A man wearing a wide brim hat and rancher's coat slowly turned towards Zander. "That mister was a warning. Any closer and I warn you." He tilted his head towards the three story main house at the end of the street.

Detective Zander wrapped himself up in his trench coat and dropped to the dirt. A sniper fired a shot at him and Zander dashed to cover behind the tractor. He searched his trench coat for the large hole, and called over the tractor. "I thought you said warning shot."

"To be frank you can't live this one pal. Sorry. It's not personal."

"I see that. Where did you get Armor piercing rounds? I'd need skin of a dinosaur..." Detective Zander fired three shots at the house windows, a couple more at the man in the center of the street and some random shots at the other houses and he sprinted his way back to the spaceship. He punched in the codes then sheltered beside the door as he pulled his trench coat off. Inside he wrapped the coat around the complaining Plozun. "Sorry mate. This is a wild hunch and I needed your pungent atmosphere. He pulled the cloak away from the protesting pilot.

"I'll explain later, but keep your round head down. There's a sniper out there."

Zander rolled a flash grenade out and dashed back out the ship and towards the corral. He waved the trench coat at the trio of quadratops and opened the gate. The lead dinosaur dashed towards Zander, its peaceful demeanor replaced with a hunger towards the smell. It chased the trench coat. He made sure the dinosaur was running towards the center of town.

He swooped up grabbing a horn and pulling himself onto the creature's back while wrapping the trench coat around the dinosaur's eyes.

The trio of dinosaurs stampeded down the road towards the gunman in the street. Zander fired shots at the window and noticed the streaks of two spaceships flying through the sky. He sure hoped those were the Plozun's tow ride. Zander radioed the pilot, "I hope your pals brought some fire power. Have them circle above while I wrap this up."

No response back but the ships did start circling. The sniper took off running from the main house towards the empty desert. Zander jumped from the creature tackling the man. He pulled back his fist and let loose punching him and then pulled the mask down. "Mr. Smith Senior. Your son will be pleased to know you're alive. He may not like it that your reunion will be at a jail."

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The man struggled until he saw the ships circling above.

"That's right. Nowhere to hide." Zander secured the man's gun and verified that the sniper was well out of range. He pointed in the direction of the fleeing sniper. "That your wife? Or one of Kevin's many cousins."

"Why did you have to interfere?"

Zander pulled his trench coat from the mouth of the quadratops. He dusted it off and shooed the creatures back towards the corral. "Simple enough reason. I was hired to find out what happened to you. But nothing bad did happen to you."

Smith Senior looked up at him. He dusted his pants off. "You could still leave. Please. Say you didn't see anything. That I was a bandit."

Dective Zander gave the thumbs up to the circling ships above. "Look I don't know what exactly you found. But you don't have mineral rights. No settlers ever do. That's how this works. You don't jump the gun, not unless you smuggle a few loads off yourself and the planet is classified too hostile." Zander looked towards the corral where the quadratops clustered around the watering trough.

"We'd share it with you. Green Diamond, a natural vein laced with precious metals as well. Just a dozen ship loads of the stuff and we'd all be rich."

"Or you could have made an honest, respectful community. Call your family in. What are they holed up in the cave entrance with the market supplies? What you figured people would think empty community; they must have been eaten."

"Basically. We were going to leak the recording of the stampede in a few months. Our hope was a quick aerial scan would get the planet marked uninhabitable."

"You saw me and then hoped a quick kill would be the end."

"I knew you weren't the authorities, they don't send a one man team out here to drink the whiskey. My brother wasn't supposed to take that shot. We hoped to scare you off before you found out anything. I hoped you'd think I was a raider."

"Sorry to bust your plan." Detective Zander pulled the man up and squinted into the desert. "I'm glad your brother is not a better shot." Zander sniffed at his trench coat and wrinkled his nose. "You're sons paying me extra to replace this." Zander wiggled his finger through the bullet hole in the coat.