Shore Leave: The Security Office

Mars brings out some digital maps of the island. Looking at the size of the island makes Alira realize that a ground search will not be easy.
"We definitely don't have enough personnel for an effective search. There are a number of security officers here on shore leave that we can involve. I'm hesitant to call in cadets for this but if we pair them with experienced officers and have them keep an eye on the cadets, it would make the search more effective. Unless we want to have this search take weeks, we need to focus our efforts on certain regions, however. The island is too large to search it in its entirety."

Mars points out a number of buildings on the map. "There are a couple of structures on the island that have been taken out of commission but that still exist. If we're looking for possible hideouts, there are a few dozen warehouses on the island. If we're assuming that they are working on some bigger plan, we should possibly investigate the two decommissioned terraforming stations. They have been taken on the power grid and should be almost impossible to take back online without a full spacefleet engineering team and a lot of time but they might still contain sensitive equipment and data that could be stolen."

"We have transporters on CC1, they can beam us directly to where we need to go. Do you want to join the seach team yourself or supervise the mission from here or the station? And how about you, Mr. Borealis?", Mars asks. "If you have any special requests for members of the search teams, let me know. I will fill up the rest with suitable officers since I know my people better than you do."

Mars laughs at that. He's been completely professional but in his reaction, Alira can sense some tenseness being released. "I understand, Lieutenant. You were asking for this cadet earlier, Lisa Wilde, do you want her to join your search team?" He turns to Zephyr. "What about you?"

"Close the door, please", he says and after you do, he gestures for you to sit. He sits down as well and so do the Darcies. "I apologize for making you wait but I have sensitive information and I needed to make sure you can be trusted with it. Cassandra told me that you are trustworthy and I trust her judgment."
He smiles warmly at Moira, looking more like a friendly uncle than an admiral, before he explains: "It was no coincidence that I was close enough to quickly respond to your distress call. According to spacefleet intelligence, the Naplicans have been planning to send a strike team to this planet to steal the terraforming technology we used to create it. The information did not seem very reliable but I'm afraid it has been confirmed. The name that was mentioned, Endra Learse, is a weapon smuggler in the neutral zone. She has been selling weapons to the Naplicans and our intel suggested she would be part of this mission." He pauses before continuing. "We also have information that Naplicans may have infiltrated certain key positions on Caspera, which is why I couldn't speak about this openly. According to our information, security on this planet might be under Naplican control."

"We have reason to suspect Lt. Mars himself may be compromised but no proof as of now. Lt. Vitan will lead the search for the missing people and the kidnappers under my supervision. You will officially also be running the search but what I actually need you to do is, together with Cassandra, investigate security. If you need any other help, pull someone from your crew, someone you can trust, and only report to me personally." He scratches his beard as you ask your last question. "If you have a plan to draw them out, great, but submit it for my approval first. This is too important to allow for any margin of error"

Tanner beams up to his ship after telling Moira to "stay in contact".
Helena raises her hands in defeat. "I'm not trained for this kind of thing. Give me a job and I'll do it but you two should come up with a plan."
Cassandra nods at her sister, then turns to Moira: "If Mars is working with the kidnappers, his reaction if we tell him we caught them might be interesting. We would have to make it believable, though. Or we can try to look through the databases, see if we find any inconsistencies that might support the admiral's suspicions."

"I'm sure we can find some excuse to access a computer in here and access a database. As for getting into files that Mars wouldn't want us to see and not getting caught, you and Helena know more about computers than I do. You two should handle that."

Cassandra nods and leaves to find someone who can direct her to the prisoner.
Moira and Helena get to work on a terminal. They quickly find out some information:
1. The island is currently on lockdown. Guests are beind held in their accommodations and, by order of Admiral Tanner, are not being evacuated yet. There is information on all the attacks that have happened. If you want to know anything more specific about them than what Mars told you, ask me. What you do discover is that the attack on a bar that you were told about happened at Stone's. The one person who died there was Ensign Geoffrey Simmons. He got pushed to the ground and trampled. Stone is among the injured but only lightly and he'll be fine.
2. There are pages after pages of intel on Naplicans. You know all the basics. You don't find any information specifically about the infiltration/conspiracy or anything relating to Caspera-13 but if Tanner is trying to hide the fact that he knows about it from the conspirators, that's not too surprising. There have been some fleet movements along the neutral zone recently but if you want to interpret what they coul mean, you would need to roll for that. It's all highly technical in an area you're not an expert in. Again, if you have any specific questions I might be able to answer them for your roll.
3. You find a total of eight officers who have had previous encounters with Naplicans before. Nothing unusual. Patrolling along the neutral zone, attending diplomatic meetings with them as security staff. There is only one officer on the planet security staff list, a Lt. Drzenu Onac, who has been on board of a vessel during an open fight with Naplicans.
You discover that, in his function as security officer of the USS Spirit, Mars has attended a diplomatic meeting with some Naplican officials, only two months before he was reassigned here.