77 Chapter 67
25BBy, Wild space. Unexplored Planet.
The jungle was humming with noise. The clamouring of insects, screeching of avian species and the howls and roars of the many predators on the hunt filled the night.
Absent were the sounds of repulsor-craft, the sounds of cities of civilization.
The jungle, the whole planet in fact were untouched by any of the galaxy's numerous sentient species.
It was in a distant sector of wild space, far from the galactic core, far from any reason to travel to.
The jungle sounded like it did any other day. The same sounds of animals. The same noises of nature.
Until things changed.
The sound of a star ships landing repulsors split the sky and bright exterior lights shone through the night.
Animals scattered in all directions as the hull of a B-7 light freighter descended through the dense jungle canopy.
The ship touched down in a large open clearing and a few moments later a pneumatic hiss was heard as the ships boarding ramp lowered.
A figure exited the ship and made his way into the jungle, looking warily from side to side as he moved.
A low growl sounded from the edge of the clearing and the man tensed even as two more growls joined the first.
The figure drew his weapon and prepared to fight, focused on the threat from the jungle.
He never noticed the shadowy figure watching from high up on a jungle tree branch.
-
Renn looked around cautiously as he descended the ramp of his ship.
He took in the endless, sprawling jungle around him. The massive trees, reaching far into the sky and casting great shadows over the ground making the night seem even darker.
The thick foliage obscuring almost everything beyond the edge of the clearing his ship had landed in. The shadows making the unknown beyond the clearings edge a sense if danger, as though anything could be lurking beyond it.
He saw all this and couldn't help but sigh. This was the first planet he had travelled to on his journey to forge his armour and he didn't know, where he was, why he was here, or what he was supposed to do here.
The journey warriors of house Dredd took to forge their armour wasn't exactly that in literal sense. The majority of his armour would be made of a special metal alloy that was only known how to be produced by house Dredd and was already in his possession.
Most of the rest would be added features and upgrades that could again be made with the technology already available to house Dredd.
The journey was more of a test. A trial at the end of a warriors training to prove to the clan and to themselves that they were ready to wear their armour and become a warrior of house Dredd.
They would go out into the galaxy without support and with only basic equipment. To prove that even without their armour they were a warrior, to prove that they were worthy to wear it.
The force would guide them on their journey, seemingly knowing exactly where to take them to test them and to help them grow.
On their journey the warrior initiates would potentially face deadly enemies, find unique materials that they could augment their armours with, learn mysterious techniques or secrets that would aid them when they became a warrior, or meet potential allies who could aid them in the future.
Nothing was certain. Apart from no two warriors' journeys being the same, just as no two warriors were the same.
Renn looked back at his B-7 light freighter, a small freighter that was designed to have a minimal crew and so could be easily piloted and crewed by a single person, and couldn't help but miss having Sapphire there to scan the area and watch his back.
He turned back to the jungle and again wondered why he was here. The force had guided him to this specific part of this specific planet. A planet so remote and unimportant that apart from a brief fly-by by a republic survey ship a few thousand years previously that had deemed the planet completely unimportant, too unimportant to even bother naming let alone exploring, Renn was the first to set foot on.
He reached the base of the ship's boarding ramp and felt his boots sink into the muddy jungle floor. His boots were a sturdy pair of combat boots and like most of the gear he had with him looked as though they should belong to one of the standard mercenaries throughout the galaxy.
He was wearing the basic body armour of any galactic merc, and so had on an armoured flak vest made from durasteel, as well as protective plates over his knees, elbows, and shins.
He also had a standard mask rated to help its wearer breath in any hostile environment, from the vacuum of space to the poisonous surface of Sullust, for a limited amount of time.
His weapons were similarly basic. He had a standard Corellian Arms heavy blaster pistol holstered on his hip, along with an old Czerka Arms outland rifle slung across his back. He also had several knives, in various shapes and sizes, sheaved across his body.
Renn began trudging through the mud towards the tree line. He still didn't know what he was doing here but he doubted he would figure it out by just standing around, and so he had decided to explore a bit.
He had made it halfway between his ship and the edge of the jungle when he suddenly stopped and reached for the rifle on his back.
He could feel something was wrong. The ever-present sounds of animals moving through the surrounding undergrowth had abruptly stopped, plunging the area into silence.
Renn dropped down to a crouch, planting one knee into the muddy turf to stabilise himself, and brought up his outland rifle, aiming the old slugthrower at the tree line.
A low animalistic growl sounded from the undergrowth, soon joined by two more as three sets of luminous yellow eyes shone from beyond the edge of the darkened jungle.
The large eyes bobbed and moved slightly as whatever predatory beasts they belonged too stalked closer to Renn from the depths of the unexplored jungle.
Renn tightened his grip on his rifle as three raptor like beasts emerged from the darkness. The reptilian monstrosities growled from the edge of the clearing, bearing their wickedly sharp fangs at Renn.
Two of the beasts began circling Renn, one moving left and the other moving right. While the third, seemingly the leader, stayed back, staring straight at Renn.
The two beasts circling Renn stopped suddenly and then charged straight towards him.
Renn didn't hesitate and fired his rifle at the beast coming from his left. The high-density slug hit the beast in the chest, but it ignored the wound and kept charging.
Renn kept firing and after five more holes were shot into the beast it finally keeled over, its momentum causing its ruined corpse to keep sliding through the mud towards Renn.
The second of the charging beasts had nearly reached Renn, so he spun in place to face it.
The creature leapt at Renn, its teeth bared in a vicious snarl. The beast was too close for the outland rifle to be effective, so Renn brought the butt of his rifle up to deliver a powerful strike to the side of the beast's head.
A small yelp of pain and surprise was heard from the beast as it was thrown to the side from the power of the blow.
Renn let his right-hand fall from around his rifle's trigger and drew his heavy blaster pistol from its hip holster. He then rapid fired his blaster point blank into the stunned creatures head until it was reduced to a ruined mess and the smell of scorched flesh filled the air.
He then felt the third beast leap towards his back, the force warning him and giving him an idea of where the danger was coming from.
Renn spun but to face the threat, but the beast was almost on top of him. There was no time to raise his blaster and he had taken his hand of his rifles trigger to hold the blaster, and so now only held the weapon by its barrel.
He dropped his blaster, letting it fall to the ground, and just had time to hold his rifle up to try and block the beast from tearing him apart.
The force of the beasts leap nocked Renn onto the ground with the creature on top of him, held back by the rifle but trying to bite at Renn.
Renn looked up at the gnashing jaws, inches from his face, before slamming his head forwards in a vicious headbutt that struck the beast directly on its scaled snout.
The beast was stunned for a moment, not expecting the ferocity its newest prey was fighting back with, and Renn used that to his advantage.
He flipped the beast over, so that now it was on its back with him was straddling it and unsheathed a vibro-knife from his chest armour.
He then drove the vibrating blade deep into the creature's neck, putting his whole-body weight behind the blade to drive it further in.
He then twisted the blade, severing the beast's spine and killing it instantly.
Renn slowly rose to his feet after flicking the dead beast's blood of his vibro-knife. He turned to look back at the jungle, making sure there weren't any more dangers lurking around him.
He heard a soft thud behind him and spun to see a figure had appeared between him and his ship.
The figure was cloaked in shadows. Their features were obscured, and they remained silent, staring at Renn.
Renn eyed the mysterious stranger cautiously before his gaze darted towards his blaster and then to his outland rifle.
Both weapons were still on the ground and Renn didn't know how fast this stranger was and so didn't want to turn his back on an unknown threat.
He flicked his vibro-knife into a reverse grip and readied himself in case the unknown figure decided it wanted to fight.
The figure shifted slightly from one foot to the other, then suddenly in a burst of speed charged right towards Renn.
Renn didn't have time to react. From his perspective it was like the stranger disappeared and then reappeared in front of him they moved so fast.
The figure moved its arms towards Renn, and his life flashed before his eyes. The figure was too fast, Renn couldn't do anything to stop them.
Renn half expected that this would be the end, that the figure would kill him. But instead, the figure closed its arms around his midsection in a vice like grip and lifted him into the air.
Renn gasped slightly in surprise as the figure began spinning him around in a circle and then just stared in confusion as the figure began squealing in excitement.
"Ooooh Renny! I've missed you!" The figure said happily as it spun Renn around.
Renn stared in shock. The figure's voice was very familiar to him. He had heard it a lot during his childhood and hearing it again brought numerous memories and emotions to his mind.
"Grandma?!" He exclaimed in disbelief as he stared at the figure… his grandmother.
