The titanic beige planet of Megalox Beta hung solitary in the black void of space. It was a planet used for one purpose, to house criminals. Megalox, a maximum security prison, rested close to the equator and was protected by a grav-field dome. The immensity of the planet created such a gravitational pull, that any that walked outside of the grav-field would be crushed by their own weight; and therefore, it was a perfect deterrent for fleeing criminals.

However, today, one small ship escaped the gravity, a Firespray-31-class attack craft, Slave-1. It rose from the giant surface into the dark expanse, like a burning ember from a fire. A green Rodian piloted the ship as he laid hard into the accelerator to reach exit velocity. Slave-1 struggled to climb its way out of the gravitational field but it was a ship that knew how to overcome the impossible. Its engines roared and its frame shook. The Rodian began to sweat and tried to lean forward against the considerable gravity; even with the ship's gravity modifier, the force was overwhelming. He almost passed out from the G-force making it difficult to breathe.

Slowly, the gravity lessened, the shaking abated, the engines cooled, and the Rodian breathed. Slave-1 had escaped Megalox Beta, but its previous owner was still grounded.

The Rodian switched on the holonet. "Terrah?"

A minute passed before a response. "Cheedo, you out?"

"Yeah, everything's as cool as Camoor," Cheedo replied.

"Great, thanks for your help. Slave-1 is yours now; if you can manage to keep it," the woman replied.

Cheedo laughed, "Where's your confidence in me, Terrah?"

"Just make sure you strip it of Boba's mods, I don't want anyone recognizing it after you lose it, 'cause you will. You understand."

"Yeah, I got it. Nice doing business with you for once," Cheedo replied.

"Just get out of here and don't send another transmission."

Two passed out and crooked prisoners lay slumped over two, even more crooked, prison guards. Behind them a grotesque Hutt lay snoring, his mouth open and drool stringing from his mouth to his shoulder. Terrah stood before them, placing the stolen head of General Grievous into a sack and throwing it over her back. She wore silver chest armor with a red star burst painted on it. Her gleaming green eyes scanned the room for anything else she might swipe for profit, and she found something. She stepped over to the Hutt and leaned down. She pushed her jet black hair back from her olive-skinned face and bound it behind her in a ponytail. Her fingers then found a canvas pouch under the Hutt's arm. She reached in and pulled out a black pyramidal structure, a Holocron.

"Nice doing business with you, Grakkus," Terrah said. "I hope the Thanatizine gives you a glorious headache when you wake up." She smiled and placed the Holocron in her pack and left the room.

Terrah ran down a long gray corridor. This was a trap and she knew it. The Keeper, a rich collector on Anthan Prime had hired Terrah Otlell and Boba Fett to obtain Grievous' head this time. He had hired them many times over the previous twenty years but lately, he was becoming more suspicious of the two bounty hunters. They had refused to be hired solely by the Keeper, and he had taken offense to that. Then Cheedo had accidentally stumbled upon the Keeper's plan to eliminate Terrah and Boba on Megalox Beta. It was information that the Rhodian had used to make a deal for Slave-1.

The realization that Terrah suddenly had a bounty on her own head caused her to question the choices she had made in life. Her daughter, a clone of herself, was six years old; and now, with the threat of death hanging over Terrah, she wondered if she had made a mistake. Certainly, she had been in danger before but she had never been hunted. She knew when the Keeper wanted something, he was sure to get it. Terrah wanted to free herself from the trap—the trap of the Keeper, the trap of her daughter, and the trap of . . . she did not want to admit what she felt about Boba. She wanted to escape. She felt that she needed to escape. Terrah had cursed herself for being so short-sighted and now was her chance to rectify it and to start over. She thought how Boba was going to hate her when her droid PZ-85 shows up with her daughter, Videsse.

Terrah shook the thought from her mind as she ran down the corridor to the exit. Men lay randomly hunched on the smooth floor, some dead, some drugged, and some knocked unconscious. A voice came from behind her; it was Boba Fett.

"Red! Did you get the artifact?" he called out.

She did not stop her stride but called out, "Got it. No one's following us. You must have taken care of the prison guards."

"Yeah," Boba replied as if it was too obvious.

Boba had been thought to be dead after the Pit of Carkoon twenty-five years earlier and now he lived and worked under an alias. It was a ruse Terrah was about to imitate.

Boba and Terrah ran to the end of the hall where a door to the landing platform stood resolutely closed.

"I'll get it," Terrah said and started removing the control panel. Her fingers worked quickly with the small tools and electrical cords, as she snapped a few sparks between frayed wires. This was it. Her fingers shook, but Boba did not see. One more wire contact and the doors would open. She held the wires apart for a second and thought of the life she was leaving behind.

Boba stood sentinel, guarding the corridor with his carbine rifle; the grenade launcher attached ventral to the rifle barrel was armed with physical charges.

Terrah closed her eyes and brought the wires together. The small spark arced between the wires. She thought how minuscule the spark was, but what a massive effect it had; it was the end of a life. The door opened with a hiss, and a gush of foul air rushed in blowing Terrah's black hair that had fallen from her ponytail. Before them was the landing pad, and on it rested a Firespray-31-class attack ship. It was not Boba's old ship, but another model that Cheedo had left in its place. Terrah let out a melancholy exhale when she saw the imposter.

The gray wind blew across its hull as the low fog was swept over it with the gusts.

"This seems a little too easy," Boba noted.

Before he could say another word, Terrah's lips were on his. She had not planned on kissing him this time, but Boba had a way of doing that to her. She kissed him passionately and wrapped her arms around him. This was the last time, and she knew it. If only she could live in this moment forever, and for a second she convinced herself that she could. She refused to let a tear fall, knowing there will be time for that later.

She withdrew and stared into his dark eyes, as her hands found their way seductively to his chest plate.

"I'm sorry, Honey." She forced the word out from deep within and suddenly pushed him. He took a step back as she swiftly hopped outside the door and pushed the outside control panel.

The door flashed shut in front of her. She put her gloved hand on the dead steel of the door. It was over.

Terrah turned and ran toward the Firespray, its ramp was descended and waiting for her. She lifted a thin fine-meshed hood over her head pulled it down over her face as she ran up the ramp. Then she activated a cloaking device from her wrist controls. Her image disappeared instantly. She turned and exited the craft and looked around inquisitively.

"Where are you?" she whispered to herself. She scanned the roof of the prison building that she had exited. A silhouette of a black droid darkened the gray sky-the Keeper's assassin.

"There you are."

Terrah activated a remote launch code on her wrist console and the Firespray started to lift off.

At that moment, the door opened again with the familiar hiss, and Boba rushed to the ascending Firespray, just having taken off. He sprinted as fast as he could and held up his gauntlet, still fitted with a fibrocord. He fired it with precision as the barbed dart made contact with the port stabilizer and stuck fast.

Terrah did not watch as Boba lifted off the ground, trying to catch what he thought was her. Instead, she ran to the edge of the building. There was a ladder, but it was twenty feet above her. She bent down and activated her boot rockets. The rockets were not adequate for maintained flight but were useful to boost her jumps. Terrah's boots erupted in a flash of light, but being so close to the wall, the black droid could not see it. She vaulted more than enough to grab the ladder and began to climb.

The Firespray port stabilizer exploded and Boba was thrown back to the landing pad. The wave of heat and wind pushed Terrah into the wall but she continued to climb. Once on the roof, she got a close look at the black droid, IG-88. He was crouched and aiming a rifle at the fallen Boba Fett.

The Firespray began to spin with only the one stabilizer before the starboard engine stabilizer exploded as well. The ship then seemed to float in the air for an eternity before it was swallowed up in flames.

IG-88 did not fire. Electrical arcs and sparks traced every circuit of his form. He crouched motionless and his red eyes became dark and lifeless. A discharged ion grenade lay underneath him. The explosion of the Firespray was a sufficient distraction for the invisible Terrah to roll the ion grenade toward the droid. She walked over and kicked him down.

"Can't have you killing Boba. I would kill you if I could, but someone has to report that I'm dead," she said resolutely. "However, I got to thank you since I'll be using your ship to get off this miserable planet."

She looked down from the building as the ship seemed to wilt in gray smoke, the foul breeze of Megalox-Beta sweeping the black smoke to the west, and a lonely man watching it burn.

"It'll be better this way," she tried to convince herself.