Trooper Log #1: First assignment with Havoc Squad on Ord Mantell

This Trooper Log series is posted simultaneously and in full on both my personal blog, Twilight Lynk, and StarWarsMMO.net. Enjoy!

This log entry takes us into the begins of the Trooper class story on a planet ravaged by civil war, Ord Mantell, as Lynk takes his first assignment with the legendary Havoc Squad, an elite group of Troopers dedicated to the protection of the Republic.

Warning: This entry contains spoilers from Star Wars: The Old Republic for the Trooper class. Don’t come to me complaining that I’ve ruined it all for you since you have been warned well in advance.

BEGIN TROOPER LOG //

Mission Log

My full name remains classified, for now the only information I can provide in these log entries is that I am known only as “Lynk” and I am a Sergeant of the Republic Special Forces. My assignment takes me to Ord Mantell as the newest member of the Republic’s most elite unit, Havoc Squadron. Their prowess in battle is so great that they’re called on to complete the toughest of missions against the deadliest of Imperial threats, including taking down a Sith head on. This is a group I’m proud to become a part of, their reputation certainly precedes them.

Things started off with a bang as a well-aimed Separatist rocket took down my transport and left me straight in the middle of a war zone. Gearbox, a member of Havoc Squad, who was with me at the time ordered me to make my way to the Republic base while he stayed back to repair the transport. This wasn’t turning out as I had expected, already I was learning that my enemy is not to be underestimated and now I’ve been shoved straight into the frying pan with no armour and an emergency rifle they had stashed on the transport. However, as fate would have it, a friend of mine who I have known for years also arrived on Ord Mantell just a couple of hours before I did. His name is Deckard, a smuggler. smart ass, always after the money but still a good enough man not to completely screw people over.

He was on this war-torn planet for his own reasons, but we decided that teaming up was our best option, this isn’t the friendliest territory so it’s always good to have friends around to watch your back. Working together with Deckard, I made my way to the rest of Havoc Squad and finally received my orders as well as meeting the other members. Lieutenant Harron Tavus leads the squad with Wraith who specialises in infiltration and assassinations as his second-in-command, Fuse is Havoc Squad’s explosives expert while Gearbox, who I mentioned earlier, is their technician. Finally, Needles is Havoc Squad’s medical expert and now their ranks include myself, an expert in front-line combat. In time I will become the Vanguard of the unit, taking on the toughest challenges. During the introductions I also met an officer assigned to Ord Mantell’s military force, a Cather by the name of Aric Jorgan.

Havoc squads current assignment on Ord Mantell is to retrieve a steal a ZR-57 orbital strike bomb, a very powerful weapon capable of extreme levels of destruction stolen by the Separatists on Ord Mantell. Someone screwed up royally for this bomb to fall into enemy hands, however as Havoc Squad, it’s our job to get it back. As ordered, I followed a few leads from local operatives and slowly came closer to retrieving the bomb with every step. However, as I progressed in my mission, I also became aware of other things that needed my attention on the planet.

This war with the separatists affects everyone, the civilians more than anyone else. Many are displace, children orphaned and lives completely ruined by what’s happened on this planet. During my mission I tried to help as many of them as I could, though I still don’t think I was able to do enough. Naturally, Deckard tried to swindle as much money out of most of them as possible.

All of our efforts in finding the bomb finally paid off and we finally got a confirmation of its location. Havoc squad was sent immediately to retrieve the weapon… however, in a strange move I was left behind to observe from the base with Lt. Jorgan. Worse still was that Havoc Squad was ambushed and we lost contact half way through the operation. Lt. Jorgan and I agreed that we needed to find out what happened, so I was sent in.

What I discovered was unthinkable! Havoc Squad betrayed the Republic right under our very noses. They were the ones who stole the bomb as a gift along with their defection to the Empire. Worse still is that the traitors were able to escape, however not before I was able to disable the bomb… a small victory in an otherwise dismal situation. As things played out, the higher-ups were impressed enough with my work that I was promoted to Lieutenant and put in charge of Havoc Squad, or what’s left of it. On the other side, the man who took the fall for this entire bungle was Lt. Jorgan, now demoted down to a Sergeant, who has been assigned under my command. We’re both very eager to get under way and head out to Coruscant as soon as possible. No doubt our next assignment will be to hunt down our treacherous former Havoc Squad members and bring them to justice.

With our mission on Ord Mantell over, Sergeant Jorgan and I immediately departed in a shuttle for the Republic Fleet to stock up on some much-needed supplies in preparation for future missions. To get to Coruscant we will need to board the Esseles, a Republic transport that will take us directly there, hopefully without incident. This is only the beginning of our journey and I suspect that things are only going to get more hectic as things start to heat up between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire…

Personal Log

I swear, while he will do what’s right, Deckard is always going to do whatever it takes to squeeze every last bit of money out of everyone he can find. Not that I really mind though, just as long as we get results he can do what he wants as long as no one gets hurt. It was pretty great to have him there on Ord Mantell, we tore things up pretty well together and with our combined might there were blaster bolts and explosives going off everywhere around us as we took out hordes of Separatist soldiers.

As for the newest member of Havoc squad aside from myself… I don’t mean to be racist but every time I look at him I have the urge to call him Mr. Cat. He’s such an overly serious and intense guy that giving him a cute nickname is exactly what he needs. If he ever heard me call him “Mr. Cat” to his face he’d most likely smash me over the head with that huge assault cannon he carries around in battle. So far Mr. Cat and I get along well enough, we’ll how effective he is in combat in future missions.

Computer Log

The wait to get into Early Access was truly maddening. First Mav got in and then we realise that Jeff had fallen sleep at his desk… about 40 minutes or so later he did finally wake up and then he was playing TOR. I, on the other hand, spent a long time waiting, no doubt because GameStop decided they’d hold off sending me my pre-order code until 24 hours after the pre-orders started for the game.

Of course, after all that waiting, I finally got in and damn did it feel good! As described above, Mav (who is Deckard) and I played together all the way through Ord Mantell and made our way to the fleet. Good times…

During beta testing I had already taken my Trooper all the way up to level 20 and had reached Nar Shaddaa before deciding to stop and move on to other characters. It also gave me the opportunity to fine tune the look and even the back-story and motivations of my Trooper as well as the other seven character I will be playing through in TOR… for the purposes of conversation choices rather than anything concerning role-playing. I really like how most of them came out actually despite the character creator not being as diverse as people had hoped it would be. Take a look at the screenshots I took of all of my characters in the gallery below…

First up is Lynk (named after yours truly), who you all know by now from learning of his adventures through his logs. The strangely attractive red skinned lady next to him is Silvana (named after a ship from Last Exile, though I originally wanted the name Klan from Macross Frontier), a Sith Warrior who isn’t your average Sith Pureblood. She has chosen to follow the light path instead of being seduced by the dark side of the Force… she does what she must to bring about peace to the galaxy. Both of these characters are my mains on either side of the faction line.

The Jedi Knight of the group is Dunban (named after a character from Xenoblade Chronicles) who, unlike Silvana, embraces the darkest teachings of the Force, dealing out brutality to anyone who gets in his way. In contrast, the lovely Chiss Imperial Agent next to him is Fiora (also named after a character from Xenoblade Chronicles) who makes sure her companions come back from every mission alive and well.

Micaiah (named after a character from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn), unlike Dunban, is what everyone envisions when they think of a Jedi while Ashnard (named after a character from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), with his malicious cruelty, is worthy of the title, Dark Lord of the Sith.

Zelgius (named after a character who is from both Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn) cares for no one and simply loves the thrill of being a Bounty Hunter so he can hunt the wretch of the galaxy down and murder them. Finally there’s Priss (who is named after the character Bubblegum Crisis, who is named after the character from Blade Runner), a Smuggler who ain’t in this for your revolution, and she’s not in it for you. She expects to be well paid… Whatever is the quickest and most profitable way of getting what she wants is the path she’ll follow, no matter how underhanded it may be.

Those are my eight characters for Star Wars: The Old Republic, however while I have taken the time to introduce them all to you, I’m only going to be following the adventures of Lynk. For the rest, I’ll simply write up short status reports about them in the section below if I happen to level them up. For now they’re all listed because I have created them all on my account as soon as I started Early Access.

// STATUS REPORT //

• Name: Lynk
  Class: Trooper Vanguard (Tank)
  Level: 11
• Name: Silvana
  Class: Sith Warrior
  Level: 1
• Name: Dunban
  Class: Jedi Knight
  Level: 1
• Name: Zelgius
  Class: Bounty Hunter
  Level: 1
• Name: Micaiah
  Class: Jedi Consular
  Level: 1
• Name: Ashnard
  Class: Sith Inquisitor
  Level: 1
• Name: Priss
  Class: Smuggler
  Level: 1
• Name: Fiora
  Class: Imperial Agent
  Level: 1

Well, that’s that. My very first Trooper Log is complete. Tell me what you think of it and feel free to make any suggestions in the comments below… feedback is always welcome. See you next time!

// END LOG ENTRY