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Dio walked back into the cabin of Jazz's Rusty Lady after completing a few scans of some of the cargo that he and Jazz had picked up over the past few weeks. Quite a bit, actually. Nothing out of the ordinary came up on the scans, or through the Force.
"Alright, Jazz. I'm done with those scans."
http://jazzjawa.virtualave.net/pics/rusty.jpg
Jazz: Great Dio! Last stop Tatooine and we can go home. This has been a long voyage, but well worth it.
:: Jazz drops the ship out of hyperdrive the whirl of white suddenly stops to the sight of the large red sphere of Tatooine rushing up on them.
There is a sudden lurch in the ship accompanied by the sound of the hull buckling ::
Jazz: Zabah! That can't be good.
Dio muttered a string of foul curses and jogged to the main diagnostic panel.
"Damn! Main engine was hit by a little chunk of debris... it's not good. Even though the debris didn't stick, the engine's too damaged to kick a restart. We're going to have to make a crash landing..."
Jazz: Dio, grab the helm, I'm going to juice up the repulsors and extend our shields in the front...maybe I can deaden our impact.
::Jazz grabs his all-tool and starts pulling up the deck plates. Jazz moves quickly making adjustments. ::
Jazz: I can't believe it, one stinking chunk of space krunk and the engines are poodoo! A Type VI Quantum Missile couldn't get through the sheilds let alone make a dent in the armor. Hmmm...Zabah! Must be Morgee de Hutt somehow. But how did he plant a device that eluded my sensor sweep?
::Jazz pulls up another deck plate...a sooty cloud of smoke rolls up through the floor. Jazz franticlly jams the plate back down. But it is too late. Jazz and Dio choke in the thick smog, eyes burning.::
Jazz: Dio *gasp* hit pannel up your right..*coff coff* Air mask! *coff*
Dio used the Force to hold his breath against the toxic fumes rising from the deck. Dio grabbed the helm and tried to pull the ship up somewhat from its frantic descent. They were in the upper atmoshpere now, heading down at an incredible rate.
"What? Morgee the Hutt? You don't think... wait, I told you I thought that we were being followed back on Mantooine! I don't think that it's his doing yet... but he might be after us..."
Dio fired the maneuvering jets, taking a little bit of the edge off of the descent. They had cleared the atmosphere and were now heading into a remote region of the Dune Sea. Dio fired the jets at full thrust...
"Jazz! Buckle up! Impact in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5..."
Dio ignited one last burst of the jets...
"Zero!"
A thunderous crash, followed by a sickening groan was all Dio heard, and the viewscreen turned to the color of sand as a huge jolt ran through the ship...
Jazz's head felt like it was spinning..."Morgee de Hutt"...he kept thinking. "What does that skum want this time?" Jazz drifted in that not quite asleep not quite awake state "My ship, what the Gungan caused it to go down?" Jazz began to stir to the sound of rusteling. He sat up and gave his head a shake. "Stang! What is that?" As his vision cleared he looked to see a wamprat munching on some left over pizza that had gotten thrown on the floor in the crash. Jazz jumps up after the overgrown rodent.
"JabberDooWah! Gimme my pizza! How did you get in here?!"
He looked over at the door and noticed it had been jarred open on impact. The thoughts of what just happened came rushing back to him.
"Dio?! What?! Are you alright?!"
Dio pried a piece of metal away that had been pinning his leg to the deck.
"Oh, Jazz, it's good to see you alive and conscious..."
Dio hopped up from the deck and looked around.
"Man... looks like this baby's trashed. Sorry, buddy. Looks like we'll have to head for town. I think we're pretty close to Mos Eisley... we could get there, I think. We'll have to be careful, though..."
"Well, I'm not leaving all this great stuff for people to walk off with... I'm going to fire up the setinals and enable the shields first"
Jazz grabs his security remote and then walks over to check the sheild generator.
"Not bad, the shields are at 73%, that's still enough to repell a full gunned assault and if the sheilds don't stop them, I'd hate to see what the sentinals do to them"
"Oh, we should use the speeder...*Jazz thinks a second* hmmm, i think it is a bit short on leg room. We could try the swoops...hmmmmm, actually I never finished putting them back together after our last adventure...I guess we'll have to go on foot. Crazy sandpeople might be a problem, I wish my buddy Jag was here he's got a gun that would take out an AT-AT with one shot. Well, I supose we better get moving."
Jazz grabs a small brown gunney sack and slings it over his shoulder and the two of them head out into the dunes. Jazz stops just outside the ship pulls out his remote and pushes a few buttons. All of a sudden they hear some blasting inside the ship.
"Ooh! I forgot about that wamprat. :x I'm gonna have to clean that up."
He pushes a couple more buttons and the ship dissapears.
"Just remember where we parked."
"Well, it's your ship... I was just along for the ride."
Dio chuckled and hopped up. Brushing himself off, he straighted his shirt, caked with sand and dust from the sudden impact. He checked his lightsaber; it still functioned like new. He walked away from the ship, he took a look back.
"Alright... let's head to town."
The dry hot sun beats down on the two travelers they walk along the sandstone ridge. The rocks on all sides are carved out in strange formations from the winds and sand rushing by them.
Jazz thinks back to the time when he used to live on this planet, "Tah doo Eene," in his native tounge. He could almost hear the voices of his family and friends haggling over a wealth of scrap and droid parts at the big swap meets.
Dio and Jazz crossed over the ridge and trudged along the desert floor working their way through the hot sand. It wouldn't be long and they would be near the Granton Moisture farm.
Suddenly Jazz senses a tremor in the force. He stops dead in his tracks and motions to Dio.
Dio: I sense it too. *Dio wispers* What is it?
Jazz: Definately Sandpeople. Quick, hide.
Jazz dives behind a couple huge rocks, while Dio takes cover in a crag of rocks overhead.