I've been watching the newsvids about Praek VII. They've evacuated it because its' orbit is in a slow decay. They figure it's going hit the planet within the next 30 days. I'm still feeling sick from what happened. Not physically. Just the memory of feeling the loss of those people. *sigh* I wish I knew what the Empire was up to. Why did they do it?

End Log: 78135.239.23:13

Open Log: 78135.244.20:20

Hello Admiral. Well, I think we've figured out why the Empire blew up part of the Praek VII space station. It is truly an ingenious and insidious plot. I'm still in awe just thinking about what we've discovered.

First, on day 240, we found out that the Empire sent in six Star Destroyers to assist the Praek VII system. Let's see... they were the Adjudicator and the Tyrannic, both Mark 2's. Then the Leviathan, the Imperium, the Malevolent and our old friend, the Relentless. All Mark 1's.

Then, the Empire unveiled something almost too unbelievable for words. The newscasters have dubbed it the Super Star Destroyer. It's called the Devastator and it is bigger that four Star Destroyers put end to end. Yes. I know. It boggles the mind. As Yahnna said, it's enough to give even the best smuggler nightmares.

At first, we weren't sure why the Empire sent in such incredible firepower. We thought they might be trying to subdue the system. It was going to be an ugly sight to see. However, much to our surprise, the Empire was there to help.

The Devastator commanded by an Admiral Ozzel - an official twit if I've ever seen one. Whoever dreamed up this little coup was very intelligent. Admiral Ozzel spoke only once and that was to say that Admiral Zaraiath would answer all questions from now on.

Admiral, it was amazing. Zaraiath has got to be one of the most charismatic men I have ever seen. Even for a man his age. I mean, when I was on the bridge of the Relentless, I saw that he was a formidable commander but to see him speak as the mouthpiece of this show of Imperial power... Admiral Zaraiath patiently and with some humor, explained that the Empire was there in the Praek VII system to provide nothing more than "humanitarian aide" to the system's people. Then, he announced that, with the six Star Destroyers and the Super Star Destroyer, the Empire was going to put right what the 'rebel terrorists' had made wrong.

They were going to pull the Praek VII space station back into its orbit.

At first, I was stunned. I couldn't believe that anything could do something like that. I mean, they were saying that they were going to move a planetary mass. Then, they began to do it. Suddenly, the Empire became the protective, helpful heroes that they profess to be. So what if they had to kill thousands of people to do it. Within a matter of days, the Praek VII went from a system that was basically ambivalent about the Empire to a system that was not only firmly in the Empire's grasp but happy to be there, too.

A stunning bit of public relations and subtle display of force and power.

We started talking about this ironic turn of events and began to dig deeper. How many other systems have had some sort of catatrophic disaster that the Empire has assisted in? Through digging through the news archives, we discovered that there were over fifty systems in the past solar year that had suffered a distaster and were 'rescued' by the Empire. Some were natural disasters. Most were some sort of technological disaster. In each case, the Empire rode in like knights in shinning armor and saved the day. In each case, the system became completely and willingly loyal to the Empire as a result.

This is something to think about and something to inform the rebellion of.

"Capture their hearts and their minds will follow."

End Log: 78135.244.20:31

Open Log: 78135.247.06:54

Oh, crap. I knew it had to happen. Something major has finally gone wrong with the Star Chaser. I'm not sure how it happened but the hyperdrive convertor broke. The droids are hard at work trying to fix that voo-doo machine but, in the meantime, we are stuck adrift in space... and not sure where we are. Figures. I'll get back to you when we know more.

End Log: 78135.247.06:55

Open Log: 78135.251.00:21

Hi Admiral. Things just kept better and better. We've figured out that we are in an unnamed sector in the Northwest Quadrant, hugging the Rim, almost exactly 180 degrees away from Paranoth where all of this first started. We're about fifteen light years off of the main shipping lanes.

Oh, what am I doing up so late? Well, that's a fun story. Decker was on watch and discovered through the passive sensors that there was a Star Destroyer running silent nearby. He caught some of the unshielded intercom traffic. Then, once we started subtly investigating it, we discovered that we were floating inbetween two Star Destroyers that are circling us, about five light years apart. They have ships doing some sort of circular search pattern for us, too.

I did everything I could not to panic. I was wondering how in the universe the Empire could have track us through hyperspace. Fortunately, when something like this happens, Yahnna gets REALLY cranky and with her mood, panicking was not an option.

Then, I had my answer. Decker discovered that the commo-board had been fixed incorrectly and WE had been leaking signals all over the place. So, all of that investigation we did on the Empire while we were in hyperspace was leaving a nice visible trail for the Empire to follow. If the hyperdrive had not blown the convertor, we'd probably be at the tender mercies of the Relentless now.

The hyperdrive will be fixed by tomorrow... er.... much later today... then we're going to get the heck out of here.

End Log: 78135.251.00:26

Open Log: 78135.251.14:15

You know what I was saying about panicking, Admiral? Dev, bless his heart, is a good pilot but he's GOT to stop panicking and hitting buttons. Especially if Yahnna is in the pilot's seat. He panicked because we figured out that the Empire was bringing in Interdictors - the ships that create massive gravity shadows. Yahnna was already hitting the jump button as he was leaping over seats to hit it for her.

Yes, there was a need to hurry but I think Yahnna had that thought firmly in mind. I mean, this is our ship.

So, we jumped. Then, we got dropped out of hyperspace by the Interdictor. Then we fought a couple of TIE fighters, then we jumped to safety. Now, we're happily on our way to drop the bouye to contact the Iridium Rose.

Me? I'm going to go back to learning this ship, working on more decrypting more of the Jedi journal and practicing my Force powers. I have to say, the thought of meeting up with the crew of the Rose has me in a very good mood.

End Log: 78135.251.14:18

Open Log: 78135.254.14:15

Hey Admiral. The bouye is dropped and we're on our way to the rendezvous point! I'm really excited!

End Log: 78135.254.14:16

Open Log: 78135.259.20:59

We made it, Admiral! We're in the Emyath System - it's a binary system with a couple of habitable planets. The six moon of Emyath VII was a big Imperial mining planet. Amazingly enough, the entire moon has been mined out. It was supposed to last another hundred years. So, it seems the Empire needed a lot of money in a hurry. Probably for that Super Star Destoryer we saw at Praek VII.

In any case, Dev and Jela'han went off to investigate the mining gantries while the rest of us headed off to Emyath III to wait for word from the Rose. Turns out, the Rose was waiting for us in one of the mining gantries and contacted Dev. We'll be meeting up with them in about an hour or so.

Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can sense Val from this far away. Kind of a Jedi "hello" to him.

End Log: 78135.259.21:04

(c) 2000 - Eden Blackthorn