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Early Days 2000 short story by Louis Turfrey Six years before Episode IV – A New Hope "Stang!"
Tarr Ranth ducked beneath the overhang, the rock slipping
beneath his armoured fingers. The twin blaster bolts shot over his head, so
close they took away the tip off his transmitter. He jammed his foot into an
outcropping and cursed himself for not thinking through every eventuality.
Who could have guessed that a quake would hit, just as he was taking aim.
He'd missed of course, and given away his position along with the element of
surprise. He'd been used to having the fully powered suit, and was unprepared
for the comparative handicap of his standard modified armour. Nevertheless it
still gave him a competitive edge. Replacing his blaster back into its holster, he looked
back over his shoulder. The fifteen hundred metres of air between him and the
canyon floor was starting to clear where the dust was settling. Next time, he
swore to himself, he wouldn't perch on a ravines' edge. He heard voices
approaching the outcropping above him and knew that he only had seconds to
spare. His head up display on his visor told him that his jetpack was damaged
and his repulsor belt would take another thirty seconds to charge. Tarr Ranth
did some quick maths, made a snap decision and dropped. As he fell he used his bodies
velocity to angle outwards away from the cliff edge. He'd calculated that it
would take him thirty-two seconds in this environment to hit the canyon
bottom. That allowed him a margin of two seconds in which to slow down. He hoped it was enough. Blaster shots sped past Tarr Ranth as he plummeted
towards the ground, but they were too far away to do any damage. He did a
quick check of his altimeter and saw that it would be a very close
shave. He activated the belt early, hoping that its growing charge would slow
him down a little. The rocky sides closed in around him, barely ten metres
away on either side, as he sped towards the trough of the canyon floor. He
felt a sudden heat rising from around his waist and immediately knew he had a
problem. He hadn't accounted for the extra velocity and the repulsor belt
couldn't take the strain. Three hundred metres from the bottom of the canyon floor,
he clipped his rocket grapple to a synth rope and
fired it into the rock wall to his right. Still travelling at over fifty
metres a second, he anchored the grapple line to his belt and fired another
one into the canyon wall on his other side.
One hundred metres from the bottom of the ravine, still travelling at
well over forty metres a second, both lines ran taught. Tarr Ranth gasped as
the pain dug into him. His harness creaked and he spun end over end on the
tightly stretched lines. Just as he was about to breath a sigh of relief, the
second line snapped. Tarr Ranth hit the wall hard and painfully, but he had
survived. The belt around his waist cooled as the load was eased,
and Ranth started to feel lighter again. When he was sure of the belts
status, he released the line and started the long ascent to the other side of
the ravine. Looking down to the raging river running below him he thanked
ancient Gods that he was still alive. Now he'd finish the contract a little more
professionally. Early Days 2000 short story by Louis Turfrey Six years before Episode IV –
A New Hope Histories – A brief insight into the hazards presented
to Tarr Ranth as he
first embarked on his career as a bounty hunter. Written by Louis Turfrey, this
snippet of Ranths life shows the regular dangers he subjected himself to –
and the ingenious ways in which he extricated himself from them. Cast
of Characters Tarr
Ranth |