Log:Return to Dxun

Return to Dxun

OOC Date: January 28, 2016
Location: Dxun
Participants: Rax Vaelus (as GM), Russ Ordo, Narsai Ordo, Lofty, Laika, Kyanggha

An ugly Muurian transport lands in the crude landing pad and out waddles Lofty the Talz. He is already sweating, but this time he wears some actual armor - a blast vest and some arm and leg guards that barely contain his arctic girth. A simple hunting rifle is slung over his shoulder.

You want to hunt? Bring a hunter. Laika steps off the Thunderheart with her helmet still detached, sniffing the air with her accute feline senses and frowning a little. Whose bright idea was it to arrive here at night? Shrugging her shoulders the Cathar looks back at the crew and shrugs her shoulders. "Half the things out there in the dark can see and smell as well as me, and all of them are hungry."

The Jungle Moon of Dxun has not noticably changed in the time since Lofty, Kyanggha, and Narsai last saw it. It is, however, nighttime on the side of the moon that they landed on last time. The small clearing is framed by eight glowing lights, and the nav beacon still functions despite the ravaging of the guard shack nearby.

Touching down on the soft earth, the lights of the ships illuminate the lonely Onderonian guard shack, with its door still ripped off and its contents still gutted by hungry cannoks. The moon is almost entirely dark...save for eerie lights that cannot be explained, and a raging aurora borealis of red and green and gold that dances in the starlit sky.

Hanging huge across part of the sky is the cosmopolitan world of Onderon itself, with glittering cities giving curve to the otherwise darkened world.

Stepping off her ship laster, Narsai moves from the Thunderheart with her carbine slung across her chest and her helmet tucked under her arm. Giving the clips holding her hair back one last check the younger of the Ordo siblings slides the protective armor over her head and lets it lock into place, a small hiss as it seals before her world is lit up again by the night-vision display of her T-visor. She'd been distracted of late, no small revolation given to her having put a lot on her mind and leaving her uncharacteristicly quiet on the flight over. Time to focus now.

"There's a waterfall up ahead with an old wreck behind it someone asked me to help transport. Might still be there if they didn't find another way."

Kyanggha looks up at the sky as she pads out into the clearing to where there's others. "And here I thought you hated hunting, Lofty." She rumbles absently towards the Talz. "Naw, they got it. Bar'duur treats it like his baby." She notes almost absently in Narsai's direction. She is armoured, all wookiee ceremonial, with a bowcaster along.

It is about time the Ordo siblings go to Dxun, together and this time for more than just a hunt. It was one of their ancient anscestors that once used this moon as a place to rebuild Mandalorian strength and honour. The legacy of Mandalore the Preserver runs strong with the two siblings, an echo through time. They are not here alone however as one of their trusted allies joins them on the this hunt through the multitude of dangers that are the Dxun jungles. He grins at his Cathar ally, reaching up to touch the side of his helmet as he speaks. "Good thing we have night vision and thermal then isn't it?" He winces slightly as he steps foward, his leg still blistered from where the pirates laser had superheated his armour.

Lofty the Talz chortles at Kyanggha. "Lofty get Hutt to pay big bounty for Zakkeg claw. It strong too - Lofty want parts for Talzii medicines." He waves a large paw at the Mandalorians he decided to hire. "Welcome."

The jungle is humid, but the heat is much less now, in the depths of night. Sunrise will occur in around five hours. There are various cries from the wilds, but the jungle mostly hums and chirrups and squawks with the sounds of insects. In the far distance, something glimmers on a hillside, faint and alluring. Nearby, the mating calls of Cannoks suddenly break the serenity of the moment.

Russ nods slightly "Well doing this without damaging the hide is going to be pretty damn tough. Looks like i will have to aim for eyes mouth and whatever else i can see that won't damage the goods." He nods towards Laika and Lofty "You guys take point. I have no real experience tracking a single beast through a jungle like this. I generally just walk around until the most dangerous predator tries to turn me into a snack." He draws his pistols as he waits for the others to start on the path

This planet, with all their family history here, still had felt 'unwelcoming' the last time she'd been here. At least now Narsai had an idea of why. Not that she was sharing that thought around. Instead the Mandalorian forces a smile and gives the female wookie she'd fought beside last time a wave of her hand before she lifts her rifle and squints off at that faint glimmer. "Awfully shiny for something this late at night," she comments aloud before looking at Lofty. "You hired, are you leading from the front?"

"True." Laika says, lifting her own helmet onto her head but leaving the filters switched off. As good as the armor is? It doesn't have a way to copy the Feline's sharp nose. Nodding her head towards Kyanggha even if she doesn't understand wookie-speak the furred Mandalorian adjusts her blaster pistol at her hip and then turns to follow the others.

Lofty adjusts his bandolier and removes his rifle, checking its power pack. "Very big creature. Do not fly off again and not help shoot." He points at Narsai specifically. "Shoot first, is important." The Talz opens his lower set of eyes and gestures for the rest to follow. They move through the jungle and along a ridge, like the previous hunt. The sound of rushing water grows closer. "Here." The alien points a claw at some chewed bones. "Was here... I think."

Kyanggha nods at the mention of needing the hide intact. "Well that should make this all the more interesting than before." She gestures to others. "I'll take up the rear again. I dont see well in the dark. Pretty much everything on this moon is out to kill us." She gives a little wave to Narsai, recognizing the woman from the last trip. "Welcome back to the jungle."

A narfling sound comes from the north, very close by. A cannok, most likely. It does not reveal itself, but the narfling comes again, followed by a loud croak. A bush shakes as something kicks large rear legs against the ground. The scent of truly, horrifyingly awful spoor starts to waft toward the explorers. The waterfall's rushing comes from the east. The jungle buzzes quietly, with clickings and chirpings and the occasional glow of a bioluminescent bug.

The scents of the jungle are somewhat muted by his helmets various filters, however he does not seal his armour yet nor does he dip into his contained air supply. His pistols wave slightly from side to side as he hears the noises of the various creatures. He keeps his voice low, hardly enough to be even picked up by his transmitter "Keep on guard, any idea on how far off the target is?" Russ swaps to thermal for a moment and sweeps the surrounding area.

Narsai would flip Lofty off for his little barb there, but how is he to know that she'd been drawn in by something more scary then a few little creatures and their claws. "I'll do my job," she says curtly and keeps her weapon at the ready. "You just concerntrate on not being eaten." Last time? She'd been there on her own time, this time? They were being paid. The scent? Narsai doesn't really get the worst of it as her suits seals protect her to a degree. Following along her eyes glace towards the 'Shiny' thing but she keeps near to her brother. "They can come out to the scrub pretty quickly. Be ready."

Laika doesn't have her filters on...and her nose is almost certainly more sensitive then that of a humans. Behind her helmet she screws up her face and looks around. "The hell is that smell?" she mutters, following along with that group and trying to stick to breathing through her mouth. A stench like that? Going to make tracking the beast they're after with her nose much harder.

Lofty sniffs the air and does not like what he smells. "Yuck. Smell like poodu." He starts off following the sound. "Not sure how far," he replies to Russ while moving along.

Kyanggha sniffs the air and there's a soft rumble that sounds grumbly at the stench that wafts over. The muttered commentary is hard to follow, and probably not intended to get too far. Her bowcaster is to hand now, no longer slung, ready to make hides every so slightly less pristine in their condition. She grunts softly, ensuring none of the small group get left behind in the jungle darkness. "Please tell me someone at the front of this merry band is actually tracking." She growls out, low.

As the party emerges onto the sandy shores of the river, Onderon shines high above. It casts a twilight pallor across the gloomy jungle, and briefly reveals a vast shape in the sky, near the mountains. The shadow swoops out of sight almost immediately, anywhere from half a kilometer to three kilometers away. The darkness makes it very hard to tell.

Upon the shore, heavily gnawed and worn bones are all that remain of Big Green, the boma that was killed on the previous expedition. Small, trilobite-like creatures crawl over the bones, pausing, moving, pausing, sitting still. There are dozens of them, and almost no meat remains anywhere, nor any skin. The waterfall crashes down from above with violent force, sending up sprays of foam and mist. There is no sign of the creature they hunt.

Russ looks around as they walk, his thermal vision occasionaly activating long enough to do a scan. "I have a few heat signatures hiding away in some of the shrubbery around us. Nothing to be concerned with yet, and neither looks like the target. I'll keep my mind on them, and make sure they stay in my scanning arc. Russ looks over the river and surrounding area carefully as well as the smaller glittering creatures. He scans again "No sign of this beast of yours yet Lofty."

A nod from Narsai in agreement, but she bends to take a knee as they draw closer. "We know it -was- here," she says slowly. "Which means there's got to be some tracks from the last time. It's a place to start. Last time we drew it out? We had several people bleeding. It's probably going to be more cautious this time."

"Don't go opening a vein just to bait it. There's plenty of things out here that smell blood and come searching for a meal. Not just the thing we're looking for." Laika murmers before looking up at the waterfall. "But here? There's water. Things would come out to drink eventually. Maybe we set up and wait a bit."

Lofty kneels beside the bones and examines them with all four of his dark eyes. "Big boma." He taps one of the ribs with a claw and then points at Russ's helmet. "You see in dark? You take point? Beast hard to find." A sigh of exhaled air is blown out of his long boopsnoot, forlorn. He searches for more tracks left by the fabled beast and then... "What this?" A fluffy white paw is pointed at some light prints in the sandbar. Skittering and shuffling prints which seem to circle the boma's corpse and then return to the cliff. "But... what I see was HUGE. 30 meter long! Would make bigger prints.... I think."

GAME: Lofty has given Lofty 6 wound points. He looks injured.

The small, dome-shelled creatures initially draw away from Lofty as he approaches the bones they are crawling around on. But as he kneels down and starts to poke around, they cautiously start to creep forward. One leaps onto his hand, while another grabs onto his shoulder. The last plants itself directly in the center of his chest. Each creature stabs the Talz deeply with tiny claws and tiny mandibles, latching themselves on tightly with barbed hooks! The shells lie nearly flush against the Talz's skin, with only the fur providing any sort of gap.

GAME: Lofty has given Lofty 10 wound points. He looks injured.

GAME: Lofty gives Lofty 10 stun points. He looks injured.

Kyanggha rumbles. "I dont think it was quite as interested in our blood, as the critters we had already killed. Setting up bait would probably help, water too." She gestures as she comments and then she watches Lofty get closer than is perhaps wise and makes new pinchy friends. "That can't be comfortable." She rumbles and sighs, giving a little shake of her head as she moves over, drawing a blade as she does. She reaches out to flick one of the little critters off the Talz. "You are an idiot." She growls at him, and finds the little bastards dug in good. It takes real effort to pry it off, and its a mess and a half, worse than the initial bite.

The creature actually squeals briefly as it's finally wrenched from Lofty's flesh by the mighty wookiee, sealed against him nearly as strongly as his own bones. The wrenching of fless is horrid, with what appear to be half a hundrd flailing little meat hooks working through the chunch of flesh still clinging to part of it. Little tubes are also snaking through the flesh, poking out into the air. The two remaining on Lofty are placid and painless.

Russ just shakes his head slightly as Lofty goes straight into the middle of the unknown creatures and gets latched on. He sadly cannot understand the wookie as it speaks. "And that ladies and gentlemen why we wear armour and don't go poking around at wierd little creatures while they are still alive." He shakes uses his comm to speak to lofty "Come back over here, i have toxic darts that should be able to remove those easier. Or failing that we may be able to set up an electric charge or the like." He shakes his head and looks to Laika "Sounds like the plan to me. A creature that large will need alot of water, and food. And since the beggining of time where animals water has been the place to find prey and water both."

A bite like that and the wound that follows, Narsai nods at the wookie comment before glancing at Lofty. "You're lucky they're not poisonous," she comments, a silent thumbs up offered in support of Laika's plan before she shrugs her shoulders. "I can't really burn them off you without risking setting you alight. We'll see what we can work out."

Lofty does a little squealing of his own as Kyanggha tears the animal from his paw. "Ow! Stop it." He isn't fast enough to avoid the things latching on, or avoid the Wookiee barber-surgeon. "Get off now or leave it?" he asks, looking around for a proper medic. "Best to incapacitate it." He nods at Russ.

A long, staccato call, hollow and empty, washes over the shores of the river from a great distance. Temporarily, the buzzing of the jungle ceases, and even the creatures crawling on the bones freeze in place.

At least Laika doesn't laugh at Lofty's blunder. Not out loud anyway. Moving up behind her team she leaves Lofty to work out his own drama with the little creatures, before moving to sit herself up in their planned position to lay in wait for the creature they're hunting for."

Kyanggha lifts her hands in a 'surrender' gesture at Lofty's squeal and the extra wound that the critter leaves as a token of it's appreciation for Lofty's flesh. She takes a step back and jerks slightly at the call, her head swivelling around to try and locate the sound before pointing up north, up the cliff. "It's over that way at the moment." She rumbles and lets others deal with Lofty's new friends.

The shelled creatures remain perfectly still where they are latched onto the Talz. Once the call has passed, the jungle thrums back to life, with some of the shelled critters on the bones crawling down protruding ribs to skitter slowly toward the party. The one that was flung by the angry wookiee thunked into the river, and has not surfaced. They are surprisingly heavy.

Russ shakes his head as he waits for Lofty to make his way back over. He nods to Narsai and Laika as the loud cry silences the jungle for a moment "Get setup and get ready. That sounded like something big, and i want to be ready for it if it is coming this way." Russ shakes his head as the Talz makes his way back over, he carefully slices around the armour with his vibrodagger before taking a step back. He tools around with his gauntlet for a second, before coming up with two small darts in his hands. "These contain a heavy muscle relaxant, a depressent toxin. It is non lethal to things larger than the size of a human. Hopefully it will get these to let go of you. If not well, tough it out until you can seek medical attention."

A nod from Narsai and she moves to set her weapon to charge with a hum and looking at Lofty. "If nothing else, we'll get you to some Bacta before we go ripping them off you again." Looking out to the sound of the roar she waits beside Laika, peering out into the dark with her tech-enhanced vision and trying to ignore the chill working its way down her spine.

Trying her best to find a place for them to lay in wait, Laika glances over at Lofty's predicament and shrugs her shoulders with a grim chuckle. "Well, at least there's blood to bait it now?" the Cathar offers in humor while gripping her blaster pistol. It probably wouldn't do much, but it's better then her claws this time.

Lofty the Talz waves off Russ's neurotoxin. "Will try later." He points to the tracks he and Kyanggha found. "We go up on ridge. Find tracks. Find animal lair. Maybe it sleep at night. Not wait here with those... things." He shuffles back from the crustaceans that are approaching, readying his blaster to shoot them. "They getting close."

"I don't necessarily think those tracks are it, unless the damn thing hovers." Kyanggha comments back to Lofty, her own roar quieter than the spine shivering call. "It sounds like its coming from the north. We can wait, or try and follow it." She settles in with Laika to wait, bowcaster to hand.

The shelled creatures shuffle toward the wookiee and Laika, who are hunkered down. Two try to follow the badly bleeding Talz. Seven are lazily scuttling toward Narsai. None give any cares about Russ.

"I don't know whether i want to be insulted or glad." Russ looks at the scuttling creatures as they start to move towards the others. He looks in the direction of the loud vry again "Do you recognise the cry Lofty? You have seent his creature before right." Russ shakes his head slightly as he looks at the scuttling creatures again "But perhaps it is time to move on anyway. there is every chance we are just making ourselves prey sitting here like this."

Maybe it's instinct, but something tells her the bug's interest in her is a very very bad thing. Whincing a little at having to break the stealth of their position, the woman extends her gauntlet and lets a short burst of flame wash towards the creatures. Not exactly a little blade, but the woman is sure the fire burst is going to work a little better.

The burst of flame flares brightly in the night.

Hissing a litle at the creatures moving in on them, Laika gives a burst of her own fire before growling aloud. They're not going to back off it seems. Nodding at Russ she moves to stand and back away from the angry crustations. "These are getting far too friendly."

Lofty takes some gauze from his bandolier and hurriedly wraps his bleeding paw with it, staunching the loss of blood. "Move out. You take point." He points at Russ and wiggles his boopsnoot at the Mandalorian, then starts moving away from those crawling barnacles.

Kyanggha pushes to her feet. "Persistant little bastards. You'd think flame would be a deterrent." She brushes off her fur, moving away from the critters and starts off, only a few steps, towards where the sound came from. She pauses a few steps in to let Russ take point and ensure everyone else is moving away too.

The scuttling creatures appear to be unperturbed by flame, and one leaps at Kyan and another at Laika, but they are not swift things.

"Hangon." Russ changes direction and moves off carefully through the dense undergrowth, his pistols once again held firmly in his hands as the darts are loaded back into his launcher. "There." he indicates to the others with the barrel of one of his weapons "Where the river joins the lake, i saw something. It looked big. Might be our boy, and if it is not i don't want to leave it behind us either way. Especially with the signal flare we just sent up."

That flame not working makes Narsai frown, but the earlier rumble wasn't something she'd missed..even if she can't feel it now. "Anyone else feel that?" she says before whincing, moving to follow behind Russ and try to keep her distance from the creatures that seem to be following her around. Moving forwards she blinks at Russ' comment, looking back at the water.

Laika is as fast as the cat she is. Dodging the leaping critter she backs up with Russ, glancing towards the water before she hisses a little, shaking her head. "I don't see it!" she calls back, but she's moving none the less.

Lofty moves after Laika, holding his rifle in front of him. "I see nothing," he mutters, still squinting with all four eyes where Russ Ordo is indicating. No luck.

Kyanggha swears under her breath as she gains a new little friend nuzzled up against her fur, just at the end of her armour. "Bastard." She follows Russ' gesture and growls softly, nodding. "Yeah. I see it. Big. Let's head that way. Now I'm just getting irritated."

There is nothing, no movement. Then...a crashing stampede. Something huge on the far end of the river smashes down trees as it moves...away. To the northeast. Two other huge, unseen shapes join it in getting the heck out of the area. Cannoks burst from a hiding spot near the waterfall, and appear to be charging the party! ...Before all five of them diverge west, breaking into the jungle toward the ships in the far distance. A flock of birds in the distance takes flight. But there is nothing visible that should be causing this.

"Oh the Apex predator is definitely here." Russ grins behind his helmet, as he watches some of the large creatures of the Dxun jungle scatter. He continues on his both, flicking to thermal before back to night vision as they draw closer to where he saw that shadowey figure. He slows slightly as they come even closer, prowling carefully through the jungler now anticipating an unseen pounce.

Watching the creatures scatter like that, Narsai doesn't need their harrassment atop of whatever they're hunting. Grunting a little as she keeps her distance from the shelled creatures she looks at Russ. "We could look on from above, try and get a better idea of what's coming for us." she points out evenly.

Laika's in agreement with the Reviver leader, the feline straining her own natural vision to try and spot the big creature coming their way. "I'm starting to think we might need the ships guns for this job. I don't know how we're going to kill this without breaking its hide."

Lofty looks around and then up at the sky. "Apex predator? How big izzit?" He clutches his hunting rifle but waits for Russ to move before heading for any higher ground.

Kyanggha nods in agreement with Russ as she hears and watches things run past. "We're going to be breaking its hide. Just keep shots generally confined. How do you plan to skin it without cutting it somewhere?" She asks and then gestures. "Head towards what those are running from. That'll be where the big thing is."

Its approach is almost entirely silent, whispering across the tops of the trees. By the time it is heard, the shadow swoops down over the tops of the trees and a maw opens. Two huge mandibles spread apart, each the size of a Mandalorian blade, and tendrils writhe within its mouth. Three claws, half as long as the huge bladed mandibles, open on each, disturbingly humanoid hand, and three more fan out on its hind legs. The wings are easily twenty meters across as it descends on Kyanggha...and skewers her. Wrenching its head aside, it throws the wookiee into the cliff face, never having touched the ground. It is almost utterly silent, gliding on the wind.

For the Mandalorian siblings, terror should be running ice cold through their heavily-armored veins. Only one word matters now. A word out of whispered legend.

Drexl.

"Well Lofty it may not be what we are looking for but we have found something worth hunting." Russ jumps back "I just wish i had a bigger weapon now. But I thought these things were extinct!" His blasters charge and Russ jumps his jetpack activating, his eyes scanning for weakpoints. "Come on!"

"Drexl. That's a Drexl." Narsai is practically dumbstruck for a moment before she takes a breath and takes to the air. Flying in the opposite direction to Russ she opens fire with her carbine, bolts aimed to try for a more obvious general weak point but instead hitting against its hide. "I think the ship idea was a damn good one!" she yells over the noise of flight and fighting.

That's big and just took out their wookie with the biggest gun. That's all Laika knows about it. Drawing her very tiny feeling pistol Laika fires a blaster bolt at the monster that has even the Ordo siblings freaking out a little while backing up. "Apex predator is an understatement, that thing is the size of a ship!"

Lofty the Talz squeals through his snout as their Wookiee companion is flung into the cliff. "Kyanggha!" he wails. He raises his hunting rifle as the Mandalorians start flying. "Hey. I do not have jet!" He squints through his blaster rifle's sight and fires for the creature's eyes; one shot hits.

The Drexl flinches as Laika's shot takes it in the side, and it banks about only to fly into Lofty's shot. The plasma splashes across the side of its face and the monstrous dragon screeches, the sound warbling and extremely deep, causing the ground, your armor, your flesh to vibrate with the heavy weight of it. It's not unlike being in the presence of a seismic charge.

Shaking off the attack, the creature flaps its silent black wings, opening its mandibles as it flies straight at the rocketeering Mandalorian brother, racing directly at him as it did to Kyanggha! The Drexl wrenches its head aside, narrowing avoiding the Mandalorian, but a second thrash drives one of those bladed jaws straight into the Beskar'gam like it was Stormtrooper armor. The Beskar'gam screams of its own accord, making an unearthly screech as blue and white sparks peel away along the razor-edge of the Drexl's maw. With Russ so impaled, the Drexl attempts to slam him into the cliff wall as it did to Kyan, banking away after. Aside from the scream of being shot, it never made a sound...

GAME: Russ Ordo has given Russ Ordo 30 wound points. He looks injured.

Russ coughs up a thick film of blood onto the inside of his helmet, his breath is knocked from him as he is hurled into the cliff face. He wheezes into the comm as he leaps back into the fray his jetpack whirring loudly "Narsai, Laika we are going to need something bigger. Get back to the ship and either bring that here or get Narsai's newest toy. I'll try and keep it entertained." His blasters flare dramatically as he hurtles through the air several of the bolts finding purchase in the monsters vulnerable eyes. His flamethrowers arc up on his wrist gauntlets. If it comes at him like that again it is time for a good ol style Mandalorian BBQ.

Narsai sees Russ get stabbed and rag-dolled like the wookie did. A damn near deadly wound if she ever saw one. The creature attacking them? It's literally something they'd had told in stories to frighten children. That cold chill down her spine? It becomes something else. Anger, fire. How -dare- this thing attack her family, try to kill them? "GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THEM!" she yells, something flaring behind her voice. She hadn't ment to reach out to it, but it was certainly there waiting.

The Drexl is struck just above the brow by Russ's hail of fire, and takes another shot across the cheek, causing its head to thrash around. Its long tail flicks and snaps about, finally giving it a bit of sound before finally crying out again in that heavily sub-woofer-backed basso scream it has. The ground quakes with the passing of the soundwaves. Wheeling away from Laika's and Lofty's harrying shots, the Drexl starts to come around for another attack run...

But then Narsai screams at it. Commanding. Controlling. Vicious. Imperious. The Drexl squawks out its warbling scream again, its head lashing aside as through struck. The creature flaps and flaps and flaps its wings to reverse direction, attempting to wheel around and flee.

Lofty feels the ground quake as the Drexl's cry echoes through the valley. Unfortunately, the shaking makes his two blaster bolts miss the flying target. "Watch out!" he cries. It is too late, because Russ Ordo is skewered by the monstrosity.

Laika's gunfire hits the creature with all the impact of droplets of rain. Her weapon isn't at all big enough. Russ getting skewered disturbs her, but he's alive enough for him to yell out at her to get the gun. Swearing, she takes to the air on her own jetpack, heading towards the thunderheart. She's going for the big guns.

"You don't freaking gut me and then just get away with it." Russ growls as he spots Laika for for their bigger weapons. He speaks to the others through the comms as he changes his flight path coming at it from a new angle of attack. "Target the wings. We need to ground this thing and hamper it's mobility." His jetpack roars as he brings his target into his line of fire, his pistols levelling for the thinnest and most fragile part of the wings.

Firing her blaster rifle as the creature escapes, Narsai's gripping the weapon tightly and trying to ignore the sensation her earlier scream had given her. They're here to hunt, but right now? The Mandalorian woman is very very unnerved by what she'd experienced.

Holstering her pistol as she continues flying backwards, moving to try and drop to the Thunderheart's ramp. She's headed for the cargo hold, the weaponry stash they have within. She has to get the gun and get back. Fast!

Lofty fires ineffectually at the fleeing Drexl's wing, hitting it, but not bringing it to the ground. "This moon no good," he complains, wiggling his proboscis to get the tibanna fumes out. Firing blaster rifles is a dirty business.

As the Drexl flies off into the distance towards the lake, miles away, one might notice that the jungle is utterly silent, save for the roar of the waterfall, and the fading rumble of Mandalorian jetpacks. No birds. No buzzing.

A pink, forked tongue, nearly two meters long, flicks out of the rock face of the cliff, near where it meets the sandy shore.

Without prelude or battlecry, the Zakkeg opens its gleaming sapphire eyes and scurries off the cliff face at horrifying speed, resolving from nearly perfect rock camouflage into glossy black as it closes the distance on Narsai! Its lip flicks back briefly, revealing dozens of silvery white fangs before it suddenly crouches and springs, bounding well over five meters towards the Mandalorian woman!

Russ drops to the ground heavily as he gives up the pursuit, the creature not even slowing as the bolts impact all around it. Blood dribbles from the large rend in his armour. He speaks into his comm as he walks painfully back to the others. "Laika continue back and bring the canon, I am done fucking around on this planet. The creature has fled, we don't need to kill it as long as it is away from us. Lofty, you find us this beast you bought us to kill so we can complete this damn mission. I have other things i need to accomplish on this moon and i would prefer to be alive to do it."

"Ah, Mandalore damnit!" Russ rushes towards his sister his pistols streaming a steady hail of blaster fire towards the beast. "Laika, we need that canon back here! Our quarry is here!"

She's rattled, she's struggling against invisible monsters and she's trying not to get eaten. This is not a good day for Narsai. Drawing her weapon beneath the monster trying to eater her there's an audible screech of light and energy. Her weapon piercing through its jaw and then the monster pulls back with a howl of pain.

Lofty has a moment where his four eyes catch the glimpse of movement in the rock face; he isn't fast enough to warn Narsai Ordo as she is tackled. The Talz rushes forward and uses his Wampa strength to grab the beast, lifting it awkwardly off of Narsai. "Watch out!" Then the thing is shot dead, so he rolls it over, not wanting to drop it back down on the woman.

The sinuous, glossy black form of the Zakkeg thrashes and screeches its hollow, echoing call, whipping its tail furiously and snapping at the air blindly! When it takes a blaster bolt to the face from Russ, that seems to be enough for the disfigured creature, and it fwumps over, rolled onto its back by the Talz. It twitches a few times. Coughs. And dies. Its belly is a beautiful, pearly silver.

Russ spots the Talz lifting the great beast off his sister and takes advantage of it. His blasters flare rapidly, the bolts smashing into the creatures face repeatedly. Finally it drops to the ground dead and Russ walks over to his sister, holstering his pistols as he comes close and offering his hand to help her up. He turns to Lofty "There is your bounty, now we will have our credits and be on our way. There is plenty more on this planet that i have to do before i leave. But we get payed before you leave this planet." He turns from the Talz, comming the still away Laika "We killed the target animal, continue back with the canon. We are not done on this moon yet. While you are at the ship grab out long range transmitter. I need to get Firaxa down here with a kit."

Narsai climbs her way from the monster, her armor having stopped her from being ripped open, but not from the impacts beneath. There's quite a bit of injury to deal with. Holstering her weapon back in its hidden compartment she climbs to her feet with a nod at the furred Lofty and then looking down at the creature that had tried to eat her. "I need a damn nap and some bacta, lots of it."

Lofty the Talz squints down at the shiny belly of their quarry. He asks of Russ, "You ok? Flying thing get you good." There is a pause. "Bounty is back on Nar moon. I get it from Hutt, pay you." His proboscis straightens as he coughs a little. The strange barnacle on his chest is bothering him. "Your doctor help with this?"

Laika hears the call just as she gets the gun almost as big as herself. Giving a groan she grips the weapon and starts on the task of getting hold of the medic and returning to the others, as soon as she can. "I'll be on my way as soon as I can!" she calls back, unaware of how much damage Narsai had sustaned from the bigger monster.