Tangled Threads of Tatooine: Maul

Maul landed on the dusty planet already in a bad mood, his mission to find and deal with the escaped queen and her Jedi bodyguards from the start had been an exercise in frustration. The Sith apprentice had tracked them down from Naboo where they had broken though the blockade surrounding the planet, to the near lawless reaches of Hutt space. The Sith growled as the force seemed to swirl just as much as the wind buffeting his cloaked ship, making the future just as hard to see as the technology was at hiding the craft from prying eyes. A growl emitted from the Sith's throat, the feelings of frustration boosting his power to confirm that at least he was on the right planet.

The Sith endured the sun and heat beating down onto his black hooded robe, the light of the twin suns greedily absorbed by the dark fabric meant to be as a shadow in even the darkest of nights, the light instead being turned to heat spiking the already oppressive temperature higher. Sith training meant that pain and annoyance were nothing new to the Sith, the heat and coarse sand only slightly flaring the apprentices anger. Maul walked the streets of the city he narrowed his search down to, the locals talking about some excitement at some race, the Sith snorted in derisive contempt at such frivolity and checked the scan results bounced back from his probe droids scouring different parts of the city. Eventually he got a possible lead, so he hopped onto his repulser driven bike and blasted off, even going after a false lead at the point was better then walking in this heat, as the wind rapidly cooled him to a more comfortable temperature, though he would have to remember to get more water from his ship as at this rate he would go though what he had on him before he got to where the probe thought it found something.

Maul finished off his canteen as he approached the way point indicated by his probe, the force coiling in anticipation as he felt one of the Jedi ahead of him. Maul jumped off his bike going full speed, the now unmanned craft coasting to a hovering stop as its safety measures kicked in, the speed boost it gave the Sith's velocity though was sufficient to allow his saber strike to blast the Jedi off of his feet as the Jedi's saber barely had come up in a block. The Sith aggressively pressed his advantage and the bearded Jedi had to steadily give ground as his defensive stance was slowly ground down, each strike of the red saber coming closer and closer to taking parts off the Jedi. Then, just as the Sith could practically taste the victory through the dust kicked up from the frenetic fight, the Sith could feel the other Jedi... above him! The Sith backed off a step to look to see the queens ship hovering above the battle, though without weapons it was not a threat, so the Sith turned back to finish off the tired Jedi.

When Maul turned back though the Jedi had taken advantage of the bare momentary pause in the fight to jump to the open ramp of the ship overhead. Anger fueled the Sith's jump after the Jedi, his prey would not get away that easily, but with a dismissive gesture the bearded Jedi stopped his jump just out of reach of the ramp, with as much focus on his face as someone brushing off lint from their shoulder. The dismissal of his threat shocked the Sith, and so he landed heavily on his back in the dust and sand, helpless to watch the ship close its ramp and smoothly take off into the cloudless sky. Maul could only lay there a moment, yelling with inarticulate rage as the ship flew off, his cry echoing in the desert wastes scaring off the locals who had been trying to take off with his unattended repulser bike. When Maul returned to his senses he got up out of the dust and stalked towards his bike and found that the easily taken supplies from his bike had been taken, including his food and water, this caused his eyes to start twitching and his hand to drop to his saber, but he had a mission to accomplish, and the ship has already getting away so there was no time to chase the locals that took his supplies.

Maul traveled to where he left his ship and typed in the command to decloak the ship so he could board and chase the queens ship. He waited a moment for the computers to process the command but no ship appeared, Maul double checked his location and signal devices, both showed that they were working properly, so he tried it again making sure to input everything carefully. Nothing, a third time making absolutely sure, and still nothing.

Maul quickly meditated to try and see why his ship would not open, after a few moments though he opened his eyes in shock, not only was his ship invisible, it was simply not there as this close using the force it should easily be found. Maul cast his senses deeper into the force to find out what was going on, though the planets swirling force presence muddled things up, he could see two sand crawlers come up and carry his ship away, he could see the small hooded figures yank out the expensive and rare crystals integral to the operation of the cloak. The rage he felt at this cleared his force vision for a moment and he saw those same figures with the crystals in their bags being caught and effortlessly swallowed whole by a rancor. This both soothed his anger at the figures, but also increased his frustration as his master would make sure the loss of each and every one of those crystals would be keenly felt. He cast his senses to find his ship and found a location, a thick walled docking bay on the edge of town, a perfect location for smugglers to land, and judging by the tools and parts strewn around the ship and guards he saw, also a perfect spot for a chop shop.

Take apart his ship, for parts? The marvel of cutting edge stealth and engineering? Where every missing servo and paint fleck would be taken out of his hide? It would be a cold wet snowing day on Mustifar before he would let that happened. Maul's eyes were dilated and glowing yellow as he jumped on his bike and pushed it to its limits racing back to town, a billowing tail of dust marking his passage as fear, anger, and sheer RAGE filled his veins, the dark side of the force fueling his actions and guiding him to where he needed to go to get. his. ship. BACK.

Maul came back to his senses with his breath shuddering his trained and toned frame, his saber in one hand still on from the fight he had just been though, his other hand wrapped around a surprisingly well dressed Gammorians boot, the rest of the Gammorian a bleeding bruised wreck, as if he had been used to brute force bludgeon the dozens of other Gammorians lying around the bay. Memories rushed back, the confrontation, the glorious battle, the rush of the dark side flowing though him, oh and the comments that the Gammorian leader had made. A cruel smile formed on the Sith's face as he plucked the ship remote from the leaders vest pocket.

"I guess you were right, they would only follow the lead of whoever beat them, and only you were allowed to beat them. Just be glad I am in a hurry or I would make sure that your pain would be legend and whispered of in fear."

Maul activated the remote and entered the ship, quickly powering it up and taking off in pursuit of the queens ship leaving the leader shivering battered and bruised on the floor surrounded by the broken remains of his crew.