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The Tusken Raid

The smuggler ship Kestral, now smuggling its own fugitive crew rather than embargoed trade goods, came out of hyperspace near the infamous desert planet Tattooine and was immediately hailed by fighters on patrol from a Republic destroyer in the system: "Smuggler ship, prepare to be boarded."

Piloted by Trandoshan ace Drace Ragbar, the Kestral barrelled between the two fighters, scattering them with warning shots by the two Jedi apprentices in the turrets.

The fighters turned in pursuit, lasers blasting. They damaged the Kestral's engines before the Jedi gunners, aided by the Kestral's excellent point-defense targeting system, blew them out of the sky. Drace took the ship down fast and, despite the heavy damage, managed to land it safely in a rocky range ten miles from Anchorhead.

Anchorhead

The fugitives spent the next few days at repairs, living off the Kestral's supplies and hoping pursuit would die down. Ragbar repaired everything he could, but the ship's thrust vector magnet, a slablike piece of machinery the size of a large door, would need to be replaced altogether before it could fly more than a short distance.

They gathered the last of their food and water and set off on foot for Anchorhead, walking through twilight and arriving several hours later with both suns rising.

At Anchorhead, claiming to be displaced rescue specialists, they sought Elav Kairn, a merchant recommended as Jedi-friendly by Coltar Tenagi's contact Salek Baskalar on Nar Shaddaa. Elav's assistant Garv said Elav had left two weeks before to supply a group of moisture farmers, who set out to harvest a relatively water-rich plateau in Tusken territory several hundred miles away. Garv loaned the group a heavy hovercraft and enough food and water for a few days in exchange for their efforts to find Elav and bring him back safely.

They drove the rest of the day before reaching the coordinates given by Garv, where they found dozens of sprawling Tusken camps spread out around the base of the plateau. With some careful, slow driving they avoided the camps and reached the slope leading up to the plateau, where Ragbar, driving, rushed through the thin picket line up toward the top. Startled Tusken raiders shot at the hovercraft and damaged its motivator, but the group made it past and reached the settlers at the plateau top. One nervous settler fired on them (and missed) before others realized they were coming to help.

The settlers said they discovered only after arriving, and coming under ferocious attack by the Tusken raiders, that the plateau was Tusken holy ground. Now the Tuskens were out only for blood and had responded to every attempt at talks by trying to kill the envoys. Only 50 farmers remained of the hundred or so who had set out.

Elav was among the survivors. When Tenagi told him they were looking for Jedi, and used the Force to confirm telepathically that he was no mere bounty hunter, Elav said he could help them if they got him back to Anchorhead.

Running Battle

As Drace Ragbar repaired the hovertruck, the Jedi and their friends and the farmers debated into the night the best way to get through the Tuskens. They came up with and abandoned a few ideas, such as dressing up the Nautolan as a Felucian peacock and letting him Force jump out over the Tuskens as a distraction. Finally Gale Owassa, showing remarkable creativity for a clone, hatched a desperate scheme.

Tenagi and Owassa took a swoop belonging to one of the farmers and rigged up Krayt dragon skull, found nearby, and tarps to make it look vaguely like a dragon's outline. Owassa drove the bike slowly toward a Tusken camp as Tenagi used the Force to prop up and animate the skull and wrappings, trying their hardest to make it look like a Krayt dragon creeping up on prey. One Tusken saw their contraption from a distance in the dark and immediately panicked, letting out a howl that spread throughout the camp, sending raiders running.

Meanwhile the farmers set out in their hovercraft, with Ragbar and Dash Wetwalker riding two more swoops to guard them. They charged through an outlying pocket of raiders, and several of the fastest, toughest raiders charged and leapt aboard the hovercraft, trying to clamber up to the cockpits and kill the pilots.

Ragbar and Wetwalker fired away with their blaster pistols as they drove alongside the hovercraft. Wetwalker wounded two raiders and killed a third, and narrowly missed killing a farmer driving a truck with his wild shooting. Ragbar shot three raiders off and knocked another away when he accidentally collided with one of the trucks. When Tenagi and Owassa caught up, Tenagi used the Force to dislodge one raider and killed another with his blaster. Ragbar damaged his swoop badly in a wreck, but it kept flying; Owassa skidded his during the chase but it wasn't damaged.

In the end, one of the farmers was battered badly by the Tuskens but kept his hovertruck flying. Nobody else was hurt despite several of the craft being riddled with blaster fire. Thanks to Tenagi's cool leadership, Ragbar's steady piloting, Wetwalker's wild daring and Owassa's Mandalorian slyness, the day was theirs.

The farmers and their escort began the long trek across the desert back to Anchorhead.

May 26, 2007