"How are we going to find a dragon?"

May, Dan, and the Skywalkers sat in the back of an open-topped speeder. Ultron had liberated the thing after they'd returned the dewback, alongside a dozen bantha, to the ship.

"We'll pay a visit to our sand people friends," Dan pointed ahead, to a familiar group of bantha. "They'll have the most knowledge about the open desert."

Ultron guided the speeder into a smooth descent next to the unflappable beasts. It took little time before a single sand person approached, a less aggressive meet than the first.

At Dan's insistence, the reluctant A.I. conveyed their request.

"Where is he going?" May squinted after the sand person's high-speed retreat. "Did you insult him?"

"I did no such thing," Ultron steamed. "He shouted about gathering the tribe for a hunt, before he scampered off."

"I thought the sand people were savages?"

Anakin questioned as he played with young Bear. The pair wrestled in the sand under Stormy's watchful gaze.

"They're certainly different, but not impossible to work with," Dan shrugged. "They have a bunch of complicated traditions that make it easy for them to come to violence."

"The boy is right," Ultron snorted. "These creatures are savages, it's unfortunate that they haven't attacked us yet..."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous," Shmi edged closer to her son. "They have quite the reputation."

"Don't worry," Dan reassured the woman. "Ultron here can sense anything for miles around, and his weapons are very powerful."

"If these beasts attack, they'll be dead before they can endanger the group."

Ultron's cruel words only raised the tension and May slapped the back of his head.

"Stop freaking out the locals, you're supposed to make people feel safe."

"I don't know if that was ever one of his skills," Dan laughed, eyes on the huge group of sand people that closed from the horizon. "He's more of a monster than the sand people."

"Of course I am," Ultron bragged. "These barbarians don't understand the subtleties of violence like I do."

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"Yeah, yeah, you're a master of nuance," Dan rolled his eyes and turned to the Skywalkers. "You can think of Ultron as a one-man army. Unless we meet an angry force user, he's unstoppable."

"Our friends are here," May called down from atop one of the free-range bantha. "They look ready for a fight..."

Two groups faced each other, separated by a thin band of sand. Dan and his companions were outnumbered, almost twenty to one. Each sand person carried a weapon in hand, either a sharp metal club or a long rifle.

"Say hello, Ultron," Dan waved at the chieftain, who'd begun a solitary approach. "And be nice."

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"WHERE ARE THEY!"

Watto slammed his tiny fist against the wall, wings barely enough to keep him in the air. The Skywalkers had vanished. The mother was useless, but the boy...

"UNGRATEFUL BRAT!"

He raised a heavy remote, a transponder that could bring him revenge. One flip of a switch and both runaways would be dead, decapitated by micro explosives. His finger touched the controls, but did nothing.

"Ahhhhh...."

He dropped the remote on the ground, body sagged under a heavy weight. He couldn't do it... Anakin had become more than a slave to him, the closest he'd ever come to a son.

"He's too valuable to kill," Watto nodded. "I'll visit the Hutts and report the theft..."

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"This is the place."

Ultron swept his arm toward a mountainous cave, floored by a dark bed of sand. The chieftain called out a long string of words, his form already on the retreat.

"He says they plan to wait until the dragons kill us, then pick off any we manage to injure," Ultron's head tilted to one side. "I may have misjudged these people, they have a wonderful sense of pragmatic humor!"

"Well, I don't blame him," Dan frowned into the cave. "I'm not sure how we're going to tame one of these things, let alone capture them..."

"I've already come up with a plan."

The A.I.'s red gaze flashed, aimed at the horizon. Dan followed to find twenty spots of blue. The blasts of fire raced closer by the second, revealed as several scaled-down versions of Ultron.

"I continued drone production to pass the time," A crackle of amusement passed through Ultron's voice. "They've been modified for animal capture."

"They don't look very friendly," May frowned. "You better not hurt my new dragons!"

"Don't worry, little miss," Ultron looked to the heavens for strength, his orders a shackle that forced him to be kind. "They are outfitted with stun weapons and tranquilizers only."

"Well, let's get on with it," Dan plucked Stormy from the sand and placed him atop his head. "I want to get off this planet as soon as possible."

Once they left, the quest would be complete. The fortress crystal was key to creating a base on a timescale that fit his impatience.

"Very well."

Ultron bounded skyward, only to fall. The A.I. cannonball entered the loose sands at the mouth of the cave. His doubles followed, the sounds of the desert lost to the hum of thrusters.

All was still, a moment of calm as the windswept sand covered Ultron's tunnels. A roar, wrathful and deep, rippled the ground like water. The sand became an ocean, a violent tide that cast out several lesser Ultrons.

A beast surfaced, the head of a shark on a long, dexterous neck. Mouth opened wide in a bellow of complaint, the creature lifted slowly into the air.

Sixteen legs ran down its sides, an ungainly creature, evolved to swim in sand. Ten drones, alongside Ultron himself, pressed against the creature's bulk. They carried it skyward, while the drones pumped it full of sedatives.

"The creature is detained."

Ultron guided the drones to land, several meters from the group. Some of the machines had significant damage, but Ultron's vibranium body was unscathed.

"It doesn't look like a dragon..." May poked the unconscious beast with a single toe. "More like a sand shark."

"This one is a mutant, if I remember right," Dan lifted the creature's jaws and peered inside. "The others all have dragon heads, with bodies like a common lizard."

"Oh... well maybe I'll pass, unless this is the closest to a dragon that exists in the galaxy?"

"There are space dragons..." Dan struggled with his little used knowledge of the Star Wars universe. "They look just like western or eastern dragons and fly around through the void."

"That sounds way better," May nodded. "Let's get out of this place!"