Similarities

[Omari Ngao]

The last thing that Omari could remember was that his company had disembarked from the starship they had been aboard. They had been given patrols along the border, specifically scouting the worlds that had previously belonged to the Alliance but had been brought into the Order's grasping hands. New Balosar, Copperline, to name a few. Armour, weapons, all to the armoury and then he had head to the barracks.

After that? Well, he presumed he had fallen right to sleep because he couldn't remember a single thing after his head had struck that semi comfortable pillow.

Just moments he had woken up, his eyes rapidly blinking as he tried to adjust to the new visible stimuli.

Bright light in my face.

This isn't the barracks.

The blinking continued up until he raised a hand to wipe away the moisture that was gathering up in his eyes. The blurriness made the lights seem brighter, but now he could see a little clearer and when he looked around the room it was relatively sparse.

Definitely not the barracks.

After that realization, the next one came rushing in. He was on a rather cool floor, the soreness in his muscles made itself known quickly.

Feth.

Slowly he pushed himself up to his feet, immediately checking his body for any markings and when he was satisfied, he ignored whatever else was in the room and went straight to the door. There was no window to see in or out of, per Imperial standard. Black room with minimal lighting, like a dungeon... But it's easier to adjust to the dark than lights. No... Lights are to confuse and disorient. And his fists clenched as his jaw tightened and clenched too, and he stepped back from the wall.

I'm going to get out of here.

There was a moment of pause as his mind wandered back. Far back and he found himself in a similar room... And then he was back standing alone in his solitude. Turning back to where the spot he woke up at in the room, he crossed the distance and set his back to the wall, sliding down into a sitting position.

[member="The Major"]

 

[The Major]

The only doorway in the room bereft of any furniture squeaked open, revealing a fully armed stormtrooper holding the basic pattern rifle in the iconic manner. This guard appeared to scan the room and the man held within for a few moments before standing aside to allow what could only be described a person ripped out from another time and space.

She wore a bemused smirk and a certain twinkle in her eye, and those movements, plodding and steady, spoke of a grace not often indulged upon during these trying times. Stepping in silently, her arms found rest folded behind her back as those blue orbs seemed to peer into the man sitting. What she searched for remained a mystery -all at once beautiful, hostile, and disturbing in its approach and implication.

“Four hours to wake up. Perhaps the Corps needs to work on drug resilience. No matter: consider it a vacation.” Her eyes glittered with a hint of madness as a wide, toothy grin suddenly spread out on her otherwise placid cheeks, splitting so much that it looked at though it would threaten to split her face.

“How do you feel?”​

​

[member="Omari Vyken"]​

 

[Omari Ngao]

When it was the time for it, Omari could joke with the rest of them. He always did his part in setting the tone when it came to bring joy into the world. The stormtrooper that walked into the cell was what gave cause to the Sergeant to rise up to his feet, though he didn't move from his little corner. He was big, even outside of his armour, but he didn't know what they had in store for him. He was loyal to the Order, always had been for as long as he could remember, but if they were trying to kill him then he'd go down swinging.

Then there was a second person to come in after his own brother in arms stepped to the side of the door to allow entry.

A woman.

A tall woman.

She was in charge, and she wouldn't be underestimated.

She's got jokes, the thought traversed his mind, but it did not linger as he straightened to his full height.

"Like I could kill someone." There was no illusion to the words that he spoke. The dark eyes were focused on her and the stupid look on her face.

She's cocky. Cocky gets you killed.

[member="The Major"]

 

[The Major]

Concern ruptured upon her face, gleaming with just enough ambivalence to come of as cruelly and playfully sarcastic, or disturbingly childlike in its sudden intensity and worry. Those arms resting as though she were on a parade ground whipped around and pointed in the direction of her ascot wrapped neck, the glove itself squeaking as it crunched tight.

“Not me I hope!”

Sensing that the joke was stale the moment it was uttered, the Major refrained from walking too close to the waiting trooper -not necessarily desiring to take a sudden gut punch or throat slash from a deadly member of the corps. Choosing to not patronize the man any further when already placed in an uncomfortable position, she switched gears from mirth to exposition.

“Sargent Vyken, your combat record is quite extensive -extravagant, one might say. Being on the end of your line of ire would be enough to send a sane person into a state of panic. So I’ll refrain from tempting fate -as fascinating of a test that would be- and instead test how many connections that war addled brain of yours can make.” Strangely, she scratched the tip of her nose before continuing.

“Do you have any idea why the Security Bureau would take the time to speak with you like this?”

[member="Omari Vyken"]​

 

[Omari Ngao]

Omari didn't say anything. Not at first, not while she was monologuing. Instead his mind wandered while his exterior maintained that cold disciplined stature of the revered Stormtrooper Corps. He knew what his record looked like, he ain't need to hear about it, but it all had to be getting to some point, and so he elected to stay silent and let her talk. It'd be faster if he didn't cut her off. She was a talker, he decided to identity her as. An interruption would give her something more to talk about... Or to do something worse than drugging him.

Hmph.

The formal stance that he decided to adopt was dropped.

A damn spook. This is why you're not trusted.

Still, his casual stance was more on the side of disciplined restraint than sagging shoulders. Crossing his arms over his chest, he just... Stared at [member="The Major"] instead of answering first. His eyes were dark, almost like an abyss, but the brown was there in his iris, the multiple flecks of black in them gave the impression his eyes were black from anything that was more than a few inches away from his face. But he doubted she'd get that close, she knew better. And as disciplined as he was, he didn't respect authority. Not like he respected his fellow brothers in white. They'd die for him, and they for him. She just commanded them to their deaths.

"I'm guessing the Order is getting rid of all the troopers like me."

The troopers like me.

Kidnapped. Indoctrinated. No childhood stormtroopers like me.

But that wouldn't make sense. Not with them coming of age recently. Even if the Alliance were dead and an influx of troopers wasn't necessary. There was too much behind them to be expunged from existence. So that line of thinking was wiped from his mind before it was his turn to ask the question.

"Ain't it your job to brief the troops? Why am I answering questions?"

 

[The Major]

He was extremely calm and collected, and it appeared he was the kind of special trooper that knew exactly how to deal with someone who tried to be as unsettling as the Major. Although she wouldn’t say that she actively sought to throw people off; it just so happened that playing things out in a certain way tended to provide better results. In any case, the game was fading away and the good sargent didn’t appear to be on the brink of breaking down in concern or making a slip up to betray himself.

He exactly represented the perfect candidate for an agent. She culled an exasperated sigh and appeared to weigh his response, undisturbed by his staring and actively looking to meet his dark eyes in an unflinching, unblinking manner.

“A safe reply, Sargent, maybe too safe. But not without merit.” It was possibly one of the more annoying things in the universe: a person whom one could detect was the kind who relished talking, especially in circles.

“You strike me as something of a… free spirit. And sure, the natural response is to assume the First Order makes such troopers vanish. In a sense that is true. However, they don’t end up in a landfill or blasted into a vacuum. With someone with your talent we offer a different kind of solution, and a new kind of freedom…” A bit of a smile played out on her face -for she anticipated him to cut back with some kind of tact.

“...as an agent of the Security Bureau. Have you ever considered it? Troopers take a reactive approach to life and war. We are a little more proactive.”

[member="Omari Vyken"]​

 

[Omari Ngao]

[member="The Major"]


There really wasn't a part of him that was amused in this situation. This ain't a game, this is real life. But he was aware she knew that, which was what made it all the more worse. She enjoyed playing with lives in some sick and twisted fantasy of hers. He still didn't know what she wanted, but he didn't think she was going to try and harm him, not yet anyway. Some sick reveal was coming down the line.

The reveal of what this was really about threw him into a loop all the same.

"What?"

Well, for the first Spook that he was ever meeting, she was really good at delivery. And jokes.

His brows sunk down closer to his eyes and closer together as he makes a face of squinting at her before going through the motions of obvious disbelief. His single reply earlier encapsulated all of that, but hat had just been an instantaneous reaction, as if he hadn't been listening to her at all, but the expressions he went through was the process of actually understanding and guessing what being a spook really meant.

"I only know how to shoot and kill things." Although the latter likely wasn't as true. He was very much capable of killing, desensitized to it and all, but he didn't go on killing sprees unless the objective at hand truly meant for it, like when he had rescued the Governor on Lothal, that hadn't called for a killing spree for he had elected a more silent approach while other teams ran distractions and murder sprees. Stolen right below their noses, he thought to himself, caught up in his own thoughts and smirking to himself before he remembered where he was again.

"I wouldn't know the first thing about being an Agent anyway."

 

[The Major]

With the pretense of a delivery now exposed, the Major dropped the games and sing-song mischievousness from her voice. There was a certain measure of sadism in her approach, but it had proven to be effective up until now, insomuch that she now directed the movements of the ever elusive Security Bureau. Speaking with the plodding directness of a professor at lecture, she served up the next bits quickly and without nonsense. This was now serious business. Or at least there was attached gravitas to these proceedings.

“Shooting and killing is all you know, you say? Good. Then you won’t have to unlearn all the daft things that will get you murdered on the field. Don’t know how to be an agent? For everything you will need it’s the academy on Sump that can show you.”

She was of course assuming quite a lot by thinking that he would go along with this. Still, she had a good feeling that one day this young man could be molded into the shape of an effective Station Chief. He had the nerve; he just needed the subtlety.

“It’s not an easy life, but as long as you can stay alive, it’ll at least be one in which you control.”

[member="Omari Vyken"]

 

[Omari Ngao]

The stormtrooper gave pause.

It was either this or... What? Death? There was a part of him that thought that was the outcome if she was denied, but another figured they'd just drug him again, maybe the spooks had some technology to erase recent memory, bury it so he couldn't recall what happened here. His jaw set as he put on that neutral front that he employed to think of a response. Naturally, the only answer he could give was yes, but he wanted things in return.

"I want to be able to form my own team," he started, his words being pulled from the depths of his mind to finally come to the forefront. "And..." His mind wandered at this part, his lips curving into a smile as he thought to himself. Oh, yeah, definitely. Top secret sorta deal. "I want those missions that get crossed out in black in dossiers and files on people." He'd seen some of them when being briefed by higher ups, but only in passing. He didn't know the contents, obviously, but it still drew him. Dangerous, secretive, sorta like him in a way.

It fit.

"Or you can just kill me now, but that's how I can best help you."

[member="The Major"]

 

[The Major]

Now it was her turn to be taken aback. As with all things in her life she expected the end result provided by another person to be exactly what was predetermined by her machine cog like brain. Thus, with Omari she did anticipate that he'd fall in line, go to the training, graduate with clandestine honors —since anything he did from this point could fall into an issue of national security— and finally go on to be a valuable asset to the Bureau in a supervisory role much like he already had proven within the Corps. His sudden gusto and demands came across as a surprise then. One that she considered to be a possible feint to get a rise, but such didn't ultimately matter. He'd either make the cut as agent or he'd vanish. Omari had options, just not great choices.

Smirking again, she reached into one of the pockets of her greatcoat and rummaged a bit for a parcel, chidingly adding, “Already making demands of your Director, eh? You'll fit right in. Most find the paperwork associated with asking for things to be enough of mountain to climb that they avoid it out of sheer boredom.” She pulled out what appeared to be a thin, small booklet binded in some kind of blue leather. “Your team, and your legacy: that all will come. I have no doubt all you have to do is reach out for what you seek and you’ll find it.”

She then handed over the little document.

“You’ll find your basic security clearance, passports, and a flex expense chit inside. Try not to spend it all on booze and pleasure. You have a week to report to Sump, instructions and procedures are included inside. Clear?”

[member="Omari Vyken"]