Hunting Party

Frankly, Governor Balten had been hoping that the monstrous corpses the mercenary squat team had brought in would be an end to the trouble. He had enough on his plate with complaints from the Moss Guilds about the independent lichen farmers.  But rumours continue to persist about ‘creatures’ lurking in the jungles.

So he did what any Imperial Governor would do.  Declared everything sorted and banned anyone from talking about it. Although he couldn’t shake a sense of unease at the hysterical reaction one of his advisers had on seeing the corpses, shrieking about the ‘Great Devourer’ or some such nonsense.  Poor chap had spent decades in the Guard, clearly left him unhinged; he’d had to be put on permanent ‘gardening’ leave.

But still the stories persist…

Out in the settlements, moonshine and bravado combine, and a group of lichen farmers are determined to see if the stories are true, and perhaps bag a trophy.

Left to right, Old Pete, Patch, Hank and Cletus, and the Cyber Mastiff, F1D0.

The hunters split into pairs to cover more ground, Hank and Cletus taking F1D0 with them.

As the farmers pushed through the dense brush, something else was already stalking them. 

Out of sight of the others for a moment, the creature struck at Cletus before vanishing again into the jungle.

Rushing to the sound of screams, the others found their friend laying still and bloodied on the ground, with no sign of his attacker.  But F1D0 had a scent now, and Hank released him the flush out the beast.

By now the creature had worked its way behind the hapless hunters, and revealed itself, hoping to make short work of the four legged creature hunting it. Hank got a snap shot off as it charged, but the rounds just bounced off the creature’s hardened exterior.

Despite the furious strikes of its terrifying claws, the plucky cyber hound held on.  Taking the risk of hitting their canine companion, the remaining three hunters opened fire, frantically spraying the creature in front of them.  This time the hard rounds found its weak spots, and it fell with an inhuman shriek.

Surprisingly, the hunters found Cletus sat up - dazed and badly injured, but definitely alive, complaining of thirst, and apparently completely unable to recall anything about what had just happened.  Clearly too much to drink, or perhaps not enough!

Either way, they had one heck of a trophy…