…data recovery complete

Leaving the corpses of the flying beasts behind, we continued towards our objective. We came across some gun emplacements, dead rebels no longer able to operate them, and noticed several AT-ST's - here was a chance to help out! Sprend and I stopped while Damaria and Tor continued on. I suppressed concern for them - this is war, and we probably will all die if we do not do everything we can to slow the Imperial advance.

I almost killed myself!

As soon as I jumped into the turret, an AT-ST turned and fired directly at my emplacement, and rocks showered around me, damaging the controls and trapping me. I thought I might be able to fix the control panel, but it was no use, so I frantically tried to get myself free. Just as I rolled out of the emplacement, another salvo completely fried the guns.

I looked over at Sprend, and he was having much better luck. He managed to take down one AT-ST before his station fried, and so we ran off after the others, hoping they would not meet any resistance before we arrived.

We could hear cheers over the comms - our troops were resisting well, and slowing the Imperial advance; our little part helped, I think.

Just as Damaria and Tor got into sight, we were thrown to the ground by a deafening blast! Success! Through a gap in the tunnel I saw a massive rock arch collapse directly onto a group of deadly AT-AT's, and several of them fell to the ground, disabled at least for the moment.

That gave us enough time to stop for a moment on the way back to the station and fire on encroaching troopers - Damaria concentrated on her Battle Meditation while I coordinated Tor and Sprend's attacks, barking out directions, helping them completely decimate 2 full squads of trained troopers and their commanders.

As more AT-ST's arrived, we decided to head back - I did not want a repeat of our previous encounter.

When we arrived back in the hangar bay, we found the area swarming with Imps. We were not noticed at first in the chaos, and while Tor was busy tinkering with a load-lifter, the rest of us ran down towards some cover. I took a forward position behind a large canister, thinking I might have to use my saber but not willing to just jump into the fight.

A squad of troopers headed for Tor, who was just finishing up his jury-rigging, so I decided to draw on the Force. I had never actually tried this before, but Master Xenrad had lectured on the subject - I picked up a large cargo box, and hurled it towards the formation, with a very excellent end. 5 out of 6 troopers were bowled over.

And then something crashed through the ceiling - dust flying everywhere, and I could not see anything. Knowing something was up, I pushed hard on the canister in front of me with the force towards the spot where I had last seen their commander, and ran upwards, hoping to intercept the remaining trooper by Tor.

As the dust cleared, I heard shots behind me. I paused, wondering if I should turn back to help my friends, when I felt a searing pain in my side. That bloody Imp! Instinct kicked in, and I snapped my lightsaber up as several more bolts sprayed around me, and somehow I managed to deflect one bolt right back at him, and he dropped.

Damaria looked worse for wear when we met up, and so together with Sprend we started for the medbay. Tor wanted to tinker around with the shuttle, get it warmed up or something.

As we approached, we noticed a rebel trooper trying to pull something out of the wall, but the trooper ran when we approached. This seemed strange, so we stopped and examined the spot.

It was the same type of device we had located in the canyon… so it seems as though there is an Imperial spy nearby. I gritted my teeth and ignored the pain, and pulled. I did not even need to draw on the Force to augment my strength - I suppose all this physical stuff is strengthening me! I tucked it in my pack and continued.

When we arrived at the medbay, it was already evacuated. I was a bit disappointed, and tried to tell myself that it was just because my side felt like I was run over by a bantha. I sighed and used my last stim.

Haydon the bartender bumped into us outside on his way to the hangar, and he begged us to convince the triumvirate leadership to evacuate. We nodded and ran over to C&C, and spent several minutes discussing the matter with them. I smoothed the rough edges of high emotions to help everyone think more rationally with the Force while Damaria spoke in “their” language. I suppose a lot of these senior commanders were trained by the Empire - well, Republic, I guess. In any case, her military training came in handy.

We escorted the Sr. Advisor Hase, the civilian member of the triumvirate, to her transport in the hangar bay. On the way we met a dying trooper, who begged us to finish his mission for him. Apparently he was supposed to manually overload the generators and self-destruct the entire base and had failed miserably. Then he collapsed, and we delivered the advisor to her transport.

Sprend seemed suspicious about her aide, and I considered “convincing” my way onto the transport with them in case there was a problem, particularly when I noticed the doctor on board (well, I was still quite wounded), but decided to stick with the team to get this last mission finished.

At this point it was all a blur to me; shouting, screams, blaster fire. I decided to ignite my saber since we were in close quarters and I tried (not that successfully) to do that handy reflect trick. That is something I might need to work on in the future.

We managed to hold off the Imps long enough for Tor to override the safety regulators (or whatever they are called), race back to our ship and take off. Tor timed the explosions perfectly, and the shockwave knocked a few ships off our tail and gave a nice fireworks display to celebrate our success.

We arrived at [redacted], the location of the new base. It turns out General Niall died in the fight - he should have listened to us. I should have Forced him to leave right away. But I cannot change the past, so we will have to hope the next in command is as proficient as he was. The evacuation overall was very successful.

When we arrived and docked with the capital cruiser, there was a typical “inspirational” speech by the leadership, but I have a bad feeling about all this. The team talked a bit on the way - there is definitely a traitor in the fleet, that figure who was trying to remove that strange device. We sent it to Captain Harl Bess, who will report to us when they find out what it is. Our team has some clout due to our successes at Balmorra, and the Alliance looks on us favourably.

We are not sure who to trust, so for now we have not said anything to the triumvirate. Sprend thinks it is one of them, but I think we will have to get to know them all better before forming strong opinions. In the meanwhile, I think I still should visit the medbay to get those last few wounds patched up.