SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine Interlude

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Before we go into anything, I know a considerable amount of my audience is European, so I think it's important if you read this tweet and watch the video included, and take action. In short, it's about the EU Article 13, and how it'll affect your online entertainment; in short, right now, youtube, twitch, twitter and all kinds of other sites are protected under the United States Fair Use of Copyrighted Material. If Article 13 goes through with its current wording, a LOT of entertainment will be blocked within the EU. We're all affected, so get educated, contact your MEPs, and make sure that they know that this will hurt a LOT of online entertainment jobs throughout Europe.

Sorry for getting serious on my silly storytime post, but this is important, since it affects all of us.

With that out of the way, it's time for Mamine's interlude for the events between chapters 9 and 10!

Over the next two weeks, Mamine took some time to get to know allies and enemies and what they've been doing over the last five years, as well as some people she didn't know all that well.  She first spoke to Master Anstrisil, who had not had an easy time. Even though the Jedi Council had accepted him, the rank and file of the Order never truly did due to him being a Pureblood Sith. They thought he was some kind of infiltrator under the guise of being redeemed, a mindset that baffled him; if the Empire was going to send an infiltrator, they'd select a human or an twi'lek or some other species. A Pureblood Sith wouldn't be able to fool anyone, as all this mistrust had shown. So when Master Satele disappeared after the treaty was signed, Anstrisil was only able to get the people he knew personally, like Gaden-Ko of the Voss, the friends he made from the Rift Alliance, or the mercenaries he'd hired to assist him over the last 5 years. 

However, the other former White Knights had it worse. When Mamine met with Casek, who had since abandoned his Darth Title and position thanks to the restructuring of the Empire, was performing a Sith Alchemy ritual when Mamine visited him in his quarters.  Thanks to his capture by the Hand of Jadus, he had been imprisoned and tortured for three years. And his tormentors had focused on his jaw for most heavily; they had shattered it, let it heal, let it get infected, and shattered it again, all to prevent him from performing any kind of Sith magical incantation.  The only thing that kept him alive during all this time was growing rage and hatred of his captors and the White Knights who had refused to rescue him.  By the time Anstrisil's mercenaries broke him and Yokonari out, Anstrisil's jaw was destroyed beyond repair and required it to be amputated. He now had a vocalizer attached to his throat so he could speak, and a mechanical jaw as a place holder for his face. He was currently trying to perform Sith Alchemy to give him sensation in the cybernetic jaw so he could eventually do things like eating real food, instead of the nutrient paste he was able to consume now, but he didn't want to do too much, since too much Sith Alchemy on a being could erode their sanity.

Yokonari, however, had it even worse than that.  When Mamine entered her quarters, she found Yokonari sitting in a treatment chair, completely nude, with tubes coming out of her cybernetic implants. Mamine apologized for disturbing her, but Yokonari said it was fine, and she wasn't bothered by someone else seeing her nude.  She went on to explain that during her torture, she had been injected with a retrovirus that modified her body to produce fatigue toxins at an extremely high rate, which had severely dampened her stamina reserves for any physical activity.  These cybernetic implants she had now had two jobs; to boost her adrenaline reserves in times of stress, and to perform a detox treatment after an excess of fatigue toxins had built up over time.  She was currently undergoing the detox, Yokonari said, and she felt showing this level of vulnerability helped her focus on her rage and fuel her power in the Dark Side.

Both later told her what happened to the White Knights; the Hand of Jadus' people had hunted them down and destroyed them all. No trace of the White Knights left, and except for Yokonari and Casek, it was as if they never existed. And it was in this state when Anstrisil's mercenaries rescued the pair, and got them to Anstrisil, who got them the help they needed. And together with the mercenaries, they destroyed the the Hand of Jadus and his organization, Yokonari butchering the Hand himself with her bare hands.

Mamine was curious about the mercenaries, and she had her opportunity to meet them in the cantina; they were a pair of Rattataki, a husband and wife team named Azulini and Hardatt.  The woman, Azulini, was the brawn of the operation; she grew up on Rattatak, and was forced to survive on her own wits and physical abilities. Most of the time, she was malnourished, completely lacking clothing at some points, and out in the elements most of the time. But this made her incredible resourceful and very, very brutal in how she fought.

She was found as a stowaway by her future husband, Hardatt, who, unlike Azulini, had grown up off Rattatak, and had learned the ways of the greater galaxy. He was impressed by the fighting capability of this mostly naked woman who stowed away on his ship, and their initial fight turned into a "romantic encounter", which led to Hardatt introducing her to modern technology and society.  Hardatt taught many things she'd need to know, like how to use a blaster, how to speak Basic and Huttese, how to read Aurabesh, and other things she'd need to know to make her way.

The pair had been together for ten years, Hardatt working as the face of the operation and Azulini becoming an accomplished bounty hunter once she was used to technology, though she still struggled with a lot of stuff; reading Aurabesh was hard for her, since she hadn't learned to read anything until well into her adulthood, and there were still terms in Basic and Huttese that she didn't understand.  And that was why Hardatt did all the negotiating, and left the relentless pursuit of their goals to his wife.

Mamine also found out the two had an open relationship when Hardatt started hitting on her. He explained that both had agreed that they could sleep with anyone they wanted, so long as they came back to the same bed, on their ship in this case, when it was over. Mamine, however, wasn't comfortable with getting involved in that, and Hardatt just said that he understood, but it was her loss.

Most importantly for Mamine though, was finding out how her Padawan was doing. Suthazi had been through a LOT of trauma in the last five years; between losing her first master, having to play teacher for a bunch of kids who had barely entered puberty, having to care for these kids, and having to work with a Sith..."Apprentice" was what Brosra called herself even though she had no real formal training or master outside what she learned from the Collective...to fund these operations....it wore on her.  Suthazi, like Mamine, had learned wisdom the hard way, and it was tiring. She was happy now just being a Padawan, a learner, instead of playing the leader.

And one of those responsibilities she was glad she no longer had was dealing with Brosra.  Brosra was the last of her family, an ancient Pureblood Sith bloodline that dated back to her species first and only King. She had been captured by Empress Acina and shoved into a dungeon, and tortured in an attempt to show how weak her family was and the only way for her to survive was to pledge herself to Acina. However, Acina and her men were unfamiliar with Brosra's progress in her family; she had been rediscovering ancient abilities of her family and bloodline, to the point when she eventually become powerful enough to break free of the dungeon and escape.  She joined the Padawan's Collective because, while she had a lot of esoteric powers, she lacked practical abilities. So, Brosra was trained in how to utilize the Shii Cho fighting style, building a lightsaber and other practical abilities in exchange for her family's wealth and some knowledge about making synthetic lightsaber crystals.



Once all these people had been properly greeted, they started to inform Mamine of some specialists that could help the Alliance's war efforts. First, Mamine had to return to Zakuul on the urging of both Doctor Oggurob to retrieve former Havoc Squad member, Yuun.  For Yuun, Mamine had to find some components that Mamine felt a resonance in the Force for Yuun, who then explained that only someone with a unique connection to them could feel that, which bothered Mamine; would she have felt that resonance if Valkorian wasn't in her head? Was gathering those part of his plan?

However, Mamine didn't have time to think about things, since both Yokonari and Bey'wan Aygo had companions to recruit; former Havoc Assault Droid M1-4X and Yokonari's former subordinate, Major Pierce. Yokonari came with Mamine to Dromund Kaas to recruit Pierce, but Mamine went alone to Coruscant and had to go through a lot of effort to convince the droid to join the Alliance.

Mamine's next stop was to Ilum to investigate some murders, only to find them being performed by a familar Kaleesh; Casek's former apprentice, Lord Xalek.  Xalek was killing the miners on Ilum for desecrating his father's grave unintentionally, and his culture demanded a blood sacrifice to sate his father's anger, but Mamine came up with a peaceful compromise; the miners not only restored Xalek's father to his former state, but also create a shrine to venerate him.  They did so, and Mamine offered Xalek a place in the Alliance, but only after Xalek demanded that Mamine beat him in combat.  Mamine fought and defeated Xalek with some things that Xalek had never seen beore, and returned to Odessen with Xalek in tow.

Her next trip was to Yavin 4, with Casek in tow.  Apparently, Casek's archaeologist Talos Drellik, who had thought Casek was dead and having returned to the Reclamation service, was looking for something here, but Casek convinced him that Mamine's Alliance was more important now.  Mamine, curious about what the human was searching for, asked, and was told that he was collecting artifacts that Revan had used to resurrect Vitiate on Yavin 4, and Mamine thought that the study of them would be beneficial to getting Valkorian out of her head, so she and Casek helped him retrieve the items before Drellik and his team headed for Odessen.

Mamine's next mission was a simple one; getting Nico Okarr, a smuggler who got Master Satele and Jace Malcom back to the Republic from Korriban during the Sith Empire's initial invasion.  Okarr simply asked Mamine to give him a mixed drink to "prove his worth".  Mamine did so, and Okarr headed for Odessen.

From there, Anstrisil mentioned how his old companion Qyzen Fess was now leading the Warstalkers, a group of trandoshans formerly led by the Dread Master slave Kephess.  He said that she could recruit them, but to avoid mentioning that she was captured at all costs, as that, in trandoshan culture, meant he was stripped of all renown he would have as a warrior otherwise.  Mamine understood, and explained to Qyzen, when asked what happened to the Jedi who killed the Sith Emperor, simply stated she was injured during the battle where Darth Marr's ship was destroyed, and was only recently recovered by Lana, which, in Mamine's eyes, wasn't a complete lie; the carbonite poisoning was killing her before Lana used the antidote on her. However, Qyzen took these statements at face value, and brought himself and his Warstalkers to the Alliance.


Upon returning to Odessen this time, Mamine was told that HK-55 was finally rebuilt, although he did not retain the memories, or even programming he had before.  During a series of simulations, HK gave Mamine some scenerios to help him designate what was and wasn't a viable target. Mamine made sure HK understood that unarmed and injured individuals were not acceptable to terminate, unless then were attacking him, in which case they were fair game, but even then, they were to be disabled as a first priority. Once all this programming was set, Mamine welcomed the new HK-55 into the Alliance.

From here, Mamine had a few days to breathe before the next leg of the war began.

Yes, I left off Doctor Lokin this time. Couldn't think of a way to get around Allisani's ability to skip the resource gathering aspect, and it's not like he had a big impact on the Alliance anyway, so, yeah.

Anyway, look forward to my lightsaber combat update post, where I'm going to do my hopefully final redo of their fighting styles, and then, the next chapter to Rise of Mamine. But until then, stay beautiful freaks!