X-Ploring It All

Finding Lady Valarian, Han Solo and Chewbacca were thrilling experiences. Even to this day, encountering characters from the stories I love still has the potential to give me a goosebump or two.

But what good are those characters without the story? This was a "galaxy at war", an "empire divided". There was no "Obvious Button" to join either side, but the presence of both were clear. And the message was even clearer: pick a side or be swept up in the events and miss out on the opportunity to make a difference in the Galactic Civil War.

Stumbling upon this Rebel encampment above gave me a peek into how this war would play out. This modest base was nestled in the rocky mountains of Tatooine, somewhere in the middle of the map, as I recall; far from any of the larger settlements.

I came upon it just by chance while out exploring like I would often do. I've seen landspeeders already, but to witness first-hand an X-Wing was just jaw-dropping. I had to take a closer look.

At the time, I thought that this would be the way of things; that to find the Rebels one would have to pound gravel and keep alert. That fact would remain true for several months of SWG, barring any visit to the internet for waypoints.

I fully expected that bases such as this would be the extent of what the freedom fighters could have. I couldn't have been more incorrect. SWG was big. Bigger then I thought possible. And learning how wrong I was about this being the best the Rebels could show would turn out to be one of my group's greatest adventures.