Life on a swoop, Part 1
     The race was about to begin.  As the engines of the various swoops and speeder bikes revved up, the rider sat motionless.  A shot rang out, the race had begun!  The rider on the black and gold swoop with the fiery form painted on it gunned the engine on her swoop and soared onto the track.  She began to pass various other racers as her swoop picked up speed.  As she approached the leaders, a blaster bolt jolted her swoop.  <Snipers>, she thought as she quickly examined the damage.  Fortunately for her, the bolt had only glanced off the armor plating.  All that remained was a scorch mark.  The course narrowed until it became a canyon between broken down buildings.  She was in second place when they came around the first marker, a red flag waving in the breeze.  The leader was pulling ahead due to an engine juicer that gave him a quick burst of speed.  She pushed her swoop up to full power and overtook him.  He tried to block her but she passed him with ease.  He suddenly rammed his swoop into hers when a large chunk of ferrocete came into view.  Her swoop was pushed directly in front of the rock.  She pushed back and the other swoop was shoved across to the other wall of the canyon.  Sparks flew as the swoop ground into the wall and the new leader left the heavily damaged swoop far behind.  She saw the second marker, a green flag on a barrel, just up and to her left.  She pulled up on her swoop and roared out of the canyon and onto the next portion of the course.  This area was a maze of abandoned corporate offices.  The track led along a winding and curving route through several of them. The rider slowed down a little bit and rolled her swoop to the left and entered the first building.  She soared down a dark hallway and flew through the large whole in the wall at the far end.  The next marker, a large, illuminated arrow, pointed to the left.  She turned right however and dodged several low overhangs as she raced through the abandoned building.  She felt a blaster bolt whiz past her from behind and she knew that another swoop had followed her.  She hit the brakes and the other swoop jetted out in front of her.  She fired her blaster cannon as the other rider tried undo his mistake.  The swoop vanished in a spectacular fireball that was extremely bright in the confines of the dark room.  She floored her engine and continued on.  She came around a bend and saw a wide open warehouse which led back to the track.  She saw other swoops flash by on the other side of the building and turned her swoop to the right and gunned the engine.  The swoop responded and soared into the warehouse.  The empty building was full of crates and boxes.  The rider fired her blaster can and cleared a way directly through the rubble.  After flying through the tangled and twisted boxes, she turned her swoop back onto the track.   The course led across an open field where snipers were known to hide.  She punched the swoop back upto full power and used one of her afterburners to roar across the field before the snipers could draw a bead on her.  She turned around a large hill and saw the finish line.  With the rest of the racers a kilometer behind her, she glided across the finish line for an easy victory.   The crowd went wild as the rider got off her swoop as the nearest competitors were roaring across the finish line, jockeying for position.  The race sponsor walked over and handed her a credit stick that contained the reward for winning the race, 25,000 credits.  "And who is the winner of this prize?" inquired the sponsor.  "Call me Mirage," said a feminine voice from the helmet.  "Alright, Mirage.  I declare Mirage the winner of the prize for the Razorsweep tournament," shouted the sponsor.  The crowd cheered and whistled as Mirage accepted the prize and left.  
     The next day, Mirage, as she called herself, landed her speeder in a stall at the Hive.  "Would you like to refuel your swoop?" inquired a voice over the com.  "No thank you," she answered.  She stepped into the turbolift and took it down to the ground floor.  She then walked across the room to where the bar was.  "What'll it be, beauty.  The first one's on the house," said a short bartender as he address Mirage.  "I'll have whatever's on tap," she answered.  "Are you sure you can handle it?" he asked slyly.  She grabbed his collar and pulled him up onto the bar.  "Look, shorty.  You've insulted me enough.  Now get me my drink and be quick about it," she said angrily.  "Yes-ssss, ma'am," he stuttered as he poured her drink.  She snatched it from him and walked over to a table that was occupied by a Twi'lek male.  "Hey babe, how's it like livin' in the fast lane?" he asked casually.  "The money is good but the service sucks," she answered evenly.  "Don't worry 'bout Shorty over there.  He's like that with every fem," said the Twi'lek.  "Yeah, well anyway, do you have anything for me?" she asked.  "Nakuda's been 'acquiring' unwilling help from some technically minded folks.  He runs the whole operation out of an underground garage.  That's all I know.  Try talking to Blizz next time you see him."  "Well, that's not much to go on.  I'll just have to do a little investigating," she said.  "Thanks for the info though, Turlk."  "Sure, anytime Mirage," answered Turlk as he stood up and left.  Mirage got up and walked over to the turbolift.  She got on and took it up to the upper level.  From there she went straight to Nakuda's place.  The big Herglic stood up as the beautiful blonde approached him.  "What can I do for ya?" he asked.  "I need an engine upgrade for my swoop," she said.  "Well, that can be kinda expensive.  Some 'additional' services other than credits might be required," he answered.  "Don't you wish.  I don't sell those kind of services," she said with a smile.  "Just thought I'd check," answered the Herglic.  "Anyway, that'll at least cost you 20,000 credits, maybe more.  Depends on how much of an upgrade you want."  "Credits are no problem and I need it boosted to one and a half times the power.  Also, I need an additional blaster cannon mounted," she said.  "That can be arranged for an additional fee, of course," he answered.  "Of course," she nodded.  I'll be back in a second with the details of the contract.  The big Herglic walked through a back door and picked up a contract sheet.  When he came back out, Mirage was waiting for him.  "Alright, just sign here and here and bring your swoop in and we'll get started on it.  The job shouldn't take more than a couple of hours so stick around," he explained.  Mirage read the contract and signed in the indicated spaces.  "There, I'll have my swoop down with in a half hour," she said.  She went back to her stall and activated her swoop's computer.  She keyed in a few commands and placed a small device on the swoop.  It looked like a handle pad but was actually a small camera that recorded everything it saw.  She called up the Hive ATC.  "This is Hive Control," it answered.  "Would you please have my swoop transferred to the Nakuda repair bay," she asked.  "No problem, it'll be down there in five minutes," answered the com.  "Thank you," she said and signed off.  She left and went back down to the lower level of the Pits.  She went back upto the bar and got another drink.  Then she sat down in an unoccupied booth.  As she sat there, a man walked up and sat down.  "Hey beautiful, how 'bout I buy you a drink," he said with a leering smile.  "Sure," answered Mirage.  The man smiled again and walked over to the bar.  He returned a minute later with to cups with bubbling, purple drink inside.  "Here ya go, the best this place can make," he said as he set the cup down in front of her.  He sat down across from her and stared over his cup.  She stared back as she sipped her drink.  "So, which swoop's yours?" he asked.  "The Illusion of Beauty," she answered.  "Mine's Little Devil," he said.  "You busy later?" he asked hopefully.  "As a matter of fact, I am.  I have some business over at Nakuda's place which'll take all day," she answered.  "Oh well, will I be seein' ya tomorrow then?" he asked again.  "Probably not," she said.  "Well, I want to see you now, and you're coming whether you like it or not," he said as he pointed a blaster at her.  Her well-placed kick made him yelp with pain as the blaster landed on the table and he landed on the floor.  Half the bar turned and looked at the man rolling in pain on the floor.  She picked up the blaster and looked it over.  It was heavily modified and probably didn't even work.  She dropped it on the floor next to the man as she left.  
     A couple of hours later, her swoop was finished and delivered to the garage she lived in with her friend, Turlk.  She removed the camera from the handlebar and placed it on a counter.  Next, she looked over the improvements to her swoop.  The installation was flawless and she could tell the upgrade would dramatically increase performance on her swoop.  Then she removed the film from the camera and placed it in her computer.  The film was scanned and then played across the screen.  Mostly, it was just normal work but at the end she saw one of the mechanics, a pretty Twi'lek female whipped for making a mistake on the repairs of a nearby swoop.  That was enough to prove that something was amiss at NaKuda's shop.  She called in Turlk and showed him the film.  He watched it with interest and then suggested she find Blizz Pinnix owner of the Pits and the fabled 'Black Raptor'.  Then she should show him the tape and let him decide what to do next.  Mirage decided differently however.  "I think I'll just show off my repair skills or apply for a job there.  That'll show whether or not there are any problems.  Anyway, I want to test out the new upgrades on my swoop.  Maybe I'll take out a couple Razors while I'm at it," she said.  Before Turlk could say anything else, she had put on her flight helmet and powered up 'The Illusion of Beauty'.  She backed out of the garage and throttled down the street.  As she picked up speed she pulled the nose of the swoop up until she was flying at a 45 degree angle to the ground.  She pushed the throttle upto the previous maximum and then as far as it would go.  The resulting speed was close to double the original when in a dive and about one and a half times as fast in normal flying.  A blaster shot whizzed by her and she knew that she had joined the aerial battle that rages night and day on Stend IV.  She jerked her swoop around to look at her attacker.  She didn't recognize any of the markings until she looked at the rider himself.  It was an Imperial for sure.  The white and black armor was unmistakable.  Apparently, the Empire was trying to retake the skies with some new units because this Imperial wasn't flying the normal repulsorlift sled of the original Imperial patrols.  It looked more like an Ikas-Adno XR-20 speeder bike except heavily modified.  The Imperial fired again and only missed due to Mirage's great flying skills.  She pointed her swoop on a course perpendicular to that of the Imperial's and floored the throttle.  The swoop responded immediately and she rocketed away from the Imperial speederbike.  The Imperial followed suite, exactly as Mirage had planned.  She hit the brakes and the swoop ground to a halt, 50 meters above the ground.  The Imperial, who had anticipated the move, slowed down and fired at her.  He missed due to gravity's effect on objects that stay in the air with no inertia.  Her swoop dropped like a rock.  Mirage rotated the swoop's nose until it pointed directly at the Imperial and then gunned the throttle.  The swoop flared to life and shot toward the unwitting Imperial speeder bike.  Mirage flipped on a flight recorder and flew with in three feet of the Imperial before he heard her coming, her flight recorder taping him the whole time.  The Imperial let out the throttle and jetted off in a different direction.  Mirage turned her swoop around and followed the Imperial as he flew towards the center of the city, where the worst of the aerial combat was.  The Imperial dived and jinked his bike around a number of other swoops and speeder bikes but Mirage always kept him in sight.  The Imperial looped around a high-rise building and caught Mirage unaware.  She had followed him around the building but he had turned back at the last moment and was waiting for her when she came around.  She saw him just in time to avoid the flurry of blaster fire that came from his blaster cannon.  She gunned the swoop and flew away from the Imperial who gave chase.  As her swoop was faster, she easily outran the Imperial who gave up and turned back toward the city.  Mirage had no intentions of giving up on the Imperial speeder bike however.  She looped back and headed directly for the Imperial who had engaged a member of the Razers.  He quickly dispatched the gang member and headed towards Mirage.  He was not expecting the blaster fire that caught him from the side, though.  The last thing he saw was a bright, red speeder bike fly past him.  Turlk pulled up beside Mirage and smiled.  "What did you do that for?" she complained.  "I had 'im nailed," explained Turlk.  "Besides, you don't let other guys make 'passes' at the girl you supposed to protect," he said with a smile.  She smiled back though Turlk couldn't see it because of her helmet.  "I got some major data to pass on to family, so we'd better not sit here in the sky waiting for some Razer to blow our bikes away," she said.  He nodded and rolled away into the everlasting fray that surrounds Stend IV.  She removed the flight recorder from it's slot and throttled her swoop down onto the relatively deserted streets of the city.  As she flew through one particularly abandoned area of the city, she tossed the flight recorder through the window of one shack.  An old man hobbled out and yelled at her for doing it as she flew away.  She went back to the garage and de-activated the swoop.  She walked over to the mutually owned computer and started typing a report on the activities seen in the flight recorder.  She sent the message and got an acknowledgment, saying that Alliance HQ had received the message and would be expecting the tape soon.  Then she started the daily tuning up she gave her swoop.
     As the days past, Mirage could find no trace of the mysterious owner of the Pits and Raptor Run, Blizz Pinnix.  Though she had talked to the man before, it had only been at a particularly competitive race.  Therefore, the only place she would talk to him again was at a race.  She signed up for the next race and began preparing for the difficult track known as Raptor Run.  Raptor Run consisted of a trek through a winding valley, a rocky crater field, a maze of abandoned buildings, and finally a jagged canyon.  The course was notorious for finishing the careers of countless up-and-coming racers.  Three people had completed the course in under 20 minutes and Mirage planned to make that four.  When the day of the race finally arrived, Mirage donned her black helmet and set off for the Run.  On arriving, she maneuvered her swoop through the crowded lot and set it down in her assigned racing stall.  Then she went over to the registry and checked the racer's roster.  The Black Raptor, Blizz's bike, wasn't on the list.  Perhaps he would show up later.  The racers were going to make the run individually since the course was more of a timed race than against other racers.  Mirage was the third of seven to go, so she had a while to wait.  The goal was to finish the course in under 20 minutes to receive the 1,000 credit reward and the person with the fastest time would win 5,000 credits in addition to the standard 1,000 credits.  The first to riders didn't even complete the course but wiped out in the last section of the track.  The third completed the course in 32 minutes, not a bad time all things considered.  Mirage was the next to go when a black speeder bike pulled up.  It could have been none other than the Black Raptor.  And who could ride the Black Raptor other than Blizz Pinnix.  "Mind if I go ahead of you?" he asked Mirage.  "Go right ahead," she said.  He turned to go when she tapped him on the shoulder.  He turned back,"Yes?"  "I need to talk to you.  It's really important," she said.  "Alright, if you can complete the course in the required time, I'll talk," he said.  Then, he floored his speeder bike and disappeared onto the track.  About eight minutes later, the sponsor annouced,"The Black Raptor has finished the course in 7 minutes 29 seconds.  Next rider."  Mirage powered up her swoop and gunned the engine.  The swoop responded and hurtled forward.  She guided it through the relatively easy valley and maneuvered it onto the crater field.  The track led right through the field and was littered with rocks and overhangs.  She steered the swoop through the field with relative ease.  The real challenge lay ahead.  As she entered the mass of debris and abandoned buildings, she noticed one in particular that looked ready to collapse and she had to fly right through it.  As she neared it, she saw what looked like detonite packed around several key supports.  She decided to go ahead and go straight through the building.  She pushed the swoop's throttle beyond the normal cruising speed and hoped for the best.  When she was about halfway through the building, she heard a loud thump and debris began to fall from the ceiling.  She weaved between a number of support columns and increased her speed even further.  The whole ceiling began to come down as Mirage put in an engine juicer that increased her speed even more.  She shot out of the building just as it collapsed.  She heard the boom from the explosion as she reached the marker that pointed to the final section of the track, the Jagged Canyon Run.  This was the spot that ended more racer's careers than the rest of the course put together.  She turned her swoop into the canyon and pushed her throttle to its maximum potential.  This was risky but it was the only way she could beat the time limit.  She weaved under an overhang and then around a sharp turn and saw the finish line in the distance.  She had to make it past three narrow passes before she got there.  She succeeded in passing the first two but slipped up on the third.  She turned too much and slammed into the wall.  There was a loud screech as her windbreak spider-webbed and the armor plating was torn away, exposing the sensitive circuitry underneath.  She pulled away from the wall and up into the upper part of the canyon.  The rim of the canyon was the limit of height aloud so she flew just under it to avoid any further overhangs.  She hurtled out of the canyon and across the finish line in time to hear the cheers of the crowd.  She looked at the large sign that showed each rider's time.  She had done the run in 12 minutes 51 seconds!  Mirage stared at the sign as her jaw dropped.  An official walked up and handed her 1,000 credits and a data-disk good for one free drink at the Pits.  Mirage slowly flew her swoop away as she realized what she had done.  She had the second fastest record for the Run.  Suddenly, a large black speeder bike dropped in front of her with a black rider on it.  He motioned with his hand for her to follow him.  She did and he led her back to the Pits where they parked their speeders in separate stalls.  Mirage met Blizz outside her stall and they walked down to the bar.  "What'll it be?" he asked.  "Whatever's on tap," she answered.  "So what did you want?" he asked as he paid for her drink.  "Watch this and tell me what you think," she said as she handed him a copy of the tape made at Nakuda's place.  He nodded and left.  Mirage finished her drink and then went back to the stall.  She used the pre-supplied tools and began to work on her swoop.  
     She heard a knock on the door about an hour later, just after she had finished repairing the swoop.  She opened it and two hands grabbed her and threw her backward.  She landed on the floor, dazed.  "Listen sweetheart,  If you don't give me any trouble, I won't give you any," said the muscular man who had thrown her to the ground.  Two more came in after him and one bent over to put restraints on her.  She grabbed him by the neck and flipped him over into the wall.  As he was peeling himself off the wall, she jumped to her feet and kicked the other in the groin.  He doubled over and collapsed from the pain.  She was about to lunge at the last man when she felt a blaster barrel stuck against her head.  "Move and I blow your head off," she heard the man say.  She raised her hands slowly as the muscular man put a full body restraint on her.  "Come on, let's get her down to the garage and bring the swoop.  We can use the spare parts," said the man with the gun.  The muscular man flung her over his shoulder and carried her out the door.  Then the other man gagged and blindfolded her.  After what seemed about five minutes to Mirage, she was engaged and heard a familiar voice.  "Well, well, well, what have we here?  Good work, boys.  Let's see if she's as good as you say she is," said the voice.  Mirage realized it was Nakuda.  She was set on a table and the blindfold removed.  Nakuda was smiling over her as he placed leather straps across her chest and legs.  Then another man undid her body restraint.  NaKuda backed away and a man in a white lab coat stood over her.  "This marvelous wonder of technology is called a 'Keeper'.  It will be planted under your skin and will give us your exact location, direction, and speed for upto 25 kilometers.  If you go out of range or try to remove it, a neurotoxin will be implanted into your blood and will kill you with in a minute.  Now the surgery will begin," said the man as he put on a breathing mask.  He bent over her with a laser scalpel in hand.  When his arm cam in reach, she grabbed it and pulled the man down.  He fell on the release button for the table restraints and was knocked out cold.  She jumped off the bed and ducked as one man fired his blaster at her.  He missed and all the men pulled out their weapons.  "You can't escape, Mirage.  There's no way out of here," Mirage heard Nakuda say.  Mirage grabbed the Keeper lying on the ground and picked up the doctor's scalpel.  A man had walked up to the table and she could see his legs.  The next the Nakuda and his thugs saw was their lead man scream in pain and fall over.  Mirage grabbed the fallen man's blaster and fired blindly over the table.  This made Nakuda's men dive for cover.  She glanced over the table and saw she was in a large room.  There were parts everywhere and several half-assembled swoops.  She also saw the Twi'lek woman from the tape cowering in the shadows along with several other humanoids in greasy coveralls.  She saw her swoop over by an open door and started to run towards it.  A man jumped out from behind a wall and caught a blaster bolt, full in the chest.  He fell backwards with a smoking blaster whole where his heart and lungs used to be.  She made it to her swoop after avoiding several shots from the other thugs.  As she powered up the swoop, she saw one man step out and take careful aim.  It was too late to jump for cover but the blaster bolt ricocheted off the ceiling.  Mirage saw the Twi'lek girl running back into the shadows as she flew off.  She raced her swoop out of the garage and through the city streets.  And fortunately for her, she made it to her garage without being detected by any of Nakuda's pursuing speeders.  Turlk was working on his bike when she flew in.  "Where have you been?" asked Turlk.  "Escaping from NaKuda's slave ring," answered Mirage.  "Oh, well there's a message for you on the com," he said.  Mirage nodded and went over to the computer.  She brought up the message.  It was from Blizz Pinnix.  He wanted to meet with her again and ask her some questions about the video.  She replied to his message, saying that she would meet him at the bar two hours later.  
     When two hours had past, Mirage found herself sitting in a booth waiting for Blizz.  He sat down across from her.  "So, where'd you get this tape?" he asked.  "From Nakuda's garage," she answered.  "Come on, NaKuda doesn't keep slaves.  Everyone knows his mechanics," said Blizz.  "Apparently not," replied Mirage.  Taking the Keeper out of her pocket, she explained the concept behind it to him.  "And where did you get this 'keeper'?" he asked.  "I was working on my swoop in a stall earlier.  Apparently, Nakuda can watch them somehow.  Maybe with hidden cameras or something.  A couple thugs came in and took me to his underground garage.  That girl you saw in the video was there, too.  They were going to put that in my neck, but I got lucky.  The 'doctor' was careless and I managed to escape," she explained.  "I see, and just where is this 'garage'?" he asked.  "Under Nakuda's store," she answered.  "Well, if what you say is true, Nakuda is just more scum to be cleaned up.  I'll talk to some of my friends and see what I can have done.  I'll need to take this keeper with me," he said.  "Fine, I'm gonna take his place out if nothing happens in the next day or so," she said.  Blizz nodded and left.  Over the next several days, Mirage heard nothing from Blizz or anyone else for that matter.  She had avoided the Pits for obvious reasons and stayed in the garage.  She was messing with her swoop when the com beeped.  She walked over and pushed the RECV button.  Blizz's face appeared on the screen.  "Mirage, I'm goin in.  You want to come?" he asked.  "Where do you want to meet?" she asked.  "I'll meet you at your place," he said.  She nodded and switched off the com.  She went over to the tool box and pushed a button on the bottom.  A secret panel opened and she removed a small blaster.  It was a very illegal Storm trooper Two Blaster Carbine.  The weapons were renowned around the galaxy for absolute stopping power at cost of range.  She put it in her blaster holster and put on her racing, jumpsuit.  She was just revving up her swoop when the Black Raptor pulled up.  "Ready?" he asked.  She answered by backing out of the drive and flooring the engine.  Blizz soon caught up though since his bike was about twice as fast as hers.  They reached the Pits and guided their speeders toward the entrance to Nakuda's underground garage.  A thug standing outside yelled,"What're you doin here?"  He was answered with a blaster shot from Mirage.  As the corpse toppled over, Blizz jumped off his bike and opened the door.  Mirage flew her swoop through the entrance and caught a thug square in the head.  As yet another headless corpse fell over, Blizz came flying through with his blaster cannon blazing.  Three guards were down in five seconds and the other two were hiding.  Mirage heard screams coming from another room and ran towards the door.  Blizz picked off both thugs as they rose to shoot Mirage.  Mirage kicked open the door from which the screams were emminating and yelled,"Hold it right there."  Nakuda looked up from the slave he was beating.  One man went for his blaster and Mirage shot him straight through the heart.  All the slaves were lined up along the wall with their hands chained above their heads.  The Twi'lek who had save Mirage looked particularly beaten.  Blizz came through the door as Nakuda dropped his whip and raised his hands.  "You scum, and to think I let you run my place," said Blizz, his voice full of contempt.  Nakuda just smiled and whistled.  A shadow fell upon Blizz and Mirage.  They turned around and saw Chugg, the Reigatt bodyguard and bouncer.  Nakuda pointed to the two racers and laughed.  Chugg grabbed Mirage by the head and lifted her off the ground as Blizz fired his blaster uselessly at the Reigatt.  Chugg just laughed and backhanded Blizz, sending him sprawling.  Chugg tightened his fist on Mirage's head as she struggled to free herself.  Blizz shook himself out of a daze to see Chugg go limp and fall over on top of Mirage.  Blizz ran over and rolled the oversized thug off of her and saw she was still conscious.  Her helmet had huge imprints where Chugg's fist had crunched her head.  "Don't move," Blizz heard as he felt a blaster barrel against his throat.  "Get up nice and easy and keep your hands where I can see them," ordered Nakuda.  Blizz slowly raised his hands and suddenly locked them over Nakuda's wrist and flipped the Herglic over his shoulder.  Nakuda slammed into the wall and his blaster clattered to the ground.  Mirage moaned weakly and waved her now useless blaster.  "Everything will be fine.  You're just a little weak," said Blizz softly.  Mirage faded into unconsciousness and Blizz felt her pulse fade away.  "You bleedin' slime," he screamed at the semi-conscious Herglic.  He ran over and slammed his fists into the Herglic's head.  Nakuda crumbled under the fury of the attack.  "I ought to kill you for what you've done.  You're goin down, freak, hard and fast," he said angrily.  Nakuda smiled again and opened one hand.  There was a small control device in it.  "This is the master control for the Keepers I use to keep my slaves in line.  You make one move and I'll kill them all," he said.  Blizz looked at the pitiful looking slaves as they strained against their chains.  Then he spun around and knocked the controller out of Nakuda's hand.  It went flying and smashed against a wall.  Nakuda punched Blizz in the stomach and Blizz doubled over.  Then he grabbed Blizz's head and slammed it into a wall.  Blizz staggered away and fell against the Twi'lek girl.  His hand landed on the release button for her restraints and they came off.  She lowered him to the ground and turned back to Nakuda.  "So, Sil, you want to play rough?" he moved toward her menacingly.  She ran to another slave and freed him as well.  Nakuda just waited for them all to become freed.  Then he picked up the controller and held it up.  "You all know what this is and if you make another move, I'll push the button," he threatened.  This froze the slaves in their tracks.  Nakuda smiled as he saw them lose their resolve.  Then a foot came flying out and knocked him over.  Blizz staggered to his feet to see Mirage fall over after kicking the Herglic.  He grabbed his blaster off the ground and pointed it at Nakuda.  "This time, you've got no where to hide and no where to run," he said as he pulled the trigger.  The last thing Nakuda saw was a blaster bolt hurtling toward him.  The dead Herglic fell over backward just a swoop roared into the garage.  Another racer known as Jade stepped off and looked around the smoking room.  She walked into the room where Blizz was standing and looked at the floor.  She saw the still unconscious Chugg, Mirage, and a dead Nakuda.  "What happened?" She asked.  "Nakuda's dead and so is she," he said pointing at Mirage.  "Oh, my counterpart, wonder what she was doing here.  Anyway, I was supposed to kill Nakuda.  Looks like you served it to him already," she said.  She walked over and knelt over Mirage.  "She's still alive," said Jade as she felt her pulse.  She pulled off Mirage's helmet and began rescue breathing.  A couple seconds later, Mirage coughed and started breathing normally but still unconsciously.  "There, all she needs is a good night's sleep and she'll be fine," said Jade.  Jade walked over to where Chugg was beginning to stur and placed restraints on him.  Then she pushed a little button on the side.  A buzzing sound started to emminate from the restraints.  As Chugg regained consciousness, he became aware of the restraints.  Strangely, he didn't struggle against them.  Blizz looked quizzically at Jade.  "Oh, a special mind stimulating frequency that calms the mind.  He won't be giving me any trouble," she said with a smile.  Blizz just shrugged and pulled out a comlink.  He programmed a certain frequency and spoke a few words into the comlink.  A few minutes, the whine of repulsorlifts grew loud and three police speeder bikes flew into the garage.  The officers got off and walked upto Blizz.  He explained the situation to the officers who nodded and began to cordon off the area.  He picked up the unconscious Mirage and laid her over the seat of her swoop.  Then he took a length of synthrope and hooked the two speeders together.  Then he slowly flew her to the garage.