With the Great Jedi War passed Clan Vizsla has gathered on the planet Daemunn. From their newly created hunting lodge they embark on a convoy of skiffs. Aboard each skiff are crates containing any hunting supplies you may need including weapons, skinning blades and spices to prepare food. Each skiff has also been equipped with a skilled chef and hunter that can instruct and offer tips on hunting and food preparation. Lastly, each skiff is stocked with a small bar and bartender with a variety of refreshments that can appeal to all species.
As the convoy of skiffs barreled down the mountain range towards the swampy marshes below, Raist leaned on the rail and took off his helmet. Fetid warm air assailed his nostrils, but it felt good to be on Daemunn.
His skiff was filled with people, activity, and supplies. Even with the weapon restrictions, he still had his vambraces, and his droid was below deck, powered down. Still, a long range weapon would be in order….
He made his way to the armorer, and started pawing through the weapons. A scattergun, though not long range could come in handy. And he was able to get his hands on a worn out cycler rifle. Perfect for distance, though not the most ideal choice, and in a combat setting, he would have handed it back. To hunt game though? Would be fine.
With his weapons selected, he opened the Comms to the rest of Vizsla, “What’s the first target?” He asked nobody in particular, “Or are you just waiting for me to bag the biggest trophy?”
The diminutive Twi’lek sat silently at the bow of the Bantha-class anti-vehicle skiff watching the changing landscape. She felt a bit out of place, not because of the strange flora passing by the speeding vessel, but because of the other armored sapients cluttering the crowded deck.
Mandalorians…what an odd bunch of quasi-chivalrous bastards. Though it was probably the Rylothian in red Nightsister armor that most people would find strange.
She glanced back at the members of her new clan and watched them pick through crates of loaner gear. Why would anyone take unproven weapons into the field? she thought. For once, not voicing her disapproval. She was still new here, and she didn’t want to make a bad impression on her new comrades. She sipped at her glass of Tihaar, trying not to spew out the obnoxious swill that assaulted her tongue. “Maybe it would just be easier to use the Force to make them like me,” she mused quietly as she glared down at the stereotypical mando drink.
“…or are you just waiting for me to bag the biggest trophy?” The question cut short her reverie. The pale man with short brown hair and bright blue eyes had been one of the Mandalorians digging through the provided equipment.
“I don’t hunt for trophies. Killing should be reserved for survival,” she replied. “…Or vengeance,” she added in a hushed tone. The dark memory invaded her mind and the grisly scene once again played out behind her ebony eyes.
Supervising the hunt from another Skiff Korvis watched as the groups took off into the forests and marshes. Even if the hunt was unsuccessful some comradery and bonding time would be good after the invasion of the Ethereal Realm. Korvis reached for his Comlink to give a small reminder.
“Remember, try not to put too many holes in everything as we plan on a meal at the Hunting outpost after we get done. Sport or meat it’s your choice but I would like something to eat with my ale this evening.”
As the skiffs careened through the swamp, Raist could tell the crew was eager for action of any kind. They were promised game, and game they wanted. As the fog rolled in from the swamp, one of the members on another skiff called out and pointed in the distance, whoops and hollers went up all around as a pack of Skalder’s were careening through the muck, startled by the skiffs, and now keeping pace with them. The skiff’s immediately changed course and began to pursue. Not the game Raist would have chosen for himself, a large, non-threatening herbivore, but he risked a mutiny if the crew couldn’t have its fun.
Shots rang out immediately, most missing the mark as the crew was either too excited or too drunk to aim accurately. A few managed to hit the herd, through the damage done appeared negligible. It would take several shots to bring down one of these beasts, especially the way they were shooting.
Raist sighed, and got down on one knee. With a familiarity few seemed to notice, he swung the cycler rifle from his back, paused to compensate for distance and direction, aimed squarely at the closest Skalder’s left eye, and fired, the sound of the cycler letting off a very loud “CH-KOOM” as it sailed through the night…
Sinya’ni sat in silence as she watched her new brothers blasting away at the mild mannered herbivores. The disapproval plastered all over her face. At least Raist showed some skill with his well placed shot. But it still didn’t sit well with the tiny Twi’lek who recently left the over sadistic ranks of the Plagueians. “Is this what counts as hunting for Mandos?” she inquired, not even trying to hide her sustain. “I imagine it will taste good like most plant munchers, regardless of the methods used to acquire it, but this feels disrespectful to your quarry. Not to mention lacking…I don’t know…I just thought you’d take some pride in the hunt–and some risk. Where’s the thrill in blasting harmless creatures from a elevated armored tank?”
Raist smirked at hearing the Twi’lek’s comments. His skiff and another had slowed down to deal with the carcass of the creature he had killed. The rest of the skiffs were still chasing the herd, hoping to add to the bounty already. Korvis and his skiff stopped briefly, yelling before leaving
“A fine first trophy, let’s add it to the wall at the Lodge! Onward! To greater beasts!” And with that, his skiff stormed forward to join the rest.
His crew was already decapitating the beast and prepping it for transport back to the lodge. Raist for his part, showed a look of disdain on his face that was palpable to any around him. He set the cycler rifle to reload and slung it back on his shoulder before turning to Sinya’Ani
“Sometimes you do something not for yourself, but for those around you.” He said, gesturing to the dozens of Vizlans scrambling around the carcass. Raist smiled before gesturing toward the sky, “May we find game worthy of the skills we possess!” He then tapped his hand to his chest and raised it again in salute.
“Any suggestions?” Raist asked and shrugged his shoulders
“Well that depends on the challenge you seek!” Hector Von Ricmore stated. The Kiffar lazed away in a comfortable hammock that had been set up on the landspeeder. In one hand he held a glass of rich Naboo white whine. In the other he held a small wheel of cheese with several bites already taken.
“We’ve imported a variety of cloned creatures. Some, like your herbivore are easy prey. Others are more challenging. I’ll send your the coordinates for the location of a Nexu if you would like viscous mobile prey. Or if you like you can head to this second set of coordinates in pursuit of a slower but nonetheless powerful Acklay.”
‘Well since we have supper covered perhaps I shall go after a real challenge.“ Korvis said to the pilot. "Let’s head to the coordinates of the Nexu.”
His skiff made a hard turn and sped up as the driver took him above the trees and headed out to the last known location of the predators. As the skiff sped across the valley Korvis readied his spear and prepared for the hunt.
Raist gave pause at the Kiffar before him. While Ricmore’s tactics were always flawless, he questioned his motives. Prey to hunt, but he would rather laze the opportunity away.
“I shall go after a real challenge.” Raist managed to make out from Korvis before his skiff sped away. Based on direction, it wasn’t hard to figure out the Consul of Vizsla preferred Nexu as his prey.
“Who am I to argue?” Raist asked nobody in particular. He used his finger in a circular motion, and whistled, indicating to his people to wrap up whatever they were doing. A scant few ticks of the chrono later and they were off again, their small convoy of skiffs struggling to keep up with Korvis as he blasted full speed ahead towards the Nexu.
Wind in his hair, moonlight beaming down on him, Raist grabbed the local comm. “Leave some for the rest of us old man, unless you think you can take that beast all by yourself.” Raist let the remark hang in the air, eliciting quite a few chuckles from those onboard.
While he had a moment, Raist moved back to the armory on his skiff. There were very few weapons of any kind left and Raist knew he was going to get one shot with the cycler and that was it. He had a scatter gun if he got too close, but….
No, he didn’t like the selection of sporting blasters and slugthrowers left available. In fact he hated it, there wasn’t even a .48 cal Enforcer. He grabbed a 4 shot Adjudicator, spun the barrel and made sure it worked, which it did. Whoever had been the armored for this excursion had done adequate work.
If he needed more then 5 shots against a Nexu… he might be in trouble.
Sinya’ni rolled her eyes at all the testosterone getting tossed around. “You make it sound like he can’t take one on by himself,” she said in response to the human…ish warrior. “I’m sure someone of his experience and training could manage it.” She looked back out over the landscape towards their destination. She added quietly, “I could.”
Just then, she felt a stirring in the Force. Perhaps their quarry was closer than they realized.
As the skiff he was on neared the spot of the Nexu Korvis help his had for the skiff to stop. Still well about the treetops the consul peered over the railing into the forest below. They were still about 150 meters above the ground but the forest was deathly still.
Motioning for the skiff to land Korvis made ready with his spear and newly acquired lightshield. The Skiff plummeted through the trees limbs cracking and breaking under the weight of the skiff and the impact it had on them. As it finally came to a stop a couple meters about the ground Korvis once again gave a signal and the skiff started to rise as the Consul jumped off and rolled onto the ground in a crouch. If he was going to hunt prey it would be on even terrain.
“I see you opted for shock and awe tactics,” Sinya’ni said with an eye roll. “Probably nothing Nexu sized in a five mile radius now!” The nightsister stepped off the skiff and dropped silently to the ground after Korvis. “Guess we’re walking now.” Sinya’ni breathed in the forest air and smiled. This trip might be fun after all. She reached out with the Force and let the flood of life overwhelm her senses for a moment before focusing in on Korvis and searching for their quarry.
“I prefer to seek out my prey, not shoot it from a platform about the trees.” Korvis responded.
He searched around the area and while it looked as though the Nexu had been here Korvis couldn’t tell which direction the had went. The tracks just went in circles and making them out in the mud was nearly impossible. He hated to admit it but Sinya'ni was probably right. Though he wouldn’t admit it.
“Oh, I get that and agree with you, however crashing through the trees and destroying the canopy is a noisy and destructive way of doing it. Now…” the Twi’lek paused and threw her gaze around at the tracks. “I think it went that way,” she said, pointing down a game trail.
The Twi’lek’s intuition would prove correct. At the end of the trail a cloned Nexu awaited the duo. But this particular creature was designed to prove a challenge to even the toughest hunter. Unbeknownst to the duo, the Nexu was equipped with a modified collar. Once combat began it would inject the creature with a potent cocktail of stimulants; it would numb the predators pain and allow it to fight for even longer.
Raist’s skiff finally caught up to that of Korvis’s, which was now at a dead stop. He saw neither his Consul, nor the smart-mouthed Twi’lek from earlier, and he chuckled at her previous remarks. They must be hunting, and with a slight nudge in the Force he could sense the two of them not too far from where they had stopped. Raist leaned against the railing for a minute, and pondered his options. Rather then join them, he was going to leave the two of them to their own devices. He waved, even though they were nowhere in sight, the gesture merely symbolic.
He turned toward the pilot of the skiff he was on, “We’re going after the Acklay, take us out of here, slowly at first as not to disturb our Consul, then full speed. We should have coordinates.” Raist ordered, and the pilot looked down hurriedly before glancing up and replying.
“Uhhh, general coordinates only.” The pilot replied and his thousand-yard stare told Raist he probably shouldn’t even be on this hunt.
“An Acklay is nothing like a Nexu, we should be able to see it well before it sees us.“ he then muttered under his breath “or it’s path of destruction….”
He grabbed the comm as the skiff did an about-face, turning around and then moving away from the Nexu grounds.
“Any free Vizslans, Raistlin here. I am en route to the last known coordinates of an Acklay and am requesting general assistance from any indisposed hunters. I repeat…” he went on to repeat the message before clicking off comms. Whether help would arrive or not be wasn’t sure. Hunting a 30 foot tall beast with claws that could crush a speeder? He preferred not to be alone.
The skiff bounded on for some time, and the night sky grew darker still, much to Raist’s chagrin. As they approached the Acklay’s coordinates Raist could see residual damage from the creature, downed flora, dead wildlife, some eaten, some just crushed wholly. Raist motioned for the skiff to slow down, they would only get one shot at the element of surprise. “Make it count.”
Socorra required a pilot to maneuver the skiff, as the woman wasn’t about to touch its controls. No ship, no speeder, no skiff either. She hated flying. Which unfortunately made jetpacks crucial, of which she was terrible at piloting as well. But at least she could maneuver one with her body versus hands and hours spent in a simulation.
She pointed over to where the Force led her to find Korvis, and the pilot complied, bringing them over the trees and across the landscape. The woman stayed on the vehicle for now. It wouldn’t do to spook whatever they were hunting.