[b]Innocence Lost[/b]

John turned to Eldrid as the group entered the ship and said, "Funny you should mention that; Small Paul was the one who hooked us up with these Moonstrike privateers; he seemed to have gotten free by himself." A pause, before he continued, "Some of the graffiti we encountered entering the Galactic Bazaar was more than it seemed." A sigh, "I apologize for not telling you earlier, El, but I needed to know if the bargain was genuine, which it seems to be at present."

They reached the dining quarters, where Natasha, with her own sigh of resignation, readied the lightweight chairs. She then looked at Eldrid; her next words were, "Wait, you're Eldrid Cole?! I [i]loved[/i] Starless Space! But wait, they said you were dead!"

John turned to Natasha and asked, "Moonstrike hasn't informed you of what the Ascendancy had to do to gain their victories, haven't they? Well to make a long story short, they experimented on kids - us - with Kaisoken dust, giving us all magic. There was also some blackmail involving our families, as well as abuse and coercion and being thrown into the thick of battle as children." A purse of his lips. "And now, we want revenge."

Turning towards Kelan, and then Reisus, John introduced himself, "By the way, my name is John Green; a Captain in one of the 'Secret Regiments' of the Ascendancy of Man Armed Forces. I'm the leader of this band of former supersoldiers, although a demonstration of our capabilities will have to wait until later; I don't want to risk lighting up the ship." 

He didn't try any of Orky's liquor; he'd leave it up to the others to do so because, well, John disliked alcohol. Not out of religious reasons, but because he simply didn't like the taste of intoxicants. Chuckling to himself as Stella stared impassively, John decided to respond to Orky, saying, "Good to meet you; and I am glad that we can be friends." A subtle change of subject to divert attention from the Liquor. "How did Captain Natasha find you?"

The Captain in question interjected, "Prettyboy, leave it to me to tell you; basically, some scientists - Korta, I think, but don't quote me on that - decided to pick up an undeveloped alien from a tribal planet, give him cybernetic parts, and then keep him as a research subject. He escaped, and now he's part of my crew."

Another pause. "Now, another question: Small Paul is a [i]kid[/i]?! Damnit, I knew that there were rumors that the Ascendancy was behind the disapperances of 'prodigy children', but I never knew they were true until now. Yet another question: Where does [i]Alexander Kherol[/i] fit in to this?"

John instinctively turned away in discomfort. "He was 'saved' by someone high up in the Ascendancy before he can be kidnapped. And now he's a Grand Admiral." He paused. "I used to want to be like him, you know. Heck, I even guarded him for a while; he was... Decent to me, and it hurt to be torn away from him, especially as the next officer was someone I don't want to talk about."

Natasha didn't pry. "Seems like you've got a good case of Stockholm Syndrome, kid. Thankfully, I have a crewmate who's as good a shrink as he is a medic. He's also the one who's cooking for us; the robot."

At finally hearing Rachel, Natasha would say, "Ah, of course, the mission. Well, 'Moonstrike One' says that she'll give us an encrypted transmission after Dinner, so we have plenty of time." 

John waved at Legion then as he hovered around the table. He would then say, "Glad to meet you, Mr. Medic!" 

[@Gentlemanvaultboy][@OrkytheOrc][@Starlance][@Bartimaeus][@Stern Algorithm][@Crowvette][@KillamriX88]