Epilogue: Rock N Roll Is Here to Stay!
"And that's the top of the hour, so I will be taking my break. I'll be leaving you with some good sounds from some of our station's favorite bands. Black Sabbath, CCR, maybe a little of Pink Floyd, just to settle in after the hectic events we have all been through. For now though... eh... let's just do the Eagles... "Desperado." That's some easy listening. See you later, metalheads."
Boz put down his headset and flicked the microphone off. He set the station to auto as a pre-planned list of songs began to play over the console. Taking a long well-deserved breath, he got up from the controls of his station and headed out. It had been a long segment and he needed the break.
Besides, there was someone he had to meet most urgently. He had promised after all.
As he exited out into the corridors of the Fallen Serpent, he saw a few of his crewmates greet him as he passed by. The congratulated him on his work, told him how good a job he had done. He mostly just offered a wave in reply. He was just happy to be of service. To not just his ship, but all the ships in this little fleet of theirs.
He never would've imagined how much his life would change as a result of him taking Retz's offer. To become more than just a lowly comms officer, but something of value to everyone. Course it hadn't been easy. Earning trust was hard, and losing it was shockingly easy. He may have found a way to fix it, but he knew he still had work to do on that front.
One bit of it was waiting for him just ahead.
He entered the mess hall to find Zapap waiting for him. He wasn't hard to spot, he was the only unggoy at the only occupied table. Everything else was vacant. Zapap looked at him expectantly as the kig-yar radio host took his seat across from him.
"Good to see you, Zappy," Boz said with a smile. "I... I really did not think I ever would again."
Zapap grunted a little.
"Me not expect to be back here," he concurred. "Me and other unggoy thought you gone for good."
"Do you wish we were?" Boz asked tepidly.
Zapap just sighed.
"Me still thinking," he explained. "What you want talk bout?"
Boz nodded in compliance and just placed his hands on the table.
"I meant what I said before, I am sorry for how I treated you," he began earnestly. "I kinda used you as a means to an end, rather than an actual employee and I was wrong to. You should not have been a gopher for the station, that was not fair."
Zapap shrugged.
"Me get it," he said. "You kig-yar. You not really care about unggoy feelings. It just how is."
"But I do care about your feelings, Zaps! At least now I do, because I wasn't thinking about them before," Boz admitted. "I was just thinking so much about everything else. And you being an unggoy didn't help no, but... it was more than that. I got caught up in the attention, the glory of it, and... lost myself a little."
Zapap looked to Boz now with a curious eye. The kig-yar continued.
"I always wanted to share music, I love music, and this was the dream job," Boz explained. "And everyone was into it! Everyone, even if they did not like me, they listened to me! They tuned in, they took notice! I served a purpose! I wasn't just some stupid comms officer anymore, I was Boz the Buzzard! The voice of rock and... I guess that was all that mattered in my head at some point."
"Sound bout right," Zapap confirmed.
"And that was where I lost my way a little," Boz confessed. "I forgot how this was bigger than just me. It was about the music! It was about sharing it! And... I forgot how easily that could all get spoiled because of what the secret purpose of the station ultimately was. I just... figured it would never come up. That I wouldn't lose all I built."
"Then you did," Zapap reminded him.
Boz just nodded.
"I think it took losing all of that though to remind me of why I took up the job to begin with," he explained. "I should never have made it about me so much, it blinded me to all the things that we going wrong. All the bad stuff that I tried to ignore and I wasn't fulfilling my role as morale officer as well as I could. I compromised myself, and compromised the music."
Zapap shrugged somewhat at it all, Boz supposed he was dragging this out a bit more than he should.
"Just want new contract," the unggoy told him. "No make it complicated."
"I just want to explain where I went wrong so you know I am sincere," Boz clarified. "And that I intend to do better. By you, by the ship, by everyone. My job is about the music, about keeping spirits up. It might be my show, but I need to remember it is about more than just me."
Zapap cocked his head a bit.
"You are host," he told the kig-yar. "Make sense it about you. Me problem always about how job sucked."
Boz nodded at that. Yeah, in retrospect he really had shoved all the crappy grunt work on the unggoy. Maybe someone would have told him that was only natural, but now it was just decidedly not rock n' roll. At the very least he should have made him a roadie or something, given him the proper title and attire.
Well, he was going to fix that right now.
"What if you did not have to do that job anymore? What if I gave you a different job, a better one?" Boz asked. "One where you won't be some toady or minion where I send you off, but a truly integral part of the show?"
Zapap leaned back a little. As much as his species could at least.
"Me listen," he replied. "It pay?"
"Absolutely, and not in food," Boz assured him. "It's the entire point as to why I started out explaining all of this, my whole damn spiel and everything. I am laying out my strategy for the future of BBR."
"You still doing show?" Zapap asked curiously. "Even when we get to Earth?"
"Of course! Just cause the Flotilla will technically be dissolved doesn't change anything," Boz noted. "I still will act as the voice of the Fallen Serpent and chief morale officer. I am just gonna do it on a grander scale. With more listeners than ever! A whole damn fleet of humans, plus all the ships in Zek's new fleet he just got. BBR is more important than ever and I want you to be a part of it!"
"As what?" Zapap finally just asked.
Boz looked at him curiously, as if it was obvious.
"I want you to be my cohost, Zaps!" He finally relented. "My partner, my fellow Disc Jockey! My deacon in my ministry of rock!"
Zapap looked at Boz stunned. He probably hadn't been expecting that.
"Me? Me not know about music!" He declared.
"You knew enough to take over the job for a day!" Boz reminded him. "Look, I need you in there with me, man. Someone to bounce banter off of, to have discussions and tell jokes with, to field calls and do segments during station breaks! It will help the atmosphere feel casual if it feels like it's just two friends shooting the shit together."
Zapap rubbed at the back of his head.
"Me no know," he said hesitantly. "It big step up. Being host very stressful."
"But this time I will be in the chair with you, not just bossing you around from behind it," Boz assured. "Think of all the Unggoy that are now taking up proper roles in the Fallen Serpent you could reach. You would be their spokesman for wider relations with the UNSC and beyond. If anyone could help show them that their voices are valued and can be heard, it would be you, Zappy!"
Zapap still looked skeptical, but at the same time thoughtful.
"Me not token hire," he declared. "Me real partner. Me get to pick out schedule. Choose tracks. Do own segments."
"Of course, I need the fresh ideas anyway," Boz assured.
"I get paid same as you," Zapap added pointedly. "Hour rate. Full Commission!"
"I will have to talk it out with Retz, but I think he will be willing to do it," Boz reasoned. "We have a major creds influx from taking over Snarlbeak's business holdings. He's already helping Zek to liquidate a few assets to bulk up our accounts. Plus as Pirate King, Zek gets a ton of extra creds on commission from the Syndicate to keep his transitionary empire stable. They can't have Snarlbeak's former operations fracturing now that Zek is in charge of them."
Zapap looked steely in Boz's eyes.
"Me get own chair... and am in charge of own soundboard... and you buy lunch for whole first month!"
"More than fair," Boz relented. "You've earned the right to be a bit pushy on that."
Zapap still looked thoughtful though. Eventually he asked one more thing.
"We play full hour of band me like," he demanded. "One with all war song stories."
"Right, Sabaton, sure, cool," Boz recalled. "Weird they are your bag but, okay, sure, whatever. They got some good songs and the UNSC seems to love 'em."
Zapap looked at Boz pensively for a moment. Finally, he stretched out his hand.
"We make deal," He finally said.
Boz took the hand in response and shook it vigorously.
"Awesome! Oh dude, BBR is gonna be so much better with both of us in the chair... chairs, whatever," he said enthusiastically. "I got so many ideas, prank calls to enemy fleets! Contests for listeners! Shit maybe we can actually bring guests on for some lively discussions of classic rock! There have got to be a few headbangers on Earth still."
"Would they come to show hosted by aliens who glass them?"
Boz opened his mouth to speak... then quickly gave it some thought.
"Eh, maybe hold off on that one," he relented. "At least until this whole war thing is sorted out, I guess. It does sound like we will be a little busy on that front."
Boz slipped down from the chair, a renewed sense of vigor in his step.
"We can draw up a proper work contract with Retz later," he said. "Get all our affairs in order on this. Right now, let's celebrate our renewed partnership!"
"How we do that?" Zapap asked, jumping down from his seat to join him.
"Where else? The Ascendant Justice's movie screen!" Boz told him. "It is already packed with everyone celebrating Operation First Strike's success. Might as well crash it a little. Right?"
Zapap shrugged again.
"Me okay with that," he said. "So long as there food rations."
"There is gonna be way more than food rations, Zappy," Boz told him. "Trust me on that. By the way, we are going to need to get you a proper DJ name. How about Zappy Jacky!? Or Zap Rap? ZapZap Top!?"
"Me think up own name," Zapap insisted. "Me thinking Thunder Zap!"
"Alright, alright, we will workshop it," Boz said reassuringly. "We just gotta give it the proper rocker touch and all. I'll help you pick out one you like, I swear."
Boz and Zapap talked the whole way to the Ascendant Justice's screening deck. Of which there was a lot to discuss. Segment ideas, track scheduling, topics to ask listeners about, and various other hosting procedures they needed to go over. Boz was already enjoying having Zapap as a true partner by the time they reached the airlock. It was nice to have a collaborator, and not be alone in his thoughts.
He knew this would be good for him. For both of them really. He would avoid getting trapped in his own head again. The music would remain paramount. And while he would always remain the voice of BBR, Zapap would only add to it and make it stronger.
The unggoy would also be able to truly discover himself, to grow this confidence he had gained. With any luck, it would infect the other unggoy as well, if not more so. Then their little ship would be that much more productive on the whole. Instead of just sticking the gas-suckers with all the shit jobs, they would actually effectively utilize all their talents.
A more respectful and complete Fallen Serpent. He liked the idea of that.
As they arrived at the screening deck, Boz was met with a surprise. As he and Zapap approached, the assorted humans and Jackals took notice. Very quickly they began to cheer at his arrival, welcome him wholeheartedly and even move to shake his hand or pat him on the back.
Helping out during the Operation, beyond just playing rock hits, had certainly done a lot to fix his broken reputation it seemed. The warm feeling of being wanted, accepted, appreciated, it was as strong as ever it seemed. Like nothing had happened.
But Boz knew that wasn't true. A lot had happened. He had not been the perfect morale officer and he had lost their trust as a result. He got a lot of the goodwill back it seemed, and he was grateful for that. But he knew, ultimately, he still could do more. He had to do more.
For he wasn't just the morale officer, he was Boz the Buzzard. And now joined by Wacky Zappy (He'd try to get Zapap to agree to that name), he had an even bigger responsibility ahead of him. The humans were facing a deadly assault on their homeworld. He was likely going to be in the thick of it, everyone on Fallen Serpent was. They would need the rock he had more than ever.
He would have to see about talking some things out with Joker, try to get more tracks. He had plenty of terabytes of music, sure, but he could always have more. Maybe if he actually asked Joker nicely enough this time, he would provide him whatever he was holding back in reserve. The sardonic pilot had alluded to having more tracks than he had let slip onto the main server of the Normandy.
Whether or not he managed to convince Joker to sneak him more songs, Boz knew he would have an important duty all the same. He was here to provide music and bridge the gap between the species with the power of rock. He would never forget that responsibility again, never compromise it with lies or deceit. He would always remember: The music was bigger than him.
He would remember what he had always been about. The root of himself, his core. As far back as he could remember, music had always guided him. And sharing it had always been his drive. It had been the thing that kept him and his mother close. It had been what led him to the stars. Now, it was his entire job.
Retz had been right: You had to seize your moment. Take the chances you were given. He had done that, and while he had stumbled, he had never let it keep him down for long. Because he had a job to do, he had music to serve and people eager to hear it.
The truth was in those old songs. You couldn't stop Rock n' Roll. And no one was ever going to stop Boz the Buzzard, not even himself. He would keep on rocking, he would keep his passion alive, drive himself to be its advocate, use it to bring others together, and bring a sliver of joy in the darkest of times.
And he was positive those dark times would be hitting them soon enough. But he would be ready for them. He was chief morale officer, he was the Metal Herald, the priest of rock. He was Boz the Buzzard, and just like Rock N' Roll... he was here to stay.
AN: And so, like every good rock album or playlist, things come to a close. Boz is back where he belongs and Zapap is now his cohost instead of beleaguered assistant. Their radio station is set up to reach even more people soon and while its not all roses for the future, at least it looks like Boz is gonna be okay. Buzzard Buccaneer Radio has been a fun side-project and a great means of telling additional stories in this little universe I have crafted. While it is mostly an extended Lower Decks episode, I hope it shed some unique perspectives on how the Flotilla Alliance operated and who are the smaller players were, no matter who they were.
Will BBR be back for the sequel? More than likely. Will it be a full-fledged story like this one? Hard to say. Putting together song lists, coming up with scenarios and topics, while also writing the main story was trying. I like to think I at least gave you guys a ton of great songs to listen to while reading. Part of me hopes I gave you a few new favourites. If anyone ever decides to create a full playlist somewhere of BBR's lineup through this story, I would honestly love to see it.
Even if BBR does not get its own spinoff sequel fic in the future, you will hear from Boz and Zap again. Because as we have made very clear throughout this story... you can't stop Rock n' Roll. Thank you Detroit! Good night!