-
Posts
-
*A bearded man walks into the holodeck, looks around at the cobwebs in the corners and frowns, then addresses the camera.*
So over in the “Ship Names and Mottoes” thread there was interest in getting some RP going again. As it turns out I have a story to share about one of my Captains.
Back when I ran through the TOS start I did it as a little Let’s Play on another forum I post on. The posts featured in-character commentary, fourth-wall breaking, some thoughts about Trek as a franchise, and a lot of foul language. It was fun to write, and I think some of you might enjoy it.
I’ll start with some character background this afternoon and will get into the missions once I find someplace to upload the images.
aka @acousticrob#2239
Before we start I should introduce you all to Mel Sandoval.
I made Mel originally for a game where we were all Heroes in a reality-spanning war between the Light and the forces of darkness who had died, but found themselves brought together in the afterlife to fight one last battle. It was a really wide-ranging group of characters we came up with—there was a talking dog, a heroic librarian, a boy with horns who hatched out of a giant boulder, George Harrison…you get the idea.
Mel was inspired by two things. The first is the picture below. I always need some kind of visual hook to hang a character off of, and between the hair, the sword, and the smirk there’s a lot of hooks there.
The second is a line by the song Ghost by the band Neutral Milk Hotel:
And one day in New York City, baby, a girl fell from the sky
By the time I figured out where she fell from (the roof of the famous punk club CBGB), when she fell (June 1983, after a Beastie Boys concert) and why she fell (she was thrown off the roof by a group of vampire cultists) I had Mel: a teenage runaway and punk rock fan who got recruited into the secret war, spent several years protecting New York’s Lower East Side against mundane and supernatural threats, and died heroically in the line of duty after killing a vampire at a punk club.
I had so much fun playing her that I’ve used her in other games since then. Including STO. Which is where we begin.
*Rob crosses over to the holodeck console, blows the dust off of it, and touches a panel. The walls fade away and we find ourselves in space….*
aka @acousticrob#2239
Space, the final frontier….
I’m an old-school Trek fan, back when I started watching it as a kid you’d catch reruns at 5:00 in the afternoon on like channel 53. And these images take me right back.
You can practically see the strings dragging the model across the screen, can’t you?
Gee, I wonder exactly who’s going to be leading that away team? Let’s take a look.
Aaaah, look at that. That bridge set, it’s just like coming home. Let’s swing the camera around and see what Mel looks like in this reality.
Um.
“You.”Uh-oh.
“You did this to me.”Look, I can explain….
“I’m wearing a fucking minidress.”Well, yes, it was the sixties….
“And what did you do to my hair?”Well, people didn’t really go around with pink hair back then….
“I’m going to hurt you.”…don’t you have a search party to lead?
aka @acousticrob#2239
“Nobody cool’s going to see me like this, are they?”I promise, this is just between you, me, and my geeky friends in the fleet.
“All right, fine. But I’m holding you to that.”We check in with our commanding officer.
“This guy wants to be Jim Kirk so bad.”We head down to Engineering to catch a shuttle to the surface and that’s where we run into our first away team member.
Tarsi here is an Andorian like my other character, and you can see those ’60s production values in full force. She first takes us to the armory.
“Oh, yeah. That’s what we’re talking about.”
“Zap! Zap! Pchooo! Pchooo! Pchooo!”Enjoying yourself, are you?
“I’ve got a goddamn ray gun. Of course I’m enjoying myself.”aka @acousticrob#2239
From there we head down the hall to the shuttlebay.
“I guess this is our ride. Come on, Tarsi, let’s get gone.”
And away we go.
aka @acousticrob#2239
And here we are, planetside! We set out with Tarsi and a random redshirt to locate the wreckage and check for survivors.
“Look! Wreckage!”
Some old-school tricorder action going on here while Redshirt #1 stands guard.
“He’s totally gonna die, isn’t he?”You’re very genre-savvy for someone wearing go-go boots.
“I’m not hearing you say ‘no.'”
“Shouldn’t there be someone in a blue shirt doing this?”Hush, you.
aka @acousticrob#2239
Notice how Tarsi’s wearing a different insignia badge in this cutscene? In the original Trek what we think of as the Federation badge was only worn by Enterprise crew–other ships had different badges, like Commodore Decker here from the episode The Doomsday Machine.
Anyway, back on Taurus II there’s a big ugly guy on the ridge, and he’s just thrown a big ugly spear at our redshirt.
“Told you! Told you!”Yes, yes, you’re very smart. Now shaddap.
He’s dead, Mel.
And he’s still angry.
aka @acousticrob#2239
Mel opens fire with her pistol while Tarsi readies a phaser rifle.
“The fuck did you get that thing, Tarsi?”
“This? I’ve always had this with me.” “But–aw fuck it. Just help me kill this thing.”
“Not helping, Tarsi….”
“Ow. Fuck. That’ll leave a mark.”
Anyway, Mel and Tarsi kill the alien and the guy we rescued leads us to another group of survivors.
When we get there they’re fighting more of those aliens. Look how gloriously cheesy their design is!
aka @acousticrob#2239
After we dispatch them we’re approached by an Ensign Mears.
“I’m listening, Mears. This better be good.”
We herd everybody into the shuttlebay and close the doors behind us.
“Let’s hear it, Mears.”
(This references the episode The Galileo Seven, by the way.)
“Better than sitting here with our thumbs up our asses waiting for someone to come rescue us.”
“Hey look, a shiny red button. Something good better happen when I press it.”Does something good happen when Mel presses the shiny red button? Tune in next time and find out!
aka @acousticrob#2239
Previously on Star Trek Online: Mel gets a ray gun, a redshirt gets killed, and Mears has an idea. Was it a good idea?
Yes. Yes, it was.
“Run away, assholes! Run away?” “Really, sir? Is that really necessary?” “Yes. Yes, it is.”
Heh.
Anyway, it turns out that the Taureans captured some of the crew of the crashed starship so we have to go rescue them.
aka @acousticrob#2239
“Good thinking, Tarsi!” “Thank you, sir.”
Scan scan scan scan scan.
Footprints!
“Hot damn!”
“Let’s see where they lead.”
They lead to more of those spear-chucking Taureans, of course.
We return fire and eliminate them.
aka @acousticrob#2239
The footprints lead us to a cave where the Taurean chief is hanging out, along with two prisoners.
“Man, you are ugly. With a capital Ug.”He attacks, naturally.
Mel and Tarsi fire back, naturally. And kill him. Nice job by Tarsi for finding some high ground and not shooting Mel in the back of the head, by the way.
“Not on my watch, Ensign. Let’s get outta here.”We lead the two prisoners back to the crash site.
“Those don’t look like Starfleet uniforms….”
“Goddammit. Phasers out.”
Spoiler: they’re not in the mood for questions.
“Goddamn Klingons. Set phasers to kill.”aka @acousticrob#2239
We fight the Klingons off and find a datapad on the squad leader’s body.
Ooooo, those crafty Klingons. Kor was the antagonist in the first-season episode Errand of Mercy, so here’s another reference.
By the way, while Trek gets kudos for its multi-ethnic bridge crew, it’s still a fact that the main enemies are swarthy middle-eastern types and thinly-coded Yellow Peril Chinese. Just sayin’.
We fight our way back to the landing zone.
Love those old-school disintegration effects.
And here we are!
This is another reference to the Galileo Seven episode that this whole mission is a call-back to.
Up, up, and away!
And yes, we have enough fuel to get back to the ship. Whew!
Next time: the thrilling conclusion!
aka @acousticrob#2239
We disembark in the shuttle bay and Mears pulls Mel aside before she heads back up to the bridge.
“You did great, Mears. Really saved our asses with that electrifying-the-hull trick.”We report back in to the bridge where Captain Garrett has another assignment for us.
“Take the helm? You want me to <i>fly </i>this thing?” “…” “Cool!”(It was a running joke in the original game that Mel was an awful driver, to the point where she earned the Disadvantage “Can drive, but shouldn’t.”)
“Find the satellites, scan them, see if the Klingons are using them to broadcast distress signals. Got it.”
Turns out the Klingons are using the satellites to broadcast fake distress signals.
So we blow ’em up.
aka @acousticrob#2239
That, of course, gets the Klingons’ attention.
I don’t remember the Klingons going on about honor in the original series. Pretty sure that stuff was invented for TNG.
Also, check out the old-school makeup and costuming. No bumpy foreheads here, no siree!
“Aaaaah, you don’t scare me.”Nothing actually scares you, Mel. That’s why you kept getting the crap kicked out of you in that other game I played you in.
A couple of Klingon frigates warp in and make attack runs on our ship.
We return fire.
“Their shields are down, sir.” “Fire photon torpedoes!”
“Yeeeeah! Suck on that, assholes!”aka @acousticrob#2239
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.