Star Trek: Starbase 777

Here, the viscera sucked the soles of their boots into it, making a sickening noise every time they would raise their feet to try to carry on. It was almost plush underneath their feet, a layer far thicker than what covered the rest of the outpost. Closer to the feel of the ground outside. The labs were coated floor to ceiling in the hot, sticky mass of flesh, exploding outwards until there was no hint of industrial metal. Wedged in the far corner of the labs, with a sea of flesh between it and the door, was.. something. An almost spherical bundle of flesh, suspended to the ceiling by a thick web of membrane, pulsing and shuddering faintly…

4

“By the Sisko.” She said as she looked at the mess of flesh and goo. “That might be the source.” She said, pointing towards the bundle.

1

His tail whipped around behind him as he walked, pupils massive but eyes fearful as he took in the dark area around them. “Looks like a heart… like some kind of centre to a circulatory system.”

"Looks like it... though I doubt it will be easy to disable..." Zhi'rev spoke quietly, almost as if he didn't want to alert anything that might be lurking around.

"It's a long way to go," Saith breathed out, steadying shaking hands on the glass blade-phaser-thing. "We'll have to move fast if we wanna keep anything from catching up.."

Apollo narrowed his eyes. It certainly explained why he couldn't sense any thoughts. More blood and production than any central nervous system. "Only question is what'll happen if we remove it." He'd rather not kill it... but it was controlling the crewmembers...

God, C’Tessa was getting sick of meat. It was sticking to her boots, making the most disgusting squelching noises as she moved forward. She had to keep her tail held up just so it too wouldn’t drag in the sticky mass. She laid eyes on the bundle- the shuddering, squelching heart. It’d be patient zero, in a zombie game. Something told her that if they peeled all that meat back, they’d probably find some unfortunate scientist underneath, long-since consumed. C’Tessa had a bayonet. She didn’t know, really, how in the chaos she’d ended up with one. But in her hands, it felt right. She had to help.

Xuan followed the team to the labs and their gaze immediately went to whatever was in the middle fo the room. "So yes.. this would be the heart, or at least, it seems like that," They agreed with M'Rish. "Well as a doctor, I would first think about how to safely disconnect it from the surrounding tissues or else there would be lots of blood and perhaps nerve damage... Unsuare about this sorta situation though."

"Well- let's think about this, y'all." Apollo cautioned. "We know very little about this race. Maybe we could relocate this thing... or give it a non-living food source. No need to kill it if we don't have to, yeah?"

“Is it possible to relocate it with the supplies we have, though?” He held out his tricorder on instinct. (edited)

Definitely not.

Apollo put his hands on his hips. "Well... it does come from the moon. Transporting it back to the surface, maybe? Well, after we free the crewmen... humanely." He added that last part firmly, making a side eye at the custom bayonets.

Race??.. "Respectfully, we have no confirmation of this thing ever displaying sapience. As of now, it is displaying the behavior of a parasitic illness. Let's, maybe... focus on preventing this thing from spreading and also endangering our very much sapient, very much living colleagues?!"

2

”Well… maybe we can try to compromise the outpost’s communications. Cut it from sending information to space.” Garcia thought out loud. “This way… it would not be a problem to leave the structure and we would not have to disturb it. Yeah, after taking care of the once-crew.” She nodded to Apollo in agreement.

“We have to kill it.” She said simply. “I don’t like it either but look around us. Imagine bringing this horror anywhere else. If it were up to me I would have the Eventide send a couple of torpedoes to this location.”

"I agree with the ACSO! I don't think this thing... whatever it is... is showing any signs of sapience, so we should probably just... try and protect those that are. Ie... us." Zhi'rev wanted to get his two cents into this conversation.

He hated the fact that his relative was here, but gods bless you Zhi'rev, truly.

Apollo frowned. He felt like he was being dragged in two directions. "We don't know it's sapient... but we don't know it's not. We need to prevent it from killing more... But what if this is an animal? Could we not just cut off it's contact with the outside?"

“As I have previously stated, extreme heat or force, such as fire, may be useful in the attempt to kill off the centre of the growth.” He stated, “The glass may be useful in fending them off but there must be a greater goal of destroying this.”

“If it’s an animal we can hold it on our conscience.” She said matter of factly. “Look at what happened to those people. Imagine if an attempt to contain it failed, we would be responsible for more people getting hurt. I’ll take killing an animal over that.”

From the darkness behind them, something was drawing ever closer..

"I am not having this conversation while we're running out of time for one of our teammates who's suit was breached, I am deeply sorry but I shall hold my empathy for him, not the thing trying to kill us," ridiculous. "Now, focus everyone. We have a task, and, again, not much time."

"So does anyone actually have any plans for how to kill it?" Let's get back on track, people. Even Iki wasn't debating whether or not to kill it, and Iki would have loved to study this thing.

Ellie walked in as quickly as she could, though she had to drag her feet to get there. Each step sticking sloppily. The suspended nature didn't surprise nor scare her. This singularity wasn't too far out of her extended reach. Combined with her height she should have nearly four total meters of reach, but her weapon was as flimsy as it was efficient. She'd have to be careful. "We will likely need someone to cover the others. We cannot all dedicate our focus on the... heart." She wasn't sure what to really call it outside of that. "Have you heard of Buck Fever? It's the guilt a hunter feels after killing an animal. This may be similar." Ellie had seen a lot, done a lot, but thus was unnerving, they had no choice but to kill it. Either that or let it fester, take more, something worse. "Shit, should we devise a defense and destruction team, commander's?" Ellie swirled on her heels, aiming the tip of her spear backwards.

Kya hummed. “Let’s leave and launch torpedoes at it. That way we can fix Kestral’s suit.” She blinked towards the back. “Fuck eyes up people, there’s something back there.” She said as she aimed backwards.

Shears held their weapon tight. Though they didn't ready it this time. It wouldn't be effective. They stayed close to M'Rish, slowly backing away.

"Making cuts in the membrane?" he offered, gesturing towards it, while being very aware that something was moving towards them. The other officers were already reacting, though. "Fire would be good... but I don't see a source for it. Unless something flammable was left over in these labs."

Apollo looked as if he wanted to say something but he snapped to see the approaching zombie. He winced, but he didn't forget what he was going to say.

“Doctor Xuan previously mention separating the mass from the surrounding tissue, and that sounds like the best idea we’ve got so far. I think we should move towards the mass as a group and start trying that. Tactical and security personnelle on the side that the creatures are approaching from.” It seemed like the best course of action with the materials and time that they had to him, at least.

Three figures emerged from the black, all of them dead silent.

No groaning for help. No half-slurred words. Just a silent, shambling pace, as if the host inside was well and truly gone.

One was even still dripping from their injuries, and yet seemed wholly unfazed in its slow, measured approach.

But one thing was made clear; whatever was left of their humanity was gone, leaving only the virus inside to fester.

He watched Shears, before the movement caught his eye, and he froze. The flesh sphere might need to wait, if there were… Three. Fuck.

They were back! Xuan jumped back, knowing they had nothing to reliably fight the creatures with. They had a phaser, of course, but that wasn't going to do anything. "Whatever we do with the mass, we should do it quickly."

Kya mumbled a few Bajoran words that shan’t be repeated before looking at them. “Science! Smart people! Come up with an idea, while we hold the line I guess!” She said. “If worst comes to worst we comm Eventide to torpedo the hell out of this position, I suppose.”

"I'm going to-" Suggest something, for suuuure. "Nevermind, I'll look for components for creating fire." They didn't expect anything aside from electrical components, maybe, but they'd try digging around.

Ellie had been taught basic combat procedures in training, basic martial arts, CQC, but she's never had any real close combat like what would occur here. "I can try to temporarily occupy them, then somebody can swing around and take a finishing blow." A crackpot plan, one that could work, but this wasn't her gig, she was taught one on one, how to handle herself, not a lot of other people at once. She readied her spear to prod them back.

“I will aid you, ensign.” He moved to help Iki search, “We require a chemical reaction.”

Zhi'rev may have been strong, he may have been built like a brick wall, but he was worried he would not be enough. And so, he went with Sterling and Iki in order to cover them, a last line of defense.

“Whatever works people! I’d prefer to get home tonight.” She said as she got her spear ready.

Maggie Roode started moving like Scooby Doo as she fumbled around for computer parts, too scared to speak. “Not going to let them take me again…” She said hyperventilating, very worried for her bodily autonomy after her last experience in a creepy dark place.

"I shall join you two," hell if he's leaving his scientists out of his sight. He nodded to Zhi'rev gratefully, before spotting Roode's snooping: "Lieutenant, stick to us, please."

He booked it over to Xuan, hoping to stick to a medical officer and follow their instructions and lead with a fair distance from the zombies.

"Either that or a pressurised aerosol we can set alight," Iki strategised with Sterling. "Do you think they might keep oxygen tanks in a lab like this?"

”I’m going with you too!” Garcia went as fast as her little legs and the disgusting ground allowed her. “I know how to blow stuff up!”

“I believe they may, although we will have to ensure they are not punctured or damaged. Typically, they would be far away from anything with open heat sources.” Sterling nodded, looking to Garcia, “An engineer’s insight will be useful.”

Sinau wasn't trained in CQC, well she was, but hasn't trained in a while, but her techy talents had no utility in constructing a firebomb, or flamethrower. So she took her knife nervously ready to bat off any meat monsters. "I'll help on defense." She shivered.

"I can assist with separating the mass, I will need some fire, preferable a plasma cutter of some sort where I can control it as I am not lighting a torch and hoping the fire gets where i want it," Xuan told the team.

Maggie rushed over to the scientists. “Yes sir!”

Shears readied herself by the rest of security and tactical, though she stated measured, waiting for orders.

The Klingon-Romulan wasted no time in branding her improvised bayonet and growling at the enemy. She would definitely be one in the line of defense. Or better yet, offense. No more damn meat zombies meant their brain team could work with more time on their hands. She awaited, ready, one of the approaching things on her sight, all she needed was an order. Damn Starfleet (affectionally).

Apollo stood rigid. He was unsure what to do. He saw the group assembling the fire and the defense team both assembling. With a sharp breath, he pulled out his phaser and joined the defensive team.

"Acetone, sanitizers, paper if warmed up by a phaser..." he listed out, "Some certain metals when warmed... A tank would be our best bet, though. I imagine testing this thing's heat resistance was on their agenda, way back when. Let's hope something was left over from such experiments..."

“There likely will be.” He stated, moving to a cabinet and ripping the sinew away enough to access its contents.

"Good point, Lieutenant, hmm let's see just how many things we would need to cut," Xuan did not approach the 'heart' as they feared the flesh zombies would attack. Instead, they just looked at it from afar and tried to think of how best to go about cutting it when they really did not want to get that close to it.

Iki joined Sterling, simply ripping open cabinets and assuming boldly that they'd be covered by the people responsible for that. Time was of the essence, they'd start being careful again when the time came to set a fire. "One would have to assume that if nothing else, wounds made to the thing could be cauterised by fire even if the outside is rather heat resistant. This would prevent it from healing itself, and could perhaps aid in the endeavour to separate it from its larger network."

She nodded at the oxygen tank suggestion, joining the search for anything they could set alight. “So, sever the heart from everything and then cauterize?” Like that old myth she’d heard of, with the Hydra and its many heads.

“That is exactly the intention, yes. If we sever it, nothing may travel away from it nor will it be able to aid whatever hive mind system we are working with, therefore rendering it useless and dead.” He confirmed, moving to kneel and get a proper look.

"That would also work. Perhaps one person cuts and the other cauterises? It would need to be seemlessly and we also need to take care that the thing does not create new connections when we sever one," Xuan mentioned, fearing the creature would have regenerative abilities far beyond what any of their reflexes could quickly respond to. "Unless there is a way to sever every connection and cauterise in one swoop..."

Does it matter if whatever you find has been horrifically expired?... Oh well. Oxygen tank acquired, now there's just a matter of crossing the zombie threshold..

The husk moved with staggering steps, creeping ever-closer until it lunged for C'Tessa, attempting to wrestle her into the pulsating flesh.

5

Kya swung her spear with a perfect arc as she moved to back up C’Tessa. Aiming to decapitate the monster. “Pick your targets!”

The husk of what was once a frequent resident of this same lab began his stumble towards the medical officers... only to lunge for them, one of the hands grasping dangerously close for Xuan's neck.

“Are all of you prepared?” Sterling turned to the others helping him search, as they came across their prize, “This will risk severe injury, you will need to exercise great caution.”

Xuan had fast reflexes, even with the EV suit on and tapped into their fencing training and ducked in an attempted to dodge the threat on THEIR throat!!! It was their favourite part of their body after all!

Yikes! C’Tessa spun around and swung her bayonet into the Command Officer, trying to sever or at least damage the limbs grabbing her enough so she could rip herself away.

The third circled the makeshift arena like a hunter on the prowl, before their sights (...?) settled on Hal, and they dove— sending them both crashing into one of the overgrown consoles, shattering the front of their helmet.

5

Zhi'rev had a target by this point, as one of the... meat guys... had dared try to mess with those he tried to protect. And so, he swung at the wrists of the one trying to get at Xuan, trying to detatch the ligaments and tendons and render the hands useless.

1

Shears was no good at punches, but they figured they would be good enough at fending off the engineering officer. They were shocked when it suddenly lunged at Hal. Shears came to Hal's aid, gripping the figure's arm, trying to yank them away. They hoped to shove it's neck against the wall with the body of their rifle

Ellie was lush with decisions, everyone was fucked, but she had to give someone else priority. The one who tackled C'Tessa became her priority, bolting to it with the sharp end of the spear, readying an arm backwards and preparing a sideswipe on the spine in the neck area. Aiming to draw attention from C'Tessa. "Fleshy fucker!" She cursed as she swung, putting all of her freakish android-like strength into it.

He looked up and around, spotting the dispersion and the fights that were happening all around them. The scientist clenched his teeth, but... you got to do what you have to do. "Let's move while they are distracted. I will be on the lookout, and in case one of them begins attacking us, I expect you to continue moving, okay?"

Sterling dipped his head, canister in hand, as he moved alongside the others. “Understood. We will carry this out.”

In all the commotion, Timi dragged himself to a far wall, simply leaning against it as he tried not to be an obstacle for the rest of the team.

4

"Can I borrow your phaser?" Iki held their hand out expectantly at Saren, having no weapon of their own but a strong intent to start a fire on this day.

8

Now Xuan was risking to get some awkward clawing action at their helmet's visor... but Zhi'rev's assistance, of course, did not help the flesh being's endeavors, as it stumbled from the impact, wrist still intact but now sporting a gash on the offending arm. It's next attack was now meant for Zhi'rev, as it refocused on the Romulan and tried to circle him...

With their forearm now hanging loosely and a not-negligible cut in their neck, it tumbled, righting itself with its head bobbing loosely side to side. With that, it drove forward— attempting to barrel into Ellie, drive her into the ground with pure force alone.

He wasn’t expecting the thing to pounce like a cat, and was terribly unprepared for when the edge of the console made contact with his helmet. The crack of the it reverberated through his body, and for a moment he thought he had broken a bone and the feeling just hadn’t hit yet. But instead of searing pain, he got… heat, a humidity that made his skin stick to the inside of his suit, and the revolting stench of rotting meat. It took a significant amount of his strength to not be sick, a task made harder by the writhing mass on top of him. For a moment, he just coughed and laid there like an idiot. But the creature quickly brought him back to his senses, and without thinking he reached around drive his phaser’s bayonet into the creatures… back? Front? Whatever part was facing away from him.

5

Oh, now he was in the hot seat, now he had to do something. He was a diplomat, he was not a tactical officer, or a security officer, but he had a plan, a plan that he needed to execute. It was risky, it was dangerous, but it might yeild results. His plan? To use his glass bayonet - knife - thing to attack the creature's legs, to disable its heel ligaments so it would collapse and stop trying to attack them. So! That was what he did, lunging forward, lunging low to try and cut the heel of this meat monster that was once a person.

Ellie repositioned her spear quickly, originally intending to follow it up with a swift strike to the temple. She now had to raise it to defend herself. Positioning the blade to be in the way of a direct strike, but at a strange angle where if stabbed head on would likely bend the glass and shatter it. She had little choice, hearing the crack of violence behind her as she tried to stick her ground there wasn't time to move away, only to parry something. Her breathing felt hot in the EV suit, and the taste of something cold ran on her lips, a red liquid lining her teeth after biting her lips to the point separate the tissue and penetrating a fluid juncture, she barely noticed it, her mind firing off defense signals that were as familiar as the incident that led to this body. Fake and animalistic charges kept her moving.

After all hell broke loose, there were no orders needed. The three corpses had picked their targets and now it was a matter of keeping them away from the officers trying to sever the "heart" and also making sure no one in the line of defense was infected or hurt. Her eyes were glued to the engineering officer, the one that dared go after her superior. She roared and sprung into their direction, unfortunately too far away to stop them from colliding full force. She heard glass break. "Commander!!!" Using her mixed romulan and klingon strength, Marze hoped to be able to push the thing from over Hal, seeing he had managed to stab it but was still under, her own side against it and placing herself as an obstacle. "Shit sir, your fucking helmet!"

Kya growled as she continued to attack the command officer. Moving to stab it through the side with her side. “I don’t know who you were in life, I only hope the celestial temple welcomes you with open arms.” She said.

As of now, Kairos lingered by Timi's side, set on protecting the already vulnerable party. Spotting the lean, however, Kairos leaned in closer: "Are you doing okay? How are you feeling?"

He gave Iki a look, before taking out his phaser and offering it to them, handle-first: "Go create some fireworks, ensign."

Xuan was thankful for the quick thinking of the command officer. They gave Zhi'rev a brief nod of acknowledgement and went to assist him. Xuan was tall and they considered themself fairly beefy. They swung their glass / phaser combination sword thing at the flesh monster to attempt to assist their colleague.

While normally Iki's face was fairly neutral, only betraying the faintest emotions on their face, now their face split open into a self-satisfied grin as they took the phaser from Saren. "Be prepared for the show," they said, before turning around. "Can someone with a bayonet come with us?" they called out, swapping the phaser between their hands as they motioned for Sterling to follow them forwards with the tank.

2

"My head hurts, Ensign, but I'll be fine." The sweat from the humid environment that was seeping into his suit was prickling at his hairline and in his neck, and he had to reckon with the paranoia that it was actually him being digested alive to join the zombie army, but it was fine. He wasn't a meat zombie yet, and if everyone did what they were supposed to, he wasn't going to become one.

“Right on that!” She said, now free of any zombies trying to absorb her into the meat sludge. She held up her bayonet and started to follow them. Being fast and having good reflexes meant she could get in and start cutting, while also getting out in time not to be burnt into a Caitian-shaped pile of ash.

With the weapon driven into their back and Marze barrelling through them, the engineer staggered, swiveling and turning its focus on her instead. What once were fingers but now closely resembled meaty gloves shoved her head sharply to the side, attempting to wrestle her to the ground and into the meat pile.

The being that Zhi'rev was lunging at just... folded, an ugly swishing sound whistling through it's one visible eye socket, it's upper limbs grabbing and clawing at the man's torso in an attempt to throw him off balance and roll him into the meat mass. Luckily, that made it evade Xuan's swing. Well... luckily for the horrid virus creature, not the team.

2

He continued his assault on the meat monster, hoping and praying to whatever was out there that his EV suit would hold. He was not about to get pushed into the meat pile, at least, that was what he hoped would happen... at the very least. He had focused his swings to whatever he could reach by this point, hoping to dosorient whatever this was so it would let. Him. Go.

The command officer staggered, almost driving itself further into the knife in order to try to drag Kya down with them. Hollow. Silent. A reminder of the lives already lost— in a way, a death like this would be poetic, wouldn't it.

Vara'l, having watched for a opportunity to attack and presumably having attempted to help protect the explosive people, moved to close with the meat zombies. He hadn't spotted a opportunity to join in and stab yet but he watched for one as he approached Commander tr'Lareth and the one that attacked them. When he spotted one he moved in and attempted a thrust as he aimed his ad-hoc bayonet at back of the creatures knee. He hoped to spill it over by making a lower leg useless, whatever achieved his objective. Whatever aided the commander.

She growled. "You wanna play like that?" It took her all her strength to hold herself on her feet. She could not fall, she could not let it get through her suit. Taking advantage of the ambient, she held one of it's hands and made a sharp movement back bringing it over with her, now placing herself between the thing and the console wall. Her back now supported she managed to get one of her legs between them to attempt a powerful kick in the middle of the creature's stomach. Or where it was supposed to be if that had been human someday. She was attempting to knock it or move it enough away from her. "We need to slice it up!" (edited)

Ellie noticed that the command officer didn't pile drive into her, surprisingly, seeing it stumble to the side instead after it was struck by a friendly officer. She twisted her heel to charge and drove forward as fast as she could into it, leaning harshly downwards and driving upwards to try and attack up into the brain through the soft underbelly of the jaw, tearing through with an angry motion, should it stick she shoved her entire body into it, grabbing the mutant's face and trying to push it down onto the pulsating floor. The Golem spat some 'blood' out of their mouth and onto their EV Helmets rim. Staining it and obscuring her vision slightly.

Oxygen tank and stabbing implement in tow in the hands of Sterling and C'Tessa, Iki charged forwards, completely ignoring all other combat in favour of getting close to the heart. They positioned themself slightly to the side, motioning for where they wanted Sterling and C'Tessa. "You start stabbing it, cut it loose from everything else," they instructed their fellow ensign, "and then the Lieutenant can open the tank to start letting the pure oxygen out. Warn me when you do, and I'll light it on fire with the heat of the phaser, so we can create a nice and volatile flamethrower." That seemed to be the most efficient use of their resources, anyway. "And don't stop cutting."

“Acknowledged,” Sterling held up the canister, nodding to the ensigns, “Do as you must, I will follow suit. Take utmost caution.”

"You will be okay," it was a steely sort of reassurance. Like Kairos knew that it was going to be the only possible truth ahead of them. "Rest in the meantime, I'll be on the lookout, sir."

She growled as the command officer tried to drag her down. “Go softly into the night.” She said as she pulled her spear out of its side and swung it straight into the spine. “I’m sorry this is what your life led to.”

Ganging up on them? Unbelievable. It twitched as if in pain, feeling separation from their lower limbs, ankles and one knee, yet the upper ones kept on clawing and grabbing, albeit weaker, and weaker, and weaker...

He spotted Zhi'rev wrestling the thing, and came up just shortly after Vara'l. There was... only one thing he could do, really, Saren thought grimly as he went to grab the once-scientists by the head... and drove the glass tooth into their temple, twisting.

C’Tessa smiled, though you couldn’t really see it- the sheer amount of gore on her helmet covered her mouth. Oh yeah, this was a task she could do. This was a challenge she was up for. “You can count on me!” She said, hefting her bayonet and charging forward, starting to hack and slice the heart away from everything it was connected to.

Hal Gertie shoved himself to his feet, incredibly grateful for Marze. After she kicked it in the ‘gut’, he in turn moved to kick out the back of where its legs bent. If they could just take out some of its movement, it would be more manageable…

Sterling turned the canister’s top, releasing it slightly with a hiss, holding it out as he gestured to Iki. “Your turn, Ensign!” He exclaimed, with the most emotion he’d showed on the entire mission.

Vara'l pulled the blade clear of the knee and he growled quietly at this thing that attacked Commander Lareth. "Down you go." He hissed at it as he moved in and stabbed at its upper body then as he attempted to keep its attention occupied on him and the Commander. Attempted to do so as he noticed Sarens approach. "Comon.." He growled as he attacked, he suspected it'd not know what he'd saying or well hoped the person was so far gone they wouldn't. He just hoped that the noise and the stab would be sufficient alongside the efforts of Commander tr'Lareth to keep this thing occupied while Saren attempted whatever they attempted.

At Sterling's call, Iki fired the phaser at the oxygen at a rather moderate setting (they had learned how to fire a phaser, mind you, they were just dogshit at aiming on a good day). Luckily, the oxygen was more than enough to help start an ignition reaction, followed by a small explosion and then the definite smell of meat burning.

5

With the efforts of the cool-colored officers, the mound of flesh tumbled to the ground— with a shuddering pulse, everything.. stilled. Like severing a heart from the body. The corpses went limp, finally allowed to go in peace.

5

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