Part 15: Communication Issues

Part 15: Communication Issues

Last time, we discovered Revan and Malak were looking for something called the Star Forge years ago and found an incomplete Star Map in the Dantooine ruins. More maps apparently exist on other planets, left there by an ancient race known as the Builders who were described by a Builder droid as an "infinite empire". We have been given the task of finding these Star Maps, which would hopefully lead us to the Star Forge and give us a chance of stopping the Sith.



First off, though, we need to check out the Ebon Hawk interior since we didn't get the opportunity to do so yet. Well, I guess we could've returned to the ship at any point, but we were busy slaughtering the local wildlife and fixing everyone's problems on Dantooine.



We can find Mission hanging out in the east crew quarters. Let's see if she's got anything interesting to say.





As you may recall, Mission previously described Lena as a "space tramp" and an "intergalactic skank". I think I saw an Intergalactic Skank concert once. (This is the point where someone informs me that is an actual band).





She was a dancer at the cantina where my brother used to go to play Pazaak. Griff could be a real smooth talker, and it wasn't long before the two of them were dating. But Lena was used to dating rich Tarisian nobles - guys with mountains of credits. Griff could never give her the kind of lifestyle she was used to, no matter how hard he worked.



I thought Lena would brush Griff off when she saw how poor he was, but for some reason she stuck around. I guess she saw the potential for a big payday down the road.



I mean, weirder things have happened. There also seems to be a hint of jealousy here, but of course we don't know the story.



After they'd been together for a few months, Griff told me he was leaving Taris. He and Lena were going to try and make their fortune off-world. He promised as soon as he made enough credits he'd come back and get me and we'd all live like royalty. That was two years ago - I haven't seen him since! I don't even know where he went!

Right.



Oh, I know what happened! As soon as she got him off Taris Lena sunk her claws into Griff but good! She twisted him around her little finger and made him forget all about me! I know I'll probably never see Griff again. But part of the reason I came with you was the hope that I could find out what happened to my brother. Don't worry - I won't let my search for Griff get in the way of what we're doing. Let's just get back to the task at hand. Is there anything else I can help you with?

Maybe one way we will find out what happened to Griff, but for now we'll continue our tour of the Ebon Hawk.



Canderous can be found in the swoop garage area of the ship, which also contains a workbench. Canderous can give us adrenal stimulants, but more importantly he has some war stories to tell.



My name's Canderous of the Mandalorian clan Ordo. I've been fighting across the galaxy for 40 of your years. For my people it's the honor and glory of battle that rules us. It's through combat that we prove our worth, gain renown and make our fortunes.





So it was actually the Sith who suggested the Mandalorians go to war against the Republic, most likely to weaken the Republic and make it easier for the Sith to conquer later on. As proud warrior race guys who live for the thrill and glory of battle, they happily accepted.



If there's nothing at stake - your possessions, your life, your world - then the battle's meaningless. We Mandalore take everything we are and throw it into battle. It's the true test of yourself - the battle against death... against oblivion.

Mandalore is supposed to be the name of the leader of the Mandalorians, as well as the name of the planet they originate from, but the script seems to be using the names interchangeably.



So, how did Canderous end up running errands for Davik?



The clans as they were aren't a threat, but the galaxy still fears us. Ha! People think we war out of spite, or bloodlust. They don't understand, and fear that. We only wanted the challenge of the battle, and glory from it - win or lose. And we lost. But now I have no real challenges. Crushing Davik's enemies and the pathetic gangs in the Lower City of Taris could not be considered the most glorious of tasks. When I think of the battles I've fought... the thousands I've killed... the worlds I've burned... I weep for my past. We'll never speak of this again. We've got work to do, so let's get to it.

Will do. We'll talk more later. Next up, we'll use the workbench to upgrade our lightsabers.







These are the lightsaber upgrade crystals we currently have. Rubat is a small damage and attack boost, nothing special. Bondar offers a 25% stun chance, which according to my extensive research (clicking the first Google result for "kotor bondar stack") stacks with Critical Strike. Sigil offers a larger damage bonus as well as +1 to Attack.



I insert the Bondar and Sigil crystals into our main saber and a Rubat crystal the other. I could've also put one Rubat crystal in each of our sabers and then split Sigil and Bondar between them to have two fully upgraded sabers, and I'll do something like that later on but for now we'll go with this setup.



Double-bladed lightsabers only require one set of crystals, so you can get e.g. the effects from Sigil and Bondar on both blades without actually having to find another set of those crystals for the second blade. I generally prefer to have different sets of crystals on each blade, which is only possible with dual sabers.



Back to the tour. This is the engine room, where the engine and hyperdrive are located. Any questions so far?



T3-M4 and Zaalbar hang out in the main hold, which also houses the navicomputer console which can also be used as a holoprojector. We can also find Juhani in what appears to be a supply closet.





T3 can create computer spikes for you, although you won't be able to get too many from him before he needs to... I don't know, recharge or something. As Zila points out, T3 isn't much for talking or displaying personality in general, which is a bit of a shame considering how much personality droids such as R2-D2 had. T3 will get much, much better on that front in KotOR II, but that is a story for another time entirely.



Just chime in if you ever have any advice.

Beep-boop.

Beep-boop to you too, buddy.



Beep-woop-woo.

You don't even know what I was going to ask!



Okay, fine.



Maybe Zaalbar will have something to tell us.



He can make grenades as well, but we want to know a little more about him.





It is nothing personal, but I just don't feel you could understand anything about me. The ways of my people are not for outsiders to know. You'll have to be content with that.

Then I will leave you be.

Thank you.



Zaalbar is not much for conversation either, but Juhani will be more than happy to talk to us.





I hope that by helping you in your task I may redeem myself in your eyes... and in my own.





I can only hope that, in our time journeying together, I will succeed.

PHRASING! I'm pretty sure that last line is meant for a different conversation altogether.

She has plenty more to say as well.







Well... It goes back a number of years... Back on my homeworld we did not see Jedi very often, especially where I lived.







Champions of truth. Defenders of justice. Heroes of the Republic. It was very easy for a child to be enthralled by their image, their mystique. Maybe I was one of those children.





When I saw a Jedi for the first time they lived up to everything my imagination had created them to be. I was awed... and maybe a bit enamored...





The foolish delusions of a child. But THIS child made it happen! As soon as I was able I left my world and went in search of them. I found them and was accepted. I had been living my dream on Dantooine for several years before you came. Although... perhaps I was not entirely ready for it... or not completely suited to the task. Otherwise I would not have fallen... But thanks to you I have been redeemed. Perhaps I may yet live to see that dream of mine come true. Come, there is much we should do. Let us not waste time talking. Action is what is needed.

No, we're not finished here yet.







I have been thinking about myself... about Quatra... and about my fall to the dark side. I keep thinking that it was my anger that drove me that far, that nearly damned me. I look inside myself now and I can still see it, I still feel it.

Perhaps you just need more time.

More time would do me good. Time to distance myself from that anger. I think that is why the Council agreed to send me with you. They think, perhaps, that in your company I will be able to free myself from it.





We will hear much more from Juhani later, but as of right now we know she met a Jedi on her homeworld and was inspired to become a Jedi herself (generally, in Star Wars you don't just decide you want to be a Jedi, but she made it work). Of course, that eventually turned sour because she couldn't control her emotions well enough, not that Master Quatra's little test would've helped any. Regardless, she's here now and we'll step in if she starts to slip back to the dark side.



In the cargo hold, we can find our food and supply stores as well as some empty boxes we can shove our unnecessary items if for some reason you don't want to sell them.



At the back is a smuggling compartment, but we can't do anything with that since nobody gave us the codes to open it.



The west crew quarters are empty. I'm also quite sure the ship doesn't have enough beds for everyone in the party, unless there's one somewhere that we can't see. Between the two crew quarters and the medical bay (which we'll see later), there are seven beds available and we'll end up with eight non-droid party members including Zila.



This is the communications room. It has a lot of... well, communications stuff in it, such as security camera access (which we can't actually access in-game). I could also have sworn the actual navigation computer was here, but Wookieepedia disagrees and I'm not going to argue with those guys.



Carth and Bastila are always found in the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk. Before we leave Dantooine, we'll talk to them as well.



Thanks, but as I said I need to talk to Bastila and Carth first. Also, if the Galaxy Map is the actual navicomputer, I'm not sure what the Wookieepedia article (which you should not read if you haven't played the games, because spoilers) is going on about, but I suppose it makes sense that you could access the computer from multiple locations in the ship.



Not just yet. The Galaxy Map screen is showing Tatooine, which happens to be where we will start our quest for the Star Maps. That's probably where everyone goes first, because it's such a familiar location from the movies. At the time of KotOR's release, only Star Wars EU fans and weirdos who saw the Holiday Special knew of Kashyyyk, and Korriban had mostly been seen in Tales of the Jedi. Manaan, on the other hand, was created entirely by BioWare for this game.



We... err... can't talk to Carth. The Dialog option does nothing. While this could be seen as a positive, we do also want to complete Carth's personal sidequest so hopefully this will sort itself out soon.



Let's talk to Bastila instead.



I still don't understand why we shared this 'vision'.

Are you wondering why we shared the vision? Or why we even received fit in the first place? To the first I can only repeat the answer that the Council gave us. Our fates are linked, and for two as strong as we are in the Force that amounts to a near-physical bond. As to the second, I don't truly have an answer for you. The Force works as it will, and perhaps we should be grateful for what we have been given.

But how did our fates become linked?

l... I don't know. Believe me, I certainly don't find the prospect of being joined to you enjoyable in any fashion.

How rude!



Please forgive me. I did not mean to imply that you were repulsive in any sense of the word. That we shared something so personal is just not something I'm used to.

Why did we dream of Malak and Revan?





That would not be my first choice, either, but choice appears to be irrelevant in this matter. We dreamed about Revan and Malak either because we were meant to or because we needed to. There is no other way to look at it.

What do you think Revan and Malak were doing?



Do you think we will receive more of these visions?

With luck we will. I would rather not rely on such visions to guide us, but when we have so little else to go on and the galaxy hangs in the balance...

Actually, before we lift off, we should go talk to an NPC here on Dantooine.



I think I talked to Lur Arka offscreen earlier, but let's make sure we had a chat with him.



Even if you already talked to Lur Arka, he'll just repeat this same stuff.





His young daughter was kidnapped by those raiders many years ago and has not been returned. Might you have news of her? Her name is Sasha.

Can't say we've heard anything of her.



It is not customary for the Mandalorians to terminate their captives. It is my hope Sasha has escaped or been sold into slavery. If so, I may yet locate her.

Sorry, I have no idea who you're talking about.

Ah, that is too bad. I shall have to continue my search.

I'll keep an eye out for your girl.



Right. Now that that's done, let's return to the Hawk and check out that Galaxy Map.



While I said we'd start our Star Map quest on Tatooine, there is another stop we must make before that. The Yavin space station was originally a free DLC addon for the Xbox version of KotOR, and was integrated into the PC port from the start. When the Xbox One backwards compatibility feature for original Xbox games launched and KotOR was one of the initial supported releases, this DLC pack was not downloadable so you weren't able to access the Yavin station on Xbox One. However, it has since been patched in.



So, let's head out.





Meanwhile, on Darth Malak's ship...





She was aided by Carth Onasi, a decorated war hero of the Republic and a legendary soldier. During the Mandalore Wars he was honored many times for his bravery.

You know this man?

Yes, Lord Malak. He served under me when I still followed the Republic. You could say I was his mentor.

Interesting. How did you acquire this information, Admiral?

An eye witness, Lord Malak.



Oh, fuck off! You didn't survive that!



We left him buried under a metric ton of debris in an exploding hangar, not to mention that we had the only ship that could get through the Sith blockade without getting blown to bits by their auto-targeting cannons! I know bounty hunters in Star Wars EU do have a tendency to survive situations they shouldn't, but this is kind of ridiculous and unless Calo literally has superpowers (plot armor doesn't count), I call shenanigans.



The encounter itself was the survivable part!



And that is the entirety of the explanation we're going to get as to how Calo made it out unscathed.



Her companions are nothing to me, Calo - but I desire the young Jedi taken alive if at all possible.

Lord Malak, forgive me. There is something else. May we have a private audience away from the ears of the common soldiers?

I trust you are not wasting my time, Admiral Karath.



We do not get to hear what this information is and which of our party members it concerns, of course.







Here we are at the Yavin space station, floating in orbit near the gas giant and the jungle moon of Yavin IV.



Hm? What's the matter, Zaalbar?



That... doesn't sound good.



Someone's been into the emergency stash of food. Mission and I asked everyone, but nobody knows anything about it. You might want to check out the food stores the next time you're in the cargo hold.

Well, that's something we did not need. Let's go investigate the emergency supplies.





[There are no half-eaten or torn packages to indicate the theft was from pests or vermin. It looks more like some unknown person has been conducting clandestine raids on your stores.]

Definitely didn't need this.



Oh well. Time for a stowaway hunt.



You get this message a few times as you wander around the ship.



Eventually, you'll locate the source of the footsteps.



All right. Get over here, you little bastard. Nowhere left to run.



There you are.



What was that?







Well, we found the culprit, but now we have another problem. We can't understand a word of what our stowaway is saying.







Needless to say, we don't get very far in this conversation, so let's talk to the girl again.







Nope, that's not helping.





Sasha? Maybe she's the one Lur Arka was looking for?





No, still not working.



If we're going to get anywhere with Sasha, we have to make some sense out of this bizarre language of hers.



This would be a nice little quest if it wasn't for one very specific problem - Sasha only has a couple of canned voice lines, including the dreaded MUCHA SHAKA PAKA which you will hear roughly 5,704 times in the next couple of minutes.





This quest would've worked so much better if Sasha's lines were actually voice acted instead of using canned alien speech lines. Hell, I'd prefer no voice acting at all over what we have here. Like I promised earlier, I uploaded a video of this scene for your delectation:

VIDEO: Linguistic Difficulties







We seem to be making some progress.



I didn't get all of that, but sure.

Sasha na esowon in bristag. Bristag me laesfa.

Bristag? What is that?

[The girl points at things around her.] Bristag! Bristag me laesfa!



"Bristag" seems to be difficult for us to figure out.



Ah, spaceship.



What? Why not? That was about as obvious as it could possibly have been!



Yes, we've established that.



Let's see if "Laesfa" is easier to understand.







The panel... all of this... it's your home. "Laesfa" means "home".

[The girl smiles.] Sasha na esowon in bristag. Bristag me laesfa!



Let's try bristag again.





I don't know why that didn't work the first time.





We're starting to get somewhere now.



You've said that before. What is ”gon-disen"?



Is she making fun of us?



[The girl smiles and pats her chest.] Gon-disen! Me!

It's... something you like. Yes, "gon-disen" means you like it!

Yooba gon-disen!

You like me. I understand.





"Na abds"... you said that when I first found you.





[She frowns and slaps her leg again.] Abds! ls na gon-disen!

So... "abds" is "to hurt"? "Na abds" means "not hurt"? Is that it?

Yooba na abds!

I understand. No, I won't hurt you.



Yum? What kind of word is that?

[The girl seems puzzled. She points towards elsewhere on the ship.] Yum. Me awnts kesta-won yum.



[She mimics an act which looks like she's chewing something.] Yum. Me yum gon-disen!

Yum... you mean food, don't you? "Yum" is "food".



Nuh ghis? Is that all one phrase?





[She covers her mouth with her hand.] Me na kapsie nuh ghis!

You're not speaking... now? "Nuh ghis" means "now"! "Na nuh ghis" is not now... or "before"?

Nuh ghis! Me awnts kesta-won yum nuh ghis!





Tabed you? What do you mean?

[The girl points at her mouth.] Yooba kapsie... tabed me yooba.

You speak... something?





So... 'tabed' means 'tell me about'. I get it.

Tabed me yooba!

I think she wants us to tell her about ourselves.



We seem to have this mostly figured out, so let's continue talking to Sasha. Maybe she'll tell us how she ended up on our ship.



Yes, we'll talk to you now.



Me palkie bristag na nuh ghis! Me hoot abd liaz!

You came to the ship before. You were very scared. Why?

Me palkie Manlorey! Me na esowon!

You left the Mandalorians? And hid here on the ship.

Me na palkie awnts! Bristag me laesfa!

You don't want to leave. The Ebon Hawk is your home.

[She nods.] Bristag me laesfa.

Why are you scared of the Mandalorians? Hoot bad liaz Manlorey?

Manlorey kesta-won Sasha na nuh ghis! Manlorey abds!

They took you before? And hurt you?

Manlorey bristag na laesfa. Manlorey bristag is na gon-disen!

The Mandalorian ship wasn't home. You didn't like it.

Me palkie Manlorey bristag. Me na esowon in bristag laesfa.

You sleep here on the ship? Yooba stin-quiw in bristag?

[She points at a nearby service panel. You understand that she must have been sleeping in the ship's repair ducts.] Sasha stin-quiw there. It gon-disen.

The Ebon Hawk is not your home, Sasha. Not your first home, anyway. Bristag na Sasha laesfa.



As much as she likes the Ebon Hawk, she can't stay on the ship forever, especially when we're on a quest to stop the Sith.







[She seems uncertain.] Me palkie laesfa? Me palkie Dantooine?

Yes, you can go home.



Okay! That took some effort, but we managed to communicate with Sasha well enough to tell her we'd take her to home to Dantooine. She still seems to like the ship a lot, but we'll see how things will turn out once we get back to Dantooine. If you're a dick, you can just throw her off the ship because she's not your problem.



First off, we should go see if anyone is home on this station.



To get to the station proper, we first need to run through this lengthy tunnel and activate all the access panels on the walls.



But who are you? You new or something?







Republic, eh? The Republic hasn't been here in 50 years... don't see why they'd start now. It would be nice to have someone to talk to for a change... Trandoshans and smugglers aren't exactly stunning conversationalists.

Trandoshans and smugglers? What are you talking about?

They come by here every once in a while, it's how I keep in the loop, you know. But Trandoshan lizard-speak is kind of hard to follow and they have pretty limited imaginations... Smugglers aren't much better either...

Hey, I resent that!



Just have to fiddle with this damn door lock... thing keeps jamming...





Whoever this Rodian is, he's got a pretty nifty place set up here on this station.





I seek the pieces of a map to a 'Star Forge'.

Mm... 'Star Forge'? Never heard of it. There's nothing in this system except ruins of Exar Kun's war...





He failed, obviously, and the Republic bombarded the surface almost into oblivion during their counterattack. Now all that's left are a lot of craters and a little bit of jungle. You could find stuff there for years afterwards, but I've got pretty much everything there was to find there. Mostly all I've been doing for the last couple years has been tinkering with what I've found there, getting some of it to work, and modifying the stuff the smugglers and Trandoshans bring me to look at.

You spend all your time here in this station? Alone?

Eh? Yes, of course! You don't see anyone else around, do you? Well, not entirely alone at any rate... Trandoshans or smugglers come by every so often and drop things off and pick some of my inventions up.

You're an inventor?

Maybe a little. I just tinker with stuff I've found lying around the ruins on Yavin IV, or that the Trandoshans and smugglers bring me. Of course, with them it's usually weapons and things... But I just have so many ideas that people haven't seemed to come up with yet. It's really quite astonishing.

Who are the Trandoshans?

The Trandoshans? Mercenaries and bounty hunters... Scum, mostly. They look like big two-legged lizards.



Game, please don't put the racist option at the top of the list. As for Trandoshans, everyone's favorite bounty hunter Bossk is a Trandoshan. I like Bossk, he's always so happy to be doing whatever it is he's doing, even though he always loses to Boba Fett and everyone else.



I'd give them a few of my more... applicable inventions at reasonable prices, and they'd keep me supplied with food and new materials. It's worked out well so far, for years really. With Davik gone, they've been getting ideas, though.

Do you have anything you'd be willing to sell me?

Yeah, I have a few things kicking around the place. Stuff the Trandoshans and smugglers have brought for me to look at, and a few things I've been making from parts. They aren't cheap, though. They pay a lot for what I can make, and anything I sell to you I can't exactly sell to them, now can I? But if you're willing to pay, I've got a few of my more advanced things you can look at. I'm always working on more, so you can check back some other time if I don't have what you want right now. Here, have a look.



Suvam is, I believe, the only merchant in KotOR who actually updates his stock as the game progresses, so the completely ridiculous and expensive items will eventually be joined by several even more ridiculous and expensive items. There's nothing here we want right now, not that we could afford most of it anyway.



However, Suvam will also buy your items at vastly higher prices than any other merchant in the game. He'll pay 65% of the item's base value, which is 2.6 times higher than the rates anyone else will give you (aside from some of the merchants on Taris, but for understandable reasons those don't really count at this point). So, let's sell off some of this crap we've been accumulating.



We can buy back the items we sell, but I think we'll be fine without any of that stuff because we can get much better replacements.



Before we go, let's take a quick look around. I think that's some kind of a primitive probe droid.



Suvam's got a pretty great view of Yavin, not gonna lie.





We don't have time to admire the view for very long, though. Let's get out of here. We'll be back eventually.



Occasionally, you get attacked by Sith fighters when traveling between planets. I'll be cutting those random encounters out of future updates because they're completely inconsequential. After finishing off the fighters, we head to Dantooine so we can return Sasha to her father.





Lur Arka needs convincing that our stowaway is indeed the Sasha he seeks, but since we managed to figure out her strange language we won't have any trouble convincing him.





Let us go there now. I am most anxious to see her.

After you.





I see that Zila Galcyon was correct about your linguistic difficulties. I am positive that your parents can assist you with that.



Calm yourself, child. I will take you home.

Sasha na esowon in bristag. Bristag me laesfa.

This will take forever unless we do something.





Yb, bristag. Yb-abu, Zila Galcyon!



Now that that is sorted out, let's return to the cockpit and see if Carth has anything new to say.



Still unresponsive. This might be bad.



I took Carth out of the ship to see if that would fix his problem, but no. Loading the game, resetting, nothing worked. He doesn't even follow us, just stands there next to the Ebon Hawk.



Carth did, however, gain a few levels so we'll set him up with an extra DEX point for blaster funtimes, as well as Master Two-Weapon Fighting and Improved and Master Sniper Shot.



Let's try talking to Zila as Carth and see if that does anything.



This popped up when I talked to Zila.







At last we're managing to have a conversation with Carth again.



For one thing, I want to know what the Jedi Council said to you. They pulled you in there and refused to tell me a thing about it. I'm rather curious to know what went on... and why they didn't keep you on Dantooine for training. Isn't that strange?







A bond? What kind of bond? You mean to say that they told you you were "tied" to Bastila in some way? Heh. I have trouble believing that.

Of course you do.



I'm not trying to provoke you or imply that you're somehow responsible for the Jedi Council... but give me a hand, here! There has to be a reason!





I'll tell you this much... I am *not* going to wait around until I'm betrayed again!

For fuck's sake, Carth! I kinda preferred you when you weren't talking!





Christ, what a passive-aggressive dickhead.



That seems to be how this is going, yes.



Gladly. More importantly, let's see if we managed to fix him. Well, mechanically speaking, anyway.



Okay, good. He's following us again.



And we can talk to him again. Minor crisis averted.



We can talk to him in the cockpit as well. There was no reason to assume that wouldn't be the case, but I just wanted to make sure. By the way, I seem to have completely forgotten to mention this, but Carth is voiced by Raphael Sbarge whom you might know from such roles as Kaidan in Mass Effect. Now, Kaidan is not all that much like Carth as a character, but even then I get unfortunate flashbacks every time he opens his mouth and clumsily hits on Shepard.



Anyway, that is all we have time for today. All the talky bits took longer than I predicted, but next time we will most definitely find our way to Tatooine and start the quest for the Star Forge!