“What are you afraid of?”
Day one of @peters-pumpkin-day week is live! Available HERE on AO3 by JessKo.
Came Back Haunted, or four imperials working together to survive after crashing on an ice planet. Starring Wilhuff Tarkin, Orson Krennic, Galen Erso, and Brierly Ronan:
Orson Krennic shivered, glaring at the wreckage in front of them.
Galen Erso frowned, shuffling his feet and looking nowhere in particular.
Brierly Ronan huffed, glancing at the wreckage behind them.
Wilhuff Tarkin simply stared out at the icy horizon, assessing their frozen surroundings.
“I suggest we move this way.” Tarkin finally stated, pointing towards a valley between two of the tens of mountains seeming to cage the group in. “We have already salvaged everything we could from the shuttle.”
Erso nodded in agreement, taking a tentative step in the identified direction.
“Wait just a minute.” Krennic started, raising a gloved and shaking finger. “We don’t know what’s out there. I vote that we make shelter here.”
Ronan seemed to prefer this option, turning back to face the mangled Lambda.
Tarkin stood his ground firmly. “There is nothing left for us here. We need to move.”
Krennic’s lips twisted up into a sort of wicked smile. “What? Are you afraid of something?” Cupping his hands around his mouth, the director shouted into a strong and snowy wind. “Hello! Anyone out here looking to eat a fresh Governor? He’ll come right to your den door!”
Tarkin exercised much self control at not blasting the insolent director on the spot. “It sounds like you are the one who is afraid, Director. I simply have noticed irregular patterns in the snowfall and believe that camping in the lowest ground will put us in the path of an inevitable avalanche.”
Ronan froze from his tinkering with the frozen ajar shuttle hatch, then looking up at the mountains for confirmation of Tarkin’s observation. It was pointless, he soon realized, it all looked white and cold to him. Coming from a more temperate planet, ice was not exactly his specialty.
Erso, on the other hand, backed the governor’s statement. “I believe Governor Tarkin is correct, the rock formations and slope of the mountains would lend themselves to such conditions.” The cold slipped into his words, giving a stutter to his speech. The group had been able to salvage some outerwear from the emergency supplies on the shuttle, thick hooded coats and goggles to go on top of already decently insulated gaberwool tunics, but in near blizzard conditions it was still freezing.
Realizing he had lost, Krennic exhaled sharply and wrapped himself up in the cape that has just been blown behind him, white whipping out with the arctic gale. “Very well. Lead the way.”
