The Crew of the Pretio in This Week's Episode
Ne'vets Aharo - an exotic animal broker, both legal and otherwise, majority owner in the Pretio. Currently part of the advance party trying to lure a werewolf.
"Sid" - A peculiar woman who has shown to be a better pilot than the previous one. Possible Imperial ties, but a far better shot. With Ne'vets in the advance party
Duk'k, on top of the Pretio picked up the night vision monocular after the electrical glow of an obvious ion blaster lit up the horizon. Good thing he picked them up on Alderaan, he thought to himself, even if the rest of the crew didn't even think to ask for them.
Nothing immediately came up on the readings, so he secured the viewer to his belt and initiated his jump pack.
Back at the ambush site, all three slid down the sides of their elevated position to rush to the immobilized R2, Ne'vets still keeping his eye on the lone figure dashing across a long open area, jumped over the droid, blaster drawn.
Duk'k reached the cruising height, and imitated scans on his helmet and picked up the figure running clumsily across the open, and Ne'vets quite a far distance behind.
"I see the target, he's 250 meters ahead of you, Ne'vets."
With that message on coms, Duk'k's helmet display began to go on the fritz, obscuring the data coming in.
Sqarl reached H8R and gave the droid a once-over. Picking up his harpoon gun, he barked over an arriving Sid, "He needs a bath and a reboot, get him up and watch over him." With that the Quarren joined the chase.
Duk'k pulled out his blasters mid-flight and began shooting in front the running figure, in hopes of corralling the individual. The person zigged to avoid the supposed impeding fire, but readjusted his course without missing a beat.
The blaster fire lit up the area near the figure, allowing Sqarl to get a visual on them, albeit quite distant. He fired a few blasts at the figure, but arc was much closer to a descending Duk'k.
"Hey, we got friendlies up here! Great, he just ran underneath me... Sonuva.... I can't see him... Damn display."
Sid took a knee beside H8R and hit the quick-start button on his panel. The droid lit up, and after a few moments, H8R beeped a quick, "THANKS!"
Still covered in completely thawed Space Salisbury Steak, H8R used his tools and his repulsors to get back upright.With another zig, the being reached a large area littered with large boulders. Duk'k's display caught a portion of the escape, and chucked a tangler grenade down between the rocks. The yellow-green glow of the detonation could be seen with no sign of capture.
Ne'vets was never for high speed chases, and quickly reverted to a steady jog, he reached the boulders as he met Duk'k, who was hovering ten meters above.
Finally upright, H8R landed and finished up his system boot.
"ALL RISE FOR H8R!"
The ion blast caused minor circuit damage that could be re-routed for the short term.
Sqarl finally reached the other two and the group began investigating the field of large boulders. There was no sign of the person they were chasing. Duk'k, still flying, chucked another tangler in one direction, and a flashbang in the other, to try to flush the figure out from the rock maze. Sqarl followed suit with another tangler to cover all directions, and flush it towards them.
After the explosions settled, Ne'vets could hear a single word half-whispered, "Fark!"
Looking around, Ne'vets first spotted Sid, in the complete opposite direction, frantically waving her.
"NE'VETS...... CHECK..... COMS"
Ne'vets looked down on his com and found it to be turned off. Running the main com, turning his back on, turned on Sqarl's and Duk'k's, and hit them with a blast of screaming.
First from Sid, "CAN YOU GUYS HEAR WHAT EVUS IS SAYING???"
Followed by dead air for a moment, then EVUS, "CAN YOU HEAR ME, THEY ALL LEFT, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! HELP! HELP! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK. THERE'S DOZENS OF THEM. WHY ISN'T ANYONE RESPONDING. IT'S JUST ME AND THE MEDICAL DROID."
Ne'vets finally responded. "We're on our way."
Evus replied, "Okay, wait, what direction are you guys again?"
"South."
"Oh no, they all came pouring out of the cracks in the walls, but with all those explosions, I think you drove them away from me and towards you! They're all coming at you!"
"They're headed in our direction?"
"Yes!"
"Give me three minutes to assess the situation."
"They'll probably get there in less than three minutes. They're really really fast!"
Duk'k kept whacking the side of his helmet, trying to unscramble his display. It seemed that each hit knocked more of the powdery sand out of the helmet's crevices, regain most of his helmet's displays.
H8R chimed in, "I've reconfigured the coms to run through me with a boost. Keep us posted over here."
A couple hundred meters from their site was a ridge, Duk'k's sensors could pick up 28 small human-sized creatures running on all fours.
"More than 24 quadrupeds coming in fast..."
Ne'vets climbed upon one of the boulders for a better look. Staring down, he could see a hole underneath the boulder. Beside the boulder was an individual with matted hair and tattered clothes, wrapped up in one of the tangler grenades.
The person looked quite human, and recognized Ne'vets' presence with a simple, "Sup?"
Ne'vets expression became a mix of confusion and concern, "And you are?"
"No time for introductions. We're all going to die in a matter of seconds, but if you come down and release me, I'll save all of us."
Ne'vets complied, deactivated the tanger. The human got up on his knees and rolled into the hole underneath the rock. "Get your guys here now."
Ne'vets complied again, and the three dove into the whole and into a small rock cave barely big enough for the four people inside.
The crew was in the company of a single, ragged human, holding an ion gun, slumped up against the back wall of the cave, and chomping down two half-cooked Space Salisbury Steaks.
"Pretty good, right?" Ne'vets acknowledged.
"These are pre-cooked, I haven't had real food in weeks! Everybody else okay?"
Just then, a single arm reached into the cave, grabbing at Sqarl's cloak. It's clawed, furry hand grabbed the hood, but the force of the claw pulling back, sliced the hood up four place, the cuts appearing disintegrate the fibers. Squarl slid closer to Duk'k, but the creature did not appear to want to enter the cave.
The stranger spoke, "Yep, your dude said two dozen of 'em?" He held up the last steak, "I can break this into quarters, we're going to be here for awhile."
The claw pulled back out and a hurried rustling could be heard on the surface.
Squarl was still a bit unsettled, "What are those things."
"Werewolves. Lot o' werewolves."
Duk'k chimed in, "Well, we only need one."
The man chuckled, "Good luck with that. Let me guess, 30,000 credits."
Ne'vets smiled, "We were getting a whole lot more than that. You work for her normally?"
"Yeah, not my first time."
"And you are..."
"Darvis Awadis, social media guru, kids love my holovids, they know me as Cousin Rancor"
"How long have you been running from the werewolves."
"44 Days, the last of my team died day 4, The last part of the film crew 'bit it' day 14. Rations we had ran out a week ago."
"You had a film crew?"
"Yeah, I see she went hi-tech for you guys. Smart. Easier to obtain the footage is things go FUBAR."
"Where is your ship."
"No clue, didn't pay attention when we landed, busy doing an empty sounding intro to stage things. Figured Amber would pay 30,000 apiece to catch a werewolf if we made it look fun, but they ate my film crew. They ate my film crew."
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| The irascible "Cousin Rancor" |
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