Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time for the shortest chapter of Ragdat's Darkest Days!
Six months had passed between the Alliance dismantling the Eternal Throne and now, and Ragdat had worked tirelessly to repair the damage that Vaylin did. Zakuul was slowly learning how to rule themselves, but so much of their infrastructure was tied up in the droids performing all tasks for them that they didn't know what to do once they were shut down for good. Ragdat had hoped that they would have some semblance of survival instincts, but he was proven wrong time and time again, forcing him to take a heavier hand than he liked in teaching them how to survive. It didn't help that, for the first time in their history since Vitiate took over, there was famine and disease for the general populous, so Ragdat was forced to bring in supplies and medicine for them, which cut down on the resources he could be using to help the people of the Republic.
It was at this point when the radiation levels on Iokath had finally subsided, and Lana led an
Alliance team to claim it for the Alliance. She contacted Ragdat
and Theron with a status report, which was interrupted by arrival of
Imperial and Republic forces on Iokath, who were fighting
for control over a superweapon. Ragdat summoned the Eternal
Fleet to Iokath, where contact with it was mysteriously blocked and
Theron suggested to look for the source of the transmission on Iokath.
After landing, Theron and Ragdat fought their way across the surface and finally got to the the Fleet Spire to meet with Lana, where the Alliance began landing their forces and started setting up a base of operations. Lana also mentioned that she managed to capture two emissaries send by the Republic and the Empire; Captain Elara Dorne, formerly of Colonel Strannos' incarnation of Havoc Squad, and a Captain Quinn, whom Adaso later mentioned was a relative of Malavai Quinn, whom Adaso had killed for siding with Darth Baras against him almost 13 years prior.
It turned out that Quinn represented Empress Acina, while Dorne was working for Supreme Commander Jace Malcom.
Both sides arrived on Iokath looking to claim the superweapon and both
pleaded to the Commander to join forces against the other, both trying to appeal to Ragdat's honor. But when the time came to choosing an ally, Ragdat simply stated that "As far as I'm concerned, Malcom, the Alliance has always been allied with the Republic from the very beginning. I'm just glad to have someone finally recognize that.", which got an insult spouted from Acina, who then ordered Captain Quinn to implement her back up plan by throwing a flash bang, setting off several charges on Alliance vehicles, and ran off before being confronted by, and run through, by Adaso, who stated that "siding with the wrong Sith must run in his family" before joining Ragdat in the command center. Ragdat, after nodding at Adaso after his vision cleared, ordered Dorne to keep them in contact with Malcom as they reinforced the Republic's defenses.
After doing so, Ragdat and Theron went into a weapons cache to
retrieve Iokath weapons and knowledge on how to use them. Theron
downloaded the files from an ancient console, learning about the superweapon that both the Republic and Empire were chasing; it was powerful enough to wipe all organic life on Iokath in
the distant past, in addition to ten trillion lives on other planets. Ragdat recoiled in horror, and said that no one should ever get their hands on something like that, and they needed to covertly do everything to prevent the Republic from getting their hands on it while they actively doing the same for the Empire.
When the two reunited with Lana, she revealed to Ragdat that
the conflict was orchestrated by an unknown outside force, which leaked
identical data regarding the superweapon to all three parties, luring
them all in the same place and at the same time. And since the "Eternal
Throne's" control over the Eternal Fleet could only be sabotaged by an
Alliance member, Lana suspected a traitor in their ranks. Ragdat just shook his head, saying this was the last thing they needed while trying to prevent both sides from getting access to a superweapon.
However, he was forced to push these thoughts out of his mind as he and Theron moved to prevent the superweapon's activation by Acina, who had called to taunt them about her now controlling it, but they were
unsuccessful and the legendary Six Gods
of Zakuulan legend were awakened. With the control over the Eternal Fleet was restored,
Theron stayed behind to delay the superweapon activation, while Ragdat went inside superweapon command point, taking control of a
throne similar to the one that he had dismantled, and witness Tyth,
the first of Six Gods, revealing itself to be a very powerful droid. Tyth looked at Ragdat's soul, and stated that he was an "unworthy sacrifice" given his lack of unending rage being not enough to empower it. Tyth then revealed what Lana suspected, that a close companion of Ragdat's was responsible for starting the war and awakening the Six
Machine Gods, hinting it to be someone consumed with anger and despair. And while Ragdat was beginning to become consumed by Tyth while he was still was plugged in, the Throne was sabotaged by SCORPIO, who had chosen to aid him for some reason, and he ordered the Eternal Fleet to fire on the droid, knocking it
out of commission, but not destroying it.
He awoke back at the Fleet Spire a few hours later, and confirmed Lana's suspicions that there was a traitor in their midst. And since there was no way to narrow down the list of suspects, Lana
asked them to approve full-time surveillance by an independent party, monitoring of even herself, to
which Theron strongly opposed. Ragdat was tempted, but in the end, chose to alert the Alliance to a traitor, and to watch out for any unusual activity while still performing their day to day. This, Ragdat figured, would make them suspicious of each other for a while, but still content that their Commander trusted them. And after a brief conversation with Malcom about them controlling the resources of Iokath, he was alerted that a Scion of Zakuul wanted to speak with him. The Scions informed him that their Machine Gods were now active, and that Ragdat needed to gather his forces to destroy them.
It was at this point when many of his strongest allies had gathered around him, ready to aid him. He expected Adaso and Maircus, as they had come to Iokath with him, but he was notified that the now Grandmaster Vedere Marr was here to help, as was her bodyguard Vizhdam. Also among them was the Sith Warlord Darth Nox, who surprised him by giving him a holo of her son. Apparently, the boy wanted to thank the man who "kept his mommy alive" during all her time away. She said that the boy really looked up to the Jedi now, and Ragdat could tell from the holo that he was loved by both of his parents.
Ragdat was not surprised to see Allisani and Curoda join in the battle; both had worked together in the past, and Allisani had gathered a great deal about the capabilities of these Machine Gods. But what truly put a smile on Ragdat's face was the fact that Colonel Strannos had managed to gather her incarnation of Havoc Squad, even convincing Tanno Vik to come back for one last battle. Vik was being heavily paid for this, of course, but Ragdat was pleased that the best demolition expert was working for him, even if it was only temporary.
Ragdat led his team into battle, going through Tyth, Aivela, Esne, Nahut and Scyva, before finally confronting Izax in one massive, climactic battle, finally destroying the Six Machine Gods, Iokath's greatest superweapons, once and for all. However, Ragdat remembered one more name from Zakuulan legend; Zildrog. If these Machine Gods were the gods of Zakuulan legend, Zildrog must be a real entity as well. He would need to deal with Zildrog when it eventually appeared, but for right now, as he parted ways with his allies, he decided that dealing with the Traitor was more important at the moment. He'd need to keep his guard up for the near future.
And that's it for the War for Iokath. Since I've never completed the operation myself, and wookieepedia doesn't exactly spell out the details, I just chose to gloss over the events. The Traitor Saga will be much more detailed, I promise, with Allisani taking a larger role in the Traitor among the Chiss point, since she didn't do much during the KOTFE/KOTET portion. Look forward to it, as well as Rise of Mamine, and stay beautiful freaks!
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