"Fold" Ralen Hlaano whispered under his breath as he let four Sabacc cards slip from between the tips of his thumb and index finger, and onto the large table infront of him. There was utter silence for a moment or so, then a hearty chuckle came from the obese man across the table. "Flush" he said with an evil smile, quirking his right eyebrow, making eye contact with the Rodian beside him, then with Ralen.

"Booosha!" the Weequay to the left of the fat man screamed, and slammed his fists hard into the table, bouncing the pile of credits in the center. Ralen closed his eyes and winced as he heard the clinging of metal and the yelling between the Weequay and the Rodian. "Shut up! Shut up, you's!" the fat man stood now, and two other humans with skull like helms and vibro staffs stepped up beside him, breaking up the quarrel between the two players.

"Gentleman" the man sat down now, resting his arms on the sides of his large chair. "Gentleman, please, no need for fights. Can't we all just get along?" he chuckled, spitting drops of saliva all over the pile of Imperial credits and the Rodian. Ralen slipped his chair back out of the radius of the light over the table, and into the smoke-filled shadows. "Chaaaba!" the Rodian shouted and pulled a blaster from his green vest and pointed it at the man. Quickly the fat man's two guards pointed their vibro staffs at the Rodian. "Chibo chibo!" he shouted yet again, cocking his blaster to the right, then back to it's former position, aimed at the obese human's forehead.

"Goocha cogo, Chicho wa!" one of the guards poked his staff out at the Rodian. He simply shook his head, then shouted again "Chibo!". The fat man in the center of the two guards and the alien just kept shifting his head around, afraid to make any move in fear of getting fried.

Then at the spur of the moment, the Weequay stood up, pulled a blaster from under his coat, and shot the fat man right under his left eye. There was a scream, and a loud noise. At that the guard on the fat man's left swung his axe around, cutting the Weequay three quarters in half.

All of a sudden, a beeping sphere came hurling out of the shadows and hit the far corner of the rather small room. In a split moment, Ralen Hlaano jumped out of the opposite corner, over to the Sabacc table, and sweeped all of the credits in the center into one large satchel,and ran the opposite way.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Boom.

The entire room went up into a storm of smoke and Sabacc cards. Both of the guards with the skull helms came flying across the room and hit the opposite wall. The Rodian was blown back, his face torn to pieces and his clothing shredded. Ralen lay there quietly on the floor, his satchel over his chest. He stood up as the smoke began to clear.

"Weasel, come in Weasel this is Desert Storm. Repeat, Weasel this is Desert Storm. Come in. Over."

Ralen sat up, then lifted his left fist to his lips and coughed. He then reached in his chest pocket and pulled out a small comm link, and spoke into it.

"Desert Storm, this is Weasel. Repeat, Weasel here. I think I missed the door. I must have been on the wrong side of the room. Hit the wall pretty hard. Can barely see now. Bad headache, very, very bad. Over"

"Ralen, you idiot!" howled the voice on the other end of the comm link.

The young man lifted the comm link to his mouth, but nothing would come out, for just as he did this he heard blaster fire from behind him. His eyes widened at the thought. He then saw four rather large holes in the wall infront of him, still on fire. Without thinking he threw the link to the side and rolled over to his left. He pulled his blaster from the holster, then fired at the two figures standing in the rubble.

They returned fire, but missing him by a few feet. He shot at the one most noticeable to the right, one, two, three times. The figure fell to his knees, then hit the ground. The other kept shooting. One bolt came so close as to singe one of Ralen's side burns, but the old Hlaano family luck kept up with him. He shot at the figure. It shot back. This went on three or four times, until Ralen rolled forward and hit the figure, who happened to be a Trandoshen, right between his small reptilian eyes with a flaming bolt of plasma.

Ralen ran forward quickly, not bothering to holster his blaster. The young man lifted his right elbow and held his weapon ready, and with his left hand he quickly looted the body of the first figure, a human. He took forty credits and a belt clip. Ralen quickly ran over to the Trandoshen, and looted the body of seven credits and a docking bay pass. He chuckled a bit, pocketed the credits and the docking bay pass, then kissed his fingers, patting the Trandoshen on the lips. "Thanks bud!" Ralen called to the dead reptilian humanoid as he crawled along the hallway. He then turned and sprinted down a long corridor, dragging the satchel full of credits by his side. He reached a closed door, then tapped a few buttons. The door opened, and Ralen slipped into a large cargo lift that led to the surface.

As he waited for the lift to hit the streets of Mos Eisley, Ralen fingered through the bag of Imperial credits, a devilish grin on his face. "Man, I smoked that fat bantha steak!" he chuckled to himself, picking up a huge handfull of credits, then dropping them back in to the bag.

There was a loud gong, and the titanium doors to the turbo lift slid open. Ralen quickly raised his forearm, blocking the powerful rays of sunlight from Tattooine's twin suns. He stepped out of the lift just as the doors bolted closed. He looked around a bit, trying to find his comrad as his eyes adjusted. "Jeghn, where the hell are you at!?" Ralen growled under his breath.

He patted his chest a few times, then looked down. "Oh...that sucks..." he whimpered. Ralen had left his comm link seventy meters under the streets of Mos Eisley. "Ah, I had to kill a stormy for that thing!" he said under his breath, walking down the crowded street a bit, still looking for his friend.

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"I'll give you fifty, and that's my final offer!" Jeghn, a tall, scruffy Bith, said as he slammed a bag of credits on a steel keg infront of a hovering Toydarian. "No! Listen you butt head, I said seventy five credits! You don't give me what I ask for, then I sell you no part!" the obtuse stinker steamed, crossing arms.

Jeghn picked up his bag with his left hand, and shook his fist at the Toydarian "You flying blob of sith fat! You can't charge that much for an accelerator coupling! I could get the same exact thing your trying to sell me, in better condition, on Coruscant for less than twenty credits! This is bantha slime!" The Toydarian's eyes widened suddenly at his words "Listen you over grown rear end, no one talks to me that way! This is my shop, not some Imperial's. This is Tatooine, not Coruscant. We are not run strictly by stupid Empire's law. So I can charge you whatever I want for an accelerator coupling, and you can buy, or you can shut up!" the hovering blob shouted, throwing his fists left and right at Jeghn.

"Bahhh!!" the Bith shouted. "Do you want it or not!?" The Toydarian screamed at him. By this time, a hefty group of on lookers had grown around the merchant and the smuggler. Jeghn looked around a few times, realizing the spectacle he had made out of himelf. He couldn't get off this dustball without that coupling. Well, he could, but he'd have to walk to Anchor Head, which wouldn't work out. Then he simply lowered his head."Yes..." he retorted in shame. He pulled seventy five credits from his bag, and layed them on the steel keg.He then picked up the accelerator coupling, and walked off as if nothing had ever happened.

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"Where the hell have you been? I've been standing here for an hour!" Ralen shouted to the Bith that was at the head of the speeder that had just pulled up infront of him. "Some Toydarian tried to rip me off by charging me seventy five credits for an accelerator coupling! Last one blew out on me over there near the Cantina. Had to install the new one two. Took about half an hour. Sorry about that, Ralen." the Bith kindly apologized. Ralen threw in the satchel of credits and hopped in the speeder "It's okay, fixer. Just next time try not to blow the accelerator. Now we're running short. We need to get to Anchor Head before anyone tries to take that lift down to the cargo hold." Ralen said calmly, brushing one hand through his dark brown hair.

"Right, well, if that storm doesn't stop us then we should reach Anchor Head by sun down." The Bith replied to him, putting the speeder in second gear and letting the break go. Ralen lifted his head quickly "What storm?" "The sand storm comin in from Mos Espa. See the wall up ahead?" Jeghn pointed infront of them. The dominating wall of sand was rushing at a rather slow pace in the direction of Mos Eisley. Residents were already closing their shops and boarding up their windows in preparation for the storm. "This just isn't my day, Jeghn." Ralen sighed, shaking his head. "Oh come now. Did you get the credits?" he said as he made a left on the sandy streets. "Yeah, yeah I got it all." Ralen replied. "How much is it all?" the Bith asked. "Alot. More then I thought Jory would put up for gambling. You know how that greedy low life is with his credits." he snickered. "Good! Lets just hope the Maggio's or the Hutt's don't find out about this little robbery, or they'll be hell to pay for us. If they find Jax's ship then we're screwed for the long run." The Bith warned, piloting the black speeder out of Mos Eisley to the west, the furocious sand storm eating up their path.

"I told him not to get so close to Liberalis." Ralen sighed. "No, it's fine. I don't think the Empire is in Liberalis, and as far as I know foreign transports are free to land around the city as long as it's not inside the walls." Jeghn assured him. "Yeah, but the Maggio family. I just don't know about them." the young man shrugged. "Don't worry about them. Jax doesn't have many enemies here on Tatooine." Jeghn thought about it for awhile, but instead of correcting his statement, he simply nodded.

"What about Jabba?" Ralen cocked his head to the right, not really wanting an answer. "I think he's more interested in getting hold of Han Solo or Depa'r Sarn. Compared to those two, Jabba has nothing on Jax." Jeghn chuckled.

By this time the storm had completely cought up with them, and they were away from the shelter of the dome topped building that dotted Mos Eisley. Ralen lifted his forearm to shield his eyes from the bolting sand, then turned around as he heard a pop and a bang from the two accelerators. "Oh hell! The coupling's blown again! Jeghn you idiot, did you tie that thing good!?" Ralen turned around tapping the Bith on the back of his pompous head. "I tied it just fine! It's the sand, getting sucked into the engine! Knew this would happen!" he screamed over the roaring screach of sand pellets hitting the speeders wind shield.

Jeghn's black speeder suddenly drooped to hault, and refused to start back. "The accelerator's blown. Full of sand! She won't start back up for nothing!" the Bith screamed at Ralen, who was grabbing his satchel of credits and climbing out of the speeder. He removed his white over shirt and tied it around his head, leaving only a small opening for him to attempt to see out of. Jeghn hopped out of the speeder as well and gave it a hefty kick in the side."Piece of Bantha slop crap!" Jeghn shouted.

"Hey, hey fix!" Ralen shouted, pointing to the east at a series of large humps coming from the sand. "Look! I think I see some tents! Come on!" he shouted. "Okay! Right behind you!" Jeghn shouted, hopping over the speeders front, and coming up beside his friend.

"Oh, Jeghn!" Ralen turned before he started pacing in the direction of the tents. "Yeah?" the Bith shouted back to him. "Make sure you have your blaster. We may need them." he said, and turned around, walking to the molds in the ground. "Right..." Jeghn nodded, putting his hand on his holster, making sure it was there. He then nodded again, and paced forward.