Outside the cave the ocean was brighter, warmer and safer. The cave or the creature within had effected each of the Rebels far more than they might have suspected.

“You…are…worthy” Anyar pronounced.

While the ferocious cephalopod thrashed and writhed, Lyla swam close enough to grab Lamar and Klyn and hauled them out of its coils and toward safety. Then, as it finally fell limp and died, its tentacles splayed all around the cavern, she breathed a heavy sigh of exhaustion and relief – and then remembered where she was, and that they weren't out of danger yet. She quickly patched her shredded suit with some emergency sealant, doing as much to keep her blood in as the sea out, then led the way out of the Anguillans' cave.

She was angry, angry that they'd been tricked and betrayed, angry that her worst memories had been dredged up and used against her. She swam out of the dark cave, her torn suit covered in red twi'lek blood, blue cephalapod blood, and black ink, and with fire in her eyes. 'You knew?' she demanded hotly, hardly caring about being worthy any more. 'You sent us in to fight that creature?!'

As Lamar was there trying desperately to escape suddenly the scene changed ad he was back in the cavern. Thrashing in the now dying grip of the creature. Looking around confusedly he was disorientated for a few moments. Had that really happened? Or no that's not how it went... My battle in the field was longer, and I only fled once the original squad was dead. I fled to the storm drain when the squad with the Moff showed up.

Anger started to rise in him. These fish people knew what would happen. We almost died due to not being prepared. Those FUCKERS! "L.1T. Permission to get me some fish for dinner?" He growled as he began swimming towards their leader Anyar.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:29, Mon 07 Feb 2022.

Klyn could feel all his muscle crying in pain.

That thing nearly crushed him to death.

He shouldn't have expected something else from those savages.

And they played with their mind while feeding them to their ... he didn't know... god ? holy beast?  Whatever.  That memory cut even deeper than all this beast did or could have done.

They had no right... And how did they know?

"We are ANGRY, that's quite certain !"

“Angry…bad” Anyar replied to Klyn. When Lamar began to swim closer to Anyar many of the Anguillans moved to surround their leader.

The leader looked to Lyla “Piscator” he named the beast, the Anguillan’s speaking and comprehension of Basic appeared to be improving very rapidly as learnt through listening to the Rebels talk.

“You defeated the Piscator without fear, fear is the Dark side. You are worthy. A different metal fish came fifteen tides ago and killed sixteen Anguillans. Then eight tides ago a larger metal fish landed and is still there with the killers” he paused and scrutinised Lyla’s reactions to this “Then other strangers came here five tides again and were found worthy. They promised to protect us against the metal fish in ocean.”

Lyla caught Lamar by the flipper. 'Hold on. Let's hear what they've got to say first.' she growled.

Worthy!? Lyla choked and spluttered on her outraged responses as Anyar refused to admit he'd done anything wrong in sending them into that trap, all for some Force nonsense. Without fear? She'd been crukking terrified, that she and her team would be killed by that thing, that their mission would fail and the Rebellion be broken. But her shock stopped her saying something she'd regret, when she realised Anyar was finally giving useful information, of a sort. She reminded herself that humans and Squibs and Anguillans and all the rest had different morals and different ways, that they had to be tolerant and patient and try to get long peacefully, and, most importantly, that some of them were just jerks.

Casting off the idea that the first lot might have taken the test, and not taken it so well, then taken it out on the Anguillans, Lyla sighed and said 'Alright, where can we find all these strangers and their metal fish? All three lots. Are they all still in your ocean?'
This message was last edited by the player at 00:50, Wed 09 Feb 2022.

Klyn had trouble to settle down, despite Lyla's orders.

But the last bit of information did catch his interest.

Lamar was pissed, but he was a soldier as well. His orders were to wait, he'd wait. But he seriously wanted to carve up some sushi. "Understood LT. But you should know what they did demands blood!" He stated emphatically.

He suffered enough with the past deaths of his family, but to have to relive it so vividly. That was evil incarnate. And these people knew what was going to happen.

'And they spilled that blood.' Lyla replied to Lamar after hearing Anyar out. 'Sixteen Anguillans. I won't blame them for trapping and testing us after that loss. I don't like what they did either, after what I saw— But cruk to a bad trip in a cave and fighting some squid monster! Letting it go is how we show to ourselves that we are worthy.' she said firmly, hoping to resolve their bad feelings about this and move on, theirs as well as her own. She'd been around the Galaxy too many times to hold a grudge, and the Twi'lek knew it was better to ride the storm that fight it, as their old saying went.

“Your own fear and hatred is what you saw. Question yourselves to who is responsibly for that?” Anyar looked at the unsettled anger of Klyn and Lamar with a frown “anger and fear are unworthy” he proclaimed.

The Anguillan fielded the simpler questions with forthright answers “the first group were much like yourselves. They came on a metal fish that flies and explored the oceans then left. We did not make contact with them” the eel like alien then shook his head “the second group was much larger and we decided to approach. When we did they killed”

“The third group is still here” as Anyar said this a group of eleven individuals in similar spacesuits to the Rebels swam toward the gathering of Anguillans. They all wore especially large helmets “greetings I am Iych-thae and we are Pilgrims of the Mother Jungle.”

Groaning, Lyla tried to rub her lekku tchun through her dive helmet, wondering if it was the side-effects of the drugs giving her this growing tail-ache, but doubting it. 'So not helping your case here, mate.' she muttered. There was letting it go, and there was putting up with blatant gaslighting. She answered the question with a curt 'You are, and your drugs, for triggering our trauma. But let's move on before you make it worse, okay?'

She compared Anyar's account to what he'd just said a moment ago, gave up, and observed 'I think you're getting your metal fish mixed up there. And you said the other one stayed, now you say it left? Never mind, we'll work it ourselves.' she concluded, before Anyar did anything inconvenient like try to talk or change his story again.

So, it was with some relief that someone else showed up. Pity it was the Ithorian priests, who'd been almost as cryptic. And it was pretty suspicious that they'd turned up two spots on the pirates' trail. What was going on here? 'You! You contacted us at Dega! You tried to show us the planet and give us the brochure.' she announced in surprise.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:09, Thu 10 Feb 2022.

Klyn was not in the mood for philosophical chit chat, especially one that would reject the blame.

But the arrival of the third group prevented him to cause more trouble.

"Well... that explain the ithorian language mixed with their own...

And I was spot on when I said this was the kind of planet our Ithorian 'friends' would be interested in." said Klyn with a small grin, the tension slightly receding for the time being.

Having not met the Rebels face to face the Ithorian was surprised by Lyla’s pronouncement “ah you are the mercenaries” he presumed but put no malice in his choice of words “perhaps you can put your profiteering aside this once and help us? The fate of this world is in your hands” Iych-thae words were spoken slowly and carefully. He waited patiently for a response to his query.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:14, Mon 14 Feb 2022.

'We're not—' Lyla started, but stopped, since correcting him would only risk blowing their cover, and the misunderstanding served to cement it. Still, she had to wonder where and how he got that idea, since she'd given nothing away about them when they'd spoken at Dega. 'Sure, consider our profiteering on hold. Not like we were getting paid anyway... So, ah, can you tell us more about this fate of the world being in our hands?'

Shaking with anger, Lamar simply said, "I had to relive the deaths of my wife and son L.T. Something I never want to relive as vividly as I had to. I already have to live with it every night, and I suffer nightmares due to it. This will just aggravate that!."

He was nearly shouting at the end of his statement, and turned away to try and get himself under control. Unseen he was streaming tears under his helmet.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:15, Wed 16 Feb 2022.

The Anguillan leader shook his head in confusion “the ocean you come from must be a very hateful and bad place for you to bring such evil inside yourself” Anyar was upset by the continued display of hatred and anger shown by Lamar “our people are peaceful, those who are filled with anger will fail the rites of the Conch-tar they must go to another ocean and leave us in peace” he explained. He genuinely believed that the dreamstate of the Conch-tar was a test against fear, because to be overcome by fear was the dark side.

“Do you respect Alluuvia and its sacred life or do you choose to kill this planet?” Iych-thae asked Lyla. The Ithorian was upset by Lamar’s anger “your fear and anger are your weakness. The Anguillans are not hostile. They seek to protect their world and their young from the Empire, just as you have lost your loved ones they want only to save their own” he explained, his speech slow and his twin mouths almost hypnotic in sound.

"Well, maybe... but they really have the wrong way to make friends..." replied Klyn, still upset.
But not willing , nor ready, to explain why.

"They lived the dreamy life here, too bad reality came and said hello".

Lyla reached out to lay a hand on Lamar's shoulder, though the water and the suits made contact impossible and her sympathy harder to convey. She spoke softly 'I know, Lamar. I saw my parents, my whole clan and way of life, incinerated in a heatstorm, all over again. But anger doesn't make the pain go away. It just makes it fester.' She had to wonder, had it been easier for her? Her foe had been bad weather, the impersonal forces of nature, of fortune and fate, that one could not get truly angry with. Was it the Twi'lek philosophy to go with the flow, or simply the Twi'lek physiology that let her shake off the drug faster? Or was it because she'd been a child at the time, it had been much longer ago, she had had longer to become accustomed to the grief and pain. 'Save it for the pirates and Imperials, alright?' she asked softly.

But Anyar, it seemed, did not know when to shut up, and his continued excuses, his attacks on her team, provoked a very present irritation in Lyla. So much for asking Lamar to put away his anger. She rounded on Anyar, pointing and declaring 'Your rites of Conch-tar are what fills people with anger! ...Ah, cruk it. Let's just drop it, alright? We'll save your tails for you, you won't even have to thank us or pay us, then we won't have to bother each other again.'

She returned to Iych-thae, who also wasn't helping. 'You should've asked me that before we landed.' she answered bitterly. 'Our fear and anger are natural reactions to being drugged, tortured, and traumatised, then being blamed and belittled for it. If you lot are looking for a Dark Side, then look in the mirror. If you want to save this world, then tell us how and where to find the bad guys.'

The Ithorian was honest with Lyla “The rites of Conch-tar was unknown to me. When I went into the cave I saw this world tainted and its natural beauty destroyed. Its power is unknown to me and I did not known that you would face anything different” Iych-thae responded to Lyla’s bitterness.

“As Anyar has told you others besides yourselves have arrived at Alluuvia, the Empire is here!” he continued “I have watched their scouts who survey this world. If they are still surveying then they have not yet reported their find. Perhaps you could delay or stop them?” he suggested.

'The Empire?!' Lyla exclaimed sharply as she heard the first new bit of intelligence in a while, and realised this was about to get a whole lot worse. 'They're supposed to be investigating the pirate attacks, but they've done stuff all on that front. They've still got their star destroyer, the Brazen, in orbit over Elrood.' she outlined, recalling the background intelligence from the briefing. 'But maybe they're using the pirates against Radell and are trying to claim Alluuvia for mining...'

Back to the Ithorian, she said 'We came here looking for pirates, by the name of Chalmer Trillili and the Scourge. What are they doing? Are they working with the Imperials?'

Lamar was not mollified, but he was a soldier, and knew they couldn't be like the Empire and just start killing. He shook with anger, but kept silent though he did acknowledge Lyla's comforting hand.

The vision was different from what actually happened. but he didn't know why or if that was significant. He'd have to get himself calm before he could analyze the vision and figure it out.

The Ithorian replied to Lyla’s question by adding his own confused musing “and who are you employed by?” he let the question hang as he tried to comprehend the other information provided by Lyla “I have travelled to Dega may times I have observed that it is a hotbed of criminal activity. If your search is for pirates then you were in the right place then. I have heard of the Scourge, I would assume they have a base on Dega as well as having a large fleet. Their leader Chalmer Trillili flies a YT-1300 freighter”

“Radell Mining Corporation destroyed Dega” the pilgrim of the Mother Jungle picked out another tidbit of Lyla’s diatribe “we must stop Radell from claiming Alluuvia and destroying it as well”

“On our starship we discovered this world by following an Imperial expedition. The Empire will surely ruin this world as quickly as Radell Corp” the Ithorian stated sadly.

“The Anguillans are peaceful, they respect their world and take good care of it.”

'Ourselves. We're freelancers.' Lyla declared quickly, deflecting Iych-thae's question about their employer. Not being sure if they could trust or depend on the Ithorians or Anguillans, she didn't want to give away their connection to either RMC or the Rebels, especially if they didn't think well of Radell, as later came clear.

'They had a base on Dega and they had a large fleet. Past tense.' she corrected Iych-thae. 'We're looking for what's left. Are they here?' she pushed for more information. She elected not to remark upon how the Alabak's Gold, a Wander-class jump freighter, only looked like a YT-1300 from certain angles and was in fact a tad smaller. It would only confuse things further, and so she just hoped that wouldn't happen to to look up it.

'Radell aren't here.' she snapped. The scout was no fan of mining corporations that devastated planets and ecologies and peoples, but the Ithorian seemed to worry about what a company that wasn't present might do than what the Empire that was here would do and so much worse. It was a question of priorities and getting them straight. 'The Empire and Imperial Mining Ltd are. Can you just give us the coordinates of these ships so we can go deal with that?' she ended testily. Getting the run-around from both the Anguillans and the Ithorians had done little for her patience.

The Ithorian seemed convinced by Lyla’s lies and shook his big head at the Twi’lek “fighting the Empire will not stop them” he bemoaned the way of the mercenaries he was facing “they must be convinced to leave the planet and not to return” he explained.

“Someone else has been here. They came before the Empire, it may have been your pirates but I doubt it. Anyar says that they explored the world. The Anguillans made not contact with them and the visitors left” Iych-thae then look quizzically at Lyla and the Rebels “why do you think the Scourge is here?”

“The Imperial have a mobile base here, attacking the base will only bring war and bloodshed to Alluuvia” the Ithorian warned “you must think beyond your own greed and profits” Iych-thae was clearly good natured and wanted to help the planet and its inhabitants.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 09:37, Fri 25 Feb 2022.

'Asking nicely has never stopped a tyrant or a conqueror yet.' Lyla snapped back, annoyed at the Ithorian's naïvety. Ideals were fine, right up until you ran into someone who didn't have any. At some point, you had to fight, when they gave you no other choice.

'Yeah, we followed the coordinates of the first group, the explorers. They were attacked by the Scourge right after they left here. We came to find out what happened, and see if the Scourge had a base here. Didn't expect to find Imperials though.' Now she said it out loud, she started to wonder if this had all been a terrible coincidence. The Scourge might've just gotten lucky in ambushing the Gray Griffins, before the Empire ever showed up. And now her team had followed the wrong lead and stumbled across a secret Imperial base. She didn't know if that made them the luckiest or the unluckiest unit of Rebels ever. But either way, this was a bust. They should leave while they still could, report this to Rebel Command and RMC for them to decide how to deal with it, and try to pick up Trillili's trail again. Leaving the Imperials behind to exploit this world and its people, no matter how difficult, rankled her. But what choice did they have? They weren't welcome, their aid wasn't wanted or asked for, and she didn't fancy taking on an Imperial mobile base again either, nor proving she was any more worthy. In any case, she needed to confer the team and away from Anguillans and Ithorians.

'Done. No greed or profits here, and no attacks. Now, if you have nothing more helpful to add, we'll be heading back to our ship to make plans. We should be out of your fins soon.' And she couldn't wait to turn her tails on this place.