Special Ops Mission: Codename "Overwatch"

[FSF Falk]

Mission Brief: A Top Secret Mission has come into the Special Operations team. Apparently, with the explosion of Hobus, it is sending the Romulan Empire into a major disarray. Starfleet Command has ordered the USS Stargazer team to go to local worlds along the Neutral Zone, where they are currently located, go undercover, and begin operations to gather intelligence on the internal struggles going on currently. The team has assembled, which include the following Members: Fraiser, Harmon, Snarf, 'Ro, and Lacroix. The team is has assembled onto their shuttle, and they have just left the Stargazer. They have dressed as a mercenary group, looking for work to do. They have a 3 hour ride to the nearest Romulan colony, and are using this time to get brought up to speed as to their backgrounds.
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Fraiser sat in his customary chair on their specially designed shuttle, and handed out PADDS to everyone now that they were under complete communication silence. He had taken any and all Starfleet identification away from everyone, and put it into a scan proof container that was sealed for his biometrics only. "Here is your persona's background, complete with false names. If anyone runs us through the database, they'll see this same information, as well as the 'Wanted by the UFP' plastered all over. This should help us with the locals.." He said with a slight smile. "From now on, we'll call each other by these names. It'll be vitally important that we don't blow our cover. This is the real deal," Fraiser told them. "I'm the leader of our lovely merc gang, and my name is Keldon Monroe," he told them. "Dont' forget this," he added. "I have given you all some listening devices I devised a few years ago. Most scanners don't think to look for them, as they're custom made. Use these when you can tap into someone who's in the planetary government, and not a low level offical," he added. "Who's next?" Fraiser asked, looking around the group.

<TAG EVERYONE MENTIONED AT THE START!>

[FSF Arianna]

Arianna held out her hand being that she was seated closest to Frasier. When she received a package with her information; She opened it and she read it aloud. It read:

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Name: Valerie Richardson
Age: 37
Hair color: Brown
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 116lbs

Background: Once a General in the SFMC, Special Warfare designation, Expert in demolitions and marksmanship, Classified AWOL 2 days after returning from a Classified mission in which she lost the entire platoon of which she was in command, and in which 2 entire colonies of persons classified as non-combatants were destroyed upon her orders. The General disappeared during a break in her mission debriefing and has been listed as AWOL and placed on the UFP's most wanted list.

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She grinned mischeviously. "This is going to be fun," She said. She pulled out the outfit within to discover a thin black short sleeved top, black leather pants, a black leather vest, a black hip holster, and a gun. She walked to the back of the shuttle and changed before emerging as her new persona. "Valerie Richardson, mercenary for hire, at your service." She winked. "What do you think?"

<TAG Anyone>

[FSF Falk]

Fraiser nodded. "that will work," he said to her. Looking to the rest of the team, he smirked. "Rest of you get familiar as well, we shoudl be there in about an hour, so get into your persona and get ready," he added.

<TAG REST OF TEAM!>

[FSF Who]

Snarf took and glanced at his PADD, looked quizzically for a moment and then brushed off the screen. "Sometimes I think you guys give me the dirty ones on purpose." He began to review the PADD and chuckled to himself. "It says I'm Alan 'Scruffy' Roberts. It's an identity I've used before, and relatively well known...one of the last times I used it I got into quite the bit of trouble on Vulcan, that identity has officially been wanted by the UFP for quite a long time, and plenty of folk know it. Should work as a decent cover."

[KarmicKoala]

Ro ensured the transport was set to autopilot and turned over his right shoulder to take the PADD from Frasier. He read it briefly to himself then said aloud, "Tajs Veldan."

Ro grinned to himself. Tajs Veldan was not a made up name. It had basis in history. Veldan was a well-to-do Bajoran before the Cardassian Occupations -- a philanthropist and inventor of some renown. During the occupation he was a freedom-fighter with the Resistance. But that wasn't Veldan's real name. Stories had it that Veldan passed on his name and resources to those he deemed worthy when he became too aged to fight any longer. Successive Veldans were to do the same. And now Ro was stepping into the shoes of a man he'd heard bed-time stories about when he was little. They were big shoes to fill.

"It says here, little is known about Tajs Veldan other than he is elusive and skilled in many forms of sabotage. It also says that my parents were killed during the Bajoran Occupation and all acts of 'violence' come through as vengeance for my parents' death."

The similarity between Veldan and himself was eerie. Ro couldn't help but feel a spark of anger as his parents were killed during the Bajoran Occupation. He tried the best he could to suppress it. Losing his head wouldn't fair well for him or his team.

Ro was wearing a black, grey, and blue fatigue jumpsuit and a "boony-cap". He wore mesh belts at his hips and thighs for his pulse phaser pistol. His Sniper rifle would have been placed on his back if he weren't piloting. Several pouches sat at his hips and on his front filled with ammunition and various other devices he needed for his sniping and observation work.

[FSF Falk]

"Great," Fraiser said to everyone with a nod. "Take a breather.. cause who knows how often we''ll get to sleep once we're there," he said with a slight smile.

[FSF Who]

(OOC:I'm assuming we're still using this thread this week)

The Romulan Commander stared Snarf down, apparently trying to sort the face, the name, and Vulcan through his head. Something about the dirty red-head and Vulcan certainly seemed to send up some kind of alarm in the back of his head, and then without warning the associations clicked in his head and he remembered. He downed the Romulan Ale from his glass and slammed it back onto the table, glaring at Snarf for another moment afterward.

Snarfs only reaction was to note that the bottle of Romulan Ale emptied out as Lacroix refilled the Commanders glass, Snarf directed her towards the bar to get another bottle, and then turned to face the Commander again, with a smirk that had been ever present since he sat down at the table for the intense game of Go Fish.

The Romulan Commander slammed his fist down upon the table with such force that the glasses upon the table leapt into the air an inch, the entire bar seemed to direct their attention to the table to see what violence would follow. The onlookers were quickly disappointed as the Commander failed to follow his slam with any more violence, instead he let out a loud round of guffaws and reached across the table and gave Snarf a heavy slap on the shoulder while continuing the laughter. Between Laughs he was able to place the parts of the following sentence.
"I heard about that business on Vulcan, we had only gotten a minor description of you from our intelligence. Everyone in the Romulan government found it to be quite hilarious what you did there. The news actually stopped a violent battle during council one day."
The Commander was finally able to cease his laughter and had devolved to a random chuckle or two, he glanced up towards the bar where Lacroix had headed to get more Romulan Ale.
"Hey Sliv, the next bottle is on me!"

[FSF Falk]

Fraiser saw the quarry of theirs ahead. Quickly, he moved for the target, knowing that this police commander had no idea whom they were. Once they got to him, Fraiser drew out his side arm, concealed, and planted it into the Romulans' back. "Let's do this quietly, shall we?" he said whispering. "Some place nice and safe," he added. The Romulan nodded, and moved forward slowly, not wanting to perturb the humans who had him. They quickly arrived in a derelict building. "Now, then, what do you want to talk about?" The Romulan asked.

<TAG HARMON>

[FSF Arianna]

Arianna smiled and leaned in to the man getting within mere inches of his face before turning away coyly. "Oh, I don't know, how about a game of good cop, bad cop..." She pulled her pistol. "You can be the bad cop..." She grinned even wider. If he didn't know her, he could easily assume she had just a little too much to drink, or was maybe even slightly mentally deranged. This, of course, was exactly what she wanted him to think. She twirled her pistol a bit playfully then made to drop it and watched him get nervous, sweat beading on his forehead as she caught it just in the nick of time. "Rumor has it, you think you run this place. Rumor also has it that people don't like being beneath your thumb. So here's the deal...you play nice with the other little kids and give me the information I want, and I may not have to kill you. What do you say? Hm??" She leaned into his face once more and batted her eyelashes while she waited for his answer loving the way he squirmed nervously.

[FSF Falk]

the security chief looked at the two people, who seemed slightly unhinged. "Uhhh..Who sent you!?" he asked.

Fraiser looked at him. "That is not important, neitehr is our names. You answer her," he commented with a slight smile. "We need information...in exchange, we let you live but you leave this place...for good."

"What kind of information?" the romulan asked, looking between the two again.

[FSF Who]

The Romulan Commander slammed down yet another empty glass, and Lacroix refilled it dutifully. Several more rounds of the game had passed and the Commander was gravely feeling the effects of all the ale he had drank.

"Ha! You should feel honored Scruffy, to be playing in such company." He leaned down closer to Snarf and spoke in a drunken whisper.

"I am going to be ruling the Romulan Empire, and very soon. With all the issues within the Empire with the destruction of Romulus and the disappearance of the Praetor. We have no real leadership. I have many followers, more than most. I plan to claim the position of Praetor for myself." He leaned back proudly, puffing his chest out in a show of his power.

Snarf nodded to him and took a sip of his Romulan Ale.
"One day I shall be able to proudly say that I once played Go Fish! with the Praetor."
Snarf smirked inwardly, he liked this Commander relatively well, but any man that would willingly choose Go Fish! as his game of choice must surely have issues that would topple his kingdom quickly. Either way, this commander had just let slip valuable intel. Snarf made no move to leave yet, as that would only bring into focus what the Commander had done drunkenly, not only to himself, but to his supporters seated at the table as well. So Snarf only leaned back and planned to play a few more hands whilst continuing to listen to the drunken boasting of those at the table.

[KarmicKoala]

Tajs Veldan leaned forward as he listened to the Romulan commoners talking. From inside his thigh cargo pocket he pulled a listening beacon and carefully affixed it to the bottom of the table. It seemed this bar received a lot of important traffic.

"The problem is, it seems Romulus has been destroyed. So we can't send word back home to see if our family is okay. The government is trying to keep things very quiet. And they're not allowing communications out of that sector of space either. We don't even know how the planet got destroyed."

"And what of the government? Is it stable? Or has it become decentralized?" Veldan asked.

"It's become decentralized. Local and regional governors are vying for power."

"Any sign of favorite? Anybody to watch out for?"

Veldan talked politics with the Romulans as he enjoyed another drink of Romulan ale, albeit slowly. If trouble arose he didn't want to further dull his senses.

[FSF Falk]

<I meant to get a post out earlier...>

Fraiser sat on the shuttle, listening to the relative quiet that he encountered with the shuttle in a power down mode for the evening. His console was the only light being given off at the moment, and the other 4 members of the team were fast asleep, getting rested for a busy night and next day. Most likely, Benton should have been catching a few zz's himself, but he was too awake, trying to figure out the mess that passed for Romulan Space now. So many power players, so many people lining up behind one supposed next head of state.. it was a dizzying array. The communications he had managed to intercept counted no less than 50 people vying for power. This could end badly, he thought to himself. Hopefully the Federation would not get dragged into it, and hopefully the Klingons would stay out of it. Time would tell, he supposed.

[Mocky3497]

Ens. Carter jumps in the TL after just being assigned to the USS Stargazer

Bridge

I walk out of the turbolift onto the night shift bridge

Ensign Sam Carter reporting for Duty at the helm

[KarmicKoala]

"We weren't told not to perform the assassination missions. Just to be wary of them..." Scruffy's words kept echoing through Tajs Veldan's mind as he was trying to drift off to sleep.

Veldan's rifle was at the ready, and as long as he had the green light, he had no problem taking out the marked target. But the current political situation made this a very sticky situation indeed. A system and people that were already in turmoil could be plunged further into chaos if the wrong person were taken out. And from the current look of things, there were potentially lots of wrong people.

Veldan shifted on his bunk, rolling over onto his right side taking a deep breath trying to clear his head. He and Scruffy had already contacted the Romulans for the information gathering assignment. Now they waited. Once the details came in from their contact they would be able to better assess the situation. It would also help that they had a senior officer able to listen in so they could get advice after the briefing.

Veldan only hoped that a benevolent leader -- one who took interest in the people -- were installed on the Imperial Throne of the Rihannsu Empire. But he wasn't going to hold his breath on it with the Tal'Shiar overseeing these events.

[FSF Who]

Snarf as Scruffy dug into the "special" that was in front of him, enjoying the food greatly. He glanced between the Romulan that had been silent thus far and Hammon. It was their turn to do some negotiating, for the price of the job. Snarf hoped that Hammon could handle it, though so far the experiences he had with her didn't provide him with a lot of hope.

Without showing any of the thoughts or worry of the mission at hand upon his exterior showings, he shoveled another heaping of his breakfast into his mouth.

[FSF Falk]

the Romulan looked at the group, and smirked. "Well, I think we'll be able to reach an agreement," he said to them. "Here is the information, and the layout of the building the target will be located in. For now, that is all you will need to know," he said. Taking a few bites, the romulan stood up. "Good day, and I look to hear back from you in a few days." With that, he abruptly left the area.

[FSF Falk]

Fraiser, having decided to bug Harmon, listened in on the whole exchange. It sounded like things were going to go as planned. Hopefully, there would not be any roadblocks that got in the way.

[FSF Who]

Snarf finished his meal and then stood up, glancing around the bar momentarily and then glancing at his two team mates.

"I guess it's time to get to work."

Snarf then began making his way back to the ship with the information on the job.

[KarmicKoala]

Veldan laid down in the forest away from the compound overlooking the 3-4 corner. He was 900 meters away, a moderate range for his rifle. A felled tree stump stretched out over his head providing him additional cover. 

This was the spot Veldan would be in for the next three days. He opened the bi-pod on his rifle and sighted in on the governor's room. So far there were no signs of life in his room, and he wondered if the Governor was currently away. He silently wished he had more time to study his target and his patterns.  

Planting the bug was his first priority. The Governor's room was currently locked. The door out to the balcony was closed and the windows were thick transparent aluminum. The only way Veldan was going to get the bug into that room was if the door or windows were opened.

<Tag SpecOps>