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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy" data-source="post: 9602906" data-attributes="member: 1412">Pyramus 188-1081We woke early and set off at dawn. Most of us were new riders and there aren’t any roads so 5 or 6 kilometres an hour is as good as we can expect. We rode south, arse protesting after the first hour so. The plan is to head south, loop west to the river where we will turn north. At somewhere called Trade Bridge we will decide what to do. We’ll probably turn south east and return to the compound. The country is beautiful although with only two thirds of standard gravity it is uncomfortable. Most of the terrain is scrub with occasional copses. Ravines of varying depth are scattered apparently at random. Oran was a good guide, both as to our route and to riding, providing frequent and useful pointers to the three of us who needed them. Despite the low gravity it was pleasant; the climate was a little on the dry side - Oran assured us that this year’s dry season is uncommonly long and the country is usually much greener. We stopped off at some data sensors and Oran took readings, but the work wasn’t demanding. We made a nice camp fire in the evening and bedded down in the open air. After weeks on board ship it was like a holiday. In the morning Oran wanted to deviate from the more direct route to check on the herd of Przewalski’s horses already on planet, which our cargo is to supplement. She was a little concerned that she hadn’t seen any signs the day before, although it wasn’t that unusual. We rode gently towards the river and spotted some of the herd mid-morning. There were only a few horses and Oran immediately became worried. Apparently the pack leaders weren’t visible and the herd was split in two, both groups huddled closely together. Something was wrong.We found out what soon enough. Rudy-the-Asshat [sic] had wandered then fallen into a shallow ravine looking for water and couldn’t get out. We found him by spotting Alex, RTA’s mate standing forlornly in the open, braying miserably. She was skittish but didn’t run far at our approach. RTA was visible from the lip. Oran was both amused and concerned. “Just like RTA, always thinking about the herd but not enough to stay out of trouble.” - OranWe dismounted and started to work out how to get RTA out. Helena and I volunteered to go into the ravine, tie some rope around the offending animal and help guide him up and out while the others pulled. Oran was surprised by the suggestion as Przewalski’s are not domesticated and RTA is even more liable to kick than most. Of course we intended to cheat, both of us telepathically calming the scared animal. We went up in Oran’s esteem considerably by getting the rope securely tied on our first go - I have to give Helena the credit for that - and the whole operation was a success. RTA paused long enough after the ropes came off to throw a badly aimed kick at Peter before running first to Alex and then to gather the dispersed herd. We stopped for an early lunch and set off by a more direct route for the river. Or rather, where the river had been. It was almost completely dried up, now merely the merest trickle between the rocks. Oran took a moment to orientate herself and led us northwards, looking for some sensors. Dry it might be, but it was clear this was usually a reasonably fast flowing river about 20m across. We found the first sensor which was shut down due to not being in contact with water. We moved on. The next was generating readings but they were of some concern. I only know a little about biology but I knew enough to see that there were unhealthy concentrations of toxins - the product of algae build up. Natural but problematic. The few sensors with recent data all showed the same. The prolonger heatwave was causing some problems and there weren’t any simple solutions as these occurred naturally. Should the scientists at the centre make changes to the natural changes in an ecosystem or let it run its course…?Oran wanted to turn north towards the Imperial Fee northwest of the centre and either turn back to the centre to check on some of the settlements east of the river, north and northeast of the centre. We forded the river, if you can call it that, and followed on the right back, mainly moving west. The horses started to be more skittish, which was irritating as I thought we, or at least I, had started to get the hang of riding. It turned out that that the skittishness wasn’t caused by us. The first day riding beside the river passed uneventfully, as did the following morning. We had been ridden 5 or 6 kilometres after lunch when Oran called for a halt. She was intent on something her horse was virtually standing on. Helena moved a little closer but Oran indicated that we should carry on before she got a good look. I was behind and rode over the same spot but couldn’t make anything out. As we carried on Peter became more irritable. He was having the worst time out of all of us. On top of no previous riding experience, which Lilly and I shared, he clearly had some sort of allergy to horses. Lily was grumpy at first but found Peter’s complaints ever more funny. Which didn’t endear her to Peter. We continued along the bank of the dried-up river for the rest of the day. It was quite dreary - the bone-dry vegetation was little more than scrub. It was obviously quite luscious at other times but in its current state was reduced to scrawny man-high bushes, any one of which could be seen through. Enough of them gave good cover and it would have been a decent spot for a predator if there were any predators on this planet. Oran assured us that the largest animal we could expect to meet, other than some kind of horse, was the Barix, the hideous giant turkey-like creature which kept us awake with its constant squawking back at the compound. As we rode the flat scrubland gave way to steep banks on either side of the river. We had entered what is known as Kaney Gorge. Not long after we started on again after lunch we spotted an area of the low cliffs which had given in. It looked both new and unnatural. Unnatural as in something had caused it by sliding down and some of the dried mud had cracked and come with it. Not unnatural as in a supernatural event - even Peter didn’t suggest the Ancients. Oran dismounted eyes on the floor. She took a few steps towards what should have been the river and stood scanning the area around her. We all responded to her intensity by freezing in place while she searched. Then she had what she was looking for. A lump of clay that had been pulled from the earth when the bank was disturbed had a partial print in it. We huddled ‘round. It looked like a bird or reptile had left it. Oran was puzzled:“I suppose this could be a Barix, but it would be the biggest I’ve ever seen” she said, frowning, obviously not believing anything she had just said. She moved over to the bank and looked closely. “I think something has tried to scramble up the bank, but couldn’t make it.”It was unnerving to see her glance around so uncertainly. “Let’s have a look and see if we can find anything.”She loosened the rifle in its holster, indicated that we should follow, and set off. Whatever it was it had obviously come from the south or south-west and, we speculated, had been unable to make it back up the embankment after it slide down. We crossed the river and began our search. We moved on foot looking for prints similar to the ones we had already found. We didn’t know what to look for so searching for an unusual mind wasn’t an easy option. Helena tried but didn’t find anything worth reporting. Peter grumbled distractedly, Lily wasn’t paying attention and Helena was focused on her psionic search. That left Oran and myself doing the actual looking. We had only gone a few dozen metres when Oran spotted something, the remains of a Barix. It had been ripped to pieces and, Oran assured me, mainly eaten. Helena and Peter were disgusted and held back, Lily took the opportunity to rifle through her panniers for a snack and I watched Oran work. It didn’t take her long to pick up a trail. We couldn’t see any full prints but there were partial prints which led east out of the gorge. Oran and I started moving cautiously in the direction of the tracks. Whatever it was it was big, if the prints told us anything. Oran looked very focused but I was sure she was confused as to what this could be. Barix are herbivores and the fact something was eating them meant there was something new.  A shout from the clearing with Barix corpses drew our attention and we raced back. We arrived in time to see the back of a large biped disappearing into the undergrowth a short distance from the clearing. Whatever it was had doubled back and, Helena told us seemed interested in the horses until Lily had shouted at it, at which point it snarled, turned tail and ran. The next few minutes consisted of confusion. Oran and I sprinted after the creature, trying to get a proper look at it. Helena mounted and came after us. We seemed to kick up a lot of dust and I felt I was just blundering through face whipping bushes. Shouts came from different directions and Helena’s horse nearly trod on me several times. After a fire minutes of this we gave up. When I stopped coughing from the dust I reached out to find the thing. It was already the pest part of a kilometre from us, moving east. We all met back at the horses and re-grouped. Helena was just as aware of its location as I. She told Oran that she had seen a head bobbing above some undergrowth but her horse had put a hoof in some kind of hole or burrow so she had stopped to check that is wasn’t injured. “We need to track it and find out what it is. If it is something new we need to learn how it got here and if it is any thread to the ecosystem. If it is native and we simply haven’t seen it before I want to know why is has moved into this area.” - Oran.Breaking out a couple of light but sturdy ropes Oran fashioned lassoes. She handed one to Helena, who looked a little bemused, and hooked the other on the horn of her saddle. Helena nodded in the direction we needed to move and we set off. Helena and I both checked periodically. The animal had stopped about 2km east of where we initially met it. The plan was to capture it and maybe take it back to the compound if possible. Sending it back across the river and to the southwest if not. Oran called the base and asked for some support. It would take at least a day or two for aid to arrive by horse or jeep, so the capturing would be done by us alone. Even Lily seemed engaged as we edged nearer to our quarry. It rested for a couple of hours and then set off following a northerly route. We kept a close eye on the ground for tracks, but essentially Helena guided us - Oran accepted her claims to have seen prints. It took most of the rest of the day to catch up with it and when we did it was in a relatively clear space. As we approached from down wind, not that there was much wind at all, and we had a chance to pause and view it from a distance through Oran’s binoculars. It was over two metres tall and shaped roughly like a kangaroo or a mammalian Deinonychus and its tail made it around three metres long. It looked like a powerful and dangerous opponent. We made our plan - Helena and Oran would remain on horseback and try to lasso it and, if both lassoes landed well, pin it down and stun it. If only Oran managed to lasso the thing then she would try to wear it out and stun it. Oran thought she could put a name to it - Alderson’s Predator - but wasn’t certain. She obviously hoped she was wrong as it would generate more questions than answers if that’s what it turned out to be. Lily, Peter and I dismounted, fanning out a little, crept forward the riders on our flanks. We intended trying o drive it forward so the riders could come from two side and pin it. I wasn’t very happy with this plan as I assumed the creature would attack rather than flee, but it was the best plan we had.  Lily was to my left and Peter to my right. Helena was beyond Peter. The Alderson’s was pretty much directly ahead of me. Crouching, we moved forward, stunners in our hands. Before long we could see it. It looked even scarier than earlier. A moment or two after we saw our prey it jerked into alertness. It had smelled or heard us. It looked round and was poised to move. Would it attack or run? Lily opened fire with her stunner - she had taken some convincing to prepare her stunner instead of her gauss pistol, but she when she agrees to a plan than the discussion is over. She missed. I hastily fired and scored a glancing hit. It leapt into motion. Peter’s shot went high and the creature fled. We were up and after it immediately and I could hear the hooves of the cavalry beating the ground as blurred shapes shot ahead to the left and right. Again, the chaos of running through head-high bush - everything was a whirl of drab colour and sound. I could hear hooves and the sound of Pete and Lily blundering through the undergrowth, same as me. Pulling free from a thorny branch restraining me I turned and found the creature bursting into the tiny clearing from the opposite direction. I yelled, it roared, I levelled my stunner at her and she launched forward to bite me. My stunner shot almost vertically, her teeth closed on air. A stunner shot came from nowhere and hit her. Presumably another did likewise as I was hit with a stunner shot and crumpled to the ground. By the time Peter revived me it was all over. They had managed to get both lassoes on her - one around its neck and the other was entangling her left leg. She was also heavily sedated as Oran habitually carries veterinarian tranquillisers on these rides. A truck had been dispatched shortly after Oran’s first message about the situation, but it wouldn’t be here before sundown. We nervously made ourselves as comfortable as possible. The truck arrived a good 2 hours after sundown but was a welcome sight for all that. We bundled it onto the back, strapped it down and administered more tranquilliser. We set watches through the night, although there was no incident. At first sun up the truck set off to the base as we stretched and started making breakfast. Oran wanted to carry on through the gorge and up towards the Gazishpa residence, which was the name of the imperial knight overseeing the planet. First of all she wanted to check for any evidence of more of these animals as they would pose a risk to people never mind their animals. Secondly she wanted to report in person to Gazishpa. We all displayed a certain amount of nervousness as we returned to the gorge and filed through it. At first right bank is sloped and low with the left bank having a sudden change and low cliff almost from the beginning. About a third of the way the right bank becomes steep and cliff like. It was a little past here where we spotted the small land slip. By the end of the day we had travelled through the gorge and could see the rolling plains to the east and the forests to the north and northeast. We had come up on the left, eastern, bank of the Kaney, as the knight’s fee was on the west bank and Oran didn’t want to arrive traipsing across the gardens of the knight.</blockquote>

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