SWTOR Character Tales: Rise of Mamine KOTFE 1-6

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! With today marking 6 years of me playing SWTOR, I'm taking some time to post Rise of Mamine.

Now, keep in mind that, unlike Ragdat, Mamine will call Vitiate "Valkorian", as a way to show that she accepts his new identity, but she won't forget that the darkness that the man has always illustrated. Also, as a quick reminder of her character arc, she's a Dark Jedi during the events of the game up to Ilum, and then began a path of redemption after having the Cathar officially exile her from their homeworld. With that in mind, it's time for the story!

Our story begins when Mamine steps off of her Defender starship with her best friend, Kira Carsen.  After a bit of banter, Mamine clumsily admits that she has romantic, but not sexual, feelings toward Kira. Kira is taken aback a bit, and says she's flattered, but she's not into other women, and Mamine said she wasn't either, but she just wanted Kira to know how much Kira mattered to Mamine.

Kira returned to the Defender trying to process this information, and Mamine made her way to the bridge of Darth Marr's ship, only to begin sensing the presence of her old enemy.  As she and Darth Marr begin to plan, Marr's ship is attacked by strange ships with strange troops.  Mamine heads to combat the troops, droids as she discovers, wading through blaster fire and directing the shots back at her foes.  After rescuing both Republic and Imperial troops, Mamine 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, Mamine is forced to regretfully inform Kira that she can't get out.  Kira, who shouts at her that she won't leave Mamine behind, is forced to do when Mamine says that they're Jedi and both have a job to do.

 Mamine 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, Mamine orders the crew to abandon ship, but Mamine and Marr are unable to get to safety themselves. The attackers take the ship, capturing Mamine 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 as Valkorian's son and slave to the Dark Side like Vitiate himself, and the blind seer Heskal.

Valkorian begins offering power to Mamine 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. Mamine, however, held true to the lessons she had learned. She had seen the horrors of the Dark Side, and wanted nothing to do with its influence. She also refuses, but Arcann chooses this moment to attack his father when told to execute her, giving Mamine's lightsabers back to her, and allowing Mamine to strike down Vitiate's new body, saying she hoped it stuck this time.

However, things did not happen as they should; Valkorian releases a great deal of power, knocking Mamine out, allowing Arcann take Valkorian's throne and to toss Mamine into carbonite, where Mamine is forced to dream of Vitiate in his Valkorian form, the form she assumed he saw himself as from this point on. Valkorian tried to convince Mamine of his philosophy, but Mamine fights back with philosophy and combat when necessary. Eventually, Mamine is awoken by a woman that she 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 her old friend, the astromech T7-01.  Lana lead Mamine 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 Mamine when he calls Mamine "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.  However, she did understand why Koth called Mamine that; Koth had no other reference point for Mamine.

Mamine and Lana continued to fight their way to Koth, Mamine performing some impressive physical feats when she cut out the knees of a walker droid before blowing the cab into the air and off the bridge, however, she does not nail the landing and knocks herself out.  Awoken by Lana within moments, they continue to fight their way to Koth, but not before Mamine is forced to shut down a reactor that would have destroyed several city blocks if she hadn't.  But before they could board Koth's ship, Mamine and Lana are forced to fight two Knights of Zakuul, where Mamine 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.

Mamine and Lana defeated their enemies their own way, forcing one to retreat, but Lana was about to choke the life out one before Mamine stopped her.  Moments later, they were met by Valkorian'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 Mamine was jumping, Vaylin throws the metal at the ship, forcing it away, and Mamine was about to plummet to her doom, only to be saved by an HK-55 unit.  It is here where Mamine finds out that she's been in carbonite for five years, and her first thoughts were of Kira and Suthazi, her friends who led her out of darkness through the support and desire to provide an example for.

They head out of the city, crashing into the swamp, and Mamine is given time to get to know Koth and HK a little before heading into the swamp.  Mamine was actually awestruck by the feeling of the swamp; so alive, so different than the city.  She could feel the ebb and flow of both the Dark and Light sides of the Force here, and all that nature had to offer.  If she wasn't running for her life, she felt she could actually enjoy her time in the "Endless Swamp" as Koth called it.

A few moments after Mamine took this in, Koth and Lana choose to set a trap for any Skytrooper droids that search for them, Mamine 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 Mamine.  Upon finding the object, Koth started freaking out over it being the Gravestone, a ship from Zakuulan legend.  Mamine and Lana, who didn't know the legends, did accept that this was going to be the best means get off the planet.

Mamine, with Koth at her 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.    Mamine went with Lana first, who helped her 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 Mamine's friends were missing.

Upon returning to the ship, Mamine 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.  Mamine mentioned how destiny is rarely pleasant, and brought up the story of Andor Vex as an example, or her own, which was a path that caused a LOT of pain and suffering to people who didn't deserve it, a path she still regretted to this day.

Upon returning to the Gravestone and helping Lana and Koth clear out stuff on the ship and help repair it, she found herself heading down a few decks and ended up in front of, what she learned later, was a control node for the Zakuulan "machine god", Zildrog, where Vitiate, still using his Valkorian form, chose to show himself as a ghostly form and started talking to Mamine.  He talked about the downfalls of his children and told Mamine that she needed to kill them, but Mamine was having none of it;  she had seen the end point that the dark path took her, and was certain that the only way to both stop them and stop Valkorian was to neutralize them while keeping them alive.

However, before any philosophical debate could take place, the ship was attacked by the Skytroopers. Mamine 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, she knew this woman was special. In fact, Mamine, a Battlemaster and lightsaber form instructor, had earned the right herself, but didn't feel worthy of the electrum finish on her weapons.

The three fought the Skytroopers and Knights until Valkorian chose to freeze time and lie to Mamine; that if Mamine didn't relinquish control of her body for a few moments, Lana would die to an unavoidable lightsaber strike to her shoulder.  Mamine 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 Mamine, Lana and the Knight that Mamine 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.

Mamine, 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. Mamine 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, Mamine 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.  Mamine understood why the humans were so upset with each other, but she still needed to fully regain her strength, and decided that it was time to find a place to meditate. After doing so, Mamine went and talked to Lana and dressed her wounds, then went to talk to Koth, who annoyed  her slightly, but after explaining why being called "the Outlander" bothered her, Koth backpedaled, not realizing that what he was saying was offensive and not wanting to do so later. But when Mamine said she was willing to give Senya the benefit of the doubt, Koth said "Don't forget who dropped everything to get you out of the Spire.", a clear attempt to play on Mamine's emotions. Mamine just rolled her eyes, and said "You've got a real bad habit of shoving your foot in your mouth, Koth," before explaining how he had just come across.  Once again, Koth sheepishly apologized, and as Mamine left, she wondered how he had made his way as a military officer without upsetting a superior with his "foot in mouth" tendencies.

Senya was at the Zildrog control node, and she and Mamine introduced themselves to each other.  Senya mentioned an appreciation of the Jedi philosophy even though it didn't work for her, though Mamine mentioned how it hadn't been enough combat her Dark Side either, at first. However, when Mamine mentioned how Arcann had pushed her and her support network apart, Senya offered compassion, and mentioned how she had some personal reasons for wanting to bring Arcann down, though Mamine 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, Mamine was immediately met a group of humans.  The humans appeared hostile, demanding entrance to the ship, and Mamine said that threats weren't the best way to get what they wanted out of her, and floated her lightsabers into her hand, but did not activate them, showing the thugs that she was more powerful than they were. Seeing the standoff, Koth ran up to Mamine and assured her that they were Koth's people.  Mamine stood down, but took a moment to gently chastise Koth for not telling her what was going on; Mamine could have easily killed Koth's crew, she explained.

After a brief conversation with Corporal Ralo, the Republic soldier from Darth Marr's ship that she'd saved, Mamine was asked to find the final member of Koth's crew, a human named Tora. HK had Tora's information in his databanks, and Mamine and HK headed into the so called "Free Zone" to retrieve her.  After fighting through a bunch of gangsters, Mamine was met by Tora, who was signified by her blue hair and obnoxious laugh, and a weequay with a Havoc Squad badge on his armor. She found out he was Tanno Vik, former demolition expert of Havoc Squad, but was sadly dishonorably discharged due to his criminal activity after his CO disappeared .

Mamine rolled her 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.  Mamine 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 Mamine 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. Mamine, not happy with the mouth on Tora, told her to just say "thank you" and head back to Koth, and directed her toward the Gravestone.

A few minutes later, Mamine 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 Mamine immediately drawing, and activating, her lightsaber and dropping into attack position. Shee 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 Mamine's future, and wanted to know why, but what really surprised Mamine was that Senya stood at Mamine'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.  And Mamine knew the truth about visions; they were only true if followed, if what Mamine had done on Voss with Sel-Makor had been any indication.

Mamaine and Senya fought through the Scions' "tests", doing their best not to harm them, before meeting Heksal, the leader.  Mamine recognized Heskal, but she could also feel the overwhelming darkness within him, it being so similar to her own so many years ago, meaning his vision was tainted.  Mamine calmly said that so long as Heskal said she must, she would refuse to kill Arcann, because she would not be a part of Heskal's dark designs.  This brought on the duel between then, and Mamine's superior focus and greater skill in lightsaber combat brought her to the edge of victory, only for Valkorian to freeze time and offer his power to speed things up, since "this was all pointless" Mamine refused and continued dueling Heskal.

The duel ended with Heskal's defeat, and Mamine said that the Scions' vision was tainted when Senya said they needed the Scions, mentioning she knew better than anyone how the Dark Side clouded the mind of anyone under its thrall.  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 Mamine about how she'd fix the galaxy when she won, and Mamine essentially said "Whatever way denies your dark visions and helps those being hurt". And this is when Valkorian 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 Mamine had told about Vitiate invading her mind in the Endless Swamp, was appropriately concerned.

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

And that's the first post of Rise of Mamine.  As always, I put links for things that I'm not certain would be easily understood by my foreign audience, and I did my best to swap out the "he" and "him" into "she" and "her", since this is the editted version of Ragdat's version, like I did over at fanfiction.net before taking these two down.

For now, look forward to the next set of chapters, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days Traitor Saga

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time to get through the, as of the date of writing this, completion of Ragdat's Darkest Days.


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, it turned out that not everyone did so; it turned out that Allisani had been monitoring everyone's communications and activities from the day she landed on Odessen, which is why she had learned as much as she had about their enemy, the Order of Zildrog, before anyone knew whom they were fighting. She even intercepted a communication between the traitor and the leader; the bodies and voices were distorted to protect their identities, but as Allisani told Ragdat, the traitor was not Lana with 100% certainty. When asked for the reason, Allisani said she was with Lana at the moment of the timestamp of this recording, and when Ragdat asked what they were doing, Allisani just grinned and said "A lady doesn't kiss and tell, Master Jedi, and a gentleman doesn't ask." which took Ragdat aback for a moment before regaining his composure. He was happy that they had found each other, but he missed Kira all the more with this information.


Allisani went on to say that based on what she could tell from the cleaned up analysis, both the traitor and their enemy were male, of average height, and of a relatively normal build. She could also tell, from the message, that the traitor was to prove himself on Umbara, which she, and later, Lana, found a trail for them to follow.



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 Ragdat boarded the speeding train to intercept and stop the traitor, while Allisani piloted Ragdat's Defender to drop them off, and eventually pick them up. 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 Ragdat, only for Lana to jump in front of him. Ragdat was irritated; both at Theron for betraying them, and that his danger sense didn't alert him to the threat, and what that meant. Theron locked Ragdat and Lana inside the cabin and told Ragdat why he was betraying him; that the Alliance had become a symbol of oppression despite Ragdat's best efforts, and Ragdat replied that he never wanted any of this, and that he 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 Ragdat, Lana, and the crystals.



Managing to bail before the impact and survive the crash while Theron escaped on a speeder, Ragdat and Lana went after Theron on foot, while also fending off local wildlife. During this trip, Ragdat asked Lana how long she and Allisani had been together, and Lana said this wasn't the time for this conversation, and Ragdat said he knew, but it would get his mind of the betrayal and focus on something good while the fought, which would make him stronger, and that thinking about her lover would stoke Lana's passions and make her stronger. Lana rolled her eyes at this, but knew that Ragdat was right, and stated that they'd been together for about two years at this point. They had been friends during the Revan conflict, and they'd worked together as much as she had with Koth and Senya during Lana's search for Ragdat. Things became "official" when Lana spent a night at a safehouse Allisani utilized, and Allisani, who was there for reasons of her own, helped Lana de-stress one day. Ragdat smiled and said he was happy they found each other, with Lana saying that he'd find Kira again soon enough, knowing him full well that he missed her.



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, Ragdat sent a galaxy-wide message on the HoloNet about his desire for peace directly to Theron in regards to his treason, and ordered Lana and Allisani 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 Ragdat in private. He met Ragdat outside his Defender, and mentioned he never thought he'd set foot on Odessen as anything but a conqueror, and Ragdat mentioned how Arcann was a better man than he was when they met. Arcann thanked him and presented Ragdat 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 Ragdat, Arcann could be certain that this would. Ragdat inspected the armor; it was light, yet sturdy. And the chest, back and wrist pieces felt like the same material that his own chest, back and wrist pieces were. Ragdat then asked if this was Force imbued, and Arcann confirmed that it was, which showed Ragdat that it was resistant to lightsaber strikes. Ragdat could then detect strong feelings toward Ragdat coming from Arcann, and all that did was make Ragdat miss Kira again. He said, without realizing he had, that Kira would love to see him in this, which got a smile out of Arcann, which indicated that if someone else made the person he cared about happy, then he should be happy for the both of them, and said "We'll find her, Commander." before heading inside.



Within a week, Ragdat's message reached the right ears and Aristocra Saganu of the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force arrived to Odessen personally, having been greeted by his former lover Allisani, and revealed that Theron was being sheltered on Copero by the rogue Syndic Zenta of the Inrokini Family. To avoid a political conflict, Saganu asked Ragdat to deal with the traitor personally, sending a Human Lieutenant Raina Temple, whom Ragdat recognized as a Padawan, with them to watch for Chiss Ascendancy interests. When Ragdat mentioned that he recognized her, Temple told Ragdat she was a "cultural explorer" to the Ascendancy thanks to her experience with the Chiss, despite not being able to complete her Trials of Knighthood thanks to a lack of a Council. She also mentioned that she wasn't comfortable with a lightsaber, and so stuck with her blasters from before, now being far more accurate, even able to deflect incoming fire with her own shots, an ability even more difficult than doing so with a lightsaber. Ragdat was impressed, and agreed to take her along, along with Allisani, who knew the terrain of Copero very well.


Arriving on Copero, Ragdat, Allisani and Temple were informed that Force sensitives among the Chiss were considered "impure", which is why Valss was so protective of Syndic Zenta. The three 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, Ragdat was about to continue their pursuit, but Saganu demanded that they take Zenta's life. Ragdat said that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, and Saganu claimed there would be no deal between the Alliance and the Ascendancy otherwise. Allisani was quick to remind both Saganu and Ragdat that Saganu was only one member of the ruling families, and that the rest wouldn't be too pleased that an outsider killed a high ranking member of house Zenta. With this in mind, Ragdat 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; both by Ragdat ruining his plans and that his former "red flame" was openly going against him like this.


Eventually reaching Theron at Allisani's guidance, Theron destroyed the holomap after learning the superweapon's location, but as he and Valss prepared to leave, he noticed that the three had arrived to stop them. Valss stayed behind to buy Theron enough time to escape, and Ragdat struck the Valss down in a lightsaber duel, his first one since being freed of Vitiate, a fact that he 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, and Ragdat said he could contact Vedere about getting Temple through the Jedi trials. Temple thanked Ragdat, but stated that she never really felt at home with the Jedi's structure. Ragdat said he understood, but the Trials were merely the Council recognizing what the Force had already proclaimed, and that Knighthood for her would simply be recognition of the autonomy she already had. Temple smiled and said that when they had the time, she would undergo the Trials, but her duties to the Ascendancy and Alliance came first. Ragdat agreed, and contacted Vedere to set things up.


Eventually, smugglers working for Hylo Visz intercepted a message to the Alliance from an Abandoned Listening Post and Ragdat went there with Lana and Allisani 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, Ragdat noticed one of the holorecordings was the one that Allisani had shown him several weeks before; of Theron talking to Vinn Atrius about Umbara. 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.


To stop the Order's plan and deal with Theron one way or another, Ragdat, Allisani 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 escaped 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 Allisani was the most understanding, having had to "betray" people she was working for the entire time before, and explained that this was probably why Ragdat's danger sense didn't alert him to Theron's betrayal on Umbara; he was in no real danger from Theron, despite him having to make things look convincing. 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 Ragdat 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 his 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 Ragdat's actions. Ragdat, 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 Ragdat out. He then destroyed an entire scout fleet without warning, and faked his death at Ragdat'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 Ragdat had done this entire time was mitigate the damage and helped people, even providing relief for the people of Zakuul once he stopped the Fleet's rampage. Vinn Atrius shouted for Ragdat to "Shut Up!" and that "Valkorian brought peace and prosperity to Zakuul!", which caused Ragdat to shake his 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. Colonel Strannos contacted Ragdat 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 Allisani and Ragdat 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 Allisani, Lana and Ragdat with his new increased strength, but thanks to Ragdat's ability to see Shatterpoints, the three defeated Atrius without much difficulty and destroyed Zildrog, which also caused the self-destruct of the Gravestone and disabled the "Eternal Throne."


Ragdat marched toward Atrius, glaring at the man while he taunted Ragdat. Atrius told him to "Just kill me and get on with it. Be the hero, like you always do!" while Lana tended to Theron's wounds, determining that he needed to be immediately brought to Odessen for treatment. Ragdat 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.


Ragdat had Allisani stabilize Theron and took them all back to Odessen. Once back, Lana reported to Ragdat 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. Ragdat was relieved at this fact, since he never wanted the fleet in the first place, but, as Allisani added, 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, though many members like Adaso, Maircus, Colonel Strannos and the leadership choosing to remain, 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. Ragdat 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. Ragdat said that she'd be right at home with the SIS as she said Theron came into earshot. At that point, Ragdat, Lana, Theron and Allisani stood in the hangar, and mused on the future now that the shadow of Vitiate had finally been been illuminated.


And that's it, as of November 21, 2018, for Ragdat's Darkest Days! And yes, that whole thing about Lana and Allisani being together is indeed a nod to my playthrough of Allisani through KOTFE and KOTET. I will mention them getting married at some point in the future like the game allows them to now, but for now, look forward to Rise of Mamine, which I intend to get out before December 1st. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days-War for Iokath

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!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days KOTET 7-9

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, we're finishing off KOTET for Ragdat!

A few hours after meeting Mako, Ragdat had gathered his Force advisors for an important meeting; how to defeat Vaylin without killing her.  Now that they'd revealed her conditioning to the galaxy, Vaylin would be more dangerous due to her desire to remove the conditioning, and they needed a way to prevent Vitiate from absorbing her power, since unlike Arcann, Vaylin showed no good in her and had no desire to be a better person.  Neither Sana-Rae nor Darth Nox had methods to defeat her without killing her, though Nox presented the idea that if they timed it correctly, she could Force Walk Vaylin's ghost to prevent Vitiate from getting access to Vaylin's power. However, it was Vedere that presented the idea that they could cut Vaylin off from the Force. It was a last resort, and only possible by a person who had both raw power and unquestioned purity, so someone like Sana-Rae or Darth Nox would not be able perform the ritual. Ragdat decided that this was what they were going to do until they could finally find the means to destroy Vitiate once and for all, however, Vedere added the one possible problem; that thanks to the shielding of Terrak Morrhage's plague victims still weakening her, she didn't have the required power to do so. Ragdat then asked if he could do it, and she also replied negatively, since, thanks to Vitiate's presence, he lacked the purity. Vedere said she'd find the Jedi she needed to boost her strength for the ritual, and they broke the meeting from there.

When Ragdat slept that night, Vitiate chose to allow Ragdat to glimpse "Valkorion's" memories of Vaylin's return to Zakuul after her conditioning on Nathema, and Vitiate suggested that Vaylin may have found a way to break her bonds in the place they were created. Vaylin had indeed vanished from Zakuul, and when Ragdat brought up the dream, Darth Nox mentioned she'd been on Nathema and found an abandoned facility. A facility that, upon scanning, they found a transmission to Vaylin that was detected during the Festival. With all signs pointing that Vaylin did indeed return to Nathema, Ragdat, Lana, Theron and Darth Nox geared up for battle, while Arcann stayed to watch over his still comatose mother, though Ragdat did mention that despite Arcann's personal doubts about himself, Ragdat believed that Arcann was strong enough to resist the pull of the Dark Side on Nathema.

Theron piloted the shuttle to Nathema, and Lana, Ragdat and Darth Nox began feeling the effects of the Force void before even setting foot on the planet. Even Vitiate found his power diminished in this place, though he promised to shield them from from its worst effects. And almost immediately after, Darth Nox mentioned that she knew a ritual to do the same thing, and Ragdat said not to use it on him. When Nox expressed confusion, Ragdat said that Vitiate would be expending his power to shield Ragdat, and that meant he'd be weaker and unable to force any desired outcome. Nox smiled and nodded, and performed the ritual on only Lana and herself, leaving Theron behind in the shuttle, which he returned to orbit so he wouldn't be affected by the void in the Force.

Making their way through the planet's surface, which was left lifeless ever since the Ritual of Nathema over a millennia ago, the trio reached the Sanitarium, the only structure still showing signs of life on the planet, with Vaylin already inside. Dispatching several Horizon Guards, Nathema Zealots and Keepers, the three explored the inner workings of the Sanitarium, learning about Vaylin's past there from holorecording left by an Anomid named Jarak, a name Ragdat recognized as the architect of Felix Irresso's current mental state.

Meanwhile, the ritual to break Vaylin's bonds when out of control, with Vaylin's power vaporizing those in her vicinity and Ragdat, Lana and Darth Nox came upon Jarak, who offered to take them to a place where they could take shelter. Ragdat didn't trust Jarak after what was done to Felix, but recognized that this was not the time to act upon the distrust; the three of them would be able to handle any trap that Jarak set up.

 In the Sanitarium's lower levels they reached the Immortal Emperor's vault, where Vitiate stored artifacts even he deemed to dangerous, and the group barely managed to get inside in time. Once inside, Ragdat recognized that Vitiate was somehow blocked inside this room, and finding the door stuck, Ragdat realized that this was likely their only chance to hide something from Vitiate. Lana and Ragdat went to activate the backup power generator, while  Darth Nox killed the vault guardian that killed Jarak, though she did stand there and watching him die, removing any chance of betrayal. Inside, the three made an important discovery of Dramath's holocron, which still housed the essence of Vitiate's father that he killed over 1300 years ago. Dramath told them that the holocron, which Darth Nox had searched for the last time she was here, held the power to destroy Vitiate once and for all. Dramath asked to release him and grant him oblivion, to which both Darth Nox and Lana disagreed, but in the end, Ragdat's Jedi mindset won out and Ragdat released Dramath from his purgatory. Ragdat then ordered Lana to take care of the holocron, since he wanted to keep the fact that they had it a secret since as soon as they stepped outside, Vitiate would have access to Ragdat's body once again. Eventually unlocking the door that trapped them inside and defeating several Voreclaws, the three learned from Theron that Vaylin has already left the surface and escaped the Sanitarium which now threatened to collapse. Ragdat, Darth Nox and Lana rushed outside where Theron picked them up, but before they could rest, they learned from Bey'wan Aygo that Vaylin launched another assault on Odessen.

Returning to Odessen, the team found the battle already raging on multiple fronts. Theron and Darth Nox volunteered to sneak behind the enemy's lines, both from different avenues, while Lana and Ragdat made their way to the Gravestone, which was still in dry dock, unable to take off until the Iokath upgrades were completed. Commandeering an Eternal Empire Walker, Ragdat and Lana made their way through the front lines, eventually meeting Arcann and the now awoken Senya Tirall at the Gravestone, as it was finally able to take off.  Pleased to see Senya at full strength, Senya renewed her commitment to the Alliance, Ragdat and the desire to stop Vaylin once and for all.

Lana went to join Theron while Ragdat contacted Vaylin via a holo-call, successfully taunting her to abandon the safety of her flagship and travel to Odessen surface for a face-to-face confrontation. Immediately after, Ragdat contacted Vedere, who told him that she hadn't found enough Jedi to grant her the power to perform the ritual without hurting herself, but she said she'd be wherever Ragdat needed her when the time came.

Ragdat, Arcann and Senya fought through the battlefield, only to receive a message that Vaylin was holding Torian hostage, and that Vaylin awaited on the Alliance landing platform. It didn't take long after that for Ragdat and Vaylin's family to get to Vaylin, and did their best to duel her, though not before she killed Torian before they could stop her. Only seeing the Shatterpoint was what allowed Ragdat to defeat Vaylin, though Vedere and her people where nowhere to be found. Indeed, when Ragdat contacted her, she said the lift had been damaged, and they couldn't get to Ragdat in time. With Vaylin's power raging out of control, she began causing a massive Force Storm, leaving Ragdat no choice but to strike her down. And just as he suspected, Vaylin's soul was absorbed into Ragdat, confirming that eating his children was part of Vitiate's plan.

 As Vaylin laid dead, Senya and Arcann lamented her loss, but were relieved that the conflict was over, though their spirits were dampened when Ragdat informed them of what happened. However, he admitted that this was a victory, as the fighting on Odessen was over as Zakuulan forces surrendered en masse, but the war was not, as with Eternal Throne empty the GEMINI Captains have gone rogue, bombarding the capital worlds of Coruscant, Dromund Kaas and Zakuul into rubble. Ragdat grumbled, since claiming the Eternal Throne was the only way to stop the destruction, which he knew was part of Vitiate's plan, and was forced to lead the Alliance to Zakuul.

Catching some sleep on their way via the Gravestone, Ragdat experienced a vision of the Eternal Throne surrounded by their allies and Vaylin, who rose from the dead to strike them down. Waking up, Ragdat feared that this was how Vitiate was going to win, and ordered Lana to bring Dramath's holocron along. Vitiate intervened again, dismissing it as a useless dusty trinket, and Lana could finally feel his presence in the Force, illustrating how much more powerful he was now. More powerful than even Ragdat's iron will, they feared.

The major players then gathered on the bridge, with entire fleet at their back, where after dropping out of hyperspace, they witnessed the Spire blockaded by the Eternal Fleet, though Iokath upgrades of the Gravestone allowed Colonel Strannos, the new Commanding Officer of the Gravestone, to breach the blockade. Senya and Arcann volunteered to accompany Ragdat to the Eternal Throne and together they traveled down to surface in a boarding pod that landed in the Garden of Izax. The three of them made their way to the Spire as the Eternal Fleet burned Zakuul around them, receiving unexpected assistance from Indo Zal and his Zakuulan rebels. Fighting through the skytroopers and Knights of Zakuul, they finally took a turbolift to the Eternal Throne, but Vitiate tried to seed doubt in Ragdat's mind, telling him to strike down Senya and Arcann to avoid any competition for the Throne, though Ragdat simply stated "one more word out of you, and I'm giving back to Arcann just to spite you."

After entering the Eternal Throne room, Arcann was taken aback at seeing his old Throne and lamented the death of millions he caused while holding it, while Senya assured him that he became a better man since then. However, it was this moment when Ragdat found himself moving without any desire to, and walked up to it and took the Throne, which sent a shock through his body and pacified the Fleet. Senya congratulated him, but immediately afterward, Vitiate revealed his ultimate goal, dominating Ragdat's will and forcing him to kneel and proclaiming his desire to eradicate the Ragdat's mind and take possession of his body, shocking him into nothingness and forcing his mind to go black.

Ragdat awoke inside his own mindscape to the sound of his own voice, which was doing all it could to reassert his identity. However, Ragdat was now wearing Valkorion's skin in a subconscious attempt to save himself from being completely erased, realizing that Vitiate wouldn't destroy himself before he had beaten Ragdat completely. At this point, he had vague memories that the voice had managed to save for him; he was a Jedi, a Battlemaster, he had defeated Vitiate once before, and he was the Commander of the Alliance. He also knew someone was important to him, but he didn't know who or why they were.  There were so many gaps in his memory, and he only hoped he'd fill them before he was able to face Vitiate again.

Ragdat traversed the bizarre mindscape, cleansing his corrupted memories, confirming that Vitiate only pretended to abandon his body on Odessen and later absorbed Vaylin's spirit after her death, giving the Immortal Emperor the key he needed to conquer his vessel's mental defenses. And during these efforts, he regained his memories of Kira, the one person who mattered to him more than anyone or anything else. Ragdat would have wept over the fact that he could ever forget Kira where he not fighting for his mind, and that strengthened his resolve to end his evil once and for all.

Eventually locating the mental image of Dramath's holocron, Ragdat took control of it and regained control of his form, forcing Vitiate to once again manifested in his Valkorian guise. This proved to Vitiate that Ragdat's iron will was strong enough to overcome anything Vitiate threw at Ragdat, but when Vitiate summoned Vaylin's enslaved spirit, he proved that his will was stronger than her's, and placed her under his spell and commanding his daughter to destroy Ragdat.

Ragdat, however, had learned much in his time as a Jedi, and figured that a battle of the minds was determined by who had the stronger will, and since Ragdat's will was stronger than Vitiate's, he was easily able to defeat Vaylin in the mental mindscape. Vitiate, however,  easily restored her spirit, which gave Ragdat the idea to use the representation of Dramath's holocron to free Vaylin from her father's mind control. At this point, Arcann has joined them inside Ragat's mind by using the physical holocron located in the Eternal Throne room, adding their strength to Ragdat's own.

Ragdat and Arcann were able to convince Vaylin to join them against Vitiate, however, as Vitiate began to summon up power to battle the trio, Ragdat decided that enough was enough, and used Vaylin's conditioning code, "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul" to turn the tables on Vitiate and rob the Emperor of his strength. Vitiate was horrified that this worked, claiming that this only worked on Vaylin, Ragdat smugly stated "My mind, my rules. And I say what works on Vaylin, works on you." This delighted Vaylin, who demanded that her father "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul", in a way saying that Ragdat, not Vitiate, was the Dragon that held all the power now.

With Vitiate overpowered and helpless, Senya joined her children in Ragdat's mind and together the family watched the "Immortal Emperor" shout his final words, which were purely insults and condemning their weakness, though Ragdat shot back that their "weakness" is what gave them the strength to end him once and for all before he put a final end to his millennia-long existence.

Back in the physical world, Senya congratulated the Commander on finally putting an end to Valkorion and opened a system-wide holochannel to announce the Alliance victory. And this was when Ragdat recognized what this moment was; Lord Scourge's prophesy.  The players were different, with Senya being the one to put the crown upon his head, but all the aspects of the prophesy; people kneeling before him as he held Vitiate's power in his hand. So Ragdat decided that he would not follow the prophesy to completion; he would not take the throne, instead, allowing Zakuul to finally rule itself. From there, he proclaimed the age of the Eternal Alliance, unifying the military of Zakuul and the Eternal Fleet with the cause of the Alliance, with the Eternal Throne dismantled and the controls moved to Odessen and the Eternal Fleet now under his control.

In the coming days, many of Ragdat's people began packing up and preparing to leave, as he expected they would. Curoda stated that now that the threat of Vitiate was over, she needed to return to a level of independence that a Pirate Fleet required, though she stated that she'd covertly support the Alliance and Ragdat's eventual "return" to the Republic when the time finally came.  Vedere also gathered her people, stating that the Jedi needed to rebuild, and with Satele fully stepping down as Grandmaster, it fell to Vedere to rebuild.  She echoed Curoda's statement about Ragdat's heart lying with the Republic, and added that she'd continue to search for Kira for him.

Ragdat was also not surprised that Darth Nox was leaving, but he was surprised at the reason.  Oh, she said that she wished to return to the world she ruled, but what got Ragdat was that Darth Nox said that her son missed his mother dearly.  When Ragdat asked for clarification, Nox stated that her son had recently turned four, and had been sending messages almost daily with the assistance of his father, wondering when she'd be returning.  However, she also added that she wouldn't stand against Ragdat when he returned to the Republic, since rejoining the Empire would put her under Acina, and she would never look at Acina as anything more than an equal.

Adaso, however, remained with the Alliance.  He said that the Empire had nothing for him now; no family, no power base, and ruled by the one who destroyed them. Even his brother and his clan were gone, having fallen in the struggle against Vaylin. All he had left was a wife he was estranged with ever since he joined a Jedi, and the wealth that he was utilizing to help fund the Alliance. His only desire now was actually quite similar to Scourge's all those years ago; to train with Ragdat and to ensure that the Jedi who destroyed Vitiate continued to deserve that distinction.

The rest of the people Ragdat expected to remain; Colonel Strannos was now the Commanding Officer of the Alliance flagship, so while she wasn't on the ground anymore, she was still out there and fighting. Maircus also remained, stating that Odessen was a good place to operate out of while hunting bounties, and that his family was there, though he did express regret over the death of Torian, his "vod" or brother in Mandalorian.  Allisani also remained, though at this point, he suspected that she wasn't just an "agent of the Specter", but the Specter herself, who expressed, in private, a desire to help Ragdat bring down the Empire once and for all.

All was relatively quiet as Ragdat's Eternal Fleet patrolled the galaxy, assisting in recovery efforts on Zakuul and everywhere else. But Ragdat knew that this wouldn't last forever.

And that's it for Ragdat's Darkest Days KOTET.  I'll be doing Iokath as one post, though I'll include the events of the operation, and then, do the Traitor Flashpoints in one as well. Look forward to those, as well as Rise of Mamine, which I'll be doing those in quick succession, though, you're in for a few surprises with that one. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days KOTET 4-6

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time for the SCORPIO saga on Iokath!

Ragdat awoke on the surface of the strange world, unable to reach anyone from the Alliance and having only a strange remote for the company, while every other droids was decidedly hostile. What Ragdat thought was strange was that the remote didn't do anything; it just floated there and followed him.

Ragdat investigated several technoliths, eventually learning from the hologram of ARIES that they were in the Selruvian biome of the artificial world designated Iokath. After learning this, Torian  approached Ragdat from behind, and explaining that he awoke in the same situation. The two then witnessed how the Iokath droids attacked the Knights of Zakuul, realizing that personnel from the Eternal Fleet was brought on-world as well. After fighting off both groups, Theron contacted Ragdat and Torian, directing them to a structure called the Tributary, where the rest of Alliance forced already had gathered. However, Koth was still upset about Ragdat's intention to arrest him for treason though not wanting to vocalize with the hope that Ragdat would forget between now and their return to Odessen, Ragdat checked on the Alliance personnel, quietly nodding at Koth to remind him that Ragdat still remembered, before moving through the rest of the Alliance before stopping at Vette, who was standing in front of another technolith. The Twi'lek showed Ragdat her findings, getting ARIES to reveal a list of planets that the Iokath creators used to test their weapons, which turned out to include Zakuul, which likely explained some of their ancient legends.

Their connection to ARIES was then interrupted by SCORPIO, who was imprisoned at an unknown location and asked the Alliance for assistance. Their group's position came under attack from the droids again, and they fought waves of droids before Theron activated the force field that prevented more droids from coming in, but also trapped the Alliance inside. Vette interacted with the technolith again, trying to get ARIES back online, but opened a door deeper into the structure instead. She and Ragdat went ahead to explore, eventually locating another technolith. Vette instructed Ragdat on how to get the power to open the light bridge in their way, and the technolith explained that they were in Necropolis, a giant crypt that housed millions of dead.

SCOPRIO contacted Ragdat again, and revealed the history of Iokath, explaining that ARIES was controlling everything on Iokath, including their current condition, before a host of droids arrived to prove her right. Ragdat and Vette fought off their attackers, but their access to both the technolith and the way they originally came in was blocked, requiring Vette to look for another secret tunnel. On their way back to the group, they came across another holonode, from which SCORPIO contacted Ragdat again, alerting them that Vaylin has broken free and had located the Eternal Fleet, before notifying the two about a colossus droid that prepared to attack them. Vette noticed how the droid was drawing power from energy conduits and Ragdat disabled them, allowing them to deactivate the droid just as the rest of the group caught up.

Theron realized that even though he was unable to locate the Gravestone, he could still use his cranial implant to remotely pilot the Alliance shuttle that was left in its hangar. To provide themselves with a distraction from the droids outside, the team repaired the colossus droid, leaving Ragat to pilot it against its much weaker, but more numerous brethren, while the rest went to the Tributary roof, something that Ragdat thoroughly enjoyed. Eventually though, the colossus was damaged, requiring him to eject. With everyone safely onboard the shuttle, Theron took off, but before they could leave, SCORPIO contacted the group again and revealed that ARIES raised an energy shield that would destroy any vessel attempting to leave. With ARIES re-charging the weapon that incapacitated them in the first place and promising to use it again on a lethal setting, the only way out was to stop ARIES. SCORPIO revealed the location of ARIES' base and Theron dropped off Vette and Ragdat there to deal with ARIES, while the rest went to reclaim the Gravestone.

Ragdat and Vette confronted and engaged ARIES, and SCORPIO herself arrived to help defeat him. She then lowered the energy shield and urged Ragdat to escape before capacitors on ARIES' weapon overloaded, threatening the cover the entire world with a pulse of deadly radiation. SCORPIO announced her intention to upload her consciousness into the planetary network, essentially becoming one with Iokath. Ragdat was hesitant about this, but since this would prevent her from threatening the Alliance or the galaxy again, he allowed her to proceed, but with a warning that if she ever threatened the galaxy again, he'd destroy her with the Gravestone's omnicannon. SCORPIO nodded knowingly, thanked them, and forever left her droid body, while also sending to the Alliance schematics for upgrading the Gravestone with Iokath technology. From there, Ragdat and Vette rushed back to the Gravestone, which just barely managed to escape to hyperspace before the weapon overloaded, as did Vaylin with most of the Eternal Fleet. Returning to the safety of Odessen, Ragdat drew his lightsaber on Koth, and announced that Koth was under arrest for treason.  The members of the Alliance were where shocked at this until Ragdat revealed both the quantum bomb and Koth threatening Ragdat afterward. Koth said "Come on, all I said was 'I'd like to see you try to replace me'.", which caused Colonel Strannos to shake her head.  She said "Koth, banning you from the vessel you were the Commanding Officer of was light for putting a quantum bomb on the most expensive vessel in the fleet.  The Commander has to maintain military discipline after you threatening him." and then shot him with her pistol on the stun setting and picking him up to be transported to the brig to await trial.

The trial was exhausting for everyone involved. The tribunal was made up of Doctor Oggurobb, Bey'wan Aygo, Sana-Rae and Hylo Visz, with Colonel Strannos as the prosecutor and Lana Beniko as defense, with Ragdat watching from a security camera to ensure his emotional responses wouldn't taint the results.  The Colonel talked about what Koth did, and the damage a quantum bomb could have done, both the credit value of the equipment that could have been lost being in the quadrillions, the loss of life in those starships, and the fact that Koth put the bomb on the only vessel in the Alliance fleet that could not be replaced. Lana, however, while not denying the gravity of the charges, stressed that his reasoning, to prevent the Gravestone from being captured from under them, which was, as this past mission illustrated, was a very real possibility.  The Colonel responded with a statement about how Koth should have sought the Commander's approval, and the fact that he didn't meant that Koth knew that the Commander would deny this request, but he chose to do so anyway, which constituted another charge among the Republic called "Fraud, Waste and Abuse of Military Resources". Both women stressed Koth being a founding member of the Alliance, Lana as a means to stress his importance, the Colonel stressed that he should know better, and used his former military background to illustrate this.

In the end, the tribunal chose to be lenient and chose to exile Koth from the Alliance; he had 24 hours to gather his belongings and report to the shuttle bay, where he'd be given a shuttle of his own to use for whatever reason he wished. And at that moment Koth turned into the shuttle hanger to depart, Ragdat was waiting for Koth to see him off. Koth was standoffish, of course, but Ragdat asked Koth that, if Koth had been in Ragdat's shoes, would he do anything different? Koth was force to say no, Ragdat did what was best for the Alliance.  Ragdat said that there was no hard feelings, and stressed that, if Koth hadn't threatened him in the heat of the moment, Ragdat had intended to only remove Koth from command of the Gravestone, and not prevent him from commanding an entirely different vessel. Koth was forced to finally realize what he had done, and just said "I really screwed up, didn't I?", and Ragdat extended his hand, wishing Koth the best.

After Koth's ship left the atmosphere, Lana came up behind Ragdat and assured the Commander that the Alliance was stronger than ever in spite of the loss of Koth, with Gravestone secure and SCORPIO out of the picture, but Iokath remained inaccessible for the time being.

About an hour later, Ragdat was met by former Lieutenant Felix Iresso after being rescued by Vedere's team.  Iresso had been through hell at the hands of a Zakuulan scientist Jarak, who had apparently tried to unlock a Sith holocron that was somehow locked inside Iresso's mind before finally being released by Vedere.  Ragdat welcomed Iresso to the Alliance formally, and said that he'd make sure Iresso got the help that he needed.

It wasn't much later that an opportunity to strike against Vaylin directly presented itself when Theron located an inside man on Zakuul. Indo Zal, an Alliance sympathizer and Vaylin's Magistrate of Revelry,. Indo informed the Alliance about the upcoming Grand Festival of Empress Vaylin, where the Empress planned to execute a host of Zakuulan rebels. Theron vouched for Indo, who proposed to provide disguises and security clearances for the Alliance to infiltrate the party, then cause a revolt among the prisoners, causing enough chaos for Ragdat to get close to Vaylin and activate her conditioning. Theron volunteered to accompany Ragdat inside the Palace of the Eternal Dragon, while Lana and T7-O1 provided remote support from a shuttle that served as their getaway vehicle.

Arriving on Zakuul under the guises of two Knights of Zakuul, Theron and Ragdat got inside the Palace and met Indo, who provided them with Ion charges to be installed throughout the Palace so that they could be detonated at once and disable the rebels' shock collars. Theron and Ragdat worked their way around Palace security, planting all six charges, after which Lana informed them that Vaylin was beginning her speech. Dropping their disguises, Theron and Ragdat strolled into the main hall, where Vaylin taunted Ragdat about being under her father's control, but Ragdat retorted that she was the one under his control, activating Vaylin's conditioning and then triggering the ion charges, with Vaylin completely powerless to retaliate. 

However, their confrontation with Vaylin was interrupted by Arcann, who arrived with a group of his loyalists, intending to stop the threat of  his sister. Before retreating from the scene, Vaylin dropped the rebel prisoners and Indo Zal into the creature pit, and Theron and Ragdat had to follow inside. After killing a Rancor , Ragdat ordered Indo to retreat with the rebels, after which Ragdat and Theron went after Vaylin, fighting both the forces of Arcann and Vaylin, who were fighting on the balcony.

The arrival of Theron and Ragdat interrupted the duel between siblings, allowing Vaylin to escape on a speeder bike. To Ragdat's surprise, Arcann's healing on Voss stuck, and Arcann addressed them peacefully, no longer consumed by hate and anger, his presence in the Force much lighter. Theron, who lacked a connection to the Force, doubted his trustworthiness, but with Arcann assisting them in an upcoming battle, Theron relented. Arcann then offered to join the Alliance to atone for the blood shed under his reign, but Vitiate chose to take form and taunt his son, saying he did not raise him to serve. Arcann said "You have no son", and Ragdat said that, since he upset his father, Arcann knew he was finally doing the right thing and agreed to take him in. It was this moment that they noticed a holodroid, and Ragdat gave a message to the people of Zakuul; he wasn't their enemy. All he had been trying to do from the start was help free them from tyranny; from Arcann and Vaylin, deliberately leaving out that beloved Emperor "Valkorian" was also a tyrant.

Enraged at her brother's betrayal, Vaylin ordered the Eternal Fleet to bombard the entire Palace to rubble, and Lana arrived with the shuttle just in time to get Ragdat, Theron and Arcann to safety. Upon their return to Odessen, Arcann was initially treated as enemy by the Alliance personnel, many of whom suffered under his rule for years and joined the Alliance to oppose him in a first place. However, Ragdat insisted that having the former Eternal Emperor on the side was good for both the morale and for putting additional pressure on Vaylin, and added no one was beyond hope of redemption, prompting Arcann saying that he may not be able to be redeemed, but said he'd go to his deathbed trying.

As Arcann was shown to his new quarters, Maircus, who had been watching this whole thing, walked up to Ragdat and introduced the Commander to his wife, Mako, who, along with her friend Akaavi, who was also a crewmate of Curoda, were here to join the Alliance. Ragdat welcomed Mako before heading to the gym to perform a moving meditation to clear his head.

Yeah, I'm adding the "Post KOTET" class companions into the story, because why not?  It gives the other classes something to do while Ragdat is stopping Vaylin. Oh, and if you need me to elaborate about Fraud, Waste and Abuse of Military Resources, don't be afraid to ask in the comments. I should have this done before November is over, but for now, look forward to the end of KOTET, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darknest Days KOTET 1-3

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! It's time to get started in KOTET!

Time had passed between the defeat of Arcann and the rise of Vaylin.  She was causing a path of destruction while searching for her brother and mother, wanting to be rid of them for their betrayal once and for all.

Her search led her to Voss, which was under the protection of the Alliance thanks to Sana Rae and Vedere's friendship with the mystic Gaden Ko. Theron Shan and Sana-Rae happened to be on Voss meeting a contact and were caught in the attack, signaling the Alliance to scramble the fleet. The Alliance fleet moved to intercept and engage the Eternal Fleet, while Lana piloted a Zakuulan shuttle carrying Ragdat and Torian Cadera with a squad of Mandalorian warriors down to the planet surface to break the siege of the capital city of Voss-Ka. Upon landing, Ragdat got notification that Adaso and his brother, along a squad of Mandalorians serving Adaso, had also landed to assist in Ragdat's efforts.  Both grounds engaged Skytroopers throughout the burning city before meeting at the Tower of Prophecy, where Theron and Sana-Rae had been waiting for them. However, just before entering the tower, Vitiate froze time for Ragdat, and said, in so many words, "you need to kill Vaylin". After time was unfrozen, Ragdat helped in defending their position from Vaylin's Horizon Guards, and afterward, they received a holotransmission from Senya, who was at the Shrine of Healing. She was hoping that the Voss Mystics could heal her son's body and spirit and pleaded for the Alliance's aid, believing Arcann would join their fight. Lana believed that Arcann had to be neutralized one way or another, and she led Torian's Mandalorians towards the Shrine, while Adaso and his Mandalorians took a group of fighters to combat them from the air, while Ragdat and Theron took a third route, and rode the Mandalorian walker Storm Rider through the Old Paths.

Upon reaching the Shrine of Healing, Theron and Ragdat met with Senya, who again pleaded them to let Arcann be healed, while Vaylin, learning that her family was all in one place, ordered the Eternal Fleet to bombard the Shrine. Again, Vitiate told Ragdat to kill his son, and this gave Ragdat all the reason he needed to order Lana and the Mandalorians to protect the Shrine to buy Senya time and collapsed a tunnel behind them to stop the pursuing skytroopers. He and Theron remained near the entrance of the healer's chamber to hold off the Skytroopers, and once they finally reached Senya's position, they found that she had already ordered the Mystics to use her strength to heal her son in a Voss healing ritual, which left her comatose. Theron stayed to tend to Senya, while Ragdat and Lana chased the escaping Arcann to his shuttle, but were too late to stop his departure. However, Ragdat could feel Arcann's new presence in the Force, and could just barely see his eyes; while not as light as Vedere or Vizhdam, his presence was FAR lighter than it was, and his eyes had turned from the sickly yellow of a slave to the Dark Side to a much brighter blue. Ragdat knew he didn't have much time to talk, so he said only four words; "Your Mother is alive."

By this point Vaylin has ordered the Eternal Fleet to burn her family regardless of casualties on Voss, but the battle was turned by the arrival of the Imperial fleet, which turned the Eternal Fleet away. Vitiate again stopped time and urged Ragdat to pursue and kill Arcann, kill Valyin and claim the Eternal Throne, but Ragdat was having none of it; he would not kill either one, and he certainly wouldn't be claiming the Throne. When Vitiate unfroze time, Sith Empress Acina contacted Ragdat over holo, greeting Ragdat and invited the Alliance to Dromund Kaas to discuss a potential alliance against Vaylin. This got Adaso's attention, stating to not trust Acina; thanks to her, his entire family, all their forces and most of Colmallus' clan, were dead.  He said that Acina had sent him video messages of his younger sister, a girl who was only 9 at time time, being tortured as a way to demoralize Adaso against trying to take her throne, only killing her after realizing how powerful the young girl had become when she started speaking in a language that took decades to learn, a language that Adaso claimed that Brosra did not know before that; the ancient language of his people.  Acina said she would make no apologies for doing what was necessary to gain control over the Empire, Adaso said to never trust Acina. Ragdat, who had been listening this whole time, said that he couldn't turn away potential allies without talking to them first, and agreed that he'd at least talk to Acina before making a decision, with a caveat that he was not going to abandon the Republic even if he did ally with Acina.

Ragdat traveled to Dromund Kaas with Lana, Adaso and Theron, arriving to Kaas City, where Vitiate froze time to lamented that he spend too long on this world that was not worth saving. Ragdat wrinkled his nose in disgust, and reminded Vitiate that he killed him here before, and he'd doing it again as soon as his people figured out how. Vitiate just chuckled and unfroze time just in time for the group to be greeted by Gelmid Lorman, who introduced himself as the new Minister of Logistics when Beniko addressed him by his old title of Moff. Lorman escorted them to Acina, who greeted Ragdat warmly, though she did mock Adaso for following the Alliance despite how this Jedi set in motion the events that took his power base from him.  Adaso did not raise to the bait, however, and simply stated that he was there to ensure Acina didn't betray Ragdat the way she betrayed Adaso. Acina rolled her eyes, and insisted on speaking with Ragdat privately on her personal shuttle. Ragdat agreed, leaving Lana and Theron behind to keep an eye on Lorman, though Adaso chose a different path; he was going to his old estate to meditate on his situation and fuel his rage.

In flight and away from prying eyes, Acina stated that traditionalist Sith would not approve of the alliance she was offering and recognized Vaylin as the true threat. She assured Ragdat that her offer of partnership was genuine despite Adaso's protestations to the contrary, and that she had no intention of taking the Eternal Throne for herself, and Ragdat said the same, but he echoed Adaso's caution toward the Sith Empress. Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden engine failure, requiring Acina to crash land the shuttle and abandon ship. Now stuck in the wilderness of Dromund Kaas with their comms mysteriously jammed, Acina suspected someone sabotaged her shuttle, and Ragdat suggested Lorman as the culprit, though Acina shot down the idea. Lorman didn't have the courage to do so, she said, and this caused Ragdat to add that was the exact reason he was the prime suspect; Acina underestimated him.

Acina and Ragdat were forced to contend with the planet's dangerous wildlife and lightning storms, traversing the terrain to the crashed shuttle in hopes of recovering the emergency beacon. A group was already waiting for them there and identified as the GenoHaradan, whom the Empress had always assumed to be a myth. The "legendary" assassins proved no match for the Alliance Commander and the Empress of the Sith, however, as the pair swiftly dealt with the assassins and continued their search for the GenoHaradan camp.

They continued into the jungle, and just as they were about to head into the camp, they were met by Adaso wiping out the assassins. He looked furious, and directed all his anger at Acina, saying he "knew she'd betray them", but Ragdat rebuked the idea; it was Lorman, not Acina, and presented his theory. Adaso stood down, not wanting to argue with his Commander, and after clearing the camp, Ragdat discovered a holorecording from former Republic Supreme Chancellor Leontyne Saresh. Saresh was revealed as the one who ordered the hit, and Acina remarked on the treachery of the Republic leadership, though Adaso added "You're one to talk, Acina" before a gunship appeared and opened fire, forcing the three to take shelter in a nearby Sith tomb, where the entrance was collapsed by the barrage.Vitiate again froze time, and again remarked how these ancient resting placed of Sith Lords never truly held the secret of immortality, causing Ragdat to roll his eyes at this, saying that it was a privilege to become one with the Force, not something to be feared. Vitiate unfroze time, and Adaso immediately recognized what had happened within Ragdat after he came out of it, and wanted to say something, but chose not to, since he didn't want his Commander to be perceived as weak in front of Acina.

As the trio descended further into the tomb's depths, they found exactly what Ragdat had been saying the entire time; the traitorous Minister Lorman, who was behind the shuttle sabotage, and a GenoHaradan strike team seeking to finish their job. They quickly and easily dispatched the GenoHaradan, and Lorman panicked, claiming to have Lana and Theron hostage. This caused Adaso to burst into laughter, saying that Lana and Theron were not so weak that they would fall to Lorman's flunkies. Lorman, after once shouting "It's Minister Lorman! MINISTER LORMAN!", as he had several times before when someone called him by only his last name,  attempted to call his men, only to discover that his so-called hostages had dispatched them. Acina offered the Commander to decide Lorman's fate, and Ragdat calmly stated that Jedi don't kill their prisoners, something that caused Adaso to smirk, reaffirming that Ragdat was still denying his former master's control, but it caused Acina to frown. Ragdat said that Acina could do with him what she wished after due process had been gone through, but the fact remained that Jedi don't kill their prisoners.

Theron informed them that Saresh was coming to Odessen in a bid to take over the Alliance after she had earlier proclaimed that Ragdat was dead along with Acina. The four quickly returned to Odessen, where Saresh was making a speech in front of the Alliance personnel. Upon seeking Ragdat, she panicked and tried to flee, but Lana cut off her way of escaping. Saresh, in so many words, called Ragdat weak, saying that she'd have ended the Sith Empire AND the Eternal Empire months ago if she were in charge. Adaso said Saresh knew nothing of war, and that she'd lead them all to their death if she had the chance. Saresh just glared at Adaso, and flatly said "So, what, are you going to kill me, Commander? That's what I'd do." And Ragdat again calmly said that "Jedi don't kill their prisoners.You'll be given due process, but don't expect it to go your way." before sending Theron and Adaso to escort Saresh to a prison cell, to Theron's approval.

A little while later, Acina then contacted Odessen with a formal offer for an alliance, which Ragdat denied, saying that, while she had exhibited that she was trustworthy in this instance, she also illustrated a level of tactical blindness that Ragdat couldn't risk getting in the Alliance's way. Acina accepted this, and simply stated that she hoped they'd never end up on the opposite side of a battlefield. Theron, who was standing nearby with Lana and Adaso, asked why he chose not to ally with Acina, and Ragdat simply stated that, outside Adaso and Lana, he could never fully trust a Sith. He explained Adaso's honor code and Lana's pragmatism and sense of loyalty to those that had proven themselves made them unique among the Sith, and Acina lacked both. Both Adaso and Lana were placated, though Lana's pragmatism forced her to say that she hoped the wouldn't need Acina's reinforcements in the future.  Ragdat assured her that they had the strongest fighters and best equipment in the galaxy now, and that she shouldn't worry.

About an hour later, Darth Nox came into the command center and stated that she had managed to convince her apprentice, Ashara Zavros, to join the Alliance after their efforts on Voss, who had happened to be there at the time of the invasion, and Ragdat recognized the name; the Togruta Jedi who followed Darth Nox during her journey toward power, but resisted the corruption of the Dark Side while still accepting some of the Sith philosophy into her being.  Ragdat thanked her, but then got a notification of a distress call. The distress call was from Koth Vortena on the Gravestone; Vaylin had attacked and taken the ship. Koth, who had evaded capture, provided the Alliance with his coordinates, which gave Ragdat what he needed what he needed to mobilize the Alliance fleet moving to intercept. However, before he could leave, Vedere came up to Ragdat with a request for a team to rescue a former companion of her's; apparently, the Alliance had found Felix Iresso's location, and she wanted to free him. Ragdat gave the okay as he was boarding a shuttle with Lana.

Once the fleet got within the space around the Gravestone, Ragdat and Lana infiltrated the Gravestone in a boarding pod and dispatched several Skytrooper patrols along their way to Koth. Upon greeting each other, Koth revealed to them that Vaylin's forces risked triggering the quantum bomb that he installed as a precaution against SCORPIO, which infuriated Ragdat; between the personnel and equipment that a quantum bomb could destroy, this action would be grounds for treason charges based on the on the potential credit loss along. And that wasn't even counting the fact that Koth went behind his Commanding Officer's back knowing full well that Ragdat wouldn't approve of this. Ragdat begrudgingly joined Koth in disabling the fuses, while Lana provided distraction. Koth was elated that they defused his bomb and prevented his mistake from costing lives, but Ragdat said that after this, Koth was never setting foot on the Gravestone again. Koth said "I'd like to see you try to replace me", and then Ragdat said "And now, you're getting arrested on treason charges for the bomb AND threatening your Commanding Officer.  You're former military, Koth,, You know better than this." Koth was shocked at Ragdat's words, but he agreed to help Ragdat reach the bridge in the hope that doing so would help in his trial, only to be surprised to find it empty of Vaylin and her forces.

Koth disabled the bomb from the bridge console and told  his crew to evacuate in escape pods. SCORPIO then contacted them and revealed that she knew about the quantum bomb and manipulated Vaylin into leaving the bridge so that Koth could disable it. SCORPIO also informed Ragdat that Lana was cornered by Vaylin in the Dark Sanctuary, where the bomb was hidden. Ragdat and Koth arrived in time to save Lana from Vaylin, but their fighting still triggered the bomb's countdown. Ragdat dueled Vaylin, but just as Ragdat saw a Shatterpoint that would allow him to defeat Vaylin without killing her, Vitiate intervened and stopped the time as he often did before, although this time, Vaylin was able to overcome his restraint. She used the Force to throw Ragdat against the wall, which Ragdat assumed she was able to do due to Vitiate shutting down his TK Barrier again,  Vitiate uttered the phrase "Kneel before the Dragon of Zakuul", triggering Vaylin's secret conditioning and making her powerless to strike.

Unable to fight, Vaylin turned and fled, giving Koth the chance to disarm the bomb while Ragdat disabled the power relays to prevent its early detonation. As things calmed slightly, Ragdat told Lana to not forget they needed to put Koth under arrest for treason when once they were home.

A few moments later, Theron brought a team of Colonel Strannos, Aric Jorgan, Torian Cadera and Vette as reinforcements by landing an Alliance shuttle inside the hangar. However, SCORPIO took over control of the Gravestone, sending it towards an unknown location and locking the hyperdrive.  The Alliance converged on the bridge, however, their fleet were forced to witness as the Gravestone jumped out of hyperspace in an unknown system, surrounded by the entirety of the Eternal Fleet.

SCORPIO left the ship in her shuttle and contacted Ragdat again, revealing that the GEMINI droids were not imitations of her technology, but were related to her, as well as the Eternal Fleet and the Gravestone. SCORPIO uncovered their point of origin in the Gravestone and brought them all there, thanking Ragdat for assisting their journey and warning them that Vaylin and her remaining forces were sabotaging everything on the Gravestone. Ragdat rushed to the omnicannon, but in his absence, Vaylin returned to the bridge and overpowered his team. She threatened to kill Torian and Vette, but was unable to hurt anyone before a blinging white light engulfed the ship.

 And that's the first bunch of KOTET chapters.  I'll be doing them in batches of 3, then I'll run Iokath as one post, then, the Traitor Flashpoints together in one post.  I hope to have Ragdat's Darkest Days done before December.  And yes, if you're observant, you'll notice I've utilized heavily edited bits from the wookieepedia article on "The Outlander" to speed this up. 

For now, look forward to the next post, and stay beautiful freaks!

SWTOR Character Tales: Ragdat's Darkest Days Interlude 2

Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!  It's time to finish the Alliance Alert companions.

With Arcann now somewhere where he couldn't be reached and Vaylin settling in to the Eternal Throne, Ragdat had a couple of weeks to take care of some new people that his specialists had informed him to join the Alliance.  His first mission was to Hoth to retrieve a group of Jawas led by a former teammate of Maircus, Blizz.  Ragdat took Maircus with him to meet Blizz, who explained to Blizz what was going on and how Blizz and his team could help.  Blizz said that if Ragdat could deliver some supplies to Blizz's crew and bring them to a location where a rival gang, a group of Uggnauts, were located, and helped them defeat them, the Jawas would join them. After the Uggnauts' defeat, Blizz and his team joined the Alliance, though Blizz, now calling himself "boss", decided that Ragdat had to be called "big boss", which Ragdat just shrugged off; whatever this Jawa needed to do in order to understand the heirarchy of the Alliance.

Not long after, Darth Nox told Ragdat of something Talos Drellik found on Yavin 4; a Dashade who had been in stasis since the end of the Old Sith War against Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma.  After going through the effort to release the Dashade, he was forced to battle him. After defeating him, the Dashade revealed his name as Ak’ghal Usar, and he wanted revenge against Exar Kun for the destruction of his homeworld of Urkupp during the Cron Supernova. Ak'ghal wasn't pleased when Ragdat told him Exar Kun was dead, nor was pleased when the Dashade asked to join him in return for information on how to get access to the ghost of Exar Kun. He was also concerned when hee remembered that Khem Val, Darth Nox's personal bodyguard, ate Force users, so he decided to knock out Ak'ghal Usar and re-imprison him.  It was a cruel punishment, Ragdat thought, but that would protect a LOT of lost Jedi and Sith out there that weren't strong enough to fend him off.

A day later, Ragdat was informed by Curoda that her friend, Bowdaar, was on Zakuul and running a cantina attached to a pit fighting circuit.  This got Ragdat interested, since it had been a long time since Ragdat had been in that kind of environment, and part of him missed it.  He headed there with Curoda, and was informed that Bowdaar was trying to organize the arena slaves, helping them save up money to buy their freedom, and he asked Curoda if she'd help him. Ragdat took this opportunity to say that he'd fight for Bowdaar, and he'd donate all his winnings to Bowdaar's cause. Ragdat then went down to the promoter, who told Ragdat that he needed a fighter's name. Ragdat suggested "Battlemaster", which was denied due to "having seen 3 Battlemasters this week", and then suggested "the Mysterious Stranger", which got Ragdat to chuckle inwardly; "the Mysterious Stranger" was Revan's name in the Taris arena 300 years before, according to the history texts.

Ragdat went in and won ten rounds of increasing difficulty, though for Ragdat, with a lightsaber and the Force, none of the rounds were particularly noteworthy.  After ten victories as "Bowdaar's fighter", the man whom Bowdaar was warring against confronted him, and demanded that Bowdaar, a former Arena Champion himself, fight his best fighter and end this feud once and for all.  Bowdaar agreed, and entered the arena with Ragdat, and the two won the battle, with Bowdaar finally agreeing to join the Alliance after all the fighters were finally freed.

Upon returning to Odessen from that mission, Ragdat got a mission from Hylo Visz about a Wookiee contact of her, Gryyzak, and he was willing to meet on Alderaan.  However, when Ragdat got to the meeting place, Ragdat found a bunch of wrecked speeders, so he was forced to investigate what happened. Apparently, the Wookiee delegation was attacked, and were forced to flee on their speeders. Following the trail, Ragdat came to a twi'lek male who had been run off the road by the battle and pointed Ragdat toward another crash site.  Investigating this crash site finally led Ragdat to Gryyzak, who was being accosted by a violently psychotic Talz, who blamed Gryyzak for his people's current weakness.  This forced Ragdat to battle the Talz, but when Ragdat tried to arrest the Talz, he attacked Ragdat, forcing Ragdat to kill the Talz.  Later, after returning to Odessen, Ragdat was approached by Adaso, who told Ragdat that he held no ill will against him for killing his former companion Broonmark, the Talz who was the one who put them in this situation in the first place.

Ragdat had a couple of days before his next recruitment drive, this time, the subject was brought up by Sana Rae.  Ragdat remembered a conversation he had with her previously, about how she was not used to people not following her words exactly as they should, and asked Ragdat to talk to the people about it, and Ragdat reminded her that they weren't on Voss; here, she wasn't a revered Mystic. She was just a Force user from one of many Force using cultures, and that she needed to be more tolerant and explain why her visions should be followed that wasn't "The Mystics are never wrong", because a willingness to understand another's culture meant that they were willing to understand yours. Sana Rae took this to heart, and it was in this vein that she brought up a Force user who saw the Force differently than others; she wanted to understand his view, and thought he might be willing to aid the Alliance.

Thankfully, Blizz knew this "shining Jedi Man", as Sana Rae's vision suggested, and took Ragdat to Nar Shaddaa to meet a familiar looking Mon Calamari, and once he spoke, he knew him to be Curoda's former companion, Languss Tuno. Apparently, "Guss" as Curoda called him, went back to finish his Jedi training, but found an unusual master to teach him. Guss took Ragdat and Blizz to meet his master, and Ragdat recognized this man, too; a Padawan who was running into the shuttle that Ragdat had just stepped off when he first landed on Tython.  Ragdat later asked who that was just before Orgus sent him to Coruscant, and Orgus told him he was a man who failed his Jedi Trials, and chose to leave the Order rather than join the Service Corps like he was supposed to.

Ragdat called him out on this when they met, and the failed Padawan said to Ragdat "Oh, so you think you can do better?" when he talked about Guss' training, and Ragdat flatly told him yes.  So the failed Padawan gave Guss a task; get a storekeeper to give Guss a bottle of the failed Padawan's favorite alcoholic beverage by manipulating his mind with the Force.  Ragdat agreed, but not without a protestation about the frivolous use of the Mind Trick before leaving. 

During the trip to the sector, Ragdat talked to Guss about his own path as a Jedi; about how he too came to the Force later in life, and how he too needed a more philosophical approach to the Jedi Code and rules than what was taught to children.  When pressed, Ragdat said that they needed to understand their darkness, not outright rejecting it, while choosing the Light.  Ragdat explained that, as adult students, they already had coping mechanisms for dealing with fear, anger, passion and jealousy built into them from just growing into adulthood, and they should be more concerned about whether or not their coping mechanisms were healthy coping mechanisms. If they weren't healthy for the student, they needed to learn ones that were, even stating that Guss' way of experiencing what the galaxy had to offer was a good thing so long as it wasn't done to excess, since it gave Guss a "what does the Dark Side have to offer me? I have what I want" mindset. Guss was impressed by this philosophy, and said it made more sense for him than what Master Lorenn taught him.

Ragdat continued, stating that in order to master the minds of others, a student needed to know himself.  And this led Ragdat to ask Guss to tell Ragdat about himself.  And Guss immediately launched into that; who he was, where he was from, his life experiences with Curoda, all of it.  When Guss was done, Ragdat realized that Guss' innate abilities were similar to Curoda's; he unconsciously manipulated the emotions of others while he talked.  And just like with Curoda, he had, over time, learned when to "turn this on and off". Guss needed only to recognize this within himself to truly grasp the Mind Trick. 

So, when they got to the first stop, Ragdat just said "Don't worry about affecting their mind; just talk to them. Get a read on them.  See if they are receptive to what you want, because a willing mind is much easier to influence an unwilling one."   Guss went into the shop and even though he failed to get what his "master" wanted again, he understood where Ragdat was going.  The second stop had Ragdat continue the lesson; now that Guss could get a read on the subject, Guss should, while taking, try to influence the feelings of generosity and compassion, the emotions that would make them willing to give Guss what he wanted.  Ragdat also added that Guss shouldn't worry about getting what he wanted here either, and to just apply what Ragdat told him.

When Guss came out this time, he was excited; he had failed again to get the bottle, but this was the first time anyone had politely told him "no".  Ragdat smiled, and told Guss that he was learning quickly.  They continued on to the final store that sold the drink, and Ragdat said it was time to apply everything Guss learned and finally use the Force to get the item.  Ragdat reminded Guss of everything he had been taught; talk to the target, get a read on their emotions, influence the right ones, and finally, reach out and directly influence the mind.  Guss went in, and after coming out, he was elated at his success. He told Ragdat that he did just what Ragdat told him; he went in, talked, got a read on his situation, and during the conversation, they started talking about a food item they both liked, and Guss reached out and said "You should have one", which caused the merchant to repeat Guss, which made Guss realize what he had just done. They continued talking, and Guss was able to influence the mind of the merchant to give him the drink.  Ragdat congratulated Guss, but with a caveat that they'd need to remember to return and compensate him for the bottle in the future, given how expensive the drink truly was once Ragdat recognized what it was.

They returned to the failed Padawan's residence, only to find he had headed to the Cantina off the Promenade from Blizz.  The pair headed to the Cantina and Guss gave the drink to his "master", who then rewarded Guss with some of his favorite food and drinks in a room nearby so he could have some privacy with Ragdat.  The failed Padawan said "I'm surprised you go through to him, with you being a fully trained Jedi filled with their dogma." And Ragdat shot back "He's not  the only one who came to the Force later.  I simply taught him the way I was taught at the adult Academy on Arkania. And the one thing I saw during all of this is that Guss deserves better training than you can offer."  He then turned away from the failed Padawan and joined Guss in his celebrations, returning to Odessen when the Mon Calamari was sated. 

Sana Rae was curious about Guss' view of the Force, and Ragdat stated that it wasn't all that different his own, and that he could benefit from further training in the Jedi arts by someone like Vizhdam or Vedere, but so long as they took the time to get to know the young man. 

A few hours later, Ragdat was given another mission back to Nar Shaddaa, this time by Bey'wan Aygo, a mission that Maircus felt he should come along for, since it involved Black Sun and rumors of an old personal pain in his ass.  Upon arriving at the mission point, Ragdat noticed that his contact was his old teammate, Fideltin Rusk. Rusk, now a Provost Marshal, a leader a unit composed of conscripted criminals called the Dead Man's Legion.  Rusk's command style was perfect for this unit, as Command didn't care whether these criminals lived or died, as they were all death row inmates, so long as the mission got done.  Rusk was happy to see Ragdat, though upon asking what happened Ragdat, expressed concern about the Emperor controlling him again. Ragdat assured that he was still himself, and his mind was a LOT stronger than it was 12 years earlier.

Ragdat, Maircus and Rusk took the Dead Man's Legion against the Black Sun thugs, when they came face to face with Maircus' former companion, Skadge. Skadge had apparently been released in the 5 years since Maircus put him in carbonite, and had extensive cybernetics fit to him in order to fix the damage he had taken in his fight with Maircus, and he was angry. He immediately attacked Maircus, who took him down with the same method as before; shock dart, shot out his legs and arms, then, with his blade, punctured his completely organic lung.  And as Skadge was laying there in pain, Maircus put a blaster bold in his head, finally ending the Houk thug once and for all.  Ragdat then told Rusk to have the Dead Man's Legion clean up the sector, and then to head to Odessen.

Upon reaching Odessen, Ragdat saw HK-55 standing over a human corpse with another droid beside him in the main hall. He asked for an explanation, and the droid stated that, after a mission to capture the Shroud, he went through an entire adventure which put Ragdat's programming to the best; HK could not blast an old blind man that attacked him with only a vibromop, but he was able to kill an unarmed Malforia, simply because she had access to the Force, all because Ragdat explained to HK that those trained in the Force were never unarmed.  He then returned to Odessen to stop the Shroud from blowing up the base, only to find that his companion, Z0-0M, was the Shroud, and the man he shot had planted bombs around the base.  However, thanks to a failed attempt to erase HK-55's memories, Z0-0M fried her own memories, and HK-55 suggested to Ragdat to have Doctor Oggurub scan her parts to ensure she didn't have any surprises for them.  Ragdat shook his head and said "Do what you need to, HK," and headed to see Bey'wan about Rusk, and informed him to either only allow Rusk command of the Dead Man's Legion, or only have him train other recruits, and to never give him troops they wanted to see again due to Rusk's tendency of looking at his soldiers as "we have reserves".  Bey'wan agreed, and Ragdat headed to the gym to clear his head.

It had been an eventful couple of weeks, but Ragdat knew that Vaylin wouldn't sit idle for long. So he made sure that the Alliance stayed ready, and prepared to act when Vaylin started causing trouble.

And that's it for KOTFE!  And before anyone asks, no, that is not the true history of Guss' master on Nar Shaddaa. Beyond "he's a failed Padawan" that we see in game, there is nothing on him.  I just wanted this opportunity for Ragdat to have a reason to illustrate his view of the Force.

I'll get to KOTET sooner or later, and then, to Iokath and the Traitor Saga.  Also, over the next few days, I'll be adding the "Ragdat's Darkest Days" story chapters under the "Ragdat's Darkest Days" label, so you can find them quickly in the future. But for now, stay beautiful freaks!