Shore Leave: Cottage 114

"Sometimes I think she only grudgingly tolerates me as well but that's just how she is", Helena replies with a laugh. "When you go back there, would you mind getting her a new drink? Preferably synthehol. She doesn't need to get too drunk too quickly again."

Helena winks and says: "No comment"

After Cassandra finishes her announcement, everyone goes back to their conversations.
Cassandra thanks Cass for the drink when she returns and when Cass sits back down, Cassandra asks in a conversational tone: "Have you talked to Lt. Vitan yet?"

Before any of the conversations can pick up any speed and before Cass can reply, the group's attention is drawn to the side of the house as three people suddenly show up there, two men and one woman. They are all wearing casual civilian clothes and they walk into the garden without saying anything at first. They keep some distance to the table and stop walking a few meters apart from each other. The man in the middle - tall, fit, dark hair with some grey streaks - looks around the gathered group, his eyes resting longer on some people than on others. Cass can feel his gaze on her for a while before it moves on.
"Good evening", he says with a loud, cold voice. "I hope we're not interrupting anything important. This will only take a minute."
Those around her notice that Vega curses quietly and sinks down in her chair a little bit as if trying to make herself less visible.

Cassandra gets up from her chair and steps between the man and the table. "Who are you and how can we help you?", she asks. Her voice sounds tense.
"We'll be out of your hair in just a minute. We just have a question. Here, let me show you something."
He smiles and reaches behind his back, his eyes carefully observing the gathering around the table.

In a swift movement, the man pulls out a phaser and points it at Cassandra, who is standing in front of Cass, blocking the man from having a clear shot at her but also blocking Cass from having a clear shot at him.
Right after he pulls his phaser, his two companions do the same, the man aiming at Max, the woman at Helena, who is still standing at the barbecue.
"I don't recommend playing the hero", the man announces, not to anyone in particular. He does not seem to have noticed Moira's fiddeling yet or he does not regard it as a threat as he doesn't pay special attention to her. "These phasers are set to kill."

The intruders are all in their mid thirties, white and tall with dark hair. The man who has been speaking until now looks almost deliberately scruffy. He has dark beard stubble, black and grey hair that is just slightly messy and a noticeable but not disfiguring scar above his right eye. The other man has a thick beard and no scar but otherwise looks very similar, not in facial structure but with the almost deliberate rough look. The woman fits the same style. Short dark hair, messy but not too much, a small but distinctive scar on her lip. The woman is not the same as the one Alira encountered earlier but she notices that the phasers that the three are carrying are the same model as the one Alira had been threatened with that morning.

The leader of the intruders says: "You two, sit down please. Everyone, no sudden movements. Nobody has to die if you do exactly as we say."

Cassandra sits down at the head of the table again, her hands raised to show that they're empty as she's moving. "Nobody is resisting, just let us know what you want", she says.
Helena also sits down at the table, next to Cassandra on her designated seat. Barely moving her lips and out of the PCs audible only to Zephyr and Cass, she whispers: "I have a phaser under the table."

The leader nods towards the other man who lowers his phaser and reaches into the bag he is carrying. He pulls out a datapad.
The leader then says: "We need command level spacefleet access codes to give authorization to our little project. Captain Theliak and Commander Cassano, would you mind coming here to help us out?" His eyes focus on Theliak as he calls him out but he doesn't seem to be completely sure which of you is Commander Cassano.