Day ??? of year 384 Post-Downfall
Sunstorm onset

[h3]The Lone Survivor[/h3]
	[i] “Enn Que? Really? That sounds suspiciously like an Eighfour name, Kay-Gee.” [/i]Yes, it was ... probably. Had Kay not said something about her people not being particularly inventive with naming? But if he was to change name, he might as well stick with it. It was not [i]these[/i] people for whom he was foregoing his old identity. Notrau was supposed to be dead. The version of him who was being questioned[i] was[/i] Eighfour...ian. Might as well get used to thinking of himself as such, whether the fellow with the assault rifle was willing to take it at face value or not. For now, he was silent. Too much talking was unhealthy. 
	[i]“Uh, maybe? He’s a friend, Ell-Oh. We need him as much as he needs us.”[/i] At the worst, he was as useful as any other young healthy guy who could shoot well. He was still not entirely certain what Eighfour should [i]do[/i], aside of perhaps replace their tactic of worshipping their inert warhead to a protocol of, [i]"If you see an unknown not-civilian, announce that everyone should pick as much useful stuff as they can carry and run, [b]run[/b] for your lives."[/i] 
	The hello-guy seemed to be the most officer-like individual present for the time being, unfortunately. Ordered Kay around and the driver scrambling for some readings, at least. Let them look and scan if they wanted. As long as they did not touch his physical person, he could just pretend it was all the usual protocol and not care. There was nothing to find. He had no desire to light up and declare himself free-for-all.
	[i]“Eighfour is in danger, and Enn Que has information and advice on how to deal with it.”[/i] Great. She was doing her hardest to paint him a saviour. It felt like a heavy burden to bestowed. He did not have a[i] clue![/i]
	Perhaps it was part of why so few even attempted to turn renegade. If you had been trained to take orders from the ground up, to never doubt, to never stray or even think too much, you didn't really have a bloody clue what to do once left to your own devices. Even in a faction like his old, you [i]belonged[/i] somewhere, and had something to fall back to. Now, everything was strange. Wrong, almost. Even aside of the everyone trying to survive thing. Which you really couldn't for too long, alone out here in the wild. He might not have even made it to running out of bullets.
	The rifleman in charge didn't look pleased. [i]“I really fucking hope you’re right, Kay-Gee, ‘cause we’re pretty much screwed otherwise. A drone came by earlier, hours ago; a really hi-tech drone. Came through the trees and then just blasted straight through the sound barrier out of here. Someone’s already found us.”[/i] 

	Cold. 

	Too late. 

	"Hide" had failed. The wait had begun. He was not sure he wanted to see what would happen if they actually opted to just wait it out. 
	And yet the Eighfourians were concerned about a single anti-personnel infantry unit, not the faction that presumably had had their drone return by now? Or a "drone". He did not know any supersonic drones, nor a lunatic that'd fly a fighter through a forest, but it could be from the west. Or the Trenians had even more new toys than just the hell-lasers. The south was an unknown. The east was water. Easy enough to cross by a flighted unit, but also largely surveilled by Anderekians. It had been all quiet on that front.  
	Should he break protocol, and thus his silence? He, technically, had no rank here. Not yet. Soldiers took orders. He had not been given one. You only asked questions when orders were unclear. Kay had not reacted yet, so he did not know whether asking questions would conflict with any unwritten rule here, either. He was on his own. 
	If he asked... If he genuinely wanted to know what it was like, it would prove he was not allied with whoever sent the drone -- which would probably imply he was at the very least on another side. If he was bluffing, it would mean that he was testing them for lies, and that a [i][b]really hi-tech[/b][/i] faction would indeed know where exactly he was -- and take any harm to him as an open declaration of war. Not that killing him wouldn't mean a declaration of war anyway, were he a part of a faction other than Eighfour. One would think that a faction as small as this would treat anyone larger kindly, just to avoid starting any unfavorable wars. And not flaunt any "remove area from map" buttons. To think of it, if multiple factions congregated here, then they might as well use it specifically against [i]one another,[/i] and remain entirely indifferent towards Eighfour itself. 
	He decided he might as well risk it. It had not been confirmed he would be taken to "Gramps", so supposedly he was still subject to a pre-hearing of sorts. You were not supposed to interject to a hearing. But those people were not going to follow Anderekian protocol, either. Seemed safer than asking whether they can join the guys on the pickup, at least.
	"The craft sighted hours ago," he specified, still using the voice mostly reserved for reporting in. What manner of unit of time was 'hours ago'? "What was it like? Form, any visible armaments, any markers, pattern of movement? Do you have any recordings of it? I am trying to figure out its identity."
	Still motionless. 

73:05:00 LNT
(early evening)