Jack Howard

Howard, as expected, had a very different reaction then most. He had dealt with aliens before with Montoya and he had told him that they were relatively kind beings and that it was best to treat them how you want them to treat you. Following this logic he decided to put a slice of trust into these beings, not much but enough to give some impression that he himself was peaceful. Howard turned to his men and yelled out aloud, hoping a few more would follow. "Lower your guns. Bayonets attached Cochrane but keep them prepared to raise, just in case." After this order, Cochrane yelled for all men to low their guns and await further orders, to which they did with great speed and discipline. The view of these soldiers in bright red lowering their guns when another column right next to them was ready for action made it clear to all that these troops were Howard's and had the exact same mindset to these beings. These troops did follow the orders with a small look of concern. Howard seemed a bit like a madman. He was giving peace to a possible great enemy. Of course though, his mind was churning and working. He started to gather evidence however nothing he had seen so far gave him any true evidence that they were peaceful, It wasn't enough for a full trust in them. Seeing Khan acting like a child he of course scoffed at it and it brought him away from his thinking. Surly his immense kindness to these people gave the wrong impression that he ruled the world. Howard didn't like this and was going to get up there and change the impression but Addison managed to change it before him. Howard's rush ended up with him next to Hawk with a very weird chuckle at Khan. Howard stood there next to Hawk. His chin was rested in his palm and his left brow lowered. He listened and waited. Hearing the knight looking being speak and Hawk's reaction, Howard didn't want any conflict between them and these more powerful beings. He quickly coughs and whispered in Hawk's ear. "Hawk, these are not the beings that destroyed Atlas. The things that destroyed Atlas were native to her soil. These are clearly from a different world.. I need to think for a bit.. Keep your guns aimed until I think of something." After this he leaned away from Hawk and looked at the two beings. They spoke a common language and looked humanoid. For all he knew this could just be a time machine from a different planet. God knows what it was but like them in this situation. They didn't seem to mean any harm and didn't want to make any conflict unless it was aroused by the other. Howard could tell this by their speaking but it still wasn't enough for a full weight in trust. Worlds cant be the centre of trust. He needed more. He noticed a few things but they were simply visual. These small things were; the two were asking for a cease in tension, possibly. Holding them at gunpoint would be naturally stressful, if they wanted answers some sort of trust would be needed if they promise it. Full trust could not be given yet, he needed more answers and being angry and too defensive at these foreigners wouldn't get the true answer. Howard cocked his revolver behind his back for his own protection. Cochrane, seeing this ordered the men to cock theirs. Howard then looked toward Addison and Hawk and decided to try to get them to calm down a bit. Not too much to make them vulnerable but enough to make them seem less warlike. He didn't want everybody in danger and followed his mind. Holding them at gunpoint will give a softened version of their true intentions. He knew what it was like to be held at gunpoint; You always give a softened answer to save your own life. Even if they did fire, it would probably result in their own deaths too. Only if these beings promised to not threaten in any way. Only then it was suitable to get answers. Howard needed more for a deduction and so did they. "Addison, Hawk.. We need to let them speak, we need more answers here. However I would only lower your guns if they promise it.." Howard looked to the beings at the end of his remark. He would remain suspicious and kept a very keen eye on these foreigners. He awaited an answer from them. @Phoebe@Hawk@Fierach@Tenkai Matsumoto (OOC: The Three Nation Fleet is NOT the Howardonian Fleet. the Three Nation Fleet is a combined force of the Gallican, Erenian & Howardonian privateer fleet. The names were changed when I was thinking of the Three Nation Fleets name. The Howardonian Fleet was the first option but it wasn't used because Hero gave the thought that it would make me seem more egotistical then I am. If you have anything to say about the Three Nation Fleet, being it to me first before making yourself seem foolish. @Agent Knockout)

Howard's attention immediately switched to what had happened behind him. His thick square of soldiers immediately jumped and moved their hands to the triggers of their guns to await on the order to fire but Howard got no order. The soldiers stood there looking and staring at these two very human-like 'things' that just entered their side. Howard's reaction had a bit more too it then a simple stare. Since he was talking to Minori and Hawk he was facing away from the portal and at the soldiers behind. So when Howard heard the portal and everybody gasp he swiftly turned around, pointing his revolver-fitted sabre at whatever the hell just came through. Howard left Minori's side, ignored whoever just yelled at him and walked up to Hawks side in an honest attempt to tighten the more professional friendship that they "had. Howard probably seemed a little less powerful when compared to the others around him to these strangers. He had no armour or overly special weaponry. His uniform was a dark purple tailed frock coat with black and gold sleeves and epaulettes. His coat at the front stretched down from his chest which fastened together with gold buttons. The tails at the back separated at his waist and stretched down to below his knee. It was a very polite and posh uniform even though it was Howard's every day uniform, it was a surprise that it wasn't dirty. It didn't show off his power to any stranger but the one thing that may give it away was the vast amount of medals on his chest and the three arm bands around his left arm. The medals were for all of his victories in the battles in the SSK war and victories at sea in general. The medals were also respect and gratitude medals from nobles and royalty of Gallia, Alpha, Atlas and Erenia. The three arm bands were coloured Red, Blue and Orange to signify the Howardonian Privateer Fleet which was red, The Royal Erenian Fleet which was blue and finally The Gallican Fleet which was orange. The green of the Bastion wasn't shown for it was considered as an ally, even though it was planned for him to own a Bastion fleet. All of this came together to give off that this man was the Worldwide Admiral and he owned the massive and infamous Three Nation Fleet and the Trade Federation. So, Howard in his very brightly decorated uniform walked up to the side of Hawk to hopefully greet these strangers with a polite and respectful hello. Howard when compared to Hawk seemed much more friendly since he had lowered his weaponry and only intended to touch them with a handshake with his revolvers and sabres hidden under the tail of his coat. Howard was roughly the same height as hawk but funnily enough Hawk's uniform gave the impression that Howard was slightly shorter. Howard leaned over to hawk and made a small cheeky reaction to this, just to make fun of the situation and have a good ol' Alphen sense of humour, "I had a feeling that they weren't those tree people.."

Howard wrote down everything Hawk said in his notepad, along with what was going on, numbers, guns and all. He then let Hawk raise his voice and then spoke when he finished, seeing that his observations. "Alright, well I respect that. In such case me and Minori will follow shortly afterwards.. Right that's all good. And with that he closed his book and held it under his arm. He smiled at Hawk and Minori and continued to play with his revolver, then he thought about Minori and her troops. He turned to her with a smile and then at the troops standing next to his. "So Minori.. What about your troops and mine then?" @Mackenzie Rose

To stop Hawk having some sort of rage out at Khan, Howard down to khan and simply said something that he hoped would shut him down and put the major issue they had here. "If it was the tree monsters.. I think we would have a larger issue than what you think. These tree monsters, by what I've heard, pulled the whole country of Atlas down within a single hour. Now.. I think it would be best if we stopped anything like that again. I'm sure you do too if you don't want your precious Bulgaria to still exist instead of being a few feet under the ground." Howard then turned fully to Khan and pressed his sabre down on the ground, using it like a cane. "Now, Addison will cry out for us if we fire or not. You need to pay attention for this because if you don't you may make yourself look more like a modern militaristic fool than a modern militaristic general." "Besides.. I have a girlfriend who would actually fuck me.." After this little statement, Howard decided to hide his clear hate for this man. Though he had caused him and the country immense stress and terror within the trenches of south Bulgaria and the landings at the north west landings it was best he kept it hidden so it wouldn't cause another immature fight with would usually result in a gun. Howard grabbed his notebook from his pocket and looked to Hawk and brought up a long thought query. "Now, I think that we all hold here and simply keep aiming at the portal for anything.. If Addison decides to move in I feel like me and Hawk shall enter first afterwards.. Minori if we don't come running back you can come in... Khan you can stay here just in case we come running back.. If we are clearly out gunned then you can come in.. It's better to give the element of surprise.." "As for staying here.. If something comes through to us first then we await Addison's order. Nobody here is a hero so don't make yourselves a hero." "How does this feel to you lot? Any thoughts?" @Agent Knockout@Hawk@Mackenzie Rose (OCC: Purple is thoughts. Just to clear anything up.)

Howard looked to Minori with a small look of concern for Hawk. He knew Hawk was a man of war but when it came to Herograd he seemed to become more intense. Howard didn't understand this to the full heart for he never had a country he put all of his heart into, not even Alpha. Howard was a man of the world after all, he had to share his efforts. He did understand Hawks extreme tension though, for this he nodded and gestured for Minori to be easy on him emotional wise. Howard spoke out to the three of them loudly, they didn't have a plan so he may as well say that he was ready and that they need something to keep them together. "Well.. we should probably have something to say to all of us to open fire or hold, we don't want a chain reaction. Either way we need to let whatever comes through first to shoot first, so if you have anything to be behind I would use it. We don't know what weapons they have. In other words.. We need to decide on a single order to use and a basic fall back order."

"That 'woman' is my lover, Scarlet. I'll introduce you to her later. Also yes I am fairly excited to a right good battle.. especially a fair one." Howard too was a bit excited. He had missed a right good struggle, pirates at this point just ran or got shredded in two. Minori's remark to Scarlet made him chuckle, he expected her to think she was her child by the fact that Howard carried Scarlet here. Howard then turned to Hawk and chuckled a little to the shared cluelessness between them. He rolled his eyes to his clear rage towards the wooden beasts and made a cheeky reply. "Hawk my good man.. Burning is fair but first we need to know what is in there first. It wont be nice to burn a possible human planet." Howard smirked and then looked to Gauen next with a very formal frown. He looked at the night and explained the very un-announced plan for the order for which they were going to rush inside. "Gauen is it? I don't know if we have an order to go in. I believe Addison goes in first and we charge in afterward." @MaskedHero@Mackenzie Rose@Hawk

Howard rested his sabre within it's leather holster and detached from his soldiers and walking forward to Minori. Cochrane followed behind, feeling he should know what's going on too. The two gents made it up to Minori and Hawk. Hearing Minori's query Howard smiled and patted her back with his revolver to grab her attention. He then pointed to Addison's forces and the portal before he made a little statement on what they could do. He spoke quickly with a slight tang of sarcasm, clearly in his mind he was having a bit of a laugh at the situation. "Well it's rather simple. We hold here, let Addison go through and kill herself and then we go in and get killed afterwards. Why she made herself the forlorn hope I have no idea. Either way, what we need to do is stay here and remain calm and keep our guns aimed at that thing." He played with his revolver by emptying it's cartridges and reloading it again. He was thinking on what to do, it was very cleverly hidden with his smirk and his fiddling. He awaited for a reply as he examined his surroundings, looking for places that his soldiers may need to fall back and hold a defence. He then looked back to Hawk with a sudden though, he spoke it aloud. "Are you sure this is the portal to those weird tree.. trees. I though the trees were native to atlas? That's what I heard at least."

Howard turned to the soldiers and raised his sword high in the air. He decided to do as Hawk and make a small speech to his most favorite soldiers to make their moral as high as possible. "Alright lads, we have been through peril before and we have too been in an unknown land before! Lets not disappoint shall we? Let's show whatever is on the other side of this 'Intergalactic wirlpool' that's causing us a right fuss! Let's have three cheers for Addison's forlorn hope and the soul of the Three Nation Fleet!" Howard turned around and pointed his sabre to the portal. The soldiers fixed bayonets and aimed their Atlesian bolt-action rifles directly to the centre of the portal, preparing to charge or open fire. Once these iron hearted troops completed the order they yelled at the top of their lungs. "HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!"

Howard heard the bell and immediately looked over. There he saw Addison and heard her yell the remark to the portal. Howard and Cochrane sprigged into action. The two Admirals turned around to their soldiers and ordered all to arms and to form up between Khan and Hawks forces. It seemed to be the only free space and it was relatively close to the portal so they took it. Howard and Cochrane yelled for a column to be formed. Due to the tight space the force needed to form in a square column of 250 by 250. The decision of making the line a square made the force looked much more intimidating and was used back in alpha in 1806-1815 to defeat the enemy by intimidation of size, not lead. The column walked forward and then pivoted to the left and walked forward to the portal. Standing a few feet behind Addy's forces. Standing in a perfect square with perfect discipline and spacing. By this time Howard didn't pay attention to Douglas, he and his troops were moving and focusing and he already had the Victory prepared for any action. He did make a small remark to Douglas by saying; "The Victory is at Barrett." There he moved on and looked forward. He then saw Addison and Hawk next to each other and yelled over; "We are right behind you!" After he yelled out his cheeky statement he looked to his side and saw Khan. At the point, due to Howard's power and size in the world, he didn't care. Khan caused him to kill many innocents including the 15,000 civilians at his bombardment upon Sozopol that, for some odd reason, were not evacuated. At this point he just saw this bloak as a madman and didn't even raise an eye at him in disgrace. Instead he looked forward to the portal and gestured for Cochrane and Scarlet to do the same, even though Scarlet would rip off his head if she could. He didn't see it but he could tell that him and Minori had been arguing, to stop this Howard gave Minori a bit of advice by a simple side-look. Just by the look and movement of his eyes it yelled at her to act like him and announce her superiority. @Xoco@Mackenzie Rose@Phoebe@Agent Knockout

Howard stood at the front of his line as he ordered for the troops to stand at ease. Howard himself walked up to Cochrane and joined in a conversation with his trusty Rear Admiral. - Howard walked up to Cochrane with a small and exhausted smile. Howard was exhausted from the march because he never really liked long marches on foot, hence why he was always on his black stallion. He smiled because he was laughing at the people around him. He patted Cochrane on the back and placed his new pith helmet with his new badge which was made by his partner, Scarlet Windtail. "Cochrane, what do you think of this then?" He showed him this new black pith helmet but more specifically the badge. - Cochrane looked in awe at the helmet and badge. He laughed and looked to Howard with a very questioning look. He wanted to know if he and the troops would have one. He laughed and looked to Howard with a smirk too. "Show the troops sir, might give them a moral boost if you give us a version too." - Howard agreed and held his black helmet in the air with the badge facing the troops. "So? What do you think?" (OOC: Credit to @Scarlet Wind Tail. Thanks sweetie! <3)

"You knew a bulkhead of our force was on that ship. It seems you can't do anything if it has nothing to do with risking fellow lives. Including mine." He slurred a little as he said 'Including mine'. At this point these words were true. He had made many attacks on areas that were either taken, in battle or had allies with them. Howard wanted to end this here. Ivan was just being self loafing at this point. It seemed like he wished to become the master of the battle in his eyes and maybe others. To Howard he had no sense of strategy. Howard hoped than when he said his final remark he would think of his soldiers actions and his own orders and think better in the future however even Howard knew that this was unlikely for such a risk take on a powerful ally. These actions reminded him of Khan from 404, he knew how to deal with it at this point. Risk and be risked. However is Ivan ruined again, it wouldn't only be Howard aiming a pistol at his head. And so, Howard turned around and muttered one final word before putting texting Addison that if she sees any rockets she should text him, though she was in combat and putting his phone in his pocket and signalling for the soldiers to follow out the little bastion to their positions. "If you risk the life of me or an ally again with full knowledge of it. It wont be only me in this side of the room." He smirked as he walked out the room with his troops following behind. He pretty happy of how he acted in the situation, he had matured and he hoped Ivan would too by listening to a more powerful man who had much wider experience in the game of risk.

Howard stood there, thinking. He collected evidence of how many were on the ship, how many would be killed, how many Ivan lost and many many other pieces of evidence within the span of 10 seconds. and looked at Ivan like a precise detective at a crime scene. he rested his head on his hand, leaned on one foot and lowered a brow and said a very simple statement. "I saw.. two planes get struck and fall.. Right. You caused their deaths by targeting a ship that is already in a boarding operation with five beings of immense power that can win this battle for us. You know that. Now.. what you have just done is launch rockets that will probably kill them because they shot down two planes with rockets you shot at them knowing fully that they are on board and you shoot again in 'revenge' because they acted in defence.. seems a bit odd to me, wouldn't you agree?"

Howard stood there, he stopped in a very calm position with a cheeky smirk on his face. He took a step forward and the 25 troops walked inside. They refused to aim, showing how a pen is more mightier than a sword in a situation. Howard knew that there would be an overreaction to his planned yell and it would stir Ivan to overact too. He shook his head and held his sword like a cane. He looked at the soldier and kindly asked him to move aside. "Move aside mate, you just killed our forces on that ship. If you're mature like our red lads you would let me stop this" He pointed to the troops behind him which still stood there with a clear calmed angry face with their weapons in their hands but not primed or aimed but prepared. Howard stood there, he was using his old tactic of 'Don't join me, there is no need to. However you should see my side and think about yours.'. It had worked before, and he hoped for it to work now or else his backup would need to come in use. As he stood there, waiting for a reply he held his phone in his right hand. He blindly typed to James that there was a mutiny and that they may need background help within the lines.

Howard sat there at his desk. Sat there and stared at these plans to the point he looked lifeless. His mind was ticking at these plans Addison laid out in front of him and he knew what she wished him to do. His eyes raced across the paper like a scanning device to detect any faults in the plans. He noticed many flaws in these papers. Bulkheads at an improper height, space that even a on a battleship would provide as small. He hated the plans but he didn't want to show it, knowing some heavy work may of been put into them. After a minute or so, a few seconds after Addison had stopped speaking, Howard looked up to Addison with a small smile. The smile seemed real but it was fake to hide his hate for the plans. He spoke calmly to hide it more. "I hear you, I will say this. I will help design. First however, these plans are undeniably unsatisfactory."

Howard stood there as, to his eyes, a mutiny started. He didn't know what this was on about but all he knew was that he had targeted somebody on that ship directly, and it wasn't an enemy. Immediately the Admiral get enraged at this. "Get back here you lowlife cocky fucker!" He rushed after the little bugger who seemed to wish on making the battle three sided. The troops around him jumped at the sudden yell of their Admiral. As he ran close behind, preparing to literally barge down the door, he signalled for the soldiers who had previously held Ivan at gun-point to follow. At the sight of this the soldiers quickly followed. Their guns were ready in case Ivan tried anything risky that would put his name down in the black pages of history.