Ranger Archive

Wyndinn and I had been making our excursions into the Yavin bush for some time. For Wyndinn I know the it to be the challenge of survival, for myself I dare say it was much more of an escape. Working the daily grind in and around the city left me wanting an escape. Who better, I thought, than Wyndinn to show me the wilderness of this ancient green planet.

This most recent excursion, though, was not solely a pleasurable camping trip. The Antarians had been recieving information concerning an Imperial Lambda shuttle which had crashed somewhere in the southern portion of Yavin's major landmass. Apparently the shuttle was expected to have been carrying a datadisk with essential information concerning the rebirth of the Jedi order.

The long dormant Antarian Ranger League had hoped this information might aid them in contacting more of the new Jedi who seemed to be popping up all over the galaxy. In the least, they figured recovering the information might annoy the Empire which was always a plus.

Contracted by the Antarians to find the shuttle Wyndinn and I set out into the Yavin wilderness with great expectations.

The first few hours had been quite. Wyndinn managed to help me hide as we passed virtually un-noticed through the local wildlife. I was surprised at how accurate Wyndinn's perception of his surroundings was. A broken branch, a soft patch of earth, even what he considered to be an absence of certain creatures pushed us forward to what Wyndinn believed was the crash site.

There was little doubt that many considered Rangers to be an expert when finding animals, Wyndinn's ability to track humanoids, however, was something truly amazing.

I'd often heard of, and even seen, Bounty Hunter tracking droids while they surveyed a crowd. Wyndinn in the wilderness, however, was something completely different. Though he was unsure who exactly was in front of him, he was certain of a number of things.

"We have one of two things," he finally stated "either there is a group of Imperials here searching for the shuttle, or survivors of the crash have sent out a scouting team. There are five that have been through this area. They're heading southward. Three standard troopers, one supertrooper, and someone not dressed to be out here Probably a colonel, he's wearing dress shoes and not carrying too much."

He paused.

What I would have dismissed as simply a sound of the wild he knew was something more.

"This isn't a rescue team, their cleaning up" his eyes widenend "you ready for a fight?"

It had been sometime since my last melee with Imperial troopers. Their uniformed officers were never prepared for a fight, the troopers would be more of a challenge.

"We're outnumbered, any ideas?" I asked.

"Right now they're attacking the shuttle, it seems to be a bit of a standoff, and that means we may have more allies than you think. In the meantime I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Contact your Rebel friends and see if they have any extra information. I'll be right back."

Like a flash he was gone. I knew he wasn't too far away, but he'd hidden himself from my view at least. Unable to connect to the Holonet to contact Wedge, I turned to my personal radar. Only after turning to the highest setting could I see what Wyndinn had already discerned. There was a large red mark due south which could only be a group of people. Beyond that the radar was blank.

Perhaps, I thought, Wyndinn recognized the lack of creatures as a sign of the battle in the distance. I'd long thought his senses had been hightened by his time alone in the wilderness, but he simply shrugged whenever I asked.

Suddenly a red marker appeared near my position as Wyndinn returned. I explained the lack of contact with the Alliance and he filled me in on his recon trip.

"There are rebel insignias on the few people fighting from inside the shuttle. The Supertrooper is a commando, the three troopers just seem to be foot soldiers. The Officer is already dead, but it appears many of the rebels are injured as well. There's also two more parties of Imperials closing in on the Shuttle."

"What's the plan?" I asked, sure Wyndinn was already formulating a plan.

"Well, I laid a few traps outside of the Rebel position. To the East and to the South their are plenty of things to slow those reinforcements down. With any luck the droid I set up to the South will simulate incoming fire, those troopers will find cover until they figure its a ploy. I couldn't do anything to really hurt hte troups to the east, the best I could do was setup a few traps which would slow down their advance. Nothing life threatening, just annoying. That leaves this group here. If we can get past the Troopers ahead of us we'll be able to save the Rebels. Right now that's our number one priority."

"Agreed" I said, "if we get a little closer I can send a message to those Rebels and alert them that we're coming."

"When we get there I'll cover them with camoflage and we'll keep the troopers occupied while they make their retreat to the west. It's the best chance they've got."

Approaching the shuttle from the proposed retreat avenue was simple. Wyndinn was right, the area was completely baren of wildlife as well as troopers. (Later he'd share that by applying a musk to some trees north of the shuttle he not only pulled the wildlife away from the shuttle, but left an ugly surprise for the troopers when they eventually left.)

As we made our way into the crash zone the Rebels were clearly excited to see us. Apparently, the stolen shuttle had been shot down by the Empire, there was no real information other than that which the Rebels themselves carried. They were hardly troopers, that was for sure.

After a few moments Wyndinn had succesfully disguised our new friends to the point where they themselves could hardly believe their eyes. They slowly moved off into the distance as Wyndinn and I set up our position. While I laid down cover, Wyndinn lobbed a few noismaker traps into the field. The troopers, confused by the animal noises and the harsh cries of automated traps became confused long enough for me to lay out a pair of them.

Wyndinn then disappeared into the wilderness re-emerging behind the Imperial position. Suddenly beset on both sides the troopers lost heir composure and fled into the wilderness ... northward.

With two more groups of troopers sure to be closing on our position Wyndinn advised retreat. Even I, at this point, could tell we were being closed in on. Placing a timer on a Thermal Detonator we left the site to meet back up with the rebel troopers. Wyndinn, claiming to have brought along the mythological High Tech Field Base promised to show me its usefullness once we found our new compatriots.