Chapter Text
Roach POV-
The stars were vast, they were something that no one could fully see or explore. Some species further along with knowledge on how to travel while others were still gathering their footing on how to stand upright. Guess that’s where he found himself, watching something new after accidentally entering a universe that wasn’t approved by the galactic forces. He knew that if he left now he would not get in trouble, he wouldn’t be in trouble for getting lost… Yet checking his fuel he knew he would need to stop at a planet, to anchor and charge up on solar fuel.
Navigating to be closer to the solar system’s center mass, to get closer to the sun was rather easy. Avoiding the Ice giants, gas giants, and asteroid belts to get to the rocky smaller planets was rather easy. He’d have to pick the more plant-filled planet to station in. He’d rather take the living planets compared to the dying ones. The planets without life that is. It just means that he’ll be able to charge faster and get outta this solar system quicker without the risk of being caught! He didn’t need a charge of entering a universe that hadn’t been evaluated on his back nor his work being found out by law enforcement. He still needs to keep his record clean despite being a mercenary. He wasn’t a normal type of mercenary in some regard, he mostly took jobs that were delivering packages and others around the whole galactic system. He’s like Amazon but with space and it's illegal.
As he slowly started to get into the atmosphere of this green and blue planet he noticed the floating stuff trapped in it. It seemed to be satellites and some space stations although a bit too, what's the right word… The way this stuff was built it was primitive for space stuff… It no doubt takes a lot of maintenance to keep up. But everyone starts from somewhere. He activated the camouflage for his spacecraft so he could float around the clouds in the troposphere it should be fine.
He pressed a few buttons to turn the spacecraft onto auto-pilot so he could go into the back. He knew that it would take around 12 hours to be fully charged, so he should take this time to clean up and take a rest. Nothing bad could ever happen since this species seemed so primitive. It would be unlikely for them to detect him in air space or know his whereabouts.
He took off his mask and visor with a brief exhale, setting them down on the table to his bed. He stretched popping a few bones in his spine and letting out a short sound of contempt. His hands went through the fur on top of his head, he hummed as he brought his hand forward to look at it. Looking at the pads and how they were now it would be best to shower, even if it meant getting into some water. As he walked around getting supplies to bathe he took a moment to look at his photos… from his home planet.
He missed his home planet, family, and old life. But nothing could ever bring it back. Nothing.
“Miss you” Roach mumbled before heading to the shower. With quick motions he got out of his nano suit, putting it on a chair outside as he stepped into the chamber. He ran his hand through the hair and fur on top of his head being mindful of his antenna now, he shook his head a bit yawning. Water fell onto him, and he ran his hands through his body’s fur allowing the water to seep in and touch his skin. Roach was glad to be getting this cool cleaning rinse. The dirt that had been matting his fur was almost annoying by now! Yes, he could change his form a little bit to get rid of the excess fur he had, but that would rid him of camouflage! He needed his dusty brown coloring patterns to keep him hidden whenever he left to scavenge on planets. He slightly allowed his wings, which were of an insectoid-like pattern, to flutter in the water allowing for an easy cleaning. It might take a while for them to dry but it would be worth having them clean and not dirty. At least for his own sanity that is.
Not like he was one to scavenge though, but it was important to from time to time. It helped that he had retractable claws, and fur that allowed him to adapt to the land. Or maybe perhaps the greatest feature that allowed him to be a great mercenary was his shapeshifting ability. It allowed him to blend in with the species he was working with and fly even lower on the galactic law’s radar. His ability truly worked well when he nearly got caught a few rotations ago, but that is unimportant to recall.
His attention was caught when he finished turning the shower’s water off and started to dry off. Guess he was in his mind at the moment… His curiosity about the inhabitants had grown since he noticed the primitive space junk! He fixed himself up, drying while being mindful of his form.
And who could truly blame him when he was faced with such an amazing opportunity!?
To study these new life forms while they were so primitive, to study the machines, their relationships, and everything! It was a change and something that could make him a lot of money if he was careful and used his contacts on the black market well. This information could boost up his bank by just a few thousand galactic cudes!
Although that would gather further intrigue from law enforcement and cause him to be noticed more often… Something he’s not willing to truly risk. To be caught and then put into prison or worse… He shivered shaking his head thinking about it… He scowled as he redressed himself to be ready.
As he put on his gear covering his body and any more recognizable features, he was careful when around his winged area. Being sure to keep them covered by a cape or poncho or cloak depending on how you viewed it, they were all the same thing to him. After he was finished getting dressed he went to get some food. It was some deep freezed food, best for traveling the cosmos with dried or frozen food unless you’re sticking around somewhere for a long time after all. He went with some deep freeze berries from the planet Edenia, which is known for its plants and herbivore species! He next grabbed some dried fish from the planet Aqualis, which held his most favored fish of all, the Craberon.
He began to cook something with these items, some nice fried fish with some juice. Yes, that would do for dinner.
As he grabbed his food from the microwave his ship shuddered, he spaced himself out a bit, standing in a position as if ready to fall. “What the…”
Roach took a deep breath muttering something, a swear word most likely to be fair. He made his way to the control room of the ship, the door sliding open as he went to the computer reading what was wrong only for him to drop his glass of juice.
“No fucking way- they're so primitive! How is this possible?!” Roach muttered in shock and surprise, his fur standing on end as he quickly got into the pilot's seat.
They had somehow locked onto his ship despite being so behind in the form of technology.
He cursed a few more times getting into the piloting seat before again his ship shuddered, he looked through the camera seeing that they had sent some primitive form of flying craft. He had it scanned by the computer, scanning its weapons and threat level. While this was happening he tried to radio to this primitive spacecraft, but nothing worked. Roach looked at the options the ship AI was giving him… He truly didn’t have much of an option, not really anyway, he couldn’t get caught or lose his ship and be stranded on this planet. The worst thing that could most likely happen is that he crashes and has to spend a few days repairing the ship with the supplies he has now, but what if these primitive creatures were bloodthirsty?...
With his options weighing on him, he took his chances and suddenly flew his craft away, opting to lose this flying craft instead of being captured by such a primitive species… While taking off, he sent a drone out to go to a satellite and take in the information on the language of this planet, hopefully this species had only one due to them getting flight travel by now. It’d be a nightmare if he had to learn multiple languages at once. What is he thinking? Why would he have to learn any of these languages if he could just escape?
Of course, he’ll escape and find a new place to charge up. That’s what he’d do. Just avoid the primitive flying vehicles, and find a new place to dock. Preferably not over the mass of water this planet has.
Easier said than done apparently. For whenever he thought he got far enough to park again they found him again! It was getting a bit annoying but at least by now his drone was back with the information he needed, a slit opened in his ship allowing the small bug-like drone to get back in and get back to him. The drone moved to his wrist before connecting back to the bracelet and translating the information it had found back to him. By then it had been around two hours of he and this ship playing cat and mouse, and more seemed to be gathering alongside it! Like a swarm of Herpiles… Those annoying flying fish that zap energy away from ships. It truly felt like that to him! He parked his ship for a few moments going through the information he had hoping to whatever higher entity there was that they’d keep this species away, he was starting to freak out recalling his time spent working for the law enforcement of his planet before… No! It's fine…. It’s fine…
That’s what he kept telling himself to keep himself calm and from making a mistake that would no doubt get the attention of the Galatic law force… Or G.L.F. He took a sharp inhale reading over the information that was gathered… there were over 7,000 languages on this one planet alone! Weren’t they figuring out space travel?! They should work on one language! He held a sharp breath before letting out that shacky exhale he had been holding in. Though one language seemed more popular in this world, maybe they were in the middle of traversing over to that one language. Hopefully so!
English, with over 1.5 billion speakers, looks like this would be the language he’d learn to communicate, to get in contact with these beings chasing him to tell them to bugger off! If only life could be that easy, for as soon as he started to process that language into his translator chip his ship was launched forward as he came under fire.
He let out a shrill sound of fear and surprise, this stuff really shouldn’t scare him but it caught him off guard that they had managed to find him so soon again! He really should start not expecting less of these guys… Speaking of which, he finally learned that they called themselves Humans… What a strange word… Humans!
But who was he to kid, every species had a strange name compared to the one they normally grew up with. Enough with those thoughts, he had to get out of here and away from enemy fire!
As he quickly steadied his flight pattern he quickly pulled a loopy loop to get behind the squad that had formed of these F1-Fighter planes. He took a deep breath plunging to throw them off more. Going below the clouds and closer to the planet's terrain, he held the steering wheel hard as more information continued to pool into his translation chip. As he was nearing the planet's floor he could see towns, and systems of living, so he quickly brought himself up to not be seen, opting to get to more open land to take cover and hide in the treelining.
But as he was nearing closer to the land and a treeling these primitive weapons hit his engines. For being so old-fashioned they worked well in taking down enemy forces, these humans truly would be something else once they made it to space and that terrified him in some way. He was thrown around the cockpit of the ship, holding on for dear life as he crashed into the soil of Earth.
“This can not get any worse…” Roach would mutter quickly getting up and back to the stirring wheel, he could get his ship to cover, to hide. Perhaps he could even try to get to somewhere more hidden like a deep forest?
Just as he muttered that, as if some sick joke from strings being pulled, he looked up to see two-legged bipedal beings with only some fur on the top of their heads, small ears to the side of their heads, and holding weapons. “For the sake of….” Roach took a deep breath, how had these humans surrounded him so fast!?
He grew tense as he looked for something he could use, of course, he could use his weapons. But that would gather the attention of the galactic law enforcement, due to its strange power outage and what impact it could leave. He scowled noting how cornered he was now if he didn’t want to get caught by anyone. Guess you truly can’t have your cake and eat it. He took a deep breath studying their forms, it was a bit hard to learn how to take on their form due to how covered in body armor the humans were. Although he had the main idea of these humans using some images from their servers to gather more information on how they looked he couldn’t take the time to shapeshift, not when they were starting to try and break in.
“Shit, shit shit” Roach muttered rushing around his ship, should he fight and risk being killed or gaining the attention of the Law he was so focused on avoiding? Or should he just open the door and accept his fate? What would these humans do to him? Just scanning through what they’ve done to their planet and species briefly showered him with a new fear he was not ready to face. He considered his options at what he could do, while pacing around holding his weapon thinking about it he heard these humans, they were speaking English, which was good, he wouldn’t have to download another translation of the language that they used here.
“Be careful we don’t know what we’re facing inside that ship.” A female, at least he considered it to be a female’s, voice ordered.
Roach took a deep breath steadying his heart rate before going to his door, putting his gun away for the time being allowing its metals to transfuse to his bracelet once more. One of his greater conquests was getting one of these bracelets most commonly used in the galactic army, despite it being such a hostile place and what they did to him they did have some good weapons he managed to take when fleeing the compound. ‘Guess that was a pulse side for when- NO none of that, focus on what's currently going on!’ Roach thought as he moved to press a button to open the door, he took a few steps back raising his hands. He was scared shitless about what could happen, thus leading to his fur being puffed up and his antenna’s laying so flatly against his head, and his wings pressed so far against his back and upper legs that he had to keep a firm hold mentally not to take off flying from fear when he met these humans face to face.
The door’s slowly dematerialized opening the world to his ship and his ship to this world. He took a deep breath, staring at the humans who held their guns to him. He raised his hands trying to seem friendly.
Taking a deep breath and looking at them nervously he spoke, of course in his mother tongue, not like he knew they didn’t have translator chips. “Greetings?” He paused to gauge their reactions, it was clear they didn’t understand that. ‘Noted, they don’t have translator chips… of course, why would they!? They are primitive and don’t have space travel.’ Roach thinks as he tries to form these human words, it was tricky but after a few tries, he got it.
And this time he spoke in the best English he could muster, “Greetings, humans?” He watched them, seeing them look back at someone waiting for orders was his guess.
It only took a few moments before a woman with blond fur wrapped in a bun came forward, she wore a vest and her entire presence screamed that she was in charge. No doubt the leader of these humans then.
“State your purpose for coming here,” She said, her tone was a bit annoyed and tired, like it was her day off and him charging his battery ruined that.
“Charging…” Roach muttered before taking a few seconds wondering if he should explain it further, how far were these humans in the form of the technological tree? “I’m using solar power to fuel up my ship, and parked in your atmosphere to charge it up to continue my travels” Roach still kept his hands raised a bit.
“Just charging?” She didn’t seem to trust him, which was understandable… She seemed to be thinking while listening to something most likely an earpiece communication device.
Roach nodded, before motioning them that he meant no harm still. “Yes, just needed a quick charge break. A.. pit stop I believe you call it?” He said looking at them. The leader of them seemed to chuckle, finding it humorous.
“How do you even know English so well? Doubt it’s spoken out there in space…” She hummed glancing around the ship a bit, the squad around her was on edge keeping their guard up high in case of a trap. It was fair to be worried about that.
“Translation chip, I kinda scanned one of your rather easy stuff to get through and process…” Roach said looking at them, a few of the guards went in at the hand motion of the leader. “Only one of your seven thousand languages spoken here is what I’ve downloaded..” He said a bit amused.
“A translation chip? Interesting..” The lady said amused, her eyes were nitpicking him, he could feel that. He was being studied. “What is your name?” She asked.
Roach paused for a moment unsure about giving his real name, perhaps he should give a fake name? No doubt due to the pause though, he seemed highly suspicious. He was currently freaking out about these humans, normally he wasn’t this bad. “Zarkandor…” Roach mumbled giving his most common name.
“Zarkandor… I see” The leader hummed amused still. “What are you even doing in this little corner of the galaxy?” She asked gathering more information.
“Just finishing up a job… and figured I’d see why this corner is closed off by higher-ups,” Roach said, he took a few seconds watching these humans shift through his supplies before asking, “Might I know your name? You seem to be the leader of these humans as far as I can tell…”
The leader seemed to pause for a few moments taking her time. “You might get to know my name eventually… After my questions have been answered, what exactly is this job you were doing?” She seemed to truly be piercing him with that all-knowing gaze, ‘humans are startling’ he noted down despite knowing once he was out of there he’d never talk to them or see them again.
“Transporting some group from the planet Jewag to Carbic… I believe you would call them… immigrants.” Roach said trying to use the correct words. “Or… Refugees…”
“Hm…” She sighed thinking about this before glancing away and whispering into her transmitter. He didn’t try to listen in, not bothering for he didn’t want to get into any worse shit than he already was in. Roach instead watches the humans in his ship look at his photos, gear, and other supplies. The lady coughed gathering his attention again as he turned to look at her. “Well, Zarkandor… do you mind coming out of that ship so we can do a deeper search?”
He grew tense looking at her. “You aren’t going to take me to that area 51 I learned about are you?”
She paused, looking amused which was his best guess before shaking her head no. “Just to the cars so we can clear some things up… and perhaps get away from the public eye, you do stand out here after all” She sighed.
Roach took a few seconds glancing around, before nodding his head. “Suppose I’m not getting away from this planet for a bit might as well” He chuckled amused before studying the human form a bit more, bringing his arm up a bit as a screen popped up as he studied the faces of a few humans. To better reflect this species he’d pick the more commonplace face-like appearances and body structure, it might be a pain to mimic due to the sheading that would take place but at least he’d be able to copy this species better than any other. Due to the skin pigmentation, He already had that coloring under his thick layers of fur. The only problem he’d run into was his antenna and wings, he didn’t want to cut them off, but he could hide them against his body. Instead, he’d bring in his wings a bit more hiding them into his skin. As he stood there taking it in and changing his form the guns were trained at him again, he simply chuckled despite nearly pissing himself. “Just trying to blend in better,” He said amused.
The leader lady motioned for the guns to go down before sighing. “Why didn’t you do this before you opened the door?” She asked interested in knowing why he hadn’t tried to lie, he could have but that’d just poke deeper holes into his story.
“It’d just poke deeper holes and I’d end up in a deeper mess than what’s needed. I don’t want to be stuck here after all…” Once in the most generic form he could take, he walked off the ship with a bag of supplies and items he adored on his body. The picture frames on the walls were just pop-up screens after all. “I mean a random human in an alien spaceship... That’d keep eyes on you for a lifetime” Roach chuckled.
“I suppose so,” The leader said agreeing with that.
As he stepped off and onto the soil of this planet he felt the chill of a breeze shivering a bit. “Never understood how some species could handle such coldness” He mumbled under his breath.
The further he went with her the more stressed he became. He looked over his shoulder a lot, watching as the others brought a truck to take his ship. ‘Great…’ he thinks scowling a bit.
“Just getting away from the public eye is all,” The leader lady said as if reminding a small child to do their chores. It was funny in a way.
“I know… just never had another species touch my ship or get on it without it being a job…” He sighed turning his full attention to the planet and its life. It was quite pretty if you asked him, greens and browns. Made it quite nice, someplace he could hide and hunt at if it came to that.
“So, your job… I doubt you transport people around… You’re a mercenary aren’t you?” She asked if she really was smart or if he was easily readable…
“Well… Yes…” He muttered growing a bit more nervous, as they walked and talked, it only took a few seconds for everything to just get worse, for both sides humans and him.
Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to leave the cockpit unlocked, a human could have set something off. And they did, they set off the distress beacon which quickly sent a robot to destroy his craft. He knew that would happen, to be caught in this land with strange sickness that could be brought around, it would make sense to blow it up. He cursed a bit looking at the flames as he heard the loud bang and explosion. “No!” Roach said panicking a bit…
It seemed… he’d be here for longer than he’d like. And they knew he had been there… He hoped that they thought they had killed him and wouldn’t try to research him…
As the explosion had happened with the loud bang he quickly found himself covering the leader, he didn’t need her dying after all. He stood up looking at the truck that had his spacecraft, seeing only a crater left in its place… “No… no no no” He muttered in a quick pattern as more humans quickly made it over to check on their leader. He meanwhile rushed over into the crater looking for anything, including survivors.
As he rushed down picking up a few injured people and carrying them up, he had to unleash his claws to get a good grip from how steep the crater was. He carried an injured body up, the human struggling in pain as the strong smell of iron hit his nose causing him to make a sound of disgust. He laid the person down as more humans rushed over to help him bring the others out. He may now be trapped on this planet for a while, but he’d work hard to show he wasn’t a threat. The humans he had been dragging out all had horrible burns that stunk his nose with the smell of their burning flesh and blood. The oragns and bones he could see from some of them nearly made him hurl, but he kept moving if he didn’t their lives could be at risk.
His work would not go unnoticed as he moved heavy metal items around to get the rest of the injured humans, to bring them up. His poor cloak was coated in some blood that would no doubt dry. He shook his head a bit recalling another few memories, while he thought about it he moved away from the fires that were being put out. He stared at where his ship once remained, looking at it all gone and broken. The ship he had flown for the past Twenty-four star cycles, eight years, gone… The last thing he had from his old life before he had become a mercenary and experiment.
Time seemed to go on slowly as he thought about what had happened. He was taken away in a car, and driven to some government compound. The humans he had saved were taken to a good hospital, they’d be saved. Yet he was thinking, he had saved lives which was good, but he was now stuck here unless he could gather the supplies he needed to build a new ship out of here. He would need work here… Which would be easier said than done considering how he had eyes on him all the time now. It is understandable with the massive explosion that had happened…
Hours would pass then days, then weeks until he was suddenly brought to an office room. It was that lady leader again, he shifted a bit in the chair he sat in, it was strange. Roach would hum looking up at her tilting his head confused, his antenna had perked up to sense if something was wrong, but nothing was wrong. “Do you need something, Miss Leader?” He asked.
“Well, Zarkandor…” She sighed before fixing some strands of her blond hair. “First call me Laswell, secondly… I have an offer for you” Miss- no… Laswell said these words perked his interest.
“Laswell..” Roach mumbled taking that name and putting it down in his memory as something to remember. He hummed for a few minutes before a brief throat-clearing sound brought his attention back to the boss in charge in front of him. “Ha- yes, what is your offer?” He asked tilting his head slightly.
“Well it's a simple offer, you need supplies to build a ship to get out of here, which requires money and land. I offer you a job, a chance to earn the supplies you need” Laswell explained in further detail. This was to give him something to do other than mop around and to get a few thorns in their sides out. It was a pretty good deal, even if the ship hadn’t blown up he’d still take it just to be around these humans, these interesting beings that always seemed to grow and learn. After the whole plan was explained and laid in front of him, he accepted. Doing odd jobs and working as a military person, was not something he was expecting to ever happen again, but maybe this time it would be different. He wouldn’t be abandoned by his squad and left to be experimented on by a race of radical scientists. Of course, he got some documents to blend in more, his new name was Gary Sanderson, call sign Roach. Apart from the American special forces looking for a new squad to serve in after the last one was disbanded. He could play this part well. Hopefully, for his sake and Laswell’s that is.
“Good, I have your first mission now” Laswell brought out a folder handing it to him. It was as primitive as all things on this planet, but he’d make it work. He would of course make anything work. He adapted to anything.
Roach did, Roach adapted to his new job very well, and over the next few months, he worked under Laswell building her trust and building a small life here on the planet Earth. It was nice to have a single place to be in, to return to a home… It was nice. A good break compared to his work in the universe.
With a yawn Roach opened the door to his quarters, a gift given by the base he was currently stationed at, it was on an island called England or the UK. Humans had too many names for each bit of land and copied names and just added ‘new’ to it to make something new. It was stupid to him, yet funny at the same time.
Apparently, Roach was going to start working with a special task force Laswell was to be in charge of. A special task force by the name, of 141, was interesting. Laswell knew the man that would be the captain of the force. The small world she had said, a small world indeed it was. At least compared to other worlds that were overpopulated if you asked him.
He was currently spending his time making this room like his home. It was a decent-sized place, with more room than he’d need, though he noticed the lack of a bathroom connected to it. Thus meaning communal bathrooms… Something he was not looking forward to, due to his certain spots, his wing slits, antenna, and fur patches that always grew back leading to either being shaved or having to shed the fur off. Guess this meant he’d either have to shower early or late or even wait until everyone was gone to do his work.
It would be fine, he had done that before for a few weeks, so for however long he worked with this task force would be as long as this would happen. He was chill with it especially after it seemed Laswell was glad about this whole new course of action and team.
He shook his head a bit ruffling his hair allowing his wings a break to come out and his antenna’s to perk up. He missed the fur, missed the warmth he once had. But he was doing good. Taking to each place well, adapting to each group of humans as best he could. Though he knew this life he was living was pretty much a lie, he never felt more… complete than in this line of work and following Laswell’s orders.
Roach laid down on the bed, shirtless allowing some fur to appear and his wings to rest outside of being hidden. He groaned a bit. “Now this is nice… At least this place allows for bedrooms instead of the barracks. I’ll have to thank Laswell later” He would purr cuddling a pillow. Human pillows despite being so strange were quite comfortable and nice, he had to admit that after a few months.
Time went on as he relaxed and unpacked before some knocks were placed on his door. “Coming” Roach called out putting a shirt on while his wings hid away and his antenna hid into his hair. He put on his mask to feel a bit safer, his life as a mercenary had left an effect on him, that's for sure but it helped him blend in more in certain groups at least.
He opened the door once he was ready, only to look up and see a rather tall male human, one with brown hair that was cut into a mohawk, he had blue eyes and stubble. “Whao..” Roach mumbled impressed with the size, he was only 5’9 compared to the man in front of him who was 6’2, but he still had to look up slightly. Humans could be quite tall he had noted, it was nice to study them a bit closer.
“Ello there” The man hummed with a slight smirk looking at the other. “So you're the one who’s going to join us here, aye?”
“Ah… yes,” Roach said nodding before offering a hand, “Sargent Gary Sanderson, callsign Roach” It still felt strange using these as his main name and basis, but he’d get used to it. That’s for sure.
“Ya prefer Roach or Gary?” The man asked before shaking his head. “Ah wait, I’m Sargent John MacTavish, callsign Soap, just call me soap if ya will” Soap’s accent was very strange like the other British people here. Roach would get used to it with time.
“I prefer Roach, thank you for asking Soap” Roach hummed wondering what the other wanted.
“Mhm, right, anyway Cap’in wants everyone in the debrief room, squad meeting I guess, got us a mission I suppose,” Soap said with a chuckle before walking, leading the way.
Roach would tilt his head studying the other a bit before leaving his room, closing and locking the door before following the other. Guess he could get used to the people here... It seemed quite friendly and lax.
That’s what he would have said if he weren’t sat before a massive wall of a man in all black wearing a skull for a mask staring dead into his eyes which freaked him the fuck out.
“Give the guy some slack at least Ghost, ya don’t have to scare off everyone we meet with that ugly mug of ya’s” Soap snickered right next to Gaz who was watching with a less amused face. “Poor guy’s gonna faint if ya keep givin’ him that look right there.”
This might be worse than when he first landed here. He just hoped that he’d make it out here with Laswell before things could get worse…
As Roach took some deep breaths avoiding eye contact with this big man who seemed so keen on staring at him, as if he knew… The tension was thick before the skull-masked man spoke, his voice was rough and deep. “So you’re the one joining the team…” Seemed like this man was nit-picking him just as Laswell had done when they first met. How familiar…
He nodded, his mouth felt unnaturally dry as he nervously looked over at the skull-faced man. Lieutenant Ghost… “Yes sir” Roach mumbled horsly, he was nervous about what was about to happen before Laswell as well as an old man entered the room, no doubt the man was Captain John Price—famed leader of this Task Force and friend to Laswell.
The tension seemed to die down as the Lieutenant’s attention went to the captain, Roach’s attention meanwhile went to Laswell, his eyes begging for her to let him know how long they’d be here. She simply motioned for him to keep his attention on the captain.
This was going to take… A long time no doubt…
He just hoped he’d be able to handle the pressure of working with this team.