EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

By the time the pack was through with the Indrik, its carcass was hardly more than bloody bones surrounded by antlers, bits of fur, and feathers that had been cast aside. Meesei was sat on the ground next to the bones, and after Janius' comment, picked up the horn that had once been at the center of its head and began to look at it closely. "That may have been more dangerous prey for less...experienced hunters. I have to wonder how much of a fight it would have put up had we not ambushed it so quickly. A deer that can teleport, and use frost or shock magic...I may have to spend more time in Summerset after this."

"Hmm, more prey does sound tempting..." Ahnasha remarked. She had been one of the last to finish eating and was currently laying in the grass, picking between her teeth with one claw. "It is so rare to get the chance to eat a Daedra. Most of the time, they are just banished upon death, but here, their bodies will remain."

Kaleeth was likely the one most satisfied by their hunt, and was now even more lucid than when she had first transformed that evening. She was looking off towards the nearby river for a while before finally speaking, slowly and carefully. As long as she was deliberate about how she spoke, she was now intelligible. "Maybe we can...relax a while, first? This forest is a beautiful place."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth was quick to lose any focus as to what the others were saying. Being that her beast was not one with pack instincts, she was not one to wait long to eat, nor to abandon her feast once she began. Meesei, on the other hand, only ate a small amount, including the heart itself, before stepping back and allowing the others to join in. Since she had no need to satisfy her beast spirit, she did so more out of custom.

"I doubt we are the first mortals to hunt here." Ahnasha commented, just before moving in beside Lorag to sink her teeth into their prey, once she was allowed to do so. Although, it did take a while for her to elaborate. It was during hunts, and especially consuming the kill, that she most often allowed her beast spirit to freely influence her thoughts and actions. As such, it took a few minutes of allowing it to eat before her cluttered thoughts returned back to the topic. "I remember, even long ago, reading stories of mortals who had the honor of hunting in Hircine's plane. Back when I was first learning about Hircine. I guess it's hard to say if they were just stories, though. It's still something I've dreamed of doing since I was a child."

Lorag gave only a quick moment to speak. "Hmph, I just want to know if there's something bigger to kill."

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Thaz - Nal Hutta

---

Regardless of Samus’ cautious words, Thaz still felt more relaxed than she had been on their way to the planet. They had done their job and would be getting paid. Especially since they were already leaving the planet, it was not as if the bodyguards would be catching up to them. There was an audible hiss as Thaz unsealed her helmet and set it aside next to her beam rifle, finally revealing her face for the first time since they had met. She approached beside Samus, leaning herself up against the wall just beside the control console.

“I don’t know about this whole ‘war’, but I’m going to get my pay, get some tech from this universe, or some other ones, and sell it back home when we figure out how to get back. I’ll make enough to retire rich.” Thaz commented.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Falul 'Taham - The Immaculate Aegis

---

While Dr. O’Connell was frantically going through the readouts in search of the source of the error, the bridge crew of the Aegis was quick to react to the situation. Falul’s attention was placed immediately onto his own readouts, and the view screen of the space ahead of them. Whatever words Falul might eventually have for the scientists, his foremost priority was the potential threats ahead of them.

Falul had the sensor data sent to his own display, and it took just a few seconds for him to start making his decisions. “Are our shields at full strength?” He asked to one of the Sangheili at a console off to his right.

“Yes, Shipmaster. Only the borer was interrupted by the error.” The crewman answered.

With that information, Falul’s orders were decisive, and came quickly. “Power the reactor to full and focus all spare output on shields. Acquire targets, but do not yet power weapons." He began, turning his gaze directly to McKay. "You, assist with transferring slipspace control to the secondary borer and get this ship ready for an emergency slipspace jump as soon as possible.”

Falul paused just a moment, leaning back in his chair as he observed the fleet. “These ship configurations are not Imperial… but this is a military fleet. Cross-reference sensor scans of their vessels with all of the known local ship configurations Erthos provided us. I want to know who they are. And broadcast this message on an open channel.”

“This is Shipmaster Falul ‘Taham of the Immaculate Aegis. We have arrived in this system unintentionally, with no hostile intent.” Falul announced.

After he broadcast his message, Falul turned briefly to Uril. "Get a message back to the fleet. Inform them of our situation."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth turned her head, moving her gaze between the others laughing around her. After a moment, she huffed and let out a short, low growl. "Shill noff..." She began, but ended up growling again in frustration. Meesei moved to help, but before she could actually do anything to assist, Kaleeth turned away and snapped her jaws down on the Indrik's stomach. She tore it open with hardly any effort and began feasting on its entrails.

Meesei, meanwhile, shrugged and chuckled lightly. "She will be fine. For a werecrocodile, that swelling should go down shortly. Meesei explained. On Meesei's part, she decided to start tearing into its chest, as the heart was her goal. Meesei wondered if there was any part of an Indrik that was inherently magical in some way, though it would hardly be worth stopping the feast in order to find out.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Dr. Fiona O'Connell - The Immaculate Aegis

---

"I have been thinking about that as well, actually." Dr. O'Connell commented. She continued keeping an eye on the readouts, but with everything being within normal parameters for the moment, she continued to speak, somewhat quietly, to McKay.

"I've been a bit busy myself to be able to go in-depth into the technical data we have on the other ships, but the prospect of being able to study technology from other universes is beyond tantalizing. My entire job back home is to study and reverse-engineer alien technology, so this is exactly my sort of work. I have to think that it wasn't an accident that, what was her name...Elizabeth chose the Aegis just when myself and Narak happened to be aboard." O'Connell reasoned. "And I don't think you'll find much argument from the Shipmaster. Like I mentioned before, the Sangheili were of the warrior caste of the Covenant. They would love to know how all of their technology works. Shields, power systems, weapons, either small arms or ship based...I would be willing to bet that Falul will let you study it all to your heart's content. The only condition would be that you share any results you might find with them. And you wouldn't be starting from scratch, either. Narak and I have been working with Forerunner technology more recently, but I have put years of research into reverse-engineering Covenant technology, and I still have all those notes. Between all of the scientific knowledge of all of these universes, we might be able to make a breakthrough."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei took in the scent of her singed fur as she glanced down at her arm. "I do believe I have read about Indriks before, at some point...perhaps I should have paid closer attention to that book." She commented, walking around behind the head of their lifeless prey. She knelt down and quickly tore out a large chunk of the Indrik's throat, if only to make sure it was actually dead, and would not have any more surprises for them.

Ahnasha, much like most of the rest of the pack, was already staring hungrily at the corpse. But, even as her beast spirit had her salivating, she could not help but to notice some strange behavior on the part of Kaleeth. The werecrocodile was sitting on the ground next to the Indrik, lightly snapping at the air periodically for no apparent reason. "There...something the matter, Kaleeth?" Ahnasha asked.

Kaleeth tilted up her head towards Ahnasha. "Mmysthtongthishore." She replied back in an almost entirely unintelligible slur.

Kaleeth now had some of the others' attention as well, while Ahnasha tilted her head in confusion. "Um...what?"

This time, Kaleeth slowed down and tried to put more emphasis on each word. "Myyth...ffongue...shlocked."

Now that Ahnasha was looking closer when Kaleeth spoke, she could see that there were some burns in Kaleeth's mouth and her tongue was quite swollen. Her jaws had been latched down on the Indrik when it let out its shock, and that jolt had probably went right through her tongue. She doubted that Kaleeth could feel her tongue at all at the moment, and after a brief pause, Ahnasha could not help but to start letting out a deep laugh. A fearsome werecrocodile slurring words like a drunk was simply ridiculous enough that she could not resist.

"Noff...fummy." Kaleeth tried to answer back, but the attempt only made Lorag start laughing as well.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Despite its surprises so far, the Indrik could not put its focus everywhere at once. In the midst of its frost beam, Fendros was able to tackle it to the ground, his claws and teeth cleaving into its flesh. Ahnasha too came around from the side attempting to dive for its throat, though it jerked away enough that she had to settle for biting down on its leg. It struggled and kicked towards him, but it had remained in place long enough that Kaleeth was finally able to catch up. It easily saw the massive werecrocodile coming, but it could not run, could not escape Fendros' grasp, and could not prevent Kaleeth's maw from clamping down onto its neck with enough force crush every bone within almost in an instant.

The one, final act of revenge that the Indrik had was to let out a burst of arcane lightning in every direction. It was not enough to stop Kaleeth's jaws, but it did deliver a painful electric shock to everyone around it. Meesei had already lowered her ward to try and get her own hold on its neck, so only Lorag and Janius were far enough away to be spared the shock.

Ultimately, the Indrik's arcane death throes were not enough to seriously hurt anyone, but the shock was enough to practically make Meesei jump, and not to mention let out quite a high pitched yelp as she started to shake her mildly burned arm.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Dr. Fiona O'Connell - The Immaculate Aegis

---

Despite McKay's apparent confidence, Fiona was still nervously wringing her hands as she checked over the readouts once again. "Yeah I...suppose so. Any kind of tests with anything having to do with slipspace is just always so nerve-wracking. For as vital as it is, slipspace is just so dangerous. Make the wrong kind of mistake with the portal, or accidentally destabalize the drive's quantum field mid-transit, and we all end up getting reduced to subatomic particles, just like that. During the battle of Reach, one of our Spartan teams used a slipspace drive basically as a bomb to take out a ship over five times this size. It would be a quick death at least, but...you're right, though. Our changes have been through billions of simulations; I shouldn't be so alarmist."

Dr. O'Connell grinned, giving McKay a quick pat on the back. "I wish I could have your bravery. I could never go out in the field like you've said you do. I'd be a nervous wreck. But life-threatening risks like this are probably just another day for you."

If there was any desire to make any last-minute alterations to the test, there would be no time for it. Within moments, the Aegis' AI finished the sequence and powered on the slipspace borer. Fiona immediately noticed that the borer was drawing almost fifty percent more power than usual, but it was not as if the ship's reactor did not have plenty of capacity to spare. From the view screens, they could see the brilliant blue and white glow of a massive slipspace portal opening in front of the ship, which the Aegis' engines soon pushed the ship into.

Once in the slipstream, the slipspace drive's power draw fell back down to mostly normal levels, and the ship proceeded without any obvious issues. Unlike what McKay might have been used to in hyperspace, there was nothing in slipspace that the Human eye could see, so the view screens showed nothing but blackness until they switched to displaying more useful information. Notions of distance and velocity became meaningless within slipspace and could not be directly measured, so they would only be able to know if their changes were successful once they arrived.

Star Wars - Galaxies at War[MULTIVERSE SPACESHIP RP]

Thaz - Nal Hutta

---

Under the cloak of active camouflage, Thaz could move through the port relatively without worry. She had not seen where that Rodian sniper had gone, but really, it did not matter. She had only really even fired her weapon at one target, but it was the only target that mattered. With Samus there to help keep the majority of the Gammorean's bodyguards off of her, and to quickly swipe some proof of their kill, it was a simple and quick job. So as long as Jerus had actually done his part correctly, of course.

Thaz had been able to move quickly enough that she got back to the ship before Samus, and was waiting inside when the bounty hunter arrived. She already set aside her weapon and looked relaxed in one of the seats.

"Simple and quick. Best kind of jobs. Bounty hunting here doesn't seem much different from back home. Find a target, shoot it. Taken plenty of heads before myself. I think I'll fit in just fine." Thaz remarked.