I'm sooo not a hard-core Star Wars aficionado, just have always casually enjoyed the movies and really loved TFA so please excuse my total lack of technical Star Wars knowledge, or really any knowledge...this is just for fun. AU-ish. I own nothing you recognize.
Outskirts of Tuanul, Jakku
If these Force worshipers didn't get out of her face soon, Tali was going to lose her damn mind. Sure they meant well, they were harmless enough, and her father harbored a soft spot for the religious group for some reason... but Tali just couldn't understand them. How could the Church of the Force members wax on about rightness and balance and being "in touch with nature" when there were so many other more important things to worry about? More real concerns?
They had always seemed just a bit self-righteous and silly to her. Especially since Tali had become more familiar with the grittier aspects of life on their desert planet in recent years.
With their communal heads in the proverbial clouds (there were seldom true clouds in a land this dry), no wonder the Church members were always having problems with their self-made technology. She sighed. Being the youngest member (still a "wet-behind-the-ears rookie," as her father routinely emphasized to her chagrin) of the Niima Outpost Militia meant that she was stuck tagging along with her father on his boring humanitarian trips around Jakku, instead of helping the humorless but fair Constable Zuvio keep order and run off pirates at the Outpost full-time.
Just now, Tali was heading towards the Church's communal moisture farm on the outskirts of their settlement to inspect a defective vaporator. Naturally, their home-made tech patch job on the old tower had failed. Now it was up to her as a member of the planet's rag-tag peacekeeping and emergency force to come to the rescue and try to ensure the harmless nut-jobs didn't die of dehydration. While not the best mechanic on the planet, she was versed enough in standard technology and came equipped with enough spare parts (obtained from Unkar Plutt via strained negotiation) to be useful.
Unfortunately, Tali's role as tech fixer-upper also meant being subjected to a miniature sermon on the ways of the Force and the benefits that would come from her potential conversion as two residents guided her around the settlement. Her Militia officer father Barro Zev was sympathetic to their beliefs, even enjoying his occasional visits to Tuanul to discuss religion. But Tali didn't share this philosophical bent... perhaps a remnant of her father's seldom-discussed past as a guardsman on a more civilized planet.
Regardless, as the setting sun beat down on her veiled head and the religious villagers' talk went in one of her ears and out the other, Tali wasn't feeling it. She'd rather be back with Zuvio helping to keep the chaotic inhabitants of the Outpost (somewhat) in line. Or even with her dad and the Church leaders discussing settlement defense and the ever-encroaching threat from pirates and other unfriendly desert dwellers. She rolled her goggles-covered eyes heavenward in quiet exasperation as they reached the defunct moisture vaporator.
Then, with a start, she focused upwards more intently as a low droning filled the air. That...was a ship. No, a... starfighter? Her dad had talked about those, described the distinctive cross shape. And it was coming towards the village fast. The two villagers next to her stopped lecturing and gasped their surprise. Ah, shit, there was potential trouble, and she was way out here. Tali grabbed the old-fashioned communicator from her belt.
"Father, the fighter, what is it-should I return to the village?"
There was only static for a few tense moments as Tali watched a dust cloud form and settle from the craft's landing (an apparently excellent one, as much as she could tell from this distance).
The communicator crackled to life. "Ah... no. No, I recognize these colors. Stay put, Tali, we're fine. This is a surprise, but I don't expect trouble." Tali bit her lip in frustration. A starfighter was exciting, and dad was telling her an overtaxed vaporator was more important? C'mon old man."But father, I-"
"Tali." Barro's voice was firm. Tali thought she might have heard the mutterings of village leader and friend of her father Lor San Tekka amongst the indistinct background noises. "Stay on task. The visitor is an ally. The village's moisture supply remains more important at the moment." He disconnected abruptly, and Tali's brow furrowed.
Damn it. Who knew how long this repair would take, and when was the next time she would have the opportunity to see a starfighter pilot? Still, she knew when her father's tone of voice slipped into a superior officer's tone of voice and allowed no argument. She grudgingly placed her communicator back on her hip, dropping her pack full of tools and machinery parts at her feet somewhat more forcefully than necessary.
Tali pushed her dusty goggles down to hang around her neck and glanced over at the villagers, who eyed her expectantly. She motioned towards the settlement with one arm, wiping her forehead with the other. "It appears you have a visitor. A friendly one." One of the villagers, a man of about thirty years, excitedly peered towards the starfighter with wide eyes. Tali, still disappointed but ever-practical, saw her opening for some much-desired respite from the ardent Force believers. "Oh, don't let me keep you out here if you're curious."
The middle-aged female villager smiled and shuffled slightly back towards the settlement but then hesitated, glancing at Tali. "You don't need assistance with the machine? Or company?"
Tali fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Assistance" in the form of more home-made junk or conversion speeches? Not hardly. She forced a small smile. "Oh no... I can manage the vaporator. Thank you."
With a few more half-hearted platitudes, the villagers departed, hastening on their long walk back to the village. Tali enviously watched them leave for a moment, then pried open the vaporator tower's control panel, scowling into the overheated machinery as she unzipped her pack. Another day in paradise.
More than an hour into diagnosis and repair, and the sky had darkened entirely. Tali shivered in the quickly cooling desert air, pulling the sleeves of her tan Militia member tunic further down around her hands. She made another attempt to jumpstart the vaporator, giving a short cry of triumph when it hummed to life and wiping her greasy hands on her leggings. Finally.
The noise of the vaporator momentarily drowned out that of the approaching First Order assault landers. But the sound of an approaching shuttle and blaster fire were unmistakeable. As the explosions started, Tali leapt to her feet in panic, banging her shoulder on the open control panel door with a wince and frantically grabbing her staff and communicator.
"Father! What's happening?! I'm coming-" Tali cursed her decision to go to the moisture farm on foot as she took off for the village at a dead run. She could make out columns of smoke and fire beginning to sprout already. Sweat broke out on her face as she ran. Screams and static issued from her communicator, then her father's voice came through, breaking up with crackling and panic.
"Tali!...Too many...help the villagers..." Piercing cracks of blaster fire emerged in the distance and sounded through Tali's communicator, spurring her on.
She heaved breaths, the sounds of the village being destroyed and the view of shining white stormtrooper armor growing clearer. "Father!" Tali choked out the word, struggling through the sandy terrain. She supposed she was glad to not have worn her heavy Militia armor pieces out to the farm since her relatively unencumbered state gave her extra speed... but Tali wished fervently that she'd thought to stash it somewhere nearer than on their damn speeder, parked in the middle of the bloody village.
Her father's strained voice crackled through her communicator again, "...too many, Tali...take villagers and retreat...run...you're too young..."
Tali neared the encampment, slowing her hell-bent pace to determine a strategy while searching for her father's tell-tale auburn hair. "Dad! No, we can get out..." Tali breathlessly took cover behind a wooden pillar, reaching for the aged blaster at her back with shaking hands. She was a policewoman in training, a harried keeper of the peace on this backwater junkyard of a planet, and had never actually fired the weapon with the intent to kill. Instead, she generally relied on the authority of her weighty barbed staff.
Her finger slipped on the gun's safety once, but taking a breath, she steeled herself. She bent around the pillar, taking aim at the nearest stormtrooper before spotting her father several encampments away, crouched behind a dwelling with his friend Tekka and firing at the attackers.
"Father!" Tali screamed out amidst the chaos of a landing command shuttle as stormtroopers closed in on them. Her father valiantly attempted to fight them off, felling several but ultimately proving no match for their sheer numbers. Tali fired at the troopers steadily, watching in disbelief as Tekka stood up to confront the force head on and was immediately captured. The fuck are you doing?!
But then her father was unceremoniously shot in the gut, and any questions about the elder Church member's motivations evaporated.
Tali's vision tunneled. Agonized, she screamed in horror at the scene, emerging from her pillar and firing wildly at stormtroopers as her father fell to his knees. He met Tali's eyes briefly, mouthing what may have been her name as blood spread from his wound, disturbingly scarlet on the light fabric of his simple tunic. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth-she could see his eyes going glassy from here.
Tali's blood roared in her ears as she struggled towards her father while felling enemy soldiers, livid and panicked. But she didn't make it to him. A bolt of blaster fire snagged her arm as another destroyed a nearby shelter. It caused the structure's wooden pillar to splinter and it careened into the side of her head, forcing her to the ground.
Disoriented and blind with tears of pain and rage, Tali struggled out from under the debris with one arm, still attempting to reach her father while knowing the futility.
Then a stormtrooper was shot away just above her. Tali barely made out the concerned, intent face of the stranger who had covered for her, a dark-featured man in a leather jacket, before unwillingly sinking into darkness.