Proving Grounds [Complete]

[Lord Zedd]

Captain Desh glanced to his doorway once more. There had been plenty of interruptions today, but this one took the cake. The elusive outlaw called the Bulldog was suddenly in his doorway. The man’s arms went behind his back, clearly cuffed together. Before Desh could say much more, the man was thrown at him. He didn’t quite cover the distance, and instead bashed his head on the captain’s desk and fell unconscious to the floor. Desh looked up once more to see Lord Zedd standing triumphantly in the doorway.

“That is the one you seek,” Zedd plainly stated, leaving no room for a theoretical argument.

Desh saw no need to dispute it. “It sure is. That was pretty quick, Zedd.”

“Lord Zedd,” the prime was fast to correct the man.

“Right, yea,” the Imperial captain acknowledged blankly. He wasn’t terribly concerned with the semantics, with one of the more notorious outlaws in Coruscant lying on the floor of his office.

“Now, you will grant me all the benefits of an Imperial citizen,” Zedd commented as the captain walked around the table to survey the prisoner. “I have held up my end of the bargain. For your sake, I hope you hold up yours.”

Captain Desh merely circled the desk as he looked down at the fallen man. Once again, Zedd’s thinly veiled threats didn’t really phase him. The prime was only dangerous because of his delusions of grandeur, but at the same time seemed to understand that he wasn’t as mighty as he wished. His personality surely indicated that he had been mighty in a previous realm. But that was there, not here.

“Yea, yea, welcome to the family,” Desh absent mindedly said as he used his foot to roll the prisoner over, and get a good look. He nodded as he held up his handheld radio and keyed it up. “Need assistance in my office. Prisoner transfer.”

Zedd continued to stare hard into the Imperial captain. “Now I will take the legion of your finest troops.”

“Here’s the thing, Zedd,” Desh said as he looked back to the prime. “We don’t really hand out the keys to this supercar to just everyone, but we’ll let you check the oil and put air in the tires.”

“I do not understand your ridiculous analogy,” Zedd immediately replied.

Desh chuckled lightly. He figured it would go over the man’s head. “One mission doesn’t gain you unending trust. Besides, the space marines aren’t going to follow a fresh prime. Keep your four, and keep working.”

Zedd could be heard growling, but Desh remained unphased by the unique Prime. He’d figured him out, for now. He was willing to help, so long as it gained him power. What would happen after he gained too much power and had to be dealt with? Well, that was a job for someone who was too important to have an office this close to the Nexus gate.

“Keep doing good work, and I can see about getting you and your people additional training and equipment, and maybe some more man power,” Desh continued. “But you’ve got to do good work and earn it. In the meantime, Requisitions will get you set up with a place to crash.”

A deep, annoyed sigh escaped Zedd’s face mask. This would have to do, at least until he mustered up enough Omnilium to bring Goldar, Scorpina, and others loyal to him to this world. The dark lord was proud, but he was no fool, either. Weapons and training relevant to this realm were to be accepted eagerly, not rebuked. It may be meaningless where he came from, but now he had to play by the rules.

“Sound good, Zedd?” Desh broke his concentration.

“Lord Zedd,” he quickly and harshly corrected the Stormtrooper once more. His patience was running thin.

Desh only smiled. “I guess we’ll see.”

Zedd turned and left without another word, just as two Stormtroopers arrived to take the Bulldog into custody. Those were terms he could accept.