My first assignment as a Vanquisher was to pick a crew and pack my things. For Vanquisher missions, I would need a small but permanent crew to cover the basics of every mission. Other specialists would join us on an as needed basis, depending on the assignment.


    I was the pilot (a damn good one, thank you very much), so I needed a weapons expert, a biodatascientist, and a medic. I sat in a boring room with @horus, where he mostly stared at his virtual screen while I made selections.


    kittyboy: "Can I have @astrowave as my weapons expert?"


    horus: "If @astrowave and his commanding officer agree, yes. He''s also been promoted, although it is minor, to Thunder Ops II. It shouldn''t be a problem."


    One for one. The image of @astrowave running down the zombie-infested corridor was still stuck in my head. I''d love to have that type of dedication and raw power on my crew.


    kittyboy: "Medic, I want Pokey. He''s a medical spider bot, the one that just revived me this last time."


    @horus squinted at me away from his screen and scowled.


    horus: "No."


    I pouted.


    kittyboy: "Why not? They''d be perfect, and Pokey follows orders to a fault."


    horus: "This Pokey that you talk about. If they are a resuscitation robot, that makes them a specialist with a very specific, very critical task for the starmada. Certain tasks would be beyond their programming. The answer is no."


    kittyboy: "Oh come on. They''re a robot, with vast information at their disposal. I bet I could ask it to replace my neural network, diode by diode, and they''d do it flawlessly."


    horus: "Hard no. Try again."


    kittyboy: "I don''t know any other medics."


    horus: "Did you read the dossiers?"


    Of course I hadn''t. I opened up the booklet in my hud viewer, showing names along the left and descriptions on the right as I moved my eyes from name to name. I didn''t really have the patience for this, and although I knew I should take it seriously since these people would be stuck in space with me, I just couldn''t bring myself to analyze all these options. He gave me a list of 784 candidates! So, I used a random number generator and picked number 601.


    kittyboy: "I''ll take @bitchfrog as my medic."


    I watched @horus''s eyes wander as he pulled up their profile and scanned it. He raised an eyebrow as he read, then looked over to me.


    horus: "You''re sure?"


    I hadn''t bothered to read the dossier on @bitchfrog. Figured it would be better just to start from scratch and figure them out for myself. I nodded back to @horus.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    horus: "Okay. @bitchfrog can be your medic. Lastly, you need a biodatascientist."


    kittyboy: "How about @shadowhacker?"


    horus: "No, she''s on my crew."


    That seemed selfish of him.


    kittyboy: "I''ll let you keep the goggles?"


    He scowled again at me.


    horus: "Hard pass. Pick again."


    I went for random again, picking number 168 out of the 271 candidates in the biodatascientist portfolio.


    kittyboy: "I''ll take @foxcutter."


    @horus paused again, bringing up the dossier on @foxcutter and scanning it over.


    horus: "Very astute of you. Kind of a dark horse pick but an excellent choice."


    He paused then and gave me a hard look. I could sense that my selections might fall apart in an instant. I didn''t care so much, but I really didn''t have the energy to pick again.


    horus: "Or did you just pick names that had animals in them?"


    What? Me? @kittyboy? I would never! I was almost certain there was only a little bias in my random number generation. How dare he?


    kittyboy: "I take exception to that statement. I''ll have you know that I made virtually no effort to make selections after you denied me Pokey and @shadowhacker."


    That was mostly true. It didn''t matter if @horus was right. It was still mostly random. So what if I like working with animals?


    kittyboy: "Besides, @astrowave isn''t an animal name."


    @horus frowned at me, but he was satisfied, and he probably had had enough of me at that point anyway.


    horus: "Fine. I''ll submit your selections and have them instructed to join you at your ship. You''ll be piloting a v90 Dominator. Try not to destroy it. Collect your things and report to the ship at Landing Bay N7."


    He pushed a few virtual buttons and typed a few virtual words with his fingers on his desk and then motioned for me to go.


    kittyboy: "Don''t I need a ship technician?"


    horus: "Are you planning to make modifications to the ship?"


    kittyboy: "Can I?"


    That got me super excited, especially after meeting @stardvark and learning about his Obliteration mode. I absolutely wanted to figure out how to customize and modify my v90 Dominator. First I''d have to get used to its stock configuration, but once I knew what it needed, or what I wanted, heck yeah, I''d customize the hell out of it.


    horus: "No."


    Asshole.


    kittyboy: "If I have a ship technician, can I?"


    horus: "No."


    kittyboy: "Well, then no. I guess I won''t make modifications."


    horus: "Then you don''t need a ship technician. The ship has repair droids and will fix itself as needed."


    Well, that was convenient for them, and for me I guess. I wasn''t satisfied with @horus''s No to modifications. I opted to store that information under strongly advised.


    horus: "You leave in two days. Your mission details will be sent over to the ship. Please review these today by 17:00 hours."


    Then he shook his head at me, his face oozing the prospect of future disappointment as he considered what I would likely do instead.


    horus: "And please, @kittyboy. Review the details. I don''t want to see you back in a Wavepilot uniform."


    I stood and made the dew drop sign at him with my hands.


    kittyboy: "It shall be done."


    As much as I hated having homework to do, I will say that it motivated me to get my paltry collection of personal items gathered so that I could settle into the v90 Dominator. It would have a dedicated captain''s quarters that was nicer, more spacious, more like my own studio apartment in space.


    I picked up a new butterfly rug, grabbed my sassy coffee machine, and then picked through a few personal items that I was more or less okay with losing if the ship exploded. I picked a squishy baseball stress ball, a nice pair of utility jeans, a spiky spindly locomotion plant that I named Stuart. I carefully put this and my official uniform in a backpack and made my way to Landing Bay N7, walking proudly, waving hello to people, the model of a good Extrovert Starmada soldier.


    On my way, I made a final stop and the armory, where they presented me with an arm cannon, a glen11 pistol, and a flip37 pulsar laser. I eyed the glen11, thinking of my adventures with its predecessor, the glen10. What fun we will have! I told it. This one goes to 11.


    I practically skipped my way to the ship, singing chirpy songs about death and violence.