In reply to StarMaster (msg # 1):

" I am Commander Miranda Archer T'Shran, Executive Officer of the Federation Starship Mongoose. Welcome to Federation Space. "
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 16:47, Tue 14 Apr 2020.

Pacomio pretends he’s chewing the sweet end of a cigar and stands ready to back up Commander T’Shran.  This could go easy, or it could go hard; either way he was ready.

Elle resisted the urge to reach for her phaser, silently reminding herself that *that* was the sort of thing that had gotten her transferred to the Mongoose and of the New York to begin with.

And after all, these clickin' hunters, despite their posturing and despite their heavy arms, hadn't raised said arms against the Away Team... yet.

So she let her arm hang loose, but kept her hand hovering nonchalantly by her phaser, while those that were better at doing the talking, did their thing....

Eclipse stands where shi was hir helmet though now transferred to a mount on hir back and hir right hand rested on a phaser pistol sitting in a built in holster on hir armor, but hir tail was weaving back and forth in the air behind hir.

"I do not know this Federation Space you say. You are in the Graash--the Gray Nebula. And you did not answer my question! Why have you interfered with our Hunt?" the man responds.

" Welcome to the Federation of Planets. What is it you are trying to hunt? And then I might be able to even understand why we stopped your hunt. "

"You babble, woman! There are no planets in the Graash!" the man replies. "We hunt the Great Beast. The Hunt keeps them from attacking our planet."

Now that he was actually on this alien ship, he discreetly tried to run scans with his tricorder, though he was careful not to push it if any of the people appeared to be unhappy with what he was doing.

This space-going longship was a puzzle. The concept and design was sensible enough, indicating it may have been built by a culture that was similar to Old Earth's Vikings, but by the time a civilization reached the technological level that could produce interstellar travel, the design should have evolved. There was nothing that said it had to look like a Federation ship... or Klingon or Romulan... or even First Federation... ship. Still, unless there was transdimensional engineering going on below decks, this design was not conducive to the avowed purpose.

As expected, he could not scan below the neutronium deck of the ship. If it was any consolation, he was pretty sure that the beast they were hunting couldn't damage the ship in any way. Except maybe the duranium oars.

He fidgeted for a minute and tried to ease over to the edge of the ship.

" The United Federation of Planets is a government that claims this sector of space. As far as Great Beasts, I see none. I see the ships known as the Ancestor and the Mongoose. So I don't believe we are stopping your Great Hunt as well. Unless you can show me this Great Beast of which you are supposedly hunting? "
This message was last edited by the player at 00:30, Sat 25 Apr 2020.

"Of course you can't see the Great Beast now!" the man replies. "Your blargin ship is blocking our view!"

"The Graash is no-man's land. Your Federation has no claim here and no authority. Now leave and let us return to our hunt!"

" Behind our sensors showed no such Beast behind our ship. Or the Ancestor. "

=/\= T'Shran to Mongoose. The captain of this longship seems to think there is something behind our ship. Do our sensors notice anything? "

=/\= "Yes, Commander. We detected the longship attacking some large starbeast. We moved between it and the longship until we could ascertain what was happening. That's why we sent the Away Team over there." =/\= comes the response from the Captain.

=/\= Well, it seems Captain this is part of their cultural practices, Like the Makah Hunting whales in the Pacific. But in space. =/\=
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:10, Sun 26 Apr 2020.

=/\="You're in First Contact protocols, Commander. Apologize for interrupting their hunt, but perhaps if you explain that we were fascinated by the starbeast and wished to know more about it before it was destroyed... Tell them we're explorers... seeking out new life and new civilizations. We'd like to know more about them as well as the starbeast. See if there's some way to make it up to them... besides letting them continue their hunt."=/\=


OOC: Still waiting for others to post... something to let the rest of us know you are still alive! If you can't think of anything to post, just check with me or the GM for ideas.

=/\= Our deepest apologies. We are explorers. We are fascinated by new things we find when we explore. We hope you accept our apologies and we will no longer stop your hunt. =/\=

Miranda waits for a response.

Eclipse slowly stepped forward and before the chief could reply to Miranda shi spoke up.

"Out of curiosity Sir, how often do you hunt these creatures, and is there a purpose behind these hunts?"

Eclipse waited for a reply but stiffened slightly as hir empathy tweaked and shi knew why just before Navorn foated into view outside the ships shield but easily visible wearing nothing but a shirt, a simple zero gravity maneuvering belt and a harness that had a cable going back to the Ancestor.


[Navorn]

Navorn had gone back inside the ship and after catcthing hir breath went back to the bridge to observe what was going on, but once shi saw and felt Eclipse on the Alien ship shi went back to the airlock and put on a maneuvering pack along with a harness which shi connected to a cable on the outside of the Ancestors hull before pushing hirself off and floating over at first out of sight before, using the maneuvering pack to slowly rise into view of the beings on the ships deck, and with a tight lipped smile shi jauntily waived at them.


[Eclipse]

Eclipse frowned slightly at Navorn before turning back to the aliens.

"My apologies, that's my mate and sometimes shi has an odd sense of humor and likes to show ff what hir race is capable of."

“We wasn’t tryin’ to muscle in on your territory or nothin’.  Just fuggetaboudit.”

"As I just said, they attack our planet. Killing the leader of the rake keeps them from attacking for another year," the man says.

"Bah! Perhaps we have injured it enough to prevent this year's attack. If they attack Yig'Kar, the deaths will be on your heads!"

"Now leave! The Hunt is over."

" Seriously, A good Hunt right now sounds amazing. But, Your choice. "

=/\= Moongoose, we have been asked to leave. Beam us up. =/\=
This message was last edited by the player at 04:33, Wed 29 Apr 2020.

Starbird gives the aliens an irreverent but not overly vulgar salute before the beam captures him.  Arrivaderci.

Elle kept her voice quiet, hopefully out of earshot of these “hunters.”

She had her doubts about their claims, but it wasn’t Starfleet’s way to jump at hunches, especially not when the Away Team was on *their* territory.

When the coast was “clear” and the Mongoose’s transporter had locked onto them, Elle whispered, to the Captain, Commander T’Shran and this ‘Bugeyes’:

“Something didn’t feel right, right? There must be more to it than that. Self-defense is one thing, sport another. Not trying to judge either way, per se, but... do you trust them?”

" Short answer, No. Long answer is far more complicated. And in the end doesn't matter, cause this is a Prime Directive and First Contact situation. Although, my concerns and my suggestions will not only be in my logged reports, they will be in personal logs and in a direct conversation with the Captain.
"

After materializing back on the Mongoose and over hearing Quinn talk to Miranda Eclipse moves over closer to them.

"If you want the Ancestors active stealth system is operational so I could have them follow the aliens if needed to try to gather more information. I do wonder though where these creatures they attack come from and go to and if it is an unprovoked attack on the creatures part or not."

========>>>> To transportee room

“Trust ‘em?  I don’t think I’d loan them money, if that’s what yooz means.  Unless I had a good leg-breaker working for me.  Even then...”