[redacted] is a ridiculous planet, with ridiculous creatures that do ridiculous things. Like attacking fully armed and dangerous groups of travellers. There is something odd going on here, or this place is just full of stupid and aggressive creatures.

The Athrorn Mountains are pretty; it was much cooler up here, with fewer bugs, but a lot of rocks and jagged terrain. At one point Damaria warned us that we were being followed, and so we decided to set up an ambush, to be on the correct end for once.

Since I do best at close range, I volunteered to be the bait, while Sprend set up in the sniper position, and the others in between us. I sat in the middle of the path, cross-legged and meditating, right at a choke point in the path, with steep walls on either side.

It was not long before I heard a sound - a pack of twin-tailed green foxes were approaching, baring their teeth. I really hoped to avoid conflict this time, and so I touched their minds - all six of them, I am getting stronger - and instilled fear in them. In hindsight, peace and sleepiness would probably have been a better emotion/state, but I have to work with what is there, and my impatience and frustration with constant animal attacks is growing.

I am not sure what went wrong - perhaps they feed on fear? Apparently they attack things that they are afraid of, and so they charged. I calmly rose, flicked on my eaglesaber, and expertly danced around the first wave. They tumbled past, and then turned to Tor, who was not impressed with that. The second pair tried to attack, but I sidestepped and made short work of both while Sprend quickly took care of the final pair as they came at me.

I felt quite impressed with myself, and the others. Everyone seemed quite alright, and I was happy to not have a scratch from the short melee. As a bonus, Sprend discovered a datachip that had fallen by his post. I am not sure who was out here in the middle of nowhere, but it turned out to be some incriminating evidence - a full intel sheet on our current operations. Clearly the traitor was out here and was gathering data for the Empire.

The ruins were nothing special - a few walls fallen in and a few rooms - but we managed to uncover a few munitions containers which later made the brass quite happy with us. We spent a night out here in the wilderness, and then arrived back at the base the following day, bright and early.

Unfortunately, we immediately received orders to head back out. Some unusual cave by a waterfall we were supposed to investigate. Not even time for a proper breakfast - apparently they packed rations in our new mode of transportation: a pteropod. I was rather unfamiliar with this vehicle, but I thought my emerging force-enhanced reflexes would serve us well, so I volunteered to pilot, pretending to know what I was doing.

The travel was fine until we almost reached our destination. Then these strange bugs rose out of the jungle and started attacking us in our open-air transport. I immediately started evasive maneuvers, and hearing the buzzing and fight from behind me. At one point I just managed to duck before one of these bugs zapped me - close call. Some blaster fire rang out, and I guided the pteropod to safety around the back of the falls.

There was indeed a cave behind the massive shimmering falls - very impressive. We came across an ancient door with unrecognizable symbols. Then I started to recall stories about the Sith, specifically Master Xenrad's intense fear of them. He had raved about them while he had still been deathly ill, unconsciously; an ancient foe, and yet also a present, hidden evil. His ravings had not made complete sense, but the evil I sensed around us made it all somehow more real.

Tor bypassed the lock, and we entered a small chamber. A shaft of light fell on a strange carved statue on a table. Sprend and I looked at each other, and we agreed that it was best destroyed. Who knows what kind of evil artifact this was? Damaria and Tor did not seem convinced, but they went along with it.

Sprend stacked grenades and Tor fused them together, and we hid behind the door as a massive explosion rocked the room.

We entered, to see the artifact, suspended above a shattered table, then it suddenly fell ot the floor. I was scared, I will admit. Damaria and Tor mentioned having some sort of vision, but I did not sense anything. Eager to get out, we decided to stuff it in a bag filled with stones and drop it into the pool at the bottom of the 200m waterfall. That should take care of it - no sense in corrupting our base with Sith artifacts.

On the way home, everything was fine except Sprend's attitude. He kept muttering to himself and would not answer my questions directly, so I let him be. When he is ready he will talk. Maybe we will have to go hunting again, if we ever have real free time.

That evening I decided to hang out at the mess hall again. I looked around for Lauren, but she was not around tonight. So, I settled for getting to know Vodani, who is apparently a bit of a philosopher. Then I sat down with the Ithorian and Wookiee, who both seem to be very loyal Rebels. I thought the wookiee would be angrier at me, but he actually seemed like a nice enough fellow.

On the bright side, Hayden the barkeeper provided us with fingerprint data from that communications box we recovered from Arda I, and Tor spent the evening analyzing it. Turns out Varnarek handled it. Boom.

I really wanted to head to his quarters immediately and see if we could arrest him; Sprend was on board as well, but as we started towards his room we decided to wait until morning. He did not know we had evidence, and it would be best for us to speak to C&C first.

Big mistake.

We presented the evidence to Hayes and Qurno the next morning, early, but Varnarek somehow was hidden in the room. When he heard us, he quickly grabbed Hayes, put a gun to her head, and dove out the door, blasting the lock and soldering it in place. It took me a long time to carve the door with my saber, and he had a head start.

We chased him through the corridors to the hangar, jumped on speeders, and continued the chase through the jungle. We ended up in some secret hangar in the wilderness - how did he manage that?? - and we saw him force Hayes up into a Jumpmaster 5000.

Two security droids attacked us, but I was focused on Hayes. She has too much valuable information. I thought about the Force, and my practise with moving large objects. Maybe if I could gather all my strength and discipline…

One droid dropped (Tor yelled something about bad motivators in that model), and I swung my saber at the other as I sprinted near, but it dodged to the side. Just as I reached out my hand, focusing my mind on the ship, and preparing to slam it against the cave wall… impact, searing pain, darkness.

I woke up with Sprend hovering over me with a stimpack, apologizing profusely, and the Jumpmaster rocketing off. I cursed my lack of speed and strength, and when I tried to rise I cursed in pain - my leg was barely functional.

Time was of the essence, so the others dragged me onto the speeder and back to base. The only bright side was seeing Lauren again, though she looked a bit white when she saw my leg. I was still in a lot of pain, so it was hard to concentrate, but I think she gave the others a bit of a scolding and glared at Sprend. Poor guy. It is probably the first time he has actually missed a shot in a long time.

I was ushered into the operating room for emergency surgery, and the last thing I saw was Lauren's face furrowed in concentration. Not a bad way to go.

hard medicine check = 3 success, 1 triumph:

It seemed like only a moment passed before I woke up, bandaged but alive.

“Command seems to think you have to head out right away. I told them you needed a week to recover, but they pulled rank and said that this mission was too urgent, and you were uniquely qualified,” Lorren frowned at me, an eyebrow arched. She helped me sit up on the stretcher, and I winced in pain.

“Yes, well, I suppose I have some experience in dealing with traitors. And rescuing people. I AM rather talented,” I responded with a smirk. “Don't worry, I'll be fine. Let's make a deal. If I get back in one piece, I'll buy you lunch.”

She raised her other eyebrow. “So, if you don't come back in one piece, I guess I'll have to put you back together again. Hmm, I think I prefer lunch.”

She helped me up, gently, and then, to my surprise, gave me a quick kiss. “Take care,” and then turned away, not looking back. (Yup, that's the Triumph)

I stood for a moment, then headed for the hangar bay, with a lot on my mind.