Gary Grey

Gary Grey is a human unlike no other. That's definitely what others think about him as well as his self although they may not be for the same reason.

Upbringing

Gary grew up on Planet Sage admiring the technology all around him; Not necessarily how advanced the tech was but more so how tech operated and worked. There wasn't much he could do otherwise what with his relatively low strength and stamina. However what he lacked in physical might, he exceeded in the arts of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is what inspired him to go to university to study mechanical engineering. Unfortunately, life can be so cruel and unforgiving. The consequences for not going to university or even worse, failing university was a great dishonour in the Grey lineage. There was so much pressure riding on his weak shoulders. Alas, he failed his entrance exams. Determined to graduate university and not dishonour the Grey name, he was given a pardon and retook his exams in a more cool headed environment. Fortunately, he passed. That being said, all good things come to an end and when it came to his finals, he crashed and burned. Not only did this mean graduating was not an option, it also meant that the last 4 years was wasted on his dream. Whatever his dream was, he knew it was through mechanical engineering and what just happened is god took the key, locked the door and swallowed it Infront of Gary. He was devastated and couldn't afford to meet his family again.

Life post family

One foot in life

With nowhere to go, Gary started investigating what engineering careers would be applicable to him given his lack of qualifications. Then it came to him. If there was one industry that would hire anyone, it would be the army. Landing a job in the Navy's engineering department, Gary got a better experience working there than what any book could have given him. If only he could tell his family. At this point in time, he was only helping where he could, and learning where he couldn't. He soon grabbed the ropes what with understanding how things worked as well as why they work instead of some other thing. He very quickly came to terms with generic engineering skills involving electronics, mechanics, basic combat as well as more generic tasks that everyone has to do including admin.

Not everything was work work work though. There was indeed room for fun and games. During an introduction to the Navy party, he met a guy that went by the name of Jeremy Jeremy. No, that is not a typo. Gary was also confused but let it slide for the universe, he imagined, is full of strangely worded names. Regardless, as Gary only had so many friends, he decided to hang out with this guy. He seemed pretty swell after all. They also seemed to learn off each other what with Gary's ongoing quest for knowledge and engineering. Who knows what Jeremy Jeremy's reasoning though. Perhaps he was simply going with the flow. Nevertheless, later on in the party, a fight swelled up as to which Jeremy ran into action knocking whatever lights the aggressor had. Gary barely noticed what was happening other than what Jeremy Jeremy did; In particular, the weapon of choice. Never could he have imagined a tool not designed to be a weapon be so effective for disarming and minor severe concussions (or so he thought). Gary learned how to, as a result of this, wield a spanner for purposes other than tightening (and loosening). They partied on through the night - if you want to call it that - and then resumed work the next day. For now, this was all that he saw of Jeremy Jeremy.

Gripping the ropes

4 years later, Gary is a qualified pilot with the rank of Petty Officer III Class. His specialty in subsonic VTOL aircraft offered all the experience he needed. Gary was right where he wanted to be; flying and chilling. He often thinks back to his teen days and wanders why university is such a big deal. Much less stressful on the mind and pays while you learn. Granted he could barely keep up in the fitness exams but only a pass is required. This glorious lifestyle was awesome, until it wasn't another 4 years later.

During his ship inspection, there was a nasty accident which caused the loss of several people. Tragic indeed. Even though this couldn't have been a direct fault on his end, as it was his ship, he knew he was going to get the blame for the incident. The excuse of the inspection crew not doing their job properly, while would get them in trouble, wouldn't help his own. Needless to say, he had a good run and decided to end it all...

The end of the Petty Officer

Not in that way. He was young, (almost) energetic and full of knowledge. The brain is only a void however and there was more to learn. Just not here. Not in the Navy. Gary took all the blame to create less hassle for others involved. He was sure no one else meant for any issues with intent. While noble of him, he was discharged and was told to prepare himself a lawyer for what happens next. In the waiting cell, he was sharing the same cell with a one John Bronston. Oddly enough, he kept calling himself Sausage. How can a man forget anyone that calls them Sausage? This made Gary laugh but was still stressed for he remembered why he was here in the first place. To Pass the time as Gary wouldn't be here long, Sausage and Gary exchanged wisdom and skills between them. This could prove to be a valuable trait to own, Gary kept telling himself. After the Lawyers came to bring the news, it would turn out that all the work is "Handled" and that he could leave, although it be best if he didn't come back to the navy. Gary panicked, but was released. He was able to nab himself compensation for his services as well as a ships boat. Surely that would be useful for him. If only he had money.

Given time, Gary would calm down and travel around for work, for his pockets were laden with only the finest nothing he could find. Then, all of a sudden, he gets a call from his pal he met when he joined the navy; Benjamin Blue. A name he thought he would never hear again. This wasn't mentioned earlier as during a combat exercise, another travesty happened shortly after Gary joined the Navy when due to faulty equipment, his one and only true mate in the Navy was aforementioned. Ready to hear what he might have to say, he picked up the communicator.

"I Got a Job for You, Grey..."

The first adventure of (hopefully) many

Embarking on the crate great Journey

There was a call for simply the escort of a crate to an unnamed individual. Gary didn't question this. Why would Benjamin do him dirty like that? He did say that this wasn't a 1 man job. Good thing Gary knew some people. He called on Sausage and Jeremy. It took time but Sausage was out of prison at this point and Jeremy had just finished floating about the cosmos. They also brought some friends; Qenzh Erreqif and Steve Connors. It was surprising that a psychic was with us. He thought they were only an urban legend. He was happy to see one nonetheless. The other guy however, well, lets just say for now that the man certainly knows how to use a vacc suit. He was sure that the astronaut was suited up for a good reason and suited for purpose. The crew was assembled and the cargo was ascertained. The destination would take a while but all the more to discuss, entertain and relax with what Gary didn't realise at the time, his best mates. What he also didn't realise is that these comrades would save his life at the next stop - K'kirka. Lastly, he didn't know and would never have thought how helpful Gary could be to others. Surely a revolutionary time for him.

K'kirka - The Drop off

The escort job was simple. Deliver the crate to an individual who will show up at the drop off site. No looking and no questions. Money is money after all. There was a hiccup though: No one came to pick up the crate. Some time had passed and the crew just waited. Eventually, someone did come; not the collector, but someone else. At this point, Gary was sort of losing it. He was happy to have some company. This man called himself "Dougley Haash" or something like that. Gary didn't really care about spelling so long the vocal representation was correct. He wasn't an english proffessor after all. Plus Dougley would never know. Regardless, Haash offered us a job: Go up to the space station and see whats happening. The crew had time to kill and there was a nice reward for such a low risk job. What could go wrong?

The Calendula - More like the Catastrophe

We eventually made our way to the space station and all seemed fine. Quiet, but fine regardless. Too quiet in fact. I happened to notice why as well: the comms array was down. Something was wrong. We "landed" in the landing bay and right away there was something wrong. Darkness everywhere. We looked around for a light source for a fair while after our lead vacc suit genius remembered that the vacc suits we were provided for the journey had lights installed for this exact purpose. It was for our better sake that we kept those lights off; blood everywhere, rubble and shards of glass scattered everywhere, even the odd vermin corpse just out of nowhere. Some had just simply passed away, others looked like they were ripped - or rather chewed - apart. What on earth went on here? With caution, we investigated. The site we were to be looking at as per the mission were the scientists in the auxillery lab. 2 directions were evident. We picked one and continued that way with the thought that splitting up was not the favoured idea for obvious reasons. Safety within numbers i say (especially if those numbers were maniacs with guns not pointed in my direction). Just in case, we turned on each light for backtracking purposes. Dunno why they were all off in the first place. Also, all the bed rooms looked to be ransacked: everything including the matresses gone from whence they came. Such a mystery - well in my eyes anyways. The gravity of the conundrum overwhelmed the gravity of the danger but i could not care less; that was until we got attacked by all sorts of small creatures: rats, hamsters, guinea pigs etc. One of them even bit me. It didn't puncture my suit however so i am thankful for that. Didn't wanna catch anything and maintaining pressure in a vacc suit is always a good idea. The attacks were consistent unfortunately. Nothing my crewmates could not handle which was good. Only took a bit of stomping. Steve was very insistent that his gun was going to solve our problems. I managed to convince him that it was not needed and that he should save his ammo for more damned situations. In reality, I didn't want him blowing a hole in the wall but he wouldn't understand. It's Steve after all.

On our way, we managed to find a couple of note worthy rooms. One of which seemed to be a collection of random items, one of which being a peculiar plant in a glass vessel if my memory serves correct as well as many books including a lot on J-Drive which i took with me like i had a utility belt. One of the books i saw was an autobiography on the life of a lawayer by Barry Allen. I could have sworn i heard of the guy somewhere but the name couldn't reach my tongue. The other room has a damn near busted terminal in it. This is where i shine; STEM. I cracked my knuckles and began to attempt to breach security without physically disrupting the system knowing full well it might either wipe itself or simply explode / overheat. I informed the others to progress without me. Somehow, i got in and managed to find records involving emails sent out to "Brother". Isn't that a rival company? They looked to be sent by a scientist called Harris Slowcombe based on the records on, well, record. I made copies of all the relevant data and viewed any security footage. Anything that showed why the hell the Calendula went to the state it is now would be valuable. I didn't see much other than an explosion in the auxiliary lab however. Things only get more interesting by the minute. Wait, hold on. Harris Slowcombe was in one of the bedrooms. We never saw him but he talked to us from within one of the bedrooms that was trapped due to "hostile creatures" and other scientists that went mad. We paid little attention as we had a job to do.

After grabbing the data, we continued forward and found the main lab; guarded by an angry dog. An angry mutated dog. I hid for my life. It's the best i could do. Steve just blew him up with his gun. I was panicked but it turns out Steve was better with a gun than i thought. I didn't make too much of it and kept it all to myself. I just hoped he didn't do it again. This didn't last until we saw a scientist in the corner of the room who built some sort of fort. He quickly attacked us after Sausage was a bit more forceful with his words than i imagined he would be. No need for aggression though. After he was shot, turns out he didn't straight up die. We could save him. How exactly? After looking around a bit, there was data on the terminals everywhere including physical samples of drugs. Turns out they're military grade items with various enhancement and risk effects. I left the others to that as i had no interest. Brains over Brawn i say. That was until we saw the next room: Cryo Pods. He was saved. Also a giant bear. We were doo- BANG. Bang and the bear goes pop. Thanks Steve and Qenzh (and Sausage). We put the scientist in the cryo pod and continued forth.

Regina - Not Uncle Vlen

To Be Continued in "Traveller, A Bunch of Idiots and Their Adventures Through Space".