The Beast of Bacrana

As Reynar maneuvered close to the stampeding banthas, Kitichik ignited his saber, waving the blinding light above his head in a vain attempt to distract the thundering herd. While it was hard to determine if the hum of the Jedi's weapon could be heard over the booming engine of Reynar's speeder bike or the pounding hoofs of the banthas, it was clear that the light an intended distraction. The lead banthas eyes widened wildly, mouths frothing, as they zeroed in on the sharp light, slowly shifting the herd towards the Gand and his Twi'lek pilot and seemingly picking up speed.

In the work camp, under Deng's urgings the workers seemed to be gathering their wits and organizing themselves for an orderly retreat to one of the more stout buildings. The doctor had urged calm, but perhaps the miners were a bit too calm, heading towards the storage building at a somewhat unhurried pace.

---

From the roof of the depot, Matey was doing the same math as Deng.

They're moving too slowly...

He knew it would likely do more harm than good for him to start urging them to move faster.

But he had to do something...

Every one body that he could physically move to a safe place is one body that wouldn't get trampled... he figured.

And so that's what he resolved to do.

Swoop in toward the back of the crowd. Pluck up the lightest looking person, and place them on the roof.

He would do that as many times as he could before the bantha were there, or everyone was inside.

Surprised, yet undaunted, at the relative success of his distraction, Kitichik decided to take advantage of the nearby terrain to slow the herd, urging Reynar towards the rocky, uneven hills with a firm pat of the shoulder. The Twi'lek skip tracer however was not as convinced, nor enthusiastic of their success but complied with the Jedi's suggestion none the less, nudging the speeder's nose towards the broken terrain.

From Deng's perspective, his frustrations at the miner's less than hurried pace, compounded as he turned his gaze towards the horizon, the cloud of dust kicked up by the approaching stampede nearly on top of the collection of prefabricated structures that made up the mining camp, as the sound of the irritated herd nearly deafening. It wouldn't be a surprise to see a bantha crash through one of the hastily erected structures at any moment.

Matey, following the Doctor's example, swooped down from his perch to grab an unexpecting miner from the rear of the slow moving crowd the speed of which even surprised the droid as he was already in route to the supply building before the drunken worker began to struggle. The intensity of the miner's reaction threw him off, causing him to land before the door in lieu of the roof and wasted precious time. He might have time to grab another but certainly, by the size and distance of the approaching dust cloud, no more.

---

Almost as one, showing a renewed sense of solidarity that had been absent since their foreman's, Elira Voss, earlier attempt to negotiate with Director Dorell, the miners turned, drunken eyes finding confidence in those of their comrades before shifting their gazes to the camp doctor. What had been an innocent insult to spur the unhurried workers on to safety, as it turned out was not as minor a slight as Deng anticipated, being compared to Core Worlders a dig to the rough and tumble fringers ego that could not go unanswered. Rivaling that of their early demonstration, the angry shouts of the miners quickly drowned that of the approaching stampede, the agitated lowing of the banthas mixing with the hurled insults of the equally agitated miners to form a cacophony that overwhelmed Deng's already heightened nerves.

Matey, who was enduring his own tongue lashing from an angered and drunken worker, stood beside the supply building as the situation with the workforce was quickly deteriorating, the miners suddenly abandoning their slow pursuit of safety and turning on the doctor with angered shouts and insults, the approaching stampede apparently forgotten. Fortunately, as seen from his most recent jet-pack propelled advantage of height, the herd seemed to be passing the workcamp by, of their own accord or from his compatriot's doing he was unable to tell.

Opening up the throttle, Reynar raced towards the rocky, uneven terrain rising up from the otherwise flat, grassy plain. The outcroppings, seeming small from a distance, turned out to be large boulders and rocky spires, testing the skip tracers abilities as the Starhawks systems groaned in protest. The banthas, clearly frenzied by bright flashing blade of the Gand Jedi, were not heated enough to follow, turning away from the rough, rocky ground. Still overwrought, their bellows urging each other on, the charge continued, however diverted enough to miss the work camp but now placing the thundering surge directly in line with the colony town ...

---

Matey was ready to feel accomplished (and look for a benefactor) but the continuation of the course of the bantha proved that would have to wait a bit yet..

Seeing them heading for the places where people lived was even more concerning. There could be families there.

"Roger roger...", he mutters to himself again, and kicks on his jetpack propulsors... again.

As the enraged Banthas turned to avoid the rocky terrain, it was a simple matter of waiting for the stampede to pass for Reynar and Kitichik to fall in behind, dark shapes undulating within a thick cloud of dust accompanied by the agitating lowing of the herd.

M8-T's feelings of accomplishment were quickly dashed, discovering what had been an apparent success to be only a temporary delay. The workcamp was saved only for the original settlement to be threatened. Leaving the doctor, who was being surrounded by the angry mob of workers, to suffer whatever consequences of his outburst that may come. The town was only a few clicks away, far enough away to avoid the rough and tumble and at times morally bankrupt camp but close enough to provide aide and supplies should they be required, and the droids trusty jetpack made short work of the distance. The citizens, only mildly surprised at the sudden presence of a droid circling their rooftops, were milling about their daily activities, only a few looking up from their work and activities with curiosity at the approaching cloud that was still some distance away. Matey however knew from prior experience they they undoubtedly should now be feeling the first vibrations of the pounding hooves of the herd.

Their were a few dismissive snorts at Deng's attempts at calming the agitated crowd, probably due to the mining camp having little to do with the colony, though certainly some might have family that had taken abode in the more permanent settlement, as the mob continued to move in towards the doctor, shouts and insults reaching a crescendo as fists began to ball and tools raised. A shrill whistle pierced the din, the barkeep, leaning on the frame of his establishment eyeing the angered mob.

"Why don't you boys give it a rest ..."'

---

Matey lamented internally that he wasn't armed with a blaster or repeater... One of the easiest ways to get people to take cover would be to fire... not ON them exactly... but around them.

And while the one social apptitude he possessed was to scare people, that didn't have the kind of reach that he felt the system situation called for.

So, he turned to the mining company and, hopefully, it's need to mitigate liability in situations... pretty much exactly like this.

Certainly the area of the domiciles had some sort of emergency warning system? In the event of natural disaster or hostile attack, they should have klaxons positioned about the settlement, shouldn't they?

If he could find such a system, maybe he could hotwire it to go off, even if the mining administrator hadn't yet identified this as a president situation in which they should do so...

With a cheer the previously enraged mob, grabbed the proffered bottles from the bartender, and with a renewed enthusiasm began to move down the beaten dirt roadway that ran through the center of workcamp, eager to assist the nearby colony town. However, in their drunken exuberance they failed to take into account the distance between the two settlements and at their brisk walking pace would not arrive in time to deter the banthas and would be available to clean up at best. Nevertheless, cries of 'grilled bantha tonight' and 'smoked ribs' followed in their wake.

Internal processers computing data at impossible speeds, Matey reasonably extrapolated the settlements need for some sort of system to warn it's inhabitants in the event of danger. The colony however was independent of the mining corporation, proceeding the establishment of the work camp by years if not decades, so their incorporation of technology into their structures was minimal. Smart considering, living on the frontier would bring challenges to getting parts and repairs for technology. The droid's solution was not without merit as the town did indeed have a warning system of sorts, for standing in the middle of the hamlet was a bell tower.

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