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V2 Chapter 19: Reports II
🕑 Added 2023-02-07 14:00:00 +0000 UTCTheir discussion with the Major from R&D was a lot less interesting. The only person he really wanted to talk to was Soshal, as she was the only one of them who had any insight into the Tarlaki tech they had used during their escapade.
The Major left rather unsatisfied as Soshal wasn't really able to explain how things worked at all. It wasn't something she had really been focusing on at the time. She was more than willing to go back and try to recreate some of the things she had done but doubted that she could bring anything new to the table.
After that, they were finally left alone for a little bit. They were allocated a set of bunks, and they all quickly passed out. They were not permitted a full night's sleep, but the four hours they got were heavenly.
They were woken by a messenger calling them for more questions from a few higher-ups. As they made their way to the meeting chamber Captain Walters, fell into step with time. "Good morning, all. I hope you are all ready for a full day of answering the same questions as yesterday with slightly different words."
Seeing Jason's dirty look, Walters just laughed. "They will want you to use different words. I'm sure they have all seen the reports by now. It's just harder to hide things even unintentionally when coming at it from multiple perspectives."
Sevs relaxed slightly at this. They hadn't been trying to hide anything because he knew that didn't mean that questioning couldn't bring up something that might hurt them. But the other concern was that they had forgotten to mention something or maybe just didn't realize its significance. He didn't want to leave anything out.
The questioning wasn't done by a single person this time. Instead, a board of important people was arrayed before them. The squad all stood in a line and only spoke when they were asked direct questions. Luckily the questioning didn't take nearly as long as the day before. It was only four hours total, with a quick break for refreshments.
The questions were a lot more targeted and often caused other members of the board to start new avenues of questions about seemingly unrelated tangents. Eventually, the questions dried up.
"Well, we might have more questions later, but I think now is a time for a bit of calibration. Tomorrow there will be time for commendations, but now bring in the drinks!" Said the admiral leading the interrogations.
Sevs was pretty sure that a real military wouldn't have extremely high-ranking officers like this drinking them. But as carts of drinks rolled in the costumes they used to play, the serious roles started to fall away. Soon the whole place was in an uproar. The celebrations carried long into the night to the point where Sevs found a way to slip out and catch up on some of the sleep he had missed out on in the last few days.
***
The next week was the easiest since Sevs had entered this world. The admirals were true to their word. There were ceremonies and awards given out as the team was touted around as propaganda for quite some time. All the attention did come with some very real rewards.
The first of which was their conscript tour was considered over due to services rendered. It was a possibility that they knew was possible for outstanding service, but very few received it. Most of the conscripts were not trusted to do more than patrol hallways. All that said, it wasn't too surprising that they received this.
The second and more surprising option was that they were each given choices of what they wanted to do. Of course, they could leave and be a civilian or stay. However, if they choose to stay, they would all be given advanced training, something only the more promising would get. But they all actually got to choose which type of advanced training they would get.
Normally if advanced training was to be given, it was after the choice to stay was made, and they have trained in whichever job the higher-ups thought they would be best at. Or if there was any partial demand. Being given a choice wasn't something that they even knew would be an option.
Of course, they probably didn't end up picking anything that the military would have them already in. The team had spent a while huddled over a long lunch during some downtime discussing their options. Unanimously they had decided to stay. None of them really had much interest in being civilians.
The real question was where did they want to train for Sevs. That was an easy question. He would go to a command school and try to become an officer. Carl was also considering this. "I don't really want to lead teams, but I would like to be a second. Maybe they have a Non-com route?"
"I think they do, but it's not a school; it's just more time and good recommendations," Jason said. He seemed to have a good amount of knowledge when it came to this sort of thing. Sevs found that Jason's weirdness had not really faded as he grew older, but he did have the oddest moments of maturity.
"It's demo school for me. I don't know how I went all this time without knowing how much I love blowing things up." Bexy said. Jason quickly added his preference for sniper school. Sevs wasn't sure how useful that would be when more of their combat was done in close quarters in ships, but it was undeniably what Jason was best at.
Sevs wanted to come back to Carl, though. "I think you can still go through command school. You don't have to accept the commission. However, I would ask the Lieutenant about that. Maybe Captain Walters would have an answer for you."
Carl would make a good second. Sevs had already been leaning on him for that. Whenever he had to split the team, on this last bit or in training, he always made sure Carl was on the other team. He wasn't amazing at any one task like the rest of them, but he had a good head and knew how to lead people. Depending on what some of the more senior people said, Sevs would see if he could help Carl become a sergeant.
To Bexy, Sevs just winked. She laughed, "Yeah, I know you told me. I'm not sure how you knew though we had only met a few times when you did."
"Lucky guess," Sevs said. Maybe it was his charisma giving him a boost; he wasn't going to complain.
"What about you two?" Jason asked Soshal and Robert. Soshal was the first to answer. "I'm not sure yet. I either want to go into intelligence or be a pilot. I have the build for either.
"I think you should be a pilot. Flying that ship was sexy." Bexy said while winking and laughing. Soshal just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it was pretty fun."
"I'm pretty sure intelligence is more your thing. Don't get me wrong; you could be a good pilot. But with intelligence, you could be one of the best." Carl said.
"Nah, I'm with Bexy on this." Jason jumped in. Robert voiced support for intelligence, though. They all went back and forth about what Soshal should do the only ones who stayed out of it were Sevs and Soshal.
Soshal was probably their most valuable member, Sevs thought. Without her, they would have been respawned randomly many times during their little trip. If he hadn't known her capabilities, there was no way they would have tried to go for one of the attack ships. They would have tried to regroup with the others. He still hadn't heard about the last few off the ship. But couldn't imagine them getting away.
Eventually, Soshal spoke up. "What do you think, Sevs?"
"If you didn't have your intelligence skills, we wouldn't have made it through that. Figuring out the security and the like was the important part. Either Bexy or I could have piloted the ship. Of course, if you love flying, don't let that stop you." He answered.
Soshal had a thoughtful look on her face, but she didn't say anything, simply nodding. Sevs turned to the only member of the group who hadn't voiced a preference yet. "What about you, Robert? You've been awfully quiet."
Robert shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Well, I don't know. I don't have anything that I really excel at. I'm mostly just along for the ride."
There was a slightly awkward silence. It was mostly true Robert wasn't particularly great at anything specific. Unlike Carl or Sevs, he wasn't good at everything or had any leadership skills.
"Well, what gaps do you think the team will have once we are all done training?" Sevs asked. It wasn't really a fair question, and he hoped that instead of Robert getting insulted at the tacit agreement, he would see it as a gesture that he would have a spot here regardless.
