[snip]

OOC: Ok breaking this off from the main thread line since you’re now in a totally different area, I would suggest not going too far off course without the other players at least to keep them included too, a short scout of the entrance is fine but I’d ask not going too far further then that please!

Isaac got a rifle and went with ensign Serinde to do some recon. As they were walking to the cave entrance. “So have you ever been hunting before ?” He asked

Lt. Isaac Black (AC)

That would depend on what one was hunting, El thought to herself. She strode easily in a steady relaxed gait. Her muscles felt the gravity more now but she paced herself. She glanced over at Isaac. He was quite a bit taller than she was, and heavier, and she wondered if his leg was painful. Glancing down at her boots she noticed they were dusty and marked by the grasses leaving their mark on the dust. Boots were a recent thing for El; for much of her life she had worn sandals or left them bare given the southern climates she lived in. His question caused her to frown. In books she had read, there was occasional hunting and she thought it, in that context, dreamy. But for her and how she was raised …

“No, Lt, I’ve never hunted. In much of the world there is no need to hunt, to cause unnecessary pain to another living creature for sport.” In Manticore El knew that some hunted on the coastlands, or fished, and that for survival. Or worse things. She understood it. But she didn’t condone it. That was their path. She had hers. Her head turned to him, puzzled. “Fortunately there are no scans of these .. cats .. near where we are going. Were you thinking of ..” she searched for the term .. “bagging a big cat?”

• El, Eng

Isaac looked at her “ sometimes on earth there is hunting season. We’re parks open there doors to hunters they do this to do a population control of the animals. If they don’t get hunted they will breed out of control and eat up all there food and will die a long painful death of starvation…. Sometimes hunting is a necessary evil” he said as they got closer to the cave Isaac looked down at the ground and kneeled “ the tracks here are from the cats but what ever left them is much bigger then the other ones. I don’t see any returning tracks so it can be out hunting or getting water at the lake” he said looking around.

Lt. Isaac Black (AC)

El shook her head, her pony tail moving sluggishly in the extra gravity. “That is the easy way out, the lazy way, a justification. To kill something to prevent it starving is no different than snatching it from the jaws of a predator. The only difference is who kills. Do we not, as a people, have the ability to create balance in nature, where the natural course may run?” Her frown persisted for some paces. “What do you hunt then? Where is your home? Is it in such a place that that is deemed a necessity?” El knew of places where that was so but these days they were few and far between. She had read of some of the ‘first peoples’ as they called themselves who desired to live in a traditional way as hunter gatherers. More and more that was a rarity. Isaac didn’t look to be one of them, at least on the surface.

“There are none near on the scans,” El volunteered. She knelt as well, trying to discern what Isaac saw, but beyond tracks she noted little. Depressions. Paw prints. A hint of a claw. The cave mouth was good for her to negotiate; would it be sufficient in space for Isaac though? “I wonder what small creatures also make their homes here,” she said softly. At the same time her hand slid into her satchel to touch the thin cylinder she had there. But when it emerged from it she had a torch in hand.

• El, Eng

The unknown larger paw as they got more up close to it was probably still from one of the big cats they had scanned previously. This example though was probably a much larger one then so far recorded. The paw prints showed it had indeed left, perhaps a day or so at most ago. But as noted not yet returned. Given the paw depth and spacing they could tell this larger example of the big cave dwelling pack cats was easily at least 14 feet long, and probably about 5 or so feet in height. Given the impression of paw markings it probably weighed in at close to 900 some pounds! For so far comparisons on smaller scanned examples of the pack cats, those had ranged from 4-9 feet in length and stood 2-4 feet in height weighing around on average 600 pounds. These smaller examples so far scanned were probably younger members of the packs, and this mammoth beast was probably a much more mature/adult one. To put it to compare with a Terran cat, the largest average striped tigers on Earth came in at 10 feet in length and averaged 650 or so pounds, so this mature example dwarfed even those fine beasts!

The cave mouth before them was about 20 or so feet wide, and about 15 feet tall in a natural shaped half moon like pattern. The outline was covered by roots and rocks which gave it a strong natural arch like setup making it a prime location no doubt for shelter by such beasts or other animals. The entrance within was a good 90 or so feet deep with a concaved like shape of a 3/4th circle from the mouth. Several cave tunnels branched off in an east, west, and southerly direction, the first two going deeper into the ground while the southern one proceeded on a mostly near surface path for a good 200 some feet before scans faded being reliable. The air was breathable and evidence present of underground water sources, as well as tiny insect life in the soil plus moss and other such things. The damp musk of cat and decay was also present.

GM CockRoach