Quetzal woke up in a medical facility, shown by the light blue walls. His head was no longer hurting, but the tell-tale fuzzy feeling, as if it had become numb, proved that a sponge had been applied there recently.
Groaning and pushing up off the cot he was lying on, a medical attendant came over to him.
"Good morning. You got off pretty lucky; you didn't get any permanent damage from that pole. Your jaw is intact and you still have all your mandibles, and scans show no brain damage. If you are up to it, your'e free to go," she said.
As he picked his torn helmet from the table next to his cot, he asked about the whereabouts of the commando team he had picked up. He was concerned about them, with his job being their safe return, despite the difficulty they had given him about blowing up the Raider facility.
"You can find them one door down and on the opposite side of the corridor," she replied.
Thanking the attendant and setting off, he entered the corridor and moved down to the door she had showed him. Opening it, he looked inside. While the team was pretty beat up - one with a suspiciously familiar blood-splattered pole through his arm - they were all alive, asn so Quetzal could rest more easily.
Before he could decide what to do next, another Medusa approached him, this one wearing the robes of an advisor to their leader - Bahamut. Quetzal immediatly realized he was not in his old milittary base, but in the capitol Medusa city on the planet.
"You are Quetzal, the pilot coming from the raid on the Raider facility, correct?" Responding to Quetzal's nod, he continued on. "Bahamut would like to talk to you concerning your actions at that raid. If you would follow me?"
Following the advisor, Quetzal was mildly worried. If Bahamut dissaproved of his actions, he would hardly waste his time scolding Quetzal himself. Either Bahamut was impressed, or so utterly despised his actions that - but that wouldn't happen. Quetzal would have been demoted or even taken off pilot duty and given a gun. He was sure that Bahamut had something good to say.
As they passed row after row of elite guards and neared the leader's chambers, the advisor stopped but motioned Quetzal onward.
"I have other matters to attend to. Bahamut would like to see you alone."
Alone being comparative. As Quetzal entered the main chamber of the leader's quarters, he saw the mighty leader himself. Nearly twice as tall as any other Medusa, his pale body and red eyes marked him as one who could commune with the spirits. The most striking feature the leader had, though, was that instead of the average Medusa's mandibles, he had four extra heads. Two of them were playing a game of Chess, another was talking through a radio to someone about refitting ships, another was sleeping and the last was looking at Quetzal.
Quetzal bowed down and placed his fist on his head, a sign of respect given to leaders.
"Come, Quetzal. I have something important to discuss." Motioning for Quetzal to come over, he unfurled a map of the known system with his head. Most Hydra opted to not have robotic limbs as they interfered with the five different heads moving around.
"Your actions today saved the lives of a pilot and his twenty-one man cargo, Quetzal, and you haveshown other impressive feats over the course of your duty," he said. "Considering your actions and the loss of The Chimera, I would like to make an offer to you."
As you know, our civilization origionally spanned four worlds - Gorgonsa as well as three others, one of which was in another system. That planet has been unexplored for sixty years, and I want a colonization effort to go there. I was looking for someone to lead a small fleet there, and hope that it will be you."
Quetzal was momentarily stunned. Bahamut obviously thought him worthy of leading an entire fleet - although a small one - to colonize another planet.
"I accept, Leader," Quetzal managed after a moment.
"Good. We have another ship ready for you, although it is much larger than The Chimera. Go to the armory and trade your ship captain's armor for a more fitting set - the armor of a Fleet Commander - and then go to Hangar Bay 2 to see your new ship."
"Thank you, Leader. I will leave immediatly," Quetzal replied. Bowing again, he turned and went in search of the armory.
When he arrived, he was greeted and led into a side room by the Medusa stationed there. The room was filled with armor, mostly the dark grey that infantry wore, but there were several sets of black commando armor and, in the back, was his Fleet Commander's armor.
Taking off the blue helmet of a Ship Captain he had worn for six years, he took the new helmet - a striking silver, with black trim - and qickly put on the rest of the armor. Asking for directions to the hangar bays, he once again went off, this time earning second glances and even stares from other Medusa going by.
When he arrived in Hangar Bay 2, he was met by an astounding sight. A huge ship, almost two hundred meters long, was the center attraction amidst the smaller ships being attended. A Medusa quicklycame over to him, handing him a clipboard with the information of the new ship on it. Taking a pen from the other Medusa, he filled in the blank space titled 'Name' with Chimera, then poured over the rest of the information.
With three cargo holds, each with a capacity for sixty men, as well as permanent quarters for three hundred, the ship was obviously meant to house a small army in space indefinitly. It's arms were impressive - twenty pulse weapons, as well as fifteen missile pods and two of which fired true, explosive missiles - a very rare thing to find on a Medusa ship.
On the second page were his orders. He would take a fleet of eight ships to their second colony to resupply it and check on it's progress. They would then head out to the next system, to see if the third colony was still intact. If so, they would land and begin settling down, as well as search for survivors. If not, they would send a message back to the second colony, to be relayed to Gorgonsa, telling them of thier whereabouts, and then go in search of the nearest hospitible planet.
Quetzal handed the clipboard back to the dock worker, and then entered the ship. The most striking difference was the way the ship was piloted. He would be at the controls for the actual movement of the ship, but there were other pilots who would fire weapons, open communications and release cargo holds on his orders. After being given a run-down of everything on the ship, loading the supplies, bringing the crew onboard and finally communicating with the other ships in the fleet, they were ready to leave.
"Give the order for the other ships to prepare to leave and ask for permission to undock," Quetzal called out. It was uncomfortable, ordering others to do everything, but he alone would never be able to handle a ship this size. He would het used to it in time.
After getting permission to leave, he eased the ship out of the docks. They would go through a tunnel, having the city inside a mountain range, and just before leaving they would engage camoflauge to avoid alerting any Raiders of thier presence. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Quetzal took off.
(no, they won't be appearing in the RP. It's the old Chozo empire, and thus, a different faction. The question is just out of curiousity I guess 
