AN
Wraith's Personal Journal 8\14
"Our mission to Malastare wound up being an experience in expending much effort for little to no reward. Count Dooku ordered Asajj Ventress and myself to attempt to locate suitable genetic material for Confederate scientists to clone a Zillo Beast; an ancient predator of the (admittedly lopsided) Dug people. It's a massive thing whose scales are capable of withstanding sustained blasterfire as well as direct impact with a lightsaber. I think the battlefield implications of applying such a science can speak for themselves, as well as our reason for wanting one."
"Upon arrival, our surviving droid contingent (that had managed to escape the previous battle for the planet) informed us of a Dug settlement close by. Upon further inspection, it was revealed to be a previously-undiscovered settlement of primitives. They had no participation in the species' larger evolution. They lived in tents, carried spears… spears made using the teeth of long-dead Zillo Beasts."
"Thanks to Asajj's use of the Force, we managed to peacefully subdue the Dugs and moved them out of our way. We collected their spears and set up mining equipment to search for Zillo Beast remains in the area. History teaches that a Dug civilization could live quite happily off of dead Zillo, so there was a chance one of their kills might be buried in the area. Asajj put me on perimeter recon to make sure none of our enemies accidentally stumbled across our operation."
"It was maybe a day or two later that a gunship flew into our airspace."
"We shot it down and, in the protracted engagement that followed, killed the accompanying Clones and subdued the Jedi General in charge: Plo Koon. He had two Padawans with him who knocked themselves out sabotaging our mining equipment. As much as killing the Jedi would have been a boon, our operation took precedence. We handed off the unconscious Koon to a planetside sympathizer, Podracer Sector Champion Drez Unlin. It would serve as a distraction for the Jedi while we finished our efforts. Ventress and I gathered the spearheads we could salvage but my confidence in them as suitable genetic material was lacking. I suggested we search the sinkhole where the recent Zillo Beast awoke from under cover of darkness. Asajj approved and we investigated with a variety of bio-detection scanners."
"Unfortunately, there was nothing to find. The fuel mixture the Dugs had dumped down there had wiped clean any tissue residue or similar biological subsidies. All that was left was a massive imprint in the rock where the Zillo had slumbered. The scientists will have to glean what they can from the spearheads. But I don't hold out too much hope."
"We returned to Count Dooku feeling more than a little defeated. Our results were merely acceptable and not satisfactory. Asajj assured me that we did what we could, that this was a fool's errand with no hope of real success. The only thing to guarantee success would've been to hijack the Zillo Beast corpse currently on Coruscant. Truly this was an attempt and not much more."
"On the plus side, I was under the command of Ventress again. Her direct and no-nonsense approach to leadership is welcome, second only to Count Dooku. I don't know everything about her, something about her having a similar history as me (she's very guarded about her past), but we seem to have a workable chemistry when on assignment. Together, the likes of us will change the galaxy for the better… provided we do better than we did on Malastare."
…
"A learning experience. That's what it was. Every mission has its variables; some obtainable, some not. This was an example of the latter. With defeat comes the chance to learn and grow. I will review my mission report from Malastare and see if there's anything I can take away. Doctor Sipio always said I should never shy away from a chance to improve. Hell, it's what kept me from debuting at Geonosis: there was still room for improvement. As much as it chafed me at the time, I think I understand the value of it now."
End of Entry
