!

water elementals are fallible too...

I like this idea. Possibly after getting 'enteertainers' on board other team mates could cause a disruption as paparazzi, 'save me mr.'
Just hope it does not comeo ff like 'Smokin' Aces'

"It was this big, I'm telling you the truth! Huh? Oh, the guy? Yeah, we got him, no problem. Anyway, This marlin..."

Oddly enough, I'm imagining a good bluff. Maybe have a hacker get in on his comm, and feed him a line of BS how you have men on the boat, all the Don wants is to talk, otherwise this conversation wouldn't even be going on...

If he's paranoid, as mentioned, he might either buy the BS or make a mistake of some sort. Or just ramp up security. Still, a different angle.

The more your run resembles Smokin' Aces, the more fun you should be having.

If someone hasn't sat on a chainsaw, the run aint over.

Go full on James Bond and parachute in. That seems the most stylish way to do it.

OOh I like that.

You get your street sam in the water with a long range sniper rifle.
You have a water spirit protect him.

The Hacker dials up the commlink and says. "Good evening.. Don Guillaume wishes to speak with you"

The street sam pulls the trigger, blowing up the head of the arm candy on the dealer's arm.

"He is quite insistant."

You've just proven he could be dead, and all his protection means nothing.

You have a rigger remote controlled small watercraft come up to the boat and wait for him.

"Please board the boat"

You will be hanging in the air like a pinata

At night it's almost impossible to see a parachuting person camouflaged against the night sky unless it's a full moon. Plus people rarely think three dimensionally and look straight up. It's a practice they harped in urban combat all the time is to scan upper floors and roof lines and people still have to work hard at it and consciously remember to do it.

Not saying it's a good idea as it was mostly a joke, however, it's not as cut and dry as you make it out to be seen. Yeah, sure, if you jump in the middle of the day, you're a pretty fat target. But in the middle of the night on a low moon illumination night with some good thermal dampeners or some magical masking, and you'd be on the deck before anyone saw you coming.

The real challenge is actually landing on the deck of the boat and not missing and ending up in the water.

But that's why the undercover face, water, underwater, etc. attacks are distracting them.

Up is always the best place to hide. As a climber I get to pull this trick on people allot.

How big a yacht are we talking?

Cos if it's not TOO big, get a heavy-lift helicopter, some gecko-tipped grappling hooks, and just take the whole boat.




-karma

Hope it's a bullet-proof whirlybird. Drug dealers that can afford a yacht tend to pack something a bit heavier than the guy on the corner going, "Smoke, Smoke?"

Hell, how much set-up time/resources do you have?

Modify a larger ship so the bow is armored and splits open, and have it envelop the yacht. Sail away.





-karma

Screw that build a sub that can do that from above and up front steal lots of shipping and become a james bond esque villan.

A submarine that can envelop ships from *above* would indeed be quite a feat. ;D