09-25-2017, 05:20 AM
Having stepped through the gateway, Hijiri found himself gazing at the most beautiful city he had ever seen; not only was it far grander than anything on Earth, but even his own people's gorgeous lunar cities paled in comparison. In every direction, steel and glass buildings sparkled in the sunlight, as flying cars flew through the skies above, and he could even see an immaculate park off to the side of a nearby street.
“Come on, it's this way.” his stormtrooper guide informed him, waving him forward. The armoured man gave barely a glance at his surroundings, which Hijiri immediately remembered was how he ought to be acting as well; he had almost slipped into tourist mode there for a second. This would likely go better for him if he refrained from gaping at everything he passed; it was doubtful that the most advanced civilisation in the Omniverse would afford much respect to some slack-jawed yokel who behaved like he'd never seen a city before in his life.
As it turned out, there was an EPD Office only a few blocks from the gate, so it took little time to get there. Upon entering they were greeted by a woman who sat at a reception desk. She wore a crisp, grey military uniform and had shoulder-length auburn hair. On the desk before her sat two thin computers and some sort of device which seemed to be projecting a pale blue hologram. As they strode through the doors she glanced up and glared at the pair with the one eye not covered by her fringe.
“What the hell do you want, Dodson?” Hijiri glanced at his guide, who was presumably named 'Dodson', wondering how she seemed able to recognise him despite the fact that his armour bore no identifying marks whatsoever.
“Great news, Michelle, baby, I found a Prime who says he'd just love to join your crew, isn't that great!?” Judging by the way 'Michelle' started grating her teeth and twitching slightly as soon as he began speaking, the ex-Battle Rabbit guessed that her answer to that question was 'no'.
“Tell me, soldier...” she eventually began, after composing herself enough to speak, “Do you remember what happened the last time you 'forgot' to speak to me with the proper respect due to an officer of the Imperial Army?”
“Uh... actually, no, don't have a clue, doll. I remember waking up in a psych ward and hearing that you'd been demoted to little more than a glorified receptionist, and some people may have thrown around the term 'mindrape' – whatever that means – but no, I don't actually remember anything... sounds kinky, though, babe. I'm totally on board if you want seconds.”
The woman had gotten to her feet by this point, and looked just about ready to kill someone. Her nails were digging into the desk's wooden surface, and her knuckles had gone white. Figuring that this might not be the most successful job application ever if it ended in homicide, Hijiri decided that now might well be the time to step in; given how quickly this had escalated, one more comment from Dodson might well lead to a gunfight.
“Maybe it would be best if we just left,” he said, placing a hand on his guide's shoulder and attempting to lightly turn him back the way they'd come, “this officer is clearly busy with her duties and we really shouldn't waste her time.”
“No.” he had barely taken a step before she spoke up. “That brain-dead cretin is more than welcome to get out of my sight, but you should stay, Prime.”
“Aw, come on, cutie, you know you don't really-”
“Sorry.” the stormtrooper's voice was cut off as Hijiri shoved him outside and closed the thick, steel door in his face. He had no idea what the relationship was between these two (or what Dodson imagined their relationship to be, at least) but in the interests of not getting anyone killed, he decided this was probably for the best.
...
“Alright then. Introductions,” he turned to see the officer holding out a hand towards him. Her expression blank and professional, she seemed to have become utterly calm and collected the moment Dodson had left the building, “I'm Michelle Andreas, the officer in charge of this Recruitment Branch of the EPD. Should you decide to join us I will be your main liaison with Imperial command.”
“Pleased to meet you, Officer Andreas,” Hijiri shook her hand as he spoke. Judging by her lack of reaction to his calling her that, it seemed that he had been correct to assume by the Western sound of her names that the family name was actually the latter of the two, “I am Takanomiya Hijiri. With Takanomiya being my surname.”
“Right,” she nodded, apparently not unfamiliar with the idea that different peoples would often have differing grammatical customs. Sitting again, she went on, “I'll just note that down on your record here... now, to begin with you'll be attached to a small squad of stormtroopers and observed to see how effective you are in combat. Criminals should be taken alive if possible, but lethal force is authorised if necessary. As you're going to be the only one in the squad not in uniform, it is highly likely that you will be identified as a Prime and will be a priority target, should conflict break out, so taking stupid risks will get you killed. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. A lot of Primes like to see themselves as better than Secondaries, so it's not all that unusual for new ones to get themselves killed after getting overconfident and picking a fight they can't win.”
Hijiri tried his best to maintain his confident demeanour, hoping that that wasn't exactly what he was about to do.
“In order to perform this assignment you'll need to choose a Tier to be assigned to. This is Tier One, and the lowest Tier available is Tier Five, since Tiers Six & Seven no longer have routine patrols. The lower you go, the more dangerous it will be. That said, proving your value to the Empire will be much faster in the lower Tiers than it would be if you were to do nothing but patrol peaceful streets up here, understood?”
“Yes, sir.” he responded again, and after a moment's hesitation he made a decision which he was well aware must have been the height of stupidity. Still, he'd need to perform well if he wanted any sort of decent pay, so there was hardly any point wasting time up here. “I'd like to be assigned to Tier Five, sir.”
She sighed, and rolled the one of her eyes which he could see. Apparently, she wasn't too impressed.
“Right, of course, because you're a big, strong Prime who can just come back to life if anything goes wrong, huh? Fine, whatever, just make sure to listen to your sergeant. The last thing we need is to lose a whole squad of stormtroopers because you were too stubborn to back down from a fight and they were too stupid to leave you to die. Got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fine. I've submitted your application now. There's a squad headed down to Tier Five in a few hours. They'll now be coming here to collect you first.”
“Come on, it's this way.” his stormtrooper guide informed him, waving him forward. The armoured man gave barely a glance at his surroundings, which Hijiri immediately remembered was how he ought to be acting as well; he had almost slipped into tourist mode there for a second. This would likely go better for him if he refrained from gaping at everything he passed; it was doubtful that the most advanced civilisation in the Omniverse would afford much respect to some slack-jawed yokel who behaved like he'd never seen a city before in his life.
As it turned out, there was an EPD Office only a few blocks from the gate, so it took little time to get there. Upon entering they were greeted by a woman who sat at a reception desk. She wore a crisp, grey military uniform and had shoulder-length auburn hair. On the desk before her sat two thin computers and some sort of device which seemed to be projecting a pale blue hologram. As they strode through the doors she glanced up and glared at the pair with the one eye not covered by her fringe.
“What the hell do you want, Dodson?” Hijiri glanced at his guide, who was presumably named 'Dodson', wondering how she seemed able to recognise him despite the fact that his armour bore no identifying marks whatsoever.
“Great news, Michelle, baby, I found a Prime who says he'd just love to join your crew, isn't that great!?” Judging by the way 'Michelle' started grating her teeth and twitching slightly as soon as he began speaking, the ex-Battle Rabbit guessed that her answer to that question was 'no'.
“Tell me, soldier...” she eventually began, after composing herself enough to speak, “Do you remember what happened the last time you 'forgot' to speak to me with the proper respect due to an officer of the Imperial Army?”
“Uh... actually, no, don't have a clue, doll. I remember waking up in a psych ward and hearing that you'd been demoted to little more than a glorified receptionist, and some people may have thrown around the term 'mindrape' – whatever that means – but no, I don't actually remember anything... sounds kinky, though, babe. I'm totally on board if you want seconds.”
The woman had gotten to her feet by this point, and looked just about ready to kill someone. Her nails were digging into the desk's wooden surface, and her knuckles had gone white. Figuring that this might not be the most successful job application ever if it ended in homicide, Hijiri decided that now might well be the time to step in; given how quickly this had escalated, one more comment from Dodson might well lead to a gunfight.
“Maybe it would be best if we just left,” he said, placing a hand on his guide's shoulder and attempting to lightly turn him back the way they'd come, “this officer is clearly busy with her duties and we really shouldn't waste her time.”
“No.” he had barely taken a step before she spoke up. “That brain-dead cretin is more than welcome to get out of my sight, but you should stay, Prime.”
“Aw, come on, cutie, you know you don't really-”
“Sorry.” the stormtrooper's voice was cut off as Hijiri shoved him outside and closed the thick, steel door in his face. He had no idea what the relationship was between these two (or what Dodson imagined their relationship to be, at least) but in the interests of not getting anyone killed, he decided this was probably for the best.
...
“Alright then. Introductions,” he turned to see the officer holding out a hand towards him. Her expression blank and professional, she seemed to have become utterly calm and collected the moment Dodson had left the building, “I'm Michelle Andreas, the officer in charge of this Recruitment Branch of the EPD. Should you decide to join us I will be your main liaison with Imperial command.”
“Pleased to meet you, Officer Andreas,” Hijiri shook her hand as he spoke. Judging by her lack of reaction to his calling her that, it seemed that he had been correct to assume by the Western sound of her names that the family name was actually the latter of the two, “I am Takanomiya Hijiri. With Takanomiya being my surname.”
“Right,” she nodded, apparently not unfamiliar with the idea that different peoples would often have differing grammatical customs. Sitting again, she went on, “I'll just note that down on your record here... now, to begin with you'll be attached to a small squad of stormtroopers and observed to see how effective you are in combat. Criminals should be taken alive if possible, but lethal force is authorised if necessary. As you're going to be the only one in the squad not in uniform, it is highly likely that you will be identified as a Prime and will be a priority target, should conflict break out, so taking stupid risks will get you killed. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. A lot of Primes like to see themselves as better than Secondaries, so it's not all that unusual for new ones to get themselves killed after getting overconfident and picking a fight they can't win.”
Hijiri tried his best to maintain his confident demeanour, hoping that that wasn't exactly what he was about to do.
“In order to perform this assignment you'll need to choose a Tier to be assigned to. This is Tier One, and the lowest Tier available is Tier Five, since Tiers Six & Seven no longer have routine patrols. The lower you go, the more dangerous it will be. That said, proving your value to the Empire will be much faster in the lower Tiers than it would be if you were to do nothing but patrol peaceful streets up here, understood?”
“Yes, sir.” he responded again, and after a moment's hesitation he made a decision which he was well aware must have been the height of stupidity. Still, he'd need to perform well if he wanted any sort of decent pay, so there was hardly any point wasting time up here. “I'd like to be assigned to Tier Five, sir.”
She sighed, and rolled the one of her eyes which he could see. Apparently, she wasn't too impressed.
“Right, of course, because you're a big, strong Prime who can just come back to life if anything goes wrong, huh? Fine, whatever, just make sure to listen to your sergeant. The last thing we need is to lose a whole squad of stormtroopers because you were too stubborn to back down from a fight and they were too stupid to leave you to die. Got that?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fine. I've submitted your application now. There's a squad headed down to Tier Five in a few hours. They'll now be coming here to collect you first.”
Quote:Attempting Hand of the Empire quest.
Word Count: 1242, according to OpenOffice's word counter.
Total Word Count: 1242/5000-10000.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)