Rbz25: Security Theater
General Summary
After making good their escape from the Oathkeepers pirates, the crew return to Elysium to return the relic to the refugees fleeing the Orange-Green Nebula.
They land their badly damaged ship at the Elysium spaceport uneventfully to be greeted by a deluge of paperwork. Bennesh decides to with one of the spaceport clerks to try to cut through some of the red tape. The clerk leaves him at a side room in the customs area. Already impatient, Bennesh fumes at the bureacratic inefficiency when he overhears a commotion outside. He moves to find out what happened when he realizes the door has been locked from the outside! But through the small window at the door, he could see that several of the customs staff are arguing with an irate official in military gear -- a soldier from his build and demeanor, and one from The Legion if Bennesh recalls correctly!
Bennesh panicks for a moment before regaining his senses. He starts searching for a second way out but there was only the one doorway, and it was locked! But by chance, he reaches under the table and finds a set of maintenance keys taped to the underside. What was this doing here? It seemed almost placed here by an insider -- perhaps one of the friends he and Reinhard made with the dockhands.
Nevermind who it was. Bennesh's eyes darted around the room before settling on a maintenance panel in the ceiling at one corner of the room. The commotion outside growing louding, he quickly climb some cabinets to reach the opening. The maintenance key fits perfectly and the panel opens into the cramped, dark interior of the maintenance shafts. He hesitated for a moment before swallowing his pride and plunged head first into the tunnel, pulling up and closing the panel behind him moments before the soldier burst angrily through the door of the room. He didn't bother staying for the ensuing tirade, but he could hear the soldier's angry shouts echo through the tunnel as he crept away.
Meanwhile, Reinhard came down to talk with an officious looking customs officer and one of the dockmasters under the shadows of the Rubezahl. He recognized several of the dockhands as they scurried about with their equipment. But every time he tried to greet or even make eye contact with him, they turned away and gave him the cold shoulder. Instead, the dockmaster explained, under the scrutinizing eye of the customs official, that while they could start refueling procedured, repairs were being held up, waiting for regulatory clearance. Reinhard tried to press his brand of colleagial charm with the dockmaster, but the latter only backed away apologetically. Overhearing this awkward conversation, Saskia goes on full alert. Sneaking down from the ships's boarding ramp, she manages to make out the camo patterns of several Legion soldiers in the distance, presumably with their weapons at the ready. Deciding to take the initiative, she sneaks away from the ship behind a fuel trailer and into one of the adjourning warehouses. She peruses through the shelves and crates, helping herself to a few choice mechanical parts that they had broken at the Battle of Rampart. Just as she returns to the ship, Reinhard also starts to realize something was wrong and the two retrieve Quinn from the gardened engine room of the ship to concoct a plan.
Crawling around the dusty, whirling ventilators and blinking, beeping computation servers, Bennesh manages to find an airvent positioned above one of the concourses with a view of the Rubezahl. He pulls out his hand terminal and finally is able to contact the ship with sight-line comms. He finds the rest of the crew were already formulating a plan, and he was in just the right place to put the finishing touches on it. Elysium experiences occasional blooms of spore clouds that causes everything to ground to a halt. Places like spaceports are especially sensitive and have several sensors that will set off an alarm if spore clouds are detected. Reinhard's helpful dockhands manage to spike several rooftop sensors with spores, and Bennesh sets off additional alerts by hacking the servers in the maintenance area. Chimes begin sounding as an automated message begins to broadcast on repeat: Attention all travellers. High concentration of spore cloud activity has been detected in the local area. Please return and remain in the main terminal or designated shelter areas until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation. As if on cue, the workers around the Rubezahl and cloaked Legion soldiers in the airfield begin to trudge back inside. And soon thereafter, the docking bay doors begin to slide close...
"Benesh can take care of himself." -- Quinn
Meanwhile, Reinhard came down to talk with an officious looking customs officer and one of the dockmasters under the shadows of the Rubezahl. He recognized several of the dockhands as they scurried about with their equipment. But every time he tried to greet or even make eye contact with him, they turned away and gave him the cold shoulder. Instead, the dockmaster explained, under the scrutinizing eye of the customs official, that while they could start refueling procedured, repairs were being held up, waiting for regulatory clearance. Reinhard tried to press his brand of colleagial charm with the dockmaster, but the latter only backed away apologetically. Overhearing this awkward conversation, Saskia goes on full alert. Sneaking down from the ships's boarding ramp, she manages to make out the camo patterns of several Legion soldiers in the distance, presumably with their weapons at the ready. Deciding to take the initiative, she sneaks away from the ship behind a fuel trailer and into one of the adjourning warehouses. She peruses through the shelves and crates, helping herself to a few choice mechanical parts that they had broken at the Battle of Rampart. Just as she returns to the ship, Reinhard also starts to realize something was wrong and the two retrieve Quinn from the gardened engine room of the ship to concoct a plan.
Crawling around the dusty, whirling ventilators and blinking, beeping computation servers, Bennesh manages to find an airvent positioned above one of the concourses with a view of the Rubezahl. He pulls out his hand terminal and finally is able to contact the ship with sight-line comms. He finds the rest of the crew were already formulating a plan, and he was in just the right place to put the finishing touches on it. Elysium experiences occasional blooms of spore clouds that causes everything to ground to a halt. Places like spaceports are especially sensitive and have several sensors that will set off an alarm if spore clouds are detected. Reinhard's helpful dockhands manage to spike several rooftop sensors with spores, and Bennesh sets off additional alerts by hacking the servers in the maintenance area. Chimes begin sounding as an automated message begins to broadcast on repeat: Attention all travellers. High concentration of spore cloud activity has been detected in the local area. Please return and remain in the main terminal or designated shelter areas until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation. As if on cue, the workers around the Rubezahl and cloaked Legion soldiers in the airfield begin to trudge back inside. And soon thereafter, the docking bay doors begin to slide close...
"Benesh can take care of himself." -- Quinn
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