Star Trek: Starbase 777

Following the corridors – and the vein-like power lines that ran across the walls – eventually led to here. Right in the middle of the prison area, perfectly in the centre of the terrasphere, was a control room. The room was a decagon in shape, and far larger than the rooms that had housed the prisoners. It was dimly lit here, illuminated by only a few spot lights and the glow of Undine consoles, with their usual wires and tubing running overhead. Three separate corridors led right to it, linking all of the prisoners’ stations. If the away teams continued on their current path then they were about to all be reunited. It was quite possible that due to the centre of the terrasphere being so heavily shielded, Intelligence’s scans hadn’t picked up that this room existed. Instead, they had only picked up backup areas where the generators could be controlled from, scattered at random throughout the terrasphere. What was most notable – and perhaps the most enticing – about this room was the fact that there were no Undine in it… Presumably because those stationed here had been diverted to engage the away teams as they entered the tunnel system initially.

It was a bit relieving to be outside of the cramped corridor, to tell the truth. Vovvi kept a hand on her phaser as she lead the team in and through, eyeing the other corridors as voices or footsteps came closer.

Their venture through the corridor was accompanied by the sounds of their own footsteps... until his sensitive ears picked up the sounds ahead of them. He felt the weakened Reman on his back stir restlessly as Saren took hold of his phaser, and carefully peaked out of the corridor into the large room.

Ah, a face she recognized. Vovvi offered a tentative wave as she moved closer to the center of the room. "Good to see you," she greeted Saren politely, hearing everyone else behind him and spotting someone on his back. She was carrying Issara on hers, having scooped her up on the way out. "Is everyone safe?"

She wasn't someone who Saren knew, but he recognized the Romulan Intel officer nonetheless. He relaxed, and walked closer: "I return the sentiment with hope that you are the real Commander," he sighed, a joke that was based in truth. Romulans and their paranoia. "A good array of cuts and bruises, nothing too serious. Poor Yaveru got the worst of it though."

Vara entered the control room with the rest of the away team 1. “We good in here guys? We’ve got our peeps!”

Lama led his group to the control room! When he arrived, he saw the rest of the team and put the tricorder away for now. "Jolan tru, guys," Lama said with a bright and determined smile on his face as he continued to support Fridge on his back. He felt his muscles getting stronger, Fridge wasn't even that heavy anymore! Lama waved his hand at the others and saw-- oh a curly haired Romulan, maybe this was the man, the myth, the legend the zoo enthusiast Saren! "Hey hey!"

1

"...I can only offer my word." It was supposed to be a joke. Probably didn't land well. "A good portion of our team got badly injured. We're lucky Lieutenant T'she was there with us, but..." She piped down as everyone started to flood in, quickly abandoning the conversation and waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, fixing her hold on Issara. Piggy back style. Something she'd grown very accustomed to in her twentyish years of parenting.

Lisa walked into the control room, nodding to everyone already in the area. She didn’t know most of these people- she’d really have to start getting to know more people on 777, she thought. But, missions weren’t the best time to socialize anyhow.

Copia made her way from the southern cave structure and joined with the others.

As everyone started flooding in, Saren couldn't help but start counting the heads - something he couldn't help, something imprinted on him ever since Llaiir and Flotilla, the need to count the faces and make sure that the same amount that left, came back. And in that sea of officers, he was looking for two people. (edited)

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Yoro'clis walked into the room with his phaser still in hand. The moment that he realized that everyone was Starfleet though he holstered his pistol and looked around to see if everyone was there. It felt good to be able to rest his heavily injured arm for a few moments and not have to panic. The Honored Elder was still somewhat paranoid but he now could finally take a moment to relax.

Lama glanced at the person he assumed was Saren and saw his eyes seemed to be looking for someone-- or someones? With Fridge still in tow, he made his way over to the black haired Romulan. "Jolan tru, I know this is weird but um, are you Saren? Allan is on his way, he's with the CTO, he's safe," Lama really hoped this guy was Saren or else this would be very confusing, but he had a hunch.

1

Green eyes flitted to the approaching figure..s, giving Lama a blink and a twitch of an eyebrow. What the stranger said, though, did bring some peace to the scientist, who nodded, "I am. Saren tr'Lareth, assistant science chief. I am... glad to hear that, thank you," did Allan mention him or something?..

Lama's tapioka-pearl eyes widened when he heard the name, Lareth. Lareth... like the Lareth house? Lama wasn't sure what brought a Lareth to Starfleet, but if he was the ACSO it was probably for the reasons similar to his own. He had a feeling Saren most likely made the right decisions first though, unlike Lama. "Wow I'm glad I got it right," Lama chuckled as he could feel the weight of Fridge pushing down on his back. They were safe so he decided it wouldn't hurt to sit the beefy Romulan down against a wall for a moment. "I'm Lama tr'Ehweia, Detective," He gave his full name and saluted with a silly smile. "I.. Yeah so Allan told me about you and how cool you were. And... About visiting zoos? I want to see a real terran llama. What are the odds I would share a name with a cute animal on earth. Ironically, my roommate is named Hopps, and he's a bunny, we're two terran animals but not human." Lama was definitely going on a random tangent, just saying whatever came up in the void of space in his skull. (edited)

It was a relief to see fellow Starfleet officers, even though didn't know much of them. Still, she felt tired and scared, her mind in a contradictory state. Yaveru slumped over, leaning against a wall in the room. Her breathing was heavy, her chest likewise burdened with that same feeling. Her thoughts continued to wander back to places she didn't want to return to. Memories of war, memories of being stuck in icy caves as your numbers dwindled one by one. Her remaining antenna twitched violently once again, her arms similarly unstable. She felt scared, so very scared, restless and on edge. The sounds of a Klingon chant echoing in her head, seemingly getting closer and closer. Yet for all this turmoil, she just laid there, seemingly motionless, as the turbulent waves that hit her soul went by.

After that emotional interchange, in came Tevis and Allan, with the CTO loudly humming what sounds like a sea-shanty terribly off key. He oh so carefully left the engineer with Lama, and who he assumed to be the 'Saren' that Allan had talked about on their way to the control room. With one last kindly pat on the back, Tevis smiled up at the Human before nodding. "Lieutenants..." He said, before walking off, hoping to take a moment to regroup and figure out next steps. Perhaps once everyone had taken an adequate break, he'd look for other team leaders to see how the mission had faired for them so far, seeing as it looked like all three teams had coalesced in the room.

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In walked Aoife, bringing up the rear of her team. She was noticeably glad to see the rest of the away teams and not more undine. She slung her rifle onto her shoulder when she was sure there were no undine in the room. She took a second to dab some more blood away from her wound now that they weren't in active combat anymore. Even though the wound was mostly closed it was still weeping just enough blood to be an annoyance.

Despite being terribly off key, Allan had much enjoyed the sea-shanty humming, attempting to hum along as they walked through the cave to this control room and smiling back to the CTO as he walked onwards. He hardly noted where Tevis had left him, looking around at the technology in the room instead, already trying to think about the ways they could finish this mission with it. But to anyone looking specifically at Allan, it was sort of obvious that he had Been Through It. It was hard to tell whatever It was, but the visual effects it'd left on him were the rough scratches on his gold armor, mainly at the knees, and some bruises around his nose, eyebrows, and jaw (thankfully the dermal regenerator had taken care of the cuts). Although, if one looked closely, they may have spotted some dried blood on some of the armor, and that he was missing a glove on his left hand. Oh, and if someone looked reallly closely, they could probably tell his eyes were definitely still red after crying a lot and there was still a bit of a wet area on his cheeks underneath his eyes that he'd missed wiping the tears. No matter, though. He was here, he was fine, this was - this was the last thing they needed to do. He closed his eyes and took another breath as he stood against the wall near where Tevis had left him, trying to.. take things in again now that things seemed to be calmer with everyone grouping together.

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In walked Vara'l, their face marred along one side by treated wounds and damaged implants and armour slightly bloodied. He'd slipped to the back of his away team and had his phaser rifle clasped tightly, at least in the few moments before he realized the other teams were here to. When that realization had slammed home he'd lowered his rifle slightly and mustered a slight smile. He'd decided against speech though. (edited)

Where Lama's eyes got wide, Saren's green ones narrowed - clearly he knew the effect his name could have on people, and was now gauging the reaction, but none followed suit. Peculiar. He did however follow Lama's example, and gently lowered his half-asleep cargo to the ground, propping hear near the wall. His hand reached for his neck, but Saren quickly remembered that there was no jacket to offer as a flimsy blanket. "..Cool?" he echoed with an light tone, raising his eyebrow... that definitely sounded like something Allan would say. Saren couldn't help but wonder how exactly that topic came up, meanwhile letting his new acquaintance ramble for a bit, because it felt like the guy needed that. That name that Lama said though, definitely sounded familiar: "I know of him, a fellow zoologist and a friend of my cousin. We worked together when the station was infested with the tribbles, and..." Here the Romulan trailed off, noticing another pair coming up close to them, the short and stocky half-Tellarite he recognized from the staff roster, and- And then his head turned fully towards Allan, blind and deaf for the rest of the room, because why was he told that the human was fine, when it was so clearly not the case? Like he wouldn't see the stress and blood on the suit, the bruising on the face, the telltale red of the eyes? Saren missed the moment he appeared before Allan close enough to see that, but here he was. Summoned out of nowhere like some loyal hound. Clearly he wanted to ask, to inquire, but words were failing him there, so instead he just offered his arms to Allan, saying nothing. (edited)

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1

Vara'l turned to cover one of the ways in as he turned to keep his mauled side away from anyone who might have noticed it. Initially focused on the way in and his watch for hostile contact,Vara'l idly decided to run a check on his implants. He might as well know how bad the damage happened to be past what could be reckoned out by touch alone,he supposed.

"Y-yeah, cool," Lama was not quite sure what the raised eyebrow meant and his paranoia was telling him that this Lareth also knew who he was. He tried not to let the voices in his head (which were not Undine, but they might as well have been with how 'loud' they were) and nodded. "Oh nice, yeah Hopps loves animals too," Lama lifted his hand to play with some lose strands of beach blonde hair. Despite the fact that hair dye tech was good nowadays, his hair looked absolutely fried, like straw. Lama's attention was momentarily distracted at the arrival of Allan. He waved to his friend and stepped back when he saw Saren's reaction so they could have their moment if they wanted to. "Glad to see you're here, Allan, look I found Saren," Lama said happily, rolling his shoulders back as he stretched his arms. Holding Fridge definitely counted as his workout for the year.

1

Vara'l, once the diagnostic completed,briefly frowned to himself and then blanked his expression. Frowning had caused ..discomfort even with the medication. Ouch. That and he happened to not particularly want it betrayed that he was injured, that his functionality was impaired in any way. He intended to remain an efficient part of the team and wanted to take up no more of the Lieutenants time than had been needed for the sutures. "...Hrm." He grumbled.

The hulking Romulan seemed quite content to be set down by Lama. He totally got it. He was aware of his own size and knew he wasn't exactly the easiest to carry about. Still concussed, he sat quietly against the wall, but did his best to pay attention to the goings on of the room. At one point he purposefully looked around and gave a thumbs up to Lama, thankful for his help... And then extended it to giving a thumbs up to the other Romulan. Then, continuing that trend, gave thumbs up to anyone else Romulan looking... Including Sioturik of course - he wasn't going to discriminate - and probably also including any Vulcans because he wasn't going to concentrate on working out the difference between them right now.

2

Assuming she received a thumbs up, she boosted Issara on her back a little so she'd be stable enough Vovvi could give one right back. Resumed surveying the situation, watching as everyone reunited, rushed to eachother's sides. It seemed everyone was safe-ish, at least...

1

Lama made eye contact with Fridge who was sitting on the floor where he had left him and gave him a thumbs up when he saw it. He then made his way over to the pointed earred intelligence officer who had verry pretty hair. "Hey, you need a hand? We're safe so we can put everyone down," Lama offered to the woman, holding out both arms. After hauling Fridge all the way here, he was confident in his physical fitness.

Ah... Maybe her paranoia was starting to carry over, but she didn't really..want to put her down. Nonetheless, it was the best option. Vovvi herself was more than strong enough to handle her, but the help was much appreciated. "Be careful with her," she advised, helping in lowering Issara to the wall and propping her up carefully. "Thank you."

"Got it," Lama helped to support Issara as Vovvi let her down slowly. Once that was done, he focused his attention on the woman in front of him. "Jolan tru, my name is Lama tr'Ehweia, Detective," Lama introduce himself with a smile, he wasn't sure who this person was but she felt... Safe, for some reason.

"Vovvi t'Rei'nak. It's a pleasure to meet you, detective." Vovvi nodded, folding her arms behind her back and straightening up her posture. Her expression remained neutral, but wasn't necessarily unkind. She was starting to get a little antsy, waiting so long for everyone to finish mingling -- even if it was perfectly valid, checking on your fellow officers was a very important part of being a team in the first place -- she really wanted to get these shields taken down so everyone that needed to could get immediate medical attention. "I don't believe we've crossed paths before."

Rei'nak, Rei'nak, where had he heard that name before? Lama looked pensively at the wall for a few seconds before responding. "Oh! Sounds like the ship I was born on, IRW Rel'enak. So similar, yet so different," Lama snapped his fingers and grinned a silly grin. "I really like that purple on you, so.. Intel?" Lama hoped he was remembering the colours correctly. He had a bad experience with a Romulan in intelligence in the past, but he didn't get the same vibes from Vovvi so... That was a good start.

Vovvi tipped her head curiously at the mention of the ship. Though, internally, she was almost a little grateful Lama hadn't picked up on her house name immediately -- and if he did, he didn't seem to make a big deal over it. "You've got it," she said, nodding, a little distracted by checking over all the prisoners she could see. A few were in a similar shape to Issara, and a good chunk of them looked like they were with the Republic.. It made her a little queasy. Just a little. "Security, or..?" She was still getting used to the uniform colors, in perfect honesty.

Vara'l continued to watch the peremiter as he allowed other people who's faces were currently slashed to converse as they mingled. He happened to feel that odd sort of detached throb pain that came from medication that happened to tell of further discomfort to come when the medication elapsed. He rather happened to dislike the prospect of that. Or the prospect of what might happen if or when his badly clawed implants on one side of his head failed more or got hit again. "Elements alive." He groaned softly.

Lama may have been raised within Romulan space and even served the Navy, but he was blissfully unaware of politics and family dynamics. Lama was from a no-name house after all. "Yeah security, that's why I got the cuff things," Lama patted the hand cuff looking things on his belt. He then whipped out a dermal regenerator from one of his pockets. "And I got a pocket for first aid gear! Not much, but enough to patch up some peeps if they bump their head," Lama chuckled. His eyes followed Vovvi's and soon he found Fridge again. The bald Romulan that he had 'accidentally' slapped the smooth bald head of. "Umm... So uhh.." Lama put the regenerator away and rubbed the back of his neck. "How did your team do?" He was curious if anyone else experienced the same psonic attacks his team did.

"We were lucky to have a Medical officer with us, that's for certain." Vovvi shook her head a little. "A good chunk of us got badly injured or terribly disoriented. I was lucky enough to get out without a scrape. There must have been some sort of psionic ability that hindered Lieutenant Commander Ch'evhalen's 'sight'. Lieutenant Commander tr'Hara was badly injured as well. And Ensign Preston..." ... Well, it wouldn't be her place to say. Elwyn was on their way. "... it's been a long day, and I'm eager to get everyone home safe. You?"

Lama listened to Vovvi's account of what happened to her team. It sounded not so great. He glanced around at the rest of the officers in the room, yeah, everyone seemed pretty beat, not just the prisoners. "Psonic ability.... Y-yeah," Lama averted his eyes when she said it. He stared at his feet for a few seconds, trying to get collected his thoughts. "Umm..... The person who sticks out the most is Allan," Lama turned to look at the engineer in question. "He really went through it. And... We also had some psonic attacks," Lama sighed and stepped closer to Vovvi. He wasn't sure if it was really safe to say what he wanted to say, but it was killing him, he needed to tell someone. "I... Vovvi, they spoke to me, the Undine. They probed my mind ,I... I don't know, I know we just met but I feel like if anyone will understand me, it's you," Lama was mentally cringing for sounding so desperate, but it was eating him up inside.

Vara'l moved further away from the duo as the talked as he wished to allow them privacy. As he did so he angled himself so that the injured part of his face and the side of his head was concealed by wall if anyone attempted to enter via the corridor he had covered with his phaser rifle. As he did so, finally slightly overwhelmed by painkiller dulled pain plus diagnostics as they informed him his implants were messed up, Vara'l blanked the diagnostic. He allowed it to warn him if the implants finally failed more, but for now he reckoned that what function he had needed no damage warning backing track.

Vara was set up in a corner on her lonesome, playing with her phaser as she waited for the time to pass. She took a breath as she sat there. “Least I ain’t scared of this thing anymore.”

1

Copia was also in a corner, although upon Vara's remark Copia looked over to Vara, and gave her an approving nod and a smile. She mouthed the words 'I'm proud of you, I am' to Vara.

Vovvi nodded in quiet sympathy, glancing briefly at Allan as he was pointed out, then following with other members of the parties that were injured. How awful that the only thing she could think of was how utterly screwed they'd be if anything were to happen now. She shook her head a bit to clear it, brows furrowing in concern as Lama started stumbling over himself. "Lieutenant," she reached out, planting a firm hand on his shoulder and leaning in to lower her voice, "Whatever they showed you, I have reason to believe it was an illusion. Something fabricated to torment you. Many of the prisoners were disillusioned from reality, convinced the Federation had fallen. They must have done the same to you." She kept her tone gentle but firm, her touch just as much so. "Whatever you have to get off your chest, I'll listen. But I strongly recommend a counselor's visit when we return to the Starbase. Okay?"

"But...." Lama began to shake a little as he leaned closer to Vovvi. "..... I saw those visions, but this is... this is different," Lama's voice was soft and he seemed to curl up when Vovvi touched him. Not an uncomfortable curl, but a curl as if he were a small hamster curling up in a person's hands. He nodded when the older woman suggested a counsellor's visit, he was already planning on reconnecting with one of the Republic's counsellors that he had spoken to following his initial defection. "... Y-yeah, I'm planning on it," He said in response to the counselling. "Umm... The Undine... they... they know about me. They told me, telepathically," Lama pointed to his head and then his eyes as if it weren't already obvious he was Betazoid. "They know who I was and what I did," Lama frowned and buried his face in his hands. "The visions they showed me weren't real but..... They called me..." Lama looked very concerned and shut his eyes. "Little Tal Shiar boy... and they were right, I did it all. I sold out the Republic, I hurt people, no amount of repenting and good acts is going to change what I did," Lama told Vovvi with his hands shaking and a deep sigh to try and contain his emotions a little. He was trying to relax and speak calmly, they weren't out of the woods yet after all.

8

Vara smiled weakly to Copia, blew a kiss, and went back to resting. “Thanks Copes….”

1

Everything started going numb the second his words registered. There was a ringing in her ears blocking out the idle chatter of the background, her heart racing in her chest as her eyes darted from Lama's trembling hands up to his face. Something nasty curled in the back of her mind, a little voice hissing about how Starfleet shouldn't be allowed to have ex-Shiar among their ranks, that the fact that one was here proved her reservations about the transfer were justified. All of it covered by the deafening silence of the supernova, her vision blurred by the news headline her eyes ran over a dozen times. Vovvi.. didn't know what to do. She blinked furiously, blinked back her disgraceful thoughts and the hot tears in the corners of her eyes. This wasn't about her right now. She didn't know Lama's story. She pulled him into her arms. "Easy, Lieutenant," she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut and resting her cheek against the side of his head. "I don't have the words you want to hear right now. I can't promise you forgiveness on behalf of everyone. It's not my right to give you that... It would be wrong of me. Repentance doesn't mean everyone forgiving you-- it means doing good for the sake of doing good, for being better. That's all you can do. Be selfless. Be kind. Be strong." She squeezed a little tighter. "Hold on. We're almost home." (edited)

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Lama let his body weight fall onto Vovvi. She was fully Romulan and a whole three inches taller than him so he didn't think his weight would knock her down or anything. He shivered in her embrace, fully aware that she was probably going through her own battles. He felt bad for dishing this all on someone he had literally just met, but judging from how firm her embrace was on him, she was the person he needed right now. "I'm so sorry.." Lama muttered, slurring his words together as he choked back tears. "I can't stop thinking about it... and I hate that it bothers me. I've never told anyone, anyone, not even the Republic. I... I was a spy for the Republic, and then I transferred to Starfleet... Because I was scared. Scared that the Republic would somehow learn my secrets, so I came here, far far away, but you.. .You never truly run away from your past," he closed his eyes again. "I want to be there for my team, I want to help them," Lama turned his head to see Allan, Saren, and a few others. "Home.... Where is 'home' for you, Vovvi?" a stupid question to ask, but Lama's brain was not exactly thinking of smart things to ask.

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3

He also noticed Allan, and Saren's offer of an embrace. The adrenaline of earlier was dying down now, and all he could think about was the thickness of the Undine's skin and the bruises on his knuckles, and Elwyn bleeding not-blood, and the sound of his own blood in his ears and the fire in his heart and throat. It was exhilarating, and not exactly terrifying, because he'd locked off fear for now, but tense, and he was still trying to relax his muscles. He took a deep breath, because he wanted to be calm for Allan, Elwyn, and everyone else in the room, and asked Allan: "Would you like a hug sandwich?" If not, he just offered to hold his hand. (edited)

8

That wasn't even slightly true. Vovvi had spent her entire life running -- not from her mistakes, from her legacy, from what she was destined to be. She almost laughed at that. Almost. Now wasn't the time. "Just keep breathing," she murmured, supporting him as best she could. "Thank you for telling me. I'm proud of you for opening up. You, um, really need to see a counselor, though, elements..." Where was home? She thought about that for a second. "Home has always been where my children are safe and happy. Though...it might be time for me to be safe and happy, too. That's neither here nor there." Vovvi straightened Lama to his feet, pulling a little pack of tissues out of her pocket -- always carried them with her, you never know-- and wiping his face. "Take care of yourself, Lieutenant. It's clear you love the people around you a lot, and you want to take care of them. That's a good quality to have."

5

Lama nodded and stood up on his own two feet again, slowly pulling away from Vovvi. This was going to go into his list of most cringe memories. Probably more cringe than twerking in front of the Tal Shiar singing WAP. "I will and... I'm really sorry for saying that, please please don't tell anyone," Lama said, knowing very well that as an intelligence officer Vovvi was probably going to tell someone. Well, Starfleet did know Lama served the Tal Shiar, but the only knew what the Republic had information on which was... Not much. Lama's pointed ears perked up when Vovvi mentioned children. No wonder he felt safe around her, she was a mother! He was an adult, but he could really do for a motherly figure at that moment. He let her wipe the tears from his face and sniffled a little. "Thank you, Vovvi," He didn't even care if she told intelligence, Lama was tired of running way. Maybe it was time to face his past. "I hope my friends think so too.... I feel like I haven't done nearly as much as I should have, but.... then again, how much could anyone have done," Lama looked at the room again, everyone seemed to be going through something or had gone through something. "I want to find where my home is too, maybe someday I will, just like you," Lama's eyes looked back at Allan who was seemingly about to be in a hug sandwich with Saren and someone else he couldn't quite remember the name of. "Home," Lama looked back at Vovvi and nodded slowly. "I miss my siblings, maybe I can see them after this is over. Thanks for letting me talk, Vovvi. I will repay you, somehow. I don't know how. Do you... Do you or your children like card games?"

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Eshen's approach felt like a gentle summer breeze against his skin, and suddenly, Saren could breathe easy. Green met gold, as his pale, gloveless hand travelled from the man's shoulder to the elbow to the wrist, fingers curling around the half-Vulcan's palm and just... holding it for a good moment, bringing him closer to himself and Allan, soaking in the warmth, feeling life pulse under Eshen's skin, and letting the fact that everyone came back, and that people he cared for the most were in his reach, calm the violent thing that was squeezing his heart in it's sharp, sharp teeth. He then looked down at the hand he was holding, noting the bruises blooming on Eshen's knuckles. Signs of a fight. "Teelis'dhai..." the Romulan murmured, voice gentle with emotion... before bringing the hand closer to himself and pressing his mouth against the bruises, leaving a trail of slow, gentle kisses on each and every one of them, as if they could heal. Perhaps, in some part, they did.

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Having slowly entered the control room at the back of team three along with the rest, Elwyn, now really quire worried about something else bad happening, still had their phaser in their left hand set to kill, finger off the trigger. Unable to use their rifle accurately, it was slung behind their back as they slowly rounded the corner, only to see everyone else round the other corners. Having heard footsteps before they knew who was coming, they prepared to open fire, only to see… A member of team two? Commander t’Rei’nak recognising Lieutenant tr’Lareth-Movar was enough to reassure them that they were indeed team two, but they also knew the Undine could shapeshift, so it was only after a few moments that they actually felt like these were the real team two. Noticing team one appear as well, Elwyn couldn’t help but feel a little better knowing there were now more of them to face off against the Undine, but the longer they looked around, trying to keep guard from where they had just come despite their injuries, they could also see the pain on people’s faces. Clearly the other teams had been through the works as well, which only upset them more. But they had to focus, they refused to let anyone else get hurt. Stood silently at the back of team three, they listened in on the ongoing conversations in the hope of trying to focus on something other than what they had experienced in the hope of keeping calm and focused: Their friends. (edited)

4

"I won't tell a soul. You have my word." Vovvi nodded, just fussing over him now-- moving the mess of his hair from his face and straightening up to her full height. The moment had calmed down, and she was back to being antsy. "Ivissa doesn't do well with strangers," she admitted sheepishly, a ghost of a smile on her face. Hopefully she wouldn't keep Ivissa waiting much longer. "though she loves any sorts of games, mostly the kind involving playing pretend. I may have a streak of luck when it comes to card games.."

1

"You did," was all Allan whispered in response to Lama when he said he found Saren, as Saren rather found him and he looked said Saren in the eyes with a soft smile that threatened to bring the tears out of his eyes again. He took in a shaky breath as he nodded quickly, before any of those tears could actually come up, before he could try and fail to say any more words, and accepted that offer, pulling Saren into a hug and holding tight. And in this moment were only feelings that he'd felt before, feelings that he'd realized first in the fucking butterfly house, which was awfully poignant now, wasn't it? These feelings of safety, assurance, the warmth that surrounded that. With his face buried in the crook of his neck, he wasn't quite aware of Eshen's presence until he heard his breath, and then his question. He lifted his face up for just a moment, enough to look right at Eshen with his teary little eyes and nod a bunch, keeping his right arm thoroughly holding Saren close to him as he took his left to draw Eshen in closer. And he may not have seen it now, but he heard it when Saren spoke to Eshen, and the kisses, fuck, the kisses and man, he was crying more into Saren's shoulder now and he half felt bad for it but he knew he shouldn't have. He knew that this was something that, all in all, all of them were glad to be here with each other for. And wasn't that something Allan hardly could've comprehended three years or so ago. All of a sudden - just for a moment - this place began to feel like a little sanctuary.

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Lama nodded, already having mentally prepared himself for a visit from intelligence. He wouldn't blame her if she told, if anything, Lama felt like it was his duty to tell first. He also pushed back some strands of blonde hair when she did, trying to assist her but in reality it was probably best of Vovivi just did it since Lama was making it worse. "I'll get you guys some limited cards, umm.. It's a fun strategy game called King of Games-- uh, just DS for short. Even if you don't know the rules, the cards have pretty art. I have a limited edition booster pack I haven't opened, when we get back to the station, I'll send it your way. Thanks again, I... I never had a mother in my life, to be honest, I appreciate this," Lama looked Vovvi in the eyes and smiled softly. He was definitely going to give her the cards and maybe something else if he could find anything that a Romulan mother would like.

5

Seeing that more people happened to be about and the like,Vara'l moved over closer to the group. Once there he proceeded to put his rifle down and retrieve his tricorder before he started to scan the damaged side of his head. He looked at the results and then slipped the tricorder into its holster again before he turned and looked for faces he recognized. He reckoned he should be somewhat fine if he remembered to request pain meds when he started to feel like a new dose was needed. Whenever he spotted a face he recognized,he smiled and nodded slightly.

While all the distinct emotions in the room was almost stifling, Tevis couldn't help but appreciate others need to be vulnerable in the moment. He would inevitably have his own moment where it would all hit him like a piano falling from a skyscraper, but, for now, he'd spotted one of his own friends, and happily approached the Human intelligence officer, appreciating the comforting thrum of her prescence. With a wide, tusk filled grin, he approached, clapping Aoife lightly on the wrist, his beady Betazoid eyes shining with mirth and genuine appreciation. "Wow, somehow, you got even uglier than you were before! So what got you that scar? A ravenous pack of puppies? A falling birdsnest?" He teased with a deep belly laugh.

8

Aoife snapped around when she felt some clapping her on the wrist, evidently, she was still in combat mode. She initially looked at her eye level, unfortunately, she didn't see anyone... she looked down a second later and saw none other than Tevis! "An undine commander decided that my eyes were just too pretty, he regretted his decision after he got a knife to the neck." She clapped back at Tevis. "But I'm still better looking than you Short Round." Comedy aside Aoife was glad to see that Tevis had made it through mostly ok. "Did your team make it through unsaved? It looks like it got pretty rough for the other groups."

8

"We did find out that the Undies have a criminally bad fashion-sense...not sure why they decided to pick on you then you big oaf!" He said with a chucke, throwing the sass right back at her. "I mean, other than a not-dog glitching through the ground, the Undine being assholes, mortal terror, some butterflies, trauma and a goddamned monkey, we came out alright. What about your group?" He asked with genuine concern in his voice, imagining that if it had been as bad as it was for his group, it must have been just as bad for the others.*

He hadn't been expecting the kisses to his bruised knuckles, and while he was nowhere near in need of as much comfort as Allan was, he appreciated it all the same. He cupped Saren's cheek with the same bruised hand and kissed him, then, upon Allan's consent, wrapped his arms around him, and slightly around Saren, and encased him in a warm hug firm enough that it was a comforting amount of pressure, but not so much that he'd feel trapped. He wanted to make all sorts of promises, like he'd never let Allan come to harm again, or he'd always be there for him, but truthfully there was no real way of controlling either of those things; instead, he left a gentle kiss on the back of Allan's neck and murmured, "I'm here. We're here." After a moment, he glanced over to where Elwyn was and wondered if she might want to join in on the hug, too, for her own comfort and Allan's.

7

The more Elwyn stood watching the corridor from whence they came the lonelier she started to feel, trying so hard to focus on what everyone else was saying yet still feeling alone with her own thoughts, and they weren't nice thoughts at all. They were sad, bad thoughts, and she didn't like them. Glancing back over at the others they saw Eshen, Allan, and Saren hugging, and ever so briefly noticed Eshen actually looking at her, before she looked away again, the faux focused expression on her face faltering as she did. After a good few seconds though, and after making sure someone else was still keeping an eye on the corridor they had walked through, the android looked down at her phaser and deactivated it, before awkwardly reaching across her body to holster it once more. Turning, the now one-armed Security offer, still covered in her own bright purple coolant, slowly wandered her way into the main group, looking down at people's shoes as she did until she eventually got within talking distance of the hugging trio. Looking up with her eyes, not her head, the strength in her expression now well and truly failing, she spoke quietly. "Hi, guys..." She greeted softly, her usually happy voice sounding moments away from breaking. "...Can I join you?"

2

Yoro'clis silently watched the scene from the back and let everyone vent their frustrations. People needed to talk to their friends and that was understandable to him. Everyone needed to see that those they were closest to had survived. At the very least the Honored Elder did not want to be the person to break this all up. Clearly many people were suffering from injuries after all. Any actions like that could only end poorly. He was concerned about the situation though. All of the Starfleet officers were in a cramped room with enemy transporters before every exit after all. From a tactical perspective the Undine would have the advantage. Yoro'clis just hoped that no combat would break out but sensed that it soon would.

2

His arm was curled around Allan securely, pressing his human closer to him, and despite the armor, their bodies still fit against each other just right. His eyes fell half-shut at some point, but reopened again as he felt Eshen's palm slip out of his grasp to find it's place against his cheek. He let himself be guided into a kiss, eyes now fully shut and his face relaxed, while his now free arm joined it's twin in holding the crying engineer around his waist and shoulders, ensuring the firmness and warmth of their now collective hug. Allan could probably feel his deep breath, the inhale and exhale that lasted far longer than a human's and perhaps didn't even sound truly human - before Saren pressed his cheek against the redhead's crown. Still, he was alert enough to notice Elwyn's approach. His body didn't shift, and he gave Eshen a look and a quiet murmur that indicated that he would be fine with whatever decision he, or perhaps even most importantly Allan, would make upon that request.

3

T'she looked over the collection of officers, mostly looking for injuries and the like, also just glad to see that everyone had made it mostly in one piece so far.

5

Vara'l picked up his phaser rifle and moved over toward the COS,who he had spotted off on their own. Once he had reached a point he reckoned he could talk to them without shouting, He then had proceeded to speak. "Honoured Elder" The wounded Romulan uttered as he greeted the other and quietly looked the other over for signs of injury. "I thought I should make you aware if you werent already that one of your officers, Ensign Preston has sustained a serious injury, they are stable but have lost an arm." He'd then gestured in the direction of the android ensign who had ended up in the press of the group and swayed slightly. (edited)

Yoro’clis nodded without an expression on his face. While he was generally not the most empathetic person the Honored Elder believed that the role of a first or a chief was to oversee both the training and health of those who reported to them. That was something that could not wait. “Thank you Commander.” The Honored Elder walked over to Elwyn and stopped in front of them, taking a moment to take in their injuries. They were an Android so it was difficult to tell how bad it was but Yoro’clis knew that a missing arm was a missing arm. He wanted to do his best to comfort and check on the younger officer even if he did not exactly know how. “How are you doing Ensign?”

Since following the group into the room, Rei had remained hunkered down next to their brother, hidden away near one of the walls. Quietly the two conversed, discussing everything that had happened and trying to piece together all of the information. "I still don't know if I trust them," they stated, balancing on their toes in a low crouch as they surveyed the room. They were far less combative than earlier on, but still incredibly confused.

Equally as confused, but having always been the calmer one of the two, he nodded in understanding. He had been taking in the appearance of the prisoners and the other Starfleet officers, easily told apart by their outfit. "I get it. I don't know what's true and what isn't. But like... Look at the others in the same boat as us. If we had been rescued and put here in stasis because we were 'injured' but they wanted our help with rebuilding, then how are we all so fucked? And look at the officers too. Would people here to kill us and put an end to the Empire once and for all really be so compassionate? They would have killed us already... And they'd be too busy to look after one another. They treat each other with kindness. They act like Starfleet, at least."

7

And there they were. In a, as Eshen so eloquently named it, hug sandwich. The kiss to the back of his neck and the comforting words only did him in further - it was something that wasn't overwhelming, something that he would remember a long time from now and be eternally grateful for - it was something that he would continue to remember and hold close if, God forbid, he was ever in a similar position, the other way round, able to say the same. If he wanted, he very well could have fallen asleep in the midst of this hug, to the distinct rhythm of Saren's breathing, the warmth and pressure surrounding him like a really nice blanket. As his tears slowed, he heard a soft but familiar voice behind him, and while he didn't see the android, it was a voice he could tell was devoid of that usual positive lilt to it that it tended to have. He didn't bother to turn all the way around, but he did say something. "Yeah- of fucking course you can," a quick phrase, but a clear one at that, his voice awfully hoarse but it did seem to have at least a less broken tone to it, emotionally - than before as he continued to rest his head on Saren. "I dunno where you are, but c'mere." A very, very small laugh followed.

4

"Oh you know, just a cat cafe where they eat the not cats, a gladiator fight and having to stab an undine commander." Aoife responded, clearly less worse off than Tevis' team. "It sounds like you guys were through the ringer. These guys don't fuck around with the badness." Aoife replied to tevis question, comedy dropped for a melancholy tone only fellow warriors world recognise after a lot of fighting and death. "At least we got everyone through, that's more than I can say for some of my previous assignments."

6

Tevis shook his head, he too taking on a more serious tone as he worried his bottom lip over his tusks, a stress habit he used to do as a child, and does occasionally as an adult in very stressful situations. “I imagine everyone did, this was…well, this has been a rough mission. I don’t think I’ve been through anything even close to this bad since the Kumari was destroyed a decade ago…” He said, letting out a deep exhale. It was clear to anyone who looked at the man that he’d been through hell in back, with the barely healed slashes across his face, blood stained tactical suit, and weariness about him not typically seen of the usually vigorous CTO. “I imagine we still have quite a bit of shit to wade through before we’re done here, but atleast we’ve all gotten this little break in the action…I’m not sure my team could have done much more without it…we’re running on fumes.” He said, giving his team a caring, appraising eye, before turning back to his friend, eyes and empathy fixed on her to make sure she was ok too. “How are you doing? I know it’s easy to forget about yourself in circumstances like these, and I want to make sure you’re doing ok too. You’ve got an important role here, both on and off the battlefield you know?” He said, leveling the Human with a soft smile.

4

Hearing Allan's confirmation was all Elwyn needed, the android moving into the hug in such a way so as to allow her one functioning left arm to rest upon Allan and Eshen, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. Not being able to properly hug in the way she previously could felt weird. It felt wrong and weird, but anything was better than nothing, and it wasn't even two seconds after she first made contact with her friends that the tears began escaping, eyes closing as quiet, muffled sobs began. The Ensign was completely overwhelmed, scared beyond anything she had felt before in her entire career, and to top it all off she couldn't even properly hug anyone, having to contend with just placing her remaining arm around her friends. "This is so shit..." She mumbled between sobs, wanting nothing more than to have her arm back and to be away from this place she now thought truly horrible.

9

4

Slumped against a wall was Captain Tewari, having remained there ever since being set down by Tevis. Her gaze was towards the floor, eyes unfocussed – not that she could see anyway, Borg optics shorting out, restarting, and shorting out again. That was courtesy of not having been able to regen in almost ten months: the Undine had never trusted Borg technology. In a way it helped. Not being able to see helped to mitigate the overwhelming influx of sensory information – not a fun thing to contend with when you had been in and out of stasis and sensory deprivation for so long. Maybe the fact that her Borg cybernetics were shutting down also helped. A sense of numbness meant that you weren’t able to properly feel. Disoriented, confused, and only partially aware of her surroundings, not feeling at all probably would have been nicer. But in her semi-alert state she could still hear. She heard Tevis’s reassurance to Allan out in the corridor. She heard how officers reunited here, reassuring one another and showing a compassion that every Starfleet officer should have. And that’s who they were. Starfleet officers: still alive, despite what had been told to her over the course of ten months… Something that she had doubted from the start, despite her entire reality being re-written, always leaving a lingering sense of doubt. It was probably why the ‘Admirals’ hadn’t liked her. Starfleet officers. Here. Still alive. Finally: people to trust. Perhaps feeling was better than not feeling. It meant that you could still have hope.

6

Vara'l saluted in response to the honoured elders words and then after he looked around a bit,headed off toward the two people he failed to recognize. The injured Romulan slow as he carefully moved over to Rei and M'Zroll. Once there, turned slightly so he no sign of his slashed up face sign was presented to the do, Vara'l then proceeded to speak. "Apologies if I've interrupted anything,I'm Lieutenant commander tr'Hara, I wished to ask you if there is anything either of you need"

There was a low ‘hiss’ from H’Reirru as Vara’l approached, sinking into more of a crouch – one that would enable to her to launch at this person if so required. A hand on their shoulder stopped any attack, though.

“Stop it. They’re the good guys, I think. Uh…” The Ferasan shook his head, little specks of remaining bio-gunk dripping from his fur as he did so. “Actually. Can you tell us what you know about all of this so far? About what happened to us? We… Were prisoners? And everything that we’ve been told, and what we were shown – it’s all fake?”

Having been dumped in one of the more empty spaces, Cronos had sat kind of slumped against a couple of boxes, he had managed to scrounge himself up something blanket-eqsue to wrap around his shoulders, but he still sat there, just loosely staring around the rest of the people gathered here... Until a figure vaguely caught his attention, in which he slowly began to drag himself to his feet, suddenly overwhelmed with a surge of backup adrenaline... It could be, could it?

5

"Yeah me neither, I haven't been on a worse mission since Cestus III." Memories of the nearly three-week battle began to surface in her mind, then even more unpleasant memories of her six-month stint on a prison ship. She quickly pushed those memories aside, something she had become very good at over the years, even though the memories continued to surface in her nightmares. Aoife shifted her weight a little, a tell-tale sign of uncomfortableness. "Let's hope we can get our bearings and get a proper plan of escape together before the undine figure out where we're hiding out." She gestured around the room. "Because we won't be able to hold here if they come at us in numbers." Aoife hadn't liked the look of this room when they came in, there were far too many avenues of attack. "I-" Tevis' final question caught Aoife off guard, she was not expecting a question about her state of mind in the moment. "I'm alright, we need to stay on mission, I'll process everything after we get off this slag heap." Aoife had verbally dodged the question but Tevis would feel a strong sense of unease and fear as Aoife actively pushed aside memories of past combat missions. Tevis would also pick up a feeling from Aoife that she would be put back in a situation like she was on Cestus III, one where people under her command would be killed, she had clearly not made peace with that fact of life in Starfleet even though she was outwardly putting on a brave face.

4

2

Without a word, Vara'l placed the rifle on the floor at the hiss and moved his hands outward and away from weapons. "As far as we know, the Undine species have been capturing people like yourselves from organisations or nations and bringing them to here, I would say as such that you were captured by Undine infiltrators and..brought here before being placed in suspension." He informed them carefully. "You were prisoners,you are free now and...what you were told or shown prior to release from stasis is fake yes ." He confirmed before he paused and said. "If you would like, you can outline what you've been told to me and I can tell you what I know to be true about specific elements." He then paused. "That is if that would be helpful, considering all this."

Game recognized game, and Tevis recognized when his friend was putting on a brave face, putting off dealing with the trauma and the raw emotions of the past, because he did, and was doing the same thing. After all, it’s one thing to be strong for others, it’s another to be strong for yourself. “Same here. Door is open whenever you want to talk about it whenever we get back. Just because you went and got yourself a fancy purple uniform, doesn’t mean you’re can’t lean on a friend if you need!” He said with a slight teasing tone and that damned smirk of his. “I can’t help but agree about wanting to get out of here…this is genuinely the most unpleasant shithole I’ve ever been…I’m ready to go home, take a long shower, and take care of my plants…” And by ‘taking care of’, he means that he will yell and insult them until they grow. “You think we should start asking around about next steps?” He said, hoping focusing on the mission would help folks get their shit together and get the hell out of there.

5

Having spent a solid maybe five minutes slowly making his way across the room towards Talos, there was a vague thump as he fell down to one knee in front of her, reaching a hand out gently towards her. "...Rhea?"

6

The sound of a slight ‘thud’ in front of her was enough to make her flinch, unaware of what was going on. But then there was a voice – one that cut through the haze, one that she had trained her mind to hear above the sound of a red alert klaxon, of her crew calling out reports, above everything. Cronos was dead. It was one of the first things that she had asked, and one of the earliest things that she remembered. Ah. Well. Perhaps the Starfleet officers here were not alive, and there was no hope. Perhaps they were all dead… But if they were, and if she was, then at least she was dead with Cronos.

5

3

4

He slowly, very slowly, as to not startle her put a hand up to her forehead to feel her temperature, if she wasn't responding maybe she was ill or something? It wasn't the most unlikely of outcomes... And she didn't particularly look in the best shape. "C'mon, Rhea... Can you hear me? It's Ti." He could see that clearly her Borg eye implant wasn't working properly, it didn't even look close to what it should do... He gathered all the remainder of his energy, and focused it towards his Captain. "God damn it, Rhea. Listen to me, come back to me. I need you..."

5

"I might take you up on that Tevis." Aoife said, as she finished putting the bad thoughts aside. "Anyway, getting the hell outta dodge. I'd imagine if we blow up the rest of the generators we can cause a cascade to drop the shields and let the eventide beam us out. That's all I've got right now." Aoife said, giving Tevis a fist bump before walking off to have a closer look at the control room to see if there was a way to blow up the rest of the generators from where they were holed up.

As Vara'l waited for the Catians to respond he spotted out of the corner of his eye the commander and the captain. As he happened to be infront of two people who seemed...very wound up and ready to strike if he turned out hostile, he simply allowed himself to make a mental note to go that way if that situation hadn't resolved by then.

As Aoife walked away, Tevis thought for a moment, before nodding enthusiastically. “Blowing it up…good idea…” He mumbled, fully onboard with the plan. He took some more time to make a few rounds, checking on everyone as he thought through next steps.

Ok, enough lollygagging…it was time for action. Tevis walked to the center of the room and climbed up onto one of the consoles, making sure that everyone could see him, before he stuck his pinkies in his mouth and whistled as loud as he could. “Everyone! Eyes on me!” He said, voice booming. “I appreciate the need for rest, but I believe we’ve had quite enough of that for now. What we need to do know is to figure out our next steps, how we’re going to get out of here, and how we make it back home with every single one of our numbers here. There will be no person left behind on my watch! Clear?” He said, eyes roving the scattered group of tired, injured, battle-worn individuals, making it a point to give each one a few moments of sole attention so they knew he cared and appreciated the commitment they’d made to the mission. “Through determination, grit, intelligence, capability and care for one another, we’ve made it this far, something that I take immense pride in, and I know without a shadow of a doubt we will get through whatever else these assholes throw at us, and come out just as strong, no, stronger than we were before!” He said, raising his phaser above his head and nodding emphatically before returning to his speech. “We need a game plan…where do we go from this…how do we get our friends, both old…” He said, gesturing to Tewari and Cronos. “…and new…” He said, gesturing to the other former prisoners. “…back home. I want to hear suggestions…and I want to get moving as soon as possible. Let’s fucking do this!” He practically roared with a wide, almost feral grin.

7

Copia was lost in her thoughts, unable to really focus on anything, and completely absent during the Allan-wich. Perhaps it was best not to join in on that as she didn't want to cause a relapse. However, Copia couldn't help but be somewhat taken aback by Tevis' almost feral grin. She wasn't expecting him to have such a high amount of energy right now - hell, she wasn't expecting anyone to. She mistakenly assumed everyone was tired enough that they'd just want to get back - but it seems that Tevis was energized AND wanted to get back. A+ for energy! Copia nodded and very lightly responded aside the others so she didn't stand out. "Aye, sir."

2

"Ooh Rah sir!" Aoife shouted from across the room, currently studying a console looking for the best way to blow it sky high with some of her grenades. "Let's get the hell off this slag heap."

5

Yoro'clis made his way up towards Tevis and scanned the crowd. He wanted to see exactly who it was that the group had to work with. Many were injured, many were weakened, and few could fight. Time was of the essence and the group needed to start making their way out. As far as the Honored Elder could tell everyone would be walking in holographic circles with the current state of affairs. "The first step is finding a way out. We must turn off this simulation or fully understand it if we want to leave."

The speech made her perk up just a little, even if the volume made her wince. Vovvi straightened her posture and steadied her shaking, didn't shout out like everyone else, nearly nodded firmly in reply and joined Aoife's side at the console. "We've already gotten into the console before. It shouldn't be too difficult," she reasoned, turning to look at her, "Though, if you wish to take a more....active approach, I'll follow your lead."

T'she simply nodded before they looked across the room, planning out a statement of their own. "While we figure out a way to get out of here, those who need medical assistance, please come to me and I will do my best to provide care."

Vara moved to stand beside Copia with a gun drawn, making sure everyone was covered. She pretty much just waiting for the tech people to get them home.

2

“Lieutenant O’Rielly suggested explosives earlier, and I can’t help but think while they aren’t…elegant, blowing the absolute fuck out of this place would likely work, the only downside is its likely to be rather messy.” He said, running a hand along his chin in thought. “Is there a way to hack into the system to disable it? Or would that take too long?”

Vovvi raised a hand. "I can take a look and get a time estimate, sir. Though it may be easier with some help?" she offered.

“Absolutely, let’s explore every avenue we can with this.” He said with a nod.

"I've got uhh, three photon grenades left. Should be enough to blow the fuck outta something, or someone if the undine come knocking." Aoife shouted across the room, in response to Tevis talking about blowing the place to hell.

After what was certain to be a very long and emotional embrace full of love between Saren, Eshen, Allan and their good friend Elwyn, there was a particular call to action by the CTO and they, unfortunately, had to stop hugging. A shame, but Allan gave a look down at the ensign for a moment, taking a very deep breath as he took in the condition that she was in, and nodded, putting a very careful hand on her shoulder, the bruised one that was missing a glove. "Yeah. Yeah, it is shit, but... we're getting out of it, okay? Promise." He said, giving her a last little hug (and probably some little small kisses to The Boys) before turning to listen in at the mention of hacking into a system, naturally. "I can definitely help with that," he said, raising his hand a little to be slightly more noticeable as he then walked up to Vovvi. "Just getting into the console and shutting the whole thing down, right? Shouldn't take too long."

3

2

And funnily enough, just as Aoife said that... Multiple tricorders started beeping with warning. Undine life signatures were approaching.

8

7

Yoro’clis immediately realized what was happening and drew his phaser. He then rushed to one of the doors. “There are three entrances and exits. Those who can fight get to them now!”

5

“Ah shit. We got incoming.” She said with a breath as she flipped her tricorder down, before rushing with the big strong Jem’hadar guy. For once an effective strategy for a Starfleet officer.

Undine? Approaching?! Well... The Cardinal™ was back. Copia turned to Vara. "Ready, badass?"

He looked at the corridor in front of him, knowing what was soon coming. A far worse battle was now in store for him and the others. “Until the hologram is down we hold!”

Alright, she moved to do just that -- testing the waters, seeing just what she'd have to do to take down some generators, how much time it would take. "Faster with the two of us," she answered, nodding firmly and drawing her phaser as the tricorders started warning. Just in case. "Let's get these down and get everyone up to safety ASAP."

[D] Vara'l chatted for a time with the Ferasians and then moved off. As he moved off,Vara'l moved over to Captain Tewari. Or started to before the CTO called for everyone's attention and he stopped. He listened to them for a time before he quietly headed toward Lieutenant T'she. He then froze as he heard his tricorder as it chimed. "Moving" He responded as he moved to cover one of the corridors with his phaser rifle set to kill.

"We've been engaged!" Aoife shouted as she reached for her rifle and ran to cover one of the entrances to the room.

7

T'she decided to stay back from the fight, supporting anyone who might need it. It would do them no good if the medical officer went down in this mission. They had their hypos ready no matter what -- just in case some undine came too close.

“Everyone, phasers set to kill for these assholes!” He barked out, jumping down off of the console and immediately raising his rifle for the incoming attack.

She took a look at her phaser….taking a breath as she flicked it to stun. She couldn’t kill, not again. It was at max stun, but she made sure no one could see her placing it to stun from her spot by the door.

4

6

4

"Yeah, honestly, uh, the method I used last time to get in was I just kinda spammed the keys out so fast that it glitched out and let me in, so maybe if I do that again, it'll do that or just shut down altogether from the overload? Second option is putting in a quick overload into this baby here," he said, taking out the isolinear chip in one hand - his other hand holding his phaser as well as he tried the little keyspam from before on the screen.

If Copia had Alexa, she'd shout out 'Alexa, play Painkiller.' But she didn't. So, here she was. Copia set her phaser to kill, and got ready to take on more of the shapeshifters. This wouldn't be the last of them, surely. But Copia was a new android now. A fresh start, a new outlook on her emotions. She glanced at Vara before looking back to where the Undine would likely enter. Perhaps she'd broken her silence, as she whispered to herself, just barely audible for Vara to hear... "On your knees in front of the Cardinal, motherfuckers."

Being forced out of the group hug was far from what Elwyn wanted in this exact moment, but they knew they had a job to do. Having listened to Tevis’ speech the android looked up at Allan and gave a small nod in response to what he said, sniffling a little despite the fact their nose couldn’t even run as they wiped their eyes of tears. “We’re getting out of it.” They repeated softly, having not even realised some of their bright purple coolant had ended up in their hair as well, staining some of their braided ponytail from when it had gone over their shoulder. Reaching around their body again to get their phaser from its holster, it was only a matter of moments before there was an immediate threat again again. Widening their eyes, powering their phaser up, switching it to kill before Tevis had even said to, finger moving onto the trigger, the Security officer looked around in what could be described as fear as they tried to figure out where the best place to shoot from was, before quickly running over to behind a console, not taking any chances with their one remaining arm as they aimed at one of the doorways.

5

"Good work, Lieutenant," she nodded. Maya still had the isolinear chip, so Vovvi opted for copying Allan's keyspam method in an attempt to break in. "At the very least, it'll break the security systems long enough for us to disable the consoles manually.* .... "It's not my place, but if you're ever looking to change divisions..."

"Yeah, that's the idea," Allan nodded as he kept holding down that damn key and copying and pasting it to hell and back, yeah, probably and hopefully it would cause it to shut down on itself... maybe. "Ha, oh, man, nah, that - that isn't the first time someone's said that to me," he laughed, "it's actually what I was first offered, but ah, I wanted to engineer and shit, you know? It's why I hacked their shit in the first place, I was kinda pissed at them for not uh, letting me do engineering shit. More or less." He said with a shrug. "The purple's pretty tempting though, not gonna lie.."

The tricorder indicated the direction that the Undine were approaching from, but only a few moments later you could hear heavy footsteps, shaking the ground as they marched in time. Six Undine were approaching: four with no armour or additional weaponry, and two with metal armour and bayonets on each arm.

“Here we go!” Tevis boomed out with a shout.

"That's good," she commented idly, vaguely recalling reading something like that at some point. Probably on the way over. "Stick to your passions. It makes for a strong will and a strong heart." She hummed, expression twitching in quiet annoyance -- this security was damn stubborn, much more than the last console. Elements. Here we go indeed.

She took a breath as she primed her phaser and aimed up from the door, looking for head shots on the approaching Undine. She remained quiet as a mouse, the art of silence being rather important to a thief. (edited)

2

As he covered the corridor he selected,Vara'l dropped to a shooting crouch and waited for the appearance of an undine. He planned to fire as soon as one appeared and had readied himself to do so.

Steeling herself as best she could for another psionic attack, she held her phaser ready to fire to kill the first Undine to come through the door. She had had enough with these bastards- if they weren’t surrendering instantly, she was firing. If she was going to be forced to see the horrors of true war, she was going to unleash that pain onto these kidnapping sons of bitches.

The first Undine, an ensign with no armour, rounded the corner. It blew past Vara, tanking her first hit, as her phaser really should have just been set to kill, and went for the first person it saw... Aoife O'Rielly was the target of the first swipe, clawed hands coming very very close to maiming her face again.

From another side, the first Lieutenant entered the room, its claws swiping dangerously and wildly at Vara'l, who was crouched too low for the hit to connect... at least the first time.

Copia occasionally glanced at Vara to ensure she was okay - so far, so good, and Copia loosened up rather than stiffening. Keeping her aim forward, Copia breathed in and out... Well, here they were.

Seeing the Undine blow past Vara seemingly entirely shrugging off her shot, the only way that could have happened was if her weapon was... Aoife put the pieces together quickly in her mind. Vara had disobeyed an order to set weapons to kill! Aoife hit the undine with a killshot from her rifle before leaping over to where Vara was in cover, and put on her best drill instructor voice. "Ensign! WHY is your WEAPON NOT KILLING!"

5

2

Lisa, of course out here to protect the crew, immediately turned to shoot the Undine trying to attack Vara’l. No thank you, none of her friends were being killed today. She had seen enough death through the psionic attacks already.

As soon as the Undine started entering the control room Elwyn began opening fire, taking precise kill shots as if she was firing with her dominant hand… Because she didn’t have one. She was completely ambidextrous and able to mirror any action with either hand. Just because she’d been trained to fire with her right doesn’t mean she couldn’t take these Undine out with her left!

Copia stepped in, being careful not to aim at anyone except the Undine Ensign, and fired. She'd be Vara's backup. Copia sent two, three, four shots at the Undine Ensign, ensuring they didn't do any more damage to anyone else.

Vara'l had discharged kill set shot after phaser rifle set shot with trained expertise at the Lieutenant as it approached him,the shots aimed for center mass and head. He remained still as he did so at first and then had hurled himself into a roll to one side after they slashed and resumed firing from the side of the Undine as he had rolled into another crouch. "We are going to kill you." He had then softly growled as he had continued to fire.

4

Vara gave a death glare to Aoife before switching it to kill and firing. “Happy?” She sassed as she fired.

10

9

Without even flinching, he started firing high-energy shots right at the Lieutenant’s neck and head, only taking enough time as needed for the weapon to recharging before firing again.

“I’d recommend not sassing Lieutenant O’Rielly!” She commented, still firing at the Undine. She was going to make sure these bitches were DEAD.

7

Tevis looked over to Vara, uncaring she wasn’t in his division. “Cut that shit out Ensign, now is not the time to be a little ass. Do as ordered!” He barked out between shots.

10

Copia noticed Vara's reaction. "I'll handle her, sir, " Copia said mid-fire to Tevis. Copia called to Vara... "Vara. It's okay! You can do this!" And kept firing. (edited)

“What the actual fuck has gotten into these people…” He mumbled, before planting a particularly well aimed shot at the Undine Ensign’s back leg.

"You WILL NOT disobey orders again ensign or so help me I'll have you sent to Starbase 80 before you can even think about sassing me again." Aoife shouted still in full drill instructer voice as she laid fire downrange with her rifle.

6

”Oh so just cause I don’t want to kill people I’m the bad guy.” She mumbled in her brain. “Sure, sure sir.” She said as she fired, clearly unhappy,

6

The second ensign slipped through the same entrance the first had, bounding right for the person in front of it -- still happened to be Vara, as it leapt for her, intending to take her down with it.

"Oh no you don't!" Copia fired at the second Ensign as it headed for Vara. Not today, Undine!

Yoro’clis stood at the corridor entrance and fired his phaser again and again without any hesitation. He ignored his surroundings and solely focused his attention on the approaching Undines. The Honored Elder did not bother to hide behind anything or get cover, figuring that cover would not help him. All that he cared about was the enemy.

Of course, even though Vara was being subordinate, Lisa didn’t want her to get hurt or die. So, she did the dirty work for Vara, firing her phaser with a direct, focused, and long-lasting beam of pure death. This was fine. Lisa had beaten a human attacker to death with a wrench before to save her own life. Phasers were really no big deal.

7

Using the maximum kill setting on his rifle, Tevis fired a devastating shot at the Ensign heading for Vara, running up to the massive alien to get a point-blank shot.

As she saw the Undine Ensign jump for Vara Elwyn too targeted it, not wanting anyone else to get hurt today.

Vara grunted as she flipped out of the air of the ensign, firing a shot to its brain in midair before entering cover.

Copia nodded to Tevis and Lisa for their assistance. "Thanks, sir and Lieutenant," She said before continuing to fire at any incomers. "Vara, you need to trust me, if for no one else, do it for me, please!" As she fired. She couldn't have Vara transferred. They wouldn't take Vara away from her. Not on her watch.

A second Lieutenant scrambled up through the so far unbreached entrance -- yes, up, as it scattered across the ceiling before attempting to drop on Eshen, its claws swiping like mad as it went for his throat.

5

“Fine! Whatever! My moral code already flew out the window once today, what’s some more.” She said as she fired again at the one who attacked her, then spun back to take aim at the one going for Eshen. (edited)

Yoro’clis focused his pistol fire on the approaching Undine but knew there was nothing else he could do. With his bad arm melee was out of the question. All that he could do was fire at the approaching enemy.

At Aoife's shot reached ensign 1, it slowed down significantly, before eventually being hit with a second shot, and then a third, before it went down. Whether it was dead or down was something that would need to be examined outside of the chaos of battle, but at least it was no longer an active threat.

Lieutenant 1 meanwhile switched targets. The many shots it was taken did a lot, but not enough. It spotted the same target lieutenant 2 did... but decided against tag-teaming that one. There were too many people to worry about; it went after Lisa instead, swiping at her with long claws that were sure to make someone bleed if they connected,

Tevis shot at the ceiling Undine’s feet, hoping to knock it the fuck off the ceiling.

However, Lisa was much too quick and much too interested in not being mince-meat in order for those claws to connect. She leaped back and fired continuously at Lieutenant 1, phaser of course on full kill. She was DONE with these Undine.

As Vara'l continued to shoot and move,part of his fight or flight response and damaged implant marred mind noted the fact pain had started to lap over the suppressing wall of analgesic that had continued to hold pain at bay somewhat before then. 'Had of the claw hits connected?' He had wondered a brief moment before the Undine's disengagement from their fight caused him to surge up as he followed it. "We arent done with you." He continued to fire at it as he followed and forced himself forward as he continued.

Ensign 2 snarled as it was shot at, shaking its head to reorient itself as it swiped at her ankles once before skittering off through the crowd and diving for Aoife. Poor woman could NOT catch a break, huh?

Aoife managed to combat roll out of the way just in time to not get squished by the undine! Years of combat seemed to be paying off as she was firmly in her element fighting the undine. Capitalising on her momentum from her roll she managed to spring up onto one knee and getting a well-aimed shot off at the ensign who came after her, before finding some fresh cover!

When he saw the Undine come for Aoife, Tevis ran towards it full bore, before absolutely slamming it with phaser fire. "Don't fuck with my friends asshole!"

Hearing its ceiling-skittering above him, Eshen dodged backwards in the nick of time - the Undine's claw grazed his throat, leaving only a small cut, which bled a little heavier than you'd expect for its size, but still not much. He became very aware, though, that had he not moved back in time, he might have died just then. Deciding he didn't want to chance another close encounter just yet, he fired a few kill shots, though he kept close enough to his enemy that he wouldn't accidentally hit someone else with his phaser. That was the bigger problem with using this setting - friendly fire. Letting an Undine kill him because he used a weaker setting would mean it would live kill the others too, though, so there was risk either way.

Watching the Undine carefully, Elwyn’s attention went towards the one jumping towards Aoife. Able to get a clear shot, the android opened fire, trying to target any potential weak points.

Vara flipped past and fired again at Ensign 2 to back Aoife as a bit of an apology for being a dick earlier. She fired at its neck in particular as she back flipped into cover and fired more at 2.

1

Ensign 2 managed to weave around a few of the shots, swiping a few more times at Aoife before ultimately succumbing to the damage it'd suffered and dropping to the ground. One down, quite a few to go.

Yoro'clis was starting to realize that this was a battle of attrition that nobody was going to win. The Starfleet officers were only going to be able to hold out for so long until they were overwhelmed by the sheer force of the Undine. He quickly holstered his pistol, drew a photon grenade from his belt, armed it, paused for a moment, threw it towards the largest group of Undine that he could, and drew his pistol again.

7

Two Ensigns approached. Let's call this first one 'feral undine'. It was reckless, and charged in immediately like a feral dog, making a horrible guttural sound. However, its attack was not undirected: it had brought an electric phaser weapon of some kind, and was heading for the two people it knew to be androids - starting with Copia. It pointed at her and - ZAP!! She would be stunned enough to leave an opening for it to slash and hack away at her, but the question was, would her systems recover fast enough for her to dodge or block the attacks in time?

22:29

The second Ensign approached more cautiously. So cautiously, in fact, it seemed almost.. Hesitant? Scared? Or perhaps it was all a power play. It made no effort to engage with anyone yet. "Hmmf... Your stupid attack made my entire cat cafe despawn! You guys killed all my cats!" Strange priorities.

8

7

Lieutenant 2 bounded forward almost as soon as Eshen staggered, tanking a few shots. It leapt forward, practically clinging with its claws as they dug into his armor again and again, leaving plenty of slashes across chest-- thankfully none fully penetrating the armor. "Quit squirming!" it snarled, swiping for his face.

Yoro'clis immediately charged at the Undine attacking Copia without any thought. He only had one working arm but was more than capable of running at the enemy. As me neared them he attempted to swing his good arm directly at the Undine. They were not taking Copia without a fight.

Unfortunately not... The electric phaser immediately sent a wave of current through her system, leaving Copia stunned and unable to defend herself. "Aaugh!" She couldn't respond with anything else but that. Then the slash... Taking away half of her face... Sparks flew. As Copia stood there for a moment, she crumpled to the ground, slightly jerking around as her systems began to fail. "Err-or...err-or..."

2

"Not the damn cats again..." lieutenant 1 complained as it swiped at Lisa again, attempting to at least get one hit in. It was getting sluggish, though, the many shots and the flash of the grenade getting the better of it slowly but surely.

“COPES!” She said before leaping towards the one who attacked her with the electric attack. “You listen here you absolute motherfucker!!” She said as she tried to leap onto its back and plant her phaser directly onto the top of its brain and let loose a few max kill shots into it.

1

Of course, Lisa was faster than this sluggish Undine. Lisa’s main attribute was her physical strength and endurance- as well as her kind attitude off-duty, but these Undine certainly wouldn’t be seeing that side of her. No, this side of Lisa was all phasers and dodging. And dodge she did, before firing for as long as she could at Lieutenant 1.

Attention having been on the Undine attacking Aoife, Elwyn’s attention soon swapped to the one that had a literal energy weapon, only to watch it zap Copia with wide eyes. Turning back to face it, the android immediately saw it change target to, well, her instead. Oh boy. Wait, what was that about cats? Firing back briefly, the Security officer quickly ducked behind cover, not wanting to experience the same thing her fellow android had. “If you hadn’t kidnapped people we wouldn’t even be here!” She shouted back to the catboy Undine Ensign, sounding both fed up and angry simultaneously.

Seeing an opening with Lieutenant 1, Tevis ran towards it, and quickly overcharged his phaser before firing, hitting it dead in the face, before hitting it a second time in the same spot.

"Your cats didn't even look like real cats!" Aoife yelled as she took some potshots at Lieutenant one from cover.

5

Vara'l continued to shoot at it and once he approached close enough, attempted to put a phaser blast into the back of its head at close range. Vara'l wanted Lieutenant 1 to stop attacking Lisa. If it had to die to bring that about,they reckoned they could live with that. "...We're sure there is a complaints department wherever you end up." He continued to fire.

“There’s no complaints department in Hell! And that’s where kidnappers go, I’m afraid!” Lisa said, continuing to fire.

"Imposing outdated human moral dichotomies onto aliens from a whole different dimension? How far the Federation has fallen," lieutenant 1 continued to complain. This guy seemed to be a complainer. It swiped at Vara'l as it got close, but turned around.... and quickly fell to the ground, unconscious.

Spark...spark...spark... "Va-ra..." Static... "Don't...hold back... Keep...going... You're the...Cardinal now..."

Slowed by injuries and a clawing caused bleeding,Vara'l reacted to slowly to the swipe. As such, he caught the swipe and bounced against a wall with a grunt as breath escaped him. The Romulan had then pushed himself to one side then as he shakily pulled his hand Phaser,his rifle having skittered to one side and sighted on another Undine. He had then resumed firing from the floor..as best as he could. (edited)

Well, it seemed as if Lisa didn’t much care about that Undine’s opinion. She kept firing at the other ones still attacking people. She believed in heaven and hell- she had seen too much awful shit to not want to believe there was something waiting for her when she died. And that there was something there to punish the people who did awful shit without remorse. “Vara’l, you doin’ alright?” She asked as she continued firing.

Yoro’clis ran to Copia and picked them up, trying to keep their weight on his good arm. This was the second time he needed to carry a malfunctioning Copia and hopefully the last. He made his way behind a console, placed her stunned body down, and then ran back into the battle. He hoped one of the engineers could help her. Yoro’clis drew his pistol again and fired at Undine 2.

1

T'she got a bit of an idea, seeing the former prisoners in the room and deciding that they should do their best to get all of them to safety, or at least away from the front lines. Quietly, they Snuck over to someone, anyone, to get their attention. "Don't be alarmed, I'm going to try and move all of you somewhere a little safer, try and get the word out as quietly as possible please. I don't want them to notice what's happening and draw fire that way."

4

3

He'd wanted to say 'I'm fine,dont worry'. He'd wanted to say that. But what they said, as certain things slipped from his focus in favour of...more important focuses probably.. sounded worse than he intended. "..We are alive, that counts for something." His tone marred by deep pain.

The feral Ensign was proud of its work, though also kind of shocked. "Holy shit." What Undine curse word was being translated as holy shit? Did they have a concept of holy things? Did they have a concept of shit? "Ain't never seen the insides of one of you bef -" It was interrupted by many shots to its head, which were VERY disorienting, leaving it dizzy and seeing double. It threw Vara off, but it had clearly been befucked by that attack.

22:49

Meanwhile, catboy Undine was still not attacking. Genius strategy or un-Undine cowardice? Unfortunately, someone else decided to attack it - someone everyone had forgotten about:

"HRAAAGH!" Letting loose a warrior's cry, he launched a powerful fist towards the catboy Ensign!

...It did nothing. His muscles were too weak from lack of use. The catboy Undine reacted instinctively, slashing at his face with its claws - oof, there goes an eye. "Aaagh! Shit! I hadn't even attacked yet!" He grabbed G'gintesh's unconscious form and held it up like a shield, claws at his throat. "Take back what you said about my cats or this guy gets it!"

4

As Lieutenant 1 fell, Lieutenant 2 let out a bloodcurdling screech, redoubling its efforts at slashing at Eshen, intending to carve him into bits if it could. "Will you-- just KILL him already!" it screeched at the catboy Ensign between scratches. Kind of like a cat. Huh.

2

Aoife began to profusely swear in several languages when she saw the hostage situation. "Put the Klingon down and ill recant!" Aoife said fully intending to leverage the undines stupidity and shoot it then Ahex was freed.

Yoro’clis watched the scene with the catboy Undine silently. He kept his pistol pointed towards the ground but began to overcharge it. The moment that the Klingon was down he would raise the pistol and immediately fire as many shots as he could at the cowardly Undine’s face.

Having been trying to keep an eye on the situation but subsequently hiding from the energy weapon Elwyn also noticed the hostage. Oh for crying out loud… “Hostage!” She shouted out to the others, standing back up from out of cover and pointing her phaser at the hostage taker once more. “Let them go!” She ordered. “I’m sure your cats were lovely!” She wasn’t even lying for the sake of the situation, cats could do no evil, even if they were little gremlins sometimes. (edited)

2

Vara was tossed down to the ground by the feral ensign but spun on the ground to unleash a few shots at its legs and abdomen. “You do not touch her!!”

1

Vara'l sighted one handed on at Lieutenant 2 and fired as he attempted to force his body up and toward his lost phaser rifle. As the Romulan did so,he uttered a deep and pained groan. What a state he happened to be in, part of his mind idly noted as it tried to force his body to further action.

Lisa, of course wasn’t about to negotiate with this bastard. She had her phaser pointed to the ground, but she was also overcharging it as far as it could possibly go without breaking. This sucker was going down as soon as it let go of its hostage. “Your cats were probably very lovely, put the Klingon down and I’ll see what I can do to get them back for you.” Lisa lied.

2

He didn't want to be bits! He liked being one whole bit very much! "More of a dog person, are you?" He continued to dodge and weave, trying to keep the optimum distance away from the Undine, while trying to get enough shots in to stagger it for a second.

DING-DING-DING! The feral Ensign was OUT! Congratulations! 500 points!

23:07

The other Ensign yelled, "I'm not going to believe someone who lied about eating my favourite cat earlier! I saw it walking around my shop after you claimed to eat it. And you guys robbed me! And you're ruining the whole simulation! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a posting like this?" Yeah, this one had definitely been enjoying humanoid life too much. Completely lost in the sauce, and it was too hyped up on adrenaline to pretend like it wasn't. Truth is, it had been questioning lots of things recently. The doctrine of the Undine was that all other species were inferior... But how could that possibly be true when cats existed? They were obviously the supreme lifeform! "I'm not giving up my leverage! I have to live long enough to see a real cat!"

3

“Oh my god shut the fuck up about the cats NO ONE CARES.” She said as she kicked up to her feet, shot the feral ensign in the head again and moved into cover again. “One of your buddies was a stupid ass monkey, and we body slammed that idiot!”

1

The feral Ensign remained very much dead. Zero points.

6

Lama scrambled into action and clutched his phaser as he scurried about to try and not get hit. He aimed his phaser at the Undine on Eshen to try and get it to back off.

Spark spark...spark... "Va-ra... I'm...scared..." Static... "H-elp... Take them...down..."

"I like cats just fine, you..!" the Undine spat, staggering a little, then finally collapsing with the effort and as Lama's shots sank in.

1

"Eyyy!" Lama rushed over to Eshen. He didn't know his name but he knew he was in the hug sandwich. "You good? I got first aid stuff!" He offered, not a doctor, but he wanted to make sure the guy was okay 'cause wow that was whack!

"What the hell is a monkey?" It damn near slit this Klingon's throat just in retaliation for Vara's rudeness about cats, until... Hang on. All its comrades were dead. That wasn't supposed to happen. "Um. Change of plans. You all put your phasers down and I'll drop this guy and run away."

Sorry wait, who lied about eating a cat? And what was that about an Undine monkey? What the heck had the other teams been up to? "We can let you see a real cat if you surrender now! We're Starfleet, we don't hurt our prisoners! Running away won’t get you anywhere because your colleagues will go after you for being a traitor!” The android stated firmly. “But if you surrender, I’ll personally make sure you get to see a real cat.” Was she really doing this for an Undine who was working for the same people who the one who tried to kill her was working for? Yes, yes she was. Why? She didn’t have enough time to figure that one out right now. That’ll be for her therapist later.

Vara'l grunted a bit, he'd managed to reach his rifle and proceeded to sling it as he sighted in on the Ensign. "...Its your best option." He advised the Undine in a pain marred calm. As he did that and with his phaser rifle slung,Vara'l searched with his free hand for his first aid kit. He'd reckoned he probably needed it. Not that it would help the implant damage but that wasnt the only thing that happened to have sliced away at his ability to function. (edited)

Uuuugh. It didn't like it, but Vara'l was right. Besides, the Android with the missing arm exuded a strange sense of trustworthiness. "I need some assurance you aren't all going to immediately shoot me if I drop him, though... At least stop pointing your guns at me."

2

Were they really about to do this for an Undine? Were they really about to treat one humanely when they had no idea the crimes this one had committed? Well, there was only one way to truly know how much damage this one had done, and it was to question it later. Slowly lowering her phaser towards the floor, Elwyn spoke again. “One wrong move and we will shoot you.” The android said firmly. “You can make the right choice, you can be the first Undine here to change the universe’s opinion on your species. Or you can screw it up like your murderous colleagues. Think about that cat, let him go slowly, and walk towards me slowly with your hands on your head.”

Vara'l lowered his phaser slightly. This may in part be due to the fact that as combat ebbed and the analgesic that had helped him finally elapsed, he'd slipped down to lie fully on the floor again. "You have offered your surrender, if you drop him you will be a prisoner of the Federation, unless you then attack, and as the ensign says, if you comply with them instead, you have the protections afforded a Federation prisoner." Vara'l managed in a voice that had weakened part way through.

There was a moment of tension as the Undine evaluated its options. It was truly torn - its natural instincts were screaming at it to surrender and live, and its learned instincts were screaming at it not to betray its kind and die for their cause. But there was one more thought - a selfish one: if it did this, would it truly be the first? Would it be... Special? It had never been remarkable in any other way; it wasn't the strongest, the fastest, and certainly not the smartest. It wasn't even particularly well-liked among its peers. The Undine did not exactly have a word for loneliness, so it could not identify that was what it felt most of the time. It wasn't surprising, then, that it had latched onto the small, furry companion animals as it had - and since they were gone, it really had nothing more to lose. "...We are trusting one another here." Had it ever used that word before? "I will not fight the others, though, so if you will allow it, I will lie on the floor and pretend to be dead." It slowly lay G'gintesh on the ground, and then itself.

7

Silence settled over the generator room. All of the approaching Undine had been defeated… Or surrendered, in the case of the Undine who liked cats. Throughout the chaos, the work on the generators was starting to have an impact – bio-consoles indicated that another generator had gone offline, and the next was in the process of powering down.

4

Copia's systems were nearly failing, but as she hid where Yoro'clis placed her, she silently watched... Observed... And she wished she had the energy to talk. To encourage them. To cheer them on. But she couldn't.

..As soon as Vara'l happened to be sure that there were people who had it covered. Vara'l slackened slightly as his hand phaser slipped out of his hand and he passed out from the pain of his injuries mixed with the pain of implant failures. He had located the first aid kit, it happened to now be partly out of its pocket. His non-phaser hand half rested upon it. (edited)

T'she ran quickly to the unconscious G'gintesh, using their vulcanoid strength to get them out of the way before they started to work on him, quick and efficient, just the way they were taught.

"Aw, fuck yeah, you see that!?" Allan looked at Vovvi with a grin, as if anyone had seen anything but the Undine fights all around them. But hey, one generator down, however many more to go! He wasn't really counting, just bringing 'em hell. A little strange that none of the Undine had targeted the people at the consoles, but... hey, their teammates were doing an excellent job at keeping them away!

"One down," Vovvi sighed, flexing her fingers. She was a little disappointed Allan didn't want to switch, but didn't blame him -- they'd just have to nerd out about computer stuff later. He looked a bit older than their oldest child, too... "Good work."

Yoro'clis ran back to Copia to check on them, seeing that nothing had changed. She seemed stable, although that did not appear to be a particularly good thing in this case. Unfortunately her body also appeared to still be limp and therefore needed to be carried. He picked her up with relative ease, grunting as he felt her weight on his injured arm. She was comparatively light but his arm still hurt. With Copia in his arms Yoro'clis realized that he did not know where the group was going next. He had been turned around by all of the holographic transformations and now needed to follow someone else's lead. Once the holograms were done someone would need to guide the group. "Who knows the way back to the ship from here?"

1

"We need to disable the shields before we can beam out," Vovvi said a little sharply, moreso than she intended. "Focus on treating your injured. We just need to buy enough time."

Unfortunately... Things were more grim than Yoro'clis had suspected. "S-ir... Tell my...father... I llllove him... Tell Vara... I...llllove..." Before more sparks flew out, and her body finally went fully limp, and the golden hues of her eyes faded out... To darkness. Thankfully, her body didn't fully shut down. It went into emergency mode. Only the bare essential functions. But on the outside... It looked like Copia was finally beaten.

"Understood Lt. Commander!" T'she called back as they moved to their next patient -- Vara'l. At the very least they could administer more painkillers, try to lessen the pain and stabilize the patient for transport. Keep the patient safe. They were starting to revert back to their time before 777, but, that was just out of necessity.

3

“I will allow that for your own safety, but someone will be keeping an eye on you and will fire on you if you try anything.” Elwyn replied to the cat-loving Undine firmly as they watched it let go of the hostage, and then itself lie on the floor as it said it would do. “If you want to get out of this and see a real cat, and we don’t want you to attack us, we have to trust each other.” They said as they made their way over to the surrendered Undine. Crouching down, they briefly pulled a transporter tag out of a pocket in their uniform. “I’m going to attach a transporter tag to you. It won’t hurt, and it’ll mean we can take you with us when we get out of here so you get to see that cat.” They said in a surprisingly calm voice, before doing just that, placing it cautiously on the catboy Undine all while pointing their phaser at it in case it decided to betray them. Despite having had a horrific experience with the Undine thus far this one seemed… Different. Relatable, even. But they still didn’t actually trust it. Not really, anyway.

After having been knocked out cold by an Undine, Tevis finally came to, and what a time it was. With a groan, he stood and rubbed the back of his head as he wandered over to Elwyn, phaser somehow still in hand, and aimed it at the Undine just they had been doing. With a wolfish grin, he looked at the Undine and whispered. "Hi, I'm the person that will fire on you if you try anything!" He said aiming his phaser rifle.

For the duration of the fight he had been huddled against the wall, although the sheer adrenaline at everything going on around him was making his mind more clear. Fuck these Undine. He wanted to get his hands around their gross weird necks… But he had stayed down, not wanting to get in the way of the mass fire-fight overhead. However, he managed to take note of that strange Android from earlier going down in a shower of sparks. Alright. Okay. Maybe… Maybe it was time to engineer up. Maybe he could help without strangling Undine. Keeping low just in case more bad guys appeared, he made his way to Copia’s side. “Uh. Uhhhhhh… Anyone got a spare engineering kit? I might be able to help. I mean. I'm not an android mechanic, but I'm a regular things mechanic. So. I'll try?"

6

Catboy pretended not to hear anything they were saying because it was 'dead', but thought them threatening it while it was lying on the floor was a bit rude.

3

There wasn't too long to recover unfortunately... Because tricorders soon started beeping again. Another six Undine were on their way.

Vara saw this and took a breath, crouching down behind cover. “No stun this time.” She muttered as she looked to her phaser, making sure it was on kill.

1

"Incoming!" Lama clutched his phaser and bent his knees in a battle ready position! He got this! He was gonna defend his friends with the power of god and anime!

Tevis moved to the front of the line and crouched, making sure his weapon was set to overcharge on the first shot. "Hold the line! We've got this!"

"If you can't fight, I'll cover you!" they called, waving to an area where hopefully the Undine won't reach. In the meantime, they prepared some Hypos in case they were needed.

Yoro'clis put Copia down on the ground again behind the console, realizing that he was going to have to be in battle again. He needed his arm open for a phaser again. While he wanted to help there was nothing that could be done for her. "Sorry." The Honored Elder followed the others to the entryway that the enemies were nearing and drew his pistol again. He kneeled down at one of the sides of the space so that his already injured arm was more shielded.

1

After his neck and Kirk Injury was treated, he slammed a fist into his palm - ready for round two! This time, he stayed a little closer to Allan, hoping to protect him if an Undine got any smart ideas about attacking the people at the generator.

3

He helped move Copia and set to work on doing what he could, having scrounged up some equipment from the Starfleet engineers on the team. Hopefully they'd manage to stay out of the line of fire here and he could get some good work done.

6

Practically galloping out the darkness of the entryway, an Undine Ensign came speeding into the control room. At the top of it's lungs, it let out a painfully loud roar. Well, less of a roar more of a screech that pushed the upper limits of many of the poor officer's hearing ranges. It wanted to be at the front of the pack for a reason - this guy was here for one thing and one thing only. To Hunt.

6

3

6

5

Hearing that more were incoming, Elwyn immediately moved back into cover, ready to open fire once more. “Starfleet Security! Surrender now and you won’t be shot!” Elwyn shouted down the corridor. Perhaps with any luck some of the Undine would share the same brain cells as catboy. However based on the speed of the incoming Ensign, that clearly wasn’t going to be the case… The screeching sound that came from the incoming attacker caused the android no pain nor disorientation, but it was really, really distracting, as they opened fire upon getting visual contact.

Lama shut his eyes for moment at the roar but quickly opened them back so he could take some and fire at the first undine that passed his line of vision. He aimed for the head but obviously lamas aim was shit but a strong attempt at a headshot was made!

Lisa grimaced at how loud the noise was- rest in peace to her Vulcanoid comrades. But still, she was here to fight, and that’s what she would do. Her phaser still held a bit of overcharge power, and she used it- shooting the Undine in the chest.

The moment that the Undine Ensign leaped out Yoro'clis immediately opened fire at its chest. There was no point trying to talk to the thing, clearly they had chosen to speak in the universal language: violence. Yoro'clis was more than willing to give them a fight.

"I really love your optimism Ensign, but I think this one is out for blood." He said, before letting a phaser blast lance out at maximum power.

Another Ensign sunk in through the chaos, skittering along the floor and weaving between legs, dodging phaser shots. It had a specific mission, and it intended to carry it out. Ensign Two tipped its head to the side, almost at a perfect 90° angle, spotting the prisoners and speeding up. The Undine then leapt forward, attempting to dig its claws into Cronos' chest, to still that beating heart for having the gall to be rescued--

6

5

Cronos had been huddled down, taking a vaguely defensive position beside Tewari, as the claw came their way, time seemed to move in slow motion, 'Well, guess this is it... Guess I'm going to die.' He thought to himself as he sat by his captain's side, hand loosely holding hers to try and bring her back to reality once more. Well, If this was it, at least he was going to die by his Captain's side. Part of his mind flashed to where Shilen was, and the soon to be kids. He had no idea if they were still alive, or how long it had been since they went missing. He just hoped that wherever they were, they were safe... Cronos closed his eyes against the attack, expecting to soon feel the sharp undine claws pierce his chest.

10

The sound of phaser-fire, shouting, and constant panic was enough to make her heart race. There had been a time when this would mean nothing – so distanced from combat, commanding a battlecruiser in the middle of multiple wars – but seeing what the prisoners had seen, put together by the Undine… That made it different. The constant noise cut through the fog, adrenaline spiking. Borg optics onlined to the sight of an Undine hurtling straight towards them, claws poised to dig directly into Cronos’s chest. Real or not real? She didn’t care. In any reality, she wouldn’t let him die. And so with the remaining strength she had, and the determination of a commanding officer who would not let her crew member – her first officer, her best friend die on her watch – she lunged to the side to push Cronos out of the way and take his place instead.

10

10

The swipe missed its target and instead dug into Tewari's shoulder, leaving a bloody slice in its wake. The Ensign hissed and staggered back. "Insolent little worm," it snarled before lunging forward, digging its claws into Tewari's arm and beginning to drag her down towards one of the exits. Intending to take her through the caverns once more, and likely back into the pod..

9

8

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Lama fired at the undine going for Talos! Hopefully his aim was better this time.

She tried to rush over to the generator, having lost her rifle and her antenna she was not in a state to fight the Undine. Her eyes scattered around the place, before noticing the Romulan and Copia. They weren’t too far away, so she shifted her way over. “Sir, do you need any help?” That tremble in her voice oddly noticeable, perhaps she wasn’t in any state to function normally, but what to do? She must try.

5

"Oh, uh, yeah! I'm not an android mechanic. Uh. Just... Yeah. Help me stabilise this android to make sure they don't offline completely," he said to Yaveru, but then winced at the sound of shouting overhead. "Or maybe shoot an Undine. Whatever sounds good!"

1

Damn this guy had really taken the bulk of fire for literally everyone else. It didn't matter - by the grace of whatever kind of Undine deity existed out there, it was still standing somehow. Taking the opportunity of the sudden change in focus to the other Undine dragging Tewari away, the Ensign practically DIVED at Yoro'clis, claws outstretched like some twisted version of wolverine. One attempt at a slash to the head; the other claw managed to connect with the Jem'Hadar's torso, leaving some deep slices in the armour - just barely piercing it. (edited)

7

What the undine attacking Yoro didn't count on was that he could be a sneaky little backstabber if he wanted to! He approached the Undine and shot him in the back with his phaser, hoping to weaken it, then ran away, hoping it might instinctually turn and chase the running thing and leave itself open to Yoro's attacks. It was a hunter, after all.

2

Yoro'clis let out a roar and he took the injury, stumbling back as the Undine Ensign attacked him. He immediately fired his phaser in its direction, not even bothering to aim for any specific part. There was an Undine directly in front of him and that needed to change very quickly. The Honored Elder stood there with scratches in his arm and torso but just kept firing and waiting for the next attack.

“Don’t you FUCKING dare!” Lisa yelled, turning to shoot a full-on barrage of high-powered blasts at the Undine dragging Tewari away, aiming for the head every single time. Years of phaser training, years of practice, it had come to this. She was not going to let Tewari die. She couldn’t.

3

Elwyn turned and fired upon the Undine that was currently kidnapping the already once kidnapped and subsequently un-kidnapped Tewari. It was not going to get away with that.

Tevis used his uhm...closeness to the ground to advantage by following the Undine dragging Tewari away, and quickly fired off several extremely high-powered shots at its neck, and in the second or two it was stunned, moved away so Elwyn could yoink the Captain away.

She was not an android mechanic, but she knew a thing or two about computers. Sure she wasn’t the most qualified, but determination, fear, and adrenaline all mixed together made her go for it. She was relying on her memory now, the memory of war. Her vision taking what she saw feeding through some illusion or instability. Yaveru grabbed the parts, tapping Copia on the shoulder to check if she was even conscious at the moment. Should she not, the hybrid would immediately begin makeshift repairs.

1

A third Ensign bolted through, focused on the console, on stopping any more generators from going down. Ensign Three zoned in on the two swimming in their focus, tunnel visioned, sweeping back up to two feet. The Vulcanoid heard it coming and turned around, going for her phaser, but it wasn't quick enough. "Going so soon?" it crooned, dragging its claws across Allan's throat from behind, attempting to yank them both down on the ground. (edited)

9

8

7

Vovvi had gotten around fast enough to land a shot, but still retained a much shallower wound along the side of her neck. She started firing off on the Undine, attempting to kick it away. "Claws off..!!"

3

Ensign Two was no match for the barrage of fire, and let go of Tewari, howling in pain as it skittered onto the ceiling.

"Get the fuck away from Allan you sonofabitch!" He practically screamed, before running up to the fucker, shooting it, and then jabbing the butt of his rifle into its abdomen while it recharged for another shot.

5

6

She heard screams, a glance was all that was needed to clearly see the amount of blood being spilt right in front of her. It may have been hot in the room, or just warm enough, but to her it was as cold as the caves of Archanis, it being a generator room did not help. People were getting seriously injured, and there was no way to transport them unless the generators were down. Should she make a run for it? Get them down as fast as she could? God, why did it have to be like that damned planet again?

4

A gate broke inside him when he saw the Undine try to hurt Allan - the one holding back a surge of adrenaline and anger, and he used all of his Vulcan training to dam that flood. Acting quickly, he got up close and grabbed the Undine's arm, the one that had dared scratch Allan's throat, trying to wrench it towards himself and then bend its arm backwards. CRACK! "Don't dare."

7

In his rage, he jumped up onto the Undine that was attacking Allan's back and repeatedly shot blast after blast into the back of its neck. "GET DOWN YOU FUCKING UGLY ASS CUNT!" He said, before firing another overcharged shot right into the spot he'd been aiming at moments before.

4

You know, normally, Allan would have said some sort of quip, or at least some sort of 'oh fuck', but he was pulled from behind away from the console, fingers falling away from what he was doing, feeling his body go cold at the sudden threat - but instead of a federation security officer pulling him away to lock him in jail, this was a fucking Undine slashing his throat. Oh. He couldn't scream. Instead, there was an extreme burning sensation in his throat, and the trouble he was starting to have with breathing, coughing up his own blood as it threatened to prevent him from breathing completely. And then he started to feel just a little sleepy. Just a little nap might be nice. A small one, maybe.

8

4

Noticing the sudden attack on Allan, Elwyn’s eyes widened as they gasped out of shock and fear. Immediately they turned their phaser on the third Undine Ensign and began firing shot after shot, moving in such a way so as to stop themself from accidentally firing on anyone else. “Get off him!” They shouted angrily. Frankly, this was probably the most anger anyone had ever heard in the usually sweet and innocent android’s voice, but it was very much so justified. In fact, their personnel file clearly stated they were very protective of the people they cared about, and sometimes to a terrifying level. With every shot they took they precisely aimed for the biggest weak points they could find, not taking any risks but wanting to inflict the most damage as quickly as possible.

1

When his rifle finally ran out of charge, and the butt was nearly destroyed after all the hits he'd issued with it, Tevis, who in that moment was blinded by rage, did what any cornered animal would do, and fucking bit into the Undine's neck at the weakest point, making sure to dig his tusks in as he beat on the giant alien's back.

4

There was a commotion where some of the prisoners were. “We’ve got to do something!” She snarled, watching the sheer carnage happening in the centre of the room. “Fuck this!”

3

”FUCK THIS!” He concluded, even though he was normally the calm one. The two Ferasans sprang from where they had been crouched, sprinting to snatch up weapons from where downed officers had been. Two more joined the fire fight against the Undine.

3

Ensign Three howled in a cackle as all the fire went off, as everyone rushed it and fought and injured it. The blood was exhilarating, even as its vision went dark and everyone rushed to protect Allan. It was a little funny, almost. It squirmed, slashed wildly, but didn't stop laughing until it was out of breath completely, the ghastly echoes of it bouncing off the walls of the cave even as it fell dead.

7

Lisa, however, didn’t care about the Undine’s howl of pain. She was going to KILL it. Ensign Two was going to die, it had to. There wasn’t any way she was going to let it live after what it had done to Tewari. She overcharged a shot on her phaser and aimed it directly at the Undine on the ceiling’s head. She shot.

Vara grunted as she joined with Lisa, firing a normal shot towards the one on the ceiling. “I’m with you!”

She hasten the progress on Copia’s repairs, trying to find where exactly all her components were placed, and figuring out what the damaged ones did. No schematics on hand, so experience would have to do, hopefully her tech was similar to the Daystrom Institute’s, something she was familiar with.

He felt the moment the Undine died, and the second it fell to the ground, he relaeased its neck and leapt off of it, making sure to spit out the foul taste as he ran for the nearest unattended rifle, moving on to attack the next nearest Undine.

Unfortunately, as she was built by an outside engineer, Copia was not like the Daystrom institute androids. Her structure, although arguably somewhat resemblant of Daystrom androids on the outside, on the inside was completely different. And -- Copia was slowly but surely losing power. 90%....

Actually, even though he was still coughing everything up to avoid choking, he actually could manage something that didn't require a whole lot of breath, strength, or vocal cords, just raw willpower: still pressing those damned keys by simply resting his arm against them. Maybe if Vovvi turned out okay too, those generators would actually go down eventually. He might go down with them, but... at least they'd be down.

8

7

T'she looked over at Allan, their eyes widening as they ran over to him. "Let me treat you, Lieutenant. You are in good hands," they spoke quietly as they tapped him on the shoulder, already changing out their gloves.

4

Undine One had collapsed onto the ground a while ago, but after hearing the pained howls of Undine Two as Tewari was ripped from it's grasp, as well as the final breath of Undine Three, this particular Ensign managed to find a second wind and managed to push itself up on it's legs again. It took a grand total of three steps before collapsing right on top of Tevis - claws desperately swinging in this final act of defying death before joining it's brethren on the ground... Finally unmoving.

5

Vovvi herself staggered. Her injury wasn't quite as deep as Allan's, but she still struggled with the fire that licked up through her veins, green spilling from the side of her throat. "Fvadt!", she hissed under her breath, forcing herself up and steady while her vision barely blurred in the corners. She still had a LOT left in her. "Ugh--, Lieutenant, focus on healing! I'll take care of the generators!" she choked out, wiping blood from her mouth and staying focused as she could. (edited)

4

He, too, shot barrage after barrage of phaser-blasts at the Undine once he was done with his arm-breaking. This thing was going to be absolutely battered to death by the time they were done with it. That's what you get when you make things personal! But then he saw the state Allan was in, and every violent thought disappeared. He looked over to where Vara'l was - he had a medkit! Which Vara'l might also need, but... Sorry, buddy. He rushed back over to Allan, muttering, "Apply pressure. Stop the bleeding. Dermal regenerator. Apply pressure. Stop the bleeding. Dermal regenerator." That was what he knew about how to deal with this kind of injury - but then an actual medic arrived who could probably do that better than he could. "T-T'She," he begged, handing them the medkit, "help him. Please help him." (edited)

6

Tevis sqwaked under the weight of the Undine, and with no small amount of grunts and groans pushed its corpse off of him, complaining the entire time.

01:12

"...heavy ass bitch! Fucking dying on me? Not anywhere else?"

2

In between working on Copia he kept looking up at the fight, trying to keep track of going on. Hearing the crash as one of the Undine toppled fight on top of an officer, he looked to the Andorian in front of him. "Keep working on the android!" He stated firmly before rushing into the fray, adrenaline making the decisions for him. Crouching down, he hoisted a shoulder under one of the Undine's arms to heave upwards, pushing up from the floor for leverage with all his might.

2

Ensign Two screeched in violent discontent, scrambling this way and that like a rather frazzled spider before it finally dropped down, making a dive for Lisa and Vara, claws scrabbling. "Why won't you DIE already!?" it howled in its grief. The last Ensign standing.

The aenar had spotted the large undine corpse fall onto Tevis, and had rushed over to aid his fellow big buff man in pulling the corpse off the crushed officer. "Hold on, we got you!" He hooked an arm underneath one of its large legs and pulled the corpse over towards him as 'Fridge' pushed it from the other side.

7

With shaky hands, Lama rushed towards Lisa and Vara to try and get the Undine heading towards them in the back of the head!

1

Allan wanted to say 'fuck that' to Vovvi and keep going, because it was clear that she was in a pretty rough shape too, and was in a dazed enough state to want to tell T'She to go help Vovvi instead - but he literally couldn't make a sound aside from the coughing and choking as the medical officer was next to him, and then an even more familiar voice - Eshen's - and aw, fuck, there were tears now, and his throat started to struggle more, and it was burning, everything was fucking burning and he started getting even sleepier. The noise around him started fading like the end of a nice song.

7

He turned to the two that helped the Undine off of him and blew them each a kiss. "Thanks for the help! Toodles!" He said, before running off to shoot at Ensign Two.

6

"I'm going to help him. I'm going to keep him alive." They knew how to keep up their bedside manner, they knew how to ease the worries of others, even if they were doing it in a much more sterile way. They reached into their bag and grabbed their dermal regenerator, checking the wound ti make sure no artery was severed. They moved Allan quickly to the floor, gentle, and they worked as fast and precise as they could.

7

5

“Fucking move LT!” She said quickly shoving Lisa out of the way before turning on a dime to fire a full shot at the incoming ensign twos face. “BRING IT BITCH!”

4

90%. Shit. She began tinkering with some of her internal components, trying to repair the damage done to the wires transferring power to her systems and any processors of that nature. “Stay with me.” She whispered, as if talk both to Copia and someone else, a memory. Her hands shook, but with every little bit of strength she had she needed to be fast and stable.

4

Continuing to fire at Ensign Three even after it had fallen, making absolutely sure it was down for good, it was only after a second that Elwyn’s attention turned to Allan, staring at him in shock. No. No, no, no, no, no. This can’t happen. This can’t happen. And yet it was. And stood, in shock, no matter how much they wanted to the android couldn’t seem to move. It was only after T’she started helping their friend that they finally unfroze, their attention turning towards Ensign Two, of whom they immediately fired at, aiming for the head while trying to avoid Lama.

4

Unconscious, and unable to move, limp and lifeless, Copia's systems continued to fail. Even emergency mode was no use to keep her up and running like an old reliable solution. The Undine had done too much damage in too short an amount of time. Copia's internal battery was draining. 80%...

Only sparing a moment to make sure Allan was being treated, he ran off for Ensign Two, and did the same thing he did to three, shooting the absolute fuck out of the back of its neck.

5

The last Ensign staggered before it fell. Oh man ... It was really hoping to go back to the cat cafe with One later.

7

Vara smiled as she stood on its head and fired copious amounts of follow-up shots into its body. “Fucker! I didn’t even want to kill you! I didn’t!”

As soon as it fell, Tevis made his way over to stand near where the injured were being treated, watching to see if they would end up alright, afterall, he'd said in his speech that everyone that had come in, would be going out.

3

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. She searched through her toolbox, maybe there was something she could use as an extra battery? Anything to keep her functioning. Maybe even a phaser as a power source? She was running out of ideas.

Lama took a few deep breaths and backed away from Vara and Lisa as the Undine was down and he had a feeling there was more to come, right? He looked towards Tevis and reached out telepathically. "You good?" He questioned the CTO.

1

Slowly but surely the power normally surging through Copia's system was completely gone from all of her limbs, and only her very core computer functions were still operating, although at a base level, unable to handle the stress and disorientation from the power drain. 70%...

When Lama reached out, Tevis relaxed slightly, before responding with a mental chuckle and a grin, physically wiping the Undine blood off of his jaw. He responded back telepathically. "The Undine taste terrible! But, I'm alright. How about you? Not too banged up I hope?"

Suddenly, the sound of large footsteps reverberated around the room, and in came the real fight - an absolute hulking mass of an undine. Something had been done to this Undine so that it was eight-legged instead of three, and even though it crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling, it was so big that it could still easily reach the people on the ground, like a very weird and dangerous stalactite. It was a real beast of a fella. It was also cocky - in its arrogance, it didn't bother picking a target, instead waiting for the first fool to confront it. "HOW MANY OF US DO YOU THINK ARE LEFT? HOW LONG DO YOU THINK YOU CAN LAST? I WOULD DEMAND YOU BEG, BUT I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY NOISES FROM YOUR DISGUSTING MOUTHS BUT SCREAMS OF PAIN."

7

"Man, invite me to Undine sushi next time, "Lama joked right back. He nodded and tightened his grip on his phaser. "I'm--" He began to think before a loud noise of an Undine rang in his ears. Lama looked around for the source of the voice and aimed his phaser towards the creature climbing up the fucking wall like a Zelda boss and fired! "NOOOO YOU BITCHASS CRINGE DEMON!! OUT OUT OUT!"

6

7

“That’s what you fucking get.” Lisa said, getting up off of the floor and staring down at Ensign Two’s corpse. She noticed the Commander, looking up at it. She started overcharging her phaser again, as high as it could possibly go. She smiled- a sick and angry smile, before firing directly at the Undine Commander’s head. “Get fucked, you bitch!”

3

No! No! Come on! Yaveru screamed internally as she found a few battery packets, hurriedly wiring them up into her main power stream. That better boost it, right? It usually did with computers but… Suddenly, she jumped, the booming voice of the Undine echoing in her ear, a ringing sound growing. She felt like running, she just wanted to run, Yaveru had to force herself to stay, she had someone to help.

6

5

Yoro’clis decided that he did not like this Undine having eight legs and wanted it to have less. He holstered his pistol again before drawing his last grenade. The Honored Elder armed it, waited for a few seconds, and then tried to throw it underneath the beast. Yoro’clis then jumped back, drew his pistol, and went back to firing at the enemy. (edited)

All of a sudden... a bright surge of energy flowed through Copia's body. Without warning, power flowed back through her systems again. Right away, her body jolted. The battery packets worked! The golden hues reappeared within her eyes... she blinked... and her eyes furrowed as if a warrior had just been awoken.

5

4

"YOU DEMAND SCREAMS OF PAIN?! I DEMAND YOU TO KISS MY ASS MOTHERFUCKER!" He yelled, as he used every drop of energy in the rifle to fire one giant, huge phaser blast right into its face.

5

Lama's aim was not very good, but you know what did always hit? His smack talk. Lama continued to run his mouth, thinking of all the insults he could muster in as many languages as he knew as he fired. "FUCKING KENA SAI, PUTANGINA MO, DICK HEAD, HAKEEV WOULDN'T EVEN FUCK UR MUM, YOU'RE DOUBLE CANCELLED, MILLION CANCELLED, NO ONE LIKES YOU, YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS AND NO RIZZ!" He shouted off along with his shots.

10

9

Typing one handed was a skill Vovvi had long since mastered, typing furiously at the keyboard as she fired blindly at the roaring Undine. Definitely missed a few times, but she was too determined to get this over with to stop now. She was so close to getting these last generators down... "I just need-- a bit more time!!" she managed, taking a deep breath best she could to focus in.

4

While Lama was hitting the Undine with his sick insults, Tevis used every bit of debris he could find to chuck at the big fucker, until he eventually found another unattended phaser to shoot little constant bursts right into the big chonker Undine's eyeballs. "Suck this phaser cuntbag!"

4

"Don't worry. You've got time." A digitized reply to Vovvi said. The voice of Copia was distorted and warped as she sat up slowly, and her bright glowing golden eyes shone like beacons in the night sky. Almost as if those eyes were peering out from the darkness, Copia pushed herself to her feet and grabbed her phaser to fire. "Fear the Cardinal."

3

4

Looking over as the horrific not-spider came crawling in, Elwyn decided now was the time to do something just a tiny bit risky. Reaching across her body to holster her phaser once more, she reached around to her back and powered up her rifle once more, deciding now was as good a time as ever to see if she was any good at aiming it with only one hand. “Just go away already.” Charging a shot, she fired once it was at full strength, aiming for the chest.

5

Lisa didn’t understand half of the words Lama was spitting at that Undine, but she knew they were absolutely correct. This bitch didn’t have any rizz, not in the slightest. Her phaser was losing power- but she had enough for a few more shots. She decided to spend that power on one final blast. Overcharging it to the point of explosion, she smiled again and shot the Commander in the head before throwing her phaser at it, hoping it would break and explode in its face.

5

4

"I'll be there soon Lieutenant Commander, just hang on for a few moments longer," they said as they turned to Vovvi, giving them a firm nod before they ran to her, ready to perform first aid.

6

"OH AND YOU WOULD LOOK FUGLY IN SHOORTSS!!!" Lama overcharged his phaser and started blasting away.

7

"Thank you, Lieutenant," she smiled over at T'she. Still stable, she was holding strong, all her focus on the generator even as she tilted her head to show them the injury. "I'll be sure to talk to your CMO-- you've done amazing -- work here today."

6

"WHAT HE SAID! PLUS I THINK COURDORYS WOULD BE TERRIBLE WITH YOUR COMPLEXION!" He yelled, before yeeting his overcharged phaser at the big fucker, and scurrying to find another.

6

7

6

Lisa was no good at insults, but she could try. “YOU WOULD LOOK AWFUL IN A SKIRT TOO!” She yelled before also going to look for another phaser to continue trying to vaporize the thing.

6

4

Tevis hurled a large chunk of what used to be some sort of technology at the Undine, before flipping it the double bird. "I HOPE YOU FUCK UP YOUR TAXES AND GET AUDITED!"

5

6

5

The fun thing about being on the ceiling was that when Yoro threw the grenade, it could just sort of bend down (up?) so that it was closer to the ceiling and lessen a lot of the damage. It tanked each shot (physical and verbal), each one hitting some sort of film or shield it had over the surface of its body that only lit up when hit. The good news was that if it felt the need to protect itself with a shield, that presumably that meant phaser-fire could bring it down eventually if they managed to get rid of it. It was possible that would simply take many powerful phaser-shots, especially considering when Lisa threw her exploding phaser at it, it created a visible 'crack' in the shield, a good weak point for everyone else to shoot at - or, if it was tech-based, maybe there was a faster way? There was no visible technology on its body, though, so maybe whatever technology was generating the shield was inside its body. Meanwhile, the creature did what it did best - skitter at shocking speed and attempt to land a claw-strike against the loudest motherfucker in the room - Lama. And boy, were its claws long.

8

"Do you think you can work while I try to heal you? It won't be the most comfortable." They said as they reached up with yet more fresh gloves to start working on Vovvi's injury, starting with disinfection, moving to stopping the bleeding.

Copia didn't need insults to intimidate her enemy. Nothing was scarier than a provoked and wounded android. As Copia overcharged her phaser, she let out the most harrowing and powerful roar she could muster. It was almost as if godzilla or any other dinosaur of the past had just been awoken. "I DON'T FEAR YOU!!!"

"I've dealt with worse on the field," she promised, holding het head still as she could while T'she worked. Her fingers flew across the keyboard even so, determined to break down the last defenses.

"Cover me! I have an idea!" He yelled, before running after the thing, and jumped onto it while it was distracted attacking Laa, using his tusks to bite into its hide all the way up its back, ending up just gnawing on the thing and yelling. "FUCKING QUIT ALREADY! YOU GUYS TASTE LIKE ASS!" He said, before climbing up to its neck and chomping as hard as he could, hoping to sever some sort of artery with his teeth.

Lama squeaked when the creature started coming towards him and began to back away, grabbing his other phaser and just starting to fire of shots like crazy. He had this, he wasn't scared! No way! "I HAVE THE POWER OF GOD AND ANIME ON MY SIDE!!! EAT THIS MFKER!!!"

4

Lisa didn’t find a phaser. However.. she had another plan. It was wild, but she hoped it would work. She saw what she was looking for- an Undine corpse, with long, sharp claws. They would be perfect for what she was about to do. She ran up to it, and using her entire (heavy) body weight as leverage, she broke a claw off at the base. Effectively, she now had a javelin. Waiting for an opportunity where Tevis wasn’t in the way, and where she could aim for the previously made crack in its armor, she threw the claw with all her might into the crack. “DIE, YOU PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!”

4

T'she nodded and started working in Earnest, quite quiet as they stopped the bleeding and worked with their dermal regenerator. They did not want their work to be sloppy after all.

He continued chomping until he found what felt like a big ass vein, and with all the force he could, chomped the fuck down on it and pulled, hoping to get the fucking thing down, if what he just hit was important enough.

6

Picking up another phaser after YEETING the first one, Copia set the phaser to kill and began firing just as Tevis had ordered her. And this time... she didn't spare one inch away from the Undine. She wasn't any stronger... but she put more thought, consideration, and effort into the aiming and firing at it. And Copia wasn't afraid. Not anymore. "YOU WILL FEAR THE CARDINAL!!!!!"

Despite being still bloody and bruised to all hell, T'She had done a wonderful job at making it so that he wasn't actively bleeding out and therefore choking on his own blood anymore, and that he could actually breath - and while he was still in a state of vocal paralysis, he leaned up against the console just barely to do the same as Vovvi: kept fucking hacking. They were the only two in the room who could do this shit, and godammit, they fucking would.

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Tevis' biting wasn't actually that effective at hurting the Undine or its shield first. However, it did succeed at confusing the fuck out of it, as Copia and Eshen fired their kill shots at the crack in the shield. "GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE INSECT!" And then, just as Lisa threw her makeshift javelin, Tevis bit a vein, and it was met with concentrated phaser-fire from everyone else in the room, it let out a huge YOOWWWWLL and fell off the ceiling with a loud thud. (Hopefully Tevis wasn't in a position to get crushed beneath it.) For a moment, it lay still. Then, as a last hurrah, it jerked upwards and crawled towards Lama, slapping him across the body with four massive claws. "DISGUSTING BLOOD! DISGUSTING BODIES! DISGUSTING BEASTS! INFERIOR, WRETCHED, WORTHLESS VERMIN!" It yelled. Pure Undine xenophobia, distilled into each dying scream of this thing - thick, palpable, screeching hatred. Then, something in itself seemed to malfunction, as though its body could no longer bear the force of its own hate, and despite all its bluster, thanks to the tactics of the group and perhaps its own flawed nature, it screamed and writhed until its silence was all that was left of it.

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Finally, the Commander was down. Finally, everyone had ended this. With that, Copia approached the fallen Undine and uttered aloud yet another one-liner after the kill: "Pest control at your service."

1

“And stay down.” Lisa said, standing next to its corpse like a woman of myth and legend. Now, it was time to find a way out of here.

Lama stepped back to avoid geting crushed when the Undine fell from the ceiling, but he couldn't escape the devestating claws that slashed his body and sent him flying backwards. He screamed at the pain (tw: blood) as his pretty gold uniform became stained with the green of his Vulcanoid blood that began to pour out. Lama was on his back gasping for air at the sheer shock of it all. He couldn't even scream. All he heard now was the clunk of his phaser hitting the ground beside him as he lay like a turtle on its back.

6

When it finally fucking died, Tevis unclenched his jaw, and spat the blood and viscera out back onto its corpse, wiping his face as he did, before stepping back and cracking jaw, hearing it pop and felt a shooting pain...he'd broken his damn jaw doing that. When he spoke, it was much more reserved than normal, and slightly slurred as each movement caused no small amount of searing pain. "Well, he went down like a bitch...is everyone ok? Or, as ok as you can be..."

6

Another minute, another patient, once they were finished with Vovvi they would run over to Lama in order to assess the damage and better treat this new patient. "You are going get through this Lieutenant. You are in good hands." They said with a strong tone to their voice.

5

Lisa had NO idea what to say to Tevis. That was a feat of sheer brutality and ferocity, and Lisa admired it. She had nothing else to say.. so she walked over to him and offered her hand to shake. She was still in shock and had no idea what to say or do. “Nice work..” She said a little awkwardly. What do you say to a guy that just did that?

4

Tevis looked up at her with a still bloody grin, both from the Undine, and his own wounds. "You too Lieutenant! That was fucking wild!" He said, clapping her on the back lightly, and chuckling...well trying to, until he winced from the pain of it.

"I've a few injuries, but I'm doing okay," Eshen said. He was more concerned about Allan, whose side he was sticking to like a limpet. "I really hope that was the last thing we have to fight, though." It really felt like it was. They'd probably get a save point and lots of money after this to spend on weapons and upgrades. (edited)

4

With a renewed swagger, Copia assumed a sort of femme fatale walk as she approached Tevis and gave him a respectful salute. "Reporting, si--" Quick throat clear and a hit to the side of her head with her fist. "Reporting, sir," Copia's normal voice returned, although somewhat glitched at times. "You're a hero. Are you alright as well?" Before evidently, she looked to T'She. "Looks like we better get back as soon as we can so medical can treat the wounded."

“I’ll say that again, Copia. Commander, you’re a hero in every sense of the word. We should chat sometime when we’re not covered in blood and surrounded by corpses and viscera.” Lisa said. The clap on the back didn’t hurt, Lisa only had a few small scratches on her face.

In her head, Vovvi was already writing out a commendation for T'she, for doing the field work of about half a dozen nurses as one person. "Finishing up now," she said, glancing sideways to Allan. "Good work, Lieutenant. You're the most stubborn Starfleet officer I've ever met. So far." ... "That's a good thing, I think." The two of them were definitely a set of underdogs in this scenario, but the work they'd done was no less valuable. (edited)

3

Lama coughed loudly, his whole body flinching forward. He turned his head to look at the nice doctor who was heading his way. "Eyy, "Lama spoke up, his voice hoarse from screaming so much. He coughed again and wheezed. "and that's a long ass ride," Lama gave the doctor a cheeky thumbs up and closed his eyes. This fucker passed out briefly from shock and exhaustion.

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"Glad to see you back and er, mostly functional!" He said, taking note of the glitch...and making a point to check in on her after all was said and done. He turned his attention back to Lisa for a moment to respond. "For you, and everyone else here, my door is open whenever you need to talk." He said in a soft, genunine tone, reaching out empathically to hopefully sooth everyone in his immediate vicinity.

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“I was thinking of just inviting everyone to the diner back on 777. We all deserve a little treat after this.” Lisa commented. She was famished after all this Undine business.

"Absolutely," he said, his voice deep and gentle. "That goes for me as well, after we're done with all this."

After Tevis's Undine snack, he was most certainly not in a rush to eat anything soon.

At this point Copia resembled the terminator more than Copia, although, there was one thing that was still salvageable from this whole thing - Copia noticed the other half of her fallen faceplate on the ground. Carefully bending over and picking it up, Copia held the faceplate in her hand. "Alas, poor Yorick," Copia made a reference, before attempting to put the faceplate back on, although it didn't work. "Diner?" Copia said, smiling. "If I am allowed, I certainly will oblige to accept your offer, Lieutenant Sanders. Thank you for your generosity."

"Uh.. y-yeah," Allan's voice came out at such a soft whisper that probably nobody but Eshen could hear, but he'd answered Tevis's question with what was now the most strength he could use in his voice anyways as he continued to work with the console. "...really," Vovvi may not have heard his whisper, and when he tried to laugh nothing came out but a very bad sounding cough, but he shook his head anyways after he cleared his throat, wiping some of the stupid red mess off his lips with the back of his hand, which went right back to typing. He sort of knew that what she said was right - he'd been told as much since childhood, but... it was good to know the quality was now a good one.

4

“Alright then Copia, when we get back, I’ll pay. As for everyone, my quarters are open too if you need to talk.” Lisa was actually quite the empathetic person off duty. She was ACOS, a great leader, and she loved her crew. She considered herself a little bit responsible for their mental health and safety.

Yoro’clis walked up to check on Copia, more concerned about her than his own bleeding torso and arm. It was good to see that spirits were relatively high all things considered. Morale was needed in situations like this after all. He was also glad to see that the ACOS was helping the others. He nodded towards Copia but remained silent otherwise.

2

Copia observed curiously as Lisa spoke. Huh! That was... really considerate! What if everyone was this loving and caring? Copia would want to find out. So, she volunteered. "As are mine. I shall facilitate a safe space for all at any time." Copia noticed Yoro'clis and politely turned to him. "Cardinal--er, I mean, Copia at your service, sir."

"Don't force yourself to speak. Rest up." Her voice was hoarse too, but not nearly as bad as Allan's - her injury was a bit more off center, not to mention not as deep. She focused on finalizing powering off the generators.

6

Right now though, Lisa had other things she wanted to do. Finding an Undine corpse with claws small enough to fit in her pocket, she took one off. A memento for all the pain she had suffered here.

He gave Allan a kiss on the cheek. "You're doing so well, darling." After all this, he was going to have a big self care day with Allan, with all the food and comforts they could want, and just talk with him for a while about... Well, everything.

7

There was simply a small hum that came from the engineer to acknowledge what Vovvi had said. Finalizing powering off the generators was really just a few strokes away from happening, and as he leaned his cheek a little against Eshen's lips when he felt that, he worked with Vovvi to get those motherfucking generators down. Any fucking moment now. Surely.

Silence fell over the room again, aside from people checking in on one another. Dirt swirled and settled upon the floor, no longer disturbed from the mad movement from everyone. During the fight, multiple generators had gone down – it appeared that they had started a cascade to go offline For a moment it was calm… But there was the sound of fast approaching footsteps from down the hall.

“Don’t shoot!” A voice shouted, footsteps coming three at a time. “Don’t shoot!” The voice was familiar to away team one, even though it was coming through the universal translator. It sounded rather like a certain Bolian grandma from earlier. “I’m here with a message! The captains surrender!”

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He stepped forward to the Undine, defiantly eyeing it down, even with his jaw looking all fucky. "We accept your unconditional surrender and where the FUCK are our diplomats?!" He demanded.

Lisa didn’t have a phaser to shoot at the moment, but she hoped that standing in front of her team, still holding a claw of one of its deceased comrades, would send an intimidating message. She stared the Undine down, hoping they’d realize that if they lied, they’d die.

"Hmmm... I think we scared them a little, don't you?" Eshen said, looking at the grandmadine as he rested his hand on Allan's back, rubbing small circles on it absentmindedly.

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Yoro’clis walked over towards the surrendering Ensign and stood silently next to Tevis. He kept his hand on his holster but did not draw the weapon. Unfortunately Yoro’clis doubted negotiations would be easy. “I don’t believe we have any high ranking diplomats with us Commander, this is up to officers like us.”

“I think your Lieutenant Commander means these diplomats," Grandmadine said, gesturing behind her as the other Undine walked through. Every single one of them looked desolate, hands above their heads in surrender. No one made a move for further conflict. It would appear that seeing their largest and most feral Undine taken down had put them off. In between the group were three diplomats, that had noticeably been on the prisoner list but hadn’t been retrieved by any away team. There was a Reman, a Lukari, and an Elachi of all things.

5

He looked visibly relieved at the sight of the diplomats, before nodding at the Undine, glad that this wasn't some sort of ruse. "There we go. We...appreciate your cooperation in this." He said to the Grandmadine in a shockingly calm voice, which was quite the dissonance from the clearly Undine blood stained all over his jaw and uniform.

6

Copia was somewhat taken aback by the Undine Ensign making an honestly unexpected appearance, being so quick to call a surrender. Instinctively, Copia's hand went to her phaser, but once she realized what was going on, she loosened up and decided not to do anything. Copia decided to leave the Undine with one last message. "Oh, before you leave us be and allow us to return safely... I have a message for you to bring back to your captains. That if they, or any of you, decide to perform any funny business again... you'll have us to answer to." With a silent clear of her throat, Copia's voice reverted back to... "All of us." And with that, Copia's golden eyes glowed brighter, like a wild animal's piercing gaze from within forest cover.

Lisa nodded at that statement, visibly covered in Undine blood and still holding one’s severed claw, which she put into her pocket. This suit was ruined anyways because it was ripped in a few spots and had blood on it. She could keep whatever she damn well pleased in the pockets now.

And with that, the diplomats were handed over. Any Undine who had surrendered were placed into stasis cuffs (a little difficult given how large the Undine’s wrists were, but it was possible), and subsequently transporter tagged for being beamed up to the brig. With multiple generators down and the rest continuing to fail, the transporter inhibitors and shields were lifted. Soon, all of the crew had been transported back aboard the USS Eventide… And as they departed, the lights on the terrasphere went dark. The USS Eventide set a new course: away from the terrasphere, out of fluidic space, and back home.

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