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I traveled to Phierras to visit Sha, but when I arrived, I found only a black mass of char where their home had been and the grave of my Sha-lain nearby. A few days later I received the official Imperial transmission reporting Sha-lain's demise and Wenrin's treason. The Empire claims that Wenrin attempted to use Sha-lain as a hostage to escape arrest, but he was captured anyway when she was accidentally shot. In the past 10 years that I have known Wenrin, he has shown immense loyalty. He has an innate desire to defend the innocent and protect the helpless. That's why he went into the military in the first place.
Gachook found a friend named Den in the marketplace on Phierras. Den seems to be a pleasant young man, and Gachook trusts him. Den's group was on their way to the University of Cisrak, which is probably the closest thing they have to culture in this sector, and there was no reason for me to remain on Phierras, so I hired Den's party to transport me to Cisrak.
During our journey, Den and I had several opportunities to discuss Imperial policy and its impact on its citizens. I realized that many people across the Empire have suffered similar losses as mine. The corruption I observed at the center of the Empire has inflicted injustices upon people across the Empire and cannot be ignored. My family has tolerated humiliation and servitude in order to protect our people from the wrath of the Empire, but in the end, my service was to no avail. I could not protect my people or my family. The Empire rules without consideration for justice, or even loyal service. The only hope I have of protecting my people from further suffering is to join the Rebellion and fight our Oppressor.
Den's group of rebels, however, is a bit rough. The humans are young and reckless, and their party includes an Ebranite and a Wookiee! The Wookiee seems to have the coolest head of the whole bunch, and you know how Wookiees are. The Ebranite is actually their leader! The boys have the skill to work undercover, but they are very green, just wandering around shouting treasons and blasting people left and right. Their reaction to being watched was to open fire in a public restroom without a silencer in the middle of a concert, and then they do so little damage that their adversary is able to out run me as he bolts out of the bathroom! These hotheads may be the death of me, but I have little choice. The life of a royal has only one purpose: the good of her people. I will continue to do whatever I can to further the good of my people.
3/1
Well, these rebels may seem rough, but they certainly aren’t boring. I must say, though, that it is disturbing to be surrounded by so much death. Hearing the tales of war from husbands and friends didn’t come close to preparing me for this. When prisoners vanish and crew members turn up dead, it can be more disconcerting. But I’m getting ahead of myself . . .
It seems that one of the crew was secretly as Jedi knight-in-training. Unfortunately, he also had a tendency for taking matters into his own hands. He often took action without consulting his commanding officer, or more than a couple of words to any of his crewmates. This pattern of secrecy cost him his life.
Bancor, our leader at the time,already had a habit of a very rough interrogation of prisoners, relying on intimidation and pain to extract answers. Our secretive young man used his Force skills to sense Gandra’s boyfriend (one of the survivors of the massacre of Cisrak student protestors) and popped us all into hyperspace without a word to anyone. Even worse, he didn’t seem to realize why we were all so upset. Boktor took it rather personally, since he was in command, and ended up killing him in a fit of anger.
This left the crew with a dead crew member and the duty of trying our commanding officer. We decided to leave Den in charge for the rest of the mission and to never leave Boktor alone. We also thought it best that Bancor not be present for any future interrogations.
We did end up finding Gandra’s boyfriend and the rest of the Cisrak Survivors, though. Their leader, Andar Momeni, is an Ithorian and was a professor of philosophy and history at the University of Cisrak. He was able to tell me more of Wenrin and the events leading to his arrest. We decided to establish our base on the frontier planet where Andar crash-landed with Wenrin’s ship, and I stayed behind to help train our 22 newest rebels while the rest of the crew established a supply chain for our new base of operations. Andar is brilliant and complex, and I’m learning as much from him as his students are from me. It’s comforting for both of us to associate with one of our peers again. He lost his place in the academic community, and I lost my place in the upper crust of the Empire. Even so, it is a small price for the freedom of the Empire.
3/8
I always knew that my relationship with animals bordered on telepathy, but it never occurred to me that it might be related to the Force. One day while practicing meditation, I opened my eyes to see the glowing spirit of Pinot. He apologized for not having revealed his secrets and for not training me earlier. He explained the nature of the Force and taught me how to feel it flowing through nature.
Soon thereafter, I began feeling little hunches in my daily activities - but with people, not just animals. I could sense when someone was upset and needed to talk. Maybe it was just getting used to the routine, but I somehow could guess where anyone was at any given time, and knew when someone was coming to see me before they arrived. After a few weeks, I could swear I was overhearing people's thoughts. I had to learn to control this ability first, since it is impolite to invade another’s privacy without good reason, and a person’s thoughts are one of the most private things he possesses.
The Survivors at first treated me with a great deal of awe and respect, not entirely realizing that I wasn't the 'veteran Rebel commander' they were expecting. As our time together passed, I began to feel a somewhat parental regard for these kids. They're well-educated, but quite inexperienced and idealistic. A few of the girls are pregnant (not very far along), and other relationship matters would have been very awkward to bring to Andar, since he is still a professor and an alien. They seem to have really bonded with me, grateful for a counselor, surrogate mother, teacher, trainer, commander, and friend. They make the loss of my daughter a little easier to bear.
My ability to read others’ thoughts will be very useful to our cause. Many prisoners who refuse to respond to our interrogation verbally, even after being subjected to intimidation and torture, cannot refrain from responding in thought. Hopefully, my skill will improve to the point where torture is obsolete in our company. My abilities helped us get information on a nuclear weapon being developed by Imperial scientists in this sector.
The guys weren’t able to purchase a ship to run the supply chain to the Defender Base, as they responded to a distress call. They found sixty scientists at the site of a radiation bomb, but were only able to rescue three scientists before Imperial troops “took over the evacuation” by blowing up the rest of the scientists. The guys were able to capture their commander, however, who had many useful thoughts about the weapon the scientists had been developing on that planet. The Imperial commander was also able to give us basic floor plans of the prison at Y’nill where they are holding Wenrin. Andar was able to start the rescued scientists on the road to healing from their radiation exposure, and I’m sure he has also started persuading them to aid our cause. Now we just have to decide what to do with our young Imperial commander.
3/15
The Rebellion struck a major blow at the Empire today. In only an hour or two, we decimated the Imperial prison at Y’nill and rescued my son-in-law Wenrin.
We captured six mining ships and recruited their expert pilots. We also equipped the Warp Guru with sheilds, an ion cannon, and twelve photon torpedos. We also hijacked an Imperial transport en route to Y’nill from Sarius IV.
With these resources in hand, we launched a three-pronged attack. We timed our actions to coincide the yearly Dehona Trade Festival since it regualarly draws a high number of Imperial troops in the sector to that system. There also happened to be a convention of the Most Honourable Guild of Armourers on Dehona during the Trade Festival, drawing even more Imperial forces.
The attack involved diversions in space, diversions on land, and the rescue party which actually entered the prison and retrieved Wenrin. The space diversion party consisted of Solus on the Warp Guru and the six mining pilots on their mining ships. Den and I took six of the Cisrack survivors to launch the land diversions, along with plenty of blasters and three Ewebs. Bancor and Bukati were in charge of explosive land distractions and prison operations. Tannis piloted the transport and sneaked the land team and the rescue team onto the surface near the prison.
Solus took out the star destroyer with a single photon torpedo and then made a low pass while neutralizing two Skipray Blastboats with the ion cannon (Nibo wants the Blastboats as his "favor," so we used the ion cannon to eliminate any threat without eliminating them). The space team then kept the remaining TIE fighters busy until the rest of us had completed our missions and could join them in space.
Firing on the Blastboats signaled the rescue team to begin the explosive part of our plan. On Solus’ signal, Bukati destroyed the control tower, a bunker, and part of a research station. He then opened a hole in the prison wall, took out the prison guards, and escaped back out with Wenrin, a music professor we met on Cisrack, and as many good pilots as we could transport off-world.
Meanwhile, my team kept troops from the garrison and bungalows focused on us instead of the prison. Unfortunately, three kids died. The fourth was wounded in the battle, but fortunately I was able to stabalize him once we were in space.
While we lost the three students, we took two skip boats, the Imperial transport, and six prisoners off Y’nill with us. Their sacrifice was not in vain. While I mourn their loss, this was a day of victory.
3/22
After our attack on Y’nill, we thought it best to lie low for awhile and take care of some much-needed housecleaning (figurative housecleaning, of course). Central Command reassigned Den, organized Sector Command in the Sarin Sector, and placed Bancor in charge of our SpecForces unit. Central Command appointed Andar Momeni as the head of intellegence in the Sarin Sector and Wenrin Gray as commander-in-chief of the the Rebellion’s military forces in the Sarin Sector (such as they are). Sector Command will be located on Dehona, with Tialis serving as a “safe planet.” Our SpecOps unit will currently remain in the Sarin Sector to help Momeni and Gray train the recruits.
Also, Solus engineered a new ship for the Raychroth Corporation, earning a new ship for the Rebellion’s Sector Forces, as well as a 50% discount on future ships. His new design is more manuverable in atmosphere and includes ion cannons, laser guns, and photon torpedo launchers.
We finally got a chance to put our Imperial prisoner on trial for his war crimes. (We’ve been a little busy lately, what with attacking the Imperial prison at Y’nill and organizing Sector Command and all.) Considering the plethora of witnesses against him, and his own confession, unwavering since his capture, the guilty verdit and his subsequent death by firing squad went as expected.
On the streets of Palu-Nesh life is very difficult. You are put in a lot of situations that most people never even dream of. The illusions of a care free life and people you can count on are shattered quickly. I had no idea what was going on in politics. I only knew that my parents were gone, and a year in the gutter told me they were never coming back. Getting food was easy enough. People are generous to a little boy who says the right things. However, when they aren't, well...a trash can't bounty is open to all who are willing to look.
I had companions. I had a pet...it died. I had a friend, Den, he taught me that I could get what I needed from richer pockets than my own. That's all they were to us, rich pockets. We worked well as a team. I would talk to them, he would pick their pockets. He was much better than me at that, but I was a much better talker. We could talk or sneak our way out of anything...almost.
We once targeted an Imperial officer. Officers were not the most generous, but their pompous attitude made them easy targets. This one was too lucky. His men came around the corner just as Den was making the snatch. I was young so they let me off easy, just a boxed ear and bruised pride. Den was older, they hurt him bad. You don't last long with a broken leg and hand. He died before we could get help. I'm sure now that it was an infection, or internal bleeding. Then I just knew I was alone again.
Then my life began to change. I was 12 now. Doing my best picking pockets. I worked alone...I didn't want someone else to die because of me. I was caught one day. The man let me go, on the condition that I work for him if he ever needed me. I nearly wet myself, but I agreed. Just happy to be safe, and free. About a month later I saw him again. He gave me odd jobs to do. Find people, places, items. I found out later that he was with the rebellion against the empire. After a couple of months of work, he left. But for some reason he took me with him. He helped me get cleaned up and get an education. For school I needed a name. I stuck with Pandu for a first name. I picked Den as a middle name, for sentimental value I guess. I had heard about an ancient religion that had a god. TOKI, the god of happiness. I chose Toki for Irony. I stopped picking pockets (too often) but I found that I could still talk my way out of any situation. At 19 I left my mentor to attend the university. I found that I had skill in acting. I could play any part with ease. I met a beautiful girl. We worked together in plays. She wrote a lot about politics. Through acting we could say whatever we wanted and no one would care...as long as it was enjoyable. I studied, she wrote, we married.
My wife Kien, wrote a brilliant satirical piece about the current political situations. We turned it into a play and had great success in the liberal crowds of the university. Word spread...too far I guess. One night during the performance we were raided. I was knocked unconscious. When I awoke I found the Theatre burned to the ground. After some inquiry I learned that my Kien had been taken to prison and immediately executed as a rebel spy, and as an example. It was then that I decided that grand literary works, and peaceful criticism would not change the universe, buy maybe the rebellion could.
I gathered my belongings, what little money I had, and left in search of my mentor. I was now 23, alone, and filled with hatred. Hatred for the Empire and all it stood for. Hatred for myself for not being able to safe Kien.
Six months later I located my mentor. I told him my story and my desire to fight with the rebellion. Once again he took me in. This time I was a part of the rebellion. I was trained in self defense, and found that I had decent ability with the blaster. My mentor quickly recognized an ability with words and disguises. I was taken and trained as an espionage agent. A close eye was kept on me for the first year. All my missions were under my mentor. Soon I was given more and more difficult and solitary assignments.
On my last assignment my cover was compromised. I was forced to pull out. At a safe house I met with a small special operations unit and I am now inseparably connected with their destiny. We fight the tyranny of the empire.
I am Pandu Den Toki. The Empire must fall. Even if it costs me my life.