Son Of Circumstance

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A/N 1:Alternate Universe Story. For the purpose of this story, I am changing Han's age to be closer to Luke's. Also, the timeline is changed to make my story work. So, although Han is still with Shrike, things will happen differently from Canon fiction.

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A/N 2: I do not own Star Wars.

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Chapter One:

"HO... There once lived a bantha out in the sea!" Sang out a chorus of drunken voices. "He staggered and wagered, for all those to see!"

Three white-armored men tottered themselves as their nonsensical tune carried on the night air. The fourth— their leader— followed at a far less hazardous pace, cringing at the crack-pot song that was being sung far out of key.

With one hand holding his helmet against his side, and the other pinching the bridge of his nose, Perth Terallo did his best to tune them out. But with his pounding head and slightly blurred vision, he was finding that difficult.

When they continued their random piece of music, he at last could stand it no longer.

"Alright already!" he barked, wincing as his own raised voice made his head ache harder. "You drunken fools need to shut up!"

"Aye- hiccup- aye Sir!" Durrun, the trio's ringleader gave a sloppy salute, dropping his helmet in the process.

Terallo shook his head in disgust. "You are soldiers in the Imperial military for Emperor's sake! Act like it!"

They all glanced at each other, and whether it was the inordinate amount of booze they'd consumed tonight or not, Terallo would never know, but the second in line braved addressing his Captain.

"With all due- hic - respect, s-sir you aren't doin' much better –hic- yourself."

"Shut it, Ellison!" the third stormtrooper growled, sober enough to know when they were crossing the line.

"What?" Ellison asked defensively. "It's- hiccup- true!"

"Fothe, Ellison, both of you can it, now!" Durrun warned. "You'll- hiccup- get us refresher duty for- hiccup- a week!"

The trio looked at each other with their pasted expressions, and then began to giggle hysterically. Terallo groaned in embarrassment and moved ahead of them, hoping that their noise-making would carry with the wind in another direction.

That was when he had the presence of mind to realize that at some point the four of them had wandered quite far away from their speeder. They had parked in the middle of nowhere to avoid getting caught drinking confiscated liquor... alcohol they'd gotten from a smuggler in town.

Their celebration had taken then deep into the night. But in their drunken state, and with their armor to protect them, they weren't worried about the cold.

However, the fact that they were now lost was another thing entirely.

"Men!" Terallo snapped, spinning back to his troops, who instantly snapped to attention— or close to it in their current frame of mind— at his tone.

"Would anyone like to tell me where we are?" he growled, trying his best to ignore his headache.

Three heads turned almost in sync, and then the stark reality of their situation sank in even through the alcohol-induced fuzz in their heads. Getting lost on Tatooine was a fatal mistake, even for stormtroopers.

They needed to find shelter, or their speeder, and they had to do so before the suns rose and the heat took over for the cold. Seconds later, and with the precision drilled into then at the Imperial Academy, their hangovers were forgotten; their minds sharpening to the task before them.

"Alright, fan out a little, and scan the horizon for anything promising," Terallo ordered.

They split up and did as they were told, and just as Terallo was starting to fear the worst, Durrun shouted out loud.

"I think I have something Sir!"

Terallo rushed to him, and Durrun pointed with this macro-binoculars. "Southwest of our position, Sir."

Terallo focused his lenses, and after a moment saw what Durrun had mentioned. It would have looked like rock formations to someone who hadn't spent an inordinate amount of time patrolling the sands of Tatooine. Terallo traced the pattern with his eye, and then slowly swept the 'binocs first left and then right until he saw what he expected.

"A homestead!" he crowed. "Well done, Durrun!"

The other man beamed happily, and the quartet made their way to their intended safe-haven. They put their helmets back on as they drew near, and that was when the sensors in their visors warned them of the security fence.

Fothe let out a low whistle. "Damn! That's a lot of voltage!"

"If you lived in the middle of hell, with Sand People trying to take you out any chance they got, you'd have good security too," Ellison retorted.

"How are we supposed to let them know we're here?" Fothe asked, turning to their Captain.

Before Terallo could say anything, Ellison snorted and lifted his blaster rifle, blasting at one of the poles that marked the fence's boundary. A pinkish wash of energy shuddered before them, and they all jerked back in surprise as an alarm was triggered.

"Ellison!" Terallo barked angrily. "What do you think you're…?"

"Who goes there!" a man shouted as he charged up the steps with a rifle of his own.

"Sir, over here!" Terallo called, waving.

The man stared at them suspiciously for a long moment before he cautiously walked forward. He stopped several feet away from the fence, giving them an once-over.

"Can I help you?" he inquired gruffly.

"Yes, you can let this fence down and grant us asylum until morning," Terallo ordered. "By Imperial decree, citizens are to provide shelter for military personnel in need."

Something flashed across the man's face, and he glanced back toward the house, where a woman was just cautiously appearing. When he looked back, the man shifted.

"I'd rather not, how about I instead give you all a ride back to town?"

Terallo narrowed his eyes behind his faceplate. "Actually, we are very tired from our walk. We would like to rest our feet."

"You can do that in my speeder," he replied evenly. "And in any case, anyone who walks the Dune Sea at night is a fool."

"Now, you wait one moment!" Durrun stepped forward. "You don't know why we are out here!"

"Yeah, what if we were on patrol for your safety?" Ellison asked.

Terallo would've smacked his forehead for that stupid comment had he not been wearing his helmet.

The man took a pointed sniff of the air. "I didn't know you folks were allowed to get drunk on the job."

The four of them exchanged looks, and then a mutual nod of consent went about them. They'd be damned if they allowed some unimportant moisture farmer to send them packing.

Terallo took a more threatening stance. "Listen here, Farmer. You will let us inside your home, or you will face our wrath. I am not in the mood for insubordination by a mere citizen of a tenth-rate backwater planet!"

"I offered you a ride home, is that not better than staying the night?" the man pressed.

Durrun stepped forward and took another shot at the pole Ellison had blaster earlier. Terallo saw the man glance back at the house in a moment of fear, and then something clicked. He held up a hand to stall his men, and addressed the farmer again.

"Do you refuse us because you have something to hide?" he challenged.

The man's head snapped back around. "No."

"Then why make things difficult? What are you afraid of, Farmer?" Terallo pressed.

"Why can't you accept a counter-offer to go home right now?" the man snapped. "I don't want a bunch of drunkards on my land. Force only knows what you'd do to my harvest!"

Terallo spotted the give-away in the woman by the door, and made a decision.

"They're hiding something alright, men," he said as he motioned to Durrun to continue blasting at the fence post. "Let's take them in."

"No!" the farmer lifted his rifle. "Get off my property or so help me..."

Durrun ignored his rant and shot once more: the pole exploded, and the fence puttered out. Instantly the four of them converged on the man, who took a shot at Ellison.

"Owen!" the woman shrieked.

Ellison growled angrily and without thinking he took aim, closing in on the farmer, who stood his ground. The two rifles went off simultaneously, giving pause to the scene as they all looked to see who'd gotten who.

When the farmer crumpled to his knees with a gaping hole in his chest, Ellison whooped with delight.

"That's right, you stupid farmer!" he sneered triumphantly. "You mess with the Empire, you get taken down!"

"OWEN!" the woman was racing toward her husband, sobbing outright as she dropped to her knees beside him. "NO!"

"Get back, woman!" Fothe snapped, kicking her away. "He's dead, now deal with it!"

"He was innocent!" she screamed at them. "He offered you a ride! It's no wonder the galaxy hates the Empire! You are all a bunch of tyrants!"

Fothe whipped his blaster around and slammed the butt of it into her head, and she fell to the ground.

"You will not talk treason in our presence, stupid woman!" he barked.

"You murdered my husband!" she raged, ignoring her bleeding skull.

"He had it coming," Ellison snapped.

"I thought the law was to bring us in alive to be questioned?" she challenged him.

The stormtroopers again looked to each other, realizing she was right. Governor Tyron would not be pleased with what they'd done; especially if she found out they were under the influence at the time.

Terallo thinned his lips. He wasn't about to let his men go down on the word of peasants: his soldiers were good, hardworking men with families of their own to provide for. Coming to a decision, he hefted his blaster, signaling to his men to do likewise.

"You're right, woman." He took aim at the house. "But no one will testify against us if there is no evidence... or witnesses."

She followed their line of sight to the house, and went white as a sheet. "Luke!" she whispered urgently.

Terallo had just signaled his men to fire when he heard her whisper, and then she was sprinting back to the abode.

"Get her!" he called.

Terallo's squad didn't miss a beat as they shifted aim from the now-smoking house to the woman trying to get to it. Terallo knew for certain at that moment that they were hiding something.

And then he belatedly realized that whatever they'd been harboring was now going up in flames.

Damned alcohol! He cursed. Well… still: if we leave nothing here, they won't have a case against us.