I Spy Mission Log - Entry 05


Kerr puts down the radio and goes to the back of the cargo plane with the rest of the team. "We need a plan. It is to be that we land at the base or push on to Ellsworth?"

"We need to decide what's more important - getting in contact with Dr. Jameson, or getting into Whiteout Base," Shadowcat offers. "A faked crash landing, or a forced landing due to mechanical failure *would* be a pretty good cover story for us."

She glances suspiciously at Jack. How convenient about that bomb, she thinks to herself.

Jack is almost completely oblivious to those around him, for the moment. He's trying very hard not to panic, even though his first reaction is to do just that. He, of course, has never parachuted, has been to the snowfields only a couple of times on holidays, and is about as far from being an outdoorsman as you can get. Shaking a bit, he wonders what a 'bug geek' (like a computer geek but worse 'cause _nobody_ knows what he's talking about), is doing on a job like this.

Baragli interjects, "I'm strongly against crashing at whiteout base because obviously they know who we are."

Shaking his head about how this situation has really hit the fan, McHale brings up the 'turn back' option. "Obviously, someone at Whiteout Base already knows about our mission and has sabotaged it for us. And, as we know, once the intelligence agencies have failed to solve a problem (and the leak in our organizations represent a failure) then the government has two options with regard to that problem: 1) ignore it or 2) go with a purely military solution and call in a combat team to kill them all."

Surprised by who made the suggestion, Kerr reiterates that turning back is no longer an option. "We've only got the fuel for a couple of hundred miles in any direction."

Snapping back to reality, Jack thinks it would be helpful to get below the cloud cover and see what surface conditions are like, but refrains from mentioning it as he doesn't expect that it's a reasonable request.

McHale thinks for a moment before speaking. "At this point, the only way for us to complete or mission is to break the chain between our team and the leak. If we can convince the leak (or rather, the folks at Whiteout base) that we are truly harmless (or don't exist) then we can go on.

"But from here on out, this is a sneaking type of job; a break-in, arrange a ride home, smash/grab/kill, and run type of affair. We no longer have the luxury of 'covers' or 'aliases' or anything other that stealth and brute force."

After a brief silence, Kerr elaborates on his thoughts for landing. "Ellsworth would make sense, because for some reason we were headed towards Siple, which is close enough to Whiteout Base, to be considered the same. Whom ever sabotaged the plane, must have compromised the pilot also.

"So going to Siple is what they want, therefore pushing on to Ellsworth, is what they don't want. And unexpected. But why the bomb, if they had the pilot in their pocket? So we're doing the unexpected by surviving at all, and landing at Siple would follow their plans.

"Needless to say, I don't want to make the people who did this lives, any easier. So, why don't we land (or crash) at Whiteout base? I still think we need a good cover story, and I'm sure we can think of a good one before we touch down? Right?

"As for ideas, I'll start. We're technicians sent to Siple or Ellsworth and we had an accident." Then looking over at Jack, "Or if you prefer, a crash."

As the team seems to have decided on the crash scenario (Baragli caved in when there were no other suggestions), Shadowcat suggests that they hit 5-10 miles from Whiteout base, in the opposite direction from Camp Perez. "Whiteout should clearly be the closest base that we could get to for help."

At this point, Shadowcat asks if Hogan thinks he can do a soft landing on the snow, or should they bail out and let the plane crash?

This sort of talk worries Jack. "I would like to land with the plane if it's an option. If we must bail out, I must remind you that I am not used to this sort of thing. I was brought along for the skills that I have and jumping out of planes is not one of those skills; I'll need someone to help me through the jump."

McHale answers Shadowcat with "It sounds like Hogan will be able to handle the 'barely land the plane safely' part. I like the fake crash idea only because I haven't heard better. So far, everything about this mission is thin. If we go with the fake crash, how do we explain the outside team members being missing?

"Anyway, the first thing to do is to ditch our transponder. Hogan should know what that is. That way, air traffic controllers (and hostile forces) will only be able to track us via radar, not from a signal we're sending out."

All the while, Martin has been strapping together her equipment and gearing up for the jump. "Assuming the team is splitting up, it would be better if half of us land with the plane and the other half exit early."

Shadowcat suggests that if the ground team wants to get into Whiteout looking harmless - they can pose as group of explorers; that would explain the weapons and the fact that most of them are a bit more macho than research scientists, she says with a wry grin. She then separates her equipment by what she's taking and what's to be cached out in the wilds.

Hearing yet another implausible excuse for why they would be there, McHale laughs out loud. "God, they KNOW WHO WE ARE! NO COVER WILL WORK! OUR COVER IS BLOWN!"

Taking on the manner and tone of a used car salesman McHale chides, "Uh, yeah, we're scientists, that's it. And we're here to study radioactive, uh, penguins, yeah. And our plane, uh, malfunctioned, not that we believe it was done on purpose or anything, so instead of turning back and figuring out who screwed us, we flew on to our unknown destination and just happened to crash in your front lawn. Can we have a cup of hot cocoa and a little privacy to snoop around?"

In the awkward silence that follows McHale's tirade, Martin thinks whoa, poor kid (looking at Jack). And he thought things were looking up when he found out they wouldn't all be jumping. "Right. Get yourself together man, and lets go over any ideas you have for the two team plan."

McHale takes the lead. "In order for the split group/fake crash plan to work, we need to: 1) work out a communication system from inside the base to the great outdoors and 2) Decide on the teams. The outside group is Sue Martin, Kristin Jones and me."

Shadowcat nods approval to McHale for referring to her as Kristin Jones. Using an Alias would be WAY too suspicious. She agrees to go with the outside force. "My skills at infiltration and security would be useful to the outside group."

McHale continues. "Everyone else is inside. Deciding factors: Me, pretty obvious. I think Kristin has some combat experience. Sue is on active service with MI6 and should have some good training as well. If not, she's young and strong and will be an asset for the entry process.

"Hogan would be a natural for outside, but he has to land the plane. Jack Thompson would be a help with the break in, but he needs to be inside to let me in case I can't break in. Also, there's the question of combat experience. For everyone else it depends on experience in the field and a few unanswered questions like training and physical capabilities."

Jack asks about radios for communication. Brennan had made sure that each member of the team was equipped with field radios before they left; however, Thompson was not part of the picture at that time. Since they don't have extras, Jack pulls an audio pickup, speaker, and radio transmitter from his stash to use as a makeshift radio for the himself. During the time it takes to land the plane, he works to improve the 'radio' to allow a sort of push-to-talk and channel selection functionality.

Jack then suggests that perhaps each person take a flare in case any group member gets separated in the drop or landing.

McHale looks up from gathering tools for the outside group. Drumming his fingers on the footlocker he replies, "not much for stealth, wouldn't you say." Then under his breath, 'amateur.'

After splitting into teams and reading their gear, McHale goes forward to the cockpit and bring Hogan up to date. Once there, he also remembed that nothing but static could be heard on any frequency over the plane's radio. But what about our comm gear? His satellite cellular phone doesn't seem to be operational this far south, but his S.E.A.L. satellite comm gear magniphones definitely is.

Upon learning Jones has a similar set of gear, McHale and Hogan both agree that having such a set with both teams would facilitate communication. So McHale trusts Hogan with his set.

Martin uses this time to grab her tools and go disconnect the plane's transponder.

Before team one jumps, McHale suggests team two spend their remaining flying time investigating what happened to the rest of the crew (co-pilot and flight engineer and navigator/comm person). Was the door blown off (with mangled hinges)? That would imply that they were IN the plane when it blew and they just fell out, being dead and all. If the hinges are intact, well, that means that somebody incapacitated somebody (we haven't i.d.'ed a body yet) and then that somebody set the charge, blew the doors and jumped.

With that, a horn goes off as Hogan indicates that they are in position for the jump team to make their exit. The pulls easily open, decompressed and at low altitude. With three 'whoop's, the team is gone...

Anna Baragli Shadowcat Tim McHale Michael Kerr
Sue Martin Robert Brennan Col. Hogan Jack Thompson