Back on Tatooine... With Luke's friends. Again, the poster mentioned here can be seen on Wookieepedia.
by lord Martiya
Year 16 of the Empire: The Rain Bringers
Rivoche had returned to school (the civilian wing of the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant) for a week now, and had thought about helping on Tatooine the whole time now. Yet she just couldn't find another way aside taking that risk. Sure, her father had left her considerable shares in Eriadu Mining and Shipping and they would be quite interested in tapping the planet's now available minerary wealth, and as they'd access the local water sources to make things cheaper they'd release vapor in the atmosphere, but she didn't know how long it would take to have any effect... And she didn't have any experience in such "mercy missions", nor resources. While she had both. Hopefully, she wouldn't try and get her hands on Luke. Then again, if she had guessed correctly there was an easy way to keep her in check...
Thus, with a heavy heart, she looked for her, and found her admiring the newest propaganda poster that some Rebels had snuck in the school. This time it wasn't an altered Imperial poster, just the old "Jedi Unite for Peace" Clone Wars-era unreleased poster (a COMPOR creation). Looking at her fellow student, Rivoche took a deep breath and then spoke.
"Organa, do you have a moment?"
Biggs really hoped this wouldn't end in a disaster. A few weeks earlier, while he and Tank were still in Bestine at Tatooine's main junior academy for the term, Luke had befriended the niece of the Grand Moff, of all people (apparently Luke's mystery father had fought with the Outland Regions Security Force), and they had bonded when her uncle had taken them massacre a horde of Sand People. Now she was back... And as Camie was still pining after Luke (who feigned not having noticed, as he really didn't like her using Fixer's nickname for him, "Wormie"), he almost expected some kind of confrontation. Then Luke said where she'd meet them.
"The ancient hunting lodge?!" Windy exclaimed. "Chester and his gang hang around there now!"
Biggs hadn't known that. Nobody had, and they wouldn't leave anyone alone with the bounty hunter wannabes. Well, aside for a Stormtrooper, but that was because they expected the Stormtrooper to beat them up. As they arrived they head a blaster shot and a feminine voice shouting "NOW!", surprising everyone but Luke.
"Quick! We must save those idiots from Rivoche!" Luke said before running in, just as a second feminine voice berated the former and identified her as "Tarkin" and they heard a beeping that sounded quite close to a laugh.
As they arrived they found two rather attractive women around their age in practical and new clothes holding the four delinquents at blasterpoint (and it was some interesting blasters-DDC Defenders, mostly target pistols but rather accurate and still lethal in the hands of a good shooter. Aristocrats use them as "socially acceptable" self defense weapons for a reason, after all). Said delinquents, partially covered in some oil, had tossed away their slugthrowers, one of which had been shot by a blaster judging by how melted it was, and dropped pants and underwear while an astromech continued beeping his laughter while holding out a blowtorch close to a trail of oil from him to Chester and his gang and a golden protocol droid continued preparing the lodge's table while acting as if nothing was amiss.
"Organa, both my uncle and master Skirata say that when attacked by potential rapists and other particularly unsavory criminals you should make sure they learn their lesson." the woman with the first voice, clearly the infamous Rivoche Tarkin, said calmly.
"Look at them, they couldn't rape a puppy even if they wanted!" the other woman, "Organa", replied.
Tarkin looked back at the delinquents, specifically at their crotches, and showed pity on her face.
"Well, they still fall under "particularly unsavory criminals"-I mean, they tried to rob two harmless-looking young women, and the alternative is leaving them to the authorities. And you know how my uncle will take it when he finds out."
"You better listen her, she's the niece of the Grand Moff." Luke intervened, completely unsurprised at the scene and trying not to laugh.
"That's one dangerous girlfriend you have, Skywalker." Tank said as Chester and his men undressed and then ran naked in the streets.
"She's not my girlfriend!" Luke protested instinctively as he and Tarkin blushed.
"Not the impression I got from Tarkin." Organa said with a smirk. "So, who wants refreshments?"
They sat at a table, and Rivoche explained the other thing she had pulled after taking the bounty for killing the head Sand People, and how she wanted to follow it up by actively bringing out the water from underground... And her acquaintance apparently had made a point of helping people whenever she could and had experience in what she called "mercy missions" in spite of being from the Core, so she had brought her there. And indeed she had a good plan: it wouldn't be charity, she planned to establish hydroponic farms and other companies that would need and thus extract the water and release part of it in the atmosphere and hire the locals for it, giving them the chance to do the job themselves.
"I can easily deal with the bureaucratic part, the governor is supposed to be competent, and my uncle says the R2 unit can talk Jabba into not interfering. How, I don't dare to ask." Rivoche said.
That was when the astromech beeped something, that the protocol droid quickly translated: "R2 says he helped saving Jabba's son during the Clone Wars, and can leverage it into becoming an investor. Though I wonder why I don't remember anything of that, considering we've always been paired together." The astromech then beeped again. "I most certainly didn't get my memory erased for announcing I'd blab an important secret! And what do you mean by calling me "streaker of Mos Espa"?"
"I don't think we need to know more." Organa said, leaving him wondering just what had happened for a droid to be called a streaker. "Any idea how I can start?"
"The Flynn-Fletcher siblings could likely design the equipment." Deak said.
"The ones with a Stormtrooper sister?!" Rivoche asked, looking a bit strange about it. "Nevermind that." then she turned to Camie with a predatory smile and asked: "Do you like the chocolate drink I've brought you?"
"Surprisingly, ye-" Camie started to reply before realizing what they had been drinking. "CHOCOLATE?!"
"My family is one of the exporters from Urthha, I though you guys may like an exotic drink."
She had called it exotic. Chocolate. It was one of the most expensive foods in the galaxy, given the plant it derived from could grow only on eight known planets (not for lack of attempts, there's just something in the plant that keeps it from growing on most worlds). And she had just given to them enough it would take six months of Fixer's pay to buy it... Apparently with the sole goal of intimidating Camie away from Luke. Successfully.
"Sorry, why is he still around?" Rivoche asked with a sweet voice after Fixer mentioned the time Chester tried to frame Luke for murder.
"We don't have a guard at Anchorhead, and the Stormtroopers from Mos Eisley said they didn't need to deal with an idiot like him..." Fixer replied from the driving seat of his speeder van. "There's no need to deal with him, not after today's less-is that a sail barge?"
Indeed, a sail barge was right out of the Flynn-Fletcher farm, and as they arrived there they found Jabba the Hutt in person-apparently waiting for them.
"Here come the Rain Bringers." Jabba announced in Basic, surprising everyone-he was known to be quite fluent, but he'd never do that. "Rivoche Tarkin and Luke Skywalker who made the plan possible, and Leia Organa of Alderaan who wants to establish companies that will diffuse water in the atmosphere, I believe?"
"Well, yes-"
"Good! Good. This ball of sand may be my world, but if I can make it something better then I don't see any reason to prevent it. I shall invest in your enterprises, Organa. Now, shall we speak to the best engineers of Tatooine?"
"So that's why Uncle said to respect Jabba like you do with an orbiting warship..." Rivoche said.
"So... No Academy? Your family could easily afford it with the bounty-that and the one on the Womp Rats." Rivoche said to Luke as he was flying her on his T-16.
"Right now, I think it's better if I stay here." Luke admitted. "I'm still continuing my homeschooling, and I'll apply to the Academy later, maybe for the Arkanis Academy."
"Nu-huh. If you apply, you name the Eriadu Academy as your preference-Arkanis wouldn't be for you." She wasn't going to admit to Luke she was now affiliated with the Rebellion just yet, but considering what she had been told by her uncle about Arkanis Academy she knew it was the last place to be for the son of a Jedi. "How did Jabba know we'd be there?"
"Did Organa have a personal ship?"
"The Tantive IV, she always uses that-oh. I see. His informants told him about our arrival, and that was enough for him. I wonder what he's not telling us... What's your relationship with Marstrap, exactly?"
"Just friends. At most, I mean, sometimes she and Fixer call me Wormie, and... Tell me you aren't going to hurt her, please.
"I'll just make her family an offer they can't refuse. The one who should be worried is that Rodian, Chester. Organa said her two droids would deal with him, and between Jabba confirming the R2 unit's claim, him having those embarrassing holos about your father, and that I saw admiral Screed react in horror at them, I fear for his life."
"Found out something interesting on Organa." Boba Fett said to his current (and most frequent) client, Jabba the Hutt. Who, being Jabba, wanted to know as much as he could about his newest trading partner, and sent him to investigate. "You know she's been adopted, that's public domain. The interesting part is that she's not from Alderaan as everyone assumes, she was born on Polis Massa, the mother dead in childbirth. The identity was erased from the database."
"Does she have a twin?" Jabba asked in Huttese.
"Yes."
"Good job, as usual. You'll have a ten thousand credits bonus. To the next time."
As Jabba interrupted the communication, Boba wondered just what did Jabba know, and why he was paying him not to investigate further. Then again, it didn't really matter-what mattered was that Jabba was paying him an extra on an already rich contract, and that while he could likely get away with running afoul of that Hutt it would hurt his reputation and, on the long term, his job perspectives. Unless of course Jabba didn't pay him... But he hadn't got on top of the Hutt Cartel and survived betraying an apparent Sith by being stupid.
"I'll make Skywalker pay!" Chester said to his gang, now in his home. "He'll pay for what his girlfriend did to us!"
"Come on, you've heard who she is!" one of his friend replied, trying to make him reason.
"Who they SAY she is! How would he even manage to-"
That was when the intercom buzzed, announcing the arrival of Mos Eisley's Stormtrooper squad.
"Whoa! Wait, I didn't do anything!" he protested.
"That's for us to decide." the sergeant replied as his men kept them at blasterpoint and one went to a cabinet.
"The tip was correct." the Stormtrooper at the cabinet said as he showed what he had found there-a BlasTech DL-44. Already barely legal in the days before the Clone Wars, and so throughly restricted by Senate's decree right after the war that purchase and possession were effectively illegal.
As the Stormtroopers carried Chester and his gang away, C-3PO and R2-D2 looked with satisfaction.
"See? It always works." 3PO told his counterpart. "Do we still have broken DL-44s?"
His counterpart beeped that was the last one.
"I suppose we'll need to get creative the next time."
"Can't believe it..." Camie said as she saw her family's newest plants. "We're growing cocoa! Tatooine can grow cocoa!" Now she too could give Luke chocolate, the Eriaduan skank wouldn't keep him from her. "Mom, how did you get the seeds?"
"It was Luke's friend from Eriadu, she had some and the manual on how to grow them and thought it was worth a try." her mother replied. "We'll need to pay her a hundred credits now that it works, but we're going to be rich!"
Camie should be happy now. And she was, it was rare for Tatooinians to actually become rich with legal pursuits, aside the surprisingly hard moisture farms. But how could she go against the woman who had just made her family rich? She'd feel just too bad...
notes
Let's meet Luke's friends from Tatooine, introduced in a deleted scene of ANH and then in other medias. In order of mention, they are: Janek "Tank" Sunber is the unofficial leader of the group, or was before he got accepted in the Carida Academy (initially as a Stormtrooper, but was quickly transferred to the Army officer program due his leadership skills), proving himself extremely talented after graduation (and actually was promoted three ranks in his first battle, though the commanding officers died before he could write it down and the one who should have verified it refused out of envy); Camie Marstrap, daughter of farmers (on Tatooine. OK, they use hydroponics, but still grow plants for food on Tatooine) who buy their water from the Lars, meaning she's been Luke's friend since they were kids, and while she'd eventually marry their mutual friend Fixer she seemed to have feelings for Luke, and according to a Force vision in the TLJ novelization she would have married him had he not left Tatooine; Laze "Fixer" Lonenozer is somewhat of a jerk (he's the one who nicknamed Luke "Wormie"), though that could well be due his gigantic inferiority complex toward the younger boy and his piloting skills, and is otherwise a decent guy, and the only one to actually hold a job; Windom "Windy" Starkiller is something of a follower, and once he and Luke got in trouble with a Krayt Dragon (thankfully Obi-Wan was around); Deak, finally, is a follower of a follower, in Biggs' words-that is, he follows Windy around.