T'sak prepared his ship for landing and looked out one of the port views. The planet known as Vish-orak, offered a fair amount of game for him. There were even a few ooman settlements but he was under orders to avoid the oomans if he could help it. The species was struggling enough without his kind hunting them down for sport.

T'sak cloaked his vessel and landed it. The oomans might have attained the technology to travel to other planets but they still had a long way to go to be able to track his people when they came to visit.

As soon as the ship had landed T'sak went to the armory and outfitted himself.

The hunt was about to begin.

Jake Hunter slung his rifle over his shoulder and tucked a knife into the scabbard on his belt; he also tucked another one into his boot. It paid to be careful. Especially on a planet like Pluto, this place was not for those who just wanted a good time. Every day the three human settlements here had to fight for survival from starvation, dehydration or the elements. There were plenty of rivers and animals to feed all the humans in the settlements but getting to them was the challenge. Some of the rivers were poisonous; some of the animals had tempers that flared to dangerous heights if they weren't taken down immediately.

True to his name Jake was one of the seven hunters of his settlement who braved the jungle every day to bring back food for the people. Being as he had no family of his own his life was considered expendable, but Jake did not think that way. He did, however, love exploring the wild jungle despite the fact that everything in it was prepared to kill him.

Jake didn't go alone however, his faithful German Shepherd, Samurai, was a good hunting partner to have along for the dog could sense danger instantly.

An hour before dawn Jake and Samurai slipped outside the settlement's safety net and were vulnerable to the dangers of the jungle, many of those dangers were still undiscovered.

Jake held onto his rifle as he stealthily crept through the forest, Samurai belly crawled beside him. Aside from his rifle Jake also had two pistols hanging around his waist.

Jake didn't know it, but as he walked silently on the forest floor he was being watched.

T'sak watched the ooman and admired the skill the young hunter had. He waited until the ooman disappeared and then he went his own way, looking for the dangerous prey that this world was known for. Along his way he killed and skinned two large four-legged animals that stunk as bad as spoiled meat. But their heads would make good trophies. Thoughts of the lone ooman, with the four-legged sniffing animal that followed him, returned to him from time to time. The ooman was young, hardly nineteen cycles old, according to ooman reckoning, and he reminded T'sak of his lost son. His son had died on his first hunt due to the lack of proper tutelage. T'sak had killed the Leader who had led his son's hunting party with his own hands. The young made mistakes and though this ooman had skill this was a dangerous planet. T'sak wondered why he was even giving the ooman a second thought. He was no concern of his.

T'sak heard a loud angry roar, coming from the direction he had come from, and he paused. This roar was followed by thunderous sounds, and as the sky was clear only a large animal could make those, also there were the strange noises distinguishable between the roars. T'sak had seen enough dogs in his lifetime to know what they sounded like and without a second thought he turned and raced towards the sound.

Jake moved cautiously through the forest. He was looking for the large antelope-looking animals that usually were grazing in open meadows. To get to the nearest meadow Jake would have to cross a river but he had done so many times that he no longer thought much about where he was going.

Jake was hopping onto the fifth rock when he noticed that Samurai was scampering back to the bank and once there he started whining and barking. Jake froze. He had never encountered anything larger than a three-foot fish in this river but the inconvenient thing about territorial predators was that they were always changing their boundaries. Still, he was on a fairly large rock so he should be safe.

That was when it hit Jake and he looked down. There had never been a rock this size here before! He was sure of it! Looking closer he could see ridges in it that looked almost…scaly.

Jake jumped back the way he had come just as the 'rock' moved and he saw a six-legged crocodile-like animal. Jake grabbed for his gun but the crocodile rammed its head down and caused a water wave to splash over the human. The beast roared as it charged for Jake the hunter had now become the hunted. Jake jumped for the bank, thinking it was safety. But, amid Samurai's barking, the crocodile roared and smashed into the water, disappearing from sight.

Jake unslung his rifle and held it ready, flicking the safety catch off with his thumb. Cautiously he looked into the murky water, wondering if the beast had given up. Just then Samurai barked and leapt away from the water just as the crocodile dove up and clamped its jaws around Jake and pulled him under. Samurai leapt after the crocodile but landed in the water. The monster was gone!

Samurai barked furiously as he ran out of the water and began sniffing around, trying to sniff out his master.

The crocodile came back up and landed on the bank, Jake in between its jaws. Samurai attacked the creature and the crocodile threw Jake aside as it turned its attention to the dog. Just then a flash of blue light came out of the cover of trees and burned into the monster's hide. Two more flashes of blue came at the creature, this time aimed for its head and the crocodile's head exploded.

Samurai ran to the body of his master and started licking his face, not sure what else he could do. That Jake was alive he could tell for his master was breathing. The only thing that had saved Jake from being crushed was his body armor but he did have gashes in his body from the creature's teeth and he was bleeding profusely.

Samurai knew his master was in danger and so he turned to see their rescuer who was inspecting his kill.

T'sak really didn't know what else to focus on for he had no idea why he had shot the beast in hopes of rescuing the ooman. Hearing the dog whine T'sak turned and the dog ran to him, barking but not in a threatening way as far as he could tell. Then the dog ran back to where the ooman lay and T'sak couldn't help but think that maybe he had been too late. But then he scanned the ooman's body and found he still lived.

Not even pausing to question his motives, T'sak scooped up the body of the ooman hunter and, with the dog following, made his way back to his ship.