Lunar Conspiracy

Hunting Game

Tava grit her teeth as she stewed about the entire day so far.  They had landed on Amzon and managed to track down Kartk and Yggdrasil.  Sadly, even after an hour and a half of explaining, arguing, and even some begging, the council woman Tava had tracked down to talk to had refused to release her crew mates.

The claim that Tava should be ashamed as a woman for losing her males in the first place irritated her.  But the fact that the council woman had allowed Tava to take part in the hunt and the chance to reclaim them had been the best she could possibly hope for.

Thankfully, Jornea had not been idle while Tava had been pleading her case.  The pilot already had most of the gear they would need for the game pulled together out of Athena's cargo hold, information on the game itself, and a lead to buy or rent anything they didn't have lying around Athena.

Which brought Tava to the present, trying to control the riding lizard between her legs while half listening to Jornea's running commentary as the hunting game was begun.  Jornea suddenly snickered.

"Trust Doc to smile for his mug shot.  They seriously underscored him though."

A large board was steadily flicking through the quarry in the game.  Thirty males of varying species and ages.  Each had a picture, some basic information, and a score.  The score was apparently just as important as simply catching the males.  A female that caught a single male of high score could beat out one who had caught several of lower score.  Ranking in the game was just as important as what you had to show for it at the end.

Tava scowled as she finally got the blasted lizard to stand still and looked up.  The announcer was working her way up to introducing the contestants.  Her gaze lifted above the announcer's head as the pictures continued to cycle through.  She rolled her eyes when Kartk finally came up.  Jornea snorted, obviously realizing the same thing Tava had.

"Top score for Kartk.  Should'a known.  Now everybody's going to be gunning for him."  She glanced over at Tava, considering.  They had decided to split up the work, with Jornea getting Yggdrasil and Tava going after Kartk.  Jornea slowly smirked.  "You don't do much riding, do you?"

Tava glared as her lizard took up prancing again, sure the answer to that should be obvious.  It was even more irritating considering Jornea was sitting, pretty as you please, without a lick of trouble from her bigger red lizard.  "Where did you have occasion to ride a lizard?!"

Jornea shrugged.  "Never.  I've just told mine who's boss."

"How do I do that?"

Jornea only smirked again.  "It's really more of a mentality."  Then she was turning her attention to the announcer as she called her name to introduce her.  She lifted a hand to wave, despite the less than enthusiastic crowd response.  "We should probably change the plan then.  Doc is mostly likely to use stealth with his chameleon trick.  He'll see you coming long before you see him.  I'll track down Kartk.  He strikes me as a runner."

Tava managed to convince her mount to behave long enough to respond to her name being announced.  "Alright."

Jornea grinned as the announcer finished with the introductory stuff and began the game.  Large double doors opened up and the crowd favorite led the way into the arena.  They paraded through, one by one, still putting on a show for the various camera's floating around as all ten women entered the arena.

The arena was five miles in radius.  The center had a small space to set up camp, as well as the only reliable water source.  Each woman had been allowed a week's worth of rations.  Clearly, they didn't want to lose any males to starvation, so the females food had also been restricted to help motivate a quick game.  Lethal weapons had also been banned, each female only being allowed a 100 meter cord and a bola.