My favorite line is actually Kaliyo's oft-repeated "Not so tough now, dirtbag." Don't know why, it always strikes me as funny, and of course it is a good thing, because it means she just downed and opponent.

Nobody else finds it odd that she is included (and forced upon you) as a companion? After all, your big mission is to hunt down (and usually kill) all of the special forces "traitors" who have defected to the empire. So it's presumably "not okay" to choose to switch sides, in spite of the so-called "freedoms" the republic offers. And yet, you are forced to accept Elara, who not only has admitted to being an imp, she is allowed into a sensitive position in an elite Republic military unit. And everybody thinks the situation is all rosy. It's okay to switch sides from Emp to Rep, but not vice-versa? Seems kind of hypocritical to me.

I absolutely agree. I breezed through the rest of the fortress, and then came to this area. I got discouraged, so I decided to level to 10 before trying it again. Very discouraging for a noob zone, even if it is one of the final quests. One weird thing I noticed was that, unlike other story areas, the mobs seem to respawn, and fast. I killed the first three, and was starting on the second, when I'm getting fired on from behind. The Imperial Guard I had just killed respawned and was hitting me hard. I managed to escape through the green door, but I think it was too challenging, especially for a quest you have to do. The rest of the fortress was great though, and good difficulty for the level.