Chapter Text
A woman pulled herself up from the craggy passes of Tatooine and onto the dune sand. Her chest heaved and her brow poured with sweat but she didn’t paused to wipe it as her companion struggled out of the secret tunnel after her and then turned to attempt to pull the third unconscious member of the group up onto the golden wasteland.
“Get him.” He man yelled glancing over his shoulder at the woman. “Help me.”
“He’s already dead.” She answered in a monotone voice. “Direct hit to the head and that gaffi stick was spiked.”
The man shook his head as he gasp and sweat ignoring her as he continued hauling the limp body up the rock face. The woman didn’t look at him or their fallen comrade but narrowed her eyes at the corner of the rocky cavern below them. As expected a couple of sand people lurched round the turn. The woman readied her baster and screamed with anger as she shot furiously at the tuskens. Her companion ducked and grimaced as blaster beams shot wildly above him but he still clung to the wrists of the fallen body. Eventually the two tusken raiders were shot down and their bodies crumpled in the pit below.
Gritty and hoarse the woman stopped shooting in her crazy manner and slung the blaster over her shoulder, for a moment the thick air was quiet, almost peaceful.
“You have a lousy shot.” The man grumbled, glancing up at her.
“It ain’t my job.” She replied curtly.
She reached over and offered her hand to him. He looked down at the body in his hands still dangling off the cliff face.
“He’s gone.” She muttered, this time in annoyance and anger as she knelt beside him in the sand. “Look.” She grabbed the body’s wrist, her hand clenching over her companions as she fumbled to find a vein. No pulse.
Her companion stared down at the body, his face screwed up, until he finally let him fall into the canyon below where his body lay limp.
“We have to get out of here.” The woman called, scrambling to her feet and readjusting her gear. “I don’t think they’ll be more coming back, probably all busy trashing our spoils right now, but I don’t want to take the chance.”
She glanced again at the man who still didn’t move and gave up turning away to face the endless sea of sand and taking a few steps before letting out a piercing scream. “Fucking sand people.”
Her yell seemed to jolt life back into the man and he stood slowly and turned in her direction.
“All those credits. All that gold, that money, that everything.” He moaned.
“Yeah.” She huffed through gritted teeth. “But you know what’s worse than sand people.”
“What?”
“The slicers.”
The man stared at her, dumbfounded and confused. “But…but there at-”
“Jabba’s Palace, yeah, but they’ll be back.”
“But not till nightfall Ram said.”
“Ram guessed. And when they do get back they’ll find their place trashed by the tuskens.”
“So? The tukens did that not us.”
“But I took the shields down.” The woman yelled, darting up to her companions face with annoyance and frustration at his stupidity. “Fucking tuskens can’t take the security offline.”
Realisation then shock then fear all flashed across the man’s face. “They’ll won’t think it was the tuskens. They’ll know it was us.”
“They’ll know it was somebody who could hack into their system and they’ll know it could be anybody who knew Ram.”
“What are we going to do?”
“First of all we’re going to drop all connections with Ram.”
“How?”
“You gotta flame?”
His eyes widened. “No…I won’t let you-”
“Do you want the slicers to get you? There’s only so many connections Ram worked with and it won’t take them long-”
“Alright, alright.” The man gasped and handed her a flare.
The woman wandered back to the pass, ignited the flare and dropped into the pit onto Ram’s body, engulfing him in flame.
“Secondly we’re gonna get outta here and make sure nobody sees us until we’re back at fucking Anchorhead. That’ll widen it out nicely for the slicers. We’re gonna stay put on planet. Sure they’ll come around asking but if we leave it’ll put an obvious mark on us.” The woman strode back along the sand dunes, grabbing the man as she passed him and hauling him to his feet. “And you are gonna keep your cool. No blabbing.” She muttered, looking directly at him with piercing grey eyes.
“Alright, alright.” The man repeated, taking several deep gasps of air and trying to get a hold on himself.
“Okay let’s go.” She mumbled, releasing his jacket collar from her tight grip and wandering off into the wastelands without looking back.