- Portions encrypted for personal use only -

35:2:6 11:43

A chance to strike first for once! – Though with less time to plan than I'd like. It's become clear that's going to be the norm, so I have to adjust how I think. It seems the Rebellion operates on a “last-minute information” system… – It seems there's a secret mine somewhere in the deserts outside Sobrik, full of unknown-but-valuable ore that the Empire covets. We need to find out where it is, what it is… and take it out. – A pity I won't have more time in Sobrik to catch up with Jubetov first; I'm sure she saw the INN reports and wonders what the frak I'm up to! –

So that's why we're flying speederbikes to Sobrik, pulling sleds loaded with explosives (nicely done, Tor-nenko). Thankfully Sprend and Dash can handle the bikes well; it looks like we'll get to Sobrik in the next couple of hours.

35:2:6 16:34

One step closer… two, if you count sneaking Sprend into the city in the first place. Thankfully Dash was able to distract the guards at the gates by chatting about speederbikes, letting Sprend's slip by without a papers check. – I'm not sure Dash did it on purpose, however… I think he just REALLY likes talking about bikes. Still, it served the purpose. And also… WAKE UP, Damaria! Of course there are going to be guards at the gates once a curfew is imposed. – Soon on the list needs to be some forged papers for Sprend, or we're going to be severely restricted in future movements.

After a couple of hours of fruitless searching the city for unguarded exits, Tor-nenko and I headed to the biker bar (the “Gearshift Vortex”) that Sprend had heard a guide (“Sam Gamoda”) might be found in and met Dash & Sprend outside. Rows of speeders were lined up outside, like Imperial troops awaiting the Emperor's review. – I caught a look in Dash's eye… I didn't have to use the Force to tell he was salivating at the thought of getting his hands on some of those custom parts. – I quickly nudged Dash's elbow and suggested we go into the bar (the rest waited outside, in case of trouble). On the way in he bumped into the trooper he'd heard about from the gate guards and stopped to chat, while I glanced around the room. – And got a lot of glances back, it seems… a bit of a boys' club, to no surprise. – Only one person not in some kind of Imperial uniform – there was our guide. – He seemed pretty eager to have me sit down and share a drink before getting into negotiations – I'd rather not Sense why, I have a pretty good idea. – He hesitantly bought my story about being contractors hired to scout out a route through the Gorinth canyon and agreed to take us… 20% off even! – Again, I'll just tell myself it's my superior bargaining skills. –

Now we've loaded up with the rest of the equipment Sam suggested and are about to head out into the canyon towards Spectacle Rock (Tor-nenko managed to spot the landmark on the navcomp of one of the parked speeders). So far so good…

35:2:7 7:41

Hopefully today goes better than last night. – It has to, right? – It started well - the guards waved us right through Sobrik's exits, with a smile and wave at Sam. After a quick ride – but not quick enough… hopefully the glares I gave Dash let him know what I thought of hotdogging during a mission –, we found Sam's suggested campsite a few hours from Spectacle Rock and broke camp in a cave.

– Of course it wouldn't be a camping trip without a “lightsaber size” competition, which Sprend & Sam happily headlined. – Sam spun us a tale about some kind of semi-mythical sand centipede called a “bitaminch”. Still, weapon practice is weapon practice, so I joined the duelists and followed Sprend around the desert. A shot rang out after Sam ran around a dune, then a cry of triumph (and gleeful yelling from Dash, who followed). Soon after Sprend had bagged his own trophy… and then the ground at my feet started moving. Sam's stories of “vicious mankillers” ran through my mind as I panicked and fired at the motion, reaching out instinctively with the Force as I did so. Thanks be for a miss – this thing was sentient! As it scuttled off away from the hunt, I detected a cry out for its parents. My stomach twisted in knots, I ran up to Sprend and told him what I'd sensed; a quick check showed the creature he'd shot was carrying some kind of tools and had sock-like leathers on its feet. – These beasts weren't the monsters, we were! – I felt too ill to converse any further as we regrouped and headed back towards camp, the howls of some desert pack predators ringing through the night and accentuating my mood.

As we neared the camp, to make the night even better, Tor-nenko radioed in panic that he was under attack. We sprinted for the cave's mouth – an adrenaline-fueled glance inside showed Tor-nenko backed up in the cave, surrounded by several slavering wolf-like beasts. Training took over - reduce the numbers, attack those already wounded –Am I that much different than the beasts? –. Dash surprised me as he skidded to a stop alongside my position and opened fire a few times, taking down several of the beasts while I ran inside to protect Tor-nenko. – I'll have to remember to compliment Dash, it seems his training is paying off. – After the blasts stopped and all the beasts lay dead (apparently Sprend & Sam ran into a much larger one outside, but it was no match for the hunter duo), we got a better look at Tor-nenko – not good. His leg looked nearly crippled from the fang marks, but thankfully Sprend was able to patch him up with Sam's medpac. Some sleep was in order.

Not that I managed much… between Fox pulling into camp with the van near midnight, and nightmares of baby centipedes calling out for their parents, it was a restless night. And now we're about to traverse the last couple of hours to Spectacle Rock, and hope the rest of our plan can still come together.

35:2:7 18:22

I'm trapped in a crawler, surrounded by the human remnants of a failed slave revolt and one INN reporter. This is not REMOTELY how things were supposed to go…

When we got close to the rocks, we noticed smoke rising up from 2 large crawlers on fire in the valley below. Sprend took a look through his scope, shuddered slightly, and just turned and walked past us, dropping to his knees in silence.

A quick recon with my remote later and I saw why he reacted that way… charred bodies everywhere, littering the hellspace surrounding the crawlers. Duros, Twilek, and others… oddly, very few humans. Someone was still alive though, as a blaster bolt streaked past the remote. A quick lift skyward showed a plume of dust moving to our southeast, but I couldn't make up what it was.

Peeking over my shoulder, Dash saw the same things, and immediately started walking towards the convoy with his hands up. And Fox seemed to be gone too… is there no discipline with these people?! I rushed up behind him and followed suit while the others hung back to provide covering fire if need be.

Halfway there, our comms flared up with whispers from Brown Fox - Dash's trooper “friend” was there and Fox managed to convince him we were there to help. As the others drove down to pick Dash & I up on their way to the convoy, Fox got filled in by the trooper. They'd been attacked by raiders, perhaps human, riding Banthas. Only 3 troopers survived, and about 40 “nonmilitary survivors”. As we pulled up, this euphemism revealed its truth – these were slaves.

While I talked to the troopers with Fox, the others tried to patch up the wounded survivors – it was becoming clear there were far too many to save without getting them to a medical facility before nightfall. Two too many, as we quickly found; when Sprend opened up one crawler to help those inside, a very familiar-looking (though much more raggedly-clothed) pair of Twileks sprung out. The agents from the casino!

– FRAK. Images from Larness' thoughts flashed through my mind… “plans in place that will ensure a quick resolution”… a decrepit walker… we were setup! Too late to warn, the trap was sprung! – “These people are rebels, get them!” they yelled, pointing at Sprend.

Then the unexpected… Fox turned towards Sprend and tried to shoot him with his tangle gun. – I had a feeling what he was up too – protect his cover, protect us, find a way out other than a bloodbath. I tried desperately to reach out with the Force to let the others know what was happening… but I couldn't focus properly for that kind of range. I felt close to a breakthrough, yet not quite there… and now there was no way to communicate that to the rest of the group, so I don't know if it'll work! – The Twileks followed suit, and a now-injured Sprend turned and ran from them. As they gave chase past me & Fox, one turned and gestured at me – Oh, I had a gesture for HER – , “That's one too, get her by order of Agent 63!” – Him (her?) again! I'm starting to long for the days of Madar…– So much for playing along as Fox's helper.

It went downhill quickly from there. As a sandstorm blew through, Tor-nenko and Sprend took heavy fire, and shortly they lay unconscious among the dead. The slave rebellion I tried to inspire faded quickly when they saw how things were going. One of the Twileks scored a shot to my arm – Farkling Twilek shabuir! –… and then Sam turned on us as well.

That brought the endgame – Fox grabbed me from behind, his claws to my face. “All you Rebel scum, drop your weapons or we'll be seeing a lot more of her blood everywhere!” No one really listened, battle lust was raging by that point. Dash (bleeding badly, from what glance I could get) managed to jump on a speeder and fly away right as I put my hands up and let Fox take my gun and cuff me (loosely… well done). The Twileks rounded everyone up and came back to Fox & myself, a look of disgust on their faces as they looked me over. The last thing I saw was a fist coming towards my head…

…And then I woke up inside this crawler. Apparently all the slaves who'd heeded my call to resist had been thrown in here, including a familiar face – the aforementioned INN reporter, Renee Wazertiz. I sidled up next to her (I couldn't see any guards, but why take chances), and a quick conversation revealed she'd been working on a story about Twileks disappearing from Bin Prime and ended up posing as a slave to get into the convoy. – Of course, she didn't really ever have a plan to get out… typical “it'll all work out” journalist – Luckily she DID still have her long-range comm, so after slipping out of the loose cuffs I managed to get hold of Dash so he'd know we were alive and to stay close enough to block any comms the Imperials might try to send out. He sounded frazzled but agreed. – I hope he's able to grow up fast enough for this… I think this is all way more than he bargained for. It is for ME, so I can only imagine his thoughts… at least, from this distance.

After a quick rest to recoup some strength and try to figure out a plan, my comm popped on again. Fox had managed to sneak off and break through the jamming: “Lady killer, what's your status?” After I filled him in on everything, he said he'd break us free come nightfall. – Well… at least it's SOME kind of plan. –

A few hours later Dash broke the jamming long enough for a quick status update… apparently Sam had left back towards Sobrik – Of COURSE he did… frak again! He saw all our faces, and is sure to report the situation to the Imperials. If only my hunting shot had missed towards HIS direction… –. I updated him about Fox and the plan to escape and told him to sit tight until nightfall. – He didn't sound thrilled by the idea… I'm worried about what he might decide to do on his own. –

Having nothing better to do, I tried to break through the jamming myself – apparently a bit easier when you know what's going on, as I was able to get hold of Marv back at Bin Prime and give him the situation. “Hang tight, we'll send rescue”… fine, but who exactly?

So now we wait. Fox should do whatever he has planned in the next hour or so… I fear even if we get out, we'll have a hard time freeing these slaves as well, or finishing our mission.

– Renee didn't seem much for conversation either, nor did the others huddled in the crawler in the dissipating heat. So I took some time to practice with the Force… perhaps if I could better attune my ability to connect to others, at least one future disaster could be averted! –

OOC: gained Sense:Range, Battle Meditation:Range(x2), Battle Meditation:Control

35:2:7 23:31

So many dead. We tried to rescue who we could as we fled… just too many, not enough time. A big heaping drukload of failure!

Right, so we did manage to get away, there's that. And maybe we have a chance to turn it around with Vao's help. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.

At nightfall Fox went into action and incapacitated the guards, allowing Sprend, Tor-nenko, myself, and the others in my crawler to get free. The first thing I saw in the night sky was a flare going off just over the ridge. As it slowly sank out of sight it illuminated a massive line of Bantha riders heading into the valley – the Human League had returned in force! Training kicked in - get to the escape vehicles, lay a trap (so much for using those explosives to blow up the mine), and take as many with you as you can. As we climbed into the van & speederbike and sped off, chaos erupted – massive explosions, Banthas flying through the air, screams of the dying – not all Human League either, I could feel it lapping at my mind! – , yelling, people hanging onto the rear of the van as if their lives depended on it (which they did)… a massacre, no other words.

A (literal) glimmer of hope on the horizon - lights were approaching from the west, and the secure comms fizzle in with my and Dash's name. Backup! I quickly responded with the new situation, and discovered it was a Captain Vao, apparently part of Telmarr's defense corps. – I'm liking that man even better now! I may owe him another dance or two… – They had a couple of military speeder squadrons, and with what intel I had to give them they managed to take out the raiders (sadly, not without more loss though).

A short while later we got the all clear to return to the now-secured convoy. So many bodies… so little movement. I scanned the carnage… the Twilek twins! At least THEY wouldn't be an issue anymore…

Vao's medics did what they could to stabilize those still breathing, and then moved on to our own party's rather extensive injuries. I could tell the sorrow of the surroundings was taking its toll on Tann Shala as well… her eyes reflected the pain even as she calmly patched up some of my wounds. I motioned her over to the others as she started to work on my arm injury – they were worse of than I was, and I wanted to talk as soon as possible to Vao about what was next.

Dash & Fox joined me at Vao's tent. I gave Vao the rundown of our mission and what we'd found. Dash walked out while Fox & I continued into more detailed strategies. – Bored? Or… something else on his mind? Maybe I should have checked… – We all decided pursuing Sam was pointless now – he'd have had time to get to Sobrik and contact authorities well before we could get there. We could either return to Bin Prime with what information we had… or strike while chaos and confusion were still in the air. Fox & Vao both think it imperative to also consider the mining equipment the Human League stole – I agreed, but that could likely wait until after the mine. It seemed unlikely there were many raiders left now anyhow, they appeared to have brought full force on their second convoy attack.

An interruption coalesced the decision – a scout, showing Vao a charred comms unit they'd found at the convoy… a comms unit that was now asking for a status report from the convoy for an “Ajax facility” (surely the mine). A quick plan rushed through my head based on our discussions, and I told Vao to pose as our stormtrooper “friend”, T4-887. He wove them a story about the convoy coming under fire, raiders repelled, repairs underway, help requested, and most importantly, a smaller group carrying some supplies to the facility to prevent further delays.

All we can hope now is that it'll be enough to draw off some of their troops and give us a chance at taking the mine.