Star Trek: Starbase 777

With a sharp, deep breath, she took a leap off of the horse and towards the roof, that feeling of weightlessness registering quite strongly in her mind. She landed, on her feet surprisingly, with a massive grin on her face.

1

Right as T'leka gave the signal, Sak dismounted his horse and put all his strength towards jumping to the roof. Unfortunately, he did the mistake of looking down and felt the fear of god in his bones and didn't stick his landing. He fell on his own face, with a thud. "Drats! That hurt."

Sidak followed, leaping off her horse and landing with assumedly a much louder thud than Suun. But he still landed on his feet! Success!

“Everything alright, ensign?” She glanced at Sak, after hearing a loud, face-to-roof thud, “I’m glad you made it over with us.”

Eiheu successfully landed on the roof of the train. She landed on her feet at first, but her speed still caused her to fall over and do a little half-roll before coming to a stop. Good thing she didn't fall off the train!

He winced as he got back on his feet. "Yeah, i'm fine, just made the mistake of looking down."

Why was everyone wincing? Saren felt just fine, just peachy. He stood up, casually dusting off his vest.

“Ah, you always need to look forwards. I’m sure you’ll get another chance to try.” She raised a brow, brushing herself off.

"Alright!" Maya cheered as she got on the roof "These train cars probably have like, a roof vent or something to catch wind for ventilation... we could use that for our advantage in getting in the conductors car or the freight car." Maya suggested as she dusted herself off.

Though he was heaving, Sak still managed to speak. "Whatever we do, do it fast, i'm pretty sure they heard the thuds."

"Hell yeah! I can crawl through vents!" Eiheu stood up quickly and ran over to where Maya was. "Where's the vent?"

Verelan was about as graceful as a beached fish in getting onto the roof, grabbing at the train and the other bandits clumsily and nearly pulling someone off the train and to their shared doom with her. Eventually though, she got there. "Didn't like that," she announced, "didn't like that at all."

He landed on the roof, praising the robustness of his ankles. It helped that he was light. "We can also get in through the doors on the sides of the cars, though that might be a lil' dangerous."

"Spread out," she said, loud over the noise of the train below them. "Cover as much ground as you can. We need that key, and I don't give a damn who bleeds for it!"

Vovvi caught herself on her hands and knees, breathless with the adrenaline ripping through her. Fuck, this SUCKS. This is NOTHING like RDR2.

4

“Yes, ma’am.” She raised her brows, moving towards the southern part of the train with one hand securing her hat on her head. Maybe it would come back if she lost it, if the simulation reset.

Sykes is splayed out like Ralsei in Deltarune.

6

From the side, came the older gentleman, pulling himself up from the side of the train, climbing up as he stood, looking at the others as he drew his revolver. “…Alright, i’m here. I miss anything?”

Insert another video game reference here. "We're gettin' into the cars and shootin' people. Non-lethally. With paint bullets."

Somehow sensing it in the air that he should not under any circumstance go towards the sleeper car, Saren decided to stick to what was familiar to him, and try to sneak into the coach... "Anyone going with me?"

1

He'd go with Saren, but Serin was in the coach and Onyon wanted to avoid the possibility of having to fight himself. "I'll take the dining car." Back to where it all began...

“I’m headed to the end of the train. We should definitely divide and conquer.” Suun nodded, crossing her arms.

"I'll follow you," she nodded to Suun, revolver drawn.

“I will go to the dining car as well.” He said, seeing as no one else besides the person with the red hair seemed to be going there, and it was best to have backup. Even if he thought he would be poor backup anyhow. He’d try his best. For the record, Sidak had no idea that this was the captain.

"I'm game for Coach." Maya answered Saren with a smile. "Wonder if Paco's still there..." She thought as she took another puff of her cigarette

“Right.” He followed Suun, standing right next or, at least stayed close to her, since the wind really didn’t want his ears to function.

"Let's all go Coach and overwhelm them!" Eiheu shouted out excitedly. "There'll be more of us than there are of them!"

1

"I am not getting into a small cramped space with all of you again," Verelan said honestly. That one time in the dining car was enough. Speaking of which- "I'll head down to the dining car."

"That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard." she answered flatly.

"In that case, uhh... We can all spread out-? So there's more of them than there are of us...?" Eiheu reformatted her previous suggestion. (edited)

He simply grabs Eiheu by the shoulder and pulls her toward Suun’s side. “Just tag along and don’t get shot.”

"Do we get inside the cars now?" Maya asked, unsure if everyone was going to get in at the same time or not

Garcia had taken the old tactic of jumping and rolling. Thankfully it worked. “I gotta do this again someday!” She tagged along with the team and went to find her targets.

Ellie didn't know how she got there or why she was there. She had just been moving over to the dining car, and now she had her feet wrapped in spurs and pushed through leather saddle handles, arms on reins. Did she drink something? No, this is just where she is now. Riding atop a pale white Appaloosa with a blond mane and tail. The name Silver popped into her head. She had no idea how she got here, but she got attached to a made-up horse she named on a whim. "Well, shit." Ellie listened to everyone else; if they all jumped the coach, then it'd be crowded, and why would she go along with this? She unholstered the ancient firearm and popped the cylinder open; paintballs... okay... morally, this seems fine now. "I'll be a few back." She adjusted herself on the horse as she got close, springing to the roof of the train and making her way inside.

Eiheu allowed herself to get dragged towards Suun, and decided to follow wherever she went; Suun seemed competent enough.

Back up onto the roof. She could try to find a way into the conductor's car, but she was more focused on the thrill of the chase...

Ev'kor hauled himself up to the roof, sure Rojin didn't need a hand but offering him one anyway. "Seems like we've gone from the pursued to the pursuer," he noted with some humour.

He was right behind him, hauling himself up with the offered help. Rojin then jerked his head at the running bandit: "I think she's enjoying it immensely. Do you?"

"The pursuit or the program?" Or both? Ev'kor didn't want to confirm either way, but he didn't want to deny it either...

The woman grinning like a madman? Definitely not enjoying it one bit. She stood against the billowing wind of the train, revolver trained. "You guys wanna match?" she mused, before firing.

1

He jerked to the side before he could answer, the paint bullet zipping past him into the unknown. He looked at Vovvi then, tsking his tongue and shaking his head: "Two on one? Hardly fair, no? Or does the lady have a trick up her sleeve?"

"I like those odds," she mused, a devilish twinkle in her eye.

Ev wanted to make a joke about two-on-ones, but felt a lot less confident now that he was faced with VovJin's familiarity. So he simply raised his own revolver. "I think you're underestimating us," he said, shooting at her.

Did Ev'kor just-- he might've laughed again, patting the man on the back before, too, taking a shot at Vovvi.

"Man," Ev'kor said as his gun backfired. That was so not his fault, he was a victim of circumstance here.

3

The immediate backfire made Vovvi laugh so hard she snorted, only to get immediately pelted in the face with silver paint. She dragged her hand. Very slowly. Down her face. To wipe it off. .... She took off running!

1

"What were you saying about the pursuit?" he gave Ev a pat on the back again, before taking off after her!

Ev'kor followed on Rojin's heels, his revolver pointed down and away but not holstered. Running on a moving train seemed like something he'd have to advise against usually, it being incredibly poor for one's health usually, but right now they had a bandit to catch. "I mean-" it felt strange to make a joke about Vovvi having two men pursuing her, though. "The train is going to end eventually, we'll inevitably catch her." Surely not a metaphor for anything.

3

Tavek was first on the roof, and honestly, it was super cool up here! All the scenery and all that. But he was here to get to the conductor. So.. onwards to the front of the train!

Following behind Tavek and Suun, Sykes appeared atop the sleeper car’s ladder and slowly crawled out onto the roof, “Funnily enough, this ain’t the first time I’ve been on a train’s roof… ‘cept that one was a maglev on an asteroid…” She stood, wobbling slightly before getting her footing and looking down the train to see Vovvi still being chased by two men. Heh. “Keep y’alls heads down, just move. I’m not fixin’ to have the doctor and bartender turn me into paint.”

2

Sinau was scared and excited to get on the roof. It was like a game she had played... all of this was like a game she played, to be fair. She should be more familiar with this. She kept her revolver in hand, close to her chest in case she did need to quickly shoot someone. The posture was practically instinct, but that didn't mean she was comfortable having to be ready to shoot someone again. Sinau settled in pretty quickly, keeping a good, wide posture for the sake of keeping steady on the roof as the wind whipped by while the train bulldozed across the deserted countryside. "I hate this." Was all she could comment when she stabilized on the roof. (edited)

Hauling herself up to the roof with the others, Suun exhaled, holding onto her hat once again. It was a very nice hat, she had no desire to lose it. “I don’t blame you. Maybe next time the holodeck can break while running something… safer.” She replied to Sinau.

“Yep.. I hate these things in general. Plenty of shit to enjoy in real life without putting yourself in one of these, and real life isn’t gonna glitch out and make you play cops and robbers.” He stated. Thankfully, Tavek was pretty sturdy, so he was able to keep a good stance and not get knocked over by the wind as he moved up.

Eiheu joined the rest of the group, making sure to not trip over her own dress as she climbed. "Hey, at least we get to play as the fun side! Who doesn't love a bit of crime?"

“You’re surprisingly right with that. This has been a blast.” She chuckled, “So… who’s ready to hijack a train?”

Sak smiled. "You can count me in. I love robbing a train full of treasure."

He nodded to the guy he hadn’t seen before, turning to face the rest of the roof crowd. “I think it’ll be good if, when we get there, we all just shoot at one person first, get em out, and go from there. Even if someone’s almost down, they can still shoot back, and the less people shooting, the better.” He said.

Was anyone paying attention to the horizon?..

Well.. he hadn’t been paying attention before, but now, he looked up to the horizon.

At the very edge of where his vision could stretch was a mess of glitched textures and improper collisions, leading to an honest to god dropoff point at the end of the tracks. Not close enough to be immediately dangerous, but the train was rapidly hurtling towards the edge.

Well.. the road didn’t seem to be working ahead, huh? Shit. They had a time limit to all this. “Folks, it seems we’ve got a tight schedule! Hurry up to the front so we can get this done!”

Ellie had been quick to look over and around as she got onto the roof, noticing the glitching drop-off point rather quickly. "Shit." The Golem didn't usually swear, but it seemed fitting. "We gotta move." Ellie practically launched up the last few rungs of the ladder to get onto the roof. How many safety precautions were in place to prevent this? And what would happen at the drop off. Ellie did a double check on her revolver. Four rounds still, her lives mirrored that. There really was no time to waste, it was crunch time. "Somebody should alert others. Try to get the fighting to die down."

“Whoever’s got the least bullets should go. No sense in wasting people with ammo when we need it to get that key.” He said. He still had four, so he wasn’t going anywhere.

"Oh shit!" Eiheu gasped as she saw the messed up horizon. "We gotta win this holoprogram, quick-! Let's just shoot everyone we see!" Eiheu took out her revolver and swung it around again. "I have half my bullets left still!"

“Hey, if you wanna shoot at whatever moves, just get into a car already. I’ve had it up to here with you by now.” He said, gesturing way above his head.

"I mean... you are moving a lot, like your mouth and stuff. You can save us the trouble and send yourself to the... paint dimension?" That was supposed to be clever and full of wit, but Sinau didn't do one-liners; she cried like a baby when her favorite character died in a book. She still believed in it, though.

"Hey! Big talk for those who who are in pushing distance!" Eiheu glared at both Tavek and Sinau, and made a pushing motion with her hands, as if miming herself pushing either of them off the train. (edited)

"Safety is limited; people could be sucked under the wheels and they won't just be 'out' of the game. It could kill them." Ellie offered, hoping to bring some peace. "I can run through, and try to stop people, there could also be an emergency break somewhere. The sooner we stop this thing the better." Ellie stared back down the ladder as she spoke. Twisting her jaw in contemplation.

"You're right, if there's an emergency break, it has to be in the conductor car, right? So thats our next stop." Sak shrugged as he said the last part.

“Ellie, I trust you to do that more than some people here.” He sent a nasty glare over in Eiheu’s direction. “So if you think you can stop some of the fighting, go for it. If you can’t find an e-brake in the cars, we’ll find it with the conductor.”

“I can come with as backup.” Suun added, “Or wherever I’m needed.”

"Why don't we stop the train by, like, throwing something heavy on the tracks?" Eiheu suggested half-helpfully. "Like a dead body?" She added, completely unhelpfully.

2

“Look- This is the time for breakin’ shit. Any of y’all get in the conductor car, the panel’s behind the furnace door. You grab some wires and you pull,” Sykes was still movin’. They couldn’t just stand around and talk while the train was hurtling toward certain doom! “Emergency override my ass…”

He poked his head above the side of the carriage. "What's this about panels? Also, has anyone noticed the giant fucking cliff?"

6

“No dead bodies. You’ll just… ‘kill’ us all.” She shot a glance at Eiheu, “No unnecessary risks, please.”

If we're going to the conductor car, then let's go together. Last time we all were in the car, I heard some people going straight to the conductor. I bet they'll do that again." *Sak looked at Eiheu. "No, if we do that, the train can derail and worst case scenario, the train goes boom."

Ellie was done bickering. She had some work to do. "I'm going in." Ellie was less than pleased by the nonsense, and Eihue would probably end up getting her ribs metaphorically kicked in after this by everyone. "You with me?" She looked at Suun, nodding to the ladder as she was already halfway onto her knees to get a step down to the cars.

“If we’re goin’ in the conductor car then y’all better start walkin’ and talkin’!” Sykes shouted as she picked up the pace, before breaking into a dead sprint.

“Less talk, more moving!” He called, sprinting towards the front.

Jogging closely along, Suun joined him.

Sykes stopped at the coupler between coach and the conductor car, and noticing the door had been shot off, leapt down!

Sak smiled. "Good, then thats decided. Conductor car first." Sak started to run behind the others and stopped just at the coupler. "Get your revolver out, we don't know who's there." (edited)

Eiheu followed after everyone else, gun still in her hand.

William, who was totally here this entire time, agreed with the remainder of the group. Affixing his bandana so that it covered his nose and mouth, he drew his revolver from the holster and nodded. "I'm with you. Let's get moving."

Sinau readied her revolver and followed suit. Pulling the iron back on it... which was mostly for flavor, as the gun was already a single-action; it just made shooting a few milliseconds faster.

Nobody answered him, so he just decided to follow them and pretend he'd been one of the bandits the whole time. With his bright blue starry cowboy hat and poncho, he could blend in perfectly.

1

Sak gripped his gun hard and jumped down.

Eiheu noticed the bright-blue-ass-poncho-wearing cowboy following after her... Was he always there...? Surely she would've noticed a blue guy like that? Then again, she was kinda busy... "Yo. Nice fit." She told Serin.

Having stopped to tie his shoelaces, he replied, "Thanks! I think I might keep using this character after this. He's fun. I just need to work on my accent."

"Yeah, you should do that! I can't help you with the accent though, but good luck!" Eiheu gave a thumbs up. "So, how are you enjoying the life of crime?" She asked him.

She followed the sound of voices, dropping down to the rest of the team. She did tip her hat to the others, though.

1

"It doesn't pay well." He finally finished tying his shoelaces and started making his way to the conductor car. Oh boy! He couldn't wait to see all the people in there!

You haven't been doing enough crime then!" *Eiheu replied, as she followed along behind Serin. As she stared at his poncho more, she could've sworn that she didn't recognise him... "So, uh... Who has been your favourite person to shoot at?" She asked, a little pryingly.