Blaster bolts struck the sand around them, causing large 'splashes' of the grains that fell everywhere. Cleo was thankful Leyla had such great senses, or else they might have been toast, literally. He surged upwards once the last volley of fire had quieted, in his hands a E-10R Blaster Rifle. It was getting up there in years and he needed to replace it, but it would serve at the moment. The robust rifle, barely longer than a carbine, let off a stream of burst fire blaster bolts into the line of pursuers. 

One lucky bolt struck a rodian dead in the face, glassing his strange visage and causing his body to loll strangely off the side of the swoop transport. Cleo continued to fire into them as Leyla provided closer range assistance with her blasters. "Friends is a relative term. They work for Jabba the Hutt, my clients biggest rival!" The Iridonian cried out to her, sending another stream to supress them and keep the swoops back before he reloaded. 

As he did so, the Bith driving needed to suddenly slow to avoid a vast stone that had appeared from behind a dune, causing the swoops to come perilously close. One speeder bumped into the line of cargo they had, aliens and humans laughing as if their prey was already theirs. They veered around the weapon crates and sped closer. Cleo desperately tried to finish reloading while Leyla held off the other side of the speeder. 

In a moment of clarity, Cleo recalled he had something and dropped the weapon. The speeder took it as an invitation for a quick kill and began to aim at him, only for their eyes to go skyward as a metal sphere, tossed from Cleo's hands fell inside of the swoop. 

"Thermal! Thermal!" A human cried, and suddenly a large sphere of energy exploded outwards, capturing all of the swoop within its diameter and vaporizing every atom within before disappearing as if it had never been. It didn't even rock their cargo speeder, and Cleo picked up his E-10R and finished his reload, taking careful aim, cool under the following barrage of fire as he cut down another swoop by taking out its pilot, spinning the vehicle out of control to burst into flames among the sand. 

"We're almost there! Go faster!" Cleo called. The Bith gave an acknowledging grunt.