Star Trek: Starbase 777 - forest-clearing

As soon as the away team entered the clearing, they’d encounter two of the loyalists stood here with phasers still in-hand. They’re panicked, and looking around at the trees away from where the away team was approaching. One of their own was on the ground, clutching at a gash on her arm. They haven’t noticed you all yet…

6

T'She had stopped, trying to keep in the shadows and even pointing their flashlight at the ground in front of them. Maybe they could reason with the loyalists... if they were careful about it. They were a nurse and there was someone injured... Nevertheless, they did not speak up yet.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," he whispered, and he did in fact stay closer to Syrax when told, not quite getting why but not quite putting in all the energy to think about that at the moment, more focused on what the scans were going to say. Was it accurate enough to see in what direction the android was in, at least? Clearly somewhere in front of them, if the looks forward of the two loyalists were anything to go off of. In his other hand, though, he put a hand on his phaser, making sure it was on to stun.

Aoife crouched down real low when she saw the loyalists and lined up her rifle towards the one who wasn't injured, she was going to let the more diplomatic members of the away team do the talking, but she readied herself to take action if they turned hostile.

The android was north of them, where the loyalists were pointing their weapons, and…and closing in- Closing in fast! Suddenly, leaping out of the woods at one of the loyalists was an android that has clearly seen better days, torn up and dirt-covered. Vines and moss clung to his body, but he was nevertheless fast and strong! He hefted up a large, clawed mining implement and slashed at the loyalist, who screamed and fell to the ground. His fellow loyalist screamed as well, firing blindly at the android as it stomped toward him!

5

6

T'She, unable to really watch as someone got hurt -- bleeding heart that they were -- really jumped into action, keeping their hands up, they tried to talk to Kix. "Please stop! We are Starfleet, here to help. Please try and step away from them, let me try and heal them."

The android paused mid-stride, the loyalist having dropped his weapon in fright and actively scrambling across the ground. He lowered the large mining tool with a THUMP, and worn servos click and hiss as he turned his head to T’She. His single eye pierced the nurse, wires dangling free from his empty left eye socket. “Yyyy$;&(&…you…compannnnyyy?€~€£?” The voice box glitched out.

"We are with the Federation, not the Company. They don't seem to like us very much," They sighed and shook their head. "We would like to help, and that means helping the wounded too... even if they do not appreciate it at the time."

Aoife trusted T'She to try and talk Kix down from killing everyone, however she didn't want to take any chances and kept a shot aimed at Kix from her concealed position, ready to start shooting only if it became absolutely necessary.

Whoa. Okay, so pushing any not-mission-relevant thoughts about this guy into the back of his brain, he put his tricorder away, and shook his head upon hearing the word 'company'. "If you're asking if we're associated with the company, no. Very much not, yeah, we're Starfleet." He nodded to T'She.

2

“No! No no no, we’re Starfleet, not the company.” She nodded in affirmation to what the others were saying. Then, it took off its commbadge and held it up so that Kix could clearly see the logo.

“Sssstaaarrfleet…$;$;!(!(&@…” The android wheezed. He stood particularly tall, even in this hunched over and angry state. His eye shifted from T’She, to Allan, to Iiani, and then to Iiani’s badge. “…ssseeeen Starfleeeeett…$;&(&(>%…•

Senang's rifle was raised, ready to shoot at the first sign that this android was going to pull something. They weren't sure, and the guy seemed calm-ish for now, but they weren't taking any chances.

"You've seen ... we had another away team here at one point, are you saying you've seen them..?" He asked, taking out his tricorder again. "I'm an engineer, um - I could help fix your voicebox to talk more clearly, if you'd allow that?"

The Romulan slowly rose to his feet as well, uncharacteristically quiet. If their new acquaintance decided to dash, they'll have to get through him first... ignore the slight shakiness Syrax was feeling under his knees.

“Ennnnginneeerrr…$;&(!(&….” The android considered something, “Brrrrooke meee…!!$;&(@(&” Kix said with a roar, pointing toward the loyalist that was on the ground. He stuttered in his stomping as he moved toward the crumpled man, who began to scream again.

T'She was quick to run towards the crumpled man, wanting to put themself in between him and Kix. They could not stand by and watch someone get hurt. "Lt. Allen is our Assistanct Chief of Engineering, and one of the best we have. If anyone can fix you up, he can." They tried their best to persuade, while using their body as a vulcan-ish shield.

1

Smiling at the compliment from T'She, he nodded. "Yeah, I - I've worked on repairing androids a lot, we actually have an.. statistically significant amount of them on our station. I also, um- if it helps, I.." he paused for a moment, wondering if it was worth it to say this, but then continued, "I know Citrine, um - the whistleblower from some years back? We're friends, actually, I - promise, really, we want absolutely nothing to do with the company."

Vara'l moved to accompany the Lieutenant commander as they attempted to put themselves in between them and the android. His phaser raised ready to fire if the Android attempted to get through T'She to the wounded man.

Kix was clearly not going to let T’She stop him, grabbing them by the shoulder and shoving them onto the ground after they stopped speaking, but there’s a word that Allan says that catches him. As he towers over the loyalist, his head turned slowly toward Allan, “…Citrine…whiiiistleblowerrr..$;&(@(@…” His shoulders relaxed just a bit. He didn’t say much else, but turned to fully face the engineer. He then held a hand out toward T’She, offering to help them up. (edited)

4

Aoife remained in her concealed position covering the away team from the tree line.

T'She, having been unceremoniously crumpled, accepted the help from Kix, glad that they were able to talk some sense into him, and letting Allan take it from here.

Vara'l moved to fire as the android tossed T'She but then..stopped. Stopped as it became apparent this situation might have just started to de-escalate. He remained silent as he watched though, also contented to let Allan take this one.

"No, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey--" he grit his teeth and bit back a dirty curse, seeing one of their medics up and leave to stand right next to the volatile android with a very big weapon. Just like that, moving right in the direct vector of a possible strike... His body did do a full-on jerk when T'She was roughly moved, the thought of "oh I definitely will throw myself at this android guy if he does something else, right now" piercing through his fear-addled brain... but nothing followed. Sy's shoulders sagged.

"Yeah, Citrine," Allan nodded in confirmation, glad to see at least that T'She had been helped up again now. "I mean, I'm not sure what else I can say there, except that I thought it was pretty cool and that, I mean - yeah, we're really here because we got an application from you guys to join the Federation, and we also lost an away team, and so you know, Starfleet sent another away team, but... that's the most of it, really. We'd love to try and help with whatever's going on here, really. Especially if it involves getting rid of some capitalism."

The android’s eyes- Well, eye narrowed in thought as Allan continued to speak. After a few moments of deliberation, he simply pointed at T’She, and pointed to the two loyalists he’d attacked, “Fix,” He barked, before pointing at Allan and then at his own throat, “Fix.”

T'She nodded and almost immediately jumped into action, staring with the one who was more injured, and doing whatever they could to help patch both of the loyalists up. At least, they might be able to beam one up to the Eventide if their wounds were too bad.

"Say please," Senang mumbled under her breath, a bit put off by the android. She'd tensed her shoulders when he'd pulled T'She up, ready to fire, but refrained when nothing happened.

6

The loyalists on the ground were quite relieved to have some help from T’She, and a dermal regenerator got a lot of the job done.

The android’s eyebrows rose in surprise at Senang, before furrowing once more, “…plleassse..€{£}€”

4

Thankfully, the dermal regenerator got most of the job done, so T'She was able to breate a sigh of relief. "There, I think that should do it. And thank you, for saying please" They responded to Kix. (edited)

Allan stepped closer very carefully, and it would be a lie to say he wasn't at least a little scared to do so, getting so close to someone who had been slashing people just moments earlier. "I'm, um - gonna have to touch this to you," Allan said, holding his tricorder in front of him so the android could see it, "to get some accurate readings and see what's up before I can get to fixing ya. That okay? You can just nod if that's easier on you."

Senang also raised an eyebrow, almost lowering her rifle in surprise. "Well, okay then," she said, clearly a little ???? about this.

Though his expression was still rather flat and angry, he nodded at Allan.

Allan nodded back, and smiled in contrast to the android's expression as he took the tricorder and held it to the android's throat, running a scan to both diagnose what was wrong and to get a little bit of a map or blueprint of what the internals looked like so that when he did diagnose the problem, it'd be easier to know where it needed to be fixed.

Vesta had stayed behind, she was not a medic, or an engineer, or particularly good at shooting, but as she watched the scene unfold, she could not help but feel sorry for Kix.

He decided to carefully approach, trying not to think too hard about the recent scene he just witnessed of a man helplessly crawling away from the advancing android. Instead, he decided to quickly ask before Allan would go on with his repairs: "Who did this to you?"

It seemed like Kix had taken a phaser shot to the throat which knocked him offline for a little bit, and also damaged his vocal modulator. Luckily, burnt out wires were easy to replace.

The android’s single eye turned toward Syrax, and his voice box glitched out, “Ffforeman…$;&(&(&…triiied to hellllp, got shhot. Left…€{£}£<…”

Ah. Yeah, no, he definitely wants to fight that guy.

"Okay, there's some burnt wires in the vocal modulator here," Allan explained, "I'm going to try using some wires from another tricorder to replace the ones burnt, and then sort of... make sure they won't short, things like that, and hopefully get you to where you'll at least be understandable, for now. Do you mind if we um, sit down..?" He asked, because that would probably make working on something so delicate a lot easier for him.

The android unceremoniously sat down. Evidently, he didn’t mind.

The loyalists had corralled themselves far away from Kix by this point, and were casting very wary glances at him and the away team.

"Thanks," Allan kneeled beside the android, getting to work. He took out some wires from Aoife's tricorder from earlier, and then started to twist them together by hand, braiding them into a rough substitute for the burnt modulator leads. He used his teeth once, tugging a connection tight, then wrapped the splice with stripped fiber from the tricorder’s own insulation - crude, but it would prevent a short. "Gonna replace them now, so just hold still for a little," he said softly before he did just that, carefully taking apart the burnt wires and laying them on the ground, and weaving the new - or, well, undamaged - wires into the vocal modulator.

The shuffling from the loyalists caught Syrax's attention. Perhaps he could talk with them..? "Hey," might as well start from afar. He might be Stupid, but not stupid enough to approach people with guns uninvited. "You okay if I chit-chat with you?"

One of them, the man who had been scared by Kix to the point of nearly pissing his pants, turned his wide eyes toward Syrax, “What do yew want?”

Kix watched Allan work as best as he could, and eventually, the wires had all been replaced, and with Starfleet ones! The android did a robotic equivalent of clearing his throat before turning to the engineer, “…much obliged.”

3

Recognizing that his stature hovering over the hurt people might read badly, he decided to squat down - suddenly so much smaller than he really was. "Could you tell me what happened?" he asked, after moving his hair out of his face. "With Kix attacking you, and people going missing - was there a reason for these events?" He was essentially asking the same questions that they offered to the woman back in town - but he just wanted to compare notes, see if the stories matched, if any new details could pop up. If the Company-aligned people were interested in talking, of course. Still, Syrax at least could try.

Allan nodded, smile still on his face as he stood back up and offered the android a hand. "No problem. Really. I'd be happy to work on the rest later, if you'd like as well."

The man let out a huff, “…Orville ‘n them down at the mine wanted outta the company. Stuck somethin’ in the tin can’s brain to tick him off somethin’ fierce toward the company ‘n all of us. Dumbass thought he’d ‘win’ against the foreman ‘n the security ‘n the whole damn company,” He tutted his tongue, “Stupid bastard.”

The android stood alongside Allan, his servos wheezing and popping like old joints, “…fine by me,” He replied, his programmed southern drawl returning now that the modulator was fixed, “Now…” He said with a low tone of voice, glancing in the direction of the loyalists before turning back to Allan, “You lookin’ for somebody?”

Allan nodded. "Yeah, our other away team - three people, if I'm remembering correctly." He sure hoped he was remembering correctly, at least.

"Why didn't Orville and those who agree with them just leave?" he asked, suddenly really curious as to what this guy will say to that question, and deciding to ignore the insult thrown at either the Orville guy or Kix or both. Gee, he wondered...

"Three people, yes," Senang confirmed.

Seeing that Kix no long posed a threat Aoife emerged from her position in the brush and rejoined the rest of the away team rifle held in a low ready position pointing at the ground. "From what was said in the town we think they're somewhere in the mine and that there should be a back entrance somewhere around here."

“They was talkin’ ‘bout how things would get an awful lot worse if they up ‘n left. Wanted to lend a helpin’ hand or some shit, ‘cuz that’s what Starfleet’d do.’ Now look at us, in the bowels of hell…” He spat.

“Three of ‘em…yup, I saw ‘em. They went on down to the mine,” He turned, pointing the way he came, “Back entrance’s thataway,” He looked back at the away team, “Lotta other folks are stuck in there too. Heard the foreman talkin’ about waiting for the company to deal with ‘em,” He furrowed his brow, “Breld’s got fun ways of punishin’ folk.”

"And you are so against the Starfleet ways because?.." it was probably a funny question coming from a Romulan in a uniform with Lieutenant pips. But, oh well.

“Company provides!” “‘At’s right!” “Breld’s never done us any wrong, and y’all keep pressin’ up against our territory. Far as we’re concerned, y’all are against our ways!” He replied, looking rather proud of himself.

"I see..." he couldn't really say anything else to that. Not like these people knew anything else... to some extent, Syrax could relate. "I do just wish that we all met in better circumstances. Thank you for talking with me!" With that, he decided to leave the poor sods well alone, returning to his group: "So... what's next?"

"So.. you approve of what they've been doing with relation to your pensions?" Vara'l idly commented as he moved off to take up a position on the peremiter. "And, we're here to check up on the Starfleet away team.." The Romulan then added as he settled into position and watched the peremiter, mindful of the fact that at least some of the people they'd encountered previously had fired at them.

1

"Fundamentally yes, Federation values do not align with those of a large company with the power to extort its workers. But we're not telling you how to live, the Federation is only responding to calls for aid from a potential new joining world." Senang pointed out. "And we're only here because three of our own went missing," she corroborated what Vara'l was saying.

The man turned his nose up at Syrax as he walked off. He opened his mouth to reply to Vara’l about the pension funds, but paused. He…didn’t have much of a response to that. Another of the loyalists nudged his shoulder. “Go on, Tim!” “…well…the…look! Y’all come bargin’ on in here, and..! Damnit! Look, those three are locked on up in the mine, so if you’re done interrogatin’ me, I’d like to change my clothes after that damn robot made me piss myself!!”

3

"That's embarrassing." Senang said impassively, in the most judgemental Vulcan way ever.

5

Syrax just grimaced. Out of pity or genuinely cringing, it was up to you to decide.

"Indeed." Vara'l agreed as steel grey eyes flicked to focus on the man again. "Are you aware of the status of our personnel, are any of them injured at all?" The Romulan then inquired as he continued to well, interrogate the other.

“I don’t fuckin’ know! I just know they’re in there! I stayed in town, I kept my nose outta things, like y’all shoulda done in the first place!” He was getting rather flustered! The path that Kix had pointed down was a bit hard to discern, but it was there. A well-worn footpath that led to #highsplint-mine

"Let's go and get our people out and make sure they're alright." Aoife said after the worker as she began heading down the footpath.

The android trailed behind the away team, though he’d left his mining tool behind in the clearing. Maybe he wasn’t gonna hurt anyone anymore? Maybe he was enough of a threat without it? Who knows! But he was coming along!

Vara'l followed along with the rest of the team and occasionally glanced over to the Android as he walked. With his tricorder returned to its holster, Vara'l gripped his rifle with both hands. Gripped it and walked on.

T'She was following everyone else to the mine.