The Tournament Part 2

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2022 @ 6:00pm by Lieutenant Kevan Dash & Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Ensign George Paxton & Ensign Kateyo Fenn & Senior Chief Petty Officer Mason Malone

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Toram - Tournament Fields
Timeline: Shore Leave
2392 words - 4.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Twenty minutes in and it wasn't looking too great for the Starfleet team. They were trailing by two goals to none and honestly looked like a group of people who had just found they had legs, rather than trained officers of the Federation. Communication is key indeed Teyo thought to himself.

He had attempted to get the opposition's ball a few times, but they were much better at playing this than they were, and it showed. He decided that a full frontal assault was probably the best play. He noticed that Dash was on their flank and if the pair timed it right, hopefully, they wouldn't be able to stop them both. So with all the power he could muster, Teyo charged for their end of the pitch, diving and weaving in-between their players like the pro he was; until one of them tagged him and he froze to the spot. DAMN!

Mason saw it happen as he too weaved his way between players, keeping half an eye on their handicapped goalie at the same time. He smirked at the Trill but there was just no way he was going to crawl between his legs to 'unfreeze' him. Besides, he was too far away anyway. "Dash!" He yelled out instead, pointing at Teyo.

Alex groaned inwardly as her team's capacity to spend more time frozen than actually playing scored another casualty. Now that they were a decent way in, she'd amassed a decent amount of notes regarding the gaps in their gameplay but she was shouting herself hoarse trying to bark instructions at what was essentially a bunch of individuals all trying to do their own thing. Kateyo became her priority, the Trill being one of the few who seemed to actually be trying to read the play and capitalise. Having covered the full length of the field several times over trying to cover for gaps, the Lieutenant put her head down and skirted around a contested zone, a wary eye on an approaching intercept as she reached Teyo and released him. "You had the right idea," she heaved, chest pounding. "Go." A wave of her arm attempted to signal to Dash to continue the way he'd been going, despite Mason's attempt to pull him off position. "I'll cover you."

"If you say so..." Kevan retorted under his breath. He'd been caught between two minds more than once in the game so far; whether there was some strategy to keeping players in the game or taking more of a risk was beyond him. In this case, he was in a good spot to finally make something happen.

Mason just shook his head, partly in amusement as he continued his path.

From his position at the goal, Savin observed the entirity of their team, though he wasn't quite sure he could consider this group of people a team. They were playing a game which, until today, he'd never even heard of and he was pretty sure several of them hadn't either. And the rivalry between some of them was palpable, and he could only hope there wouldn't be any injuries at the end of this game.

On the far side, Kevan was running towards one of the Toramites who had, so far, gotten the better of him. Determined not to let that happen again, and to take advantage of the attention Teyo and Ryan were drawing, he decided to just throw caution into the wind; after all, that was his usual style. Sprinting dead-on at the defender, Kevan feinted to change direction and then at the last moment threw himself at the ground in a baseball slide. After all, he figured, it was going to be a lot harder to tag him on the shoulder if they were sliding across the ground.

Miraculously, it worked. The Toramite turned and toppled as he struggled to regain position. Kevan had an easy run on their ball at last - though he wouldn't have much chance of getting out with it. Scooping it up into his arms, he knew he only really had a moment to act.

"Ryan!" he barked, pulling his arm back and hurling the ball through the air.

Several things happened at once. Firstly, being already locked in a high-pace stalemate with one of the opposition, Ryan was fully committed to a dodge-and-weave exchange that left her with a palpable threat even as she moved into space to receive. Secondly, and there was no time to see if it was Kateyo's doing, there was barely any time to course-correct as the stumble of a second defender gave Alex a split second to duck and roll. The Toramite went down on hands and knees, sending her to the ground shoulder-first in a last-minute dive over the top. Less lucky was his teammate in hot pursuit, who slammed into the first player and, in a mess of limbs, convoluted play just long enough for Alex to scoop up the ball and press forward, yelling back at Teyo.

"Tag them!"

With both down, there was time to capitalise on the confusion but they'd already seen the impressive recovery time of this team and every second mattered. Keen to move the ball out of the contested area, Ryan pulled back and lobbed a throw back towards the space Dash was headed into. She peeled off, intercepting the Trill's efforts to freeze both stricken Toramites, and pointed up the field.

"I got this, go flank!"

"Yes Sir," Teyo said, in awe of the woman's skills. He doubted very much she was just a scientist, he had met plenty of science officers and they didn't move the way she did. He swung around and whacked one of the fallen Toramites on his shoulder pad, the other one however was already on his feet and heading towards Mason. Teyo charged after the man, who was at least a foot taller than him and clearly much musclier. Luckily, Teyo was fast but was he quick enough. "Mason, 7 o'clock," he yelled.

Mason pivoted on the warning, the Toramite ploughing past him, fingers just barely missing the shoulder pad as he danced away. "Thanks!" He yelled back, correcting his path to put himself in pursuit and tag the alien out.

Kevan, in receipt of Alexis' pass, only had a two Toramites left blocking his route to score. However, he also had at least one hot in his tail. A younger Kevan would have gone all-out for glory, team be damned. But having had their butts kicked all over the place in this contest he wasn't going to try to lone wolf this. He just needed to draw them in, pull them away to create space...

"I hope this works..." he muttered, dropping low again and launching the ball sideways and into the ground. He'd played enough zero-gee football and pareses squares to figure out basic momentum. Plus his eye for marksmanship gave him a slight edge. As a body impacted his, he hoped the ball had bounced on to a friendly pair of hands.

George managed to catch the ball and stood stunned for a moment. He had been playing defense the whole time and had only run upfield to try to keep the opposing defenders off Kevan. He finally looked up as one of the Toramite's made a beeline for his position. "Ut oh," he quietly uttered before breaking into a sprint.

Out of the corner of his eye, George could see Teyo nearing the goal and lacking cover by the opposing defense. As much as he didn't enjoy the engineer's presence, he wasn't about to let the team lose out on an easy goal. In a swift movement, George ducked under the approaching Toramite and then drop-kicked the ball in Teyo's direction before continuing his sprint in the same direction to fend off further players from the opposing team.

Mason watched from a slight distance, doing his best to keep any opposition away from the scoring members of their team. He gave a cheer as George ducked under the Toramite, then cursed as one he missed rammed into him at full speed. "Ugh," he managed as he and the Toramite went down but in their roll, Mason made a swing at the opponent's shoulder pad, freezing him in place. "Go Teyo!" he yelled out, "make it count!"

Teyo had played sports his entire life and despite this being a relatively new game, he was enjoying the hell out of it. He had purposely stayed in George's eye line and the human had done exactly what the Trill had wanted. Seeing the ball hurling towards himself, Teyo started moving in the direction of the goal, and when the ball was safely in his arm, sprinted and managed to finally get the Starfleet officers on the scoreboard. He celebrated with a whooping cheer as the two teams moved back into position for the throw-off. "Great pass Kev and Pax, let's play more like that," he said encouragingly.

Doubled-over to take advantage of the few seconds to catch her breath, Ryan's demeanour resembled relief perhaps more than outright triumph. It had been a promising series of plays, though there had been an element of fortuitous miscalculation on the opposition team's part that she would have preferred not to rely on again.

"New strategy," she remarked as she intercepted Kateyo on her way to take up her position, "Try dodging next time they're in tagging range." It was, at the very least, a good-natured ribbing, the glint in the Lieutenant's eyes easily conveying amusement. If nothing else, it confirmed his suspicion that this wasn't the first time she'd taken to a field to compete.

"Great instincts, Red," Teyo said as he flashed a toothy smile, "I'm not sure why I didn't think of that? Got any more great words of wisdom?" He asked sarcastically.

"Plenty, just need an audience capable of deciphering them," Ryan shot back, opting to dish it back rather than pull him up on overt familiarity.

Savin watched the game play from the position of the goal he was attempting to defend, the conversation between the players utterly lost on them. And with the speed of the game, body language wasn't something he could use either. What he did observe, was that their opponent seemed extremely organized, while his own team tended to erupt in chaos. There didn't seem to be any kind of strategy at all.

Mason on his part was doing his best to keep the ball on the opponent's side of the field, and not get tagged in the process. "How about we play instead of trading insults?" he commented dryly.

"More of the same," Kevan said, gasping a little for air from the exertion. "Look at them: they don't like to be riled-up like that. Let's play on their over-competitive natures; We play smart and patient it'll work out."

I don't think 'patient' is in Teyo's vocabulary, George thought but chose to keep his words to himself. The last thing they needed was more rivalry. "What if you, Teyo, and Ryan take the forward positions? Mason and I can swap between defense and un-freezing runs?" He cautiously suggested. They may not have been the best team, but at least now they were communicating.

"Sounds good to me." Mason nodded in agreement.

"They're good," Ryan conceded, "But they're relying too much on their centre offense." The tall, broad-set male was formidable but, Alexis had also realised during that last pass, slower than she was. "Tagging him when he's up in the stratosphere is problematic but kind of crucial." This was information for their defensive line, however, and she turned to her two appointed wingmen and furrowed her brow. "Their defense is robust though. We need to get our ball out before they have time to pin us down. Run interference," she suggested, jogging backwards towards her starting position. "I have an idea."

The team quickly huddled in close to hear it, assuming their marine-science officer was the sort of brain that could creatively adapt on the fly.

A minute later, they were back on the field. With just a short period of time in the game left and the scores tight, they knew that this was their last play. Lining up with Kevan, Teyo and Ryan closer to the front, with Paxton and Mason tucked in immediately behind, they had the Toramites confused by their new unorthodox formation.

As the play began, the Athena crew charged forward as one, quickly moving to claim the ball between themselves. With the smallest member of their team, Alexis, in the middle of the four larger men, they formed an outward-facing box on the move, grasping together at their wrists and creating enough of a barrier that anyone getting close would have a serious problem trying to reach their carrier in the middle.

"What did you call this - the Flying Vee?" Kevan called over his shoulder. "Wish we'd thought of it earlier!" As they closed in on the other team's goal the opposition had clicked on to the plan, and were about ready to swarm the small block. As they closed in, the group scattered leaving Alexis open - but to their surprise the ball wasn't in her hand. They didn't realise they'd been played until Teyo had slipped through the gaps and scored before the bewildered Toramites knew what was going on.

The crowd went crazy, and the motley group of Athena officers piled on one another in celebration of an unlikely victory.

Teyo whooped and cheered along with the rest of his team, happy for the win and the glory of scoring the final goal. "You sure know how to make a tactical plan, Red," he panted in Ryan's direction. "I'm glad you're on our side, we'll deffo have to do this again."

Finally able to flip her visor up, Alex regarded the Trill with little more than an arched eyebrow that eventually consented to be a faint half-smile. "Nice goal."

Mason nodded in agreement, happy to have totally confused their opponent with their new-found strategy. "Nice decoy too," he added with a smile.

"Looks like drinks are on them. Last one to the bar is a Ferengi's ear hair!" Kevan chuckled, heading for the lockers.