Log:Defiance Guild: Snakes on a Plan

Snakes on a Plan

OOC Date: April 4 2018
Location: Kashyyyk
Participants: Defiance: Sajin, Grom, Zhu Yan, Kasia Ashkuri, and Hex as GM

The short story: Defiance goes monster hunting in the low levels of the Kashyyyk forest. It goes about as competently as you might guess.

The long story:

The Wookiees told them not to do it.

And any time wookiees tell you not to do something, really, you probably shouldn't do it. But does Defiance have any sense? No. No they do not. Nor do they have much sense of self preservation, and they also have Hex as a leader, so that was a strike against them from the start. He seems in good spirits as they hike down away from the civilized levels of the wroshyr-tree society that makes up the wookiees' home, carrying a rifle and watching his step as pathways and stairs begin to lead, increasingly, to steps and walking that is far less deliberate. "We're looking for an anakkona," Hex clarifies the mission. "Big snake kind of thing. GIANT snake. Blue-green in color... surprisingly sneaky for a huge snake, but there you go. It'll be a gorgeous trophy AND good eating! But they also eat Wookiees, so... y'know. Be careful. And like half the plants eat wookiees too. Anybody good at botany?"

"So that's why so many Wookies venture off world. They're tired of being the most vulnerable on their own planet. Makes sense. Out in the galazy where they're on top of the food chain." Sajin says off handedly, nodding as they march through the stairs and pathways leading deeper and lower into the Kashyyyk jungle. Good thing he had his helmet lamb and a HUD in that power armor of his, it would probably start getting dark soon with how thick the canopy was getting.

"Bah! Wookies are stupid human cuddle-beasts!" Grom claims with loud disdain. "Grom wishes to make a headpiece out of giant snake skull. So that Grom can say my crown eats Wookies. HA!" The Houk troops along merrily deeper into a bad idea, Vibro ax in one hand, idly swiping at low hanging vegetation, with a rifle carried over the other shoulder.

"Definitely wouldn't wanna be furry down here," said Yan, who's jacket was in fact especially furry. Said jacket was currently trying to burst out of the armor plating that currently covered the man, protecting his extremities and intremities (they're a thing now), and he was carrying his impressive TA-16 heavy rifle. Loaded for space-bear, but not as much as Sajin was. "Hey wait, I know something about botany! It's what my food eats!" YEAH.

"We should have brought someone who knew about the plants of this world," Kasia replies with a sigh, shifting the bag on her shoulders. She's got boots and pants, she always brings them on off world trips just in case Hex finds trouble to get into now. It's a good move on her part, this is not froofy dress territory. She has a blaster on her hip as well, because hopefully that'll help against whatever they find here. "At least we've got a will if anything happens. Boon gets everything." Sorry, Tarion.

"Grom, its skull might be as big as like... Yan," Hex gestures at a random human, "But if you think you can make a hat out of it, knock yourself out, buddy." He has a rifle and a polearm, and is wearing old Imperial armor from the doomed world of Scarif, the whole thing having been Twi'lek-ified to suit its owner's anatomy and fashion sense (or lack thereof). "Kasia, there's no point, anyone who knows about the plants of this world says 'don't go near them' and we were never gonna listen to that."

As Sajin predicted, it is getting darker and dimmer as they continue to descend, and Hex eventually gives a datapad to Yan. "Here, navigate with this. The part where it says DO NOT PROCEED is where we're going."

Sajin blinks looking back at Grom, though only his shaking head can be seen under that armor of his. He glances to the sign after a moment and blinks. "Wait... Do Not PRoceed. I thought it said crazy space snake this way..." He looks to Kasia, "Don't worry Kasia. I'll make sure everything is okay..." Just like he did last night after they left and stumbled into a Chewbacca after trying to slap Yan.

Grom scoffs loudly, "More skull with which to make my hat." The idly swinging ax has accumulated a growing mass of vines and nettles, as they all proceed. Grunts, snorts, and irritable stomps grow as clinging nettles hamper his heavy footfalls. "Stupid wookies must be afraid of getting thorns in their stupid fluffy hair," as he reaches down to rip away a handful of vines. "Ha! Grom fears no stupid plants-" he stands up, walking promptly into another vine and falling face down in a tangle of clinging vegetation. "GROM IS NOT AMUSED."

"What? Why? Why do I gotta be the map bitch?" complained Yan, reluctantly receiving and reviewing the datapad. The light from the device was blinding in his night-vision so he turned it off. And then suddenly he couldn't see his surroundings because dark! UGH. He looked a bit more at the map and then abruptly yelled out, "Wait a second!" He pointed to the map dramatically, then looked up at Hex. His helmet hid his expressions marvelously. "The ENTIRE THING says 'Do Not Proceed'! How in the sithspit am I gonna figure out where we're going?!" he cried, jabbing the thing with his finger. He'd probably zoomed in too far.

"That's no--" Kasia starts, pauses, and then exhales a weary sigh. "True. That's true." They're all dumb, and that's how they wound up down here. She's careful with each step, which means she's straggling a little bit behind those who have night vision, or those who have low light vision, or those who aren't afraid of the vines and stuff down here. She is, it's nature, she hates nature. She comes to a stop when Grom falls, and hurries over to try and help him detangle from the mess with gloved hands.

"Because you're the one MOST likely to start moaning about how we chose the wrong wroshyr branch and now we're lost," Hex replies to Yan as he hands the datapad over, pressing it against the shorter man's chest to emphasize the point. "Map bitch." Then he turns around and starts walking again, lekku swishing with the satisfaction that comes from annoying Yan. "Do your best, ok ka, I'm sure you got this!" Ha ha ha ha AAHHAHHHHHH, those vines that got Grom reach out and snake around Hex's ankles, and with a surprised yelp he goes down, right over the edge of the wide branch they're walking on. There, he dangles, clinging. "Witchtits! No! This is terrible!"

Sajin is too busy laughing at Yan as Hex designats him the map bitch. Though he stops as soon as he hears the loud thud of GRom. He turns rapidly and is about to move to help but then Hex yelps and is in an even worse predicament. "Oh no, Boss!" He trudges forward, watching his step and does his best to pull the fat Twi'lek free. "Oh god..." He grunts and if they didn't see what he was doing it might have sounded like he was either taking a crap of having an orgasm. "OH boss, you're so LARGE!" He glances to Kasia, bated breath seeping through his helm's speaker. "Kasia... you gota get him on a diet..."

Grom regains his feet with slow, deliberate movements (and a significant amount of help from Kasia). Up to a knee, then up to his feet. "You are thanked," he informs Kasia, complaining aloud, "Grom did not come to fight stupid plants! A PLANT IS NO WORTHY FOE," he adds, with a stomp on.. some fallen leaf. "Where is something with a skull Grom can crush?" He points to Yan. "WALKING JACKET HUMAN. Where on map does it say 'worthy foes with big skulls'?"

"Ha ha karma's a fickle mistress, ain't it buddy?" was the sound from behind Yan's helmet visor, along with some slightly distorted laughter. He had no trouble getting over the wide log, a couple of really short bursts from the ever-present jetpack keeping him steady here and there. No need for a full flight just yet! He didn't bother to help Hex, or Grom, the others had it well in hand and hey, something might need to get shot soon. Because GUN. "Sajin, don't blow your load too hard!" he called out. "Hex might fall over again!" And now for a test of his map reading skills. He looked at it closer and saw nothing. "If my reading of this is correct..." he paused, then gulped, then said, "they should be everywhere around us. OH WAIT. I had it zoomed in!" He pinched the corners, making the map bigger than 1:1 scale, and got a far better idea of where he was. "Uh," he murmured. He looked up, left, right, "I dunno! Sithspit! Hex where in the forest is this thing?"

Kasia tries, she really tries to help Grom get free of the vines, and she'd offer him a hand to his feet, but honestly she'd never be able to lift even a fraction of his weight, and if he used her to steady himself, she'd be crushed. The remarks from Sajin get a little laugh, head shaking. "I can't do anything about that, I'm afraid. You'll have to try and convince Hex that working out is something he's going to have to start doing again." She's fluffy enough that it's clear it's not a thing she does on the regular either.

"I don't know, Yan! Like, down!" Hex replies, clinging to Sajin while peering over the edge that he almost did fall down, down, down, down. Down. "Anakkonas live on more the lower levels. And keep an eye out for their prey, ok ka, like animals you think they could eat. Arrawtha-dyr, or grantaloupes, or..." Hex gestures vaguely. "Us." He dusts himself off and gets going again, taking the lead. This means that he's basically holding back branches to pass them, then letting them snap back to hit Yan. "Sajin, I'm sorry man, but I'm pretty committed to having let myself go. Grom. GROM, we got a fork in the branch up here, which way seems more foe-laden?"

Sajin seems to think a moment once Hex is safe and out of harms way (LOL probably not guna last). He puts his hands on his hips and looks to Grom, then back at Hex. "You may not want to work out but Kasia. You can order Grom and anyone else to randomly start a fist fight with Hex for no good reason. It's perfectly sound logic, you know. He gets a good fight and a work out and there's not a damn thing he can do about it." He shotty fingers Hex before looking over to the Fork that he is talking about as he follows behind, Hex letting every bramch go just in time to thwack the armored hapan in the helmet and chest plate causing him to stumble now and again. He doesn't complain.

Grom looks back to Hex. "THIS WAY," he declares, pointing his axe toward a switch-back branch that will lead them deeper around the present trunk. "Wait. Grom has better idea: leave funny head tail man wrapped in vines; Grom will hang him off edge as bait to lure giant snakes up to us!" He reaches his free hand toward Hex.

THWAP. "This is getting-" WHUMPH, "to be-" WHACK, "tiresome!" Ah, the concerto of face-whacks. Na na na na na, WHACK WHACK, THWAP THWAP, as it were. You could waltz to it. Was this because Yan had managed to combine the concepts 'Princess Leia' and 'Pin-up Nudie Model' yesterday? Sure felt like karmic retribution! "Honestly you could have fa-" TINK, okay so that one glanced off his helmet, "fallen further down and you would have found them. But let's go with Grom's idea. It seems effective!"

"Sajin," Kasia's tone takes a very amused turn here. "You say that like Hex doesn't already just start fights with you guys all the time, but I'm going to bet he would be thrilled if any of you started to pick fights with him, too. So go ahead, just don't hurt his pretty face." Her eyes snap to Grom at his suggestion of Hex being used as bait, and she reaches out to put a hand on his arm. "Hey. I know I don't look like much, but if you get my husband killed because you used him as bait, what you find here in his awful place will be nothing compared to what you'll face with me. So, just be well aware of it and don't kill Hex, alright?" She doesn't actively stop the attempt, but she'll definitely threaten everyone involved.

Is Hex at all aware of the fact that he's hitting the rest of his team in the head with random branches? Nope. Or if he is, it's reeeeeaally really far down there on the list of things he thinks he should feel bad about. Your glorious leader. "Wait, I'm gonna fight people so often I get back in shape?" He sounds torn, one of these things is good and one of them isn't, he's confused. Then he's shortly got something new to be alarmed about, as Kasia's reading the riot act to Grom. "What?! NO! Bait? No! What! Absolutely nooooooooookay actually I can see this working. You guys can decide, ok ka. We keep hiking down, or we just lower me over and see if we find some big snakes!" He beams. "Definitely probably be afraid of Kasia if I kick it. But yeah, cast your votes!"

"Man it would be pretty funny to see the Boss dangling from a rope while snakes tried to snatch him up for a meal and we tried to shoot them." Sajin says giving a thumbs up. "We can deal with Kasia's wrath later. I mean, what's the worst she can do. Kill us?" Yup, probably. That's totally what would happen but the Hapan seemed to accept this chance that he would die at the hands of hot space mom. That was okay with him.

"Do not worry, Slapping human: Grom would not get your mate killed by using him as bait," the Houk assures with a humorous rattle in his throat as he explains, "At worst he may lose limb or two, and such things grow back!" A confident nod accompanies the big reptilian warrior's statement. Hex's call for votes puts his head to a curious angle. Yellow eyes narrow in alien confusion as he parses Sajin's words, before he decides after great deliberation: "Grom votes for fight!" ....He thusly throws a punch at Hex.

"He-" THWACK, "OW!" Yan had copped so many tree branches to the face, arms, torso, everything by now that he was over it. "Aight. Wrap him up and drop him. If he gets eaten, we can deal with Kasia later." He looked over at said glowering goddess of fear and fury. "Oh she can do so much worse than kill us but the key point is, it's 'later', not now!" He brushed leaves and vines from off the barrel of his big repeater rifle and levelled it to his shoulder. He was gonna go shoot some things.

"If by later, you mean you definitely wouldn't get out of this place alive, but your terrible death would be at my hands instead of a snake, then yes, later is correct," Kasia smiles after she says it, but... she kinda sounds like she means it? Maybe. Whether or not she could actually pull if off is in serious question, but that's a thing to be discovered later. "I vote we don't us-- GROM!" It's too late to stop the punch, but she can still scold.

They almost did it. Defiance almost made a plan. They were so close. It wasn't a good plan, but it was their plan, and they could have been proud of it! Could have. So close. Except some important steps were not followed in the plan, such as tying Hex to anything before pushing him over to be the snake bait. Grom just went straight for the punching, catching his Twi'lek employer totally unprepared. "What?" he balks, and then he gets clocked in the face, and falls over the edge of the wroshkyr branch a second time. "GRRRROOOOOOOOOoooooooooooommmm....!" Hex's voice howls, until it disappears. So then they're left standing there and they totally lost their boss and now there's no way to know when he summons the snakes.

It was almost a plan, though!

"Oh no! GROM! We were supposed to tie him up first!" Sajing exclaims. "Aww... now he's really guna die and Kasia is guna kill all of us." He looks to Kasia, "You got be gentle though..." Then a look back to Hex as he howls and disappears. "Damn it..."

Grom looks back at Kasia with a mix of confusion and innocence. "...you said 'go for it'," he reminds her, abruptly. A long look over the edge. "GROM CAN FIX THIS," he claims, keeping hold of his axe in one hand, and grasps the tangle of vines in the other. "Grom can jump! Much stronger than funny head tails, so will fall much faster!"

"Now we g-oh," said Zhu Yan flatly as there went Hex, off into space, down the hill and far away. Honestly, this was a given. There was no way this couldn't happen. He abruptly turned the nightvision back on and saw the gently swooping figure of Hex... okay, the tumbling figure of Hex rolling down the hill. "You hol' up here and I'll go get him," he said in a fit of initiative and tapped a wrist control. FLOOMPH! Blue jets spurted out of the pack on Yan's back and he sailed into the air, eyes locked on Hex, and landed surprisingly on his feet next to where his boss had likely formed a small crater. Because he was fat. "Dude, seriously, you are having a bad day," he said, racking the charging lever on his big repeater and scanning the area around the two of them for dangers.

"HEX!" Kasia's voice goes from the casual tone she was using to threaten death to outright panic as she sees him topple right over, rushing forward with a hand outstretched as though she can catch him. She can't, he's gone, he's yelling, and she's leaning forward with that hand out like it'll do something to help. She lowers down to a knee, one hand against the branch as well as she watches Yan dive out of sight, not saying anything. No threats, no worries, nothing. She is silent as she watches, and listens, worries, and possibly seethes. It's hard to say because her face isn't visible, but her form is tense, that much can be seen.

Easily located by Yan's jetpack maneuvering and gear functions, Hex has been found on a a very very wide platform branch of another wroshyr tree, a ways below. He did not make a crater. He did make a mess. Hex has landed in a NEST, a nest of leathery oblong eggs that are as long as his legs, which are now all busted up in a gooey mess beneath and around him. "I'm okay!" he yells back up at his wife, as dazed, he struggles to get set to rights again, amidst copious amounts of slime. Slime and yolk and "Baby... snakes... baby... kriffing... snakes."

Sajin hesitates a moment as Kasia seems worried about her husband as he falls. Yan's on the case but now the Hapan feels left out. "I'll go too..." He steps back and gets a running start before careening off the edge of the branch and spreading out like a sky diver. "I can fly..." He whispers to himself, head tilting back, eyes closing. Free as a bird. Until he smashes through a bunch of branches. "Oh sithspit!" Crack, smash, creek, boom... From the ground, Hex can see a glint of light. Soon, yelling can be heard, getting closer and closer. "AHHHHHHHHH." And then Sajin lands right on top of hex, the fat Twi'lek who breaks his fall. There is a moan from the Hapan. "Heya, boss..." He moves to get off the man, "Kasia!" He shouts, "I found him!" Like Yan hadn't already.

"Grom will fix!" the Houk assures Kasia loudly, starting to scramble down the branches of the massive tree to where Hex had landed. It's a strength-based task, he's remarkably adept at it... right up until one if the branches decides that supporting half a thousand pounds of Houk isn't what it wants to do, today. There is the sound of a sharp crack, followed by a scrambling and boomed, "No! Stupid tree has betrayed GRRRROOOOooooommm!" Look out, below snakes and Deflings.

"Oh come on they're harmless," Yan said, looking at the little wriggling things under his feet. "How much you reckon these things'd be worth on the black market?" he asked, totally theoretically of course as he assumed poaching was punishable by death on this planet, but not if he got caught, which opened up a whole other avenue of opportunity. "Alternatively, how big would the omelette be from the eggs?" See, priorities. He tried to help the inept Twi'lek to his feet and dusted him off as much as he could. Slime didn't come off from a dusting. "Now, please tell me you don't weigh as much as you look because my jetpack is only rated for one-twenty-five kilos and I weigh nearly a hundred in all this..." and it was at that point he saw a growing shadow. "INCOMIIIIIIIING!" First was Sajin. Down went Hex again. Next... well, Yan did not want to be around for this because it was Grom. He mashed the flight control and promptly careened skyward. Or rather, treeward. "OHSITHSP..."

CRUNCH.

Pancake, thy name is Zhu Yan.

And lo, just like that Kasia is left alone on this branch, in Wookieetown wilderness that no one should ever go, muchless alone. She's not a jumper, or a climber, and she's not wearing armor with rockets. She doesn't even have a rope. The sound of Hex's call does help to ease her worries at least, still crouched, still looking down into the darkness below possibly far enough that she won't even be able to see them. "Guys?" She just says it, rather than yells it, because people are falling, and possibly dying, and... this is what she honestly should have expected.

Hex accepts the hand up. Or he was just starting to, when -- "SAJIN?!" crunch, Hex is tough and armored himself, but getting hit with a power-armored Hapan is no joke. "whhyyyyy" he moans weakly from where he's being mashed further and further into the seeping goo of unhatched snake eggs. And then.... and then there's GROM, GRAVITYGROM, drawn inexorably toward the nest like death from above. Sajin can see it, he can see his life flashing before his eyes, a lot of nerf patty melts and that one time he found a box of organs that everyone forgot about and he probably didn't even ask questions, and the happy day he got his power armor, and Oriana's booty. It's all flashing before his eyes, because there's no way to survive GRAVITYGROM.... until the last moment, when one more branch knocks Grom slightly off his course and he only slightly smashes them. "noo whyyyy," Hex wheezes from somewhere at the bottom of the nest.

In the distance, something large is starting to move through the darkness.

Sajin is having an existential crisis because there are two booties in his head and he can't figure out why. Though of course she's saved by a hint of luck as Grom is knocked to the side of him and crashes with a loud thunk. He stares behind his power armor. "That..." his voice wobbly and wavy. He sounds like he might be crying, "Was beautiful." He clears his throat and steps away. "I need a moment." He was ready to die now more than ever. At peace, in the zone... tripping over Pancake Yan... "Oy, Yan... watch where you're goin'..." But before he continue to chastise the poor Corellian there is movement in the bushes. He draws his trusty DL-44. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... in the busssssshhhhhes."

Grom climbs up through the layers of foliage to poke his head above the level of the nest. "Where is great foe? Grom sees only slime and Flat jacket human hugging tree."

Zhu Yan had been stuck to the tree in a manner befitting Saturday morning cartoons, all splayed out and such. There was a cracking sound as the bark he'd impacted started to peel and eventually gave loose, sending the short man tumbling to a slightly lower branch with stars and cuckoo birds spinning around his head. "Did somebody... get the number... o' that tree..." he mumbled out before collapsing face down into a bed of log. "Oh hey!" he said, sounding relieved. "I can see people down there!" Yes, he was slightly above where the other lunatics had landed. Crazy!

Kasia sighs, because really, if she doesn't go down to save these fools, who else will. No one, that's who. It's effort, due in part to not being a hulking alien capable of falling great distances, or wearing armor with jets, but she climbs her way down toward that whole nest mess where they're all sprawled. Down to one branch, she steps deftly to the next, finding a few lined up just like steps that she prances down, and then there's more climbing, but she doesn't fall. It's slow. "I'm coming," she calls down to them, louder than she should, but she's not NO idea that there's something already hunting them. Though she should, this place is terrifying and they've made ALL sorts of noise already. She's not a hunter, ok, she's got no hunting sense.

It's dark down here, but it's not so dark that Team Trash Fire can't see that Sajin is right about Shh in the Bush. Slightly below them, a ways away - but not nearly far enough away - a monstrous creature is coming into view. The Annakkona (is Star Wars even TRYING with that name?) is here to exact vengeance for her ruined nest. The creature's scales are blue and green, beautiful in their own way, and her massive head is nearly the size of a grown human man. Her eyes are golden, and she hisses, a sound that sounds very much like something to be afraid of. It sounds like a WORTHY FOE.

Hex, who's laboriously got back to his feet, mops dripping globs of egg goo off his face and picks up his goo-blobbed rifle. "AHAHAHAH," he says with glee, so Kasia probably knows by the sound of her feral-ass husband laughing that there's some kind of monster here.

"Oh there it is!" Sajin says as the massive space snake presents herself. They totally did kill a bunch of her babbies so she's justified in just about every way when it comes to killing them. Though, Sajin already has his baster out and ready. He fires like a kid in a candy store, "Come on guys, it'll be easy... it's really big!" Pew Pew pew, not realizing Kasia is climbing down right in his line of fire. He only hits once. "Oh bugger, faster than I thought."

"A worthy foe!" Grom crows, rearing back with his axe and stepping to the fore of the trashfire. "KING GROM ASSAILS YOU, BEAST!" he informs the akkakkonia, keeping forward and lodging the head of his axe in the monster's hide. Unfortunately the beast is much larger than him, and when it rears away, it hauls Grom off his feet, flailing about like a climber holding to the side of a big, moving mountain.

"SNAKE!" cried out Zhu Yan in something resembling an unhealthy mix of fear, excitement, terror, and probably a concussion. He turned on his higher branch so he was sitting facing the big snake thing because he was still too dazed to stand properly, levelled his rifle to his shoulder, remembered not to pull the charging rack because he'd done that already, avoided falling backwards, contemplated the mysteries of the galaxy, and fired.

Unholy hellfire burst forth from the ledge where Zhu Yan was sitting, drowning out all sounds in the immediate vicinity as blaster bolts literally exploded when they impacted the area. His aim left much to be desired. A full half of the rain of fire entered the metaphorical Randy Orton's belly, and the remainder caused all sorts of havoc on the lower platform. Might wanna dodge, guys!

He was shouting as he fired, too. Almost in time with his laser bolts. It sounded like, "YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH..."

Kasia had been doing so well, she was most of the way there, reaching for her next handhold when something hits her. Burns her. There's a hiss of pain and then she falls, the tumble taking her down the rest of the way, landing hard in the nest, luckily missing everyone that's already there, along with the worthy foe. This hurts, everything hurts, this is terrible, everyone is fired. "I hate this," she groans, not bothering to get up yet, she does reach one hand down to the hopefully not busted blaster at her hip, struggling to pull it free of it's holster for a few moments.

Poor momma Anakkona. You guys are monsters, you destroyed the nest and now weapons of all sorts are biting into the hide of the poor mother! Sajin, Grom, and Yan all land shots on the thing in one way or another, and the big monster's begun to weep dark, sticky black blood. Infuriated, she snaps at her assailants with fangs as long as Hex's lekku, the ones within easy reach, at least. She tries to bash them with her tail, but they're quick little bastards, and none of the front-line targets take a hit. The giant snake's hissing reaches a screeching, ear-splitting quality, as another round of attack begins...

Sajin rolls out of the way of the slashing tail, firing wildly as he does so and hoping to hit the large beast but all his shots impact on some of the harder and more armored sections of her scaleing.

Grom is oddly safe, as he is clinging to the haft of a vibro ax, embedded in the hide of a gigantic serpent. So it is that he can't be bitten! "HaHAA!" he shouts. Sparing one hand to grasp a scale, so he can pry the vibro ax loose to hack at its neck. The angle is awkward, and he is clinging to the scales of a thrashing monster. He adds more gore to the insane melee. "STOP MOVING AND BE TURNED INTO A HAT."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..."

Zhu Yan kept firing, pouring wave after wave of hot molten chaos into the hide of the big scaly snake. Pro-tip, he was doing jack all, but bless his heart he was trying. Also, seriously he actually needed to get his head checked because his aim was atrocious.

"...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA..."

Kasia is still on the ground, everything hurts and she's probably dying (she's not) but that doesn't stop her from shooting. The trigger is squeezed several times, and... ok, every shot completely misses. One hits Sajin right in the butt, and that was definitely an accident too. Definitely. The blaster is lowered, and she sighs, slowly trying to sit up now, because clearly this angle doesn't work out for her well.

Hex manages to heft his egg-goo covered rifle up and shoot one of the Anakkona's eyes out, causing a howl of misery from the creature, who is already pretty miserable from being that close to Grom for so long. And Yan's first volley of fire tore holes in it, as did Sajin's.... the beast gives it up for lost, and turns to flee. It's mangled though, so it's a slow flee, just trying to limp-slither away from these terrible little foes. Hex seems surprised by this turn of events, and shouts after it, "Hey no, come back here with our Houk!"

"Oy get back here you slithery little bugger!" Sajin shouts as he lets off two more shots that go wide of their target. He keeps pulling the trigger but the weapon doesn't fire. The power pack indicator reads empty and he sighs, "Awe man..." He lets the power pack drop and puts in another one at full charge. "Hey you guys smell something burning." He looks around and then over his shoulder... it's his ass... his ass is on fire... "OH LAWD... IT'S NOT FUNNY MY ASS IS ON FIRE!"

Grom clings to the thrashing aksasdsasa as it turns to flee, striking at it with his axe bearing arm ineffectively while roaring, "HAT. HAT. HAT!"

"HEY!" called out Zhu Yan, deafeningly loud as the blaster fire had just abruptly ceased from his smoking red-hot barrel. The gun, you filthy-minded people you. He fiddled with the jetpack controls on his wrist and launched into the air again, in a much much MUCH more controlled manner than before. Fwoosh! Rocket maaaaaaaan! He zipped past the snake, pivoted around, and pointed jets to ground in a steady hover. "Shove this up your pipe and smoke it!" he cried out, as he fired again, one last time.

WHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPHWHUMPH. Four heavy blaster bolts fired straight into the mouth of the giant snake creature and out through the back of its... neck? Do snakes have necks? Should Yan really be flying with a concussion? Questions for later! Regardless, the big snake obviously couldn't go on living this way, so it didn't. "GROM! YOU CAN CARVE IT NOW!" he called down to the big carcass as he tilted slightly and jetted back to the platform.

Kasia gives up on firing her weapon and staggers to her feet, reaching out a hand as she sees the beast turn to slither away. Not alone, but with their Houk, who for some reason she's grown at least a little fond of. "Grom!" She's yelled his name more than she normally does today, but this time at least it's with concern, rather than anger as she takes a few hurried steps forward at the same time as Yan fires his weapon. Her fingers curl in for a moment, and then the hand drops, looking back at Hex, brows furrowed with annoyance. "I'm picking our next vacation." Let's not remind her that she sort of picked this one by having to come here for some reason.

Hex lowers his rifle and stands there with egg goo dripping off his weapon, lekku, and armor, staring at his wife in disbelief. "What's wrong with our vacation?" he yells at her over the sound of Yan's repeater fire and the death screeches of the dying Anakkona. It finally dies, leaving everything in sudden, ear-ringing silence, and Hex stands there in eggy victory, so proud of his people, so proud. Until he remembers to look up. "How are are we gonna get this out of here?" he finally thinks to wonder, but, it's gonna be fine. It'll be fine. They're Defiance, they'll make a plan.