Trooper Log #3: Arrival on Coruscant, a city divided

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

The following log takes place on the capital of the Galactic, Coruscant, as Lynk reports in to General Gaza and begins his all important mission regarding Havoc Squad.

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

The Republic transport ship, the Esseles, finally arrived on Coruscant and Deckard, Kamina and I went our separate ways. What was left of Havoc Squad was to report straight to General Garza located in the senate building of Coruscant, though along the way I did bump in to a few people who had their own agendas and needed my help… I have a feeling this is going to happen a lot from now on.

Jorgan and I met General Garza in her office in the senate building where she congratulated me on my new rank and position before talking about the recent developments with Havoc Squad. Jorgan, being the type of soldier he is, wanted to immediately begin the hunt for the former Havoc Squad members, however General Garza had other plans for us.

The General informed us that hundreds of other special forces members have followed Tavus’ lead and have also defected to the Empire. I’ve never heard of such a large mass defection occurring within the Republic before, and if it weren’t for the fact that I am now the leader of Havoc Squad, I most likely wouldn’t have heard about it otherwise.

Tavus and the other defectors were up to something big, however they were still getting their supplies from local underworld factions right here on Coruscant. General Garza ordered Havoc Squad to investigate two of these underworld factions, the Black Sun and the Migrant Workers Guild and to make sure to sever the supply line between them and Tavus. The first stop was the old Galactic Markets where the Migrant Workers Guild operates and has developed war droids which are being shipped to Tavus. Jorgan and I were ready and headed straight for that sector to begin our first real mission as Havoc Squad members.

We met up with our contact in the sector who briefed us of the specific of our mission. Our main objective is a cyborg inventor named Krel who is designing the droids being sent to Tavus. However, when Jorgan and I finally made it to Krel’s labs, we discovered that he had been doing more than just designing battle droids. Krel had been kidnapping people and implanting them with cybernetic parts, turning them into sleeper agents that would suddenly activate and carry out their missions without anyone being the wiser.

Havoc Squad put an end to Krel and his small droid army, however there was still the matter of the kidnapped people who Krel experimented on. I had a tough choice to make, I could either eliminate the threat by eliminating the people Krel kidnapped, or I could let them go and hope whatever cybernetic devices implanted in them wouldn’t self-activate. I chose to let the people go, however I did take their identification details so we could keep an eye on them if anything were to happen.

General Garza wasn’t happy with my decision however I did what I thought was the right course of action. I don’t kill civilians and I wasn’t about to start just because they may or may not have been turned into sleeper agents. With that out-of-the-way, Jorgan and I headed back to the senate building to meet with Garza in person to receive our next orders.

Our next mission would take us into the heart of Black Sun territory, a criminal organisation that has become so powerful that we may never destroy it, at least not in my lifetime. Jorgan and I headed directly to that sector after the briefing. Our orders are to stop the Black Sun from providing Tavus with nerve gas and other weapons, not a simple matter considering how vicious the Black Sun organisation is, however Havoc Squad is always up for a challenge. When Jorgan and I arrived in Black Sun territory, we also met up with Deckard along the way. No surprise to see him in the more dangerous parts of Coruscant. Together we were able to dismantle Black Sun’s operations in that area and destroy the shipments they were going to make to Tavus.

Things started to pick up when Havoc Squad was sent into Justicar territory to find Jek Kardan, the former commander of Havoc Squad before Tavus took over. The Justicar’s are a group of ex-military officers who formed their own militia, taking over one of the more deadly parts of Coruscant. However, their way of enforcing their laws is brutal and often times they’re no better than the criminal organisations that they fight against. Deckard, Jorgan and I conducted investigations in the area when we finally caught up with Kardan… and his Imperial allies. General Garza knew that Kardan was working with Tavus, but with the Imperials directly, and here on Coruscant? This was a shocking revelation to be sure and one we had to deal with quickly.

Kardan escaped our first encounter thanks to his Imperial allies, however we tracked him down to an area of Coruscant called The Works. There, in the parts of Coruscant roaming with maintenance droids few organic lifeforms ever see, we tracked Kardan down and confronted him for the last time. I didn’t want to fight the man, I’d rather we come to a more peaceful agreement that would prevent the killing of more Republic citizens. Kardan eventually agreed and we struck a deal where he would turn himself in if we let his men go free. This deal, however, didn’t go down very well with his Imperial allies who had to be routed before they could get away and inform their superiors.

With Kardan in custody, we had acquired a source of valuable intel regarding Tavus and his operations with the Empire. With our mission on Coruscant complete, we were to head off-world to begin our hunt for the former members of Havoc Squad. To achieve this mission, General Garza requisitioned Havoc Squad a ship to serve as a transport and a base of operations for future missions. It’s time to leave Coruscant and get to work.

Personal Log

So far our mission has been pretty straight forward and doesn’t require much more than taking out enemies of the Republic. Mr. Cat remains the best man for the job to have watching your back and he certainly knows how to do some damage to the enemy.

Of course, as skilful as Mr. Cat is, the real help came from Deckard with his gun-slinging talents. Together we tore through the Black Sun and infiltrated Justicar territory with ease. Unfortunately, I didn’t see Kamina around on Coruscant at all but perhaps we’ll meet again in the future. I’m sure our missions will intersect again and will require our combined talents to complete.

On a final note, I’m interested to see if I’ll meet a certain Special Forces Sergeant I met during my mission into Black Sun territory in the future… If so, I look forward to working with Ava Jaxo again… though it seems Mr. Cat disapproved when I flirted with her during our mission briefing at her apartment. That guy is all about the mission and nothing else… he really needs to loosen up.

Ship’s Log

The ship General Garza assigned to Havoc Squad is a Rendili Hyperworks BT-7 Thunderclap. It’s a fine ship designed specifically for special forces task-work and built to take a beating. Although we’re not officially meant to give our ships a name, I’ve decided to christen this ship as “Gunsight One” in honour of an obscure reference I won’t bother going into detail about.

Along with a new ship, Havoc Squad was also assigned a protocol droid, C2-N2, to oversee the more mundane tasks so that the rest of the Squad could get down to business.

I look forward to seeing how this ship performs in battles, although I do admit that some of the systems will need to be upgraded, I’m not completely satisfied with running a ship with stock specifications when our mission throws us into so much danger. We need to be prepared for anything and everything the Empire can throw at us at a moments notice.

Computer Log

By this stage in the game I’m beginning to see a pretty horrid pattern in the way of mismatching armour for the Trooper which will only get worse before it gets any better. So far I’ve been stuck with the same vest and pants (not real armour) since Ord Mantell and Mr. Cat has gone through a few changes here and there, though he looks more like a proper Trooper than I do. At the very least, by the end of Coruscant I did get a nice chest piece that looked pretty good, complete with a kama… but what I really want is a helmet.

Another thing that annoys me is that the Sprint ability comes in at level 14 which is a real drag for the earlier parts of Coruscant, especially with all of the “running” around you have to do to get from one place to the other. I really wish that ability had come at level 10 or 11 at around the same time you get your advanced class just for the convenience, but at this stage it doesn’t really matter.

Those complaints out-of-the-way, I really liked how Coruscant feels for the most part, at least in areas that felt familiar to the movies where you got to see the traffic going by and the cityscape all around you in the senate area. It certainly felt like I was on Coruscant when I arrived and it was interesting going through some of the later areas, especially the part that took me into the deeper regions of the city and then to the Jedi temple.

// STATUS REPORT //

• Name: Lynk
  Class: Trooper Vanguard
  Level: 17

Bleah, finally got this one out… it’s been really hot down here in Australia being summer and all so it’s been really tough trying to keep cool and work on this entry at the same time… that and I’ve been playing the game way too much instead of spending time writing.

// END LOG ENTRY