Mercenary Crew: Bounty Hunters

[Corinthian]

Kadis holstered his blaster. "Well, no DCs, looks like this thing's been pretty thoroughly stripped. The armor is probably frozen onto these guys."

 

Kadis grabbed one of the helmets and tugged on it. "Yeah, definitely frozen." He gave one last heave on it.

[JasraLantill]

Even though there was no obvious danger, Jyot had hung around Latch long enough to trust his friend's 'off' feelings. His eyes scanned the barren landscape around them--but it was hard to discern if anything was amiss with just snow and just few rocky outcrops poking out here and there. What did catch his attention was, aside from the old LATT, there wasn't much cover. They were pretty much out in the open. And, combined with Latch's 'off' feeling, that bothered him.

 

"Hey, Headshot," Jyot said over his shoulder to the sharp-shooting pilot who was sitting on a snow tracker behind his and Ali's flank. "Detach that extra tracker you're towing and go take a look around over there." He pointed to an area to the right where there were a few large rocks sticking out of the snow. "I'll check the other side. Meet you back here in five. Ali, you stay here."

 

"Got it, Spanner." As Jyot revved his tracker, Headshot detached the extra-tracker from his own and he zipped off to the right.

 

"What do you mean, "you stay here?'" Ali said, irritated. "I'm going with you." She revved up her tracker.

 

"No, you stay here." Normally jovial and carefree, Jyot's expression was dead serious. "If something happens to either of us, we'll need you or Ellie to run interference. Remember, we're in unfamiliar territory. Don't be reckless."

 

Ali's eyes narrowed. "I'm coming with you," she said through gritted teeth.

 

Jyot held his ground. "You're staying here," he said firmly. He revved his tracker up, put his goggles back on, and started to move. "And if you follow, I'm not honoring that bet."

 

He zipped off to the left to check out the area.

[Corinthian]

The rumbling of Headshot taking the tracker interrupted Kadis' efforts to prise one of the Clone's helmets off.

 

"Damn things frozen on tighter than if it had been welded on."

 

That off feeling came back to him. He kept trying to dismiss it as hypothermia or his brain warming up, but something about this just wasn't right. A Larty crashed on this frozen icecube...

 

And there's no reason anyone should have fought over this planet. There's nothing here except for a lot of snow and ice and a good place to hide. And Jedi had no reason to hide from Stormies ten years ago.

 

"Hey, Captain, any idea what a Clone Transport is doing on this planet? I can't imagine anyone fighting over this world." The question was mostly rhetorical, but the Captain had come here intentionally, so he hopefully did a little more research into the planet than he did thought about how to take down the Jedi.

 

Kadis thumbed the grip of his blaster and hopped out of the LAAT, turning around as he did so and glaring at it. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

[starmark2k]

“Come on guy’s it’s starting to get late.” Alec explained looking down the horizon to the Setting sun. “We’ll head to the mountain range, see if there’s some shelter for the night.”

 

The whole group began to walk to walk away from the crashed Republic Gunship but Alec lingered a little while. He noticed some of the snow on the gunship’s roof crumble down, which was odd as there was no snow. Then Alec felt the ground tremor for a few seconds then stop ‘That’s weird.’ Alec thought.

 

Then the earth under Kuun’s snow crawler opened up and a large pincer from some animal shot through it grabbing the headhunter Pilot. All that could be heard were the Screams as the man was slowly crushed in the giant Pincer of whatever creature had grabbed him. The Claw then went back into the ground as quick as it came out pulling the young pilot underground.

 

“Kuun!” Alec shouted as he pulled his rifle out only to watch the beast and his friend disappear into the snow. “Arm UP!” Alec ordered as he looked down at the ground.

[Corinthian]

Far too late, a blaster bolt shot out at the churned snow. Kadis readied his blaster. This day just keeps getting worse. "Damn. Captain, back in the crawlers or run for it on foot?"

[ForceFightWMe12]

The snow and ice flicked by the grips of the wheels as Ellie's snow tracker sped along the frozen tundra, her goggles starting to fog up from the heat of her face and the coolness of the air. The fur-rimmed hood, which she usually only wore down across her shoulders, was pulled up around her head to shelter her from the wind. It was a relatively peaceful ride, once you got past the roar of the machines' engines. Damn non-repulsor lift technology.

 

The grips skidded beneath her, making the transport lurch slightly and tossing Ellie forward. She gritted her teeth, glaring down at the tracks. What the hell? That wasn't supposed to happen, and if something happened that wasn't supposed to happen, that usually meant that something really bad was about to happen.

 

And she was right. Good ol' intuition.

 

As she began to gun the throttle again, the ice a few feet off her flank shook, near one of the other snow crawlers. She had only caught it out of her peripheral vision, and as she looked at it full on, nothing had changed. She dismissed it as nothing but a trick of her eyes - until a giant pincer of...something shot out of the ice a second later, crashing through the surface with a horrible explosion of ice and snow, grabbing one of the crew members off his snow tracker before disappearing. Not exactly what she had expected, but...watching a man get dragged down to his death right before her very eyes was definitely not good.

 

She threw an arm up to shield herself from any impending debris - the shards of ice would be like javelins at the rate that they would have fallen from that explosion - as she gunned the the engine again. Already the captain was screaming for them to run, and no one had to tell her twice.

[Corinthian]

He didn't wait to hear the Captain's response, bolting towards the remaining crawlers. He grabbed the nearest crawler, pulling himself in next to an orange-haired girl. He aimed his blaster out the side viewport, keeping his eyes peeled for any sign of that sithspawned monster. "Punch it."

[Rogue Nine]

"Kuun!" Stitcher yelled as he ran towards the area where the Headhunter pilot had disappeared.

 

"Stich, don't!" Latch called out after the young medic. Yanking his A-280 rifle off his shoulder, he sprinted after Stitcher.

 

"Gotta save Kuun!" Stitcher shouted as he reached the pilot's downed snow tracker. He waved his sidearm, looking around for any sign of Kuun. The ground shook slightly beneath his feet, then exploded behind him as a giant scaly tail appeared and caught the doctor around his waist. "Aaaaaaaaaaugh!!" Stitcher screamed as the tail tossed him around like a rag doll.

 

Latch skidded to a halt, bringing his rifle up to aim. "By the Maker," he muttered as he attempted to line up the tail in his sights. The thing was far too agile, and most of his shots missed. The few hits he was able to score did not seem to harm the creature at all, as its skin seemed to ablate the blaster fire. It did, however, distract it enough that it released its hold on the medic, throwing him towards the downed tracker before withdrawing into the ground. "Bloody hell," Latch swore, re-shouldering his rifle and brandishing his Bryar pistol as he ran up next to Stitcher. "You okay?" he asked, not looking at the medic, his eyes scanning the area for the creature.

 

Stitcher groaned. "Ugh, that hurt," he said.

 

"No Sith," Latch retorted, hauling Stitcher up behind him. "Stay close, we've got to get back to the others before this thing picks us off."

 

"What about Kuun?"

 

Latch shook his head. "I think we need to worry about our own skins right now. You almost became creature chow, so just take it easy." Something in the snow moved in Latch's peripheral vision, causing the gunner to swing round and fire a volley of shots in that general direction. The movement didn't abate and started coming towards them.

 

Just then, a flurry of blaster bolts shot out at the creature from Latch's left and the sound of a revving snow tracker rose above the eerie quiet. The raven-haired Corellian looked to his side and saw Jyot speeding towards them on a tracker. He breathed a sigh of relief, as the engineer closed in on them, pulling up to their side.

 

"Get on!" Jyot yelled, pointing his blaster just past Latch and squeezing off cover fire.

 

"Don't have to tell me twice," Latch responded, hopping onto the back of the tracker, then reaching over and unceremoniously hauling the still-shellshocked medic next to him. As Stitcher's feet left the snow-covered ground, it erupted again, a giant pincer shooting out of the ground and reaching for all three men. "Go!" Latch shouted, emptying round after round at the creature.

[JasraLantill]

Jyot gunned the snow tracker, spraying up a misty cloud of white as he spun out on the ice, finally getting a grip and taking off. The pincer just missed grabbing the back end of the track, but the creature, whatever it was, following underground was still hot on their heels. Then Jyot spotted a group of rocks up ahead--and one in particular caught his eye.

 

"Hang on!" he shouted to Latch and Stitcher over the whine of the engine at full revs. He headed straight for the rock.

 

"Rock," Latch said, perhaps thinking that Jyot hadn't seen it. "Rock! ROCK! ROCK!"

 

"I know!" The snow track hit the rock, but as Jyot had observed, it was angled. The tracker flew up it like a ramp, jumping up and over the most jagged ones and landing in a snow filled depression in the middle of the formation with a soft thud.

 

The creature's claws rose up from the ground, but it didn't try to climb the rocks. Jyot breathed a sigh of relief. "I guessed right. It digs, but doesn't climb. I think," he added.

 

Using the downed tracker as cover, Jyot began to shoot at the creature. "What the hell is that thing anyway?" he asked Latch, as if he should know.

[ForceFightWMe12]

You see, the wonderful thing about wild animals in their own habitat, is that they don't give up when their prey is out of reach. At least, not when there's more prey fully and totally available to them.

 

Ellie saw the scene in the rear-view mirrors of her tracker, smirking and silently congratulating Jyot on his cunning and daring escape from the creature, whatever the hell it might be. That is, until she saw the creature slip back under ground, and a mound of ice being turned up...heading straight for them.

 

"****!" she hissed under her breath, shifting gears on the tracker, "Hold on, Frost-boy," she told the nameless man behind her before gunning the engine once more. Even so, the young pilot watched the mound pull up along beside them before making a sharp cut straight in front of them. She cursed again, twisting the wheels sharply to send the tracker bouncing along the ice and snow in a power-slide. They kept moving towards the place that the monster was now appearing, only a few yards ahead of them, before the tracker caught traction again and shot ahead like an arrow from a bow. They only just escaped the snapping pincers as Ellie turned another hard cut, bringing them in a total one-eighty as she raced back towards the rocky outcropping. With any luck, the boys and their toys could knock the thing out of commission if she could bring it close enough.

[Corinthian]

Kadis grimaced as the craft began it's wild evasive maneuvering. He had to hand it to the woman, she was a good driver, but...the craft spun around and headed towards the rocks. He leaned out and fired a shot, grinning as one of the beams creased the creature's hide, blasting off a small piece and filling the air with the stench of burning flesh. The creature let out a cry that made Kadis' bones go cold. More than they already were, anyway.

 

"Why the hell does anyone come to this pit, anyway?" He fired off a series of wild shots, mostly making sputters of steam in the ice. "I don't suppose you have a thermal detonator, or maybe a few concussion missiles to dump down it's throat."

[Writer]

Just after Kuun became a 'creature snack', Raelyn froze with a look of complete shock and disbelief on her face.

 

"I heard hungry rumblings," she murmured to Colin, though he'd already begun sprinting to the nearest rock. "Just thought it was..." From behind, another creature came straight for her. Just as it was about to thrust its pincers upward to claim its prize, two things happened. Colin, who'd reached a rock and turned to reassure himself of his sister's safety noticed her predicament and screamed, "Rae!"

 

Immediately, Raelyn launched herself upward and backward, performing a specacular backward flip well out of the creature's reach. Her flip landed her squarely on one of the remaining snow trackers and she revved the engine. Creatures came at her from both ahead and behind, but she spun the tracker and shot out to one side, just as the two creatures readied to make a snack of her.

 

"Coming, Cole!" she called, zagging her tracker toward her brother's tiny rock. Just as she got to his rock, it was knocked roughly out of the snow by another creature and Colin was launched high. With a hiss of determination, Raelyn swerved, positioning her tracker squarely under the spot Colin would have landed. It was a rough landing for him, but he managed to grip tightly to his sister's back before she took off again.

 

"Hold tight to me, Cole," she whispered as they neared the larger rock where the others were gathering. With a look of grim determination on her face, Raelyn swerved toward a smaller rock and gunned the engine. The tracker hit the rock and lifted off, landing on the larger rock, where Raelyn forced it to a skidding halt, mere inches from Jyot's tracker.

 

"Don't ever do that again," Colin gasped. Raelyn giggled and punched him playfully.

 

"Yah, sure big brother," she teased. And Colin leaned heavily against her back, thoroughly tired out from all the excitement.

 

"Okay," Raelyn said, looking out at the snowy mess that was the creatures' domain. "Now what?"

 

But Colin had already determined a way to make himself useful and he'd slid off the tracker to the rock and pulled his bag off his back.

 

"Rae, help me," he urged. And Raelyn complied, sliding off the tracker as well to help her brother in rummaging through the contents of the bag...

[starmark2k]

As the beast attacked Alec offered cover fire with is rifle, shooting whenever he saw the creature rise from the snow. His concentration on one of the wild animals however left him unaware of the second creatures tail rising up slowly behind before it came clashing down.

 

Fortunately for Alec Arelyn did see the creatures tail as it came down towards the top of Alec’s head and she dived at him knocking them both out of the way as the tail splashed into the snow. Without saying a word to each other they both ran for the downed LAAT/I hoping it would work as protection from the animal.

 

They were right and once inside they could only watch the others run for the collection of rocks that also seemed to work as protection from below. As the rest of the group managed to make it to the rock formation, the beasts seemed to try and get in through the formation but was unsuccessful. Then the Pincers went into the ground and all was quiet again.

 

“What were those things?” Arelyn asked after a few moments of silence.

 

“Something Big, fast and armour plated.” Alec replied taking out his com-link and holding it to his mouth. “Latch, Jyot. Is everyone okay over there?”

[Rogue Nine]

Latch grabbed his comlink and thumbed the transmit switch. "Jyot and I are here, unhurt. Stitch got a little banged up, but he'll be fine." He kept his Bryar pistol pointed at the ground, his finger still on the trigger as it charged up a concentrated blast. "What do we do now?" he asked Alec. "Can't set foot on the ground, otherwise we'll turn up crab fodder."

[starmark2k]

"O.K I thin..." Alec started before the area between the Gunship and the rock formation shook and opened up briefly. After a few moments the Body of Kuun could be seen being thrown out of the floor and land on the snow floor. The floor stopped shaking and the hole that had formed collapsed on it self and sealed up. Alec looked through the scope of his rifle to get a closer look at Kuun’s body to see if it was in fact dead, it didn’t move.

 

“They’re also intelligent, they’ve set a trap.” Alec stated, he thought for a few more seconds. “Latch, I’m going out to check on Kuun, Stay there and cover me.”

[Rogue Nine]

"Are you nuts?" Latch sputtered, even as he readied his A-280 rifle. Slapping a fresh blaster pack into the magazine slot, he set the rifle down and snapped the small tripod legs located towards the muzzle of the barrel, providing a steady perch from which to cover Alec. "Those damn things eat blaster fire for breakfast. I won't be able to do much besides distract them, so you better be damn fast, boss."

[Corinthian]

"Hold on tight." The girl yelled as she gunned the throttle, hitting a snow drift and bouncing up, landing lopsided on the rocks.

 

"Hell of a ride." Kadis winced and rolled out of his seat onto the ground, staring out towards where the man's body lay. He winced. Poor guy.

 

He heard one of them talking further up the ridge.

 

"Latch, I'm going to check on Kuun. Stay there and cover me."

 

Well, at least I don't have to worry about his guts.

 

Kadis readied his blaster, aiming it at the body. Not my place. Just sit tight and blast anything that crawls, squirms, tunnels, or digs.

 

He moved up to the one called Latch. "Any chance you could contact your ship, maybe have it come by and start strafing the area?"

[starmark2k]

Alec slipped the comlink back on his belt and switched his gun to fire on full power as he slowly stepped out of the gunship. He checked behind him and smiled at Arelyn in an attempt to reassure her that he would be fine. He began to run across the snow keeping his gun up and ready to fire upon anything that could pop out of the ground.

 

On reaching Kuun’s lifeless body Alec looked down at it’s mangled remains and sighed, no way anything could be alive the condition it was on. Every bone in the pilot’s body must have been broken, the skin was ripped and dripped in blood.

 

‘Jump!’

 

The voice in the wind alerted Alec and he did what it told him to, as the man dived off to the side two large pincers shot out of the ground. As Alec landed he rolled onto his back, but mistakenly let go of his rifle flinging it away from him, the creature began to crawl it’s whole body out of the ground.

 

It’s body was as large as the republic gunship with four stumpy legs and a long tail with spikes at the end. It’s head was half the size of it’s body with a mouth that stretched across it’s whole face. As it opened it’s mouth Alec could see Teeth that were Razor sharp and a second jaw within it with equally sharp and numerous teeth.

 

The beast began to look around, as ifit couldn’t see Alec who was lying right in front of it. Suddenly it dawned on the bounty hunter that it saw not with eyes but sensing vibrations in the snow. Alec remained still not moving at all as the creatures head moved form side to side. It was then a part of the armour plating moved up on the monsters chin like an eye-lid to reveal an eye.

 

Alec cursed in a long dead languge as he realised the creature could now see him, he stood up and began to run away. The creature began to slowly follow keeping it’s eye fixed on the running bounty hunter, Alec began to think then he realised the creature now had a gap in it’s armour. Reaching to his belt he grabbed his comlink and shouted. “Latch! The EYE! Shoot the eye!”

[Rogue Nine]

"There ain't no one on our ship to bring it 'round," Latch replied their newest companion, not looking away from his scope. "Otherwise, I'd've made the call myself to get us off this ice ball."

 

There was a flurry of activity in the area Alec was poking around in and before anyone could react, the entire body of the creature emerged from the ground. Latch made a face at the grotesqueness of it and tried to pick out weak spots in its skin, but found nothing. Alec flew to the ground in front of it, then scrambled up and started shouting. "Latch! The EYE! Shoot the eye!" Latch didn't need the comlink to hear his captain's frenzied commands. Zeroing his scope in on the eye, he squeezed the trigger, sending a blue blaster bolt screaming towards the monster. He saw it connect, then before he could get a second shot off, he saw another shot, this one a brilliant crimson, lance into the creature's eye.

 

Arching an eyebrow, he swiveled his scope over in the direction he saw the second shot originate from, then allowed himself a small chuckle as he spotted Arelyn perched in almost the same exact position he was in, peering into the scope of her exotic HB-9 rifle. "Good shot, chickie," he muttered as he refocused his sights back on the pincer creature. It roared in pain and thrashed around furiously. Latch fired a few more shots into the gaping maw, hoping the creature's internals were as squishy and vulnerable as its eye.

[starmark2k]

Alec continued to run as he heard the shots impact the alien monster’s eye, he turned around to look while continuing to run. As his eyes were distracted from watching Arelyn and latch fire upon the creature he didn’t see the rock in front of him. He tripped over the rock and fell to the floor skidding on his back backwards before coming to a halt. The Beast suddenly collapsed on its own feet and began to slid on it’s stomach dead towards Alec.

 

Alec’s eyes widened as the creatures dead carcass grinded against the snow coming towards him. Alec tried to push him self back but his feet began to slip on the ground not giving himself any traction.

 

The Alien corpse approached the bounty hunter quickly until it was a few millimetres away from Alec and came to a complete stop. Alec sighed in relief as he realised he narrowly missed being crushed by the huge armoured body.

 

“Nice shot guys.” Alec said holding the comlink to his mouth.

 

Then he saw the second beast crawl up next to Alec looking down upon the bounty hunter. The Creatures eye openened and the opened both Jaws to grow loudly in Alec’s face. Alec quickly ripped both his blaster pistols out their holsters and aimed at the Eye letting off three shots from each weapon, the creature then slumped on the ground dead.

[JasraLantill]

Jyot was just aiming his pistol at the second creature's eye, intent on killing it before it killed his captain, when Alec did his rapid fire stunt--killing the second creature before Jyot had a chance to blink.

 

"Wha...?" His mouth dropped slightly as he stood tip toe to see further. The two creatures were definitely both dead. "Aw, son of a gundark! I didn't even get a shot!" He turned around to face Latch. "I didn't even get a shot!" he repeated, holding his arms up in frustration. He rolled his eyes. "Son of a gundark..."

 

He looked over to where Colin was treating Stitch--or at least trying to. Only looking bruised and with some minor lacerations, Stitch was apparently arguing with Colin about his treatment methods.

 

"Guess it's true," Jyot commented to his shipmate.

 

"Huh?" Stitch gave him a blank look.

 

"That doctor's make the worst patients." He gave Stitch a disparaging look. "Would you stop arguing with him and just let the guy patch you up? Please? You're no use to us wounded."

 

Jyot looked at Colin. "Erm... he's gonna live, right?"

[Writer]

"Unless any of his injuries get infected, yes," Colin answered bluntly. Meanwhile, Raelyn was still rummaging through the bag, though it seemed her purpose was different from that of her brother.

 

"Got it!" she exclaimed victoriously. Startled, Colin glanced back at her. Immediately, he recognized the small packages in her hands and the color drained out of his face.

 

"Rae, no..." he protested. But his words had scarcely left his mouth when Raelyn took a flying leap off the rock, landing with a solid thump. Immediately, the creatures sensed the movement of a living being and moved to intercept.

 

"Hey," Stitch grumbled, "I thought you were tending to me..."

 

"When you have a younger sister with ever so slight tendencies toward insanity, see if you can focus on something else!" Colin snapped. His forehead creased with worry, he watched as Raelyn skidded to a halt. The creatures came nearer, but Raelyn merely crouched, one of the tiny packets in her right hand.

 

"Oh, Force, Rae, be careful," Colin breathed. Just as the rumbling sound associated with the creature's movement ceased, Raelyn dropped the packet and lunged right. A fraction of a second later, a creature's head emerged where she had stood, mouth wide to accept anything there. It took in the packet...

 

"Goodbye, big boy," Raelyn announced solemnly from where she lay on the ground. And from somewhere within the creature's body, a loud pop sounded. The beast lurched and toppled lifeless to the ground, falling mere inches from Raelyn.

 

"One down..." Raelyn commented. She looked around... and dropped another packet, darting forward as she did. "Make that two down..." Sure enough, a second creature took in the second packet and was killed as quickly as its companion. Raelyn figured that she had one more to worry about... after all, if these things hunted in packs, it only took so many before they wised up and cut their losses.

 

So Raelyn headed back to the rock. Just as she reached it, two creatures came at her. "Okay, so here goes..." And she jumped, caught the edge of the rock with one hand and dropped two packets with the other. It seemed scarcely possible, but each packet was delivered successfully to each creature and they both experienced the unpleasant 'pop' that went along with whatever was contained in those packets.

 

"Now we see," Raelyn said thoughtfully, looking beyond the rock to see if the creatures would do as she suspected and decide to leave them alone.

 

And Stitch looked over at Colin, wondering, "Now that she's safe, are you just gonna stand there and stare at her?"

[Corinthian]

Kadis whistled as the girl did her rounds with the packets. He holstered his blaster, if the fear of their weapons didn't drive the creatures away, they'd likely be too distracted eating their dead comrades to give them any heed. They looked likely to be cannibals, anyway.

 

"Wow, that was nice...what were those things? Grenades? Thermal Detonators?" That was pretty unlikely, Kadis knew. Grenades probably wouldn't have been powerful enough, and a thermal detonator wouldn't have just made a pop, it probably would have fried the thing from the inside out.

[Quist]

((Sorry for not being on more often! Real life is kind of crazy at the moment. But thanks for everyone who's kept Arelyn involved. ))

 

Arelyn clambered down gingerly from her perch, her rifle in her left hand, her blaster pistol in her right, both trained at the ground. The appearance of the strange creatures was a sudden surprise and it had cost them dearly, judging from the mangled corpse of Kuun. She was no stranger to dead bodies, but she could not explain why she could not look at him.

 

Padding over to Alec, she helped him up and stood next to him. "We should definitely get out of here," she recommended. "There may be more coming around, and I don't think we can afford to lose any more people."

[starmark2k]

Alec looked around at the two dead beasts and then back at Arelyn “Yeah, You’re right.” Alec then looked over at Kuun’s Corpse. “One thing we must do first.”

 

Alec walked over to the body of his dead crew man and kneeled by it’s side so he could slide his hands under and lift it. He picked the body up with both arms and then turned to the Gunship and begun to walk towards it. A look of sorrow was across his face, he had lost men in the pass but it was never easy to see them die, but he always treated their remains the same way.

 

On reaching the gunship he placed the body inside and laid it down straight with his hands crossed over his chest. Looking over his head Alec saw a fuel line and took a pistol out of his belt and used the hilt to hammer it loose. The liquid fuel began to spill out of the pipe as Alec began to cover the body and inside of the ship with the fuel.

 

Alec walked away from the ship with the same look of sorrow on his face as he took out a flare and lit it, he threw it in to the ship and quickly the body began to burn.

 

“See you in the next Life.” Alec said quietly as the funeral pyre burned.