I should have one more entry for his military training and then Mark is back to his wife and Jedi work. I will probably end the Diary Challenge with the birth of his first child. I am then planning on doing a sequel to Second to None for the National Novel Writing Month challenge which takes place in November. Therefore I am trying to wrap everything up in this challenge by the end of this month.

I want to thank everybody who has read this story and a special thanks to the people who have taken the time to review. I truly appreciate it.

~JL~

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Entry 96: Rappelling

This week is Rappel training and today our instructor was an attractive female soldier. Deke was so distracted by this young lady that I don't think he's heard a word of what she's said…which is dangerous because she was discussing the different ways to prevent a fatal mistake.

"When using a non-locking carabiner you should take the rope from the belay and pull it into the carabiner from the back and the rope should exit from the bent gate to the front," the instructor said as she demonstrated the technique. "If you do this backwards you have a chance that the rope will cross back across the gate and unclip the carabiner from the rope and that would be a bad thing because that means you will fall to your death."

"I'm falling for her already," Deke whispered to me.

I rolled my eyes. He's talked through most of the safety brief. I'd wish he'd just shut up already.

"You can avoid this problem by using a locking carabiner or two carabiners with the gates facing the opposite directions," she held up the two carabiners to demonstrate the proper way to position them.

"I'm in love," Deke murmured which was answered by my elbow in his side. "Oww."

"I want to hear this," I groused. "I'd rather not die today."

"Before we go on to rappelling with the harness and carabiner we will first learn the body rappel," the instructor said. "Follow me."

"I'll follow her anywhere," Deke muttered.

Stang, he is annoying sometimes. Does he actually think she's going to say, "Wow, I really like how you mumbled distracting sexist comments throughout my class, take me big boy!"?

I gave a mental snort. Knowing Deke he probably did think that would happen.

We trailed the instructor up a small hill that had a shear drop off on one side. A rope was tied to a tree at the top of the knoll and hung over the cliff. The instructor walked up to the rope and straddled it with one foot on each side. "This type of rappel is used when you only have a rope. In this case you use your body as the braking system." The instructor bent down behind her and brought the rope up between her legs and wrapped it around her buttock, up and around her hip, chest and shoulder and finally down her back where she grasped it in her right hand. "As you can see the friction of the rope around my body will slow my descent."

"Gods, I would love to be that rope," Deke chuckled softly and then raised his hand.

"Yes," the instructor said.

"So what you are saying is we are using the chafing of the rope across our crotch to decelerate our decent?"

The instructor frowned. I am sure she heard that question only about a billion times before. "That is correct."

"So in this case, does size matter? Because I don't want to get stuck halfway down."

I made a choking sound. Fierfek! Is he trying to get kicked out?

The instructor's eyes narrowed and I could see a tightening in her jaw. Oh boy, I've seen that look on my wife's face before and it usually results in me sleeping on the couch. I wouldn't be surprised if she tossed Deke over the cliff without a rope.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," she said with an icy tone. "Why don't you go first."

Deke gave her a winning smile and went over to the instructor. He wrapped the rope around his body and began his descent down the small cliff. When he made it to the bottom he untangled himself and gave a smug grin.

Disappointment showed on the instructor's face; I am fairly certain she hoped he would fall to his death. She turned to me, "His jump buddy is next."

I moved forward and wrapped the rope around me. I hesitated at the edge of the cliff. It wasn't high…only about six meters, but I don't relish the thought of a rope sliding across my groin. I took a deep breath and then slowly moved over the edge. Things started out well, but I must have leaned back a little too far and I ended up flipping backwards. The rope came out from between my legs and ended wrapping around my arm and neck. If my arm didn't get caught up in the rope I would have had to do some quick Jedi levitation to save my neck. As I dangled on the cliff face dying in embarrassment, I heard Deke laughing.

"Nice one Mark," he chuckled. "I guess size does matter." I am near the bottom of the cliff so he props my feet on his shoulders so I could untangle myself.

"Tantiss!" the instructor called down. "You are a no-go at this station. Come back up and do it again."

Gee, I did it wrong? You mean I'm not supposed to hang myself? I thought sarcastically, but wisely kept my thoughts to myself as I walked back up the cliff.

Luckily I was able to do it correctly on the second attempt.


Entry 97: Mountaineering

Our mountaineering training was fun. We started out easy by top roping. This is where a rope is attached to the top of the mountain or cliff and belayer on the ground. It was the safest way to climb. We then progressed to Lead Climbing where we set up our own safety line as we work our way up the cliff. We passed this phase of training, but we weren't the best. The instructors kept gigging us for improper wear of safety equipment. I would forget to snug up my harness and Deke would forget to lock his carabineer or some other safety violation.


ENTRY 98: Jump School Barracks

Today I received an encrypted message on my handheld imagecaster. Soldiers are allowed to have holograph imagecasters, but most don't because they are expensive and sending a holo was just as costly. The fact that I had a holo communication meant it was probably from Luke. Hopefully nothing is wrong with Kira and the baby. I waited until I had some downtime and found a private place to view the message.

After a second or two the image of Luke Skywalker in full Jedi robes appeared. I was immediately relieved to see him smile.

"Hi Mark. I'm back from Nam Chorios. I'll brief you on the situation when you return. I just wanted to let you know I'll be on Null this week with Generals Madine and Dodonna. We are discussing the role of the Jedi with the military and they want me to see some of the training. I didn't want my presence to surprise you. I don't plan on visiting since you don't want people to know you are a Jedi." He looked off to his right to something out of the holocamera range. "Would you like to talk to him?"

"Of course," came the sound of a familiar voice. Kira and Mara came into the frame. Mara gave me a wave. "I hope you are keeping out of trouble."

Kira gazed at the holocam and I could see tears forming in her eyes. "I love you Mark. Be safe and come home soon." She then turned back to Luke.

"Take care, Mark," Luke said. "Transmission out," with that the image dissolved.

I had to smile. It was good to see Kira. I couldn't wait to go back and be in her arms.


ENTRY 99: Jungle training

We were in Jungle operations training when I felt the familiar buzz in my head. It was feedback between me and Luke. I quickly started shielding and the annoying hum went away. Deke and I were currently making an improvised flotation device for our gear. We would take our packs and wrap them in our rain ponchos and lash everything together with rope. I could hear General Madine talking in the distance, but I didn't look up.

"It looks like a damn VIP tour," Deke said before getting back to the task at hand.

Luckily Luke and the officers wandered off in the opposite direction and I didn't see them after that.

It wasn't until we were given time for lunch that I heard anything about our visitors. Deke sat down next to me and opened his ration pouch and started chowing down. He devoured an entire dehydrated meat patty without first hydrating it. I shuddered. "Deke, I heard if you eat dehydrated food and then you drink water it will swell up in your intestine and kill you."

Deke scoffed. "That's just an urban legend." He took a drink from his canteen. "I heard some rumors about our VIP visitors today."

My brow furrowed. "Like what?"

Deke leaned in and whispered to me. "Like Luke Skywalker was with General Madine and Dodonna being escorted around by the school commandant."

"So," I said cautiously.

"So there is talk there is a Jedi in our class."

"So," I repeated.

"So, we don't want spooks around here." He turned and glared at our major competition, Darkin and Tabaz, who were sitting under a tree across the clearing from us. "I bet those two are Jedi. Those guys don't have enough muscle to beat us so often." He looked back at me. "We are the biggest guys here and those two runts are beating us. They have to be using some Jedi trick."

I shook my head. "Deke, I just think Darkin and Tabaz want it more than we do. They are working hard all the time. You, on the other hand, are screwing around half the time."

He just snorted and glared at Darkin. "I hate Jedi."

I frowned. "Why?

He gave me an incredulous look. "Because they are baby snatching, soul sucking witches."

I couldn't help but laugh. "What? Who told you that?"

"My grandmother and she should know. The Jedi took her brother from her family. They were given no choice. He had Force potential so he was snatched from his mother's arms and brought to the Jedi temple." He paused for a moment to rein in his emotions. "He died in the purge. He was the only son. He was supposed to take over the family business, but the Jedi didn't care."

I looked at him in shock. I knew from the Ossus books that the Jedi trained younglings from birth, but I never knew that they would take a child over the objection of the parents. "I'm sorry to hear that," I said honestly. I couldn't imagine somebody taking my soon-to-be born child for any reason. "Luke Skywalker is hero of the rebellion. He's not kidnapping children."

"Maybe not now, but I'm sure that is in the works. You can't trust Jedi, they are soul vampires."

I scoffed. "The Jedi are not vampires."

"Yes, they are," Deke said adamantly. "My grandmother told me they can bring their face to yours and use the Force to suck your soul right out of your mouth and into theirs."

"So the Jedi give open mouth soul sucking kisses," I laughed. Mara and Luke were going to get a kick out of this story when I get back.

"Don't laugh. They have powers you can't understand. And nobody should have that much power."

I couldn't argue that point. "I guess," I said noncommittally as I continued eating. As I forced down the bland tasting meat patty, I thought about what Deke said. The power of the Force was considerable. The Jedi helped balance out the evil of the Sith, but I couldn't help but wonder if the galaxy would be better off with no Force-users at all.