Hunter's Moon (completed)

[Dyn Hela]

The dull glow of Sojourn sat large in the viewport of the Cabur-Class ship. The quad engines flared to life as he aimed his ship toward the small Starport and made a mental note to borrow a bigger ship if this plan went right. The cold embrace of the void released it's hold like a reluctant lover as he entered atmosphere and began landing procedures.

The engines were set to cool down as he stood and walked to begin packing his gear for the hunt. He popped his thigh holster on his cyber leg and rested a Tenloss revoler in it's rest before letting it close and lock back into place. He grabbed his pack and stuffed it with his other gear for the job. He was hoping for live capture and paydata but he needed charges to bring the building down. His combat shotgun slid into a space on the side of his pack and he tossed on his H-harness over his scout armor and then his pack went over his shoulders as he ducked out the hatch and slung his assault rifle. His cybernetic eye began displaying data and he walked across the flight deck and made his way toward the target.

 

[Dyn Hela]

Dyn walked toward the tree line and took his weapon off his shoulder to hold it muzzle down with the butt plate to his shoulder. His eye displayed the humidity, temperature, barometric pressure and number of life signs as he stepped into the trees and quickly disappeared into the underbrush. Sounds of the forest world were all around him but barely a whisper of sound came from him as he moved through the forest. He was still several kilometers away from the rumored location of the Holocron of some Sith lord or other. The payout for a holocron was high but from aerial views the coordinates pointed to an area that was in what appeared to be some kind of nest. He moved through the trees and continued along before he came upon a small clearing with a large hole in the center.

The area looked like it was a crash site but there was no wreckage only broken trees and rent ground. The smell of over turned earth and tree sap said the area was fresh and was ever had done the damage was big, real big. Dyn moved further into the area scanning the site until he noticed a pair of mounds. He walked over slowly to the nearest mound and noticed legs and a weapon near by. A quick look at the second mound said it was another body. He looked around the area for what may have killed them before rolling the first body over onto its back. Wide lifeless eyes stared skyward. The human female wore overly ornate armor made of some light metal had a string of grenades and a pair of silver cylinders on it's belt and another in her hand.

"Jedi." He whispered to himself as he bent down to check for cause of death and found the neck was broken along with the arm, "Stupid Jedi at that."

 

[Dyn Hela]

He took the grenades and the lightsabers then went to check the other body and found the same thing to be true for the other. This one had slightly less armor and only one lightsaber, the head was missing. The armor had a series of gouges on the chest and back of the painted plates. It didn't take an expert to know teeth marks when you saw them. He took comlinks and a datapad from the ground near the second body and quickly dumped them in the pack for a peruse later before heading forward toward the hole. It seemed whatever had killed the two saber jockeys had come out of the hole killed them and went back down.

He moved around the hole and continued on his way. He wasn't here to avenge space wizards he was here to collect the holocron and com [member="Rave Merrill"] for drop point and then give [member="Danger Arceneau"] here 12 percent.

He moved back into the trees and began noticing silk or webbing as he got closer to the target coordinates and the smell of carrion became a subtle odor on the humid air. The feeling he should have brought a bigger gun tugged at his thoughts as he dropped to the loamy black soil and watched a huge worm like creature moving down below.

"Yup, I need a bigger gun." He mused as he began low crawling back from the edge of the embankment. He hit his com and began recording with his cybereye to capture the beast movements and get a layout of the nest like structure. Finally he got a few still shots with simple blinks of a heavy metal chest or safe near the back of the nest directly across from himself. He took the video and stills and sent them to Merrill as he commed her for a quick question. "You want that too?" He asked as he continued to move back toward his ship.

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Dyn Hela"] got a very quick response from Akure Executive Interstellar. The response was in the affirmative.

 

[Dyn Hela]

Although they couldn't see he nodded his understanding and cut the link before making his way back through the forest toward his ship. The thing he saw was huge and if ywo Jedi, sith, or what ever they called themselves these days couldn't kill one it meant the thing had an edge, an edge that Dyn didn't know about. The humid air filled his nostrils as he skirted the edge of the clearing made by the creature when it had killed the forcies and continued to trek the kilometer to his ship. His Cabur-class, Hel's snare, still sat waiting as he came out of the trees and jogged over to the side hatch. He had a plan, a plan to take the thing alive, but it was crazy and he would need to prepare his ship first.

 

[Dyn Hela]

He took the lightsabers from his bag and tossed them on a weapon rack near the gunner turret before he set his pack down and began to restart the engines and do a systems check. The soft rumble of the quad-engines and the electric hum of the ship weapons comimg online was a subtle melody, a theme song of inevitable violence that would either end in riches or death.

The turret that was the ships nicest asset was also only useful if you had a gunner to man it so what he was about to do had a strong chance of biting him in the shebs if he messed it up. He activated one of his astromechs and waved it to follow as he went to the turret control system and popped the wiring panel for the control modual.

"Link into the targeting computer, M1-R1." he said his quiet baratone voice the only sound other than the ship itself, "I want to try and synchronize it to my headware."

He took a long cord from the control modual and slotted it into the small metal port on the base of his skull and got to work.

 

[Dyn Hela]

The programming was not that hard to figure out especially with the astromech's help. The issue was that it was on a separate system from the rest of the ship, one because it was easier to wire and two if the piloting or other cockpit systems died the little gunship could still keep fighting. his eyes moved back and forth reflexively as he navigated the programming and simply linked the signal to his holojack and tested it by moving the turret via wireless command.

"Got It, M1-R1." He said quietly, "Stay jacked in and I'll get us going toward the target."

He unplugged himself from the weapon's computer and ducked down the narrow corridor to the pilot seat and strapped in. Jedi had to be out of their heads to fight that thing on the ground. He quickly ran through the checklist as his cybereyes and holojack implant synched up to the ships systems. He put on his headset comlink and in another minute was airborne.

 

[Dyn Hela]

His ship lifted off and he guided it up into the clouds as he scanned for the nest once again. His blue eyes scanned the systems as he flew in the clouds over the humid world toward his payday. The sound of the engines and the buzz of electronics were his only friends and had been for a long time but that made splitting the credits easier. He finally found himself above the site and activated a recon droid in a ventral recess that moved into position just below the clouds to give Dyn a view of the area and the huge creature. He wasn't sure what his plan would do to the thing but he was pretty sure he would find out pretty soon.

He watched the thing move in circles adding to damaged sections of it's nest and if he was any judge he would say it was getting ready to lay eggs or an egg, who knows what the thing did. He took a breath and armed his connor net launcher and dropped his ship's nose and made a run at the huge thing. He smiled as it reared up on it's rear legs and gnashed it's mandibles.

"Good girl." he said as he fired the connor net at the creature as it began spraying silken strands into the air. The net opened late but got open far enough to get around the creature and release the charge that was designed to cripple fighters. The creature fell to one side and Dyn began to circle back around and land so he could grab the primary target, the safe.

 

[Dyn Hela]

He quickly pulled out of his crash webbing and ducked back into the small gunner area and tossed his pack back on. He took his assault rifle and dropped to the ground from the side hatch and aimed his weapon at the creature looking for a soft spot to tranquilize it. He continued to aim at the quiet creature as he skirted around it toward the safe. His eye was still linked to the ship as he moved and he took the opportunity to aim the turret at the creature, just in case.

His black combat boots crunched bones beneath his feet as he made it to the safe in question. He knelt and pulled his trench knife out to cut away webbing and get a look at the lock. It was old, triple tumbler from the looks combination dial, that would take time. He took off his pack and pulled a plasma torch out and set to work. He swept the tool around in a square on the front of the safe until the outer casing fell away and then began pulling pieces out of the lock until the door could open freely.

"Bull's-eye." he said as he looked inside at the holocron, a lightsaber and a pile of flimsi sheets with notes and coordinates. He grabbed the gear and put is in a waterproof bag.

 

[Dyn Hela]

He carried the bag back toward the ship and set it inside the hatch before looking back to the creature. He didn't really care either way but he was pretty sure he would get paid more for a living catch. He moved slowly around to the thing's head and walked closer. He pulled the large bantha tranquilizer dart from his H-harness and walked up to check the thing. Hot putrid breath still moved in and out of the things twisted maw. Burn marks from the net crisscrossed the thing's skin but it didn't look as bad as dead would have been.

He took the dart and plunged it in at a joint in the thing's leg and jumped back as it moved and then again lay quietly on the torn ground. He commed AEI again.

"Package and creature are secured." He said into the comlink, "Transmitting coordinates for pick up now."

 

[Velok the Younger]

[member="Dyn Hela"] netted a hundred thousand for the taozin, a hundred thousand for the knickknacks, and two million for the holocron, plus safe pickup.