V S M Taking some Flak

[Ridley]

“Lash? Lash? Laaaaaaaaaaaaash!”

Flak grumbled with his trademark scowl. Happy beyond belief that the goggles he wore protected his eyes from the endless vortex of sand that was everywhere in his vision.

“Laaaaaash! Turn off your stupid toybox! I’m in the middle of it, ya hear? Hawke’s gonna be pissed you’re wasting time on this instead of plannin’ the invasion! And I’ll make sure he knows who it is! Laaaash!”

Flak had no idea how he’d ended up in this desert hell - Sandstone cliffs to his left, a whole lot of sand and nothing to his right. The place had bitter winds, a hell of a lot of heat, and a couple half-buried bones here and there - but he had been yelling for Lash to figure it out for him for about twenty minutes now, and while his voice wasn’t anywhere near hoarse, it had been enough time for his brain to get to thinkin…

If this really was Lash’s playpen, she had had about twenty minutes of him talking to come back with her usual sassy come-backs, and hadn’t taken the opportunity once. That wasn’t very Lash of her. That left the options that either this wasn’t some sort of Lash-based desertification project, that the black hole lieutenant - and his comrade - had nothing to do with this… or that Lash simply wasn’t able to hear him.

Flak knew it couldn’t be option two with a bit more thinking though. There was the primary reason that Lash was not the type to torture someone without having some sort of close-up feed to let her see and hear every detail of exactly what she was doing - she might have been a nasty, insulting, arrogant, and witchy little sadist, but even Flak could respect the work she put into being a nasty, insulting, arrogant, witchy little sadist, and she wouldn’t be this sloppy.

The second reason was that Flak could scream Very loudf, and had been, so she’d have definitely been able to hear him if they shared a continent.

Which meant that there was something else funny going on here.

“Alright, think Flak, think. What would Adder do in this situation?” The giant asked, his massive fingers scratching the inside of his chin.

After a moment, a large smile came onto his face, as he gave a sad attempt at a throaty chuckle.

“Heh heh heh, just as planned, heh heh… Oh Flak, you just don’t understand, heh…” The giant chuckled, his smile holding for a few seconds, before he exhaled.

“...Nevermind, I forgot Adder’s never helpful. Alright, what would Hawke do…”

Flak scratched his chin for a moment, as he made his way over to the nearby cliff face.

“...Well, he’d probably demote me for dereliction of my command and getting lost in enemy territory. But I can’t demote myself!...And I don’t want to, either! It’s not my fault!”

So, Flak sat to himself and thought a bit harder.

“Lash is smart… what would she do?” He whispered to himself, thinking about it in his head for a moment, as he tried to imagine Lash’s retort….

Before slamming his head into the nearby cliff-face with every ounce of force he could muster.

“No one says that to Flak, you little Brat! I’m gonna cream ya! Ohh… gettin’... Dizzy!” The giant complained, stumbling off to the side, as he felt a trail of blood flow down from under his helmet. “Gonna… go lay down fer… a sec…”

The burly moron stumbled forward, catching himself with one oversized hand as he tried to avoid falling into the endless pile of sand in front of him.

“Who made… that rock so hard…” The Black hole CO groaned, as he slowly pushed himself back to a standing position. “Whatever. How do I get outta here, then?”

Flak craned his eyes through the sand, the red tinted goggles letting him see a lot farther into the desert despite the sun’s glare. And looking across the dunes and cliff, Flak’s eyes beheld a whole lot of diddly and squat,

“Chrysler. What I wouldn’t give for a Recon vehicle right now.” The Soldier mumbled, before something caught his ear. A buzzing something.

Flak finally craned his head in the one direction he’d forgotten even existed - up.

Above him was something that looked a lot like a bee but definitely wasn’t. The creature hovered in place, craning its head back and forth as its mandibles clacked noisily together.

“What? You wanna go, huh?! I ain’t scared of no bee!” Flak yelled. This was a total lie - Flak was allergic - but it’s not like the bee needed to know that!

The Big bug flew slowly in front of him, probably too scared to take the challenge, and landed a few meters in front of the brute.

“...What? What’re ya looking at? You one of those like… friendly honey bees or something?”

The bee buzzed it’s wings at him rapidly, before taking off, zipping forward a few dozen meters before turning back to Flak - like it wanted him to follow. Which was dumb! because what kind of bee does this stuff?!

“‘Am I following a bee? Well… guess I got nothing better to do.” The former general admitted, pulling his helmet’s visor down slightly as he followed the insect through the sand. Worst came to worse, if it lead him nowhere, he supposed bee was a kind of meat.

 

[Ridley]

“Hey! Heeey! Get back here! C’mere! Flak’s hungry!”

The muscled mountain had been chasing after this stupid wasp for what felt like hours - or maybe five minutes. One of those two, Flak was pretty sure.

Either way, the stupid bee had mostly just lead him into just more sand and nothing, and it’s annoying buzzing was really getting on Flak’s nerves. Being hungry was also getting on Flak’s nerves. The fact he was getting a sunburn on his pecs was also, really getting on Flak’s nerves, and he was hoping this bee knew where it was going, because Flak sure as hell didn’t.

Oh man. What if he was in hell? And Hell was just exceptionally boring! He figured there’d be punchable demons, maybe some cool demon guns. DOOM had those, right? He was pretty sure the Romans made it, so that meant it was probably accurate to the bible. Flak hadn’t read that thing but he remembered it being related. And having hell in it. If he could read, he sure as heck was sure it’d have plenty of stuff like that in it.

His legs were sure as hell feeling heavy though, and by the time the bee-thing finally slowed to a hover, clacking it’s mandibles together, Flak breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Then it started chittering some weird bug noises, and Flak swore as he realized this might just be what he heard the rest of the damn day.

“What is it, bug? Ain’t no one trained you to speak common?” Flak called out with a groan. It kept on just staring at him, making the sound louder as it’s stinger popped out. Was it trying to fight him? To make matters worse, it was also hissing from behind him with a totally different, creepy tone, like some kind of ventroquist.

Wait. No. Bugs didn’t do that. That was a comedian thing.

Flak Turned around just in time to see the big abomination, a horrifying mix of black chitin, claws, teeth, drool, and hatred. It spat with its little mouth in its tongue at flak as it raised a black, bladed tail in his direction.


Really l looked like it would have belonged in black hole, honestly, but given it was throwing itself at Flak full-force, he figured it wasn’t interested in following orders.

But honestly, that was fine to Flak. it had been a while since he got to smash anything.

“Hrahhhh!” The giant roared as he grabbed the beast in mid-air by the head, slamming the Surprised beast directly into the sands below, and following it up with a stomp of his steel-toes on the big black creature’s overly longed dome.

Screaming like an animal, Flak smashed and smashed until something cracked, and he heard the faint ‘sss’ of acid.

“O-oozium?!” he gulped, staring straight at his boot. Something green and nasty was eating through it, so he wrenched it off like a hot potato, and threw the worm-eaten thing a few hundred yards to the west before that crap got on his foot.

Still, meant he’d beaten whatever the hell that thing was.

“Yeah! Flak is the strongest! Take notes, you stupid bee! That’s nothin’ to someone like me!” The giant man roared, thumping his chest like a gorilla for all to see.

Unfortunately, as Flak lowered his arms, that included another dozen of the strange black beasts.

“...Huh…” The giant grunted, as the bee next to him hissed. “We in this together?...Don’t suppose you can fly us out of here, can ya?”

The bee, tragically, had neither the suspension of disbelief to lift Flak, nor the vocal cords to answer, but something else did - the singing cry of ionized bolts burning through exo-skeletons with repeated shots, and the singing kettle that was a pressure grenade ripping apart weakened chitin.

Flak pulled his helmet down - along with the struggling, squealing wasp - as they were assailed with a bunch of flesh and guts.

“Targets neutralized. Do we shoot the big dumb one?” a voice called through a radio, as Flak got up.

Flak looked over to his companion with a grin. ‘Heh, they think you’re big. Must be real small.” he snarked with a chuckle, before taking his jacket and rubbing the blood off his goggles. Taking a good look at the group, it was a lot of weirdos of any size - looked like a regular star trek episode had come to save the day, complete with fake laser guns. ‘Cept, ya know, these ones actually worked. So that just… made ‘em laser guns.

“No, the Prophet actually wanted that one in particular. Don’t ask why. That’s Ridley’s job, and my job by proxy. Just bring ‘em and the scouting Silithid aboard.”

Flak took a moment to realize what was said.

“Aboard what? You guys got a tank on the way or somethin’?”

A purple shape came into view, the biggest damn thing Flak had ever seen on a battlefield - and given his work in black hole, that said a lot!

“Welcome to Multerra, big Man. We got these things called spaceships now!” the leader of the group called out, a man that looked kind of like an orange glazed monkey man, complete with giant ears. “Now come aboard. We’re going to go talk with a mantis-man and a dragon about a giant beetle.”

Flak just blinked. “...What?”

 

[Ridley]

Flak was impressed with what he saw as he headed into the massive aircraft, bigger than the most over-engineered bomber he’d ever stepped into the cockpit of. Not to mention the guns! The thing was bristling with rockets and lasers, Filled to the brim with soldiers and doodads. It was a big purple target, but it seemed to be pretty damn proud of that. The entire ship was a giant ‘come at me’ and Flak respected that integrity from a warship!

“What’cha say this baby was named?”

“The Dreadnaught”

The Big mantis-man that appeared next to him was cocking a pretty small excuse for a sci-fi pea-shooter - Flak still wondered how the big red laser even fit in the damn thing - but had a pretty smug aura. Reminded him a lot of Adder, honestly.

“And I am First mate Jervix. While you’re aboard my - Lord Ridley’s - vessel, you’ll be answering to me, you overdeveloped Mammal.”

Flak gave a grin. “Heh. Admiring the gun show?”

Jervix’s mouth seemed to stop mid-way, slowly opening and closing, before he narrowed his eyes.

“Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?”

Flak blinked. “I use a block, personally.”

“...Sektiliss! What did you want this mammalian block for?!”

“As I said, he is instrumental for our success in this endeavour, assistant.” Came the weird, buzzy tones of some other sort of bug-creature. With a quick look around him, Flak’s eyes eventually rested on some kinda blue glowy tv hologram he’d have seen in Star Wars, about as tall as a megatank and uglier than the standard Oozium.

“Hey weirdos, it usually get this weird around here?” Flak asked, pointing to one of the soldiers behind him.

“Get bent.” one of them, a green-faced alien with dog ears, replied.

Flak grunted in response, but to his surprise, Jervix cut the group off.

“Alright fodder, get out of here while the big men talk. I’ve called the rest of the command staff here to talk, and We got Ridley on the line.”

“I need to speak with the chosen one, as well.” Sektiliss insisted, a hiss accompanied by a strange crinkling noise echoing from his gut.

Flak looked around. “Damn if this place ain’t crazy-town.”

“You come from afar, do you not, Human? A place far beyond these sands. Welcome to the crossroads…”

Flak adjusted his goggles. “So is this like one of those things where I’m in like… a fantasy world or something? Like a kid’s show?”

Jervix blinked. “You read?”

Sektiliss’s mandibles clacked. “You are in another place. But your role is one C’thun and I have foreseen. You are one of the Dragon’s hands, a commander of Men, a warrior of strength. You hold raw chaos in your hands, waiting only for you to harness it.”

“...I’m… Flak, actually.”
Sektiliss and Jervix both started to just stare at him for a few seconds, completely unmoving.

“C’thun gave us wrong directions you Oversized priest-”

“Do not question the wisdom of C’thun! He simply… has yet to show his wisdom!”

“If Ridley were here, he’d-”

The sound of an electronic fizz behind him brought Jervix to a stuttering stammer, as Sektiliss gave a slight bow.

“H-he’d… uhhh…”

“By all means, Jervix. Go on. Speak for me.”

 

[Ridley]

Flak mostly got the explanation he was hearing, at least of what had happened before. This Ridley guy - an actual dragon, who’da thunk!- happened to be a big pirate lord. This Sektiliss guy ws working for a really big eyeball. And Ridley had accidentally introduced a lot of the big black bug guys into the ecosystem. They were called Zeromoths. As a result, Sektiliss’s big bug-freaks were getting attacked by these other bug-freaks and having a war that hadn’t been going the best for Sektiliss, and since his little town of Ahn-Jiraqan was pretty small compared to the bigger city it swore fealty to, it was having some struggles, and he didn’t want to bring in the big guns for this.

So instead, he was working with Ridley and his men, who had the power of guns. Only problem was the Xenomorphs were pretty good at scattering into tunnels when the going got hot and dove for cover whenever the big bad gunship was overhead. Which was making this whole thing take a lot of time and causing a whole lot of casualties for bug-men.

Which lead to a conversation of arguing that Flak paid far less attention to.

“-As I said, Lord Ridley, I am your conduit to C’thun. For you to gain his blessings…”

“I don’t wish to spend years hunting your creatures, Sektiliss. You could not pay enough. We are raiders, not exterminators. Find a faster way.” Ridley snapped, a glare piercing clearly through his hologram. He was damn big, though so was the giant bug pastor.

Jervix’s glare mirrored Ridley’s own as he stared Sektiliss down. “Yeah, ‘specially since it’s your tunnel these freaks are using. We keep sending our people down into unfamiliar territory for you-”

“C’thun’s forces are far greater, and our losses are greater still. How many times has one of our ilk fallen fighting in glorious close combat while your men sat behind the safety of your weapons! Perhaps you truly are no better than the other Houses.”

“Well, maybe we’re not interested in being just errand boys-”

“Heh.” Flak Grunted, giving a shit-eating grin.

All three creatures immediately turned their gaze, fire practically bursting from Ridley’s holographic eyes, but Jervix was the first to speak. Or like, yell, more like.

“Something funny, you dumb muscle?! Why don’t you share your thoughts with the class?”

Flak took a moment to visibly scratch his nose, before replying. “Listen, way I’m getting this, this is a bad plan you all insist on pushin’. Who came up with this fighting in the tunnels nonsense.

Jervix gave a glare. “Not that you’d know, but there’s a lot more complexities to that system. We figured out how to pair our soldiers together for tunnel clearing. I’m a zebesian. I know all about how to clear tunnels!”

“But your troops ain’t used to it, and these things are, right? On top of that, you’re chasing your enemy down into captured properties without the forces to take ‘em back. Way I see it, if I told Hawke I was doing this, he’d probably yell at me.” Flak added, adjusting his helmet.

Jervix’s Softer chitin turned a dark blue and Flak figured maybe that meant he’d made the mantis-man mad. But then again, he was a mantis-man, so Flak figured it could just mean he farted for all he knew.

By this time, a few more of the mantis-men congregated as Jervix pointed a gun straight for Flak’s head. He kinda wondered if the helmet would hold up to a laser beam, but also didn’t really wanna find out, as he held up his hands. “H-hey! Relax for a damn second!”

“Alright, big guy, then, tell me, what’s your big plan?!” Jervix snapped, turning a few shades of blue and brown.

Friggin weirdo.

“Way I see it, you wanna deal with these things, and they just wanna attack and kidnap your people, drag ‘em underground. So pull back. Wherever a high point is in the city, Get some men back. And specifically these infantry you got up here. These Xerox dwarfs-”

“Xenomorphs, you swine…” Jervix swore under his breath.

“S’what I said. They seem pretty fast and strong, but they don’t have guns. Even direct combat units like infantry have a good chance to engage ‘em from range. Now, these bug-people.”

“we are the Ahn-qiraji” Sektiliss spoke up. Everyone was a critic today, Flak guessed.

“They seem pretty fast going off the bee, but they also fight more up close, I’m pretty sure. So why have them on defense?”

Ridley’s glare sharpened at the statement.

“You have my attention. Continue.” The Reptilian’s voice echoed, with Jervix looking back to Ridley in surprise.

“Lord Ridley, you can’t-”

“Jervix.” The dragon growled, and it was the sort of growl Hawke gave Flak when he’d bungled a mission, so he sort of understood how down the mantis-man was when he hung his head. But Flak had a pretty smart plan to tell, so he continued on isntead.

“Yeah, not used to this half-medieval type army, but I think archers are the ones that fire two spaces in those games, so odds are the best way to use your close-ranged bastards here is on the attack. Picking off stragglers from your artillery and all that.”

“We don’t have Artillery.” Jervix noted, though his voice was far more respectful. “And they know when the dropships are coming.”

“S’kinda funny. They don’t got eyes, so they must got ears and… probably a nose. Can’t do all that just by hearin’.” Flak’d add, scratching his chin. “So Ya gotta hide the thing for a bit is the idea. Get some people up and vulnerable near the top of something. You got some kidn of tower or citadel?”

Sektiliss Clacked his mandibles reluctantly. “...Yes, though we intended to keep it as a last resort.”

Flak gave a nod. “So here’s what we do. Put all your guns and just a few bees for like, scoutin’ up top. These guys’ll come running, thinking like, prey is wounded, Yummy yum, time to go. We come in from behind with a bunch of hidden bugs, blast em from the skies, blast em from the sides, scratch ‘em from the back, and slammin ‘em with every grenade and laser we got from the front. Then you just pick off the weird dogs while they do that. easy.”

Sektiliss’s expression had changed as well, but since Flak didn’t know a damn thing about what a beetle man’s face looked like, he just had to hope it was for the better.

“While this plan holds merit, the tunnels Are no longer ours. How would we ambush these creatures without being found out ourselves?”

Flak gave a shrug. “Oh, wasn’t thinking tunnels. Was thinking the ship. Load it full.”

Both Jervix and Sektiliss’s eyes widened, which Flak has hoping meant they were either impressed, or the pizza guy was here. Was the dragon what spoke up, though.

“And how do you plan on hiding a Space Pirate mothership?” The Dragon spoke up.

“...That part’s really the bit I’m working on. Don’t know the terrain well enough.”

“...What do you need to finish this plan?”

Flak gave a groan. “Uhhh… tactical map of the area. Some like, crayons. Maybe some info cards on what you have available…”

The giant of a man looked down at his regrettably cold foot.

“...Boot.”

Jervix looked to his crewmen. “We don't have boots that big normally. Chief Engineer!”

“Wesp reporting, sir! What do you need?”

“Fabricate him a boot.”

“Sir, that… is a waste of the ship’s power and material resources-”

“I don’t care. I started smelling his foot once it was mentioned. I can’t Un-smell it.”

Ridley’s glare cut down, as he kept staring at Flak in a… rather strange way.

“Flak, it was?”

The Burly man nodded, surprised he actually got to be called his damn name for once.

“You have one hour to form your first draft of this plan. Twenty four to put it in action. Rid me of this headache - and be rewarded. Fail, and die painfully. Oh, and…”

Flak blinked, as the Dragon made some kind of noise that sounded enough like Adder’s laugh to probably be a chuckle.

“Welcome to WYVERN.”

 

[Ridley]

The entrenchments were hastily dug, but Flak was fine with that. Most of the sand-bitten city served more than well enough for entrenchments, and as he hefted a borrowed rifle, he was pretty sure the city had been made to be easy to defend close to the center. Probably hard to dig the buggers out if they got in for that reason though, so they needed to hold the line for now.

“Engines running on low. Shouldn’t be able to detect us from down here.” a call came from Flak’s fancy new Radio. “On your signal, Commander Flak.”

Commander. Flak breathed a sigh of relief. Felt pretty good to be called that.

“Roger. I’ll let’cha know… oh. Hold on.”

Flak looked in front of the assembled army of troops to see a swarm. Amidst the golden city, and framed by a rising sun, A swarm of black-armored monsters. The sounds they made were audible, as they rushed towards their prey, Hissing and biting.

“Need ya coming out in around a hundred twentry… tenty… two minutes.. Then gun it.” Flak growled, before slamming his radio Down and grabbing his Rifle.

The buildings offered a way to slow down the nasty buggers, but these Xenomorphs were pretty good at scaling walls and buildings with just bare hands. It wasn’t flying units, but it felt pretty close.

Luckily, they’d picked the highest spot in the whole damn place, and just because the Xenomorphs could climb, didn’t mean they could see where they were going all that well. The sun would have been helpful, but it would’ve also been a problem for the next whole part of the plan. It did mean Flak felt pretty lucky to be the one guy wearing goggles here though!

Still, didn’t need to aim all that well to hit something when there was just a tide of black death on the way. Blue blasts lanced through the Xenomorphs, and it seemed like another one was dead for every second the soldiers fired.

Was basically spitting into the wind with the incoming tide though, and as Flak fired a few pot-shots that just happened to hit their targets, he started to realize things were about to be a bit upsetting.

Nowhere to pull back to though, really, and nowhere to hide or re-align. That left Flak with the other option, which was smashin’ things…

And as the horde moved in… he realized, a surprisingly ordered swarm over the buildings, he realized this might actually be a good thing. After all, they were trying to keep close to eachother, like the ants he used to burn with a magnifying glass.

Flak turned to a nearby soldier, and took a pair of his pressure grenades. “Aim for the buildings in the next layer! Now!”

The troops were confused, and certainly weren’t expecting to be executing such a maneuver… but somehow, with just one yell of his booming voice, the troops all rallied, double-fisting grenades just like their new CO, and throwing them.

With a great explosion, the buildings fell just as the Hurried xenomorphs endeavoured to scrabble over them. Building rubble went in every direction and crushed xenomorph oozed emerald acid across the area, causing the area to grow slick and uneven, and halting the Beasts advance as they stopped to react…

Ridley’s irregulars no longer had cover, but what they lacked in such benefits they gained in the benefit of an open firing lane, and plenty more grenades where that came from amidst the rest of the squad, as they opened fire into the urban nightmare they’d created for their animalistic opponent.

‘Course, they might have still recovered, but Flak had planned ahead for that, and as he craned a set of binoculars, he was quick to see it, floating up, covered in mud and vegetation, from the depths of the nearby Oasis of Whispers.

The Dreadnought rose up from it’s watery hiding place with cannons already charged and firing, opening up from behind on the xenomorphs immediately, as it made for the nearby land-mass.

At the same time, the front opened up to reveal a group of willing, waiting and Eager Qiraji warriors, beaten in eagerness only by the silithid wasps and other beasts Stumbling out in great numbers to meet the Xenomorphs in feral battle.

Flak gave a grin, as the Xenomorphs turned to see their foe, too far from their tunnels to reliably flee, fighting into an entrenched position, and seeing the sky fill with the large looming mass of a Violet warship, and hundreds of Silithid wasps and Qiraji Battleguard flying in front.

Whatever discipline was in them broke nigh-instantly, and as Flak watched, hundreds of them scattered in vain, some choosing to attack, others trying to run, - and, he was pretty sure he even saw one or two of them decide to beef with each other while this was going on.

“Seems pretty damn good…” Flak added, rubbing his chin, before a screech from behind assaulted his ears.

Turning around with his large fist Clenched, he proceeded to wallop the ambushing xenomorph straight in the teeth, hard enough to send it flying into the nearby wall.

“Man! Haven’t got to smash this much stuff in a long time… Heheheha ha!” The commander laughed, straps of his helmet jingling in the wind.

Wasn’t the right planet, right army, right friends, or even the right number of suns… but Flak was back home where he belonged!

 

[Ridley]

Flak was used to after-battle briefings, but he’d never been quite so stressed about one as this one. Mainly because Hawke only metaphorically chewed him out.

Though, then again, dragon was a hologram, so maybe it wasn’t a big deal.

“I’ve heard you’ve shown great leadership in the field, Flak. I’ve also heard you’re a dimbulb.”

“Who faiffat!” Flak spat, spitting out the straw of his juice box in rage.

“Disgusting. You seem qualified enough as a commanding officer by feats, regardless. But I need predators who are independent. Strong.” Ridley taunted.

“I’m alla those things! No problem! If you need a strong, independent predator, I may as well be a bear!”

Ridley seemed to blink, as though avoiding the question, and Flak immediately pushed away the notion in his mind that the dragon didn’t know what a bear was - that’d be stupid, which was the opposite of Flak.

“What do you want most?”

Flak put a finger to his chin. The question had… never been posed to him before.

“Meat…? No, but I like it. Power? Power’s nice, but nuts to that too. Err…”

Flak groaned for a moment, before finally pointing a finger in the air.

“Right! I, the dread commander Flak, live and breathe to smash stuff! Lots of stuff! And also to take other people’s stuff and make it my stuff!”

Ridley blinked for a second, and Flak, looking into those soulless lizard eyes, felt like he might have just failed the whole damn interview.

Then, to his disgust, the Dragon-thing smiled, and showed rows of yellowed, wickedly curved teeth.
As a trail of drool fell from the dragon’s maw, that weird maybe-laugh started again.

“You are qualified, but given your suspicious manner, your mammalian features… I will test your loyalty.”

“Uhh…. what’s this like? You gonna try an’ give me a swirly? ‘Cause I draw the line there-”

“Shut. Up..”

“Yes, Boss!” Flak offered with a well-trained salute.

“There is a small tournament called ‘death-game’, in this rural part of the galaxy.”

“Why death-game?”

“All but one of the competitors die.”

“Uhhh…”

“We will handle your revival, after the game, should you die. All that matters is that you join?”

“Ya… sure you can bring me back from the dead?!”

“A trifle for our technology.”

Flak tilted his helmet, thinking, before giving a laugh.

“This sounds like a damn cool brawl! Alright, I’m in!”

Ridley’s grin widened. “The Dreadnought is en route. Make yourself comfortable, and ready for the battle!”

“Got it, boss!” Flak added with a grin. He turned away from the hologram as it winked out, walking with a swagger across the metal of the ship.

“Hey, Jervix!”

The ship’s captain turned with a look of disdain.

“Hell of a good shot! Keep that up and we’ll get along just fine! Figured ya for a blusterin’ shrimp, but you’re just a naval specialist, right? We should get along as CO’s.” Flak added with a cavalier grin.

Jervix’s usual grumpiness seemed to puff up with pride, as his anger fell. “Well of course, Commander Flak. If our branches work together-”

The Zebesian was interrupted by the high-pitched shrill of Omelette’s sudden entrance on the bridge with a high-pitched scream and a clear flourish.

“Alright, who the blip keeps drinking all my juice-boxes!”