Trooper Log #2: Attack on the Esseles, protect the Ambassador!

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

This log follows Lynk, a newly promoted Trooper Vanguard in an incident that occurs on a Republic transport called the Esseles.

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

As soon as Jorgan and I arrived on Carrick Station, a Republic officer introduced himself to me and informed me of special training branches of the Republic military that I could undertake now that I was the leader of Havoc Squadron. Due to my unique skill set, I could either become a Commando or a Vanguard. The choice was simple, ever since my training began my single goal was to become a Vanguard of the Republic so I could take on the Imperial threat head on and protect my allies from danger.

Deckard, having lost his ship due to unforeseen circumstances (or so he says) was tagging along, though it looked like he had some business on the station too. We went our separate ways and decided to meet back at the docking access to the Esseles, the transport taking us to Coruscant. In he meantime, Jorgan and I stocked up on supplies and spent a few moments in the Cantina going over what had happened on Ord Mantell.

With our preparations complete, we headed over to meet Deckard who was having a conversation with someone… a Jedi. Actually, as we walked closer I recognised the Jedi, his name is Kamina, someone I’ve known for quite a number of years. A decent guy but I have a feeling he may be in love with himself (not a common trait among Jedi, I know). Turns out that Kamina is also heading to Coruscant and will be joining us on the Esseles.

Our trip was pretty uneventful, or so at first… The Esseles was travelling close to the Imperial border when one of their warships jumped out of hyperspace right on top of us and opened fire. Deckard, Kamina and I scrambled to the bridge as boarding parties were cutting their way through the hull already. It was a simple matter of fighting the Imperial squads off, however when we reached the bridge, we found the captain dead and the crew scrambling to restore downed systems. Before too long a holo-transmission came in from the Imperial warship still continuing its attack. The image standing before us introduced himself as Grand Moff Kilran of the Imperial Navy and demanded that we hand over a Republic Ambassador travelling aboard.

Of course, this wasn’t going to happen, we had to protect this ambassador at all costs. With our decision made, our group headed out to stop the boarding parties on their way from the Imperial warship. Unfortunately for them, they would find a Gunslinger, a Jedi Guardian and two of Havoc Squad’s finest ready to take them down. Whoever this ambassador was, they were very lucky to have us travelling on this transport at the same time.

Using some very fine teamwork, my companions and I took out the boarding party with ease. However, it wasn’t over yet. We were greeted by a Twi’lek woman who we had met just before the attack started. She identified herself as the ambassador the Imperials were looking for and informer us of a Mandalorian boarding party that had snuck aboard, taking the bridge and locking it shut. At times like this I find it extremely helpful for someone in the know to point out a trap before it’s too late. However, what’s done is done and the only way we have any chance of gaining access to the bridge is to head down to engineering to override the bridge lock-down.

When my companions and I arrived at engineering, we found an emergency forcefield had been activated, locking the engineering crew in and us out. We explained the situation to the engineering crew and were given two solutions to our problem. We either shut down a few secondary conduits scattered around the ship which would take time or we reset the reactor which would disengage the bridge lock-down, though in doing so it would vent the engineering compartment. Whoever designed this ship must have had a sick sense of humour or just didn’t give a damn.

Kamina and I were in agreement, to ensure the engineering crews lives we would go after the conduits. However, due to his stubborn impatience, Deckard decided to reset the bridge lockouts. Before we could do anything about it, the engineering compartment was empty, everyone inside had been blown out into space. We didn’t have time to debate what just happened, we made our way up to the bridge and faced the Mandalorians led by a man who called himself “Ironfist.” He insisted on congratulating us on our efforts to get to him but I wasn’t in the mood for it. We charged in and took him down along with all of his men.

With the Mandalorians and the boarding parties taken down and the bridge secured, we still had the problem of the huge Imperial warship with its tractor beam on us. The only way we could ever hope to escape was to board the vessel and destroy their tractor beam emitters. it’d be a hell of a risky move on our part, but we don’t have much choice in the matter.

On our way to elevator down to the hanger, we were stopped by the Esseles first officer. I’m disappointed by what happened next, he tried to convince us that it would be better for all of us if we just handed the ambassador over to the Empire. We flatly rejected his idea but didn’t have time to stick around to deal with this officer, we had a mission aboard the Imperial ship.

The Imperial forces aboard their ship put up quite the fight along the way, but we were able to overcome everything they could throw at us and take down the tractor beam. Things got a lot more interesting when we headed back to our shuttle in the hanger. There, waiting for us in the hanger was a Sith Apprentice and a squad of elite Imperial troops. This wouldn’t be an easy battle and it would take the whole group working together to take out our enemy.

The Sith fought a fierce battle, however once his support troops were taken out, Deckard, Kamina and I were able to focus our attacks to take the dark Force user out and put him down permanently. With him out-of-the-way, we had no time to lose and boarded the shuttle back to the Esseles. Deckard rushed to the helm and jumped the ship into hyperspace before the Imperials had a chance to react. We were clear and out of danger, however, much of the crew of this ship was lost to protect that one ambassador, whether their sacrifices were worth it is all yet to be seen.

Personal Log

A smuggler, a Jedi and a couple of Troopers walk onto a transport… sounds like the start of some joke, but the way we fought off those Imperials wasn’t. Working with Deckard and Kamina along with Mr. Cat (sorry Jorgan, I can’t resist) was great. With our different skill sets, we were able to cover every contingency.

As a unit we were unstoppable and because of this experience, I hope to collaborate some more with both Deckard and Kamina in the future. We’ll see what happens when we reach Coruscant, it may be the capital of the Republic, but that doesn’t make it a quiet vacation spot.

Computer Log

After going through the origin planet of Ord Mantell with Deckard (aka Mav) and then teaming up with Kamina (aka Jeff) for the Esseles flashpoint, I think I’m ready to give an early assessment and some reflection of the game in this log.

Firstly, it was really interesting playing through the various builds of the beta and seeing the changes that were made, big and small. When it came time to play the launch build I knew that quite a lot of the bugs had been fixed, though at the same time some others a lot of others have somehow made it through the cracks to the launch build such as the 6-inch Satele Shan bug. It’s going to take time for this game to mature and BioWare certainly has the time and money (coming from LucasArts and EA) to do it, so there are many improvements to be made.

When I first heard about TOR after its big announcement in 2008, like many I couldn’t understand why BioWare and LucasArts would do this when what they SHOULD be doing is releasing Knights of the Old Republic III. Back then the idea that I would even play ANY MMO was absurd and unthinkable, I was totally against it and nothing was going to change my mind…

I don’t quite remember exactly when my mind started to change about TOR, but I do know it had a lot to do with the Trooper class. When the Trooper class was officially revealed, my mind went racing. BioWare had already boasted that this would be a fully voiced, story driven MMO which was a big plus for me, but the inclusion of a playable Trooper sold me. My vision was of a Trooper totally unlike the ones we’ve seen in the movies. The trooper I had in my mind would be right there on the front-lines, taking on the Sith Empire with all he had. It was time for me to make a true hero out of a Trooper in the Star Wars universe and no other class deserved it more.

Ever since then I’ve been really excited about TOR, buying, myself a gaming level PC and doing everything I could to prepare for the day it would finally be released. And naturally, when the Collector’s Edition was revealed, I had to have it. Of course, being Australian, there were A LOT of factors that were against me, but I managed to pre-order a CE online from GameStop and have it arrive at my home in Australia on release day. Everything turned out great in the end and I’m going to be enjoying TOR for years to come…

So far, I’ve enjoyed every second of this game… maybe even a little too much. I can’t see myself getting tired of this game any time soon. With that all said, let’s see how things turn out for TOR. There are a lot of updates to be made and the inevitable expansions to look forward to… at least for everyone who has accepted TOR. There are plenty of folks who still wish BioWare had made KotOR III instead…. oh well, their loss.

// STATUS REPORT //

• Name: Lynk
  Class: Trooper Vanguard
  Level: 12

I’m going to try my best to get these logs out on a weekly basis, though it’s really tough considering how much time I spend playing the game itself rather than writing about it. Let’s see how things turn out though…

// END LOG ENTRY