SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine Traitor Saga

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time to close out, for now, the story of Rise of Mamine!

The search for the traitor was slow going. The leaders of the Alliance were concerned that their people may have betrayed them, but were at least happy that their Commander respected their privacy. However, one day, Lana brought a lead from Umbara.

The trail led them to a hovertrain with a stockpile of Adegan crystals, where a transmission with the same encryption as the one from Iokath was detected. Lana, Theron and Mamine boarded the speeding train to intercept and stop the traitor, Suthazi having remained on Odessen to train with Arcann.  The investigation led them to the control cabin of the locomotive, where the three reached it to find the cockpit of the train empty. It was this moment when Theron revealed himself as the traitor, shooting at Mamine, only for Lana to jump in front of her. Mamine was irritated at Theron for betraying them, and vocalized this, only for Theron to spout some nonsense about her becoming a symbol of oppression despite all her efforts to the contrary as he locked them into the cab.Mamine  replied that she never wanted any of this, and that she wanted to destroy the fleet, not take control of it. Theron said sadly that intention and action and action weren't always the same, and sabotaged the train's tracks, which would cause the train to crash into the side of a mountain, which, Theron stated, would be vaporizing Mamine, Lana, and the crystals.

Managing to bail before the impact and survive the crash while Theron escaped on a speeder, Mamine and Lana went after Theron on foot, while also fending off local wildlife. Lana fumed over what Theron did, raging over trusting that "SIS scum", wanting to end his life painfully.  Mamine, however, mentioned she sensed conflict within him; that part of him didn't want to do this.  Mamine wanted to know why, but Lana added they needed to catch him first.

They eventually caught up with Theron, but were unable to stop him before his shuttle left Umbara and were forced to contend with an Umbaran Spider Tank which covered Theron's escape. Returning to Odessen empty-handed, Mamine sent a galaxy-wide message on the HoloNet about his desire for peace directly to Theron in regards to his treason, and ordered Lana to use every resource at the Alliance's disposal to locate Theron's whereabouts and intentions.

It wasn't long after this when Arcann asked to speak to Mamine in private. He met Mamine outside her Defender, and mentioned he never thought he'd set foot on Odessen as anything but a conqueror, and Mamine mentioned how Arcann was a better man than he was when they met. Arcann thanked her and presented Mamine with an armored shirt that he'd been making since landing on Odessen. The Knights of Zakuul had taught him how to craft his own armor, he said, and that if he was unable to be there to protect Mamine, Arcann could be certain that this would. Mamine inspected the armor; it was light, yet sturdy, and she could feel the Force flowing through it, illustrating that it had been imbued with the Force to give it lightsaber resistant properties. She said it was beautiful, and thanked Arcann for it. Arcann said it was the least he could do for someone who had done so much for him, and went on to admit without saying he had feelings for Mamine, and Mamine smiled and said that she cared about him too.  Arcann was surprised at this, and Mamine said that Arcann should have noticed, since she wasn't subtle about her feelings.  Arcann went on to say that knowing about Mamine's feelings made him feel hope that he could be a better man, and that he'd stay by her side through whatever would come next.  Mamine moved up to him and placed her hands on his chest, and said that she'd like that.  Arcann smiled, and leaned forward and kissed Mamine.  Mamine then said she never thought she'd deserve someone like Arcann after all the horrible things she'd done in her past, and Arcann said the same about his own.  Arcann took Mamine's hands in his own, and said they'd continue to become better people together.

Within a week, Mamine's message reached the right ears and Aristocra Saganu of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force arrived to Odessen personally, who revealed that Theron was being sheltered on Copero by the rogue Syndic Zenta of the Inrokini Family. To avoid a political conflict, Saganu asked Mamine to deal with the traitor personally, sending a Human Lieutenant Raina Temple with the Commander, though when Temple saw Yokonari walking towards her, who had been in the hanger on other business, her eyes widened with fear.  Yokonari, however, calmed her fears, saying that Temple had nothing to do with what the Hand had done to her, so Temple had nothing to fear from the Empire's Wrath.  With that out of the way, Mamine, Temple and Saganu's guards entered the shuttle to take them to Copero.

Arriving on Copero, Mamine and Temple were informed that Force sensitives among the Chiss were considered "impure", which is why Valss was so protective of Syndic Zenta. The pair fought their way through the Copero City, eventually engaged Zenta in combat inside her starship factory. Defeated and subdued, the Syndic explained that Theron had betrayed her as well, using Valss to steal the location of a holomap by slicing into her personal datapad. The map had long been kept in secret on Copero and led to yet another superweapon of the Sith Emperor Vitiate. Having learned Theron's location, Mamine was about to continue their pursuit, but Saganu demanded that they take Zenta's life. Mamine said that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, and Saganu claimed there would be no deal between the Alliance and the Ascendancy otherwise. Mamine said that, if that was the case, the Alliance didn't want to be allied with the Ascendancy, but Temple added that Zenta had purchased secrets from the Alliance, meaning Zenta had committed crimes against the Alliance as well. With this in mind, Mamine said that Zenta would be arrested by the Alliance and would be tried for espionage against the Alliance  and would be tried by a tribunal of both members of the Chiss ruling families and Alliance officials. Saganu was not pleased at this, but he was at least willing to help Mamine complete her mission to find out what Theron was up to.

Eventually reaching Theron, who had destroyed the holomap after learning the superweapon's location. He and Valss prepared to leave, when Theron noticed that Mamine and Temple had arrived to stop them. Valss stayed behind to buy Theron enough time to escape, and Mamine struck the Valss down in a lightsaber duel, her first one since being freed of Vitiate, a fact that she thoroughly enjoyed.

Once again again returning to Odessen without Theron, Raina Temple mentioned the fallout in the Ascendancy with Saganu in serious trouble, and volunteered to stay with the Alliance, when Lana came up and Mamine mentioned how strange Theron's actions were for a man who wanted to ignite a galactic war.

Eventually, smugglers working for Hylo Visz intercepted a message to the Alliance from an Abandoned Listening Post and Mamine and Suthazi went there with Lana to personally investigate it. They discovered that the abandoned station served as the Order of Zildrog's base of operation for months, and that the Order was able to watch the Alliance that whole time despite the regular security sweeps on Odessen. Holorecordings revealed that the Order was led by former Horizon Guard Vinn Atrius, who planned to awaken another superweapon from Iokath called Zildrog and use it against Odessen. During this whole thing, Suthazi noticed that one of those conversations was on Iokath; when Mamine, Theron and Lana discussed the the traitor in their midst. She wondered what Theron's intentions truly were if he was being recorded even that far back. However, the final message entered just before their arrival also revealed a set of coordinates on Nathema, which Lana recognized as coming from Theron due to the unique encryption they developed together on Rishi. Forced to flee as the self-destruct mechanism was activated and completely obliterated the station, the three returned to Odessen just when the work of restoring the holomap from Copero was finished, revealing a location on Nathema that matched the coordinates left by Theron.  However, before they could leave, Arcann stopped Mamine to talk to her; he grabbed her hand and said that even though Arcann himself had been her enemy from the start, she gave him a chance.  He said that Mamine should give Theron the same chance to make up for his mistakes that she gave Arcann. Mamine squeezed Arcann's hand and said that the woman she had been when her journey first started would have killed him without a second thought for his betrayal, but that wasn't who Mamine was now.  She would give Theron the chance to explain himself, causing Arcann to smile, adding a "Please come back to me" after she was done speaking.  Mamine promised that she would, giving Arcann a kiss before heading toward the hangar.

To stop the Order's plan and deal with Theron one way or another, Mamine, Suthazi and Lana traveled to Nathema, where they were shocked to see once lifeless world overgrown with plant life. After dealing with several Nathema Zealots and escaping beasts from the Sanitarium, they reached the coordinates where Theron approached them and revealed himself to be secretly working for the Alliance's interests the whole time. Lana was confrontational, of course, but Mamine and Suthazi were more forgiving; both understood that no one was beyond hope of redemption, and based on wha they had seen on that station, neither believed that Theron wanted to hurt anyone in the Alliance. However, everyone agreed that the Order should be stopped, and the four headed towards the Emperor's Vault under an ancient Sith Temple, where Zildrog was located., while Theron and Lana hammered out issues the entire time. Theron even echoed something Lana said to him on Rishi years ago, how they "had to be kept in the dark" in order for the plan to succeed.


They tried to enter the facility, only to be stopped at a terminal, where a holo of a Pureblood Sith activated and started raging at Mamine for killing his master. He revealed himself as "Servant One", a member of Vitiate's Emperor's Hand, and was upset because his "master was his life", and wanted to help the Order of Zildrog to help destroy the Jedi who killed Vitiate 3 times and her Alliance once and for all, sending out a giant Guardian droid for the four to battle.


The battle was won, and they continued on into the facility. When they reached the Vault, Vinn Atrius and GEMINI 16 were already in the process of awakening Zildrog. Theron shot Atrius, and Atrius raged over how his people had suffered under Mamine's actions. Mamine, however, stated that every event that had happened over the last six years was engineered by his "Immortal Emperor"; the Eternal Fleet attacked the capital worlds of both the Republic and Sith Empire all to lure Mamine out. He then destroyed an entire scout fleet without warning, and faked his death at Mamine's hands, which allowed Arcann and Vaylin to kill quadrillions of people throughout the galaxy before he could finally be destroyed once and for all. All Mamine had done this entire time was mitigate the damage and helped people, even providing relief for the people of Zakuul once she stopped the Fleet's rampage. Vinn Atrius shouted for Mamine to "Shut Up!" and that "Valkorian brought peace and prosperity to Zakuul!", which caused Mamine to shake her head and say "You can't reason with a fanatic." However, GEMINI 16 trapped all of them in a force field and finished summoning Zildrog, allowing it to remotely take over the Gravestone that remained parked on Odessen.


Controlling it through the Dark Sanctuary, Zildrog took the Gravestone, though not before the crew had a chance to evacuate, into Odessen's orbit and proceeded to repeatedly fire the omnicannon at the Eternal Fleet, which sat defenseless in the absence of orders from the Throne. Hylo Visz contacted Mamine and informed them of the crisis, but they were unable to do anything to stop Zildrog from completely annihilating the Eternal Fleet. Zildrog then targeted Odessen itself, but needed to recharge the omnicannon before the next attack, forcing GEMINI 16 to engage the Alliance directly. Lana, Theron, Suthazi and Mamine destroyed the last remaining GEMINI droid, and Theron attempted to shut Zildrog down, but was stabbed in the back by Vinn Atrius with a lightsaber pike.


Atrius then ordered Zildrog to augment him with its power and attacked Suthazi, Lana and Mamine with his new increased strength, but even with all that, he was no match for three trained Force users wielding lightsabers,defeating Atrius without much difficulty and destroyed Zildrog, which also caused the self-destruct of the Gravestone and disabled the "Eternal Throne."


Mamine marched toward Atrius, glaring at the man while he taunted her. Atrius told her to "Just kill me and get on with it. Be the hero, like you always do!" while Lana and Suthazi tended to Theron's wounds, determining that he needed to be immediately brought to Odessen for treatment. Mamine said once again that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, and that he'd be given back to his own people and be put on trial by them, a fact that shocked Atrius to his core.


Mamine had her companions stabilize Theron and took them all back to Odessen. Once back, Lana reported to Mamine that although Odessen suffered minimal damage with no casualties to Alliance personnel, the Gravestone and the Eternal Fleet, two of the Alliance's greatest weapons were gone. Mamine was relieved at this fact, since she never wanted the fleet in the first place, but Lana added that, without them, the Alliance no longer possessed the military force to rival that of the Republic and the Sith Empire, who redoubled on their preparations for the inevitable renewal of open hostilities. Additionally, many Alliance members choose to leave and rejoin their original factions, since the Alliance's initial goal of toppling the Eternal Empire accomplished, requiring the Alliance leaders to choose which faction to support. Mamine jokingly asked if Lana would have any reservations about joining the Republic, and she jokingly added that she wouldn't if the Republic didn't have a problem with her interrogation methods. Mamine said that she'd be right at home with the SIS as she said Theron came into earshot. At that point, Mamine, Lana, Theron and Suthazi stood in the hangar, and mused on the future now that the shadow of Vitiate had finally been been illuminated.

About a day later, Mamine looked out at Odessen's landscape from the ledge outside the common area, and thought about her life.  Her journey to this point had been a long one; from a failed shaman apprentice to a Jedi to the Commander of the Alliance.  She had gained wisdom the hard way, through finding her way through Darkness and into the Light, finally in a position where she could do some real good in the galaxy. She had a student to teach the lessons she had learned, and a man she loved who wouldn't lead her back into Darkness. For the first time in her life, she had nothing to fear from the future.

And that's it for the Rise of Mamine! I'm finally done with the SWTOR Character Tales stories until new content is dropped! Granted, that's in a week, but I'll need to play it a few dozen times for it to grant me story ideas, but that's a back burner thing as I work on the book.

Anyway, look forward for a free post for Christmas on my Patreon for a quick "Merry Christmas" from my book's cast in a week or so, and stay beautiful freaks!