Mad Mickey: Beyond Mon Espa (Windswept Dunes Mission)

[Sangga]

The pair of them had hired a speeder at Mon Espa, then sped out int the dune sea. Soon, at Mr Halligan's request, they pulled over and decided that the pair of them should move to the top of the dune, on foot, to then survey the cave entrance and to check to see if there were any pirates about. As the unlikely pair continued hiking up the dune, Sangga continued to voice his calculations, as he had for the full hour it had taken them to get here. "...Sir, might I add, that apart from the unlikelihood that any pirate is going to want to be seen standing outside of a cave in this Sun, that said cave contains a Krayt Dragon... this could be one of two sub-species. The Canyon Krayt dragon, a sail finned apex predator that on average is ten metres high and thirty metres long, or it could be a Greater Krayt dragon. Albeit rarer the Greater Krayt dragon is one hundred metres long and has ten, as opposed to the Canyon's four, limbs. All of which are equipped to claw and maim. These carnivores are extremely dangerous and will deter even the most fool hardy of Pirates from it's lair after the first few are eviscerated."

As they reached the summit and Mr Halligan lay down to conceal his profile, Sangga's ancient joints whined in objection to having his frame lowered to a prone position. Once on the floor, Sangga continued his rhetoric. "This creatures are used to feeding off of Bantha's, what threat do you possess to them? What tactics will you employ against said beast, Sir? They are odd creatures, they have a large pearl within their gizzard. It i said that these pearls grow in size with the Dragon's age. It would be better if the creatures gizzard was intact, my Master would be please if we could return such a gem to him... as well as acquiring this land. " He could not elimnate the idea that Mr Halligan may have a plan. Explosives, or poison might work, poison being favourable. But then it would come to the Pirates, and then Sangga could negotiate a lease of the land, or contract an employment deal with them... if that failed, there was less... negotiation that could be employed. Mr Halligan's specialties could be employed... or the gas canisters in Sangga's rucksack could be deployed with his second pair of folded arms, so long as Mr Halligan had a rebreather on standby. He hadn't just brought refreshments.

The droid observed the human's preparations... such odd inefficiencies these creatures had.

@Livgardist and @Nor'baal

 

[Livgardist]

Mickey Halligan sighed as the protocol droid started chattering away for the hundredth time that day. He started regretting taking the job, but he reminded himself that the money was good, and the chance to prove himself to his employer was priceless. As the droid offered data, lots and lots of data, and well weighed opinions, Mickey's brain chewed through various vaguely defined plans on how to deal with whatever may come. The droid didn't seem to realize that the Corellian thug wasn't listening to a word he was saying; The problem was, of course, that Mickey wasn't interested in hearing the opinions the droid offered.

God, how he hated droids.

Still, his brain took note of what the droid said about the krayt dragons. They were a problem - the mission briefing had mentioned the suspicion of a krayt presence, on top of the suspected presence of pirates. Fortunately, because of this, Mickey had come prepared, carrying with him a large, softskinned black nylon case over his right shoulder, the contents of which were still a secret to the droid. While it was heavy, the bareknuckle boxer carried it with such ease that it might as well have been filled with nothing but cotton.

As they moved up to the summit above the cave and lay down flat against the ground, the droid, seemingly undeterred by Mickey's refusal to engage in conversation with him, continued to talk;

"This creatures are used to feeding off of Bantha's, what threat do you possess to them? What tactics will you employ against said beast, Sir? They are odd creatures, they have a large pearl within their gizzard. It is said that these pearls grow in size with the Dragon's age. It would be better if the creatures gizzard was intact, my Master would be please if we could return such a gem to him... as well as acquiring this land."

Finally, Mickey let out an irritated sigh, and replied;
"When I was a kid, I used to beat up droids in the Blue Sector on Corellia. Most were members of another gang, the Gearheads. Kept pushing into our territory, stealing our marks and businesses. Finally we had to teach the damn tin cans a lesson. That's when I learnt that if you're going to fight somebody ten times your own strength, bring a gun. A big one." He patted his backpack, and as he did, opened it, pulling out of it a large stovepipe like weapon complete with an optical sight attached to the side. "So when you're asking how I'm going to tackle the krayt dragon...well, the answer is, I'm going to put a bloody rocket in its brain."

With that, he began to move again, without waiting for any further questions.

The cave was dark, but while the droid could see in the nightscape, Mickey came prepared with a pair of old nightvision goggles, which he donned at the mouth of the cavern before leading the way inside. Already by the entrance he saw bones and a few craniums of undeterminable origin, a warning of what was waiting for them inside the cave. Mickey ignored the droid as he moved inside. His brain was working hard. The fact was, while he had a plan for dealing with a krayt dragon, if there were pirates inside - unlikely as it was, if there was indeed a krayt dragon, something the droid had already pointed out - he did not have a plan for dealing with those.

There were a few options, but none of them seemed very tempting. Negotiating meant Czerka would have to pay them off, which no doubt would cut into his own profits from the mission. Killing them all would be impossible, seeing as he was just one man. But he also didn't want to ask the droid for advise on the matter, which left him with very little in the ways of options. He decided after a while to file it under, "Worry about it later", and focused on the darkness ahead of him instead.

@Sangga @Nor'baal

 

[Sangga]

He looked at the device that was related and began searching his data banks. It took a while but he then ran some calculations, the figures were worrying. "Sir if you attempt to 'blow' the head off of the beast then no doubt you will, at best cracking and at worse, destroy the Pearl!" Sangga was not a combat droid and as they were at the caves mouth he was in full objection. "This also doesn't even cover the fact that you will be in an enclosed environment. The back blast could cause some serious damage to the integrity of the cave wall..." the look he got back from the begoggled male caused the droid to stop. "... I merely wish to arm you with the facts of the matter. "

 

[Livgardist]

Mickey let out an impatient sigh at the droid's prattling.
"I'd rather you arm yourself with a dose of shut the hell up." He muttered as he shot Sangga a glare. As much as the young thug hated to admit it though, the droid was right. The backblast had to be taken into account when firing a weapon like the X86 - a 165 feet blowback effect could cause a lot of damage if not handled properly, especially in a cave. His usual recklessness could end up killing them if he didn't temper it with a bit of care. The human sighed and rolled his eyes, letting out a silent curse at his plan being wrecked by the metallic man's infallible artificial logic.

"Fine. I'll jury-rig an IED frm the grenade, set it to detonate by a pressure plate, and lure the beast into its blast range. The shrapnel should be enough to kill it. That better?" His voice was getting impatient. A typical brawler, he preferred to act rather than think about things too much, and brute force usually solved most problems anyway.

He looked ahead. They were getting deeper into the cavern. It divided into two tunnels up ahead.

 

[Oturo Ishukone]

The humorless man that was Oturo Ishokune allowed himself a wry smile when the man suggested firing a rocket at the Krayt Dragon. ''To be fair it would solve the immediate problem.'' he suggested, somewhat agreeing with the rocket-toting man. Checking his own gear, he confirmed that - compared to the others - he was somewhat lacking in firearms. Armed only with the Czerka Standard Pistol and Rifle, and his Czerka issue uniform.

As he checked the fire-arms, clearing sand from the rifle with a simple opening of the rear compartment, allowing for the sand to flow out clearly, he looked around. Sun scorched down, as it always did, and the Droid was the only one who didn't appear to be feeling the agonizing insufferable heaviness it gave a man. It made you drowsy, it made you sweat, and it was all things considered, horrible.

Inside the cave was not much better, and Oturo raised his firarm ready for action if required.

 

[Sangga]

"That would be acceptable, we need to keep the gizzard intact, that is all. However, might I suggest a covert approach until we know the Pirates are here or not. There appears to be a fork ahead, the right continues to the canyon that is planned to be turned into the race course. The left must be the lair of the creature..." a slight pause and a raised hand frozen in place showed the process was straining the droid. He turned to Oturo. "... do we know if the pirates are in the canyon?" It could not find a definitive location in it's memory banks, but it seemed unlikely that they'd share this area with a Krayt Dragon.

Sangga looked at the pair, they both had weapons ready... most unreasonable for any negotiations that may occur. There was a small amount of dust falling from the ceiling and then a pebble spanked off of the droid's head, it looked down the left passage. "Mr Halligan... please do hurry with the pressure plate... you may still need the launcher..." The droid slolwy made it's way past the pair of armed executives. "... it's a Great Krayt Dragon... a particularly large one..."

@Livgardist

 

[Livgardist]

Mickey began work on the improvised explosive device where he stood. He removed the grenade from the launch tube, rigged it with a grenade, and for lack of a proper pressure plate, he rigged a line from the grenade to a stalachtite by the wall, where he tied it up at a point where it was tense enough to be an effective trip wire. Mickey had never done this sort of thing before, but he knew that it would work, and so when the walls started vibrating from what he with growing chagrine decided was a great krayt dragon - something the annoying droid soon confirmed - he turned and started to move away with growing speed.

"Why don't you stay behind and negotiate with him, buy us some time?" He shouted to the annoying droid, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Suddenly he stopped and turned around, as his eyes caught the sight of a massive beast, larger than anything he had ever seen before, barrel its way through the cave tunnel. It looked like a dragon or a lizard, all in one, with jagged teeth and sharp barbs on its impenetrable hide. It stopped for a moment, and let out a violent roar that reverberated through the cave. Mickey stared at it for a moment.

"Well, shit." He muttered. Then, he looked to the wall, and picked up a large rock. Looking at it for a moment, he then looked to the droid, on to Oturo, and then the Krayt Dragon. Then, he took a few steps and tossed it with all his strength. He watched as it sailed through the air in what almost looked like slow motion, and then hit the krayt dragon right in the eye. The beast blinked hard, and then let loose another reverberating howling growl that made dust, debris and rocks fall down from the ceiling of the cave.

Then, the beast started running towards them, and running fast.

"Hell's Bells!" Mickey shouted as he spun around and started running away. He had picked many fights in his days (but never with a Krayt Dragon), and he'd fought many of them with dirty tricks. He'd won more than he cared to count, as well. But he'd never been accused of possessing ungodly amounts of courage, and facing off against a giant Krayt Dragon was not on his bucket list.

Then came the explosion, as the krayt dragon tripped the grenade, and detonated both it and the projectile from the launch tube. The detonating cordite ripped apart the metal and sent a hailstorm of shrapnel right up into the dragon's body, shredding, tearing, mincing and eviscerating its internal organs. The beast was taken completely by surprise. It let out a different kind of howl this time, a howl of pain and agony, as it stumbled, and then fell, wailing to its death.

Mickey stopped, exhaled in relief, and said;
"I'm too old for this shit..."