(Star Wars d6) #29 - High Plains Shrieker

 The Current Crew of the Pretio

Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio.

Evus - Twi'lek free mercenary, Ne'vets' armed muscle with a keen eye and a tendency to shoot first.
Tarrie - Human pilot "under contract" to fly the Pretio, and drive the Piscopo.  Brother of potential terrorist, rebel  Latorna Savvn.
Frokazza - Wookie co-pilot, mechanic, and unarmed muscle. Very distrustful.

Kafla Thingvellir - Billionaire entrepreneur turned zoological enthusiast, in search of the Translucent Chromatic Trapper.

Expansion!

Failing to find the elusive Trapper thus far,

Amateur zoologist Kafla Thingvellir and his hired crew 

Of the Pretio continue their 

Exploration of Planet 576-908.

Atop the ancient slag pile, Evus was surprised to see something through his monocular

.

An actual creature larger than the small lizards and tiny "trappers" they kept uncovering!  At the range it was at, the scanners were always fuzzy, but it seemed to be six foot long and three foot at the shoulder.  It had some form of shaggy coat or fur and it gave a full look of its six-eyed face as it turned and stared directly back at Evus before bounding out of the Twi'lek's line of sight.

Evus screamed to his crew members to get back to the Piscopo, an actual animal sighting!

The Piscopo

It wasn't part of Kafla's mission, but any distraction from the ongoing failure of the safari was a welcome respite.

Tarrie pushed the Piscopo as hard as the converted speeder barge could go.  After a quick search, they could spy to strange creature galloping across the desert scrub.  He pulled up beside the running creature (at about 30 kph).  The Wookie Frokazza, opened the side door and proceeded to leap onto the beast!  

Even at this slower speed, it took Tarrie a bit to turn the Piscopo around.  Upon the speeder's return, they found the creature atop the Wookie.  Its six legs pinned Frokazza to the ground, and it's two smaller front arms grabbing the Wookie by the chest hair.  It was emitting a loud alternating shrieking.

Frokazza finally shook free and grappled with the creature.  While the others fumbled around inside the vehicle for any equipment to help him, the Wookie put his hand over the creature's snout, silencing it.  Hoping it's anatomy worked similarly, he applied a sleeper hold on it, and after a short eternity, the creature went limp.  

As the others filed out of the speeder to investigate, an contested debate took place over what exactly to do with the thing.  Kafla only had interest in a the exotic trapper he had hired the crew to look for, some of the crew wanted to tag it and release it back into the wild, yet others wanted to hold onto to it, if not for scientific presentation, for future profit with Ne'vets exotic animal brokerage.  Ne'vets himself was unsure what to do.   A thorough examination of the beast would be necessary to see who viable it would be in the open market.   

It was finally decided they would take the beast back to the Pretio for further testing.  Ne'vets tied the creature up and Frokazza lifted it to the top of the Piscopo, where Ne'vets secured it. 

Tarrie took orders to continue East, further away from the ship, but in a slow pattern, looking for more of these creatures.  

After an hour of futility, the whole crew was shocked to hear blaster fire!

Despite no visual confirmation, the fire sounded close, so Tarrie immediately went into evasive maneuvers.  Finding a safe spot to turn around and run this unconfirmed gauntlet back to the ship, he finally check his instrument panel.  Scans were not picking up anything, however, the WEAPONS MALFUNCTION was lit up in full blinking yellow.  The twin-laser turret appeared to be malfunctioning.  Evus swung open the side door, and climbed a bit to look on top of the vehicle.  He could see the creature, completely free, manipulating the turret, firing the lasers directly into the sky.  

It noticed the Twi'lek peering over, and swung the entire turret around to meet him.  

Evus ducked.  

In the process, he grabbed two straps by the door to avoid tumbling out of the Piscopo, but remained hanging mere inches from the moving ground. The creature eventually tumbled off the speeder and scurried off, but not before some of the crews' scans detected a large group of some sort of lifeforms congregating to the left and right of them.  Tarrie floored it, and they were quickly away from the lifeforms, and on their way to the Pretio.  

Eventually, people remembered Evus was dangling out the open door of the speeder and pulled him back in.  

They could not make it back to the ship before nightfall, so they set up camp.  The Piscopo was set up with camping capabilities.  both side of the speed could extend out, creating some additional space for sleeping quarter, albeit still cramped.  

Under flashlight and blaster fire.  A quick review of the turret reveled that certain sensors and gyros were damaged, but it could be repaired back at ship.  

After a restless sleep full of Wookie snoring, they returned back to the ship....

With no luck with the primary mission, the crew suggested that they move the Pretio to a different location to continue the search for this translucent trapper. The only thing keeping the crew at the "starport" was the guarantee of a stable landing pad.  

Tarrie had the first idea, "Hey, there's that island in the middle of the sea.  Might as well check that out before we search the western shore."

The island was too obvious not to notice.

Everyone agreed? 

"Also, has anyone checked out the terminal at the starport antennae before we leave?"

Checking the port, they uncovered only five listings.   The Jade Pearl was marked as arrived over four and a half years ago, as well as yearly anniversaries of its appearance the following three years.  The only other record was of the Explorer Corps vessel, Smithers which established the starport nineteen years earlier.  

Kafla was deflated, "That merchant was here for three years waiting for his droids to fix his ship.  He could have travelled the planet twice in that time.  Who knows where these trappers are!"

"We've got 44 more days to find it.  We're ruined.  I might as well just pack it in now."

Evus tried to console him, "We have plenty of time."

"We might as well try to find that six-legged Wookie and try my luck with that at the conference."

*Insert a quick montage of Tarrie and Frokazza, welding goggles on, reattaching everything on the turret of the Piscopo.  After a satisfying high-five, Tarrie spoke three words...*

"Onto the Island!"

Next: #30 - Onto the Island!