Part 6: Telos: Leaving Peragus Never Easy

Actually we ran willy nilly all over the base and not a single person was alive, but pretending to be concerned gives us Light Side points.





The Harbinger is still chasing us.





And hits the asteroid we just ducked behind.







There goes the planet. And the asteroid belt. And the mining facility.

We tried, guys, we tried.





"Because between assassin droids, a Sith Lord that looks like he sleeps with vibroblades, and being target practice for a Republic warship, I was better off in my cell."
"The Republic warship was the Harbinger. It was seized on its way to Telos by the Sith - they sought you, Jedi."



"Because you are the last of the Jedi. Once you are dead, then they have won."











"Perhaps, but they are Jedi no longer. If the Sith have not already slain them, then they will not help you, nor can you help them."



"That... is not an easy question to answer. This threat is greater than you know... and I do not believe it is a battle that can be fought."
"So what do you think we should do?"
"Look - enough with the "we," already."
"We cannot hope to triumph against them alone. To stop them, you will need weapons, allies, and... a teacher. In the end, I fear it may not be enough."





"You are not listening to me. This is not like any field of battle you have ever fought in. Think carefully on your choice. If you choose to fight, if you choose war, it is a path few turn from once the first steps are taken. It carries with it a terrible price. And in the end, you may find you have nothing left to sacrifice."
"I turned away from war once, I can do it again."
"Pah, like so many Jedi, you hear, but you do not listen. You have much to learn."





Before we check on Kreia, let's find out what's behind door #1.



This was the locked hatch in the Ebon Hawk during the T3 tutorial:



Which was HK-50 locked in there.

And I think this is a bug: during the Sith fight on board earlier, you can force this door open, and it's actually empty. So now we open it and find:



Oh hey, another HK unit.



We recognize it as HK-47 from the first game. What's creepy is that HK-50 was locked in this tiny closet with the corpse of his predecessor.



We have the first component, a vocabulator we recovered from the HK-50 we killed. The rest we'll have to find later.



Hyperbole aside, Kreia quite possibly the best written and most complex NPC in the history of gaming. So complex that there's two things you really need to know up front about her.

First, she's a liar. She lies, and lies, and lies. She lies so well that my fifth time through the game, I'm reading a standard bit of her dialogue and I'm realize, "Hey... that's not quite true." Because you get so much of the plot and exposition from talking to her, she does the rare thing and fools the NPCs, fools the Exile, and fools the player after the game is over. Everything you know has to pass the litmus test of, "But did I hear that from Kreia?"

Second, that's not her real name. Or rather, she has three names: her past, present, and future name. Her past (real name) never gets explicitly revealed during the game, and in fact most people who play the game never know it. But there are a lot of subtle clues sprinkled throughout, and I'll try point them out along the way in bright capital letters.







"I do not know. I fear that... the consequences... would have been more extreme."
"Would it have been lethal?"
"Possibly, yes, and I fear it works both ways. I would not wish to test it... nor should you."

This means we're stuck together .

"When we were on Peragus, I could feel the Force again."
"Indeed? And was it the same as before?"



"If my suspicions are correct, perhaps the damage the Jedi Council did was not as permanent as they thought. It is not an easy thing, to cut one off from the Force."
"Wait... the Jedi did this to me?"
"What did you believe? That you suddenly lost your connection with the Force without reason?"



"Indeed it is. It is much like losing one's ability to listen, or being put into a deep sleep, unable to awaken to the galaxy around you. Such a thing has been done before, when Jedi have pronounced sentence on their own... and exiled them, as they did you."
"In defying the Jedi Order to follow Revan to war, I thought I had somehow lost my connection to the Force."
"War leaves many scars, but rarely does it blind one to the Force. If anything, conflict and challenge may make the connection stronger, more intense. No matter what horrors you experienced in the war, no matter who you served, it is unlikely that the Force would be lost to you unless another factor was involved."
"Can my connection to the Force be healed?"
"It is possible that such a thing can be undone. Still... even so, the chances of the Jedi undoing such a thing for a traitor... is a slim thing at best, assuming they yet live."



"But there are no more Jedi."



The way to get influence with Kreia to listen and do what she teaches. That's all there is to it. She wants you think for yourself and trust no one, including, ironically, her. If you fuck up in her eyes, she'll berate you like the teacher she is; but if you tell her, "Sorry, won't do it next time," you'll gain influence.



Let's have a little history lesson and ask about what happened in KOTOR 1.



"Tell me about the Mandalorian Wars."
"It is a tale you already know well. Almost a decade ago, the Mandalorians began preying on the Republic, bringing the fires of war to many planets along the Outer Rim. Their predations continued, on planet after planet, until the Republic finally begged the Jedi Council for aid. The Jedi Council counseled caution and patience to... assess the Mandalorian threat as the Outer Rim burned.
"Two Jedi Knights, Revan and Malak, defied the Jedi Council. They challenged the Mandalorian fierceness and brutality on the battlefield with a viciousness of their own. Revan's entrance into the conflict marked the true beginning... and end... of the war. It was Revan who drove the Mandalorians back into the Unknown Regions.
"Until we destroyed them... at Malachor V."
"Yes, I have heard tales of Malachor V... and Revan's part in it. I know you served there, in that final battle. It must have been a terrible thing. The wars' end was merely another beginning, and what seemed a victory for the Republic was far from it. Many believed the Mandalorians defeated at Malachor V. But the Mandalorians taught the Jedi much through battle."
"And so it was that Malak, Revan, and the Jedi that followed them discovered their true natures in the Mandalorian crusade.
"But you know this."

"But some battles must be fought. It was not Revan's failing."
"Did Revan fail... or was it the failure of the Jedi teachings? A question for another time perhaps."
"As all Sith do, without a strong enemy, the Sith turned on each other. Revan escaped the Jedi and returned to finish Malak... and that was the end of the Jedi Civil War."



"No one knows... certainly not I. Korriban lies in ruins, Revan is gone, and the blade of war she promised to stab into the heart of the galaxy has withdrawn."







"So Revan saved the Republic?"
*laugh* "It would seem that way... from a certain point of view, perhaps. The Jedi Civil War left wounds that have yet to heal... we shall see if the Republic has the strength to survive."
"Then we must do what we can until it has a chance to recover from the war."




Clue #1 - This is subtle start to finding out Kreia's real name. Kreia's view is that only through battle and conflict can a person's true nature be revealed; we'll figure out the origins of this philosophy later.

That's also a great quote. "They find themselves... or find themselves lacking."







She's really on a roll here.



Let me try! "What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger!"

Too cliché?

I'll never become a writer .





Phew. Okay, enough blabbering for now.





That sums up my own thoughts nicely.





Light Side points are for sympathizing with the Jedi.

If you've played this game before, you'll realize Kreia  just lied to us twice, and set the events of the rest of the game in motion. I'll leave you to figure out what she lied about .



Hello, fool and imbecile!



"Cryptic as always."
"What a surprise. Just so you Jedi know, the whole "cryptic routine" isn't mysterious, it's just irritating. If you really can see the future, you should be at the pazaak table."
"But to know the future, one must know yourself."
"What was that, some kind of joke? That's what I'm talking about. 'Jedi Talk.' You two should start your own little Jedi Academy."
"But to teach, one must be willing to learn."
"All right, all right! Cut it out, I get it, I get it. The last Jedi in the galaxy, I get the comedian who runs around in his underwear."

I love that exchange, it's what convinced me that being a Light Side Exile in this game doesn't necessarily you mean have to be a naïve, humourless jackass like I felt Light Side Revan was at times.

"Not that I'm complaining. Most Jedi wouldn't know a joke if it crawled up their lightsabers. Our passenger, for example."
"Well, she's been through a lot - especially considering her age."



Clue #2 - Another clue to finding about Kreia. She was good looking once. Weird thing to note, I know, but it's relevant later.



"Hey, I just got out of prison. If we had a decent navicomputer, trust me, we'd be dropping out of hyperspace into the Nar Shaddaa Red Sector right now."





"What are you talking about?"







What we're doing is setting up some game decisions that come into play later. We decided on Revan's gender and alignment earlier, and now we're deciding what kind of lightsaber we use to wield before all this war and exile business happened.

By the way, all the cool kids use single sabers.



"Hey, you didn't go red, did you?"

Well this is tempting. But we must resist.

"No. Both the blade and crystal were unique."
"Yeah, unique how?"



Silver lightsaber? Sounds gimmicky, but it's the most poetic answer, so we'll go with that.



Telos is the only planet in the ship's charts, so we're forced to go here.



On approach to our second planet.



We're not actually going to Telos (yet). The planet's not particularly inhabitable, so the population chills out at Citadel Station, a giant satellite.

I know you want some concept art:







Back to civilization.





"I don't like the sound of that. If they think we caused the explosion..."



"I'm Lieutenant Grenn, Telos Security Force. I'm under orders to take you into custody in regards to the destruction of the Peragus Mining Facility."
"We didn't have anything to do with that."

We didn't, honest.

"You are the only witnesses of the mining facility's destruction."
"You haven't been formally charged, but you will be placed under house arrest pending the results of our investigation. In the meantime, your ship and any droids will have to be given over for safekeeping."
"Dreet? Bee-deet?"



Jesus was cooperative, but now you want to take away his guns? Don't make Jesus ANGRY.

"This is outrageous. You don't have any evidence."
"That as it may be, the circumstances of your arrival are suspect at best. Thus it is necessary for us to keep you under surveillance until we have a better idea of what happened."
"Do you understand?"





Depends upon?





Jesus's crew gets hauled away by the five O. Meanwhile, the security cameras catch someone poking around our ship.



Not even on the base for an hour and our ride is already getting jacked by an albino.

Where do they think this is, Los Angeles?





This is what the Citadel jails were suppose to look like:



Looks way cooler in the concept art.



Sorry Atton, these things are designed to be as uncomfortable as possible.

Where do we pee and poop?

Door opens again, and in comes this dink.



I think he wants to kill us.

"The Exchange has a bounty on Jedi, you know. You're worth quite a bit of money."



"Eh? I'm more than skilled enough to work for the Exchange."



"No Mandalorian could match my skills. No Mandalorian could have been clever enough to infiltrate this station, taken the identity of one of the guards, then..."
"...then what, overloaded our force cage fields and made it look like an accident? You probably don't even have the guts to fight me. Heh. Pathetic."
"Don't think overloading your cages had not occurred to me... you're wanted alive, but I doubt anyone will care as long as I bring them your corpse."

That sentence doesn't even make any sense. Does you want to kill us or not? If so, overload the force cages you dumbass.



Make up your mind!



He walks over to the computer and opens all the energy cages. Why he lets everyone out, I don't know. This guy's a few fries short of a Happy Meal.





"What are you saying... that I can dodge bullets?"





"No Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready... you won't have to."





"We've arranged for an apartment in Residential Module 082. You'll stay there under house arrest until our investigation of the Peragus matter is complete."





This guy is the master of awkward silences.





Okay, all the Matrix nonsense aside, there's a reason why the attempted assassination didn't make a lick of sense. The original version of the game had a major subplot involving the Genoharadan trying to kill you, culminating on Nar Shaddaa. The entire thing was cut out of the game. This fake Batu Rem/assassin guy was originally suppose a Genoharadan assassin, not an Exchange thug. If you don't know/remember who the Genoharadan were, it was a Dark Side only quest from KOTOR 1. Here's a cut piece of dialogue with Atton which explains it.

"What do you know of the GenoHaradan?"
"A bunch of death worshippers, assassins, but they'll gladly take credits to further their religion. That's institutions for ya. The GenoHaradan used to be nothing but two-credit hitmen in the times of the Jedi Civil War, but somewhere along the line, something changed."
"Some say when Revan came back, the two had dealings, and it showed them a new purpose. Another thing to thank Revan for. It stopped being just about credits for them. It was like they had determined it was their mission to help the galaxy die. Zealots."
"Why would the GenoHaradan hunt me?"
"Because they want to kill you. Or someone does. You won't find out from them, anyway - only their master would know why they've pledged to kill you."
"Where can I find their master?"
"If I knew that, then I'd tell you - but I don't. They're a hard group to track down."
"How do they know who I am... and where I am?"
"Beats me. It's like you've suddenly become public knowledge, which is strange, because I thought Jedi kept their secrets about ex-Jedi. Normally, tracking someone through the galaxy is tough, but they seem to have a lot of information on you all of a sudden."
"Maybe someone's been talking."







Fucking telemarketers. Always at dinner time too.





This is an Ithorian. For the record, I really hate them because they look kinda like roadkilled frogs , and they have their own speech which sounds like an underwater car muffler. They're the new Twi'leks of KOTOR.



"Are you familiar with the restoration project on Telos?"
"The surface of Telos was destroyed during the Jedi Civil War a few years ago. This - Citadel Station - is part of the Republic's planetary restoration initiative. Citadel Station uses energy fields to seal off portions of the planet's surface, then generates and controls the weather patterns over each area. Once the weather in a zone is stabilized, new animal and plant life is introduced to restore the ecosystem."
"Recently, however, we have run into contention with the corporation known as "Czerka." Perhaps you have heard of our recent troubles?"
"Ithorians are well-known as ecologists and agricultural engineers. The Telosian government asked those of my herd to help restore their planet. As the station grew, the Telosian Security Force was no longer large enough to police the entire station. Czerka approached the Republic and offered supply and security contracts. Their paramilitary security division now polices two-thirds of Citadel Station."



"Chodo Habat is a powerful priest, our spiritual leader. He sensed something upon your arrival... a disturbance, an echo in the Force. I am unclear as to what Chodo means by this. He says the echo he felt upon your arrival suggests that you yourself are damaged. He can feel the pain through the Force."



Kreia actually feels threatened, because this Chodo sounds like a force user. She doesn't the Exile's mind corrupted by someone else's teachings.





Leave a voicemail!



This is our counter-offer from Czerka corporation.









"If it continues, they'll drive the Republic into irreparable debt, and have nothing to show for it but a few meadows and a weather generator the size of a small continent."

Voting Time
You've heard their pitches, now's it's time to vote:

Should we join up with the ecology-loving, Toyota Hybrid-driving Ithorians?

Or should take up with the Machiavellian Czerka Corporation's evil plans for an economically feasible and financially sound Telos?