Part 10: Wings of the Hawk

Part 10: Wings of the Hawk

Last time, we became a living legend in the Taris dueling ring, and used the money from our fights to purchase an astromech droid to help us break into the Sith military base. The base is where the codes to bypass the Sith fleet's auto-targeting laser cannons (and thus escape Taris, with the help of Mandalorian merc Canderous Ordo who's sick of doing the crime lord Davik's dirty work and has promised to help us steal Davik's spaceship) are supposedly kept.



Hm. I suppose the Sith base would have someone working the front desk. We don't need to alert the entire base just yet, so let's see if there's some way we can talk our way out of this.



Perfect. This cannot possibly fail.



Oh. Well. Fair enough, that was a pretty terrible attempt.



[Persuade] Look, here's 50 credits - just don't hit that alarm.

[Success] 50 credits? You've got a deal! The Sith have made my life a living hell ever since they took over this base. You know, it's about time someone stood up to these Sith! Just do me a favor and wait until I'm out of here before you start blasting the place up.

I'd really like it if the game would make up its mind on whether 50 credits is a small fortune or the rough equivalent of five bucks. All the dialogue and the fact we can buy an astromech droid (the one that isn't T3-M4) for 50 credits suggests the former, but when you actually go shopping for items everything even remotely good will cost several hundreds or thousands of credits. I guess it's just one of those RPG things.



In any case, we have two doors (actually three, but one of them is just set dressing) leading out of the reception area.



Before we do anything with either door, we'll have T3-M4 slice into the terminal to take a look at the security cameras and see if there's anything we can do here to make our job easier.



The main barracks. Two droids, two Sith soldiers and a Sith captain, but no way to thin out their numbers. At least none we can see right now.





The secondary barracks have some Sith standing right next to a conduit, and we know exactly what to do with that.



The control center. There isn't actually anything important there, aside from another terminal.



In the elevator, we find a scary-looking droid and a couple of automated blaster turrets. There is also a conduit, but we can't overload that one for some reason.



We can, however, disable the shield on the droid. I think you can do this without using any spikes if you get a certain keycard in the secondary barracks, but I kinda forgot about that. We have plenty of spikes anyway.



The droid's shield is now gone, but we still need to do something about those turrets.



The armory is guarded by another set of turrets, so those need to be taken offline as well. Well, we could just walk in and smash them, but we'd rather avoid a direct fight with these things.



We'll take all the turrets and sentry droids offline. We would get more XP if we just fought them, but whatever. I can't be bothered to deal with all of those. Again, we could use the Sith passcard from the barracks to do all this without expending our computer spikes, but in the process of getting there we'd end up fight a bunch of this stuff anyway.



Now that we've taken care of some of the base's defenses, let's see what is behind the door on the west side of the reception area.



Err, hello.





You absolute fuckers! What the hell was that?!



Before we do anything else, let's set Bastila and T3 to Jedi and Droid support respectively, so we can actually make use of their abilities without being in direct control.



I do end up taking control of Bastila for most of the fights here in the Sith base anyway, because she's got so many useful abilities. Right here, though, we'll just cut our way through these grenade-spamming jerks.



The Sith technician at the back drops a datapad which gives you a hint on how to get rid of the elevator guard droid's shields if you didn't use the computer to disable them. Smash the conduit next to the droid!



The medical area doesn't have much of interest. I'm not sure what's going on with Bastila's lightsaber in this shot, but I'm guessing she's in the middle of igniting it as she hits the droid with the Disable Droid power.



With the sentry droids disabled, we can walk through a good chunk of this base without any trouble. What's going on here?



Right. I remember you.

I am in need of your help once again. The Sith are going to execute me for removing the Sith corpse from your apartment complex. Please, help me get out of this cage.

How do I get you out?

Switch all the panels on the wall to the red "off" position and I will be released. It is not as simple as it sounds - switching a panel will also switch the panel beside it. You must be careful as you do this, human. If you set all the panels to the green "on" position my cell's termination program will engage and I will be executed.

Right, so we've got a good old-fashioned lights out puzzle in front of us.



Time to start pressing buttons! You can do this in three moves (leftmost button, rightmost button, center button) if you know what you're doing, but I'm terrible at this sort of thing so it took me five moves to unlock the cage.



If you engage the termination program and kill the Duros by activating all the green lights, you earn dark side points.



Now I must leave this place before the Sith discover I have escaped. If you are wise, you will do the same. If the Sith capture you I doubt anyone else will come by to set you free.



There are hallways to the west and east of the detention area. The east path leads to the elevator, whereas this one goes to the control room and the main barracks.



Again, nothing important in the control room, but might as well get rid of the Sith while we're here.



That's the door to the main barracks. We disabled the sentry droids to thin out the enemy numbers, so we should be fine just kicking the door down. Zila has also gained a level, but we're not leveling her up again until she unlocks her prestige class.







Fuck! Not again!



Well, that was some bullshit. I'm not fighting these dickheads with just Zila, so let's reload our latest save (which is thankfully right there in the control room). I wish the Xbox version had quicksave and quickload like the PC version.



This time, we'll send Bastila in to take care of this jerk before he's able to throw a grenade again.



One of the guys at the back is still tossing frags at us, but at least it's just one guy.



Serves you right. Nobody in the main barracks has anything of interest either, and neither do the boxes in the room, so we could've skipped this room entirely and only missed out on a bit of XP.



The armory lies at the end of this hallway. Since we disabled the turrets, we just need to get rid of this mine to get to the lockers.



There isn't anything super important here, but the droid flamethrower is pretty ridiculous.



That's a fixed 30 points of damage, 15 if the target manages a successful Reflex saving throw, and it can also inflict horror on low-level targets and debilitate them. Because I'm dumb, I don't equip it on T3 yet.



We've explored everything except the eastern hallway leading to the elevator, so let's head that way.



Here's the passcard, which would've been more useful if we hadn't already used our computer spikes to hack the system.



Only one more door left, and we know what's behind this one.





When we encounter the droid, the door locks behind us. We're not running away from this fight, that's for sure.



The Disable Droid power is a godsend here. The assault droid succeeds at its saving throws a few times, but eventually its luck runs out and it gets stunned. You know what Zila can do to stunned or otherwise debilitated opponents.





That clears the path to the elevator, so let us proceed.



Only one way forward on the second floor.





This pleasant fellow is a Sith Governor, presumably the guy who runs things around here.





This meeting is a stroke of luck for me - my master will surely reward me with my Iightsaber once I kill you!

Do the Sith not build their own lightsabers? Maybe he means his master will give him the crystal so he can build one. It doesn't matter, because the only lightsaber this idiot is getting anytime soon is Bastila's double-bladed saber through his torso.



Went for the concussion grenade + Sneak Attack tactic, but sadly Governor here didn't get stunned.



The Sith Governor likes to use a variety of Force powers, such as Stasis here. Stasis is the upgraded version of Stun, lasting longer (12 seconds/4 combat turns!) and physically enclosing the target in a force field instead of just stunning them for a moment.



The Governor apparently doesn't like droids, so he decides to focus his attacks on T3. That gives Bastila a great chance to deal some damage from behind, and would be a fantastic opportunity for Zila if she wasn't currently in stasis.



Gah! Drain Life is an annoying dark side power which, well, drains 10-40 points of life out of the target. We don't have Force Resistance/Force Immunity (not to be confused with the passive Force Immunity abilities Jedi Sentinels get) yet, so all we can do here is take it and hope the dice rolls don't fuck us over too badly.



T3 gets knocked out in the melee (I really should've equipped the flamethrower, but I guess I was hoping he'd manage to stun the Governor with one of his stun rays so we could wreck his shit with Sneak Attack), but that's okay because the Governor isn't going to be doing any more governing around here.



And there we go, the launch codes we need. He's got some other good stuff as well, including Strength Gauntlets which provide a +1 bonus to STR. The strongboxes in his chamber also contain some items and 500 credits.



Now that that's done, we can return to Canderous. Before we do, let's just quickly pay a visit to the Beks and see how they're doing after the swoop race.



I'm sorry Gadon can't be here to thank you in person, but he has retired to the safety of his private chambers. I'm afraid he's grieving over Brejik's death.



Brejik violated the customs and traditions of Taris. He dishonored himself by refusing to honor his wager. He got what he deserved - even Gadon has to realize that. Even so, I think Gadon hoped that somehow Brejik could be made to realize the error of his ways. Despite everything he had done, Gadon probably would have forgiven him. But he isn't out of danger yet. The surviving Vulkars will still want him dead. He's a prime target now - as are you. You better be careful out on the streets.

I don't think there are any surviving Vulkars, but thanks for the warning. I guess Gadon did consider Brejik his son at one point, so it's no wonder he's broken up over what happened even if Brejik was a piece of shit. Anyway, now we can return to Canderous!





So what do you say? We join forces and I can get you inside Davik's base - and right to the Ebon Hawk. We can go right now.

I have a few things to take care of first.

Fair enough. But don't take too long. As soon as you're ready to get inside Davik's estate, come speak to me. The sooner we get off this rock the better.

Just one last thing to take care of.



That's another 400 credits for turning in Bendak's bounty.



Now we can proceed.



I'll say I brought you in so he could check you out. He'll have you stay at his estate for a couple days while he runs some background checks on you - that's standard procedure.



You got another plan, sister? Or are you just objecting 'cause you didn't think of it?

No, I... don't have another plan. I would rather not place my life in your hands, however.

I can say the same about you. That makes us even. Fortunately we both want to get off this rock, right?

Unsurprisingly, there is a certain degree of mistrust between the Jedi and the Mandalorian.





Canderous can regenerate his health, albeit not at a rate that would make it particularly useful during combat.



Naturally, we have to take Canderous when we go to Davik's estate. Bastila joins us because, well, she has Force powers and a lightsaber. Both of those things will come in handy if/when things go south at Davik's humble abode.



Meanwhile, in orbit above Taris...



No prizes will be awarded for correctly guessing whose ship that is.





This is Admiral Saul Karath, Carth's former mentor who is currently in charge of the Sith fleet.



Darth Malak has had enough of waiting around. While the Sith do want Bastila alive, Malak also doesn't want her to escape Taris and return to her allies.





Of.. of course not my Lord Malak. I will do as you command. But it will take several hours to position our fleet.

Then I suggest you begin immediately. You are dismissed, Admiral.



So that's the big crime boss.



Of course, we already know Calo Nord very well.







Ah, yes - now I recognize your companion. The rider who won the big swoop race. Very impressive... as was your display in the rather heated battle afterwards.



We'll just play along and be polite for now.



With a recommendation from Canderous - and a thorough background check - you could become part of the Exchange. Many would kill to prove themselves worthy of this honor.



Come with me - I will give you a tour of my operations. I'm certain you'll be most impressed.



The shields are completely impregnable. Nobody can get past them without the codes to try and steal my baby. Unfortunately, the Sith military blockade has grounded my vessel. The Ebon Hawk can outrun any vessel in the galaxy, but even she isn't fast enough to avoid the auto-targeting laser cannons of the orbiting Sith fleet. I am, of course, working on acquiring the Sith departure codes so that I may come and go as I please. However, progress has been slow... but we should continue our tour.

Ah, yes. Good luck obtaining those codes, I'm sure you'll get your hands on them soon.



If all goes well with your background check you will be invited to join the Exchange. I'd advise you to accept the offer when it comes - or suffer the dire consequences of refusaL



You will stay in these rooms as my guest for the next few days; I will not accept no for an answer. Feel free to visit the slave quarters at any time during your stay. I must warn you that if you are found anywhere outside the guest wing during your stay - or if you bother my other guests - my security forces will deal with you most harshly. I will return after the investigation into your background is complete. Until then, make yourself comfortable. Come, Calo, let us leave our guests in peace.



Yes, leave us. We have a lot to talk about.



No sense waiting around here, though. The sooner we get off Taris the better.

Okay, let's get out of here. First off, we'll equip the military suit on Canderous to improve his defense.





Hey, I didn't give him Toughness and instead gave him something genuinely useful! No, I'm pretty sure I gave him Toughness.



This is what his stats look like at level 7. Now that we've sorted that out, let's go and explore Davik's estate.



A male character would be able to request a massage here, to the understandable chagrin of his party members. We're not here for that sort of thing! Apparently there is supposed to be a male slave here, but I certainly didn't see one.



Most of these locked rooms in the guest area aren't particularly interesting, you'll just run into Davik's other guests who will tell you to fuck off and might go hostile if you don't manage to defuse the situation. This room, however, is somewhat special.



This is Calo Nord's room, where we can take a look at his hunting trophies and steal his belongings. The footlocker on the left doesn't have anything good, but the other one is worth checking out.



The items in it aren't amazing, but it does contain Calo's personal datapad. Let's see what it says!


Krayt dragons, huh? That must be some hunt.



Next door, we find this gentleman.



As well as his companion for the evening. Looks like we might have slightly ruined their night.





[Success] Okay, I guess it was an honest mistake. Give me the credits and I'll forget this ever happened. You better pay more attention to where you're going. Opening the wrong door around here can get you killed. Now get out of here and don't bother me again!



At the center of the estate is an actual throne room. Davik, I know you're the big crime boss around here and all, but people are going to make fun of you if you overdo it like this!



There are a few paths out of the throne room, and we'll choose the one to the northeast. After we kill Davik's guards, we'll take a peek at the security cameras to see if there's anything interesting.



The "Guest" Room (yes, the quotation marks are there in the game as well) has these pleasant accommodations. There looks to be someone enjoying Davik's hospitality in that energy cage, but we can't really tell who that is.



That, on the other hand, is our destination.



We could use spikes to disable the security on the hangar and skip most of this area, but of course we won't do that because we want to explore.



Let's head northwest this time. This is where the "guest" room is.



what the fuck



WHAT THE FUCK





Right. Well. That was fun. So, one of these torture droids here has an advanced flamethrower, which deals SIXTY POINTS of heat damage if you fail to make a Reflex save (and half of that if you succeed, so it'll still fuck you up). That was enough to wipe the fucking floors of Davik's estate with our party. Also, my last save was at the start of the area, because I totally forgot you can get annihilated by these droids.



Let's explore this hallway instead.



It leads to the hangar bay door. At this point, I'm strongly considering using our spikes to bypass the security and leaving the torture droids well alone, because that was ridiculous.



This is the spice lab, where the magic happens. He who controls the spice controls Taris. Or something to that effect. There's nothing of real interest here either.



Back to the northwest hallway. Before we attempt to fight the droids again, let's check the door to the left.



How can Davik expect me to invest in his ventures with this kind of incompetence on display? I should summon the other guards and report you to your commanding officer!



[Success] Well, I suppose I can forgive the intrusion in this case. Tell Davik I admire a host who has his underlings check up on the well-being and comfort of his guests. I don't require anything right now - you can tell Davik everything about my stay has been most pleasing so far. Here's a five credit chip for your trouble, sirrah.

Thank you, sir.



We'll scurry off as soon as we finish ransacking his room for 500 credits and some items.



The bounty hunter patrolling the hallway has a computer passcard, but we'll still need some other way to unlock the hangar door.





This time, the droids are nothing. They don't use their special weapons at all, except for a single use of the advanced stun ray on Canderous. So basically, this encounter can be comically easy or "lol fuck off", maybe something in between if you keep your distance so that you're out of reach of the flamethrower. The droids can and will follow you, though, and the flamethrower has fairly decent reach so you'll still want to be careful. With the droids out of the way, we can use the cage release switch to free the "guest".







I used to be the pilot of the Ebon Hawk - Davik's flagship. I know the codes to disable the security system protecting it. I'll load them into your datapad now. You can use those codes to steal the Ebon Hawk right out of its hangar. Sell it to the highest bidder, ransom it back to Davik - whatever you do you'll make thousands!

This is Hudrow, the former pilot of the Ebon Hawk, and he just gave us exactly what we needed.



It won't be long until Davik figures out I'm free. I have to get out of this base before that happens.

With that, he runs off, and we're pretty much done here.





There are some more rooms with Davik's goons in them, but nothing worth showing off. Let's get off this backwater dump of a planet.



Next stop: the hangar and the Ebon Hawk.



When we get to the hangar, we find that all hell has broken loose. The Sith have begun their planetary bombardment, and Davik and Calo are scrambling to escape aboard the Ebon Hawk.



Yep, that was the idea.



Make it quick, Calo. The Sith mean business. If we don't get to our ships and find somewhere safe, the bombs they're dropping will kill us all.



We manage to stun Calo with a concussion grenade as soon as the fight starts, so this should be a formality.



When we take down Calo, Davik gets killed by a laser blast from the Sith fleet.





You were saying?



How in the hell did he survive that?





Well, the second blast seems to have done the job.



We can't really tell if Calo's dead or not, but he looks pretty out of it and it's not like we're going to free him from there and take him along with us.



Even though the hangar is about to fall apart, make sure to loot Davik on the way out because he's got some good stuff on him. His war suit offers a good defense bonus, and can also be sold for a hefty profit.



I think you can get hit by some of the blasts here, but we managed to avoid it this time.



Do I ever!



No, we'll just stand here and watch the Sith destroy the planet. I guess you get the option here just in case you forgot to loot Davik's corpse.



VIDEO: The Destruction of Taris







The city is in ruins.



And that is exactly what the Sith are doing.







This method of destroying a planet might not be quite as efficient as the Death Star turbolaser, but that is still 4000 years in the future so the Sith just have to use what's available. It seems to work okay for them.







The Ebon Hawk barely manages to take flight before the hangar explodes behind us. We'll still need to pick up the rest of our crew, so hopefully they're still alright.



With everyone on board, we finally flee Taris, and not a moment too soon.



Of course, we're not safe yet. The Sith have sent their starfighters after us.



In the cockpit of the Ebon Hawk, our crew considers their next move.



That seems like a good bet right now. Hell, anything is better than our current situation.







First off, though, we need to get rid of the fighters following us.







At the start of these space combat minigames, it's usually a good idea to fire wildly in front of you because that is where the enemy ships will spawn and you'll be able to take out at least a couple early on before they scatter.



The blue gauge on the lower right is our shields, the red is our health. If the shields get depleted, you will hear a warning sound to indicate you're about to bite the dust. However, if you're any good at this minigame, that is unlikely to ever happen.





Eventually, all six enemy fighters go down and we are out of harm's way. We've escaped Taris and evaded the Sith fleet.







Next stop: Dantooine, and a new beginning.