New Beginnings [Llau]

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, 1:30pm
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach
What am I doing here?
Tag: Llau

Brendan, thirty nine. Was sitting about a hundred paces outside of the legendary 'Olympic Tower' known to be the head quarters of the Office of Naval Intelligence. And for the first time in his life he was about to step through the doors of it. Brendan never affiliated himself with ONI and is only interactions with the black-tape group was only on the battlefield and even then memories of dealing with ONI on the battlefield are scarce. Brendan let out a sigh and raised his left hand to look at his watch. It was a fancy looking watch and had made use of a leather strap to keep it attached to his wrist rather than your typical chain links. From first glance it would look rather expensive, and it was. A type of Lanthe which one of his cousins had bought him on a visit to Arcadia, long ago. The time was 1:30pm, Brendan had been seated outside of the Olympic tower since one o'clock waiting for two o'clock to strike by as he had an 'appointment' inside the ONI Olympic Tower. Which was quite mysterious in nature considering he had never affiliated himself with the group nor been inside.

"Guess I should go inside now..."

Brendan looked up at the sky before he decided to make his way inside the tower. As he did so he had to squint his eye's a little as the midday sun glistened against the many windows along the surface of the Olympic Tower and many other sky scrapers and super sky scrapers. Since his head was already inclined to look at the sky he took a moment to marvel at the size of the tower. Two thousand and two hundred meters tall, one of the tallest if not the tallest in New Alexandria. I wonder if they will let me go on the roof. Brendan thought to himself. That would be cool. As Brendan looked at the tower the sun peaked out from behind the clouds some more, forcing Brendan to look down. He reached his left hand around to the front of his jacket and pulled out a pair of black glasses with black polarised tint, which he slid over his eyes. They were an old school type of accessory as they were modelled after the 21st century style of glasses 'RayBan'. 

Upon sliding on the glasses Brendan stood up and adjusted his tie. He was wearing a full black 'slim' suit with a bright white shirt underneath the un-buttoned jacket and a skinny black tie. Shirt tucked in of couse to reveal the black leather belt around his waist with a standard belt buckle. Brendan adjusted the cuffs on the end of his jacket before turning to lean down over the bench, picking up his takeaway coffee and his data-pad, which he slid into his inside jacket pocket. He took this moment to check his dress shoes which were nicely polished, so much so that the sun woulds shine off of them a little. Sucking in a breath Brendan finally decided to make way for the tower.

Walking the one hundred paces with not relative rush so that he could finish his coffee. He looked at all the dozens of people around him going about their daily business. Every man and woman was wearing some kind of business attire with the exception of a few people who were not working today or otherwise unemployed. As Brendan approached the tower he took one last sip of his coffee, nearly finishing it off before discarding it into a nearby bin. He took a few more steps closer and stepped inside one of a couple giant revolving doors which let you into the building. Following it around he then stepped into the main lobby of the building which was gigantic. And very beautiful. Brendan took a moment to admire the architecture and decorations before stepping in further to the main reception desk.

"Hi..." Brendan said, trying to gain the attention of one of the rather attractive receptionists.

"Yes Sir?"

"I have an appointment at two o'clock with uhm... ONI?"

"First time in the tower?" The woman remarked.

"Yeah?"

"You'll get used to the feeling like you're being watched 24/7... What was your name Sir?"

"Bowers... Brendan, Bowers."

The woman nodded to Brendan as he introduced himself and she then began tapping away at her terminal centred in the middle of he desk. It didn't seem to take her than long for her to find what she was looking for.

"Chief Warrant Officer Bowers..." She said before looking to Brendan.

"That's correct." He said with a brow raised, although he forgot he was still wearing his glasses.

"Floor 198, when the elevator doors open you'll be greeted by another waiting room, just take a seat... Elevators are to your right."

"Thank you..." Brendan said with a smile before making for the elevator.

"Oh, Sir."

"Yes?"

The receptionist would tap near her right eye, prompting Brendan to quickly take off his glasses and stow them away. He offered smile to the receptionist which wasn't returned. Brendan then made his way around to the right side of the building and waiting for one of the many elevators. Once the doors to one opened he as greeted by a wave of men in black suits and military attire funnelling out into the lobby. Brendan waited patiently before entering the elevator with three other people. Brendan noted that he was the only one to hit a button above the floor 75 which granted him some interesting looks from the other three people in the elevator. The ride to the 198th floor was rather long and lonesome after floor 75 when the last person in the elevator got off. Brendan started to collect an irrational fear of what would happen if the cable snaps in the elevator or the power went out and he got stuck there. But never the less he made it to the floor. Stepping out of the elevator he was greeted by a relatively 'small' waiting area. With only thirty or so chairs and no receptionist area it was rather mysterious.

Brendan noted the four other men and one woman in the room who also seemed to be waiting, all three of them were wearing formal military attire with medals and ribbons attached which made Brendan feel somewhat out of place considering he was doing neither. Although he subsided those thoughts and began his wait till two o'clock. Waiting for whatever he was here for.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo Moretti
Section III Tactical Field Officer
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
April, 2551, 1:45pm
Interview Time...
Tag: Wax™

Dressed in his black fatigues and a black shirt with the ONI logo on his left chest, and wearing his dog-tags and his ID card clipped to his gun belt; which was out where people could see it if they needed to know who he was, his rank, and section he was apart of. The Tactical Field Officer arrived early in the morning at the Olympic Tower for another day of interviewing other ONI personnel or other volunteers from the other branches for a classified mission he was going to be leading shortly. It was a boring process, and also something he really didn't like to do because he wasn't exactly a people person, but it did give him a chance to get to know certain individuals during these ONI Candidate Assessment Programs. He was standing in one of the sound-proof rooms he had readied for the day's interview with a – he frowned a little as he peered down at the table that was set in the middle of the barren room, and looked at his DATA-PAD he had left on the table, where he had set up two computer monitors that were facing where he was going to set, and then on the table of the seat where the individual was going to sit at, he had left a device called a 'neural marker' on the table that was going to be used during the interview. He picked his pad off of the table, and checked the name and rank of the individual who he was going to bring in from the waiting area on the same floor.

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers, he thought.

He scrolled through the man's personnel file as he made his way out of the small room to head down the corridor of other similar rooms and offices where all the doors were mostly closed and the blinds pulled down if they were occupied, while others weren't. The floors Section III were on were very clean, sleek, were more military-like than the lower floors of the tower, but only those who were Section III personnel or had the clearance to be on these floors knew what it really looked like; which also had the most security personnel being present and automated turrets located in different parts of the floors; considering what Section III did. He stopped by a security station where the guards had personnel and visitors alike to go through a screening and body scanning process before they could continue further in.

“I need an ID tag for the guy I'm needing to interview,” He told one of the two guards, who were standing or sitting around. The guard he was speaking to nodded, and grabbed for an ID that was attached to a chain necklace for Bowers to wear, scanned the bar-code into the system to activate it, and then handed over to Moretti. “Thanks, mate.”

He continued down to where the waiting room was, and walked into the open doorway. He stopped, holding his DATA-PAD in one hand, while holding the visitor ID in the other.

He scanned his eyes over to the four officers who were sitting quietly, but ultimately ignored them, since they were definitely not the one he was looking for. “Bowers? Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers?” He called out to him when he looked over to find the man sitting in one of the chairs. He walked over to him and stood in front of him to give him the visitor ID.

“Here. Put this on first before I take you back there,” He explained, “Do keep it on you at all times, mate. Otherwise, the automated turrets won't recognize you as a friend or foe, since you aren't in the system yet, and you'll be torn to shreds.” He grinned. “It's messy when that happens...trust me.”

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, 1:45/1:50pm
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach
Who the heck is this guy?

“Bowers? Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers?” Brendan heard over the other side of the small waiting room. He pushed himself out of the chair he was waiting in and as he straightened himself out and raised his head the apparent ONI officer had already made a quick bee-line through the waiting area and presented himself in front of the man.

“Here. Put this on first before I take you back there, do keep it on you at all times, mate. Otherwise, the automated turrets won't recognise you as a friend or foe, since you aren't in the system yet, and you'll be torn to shreds.” The man paused to grin at Brendan. “It's messy when that happens...trust me.”


Automated turrets in a skyscraper, what the fuck am I walking into? And what the hell did this guy mean by 'not in the system yet'... Yet? Am I going to be in the system? I still don't even know why I'm here, I'd really like to find that out first please, thank you? Uhhh.

"Does that happen often?" Brendan asked as he took the tag and attached it to one of the laces on his pants that kept his belt around his waist. "Also Sir, I'm not sure if this is an appropriate time to ask, but why am I here?"

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo Moretti
Section III Tactical Field Officer
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
April, 2551, 1:50pm
Always messing with the newbs...

"Does that happen often?" The man asked him as he took the tag from him, and then went on, "Also Sir, I'm not sure if this is an appropriate time to ask, but why am I here?"

Moretti stared at him indifferently. “Oh yes, it's quite dreadful,” he explained grimly. “Unauthorized guests and personnel try to get through security, ignore the warning signs as if they were invincible snowflakes, because people can be so utterly stupid when they're curious with what we do here. Or some poor sap takes the tag off while they are in their office doing God knows what, forgets to put it back on their person, and...”

He sighed, grimacing. “What a horrible way to go," He paused for a moment, and then as an after thought, he added, "And then the Covenant all had tea and cakes."

The other four visitors sitting in the waiting room gave him a variety of expressions after overhearing his tale; from amusement, confusion, horrified, or not too impressed with the Lieutenant Commander. Of course, Moretti didn't even acknowledge them, and pretty much didn't seem to give a shit if they overheard it or not.

After studying the man's expression when he was explaining to him about it, he couldn't help but slowly grin in amusement. He patted him on the shoulder, and chuckled lightly.

“I'm just fucking with you – no one has died,” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “Sorry. You looked so confused and probably nervous sitting there. So, I had to be an asshole and bullshit with you for a bit.”

He then started to walk out of the room, expecting him to follow him out, while glancing over his shoulder. “But...still, keep the visitor tag on you while you are here, and also, don't wander off alone.”

He took him down back toward the offices, and vaguely responded to his other question.

“As for why you are here,” he commented, “I guess they didn't tell you when the two agents told you to come here.” A sigh. “They never do...oh well. You'll find out after I ask you some questions.”

Once they arrived at the security station, the ONI Officer pointed for him to go through the security scan, while he entered the exit area to bypass it again, and stood on the other side with his arms crossed as he waited patiently for the security guards and the body scanner to finish up with Bowers. When everything seemed to check out, Moretti continued down, ushering the Chief Warrant Officer to follow him down the corridor, and then allowed him into the sound-proof room first before he entered.

“Take a seat, mate,” He told him after closing the door behind him and Bowers. “See that device in front of you? Put the marker on your temple, and don't touch it.”

While he waited to begin, Moretti took his seat in front of him, and while watching the two display monitors, he kept an eye on Bowers.

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, What is Time?
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach
Is this guy for real?

Let out a relative sigh of relief once he found out that the auto-mated turrets were a bid to make Brendan more nervous than he already was.

“As for why you are here, I guess they didn't tell you when the two agents told you to come here. They never do...oh well. You'll find out after I ask you some questions.”
The ONI Official said moments before the pair arrived at a security station. 'Do they have these randomly posted throughout the building, and how many are there? I didn't see any in the lobby on the ground floor.'

"Well Sir they kinda just rocked up on my door step and handed me an envelope, real old school, then left, they seemed like an overqualified courier service." Brendan amused at his own joke stepped through the security station which didn't so much as blink or beep at Brendan stepping through, which was good. Modern day security stations and detectors were a lot more advanced than those back in the early 21st century, you no longer had to remove jewellery, watches, belts or your shoes but that didn't stop one of the security officers stopping Brendan in his tracks and swiping a hand held metal detector wand up and down his legs arm and torso. Brendan raised his arms and lifted his head, more or so, so the three ONI officials wouldn't see him roll his eye's.

"Am I good." Brendan asked.

"You're good." A rather jacked up security officer responded.

Once through the security station the ONI official lead Brendan down a corridor and eventually into a sound-proof room. During the walk from the lobby Brendan kept his head on a constant swivel, counting the limited amount of entrances and exit's as well as any and all security cameras he managed to spot as well as the amount of personnel they passed on their way from the actual lobby to the sound-proof room. Somewhat of a paranoid trait Brendan picked up in his years of service, but also because he didn't trust ONI, not one bit, and he wanted to make sure he was coming out of this building.

“Take a seat, mate,” The ONI official said before closing the door behind them. Brendan walked around the room for a moment before taking a seat in the chair, looking down at the device that the man then began to present to Brendan.. “See that device in front of you? Put the marker on your temple, and don't touch it.”

"So do you want me to put it on or leave it alone?" Brendan said looking to the ONI official with a blank expression as if he was literally serious. After a few tense moments of presumable silence, Brendan went ahead and put the marker on his temple. "I'mma put it on."

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo Moretti
Section III Tactical Field Officer
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
April, 2551, 1:55pm
ONI Likes Their Toys...
Wax™


Moretti sat back comfortably in his chair, and stared back at Bowers with the same blank expression, after hearing that question. The atmosphere between the two suddenly felt tense as he continued to stare back at him, almost glaring in annoyance for a few moments, and even when he watched as the Chief Warrant Officer finally put the neural marker on his temple.

"I'mma put it on."

The Lieutenant Commander cracked a tiny, but wry smirk as he replied, “You do that.” His smirk faded, and then he went on, “Do you know what the neural marker does? Probably not. I'll give you a quick explanation before we get started here.”

“The device can effectively read and generate visualizations of an individual's thoughts, and projected directly to the on-screen display here before me, as well as monitor other brain functions during interviews, like this one. It's like a lie detector, but a completely different device. Really cool, but weird, innit?”

“All right, let's get started, shall we, mate?” He began, “I need a baseline image. Think of a subject, like an animal.” While adding, “Once you can do that, then we can move on to you answering my questions, and then you'll find out why you're here.”

He stared at the left panel screen, which was a live recording of Bowers sitting there for the interview Moretti was about to conduct, and then glanced over to the monitor on his right, where there were Bower's brain activity and other vitals on one panel, and the left panel was where one's thoughts would project to as an image. It was quite the interesting device, he had to admit. Seeing someone's thoughts - good or bad - being projected onto a screen during an interview? Such a useful tool for ONI, and seemed to be far better than a lie detector test. He should see about using this device more often. He remembered having to do it, when he was being placed into a Section Three Unit, and now, it was his turn to find candidates for a mission. So, hopefully this Bowers was the right candidate to pick for this mission he was getting ready for. 

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, What is Time?
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach
He can see my thoughts?

“Do you know what the neural marker does? Probably not. I'll give you a quick explanation before we get started here.”
The ONI officer said, hardly giving Brendan any time to actually respond to the man.

“The device can effectively read and generate visualisations of an individual's thoughts, and projected directly to the on-screen display here before me, as well as monitor other brain functions during interviews, like this one. It's like a lie detector, but a completely different device. Really cool, but weird, innit?”
'What? He can see and read my thoughts in a visual format?' Brendan all of a sudden got rather sweaty but he cleared his throat, taking a large breath in before exhaling, he had nothing to worry about and nothing to hide. At least he through he didn't. Meanwhile as he tried to convince himself he has nothing to hide he also wondered just how ONI got their hands on this sort of technology, surely of some kind of Covenant origin.

“All right, let's get started, shall we, mate?” The office said before continuing, forcing Brendan out of his trance of thoughts. “I need a baseline image. Think of a subject, like an animal.” He said before continuing again. “Once you can do that, then we can move on to you answering my questions, and then you'll find out why you're here.”
Brendan bit down on his tongue, as he was listening to the ONI officer Brendan was unknowingly thinking about the attractive receptionist back down on the ground floor, with her slim model like figure and bright blonde hair scraped back into a lengthy pony tail. But he quickly registered the officers request and began thinking of an animal. The first thing that came to mind was a wolf, a pack animal, specifically he was thinking of an 'Alpha Wolf' before thinking quickly of the extinct 'dire wolf' a colossal animal.

"Okay..." Brendan said, ready.

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo Moretti
Section III Tactical Field Officer
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
April, 2551, 1:59pm
The Questioning Begins...

He sat there, waiting for an image to project onto the screen. As he glanced over at the Chief Warrant Officer's vitals, he noticed that the man was becoming nervous after explaining to him what the device did.

“Nervous, are we, Bowers?” He questioned him, while waiting for him to think of a baseline image. "You're acting like you were called into the Principle office, and automatically thinking you're in trouble when it's for something else entirely." He laughed lightly, smirking. "Funny that."

He grinned a little, amused by this, but more so amused on what he was starting to see slowly taking shape in the left panel. The images weren't 100% perfect by any means, but they were easily recognizable by the trained eye. It reminded him of those blotches psychiatrists used during psych tests he would have to take every now and again – black and white images, but everyone is able to see the same thing, and not what they think they are seeing. Whoever created the neural marker was a genius though, and he figured it would take many years to perfect it. ONI was just lucky enough to be able to use it.

He chuckled a bit at the image that was gradually being formed, vanished. He then waited some more as Bowers concentrated on a more appropriate image. Once the image was completed on the panel, he carefully eyed it. It looked like a very large canine, but larger than a domesticated dog. It looked more akin to a wolf, but larger than a Grey Wolf. Perhaps a Prehistoric wolf? It was a wolf, nonetheless.

“Hmm,” He studied it for a few moments, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk. “Ah. I see. Good choice, man.” He then didn't want to linger on asking what the image really was, and how he liked wolves, and then started to ask his questions.

“What's your name and rank?”

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, what time is it?
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
The sweat is real.

Brendan smirked a little as the ONI officer took a stab at Brendan's nervous behaviour.

"C'mmon mate, I get a mysterious summons by ONI without any kind of explanation, I can't help but be nervous, you should know you guys got a reputation in the corps, but hey." He raises his hands. "I try not to be biased, we're all on the same side, right."

Brendan continued to concentrate on the Dire Wolf and perked his brows then the ONI officer mentioned that it was a 'nice choice'. So he saw it, it works, it really works? Either that or the ONI officer was just screwing with him and he really couldn't see shit other than some squiggly lines that might be measuring his heart rate. He then perked up a little as he the ONI officer asked him his name and rank, within a millisecond her spilled the information to the officer like a robot, as if it were rehearsed a million times over, which it was. Everyone knew the P.O.W protocol, name, rank and serial number, nothing more, nothing less.

"Bowers, Brendan, Michael... Rank: Chief Warrant Officer, pay-grade W-5."

[Llau]

Lieutenant Commander Michelangelo Moretti
Section III Tactical Field Officer
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
April, 2551, 2:02pm
Probably Enjoys Making People Sweat...

"C'mmon mate, I get a mysterious summons by ONI without any kind of explanation, I can't help but be nervous, you should know you guys got a reputation in the corps, but hey." Moretti crossed his arms as Bowers raised his hands. "I try not to be biased, we're all on the same side, right."

The Lieutenant Commander grinned at that, but didn't respond to what was said until after the Chief Warrant Officer told him his name and rank.

"Bowers, Brendan, Michael... Rank: Chief Warrant Officer, pay-grade W-5."

“Good,” He glanced down at his DATA-PAD to run his finger across the first question on the list. He soon started talking to him, rather casually, with no hint of annoyance as he spoke about ONI's reputation among the corps.

“It's true. ONI does have a reputation among those in the Corps, who treat us with the utmost suspicion, and like shit because of what we do here, and how...some ONI personnel achieve their goals in a 'ends justifies the means' kind of way.”

He shrugged, carelessly. Not that he should be the one to talk when it comes down to how he achieves his goals. The Tactical Field Officer has done some bad things on certain Black Operations, but Bowers didn't need to know that about him. Not that the younger man would be able to know, and Moretti wasn't about to spill his guts out to him about the Black Operations to begin with.

He looked up at him, and continued.

“Which is understandable, but it gets rather tiring hearing the same bullshit over and over again, and then dealing with the same type of reactions from people acting like a bunch of wankers to us, when we're supposed to be all on the same side, you know?” He winked, grinning, and for a moment, showing his resentment and animosity toward some of the Marines and ODSTs he has met over the years. Well, the ones who shared the same feelings toward him for working with ONI anyway.

He paused, but then chuckled quietly. “Trust me though, Bowers,” he said, “If you were really in trouble with ONI, you would have been arrested, and we wouldn't be having such a friendly conversation like we are now, mate.” He grinned darkly at that, but it was brief.

His smile faded.

“Now,” Moretti glanced back down at the DATA-PAD to read the next question he had lined up for him to answer. “Why did you join the Corp?”

[Wax™]

Chief Warrant Officer Brendan Bowers
April, 2551, what time is it?
Olympic Tower, New Alexandria, Reach // Floor 198, Section III Offices
Yeah alright, I don't judge a book by it's cover.

Listened silently as Moretti vented a little bit about how he felt about the tension between the Office of Naval Intelligence and the rest of the United Nations Space Command, he specifically mentioned the marine corps but Brendan was sure Moretti knew, that the corps wasn't the only place ONI found resentment.

“Trust me though, Bowers, If you were really in trouble with ONI, you would have been arrested, and we wouldn't be having such a friendly conversation like we are now, mate.”
Moretti said in regards to Brendan's earlier suspicions.

"I don't know mate... I can be a pretty trusting guy." He said with a grin and a wink.

"As for why I join the corps? Jeez, that's a pretty big question." Brendan paused and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"There's a variety of reasons, though really it all boils down to being a part of my family... My family has had at least one member in the military since the World War two back on Earth and my grandfather reckons there's even been a generation in the old American Civil War, but the details get squiffy with each generation. Really though, serving in the military is a big part of what it means to be a 'Bowers' we have a sense of honour, duty and patriotism to protect and serve our nation, country or in the current scheme of things, humanity. Ninety percent of our family has served in the military at some point, it's like if we stopped we'd lose out integrity." Brendan cleared his throat and leaned forward against the table, placing his elbows atop it and interlinking his fingers, he then leaned in a little more and looked Moretti in the eye, getting into full 'history teacher' mode.

"Y'know I currently have eight family members in current and active UNSC service including myself right now?" He'd nod to Moretti after that statement.