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New weapons gleamed from Slave I's storage bays: blaster, ionizers, plasma missiles. And, at Boba's request, Jabba had arranged for brand-new sensor-jammers to be installed on Slave I, as well as a state-of-the-art interstitial stealth shield. But best of all was the shining set of Westar- 34 blasters on Boba's weapons belt.

"I'll never let you down, Father. Not as long as I have these,"

Boba murmured as he checked a blaster's power cell cartridge.

Once the Westar-34s had belonged to Jango Fett. Now they were his son's. The blasters had been designed by Jango, and specially made for him. Compact enough to fit in a jet pack, the weapons were cast of a nearly priceless dallorian alloy, designed to withstand furnace heat.

Boba wasn't sure what was in store for him on Xagobah. But he was pretty sure things would heat up once he got there.

He settled behind the ship's console and set his course for Xagobah. He glanced out the viewscreen.

"Looks like I'm not the only bounty hunter anxious to leave," he said.

In the docking bay around him, dozens of other ships were getting ready to depart Tatooine. Astromech droids and Ughnaught mechanics were everywhere, scrambling to make last-minute adjustments to starships and speeders. In the hazy, red-tinged air above him Boba could make out more starships, flashing like falling stars. He pressed Slave I's thruster igniters.

With a deafening rumble and an explosive burst of flame from its fusion reactors, Slave I shot from the landing bay.

"Yes!"

Boba's heart pounded with the thrill that accompanied every new mission. Below him, the Dune Sea spread like flame across the surface of Tatooine. And like flame the brilliant red-and-orange dunes almost immediately faded into black, as Slave I pierced the planet's atmosphere and headed into the vast realm of space.

Boba checked the coordinates for Xagobah. He glanced out the viewscreen and saw the usual flash and flare of planets and distant stars.

He frowned. "What's that?"

At the bottom of the viewscreen, something glittered and darted like an asteroid. Something that shouldn't be there.

"There's no asteroids in this sector," said Boba. "No recent planetary upheavals..."

Boba quickly checked Slave I's flight plan. There was no sign of meteor activity. The glittering spark grew larger on the viewscreen. Boba leaned forward.

"That's no meteor!"

Instinctively he reached for the control unit of Slave I's missile deployer.

"That's a fighter!" he cried. "And it's tailing me!"

His fingers flashed across the console. Immediately the enlarged image of a Koro-1 exodrive air-speeder filled the screen. Furiously Boba punched at the console. He needed that vehicle's registration data...

Silvery letters filled the screen. Andoan registry, licensed to Urzan Krag of Krag Fanodo.

"The Aqualish," Boba breathed. "He wanted this assignment, too.

Well, he's not going to get it!"

Before him on the viewscreen was a white-hot burst. Slave I shuddered as though it were starting re-entry.

"He's firing on me!"

Immediately Boba went into attack mode. The Andoan vessel blinked from sight.

"He has a cloaking device," muttered Boba. "Well, so do I."

Boba deployed Slave l's sensor jammers, then activated the protose detectors. They indicated that the Andoan ship was somewhere behind him.

"You want to play hide-and-seek?" said Boba. He grasped the controls of Slave I's laser cannons and fired. "Well, hide from that!"

The energy bolts streaked through the black emptiness outside the ship. They found their target and seemed to liquefy around it. The Andoan speeder's outlines appeared, cloaked in a blazing plasma skin.

The Andoan vessel seemed to hover like a teardrop waiting to fall.

An instant later a blinding flare of blue-white plasma engulfed the Aqualish's ship.

"Gotcha!" exclaimed Boba.

Backlash waves of energy from the blast pulsed around Slave I, then dispersed. Where the Andoan