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File: USS Honolulu.png (252 KB, 650x394)
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Star Trek: Honolulu

Congratulations Cadet! Your hard work and dedication over the past six months has paid off, and you will be one of just 86.5% of cadets who will be accredited as part of the Year of 2381 Starfleet Basic Security Officer Program. We regret to inform you that you did not have sufficient marks to join our advanced programs in Counter-Terrorism, Intelligence, Anti-Espionage, Law Enforcement, Advanced Investigation Techniques, Hostage Rescue, Martial Arts, or Tactical Boarding, but don’t worry, Basic Enlisted Security Officers are valued members of the Starfleet, without whom, our vessels, space stations, and ground-based installations would be less safe and protected.

As you finished in the top 70% of your class, we have determined that the best posting for you would be the USS Honolulu, a Saber-class starship patrolling the Risa Sector in the heart of Federation territory.

Please complete the following self-assessment sent by your new posting:

Name: ____________
Gender: Male / Female
Species: Human / Andorian / Bajoran / Trill / Orion / Risian / Romulan / Betazoid
Personality:
Talks: Too little / Too much
Empathy: Low / High
Follows Rules: All The Time / Not Very Often
Enthusiasm: Low / High
Idealism: Low/High
Assertiveness: Low/High
Alcohol Tolerance: Low/High
Anxiety: Low/High
Understands Russian: Yes/No
Ambition: Low/High
Honor: Low/High
Modesty: Low/High
Level of Brown-nosing: Low/High
Bravery: Low/High
Intellectual Curiosity: Low/High
>>
>>5029456
Salik
Male
Romulan
_
Personality
Talks to little
Low Empathy
Follows the rules all the time
High enthusiasm
Highly Idealistic
Assertiveness High
Alcohol tolerance High
Anxiety Low
Understands russian no
Ambition High
Honor Low
Modesty low
Level of brown nosing low
Bravery High
Intellectual curiosity High
>>
>>5029456
>Name: Hughe Mann
>Gender: Male
>Species: Definitely a completely normal Human and not a changeling refugee
>Personality: Talks: Too much
>Empathy: High
>Follows Rules: All The Time
>Enthusiasm: Low
>Idealism: Low
>Assertiveness: Low
>Alcohol Tolerance: High
>Anxiety: High
>Understands Russian: Yes
>Ambition: Low
>Honor: Low
>Modesty: Low
>Level of Brown-nosing: Low
>Bravery: Low
>Intellectual Curiosity: High
>>
>>5029456
All systems go for standard human MC.
Name: Hazard
Male
Human
Personality: Socially awkward and high-strung, tries to avoid showing it by being quiet. Could probably have scored better if he tried... or that's what he likes to tell himself, anyways. Considers himself a pessimistic optimist. Fairly tall.
Talks Too Little
Low Empathy
Low Enthusiasm
Follows Rules: Not Very Often
High Idealism
Low Assertiveness
High Tolerance
High Anxiety
Understands Russian: No (Knows common expletives)
Low Ambition
High Honor
High Modesty
Low Brown-Nosing
Low Bravery
Low Intellectual Curiosity

Did I say standard human MC? I meant the average social wreck who doesn't think he's actually depressed enough to be worth a diagnosis but knows just enough to realize he's probably a few smiles short of a good time.
>>
Name: Nimue
Gender: Female
Species: Orion
Personality:
Talks: Too much
Empathy: High
Follows Rules: Not Very Often
Enthusiasm: High
Idealism: Low
Assertiveness: High
Alcohol Tolerance: High
Anxiety: Low
Understands Russian: No
Ambition: Low
Honor: Low
Modesty: Low
Level of Brown-nosing: Low
Bravery: High
Intellectual Curiosity: High
>>
>>5029456
Backing >>5029457
>>
>>5029494
supporting this
>>
>>5029456
>>5029474
+1 for Hughe Mann, kinda boring that there aren't any non-humans though
>>
>>5029557
What?
>>
>>5029562
I think he was trying to make a comment about Hughe being a boring human
>>
>>5029494
+1
>>
>>5029494
>>5029479
Either of these sound fun.
>>
>>5029479
+1
>>
>>5029456
>Name: ____Petrov Dominik__
>Gender: Male
>Species: Human
>Personality:
>Talks: Too little
>Empathy: Low
>Follows Rules: Not Very Often
>Enthusiasm: High
>Idealism: High
>Assertiveness: High
>Alcohol Tolerance: High
>Anxiety: Low
>Understands Russian: Yes
>Ambition: High
>Honor: low
>Modesty: High
>Level of Brown-nosing: Low
>Bravery: High
>Intellectual Curiosity: High
>>
>>5029479
+1
>>
Name: Nimue
Gender: Female
Species: Orion
Personality:
Talks: Too much
Empathy: High
Follows Rules: Not Very Often
Enthusiasm: High
Idealism: Low
Assertiveness: High
Alcohol Tolerance: High
Anxiety: Low
Understands Russian: No
Ambition: Low
Honor: Low
Modesty: Low
Level of Brown-nosing: Low
Bravery: High
Intellectual Curiosity: High

---Shuttle Craft Point Blanc – En Route to the USS Honolulu---

You sigh as you put your PADD back on the shuttle’s console.

There isn’t much to do in the small Type 8 shuttlecraft bringing you from Starbase 311 over Risa to your new posting on the USS Honolulu.

The Lurian pilot of your shuttle is surly and non-verbal, leaving you with little to do during the hours long trip except read security briefings on your Starfleet issue PADD.

Reading between the lines, it seems like the Risa Sector isn’t exactly a front line posting, which suits you just fine. Sure there are a couple of B-list wannabe empires claiming ownership of every rock in the sector, small amounts of smuggling, piracy, and other criminal activity, and a few Federation associate planets caught up in trade disputes, but this isn’t exactly the Romulan Neutral Zone or the Badlands.

During your training at the Starfleet Security and Law Enforcement Academy, Mars Annex, you heard Starbase 311, and indeed, most postings in the Risa Sector had a bit of a reputation for being a “party posting”.

Some thoughtful Academy resources officer probably felt it was a good match for you, given you did the bare minimum to pass your program, and otherwise spent your time partying hard. You did okay in combat training, martial arts, wrestling and takedowns, etc. But you barely scraped by in ethics, law, basic counter espionage, basic security protocols, survival training, and a range of other more academic focused courses.

-----------------

About half an hour later, your shuttle finally catches up with the USS Honolulu, which had just started its weekly patrol route the day before.

Its first stop is the Tibigal System, the location of an abandoned research station that sometimes gets used as a hideout by unsavory types.

Your shuttle does a brief fly over of the USS Honolulu, before it pulls into one of the forward facing shuttle bays.

You aren’t particularly impressed, having spend plenty of time in space growing up, but even you have to admit their is a certain predatory appeal to the vessel. She may be small, but she is fast and rugged, and more war-like than the typical Federation vessel.

You say farewell to the shuttle pilot, who merely grunts, grab your bags, and disembark the shuttle.

Inside the shuttle bay, there is only a single crew woman, in operations yellow like yourself, and with the single black pip of a petty officer. Although she appears human, you recognize her as Trill by the marking on her forehead and neck.

She greets you as you approach.
>>
>>5030048

“Hi Nimue, I am Sanata, ship’s quartermaster, shuttle bay operator, teleporter operator, and back-up shuttle pilot. Welcome aboard the USS Honolulu. Sorry there isn’t more people here, but we find rookies get overwhelmed when there is too many people at their welcome.” - Says Sanata.

Although you are actually pretty excited at this point, and bursting with questions, you decide to play it cool and not fall into the bright-eyed bushy-tailed cadet stereotype.

“Hello Sanata, thanks for greeting me, I am pleased to have been chosen to serve aboard this ship” – You reply.

Sanata nodds politely in acknowledgement.

“Here on the USS Honolulu, we prefer to keep things relaxed an informal. You will be given a few days to acclimatize at your own pace. However, we would ask that you meet with the following people today: the ship’s First Officer, Lt. Cmdr George Henderson, the ship’s CMO, Lt. Cara O’Conner, and your supervisor, Lt. Maxim Sememov. Just ask the computer where any of them are. If you need me I will be in my office pretending to run reports” - Explains Sanata.

Your not sure if she is joking or not, so decide to leave her alone in case she is busy.

>Go find the First Officer

>Go find the Chief Medical Officer

>Go find your supervisor
>>
>>5030052
>Go find the First Officer

First thing's first: schmooze with the people running this tin can!
>>
>>5030052
Hm. XO'll probably just give us a quick run-down of the ship's mission/standard operating procedure, CMO'll probably wants to give us an onboarding physical/rundown of the medical procedures, and our CO will probably be the most annoying.

I say CMO to get the annoying medical stuff out of the way first.
>>
>>5030052
>>Go find the Chief Medical Officer
>>
>>5030052
>Go find the First Officer
>>
>>5030052
First officer
>>
>>5030052
>Go find your supervisor
>>
>Go find the First Officer

You decide to meet the First Officer first.

The computer informs you he is on the deck one in the ready room.

You find it a bit strange that the First Officer uses the Captain’s Ready Room, though you will later find out it is standard practice on the Honolulu.

By Starfleet standards, the Honolulu is a relatively small and compact ship, with only five “real” decks. You have already more or less memorized the layout of the ship from looking at schematics, which is much less impressive than it sounds.

Deck one is the location of the bridge, conference room, ready room, senior officer’s quarters, and a suite of rooms used for major diplomatic events. To save space, the ship uses old fashion vertical only turbolifts. The nearest pair of turbolifts are actually within the shuttle bay, and take you to the short corridor leading to the bridge, ready room, and conference room.

You enter the ready room, and introduce yourself to Lt. Cmdr George Henderson.

A short, slightly overweight balding human in his fifties with an out-of-fashion mustache, a lazy eye, and the mannerisms of a lifelong bureaucrat, he isn’t exactly recruitment poster material.

Henderson gives you a long-winded greeting and introduction to the ship that at first contains little you don’t already know. Though as time goes by, some interesting tidbits are interjected. The captain (actually just a commander) isn’t even on the ship, having opted to attend some conferences in person rather than attend virtually from the ship. Henderson has spent most of his Starfleet career in various Earth based management roles, and is only getting back into the field now for some philosophical reason you don’t really understand. Henderson handles most of the mundane aspects of the ship’s tiny command division such as resource management, disciplinary actions, attending briefings, and dealing with local bureaucrats, so that the captain can focus on more interesting things like dealing with the rare tactical and diplomatic situations the ship gets in, also attending conferences, lots and lots of conferences (you get the distinct impression the captain doesn’t do that much actual work on the ship).

Although seemingly friendly enough, Henderson seems like too much of a square to pester with the kinds of questions you want to ask until you have a better grasp on the social dynamics of the ship. You say your farewells, and he replies with a half joking remark about not wanting to pull you out of the drunk tanks on shore leave too often.

You leave the ready room wondering whether he somehow knows about your record at the Academy (none of which actually got put on any records as far as you know), or if he sees it as inevitable that you will far under the influence of some of the wilder crew members.
>>
>>5030626

You shrug it off, not particular concerned. Although immune (in your own mind at least) to peer pressure, partying is like second nature to you. In fact, pretty much half the reason you joined Starfleet to begin with was so that you can party hard somewhere away from your disapproving parents.

You decide to head to meet the CMO next.

The sickbay is located on on deck two, along with the quarters for mid-ranking crew, the secure section, and holodecks two and three. The turbolift opens directly into the shuttle bay control room / transporter room, where Sanata is dozing off.

She straightens a bit when she hears you arrive and explains her shift ended four hours ago, but she is on standby until the away team is back from poking around the abandoned facility.

You briefly chat about your meeting with Henderson, and she notes she has an odd but friendly relationship with him. As the person primarily responsible for who is and isn’t on the ship, she seems to see it as her role to cover up a wide range of minor indiscretions so he won’t have to.

By this point you are starting to get the sense that discipline on board this vessel is unusually relaxed.

Feeling optimistic about your future on board this ship, you continue on to meet the CMO.

The sickbay is a relatively small space, not surprising for a ship that rarely has more than 40 people on board. It consists of a surgery bay, three beds, and a small office. Lt. Cara O’Conner is a spirited red haired woman in her mid-twenties who can’t have been out of Starfleet Medical Academy for more than a year or two. Calling her the CMO seems a bit grandiose given she is the only medical practitioner on the ship.

She strikes you as a bit of a snob and a brown-noser, but she gives you a professional and thorough examination.

A minor sticking point is of course the infamous Orion pheromones.

Like most Orions, yours aren’t nearly as strong as some people think, and Starfleet personnel have been getting injections to neutralize most of the effects for centuries now, but as per Starfleet Regulations, you are required to take monthly injections to minimize your body’s pheromone production. Nothing you haven’t already been doing for the past six months at the Academy, but annoying nonetheless since you always feel gross for several hours after an injection. However, Orions are still relatively rare and distrusted in Starfleet though, so there isn’t much to be done about it.

Your final trip is to meet your supervisor.

For this, you head back down to deck three, home to the main holodeck, engineering, the shuttle bay, and quarters for common crewmen.

Both Henderson and Cara had briefly mentioned that the main holodeck is almost always running one of several programs depicting resorts back on Risa, and serves as the main social hub for the ship.
>>
File: Nimue.jpg (368 KB, 1600x2560)
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368 KB JPG
>>5030631

Across from the entrance to holodeck one is a small closet that has apparently been converted to change room of sorts, including a replicator programmed to produce various types of clothes.

After some thought, you decide to get changed into some trendy but revealing swimwear before entering the holodeck.

The current program running depicts a sunny sandbar off of a larger beach. A small gazebo in the middle contains a bar, and various people lounge about on beach chairs, or eat at small tables.

You are well aware that the holodeck is shaped like a square about 50 meters wide (unusually large for a ship this size), but clever use optics makes the space seem wide open.

It takes only a few seconds to figure out who the real crew are since the holographic guests and serving staff are all young, unusually attractive, and underdressed.

Your supervisor is Lt. (junior grade) Maxim Sememov. A rough, rugged looking man in his forties, with the mannerisms of a professional barfly, and an almost unintelligible accent, you aren’t surprised to find out that “Max” never even graduated from Starfleet Academy (the one for officers) and instead rose through the ranks during the Dominion War.

Max is rather lacking in professionalism and you are surprised he hasn’t been drummed out of Starfleet years ago. Within five minutes of meeting him, he has already slandered half the ship’s senior officers, made several comments on your appearance that most would consider inappropriate, and christened you with the slightly offensive nickname “Green”.

However, it will take far worst to genuinely offend you, and perhaps sensing a hard target, or perhaps just sobering up a bit, Max gradually becomes more professional.

He offers to get someone to show you to your room so you can stash your bags, but also invites you to stay and hang out for a while.

>Go check out your room.

>Hang out and see if you can prod Max to dish out on the crew a bit more.

>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.

>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
>>
>>5030634
>>>Go check out your room.
>>
>>5030634
>Go check out your room.
>>
>>5030634
>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.

We're already in a swim suit.
>>
>>5030634
>>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
>>
>>5030634
>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
Seems as good a time as any
>>
>>5030634
>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
We're already there and dressed for the occasion.
>>
>>5030634
>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
>>
>>5030634
>>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.
>>
>>5030634
>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.
>>
>Go introduce yourself to some of the other crew on the holodeck.

You decide to stick around and talk to some of your new crew mates.

Within an hour, you get introductions to everyone present, including the rest of the five man (including yourself) security team, who finally return from the away mission about 20 minutes after you arrive at the holodeck. Their mission to the abandoned research outpost apparently turned up nothing but a few odd readings that ended up being an old backup system flickering as its power ran out.

Ensign Richard “Hacker” Pratt is a well muscled human male with shaggy blond hair and a strong anti-authoritarian streak. The ship’s lead systems engineer, he is very much against anyone modifying anything which may require him to take time away from his true love, programming holograms and holographic programs, to fix. He is also apparently an adept “hacker” and sometimes accompanies security personnel on away missions.

Lt. Aphrodie “Baywatch” is an athletic, well tanned Risian who serves as the ship’s chief helm officer, tactical officer, and overall third in command. She is polite, but surprisingly reserved for a Risian and you don’t get much out of her.

Ensign Kainalu Aka is actually from the city for which the ship is named. He seems well liked and extroverted, but you don’t get much out of him other than his drink preferences, comparisons to Hawaii and Risa, and the fact he operates the operations station on the bridge during alpha shift.

Ensign Laasya “Bollywood” Mangal is Maxim’s second in command. An attractive dark skinned woman from Earth’s equatorial region, you get the distinct impression she sees herself as being too cool to interact with anyone else present more than necessary.

Crewman Choro “Bouncer” is a muscle bound Risian security officer who joined not that long ago. He likes to act tough, but you sense he is still a bit insecure about his newness.

Crewman Nikwid “Pensioner” is a Tellarite security officer with dark skin and an impressive black and grey beard. He spent several decades on Risa as a bartender before coming out of retirement for the Dominion War. Apparently no one has been able to convince him to return to retirement. Though rather lax even by the standards of the ship, he considers himself the most experienced security officer when it comes to crime, having seen every trick in the book as a security officer, bouncer, law enforcer, smuggler, bartender, then security officer again.

Some other general information you pick up includes:

The holodeck is unusually empty today. Two of the ship’s main social cliques are doing other activities tonight.

Bouncer and Hacker seem to be feeling you out for recruitment into their “Wolf Pack” clique of trouble makers, which includes Bouncer and Hacker as core members, as well as two women who are currently on duty right now.
>>
>>5031353

Satisfied you have made your introductions to those present, you ponder what to do next:

>Go check out your room.

>Hang out and see if you can prod Max to dish out on the crew a bit more.

>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.

>Try impressing Bouncer and Hacker with you drinking prowess and ability to do handstands.

>Try tracking down some of the off duty crewmen hanging out elsewhere on the ship.
>>
>>5031354
>>Go check out your room.
>>
>>5031354
>Try impressing Bouncer and Hacker with you drinking prowess and ability to do handstands.
>>
>>5031354
>>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.
>>
>>5031354
>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.
>>
Just wanted to leave this here
https://youtu.be/FH8lvwXx_Y8
>>
>>5031508
A man of good taste. I could tell the song from the picture. It was going to be posted sooner and later, especially with what we've seen of the crew.
>>
>>5031354
>Try tracking down some of the off duty crewmen hanging out elsewhere on the ship
Then:
>Go check out your room
>>
>>5031354
>>Go check out your room.
>>
>>5031508
Had a feeling I would be listening to that sooner rather than later. Thanks for not making me look it up on youtube again.
>>
>Hang out and try to push Max for more information on your responsibilities.
>Go check out your room.

A few drinks later, you decide the Honolulu crew seem like a pretty cool bunch, so for once in your life, you decide to make an honest effort to go the extra mile, at least for a bit.

You say goodbye to Nikwid and circle back to talk to Maxim about your position.

He has had many drinks by this point, so the answer you get is only semi-coherent and includes phrases like “most Starfleet officer pretty good in fight, but sometimes you just need gun, and arm to point gun, and long legs to move arm with gun. Also eyes to point gun, but brain not so important yes?” as well as “Sometimes you need lots of gun. And lots of arm. And lots of leg. Some leg are prettier than other leg...” and “Some Starfleet officer not so good in fight. Like socialist, or dentist, or sociologist, or anything that end with ‘ist’, or ‘gist’. Also geologist not so good in fight.”

And then he drops a key piece of information you feel he probably should have mentioned earlier:

“Tomorrow morning you go take geologist out on milk run. Go visit smelly planet and make sure he no fall in volcano. You drive shuttle yes?”

Actually you never took the training for shuttle craft piloting, and when you tell him this, he looks at you funny before saying Farzaneh will pilot.

Feeling that perhaps you should get more information from someone who is sober, you say farewell to everyone, depart the holodeck and see if Sanata is still around. You run into her just as she is heading to the holodeck herself and press her for information, figuring she would know more as the shuttle bay operator.

She confirms that a shuttle is scheduled to leave at 0800 with Farzaneh piloting, and a geologist and a sociology student on board to do some samples on a young, volcanic world. Also assigned is a "to be determined" security officer, presumably yourself.

It is only 2300, but you decide to head to bed in order to get a fresh start, plus due to all the shuttle transfers you have been doing lately, it has been at least twenty hours since you last slept and you are definitely starting to feel it now. You also realize you had quite a few drinks, even by your standards, and you aren’t exactly sure on the alcohol content on some of the more sugary drinks.

Sanata graciously shows you to the “port barracks” in the “secure area” in the aft section of deck two.

Apparently not so secure unless needed, this part of the ship is the domain of the security team and is designed to hold a much larger group if necessary. Featuring an armory, brig, duty officer’s office, briefing room, and the port and starboard security accommodations you figure this will be your home for the duration of your time on the USS Honolulu.
>>
>>5032191

The common room of the “port barracks” is a long, narrow space about five meters wide and twenty meters long. It is filled with an odd assortment of couches, chairs, and tables fills the space, and assorted trophies and pin-up posters cover the walls and shelves, some of which seem very much non-regulation.

On one side are five doors leading to small bedrooms, on the other are lavatories and sonic showers.

Through trial and error, you figure out which room is the unoccupied one, say goodnight to Sanata, then pass out on your bunk bed.

----------------------------------------

You wake up, and are a bit confused as to why you are in an unfamiliar space sleeping in swim wear, and have a massive headache.

The room is only four meters by five meters, and much of it is taken up by the bunk bed and storage lockers. You vaguely remember Sanata saying that with only five security officers on board, there is no need to share rooms, so it actually isn’t a terrible sized space to have to yourself.

You also remember that your first mission is at 0800. Which when prompted, the computer cheerfully tells you that is in five minutes.

>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.

>Sprint down to the change room for the holodeck, which is wear your uniform probably still is, get changed, then report to the shuttle bay (late).

>Tell the computer to contact Sanata and see if she can stall to buy you more time to do things properly.
>>
>>5032193
>Tell the computer to contact Sanata and see if she can stall to buy you more time to do things properly.
>>
>>5032193
>Tell the computer to contact Sanata and see if she can stall to buy you more time to do things properly.
>>
>>5032193
>>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.
>>
>>5032193
>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.
>>
>>5032193
>>Sprint down to the change room for the holodeck, which is wear your uniform probably still is, get changed, then report to the shuttle bay (late).
>>
>>5032193
>>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.
What's the worst that could happen eh
>>
>>5032193
>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.
>>
>>5032193
>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways
>>
>Sprint down to the shuttle bay, no need to get changed, they will probably stick you in an EV suit anyways.

You get up and sprint the 100 meters or so to the shuttle bay / transporter room, which is empty, then take the turbolift down a level to the shuttle bay, which is also empty, though there is one shuttle missing.

"Well this is just gisjacheh bullshit" - You say to yourself, using one of the few Orion words you know, and punch the side of a nearby shuttle bruising some knuckles in the process.

As if they would leave without you because you are one minute late! If they were looking for a security officer to replace you, it is not like it would have been that hard for one of your new colleagues on the security team to walk a few steps and knock on your door.

“Don’t worry, it will take another 20 minutes for someone to scrap Farzaneh off whatever surface she is passed out on, and another 10 for Jovari and Elijah to haul all those crates and sample tubes up from deck four. Maybe go get some clothes on and drink some coffee and water. Not sure how they do things back on Orion, but even on the USS Honolulu we sometimes wear clothes on missions. Just joking. Also go check out a gun from the armory. When you are done, come back here and I will set you up with an EV suit.” - Says a familiar voice from shuttle bay speakers.

You look up and see Sanata in the shuttle bay control room behind the windows overlooking the shuttle bay. She evidently had stepped out sometime prior to you passing through that area on your wild sprint, but had now returned.

You figure as rookie mistakes this is only a moderately bad one, though it would be much worse on a typical Starfleet vessel.

>Go get water and coffee.

>Go get a phaser.

>Go get changed.

>Go find Farzaneh, the pilot.

>Go find Jovari and Elijah, the scientists.
>>
>>5033118
>Go get water and coffee.
>Go get a phaser.
>>
>>5033118
>Go get changed.
>Go get water and coffee.
>Go get a phaser.
In order
>>
>>5033118
>>Go get changed.
>>
>>5033136
Supporting
>>
>>5033118
>>Go get water and coffee.
>>Go get a phaser.
>>Go get changed.
>>
>>5033136
this
>>
>>5033136
+1
>>
>Go get changed.
>Go get water and coffee.
>Go get a phaser.

You decide to head back to the port barracks first, though on your way there, you realize all your stuff is still in the holodeck change room and briefly detour there first.

Back in the port barracks, Bollywood and Nikwid are relaxing on couches sipping coffee, but there is no indication Max and Bouncer have even woken up yet.

You say your good mornings before heading into your room and quickly getting changed.

You then come back out and get the replicator to make you a coffee and a large jug of water.

You take a couple of minutes to drink the coffee and water while briefly explaining to Bollywood and Nikwid where you are going this morning.

Bollywood doesn't talk much and her body language indicates disinterest, but Nikwid grunts or commiserates at all the right moments and heads over to the armory with you to help you check out a type-2 phaser from the armory.

You then head back to the shuttle bay where the rest of the away team has gathered in your absence. You cheerfully introduce yourself.

Jovari is a middle aged Risian geologist with a lanky build and short, curly hair. He seems professional enough, if a bit smug and condescending. He isn’t a full time member of the USS Honolulu, but frequently catches a ride when the ship is passing near a planet he is interested in.

Elijah “The Hobbit” Woods is a sociology student who wears the blue of science division, like Jovari, but is only a member of Starfleet due to the technicalities of his university’s field experience program. You didn’t meet him last night, but you heard from others that this is his first outing on a Starfleet vessel and he has fallen in with a clique of inexperienced crew members known as the “Wallflowers”. His role on the vessel is poorly understood, but the people you talked to last night think he is meant to be a general purpose dogsbody for any scientist who needs one regardless of whether it is relevant to his background.

Farzaneh “Princess” Shah is the pilot of the shuttle. You heard all about her last night due to her being one of the most hardcore members of the Wolf Pack social clique. She apparently showed up at the holodeck not long after you left, and was drinking most of the night. You figure there must be some sort of regulation against this, but doubt anyone present cares.

Sanata is also there with an EV suit she feels is roughly your size. You don’t get the chance to try it on though as Jovari is rather inpatient by this point.

Everyone piles into the Type 8 shuttlecraft, which departs the Honolulu with little fanfare.

It takes a few hours to reach your destination, the FGC-2387 star system.

While en route, you put on your EV suit (which does in fact fit well), check your phaser settings, and get briefed on the mission by Jovari (which is basically collecting rocks, yay! (sarcasm)).
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>>5034002

Farzaneh sleeps in the pilots chair after telling the autopilot to bring you to the destination. She says to only wake her up if something catastrophic happens.

You reach the target planet without incident.

It is a young, nearly-barren world covered in volcanoes, sulphur ponds, and shallow oceans.

Farzaneh wakes up long enough to tell the computer to land the shuttle at the desired location.

---Few Hours Later---

Your first away mission is not shaping up to be a memorable one.

Farzaneh stayed on the ship to sleep, while you spent the last few hours watching Jovari and Elijah decide which rocks to bring back to the ship.

The sulfur ponds in which you landed are mildly impressive at first, but get old pretty fast.

Feeling pretty bored, you sit down on a large rock and fiddle with your phaser.

Suddenly you hear some yells from where you left Jovari and Elijah.

You run over and see that a shuttle sized six legged brute has emerged from the nearest pond and is approaching Jovari and Elijah aggressively.

>Try stunning it with your phaser.

>Try killing it with your phaser.

>Try vaporizing it with your phaser.

>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.

>Throw rocks at it to scare it off.

>Try to get everyone to calm down, maybe it is not hostile.
>>
>>5034005
>>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.

This is an Alien life form of the type we're here to find and study. So we shouldn't shoot it, and even if it isn't intentionally hostile, interfering with it drastically would be bad news.
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>>5034005
>Try to get everyone to calm down, maybe it is not hostile.
>>
>>5034005
>Try to get everyone to calm down, maybe it is not hostile.
>>
>>5034005
>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.
>Throw rocks at it to scare it off.
Yelling and throwing rocks, truly we are a exemplary space farer
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>>5034005
>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.

They probably picked up it's eggs
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>>5034005
>>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.
>>Throw rocks at it to scare it off.
>>
>>5034005
>>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.
>>Throw rocks at it to scare it off.
>>
>>5034005
>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.
>Try to get everyone to calm down, maybe it is not hostile.

The rocks we will throw at it could be its eggs
>>
>>5034005
>>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.
I would have gone with stunning it if the consensus was different, but eh. Though I'm guessing if there was a known hostile life-form on this planet it would have been in the briefing?
>>
>Tell Jovari and Elijah to abandon their rocks and flee back to the shuttle.

“Hey guys, I think we should get back to the shuttle. Now. Forget your equipment. Do you even know what that is?” - You say.

“Nope, this is only the second time we know of that someone has been to this world. Scanners indicated that there potentially was some large fauna, but no one has done any sort of wildlife catalogue.” - Says Jovari as he maintains his distance from the creature. He seems fairly calm, but Elijah is on the verge of panicking.

The creature does another faux-charge at Elijah. With its blubbery body and short legs, you can’t help but be reminded of a video of a really fat grizzly bear running.

It is almost a bit comical, but Elijah clearly doesn’t find it so. He trips and falls backwards just as the creature was starting its charge, though luckily for him it slows down drastically a few meters away.

You watch as the creature continues to shuffle closer to Elijah (who doesn’t seem to have the presence of mind to do anything other than crawl backwards), and decide to intervene.

You turn your EV suit’s speakers up to max and start shouting at the creature.

When that doesn’t work, you decide to be more proactive and throw a large rock at it, which merely bounces off its blubbery skin, and by some weird fluke manages to land on Elijah.

You pick up another rock, and this time throw it at one of the creature’s rear paws, where you hope its thick layer of rubbery fat won’t protect it.

This time, the creature appears to take notice, and does a slow semi-circle trying to figure out what attacked its paw.

Jovari shouts at Elijah to stop messing around and get back to the shuttle, which he does.

To keep the creature’s attention on your for a bit longer, you through some additional stones, which finally provokes the creature to make a jiggly run at you.

Counting on the creature’s poor agility, you run right at it, before veering somewhat to run right past it and towards the shuttle instead.

High on adrenaline, you turn to make a rude gesture at the creature, but end up tripping over one of the sample boxes instead.

Scrambling upright you sprint the next 50 or so meters like the creature is right on your tail, though when you look back, it is eating spilled rocks from the crate instead.

You trot the rest of the way back to the shuttlecraft and join the others inside.

There is some debate on whether to go back and rescue the rock samples, which promptly ends when the shuttle starts rocking alarmingly.

At first you think it might be volcanic activity, but then you look out the front window and see that the another of the six legged creatures, or perhaps the same one, has mounted the shuttle.

Another debate breaks out, this time on what the intent of the creature is.
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>>5034789

>Theorize the creature is looking for somewhere to sleep, state you should probably find some way to scare it off unless you want to end up trapped beneath it for hours or perhaps days.

>Theorize it is trying to mate with the shuttle, hopefully it will leave shortly.

>Theorize it is trying to eat the shuttle, try to convince Farzaneh to take off in order to shake it off.
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>>5034790
>Theorize it is trying to mate with the shuttle, hopefully it will leave shortly.
Was my first thought when you said it mounted the shuttle.
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>>5034790
>Theorize it is trying to eat the shuttle, try to convince Farzaneh to take off in order to shake it off.
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>>5034790
>>Theorize it is trying to mate with the shuttle, hopefully it will leave shortly.
>>
>>5034790
>Theorize the creature is looking for somewhere to sleep, state you should probably find some way to scare it off unless you want to end up trapped beneath it for hours or perhaps days.

>Throw rocks at it and lead it away from the shuttle. If we see more of them outside immediately get back and fly away.
>>
>>5034790
>Theorize it is trying to eat the shuttle, try to convince Farzaneh to take off in order to shake it off.
>>
>>5034790
>>Theorize it is trying to mate with the shuttle, hopefully it will leave shortly.
>>
>Theorize it is trying to mate with the shuttle, hopefully it will leave shortly.

You theorize that the creature is trying to mate with the shuttle, they are roughly the same size and shape after all.

Hopefully, it won’t harass the shuttle for long.

The others don’t all agree with this conclusion, but agree to give the creature some time to perhaps get bored and wander off on its own.

However, after 20 odd minutes of waiting it becomes clear the creature likely isn’t going anywhere.

To your annoyance, you also realize you dropped your phaser when you tripped over the box of rocks while fleeing the creature, and the thought of misplacing something you checked out from the armory doesn’t exactly thrill you.

Feeling irritated and impatient, and also worried that the creature may be there for hours, or is perhaps even damaging the shuttle in some way, you unilaterally decide to open the rear hatch and try to lure the creature away from the shuttle, perhaps by throwing more rocks.

You open the rear hatch, partially dislodging the creature in the process.

Even more clumsy than you realized, it becomes unbalanced, and falls off the shuttle with a dismayed sounding hoot.

You hear the thrum of the shuttle’s engines starting, and rush back in, but it turns out that Farzaneh only intended to get the shuttle to hover a few meters of the ground so that the creature couldn’t climb back on top.

Elijah is pretty stressed out by this point and clearly just wants to get back to the Honolulu even if he doesn't outright say it, but Jovari has more experience with things not going to plan and wants to collect the sampling equipment then go take samples somewhere else. Farzaneh was impressed by your reckless little stunt just now, and says she wants you to decide and will back your decision but otherwise doesn’t care either way.

Although Jovari is technically the away team lead, Farzaneh outranks him, as she is an ensign despite being in her thirties, while Jovari is a civilian scientist who only holds the rank of crewman specialist despite a long history of collaborating with Starfleet. You figure neither Jovari or Elijah will raise much of a fuss if you decide on the option they don't want.

>Recommend leaving the planet and returning to the Honolulu.

>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).

>Recommend just retrieving the equipment (and your phaser) then leaving.
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>>5035627
>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
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>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>>5035627
>>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).
>>
>Recommend retrieving the equipment and continuing the geological survey elsewhere (and also discreetly retrieving your phaser).

You recommend continuing the mission, which Farzaneh then supports.

Farzaneh pilots the shuttle over to the area where the equipment and supplies were left, thus allowing Jovari and Elijah to retrieve it safely. During this time, you were also able to discretely retrieve your dropped phaser.

The away team then heads to one of Jovari’s other top picks for collecting rock samples. Fortunately, nothing unusual happens at the second site, and you spend the next few hours patrolling the area while Jovari and Elijah play with rocks. It got boring enough that you almost wished for another encounter with the six legged creature.

The shuttle ride back to the USS Honolulu is likewise unexceptional. On the plus side though, everyone is a lot more chatty due to the shared experience with the six legged creature.
Jovari is thankful for your support in recommending the mission continue. He spends much of the trip back talking about how awesome the samples he found were. You don’t really understand the details, but his enthusiasm is infectious. He also promises to push the exobiology division back at the Risa Station to send a survey team to the planet at some point to catalogue the wildlife.

Farzaneh seems to have shaken off her hangover thanks to the short misadventure and now seems to want to be your new best friend. She tells several (hopefully exaggerated) tales of misadventure while on previous missions, and also makes several attempts to recruit you to the “Wolf Pack” social clique.

Even Elijah seems to be in a pretty good mode.

--------------------------------------------------

-- Two Days Later --

You sigh and lean back in your chair as Maxim grinds through yet another update from Maxim on the blockade situation.

The worlds of Freedome and Lampa have been in a slowly escalating series of disputes for years now, but the Lampa blockade of some worthless star system called FGC-45768, a white dwarf with a few small rocky planets of no strategic value.

Freedome is a gathering point for libertarian minded individuals of various races, including a surprising number from core Federation worlds like Earth. Such worlds are fairly common throughout Federation territory, since there is no shortage of outcasts, adventure seekers, and ideological fringe hacks somehow getting the resources to start a new colony.

Lampa is the home world of the Lampans. The planet is unfortunately ruled by an authoritarian government of thin skinned thugs who deeply resent the fact that no one treats them with even a fraction of the respect they feel they deserve. They only recently achieved warp travel and are too low tech to be taken seriously by anyone, which sometimes causes them to lash out by harassing civilian vessels and unmanned sensors located in “their space”.
>>
>>5038472

The conflict between the two is therefore largely ideological, with the two factions hating each other on principle, and messing with the other every chance they get.

And naturally despite the fact that neither are Federation members, or even affiliates, Starfleet feels obliged to intervene since both factions called upon the Federation to provide aid.

Therefore a number of nearby ships not doing anything particularly important were called into babysit certain hot spots in order to record who shot first in the inevitable skirmish, so the other side’s diplomats can score a few talking points at the inevitable Federation sponsored peace conference.

Boring.

The possibility of the Honolulu’s security personnel being required to do anything is seen as minimal, but due to the slight risk of a boarding attempt, all away missions are on hold.

More boring.

Maxim finally finishes his update, and everyone files out of the security briefing room.

You are technically still on duty, but the security team is small, so no one is never not on duty, so you rarely do any real work beyond attending briefings, doing the occasional training program or security sweep, and accompanying away teams.

>Go hang out in the Port Barracks common room, some of the more mature crew will likely gather their to chat.

>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.

>Sneak off to one of the secondary holodecks before the others get the chance. You have been wanting to try out... (write in a program for Nimue to try)

>Go to the workout room, you never know who you find there.
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>>5038477
>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.
>>
>>5038477
>Sneak off to one of the secondary holodecks before the others get the chance. You have been wanting to try out... (write in a program for Nimue to try)
Our girl seems like she's in dire need of an adventure and she did pretty good in her "let's beat the shit out of people" classes, so maybe something like Worf's training program...? Or something a little slower paced but similarly high risked like some kind of free-climbing or other extreme sport program? Hell, even if a LARP dungeon-crawler might scratch her need for action.
>>
>>5038477
>>Go hang out in the Port Barracks common room, some of the more mature crew will likely gather their to chat.
>>
>>5038477
>>Go hang out in the Port Barracks common room, some of the more mature crew will likely gather their to chat.
>>
>>5038477
>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.
Curiosity wins for me
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>>5038477
>>Go hang out in the Port Barracks common room, some of the more mature crew will likely gather their to chat.
>>
>Go hang out in the Port Barracks common room.

You decide to head over to the Port Barracks common room hoping for some relatively mature and sensible conversation, or maybe just a bit of quiet. You are feeling like you have been partying a bit too hard lately and that you should probably pace yourself.

You are the first one there, so you grab a coffee and check personal messages on your PADD for a bit.

Your parents have sent you some pictures of Big Tummy, their cat, along with a message about how proud they are of you, which you thank them for.

You never really fit in with your family as much as you wanted to. Your parents are pragmatic, sensible types that idealize the bureaucratic but efficient nature of most Federation worlds, particularly when contrasted to many Orion worlds which tend to be run by criminal oligarchies or ultraconservative yet thoroughly corrupt failed states (fortunately for them, your parents grew up in a middle class family on one of the more civilized Orion colonies and had an upbringing comparable to humans and many other core Federation members).

Likely as a result of this idealization, you spent much of your childhood bouncing between various Federation colonies where you parents worked as civilian scientists.

Lacking any interest in academics, you mostly focused on arts, sports, and partying hard throughout your teenage years, but eventually your parent’s unspoken disapproval started getting on your nerves, so the fact that your glorified security guard job makes them warm and tingly is definitely a good thing in your books.

Eventually enough people show up in the common room to have a decent conversation.

Present are the entire security team except Bouncer, plus Henderson’s wayward niece Erin and Doctor O’Connor. The conversation quickly becomes about the politics of the blockade.

O’Connor thinks little of either faction as both have caused problems for the Federation in the past.

Maxim is indifferent to the politics of either faction, but finds the Federation’s intervention to be a waste of time.

You and Nikwid both strongly agree that the Lampans are in the wrong, but both of you admit to having anti-authoritarian biases.

Bollywood doesn’t contribute to the conversation and instead reads a novel on her PADD.

Erin flips back and forth between various positions. An outspoken teenager with limited social skills and a strong anti-authoritarian bent, but also a strong sense of justice, she initially sides with Freedome, but flips to the Lampans when she finds out that Freedome is famous for several activities she considers amoral like sexual slavery and animal fights. Then she finds out the Lampans have a long history of abusing the poor underclass and minorities of their world and argues that the Federation should just invade both worlds.
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>>5039291

This sparks a second argument, with Maxim and Erin arguing for a robust Federation military to impose Federation values on the many unjust civilizations of the Galaxy, while O’Connor argues against since it is contrary to Federation principles, and you and Nikwid argue against because you dislike authoritarian governments of any kind.

Eventually things get a bit heated between Maxim and Nikwid (and for some reason, your universal translator still refuses to translate Maxim’s broken English into something understandable), so you decide to go do something else with your time.

>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.

>Sneak off to one of the secondary holodecks before the others get the chance. You have been wanting to try out... (write in a program for Nimue to try)

>Go to the workout room, you never know who you find there.
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>>5039294
>>Sneak off to one of the secondary holodecks before the others get the chance. You have been wanting to try out... (write in a program for Nimue to try)
D-Day. June 6th 1944. Omaha sector.
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>>5039294
>>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.
>>
>>5039294
>>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.
>>
>>5039323
This. These wolf pack guys are try hard literally who faggots and if they want to hang with us they gotta try a bit harder.
>>
>Go check out the main holodeck, the "Wolf Pack" is testing out a new program, but they won't tell you what it is.
>D-Day. June 6th 1944. Omaha sector.

You decide to head down to the main holodeck to see what the “Wolf Pack” is up to.

Outside the entrance to the holodeck are a small group of off-duty crew in swimwear.

During your short time on board the USS Honolulu, you have noted that there are five loosely organized social groups, the Wolf Pack (mostly young, immature extroverts), the Wall Flowers (mostly young, immature introverts), the Grey Beards (old, but low ranking crew nearing retirement), the Upper Deckers (senior staff and ambitious ensigns), and the Warp Heads (anti-social engineers from the alpha shift warp core team). However, some crew don’t favor any group, and others bounce between two to three groups based on shared interests, or who is off-duty/on-duty.

So it is not too surprising that many of those present aren’t members of the Wolf Pack. Despite their immaturity, the Wolf Pack has a reputation for coming up with some pretty interesting programs (assuming you aren’t easily offended).

Wolf Pack members Bouncer, Hacker, and Farzaneh are already in the program, but it is expected they will be ready for a reset in a few minutes. Outside are Ensign Dzintara Kalniņš (Wolf Pack), Technicians Chen and Anvi (Wall Flowers), and Specialist Goggergogg (Warp Head).

Still mystified as to the nature of the program, you head to the “change room” and replicate yourself a two piece bathing suit to change into.

When you get back out into the hallway, people are still waiting so you strike up a conversation with Goggergogg. A rare example of a Pakled in Starfleet, you feel bad for him due to the ongoing skirmishes with the Pakled Empire, not unlike the suspicion occasionally directed at you whenever Orions are getting negative press.

Also, the universal translators make him sound like a dim-witted child, you would think someone would have fixed that by now.

Hacker finally opens the doors to the holodeck and begins to explain his latest masterpiece.

It is a popular program reenacting the storming of Normandy during WW2, except with the Nazis replaced with Nazi Zombies, and the Americans replaced with beach bros and babes.

You don’t really know enough about Earth’s history to appreciate the nature of the program, but you do find it vaguely crass to turn a historical battle into a game, though the same could be said for the original program this one is based on.

The program starts out onboard some sort of low tech boat with high metal walls. Along one wall are an array of weapons to chose from. You don’t need to be a history buff to know the weapons are taken from a wide range of time periods, or that some of them aren’t really weapons.
>>
>>5040061

Not sure which weapons to pick, but figuring you will probably do at least a few more play-troughs over the coming weeks, you grab a type-2 phaser and a pool noodle. At least this way you can pretend you are training for an away team mission, and as for the pool noodle, why not?

Hacker approves of your choice and notes the pool noodle is currently a bit over powered.

Suddenly, one of the walls of the boat lowers itself into the water, forming a ramp out onto the beach.

The beach is swarming with “zombies” (some mythical shambling animated corpse from Earth folklore) in Nazi uniforms. A few carry ancient rifles and pistols, but only some of them seem to have the intelligence to use them.

You and your fellow crew members open fire on the nearest zombies, but soon find it is more fun to individually dart in and out of packs of zombies and slaughter them at close range or in melee rather than systematically clearing the beach with disciplined long ranged fire. Not that doing so was possible anyways as Hacker later informs you the program is designed to send more and more zombies and other creatures at you the longer you stay in one area.

At first there seems to be no way to lose against the slow moving zombies, but then Dzintara gets deliberately careless just to see what would happen, and “dies” when too many zombies are able to grapple her. She becomes a “ghost”, fated to observe, but not interact, with the rest of the program until it is done, or everyone else “dies”. A hologram replica of her remains trapped within the claws of the zombies, and is brutally dismembered by bites, clawing hands, bayonets, and brute strength. Several holographic allies from other landing boats meet a similar fate. It is both comically gory, but also vaguely titillating, reminding you of a genre of old Earth films you used to like.

As you slaughter your way up the beach, you find various “upgrades”, as well as come in contact with more challenging opponents (machine gun zombies, ambush zombies, zombies with bombs strapped to them, some sort of fireball throwing scantily clad female zombies with diabolical features, etc.).

Goggergogg unlocks the “rainbow unicorn” upgrade and charges around the battlefield with his new mount incinerating zombies with rainbow blasts while yelling “I am Strong”.

You belatedly realize that the pool noodle is a potent melee weapon and even nudging opponents slightly with it knocks them back in pieces for tens of meters.

The others master even more outlandish weapons and gear, and for a while you seem untouchable, until the increasing numbers of difficult opponents slowly print down the crew one by one.

You are one of the last to “die”, blown up by a kamikaze zombie thrown by some sort of giant mutant abomination, but you would be lying if you said this wasn’t the most fun you had in a while.
>>
>>5040062

You are one of the last to “die”, blown up by a kamikaze zombie thrown by some sort of giant mutant abomination, but you would be lying if you said this wasn’t the most fun you had in a while.

Although you desperately want to try the program again, yourself, Bouncer, Hacker, and Dzintara get called away for a mission briefing.

You leave the holodeck, get changed back into your uniform, and head back to the security briefing room, unsure of what would require another briefing less than an hour after the previous one.

By the time you get there, Maxim, Bollywood, and Nikwid are already there, along with Fron, (a large, tree-like tactical officer from the bridge crew), Henderson, and Baywatch. The others summoned from the holodeck also arrive, for ten total, probably the largest gathering of crew in one place for a work related event you have seen thus far.

You feel a bit excited, and also a bit apprehensive, presumably this is going to be big.

In his typical bland fashion, Lt. Cmdr. Henderson explains the mission as being a retrieval mission for an unmanned Federation monitoring station stolen by Orion pirates. Although the monitoring station was not particularly important, difficult to replace, or contained any proprietary technology, Starfleet wants to retrieve it in order to discourage the Orions in the sector from becoming even bolder.

You are a bit troubled by the prospect of your crew mates in some way making a big deal about your Orion nature, but no one mentions it during the briefing. It seems you have no special role in this other than to stand around holding a gun while Hacker and Dzintara pull apart the pirate outpost looking for the station.

You mentally breath a sigh of relief, although you aren’t easily offended, you sometimes find the assumptions others make of you inconvenient.

The USS Honolulu will reach the pirate outpost in four hours. How do you spend your time?

>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.

>Go back and play the Omaha beach holographic program some more.

>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
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>>5040065
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
I honestly don't see why we can't combine these two and practice with historical conflicts in this area
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>>5040065
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
This. Although I think it'll probably be focused more on the pirate activities/crews known to be active in the area than Orion culture (then again our again our girl had a bit of an unorthodox upbringing for an Orion).
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>>5040065
>>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector
>>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
>>
>>5040065
>>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
>>
>>5040065
>>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
Seems logical
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>>5040065
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
>>
>>5040065
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
>Head to a secondary hologram for some more realistic combat practice.
>>
>>5040065
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.
>>
>Find somewhere quiet to review what you know about Orion culture, as well as pirate activities in this sector.

You decide to head back to your quarters and do some research to remind yourself a bit about how more typical Orion societies operate. It seems inevitable that someone will try to ask you questions about Orion culture. You mentally review the basics during the short walk from the security briefing room.

Orions are found on a number of worlds within the so-called “Borderlands” region, which is now split between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, though the name is believed to predate either civilization. The Orions themselves inherited much of their initial technology from a now vanished ancient empire, but have been in decline socially for centuries now.

Although Orions are sometimes fanatically loyal to their clans and corporations, there is little racial loyalty left in the species, instead the strongest clans claim the loyalty of weaker clans, who in turn claim the loyalty of weaker clans, etc, etc. But even the strongest clans rarely rule more than a colony or a nation on a developed planet, while others operate more like corporation or criminal gangs. However, there have been some signs that pan-Orion nationalism and exceptionalism is returning, and has strong ties to factions of the Orion Syndicate.

Culturally, Orions vary from world to world, but an obsession with hedonism and materialism can be found in most Orion cultures. Similar to the Ferengi, Orions seem very adept at identifying goods and services people are willing to pay for despite the widespread use replicators and holograms in most advanced cultures. Some Orion worlds even deliberately restrict the use of replicators among lower class citizenry to exaggerate the difference in wealth between the rich and the poor, and make poorer citizens more willing to take risks on behalf of the rich. On other worlds, capitalism is so deeply entrenched that many citizens simply can’t afford personal replicators, or the resources to operate one.

The clan mentality combined with desire for wealth means many clans are willing to engage in theft or even open piracy, provided they have the means.

Within the Risa Sector, the two main clans are the Firehearts, who mostly do mining, but also sometimes illegal salvaging and piracy, and the Black Souls, who specialize in sex trafficking, espionage, mercenary work, and blackmail. Both have ties to the Orion nationalist factions of the Syndicate, and it is believed their recent aggression is on the orders of the Syndicate to see what Starfleet is willing to tolerate now that it is finally starting to recover from the Dominion War.

The monitoring station was stolen by the Firehearts and taken to a dormant magnesite mine owned by one of their shell corporations.

You reach your room and flip through your PADD a bit for records on Fireheart activities in the sector.
>>
>>5041681

Nothing too hardcore, at least not by Orion standards.

A fight with a Yridian vessel over salvage that became lethal, eight known acts of piracy against small civilian vessels that “trespassed in their territory”, suspected links to narcotic manufacture and kidnappings for ransom, twenty-three counts of slavery (in the form of debt bondage), four brawls with off-duty Starfleet personnel, including a lethal stabbing, and carrying out sixteen known targeted hits for the Syndicate, including four political dissidents, three race mixers, and six snitches.

Since the Fireheart clan holdings aren’t protected by any planetary government recognized by the Federation, diplomatic issues should be minimal. Maxim and Henderson’s strategy of simply showing up in orbit, suppressing any defenses, then beaming down a strike team seems straight forward enough, but you can’t help but feel it is a little heavy handed.

This is actually the third time Starfleet as raided this particular colony. The last two times, the away teams were harassed by civilians, and even got in a short shootout with the clan’s security forces. Residual magnesite in the vicinity of the colony makes both sensors and transporters unreliable, making this mission extra dangerous.

You are actually starting to become a bit nervous now. This seems like the kind of mission that should be done by a trained tactical security team (or several). No doubt Maxim’s gung ho nature helped convince Henderson not to seek further back-up from Risa.

You still have three hours left.

>Go get some holodeck practice.

>Write a message for your parents in case you are KIA.

>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew.
>>
>>5041685
>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew.
>>
>>5041685
>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew.
>>
>>5041685
>>Go get some holodeck practice.
>>
>>5041685
>Write a message for your parents in case you are KIA.
Your daughter should've found a better job
>>
>>5041685
>>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew
>>
>>5041685
>>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew.
>>
>Go talk to some of the more experienced crew.

You decide to go talk to some of the more experienced crew, particularly Maxim, Nikwid, and Bollywood who are having a conversation right outside your room in the common room.

Nikwid, and to a lesser extent Maxim, and even Bollywood provide some useful advice.

In particular, they stress the importance of standing your ground, and not either backing down, or giving into aggression.

Useful advice as it turned out.

---------------------------

-- Several Hours Later --

You do your best to calm your anxiety as your shuttle descends towards the mine site.

On board your shuttle are Maxim, Bouncer, Dzintara, Fron, and Farzaneh (piloting) while Baywatch, Bollywood, Nikwid, Bouncer, and Hacker ride down in the other shuttle with Sanata piloting.

Henderson is back on board the USS Honolulu in orbit.

Earlier in the day, Henderson had been informed by the mine’s governor that the mine had no involvement in the theft of the monitoring station, but that the station’s tracking beacon, and other key parts, may have been smuggled onto the planet via a recently received shipment from a nearby trading and refueling station known as Chalendar Depot.

He has “graciously” allowed Starfleet to do an investigation of the warehouses where the stolen material is suspected of being held, as well as allow shuttles to do fly-overs of any parts of the planet where sensors indicate that other pieces of the station may be hidden.

One of the other pieces of advice you received earlier in the day is that the relationship between the criminal world and law enforcement is often a strange one. Although Henderson and Maxim could likely find some excuse to arrest the mine’s governor and other key officials on the grounds they may have been involved in one of several other crimes the Fireheart clan has been involved in lately, such charges would unlikely stand up in the Federation’s regional court back on Risa (not to mention the arrest itself would have probably been a bloodbath). However, the threat of such charges was enough to get the mine to cooperate (more or less).

The story of the set-up seems plausible, and may explain why the beacon had not been disabled.

Of course, there are other explanations, such as carelessness or ignorance regarding the beacon (which is well hidden), or perhaps that the beacon had deliberately been left on in order to see if Starfleet would be willing to do anything about the theft (Maxim’s original theory) or worse case scenario, that this is some sort of trap.

Your shuttle and the other one land on a pad near the warehouse, and form up into a defensive group.

A small delegation of senior officials is waiting to meet your group, while mine security staff keep an angry mob at bay.

It appears Starfleet isn’t very popular here, and no doubt someone, perhaps even the governor himself leaked information about the visit by Starfleet personnel.
>>
>>5042915

Whatever Orion subculture the Firehearts come from seems to be one of the more patriarchal ones, with an emphasis on physical strength. Males seem to make up most of the senior staff, as well as all of the security personnel, and their seems to be a strong correlation between size, musculature, and status. The Governor is a massive man, at least seven feet tall, with a sleeveless tunic, hairless scalp, bushy beard, and multiple piercings, traits he shares with many of the other men present. He carries a large metalworking hammer, which seems to be some sort of badge of honor.

Baywatch, who is acting first officer Honolulu while Henderson is acting captain, steps forward to greet the Governor.

They have a terse conversation where Baywatch threatens consequences if the crowd gets out of control, while the Governor argues he was generous just to allow Starfleet onto his colony to begin with.

Then, unexpectedly, the Governor calls you to step forward from the rest of the away team standing a few steps behind Baywatch.

>Stay silent and ignore him.

>Step forward.

>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim.
>>
>>5042916
>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim.
>>
>>5042916 #
>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim

We're starfleet We're gonna act like it.
>>
>>5042916
>>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim.
Yeah, let's look at one of our senior officers for watdo in this situation.
>>
>>5042916
>>Step forward.
>>
>>5042916
>Step forward.
>>
>>5042916
>>Step forward.
>>
>>5042916
>>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim.
>>
>Ask for clarification from Baywatch or Maxim.

“Sir?” - You ask Maxim, indicating in as few syllables as possible that you want clarification.

“Just ignore him.” - Replies Maxim with his distinct accent.

“Spineless bitch...” - Mutters the Governor, just loud enough for your translator to pick it up.

There is a long, awkward pause, then Baywatch demands for the search to begin, and the Governor indicates to his security personnel to move the crowd out of the way.

The lower class Orion workers are a fairly rough looking bunch, wearing dirty coveralls, stained underclothes, or vaguely barbaric casual wear. There are also quite a few dressed as sex workers, even relatively small Orion colonies often have a thriving red light district.

A couple of them throw rocks or rotting food as they are cleared out of the area. Others shout various insults.

You hear “traitor” a few times, likely in reference to yourself.

It doesn’t take too long to find the beacon and a couple other pieces of the monitoring station buried in several large crates of unsorted salvage the colony purchased from Chalendar Depot.

The Governor of course claims this is proof that the beacon was stolen by someone else, and it was merely bad luck it ended up here, but Baywatch and Maxim are doubtful, the monitoring station picked up a ship owned by the Fireheart Clan just prior to its sensors being blown out, it wouldn’t be too hard to have “laundered” the salvage through a third party, then sent another ship to pick it up.

However, as the Governor points out, this is very hard to prove, at least not without visiting Chalendar Depot.

Judging by the Governor’s smug attitude, he knows full well visiting Chalendar Depot is a waste of time, either because his clan did steal the station and covered it up, or he didn’t do it, and is reasonably confident a proper investigation would validate this.

Either way, it seems like an awful lot of intrigue for a practically worthless monitoring station. You find yourself very curious as to what Maxim, Bollywood, and Henderson will think about all this once you are safely back on the ship.

The next two hours are mostly spent keeping an eye out while Dzintara, the ship’s structural materials specialist, identifies bits and pieces of monitoring station. After all, what is the point of coming all this way if you are not going to retrieve it, worthless though it may be?

By the time you get back in the shuttle to return to the ship, you can’t help but feel the whole thing was a bit anticlimactic after fretting for the several hours leading up to it, though you definitely didn’t appreciate being but on the spot by the Governor, or having rocks thrown at you.

You return to the USS Honolulu just as the last few pieces of monitoring station are being beamed aboard, and a short time later, the ship leaves the system and everyone is stood down. You feel you should do something to relax.
>>
>>5043825

>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Get wasted.

>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.

>Book one of the secondary holograms and find something relaxing to do (write in).
>>
>>5043828
>>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.
>>
>>5043828
>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.
>>
>>5043828
>>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Get wasted.
They call it the Honolulu because it's all beach parties inside.
>>
>>5043828
>>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Get wasted.
>>
>>5043828
>>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.
>>
>>5043828
>>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.
>>
>Head to the main holodeck, the beach program is getting set up and people are planning on getting wasted. Enjoy a relaxing meal and swim.

You head to the main holodeck for some food and relaxation. Since the holodeck beach program is pretty much always running, many people treat it as the de facto cafeteria and you are pretty hungry at this point.

Meals are served by hologram waiters and waitresses in a small cluster of tables, chairs, and umbrellas on a platform in the middle of the beach. There is a small bar nearby with a replicator from which many different meals and drinks can be produced.

You order a pina colada, a large glass of water, and some rice garnished with spicy sauce and a mix of meats, eggs, nuts, and vegetables.

As you eat and soak in the artificial warmth of the sun, Baywatch comes over and asks to sit with you. You know she is mostly just checking in to see how you are doing after your first mission, but you appreciate the gesture. You make ideal small talk for a while, and are latter joined by Nikwid, Fron, and Maxim, who are also likely a bit concerned about your well being.

You continue to sit and chat for a bit while watching the drunken victory celebration of the Wolf Pack plus Sanata and Aka.

Once the conversation loses momentum, you instead go for a swim.

Clever holographic programming makes the swim surprisingly realistic. The manipulated particles do a good job of both simulating wetness, as well as the weight and fluidity of water, while expert use of optical illusions and miniaturized tractor beam technology allow you to feel like you are swimming for long distances even though you know you are staying roughly in the same spot.

You then grab a beach towel and lounge around on the beach for a while basking in the sun. It is very comfortable and you are starting to understand why some people occasionally sleep here rather than in their beds (though drunkenness is also probably a big part of it).

Several more people have joined the partying group and it seems like they are having a pretty good time, but you are feeling rather lazy right now.

To your surprise, the events of today haven’t really had much of an impact on you, if anything you find yourself missing the adrenaline rush a bit. Perhaps not all that surprising though really, you never one to dwell on “what-ifs”.

Instead you decide to take a short nap.

By the time you wake up, someone has fiddled with the program so that it is now dusk (probably so they can start the bonfire), but it is still a very comfortable temperature, and one of the holographic servants has brought you a blanket, pillow, and headphones.

However, even with old fashion headphones on playing loud but calming music, the rambunctiousness of the party crowd is too much of a distraction for you to feel like you will get a proper sleep, so you head back to your room, write a message to your parents, then go to bed.

---------------------------------
>>
>>5044814

-- Next Morning --

Your work shift starts with yet another briefing in the security briefing room.

Apparently lacking anything better to do, the USS Honolulu has arrived at Chalendar Depot for some subtle inquiries about the (supposedly Fireheart affiliated) ship that brought the stolen monitoring station to the depot in order to sell it as scrap.

Henderson did some digging yesterday and it turns out that Black Soul Orion clan has set up some businesses at the depot.

The Black Souls are not known to have any conflicts with the Firehearts, but something new may have come up. Or perhaps the two are just working together in order to muddy the waters so that it is harder for a Federation Court to try one or the other for the theft.

The Honolulu crew, particularly members of the Wolf Pack, have a history of visiting the depot for recreational leave. Maxim thinks that sending some crew to throw around some cash and listen to rumors may be a good way to get a feel for anything fishy going on at the station, and more importantly provide cover for some of the crew more experienced in espionage (or just law breaking) to do some more serious digging.

Dzintara, Chen, Anvi, Bollywood, and Nikwid volunteer to check out the relatively safe drinking holes, while Bouncer, Fron, Farzaneh, Maxim, and Hacker will visit the sleazier areas, and also provide cover for Hacker to “hack” the depot’s systems for relevant information on the identity of the ship that brought over the monitoring station, and the identity of those who scrapped it and sold it to the Firehearts.

You realize no one has a specific role in mind for you, allowing you the freedom to volunteer for one group or the other.

>Volunteer with Dzintara and Bollywood’s group for a tour of the less sleazy bars.

>Volunteer for Maxim’s group for a tour of the really sleazy areas.

>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
>>
>>5044816
>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
>>
>>5044816
>>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
>>
>>5044816
>>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
If we got it we may as well use it.
>>
>>5044833
>>5044866
>>5044870
Do we even know how to act like a "normal" Orian?
>>
>>5044898
Does it matter? Unaffiliated, going on a "soul search" or something, seeking out the roots... act young and naive and coax some people into boasting. The recent deployment nonwithstanding, Nimue knows how to behave unworthy of Starfleet.
>>
>>5044816
>Volunteer for Maxim’s group for a tour of the really sleazy areas.
We are Starfleet's best
>>
>>5044901
>act young and naive
On a super sketchy space station
Sounds like a good way to get kidnapped and sold into slavery
>>
>>5044978
Which in turn sounds like a good reason to nail down the whole place. We'll see what wins out and hiw the GM handles it.
>>
>>5044816
>>Volunteer for Maxim’s group for a tour of the really sleazy areas.
>>
>>5044816
>Volunteer with Dzintara and Bollywood’s group for a tour of the less sleazy bars.
>>
>>5044816
>>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
>>
>>5044816
>>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.
>>
>>5044816
>Volunteer for Maxim’s group for a tour of the really sleazy areas.
>>
>>5044816
>>Volunteer for Maxim’s group for a tour of the really sleazy areas.
>>
>Recommend that you go incognito after you arrive on the station in order to pass yourself off as an unaffiliated Orion who perhaps certain people will be more comfortable speaking with.

You decide to take a big risk and show some initiative by recommending that you go undercover as an Orion civilian instead of pretending to be a partying off-duty officer.

You aren’t entirely sure why you do this, perhaps you are hoping for a big adrenaline rush, or perhaps it is a spontaneous idea you couldn’t back down on once it appeared in your head.

Neither Henderson nor Maxim seem to like the idea of having an inexperienced crewman go undercover, but agree that it makes a certain amount of practical sense. They agree on the condition that Farzaneh tails you, that you don’t enter any secluded areas, and that you transport out at the first sign of trouble.

You spend the next couple of hours reading up on the Chalendar Depot and the Black Souls and getting briefed by Farzaneh.

There actually isn’t much on records regarding the Black Souls, they are very good at covering their tracks, though what you can suss out from the Intelligence briefings isn’t good. The Black Souls specialize in operating in the shadowy underworlds of the many free market outposts and colonies that dot Federation space and beyond. Their businesses take great pains to avoid getting caught breaking local laws, including exploiting loopholes, bribery, elaborate cover-ups, assassinations, and even suicides by some of the more fanatical members to prevent investigators from interrogating them. Seduction is also a popular method, their leadership is matriarchal and senior members and agents will often chemically enhance their pheromones to bypass common antidotes and remedies.

Chalendar Depot has always had a bit of a scummy reputation. An old Starfleet Base that was badly damaged over a century ago during the war with the Klingons, and repaired and maintained by a host of shady outfits ever since, it is currently run by an unstable alliance of minor businesses owned by Ferengi, Orions, and rogues and iconoclasts from several Federation worlds.

Pretty much any business is welcome here, as long as payments are made in one of several widely used currencies, usually gold plated latinum.

Although members of Starfleet aren’t paid wages, most Starfleet stations and vessels contain a decent stockpile of latinum and other trade goods for interactions with non-Federation members, and also sometimes so crew can go on shore leave on non-Federation worlds.

Likely due to his Risian upbringing, Captain (Cmdr.) Paval, more commonly known as “Fabio”, is extremely generous with the amounts of latinum he gives to his crew for any “extracurricular activities”. Although Fabio still hasn’t left Risa yet, Henderson seems to have no problems continuing this tradition. The locals will be expecting it after all...
>>
>>5047773

After a brief explanation from Farzaneh about what different amounts of latinum buys on Chalendar Depot, you then start thinking of a disguise to slip into once you arrive...

>Black overcoat and rags – A popular style with Orions who spend a lot of time on non-Orion worlds. Good for lurking and watching, but doesn’t really give you an “in” to do anything other than canvass drunks like your colleagues. Definitely the safest option though.

>Black bodysuit and corset – Popular with senior ranking female Orions in several subcultures, it will help explain why you got money to burn, but may attract kidnappers looking for a ransom. Also, you will need a good backstory, the Black Souls will inevitably see you as a potential competitor. But rich girls slumming it is a common tradition among most Orion subcultures, and everyone likes being friends with rich people.

>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>>5047774
>Fishnets and tape
>>
>>5047774
>>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>>5047774
>Black bodysuit and corset – Popular with senior ranking female Orions in several subcultures, it will help explain why you got money to burn, but may attract kidnappers looking for a ransom. Also, you will need a good backstory, the Black Souls will inevitably see you as a potential competitor. But rich girls slumming it is a common tradition among most Orion subcultures, and everyone likes being friends with rich people.
>>
>>5047774
>>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>>5047774
>Fishnets and tape
>>
>>5047774
>>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>>5047774
>>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>>5047774
>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.
>>
>Fishnets and tape – A bit demeaning perhaps, but unaffiliated Orion prostitutes and companions were common at the depot even before Black Souls arrived. So far there are no reports of the Black Souls moving against freelancers, but it is probably only a matter of time. This presents a good opportunity to ask pointed questions about the Black Souls without giving away your motives.

You decide to disguise yourself as a prostitute.

A very risque choice to say the least, but it is not like Henderson and Maxim are going to know as step one of the plan involves you arriving at the depot along with your fellow officers dressed in more typical casual wear, before sneaking off somewhere in order to put on your disguise.

You head down to the clothes making replicator by the main holodeck and find everything you need in the “X” rated section of the catalogue. Not surprising really, Hacker once told you that almost 38% of hologram programs are “adult” in nature.

You then head back up to your room and slip into your disguise, a sleeve-less fishnet bodysuit with body tape in all the right places. Over which you throw a tie-dye t-shirt and ankle length pleated dress to hide your disguise during the first part of the mission, as well as a black handbag in which to hide the final piece of your disguise.

You tell Farzaneh of course since she will be the one tailing you. She is surprisingly knowledgeable of the sex trade on the Chalendar Depot and provides you with much information on the unofficial ground rules and favored places of business for sex workers.

Together you come up with a plan for you to put on the final touches of your disguise at a low traffic Repli-Mart before heading over to “Corridor Rouge”.

Not long afterwards, the shore leave party is gathered on the transporter pads, some in uniform, most not, ready to beam over.

-----------------------------------------

-- Chalendar Depot --

Your first impression of Chalendar Depot is not a good one.

You beam over to the so-called “Grand Plaza”, a large area of trinket stands, bars, offices for refueling and repair companies, and by-the-hour holosuites.

Although this area is supposedly the tamest and most lawful part of the ship, it smells like vomit, urine, and stale air, half the lights don’t work, and many shopfronts are empty.

Despite this, there are at least several hundred people here, mostly crews from visiting ships, but also some off-duty station inhabitants.

From what you have heard, Ligwit the Ferengi does a reasonable job keeping the peace in the Grand Plaza with his small force of Cardassian, Ferengi, and Nausicaan “security officers” so it is popular with crews on shore leave who just want a change of scenery without risking too much trouble.
>>
>>5048708

Dzintara, Chen, Anvi, Bollywood, and Nikwid split off to explore the Grand Plaza while the rest travel deeper into the station. Nikwid is pretty good at picking people’s brains, if there is any information worth finding on this level, he will probably find it.

The rest of the group continues deeper into the bowels of station until they reach GlittR GRRLs, an extremely sleazy casino/strip club where there is a little bit of everything for everyone. Dabo, fighting pits (both sentient and animal), sports betting, naked waiters and waitresses, dance floors, replicators that can make pretty much any intoxicant imaginable, and erotic performances in every corner (both live and holographic).

The crowd is definitely wilder and more jaded here, and the owner tolerates all sorts of inappropriate behavior between customers as long as it doesn’t completely get out of hand. There are a lot of Orions here, probably off-duty Black Soul members, as well as crew on shore leave looking for a brawl, illegal narcotics, or just the thrill of experiencing debauchery in real life rather than in a holographic program.

Even you find all this all a bit much, but apparently Bouncer, Fron, Maxim, and Hacker are more experienced with this sort of thing. Bouncer and Fron are mostly just there for their size and muscle though, the real investigative work will be done by Maxim and Hacker, who both apparently have shady contacts here who they can bribe for information. Hacker also “somehow” discovered an operations panel in a crudely constructed room at the back of the strip club section. Although the room is now used for "private liaisons", it was probably once a control station, and thus contains an interface point with minimal security, yet connects to the station’s mainframe. He has apparently hacked it on several past occasions for security operations like this one, and/or his own personal reasons.

After a short time spent at GlittR GRRls making sure Maxim’s group didn’t seem at risk of getting singled out by a rowdy gang, you and Farzaneh slip out to go even deeper into the bowels of the station.

“The Gutter” is a section of the station where short term crew accommodations from the station’s Starfleet days were converted into a poorly maintained slum. Small rooms packed with triple bunk beds are now home to fugitives, deserters, and indentured workers and servants. Rent is free since there are plenty of empty places on the station to lie low, but those with anything worth taking usually pay protection money to one of several petty gangs.

You find it hard to believe that people in warp capable cultures still live like this, but not every world is as wealthy in resources and technology as core Federation worlds like Earth, and relatively few individuals have the time and knowledge to weave through the protective layer of bureaucracy that keep such worlds from being overwhelmed with immigration.
>>
>>5048714

You stop at a small Repli-Mart that Farzaneh somehow found on a previous trip and slip inside. Meant to serve as both a restaurant and a general store, the automated replicators in the main room can make a wide range of items, but the prices are a bit steep by Gutter standards so it is rarely visited. You use the washroom to do a quick wardrobe change, switching your t-shirt and dress for a ragged black hoodie with a broken zipper. According to local custom, as long as you have the hoodie or some other sort of coat on, you are considered “off-duty” though the rest of your outfit still makes your profession quite clear.

Farzaneh uses the time to order herself a cup of “Rainbow”, an extremely strong but sugary tasting alcoholic drink with a distinct candy-like smell and an unusual ability to glow various different colors based on tiny nuances in temperature. A couple of mouthfuls of this, plus some “accidental” drippage on her shirt, and there is no reason to suspect she isn’t a wasted party girl.

You then head over to the Corridor Rouge, a local stretch of drug dens and “rent-a-rooms” where prostitutes and paid companions tend to gather.

You spend the next hour or so pretending to be a new arrival to the station getting a feel for the local market. You are informed that it is mostly a freelancer dominated market, but that some hardcore sex clubs, particularly those run by the Black Souls, have been importing indentures and slaves. You ask if some of the clubs are still hiring locals, and hear that several locations, including “Indigo Nights” still pay decent cash to locals. What makes Indigo Nights special in your mind is that; a) it is owned by the Black Souls, and mostly caters to low ranking Black Soul clan members and employees, and b) it employs a mix of paid locals, indentures, and slaves.

Unfortunately, unless you can prove some of the slaves are Federation citizens, there likely isn’t much Starfleet can do about it, Chalendar Depot is legally a colony of planetary government recognized by the Federation; Freedome, and the Federation is typically very reluctant to interfere with non-Federation worlds.

However, it seems worth checking out. So far, no USS Honolulu crew member has visited a Black Soul operated location, so even a brief recon may shed some light into the nature of their operations. You have no idea how strip clubs relate to stolen monitoring stations, but finding out as much as possible about the Black Soul clan was one of the secondary objectives, so why not.

You confer with Farzaneh (who was up until this point pretending to drunkenly haggle with the prostitutes while watching your back) and agree to try checking out “Indigo Nights”.

With a bit of luck, you are able to follow the directions given to you, and find yourselves in a converted cargo bay with a massive window looking out into space.
>>
>>5048717

The décor is cheap and grungy, but the UV lighting and impressive view of the dark blue gas giant the station orbits helps mitigate this. Most of the occupants are Orion, but there are a decent number of humans and other non-Orions about, so Farzaneh doesn’t stand out too much.

At first you are worried that you would need to come up with a cover story related to looking for employment just to get in, but security seems minimal. Probably just the reputation of the Black Souls is enough keep people from coming here looking for trouble.

You aren’t really sure what to look for, so you and Farzaneh wander about for a while, looking for a group worth eavesdropping on. When nothing presents itself, you instead find a table to sit at and strategize.

It is only by pure coincidence that you look over and recognize the distinct green and grey stripping on the skin of an Orion female in a nearby hanging cage. Such markings usually only occur when a Green Orion has an offspring with one of the much rarer Orion subraces, a mixing which many Orions see as strictly forbidden.

The cage rotates towards you, and to your shock, you recognize the woman as Tola, a Federation political refugee who you once met at a convention a few months ago. Whether she recognizes you, or just the fact you are staring at her with recognition, she seems to be about to start yelling at you to get your attention.

>Play it cool, don’t acknowledge her/deny knowing her, leave after finishing a drink or two so you aren’t to inconspicuous, then inform the other Starfleet personnel investigating the station.

>Call for emergency beam out back to the USS Honolulu. Push Lt. Cmdr. Henderson for some sort of aggressive response to this apparent kidnapping of a Federation citizen.

>Some up with a no doubt very poorly improvised plan to rescue Tola the minute she draws attention to you.
>>
>>5048718
>Slowly nod and put a finger on our lips. Hopefully no one sees. Strategize with Farzaneh. We have to look at the bigger picture. If there's one Federation slave here, there's bound to be more around. We need intel. Ways in and out, what comms do we need to knock out, numbers of hostiles, what weapons and automated defense systems. Let's have more of our crew show up and form an attack strategy. We have surprise and tech on our side. Let's keep our cool, and do this by the book.
>>
>>5048718
>>5048721 +1
>>
>>5048721
>>5048718
+1
>>
>>5048718
>>5048721
+1
>>
>>5048718
>Play it cool, don’t acknowledge her/deny knowing her, leave after finishing a drink or two so you aren’t to inconspicuous, then inform the other Starfleet personnel investigating the station
>>
>>5048721
Supported.

Also, had our girl shown this level of cautious initiative on the academy, she'd have qualified for advanced training.
>>
>>5048721
+1

>>5049071
I think it was the partying that was the problem
>>
>>5048718
>>5048721
+1
>>
>>5049480
Plenty of opportunity for that on the Honolulu, but those first couple of milk runs apparently had a sobering effect. Good for her.
>>
>Slowly nod and put a finger on our lips. Hopefully no one sees. Strategize with Farzaneh. We have to look at the bigger picture. If there's one Federation slave here, there's bound to be more around. We need intel. Ways in and out, what comms do we need to knock out, numbers of hostiles, what weapons and automated defense systems. Let's have more of our crew show up and form an attack strategy. We have surprise and tech on our side. Let's keep our cool, and do this by the book.

You make a quick “shushing” gesture to Tola, which seems to be enough to keep her quiet.

You then lean over and inform Farzaneh of Tola’s identity.

Farzaneh says you and her should leave the club and go track down the others to discuss strategy, which is more or less what you would have said if she didn’t get to it first.

You and Farzaneh depart Indigo Nights and head up to the GlittR GRRls casino to collect Bouncer, Fron, Maxim, and Hacker. GlittR GRRls has communications dampeners so reaching them by combadge isn’t an option.

You also message Bollywood’s group back at the Grand Plaza via combadge. Bollywood replies that her group will meet yours near GlittR GRRls, though you and Farzaneh will likely reach it first.

Along the way you and Farzaneh speculate on whether Tola is one-off or if the Black Souls are deliberately targeting Federation citizens.

You theorize that Tola was specifically targeted by the Black Souls due to a hatred for half-breeds, and that she was enslaved and given to a dive bar rather than killed since the local Matriarch found it a more severe punishment, a theory Farzaneh admits is dark but plausible.

This would mean Tola is probably the only Federation citizen enslaved on this station, aside from maybe some indentures working off debts, unless the Black Souls have been enslaving other Federation citizens they have a particularly intense hatred for.

Though you suppose it is possible the Black Souls are also nabbing Federation citizens just for the “exclusivity” factor, though if they are, they would have to be extremely careful regarding who has access to them. Putting Tola in a relatively public place was sloppy and arrogant, but Orions are very common in the sex trade, several Vulcans or Betazoids would raise all sorts of alarm bells though.

Mindful of the fact that Maxim probably won’t approve of your prostitute disguise, you put your tie-dye shirt and dress back on prior to entering GlittR GRRls.

Inside the casino, it is as sleazy and chaotic as you remember.

You don’t see any of the others and you instinctively try your combadge before Farzaneh reminds you that GlittR GRRls has dampeners to prevent cheating in certain gambling activities.

You start searching through the casino, and almost immediately see a high ranking Orion female chatting nearby with two subordinates near a fighting pit.
>>
>>5049683

>Try eavesdropping on the Orion.

>Continue wandering the fighting pit area looking for your fellow crew.

>Search the dabo area, it is slightly more sophisticated up there.

>Search the “rental room” area, Hacker was accessing an old operations panel in one of them, though he may be done by now.
>>
>>5049684
>Search the dabo area, it is slightly more sophisticated up there.
>>
>>5049684
First, we plan with Farzaneh to meet back at the entrance of the casino at a preset time.

>>Try eavesdropping on the Orion.
We're back in casual wear. Play the naive tourist girl. Look like you're trying to get close to the fighting pit in a way where we can overhear them.
If we happen upon the others, great. But I see opportunity for a morsel of intel here.
If she catches onto us, we won't have much trouble playing the thrill-seeking tourist girl out of her depth.
>>
>>5049699
Supported, and send Farzaneh ahead to prime Hacker.
>>
>>5049684
>when you feel like that High Ranking Orion may have Made you
Let's play it cool, given who we're looking for I say we check the fighting pit arena.
>>
>>5049836
>>5049699
Since she's near the fighting pits, though, maybe we could hit two birds with one stone?
>>
>>5049684
>>Continue wandering the fighting pit area looking for your fellow crew.
>>
>>5049684
>Search the “rental room” area, Hacker was accessing an old operations panel in one of them, though he may be done by now.
>>
>>5049684
>>Continue wandering the fighting pit area looking for your fellow crew.
>>
>>5049684
>Search the “rental room” area, Hacker was accessing an old operations panel in one of them, though he may be done by now.
>>
>>5049684
>>Try eavesdropping on the Orion.
>>
>>5049684
>>Search the dabo area, it is slightly more sophisticated up there.
>>
>>5049684
>>5049699
Supporting keep a look out for the others as well
>>
>Try eavesdropping on the Orion.

You decide to try eavesdropping on the matriarch-looking Orion.

Farzaneh wishes you good luck and says she will go look for Hacker.

Whatever fight is going on in that particular pit must be pretty popular since spectators have almost completely surrounded it, but there is a bit of a gap near the table where the Orion woman sits, presumably because even drunks are intimidated by the amount of muscle she has surrounding her.

You slip into the gap, hoping to just look like an oblivious tourist trying to find an opening to watch the fight.

One of the massive thugs grabs you by the shoulder and yanks you around so you are face-to-face with the Orion woman.

She blows on your face, then suggests you “scram”.

Uncharacteristically intimated, you quickly do so, and it is only after you had traveled a fair distance away that you realized she used some sort of targeted version of Orion pheromones on you.

Feelings of intimidation and submission are a common reaction in Orion females when exposed to pheromones from another female with much more potent pheromones. This of course has only become more common as some already high ranking Orions have used biochemical procedures to boost their pheromone production levels to unnatural rates. The ability to control and target ones pheromones is a bit more rare, but not completely surprising, particularly in a group like the Black Souls that thrive on manipulation.

You decide to leave the Orion female alone for now and continue searching for your crewmates.

It doesn’t take you long to find Hacker at another fighting pit, sitting at a table flirting with a Kriosian. In the pit below, Fron is boxing with a Nausicaan. You briefly wonder what could have compelled her to join a fight. You know enough about her physiology to know that the Nausicaan, tough as his species usually is, is hopelessly outclassed, but Fron has never been one for showboating or getting distracted during a mission. Perhaps she felt someone was watching the group.

Perhaps Hacker is likewise trying to reduce suspicion, so you catch is attention non-verbally, and indicate with hand gestures that he should meet you outside when he is ready.

You figure Farzaneh will eventually track down Bouncer and Maxim, so you head outside and find somewhere to stand where you could keep an eye on both the entrance to GlittR GRRLs and the corridor from which Bollywood’s group would most likely approach.

It takes a few minutes, but eventually everyone from the away team mission arrives and Maxim leads everyone into a decommissioned public washroom to cut down on the number of eavesdroppers.

Everyone pools what information they have found so far.
>>
>>5051323

Hacker says his initial review of the information he copied from the station mainframe suggests all sorts of money laundering and smuggling occurs here, with goods coming in from all sorts of anarco-libertarian free-for-alls like Freecloud, Freedome, the Orion Colonies, Turkana IV, and Nimbus III, and getting smuggled into nearby autocratic nations like Lampa, Krios, Coalition of Madena, and Arkon, as well as factions further away like the True Way.

This sort of thing is pretty typical from what you have heard, and it will probably take a detailed forensic analysis to find anything useful, assuming the Black Souls are even dumb enough to store information on the mainframe and not their own computers.

Nikwid says most of the salvage operations are run by Yridians and Ferengi, but the Firehearts still occasionally sell salvage at the station. Information given to Maxim suggests the vessel that brought the scrapped Federation monitoring station to the depot was Ferengi though, and was perhaps using a forged transponder signal.

Your information on Tola doesn’t really fit with the original investigation, but everyone agrees that the kidnapping takes priority over a stolen unmanned monitoring station.

You are forced to admit the exact circumstances of how you got into Indigo Nights to begin with, as everyone agrees that a large group of humans won’t be able to just walk right into Indigo Nights.

Maxim isn’t very impressed by your earlier “pretend to be a prostitute” idea, but some of the others are.

After much discussion, most people want to either “bring down the hammer” and try to take Tola by force, or send you, Maxim, Bouncer, Fron, and Farzaneh to the bar to try and purchase Tola’s services and sneak her out.

>Support “bring down the hammer”.

>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
>>
>>5051325
>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.

The more we can learn before we strike the better
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
We don't know how many more citizens are kept here but she might.
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
The Hammer can always be brought down if we fail.
>>
>>5051325
>Support “bring down the hammer”.
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
>>
>>5051325
>>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.
Buy her, get as much info as we can. I don't recall there being a scrambler on that building, unlike the casino, so we can communicate with the outside, meaning we can have most of the group wait, and only have maybe two people go in with her. The rest can recon the exits or even the interior.
>>
>Support trying to buy Tola, or at least a few hours of her time.

You mention to the others you would be willing to go back to Indigo Nights, which probably didn’t determine the course of action, but may have helped sway it.

You and Farzaneh are chosen to go back since you got in before, Maxim since he has overall command of the away team and is also hard-nosed abrasive enough to pretend to be someone from Freedome. Bouncer and Fron just look like the type of muscle that would accompany someone wealthy from Freedome.

In case anyone recognizes you and Farzaneh from earlier, the story is you are hanger-ons of Maxim that know his “preferences”.

The others will go back to the ship and get uniforms and phasers in case things go belly up.

While the others are talking, you switch back into your off-duty prostitute disguise. Chen and Anvi look pretty shocked, but the rest are too jaded to even notice.

Maxim, Bouncer, and Fron already look appropriately dressed for being sleazebags. Much like yourself, they made only a cosmetic attempt to disguise themselves once they left the safer parts of the station. Not that it matters too much since Maxim, Bouncer, and Farzaneh are frequent visitors to the station, and even if they weren’t, there is enough hidden cameras and sensors scattered across the station that the Black Souls will probably be able to eventually piece together that you are Starfleet. However, the hope is that no one who potentially knows you are Starfleet has bothered sharing it with the bouncers at Indigo Nights.

Technically there is no restrictions on weapons on station, but people rarely bring them unless they are looking for a fight, and Starfleet regulations prevent personnel from bringing Starfleet weapons with them while on shore leave, so bringing a bunch of phasers the first time around would have blown your cover. However, Hacker has a small, concealable Ferengi phaser he bought on the black-market a while back, which he lends to Maxim.

Your group reaches Indigo Nights without incident.

Playing the role of head security goon, Fron checks her heavily modified PADD (on loan from Hacker), and notes that comms in the area aren’t blocked, but are definitely monitored. More importantly, transporter inhibitors are in place, which could make things tricky.

Keeping with the script, you and Farzaneh lead the others to Tola. Maxim then asks a passing waitress how much to rent her services. She doesn’t know, but points him to an Orion who apparently fills the role of pimp.

During discussions with the pimp, it transpires that Tola is not for sale, but her “services” are surprisingly cheap. Maxim pays for 10 minutes of her time, which gets Tola extracted from the cage, and brought to a private room in the back. The rest of the group including yourself pick a table near the private room where you can keep an eye on things, just like the entourage of a wealthy toff slumming it would be expected to do.
>>
>>5052126

Eventually Maxim comes back out with Tola, who is returned to her cage.

In whispers, Maxim states that based on the conversation with Tola, there are likely no other Federation citizens in captivity here, and that since her own imprisonment is essentially punishment for her mixed race nature, it is unlikely she can be peacefully extracted.

The decision is made to pull back to the USS Honolulu and organize an official raid to extract Tola. However, you and Farzaneh are left behind to watch over Tola and warn Maxim if the situation changes. Farzaneh is given the modified PADD and concealed phaser as they leave.

As the others leave, you feel both isolated/exposed/nervous, but also the now familiar adrenaline high you have come to crave.

Unable to stay seated, you get up and go order some drinks from the nearest bar just for an excuse to move about.

On the way back to the table, you bump into a short Orion female in the black overcoat favored by many low ranking members of the Black Souls and spill your drinks on her.

With a snarl, she pulls out a blade and demands you get on your knees.

>Comply with instructions.

>Fight her in melee.

>Apologize profoundly, try to talk your way out.

>Give her your packet of latinum strips.
>>
>>5052128
>Give her your packet of latinum strips.
>>
>>5052128
>>Comply with instructions.
>>
>>5052128
>Fight her in melee.
>>
>>5052128
>offer her a free ride as compensation
>>
>>5052128
Apologize and offer her the latinum tbqh.
>>
>>5052128
>>Give her your packet of latinum strips.
>>
>>5052128
>>Give her your packet of latinum strips.
>>
>>5052128
>Fight her in melee.
Establish dominance
>>
>>5052128
>Fight her in melee.

We have High assertiveness and Bravery. I think Nimue would go for it, especially since it's a low-ranking member.
Of course, since we didn't qualify for Martial Arts training, this will devolve in to a hair-pulling fight rather quickly. Why any luck, the other gang members would just make fun of that one for picking stupid facts.
>>
>Give her your packet of latinum strips.

You decide to give her the packet of latinum strips. Your pride isn’t worth potentially derailing the mission.

The packet actually contains mostly slips meant for drink purchases, but there were enough strips in there to be worth more than a week’s pay for many people on the station.

The female Orion briefly checks the contents of the packet, decides it is sufficient, then leaves, but not before delivering a hefty sucker punch to your gut just as you though you had resolved the issue.

You stumble back to your table, and sit down heavily, ignoring Farzaneh’s concerned look.

Having temporarily all but forgotten the coming rescue raid, you are caught off-guard when less than a minute later there is a commotion at the entrance to the establishment, and you see about a dozen members of the USS Honolulu’s crew push their way in, with Lt. Aphrodie “Baywatch” in the lead yelling that this is an official Federation sanctioned rescue operation.

Maxim, Bouncer, and Fron aren’t in the group, probably to avoid putting you and Farzaneh in a compromising position, but Bollywood and Nikwid are there from the Security team, plus Aka, Hacker, Dzintara, Goggergogg, and even Jovari and Doctor O’Connor.

Everyone is carrying type-3 phasers, and are looking suitably determined and professional, despite the fact that you know some of them aren’t particularly well trained in combat situations.

You have to admit you weren’t 100% sure that Henderson would even authorize the rescue mission. It was a pretty risky move. At the end of the day, the USS Honolulu only has 30 or so people on board versus the twenty thousand or so on board the station. A more prudent choice would have been to call for back-up and wait for ships to arrive with large dedicated security teams, but clearly Henderson thought the risk of Tola being moved or killed while the Honolulu waited for reinforcements was too high.

To your relief, Baywatch’s group is somehow able to safely extract Tola without resorting to violence. Although many of the Black Soul members in the bar are no doubt armed with concealed weapons, clearly they feel Tola isn’t worth picking a fight with Starfleet which could very well escalate out of control. No doubt if pressed, they will come up with some bullshit story about how she was a willing employee who only claimed to be kidnapped to save herself from embarrassment back home.

A short time after they leave, you and Farzaneh also slip away, and transport back to the ship the minute you are able to.

-------------------------------------

-- Next Morning, On Board the USS Honolulu --

You roll out of bed at 0900 still riding an emotional high caused by the adrenaline rush and sense of accomplishment from yesterday’s mission.

You have no real responsibilities today except for a debrief at noon, and a training mission at 1500.
>>
>>5053699

>Go back to bed.

>Visit Tola.

>Visit Maxim for the latest update on the Firehearts/Black Souls situation.

>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>>5053702
>>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>>5053702
>>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>>5053702
>Visit Maxim for the latest update on the Firehearts/Black Souls situation.
>>
>>5053702
>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>>5053702
>>Visit Tola.
>>
>>5053702
>>>Visit Tola.
>>
>>5053702
>>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>>5053702
>Visit Tola.
>>
>>5053702
>Get breakfast in the common room.
>>
>Get breakfast in the common room.

You decide to start the day of with a nice healthy breakfast.

You straighten your pyjamas, check your hair in the mirror, and head out into the common where Bouncer and Bollywood are already up.

Bollywood ignores you after a brief exchange of pleasantries and continues reading her PADD, while Bouncer chats with you in between lifting weights.

Through him you find out that the USS Honolulu is cutting its patrol short to ensure Tola is safely escorted back to Risa, and from there will likely take an even larger, safer ship back to Earth.

Funny how the whole ship can drop what it is doing to escort one woman back to base, yet you get barely any credit at all for recognizing her in the first place.

Oh well, Starfleet has strange priorities sometimes.

You decide to treat yourself to a less than healthy breakfast of Lucky Charms Cereal, hashbrowns, and a chocolate milkshake. Say what you want about humans, but they sure know how to treat themselves for breakfast.

As you eat, Bouncer informs you that the Honolulu is arriving back on Risa in a few hours, and people are already plotting out their vacation plans.

Most of the crew is staying at an isolated island villa that the Captain somehow reserved, but others intend to visit friends and relatives, or party hard in the resort towns. There will also of course be a few luckless individuals (like himself) stuck watching the ship.

Bouncer notes if you want to get in on the partying, you should probably talk to Farzaneh.

After you are done eating breakfast, you head up to the guest quarters where Tola is staying, and chat with her for a while about your shared experiences as Orions living in Federation space. She seems relatively upbeat considering her ordeal, and thanks you profusely for the key role you played in her rescue. You don’t bother pressing her for details on the nature of her capture, or her time imprisoned by the Black Souls, you know Maxim and Bollywood have thoroughly interviewed her, and that the Starfleet Security section at Risa Station will investigate the matter further. You say your farewells and ponder what to do next.

>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.

>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.

>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.

>Go hang out on the main holodeck until you arrive on Risa, then hang out with the majority of the crew at the villa.
>>
>>5054444
>>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>>
>>5054444
>>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>>
>>5054444
>>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.
>>
>>5054444
>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>>
>>5054444
>>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.
Nice quad quads
>>
>>5054444
>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.
>>
>>5054444
>>>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.
>>
>>5054444
>Volunteer to guard the ship so that Bouncer can get shore leave. He will probably repay you one day.
>>
Why are people voting for a dreadfully boring watch duty instead of more adventures and hijinks? Just curious
>>
>>5054954
Apparently they've decided they don't like our girl's party-girl past? Or they're seeing foreshadowing.
>>
>>5055052
idk i just figure its good to suck up to our superiors
>>
>>5054444
>>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself
>>
>>5054444
>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>>
>>5054444
>>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.
>>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>>
>Go read up on Risa to find some attractions you can visit by yourself.
>Go check with Farzaneh on what festivities are planned once the Honolulu reaches Risa.

After leaving Tola’s room, you decide to talk to Farzaneh about what the Wolf Pack has planned on Risa. You find her awake in the main holodeck enjoying breakfast. She is rarely up this early, and you can tell she is clearly psyched for shore leave.

Apparently her, Dzintara, and Hacker will be checking out Club Red Zone, one of the wildest clubs on the planet, and near the notorious coastal tourist city of Neon Flash. Only one room is being reserved, but the rooms are big, so four people should fit easily, plus the various crew members at the villa who will likely come visit on various days or nights.

Highlights of Club Red Zone include a clothing optional Zero-G dance room, clothing optional nightly raves (pretty much the entire club is clothing optional), and access to pretty much every intoxicant or hallucinogen in the galaxy.

You then head back to your quarters to read up a bit on some of the more unique tourist attractions you probably won’t get a chance to visit unless you visit them yourself. There is a very good chance you will simply decide to stay with the Wolf Pack the entire time, but you never know, you may get bored or feed-up with the non-stop partying. Or you could just visit them another time obviously, since the USS Honolulu is based at Risa Station, it is not like this is your only chance.

On the other hand, some of these activities seem pretty fun...Iguanadon riding, rock climbing in the Constellation Cave, oh, powerboard racing at the Big Crush Tidalpool...

--That Night, Club Red Zone, Risa --

You flop down on your bed, completely exhausted from four hours spent in the Zero-G Room.

Also, fairly drunk.

Farzaneh got arrested for public indecency under embarrassing circumstances and Dzintara is off trying to discreetly get her out before Henderson or Sanata find out.

Hacker is out in the lobby checking out files downloaded from the Chalendar Depot. He is strangely obsessed with them, he has probably been reviewing them since you arrived at the resort, and you are pretty sure he never even unpacked his horga'hn.

>Go see what Hacker is up to.

>Go check out the city.

>Take public transit to the nearest Iquanadon farm.

>Go to sleep, go visit the villa where the rest of the crew is staying tomorrow.

>Go see if Dzintara needs help getting Farzaneh out of jail.
>>
>>5056154
>Go see what Hacker is up to.
Seems like someone should at least ask.
>Go check out the city.
>>
>>5056154
>Take public transit to the nearest Iquanadon farm.
IQUANADONS
>>
>>5056154
>Go check out the city.
>>
>>5056154
>Take public transit to the nearest Iquanadon farm.
>>
>>5056154
>Take public transit to the nearest Iquanadon farm.
(Disregard if double post, my connection is fucky.)
>>
>>5056154
>Take public transit to the nearest Iquanadon farm.
Lets become good with animals!
>>
>>5056154
>>Go see what Hacker is up to.
>>Go check out the city.
>>
>>5056154
>>Go see what Hacker is up to.
>>
>>5056154
>>Go see if Dzintara needs help getting Farzaneh out of jail.
>>
>>5056154
>Go see what Hacker is up to.
>>
>>5056154
>Go check out the city.
>>
>Go see what Hacker is up to.
>Go check out the city.

You decide to go see what Hacker is up to briefly before heading out to explore the nearby city.

You stumble your way down to the lobby and find Hacker still sitting cross-legged looking at the PADD.

He can be surprisingly dedicated for a guy who spends most of his work shift designing holoprograms for recreational use, though to be fair, there is little actual work for him to do on the Honolulu as crew rarely use the ship’s systems for anything other than their core purposes.

He explains that he has found ties in the data he gathered from Chalendar Depot connecting the Black Souls to organized crime groups with operations here on Risa.

You find this mildly interesting, but assume that Sector Security will find any truly useful information much quicker than he can, and say your farewells in order to head into the city.

One short train ride later, and you find yourself in the glorious tourist city of Neon Flash.

Built only in the last few decades, and originally catering mostly to human clientele, it has since established itself as one of Risa’s wildest resort cities.

Like its name suggests, every building and structure in Neon Flash is covered in brightly colored accents and advertisements, not to mention the luridly colored holograms everywhere.

>Go check out the Museum of Erotica.

>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go clubbing.

>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.

>Have a chance of heart and head back to the hotel to get some sleep.
>>
>>5058532
>>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.
Just because this suggestion was funniest.
>>
>>5058532
>>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go clubbing.
>>
>>5058532
>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.

Lets do this!
>>
>>5058532
>>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go clubbing.
>>
>>5058532
>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.
Batshit and approved.
>>
>>5058532
>>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.

I'm up for Iguanodon, though I question the wisdom of getting high in a resort on a planet which has a gang operating on it we've had run ins with. Sounds like a stupid way to end up like Tola.
But hey ! Lizards
>>
>>5058532
>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.
>>
File: Iquanadon.png (742 KB, 1034x597)
742 KB
742 KB PNG
>Go find a hallucinogen dealer, get high, then go visit the Museum of Iguanodons.

You decide to try something unique you never did back on Earth and get high on some hallucinogens and sneak into a museum.

You don’t plan on doing anything outrageous other than enjoy the sensory overload, but if things get out of hand and you get arrested you can just blame it on a bad reaction, laws are pretty relaxed on Risa, particularly in the wilder tourist areas.

Like many long-time Federation members, currency is rarely used on Risa, and you realize you didn’t bring any with you.

Not that it matters though, the public use replicators provide a range of narcotics free of charge.

You stop by one and order some Dazzle Gum. Not very exotic or strong, but your semi-drunk mind was pulling a blank on something better.

You then walk the three blocks to the museum, and pop a piece of Gum in your mouth before entering.

The Museum is almost empty given the relatively late hour, but as it is open all hours of the day, there are a few people wandering about, likely jet-lagged, sobering up, or just terminally boring. There also a few small groups of rowdy tourists looking for some cheap thrills breaking the rules. Which is easier said than done. The Museum is almost purpose built for such groups, and is designed to be highly durable, easily cleaned, and operated by no living staff, not at this hour at least.

Iquanadons, as you discover listening to educational audio recordings while wandering the museum, are large, placid lizards that were domesticated by ancient Risians for their ability to consume large amounts of giant insects and small rodents considered to be pests.

Latter they became a status symbol and were deliberately bred for traits like size, lower jaw display, and affection towards sentient beings.

These days they are mostly used as pets and mascots, but many resorts keep some on site as well due to their popularity with tourists.

For some reason Club Red Zone doesn’t have any on site, none that you have seen anyways, though a nearby farm keeps some extra large ones for riding.

Apparently tamed Iquanadons love being stroked, so not quite remembering that it isn’t real, you hop a barricade and start petting one of the holographic ones, then give it a big hug.

You hear someone clear their throat behind you, and a prim looking Vulcan looks at you judgingly, taps the “don’t go past the barricade” sign, then leaves.

You stick your tongue out at her as she departs.

You have seen more than a few others touching the holograms as well. Maybe during the daytime it ruins people’s learning experience to see three half-naked Tellarites climbing the giant Iquanadon hologram, but at this time of night, no one cares.

You are still hugging and cooing the holographic Iquanadon, when a female Orion walks into the room you are in.
>>
>>5059352

You don’t recognize her at first, but then realize it is probably the Black Soul member you almost got in a fight with back at Chalendar Depot.

>Try to arrest her, she may be after Tola or trying to kidnap people, etc.

>Try licking the holographic Iquanadon, maybe it will reduce the probability of her recognizing you. Also you can’t remember if you ever tried to taste a hologram.

>Run away and go get help.

>Try talking to her, maybe the Black Souls never realized you were Starfleet, or if they did, never bothered telling their low ranking members about you specifically, assuming she even recognizes you.
>>
>>5059353
>>Try licking the holographic Iquanadon, maybe it will reduce the probability of her recognizing you. Also you can’t remember if you ever tried to taste a hologram.
>>
>>5059353
>Try talking to her, maybe the Black Souls never realized you were Starfleet, or if they did, never bothered telling their low ranking members about you specifically, assuming she even recognizes you.
>>
>>5059353
>>Try talking to her, maybe the Black Souls never realized you were Starfleet, or if they did, never bothered telling their low ranking members about you specifically, assuming she even recognizes you.
>>
>>5059353
>Try to arrest her, she may be after Tola or trying to kidnap people, etc.
Oh yeah this is going to be fun
>>
>>5059353
>>Try talking to her, maybe the Black Souls never realized you were Starfleet, or if they did, never bothered telling their low ranking members about you specifically, assuming she even recognizes you.
>>
>>5059353
>>Try licking the holographic Iquanadon, maybe it will reduce the probability of her recognizing you. Also you can’t remember if you ever tried to taste a hologram.
>>
>>5059353
>Try licking the holographic Iquanadon, maybe it will reduce the probability of her recognizing you. Also you can’t remember if you ever tried to taste a hologram.
>>
>Try talking to her, maybe the Black Souls never realized you were Starfleet, or if they did, never bothered telling their low ranking members about you specifically, assuming she even recognizes you.
>Try licking the holographic Iquanadon, maybe it will reduce the probability of her recognizing you. Also you can’t remember if you ever tried to taste a hologram.

You decide to try talking to the Black Soul henchwoman, after all, there may be a chance you could learn something useful.

“Hey, a fellow Orion! Orions represent!” - You greet her cheerfully.

The henchwoman just glares at you. More specifically, your chest area.

You look down and realize at some point before leaving your room, you put on your workout T-shirt, labelled “Honolulu” (which you often sleep in) and fluffy slippers over the tight tube dress and body glitter you wore to the Zero-G dance room earlier in the evening.

Turns out you were a bit more drunk than you realized.

“What are so looking at? My shirt, or what is underneath? The shirt got left behind by a client.” - You lie.

Still no response.

“Hey, you should try licking this holographic Iquanadon, it tastes like salt and mowed grass” – You state, still trying to deflect suspicion.

As you turn to lick the holographic Iquanadon (which ends up tasting like nothing) you hear the henchwoman whisper something, probably into a concealed communications device.

“I got eyes on a possible Starfleet undercover, grab her now and beam out...” - At least that is what you think she says.

You plaster your best shit-eating-grin on your face and turn back to face her, only to curse in surprise when you notice the henchwoman fumbling for an unfamiliar firearm of some sort.

“Feed me harlot!!!” - Says the Iquanadon, the Dazzle Gum is definitely starting to kick in now.

“No, you are not real Mr. Iquanadon.” - You reply.

The henchwoman looks up, seemingly confused, and hesitates, perhaps thinking you aren’t worth her trouble.

You rush forward in a lunging tackle and probably would have pinned her to the ground except your trailing leg gets tangled in the barricade and the best you manage is knocking her over instead.

You both scramble to get upright.

By pure luck, dropped firearm ends up closer to you.

You grab it and point it at the henchwoman, who slaps some sort of comm/beacon on her lapel and beams out.

You can hear screams and shouts elsewhere in the museum.

>Run towards the screaming, shoot anything that looks hostile.

>Go back to licking the Holo-Iquanadon, maybe bring him some food too if he asks nicely.

>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.

>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.

>Lie down for a bit and wait for the Dazzle Gum to wear off a bit, did any of this even happen?
>>
>>5060159
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.
>Lie down for a bit and wait for the Dazzle Gum to wear off a bit, did any of this even happen?
And if she has a more lucid moment commbadge. Or just do that when she sobers up/Risian security shows up.
>>
>>5060159
>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.
Bad shit going down
Then
>Run towards the screaming, shoot anything that looks hostile.
>>
>>5060159
>>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.

>>Lie down for a bit and wait for the Dazzle Gum to wear off a bit, did any of this even happen?
>>
>>5060159
>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.
>>
>>5060159
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.
>Lie down for a bit and wait for the Dazzle Gum to wear off a bit, did any of this even happen?
>>
>>5060159
>>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.
>>
>>5060159
>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.
>>
>>5060159
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.
>>
>Report the incident to the USS Honolulu via your comm badge.
>Stare at your forearm, it is sparkly as fuck.

You decide to report the ongoing drama to the USS Honolulu, the only problem is, you don’t know where your combadge is.

It is definitely not attached to your shirt, and nothing you are wearing has any pockets.

There is something shoved down the front of your dress, but it ends up being the packet with the remaining pieces of Dazzle Gum in it.

Annoyed, and blaming the gum for your predicament, you angrily throw it in a corner before being enthralled by the sparking patterns on your forearm.

The small amounts of glitter you applied earlier in the evening really glitters good in this lighting when you are high.

So enthralled you are, you don’t notice the Risian Security Officers arriving in the room.

“It is one of them, stun her!” - One of them shouts.

In a brief moment of clarity, you remember you are still holding the strange firearm in your free hand.

Also, you are an Orion in a building where other Orions possibly just kidnapped someone. And you dark grey T-shirt and short black dress probably look a bit like the black rags many of the Orion criminal class prefer.

-----------------------------------------------------

--Next Day, USS Honolulu Sickbay --

A phaser on stun mode may be “non-lethal”, but it not exactly gentle either.

The raw energy of the shot apparently burned a good sized hole in your shirt and dress just over your left kidney, and you have been confined to sickbay for several hours now while Doctor O’Connor monitors your recovery from the neural damage and burnt tissue.

You later find out that Risian Security use setting 3 “heavy stun” during encounters with armed individuals.

You were briefly interviewed by Maxim when you first regained consciousness, and through him find out that the person kidnapped in the museum was a Starfleet Ensign named Carnela, who also happens to be 12th in line to be First Monarch of the Sovereign Dynasty of Krios Prime.

Your recognition of the Black Soul henchwoman is a fairly valuable lead, and gets passed along to Sector Security.

You and Maxim spent a bit of time brainstorming whether there could be some connection between the stolen monitoring station, Tola, and Carnela, but it seems unlikely. Chances are that it is just a seemingly unrelated series of events that led to Tola’s rescue, and later a valuable clue in Carnela’s kidnapping.

Since then, there has been little to do other than watch videos of cats doing strange things on your PADD while you wait for the all clear from Doctor O’Connor.

The all clear comes a few hours later, and as you step out of the sickbay, you realize you aren’t sure what you are going to do with your newfound freedom.

As a result of the kidnapping, the USS Honolulu, as well as three other Starfleet ships have pulled off their normal duties to inform the First Monarch of the kidnapping of her grandniece.
>>
>>5061032

>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.

>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.

>Go to the workout room to do some light exercise.

>Go back to your room and continue watching cat videos.
>>
>>5061034
>>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>>Go to the workout room to do some light exercise.
>>
>>5061034
>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
>>
>>5061034
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
What's the goss?
>>
>>5061034
>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
>>
>>5061034
>>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
>>
>>5061034
>>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
>>
>>5061034
>Write-in

Go to the holodeck and ride a Iguanodon
>>
>>5061034
>>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>>Go to the workout room to do some light exercise.
>>
>>5061034
>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
>>
>>5061034
>>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.
Maybe get in some gym time afterwards.
I've had it with slavers. I say we clock the next one we meet in the jaw, or at least we try.
>>
>Head to the mess hall to watch the mini-fleet assemble.
>Go track down one of your fellow security officers to get the latest on the mission.

You head up to the underused mess hall on Deck One.

A large and elaborate space meant for signing treaties and carrying out multi-party negotiations, it is rarely used by the crew, who instead prefer one of several informal lounge spaces, not to mention the eating area in the frequently run beach program of Holodeck One.

You watch the rest of the fleet assemble via the view screens lining the walls while you snack on a bacon cheddar grilled cheese sandwich.

You also ask the ship’s computer for brief histories on the other ships and their names.

The flagship is the USS Snowflake, the Akira on which the kidnapped officer served, and one of the senior most ships in the area. Her name comes from a bad translation of the Vezhila Mountain Peak on Andor, a popular tourist spot.

The USS Daniel Baggins is an older Constellation class used mostly for heavy engineering projects, particularly demolitions. She is named for a disciple of noted eco-terrorist, class warrior, and warlord Phillip Green, though to be fair, Daniel later renounced Greene and became one of the early founders of United Earth.

The USS Empress Ekaterina is an old model Miranda pulled out of deep storage to be used as a transport and salvage ship following the Dominion War. She is named for an ancient Earth warlord, but you guess she gets a ship named after her for feminism or something.

We really need to stop letting the humans name stuff...

You then go back to the barracks common room and chat with Bouncer and Nikwid for a bit.

The Sovereign Dynasty of Krios Prime is the largest of several political entities that are all that remains of the once (relatively) powerful Kriosian Empire, a nation that spanned dozens of systems several centuries ago but has now fragmented.

However, that hasn’t made them any less arrogant, and diplomatic missions to Krios Prime usually have unnecessary amounts of pomp and ceremony.

The USS Honolulu has been there more than a few times as the Dynasty borders on the Risa Sector. No one seems keen on going back, it is mostly a lot of standing around in your dress uniforms, particularly for security folk.

It is still a few hours before you arrive.

>Read up more on Kriosian culture.

>Go ride a holo-Iquanadon.

>Go workout.
>>
>>5062767
>workout
>Read up more on Kriosian culture.
>>
>>5062767
>Go ride a holo-Iquanadon.
>Go workout.
Rodeo time
Also see if the computer can have the Iquanadon lecture you on Kriosian culture while it tries to buck you off
>>
>>5062767
>Workout by riding a holo iquanadon
>>
>>5062800
based, supporting
>>
>>5062767
>>Read up more on Kriosian culture.
>>
>>5062800
+1
>>
>>5062800
Seems good +1
>>
>>5062800
Supported
>>
>>5062800
+1
I love that my write-in let to this write-in
>>
>>5062767
>>5062800 +1
>>
>>5062800
You decide to go kill some time on one of the smaller holodecks.

You aren’t entirely sure which program you will use, but when you see one listed as “Iquanadon Rodeo” it seems like too much of a coincidence to pass up on.

Unfortunately, it turns out riding animals known for their laziness isn’t actually all that challenging. Aside from a couple of head bobs, and quick lunges for rodents, the holo-iquanadon mostly just lies there, and eventually rolls on its side so you can rub its belly.

To make things more productive, you get the computer to read you the briefing on Kriosian culture, but quickly become bored with all the pointless ceremonies they are fond of. Like many once-great empires, the Kriosians have become stagnant, relying mostly on adopting widespread technologies and focusing their resources on defending their core worlds. The ceremonies are their way of remembering how powerful they once were.

You doze for a bit while leaning up against the holo-iquanadon’s belly,

Farzaneh comes in and informs you that she was just working out with the captain (who you still haven’t met yet) and now she is heading to the main holodeck, where some people are doing one of the anti-slaver holoprograms on super-easy mode.

>Go visit the workout room.

>Go beat the shit out of slavers in the main holodeck.

>Keep chilling with the holo-iquanadon.
>>
>>5065233
>Go visit the workout room.
At least say fucking hello to the guy.
>>
>>5065233
>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>>5065233
>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>>5065233
>>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>>5065233
>>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>>5065233
>>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>>5065233
>>Go beat the shit out of slavers in the main holodeck.
It's as good a way to work out as any, and would give us a great opportunity get some aggression out. Captain probably just wants to work out in peace and not have to be all polite and official before the Kriosian headache ahead.
>>
>>5065233
>Go visit the workout room.
Lets get some good training in
>>
>>5065233
>>Go visit the workout room.
>>
>Go visit the workout room.

You decide to go visit the workout room to see if the captain is still there.

You make a quick stop at your room to get changed into your workout gear, then head to the workout room.

An irregular shaped room at the end of a long corridor on Deck Two, the workout room is a bit isolated, but valuable for those who don’t want to have to wait for a holodeck to be freed up.

Inside is the man himself.

Captain Paval, more commonly known among the crew as Fabio, is a middle aged Risian with a bodybuilder’s muscles, and shoulder length wavy hair.

Technically only a Commander, Fabio was given command of the USS Honolulu due to its small size and narrow mission profile, but as per custom, the command officer aboard any ship of the line is referred to as Captain, even if he or she is a mid-ranking officer, like a Lieutenant commanding a transport or single-mission survey vessel.

Farzaneh had of course dragged you into a holoprogram based on the cheesy 20th century Earth romance novels that Fabio got his nickname from, but the resemblance is more striking than you thought it would be, and you become a bit worried that you won’t be able to keep a straight face.

>Introduce yourself.

>Play it cool and act like he is not there.

>Chicken out and go back to chilling with the holo-iquanadon.
>>
>>5067821
>>Play it cool and act like he is not there.
If he notices us, fine, say hi and introduce ourselves. Otherwise it's GAINS TIEM.
>>
>>5067821
>Play it cool and act like he is not there.
>>
>>5067821
>Introduce yourself.
>>
>>5067821
>>Introduce yourself.
>>
>>5067821
>Introduce yourself.
>>
>>5067821
>>Play it cool and act like he is not there.
>>
>>5067821
>Introduce yourself.
At least acknowledge he is there, he is the captain after all.
>>
>>5067821
>>Play it cool and act like he is not there.
>>
>>5067821
>Introduce yourself
>>
>>5067821
>>Introduce yourself
>>
>>5067821
>Introduce yourself.
We can’t and shouldn’t avoid the Captain forever
>>
>Introduce yourself.

You decide to introduce yourself to the Fabio and have a short conversation.

As you expected from how he was described to you by some of your crew mates, he reminds you a bit of Bollywood, polite and professional, but also somewhat aloof, and with the overall sense he feels he is too “cool” to interact with his crew more than necessary.

He does seem well briefed though.

He congratulates you on protecting the geology team, recognizing Tola, and identifying the Black Souls as the likely kidnappers of the Kriosian Princess.

You are quite pleased that someone, likely Henderson or Maxim, has taken the time to fill Fabio in on your exploits while he was away.

You work out for another hour or so, mostly just to make it less obvious that you came to the workout room specifically to talk to him. Though he seems like the sort with more than enough social intelligence to work that part out.

You then head back to the barracks common room, where you find out you have been selected to joined the delegation party to Krios Prime (along with everyone else on the security team).

After a quick sonic shower, and putting on your dress uniform, you spend the rest of the trip to Krios Prime sitting in the briefing room being lectured on the details of the ceremony.

It is a surprisingly militant affair, with fifty security officers from the four ships forming a ceremonial escort (with phaser rifles!) to the captains, first officers, and security officers of each ship, plus a few diplomats and senior bureaucrats.

Definitely not very Starfleet-y, but despite the best efforts of Federation diplomats, many still see Starfleet as a military organization, and sometimes it doesn’t hurt to play into that mentality.

The actual ceremony goes down without a hitch, with the smaller Federation beaming down to the designated area, where a much larger group of Kriosian soldiers in ceremonial armor and with archaic weapons form the escort for their own group of VIPs.

After a short march into the Palace, filmed by dozens of media drones, and watched by thousands of spectators, the ceremonial escort is disbanded, and you are sent to loiter in an antechamber while the important people talk.

>Chat with your own crew mates

>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel

>See if the replicators make anything interesting
>>
>>5069999
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
Nice quads
>>
>>5069999
FYI, will be gone for a few days, will probably post Friday/Saturday
>>
>>5069999
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel

>>5070150
You should get a name/trip and perhaps start a new thread for the next post.
>>
>>5069999
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
Let's get the gossip from all around.
>>
>>5069999
>>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
>>
>>5069999
>>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
>>See if the replicators make anything interesting
>>
>>5069999
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
>>
>>5069999
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel
>>
>>5069999
>See if the replicators make anything interesting
DRUG TIME
>>
>>5070150
Have a good time! Good quest so far.
Also, like the other anon said, you should get a name.
>>
>>5069999
>See if the replicators make anything interesting
>>
>>5070150
>Friday/Saturday
Tick tock
>>
>>5069999
>>See if the replicators make anything interesting
>>
>Introduce yourself to other ship’s security personnel

You decide to introduce yourself to some of the other security personnel.

The majority of them seem to be from the Snowflake and the Daniel Baggins. If any of them at all are from the Ekaterina, you don’t meet them.

As a mid-sized, fully manned vessel with a specialization in pirate hunting and dangerous patrols, the Snowflake’s security delegation is made up of full time security officers with specializations in boarding, small unit tactics, and protecting high risk targets. Several are former members of the Andorian Imperial Guard who joined Starfleet during the Dominion War and never left.

In contrast, the delegation from the Daniel Baggins (who, without irony, refer to their ship as the D-Bag) are mostly part time security personnel whose day job is in Engineering or Operations. Though an older vessel, the D-Bag actually has a reasonable sized security detachment, but most of them are back on the ship as the vessel is carrying some confiscated explosives collected from a previous mission which they haven’t had the chance to safety dispose of yet.

The discussion quickly turns to speculation on why four ships are needed. According to some of the “in the know” officers on board the Snowflake, it is so that multiple leads can be chased at once.

This theory proves to be correct.

After several hours of loitering about, the security personnel beam back to their own ships, and during the debriefing back on the Honolulu, you are told your ship will head to Zalda IV, while the other three Federation ships, plus several other Kriosian ships will track down other leads.

Zalda IV, home to the Zaldans, has been part of the Federation for nearly a century, but have a reputation for doing things their own way. Militant, and with an obsession with absolute candor, the few you have met remind you a bit of the more militant and conservative minded members of the Andorian race.

Their reputation for blunt honesty makes them the preferred intermediary between the Federation and many Klingon businesses and noble families, while their natural immunity to Orion pheromones means many Orions also use them as go-betweens when dealing with other races.

Although the Zaldans themselves have little tolerance for criminal behavior, the large presence of Orions and Klingons on Zalda IV, plus the close proximity to Risa makes it a potential transit point for the kidnappers to either sell the princess off to another Orion organization, or sell her to the Klingons, who have had ongoing problems maintaining control of several old Kriosian colonies in their territory.

It is a two day trip to Zalda IV. With no clear orders on what to do now, you decide to:

>Read more about Zaldans.

>Read more about the Klingon angle.

>Go try some of the Dazzle Gum you inadvertently smuggled aboard.

>Go beat up some holo-slavers on the holodeck.
>>
>>5074273
>>Go beat up some holo-slavers on the holodeck.
First, but since we have two days do--
>>Read more about Zaldans.
>>Read more about the Klingon angle.
--during downtime.
>>
>>5074273
>>Read more about Zaldans.
>>Read more about the Klingon angle.
>>
>>5074293
Supported. Plenty of time for both work and play.
>>
>>5074273
>>Read more about Zaldans.
>>Read more about the Klingon angle.
>>
>>5074293
Supporting
>>
>>5074273
>Go try some of the Dazzle Gum you inadvertently smuggled aboard.
>>
>>5074273
>Go try some of the Dazzle Gum you inadvertently smuggled aboard.
>>
>>5074293
support
>>
>>5074273
>>5074293 +1
>>
>>5074293
+1 this
>>
>Go beat up some holo-slavers on the holodeck.
>Read more about Zaldans.
>Read more about the Klingon angle.

You decide do go to the holodeck and hone your combat skills against slavers.

It turns out though that there are no specific combat programs related to Orion slavers, or slavers in general, which you suppose makes sense, one shootout isn’t that much different than another.

You decide to make your own custom program by reskinning some combatants in an old Dominion War program as slavers.

In “editing mode” you change all the combatants to normal physique, low skill level, disruptor pistols, then reset their skins to grey mannequins to give yourself a blank canvass to work from.

You load an image of the female Orion Black Soul member who has accosted you twice now, and use it as the skin for several combatants with minor variations. You look forward to kicking her butt.

You then load “Orion Male 1” and are mildly disappointed that it is a cartoonishly brutish thug with many piercings and tattoos, and only minimal clothes. Talk about negative stereotyping. Feeling lazy, you use him as the skin for several more combatants anyways.

You then notice a bunch of skins called “Custom Orion Female XXX” followed by a distinct number. Morbid curiosity wins over, and you open one, and aren’t remotely surprised it is a nude figure with implausible proportions. Although it is generally well known that many crew use the holodeck to act out their fantasies, usually they have the decency to lock such programs and related assets behind privacy firewalls. You briefly wonder if someone on the Honolulu is very shameless, or merely careless.

Feeling bored, you switch her head for an iquanodon head and use this strange creation as the skin for the remaining combatants. Your brief experiment into holoprogram design as given you a new appreciation for people like Hacker who design these programs almost from scratch on occasion.

After several run-throughs using a phaser rifle, you remove the combatant’s disruptors, and do several “melee run-throughs” with various NOT Starfleet standard issue devices like combat gauntlets, a puke stick, and a Breen neural truncheon.

Very rewarding, particularly each time you got to take down the Black Soul woman, though not rewarding in a way approved by Starfleet.
>>
>>5076643

After about an hour or so, you get bored, and go back to your room to read up on Zaldans and the Klingon-Kriosian connection.

Zaldans became warp capable about two centuries before the birth of the Federation. Early on, they relied on the Kriosians for protection from Klingon and Orion raiders, but eventually became strong enough to develop their own small but far flung set of mining colonies. Although they held their own for a while, they eventually joined the Federation in 2290, receiving considerable perks for doing so as at the time the Federation had a strong interest in consolidating their control over the “Borderlands” region between the Federation and the Klingons.

Since then, the Zaldans have been a fairly isolationist member of the Federation, but have a surprisingly strong voice on the Council due to their blunt and honest nature allowing them to get along with a number of prominent Federation members like the Andorians and Tellarites.

Zalda is a cold, oceanic world that serves as headquarters to a number of corporations that deal with both Federation and non-Federation members, particularly the Klingons and Orions. Crime is minimal, and although a form of capitalism survives here for major transactions, replicators provide most goods for free.

Regarding the Klingon-Kriosian angle, you don’t find much except the obvious, the Klingon Empire has absorbed a few of the most distant Kriosian colonies, and a member of the Royal Family could be useful as leverage or as a figurehead puppet ruler.

The next two days pass fairly uneventfully, and you find yourself sitting in bar across the street from the Zaldan’s main internal surveillance agency while Maxim argues his way through various levels of bureaucracy.

Yourself, Bollywood, and Hacker lounge about sipping foul tasting alcohol.

You aren’t entirely sure why you are still here, and not just waiting on the ship to beam back down, other than it looks bad for Starfleet to run from paper pushers, but until Maxim gets permission for the rest of you to enter the surveillance building, there isn’t much to do except stare at the cold rain falling outside, and get hit on by drunk, extra blunt Zaldans.

Apparently their bluntness extends to courtship, and everyone in your small group has been approached several times, though to your secret annoyance, Bollywood is in the lead, and Hacker is also slightly ahead of you, though in his case he benefits from the fact he is the only male in the group, and female Zaldans are just as forward as the males.
>>
>>5076645

Maxim messages the group that footage of the princess has been located, but it will be another hour before permission to upload the file to the USS Honolulu is granted.

In the meantime, he needs one person to scout out the location the footage was taken, another to read up on the businesses associated with the warehouse the footage was taken near, and a third person to join him inside the surveillance building to help review the footage.

>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.

>Volunteer to read up on the businesses associated with the warehouse the footage was taken near.

>Volunteer to join him inside the surveillance building to help review the footage.
>>
>>5076647
>Volunteer to join him inside the surveillance building to help review the footage.

Maybe we see that fucking woman again.
>>
>>5076647
>page 10
>nerves increase
About the actual quest tho:
>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken
Other two sound boring desu.
>>
>>5076647
>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.
>>
>>5076647
>>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.
>>
>>5076647
>Volunteer to join him inside the surveillance building to help review the footage.
>>
>>5076647
>>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.
>>
>>5076647
>>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.
>>
>Volunteer to scout out the location the footage was taken.

You volunteer to go scout out the location the security footage was taken. No one else objects and it doesn’t take you long to figure out why...

Since the location is not far enough away to justify teleporting, you find yourself grudgingly travelling on foot through the cold rain. The Starfleet issue fleece lined raincoat isn’t quite warm enough for this climate, but you also weren’t planning on being outside for this long either.

The footage was filmed at a secure warehouse in the nearby spaceport district.

As you head over, Maxim fills you in on some of the details on what was on the footage.

Apparently a security camera in a neighboring warehouse caught a glimpse of the princess being traded by some Black Souls members to some unidentified Cardassians.

No one is entirely sure why the Cardassians would be involved, but personally you won’t be surprised if it is some sort of decoy, a hologram perhaps. Or the kidnappers are just really sloppy.

You arrive at the warehouse after a 20 minute or so fast jog.

Much like most Zaldan architecture, it is clean and functional, but bland. Pretty much the only artistic talent Zaldans seem to have is producing the “pound” music popular in clubs lately.

The footage is over a day old, so you assume the kidnappers and the purchasers are long gone, but just in case you crank your phaser up to heavy stun before re-holstering it.

Although you technically have no jurisdiction here, one of the side doors is partially open.

>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.

>Call for back up from the USS Honolulu.

>Call Maxim and ask for instructions.

>Get in contact with local law enforcement.
>>
>>5077626
>>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
>>
>>5077626
>>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
>>
>>5077626
>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you thought you heard something.
>>
>>5077626
>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
>>
>>5077626
>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
And let Maxim know.
>>
>>5077626
>>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
>>
>>5077626
>>5077626
>>Call Maxim and ask for instructions.
>>
>>5077949
Supporting
>>
>>5077626
>Call for back up from the USS Honolulu.
>>
>>5077626
>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you though you heard something.
We’re very close to falling off qm. New thread needed.
>>
>Go check it out, if anyone asks you will say you thought you heard something.

You decide to screw asking for permissions and such, and enter the warehouse. Neither rules nor caution have ever been huge priorities of yours, and the Honolulu crew don’t seem to care much about these things either.

You draw your phaser and proceed slowly into the building, all the while wishing you had taken the relevant training courses more seriously.

It is dark inside, but you can make out some sort of banner with English writing on it in the middle of the large open space.

Although you deeply wish you had a tricorder handy, or a flashlight for that matter, you don’t think this is some sort of ambush, so you cautiously proceed to the center of warehouse to read the banner.

“We have the Princess. Come to Unefra III for instructions. Bring 9.7 Billion Liir.”

You don’t know where Unefra is, or what a Liir is, but you have a feeling you will be spending the next few months running around Cardassian Space on a wild goose hunt.

Ugh...

New Thread:

>>5079024

>>5079024

>>5079024



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