Star Trek: Starbase 777

Inside the mess hall there were a couple of people who all seemed to be .... just drinking energy drinks. "SUPER D'DERIDEX ENERGY" to be exact. The ultra-strong energy drink popular on Mol'Rihan. There were a couple papers on one table and people at various tables, all minding their own business. No one addressed or even acknowledged the arrival of a bunch of strangers. They all seemed to be in their own zone.

2

"Oh," was the first thing Allan said when he walked in upon seeing the Super D'Deridex Energy drinks. He went up to the table with the papers, though, seeing as everyone was just kinda minding their own. "Yeah, I mean, there's vegetarian bacon... I think," he said, though more quietly as he looked at the papers.

The papers were fliers with a colourful images featuring characters from a popular online battle arena game called League of Space Legends-- "1000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA: LIVESTREAMING TONIGHT, BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PRODUCERS OF TSUNKATSE". (edited)

3

T'She joined Allan with the papers, thinking that might be a good place to start, at the very least those people already in the room weren't making a fuss -- that had to account for something.

Iviaan proceeded quietly, surveying the area and the people around to the best of his ability. Were they employees, or?..

"Oh, shit, they're playing League of Space Legends," he couldn't help but laugh a little, turning to whoever was near him, "I actually used to stream that a lot. It was, ah... it was a game, that's for sure. The characters were kinda fun sometimes, though."

The people were a mix of species, none Monean, surprisingly.

Dezyim looked around to see if there were any energy drinks that someone else wasn’t drinking. By the Founders he would be trying one.

5

"So...... 1000 league of space legends.. under the sea," Alizati said with an eyebrow raise.

Saith hung back, triple-checking his phaser was still holstered to his belt as he made a mental note of the exits in place. And all that good stuff. Good tactical things.

3

There was a full transparent fridge full of energy drinks for the team if they chose. Also a smoothie maker with fresh fruit next to it too.

4

"NOW WAY! THEY HAVE LEAGUE!" Maya exclaimed as she saw one of the fliers "Maybe that's where the missing peeps are? In some freaky holodeck simulation of League? Kinda like that earth series Paco made me watch... uhh.... Squid smth"

3

“Eyes open people.” She said, not holding her phaser up but putting it on her holster.

She walked over to the people. “Yo.” *She said kindly. “You guys into league? Me too!”

"Can I suggest we keep our voices down?" Iviaan cringed at the sudden outburst.

One of the people looked at Vara and shook their head, going back to sipping their energy drink.

"Wow. Yeah, that explains a lot about you," Allan said to Vara, with an obvious smile on his face.

"On it, Commander, sir." He was Open Eyed and Vigilant, ok? Certified Tactical Moment.

Dezyim moved towards the fridge and pulled one of the energy drinks out. Uncapping it, he held it up to his nose and gave it a gentle sniff before he… downed the entire bottle.

6

"What's a Tsunkatse?" Suss asked, thinking finding out about that would help them figure out what's going on here.

It tasted like vodka mixed with monster energy.

3

"Cadet, please do not drink something without scanning it first -" Iviaan scanned one of the other cans, just in case. "It could end up being very dangerous."

"Hey, just so you know, Dezyim, those are-" oh, dear God. "...super strong. Oh my God, if you feel yourself shaking, just. Let me know. Okay." Fuuuck.

The cans were normal energy drinks, very strong and would definitely give someone the jitters.

5

"Heh, maybe it's best if I stay away from those," Essen remarked, mostly to herself.

"I will pass on the energy drinks," Rai said as he loaded up some fruits into the smoothie maker and began to mix up a blueberry and raspberry smoothie.

T'She made the decision to stay away from the energy drinks -- even if they were normal energy drinks, who knew what effect it could have on them, definitely not a good one.

He did sigh. Just a little. Relief, and also, "If you have heart troubles, I advise against those. I'll keep a close eye on you, alright?.."

She blinked over to Desimyn. “And I thought I was a hedonist.” She mumbled before turning her attention back to the people in the mess hall. Going over to one of the tables and sitting down at one. “I’m pretty pumped for 1000 leagues tonight.” She said to the workers.

"Should we ask anyone around here for like.. a map?" Chris suggested, trying not to think about how the password was bacon.

One of the individuals looked very uncomfortable at Vara and frowned. "You won't like it after 40 hours...."

He turned to the two lieutenants. “Sorry.” He was trying not to grin, though. “I wouldn’t have been poisoned. And I drink energy drinks all the time, so I should be fine.”

Mira noticed the reaction that the individual had. "Ensign, please watch what you say here," Mira spoke to Vara. (edited)

"All the time..? Is there, like, a reason for that, or.." he asked Dezyim as he stood closer to the cadet, scanning the fruit real quick and if it was safe, making himself a fruity smoothie. Why not.

"I avoid energy drinks. I already have a lot of energy naturally, so I'd be bouncing off the walls if I drank that." He was kind of curious how it tasted, though.

"Tsunkatse is a Delta Quadrant sport, I think. Some of those matches are to the death, so..." Saith whispered.

"I made smoothies, anyone want any? I can make any type ummm... there is pineapple, apples... Some Romulan fruits too, besides myself," Rai said as he looked at the fruit selection.

1

40 hours? That didn’t sound right. “Are they offering repeat showings or is it 40 hours long?”

Jena raised an eyebrow at the sight of... no Moneans in the room and in fact a quite diverse set of other people? She expected some variety sure, but mostly along with mostly other Moneans. "They should have a map posted some where here for everyone I assume. But no harm in trying" Jena said to Chris, understanding the discomfort from the... unfortunate password as she looked around for a map on the wall before heading towards where Vara was. "Did they make you guys play the game for 40 hours straight? Where?"

"Commander, I think Ensign Zh'rahlor is just trying to get more information about what's happening," Iviaan whispered to Mira. "She hasn't committed any social faux pas, so..."

"..... You guys were tricked into coming here too, right? You're also league players?" The individual looked extremely concerned. "They will make you stay up and play... no sleep... If you try to run, they beat you."

9

8

The words "matches to the death" rung out and Mira's breath hitched in her throat as she remembered the people that gave her that visor. She had to take a moment... after a breath, she turned to Iviaan. "Understood, lieutenant."

"Perhaps that is the reason for all those spam messaeges about joining an official 'League' team..." Alizati said, remembering the many spam messages he had received prior.

7

She nodded softly. “Yep, that’s us.” She wanted to comfort them without blowing anything. “We’re the Starfleet Esports team. What happens around here? Our ship got delayed coming in.”

"If they're forcing people to stay here I don't think we should drink or eat anything they have," Saith offered quietly, hand still on his phaser.

He looked at Allan. “I pull long hours. Plus I like the energy they give m-” His sentence was cut short and he made a sort of choking noise, overhearing what the individual said.

"....Oh Prophets..." Maya, a league player, muttered to herself as she overheard that little tidbit about what the people here have been subjected to. "I nearly joined it too before you sent out the bulletin post" Maya quietly said to Alizati

"They will force you to play.... To the death, he's right," The individual -- a Klingon!! said, pointing to Saith who had mentioned Tsunkatse. "They train us.... we earn money from matches but that goes to..." They pointed up to the sky. "The ones on the surface."

"My brave warriors..." Suss shook his head and frowned.

"Oh no." No one should be forced to endure League of Space Legends. No one. "Do you have any sort of map of the facility we can follow?"

5

Vara nodded softly. “Do you know what they do with this money? And do they do anything else besides beat you? Are there….cells?”

"Boss, what?" He looked at Alizati quite concerned. "From who...? And-" he looked back to Dezyim, raising an eyebrow as he made sure he wasn't actually choking before he continued to talk. "Do you mean shift hours? Because if you're somehow taking illegal shift hours, we'll have to talk about that after this," he slowly sipped his smoothie and only got more concerned as the rest of the conversation went on.

Tears flowed out from under Mira's visor as she heard more about this game, one which closely mirrored something in which the people who were responsible for her blindness were all too familiar with. She had to step back for a moment to catch her breath... (edited)

1

I forgot they were here. "There is a legend among Andorians of a mysterious snow-people who offer you food and water, but if you eat it your blood freezes and you become one of them. I don't think this is that."

"Well, certainly, but it could be drugged with something we cannot detect. I'm going to heavily suggest that no one drink anything else." As one of the resident Medical Officers. Yeah.

T'She was listening, getting more and more concerned as those already in this situation spoke about their time. They were... worried... and they were angry. "I concur, Lieutenant, it is good to be wary about food in strange situations."

"Umm.... we do," The officer slid a PADD across the table.

"An unknown sender, hence why I put out the warning," Alizati answered Allan.

"Ohhhh, look it seems like there are two paths, the.... fdoijgdifog wing and the oigjoee wing," Chris said as he looked at the two areas. The names of the wings were clearly in Monean, which Chris did not speak. "Umm.. Let's just call them Da Nang and Hai Phong. Those are my two favourite places on earth, in the sunny country of Vietnam," Chris said with a smile.

Oh, right, drugs. "That's true. I do wonder what's stopping us from taking several of these people and going back the way we came."

"Looks like it's some sorta top down fascility, makes sense since we're under water," Suss said as he glanced at the map.

“I’ve been to Hai Phong, great place.” She said earnestly before looking to Thalass. “They’d know if we did that, I doubt they can’t see into this room. It’s like taking candy from a baby, mommy and daddy are bound to notice.”

Dezyim turned and nodded at Thalass. “I was wondering that, too… we can’t just leave them here.” He folded up his glasses and replaced them on his uniform.

"A-As long as the computers are running, we're forced to keep playing. We only get braeks to.... eat," The Klingon raised their can of liquid energy and sighed. "And we can't transport out, there's an energy field preventing any sort of transport, you'd need to cut the power to the fascility but that's... really far down..."

6

01:05

"And umm...." The Klingon lifted their leg to show they had what appeared to be an ankle monitor. "If we leave, this will inject poison.. and if we try to take it off... also poison...."

6

She briefly removed her visor to wipe her eyes before she took a breath and returned to the group. "An energy field?" Mira remarked. "And poison-laced ankle monitors. It all makes sense..." A sliver of hatred filled her voice, before she took another breath to center herself further.

"Looks like the Da Nang wing gose to engineering and Hai Phong goes to..... well it looks like the sleeping quarters or something..." Chris said as he pondered the map, trying to make sense of the Monean words.

She nodded. “And that too. So someone’s going to have to take down the power, and hopefully find a way to turn those off. I theoretically could but those seem digital rather than something I could lockpick.” She said with a hum. “Never mind a dead man switch.”

Their brow furrowed slightly in concern. "Hmmm. Yes, I would say that's stopping us."

"Engineering would be where we can cut the power, right?" Saith inclined his head a little.

"I don't know jack shit about engineering, I just want to get back the missing peoples, most of them are Klingon citizens," Suss spoke up, wanting to do the most good he could and free the hostages.

"Even if you could, it wouldn't be safe to try. Besides basic first aid, everything else was lost on Eventide. We don't really have any antidotes." Iviaan raised his medical bag.

"The guards can activate our ankle monitors at any time... I wish we could help," The Klingon said with a frown.

"That's quite alright. You've helped us a lot. Thank you very much." He smiled sympathetically, definitely carrying a hint of worry and sadness. What to do.. He peeked over at the map, seeing if he could decipher any of it.

“Mmmm, okay yeah. Thank you for your help.” She said, looking towards the hostages. “We’ll get you out of here.”

Mira echoed Vara. "Yes," Mira said. "We'll get you out of here. Every last one of you. None of you deserve to endure this hell."

And just then a buzzer sounded and all of the people quickly stood up and exited the room.

"I suppose break time is over?" Rai said, sipping his smoothie.

"Whoa--!" Essen said. "I dunno about you but that doesn't sound like a good buzzer to me..."

Dezyim looked deeply upset, still looking at where the klingon had been sitting. “If the guards can activate them at any time, theoretically we could use the same system to… deactivate them, right? There’s probably control panel of some sort.”

"I don't see any panels," Sus said, glancing around the room. "Nor do I see any guards, not yet at least."

“No, but we need to divvy up our officers into both teams, and quickly.” She said, looking over the map, having a padd out and taking notes on the map. “If you have the means to end them at any moment, you don’t need guards in sight.”

"I'm clearly not a fighter, i'll go to engineering," Chris raised his hand and jumped up so people could see him.

"Yeah, as an engineer... probably gonna also go to engineering," Seemed logical enough to him, he thought as he walked over to Chris.

"Yeah and I'll go down Hai Phong and fight my way to save my people," Suss clapped his hands once and made a little growl noise.

2

“I am sensing a theme. Combat team goes to the quarters, while our… specialist team goes to engineering.” She said, looking to everyone. “Does that make sense?”

"They've been summoned to the League. Some sort of... Legendary League. I'm also not a fighter, so I'll go with B'Kon." If he got a dog would it be a B'Kon Frisé?

3

“Perfect sense. I’ll also go to engineering. I’m not a very good shot… or very good at close combat.” He laughed nervously, and joined Allan and Chris.

"As I am a pacifist, Da Nang route seems fitting for me," Alizati said as he stepped to the side, closer to Chris and the other engineering peeps.

Well. It do be tactical time. Saith exhaled to get rid of his nerves, standing up straighter. "Good luck," he said to his fellow cadet, who he still did not know the name of, offering him a quick high five before joining the team to do out of this world combat rp.

4

"I'll fight," Mira said. "I need to fight for every one of those people."

"I'm with ya," Essen said. "I'll fight too."

"Ah... I do not know much about engineering either," Rai looked at both groups that were forming and stepped towards Suss. "I will assist with the hostage rescue. I... I suppose that is something I at least have a chance of doing right," He said, a look of guilt still evident in his gaze as he looked downwards.

4

Hm. Let's see. A medic would definitely be needed on either side, just in case, but.. his skills were better suited in Engineering. He was not very good at aiming a phaser. Oopsie. (edited)

Dezyim nodded and tried to offer Saith a reassuring smile before high-fiving him. His hands were starting to shake slightly from the caffeine.

2

1

"Elements... all for entertainment and money?" Jena muttered to herself as she saw the ankle monitor. "Is it game time directly after break? Maybe some of us can follow them to the... arena"

"Yeah, Engineering is where we can cut off power to the whole facility." She answered Saith "We could probably brick the ankle monitors with an EM field from engineering. Dont know if they would have a fail safe though"

She stood off to the side with the combat team. “Okay, everyone who thinks they can fight with us here.”

“I’ll help with engineering.” Vara said with a hum. “I’m a thief, not a pew pew guy. Sabotage is more my style.”

If there were people going into combat, than it only make sense that there would be people who were getting hurt. Hence, they decided to join the out of this world combat rp group.

"Ensign, please stop branding yourself as a thief..." How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man!?

5

“Field agent, not a pew pew guy.” She corrected herself.

“I’ll fight. This is what I joined Security for..” She said. Also, phaser was one of the only things she was good at, so she was better off doing the pew pew and not the engineering stuff.

But didn't field agents ... Y'know what, nevermind. Pew pew time.

"I shall fight!" He'd already helped solve a fun word puzzle. Quite pleased with that one.

"Seems like in this sense, some of us are indeed kung fu fighting," Essen said, giving a smile to Chris.

"It looks like we can take a lift to each wing," Chris said as he picked up the PADD with the map and pointed towards #turbolift that would take both teams to their respective wings.

She headed towards the lift. “Woo team!”

“Let’s go team.” She said with a nod.

"LFG!" Essen exclaimed, before she headed into the #turbolift.

"LFG indeed," Mira said with a smile, and stepped into the #turbolift.

El eff gee? Man. Standard was weird. He didn't even know what that meant.

1

"Best of luck to you. Please try not to die, I do not want Medical to have to fill out the paperwork." he joked, hoping to ease his own nerves and everyone else's. But, that probably didn't help at all. Thanks Ivi.

"Looking for Game?" Maya asked out of curiosity before joining the rest of the peeps heading to engineering

1

T'She, now that they have joined their team, made their way to #turbolift , preparing themself for what would come next -- probably a lot of combat, and hopefully not a lot of the team getting hurt.

"Time to log them off." Jena said to herself as she headed to the turbolift

Ato didn't have a phaser, and he wasn't really worried about being a good shot. Much like T'She he was more concerned with what could happen in thos situations. Thankfully, he'd had field medic training. And lots of years under his belt becoming an emergency doctor. Plus he was fast. So, he'd go with the Out of This World Combat route, and made his way out with that group to the turbolift.