Episode 2.01: Brushfire!

[Davy, aka GM]

Styles chuckles again, this time a little more ruefully. "I was desperate," he admits. "Trying to delay the Klingons as long as I could, to give my people as much time as possible to get away. Channeled every ounce of my arrogance to keep their interest. I might've pulled it off, too, had my first officer not come back to make sure I got to my escape pod."

Leaning his head back on his pillow, Styles closes his eyes. It doesn't take a medical degree to see the amount of pain he's still feeling.

"I appreciate your kind words, Treyva," he says, glancing toward his counterpart. "We'll see what Command does. It's probably even odds that I'll get a Remora.

"Now, I should probably try to get some actual sleep, before that Miss Fernandez comes back in and yells at me. Again." With one more glance at Treyva, he adds, "Don't ask."

OOC: So, this is a good segue into something I need the four of you to decide together. What is the report on Styles that Captain Treyva will make to Starfleet Command? How favorable or unfavorable is it? Whatever you gents decide on will weigh heavily on Captain Styles' future.

Please feel free to discuss here and on IM over the next couple of days, and I'll start putting together the start of the coda.

[Davy, aka GM]

Captain's Log, Stardate 8853.5: The frigate USS Ambassador Thoris and the destroyers Fitzpatrick and Comsol are due to arrive in a few hours to pick up the Rostov's remaining crew and relieve us on station over Neural. The sensor net has been quiet, and we've seen no evidence of the Klingons having returned to the system.

Captain Styles and I were honored as members of the Yutan's tribe, and were fortunate to witness the venerable leader Apella arrive in the Tyreen camp under a flag of truce, to negotiate the end of hostilities between their two peoples. Styles is reserving judgment, but expresses hope that our efforts will bear fruit. I echo that hope; the Neuralites deserve a return to the peace they shared before, although I wonder how much of a shadow the bite they took from the apple will cast over any peace they achieve...

Main Cargo Bay
Treyva, Sorak, Tobin, and Cole enter the cargo bay to find the crew of the Rostov packing up the last of their temporary quarters and assembling the gear that remains from their foray planetside. Nearby, Styles, Even-Vered, and Reed notice their arrival and cross the deck to meet them.

"Almost finished, Treyva. Your cargo deck should just about be inspection ready," Styles quips with his trademark smirk. "Captain Tralohsa says he'll start sending his worker bees over to retrieve the escape pods as soon as we and our small gear are aboard the Thoris. His ops folks should be reaching out to your Mr. Costaluna soon."

Pausing only a moment, he adds, "It's been an honor, captain. Whatever the future holds for Neural, you and your people helped save the Hill People. They won't forget that, and neither will I."

OOC: Feel free to interact.

It's time to start looking at each scene to determine your positive and negative Reputation influences (Core rules, p.141); remember this is only for your Major character, and not any Secondary characters you played during the episode. Note that challenging a Value is not a negative influence; only challenging a Directive is, and I don't think anyone did that this episode.

Also, violating a Directive without challenging it isn't a negative influence, but it does disqualify you from the "acting in accordance with..." positive influence. In this episode, there was one scene where the characters were overtly brandishing and firing phasers around the natives. Cole was the only Major character involved with that, so he won't get the positive influence; however, make sure the rest of you check your scenes for Directive violations (current directives are in the Standing & Current Episode Directives thread). (Treyva might be docked for Styles leading that ambush. )

Also note that for a character killed negative influence, it must be a Major or Supporting character; to my knowledge, there were no deaths from either of those pools.

[Patrick Goodman]

I will deal with this ASAP. This weekend has been fraught.

[Nolmir]

While the two captains talk, Tobin reaches out to shake the hands of Even-Vered and Reed. "It's been an honor working with you," he says to his counterpart officers. "I hope next time we meet is under happier circumstances."

OOC: I see just one positive Reputation influence for Tobin (acting in accordance with orders and directives) and no negative influences in this episode.

[Patrick Goodman]

Not forgotten, but the past week or so has sucked.

[Renny]

OOC: Yeah, ditto. I'll jump on tomorrow at some point

[Davy, aka GM]

While the two captains talk, Tobin reaches out to shake the hands of Even-Vered and Reed. "It's been an honor working with you," he says to his counterpart officers. "I hope next time we meet is under happier circumstances."

Both officers take the proffered hand in turn. "And you; we're grateful you came along when you did," the lieutenant commander responds. Reed smiles broadly.

"I heard you kept a close eye on us during the fight, even alerted your captain to the enemy reinforcements coming up the hill so he could send more hunters our way," he adds. "Not sure I'd be standing if you hadn't. Thank you, sir."

Even-Vered steps aside and lets the younger men talk, taking a place next to Sorak. "How long have you served as first officer under Treyva?" she asks.

[Renny]

Cole hangs back somewhat, still feeling a little subdued given his recent injuries. He smiles to himself at the thought that the one part of him which hurts the least is the prosthetic.

[Patrick Goodman]

"Almost finished, Treyva. Your cargo deck should just about be inspection ready," Styles quips with his trademark smirk. "Captain Tralohsa says he'll start sending his worker bees over to retrieve the escape pods as soon as we and our small gear are aboard the Thoris. His ops folks should be reaching out to your Mr. Costaluna soon."

Pausing only a moment, he adds, "It's been an honor, captain. Whatever the future holds for Neural, you and your people helped save the Hill People. They won't forget that, and neither will I."

"The honor's been mine, sir," Treyva replied. "I'm pleased that we were able to help, and I hope that whatever we've managed to achieve down on the planet will lead to an actual lasting peace between Hill People and Village People. Though, if I'm honest, I have my doubts. I have a feeling that, whether we've convinced the Klingons or not, Starfleet is going to be involved on this planet for a long time to come."

He took a deep breath, then added, "If you don't mind a personal observation, Styles, it looked to me that you were taking the situation on the ground personally Am I misreading that?"

[Davy, aka GM]

"Not the situation on the ground itself, but the way we tiptoe around the Klingons," he says. "Something's coming, Treyva; I can feel it. I'm sure you've heard the scuttlebutt that KSI* thinks they have a reformer at the top, and that parts of their High Command aren't happy about it.

"It's going to come to a head, one way or another; a civil war that will bleed over to our side of the neutral zone, or a general war with us or the Romulans, or both," Styles adds. "Meanwhile, Command is either too busy looking at their collective navels or too afraid to offend somebody to make sure they understand, in no uncertain terms, that we're not the sleeping tiger to wake up. We're not ready, and good people are going to pay with their lives for it."

OOC: *KSI = Klingon Sector Intelligence, for those who don't remember. Of course, what Styles calls scuttlebutt, you folks heard directly from Sorval's mouth in the previous episode.

[Davy, aka GM]

OOC: After some thought, here are my takes on your positive & negative influences.

No one had a negative influence. There's one instance of not failing to uphold a Directive (Cole and his subordinates openly using their phasers during the rescue), and one instance where I really didn't give you folks the opportunity to uphold the Directive (keeping Styles under control).

That said, I realized I should've imposed the Directive challenge against Cole when he shot the Apellan smith, or in the aftermath of the rescue when debriefing with Tann-Tyra and her team. I'll work on bringing Directives to the forefront as we move forward.

Now, positive influences:
Treyva (2) - Acted in accordance with mission directives, Acting above and beyond the call of duty (his inspired argument to convince Yutan to change tactics)

Sorak (1) - Acted in accordance with mission directives

Tobin (2) - Acted in accordance with mission directives, Acting above and beyond the call of duty (finding the cloaked bird of prey on the ground)

Cole (2) - Acting above and beyond the call of duty (heroics in battle, with no thought of personal safety), Directly Contributed to Saving a Life (stabilizing Kowalski while under fire)

Is there anything else I should consider for you gents?

[Renny]

OOC: That looks good from my point of view, thank you.

[Davy, aka GM]

OOC: If you have no objections or opinions to the above, go ahead and roll for your Reputation.

Remember, roll 1d20 for each positive influence. TN is your current Reputation, Difficulty is your number of negative influences (0, in this case), and your rank gives you Privilege, which is equivalent to a Focus (Treyva is 4, Sorak is 3, and Tobin & Cole are 2). Your rank also gives you Responsibility, but that only matters if you have negative influences.

[Renny]

OOC: Rolling for Cole. Current Reputation is 10

Rolled 2d20 : 12, 17, total 29

[Renny]

OOC: Result is no successes so no change to Reputation.