Star Wars
The Chronicles of Horn
Chapter 3
Corran collapsed against a moldy tree. It had been only an hour and a half since he had left Whistler and his ship and already his blaster carbine was half empty. Immediately after setting off he had been attacked by vicious little creatures with huge jaws and rather googley eyes. He remembered reading in Whistler's report that these were cannocks. Corran had also encountered a strange creature that appeared to be a mix between a reptile and a feline. At the rate I'm using up my ammunition, I'll be lucky to get close to one of the equipment caches. If there aren't any weapons there, I'm not going to make it back to the ship.
Corran stood up after only a minute's rest. In a place like Dxun, to stay still is to die. Corran checked his datapad to make sure he was headed in the right direction and set off. According to Whistler's maps, Corran had only another five kilometers to go. Although he moved at a brisk pace, Corran knew that running to get to his destination faster was a mistake. The faster I move, the more likely it is that I'll run into something unwelcome without even noticing until the last second. Plus running all the way there means wheezing and panting all the way back.
When Corran was two kilometers out from the camp, every bone in his body screamed at him to run. With his feelings of uneasiness growing into dread, Corran started jogging, then running, and finally sprinting. He barely got fifty paces when he heard it. Something crashing through the underbrush. Something huge. Panic took over and Corran shot off in the direction of the Mandalorian camp like a blaster bolt. He knew he couldn't outrun what ever predator was chasing him, but he may be able to find cover. There should only be one kilometer left to the camp. Corran looked back over his shoulder and caught his first glance of his tormentor. It was a gigantic lizard with green scales, razor teeth and four horns, two above its face and two below. The creature was at least fifteen feet long and weighed enough to make the ground vibrate with each footfall. The beast moved with incredible speed considering its massive girth, short legs, and thick, stumpy tail. It was galloping on all fours with a grace befitting a kath hound.
Corran took a shot back over his shoulder with his blaster pistol and was rewarded with a brief pause in the pounding vibrations and an earsplitting roar. Corran racked his brain, trying to remember what he'd read from Whistler's databanks. I remeber this, it's a boma. Its only soft spots are its eyes and underbelly. To get through its armor you'd need explosives or heavy laser cannons...or a lightsaber. "None of them on hand," he panted dismally.
It did not take long for the boma to start running at top speed after Corran again. Corran snapped off a few more shots but they obviously missed because the boma didn't falter. Corran whipped around the bole of a huge tree and saw a small cavern in a rock face. He ran inside, thanking the Force for his lithe build and below average height. If it was a squeeze for Corran, there was no way the gigantic creature could fit into the small tunnel.
After catching his breath for a few moments, Corran decided to continue deeper into the cave in the hopes of finding an alternate way out. Preferably one with no bomas nearby, he thought grimly. It was dank and moist in the cave with large stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The passage was obviously eroded away by the passage of water over thousands of years. After going a few hundred meters into the cave, Corran came to a thick door made of stone. This must be one of the weapon caches! How can I get in though?
Corran looked around the door for a few moments and found no means of opening it. He was about to give up when he noticed that the wall next to the door was weak and crumbling. Corran set his blaster carbine up to the maximum and emptied the magazine into the wall. Flakes of rock and dust flew off of the wall and obscured everything. After a few minutes the dust settled and Corran could see the wall. It was still there. "SIthspawn!" Corran cursed and kicked the wall in frustration. At his kick, the wall collapsed into the chamber behind the door.
Corran stepped through the hole and looked around the cache. There were several old plasteel canisters scattered around the chamber. Corran walked to the nearest container and opened it up. Inside was a huge plasma rifle that made his blaster carbine look like a flashlight. Corran picked the weapon up and slung it over his shoulder. Corran looked inside all of the containers and found a multitude of blasters, grenades, mines, and swords. After adding a vibrosword, five thermal detonators, and a heavy blaster pistol to the plasma rifle he had already grabbed and donning some medium armor over his flight suit, he felt ready to go to the Mandalorian camp and get the parts he needed for his ship.
Corran ducked out through the hole he'd made in the cave wall and walked back down to the cave entrance. He took a moment to look around before leaving the shelter of the cave. If the boma was still around, he wanted to know about it before it jumped him. While he was looking, his mind wandered back to the incident over Tatooine. Two things about that battle had confused him. First, what did Isard want with a backward desert planet anyway? The former head of Imperial Intelligence was not a force wielder and wouldnot carethat Luke Skywalker hadlived there. The Emperor was almost a year dead and the remnants of the Empire did not have the resources to waste ships and personnel on patrols in the Outer Rim. The second issue that had him stumped was why he chose to come to Onderon in the first place. His father had always told him to follow his gut feelings and Onderon had seemed a natural choice. As Corran thought about it, he realized that he'd only heard of Onderon in a few holodramas depicting the Sith Wars, and did not know nearly enough about the planet to make choosing it as his destination logical in any way.
I'll puzzle this out later. Right now I just want off this rock. Corran determined that the area was clear and set off in the direction of the Mandalorian camp. He checked his location and determined that he would arrive at the camp in about ten minutes if nothing went wrong.
Corran heard a snapping branch and turned around quickly. The boma was trying for an ambush attack. Realizing that its prey had noticed it, the boma roared and charged. The former CorSec agent brought his plasma rifle in line with the boma and fired. Corran thought that the kickback would have cracked a few ribs if not for the body armor he was wearing. Despite the forceful backlash, the shot did have its desired effect. The monstrous rifle's blast nearly blew the boma in half.
Corran knew that the noise from the rifle and the stink from the dead boma would bring other predators. Hopefully the dead beast would distract any potential threats. Corran continued on towards the base. He felt more confident with the weapons at hand, but he knew that he wouldn't hold out long if he couldn't leave the moon. Corran also had another problem. Night was falling...
to be continued