Log:Resistance: I Smell a (Womp) Rat

I Smell a (Womp) Rat

OOC Date: June 26 2016
Location: D'Qar
Participants: Dailo Fett, Kasia Ciph, Nym Landala, Poe Dameron and Hex

The short story: The Resistance uncovers some suspicious activity while hunting womp rats. Kasia and Nym fall in a hole, Dailo appreciates quality humor, Hex plans supper.

The long story:

The notice went out Resistance-wide. Womp rat hunting for fun and profit! Well, fun, at least. About a week ago, a freighter landed from Tattooine. Somehow, womp rats had stowed on board with a shipment of grain. Either that, or it's some vast conspiracy to spread the vermin throughout the known universe. SINISTER! In any case, the pests are just starting to be a problem. One of the ground crew who hails from Tattooine saw evidence that the critters have created a nest just outside the base and are conducting daring night-time raids to their food stores. Poe is standing at a trail head with a container full of rifles. Time to control pests with extreme prejudice.Welcome to EditPad.org - your online plain text editor. Enter or paste your text here. To download and save it, click on the button below.

Nym is not a good shot. She's great while in a fighter. On the ground? With the rifle in her hands? That's a completely different story. The small pilot waits, a bit nervous about the fact that she's about to show just how bad she is at this. Her arms are clasped behind her back as she arrives right on time for this womp rat patrol. It's always good to try and get better at the things that could save her life later on down the road.

Hex came prepared! He already has a rifle. Having a rifle is one of his only actual functions in this army, along with unintentional mayhem and making everyone else look pretty good. He's been on medical leave since the last mission on Bayuir, but got clearance to help with vector control, because I say so. "..will be fun," he's promising Kasia, whom he accompanies. "The important thing to remember is to keep your sights lined up, try not to shoot anyone that isn't a womp rat, and to always, always keep in mind that these things are probably edible." Upon approaching the others here, he grins, and greets, "Ke'nata ni, Poe, Nym."

Like Nym, Kasia isn't a great shot either, she has some practice with stationary targets, but those that move are a different story. After some convincing on Hex's part, she agreed to come along on this womp rat hunt. "Edible." Skeptical, she looks skeptical as she turns to face Hex. "You say that about everything, dear." She sounds serious, but the corners of her mouth are twitching a bit as she fights a smile. They approach, and she lifts a hand to wave to both Nym and Poe.

"Well well well. Looks like trouble has arrived," says Poe good-naturedly. "Nice day for a womp rat hunt, huh?" It actually is. The sun is shining, though there are moments of overcast skies. There's only a soft breeze, and it's far enough from twilight that the bug situation shouldn't be terrible. "If you haven't brought your own weapon, come and collect one."

Nym doesn't have a rifle with her. Her only other weapon is a blaster pistol, which she does have holstered. Rifles are basically new territory for her entirely. She gives a nervous smile to Hex, Poe and Kasia as they arrive. "I have a feeling the only thing I'll be hunting is leaves." Moving forward, she plucks a rifle seemingly at random and holds it rather gingerly.

Dailo is taking up the rear of this little hunting party, her presence a casual shadow in the back. The whole thing has her amused, as she probably has interesting perspectives on //hunting//. She waits for Nym to take up a rifle, and then steps up to select her own. She holds the weapon gingerly, only looking somewhat comfortable compared to her pistol or quarterstaff. She up-nods to Poe, a small grin pulling at the corner of her mouth. "Hex is bait, right?"

"I do say that about everything. But am I wrong?" Hex asks Kasia, and then supplies the correct answer, "I'm not wrong. And I'm gonna bring one home and eat it. Though probably they won't let me bring it into the kitchen, last time I tried that nobody wanted to hear about food efficiency and new culinary experiences." He doesn't seem to take offense as Dailo offers him up as bait, he just owns that, standing a little straighter as he assures, "Everybody wants a piece of this, ka. Even womp rats."

"You /are/ wrong," Kasia corrects him, giving Hex a grin. "Need I remind you of that white mold?" She doesn't add to that little gem, and instead steps forward to select a rifle for herself, then moves back a step. "I haven't really used these much," she admits, furrowing her brows slightly. "So, I apologize now for my aim." She slants a look over at Hex, then adds, "If you bring any of them home, they need to be cleaned first. I don't want to know it's a rodent by looking at it."

"Don't worry. The power on these rifles is dialed down. Even if you hit each other, it's just going to sting. It's enough power to kill a womp rat, though." Poe swings his own around on a strap so that it lies against his back. "C'mon, then. The nest should be about a twenty minute walk this way." He points to a narrow game trail. If this were enemy territory, they'd worry about sight lines and people being point. But this is D'Qar. What could possibly go wrong?

There's a bit of a blush at the thought of her hitting someone with the rifle. Nym has, actually, hit someone with a blaster before, back on Felucia. It's what made her think that practicing with rifles and blasters might be a good idea. Luckily, the rifles are weak enough that she won't hurt anyone. Hearing that, she takes a little breath of relief. "I don't think you have to worry, Kasia," she replies. "Except for my own aim. I'm not really all that good with blasters or anything. I have a feeling a womprat has a better shot at me than I do at it."

"Of course," Dailo replies dryly to Hex, and she shoulders her rifle by the strap. "I mean, certainly there is nothing in all the galaxy that would not want to partake of Hex." A Fett who knows sarcasm, what is the galaxy coming to... she then looks over toward Poe, and then to the game trail. She offers Nym a companionable grin while avoiding thinking about all the ways to cook a womprat. "Just think of it like trying to shoot a TIE fighter with a targeting malfunction... you'll be fine." Her warm contralto is reassuring. She finalizes her braid then, knotting it up so it is free from the back of her neck.

"The white mold is plenty edible. For select palates," Hex replies to Kasia, with a grin. "But fine, fine, I'll clean it." He falls into line hiking along the trail with the rest of the group, waggling his lekku ostentatiously at Dailo for her sarcasm. "Literally could not have said it better myself," he agrees, then offers a reassurance to Nym, too. "Poe won't let any womp rats take a shot at you, lia'ry."

"Yes, very select palates," Kasia agrees, sounding amused. He agrees to at least clean the kills, so for now she drops the matter. "It's probably good that it'll only sting. Maybe I ought to change my apology to 'I'm sorry for how many times I hit you' instead." Though she doesn't clarify whether or not it'll be on purpose. Watch out!

Poe chuckles and shakes his head. "Gotta say, I'm glad you three are the ones on this little adventure. You're definitely stopping it from being boring." He's cheerful about the whole endeavor, but then again, he's known for being fairly cheerful in general. It's about fifteen minutes of awkward trail walking before they run out of track. The pilot stands there, hand on one hip. He looks around the thick tree cover. "Hmmm. Anyone see anything?"

Nym grins at Hex when he tells her that Poe won't let the rats take shots at her. "Now all I can think of are little womp rats with little blasters hiding in the shadows. It's a little too cute." The smile transfers to Dailo and she shrugs her shoulders. She changes her grip on the rifle. "It just feel so weird without having a ship around." Speaking of keeping things from being boring, Nym has her eyes on the trees and the ground further in front of her in search of some womp rats. In fact, she's so intent on that, she steps in something that is definitely not dirt. Quickly, her foot picks up and she jumps backward. Rat poo. "Eeewwwww."

Dailo flashes Poe an easy smile, but then she sobers just a touch as they start down the game trail. She is careful, moving along the left side of the trail and keeping her eyes open for signs of womprats. Sadly, Dailo should have been looking down more than out, and ends up staggering as her foot catches a well-disguised hole in the turf. She almost collides with Nym who is trying to avoid rat poop, but manages to retain some semblance of grace even while her rifle slides off her shoulder to be caught clumsily in her hands. She pauses, looks down, and grunts. "Found a hole," she announces quietly, and a sweep of her gaze causes her to spot a trail of tracks that look awfully wompbattian. She nods in their direction.

"Glad to hear you're getting to the bottom of things," Hex puns unforgivably, grinning at Dailo as she finds the hole. He hasn't found anything special, but also hasn't found poop or pitfalls, and is probably distracted anyway as visions of Cream of Womprat Soup dance through his head. Upon spotting the direction of the tracks, he twitches his lekku thoughtfully, and then steps in that direction!

Nightmares of womprat soup are dancing through Kasia's head, which might be why she doesn't find anything. It might also be that she's not exactly a gal in touch with nature, and spends a lot of time trying not to get smacked in the face by branches, or tripping over roots. When a hole is found, she too heads in that direction, looking around curiously for further signs of the rodents.

"Well...that's...one way to track your quarry," says Poe charitably to Dailo and Nym. He nudges the little pilot companionably as he steps by her and starts to scramble up the hill. Once they reach the top, there's a bit of a chasm that leads down a few feet into a mass of damp tree roots and loose soil. He leads the way by leaping across the three foot hole and landing rather neatly on the other side. "C'mon. Watch your step. It's a bit loose on this side, too."

Wrinkling her nose, Nym scuffs her boot on the ground as she walks, paying much more attention to trying to clean it than what is happening in front of her. At the nudge from Poe, she offer him a grossed out expression that she's now tracking along rat poo. "Definitely not the way I'd like to have found it," she tells him. Following behind, she sees the hole just a little too late. She makes a last minute jump in order to cross it, but it's certainly not enough to cross it completely. The young pilot is certainly not having good luck at this hunting thing.

Dailo shoots Hex a dirty look -- but at least it is an amused one all the same. Poe is also give a smirking look. "So this is our secret weapon against the First Order? Lame humor?" She then falls in behind Poe as he starts up the hill. It is almost unfair how nimbly she scales the hill, always managing to find the right place to put her foot. She is avoiding the various gapes in earth, and she manages to jump smoothly over a rather disgusting hole in the ground. She puts the butt of her rifle into the dirt to steady herself, head turning to catch sight of what could be two rather unfortunate tumbles. She is too many steps ahead to turn back in time, but Poe and Hex are there!

"Lame humor? Dailo. Please. I haven't even started with the lame humor. What do you call these rats if they live on Nal Hutta?" Hex asks her, then answers, "Swamp womp." He's on a roll now, he can't be stopped. "What's it called when they host a dance? Swamp womp stomp." Both brows lift. "If you get free tickets? It's a comp swamp womp stomp. What time should you arrive? You want to be prompt to the swamp womp stomp you were comped. Ahahahaha," he proceeds to laugh at his own jokes, because he's That Guy, the guy who does that. He's able to jump the gross pit chasm in a soldierly way, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. Then... oops some people are failing at jumping the chasm. "Nonna!" Hex's lekku spasm in alarm, and he reaches to grab Kasia, seizing hold of her wrist just in time!

Kasia climbs the hill well enough, perhaps not so nimbly as other ninjas in the group, but the tromps along in her non-ninja way, right up the hill at to the edge of the chasm, ignoring Hex's terrible jokes all the way. She does at least SEE it before she gets there, and it should, in theory, be easy enough for her to jump. She's tall, long legged, this should be easy. Technically she makes it across, or rather, the toes of her boots do, which cling to the crumbly edge of the pit for just long enough that she can wobble, and then down she goes. Or would have gone, what would have been an outright backward fall into the mossy pit turns into a forward stumble onto the ground. She lands with a yelp, legs still dangling over the edge of the pit, but she's not down there, so this is preferable. Your jokes are forgiven, Hex.

Poe Dameron likewise reacts quickly when Nym loses her balance. He reaches forward and grabs her shoulder and then her arm, to pull her forward, As a result, only one leg ends up dipping momentarily into the Dark Hole of Grossness. She'll be hauled up with weird spider webs, damp earth and a couple of squirming insects on her, but she's uninjured. "OK...soo...maybe we go around the slippery hill on the way back?" And then, maybe just to be a big tease, a womp rat goes skittering right past them and disappears into a bush. It makes a noise that the paranoid might say sounded a bit like laughter.

"Heee--EEEK," Nym calls out to chide the Twi'lek for his bad humor. It's about then that she slips and her leg goes into the hillock as Poe yanks her up onto the other ledge. Her one leg is covered in spider webs and damp earth. The rifle drops to the springy earth in front of her as she emits a quiet, high-pitched sound of displeasure as she quickly bats at the bugs that run riot over her leg. A faint tinge of pink crosses her cheek of embarrassment as it seems her contributions to the hunt are to be covered in poo, bugs, laughed at by womp rats and to be yanked to safety by Poe.

Trying to gather some form of composure, the young pilot looks sheepishly up at Poe, still blushing a bit. "Thanks. Sorry."

Dailo offers an appropriate groan. She would say something about father jokes, but knowing who Dailo Fett's father is, does anyone honestly think that she experienced bad dad jokes? Probably not. She slides back so many steps, prepared to help Poe and Hex with Nym and Kasia if they need some back-up, but she also is wise enough to stay out of the way. She is about to say something about their journey back, only to jump a bit when a womprat comes past. So much for being a mighty hunter. She hadn't expected that. She immediately draws up the rifle, pressing it into the notch of her shoulder and shakes her head. "Even the womprats are making jokes."

"That was a close call!" Hex dusts spiderwebs off Kasia, after assuring himself that she's not going to topple backward into the abyss again. "I almost didn't redeem myself from the swamp womp puns!" He beams at her and gives her upper arm a fond squeeze; despite what Nym and Kasia might think, he doesn't seem to think there's anything amiss with this mission at all. Then again, Hex lives in a near constant state of both internal and external chaos, so probably finds this all pretty normal. "Maybe this one will lead us to the others," he says optimistically about the womp rat Dailo has identified as a joker, and steps in the direction it was last seen.

That WAS a close call, and Kasia is a tiny bit shaky when she is pulled back onto her feet, allowing Hex to do all of the dusting. Hopefully he gets all the bugs. "Thank you." She gives Hex a feeble little smile, but in spite of almost falling into a hole, she doesn't think there is a lot wrong with the mission either. They're out in the wild, you fall into holes when you're not in the safe confines of the city, right?

There's another rustle in the woods, this time further ahead and down a different game trail. Then there's voices. Who else would be out here? There's quite literally nothing out here but womp rats. Poe gives the hand signal to get low. Poor Nym. That means lying on the same damp and squirmy earth she just got herself divested from. The senior pilot gets a rock to lie on. He rests his rifle on it and sets his scope on the area of movement. The voices approach slowly, though it's still very hard to make out what they're saying.

Nym rolls back into the gross pit that she just got out of. There's a soft whine as she does it. There are bugs and spider webs in there. It's horrible. As she moves, she grabs for the rifle that she dropped in order to get the bugs off of her the first time. However, as the voices come closer, she recognizes one. She looks behind her, looking for Hex. She's not sure if it's the same person she thinks it might be.

Dailo is about to say something, but then Poe is gesturing for silence and to get down. The woman crouches abruptly low, rifle lowering just a touch but staying in a cautious, readied position. She hears the voices first, and her mouth thins a bit. There was a certain expectation that they would be running into womprats, not sentients, while on the game trail. She glances over toward the others, dark brows arched in silent question.

No more jokes now! Hex's mood gets a whole lot more serious when there are suddenly non-womps in the area. Like Poe, he gets down and behind cover; like Nym, it's down in the muck with the bugs. He's infantry, he's used to getting gross nature all over him. He beckons carefully for Kasia to follow, to stay with him and behind him so that he gets shot first if something were to happen... he's got the most experience with that, after all, ha. Nym gets a glance and a single nod as he positions his rifle, low and steady, and then a series of subtle twitches of lekku provides a silent explanation for Dailo. "It sounds like one of the voices up ahead might be someone with a known agenda against the military base." [Language: Lekku]

Kasia isn't military at all, but she does have some understanding of how things go, and at the motion to get low, she does just that. It's only at Hex's urging that she gets back down into the put he just saved her from, which elicits a grimace, but nothing else. She'll complain about it later when that won't possibly get her, or someone else here, shot. She likes the people here, so that wouldn't do. Hex guides her behind him, and that's where she goes, crouching behind the green man as she tilts her head to listen hard to whoever it is that's out there.

The two people walk forward. It's a man and a woman - one human, one Cathar. "...can't have the drop point out this far," says the Cathar. "Why not?" says the man. "You can't go for a walk in the woods and return with gear. Someone will get suspicious. There's a trail leading from town to a small village along the lake. There's a thick patch of woods on a game trail like this one, and a small monitoring station. That's a better drop point. But we'll meet here if we need to talk." The man doesn't seem too happy about this, but he nods. "All right." Poe stays crouched, the barrel of his ineffective rifle trained on the figures. Thanks to the scope, he manages to get a look at the face of the man as he looks their way briefly. His eyebrows arch and he exchanges looks with Nym and Hex.

Dailo Fett pauses, looking up ever so slightly from her low vantage point. Her eyes narrow, and her jaw sets seriously. Her gaze flickers over to the others, and she mouths, "Unarmed." Hex's twitched words causes her expression to darken further. She begins to shift ever so slightly to the right, attempting to get a better view. She catches the words now, and her shoulders begin to shift as she also uses the scope on her rifle, but she might actually be aiming.

Hex is great at camouflage! He is so green! Not that this helped him to avoid getting shot in a jungle, but in theory, it seems helpful. He's clearly itching to shoot either the human, the Cathar, or both - he's got his sights on the human - but refrains, to his probable regret. 'The teacher,' he mouths at Poe with a nod. Or maybe he said 'the bleachers' or 'there's leeches'... lip reading is hard.

Kasia is less great at camouflage, what with her not green skin, though she is hiding behind the green guy, so that helps. Maybe. Except that he seems to get shot all of the time, so maybe not. Hm. Everyone else is looking through the scopes, and it's only when she notes this that she does the same, squinting to try and get a look at the people they're hiding from.

Poe frowns. Frowns //so hard//. He stays still. His finger, for the record, is nowhere near the trigger. Instead, he's just using the scope to keep an eye on their visitors. The two linger for a moment, say something too low to carry through the trees, then start off again in the opposite direction. The pilot reaches out to touch Hex's shoulder, to stay his trigger finger, if he's thinking of firing. He stays absolutely still until it's clear the two have well and truly gone. Just when he exhales, Kasia feels pointy feet skittering across the back of her legs and into the roots of an old tree.

Dailo's finger is near the trigger, resting along side it, but not poised against it. She didn't get the go-ahead so she lets the two wander off. When they are in the clear, Dailo turns her gaze toward Poe and Hex, and her mouth thins. "What was that about?" She asks in a bare hush. Her grip on the rifle has relaxed, and she is lowering it into a more neutral position.

Hex seems resigned as Poe stays his fire, but he's following orders, and he nods. Unaware of the fact that nature is getting itself all over Kasia, he explains quietly, "The human is a man named Lomis. He is a teacher and his family has long opposed the presence of what they believe to be a Republic installation here on D'Qar. He tried to frame our soldiers for arson a few months back, we suspected some black market involvement, and now it looks like we got a real interesting monitoring station to take a peek at in the near future."

Kasia looks up from the scope, lowering the rifle when the strangers skulking in the woods turn to leave. She trusts in the others to be sure that they're actually leaving, and instead squints in that direction using her eyes. It's just as she's shrugging in response to Dalio's quiet question that she feels the skittering thing on the back of her legs, and lets out a gasp. Thankfully it is just a gasp, and not a scream. She scrambles to her feet as quickly as she can, doing the 'oh god is it still on me' shimmy that includes some very fancy, spastic hand gestures, as her head whips around to look for the rat. In short, she probably looks crazy.

Poe's attention is drawn away from the serious talk of conspiracy to swing his rifle around at the sound of Kasia's not-scream. He steadies the rifle like a pro and fires off a shot. There's a soft pew of dialed-down energy, then the squeal of a nailed womp rat. He lifts the rifle back up to a neutral position and grins. "Well. We have to report back, so I'm afraid we have to cut our hunt short. But we couldn't send Hex home without the main ingredient in womp rat soup." Kasia, this might be a situation when it's justified to strike a superior officer.

"And the Cathar? An unknown?" Dailo asks, glancing toward Poe now with a serious expression. The Fett might have had some troubles finding her stride upon joining the Resistance, but she has formed some close friendships -- which means, she bristles at any threat to the base, founded or not. But her question gets shelved when Kasia starts to do the shimmy, and Poe rightly takes care of the womp rat. The pilot offers a dry, "Yum." No way in the Stars that Hex is getting her to eat womp rat soup. She will hide in her X-Wing, thanks.

"Unknown to me, anyway," Hex shrugs at Dailo regarding the Cathar, picking himself back up off the ground. "Kasia, it seems like there might be some need for intel in the near -- nonna?!" Looking over his shoulder, he gapes a moment at seeing her dancing, flailing, possessed by the holy spirit, whatever she's doing over there. The shot is fired, and then his lekku perk up as the rat dies with a squeal and a sizzle. "Dinner!" he announces, excitedly. "I will make enough for /everyone/." It's a threat.

Kasia was certainly possessed by something, and that something is shot by Poe. Thanks, man. Sort of. Less thanks for the soup, but he might have to eat it too, so that's punishment enough. Maybe they can all collectively hide, pile onto a ship and go off world. Something. "Sorry," she mutters, looking more than a little bit embarrassed now as she lowers again, though it's a squat now, she's keeping off the ground as much as possible.

"Hex, I recommend some zubaran spice and a slow heat. Long and low. Womp rat's tough, but that one's been fattening up on our grain. A nice braise or a nerf broth as a base." It's...really hard to tell if Poe is kidding. It doesn't actually sound like it. He stands, brushes himself off, then looks down the path. "All right. Let's head back. We'll send another crew out here to deal with the rats. I want you all to write up a report of what you observed here." And then, the fearless leader heads towards the bushes, digs out the womp rat, hauls it up by the tail, then hands it over to Hex.