Episode 2 Chapter Five: Objectives Joint Post

This is a wiki page dedicated to the Joint-Post writing of Chapter Five in Episode 02: Cosmic Imperative.

Writers will find the objective(s) they've opted to describe/document achieving on this page and will have until a set date to write In-Character segments. This set up will serve to increase the pace and alacrity at which this epic multi-vector episode is depicted.

Rules:

• The order of the slots has been inputted according to the Cosmic Imperative calendar of events.
• The chapter GM will "fluff" and weave the individual posts once all the objectives have been depicted.
• Write as much as you like and use as many NPC's as you like. Just remember that if you choose to kill off an NPC, the same rules apply here as in regular threads: get permission from GM first and, after the fact, update that NPC's wiki page to show the deceased.
• Once all the objectives have been written, the GM will alert chapter writers and they will then have the opportunity to look back through the objectives they did NOT write to and add in In-characters thoughts/responses to that objective if they feel so inspired
• Continual corrections and edits are encouraged to allow for a better flow.

Any continuity errors and discrepancies will be sorted out after the ending date and before the JP is posted in Chapter One, Episode 02. The GM will handle any latent formatting issues and conversion from wiki markup to forum BBC code before posting.

Find and Expose Tal'Aura's True Nature

Now that our characters have escaped from the Citadel (the epic story prompt thread we decided to do together), this objective should showcase the survivors finding Tal'Aura and getting her exposed to our cannon scanner to see if she is Infested (she is). From there, detail the fall-out of this information, citing connections to the other story prompt threads if/where applicable, as character fall-back to the Allegiant.

Ellen Fitz

[ Doctor Lucan cin Nicander | Starboard Guest Quarters | Deck 2 | USS Allegiant 1 | Deck 10 | The Helmet ] ATTN: @chXinya @Dumedion @Griff @Pierce @P.C. Haring @rae

Lucan was just “turning the page” of the book on his PADD when the door to his makeshift brig/quarters opened and the captain with the security personnel who’d been tasked with keeping an eye on him all but fell into the room carrying something writhing. Standing from his bed, Lucan moved closer to the force field, curious at first and then beyond surprised when he realized what, or rather who, it was they were holding.

“By the winds, how –“ Lucan stopped himself from asking a question no one was presently capable of answering.

It didn’t really matter at this point how they’d managed to apprehend the Praetor and drag her aboard the Allegiant. What mattered was using the kemocite cannon on her, exposing her to the transphasic light to determine if she was among the Infested or if her recent machinations had merely been born out of a militantly calculating mind bent on destruction.

“Hold her!” Ives ordered the security personnel, barely avoiding Tal’Aura’s snapping jaws as, between her howls and snarls, she tried to take a bite out of anyone and anything close.

The security personnel didn’t need to be ordered twice. Using all their combined weight and strength, they held fast as the captain retreated behind the cannon to ready it. Lucan quickly moved back to his bed, shifting to the furthest corner of it. Even when he wasn’t having an episode, probably because the parasite remained inside him feeding off his body’s energy, exposure to the light still felt like shit.

Her words were barely comprehensible as the Praetor continued to writhe against her captors while Captain Ives powered up the cannon. He recognized the evil desperation in the undertones of her voice, had heard it enough times in his nightmares, in the echoing memories of things he’d said while under the Infested’s control. As if responding to the call, Lucan imagined he felt the parasite within him give a lurch, twisting in his gut.

No. Lucan pressed a hand over his belly, scowling at the scene as it continued to unfold just outside his “cell.”

Seconds passed like hours, but mid-spittle spewing threat, the cannon fired a beam directly into the Praetor’s body, and the woman fell limp. Ives approached, wary but determined. One of the medical personnel who’d joined for this grand adventure approached at his signal, administering a hypospray with deft movements as if afraid the woman would awaken and try to take a chunk out of her at any second.

“Praetor Tal’Aura,” Captain Ives spoke evenly as the woman slowly came to, “I am Captain Ives of the USS Theurgy. Do not be alarmed. We mean you no harm.”

Lucan heard a raspy chuckle. “Then…why am I…where am I…” Tal’Aura shook her head from side to side, blinking Ives into focus. “What have you done to me?”

“We have exposed you to a device that works to subdue the parasite that was implanted within you.” Ives gestured toward Lucan. “You are not alone in acting as an unwilling host. But let this moment serve as hope that you need not continue to be used against your will.”

Tal’Aura glared at Lucan, quickly noting the forcefield with a lip curl of distaste. Returning her attention to Ives, she squared her shoulders. “I am myself, captain. Do they still need to hold me like a prisoner when you have just made claims that you mean me no harm?”

Ives took a steadying breath before giving the security personnel a subtle nod. They seemed more than a little reluctant to let go but followed orders, standing on either side of the still kneeling Romulan with their hands on their weapons, ready to draw and fire at a moment’s notice.

“Are you aware that a fleet of Romulan ships is presently speeding towards the Romulan-Klingon border to break through the Neutral Zone and commit an act of war against the Federation?”

Tal’Aura gathered her robes and rose to her full height, shorter than Ives, yet still managed to stare down her nose at him. “By whose orders?”

“Yours.”

“How is that possible?” She sounded less than convinced, pausing to glare at Lucan again as if he had a part to play in her current circumstances.

Captain Ives gave her a much-condensed version of her status as one of the Infested, of their powers and intent, calling on Lucan a time or two to share insight from one who shared in the fate of being a flesh puppet. When Tal’Aura pressed for more details on what it meant, long-term to be Infested, Lucan had felt more than a little reluctance in laying it out in plain truth to her. She didn’t strike the doctor as one who would willingly accept a life spent dwelling under the watchful eye of a kemocite cannon. Not that he relished it either, but he had more extensive experience with the ins and outs of its construction and still maintained hope that they could perfect it, maybe even find a way to eradicate the parasite altogether without ending his own life in the process.

“What do you want from me, captain?” Tal’Aura folded her hands together in front of her body, looking far more calm in the face of the current chaos than Lucan thought possible.

“Recall your fleet. Now that you know of the Infested, now that you understand you are Infested, you may understand how they benefit from the chaos outright war will bring. Their numbers will spread unchecked to a point where there is no turning back the tide. Instead of letting their duplicitous manipulations divide us from within, toppling governments and threatening alliances, let us combine forces and find a way to remove the parasites, to end them permanently.”

Tal’Aura studied the captain for some time then, a contemplative frown furrowing her ridged brow. “Allow me to contact my fleet.” Her voice held a hardened edge that tickled Lucan’s nerves.

Captain Ives nodded, stepping back slightly to gesture toward the door. “This way.”

The group left with a heavy wariness swirling about them. Lucan moved to the table where he’d left a few morsels of food and drink from his last meal. Sipping at the water, he paced the width of his cell. Something didn’t seem right, and not necessarily because of the parasite’s presence. He finished his water and was nibbling on a piece of bread when the cell door opened, and one of the engineers they’d left onboard to tinker with the cannon entered. His face was ashen, hands shaking, as he went to work double-checking the cannon.

“What has happened?”

The engineer shook his head when he looked at Lucan, a mixture of confusion and fear swirling the depths of his gaze.

“The Praetor attempted suicide while talking to her fleet commander.”

Lucan tossed his roll onto his plate and paced closer to the force field. “By the winds…what?”

“Soon after she contacted her fleet commander, they switched to visual communication, and it was then that she ordered the commander to defend Romulus to the death, no matter who the enemy was, and then she stabbed herself with a knife she’d had hidden in her robes.”

“Is she dead?”

The engineer shook his head. “I don’t know. The captain has the medical team looking at her while we wait for the last of our teams to board. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I heard he tried to continue talking to the fleet commander, but communication was severed before he could get very far.”

Lucan swore as he took a heavy seat on his bed. They’d come all this way to expose Tal’Aura to the truth, and they’d done that very thing. But they’d not managed to prevent the battle that was likely about to take place at the Triangle. Be it doubt at the truths she’d been given by Ives and Lucan or her own determined motives secret to all but herself, Tal’Aura had added fuel to the fires of chaos instead of letting a cool breeze of rationality quell them.

What now? Lucan thought to himself, allowing his head to fall back against the bulkhead and letting the engineer work silently as they mulled over recent events and their ramifications. If Tal’Aura survived her own efforts, would she be more compliant and reasonable? If she didn’t, who would take up the baton of leadership over the Romulan people? Lucan closed his eyes, pressing fingers against his temple. Of all the possible outcomes to this mission, THIS had not been one he’d pictured.

Dumedion

[PO2 Kino Jeen | Transporter Room | Deck 1 | USS Allegiant]

She’d been falling in reverse into a black pit of oblivion, lit by the baleful energies of an unstable artificial black hole: the most dangerous and destructive force in creation. Kino knew she was dead; her mind snap-fired between outrage to acceptance, regrets and lost opportunities, then finally heartache, as she fell. No one could doubt that she'd fought the good fight – she’d tried her best. She hoped, somehow, that Reika would understand...and try to find some measure of peace, of happiness. Kino closed watering eyes, hearing naught but the wind in her ears and the snap-crackle of hyper-condensed magnetic conductors screaming in overload...then felt the detonations cook-off above, to bath her in an orange glow of heat.

I’m so sorry, Legs…

An instant later, Kino's body crashed onto the transporter pad hard enough to crack the polished surface, sending shards of glass out in ricochets in every direction. There she lay, unable to do much of anything but groan and force herself to keep breathing; which is how Chief Nilsson found her. Kino lay curled up on her side, one arm bent at an awkward angle, a mass of bruised flesh and bloody wounds. “Shit, Kino! Easy, Jeen – easy,” she heard Nilsson’s voice, felt hands press against the worst of her injuries; the blade wound to her shoulder was a ragged hole that oozed blood in time with Jeen's pulse, but the damage done to her eye probably looked worse - a bloody, swollen mass of bruised tissue nearly cut in half. “Get her to sickbay, now,” Kino heard Nilsson bark, and more hands gripped onto her, as lucidity ebbed...

I’m gonna...pass out now, Kino’s mind murmured drunkenly, as everything faded to black.

But it didn’t last.

Awareness blared to life in an instant with a tidal wave of pain; someone was screaming her name - in warning or a plea for help – Kino wasn’t sure. A hypo stood vertical, embedded in her chest. The non-com ripped it out as she sat up and rolled out of the way of a body on instinct; it crashed onto the desk she’d been laid out on with bone-cracking force. Kino scrambled, hands clutching whatever she could for makeshift weapons: a laser-scapel, and a shard of glass.

“Hm, another plaything,” someone mused, in two distinct voices blended as one with an unmistakably wet, feminine, and sinister tone. Kino looked up in time to see a blur of movement: black hair, glowing eyes, a flow of robes – then she was held aloft by the throat – choking. “Greetings, broken fleshling,” the voice purred from the blood-stained grin of Praetor Tal’Aura. A body lay behind her on the floor in bloody pieces; torn completely in half. Dark green stains coated the cramped medical bay, filling it with the butcher house reek of slaughter. “Brace yourself. This will not be quick, nor painless,” the Praetor’s grin stretched even wider – impossibly wide – as the thing within her that rode her flesh savored the torment to come. A pale hand, dripping with green gore, filled Kino’s vision - the slightly blue-tinted one of her cybernetic eye – then the Trill managed to scream as white-hot agony filled her skull.

The Praetor’s fingers gouged, then gripped, and with a savage laugh, the infested cunt ripped the mechanical implant out of Kino's face; she even held it up like a newfound toy with a gleeful smile.

“F-Fuck. Y-you,” Jeen half screamed/half choked out, and pinioned the laser-scapel into Tal’Aura’s right ear, then drove the blade of glass into her left eye. A dark, gurgled chuckle sounded as Kino was discarded to the deck in a heap of bloody and abused limbs.

“Amusing as ever,” the Praetor giggled, then spun away from Jeen as the door to sickbay opened.

“Kill it,” Kino heard a commanding voice order, just before the room filled with phaser fire. Jeen scrambled away in a low crawl as fast as her damaged body would go, through the green-tinted lake of blood and entrails between the ripped apart body that was once the Vulcan botanist, Cir’Cie, while the Praetor laughed. Not...not Tal’Aura, Kino realized. It was the thing that had burrowed inside Tal’Aura – the thing that they’d come to find, and hopefully, stop. The Praetor’s body was being ripped apart right in front of her, burned to tatters; but the thing just kept laughing. It spread its arms wide, and took a step forward. “Behold your end,” it cackled, even as it burned into nothingness – and charged.

Jeen scrambled to her feet, slipped, fell. The door closed, but she could hear the fighting; voices shouting, phaser fire, the clang of metal on metal. By the time she got to her feet again, and managed to wipe the blood-coated door release, it was all over…

Ives sat upon the torn apart remains of the Praetor’s headless body, both hands wrapped around the hilt of a keen-edged blade; it was driven down through the Romulan’s chest, and well into the deck beneath.

“C-Captain,” Kino panted, barely able to stand. “S-she…,”

“It," Ives corrected. "Whatever remained of the former Praetor clearly did not wish to live. It’s over,” Ives grunted in pain, ignoring his own wounds as he looked to his crew first; he stood and withdrew the sword with a grimace of effort. “See to the wounded,” Ives nodded to them all, “and make ready for departure as soon as we have all crew accounted for,” he waved a hand to Tal’Aura. “Preserve this as best we can. It may yet prove useful.”

Someone rushed to Kino’s side; she felt hands try to steady her – pressing into her wounds – and agony re-flared too hot and too overbearing to counter. Kino fell to one knee as Ives continued to issue orders, but she couldn’t keep up. Overcome with pain and unbearable fatigue, Jeen sat against the bulkhead for a moment, just a moment to rest her eyes…

And everything faded to black.

Escape Romulus

With all the coming and going on the planet, it is inevitable that their presence is known and their escape will be dicey, to put it lightly. Detail the escape and remember: creative build-up of in-game canon is always encouraged and welcomed, and if you have questions or ideas you'd like to run by the GM, reach out via PM/DM.

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Travel back to Helmet dealing with unfriendlies

There is no feasible way that our characters are going to escape the planet without some unfriendlies on their tails. These unfriendlies can come from nearby patrols and/or even from Romulus. They can be whatever class fighters/ships you'd like, and as with all the objectives, wreck and maim and kill as you see fit. Just give a heads-up to the GM and update the wiki pages accordingly.

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Arrive at Triangle in time for epic battle

After a harrowing journey with unfriendlies on tail, this objective can be perfect for recapping all the losses, personal or professional, as well as all the gains made in the duration of the chapter. Details on damages, injuries, fallen comrades, as well as new hopes/fears, are also good for this objective. Approach it as you like, just end the objective with the chapter characters arriving at the Triangle and alerting those on the Helmet of their arrival.

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WRITE POST HERE FROM YOUR CHARACTER'S POV ONLY AND UTILIZING NPCS