All According to Plan (Hunter's Guild)

[Lucien Atika]

Va'art peered back through the glass at the young hunter. Orders were backed up and Lucien thought he'd be more help to Mrrew if the two split up to tackle jobs. Battling a Taozin would prove to be no trivial challenge, and to capture on opposed to kill it did not stack the odds in Lucien's favor at all.
Despite the odds, the boy was anxious to prove himself not only to Mrrew, but the rest of the guild. It was amazing. It was only a short time before he was a slave in an underground fighting circuit on the smuggler's moon, and now he was a free man with a profitable profession. Well, profitable if he was not eaten.

A notification of a gravitational shift brought his attention back to the matter at hand. With gentle ease Lucien broke through the atmosphere of the jungle's moon and made his approach. He was careful to ensure the safest possible landing for the rented freighter. With little excitement he brought the bird to a gentle rest on the ground and quickly made his way back to the cargo hold to suit up...

 

[Lucien Atika]

Lucien brought the snug Bantha-hide vest over his clean synthsilk shirt. In doing so made him smile.

'Clothing fit for royalty'

he thought to himself. That was not quite the case mind you, but it was by far the finest garments the boy had ever known. His trousers were tucked cleanly into his Bantha-hide boots. After securing the boots, he slid the combat knife into it's sheath. Hidden by the majority of the boot, only the hilt protruded. A thick tactical belt secured his trousers, and held the hilt of his trusty vibrosword. It had been sharpened and refurbished since his skirmish with the Nexu. The thought of that battle caused Lucien to rub his shoulder. Perhaps a bit stiff, but any real damage had been healed since. Last but not least, Lucien retrieved his chiru rifle from its diecast case. It had been a gift from Mrrew, and Lucien cherished the weapon. Tossing the sling over his neck the weapon fell to rest comfortably against his ribs. As he approached the ramp, almost as an after thought, Lucien grabbed a set of night vision optics that had been resting atop a crate. As the ramp descended the hunter glanced back at the massive cage he was expected to fill.

'I can do this'

 

[Lucien Atika]

As the grav-cart cleared the ramp, it closed to secure the ship, and in doing so left the young hunter standing in the darkness. Flipping the optics on revealed a green tinted world with trees in every direction of the small clearing he had landed in. The large annelid creature had thought to be extinct, but had since been found all over the galaxy. Va'art was, however, their home world and was sure to be the most abundant source for the creatures. It was inevitable Lucien would stumble across one regardless of the direction he chose. A few taps on his wrist worn datapad had marked the coordinates of the ship and began drafting a rough map of his immediate area. He studied the information for a brief moment.

'North it is.'

 

[Lucien Atika]

Lucien's head was on a swivel as he crept silently deeper into the vegetation. His dominate hand rested confidently on the hilt of the vibrosword while the other, equipped with the currently mapping datapad, guided his direction. Training and a hunter's intuition guided his feet ensuring silent, graceful movement. Well, perhaps not graceful, but he hadn't tripped over a branch, yet.

He had studied the available materials on the mark before ever departing. Big worm-thing, evidently a great pain in the ass to force-sensitives as it appeared invisible to their sense. Lucien wasn't exactly sure what all of that meant, but he was just grateful it would take no ill affect on him. What would take effect on the hunter was that these creatures could grow to be the length of twenty meters. He had seen the power of his chiru rifle. That wasn't his concern. No, his concern was lugging the monstrosity back through the trees to the ship. Taozin had been known to be deadly, but the inconvenience of transport was the most undesirable factor of the contract. It was also probably why the other hunters had avoided the task. Boy was it great to be the new guy!

 

[Lucien Atika]

After trekking roughly 30 kilometers to the North, Lucien gave up on the pursuit and began making his way back towards the ship.

'Mrrew would have found ten of these damn things by now.'

Light pierced through the canopy in scattered, uneven rays, but the floor of the jungle remained fairly dark. The optics, although not entirely necessary, still helped more than hampered his vision. Lucien had decided he would make his way back to the ship, and try his luck to the south tonight. He felt hunting at night would significantly help in reducing the risks of incident. Although, the desire to play with the optics the guild had loaned him might have played a factor in his strategy. No job is worth doing if you can't have fun! The return trip, though long, was uneventful. Mapping his route had proven a good idea and he followed his steps all of the way back to the ship.

Weary, but not defeated, the young hunter unequipped and retired until night fall...

 

[Lucien Atika]

Lucien had arose before darkness had swallowed the moon. Outfitted and rejuvenated he exited the ship to face what wonders South might have in store for him. Only after the ramp closed did he remember the grav-cart he had left unattended. The cart was unscathed and exactly where he had left it, but possessed no charge, and would be of no help to him in extracting his mark.

“Dammit.” He mumbled aloud. It had been a rookie mistake and he knew it. He knew that the guild would be keeping a close eye on him and the longer he took to complete the mark, the more likely Mrrew would send someone to check on him, or worse, Mrrew himself would come investigate the delay. Lucien refused to be a burden, and wanted only to earn the guilds respect. The boy refused to be defeated and quickly plotted an alternate solution to his dilemma.

 

[Lucien Atika]

By the time Lucien had stowed the grav-cart to charge and drug the massive cage down the ramp and out of the ship the night was in full swing. Wasting no time, Lucien wiped the sweat from his brow and brought the opticals over his eyes and made haste towards the south at twice the paste of the night before.

Just shy of thirty kilometers, Lucien dropped prone startled by a flash of movement from ahead. It was indeed a Taozin. It's breaths were long and peaceful as it slumbered. The gargantuan worm wrapped tightly around a large tree. Soft points of it's underbelly peaked at each point it came wrapping back around the tree, and Lucien made note. Had he been able to tranq the damned thing while it was sleeping this whole thing would be far simpler, but due to his blunder his considerably reckless plan would prove to be far more inconvenient...

 

[Lucien Atika]

Shifting to sit on his rump, Lucien retrieved the canteen from his belt. He hesitantly gulped the remaining water as he prepared himself for step one of Operation: Taozin. He was sure everyone would get a hardy laugh out of this one when he made it home. Tossing the empty canteen to the side he began to bear-crawl towards the sleeping giant. The being had to be over fifteen meters. As it seemed to wind endlessly around the tree like a spiral staircase.

'Time to wake the sleeping baby.'

Retrieving the combat knife from his boot Lucien silently studied the blade for the moment preparing himself for the marathon that followed. He readied himself and plunged the blade hard into the low underside of the beast. It quickly roared to life. It's blue eyes, teeming with hatred, focused in on Lucien's back as he retreated back towards the ship. It was not long before the Taozin was hot on his tail in pursuit it's arms and legs propelling it far faster than Lucien had anticipated.

“Awe, chit.” He called out over his shoulder at the realization that he was loosing ground. Lucien began weaving between the trees he managed to make a slight window for himself, but he still had quite a bit of ground to cover.

 

[Lucien Atika]

Lucien would quickly slide between two trees happily living in close proximity with a hunter's grace. Mr. Taozin would plunge through the two trees sending dirt and splinters everywhere as the trees creaked in agony. If it was slowing the monster at all it was not showing. The Taozin was pissed. Lucien would lose ground as he would hop streams or climb small over hangs, but his pursuer seemed to glide over anything it simply didn't destroy. It was not helping the hunter's morale to say the least, but as long as his hands came up, his legs came up, and he continued to run with all of his might. In retrospect, everything was going according to plan.

Lucien shot a quick, desperate look at the datapad, and to his relief he was closing in on the ship. Dodging the ill intended webbing of his pursuer, Lucien broke into the clearing this would prove the tricky part. Turning back he leveled a shot off into Taozin's face. Unchanged, the beast continued it's pursuit. Again, Lucien struck the beast with no affect. Lucien's retreat ended as he turned to face the Taozin. The large, open cage at his back, the frantic, charging beast at his front. Calmly he lifted the rifle and held his breath. The darts had began to take their tole as the beast's eye gave away it's weariness. Still it charged. When it's approach was feet away from squashing our daring hero, he launched one final shot as he fell out of harm's way.

First came the thud of his back as he slid into the clear, followed by the heavy thud of the beast slamming into the far side of the cage as it passed back into the realm of dreams, and finished with the satisfying thud of the cage's over head door falling to secure the sleeping giant. For a short eternity Lucien sat in the dirt expressionless. Soon the silence was replaced with his uncontrollable laughter as he fell back to rest..

“I love my job.”

 

[Lucien Atika]

After a short victory nap, Lucien went to work at securing his mark. With the assistance of the fully charged grav-cart Lucien managed to get sleeping beauty strapped down and secured in the cargo bay of the freighter. Lucien put away his gear, and set to cleaning his rifle. After putting her to bed safely in her case, he found his way back to the cockpit. He began to put the ship through pre-flight diagnostics and checked to ensure no one had tried to contact him.

“No news is good news.” He said with a sigh of relief. Minutes later he was floating in space. Setting a course for home, Lucien messaged Mrrew to let him know the job was successful. Odds were the Togorian was still caught up in a job of his own. With a sigh of contempt, Lucien made his way home with Taozin in tow...

[member="Mrrew"]