Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Mess Hall - “Room with a View”
[snip]

The man meanwhile was drawn to the nearby window view, where the smokey remains of his home planet was in its fully gloomy glory. The man seemed stunned at first, before his mask of stern neutrality came back over his face and he turned to the CO. “..We are in the Heavens! You....” He sighed rubbing his hair torn out scalp of hair of what remained. He seemed at a loss for words for the moment, then looking to the Chef he inquired. “..What.....what is it you have to eat?” he said finally chiming in on the CO’s earlier words about eating.

”..Well, we got coffee, some assorted teas, water of course, for drinks. As for food, I got some rehydrated beef and onion sandwiches on order.” the Chef offered.

GM CockRoach

Ari watched him close enough that she caught the surprise look on his face as well as his return to the stony visage he had borne since being saved. Pretending she hadn’t caught the look, she merely raised an eyebrow as if worried she had missed something. “I’m sorry, you were saying something? All I caught was You…. You’re welcome to ask anything you like. The beef and onion sandwiches are pretty good, by the way.” She turned to the Chef and nodded. “I’ll have a sandwich and coffee please.”

The man didn’t reply quite yet to Ari’s comment, mumbling a reply to the Chef to take a sandwich and a glass of water. The somewhat pale features of his face and skin though probably indicated he was in a state of somewhat mental shock as thoughts ran wild through his mind as he took the offered plate from the Chef.

Ari then moved towards one of the tables by the window and sat down as if nothing were amiss. “Please. Come and relax. I figured there was no need to remain in medical if we were just going to talk.” She nodded to the Doc. “Grab some food, yourself, Doc. It’s been a long day.” She nodded and took a sip of coffee as one of the crewmen placed it before her. She watched the soldier wondering when he would ask what she knew was burning in his mind.

Ari CO

Heeding the CO’s offer the man came over to the table, setting the sandwich plate and water glass down. He took a seat as if on autopilot and then simply looked out again on the window where a small flash of some kind of atomic explosion lit up a patch of the ocean along the southern continent. Showing yet again the war was still raging in fits and flows down below.

Rachel flashed her crooked Chesire smile and prepared herself a simple vegetarian menu, salad with synthetic proteins and calmly took a seat with the Captain, happily munching on her food.

Dr. Grey - CMO

The man watched the flash dim then turned back to his sandwich taking a bite, setting it down on the plate again he gulped down the glass of water a moment later. “..That flash was along the MACARM port holdings of Port Cheri. It was one of their secondary naval holdings and missile production silos for the region. We.....we are in orbit though, we’re not below are we? This......this isn’t some kind of trick by MACARM forces is it? Nor of ESM personnel.....” He paused clutching at the edge of the table with an uncertain look in his eyes. Neither side has such space faring capabilities, nothing like this at least.” He gestured about and then out the window where the rear portions of the Bonaventure’s hull showed through. “..Some automated satellites, and weapon platforms sure,” he added indicating a drifting by bit of space junk which they had seen shooting at each other upon their arrival a few days ago, now almost all of such things were gone and burned up. “..but nothing of this magnitude, if either side had something like this we would not be in the war we are facing now..” he said then turning back to look at the CO and CMO.

”..I....I am not sure what help I could possibly be, that you requested earlier. I am just a lowly officer from my regiment. I do not have access to anything like what is around us now..” he stated.

GM CockRoach

So watched the man a moment then reached over and took his hand. “This isn’t a truck. Or magic. It’s technology, plain and simple. But your war, the things going on, down there, have affected more than just your planet. These aren’t your stars. This isn’t your planet’s place in the universe. And it’s not ours, either. Whatever you guys did that brought your planet here, dragged my ship and crew here as well. And now we all need to get home.”

She leaned back and shook her head. “We want to go home. And your planet needs to return to where it was. Alignments, gravity, rotations… So these things are based on the planets, moons and stars that orbit and revolve. More than just your people and mine may be in danger because of what happened. Is there anything you can tell us that can help?”

It was a long shot. But right now, anything would help.

Ari CO

The man seemed to take in this information quietly for long minutes, almost ten in fact! He finally set his empty water glass down and took in a breath to reply, “..I am afraid I do not think I can be of much help to you. My role in the 423rd Engineers was mainly in base and bunker construction or infrastructure rebuilding or deconstruction while in combat. My squad was assigned to clear out rubble in the suburbs of Bos’ton where you found me when we were ambushed by MACARM air drop troops. Assuming we finished that mission role though then we were to report to an old base nearby which had been decommissioned four years ago, our orders were to prepare the base for revival for unspecified uses in the war..” He stated then clearly at odds to telling a near stranger his mission orders and keeping quiet, old habits died hard it seems.

But this did line up with what the landing party had seen earlier in the suburbs of Bos’ton, there had been ruined heavy machinery vehicles nearby in the battlescape they had rescued the officer from. But more importantly it showed that the abandoned base that the landing party still on the planet had gone into and was found to have the source of the massive unknown power source that was trapping them here was also on the radar of the local ESM forces too for unknown uses. How this would help the ESM in the war against the MACARMs though was a mystery that probably would not be solved.

GM CockRoach

OOC: Silly question perhaps .. where is this in relation to the El/XO/Elm timeline? Just wanting to get that worked in my brain there .. Gene

OOC: I’d say this thread happens a little after the chat with Elm/El/XO, though you could always have them still here in some dark corner etc

GM CockRoach

((About to merge the two threads… Will continue here))

Ari listened to what he said. The idea that the base was to be “revived” for war uses did not sit well with her. Glancing up, thinking to look out the window for a moment to clear her head, she caught the XO across the room in conversation with another crewmate. “Hang on a moment…” she said and rose up to cross the expanse.

Coming upon her XO, she smiled. “Forgive the intrusion. Have you heard from the Away Team, yet? I have the soldier talking. He said they had been heading for an abandoned base nearby to make it ready for, what he called, “war uses”. I’m thinking that may be where the team is. If so, this may be over very shortly if there’s something down there the other side, his side,” she joined to the soldier, “wanted. What do you think?”

Her eyes went from the XO to Elm and back again. Maybe either one had an idea. She was getting tired of to toeing around being discrete. They needed answers now!

Ari
CO