Star Trek: Starbase 777 - bf-engineering-lab

As the door to the lab was thrown open, the away team was greeted with multiple APUs standing around a large engineering replicator, ones who immediately turned to the group.

She cranked the power on her phaser and shot at the bots, nailing them in the heads.

Paco never ran this fast before as he sprinted towards the door and threw it open, directing everyone body in without checking for whatever may be inside first "In here! Everyone get in!"

Running into engineering, William stopped in his tracks upon seeing such a large group. Just how many fucking WERE there?

Holly followed Daso's example, rifle going at full power as she expertly moved through the group to get better access to the APUs.

"LIEUTENANT! MOVE!" Paco yelled to William as he stood by the door, he could see the small platoon from a distance, and he wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with those fuckers!

“Heads up! We’ve got company! Lets mow these chucklefucks down.” She said, keeping her phaser on ones head until the metal started to melt.

Setting her phaser to the highest power it would go, she aimed for the head of the nearest bot. Nowhere to run, so fighting was the only option, and Khirena would rather die than be seen as a coward.

Currently in the lab were upwards of 20 APUs, ones who slightly staggered with the headshots and began to fly into a frenzy as more of the team poured in.

Got in.. regreted getting in... leg's wobbled, ran to hide "eeeeek!!!" Man how he wished he had taken a phaser, so he wouldn't be so useless in a fight "Retreat!!."

"That's the spirit, Daso," Holly muttered under her breath as she got another shot in. She just hoped the others were taking adequate cover.

Paco's yelling snapped William to attention. He began by running towards the side, trying to keep the armed officers between himself and the APUs. In the meantime, he took the time to search for a weapon - finding, eventually, some kind of engineering toolkit that contained a wrench. It objectively sucked, but it wasn't nothing.

She kept at it, shooting as many as possible “Theres nowhere to retreat to, ensign! Stay behind us!” (edited)

"Is that everyone?! I'm going to shut the damn door now!" Paco said as he took a moment to check on everyone before he moved to close the damn door

An APU managed to reach Daso and grabbed her by the arm, whirling her around and body slamming her into the wall!

"Oh, no, you fucking don't." Holly charged at that specific APU, shooting it in the head multiple times. While she sucked at science and engineering, she had a perfect track record for shooting things that moved.

"FUCKING NO!" Paco yelled out as he charged back out there to get Daso without much for second thought, preparing to throw his greatest weapon, the Magical Metallic Vent Grate of Pain at the bot and grab the engineer

Now armed with something, William approached the rest of the starfleet officers from the rear. Seeing Daso get thrown against a wall, he rushed over to see if she needed helped up. "Fuck." He said, eyeing the other APUs briefly. "You good?"

Khirena shot at the APU that grabbed Daso, willing herself to keep her resolve and fight for as long as she could. “I really don’t want to die a Cadet!” She yelled as she kept shooting.

she screamed, her arm felt like fire, but she refused to stand down “Thanks, ensign. Been better, but we’ve got bigger issues than a bruised arm. I can take it.”

Before it could attempt to slam its boot into Daso’s head, Holly’s phaser and Paco’s Metal Grate of Pain sent it stumbling backward!

"Then fall back!" Holly yelled back at Khirena. She didn't have time for half-assed shooting. Seeing the APU stumble, she fired again. (edited)

"I'M A LIEUTENANT JG!" Paco yelled as he helped, but more like pulled Daso into the engineering lab

William then turned his attention towards the staggering APU. Not really in a position to hit it, he instead ran back towards the rest of the group again. He'd try to handle any APUs that got a bit too close to the officers who donned firearms.

The APU being built in the replicator finished, and soon, it leapt out into the fray! The APU who staggered fell to the ground with a second shot from Holly.

“Thanks for the assist! Don’t let up your attacks! I need them gone before I can do any work! They’re filling the lab!” She said, taking the arm and standing up.

Holly whirled around when she heard the replicator, having found a new target in the freshly baked APU.

“Theres another one! We have to destroy the replicator! I can make what i need without one, but they can’t make more of them without it!” She said, aiming her fire at the new APU

Welcome to the world, APU! Time to die now! Khirena shot at the maximum strength her phaser could get to, in order to nail it directly in the head.

3

The fresh APU immediately fell back toward the replicator with the fire from Daso and Khirena.

"Oh Fuck off!!" Paco yelled out, pointing at the newly replicated APU as it leaped towards the frey as he grabbed the nearest melee weapon he could reach and prepared to either attack it head on or defend himself.... will mentally flip a coin on that, actually.

While Daso began aiming at the APU, Holly went for the replicator. Destroying that should be a lot easier than destroying the robots.

The replicator was indeed much easier to fry than the mass-produced weapons of war.

Swallowed some spit and looked around, his mind spinning trying to get ideas, but with no real way he could affect the situation, he stood in the middle of the group

Now going for the replicator was a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, William couldn't do much about it with a melee weapon in the middle of a firefight, so he was content to stay with the rest of the group as they took care of the issue.

Once that was done, Holly got back to assisting with the APU massacre. They had to be making progress somehow, right?

"Ensign! Help me with the replicator!" Paco said as he patted Vokk's shoulder before charging towards the replicator, attempting to stop whatever program it had on that made more of these APU Fuckers!

“Now we just gotta get the remaining APUs! They can’t make more, so theres no replacing their fallen units!” She said as she pressed her comm badge, letting the others know.

Indeed, progress was being made now that there was no chance with them to replace their fallen comrades!

"Fuckin' fantastic!"* William yelled, though his attention was soon turned towards the remaining APUs in the room. There were what, 20? Could this group of officers hope to handle this many all at once? (edited)

Holly was slowly beginning to feel the strain of continuous shooting. Beads of sweat had formed on her forehead under her EV helmet and her breathing had gotten just a little heavier. But she wasn't about to let that stop her as she found a new APU to attack.

"It would be good sense to stay still and set phaser's into max setting, the option needs holly's codes" He blurted out, being mostly good at nerdy stuff.

More killing! Khirena was good at that too, apparently. So, she kept shooting.. hey, it was kind of just target practice, right? Khirena could always use more practice, and this was just that but incredibly high stakes. She sort of detached herself from the gore she’d seen earlier, and just kept shooting.

Vokk and William are unarmed, correct?

Sweats in correct.

2

William has a wrench but that's it.

Oh good. An APU surged forward, grabbing Khirena by the shoulders and quite literally tossing her aside as it closed in on Vokk and William.

Paco had a thing of logic... science logic! Starfleet replicators cannot replicate weapons. BUT, they are NOT in a starfleet facility, and therefore, this is NOT a STARFLEET replicator... If this replicator can replicate scary APU units that are hellbent on killing them like the automatons in Helldivers 2... could it possibly replicate weapons... Welp, there was only one thing to do as Paco panic scrolled though settings to figure out how it works and if he could get his hands on disruptor pistols and rifles. for GM's convenience, Paco is now unarmed, but will tear the replicated APU into pieces to use its arms as weapons later.

She aimed her phaser at the APUs head, holding the trigger until it falls. (edited)

Holly immediately fired at the one approaching the unarmed officers. Someone flinging a cadet across the room didn't exactly go unnoticed.

To be fair, she was extremely tossable. She landed to the side as the thing charged past her, but she did manage to shoot it in the ass as it moved away. Revenge.

Fuck it. Fuck it. William stood his ground, wielding the wrench in his hand and trying to remain prepared for whatever beating the APU was about to subject him to.

Tried to run away from it!, survival instincts going crazy "EIEIEIEI!!" His feet may be tiny but man did he run with a single mindedness, so unique to scared ferengis, it may not be enough but he was going to move it, like he had never moved it before.

She kept her phaser fire on the APU, melting its head from how long she kept the phaser in one spot.

"Ensign! Lieutenant! I need help getting this replicator back online! Maybe we could replicate weapons." Paco shouted out as he tried just about that, attempting to get the thing working again to rearm themselves, or at least be useful without replicating more APUs

Before Daso and Holly could dispatch it, the APU managed to grab William’s wrench-wielding hand and snap his wrist. With a blast from the engineer, security officer, and another from the back by Khirena, it toppled forward on top of William, collapsing alongside him onto Vokk!

“Shit!” She yelled, and ran over, pulling it off of them, despite her very injured arm

"Lieutenant, the replicator was destroyed for a reason!" Holly yelled back at Paco as she ran forward, trying to kick the APU off of Vokk before it squashed him.

"GAHHH!" William let out a scream as his wrist was broken. Even as the APU toppled on top of him, the pain of that was nothing compared to the pain that shot up his right arm. He did his best to scramble out from under the APU, to no avail - having only one arm to do so, he couldn't do much to get out from under it.

"putangina..." Paco muttered to himself as he watched the people he called for help got busy with the APUs before he snapped back into focus on getting the replicator back online and useful for the team.

Let out a squishy toy noise as he got squashed by way too much weight...his hands and ears visible under the two forms "Weee..." Fortunately the ladies moved to help, man he feels so squished but that could gone way worse.

“Ive got you!” She pulled William out from under the APU, making sure not to grab his injured hand.

Khirena got up, and since it seemed that people with more bulk were going to help William, she ran over to Paco to help fend any APUs off while he worked. Anything that got close, she shot at with full force.

The APU was a lot of dead weight, but Daso, Holly, and William working together managed to get the thing off of them (or, get the lieutenant and ensign out from under it). Holly had little chance to rest before another APU grabbed her by the hair!!!

"Hello, Cadet. How's school?" Paco asked as he continued to panic and work on the replicator. Yes it may be inappropriate for the context of the situation, but he needed something to distract him for a minute or two

Holly was about to kick the APU on Vokk again when she yelped in pain. Oh, what was a little hairloss? She turned around and whacked the APU behind her in the head with her rifle. Please don't kill her.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Was all William could vocalize as he was taken out from under the APU. His wrench - which proved pretty useless - was left there alongside the dead APU. Trying to stagger to his feet with his only good hand, he saw Holly get taken by the hair - but was ultimately powerless to do anything about it. What could he do, other than punch the metal? (edited)

“Paco! Don’t fix that replicator! We broke it for a reason!” she yelled, running to attack the APU “How do you feel about a haircut, Sir?”

4

“It is alright! I’ve gotten high scores on my tests so far!” She said, not looking at him as she kept shooting, aiming for the APU that grabbbed Holly.

"A change is as good as a— rest—" Holly replied to Daso, giving the APU another good whack.

The APU let go of Holly after yanking free a few strands, stumbling away from the Lt. Cdr. with the amount of focused on it!

"Get away from her!!" He did... something that may been worse than cowering, he jumped at the apu holding holly, suddenly with the wrench of william in hand, sorry, also he was good at slight of hand for some... reason. he started trying to bash the things leg, this sure was a new side (edited)

“Get fucked!” She yelled, keeping fire on it. “WHAT THE FUCK, ENSIGN.”

Once the APU began staggering, Holly grabbed Vokk by the nape of the neck and pulled him back to relative safety.

"I wanted to see if we can make weapons from it, but fine!" Paco yelled back as he reached to the nearest APU and ripped both its arms off "Oh thats very good! Congratulations! I'm glad 777 has been a great help for your studies in the Academy, and your career in Starfleet. Now, excuse me, Cadet. Just a brief moment." Paco said with a smile before he charged towards Holly and Vokk, and attacking the APU holding on to them with the arms of its robotic comrade "ENSIGN GET THE HELL OFF THERE!" (edited)

Hearing the comms go off, William tapped his badge with his functioning left hand to give a response. As he spoke, he couldn't help but vocalize the pain from his broken wrist.

“Appreciate the assist but do you have a fucking death wish?!” She yelled to Vokk

The APUs were down to about 14 by now, though they were unarmed. It was clear they were trying to determine a strategy of how to deal with these, to their eyes, intruders!

Trying to figure out a stand down order they might listen to, she started yelling out ideas. “Stand down! At Ease! Pull back! Stop it!”

"You'll help by staying in one piece, understood?" Holly told Vokk as she let go of him before going to find the next APU to shoot. It seemed like an endless ordeal. "The war is over!" She tried another order.

"S-sorry sir don't know what came over me" He once more started to retreat back, man that was still a lot of them "4 out of you are enemy infiltrators!." Ideas maybe?.

Armed with APU arms, Paco rushed towards the nearest enemy APU unit to Holly and slammed its head as hard as he could before kicking its body to make it move away. "WE'RE GUESTS OF THE BRELD COMPANY!"

The APUs continued their assault. It was clear that those orders weren’t helping, and if anything, Breld being mentioned just made them angrier!

“Breld was destroyed! Theres nothing left to fight for!” She yelled, trying something, ANYTHING.

"Fuckin'..." William staggered a little bit, trying to keep his broken wrist up to his chest. He'd deal with it later. "Cease fire! Shut down! Fuckin'..." His voice trailed off a bit, simply at a loss for what else to say. Clearly, such orders didn't appear to be working.

"Oh ... Hold on—" Holly frowned as she realised the mention of the Breld seemed to provoke the APUs more. "We're ... we're here to stop the Breld!"

"...i think I made them mad... uhhhhhhhh... WE'RE HERE TO ARREST THEM! THEY DONE REALLY BAD THINGS AND WE ALSO HATE THEM" Paco yelled out an alternative thing as he continued to do melee combat against the APUs. If he were able to rip the head off one, he would use that and slam repeatedly slam that against the head of another.

They kept coming! One grabbed at Paco! They were starting to surround the group!

4

“Oh fuck this!” She grabbed a piece of heavy rubble off the ground and threw it at one of the APUs heads, taking it clean off. “PHYSICS, MOTHERFUCKERS!” (edited)

"Oh no you don't..." William said, trying to use his one good hand, as well as the leverage of his other arm, to grab onto one of the arms of the APU which held Paco and tried to break him free. This thing was probably way stronger than William, but hell - he'd be damned if he didn't try something. (edited)

"Have it your way," Holly muttered as she took up shooting properly again. "Everyone get together, backs against each other, unarmed in the middle—" They were running out of options with a circle of these fuckers forming around them.

"LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARD!" Paco yelled out as forced the probably ripped off head into one of the APU arms and began using it as a club against his captor. If that bit didnt happen, then just the arm then as a club.

It didn’t let go, despite the protests, though the shooting did cause it to stumble backward…and start dragging Paco into the surrounding APUs!!

Okay what was he good at, he pulled out his tricorder and started rotating trought frequencies known to affect androids, with any luck no one here was one too "Come on, come on" Ultrasounds, radio, disruptions.

“Uh. Um. FUCK. AT ATTENTION! MISSION COMPLETE!” She continued her attempts to find the phrase.

"What else could we tell th—" Holly interrupted herself as she focused her firing attention on the APU holding onto Paco. "We surrender? The Breld have surrendered? Your goal has been reached?"

William tried to use all of his strength in breaking the APU's grip on Paco, though god knows if that was doing anything. As some of the shots rang out, William let go of the APU to try to duck out of the line of fire - inadvertently letting Paco get taken, unresisted on his part. Fuck. He'd have to fucking recollect on that later. He came back to the rest of the group and did as Holly - the lieutenant commander - suggested, hanging in the middle of the circle they were hopefully forming.

The instant the words ‘we surrender’ exited Holly’s mouth, the APUs…froze.

“Oh thank fuck.” She said, not fully trusting it but she at least appreciated the break.

Holly's jaw dropped for a moment. "Yes!" She couldn't help but let out a little squeal of victory.

"WORK DAY'S OVER! WE MET OUR QUOTA FOR TODAY! YOU ARE ALL SET FREE! YOU ARE FIRED! WE MADE RECORD PROFITS TODAY! GOLD PRESSED LATINUM BARS! MONEY! UNIONS ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD REPORT SIGNS TO THE NEAREST SUPERVISOR!" Paco was just yelling as many captialist big boss phrases as he could as he continued to desparately attack the APUs to letting him go. His view on androids will not change because of this experience because he knows many nice androids and synthetics, and the APUS are NOT THEM. Paco's adrenaline rush was at a high, so when they froze, Paco tried to pull himself free and went all out on attacking the one that was holding on to him for a few moments before realizing... "oh hey they stopped. nice. We surrender worked.... why didnt I think of that..." (edited)

5

Slide down until he was on the floor, shaking a bit, last he needed in his first mission was watching a science buddy get dismembered "Oh comms! comms!"

William froze - oh holy shit, that had done something. His eyes darted to each of the APUs that were now frozen in place and, with his heart beating so fast, couldn't help but let out a little chuckle. "Oh my fucking god." He uttered, softly. Holly, you genius.

2

“While they are frozen, im gonna make that EMP, I don’t trust it.” She said, as she gathered materials and started building.

The APUs moved from being frozen in place to standing at attention, like an eerie field of terracotta soldiers.

William touched his combadge after Paco gave his comment, hoping to be a little more clear on the instructions.

Thankfully, Khirena had not completely checked out mentally, and she stopped shooting when a stand-down order finally worked. She lowered her phaser, her eyes darting around at everyone and all the APUs. God, she wished she’d stayed on the Bridge. This was no place for a Helmsman.

"Am I master of APUs now?" Holly chuckled quietly after nodding at Daso's words. Better safe than sorry.

Paco stood up... brushed himself off, ripped the head off the one holding him both as honorable trophy of great combat as is in Klingon tradition and to see if they react to that. If there is no reaction, Paco will punch another one straight in the face before walking back to the rest of the team

If anything, Paco, punching one of them in the face hurt your hand more than it did the APU’s face.

2

It didn’t take 15 minutes, It only took 5. What could she say, shes a prodigy. “Done. 1 EMP, hot and fresh.”

"Ow.....that just makes me want to beat them up more while they're like this..." Paco said to himself as he nursed his hurt hand. "But I won't! I'm better than that." (edited)

"S-sir let's not try our luck... as long as their not being replicated.." He turned off his tricorder just in case, breathing in relief. "Good thinking on shut down codes sir" He said towards daso.

"Fuck, though." William stated. "Let's just... try not to do anything that might- nngh... trigger them again."

"Good job, Daso," Holly said once she got off the comm channel, "What's next on the agenda?" Her ears were ringing a little from the fight. Surely one of the eager ensigns would remember the next step.

“Now, we find the control station and shut these things down for good.” She said, relieved they were almost there.

"Under.... stood.... Are you okay, Ensign?" Paco immediately asked Vokk, holding the severed head of the APU that captured him

"Anyone injured as been offered to go back and get treated," Holly noted, listening into the comms, "Otherwise let's find that control station."

William let out a shuddering smile, holding his broken wrist with his functioning left hand. "Sounds like a plan. The lieutenant commander says they've got doctors on standby."

As she walked towards the door, she spoke up. “Im keeping that head, I’m gonna frame it. I knocked it off, after all.”

"Yes sir, thanks for looking out for me..." He was a bit tired and bruised but nothing that wouldn't get fixed with a nap "I want a bubble bath and to never hear the words restricted area again!" He still got off easy compared to william "Man that hand is looking rough."

"This one's mine, you can have one of the other ones. There are like, 6 of them I believe" Paco said as he continued on to finding the office or control room. "Alright, let's get going... Anyone injured enough to go back to the canteen?"

“Its basic etiquette, you decapitate the android, you get to keep the head! Everyone knows that!” She said, trying to calm down after the battle.

"Knock yourselves out, Lieutenants. Makes for a great conversation starter if you ever host a dinner party." Holly chuckled as she began following Daso. She stopped beside William for a moment. "How's the hand?" (edited)

"I can't blame you for that." William responded, his voice still shuddering a little bit. "And, uh, good job. Everybody." He continued, then offering a nod towards Vokk and Holly. "Could be better." William replied. He lifted his arm up and, using his good arm, tried to do a little wave with his right wrist. Instead, the pain flared up immediately at this terrible idea, resulting in William letting out a "Gahhh..." and lowering the wrist immediately. (edited)

She picked a head up off of the ground and tied it to her tool belt with rope “Lets get you to the doctor, then we can get to the control room.”

Holly grimaced slightly. "Could be worse," she offered, "At least you're alive to tell the tale."

"Right. It's Klingon tradition. You fight a great enemy. Defeat them. Take some trophy like their heads. And celebrate with a bunch of bloodwine and bragging rights when you get home." Paco quietly said in agreement with Daso. "I hurt my hand, I can go with Lieutenant McIntyre to the doctor. You guys go ahead with the control room... Ensign Vokk, any injuries?" (edited)

“My arm isnt too bad, its definitely gonna need some rest and recovery before im back to full functionality, but ive had worse.” She said, walking towards the canteen to drop off the injured.

"I think everything is in place sir, fortunately those are relatively light metals or we may seen bits of vokk still on the floor" He saluted "Next time, i'm bringing a phaser.."

"Aye." William replied to Daso. "I could do with that." He then responded with a cheeky smile to Volly and, hearing Paco's comment about the Klingons, he couldn't help but mention. "Yeah, I'm sure there will be entire Klingon operas- ngh... dedicated to our bravery."

"I'm surprised they only ... took a few strands of my hair, I suppose." They had bruised Holly's ego more than her body. "Alright, everybody injured, off to the doctors with you."

“I’ve got some Klingon friends from the Academy, they are absolutely getting a full photoshoot of me with the head.” She said, nearing the canteen,

"They will sing songs of our victory!" Paco said as he scooped the APU arms he used as weapons to take along with him as well. He paused for a moment... "Ensign Vokk, catch! You can keep that one!" Paco said as he tossed one of the arms to Vokk before joining the others in their trip to the doctor. (edited)

“Nothing was bruised except for my ego. And the side I landed on.” She stated, taking a hand from one of the APUs they’d destroyed. If everyone else got souvenirs, she wanted on. Souvenir collected, she looked around for the control panel they needed to find.

The APUs continued to stand around like a statue garden.

“Hah! It will be epic! Can’t wait to give Marza the play-by-play.” She said, as she walked through the open, broken down door of the canteen

Looked down at the memento a beutiful reminder of his first victory with everyone!.. and of everything else today, he stares at it for about a minute, and handed it to william "Thanks sir." Now he knew the smell of a bloodbath.

"Let's make it quick... we don't know if they would stay like that for long!" Paco said as a last thing before going off to the canteen

"Yeah, yeah..." William responded to Holly, finally starting to make his way to the canteen with the doctors. God, thankfully she had figured out the surrender plea - who knows what would've happened to the entire engineering group had the APUs continued attacking. Still though, as he left for the canteen, the sight of the APUs standing completely still unsettled him. Taking the arm of the APU that Vokk had given him, William couldn't tell if he really wanted it - this wouldn't exactly be a pleasant memory - but he took it regardless. "Thank you." He said to Vokk, before leaving. Maybe the others were right - this was a war trophy. Maybe he could live with that.

The facility was now empty save for the APUs still standing slack, the EMP having rendered them completely still. It was indeed now like a terracotta army guarding the tomb on an emperor, albeit much more modern. And then, something happened. One of the APU’s fingers twitched.

13

15

3