//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: More Natives // Story: The Imperial Ace // by Navanastra //------------------------------// Chapter 7: More Natives Edited by: Rainbowblitz, Fistfire, Warlite the human guy Spitfire groaned as she slowly regained consciousness. The very first thing she noticed was that the tip of her snout felt very ticklish for some unknown reason. She tried to wiggle her nose in hopes of getting whatever was making it feel so uncomfortable to just go away without to really having to move much. But all she managed to do was make her nose even more ticklish and itchy. At the same time,whatever was using her snout was now moving around on it slightly, making her groan even louder as she slowly forced her eyes open. What eventually greeted her confused her somewhat. “Oh…uh…hey there…little butterfly.” Was all she had to say as her head was still a bit drowsy. Once she was fully awake Spitfire didn’t hesitate to shoo the small butterfly away with a hoof. With her current issues now dealt with she eventually decided to just continue to make herself more comfortable within her blankets to doze off some more. Or that is what she would have done if all of her memories of the previous night didn’t just come crashing into her like a carriage strapped onto a adrenaline fuelled Pegasus. Her eyes immediately shot open as she lifted her head off her forehooves to view her surroundings. Only to cringe at the end as she was harshly reminded of her still fresh injuries and busted wings But all of that was swiftly ignored as a slight pang of panic quickly rose up in her as she quickly started to remember everything from the previous night. Her waking up in an unfamiliar location filled with strange items and things, her startling encounter with a round metallic object with a head, and of course the big tall alien itself. Though the panic in her quickly subsided when she remembered the still somewhat awkward and one sided conversation she had with that thing, not to mention the feeling of it stroking her softly when she broke down crying in front of it, and the blanket it gave to her to stay warm. “Maybe…maybe things aren’t as bad as I first imagined them to be.” She thought to herself while observing the fabric of which the blanket was made of. There were some metal looking linings stitched into the fabric in a mildly wide criss cross pattern, the use and function of them completely unknown to her., Some of the blanket’s unique warmth seemed to be coming directly from these thin metal wires, if a touch of her hoof was anything to go by. “Even as simple an item as a blanket seemed to look and feel more alien than anything else I have seen so far, and come to think of it, prior to yesterday, I only thought that extraequestrians were nothing more than just modern Sci-fi tales in books and comics.“ She continued to think before letting the blanket be in favour of everything else around her, more specifically the alien craft that was still proudly sitting just a few meters away from her. “Never in my life would I have imagined to be the very first pony to ever see and come this close towards something that only used to be silly foalstories. I mean geez, a real space ship right in front of me, and the best we have, in comparison, are just steam trains and simple wooden airships held up with large balloons. Makes you wonder just how far behind we really must be towards everything else that must be out there.” Spitfire wondered as she continued to observe the craft from her position with foal like curiosity. Soaking in every ounce of detail on its surface and trying to figure out how such a thing could possibly fly in the first place, let alone travel to distant planets and stars as well. It looked very strange but also very intriguing to her. It looked very agile and also very intimidating with its smooth and sharp designs. This thing was definitely made for military purposes, if her brief memories of it pummelling the dragon to death was any proof of it. It just made her wonder just how many more magic like weapons this thing carried inside of it.The very thought of that was making her shiver, as she was sure nothing that ponykind currently possesses could ever hope to counter such a complex hi-tech device. Again, a thought that made her shiver a second time but also made her even more interested in it than ever before. In a way this thing looked cool, even awesome to her. She definitely has to learn more about it whenever she gets the chance to do so, even if it kills her…well…maybe without the killing part to be honest. “Actually now that I think about it, where is that alien and that ball thing anyway? No pony or soul in sight anywhere?” Spitfire wondered out loud as she darted her head from left to right in hope to spot what she is looking for. Did she just feel hope toward aliens? Spitfire shook her head to get these thoughts and feelings out of her system and to focus back on the here and now. “Stay focused Spits, these are still aliens you were abducted by, aliens from outer space you know nothing about. With magic light weapons that can even brutally scorch a full grown dragon as if it was nothing. Sure the alien male…or…I think he is male judging by its voice, can at least speak equestrian but…still…” She mentally mulled this over and tried to justify the reason as to why she was suddenly feeling so chill about her current situation…or to debunk. “Don't tell me I’m suffering from Stockhorse syndrome already?” “Pssssst Hey…Spitfire, hey Spitfire.” Spitfire immediately went rigid for a moment when she heard those words whispered nearby. She quickly turned her head to its source behind her only to go stiff once more after seeing who and what it really was. Her eyes immediately went wide in surprise as she recognized just who it was peeking around the very rock she first woke up behind. “Clou-cloudchaser?” The mare in question quickly made a ‘hush’ sign with her hoof before she carefully made her way over to the fiery mare still tucked inside her blanket. But not until first making sure that the coast was clear by checking her surroundings. Spitfire, in turn, immediately got herself back on all fours, discarding the blanket on her back She hastily making her way to the slowly advancing gray mare in front of her. “What the…Cloudchaser, what in Luna’s name are YOU doing HERE?” Spitfire demanded in a harsh whisper which caused the mare in question to halt her advance and tilt her head and look at her with a raised eyebrow. “Uhm…rescuing you from aliens, duh.” Cloudchaser replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Spitfire promptly panicked as she shoved her hoof directly into Cloudchaser’s mouth before looking around herself with paranoia. When nothing was in sight she quickly looked back to the gray mare with a glare. “Would you please be QUIET, I have no idea where both Riggs and BB-5 are. If they see you, who knows what they will do to you.” Spitfire whispered harshly. Cloudchaser, in response, knocked Spitfire’s hoof out of her mouth before clearing her’s from all of its dirt and gunk before glaring back at Spits herself. “Riggs and BB-5, what kind of names are those? Are those the names of the Aliens who abducted you?” She questioned before looking thoughtful.” If they are, then it makes sense I guess.” She calmed before shaking her head and glared back at spits.” But whatever, how do you know their names to begin with anyway? Have they crammed that information into your mind of yours with some freaky alien telepathy or something? Or did they physically open up your head to poke around in your brain with their tech?” Cloudchaser questioned curiously, though thankfully in more of a whisper like Spitfire wanted. Spitfire in response simply shook her head. “What…nonono, it’s not like that…it’s actually…You know what, it’s not important, what is important right now, is that you need to get the HAY AWAY from here before any of these two could….”She caught herself in shock. Her eyes went wide as she suddenly spotted BB-5 poking his round head around the same rock where Cloudchaser just came from before slowly and casually rolling himself over to the two quietly. “Uhm…Clou-Cloud right…right behind you there is…” Spitfire stuttered which in turn made Cloudchaser just tilt her head in confusion. “Why are you stuttering like that? Speak clearer I can barely get what you are trying to say here.” Cloudchaser questioned which really didn’t help Spitfires slowly increasing panic at all. Not that it would really matter anyway as the little ball shaped astro droid was soon pretty much right behind Cloudchaser with one of its eye’s once again giving up that faint red glow. The little guy was just doing his job, and to also fulfill his own droid like curiosity. #scanning new native life form# .................................................................................................................................... “This Planet's natural fauna reminds me a lot of my old home. Though I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing? Been forever since I ever laid Eyes on the green world of Naboo.” Riggs thought to himself as he continued his visual exploration and mapping of the forests that around this area. The dragon carcass that has been left to rot in the open field had been completely untouched ever since the last time he checked on it for more samples. Already rotting away if both the armies flies and the stench it was starting to let go was anything to go by. After having get himself some both DNA sample and large physical samples of the dragon's hide Riggs decided that it was somewhat necessary to have a much closer look around area he landed on in case he might discover something useful or unique, like water and food sources to name a few. Though food of course wouldn’t be that much of an issue since he could always go out and hunt for game in the forests. The only problem with that was that he didn’t really have any knowledge of this worlds creatures and overall ecosystem. He could easily be hunting and eventually eating something that turns out to be hazardous to humans which would certainly be a very unpleasant experience, especially since medical help would pretty much be non existent here in the middle of nowhere. Plus there might also the be question if the animal he is hunting is actually sapient or not. Now that would be a bit of an awkward revelations for sure. The last thing he needed was to accidentally kill and eat one of the natives of this space rock. “I guess what I can do is just stun whatever creature I come across before actually killing it.” Riggs mentally noted as he continued to rely on both his trackers and own eyesight for any movement within these woods. Mentally switching his DLT-19 to stun just in case a perfect test subject is stupid enough to show itself in front of him. His Helmet's HUD suddenly began to display a message on the right, a message send by BB-5 as it read that he has engaged another native back in the camp. “Visitors already? Hasn’t been a week on this planet and I am already getting molested by the new local neighbors.” He mentally joked as he made his way back towards the clearing and to his campsite. The moment he entered the clearing is when he saw it, a creature similar to Spitfire, though gray in coloration, was flying up and away from the camp probably to escape, though that idea was swiftly hooked when the line of a crippling wire shot out from the camp itself and wrapped itself around the natives hind legs and forcing it back down into the ground with an audible thud that Riggs could even hear from here. Humming at the somewhat comical scene, Riggs casually made his way back to his camp to see what all the fuss was about. The scene he found was not disappointing at the slightest. “LET ME GO LET ME GO YOU WEIRD METAL BALL FREAK!!” The gray pony yelled out as she (judging by its voice) was securely tied up by the metal wires that made up BB-5’s crippling equipment. How BB-5 managed to get the line around the pony like this was beyond Riggs, but at least it did the job of securing this newcomer perfectly, sadly missing the mouth with that. Spitfire on the other hand looked completely unsure what to do with the situation she somehow found herself in. Her gaze darted back and forth between these two before finally resting on Riggs with fear and surprise in her eyes. “LET ME BUCKING GO, I SWEAR IF I GET OUT OF HERE I WILL…”The angry sounding gray ball of fluff tried to shout out before her gaze finally fell up on Riggs for the first time. Her bravado immediately gone and buried. “Well, well, well, what have we wired in this time? Another natives of this planet it seems?” Riggs casually stated. The mare before him shrunk back when his mechanical sounding voice entered her ears which made Riggs smile slightly underneath his helmet. He just loves it when people, or in this case aliens, around him looked up at him with fear, it's what his unit was based for anyway. Psychological warfare was half the job. Riggs steadily began to aim the tip of his rifle at the mare below him which caused both her and Spitfires eyes to immediately widen in panic as he simply undid the stun function on his weapon. A low, high pitched whistle emitting from the weapon is its Ionizing chamber was once again flooded with lethal levels of energy. “Ri-Riggs wait, she…she didn’t…” Spitfire tried to explain but was heard by deaf ears as Riggs simply fired…and hitting the cord holding the gray mare instead much to the Droid’s displeasure. Both mares were stunned at this as Riggs on the other hand simply holstered his weapon back against one of the supplies crates littering his campsite and walking off back to his ship. BB-5 quickly following him as he started to beep and chirp about the loss of have of his crippling hook cord. “What…what the hay was THAT?!” Riggs heard someone say before he finally reached out of earshot. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... “Hey Cloud, are you ok?” Spitfire asked after the two outworlders left them be. “Ye-yeah I…I guess I am ok.” Cloudchaser reply with a sigh of relief before realizing something. “Actually…uhm…could you…could you maybe help me out of this mess, please?” Cloudchaser sheepishly asked as she gaze down onto her binding. “Oh…uh yeah sure.” Spits replayed. She immediately went to work and untangling the gray Pegasus mare out of her burden, a few little mishaps happened here in there, most notably the re-tightening of the wires around some questionable places when Spitfire accidentally pulled the cords on the wrong ends, but overall the process of freeing the wild maned mare went somewhat quick and easy with her soon back on all fours after the work was done. “Jeez, that actually hurt a lot. Stupid Alien ball thing.” Cloud complained as she rubbed her sore flanks. Spitfire on the other hoof took this opportunity to ask. A question that has been bugging the back of her mind ever since she spotted the gray mare. “Wait a second Cloud, how the HAY did you even know that I was here to begin with, and furthermore what are you doing so far away from civilization anyway, where…from where did you even come from?” Spitfire asked in an almost stern tone which immediately caught clouds attention. Cloud rubbed the back of her head. “We-well…uhm…for starters I was actually just happened to be closeby when that weird alien spaceship pulverized that dragon like if it was nothing from one of those bushes over there.” She pointed out at the end the bush she was hiding in, while unnoticably making Spitfire shiver a bit when she mentioning the dragon. ”And furthermore I also watched that…that thing over there eventually carry your heavily beaten body back over his ship to do…whatever with you. To be honest back then I thought that this alien was going to dissect you like in those comics and novels.” She continued on before leaning in close. “But...now that I have a closer look at you now it’s seems more like that it had actually help you tend to your injuries instead of doing the whole ‘opening you up and probe you or wrapped you in tentacles or whatever.”She finally finished. Spitfire frowned, mostly because of her mentioning about THAT particular line regarding tentacle aliens, she already knew the secret fetishes that this mare is hiding thanks to a situation that involves a bit too much cider that other night and a wet broom, but that still doesn’t mean that she needs to be reminded of it, as the memories of that night just made her cringe. Spitfire shook her head as something about Cloudchaser’s explanation suddenly registered inside her head. “So wait, wait, wait...so you have seen the battle that occurred like…2 night ago...I think, and you’re still here?” Spitfire questioned while looking at her strangely. “Don’t tell me you were close by camping around in the wilderness for 2 whole days?” She promptly added. Cloud tilted her head in confusion. “What are you talking about, I didn’t camp out here for a whole two days. That would be crazy. I actually immediately flew away back towards Cloudsdale as fast as I could after the Aerial battle was over, to try and tell some ponies…which you can probably imagine didn’t go so well.” Cloud sheepishly smiled before regaining her composure. “And to also go get some more stuff before eventually flying back here to look for you.” Cloudchaser explained which in turn made Spitfire look at her strangely yet again. “Clou-Cloudsdale? Actually wait a minute…where…where exactly ARE we? I…I didn’t recognize these woods at all after I first woke up here.” Spitfire question which made Cloud curious. “You don’t?” She exclaimed with a bit of a shock. ”We’re just beyond the smoky mountains, west from the whitetail woods. Cloudsdale is actually just a full 2 hour flight from here.” Cloud explained with Spitfires eyes going wide in surprise. “Wait…what? Seriously?” She asked in shock in which Cloudchaser simply nodded. “Ugh…I’ll just blame my inability of flight for that blunder.” Spitfire mutter. Spitfire was about to say more but a distant howl pretty much dashed that idea out of her system. Both of their ears immediately perked up after that as more distant growls and howls could be heard close by…very close by. “Those…those sound like…but…but how?” Cloudchaser stuttered out as both her eye and ears swiveled around in place. “Yeah… that’s what I thought as well when I first heard it the night before…but I still can’t be…we are not in the everfree after all.” Spitfire commented as she two started to move her head left and right in order to spot whatever was making these sounds. She got rewarded when set of glowing green eyes suddenly pierced the shadows of the forest opposite from them which hastily debunked their sense of disbelief. “What are Timberwolves doing so far away west from the whitetail woods?” Spitfire commented in shock as more pairs of eyes quickly made themselves visible within the thick foliage of the woods. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Riggs inbuilt tracker suddenly sprang back up to life as close by targets made themselves knows within its effective range of 100m. “Brilliant. What is it now?” Riggs sighted while still being in the middle of inspecting his busted hyperdrive. “Beep boop boop beep beep boop” BB-5 chirped up while stopping his welding and gazing up to Riggs, his own sensors picking up nearby life forms as well. Riggs stood back up as more targets began to blink up on his tracker in an almost alarming rate. “5 targets, 7 targets 14 targets and now 20 life targets, and all of them moving up to our location. We might be dealing with more than just woods land animals here. Perfect, just what I needed.” Riggs commented out as his tracker managed to pin up a total of 22 targets on his HUD and giving him all the Intel that he needed. Intel like ‘go get my rifle’ kind of Intel. “BB-5 you stay here and keep working on the hyperdrive, l will handle whatever is coming our way.” Riggs ordered which was answered by a ‘beep’ and nod from the droid in question as the little guy went back in doing his part. “Only have been on this rock for two and a half days and I’m already have to commit genocide on this world’s local wildlife. Certainly not the worst entry I ever had on an alien world.” Riggs muttered under his helmet as he casually made his way back to retrieve his DLT-19 where he left it. I wasn't really surprising for him to find that the two female ponies were still standing around at the same spot where he left them, that would complicate things somewhat as their position is a little bit more exposed for his liking. Not to mention that one of them was still flightless as well. Riggs wasn’t particularly thrilled to be playing babysitter for these two, but if he ever wants to get some more information out of them about this planet, their species, culture, and their general tech level and understanding of the galaxy at large, then keeping them alive is obviously a good idea. Not to mention having them help dealing with the the whole meet and greet with the planet's leaders. Just to make sure that he doesn’t have to shot them all at the end. Royalty and nobles are all the same, no matter what planet you are on. “You two.” Riggs began while picking up his rifle and pointing a finger at the two mares in front of him.” Go take cover between that rock and those supply crates over there, don’t move and don’t make a ruckus. Whatever is coming out this way, I want them to be primarily focused on me and not have to worry about you two getting in between me and whatever is coming out of these woods. Do you understand?” Riggs ordered before swiftly making his way back to his ship and the direction these pings are coming from. Both mares simply decided to do as they were instructed as they bunked themselves in between the boulder and stacks of supply crates. Riggs on the other hand was prepping his rifle for lethal fire as he marched up to the middle of the field between his camp and the outlines of the forest in front of him. A dozen glowing eyes quickly making themselves known in front of Riggs visor. Riggs was prepared for a lot of things at this point, and I mean a lot of things thanks to his extensive war career and travel all throughout the galaxy. But this? This was certainly not something he has ever seen before, nor on Felucia or in the elusive unknow regions. “Are these things made of wood or did I accidentally turned on ‘simulation mode’ on my visors HUD?” Riggs thought to himself as the creatures that his tracker has been warning him finally showed themselves by slowly stalking out of the shadows. Normally some people would blame alcohol or death sticks for such a strange and unpredictable sight, but since Riggs wasn’t into drinking or bloody drugs in the first place, his blame rather went up towards the gallons upon gallons of Bacta that he had been injected with over the years, especially during that one year of physical and biologically enhancement he was forced to go through for one of the empire's secret programs to create super Stormtroopers. A third of the Empire is about conducting such funding and experiments in secret anyway. The Moffs love this kind of stuff, whatever can give the Empire or their own agenda a technological edge over the other’s, they take it and fund the ever living crap out of it. Riggs should know since he once took part in such an “Arms” race as well. “Well, at least NOW I have the bragging rights to claim that I have seen EVERYTHING.” Riggs mentally noted as these wooden canines were slowly approaching, snarling and growling all the way in an attempt to be menacing. Only problem is that Riggs has, in all honesty, seen way more menacing creatures and monsters in his life. Even so he still wouldn’t have been impressed the slightest, he has seen and went through too way much shit in his life to really get phased by that at this point. He readied his rifle, holding it up against his shoulder with his right hand finger resting firmly on the trigger, ready to make some charcoal for his campfire. More and more of these wooden creatures started to reveal themselves from the protection of the forest to join their kin. Some in the front were slowly tasking their way around Riggs, trying to create a circle around him and cutting off any easy opening for an escape as the other wooden canines in the back got into position behind the first line. They were ready to strike soon, though so was the Storm commando who is just casually standing there with his rifle firmly in his grip. The trigger finger already pressing down onto the small metallic pin, waiting greedily to be pressed down to do its beading. “Was the creature I shot the other night perhaps one of them? Would make sense if it was, given that they are all here looking mighty hungry, well let’s not keep them waiting then, or it to be precise.” Riggs thought to himself with a small smirk as he made the first move. Picking his first target and pressing down the trigger on his DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle to unleashed the first shot of a highly energized blaster bolt directly into its first victim with pinpoint precision, causing a bright red flash of an explosion and small shockwave that traveled out from its epicenter, knocking over any of these wooden canines standing close to it from there wooden paws and causing other to stacker. Even Riggs felt the small explosion as his head flinched back a bit from it, not really expecting such a result from a simple blaster bolt coming from a standard, though still moderately customized and modded DLT-19. Where once a Wooden dog stood was nothing more than a simple spot of scorched ground. Raising an eyebrow at this Riggs hastily allowed himself to check on the power setting that his rifle was set at, only to quickly remember that such a setting only existed on his fighter not on any of his other weapon except for his D-11 sniper. The wooden being who got back up on all fours seemed to also been stunned to shock at the literal pulverization of one of their kin. “This result is strange,This old DLT-19 has never packed this much punch before, it's kinda like an anti-tank weapon. Actually, the same thing basically happened with the laser cannons on my ship despite being in low setting. This defiantly requires further testing in the future. But for some reason I have a feeling that it probably has something to do with this strange and unknown radiation field that seems to be covering this planet.” Riggs thought to himself. Those ideas had to quickly wait as the a large number of these living forest branches started to immediately charge at Riggs with anger in their eyes for the death of yet another of their pack. Riggs reaction to that almost perfectly by letting a few more shots out from his blaster in hitting all of his attacker with again marksman like accuracy, dropping 5 of them in one burst and turning them to nothing but ash for the winds to carry away. “5 down, 18 more to go.” Riggs counted in his head as the pack immediately went into an enraged frenzy as more, including those behind him, started to charge at him at full sprint, baring their teeth and digging their claws into the dirt below them. Riggs again retaliated by shooting down two more who were foolish enough to attack him from the front before quickly turning his rifle upside down and smacking the butt of the rifle hard against one of these walking shrubberies who was in the middle of pouncing on him from the right. A sickening crack could be heard from the impact of the blow and sending the poor canine flying into one of the wings of Riggs Tie-Defender, causing another loud crack to echo throughout the carnage before slumping down lifelessly onto the grass below it. “3 more down, 15 more to pulverize.” Riggs continued to count as he ducked and rolled away from another pouncing wood brain before slamming his fist down onto its head, causing the beast to whine out in pain as a large crack was visible afterwards. Riggs trackers and overall senses were now working in overdrive at this point. Riggs spent no time getting back up to counter yet another attack, grabbing the beast mid pounce by its neck before swiftly swivelling around and slamming its form onto another that was trying to get him from behind. Soon his projectile weapon was made useless in such a close brawl, its main purpose was quickly changed to that of a metallic club for breaking wood. But it didn’t matter, since Riggs was trained for almost any situation as a commando, this was his life, his nature, his element. He was made in an age of strive and therefore knows nothing but combat and fighting. The battlefield has become his element over the years, and he thrives in it. Riggs was soon busy tracking wooden head left a right, punching, kicking, smacking and throwing wooden dogs all around him. Riggs eventually pulled out his DL-44 from its holster and began rapidly executing wooden canines he had forced onto the ground while still using the butt of his rifle to fatally break necks and skulls. The body count was rising fast around the black Storm Commando. “6 more down, 9 still alive.” Riggs continued to count. One of these beasts eventually did managed to get through his defences as Riggs felt a strong pressure on his right shoulder its jaws tried to stick into it. Riggs was having none of that. Brutally smacking another of these creatures with the butt of his weapon he quickly dropped his DL-44 onto the ground and reaching out with his left hand onto the beast head. With one mighty pull he managed to rid himself off his burden, the beast in his strong grip now began to trash and bite violently against his grip and arm which only infuriated the Imperial Commando even more. Its efforts were quickly rewarded as Riggs began to use it's still thrashing form as another blunt weapon against the still remaining adversaries by smacking its form hard against another of its kin who tried to get Riggs on one of his legs with two loud yelps and another sickening sounding crack. “You bloody bastards are slowly but surely crawling up nerves.” Riggs shouted out as he used his new living club to smack down another canine and causing it to finally stay down lifelessly against his feet. Another loud snap sounded as Riggs soon found himself holding onto severed head with the rest of the body lying broken and deformed in front of him. His new club has snap from overuse. Tossing the useless head aside Riggs found out that the survivors have finally done the smart thing by retreating out of the battle and into the direction where the forest borders the clearing. “Cowards, you are all better off dead then ever causing more trouble.” Riggs thought to himself as he swiftly flip his rifle back around, firing a few precise shots into the retreating group and instating disintegrating 3 more of these being on the spot leaving only 4 of the original 22 alive. But before Riggs could execute the other reminding 4 like he wanted to a massive roar suddenly rose from the forest in front of him before another set of glowing green eyes made themselves know, this one somewhat larger than the ones Riggs have been slaughtering just a few moment ago. Soon a massive version of these wooden alien creatures stepped out from the foliage being at least twice the size of the one who has now joined that thing and where now growling and snarling at Riggs in company of the big one. “Looky, looky here, the big guy finally decided to step up his game after I mutilated most of them. Good, that means I can do a much more proper job in making sure that all of his kin including IT are no longer going to be burden to me, or anyone of his kind for that matter.” Riggs thought to himself as he tightened his grip around his weapons. The massive alpha snarled and growled dangerously at the Commando standing in the middle of the remains of his mostly destroyed pack. It was pissed, but so was Riggs at this point. “You are going to make a fine fuel source for my fires.” Riggs openly taunted. Which did the desired effect of getting the thing pissed off as if it was capable of understanding him…somehow. Much of that was not in Riggs interest though as he was more focused on the giant mass of twigs and branches charging at him at full speed followed by the reminding rest of its pack that Riggs didn’t slaughtered outright. The beast had nothing but murder and a sense of Vengeance in its eyes as it rapidly closed the long gap between it and its adversary. Riggs on the other hand was still not impressed, he grunted to himself as he mentally decided that he had enough of this bull. He was originally planning to give this big guy a fair fight and to also test what this wooden beast was made of. The key term WAS, at this point he just doesn’t give a damn and just wants to get this over with so he can mentally bitch and complain about it later about being stuck on a possible primitive planet without any source of new power packs for his weapons. He could also charge his power packs with his ships generators or solar wings but that method does take some time and when it came to more ammo he was always a bit on the inpatient side of things. It’s just generally less of a hassle to have direct access to the supplies rather than to fiddle around with a lot of cables and charging time. Plus fuel for his ship will eventually be an issue in the future, it can run on solar power alone,but only in limited usages and obviously with a lot of systems turned down. He was spacing out in the worst possible moment, with his focus back on track, Riggs swiftly lifted his Rifle up towards the charging hulk of plant life and squeezed the trigger to let a couple of shots loose towards his target. The beast noticed this, but at this point it was far too late as the highly energized plasma bolts were racing towards him in unmatched speeds and ferocity. The end results were pretty much the same as the previous ones. as Riggs was forced to momentarily raise his right eyebrow under his helmet at the unsuspected power his shots suddenly hold. All that existed for just a split second was a blinding flash of red light as the plasma bolts immediately ignited after impact, engulfing the silent alpha in an explosion of red fire that quickly disintegrated its wooden form in an instant. Not even allowing bits and pieces to scatter about as everything just got turned into ash by the Plasma made explosion. At that point the fight was over. The few wolves that were flung backwards from the explosive shock wave immediately began to scramble with their tails tucked firmly in-between their legs as they finally took the hint. This is one prey no wolf can ever hope to put a claw on, let alone survive the encounter if you are stupid enough to even try. As the fight was finally over and the remaining wolves began disappearing behind the covers of the forest Riggs just simply used the peace of the moment to evaluate just how unnaturally powerful his blasters shots suddenly become. It first started with the laser cannons on his ship and now his blasters as well. “Why where my blasters able to put out so much energy with each and every shot like that.” He mentally wondered as he held up his rifle to check on what kind of power setting it was set on. What he saw caused him to raise his eyebrows once more. “Medium setting, this thing is on medium setting just like my ships cannons, and it is capable in doing THAT in medium?” He thought out loud as he double checked to make sure he wasn’t seeing things through his helmets lenses or anything. “Makes me now wonder what this thing can do when I eventually set it to maximum. Probably turns it into a pretty decent anti-tank rifle at that point.” He mentally remarked as he was mostly confused about this new and unusual behaviour the gear seems to have gained now ever since he came to this Planet. But he is not complaining though, as far as he knows having an unexpected boost in weaponry is always a big plus in his books. But that would eventually also create the question of power pack drainage, heat generation, faster deterioration and so on. Questions he has to delve into a bit deeper after he is done collecting all of this wooden scrap around him for both analysis and conveniently sized firewood. With a plan in mind and generally nothing better to do before something else want to get disassembled with either his blaster or bare hands Riggs quickly holstered his weapons before grabbing some bundles of wood and casually making his way back to camp, towards a round Astro droid waving a flag with his small robotic limbs that says “Go team Black” and two utterly shocked and stunned mares hiding behind a wall of containers.