04-11-2016, 03:18 AM
I confiscated a meeting room for myself as the call went on, a little quiet time so that I could get this little step out of the way as quickly as possible. Whatever crew that was brought here was unlikely to have been stocked for battle, presuming I had brought it from a point during or shortly after Hell invaded Earth. A minimal crew meant for peace time. While I didn't doubt their capacity, if the journey to the gate was a treacherous as the Oracle said then I needed everything I could get. And since I didn't want to summon anyone else, I would have to pick through what was already trapped inside the Omniverse. And that's where the ex-Imperial Officer came in.
"Did you really harass one of my men and threaten my cover just so you could small talk?" The ever smoldering Lt. Jones stared at me from the video feed, his imperial uniform now replaced by some kind of combat armor not unlike my own. A shield like emblem was etched into the front of the chest plate, an axe set across the front and the phrase "Vigilo Confidio" written at the top. I'm sure it was some hint to what universe he orginated from, but it didn't mean anything to me.
"No, I harassed your good friend Roger because he put a hole in my chest when I saved his ass. he should consider himself lucky he got to run back and bitch to you in one piece," the bearded officer grimaced from behind the screen, but that didn't stop me, "and if you were worried about blowing your cover, you wouldn't have called me"
A deep, defeated sigh rang out from my PDA, Jones already decided it wasn't worth arguing with me.
"Just get to the point"
"Now you're the one saying that" I chuckled, which did nothing to help his mood "I need some crew-"
"No" He shot me down immediately
"I don't mean any of your people, I'm not that much of an asshole" I took the lead back, although I heard "debatable" uttered under his breath "Considering your, uh, previous employment with the Empire to my understanding, you would still know who's on their shitlist"
"You released most of them" Jones answered, before he looked to something off screen and called someone over. I felt "The Navy is still imploding over your attack and trying to hunt them down, so any information is not guaranteed. Why would want these scumbags working for you, anyway?" The lack of confusion on his part meant that had his own suspicions to confirm.
"If there's other people like me, then there may be at least a few ex-military who'd take a chance for a ride home. Maybe a few psychos in the bunch, but as long as they're not those PLF shit heads I'm willing to take anything"
"I'll have Eagle Eye send you the information" Even as he said that, I saw an email pop up in my inventory with a large file attached to it "I hope you succeed, Doomguy, if only so I don't have to deal with you"
"Oh trust me, if I fail, I'll happily take you out to dinner on me." I turned cut the chat short and started to read through the dossiers and headed to the bridge. I had one last thing to do, one last person to conivince before I could set sail on the USS Fuckthisshit
The bridge changed little from how I remembered them being like back in my own dimension. Although that might have been due to the haziness of my memories, it certainly looked more like something made for the blackness of space rather than the sea. Consoles lined across the outer rim of the room, a centralized station where the captain would likely spend more time keeping their crew in line than watch space itself. There were "windows" that showed the outside around from the hull, but there were in reality monitors and the illusion disappeared when you looked behind them to only find grey walls. Crew were at their stations, but they were more inclined to gab than work, and even when I walked in they only gave me a few glance before they went back to shoot the breeze.
I had a more directed reason to be here. I stared down the guy who seemed to be in charge, a man in a larger seat who had more medals on his chest than hair on his head, which was mostly replaced by scars stripped across his head anyway. he lacked the stripes of the captain, but I ould easily guess that he worked directly under them.
"Where's the captain?" I bluntly asked, which the officer just looked me over with a steely look.
"She's in her quarters. She's been waiting for you" He answered, and turned his head to talk into some of comms in the side of his head. While I was grateful for his bluntness his stance was not unlikely a bouncer: always squared towards me, arms crossed, and never without at least one eye on me. In fact, I felt like he was looking down on me despite the fact that we were the same height. I took a mental note to not fuck with him and waited for when a sliding door opened for the person I had to convince.
"Captain on deck!" Was yelled by one of the orderlies, and everyone went ramrod straight on their feet to salute the woman in question. I, on the other hand, was more interested at who this person was beyond their authority.
She was short. Not just compared to me, she barely came up to my chest. She was as primmed and spotless as the military great coat that she wore, and her sharp green eyes held the kind of fight in it I would normally associate with a berzerk packing marine. Each step held weight, she owed every bit of floor she stepped. I guess she did, since that was her ship and I'm sure she would have happily fought over it. She had a chip the size of of the ship she commanded and it was likely made by having to fight uphill for everything she had.
I already knew this was going to be a hard argument to make when the relationship between the space navy and space marines (there is no space army, if you're wondering) could be described as hostile without exaggeration. That I had pulled in a battleaxe of a woman made this into challenge.
Good, if this wasn't difficult I would have been suspicious it went too well.
We stared each other down, two stubborn wills clashed without even a word a said, and before I even said something she's turned back to adress her crew.
"Get the engines ready, we are leaving"
"Oh, good I don't have to argue then" I let out the slight brew of worry out in a 'whew' "Good, because we need to-"
"And someone throw this hooligan in the brig"
Oh boy.
Some wiseass actually took that order serious, and when I heard the light tap of boots behind me I swung my elbow out and back, their nose obliterated as it made contact with hardened bone and armor plate.
"Hold up, I didn't come here just so you can ignore me. I doubt you have been sitting on your thumbs, because it's imposible to notice that you're not in fucking space anymore"
"I have noticed, marine. While you were busy, I took the liberty of finding out more about this place myself. I know what you've said is true, and I believe that you are who you claim you are." She turned back to me, with a intensity laid on me. It wasn't anger, but she wasn't happy to see me "But if you think you have any control of my ship, my crew, then you are insane.
"I'm not insane" I blurted out a little too quickly. I could have mocked her for obviously rehearsing that speech to regain the upper hand, but I need this person on my side, not under my boot. "I don't need command, just your help. I am your best chance out of here"
"And that is the only reason I don't want you thrown off the ship entirely. My trust is not given, marine, it is earned. And until then: you will either take my orders, or you will spend the entire voyage int he brig" He laid down the law. But if you've kept since now, you'd know that I wasn't too happy to take orders from anyone. However, I have a way when it comes to interpreting orders. There wasn't any problems here couldn't fix.
I gave a big grin from behind my helmet and nodded.
"I can work with that. Now, there's a few places we need to stop first..."
"Did you really harass one of my men and threaten my cover just so you could small talk?" The ever smoldering Lt. Jones stared at me from the video feed, his imperial uniform now replaced by some kind of combat armor not unlike my own. A shield like emblem was etched into the front of the chest plate, an axe set across the front and the phrase "Vigilo Confidio" written at the top. I'm sure it was some hint to what universe he orginated from, but it didn't mean anything to me.
"No, I harassed your good friend Roger because he put a hole in my chest when I saved his ass. he should consider himself lucky he got to run back and bitch to you in one piece," the bearded officer grimaced from behind the screen, but that didn't stop me, "and if you were worried about blowing your cover, you wouldn't have called me"
A deep, defeated sigh rang out from my PDA, Jones already decided it wasn't worth arguing with me.
"Just get to the point"
"Now you're the one saying that" I chuckled, which did nothing to help his mood "I need some crew-"
"No" He shot me down immediately
"I don't mean any of your people, I'm not that much of an asshole" I took the lead back, although I heard "debatable" uttered under his breath "Considering your, uh, previous employment with the Empire to my understanding, you would still know who's on their shitlist"
"You released most of them" Jones answered, before he looked to something off screen and called someone over. I felt "The Navy is still imploding over your attack and trying to hunt them down, so any information is not guaranteed. Why would want these scumbags working for you, anyway?" The lack of confusion on his part meant that had his own suspicions to confirm.
"If there's other people like me, then there may be at least a few ex-military who'd take a chance for a ride home. Maybe a few psychos in the bunch, but as long as they're not those PLF shit heads I'm willing to take anything"
"I'll have Eagle Eye send you the information" Even as he said that, I saw an email pop up in my inventory with a large file attached to it "I hope you succeed, Doomguy, if only so I don't have to deal with you"
"Oh trust me, if I fail, I'll happily take you out to dinner on me." I turned cut the chat short and started to read through the dossiers and headed to the bridge. I had one last thing to do, one last person to conivince before I could set sail on the USS Fuckthisshit
Quote:----
The bridge changed little from how I remembered them being like back in my own dimension. Although that might have been due to the haziness of my memories, it certainly looked more like something made for the blackness of space rather than the sea. Consoles lined across the outer rim of the room, a centralized station where the captain would likely spend more time keeping their crew in line than watch space itself. There were "windows" that showed the outside around from the hull, but there were in reality monitors and the illusion disappeared when you looked behind them to only find grey walls. Crew were at their stations, but they were more inclined to gab than work, and even when I walked in they only gave me a few glance before they went back to shoot the breeze.
I had a more directed reason to be here. I stared down the guy who seemed to be in charge, a man in a larger seat who had more medals on his chest than hair on his head, which was mostly replaced by scars stripped across his head anyway. he lacked the stripes of the captain, but I ould easily guess that he worked directly under them.
"Where's the captain?" I bluntly asked, which the officer just looked me over with a steely look.
"She's in her quarters. She's been waiting for you" He answered, and turned his head to talk into some of comms in the side of his head. While I was grateful for his bluntness his stance was not unlikely a bouncer: always squared towards me, arms crossed, and never without at least one eye on me. In fact, I felt like he was looking down on me despite the fact that we were the same height. I took a mental note to not fuck with him and waited for when a sliding door opened for the person I had to convince.
"Captain on deck!" Was yelled by one of the orderlies, and everyone went ramrod straight on their feet to salute the woman in question. I, on the other hand, was more interested at who this person was beyond their authority.
She was short. Not just compared to me, she barely came up to my chest. She was as primmed and spotless as the military great coat that she wore, and her sharp green eyes held the kind of fight in it I would normally associate with a berzerk packing marine. Each step held weight, she owed every bit of floor she stepped. I guess she did, since that was her ship and I'm sure she would have happily fought over it. She had a chip the size of of the ship she commanded and it was likely made by having to fight uphill for everything she had.
I already knew this was going to be a hard argument to make when the relationship between the space navy and space marines (there is no space army, if you're wondering) could be described as hostile without exaggeration. That I had pulled in a battleaxe of a woman made this into challenge.
Good, if this wasn't difficult I would have been suspicious it went too well.
We stared each other down, two stubborn wills clashed without even a word a said, and before I even said something she's turned back to adress her crew.
"Get the engines ready, we are leaving"
"Oh, good I don't have to argue then" I let out the slight brew of worry out in a 'whew' "Good, because we need to-"
"And someone throw this hooligan in the brig"
Oh boy.
Some wiseass actually took that order serious, and when I heard the light tap of boots behind me I swung my elbow out and back, their nose obliterated as it made contact with hardened bone and armor plate.
"Hold up, I didn't come here just so you can ignore me. I doubt you have been sitting on your thumbs, because it's imposible to notice that you're not in fucking space anymore"
"I have noticed, marine. While you were busy, I took the liberty of finding out more about this place myself. I know what you've said is true, and I believe that you are who you claim you are." She turned back to me, with a intensity laid on me. It wasn't anger, but she wasn't happy to see me "But if you think you have any control of my ship, my crew, then you are insane.
"I'm not insane" I blurted out a little too quickly. I could have mocked her for obviously rehearsing that speech to regain the upper hand, but I need this person on my side, not under my boot. "I don't need command, just your help. I am your best chance out of here"
"And that is the only reason I don't want you thrown off the ship entirely. My trust is not given, marine, it is earned. And until then: you will either take my orders, or you will spend the entire voyage int he brig" He laid down the law. But if you've kept since now, you'd know that I wasn't too happy to take orders from anyone. However, I have a way when it comes to interpreting orders. There wasn't any problems here couldn't fix.
I gave a big grin from behind my helmet and nodded.
"I can work with that. Now, there's a few places we need to stop first..."
![[Image: oGzCtPC.png]](http://i.imgur.com/oGzCtPC.png)