J'het smiled and nodded at his request to speak freely. Then, once he had said his piece, she chuckled, "Mister Azumi, you better get prepared. That was your first sample of your new men. Marine pilots are often some of the most...colorful. One might speculate that it is part of how they deal with plotting their course in life so dangerously close to death. Either way, that was one of YOUR pilots...good luck."

Just then, the doors opened and they stepped out and passed through a set of blast doors and into the flight bay. The voice of Msgt Stonehammer could already be heard through the entire bay as he shouted about the way the ship had landed and how he didn't care what rank the SOB was, he was about to get an education.

"I don't care who he is, I'm going to rip him a new...oh...mornin' Cap'n..."

J'het simply nodded and grinned as she approached the ship. The doors opened and men began spilling out as she and the others arrived to greet them. The ship looked like it had just lost a rather ugly fight. There were scorch marks all over it from weapons fire, and not all of it was small arms. The ship was filthy though.

One thing they all had in common was that the men looked ready for a fight. They were mostly muscular, bearing their fair share of scars, wearing odd assortments of armor and clothing, but looking amazingly like Jack Langmir when he would outfit for an Away Team. One look told anyone who had ever known Jack that he would fit in perfectly with a ragged crew like this and likely be a top dog at that.

J'het took a step forward and was about to say something when one of the Marines beat her to the punch and said with a hearty chuckle, "Well, what do we have here? You're kinda cute. Are you our new mascot? Wait, let me guess, you're the in-flight hostess...I'll take an Aldeberan whisky, straight up.”

Without hesitation, J’het struck the man in the groin with her left hand, causing him to bend over in pain and come face to face with her. With his face wincing, inches from her own, she gave a sarcastic smile and delivered an open palm strike to his chest that sent him backward through the air to land in a pile against the hull of the craft that brought him. He was fortunate in that he was wearing some chest armor.

He coughed weakly from his embarrassing position and said, “$#?@, that little pixie just broke my ribs…ow…crap…”

A slightly cleaner looking man, but still obviously a man who could hold his own with this crowd, stepped forward. There was a look of steel in his eyes and an unlit cigar in his mouth that sat directly in line with a light scar that ran from above his eye all the way to his chin. He removed it with his left hand, while giving a loose salute with his right.

He said over his shoulder, “That pixie would be your new Captain of the boat. Now pick yourself up and check to see if you still have a pair.”

He then looked back at J’het and gave a friendly grin, “Sorry about that, Captain, but boys will be boys sometimes. I’m Lt Dan Stryker and these would be your War Dogs.”

J’het nodded and said, “Yes, the reputation of the War Dogs is not a pretty one, but one that gets the job done. Fitting that you become my dogs of war then.”

She held out a hand to him that he grasped firmly for a moment as she turned and said, “This would be Mister Azumi, my CTO and your new direct supervisor. It will be his fine duty to integrate you and your men into the ship’s crew to some degree. One of his first jobs will be to polish you all up a little.”

Stryker chuckled, “No combat ready unit was ever inspection ready, and no inspection ready unit was ever combat ready.”

She smiled back and said, “Well, it will be his job to find somewhere in the middle for you to find peace while on this ship. You are not mercenaries, you’re Starfleet Marines. You may be War Dogs, but you will also convey the image of this ship and Starfleet with you where ever you go.” She looked him directly in the eye with a faint grin still on her face and said, “DO I make myself clear?”

The Lt knew where he stood and snapped back with, “Yes, sir.”

She nodded and glanced around saying, “Good…very good. Well, carry on, Mister Azumi.”

She turned and began to head back out of the bay. Her tone had clearly left the CTO in charge of his men…who now all began to look him up and down. Stryker narrowed his eyes and was thinking about how to classify this CTO. He was interested in just how good he was at what he did.

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OOC: And there you have it...our new Marines...



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XO LtCmdr Samantha Waters
Lone Wolf
lonewolfdagaz@hotmail.com