The following entries were written after my departure from Despayre. I didn't have the time to journal my adventures while on this undercover mission.

Entry 21

My briefing with Jokol took about thirty minutes. During that time I went to great pains to flaunt my Force abilities, from moving a flimsiplast map without touching it, to making the man's datapad fly into my hand.I didn't want him to doubt for a nanosecond that I was anything but a Sith Inquisitor. I then walked out into the prison population alone, the hood of my cloak pulled down to hide my features…not that many prisoners would actually look an Inquisitor in the eye. Sergeant Jokol had offered to send Stormtroopers with me, but I declined saying a member of the Inquisitorius had no need for added security. Once I was in the penal colony I realized most prisoners would trip over their own feet trying to get away from me. People ducked into their make shift shelters or they quickly moved in the opposite direction upon seeing me. I don't know if any of these convicts ever met an Inquisitor in person, but they were terrified. I could feel their cold fear reeking through the Force. The few men I stopped or ordered out of their decrepit huts to question were of no help. It's as if incarceration gives prisoners a complete case of amnesia. I am sure some ration bars or highly illegal deathsticks would have sharpened their memory, but I didn't think a Sith would go that route. A true Inquisitor would torture the information out of the inmates…and since I didn't want to go down that path I had to think of something else. As darkness fell the occupants of the shantytown barricaded themselves in their rickety homes made of old cargo containers or hand built huts. Soon the muddy footways that ran through the makeshift town were nearly empty. I considered going back to the guard post to sleep, but I decided I wanted to avoid unwelcome questions about my presence on this prison planet. Out of sight, out of mind is the best approach when doing undercover work.

It was time to switch disguises. I walked into the surrounding woods where I discovered a tree hollow large enough to hide my lightsaber and Sith uniform. As I took off my cloak I heard movement through the underbrush. I slowly put my cloak aside with one hand while pulling the vibroblade out of the satchel with the other. I could use my lightsaber or blaster but they would attract too much attention. I didn't want the guards venturing out of their bunker to investigate. I reached out through the Force and didn't sense any sentient being lurking in the darkness. Instead I detected an animal out in the brush…a very hungry animal who probably wanted to make me his dinner. I was staring into the thick scrub brush when the creature burst out of the foliage snarling, with long fangs exposed. It looked like a huge rat, which I assumed was a virevole—one of those sabertooth rats Pol Haus warned me about. He said they were huge and he wasn't exaggerating. It was as big as a small Nek and looked just as dangerous. I looked down at my vibroblade and realized this was going to be a bloody mess if I killed it with a blade. I was searching for another way to stop the rampaging creature when I spied a large branch lying on the ground. As the creature neared I grabbed the piece of wood with the Force and with a wave of my hand flung it at the Virevole. The branch hit the large rodent dead center. I could hear the sound of bones breaking along with the creature's high-pitched squeal of pain. I slowly walked up to the giant rat as it lay on its side gasping for breath. Its tongue lolled out of its mouth as blood dripped from its mouth and nose. The creature lifted his eyes to me for a second before his head dropped to the ground with a soft thud. A gurgling death rattle shook its body before it stilled, its eyes becoming lifeless.

I don't like killing things, but sometimes I have no choice. I slowly turned and went back to my satchel where I recovered the prison outfit from the false bottom. I pulled on the orange prison jump suit, rubbed dirt on my clothing and face and mussed up my hair in an effort to look like the other desperate inmates. I then clipped on a metal wristband that identified me by an inmate number. I took a small holdout blaster and hid it in one boot and the vibroblade in the other. I put a couple ration bars in my pockets and then packed up the Inquisitor uniform and lightsaber into the Satchel and hid it deep in the hollow of the tree. I then returned to the penal colony to find a place to rest since it was obvious that the woods wasn't a safe place to sleep. Unfortunately, shantytowns don't have hotels and I was in a quandary as to where to bunk down for the night.

As I moved down the sewage-strewn roads wandering around the encampment like a tourist, I caught the attention of a young human male. After staring at me for a long moment he decided to come up to talk to me.

"You new?"

"Yeah." I nodded my head while looking at the emaciated youth. He was small in stature with bony arms hanging out of his ragged short sleeve prison uniform. His short brown hair was matted down against his scalp and he gave off a pungent body odor (like 90% of the inmates. I guess installing showers was not a high priority for the Imperials). He tried to give me a disarming smile but it came off like a grinning skull; this boy was near starvation. I managed to smile back. "I just got in today."

He looked me up and down. "I can tell. Your prison clothes aren't tore or covered with blood." He grabbed me by the arm and pulled in down the dirt path. "If you sleep in the open you are inviting somebody to roll you for your boots and clothing. Come on, I have a little shelter I share with my friends."

I pulled my arm away from him suspiciously. "Why would you help me?"

He looked me over again. "You aren't starving. You can probably fight. My friends are young like me and we haven't eaten much in months. We don't have the energy to fight. We find fresh prisoners to help protect us at night. Otherwise we fall victim to others."

"What's in it for me?"

He gave a slight shrug. "Shelter and knowledge…things you will need to know to survive. Like who runs what in this prison, what to eat and not eat, what plants or animals that'll kill you."

"Sounds fair." I reached out with the Force and didn't sense any deception on his part. "Why do you need my protection anyway? You don't look like you have anything anyone would want?" Which was true; his clothing was dirty and torn and he obviously didn't have food to be stolen. "Have you gotten on the wrong side of a prison gang?"

"No, nothing like that. There are murders around here like to keep in practice." The boy averted his eyes looking embarrassed. "Also, there aren't many women here...sometimes the inmates think younglings like me make a good substitute."

I cringed at the thought of young teens being the target of pedophiles. "Thanks for helping me out." I motioned for him to lead on.

He brought me to a small wooden shelter with a thatch roof made of branches and dried palm fronds. Inside were two scrawny teenagers with closely sheared hair and large sunken eyes. "Hey guys," my guide said as he pointed to me. "This is…?"

"Jax…and you are?" I looked to the young man that so far remained nameless.

"Sorry," the boy said. "I'm Norro, this is Kyler and Byson."

The two boys raised their hand when their name was mentioned. They looked older than Norro and in better health. Kyler had reddish brown hair and a sharp nose and intense green eyes. Byson had blond hair and a pug nose under steel gray eyes. The two boys looked at me suspiciously. "Can you trust him?"

Norro smiled an eerie skeletal grin. "You know me…I'm an excellent judge of character."

I looked over to the boy and realized I sensed some Force potential in him. Maybe not enough for Jedi training, but it obviously helps him determine which people could be trusted and which he should avoid. The two boys gave their friend a slight nod and then looked at me. "Good to meet you Jax," the blond boy said. "Tomorrow we'll show you around. Sorry that we can't offer you anything to eat. The guards hand out ration bars daily, but unless you manage to cram it in your mouth in the nanosecond after you get it, it's usually is taken from you. We caught a rat yesterday, but it's long gone."

I sat down in their hovel they called home and then rummaged through my pockets pulling out the two ration bars I brought along. Their eyes went wide, but they didn't make a move, probably fearful that I would hurt them if they did. "I only have two, but if you three want to share you can have mine."

I could see saliva drip down from the mouth of one of the boys as he put a shaky hand out to me. I tossed the two bars to them and they grabbed them up greedily, but then stopped and opened them up carefully breaking the bars in half and handing a share to each other and then one to me. I waved off my portion. "You guys split up my share. You look like you need it more than I do."

Norro made a snuffling noise and I realized he was crying. "Thank you," he mumbled as he crammed the bar in his mouth.

I stood as the teens ate. "I'll be right back. I have to take a leak." They gave me a cursory nod as I left them eating in the hut.

Ration bars were a start, but I had a better idea.