HK-7 sauntered into the holo room, where Yiddles awaited him.

"Greeting Piddles, shall we begin our training session?"

Apparently the little green meatbag took offence for some unidentified organic reason, because his reply was sharp.

"Stupid droid! Yiddles!!!"

HK-7 did not quite know what to make of this, and decided to query the sloshy meatbag.

"I'm afraid I am unable to process your last statement. Whyever did you yell your name at me?"

"Because my name it is!"

This confused HK-7 further.

"Shall I speak like that also? Hunter-Killer Module Seven?"

"NO! Telling you my name I am because right you never get it!"

"So your name is not Piddles?"

"No! Yiddles it is!"

"Did I not just say that?"

"No! Piddles you said!"

"Piddles? Whyever would I call you Piddles? Your name is clearly Piddles."

"WHAT?!"

"What is wrong now?"

"Piddles you called me again!"

"I am afraid you must be mistaken; I was telling you how your name was not Piddles, but was in fact Piddles."

"Piddles you said again!"

"But I did not refer to you as Piddles."

"Yes did you!"

"Perhaps you do not know how to speak Basic? I have noticed how your speech pattern is backwards..."

"ARGH! DIE!"

Yiddles leapt at HK and slammed his staff down. HK easily swiped the staff away with a wave of his arm and caught Yiddles by the wrists, dangling in front of him.

"Let me go!"

"Okay."

HK dropped Yiddles abruptly, and Yiddles fell to the floor, sitting down heavily. HK-7 looked down at him.

"Well, Piddles, I will just grab my stun rifle so we may begin sparring."

Yiddles motioned him away, grumbling a little a little as he picked up his fallen staff.

"Speak to the blue one I must, the droid needs fixing..."

Achilles unconsciously felt his forehead as he stepped into the dock. Gazing about the room for a moment he noticed Piotr still at work on a speeder, T3-S6 at his side.

"How are the repairs going, sir?" he asked, walking towards the pair.

Piotr chuckled and picked up a hydrospanner. "Finished the repairs hours ago. Now I'm modding. And call me Piotr, please."

Achilles nodded and surveyed the speeder bike closest to him with interest. "Looks like you've removed the right couple," he said.

"Mmhmm. It don't serve much of a purpose, so I figure why even have one? Better to just take your G-Line and plug it straight into the port pinlock."

"You sound like you know what you're talking about."

"Twelve years as a technician, eight of them as a mechanic. You pick up a few things, although the mod I just told you about I can't take credit for. Learnt it from this genius of a mechanic back on 'Shardaa."

"Don't speeder bikes have notoriety for exploding at the slightest impact?"

"That's because the idiot who designed the speeder decided that they didn't need a cooling system; just run the fuel lines out toward that thin sheet metal at the nose of the bike and you save yourself a couple thousand cred on coolant. So when anything bends the nose of the speeder in a way that'll create a spark, which at 200km/h is pretty much anything at all, you're in for a quick stop and a loud pop."

"Right. I'm assuming you've found a way to deal with that?"

"Nothing I can do; the system is hardwired into the design. If it doesn't cool down that way it'll explode from overheating."

"In that case I'll take care not to hit anything."

"Good plan."

"What's the plan for today? Daybreak is in just under an hour."

"Walush will be landing us down before that. We don't want any of the competition spotting us, so we're in low-power mode. As for our plan, the captain will know."

"Damn right I'll know, I only spent the last five hours making it up,"

Daxius ducked in from the opposite side of the dock, a canteen in his hand. Taking a swig from it, he motioned towards the three.

"Meet up in the common room, and I'll lay it out for everyone."

"Right. I've gone to the liberty of downloading a map of the current area with Tusken territory marked out. Here," Daxius pointed to a location on the holomap, "that's where the krayt corpse should be, on top of this sandy hill. That's about half a klick northeast. Me, Walush and Achilles will use the speeders to get there and grab our pearl. Meanwhile HK and Essix run scanners in the ship, everyone else patrol the area in your fighters. Krayt pearls are worth enough creds for a lot of people to kill for, so we are taking no chances on this."

"What happens if we do meet competition?" asked Orian.

"In that case defend yourself. Our main goal is to secure this pearl without taking any hits. Achilles, I trust you know how to use a speeder bike?"

"Looks fairly simple."

"Your reflexes should come in handy. Alright, let's move out; daybreak is in half an hour and I want us to have the pearl in our hands by then."

Gunning the motor, Daxius pulled back on the lever and the speeder shot out the docking ramp of the FireStorm. Achilles and Walush came out right after, and the three turned towards northeast. Walush gave a loud hooting cheer.

"Whoooooo!! Stars, this brings back memories!"

"I would've thought so, you speed-freak. Not as extreme as podracing though, is it?" said Daxius through the comms.

"Not even close, but the wind in your face still feels just as good! Hey, watch this!"

With that, Walush swerved into a small sand dune and pulled back on the lever. His speeder shot up it like a ramp and went nearly 10 metres vertical before landing with a spray of sand. Walush steadied the speeder with a huge grin on his face.

"Heads up, we're nearly there," advised Daxius.

"Good, this speeder fells rattly," said Achilles.

Setting the speeders to a stop, Daxius pulled out his commlink and punched in to the FireStorm.

"Everything going as planned, people?"

"Scanners detect no possible targets, captain," reported HK-7.

"Me and Orian are coming up above you captain, our scanners aren't picking up anything either." Piotr's voice came in.

"Good. Alert us if you pick up on anything. Out."

A low hum filled the air as Piotr and Orian's fighters flew over the three. They split in different directions and began orbiting the area. Daxius motioned toward the other two and they made for the next dune.

"Looks like the krayt's on the other side of this sand-crater, captain," said Walush.

"That's weird," muttered Daxius.

"What's the matter?"

"...I felt like someone was watching us. Keep an eye out."

"Will do. Let's hurry on, daybreak is in a few minutes."

The three climbed up the soft sand dune, leaving the speeders behind. As they reached the top, the first of Tatooine's suns peeked out from the horizon, bathing the desert in light. Looking over the lip of the crater, they gasped.

"What in Sith is this?" whispered Daxius in horror.

A/N: Sorry for cutting this chappie short! Promise I'll make it worthwhile in the next chapter!