Beasts of Burden: Ice Beast's Lair

[Naj Arilov]

Location: Hoth

Weeks of preparation had gone into this. It started out on Coruscant. Naj had personally stolen two large airspeeders, both of which were vans, so there would be plenty of space to work. Both speeders were loaded up on Naj's ship and taken back to Koros Major, where they were specially prepared to withstand the unforgiving enviroment of Hoth.

After that, clothing was an issue, since they would be spending a small amount of time outside during the night. Naj spent a bit of time in his own lab planting small heating devices in a few sets of clothing. It wasnt much, just enough to keep things uncomfortable, instead of deadly.

Though this was a major concern, Naj hoped that most of their time would be spent inside of various caves, where windchill wouldnt be a factor.

After that, it was a matter of gathering supplies. Rifles were loaded with tranquilizer. The tranq that they would be using was enough to down a full grown wookie in less than a minute. Naj calculated that it would take a bit longer for a Wampa, since wampas are a bit bigger than wookies. He would have liked for it to be stronger, but it was the most potent stuff he had, so he couldnt quibble.


At this point, Mephisto had just entered into the Hoth system, and was nearly Hoth itself. It would be another 15 minutes, and they would be touching down on Hoth's surface.

The speeders were double checked already. The day hunt would be for searching out caves that could be possible dwellings for the snow creatures. Once these were located, they would wait til night before entering, since there would be a greater chance that the Wampa would be occupying its cave, It was better to know the Wampa was there, rather than risk it sneaking up behind you...

[Ishan Shade]

Aboard Mephisto, setting slightly to the right of Naj, was a Falleen draped in what appeared to be clothes designed for the harshest climates. Shade had spared no expensive to purchases these threads, for Ishan's home planet that abides by the same name as the species, is usually a warmer, more subtle one. Conditions like these would call for preperation if one was to survive on the icey death's of Hoth.

Shade punched a few commands into a hand-held communications device. Starr was always more than capable of taking care of things while he was away. He doubled over his tranq rifle, handling it with ease. He looked over to Naj, "You ever seen one of these things up close?"

[Blaine]

Hoth. It felt as if Blaine had already felt conditions colder than Hoth but he hadn't. He'd felt the frost of the city all night but this didn't compare to what was waiting for him at Hoth. A thick, somewhat heavy, coat would protect him from freezing himself to death. Of course he still managed to move in the coat.

The Sith Knight prepared his rifle when the others did. It was amazing how such a small amount of liquid could make an animal go to sleep. The Mephisto seemed to be making good time. Blaine was almost done preparing everything he needed.

"You ever seen one of these things up close?"

"I don't think many like to get close to those things." Blaine interrupted.

He kept preparing his things as if he weren't interested in what they were talking about.

[Naj Arilov]

"I never have. But they're crafty hunters, and stealthy too."

Naj dropped a tranq dart into his rifle, and checked the sights..

"Be on your toes when we get ready to go in..."

Naj walked on, setting his rifle down as he entered the main bridge. He'd be landing the large ship himself, since he wanted to do a quick scan of the terrain, to hopefully find a large cluster of cave systems...

[Ishan Shade]

"Yes....indeed." Ishan nodded in agreeance.

Ishan Shade was excited. An emotion he rarely showed to anyone. Raising himself to his feet, the Falleen pushed aside the black velvet cloak that lined his out layer. His thoughts came back to the Jedi investigation on Courcant, and the thought of the distraction loathed him, but knew that in time he would have it taken care of. Permanently. Though he could be patient, Shade was far from kind. His hottest core had been formed over decades of strife - the blood, sweat and…well, more blood he put into establishing one of the most vast criminal organizations in the galaxy.

Shade looked out the window into the immense outreaches of space that lay beyond Hoth’s icy atmosphere. Picking up his rifle, he carried it to where Naj had positioned his, and set it to rest. He took his seat and began to prepare for the entry into the planet.

[Darth Turbogeek]

"Someone remind me why I came on this party again?" Turbogeek asked, looking outside at the ice with some distaste.

[Blaine]

Blaine laughed to himself finding a bit of humor in Turbogeek's question. The conditions of the planet did leave them in regret for going there but hopefully something good would come out of it.

He changed from his regular boots to boots that were actually meant to protect against the cold, wet snow. Storing his spar tranquilizer darts in a safe place that he could carry around, Blaine made sure nothing was missing. As Naj made pointed out their close arrival, Blaine nodded in sign of confirmation.

[Naj Arilov]

"I think you were wanting to make a snowman..."

Naj stood for a moment in mock contemplation...

"Or was it a snow angel?"

He chuckled to himself for a moment, then took a seat and took the ship off autopilot. He flew in as low as he could, then pointed the ship for a large flat a few kilometers away from where he'd seen what looked like a decent concentration of caves......

After a few more minutes, the ship had finally touched down. Now, the harsh enviroment of Hoth awaited them.

[Jared Mriad]

"God blasted frelling.." Jared scrambled for the last part to his own rifle, finally grabbing the elusive screw before it fell into the ship's bowels. Quickly he returned to the crate, where he was assembling his rifle again, he inserted the pin and screw before loading the chamber.

"I swear..." He growled, tightly pressing the butt of the rifle against his collarbone and peering down the sights. Also clothed in the warmest protection he could find, Jared shouldered the rifle and stood at the bay door, looking out the port..

[Naj Arilov]

Naj grasped his rifle again as he exited the bridge. Instead of leading the group back out the exit ramp, he headed further down into the ship to where the main cargo area/hangar bay was. Down there, the two hijacked airspeeders were waiting, along with a reinforced holding cell.

"Who's driving, and who wants to ride with who?"

[Ishan Shade]

Ishan followed Naj into the belly of the ship's cargo hold, his rifle lay across his arms. He reached up and put the scarf like cloth across the bottom part of his face, concealing the warmth as much he could.

"It matters little to me." Ishan headed toward the nearest speeder, coming to a stop at the passanger side.

[Jared Mriad]

"I could care less," Jared followed up, stepping to the other speeder. He turned slightly to regard the others, "I'll drive this rig."

He waited for objections, hearing none Jared popped the door open and climbed inside, brushing the trails of his gear into the seat. Leaning out the window, he shouted at Naj. "Let's get this damn convoy moving, ay? I'm ready to bag this sucker and get off this planet. Never had the use for snow, anway."

[Naj Arilov]

As Jared hopped into the driver's seat of one speeder, and Naj hadnt heard anyone else volunteering to drive, he got into the driver's side of the other speeder. With rifles in tow, the others piled in. With a slight rumble, both speedervans started up. Naj couldnt help but think Turbogeek might have beefed up the engines slighty when he refitted the speeders for Hoth's conditions.

The speed at which the vehicle took off once out of Naj's ship hinted at this also, but now wasnt the time for him to critique one's work. As long as they didnt break down, Naj would be happy.

It wasnt long after they took off that they came across their first cave. The entrance was fairly big, hinting the size of the cave's interior. It appeared large enough to be habitable. Naj check the coordinates as he circled around. On the surface, everything seemed pretty quiet. Almost inviting.

A thought popped into his head, and Naj picked up the comlink.

"I have a crazy idea, since we're all itching to get this over with...."

A small grin came to Naj's face....

"Want to try this in broad daylight?"

[Jared Mriad]

"Want to try this in broad daylight?"

Jared chuckled to himself, watching the cave enterance as the engine idled out. Tapping the comlink, "Why not, better than sitting out here when it gets dark and actually freezing our asses to popcicles before the bugger even stirrs from sleep, I'm game for this.."

[Naj Arilov]

Naj circled his speeder back around toward the cave entrance. Maybe there was a Wampa lurking in their, maybe there wasnt. It was possible that more than one could even be in there. It was a fairly well known fact that Wampa's were capable of working together in alarmingly effective teams.

What they were about to attempt truly was dangerous, even if they were armed. Naj brought his speedervan down near the cave entrance and cut the engine. As the speeder cut off, Naj grabbed his rifle and got out. Tucked inside of his thick coat was a blaster, just in case things became dire.

Jared brought his speedervan down next to Naj's and both groups piled out.

"We'll need probably two of us to keep watch at the entrance of the cave, be sure to watch each other's backs, and that goes for us going in also. These things are much smarter than one would think."