Star Trek RPG - Mission #2: "Primum Nil Nocere"

Before Collins can speak, the comm panel chimes. Kylah taps a switch and you hear Capt. Singh's voice: "Lt. JG Collins: Your message has been received and understood. The situation on Cavinre VII is stable enough for us to leave, although the Ambassador is... not entirely pleased by my decision to do so. We will break orbit within the hour, and reach you, at maximum warp, in two days. You are to leave the space station and go aboard the shuttle, protecting the lives of any noninfected individuals, Federation or Sakathian, whom you meet along the way. If you can safely do so, recover any useful data from the Miskatonic project before leaving. Once aboard the shuttle, set course for Cavinre and we'll meet you along the way. Please acknowledge. Singh, S.P., USS Yorktown, commanding."

Collins takes a deep breath. "All right. We're leaving. Kylah, send our acknowledgement. Dr. Waite, work with her to recover and upload any project data to the shuttle; it'll have a greater memory capacity than our tricorders. Make sure it's a secure and encoded broadcast. Fujishiro, Rangin, can you walk?" They both nod, and Rangin stands, a little gingerly. "Good. We'll use the tools Dr. T'Var and Rangin found to protect ourselves, and pick up any other weapons we see along the way. I think our best way off the station is from one of the transporter rooms. We'll go to the nearest one, to the right down the access passageway that the doctor and Mr. Rangin went before. Right? OK. Hopefully we'll find Delaney and Hayes along the way." She pauses and chews her lip. "Any recommendations for marching order?"

T'Var sighs. "The injured should be secured in the middle of the group. Those who are the strongest and best capable of defending the group should be at the front and rear."

The doctor glances at Waite with a frown. Definitely placed with the wounded. She sighs again.

"I volunteer to lead the group," she says.

Kylah acknowledges and follows orders, gritting her teeth as she does. It seems pointlessly perilous to go as a group without scouting first, but there's no arguing with Starfleet. "Doctor," she says to Waite. "Please assist in transferring all project data to our shuttle, as requested." And don't even think of trying to hide anything from me, she adds silently with her most penetrating stare, suspecting Waite might not want the Federation to have access to all the experiment data if it implicates him in this dubious project. She's dealt with such secretive types before and is confident she'll know if he's trying to keep anything locked away--no matter where that data is stored.

As far as where her own position in the party should be, she's uncertain. Her physical strength is limited, there's no doubt of that. But her agility and expertise with knives gains what she lacks in power. She will not throw her remaining knife as she did her first, however; if she is to retain the one weapon in which she's most skilled, she must be prepared to stick to close contact fighting. Only if absolutely necessary will she fling this weapon as she did its twin earlier--and this time, she'll have to retrieve it no matter the risk. The knife is her only chance. If forced to use one of these blunt instruments, she might as well have no weapon at all.

So, T'Var in front. Pourtash or Collins in the back? Pourtash has been acting unlike himself, despite his claim not to have been injured, and Kylah hasn't been able to get a good sense of what kind of trauma he faced out there. He has yet to say more than ten words since he returned. Is he fit for battle?

Kylah dismisses her unease and turns to Collins. "I'll go wherever you put me," she says quietly--knowing the softer her voice, the less fear will make it tremble. "I am certainly not the strongest nor as weak as the injured, though I am poor at hand-to-hand combat with blunt weaponry." She hesitates. There's no point in keeping her stashed weapon a secret now; Collins might have seen her throw the first knife earlier anyway. T'Var certainly did, and of course the doctor will report this fact to the Captain. Very well. If we survive this sortie, let them discipline me all they wish.

With a swift move she pulls out her Elasian dagger from its sheath attached to her thigh. "But I have this knife, with which I am trained to fight either at close range or at throwing range. My aim is true in either scenario. So use me as you think best, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, Doctor, Ensign," Collins says, nodding to you both. She thinks a moment. "I'm in command and I'm the only Security officer here, so I'll go first, armed with one of the Sakathian crowbars. Dr. T'Var, you'll follow me, with the other crowbar. Fujishiro and Rangin, help each other along; Rangin, you take one of the cutting tools. Dr. Waite, as our sole civilian, you'll go next. Then Pourtash, also with a cutting tool. Then Kylah, bringing up the rear, with your dagger at the ready. Questions?"

Waite is having some trouble accessing the Miskatonic U. team's database, but Kylah is able to help him.

T'Var grabs one of the crowbars and prepares to move out. She does not mention to the group that she also has security experience as a former member of the V'Shar.

Of course, her main concern now is for the medical needs of the group. The doctor is particularly concerned with the injured and whether Collins is able to continue in command.

T'Var will keep a close eye on everyone as they progress through the station.

Kylah finishes transferring all the data she can to the shuttle, and, while the others take their places, quickly does a final auditory scan of the few remaining comm channels to see if she hears anything new that might be informative or, perhaps, indicate the location of their missing crewmates, Director Geb, or any of the other dozens of Sakathians who fled the mess hall with them once the lockdown alarm began. Presumably they're holed up in their quarters, but if so, why are they not responding?

If nothing new can be heard, she will follow Collins's wish and stand behind Pourtash, knife at the ready. She's glad for the opportunity to be near the young lieutenant so she can get a better sense of how he's doing. Bringing up the rear of the group is a trifle overwhelming and she would be much more at ease if Pourtash were at 100%. Then again, she'd also be much more at ease back on the Yorktown playing her zither, but wishing for ideal situations is not of much use right now.

Waite finally says, "OK, that's as many of the MU files as I can get to from here. Let's go."

Collins makes sure everyone's ready to go, and moves to unlock and open the door.

T'Var positions herself directly behind Collins, crowbar at the ready.

Since she didn't hear anything during her last-minute comm channel sweep*, Kylah takes her place as well.





* presumably

Rangin picks up the cutting tool feeling its weight and then moves to both assist, and be assisted by, Fujishiro.

"Ready..."

Kylah heard nothing at all during her last comm sweep, just quiet static. The station's comm system now seems to have crashed.

Collins looks back over her shoulder, sees that you're all ready, nods, and opens the door. In a tight group, you move out into the offworlders' residence corridor, which looks much like it did before. Collins leads the party towards the main corridor, which runs the length of the station, on your way to the parallel access corridor. She suppresses a gasp as she sees four dead and mutilated capybaras just outside the doorway. A fire is burning in a nearby doorway. The main corridor is even more strewn with blood and wreckage than earlier. You see no MU or Sakathian people, dead or alive.

Can Rangin see what might have caused the mutilation of the capybaras: teeth, claws or anything else?

T'Var is well aware of the sights and sounds the group will probably encounter on their way to the transporter. She hopes to find their missing crewmates -- alive and well -- along the way.

The doctor remains vigilant and focused as they all move through the corridor.

Kylah keeps all her senses open to both what's happening behind the party group as well as within it. She's still somewhat concerned about Pourtash, Rangin and Fujishiro; will they begin to exhibit signs of their attacks? Pourtash claims not to have been injured, but as far as she's aware T'Var didn't have a chance to check him out, and those dark stains on his uniform have yet to be explained--and he's been oddly silent about any of his experiences while roaming the corridors of the station.

Kylah doesn't like not trusting her crewmates but at this point she believes it's better to be safe than sorry. Fujishiro and Rangin did experience fevers, which indicates some kind of infection somewhere. Something is occuring within them, and Kylah is desperately worried that something might yet turn dangerous to both them and the party as a whole.

The mutilated capybaras suddenly remind her of the odd descripton T'Var gave them of the unmutilated stork. Are these new hybrid creatures only feasting on mammals?

Rangin takes a few moments to look at the animals' bodies. It's messy. He thinks teeth and claws or fingernails were probably used. The wounds are not consistent with what a Bolian stork would cause if it were to attack (and he knows that the storks are typically not at all aggressive, and did not attack him and T'Var when they saw them earlier).

Collins says, "Let's keep moving."

As the group keeps moving, Kylah looks at the fire and wonders how it might have started. First the communication systems are somehow destroyed, and now fires? Just what havoc are these creatures wreaking on the station--and why? Most of all she wonders if they have the same knowledge, even in rudimentary, bestial form, that the Sakathians do?

There's no question the Sakathian she spoke to earlier--the one who attacked her--recognized her direct address to him once she used his own language. Whether he understood her is anyone's guess. It certainly didn't seem to make a difference; he went after her nevertheless. Still, she holds out hope that there's some way, any way, to communicate with these new beings. The fact that they were created unwillingly gnaws at her. Perhaps it's mad to feel sympathy for what appear to be cannibalistic animals, but Kylah can't help but remember that these were thinking, feeling Sakathians who freely volunteered their lives for the sake of their people--via wrongheaded, unethical science, as it turned out, but they clearly had no idea what might result from these revolting experiments.

Kylah thinks of the resulting hybrids the way she does a wild beast forced into captivity. That such an animal bares its teeth to its captors and treats them as prey is hardly the fault of the beast; it is merely its nature. So while she'd rather not encounter any of them again, she also regrets that in all likelihood the creatures' blood will be shed, and they will ultimately be destroyed, all because of a freak accident that turned sentient beings into monsters.

T'Var looks about her constantly, fully aware that an attack could come at any moment. She grips the crowbar a bit tighter.

The party moves down the main corridor a short distance, reaching the turnoff to the access hallway, to your right. Collins leads the way. Suddenly she holds up a hand and you all stop. "I think I hear something up ahead," she says.

T'Var's sensitive Vulcan ears hear the sound of... rasping? Clacking? She can't be sure.

"I hear something as well," T'Var says. "We should proceed with great caution."

The doctor listens carefully. Are these sounds of the wounded or of an attacker?

Now that the group has stopped, Kylah can hear the noises too. She narrows her gaze and concentrates, trying to get a feel for what those sounds might be, or who--or what--is producing them.

Only Collins, who's in front, and T'Var, who of course has keen Vulcan ears, can hear the sounds. Kylah stops and concentrates, but cannot be sure whether or not she hears the noises.

"Mr. Rangin," Collins whispers, "please use your tricorder and scan ahead of us."

Fujishiro lets out a slight moan.

"If someone can help me please, scanning and assisting at the same time is a little tricky."

Once someone has helped support Fujishiro, Rangin will scan ahead with the tricorder.

"Are you in pain?" T'Var asks Fujishiro. The doctor scans Fujishiro with her medical tricorder.

Rangin's tricorder shows four Denebian slime devils just ahead, within 20 meters. Two of them appear to moving slowly towards you.

Fujishiro looks pale, sweaty and uncomfortable. She is slightly feverish. "I feel kind of weak and achy," she tells Dr. T'Var. The Vulcan sees that the scratch on her left forearm is a more pronounced red than before.

Kylah's eyes widen at the sight on Rangin's tricorder, and she clutches her knife reflexively. How are these things even still alive? I thought they only lived in swamps. Are these normal or have they changed in some way too? Damn these scientists to the farthest reaches of the Nethermost Realm! she thinks in fearful fury, cursing the Sakathian and MU workers to the lowest level of Elasian hell.

The sudden recollection that most, if not all, of the scientists are probably dead already--or altered into those foul hybrids--makes Kylah feel only a touch of guilt for her spite-filled thoughts. She takes deep breaths to calm herself.

T'Var administers a broad spectrum anti-biotic, anti-inflammatory and pain medications. Other than that, there is not much else the doctor can do for Fujishiro at this time.

"Well those things Slime Devils will eat anything and that includes us. Are there any other ways around, or would someone like to lead them to a better food source?" says Rangin. "The only good thing is that if they are there, there are unlikely to be anything else around, and I didn't detect anything else."

Fujishiro seems a little better after the shots, which T'Var administers by hypospray.

Rangin knows that Denebian slime devils prefer to stay in mud, but can live - and hunt - for two or three days outside it.

Collins says, "This is the best way to the access corridor, which runs the length of the station and will get us to the nearest transporter room. We could go back out in the main hallway, but I think we're more likely to run into those Sakathian... zombies out there."

Kylah isn't fond of Rangin's idea of someone leading the slime devils to an alternate food source--although a flash of grim humor makes her tempted to suggest using Waite for slime bait. She knows little about these beasts and asks Rangin, "How fast can they travel? They are moving slowly enough now; could we not outrun them?" With a glance at Fujishiro, she adds: "Perhaps Lt. Pourtash could help anyone who isn't able to move quickly."

"I concur with Mr. Collins," T'Var says with a sigh. "We must deal directly with the slime devils -- a far better choice than mutated Sakathians."

Rangin will answer Kylah's question as best he can on the slime devils on the best way to get round them, if one exists.

Rangin says, "They can move pretty fast when they want to - about as fast as a cat across level terrain. I don't know why they're moving slowly. I suppose it's possible they're stalking us. But it's--"

His tricorder beeps and, at that moment, two slime devils come charging out of the darkness of the access corridor ahead, their long, wickedly-sharp claws clacking. They are each about as big as a medium-sized dog and are greenish-black, unlike the one shown in this Starfleet xenobiological drawing: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...lime_devil.jpg

Collins and Dr. T'Var, in front, are directly in their path. Fujishiro and Rangin are behind them, followed of course by Dr. Waite, Pourtash, and Kylah.

T'Var moves forward immediately and attacks one of the slime devils with her crowbar. She uses all of her Vulcan strength to hit the slime devil again and again.

One slime devil leaps a surprising distance and lands squarely on Collins's chest, knocking her down. She doesn't lose her grip on the Sakathian crowbar, however, and is able to club it hard, knocking it off her and to her right. It quivers and remains there.

At the same time, the other slime devil scuttles along the deck towards T'Var. It jabs at her but she is able to hit it, and seems to injure it, although she can't be sure. It clacks its claws at her menacingly and doesn't back off.

Collins clambers to her feet, clobbers the fallen slime devil with the crowbar, then goes to assist T'Var in subduing the other beast.

Rangin will use the tricorder to detect whether the slime devil is down or will be getting back up.

T'Var continues her attack on the slime devil. She glances briefly at Collins, then returns her full attention to the task at hand.

Kylah rushes forward to slash at the beast attacking the doctor. She aims her always-sharpened blade at the creature's thin right foreleg in an attempt to put at least one of those lethal claws out of commission.

T'Var is grateful for the assistance of Collins and Kylah. It is always better to have comrades at your side in battle -- whatever form that battle may take.

Collins's slime devil is well and truly dead, Rangin's tricorder shows.

T'Var's slime devil turns as Collins and Kylah try, in the somewhat cramped corridor, to also attack it. They can't help but get in each other's way. T'Var swings her crowbar but misses. The slime devil hisses, a horrible gurgly hiss that makes Kylah's skin crawl, and it leaps and hits Kylah's shoulder, staggering her but not knocking her down. She slashes at it but only lightly wounds it as it drops back down to the deck.

Two other slime devils now come scuttling out of the dark. One leaps past Kylah and heads directly towards Dr. Waite, who screams. The other pauses, as if considering its options, and clacks its claws menacingly.

Brushing the stinging sweat from her eyes, Kylah tries to refocus. She suspects Collins and T'Var together are enough to fight T'Var's beast. At once her attention turns to the slime devil now attacking Dr. Waite. Instinctively she squints, lifts her left arm for balance and aim, and wheels her right arm forward, flinging her knife toward the olfactory hole in the creature's hideous face.

As he is currently behind the three, Rangin will engage the slime-devil to stop it reaching Dr Waite, hoping he can both surprise and distract it at this moment in time.

T'Var realizes quickly that the most logical course of action would be to deal with one slime devil at a time -- and once it's incapacitated or dead -- move on to attack the next one closest to her.

She gives all of her attention and strength to defeating the slime devil she's been battling. She notices Rangin moving to help Henry Waite and will join him in his effort when this particular devil is dealt with.

The slime devil leaps just as Kylah flings her knife. She misses the "nostril" or olfactory hole but hits its back, knocking it slightly off course in midair. The knife remains embedded in the slime devil, which lands on Waite's arm and not his chest, but it then falls at once to the deck. The Miskatonic scientist screams even louder and the slime devil immediately grabs his leg, biting him. Rangin moves in with the energy-beam cutting tool, deftly lopping off the predatory alien's left foreleg. The slime devil gives an unearthly cry, detaches from Waite and tries to leap at Rangin, but it is now permanently off-balance and flops again to the deck. Waite keeps screaming.

T'Var lands a glancing blow on her slime devil, but it still has plenty of fight left in it. It jabs at her and pierces her left shin, jabs and then misses, then hisses again.

The fourth slime devil remains where it was, still clacking its claws.

Vowing not to lose a second knife--and not really having much of a choice, with no other weapons--Kylah moves as quickly and quietly as her small body can toward the partially lame slime devil. She keeps a good meter away and bides her time, waiting for the animal to turn away long enough for her to grab hold of the dagger's hilt. When possible, she hopes to get another chance to plant the blade of it in its original destination--the vulnerable cavity in the slime devil's face.

She does her best to ignore Waite's screams, which aren't helping her concentrate; neither is the wild desperation so patently evident in the flolloping creature in front of her, which makes it harder for her to focus on the embedded knife. But her eyes track it carefully, waiting for her chance and trying to filter out both Waite's voice and her unbidden empathy for the wounded animal.

When the slime devil attacking T'Var is sufficiently subdued, Collins turns to survey the situation in the rest of the corridor. She sees the fourth beast biding its time and an idea hits her. She picks up the dead beast by its forearms and flings it at the waiting one, figuring it'll attack anything that attacks it.

Rangin tries to press what little advantage he has, trying to get between Dr Waite and the now injured slime devil. If he can keep it off balance, maybe Kylah can finish it off.

Ignoring the pain from her shin wound, T'Var continues to press the attack. She will kill this slime devil.

Kylah is able to recover her knife by grabbing the handle just as the slime devil turns to attack Rangin. She tries to stab it again but it lurches away just as her hand is descending. Rangin holds it at bay with his cutting tool, and it hisses at them both.

Collins flings the dead slime devil at the fourth creature, which squawks and shuffles backwards, away from her, shrugging off the corpse from atop it as it goes.

T'Var swings the crowbar and hits her slime devil again, this time on its right rear haunch. It quickly jabs at her once, then twice, missing both times.

Pourtash grabs Dr. Waite and pulls him back from the fight. The scientist, surprised, looks away from the slime devils and back at him, and stops screaming. He looks deeply embarrassed.

Kylah is relieved to feel the familiar warm strength of her knife's leather-wrapped handle back in her hand. She now knows it won't do much damage to the creature's carapace-like shell, but the slime devil's most vulnerable spot--the nasal cavity--is still her best option. "Rangin," she says softly, glancing briefly at the Coridanite who's been the closest thing she's had to a friend on this mission. "If you attack its face, the creature might try to protect itself by looking away, hopefully toward me. If it does, I will be ready to act."