The Lighter Side of the Republic

Tech geeks only

2005-11-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

So I've been getting into my old hobbies lately, that being fiddling with stuff. I generally leave the droids alone, since R2 get huffy when I try suggesting improvements and C3P0...well, let's just say I wouldn't know where to begin. I did add some anti-slicing safeguards, though, when he was last powered down. Not sure I should tell him I tinker with him when he's not logging.

Han and Chewie are better at starship tech than I am, I'll grant them that, but considering my whole upbringing was fiddling with droids, speeders and vaporators, I could probably get a decent job as a general engineer just about anywhere.

Well, if it wasn't for the whole Jedi thing. Ahem.

So I'm messing with the Padmé's engineering chamber, adding stuff, improving, fiddling, when what do I find, buried deep in an old astromech droid's shell, a toy. A small, colorful plastic toy in the shape of a soldier of some species I can't recognize, but they had lots of arms and eyes. Ad I wonder, who owned this droid first? I mean, I'm not too fond of the whole "owning" droids bit, I think they're as much a person as the next guy except easier to repair, but this droid, it had to have been bought and owned and tinkered and appreciated by someone else at *some* point, right? Someone who had kids, apparently.

Well, gotta go. There's been a few skirmishes with the Nagai off Dantooine and Sorhab Prime, so the Republic Navy is sending out a task force, due in a few hours. Should be back in a few days, if nothing horrible happens to me.

"Women!"

2005-11-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking regarding the opposite gender recently. I mean, hey, I'm no more perfect than the next human, right? Anyway.

I have had a total of three girlfriends in my life. The first was Melia Graymire from a farm a few klicks off Tosche Station, when I was about fourteen. That ended when I discovered the legal age for driving a speeder was 15, and being a teenage boy, well. . . engines were more interesting than girls, I'm sad to say. Melia introduced me to Corellian kissing, and a lot of other things uncle Owen and aunt Beru had no idea kids our age were up to.

The second was Tanith Shire, for a brief few months back when I was still a Rogue Squadron fighter jockey, but that ended because, well, she had to go home to her world ( a small, undeveloped planet in the Outer Rim), her being the only trained pilot from that planet made her duties even more serious than mine felt at the time. But it was a nice relationship, however short it was. Tanith was a very. . . determined (ahem, "bossy") girl, which I have to admit is a trait I've always admired in women. Mostly because I tend to be so oblivious to women being interested in me that I don't notice until they knock on my door late at night with a bottle of wine and not much else.

The third was Shiera Brie, and, well, the experience soured me on relationships for quite some time. I mean, discovering that you just shot down and killed (okay, so she didn't die, but I didn't know that at the time) your girlfriend is somewhat traumatic. Discovering that she was actually a spy working for Vader and the Emperor who lied to you the whole time is even worse.

So I buried myself in work, the cause of the Rebellion, and becoming a Jedi.

. . . which brings up the problem. I'm a Jedi, at least according to Yoda and Ben, and they should know if anyone. Very possibly the last one (although I hope not, considering). Thing is, the Jedi had strict rules and regulations. It's fun watching Yoda and Ben debate them, I have to admit. Two translucent ghosts, one whose attitude is "forsake all worldly pleasures and attachments" (an attitude that would not have had me trying to bring my father back from the Dark Side), the other whose attitude is "emotions and attachments aren't bad, letting them dominate you is." I'm siding with Ben on this one, I gotta say. Yeah, sure, Fear can lead to suffering, but only if you let it. Love can lead to jealousy or possessiveness, but only if you lack trust.

Ah well.

I visited the site of the old Jedi temple. Palpatine put a statue of himself there, which has since been torn down by slightly irate Coruscanti citizens. Noone has built anything new there since.

Hauntings

2005-10-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Lady Lumiya, the big bad guy everyone's been worried about, the so-called "Dark lady"? Yeah, she's my ex-girlfriend.

Shira Elan Colla Brie.

I have a nice new collection of scars, Kiro is gone, Dani is crying in her quarters because she thinks he's dead (I'm not so sure, I mean, can an Iskalonian drown?), and I have a second, short lightsaber (blue blade).

And my ex-girlfriend is a genocidal cyborg who follows the teachings of the Sith.

Lando told me "Hey, aren't they all?" when I told him. I think he thought I was joking.

Gah. My jaw aches, and the bacta treatment hasn't quite gotten rid of the cuts to my shoulders. Stings like a bastard, to be honest. Not as much as my pride, though. She kicked my sorry behind from her 'til Corellia, and then some. On the upside, I finally got my butt in gear and finished the secondary saber I was always thinking of building. Faced her a seond time, defeated her with ease. I think it was shock (Shira was dead last I saw her, after all) and unfamiliarity with her weapons that did it.

The Nagai are becoming more than just a nuisance. The fleet I caught glimpses of at Kinooine was...frightening. Almost a match for the Republic fleet, if their technology wasn't so archaic (they don't even have vibroblades, for crying out loud). They had big non-humanoid footsoldiers that make stormtroopers look like Gungans, for example. No idea what they want, apart from possibly invading.

I have to chase her down. She claimed to be the Emperor's "Hand", and said there was at least one more. I have to know if these feelings of impending darkness are more than just my paranoia. Hmmm. Think I'll spend a day or so in meditation. See what the future might bring.

In other notes, the Padmé just got her very first quadlaser turret. Gonna ask Han and Wedge if they'll help me calibrate the sights on it later...

Ack

2005-10-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

My head hurts.

Suits me right for going out on the town with Han, Lando and Wedge. Lando has a tin leg, it seems.

...I'm also a bit confused as to why I have a Coruscanti Policeman's helmet in my possession.

In other news, things are heating up. Han and Chewie broke up a Nagai slaving ring on Kashyykk, Leia stopped a "Lady Lumiya" (some kind of full-body cyborg, apparently) from taking over a small Core world along with two former Imperial stromtrooper divisions, and according to Lando, he got a message from his former enemy Drebble (now governor Drebble) that the crime rates on the Rim are plummeting since a new organization referred to as "ghostfaces" is taking over and eradicating all competition.

Leia says Lumiya displayed some kind of energy-bolts from her hands and telekinesis, which makes me very nervous, as the former sounds like what I had to endure on the second Deathstar. Wasn't Vader and Palpatine the last of the Sith?

Then again, according to some of the history-books, Dooku was never Sith, only a fallen Jedi...

Hmm.

"Nagai"

2005-10-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

According to the near-forgotten "Encyclopedia Galactica: Alien Species - Uncharted Territories Edition Vol. 456", the Nagai are "a humanoid, human-like species, from 1.4 to 1.6 meters tall, with chalk-white skin, dark eyes of diverse coloration, black, dark or pale grey hair and slightly elfin features. Nagai have very compact muscle-mass, most likely due to genetic engineering in a distant past, and are far stronger than their frail appearance suggests."

Good Lord. I had no idea this book existed until I dug it out of an old closed-up Coruscant bookshop. It's a veritable goldmine of information. Hee. I dig the section on Lahsbees/Lashbees. "A short (0.4-1 meters tall), furry, bear-like mammalian species (ages 1-14) of bright, pastel coloration (blue to pink), with a high-pitched manner of speech. When the Lahsbee enter puberty, they go through a rapid (quickest example: 0.5 minutes), painful metamorphosis into a similarly colored furry, simian-like humanoid of great stature and muscle-mass (2.5-3 meters tall). The transformation triggers a pain-induced berserker rage that can be calmed by appealing to the adolescent Lahsbees libido. Adult Lahsbee live separate from the younger in great cities built to hold them, and abandon their young in the wild."

I could really have used this book when we were trekkin' along the Rim during the Rebellion days. Heck, the chapter on Zeltrons alone explains a lot of things.

Past mistakes

2005-09-29T05:40:00.000-07:00

It's fascinating, really, the things we miss out on in life while doing other things. Like love.

Now, I have to admit being a practical man. I was raised a farmer, and when I see a red sunrise, I think "Huh, gonna be a dry day", not "Oooh, pretty sunrise!", just as when see a old pre-Empire era starship I generally go "Hmmm, now if I could get some bigger shields on that hunk of glorified coffin and maybe some quadlaser-turrets, it might be serviceable", not "Oooh, shiny!"
I admit it, I'm not a romantic. If someone told me to bring a girl flowers, I'd probably pick all the wrong sorts at the florist. If they told me to bring chocolate, I'd probably bring the wrong type. When I pick presents for birthdays or Life Day, I tend to go for the useful stuff (although Han did like that new set of hydrospanners with inbuilt vibroblades gave him last time...I think), not the sentimental gifts. Leia calls me a lunkhead, which I'm sure is rude on some planet or other (heheh). And, to be honest, I go into my work and studies too hard to worry about the opposite sex.

So when Wedge asked me what was up on the personal front, I had no idea what he was talking about. Turns out he was trying to set me up on a date, which I weaselled out of with my usual decorum. I mean, I don't...I haven't...it's kind of difficult to worry about that part of yourself when you're barely able to have a quiet conversation with people without someone throwing a thermal detonator or the likes.

Anyway. So no, I'm not taken. I'm not looking, either. Not sure if I ever will.

This brings me to...

Shira Elan Colla Brie. I thought I'd forgotten her, y'know? And then I go to Shalyvane to bring the natives into the Republic, and I ended up going back to that desecrated altar in the desert where I found out she was never from this planet at all, instead being one of the Emperor's elite spies. And the only reason she had ever feigned interest in me was because she was setting me up for Vader.

Ah well.

On a different note, I ran into the proverbial ghost yesterday. Someone was dragging off Coruscanti Undercity dwellers to slavery in the Rim, and me and a few volunteers broke it up. The leader was this skinny, short, near-human fellow with white skin and dark-grey hair. Strong little bastard, too, nearly broke my wrist with one of his moves. When I tried to interrogate him, he committed suicide by poison. All I know is, I overheard some of his underlings mention someone called "the Dark Lady".

I have a very, very bad feeling about this...

Pre-Empire thingamabobs

2005-09-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

Did you know Lando Calrissian has a pre-Empire fan-poster of one of the Jedi generals of the Clone Wars? Some bald fellow named Mace Windu. Apparently, such paraphernalia were not entirely legal at the time (the Jedi frowned on any idolizing of them), and became highly illegal after the Jedi purge.

Walking through Theed was like walking through an anti-Empire museum. Everywhere, statues ofJedi and alien Clone War heroes, plaques commemorating sticking it to the Empire, holograms of notable people telling of how Naboo refused to kowtow to the "New Order" and so on and so forth. Hoo boy. No wonder the Empire kept cracking down on them as "terrorist sponsors".

Met my grandmother, Jobal Naberrie (Naberríe? Naberrié? Nabooan names are hard to transxcribe), grandfather Ruwee and my aunt, Sola. Also two older cousins, Pooja and Ryoo and their families. From being an orphan raised by his paternal half-uncle, I suddenly have a huge extended family. It feels...odd. They're very good people, and not the slightest bit intimidated by me being a Jedi or my sister being a high mucketymuck of the Republic. Apparently, and this bit the Imperial records had deleted, my mother Padme Skywalker was actually the famous (then) senator Padme Naberrie, also once known as Queen Amidala of Naboo. That's kind of impressive. Not that the family is nobility or anything, no, they're an old mining town family who lucked into money when the youngest daughter showed prodigious political ability at an incredibly early age. I wonder if my mother had a talent for the Force, just like Anakin, only she never got tested due to living in a remote mountain town. It happened a lot, apparently.

Bought some useless trinkets at the nearby market, including something the seller claimed was a "genuine Jedi artefact". I could tell it wasn't, but I also noticed how thin and hungry the man looked, so I bought it anyway. It's just some hammered copper-wires in Plastiglass, really, in an attempt at looking like a holocron.

I did look into a book-store and bought several hundred credits worth of un-censored history-chips. I figure any school started by me needs a less, ah, biased view of the old Republic and Empire.

Customs

2005-09-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Stuck in customs above Naboo. At least two standard hours until the customs boat deigns to grace the Padmé with their presence, examining it for contraband. Yes. They're actually holding a diplomatic emissary for the new Galactic Republic (someone suggested making the "new" bit part of the Republic's name, but got voted down) and her Jedi brother in orbit while they examine the ship for spice or weapons. Good grief.

Can't say much about the planet yet, though. The nearby moon is forested and verdant with glowing cities, the planet Naboo likewise, although judging by the decrepit orbital shipyards they've had some hard shakes for some time. Going by Imperial historical documents, Naboo was a "notorious hotbed of civil unrest and sponsor of terrorist activities", which means they aided the Rebellion and refused to kowtow. Apparently, the Imps went hardest on the indigenous natives, an amphibian species who had great cities underwater. Then again, the Imps hated non-humans, or rather, Palpatine hated non-humans.

Once we're through customs, we'll be landing at the Theed Starport, where we'll be welcomed by the current "queen" (despite the title, a democratic position voted in by the people), and while Leia is taken on a tour of the city, I'll be going to our mother's family home outside town. Not sure what to expect. Naboo's human populace is vaguely matriarchal in structure, so less men in positions of power, I suppose. The Imperial records were wiped clean on the subject of Anakin Skywalker's wife (as in, "No such entry detected"), but I've been to Naboo once (very temporarily), and apparently she was famous here.

Hold on, the comm's beeping.

Back. Okay, that was bizarre. The customs boat was much more efficient than expected, found nothing illegal (duh), and we're about to land. I have to say, the customs officer, an aging native colonel called Tarpalis (sp?), was the oddest sight...seven feet tall, vaguely duck-like in the facial structure, long, drooping ears and one heck of a mustache. Odd Basic-pidgin-dialect, too. Friendly fellow, though. He smiled at me when I stated my name as Skywalker, and claimed he had met someone with that name once. Gonna have to seek him out later.

We're making the Theed approach now, Leia's flying. I'll report later.

Good lord, what a beautiful city...

An observation on the Force

2005-09-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, what seems like ages, I watched Yoda pick up my submerged X-Wing from a swamp. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. After all, an X-Wing weighs several tons, how could anyone pick that up? What I didn't understand, and Yoda failed to make clear to me, is that to the Force, the X-Wing weighs nothing.

I picked up an X-Wing today. It was just as a mental exercise, and I didn't really expect to succeed, judging by the effort it took me last time. I stood there in the mostly empty hangar, that little vein in my forehead throbbing, when suddenly something in my head clicked. It occurred to me the truth of what both Ben and Yoda told me. That is, that all things are connected to the Force, and that while Yoda was tiny, the Force was his powerful ally, respectively.

I'm just a man. But the Force is my ally. The Force doesn't care about distance or weight or energy-to-matter conversion ratios. So I just picked the X-Wing up, spun it around a few times, then put it down gently. No headache.

It's odd that it should take me this long to get it.

In other news, the Padmé is finished (well, mostly). I'll take it on the maiden voyage tomorrow, more specifically, I'm visiting my mother's family on Naboo. It's time her mother met her grandson. Leia is coming with me, not sure about Han. He should really get his Corellian butt in gear and ask her the question. They've been involved seriously for what, six months now? Well, three months and a year for Leia, but I'm going by Han's subjective time...

Odd events notation: Walking to my departure gate (heh) on Dantooine, I had the funniest notion that I was being followed. All I saw when I looked was a couple of Jawas, a Rodian merchant and his stall of wares, and a pretty redhead in Coruscanti fashions. Neither seemed interested in me. Hmmm.

Also...anyone ever hear of a people called the "Nagai"? I keep hearing rumors about them, but nothing concrete, yet. Apparently, they're newcomers to the galaxy, and basically humanoid, and that's all I know.

Ah well.

May the Force be with you all.

Vacation Diary pt 6

2005-09-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on the upper deck of a hoverskiff headed for the Dantooine spaceport, where I'll take a freighter to Coruscant. Had a very busy day yesterday.

So the kinraths infest a huge tunnelsystem under the plains by the old Jedi enclave. I did not know this. What's odd about that is that usually, I can feel every strand of grass in a three-mile radius around me (Yoda taught me a lot*). And yet I couldn't sense a huge kinrath hive right underneath me. I found out why, though.

I started to sense something wrong when I took my first few steps down the tunnels. There were signs of sentients, but most near the surface, and most likely the kinrath dug into those rooms after they were abandoned. A few eggchambers had odd crystal-formations, and I broke a few off (some kind of organic crystal, similar to the Arbran ones) for my little hobby. But that sense of wrongness remained, constantly.

Cloaked in the Force, I walked among the creatures, avoiding them at al times. It was slow going, but educational. Usually, kinrath form into a simple hive-insect structure, hivemother, drones, soldiers, workers. These had formed a different hierarchy. They were cooperating. Not naturally. Each eggchamber had its own hivemother, with her own personal guard and drones, but nowhere did I see any workers. Worker kinrath have a spadelike front-claw, for digging and cutting, but none of the kinrath had this. All warriors. Whenever they intruded on each others territory, they lashed out, but once the obstruction was gone, they continued as before.

I started to recognize the sensation as I descended into this corrupted lair. The Dark Side was strong there, in an old, hungry kind of way. It wasn't like I felt it with my father, where it was hurt, hate and resentment all mixed up, bubbling inside him, or cold and condescending as it was with the Emperor. No, this was...ancient. It was old when Yoda was born.

Further down, I got a shock. The tunnels at the furthest down were not tunneled out by the kinrath. They were manmade. Black and red marble, ancient, flickering glowbulbs on the walls coming to life as I approached. The kinrath were few here, all the tracks were old or from hivemothers (big ones, too), but as the ground went from packed dirt to what looked like cut basalt, those vanished too.

There was an honest-to-goodness Sith temple down there. A black ziggurat of marble and red crystal. It looked ancient. There were murals of some alien race coming from above with hooded men, showing the primitive natives of Dantooine how to build things, and killing them by the millions when they disobeyed. The language was indecipherable, but the intent, the hate and anger and fury in them was unmistakeable. At the center of the ziggurat was a huge crystal, red and pulsing, and there were obvious signs of pieces cut out of it, probably to use for lightsabers. But the real use was probably, judging by the ancient machines connected to it, as some form of focal point for Dark Side energies.

I had to do it. The crystal was corrupting the wildlife, and the stars know what else. A few thermal charges turned it into so much dust, and I could swear I heard something scream as I pushed the remote detonator. The temple began to collapse soon after, and I left it behind. Escaping the tunnels was easy, the kinrath had turned on each other, some fleeing, others acting as territorial instincts taught them and waging war on the others. I had to pause in an eggchamber waiting for the worst of it to pass, and noticed that the crystals had changed. They didn't sing out of key anymore, so to speak. I picked a few more, to compare the ones I had with them, and one that felt oddly in tune with me as well.

When I left, the plains above were swarming with kinrath, milling in confusion, running in all directions or viciously tearing each other apart. It was sad to see how much damage to a perfectly normal pack hunter a single Sith artefact had done, even though technically, I was the one causing the chaos by destroying it. It would have happened sooner or later, this way noone sentient got hurt in the aftermath.

I took the time to examine the Jedi ruins more, and the murals there were interesting. They depicted mostly old Jedi, including a lot of people I didn't recognize, but the most interesting one wasn't an actual mural. It was a simple child's painting of a small freighter, red and pale gray, standing on the grass, while a bunch of people came out of it. It was signed in what I recognized as ancient Mandalorian, and I think (not sure, my Mandalorian is atrocious) it said "Friends (somethingsomething) Sasha". The only reason the thing survived was because whoever made it painted it onto the plasticrete.

What I found on Dantooine that really (as if the Sith temple wasn't enough) fascinated me, I'll post about later. It's sort of sensitive stuff, and I'll have to talk about it with the Republic bigwigs first.

Vacation Diary pt 5

2005-09-14T01:36:00.000-07:00

Sitting outside the ruins of a truly ancient Jedi enclave. It must be at least three thousand years old, and I doubt I'll find anything still working here.

The place seems to have been an academy, so that part of the rumor is true at least, but the place must have been rebuilt at least three-four times before it was left behind. There's a very peaceful garden in the center, which is where I'm camping out, after having kindly but firmly evicted some local pack-hunter predators.

There's so many memories in these walls. Death, pain, certainly, but also peace, tranquility, joy and love. I saw some wall murals that I am going to explore today, and post about later.

Quite a few human remains here and there. The place has been safe from weather and wind, so you can still see the plasticrete floors, and the high grass on top of the settlement has ended up supporting the ceilings to the point where you could probably let people live here again.

Also signs of large, insectoid predators, with webs here and there. The locals call them kinrath, four-legged six-foot bugs with a single mandible/capture-arm in the very front. Ugly critters, but then, I'm no holovid-star myself. They're very aggressive, though, in a way that doesn't make sense even for predators. I can sense an odd disturbance in the Force a few miles from here, and I think that may be their hive.

I meditate more than sleep these days. It gives me the rest I require, and gets me in tune with the Force. I've taken to checking in on my friends as I do, even though I make sure never to bother Han and Leia at night, hem-hem. I couldn't help playing a prank on Lando, though. I moved around some of his furniture while he slept. I am such a bastard.

Well, I'll be back after I've checked the murals and the disturbance in the Force. Probably later tonight.

Vacation Diary pt 4

2005-09-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

On Dantooine.

The landscape is breathtaking. Miles upon miles of grassy savannah, or coral beaches that seem to go on forever, with clear-blue ocean and crisp, blue sky. This is the kind of planet I would have loved to grow up on.

...not that Tatooine is a hellhole, but...

...oh, who am I kidding. Tatooine is hot, dangerous, smelly and the sand gets in everywhere. It's not exactly my home anymore. The only thing that kept me there was obligation to my aunt and uncle, and my friends, and apart from Biggs' gajillion girlfriends, all my old friends are dead.

Dantooine is a paradise in comparison. Oh, sure, they've had problems. The Empire kept pushing them down (a lot of Alliance members were from here), the indigenous population rose up against mistreatment a while back, and so on and so forth, but you can *breathe* here. It's beautiful.

Swam in a lagoon this morning, made friends with what's apparently a very dangerous predator. The Force can be very useful at times. He wasn't hungry, and mostly curious, and I calmed him enough to let him investigate what I was without having to take a bite out of me first.

Am going to check out some rumors of an ancient Jedi temple tonight. I found some texts on Coruscant that claimed the Jedi had a sort of mini-academy here for a while, a kind of enclave, so I'm going to examine it. Who knows, there might be something of interest there.

Vacation Diary pt 3

2005-09-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

I am currently headed to Dantooine on the merchant freighter "Sarrali", a Corellian boat running the Outer Rim. I just couldn't cope with what Wedge and so many others consider "fun".
Sure, I like the opposite sex, I just don't treat the whole sex thing so casually.

Anyway, Dantooine is a peaceful agricultural world with lots of open plains, oceans, minor tourism and a local tech industry that I'm dying to get a peek at.

Now *that's* vacation.

Vacation Diary pt 2

2005-09-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Bored.

Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored.

BORED.

Arrived at Hologram Fun World early this morning, and got my first chock in customs.

THEY'RE ALL ZELTRONS!

I'm going to kill Wedge. Slowly. He *knows* I don't get on with Zeltrons, and so he pulls a stunt like this.

Anyway, I got through customs after only three unnecessary bodysearches (I haven't even brought my lightsaber, even though I have a special permit for it from the Republic heads, not that it's valid everywhere, but still), got into a hovercab, had to tell the cabbie I was *not* interested in going to any stripjoints or anything *else* twice to get him to drive me to the hotel, where the desk clerk kept insinuating things to me repeatedly.

I don't think I've blushed this much since Leia tried setting me up on a date with that Alderaanian noblewoman she knew.

Well, at least I'm safe in my hotelroom. I think. Just gonna watch some holovid and relax.

...oh come *on*. It's all...ah, *adult* entertainment. Only one news channel. Gah.

Fine, I'll go outside. But I'm wearing my hooded jacket. If I hear "Blondie" even once, I'm leaving the planet.

Vacation Diary pt 1

2005-09-09T12:47:00.000-07:00

Writing this in my cabin on the cruiser "Habat's Dream". It's a lovely ship, but typical Ithorian (full of life, good and bad) so you have to make sure you don't bring anything from the biodomes with you to your cabin. I discovered this after finding a kind of rodent nesting in my pillow an hour ago.

I am having some peace and quiet, and it's killing me. Half wishing for a pirate attack, but fat chance of that, the typical luxury liner has more than enough defenses for any attacker smaller than a Stardestroyer.

*sigh*

Vacation. Bah.

Vacation?

2005-09-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

They're telling me I'm working too hard. Running around libraries in the Core (fascinating how many worlds who suddenly "never liked Palpatine at all, oh no, why would we support that ghastly fellow who kept us safe by oppressing everyone else"), attending trials, helping with the questioning of war criminals, etcetera...

So on orders of Mon Mothma, Temporary Acting-Chancellor of the Republic, I am to take a vacation of no less than seven standard Galactic days, and I have to take them all at once.

I don't think the Republic heads understand what peace and quiet can do to a man who hasn't stopped working a 14+ hour day since he was about six or seven years old. For goodness sake, I might go nuts!

In other news, I raised an X-Wing with the Force today. It's impressed everyone who was in the area, but it just gave me a splitting headache. It worries me sometimes, the way my connection to the Force seems to intensify more each day. A year back I could maybe lift a droid and his chair. Now I'm picking up starfighters with my mind. What will I be able to do when I'm the age Ben was when he died?

Oh, and Wedge gave me a 3-day pass to some holiday planet out on the Rim called Hologram Fun World. He claimed it's all the rage, but me? I got a baaaaaaad feeling about this...still, I'm going there tomorrow, on the Ithorian luxury cruiser "Habat's Dream". Orders from above.

I wonder if I should tell them I'm technically not subservient to Republic hierarchy, since the Alliance is being dissolved, and I haven't applied for the new Republic Navy..?

Politics pt.2

2005-09-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

I got in a heated argument today. I was aiding in the court-martial of one Admiral Esau Verkin, Imperial "war-hero" and responsible for half the Empire-sanctioned slavery in the galaxy. It was he who had 20 000 wookiees killed when he bombarded their villages from orbit for having refused to submit to Imperial "caretaking".

I just got angry. It wasn't even a furious, or cold anger, just annoyance that this man proudly stood before the tribunal and expected them to set him free because "I was only following orders".

Okay. By that logic, if Admiral Dodonna had ordered me to take my X-Wing and slaughter a merchant convoy headed for Coruscant with supplies for the Imperial Navy *after* we had taken out their escort, I would have gone "right-o, sir!" and murdered hundreds of regular people just making an honest living. No. While we had to make some tough decisions during the Rebellion, outright mass-murder never even occurred to us. True, some of our more pragmatic members suggested that it might be simple self-preservation, since acting like the bad guy doesn't generally garner support when you're the underdog, but I'd like to think we were just plain better than that.

Yeah, Verkin followed orders. But he didn't have to. The entire Imperial oppression of non-humans was dependant on one thing and one thing alone: that the soldiers, from the common grunt to stormtrooper to admiral did as they were told, no questions asked. The Emperor told Stormtrooper THX-1138 (aka "Jac Desper", formerly of Corellia) to execute ten Bith men, women and children, and he did. He didn't go "Bugger this for a game of soldiers" and join the Rebellion.

"Oh, like that's so easy!" says some. It was. Biggs, my friend, was supposed to join the Imperial Navy as a pilot. He jumped ship halfway there, going straight to Yavin. It was easy to desert. They just didn't.

No, I'm not going to judge them. I'm there as impartial observer, and while I did argue ethics with Verkin, the court has earpieces that keep them from hearing anything not pertaining to the trials. Verkin is a proud, bigoted man, but I can't help wondering how much of that was sheer corruption of power and how much was in his upbringing. Someone once told me that anyone can become a tool of evil, whether or not they are themselves. This might be true, to some extent. But what does that say about those who did not submit?

Anyway.

I am overseeing the refit of the Padmé, and it occurred to me that I have very little personal belongings. As a teen, I collected machine parts and model replicas of ships, in the Rebellion I had very little time for a personal life, and now I find myself desperately needing a hobby. I tinker, of course, but that's getting annoying even to R2. I currently have a wide collection of lightsabers I built myself, and will never use. My prosthetic hand has so many useless gadgets built into it that I had to take some out because they interfered with the finger-servos. R2 always rolls away when I get that gleam in my eye, muttering something about "Skywalkers".

Anyway. Lando gave some suggestions for the ship's interior, and...well...no. I am not putting silk drapes anywhere. This is not a love-pad. He can do whatever he wants to the Lady Luck, but I want no part of it. The Padmé is going to be, at the worst, cosy.

In other news, we got the smell out of the ship. It must have been in the inner walls or something, because once we stripped those down and tossed them, the smell was gone. The new walls were taken from the Imperial Star Destroyer Ungulant, and can withstand lightsaber-hits (not for long, but then, only forcefields can stop a lightsaber reliably). Something called "cortosis" in the alloy, whatever that is.

Oh, gotta go. They're announcing the verdict.

May the Force be with you.

Politics

2005-09-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Uncle Owen once told me there are four kinds of liars. Liars, damn liars, statisticians and politicians. While I don't share his bleak outlook on things (this is a man who once stated that he and Beru would starve to death if we didn't get vaporator 42 working by the following week...the vaporator ended up being wrecked by Tusken before the end of the day), I'm quite happy I decided to keep me and any future Jedi far, far away from any post-Empire politics.

It's fun watching Han and Leia, though. She was born and raised into politics, her (step)father being the viceroy and senator for Alderaan for over fifteen years, and seeing her cajole, manipulate and speechify other Alliance bigwigs into happily agreeing with her can be quite entertaining. Take Crix Madine, for example. Corellian, cranky old military, very set in his ways. Within ten minutes she had him eating out of her hand. The only person Leia can't quite wrap around her finger is Mon Mothma.

What surprised me (although it shouldn't have, really), was watching Han talk business with the Incom people. With the Empire crumbling as the centralized power is gone (since the Emperor never actually expected to die), the various banks are freezing accounts left and right, and Incom, who have supplied the Alliance with fighters and bombers for many years got nervous. "Where's our money", basically. They were getting Leia angry at the end, and when she gets angry, she gets foulmouthed. Not a good move when you want to calm down a vital ally.

So Han smoothly steps in, starts talking business lingo with the men, and within an hour he had not only gotten them to agree to a new deal in return for a confiscated Star Destroyer, but managed to finagle a better one than they used to have. And all the while, Leia stares at him with her mouth shaped into this shocked little 'o'. Hilarious.

Then again, I guess dealing with Hutts long enough gives you enough practice to sell ice to Wampas in wintertime...

"The Placeholder Something-or-other"

2005-09-02T15:21:00.000-07:00

I have a ship.

Okay, it's a rustbucket, but it was cheap, and Chewie promised to help me fix her up. I am turning a small freighter (for those who care about such things, it's an old Gthroc light freighter can't be bothered to check model number) into a passenger shuttle. I will take this ship (note my careful attempt at not whooping and dancing around my quarters, I am a Jedi now, we're dignified and serene...) and go from world to world, seeking out Jedi in hiding, potential students, and Jedi lore.

Excuse me, I'll be right back.

Aaaaand I'm back. Just had to punch the air and go "Yes!" once before I went nuts.

So anyway. The ship. It's ugly, squat, full of holes, and makes the Millennium Falcon look like a Mon Calamari pleasure cruiser in comparison. The last cargo was apparently live nerfs, judging by the smell, and the crew quarters make me suspect the last owner was not, in fact, a friendly old grandmother on Telos who just drove it back and from the local orbital mall, but in fact a bunch of Gamorreans.

But it's mine. Not an Alliance-issue X-Wing, which, while fast, are about as comfortable to travel in as a bed of nails. Ever tried sleeping in an X-Wing? It gives you cramps in places you didn't know you have muscles. I taught myself to move into timed trances using the Force just to be able to walk out of the ship after those long cross-Empire trips.

The ship will be sort of a flying testing-academy/library/home, and when I'm done rebuilding, refitting and rearming it, it'll be faster than it legally should be, better armed than it should be, and inside will be a cosy ten-bedroom apartment. I'm starting small.

Now all I need is a decent name...

In other news, was reading up on some old archival records I dug up from a forgotten Holonet node on the lower levels of Coruscant, and I found a lot of mentions of a Jedi enclave on Dantooine, of all places. Will have to check that out.

I am also experimenting with lightsabers. I kept my father's Sith-red one, out of some misguided attempt at having a keepsake, and then realized he's not gone. All that was good about him lives on in the Force, so I picked it apart and catalogued every part. Hate to admit it, but he was a better mechanic than I am. Some of his modifications are downright genius. I'm considering making myself a shorter saber for my left hand. It seems double-bladed lightsabers were popular once, but I want more freedom with my hands, so one regular and one short might suit me better. Might help for those pesky gunners shooting at my poor malfunctioning prosthetic hand too.

Oh. I know. So obvious.

My ship is named the "Padme". After the mother I never knew, but saw as a statue in a forgotten city hall on Naboo the other month...

"Please stand by..."

2005-08-31T01:50:00.000-07:00

After much nagging by my sister and the constant feeling that I need to stop bottling up my emotions to keep them from becoming too intense, I have decided to reopen this blog.

My writing will be sporadic, at best, since I'm far too busy these days to have anything remotely like a regular downtime schedule, but I'll try to jot down a few notes every now and then.

Now, if you'll excuse me, R2 informs me that the astromechs down at the hangar just installed the pilot's seat backwards on my new ship. I'll be back when I can.

Endings

2005-06-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

To part is bittersweet, yadda yadda yadda. Or so some poet claimed.

It is time for me to end this blog. I'm simply too darn busy these days to be able to write in it, but maybe some day I'll find it in me to put my thoughts on datapad again. Perhaps on holocron. As it is, the galaxy waits for no man or woman or skreenakh, and I have much to do. There's some trouble at a small Outer Rim-side world called Bakura, and, well, someone has to go. Even Ben wants me to go there, so I'm taking a frigate, a few squadrons of fighters, and Han and Leia are coming along, Leia's a diplomat after all.

May the Force be with you all.

Commander Lucas "Luke" Teshmi Skywalker, Jedi knight, signing off.

Many years ago...

2005-06-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

I met a young Iskalonian man named Kiro. He was headstrong, impulsive, rash and very curious, and reminded me a lot of myself when slightly younger. He has since hooked up with Dani, and is considering going off on his own. Last night, he asked to become my apprentice.

I declined.

It was harder than I'd thought. As I stated earlier, the boy (I'm 25, he's what, 17? 18?) reminds me of myself, and he does have some talent with the Force, even if it isn't very strong, but the problem is...I'm not Ben Kenobi. It's much too soon for me to start training people in the Force, mainly because I don't have any kind of theory to teach. I have to get my own head together before I can claim to have anything to say, and I don't know how long that will take.

On another note, I've been looking at current starship pricing, and comparing them to my saved-up backpay. I can afford a decent small freighter, and easily convert the cargo space to living quarters. I fully intend to travel the galaxy, searching for any Jedi to have survive the purge, or any of their belongings. Holocrons would be nice.

Long live the Republic.

Reparations

2005-06-19T05:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy time for me. We've spent over a month cleaning out Deathstar debris from Endor orbit (most of the radiation was thankfully stopped by the local ozone layer), accepting surrenders from over a score of ISD's and their crews, and we used the HoloNet transceivers on the command decks to spread the news throughout the Empire.

The Emperor is dead.

I put my father's armor on the funeral pyre, the armor he had hated for so long yet had been trapped within, and I watched it burn. It's just a hollow, scorched metal shell now. I burned it not out of respect for my father, but to close a chapter. Darth Vader is dead. Anakin Skywalker will live forever in the Force. I know this because I have spoken with him, and Obi-Wan, and Yoda, and some bearded fellow named Qui-Gon who is very funny (how do you make a ghost blush? No idea, but Qui-Gon manages it on Ben all the time).

Leia thinks I'm a nut for talking to the air every now and then, but most of the time she and Han just sit there making googly-eyes at each other. It's sweet, and I'm happy they finally stopped pretending (um, well, that she stopped pretending, Han was pretty clear on what he wanted since Yavin IV).

Now, what awaits us is hard work. The days of slouching around Alliance-friendly worlds and running from the Bad Guys is over. Now we have the beginnings of a fleet (the Mon Calamari in the fleet are painting the ISD's blue and white, which is hilarious), we have defeated the dark heart of the Empire, and we're going to have to find out if people want a Republic again. The last one allowed a Nabooan senator to make himself emperor, after all.

As for me, well...Yoda told me it's up to me now. Either I let the Jedi way be forgotten entirely, or I take their teachings, my own learnings and the things they have learned since and start all over again, as something not entirely Jedi. It's going to be hard.

I can't wait.

Ewoks are scary

2005-05-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

Oy. My head feels like a bantha tap-danced on it while wearing golf shoes. Also, I think I may have done a lot of stupid things last night, like singing. My singing voice is not fit for public consumption, being more akin to a dying gundark's than anything human.

So. Trekking through the jungle towards the nearest Imperial outpost. This may take some time, especially with the hangover. Who knew the little cannibal bears could make such deceptive alcohol? It tasted just like fruit punch, and apparently even got Chewie snoozing like a baby in the end.

Well, if this works, either I won't post again, ever, or I'll post when the Emperor is dead. Either way...see ya. Been a pleasure.

This is Commander Luke Skywalker, Rogue Squadron Delta, ID 33645342-5, signing off.

Fate moves

2005-05-16T06:56:00.000-07:00

...knight to bishop 2.

Well. It is warm, and humid, and noisy here on (name deleted for obvious reasons), and I can sense my father across space.

He knows I'm here, and the mission is in jeopardy. I have to go to him, I know that. If nothing else, to finish things. If everything goes as planned, even should I fall, the emperor, Vader and myself will die. If I am victorious in what I plan on doing, the galaxy will change in just a few days.

It's...strange how calm I am. I carry every emotion on my sleeve, and still, they don't control me. Obi-Wan and Yoda wanted me to feel nothing, but I can't do that. I probably never will. All I can do is keep myself in check as well as I am able, and hope my anger and fears don't get the better of me.

Anyway. Be right back. Recon just reported a couple of Imp biker scouts up ahead. Might get hairy.

Ruminations on the Force

2005-05-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Obi-Wan and Yoda both felt it was more important for me to finish my training instead of saving my friends. They were right, sort of, but at the same time I can't help but wonder, what would have happened if I had? When I faced Vader in Cloud City, he beat the crap out of me, and I spent most of the fight staying out of his reach. And it occurred to me that Yoda was right about the Dark Side being faster, but not stronger. I can pick up things with the Force. I can throw them. I haven't figured out the X-Wing lifting yet, but I'm guessing it's just a matter of time until I let go of preconceptions of weight and size when using the Force to lift things.

Vader did it quickly, though. It wasn't that he could lift more, it was that he could lift them in a shorter amount of time. If I had let my anger rule me while picking things up, it would have been quickly, too. The Dark Side gives quick, raw power. The Force as it is gives slow, subtle, but equal power, it just takes longer.

Let's say I had finished training, oh, say, about now (Yoda being dead and all, I doubt there are other teachers around). I go face Vader, like so many other Jedi. But Yoda and Obi-Wan both told me Vader easily cut down Jedi that had been trained and practicing and using the Force for decades. What chance would I have? Sheer overpowering might? That's Dark Side thinking. Subtlety? While I'd stand there focusing to lift the floor underneath Vader, he'd be tossing a hundred projectiles at me and then decapitating me, or worse.

No, I don't think our final meeting will be a display of Jedi might, of how skilled at using the Force I have become. I'm good enough for Yoda to consider me worthy a final Jedi trial (facing Vader), something he told me took most individuals their entire upbringing. I'm good enough to outclass most regular people in a lot of things (although Han and Wedge are better pilots, I cheat by having the Force as my ally...). But Vader, by using the Dark Side, is all that and quicker. It takes me a few seconds to see things and connections, not because the Force is weaker than the Dark Side, but because the Force takes everything into account.

Ben said everything is connected to the Force, but only living beings can actively sense and control it. He also told me, in a weird moment as we drove to Mos Eisley, that every time we picked up a pebble with the Force, it had repercussions. The slightest tremor of picking up a pebble could cause a supernova in another galaxy, beating someone with the Force could cause events too horrible to imagine. Anyone using the Dark Side just wants the quick power and doesn't care what happens to anything else (or never truly understood it). Using the Force, as it is, requires allowing the Force to compensate for your actions. This takes time. It's slow. But y'know, Yoda picked up my X-Wing without even getting winded.

Back to facing Vader fully trained. I think I would lose, because first, I wouldn't know about Anakain Skywalker becoming Vader (I suspect even if Yoda told me I would have had trouble believing). I would have the knowledge that my inaction caused my friends to suffer and possibly die. I would have the fear that my training wouldn't be enough, considering how Vader, over twenty years ago, plowed through trained Jedi with little to no difficulty.

But I have accepted my past. I helped my friends, and like Ben said, even the slightest action echoes through the Force. Maybe my coming to Cloud City against Yodas and Bens wishes distracted Vader and the Imperial troops from my escaping friends, and vice versa? Maybe by finding out as I did, beaten and injured, it was easier to resist Vaders offer?

All I know is that there is good inside him, buried down deep. Somewhere under twentythree years of pain, anger and battlescars is the man who fathered me. A man who married, who was a Republic hero. A man who gave more than he took. I just have to coax him out, somehow.

And for my next act, I will juggle Star Destroyers while humming the Old Republic national anthem.

Observations on galactic lifeforms

2005-05-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

There are some truly weird places in the galaxy, even to someone even vaguely familiar with the Force, like me. Sometimes, the weirdness is due to artificial circumstances, such as the bio-engineered garbage eaters used by the Empire to process organic waste (and me, almost), but most often, they exist simply due to some sheer fluke of nature. I thought I'd number a few here.

The planet Arbra appears much like any other wild jungle moon, but has a few differences. The caves are filled with razorsharp organic crystals of a multitude of colors, grown by a microscopic lifeform as a kind of shelter, similar to Iskalonian and Mon Calamari corals, only the Arbran crystals grow in dry caves, where they absorb moisture and ambient cosmic radiation for nourishment. Expose them to sunlight, and they flare brightly with energy, and they would be excellent for energy sources if they weren't so inherently unstable. I've often wondered what would happen if I made a lightsaber crystal out of one of those, but that kind of experiment will have to wait. Twin lightsaber style was very common in the Old Republic, according to Yoda, but I find two equal-length ones a bit unwieldy when you're righthanded, like me. Maybe one regular and a shorter one...

Anyway.

The very existence of the Arbran crystal corals is astounding. It's a world with regular carbon-based life, even intelligent such, and so the existence of a silicate lifeform that feeds on radiation and water is...a bit odd, to say the least. The hoojibs, the dominant sentient life on the planet, claim the crystals may be the only indigenous life, that at some point the rest was imported in a terraforming attempt by some long forgotten intelligent species. This becomes even more problematic when you consider that these crystals thrive even in this terraformed environment, if it truly is that.

Now, take the Kashyykk hroshii (wroshii? Shyriiwook is real hard to transcribe) trees. They stretch for miles, with tree-trunks thick enough to house entire cities inside the branches (which the wookiees do in dead ones), and yet, the local indigenous life, including our loud, furry friends, is fairly normal-sized. The biggest thing I ever saw when I visited some time ago was some rancor-like beast with horned plates on its back and a taste for the local giant insects (okay, so they're not insects, insects don't have lungs and internal skeletons). So why is the flora that big? Why do the trees make the Deathstar look like a dunza-ball?

And then there's Tatooine. The planet has very little moisture, and even less groundwater. Still, there is life on it. The Tusken have been there for time immemorial, there's stories of how the first Republic colonists there over four thousand years ago found the Tusken waiting for them, with primitive slugthrower guns and gaderffii axes. I grew up there, and they're not exactly friendly, which makes me wonder, *why* are the Tusken so xenophobic? It's a big planet, with little to take, and few human colonists. The Tusken rule 90 % of the desert world, and still they want everyone not them off the planet. Do they have some lore telling of star-travellers? If so, who were those? It's not even as if colonist actions caused the animosity, the Tusken attacked the very first known settlements there as well with no warning.

The galaxy is full of mysteries like that. Some day I hope to explore them.

In more current news, Han now owns half my saved-up credits from five years of unclaimed back-pay, thanks to us playing Sabacc for fun for a full night (Lando wanted in, but had to go help with repairs on the Lady Luck). I don't mind. I don't need much anyway. When I was younger, all I wanted was a fast spaceship and maybe some place to call home, but now, I feel the galaxy has other plans for me.

There have been a few odd moments, lately. I spent a day in preparations for the raid on Jabba in an old abandoned sand-people hut (odd in itself, they rarely leave anything behind when they move), and had a weird dream. Not a coherent one, but it had meaning nevertheless. There was pain, and fear, and grief, and then mounting, uncontrolled rage. The hut had dried blood stains on the walls and floor, and there was a neat, round hole in one wall that I patched up to keep out the sand.

Then there was the oddest sensation of being watched when presenting my case to Jabba (so call me an optimist, I just wanted to give the slug a chance of getting out of the Han affair with little fuss). No idea who it was, it wasn't friendly, but not actively antagonistic either. I was busy, after that.

Lastly, when I meditated earlier, I could swear I felt someone watching us. Very familiar feeling, too. Last I felt that presence, I was busy holding the cauterized stump of my hand, while on the Falcon.

By the way, does anyone know the total alcoholic quotient for your average Zeltron? It might help if I knew how to get Dani drunk, then I could put her on a freighter for the Rim and be free of her corrupting influence for a while. Right, off to find my pants...

Anticipation...

2005-05-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

...is killing me. Things are brewing, mighty fast, and you can literally feel the Force guiding all our steps and moves. Meditating, I spent an entire night just wandering the nearby universe with my mind, and it was quite the experience. Even Yoda never told me I could do that.

I got to talk to Wedge today. We shared stories, had some jawa juice (he suggested Corellian beer but I avoid alcohol as a general rule, last time I tried some I woke up in Dani's bedroom buck naked), and then had a friendly re-match in the sims. I let him win a couple times, but don't anyone tell him that.

The galaxy is about to change again. I can feel it. Soon.

Back in the saddle

2005-05-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Well, Yoda is dead. I'm only a little sad, he was old and worn, and is very likely better off now that he's one with the Force. We talked, and he told me of...well, better not say too much. You never know who's reading.

He says I have to confront Vader. Ben thinks I've already lost since I want to turn Anakin back instead of just killing him, but then, Ben called Han a fool, which isn't entirely correct. Han is a part of the Force, and unlike many others, he revels in it, dancing on the edge of danger, knowing he has an invisible ally. "Luck", he calls it, but I know better. I'm not telling him, either. Why? Because doubt would be catastrophic for him.

Well, I'm approaching the fleet now, Mon Mothma has called to a meeting of all higher officers, and being a commander, I have to be there. Wedge is gonna be there too, which is neat.

*sigh* Sometimes I miss Shiera...

The cave

2005-05-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

The first time I went inside the cave, I was eager, anticipatory, feeling tough, belligerent. I failed so badly you could hear the collective headslaps from centuries of force ghost Jedi masters. The second time was early today. Not sure it was a success, but then, the cave isn't meant to be a contest, or even a test as such. It's a place to look inside yourself and confront your own fears, nothing else. I brought my new lightsaber along, but never felt a need to use it. I suspect the cave is a test within a test. As you test yourself, you prove that you're no longer in need of proving yourself. I feel a new calm, a calm I haven't felt since...I dunno. Not sure I ever have felt such calm. And I have realized something, something Yoda is going to have to confirm for me later.

Anakin Skywalker is Darth Vader.

Or rather, Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker. He was telling me the truth, or the truth as he knew it. For a brief while, I was angry at Ben and Yoda for not telling me outright, but now...not so sure they didn't do the right thing.

Anyway, I'm going back to Yoda's hut now, just thought I'd post while the cave was fresh in my memory.

Yoda looks really sick, though. I wonder how long he has left.

The trouble with Hutts...

2005-05-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

...is that they really *do* control everything. Well everything outside the Empire's reach, anyway. Take my home planet, Tatooine, for example. We all knew who, in the end, made money off of even the lowliest moisture farmer, and it sure as quasars wasn't the farmers. No, the only one really making money was the big fat ugly slug who only popped in every now and then (the dry air is bad for Huttish skin, apparently) to oppress the locals and recruit new scum and villains from Mos Eisley.

So, anyway, Han is allright, and I'm going to Yoda to finally finish my training. I've self-taught myself a few things since leaving his planet, and am intending to revisit a certain cave, to see what I can do differently. We'll see.

Well, back to Hutts and Han. Would you believe he had Han hung up in a niche like some Durosian crystal-sculpture? A conversation piece. Smug bastard. Infiltrating his palace was surprisingly easy, though, I guess so few ever think of doing so that their security measures aren't near as good as they should be. Or maybe Jabba just never expected anyone to try what we did on his home turf. Too bad for him that this is my home turf as well.

Can't really take the credit, though. Leia strangled Jabba, Han managed to off Boba Fett somehow (he still says it was luck, I just smile when he says that), even Lando and Chewie got out allright.

I'm still wondering where the heck Jabba got a Rancor, though.

The others went straight for the fleet pick-up point, me, I'm going to a certain swampy jungle-planet. Hopefully Yoda won't smack me too hard with that stick of his.

Hunting the hunters

2005-05-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

I know, it's been quite a while since the last entry here, but I've been busy. Met some new friends on Iskalon, went searching for missing buddies-in-arms who'd vanished after Hoth, did some networking out on the Rim...

Anyway, we had a lead on Han. Or rather, Bossk, one of Fett's accomplices. Big Trandoshan with a chip on his shoulder, works alongside a former assassin droid named IG-88. Yeah, they're dangerous people, but nothing we can't handle. So we tracked Bossk to this little pit of a world called Stenos, inhabited by a bunch of gargoyle-like humanoids with wings (called the Stenax)...only they don't fly. Don't get me wrong, they can fly, they just choose not to. Something about a sacred vow and a missing religious icon.

On Stenos I run into the umptieth cousin of the Tagges, who've had a serious hate-on for me ever since I blew up their experimental new Deathstar-laser (just the big gun, no armor or engines...great idea, guys) and then later humiliated their Sith-wannabe oldest. I didn't even hurt the guy, just showed him what someone who actually has any talent in the Force can do with a lightsaber. This guy, a one-eyed pompous jerk who thinks the locals are just stone-age primitives, is the target for a scam by some...well, not sure I could call them "friends", but close enough, and the whole thing ends in a bloodbath, the Stenax. Ah, the Duel gang...

ANyon who knows anything knows about the Duel gang. They're a bunch of scoundrels from all over the place, lead by the Corellian Ric Duel, a bearded huckster and con-man who somehow always weasels out of horrible situations he creates. His direct underlings are a fairly clever Rodian (I never did work out why Chihdo works with the others) and a Zeltron (shudder) named Dani.

Lo and behold, the lead on Bossk turns out to be a wild goosechase, and Leia sends a message: "We found Han." And halfway towards our rendez-vous point, Lando and I discover that Dani snuck onboard the Lady Luck, and fully expects me to be her personal...well, you can't see me blushing, but I am. We dumped her off on Iskalon, in the company of an old friend of mine, and I'm typing this from a small hut near where Han is being held. Working on a new lightsaber, since Vader kind of made my old one go away along with my hand. I think I'll make the blade green...

Hopefully, we can free him soon. Lando and the droids are almost in place, Leia and Chewie had some crazy scheme of theirs, and I just received a transmission from Alliance Command, they're preparing something big. One thing that bothers me...the Empire has been drawing off resources from the Rim for over a year now, and even this planet is without the usual detachment of bossy troopers. What are they up to? I wonder if it's related to the Alliance offensive...

Droids

2005-05-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

R2 was singing, last evening when I was getting to bed.

Once upon a distant, shroud-covered past, someone figured out how to build an AI. Now, this was a huge achievement alone, but they soon found out that the longer time went by, in spite various hard-coded commands and laws, androids and robots with AI sooner or later developed their own personalities and motives, which often was bad for both the AI and the owner of said AI. An AI programmed to protect his owner but also prohibited from harming others were faced with choices when someone tried to hurt the owner. Many AI had to shut themselves down permanently to avoid conflict and artificial psychosis, others went psychotic or neurotic, harming their owner and themselves in the process, others simply went berserk.

To avoid this process, the practice of wiping 'droid memories began. And it worked. But time passed, and technology and programming became better and safer, and today, it's mostly just done to zero a droid's personality when handed to a new owner. Me, I never much liked the practice, you're effectively wiping out a personality and its experiences just for some kind of vague need to have a "virgin" droid. Sure, sometimes you have to, when a droid, as rare as it is, goes rogue. The Clone Wars saw assassin droids and battledroids introduced, and those that weren't scrapped are still out there. A while back we ran into a former assassin droid that had gone rogue and now saw itself as its own "master", working as a bountyhunter.

...which brings me back to R2. Now, I only understand half his beeps and clicks, since Binary is hard to understand even for a techie like myself who's worked with droids from every corner of the Rim, so I often find myself wondering what kind of stories that little tin-can could tell, if only he had a human voicebox, and the programs for one. He's firmly resisted the notion when I suggested it, and I certainly don't think it's worth aggravating him.

"Him". See what I mean? Personality.

Also, he denied the singing when asked. But I know it was a song. I just have no idea what it was about, since he just has his tinny Binary-voicebox and didn't include lyrics for obvious reasons.

It sounded like a lullabye. Who would he get a lullabye from? Hang on...

Back. I did a search on what I could remember, and apparently it's a Nabooan lullabye. Weird. Wonder who taught it to him.

Holocron?

2005-05-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Remember that cube Han gave me for my last birthday? I made it work today. I was just sitting there in my room, meditating like Yoda taught me, and according to R2, unconsciously keeping every single thing in the room that wasn't bolted down levitated and spinning (including him, poor little guy), and suddenly I feel it calling to me, not just a hunch, a straight-up "Hello?"

The cube is a "holocron", according to the man who made it many decades ago, a Jedi named Ki-Adi Mundi. It's a sort of interactive reference-holo, half AI and half databank. I asked it a few questions about edi, but it turns out the holocron in question was only equipped with administrative files. Want to ask me how many kitchen staff the Jedi Temple on Coruscant had? Sure thing. Their salary? No problem. Standard Jedi training? No, sorry, can't help you there. It's very funny listening to this big-headed Jedi (in more ways than one) talk and talk about the most routine and boring details of the place you can possibly think of, as if it was the most vital information in the galaxy. Still, it's taught me something. The Jedi had a *lot* of regular people working for them, once. Were they all killed, or did some escape? This simple cube may provide me with people who could tell me about the Jedi of old.

Well, it's two hours later, and the holocron is broken. Turns out it was already damaged, and my use of it started a descent into fizzle-fizzle *pop*. It's just a hunk of silicone and metal wiring now, smelling slightly like a burnt power coupling. Still, I finagled a few names out of it before it died on me, and I have a few leads.

I want to go back to Yoda, but right now all my friends need me more. My enlightenment can wait a while.

Parents

2005-05-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

I never met my parents. According to my uncle, my dad was a navigator on a freighter, and my mom was a Nabooan filing clerk, they met, fell in love, and then the wars came and they died. According to Obi-Wan (or "Ben" as I knew him), my dad was one of the best damn fighter pilots in the galaxy, and a damned good Jedi knight. Then Vader came along, betrayed everyone, and killed my father.

So I took the opportunity to check the Imperial files on Anakin Skywalker during our very brief stay on Coruscant (my shoulder is better now), and lo and behold, there is indeed a registered casualty named Anakin Skywalker, on the planet Mustafar at the very end of the Clone Wars, right before the Jedi purge by the Emperor and his goon. There's also an impressive list of medals, awards and battles, which means my dad, my real dad, was one heck of a hero. No mentions of a wife, though, so they probably got married out on the Rim somewhere.

Anyway, hyper-transit is boring, and slow, but we'll soon be out of the more rigorously patrolled regions, and can start the whole search for a new base. I intend to hunt down some old friends from Hoth, as well as help the others search for Han. Jabba has a lot of lairs, not counting in Huttese space, and Fett could have taken him to any one.

The hand has finally stopped twitching, but I had to recalibrate the pain sensory circuits since the medical droid had put my pain threshold at 150%. I scratched an itch and gave a yelp because it felt like I'd shoved my hand down a blender. I also installed an automatic locking mechanism that makes my hand freeze up when I twist the thumb in a specific way. Very handy (pardon the pun) when you're climbing or just have to hold on to something, like a hovercar ten miles above the Coruscanti surface.

Encyclopedia Galactica

2005-05-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

...says that "the Lashbane are a diminutive species from the world of Lashbee, located on the Outer Rim. They rarely travel beyond their homeworld, and has a fairly unique lifecycle."

What it doesn't say is that your average Lashbane anyone is likely to meet is about two-three feet tall, covered in thick pale grayish-blue fur, has a face similar to a teddy-bear and long, tufted ears. And that when they enter puberty, they gorge themselves on any nearby food while simultaneously growing about six feet taller and entering a sort of simple fugue state where their only concern is eating and breeding. This is not a problem when they're on their homeworld.

When they're in the middle of a bar on Spire Towers on Coruscant and you're trying to ask his friends the way to the nearest speeder shop, it is a problem.

So I spend the next evening with my arm in a bacta-sling while the dislocated shoulder and forearm bones heal, and since my new artificial hand aches and twitches every now and then, I was kind of unable to do much of anything. Have you ever heard a wookiee sing? Chewie thought my misery would be alleviated by some songs from his homeworld, and I'm just way too polite to say anything to a seven foot furry tower of fury who is crooning in his own language. I think the song was about some kind of monkey.

Well, the Rebellion goes on. We had to escape Coruscant (the news are calling it a "terrorist attack on a respectable establishment", in fact the first grenade was thrown by the boys in white, and the place was a seedy tavern), which was damned hard with half the Imperial fleet in orbit (they're preparing something big, I saw hundreds of cargo ships escorted by the star destroyers).

In other news, Psycho Dad (still having trouble with that notion, he must have been fibbing to get me off balance) froze my best friend into a carbon popsicle and he is likely in the process of being sold to the biggest crimelord in the Outer Rim as a conversation piece.

The good news is that I went an entire day in a Core world and didn't see a single Zeltron. Unpleasant and speciesist as the "New Order"'s "humanity first"-policy may be, it has that going for it.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...

2005-05-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

Man, my wrist aches. You'd think neurocybernetics would have solved the pain issue long ago, but no.

So, Darth Vader claims he's my dad. Pshyeah, right. I don't remember breathing like a broken accordion, or being seven feet tall. My dad was Anakin Skywalker, Jedi knight. Nothing more, nothing less.

Such a cheap mindgame, y'know? What was his next move, "Luke, I am your former college roommate's cousin's second brother!"?

Anyway, we fought. He cut off my hand, offered me to join him. Yeah, sure, just let me shoot myself through the head to remove all my normal emotions and lack of psychotic tendencies, "dad"! Like I'd join a sick bastard who gets off torturing people and blowing up planets. Call me vanilla, but I sort of prefer not being a genocidal maniac.

The new hand is okay, I guess, but a bit erratic. The autodoc's tell me it's just temporary until the nerve endings heal, but still, it's sdfsjjekwadfawJFRN KAWE m9o3t f

...

And the fingers twitch again. *sigh*
Maybe I can improve the design, there's a few ideas I got while watching them make the hand...

"Your father". Ha.

...only, I keep wondering, what if Ben didn't tell the whole truth?

Vader is a bastard

2003-02-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

I had a vision today. Darth Vader was torturing my friends. I have to go to them. Yoda was angry, even Ben showed up to tell me not to. But I'm going. R2 is prepping the X-Wing as we speak.

I may be some time.

Padawan

2003-01-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm training to be a Jedi. For real this time. It's slowly starting to sink in, that I'm learning traditions dating back millennia, traditions that kept an entire galaxy free from oppression.

Unfortunately, also traditions that make my back, sides, arms, legs and chest black and blue with bruises and welts. Yoda is really good with that stick of his. I'm also wondering what kind of Jedi training involved me carrying a green elf on my back. Rocks, sure, backpack, sure. An elf who whacks me on the head whenever I don't do well enough? Uh...

He rarely praises me, and when he does it's like squeezing blood from a rock. All I know is that he called me a novice for two days of really harsh training, and then one morning started calling me "padawan". Did real Jedi train this hard? Yoda said I was too old, and I'm barely twentyone.

I wonder what Han and Leia are doing. They got out OK, I know that, but after that? The fleet scattered, we all did. Heck, I'm supposed to go to the rendez-vous point soon.

Oh, great. Yoda has cooked again. If I dont post again I'm dead of food poisoning.

2003-01-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

Where do I begin?

Me and Han were on lifesign duty (most boring and cold shift on the base), when I get smushed up good by some local beasty. It takes off to its cave, hangs me upside down in the pantry (judging by the bodyparts scattered on the floor below me), and waits for me to tenderize while it eats my riding beast.

And I used the Force.

Not a vague hunch this time, oh no. I reached for the lightsaber, couldn't reach it, and then just...I dunno. The world came inside my head. I felt the beast in the cave next door, I felt the ice, the rocks, the base far off. I felt the star above us, distant as it is.

And then the lightsaber jumped into my hand. Across about two feet of empty air. Oh, C-3PO tried to explain it with "random electromagnetic quantum-state phenomenon", but that's just his term for "I have no idea what that is".

I sliced and diced the beastie, ran off. Into one of the nightly snowstorms.

I got maybe a click or three, not nearly enough.

And Ben spoke to me.

No dream this time. He was really there. This hazy blue form, told me what I had to do, then went away. I don't remember much after that, but Han says he arrived just in time to save my sorry behind...again.

And now they're saying they caught an Imp probe droid near the shield generators. We're evac'ing, and I just got out of the bacta tank. Ever have a feeling you're caught up beyond your ability?

Gotta go, Dak is telling me the squadron's ready for take-off. Why the heck did the Empire go with a land assault, they could have nuked us from orbit easily...

Remember Alderaan.

Frostbite

2003-01-07T22:56:00.000-08:00

I lost a toe last night. My thermoblanket fritzed out, and it's *cold* here. I didn't even notice until R2 started beeping. I had no idea he checked on me while I sleep.

Luckily, they could reattach it. A little bacta-bath for the footsie, and I'm A-OK.

But lord, it looked funny, all black and purple from the frostbite.

Remember Alderaan.

Holy crap

2002-09-08T20:48:00.000-07:00

So we go to Ord Mantell. Yeah, there's no point hiding it, since even the lowest grunt of the Imperial Army knows by now. We meet up with shipyard people, everything goes fine...then me, Han, Leia and Chewie get into this whole mess of kidnappings, counter-kidnappings, and a whole bunch of bounty hunters.

We got away, but apparently Han is no longer on the Most Wanted Debtor-list of the Hutts, now he's on the Kill On Sight-list. Turns out the guy Han used to work for, Jabba the Hutt (biggest crimelord on Tatooine and surroundings, yeah I heard of him) got tired of waiting for his money and sent out a "Dead or alive"-notice to every lowlife in the galaxy. Which sucks for both Han and us, since anyone chasing him specifically will stumble onto us as well. Now he's hanging out at the main base again, but I can tell he's nervous. You should have seen his face when someone punched Leia back on OM, he went all pale and spoke quietly.

Well, time for the weekly life-forms check. Yay for dead worlds.

Remember Alderaan.

Promoted again

2002-08-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

Commander Luke Skywalker, wing commander of Rogue Squadron Delta, escort speeder and fighter detachment.

Nice ring to it, huh?

And naturally, they put me on escort duty to a certain beat-up freighter running errands in the Outer Rim. Han is sucking it all up with glee, since he's a civilian and gives me orders on each run. Hey, whatever gives him his jollies.

But more seriously, he's a good guy. He's a damn sight better pilot than I am, he handles ship mechanics like he was born doing it, and is one of the few who can shut C-3PO up with a single glare.

He's also at least six-seven years older, more experienced, and would never whine about being chased by Zeltrons. I know, I can get whiny about little stuff.

No wonder Leia likes him better. Oh, it's not something she'd say, to be sure, but you can tell. The long stares when he's not looking, the blushes when he notices, the way she takes the effort to make up swearwords to call him when she runs out of real ones. Once, I would have been jealous, but now? I dunno. It feels weird even contemplating her in that way.

Well, we're off to a little rendez-vous at a shipyard. As usual, mum's the word on location, but Han knows the place so it should be safe...well, as safe as anywhere Han's been before can be.

Farmboy, meet Zeltrons

2002-07-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

Have mentioned I hate Zeltrons?

Oh, not hate-hate, they're just very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, annoying.

So me and Cam Doldane (he's from Coruscant, a bit stuck up but generally nice) are on leave, serving on the Mon Cal cruiser "Splendor of Morning" (or as we fighter jockeys call it, "Oh Gods, Oh Gods, This Ship Has Crap For Armor, We're All Gonna Die", OGOGTSHCFAWAGD for short...hey, it's easy to pronounce compared to Huttese), and we're planetside, this little world about to fund our rebellion with repulsor-tech (no, not gonna tell you which planet, as usual), and he drags me to a local bar in the seedier part of town.

We get two steps inside the bar, and there's a chorus of high-pitched squeals. A type of squeal I know all too well.

"Blondie!"

So I spend the rest of the leave (twentyfour standard hours) running from six Zeltron girls while Cam just laughs. The only reason I got away was that they started arguing over who got to peel grapes and feed me first, which turned into a regular catfight. Did you know some believe the Zeltrons invented Teräs Kasi? Yeah. It was that kind of catfight. Tables smashed, people thrown through windows, and man, can they move. I escaped in the confusion.

Look, I know a lot of people think Zeltrons are goodlooking, sexy, yadda yadda yadda, but to me? Well...yeah, they're nice, but it just gets too much for me, y'know? And six of them? Gah. One wears me out.

Anyway, I find out later Cam knew I'm mildly Zeltron-phobic, and had asked around before dragging me there. I had the last laugh. We filled his locker with Huttese porn, and then Rallan, that klatooinian in engineering, went and suggested a locker search to the CAG.

It's gonna be fun to see the results...

Man, we are so immature. Who'd think I'm twenty, huh?

Peace out.

Remember Alderaan.

It's not my birthday

2002-06-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

...but I don't care. I had forgotten all about it, and then Han shows up and gives me this weird little cube he got from a nick-nack seller on Nal Hutta (and why he was there when he's one of the Hutt's Most Wanted I'll never know). Leia gave me a...errr, I think it's a holopainting of an Alderaanian landscape, which has a signature on the back "From Dad to Leia, happy sweet sixteenth". Funny how good an actor you can become when someone who probably ran around in a frenzy trying to find a present when there's not a shop for a hundred lightyears gives you something they obviously improvised at the very last minute.

Also, Han was smirking at her, so I figured I'd mess with him.

That cube is really weird. It feels like...like I should be able to do something with it. It's just this organic-looking thing with little circuits and no visible seams or buttons, but still. It's driving me nuts. I guess I'll put it in my pack and forget about it, for now.

R2 gave me a fuse. I had to apologize to Mien Snen, the Sullustan who runs the hangar bay mechanics division, since the little astromech stole it from him. 3PO gave me a...I have no idea what it is. It looks like Leia's crystal statue that she found on Arbra, only badly glued together.

So, happy birthday to me, I guess.

The funny thing is, Owen never told me my real birthday. I just pick a date each year, and forgot to do so this time.

Shira Elancolla Brie

2002-05-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

It's the anniversary of her death today.

She was an ace pilot, could drink more booze than a Corellian spacer, and was, however briefly, my girlfriend.

And I killed her.

The Force told me to.

How crazy does that sound? Lots of freaks have claimed that voices told them to do horrible things, am I just a lunatic? Except I'm the only one in the Rebellion who can handle a lightsaber without cutting my own hands off, I have a 100% killscore in simulators with only one on me (Shira's), and I rarely, if ever, get even singed in combat. It's not just skill. Wedge (head of Rogue Squadron, commander star on his shoulders and everything) is more experienced than me and flies like a god, but somehow, I just know when to turn, when to bank, roll, loop.

I was court martialed, stripped of rank and tossed out, since they couldn't prove it was intentional (it wasn't...my IFF was busted and I used the Force to distinguish between friend and foe), and then...

...and then I found out it was all a lie. Shira Elancolla Brie was from the planet she claimed to be from, but her family wasn't killed by the sentient species of that planet, they were killed during the Empire's bombardment of that world. She was taken in by Vader, who trained her, and then, a year and a half ago, she was sent to infiltrate the Rebellion to hunt me down.

Everything she told me was a lie.

It doesn't make it easier to live with, though. Sometimes when I go to bed, the last thing I see before I fall asleep is her face in that holoclip of her wreckage. Broken. Bloodied. Her red hair across her face, mixed with her blood.

I need some rest.

Remember Alderaan.

Blue fingers

2002-01-02T04:59:00.000-08:00

Man, it's cold. Han is off doing a perimeter search on his...err...riding animal (they only exist on this world, so I'm not mentioning them by name).

Haven't had any visits from Ben lately. Maybe I just dreamed it all.

On the up side, I'm a colonel now. Was it just two years ago I was a snotnosed whiny kid fresh off the farm? I feel a century old...

Remember Alderaan.

The problem with Arbra was...

2001-09-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

...the wildlife. The cute little critters turned out to be telepathic, or, according to the medical droids, they communicate in a sort of high-frequency electromagnetic hum. Turns out they read our heads as easy as each other's. And they eat powercells.

We had a base there for a while, after clearing out some kind of beast that felt unpleasant just being near (Ben's ghost said something about some animals being created by the Dark side, maybe that's the explanation), had a base there for a while.

We couldn't stay. Too damned close to the local Imperial patrol routes. Sooner or later they'd notice all the freighters and snub fighters going to some uncharted jungle world, so we left.

Got a new friend, though. His name's Plif. He's a diplomat, of sorts, from the locals on Arbra. Kind of handy, but expensive in the upkeep (powercells don't grow on trees, unlike on his homeworld).

He's also about six inches tall, furry and looks like a pet.

We're off looking for a new base again.

See ya.

Remember Alderaan.

2001-06-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

I hate Zeltrons.

That's all.

Remember Alderaan.

2001-04-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

Early morning. Posting on my datapad. Pardon the short sentences, but I don't wanna wake anyone up. On sentry duty. Looking for forward base. Jungleworld (no locations until we're free).

Weird place. Saw some cute little critters with big eyes and long ears. Had the oddest feeling they were talking about us.

Gotta go. Samins is up.

Met a girl named Shira. Redhead. Kind of cute. Transferred to my squadron yesterday.

Military Me

2001-01-14T00:34:00.000-08:00

Well, we're on location...yeah, not gonna tell you where. Got a buddy to get this blogged for me when he can.

I've been meaning to talk about something. Something a bit...weird.

Remember the whole Force hoodoo thingymajig? Yeah. Ben died, remember? Yeah.

Ben has been talking to me. No, not back then. Lately.

I think it started over the Deathstar. I think I heard him, then, telling me to use the Force as I came down the trench. The other pilots tell me their shots went wide, and the only one firing a torpedo within that timeframe was me, but I can't believe that. Noone is that lucky.

Then again, Ben told me there's no such thing as luck.

Han trusts in luck above all else, though. Seems to work, too, he's played so much Sabacc with the others that noone wants to play him anymore, he always wins. Even when they're using unhackable chips. I have no idea why he's still around, although I suspect a certain brunette royalty might be responsible. She calls him names, he grins and waggles his eyebrows at me. She is nice, I gotta admit. Still, it always feels kind of awkward around her.

I'm avoiding the issue, aren't I?

So yeah, Ben talks to me, every now and then. Sometimes in a dream. Usually, he's sitting next to my bed, telling me about the "living Force". How the Dark side is terrible and dangerous (yeah, as if Vader wasn't a good sign of that already), or about my mother. He says she was royalty too, in a way.

He used that a lot. "In a way." "From a certain point of view." "Some believe." Never a straight answer. Something tells me he wants me to find my own answers.

Yeah, total headcase, right? Seeing ghosts, oooooOOOoooo...

Anyway, gotta go. Will post again when I have time.

Peace out.

Remember Alderaan.

Working on the chaingang

2001-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

I am so damn tired. Pardon the Corellian.

I work in the hangarbay on my X-Wing (Han showed me a few tricks to overclock the hyperdrive without frying the circuitry) all morning, along with R2 (who knew an astromech droid knew so many cursewords, even if they are in Binary), then I go on shift in the com center, then I spend four-five hours in the simulators (fortyfive kills, none on me...getting darned good), then I study astrogation and languages (not everyone in the Rebellion can speak Basic), then I hang out with Han and Chewie. Leia joins in when she's not too busy, although that's ninety per cent of her time. Is it just me, or does she like Han more? Hmmmm.

Gonna post later this week too, but my schedule keeps me busy. They're announcing the location of our new base tomorrow. No, 'm not gonna post it here, sheesh, we're on the run, remember?

'night.

Remember Alderaan.

I suck.

2000-12-31T11:00:00.000-08:00

Location: in orbit around Mon Calamari
Music: none
Mood: Thoughtful
Atmosphere: really, really, really damp.

So I finally get to fly something hyper-capable...and it's an X-Wing. A dozen meters of metal, plasteel glass, ion engines and quad cannons. Add a proton torpedo-launcher and a coffee-maker and you're set (okay, I'm kidding about the coffee-maker). It's not as fast as an Imperial TIE (those little bastards are quick but frail as eggshells, comes from the massproduction and having tons of spare pilots I guess), but not as slow as a bomber either. Pretty heavily armored, and packs one heckuva punch.

Han's freighter is faster, though. He wasn't lying about that.

Anyway, you can call me Captain Skywalker, and that's enough to get me staring at the mirror in disbelief once again. Wedge says I'm so narcissistic he'd wager I was from Coruscant, but he's just joking. He fingers his captain's bars when noone's looking, too.

Heh, now there's a phrase you can interpret creatively. Han is teaching me all sorts of dumb things, like how to hotwire a speeder (I didn't have the heart to tell him that's how I used to start Owen and Beru's speeder back home), how to do Corellian shots (it includes strong liquor, salt and some sour fruit that he replaced with hotsauce, to Chewie's amusement), and Sabacc. He says he used to play Pazaak when he was a kid, but Sabacc is the new thing. I dunno. They're both just complicated Corellian cardgames to me.

Anyway, my shift is coming up. Watch me stare at the lidar plotters in the com center for four hours! Wheee!

And later, I get to blow up Wedge in the simulator again. I have thirty kills total, not one on me. Wedge tells me it's becoming a bit of a sport, betting on who gets to finally take me down a notch.

Night!

Remember Alderaan.

Rebellion

2000-12-14T23:29:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted in a few days. That's because...

No.

Man, this is hard.

Okay, first thing's first. Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are dead. The Empire killed them.

Old Ben turned out to be an old Jedi general from the Clone Wars. Yeah. Turns out he served with my dad, who, believe it or not, was a Jedi too. He gives me my dad's lightsaber, this weird sword-like energyweapon, trains me to use it a little, then we watch the hologram.

According to the Holonet propaganda, a bunch of terrorists blew up a newly built commercial spacestation, killing millions. They're lying. I know, because I blew it up. It wasn't commercial, it was a military superweapon. Remember how earlier this week, Alderaan was blown up in a massive space battle between the Rebel terrorists and the Empire? Lies again. There were no terrorists, that was the trial run of the superweapon.

I'm so tired. Han and Leia (the girl from the hologram, an actual princess) and Chewbacca (what *is* a wookiee anyway?) are still partying, although I suspect Han and Chewie are a lot drunker than she is. We got medals. We did some pretty wild things. Old Ben died, saving me and my friends. It was so weird. He just stood there as that black-armored bastard Vader cut him down.

Vader killed my dad. Ben said that.

Maybe I better start over, from the top. The droid ran off, I chased it down, got hit on the head by a Tusken. Old Ben saved me, somehow. Ben told me about my dad, about the Jedi and the Force (Owen was right, poor man). Then we watched the hologram in full. Girl wants help, droid has plans of something, we have to get the droids to Alderaan. Ben told me the Empire would be coming, so I rushed home to warn...I tried...

No.

So. Deep breath. It shouldn't feel so hard writing this, I've done my crying.

I got home, and they had killed Owen and Beru. Just for having the droids. Had I been there, I'd have been dead too.

I went back to Kenobi, who told me we had to go to Alderaan. We sold my speeder, hired a captain and a ship (the Millennium Falcon, the fastest rustbucket you've ever seen, just don't call it a rustbucket to Han's face), escaped just barely. There were Star Destroyers in orbit, by the way. Not just one, two or three of them. Han (Solo, he's Corellian, I think, judging by the pant-stripes) and Ben give me a crash course in who runs the Empire and using a lightsaber, respectively. The guy who killed my dad is running the show along with Grand Moff Tarkin, the Emperor, and a bunch of military governors. Han knows this because he was at the Imperial Academy once, before he got thrown out, though he doesn't want to say what for, although Chewie looks real proud of him when he says that.

We got to Alderaan, and halfway, I get this killer headache, and old Ben nearly falls over, saying something about a disturbance in the Force.

They blew up Alderaan. How many billions died? Leia claims they just wanted to state an example. What kind of example requires genocide?

So we hyper out, find the remains of Alderaan and a huge new moon in the middle of the debris. Only it wasn't a moon, it wasa spacestation. Called the Deathstar, with the Empire's usual lack of grace. Murdering bastards.

To cut a long story short, we got dragged aboard, we escaped, only Ben...Ben got killed. We get away, escape to this secret base on a moon off Yavin IV, the Imps follow, and the Rebels basically put a helmet and flightsuit in my hands and said "Good luck, kid." Biggs was there, he jumped ship halfway to the Academy, apparently. Biggs was...

Why does everyone I grew up with have to die?

Biggs died, along with most of my squadron. There was me, a few bomber pilots and a cool guy named Wedge who got out alive. We did it, though. We blew up the biggest damned cannon ever built.

We get back, Wedge and I got promoted to captains (I get a khaki uniform and captain's bars, Biggs got vaporized above an artificial moon...), me, Han and Chewie (they had to give him his later since he was too tall to get one in a dignified manner) get medals, and the party is still going. I left early, though. Made sure the R2 was okay (he's got quite the personality, I kinda like him), went to the memorial service for the casualties, and now I'm gonna go get some sleep. My shift is in just six hours, and we're evac'ing the moon as I type.

Goodnight.

Remember Alderaan.

2000-12-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

Can't post for long. R2 gone. Protocoldroid claims the little bastard has repulsors on the legs for short jumps, if you can believe that. Gotta go find him before Uncle Owen wakes up. BBL.

Bleh.

2000-12-11T21:18:00.000-08:00

Music: none
Mood: Angry

So I speed out to the old garage Biggs has next to his parents broken down orbital skiff, and the battle is over. Biggs and his girlfriend didn't believe me (Biggs said it was probably just some colliding spacejunk), I go home, turns out Uncle Owen wants me to buy droids with him. WHat the heck do I know about droids, except fixing the mechanics? Beru wanted a translator droid, Owen wants a new astromech for their busted speeder (hey, that I can agree with, my speeder needs maintenance too, I'm tired of driving Beru and Owen), and the Jawas arrive, conveniently.

Man, do they stink. Pee-yew!

So we buy this dorky protocol droid that yammers constantly (but at least he speaks Bocce, or something similar), and one of those brand new R5's...except the R5 goes kablooey after ten meters. Busted motivator. Instead we get this older R2 (what is that model, eighteen? Twenty years old?) the protocol droid claims he's worked with before, and Owen tells me to fix them. Oh, great. I wanted to pick up my new power converters at Toshi, but noooooooooo. Jerk.

Anyway, the R2 had some weird malfunction with a hologram, there was this pretty girl asking for Obi-Wan Kenobi. I wonder if he's related to old crazy Ben? Apparently, the R2 had something up with the restraining bolt (Jawas are so damned clumsy with those), so I broke it off. I retracted the slideway down to the machineshop so the little bucket won't be able to get out. R2's can't climb stairs. Beru says it's dinner now, BRB.

Back. Owen isn't a jerk, he's a stupid schuttaloving...no, that's too nice. Man, I wish I could speak Huttese better, they have such good swearwords. I told him since we got the droids he's not gonna need me on the farm this year, so maybe I could apply to the Academy (I got a 93% on the testscores). He says no, he'll need me, he's gonna expand the farm. I get angry, said s0mething stupid I don't remember, and rush off. Stared at the suns going down. Seems like I'm stuck here. Luke Skywalker, moisture farmer. Yippee.

Tired now. Got an early morning tomorrow. Gonna check on the droids before bedtime.

Boom! Zap!

2000-12-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

Music: none (music player broke)
Mood: excited

There's a space battle in orbit! Or, was, at least! I was out early, checking the security bot, and saw these bright flashes in the sky! Sure enough, my macro's just barely showed two big ships in orbit, one is a Star Destroyer (I checked Ferman's Guide to Capitol Ships), the other one was too small to see. The bigger was chasing the other, then he vanished. I'm so excited. Gonna go to Biggs, he's at the garage today. BBL.

Biggs rules

2000-12-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

Music: none
Mood: good

So I'm out by the vaporators hauling the drainage-hose from one to the other, since the pipeline nexus connector broke down (I think it was Jawas, there's at least one major part missing entirely and the Sand People don't generally steal tech), and Biggs shows up on his swoop bike. He'd bought us some nerfburgers and protein shakes (man, I can't stand the blue milk Beru always serves with everything), and we sat there eating. Biggs says I stuff myself, then did this hilarious Hutt impression where he sort of scrunches up his face. If it wasn't for the mustache (apparently his girlfriend likes it), it'd be perfect. Anyway, he does that, I almost snort pro-shake out my nose, which in turn causes him to laugh his ass off. He's such a goof.

He told me he's thinking of the Rebellion again. I dunno, the Empire never comes out here on the Rim much, since they just have the Mos Eisley detachment, but surely they can't be that bad? Biggs told me his holonet friend on Coruscant stopped corresponding with him, and one of the local stormtroopers came by to ask his mom and dad questions. Now they don't have Holonet either, and Biggs says his friend is probably in jail, or worse.

I think I saw a hint of old Ben Kenobi this morning. I was speeding past the Jundland Wastes and saw this old man in brown robes. I stopped and took out my macro's, but there was noone there. No way an old geezer like that can move that fast. Maybe Owen is right and he's an old wizard. I'd love having some magic of my own, maybe I could fly off this forsaken planet.

Anyway, I did my application along with Biggs, he says my hours in the sim along with my Skyhopper flight hours (I have thirty more than him, and he's older, hah!) should be enough to get me in. He said the Empire recruits straight out of the Academy, though. Not sure I want to be a fighter pilot. I wanna be a freighter captain, like my dad was, on the Corellia-Coruscant run. That'd rock so hard.

Toshi Station

2000-12-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

Music: Deban Loric's All New Trio, "Four-armed Blues"
Mood: Grumpy.

So Uncle Owen says to me I have to fix some old power converters down by the northeast side perimeter. Fine, I says, gimme some credits I'll go get them. No, we have converters, he says. I tell him those are mine, paid for out of my own pocket, he says he's the one who pays me so those are mine. I tell him what about my Skyhopper, he says "What about it?"

I can't believe him, sometimes. It's like I'm his own personal servant, not his nephew.

BRB, gotta fix the converters.

Back.

So I asked about my parents again today, and get stonewalled, as usual. Aunt Beru gives Owen the Look, Owen starts mumbling about the crops, and I just know they both heard me. What's so bad about a freighter captain and his wife that makes Owen and Beru clam up like that? I asked if I should try tracking down other Skywalkers, they're all over the holonet registry, they tell me they had to suspend their account because it was too expensive. Now I have to go into town to call anyone, and Toshi Station is expensive enough as it is without having to visit the netcafé (actually just Grobar the Durosian's bar, but he's got an antique holonet console in the back he rents out).

Ah well. Hopefully I can go to Toshi next week. Biggs tells me we can do our Academy applications together.

I can't wait to get off this rock.