[snip]

Melissa looked at the group “Sir, I’ll have two of my MACOs go with you to the barracks and I’ll take two and go look for Baumann.” She said “Is there anything other than MacArms out here that we need to worry about?” She asked the injured pilot as she ensured that her weapon was charged and ready to go.

MACO

Ry’an the alien pilot they were tending too looked aghast at Melissa, almost like he had seen a ghost. “..By the Great Greyhound what are you talking about MACOs!! They’re the elite of the elite of the MacArm forces to the south!!” He tried to sit up and back crawl away from the group now looking at them uncertainty and perhaps like one might an enemy who had captured him. “..You.....you lied to me! No wonder you speak the Higher Tongues!” he said in a growing panic his eyes flitting from person to person who was present.

It was clear somehow the mentioning of MACO as a term was very taboo and a grave misstep for their formerly friendly ESM pilot from the north. But this couldn’t make sense right? How could such a term be taboo or feared by a planet never seemingly having contact with Earth Starfleet or MACOs before? Something wasn’t adding up here as they were finding out, but unless they could calm down their alien pilot guest they probably wouldn’t be getting much more from him.

GM CockRoach

Upon hearing the information Kenneth gave, Naomi smiled. Relief filled her nerves and caused them to settle down. She had been more jittery than a cat on hot metal. >Hopefully, nothing else went wrong.

As if fate read her mind, Lieutenant Colonel Tafoya decided to break their cover with a careless word. The immediate change in the pilot’s demeanor was difficult to ignore. He looked at each of them with fresh horror and began to crawl away, his injuries not yet healed for the moment. Words of accusation followed causing Naomi to glance at the XO with worry.

Being the less intimidating in the group, the blonde woman took a single step toward the pilot. She put her hands out where he could see them despite the darkness. In a calm, patient voice she spoke to him. It was pointless to keep going through with the lie now.

“You’re going to hurt yourself. Calm down and let me point out some things.” She paused in place so he would focus on her.

“Yes, you’re right. We’ve not been completely honest with you, but there’s a good reason. If we really were with -McAmy or whatever it is called- forces then… Why aren’t we trying to get information out of you during the trip? Instead, take a good and close look back on our interaction.” While Naomi was still reasonable, her mind was fluttering chaos.

–ENS Naomi D. Locke, Sci

Eldorin was working on repairs as he heard the helmsman enter and the XO talking in the background, he hadn’t thought of what Naomi could do till the pilot started to freak out over the mention of MACO, of which his wife was one, although not who the pilot thought. He turned to Naomi and said quietly, “I was going to ask you to help realign frequency bands manually while I try to account for the signal drift, but I think you’ve got a bigger job than I do. If you can pass me that wrench I’d appreciate it though.” Eldorin remarked, pointing to a wrench near the scientist as he grabbed a few bands and wrapped them onto the control dials to keep them in sync. He wanted to tell the story of how he used to do this on his AM radio back on Earth in his 1969 Opel Commodore but as far as anyone here knew, he was human.

Eldorin, CE

Ry’an winced as his still healing wounds caused him to stop his flailing and struggles. He looked to Locke. “..You damn MacArm festers to the south use anything to get your information. This is just a ploy! Well you won’t get anything from me anymore!” he said shoving aside his pain he tried to slowly stand but wasn’t making much headway. The man was clearly frightened of the group now, and simply wanted to get on his feet and hobble as fast as he could away to more friendly forces. Though how he would do so and where such could be was anyone’s guess. Likely the man would dehydrate or such from his injuries keeping him from performing basic survival tasks in a few days assuming he didn’t get caught or find other help.

As if to complicate matters another passing roar of fast low flying engines were heard, whether MacArm forces from the south or ESM forces from the north was anyone’s guess. One thing was clear as the roar of engines approached they had a different ‘thud thud’ pattern from the jets more like jet powered rotary craft known as helicopters or the like. Whether they planned on stopping at the abandoned base here was also anyone’s guess.

GM CockRoach

Kenny stepped over to the pilot, putting his hands up similarly to what Naomi was doing. “Ry’an, we swear by all that we hold dear. We aren’t MacArm..” he paused for a few moments, then continued. “We aren’t ESM either, to be honest. We aren’t from the south, or the north.” He’d been making connections. The MacArm being so similar to Macos. The connections to the SS Greyhound. The fact that this planet spoke English. It was all coming together to suggest that these people had encountered Starfleet before.

“We’re from up there,” he pointed into the night sky. “A ship called the Bonaventure. It’s stuck in the space around this planet, and we’re just trying to figure out what’s going on so we can leave here and go home… You called this language we’re speaking ‘The Higher Tongue,’ we call it English. It’s the language we speak on the planet we’re from.”

Kenneth Fleet

Ry’an paused a little at Ken’s words. He seemed doubtful but he had least stopped flailing about in trying to get away. Similar to a lever being flicked he looked more closely at the group about him. “..How do I know this isn’t some MacArm trick?” he considered. “..If you truly are part of the Great Greyhound’s Fleet then prove it!” he demanded then.

GM CockRoach

Jonathan could feel the headache building, things had gone south very quickly, and now because of a slip up they were backed into a corner, having to tell the pilot way more information then he would have liked. The Captain was not going to be happy.

Looking around at the sound of the engine noise, Jonathan tried to gauge how long they had. They just did not have the time for this.

The sound of the helicopters was not far off, perhaps a few minutes at best.

“What sort of proof would it take to convince you?” he asked.

Cmdr. McKnight - XO

”..When the Great Greyhound advisors first came they were in desperate straits to our people. They sought workers to uplift to a nearby moon for mining on supplies. In return they provided us knowledge and skills we had since lacked. They also showed select leaders of both the northern and southern peoples their great ship. As well as information on their claims from the Heavens..” He said as if reciting some kind of religious text.

GM CockRoach