Oglo followed Tera up to the medlab, but he plodded along slowly.  In the twists and turns of the fortress, he lost sight of Tera.  He could still feel the ebbs left by her passing.  She was the sort of person a person like him would have difficulty not finding.

When at last he caught up with Tera, he turned the corner just in time to hear what Lyla is saying over the comlink about shifting his garden.  "You'd do what to my what?  What then would we eat?  Dehydrated processed food?  No!  No!  That kind of food is poison for your soul!  Food is our connection to Life.  The further food is parted from the Life it once had, by eating it the further we are parted from Life.  If you ever wonder how the Empire can commit such atrocities, it is because they have lost their connection to Life!", rants Oglo in his quick-voice.

'Wouldn't a medbay have a greater connection to life, being dedicated to the preservation of it?' Lyla responded impishly at Oglo's indignant reaction. ''Sides, I only said shift it, make some space. Dump that hydroponic weed we're not supposed to know about.'

"The hydroponics can't just be shifted.  Their plumbing is interconnected with the ship's water recycling system... at both ends!  There's lots of plumbing there you can't see.  Just as that healing-tank has much plumbing that cannot be seen.  But it's fluid cannot be your waste water, and it cannot give its fluid back to the water recycling system to be cleaned and given into your drinking water!  Shifting my hydroponics would be like trying to shift an oasis.", rants back the Ithorian in a loud voice so that it will be picked up by Tera's Comlink.

'Relax, it was just an idea. We'll fit Tera's stuff in somewhere.' Lyla tried to placate the cantankerous Ithorian. 'I still want my hot showers.'

Tallon’s lieutenant took Lyla’s directions well steering the antiquated landspeeder through the ruins of the Tusken. Lyla spotted signs of Jodo’s recent passing. Without his jumppack out of order the bounty hunter had fled the fort on foot, his heavily armoured boots leaving a clear trail. The hunt did not remain that simple however as the boot tracks ended circular depression. The markings in the sand were familiar to Lyla, the Twi’lek had seen them before. They were the tracks left behind by a Ubrikkian speeder. Lyla had seen them outside Oasis after the attack. The Ubrikkian left a trail that headed back toward the canyon and the wastes. Shrike’s helmet bubbled as he watched and waited for Lyla to decide what to do now.

In the medbay Ares stripped off his clothes and immerse himself in the bacta tank. The fluid was warm and cloying. Reminiscent of a womb Ares was suspended in the liquid as Tera picked up the operating tools and began the process of laser stitching his wounds and grafting synthi-skin patches over the worst burns. Ares began to feel a lot better but he was far from fully recovered.

OOC For surgery the DC is 20 and as stated before takes Tera 10 minutes per check. Hit points recovered by surgery in a bacta tank are [Con mod x level]+ level per check. Tera’s first use of Treat Injury on Ares recovers him (2x2)+2 = 6 hit points. If Tera wants to continue she’ll need to make another check. Her skill is +7 and I’m giving a circumstance bonus of +1 for using the medbay. So she gets +8 to perform Surgery. Each success on Ares will heal 6 hit points, a failure will inflict 15 damage. You could try getting as many people as possible to aid another then Tera take ‘10’ so Tera will be less likely to fail the check as long as others are making the DC10 aid another. Currently available to offer aid another bonuses are Oglo, T3-M8 and Ares.

"Unless we can bring the ship here reasonably quickly and can start disconnecting this as soon as Ares is out....we'll lose it and so far it's proving invaluable. I'd suggest contacting your ship and asking it to come here first. We can sort out where it will go once it's in the cargo bay."

Tera looked satisfied with the result of Ares healing. She looked through the glass of the tank. "If I'm to properly care for the crew, I should probably need to start working up medical histories for you in the near future."



08:00, Today: Tera Inkari rolled 2 using 1d20. treat Injury. I HATE the die roller.
+7 +1 +5 =15 20 is within reach with a force point, so I'll try it
08:02, Today: Tera Inkari rolled 1 using 1d6. force point.
I need 2 aid anothers to pass.

With a take 10 do I not automatically pass?
10 (die) +1 (medlab) +7(skill) +5 (bacta tank) =23?

'Good idea. Find Mallox, wherever he got to, and get him to call Klyn and Zerrek to bring the Alabak's Gold here.' They'd need a faster get-away vehicle than a speeder or legging it through the desert, she decided.

She passed on further discussion on so she could concentrate on the tracking. She saw the imprint of the Ubrikkian — Zardra's rental. 'He's gone into the canyon. We saw Tusken Raiders when we came through.' she warned Shrike, giving him this chance to back out of risking that gauntlet. 'I'm for going in.'
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:16, Thu 03 Oct 2013.

Unplugging from the medical bay's computer the little droid becomes far more noticeable as it zips around the room making adjustments to most, if not all, of the medical assist systems in the med bay.  Neither willing, nor able to directly access the body with any of the tools the little droid does what he can to assist in the process of fixing up the alarmingly badly designed organic creatures that have gotten themselves into trouble.

OOC: 08:48, Today: T3-M8 rolled 20 using 1d20+6. Treat Injury (Aid another).

Oglo now set his mind to trying to figure out what is the value of all this equipment that Tera wanted to take.  It clearly had to do with something medical, but the technology was beyond Oglo's understanding.  It was all very technical.  This was not Oglo's idea of how to heal.  For Oglo, healing was just a matter of sitting down, controlling his breathing, shutting his eyes, and letting The Force do the rest.  But someone unaided by The Force should just take a long time to heal naturally.  All this technology to make a person heal faster is unnatural.

His eyes searched the various controls and readouts on the Bacta Tank.  Oglo couldn't understand any of it.  One needed formal medical training in a university to make sense of it all.  At last he found something that he understood... sort of.  Breathing Rate.  "His breathing... too fast.  Hrmmm....  He need to breath slower... hrmmm.... but take in more air.", he suggests unhelpfully.

Oglo Obwatt rolled 6 using 1d20+4. Treat Injury (Aid another).

Ares simply floated in the bacta tank, actually feeling worse off now than he did only a little while ago. I hope they know what they are doin...they look confused, or worried, bor both... he thought to himself. I sure hope they know what they are doing.

The idea of going into the canyon after Jodo was greeted with a shake of his head by Shrike. His short fingers played across the computer keyboard “the probability of catching him in there is less than ten percent and the probability of encountering sand people is twenty-two percent. Also without back up we are targets for both of them” he warned “we should return to the fort and assist with the evacuation.”.

The surgery did not go without incident. Tera was attempting to cauterise a wound when her action severed a blood vessel and Ares began to lose blood pressure. The bacta kept Ares safe from infection but did not stop the bleeding. Around the wound the gooey liquid turned pinkish. Trying to be helpful Oglo read aloud the bacta tank display, it let everyone know the danger Ares was in but it didn’t stop the bleeding. More useful by far was T3-M8 who adjusted the chemical balances in the bacta tank and brought the needed surgical tools to Tera. After a moment of panic Ares was brought back to a stable state.

OOC Okay as T3-M8 managed an Aid Another Tera can take ‘10’ and complete a 10 minute surgery to regain Ares another 6 hit points. Now you have T3-M8 and Oglo as assistants the probability that Tera will be able to take ‘10’ or succeed at the DC 20 the majority of the time so I’ll handwave any more rolls and presume Ares is healed to full hit points. If Oglo wants a turn in the bacta tank as well I’ll give him the same benefit if Ares stays assist Tera. All together though this will take a couple of hours to get them both to full hit points.

After watching Tera's so-called 'surgical skill' first hand, Oglo decides he is safer off just sitting down and taking a deep breather.  His 'deep breathers' have been known to wounds heal quickly and naturally over the course of 9 hours.  But it certainly beats the chance of bleeding out in a tank full of strange liquid while breathing through a tube.

Oglo Obwatt rolled 29 using 1d20+14. Force Trance.
While in a Force Trance, Oglo will heal 2 Hit Points for each hour he is allowed to rest.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:13, Tue 08 Oct 2013.

Tera worked hard at the bacta tank directing all of the tools to help Ares recover quickly. Without the aid of her assistants, it might have taken much much longer and she was happy for the droids assistance otherwise it might not have gone so well. It took her a long time to carefully tend Ares wounds before he was ready to be removed.

After everyone had been healed she wiped her forehead free of sweat. She'd been at it for hours, or so it felt like. She drank some water from a container before placing it on the table. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think we really need the tank on board the ship."

Ares felt much better after all the medical attention. He sat in the medbay with Tera, Oglo and M8 feeling a bit ashamed of himself. Here he was, a seasoned soldier of the Clone Wars and he had nearly been killed by some crazy broad with a force pike. He looked at the three of them with a hint of sincerity in his eyes.

"Thank you all for saving my life. I would probably be dead if it weren't for you guys. I would also like to apologize for my lack of effectiveness in the battle. I must be getting rusty in my old age...".

"More to it... hrrmm... than can be seen.  Bring it aboard... hrmm... as cargo can be done.  Hrmm... make it work?  Not in the space... hrmmm... available.  Rebel base... hrmmm... will need it.", mutters the Ithorian.  While he is in a trance, he is still aware of his surroundings.  Talking is about all he can do without breaking his trance.

If Lyla had had eyebrows, she would have raised one at Shrike's claims of percentages. 'How the hell do you calculate that?' she wondered, bemused. She was still all for going on after Jodo, but Shrike was right: he was getting too far away and there was little the two of them could do by themselves. It was also wise not to get too far away from the group. She dropped back down in her seat, surrendering to circumstances. 'Fine. But let's swing 'round the entrance of the canyon first, see what the situation is like there before we have to go out that way.' she suggested. She didn't fancy trying to leave and running into a Sand Person horde.

As they drove on, Lyla realised their two groups would be working together for a while. She asked wonderingly 'Hey, did any of you see any of us sneaking about your fort earlier?' She'd never live it down if they had.

In response to the Lyla’s bemusement the Gand gave a straight reply “by analysis of data gathered to calculate the probability of event occurring” he lifted the computer console to show Lyla the numbers on screen. In agreement with Lyla he took the speeder to the entrance to the canyon. They both looked down the narrow avenue and the rocky side walls. Anything could be lurking in there waiting for them, just the two of them would make easy targets for an ambush.

“You’d have to ask Jungen that, he’s the lookout” Shrike replied, then after a pause he clarified “he’s the Trandoshan. The state he was in when we left the Fort it might be he can’t remember anything although I’ve seen him take worse beatings so I don’t doubt he’ll be up and about by the time we return. I’ve even seen him regrow a foot he once lost on Neimoidia” Shrike then accelerated the old speeder back to the Fort.

At the Fort once Ares is out of the bacta tank everyone is busy organising the evacuation. Tol with her belongings packed in a bag, a limping Jungen, Kay Tallon and the remaining of Tallon’s recruits gathered together in the hangar. Tallon had them wait for Shrike’s return. When the speeder was back Shrike remained in the driver’s seat “let’s get to the Venimi Claw” he called to them as Lyla got out and swapped places with them all. The old speeder was full so Tallon remained in the hangar “your friends are in the medbay. We should be getting out here now my location is know. We can take Quist’s speeder he won’t be needing it” he told Lyla and waited for her to summon her companions.

OOC Oglo recovers 4 hit points then before Lyla’s return. He can continued to heal whilst travelling the speeder as long as he forgoes any pilot/perception check etc.

After gathering his belongings from his bunk, Ares went and had himself a bite to eat and then headed to the hangar where he promptly found a work bench and cleaned his repeater. He had a compulsion about maintaining his weapon as to make sure it wouldn't malfunction in combat. He sat in silence and cleaned his weapon whole the others continued to prepare to leave.

Oglo had no preparations to make before leaving.  He had everything with him that he was going to need, except for his blaster.  He figured Tera would remember at some point that she still has his.  He then has to break his mediation to move out.  But once seated and belted into a speeder, he goes back to his meditation.  It isn't like he knows how to pilot the things.  While traveling, he is largely useless aside for looking for trouble.

Once Ares is done using the bacta tank T3 begins the process of shutting it down into it's fully inactive state for transport.  Reducing the liquid to it's most concentrated state and eventually unplugging the rather large device.

Even reduced in mass and size down to it's most compact form and disconnected from the base's power supply the tank will be a touch on the clunky side.  To minimize that problem the little droid brings in a cargo sled for the larger organic individuals to use when loading up the tank for transit.

Lyla looked at the wall of numbers; they meant nothing to her. 'This has happened before? Often enough to draw statistics from?' She was really just stirring at this point. She stood in the speeder and used her scope to look down the canyon. Unfortunately, despite Shrike's probabilities, she didn't see Jodo Kast under siege by Sand People, or dead already. Pity.

As they turned, Lyla figured that Jungen hadn't seen her, else they'd all know about her stunt already. Well, that was a relief.

She took the moment to change the power pack in her blaster rifle. The last was getting a little on the low side, but she didn't have time to recharge. If they ran into another shoot-out, she wanted to be ready.

When they got back to the fort, she found Tallon's people all packing up and getting ready to pull. She wasn't quite sure of the plan here, but rather expected and hoped they'd be coming with them back to the Rebel base. It seemed they had their own ship, but she was wary of letting Tallon get too far away from them. Fortunately, it seemed he was coming with them anyway. 'Alright... Ah, which way?'

Once she had a direction, she hurried off to the medbay to find Tera and round up Oglo and Mallox. 'Okay, looks like they're all packed up and ready to go. Are you all ready?' She figured so, as they were only visitors here, but she realised Tera had been hard at work and looting the medlab.

Tera grabbed as much of the medical diagnostic gear as she could into her pack. She really wanted the bacta tank, but it would have to wait until the group took getting injured more seriously. "I'm working on it" she stopped looking suddenly at the others "Any of you have any spare room in your packs?" she asked nonchalantly.

OOC:Tera handed Oglo back his blaster after we dealt with Zardra and she took her own heavy blaster back from Ares.

Oglo considered Tera's request for spare room in his pack.  Considering it was Tera and not Lyla asking, he figured it was likely something necessary.  He didn't want to end up becoming a mule only to discover he was carrying a pack full of grenades.  But since it was Tera asking, she must need it for life-saving equipment.  So Oglo says, "If we all sit down... hrmmm... eat a good meal... hrmm... before we go.  Room in my pack.... hrmmm... I will have."  Oglo never thought it was good for anyone to travel on an empty stomach, especially not when he took so much food from the wrecked farm, which was then hardly touched during their trip through the canyon.  It wasn't safe then to stop and eat, nor was time on their side back then.  But now it is safe to eat... for the time being.

'What, for a bacta tank?' Lyla replied, mock-incredulously. But she swung off her backpack and pulled it open and peering inside. 'It's mostly tools and supplies.' She'd been able to leave the breath mask, filters and canisters behind on the Alabak, not seeing a need for them on Tatooine, making some space. 'What are you taking?'

'We won't have time to eat. Tallon's people are pulling out now, and Jodo will no doubt be coming back with reinforcements soon as he can.'

Grabbing what she could fit in her pack Tera had to leave a lot of the medical supplies and the bacta tank behind. Ares sticking with Tallon polished and oiled his gun. When everyone was together they boarded the speeder left by Quist. Tallon got it in, a look of sadness on his face. When they began their journey back to Mos Eisley he was maudlin and told them the rest of his story “there came a time when it was obvious that Palpatine would soon rule the galaxy. I knew that I would have to flee or die opposing him. I chose to fake my death and go into hiding until the time was right to move against him. I came here to this desolate planet far from the interests of the Empire. I fell in love and settled down to start a home. I was happy and the concerns of the Empire were as if another time. But then they came, stormtroopers crawling all over this desert world in search of droids and rebels. It was then that I realised that no place in this galaxy is truly beyond Palpatine’s evil reach. I sent out the call to my old crew, asking them to come and aid me in a last stand against the Empire. The only thing I never counted on was betrayal from a friend...” the old commander trailed off as he looked at the rocks and sand as they flew down Tusken Canyon.

OOC to be continued in 'Escape from Tatooine'.