Letters between Dory and Jolee, part one

Dear Jolee,

I found out how to get ahold of you! Quan said that Draco said that Leia told him that you were on the Millennium Falcon and eventually I got them to give me the communication frequencies for the ship. Hope you don't mind. You kinda left us all of a sudden back on Yavin.

Anyway, just in case you really don't want to talk to me, I won't write much. I was just wondering if you could tell me what the Battle of Yavin was like from your perspective and what happened afterwords? We're all really curious where you went off to. We're taking bets on what you've been doing. Zane has this crazy story that you ran off with Odak Aan and have a baby with points on its head. I think he only tells it so much because it makes Quan's eye twitch. Draco thinks its funny though. His guess was that you were living the "high life" on Cloud City. Quan guessed you were on Naboo. I thought you were with Solo, and I was right! I win! Now I get first pick of rooms when the new temple is built. Unless you actually were doing one of the other things and I'm wrong.

Anyway, hope you don't mind that I wrote to you! Please write back.

<3 Dory
2 ABA, 5th month, 6th day.

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Dory-

Of course I don't mind that you wrote me. I know I pretty much fell off of the known galaxy after the Battle of Yavin. I'm glad you found me enough to send me a message though. I should try to see people more often. I honestly don't know why I don't. Maybe trying to pretend the years spent fighting the Empire didn't happen?

Well, you asked for my version of the Battle of Yavin, especially the aftermath, and a run down of what I've been doing since, correct? I don't know what to say about the battle. The entire experience was bizarre. Being on board the Executor, Vader being peacefully aboard the Wayfarer, fighting the Emperor. Actually, you know what the funny thing is? I can't even remember seeing the Emperor. I know he was there, I vaguely recall him speaking, and I especially remember getting hit by his lightning, but I don't remember ever really paying attention to him. I recall tumbling up to right in front of him and hitting his guards with a surge of Force energy, but then the rest of the battle I spent defending myself from Vader and the Stormtroopers. I suppose I'm guilty of not really focusing on the main objective of the mission. What can I say, I'm easily distracted.

I do, however, remember the honestly terrifying leap off of the top of the temple. I think I'd planned on hitting one of the steps on the way down, but I jumped from the top with a bit too much force (hurr hurr) and ended up landing on the ground of Yavin. And by ground I mean a bunch of trees. It took a bit to get unstuck from the tree and to the ground, and by the time I did I realized what Pel was doing. From there, it was mad dash to the Omwati compound, where a lot of energy was exerted to keep the Executor from killing everyone.

The image of the Executor crashed in the jungle of Yavin is one that will stay with me forever, though. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, I remember being a bit stunned. Ships were landing all around us, and more and more people joined the area right around the destroyed temple. Escape pods from the Executor were being picked up everywhere. Everything blurred together until late at night. The Omwati were playing music and everyone was on the ground, mingling, dancing, and having a good time. And then I felt the presence of my father. I walked to the very edge of the cleared area, and saw my father's Force ghost, standing next to Master Kenobi's. It was actually the first confirmation that he was dead, although we all assumed it. A few seconds later another Force ghost appeared, though I didn't realize who it was until I saw Luke and Leia a few yards away and realized it must have been Anakin Skywalker. The ghosts stuck around for only a few minutes, long enough to pass along messages of pride and thanks.

I never rejoined the party after that, I was too exhausted both physically and emotionally. The next day was chaotic. I remember the realization that I was wearing the totality of my possessions. It was overwhelming to realize that everything from my data pad of journal entries to Egon's tool box to all of my Life Day gifts were sitting under the wreckage of the Executor. It sounds so petty and shallow, but the rush of relief I felt when the Millennium Falcon landed and I realized that I had a change of clothes on board bordered on ridiculous. It's strange what seems to important in the aftermath of catastrophic events. I'm sure most people eventually realized that I left the next day, when the Millennium Falcon departed. People were already talking about taking back Alderaan once and for all and building a new academy there, and I confess I just didn't want to deal with it. Han offered me a spot on the Falcon as long as I wanted, and so I left.

If anyone wonders what happened to him, Odak An came with us. We dropped him off on Nar Shaddaa. I've run into him once or twice since then. I'm fairly certain that he hasn't taken up piracy again. Smuggling, yes. Possibly even bounty hunting, but I doubt he's become head of a pirate gang again. In the year since the battle I've been mostly on the Millennium Falcon. I've spent a few weeks with my family on Naboo, and they've highly encouraged me to settle there. I've also spent some time on Cloud City, and Tattooine, and pretty much every disreputable spaceport. Tell Zane he would have loved it. Let me know what you and everyone else has been up to. I still don't know if I have the fortitude to throw myself into the academy life again, let alone the continuing war effort. Life on the Falcon is easy, simple, and fun, and I'm being un-regretfully selfish.

~ Jolee
2 ABA, 5th month, 18th day.
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Dear Jolee,

Thanks for writing back! I hope you don't mind that I showed your letter to Zane and Quan. I needed to prove that I won the bet. Quan says that he was at least a little right, since you said you spent time on Naboo. He didn't think Draco was a little right though, even though Draco guessed Cloud City. Hold on, Quan said he wants to add something to this.

Jolee: you are running away again. Stop being an emotionally stunted idiot and get back here. -Quan

Er, sorry about that, Jolee. He's been cranky lately. He says its because he's tired of people moping. I'm not moping. Maybe he's talking about Zane. Zane doesn't like being here on Alderaan, and he wants to go help the fight in the Core. I think we should get the Academy set up. A lot of people are Force sensitive now. They think it has something to do with the destruction of the old temple on Yavin. I heard rumors that Yavin IV is dying. Like, all the life is just being sucked out of it. They said that an Ithorian herd ship is there trying to take samples of the life, so nothing dies out.

I've been good. The fight for Alderaan was pretty intense, especially at first. But then the Empire just kind of left the space around Alderaan, and the ones stuck on planet just surrendered. The Alliance high ups think maybe there is a power struggle going on in the Empire, and they're fighting with each other. So, we (me and Zane and Quan) have been here on Alderaan. Leia and Draco have been here too, since this is their planet. The others from the old academy come and go. Thank you for writing about the Battle of Yavin. I'm writing an account of the battle for the archives at the new Jedi temple we're building. It seems important. Anyway, there is a one year celebration of the Battle of Yavin here on Alderaan in two and a half months. You should come.

<3

Dory
2 ABA, 6th month, 2nd day

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 02/7, 02/28)

1 ABA, 7th month, 4th Day

On route to Naboo to start open rebellion on the planet. Ackbar thinks we can take the entire planet. Pel, Meena, Tallia, Taryn, Quan, Zach, Zane, and Dory are all coming along. Odak is staying behind at the Academy with Obi Wan, and Antares is going to join the rest of the knights on Alderaan. Luke is going to be stupid. I can feel it.


1 ABA, 7th month, 9th Day

Main force of Empire surrendered. Am Queen's cousin. Remember to look up what something like "aureash ovoi copualie" means. Need sleep.


1 ABA, 7th month, 10th Day

HAHAHAHA. It means noisy sex. This explains a lot of sniggering. I have a meeting with my cousin in an hour. Although I've been busy, I've had a few chances to meet my grandmother and uncle. It's been interesting having a family.


1 ABA, 7th month, 11th Day

Have been taken off of active combat duty at the request of the Queen, and now I have to go around and meet and greet nobles. Ellamé and her father think it will be good for the Se'ol family to have more of Jedi presence. Strengthen to position of the current royal family, etc. Whatever. Politics.


1 ABA, 7th month, 13th Day

Will force choke next noble who suggests that it would be nice to get to know the Force more "intimately."


1 ABA, 7th month, 18th Day

Am pathetic. Miss him.


1 ABA, 7th month, 20th Day

Tomorrow is the ceremony to celebrate the liberation of Naboo. Ellamé says that the people will appreciate seeing an "official" end to the presence of the Empire, but it seems like there is a lot more work to be done before we should be taking the time off to do this. But, I am new to the realm of politics.


1 ABA, 7th month, 21st Day

Well, that was eventful. Senator Binks was assisinated. Other gungans were attacked. The water supply was tainted. I don't really know what was going on. Meena took care of everything. Well, I helped stopped some Sith from erasing the nav data on their ship. But now, a free day. I wonder what people do for fun in Theed.


1 ABA, 7th month, 21st Day

Drink tea and gossip, evidently.


1 ABA, 7th month, 22nd Day

I'm sitting in the med bay of the Wayfarer after passing out from radiation poisoning. Luke is still out. Rolana says he'll be fine though.

I have never been more worried in my entire life than I was this morning. Caring about people is exhausting.

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 12/20)

1 ABA, First Month, Day 25.

Today was Life Day. I've never really celebrated it before. Mother and Father preferred to celebrate local important events, old Naboonian customs, etc. But with the younger Omwati and students, people felt it was important. I was able to scrape together some gifts, though often it was just talking to Ackbar and asking for things. But I hope Pel and his brother have a nice time on Mon Calamari. I got some nice things--extra lightsaber crystals (they should come in handy,) a nice gun from Odak, information about family on Naboo, and a swoop bike from Talia.

Last night, Quan Hu wanted to talk. About how he felt, and about how I felt. I had to be honest. I care for him, but I can't care about him that way. People I love die, and he can't take care of himself. And honestly, I'm worried that he only loves me because I saved his life. That's no way to start anything. I gave him his present to ease his pain--a nice bottle of Corellian whisky I picked up on a trade run with Han. He didn't look too good this morning. I hope he finds happiness.

Good news, though. Master Kenobi wasn't too upset with me about telling Luke about his father. I was pleased. I feel even more concerned for Luke's welfare though. I got him into this, I'll see that he gets out of it.

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 12/06)

1 ABA, 1st Month, Day 10

Well, we weren't on Cloud City long. Long enough for Lando to take me to dinner, Pel to gamble a bit, and Draco and Luke to get a new ship. Then, Lando showed us to Boba Fett, told me to get to his ship and leave while Fett was distracted with Talia and Pel. In a way, it's flattering. No one has ever betrayed people for me before.

Meena found Zach, Taryn and the others, and we all managed to escape on the Wayfarer. Taryn's excited about some droid in pieces in the engine room. So, we're all on the way back to the academy, minus Khazdan and plus Draco and three other Knights, and Pel's younger brother.

Obi-Wan is so going to kill me though.

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 11/16,11/23)

1 ABA, 1st month, Day 6.

Well, a lot has happened. I did tell Luke about his father. He didn't react how I expected. Instead of screaming about how it wasn't possible, he just immediately wanted to "rescue" him. Rescue him my ass. That monster killed my father. But, I think Luke understood that our main priority was our friends.

We had to be on Imperial Center for a few days, while we found contacts, information, etc. We ran into Boba Fett, and that led into a shootout that forced us to go underground. We finally traced Pel to a stolen shipment of medical equipment that was delivered to some big tower under construction. We went there, and found Pel at the top, along with Vader and a bunch of uber-troopers. Zach immediately got Pel free with some impressive uses of the Force. Luke got shot all to hell. I was really worried about him, and I figured Vader would call off the attack on him if he knew. So, I kinda very loudly called Luke by his last name. Kenobi is going to kill me.

Vader was afterwords distracted by trying to get Luke to stay. I latched myself onto Luke, whom, by the way, thinks I'm in love with him or something. While I think he's a nice guy... he's just that. A nice guy. Too nice. It's kinda creepy how nice sometimes. Anyway, I think Luke was really tempted to stay and try to redeem Vader, but also figured that I wasn't leaving him, so he came with us.

We were met at the bottom of the turbolift shaft by Antares Draco and some more Imperial Knights. People tried to convince them to turn on the Empire. I told Draco to grow some balls and do what he knew was right. He and a couple of Imperial Knights did defect, but some others didn't, and attacked us. We managed to escape Imperial Center on the The Knightspeed, but not before lots of people were very badly hurt. Dool took Zach and Taryn, who had gotten hurt badly, and Pel's younger brother, away on a speeder during the fight.

We set a course in for an asteriod field, to stop and check the ship for tracers. Luke tried to disable a tracer, but it destroyed the hyperdrive in the process. Nearest port is Cloud City. Which, wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that Fett contacted Talia and told her that he had The Wayfarer and everyone that was on board, and would only trade it for either me or Pel. So now people want me to get in touch with Lando and get him to help us. I hate depending on other people for things and asking them for favors.

Also, I think Antares thinks I'm the worst person ever. Bleh.

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 10/18, 11/1)

1 ABA, 1st month, day 2.

On the Millennium Falcon, en route to Alderaan. The little Jedi, Kazdan Paradus, needs cybernetic surgery, and Alderaan has the best facilities outside of Couruscant. Also took the two Imperial Knights with us, since they are both from Alderaan.

Talked to Odak for a while before we left. I'm worried about him. I don't think he'll be content at the Academy for much longer, but I'm not sure people will let him leave. There are trust issues there. He's hard to read. I don't know how he feels about any of us.

Also spent some time practicing with Zane and Dory. Zane's a good kid. I feel bad about ignoring him while growing up.

Need to go. Am being summoned to the cockpit. Probably another "Now, I don't care what she thinks, but if I did, what do you think I should do..." things with Han. People should just say what they think.

1 ABA, 1st month, day 4.

I'm feeling a bit sick. Ok, a lot sick. I don't do well with moral dilemas. Am now aboard the Wayfarer. Tallia was out on some minor mission with Luke and Dool Fortuna, and we hailed her to come get us. We're headed to Couroscant to rescue Pel. Who was captured by Vader. And Luke is with us. And I'm the only person onboard who knows who Luke's father is. And Pel knows. And Pel is with Vader. Do I tell Luke? I think so. But I have no idea how to tell him. Normally I would just blurt it out, but I'm not sure that's the best way to tell someone that their father is the scourge of the galaxy.

I think some people expect me to feel guilty over Pel's capture. But I don't. It was his choice to come along as part of the distraction. I'm sure he knew the risks. And frankly Vader would probably have just killed me outright, instead of this elaborate plan to turn him into a second Vader. So, better him than me. Well, if we can get him back. Otherwise it should have been me.

Ok, going to tell Luke. Sometime. Before we land. Maybe. Or before we get to the hospital. Soon. I think.

Jolee's Journal (Session Summary 10/12)

O ABA, 12th month, Day 12.

The Gentle Sunlight is scheduled to reach Yavin today. Thank the force. I couldn't take being on here much longer. My only sources of entertainment were the Omwati children Taryn introduced me to, and talking to the spacers. The spacers all disembarked a few days ago, though.

Things are going better though. I suppose the boringness of the ship has given me time to think about what happened. It was dumb and stupid and unnecessary, but it happened and I should get over it. I don't like it when I mope, although it's hard to stop sometimes. Right after I came to that conclusion, Taryn asked me to check to see if any of the Omwati children were force sensitive. They weren't, but they were adorable. They liked playing with my hair, since it's different than their feathery hair. Theirs was all downy and poofy and cute.

Zach and Tallia both wanted to talk to all of us. Tallia was wondering about the feasibility of putting the academy on the herd ship. The new Ithorian force sensitive we met told us that the Ithorians wouldn't like that much--we're too obviously fighting against the Empire. Then Zach said we should start up a large colony around the academy at Yavin IV. He implied we were monks. I can't believe he thinks he can wake up 1000 years in the future and presume to know what's best. Yes, Jedi would do best surrounded by other people, but we're dangerous right now. A large colony would be dangerous for everyone involved.

I don't want there to be another Volik. I mean, if we just let people settle on Yavin that we don't know, how can we be sure that they won't betray us, and put not only the Academy, but the rest of the colony in danger. I said as much to Zach. Tallia agreed with me. I actually felt a little proud about that. I think she's starting to respect me. And I think the stick up her ass has shrunk considerably. I might have lost my temper a bit and implied that Zach would rather hurt innocent people than live a quiet life for a few years. But he was being ridiculous. The Force knows I prefer being around lots of people. But that's what going off world is for. We go places like Cloud City and Mon Calamari. I do think we should let the other students get off planet more. Luke comes with us quite a bit, but the rest are pretty stuck on Yavin.

We did agree with Taryn that the Omwati should have a place to settle down. There's about a dozen kids, maybe some more, and two adults. One of the adults is a teacher, so that will be nice for the students at the academy.

Tallia just commed to get on the Wayfarer to head planetside. Will right more later.

0 ABA, 12th month, day 13.

So, we landed on Yavin with a bunch of Ithorians (who immediately began planting stuff) and the Omwati. Zane and Dory lead the Omwati around, showing them the place, while we talked with Kenobi and the herd leader. Kenobi agreed that having an academic teacher around would be beneficial. We saw Zane and Dory helping the kids run the obstacle course, using the Force to help them over the climbing parts. Everyone looked like they were having a good time.

Odak pulled me aside and told me that having so many people here was a bad idea. I told him that this wasn't bad compared to Zach's original plan. He made some disparaging comments. Odak is a jerk, but I rather like him.


0 ABA, 12th month, day 14.

Stupid Zabrak. 50 points my ass.


0 ABA, 12th month, day 15.

Am now worth 75 points, feel better about life.


0 ABA, 12th month, day 19.

We're leaving on a mission today. Blowing up some "Super" star destroyer. Hitching a ride with some Rodians. Quan has actually been to where we're going, so he's coming along. Luke's coming too. Will either be really fun or really awkward.

0 ABA, 12th month, day 22.

It was really awkward, though not for the reasons I expected. Zach is a douche. He killed an insane Jedi we were there to redeem. The Jedi had even fled the area. Zach had to go out of his way to kill him. We were all in a bit of shock. Luke didn't handle it well. I had to go run after him while everyone else dealt with Zach. Luke believes in the inherent goodness in people, and that if we can save them, we should. I like that about him, it's how I feel about things too. Quan agreed with what Zach did. It made me a little sad.

Anyhow, we took the Jedi's body and his robot friends with us (Kenobi was a redhead, who knew?) and headed to destroy the "super" star destroyer. Ackbar was right when he said they were trying to Jedi proof their Stormtroopers. Zach was a douche once again by being an asshole to Luke about "why don't we redeem the Stormtroopers." Idiot. Big difference between killing a poor insane guy who had retreated, and killing people who are activily shooting at you. To think I thought we'd get along.

Well, we destroyed the "super" star destroyer with a glob of superheated metal. Turns out the wacky little guy wasn't dead--he had a built in life-support system. Zach mildy redeemed himself by infusing the guy with his life force. I still don't trust him.

Session Summary, 9/27 (Jolee's Journal)

0 ABA, 12th month, day 6

Well, I'm still on the herd ship, the Gentle Sunlight. It's going to Yavin. Be a bit of a surprise for everyone at the academy, I bet. It's slow going, but it's nice and peaceful. And by peaceful, I mean kind of boring.

I spend most of the day just wandering around the forest/meadow/top part of the ship. I don't really feel like talking to anyone. I don't really know Zach, Taryn is a bit... much, Tallia is Tallia, and frankly I'm embarrassed to be around Pel. He saw me break down on the Imperial Knight's ship, and so I'd rather not be around him right now. He's emotionally touchy-feely and I don't like talking about anything.

So, after my last entry, we went a bunch of different places. Some Sullustan Corp. mining station where we tracked the pirates to. From there we went to a pirate hide out. It was probably the dingiest, must unpleasant station I've been on. I met some nice Duros drug dealers though. I have no idea what to do with all this glitterstim they gave me.

So, what happened. Well, on the mining colony we tracked down the pirates, but the trees weren't there. So, we called the Imperials on the pirates so they would flee to their base. After fighting a bunch of Tie-fighters, we did so. Once we got to the pirate base, we went to a little cantina to try to find the main pirate guy. Evidently he's big on explosions. Taryn seems terrified of him. Anyway, almost as soon as we got there, Zach tried some glitterstim the Duros gave him. It was pretty funny.

Side note: I tried glitterstim once. Han found out I hadn't tried any and gave me some, so I "won't be tempted if we ever end up shipping some of this stuff." Chewbacca found me a few minutes later, put me in the med bay, and then yelled at Han in Shryiiwook for an hour or two.

Zach got into a fight when he was on glitterstim. More dangerous and more intereting. I helped the Duros to safety, but was a bit distracted when a bunch of droids with explosives on their chest came. Ended up escaping in an elevator with the Duros and some pirates. Luckily, the pirates didn't know I was with the people who started the fight in the cantina, and I was able to just walk to where the trees were. The others didn't appreciate this when I told them. Not my fault they'd rather kill everything they can see than simply walk away and protect innocent drug smugglers.

Anyway, we found the trees, found a weird Ithorian tending them. Evidently he like experimenting with plant/sentient combinations and it got him banned. He agreed to help us move the trees back to the herd ship, but the head pirate guy came out, Zach (Pel? I don't know. Zach is like a near-human Pel with better hair. Hard to tell them apart,) threatened the pirate dude left, and the Knights showed up. Eventually, after much posturing, they agreed to my idea, which was to take some of the Knights on the Wayfarer with the trees, and some of us on their ship, and meet up at the herd ship and let the Ithorians decide who gets the bacta.

Pel and I ended up with the Knights. We found out from a communication Draco received from someone called "Neida" that they were planning on destroying the herd ship if the Empire didn't get the bacta. I basically called Draco a jerk, he told me to shut my mouth because I was lucky he didn't kill me, blah blah blah, said it was no wonder my famiy was dead, I hit him and then I started crying. It was really very embarrassing. I hate crying in front of people.

Well, the Ithorians gave the Alliance the bacta, Draco turned out to be a decent fellow (he apologized for his comment, btw) and delayed reporting to the Empire until the herd ship had time to mobilize and go somewhere where the Empire couldn't find them, which turns out to be Yavin.

Zach is taking an Ithorian apprentice. I guess she looks just like his "partner" before the carbon freeze. I don't know what "partner" means exactly. I didn't think near humans and Ithorians were into that sort of thing with each other.

Well, I'm going to head off. I scrounged up enough spare parts and equipment, and I'm going to strip Darth Bane's lightsaber and make a new one that's more comfortable for me. I'm trying to keep at least the outside of it intact, since Zach seems to want it, but I'm pretty much going to have to gut it to make a new one.

I wonder if I'll eventually set a record for most lightsabers made and lost in a lifetime.

--Jolee

Session Summary, 8/23 & 9/13 (Jolee's Journal)

((I'm trying something new. I've been slacking on the updates because I often mostly only remember things that happened directly to or directly involving Jolee... so I'm going to try to do updates in a Jolee journal style. We'll see how it works.))

0 ABA, 12th month, day 1.

So much has happened in the past few weeks, it's overwhelming. I'm not a very emotionally open person, so I don't like talking about it. But Quan suggested just writing it down without ever showing it to anyone might help me sort out my thoughts. We'll see.

Egon's dead. It happened less than a week ago, on Felucia. There's some irony there. Or maybe symmetry, I'm not sure. We were on Felucia to find out more about some Jedi the Empire has. Zer'ul was linked to the project, and Felucia was linked to Zer'ul, so off we went. The Republic commando that we'd met last time on Felucia was dead, and the native Felucians weren't very friendly. The Mandolarians shooting at them probably didn't help. We did learn that the Felucians were being kidnapped by Stormtroopers.

We made our way to the facility, into the building that we destroyed the last time we were here. We ran into some of the force users, they call themselves Imperial Knights. We saved them from spider babies (creepy things) and then ran into dozens of stormtroopers, some walkers, and Zer'ul, who invited us in for dinner.

I spent most of the dinner talking to Luke... knowing what I do about him, I didn't want him to attract Zer'ul's interest much. Also, philosophy is boring. The force is what it is, and it's what you do with it that matters. Anyway, we learned that they were stealing the force potential from the Felucians and forcing it into kidnapped Alderaanians, who were then trained to use it. Zer'ul agreed to let us take the "unnecessary" Alderaanians back home. I'm not sure what we promised him. I was probably telling Luke about the time I rode a rancor.

So, we're leaving, the Alderaanians are leaving, it's going well, when all hell breaks loose. I'm not quite sure whether it was the Felucians on Rancors, the Mandolorians, the Stormtroopers, Egon, or the Knights. Anyway, shots started to be fired and, well, Egon ended up dead, along with most of the Mandolorians. Luke and I saved several of the Imperial Knights from the thermal detonator Egon dropped, and Obi-Wan took them in. I'm not sure what he's doing with them, or if the Alliance knows we have them.

We're now on a mission to a herd ship to get some bacta. They requested Pel speci

Sorry, pirate trouble. Tallia freaked out over Pel's hero complex. She tried to talk to me today after she handed me Egon's old toolbox. It was bizarre. It did knock me out of my funk a bit, since it was so awkward and strange. Approaching herd ship now. Will continue later, hopefully.

--Jolee


0 ABA, 12th month, day 2.


Herd ships are amazing. It's hard to believe this is a mechanical construct floating in space. We're en route to find some sentient baby trees that are smarter than everyone I know put together and talk to you through vibrations that were kidnapped by pirates. Odak An's old gang. Too bad we don't have a way of contacting him. He'd probably just say something rude anyway. I can't decided whether I think he's a bad person, or if I really like him.

Some Imperial Knights were also on the herd ship. The Ithorians invited them too. Evidently we're racing to save baby trees, and the winner gets the Ithorians support. Seems dodgy to me. The Knight were from Alderaan. They didn't seem half bad. Young, too. Their leader was only a few years older than me, his name was Antares Draco. Reminds me a bit of me. A spacer that we rescued from an attacked ship is helping us find them. He seemed shaky for some reason when we brought him on board. So did Taryn. I wonder what happened when I was in the cockpit?

Will write more later.

-- Jolee

On the previous A Different Hope...

Rafe and Meena were at the Jedi academy, both giving lessons and learning how to combat lightsaber combatants. During the lesson, the Millennium Falcon landed on Yavin, with Han, Chewie, and Jolee aboard, along with a Omwati passenger and her cargo--a Jedi frozen in carbonite. With the technical expertise of both Tayrn the Omwati and Quan Hu, the Jedi was dethawed and then healed with Meena's use of the force.

Zach was startled to find himself awake in a Massassi temple, and started a chain of events that led Zach, Taryn, Rafe, Meena, Jolee, and Luke to seek passage aboard the Millenium Falcon to an ancient Sith outpost, where they battled wanna-be Sith at Darth Bane's grave.

In the fight, many were badly hurt, Jolee lost her lightsaber and appropriated Darth Bane's because "at least it's the right color," Han and Chewie saved the PC's from the minor army, a Sith temple and it's droid factory were destroyed, and Luke got to do some actual combat.

Last time on Star Wars...

08/02/08 session:

The PC's...

• Had a meeting on Home 1 with Alliance intelligence, including the newly debriefed former classmate of Talia's, where they learned of the existence of force users under Imperial command. These force users included someone Rafe recognized as an Organa.
• Were smuggled into the Alderaan system by Han Solo, who had been running guns to the resistance under the pretense of shipping luxury goods to the regional moff. Solo offered Jolee a permanent spot on the Falcon.
• Broke into the Organa family home, which now houses the moff, where they learned that the dark Jedi Zerul was involved, and the force users were most likely being trained of Felucia.
  
• Broke into a former manor home turned prison. Leia, Pel, Talia, Rafe, and Egon provided distraction while Jolee hid aboard the prisoner transport vessel, where she broke into the cockpit and convinced the pilot that doing as she said was the best option. The pilot flew the prisoner transport vessel, full of prisoners and Stormtroopers, to Home 1.

Session Summary, by Mike

(Curbed, with permission, from Mike's LJ.)

Yesterday, we played Star Wars for 10 hours (if you count levelling up and goofing off) on Saturday. It was an insanely fun session, mostly RP this time with a few incidental fights and a big set-piece battle at the end. The gang was sent to Cloud City for shore leave and to buy some cheap, under-the-table Tibanna gas for the Rebellion. Things that went wrong (or right, as the case may be):

• Upon entering the system, we saw our much-beloved former ship (which we'd been forced to abandon to the Empire ages ago) zip past us.
• It turned out to be piloted by one of Talia's old classmates, an Imperial Intelligence officer.
• Then our contact for the Tibanna gas pickup turned out to be dead.
• He was coincidentally killed by an associate of an incredibly fit Hutt crime lord we almost killed for no good reason a long time ago. (Actually, we almost killed him twice, but the first time was for a good reason and he didn't know it was us that time. Don't ask.)
• We ended up having to use the Rebellion's Tibanna gas budget to enter Pel into a high-stakes Sabacc tournament in order to get close to the movers-and-shakers involved. Pel is not an accomplished gambler, BTW.
• Other entrants into the Sabacc tournament included: Talia's aforementioned classmate, the aforementioned Hutt, Lando Calrissian, and...Nien Nunb. Oh, and one of the spectators was a bounty hunter with whom we'd had two nasty run-ins in the past. Fortunately, there were no weapons and no comms allowed during the tournament...
• As a tourist spot, Cloud City is ridiculously overpriced. Seriously, our per diem from the Rebellion was barely sufficient.

Before the session was over: Jolee had, er, "befriended" Lando Calrissian (several times); Boba Fett had come gunning for our asses; Egon and Talia ended up on the lam from a corrupt security guard in the employ of the Hutt; someone took a first tentative step on the road to redemption; the Force that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together was used to cheat at cards; we got (most of) our old ship back; we managed to squeeze in one nice dinner before everything went to hell; Talia's dark secret was revealed; Wookiees were frozen in carbonite; we called in a last-minute favor owed to us by Han Solo ("YAHOOOOO!"); and Pel almost beat Lando in the last round of the Sabacc tournament. Not necessarily in that order. Best session ever? Possibly.