Every time we have to deal directly with the Rebels, things get stupid fast.

Randall et al were kind enough to let Santos rest up in the medical bay in their base on Arda, like for several weeks, even though GARBOL was ultimately the one to finish patching him up. They also put Qurzer in touch with their queen back on Selonia. So it was easy for us to reunite with Callia, who suddenly walked in with Zrask – the Bothan we let out of the bacta tank back on Tatooine. Now I have to wonder if Trex was actually going to sell him and Rakine into slavery or if that was some kind of weird cover story while he transported some Rebels.

Anywayyyy… it turns out Callia had been helping the Rebels investigate an Imperial base on Onderon, where they’re working on the prototype for some kind of superweapon death ray that can blow up planets. That’s where she found Zrask, who had been forced to help them build it, and she helped rescue a bunch of scientists. Randall and his boss wanted us to go back there and finish off the job. Destroy the base or the prototype or whatever. The thing is, Callia hadn’t been able to escape the planet without notice, so it was probably going to be crazy dangerous, and then Randall was being all weird about compensation. After they’d sent Santos off to help with one of their patrols he said some pretty hurtful and false things about me and money and what I care about. But I’m not a freaking soldier. None of us are, not even Callia anymore. You want me to drop food and medicine for refugees, we can have a civil conversation. You want me to make a bombing run on a death ray, I want hazard pay.

None of this mattered in the end because the Imps started dropping bombs on our heads and deploying ground troops, because of course they discovered the location of the base while we were visiting. Rakine took Qurzer with her to go blow the computer core, while Callia, GARBOL and I climbed out along this terrifying canyon to set off controlled explosions that would slow their foot soldiers. We had to wait for Santos to get back inside, and when he zipped by on his sandspeeder he had TIE fighters right behind him.

After I almost fell off a cliff, we hustled back into the base towards the Rainbow Dash where we found Santos in the middle of a lightsaber battle with the creepiest guy I’ve ever seen. Callia jumped right in there, but he had Katryn Organa with him as well, fitted with a brand new cybernetic arm. She was firing on Santos so I shot her to get her attention, and then nailed her real good with a frag. Unfortunately it blew her in range close enough to punch me right in the face with her shiny hand. First she asked me to surrender though… honestly, I would’ve boarded that shuttle if it meant the wacko with the lightsaber would stop cutting Callia and Santos to pieces. But that wasn’t a promise she was gonna make.

We ended up having to retreat, in the end. GARBOL was knocked offline, but Rakine managed to put him back together once we were all on the Dash. Santos and I (mostly Santos) got us offworld and we jumped to hyperspace before the Star Destroyers in orbit could get us.

I guess we need to drop Rakine on the Rebels’ backup base on Jagomir, or at least rendezvous with their transport ships so she can reunite with them. But quite frankly I don’t want to stick around. We even negotiated a great big 50,000 credit paycheck for the Onderon job, but I’d be perfectly happy to walk away from that money if it means no lightsaber fights for a while.

In the middle of all of this, Zrask installed the eye I picked up on Nar Shaddaa. It’s nice to have depth perception again. If anything the world seems clearer and crisper than it ever did. And it’s got an appraiser’s eye built in, so I’ve got this heads-up display I can toggle on and off to help us when we’re buying and selling cargo. Which reminds me we haven’t actually bought and sold cargo in a really long time. We’re gonna get rusty.