XII: Beggar's Canyon Chase

Kol found a shortcut that would place him ahead of the swoops. That would be good for now, but sooner or later they'd be on a straightaway, and by then no organic could keep up with them. Thankfully, a speeder was sitting nearby, unoccupied; but unfortunately, someone else already owned it.

Kol decided to take the chance to let someone else drive. He hurried to the speeder and immediately grabbed the owner's attention. "Excuse me, are you the owner of this speeder?"

The man looked up. "Uh, yeah, it's my speeder, why?"

"If it's not too much trouble could you help me keep up with someone?"

"Sure. Who?"

The swoops slid out from a tight curve. They were barely able to turn back the other way, coming just less than 5 feet away from knocking Kol over with the back end. "Them." The speeder's owner nodded and let Kol in.

The speeder wasn't like any other speeder Kol would have found on Tatooine; it was able to fly above a meter off the ground. It was a lot like the kind found on Coruscant, the kind that might as well have been space-capable if life support systems were added. This ability to fly aided Kol greatly; there were many swoops spread out through the streets of Mos Eisley, and since they all had the same basic destination, it was easy for the speeder to skip all the twists and turns.

The pilot was the first to notice another swoop. "Hey, that one's moving a bit faster than the others." Kol looked over and noticed him too. He was the one from the cantina. He maneuvered his swoop right next to one of the gang swoops and rammed it from the side. The force of the collision caused the pilot to lose control; his swoop spun 90 degrees as it was forced off course and collided with the side of a building.

"That one's trying to take the other ones out. Try to keep up with him."

The pilot nodded and began staying near the lone swoop. He continued the pattern of sending the others to their doom. It went on for about two minutes and saw five of the gang swoops explode before they finally exited Mos Eisley. The next part would be much more dangerous: they were now in Beggar's Canyon.

It quickly turned out that the canyon WAS more dangerous than the streets of Mos Eisley; a few of the gang swoops started crashing without their enemy's help. Only three swoops remained, one of them piloted by the man from the cantina. He finally caught up with the first of the two gang swoops and forced it into the canyon wall. After scraping against the wall for a few seconds it caught fire and exploded. One left.

The canyon seemed to stretch on forever. Unfortunately the distance between the two swoops didn't seem to close much during the long trip. Kol became bored enough that he stopped paying attention, until the speeder pilot warned him that they were finally coming to the end of the canyon. He looked over again…

In the distance he saw something he could never expect. It looked like a gigantic stone needle. A large circle a few meters below its top, just about big enough to let a swoop through, was positioned at the very end of the canyon. It looked like the swoops would have to jump through it to make it out.

The two swoops finally came close enough for the one to try to destroy the gang swoop. Before he had the chance, the gang swoop suddenly sped forward faster than the other could go. The first swoop was nearly at the jump when he finally caught back up and smacked the back of the gang swoop with his front end. It wasn't enough to make the gang swoop lose control, but it was enough for him to go off his intended course; when he jumped, he collided with the side of the stone needle.

The swoop that caused the crash was able to get back on course in time to make the jump. Kol heard the pilot chuckle and mention something about threading a needle. He then brought his own speeder to a much slower pace. "Alright, it looks like he's done. You want to be let off here?"

Kol nodded, and hopped out of the speeder when it had landed. He thanked the pilot, and took a few steps toward where the swoop had stopped. He himself stopped, distracted for a bit; he then turned around to ask the pilot for his name, but the speeder was already heading back for Mos Eisley. "…Oh well."

He hid himself behind a random small rock formation. Peeking out from behind, he saw the swoop jockey speaking with a dark-cloaked figure that emerged from a small hut. This was the closest Kol could get, though, and it wasn't close enough to hear anything either of them said over the hum of the swoop engine. He sighed. "Well, that was a wasted tri—"

The wrist communicator he was issued just before leaving the Tyrant beeped. He answered and was greeted by a familiar voice. "Hey, Kol, how're you doing?"

"GM! What's up?"

"Something big, Kol. I heard a rumor you might be interested in."

"Yeah, sure. What is it?"

"Well, one of our freighters, the Suprosa, has on it top-secret Imperial plans. No one on the Tyrant has the clearance to know what it is, but it's something very important."

"I see. What does this have to do with me?"

"The Rebels know where the Suprosa is going to be in a few hours."

"What? How did they figure out?"

"They were given the info by agents from some organization. I asked around a bit. I was finally able to find out who it was. The agents work for Bla—" The communication was abruptly severed. Kol tapped the communicator. "GM-185, come in. Who were the agents working for? …GM? Crap." He sighed, and looked back up towards the hut to see that the cloaked figure and the swoop jockey had both disappeared. "Damn it." Kol checked to make sure they weren't right behind him, then stood and began to walk back towards Mos Eisley.

Before he took five steps, he looked back to the hut. The swoop bike was still there, just without a pilot. Kol didn't need more than half a second to make up his mind; he stole the swoop and rode it back, at a much slower pace than the previous owner had been taking it.