STAR WARS: RETROSPECTION- The Hunter

"Hah, yeah, well, let's just say security has tightened up since then."

Snith shakes his head, almost regretfully.

"It was decided that the trading of the Control would be a secretive operation. Couldn't have the Hutts starting something over it, if they heard about it. So the Serpent and the Corporation decided it would be a secret trade, covered by the sending of good will tokens between the two organizations. The Serpent would give us weapons to sell in Imperial space, while we would give them narcotics to sell in the Outer Rim.

"We sent our best smuggler in our fastest ship without telling him the true mission behind the exchange..."

"And now things start to come together. Kyle had that thing without knowing about it, and you assume it's still on the ship. Hence tagging along with me for all of this."

"How long ago was that? How do you know he hasn't discovered it yet?"

"It has to be on there. Hyper-secure compartment, only I know how to open it. Not to mention it had a sensor that would alert us when it was opened. Hasn't beeped since Kyle stopped off at the Ghost Citadel of the Serpent.

"Say... a year or two ago. Give or take. That's when we gave Kyle the ship, and that's when the Empire caught him smuggling illegal narcotics, and that's when he cried star-wolf on the Corporation."

"Okay, so there's no way for him to get it open, but how do you know he hasn't discovered something strange by now?"

"And why, why did you not just simply tell me from the start that you needed to retrieve something from his ship? Instead of feeding me line after line of garbage?"

"Utmost secrecy. You could easily run off to the Hutts this very instant and tell them that you've found the Control and you know where it is and whatnot.

"Keep in mind I will rip you in half if you try it."

"I'd like to see you try. Though what makes you think I'd want the Hutts to have their hands on something like that?"

"Who knows. I've been in this line of work too long to trust anyone. I've already had to kill one partner in our hunt for Kyle Ragnor. I'd hate to kill another."

"And like I said, I'd like to see you try. And does the Nobog Corporation have any plans for using the Control?"

"Eh, they'll probably experiment with it, see if they can create wacked-out mind-boggling techno-junk, but we're hardly in-tune with the Force."

"No, and there's no one really around anymore that is. The Empire took care of that."

"Are we ready to continue on?"

"Yeah, they really did."

Snith walks over to the engine and hits it, then tries the ignition. With a puff of smoke and a grumble from its parts, the damaged engine starts working again.

"Looks like it!"

He hops in the passenger seat, as before.

"Let's get going, then."

Rylis will get back in the driver's seat, then. Aaand we're back off to where the ship is...

The engine is working, though it makes highly unpleasant noises. But Snith has done a bang-up job, so the landspeeder zips along as fast as before.

En route to the Last Laugh, Snith works on tracking the homing beacon more accurately, so that you don't have to wander about in a part of the desert for longer than needed. Not at all difficult to do this close to the homing beacon. He pinpoints the exact location.

Within the next hour, there is a glint on the horizon. Sunlight shining off the hull of a starship, no doubt!

"Take a look and see if you can see anything." Rylis says to Snith, as she continues piloting the speeder towards the ship.

Snith shades his eyes with one hand, squinting into the sunlight at the glint in the distance.

"I can't see clearly," Snith says. "Too far. But the coordinates match. Get us over there."

"Fine."

How much longer until we get there, then? Because Rylis is going to just keep speeding along.

Not much farther to go. Nestled in the sand beneath a dune, the Last Laugh grows larger and larger as you rapidly approach. No longer needing break-neck speed, you reach over to ease the throttle and slow the speeder and...

"Swerve!" Snith shouts, reaching over and snatching the control yoke. He yanks it fiercely, throwing the landspeeder into a rough spin. A cloud of sand billows up around the speeder as it spins out of control.

"What was with that?!" Rylis shouts back, grabbing the controls and trying to bring the speeder out of its crazy spin.

Too late. Before you can bring the speeder under your control, it slams into what seems to be the side of the Last Laugh. It comes to a dead halt.

It is roughly at that time that the hail of high-caliber, energy-encased bullets tear into the landspeeder.

"Out!" Snith shouts, grabbing you. "Behind the speeder!"

Rylis will hop out of the speeder and duck down behind it, and pull out her own blaster.

"Damned things!"