Dr.NES - The DOOM Project: The Sapphire of the Sea

[Dreadnought]

Jarkko: Check to see if you can't find any medical instruments (like scalples), restraints, and such. I have a feeling that the infirmary could have been used for something more sinister.

There seem to be no restraints on the bed, or in the room. There is a scalpel in the room, but it doesn't seem to have been used.

@mod: First I will attempt to see if I can trace from where the security files were deleted. Once that fails or succeeds I will write a short program that will search through all of the employee and passenger entries for me to try to speed up the search through the manifest. The program will search for a few keywords in each entry that might give hints as to who the attackers are. For example through the passenger entries the program will search for Spanish, Portuguese, or French speaking origins as the man we rescued indicated the attacks may have spoken Spanish or another similar language. In the employee section the program will search for any new or disgruntled employees that may be helping the attackers out.

The passenger manifest is quite varied; there are about seventy passengers that speak Spanish fluently, twelve that speak Portuguese, and twenty six that speak French.

You find a variety of employees that speak Spanish; in fact, there's almost a majority that do. There are about two hundred "new" employees; that is, this is their first time working on this cruise ship.

You can go through those individually, or, if you can, provide more detailed search protocols in order to narrow it down a bit more.

@man in infirmary
How did you get free? What is your name? What floor should your daughter be on, and do you have other family or friends on board? If so, what are their names and where should they be? Do you know if any of the attackers remained on the upper decks?

@mod: (Asked in a way to bring comfort to the man and relax him)

"My name? My name is George. My family was on..." he pauses for a moment. "Twelve. Deck twelve. Me, my wife, and my daughter.

"Their names, their names are Alice and Janet. I don't know where they are. I don't know where the attackers are. They went to engineering. I don't know. I don't know..."

 

[Condor_green]

Orders: I'll follow Doc's orders for this round, if I am not given any orders then my orders from last round stand.

 

[Diamondeye]

Gabriel:

I've been assuming that you are informing one another of the events that occur, unless stated otherwise, so act as if you do know

OOC: Me too... Do we have any reason to limit information to some characters?

Ulysses:

@ Gabriel
"Gabriel it would be nice to take a slow approach to this but we don't have time. The sea is freezing around this ship as we speak and, if we don't get to warmer waters soon, our situation and the situation of the hostages will become far worse. Also they may not have been that many hostiles. They were well-trained armed men attacking civilians with the element of surprise from within the ship. We will have to rely on training, tactics, equipment and surprise to win this. However, given the events on the bridge, we may have lost the element of surprise, our most crucial advantage."

@Ulysses: "That's your funeral and not mine. If you go in there guns blazing and disappear without a sign, I'm not following, is all I'm saying. Assessing the situation and reporting to Command before withdrawing is better than getting slaughtered. The best way to figure out if we want to attack is if we can win some kind of information about how many hostiles and what weapons we are facing. The latest developments seem to suggest there may be as many as two-hundred hostiles, double of my initial guess as to how many you'd need to effectively take over this boat. Two-hundred men who are, as you say, well-trained and armed."

"If we are to have any chance of defeating the hostiles, we need to make more of the element of surprise than an eight-man attack, in my opinion. Even if you carve out forty kills, we'll be grossly undermanned."

 

[tuxedohamm]

@George
I need to know how you ended up free? How did you escape?

 

[tuxedohamm]

EDIT: Blah...double post

 

[Vertinari118]

Ulysses:

@ Gabriel
"Gabriel I would first like to know why your estimate of the enemy's numbers is so high. I personally would say somewhere between fifty and a hundred hostiles are in the lower decks. I would also like to know your plan for getting this ship moving again in the next few hours before the ice traps us, and I would hasten to point out it would trap us because our method of infiltration was boats and our method of exfiltration must, likewise, be boats. Interrogation would take a long time if these men are professionals and torture is not an option."

@ the Captain
"Captain what were the security precautions like both for embarking passengers and crew and during the cruise? I thought these larger cruise ships had teams of trained security personnel, often with access to weaponry, given today's world, to enforce law on the ship and prevent exactly this kind of situation developing.

OOC: Ah, just realised I forgot to finish my train of thought in my previous post. My point was meant to be "They were well-trained armed men attacking civilians with the element of surprise from within the ship. Given this, fifty or sixty men could have easily taken control of the entire ship by attacking key locations and spreading panic throughout the ship.

 

[Seon]

Ulysses:

@ Gabriel
"Gabriel I would first like to know why your estimate of the enemy's numbers is so high. I personally would say somewhere between fifty and a hundred hostiles are in the lower decks. I would also like to know your plan for getting this ship moving again in the next few hours before the ice traps us, and I would hasten to point out it would trap us because our method of infiltration was boats and our method of exfiltration must, likewise, be boats. Interrogation would take a long time if these men are professionals and torture is not an option."

@ the Captain
"Captain what were the security precautions like both for embarking passengers and crew and during the cruise? I thought these larger cruise ships had teams of trained security personnel, often with access to weaponry, given today's world, to enforce law on the ship and prevent exactly this kind of situation developing.

OOC: Ah, just realised I forgot to finish my train of thought in my previous post. My point was meant to be "They were well-trained armed men attacking civilians with the element of surprise from within the ship. Given this, fifty or sixty men could have easily taken control of the entire ship by attacking key locations and spreading panic throughout the ship.

Excuse me, but Gabriel has a point.

The passenger claims that the hostiles came from the lower decks, which implies that the hostiles were disguised as employees. He also claimed that the hostiles spoke Spanish, and there were 200 Spanish speaking employees for whom this was their first day of job.

I think we can put two and two together and easily say that there are around 200 hostiles down there, as well as about a couple of thousand people packed together like sardines.

In any case, Ulysses, Delta team will NOT provide any kind of support if you get attacked down there.

 

[Vertinari118]

Ulysses:

@ All teams
"Sorry the fact they were two hundred new Spanish employees passed me by completely. But that doesn't change the fact that a slow approach will jeopardise the mission, as the ship will become trapped in ice. Do you want to spend the next few days trapped on a ship with two hundred armed Spaniards? We need a new plan which will allow us to take control of the ship in the next few hours without getting us all killed. Or we withdraw now, do not get paid, and leave these people to their fate. I'm open to suggestions on what Echo and Foxtrot are to do."

@ Jarkko
"Jarrko you're Nordic Ops. Any idea how long we have before the ship is trapped? Are we talking minutes, hours or days?"

 

[Frozen In Ice]

Birch:

@ All Teams: "Based on info from the manifest there are up to 200 new employees on this cruise, most of whom speak Spanish. While that doesn't automatically mean that these people are the terrorists, we should consider it a possibility and plan accordingly. However, we should also consider the possibility that it is a different group

As for the assualt on the engineering, I strongly agree with Gabriel that a team should be sent in to scout out the place first. Charging in guns blazing with no prior knowledge is a good way to get us all killed. Then it won't matter whether the ship is stuck in the ice or not.

@ Teams in Infirmary: Is any here trained in the use of Cognitive Interviews? If someone could use that on the detained passenger we might be able to get a lot more infromation out of him.

 

[badunoff]

Ilya:

Maybe, since we saw that there are some children on board, we could try to find a remote control car or something and put a camera on it. I don't like an idea of sending a 4 man recon team into an area controlled by potentially 200 hostiles who are fairly well equipped as far as we know. Diminishing our numbers won't be compensated by the little information we recieve before they are massacred.

 

[Dreadnought]

@George
I need to know how you ended up free? How did you escape?

"They let some of the hostages go when they went into Engineering. I was one of the lucky ones to be released..."

@ the Captain
"Captain what were the security precautions like both for embarking passengers and crew and during the cruise? I thought these larger cruise ships had teams of trained security personnel, often with access to weaponry, given today's world, to enforce law on the ship and prevent exactly this kind of situation developing."

"Of course we had security measures in place...We did routine searches, scans, etc. We had a small security contingent on board, but it couldn't put up much of a fight. Their surprise was total."

 

[DarthNader]

Jarkko: The chances of the ship icing over are very high, especially since we are in the coldest month of the winter. Additionally, the pack ice may increase and possibly solidify, trapping us here. Of course, there are always icebergs and high winds, which are a constant danger in this area.

In my honest opinion, Ulysses, we should be working on getting this thing out of here NOW. Its difficult to judge how quickly we would become trapped. We will become trapped if we don't act quickly and effectively and it is a certainty that if we become trapped, the chances of being rescued are slim-to-none.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

I agree. we need to get the ship moving... However, you shouldn't rush in blind.

 

[germanicus12]

Sarge:

@All Teams: I can try and see if I can get a tow. I can claim engine problems and have a passing tanker or icebreaker supplying the camps to tow us to safety if you guys want me to try. Though I cannot guarantee much success, I haven't seen a single ship on the horizon since I have been on the Bridge.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

I'd go for that, if we can assure the safety of the other Ship from the terrorists down below.

 

[DarthNader]

Jarkko: Sarge, the reason why you haven't seen many ships is because the Southern Ocean is usually vacant during the winter. The reason why is right outside. We cannot rely on being able to procure an tow. Out first and foremost goal should be getting this ship operational, by any means necessary.

 

[Frozen In Ice]

Birch:

"No, I disagree, the priority should be to save the passengers and eliminate the terrorists. Even if the ship gets stuck in the ice, an ice breaker can be called later to break the ship out. Aetius should be able to contact one should the need arise. As long as the ship stays intact we have nothing to worry about."

 

[germanicus12]

Who's going to pay for the Icebreaker? Personally I want to get as much money out of this mission as we can. A tow or an assault on the engine room to gain control of the engines allows the best route. Plus an icebreaker could take weeks to travel here, find our location, break through thick ice that might take a month. Do we even have enough food to feed some 2-3,000 people plus us for the next 1-2 months? Remember this ship has been out of port for a while before we arrived, and was scheduled to arrive at port sometime in the coming weeks, we most likely do not have enough food. And helicopters running daily trips won't even give us enough necessities to survive.

No, a tow or working engines are our only options.

I leave this up to a vote, whichever gets more votes regardless of pros or cons wins. I will deliver the tie-breaking vote if it get there. All members vote, not just team leaders.

 

[andis-1]

Alexandrov:

@ all teams
Kinda odd that the terrorists deleted security files now, considering that they have had several days to do it. In my opinion this means that we have been detected, thus we should not rely on element of surprise anymore.

Ulysses, I back you up to lead the operation downstairs, but I agree with others that we can't go there blind. We need a man to recon hostilities and attack routes before the main assault team.

All, I'm as worried about the ice as you are, but considering that the terrorists have gone through all the trouble to get all these hostages, I don't believe they just want to get them all killed by locking them into a ship encased in ice. Sarge, I'm pretty sure the owner of this ship is willing to pay bit extra to get her baby back to the port. That, or he sacrifices a ships costing hundreds of millions.

All, none of us wants to get killed, thats for sure. But, we need to go down there sometime. And when we do, we need every team we can spare to do it, considering the enemy strength. And if we want to pull this off, we need to trust on eachother. We can't afford anyone to start soloing or saying "boohoo I might get killed" and start disobeying orders, and thus weakening the chances of us all getting outta here alive. We need to work as a team. I'm looking specially at you, Arnold.

 

[Frozen In Ice]

Birch:

"Well, I agree that we should aim to have this situation settled before the ship gets stuck in the ice, but what I am trying to say is that we shouldn't take unnecesary risks and rush the whole operation just to meet that deadline. I think getting the ship out in time should be the icing on the cake, not the meat and potatoes."