Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1

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Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

January 05, 2024, 08:40:35 AM

[ Petty Officer Dylan Cobb | onboard the Apache | Romulan Space ] ATNN: @BipSpoon @RyeTanker @P.C. Haring @Ellen Fitz @Hans Applegate @Stegro88 @Sqweloookle

Dylan felt sick to his stomach. He hated being left behind like this. What made the Apache any different from a sitting duck? What could they do if things went bad inside? They’d have to sit and wait no matter what, hoping against hope that they didn’t get themselves shot to pieces before everyone came back so they could get the hell away. And that was IF everyone got back.

“Hey, Chief,” Dylan called out to Chief Warrant Officer Tarsi sh’Zhan, waiting until the Andorian paused in the corridor next to his station before he continued, “If you had to put a number on our odds of survival, what would it be?”

Her antennae flagged back and forth a moment, and Dylan watched as a wry smile played at the edges of her blue lips before she replied. “I learned a long time ago that numbers can be manipulated. Just do your job, Cobb, and do it well. We’re all here to succeed, and you’ve got to trust that.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” He watched her walk away, feeling marginally bolstered by her words.

Lieutenant Carson called for updates on stations seconds later. Cobb was snapped back into his job, relegating his earlier fears to the same portion of his brain where he kept his reminders to eat his vegetables.

OOC: The objective of this thread is to infiltrate the facility, and while the other thread is scanning the triggers and anything else useful for combating the thalaron-based weaponry, this mission team is tasked with smashing everything that’s smashable and basically making a diversion and mess of things. There is a story prompt that may be accessed during the time on the facility if anyone in this mission thread, or the other mission thread, is interested in taking that on. Mission teams were assigned in the first chapter thread, and you are welcome to have your character respond to that first before launching into the mission here. We have Asra Tek, Lt. J.G. Vince Kennedy, Chief Petty Officer Helena Prince, and Petty Officer Second Class Riley Patterson with us to do with as we please (kill or not kill is the question). I will be NPCing Amarik. Rye's character and/or PC's character will show up later. Happy hunting!

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #1 – February 12, 2024, 11:24:12 AM

[ Lt. Valyn Amarik | traversing vacuum between the Apache and Romulan Space Station | Romulan Space ] @Stegro88 @Sqweloookle @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker @Hans Applegate @BipSpoon

Valyn adjusted the angle of her approach with subtle movements, knowing too much, and she’d ping off the side of the station like space junk. She couldn’t afford to take her eyes off her target (an outer maintenance hatch on one of the smaller wings of the station) and, therefore, could only hope that the rest of her team had kept up with their suit training prior to this mission.

This sort of infiltration required not only a spacewalk outside their ship but an open vacuum traversing as they moved from their cloaked ship over to the station. This area, already riddled with asteroid debris, offered what could be considered a perfect cover if it wasn’t a Romulan station they were seeking to infiltrate. Though they were using the smaller pieces of debris to mask their appearance, anchoring behind the larger pieces to move sporadically with their propulsion units, Valyn knew it was a long shot that they’d manage to get into the station completely unnoticed.

“Disguised” as they were, some two to a piece of debris with only Amarik and two others managing debris solo, should someone try to catch a visual on the minuscule blip their bodies would register as on the station’s sensors, they’d likely see only the debris. Since their adjustments on trajectory and movement were calculated to avoid the appearance of intent, the infiltration side of this maneuver was taking a hell of a lot longer than any of them would like.

She knew that the other team, Blue Team, was making a similar maneuver along a different arm of the station, one that, according to their covert scans, seemed to be closer to the labs on the station and thereby, hopefully, that much closer to the triggers they needed to scan. Amarik’s Red Team was to make some noise when necessary to divert attention but, until then, covertly lay the groundwork for a later explosive show.

A piece of debris accelerated past her, and Amarik swore. They had to maintain radio silence out here, so there was no way to call out to Kennedy and Patterson, the two officers sharing the debris, to slow down. Valyn subtly increased her propulsion unit to try and keep up, watching Kennedy as he signaled the problem: Patterson’s propulsion unit malfunctioned and would not switch off or adjust to lower levels. Again swearing at their luck, Valyn signaled back: eject the system. It would leave Patterson needing a ride home should they need to retreat the way they entered, but they’d worry about that later.

Patterson complied without hesitation, and they used Kennedy’s unit to adjust the trajectory of their debris, angling for the debris to shoot past the station. At this rate, they’d hit the station first, which, as long as they didn’t fuck it up for all of them, suited Valyn just fine. In the debrief before launching, the plan had been to get to the hatch, override the tech codes to break in without setting off alarms, and then work their way through the station deck by deck, the docking bay their ending target before triggering the first explosives they’d planted to make it easier to get out of the station via the docking bay, possibly with a stolen vessel if things worked completely as they wanted.

But, again, the station being Romulan and Tal’Shiar at that, Valyn already knew they would not get everything they wanted.

The Theurgy-based NPCs in this thread are Asra Tek (NPC), Chief Petty Officer Helena Prince (NPC), Crewman Petra Vansen (NPC), and Petty Officer Second Class Riley Patterson (NPC). Do with them as you see fit. Also, remember, if you opted in for the odd and bizarre secret prompts, you can use those in any of the episode chapters.

The in-bound characters on the shuttle may join in this thread or the other, TBD presently.

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #2 – March 24, 2024, 10:54:48 PM

[ CPO Dominic Lau | Mary Baldwin | Romulan Space Station | Romulan Space ] @Ellen Fitz @BipSpoon @P.C. Haring @Hans Applegate @Sqweloookle @Stegro88

Getting to the station was easy. Getting passed the patrols was non-trivial, and it had taken the crew some fancy flying when they'd been pounced on by a patrolling warbird, which left the Intelligence team adding to the litany of curses from ages past about not having a cloaking device. After taking fire for a while, they'd needed to do some fancy flying near a large and bright class A star and the judicious application of the ship's countermeasure suite, and Bob was your uncle. Except, the flying had gotten too fancy when the 'freighter' had flipped end over end and surprised the warbird by blasting a couple of holes in it after taking too many hits. Said hits had somewhat fried the internal systems, which were now causing some control issues as the ship hurtled through space towards a Romulan space station that was supposed to be involved in weapons development. A transmission from headquarters had provided an updated operations schedule from the Theurgy team which meant at maximum speed to catch up.

Chief Lau sat in the cockpit of the freighter as the ship vibrated around him. The normal smooth hum of the warp engines replaced with a deep and rough growl. He tapped a button to communicate with the engineering space. "Klaudia, how does it look?" Bessir's face was tight as worked to trim the warp field as much as possible to keep the ship FTL while the powerflow was becoming erratic. There was a pause "Can's say Chief, it's not my specialty. I mean, this was mainly the el-tee's thing. That last torpedo hit we took fried half a dozen relays and patching them isn't going well. We don't have the spares on board." She yelped as relay exploded in the background. Bessir decided to interrupt. "The nav system is starting to act up, we need to pull out of warp soon. I think we're almost at the station's coordinates."

It was a hard call, but the ship was falling apart around them and the Chief nodded. The Cardassian-Bajoran sniper nodded. "Getting ready to disengage warp drive." His fingers engaged the deceleration process and the growl got even louder as the damage control screen lit up like Christmas Tree and instead of a standard shortening of the starscape to pricks of light, the view began to spin as the ship exited warp violently. "Shiiiiit!" Bessir loudly cursed while everyone clung to whatever was handy as the inertial dampening field struggled to keep everyone from being turned into jam. Lau stretched an arm out and the process of re-routing power to the IDF was agonizingly slow as the sequence was input. After what seemed like an eternity, the centrifugal force slowed and the ship began to right itself as the sniper turned pilot got more control of the ship. It didn't take too much longer before the ship seemed to be more or less stable and out of immediate danger that Lau moved to the next steps. "How bad is it?" He could almost feel Cheung shaking her head. "I can't really say, but out port nacelle is leaking plasma and the starboard impulse thruster is having fits." A pause as she worked to make sense of the other information that coming out. "Structural Integrity is compromised, but holding; and everything else is damaged to one degree or another. Sensors, shields, and weapons are mostly okay......and shit! EW is out. Looks like the drop out of warp caused a surge that blew some of the emitters. I don't think we can produce a convincing cover to get us anywhere." That as bad news overall and the next decision was whether to abort. "Do you think the engines will get us anywhere safe?" "If safe counts as a Romulan prison, then sure. Definitely not back to Federation space."

That as bad news indeed and Dominic grimaced. The Chief pulled up a chart of the system that was being built while the ship flew further in system. The station was easy to identify due to the structural makeup and the power radiating from it. Artificial singularities were quite distinctive even from a star. There was one bit of 'terrain' the would make this whole escapade possible and he turned to Bessir with a death head's grin. "How lucky are you feeling?" The teammate looked back with dread, then grinned. "Do I have a choice?" "Well, the alternative is capture, torture, and a firing squad." The hybrid snorted. "Then I'm feeling lucky as hell." The Chief nodded at this and uploaded the flight path to the objective. A quiet 'shit' followed."This should be fun." "Indeed. All hands, secure yourself. This ride is going to be bumpy."

Bessir pumped the impulse engines to maximum. Given the entrance they'd made into the system, there was no hiding, so no sense in being subtle. The Mary Baldwin 'dove' into an asteroid cluster that would lead to the station and Bessir corkscrewed and weaved between masses of rock. The ship pulled at the crew as they made their run in like a mad missile throwing an evasive pattern, but guiding unerringly on a target. "Looks like they're waking up. Let's see what's left of the EW suite. Beginning wide spectrum jamming." Bessir only nodded as Lau cut off communications with the outside and he flipped the ship over and pulled past another rock. Manoeuvrable the freighter was, a small nimble fighter it was not as a piece of astral debris was smacked aside by the shields and the crew lurched forward as the kinetic energy was transferred to the ship. The ship lurched sideways again since Bessir wasn't really a pilot and didn't have the skills to dodge everything in the asteroid belt.

Lau was frankly more surprised that they hadn't collided head on with any of the larger rocks, but soon it got harder as green beams lanced out in their path. There were fewer then expected, which was a small saving grace. The ship shuddered from a glancing blow and Lau ran scans on the station to determine points of interest. A section quickly lit up that was using more energy than the initial scan and the signature matched the one a shield generator would give off. "I'm locking on to their shields and communications system. "Okay, here we go." Bessir announced as the ship cleared the final asteroid and the station lay in front of them stabbing space with angry green beams. "Targets locked and.... Firing!" Micro torpedoes flew into space in angry red orbs and quickly covered the distance between the Mary Baldwin and the station. Orange beams also stabbed out and they hadn't a prayer of overwhelming the entire shield system. While most of the warheads and beams wasted themselves against the energy barrier, they were just enough to cause a local failure and a few torpedoes made it through to the hull. The metal buckled under the blasts of the phasers then the warheads plowed their way through. A Romulan crew standing watch over the primary shield generator worked frantically to try to reinforce the shields, but it was too late as an small matter/anti-matter warhead struck the bulkhead around them and vented its fury into the compartment. They didn't even have time to scream as they were incinerated along with all the equipment. Breakers throughout the station tried to stem the energy feedback and some succeeded, but others failed and other sections of the station exploded as their relays blew up, sending more shrapnel and plasma careening through compartments along the energy's path. Havoc reigned on the command deck as a quarter of the consoles exploded in flaming ruin compounding the green bloody mess of watch crewman being torn to shreds by glass and alloys.

The Mary Baldwin didn't have it all her way though as a beam cleaved straight through the damaged nacelle and shattered it.. Thankfully, Cheung had the presence of mind to shut the engine down, so the damage was limited internally, but the ship would probably never fly again as a chunk of warp coil smashed the undamaged nacelle and rendered it inoperative. Cheung took a moment to check her displays as she picked herself up off the deck.

"Chief, we've lost all warp drive. Both nacelles are gone." Lau confirmed as he checked his own display, then looked out the window to see a metal stub on one side, and streaming wreckage on the other. "Understood. Bessir, drive us at this hab complex and try to brake us before we hit too hard." Bessir now looked up. "Have you lost it?" The chief's rictus grin got more deadly "Not at all." Looking back at the flaming station, he targeted the section he wanted to crash and released another volley of torpedoes, then hit the intercom.

"All hands brace for impact." with scant moments to secure himself and divert all power to the SIF/IDF and shields, the freighter plowed into the cavity the explosions gouged into the station and tore itself deep into the complex. Metal screamed and screeched as systems got jumbled and power relays registered their protest by sparking or exploding. Lau gritted his teeth as he pushed against the console in front of him while the straps dug into his muscled body while keeping him in his seat. Eyes stared wide as metal tore itself apart and the sliding death scream transferred itself into the hull in front of his very eyes and suddenly with a final lurch it was over. With the violence over, Lau stayed put while his brain caught up with the fact that he was alive. A groan to his side caused him to look over at the pilot/sniper and he was gratified to Bessir pushing himself up from the console, then slowly look over with a grin. "See Chief, told ya. Feelin lucky as hell." Chief Lau grinned back. "That's the spirit Bessie, now get your lazy ass out and let's check on everyone else while we gear up. We're going in heavy."

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #3 – March 31, 2024, 09:56:37 AM

[ CPO Knox | inside the Mary Baldwin half inside the Romulan Space Station | Romulan Space ] @Stegro88 @Sqweloookle @Ellen Fitz @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

As soon as the Mary Baldwin impacted the Romulan Space Station, Knox stood up from his chair on the bridge and turned to his friend Dominic Lau, “See you on the station. I am heading to engineering to help evacuate any survivors and scuttle the Mary Baldwin. Just to be clear, our instructions were to cause mayhem so the stealthy team can sneak in during the chaos we unleash and grab the goods. I plan to make this space station unusable by them when we leave. Let’s aim to be gone in 15 minutes or less.”

With that, Knox sprinted to the weapons locker and grabbed a few demo charges to 'fix' engineering. He also placed 4 phaser pistols against his chest and absorbed them into his body before shifting his appearance. His skin took on the form of an extravehicular space suit to survive the vacuum of space if that became necessary. And there was a good chance that it would. Armed with 4 guns and two large shaped charges Knox took a minute to appreciate exactly what he was about to do and smiled an honest smile to himself. Not one of those learned responses to fit in with the solid members of the crew, but a real one. He was going to enjoy the next 15 to 20 minutes. He thought for a minute and then decided that 20 minutes might be better. He could have more fun, and more solids who were members of his crew might make it out with the extra 5 minutes. Yeah, his people might make it out, but these Romulans, they weren’t going to have a good day. Hell, if he had anything to do with it this would be their last day.

When Knox arrived in engineering he found complete chaos. Someone was trying to contain the warp core. Others were fixing relays, and attending to the wounded. “Whoever is in charge here report now!” Knox commanded with no real authority to do so. He just knew that in chaos like this people quickly responded to take charge attitude. Also, his imposing frame in the large exo suit added to it and he knew they could not tell who he was, just that he was Federation.

“Sir,.?, Uh.. its very bad.” an engineer stammered. “The core is about to go critical if we don’t shut it down. It will blow in 30 to 40 minutes at this rate.”

“Good.” Knox nodded to the shock of the ensign. “Show me the most critical areas that if they took direct damage this thing would completely blow.”

“Here Sir,” the nervous ensign pointed to two areas on either side of the warp core.

“Great!” Knox placed the two charges and let everyone who had stopped working at this point and were watching, see what he was doing. As everyone looked he set them to detonate in 20 minutes. “OK, everyone!” Knox stood up to face the ashen-faced crew members staring in disbelief. “If anyone wants to live longer than 20 minutes you need to evacuate the Mary Baldwin and board the Romulan space station we are currently lodged inside. Make your way to the hangar or something and steal any space-capable vehicle you can and fly the fuck away from here. Those are your orders. Now Move!” He yelled. They all quickly scrambled away. Most likely heading to the transporter room or something. Step one of his plan of unleashing chaos as a shroud to conceal the great technology robbery was set in motion. Also, this would cover their tracks and really fuck with the Romulans in this sector.

Knox used his communicator to inform Lau of what he had just done as he made his way to an airlock. On the way, he was fortunate enough to find a hull breach. A fissure had formed from the enemy fire on the ship and ripped open during the collision. Knox pried his way out and into the vacuum of space and skirted along the stricken hull of the Mary Baldwin turned fireship towards the space station.

Seeing a small access panel below him towards the bottom or southward end of the space station where Knox thought a military-minded race might keep a barracks, Knox pushed off from the hull and drifted towards the access port.

Once inside the station, Knox could hear alarms blaring. Commands were being yelled in corridors all around him. Through the walls he could hear the stamp of boots running and weaker-willed individuals screaming. Apparently, the Romulans were not ready for war today he mused as the airlock repressurized and the door opened letting him inside the station proper. OK, just a few minutes to get as many kills as possible before I need to find a way to get the fuck away from this place so I don’t get unlived too. His skin changed from the space suit form to a matt black ballistic fabric texture covering everything except his eyes. He had a dark reflective wrap-around visor encircling most of his head hiding 8 human-like eyes but hybridized with the Gorlokian Bat retinas giving him the ability to see in infrared seeing heat in pitch darkness. He pulled the 4 pistols out of his chest and grew an extra set of arms. Now with 4 arms each holding a pistol and 360-degree augmented vision Knox opened the next set of doors in front of him and sprinted through ready for a hunt. A running gunfight of a hunt that he would long remember. "I am become Chaos, destroyer of Space Stations." Knox thought to himself with glee as he found the first group of Romulan security personnel.

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #4 – April 23, 2024, 11:21:06 PM

[ Lieutenant JG Adam Kingston | Between the Apache and the Romulan Space Station | Romulan Space ] attn: @Ellen Fitz @Stegro88 Apologies for the delay, Tafe has been rough with assessment due dates. Sorry for holding this up.

Along with the rest of the Red team, Adam was on his way to the Romulan Research and Development Station but through the vacuum of space in an environmental suit. All his equipment magnetically attached to his suit in some way or another.

He watched as the other took advantage of the small asteroids to mask their approach, he grabbed one that was just the size of two humanoids holding hands while stretched out to arms length and quickly grabbed onto it. It was already on course towards the station so it was good, though he tried not to do anything that could alter its trajectory but was prepared to use his thrusters just in case and softly.

The sense of paranoia of the Romulan's sensors detecting them floated around Adam's thoughts as he watched the HUD display inside his helmet. It showed the other Red team members in the passive scan radius. He was concerned when he saw Kennedy and Patterson go out of control but one saved the other at the last moment.

Adam sighed in relief and waited for when he was to get close enough that he could let go of the asteroid to drift over to the Station's hull. After that the task was to find an airlock or some other way in. It was a pity that they couldn't communicate as that would reveal their approach and positions, maybe they could look into some gizmo to equip onto their suits to cause interference so they could communicate using the interference as a medium.

Some time later…

Adam was drifting towards the Station hull after releasing the asteroid he rode in with, he checked the others to see if all had made contact as well. He appeared to be the last one to arrive. His suit's magnetic boots automatically stuck to the hull and he sighed again because he was glad the space flight was over.

He made his way to where the Red team seemed to be clustering to and he wondered about just how they were to breach the Station.

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #5 – May 08, 2024, 05:20:30 AM

[ Lt Kestra Pren| Mary Baldwin | Romulan Space Station | Romulan Space ] @Ellen Fitz‍ @BipSpoon‍ @RyeTanker‍ @Hans Applegate‍ @Sqweloookle‍ @Stegro88‍

Strictly speaking, Kestra Pren did not need to be in the cockpit of the Mary Baldwin as it made it’s approach but curiosity won out and as she had not been explicitly asked to leave the bridge, she assumed her presence was, at the very least, tolerated. She found a corner, out of the way and observed the crew as they interacted. Knowing that he would be her fire team partner, she paid particular attention to Lau as she sought to get a sense of the man to whom she would entrust her life and whom entrusted his life to her. She was not disappointed.

His ability to adapt and think on the fly impressed her most and as the Baldwin took damage from the Romulan attack and lost one of her nacelles entirely, he remained unfazed. She could not say for certain if she would have in his position and when he ordered the collision course, her only reaction was to brace for the inevitable impact.

As the damage report came down and it became clear the Mary Baldwin would not exist too much longer, Kestra was grateful that she had packed light and even more so that she had found a spare tactical backpack in the armory when she had gone for her phaser rifle a few hours ago. It took only a few seconds to transfer what few personal affects she had brought with her from the duffel to the pack. The rest of the empty space she gave to extra power cells for her weapons as well as a handful of photon grenades.

She waited for Dominic to finish his work and gearing up before tossing him the rifle she had pulled and readied for him. The Trill fully expected that he would want to give it a once over himself. Any self respecting shooter would. But, she thought the gesture might be appreciated.

“On your six, when you’re ready, Chief.”

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #6 – May 17, 2024, 08:33:40 AM

So, yeah, y'all had better work fast and keep the heat off the Blue team for success. A reference image for their attack and defense units.

Re: Chapter 1: The (hopefully) Great Romulan Smash and Grab [Day 1 | 1800hrs ]

Reply #7 – Today at 03:48:03 PM

[ Riov Vrikol i-Dorvik tr’Khev’ | Command and Control Center | Aboard the Tal’Shiar Ihnerha Faehht Emaifha Laeosa Mniohr (Tal’Shiar Second Secret Disease and Weapons Research Space Station) | Romulan Space, approximately 24ly from Romulus ] ATTN: @BipSpoon @Stegro88 @Sqweloookle @Ellen Fitz @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

The first 8 Romulan security personnel lasted a little under a second as Knox tore through them with 4 phasers firing independently under the direction of his 8 heat-seeking predatory eyes. It turned out that running along the ceiling and firing down on bewildered opponents worked quite well. And diving back towards the deck as he passed them to roll through the security door behind them as he past, allowed him to enter the next section of hallway. This new space was empty but had a 3 way intersection. Choosing to turn to the right Knox sprinted down a very short connector hallway to a large blast door. He could here lots of noise on the other side. Then a loud speaker came on. Some Romulan in charge was telling everyone that the Federation was here and that they were to fight back or something. It was probably meant to be motivational or something. Knox was just happy that they had everyone’s attention. That is what he was supposed to do after all. Now to kill as many as possible so the thieves could steal what they came here for.

Knox placed his hand on the keypad and melted into it a bit. He oozed a little of his liquid self around to the other side and connected the circuits to open the large door. Quickly he pulled his hand away and rearmed himself literally and also held a phaser. [Swoosh] The door opened.

Inside was what Knox would call a target-rich environment. It was the mess hall for this section of the station. There must have been 300+ Romulans in various stages of having dinner in the cavernous dining area with row after row of tables and chairs. Nearly all the chairs held a Romulan with a bewildered-looking facial expression. Most had a black chili bowl haircut and brow ridges above dark eyes. There were a few that stood out or differed slightly.

There were 4 Romulans in a line standing just inside the door looking at Knox in wide eyed confusion. Knox had 4 pistols. The first was a girl that got a beam to her forehead just between her brow ridges. The next was a male a little bit taller. He got a beam to his forehead between his brow ridges. The 3rd didn’t have brow ridges, but her forehead was still an adequate target. And the 4 had faint brow ridges on the forehead that were quickly zapped with a phaser beam much like the others. In an instant, all four fell to the ground with their eyes crossed, looking up at a smoking hole in their foreheads. The entire room erupted into chaos.

Knox switched the settings on his 4 phaser pistols to maximum power setting and removed the cool-down safety features so they would emit continuous beams. With large sweeping motions, he waved the 4 beams across the mess hall at about head height causing everyone to duck or have their heads vaporized as he leapt onto the nearest table. Then he jumped up and did a front flip as he quickly sprouted Klaxx’Vian Decopus suction cups from the bottoms of his feet. These anchored him to the ceiling again and turned him into a beam-shooting sprinkler from hell as he mowed down the fleeing Romulans.

A larger Romulan warrior of some sort was wearing armor so he slowed his slice down. He was not instantly vaporized like the others, just cut in half. His top half didn’t struggle too long but his legs kicked for quite a bit, as Knox moved on to the next target. A young lithe Romulan female jumped up and sprinted to a door on the far side of the mess hall. She made it two steps before her head disintegrated, and her body ran into a table and flopped around on top of it causing a chorus of shrieks from her friends. However, they didn’t mourn her loss long. Knox put the whole group out of their misery rather quickly. Seeing a door start to open up to his left, Knox held the beam in place to melt it shut before it could open fully. Only one at a time could get through. He then did the same thing to another door. He caught that one only when it was open enough for people to try and get through. The other door he melted shut before it opened up at all.

With his quarry trapped it was like shooting fish in a barrel! Knox walked along the ceiling with the 4 beams from his rapidly heating pistols carving up the host of Romulans trapped with him. His next target was an older gray-haired one with fancy shiny things on his uniform. He hit him in the chest and he quickly vanished. Then Knox mopped up several lackeys that were close to the officer. With a short squeal, the girl to his left was vaporized, then a string of curses from the aid on his right as he too met a similar end. 4 more jumped up and attempted to throw their dining utensils at Knox as he stood on the ceiling. He sidestepped their hand-thrown projectiles and then vaporized the brave quartet.

Two crowds were forming at the partially opened doors that were stuck. Knox swept all 4 beams from his now hot pistols towards the door that a few of them might actually be able to escape from. Within a few seconds, 3 dozen would-be escapes were turned into about 5 wounded Romulans. They were summarily dispatched in short order as well.

Knox could feel the heat building up in the phasers and they were starting to humm. Ever since he had heard that an overloaded phaser would explode, Knox had wanted to see it firsthand. And now he was about to set 4 of them off at once! Knox ran to the other end of the mess hall were the entrance to the kitchen was. He reabsorbed the suction cups from the bottom of his feet and somersaulted to the floor. Landing on his feet he spun around and sliced 4 phaser beams across the room at waist level catching 9 Romulans who had dared to stand and run for an exit. In an instant they were demolecularized with a few surprised shouts. That’s about all the time Knox had. The pistols were growing hot and starting to vibrate. He tossed two pistols at the door that was just open enough to let a few people out and then 1 towards the door that was just cracked open. His remaining pistol he tossed towards a corner of the room that had several Romulans huddled together hiding. Pistols gone and about to blow, Knox turned to make his exit.
Slap! Knox was hit across his face the second he chucked the pistols away. He expected this. Two Romulans, a male and a female had jumped out from under a table next to him armed with food trays. The standard issue mess hall ones they had been using to eat from when he interrupted their dinner. The larger Romulan had hit Knox in the face before he could transform two of his arms into something more useful. The two upper arms morphed into large chitinous scythes in the style of the Jirolothian Mantis. Knox had enjoyed his time as a Jirolothian Mantis. It was fun being a large invertebrate for a time, many many years ago. He had fond memories of his time hunting in the dense foliage of Jiroloth Prime jungles. It was a nearly sentient species. Knox had been able to quickly climb the social order of their primitive society. This had allowed him access to the best hunting grounds and as many mates as he could want. Although he kept turning the female mantis babes down for obvious reasons. But now was a great time to reminisce of his time as an apex jungle predator stabbing to death any small furry mammal he could find. With the first swipe up of his large mantis claw, poker, stabber/slasher thing, he sliced the male Romulan nearly in two vertically. With his other scythe, he brought the razor sharp chitinous point down straight through the plastic tray the Romulan woman tried to shield herself with. The point pinning the tray to her forehead like a tac. He held it still for a moment as she went limp. As her knees buckled and her arms dropped to her sides she stayed hanging on to the tip of his claw by her forehead. But her body weight eventually pulled her down off the tip of the scythe with a wet schlock sound and she crumbled to the floor on top of the right half of her fellow wannabe hero. Unfortunately, her tray stayed attached to Knox’s new shiny jet black chitinous killing appendage. “Oh, how annoying!” Knox grunted as he pulled the tray free and threw it like a frisbee before leaping into the kitchen as he remembered the phaser pistols should be about to explode.

Knox made it into the kitchen just in time. He slammed the hatch closed and dove around a wall and ducked behind a row of ovens. There was a small Romulan woman and two male chefs hiding there also. Quickly Knox put his finger to where his mouth would be if he had one in this form in the universal be quiet sign. All 3 looked too scared to move or say anything. They just shared a few glances with each other, then looked back at him. He didn’t want to have to fight them right now. Knox was way more interested in seeing what these overloaded phaser pistols would do…..[Boom]
A deep and defining thud followed in rapid succession by 3 more nearly simultaneous blasts shook Knox to his core. It was enough to nearly make him almost dizzy! Awesome!! Knox didn’t even bother to go look at the mess hall. He was sure it was a mess now.

Standing up in the small corridor in the kitchen Knox dusted himself off and looked at the 3 romulans who had been sheltering with him. They seemed rather dazed by the over pressure. “Thanks for being quiet so I could enjoy that explosion.” Knox said in Federation standard to un-understanding Romulan chefs before he stabbed both of them in the chest with his mantis claws. The smaller female Romulan on the floor next to him apparently was a little more with it than her male counterparts. Well to be fair having a pulse did put her way ahead of them. She had started to lightly hammer fist on Knox’s left leg with all her might. It didn’t do much except let Knox know he had another person to kill. He bent down and picked up the feisty female and shoved her in the oven next to them. The blast had rattled the door open. With her inside Knox slammed the oven shut and grabbed a long knife off the floor and wedged it into the oven door jamming it closed. Then he stood up and looked at the control panel for it. It was all in Romulan so he just pushed buttons until it looked like it was finally turned on and heating up. He waved at the scared and bewildered female through the clear glass on the front of the oven door, then turned to walk away.

As Knox went deeper into the kitchen he found a few more cooks recovering from the blast. He stabbed one. Another threw a knife at him. Knox dodged it and grabbed a pot of boiling water off the stove and flung it at him. He screamed in pain as the water seared him. Knox slit his throat and shut him up. Nearing the back of the kitchen two final cooks jumped out to fight Knox. Each one was armed with various cookware. They appeared to be using large pots and pans as shields and each had a cleaver. Knox used his insectoid scythes to cleave the first Romulan’s arms off at the shoulder. The now armless Romulan stood frozen for a second in disbelief. Knox tossed him head first into the large dishwashing sink. His legs kicked frantically while he was drowning. His blood rushing out of his gaping wounds turned the water in the sink red. Without arms he could do nothing to right himself, and his wriggling only caused splashing that made his friend lose interest in a fight with Knox. The other Romulan turned and darted for the door in the back of the kitchen. He tossed his weapons aside as he ran. Knox stayed just behind him and waited until he had opened the door to the corridor before swiftly beheading him.

The door to the hallway swooshed open to let a headless corpse fall out onto the deck. Knox stepped over the body out into the corridor holding the man's head casually and looked both ways. To his left and group of Romulan security guards were running through a 4 way intersection just a little ways from Knox. Considering they were mostly unarmed or only carrying a phaser, Knox hoped they would be headed to an armory. It would be a great place for him to rearm, figuratively this time. The very last person in the group charging past without looking was a rare brunette specimen of a Romulan female. Knox threw the man’s head at her legs with considerable force. The impact caused her to faceplant. She didn’t have time to do anything since Knox had already covered the distance to her. She let out a short squeal of surprise and pain as one of Knox’s pointed insect claws slammed down right in the middle of her back pinning her to the floor like a butterfly on display. That was enough to get her companions attention. They all looked back in time to see a shiny jet black raptorial leg of a large insectoid creature pinning their comrade to the ground. Her eyes looked up at them pleadingly before she was pulled to the side out of their view just around the corner. Quickly Knox sliced the girl into large pieces tossing an arm then a leg then another leg then the other arm around the corner for her friends and colleagues to see. Followed quickly by her bisected partially disrobed torso, then finally her head.

Judging by the shouting from the group, that little display had the desired effect. He could sense they were afraid. Knox shifted his form into that of a giant spider with suction cups on the tips of his spider legs. He scampered up the wall and onto the ceiling. With a small set of white wipe like tendrils he added to his back now in place, his personal upgrade to the natural design, Knox rounded the corner of the corridor.

The first few shots went low. They had been expecting the attack to come from the same height as a normal humanoid walking down the hallway, not from above them. The 3 Romulans didn’t have time for another shot. The white cords of spider silk wrapped around each of their throats and yanked them up off their feet. Knox pulled them up towards his spidery form while squeezing their necks tightly with his spider silken appendages. They were now just air dancing decorations for Knox’s carapace. 4 of his eight eyes had a good look of their horrified faces as they were being strangled with the aid of artificial gravity as they stared up at the horror that was killing them. Knox continued his trek toward the armory. He could see it just ahead as he let the Romulans continue to kick uselessly while hanging. Knox thought to himself, “Damn! Those humans came up with an absolutely amazing execution method back in the day. No wonder the whole town turned up at those public hangings…I wonder if Starfleet might bring back public hanging some day. I just might stick around.” With 4 eyes looking where he was going, Knox used the other 4 eyes to watch the two males and 1 female struggle in his silk nooses. Taking note of how their faces turned green and their mouths gasped for air. Their struggles and choking sounds were somewhat soothing to him as they dangled from his back. Solids were really fun to dispatch! But these seemed to be about done as their struggles started to subside. Knox was near the armory now and decided to keep the human decorations until he got there in the event the door required one of their hand prints or something to open.

Just as he made it to the door, it swooshed open and a bolt of lightning shot out from the door and hit one of the three weakly struggling Romulans near death still hanging in Knox’s silk noose. The electrical arc from it was so powerful! Knox’s nooses turned to a gooey liquid and the corpses dropped to the floor. If there was any life left in them, that arc lightning thrower had surely fried them. Knox didn’t have time to appreciate the electricity causing his trophies to convulse and tremble on the floor. He had other problems. Big ones! His suction cups gave out from just the residual jolt of electricity that traveled up the silk ropes to his body.

The stunned Spider-Knox fell to the ground landing flat on his back. This electricity weapon was bad news! Knox had been having a wonderful and chaotic time until this happened. He was just coming too when he saw the weapon turning to point right at him to finish him off. Knox sprang right at the Romulan with all the force his 8 legs could muster crashing into him. Just as Knox made impact with him, the next bolt of lighting hit Knox in the left side before arcing on to the metal doorframe. The Romulan fell to the ground and Knox splashed on top of him. That did it. Not a sustained full hit, but enough to turn him completely liquid. Knox really wanted his bucket right about now. In his basic liquid form Knox had the ability to slither along the ground in a liquid state, and that was about it. He could feel a strong tingle all over and could perceive solids nearby, but was otherwise defenseless. He was sliding along the floor as quickly as he could. He needed a plan. He needed an escape. He needed to get this damn tingling feeling to stop so he could shape shift again. But there was nothing like that to be had as he made his way further into the armor along the cold metal surface.

Then Knox bumped into a boot. Boots are like buckets, Knox reasoned as he slithered up the boot. However, this boot was occupied and all of him could not fit inside the boot along with whoever was wearing it. Knox instead slimed his way up the pant leg of this person quickly trying to get away before that electricity shooting weapon hit him again. He was getting some senses back and heard a high pitched shriek of fear and some other Romulans yelling now. He felt the skin of the person he was sliding up now. It was a Romulan female. He quickly had all of himself under her clothes spread out across the majority of her body underneath her clothes. He could sense light and dark fully now and kept all of himself in the dark under her clothing so the others could not see him. Knox’s form now was that of a thin slime only a few millimeters thick coating her whole body except her hands and face. He could feel the woman beating and against herself trying to hit him. It didn’t really accomplish anything. The only way to get to him was to shoot her with the weapon. He thought for a second that that might be exactly what happened next, as he clung to her nude form as tightly as a second skin. But the killing shot never came. She must be of some high rank or standing near some sort of explosive. Knox realized in that moment as she started to walk away that she must be next to something that would go boom if the lightning weapon arced off course just a little. Quickly, Knox oozed down her boots with part of his slime form. He had some of his abilities back and needed to use them now! He stuck himself and his host to the floor. Her feet were glued into her boots and her boots were glued to the ground, thanks to Knox. The two other voices started to tell her things in Romulan. A language Knox didn’t understand, but could gather the context. They were making a plan. Knox needed a plan of his own.

As his tingling sensations started to eb a bit Knox felt a little stronger. He flexed his slime along her arms. He was able to move them with some effort against her will as she fought. Knox needed to distract her enough to over power her. With firm undulations he started to massage her ample breasts and tweak her nipples as firmly as he could muster. Using his thin form to its maximum dexterity, he assaulted her clit in the most enticing way possible building on his ability. It was working. She froze, then freaked out a little. That break in concentration was enough to force her arms behind her back. He could hear her saying something frantically. Soon heavy footsteps came rushing to her aid. Knox was gaining some strength now. Soon he would be able to shapeshift again. But for now he was just in a slimy state and was gaining dexterity and strength. She struggled against him for freedom. He needed to keep hidden under her clothes just a little longer so they could not use a hand taser or something on him. He could feel her try to pull her arms free and the man next to her aided in this. With his help they might overpower Knox’s hold on her. Knox decided to up the destrations now that he was getting stronger.

Suddenly the woman’s body went rigid then shook. Knox had clamped down hard on each of her nipples and her clit at the same time he invaded her asshole and pussy. This brief distraction was enough for Knox to force each of her hands into the sleeve of the opposite arm of her uniform. Now with her hands hidden the only place Knox didn’t have access to was her face. He had her hand firmly glued to her elbows now, tight across her back, causing her to arch and stick her bust forward toward the man helping her. Then the fellow got wise and tried to rip open the front of her uniform. Not to expose her breasts, although that would be a side effect, he wanted to get to Knox. But the wise old liquid was not going to let that happen. He glued all the openings of her clothes shut. The pulled and pulled but was unable to undo a single fastener. It felt odd to work so hard to preserve a girl’s modesty. Especially one that he was working towards killing.

The other Romulan, presumably the one with the weapon who had shot Knox just a minute ago, came over to assist too. He had set the weapon down apparently. Quickly Knox checked all of the possible openings to her clothes just to make sure. He even sealed her high collar shut tight against her neck. That’s how he would do it, he decided. He had to keep her alive long enough to not let them give up on saving her. But he had to kill her then the other two quickly afterward. Another strangulation might be the best option since he could not yet shift into another form but was getting strong enough in his slime form. Knox thickened his band of slime around her neck. When he was sure he had enough he gave a series of sharp bites to the tips of her toes and fingertips. She yelled to the men helping her what was happening. As they were busy looking at her feet and hands, Knox tightened around her slim and delicate neck. She went silent. Never to make another noise. One of the gentlemen found the small bit of Knox outside her clothing on her boots gluing her in place. The fist blows and clawing did nothing. The knife one of them had also produced little results. The two of them frantically worked at the small bit of the shape shifter they had access to focused solely on the woman’s feet as Knox choked the life out of her. He didn’t have to keep stimulating her. But it was a good workout that seemed to be helping him recover faster. And the more he kept her heart rate up the quicker she would die. So Knox started a full blown bodysuit sex torture of the poor woman as she was being asphyxiated. Then he felt it. He had the ability to shift slightly. Not much. Just make a little cone shaped thorn. Then he could make multiple of them. With tongue-like licking sensations roaming her body up and down from neck to toe, Knox mixed it up a bit. Soon wave after wave of small spikes pierced her tender flesh like needles only going 2 millimeters deep. But several dozen at a time moving across her body in waves going up and down followed by tenter licking. Now he was able to make firmer slime muscle structures and he fucked both her holes he had access too, much deeper than she had ever been fuck in her life. Beyond what was considered comfortable. Knox could feel her heart racing. Right at her nipples he started to grow those small spikes forcing himself to grow them longer and longer, piercing down through her erect nipples and burrowing into her meaty tits. Coaxing his ability to shift to come back he tunneled the spikes towards her heart. He could feel her desperate struggles start to turn to spasms as he strangled the life out of her. Then he felt it. Just as she started to quiver in her death throes he had the ability to move and shift ever so slightly. With a quick motion, Knox formed two slime hands and tore out free from her collar and snapped the woman’s neck for good measure and let her fall like a sack of potatoes.

The two men helping her realized what had happened too late. They reached up and caught her only to have Knox’s hand turn to blades and slice their necks. They collapsed onto the floor spewing green Romulan blood. The dead woman lay between them. And an exhausted Knox finally stripped the right boot off the dead lady. He poured himself into it for some much needed recovery time. He chanced one glance at the girl to see she was wearing a grenade belt and was standing next to a locker full of grenades. “Ha, what a little pyro.” Knox thought. He liked the girl a little more now. And he was also so freaking happy that he had slimed his way to her first by chance. She was the perfect human shield and was likely to do lots of damage to the team assaulting the station. But Knox had taken her out of the game and she even left him treats for his efforts! And there was also that new lightning weapon. Knox wanted it. But all that could wait a few more minutes he thought as he retired to his new boot that would stand in for his bucket.