(Star Wars d6) #35 - Beware the Pengo

 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.

Duk'k - Sipsk'ud Bounty Hunter, recently rescued by the crew.  Offering his services in order to get off this barely existing hunk of mud.

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

The Mission at Hand

After escaping from a cult deep within the recesses 

Of the safair planet they are searching, the crew of the Pretio, 

Has befriended a Sipsk'ud, Duk'k: The Bounty Hunter. 

With Forty-One days to go before the deadline, they have returned to the initial 

Mission, as hired by billionaire entreprenuer Kafla Thingvellir, 

Find a Translucent Trapper and transport it to the Core Worlds, 

For fame... and profit.

As Tarrie Prolek piloted The Pretio across the Great Sea, towards a new location for the great search for the Translucent Trapper, Duk'k was offered a more thorough walk-through the ship.  

"What's your deal?" Duk'k asked, looking directly at Ne'vets.  "Is this just your ship and it's purely for selling weird animals."

"Well, it's not just my ship, it's our ship, we all own a share.  And you're pretty close, we do fly around the galaxy, searching for people who like exotic things.  We go out, find the creature, and bring it to them, at substantial profit.  Usually, when we're searching for something like a trapper, we have a bit more intel."

"Why is there a problem with our line of work?"

Duk'k squinted his eyes, "Yeah, it seems a little flippant.  I think I know now what brought you to a death cult situation." 

"Yep, looking for a spider-like creature."

"I'm not judging, I'm just trying to understand."

"I mean, it's not all fun and games.  Sometimes we do have to call in an Imperial Star Destroyer to save our asses."

"You have that sort of pull?" 

Tarrie interjected, "Yeah!  We've commandeered battledroids, we've... had a long road here."

Kafla provided an overviewDuk'k was stunned by the primitive methods of searching for and capturing a Trapper.  

Over the next three days, there was digging.. and surveying...and searching the landscape for the Kafla's folly, the infernal Translucent Trapper.  Duk'k was unimpressed, but since he wasn't on the guaranteed payroll, it was understandable.  Ne'vets would occasionally grab a random blue moth or small creature and documented it and stowed it away on the Pretio... for science!  Once even, Ne'vets thought they had uncovered a Translucent Trapper, but it was more of a cockroach.  Kafla was not amused, as he didn't want his name attached to a cockroach.

After the synthesizer themed montage.  It was day 38, Kafla emerged from the ship and asked the crew how their progress was in an ancient dung pile.  

Duk'k could only reply, "We ain't found shit."

Kafla joined the group's search for potential habitats.  

Tarrie was wandering about, doing his tasks/and doing nothing at the same time.  He was caught off-guard by the large flightless bird rummaging around the low areas.   It was adorable, wadding to and fro, reminder him of his own children/pets, still living on Voluturnas.   This distraction was enough to let the overprotective mother bird near him, all three meters of her.

Tarrie was trained for these exact scenarios, so he stared down the Momma bird, grabbed his communicator, and broadcast his distress call.

"Ooo-Wee, Ooo-Wee, Ooo-Wee, Ooo-Wee...."

"Frokazza, go find what trouble your buddy thinks he got himself into. Probably BS again."

The Wookie jogged over the hill to find his friend.  A few moments later, Frokazza was running back over the hill, much faster than before, followed by Tarrie.

Everyone else wondered why the duo barreled over the hill, since they never even ran for chow.

"What did you do???" was all Ne'vets could get out, before an angry, terrible three meter tall  flightless bird quickly waddled in pursuit.  Ne'vets figured pursuing the Wookie was a smart idea.

Duk'k already had his Heavy Blaster pulled out, and fired a warning shot at the beast, mere inches from the creatures, but missing.... and nailing its trailing offspring square in the chest.

The mother looked back to see its child laying lifeless on the ground.  Before it could turn around and face the child-murderer, Duk'k already ignited his jetpack and began to take off, cursing at it, "Screw you, Pengo-wannabe.  Their death is on you!"

Then the pengo shot its tongue out of it's razor-sharp mouth.  The tongue wrapped around the ankle of Duk'k for only a moment, causing some superficial pain and damage, but let go, to let out a shrill cry only a parent could understand.

Tarrie was still in retreat, and decided tossing a flash grenade behind him blind was a good idea.    The grenade flew just inches above Ne'vets' head, bouncing off the ground twice until coming to rest at the feet of a clamoring Kafla.  *Sizzle..... KA-BOOM*

With Kafla blinded, and the Pengo disoriented from the explosion, Duk'k needed a moment to gather his senses, and his scrambled helmet electronics from the flash.    Helmet doffed, and still hovering above the ground, the bounty hunter fired another blaster shot...

...killing the mother Pengo.

"Is a dead one of these valuable, Ne'vets?"

With the smell of ozone in the air, Evus came staggering out of the Piscopo, rudely woken up from his nap....

Their day of work ruined, it was deemed proper to perform some basic taxidermy to store the items back in the cargo hold.  

... no one was an experienced taxidermist.  It was a messy affair in the cargo hold.  The baby's damaged feathers were repaired, and proper spot in Ne'vets' quarters.  The mother was quartered, all of its organs cleaned and cooked into a hearty haggis.  The ice machine was emptied to preserve the body parts, but not before a few holopics and and notations were made.  

38 Days to Go....

The following morning, Duk'k was interviewed for the data report on the Pengo.  Nev'ets stood around the corner, caf in hand, admiring the charisma and storytelling of the Sipsk'ud.  He was almost as good as Abel, the big game hunter extraordinaire.  

Completing the interview, Kafla panned away, out the cockpit window.  Outside the ship were at least a dozen of the strange shrieking creatures they had encountered on the opposite side of the planet.  The creatures appeared to be wearing red ribbons in critical locations.  One creature in particular appeared to be standing on an odd pair of stilts. 

The shrieker on stilts. 

After quickly catching Duk'k up to speed on the creatures, it was decided to simply not engage with the creatures and fly off to the next search site...

Next: #36 - The Rainbow Canyon