Chapter III: Reunited

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Mar 30, 2019 11:28 pm
OOC:
Spinach, this sucks. Which, in context, is a compliment.
Moira is just gonna yell and punch the last slug she sees. She is so done.
OOC:
Edit: If it’s allowed, I want my LF to be "Is Zephyr still in there, or is it only Zuuhl?"
If that’s not allowed, will I have any long-term damage to my arm?

I would like to know if it’s my left or right, but that’s not what I’m using for LF.
Last edited March 30, 2019 11:31 pm

Rolls

Feelings: Slugs? Why’d it hafta be slugs? - (1d6)

(3) = 3

Mar 30, 2019 11:35 pm
bowlofspinach says:
(Cass, are you powering down the Potential's weapon systems?)
OOC:
Heh, I was wondering if I could slip that past you. Yes, Cass had weapons placed on standby, matching the green ship's actions.
bowlofspinach says:
Cass, you receive another reply: "We do not see any possibility for a peaceful solution since you have been unwilling to consider giving us hosts to inhabit but we are willing to listen to any reasonable proposition. I am unable to make these kinds of decisions for my people but if I see the possibility of a peaceful arrangement, I am willing to present it to the queen."
Cass holds up the data pad with the instructions about contacting Moira on it and gives her a look that says, Where are we on this?

To the parasite captain, she says, "And I don't make decisions for my people, either, but if we could even lay some groundwork for peace talks, my superiors would certainly be willing to listen. The problem, as I see it, for your people is one of numbers. A member of your species told me there are only a few hundred of your people. There are trillions of humanoids. Now so far, your path toward conquest has probably seemed pretty easy, but that's because no organization with any power or authority was aware of your activities. That advantage is gone now, and you can expect the full force of the Consortium and many other governments to band together to stop you. A war between my kind and yours will have at least one inevitable result: genocide of your people."

Cass pauses briefly to let that sink in. "Now, in spite of everything that's happened to me and my crew today as a result of meeting your people, I actually don't want to be part of wiping out a civilization. I believe that the diversity of life in the universe is sacred and something to be celebrated and protected. I also believe that if your queen would engage in a good faith diplomatic effort, it is possible that we could come up with some arrangement that both our peoples could live with. I know that it seems unlikely to you, but that's because you are focused on forcing compliance with your demands instead of seeking mutually beneficial compromise.

"Please believe me - many of the species who are now satisfied members of the Consortium started out as adversaries. Diplomacy continues to exist because it gets results. You and I can resume shooting at each other and one side will triumph, but what good is that if all it serves is to ensure the eventual annihilation of your species? I truly think that a compromise could be found if your queen is willing to consider it, and that could save all of us from a lot of unnecessary pain and death."
Mar 31, 2019 12:08 am
Alex remains in cover, though she does look out every so often to see if she has a point-blank shot or an opportunity to club a pirate. When she sees neither, she remains safe.
Mar 31, 2019 5:38 am
Kendall assesses the situation, and then she decides on a course of action: she will step out, shooting a standing slug host in the leg, and then she will tumble out of cover, shooting another in the process. Then with her "pen" in hand, she will stab a third in the femoral artery, then from a crouched position, jabbing the final baddy by the throat as she uses the spring from her jump to break their wind pipe, shooting him in the chest, then she will use the meat bag as a shield, turning herself until she sees that all enemies are down; any still up will have meatbag thrown at them, then jab/shot in kidneys with the barrel of her phaser.
OOC:
She plays this in her head similar to minute 1:35 onward in this video of Sherlock Holmes.

Rolls

Lasers (prepared, expert) - (3d6)

(356) = 14

Mar 31, 2019 8:01 am
OOC:
Moira, it's your good arm that's been injured, whichever that is.
Laser Feeling: Zephyr couldn't have been turned very long ago by the slugs, so it should still be possible to save him. While he has no control over his body at the moment, he is still conscious and knows what is happening around him. If he survives this, he'll definitely need therapy

Cass

"We have not encountered resistance like the one you're offering before. It is true that this war seems unsustainable. However, it is easy for you to suggest peace. Your species can survive on it's own. We are the ones that continuously require new hosts so we can live."

Verdun

Alex, you stay in cover I for now, trying not to get shot. Moira, you try to swing at another of the infected but she dodges your attack easily and fires her phaser at you. You immediately go down and lose consciousness.
Kendall jumps into the action, shooting, hitting and stabbing her way through the infected. She's doing very well but while ramming her pen into the neck of one of the hosts, she forgets her surroundings for just a second, enough for another infected to punch your arm, right at the elbow. With a loud crack, it folds in the wrong way, very obviously being broken by the force of the attack. Your pen goes flying wide through the room at this, blood spraying out of your target's artery with full power.
The attacker grabs the heavily bleeding infected and pulls him towards the door. You can see the wound closing before they even reach the exit. Although some of the infected are still alive and conscious, they retreat, trying to carry some of their tranquilized comrades with them, leaving your heavily injured group behind. The threat still exists on the ship but for now, the combat is over.
Mar 31, 2019 8:36 am
"AAAAAHHHHH SHIT!" She yells as she suffers the pain of the blow.

She stands, her right arm an absolute mess, and frustrated that things didn’t go exactly as planned. She looks at the panels now, saying, "RC, transport all infected into this room. We end this now."

She walks around, scrounges her "pen", and then walks up to Alex: "Now, can you help me snap this back into place, and then brace it?" She tears a part of her coat sleeve, acquiring a strip long enough to sling her arm with, hands it to Alex, and then puts the broad side of the pen in her mouth and bites down after saying, "Now, please."
Last edited March 31, 2019 10:38 am
Mar 31, 2019 8:50 am
OOC:
That would be a Lasers roll with an extra die for help from Kendall.
Mar 31, 2019 1:14 pm
bowlofspinach says:
"We have not encountered resistance like the one you're offering before. It is true that this war seems unsustainable. However, it is easy for you to suggest peace. Your species can survive on it's own. We are the ones that continuously require new hosts so we can live."
Cass gestures to mute her microphone and says, "What do the sensors show regarding the other ships that were in the area?" She wants to see if the captain of the Four is stalling her until reinforcements arrive.
Last edited March 31, 2019 1:14 pm
Mar 31, 2019 1:53 pm
"They're still there, scanning the area. But they don't seem to be moving in. At least not yet", Mezron explains
Mar 31, 2019 5:05 pm
bowlofspinach says:
"We have not encountered resistance like the one you're offering before. It is true that this war seems unsustainable. However, it is easy for you to suggest peace. Your species can survive on it's own. We are the ones that continuously require new hosts so we can live."
Cass resumes speaking to the captain of the Four. "I promise you, captain, suggesting peace with your species is anything but easy for me. You enslave humanoids for your own survival, which violates the most sacred principles of my people. On top of that, you exploited our generosity by kidnapping members of my crew who were on a mission to help what we thought were survivors of an accident. And then, when one of your kind claimed to be on a diplomatic mission, I brought him aboard, only to have him attack several crew members and try to kill me and a doctor trying to help him."

The cold recitation of all the reasons against making peace with the parasites is probably a bad idea, since it momentarily re-stokes the rage she felt earlier. Cass takes a moment to tamp it down before continuing. Going back into "blast the bastards" mode won't help the team members stranded on the pirate ship, or the Potential.

"So I don't blithely propose making peace because it's 'easy for me.' At the moment, the vast majority of my being wants to destroy you all to ensure you never get to steal anyone else's life. But that's a primal urge, just like your impulse to enslave to survive, and primal urges can be controlled. So just as I'm rising above mine, I'm asking you to rise above yours.

"Sure, a starving person can eat by stealing food from someone who has it, even by killing them to get it. But they stand a better chance of surviving in the long term if they ask for help instead of just taking what they need. And usually, they have something to offer in exchange that makes the other person more likely to help them. I suspect that there are things our two peoples could exchange that would make life better for both of us. But the only way to know is to actually discuss the possibility."
Mar 31, 2019 5:48 pm
"You speak as if you actually mean your words, commander, which is a useful gift to have for a leader.", the captain replies over the intercom. "We hold knowledge far beyond what you think. You think we are just some uneducated barbarians but our queen possesses the knowledge of dozens of species. We know all about your own history, human. We know about how your kind enslaved billions of lesser creatures to slaughter and consume them. Do not preach to us of your most sacred principles when your own kind only still exists thanks to the suffering of billions of sentient lifeforms."

The voice stops abruptly. It sounds as if the parasite you are talking to is struggling with a similar conflict as you are.

"You speak of exchange, of value for both sides in a partnership. We hold knowledge of civilizations long gone and technology far beyond what you possess but we do not require anything from your kind except your bodies. What value would there be for us in this partnership?"
Mar 31, 2019 5:49 pm
Alex stands up as the last of the invaders leave. As Kendall approaches, she gives the other woman a look of wide-eyed disbelief. "While I appreciate your confidence, I can’t begin to tell you what an awful idea that is. Let me wake Lorq up, and he can help you without ripping your forearm off by accident."

She moves over to kneel beside Lorq, checking through his possessions for a stimulant delivery syringe. Finally finding some, she jabs the doctor with it to wake him up. While he comes to, Alex also wakes up Moira.
Mar 31, 2019 6:12 pm
Moira rolls over, curses when she leans on her arm, and sits up, rubbing her head.

Ah’m.....oof. Ah’m awake. Hoo. Had worse. Not in a while. But still. Hoo. How about we transport back, eh? Shouldn’t be hard ta drop tha shields given what ah did earlier. Oof. An’ ah have a hunch Zephyr might still be in there somewhere. But damn. If he isn’t, Lorq, ah’ll look tha other way so we can....ah....deal with ‘im.

She looks up at Alex and Kendall, somehow not surprised that they were the last two standing.

Thanks.
Mar 31, 2019 6:25 pm
bowlofspinach says:
"You speak as if you actually mean your words, commander, which is a useful gift to have for a leader.", the captain replies over the intercom. "We hold knowledge far beyond what you think. You think we are just some uneducated barbarians but our queen possesses the knowledge of dozens of species. We know all about your own history, human. We know about how your kind enslaved billions of lesser creatures to slaughter and consume them. Do not preach to us of your most sacred principles when your own kind only still exists thanks to the suffering of billions of sentient lifeforms."

The voice stops abruptly. It sounds as if the parasite you are talking to is struggling with a similar conflict as you are.

"You speak of exchange, of value for both sides in a partnership. We hold knowledge of civilizations long gone and technology far beyond what you possess but we do not require anything from your kind except your bodies. What value would there be for us in this partnership?"
Cass closes her eyes and curses the day she ever listened to Captain Darcy's mentorship about her personal potential and untapped capabilities. That unwarranted delusion is what has led to her being in a position for which she has absolutely no qualifications: trying to debate philosophy with a new species and negotiate a peace she herself is having trouble justifying on any rational grounds. She is in so far over her head that she can't see daylight in any direction. This is why there should be a ship's counselor on every Spacefleet ship of scout class or above.

She takes a deep breath and speaks with great deliberation, mostly to give herself time to form the thoughts she's about to express. She has a feeling if she doesn't get through to this captain soon, it's back to the shooting, and she doesn't know how many more hits the Potential's shields can take. "Why do people always think that the worst elements of a foreign culture's history define that culture, but only the best of their own history defines theirs? Do you even hear yourself? You just chastised my people for dismissing you as barbarians, when you've given us no opportunity to know anything else about your culture. But you claim to know 'all about our history' and somehow the fact of our significant triumphs over our worst flaws doesn't figure into your calculus of our overall value.

"And I'm sitting here, with absolutely no reason to believe that your culture is anything but murderous barbarians, offering to try to find common ground on the basis of nothing more than that my culture was once thought to be that way, too, and we turned out to be so much better than that. I'm asking you to take that same leap of faith, given that you claim to already know what we can be as well as what we were."
Mar 31, 2019 6:44 pm
So, what did I miss? That looks like a bad break, let's get this fixed up.
OOC:
I will tend to the broken arm and any other injuries. Laser roll expert and with help.

Rolls

Doctory stuff. - (3D6)

(241) = 7

Mar 31, 2019 7:01 pm
Lorq

The break is clean and doesn't look complicated. You can easily fix it up for now and put it in an improvised sling. Once you get access to some actual medical equipment it will be a quick routine job to completely mend the wounds. You won't even have to roll for it again. Kendall, you can't really use that arm for now but you're not in any significant pain and other than that, you aren't getting hindered by it.

Cass

"Yes, it is true that you overcame your need to consume lesser creatures. Unfortunately, that is not an option for us. We have tried alternatives, robotic bodies with artificial nutrients, but none have been satisfactory. Your encounters with our race have been unfortunate. We are not barbarians, although it is only natural that you would get that impression if you only encounter us on the battlefield. Many of us are scholars, historians, scientists. Our queen might well be the wisest creature in this entire quadrant."

He stops speaking for a moment and your helmsman calls out: "They're requesting video communication."

Before you can respond to that, the captain of the Four speaks up again: "Our very nature makes it impossible not to take the bodies of other beings but that does not mean we are monsters. I have two mothers, I have a partner, I will have a child soon. We are sentient, feeling, thinking creatures, exactly like you."
Mar 31, 2019 7:17 pm
Cass frowns at the request for video communication. Why now, after all this time on audio? Still, she doesn't see a reason to refuse it, so when the captain of the Four finishes her statement, she nods at the helmsman to establish the video feed. It gives her something to focus on beyond the fact that it appears that her attempt at diplomacy is failing.

She wonders why Darcy isn't obeying her order to contact Moira about getting the Verdun's shields down. It would be nice to succeed at one thing during this encounter.
Mar 31, 2019 7:28 pm
Addressing Moira, Alex says, "If we transport off this cursed hunk of metal, won’t we kill Zephyr? Not that I don’t want to castrate him and force-feed him his own testicles at the moment," she says with a disturbingly sweet smile, "But it seems that taking that risk would be counterproductive."

She goes over to stand above the unconscious science officer and prods him (not very gently) with her toe. "We should tie him up. Tightly. Before he wakes up on his own. I would like to think his actions are the result of a parasite, but I think we’ve all seen what these creatures can do. Let’s not take chances."
Mar 31, 2019 7:37 pm
Quote:
She wonders why Darcy isn't obeying her order to contact Moira about getting the Verdun's shields down. It would be nice to succeed at one thing during this encounter.
OOC:
Sorry, I missed that part. Getting on it now
The viewscreen changes to show the interior of the pirate ship. From the looks of it, the captain doesn't seem to be on the bridge, or if he is, its layout is very different from that of a Consortium ship. He is sitting at a table with no other visible crewmembers around him. His face looks strange. He appears to be human but his bone structure looks different. His head is very thin with extremely prominent cheekbones and an unnaturaly wide jaw.
"Commander. To aid us in our peaceful negotiations, I thought it might make sense to look into each other's eyes."
Moira, right after being woken up, you receive a communication from Darcy: "Lieutenant Commander Bruce, this is the Potential. Commander Cassano is requesting that you drop shields immediately. We are going to get you out of there."
Mar 31, 2019 7:50 pm
bowlofspinach says:
The viewscreen changes to show the interior of the pirate ship. From the looks of it, the captain doesn't seem to be on the bridge, or if he is, its layout is very different from that of a Consortium ship. He is sitting at a table with no other visible crewmembers around him. His face looks strange. He appears to be human but his bone structure looks different. His head is very thin with extremely prominent cheekbones and an unnaturaly wide jaw.
"Commander. To aid us in our peaceful negotiations, I thought it might make sense to look into each other's eyes."
Cass maintains the eye contact and tries to ignore the reaction to the captain's alterations to his human appearance. She offers a faint smile. "I'm happy to add the visual dimension, but I'm not sure how it can help, since you seem utterly unmoved by every argument I've made.

"One thing that I'd like to point out, however. You've claimed that you've tried alternatives to consuming the bodies of other beings by force, but I wonder if you've tried the simplest alternative - looking for volunteer hosts and then sharing control. There is at least one other species of symbiote who lives that way, and by all accounts, it is a successful approach for both host and symbiote."
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