Rhino hunting

Ontus pulled away from the lights of the house in the distance and began to drive in the direction of Touchdown.
	Psychus and Eduardo sat in silence with the men, they all seemed tense, as if they were going to war.
	The ride was long, by the time they came to a rolling stop the sun was rising. Ontus hopped out of the drivers seat. “Grab the crates, start setting up the perimeter.” He yelled.
	The men hopped off the truck and in pairs they carted the crates a short distance from the truck in the morning light.
	A ways from the truck, Psychus could see a sudden drop in terrain. Psychus and Eduardo helped the quiet men set up their camp.
	The group came close to the edge of the land with their crates, they placed them a few steps back from the cliff. Down the cliff, about 15 meters the ground continued. The cliff and the ground were covered in low-growing ground-covering orange plants.
	Joctur approached Psychus and Eduardo as the set up continued. “Have you fired a rifle before?” He asked.
	Eduardo and Psychus shook their heads.
	“Ok, well I guess I’ve got to give you a quick lesson, according to reports the rhino will be passing by this drop-off soon.” Joctur said, looking out to the empty horizon. He got an enormous long gun from one of the crates in parts. He assembled it in a flash as Eduardo and Psychus watched closely.
	Joctur gave a breakdown of how to fire, reload, and quick gun safety. He handed the first gun to Psychus. He began to pull the parts of a second gun out, all around them the men were on their bellies, with the extended scopes of their rifles trained on the horizon.
	“Rhino!” Yelled one of the men. He fired his rifle at the horizon, Psychus couldn’t see what he was shooting at without the scope. Psychus laid down and lined up the scope toward the horizon, scanning slowly using the jointed rotational stand which folded off the gun.
	He scanned slowly, the men around him began to fire, Joctur ran by and laid down with his rifle. The guns were incredibly loud, each bullet caused a sonic boom as it was let fly. Suddenly Psychus spotted it. As he lined up his view with what the men were shooting he saw the rhinoceros for the first time.
	Even at a distance it was too big. Its size was correctly reported. The massive white beast had six absurdly-thick legs, they didn’t appear to have joints. It was turning, the bullets left almost imperceptible holes where they struck. The head of the creature, where the bullets were landing, was much bigger than the truck they had ridden in on. It had a long pointed head like a wedge, Psychus couldn’t make out the eyes from here. Through the scope the head appeared to have a beard of short Holbehn hair.
	In the distance it looked like it was turning slowly. Psychus took  aim, he lined up the six-lined crosshair with the head of the rhino.
	He pulled the trigger. The scope had been designed not to smash his eye from the recoil, but the feeling of the eyepiece pressing into his face and the gun sliding back, even against his grip revealed the power of the rifle to Psychus. His shot had missed, he saw it fly low. He thought while reloading, looking down at the gun. All the men were aiming high.
	He looked through the scope again, the rhinoceros was now lined up head first with the cliff, it was massive even from this angle of reduced view. Psychus tilted the scope, he adjusted it so that the crosshairs were on the head, but the thick muzzle of the ultra-high-powered rifle was pointed over its head.
	He was ready for the recoil this time, he didn’t flinch as he took the shot. He saw it land through the scope this time, among the many other shots peppering the enormous animal.
	It shook its head, it looked slow, but at that size it was fast. “It’s charging!” One of the men yelled over the enormous blasts. Psychus’ ears were ringing.
	He loaded the gun again, the twenty-five cubic-centimeter bullets appeared to be lead, but the small warning label on the large accelerant portion of the bullets read ‘octanitrocubane’. He looked out to the horizon, the rhino had just come into view as an indistinct point. He looked through the scope. The rhino had started running, its enormous legs slammed craters into the ground and kicked up clods of dirt and dust and plants the size of boulders. As it ran, a cloud of dust was forming and swirling around it. The way the air was behaving, it was already going fast.
	Psychus lined up another shot, taking into account the fact that it was closer and coming closer still. He fired. The bullet reached it a bit faster than last time. He could see the crater form on the head now through the scope. The holbehn beard appeared to sway and move on its own as the bullets landed.
	“Aim for the eyes!” Screamed Joctur.
	He loaded another shot and looked through the scope, the rhinoceros had eyes afterall. A long line of eyes ran along the edge of its wedge shaped head. He aimed for an eye, his adrenaline was rushing. He landed the shot, he saw the enormous eye burst through the scope as it pushed into his own.
	The rhinoceros was large on the horizon now too, perhaps only a handful of kilometers away, it appeared to be gaining speed. Psychus loaded his gun, it was hot.
	The rhinoceros withstood every shot without reacting. Psychus began to hear something, it sounded like a low roar between shots. The six thundering feet were moving even faster.
	Psychus lined up his next shot, he aimed for another eye, many of them were burst, the head was covered in what must be massive craters.
	“We gotta back up!” One of the men yelled.
	“It’ll get to the steppe!” Another yelled back.
	Psychus popped another of the many eyes, there were still a lot.
	The rhinoceros was traveling at incredible speed now, its massive body had reached a momentum that even if it stopped, it would hit the cliff. Some of the men abandoned their guns and began to run. The rhino was huge without the scope now, its thundering roaring body was coming.
	Psychus took another shot. He scrolled through the radio channels in his chip as he loaded the gun as fast as he could.
	“Can you do something? Make it trip, turn it around, anything? ” Psychus asked Eduardo through the chip.
	Suddenly the Rhino disappeared from view. Its entire body was obstructed by a gigantic hole. The hole looked out on the same dim blue light as the sky behind it, it was completely invisible to the men.
	“Where is it?” A man yelled, the bullets stopped flying for a moment.
	Suddenly there was a crash that blew Psychus into the air.
	When Psychus finally got up and looked over the cliff, he was just in time to see an enormous hole high in the air closing.
	The men were all staggering around, the adrenaline and shock hadn’t faded yet. The men who had ran away came back to look as well.
	In front of the men, a short distance from the cliff, the crumpled body of the enormous animal lay dead. Its holbehn beard still swaying as if in a breeze.
	Slowly the men began to cheer. One of the men who had run away hugged one who had stayed and they both started to cry silently.
	“Thank you.” Psychus said through the chip.
	“No problem.” Eduardo replied.
	Eduardo came to talk to Psychus in person. “That was intense.” He said first.
	“Yes, it really was.” Psychus said, his hands had been steady during the shooting, but now he was trembling.
	Joctur approached the two men, Ontus was on his phone but walked along side him. “…Yeah, I’m telling you, its dead. No, I’m not going to check, just send the gear and some trucks.” Ontus said before hanging up.
	“You saved us.” Joctur said to Eduardo, looking him in the eye. “You were great too Psychus.” He added, as if embarrassed to only praise Eduardo.
	“It’s really nothing.” Eduardo said.
	“Can you take us home?” Joctur asked.
	“Of course.” Eduardo said.
	“One sec.” Joctur said. “Hey Ontus, make sure to get my share too, I’m going home.” He said to his twin.
	Joctur, Psychus and Eduardo walked off behind the truck and took a hole back to the front yard of the plantation home.
	Joctur sighed a sigh of relief as they walked up the steps. “I hope its a long time before there’s another one that big.” He said.