By the time they reached the coordinates that the probe droid had given them, the droid had not returned with Balog's next position.

Qui-Gon halted his speeder, which hovered over the ground. Obi-Wan pulled up next to him. They were well outside the city in an unpopulated area. It was flat and dry, with only a few trees clumped here and there. In the far distance, they could see hills.

"We could wait here for the droid," Qui-Gon said to Obi-Wan. "Or we could track ourselves. If we're wrong, we'd have to double back. It could waste time."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Then we can't be wrong."

By the look on his Master's face, Obi-Wan knew it was the answer he'd wanted to hear.

Leaving the engines idling, the two Jedi jumped from their transports and examined the ground. Obi-Wan had been taught tracking at the Temple, but he'd also recently been on a tracking exercise with Qui-Gon on Ragoon- 6. He was glad he'd had a chance to brush up on his skills.

"The probe droid has told us that Balog is traveling in an armored hoverscout," Qui-Gon said. "We know he was last heading roughly east. If we can find some evidence of scorch marks from the engine, we can track him. A vehicle of that weight takes a bigger power drive. There's a predictable pattern of acceleration and release of excess exhaust."

Obi-Wan examined the ground as he'd been taught, dividing it into sections and noticing each pebble, each disturbance of sand. He crouched down to examine a rock.

"Here," he said. He moved a step on. "And here."

Qui-Gon leaned over to examine the trail. "Yes. See how deeply the rocks have been marked. He accelerated here. Let's go."