Monday, May 28, 2018

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days Abridged: KOTFE 1-6

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!  It's time for Ragdat's Darkest Days Remastered!  Now, since this is still from Ragdat's perspective, I'll still be using "Vitiate" over "Valkorian" to refer to him.

Our story begins when Ragdat steps off of his Defender starship with the love of his life, Kira Carsen.  After a bit of banter, Ragdat grabs her hand, and makes a declaration; that after this is all over, when the Sith Emperor Vitiate is done forever, he's going to make their relationship official to everyone and get married.  Kira blushes, but wholeheartedly agrees.

After Kira returns to the Defender, Ragdat makes his way to the bridge of Darth Marr's ship, only to begin sensing the presence of his old enemy.  As he and Darth Marr begin to plan, Marr's ship is attacked by strange ships with strange troops.  Ragdat heads to combat the troops, droids as he discovers, wading through blaster fire and directing the shots back at his foes.  After rescuing both Republic and Imperial troops, Ragdat is informed to return to the bridge, only to find that the Defender is stuck; no one can get in or out.  After releasing the docking clamp, Ragdat is forced to regretfully inform Kira that he can't get out.  Kira, who shouts at him that she won't leave him behind, is forced to do when Ragdat that they're Jedi and both have a job to do. And in their last words, the both profess their love for the other and a promise to find the other.

Ragdat heads to where Darth Marr was located, which was down in engineering, and fought along side him until they got to the terminal near the hyperdrive. Supercharging the shields, Ragdat orders the crew to abandon ship, but Ragdat and Marr are unable to get to safety themselves. The attackers take the ship, capturing Ragdat and Marr and bringing them to the being they've been searching for; Vitiate, though using a new name, Valkorian.  On the way, they meet Arcann, Vitiate's son and slave to the Dark Side like Vitiate himself, and the blind seer Heskal.

Vitiate begins offering power to Ragdat and Marr, and both refuse, but for different reasons. Marr, refusing to bend knee to Vitiate again, holds true to his own philosophy and accepts death. Ragdat, holding true to his Jedi ideals, also refuses, but Arcann chooses this moment to attack his father when told to execute him, giving Ragdat's lightsaber back to him, and allowing Ragdat to strike down Vitiate's new body.

This is where Ragdat's Darkest Days truly begins, because Vitiate releases a great deal of power, knocking Ragdat out, allowing Arcann take Vitiate's throne and to toss Ragdat into carbonite, where Ragdat is forced to dream of Vitiate. Vitiate tries to convince Ragdat of his philosophy, but Ragdat fights back with philosophy and combat when necessary. Eventually, Ragdat is awoken by a woman that he first confuses with Kira, but turns out to be Lana Beniko with a new hairdo and a new outfit that lets her go unnoticed better, as well as his old friend, the astromech T7-01.  She leads Ragdat out of the facility, and just as they are about to leave, Lana's partner, Koth Vortena, contacts them via radio.  Koth, a product of Zakuulan society, immediately annoys Ragdat when he calls Ragdat "Outlander", a term that Arcann called him and, as he finds out later, blames for all of what he's done and will continue to do to the rest of the galaxy.

Ragdat and Lana continue to fight their way to Koth, Ragdat performing some impressive physical feats when he bisects a walker droid, however, he does not nail the landing and knocks himself out.  Awoken by Lana within moments, they continue to fight their way to Koth, but not before Ragdat is forced to shut down a reactor that would have destroyed several city blocks if he hadn't.  But before they could board Koth's ship, Ragdat and Lana are forced to fight two Knights of Zakuul, where Ragdat is finally able to analyze their fighting style; Form VI lightsaber combat, or Niman.  This gave them an answer to everything, but mastery over nothing.

Ragdat and Lana defeated them their enemies their own way, forcing one to retreat, but Lana was about to choke the life out one before Ragdat stopped her.  Moments later, they were met by Vitiate's daughter, Vaylin.  They were about to engage Vaylin and her Knights, but Koth Vortena opened fire with his ship's cannons.  Vaylin used the Force to rip a piece of walkway to hold off the shots. Lana escapes, but while Ragdat is jumping, Vaylin throws the metal at the ship, forcing it away, and Ragdat is about to plummet to his doom, only to be saved by an HK-55 unit.  It is here where Ragdat finds out that he's been in carbonite for five years, and his first thoughts were of Kira, and how he was supposed to marry her when he returned.

They head out of the city, crashing into the swamp, and is given time to get to know Koth and HK a little before heading into the swamp.  And while Koth and Lana choose to set a trap for any Skytrooper droids that search for them, Ragdat and HK headed into the swamp to find the "technological object" that HK had detected, and was informed that HK's new highest priority was the protection of Ragdat.  Upon finding the object, Koth started freaking out over it being the Gravestone, a ship from Zakuulan legend.  Ragdat and Lana, who didn't know the legends, did accept that this was going to be the best means get off the planet.

Ragdat, with Koth at his side, cleared out large insects from the ship, which allowed Koth the time and space he needed to look over the condition of the combat frigate, mentioning that they might be able to find the parts needed to do the necessary repairs to get the Gravestone space-born, and Lana mentioned that they might want to hunt through the swamp for fresh water and access to safe food.    Ragdat went with Lana first, who helped him get up to date on current events over the last five years; the Sith Empire and Republic no longer had the political, financial or military power to fight Arcann's Eternal Fleet, and were forced to pay a heavy tribute of credits and resources, and Kira was missing.

Upon returning to the ship, Ragdat followed Koth through the swamp, searching for some parts he had jettisoned before the crash, though, upon finding the last cache, mentioned his belief in destiny.  Ragdat, who had the "gift" of Foresight, knew that you couldn't guarantee that what you saw was definitely going to happen; "destiny" and "visions" were suggestions for possible futures, rather than a definite future.

Upon returning to the Gravestone and helping Lana and Koth clear out stuff on the ship and help repair it, he found himself heading down a few decks and ended up in front of, what he learned later, was a control node for the Zakuulan "machine god", Zildrog, where Vitiate chose to show himself as a ghostly form and started talking to Ragdat.  He talked about the downfalls of his children and told Ragdat that he needed to kill them, but Ragdat was certain that the only way to both stop them and stop Vitiate was to neutralize them while keeping them alive.

However, before any philosophical debate could take place, the ship was attacked by the Skytroopers. Ragdat took Lana outside to fight them off while Koth got the ship off the ground.  They fought side by side for a bit, until one of the Knights flew in on a speeder, dropped a thermal detonator at the feet of several Skytroopers, and jumped off, igniting a unique lightsaber; one with an electrum guard.  And since electrum was rare and, among the Jedi Order, an indication of Mastery of either the Force or the lightsaber, he knew this woman was special. In fact, Ragdat, a Battlemaster and lightsaber form instructor, had earned the right himself, but chose not to due to seeing himself as a battlefield Master, rather than a Council or Temple Master.

The three fought the Skytroopers and Knights until Vitiate chose to freeze time and lie to Ragdat; that if Ragdat didn't relinquish control of his body for a few moments, Lana would die to an unavoidable lightsaber strike to her shoulder.  Ragdat refused, of course, and just after Lana was injured, Koth and HK exited the ship and gunned the individual who struck Lana down, as well as the others that Ragdat, Lana and the Knight that Ragdat now knew to be Senya Tirall, hadn't gotten to.  And after a brief argument between Koth and Lana over Senya joining their crew, HK reminded them that they were not safe.

Ragdat, Lana and Senya all waited outside the ship and used the Force to life the ship out of the muck, before leaping up to the airlock and leaving the planet.  But of course, they weren't safe yet. Ragdat had to run down to the main cannon and fire it, annihilating many ships ahead of them before they were able to get into hyperspace. Unfortunately, they had to perform a blind hyperspace jump, which burned out the hyperdrive, which hadn't been used in centuries, as well as the Gravestone's main cannon.  Luckily, they were within sublight engine range to get to a safe haven, a space station known as Asylum.

After returning to the bridge, Ragdat saw the three humans arguing.  Senya and Koth didn't get along due to a shared past, and Koth was upset that Lana hid her allying with Senya.  Ragdat decided that was too much for him and just chose to find a place to meditate. After doing so, Ragdat went and talked to Lana and dressed her wounds, then went to talk to Koth, who annoyed him further,  when he said "Don't forget who dropped everything to get you out of the Spire.", a clear attempt to play on Ragdat's emotions. Ragdat, however, shot back that out of the two Zakuulans, Senya wasn't the one who talked down to him before leaving to talk to Senya.

Senya was at the Zildrog control node, and they introduced themselves to each other.  Senya mentioned an appreciation of the Jedi philosophy even though it didn't work for her, and Ragdat felt comfortable to bring up how Arcann had forced him and Kira, the woman he loved, apart. Senya offered compassion, and mentioned how she had some personal reasons for wanting to bring Arcann down, though Ragdat could tell she wasn't ready to tell him why.

A few hours later, the Gravestone had docked with in Asylum, and after marching out the cargo hold door, Ragdat was immediately met a group of humans.  The humans appeared hostile, demanding entrance to the ship, and Ragdat responded by activating his lightsaber and said "No one's getting on this ship without my permission." Seeing the standoff, Koth ran up to Ragdat and assured him that they were Koth's people.  Ragdat stood down, but took a moment to chastise Koth for not telling him what was going on; Ragdat could have easily killed Koth's crew, Ragdat explained.

After a brief conversation with Corporal Ralo, the Republic soldier from Darth Marr's ship that he'd saved, Ragdat was asked to find the final member of Koth's crew, a human named Tora. HK had Tora's information in his databanks, and Ragdat and HK headed into the so called "Free Zone" to retrieve her.  After fighting through a bunch of gangsters, Ragdat was met by Tora, who was signified by her blue hair and obnoxious laugh, and Sergeant Tanno Vik of the special forces unit Havoc Squad.  Ragdat respected Vik for what he'd done during the war under Major Strannos, another person he respected, for taking down General Rakton and the Dread Masters, so he was sad to hear he wasn't military anymore.

Ragdat rolled his eyes over how stupid the argument was; Tora refused to pay for the weapons she bought, and Vik, now a gangster, wanted to kill her.  Ragdat said they were both being ridiculous, and ordered Tora to pay what she agreed to and apologize for insulting his dead mother.  Vik was perturbed that he couldn't afford to be weak, and Ragdat reminded him that he negotiated a deal in his favor from a Jedi Master.  Vik agreed, and all parties parted ways, but not without some choice words from Tora, who claimed she'd never apologized in her life. Ragdat sarcastically retorted "Thank you Ragdat for saving my life. That Weequay with special forced training and experience would have killed me if you hadn't shown up!" Tora, admitting defeat, just thank Ragdat, who then directed her toward the Gravestone.

A few minutes later, Ragdat and HK were met by Senya, who led them into the Scions' compound. However, an ion charge knocked out HK, and this was met by Ragdat immediately drawing his lightsaber and dropping into a forward guard position.  He didn't trust Senya or these Scions at this point, and wasn't afraid to let them know that.

As it turned out, these Scions were confused that they couldn't read Ragdat's future, and wanted to know why, but what really surprised Ragdat was that Senya stood at Ragdat's side, not the Scions.  Unfortunately, these Scions believed like the Sith and Voss about visions; they were absolute certainties, and not like the Jedi, who believed that visions were suggestions about possible futures, and that the future was always in motion.

Ragdat and Senya fought through the Scions' "tests", doing their best not to harm them, before meeting Heksal, the leader.  Ragdat recognized Heskal, but he could also feel the overwhelming darkness within him, meaning his vision was tainted.  Ragdat flat out said that so long as Heskal said he must, he would refuse to kill Arcann, because he would not be a part of Heskal's dark designs.  This brought on the duel between then, where, just as Ragdat saw the Shatterpoint that would allow him an easy victory, Vitiate chose to freeze time, causing the Shatterpoint to disappear as he offered Ragdat power. Ragdat refused, angry that Vitiate cost him an easy victory, and continued dueling Heskal.

The duel ended with Heskal's defeat, and Ragdat said that the Scions' tainted when Senya said they needed the Scions.  This is when Lana, Koth and his men came up behind them, and demanded they disarm.  Heskal claimed that every moment since they landed on Asylum, even this moment, had been foreseen, and asked Ragdat about how he'd fix the galaxy when he won, and Ragdat essentially said "Whatever way denies your dark visions and helps those being hurt". And this is when Vitiate decided to make his presence in the Force known, which created chaos among them all. Heskal, the Scions and Koth were all elated that "Valkorian" was alive, while Lana, whom he'd told about Vitiate invading his mind in the Endless Swamp, was appropriately concerned.

However, the building anger in Ragdat erupted when Koth called him "Outlander", causing him shout in Koth's face about why that term bothered him.  He then clearly spelled out what "Valkorian" had done as Vitiate, as well as what he tired to do on Belsavis, Voss and Corellia before he stopped him on Dromund Kaas, and was just about to storm out before Senya revealed that she was Arcann and Vaylin's mother.  Ragdat knew at this moment that he needed to cool off, and returned to the Gravestone to meditate.

And with this post, I'm at the point where I've covered the events of Ragdat's Darkest Days as they were when I made the decision to do it this way. I've since removed the story from fanfiction.net, and you'll find the future content in groups of 3 chapters; 7-9 will close out KOTFE launch day, and will re-introduce my other player characters in that universe.

For now, stay beautiful freaks!

Thursday, May 24, 2018

SWTOR Character Tales: Change in Plans

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!

So, as you can see from the title, I'm changing how I'm going to do Ragdat's Darkest Days and Rise of Mamine; over the next few days, I'm going to be getting my notes together for those stories, and then just posting those as a summary version of those two stories in my blog. Doing this will let me free up some head space and get the stories done faster, while still allowing me to focus on my book. It will also let me continue their stories beyond their planned end; I was going to stop at the end of KOTET, but now, I can more easily tackle Iokath and the Traitor saga, as well as any new stories for these two characters.

However, this means that I'll be taking down the stories from fanfiction.net and updating the final chapter of Character Tales to direct them here to see their continued adventures, as I won't be finishing them there. And as with my two previous stories that I realized that I wasn't going to finish, my "KOTOR Version 2" saga, I feel it's better to just take them down and be done with them.

Now, does this mean I'm taking down my Mass Effect story? No.  Chronicles of Ana Shepard was always a "back burner" type of story, where I write when I feel like it, and it'll be done when it's done.  Unlike the SWTOR stories, I feel no pressure to get the story out. 

With that in mind, if you're a sub, check out my referral code, and stay beautiful freaks!