Star Trek: Starbase 777

They eventually came upon a clearing, where the rosebushes either weren't as concentrated or had been forcefully cleared away - likely the latter - in the middle of which there was a campfire, and around which was some litter from packets of food, tents, and an absolute massacre. (cw: gore) Dead Ferengi in varying levels of PPE, blood that was an eye-searing red soaked into the soil, and an assortment of strewn limbs. There was a single alive epohh, though, munching on a nearby rosebush. (edited)

Trying very hard not to throw up, Bob said, "I think I hear... someone breathing?"

T’Asha had expected to see some gore but this.. this was a massacre. It was so red, so bloody. She hadn’t seen anything like this before. She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. She noticed the living epohh, the one calm thing here. At least something was alive here. She had her phaser out still. That breathing sound could be another rabid Ferengi. “Be careful everyone. That breathing could be another affected poacher and we all know what will happen if any of us gets bitten.”

Essen was somewhat taken aback by this, having gone through a life-threatening scenario growing up that was just as gory as this. Still, the emotion of it all was getting to her. "Jeez..." Essen had been quiet all day, not really being able to form words as she was moreso in an emotional shock.

CW: gore and violence ‼️ That breathing, wet and ragged and with a guttural note to it's exhales, suddenly turned into fast-paced panting - as the iymn'irrhae arose from the bushes like a submarine out of shallow waters, cowered in dirt and Ferengi blood to the point that it was hard to tell what the color of it's coat actually was. The hung head low, massive lipless maw dripping gore like rainfall, and it's limbs shook from the exhaustion and cuts covering them, dark green blood dripping down into dirt, but the beast seemed to barely acknowledge that - too lost in the madness of the infection, the animal's eyes were red and bulging, staring dumbly somewhere ahead of itself. Right until they didn't, shifting sharply onto the group of intruders. Moving faster than a body of this mass and levels of hurt should, the roaring and hissing animal lunged towards them, ready for another fight. It's mouth opened, wide, the lower jaw and bisected tongue unhinging themselves into two, before all of those pollen-covered teeth plunged themselves into the Ferengi's flesh, jaws locking around Bee's left arm and shoulder as she was lifted up, up, up... With it's prey clutched, the rorse started to thrash, growling - moving itself in circles as it's head snapped sharply, side to side, looking almost like a young dog playing with it's toy, painting the ground around itself with more blood. Those seconds felt like an eternity, before it ended up throwing the limp form somewhere into the bushes, as soon as the humanoid stopped it's struggle - only for the colt to blindly charge into the group of officers, teeth clacking for More.

All she could do was scream... until she was silent. (edited)

Ten sighed at the dead bodies. They did not gross him out at all , between his medical training and the horrors he remembered experiencing/doing while in the collective this was nothing. But he felt a sense of sadness and pity for the poor ferengi, no one deserves to die screaming. Seeing the Ferengi get picked up and thrown about by the creature, set Ten at the ready. Ten instinctively reached for his phaser and drew it, setting it to its highest setting he fired.

Throughout the mission T'Kastrir had trailed along with the group in silence, hands clasped behind his back throughout. Here was here to assist should he be needed, and as the mission had progressed the Vulcan-raised Human had slowly come to the logical conclusion that his assistance would most likely be needed soon. As the team had reached the campside the sheer amount of gore had even taken him of all people back, immediately having to rely on his years of education and training in the teachings of Surak to so much as stop himself gagging. An emotional reaction to this would be quite illogical, as what he was witnessing had already transpired. Despite this, though, it was as he witnessed the rabid iymn'irrhae rise from the bushes and attack their guide that his eyes widened, the first actual expression of any form of emotion that had appeared on his face since he pretended to be a casualty. Except this wasn't pretend, these were his emotions, and the primary one he was experiencing right now was instinctual fear. 'Surak guide me.' the man couldn't help but think as he was unable to look away from the sheer horror unfolding in front of the group. As the colt began charging towards the team, though, that instinctual fear turned to instinctual self-protection, and reaching for his phaser, he immediately activated it on the highest stun setting while searching for an escape route of sorts. Firing two shots, he then quickly tried to move out of the beast's path and to whatever cover he could get behind, wanting to put anything between himself and the animal.

At the same time T’Kastrir and Ten fired, she also fired her phaser set on stun. None of them had fired first. T’Asha could barely think, she fired and ran for cover, finding herself near T’Kastrir. The only thing she could think of in her numb state was how awkward it was to be hiding with her ex-boss. That thought was closely followed by a pang of shock, her logic was forgotten and replaced with horror, the terror of watching their guide be thrown into the air and killed so brutally. Yeah, she was no longer a fan of rorses. It was all she could do to not scream herself.

Chyun kept a very large gap between himself and the rabid rorse, but unfortunately their Ferengi friend was not as lucky. He was much too far from her to provide any assistance, but even if he was close enough he knew better than to look at rabid rorse in the eyes. As much as Chyun had wanted to see some lungs on this mission, he didn't want to see them like this. He also fired his phaser at the highest setting along with the others in the group before running out of the path of the rabid animal.

"Man, I'm craving cheese," Nalas was fully delusional and only half conscious when he said that and he began to squirm against Saren again. He took in big gulps of air, straining to breath with the infection taking hold. He also seemed completely oblivious to the horrors that had just unfolded in front of everyone and was now trying to get free of Saren, kneeing the man in the side and slapping the back of the other's neck too.

The red fog of pollen obscured everyone's vision and the rorse was not an easy target, especially after it was done mauling Bawbee and started moving towards whoever else was closest at the time, so, after some coin-flipping in #rp-discussion to keep it fair, the only shots that ended up hitting it were T'kastrir's - both times! It let loose a strange rumbling roar, and, in its effort to launch itself towards T'kastrir and give him a rabid revenge-bite, it stumbled on its way there and crashed to the floor with a yelp. It scrambled to get up, movements sluggish from the effects of the phaser, but it seemed to not be down for the count yet - its will to resist was too strong! However, it did very much look affected, so it was probably a good idea to hit it a few more times before it made T'kastrir look like a punctured caprisun.

Ten took one more shot at the creature, Phaser still on kill, pew pew.

Initially falling back a couple of feet as the rorse attempted to launch itself towards T'kastrir to put some distance, Paco quickly scrambled to set his phaser to its highest setting "Temba!" He shouted before he began firing towards the direction of the rorse.

His first instinct was to duck and bolt, having precious cargo on his back - in the form of Nalas, who's symptoms worsened, and the kit, filled with samples from the epohh. Two things that slowed him down, two things he couldn't afford to lose or allow harm to any further. Same for the rest of his group. None of them were quick enough to save their guide, and watching her being thrown through the air just like that, only reminded the Romulan of the sheer, brutal strength these animals could possess. A strength he admired still, even after seeing it used so horribly. As shots rang out, his knees landed heavily onto the ground behind one of the tents, a grunt slipping through his clenched teeth as he felt Nalas' knee press itself against his side - against his scars, his fucked-up, mangled nerve endings, sending dull shots of pain up into his shoulder and arm. Still, he worked fast - positioning the delirious Bajoran against the folds of the tent, out of the beast's sight, and hiding the kit near him. He heard the animal fall down just as he pulled his phaser out and set it to kill - a mercy, in this situation. Then he moved, circling the iymn'irrhae to be somewhat opposite of the tent, and fired three consecutive shots at the thing, after which he scrambled to get out of the way again, knowing full well that the beast could choose to chase him: "If you can, aim for legs and head!"

Ten's shot hit, as did one of Paco's and two of Saren's - solid shots to its hindquarters, neck, and one of its legs. Unfortunately, it was not given the mercy of dying quickly, closing the distance between itself and T'kastrir with a desperate, limping gait, before falling to the floor again with a final thud right in front of him. For a moment, one might look into its bulging red eyes and think it dead, until (CW: gore, violence) as a last act of spite, it stretched and snapped its head out just enough to bite T'kastrir's ankle with a sickening C R U N C H. For a moment, through sheer force of will, it held onto his ankle like a dog with its favourite toy, gurgling and drooling red foamy spittle to infect the wound even further, before at last its jaw's vice-grip relented and it lay motionless on the floor. (edited)

The forest was silent... Until there was a groan from the bush Bawbee fell in, and a shuffling from up above, in the trees.

"Good shot buddy" Ten said to his phaser as he put it away. His attention went quickly to the loud crunch. Ten ran over with haste to T'kastrir, with a grunt he pushed the Rorse corpse to the side. Ten kneeled down next to his patient taking off his backpack and beginning his work. He pulled out a hypo spray and injected it near the wound site then took some sterile cloth and cleaned off the blood. He looked inside the wound with some forceps “This is deep” he mumbled to himself. He needed an extra hand; this forest was turning into a mobile sickbay. “Doctor Chyun-Maiell, Could you please come over and assist T’kastrir further, she has several lacerations, I have administered five ccs or Terakine Painkiller and antibiotics I need to check on the status of Bawbee.” He ran over to check on Bawbee, as he ran past Saren he tossed him a hypospray low dosage of Anesthizine, sedative. “Give Nalas that, it will slow down the heart a bit” He made his way to the downed Ferengi and pulled out his tricorder and scanned her. (edited)

As the rorse rapidly approached T'Kastrir couldn't help but attempt to get as far away from the creature as possible. In his mind, in his logic, there and then, he had no time to fire any more shots if he wanted to not become swiss cheese. As the others shot he attempted to move backwards to begin sprinting away from the incoming rabid beast, only to immediately catch the back of his foot on a small rock and stumble backwards. Hitting the ground with a thud and somehow managing to not drop his phaser, the Stellar Catrographer quickly attempted to backpedal on his, well, back, to get as far away from the incoming threat as possible, his flight instinct very much so kicking in. He was far slower than the rorse, though, and it was only as it was practically on top of him that it finally collapsed. Stopping, breathing heavily, thinking it was finally dead (or at least stunned), what happened next had not even slightly been taken into consideration by the exchange officer. x_divider

20:45

As the beast stretched out and snapped at his outstretched ankle, the Vulcan-raised Human's eyes widened as the immense force immediately crushed it, the sickeningly loud crunch resonating throughout his body. Despite the fact that after a moment the rorse technically let go as it finally ceased its attack, T'Kastrir entirely instinctively aimed his phaser at the creature's head, switching it to lethal in the process, and pulled the trigger. Despite his injuries, though, adrenaline had thankfully kicked in due to the situation he now found himself in so the pain had yet to register properly with his brain, which was probably good, because sitting here now, he already knew this was bad and that the pain would be intense to say the least. In fact, he was practically bracing for it. Sat there in silence, he watched as the Lieutenant immediately started rendering him aid, as he tried to channel every ounce of prior training he had been through to remain calm and to lower his heart rate, wanting to reduce the bleeding.

There was further rustling from the branches above. And a sneeze.

It took everything T’Asha had in her not to scream when the rorse limped towards their hiding spot and bite T’Kastrir’s ankle hard enough to break the bone. She heard the crunch, and saw the red foam dripping from the rorse’s maw. She knew he was gone at that point, or, as far as she knew. She decided that she had to get up, she couldn’t stand to watch yet another person be taken by the pollen. So she decided to go with Ten. But she heard the sneeze from the branches. She pointed to where the sneeze had come from and said. “There is something up in those branches.”

When scanned, Bawbee's life signs weren't great, but she was still alive. Preferably, she'd like to be hauled out of the bush and have her wounds derma regen'd so she didn't lose any more blood than she already had, but she couldn't voice that currently, because she was very unconscious.

Paco gave himself a couple moments to calm himself down and straighten his thoughts out of the fact that they managed to avoid death by getting mauled by a huge zombie rorse as it finally laid motionless after its rampage, subtly muttering bajoran prayers to himself as he took the unsettling sight in and hoped for the safety of the others. "Bless you?" It was only until the sneeze rang out that Paco snapped out of his head, initially assuming that someone sneezed among them until T'Asha pointed out someone might be in the trees, turning towards where she was pointing and gave her a nod. "On it, go help the others... I'll check what it is." Paco set his phaser to the lower Stun setting as he slowly approached the trees, pointing his weapon up. "Show yourselves! We're with Starfleet!" The Anthropologist shouted with as much firmness he could muster, albeit with hands trembling from being shaken from the events that just unfolded. It could either be a smaller creature with the rose rabies or the poachers in hiding, either way, Paco was ready to shoot. (edited)

A wheezy voice from the trees! "That thing dead?"

"It ain't moving, I'll tell you that much." Paco answered, very much relieved that it wasn't something scary that would attack them from above. He lowered his phaser a little bit, still readying himself to respond to whatever else might be lurking from these parts. "How many of you are up there?"

They got it - yet the beast managed to have the last say in their standoff. The crunch of Lieutenant's ankle made a shiver travel up his back, and his eyes closed as soon as T'Kastrir aimed that phaser at the iymn'irhhae's head, not wishing to witness the killing blow. It's suffering ended - but he couldn't fight the feeling of cold, seething anger, for someone to come here and disrupt the ecosystem to the point that this animal, one that was respected in the culture he was raised by in his colony, became a mindless, crazed monster. It was... somehow, borderline offensive. He caught the hypospray that was tossed to him on autopilot, and made sure to apply it to Nalas' neck, and checked on the kit - unharmed, thankfully. Hearing an unfamiliar voice, though, made him stand up and stride closer to Paco, phaser very obvious in his white-knuckled grasp. "Show yourself."

"Just me! But I'm hangin' on for dear life here! I don't know if I can get down without fallin'!" The voice from the trees yelled. Probably not good, since they didn't want to attract the attention of any other hostile creatures.

Ten gently picked up Bawbee and carried her over, laying her next to T'kastrir. He pulled out the Dermal regenerator and began working on her wounds. He glanced over at Chyun-Maiell who was helping T’kastrir and nodded. Turning back to focus on the ferengi he carefully mended her wounds, once the wounds were repaired he began taping up hazmat suit with his medical tape. He tricorder scanned her pushing various buttons, he was unsure if he should wake her up or not, if she was infected it would possibly be better for her to remain unconscious. (edited)

Glad to have Saren nearby, Paco turned to him and signaled Saren to follow him before he began to approach closer to the tree where the voice was coming from. "If you can't climb down, then let go! We'll try to catch you before anything else comes by."

The Romulan followed him like a particularly gloomy and angular shadow, ready to cover for the human in case the stranger stuck on the tree decided to try something funny. Though, considering the state of the campsite and the sound of their voice, it was highly unlikely - but better safe than sorry. As for the fellow scientist's words, Saren just gave a curt sort of nod, as if to confirm what Paco was saying.

It was probably better to let her be. She would need to be carried by someone, but she was small and light, so that wouldn't be much of an issue. T'kastrir would also need to be carried, too.

"Uhhhh, okay... but you gotta be directly underneath me to do that... okay. I'm gonna hum for a minute. Follow the sound of my voice until I sound like I'm directly above you and then catch me. Hummmmm... hooooooo hummmmmm.... mmmmmmmmmamaaaaa, I killed a man... put a bullet to his head, pulled the trigger, now he's dead... MAMAAAAA OOOOOOOOOO - AAAARGH!" A tall Ferengi fell from the branches onto whoever was waiting below. Or directly onto the ground. Either way, yeowch. (edited)

Paco was busy between three things: Following the voice, looking out for any other scary rose rabies rorses/anything else, and figuring out where which tree the voice was coming from. All of those things are very.... mentally taxing in terms of allocating focus, to which he decided to place more mental priority on the first two things, and hoping good perception checks will make him lucky on guessing which tree to catch the Ferengi when they fell. The fact the Rose Rabies Pollen was obscuring his vision didn't help much either. Paco was standing by a completely different tree immediately adjacent to the one where Boffaw actually was hanging from, very much prepared and confident to catch the Ferengi, only to hear a thud to the ground a few feet away from him, which frightened him a bit, but Paco was quickly able to get a hold of himself once he saw who the voice was. "Sorry... you alright?" (edited)

"My fucking ear is broken! The pain! The humiliation!" Her ear was only dented a little. She definitely had some bruises and some minor breaks, but surpringly, she wasn't that hurt otherwise. Apart from the coughing and sneezing. And a torn hazmat suit. Different kind to what the officers were wearing - the same as many of the dead poachers.

He didn't mean to miss catching her... at least, not really - the loud singing made him wince and lose track of her, resulting in a smear of color just crumpling to the ground in front of him. Saren gave the fallen Ferengi an impassive stare, letting her stand up and lament about her ear before stating what was quickly becoming the inevitable: "You are infected," he said calmly, his even tone of voice making the omen sound just a bit too casual. "Just like the other Ferengi we've encountered before, and three of our group, and the dead animal behind us. I have a feeling you have a bigger problem to be worried about, no?.."

She stood up, a little dizzily. "I'm past worrying." She coughed. "I know where some other survivors are. You gonna let me take you to 'em before you mercy kill me or whatever?"

*Nalas was placed on the ground, but his body was still shaking and tears began to flow from his eyes again. The sounds around him all began to blur together and he was starting to feel very disorientated. He made a few more noises but the fever and pain the shot through his entire body was too much for this one-lunged man. He could hear someone approaching him again, and then a brief sting and then he fell unconscious. Little did Nalas know that was his desk buddie looking out for him with the support of their wonderful liberated Borg medic who gave him the hypo. *

Upon hearing his name Chyun bolted towards Ten and T'Kastrir to help assist with treatment whilst Ten helped the others. He nodded when his fellow medical officer told him what he had already administered to T'Kastrir. Painkillers and antibiotics, that was good, now to close the wounds. He ran a dermal regenerator over the ankle, which would stop the bleeding and eliminate the chance of anymore pollen getting inside the wound. Unfortunately for the Vulcan-raised human, things were not looking good on the pollen front. Once that was one he pulled out a Osteo-regenerator to repair the fractured bone, making sure to hold T'Kastrir's leg steady. With the wound closed and the bone regenerated, Chyun ran a Anabolic protoplaser over the area to repair the veins. He could hear sounds of the others going to help someone else, another stranded Ferengi? "Lieutenant, I can help these two if you want to go support the rest of the group," Although the rorse was taken care of, that didn't mean there wasn't still danger lurking.

"Mhm!" Paco confirmed Boffaw's question with a casually enthusiastic nod and a thumbs up, approaching closer in case she needed some help with getting up or walking. "For suspicion of poaching native wildlife!" the scientist added with a light smile, pointing his phaser at her. "We're gunna kill you, with kindness!" He finished with the most preppy Starfleet tone before very quickly stowing his weapon as well. "Now let's go, we shouldn't be away from the others for too long. The rest of... this... can be discussed later." (edited)

Initially looking a bit alarmed, Boffaw laughed somewhat deliriously at the 'killed with kindness' line, then nodded. "Don't think the Romulan government is gonna be so kind, but them's the breaks. Alright, let's go."

[D] She led them to a small group of surviving, non-infected poachers. All of them had varying reasons for doing what they were doing, but not many were inclined to explain themselves beyond 'profits'; truth be told they had a myriad of problems: many had debts to pay, hospital bills, and whatever else you can think of that might lead them to pursue such a risky endeavour for the high profits the rare materials a scarlet epohh would sell for, but those were sob stories to tell the Romulan government at their trials. Boffaw, particularly, said nothing about herself but a declaration that she fully intended on doing nothing but 'have a laugh, love women and drink chocolate snilk' for however much time she had left. Bob eventually woke up enough to (after she was no longer hallucinating giant pink rorses) congratulate the volunteers on doing a good job and then contact the Romulan Park service to give them permission to leave the planet - but those infected, including Nalas, T'kastrir, herself, and Boffaw were to be kept in quarantine until a cure was found.