Landing on Beheboth, a backwater world, Luke hides his X-Wing in a cave. TIEs nearly find him as he eats lunch, but when they leave, he finds sand-lice in his meal. Without R2, he struggles to find Garrotine, a bustling desert outpost. Posing as a Footer (wanderer), he tries to buy food and water from a local tavern, but no one will sell water to strangers. When he protests, three locals, thinking him a Brigand, nearly kill him before Darial Anglethorn says to let him go. Offering him a guard job, she takes him via sand-skimmer to the Anglethorn Moisture Farm, telling him Brigands have been stealing water by an unknown method. Her farm is better armed than "a bankers' convention on Aargau," and having failed to save Owen and Beru, he vows to stop the Brigands. That night, as he guards the farm, Darial brings him a cup of hot chav, but as they discuss the possibility of betrayal by an employee, an alien mind renders them unconscious. In the morning, Luke awakens to find the farm ruined and Darial missing; the foreman says Brigands raided in the night. Vowing to stop them, Luke climbs a mountain to their fortress, only to be captured and taken to Gideon Longspar, a fat alien leading the Brigands. Nearby, Darial and an empathic alien mind, the Tirrith, are held captive. Longspar is forcing the Tirrith to help him, threatening to kill it otherwise; existing as energy mist, it enters the vaporators, rendering humans unconscious. Luke and Darial are imprisoned, but the Tirrith helps them escape by distracting the guards while Luke uses the Force to open the door. Longspar attacks with Luke's 'saber, but he tricks him into hitting a globe, freeing the Tirrith. Outside, when Brigands surround them, the Tirrith says to destroy the water tanks. Darial protests but decides to trust it. Destroying the tanks and flooding the Brigands, they return to the farm. Several days later, after the Imperials leave, Luke departs. Darial fears they won't survive without water, but the Tirrith seeds the clouds, making it rain.

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