4.2 - The Prisoners

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

A Note to Everyone:

As you all know, I like to do things different as a GM.

In this mission, we will be starting in an odd spot. The mission will start with all of us waking up in a prison. None of us have any memory of how we got there, how long we've been there, or even the mission we were on at the time.

There are signs that we have been tortured (the injuries will appear to be about a week old), and Team Sgt MacIson will be in really bad shape, going in and out of consciousness, some of his ribs are broken and he has a broken leg. Our weapons will have been stripped and helmets (where our communicators are) removed...Most of Cable's cybernetic arm has been removed (it can still be put on, but, it has to be found first). When we do see our captors, they will be an alien race that we don't recognize (Don't be afraid describe the guards), and our universal translators will be ineffective.

The cells are all metal, together and sunk in the ground with the doors in the latticed tops. The cells will be out doors and exposed to the elements, they will have two prisoners per cell.

Here's the living arrangements:

Cell 1: Gentry and a dead body (not a Ranger)

Cell 2: Marcus and Cable

Cell 3: Click and MacIson

Cell 4: Clack and Hansen

Cell 5: Kirby and another prisoner (not a Ranger)

There maybe others, depending on whether we get more players or not...They may also wake up in cells, or be found else where in this facility (depending on how far we are in the story).

When you write your first post...

Remember...Your last memory was what you said or did in your last post from the Black Rose mission.

==================================================================================

Info on the Guards:

Skin color: Their skin has a yellow tinge.

Hair: The two guards that Cable saw, had very full RED long hair.

Other physical traits: When Cable saw those guards, he didn't completely get to see their whole body...Their sorta centaurian in shape...I'll see if I can't knock together some sort of image for them...
Here's an attempt...

This is a rough idea.

Language: Their language is not verbal.

The Males:
The males of this species, unlike their female counterparts, have stubby useless legs. When moved, they normally ride on the back of a female, holding on with their arms.

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

Somewhere...
Maybe a Planet

On:

He awoke.

As he rose to a sitting position he grunted in pain...His whole body hurt, and he could taste blood as his tongue checked jagged stubs where two of his front teeth had been.

He was having trouble seeing, it was dark, probably night time...Night time? Yes, it was night time. They were not on a ship, there was cool air coming in, from time to time, from an opening, somewhere above, and with that he could pick up the tail-tail smells of a heavily forested area. Forest decay was the same everywhere. There was also the smell of death.

As he inventoried his situation, he realised, that his weapons and armor were gone and the he was striped down to the armor suit's undergarment, what Kirby liked to refer to as 'long johns'.

His eye were getting better, so he decided to see if he could feel his way around. As he got up, the pain was excruciating.

He quietly felt around, the walls were metal and slimy. He wondered how he had gotten here and why it appeared he had been injured. The last thing he remembered was looking out the window of the observation lounge, on the Vortex, as the the USS Dorchester (AKA Black Rose), was leaving, to be scrapped.

His right foot, it was bare, bumped into something, he knelt down to see what it was. Currents of pain shot through his body.

It was a corpse, very much decomposed.

He heard a voice from a short distance away. "Damnit! Where the hell am I?!" It was Kirby.

ZZZZZAK!!!

Two voices cried out in pain. "$@&%$#@!!! I'll kick your a..."

ZZZZZAK!!!

The same two cried out again. There was a little mumbling from that direction, and then, silence.

Off: Tag All, except MacIson, who is out cold.

[Cable]

Somewhere...
Maybe a Planet

On:

ZZZZZAK!!!

Two voices cried out in pain. "$@&%$#@!!! I'll kick your a..."

ZZZZZAK!!!

The same two cried out again. There was a little mumbling from that direction, and then, silence.

The sounds of electricity and screaming is what started Cable from his slumber. It felt like a time when he was back on Quronos. His head hurt and right where his cybernetics meet flesh on his left arm where burning.

As his eyes started to adjust to the darkness he could still see very little. He heard a breeze he knew he was outside and could hear the rustle of leave on trees. Last thing he remembered was have some grub with Kirby. Not real sure who Kirby was but enjoying his company.

As he looked around he saw the body of a Ranger in the other corner of the cell. Cable went to activate the flashlight they had added to his base arm and there was nothing. His neural relays where working he could feel his fingers moving on his left hand but he got the sense it was different. He pulled his arm across his chest to his right hand and felt around to find the majority of his cybernetics where gone.

Just then Cable could make out 2 figures walk on the grating at the top of his cell. He tried to see at least who the hell had them captive. He made out that both stood about 5'8"ish and where very much female. They had a yellow tinge to their skin and long red hair. They where both wrapped in straps of what looked liked leather in varies parts of there bodies covering up all the curves, but, not leaving much to the imagination.

"Um excuse me doll but what the hell is going on here?" Cable thought the blunt questions was the best way to get to the bottom.

The two ladies turned to each other and started to talk but the universal translator was either not working or not able to translate. Then the one on the left pulled a pistol from a holster and sent out a blue glow of an electronic field at Cable.

ZZZZZAK!!!

With the shot Cable reeled in pain and all his muscles spazzed out.

OFF:

<Tag anyone>

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

Not to be a pain, but, the openings are grates at the top of the cell...You're all in the metal equivalent to boar pits. Sorry Cable but, I did modify your post to reflect this (PM me if your mad...I'll make it up to you...someday). Also, thought the pistol was an energy weapon...I don't want to reveal it's type yet.

Oh, and nice post by the way. ;D

[macison]

ON:

Gabriel was standing before a long corridor, Red alert lights flashing along it. "This isn't right, what's going on here?" he muttered as he glanced down the hallway. He moved his left hand to rub his forehead, and noticed the Phaser Rifle in his right hand. Several other men stood beside him, a Lance Corporal, a Corporal, and a Private First Class. He glanced at them as they looked at him. The PFC, a young man, barely 23, stood hands shaking.

What was his name again, damn it's been so long. Gabriel thought.

Then without knowing it, Gabriel was talking, but he wasn't thinking of what he was saying, "First firefight, Williams?"That's right PFC Jordan Williams

"Yes Sergeant." He replied, voice quivering.

"Buck Up Marine, this is what you're trained for damn it, I don't need you pissing yourself in the middle of a Borg assault, are we CLEAR?" MacIson demanded.

"Aye, Sergeant." Williams replied, his voice slightly more confident.

A woman with black raven hair stood next to the PFC, LCPL Strider. "Sir, my estimation is 2 minutes until the Borg breach that wall."

"I know, thank you Lance Corporal."

"Aye, sir." She replied as she brought her rifle to bear on the bulkhead that was glowing with an odd green light.

"Corporal Havens, I need you to prepare for the onslaught, grab two antipersonnel mines and place them next to the wall, you have 35 seconds to deploy them."

"Aye sir." Havens replied with his satchel slung across his side, he moved and got to work.

Gabriel remembered all of this, this was the Egypt, he was a Sergeant, but why was he all of a sudden remembering this? Was he delirious? Was this some kind of trick? Or was it just a simple nightmare that was induced by the Whiskey he'd drank just a few hours prior?...Next thing Gabriel remembered was being thrown back by the explosions of the Antipersonnel mines blowing two of the Borg to smithereens, the others adapted and marched through the wall and began firing on the small team. "FIRE!" Gabriel ordered as he opened fire, modulating his Rifle every other shot.
It seemed like an endless line of Borg entering into the small corridor, for every one they dropped, three more took it's place.

Explosions rocked the outside of the ship and the corridor shuddered, "Keep them held in place, fire damn it fire!" He said. Suddenly the corridor pitched and the floor seemed to slip out from under Gabriel's feet, his right leg felt a stab of pain, followed by a burning sensation, his left shoulder was next to feel the odd sensation as he toppled to the ground. He screamed in pain as he fell but managed two more shots before hitting the ground.

"Sergeant!" Havens yelled as he moved to cover his fallen comrade.

***********
Gabriel awoke screaming in pain as he felt a phantom burning sensation in both his old wounds. He looked around the room, cold sweat falling from his face, then it hit him.

Guess I'm not in Kansas anymore. He muttered as he realized he'd been placed inside a cell of some sort. He glanced around and noticed a man, Codenamed Click if he remembered correctly. He was an infiltration specialist. He seemed to be banged up pretty badly. Gabriel moved to stand and immediately fell back to the ground, a chain pulling at him from the wall.

He noticed a steel slab supported by similar chains next to where he was chained, a primitive bed of some sorts no doubt.

"Hey Click. Wake up soldier."

Then he noticed it, Click wasn't bound by chains.

Why am I the only one chained? He asked himself.

OFF: GM's Question: Why, Click? Why is Gunny chained and not you?

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

In a Cell
<<Kirby>>

On:

"See you're a wake again...No, no." He held up a hand near Chitown's face...He wanted the break each finger seperately...'She loves me, she loves me not'. No, better not do that...Might need the Vulcan?...Rommie? He grabbed the guy's wrist and pulled him forward, it was dark, he needed to see...Rommie. He pushed him back.

"I was trying to tell you," The Rommie, even in the dark, looked indignant...Maybe it was his voice, which was almost at a whisper. "Don't talk too loud or they'll electrify the cell...Tell don't want us to be communicating with each other, at least between the cells."

"Then shut up." Kirby said...His head hurt. And where the hell was he? Last he remembered he and the new guy...uh...yeah Cable. He was giving Cable some advice about chow.

"You guys sure didn't cooperate." The Romulan said. "I'll give you that." The rommie sat on the metal slab. "One of you was being carried off to be questioned and he put up a real fight!...I think he killed a couple of the guards!" he whispered loudly...the edge of his voice almost audible.

There was the sound of admiration.

"If I survive this," Kirby's cellmate continued. "I want to remember that Starfleet Marine's name...So I can get it right when I tell my grandchildren...Which is it? Mack Gunny?...or...Gunny Mack?

Kirby replied in a low and very intolerant growl. "He's Team Sargent MacIson...And...He's not a Marine, you idiot."

"He's a Ranger."

Off:

[Cable]

<In a lab room>

ON:

Cable woke up and was very groggy he could feel his stomach ached as he had very little to eat and he was going through withdraws from his medication he took to subside the techno virus that he was infected with since he got his arm replaced. When he shook the cobwebs out of his head he noticed he was strapped to an examination chair he was in some sort of lab room and was alone. They had him strapped down with metal 4 ways and had some sort of neural headpiece on him.

This is when he noticed the sensation of his left arm and hand and being to manipulate them. He looked down and saw the stub where his arm would normal attach at the elbow. He swore to himself that he could feel his fingers resting on an arm rest just like his right hand was and when he tried to move his fingers he could hear and feel them tapping on the metal rest. Cable found this odd as he knew the feeling could be imagined but the sound could not. He tried his right hand and while it thud on the arm rest the sound was much closer. Cable took a second to think about what was going on and that was when he saw his arm across the room on a metal table. He tried to move his fingers again and sure enough his fingers moved on the table. Cable was taken aback he knew they did some upgrades but that was amazing to think that his neural up-link could work at a distance.

Just then he could hear what sounded like horse hooves outside the door and Cable went limb and played unconscious. As he heard rustling coming in the door he could make out the movements of at least 3 and from the smell they gave off he envisioned the same yellow skinned beauties he saw above his cell. They came up and Cable used his training to slow his heart rate way down and his rapid eye movement to a bare minimum. He could feel them take him out of his restraints and peel him off the chair. He figured he would not make this an easy task and played like he was dead weight. One on each side of him drug him by the arm towards the door he was not sure where the third was.

As they made the way across the room Cable guessed when they would be near the table that kept his arm and when they reached the point he tried to activate the flashlight attachment that was put on his arm by the techies on the Vortex. His captors stopped and while they didn't speak Cable could tell they where shocked. This is where all his instinct and ranger training was either going to get him killed or save his butt. He sprung to life using his right arm he took the guard on his right off guard and jerked his arm loose grabbed her by the arm and shoved her across his body into the captor on his left. The two of them fell off balanced to the ground. Cable reached for his arm grabbed hold and took off out the door anticipating a blast in the back. It never happened as he cleared the room he looked back to shut the door and noticed he was wrong instead of three there was only two but they where four legged aliens. With the door shut and locked for the moment he proceeded to put his arm in socket to bad he didn't have his attachments. It was time to find the others and figure out where they where.

OFF:

OOC: I know some haven't even posted there first impressions on the mission but I had an idea on how to get another wrinkle in the story and I went with it. This has a lot of potential to be a great story we just need more people involved! (Color added by GM)

[Mak twins]

OOC: Playing as Mak Sief "Click", with an addition by MacIson.

ON:

< Maybe Planet >
< The Cool Cell >

Sief was still writhing in pain from the guard's ray gun when MacIson started to stir. He finally managed to stop shaking about the time his cellmate became coherent.

"Hey Click. Wake up soldier."

"I'm awake, Gunny, just waiting to make sure you don't die on me," Sief said, sitting up and leaning closer to the other Ranger.

The first time he woke up was when they brought MacIson back a while ago. He was making such a ruckus that they made sure to put Sief in chains before depositing MacIson back in the cell with him.

For the last hour, Sief had managed to bite a splinter off of his chain and use it to pick himself out of the primitive chains restraining him, which ripped his fingers to shreds. After he got free, he tried to climb up and communicate with any of the other Rangers. For his efforts, he was rewarded with an incomprehensible response from a complete stranger and a shot from one of the guard's guns.

Now, he held up the splinter in his bloody fingers and then moved his hands to MacIson's wrists.

"We need to work on your being a prisoner skills, Gunny," Sief said, "I'll let you out of these, but only if you promise not to keep trying to run for it like you did when they put you in here with me. That shit's gonna get us killed."

Gabriel shook his head, "S.E.R.E: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. That's what I've been trained to do, and that's what I'm going to do Click, and it's what you should be doing. I don't intend on sittin on my hands around here. We need to formulate some kind of plan to get out of here."

Gabriel stood shakily and fell back to the bed. He muttered a swear that was barely inaudible and sighed slightly, "So Click, do you have any ideas?"

OFF:

[Mak twins]

OFF: Playing as Mak Tele "Clack"

ON:

< Maybe Planet >
< The Depressed Cell >

At the sound of his brother's scream, Tele woke with a start. He practically scaled the wall of his cell instinctively before realizing he was captured on...

He couldn't remember. He didn't know where he was or why he was here. The last thing he recalled was...the fight with his brother about his report. But he had no idea of how that ended. Or more importantly, why he was back in the field.

Since he was already at the top of his cell, Tele decided to get a look at his surroundings. There were a lot of similar cells to his nearby sticking just a bit out of the ground, but he couldn't be sure how many because it was too dark to see. At least 7, probably more.

He also saw two of the captors nearby. They looked like they were having a conversation, but they weren't saying any words. Tele noticed they were moving their bodies a lot and made the assumption that they communicated non-verbally -- at least while keeping guard.

Tele couldn't help but feel there was something familiar about the language, but he couldn't match it to any of the half-dozen languages he spoke. He split his observation time between trying to decipher the language and wondering if it would be annoying or awesome to have four legs.

OFF: TAG Hansen

[marcus]

Somewhere...
Maybe a Planet

Did someone get the plate off of that shuttle?

Marcus' first thought as he came to was that it felt like he had been run over by a shuttle going at warp speed. It hurt to even move, and his head felt like a rock band was playing in it.

Slowly he opened his eyes, and wondered why sickbay was dark, usually there was atleast some sort of light on.

As the rest of his senses started to catch up, he slowly realized that he wasn't in sickbay, let alone the Vortex. It was damp, and way too cold to be on the ship, and as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, he saw that this was definitely not sickbay, unless someone had moved sickbay to a dungeon.

So, the question was, where was he? The last thing he remembered was stripping down and cleaning his weapons on the Vortex after there last mission. There were some flashes of some things, like one of the mercs causing a racket before being stunned, but as he looked around, he saw no one else in the cell with him, so it was quite likely that he had just imagined being with the merc.

Even though it was dark, he noticed some shadows moving around above him. Slowly Marcus pushed himself out of the bed and towards the opening at the top of the cell.

"I wouldn't do that," he heard a voice whisper. "They might not speak, but the guards sure don't like noise."

Sitting back down on the rack, Marcus leaned back against the wall of the cell. "Who are you? Where are we?"

"I guess you could say I'm a friend. As for where we are, well it's too cold to be hell."

Marcus could hear the rustle of someone moving around above him.

"Ssshh, quiet, the guards are coming."

OOC: Is there really someone else out there??? haha

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

Somewhere...
Maybe a Planet

On:

"Ssshh, quiet, the guards are coming." The Romulan whispered loudly.

Seconds later the guards had walked off.

"So, who the hell are you?" Kirby asked.

"I was a technician, before the insurrection, and it is possible I am only survivor amongst those that were left behind." The Tech lamented.

"Left behind?"

"Yes." The Romulan answered back. "There was an emergency on the home planet..." He stopped for a few seconds, looking at Kirby as though he were deciding whether to go on. "My name is Argelan." He continued. "I..I want someone to know that...Just in case I don't make it out alive."

Just then Kirby realized that he was hearing this Rommie without a transilater. "Your standard is almost flawless."

The Tech smiled. "Yes, at one time I wanted to be a part of the diplomatic corps...I was not found to have the right mentality for the job. I ended up studying engineering."

Suddenly, the quiet was shattered by alarms.

Argelan looked up, there was movement above. "It sounds like someone is trying to escape."

<<Two cells down>>

When the alarms went off, Gentry had to see what was going on. Thought it was painful, he jumped up, grabbing the bars above him, and pulled himself up to see what little he could. As he did this, one of the four legged guards stepped onto the grating of Frank's cell, her attention on what ever was going on outside. Before the Ranger knew he was doing it, he had a hold of the guards anckle...He let go of the bars and let his body weight do the rest. A weapon fell through the bars as the guard slammed into the grate.

He quickly grabbed what appeared to be a Romulan disruptor, aimed up at the fallen guard and fired. He then adjusted the pistol, hopefully to the correct setting and fired at the other end of the grate. He was rewarded, as a gaping hole appeared in the bars.

As he climbed out, he saw that there was another guard rushing toward him. She fired, missing him...He didn't miss. Unfortunately, as her lower half disintegrated, he realized that he hadn't adjusted the weapon back to stun. Oh well, he thought. The cells were in two rows with a concrete like walkway between them. On one end was a covered box on a pedestal. He ran to it, lifted the cover and pressed all the buttons. All the cells opened, with the exception of the cell with the unconscious guard on it.

Off:If you have read this post, read it again. I made a very important change to it.

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

The Romulan Lab

On:

There was commotion in the other room, the females were probably beating another biped.

He wished they could go back to how things were, when the females were happy and he and the other males lived a comfortable life, being fed, kept warm and mating with the females. No, now he and the other males had biped magic running through their heads, on a constant basis. And now, he needed it...he was addicted to it. Though the bipeds had purged their minds of most of the magic, they hadn't gotten it all...They had left enough, that he and the other males were able to conjure enough crafting magic for the females to fashion the crooked magic sticks. It had taken only a short fight and the lives of three females to kill or capture the bipeds that had been left.

The only bipeds still alive, the females took revenge on the others, was the nice one that made noises at their leader when the other bipeds were mean, and the new ones that wore hard skins...Skins made of magic. The hard skinned bipeds had come with crooked magic sticks that did varied kinds of magic. Luckily, they had been trapped and disarmed, or they would have been dangerous. As it was, the first one probed, hadn't cooperated and had killed two females before he was subdued.

The bright orb in the sky had flown across the heavens, many times since then, and with the last probes, the day before, enough magic had been learned to make the final touches on the big thing possible.

Suddenly, the doors slid open and a biped came through the opening...

The biped skillfully summoned the magic that shut the doors and disallowed others from coming through. He was one of the hard skins, without the hard skin, that had been taken off, but, he was dangerous just the same.

It was the one with the shinny magic arm that came off. At the moment, the biped was holding the, still detached, shinny magic arm. The male couldn't tell if it was the original, or one of the new ones.

Off: <<Tag Cable>>

[Cable]

The Romulan Lab

ON:

As the door shut behind Cable he snapped his arm back on. A great pain shot through his system as the neural receivers started to reattach. He looked at a cabinet next to the door and used all his available strength to tip it over in front of the door. That is when he turned to take an account of the room he was in and noticed a man across the way. He appeared very primitively dressed with some sort of tech helmet on his head much like what was on Cable's a few seconds ago.

Cable also noticed that there were Romulan marking all over that lab. He walked over to the male. "You Armed?" Cable shouted. "Where are the rangers and my attachments?" He got no response form him as he stared at Cable's arm. "You like that do ya?" Cable lifted the arm up and flexed his fingers turned on the flashlight and pointed it at the man.

The man held his hands up to shield the bright light coming from the magic arm. That's when Cable cut the light off and came with an uppercut sending the man off his feet and into the wall behind him. 'Time for games is over' Cable thought and that's is when from outside the door he heard some disrupter fire. Cable made his way out the door just in time to see a Ranger crawl out of a cell and disinigrate half a guard. Cable looked on very amused. The Ranger then went and released the lids on all the other cells. Cable walked up to him " Well Colonel time to find our toys and get to the bottom of this."

<Tag Mom, or anyone getting out of the cells>

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

The Romulan Lab

ON:

The biped made noises at him, much like the nice one, who was still alive.

Maybe he was hungry.

The biped with the shinny magic arm then shined a magical beam in his face...But only for a second.

<<<Outside>>>

Gentry kept a wary eye about him as he went to help Junior out of his cell. Already there was people stirring in the other cells.

"Well Colonel, time to find our toys and get to the bottom of this." It was Cable.

Frank pulled a sore looking, dirty, disheveled Captain Sheridan out of his hole as he spoke. "Where did they have you?"

Cable indicated the building, a large glorified hut really, that he had came out of. Gentry fired twice as he looked in that direction...The two guards that had attempted to hold Cable fell. This time the weapon was on stun.

<<<In the Lab>>>

His magic helmet had been knocked off. He knew that somewhere, the females crafting things had stopped. It was no problem...There was something of more interest at that moment. The hard skinned biped interested him...As usual, with his magic helmet off, he could hear the bipeds...not the noises they made, but, their inside voices...These hard skins did not sound like the bipeds that had left or died...They didn't even sound like the nice one.

He used his arms to move himself toward the door that the hard shinned one had gone through. It had been a long time since he had moved himself anywhere...The Crafter had been wise, when it had created the gentle people...Giving long legs to the females and stubby short ones to the males...The females could hunt and craft and provide...The males soothed the females and gave them the needed direction.

When he got to the door he peered out at the bipeds, as they climbed out of the cells.

No, these bipeds sounded completely different...which made sense, the magic they had provided him was very different from the earlier bipeds. He started to feel that maybe they shouldn't have trapped the hard skins, but, he also knew they needed that magic...so they could find more.

Maybe the hard skins were like the nice one. He could see they were letting him out of his cell.

<<<Outside>>>

Kirby pulled his cellmate up and out of the pit. "There ya go, Rommy."

Argelan's eyes were immediately drawn to the died guard, he put his hands to his face. "No...no, I..I can't be a part of this! Too many of them have been slaughtered as it is!"

"What? You mean the guards?" Kirby asked.

"Yes!...The guards, the brains...All of them!" The Romulan was clearly shaken. "My hands are already dirty! They have already been enslaved and their innocent minds raped with our schemes. The anger of their retribution can be easily understood considering what we have done to them!"

Gentry approached the ranting technician. Argelan took one look at the Lieutenant Colonel...There was a look of recognition on his face....And fear.

"The Butcher of Kaleb!" The Romulan cried as tears started to run down his face.

"The Butcher?" Kirby, though he had heard the term once before, he still looked confused.

Gentry looked at the sniper. "It's a long story." He then set his eyes on Argelan. "First, if you know where they took our equipment, you'll take us there, then once we set up a defensive perimeter, you and I will have a talk."

The Romulan stammered. "Y...y...yes...Butcher."

Frank looked at the frightened man. "Oh...And they call me 'Mom' now."

Off:

Note: For future reference (I didn't give a very good description in the earlier post), the helmeted tech that Cable hit was on a tall chair. Cable didn't get a very long look at him, so he assumed the tech was standing (not much time to look and busy escaping). The males of this species, unlike their female counterparts, have stubby useless legs. When moved, they normally ride on the back of a female, holding on with their arms. (I will add this to the top post of this mission).

[The GM (Frank Gentry)]

Gunny...Your post hasn't be deleted...I combined it with Clicks post for smoother readability of the mission.

That said, you're all doing a great job!

keep it up!