Dalt's skiing!

After turning over the evil tree to the Jedi council, the crew was given a break. However, Master Roon (the Jedi who'd been assigned to represent Ree to the movie people) stopped by to let them know the movie folks wanted to have a meeting with everyone.

Much fun was had, up until the movie guys asked about the group's enemies and Drath began explaining about how Dalt had the hots for the Emperor. Really. That was an image no one needed.

I mean...really.

So the crew headed off, but on the way out of the building, a little boy stole Ree's lightsaber and ran off. They followed the kid into the undercity, where they found the child along with a whole colony of other children. He gave her lightsaber back, and explained that they needed Ree to save them from the "ogres."

Ogres are some kind of mutant humanoid species that's found on most all industrialized planets. No one knows where they come from, but there they are. They'll eat just about anything...including little kids.

After Oola fixed their fritzing holovid, the children led the crew to the place where they often ran into ogres. Oola, Z, and Lydia escorted the kids back to safety while Ree, Drath, Zan, Onna, and Kedrihm'Val tracked the monsters to the dump, where they laired.

Fight! The ogres tried to drive them off at first, by throwing things, but of course that didn't faze the Jedi too much. So the ogres ran at them--there were eight of them--and combat ensued. But when the crew got the upper hand, the ogres surrendered, kneeling to the Jedi who were wielding red lightsabers (Zan and Drath).

Ooookay. Well...knock them out and call in a transport to take them, um, someplace appropriate. Ree called the Jedi, leaving a message for Master Kyp, and he called back about thirty seconds later--just sat there for a second and stared at her, then said, "Okay. Bye." Ree asked him what the heck he was doing, and he said, "I just wanted you to know how it feels." Then he hung up.

Sure. Whatever.

While Kyp was being weird and the group waited for the transports, they poked around a bit more. It just seemed a bit odd, is all, so they looked around. Kedrihm'Val noticed something that seemed out of place. Oola got called over, and she noticed that the thing was an operation terminal for a hidden lift that was buried under the trash. Republic peoples took the ogres away while the group went down to explore this odd thing.

Inside, Kedrihm noticed something dart quickly out of sight. They went down the hallway cautiously, and paused at the intersection when he heard heavy raspy breathing from around the corner. You know...like a respirator mask.

Yeah. Kind of like that.

When they took a peek, DARTH VADER popped out from around the corner! Eyah, run away, run...wait. Um, Zan's lightsaber just went right through him... Ohhhh, it was an illusion! Whew. That looked to be nasty for a second, there. Oola disabled the hologram projectors in the walls, and then they paused for a moment to put two and two together. Ogres...red lightsabers...Vader hologram...hmmm. Looks like they've stumbled into an old Imperial installation. Definitely should be investigated further.

But before they could go any further, they got attacked by a Noghri (alien species who're really good bodyguards and assassins, honor-bound to defend Darth Vader because he "saved" their planet--they thought).

Ree put in another call to the Jedi. Kyp answered. He was very excited. Said that Luke kept getting all the good calls. "Oh...no way!" he crowed. "Come on, lay it on me. What is it this time? Clones? Evil trees? Garbage monsters?"

"I think we found Darth Vader's hidden lab under the dump," answered Ree.

Poor Kyp. "Oh, man. I'm gonna have to tell Luke... You know how he gets when people mention that name around him? He gets all creepy." Luke walked up behind him while Kyp moped a bit more, and then, getting the gist of the issue, told Ree they'd be there shortly and dragged Kyp off.

So the group poked around a little, but couldn't really figure out what the heck things were. Kyp and Luke arrived (poor Kyp looked quite frazzled, and Luke was indeed being a bit intense) and took over. After a bit, Kyp shooed the group out.

It's so nice to have some vacation.

After another couple of days in which nothing untoward happened, the Republic asked them to escort some Jedi healers to a temple on a planet called Rhinnal. Rhinnal is a lovely little alpine world, just coming out of an ice age, and there's an old Jedi healing temple there that survived because the planet was backwater and really rather liked Jedi so felt no compulsion to tear the thing down.

Zan and Onna taught people how to ski. Drath was surly and stayed in the lodge. While everyone was out playing in snow, Ree spotted--of all people--Dalt, talking to some folks who looked like investors or something.

Dalt spotted Ree spotting him, and took off. Cue downhill chase on skiis!

It was tight there, for a bit. Ree and Dalt were battling with lightsabers, flipping back and forth. Hearing Ree shout "Get back here, you bastard!", Zan came charging across the slope, but didn't get there before Drath, who'd commandeered a snowmobile and ran Dalt down with it.

Ree told him to surrender, which he wasn't averse to, considering he was pinned beneath a snowmobile, beaten to within an inch of his life, and had a lightsaber at his throat. But Kedrihm'Val heard a beeping and, recognizing it as the sound of one of Dalt's booby-trapped lightsabers, ripped the thing out of the snow telekinetically and tossed it into the air, where it exploded harmlessly.

"Awww," said Dalt. "I guess I surrender for real."

So they sedated him and left him at the Jedi temple briefly while they ransacked his ship and interrogated the people he'd been talking to. They were perfectly legitemate. Apparently Dalt had been negotiating for medical supplies...which, coincidentally (or, you know, not), could be used in cloning procedures.

Oola began digging information out of Dalt's ship. While she was busy with that, one of the security guards who'd been watching Dalt came out to ask how long they'd be at this, because the people at the temple would really be more comfortable with not having a dark Jedi slumbering in their med bay.

SAR was the only one who noticed the man making a sly-hand move for the computer panel. Before anyone could stop him, he revved up his bonesaws and charged at the guy, running him through.

Damn Dalt and his mind-hopping.