Trooper Log #5: Taris in ruin and the Rakghoul plague

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 Havoc Squad into the ruined landscape of Taris, once a jewel of the Republic rivalling even Coruscant itself.

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 children everyone in the Republic is taught the history of Taris and its downfall at the hands of a Sith called Darth Malak. That piece of history happened around 300 years ago and still Taris remains a planet in ruin. The Republic has only recently moved in after the war to rebuild the planet and its once fair city to its former glory as a symbol of hope for the rest of the galaxy. Unfortunately, the restoration project seems to be hitting one disaster after another which is making the entire endeavour a major headache for everyone involved.

Jorgan and I, on the other hand, have set down on Taris for much different reasons. Intelligence reports have pinpointed the former Havoc Squad medic, referred to as “Needles” by all, has been spotted in the ruins near the Republic’s base of operations on Taris. What exactly Needles is doing on this planet is a mystery, however this is just the chance Havoc Squad has to track him down and bring him to justice.

That said, I knew that I couldn’t just barge onto this world and hunt down Needles without first consulting with members of the restoration effort as well as the local Republic military forces. Navigating the ruins would be a nightmare for anyone not already familiar with the terrain, or what’s left of it. When Jorgan and I reported in to the head of the Republic military outfit, we were assigned a Sergeant by the name of Elara Dorne.

Sergeant Dorne would remain on the base and coordinate with Jorgan and myself on the field, updating us with information as we searched for the whereabouts of Needles. Her expertise and professionalism came in handy as our mission progressed.

Another problem Taris has, again, left over from another era, are the Rakghoul. Twisted and warped creatures that infest the ruins, infecting people with their disease which turns the infected into Rakghouls themselves. The biggest reason why the restoration process has stalled is because of these creatures, however as Jorgan and I searched for Needles, we began to learn that the Rakghouls may be the reason why he is here too.

During our search, Havoc Squad rescued a squad that went missing before we arrived. We quickly discovered that they were being held by Needles and his forces. From them were learned that he had been conducting some kind of biological experiments and using these people as test subjects. At the time we didn’t realise exactly what that meant, no one had put the pieces together until we finally tracked down Needles in his underground lab.

As Havoc Squad closed in on Needles and his accomplices, we realised that we were in the presence of Rakghoul. However, these Rakghoul weren’t the feral kind that roamed the ruins in packs, these Rakghoul spoke basic and carried weapons. Even more horrific was that right before our very eyes, Needles injected a man with some kind of serum and turned transformed him into one of the creatures. Whatever this horror show was, it had to stop, and to do that meant taking Needles and his sick creations down.

The battle with Needles and his Rakghoul creations was fierce, however Jorgan and I made sure this would be the end for the former Havoc Squad medic. Afterwards, we inspected the container of serum Needles had created. It was a concentrated form of the Rakghoul plague, an extremely dangerous weapon that could potentially wipe out entire civilisations if it fell into the wrong hands. In saying that, there are no right hands when it comes to a weapon of this type. Despite Jorgan’s suggestion that the Republic could study the serum, I made the choice to have it destroyed. Needle’s twisted creation would end here and now, there was no way I’d let anyone else get their hands on it and risk the population of the entire galaxy.

With Needles dead and his operations on Taris terminated, we headed back to the restoration camp. As we entered the military base, Sergeant Dorne informed us of a holo-call coming in from General Garza. Our mission was a success and congratulations were in order, however the General and I both agreed that this victory could not have been made without the assistance of Sergeant Dorne. Her contribution to our hunt for Needles allowed us to track him down quickly and effectively. A soldier like her would make a perfect member of Havoc Squad and General Garza agreed with this assessment.

As we left Taris, we had completed one of the objectives in our mission, however we were also able to find a brand new member of the team. The transfer order was given and Havoc Squad gained a new medic to its ranks.

Personal Log

What can I say about our newest member of Havoc Squad? The first thing everyone notices about Elara Dorne is her accent which clearly isn’t one you hear very much in the Republic. She was a former citizen of the Sith Empire who defected a few years ago and has since been part of the Republic military. The second thing you notice about her is that she can quote every single regulation in the book and on first impression she may or may not have a rod lodged somewhere… however, she’s exceptional at what she does. Mr. Cat once asked why I hadn’t filled Havoc Squads ranks with new members when we left Coruscant and my answer to him was that we needed to find people who were Havoc Squad material. Elara Dorne is certainly Havoc Squad material and I expect great things from her in the future.

On a different note, it’s also good to have some female company on the ship… I don’t particularly want this to be some kind of boys club, that wouldn’t be any fun. Though at this stage, there’s no telling what kind of new Havoc Squad member’s we’ll end up seeing in the future. We’re still short in quite a few key positions and there’s a long mission ahead.

Computer Log

Taris being a world straight out of Knights of the Old Republic is naturally going to make a lot of people want direct references everywhere and throwbacks to things that happened in KotOR. I’m not sure how satisfied people are with Taris but I get the impression that most of them hate the fact that it’s still in ruin despite 300 years passing since its destruction. Personally, I don’t mind the way Taris is represented in the game and its current state does make sense to me.

After all, the explanation given in the game was that after its destruction the Republic didn’t really see a point in rebuilding since everyone on Taris was dead… it was basically a graveyard. Then finally after the war with Sith after they invaded a few senators in the Republic used Taris for their own purposes and started a restoration project. That restoration project then started to fall apart by the Rakghoul which were, at this point in time, everywhere on Taris.

Now onto the companion characters for the Trooper class so far… first was Mr. Cat and then came Miss Bigass (no I’m not going to keep calling her that… simply pointing out how the game likes to shove big tits and ass into our face). They’re both military types but come from very different places and have very different views on situations. Of course, seeing as Elara is a healer while Mr. Cat is DPS, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Elara will go perfectly with my Vanguard from now on so while battles with mobs will be slow going without a DPS, my survival rate will go way up. I do have to admit though that I don’t really like her, at least I don’t right now… I’ll let you know how things turn out in a few log entries from now.

// STATUS REPORT //

• Name: Lynk
  Class: Trooper Vanguard
  Level: 21

This entry is late since I had absolutely no time to write it on the weekend and then started slacking off and playing the game on the weekdays. But it’s out now and I made sure to put some extra effort into making this one as good as I could make it.

// END LOG ENTRY