Hayes has been through a lot on this station. She's feeling the pressure of fighting for her life.
Hayes has been through a lot on this station. She's feeling the pressure of fighting for her life.
Has Jovan been beamed to the shuttle yet?
Yeppers, see #1275:
Shortly after that, Porr was beamed up too (unconscious).Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Thank you
Um, her named changed a few pages back from Merrike Jovel to just Jovan. Unless there are other Sakathians? Also please don't make me go looking for it, but who is on the shuttle and who is on the station. I'd like to be able to answer the Captain accurately without "forgetting" something important
Yeah, I noticed the name change too. It's like Gev and Geb. These Sakathians is wily!
Shuttle: You, Fujishiro, Jovan, Porr, Waite
Station: Hayes, Delaney, Pourtash, Rangin, T'Var, Kylah, Mrs. Porr (deceased-ish).
Of the other main NPCs we've met, Director Geb is likely eaten or been altered herself. (It suddenly strikes me, why are some infected while others are eaten whole? Is it just that the infected folks got away quickly enough to avoid being killed outright?)
Last edited by choie; 22 May 2013 at 09:39 PM. Reason: spell wily right, nimrod!
Oops! Strive as I do for good continuity, sometimes I slip up. Sorry about that.
choie's list of who's where is correct. Thanks!
Dang anyrose, why didn't you just write "Now that everyone is back on the Yorktown, Collins reports to Singh about the mission"?
Seriously, a point of order? I think we have to be careful not to write stuff that, um, for lack of a better word, cockblocks either the GM or fellow players. Think of the options here:
- How do you know Kylah listens to T'Var and docilely gets on the transporter pad?
- Even if she does, how do we know the transporters even work while Delaney is trying to change their configuration, considering no one seems to have asked him that question?
- Even if the transporters work and Kylah, Hayes and Rangin get on the pads preparing to transport, how do we know that before anything else happens, Porr's wife doesn't leap for Kylah, T'Var or Rangin's throat and necessitate a whole different course of action?
- Hell, how do we know before Kylah can even get to the transporter pad, Mrs. Porr doesn't immediately successfully open the door now to let in her fellow creatures and we end up with a battle royale on our hands?
The first option is my decision, and the rest are all up to Elendil's Heir to tell us. I know I'm new at RPGs so this is presumptuous but I'm pretty sure we can't make assumptions about stuff that we don't have control over or we'll look goofy (and the game continuity gets broken) when EH corrects us. We've all had that happen at least once to us during this mission.
Just saying, I think we should be careful not to telescope time or assume actions that aren't in our own PC's control. (I mean, yipe, the Yorktown is still two days away. God only knows what EH has planned in the interim!)
Last edited by choie; 26 May 2013 at 12:26 PM.
Just because Collins said it doesn't mean Kylah has to comply - why start now?
Ha! True enough.
Okay - I posted early; I was going on the assumption that T'Var was sending her back to the shuttle
choie's essential point is sound: You can say your character is going to try to do something, or (if he or she has the authority to do so) order another character to do something, but then leave it to me as to how it turns out. If anyrose, for instance, wrote, "Collins brushes her teeth," that's fine. Or even "Collins fires her phaser," that's fine too. But "Collins fires her phaser and hits and kills the bad guy," presumes too much. If the action your character is undertaking is complicated, or depends upon skill, chance, luck or cooperation by others, then just state what you are trying to do, and not the end result.
Sidenote to the player gang: Oookay, well, this ain't good. Guess killing her wasn't a brilliant plan. OTOH if Mrs. P. got the door open, we'd have one more creature to worry about, so her death at least leaves us with one less to worry about. Also, if Rangin, Kylah & Hayes were beamed away, that'd leave T'Var, Delaney and Pourtash to deal with this horde. Eh, I'm just hoping this isn't Kylah's fault!
Now a question for our GM: Could you please give us a count of the handheld weapons we've got? Are there any other phasers left from the batch Collins sent us?
Here's what I remember: originally, the only weapon was the phaser Collins grabbed from the dead security guy a few hallways back; after she aimed it at Porr, he stunned her, she dropped the weapon, and during the fight, Rangin grabbed it. T'Var (or someone else...?) grabbed the phaser Porr dropped. Once Collins revived, Ranging gave her back the phaser. Then she beamed over to the shuttle with it.
So that leaves Porr's phaser and the others that Collins beamed over. Hayes has one, Pourtash has one, and now T'Var has Kylah's (and possibly another one?). How many are left? Enough for Kylah and Delaney?
One last question: How far away is the second group of creatures from the entrance? Right behind, or is there any room between the groups (since the 11 were mentioned as being further away before, I'm hoping there's some space).
(Are these things okay to ask here? From what little I know of "live" RPGs, players seem able to ask the GM questions OOC, so I'm hoping this is kosher. I'd rather not break up the actual game thread with questions since it takes us out of the story. But if I should be asking the questions there, let me know.)
Last edited by choie; 30 May 2013 at 12:36 AM.
Isn't this usually the point that someone gets dragged outside by the zombies and messily eaten alive to everyone else's horror.
Oh wait...
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
choie, yes, this is the right place to ask these questions. By my count, the party has three Starfleet phaser-2s beamed over from the shuttle, and two Sakathian phasers, as well as various other scavenged tools and implements of destruction. The phasers are your best bet, though. If Delaney continues working on the timed beamout sequence with the tricorder and is thus unable to shoot, and if Kylah re-arms herself, that leaves you with one phaser each.
There are 14 zombies, some now in the room and others right behind them. There may be, and quite likely are, others elsewhere in the station.
CIAS, you never know what might happen...!
Forgot to mention... WES is having some Internet access problems. She'll be fully back among us as soon as she can. Thanks for your patience.
Oh man what an inopportune time to lose the person currently in charge who's also our best fighter! Poor WES, I hope she'll be back soon!
Permission to come aboard, EH?
I'm finally back online! What a mess. We had nasty storms last night where I live in upstate NY. Tornado warnings, etc. We lost power for about three hours. When it came back on, I had no cable TV (terrible thing when you're a fan of both the Yankees and Mets -- and they're playing each other in the subway series). Worse yet, I had no internet. My first thought was similar to Choie's -- this is a really bad time to lose my internet! I can't post to the game thread when all hell is now breaking loose! My comrades need me!
I was so desperate to find out what was going on, I used my mom's very old webtv to reach this thread -- took a lot of doing, let me tell you. Then, to make matters worse, I could read the latest posts, but was unable to post myself.
I sent EH several emails, asking to post on my behalf until I had my regular internet service back. Many thanks to EH for taking the time to do this for me.
So glad to be back. Even though it was only for a short time, I really missed this group. You're all the best. It's an honor to serve with each and every one of you. Now let's take care of these darn "zombies" and get the heck off this darn station!
Last edited by WES; 30 May 2013 at 05:02 PM.
Great to have you back, WES, and glad to help!
Is the comm still on? Does Collins hear the commotion and Delaney's declaration?
No one said an open channel was being maintained IIRC, so I will assume not.
Oh dear, stunned under a pile of dead zombies. It's not Rangin's day, is it?
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Count your blessings. At least they're not chewing on him... yet.
Rangin's right arm would like to disagree
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Biting =/= chewing.
I've no doubt Collins's phaser has plenty of juice left, O Game Master.
Fixed. Thanks.I've no doubt Collins's phaser has plenty of juice left, O Game Master.
So T'Var is holding four phasers?! And is Delaney going to respond to T'Var's request that he teach her how to run a transporter remotely, or can he somehow do it while standing on a transporter pad?
And how far are those Sakathians that Kylah saw down the hall?
Last edited by choie; 05 Jun 2013 at 08:14 PM.
Yes, we'll see, and don't know yet, respectively.
Thank you good sir! Hmm, I'm gonna assume Kylah's really bad at judging distances, if she couldn't tell how far away the creatures were! (Which is entirely possible; I'm not very good with them myself.)
Notes that I didn't have time to edit into my last post:
See #927, here for Fujishiro's stating she wasn't wounded, and #975 for her appearing unbitten but with only a bleeding scratch.
Interestingly, Rangin has been bitten twice, two separate times (first during his and T'Var's reconnaissance mission, and of course during the last battle) and yet he's not showing anywhere near the same level of damage. That first bite predates Fujishiro's scratch, too, so it's not a timing thing. Maybe it's his different race that makes him less vulnerable to the infection. That might be something to investigate, team mates.
...and people wonder why Rangin scanned himself...
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I'm a big Rangin fan. Far as I'm concerned, Rangin, Kylah and Hayes should be starring in their own version of "Lower Decks." One pip good, two or more bad!
(Yes I know there were no pips in TOS-era.)
You raise excellent points, choie. I will say only that what you noted is NOT the result of continuity errors.
Check out the upcoming movie Europa Report, about a privately-funded mission to one of Jupiter's moons that (of course) goes awry - looks like it could be good:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2051879/?ref_=sr_1
Yay, we're back!
BTW I have no idea if what I just wrote for Kylah is the correct procedure for an incoming message considering the circumstances.
I don't think Rangin will be doing much in the main thread until someone manages to cure him.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Not to worry, CIAS! I'm sure Dr. T'Var will do everything in her power to cure Rangin.
If it all goes horribly wrong, at least I have a backup character. He's not very good at chess though.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I beg to differ with CIAS. Mr. Johnson is much better at chess than he gives himself credit for. And I am hopeful that the medical staff will restore Mr. Rangin to full health ASAP.
Perhaps the good Dr T'var can enlighten Mr Johnson on where he went wrong and what he could do to improve his game
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
Hey I'm a bit confuzzled by the timeframe due to the varied posting times. (Rangin posts in the early a.m., T'Var around 10ish ET, Collins midday, and our GM anywhere from 10PM - midnight.) So there's inevitably some cross-posting when EH responds to our various activities in the same post, even though they may be occuring at different times. For example, Kylah fell asleep in the same post where Collins and T'Var were waking up, ditto Rangin.
But can I assume that Kylah fell asleep last night, probably after T'Var/Collins, and is now waking up just as everyone else is? I'm pretty sure that's fine, I just want to make sure it's okay to say that Kylah had a good long rest even though technically it seems as if she was up all night.
In short, I guess I'm asking: as of now, how much time has passed since Kylah fell asleep / the thur'lel was sent off to Vargas? Can I assume it's been about 7 - 8 hours and I'm all caught up with the rest of the gang?
Do you mind, I post in the middle of the day
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
That sounds about right. People slept different lengths of time, some quite long, after the restless last day on the space station and the discomfort of the crowded shuttlecraft.
Ooh whoopsy, Cat in a Suit! I was speaking of my own time zone. Didn't realize where you were! The one time I was fortunate enough to go to England, we stayed in a house in Sutton about 15 minutes away from you! Of course I was about 5 or 6 at the time so my memories are dim.
Thanks for the info Elendil's Heir, and also for speeding time up a bit.
Though we're now touching the edge of my knowledge of my character's job (it is a nebulous job, after all). Just what in the heck does an asst. communications officer do all day when she's not on the bridge? Junior engineer officers are down in Engineering, junior security officers would be, uh, guarding or training or doing whatever it is they do around the ship, junior medical officers would be in sick bay... but comm officers? Somehow I imagine them all hanging out in some room like old-fashioned telephone operators, putting wires in slots to connect each communicator to another thousands of times a day. "Comm Panel 3874, please hold the line..."
Tried to do research but all I could find was "Is ready to replace the Chief Comm Officer on the Bridge." Or there are some specialists who help with decoding and language (stuff Kylah is good at) but surely there aren't all that many calls for that on a ship like the Yorktown. Unless the thur'lel info needs some kind of knowledge of Sakathian idioms that the UT can't handle, I'm not entirely sure how my poor girl's gonna spend her time!
Good question, choie. There was reference in one of the TOS novels - I forget which one - to a Communications center belowdecks on the Enterprise, and it sounded kind of like the call center or Ma Bell phonebank you jokingly describe, but that kind of thing has never been shown on any of the shows that I know of. In our game, I suppose a mix of training, maintenance, diagnostics, decryption and monitoring of Federation-wide subspace message traffic would make sense, esp. since the Comm duty officer on the Bridge would presumably be too busy for much of that. What do you think?
Okiedoke, all that makes good sense! Thanks.
That makes sense to me. Think of how massive the sum total of human knowledge now is... now think of how vast the store of a multispecies, interstellar society would be! Whew.
A librarian's dream! (Or nightmare...)
As long as I have you on the line, as it were: for some reason I don't recall whether those flip-phone type communicators were ever used in TOS for inter-ship communications. (Remember my knowledge is primarily TNG-era based, so it's all about the combadges, baby!) How would Kylah or whoever normally report for duty or get in touch with someone--via the communicators, or would they use the comm panel system? With my dim recollection of TOS episodes, I only remember the phone-esque communicators being noticeable on away missions, used to communicate with the ship or vice-versa. What would be the correct process on board the ship among the crew?
Last edited by choie; 13 Jul 2013 at 08:34 PM.
The great majority of time, TOS-era shipboard communications were carried out on the small, bulkhead- or table-mounted comm panels, like these:
Kirk using one: http://alancastillo.com/sitebuilder/...SG-581x600.jpg
Just to the right of Spock's computer terminal here: http://www.filmjunk.com/images/weblo...abble50_10.jpg
And by Scotty's right hand: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3271/...3750286603.jpg
But if a crewmember was away from such a panel, and needed to stay in one spot while working (such as Sulu in a Jefferies Tube, for instance), communicators could of course be used: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__...eries_tube.jpg
For the comm panels, to reach someone, you just punched the TALK button and said, for instance, "Kylah to Lt. Thalen." The ship's computer automatically routed your call to wherever he was - applying AI to a mix, I suspect, of (a) where he was supposed to be at that time of the day on the ship's duty roster, (b) where his communicator, if he was carrying one, showed him to be, and (c) the place in the ship from where he last sent a message of his own. Although I don't remember it ever happening, I could see a situation arising that if Ens. Smith (a) was not at his post, (b) was not carrying a communicator and (c) had not used the comm system himself, there would be no answer to your call. You could then either leave a message on his cabin voicemail or, in an emergency, page him over the comm system shipwide.
What do you think?
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 14 Jul 2013 at 08:27 PM.
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