Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Tough decision

I haven't been updating my diary for the past few momths, but the truth is that I haven't been slacking off either... I was on a secret recon mission to a world far far away... where time seems to stand still, the technologies are primitive, and the beings that only exist in the ancient text and tales that can only be found in the mythology section of the Galactic Library on Coruscant. Although, they are primitive in technology, but they're highly advenced in chemical engineering that known by the local as Alchemy, and super natual power called Spell that similar in a way to the Force power. The inhabitants of the world are in great conflict, much like the Galactic Civil War we're in. The real name of the world shall not be reveiled, but I'll call it WoW...

I've make great progress studying the locals as well as their skills/lores. I've come to enjoy their company greatly, it's a strange but fantastic world. I received encoded message from the Rebellion, top priority, to return service at once. I was in great conflict, I've come to love WoW, and I would have stayed longer or lived there permenently... After careful consideration, I decided to come back, I can't not abandon the Rebelion even if I love the WoW better. I just need a few days to tie up some loose ends in WoW, then I'll be fully back in the heat of the Civial War.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Caution!

A couple of days ago, while I was hunting on Dantooine to improve my Flamethrower skills, I came upon some Stormtroopers. There're only a dozen or so of them, mostly your garden variety Stormies, except a Dark Trooper, a Storm Commando and an Assult Trooper. The only one that present some challenge is the Stormtrooper Commando. So, I thought it's an easy take, and my promotion is long due, not to mention Chiv is catching up...










So, I rushed them, killing a handfull, since there are so many of them, I took quite a beat, I retreated to heal up. And rushed them again, as I started pounding on the Storm Commando, suddenly, 2 Elite Nova Troppers meterialized out of thin air right beside me and started attacking me. They must be wearing some sort of cloaking device, but the cloaking techchnology has been thought long lost since the Clone War! Or that they found a cache of the cloaking device, otherwise, they would all be wearing it...

I tell you, they hit HARD! I had to do a tactical retreat immediately. They incapacitated me as I was retreating, I was lucky that I was able to used my Force Of Will TKM ability to jump right up and continue to retreat. But, Sithspawn! They incapacitated me again! Although I can not move my limbs, but I can still see them with my eyes walking closer and closer, and I tried frantically to stand up, but to no avail, the time is ticking away slowly, it felt like a life time...and then they killed me while still some good 5 meters away...

So, rebels personnels, take my order seriously, caution, caution and more caution... ouch, there goes my new armor again....

Friday, March 18, 2005

Krayt Dragon Pearl

I was looking to buy a swoop in a small town just outside the Mining Outpost on Dantooine, my comlink clicked. The clicking pattern it used startled me, I haven't heard that pattern for ages, it was used by the rebel cell I used to belong to. The last time I talked to one of them, they were operating out of Dantooine, but due to the increased Imperial presence, they had to move to another planet. During my missions for the village, I heard rumor that the entire cell was wiped out by an Imperial strike force, nobody survived. I really kicked myself for not able to be there for them... I picked up comlink and answered, a familiar voive came through! It's one of the officers in the cell, and my glowy/village buddy - we became force sensitive together! I was overcome was joy. If he survived, then there gotta be others as well!

We chatted for a long time, there was a Imperial strike, a lot of dedicated rebel soldiers were killed, but a few did survive. He's been doing alot of force training, and he's now a Jedi Padawan. Congratulations O! He and a few other Padawans needs my assistence with procuring Krayt Dragon Pearls for their light sabers. Eager to see my friends, I quickly traveled to Tatooine to meet with them.


We assembled a party of 4 people, I am the tank, the other 3 are all Master Rifleman. Since we are all combat veteran. It went really well for us.


Another one bites the sand. I'm always curious, which one is bigger, Krayt Dragon or Kimogila?


Yet another one... So the trick is: the TKM tank will use initmation all the time, plus knockdown. Them we all would concentrate on the same HAM pool to bring it down, fast.


At the end of day long hunt, we managed to kill about 2 dozens of Dragons, mostly Canyon Krayts, one Gaint Krayt, and a few Juvenile ones. And everyone received at least 2 pearls.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Discovering VIP room


I felt horrible after 3 times in and out clone center. So I decided take some time off, wondered into the Cantina in the Mining Outpost. Tossed a big credit chip to the bouncer at the VIP lounge entrance, and I was in the VIP room. It sure is nice compared to the public section - which is crowded, noisy and stink of sweat and blood, and cheap brandy, food and spice, dancers yelling, screaming competing for business...

The VIP room is much better appointed, more chairs and tables, prettier dancers - and they don't yell to get customers, a much better drink menu - they even have my favorate milk! And the air scrubed clean of any odors. And a much better clientele as well, unlike the unsavory bunch at the front, smartly dress being wearing shimmering silk, expensive jewelry.

Being the only one wearing armor in the VIP room, I really felt out of the place, the drinks aren't cheap either....guess I won't be back here very often...

Horrible day on Dantooine


It was a bad day for me yesterday. I tried do some hunting and do target practice with Hurttons and Quenkers, but, Jantas amd Mokks near by saw the explosion I was causing, rushed to see what's going on...And they killed me, mercilessly. First, they incapacitated me, while I lie helples on the ground, they destroied my swoop... while I watched them doing it unable to stop them....after they trashed my swoop, they came back slit my throat...They're definitely a bunch of extremely hostile people. Yesterday, they killed me 3 times, trashed 2 of my swoops, and rendered my chest armor useless... Just wait...patience is a virtue...

Friday, March 11, 2005

Sweet...


Ready to test my new new-toy...With that BFG in my hand, now I look a real Commando ...


When I bummped into Booster, I was just finishing off for the day, and I've just learned a new skill in Flamethrower, so I set out to test it. It was surrprisingly good, actually, it's awesome! A Seething Bol Crusher is not a tough opponent, about 9K HAM, but I killed it with probablly 6-7 shots even without any medical enhancemnt, just my armor. Although it's twice as slow as the Launcher Pistol, but it does easily 4 times the damage. And overall, it kills faster than Launcher Pistol. I love it!

Now I can also have BBQ anytime I want :) ... although they tend to be a little on the well done to over cooked side, ok, I got to admit, occassionally they just charred to a crisp. But for a male Zabrak who has no Domestic Art skills, I'm doing pretty good already.

BFG...

While doing live target practice, I bumpped into an old smuggler friend of mine that I long thought has died in Imperial prison on Kessel. Empiror's blackbone, but he escaped! He wouldn't mention the details how he did that, but I'm just glad he's out there. And guess what? He's know smuggle weapons for the Rebel :) I told him I'm now a Commando, and showed off my new toys to impress him...but he doesn't seem to be impressed. He invited me onto his ship for some brandy and a sabac game. After we had a round of brandy, he brough something back from the cargo hold, and behold!


A sliced Launcher Pistol, not only faster than the one in my hand, but does more damage as well.


Look that damage! It's been sliced to improve damage! Chiv thought my old flamethrower does some "heinous" damage, this one's gonna knock his socks off....

Best yet... he gave them to me as presents. I owe you big Booster!

Quick facts about Dantooine

Dantooine is teeming with wide animals, it's been the most favorate place for adventurers, game hunters and holiday makers alike since the Old Republic era. If you're a fledging combat professional, you'll find it's a good place to hone your combat skill as well. Even if you're a doctor or entertainer, you'll find good business there...

There are also 4 primitive tribes: Janta, Mokk, Kunga and Dantari. And they are constantly at war with each other, chances are when you drive through the plains you will see them having small skirmishes. They aren't terribly tough to fight, but you do need to be careful, especially when they gang up on you. Watch out for their dizzy, bleeding and knockdown tactics. Since they are very primitive, they don't have alot of possessions. If you're lucky, you may find a staff or stone knife, or if you're really really lucky - a crystal. But most of the time, they have nothing whatsoever.


This is a typical Janta totem, they're known to carve these weird statues, if you see one of these, you can bet some Jantas are near by...

Dantooine was also the home to an ancient Jedi temple - now in ruins. An a cave said to have occassion find of mysterious force crystals that bestow it's owner mysterious power, however, nothing has been confirmed. Despite this, an increasing number of Force Crystal Hunter, Darkside Savages and Darkside Wielder etc. are coming to Dantooine, sometime, even a full fledging Dark Jedi or Dark Jedi Master can be found wondering around. And sometimes they show up in the spaceport and slaughter every being in sight...

Know your opponent...and your weapons

To win a battle, you must know the weakness of your target, you might win by shear force without hitting their weak spot, but it will just take so much longer...

As a TKM, I have very limited weapon choice. Well, actually I have only one weapon: Vibro Knuckler, so I can only deal one kind of damage - Kinetic. So, if my target has specially protection - like Janta Stoneshaper or Nightsister Elder that are 100% resist to kinetic damage, I'm out of luck, totally. I did fight a Stoneshaper before, it took me like 40 minutes, with the help of a combat droid, it's aren't pretty...

Now that I'm a Commando, I have a wide range of weapons at my disposal, choose the right weapon for a particular target is crucial:

Launcher Pistol , Rocket Launcher - blast damage
Flame Thrower - heat damage
Heavy Acid Rifle, Acid Stream Launcher - acid damage
Lightning Beam Cannon - electric damage
Heavy Particle Beam Cannon - energy damage

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Fun with new toys


Testing out the heavy weapons proved to be quite fun, they are totally different from the light side arms, pistols, I came to know. While the pistol are rapid firing and short range, these heavy weapons are slow firing and long range, also suffering from a reduced accuracy.


Look at this huge explosion, this is just from the Launcher Pistol, don't be fooled by the pistol name, it IS a heavy weapon.


It's really late after the weapon teasting, and it's a long drive from the nearest town, I think I'm going to spend the night here. It's got some wall for wind break, and a big ancient statue head to keep me companied.

Launcher Pistol & Flame Thrower

I was in luck, my smuggler contact did have a few left, even though weapon stats are not as good as I hoped for, it will do for now. Since they're hard to come by now, I had to pay a hefty price for them, old buddies or not...





Shopping for Commando supplies

I searched all over Coreallia, but can not find any weapon dealer that stock heavy weaponry, not even from some shaddy dealers or behind the counters. I was told the Empire really tightened the grip on the heavy weapons, because a lot of blackmarket weapons somehow "magically" find their way into the hands of the Rebels...of cause Empire is not going to be too thrilled about this. Guess I'll have to keep searching, or the last resort - look up some smugglers I hooked up with when I worked for that old priate Han and Jaba the Hutt.

So I headed to Naboo, I'm always fond of Naboo, especially Theed city, the architecture, the water fall, it's also the place where I met that "old man", so, it's in a special place in my heart.


This is in the city square right in front of the spaceport. Isn't this beautiful? Except some eye sores...


...this is what I'm talking about...


I spent a whole day around Theed looking for Flamethrower and Launcher pistols, but can found none - same story. I guess I just have to hook up with some old smugglers...I stopped by the water fall before heading out to the secret meeting location. I love the Theed water fall, it's so beautiful even in the night, and it look very different from during the daytime.

I, Novice Commando


Empire has been not only crack down on the Rebel, but also the combat trainers. It took me some time and pulled a few favors to finally located a Commando trainer in Kor Vella.


Ahhh, made a Commando out of myself finally...now I need go shopping...for some heavy weaponry.


Although Empire has been trying very hard at eliminating the Rebel presence all over the galaxy, but they are loosing ground. For example, Kor Vella used to be under the control of the Empire, now it's the Rebel territory. Way to go Rebels!