Part 1: Briefing in Estramadura
Ecoas and Torres entered the security meeting room. Where they are awaited by 40 maltese Marines.
„Buenas días señores. Don Hernán has tasked us with a special mission, on Planet Nuremberg. The local wildlife brought some interesting specimen to life. They are called blood dragons and they are quite deadly ones, therefore the don wants them for his personal zoo.“
An image of these dragons appears on the video screen."
„Reports from a maltese hunter,called Pedro Himenez, indicates that mature specimen will have a height ranging from 6 to 10 meters. They have the ability to regenerate tissue, and are overall quite resistant to any physical damage, their physical body grows and changes very quickly, growing or decreasing in size as they consume or shed material. Blood dragons gains energy from anything they ingest, organic or inorganic."
A new image appears on the screen, this time more closer to the reptile.
„When we encounter them, watch out for their tail, as they use it as a whip to push prey to the ground. Their claws are very sharp too, the most efficient way to capture them would be to immobilize them and then heavy usage of sedatives to subvert them. No teams containing fewer than 7 members are cleared to engage them, recon teams tracking them down should contain no less than 3 persons. Now to the planet..
Planet Nuremberg itself is a hellhole compared to Malta. We can expect blizzards and all kinds of hazardous weather. There are also rumors about cancer infectations after visiting the planet.If we can acquire some samples of the local fauna our scientists might make something out of it.
The don gets, whatever he wants. Are there any questions left?If not, let's go hunting.“
With this Ecoas turned off the screen and left the briefing room towards the cargo bay, where their pilots and the transports awaited them.
Part 2: Dropping into Planet Nuremberg
In space in the hold of a Voyager that the Cartel had secured for some of it's more discreet business.
There were the 40 Marines headed by Luis Torres and Daguza Ecoas.
The men were all double checking their equipment whilst the freighter was flying to its destination.
The men were equipped with Expensive suits of Body Armour which was light and hermetically sealed while also offering a good amount of protection.
Suddenly the pilot came on over comm's "Thirty seconds to Atmo entry."
Torres turned and placed his helmet over his head and listened for the hiss of the suit sealing before turning to Ecoas and double checking the survival pack on his back like the other Marines were doing for each other.
Satisfied that the pack was alright he gave a thumbs up to Ecoas and turned to let Ecoas check his and received a thumbs up. Torres turned to address the Marines when they were done checking each other's gear
"Alright amigos you all done this part before, you know the drill as soon as we hit the ground we all get out of the ship as soon as possible so it can go RV with the Valladoid and await our call for Extraction of us and the Specimens.
Now the Teams on ground are as follows Team One is Lead by Senor Ecoas, Team Two is with me, Team Three is Capitan Reyes and last but not least Capitan Salazar is in charge of Team Four".
The ship starts rocking a slight bit more as it descends through the Planet's Atmosphere.
"Alright get your weapons and get ready" As he says this the men take their weapons and the tranq rifles needed for the Dragons.
Torres himself takes a Auto-Blaster for close quarters and slings it across his waist where it is in easy reach and he then slings a tranq rifle across his back too before checking his sidearm. The Transports land's with a slight thud before the Ramp opens and the Marines quickly rush out to secure the Landing Zone in the cold wasteland of Nuremburg's wilderness
Part 3:The descending and the final briefing
The voyager dropped the men at the top of a big canyon to avoid scaring the dragons away.
There was a stillness in the icy dessert, unusual for this time of the night. The path was getting narrow and they had a feeling of anticipation but they continued their path. The moon gloated over the icy dessert. After staying there for a few minutes and watching the landscape, Ecoas decided it was time to find a way into the valley.
After some time they found some parts of the cliff that weren't too steep and every now and then there was some kind of plateau to regroup there.
„Well let's get started then, i'd give away a full batch of our best cardamine for some damn stairs...Watch your steps, we don't want to lose someone already. We regroup at plateau 1 and so on until we reach ground levels.“ mourned Torres.
One of the marines lost grip, slipped on the rocks and slid about seven feet, before getting a decent grip again. The rest of the descent was without further incidents.
Ecoas rallied up the group and started talking:
“Allright, we are very close to the hunting parameter. This the final briefing, each group consists of 10 men, with the exception of alpha and beta being one more. The recon teams will go in first, while getting if possible long range cover by the engagement teams. If your assigned recon teams scouts one of the dragons, radio the position and regroup with the ET. There will be no engagements by the scout units, unless really necessary. Do not underestimate these animals, they will kill you with ease. We will use the highest amount of sedatives possible, without killing them in the process. We will need to re inject sedatives every 60 minutes after capturing them, so we can securely transport them back home.“
Part 4: The hunting
In a perimeter the Scouts of Team Three had just set up there was a hidden figure waiting for possible prey. The dragon quivered his mouth in anticipation, showing his sharp tooth and saliva dropping from his jaw. The teeth were sharp and huge, the claws were big too.
One of the recon team thought he saw a shadow him but wasn't able to see anything, due to the dark surroundings.
"Wait..wait, i think we have a possible contact near us...“ Just as the soldier was turning his head, he saw
the dragon running towards him.
"Oh sh*t! Contact incoming! Retreat to the engagement tea...“
The animal was so quick at the soldier, he couldn't even finish the sentence. Throwing him to the ground and quickly trying to bite into his skull, while clawing at him and piercing the left leg with his tail.
"No clear shot, Ricardo is in the way“
"Just shoot! That thing already killed him.“
Part 5: First capture
The engagement team could hear that something went horribly wrong and quickly went in to reinforce their scouting team. As they closed in they watched their comrade getting violently torn to pieces by the claws.
“That thing has killed Ricardo, Indiscriminate Firing! Take it down.“
Without hesitation they started firing the sedatives at it, the dragon quickly adjusted himself and went to attack remaining soldiers. Showing off his teeth and a bone-shattering scream coming from its mouth.
“Fire all sedatives, this thing is huge. It surely won't get a fatal overdose and we want a secure flight back, without a raging dragon in the cargo hold.“
The engagement team along the scouting team continued firing more and more sedatives at the lizard while maintaining a secure range to the raging animal. They were professionals and kept a narrowing ring around it. The lashing out becomes more and less strongly until the dragon collapsed on the ground.
“Here Team Three, we got one. Pick us up immediately. Target is sedated. Perimeter cleared, we got one casualty, unfortunately.“
Soon afterward the pick up arrived, sending down a strongly reinforced cage. As all Marines were on board the vessel, they awaited the responses from the other two teams.
Part 6: Where Sleeping Dragon's Lie
Torres was crouched down scanning the horizon with the rest of his capture team, Some of the men were anxious and impatient until the Scout team radioed in to them .
"Jefe your going to want to see this“ The mans voice was almost a whisper. Torres nodded to the rest of the team and started moving to link up with the scout team
Torres and his men arrived at a clearing with a small amount of foliage that somehow found a way to prosper in the harsh frozen Wasteland. A sleeping dragon Fifty meters away from the foliage the men had used as covered Torres grinned a little
"Look's like luck is on our side mi amigos“
Torres gestured for the men to get into position with the Tranq rifles not willing to take any risks with the sleeping animal.
"Fire on my mark“
"And....now“
There was a slight crack from the tranq rifles and Torres and the rest of the men observed the dragon after the sedatives had hit their targets. The Dragon is startled and rises a little before collapsing again. The creature was out cold and Torres had switched to the Pilot's Comm channel "This is Team Two we're ready for extraction and have a Specimen Sedated and ready for containment
Chapter 7: Closing in
“Todo bien, entendido. Seems like the other teams were more or less successfully. Now it's up to us to get the last one“
Ecoas squatted face down in the bushes and watched the surroundings. His team had positioned several tracking devices, but it showed nothing for now. He sighed and checked his gun again, keeping a close eye on the surroundings and the device wishing that something would show up or the tracking team would make contact.
“Tracking team, how's your status? We see nothing here..“
“We got some giant tracks here, RV at SK102228. This will be a fine specimen for Don Hernan.“
“Roger that, closing into your position.“
Ecoas and his men from the engagement team carefully checked their surroundings and slowly advanced to the rest of the team. Investigating the tracks it became clear that it must be a real monster. The surroundings were deadly calm.