Star Trek: Starbase 777 - western-cave-structure

...And arrive @Away Team Two did! The entrance to a cave, perhaps its own kind of scary hole, but not one they had to parkour over. Rain still battered them from above, so going in would at least be a respite from that.

"Awesome, it's a murder cave." Aoife mused sarcastically as she edged into the cave with her rifle raised to her shoulder, sweeping left and right around the cave watching for threats.

Senang got the phaser rifle from where it was slung over her shoulder. She was not going to take any chances, so she set the rifle to kill, and went inside. She'd keep the people around her safe, even if some Undine had to die for it.

Shelter sounded good right about now, even if Saren had a genuinely lovely time travelling through something that looked and acted like a forest - nevermind that a slightly messed up one. Hanging back for a bit to see what the tactical part of his team decided upon (and to have a last long look at the lovely green), as soon as Senang made her way inside, so did the Romulan, disappearing into the unfriendly maw of a dark cave...

The cave changed as they walked through it, as the dirt and rock and moss of the walls was replaced by a steely organic material and green 'veins' running through it, like they were entering an organ of some great creature. Looking behind them they would be able to see the cave entrance was still open, but getting smaller and smaller, until it disappeared and it felt like they were swallowed whole. The corridor took a turn, and they could hear voices getting closer. (edited)

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Mmm. No. He didn't like this green. Saren strained his hearing to try and discern the incoming sounds, meanwhile making as little sound as it was possible for himself...

The moment Aoife heard approaching voices she stopped in her tracks and dashed for any kind of cover she could find. Once in some kind of cover, she set her rifle to kill, not wanting to take a chance with Undine who were known for tanking stun shots.

There was no cover. It was a narrow corridor. The only cover she would be able to take was behind another person. "...Whole area got swiss cheese'd. Don't know what the fuck is going on. Made me miss my soap opera." One Undine was speaking.

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As they turned around the corner enough so the group could see them, another replied, "You're getting a little too immersed in the culture of - OUTSIDERS!" With no hesitation, it ran forward and attacked, scratching at Aoife's face with its powerful claws!

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"Wait, they could be disguised - eh, I guess we'll find out!" It went for Saren, trying to stab him wherever possible with a claw, because the universe can never give Saren a break.

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Aoife barely managed to dodge the scratch from the undine ensign she narrowly avoided the scratch breaking the skin, the collar of her armour wasn't so lucky however, the dodge led to her falling backwards but she managed to save herself by rolling out of the way before springing back up and getting a shot off at the ensign with her rifle now set to kill.

Hackles raised, he jerked himself backwards to avoid the tip of the claw piercing his skin; as his left hand went for the phaser, he moved his body back towards the Undine in an attempt to grab onto the long, fleshy limb, intending to pull himself closer to the much larger alien, to then stick the phaser next to it's facial area, and press the damn trigger. (edited)

The Ensign dropped like a fly. Weaksauce. All bark and no bite, apparently, and very very dead.

The Lieutenant was tougher - perhaps how it'd gotten that rank. It took the phaser shot directly to the face, and despite the setting, it very much was not killed, but was rendered unconscious, but not before it let out a strangled cry: "THE NEXT OF US WILL NOT GO DOWN SO EASILY..."

Senang steadfastly held his rifle, and pushed on. The threat was a little on the nose, in his opinion, and would need to be proven. He had a rifle set to kill and very little patience left. The pain of his nose was starting to get to him, and he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. His trigger discipline was on point, but as soon as something came into view, he wouldn't hesitate.

Aoife pushed on with Senang. They must have been getting close if they were running into undine who weren't in humanoid forms. She had her rifle raised ready to blast the next undine as she had the previous one.

Soon, they came across two paths: one curved and who knew what would be down that corner, and the other was a more natural cave formation that was too tight for any Undine to get through, but was manageable for humanoid creatures. Hearing more voices coming down the corridor toward them, obviously coming to investigate the shooting, it looked like it might be possible for them to squeeze into the narrow passage and hide, wait for the Undine to come down the passage and walk towards where the bodies of their allies were, then sneak up and shoot them from behind.

'Ooooo a sneak attack' was the first thought to cross Aoife's mind when she saw the crack. She began wiggling inside like a worm and beckoned the othered to follow so they could get the drop on the Undine.

Assuming the others were down with that strategy, they all squeezed into the crack, waited for the Undine to pass by, then squeezed out again. It left them with a few cuts and scratches, but they were able to creep toward the Undine until they saw the backs of them. Who shoots first?

As she crept up Aoife produced a Photon Grenade from her toolbelt, she primed it and 'cooked' the grenade for a second so it would explode right as it got to the group of Undine in front of her. She chucked the grenade on a low arc so it slid to a halt right at the feet of the biggest-looking undine and exploded before it could react. She followed up with a few phaser shots, presumably in conjunction with the rest of the away team.

Yoro’clis immediately fired his own phaser rifle which he had previously set to kill. He did not want to get stuck in this small cave during a fire fight. Additionally every Undine killed was another that could not later attempt to infiltrate Starfleet. He fired towards the group taking aim at a few of the closest enemy combatants.

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Pro strats. There were two Ensigns and one Lieutenant, and the grenade wasn't enough to immediately knock the two Ensigns out (evidently they were tougher than the first Ensign), but it did half the job, and the phaser-fire from Aoife and Yoro did the rest, enough so that they were fully dead. The only one that remained was the Lieutenant, but outnumbered and weakened as they were, it didn't look good for them. (edited)

Glancing at its killed colleagues, it did something no Undine ever usually did: held up its hands in surrender. "...Hold on. Are you Federation? We negotiate. I know when I am outnumbered. I give you information, you let me go."

"Let go, no. Take prisoner, yes." Aoife said bluntly, phaser rifle pointed squarely at the undine's chest.

Yoro’clis nodded, not wanting to get between the intelligence officer and information. He was already carrying the crew manifest after all. “You can be taken prisoner now willingly or stunned and taken prisoner that way. Those are your options.”

The Undine took a moment to think, evaluating its very few options, producing something like a low hum. "If I follow you willingly, I would have to fight my own comrades. I would rather be stunned. You must change the setting." It knew what it was doing would be seen as a betrayal, but it valued its own life more than the xenophobic cause they fought for - but still, it didn't want to fight its friends, if Undine had those.

"No need for that." Aoife said as she produced a phaser pistol, which was indeed set to stun. She slung her rifle to her shoulder and raised the phaser pistol to the undine in a smooth motion before blasting it with a heavy stun.

The Undine fell to the floor with a thud. They could easily tag it if they wanted to.

Aoife repeated the same tagging process she had with Panther including hailing the eventide and telling them they got a prisoner. Once she had done that she turned around and produced her rifle once again intent on continuing down the corridor further.

“God, this thing just seems to go on and on…” She muttered to herself, phaser at the ready. The hybrid never liked caves, but at least these weren’t icy.

The Honored Elder was somewhat concerned about what was up next. Everything was holographic and that meant that it was very possible for ambushes to be set up. Some of the other Undine likely heard the phaser fire earlier after all. Yoro'clis raised one of his hands to signal to the group that they needed to stop. He wanted to scout first. "Wait here, I will look ahead." Yoro'clis disappeared with a shimmer, shrouding again. He then quickly made his way forward to see what threat awaited the group.

It was quiet, and it had become apparent that nobody was coming down the corridor to investigate. The question was: had they taken them all out? Or were the Undine simply lying in wait for them? So, then, scouting was a good idea. The Undine were expecting them to come down the corridor - but they weren't expecting them to be invisible. Rounding the corner, Yoro would see two large Undine awaiting them, claws at the ready.

Yoro'clis looked forward to the two hulking Undine's in front of him. The two brutes seemed to be stronger than the rest and also ready to charge and pounce. Even if the group was prepared for them there was little that they could do against charging Udine. At the very least they would all be in great risk. He was not willing to risk his team of engineers and scientists against these beings and decided to deal with the problem himself. Perhaps it was stupid and risky but it seemed like the best option. The Honored Elder set his weapon to the highest setting he could before before firing at each of the enemies as quick as he could. The moment that the rifle discharged the cloak disappeared though, leaving Yoro'clis exposed if either of the enemies did not fall.

With the sound of blaster fire, impulse took over her entire body. Gone was reservation, or in fact any sense of logic. Readying her rifle she came out the corner and took a shot at the Undine, her setting being a notch just below lethal. Despite her antennae twitching, Yaveru’s vision was crystal clear, her hands as firm as metal.

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The bad news was that the two hulking Undines didn't immediately go down, and because they outnumbered Yoro'clis, the first thing they did was take advantage of that; one grabbed him from behind while the other attacked from the front, and if Yoro didn't manage to wriggle away, it would land a nasty blow upon him with its large claws. The good news was that because they were distracted by Yoro, they were no longer prepared for the others - most notably Yaveru, whose shot would hit the Undine grabbing Yoro'clis, and if he hadn't already escaped, would lose their grip on him.

Unfortunately, the one that was not grabbing Yaveru went straight for her, trying to use its great strength to clock her right round the noggin.

The other, which would still be behind Yoro by this point, tried to rake its knife-sharp claws across his back. (edited)

The moment that Yoro’clis was grabbed he would immediately try to punch, kick, and do whatever else was needed to get out of the Undine’s grasp. Once he had escaped he would try and jump out of the range of the charging Undine’s claws while simultaneously firing his phaser rifle at it. He doubted he would hit but it was worth the attempt. By now the Honored Elder was working solely on instincts and doing whatever could keep himself alive.

Aoife saw the Undine making a beline for Yaveru, she ran forward hitting the charging undine with a blast from her phaser rifle set to kill. While running Aoife tackled Yaveru, hopefully knocking her far enough that the undies charge would miss her if the phaser shot didn't put it down. Unfortunately for Aoife this left her exposed to the charge if the undine powered through.

Unfortunately, the Undine was faster. SMACK! Yaveru fell backwards, tumbling onto the ground. The hybrid dazed for a moment, before quickly, or rather desperately, trying to get back up and to her rifle. Her head swirling not just with the pain of the previous impact, but certain sounds and memories seemingly taking control of her body. Her weapon however was too far away, closer to the Undine than her. Maybe she could make a run for it? Too late, panic had already taken a hold of her and she rushed towards it with haste. God forbid they ended up captured, God forbid she let that happen.

It stumbled from the phaser-fire for a second before it seemed to tap into some sort of adrenaline rush, and in less than a few seconds it slashed at Yaveru one last time before she got away, chopping an antennae off; then, knowing that was extremely disorienting for Andorians, it rapidly diverted its attention to the bigger threat: lady with big weapon! Instead of trying to injure her, it tried to punch the phaser right out of her hand in hopes of disarming her, then slashed directly at her face, going for an eye.

The other Undine was occupied solely with this fascinating scaled combatant who appeared to be capable of materialising from thin air without any sort of transporter trick. Some sort of chameleon man? Oh, if only it could capture him. Not likely, though - it was getting thoroughly blasted. It made one last weak attempt to slash Yoro wherever it could reach, hoping to give its more powerful comrade a better chance of winning, before it fell to the ground.

Aoife's rifle was knocked to the floor with a loud clatter. She recoiled for a moment when the Undine slashed at her eye, the claw managed to break the skin and cause bleeding but missed her eye by a milliliter or two. She clutched it for a moment before a wave of rage washed over her. She produced a large knife from her armour, she had taken the blade from Panther when they stunned her. Without missing a beat she jumped onto the Undines back, she grabbed hold of it and plunged the blade deep into its neck! It probably wasn't enough to kill it but it was definitely enough to stagger and seriously injure it!

Yoro’clis let out what could only be described as a roar as the Undine managed to scratch his arm. It was not enough to debilitate him but still an extremely painful deep gash. Luckily it was in the Honored Elder’s non dominant arm, but he doubted that he would be able to use a rifle for the rest of the mission. He dropped his rifle and drew his pistol with his good arm, firing at the remaining Undine.

She fell to the ground immediately, yelling out and losing her balance as the sounds around her became muffled. All she knew was she was hit, injured, and in an incredible amount of pain. It was only when she wiped her brow did she realise there was blood. Then it hit Yaveru like a brick. Her antenna, it was gone. Sirens blared in her mind as she swore the whole cave flashed red, determination and panic overwhelming the Trill-Andorian. To her she was no longer fighting the Undine, she was fighting the Klingons again. Her remaining antennae twitched and shook violently, her heart racing. Focus, Yaveru, Focus! With every last bit of clarity she had, Yaveru picked up her rifle and forced her body against the wall of the cave for support, firing at the Undine who attacked her.

It had expected a phaser - it hadn't expected a knife! It let out a guttural roar of pain, trying to reach behind itself, but then the phaser-fire hit it, and as tough as it was it couldn't deal with that much damage from all sides at once; it collapsed with a thud to the floor. Aoife was lucky none of the phaser-shots hit her while she was on top of the Undine's back, though.

Yoro'clis winced as he attempted to move his injured arm. It was obvious to him that he would not be able to use it or shroud until he had been healed. The Honored Elder haphazardly swing the rifle over his back to carry it more easily before switching his pistol to its highest level. While Yoro'clis needed some sort of medical attention he had no interest in getting it. His training caused him to value the mission over his own health. It was also too dangerous to stay. The team needed to keep moving through the caves, get the prisoners, and get out. He decided to deal with the pain and get his arm healed back on the ship or station. "We must keep going."

Aoife held on to the undine as it went down. After she made sure it was dead she pulled the knife out and cleaned it on the Undines carcass. After the adrenaline had worn off she felt the pain around her eye which only pissed her off further. Once she climbed down from the undine she gave it an almighty kick. "That's what you get for FUCKING. WITH. MY. EYE." Aoife kicked the body repeatedly, her kicks synced up with her last words. Outburst over she turned to Yoroclis and Yaveru. "Everyone relatively ok? " She asked, knowing everyone was hurt.

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Yoro'clis curtly nodded, not wanting to stall for any longer. He hoped that Starfleet's advanced medical technology would be able to save his arm but did not prioritize that for now. Everyone involved, including the officers and prisoners, would be better off if the group moved more quickly and got back to the ship more quickly. No rage or injuries could get in the way of that. The Honored Elder felt alive enough to keep on fighting and that was good enough for him. He could walk, wield a pistol, and see after all. "I will survive."

Saren, who was definitely here but his puppeteer got Monday'd, cautiously yet urgently approached the three after the last Undine fell, tricorder in one hand, medkit in another. "How about we patch up all of you before going further?" he offered, voice gentle yet with an assertive note, that hinted at the fact that the science officer was not goint to accept "no thanks" as an answer. "If there is any more fighting ahead of us, and considering that we will have to be taking care of people in reportedly weakened states of health, I think everyone should be in whatever top shape it is possible right now in case we get ambushed or there are more of them. Come on." Full health checkpoint moment, at least to the extent that it was possible. He wasn't having people bleed all over the rocky floor with the various shades of blood they carried, if Saren could help it.

Yoro'clis could tell that Saren was not going to take no for an answer and was mildly annoyed by this. He could either fight with them and delay the mission or accept the help and delay the mission. With those two options in mind the Honored Elder chose the latter. He just hoped that Saren would be quick and have something on them to help with his injury. The Honored Elder walked over to Saren and showed the scientist his injured arm. Saren would need to remove some sleeve before doing whatever it was that they could but that was not an issue. Yoro'clis just waited for them to do something and tried to ignore the pain. "Be fast."

"Do you know how to set someone's nose, lieutenant?" Senang asked Saren, pointing at his own face. The pain had dulled significantly and the bleeding had stopped for the most part, but the entire left side of his face was bruised, and his nose and lip and right cheek were smeared with green blood.

"You're not gonna take no for an answer are you Saren?" Aoife asked rhetorically. "Just gimme something for the pain ill deal with the bleeding when were back on the eventide." (edited)

Narrator's note: at least one person probably would've brought a dermal regenerator.

And fast he was, working as swiftly as he could while also staying precise and attentive. Medical things was not something Saren wanted to risk rushing and backfiring - not in this situation. He pulled at the presented arm's sleeve, face staying impassive at the sight of the wound - one that the medical tricorder from the medkit confirmed was deep, negating the use of the dermal regenerator until it could be addressed properly. That was something that would need to wait until Eventide - so Saren set to ensure it's cleanness and dressed it, prioritizing to minimize the amount of blood Yoro'clis would loose and lessen the pesky pain. He was unsure about the tolerance levels of Jem'Hadar, but he was not about to ask, treating his fellow Starfleet officer. He gave Aoife an unblinking stare, telling the human exactly his thoughts, before pointing the tricorder at her eye: "You will leave this place with both of your eyes, Lieutenant," he stated with as much enthusiasm as a school teacher describing how to dissect a frog. "We can get some of it healed with a dermal. But before that..." The blood was wiped, and Saren fullfilled the Lieutenant's request via a hypospray. Leaving her with that, his attention turned towards Senang. "I do, actually - I was quite the rowdy kid..." he stepped closer to the Vulcan, giving the broken nose a good look. Something in the back of his mind was stirring like an angered black hound, making the Romulan feel shame for letting his team get hurt like this, but he pushed it aside for now, instead focusing on the situation before him, remembering what he was taught - and not giving himself nor Senang too much time to think about this, he gave the cartilage under his fingers a quick, firm push back into it's intended position, thankfully not commenting on the produced sound. (edited)

20:21

Leaving him with the open medkit to perhaps also administer a painkiller, Saren addressed Yaveru and the poor Andorian's antennae - or what was left of it. Stop the bleeding, and offer hypos that could ease the pain and sense of nausea, because similarly to their security officer, there wasn't much to be done there until Eventide... With a sigh, Saren combed his hair back, exposing both his ridges and the concerned furrow of his eyebrows: "Okay, I think there is... not much else to be done here. I just hope this helps you all out in the long run." (edited)

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Senang didn't even wince at the pain of his nose being set, only pulling a face at the sound. He would have a time and a half processing this entire away mission later, but for now they had to push on. "Alright, let's get going," he said, helping Yaveru to her feet and bringing her along as he started walking. He was able to carry her if needed, but he'd rather leave that option open if any of the prisoners needed more help.

"Alright let's get outta here. I don't wanna say hello to whoever comes to check on these fellas." Aoife said matter of factly before walking further into the corridor.

Yoro’clis had hoped that more could have been done for his arm but understood the limitations of Saren’s resources. He also knew little about Starfleet medicine and had no clue what was even possible. Luckily the Jem’Hadar’s pain tolerance likely far exceeded anyone else in the team. “Agreed.” He walked with the others, scanning the area. Yoro’clis kept his pistol raised in case any other threats appeared.

After repacking the kit, Saren was also good to go - and with a hand on his phaser, the Romulan followed his teammates further into the corridor...

And on and on they walked, until they came across a room they could not access; like the other teams, they had to drag an Undine's corpse to the door to do a retinal scan. The room they entered was like the beating heart of the cave: the pulsing veins they'd seen trailing along the walls all ended up here, running along the ceiling and into the pods against four of the walls of the hexagonal room. In the centre was a transporter pad big enough to fit several Undine - better keep an eye on it in case someone pops in! Despite the organic feel of the room, though, it was cold as a corpse, and for all they knew, the people in the pods could be cadavers.

"Shit don't tell me we came all this way for corpses." Aoife said as soon as she felt the chill in the air from the room. She edged into the room rifle raised, not wanting to get ambushed. She made a mental note not to turn her back on the big ass transporter in case someone decided to beam in and say hello. (edited)

The scene was... unnerving, to say the least. He eyed the transported pad warily, before carefully approaching one of the pods, wanting to see if there was anything it was connected to that could be operated.

The surface of the pod was also a screen, but the writing upon it was in Undine, so it was mostly incomprehensible to them.

"Can we open it normally, or do we need to break it open?" Senang left Yaveru leaning against a wall as she came over to investigate as well. She sounded tired, if you listened closely. She just wanted to get the hostages out and leave.

"Unless any of us can translate Undine..." he trailed off, now examining the sides of the pod - perhaps there were wires, or openings, or something he could plug his trusty isolinear chip in?

There was indeed a place to plug it in! The words on each pod were translated. Most noticeably, there were four names on each pod:

Commander Tivop Cronos Arrain Sioturik Sogh Reini Sogh Ahex G’gintesh

"Those are the prisoners," Senang pointed out from where they were looking over Saren's shoulder. "These are all people taken from the AFS New Dawn." Senang still had faint lines on his ribs from where Sogh Reini's replacement had maimed him.

Yoro'clis stood at the back of the scene with his pistol out, watching for anything. By now he trusted the scientists and engineers to do the work and decided to step back and let them do their jobs. He wanted to watch out for any enemy arrivals and let his arm rest.

"Can you open the pods Saren?" Aoife asked, still facing the transporter pad, not waiting to turn away from it.

"I now can read the writings, and I see the option to do so, yes. Which one do we open first?" he asked aloud, looking over the different stats that the pods were showing, frowning. "Opening all of them in one go feels dangerous for the people inside..."

Everything about the room was off-putting and Yoro'clis felt like something was off. Every second wasted and button pushed only increased the chance of Undine reinforcements arriving. Saren needed to do whatever it was they were going to do without haste. "Be as quick as you can, opening the pods may set off alarms."

"Start with Cronos, a starfleet officer is probably the least likely to react badly to us. We don't know what they've done to them and I'd rather not try and calm down a pissed off Klingon." Aoife said, the scar on her neck tingling for a moment when she thought about a Klingons rage.

"I will work as fast as the situation allows, so, here goes..." the Romulan nodded, and leaned over the pod that was holding the Starfleet Commander. He pressed the corresponding sequence of buttons that would release Cronos from his Undine coffin, hoping for the best yet having zero ideas what to expect...

She managed to regain her sense of balance rather quickly, or at least somewhat, as she staggered forwards to join the rest of her team. Yaveru was visibly shaking, something occupying her thoughts. Her eyes scanned the room twice, as if making sure what she was seeing was real. “Do you need any assistance?” She asked Saren, her voice a faint whisper.

As Saren finished tapping away, there was that distinctive hiss as the pod door slowly opened, inside you could see the thin outline of a vulcanoid within... A very thin outline. Coated in a strangely thick and viscous liquid across an undine wetsuit that covered his body, his face with thin, skin thinly stretched over his pronounced cheek bones and missing the majority of its colour. There was a very faint movement, as the figure slowly reached out a hand towards the group, eyes closed tight against any source of light.

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There was a strange sense of anxiety in seeing the pod open, a feeling of there being no way to go back after he pushed that last button, sealing the fate of these four. And then the malnourished looking body within it's viscous cocoon shifted, moving, and before he could really think about it, his palm was hovering above the Vulcan's head so that it's shadow was falling over the man's eyes. "...Yes, help me get him out of this thing..." he nodded at Yaveru, voice gone quiet for some reason. His other hand was offered to the Tivop's outstreched one, and if grabbed, he would start to carefully pull the man out of his fluid prison. "Commander, do you know where you are?.."

She leaned over, careful not to make any sudden moves. She helped the Romulan lift the Commander out of the pod, slowly but surely. The sight shook the poor girl, and it didn’t help her already unstable thoughts.

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Yoro'clis watched the scene unfold but continued to focus on the fact that the group was in enemy territory and standing right next to a working transporter. He mainly looked at the entrance (trusting Aoife to cover the machine) but attempted to keep an eye on everything. Things would only go well until the inevitable happened.

The man didn't even open his eyes, just loosely sort of hanging in the arms of whoever was holding him up... Upon getting him fully out of the pod, it was more evident than ever that he was not in a good way™️. He tried to speak, but his voice was quiet and shaky, unable to form any real words so soon after waking up. "Wh- I-" Eventually, there was a vague sound of what could be interpreted as a 'no' after a great deal of processing what the figure had said to him.

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Senang offered to take over holding up Commander Cronos, able to take on a lot of weight if necessary. He was glad Yaveru could at least carry herself; there were three more people here that would potentially need carrying. "You are far away from home, sir," he offered, trying to both comfort somewhat, and stay realistic.

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When they got him out of the fluid, somehow he looked even smaller. Sicker. Saren glanced towards Senang and gave him a nod, before gently removing himself from Cronos' side and gesturing at Yaveru to perhaps to do the same, giving the Lieutenant space. "Let's go to the two sogh's next," he muttered out loud, letting his team know of his actions. Perhaps opening both of the pods could be seen as a bad idea initially, but after seeing what state the Commander was in... hence why, not too long after he approached the two pods, their lids slowly hissed open.

He had the WORST. HANGOVER. Or whatever this was. He could've sworn he was somewhere else five seconds ago. "Uuuuuuurrrrghhh," was the first noise he said after the pod opened. He squinted at Saren, then, and said, "Uuugh?" As if to ask, who the fuck are you?

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He opened his eyes, realised there were so many sights and sounds around him that suddenly felt far more real than they had before, and immediately shut them again. Nope. Not dealing with all that sensory input. He simply did not see it.

Well, this was certainly going better than he expected - both acted confused, yet appeared to be far off better than Cronos. Still, they needed them out of the pods. "Good morning," he greeted Reini, staring right back at him, his hand offered in case the officer needed help in getting out. "Are you aware of where you are?.." Giving the poor Nausicaan some time to think, his attention moved onto the Klingon, who Saren looked down at with concern, hearing no movement - only to realize that the man was just... very uneager to get up. Well, understandable. But that was no good. "..Sogh? Lieutenant?" he called, followed by a tap on the shoulder. It evolved into persistent, light smacking of Ahex's cheek, "Wake up, Lieutenant!"

1

To a man deprived of proper sensory experiences for so long, those small slaps on the cheek were like being hit by a train. "AAAAAH! I'M DYING! THIS IS NOT THE WARRIOR'S DEATH I WANTED!"

5

Okay, definitely his bad. Immediately he removed his hand, but did not leave the pod's side. "If you stay here you will meet an even shittier death, as a prisoner of the Undine " Saren argued, hoping that his words will be enough to... inspire? "Is that how you want to go? Being poked and prodded at, while they lie to you, perish with no fight? If not, then get up!"

Yoro'clis debated firing his phaser to quickly wake up but decided that was going to cause more issues than it would solve. The station's development chief science officer likely had a far better grasp over what was happening than the Jem'Hadar did. He went back to his guard duties and let Saren figure it out. This was their specialty after all.

A prisoner of the Undine? What? Was he tripping right now? "I'll fight! I'll fight anyone! I'll fight you right now!" His speech was very slurred, and he couldn't fully tell what was real and what wasn't. Lifting up his arms, he tried to hoist himself out of the pod so he could fight Saren, but then he noticed how skinny his arms are. "My warrior's physique... No! What happened?" He honestly looked like he was about to cry.

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3

"Hrrrrugh," Rei said. "Hamaja bahajaba. Ba. Banana." Clearly he was still remembering how to say words.

6

"Let's just get the last one open. We need to keep moving." Senang said urgently. He didn't want to spend too much time looking at these buffoons regain their bearings. He was still carrying Tivop.

He had no idea what was going on, but he heard get moving, and so he decided he would valiantly carry his confused, skinny friend away from here. He made it halfway out of the tube before he flopped onto the floor, hitting it with a splat because of the goo he was encased in. He felt like a newborn slug. "Fucking piss." Of course the second two words he remembered how to say were swearwords.

He leaned back as to not get accidentally fought with, lowering his tone back to something calmer: "You being inprisoned happened, and this is a rescue mission. There is no not confusing way to explain all of this, so for now you will have to trust me. We can fight later when you get better..." And with that, he moved to open the last pod.

She stirred and started to move almost immediately, breath coming out in a wheeze that ended in a mean, mean Havrannsu curse. The already light sensitive Reman was having one hell of a time, and while her state was a comparatively better one, she was refusing to open her eyes, leaving her practically blind, and shaky, and sopping wet, like some miserable rat.

With all the prisoners freed and busy gathering themselves, Saren decided to scan around like a good little scientist - the pods, the weird liquid, and the room in general, adamant to gather as much information while it was possible to do. Sioturik ended up on his back, still too out of it and refusing to open her eyes.

As the ratslugs recovered from their big sleep with, like, the WORST dreams they'd ever had, except they were still convinced this was the dream, Saren's trek gizmo told him there were a couple of power sources connected to these pods in a different room (very obviously the only corridor left to go through).

"I think I know where to go next," he announced, jerking his head in the direction of the corridor. "Tricorder is showing that there are power sources." With that, as soon as everyone was ready to go, he left into the corridor.

She pulled herself up, her hands firmly clenching the side of the pod. Staggering forwards, she pressed on, the fear of capture crawling up her spine and continuing to grow. Eventually, she followed the group into the corridor.

Yoro'clis walked behind the rest of the group, nervous about the entrance and transporter that they were leaving behind. He continued to silently observe and look out for threats while the others dealt with the newly awaken prisoners. The Honored Elder was fine just being a security officer.