Ruby Jades Diary: Thoughtless

So, we left Hoth.  After taking a few hours to warm up and thaw the ice out of my unmentionables, I had to deal with a couple of minor things.

First, that Republic soldier guy decided he wanted to join up with us.  I was okay with that.  I can always use more cannon fodder.  But then I had a strange conversation with him.  He was talking about how nice the ship was and how he wanted to explore it better and really get to know it better.  I figured that that was his way of trying to flirt with me, so I told him that he probably should find a better use of his time.  Sure, he wasn’t bad looking, but I wasn’t really looking for that sort of thing right now and if I was I’d want someone who didn’t hide his flirting behind strange compliments to the ship.  Of course, he might have actually been talking about the ship, at which point it was an even better idea for him to find a better use of his time.

The other thing was that freaky lizard guy had gone through his ritual and molted his skin, and then he had to … eat it?  And it would take forever to digest and cause him all sorts of indigestion and the like.  Yeah, uh, sure.  You do that.  No problem.

Freaky lizard guy …

Anyway, that freaky lizard guy we ran into on Tatooine said that there was some other great hunt on Alderaan, and my freaky lizard guy really, really wanted to go.  So we did.  And it was a trap. Some Wookiee hunter liked killing freaky lizard guys when they were weak from their ritual, like a true warrior.  But then he said he wanted to do it because the freaky lizard guys liked to kill and skin his kind, and at that point I pretty much lost all interest in the matter.  I went through the motions of being conciliatory figuring that this was going to end in violence anyway … and the Wookiee accepted and agreed to just leave!  The idea ticked off freaky lizard guy, but I couldn’t really back out at that point and anyway, the freaky lizard guys were turning them into like rugs or something.  So I didn’t really care about not getting to kill him.

And then the other freaky lizard guy talked about how great his trap was and how smart he was for setting it up.  Hey, look buddy, the only reason the trap worked at all was because we’re both tougher and smarter than you, and what you did looks an awful lot like pleading for your life and selling us out.  If it wouldn’t have ticked off my freaky lizard guy, I’d’ve killed you instead.  So keep your mouth shut, ‘kay?

Oh, and then back on the ship we finally figured out who our traitor was.  See, someone had been playing with the communications and selling us out and the like, and while I was out killing things on Hoth Nadia and her father figured it out.  Turns out it was her aide, who always acted like a complete coward.  You’d’ve thought they would’ve figured it out before here.  And especially before they sent him home to their King and Queen that the Sith wanted.  Oh, and you think they would’ve figured out that he wasn’t just a traitor, but was an actual Sith.  Sigh.

Anyway, I went there to confront him and his Sith — partner?  Handler?  Guy? — and tried to convince the King and Queen to not side with them.  And the Queen said that they didn’t see any difference between myself and them because I threatened the families of people.  And my first reaction to that was “Wait, when did I do that?”.  I mean, it’s not like it’s something I’d never do, but I couldn’t remember doing anything like that … at least, not where she could have heard about it.  But freaky lizard guy said that it was probably that time on Balmorra with the President and the handover and the like and I said “Oh, yeah.  Good times!”.

Which obviously was not going to convince her that I wasn’t as bad as the Sith.  Which sucks, because I’ve been trying to hide that all this time.

Anyway, the royals sicced their guards on me, and the Sith guy and them tried to kill me.  Obviously, they didn’t succeed.  And then the aide revealed that he was some kind of Child of the Emperor and that he and the other ones have been hanging around in the Republic just waiting to start trouble.  Now, I start enough trouble on my own, and the one thing I can’t stand is people making trouble for me.  So I killed him, too.

(What is with these Sith arrogantly thinking they can beat me?)

Anyway, when I got back to the ship there was a message from Uncle Koerran giving me an infodump on these guys and implying that he had had to deal with them himself.  Guess that’s why he was interested in me.  And good thing, too, because another message said that war had broken out and these guys were all going to be active and doing terrible things.  So the Council and the Rift Alliance all said that we needed more troops to fight them off.  Fine.  And they said that I should talk to the newly restored Neotikons about it, which … okay, they’re kind ancient, but maybe they’ll have something to say.  And they said that I should go and free some race called the Esh-kha from a planet prison that a horrible, genocidal race built to put them in because that race was too genocidal and homicidal even for them.

And if the fact that pretty much all of the authority figures around think that this is a really, really good idea wasn’t bad enough, you know what’s even worse?  I agreed to do it.  I’m not sure who’s the stupider or crazier of everyone involved, but I really can’t say that it’s not me.

Tags: TOR Diary