... A powered ascent into deep space right into the arms of the orbital patrols is quite another. ...
Key issue is whether a ship at range is going to be able to detect a man-size target rising from the surface. No giveaway neutrino emissions, using the chill cans on the way up to minimize heat signature, presumably radar-stealthed, very small compared to the kind of targets ships are usually looking for, possibly over the horizon from the other ships depending on the size and distribution of the interdict squadron and coming up against the background of a planetary surface rather than floating against nothingness. The only thing I can think of that gives them away is mass and passive light reflection, maybe radar if it's strong enough to pick up a man-size stealthed target. I'm thinking nobody's going to see something that small coming up unless they're actually looking downward to see what might be coming up, and then only if they're looking in the right place.
And
if they do, their likely response is to order the closest ship to investigate - which is going to be the ship that the ground team wants picking them up (unless the ground team is foolish enough to make a bee-line for their ship). That gives the ground team a chance to board, and the pick-up ship a chance to buy some time by dishing out some story about picking up and interrogating miscreant adventurers. At that point, the jig will eventually be up and the ship can make a dash for the jump point, and between a DE's native defensive abilities and the initial confusion on seeing one of their own suddenly bug out, the DE should be able to make jump without having to do more than point-defense fire. After that, it's a matter of making the DE "disappear" and getting its occupants back to base.
World's TL4, which means the locals understand radio even if they can't broadcast or receive voice transmission. They likely have Marconi wireless telegraphs. They almost certainly have telescopes, which means either they know the interdict squadron is up there or the squadron is taking pains to remain hidden - perhaps nonreflective black paint so the only thing that might give them away on telescope is a random chance of occluding a star on a photographic plate. If they're trying to remain hidden, would the interdict squadron take pains not to point radars groundward, or would the radars be likely to operate in frequencies that the locals wouldn't detect? I'm not real familiar with radar or Marconi-era radio detection gear.
...As I said, the team size is dictated by the dramatic roles I need filled. But I don't think it's over-large for an Alpha team. Half a dozen survey specialists and half a dozen support personnel (guards and bottle-washers). Does that sound excessive?...
Mmm - maybe not. World's supposed to be xenophobic, and you're supposed to be pretending to be a survey team, so I guess there'd be a fair-size contingent of redshirts expected to accompany the "survey team".
According to CT grav belts can achieve orbit, and once again in accordance with CT the vac suit re-entry kit is part of the vacc suit package. Grav belts cost Cr100,000, vacc suits cost Cr10,000. Errata in LBB4 supposedly lowered the cost of the grav belt to CR10,000, but in 81 edition CT, TTB and SE the cost is still given as Cr100,000 so I don't know if the errata applies or not since three subsequent versions of the core rules post LBB4 do not include it.
MT continues with the tradition of 100,000 credit grav belts - 4 hour charge at TL12, 8 hour charge (and Cr110,000) at TL 15. Thing is, you can make one for a lot less than that (I'm hitting around Cr30,000). Only hangup is the MT requirement for controls makes for a bulky model the size of a large camping backpack (and I guess you'd call it a liftpack instead of a grav belt), so you do get some value for the extra cost of the book grav belt. (You can also make some nifty and very affordable little flying chairs at lower tech levels. I'll run some examples up when I have a moment.)
