Author's Note.
This is a little bit different than what I normally do. Thanks to Joe Lawyer for beta reading this chapter for me, it was barely readable before.
Predator Gothic
Trek Dimension
Captain's Log
The Enterprise is currently en route to the planet Styx 3 in the Tartarus sector to investigate the sudden loss of communication with a research station. The last report from the station was that of several crew members going missing. We hope to find out more once we arrive.
Bridge. Enterprise.
Captain Picard leaned back in his command chair and looked around the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Sitting in the seat beside him was the ship's first officer, Commander William Riker, who was at this time studying some report. If it was anything other than routine paperwork then Riker would let the Captain know.
"What's our ETA, Mr. Data?" Picard asked.
The android turned in his seat.
"We will arrive in the Styx system in just under four minutes, Captain," replied the android in the form of a man.
Normally Data would give a more precise answer, down to the second, but he seemed to be getting out of the habit of doing that.
"So, what is it they're studying out here on the edge of nowhere?" asked Deanna Troi.
The betazoid/human hybrid was occupying the seat to the Captain's left.
"Styx 3 is surrounded by an unstable debris ring that was formed when the planet's two small moons exploded for unknown reasons," Data reported. "The station is studying the effects of long term meteor bombardment on the planetary crust as well as the unusual radiation being produced by the ring".
That could explain the lack of communication, some piece of debris could have struck the station.
"And the crew complement?" asked Picard.
"The research station has over three hundred crew, mostly civilian scientists, with some Starfleet officers in support roles," the android told the captain. "There is a small security contingent made up of Starfleet officers, but they number only ten".
Not a lot in the way of defenses, Picard noted to himself.
"I wonder what's going on over there," muttered Riker. "It might be some sort of attack, we're not far from Tholian space and they are known for suddenly seizing worlds outside their borders while claiming it was their space in order to justify the attacks".
That was a possibility.
"That's what we're here to find out Commander," Picard said.
"We are now entering the Styx system, Captain," reported a fresh faced lieutenant who was at the helm.
"Drop to one quarter impulse, Lieutenant Clarke," the captain ordered. "Data scan the area for vessels. Mr. Worf ready shields and weapons, we shouldn't rule out an attack".
It was best to be careful.
"Scanning sir," said Data, "no vessels in range".
Given that cloaking technology was always a possibility there might still be ships out there, but they were a long way from Romulan and Klingon claimed space.
"Life signs?" Picard wondered.
None were reported, however the debris fields made scans from orbit less than precise.
"See if you can raise the station," Riker said next.
"Hailing frequencies open," Wolf replied. "No response commander".
Picard felt oddly concerned. There was no actual sign of danger. A simple malfunction could easily explain the loss of communications, but then again, there had been that report about missing people before the station went dark.
"Take us into standard orbit," the captain commanded. "That should place us between the planet and the belt, and hopefully allow us to get a better scan of the planet".
"Aye aye sir, standard orbit," the young officer at helm replied.
The mighty flagship of the Federation didn't take long to move into position.
"Try hailing them again, Lieutenant," Picard ordered, "we might have more luck on short range".
"Frequencies open," Worf soon said.
The bridge crew waited patiently for a response.
"Still no response, sir," the Klingon reported dutifully.
"Any life signs?" Riker asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, there appears to be damage to the station's fusion reactors. It's leaking radiation. The sensors can't get a clear reading on the interior through the interference," Worf said.
"Damn," muttered Riker, who soon raised his voice. "I hate going into a situation blind".
Still, if they could render aid then they should.
"Number One, take an Away Team, fully armed and find out what's going on down there," the Captain ordered.
"Aye sir," said Riker as he turned his head to face the ops station."Lt. Worf, assemble a security team and meet me in transporter room two."
(Line Break)
Transporter Room. Enterprise.
Riker studied his team as they entered the transporter room. Worf had decided to take three members of security as well as a medical officer. All of the security officers were carrying phaser rifles as well as standard phasers and tricorders. This meant that they had a lot more firepower than was normal for most away teams, but that was fine with the Commander since he had absolutely no idea what to expect within the base.
"All set?" the most senior of the gather officers, queried.
The assembled team nodded.
"Ok, ladies and gentlemen, here's the deal," Riker explained. "We received a subspace distress signal from the station a few days ago. The message told us that members of the station personnel were inexplicably going missing. The station administrator requested assistance and we've heard nothing from them since. So I want everyone to be extra vigilant. Any questions?"
There was only silence.
"Let's go then".
With that they climbed onto the transporter pad. The crewman at the controls frowned at her console.
"Problem?" Riker enquired.
"Just having difficulty getting a clear lock from the station sir," the operations chief replied. "The radiation is playing havoc with the sensors".
At times like this Riker missed Chief O'Brien who could seemingly work miracles with a transporter, but the new transporter chief wasn't so bad at her job.
"There, got it now," they were soon told.
"Energize," Riker ordered a moment later.
(Line Break)
Research Station. Styx 3.
The first thing Commander Riker noted about the Federation science station was the high heat and humidity. Either life support was failing or someone had turned up the heat.
"Feels like a Turkish steam bath in here," commented Lieutenant Heins.
Heins was one of the Enterprises longest serving security officers
"More like the heat one would feel during the Klingon ritual of Kal'Hyah," Work stated.
Kal'Hyah was the path of clarity, sometimes referred to as a "Klingon bachelor party". It was a "mental and spiritual journey" that the groom and his closest male friends took part in before the wedding.
Ensign Masters, one of the newer security officers, took out his tricorder and began scanning.
"Anything?" asked Riker.
"Sir, the radiation is cutting the range down quite a bit, but I am picking up a life sign," replied Masters. "Approximately fifty meters from our position; looks like it's in station Ops".
The Commander tapped his comm badge.
"Riker to Enterprise"
"Enterprise here, go ahead Number One"
Picard's voice was somewhat distorted. The interference from the debris field was obviously still effecting communications, but thankfully not making it impossible.
"So far the station appears deserted, but we have picked up one life sign, not far from our present position. Permission to search for this life sign?" Riker requested.
Picard soon replied.
"Proceed with caution. Enterprise out"
"Ensigns Masters and Robbins take the rear," Riker ordered. "Lieutenant Heins, you lead the way".
There was a brief chorus of "aye aye sir's" and the small party moved on.
The station was eerily quiet as the team proceeded down the empty corridors. The only sound was the hum of the station life support, the environmental control systems and the dripping of condensed water off various surfaces. Unsurprising given the extremely high humidity. Those systems seemed to be operating and using much more energy than they should. This meant that someone had indeed turned up the heat. However the lights had been lowered or even smashed, it was as if someone here wanted it dark, hot and damp.
Eventually the party reached the turbo lift which would take them up to the station's operations centre. They stepped in and the doors whooshed shut.
(Line Break)
Research Station. Styx 3.
The operations centre seemed as empty as the rest of the station, Riker soon noticed, as he stepped out of the turbo lift and carefully looked around the apparently empty room.
This room had two levels and was rather large considering the size of the station, but it was not a Starfleet base; it was mostly a civilian operation so it would obviously use a different design than what Riker would be used to.
"Well, Ensign Masters?" he asked. "Has the life sign moved?"
The officer checked his tricorder again.
"There should be someone here," replied Ensign Masters, who was sounding frustrated. "I'm definitely reading one human life sign".
As if in response to his words a phaser beam that came from an overhead walkway hit Ensign Masters in the shoulder, spinning him around and to the ground. The attack caused the young crewmen to drop his weapon and tricoder just before he hit the ground hard.
"Get down!" yelled Riker as he snapped off a shot at the source of the blast.
The rest of the team dived for cover. Only the medical officer, a young Bolian woman, didn't take shelter, she headed over to where Masters lay and began running her medical tricorder over him. Wolf crouched over a console and covered them with his rifle as best he could.
Meanwhile Heins risked a glance over the top of the console he was hiding behind and was forced to immediately duck as another blast nearly took his head off.
"You won't get me, you bastard!" an unfamiliar voice shouted out.
Well it sounded human at least, even if the source of the words wasn't friendly.
"This is Commander Riker of the Federation starship Enterprise," shouted out Riker. "We mean you no harm!"
The only reply was a phaser blast that vaporized part of the console he was using for cover.
Since it was clear that the shooter was not going to listen to reason the commander looked over at Worf who began firing as did the other security officers. Not with the intention of hitting anyone, they were merely providing Riker with a distraction so he could get up to the second level.
The plan worked perfectly. Riker was able to disable the shooter, who turned out to be a traumatized Starfleet officer, without anyone else getting seriously injured.
"Everyone okay?" he asked, once all the shooting had stopped.
They all nodded, and Riker went to check on the wounded member of his away team.
"How about you ensign?"
Ensigns Masters was in no danger.
"I'll live sir," he replied with a grimace, "the beam just grazed me."
"I've given him something for the pain," reported Borla, the Bolian doctor, while snapping shut her med kit. "He'll be fine, but I'd like to take him to sickbay and have him undergo dermal regeneration sooner rather later so we can avoid permanent scarring".
She then walked over to the unconscious man and ran her tricorder over his still form.
"Mild dehydration and malnutrition, signs of elevated blood pressure suggesting extreme prolonged stress, but otherwise healthy," she said, reading the display. "He's going to be out for a while though".
"Suits me," muttered Masters. "As long as he isn't shooting at us".
"I know what you mean," the other Ensign agreed.
He was looking at the remains of the console he had been hiding behind, it had not fared well.
"Lieutenant Heins, see if you can access the station's computer and find out what exactly has been going on around here," Riker ordered.
Soon the lieutenant was working at one of the computer stations, some of which were still working despite all the phaser fire.
"Worf, take Robbins and check out the rest of this level," was the commander's next order.
Then he tapped his commbadge.
"Riker to Enterprise."
"Go ahead, Commander"
"We've been attacked by someone who may be one of the station's crew," Riker reported.
"Casualties?"
Riker could hear the worry in Picard's voice.
"Masters took a grazing hit to the shoulder, but Borla says he'll be fine" Riker reported. "The crewmen who fired on us is out for now, but not in any danger. Hopefully he'll have calmed down when he wakes up and can tell us what's been going on around here".
The Captain's relief was evident without anything further needing to be said.
"Any sign of the rest of the station's crew?" Picard enquired.
"Not so far. I've got Lieutenant Worf conducting a search of the command level, but so far we've seen no sign of anyone except our trigger happy friend," said Riker. "I've got Lieutenant Heins on the computer trying to access the station's log; I'll let you know if anything turns up".
"Understood Commander. Enterprise out".
Riker then turned to Heins
"Got anything yet?" he asked.
"Not much I'm afraid, sir," replied the less senior of the two Starfleet officers. "Looks like the main core has been affected by the radiation; a lot of the stored data's been corrupted beyond retrieval. Which is odd because it should all be shielded, it looks like someone's been messing with the systems other than life support".
Well, that was certainly odd. Will could only assume that the clearly unhinged Starfleet officer currently getting much needed medical attention had been messing with the station's control systems. He would normally have had the man beamed to the Enterprise by now, but he was going to need some questions answered once that man was awake.
"Did you get anything useful?" Riker asked.
The Lieutenant nodded.
"Well, I've got an ID on our trigger happy friend," Heins said as he gestured at the unconscious man. "He's Lieutenant-Commander Timbers, the station's chief engineer".
"Well, I suppose it's something," Riker said.
This was when his badge chirped.
"Worf to Riker"
The Commander tapped his badge.
"Go ahead, Lieutenant".
"I think we've found something, Commander. We're picking up some strange readings coming from the mess hall," reported the Klingon.
Thinking fast the experienced officer decided what to do next.
"We're on our way," Riker said as he turned to the rest of his team "Masters, you're with me. Borla, stay and look after our friend here, and you keep on that computer Heins. See if you can get anything else useful out of it".
(Line Break)
Science Station. Styx 3
Before long Riker and Masters found Worf and Robbins standing outside the door to the mess hall.
"What have you got?" asked the Enterprise's first officer.
"I'm not sure Commander" Worf admitted as he checked his tricorder "It is a life sign, however the signal keeps fading in and out, one minute it's there, and then it's gone. The radiation is causing interference, but I should be able to get a clear reading at this distance".
Riker soon came up with a plan of action.
"Worf, you and I will enter through this door while Masters and Robbins go in through the sides" he decided "Keep your phaser ready to fire but I want them on stun. This could be another traumatized survivor".
Once everyone was ready Riker slapped his hand on the door control. With a swish the doors slid aside and the party surged inside, phasers ready, and they all came to a sudden stop upon seeing the scene inside the mess hall. They had found the rest of the stations crew, or what remained of them.
Their flayed, and sometimes headless, corpses hung suspended upside down from the ceiling, like sides of beef in an old fashioned butchers shop. Masters swore viciously while Robbins was soon being violently sick in the corner. Riker didn't blame him; he was feeling a bit queasy himself. Even Worf was looking unsettled.
"Where's that signal coming from Lieutenant?" Riker asked quietly.
"I can't tell sir, I'm still having difficulty getting a clear reading" Worf replied.
Riker raised his phaser as he saw something moving on the far side of the room. A heat wave like shimmer in the darkness.
"It's coming from that direction" Robbins called out, his eyes fixed on the tricorder's readout.
For Riker, what happened next was all in slow motion. For a split second he saw a figure appear in the corner. It was approximately seven feet tall, heavily built, and it was wearing strange armor with a very angular facemask, with long dreadlocks hanging out the back.
From its shoulder sprung a bright flash of intense blue light and Robbins's chest exploded in flame. The young officer looked down in stunned disbelief at the smouldering mess that used to be torso before collapsing lifelessly to the floor.
Worf yelled a Klingon battle cry and fired his phaser as the apparition disappeared again. He was joined a split second later by the others who fired blindly into the room. The cadavers didn't react to the stun shots and neither did anything else they hit since they weren't alive.
From the corner of his eye, Riker caught a glimpse of the heatwave shimmer disappearing through a hole in the wall.
"Hold your fire!" he yelled.
The others stopped firing and soon Riker knelt down besides the Ensign's still smoking body. In the centre of his chest there was a fist sized hole burnt clear through.
"What the hell was that?" whispered Masters, his voice quavering.
"Looked like some kind of high energy plasma bolt" Worf stated, his normally calm voice wavering as he fought to control his Klingon battle lust "But I've never seen any plasma weapon do this to a man"
What the hell are we dealing with? Riker wondered.
(Line Break)
Bridge. USS Enterprise.
"Captain I am detecting something that may be a cloaked ship" Data reported.
That got Picard's attention.
"Where is this ship?" he asked.
Data switched the image on the view screen to show a small craft that could just barely be seen.
"Radiation from the debris belt seems to be interfering with the cloaking device this ship uses, otherwise it is highly unlikely we would have detected it," Data was now saying.
"I sense nothing from the ship" Deanna told the captain.
That however didn't mean there wasn't anyone on board. If there were life forms within the ship they might just have a way to hide themselves from empathic scans. It could even have a crew made up of robots.
"Open a channel" said Picard, while standing up.
"Hailing frequencies open" a random crewmen said.
"This is Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S Enterprise" he announced "You have entered Federation space. Explain your presence here".
Normally Picard was more diplomatic, but he didn't believe for a second that a cloaked ship being in orbit of this planet had nothing to do with the lack of communications.
"Please respond" the captain then urged.
He waited.
"No response captain" said the crew member at ops.
Picard considered what to do. Beaming anyone over to the unknown alien ship seemed unwise, and there was a chance that it truly was devoid of crew. Perhaps it was a victim of whatever foul fate had befallen the science station.
"Tractor the vessel on board" the captain ordered "Perhaps we can still get some answers".
His order was soon carried out.
"Wait a minute... Captain I'm picking up an energy build up in the vessels engine" Data informed the bridge "They may be activating a self destruct system".
The ship's captain reacted quickly.
"Break off tractor beam, raise shields, and put some distance between as that ship" Picard command.
"I'm trying sir, helm is sluggish" reported the helmsmen.
"Vessels core is approaching critical" Data calmly reported.
On the view screen the ship disappeared in a soundless flash, and the Enterprise shook as a shock wave struck it.
(Line Break)
Science Station. Styx 3.
The Away Team, minus one, assembled in the operations room.
"What's the situation?" Riker demanded to know of Lt Hiens.
"Not good sir" he replied "I can't raise the Enterprise and most of the stations sensors are down, so I can't even tell if the ship is still out there. But that isn't the worst of it".
How could things possibly get any worse?
"That blast that shook the station was the result of a high energy plasma burst hitting the stations fusion reactor" the officer reported.
"Then why have we still got power? Why haven't the safeties shut it down? asked Riker.
"Whoever did this knew exactly how to cause the most damage to the reactor without outright destroying the station. All the safety subsystems were disabled and now the reactor is building up to overload"
"How long have we got?" Riker asked.
"Two hours and fourteen minutes before the containment field collapses"
"Is there any way off this station?" asked Borla, nervously.
"Well the station does have one Danube class runabout assigned to it, but..."
Henis left the sentence hanging.
"But what?" asked Masters.
Henis wasn't sure enough to come out and say it directly, but it seemed likely that the only way off this death trap was a little too easy to find. It had to be a trick of some kind.
"Well, would you hang around a station with a psychopathic alien wandering loose?" said the officer.
None of them would.
"Good question" said Riker "Why don't we ask our friend here. Borla, can you wake him up"
"Aye sir" said the Bolian medic as she took a hypospray from her kit and touched it to the neck of the engineer "Just give him a moment or two".
There was brief hiss and before long Lieutenant-Commander Timbers began to wake up.
"How do you feel?" the medic asked him.
"Like someone set the inside of my head on fire" Lieutenant-Commander Timbers, said as he looked around "Who the hell are you people?"
"I'm Commander Riker of the Federation Starship Enterprise" Riker explained "We came here in response to your distress signal".
The Lieutenant-Commander blinked a few times.
"You need to beam us out of here now" he strongly advised.
"We can't, we've been unable to contact the ship" said Riker "And the reactor is going to overload.
Not exactly the best news to wake up to, but at least the officer was much calmer now and not shooting at this allies.
"Then we're already dead," stated Lieutenant-Commander Timbers.
"What happened here?" asked Ensign Masters "Where's the rest of the crew?"
"They're all dead" Lieutenant-Commander Timbers stated, his calmness no doubt a product of being given a mild sedative "I'm all that's left".
While Riker didn't like to think about the mess hall he knew that the station complement was higher than the amount of bodies he'd seen.
"Tell us what happened" said Riker, speaking gently.
Lieutenant-Commander Timbers quickly explained about how at first people just went missing while working alone, and then whole groups vanished, until finally the unknown alien just began slaughtering everybody without any further regard for stealth.
"Why didn't you contact Starfleet?" asked Riker
"Something was jamming our comm system" explained Timbers "At first we thought it was the debris belt, now I'm not so sure. Maybe the alien who did all the killing set up some kind of jammer".
"Did you see what was attacking you?" was Riker's next question.
"Nah, whatever it was it had some kind of personal cloaking device, the only warning we ever got of it being close by was when it killed someone, and even then it would quickly disappear again" Lieutenant-Commander Timbers, answered.
Riker looked at Work
"What do you think?" he asked.
The Klingon gave it some thought.
"No race we have met has perfected personal cloaking devices" he said "Nor have we met any creature willing to act so dishonourably as to mutilate the dead. Some of the bodies even had their heads removed. I do not know why".
Riker gave the matter some thought.
"Does it always mutilate its victim?" he asked Timbers.
"Aye, sometimes it takes the head, and nearly always skins its victims before putting them on display" Timbers answered.
"Yes, we saw them" Riker muttered darkly.
"Why would it mutilate them?" asked the Bolian woman.
"Trophies" replied Riker.
"Trophies?" Master asked,
"Yes, think about it. It hunts its prey down, kills them, and takes pieces of its victims as trophies" Riker was now saying "Hunters on Earth did it before the practice was banned in the late Twenty-First century. Granted they didn't hunt people, just animals, which means this thing doesn't see us as people. To it we're animals, fit only for sport".
Suddenly the station jolted, an alarm began to ring stridently. Heins rushed over to a console.
"The containment field around the fusion reactors is losing integrity faster than expected Commander" he reported "Computer estimates one hour and thirty two minutes till overload",
"I think now would be a good time to leave" commented Masters.
Riker agreed.
"Timbres, what about the station's runabout?" the commander wondered "Is it still functional?".
"It was last time I checked, but there's a small problem" Lieutenant-Commander Timbers said "Anyone who's tried to make it to the shuttle bay dies. And even if we get there this alien knows enough about our technology to sabotage it".
The unknown life form was bloodthirsty and very clever. It had been able to damage the station's reactor without blowing itself up. Clearly it had its own plan of escape. But Riker saw no other course of action other than to head for the shuttle bay.
"Alright, let's get moving" he ordered. "I want constant scans. If anything so much as twitches and it's not one of us, shoot it, and don't bother with stun. Set all weapons to kill".
"Aye sir" said a pleased looking Worf, who rarely got that order.
"Timbers you know the way, you lead"
The Lieutenant-Commander did not look happy about that, but he didn't disobey the order and led the group to the turbo lift.
There was an inhuman roar now filling the air.
"I think that is our cue to run" said Masters.
With a last look behind him, Riker followed his away team and the engineer down the corridor.
"I've got a bad feeling about this" Masters grumbled.
(Line Break)
A few minutes later they reached the bottom of the corridor. In front of them was a closed door. This was all that barred their way to safety. Along the way they'd lost two security officers to some sort of booby trap that had turned them both into bloody chunks, and Timbers was half carrying the team's medic after she'd gotten her foot stuck in some kind of high tech looking bear trap. But despite all the horror the team had kept going.
"Are you alright commander?" asked Worf.
The Commander had certainly seen better days.
"I'll live lieutenant." replied Riker grimly. "Let's get to that runabout and get the hell out of here".
Slowly they eased the door open and looked inside. Riker had never seen such a sweet sight, a Starfleet runabout.
"Warning! Containment field failure imminent. Core breach in ten minutes" announced the calm voice of the computer.
At times like this he really hated that voice.
(Line Break)
Runabout. Orbit of Styx 3
"Enterprise to Runabout"
Riker opened a channel.
"Commander Riker here," he said tiredly, "what took you so long?"
"Sorry Number One," replied Picard "We've had a few problems of our own, an unknown alien space craft blew itself up when we tried to tractor it in. The Enterprise was damaged by the explosion, but Mr La Forge managed to work his particular brand of magic in engineering. What's your status?".
"There are only four of us left captain" Riker told his senior officer "Myself and Mr Worf are fine. We also recovered a member of the stations crew and medical officer Bolia should recover from her leg injury, but we lost the rest of the team".
There was a brief silence as Captain Picard digested this grim information.
"Understood Number One." he said finally "Come on home".
The runabout entered the shuttle bay without incident and drifted slowly to a halt. Riker levered himself out of the seat and went to the door. As he began unlocking the door he noticed a slight ripple in the air, and then everything went dark.
(Line Break)
Sickbay. U.S.S Enterprise.
He awoke up some time later. Trying to sit up just made his head spin, so he gave it up as a bad idea and lay back on the biobed.
"Glad to see you're still with us" said Picard a few moments later "And before you start worrying, the unknown alien life form was beamed off the ship and into the debris belt thanks to the quick thinking of Mr Timbers. Mr Worf was able to subdue the creature for a few seconds and buy just enough time for the beam out to be successful. You only suffered a minor head injury. Worf has three broken ribs, a nasty concussion and a broken nose"
Riker winced. Even for a Klingon that was some punishment.
"I'm looking forward to reading your report on this Commander" Picard said seriously.
"I'm not looking forward to writing it" Riker let this captain know.
Feelings of guilt and regret were overwhelming him as he remembered his fallen crewmembers, all of whom were lost under his command. With a career as long as Riker's casualties were inevitable, but never so many on a single mission. Not when in peacetime.
"Captain?"
"Yes?"
"Do we have any idea where it came from?" Riker wished to know.
"I don't know commander" Picard said "But somehow I don't think we've seen the last of them. But for now you should focus on your recovery. We'll be leaving orbit soon for Starbase 12. Now try to get some rest".
William T Riker didn't think he'd be resting well again for a long, long time.
(Line Break)
Moments after the Enterprise went to warp, a new vessel, very much like the one that the unknown alien had blown up rather than let it be captured, entered the system. It began to take scans as its one occupant tried to make some sense of what had happened here.
(Line Break)
Cockpit. Scout Ship.
When I arrived at the last known location of the stolen vessel I found no traces of it. So I scanned the large field of debris around the planet and discovered what could be fragments of a ship, but there was too much interference to be sure of anything.
I was almost certain that down on the planet below some star base or maybe even a small colony, had been blown sky high and I wondered if the Yautja I'd been sent to track down had blown himself up for some reason.
He was a criminal after all, and they could do extremely foolish things when desperate. Perhaps he had chosen to hunt the locals in one last desperate hunt, or maybe even hoping to attract enough attention to ditch his stolen vessel to escape detection in a local's ship.
Perhaps I would never know. I could only guess.
With nothing other than a few sensor scans to send as a report I headed back to the Yautja station. If my clan didn't have another mission for me I'd move on to scouting more new worlds, to seeking out new life and new civilizations, and just maybe I'd get some hunting done.