Star Trek: Starbase 777 - drone-workshop

This room was massive, regeneration alcoves lining the walls, maturation pods along the floor, a raised platform in the middle of the room. It was dimly lit, but more deliberately so, as if creating just enough light to see by throughout the entire space. And in this dim light... Corpses. Or, well, not complete corpses. There were no organic remains to be found, anywhere, not even traces of them. But what littered the floors and piled up against the walls were the mechanical remains of Borg drones, leaving enough clear space to move around the area and access all of the different exits. And on the raised platform in the middle-

Sat the original drone, poring over an implant in the drone that was once Five of Eight, its mechanical limbs (the origins of which suddenly became a lot more clear) laying casually about it as a regency woman positioning her many skirts about her to be able to sit comfortably, a sort of strange elegance to it all. The image was quickly shattered as it noticed the arrival of the away team, rearing up on its prehensile limbs. It scanned the team before scrambling off, and as if commanded, the other drones came to life to once more assail their former comrades.

Vara'l fired upon one of all as soon as he spotted them. "Contact!" The Romulan called then as he fired then flicked to other targets as the souped up drone withdrew and other targets attained a higher priority in his eyes.

Holy fuck, holy shit, that was a lot of Borg parts and drones. That was a lot of picked apart Borg drones -coming back to life-. And that was a seriously, horrifyingly fucked up drone in the center. He watched in horror as it skittered away, shooting at it once, but it was too fast. He fired twice at the nearest drone to him, before remodulating and firing again.

With One of All’s directive to attack, Four appeared from the shadows. The dim light shone on their face as they stepped forward to greet the crew, and it was in that moment it became obvious how they were letting off so many shots before. Instead of a standard Borg eyepiece, one of Ato’s eyes had been removed and replaced with an ocular phaser. The hand on his opposite side had been removed and also placed with a phaser style weapon. He could fire two shots at once, aiming both with his eye and his arm! As the team approached, he let off eight shots in rapid succession, trying to force them into a corner. The shots were aimed at those with the biggest most damaging weapons, so Senang, Aoife, Vara’l and Eicran! Two shots directed at each individual!

Seiyya fired twice at Four of All, trying not to remember the fact that he used to be Ato. She remodulated, firing at him again.

There were many species of animal whose young devoured all the other young to use them for sustenance and become the biggest and strongest. This reminded him of that, but significantly more unnatural. He kept himself out of the firefight as much as he could, looking for any borg part he could find that might be useful.

One shot, a hit. One shot a miss. He staggered back, still aiming his arm out at the crew, firing once at Seiyya now.

One shot managed to miss Aoife as she once again deftly dodged it as if she had some kind of pre-cognition. The other unfortunately landed as she was dodging hitting her in the shoulder. Why was it always the same shoulder when she was shot? She thought to herself before returning fire from her prone position, adrenaline suppressing the pain.

Seiyya dodged the shot, remodulating her phaser and shooting at Four twice again.

Tavek joined in on the attack, also firing twice at Four before moving to try and find some cover.

Vara'l spotted the weapon shifting to point at him and shifted slightly out of the way but was most certainly glanced by the shot and dropped to a knee as he returned fire. Grunted as he did so and the other shot glanced again thanks to him dropping from where he'd initially been though not far enough to have avoided it all together. "Maintain fire!" He called then as pain lanced through him, as he glanced down down at himself and then back as he fired and attempted to determine how bad the hits were.

Three sat up like a corpse from a coffin, dragging themself off of the platform as the lights of their implants whirred to life. They took a shambling step forward, yet still moved quick enough to duck out of the way of incoming phaser fire, hollow eyes fixed upon the group as they raised their arm— the one that was once flesh and blood, now a mechanic weapon— firing off at Tavek as he attacked.

3

It was only barely that Senang managed to dodge the second shot after the first one hit him in the shoulder, the one that he wasn't currently leaning his rifle against. He was going to have to get that checked out, once they got out of here. Still, he grit his teeth and shot at Three, who had been the most recent of the original drone's modifications.

Timi on the other hand took the chance to shoot at Four twice, unhindered by any sort of emotional bond and in fact kind of enjoying being on the front lines of something exciting again. He'd always been a solid shot, and it had been far too long.

Tavek tried to dodge the hit- but Three was a little too fast, the blast hitting him square in his armor, knocking him backward. However- he didn’t let this stop him, firing twice at Three from his place on the floor before rolling behind a bit of cover and getting up. No feeling pain certainly helped.

Grey eyes fixed upon Five and Vara'l softly groaned with deep depthless grief and guilt that desperately pushed through a breach briefly made and rapidly sealed in controls walls. Groaned as he grounded in the pain of the shots, in the duty that still remained as he sighted upon Ato once more and fired a shot. Turned and looked to five again. Hesitated at the sight of a friend. What had been a friend. Hesitated as he struggled up to his feet once more, sighed upon them and after a moment, fired. Fired at a friend. Fired at another person this individual had failed.

5

Of course he had been right. He had desperately not wanted to be, but of course he was, because that was how the universe worked. For almost all of the mission so far he had constantly been looking over his teammates or scanning for enemies, but now he couldn't help but look at the stacks upon stacks, piles upon piles of remains upon the floor. Mechanical parts of all sorts that he could identify as limbs and replacement organs. The drone on the table - was that not one of their officers, the one with the nice hair? - and then the second from the shadows. He recognised the antennae, the one remaining eye. One of his fellow medics? Oh. He hadn't expected that. He used to be a lot quicker than this - less distracted, more accurate. He really was out of practice. What would his former colleagues say? He met Four of All in the eye - eye to ocular phaser, perhaps? - raised his rifle to aim... And was too slow. The shot from the drone hit before he could do anything. Crumpling instantly, his head smacked off the ground with a sickening c r a c k.

7

T'She was quick to jump into action the moment they heard the crack -- a concussion was likely. And treating that would keep their mind off of... other things. The rest of the team could deal with the terrible reality of their situation, T'She would do their best to heal, to keep another member of their team away from the clutches of the drones. "I will keep you safe..." They muttered under their breath as they reached out to pull Eicran onto their back -- probably not protocol, but not much fell under protocol in this situation.

3

3

If T'She hadn't done it, she would have herself. As it stood, Senang stepped in front of T'She bodily, shielding them and their backpack from further borg phaser fire.

Eyes snapped back briefly as the crack resounded before snapping back toward the drones. Gaze returned to the threat at hand as Vara'l moved forward into cover closer to the foe as he called. "Get him into cover now!"

An suddenly many of the original drone’s oddities made sense. The drone had, for whatever reason, decided that it would be the strongest, and has seemingly sacrificed an entire cube to do so. She had to wonder why though, and if this drone was even connected to the Borg collective as a whole. Would it eventually cannibalize the drones it had made out of Vesta’s crewmates given enough time? Was that why it had been so choosy with who to assimilate? She watched the doctor go down, she didn’t hear the crack his head made, but the sight was enough to make her cringe. She got out her phaser and began shooting at any drone she saw.

1

Three tanked one hit from the two that attacked them, firing off a shot at Aoife as they dragged themself in closer— perhaps trying to separate the group, scatter them further into the room rather than keeping them clustered in the doorway.

*Nine shots had been fired at them. Three whizzed past, either due to injured and exhausted people struggling to aim, or his ability to dodge. Which, wasn't foo far off for the original Ato, who had been a very fast runner in his free time. One of All had chosen well.* By the third shot connecting with Four's body, scorch marks had begun to appear on their chest. Starfleet had taught the officers well, a tight pattern of fire aimed to disable. But the Borg drone had been programmed to be resistant to phasers, and the more the officers shot at him and connected, the more he could adapt. And adapt he did. Only two shots broke through, and the others were dissipated by the Borg's personal shielding. He fired another round, one at Senang, one at Timi who'd hit him twice, and another at Vara'l who he knew from his memories was in charge. "We are Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."

Fives? Shot connected with Aoife in spectacular fashion as the shot landed right where Ato had hit her moments earlier. Aoife yelped in pain as the shot dug through her already damaged armour as her shoulder went up in flames!

"Keep together and keep in cover!" Vara'l called as he sighted sighted upon ... upon Five and fired twice as emotion howled at him. Slammed against control. Howled that he was shooting at a friend, that he'd betrayed them again th- that that. Vara'l didn't notice the shot fired by Ato that slammed into him and bounced him off the wall of the cover he'd concealed himself by. Part of his armour peeled away and his rifle skittered off to one side. Still for a moment before he started to try and slowly struggle up, clawed for his hand phaser as he did so.

“I’m sorry,” He thought internally, looking at someone who was one of his crewmates. But, that didn’t stop him from acting. He had done worse things than this, he reminded himself. He didn’t deserve to have second thoughts. So, he fired twice at Three. He could tell, they were trying to split everyone up. “Whatever you do, don’t separate! They’ll pick you off!” He said, before he pretty much ran over to Aoife and tried to extinguish the fire using his hands to smother it- the fake skin on them was very flame resistance and took a LOT of heat to melt.

The hand arrived upon the hand phaser as he managed to get to his feet. Managed it just. Sighted at Ato as he did and fired once, then twice. Fired one handed, one armed, the pain in his shoulder sufficient enough it wasn't being used. "Keep firing!" He called then. (edited)

After seeing the shots had hit, Four moved to another spot in the room, eerily quickly, their limbs jerking half mechanically-half organically, and took halfcover behind a tall workbench, covered with the detritus of former-drones.

T'She was also trying to gain cover, this time for the sake of Eicran more than themselves. They had someone to keep safe, and when that had happened, they would join the firefight -- but not yet.

Senang didn't even try to dodge, happy to take another shot if it meant they protected T'She and Eicran. This one was luckily to the chest, and dispersed much more easily than the one to the shoulder had.

Timi on the other hand did dodge, his eyes sharp and trained on Four of Ten, remodulating his rifle through pure muscle memory before shooting again, twice, one rapidly after the other.

Serin found a Perfectly Sized Piece of Metal. It was heavy enough to hurt if someone were to get hit with it, light enough that even Serin the Wizard could pick it up and swing it. Serin had asked, and the Universe had provided.

5

Tavek shot twice- both times at What-Was-Once-Ato. He wondered for a split second if there’d be anything useful amongst all the metal and debris, but pushed that thought away in favor of continuing to fire at Four.

The shot bounced off as Three adapted, seemingly giving up on her own fire as she surged forward. The drone made connection with Vara'l, taking him to the floor with a metal hand around his throat. The black void they called an eye bored into him, not even the slightest glimmer of recognition visible. "Resistance is futile," their low, soft voice now monotonous and dull as they reared their arm back, clearly charging up a fatal blow with their weapon. "You will be assimilated."

2

Wow, a Perfectly Sized Piece of Metal! "Ah, my magical manifesting worked," he said to absolutely nobody. Serin the Wizard picked it up and ducked low, sneaking over to the desk Four of All was hiding behind. With any luck, he wouldn't see him behind the desk. He counted to three: one, two, three - And stood up, threw himself over the desk, and attempted to conk Ato on the head with it!

1

Vara'l dropped to try and get a bit more cover for a moment and glanced to the damage to his armour briefly. The CTO grimly assessed it then as he remodulated the hand phaser one handed and then peaked out and snapped off a shot at Ato. Did so as emotion howled all the louder, grounded in the moment, in the duty before him, in the pain as it thrummed through him and reminded him like adrenaline did that he was here. Now, despite all that emotion roiled. Then came Five and...Vara'l turned to slow. Turned as he brought the phaser up and was slammed to the floor. Grunted and gurgled with the force of the neck blow as it shocked him a moment with the pressure as he turned his hand phaser, attempted to fire off a shot, hoped it'd not be seen. Hoped it'd not be stopped. Looked at them, saw nothing as part of what was inside the battlements of control within his mind cracked further. As another groan issued out, grief and a pain unrelated at all to wounds a weight that forced it from him then. Forced it from the individual then, the individual that had failed this person, failed Ato, Failed Maggie. Failed. (edited)

4

With Taveks help Aoife managed to put out the fire on her shoulder right as Vara'l got slammed into a wall. She whipped out a hand phaser with her good arm and began firing at Three while she moved into better cover. Dragging her rifle with her now mostly out of commission right arm.

Tavek spun around- Three -dared- to touch another member of the crew? He no longer cared about his apprehensions. Rifle in hand, he shot twice at Three- as he waited for it to remodulate, he pulled out his hand phaser from its holster and shot twice with it too.

As soon as the scramble began, Kairos made sure to make himself scarce, trying to land an occasional shot or two at the drones with his rifle - mostly as additional cover fire, if nothing else, using the corpses for cover (and leverage, on an occasion or two). It was evident that the shots weren't awfully effective - and as the one of the drones moved towards a workbench, not too far away from where Kairos took cover, he shifted the grip on his rifle to take a hearty swing at the guy with it's handle - aiming for the chest area!

The Borg drone heard Serin at the last second, only barely enough to counter his swing. The drone reached up an arm to shield his head, taking the damage from the metal bat. There was a snapping sound, and his humanoid arm was clearly hurt, having been smacked with a piece of metal. The drone shoved Serin off and took a staggered step back, aiming its phaser arm at Serin and readying itself to shoot. Out of nowhere, the butt of a rifle connected with his chest and sent him flying backward. Reflexively, a phaser shot let loose from his eye, aimed in Serin's direction, as that was the last place he had been looking before being knocked back.

In a moment of somewhat lucidity within that part of him that remained within controls battlements. A soft thought murmured as his one hand attempted to re-modulate the phaser once more. To fire it once more, as those eyes that lacked recognition bore down on him. I'm sorry, Telim. And he gasped out. "..If you reme- this five, once your saved, forgive yourself." As he struggled.

5

1

The remodulated shots rippled across their armor, and all at once, the lights in their implants flickered— staggered Three enough to release the CTO before he could fall unconscious from asphyxiation, sending the unconscious drone toppling onto his chest like a dead weight.

1

Aoife rushed over to Vara'l and did what she could to drag him out from under Fives with her one good arm. "Don't go dying on me yet Vara'l we've still got work to do!" She yelled as she pulled.

2

Vara'l let out a grunt as they dropped upon him and suddenly he had a very large weight of metal on his chest. Suddenly breath was far harder as one arm struggled at the weight. Struggled as grey eyes stared at Aoife. As he gasped out. "If." Swallowed and struggled, mouthed. "In command." As he stared at her as he pushed.. Hoped they'd know what he meant. Hoped that as he fought on one armed, with both legs. Refused to go quietly, struggled. Struggled even as his mind reviewed the letters. Hoped one day the son he loved would forgive them, forgive the holo's he'd recorded for each birthday, for each special day. If. He struggled more.

3

They were pretty easily dragged out of the way with one and a half efforts combined. No one dying today, thankfully.

Clearly, he was not Ato's combat equal. In fact, he wasn't the combat equal of anyone in here. The phaser shot missing was the result of Ato's injury, not his own dodging prowess. You know what he did have? Weight. Not much, but enough to tackle a guy as he was falling and then lie on him like a pile of bricks! It was like one of those wrestling moves, but clumsily executed and with two people of very different weight classes, like a kitten trying to piledrive a large dog. He might have pinned him to the floor too, but no way was he strong enough for that. "Anyone strong enough wanna put a large heavy metal object on this guy?" He couldn't sit on him forever! In fact, he would probably get shoved off in a second, but hopefully that would be enough time.

2

Vara'l gasped in air then as he groaned and managed a. "Ow." Before he added. "I'm alive, thats good." And started to remodulate his hand phaser one handed again. "...Thank you Commander." The Romulan groaned then said. "I'm back with it, for now, but remember...if I go down you're the boss." He then called. "Medical, if you can get over here safely try to ensure Five of Eight remains unconscious."

“On it!”He shouted, also grabbing a large piece of metal- and putting it on top of him- it was damn heavy, given he was an android and it still took him some effort to drag it over and put it on Four. He also used his own strength in order to keep said heavy object on Four.

Aoife looked into Vara'ls soul as he spoke, she came very close to being in charge. They had to finish the mission. She patted Vara'l twice on the chest before standing up and surveying the area, it seemed that both of the drones were down and out for now. "Sound off! What's everyone's status!?"

Safest way to keep Five down was honestly probably to stun them a few times, nothing medical could do. The nanoprobes were way too effective at this point to be really impressed with any sort of sedative.

"I am unhurt, Commander Kehal is unconscious and Concussed, I have him with me." They responded quickly from where they were hiding.

Vara'l discovered as he patted him just exactly how his ribs happened to feel right now. They really rather hurt, though he most certainly reckoned he was awake now. Ow. "We're both hurt, we've got five down unconscious and I'll be keeping her so." The Romulan stated then. "One drone still up?"

Timi just flashed a quick OK sign to notify everyone of his own status.

Senang patted his chest where he'd been hit, rolling out his shoulder afterwards. "No significant damage on my end, I will continue to fight," he concluded.

The tiny Wizard launched himself through the air and pummeled Four's body with his own, a flying blue and yellow cannonball straight to the chest. If Starfleet knew one thing about Borg drones, it was that they weren't super great at fending off physical attacks. Serin's wild plan had worked, and sent Four tumbling down to the ground on their back. Shaken, Four had let off a couple of shots into the room, not aimed at anyone in particular, and then was crushed by Tavek's large piece of metal, and the android's own strength. Tavek would have been able to feel a struggle under the metal for a few moments, followed by a twitch, and then stillness.

...Uh-oh. He'd just mean to pin him down, not crush him. He gave Ato a pat on the cheeks and a finger to the pulse. "You alive in there, friend?"

"Don't test your luck too much," came a voice from somewhere above. Kairos was still perched up from where he hit Ato, looking down at the display with a slight crease to his eyebrows, doing his best cosplay of a vulture surrounded by corpses. Saren would be proud. "Dunno who he is, but in his current state he's a bit hellbent on popping your head off."

“Oh.. Oh fuck. Oh fuck that was too much, what did I do!” He said, instantly getting off and lifting the piece off him. What had he done? He really was a monster. Every single horrible thing he had been called by Tal Shiar was right. He was just staring down at Ato.

"I could do with a burn kit." Aoife called out as she looked at the burns on her shoulder from the two consecutive shots that made contact there. She had a fairly gnarly burn now, the fact that she could only barely feel pain form the burn site not boding well, it probably ment there was some nerve damage that couldn't be fully repaired without a sickbay.

Serin could not see the rise and fall of Four's chest, nor feel a strong pulse. Whether Four was dead or alive wasn't really obvious, but at the very least he seemed knocked out.

“I didn’t mean it, I swear!” He didn’t even know his own fucking strength, of course that would be too much even for a Borg, what was he even thinking? What kind of horrible person was he- did he even count as a person anymore? Everyone who had ever tried to destroy him was right, he -was- only good for killing, what was he even doing trying to be a roboticist and repair others when it was obvious the only thing he was good for was breaking others. He backed up, sinking against the wall. If he could cry, he would be crying. It didn’t make a difference either way. Blood was on his hands either way.

"It was my half-baked plan, so save some self-flagellation for me, would you?" He put his ear to Ato's chest. Heart beating? Did borgs even have hearts any more?

"Now is not the time for assigning blame." Karavix scanned over Ato with a slightly shaking hand, checking for life signs if possible.

"Oh my god.." he could swear he felt Tahsin resurface somewhere in the back of his mind, manifesting in the way he squeezed his nosebridge with his thumb and index fingers. After that, Kairos turned his head back, waving lazily: "We're fine here. Currently assessing the drone."

The tricorder scanned the Borg drone, revealing no life signs. No pulse, no breath, no brain function. Nothing.

4

3

Aoife hobbled over to the group assessing what used to be Ato. She observed the scene while she applied burn cream and a dermal regenerator to her shoulder. It wouldn't fully fix things but would do for now. "Damn." She stated in a tone of voice that was almost cold, as she came down from the adrenaline high from the fight her analytical and almost callous side came out. "How'd you manage that? I honestly didn't think we'd muster enough blunt force trauma to take out one of them up close." Aoife spoke as she looked down on the crumpled remains of Ato.

“I.. my strength modulation must be wrong. I thought it was lighter. I… I killed him.” He said, his voice now detached. Unemotional. He wished he could cry. He wished he could look on the outside how horrible he felt on the inside. But he couldn’t. He could only stare down at something that used to be a person.

No brain function? That fast? Now HOLD on a minute. "How quickly does it take for someone's brain to die after their body?"

"You didn't kill him. This place did." Aoife said trying to reassure Tavek. They couldn't afford another breakdown now when they were too far in to quit. "We knew that this was a possibility when we set out. We'd do what we could to stun and liberate them, but in this scenario you did the right thing. It was us or them." Aoife said as she gestured to the burn and to the many others with scoring on their armour and assorted wounds. "If it had hit me in the head, I might not be standing here. If you hadn't taken it down it could have hurt more of us. The needs of the many and so on to quote Surak."

After the altercation, the group was left with two drones down. One, apparently, dead. He had not talked much to the lieutenant before but still, it was a blow to see one of the ones they had vowed to liberate, to recover, now laying inert on the metal ground. His body disfigured, turned into a tool for the Borg. He approached the group. “Is anyone severely injured?” He had managed to dodge the firepower yet, which was impressive since there were so many shots being fired ever since they left their base. “Commander O’Rielly?” He arrived just in time to hear her quoting Surak. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, commander.” He completed.

“… Thank you, Commander. I just.. how. How could I do that to a person. I.. we came here to save everyone. I just killed my own crewmate.” He said, the last part a bit more quietly. It had certainly hit him hard, and he deserved it. How could he even go back to 777 now? He was stupid, clumsy, and not worth the space he took up at best.. and at worst, he was a murderer.

"Stop skipping straight to acceptance! Nobody dies this quickly from a heavy rock." He laughed a little manically. "He's - he's gone into torpor, that's it. Like a bug. I'll zap him awake!" That was it! Genius! Frankenstein-esque necromancy was surely the solution here! He searched for the nearest electrical object.

5

4

He's gone mad scientist mode. We've lost him.

2

"Lieutenant, do not." Karavix was all for a bit of mad science, but not now. "You will only make it worse."

“What- no, he’s already dead, shocking him won’t do anything!” He said- even he, stupid as he was, knew that wouldn’t work.

"Commander, glad you made it through ok." Aoife said with a nod as Tarsek came up behind her. "You defended yourself and your crewmates in an impossible situation. End of story." Aoife again tried to reassure Tavek. Before realising Serin had gone mad. "Lieutenant De-Sieth stop that. That's, that's not how biology works. And we've got no idea what en electrical current would do to the cybernetic components. We're not in the business of unnecessary risk."

”Please, let us not violate our late crew-mate’s body further.” Tarsek spoke up. “Death is the ending for all of us. Kaiidth. We will honor Lt. Th’zhaloth how we can.” “Do not regret what you cannot change and what was consequence of our need for survival.”

He stopped searching and threw his hands up in the air. "Well, what else am I supposed to do?" He was speaking as though they were dealing with a current problem, and not an issue that had already passed.

2

”There is nothing to be done, lieutenant.” Tarsek answered to the other man. “We can only accept what has come to pass.”

"Find a way off this house of horrors and back to the Starbase." Aoife replied to Serin a moment after Tarsek.

He glared at nobody in particular. "I'm done accepting." He barely got to know the man and then he was gone! He was tired of the ephemeral nature of not just life, but HIS life specifically. This was the Q's work, clearly, his subtle machinations interfering with his fate even now - He took a deep breath. In. Out. Redid his messy ponytail. "Well! I'll leave combat and medicine to the professionals in the future, shall I?"

5

"Did you hear that Tarsek? We're professionals now!" Aoife said with a lilt of sarcasm that likely went right over the Vulcans head. She spoke sarcastically in a vain attempt to keep some kind of levity and to ignore serins obvious jab.

2

He tilted his head like a confused dog. "No, that would be the medical and tactical officers. I mean, you're a professional, too, but at... intelligence things?" That had not been a jab at all. He meant very literally that he was clearly not very good at either combat or medicine, which was true. (edited)

Well at least she wasn’t the one to kill a beloved crewmate, she was just the one who nearly killed a beloved crewmate. That would be fun to unpack later said Cow, and not Vesta because Vesta did not fully believe that she would actually get out of the Borg cube. Oh god how did it come to this. She stared at the body, no knowing what to do.

”We are, although from different divisions. You cannot join Starfleet if you do not become or already are a professional.” He stated. Sarcasm? Tarsek did not know her.

2

"Hon I didn't always wear a purple uniform." Aoifes Texan accent came out the more sarcastic she got. "I was a professional soldier long before I was a spy." Aoife said to Serin.

2

As adrenaline briefly ebbed, Vara'l stumbled slightly. Stumbled but recovered as be focused and turned to check everything. Checked it as he tapped his combadge. Queried something before he turned and proceeded to spit red off to one side. Did so before his eyes fixed upon Atos body. Before he stiffened briefly and something more behind those walls of control shattered and tore. Tore as the individual noted at the end of his tactical assessment. One crew fatality. Beheld how its failure was now etched in stone and stilled life. Beheld it as more than physical pain ripped a grunt from him. "We dont have much time before we will need to continue, two drones are still extant." He swallowed then. "Honour him, remember him and let's get the vinculum secured and the other saved." Swallowed as emotion howled within him as physical pain bolstered walls of control for now even as his body screamed as grief howled within him. Grief and guilt deep...so deep within him, harboured and hidden for now. "Commander T'she,status of Commander Kehal? He asked then. "Can he continue?" Not......yet. (edited)

With the stun wearing off he had started to come around. Initially it sounded like everything was underwater, leaving him completely unaware of what had transpired. His eyesight was fuzzy and he blinked a couple of times, wondering what had happened for him to end up on the ground. Above him was the black and green panelling of a Borg cube... And even if things didn't click into place as much as they should have in his brain, that was enough to kick-start him back into action. At the sound of his name he once again raised an 'OK' sign while dragging himself upright. Aside from being a little disoriented and having a headache, to himself he seemed fine. To anyone else he might have been a bit unsteady on his feet - a shoulder to lean on might be required - but that was all. No further concussion symptoms yet, and adrenaline was doing a fine job of masking any problems and getting him back on his feet.

While Vara'l initially started to think of transporters and holding someone in the Buffer, he was distracted by the fact it had dawned on him he'd managed to bite his tongue. Initially furious with himself as emotion roiled that it had failed to twig to him earlier, Vara'l's grey hued eyes fixed upon lt.cdr Kehal. "Can you continue,Commander?

He was a little bit wobbly while hauling himself back to his feet but he shook if off. Aside from a good headache he felt fine - the adrenaline that had kicked in upon re-realising where he was had clearly helped. He'd probably be fine for a while and any symptoms of a concussion show up later. Not that he even realised he potentially had a concussion, given he had no idea how he had ended up on the ground. "I'm okay. Everyone else okay?" He asked while sorting his rifle and med kit that had fallen with him. Strangely, one thing he noticed amidst everything was the smell of fire in the air. "Did someone try to start a campfire..?" Was his next question, not realising that the burning smell had come from Aoife's singed armour.

5

"I wouldn't say campfire, more like second bordering on third degree burns." Aoife said as she gave a cursory sniff. "Smells like if you cremated a pork chop then doused it in hydraulic fluid and piss."

"That's... Not a very good recipe." What an understatement. Having only just readjusted his medical kit on his back, he took it off again to find the right equipment - a dermal regenerative agent, a dermal regenerator, painkillers via hypospray. It wouldn't be the prettiest of patch-jobs, but it was enough to prevent infection. A proper look at the wound once not on a Borg cube would be advisable.

Khamlet was grinning, teeth bared, dirtied and smelling of phaser fire and sweet sweat. He was in a fine mood, his blood was pumping, the fire in his heart rising, and his eyes were fixed on some unseen horizon filled with glorious death and joyous violence. He was a pillar of such bright life and contentment that he could almost seem incandescent compared to the mood and sobriety amongst his newfound comrades. He posted up in overwatch as they began to tend to their wounds, those of spirit as much as the body, and remained alert and attentive. By his count one of the drones hadn’t appeared at all in the fight, and the largest and strangest of them had retreated. It was far from safe here, he almost laughed for the joy of that thought, this was merely the breath between strikes and blows.

1

"Well, at least someone here's happy!" He said, grinning with too tightly-gritted teeth at Khamlet, wiping some sweat off his brow. He was the one maintaining that cheerful facade before, wasn't he? Best to keep maintaining it. Follow Khamlet's example. No need for doom and gloom at a time like this. So what if Ato just died? Everyone does! They could ALL die! "You sure are having fun, aren't you?"

3

Khamlet hadn’t expected to be addressed at this moment, he might not understand their exact displays of grief but he was no fool he could see what it was, and so when Lieutenant De-Sieth called out to him he was surprised. ‘At least someone here’s happy!’ He expected the words to be more of an insult, but as he watched the tightly gritted teeth for the signs of mocking he saw instead something he read more as desperation. His teeth showed in a wide smile, joyous and dangerous all at once, and he barked out a laugh which rumbled low in his throat. “A good fight, warriors alongside me, terrible foes and fatal odds arrayed against me? How could I not!” He laughed again, a rolling and warm sound, and he glanced at the other lieutenant looking him up and down for injuries. “You fought well.” He said with a tone that was genuine in its compliment - he had chosen to fight hand-to-hand after all, a bold choice against the Borg, worthy indeed! (edited)

Stood fully up now, Vara'ls grey hued eyes flicked first to the blown open armour of shoulder before he checked the glancing impact sites. Dispassionate as he noted the burned bits of fabric and where one had sliced through and left a burn on his side, Vara'l tested the leg that had been glanced a bit as he stated. "Unless we contrive a way to secure the Lieutenants Five of Eight and..." He swallowed to hide a groan of something other than physical pain. "Th'zhaloth, be that through keeping them in the buffer." He paused. "...Which I assume isn't really workable ah." He looked off then. "..We need to think about moving before Lieutenant Five of Eight wakes up."

Serin rarely ever mocked anyone. That often required a level of insincerity he did not possess. He'd been on the receiving end of hidden jabs too many times. "Thanks, I suppose." He didn't think he fought well at all, but he wasn't going to spurn Khamlet's Khompliment. "Were I able to enjoy battle as much as you, but I think I prefer engineering."

"You gonna be okay?" Kairos glanced at Serin with his unblinking voids. Trust an Intel to really Look at the person's face and tone of voice, to try and understand what was really going on behind it. Kairos just took it to a literal degree.

1

Khamlet had been about to answer De-Sieth’s observation on their enjoyment of battle when the strange Trill seemingly interjected asking if they were ‘gonna be okay?’ Khamlet refocused on De-Sieth and let out a small ‘hmm’ that was more growl than anything else, but still carried the hint of contemplation. Eventually he spoke up, “bI'IQchugh yIvang…” The universal translator rendering it as: ‘if you are sad, act.’ And he nodded towards Vara’l, * “… It would seem Engineering is needed.” *Perhaps there was something this De-Sieth might offer for restraining or otherwise preventing the Borg here from being a future problem - that didn’t involve simply killing them, he knew enough to not suggest giving them good deaths now. (edited)

Being a not-engineer, he had no clue if the transporter buffer idea was feasible. While more tech-oriented minds worked it out he continued doing his job instead; this time, moving from treating Aoife to Vara'l. At one point his gaze wandered over the deceased drone on the ground. Something in the back of his head told him that he should know who that was, that he should be disturbed... But - definitely concussed - he could only see them as a drone and not as a colleague.

No! "Yes. I remain lucid enough for competency, at least. I won't zap anything unless people ask me to, if you're worried about that." He laughed at his own joke, then coughed. He felt nauseous. "As for restraining the Borg - well, steel cable might do it if you see any, but other than that we need to find a way to overcome their phaser resistance. Anyway - doesn't matter. Khamlet is right. We should act." He started wandering off. If you keep going forward, you can't look back.

4

Khamlet gave an approving nod and even an encouraging grin towards the departing De-Sieth, well encouraging for a Klingon so still filled with an undue amount of threat, violence, and danger. He turned around to survey the room again as it appeared they would be soon moving out, checking for any missed threats or avenues of attack or egress, and the like.

Well, there were about five different exits, all leading somewhere different. The one the original drone had left through was opposite them, and was also the direction they would need to go in to continue in the straightest line towards the Vinculum. However, it seemed that within the room they were currently in there were no more threats, aside from maybe tetanus given all of the discarded Borg tech scattered around the entire space.

7

He hovered around the exit toward the Vinculum, waiting for everyone else to finish their whatever the fuck.

Khamlet looked down at the broken pieces of Borg technology around the space, piled up like the litter in the nest of a Cardassian Vole, disgusting he thought as his lip curled up in displeasure. In glancing around the room once more he spotted the quiet officer who had checked his armour in the runabout, but they were tending to Vara’l and the other commander who had been struck by a shot which left their shoulder burned. So, he walked towards the exit they were soon to advance down - aiming his phaser rifle down it and taking position - he looked to De-Sieth, “What are the scans showing?” He asked directly, almost bluntly, assuming that of course they would be scanning the path ahead for threats, the shape and composition of the terrain, and so on.

"Hells if I know, I haven't scanned anything." And so he did that. Scanned things. With his tricorder or whatever. So much effort in my roleplay posts today.

Nothing of note ahead.

"Nothing of note ahead."

Khamlet gave a comprehending nod of the simple answer, and then rolled his shoulders a little and began to hum a song, his fingers sometimes tapping a rhythm on his rifle, as he waited for the battle to renew.

Karavix, hovering by the exit as well, cleared her throat. "Very well, then, shall we carry on?" That was kind of a disaster. Surely it would be fine, though...

Timi gathered too, near the front of the group, nodding along to Karavix. He motioned towards the walkway, before taking the lead and stepping in.

Perfect. She followed suit, scanning all the way.

Off he went, into the belly of the beast...

Tavek followed. As others had said.. what was done was done. It wouldn’t be of any use to do anything but go forwards and make sure no one else died.

Khamlet advanced at the very moment of the order, his senses alert and ready for whatever might come, and his weapons ready. His heart was a joyous drumbeat in his chest! A smile on his face, sharp teeth showing.

Seiyya followed as well, hoping that this would all be over soon so she could take a damned shower. Her hair was getting far too greasy and she could feel herself starting to break out.

"Hm," Oh, there definitely was skepticism in that hum. Nevertheless, after readjusting his weapon, Kairos followed people suit.

Once all of his medical equipment was securely back in his kit and his rifle back in hand, he followed after the group. There was still a sense of confusion about whatever had happened during the past ten to fifteen minutes, but he pushed it aside. What mattered now was anything that lay ahead.

With his riffle ready, Tarsek followed the group through the new corridor.

Having been treated as best as possible presumably by the Lt.Cdr, Vara'l joined the others as he followed the group into the new corridor. He did pause briefly enough to ensure his hand phaser was returned to its holster and the rifle retrieved.