Obviously, don't give any indication that you've become suspicious. Aside from that, we're gonna need intel. How big is your ship, what's its purpose, how big is your crew, what are their roles, what equipment do you have, who do you work for, etc.

Let's start by consider the scale of your problem.

What is the size of your vessel? What's the crew compliment? How many potential suspects are there?

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/17(Fri)14:28 No. 444270 ID: 061a93
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>>444267
Yes, Taelor agrees. The absolute most important thing is to avoid a mutiny or a mass exodus. If people find out that the reason things have been going poorly is because someone is selling them out, they will panic. Taelor must remain calm and resolute.

The Blessing of the Night is a mid-range hyperjump-capable cargo-carrying jack-of-all-trades equipped with 20 escape pods. He has no detachable fighters, but his cargo hold is large enough to accommodate approximately two, at most, and they'd be wedged in tight. He has a crew of 18, including himself, his Executive Officer, his Operations Officer, his Flight Officer, his helmsmen, his engineers, his Communications Technician, Sergeant Core, who is private security, his medical staff, the mess officer, the machinist, and the chaplain.

Standing in front of him now is his Executive Officer, Eris Afonne. He has had her on the crew almost as long as he has had the ship. If he cannot trust her, he truly cannot trust anyone, and that is a horrifying thought indeed.

"Sir, the crew are getting antsy again," she is saying now. "You know how they are."

That's true, Taelor does know how they are. He pays them by the mission, so if he isn't running missions, they aren't getting paid, and with the bad success of the last few, they will want to try to get out and pull in something bigger to make up for it.

"I think you should review the help wanted postings, sir," Eris continues. "We've been on this station long enough, it's time to move on."

So you're a freelance vessel? That begs the question of what use a mole is. In a military setting, it's simple and obvious.

Unless the mole has it out for every client who hires you, that means this is personal.

If you can trust her absolutely, you should tell her of your suspicions.

You need a plan to flush out the mole. You need a mission you can use as bait. See what's posted.

Collect some mission postings, but don't actually accept any. Set a course for some place far away, so that you'll have a good chunk of quiet time en-route to begin interviewing your crew/reviewing evidence. Can you look through their outbound message logs? I wanna know who each member of your crew has been in contact with, including Eris. Don't let her know about your suspicions, either, though if she figures it out, that's alright. Observe your crew members while they're on duty. Do any of them go to unexpected parts of the ship? Are their patrol routes erratic or out of the ordinary? Is their behavior inconsistent with what you know of their personalities?

Go to your security center and look through any security footage you might have, get your info there.

>>444271
The mole could be selling his services to the opponent of every client who hires you. That would imply, however, that he's learning about every client from whom you take a job and then researching and figuring out who that client's enemies are, then contacting them and arranging the sale of information.

Perhaps everything could be solved if you just distributed data to your crew on a need-to-know basis. Never let them know the name of your client, never let them know the name of your target, etc. That way, if the setbacks continue, you'll know that either the mole is an external agent following you around or someone with access to your private computer databanks.

The simplest way to out a mole without knowing who they are is make them think you know who they are and are going to kill them. Then they either flee the ship or do something drastic, at which point you know who they are and are either rid of them or can deal with them directly.

You can make them think they've been outed by doing something obvious like calling up every crewmember at once for a 'security check'.

you can make an excuse to stall and say because of the string of fights you need a more thorough check up. don't want something breaking down from all the wear and tear.

>>444276
That will just drive the mole underground, if he's clever. He knows we don't have anything on him. If we did, we'd be knocking at his door and his door alone.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/17(Fri)15:48 No. 444290 ID: 061a93
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>>444271
Taelor didn't say he trusted her absolutely. He said that if he could not trust her, he could not trust anyone.

"Something wrong, sir?" Eris asks.

"Hm?" Taelor responds.

"You look intense, sir," she points out.

"I have a lot on my mind, Afonne," he replies.

Taelor has enemies. His past is about as sordid as you'd expect, especially doing freelance missions for clients. But he has no reason to suspect it's any of those people. He got away clean.

>>444276
Taelor explicitly does not want to do something obvious. Not only is it dangerous, but it could result in losing a swathe of crewmembers as they flee his service for safer vessels. Taelor feels he must find the traitor through careful diplomacy, stealth, and observation. And he must assume they are at least as intelligent as he is.

>>444281
This as well. If he makes his suspicions obvious, the traitor will know that he is on to them. Best case scenario, they keep a low profile for a while, worst case scenario, they attack him or get away clean.

>>444278
This could be a valid tactic, but Taelor feels that he should flesh it out more. Checking his employees isn't a bad idea either, it just isn't subtle enough.

>>444275
Taelor already tells his crew what they need to know. He tells them that they have a job and what they should be doing, and what they should be prepared for. These are all competent people. They do their jobs and most of them don't ask questions. That isn't the problem.

>>444273
This is a good idea. It would cut off escape for the traitor, except through the escape pods, and allow him to interview them on his own time. However, the fact that they aren't actually doing anything might arouse suspicion, and they will think something is up if they take off without any cargo or passengers.

Taelor cannot look at their outbound message logs without confiscating their PDAs. If they are far enough from civilization, their messages do go through his satellite dish, but it's not in any readable form. He is no more capable of reading their logs from there than his ISP is of reading his browsing history.

It is possible to enable their PDAs to emit location information that he could track, but again, he would have to have their PDAs to do that. He cannot do it remotely, or at least, he doesn't know how.

Perhaps an interview is a good idea. He could get more of a handle on his crew's backgrounds and personality. But how could he excuse it?

"Well, sir?" Eris waves her PDA in the air. "I've got the mission listings right here. There are some juicy ones in here, too."

"I would need to call Leif and Dreyz in here if I were to take on a mission," says Jay.

Eris frowns at him. Taelor needs to decide. Will he take a mission, and does he trust her enough to tell her his suspicions? She might be hurt if she figures it out on her own, but she's been with him long enough that she wouldn't leave over something like that. She knows he is the brooding type. On the other hand, she could be a valuable asset if he brought her in.

take the pda and start browsing them. and make a show of asking her. "you have been with me for a long time, long enough that i feel there is something you should know."

I say you bring her in. This kind of thing is much easier when working with an ally.

...and if she is the mole? Well, if she's the only person you trust with certain things, it'll become clear soon enough.

>Eris: Greek Goddess of strife and discord
Hopefully the name isn't significant.

>>444290
Let her in. Like you said, you trust her.

The interview thing... we could split up some responsibilities to open up a new management position and have interviews for that promotion. Or just a duplicate position. Is anyone particularly overworked?

Also I feel we should go on a real mission. Hmm. You said that the logs wouldn't be readable on the satellite, but can you at least tell if anyone's been making regular broadcasts? Anyone with a pattern of sending out data every time you take a mission would be our culprit.

Think of hiring your own mole to out the mole. A PI or something.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/17(Fri)19:01 No. 444356 ID: 061a93
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>>444295
"Grabby today," Eris remarks, and starts peering over Jay's shoulder.

They scan through the listings. The majority of them are transport jobs, with some mercenary work, weird jobs like 'meet up with this person on this station at this time', hunting jobs...

Eris points at a particular one as Taelor is about to scroll past it. "Hey, lookit that one! We should do that."

"Somehow I doubt Lt. Abdalen will be thrilled about that idea." Jay hovers his finger over the listing on his XO's PDA, which details a search and destroy mission on the surface of a moon. It seems to be a bit of corporate warfare, who want someone to sort out a criminal organization that has an outpost there. But the Blessing of the Night is not a combat ship, nor does she have an armory, in fact the only ones on the ship who carry weapons are the four heads (including himself), and Roden Core. On the other hand, it pays a lot. To the tune of 500,000 GU.

Jay hesitates as he stares at the screen. "Eris, you've been with me for a long time, long enough that I feel there's something you should know."

Eris blinks at him, then opens her mouth.

"I think there's a traitor on the ship who's selling us out," Jay cuts in.

Eris closes her mouth, then opens it again. "Surely you can't be serious."

"I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."

"This is a pretty grave allegation, sir," Eris points out.

"I am confident in it. And I want you to help me find them."

"If that's what you think, sir, then I respect your judgement. I'll do whatever you need me to do to help you. I want to keep the Blessing of the Night, and its crew, alive and well."

"Thank you. I trust in your loyalty."

>>444319
Taylor could check the satellite IP logs, and trace them to the device names of all the personal electronics on the ship. But not everyone is going to name it 'Taelor-PDA', and even if he did, there is not one single person who sends out messages every mission. The people on this ship have families. They tell their loved ones when they're leaving on a mission, and frequently send email to keep them updated and to confirm that they are still alive. The only person Taelor knows of who has no family is his Communications Technician, who did not want to talk about it in the interview, and of course, his two Koel crew members.

A new management position isn't a bad idea, but he's not sure he wants to create that kind of redundancy. He's always been proud of his tightly-run ship. That's why he has two empty bedrooms, because he never found a need for two additional crew members that was worth paying extra for more sets of hands. And he keeps the work fairly well balanced.

>>444329
This is exactly the kind of thing that Taelor does not want to do. Have another person snooping around his business? Making a fuss on the ship? Alerting the traitor that there is an investigation? No thank you. The only investigators he will be able to employ will have to come from his own crew, unless he can think of a really good excuse to bring someone else in.

If Taelor wants to take on a mission, he will have to call in his Operations Officer, Leif Abdalen, and likely his Flight Officer as well, Dreyz Wicker. Lt. Abdalen would be less than thrilled at Cmdr. Afonne's suggestion to take the search and destroy job. He would call the mission 'irresponsible' and 'suicidal'. And it's true that as they are, they are not prepared for it.

Taelor realizes that his use of rank in a non-military situation might be confusing. His officers have ranks to put them above the normal crew members, and he is Captain because he is of course captain of the ship, and Sergeant Core retains his title by request from his time in the Avari military. These people have titles and weapons because they are the important people on the ship, as well as those who maintain order.

>>444356
>everyone sends out emails to their families each mission
>some don't have families
Okay, check the logs to see if any of the family-less ones are sending out messages every mission.

two can play at this game. rehearse and plan your next assignment as you normally would, but cancel, make things generally difficult and attention-consuming for the crew to follow and see who trips up the most doing more work than they are supposed to for such a change in plans

>>444406
I like this. Go through the motions of a full mission planning session, while conducting secret mission planning with your XO for your actual intended mission. The sudden switch might shake someone or something loose.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/17(Fri)23:48 No. 444474 ID: 061a93
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>>444364
This shouldn't be terribly difficult. Taelor will do it after he finalizes this mission stuff.

>>444406
>>444418
Taelor uses Eris's PDA to call Lt. Abdalen (left) and Lt. Wicker (right) into the room. Leif gives a prompt salute as he enters the room.

"Sir," says Wicker.

"Sir," adds Abdalen.

"Lieutenants," replies Taelor. "We're going to go on another mission."

"That's good news, sir," says Wicker. "Hopefully we can put this bad luck behind us. What are our options?"

"We could take a transport mission, either cargo or personnel. Those will probably net us no more than 60,000 GU, provided we're carrying something legal. There are a few escort missions, although as Abdalen will no doubt point out, we are not a particularly skilled escort ship. One of those could probably go for at least 100,000 GU. There's also the usual hunting jobs, bounty and wildlife. The pay on those obviously varies wildly. And there was one that stuck out especially. It's a search and destroy job--"

"Sir, no," objects Leif.

"Shut up, Abdalen. The pay is 500,000 GU. It looks like a corporate job, they want us to destroy a criminal outpost on a moon. What do you think?"

"I think we should do the corporate job," Eris says, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"I vote we do a safe, foolproof transport job. Something mundane and legal, to get us back on our feet, with minimal risk. It won't pay much, but we need to get some more wins under our belt. The pay for Afonne's bandit job might be large, but the cost to prepare for it would be as well, and the risk to the crew, not to mention just the general risk." Leif frowns. "I don't think it's the right choice right now."

"I sorta agree with Leif," Wicker says. "We haven't been doing so hot lately. We do need to stick to safe, reliable jobs for a while, until our bad luck passes. On the other hand, the crew ain't gonna be happy if we don't pull in some dosh. How 'bout a collection job? It's hard for those to go wrong, and scientists pay out the nose for a vial of dirt."

The three of them look expectantly at Taelor.

say it's the transport. then have it appear to actually be the escort. then under that it's really the bounty. keep everyone moving with no time to send any emails.

>>444474
We don't have the spare cash to prepare for the hunting job, do we?

Let's just go for a transport job. Something where we transport personnel, so we don't have to worry about pirates.

>>444474
They all have good points. And Wicker does suggest a good compromise, the collection job. However, if the mole knows about this, you'll have a bigger target on your ship as pirates and looters will want to jack the objective and claim the bounty.

How about we say the corporate job interests us, and at the last minute change to the transportation which is a cover so we can collect the samples for the collection job.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/18(Sat)20:39 No. 445045 ID: 061a93
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>>444520
Taelor does have some cash hidden away that he could use to improve the ship. About 50,000 GU. 70% of that is for his retirement, though...

>>444515
>>444525
"Find a collection job, a hunting job, and a transport job, and let them all as well as the search and destroy job that we're interested." Taelor can figure out the details later, he'd rather keep his options open right now. He's having a few second thoughts anyway; preparing for all of these jobs at once is a remarkable waste of money, if he half-asses the ones he doesn't plan on doing it might become obvious which one he's really doing, and if he keeps his crew scrambling they might start to question his motives. Not to mention all the potential clients he might alienate by cancelling.

Right now he just needs to take a walk. Eris reclaims her PDA and Taelor stands up and steps outside. The communications center is to his left, and the server database is to his right. The elevator down to the ship itself is straight ahead.

walk into the database like you own the place, cause you do.

server database

Toilet.

Then database.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/19(Sun)01:00 No. 445211 ID: 061a93
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>>445047
>>445158
Taelor steps into the server database. Ferroth Azintine, the Communications Technician, is sitting in the chair, tapping his fingers on the screen as he vigilantly monitors the ship's communications, and waits for any incoming call or broadcast.

The lights on the server rack near him blink on and off, shining through the holes in the metal door as it provides vital communication between all parts of the ship. It's based off four channels: personal, diagnostics, and core. Personal (192.168.1.X) is for personal devices, diagnostics (192.168.2.X) is for the various screens and ship devices, core (192.168.3.X) is for the ship's vital functions and electronic communication between automated systems.

Jay walks up to his side. "Azintine, I want to see the IP logs of the outgoing communications and the list of the personal devices on the network."

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/19(Sun)01:02 No. 445212 ID: 061a93
File 134536333104.png - (212.80KB , 800x600 , 8.png )

"You got it, sir," Ferroth responds, and does a quick tapping routine, bringing up both. Taelor scans the IPs up to a few weeks back, and compares them to the device listing, and comes up with only four that never have any outgoing communication at the start of a mission: 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.24, 192.168.1.16, 192.168.1.22. That's all the info he'll be able to get out of this. Perhaps he should think about investing some money into monitoring his crew; he doesn't even have security cameras.

Get some security cameras in the hallways and cargo bays for starters.

Wait, you have vents big enough to crawl through? WHY?!

Also I thought we were looking for crewmembers without families that sent out stuff every mission. Basically, we'd be looking for someone who doesn't have an obvious reason to send stuff out, but does anyway.

have the vents shrunk. if all vents are shrunk air preassure will increase so the same amount of air will come out but they will be harder to crawl through.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/20(Mon)21:06 No. 445786 ID: 061a93
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"By the way, I'm Byzantine on there," Ferroth adds helpfully as Taelor has him close the windows.

>>445213
Cameras will cost money, and take time to install, not to mention put on the system. And unless he gives his Communications Technician access, he'll have to hire someone to watch them. Yes, it's a good idea, and he'll do it, but it's not an immediate concern and it's not going to help him right away.

Like Taelor said, those are the only IPs that don't send out messages every mission. So he needs to find out who those PDAs belong to, and determine which ones have IPs besides those four whose owners do not have families to send messages to.

>>445216
This is even less of an immediate concern for Taelor. Yes, yes, safety risk and all that, but do you know how long it will take to refit the entire ship with smaller vents? He'll put it on his to-do list.

In the meantime, he wanders outside and presses the button to call the elevator. He doesn't feel like he has any more business up here, and should probably check out what's going on below, or perhaps take care of business off the ship. He also left his gun and his PDA in his room, so he should probably go get those.

==>

>>445786
Well okay. Here, for easy reference:

192.168.1.1 is your PC. Obvious.
192.168.1.24 is KFC. Do those match anyone's initials?
192.168.1.16 = Byzantine. No idea. History buff?
192.168.1.22 = Pangloss's PC. Pangloss means unwarranted optimism. Possibly a cheery personality.
If we looked up these IPs in order to eliminate suspects then that's nice I guess but there's like a ton of people on board isn't there?

Oh, we should also see if we can covertly find out who has alibis for the time when the crew member snuck back on board.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/21(Tue)17:09 No. 446060 ID: 061a93
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>>445797
Yes. There are, indeed, a ton of people on board. There's not really much else Taelor can do retroactively.

As for alibis, Taelor supposes that means he'll have to speak to all the crew members about it.

He steps into the elevator and waits patiently as it descends.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/08/21(Tue)17:09 No. 446061 ID: 061a93
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Taelor exits the elevator. The First Helms(wo)man, Ariad Krisal, is leaning against the wall here, intent on her PDA. Nonetheless, she greets Jay as he enters the room.

"Hello, Captain. We doing any flying today?" she asks.

"We'll see," he replies.

"Do what you have to do, Captain," she advises. "No harm in taking on a little under-the-table work here and there, even if the law might frown on it."

His bedroom is out the door to his right. There are engines in both wings, and the medbay, mess hall, cargo hold, and various other rooms are out the door in front of him.

>>446061
Suddenly feel suspicious about her for no real reason at all.

go in the mess hall.

>>446174
Rather, I suddenly feel suspicious about her for no reason at all.

But... That'll work as a command, too.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/11/17(Sat)01:50 No. 472414 ID: 061a93
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You suddenly feel suspicious of her for no reason at all. This appears to have little effect on the pilot.

You suppose you shouldn't be surprised at that remark. The last pilots quit due to the stress of taking less-than-legal jobs, so you hired ones more comfortable with the idea.

Anyway, mess hall, was it?

stick your tongue back

>>472415
Do it. Just for a second. Then mess hall.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/11/17(Sat)02:58 No. 472425 ID: 061a93
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You punish the Helmsman for her insubordination with an expression of your own, which is uncharacteristic of you, but whatever.

Captain Jay Taelor 2012/11/17(Sat)02:59 No. 472426 ID: 061a93
File 135314996137.png - (413.03KB , 1600x1200 , 14.png )

You enter the central hallway.

carry on to mess hall get eats