Feeling that this was as good a shot as any we were escorted to one of their military bases. They were pretty reluctant to let us get fuel, but the prospect of a really bad crash made them reconsider. We were given the farthest runway from the main hangar to land. When we did, Wideload sighed in relief. "I only had half an hour in the air left." he said. We were told by the tower to stay where we were. We were fine with doing that. The squad of aeromorphs were still surrounding us. They would not let us simply roam free. Eventually, their miltary police came down and soldiers came out their cars. They were carrying machine guns and rifles. They were still no threat to us, and we just looked at them. "Allright. What the hell brings you here!? Are you guys stupid!? Breaching sovereign airspace like that!?" the sergeant yelled at us. "One of our friends was low on fuel. Besides that, we want asylum here in this country." The soldiers just looked at us like we were all insane. "What? Say that again. I must have misheard you." he said in a shocked tone. "We want asylum here." I repeated. I was firm.
That made them look at each other. "What're we going to do?" one of the officers asked. The sergeant said "Call up the chain. This is way above our paygrade." There was not much they could do here. In a few hours, word had indeed made it up the chain and a blackhawk helicopter came from the distance. We aeromorphs could see it coming from much farther away that the humans on the ground. There must have been another military base in the country. That made sense to me. A man with army fatigues and camouflage cap stepped off the helicopter. From the way the military police backed up and gave him all the space he needed, I knew he was important. We just watched things unfold. Even the aeromorphs lined up and saluted him. He looked like an elite. He walked up to us and said "Greetings. I am General Synke Nijdam of the Liboleone Army. Welcome to our humble land." He did not look happy to see us. In fact, he seemed quite annoyed. I introduced our group and once again said that we wanted to have asylum. We were getting really antsy here, surrounded on this base.
He sighed and looked at us. "I'm well aware of the request. We have yet to consider whether or not to accept that request." he said. I had a guess what the answer would be if it was solely up to him. "Why not!? We really need help." Babybird said testily. "They'll kill us if we go back home!" Hatchling added. He looked at them and asked us where home was. I stepped in before they could say it. "It's not certain that we'll be staying. You haven't even decided to consider the request. If you don't want us here, give us some fuel and we will be off." I said. Going somewhere else was fine. Having them snitch on us to Ixiti was not something that would make our lives easier. It would only make things difficult. The general said "You'll stay here until I return. Do not make any sudden moves." he commanded. We nodded our heads. He turned and got the attention of one of the junior officers with a stern glance. "Take me to the general. I have to make some arrangements for them to stay here for the time being." he said. The sergeant looked at him and said "Do it." The rest were still waiting here with us.
