Star Trek: Starbase 777 - tactical-stations

Headed straight for her future job, Jita stepped over with a newfound sense of confidence. She knew this. She liked this. It could be fun!

T'len walked into the tactical station, and immediately began to observe everything she could see, in case there was anything interesting about this game that she could learn from.

Seht shuffled into the room and took a seat. He very deeply hoped nobody sat next to him.

Ehlai took a seat as well, looking around nervously. This was supposed to be fun... why was he stressing so much?

"Does anyone know why this game was not implemented as a holodeck program?" T'len asked the group. "It must have been a terrible hassle to have to set this all up physically..." Clearly this tiny Vulcan had no idea of the dangers of holodeck programs.

Jilla hummed as she entered the tactical stations. “Holodecks are a bit ah, played out on the market. Every Ferengi has run through every type of love slave fantasy. Trying something new is fun.” She said as she looked around.

Seht rubbed his hands together. "The game-feel may be weaker, since it's real, but it should be more closely regulated in that case."

“That isn’t what holodecks should be used for.” She huffed, “But this will be more suitable.”

Once T'len spotted Seht again, she immediately sat down on the seat next to him, and began to talk to him. "I've spoken to your boss. He works in Intelligence, so you must work there too, right?" T'len had a particular hypothesis about the workings of Intel, but she needed to gather some information first. "How long have you been working for Intel? Also, what's your rank?"

"Hrmmbr.." Seht made a low grumbildy noise. He blinked slowly as T'len approached him and made conversation. "I'm. yknow. Busy and stuff. What about you?" Getting someone to talk about themselves is a good way to get them to stop talking about you.

The tactical stations consisted just of a bunch of consoles, as well as huge war tables with overviews of what seemed to be actual bits of Gorn space, as promised. Several ships were holographically simulated on the tables, in tableaus that were mirrored in 2D on everyone's own screens, and listed their make, build year, and who the ship belonged to, which was a necessity. Because all the ships on the map seemed to be of Gorn make, and of equal age. There were a few attendants milling about here too, but they served mostly to explain specifics about how to interact with the consoles, how to move around the map, that sort of thing. They clearly rebuffed any attempts to glean tactical insights from them.

Aparajita listened intently to everything she was told— how could she not? This was her thing! A small, strange little smile appeared on her face.

Seht blinked in discomfort at Aparajita's unusual smile. Looked like he had been put in a weird lobby. With weirdos. Unlike him.

2

Ehlai walked over to Aparajita -- recognizing her from the SFA opening day as a fellow cadet. He was smiling as well -- though much more nervously. "You ready?" He asked with a nod over to the tabels and consoles.

“Mm. Yes.” She nodded, eyes intense beneath her visor, “This is my division. I’m extremely ready. Are you?”

"I am glad to have someone like you on the team then. As for me... I am about as ready as I will ever be... this is a bit out of my comfort zone..." He admitted with a soft laugh, scratching the back of his neck for a moment as he put himself down.

“I’ll be a good advantage, then.” She stated plainly, “You’re not familiar with tactical simulations, then?”

"I have done a few over my time in academy, but I am pretty good at managing many things at once... comes with the territory of being an away team coordinator... eventually," He smiled some more, explaining his own strengths as well.

“Good job. Solid job.” She mumbled, nodding along idly , “This won’t be hard for you then. You have the right skillset. No need to be nervous.”

"I forsee us being quite the team. I am Ehlai by the way, nice to meet you," he finished with a nod, not knowing if she would want to actually shake his hand.

She nodded back, thinning her lips in thought. Perhaps a command cadet would be a good ally. “Aparajita. Many shorten it to Jita. It’s good to meet you too.”

"Then I look forward to working with you on this, Aparajita -- not to overstep... but you are a cadet as well, correct? I remember seeing you at the opening party.," he asked, explaining the reasonings for his question alongside it -- like he usually did.

“Yes. You saw me there, alongside my roommate.” She replied, “I don’t believe I encountered you. However, it’s good to put a face to the name, as I’ve been looking into our fellow cadets.”

T'len noticed Seht's attempt at dodging the question immediately, and she wasn't having it. "Oh! I see, I get it now! You don't want to tell me anything because that's part of your Intel training, right? Well, if I had to guess what your rank is... I'd say you're probably an Ensign, like me! I've noticed that only Ensigns and junior-grade Lieutenants are as frightened of their seniors as you are of yours... Did I get it right?" Now T'len has evolved from asking about Seht, to telling him about himself... Was that worse?

"Yeah. Secret intel business." She must be really new to this. Usually you just look at the pips. Seht tucked his legs in for once the game started.

Once the other systems were online, the tactical stations gained extra information: the maps started showing what ships the other teams were managing. The flight sim group controlled several ships that were near one another, clearly in the same sector and easily reachable but not in any sort of formation. The VR group was in a diffent ship, quite a ways away: the ship they were on seemed clearly headed for a planet entitled "Kharghivkan (Camp)".

“Hm… I like the detail in this. Ship types, technical information…” She muttered, mostly to her newly found ally, “This will make for a good game.”

"Hmm.." Seht let out a low sound of recognition. "Mkay, so we're going through that camp and hafta get through all these pilots..." He tended to narrate to himself a lot when he was in Hardcore Gamer Mode.

T'len's eyes sparkled as the tactical stations showed the new information. "This user interface is very well laid out! I can see everything!" She commented, as she tried to use a station to find out more about the ship the VR group was in.

The VR group was in a bigger and newer vessel, one that seemed to be almost fresh off the press from a Gorn shipyard. It housed a crew complement of about 50 people labelled as "NPC", as well as several "guests" which could be assumed to be the players. The ship was clearly very quick, and was now hovering over "Kharghivkan (Camp)", not travelling any further.

"Oh, splendid! Looks like our crew is at the target destination!" T'len announced to everyone, before using the station to find out more about the planet.

The "guests" markers were moved to the planet, alongside seven NPCs. Then, the ship they were on started moving away, hovering in the vicinity of Kharghivkan but not orbiting the planet anymore. At the same time, an enemy vessel approached one of the player-controlled ships, at a measured pace, but still constituting a dangerous approach.

It took a moment for her to absorb all the information, but it didn't take very long to realise what was going on, as a red little dot began moving towards their ships. The Vulcan tapped away on a nearby console, trying to find away to alert the other team.

"Okay, we're movin in!" Seht announced to himself, leaning forward, carefully concentrating on the dispersal of the troops.

Jita narrowed her eyes, hoping to find more information on the enemy ship. Weaknesses, construction, anything, really. It helped to know the gaps in the armour.

On the console, Seht tapped on the player ships and some of the guests, hoping to see their health displayed.

No current information on the make and status of the ship, as it wouldn't be close enough yet for Jayri's ship's sensors to pick up yet.

17:53

Also, there were no damage assessments available on the "guest" popups, only an "active" marker, meaning that they were still alive. The damage on the player ships was displayed though, all currently at 0% damage taken.

“We should prepare to be on the defensive.” She said to her teammates, hearing Vokk’s voice through the callouts, “We don’t know what the approaching party will do, we should be ready for anything.”

The other ships, without prompting from tactical, were moving in as well, still a ways out but noticeably closer together.

"Perhaps a portion of the flight team should split off, so they are able to flank the incoming vessel or provide cover should a battle ensue." She suggested.

Seht itched at his patchy fur. "I dunno... should we risk that? What if we don't have enough pilots on defense and the offensive team gets killed? Maybe we should just wait and attack the ship with all of the pilots at once?"

“Yes. We should risk it.” She deadpanned, “It could result in it coming back to bite us in the ass otherwise.” (edited)

"Er- okay." Seht mumbled. He wasn't an arguing type, he just wanted to game.

She nodded at the cadet's statement. "The way I see it, if we keep them huddle together, they could become a larger target. And if the enemy vessel has superior firepower and speed, that position would likely be riskier. If we split them off, we are now forcing the enemy to decide which group to focus on, while the other group can counter attack."

She was going to get a great grade in Video Game. Which was normal and something someone should want to get. “Exactly my point.”

"Alright." She looked around the console. "Now how do we contact the comms team?"

“My vote is to submitting this plan. Lay low, stay on the defensive, don’t start anything without plans on finishing it.” She gestured towards the other, “Questions?”

"None." She nodded.

“Good. Our plan may be relayed.” Jita insisted, folding her hands behind her back. (edited)

She hummed as she let the cadet speak. “I like that idea. I have no issue with relaying it.”

"Without further information, that sounds like the best strategy." T'len confirmed.

More ships were popping up on the simulation, this time closer to Kharghivkan. The ship the VR crew had been on disappeared from view.

Then, an alarm, and a flashing ship on the hologram table. An allied ship was being harrassed by the same Gorn patrol from earlier, this time accompanied by several friends. They had raised an alarm, and were hoping for some sort of aid.

6

“Shit. Could we send a portion of our squadron to help?” She muttered, biting her nails in thought.

"Send a fighter after them!" Seht called. Shit, why'd he pick the role where he had to lead in some way? "There needs to at least be one person on their tail to distract them."

“We direct one or two fighters in the back towards them, then. Not enough to lose structure in their group but enough fire to handle it.” She added, “Whoever isn’t in the immediate line of sight.”

The two fighters that headed off to aid the fighter could be followed easily on the tactical maps, as well as the sensor information of the allied ship. It seemed the first Gorn patrol ship had its shields raised, though neither of the others had followed suit yet. A single shot had been fired as a warning, though it had missed the allied ship so far.

Ehlai had taken to watching over the tactical maps, falling back on the guidance of others at the same time. Maybe soon he would have enough confidence to really do something. He should have more confidence... he really should.

As Vovvi and Khirena's fighters drew closer, another shot was loosened on the allied ship, this time hitting. On the tactical screen, it meant that the damage taken stat of the allied ship changed from 4% to 23%.

“We need to speed up that attack. We won’t have anything left to defend if we don’t.”

"Right! Two! More fighters!" Seht rallied over comms.

As more people entered the fray, it seemed it wouldn't be enough. The original ship they were coming to rescue was paralysed, somehow, not moving at all, while its shields continued to drain and the damage accrued steadily rose.

"Uhhhh aaahhahhh--!!" Seht scrambled at the panel. "Capt- Commander! Need more defensive ships!"

She furrowed her brow, leaning over to take a look at Seht’s hands flying over his panel. “NPC ships, we don’t have enough players to keep it together.” She added.

"NPCs. Yes. Concentrate NPCs on that ship!" Seht called into the microphone.

Some NPC ships did actually pop up, about three, appearing suddenly where they hadn't before. It looked like they could have been spawned in, maybe... Either way, the large freighter with its heavy phaser banks started steadily taking damage, as well, as one of the three ships came around on an intercept course between the original ship and its assailants.

Something about this whole situation wasn't sitting right with him, but he wasn't sure what he could do about it. He was monitoring the ships, however, white knuckled grip on a chair.

"Whoa! Where'd those come from?" Seht shook his head. Damn, was this game even playtested? Well, at least they were leading the charge, Seht figured.

On the VR planet, two characters changed from "guest" to "NPC", indicating that the players had disconnected. Some other NPCs fell away, no longer operational.

"Wh-wh-what!? What the helly? Where'd all our ships go?" Seht yelped. "This game's buggy! Can we get a patch on this?"

“Our people just took off their headsets. Why the fuck would they do that?!” She exclaimed. (edited)

"Something must be going on. Maybe I could go and check on them?" Ehlai asked quietly, thinking back on his own training.

The transport ship over the VR group returned, reappearing a little ways off from the planet and finally settling into orbit there.

Ehlai was starting to get even more concerned, as he looked to the others who were in the Tactical Station, his eyes wide. "Sacrifices...? Something that they don't want us to hear?"

“This has to be part of the game. No one is that irresponsible.” Jita chimed in, brow furrowed to a T.

"I... am starting to worry about some of the things that aren't adding up. But at the same time I don't have all the information. I'll... keep monitoring the situation." Ehlai responded as he brought a finger to his chin.

Seht watched as two more players blipped out of the game on the troops. "Oh... our troops keep blinking out. What's going on?" He lowered his brow in annoyance and confusion.

Seht blinked rapidly at the announcement over comms. Take headsets off? What about the game? Left and right, players went idle and stopped playing. "Wh- Something's happening. Comms station?" He looked around to the fellow tactical station players.

Her hands froze over her console, looking around. What the hell?