0003: NEW ARRIVALS

[crux_npcs]

Who: New Arrivals, Captain Jack Hollis, Science Captain Urist McEngineer, Graham Baker
Where: Briefing Room
When: Late afternoon
Warnings: None

When awakening, you'll find the area you're in to be very busy. The people in the medical ward are polite and understanding, but firmly refuse to answer questions until the briefing. The same goes for the robots in the hangars. Either given hospital outfits resembling very comfortable pajamas, drone bodies, or their own bodies, they are escorted by polite, unyielding people in red and black uniforms to the briefing room.

The room is large, but not quite large enough for some of the bigger Cybertronians. They've been given drone bodies at least, skinny little things with no real features beyond primitive masks made of paper plates. There's seats for everyone, at least, well-cushioned and comfortable, and the room is pleasantly lit.

A few Security personnel, dressed in their red and black uniforms, stand at ease in the rooms in strategic areas. Three men stand at the head. One is Graham Baker, a slightly nervous-seeming middle-aged man wearing a multi-layered business suit that seems rumpled and oversized. The other two men are dressed in military uniforms, one with the blue undershirt and piping of Command, while the other wears the gold of Science.

[Questions to the NPCs will go in the briefing thread. The rest of the post is there for people to mill about and do whatever with.]

Comments

Eddie Fyers | DC comics | post-briefing

[reliableenemies]

"Well that was a wordy way of saying we're drafted."

Eddie's a little bit grouchy after finding himself on a ship in some unknown star system in deep space. He's not much into the cosmic side of things, and the explanation he got from the briefing isn't making him feel much better about it. But, hey, at least they aren't kicking him out into the vacuum, right? There's a plus.

"Look, the least we can do is materialize a burger. I'm not eating any space food from a tube."

It doesn't really matter if people want to listen to the old man gripe. He's griping anyway.

Re: Eddie Fyers | DC comics | post-briefing

[zouichi]

"I'm sure they've got a space burger joint or two," said Zouichi. They were dealing with a sizable human component, after all -- not at all like his last ship. And if there was one thing that humans loved, it was their food.

After waking up unceremoniously in the Teuberg's medical bay, Zouichi had done a quick status check of his major systems, but now he was making sure his fine motor skills were also intact, unholstering his sidearm, spinning it, and reholstering it.

"In the middle of something important?"

[reliableenemies]

"Space burgers. Well, that makes me feel better."

His response was dry, but really, Eddie wasn't as angry as he acted. It wasn't like he had much to do now that Connor was going back to the monastery. And, yeah, maybe he was lonely and bored (mostly bored), so waking up on a ship in some star fleet wasn't the worst thing that could have happened.

But he was damn well going to complain anyway.

"I didn't bring any clean underwear," he replied flippantly. "Nothing urgent, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to drop everything and go to space. I like my feet firmly planted on the ground."

There was a beat.

"Nice boat though."

[zouichi]

Too much information, buddy. Zouichi didn't need even .2 seconds of contemplating the state of your underwear inventory.

And what was this about a boat? Was he talking about the Teuberg?

"It's a lot more comfortable than the last one I was on. Anyway, I'm hoping they get this sorted out fairly quickly."

[reliableenemies]

He would have been happy to know he was making the guy uncomfortable with his sarcastic remarks. It wasn't serious, of course, but he certainly felt better about giving someone else a hard time.

"The last ship I was in was in the ocean. I'm not much of a space explorer."

Which was why he was so cranky about this situation. Still, it wasn't like Eddie didn't know how to adapt. And military was military no matter where they were. He'd been around and worked with several governments over the years. He could handle this.

"Doubt it. If they're testing out new technology it'll take 'em awhile to work out the kinks, never mind reversing whatever happened to bring us here. I guess I could take a look around. There's a whole city on this thing?"

[zouichi]

A while was better than never! In Zouichi's book, anyway. "According to the map, yes. Which makes sense for a vessel like this one. They also said that their objective was to establish a colony, but if we're still in enemy territory, I suppose those plans must be on hold."

Which was also fine with him. After a year in space, a little more time spent out in the middle of nowhere wasn't going to kill him. Besides, at least these aliens seemed to be a known quantity.

[reliableenemies]

"As long as they don't strand us on a planet." Which Eddie thought could very well happen if the fleet command decided they weren't interested in keeping strays. They probably wouldn't--so far the crew of the Teuberg at least seemed decent--but he was a firm believer in never being too careful.

"How long have you been with this fleet? You sound pretty comfortable with the trip. I thought this place was way off course."

[zouichi]

"I just got here today," said Zouichi. "It's just that this isn't the first time I've had this kind of thing happen. At least there wasn't any slime this time."

Or the uncomfortable feeling of someone rooting around in his brain. Ugh.

"Leaving you out in the middle of nowhere would be a little counterproductive, wouldn't it? If they really are trying to fight this enemy Empire."

[reliableenemies]

"Slime. Right, well, that makes me feel better."

It just cemented the whole feeling of being trapped in space for Eddie. Granted, the hitman had an image colored by a lot of science fiction movies and not much actual experience--except that one time that ended in him being shot to Earth like a flaming meteorite--but still. Slime? He grunted at that.

"Probably. I just wouldn't put it past them. Official guys don't always make a lot of sense when it comes to the big decisions. I think it's part of the job."

He grinned at that. Possibly the first positive expression he had.

"At least it's not boring."

[zouichi]

Zouichi snorted. "That's for sure."

He'd had an awful lot of questions about how the last war he'd been involved in had been run. Few, if any, had ever been answered. It's your destinyyyy this and walkers of the web of faaaate that. What a bunch of baloney.

"If what they mentioned about that Wadjiit Empire's true, it's going to get even less boring."

[reliableenemies]

"There's always some big shot trying to take over the universe." Eddie didn't have experience with space (unless you counted the one time he shot himself out of the alien space station, but that hadn't lasted long), but he did have experience with people and power. Aliens or not.

"Are they really that tough? This fleet is escorting civilians, right? There's interesting, and then there's a bad idea."

[zouichi]

"I'd say they've already succeeded, for the purposes of the near future," said Zouichi thoughtfully.

"If the fleet started out in their territory, it's been a hundred years since then, and they're still not out of it? The Wadjiit must control an enormous swath of space. I doubt any such empire would devote all of their resources to destroying one group of ships, but I suspect looking into the fleet's casualty rate would be a good idea."