All but three of Natasha Zhang's crew had abandoned her, and of those three, one was a fratricidal maniac disliked even by others of his species and the other had a knack for reappearing and disappearing on his own time, such that he can be mistook for a Magus. As for the third... That guy was obsessed to the point where he scared her.
This meant that the supersoldiers she would meet with would have to fill in the crew's duties, and considering the fact that the medic had also abandoned them, the Xuanzang's captain also hoped that one of their future allies was a super-doctor. And also that the rumors of 'Child Spetnaz Magi' were exaggerations and that she was not going to be stuck in a babysitting job.
So the young-looking woman waited in front of the Xuanxang's opened airlocks and hatch, alone for now, all the while feeling a creeping dread at the back of her head...
Ashton and Flame
The Galactic Bazaar was a space station the size of Ireland, a megastructure which floated above the gas giant Xenadan. Chosen due to its proximity to no less than three wormholes -Spacewarpers were even rarer after The War - The Bazaar held everything one can ask for and every danger one did not want. And here was where the former child soldiers had chosen to come, wished well by their former captors.
Even in the hangars, there were moving shuttles - The modern equivalent of the ancient food carts and mobile booths - which offered services from food and drink to beauty products or even various services left unsaid. As the motely group neared the Xuanxang's location, they encountered one of these shuttles, a brightly colored vehicle the size of a department store on 21st Century Earth. More ominously (for their wallets), it advertized sweets and 'street food'.
"Ashton," Flame Brooks spoke up, trying to be the voice of reason, "We don't have the time for this. We need to meet with our contact in a few hours. Plus, this could be a trap, and even if it isn't, we should practice being cautious." He turned to Nero and Avelyn, knowing full well that they did not have a sweet tooth, and said, "Can you two back me up on this? Our group cannot afford to be distracted by candy."
Ashton, however, was already talking with the propeitor of the 'shuttle' through his Omni-tool, and tried to defang Flame's argument by saying, "The Rau've lady running this also says she can bring us to where we want to go for a 100-Galactic Credit purchase. Travel will be smooth enough for us to eat along the way and it'd be better than continuing to walk in a kilometers-long hangar or taking a transport vehicle anyway."
Noticing the obvious game Flame was playing, Ashton turned to Tarak, their unofficial leader, and opened his mouth, only to find Flame saying, "Fine, but we take turns eating just in case this turns out to be a trap somehow and just to keep in practice."
And with that, the door to the shuttle opened, allowing the group of friends inside a large shop + restaurant filled with shelves of brightly colored sweets and baked goods, as well as a set of tables close to a shuttle window. Another section held saltier meats and savory vegetables, most of them in stew form or in skewers (blunted to prevent a hazard). There were no intoxicants, which was just as well for Flame - He did not want the group poisoning their livers early. And finally, there were drinks equivalent ot coffee and hot chocolate, as well as those tiny marshmallows mixed into the syrup.
"All right, Folks," Ashton said as he pulled out his credit stick, "Let's dig in - I think that for our health, we should buy non-sugary sweets first, then stevia-equivalents in hot chocolate or coffee, then go to the 'meal' section to buy some meat and vegetables - We should make sure we don't eat too many fried foods. Mom used to be a nutritionist and I picked up a few things from her, things I still remember and may have even added to."
Flame rolled his eyes and said, "Tarak, I think you and I should use our Omni-Tools to test each foodstuff we get for poison or allergens. And of course, we should make sure to contact our, well, destination that she should not be afraid of a large shuttle coming to her ship and despositing a group of 'Child Marines'...
Natasha Zhang
Natasha received a message - Apparently, the rumors of 'Child Spetnaz Magi' were true after all, and because she was dealing with children, they were going to take a dining shuttle instead of a regular transport craft. Because candy. So she typed back to 'Flame' and possibly Tarak (who at least looked the part of a super soldier) :
If you're going to dawdle, buy me some Milk Tea with fruit jelly and peanut-brittle-equivalents.
Finbarr had been a soldier, no, slave of the Ascendancy for the last two years. He found his dream and family ripped away from him... and turned to the perfect killing machine.
And this war within will only end with the Ascendancy's reformation.
"Come on, Flame.", Finbarr urged as Ashton suggested that they take the food shuttle instead of a plain transport. "I'm bloody famished, what with having to walk a lot in this place. I could have gotten us through a port-, actually, I don't know this place, so scratch that. What I'm saying is, this place is as big as the island where my colonist ancestors came from, so I say that we eat while going there. Pleeaaaaaaase?"
Finbarr was slightly taller than either Flame, or Ashton, and was older by a year, but he had this kind of childishness when they were just... well, themselves. It made him sound like a younger brother, in fact, though one should always remember that he was always watching out for everyone else here with his powers of retrocognition. In the end, though, Flame consented, and they all got into the shuttle.
"Look at all that hot stuff...", Finbarr commented as he looked over all of food that were neatly lined up in the racks of the dining shuttle, his grey eyes visibly sparkling with delight due to the prospect of having a hearty meal. By this point, his friends would know him as having a powerful appetite that matched his prowess with the dual plasma blades that he wielded in battle. Of course, he would also be known as their one companion that was never afraid to show how much he loved each one of them. After all, terrible times and the prospect of death and destruction were both powerful catalysts towards forming strong relationships and alliances... just like the pair amongst their ranks. Hell, he had lost count of the times that he had jumped in after sensing the mortal dangers that his friends had almost perished from.
Finbarr picked out some bread, or at least it looked like bread. He called bread "Soft Potatoes", never mind that the only bread that he had ever eaten that were actually made out of potato dough were those baked by his mother back in their subterranean settlement in Titan. Ah, hell. Those were very good and soft to the teeth. Finbarr wondered if he could replicate his mother's baking for his friends sometime. Hmmm. Maybe next time. Either way, he proceeded to take a donut covered in white sweet powder, as well as a bowl of beef stew. After paying for the whole thing, he set down his foodstuffs on the table near the shuttle window, and then waited for the others.
And so their own quest began. There was a weird bit of irony in them going to do pretty much the same thing they have been doing prior to their capture - the same thing that formed a large part of their shared hatred for the Ascendancy, but this time on their terms, of their own free will and for their motives. First order of business was reaching their cabbie and not making her fall into despair at the sight of the group. If Avelyne didn’t know what she knew, she wouldn’t think much of them either. Then again, if their foes were going to make the same assumption they could use that to their advantage.
“Mate, I promise if you pick a smaller store next time, you’ll have whatever candy they carry you want and you won’t even have to pay for it. We’re likely to be in transit for a while after we meet our contact, which means time to rest, so there’s no harm in walking, it’s good exercise.” she answered Flame’s call for assistance with a few counterpoints, but before the words could even register, there was already nothing that could be done. “Oh for f- Fine. Your way it is.” she sighed in resignation, following along. Approaching the food shuttle, Avelyn let her mental guards down, letting the proverbial lid slip off and the thoughts of others to flood her head, trying her best to ignore the voices in her mind that belonged to the group out of respect for their privacy.
No one else in a 30 foot radius received that honor though, and every voice she didn’t recognize was isolated, judged and categorized. Beggar sitting by the entrance - low risk. She deviated from the group to toss a few credits into the man’s hat sitting on the ground next to him. Their rightful owner was probably halfway across the bazaar now anyway. Rejoining, she continued. Off duty cop. Shit, potential troublemaker. No, scratch that, he had his family with him, highly unlikely he would do something that would endanger them.
With the list of bystanders exhausted, she shooed all the foreign thoughts away, tranquil silence once more filling her mind. Tranquil silence, and the sight of food. “I’ll be over there.” she pointed a finger and proceeded to wreak havoc on the meat section, actually paying for everything since the place had nauseatingly good security measures. She loathed seeing money go away, but the ‘Eat while you can, tomorrow might be hungry.’ mindset was deeply ingrained and hard to overcome. Taking a seat with her compatriots, she once more turned to Flame. “Any response from the cabbie?”
Tarak had understood fully what coming here meant, their money was going to be spent, he sighed realizing Iris was probably going to be trying to convince Samuel for her candy allowance. He sighed as he has his mic muted on his rig. There is one thing that upsets him out of all of this, he had zero clue on how many people they will be meeting with, and also who are they meeting with. Tarak didn't know this station, nor the sectors nearby, so he is clueless about what is out in this area, maybe they could bump into one of his many old 'colleagues'. Maybe a few would be nice, but he can name a hundred that would take his head if they had even an inkling that it would get them a few credits. So he hopes this sector is safe enough for everyone here.
Lo and behold this sector being nowhere near where he had been making it a pretty safe area, well in comparison to Galirus and the conjoined sectors.
When the ragtag group reached the food shuttle, it seemed as if Flame and Ashton had a near fight over going with the food shuttle or not. Finbarr also seemed to have been hungry for the past hour or two, so a small break should be in order, and besides everyone here needs to eat, they hadn't gotten food a little bit. Yet as Flame did bring up a good point, of them not having time, and even Avelyne made a few good points to their venture here would be a waste and the exercise was good. It was immediately defanged, in Tarak's mind, when Ashton brought up the shuttle would take them to their destination for a 'small fee'.
And even before anyone could even say another word or look towards him, Tarak had already entered the food shuttle and took off his helmet to give a quick light and courteous bow to the woman and greeted her. Tarak knew customary and long greetings are treated strangely in shops of large Bazars, so he greeted the main server in her native tongue with a "Hello, I hope you are well." He paid for the fare of transportation, he wasn't afraid to be out of 100 credits. 100 credits wouldn't even get his armor a new paint job, and he doesn't even plan on eating much here. Once he finished that he talked to the server for a bit about how her day had been, some parts good, others bad, yet all well.
Once Tarak finished his little greeting with the main server, he took an immediate look around the shop, inspecting the area and the contents, looking for anything strange and maybe even slightly dangerous. Nothing strange on the racks, or dangerous from what he was aware of. A beggar, Tarak looked at him and tossed him some credits, another 100, and a quick nod to tell him to keep quiet. Then Tarak's eyes landed on an off duty officer with his family, Tarak clicked his tongue as he saw the family. There were a few other patrons who are not even of note as many of them have a little look to them, or are gorging themselves. He sighed, realizing that he was getting into habits: check waiter, inspect for people you might know, find the most worn in the room, buy them a drink, and give them a chat. It was his old way of getting the info he needs and what he wanted, so he just tilted his head and readjusted himself to knock those habits off, and get back to the task at hand.
After his quick one over, he saw his friends step in and group up quickly. Tarak took this as a sign to regroup with them, as they began setting a game plan. Many of them were probably going to be digging in fast as they could, so Tarak would wait with Flame. Flame was right, they should at least stay slightly vigilant, not out of fear of what's chasing them, but what is here, after all, they could be running into any unsavory types who would look at them as an easy tag.
Ashton started to create a game plan of food grab and nutritional balance, Tarak zoned out of that whole conversation as Flame began to talk to him about scanning the foods for protentional allergies some of them might have or for any bad foodborne pathogens. Tarak helped with the venture, no matter how stupid he thought it was. Tarak did it anyways, it made Flame feel better so it didn't matter. Flame did bring up a good point though, as the contact should be informed of their method of transportation.
Tarak began to boot up his encryption codes and scramble his message before he sent the message to their contact, informing her of their form of transportation and an eta of their arrival. He chuckled slightly as she typed back and asked for Bubble Tea and Het'ya. He typed back to her that he can get her that, and if she would like anything else. The encryptions have been updated from his days as an Incubus Mercenary, better tech that was made by the scientist in the Zeta Prime Black Site. It was slightly dated yet still worked as well most of the encryptions that are still found today.
Tarak had leaned back as he continued to check people's foods, and making sure that they are not allergic. Most people here he knew their allergies and otherwise likes and dislikes, a few he hadn't gotten to that level of trust with yet, but his knowledge is getting better.
When Avelyne spoke up amongst the group again, she asked if the contact responded, and Tarak responded with a chuckle, "Yeah, she wants some Bubble Tea and a brick or two of Het'ya". He did a one over on what Avelyne had taken up to eat and perfectly knew what she was going to grab, meat, meat, and more meat. Tarak is not too different as he is a man who loves meat, yet he'll stay his hand for the time, after all the twins are gonna be a handful soon.
Tarak just sets his helmet on the ground and gently leans back as he sets his arm across the backrest and starts to look on at his friends and starts talking to them, "Alrighty, so let's not spent too much here. After all, we don't know when we'll get money to buy candies and stuff again. Right, you two?". As Tarak looks down to both Samuel and Iris who probably bought exorbitant amounts of candy, all because Samuel can never truly say no to his sister.
In terms, Narvia was awe-inspired by the Galactic Bazaar's size, which was massive compared to what she had to deal with previously. It had a specific nature to it, which was here to spend your money, even though she didn't have that much to spend. Her experience was definitely lacking in terms of where she lived for most of her life, then the rest of it is in the Dragon's Brigade Fleet. If it wasn't for the fact she was with the other child soldiers on this trip to get back at the Ascendancy and find people she wants to interact with. Only one thing went through her mind, which was what Nikolas told her last. Nikolas's final words to her, 'Please be safe, my goddaughter since you mean everything to your mother and I.' These final words always go through her head, made her smile whenever thinking back on what he said. Even though he was a cryptic military genius, he always had the honesty to defend his family within his brigade.
When everyone in the group started talking about food, specifically Ashton and Finbarr, it made her stomach grumble, and realized how long they've been walking for. She felt a bit embarrassed because this is the first time she felt hungry in a long time. The Dragon's Brigade Fleet had spoiled her for food and many things to try her cooking talents on. She decided to speak up finally, after remembering she needs to speak too. "I'm also famished if anything, I would rather take a food shuttle than walking any further because my feet hurt too from all the walking. This place is remarkable but massive." She spoke with a kind, gentle tone of always herself. It does help; she's always this way no matter what, the kind and gentle soul of innocence.
Narvia is the shortest person in the child soldiers, but that's primarily because of what happened to her exactly. If anything, she's not really fussed about being short since there are much taller people in this group to help her with things she cannot reach. However, she was 17 years old and had a definite child-like innocence still intact. It took her to recognize that the most cautious of the group relented finally, which was Flame. He had that air about him, always better to be safer than sorry. She followed the group into the shuttle, which she was awed at how much food there was. If anything, she has definitely had a smile on her face. "Oh my, that's a selection..." She spoke with definite happiness to her tone. It took her a bit to select what she wanted since the selection was big for a food shuttle. However, she picked out mixed vegetables, a pork chop, and mashed potatoes with brown gravy with green tea. She got seated near her compatriots with the plate of food, which was a pretty interesting plate. Her green eyes were beautifully sparkling at the food she has gotten. She missed this meal at dinner time, but it is the first time eating it, not at dinner.
If anything, she was much happier with the food in front of her since it made her remember the simpler times with her two different families. This would be her third family, which felt a bit odd. However, she heard a specific ding from her omnitool, the Enigma Codex. It caused her to sigh and see what it was about, with a small message on something a bit too vague and cryptic to understand. This meant the Enigma Codex was still receiving mission parameters, no matter what. 'Seriously? Still sending me mission parameters even though the war is over unless this is about something else. But, I have no idea... since my godfather is too cryptic sometimes.' She thought with an odd look, specifically about something she saw. The only good thing about this whole thing, the Enigma Codex is only for her eyes since it makes it look like a jumbled mess of symbols and numbers to anyone else. She turned off her omnitool so she can eat what she got.
As such, she giggled when she hears what Tarak said to Samuel and Iris. Their sweet tooth was insane, which no offense she also had a sweet tooth, but she didn't really want to get sweets right now. "Oh yeah, don't want to overspend on things... but those twins are cute with their candy obsession." She spoke towards Tarek, with an absolute smile on her face. It definitely was grateful when Ashton said dig into the food since she was definitely hungry.
As the colorful floating shuttle approached Iris was immediately drawn to it by the colorful displays. As her eyes shoot around it a bit, eventually landing on the all-important sign for candy. The shuttle seemed even more mesmerizing now that Iris knew of the sweet treats it held. She tightened her hand around Samuel's trying to pull the 2 of them closer to where the doors would open.
Samuel had been looking around at all the other shops and sights. Many are strange and different as many have a very unique feel to them as Samuel had never seen the cultural differences the aliens had to them. As he was viewing the other shops, he felt a sharp tug from Iris as she begins to pull him. Samuel says as he stumbles slightly forward and readjusts himself, "Hey Iris, stop! I gonna fall over".
Iris hears Samuel's plea and slows down her pace to the candy with a very neutral "Fine" while having her eyes fixated on the shuttle. Iris couldn't help but want to spend some credits on buckets of candy. Look how colorful it is! Iris could feel her heart race at the amount of candy she can get.
Samuel caught up to Iris' speed as she continued to pull him towards the entrance of the shuttle. Samuel looked back to see the others talking as a few were talking about not going in, but it seemed that even Tarak wanted in, so he knew they were probably going in. Samuel said to Iris once they made it to the front of the shuttle door, "Alright Iris, we need to talk about how much you can buy. You can spend no more than 20 credits on candy".
"Okay!" Iris answered. Obviously, she would try to get more but its best to wear Samuel down first. Iris was already thinking about how she'll defeat Samuel this time. Iris smiled, excited for the little game that was going to be played. She is interested in meats as well. Who knows what weird street food exists in the universe. Maybe she can get a lot of fruits too. She rocked on her feet in excitement as the doors opened up. Once the doors were fully open she let go of Samuel's hand, grabbed a basket, and rushed in. "See you at the entrance in like 5, 8 minutes top!" Iris yelled at Samuel, somehow forgetting he held all the credits.
Samuel watched as Iris was about to leave as he says, "Hey Iris…you do know I have the credits?". Samuel looks at her confused like she was going to be running around and getting things as she like. Samuel was blocking the entrance as he felt Tarak's hand on his back and pushing him into the shuttle. Samuel entered as he quickly went back to Iris and grabbed back onto her hand and said, "Remember 20 credits for candy. We are spending no more than 100 credits here, okay?".
Iris put herself on brakes as she skidded a few feet before coming to a full stop. She had completely forgotten that she had given her credits to Samuel for safekeeping. She went and checked her pockets to see if any credits were hiding away. Nope, nothing. Iris sighed out "ah man…" as she slumped her shoulders down in defeat. She waited for Samuel to catch up to her. Iris extended her hand to Samuel as he grabbed it. She listened to what Samuel said but all the while she gave him some puppy eyes and swung his hand a bit. When He finished she said please "Samuel? Just 10 more credits of candy?" getting a bit more into his personal space.
Samuel looked at Iris as he saw Iris activate her cute mode. As she activates her puppy eyes and came close as she asked for more credit allocation to candy, he sighed as he realized as she is getting to him. He chuckled slightly as he then pets her head slightly, "A…ah-alright, you can spend 30 credits on candy". As he continues as he does hold up a single finger and state with a firm stance, "We are still only spending 100 credits here, no more".
Iris's ploy worked swimmingly. She felt a bit bad about using her cute powers on him but hey candy is candy. She went and hugged Samuel "Thank you! I promise I won't beg anymore." Iris broke from the hug to and said "well I'm going to get the candy real quick, It'll be a surprise!" Iris ran to the candy area and swiftly got about 15 credits of assorted chocolates for herself then a variety of flavored gums for Samuel and her. Samuel loved gum and Iris knew he wouldn’t get it for himself. She started to run back to Samuel, excited surprise him.
Samuel had handed her 30 credits and gave her a hug back as he said, "You better not beg anymore. Next time I might say no". As Iris broke away and ran off, Samuel waited for Iris to get back as he starts to go to the meat stall and start getting both himself a bowl of noodles made of some strange yellow color, cutlets of meat that look like beef, and what looks to be an egg, the egg looks weird as it is purple. While for Iris, Samuel knew she loved sweets, so he talked to the server and was told to get her this sweet sauce on meat that he assumed is beef and some dumplings.
Iris ran over to see Samuel at the meat stall. The meat was very enticing to Iris as she was starting to salivate at just the thought of chow down on some kebabs. As Iris approached he saw some noodles with a purple egg? Whatever it was Iris wanted to try it. She not so subtly sneaked up on Samuel and grabbed him from behind thrusting the bag of gum onto his lap. "Surprise!" as she rotates around to sit next to him. "What's that?" Iris asked Samuel, eyeing the strange egg.
Samuel had been waiting near the stall as Iris came up behind him and grabbed onto his. Samuel looked back as and felt a bag land onto his lap. He turned back quickly to see it was a bag of gum, he smiled as he said "Thanks!". As both him and Iris were sat down next to Tarak. Samuel noticed Iris's curiosity in his egg thing as he said, "I'm unsure, I assume it's an egg". As he heard both Tarak and Narvia talking about 'their sweet tooth', he said to the both of them as he began to eat his noodles, "Her sweet tooth."
Samuel saying thanks gave Iris a big grin as she ate one of her dumplings. Responding to Samuel's inquiry about the mysterious egg "I think its egg" as she leaned in closer to give it a gentle poke, inspecting its bounciness. She looked up at Samuel and said "hey I can try it first if you want. It does look a little odd." Although she calls it odd, it was obvious her curiosity wouldn't be sated until she tried it. She overheard Tarak and Narvia talking about Iris's and Samuel's sweet tooth. Iris knew what Samuel was going to say as he has had to explain this so many times. "My sweet tooth" at the same time as Samuel. Iris chuckled a bit afterward.
Samuel chuckles with Iris as they both said that in sync, after his little chuckle he says, "OH I have an idea.". As he takes the egg onto his fork as he holds it up as he cuts the egg and goes to place one half onto Iris' fork and has the other half on his as he prepares to eat his half with her.
Iris couldn't wait for Samuel to put the other half on her fork and she just yoinks it off of Samuel's fork. The yoke immediately coated hey mouth with some sweet and savory notes. It was perfectly gooey, just the way Iris liked her eggs. The flavors lingered on the tongue and iris savored every second of it. Exaggerating her fondness of the purple egg by resting her cheek on her hand seemingly becoming enraptured in the experience. What she didn't know was that it was so delicious her cheeks literally went rosy.
Samual wasn't upset that he had his half taken, in all honesty, he saw that coming before he cut it. He just wished she would have at least had some self-control. But otherwise, he had the other half so he began to eat his half. He found the taste absolutely delicious as he sat back slightly with a small smile on his face.
Finbarr continued on munching on the donut that he had ordered. He was visibly pleased by how the taste of the whole thing turned out, as he had this funny little smirk while chewing on the Bavarian donut and its creamy filling. While not having a sweet tooth to the same extent of the likes of Iris and her twin brother Matthew, Finbarr still had a superb appreciation for the sweet things of the world. This was quite evident by how his eyes sparkled with every bite. He absolutely loved donuts. Especially the ones that didn't have a crazy amount of toppings, but rather, simpler variants like this one. At least it looked and tasted like one.
Once Tarak (whom he considered to be a big brother like everyone else and showed quite a lot of affection to) began talking about how they had no idea where they were going to get money for candy and other vanities, Finbarr almost chuckled as he took a sip from the soup of his beef stew."I could get us things that we need with you know how... tee hee... but I don't feel good about doing something like that."
Finbarr snickered at the thought. "I kid, I kid. But, just in case. Haha."
He would then turn to see Iris grab half of an egg from Samuel's fork... and the absolute pile of candies on her side. "Bloody hell. So... many candies."
Turning to Samuel, he would quietly lay his head on the other boy's shoulder while taking a bite off... a baguette. Well, a green baguette. For all its worth, it was probably more nutritious. "At this rate your sister is going to have diabetes...", he whispered as he sat there, acting like a cat. Ah well. It's not like he could turn to a cat, right?
"I'm just absolutely knackered. I hope you don't mind..."
Of course, he has always done this. He had always been the touchy feely one.
They didn't call it a galactic bazaar for nothing.
'Course, he was fine calling it the other bizarre, the one that meant it was just fucking weird. I mean, take this point of view for a second. You're a kid from Earth. You got trained to fight an enemy in space, and that's the first-ever alien race you ever heard of. The Rau've? Weird guys, overall. Who woulda' expected plants to become a tough race in space? More than that, who'd expect 'em to be the winners of that fight, OR a bit nicer about it either? Not Nero, for one. Not any of 'em, that's for sure. But that's how it was, at the time. Anyway, take that POV, where you know basically nothing REALLY about anything out of what you were trained for as a kid for a few years, then what you picked up in the war and as a Prisoner Of War, basically. That isn't very much. So, take what little you actually know, and then go to that bar from Star Wars. You know the one. That's what being in this place was kinda' like, for now. They didn't know shit. Or not enough yet. For that part, it was easy to end up staring for a bit, which was admittedly what Nero was doing, at least until Flame was tryin' to get his attention 'cause Ashton wanted to travel on basically a mobile food cart instead of a regular one.
"What? I don't care. What harm would it do? I'm hungry, anyway."
For anyone outside the group, Nero sounded like he was talking like he was irritated, confrontational, and playing himself out to be hot shit. And sometimes, one or even all of those could be true. Those more in the know had kind of an idea that that's kind of a result of how his life's been and that he wasn't exactly good at 'people'. He was a tough, and he was completely fine with vicious behavior, as his combat record would show, but he didn't try to sneak-kill any of the Rau've while he was essentially their guest. They treated him alright, unlike the people of Earth. So...well...that's how that ended up. Also, even though he said he was hungry, he wasn't that hungry. He was in a stance of 'I could eat', but what it REALLY was...was this desire to stick with something quasi-familiar and inviting for the time being. And hey, if it also got them where they needed to be, fucking why not? So yeah, he was stepping on with the rest of 'em, and he was fine with it.
There was some friction on the matter, like from Avelyn, but ehhh...she'd come around. They got on the food tram and, well, scans or not, Nero started looking over things. He didn't really go into the scanning himself. He let the ones that were doing it just do it. What HE was going for was something simpler - which suited him, 'cause he hated using the Omni-Tool, sometimes - which was Translation Mode. Basically, if it wasn't in plain old ordinary Earth-fricking English, he'd get the machine to pick out the nuances and tell 'im what's up. If it didn't sound like human enough food, he was skippin'. He heard 'em talking about healthy food, and yeah...some of that made sense, but what he was grabbin' was a little of this, a little of that, and what looked like it could be pocketed and let to wait. Whatever wasn't, like something that was clearly chocolate and definitely a muffin? That was for now. Basically, it was snack-time, with bonus normal easy-to-preserve-in-pocket stuff for later, when it actually mattered. What's the big deal, anyway? They were going off to meet someone from that Moonstrike member, not get to the big fights right off.
Nero came around with his short-term snacks in hand, long-term ones in his pockets, and overheard the convo with Sami, Fin, Iris, and whatnot over the snacks Iris was taking in. He actually let out a snort at Finbarr, going...
"Aw, let it go. Maybe you noticed that life's a bit short for us, sometimes. It ain't a problem, for now. Besides, it's not like they fattened us up at the Rau've place, right?"
The comms were still open and Natasha heard about the 'Child Marines' upcoming problems with money, causing her to type in, Yeah... About that, our 'employers' are willing to give us a regular salary, with additional 'raises' for each job well done. We also do legit trading and delivery, smuggling, and each crewmember is permitted to do their own jobs on the side as long as it doesn't hurt the crew as a whole. Oh, and we also gamble, although I don't recommend that as a reliable way to make money. And finally, merc work - We do merc work too when it doesn't hurt us too much.
A brief sigh, these kids are going to be part of the crew now, right? So Natasha continued, By the way, my name is Natasha Zhang - Captain Natasha Zhang. And I have to ask, what are your specific skills, fighting-wise?
Ashton and Flame
Flame typed back, sending pictures of the group with captions to Natasha's Omni-Tool, Ashton and Nero are close-combat speed and stealth specialists, I'm a marksman and sniper, Iris can deconstruct matter and heal people, Samuel deals heavy damage, Avelyn is stealth and espionage-based, and Tarak is a jack-of-all-trades and master of keeping us all safe. He's our leader.
Ashton, meanwhile, said to Finbarr and Nero, "You're both right - It isn't a problem right now, but a healthy body is a body in fighting shape. Not just that, but if we need money, this is still the Galactic Bazaar, where credits can be made by making the right choices. Watch closely..."
The latter was said for Nero's benefit more than Finbarr's, as Ashton touched several holographic buttons on his Omni-tool's display screen, which caused the tool to project a series of larger screens which projected a series of names and numbers in English (translated from Galactic Basic). The young man then continued, "This is the Bazaar Stock Market, which is like a casino, only we're betting not just money, but ownership of shops and businesses and those super-big corporations which keep giving loud and bright advertisements."
Ashton chose this explanation of what the Stock Market was in order for Nero, who though smart, was poorly-educated, to understand. He wanted to teach the other kid about the wide, wide world of knowledge that he should have been given a long time ago, but knew that it would take a lot of time and effort to do so. So he'd have to content himself with this.
"Tarak," he continued, "You're very lucky, right? My skills in this have atrophied since my... Involuntary service, so I might need you with me to help with some of this stuff." Then back to Nero, "Basically, we're using our trip here to take bets in what companies here rise, fall, get back up, or are ruined forever."
And before anyone can stop him, the young man used his remaining 4950 Credits to buy shares in another shuttle on the far side of the Galactic Bazaar, which paid off several times over when the current sales and transactions of said shuttle turned a massive profit. Then those shares were sold off for additional cash, which was used to invest in a larger business which turned a profit with its next few transactions as well, then a company, then another set of companies, and so on, all hopefully guided by Tarak's luck and insight, as well as any skills his other genius friends can bring to the table. He then showed the assembled group a holographic screen saying that 1,960,300 Galactic Credits were now in his credit stick in electronic form.
"Now," he continued, "This is only a small amount of what we can get from playing the stock market. So the question is, when is the right time to stop and keep the money, or bet more on a business' success?"
Flame interrupted, "Ashton. that's a trick question - You can't draw on Tarak's luck and insight forever, even if he's willing to. Like it or not, you can't just use him like this."
Natasha Zhang
Oi, I saw that, Natasha typed over Flame and Tarak's omni-tools. Nice work for someone so young and untrained - You really are geniuses. But I am a master of trading and know a few tricks myself. Now, brown-haired kid - Ashton, right? Let's link Omni-Tools - Let me show you a few things you don't know yet...
After Ashton linked his Omni-Tool with hers', Natsha began using her own expertise with trade to scout out businesses which seemed unlikely to make a profit, yet somehow did, and companies which seemed to be doing well, but were about to crash. With her experience, Ashton's raw genius, and Tarak's luck, they were soon making 100,000,000 Galactic Credits.
Make sure to split this into multiple accounts, Natasha typed, There's not much regulation here, but accounts with too much money and too little security might get hacked by, well, hackers.
“She wants two bricks of what now?” Avelyn didn’t recognize the word, but assumed it wasn’t the Rau’ve term for cocaine. “Keep the receipt, demand to be paid back.” Since they were supposed to be her crew, shouldn’t she technically be responsible for keeping them stocked and not the other way around?
“Can always get more money in a place like this.” Avelyn flexed her fingers when the issue was brought up. “And if Finn doesn’t want to…” she didn’t want to say ‘steal’ out in public, “Redistribute... anything himself, another distraction is always welcome.” Before she was taken, stealing was a necessity. And by necessity, she became good at it. Now, she could read minds, make people see things that weren’t there and move things with her mind. Now, it was fun. Perhaps that said something unfavorable about her as a person, and the fact she didn’t quite care probably said even more. But what the Hell, she had to eat and some people had enough to lose a few dozen credits and keep going. Meet four or five of those people and viola, 100 credits to spend on food. Math.
Finbarr’s comment about Iris and diabetes brought a smile to her face. “Aye, diabetes and about 80 extra pounds.” She added her own two cents, “Keep it up and we might have to load you through the cargo ramp when we reach the ship.”
She continued to wolf down the contents of her plate, listening to Ashton’s stock trading shenanigans until he showed them a number that had more digits than an average hand, dropping her fork in astonishment as she tried to figure out how many decades it would take her parents and her average weekly take to make that sort of money. She gave up not even halfway. Was it really that easy?
Tarak chuckled and patted the heads of both Samuel and Iris as he says, "It is cute if one of them weren't gonna rot her teeth!" As Tarak reaches over and starts tickling Iris' side before he just leans back and chuckles.
Avelyn seems to speak up in questioning of what he said that Natasha wanted, he looked at her as he said, "She wanted some Het'ya? Like the Bricks of sugary candy that has in it Ph'elova". As he points out a brick of Het'ya as he continues, "Seems like our contact has a bit of a sweet tooth". Tarak chuckles as he sits back normal as he waits, now just watching everyone as they eat and talk. During this, both Avelyn and Finbarr speaking about stealing, Tarak knew they didn't need to steal for a while, so he didn't even entertain the notion, all they had to do is manage and spend their money well and they'll be more than stable. He is one of the greatest perpetrators of that though, he is very much equipment based, unlike his siblings, he will be eating ammo, repair costs, and really everything you can think of with his equipment to keep functioning.
However, like a ghost, their contact seems to speak up through Flame's Omni tool, as she types in, that they won't need to worry about money. They will be paid well from their employer from Moonstrike, smuggling, trading, and any other work they can really want. Mercs, that doesn't sound like good work to take up when this is also rebel work, smuggling, and legal trading. Doesn't seem like a great business model to Tarak, however, if it's worked in this sector then it probably still works, Tarak just needs to make sure to stay on his guard. Besides, they don't seem like the people to do work too far out of their zone, so they won't be taking them into unrelated 'business'. Specifically, the business that their captain might get into, Tarak knew nothing of Natasha, but she must know her stuff in this section of the universe, so he'll trust her words.
Flames seemed to have pointed a camera at him, so in a normal fashion, he throws a smile and a peace sign to the camera. After he goes and starts listening to everyone else again, as they start to talk about Iris and her near diabetes level of candy eating, as Tarak goes and pets Iris' head, "Don't worry. We'll take care of you if it gets to the point where we have to wheel you around. You'll just not get candy anymore". As he immediately pinches her cheek and backs away before she slaps his hand.
Through this, he heard someone call his name as he turns to find people staring at some monitors, as Ashton asks about his luck, "I mean if you can call it that. Yeah, the scientists said I had an inexplicable lucky streak with a number of things. Why?" Tarak looks over as he starts to see Ashton was playing something he hadn't seen in years, "Oh you're playing stocks. I never had the capital to try, but this might be alright I guess". As Tarak started to help Ashton with his venture into this Galactic Bazar's trading scheme. Tarak watches and helps, as he notices slight movements, he also pulls upon his experiences when dealing with businesses and what he learned from some old colleagues on when is the best time to buy and sell. Slowly as their money grew, Tarak noticed the variation slowed as he had to sometimes guess on which would be a good buy, trying to constantly pay attention to his gut for when he should buy and what he should buy.
After a little bit of this Tarak was surprised to find they accumulated around almost 2 million Credits, around half as much as it took to get pay off the armor he was given, but still, this was easy in comparison to what he had to do to pay off his debt. Ashton asked another question, when do you fold and go home, or when do you bet it in. Tarak knew his answer but was interrupted by Flame's talking, and then his Omni-tool's notification pops up and he checks to see it is Natasha. She seems to have seen their little gambling as she came in to show her skill in trading with them, Tarak knew they needed a bit more money, as some of them are still growing, they'll probably need more gear as the younger kids are still growing, and the worst thing to have is tight armor.
After Ashton linked his Omni-Tool with Natasha's, Tarak started to participate again. Watching as they had access to more info into each business, learning their different skills mesh well to find the greatest gains the quickest, to the point where they were soon making 100,000,000 Galactic Credits. Tarak was surprised how easy it was to make money here, almost as if this place was too easy, Tarak was envious for a bit at realizing how much money can be made here, maybe if he was born near here instead of in Galirus, then maybe he wouldn't be in this place, but immediately knocked those notions away, as he pets the heads of Samuel and Iris as he says, "I guess candy isn't gonna be much of a worry now, eh?"
Narvia was eating her meal, which is directly in front of her, and it looks delicious. She had been enjoying it by being a bit enthralled with the whole meal. However, when Tarak spoke up, perked her up, and she giggled at with what he said. ” Ha, ha… agreed there, Tarak. Always a thing.” She spoke with a bit like she did a whoops, but it's alright. It took her a bit of time to continue with her meal. However, she was a bit too excited while eating it, her biotech upgrade activated, which gave her the sight of a dragon. It made her realize a bit embarrassingly it activated, and the way to disable it was blinking her eyes three times. She blinks her eyes three times to disable the biotech upgrade, so she doesn’t have to look at her food two times closer since it is supposed to be only during combat to activate it. Additionally, she sighed with a bit of annoyance in her sigh as if she did something bad but wouldn’t get yelled at by Nikolas.
It took her to realize the conversation between Tarak and Avelyn, which she giggled because their contact has a sweet tooth. This is good news, and she supposed even though she had no idea what Tarak said. ” Uhh, what does Het’ya mean?” She questioned a bit confused since it was only because she didn’t really listen to what was communicated to Tarak by their contact. However, they agreed to the fact their contact must have a sweet tooth. If she were paying a bit more attention to what was going on, she wouldn’t have missed that important detail. It was mostly because she wanted to eat something and get a load off her feet. After all, they hurt. She had a good spending habit, mostly because of the people in her life. Though, she likes keeping her weapons in good repair mostly. However, she didn’t really like the talk of stealing. It was a bit much for her to understand since she has never stolen in her life.
However, she was surprised by the contact’s voice coming from the Flame’s omnitool. The voice sounded so familiar to her, which is like she heard it during her career in the Deep Strike Fleet of the Dragon. It was nice to hear the lady’s voice, but she hadn’t remembered what her name was. However, the woman’s voice spoke about how well the employers will pay them in any of the jobs they wanted to do. Including their own jobs, as long as it doesn’t hurt the crew, that sounds reasonable to her reasoning. However, when gambling was speaking, she shook her head since she would be absolutely terrible and probably get addicted to it. 'Uhh, what was her name again? Hopefully, it will come to me...' She thought with a bit of like it's on the tip of her tongue but isn't coming to her, in terms of the woman's name.
She was a bit taken aback by when the woman said her name, Natasha Zhang. It definitely took her back to being in Nikolas’ Office on his Flagship called the Dragon’s Claw, talking to Natasha congratulating her on her rise to Cruiser Captain, which was before the Battle of Proxima. However, she was quiet during that conversation since she was always respectable. It might also allow her to speak up to Natasha about her skill set since it is important; she did ask about their skills even though the Dragon’s wheelhouse of the naming convention was a bit weird for her, honestly. ” It is nice to hear your voice again, Natasha. Nikolas R. Zahrin, the Dragon, has great respect for you. The Dragon’s Brigade Fleet specifically trains my skills. Their specific thing was Engaged Sword Tactics, I think… Because they all used swords, and all their swords had different and unique effects. I can also use pistols, can cook, can see twice as far as a normal human. I should probably introduce myself, and my name is Narvia or Navi, like I to be called, which is a private first class of the Dragon's Brigade Fleet.” She spoke with a bit of an annoyed tone when talking about the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet's ground tactics since they are a bit strange. However, she was very truthful about what she can do. Obvious at day how she spoke about Nikolas’ as she knows him as someone close to her heart in terms of as a Godfather to her.
Narvia couldn’t help but giggle when Iris and Samuel said her sweet tooth at the same time. With what was said about Iris’ going to become a diabetic, she keeps eating candy nonstop. She giggled at what Tarak said. ” Guess, I should apologize for speaking wrong about your sweet tooth… Iris. As well, you two are so adorable, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to become a diabetic at your age Iris.” She spoke with absolute awe at the two twins. Even though it would be a long time to understand what Nikolas R. Zahrin said about Tarak, but in this case, they are definitely a nice looking family. It made her remind herself of her own family, Lana, and her older sisters, and her evil father, Conner. This made her feel a bit more nostalgic about the good times with her family. However, it would be better to deal with one problem at a time, rather than deal with the major problem of saving her family, without knowing how to do so.
Now the talk of markets and stocks came up. She knew something about that but not to Ashton's degree. However, the display of what Ashton was doing was pretty amazing in terms of turning on the holographic part of his omnitool. She watched closely as Ashton said, even though she was slowly eating her food since she was doing something that required, not stuffing it down. It took her by surprise that the Ashton and Tarak group could make almost 2 million credits a time frame of a bit by playing the stocks. However, when Natasha joined into the mix and Ashton hooked up his omnitool to hers, the screen's credits symbol went up. Her eyes widened a bit. ” Whoa… that’s a lot of credits for anything, really.” She spoke with a bit of an eye-widening experience. However, this made her drop her fork on the table, instead of the plate. This made her definitely happy to be with the others instead of going her own separate way to find the Dragon by herself. It would probably be much more dangerous to go alone, and her godfather said it's better to be in numbers than any alternative. She picked up her fork and placed it on the plate gently with the fact she wants to continue to eat her plate of food, at least her mixed vegetables are all gone.
Samuel was slightly chuckling as he heard people poking fun at Iris for her very exorbitant eating habits. As he feels Tarak's hand land on his head he felt okay with it as Tarak reached over and started tickling Iris, Samuel laughed more as it was hilarious to watch his sister get bullied a little.
Iris pouted as everyone picked on her for her completely normal love of sweets. "I'm not going to eat them all at once, I promise!" Iris tried to make herself sound convincing but she knows well that everyone here knew of her addiction. She saw the right place to put half of the candy in Samuel's bag. Iris grabbed Samuel's bag, quickly saying "Gimme" then preceded to dump half of the chocolates into the bag. "This is all I eat for the next 4... 2 days!" Iris left it at that, thinking she made a point. She went back to eating her dumplings.
Samuel chuckles as Fin talks to him and then starts to lay onto him. Samuel feels his bag yoinked from him, as he watches Iris pour the candy into his bag as she states her intent to have that candy for 4…nevermind 2 days. She at least owned up to it as Samuel takes his bag back as he then says, "You know that ain't convincing-". He pokes at her as he continues, "You know that you will probably eat it while I'm not looking". As he starts to notice people start bustling.
Iris was in full understandment that she had made a very unconvincing argument. Well, whatever, she still had candy and that's all that matters. Samuel burned Iris by the fact that she'll just steal the candy back, "Hey! I wouldn't eat the candy while you aren't-" Iris bursted out in laughter as Tarak started to tickle her. Iris pleaded "Please Tarak stop! I can't breathe!" as she laughed even harder. She tried to scoot away but she couldn't move Samuel as she lost all her strength to the tickles. By the time Tarak stopped tickling her, Iris was just falling on Samuel.
Samuel looked at Iris as he notices the deft hands of Tarak sneak over and start tickling Iris. He started to laugh as he sees Iris fall down onto him as he wouldn't move for her, after all, Finbar was on his other side, so all she could do is stay and get tickled by Tarak. Once the assault stopped he noticed The others talking seeming to be typing to someone, maybe it was their contact, but either way it was more than fun, as Samuel helped Iris back to her sitting as he continued to eat while watching them. As he noticed Tarak make a small remark towards Iris and pinch her cheek, as people are still talking about her getting fat from eating candy. Yet soon a bunch of screens were pulled up and moved near Tarak as he starts reading. Samuel doesn't know exactly what they are doing, for the fact he wasn't exactly listening, but he assumes it must be important because Tarak looks slightly serious.
Iris rests herself on the table as she tries to catch a breath from that intense tickling. She decided that Samuel leaving her to be tickled was unacceptable. She would get revenge on her twin with a tickle attack of her own. Maybe on the transit to the location or sometime before bed. People were still going at her for her sugar consumption but as long as she exercises a lot then it will be fine, she knows that. In thinking that she realized she doesn't even know if that would be true. Can you exercise that much sugar? Oh God am I going to get fat? Iris zoned out as she thought of how she would look like at varying weights. She came to the conclusion that a little bigger was fine but above 10 pounds heavier would make her sad. Where would it go? Would it be everywhere? My hips? Wait, if I got fat my equipment wouldn't fit! No no no. Going to have to diet! Is there no calorie candy? She was pulling out of that tangent by Tarak pinching her cheek. She usually dodges Tarak pinching but she was worried about her waistline. She to slap his hands away but he pulled away preemptively leading to Iris to spin a bit. She rubbed her cheek to hopefully get rid of the redness. Iris turned away to eat quickly as it was getting colder by the shenanigan. She scarfed it down just in time to see Tarak's expression stiffen up while looking at some monitors.
Samuel looks curiously as he watches Tarak's face scan the monitors as Ashton and Tarak seemed to start working together. As Samuel shrugs as he continues to eat, as he watches others begin to take note, so Samuel decides to lean over, leaning on Iris slightly, as he looks at the monitor as he notices the amounts go up as Tarak's eyes are focused and moving as he talks with Ashton. Samuel had no clue what they were doing, so he'll wait to ask in a bit. He hasn't seen Tarak's face like this unless he is 'working', so he will just wait to see what work he is doing.
Iris orders some of what Samuel is having, mostly for the purple egg. She started to eat this as well when Samuel started to lean on her. She split the egg again popped the half into Samuel's mouth then eating her part. The noodles had a chewy texture and was both rich and unctuous. It filled Iris to capacity as her eyes were getting heavy after all that eating. She looked at Samuel then Tarak, realizing she was in good hands she leaned into Samuel and started to close her eyes "Wake me up when we are leaving." With that she fell asleep, properly sedated by delicious food.
As not too long after Samuel had finished his meal, he found Iris laying on him and passing out. He smiled slightly as he set his hand on her head, as he hears her ask for him to wake her up when they are leaving. Samuel smiles as he rested his head onto Iris', just to rest, yet he falls asleep right with her, not noticing his fall into sleep, and subsequently leaves the others to wake them up.
Finbarr snickered at Nero as the latter remarked that the Rau've had already fattened the lot of them up while in their so called 'captivity' which was better known as a 'respite'. He glanced down towards himself, and put his hand over his stomach. Yeah, a little bit. He felt a small increase in his own size, not enough to be noticeable, but enough to make an itty bitty difference while standing on a weighing scale. "I did gain a bit of weight while we were in there, maybe a few pounds or so. But it isn't much. Hehe."
With that in mind, Finbarr continued eating, slurping as he began to dig into the beef stew. He fondly remembered the times when his cousins visited their home in Titan, bringing with them quite an amount of ale and meats. They would sit in a circle, talking and laughing about their memories and the funny stories that they all had in store in no small amount. Sometimes, a certain mad lad would get up and dance on the table while carrying a chug of ale. Of course, Finbarr himself didn't drink any, not yet, as he was very young at the time. Now, there wasn't any alcohol in the store... maybe some other time.
Finbarr watched as Iris got tickled into absolute oblivion by Tarak. He feared those spindly, tickly fingers, as he had a strong sense of touch and thus reacts to tickling very profusely. He very much preferred it when Tarak gives him those hugs. Those feel very nice. Still, he chortled with glee as Iris kept laughing from the tickle, barely holding back from exploding into a fit of hysterical laughter himself. Not with the soup he was eating.
Sure enough, he watched as Ashton and Tarak get them rich in no time, probably using the great power of capitalism. "Bloody hell, now we don't have to worry about where to get money for candies!", he joked as he cast a glance towards Iris. Snickering, he plopped back on Samuel, who now had two people laying on him. Hah.
After a few more moments, Finbarr had finished his food, and looked at the twins, who were now fast asleep. "I love you so much.", he whispered to them as he took off his black jacket and placed it over the twins as a makeshift blanket. It was one of those trench coat-esque jackets, though it didn't have any buttons. Smiling, he gave the sleeping Samuel a short peck on the cheek before lying down himself, give Tarak the wake-me-up-when-we're-leaving look. And now he closes his eyes... but he's not asleep. Not yet.
Ariel had been the last of the group to join. Their first encounter had been on the way to the Galactic Bazaar — she hadn’t met any of them before at that time, but they took her in and treated her no differently from an old friend. Most of the child soldiers had met each other in the Rau’ve camps; some had been brothers and sisters in arms. And of course there were even literal blood-related siblings, namely Iris and Samuel, who both seemed to have succumbed to food comas after indulging in a veritable feast.
Perhaps it was to be expected of twins, but all cuddled up to each other like that — the two were so unreservedly intimate that Ariel found it adorable. It didn’t look like the most comfortable position to take a nap in, head against head, but neither seemed to mind in the least. She didn’t try to stifle her giggle.
Too cute!
Tarak and Finbarr — sometimes he was simply Fin; Ariel had called him that before, but for whatever reason he was always Finbarr in her mind — seemed to agree. Adding the latter’s jacket-turned-blanket into the mix only served to further amplify the twins’ cute factor.
“Always wonderful to see those two getting along, isn’t it?” It was more of a thought voiced aloud than it was a real question. She noticed her own lips and cheeks unconsciously making themselves into a little content smile. It was wonderful indeed.
Ariel had already finished her food: some fresh fruit and vegetables with a side of nuts, of Earthly origin for the most part. (Although the produce had probably come from some nearby greenhouse in orbit, the meal still felt like a familiar taste of home again.) Not feeling tired enough to take a nap either, that left her with two options: fiddle with her omni-tool like Ashton, or interact with those who were still awake. Although she had to admit that the amateur day traders had just all but secured their financial future, she wasn’t feeling too keen on catching the eyes of the revenue service or hackers or what have you.
Besides, why chat to strangers online when there were real friends to be had right here?
Finbarr had laid his head down, and although he was still awake, she did not wish to disturb him. There was no worse way to ruin someone’s mood than to interrupt their rest, after all. The girls were still relishing their meals, while the group’s de facto leaders were still busying themselves on the stock market. It was hence Flame who Ariel directed her next question to.
“Hey, Flame? Captain Natasha? What are we going to do as, um, rebels? I’ve seen movies and games before, but... probably a bit different from the real thing....” The old space operas had the rebels blowing up ships and sneaking into enemy bases, but surely those were just fiction, right?
Was there even a Rau've term for cocaine? Remember, they were the ones that had to teach them about human concepts, including alot of the vices. Just think: Out there, somewhere, is a plant-boy ready to call one of his peers a motherfucking triffid if he got mad enough. That's kind of the effect Nero had in particular, because...in a way, the Rau've were a bit like kids, themselves. At least, they were if you taught 'em something they didn't know, and they didn't know what to do with it. What's a normal kid do when they see the adults do something? Try to mimic it and fit it in with their life. What's an alien plant running pretty much on logic all the time gonna do? See where it fits, which amounts to pretty much the same thing.
Anyway, that wasn't what was important. There was as much laying off of what Iris was doing as keeping on. Nero's view on the matter was that they probably weren't gonna have much of a chance to goof off and have a sweet treat, later on. They were going off with some frigging mercenaries to do some serious business, which means that ya may as well get it out of your system while you've got ths chance, right? Well, half-right, in Ashton's eyes. He wanted to be responsible. Nero figured 'responsible' was gonna be forced on them, like during the war, where what they had to eat and sleep and work with was just limited. However, on thi point, he was also kinda' wrong, as the brown-haired boy was showing him...gambling? Kind of a high-stakes business gambling? Their contact had an idea about that, over text, and it seems like Ash got them some extra funds, thanks to her, but...well...he was kinda' with Avelyn on this one.
You can get hired for shit in a place like this, and there ain't much we can't do. Why else would the Moonstrikers want us? We're useful...
There'd always be work for their kind, mercenary work. And on that note, Nero had this to say on when the right time to stop is on their stock market gamble-thing...
"You should get out while ya still can. Gettin' lucky is one thing, but if you're gonna place a bet, do it on something you're involved in. 'Cause if you can't be sure of yourself, what're you even bothering for?"
Still, if they were basically rich now, then he was getting another drink to wash down the snacks he had. Nero's eyes settled on something called 'Kazza!', which his Omni-Tool was translating as 'SPICE!', emphasis included. He was looking at it while some of the others were rough-housing or taking a rest. Sounded good, like some novelty drink like he'd find back in Japan when he was alot young, copped some yen out of the orphanage coffers, and bought himself something at the nearby convenience store. It was a bottle that fizzed, which was a good thing, but it was also continuous. He tried some of it and- "Agh, what the hell?" Think of a ginger beer, but with a strength and a kind of burn like peroxide. For something not at all alcoholic, it was strong! He was gradually taking smaller sips when one of the last of their group - Ariel - piped up, asking about the kinds of missions they'd be having. It was to Ashton, but Nero never passed up a chance to pipe up, if he had something to say.
"Might be rough stuff, if they wanted us on board. We can handle it, though."
Natasha blinked and typed into her Omni-tool, The Dragon... I remember him. Respectable fellow - I wished I was in his fleet more than once. Navi, I think we'll be great friends... She trailed off while typing, before resuming in response to Ariel, We'll be given missions by Moonstrike, our employers. Probably to strike at Ascendancy assets, yes. Or maybe spread propaganda aimed to spark rebellion. Or both. I'm sure that you guys would be fine with that, right, considering the abuse you guys received from the Ascendancy?
Ashton and Flame
Before Ashton or Flame can reply, all Omni-tools would recieve a notifciation from the Grand Bazaar's private news channel.
Breaking News: A shuttle-crawler shop selling weapons and armor has been hijacked by a group called the 'Restarters', an armed faction of Rau've, Kaisoken, Korta and Tayanen who wish to restart the Coalition War. The Restarters have taken hostages while trying to make off with the contents of the shop, while local security are estimated to be thirty minutes away. The location of the ongoing crime is in Hangar 15, Section 20.
Ashton blinked and said to Tarak, "That's where we are. Could it be? -"
A bulky crawler was indeed in front of them, blocking the way of the food shuttle as its heavily-armored frame stood horizontally in-between the shuttle and the rest of the ships. A message then arrived at the food shuttle's comms, a holographic message showing a most unusual sight, a Kaisoken with arms and legs of crystal, and a sword that extended from his right arm.
"My name is Mirrorshard, student of Abbadon the Kinslayer, but unlike him, I do not share his fondness for Humans," the hologram said with contempt in his voice - It was quite clear he had given himself a voice box, too. Rather, I wish to teach them their place. Now, we have one demand of this food shop - Give us your money and supplies, or we will kill all of you and take them anyway. Your choice.
The Rau've lady who owned the store-shuttle turned towards Tarak and his group, before saying, "We need help right now. If you can do something about these goons, we'll gladly compensate you. Deal?"
Natasha Zhang
Natsha typed, I guess you guys have your first mission. Just so you know, my crew has the real Abbadon Kinslayer in our employ, as well as a few other 'rough and ready' types. We'll be joining you shortly if they can take a rough vehicle ride. Natasha out.
She then ceased her comms, before sending a voice message to Abbadon and Gabe saying, "Hey, you two! We're about to meet our supersoldiers and have a good scrap, too! So get your asses in gear, we're taking the Kirin!"
The Kirin was a Moonstrike vehicle developed in secret from stolen Ascendancy Designs, and more proof that the rebel organization was capable of some serious spywork, and probably had a few rogue CEOs funding it, too. All the well for them, but as long as they were capable of hitting hard and fast, Natasha didn't actually care where their money and influence came from...
Ashton and Flame
Ashton said, "Tarak, do we have a plan? One that won't cause needless collateral damage?"
Flame said, "We don't want any civilians killed, but it'll be hard if they are expecting us and they have hostages plus easy access to explosives." He looked at Finbarr and said, "If Ashton can get data about what the interior looks like, can you 'familiarize' yourself with it enough to make a portal?"
Finbarr's peaceful nap was soon interrupted by the sudden interjection of a hijacking in the armored crawler directly in front of them. By the looks of it, it was a group of unfriendly aliens that sought to renew the war against the Human Ascendancy, the same war that had caused all of the child soldiers to be kidnapped and drafted into service as magic supersoldiers to begin with. As soon as the alarm was sounded, he opened his eyes and got up with a rather frantic start, hastily taking his jacket from its place as Samuel and Iris' makeshift blanket. Putting it on, Finbarr looked up to listen to the rogue Kaisoken's rambling. He gritted his teeth at apparent annoyance at what the alien was saying, but of course, who wouldn't dislike such a hate monger attempting to poison society with their vile, venomous words.
When Flame asked him if he could create a portal in the inside of the crawler, Finbarr nodded. "Attempting to visualize the inside of the vehicle in question is more difficult than simply seeing it. Speaking of which,", he peered over the doorway of the shuttle to look at the armored crawler's exterior. "It has windows. Probably bulletproof given its nature as a weapons transport, but as long as they are clear enough for me to see the interior, I could form a breach in there. Of course, tactically speaking, it would be better to make a portal from inside here instead of making one where they could see me. But yes. I could do that, it will just take more effort for me to do what you're asking of me."
In other words, he could do it. It was just harder that way.
Nevivsky Kremlin, OGLE-2005-BGL-390Lb, Headquarter of Ascendancy’s 1st Fleet
Windsor had kept his promise, and there has been no trouble among the planet’s civilian population since the incident of a year and five months ago. However, new potential problems were about to arrive when an encrypted communications message was sent to Alexander’s personal office: Dragon’s Fleet has been dissolved. Converge with Admiral Laguna on the Dragon’s Headquarters to enforce the division of the Fleet and their troops among your forces. You can have the personnel while the Ms. Laguna have the vessels themselves.
The intent was clear: Emmanuel intended to saddle Kherol’s fleet with over-idealistic, over-honorable ‘liabilities’ while keeping the cutting-edge technology and ships for his ‘pet’ Admiral. Transparent, but at this stage, there was little that can be done without resorting to overt treason.
That doesn’t look like disbanding to him
What it really appeared was the President was just taking the ships for himself and handed the ‘troublemakers’, to him at least, to someone who could handle them. If the core units of the Brigade remained intact, then it would just remain almost exactly the same as before. Ships could be replaced, rebuilt and even improved. In fact, now that the war had just ended, with the Ascendancy ravaged by war, and a crippled military forces having to cooperate with local militias to keep the peace, while also fending off potential treaty violators, building new ships were among his priorities. Having a bit more ships in the queue were not that big of an issue for him.
But would he be able to rein them in anyway?
That’s a question he was more interested in than finding it problematic. They are great soldiers, well-trained and extremely deadly. He’d be more than willing to entrust a weak flank in a battle to them and they wouldn’t simply stop the enemy but annihilate them before the other flanks could finish the job. He’d take them over any other units in the Admiralty, but the problem was more of their attitude. He remembered the time they refused to chase down the remnant of a battered fleet after a major battle only because they thought it was so-called ‘dishonorable’ to cut down fleeing enemies. That remnant contained dreadnoughts and supercarriers. Needless to say they were like the gum ulcers on his tongue for a few months or so.
’Ayyy…’ Alexander sighed a little.
If worst comes to shove, he could just assign them the appropriate roles. The dirty work could be left to someone else. Hey, shifting responsibilities were already too common around the Admiralty anyway.
”Grand Admiral Kherol to Captain Sansonetti.” Alexander pressed the intercom button on his desk. ”Inform Kotaro I am leaving for Draken’vina, Vell Station HQ of the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet, under the President’s order. Set course and leave when ready.” Vell Station, Dragon’s Brigade Fleet Headquarters in orbit of Draken’vina
Nikolas was in his office on the station looking over the request forms of transferring his fleet by the President’s orders. He had always known this was going to come to pass, it was obvious as day, after the war the Ascendancy had been decimated. If anything, this was basically to make Laguna’s fleet stronger by the overwhelming firepower the Black Ops Ships held. However, the one guy he respected in the military’s admiralty was also coming for his soldiers.
’Ugh… Knew this day would come but it makes it a bit ironic that it would happen now of all things. Nikolas sighed and rubbed his forehead.
If anything, his soldiers were extremely loyal to him and wouldn’t want to be separated from him. It was like the Battle of Proxima was a set up, felt a bit stupid to believe they could win that battle. And least of all the Child soldier underneath his command was captured by the enemy, which was his goddaughter. It frustrated him a bit but his frustrations showed a weakness that not many people saw in him.
”Alexander and Laguna. As usual, the ‘dog’ of the President would be coming here. Pleasantries are better to greet them with instead of the opposite.” Nikolas looked up and pushed a button, it was to Vienna. ”Vienna Stoutfield, can you please welcome the Admirals with open arms, when they arrive at our station. Thank you for serving me well.” It was pleasantries required for Ms. Laguna and Alexander when they arrive at the station.
Admiral Laguna had brought her entire fleet, not trusting Nikolas to give her his ships freely. With her were the last few Dreadnoughts of the Ascendancy Military, as well as a few Carriers of her own. Accompanying those were an array of cruisers and frigates, corvettes and supply ships. A sight meant to overawe, but also conveyed the increasing paranoia of the Ascendancy.
Nevertheless, the Admiral had consented to go to the station with her security detail, with instructions to her fleet to begin an engagement at the slightest sign of trouble.
Originally Altair from Re: Creators, now Grand Admiral Laguna
If Nikolas attempted some form of treachery, she’ll be there to deal with him. In fact, considering the fact that Kherol was there, she might even try and start an incident forcing the two to fight each other… No. That would backfire. She had common sense.
The final guest of the station arrived in the exact opposite manner.
Originally the XII-91 carrier design by Passion Blue
The only capital ship to show up was the Manfred von Richthofen. The first of the class, its sheer size were a monstrosity compared to the other ships among Laguna’s fleet. It couldn’t simply be called a carrier. It couldn’t simply be called a dreadnought either. It is a heavy supercarrier. Constructions were repeatedly delayed during the war by the Admiralty, but by the time most of them were wiped out as the war progressed, funds were quickly diverted to this project. Flight hangars were numerous, but the amount of guns sticking out of the hull was even more terrifying, challenging even the toughest of heavy cruisers in any fleet to embark on a hunting trip against it, but at the cost of its shield protection systems. As if its improved dreadnought armor scheme needed them anyway.
And finally on the tail fin displayed 6 circles in a circular chain with the seventh ring on top of it all. A proud insignia of the 1st Fleet.
Following along the ship were two light cruisers and five auxiliary transport ships. They were well-prepared for their newest members of the 1st Fleet. And a lot of them today. Docking right close by to Laguna’s dreadnoughts, once the authorization was to be cleared, a small ship made its way from the flight hangar of the supercarrier to the Vell Station.
Emerged from the shuttle gate were three men, two in their dark red signature coat of the Ascendancy’s 1st Fleet, flanking around the man in his usual pitch black battle officer uniform, his eyes unnervingly unseen from the outside as he greeted the Brigade’s soldier assigned to him.
He knew the Brigade wouldn’t lash out. They knew their code of conduct, and Alexander knew they knew. The Richthofen’s appearance was not meant for them.
Coming across Laguna along with her own tight security team, the Grand Admiral gave a quick yet seemingly more casual salute, along with a sly smile
”Good day, Ms Laguna. It has been a while since we last met.”
The Grand Admiral nodded, knowing who to envy and fear at the same time.
Vienna approached Ms. Laguna and the Grand Admiral Alexander, with a gentle smile to the two in question. If anything, she knows what is going to happen since she is the leader of the Honor guard that protects Nikolas. She was wearing her usual honor guard uniform, which had an obvious logo of such on her shoulder. If anything, the fact she wasn’t equipped with the usual honor guard’s sword showed she means no harm to either Admiral.
”Ah, I must say welcome to Vell Station, Admirals. Ms. Laguna and Grand Admiral Alexander, Nikolas are waiting for you in his office. He told me to greet you with open arms and escort you to his office. Since this station is a bit confusing to non-brigade officers. However, I think this is your third visit to the station Alexander.”
Vienna had a more familiarity to Alexander since he did visit the Vell Station a few times before the war. However, she definitely had an accent of someone who was born on a far flung station in the Ascendancy’s borders. In terms of everything, she looked at the Brigade soldier, which was assigned to Alexander and basically showed she’ll take them the rest of the way. The Vell Station was machine greatly oiled by their commanding officer, Nikolas. The Brigade Soldier, bowed to Vienna and gracely saluted Alexander and Ms. Laguna and went on their way to the task they had to do. She turned around from where the two were and walked in the opposite direction towards The Dragon’s Office on the station.
With a sigh, Laguna followed the frontier-born soldier to the Dragon’s office, all the while finding this business too easy. Did he install some sort of electronic traps inside his vessels? If so, she’d have to contact Conner about it. In fact, maybe she should bring up Conner in Nikolas’ presence - With Alexander around, she can get away with such a provocation, and if ‘The Dragon’ acted violently… More advantage to her.
Smiling tightly at the thought, she walked beside Alexander, not wishing to present herself as his inferior…
”Indeed I do, Ms Stoutfield.” Alexander nodded, having known her before, pointing his thumb over to the porcelain sculpture of Nikolas. ”Though I don’t remember that one little statue over there, do I? Unless my memory serves me incorrectly~”
It was actually there at the time, but it wasn’t Alexander misremembering. His eyes glanced over beneath his glasses to the seemingly quiet Laguna walking right beside him trying to keep pace.
”Anyway, I hope everything is proceeding well for your Brigade. It’s a rough time to be in the army right now.”
Vienna expected as much as who would be talking since Alexander is one of those men who would rather chat instead of assumptions. She had known that much of Alexander during Nikolas chats with the Grand Admiral. If anything, Vienna wasn’t surprised at all. The only thing that surprised her was the fact Ms. Laguna wasn’t speaking, she did hear her sigh. However, she looked over to the porcelain sculpture Alexander pointed out.
”If anything, Alexander, it has been slightly altered since the last time you came over, to hold his sword in a stance fitting our Engaged Sword Techniques.”
She had always been enjoying informing others of the changes to their station. Even though, this point of time it's a bit of a sobering experience since no one from the Dragon’s Brigade will be here anymore. On the subject of what Alexander brought up, she sighed a bit. It’s only because if it wasn’t for Nikolas’ she would never have been a part of the military and done her own thing on the Station her family owns.
”It is, proceeding according to Nikolas R. Zahrin’s Orders. It is obvious why you two have come, Alexander and Ms. Laguna. At least you are both showing a common courtesy to Nikolas’ legacy as a Commanding Officer.”
She always was grateful to Nikolas R. Zahrin’s family in the Brigade. The expectations to become a part of the Brigade were not that high since Nikolas saw much potential in every single person he had come to know in the Brigade. But it was time for that past to become something more even though the nostalgia of being a part of something that felt good and truly bound by the rules of engagement. Nikolas never cut corners, in anything he did for the Ascendancy’s Military. It didn’t take long, which felt like not that long of a trip through the Station, they finally reached the Dragon’s Office.
”Here you are. Nikolas R. Zahrin is waiting inside the office. I will be standing outside. I do hope you have a wonderful chat with Nikolas.”
Vienna turned around and bowed to Alexander Kherol and Ms. Laguna and smiled at them. With an understanding of everything happening to the Brigade, it is Nikolas R. Zahrin’s pride and joy. Even though it is a bit prideful of him having statues of himself all over the station. Everyone in the Brigade sees their commanding officer more as a surrogate father figure.
Grand Admiral Laguna entered the office alongside Kherol, feeling more isolated than ever. It was clear that the Dragon’s Fleet and associated brigades loved their commander, and she felt some pity, some empathy, for that. But it mattered not - Emmanuel’s plan needed to be implemented and Nikolas was a danger to it.
Confronting the man in question, all Grand Admiral Laguna can blurt out was, “I am glad you are accepting your ‘retirement’ with the same honor you show in battle. I and Mr. Hadley will take good care of your ships.”
Nikolas looked up from his desk, when the two Grand Admirals walked into his office. When Ms. Laguna sat down first then Alexander. While he raised his eyebrow when Ms. Laguna blurted out specifically what she wanted to say. It was blatantly obvious what she was trying to do, get a rise out of him. It was nothing out of the ordinary since he does hate the way the Gravia Military Company conducts themselves but he learned his mistakes from that meeting all those years ago.
”Aha, so that’s what your plan is? Trying to get a rise out of me just by the mentioning of Conner’s last name. Laguna should be trying with more substance over the past. But I suppose you are here to help with Conner’s ego. Since he did say something about it. He would get me back for what I did. However, Orders are orders and the Fleet is yours, there’s no tricks. But, I am honor bound to do what I must to help the Ascendancy. It means, there’s no tricks in those ships you humbly saw on your way here next to the Station in their docks.”
Alexander heard Laguna being non-specific with her statement, while also triggering Nikolas with the mentioning of him. Ah, that guy. What was that company supposed to do even? If anything, it just convinced Alexander that the Ascendancy didn’t need more of private and well-armed corporations. And for Laguna and Mr Hadley...worth-noticing.
”For your personnel, I will ensure they fit into our culture. As you may know, we are not...shall we say...the same as yours in terms of codes of conduct.” Alexander rolled his eyes over his outburst. ”But I also know you live and die by your code of honor. I am most curious by such discipline. So if I may ask, I would like to have a read through it. Maybe we can learn something from it.”
Nikolas didn’t forget Alexander since he was also in the room. He was grateful that all the Grand Admiral’s Alexander was different. The Dragon smiled graciously towards Alexander.
”Alexander, I must say it’s good to see you in these troubling times. I did see your Flagship when it jumped into the system. It’s impressive nature would make anyone going against it tremble in fear. Also, yeah I do know of the differences between our two fleets. The culture of mine is more of a family, while yours is different.” In terms of Nikolas he had always been pretty defensive to his family no matter what. He was a chill fellow as long as you try not to get a rise out of him. ”Yes, I do live and die by my code of honor. The discipline I trained in my brigade is the reason why the Rau’ve feared it. But you know of it very well. I’ve written the very conduct of my brigade. Now where was it?”
Nikolas opened his bottom drawer of his desk and brought out a monstrosity of the code of conduct for the Brigade. He sat it down on the desk, which kinda looked a bit heavy in the traditional sense. The Code of Conduct looked more like a novel than the regulation codes in the military. Alexander is a super genius, since his tactics were great.
”I must say, sorry if that hurt your ears when the book landed on my desk. But it's a monster. The Title of the Book is the Honor Code of the Dragon. Even though it was much easier to teach them the code over forcing them to read it. Because some of them didn’t want to read something so massive. In terms of everything, I do hope you enjoy the source material, Alexander. Good luck, since I am basically retired as Laguna said...”
Nikolas does have a sense of humor. Even though, his sense of humor is a bit much even for some people. Including the Super Genius, Alexander.
He did expect a long read, since their discipline were something else. But to see this much...reminded him of his officer days where he would cram for nights on perfecting the art of war. Ascendancy tactics were sometimes repetitive, and that would be the worst place to be so.
”Oh boy…” Alexander moved his glasses down away from his eyes instinctively for a very brief second, as he stared at the sheer amount of information he expected to read for the Brigade’s integration. They’re meticulously written, very detailedly elaborated upon, with examples and non-examples all covered. And in a book no less. At this day and age, he thought it would be on a flash-drive or something. But the one thing he’d complain about would be that: couldn’t this be written any shorter? Technical writing is a real thing in the computing world, if Alexander didn’t have to find himself in the military.
Grand Admiral Laguna rolled her eyes, saying, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that you’re running your Fleet as your private fiefdom, Nikolas. Don’t forget whose coffers paid for your ‘private culture’.”
A frown as she said, “Nevertheless, I can appreciate the sense of togetherness and community you fostered in your fleet.”
Appreciate the danger it presented to the Ascendancy and the President-for-Life’s goals.
A quip, “You know, elections for Congress are still half-free. Why don’t you spend your retirement trying to wrangle a seat in the Ascendancy House of Representatives?”
Do take it seriously - You’d be better off there than planning treason.
Nikolas noticed Alexander’s eyes, for the very brief second they were shown. He did laugh at Alexander’s words of oh boy. However, Grand Admiral Laguna was still trying to get a rise out of him but in a different way. If anything, Laguna is on the side of the president definitely with how she tried to say Conner’s last name. Not much of a surprise there to him, he always knew Conner had more friends in the Admiralty than just Berkeley. Even though it would have been better if Conner wasn’t involved at all in anything since his private military company was also a danger, but it fully supported the President.
”I know who paid for my culture, it’s the government who wanted me to defend themselves from the unknown. I did my duty to the letter, Ms. Laguna. I was as privileged as the other Core Worlders but I didn’t let the core world’s biases get in my way. It's the reason why the Dragon’s Brigade Fleet was feared in the galaxy. But the good times must end. Like all things in this galaxy.”
He knew from the get go that Laguna only wanted one thing in the whole world was to end him with anything she could get on him. However, he smiled when she said togetherness and community. However, the quip to become a politician just made him laugh.
”I do appreciate the men and women under my command. I’d have to honestly decline becoming a representative in the government. It would be better for me to retire and live on Draken’vina, my homeworld with my family. Over dealing with the day to day politics of the Ascendancy. I promise to you, Laguna. On my code of honor I won’t be planning any treason against the Ascendancy. Even if you don’t feel like you can trust me, you have Alexander here to tell you that the word of mine is much greater than anything. When I bound myself to my honor. Hope that helps your weary soul, Grand Admiral Laguna and you can tell the President for Life and Conner the good news. That they don’t have to worry about Nikolas Richard Zahrin, the Dragon leaving his homeworld.”
Nikolas had a smile towards Laguna. He put his own honor on the line, like he always would during this exchange to show he has truly learned his lesson with what he almost did with Conner. Conner fears Nikolas and that’s much is obvious. He looked directly at Alexander to see what Alexander would say in addition to what he said. Because Alexander knows Nikolas too well to back down on his honor, what is honor if anything but nothing if he breaks his honor oath.
It was both a little amusing to find himself being the third wheel in a quarrel like this. But seeing it unfold like this, it was kinda obvious how both sides like apples and oranges and they’re not accepting the other one’s.
”Well, we all know people lie all the time. They say they swear by the oath, but they would turn their backs at the moment you don’t expect them to. That applies to Nikolas, me and even the President himself...” Alexander simply shrugged as he was asked about Nikolas’s credibility, his tongue growing slow and sly as he mentioned President Emmanuel. ”At the end of the day, it’s how much leap of faith you’re willing to take.”
”With the fleet number and the personal security personnels you’re willing to take out there, I don’t think even my words would count.” He said. ”But you have done this before right, Ms Laguna? The battle for Masser Primus. I’m sure you have enough leap of faith in you.”
Admiral Laguna gave a thin smile, “Yes, I have enough faith in myself to continue advancing the Ascendancy’s future…”
”Perfect. Now we can proceed with settling in.” Alexander smiled as he declared. ”Orders are already out to my auxiliary transport ships to dock. Your men and women can begin the transfer to our carrier.”
The male Grand Admiral stood up straight, with a firm hand extended to Nikolas, the other holding the book he received.
”Hope you have a good retirement with your family.”
When would that day come?
Nikolas shook Alexander’s hand and smiled towards him. If anything, this last exchange felt right to him. Even though he planned this for a long time coming, he always was wanting to retire from the military anyways.
”I thank you Alexander, for this last exchange between us. It was always an honor to fight along with you in these wars we had. Even though my last war would always be this one that the Ascendancy lost terribly. I had everything pre-planned even before this day actually came, I do know you will take care of my soldiers better than anyone. As well, Ms. Laguna hopefully you will enjoy the Black Ops Ships in my fleet to be added to yours. I do know you will remove all designations of my fleet after they had a refit to fully be integrated into yours, it’s not rocket science.” He was content and played her little game to show he was truly grateful to the military for what he wanted. If anything, it’s better this way.
”A little word of wisdom. Hopefully you will never come face to face with a true Dragon. Like I have. Since they are truly terrifying creatures. But majestic at the same time. It is the reason why I absolutely told my soldiers to avoid the Kaisoken, they reminded me of the Dragons on my homeworld.” He was a bit odd to say that, but then his eyes turned into Dragon’s Eyes because of his Biotech Upgrade. But they returned to normal afterwards since he was always a bit nostalgic for certain things.
“Wouldn’t mind sneaking into a base to blow it up now that it’s a base I actually want to blow up.” Avelyn piped up - quietly so bystanders wouldn’t have uncomfortable questions - once she was done with her meal. “Not now though.” Fighting right after lunch wasn’t a good idea. She pulled her legs up on the chair to rest her chin on her knee and hugged her shins, idly observing the surroundings. First with her eyes, than letting the mental barriers down again and checking that nobody gave any thought to Ashton’s antics. Hundred-fucking-million, Jesus Christ! she shook her head, the reality of the situation still sinking in. A foreign voice in her mind started wondering what all those kids were doing there all alone and sleeping piled on top of each other, but a quick angry look over her shoulder was enough to shoo the curious nobody away.
“Anyway, if we get to pick, I’d rather it was something where getting your head taken clean off is low on the list of threats for a change. Places like this can be all sorts of fun.” She shared her view, having had taken a little more shot and shrapnel in the past four years than one should have by their age and missing the days of walking into a department store with nothing but her wit and deft hands and walking out with a few thousand Credits worth of small jewellery. “That is, I’m not saying I enjoy rifling through some poor sod’s memories while his hair is on fire and my thumb is almost pushing the bullet I put in his shoulder out the opposite side, but I could name a couple of bastards that could use such a send off.” she hurried to explain in a hushed voice - accompanied by subconscious hand gestures - when she realized what she said could be interpreted in a drastically different way to what she actually meant. Not that the explanation sounded much better.
As if on cue, the newscast came on, followed by the extremists’ demands. “Bollocks. This guy doesn’t have hair...” She flatly stated the obvious, “I can figure out how many of them there are, their composition, probably even get an idea of how to best go about this, provided I can get close enough. Or better yet inside that thing to be certain. If the hull is thick enough it could interfere with the Mind Bridge.” she suggested recon before striking, having almost four years of experience doing exactly that. “Also, I’ll ask in advance: Are we helping ourselves to some gear while we’re in there or do we behave?”
