SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Return to the Republic-Onslaught Part 1

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to Sean's Workshop! Now that Onslaught's been out for a couple weeks, it's time for Ragdat to reunite with Kira!

Our story begins in a space battle, where Ragdat disables an Imperial transport for questioning. He gets a call from General Daeruun to return to Carrick Station. Once there, Ragdat is told of the war over Corellia, particularly the Meridian Complex, a state of the art shipyard. If the Imperials are able to destroy the shipyard, Ragdat is told, then that would hurt the Republic war effort due to how fast this shipyard can create ships.

And it is here that Gnost-Dural and Daeruun informed Ragdat of his mission; the Republic fleets over Onderon will be needed do defend the Meridian Complex, but they'll need refueling before they can head to Corellia. Ragdat will need to solve the problem on Onderon before they can leave the planet.

And it was here that Gnost-Dural introduced Ragdat to Tau's new Padawan, Arn Peralun. A human male, what marked Arn as unusual was his extensive cybernetics. From Ragdat's perspective, only Arn's head remained organic, leaving Ragdat to wonder just what happened to this young man. And Arn, without asking, answered; during a battle on Dakot Seven, Arn was badly injured. When Ragdat asked why he wasn't healed by kolto or bacta, Arn revealed that the people of Dakot Seven were biologically incompatible with these healing fluids, so they had none on supply to heal this young Jedi. They were forced to do what they did with their own people to Arn; extensive cybernetics. It took many years for Arn to get used to his cybernetics, setting him back on his training.

After a brief conversation about Tau, Ragdat took Arn to Onderon to meet his new Master, and Arn revealed a bit about Onderon before getting briefed by Lana on the situation. According to Lana, the king wanted to plunder the planet's resources for credits, but the nobles weren't on board with the idea. This was leading to a civil war, and Tau was here to help shore up the defenses of Iziz.

Ragdat took Arn to meet his master Tau, who was as awkward as Ragdat expected. As they introduced themselves, Ragdat thought back to the closest thing he ever had to a Padawan, Kira. Like Arn, Kira was almost finished with her training, and all Ragdat did was put on the finishing touches. Of course, thinking of Kira made Ragdat remember how much he missed her, but he pushed those thoughts out of his mind; he had people searching for her. He'd find her sooner or later.

Everyone's thoughts were forced back to the situation at hand by an explosion. Tau immediately sprung into action, returning to the palace while Ragdat headed toward the explosion, leading him to a broken set of ground that led into the basement of the palace. Fighting his way through, Ragdat was stopped by a set of droids, one of them showing a human face. This human, introducing herself as Darth Savik, claimed to know Ragdat, though Ragdat didn't recognize her. She had sabotaged the anti-spacecraft cannons, forcing Ragdat to defeat her droids and shut them down to protect the Republic fleet. From there, Ragdat returned to the throne room, ending the battle.

After some discussion, Arn revealed information about Darth Savik's modus operandi and said they needed to stay and stop her. Ragdat agreed, and headed into the jungles with an old ally; Jakarro and C2D4.  Jakarro and D4 knew the planet well and aided Ragdat in his attempt to gather information and stop Darth Savik. They eventually made their way the proving grounds, where Darth Savik herself was located. She revealed that it was Corellia when they last faced each other and that Savik hadn't engaged in since, making her droids do the job.

However, Ragdat easily defeated Savik once again, causing Savik to doubt her entire life up to that point, pleading Ragdat to tell her why he was so strong. Ragdat revealed his Jedi mindset; that the Force was life, not death, and that one gained true power from defending the lie that generated the Force.

Savik, now exasperated, told Ragdat where the Imperial fleet was going next; Mek-Sha, a neutral space station that the Republic fleet was headed next to refuel. Ragdat kept Savik within the Alliance, who gladly gave information about the Empire's plans in exchange for training from Ragdat.

Upon landing on Mek-Sha, Ragdat was met by Vice Admiral Narlock, Jott, Mek-Sha's chief engineer, Tau and Arn. They gave Ragdat his mission; get a majority vote to sell the Republic fuel from the factions that ran Mek-Sha. Once the briefing was done, Ragdat as attacked by a familiar presence in the Force, with a style he was very familiar with. What was strange was that the presence, even though it was a dark one, had no killing intent. It was almost as if Scourge was testing him again.

Once this battle was over, Ragdat went to the cantina where the factions were meeting. He was met by Hylo and Gault, who told him whom he was dealing with. The first was Huttbreaker herself, a Nikto who made a grand speech about Mek-Sha's growing power. While meeting her, he was met by the Dark Council Member Darth Shaar, who taunted Ragdat and his allies in the typical Sith fashion.

From there, Ragdat went to meet the other factions; Indigo, the leader of the Dar'Manda, a strangely named gang. Ragdat knew enough Mando'a to understand that word meant "soulless", so he was confused as to why he'd carry that name willingly, a fact that Ragdat approached Indigo about when he met him. Indigo, rightly assuming Radgat was friends of Mandalorians, blew Ragdat off.

He also met with the leader of the Brothers, slavers and strong allies of the Empire. Ragdat knew that he wouldn't get any help from them, so he moved on to the next group leader, Veek the Sneak, a smuggler and leader of a gang of Rodians.

After meeting them all, Ragdat figured that his best options were either to meet with Indigo or Veek. He tried Indigo first, figuring that they'd find something in common as warriors, but Indigo was truely without honor and told Ragdat to kill Veek, which meant that Ragdat would need to work with Veek to get what they needed. Veek was much better, asking Ragdat to go rescue an ambassador for him. However, this was a trap, as the ambassador from the Hutt Cartel was working with the Exchange to kill Veek. Veek thanked Ragdat for saving his life and promised a long working relationship with the Republic.

After finishing with Veek, Ragdat got a call from Arn about the Brotherhood. Apparently, Arn, who had been ordered to watch them, started freaking out about the Brotherhood about to transport slaves. Ragdat immediately called Tau, since Arn was her responsibility, and headed off to assist the young man.

When he got there, though, Ragdat saw that Arn had killed the members of the Brotherhood and was choking out one of them as he arrived. Arn was angry, and not just because they were selling slaves. Arn explained that slavers were the ones responsible for his injuries, so he had a grudge going. Ragdat reminded Arn that the Dark Side was as much a part of them as the Light Side was, and that denying it gave it power. Arn was a person as much as he was a Jedi, and he was going to make mistakes and lose control sometimes. What was important, Ragdat explained, is that he couldn't let his anger control him.

It was that moment that Tau came upon the scene and saw what happened. She looked at Ragdat, and Ragdat nodded, with Tau returning the nod. Both of them knew that Tau had to take responsibility for both Arn's training, as she had been doing, and his actions when left alone, and she did when Jott told them about Huttbreaker's outrage.  And after a short exchange that followed the debrief about just that, Ragdat prepared for dock defense from the Imperials, capturing a Twi'lek named Major Anri.

With the Republic fleet finally ready for the battle of Corellia, Ragdat returned to Carrick station for the briefing, Ragdat finally meeting the new Supreme Chancellor, Gelena Rans. After distributing their forces, Ragdat boarded a shuttle with Lana, Gnost-Dural, Tau and Arn, and during the journey, Ragdat witnessed something interesting; a conversation between Lana and Ghost-Dural about Lana's version of Sith philosophy and why she remained loyal to Ragdat despite their occasional differing of opinion.

Upon landing, Ragdat, Tau and Arn headed out into the city, battling their way through Imperial Forces until finally meeting an old friend of Master Vedere, Tharan Cedrax. Tharan was the principal systems engineer of the facility. After a brief conversation about what Vedere, who was rebuilding the Jedi Order on Tython, was up to, Ragat took Tau and Arn up to the next level, where he finally met Darth Malgus.

The battle didn't go in Malgus' favor, of course, though Ragdat did allow Tau and Arn a chance to train against Malgus before striking him down. Malgus wasn't going to allow victory that easily, however, and telekinetically ripped a large object from the ceiling and brought it crashing down upon them. Ragdat managed to get off the platform and got to the control station to activate the anti-spacecraft cannons. From there, Ragdat took a shuttle back to Carrick station.

Upon the debrief, Ragdat was offered a grand reward; bring the Alliance into the Republic and become a member of the rebuilt Jedi Council.  The Alliance would get a seat in the Senate for Odessen, and he'd get access to all Republic resources that he'd need for his operations. Ragdat readily accepted, promising that, as a Battlemaster, he'd grant lightsaber training to the Order's most promising students once again.

After the briefing, Lana wasn't pleased that Ragdat brought the Alliance into the Republic, but as always, she trusted his judgment. Tau and Arn walked over to them shortly after, and revealed how they survived; they had help.  When Ragdat asked who, the voice of the most important person in the galaxy to him spoke up, saying "Someone who loves you."

At that moment, Ragdat forgot that he was the Alliance Commander, forgot that he was a Jedi Battlemaster, that he was a member of the Jedi Council, forgot that he was even a Jedi. He was simply a man reuniting with the woman he loved after far too many years. They hugged at that moment, just enjoying their company, Ragdat telling Kira how long he'd had people looking for her, and how much he missed her.  She said, "I missed you too, tough guy, but...later, okay?"

He was also met by Scourge, in the same armor as the mysterious assailant, finally understanding the purpose of the attack on Mek-Sha; the same as it was when he dueled him years earlier. It was a test to ensure he was strong enough for the events to come.

Ragdat returned to Odessen and met with Scourge and Kira, who explained what they'd been up to for all these years. They explained that, while Ragdat was working on destroying Vitiate's soul, they were working on destroying his original body. And through some grand plan of the Force, they both managed to strike down both of them concurrently. But while Ragdat got back up immediately, Kira and Scourge were knocked into a coma for a year until Master Satele found them. Satele's team, however, was infected with some kind of Dark Side Plague. Kira and Scourge managed to get them onto a ship that they set drifting around uninhabited space. They explained that they could call the ship back so that the three of them, who seemed to be immune to anything Vitiate did, would deal with them in the future.

From there, Ragat met with Scourge and Kira individually. The conversation with Scourge was interesting; Scourge somehow lost his immortality with the destruction of Vitiate's soul, which also restored his emotions. This made Scourge much like Lana was now; passionate about serving Ragdat with a desire to protect anything he had built.

The private meeting with Kira, however, was not at all like he expected. Kira told Ragdat just how much she had missed him. She told Ragdat that she even stole a ship to come after him until Scourge stopped her. She explained that she went to sleep missing him, and woke up missing him. Ragdat could only sigh, saying he hadn't intended to make her go through that, but Kira assured him that it was fine; that she was explaining how much she loved him, and that it was killing her that she had to remain in control of her emotions. Ragdat smiled, telling Kira that neither of them was the best Jedi at such emotional control and that he had missed her just as much. That from the instant that Lana woke him up, he'd had people searching for her, hoping against hope they'd find her. Every time he saw a happy couple, Ragdat missed Kira. And that he too wanted nothing more to hold her in his arms once again.

At that moment, Kira pulled Ragdat in for a kiss, finally reuniting in full. Kira said that it felt like the future was finally starting, and Ragdat agreed. He then reminded Kira that, after all this Vitiate nonsense was over with, he promised her a wedding. Kira was practically bouncing, asking if he really meant it, and Ragdat assured her that he had. They would have the wedding as soon as possible, and Kira pulled him for a kiss once again, knowing that their future would be bright, as long as they were together.

And that's it for the released Onslaught chapters. I'll do a quick post for the wedding, but for now, the story is once again on hiatus until more content comes out. For now, stay beautiful freaks!