MD #003: EOD Answers
EOD Answers
Summary: Flynn comes by to speak with the Master at Arms about the explosives used in the Hangar Bay. It's not good news.
Date: 11/04/2017 (OOC Date)
Related Logs: The Explosive Enemy Within
and It Begins.
Randy Lleufer 
Master-At-Arms, Deck 3 - Battlestar Orion
A small nine foot by nine foot office. Most of the floor space is taken up by a desk and filing cabinets.
Fri Oct 27 13:46:20 2028

Since the Hangar incident, Lleufer Ynyr has perhaps never been so busy. He's hardly slept, catching snatches of rest as he's been able but pulling double shifts since there's so much to do. People keep needing to speak with him and Lleu keeps thinking of things he needs to make sure somebody has covered. So he comes into the MoA's office with his blonde hair damp, freshly shaved and about half awake, a coffee cup glued to his hand. There's already a stack of things waiting for him in the Security Hub. Ynyr picks up the folders and papers and lets himself into his office, dropping that onto his desk. He comes around to stand behind it, the hatch left open as he starts the computer to download yet more messages. He sips the hot beverage and begins to leaf through the folders and papers to see what he's got.

Randy's team took residue samples in pertinent areas, but it's old news she already informed Lleufer that they wouldn't be able to analyze them now given they don't have the equipment on board and the ship Orion is currently hiding. Still she somehow was able to sneak off for a few hours of sleep here and there, but never a full night. Still, after stopping by medical to get some stims, Randy rolls into HQ. Her hair is a bit more wily, like she tried to control some bed head at some point. She's at her desk already though, going over some reports when she spots Ynyr slipping into his office. Hopping up, she grabs the materials and knocks. "It's Lieutenant Flynn. You free for a moment?" She immediately smirks at her own word choice. Neither of them have really been 'free' since the attack.

Lleufer glances up at the knock, "Yeah, sure. Come on in and close the hatch. Want some coffee?" Lookie there. Ynyr snagged a coffee maker somewhere and set it up on a low cabinet so he doesn't have to go hunting for his refill anymore. "Pull up a chair. What have you got?" He moves a few things around on his slightly cluttered desk and takes a seat behind it. There are boxes stacked along the floor, due to be unpacked and filed but there is a chair available for her.

Randy slides into the office and closes the hatch behind her. She slips into one of the seats and scoots it up a little closer. "You remember I was telling you that we can't test residue stuff yet, but I built a model for how much material would likely have been used." She pushes forward what looks like a projection of an equipment and ingredients list. On the list, the line for the explosive component has the most likely contenders and the amounts. The G4 is highlighted. "My guys found 8 bricks of G4 and detonators missing from the Arms Locker on Deck Four, Fore. Naturally, I checked CCTV and our paper records. Everything looks like it was there 36 hours prior. The last coded access was the now deceased Master-at-Arms. It was accessed during the battle that killed the commo hub behind the lines, and it looks like he was the only one in and out. So we've got a window, plus since it's happened," which is important because, "The worst part is," she pulls the projected ingredients list back to the fore for him and points to the highlighted quantity. "That explosion only needed 4 bricks. There's more shite floating out there…This probably is just coincidence, but the last person to mention G4 in an attack on the Orion, as far as I can tell, was Gunnery Sergeant Knox. The strike he was supposed to pull off back when the Lines were still duped."

Ynyr listens, giving Randy his full attention. His mouth is thinned in a grave line as she briefs him on her findings. "So we have 4 bricks unaccounted for and mounting evidence to suggest the former MoA was in co-hoots with these bastards. And he got a knife in the back of his neck for his trouble as thanks." Lleu cocks his head slightly, "I'm not familiar off hand what strike you are referring to with Knox, Lieutenant. Jog a rusty memory for me?" He drums his fingers lightly on his desk, "This sure would be a good time to have bomb sniffing dogs on board. I'm not sure if that program I got started back on Piraeus has been continued, but surely we have something electronic to scan for explosive materials? We're going to need to go all over the reactor areas and I'm going to have to double up patrols and inspections in critical areas."

"I imagine he was being threatened. He was an idiot if he was doing it under duress. The APF are ruthless…Back when he was a sleeper agent." Randy jumps subjects back to Cooper again. "But I mean, it feels like grabbing at straws. Back when he was a sleeper agent, Knox had some kind of strike he was supposed to pull off involving G4, but he never did. Instead, he reported it. I'll look into what we've got on board, but I never had a chance to even look at our stock before the attack and then the jump away from Piraeus. Yeah. I agree. We're going bow to stern. And I requested a search of the exterior of the ship as well, just in case. We need to find these missing materials though. There's no telling /who/ this guy was handing off his materials off to..there might be /more/ saboteurs still on board," she points out. "So any kind of attempt to get unrestricted access, anything like that, could give us a bread crumb to catch someone as well."

Lleufer nods, "I think we clearly have at least one more person of concern. I don't believe our bomber killed the MoA. Someone could have seen it and prevented him from getting up on the stage so it seems too risky. I think it happened simultaneously, by a second perp." The now MaA grimaces, "It's hard to say what people might do if you have the right leverage. Use their families or greed against them." Another sip of coffee to try and make his head as clear as possible, chasing away the last fog of too little sleep, "Problem is, if we had a /new/ Six come on board or any of the other models, how would we know? They could just pose as someone else who'd been with us a while, knock'm off and take their place. Not maybe someone as well known as Knox, but some other who's been recently transferred in that none of us know personally?"

"I mean he was an idiot because they would do it anyways. They have no concept of loyalty as a principle anymore," Randy shrugs. It's clearly not critical so she lets it go after the minor clarification…sort of, "But you're right, and the tactics do work even if lots of people who are targeted don't see it's a zero sum game….There might be ways, but I don't think they'd ever be admissible in an investigation. We can look for mistakes, shallow trails of fabrication, the usual shite but, it's more important to find the materials first. I'll leave the suspect making to you. You've been trained for that stuff, but yeah, it's a place to start. We're going to have to start turning through everything from personal effects, even down in storage, to everything else. If it's not set, it's stashed."

The Gunny grimaces, "They won't be stupid enough to have it in a personal locker. Bricks are small. Could be stashed anywhere on the ship. We can search all we like but that's pointless, Flynn. We can better employ our time and manpower by locking down and watching key areas and seeing what we can do about a chemical smiffer. Synethtic or biological. Pass it up through Command so they are aware of the missing bricks, and our need for a means to sniff them out. Blind searches could take weeks and all the perp has to do in that case is move the stuff to where we've already looked."

Lleufer adds low with distaste, "Problem is, I don't even know if it's one my MP's. Who could have legit access to almost anywhere while on a patrol."

"…and if they're counting on us making that assumption? I'm not taking any chances. We don't have anything that can find or see residue, even if we did, we'd have to employ it manually…everywhere. It's just as good as me and the people I've assembled doing physical checks and it could cause us to miss something if they did it clean unless we're spraying it directly. Finding the person is impossible. Yes, we need to lock down key areas, but /my/ people can keep searching. If you have people in the right places then we can decrease their chances of being able to move it. At the very least, we need people guarding the high priority areas that you trust." Randy nods in agreement with Lleu's revelation of his issues. "I'll get the specs for the detonators, but they could bounce a cell signal if they wanted to hack one into an improvised device. It's more likely this person is going to use one of the detonators they stole though and they aren't bomber geniuses. I can figure out the range and figure out if we can possibly rig up something to jam it so it needs to be detonated manually," she suggests.

"Cell signals also don't pass through steel beams and walls, do they? So unless they rig a relay, they are more likely to set a timer don't you think?" EOD is her area of expertise, not his, but MP's still get trained in some basics. "You can go ahead and search but I'm going to try to come up with better ideas. After all the years of the war and since, we surely have other more intelligent options. Maybe not on the ship right now, but a Raptor can be sent to collect gear we need if we don't already have it on board. It would then make the searches more likely to turn up something, Flynn. We are talking about bricks small enough to hide under your clothes, right? So unless we are going to frisk everyone head to foot at every deck and hatch, my posting MP's all over isn't going to stop it being moved either. Which brings us back to key targets." Lleufer frowns, "Bombing the hangar was stupid. It gave us warning and relatively speaking, did little damage to the Fleet. They could have used that G4 a lot more effectively." Ynyr's gaze focuses on Randy, "It may not even be on the Orion. If say, they got it on Fencer's ship… "

He his head, "Anyway, I need to think about this for a bit and Command needs to be informed. I'll get on that."

"Wifi can, not very well, but there are things you can do to boost signal. They could create a private network with the device and send it a signal. Or, use the less secure network to get it there. Point is, there are possibilities and they aren't that hard to do, especially if they are someone with Fleet access. Timer is also possible, or a trigger based on something they expect to happen. All possible. I once saw a terrorist have their trigger based on the pressure in a plumbing facility reaching certain levels," Randy offers as a quick example. "Yes, we do have better gear out there, but that's assuming Command lets you send a Raptor out right now. If you get that permission, let me know. I want to be on it…No, it's not foolproof. I'm not saying any of these measures singly will stop an attack. I'm saying they make it harder to pull off. Yes someone can stuff, but higher screening procedures, frisking, other things could help cinch down movement or put pressure on the person to make a mistake. I agree it's /not enough/. And I think we /should/ be frisking in high risk and adjacent areas. It was a moral victory. It's possible they might target things like the Mess Hall if they want to do damage to morale." As Lleu brings up the possibility of it being on Fencer's ship, Randy sighs. "Possible, but that's easier to check unless someone planted it on an Arpay shuttling ship. Might want to check to see if any Colonials have had access to their ship then?" She shrugs as she throws the idea out there. "I'll keep the search lower priority than figuring out some kind of active jamming. Do you want me to get a list of shite we might be able to use in the investigation if we could send a Raptor out? Or should I hold off?"

Lleu listens and nods, "All right. I trust you to know all that better than I do, sir. Yes, let's have a list and we should pass it up to Command that Admiral Fencer needs to be aware, just in case." Ynyr makes a few notes, "I'll let you know about that Raptor."

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