Log:Who do? Poodoo.
Members of the Resistance go on a salvage mission on a mountainous jungle planet.
OOC Date: May 1, 2016
Location: Naalol
Participants: Dailo Fett, Kieran Lee, Tess Ul'Datha, Poe Dameron (GM)
"I'm sorry your first mission with us doesn't involve flying fighters," says Poe to Dailo and Kieran. He's seated in the back of the transport. The pilot is looking at a datapad and examining its contents. "The priority is this..." he taps, which transfers an image of a part from the datapad to the overhead display. "This is a set of power couplings for that busted up troop transport you see rusting out on the tarmac. We want to get it up and running, but the power system has been jerry rigged so many times that it's completely useless and needs to be rebuilt. Our engineers have done what they can but they can only go so far. And..." he wobbles his head. "Of course, no one makes parts for this anymore. It's from the Clone Wars. When it works, it's extremely reliable. So it's worth trying to get up and running." He taps the screen again, and the display changes to that of a planet. "This is Naalol. It's sparsely populated and very mountainous. We've managed to pinpoint what we think is the crash site. I've arranged with the locals for speeders once we land. If you can't drive, then you're riding shotgun or in the towalong. Though the towalong gets a bit bumpy." "Also, make sure you are armed. The locals are not hostile, but the wildlife is, especially where we're going."
Kieran Lee shakes off Poe's apology from where he's sprawled in the copilot's seat, having twisted it around, "I know not everything's gonna be shootin' stars and blazin' wars," with his twang, that almost rhymes. "But I ain't sure about a ship that's older'n I am. They've always lost the new-ship smell and started to get funky."
No such thing as being over prepared for a mission, that's Tess' motto. "Oh good, more hostile wildlife." Not that it's absolutely necessary, she's come equipped for whatever dangerous, uncomfortably aggressive planets might throw at them. Her sniper rifle leaning up against the bench at her right leg, she's doing double checks on her blaster rifle in hand with a bandoleer of ammunition for both looped across her trooper armor.
When they're provided intel to their HUDs she reaches down to grab her helmet, turns it over in her hands, and slips it on over her bunned hair. "There's a hill about five hundred meters from the AO, I can provide overwatch from there." Pinpointing it with a click of her fingers on the augmented-reality overlay. "I'll need a drop off along the way, though."
Dailo is at the navigation console in her flightsuit and long, heavily-mantled duster. Her dark hair has been brushed smooth and braided, and then tucked over one shoulder so it is mostly out of the way. She is tapping at the console, monitoring the ship's progress through hyperspace while Poe goes over the details of the mission. She tilts her head back a bit as he mentions the hostile wildlife, and she snorts a bit. "Great... I'm going to get eaten by a wild mountain cat." Though this is mostly said to herself, and in gentle humor. When Kieran complains about the old ship, she shakes her head. "The older the ship, the more reliable I have found..." She flashes a full, if not sharp smile. The nav console beeps, and she returns her focus forward. "We're coming out of hyperspace in five... four... three..."
The cyan swirls pulls back into themselves, becoming starry pinpoints and the glorious green and blue planet comes into sight.
"Anything that survived the Clone Wars and still works for decades has my respect," says Poe. "What we need more than the latest equipment is reliable equipment. If our main troop transport breaks down, that old hunk of junk is the only thing we have on-hand that can carry that many people." He stands up and goes towards the cockpit. "Dailo, I'm feeding you the landing coordinates. It's going to be a tight squeeze. Not a lot of flat, open ground around here." The vista that spreads out in front of them once they enter atmo is rather breathtaking. The entire planet is covered in mountains of various descriptions. They're high, narrow and rounded, with deep valleys that disappear beneath the forest canopy. There's signs of civilization, mostly in the form of small villages, though both the naked eye and the scanners reveals a gleaming settlement to the north with the occasional ship that winks in the bright sunlight like a fish in a pond. "Tess, you see anything scaled, you shoot to kill, OK? Normally I'm one for leaving the local fauna alone, but from what the locals say, the scaled creatures are very aggressive and venomous. Fortunately, they're like, ten feet long." He extends his hands and makes a popping sound with his mouth. "Big target."
Kieran Lee shakes his head at Dailo with a grin, "You're not flyin' Incom-FreiTek ships then." He turns around in his seat as the Fett begins her countdown. "I'm not complainin' about capabilities, just smell." Poe's description of the ship causes him to blink, "Wait, you're sayin' that them bein' big is a /benefit/?" He chuckles and shrugs, "Scales, shoot to kill. Got it. Otherwise, we're lookin' for power couplings older than me. So... these speeders you got set aside, they fast?" There's a cocky grin that starts to build at one corner of his lips, his green eyes twinkling mischievously. "Coordinates received," Dailo replies in a professional tone. She starts to plot the course, calculating the curvature of the planet and starts to scan for possible weather patterns that might interfere with their landing. She cannot help the small smile that perks at the corners of her mouth at the sight of the vista. "Beautiful," she murmurs more or less to herself. Then she glances over her shoulder. "We will be landing soon... everyone stay secured." She does smirk a bit. "And Poe... Mister Lee is another shining example of Academy boys." The statement is said in good humor, and she is back to focusing on the landing procedures.
"Yes sir." Tess assures, trying not to look too excited about shooting fauna. The EL Blaster is collapsed down and slipped onto her back by a tight leather throng so she can grab her sniper rifle and go through a quick double check of the weapon; just something to do with her hands while she waits for them to get out of this flying coffin.
On her left leg there's a wicked looking knife made from what was probably once some large scaled lizard creatures claw. Killing scaled creatures is sort of what Tess' do best.
To Kieren, "At five hundred meters, ten feet long isn't a bad thing, no. Probably not as good for y'all getting all up in their faces." Mock wiping her brow with a smirk, "I'll be safe up on a hill, all by my damn self..." Wait.. dammit.
"Yes, I know. Our paths crossed back in the day," says Poe to Dailo with a wink. He turns and secures himself back in the seat. "Big is good for troop transports, Kieran. Not good for much else. And yes, the speeders are fast. No hot-dogging though, okay? There's not a lot of open space. You can open them up on the way back. If you broke your neck on the way out there, it'd be inconvenient for the mission. No one else here knows how to get these parts out without busting anything." He clips himself back into his seat and glances over at Tess. "Careful. There's also small, stealthy, spiny felines that are attracted to body heat." He says that wryly, so it's hard to tell if that's a joke. The transport cuts through thinned tree cover into a small, high valley. They're only a few hundred meters from a speeder rental hut. Looks like tourists can rent them to go zipping through the jungle for fun. There's a snack bar, and a large hall. There's families on picnic blankets and small children running around. Nearby is also a zipline through the canopy. It's a jungle family fun park.
Kieran Lee nods sagely at Dailo, "The best example there is. Best believe it." He shrugs at Tess's words, "Yeah, I'd still rather be five hundred meters /up/." Poe's warning causes him to sign, "Really? You bring three hotshot pilots along and you say we can't hot-dog with fast speeders?" Throwing up his hands, Key laughs, "Fine, fine. No racing, no loops, no hot-dogging." Looking out the viewscreen, he studies the resort, then asks, "So... if we get done ahead of time, can we get some R&R? I bet there's a zipline around here somewhere, and a place like this's /got/ to have a good restaurant."
Tess bounces up from the bench when they touch down and bobs her way towards the exit with a smirk visible beneath the visor of her helmet. We now interrupt your regularly scheduled picnic to go poaching giant lizards with over compensating sized sniper rifles slung across our chests. Nothing to see here.
One little girl raises her datapad to get a picture, at which Tess points a gun finger, for the fans.
"Giant stealthy spine cats... keen." At least she's got a bitch seat ride to go over the topographical information of the hill she'll be holding down. Looks like she'll be getting dirty, but that's fine if it means not being eaten by some giant feline or torn into chunks by a lizard. Nobody needs that on their tombstone: Here lies Tess, she was digested, shat out, and flavors a delightful medium blend mountain grown coffee bean. "All right, hang tight everyone. I'm going to go get our rentals sorted." Poe points at Kieran. "No ziplining yet. Maybe after. And maybe ice cream too, if you're all good." And then Space Dad Poe Dameron goes over to sort out the rentals. Before too long, there's three squat, narrow speeders, one with a towalong for equipment, or for Tess, if she's feeling like being bounced around instead of grabbing on to someone's waist. Poe checks a map. "OK, so we're going to have to head off into the woods about forty minutes. Then we run out of trail and will either have to proceed on foot or find a game trail."
Kieran Lee nods, "After, of course." He spreads his hands guilelessly, "I'm an Academy boy, remember, Boss? I always do the mission before I go have fun." When they get to the speeders, he even collects a helmet, pulling it on and locking it down. No sense being /reckless/ when you want to be reckless. "So if we weren't doing something important, this is where I'd be challenging you all to a race. Please note my restraint. I'll be on your tail, sir, just lead the way."
Dailo has taken precautions once the ship has landed, making sure that it is secure and safe before she gets out of her seat and goes about grabbing her gear -- a jet-black staff that is easily a foot and a half taller than she is. She slides it into the holster at her back, securing it. She then heads down to join the others and the speeders. She sweeps into her own bike, giving a nod to the Major. "All set, sir."
The butt of Tess' sniper rifle hits the ground while she waits, mostly so she can lean against it like a post with one arm bent, "Anybody else do a field craft class after bootcamp?" The other hand raising, slow glancing around at her companions on this little diddy out into the forests. "I can probably find a game trail." Ah well.. Tess shrugs and slips up onto one of the speeders, not over picky as to which one it is.
"The guy in the hut said it'd be fairly obvious, especially if we follow sources of water. Tess, since you're not driving, keep up an active scan for the debris field. The battle happened just up there..." Poe points into the sky. "Most of the wreckage fell over these hills. Anything close to settlements has long been cleaned up, and the terrain is so rough, no one's really picked it over." And then, they're off and mounted on the speeders. Poe takes the lead. The first part of the trail is very groomed - clearly a well-used recreational route. The hilltop itself was relatively cool, but the deeper they go into the jungle, the more humid and heavy the air gets. The only thing that makes it bearable is the wind from the movement of the speeder. Whenever they have to slow down to make a tight corner, it gets oppressive. They move down lesser and lesser used sections of trail until they hit a dead end. Poe slows the speeder and glances around. "OK. Anyone see a game trail?"
"Copy that." Tess says from her position behind, Dailo, picked at random. Her arms super tight because flying, whether on a ship or on a grand vehicle, is not what Tess' do best. "Ugh... I already feel like I'm going to vomit.." She doesn't, but that's fine because it's bound to get a reaction.
Only once they hit the dead end does she stop stop making fake up chuck sounds to actually start scanning the forest line for breaks in the trees and underbrush that indicates frequent travel. "Stop, right there.." Pointing off in the direction of a cut through the bushes.
The Fett clone manages the journey, but she grew up on a beach, and far from jungles! Dailo is at the rear, and she keeps her senses open. Occasionally she looks over her shoulder as if to check on her passenger, and then her attention returns forward. By the time they stop, she has completely foregone her duster and has a rather uncomfortable glisten of sweat on her swathy skin. She breathes out a slow exhale, rolling her shoulders a bit beneath the sweaty A-shirt. She stops immediately when Tess speaks up, and she looks down at the direction she points. "Oh... Tess has a path!" She calls to Kieran and Poe. Tess Ul'Datha unmounts her Modified AFD-43 Rifle - 6004, disassembling and stowing the sniper rifle's bipod, and resetting the weapon's safety.
Kieran Lee checks the blaster pistol half-hidden by his jacket as he settles into the speeder. As he drives, he keeps the throttle down carefully, tucked in close behind Poe as promised. When they reach the dead-end, Key slows to a hover, glancing around and reaching up to wipe his face under the helmet, "It's hotter'n blazes out here. I'd'a dressed lighter if I knew. I think I'm gonna lose ten pounds out here, pure sweat." He could probably stand to lose five or ten, truth be told. Looking around, he nods at Tess's pointing, frowning in the direction, "Yup, I see it now." He takes a moment to remove his helmet, then strip off his orange long-sleeved shirt, revealing a rather sweaty white a-shirt beneath. The jacket and helmet go back on, and the shirt is tucked into the back of the saddle.
"That...is not wide enough for the speeders. Right, everyone drop what kit you don't need. We're hiking the rest of the way." Poe pulls out a scanner and checks it. "According to the coordinates, the debris field begins just through there, down between these hills and in a deep valley. It's not going to be a very strategically advantageous position, and we're in the hot zone for wildlife activity." He points up ahead to a series of red markers. "Those are scent markers designed to keep the wildlife off the paths. Once we're past those, we're in their territory. The good news is, they're primarily nocturnal. The bad news is, they have a great sense of smell and are light sleepers." Despite the oppressive humidity, he looks like he's handling it quite well. Which makes sense if you know he grew up in the jungles of Yavin 4. He's wearing a cotton jacket with mesh rather than his leather one, which certainly helps. "Make sure you stay hydrated. Let's move out." As soon as everyone is sorted, he leads the way through the bush.
Tess crawls down off the back of the speeder and strips down to absolutely necessary clothing, which does not include her armor. The added benefit is that nobodies going to be shooting at her and increased mobility... A tight white t-shirt and cargo pants with her ever present wool scarf which she drenches in water from her cantina and wraps around her head from the crown down so that water continuously drips down the center of her spine.
Once she's restraped her knife sheath onto her legs and pulled her boots back on, she grabs her EL blaster and brings it up to sight it in the humidity and curses under her breath. "Too thick out here for scopes anyways." So the AFD is collapsed down and left on the speeder, along with any extra ammo she was carrying for it, effectively cutting her kit weight in half.
"I'll take point." She says, rifle laid against her chest on a tactical sling while she uses her Rancor claw blade to cut brush to clear a path for them, eyes scanning for any nature sign... Droppings, tracks... dead shit. Obvious predator fare.
Despite having to drop kit, she doesn't look overly bothered by the heat either, but she's fairly notorious for over doing the PT... and she's one of those stupid grunt ground pounders... and young.
Young people suck.
Dailo swings out of the speeder once Tess has dismounted. She grabs her staff, and shoves her jacket away where it will be safe. She wipes the back of her hand across her brow, breathing out a slow exhale. Her entire body seems to be complaining under the heat, but she ignores it like any professional soldier can. She glances to Tess, offering a small nod at her words. "I'll take the rear." She quickly restyles her hair, knotting up the braided rope so it clears her throat and shoulders. Strong fingers slowly rolls the muscle of her neck and shoulder, trying to release a bit of tension from her body before she starts in after the others.
Kieran Lee groans at the mention of walking, but dismounts from the speeder, locking it down and taking the key with him. If he dies and no one loots his body, they get to push the dang speeder back to the shop. "So what you're telling me is to shut up and keep quiet, is that it, Boss?" When the women offer themselves for point and trail, he shrugs, "Leave it to the professionals, I guess." And then he moves to stand between them, falling in line easily enough. "I'm getting too old for this..." he gives up on the grumble then, chuckling and shrugging helplessly.
"Reminds me of home," says Poe with a grin. He takes in a deep lungful of heavy jungle air. His forehead is glistening and sweat is running down his back, but he looks happy. Seeing as the others are watching the jungle for predators, that leaves him free to keep an eye on the scanner. They aren't walking for long before he kicks a piece of metal. It's got Empire markings on it, though the text is scorched and bent beyond recognition. He looks down, then up, brows raised, "Looks like we're in the right spot." The pathway narrows and ambles as game paths are apt to do. At one point, they reach a fork and it's not immediately clear which way is just a natural break in the undergrowth and which is the path - or both. "Any thoughts?"
Tess comes up on the fork and kneels down a little back from both to check the paths, brushing the point of her dagger through the underbrush until she's confident enough her decision to chop towards the left of the paths, "That way." The dagger is slipped back into it's long sheath on her thigh in favor of her blaster now that the jungle is getting a little close around them. It means they've got to do a little more wiggling to keep moving, but it also means she's ready if anything jumps out at them.
Despite her training, she's still sweating, but it hasn't sapped her of her energy. She's set up a fairly frequent system for keeping hydrated in the form of putting a bit of her scarf in one corner of her mouth. Periodically removing her cantina to keep her head cool with added water and renewing her source of fluids as it wicks down into her mouth.
"Careful ahead, jungles going to get dense." Slapping at her neck where some big ass bug tries to make a meal out of her jugular.
"A Poe Dameron, in its natural habitat," Dailo says dryly as she continues along. She draws out her staff as they go, using it more as a walking stick at the moment. As her gaze searches the sides of the path, something catches her eye. In fact, she almost walks past it at first, but then there is a glint or glimmer, and she hesitates. Her head tilts, and she whistles low. "I got something," she reports. She does not immediately go veering off the path, waiting for the others to fall back to her. She points to it: a bit of hull and wire under some trees off.
Kieran Lee shakes his head at Poe's grinning words, but he keeps quiet, one hand on the butt of his pistol, but the other free so that he can push aside foliage as necessary while walking. He studies the fragment of metal as Poe kicks it, crouching down a moment to look more closely. Then he's up, looking around again, only to stop again and look for what Dailo picked out, "Where?" Stepping up behind her, he sights down her arm, then nods, "Yeah. That's a transport. Same general type as the one we want. Might be just what we're looking for." "Well, at least we know we're not aimlessly wandering in the jungle," says Poe as he wipes sweat from his brow. He reaches for his canteen and swallows a big mouthful of water, then checks the device again. "There's a clearing just up ahead according to the map." The brush gets thicker as they move down the game trail. Then they break through the greenery at the edge of the deep valley. A bird takes to flight and cries overhead. Some kind of primate calls through the trees. And all around them are the bumped husks of ancient ships, draped in blankets of greenery. Here, Empire and Rebel ships lie together. It takes some squinting, but one of the mountains up ahead is not a mountain at all, but the jutting vertical nose of a Star Destroyer.
Tess leads them out into the opening with her blaster up in the ready pointing in sweeping motion until it's centered on the nose of the Star Destroyer... "Well that's daunting..." To be fair, she's not entirely sure she's ever seen one this close before, who has? Outside of, like, a museum or fly by? That thing is like a durasteel mountain. "Setting up a sentry..." It's kind of quiet because the whole thing is a little overwhelming. All these ship's corpses... with that monstrocity in the centerpiece.
As they emerge into the ship graveyard, Dailo's face grows sterious and dark. She intakes a deep breath, her hand working tirelessly at the grip of her staff. Then she nods slightly to Tess's words, and she steps up toward Poe and Kieran so she can stare up at the great mountainous shape of the Star Destroyer. "Can't say I've seen one up close," she confesses quietly. Her gaze doesn't falter for a long while, and then she is slowly looking down and away toward the others.
Kieran Lee stops as they come out overlooking the ship graveyard, letting out a low whistle, "Man. This is like a whole city of museum pieces. Except, y'know, with vines and trees and carnivorous lizards and cats." He takes the chance to take a long slug from his own canteen as well. "On foot, giving that thing Trench Run Disease would take /hours/." Poe stands still as well. He lets the sweat trickle down his brow instead of mopping it away as he takes in the scope of it all. He seems very far away for a moment, but before long, he brings himself back. "All right. Let's tread carefully. This underbrush is thick and if I know jungle vines - and I do - they can trick you. It might look like it's solid ground but it's just vines and greenery strung between two hard surfaces. Trust your scanners more than your eyes. Tess, set up sentry, will you? We're in the thick of wild animal territory. Everyone else? Spread out and scan for anything the right shape.
Kieran Lee nods at Poe's orders, getting out his scanner and carrying it in his right hand to leave his left free for dealing with hanging vines -- or drawing his blaster if it's necessary. He starts to pace through the wreckage, carefully testing his footing whenever it seems suspicious. He's doing quite well, too, until his foot slip off a rock and... ugh, now that the crust is broken, that smells /horrible/. Key's nose wrinkles, and he suppresses a gag, his left hand coming up to cover his mouth. "Oh poodoo." Literally. "And I thought /nerfs/ smelled bad."
While Tess isn't following along with Kierran, she doens't have to for the stench to hit her... obvious when her face scrunches up in momentary disgust, but then she's going rigid... Rifle back up into the curve of her shoulder, sniffing a bit more as she approaches. Once she is, she stabs at it with the point of her dagger, and frowns, "This is fresh.. maybe an hour, max..." It only takes a few over turns of dung and she's pointing out a few bits of calicified bone (teeth) in the feces, "Predatory... Whatever we're doing, we need to do it quickly."
Now she's really on her game, providing as best a sentry as she can in a 360 degree range around them. "If it shits here, it lairs nearby."
Dailo is staying back a bit, letting Kieran take the lead. She is completely unaware of the poop until it is too late, and she blinks a bit. She manages to avoid the small look of disgust that dares to creep onto her face, and she moves forward to examine the poo. She tilts her head slightly. "Looks fresh... or, I should say... smells fresh." She brings a hand up to her nose, brushing her wrist under it to avoid the full aroma. She glances at Tess as she provides more insight, and she nods slightly. "Great," she says, breathing out a slow exhale. "And I don't like the size of it..." She casts the others a dubious look.
"Fresh and..." Poe sidles over to have a look. "...mammalian. Okay, that's...problematic." He unholsters his weapon and keeps his eyes peeled on the jungle. "The guide didn't say anything about large mammals. The creatures here are supposed to be cold-blooded." And they don't poo quite like that. "Let's do this fast, folks. I'm getting a bad feeling." And indeed, just about everyone feels the hair on the back of their necks stand up. The quiet jungle, the smell of predator - it raises the animal instincts in any sentient being. There's an ominous pop way off somewhere. It echoes so much that it's difficult to tell what direction it came from.
Dailo's genetics start to kick in -- that tingle sparks something, and she turns her head ever so slightly toward the jungles. Her hands flex and rub against the grip of her jet black staff, and she feels her heart start to kick up a couple notches. She runs her tongue over her upper lip, tasting the sweat there. Then she looks over at Poe. "Are you suggesting we have a non-native animal running around?" It is then that she notices smaller creatures starting to flee... in the opposite direction of where she is staring. "I have a bad feeling about this," she murmurs, and begins to take on a more defensive stance with her staff.
Kieran Lee draws his foot back slowly, shaking it off, then hobbling over to a nearby piece of wreckage to try and start scraping off more tenacious pieces of crap. "Look at the /size/ of that thing." One hand flails toward the still-sizable poo pile as he grumbles, "I don't think this is ever coming off, and I never want to meet a /predator/," that's with a nervous glance toward Tess, since she suggested the idea, "big enough to drop that much poodoo in one go. Let's find the rest of that ship that Dailo spotted earlier, get in, and get gone, yeah?" And then there's the pop, and his blaster clears its holster, held ready in his left hand, the stink on his boot apparently forgotten about for now.
Tess follows everyone in looking the direction of the snap, then at all the scattered husks of ships around them. A mental count of their weapons, a staff, blaster pistol, Poe's pistol, and her own rifle... The fact that smaller creatures are scattering bodes ill. "We either need to get our asses in gear or get to better cover..." A bad feeling indeed. "Anyone have eyes on it?" Sweeping the section of jungle she's certain she heard something snap... which could easily be any direction in a clearing. Acustics.
"Maybe..." says Poe as he keeps his gaze sharp. "Either that or a native animal mutated by the radiation from all these downed ships. There's old reactors buried out here. They've been leaking into the surrounding environment for decades." There's another crack, this time behind them. And then, they all see it. A thing that moves between two wrecked ships - the arm of an X-wing propelling skyward, with a chunk of Star Destroyer beside it. The thing makes a sound so deep and low that it vibrates them to their core. It's ten feet tall with angry spikes, a long, snapping jaw and a whiplike tail. Its claws are two feet long. It is...fierce, but disfigured. Its body is covered in boils. One eye is ruined. Its jaw droops to one side. But it has a mouth of sharp teeth. It recoils, preparing dodge at the closest person, who happens to be Kieran. Kieran Lee starts to look over at Dailo's fancy staff as it powers up, then his head whips around to track the new motion. "Uhhh... That's..." he was going to say 'big,' and then it starts to come out of the jungle, and instead he yelps, "Nope!" His reaction is not to fire, however, but rather to find a place where it can't get him. Obviously, when he's close to its latrine, it can reach him. So the Corellian looks for some chunk of wreckage big enough to be hard to toss around, but tight enough to other things that the creature might have trouble getting to it. And he books it toward the nearest thing he can see that might be anything close to that. No time to study the area too well, just time to move, "Cover! Get cover!"
"Oh hell..." Tess says when she lays eyes on the source of all the racket, but never faulters in her step. Kieran goes running for cover, but the soldier does what a soldier do... she readies up her rifle and takes a shot at the charging monstrocity. The red laser careens across the clearing and slams hard into it's right shoulder, flinches it backwards, and tears a chunk of leathery flesh away. "Kieran! Just keep running!"
"Kieran!" Dailo shouts out in warning as the beast comes toward him. She is moving forward quickly, finding her balance on the terrain. There is something strong, fierce, but also very graceful about her movements. She strikes out toward its leg, and there is a flash of sonic energy on contact, originating from those blue diamonds now glowing along the length of black resin. She spins the weapon around, already preparing for a secondary strike.
Poe rolls to dive behind a piece of wreckage. Once he's under cover, he extends outwards and fires at the creature. The energy lances through the air and hits the same general area that Tess' shot hits. "Concentrate fire! Call your shots!" Because it's not like they have to worry about their enemy understanding what they're doing.
The creature howls as the first shot hits, then the slicing of Dailo's weapon cuts deep into one of its legs. She cuts through a pus-filled cyst that erupts. It howls loudly in pain, then swings its spiny tail around to swipe at her. She is closest. It can't quite fathom where the energy bolts are coming from, so the others aren't direct targets at the moment.
Kieran Lee keeps running ... until his feet get caught up under him, and he goes down with a clatter, sending metal fragments scattering and rattling. It's a pretty nasty clamor. And he's on his back, fumbling to get his blaster pistol back up and ready. Because he's not going to be running any further when he's actually on the ground, and he'll be damned -- or at least chewed up and spit out -- if he's going to go //crawling// away from the thing. At least it's not trying to eat him anymore.
The words of her instructor at Sharp Shooter school flare into her mind. Tess takes a slow breath and slowly blows it out with her arm running along the underside of the blaster loose so as not to fight the recoil. The dot through the scope trails a half inch of center on the creatures chest, just left of the where the sternum on a mammalian creature would come together.
"Center mass." She shouts, squeezing her hand tigether with the trigger. The barrel leaps up, but she counters it to quickly bring it back down at the ready.
The red blast lances out with pinpoint accuracy, a little right of her intended target, but it erupts the side of the monstrosities chest in a spray of blood, puss, and bone fragments.
When Dailo strikes, it sends a sharp shudder through the creature as another sonic burst is delivered straight into its nervous system. The Fett clone ducks deep along the creature's flank so she can come to the rear of the animal, trying to avoid its claws as she does. She is trying to keep the creature engaged, allowing the ranged Resistance to focus fire on the beast.
The net result of the focused attack from three highly trained fighters is that the mutated cat creature is torn to shreds. It attempts to swipe out at Dailo, but it's weak and ineffective - though Dailo might find that tail comes a little too close to her head. It's losing blood fast, and after a few other weak attempts at movement, it shudders and drops to the ground. Slowly, Poe emerges from behind his cover. "Everyone OK?" he calls out. It //stinks//.
Kieran Lee is not used to shooting a blaster pistol from his back at a giant monster covered with boils, teeth, and a scorpion's tail. "Center mass!" Okay, so he definitely didn't hit the thing center mass. In fact, he barely hit its rear flank. If he was focusing on anything but not dying... or the stink that he nearly fell in again... he would probably be impressed by Tess and Poe's shooting and Dailo's general badassery. As it is... he's a little distracted. When the thing falls, he shakes his head, lifting his pistol away from the target and holding his hands up a moment, "And did I panic, I think not." Thankfully, the words are quiet, meant for himself more than anyone else. He starts to roll over, then stops when he's on all-fours, his head tilting slightly to one side, "I... may have found what we were looking for."
Tess approaches with her weapon still at the ready and puts one more blast in the things head just to be on the safe side. Then, and only then, does she even remotely lower her guard... and then only because she stops looking at -this- one. While trying not to use her nose to breath because good god, "Alive." Sick, but alive.
She hits a quick release on the side of the weapon, drops the half spent magazine into a pouch, and slaps a new one into place just incase they get another visitor.
There's some good news in all this in the form of Kieran signalling he may have found what they're here for, "Grab it and let's g.t.f.o... Nothing ever happens in singles. I don't have that kind of luck and we just made a whole lot of noise." Near to Dailo, Tess spares one hand to slap the other soldier on the shoulder without taking her eye off the scope, "Fancy stick work..." Quiet, seriously impressed, then back to the business of covering their rear.
Dailo ducks as best as she can, but she feels the sharp sting of the very tip of a spike neatly splitting her cheek in a horizontal arch. She grimaces, feeling the red blood bead and then trickle down her warm, nut-colored skin. She looks up, dark flyaways clinging to her sweaty brow. "Stars," she hisses in a soft curse before she pulls herself upright. She is looking over the large creature, and she gives it a smart kick with her boot -- to see if it is still conscious, of course. Then she looks over toward Poe and Tess, and finally Kieran. She blinks at the latter's good fortune. "What?" She says, the word half-laughed in worn amusement. "Yeah. That much commotion scared away all the little things. This much meat will attract all the big things." Poe keeps hold of his weapon and scans the tree line. The creature makes a sick moaning sound, then takes one last shuddering breath. And it farts. Death is not pretty - especially for giant mutated monsters. Poe coughs sharply and rubs his face. "Oh...my...right...yeah, let's..." hhhgh. "Kieran, how fast can you remove the part?" He happens to catch sight of Dailo's injury. "Tess, watch the perimeter a sec." He slides his weapon back and pulls out a cloth from his jacket. He dumps water on it, then reaches towards Dailo's face. "Here, we gotta get that cleaned right away. If there's one thing I learned about growing up on a jungle planet is that things get infected //fast//, and from what you wouldn't expect."
Kieran Lee shrugs a little helplessly at Dailo's protestation, then holsters his pistol and starts digging in under the debris, "Gimme a minute." His voice changes as he disappears inside the chassis of the ship, echoing softly, "I've almost got it. You almost got it too, didn't you Dailo." There's a pause, and then he sticks his head back up out of the hollow, "Wait... something wants to /eat/ that stinky mess?" Without waiting for a response, he ducks into the ship again, and then he's pulling free with the power converters in his arms, "Space these things are heavy."
"Roger that." Tess says to Poe's command and hoists her rifle into a ready position to provide security while he sees to Dailo's injuries and Kieran tears the technology apart like a mechanical surgeon. "Yeah, if they're mutated by the cores, three decades of mutation have probably rendered their stomachs immune to it... That's a dozen or more generations of natural selection at work." Which makes her wonder why they haven't spread out from this clearing more than they have. She's just not smart enough for all that sciency smart person junk, so she focuses on what Tess' do best, shoot shit that charges them.
Right now that's nothing.
In a minute it might be something.
Keep calm and kill anything with fangs.
The fart causes her to immediately choke a bit, and the Fett clone is starting to step away to the pile of stinky flesh. Dailo is about to wipe away the blood with a bit of dirty shirt, but Poe is on it a lot faster and far cleaner method. She is about to scoff and be dismissive to his concerns, but then she relents and lets him clean that sharp little cut across her cheek. She winces, but the flinch to the touch of the wet cloth is very minor. She glances over Poe's shoulder slightly at Kieran, and she snorts slightly. "There are creatures who actually eat feces." Then she looks back at Poe and offers him a small smile of silent thanks.
"The town is damned lucky their scent marker fences still keep those things out. We have to tell the local authorites. Might need some pest control back here," says Poe as he focuses on cleaning her wound. He reaches into his jacket pocket for a small container. "This is...well, no getting around it, this is going to sting like a bitch." He directs the spray to the wound. It does indeed sting, but in a cleansing sort of way. It also makes her skin tighten up as the stuff works as an invisible bandage. He hands her the cloth so she can wipe her face if she wants, then he moves over to help Kieran. "Here," he reaches down and in to take the thing or the other man's hand, whichever is more useful. The jungle around them is oddly silent - which is a bad sign. Even the birds have stopped rustling the trees. They better get while the getting is good.
"Tell me that's not true. Please, please tell me that's not true." Kieran hands the power converter up to Poe, then hauls himself to his feet, "Okay. Boss, /please/ tell me we can go fast enough on the way back to try to outrun this stink. And that we have time for a shower before I get in the ship."
"We're probably being watched." Tess tells them, starting to feel a little paranoid, knowing the quiet that preceeds a sniper attack all too well, having been the other end of that menacing void of sound. "Dogs eat cat poop." The more you know. She's perfectly fine, for once and only in her military career, for the pilots to pilot them the hell out of here very quickly. If only because these things stink.
And she doesn't want to be eaten, pooped, and then be eaten as poop again. The thought is worrisome.
Dailo is a very good patient, though the shock of the disinfectant causes her to take in a deep breath and release a very sharp curse in Ryl. "Ow," she hisses, and then she squints at the Major as the synthskin tightens up, drawing the razor cut closed. Then she starts to wipe off her face with the offered cloth, looking at the blood spotting the fabric. THen she looks up sharply at the silence, and she intakes a breath. "Ah... we should get moving... I think something bigger is coming..." Whatever that something bigger is (or several smaller things that amount to a Something Bigger threat) our heroes thankfully won't know. Thanks to Tess and Poe's wilderness training, they manage to make their way back to the main trail and to their speeders without incident. The pilot is a brave man, but even he breathes a sigh of relief once they pass the scent fence. That and...well, a breeze kicks up and makes it easier to breathe. "OK. Yeah. Everyone's earned ice cream and a trip on the zip line."
