“Guarded Secrets”

Boba Fett's feet crunched in the gravel outside. Ann hid under a table in one of the small villas and trembled with fear. Fett was coming after her and he would find her soon. Her chin length blonde hair fell over her face as she turned her head trying to see Fett through a window.

The crunching noise was getting louder. Ann suddenly had to run. She crawled out from under the desk and scurried to the door. She opened it and peered outside. She couldn't see Boba Fett so she decided to leave the villa.

As soon as her foot touched the ground she wished she hadn't left the villa. The crunch was a dead give away of her position to Boba Fett. Ann panicked and ran as fast as she could.

Boba Fett froze as he heard the distant crunching of gravel. He turned his head and looked through the window of the villa Ann had been hiding in. He saw Ann running away from the buildings and into the forest of orange plants and trees.

Fett grabbed his blaster and jogged around the villa and then bolted after Ann. The gravel slowed their pace but Boba Fett was catching up slowly.

Ann panted as she ran. She had a chunk of gravel in her shoe that was making her limp and slowing her down. She didn't dare stop to shake it out of her shoe.

Ann had secretly been restoring a TIE fighter that had crashed on her planet years ago. It was operational now and she planned to escape in it, as long as Boba Fett did not catch her. She could hear him behind her. The tree branches were being snapped as he passed through them. Ann ran faster.

A blue blaster bolt went flying over Ann's shoulder and she knew that Fett didn't want to kill her, only stun her. That made Ann even more frightened. She wondered why the hunter would want her alive. She knew why he wanted her. When she had been repairing the TIE fighter she had found top secret orders for the guarding of a new super weapon, the Death Star. Ann had no idea what a Death Star was but she knew it sounded deadly. Now with Boba Fett on her tail she knew for certain.

As she ran she missed seeing a tree root that was torn out of the soil. Ann tripped and landed on her belly. She was about to get to her feet but suddenly the world went blank.

Boba Fett had caught up with Ann and had shot her with a stun bolt. He stood over her for a moment, checking she was unconscious. He gave her a light tap with his boot before picking her up and taking her back to the villa she had been hiding in.

An hour later Ann woke up. She felt giddy at first and was then stunned as she caught sight of Boba Fett. She rolled off the table that she had been lying on and landed heavily on the ground. She tried to escape but Fett grabbed her around he waist and held her against his armoured chest. Ann had no way to get free of his grip and stopped struggling.

"Good," said Boba Fett, "It is useless to struggle. Now tell me where is the downed TIE fighter?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Ann grumbled.

"You do, I know you have been restoring it. No one out here needs Imperial spare parts, but you have been ordering them. So I ask you again, where is the TIE fighter?" Boba Fett pushed as he pressed his blaster to Ann's head.

"Okay, I'll take you to it. It's in the forest." Ann said as Fett let her go.

Ann led Fett out of the villa and into the forest. He followed at her heals and gave her no chance to escape. It took a while for them to get through the orange plants but it was less than forty minutes into the trek when they came to the TIE fighter.

Boba Fett took out a pair of handcuffs and locked one around Ann's wrist and another on a thick tree branch. Fett then went into the TIE fighter. He was gone for about ten minutes. When he crawled out he had the memory box of the TIE's computer.

He then undid the handcuff on the tree and put onto his own wrist so Ann couldn't run away. He guided them back to the villa, then passed through the small town to the outskirts where his ship Slave I was waiting. He hauled Ann on board and locked her in a cell while he put the memory box into a storage locker.

Slave I left the planet and flew up and into orbit. There Slave I met up with a star destroyer that had Darth Vader aboard. Boba Fett took Ann and the memory box to Darth Vader. Darth Vader nodded and said, "Good work bounty hunter. Give that box to Captain Zimmer and I'll take care of the prisoner. I'm sure you will be called upon again Boba Fett."

Boba Fett waited to be paid before he left the star destroyer. As he flew into the star filled sky he plotted his next fantastic bounty in the Ecba System.