The Hunt

[CrazyHobo]

The hunt.

 The sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon of the desert planet Kraal. The feral inhabitants have began digging into the ground to survive the harsh cold night. The planet turns silent, when darkness enshrouds the area, but this time the silence was interrupted by the sound of a spaceship breaking through the atmosphere. The small craft was made out of a black metal and had blue lines and skulls insignias decorating the exterior. It was moving to the surface at an alarming speed, like a meteor plummeting to a planet. It was already beginning to heat upon entering the atmosphere. Suddenly, it’s thrusters point upwards, slightly decreasing the speed, but still plummeted at a dangerous speed.
  The landing was loud, explosive and the area around the ship was surrounded in a sand mist. A split moment after landing, the docking door opened and out of it jumped a short reddish skin creature, clad in what would seem like a high-tec armor. Blue lights emitted all over the dark carapace. For some reason, one hand and head were not clad in the same fashion, though the creature had a red cybernetic eye.
 The moment it touched the ground, the creature began digging with it’s bare claws, gnarling every motion it made. When observing from aside, one would think that it was desperate on time and urgently needed to find something in the sand.
 This creature was a Kroigian. A highly advanced species, coming from a planet with 3 suns. The radiation on the planet is so great that these creatures have short lives, usually less then 10 years. Every second is valuable to them, so they are some of the most impatient species in the universe. Their highly advanced technology and biological augmentations can buy them a few more years, but even their knowledge cannot make them immortal. Eternal life is a dream of each kroigian.
 It would seem strange that this creature is wasting his time digging in dirt. After some moments of digging random spots, he let out a screeching cry at the sky, then his right bionic hand reassembled into a gauss cannon. He fired a green ball of energy into the sand. The explosion from it made a small sand fog around the area. When it became visible once more, the creature saw that he was still surrounded only by sand….
  While the kroigian was busy blowing up sand in a vain attempt to find something, another spaceship entered the atmosphere, only in a completely different manner. Instead of plummeting at meteor speed like the first creature did, this ship slowly and gracefully descended down onto the planet. The ship was of a tree brown shade, from a distance one would think that it is not even made out of metal, but of some organic material. No visible engine, no propeller device on the back. Nothing could tell, how this craft was able to make any movement. By the time it had reached the surface, the kroigian had turned a considerable amount of sand into glass…
 The kroigian had noticed that new spaceship arrive. It was nervous. What if this traveler was after the same thing as he was? He readied his gauss cannon to whatever was about to exit the ship, but at the same time, the kroigian knew that he must hunt for the beast in the sand. Unable to decide what to do, the kroigian panicked and began shooting at random directions in the sand. While he was busy turning sand into glass, the second ship’s hull **** open in a white light and an exit portal began opening at a slow rate. When it had finally reached the required size, a large reptile-creature floated through it. Never touching the ground, it slowly made it’s way to the impatient kroigian. The later did could not wait for the first to come all the way and began shouting:
-   WHAT DO YOU WANT, YOU NICASARIAN REPTOID???
The lizard slowly opened it’s eyes and spoke in a low pitched town with long pauses:
-   I…have seen many…species…but yours….is the most…interesting…
-   SPEAK FASTER, YOU SLUG!!! I HAVEN’T GOT TIME!!!
-   But I can…for I have lived…for a many millennium…
-   WHAT??!!! MILLENNIUM!!! I CAN’T EVEN DREAM OF HAVING SO MUCH TIME!!!
-   That explains….your impatience…What brings you…here?
-   NOT YOUR BUSINESS!!!
-   Fine…I can wait…
-   BUZZ OFF!!! I NEED TO CATCH THE SANDWORM!.....YOU DID NOT HEAR THAT!!!
-   The sandworm?...I…am here.. for the same…purpose
-   THEN GET OUT!!! THIS BOUNTY IS MINE!!!
The kroigian hastily returned to blowing up random spots of soil in hopes of hitting the worm, not knowing where it even could be. The reptoid instead stood firmly on one spot without making a single motion. When the kroigian stopped causing destruction to reload his weapons, he asked the ancient one:
-   HEY, WHY YOU NOT HUNTING???!!!
-   The worm…will resurface…and when it does…I…will catch it.
-   SIT AND WAIT??? THAT’S WASTING TIME!!!
-   And shooting…randomly…is not?
-   NO!!! I AM HUNTING AND I’LL CATCH IT FASTER THIS WAY!!!
-   You…will run out of ammo…sooner
-   NOT IF I’M LUCKY!!!
And they continued arguing on what the appropriate method of catching the worm is, be it rushing or waiting out for it to come itself. Their quarrel would go on uncounted, if it weren’t for the intervention of a third party…
 A white ship, adorned with skulls and tribal images of wolves moved at a steady speed towards the surface. Upon entry into the atmosphere, the ship’s engines pointed down to balance the movement. It landed normally on the sand. It’s docking bay opened and out of it a Fenrisian Wolflord emerged, wearing the black ornamental armor of a Fenrisian hunter. His assault gun was mounted on his right shoulder, one gauntlet had an exit port for a plasma blade, the other had a computer console mounted a top and a needle gun under it. His skull mask concealed his face, as a Wolflord can only reveal himself to another one.
 He looked at the endless dunes and thought of how the cold weather of Fenris was more beautiful than this wasteland. The Wolflord then opened his computer console and pushed some buttons. Suddenly, his ship released a shrieking sound and multiple small torpedoes launched out of it. The flew into the air, then each disassembled into smaller antennas and landed at different spots over a large area. The hunter looked at his console to get the reading from it. It said “Motion sensors in position”. He pushed a button to get a reading.
“1 motion detected”
He read the coordinates of the movement. It was not very far from him. He looked in the direction of the movement and adjusted his helmet’s vision to see further. He could see a small creature jumping and shooting at random spots on the soil and a large lizard standing motionless. The Wolflord chuckled and turned his stare at the soil: this was not his target. The hunter sat on the sand on the cold sand. His armor’s life support systems kept him warm. Sitting in a meditation posture, the hunter waited until the scanners gave out the readings of the worm’s movement.
 The time spent meditating helped him gather some thoughts together. Upon delivering the bounty, the Wolflord could invest more into the Fenris military force. They were preparing for war with the Slahanees, who have been raiding their colonies for too long. Normally, the Galactic Council would assemble a strike force to deal with raiders, but their bureaucracy has been taking too long. The Fenrisians decided to make matters into their own claws.
 The console made a sound. The Wolflord ended his meditation and got the readings: a large object was headed here underground. Definitely the Sandworm. The hunter tapped some buttons on his device and the ship’s autopilot flew up. The hunter did not want to risk damaging his ship in this confrontation. He then prepared the stunning darts on his needle gun to put the beast to sleep.
 The sand began shacking. The beast must be truly massive to cause such motion. The hunter stood firmly, prepared to face the Sandworm. Suddenly, the thing emerged from the sand towards the sky, demonstrating how big it was. Twice the length of the hunter’s ship, most likely. It pointed it’s mouth towards the Wolflord, gave out a menacing roar and started falling at the wolf, mouth forward. The hunter side stepped to avoid being consumed by the beast. He knew that the being’s skin was too thick for the needle to penetrate and as such, he had to soften up an area, before injecting the tranquilizer. His autocannon fired at a section of the worm that was still high in the air. Fresh blood rained on the hunter, as the skin was penetrated. He took aim at the small moving target with his needle gun and sent the dart flying towards the flesh wound. Being an old hunter, the Wolflord did not miss the shot. The dart was in, the beast will soon fall to sleep. It emerges once more in front of the hunter, gives out a quieter growl, then falls on the ground, bringing the sand in the air.
 The Fenrisian calls his ship back, so that it’s quantum storage module could be used to transport the beast to the Galactic Market, as it is too large to fit into the docking bay.
A green energy beam flew right next to the hunter. He turned around to see who was firing at him: the kroigan was charging at the hunter and screaming “MY BOUNTY!!!” from a far. The Wolflord, offended by such an insult, activated his plasma blade on his gauntlet and charged at the little creature. The kroigian fired three more shots, all missed.He tried firing once more, but only heard a clicking sound in his weapon. He didn’t have any spare power cells to reload, as he has wasted them all on firing at random spots. He grabbed his gauss rifle by the barrel and started swinging it randomly like a barbarian. The fenrisian quickly closed distance to the little freak, lunged at him and sliced his gauss rifle in half midair, then landed on one knee behind the kroigian. He rose, turned quickly and delivered a strong kick to the kroigians face, knocking him unconscious. The hunter was about to stab the little creature and end his short life, but then his consol sent a message that a very slow motion was coming at this direction. He zoomed his helmet’s vision to see what was coming at him. A Nicasarian Reptoid was very slowly floating towards the worm. Very slowly….The hunter’s calculator on the consol said it would take 2 hours, before the reptoid would finally reach him. The Fenrisian decided it was not worth waiting for the lizard man. He walked past the unconscious kroigian, loaded the Sandworm into his quantum storage unit, entered his ship and simply flew away.
 2 hours later, the reptoid had reached the knocked out kroigian. He used his slow psychic powers to wake the little one. After 30 minutes, the freak one sprang up and starting loudly screaming gibberish, until he turned his enraged gaze at the Nicasarian.
- HOW LONG WAS I OUT???!!!
- Some hours….at least…
- HOURS!!!??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO, I’VE WASTED TIME FOR NOTHING!!!!!!!
He grabbed his little head and fell on his knees.
-   WHERE’S THE WORM!!!???
-   The Fenrisian…took it…
-   WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AT???!!! AAAAAARGH!!!! ALL YOUR FAULT!!! – said the kroigian, pointing his finger at the lizard man.
-   I…am not…responsible…for your…defeat…
-   YES YOU ARE!!! YOU WERE TOO SLOW TO STOP THAT WOLF!!!
And they continued their pointless arguing…


Onboard the white ship, the Fenrisian Wolflord was plotting his course towards the Galactic Market, when he received a holo-message from a fellow Fenrisian.
-   How did your hunt go, Brother?
-   Good, I have caught the Sandworm. The bounty from it should buy us more weapons for the upcoming invasion.
-   Very good. Anything interesting you noticed on that rock?
-   Yes…a kroigian and a nicasarian…
-   An impatient little freak and a very slow lizard? Did their meeting bring any inner balance?
-   Nope. One kept being loud and annoying, the other kept being retardedly slow…
-   *Sigh* And I thought the Galactic Council was a snail…
-   Oh, you have no idea…Anyway, I’ll be at the Market in a few hours. Wanna grab a glass of whiskey?
-   Sure.
And he flew away…



Red text=off topic.
Anyways, VoraX once tought me the importance of balance in everything. This story shows what occurs in case of disbalance. That's pretty much it. There won't be any continuation, so you can discuss it here, if you want to.