Trychon and Raezyr twisted the throttle, boosting more speed from their swoops as the Desert Raiders closed quickly. Haley and Falka opened fire on their pursuers, leveling their blasters over and around Trychon and Raezyr who concentrated on avoiding the incoming fire.
In the blink of an eye, the game of chicken was over as the four escapees screamed through the midst of the Raiders unscathed, yet leaving two smoking wrecks in their wake.
The Sith coaxed as much speed as they could manage from their vehicles, but the Raiders, who had quickly turned about to pursue, were closing the gap, slowly but surely. Each of the Raider speeders were military surplus, clearly built for speed, and only carried one rider while their quarry were on civilian models, and each carrying two passengers. Raezyr knew they had a decent head start, but it would just be a matter of time before their attackers closed to accurate firing range. Even now they were taking pot shots with their vehicle mounted weaponry, gauging the distance.
"If we stay close together, we'll only make better targets for them," Raezyr called out over the comm. He sensed Trychon's apprehension to the unspoken suggestion, and he echoed the feeling.
"We should probably stick together, watch each others backs," Trychon suggested.
"No, Raezyr is right," Falka said, adding his two creds. "If we split up, one of us will have a better chance of making it back, and then we can come back with reinforcements," he suggested.
"Why not call for back-up, now?" Trychon suggested.
"No good," Haley stated flatly. "I tried that already. They have some sort of long range transmission jamming going on. Our communications are unaffected because we are so close, but by my estimation, it will only last up to a distance of 262 meters, give or take 3 meters."
"Nice 'estimate,'" Trychon said, grinning over his shoulder.
"Cut the chatter, Trych," Raezyr scolded, as a blaster bolt ricocheted off Trychon's swoop. A gout of black smoke erupted from the back end, then trailed off. "You alright over there?" Raezyr called.
"Yeah... yeah, we're okay... nothing serious... secondary stabilizer broke loose... nothing major," Trychon said, flipping a few control switches on the panel in front of him before continuing. "We'll split up, then?"
"You and Haley take... Mos Castoff Canyon across the Jundland Wastes," Raezyr said, looking at a small readout on his contols. "Falka and I will take Tracker Canyon and go over Deathshead Ridge," he informed them.
"See you on the other side, little brother," Trychon said, shooting the bigger man a grin, "and may the Force serve you well."
Together they dropped into a gully between two large sand dunes, and immediately Trychon swerved North, angling toward Castoff Canyon. Raezyr watched his sensors as their pursuers dropped down into the same gully. It took them a few seconds to realize their prey had split up, but as soon as they did, two of the remaining four speeders turned in pursuit after them. The maneuver hadn't worked quite as well as Raezyr hoped it would, but it would buy Trychon another few minutes.
The younger Sith knew if they could just reach their respective canyons they could lose their pursuers, as the Raiders would have to slow down to react to the twists and turns, whereas the Sith, with the Dark Side as their servant, could forge ahead at full speed.
Blaster bolts flashed past Raezyr's head, and he rolled the swoop just barely in time to avoid them. Falka spoke over the comm, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
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