Scene 1
The Sydney Scroungers are in a bit of a tight spot. Their easy snatch-and-grab turned into a tense operation in the middle of a turf war between the PPDC and Karen Wulagu's black market syndicate. They hatched a plan to suborn one of Wulagu's ships, but the boarding party got split up mid-crossing.
Miranda eases the boat through the water, and manages to get really close to the other boat without being detected. The captain and crew of the Wulagu syndicate ship remain blissfully unaware.
Out on the deck, Seiko takes a good look at the boat and stays ready to take out anybody who's spotted Eleanor. Or, well, anybody else who seems to be a problem.
In the water between the two ships, Katie almost panics when she first hears the gunshot, but she forces herself to breathe normally, and maneuvers her scooter to the syndicate ship, where she finds a ladder and climbs aboard.
After Katie helps right her, Eleanor tries to get her bearings for a few moments, watching the bubbles trickle out of her regulator at an ever-increasing pace. After a few seconds she realizes that this means she is hyperventilating. Deep breaths. In, out, in, she recites to herself. Panicking won't do anyone any good. The bubbles recede to a point that she's comfortable with-or rather, at least to a point where her air supply won't run out in a matter of minutes. She gathers her wits to move forward again.
Moving as quietly as she can, she manages to make it all the way without incident, seeing no one but a guard stupid enough to fall asleep at his post. She sneers at him as she passes, then takes a moment outside the cockpit door to collect herself.
Miranda checks over the neighboring ship, surprised at how close she was able to get. Heck, maybe this whole infiltration thing hadn't been necessary after all. These guys were really unobservant; it wouldn't surprise her if they couldn't even notice a group of people flailing in the water.
She pulls out her phone, sending a mass text to the other members of the team.
Miranda: I managed to get right up next to them without being noticed.
Miranda: Ready for extraction whenever you're done.
Miranda: How are things on your end?
Seiko gives her a long, dry list of the exact position of every other person on the ship. With occasional accidental commentary on what he thinks of their professionalism, of course. Sylvie feels the quiet vibration of her phone in the waterproof pack on her back as she sneaks, but otherwise ignores it.
Katie quickly texts back.
Katie: Aboard
Katie: Think Sylvie is also
Katie: Will try meet her cockpit
Katie: Let me know El progress
Katie: Seiko cover me
Seiko: Need a distraction? I find shots on the other side of the ship are quite distracting.
Katie: This IS the distraction. Get ready.
As soon as she hits send, she tosses a loose bolt at the feet of one of the guards on the far side of the ship. It rolls past him and lands at the feet of a second guard.
One of the guards snaps his head up, immediately looking for the source of the noise with an intent expression. He must be fun at parties. The other takes a little longer to respond, bending over to look at the bolt that landed at his feet.
Seiko takes aim, takes a breath, and with one shot takes out the first two around the corner. He smiles to himself. That was a good shot.
An alarm begins to blare aboard the Wulagu ship. Suddenly, they're all looking around frantically for the sniper - so focused that they don't stop to think who might be on their own ship.
Eleanor manages to find a handhold on the side of the ship, and she focuses all her energy on heaving herself upward. She's so focused on the physical aspects of the climb, though, that she doesn't notice her slipping scuba tank until it smacks against the railing of the ship with a loud–and very noticeable–CLANG. She winces, and tries to hunker down against the side of the ship. Surely those sirens masked some of the noise. She glances to the side…
…to see one very surprised guard sitting right next to her.
Or not, Eleanor thinks, spotting the guard with a flash of panic.
The guard moves to throw her off the ship. Eleanor drops to the deck and swings one leg out in an attempt to trip the goon. He isn't prepared for this, and doesn't get to toss her off the boat, but he's not taking this lying down.
Scene 2
Already on the enemy ship, Sylvie still feels rattled from the swim over, and the gunshot cracking nearby didn't help. She checks her pack to make sure the waterproof seal held, then sets out for the cockpit. She feels a buzzing from her backpack – her phone receiving a text – but she doesn't think to pull it out.
She manages to make her way up to what seems to be the command center of the ship. She finds a corner nearby where she won't be seen, hoping she's close enough to connect to their equipment. She crouches down, back to the wall, and slides her bag off of her back and starts unpacking her equipment. Everything seems to be in working order. She places her subvocalization patches on her neck, then pulls out her thin laptop. Taking a deep breath, she presses the power button. Please don't be too upset with me for this, Vee...
The computer boots up quickly, the startup operations syncing with Sylvie's patches quickly. Sylvie slips her earpiece in, and quickly starts subvoking. "Vee, you there?"
Vee's voice comes back quickly. "Confirmed. Where am I now? Are we on Katie's ship?"
"We're... on an enemy ship. I need you to help me hack into their systems and drain them of information, 'kay?" Sylvie winces, then adds, "Also... you're running simultaneously with a version of you in our ship's nav systems."
Vee's response seems on the verge of shorting out. That tends to happen when strong emotions eat her processing power. "Simultaneous r-r-run. You said that we- we- we wouldn't run- After what hap- happened last time."
"I know, I know," Sylvie subvokes. "And I'm sorry. If there was any other way I would have done it! It won't happen again! But right now I need you to help me with this! If you want to get back to her to sync up, we've got to get out of here alive."
Vee is silent while she processes. Finally she says, "I will help. But you should have warned me before doing this."
Sylvie shrugs guiltily. "Well, I told the other you... I can't really tell you're going to be simultaneous until it happens. For clarification, you'll be-"
She cuts off, realizing that 'V1' and V2' are probably not the best designations. "Er... you're V-b, and she's V-a, okay?"
"Confirmed. Accepting designation V-b. Let's do this quickly."
Once she's plugged in, V-b tests out the security of the ship's systems. While advanced, it's nothing she can't handle. Within minutes, she has access to all the system files, which she immediately begins downloading.
Also, an interesting little program stands out to her, the communication systems. There are small shortwave devices linked to the network, likely the in-ear comms for the guards, as well as full access to the communication between the other Wulagu ships in the area….
Scene 3
The Wulagu ship attempts to maneuver to counter Miranda's quick piloting, but the helmsman is asleep at the wheel and they turn the wrong direction. She curses to herself. Sirens are wailing, and she still hasn't heard back from Eleanor and Sylvie. She's starting to feel nervous, scanning the deck for any signs of them.
She spots Eleanor on the ground, a guard standing over her. She can't tell what was going on, but she can see that it's trouble.
Well, she thinks. Out cover's already blown. Time to do something stupid.
Before doing anything else, she sends a warning text up to Seiko. With that done, she turns on the engine quietly, maneuvering the boat so the bow is perpendicular to their starboard side. Taking a deep breath, she revs the engine as loudly as she can manage.
It seems to work, as several of the guards turn in surprise to look out over the water. Taking the opportunity, Miranda slams her hand on the control panel, sending power to the various floodlights attached to the ship. They shine directly at the Wulagu, and she sees guards recoiling and falling to the ground. One even looks like he may have fallen over the side.
Feeling just a bit proud of herself, she quickly takes cover behind the helm.
Seiko tries to keep calm, despite all the guns turned on him. He hopes the lights will block him out and takes aim, though his hands are shaking a bit. "Thanks for making us a target Miranda," he mutters under his breath. The first shot takes down a guard, but the second goes wide and he curses, trying to re-adjust his aim. He's not supposed to miss. This is why he likes to work alone. No surprises.
As soon as the rev of Tranquility's engine startles the guards, Katie goes into motion. She runs up behind the guard trying to prevent Eleanor from boarding. As the headlights flare to life, Katie hooks a foot around the guard's ankles, then shoves him from behind, flipping him overboard.
Eleanor rolls out of the way as Katie swoops in, her guardian angel engineer. She doesn't think too hard about what's happening behind her. No time. Instead, she quickly rolls to the side, and throws off her scuba flippers as she runs down the deck at what she'd normally consider to be a suicidal speed.
She sees a guard readying his weapon, and thinks fast. "FIRE!" she screams, and when the guard looks up, she streaks by him in a blur of black and brown. "RUN!"
The thug whips around, loses his footing, and flails a bit before regaining his balance. Then the woman - Wait, was that a woman? Does it matter? - runs by him, shrieking like a banshee. I don't get paid enough for this, he thinks briefly.
Eleanor grins as he starts panic, running away from the fight.