Magellan System, HFB-Incursus
“I want the guards to be ready within the next thirty minutes. Is that clear?” Madison Garcia yelled at one of her Lieutenants before vanishing in one of the battleship's numerous hallways. “Crap, I’m already too late”, she thought to herself and stopped in front of an elevator. “The Admiral will be mad at me once again”, Madison then mumbled and entered as soon as the doors opened. “The code...the code. Which one was it again? Oh right!” She said and entered a 6-digit code into the elevator’s console, which granted her access to the Incursus’ command room. There were only four people aboard the ship who had permission to enter that area. It was a measure applied by Admiral Hunter in order to keep command of the ship at all costs.
The doors opened as soon as the elevator reached its destination. “Captain Garcia reporting in, Ma’am!” She said and saluted to her superior, Admiral Cristina Hunter, who was sitting in her command chair. The two other captains, Darryl Callaham and Emilia Osorio were there as well. The latter pointed at Garcia and yelled “You’re late, Maddy. The princess will punish you for that.”
“Thanks for the comment, Emilia. You’re always such a useful person”, Madison replied and was obviously annoyed. “I’ve been dealing with the preparations for the Lord Commander’s arrival. This is, as you probably know, a very important event for us.”
“Ah well, whatever.” Emilia replied. “Are you two finished, then?” Admiral Hunter suddenly said. “Yes? Good. How are the preparations going, Garcia?” She then asked.
“Nearly complete, Ma’am. Everything should be done within the next twenty to thirty minutes. The Lord Commander will arrive in approximately one hour. Our patrols have already contacted him and his escort.”
“Good work as always, Captain.” Hunter then turned her attention towards Osorio. “Emilia, I want you to welcome the Lord Commander. I’ll grant him access to this area. The rest of his men are to wait in the hangar bay. Is that clear?”
“Ma’am, with all due respect, but I don’t believe you should send Osorio to welcome the Lord Commander.” Garcia suddenly interrupted. “Oh, is that so? Callaham, would you explain it to Captain Garcia?” She asked the third captain, who had remained silent the entire time.
“The princess will punish you for that. Osorio wasn’t joking when she said that”, Callaham replied. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me”, Garcia complained. “Admiral Hunter, you are risking a lot by letting that girl deal with the Lord Commander.
“Garcia…”, Hunter began “I really respect your opinion and I know that you only care for my security. I wish to thank you for that. However, I also expect you to have some faith in your commander. Can I expect that from my subordinates?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I apologize for doubting you.” Madison replied after a few moments of thinking. “Emilia”, Hunter then continued. “Head to the hangar bay and welcome our guests. If the Lord Commander starts to ask you questions, make sure to only tell him the things he really needs to know. I trust that you can handle this situation?”
“Si, si, princesa. I’ll do it, no problem.” She simply said and wandered off.
A fighter wing consisting of five fighters was approaching Incursus's location in a dispersed formation around a single fighter, it was the Lord Commander and his escort, they were nearing the rendezvous location.
As the Lord Commander was checking the navmap to confirm their location, the scanner picked up incoming signals that alerted him, they were not hostile however, it was a patrol from the Incursus holding the perimeter. "Alright men, I've picked up something.. It's them, deactivate your weapons and sit tight, we'll be on Incursus soon." Markus sighed with relief as he thought Cristina would set him up in the middle of nowhere - "Lord Commander, I am the Beta squadl eader, we've come to escort you to the Incursus, please follow us and restrain yourselves from unecessary actions."
Their tone surprised the Lord Commander, they were acting as if they were the enemy but given the circumstances he had no choice but to follow their lead if he wanted to talk to Cristina in person.
-Several minutes later the fighters were approaching the Incursus-
"There she is, she is still the same despite what she's been through." His eyes sparkled at the sight of Incursus, one of the flagships of the Legion and he must convince Cristina to return it into its service. A brief transmission from onboard hailed the Lord Commander and gave him docking clearance on Bay Three.
There was nothing on the deck except for their fighters and the hangar's equipment, it had been prepared for the arrival of the Lord Commander. As he was exiting his fighter, he was immidiately surrounded by his four guards, his welcoming commitee was consisted of several armed men at the entrance towards the inside of the ship saluting him and infront of them a young woman who he had never seen before, but she seemed to be an officer.
"Where is your commander? I was expecting her to greet me in person, not to send a girl to do her job." Markus sighed slightly disappointed and approached the girl "You look out of place, like Cristina does." He began visually examining her from top to bottom, incase he was wrong, this girl however was not from anywhere near Liberty. "Do you have a name?"
“Hmmmmmm?” Emilia hummed and tilted her head a bit to the side. “You’re a very rude person.” She then whispered to Brass. “That’s kind kind of lame, you know. I get to meet the infamous Lord Commander Brass and then I get this? That’s not how you start a conversation with a lady, when you’re meeting her for the first time.” She then said, however, it could almost be considered as yelling.
“Worry not, sir! I can forgive you that slip-up.” Emilia continued and seemed to calm down again. “I am Emilia Belén Osorio, one of Admiral Hunter’s Captains. She has given me the task to welcome you and to bring you to her. Please be informed, however, that your pilots have to stay in the hangar bay. These are her orders. And her orders must be followed. No exceptions, not even for you.”
“Well then”, the Captain yelled and suddenly seemed extremely cheerful. “Do you want to meet the princess now?”
The Lord Commander was surprised by her behavior, it was completely un-militaristic and undisciplent, but he knew that was going to be the deal with her so he ignored it. "My apologies Captain, now please take me to Admiral Hunter."
As they were walking through the corridors towards the command room elevator, Markus noticed the Captain was completely relaxed about this and her position "Captain Osorio, how old are you? You look very young to be a Captain, skills and experience come with time and you seem to have just started, those are two important things a Captain must have in order to fullfill his responsibilities." Emilia stopped and glared at Markus for a few seconds, then she laughed out loud and resumed walking. "My age is irrelevant. All you need to know is that I'm old enough to kill. Admiral Hunter said so." Markus let out a silent sigh and kept following her through the familiar corridors untill they reached the elevator "Uhhh...the password...what was it again?" Emilia said as she looked at the console. Her gaze then shifted towards the palm of her right hand on which she had scribbled the 6-digit code. "I'm really bad with numbers." She then mumbled and entered the code."
In the elevator Emilia kept staring at the Lord Commander tilting her head side to side. "Lord Commander, the princess has been waiting for you, don't be a disappointment to her please?" Markus was slightly irritated by her behavior towards him "You sure talk a lot, you need to learn to control that mouth of yours and I assure you, she won't be disappointed."
Emilia started laughing at Markus's irritation which made him even more irritated, she continued laughing untill the elevator reached the command room. "We're here Lord Commander, look pretty for the princesa!" The door opened to the command room, Admiral Hunter was sitting on the captain's chair and stood up as soon as the Lord Commander set foot in the room, the others stood still"
Markus slowly approached Cristina while looking at the people in the room, only recognising Madison Garcia "Cristina, it's been some time since we last saw each other. I see you have some new people under your command, they don't know how to treat their guests however so I hope they are atleast better at other things."
“Please have a little more respect for my captains. They may be difficult to deal with, especially that young lady over there”, Cristina replied and glanced over to Emilia for a short moment.”But you should know that they’re the reason why this ship is still under my command.” Cristina then added. “In other words, they are the ones that kept me alive.” Markus looked around as if the presence of anyone else except Cristina’s bothered him “Is there a chance we can talk in private? My men are in the hangar, you can only be fair and keep yours out of the room aswell, given the harsh treatment, hmm?” Then he moved towards the helm, looking at the navigator’s screen, there was nothing special about it and he turned his gaze upon the emptiness outside the windows.
“Hmmmm? I think you got a point there…” Cristina said, angering both Emilia and Madison. “Admiral, we can’t leave you alone with him. What if it’s a trap? I thought you didn’t trust them?” Madison yelled at her superior. “Si, she’s right, princesa. You can’t trust him!”
“You two are pissing me off!” Cristina yelled back at them and turned her attention towards the third captain. “Callaham!”
“Yes, ma’am.” He replied and moved closer to Emilia and Madison. “Now, now, ladies...let’s go somewhere else and have a serious discussion.” Callaham then said, pulled them by their hair and dragged them into the elevator. That was, of course, accompanied by loud moaning, as well as numerous death wishes aimed at Callaham. However, it proved to be a successful means to make sure that the Lord Commander could talk to Cristina alone.
Markus turned around and looked at the room, they were alone now “Thank you Cristina, it’s much better this way.” and he moved closer to Cristina. “I bet you already know why I am here and what is at stake in this meeting. I am here to ask you to return to our ranks, I need a capable person that I can trust alongside me, and the Incursus will light the spark in our men again, as the flagship returns to it’s home. The time for us to go all out again is here.” Markus paused for a second and his expression returned to normal “We’re old friends Cristina, the whole Legion needs you.. I need you.”
“Need me?” She asked, getting somewhat amused about that statement, and in fact, she began to laugh. “Do you know what crap I’ve been through because of you, because of the Hellfire Legion? Do you know that you’ve basically turned me into a monster?” Cristina began, sounding slightly angered. “Of course you don’t. How could you, anyway…Let me enlighten you, then.”
“When you started that little coup of yours, we managed to escape Vespucci. The plan was to stay hidden until things cooled off. And I actually believed that it’d work out like that. But it was not to be.” She sighed and began to walk around in the command room. “I trusted my crew. I believed that they were the Legion’s best and most loyal soldiers. I was clearly mistaken.”
“More than half of my crew tried to take over the ship. They wanted to take my ship away from me, they wanted to end my existence.” She stopped after that sentence and remained silent for a minute. “I erased them, all of them. They were fighting those that were still loyal to me and I sat here in this room thinking about a way to end this madness.”
She then started to grin. “I realized something. I really didn’t belong into the Legion, it really took me so long to realize that...I’m not from Liberty, and to be honest, I no longer care about what happens to it. I no longer care about the Legion.”
“That’s what I thought back then. And with that thought, I simply deactivated the life support systems of some decks...and I didn’t care that it would kill my own men as well. The brave and loyal soldiers that fought against the rebels in order to protect me. Many people died that day...and it was all because of me." She then stopped for a minute and continued to wander around in the command room. Cristina seemed rather restless in that particular moment. “You know, I actually enjoyed it...erasing all those existences, it was glorious. And now you’re trying to tell me that the Legion needs a person like that? Have you lost your mind, Lord Commander?”
"Cristina… I won’t pretend I know what you have been through but I will not condemn the actions you had to take to protect you and your crew. We all had to dirty our hands to survive through that crisis, some had to more than others.” Markus paused and drew a long breath as he faced the ship’s bridge. "You and I have both experienced that awful crisis and survived and I want to prevent it from happening again.” He touched her shoulders and talked to her with a soothing tone “You are one of the few people I know that can help me, your experience and knowledge are powerful means, I want you to lend me your strength to bring the Hellfire Legion to its former glory and prevent a crisis from happening again.” Markus backed away and stared at Admiral Hunter as he waited for an answer.
“In order to prevent such a crisis from ever happening again, you will have to change yourself. You need to be more strict, you need to be feared to a certain extent. And only then will it be possible to let the Legion arise from its ashes. I can help you as an advisor...if you so desire. However, I will not take an active role in the Legion again.”
“I tried to be a kind leader because the difficulties we face are many and we need to stand together, not because of our ranks, but because we shared a common goal. It seems I was soft and a fool to believe it, now that I think of it.” Markus let out a sigh, this conversation was taking longer than he had expected and it was getting him nowhere. “Cristina, this time I promise you that things will be different. Come to Vespucci with me and I’ll appoint you as a fleet advisor and I will not ask you for anything more than that.” The Lord Commander was alerted by his personal comms, it was the signal that the specified time was close. “That was from Leniex, they need me back as soon as possible.” Markus got up and took a few steps towards the door “You will let me go, right?"
“Hmmmmm”, Cristina hummed and thought about what she should tell him as reply. “That’s up to you to decide. I think it would be the best for me to return this ship to the Legion…so let’s make this official, shall we? I hereby relinquish command of the Incursus and her crew. She is yours to command.” She then paused for a brief moment. “One condition, however. Once we have returned to Leniex, every crew member may decide whether they wish to continue serving the Legion. I know that some of them have grown weary of fighting and wish for a more peaceful life. Their wishes should be respected. Moreover, I will need some time for myself to think about your proposal.”
“You may announce this to the crew...if you accept it, of course. I think it would be time for a nice motivational speech by our Lord Commander, don’t you agree?”
Markus was shocked to hear Cristina’s answer to this meeting so soon, he was waiting for it a lot later, after this meeting. Perhaps she had been thinking about their fate for a long time and made this choice. In the end, he was delighted to hear something positive coming from Cristina. “I think so as well. I’ll use the ship-wide communications if you don’t mind.” Markus walked over to the captain’s chair and took a seat, he pressed a few buttons on a panel on his right that activated the ship communications. “This is the Lord Commander speaking, after a thorough discussion with your admiral, we’ve decided that you have suffered long enough, your struggle for survival is over, you are no longer alone. The Incursus and her crew will return to their home where they belong and those who choose to not be a part of it anymore, you are free to pick your own road. Welcome back to the Hellfire Legion, ladies and gentlemen.” He pressed a button after his speech ended and shut down the communications, he remained seated and he was staring dead ahead with a blank look in his eyes. He had spaced out. “Cristina.. Shall we go home?”
“It is your home, not mine. Don’t forget that.” She remarked. “The place I call home is the one I left many years ago together with my mother. Anyway, you may return to Vespucci whenever you want to. Please take note, however, that the AI will have to handle the actual flying as most of the crew responsible for this task have been killed in the event I mentioned earlier.”