Part 23: Post-Kashyyyk Roundup

Part 23: Post-Kashyyyk Roundup

Last time, we helped the Wookiees free Kashyyyk of the Czerka slavers and found our third Star Map. Only the maps on Manaan and Korriban remain.



Before we head to our next destination, we have the usual assortment of party member chats to get through. Zaalbar's reputation on Kashyyyk has been fully restored and he has assumed his rightful place as the next Wookiee chieftain and the wielder of Bacca's legendary blade, so let's hear from the man of the hour first.





It will be a while before I know what my role will be in making Kashyyyk truly free. I have a lot to learn.



You and I have important things to do, and I don't feel bad about leaving this time. I know I'll be welcomed back.

Why did you request to take Bacca's Sword?

I'm not sure I really know. Father expects much of me... I guess I do as well. I think, when I've learned enough, I'll bring it back to Kashyyyk. What happens then... we'll see.

I wish you well. Let's get going.



Zaalbar now truly respects us, even more so than he did when he swore his life-debt. Sadly, this is all the fresh dialogue he's going to get for the rest of the game, aside from some random comments here and there.



Next, we'll talk to Juhani. She seems troubled by something.





I never told you where I came from, did I? Where I grew up as a child? I suppose I was trying to deny what I was feeling.



I have been wrestling with my feelings inside. Trying to come to terms with it, but I find I cannot. I must have someone to blame! Someone to blame for the destruction of my homeworld. Someone who is responsible for the death of everyone I have ever known except those on Dantooine!





Oh, crap.





Without your intervention the Sith would have had no cause to lay waste to my childhood!

That... seems a little bit unfair. It's not as if we could've known the Sith were going to wreck the entire planet, and even if we had... well, what were we supposed to do, exactly? Turn ourselves in, let Malak take Bastila, and ensure the Sith win the war?



Obviously, Juhani is angry and not thinking straight, and she's just taking her anger out on us.



I hated that world, yet everything I learned as a child I learned there. It is as much a part of me as the air I breathe. I have this ache inside me where all my childhood memories lay, and I find your face there with them. If it was not for you, that world would still exist!





But it is so hard to lose your entire past. You would not understand.



Yes... Yes I suppose it will. As long as we remain focused on our task it will. I am sorry. I will try not to distract you in the future with my trivial experiences. We should stop for now.

I wouldn't exactly call her experiences trivial. She did lose her home world after all. That's gotta hurt even if she didn't like the place that much. In any case, Juhani has more to say, so let's talk to her again.





No, it is alright. I think I am over the worst of it. I apologize again for lashing out at you. It was not your fault. It was a horrible place to have to live. At least in the lower cities where the non-humans tended to get relegated. Living for years in a place with no sun, living off the trash dropped from the upper levels, and the meager pay doing back-breaking labor.





My family and I struggled each and every day to make something of our lives, but we could only go so far. Taxes from the corrupt government, more fees from the gangs controlling the streets, and whatever was left paying for what food and medical supplies we could afford.



And of course there was the constant bigotry and hate from the more affluent and human citizens. Lording their wealth over us living below. Every once in a while a rich human would come down through the lower levels with his droid entourage just to see how the 'wildlife' lived... and laughed at the mockeries that were our successes. But I have come to meet many decent humans in my travels since those days. Indeed, some of the greatest people I have ever met are human.





I... I suppose I see something of her in you when I look... I am sorry... I am getting away from my point. If there even was one... Sometimes I curse the day my parents fled to Taris. But then again, if they had not, I would not be where I am today.



Another story for another time. For now we must continue our own epic: To save the galaxy, if we can.

We'll get back to her later, but right now we have other folks to chat to.



Bastila's next in line. Last time we talked, she was having some misgivings about the teachings of the Jedi.



Part of my purpose on this mission was to guide you in the way of the light; to help you avoid the temptations of the dark side. But I fear I've failed in that task. I don't think I'm the proper Jedi to guide you. I am no Master. You should have remained with the Council.





You have maintained the path of the light side. But it has been in spite of my influence, not because of it. It is increasingly obvious I am unable to guide you properly.





I simply hope that you are not the one who pays the price, ultimately, for the fact that I can't help you enough.



While her concerns are understandable, Bastila is being way too hard on herself. As I mentioned before, we should help each other through any problems we might face.



Perhaps you can help me. And I will try to help you, if I can. Hopefully this will all work out, for the both of us. And for the sake of the mission.

If the romance scene for a male protagonist didn't kick in before, this is definitely where it does. My memory is a bit fuzzy in that regard, but it doesn't really matter.



Carth seems troubled, as is often the case with him.



Bullshit.



I told you my wife died four years ago. I... I've just been trying to remember what she looked like. It shouldn't be so difficult. I can remember things about her... things she did. The way she smiled, what her hair smelled like, our last fight... just not her face. I try to hold it in my head but it's gone. Is... that strange? Maybe I shouldn't be talking to you about this.





I, uh... it must look really strange for me to be obsessing like this, still. You must think I'm incredibly stupid.

Well, maybe.





The only thing that's kept me going since she died has been the need to find Saul and kill him. It's better to think about that than... anything else. If I can do that, then maybe I can let her go. Let it all go. If we encounter Saul... if we ever have the chance, promise me that I will be the one to kill him. I have to settle this... I need to.





Carth really wants to be the one to kill Saul if we ever run into him, but who knows how things will shake out? There's no way we can promise something like that.



Let's check in with our newest party member. Jolee is old and might keel over at any point, so he hangs out in the medical bay. Or maybe it's because it's the only bed we had left.





Unfortunately, Jolee doesn't have anything of note to tell us yet. Let's see what he has to say about Kashyyyk. He spent decades in the Shadowlands, so maybe he's got something interesting for us.



Chances are that by the time I finished telling you about it all, you would have found out for yourself. So there's no reason for me to start blathering on. It should be enough for me to tell you that there's kilometer after kilometer of trees on this planet. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it gets. If you're smart, you stay on top with the Wookiees. Go deep, however, and you may find some things you weren't expecting. And that's about all I got to say about that. Now let's get going.

Nothing we didn't already know. Figures.





We'll get back to him in a bit.



Before we continue on with the round of conversations on the Ebon Hawk, we'll swap out our blue lightsaber crystal for a purple one. Green and purple, always a good combination. Next up, we've got Canderous with another war story.



Your stagnant Republic has never seen some of the strange creatures and races we fought on the Outer Rim in those years. Heh, and you never will now.





The main belt in the Crispin system consists of mainly small rocks covered in frozen methane gas shells and the pirates were using them for cover. Ha! I remember using a thermal generator to cause the outer layer of one of the asteroids to vaporize in a picosecond. It blew out and shredded the three smugglers using it for cover! But... that was a mistake...





But something must have been inside it... something inactive in the cold. The heat of my blast might have triggered something or woken something up. After I had hit, spots of light and heat appeared all over the thin shell still covering it, evaporating the gases. What lay underneath looked like some sort of rocky growth... a deformed rock pitted by scores of micrometeorite scars. I think something even older might have been inside that.





It started rotating - faster and faster as we watched it. After a second it started spraying fire - thermal projectiles that melted our armor like wax. We were caught completely by surprise. Before we could counter-attack, it fled at an incredible speed.



Those who bothered to read the old Star Wars expanded universe novels for longer than I did (I tapped out around the time Kyp Durron stole the Sun Crusher) will know exactly what Canderous is talking about. This was a Yuuzhan Vong ship, appearing in the galaxy several millennia before the Yuuzhan Vong war. Someone more knowledgeable about bad Star Wars books than me can explain what happened in that storyline. Was that when R.A. Salvatore dropped a moon on Chewbacca?



We followed its trail as far as we could, heading away from the galactic core. When it finally led beyond the edge of our galaxy, we abandoned our efforts. Anything that wants to commit suicide in that great void is not worth our trouble trying to catch. That's the only story I have for now. I'll tell you some more stuff later, if we get the chance.

The Vong, of course, came from that great void outside the edge of the known galaxy.



Canderous has another story to tell us, so let's hear it.



In one battle above the world of Althir, my unit managed to defeat a force of Althiri ten times our own size. That battle gained me command of an entire sub-sect of my clan.





My task was to assault one of their flanks with a false attack. The Althiri would be drawn out by the units I had sent in. Once they had surrounded those units, the bulk of my forces would attack from the rear and defeat them in detail.





While fending off our main force, they had let their fleet split in two! The center of their entire fleet was left exposed! I turned my forces and assaulted the center of their fleet, decimating them!



Their slow, ponderous ship could not turn to face us without being overwhelmed. Their command vessels were destroyed in seconds. Their ranks were thrown into chaos. It was most amusing to watch the surviving ships scatter and flee. Several even tried to dive through the plane of the rings to escape us! They were shredded by the rings, or crashed into rocks, or were destroyed by our forces as we pursued them. Warriors do not flee from a battle if they are losing. They fight to the end! As we did against your Jedi Revan. Another time maybe I'll tell you about how the war with the Republic went. For now let's just get on with things.

That did sound pretty spectacular. We'll hear about Canderous' experiences in the Mandalorian Wars later on, of course, but right now we've got other things to do.



We've finally got enough Repair skill to start fixing HK-47, so let's do this.



Access complete: I have restored a great deal of information about my previous owner, master. Would you like to hear it?

Yes, let me hear it.



I am unaware of his designation. He purchased me from an acquaintance I cannot identify, for the purposes of protocol and bodyguard duties.





Why can't you identify his acquaintance?

Explanation: That previous owner is part of memories that are still deleted, master. It is customary for a droid's memory to be wiped when it is sold.

This man needed a bodyguard?

Observation: Not that I could perceive, master. The human believed that accompaniment by a bodyguard droid would increase his importance in the perception of others.

Right. A low-ranking businessman spending some money on a status symbol. Nothing new about that sort of thing.





Err... that escalated quickly.



Say, do you have a habit of killing your masters? Just making sure.



Explanation: My former master had owned me for a duration of two standard months before discovering my assassination protocol. He was pleased by the discovery. The human informed me that a competitor corporation was preparing to market a product that would ruin him personally. He was most agitated. He activated my assassination protocol and instructed me to kill all those responsible for the competing product. I proceeded to carry out my order.



We've heard about the protocol before, but not in any great detail.



I will go to whatever lengths, travel whatever distances are required, to complete the termination. This is the reason for my combat skills. Advisement: Unfortunately, the assassination protocol is currently non-functional. You will not be able to activate it.

Why not?

Answer: several of my actuators were damaged by my former owner. They cannot be repaired, master, sad though that is. My former master was unaware of this, but the competitor was in fact an arm of Systech Corporation, my master's own employer. It did not take long for my master to realize his mistake. By then, I had already terminated 104 corporate officers.

Well, he's efficient, we'll give him that much. Quality construction and programming, most definitely.





I do not know why my master was so upset, really. He was an officer of Systech and a potential target, but I cannot terminate my own master. I would assume that being the sole officer remaining, he would surely be promoted. Instead, however, the human chose to go insane with rage and attack me.

Poor HK, so misunderstood.





My master was not a smart man, however. While he was screaming and stabbing me with a writing utensil, he managed to pierce one of my actuators. The resulting shock terminated him and, sadly, destroyed my assassination protocol. Pure luck on his part, I suspect.





I shut down immediately whenever my master dies. I can only assume that while I was shut down Systech was dismantled and I was auctioned off as former corporate property. Observation: No doubt my sale price was quite cheap, leading to Yuka Laka's purchase. How very demeaning.

Didn't they know what you had done?

Statement: How could they? The vast majority of the officers had already been terminated. They likely assumed I was mere... chattel.

What a horrible story!

Statement: That hurts, master. This is my life you are talking about.

I'm just glad I acquired you myself.

Observation: So am I, master, though I apologize for not having an assassination mode to offer you.

I think we're good, thanks.





But as for my own history... negative. It will require further effort on your part to restore them, if you wish... though certain stimuli could always restore my core, still, as I explained.

HK-47 will gain various bonuses through your repairs, making him more effective in combat. This first repair gives him a permanent +2 DEX, which really helps considering he can only use blasters. That being said, if you're going to use HK-47 in your party, it might be a better idea to give him a set of flamethrowers and let him go to town. I'm sure he'd appreciate that as well.



That'll be all, HK-47. We'll be able to complete another set of repairs later, but sadly not all of them. Again, I'll be showing the dialogue off in some form, either by grabbing shots from the PC version with the help of the KotOR save game editor or just copy-pasting a transcript (probably the likelier option).







In any event, it's time for us to leave the giant forests of Kashyyyk behind. We're not heading to our next Star Map destination just yet, though, as we must pay a visit to Suvam at the Yavin station. There's also the fact we need to bring tach glands to Mission's brother Griff on Tatooine, so we'll be doing that as well.



Meanwhile, aboard Darth Malak's flagship...







Shall I hire another bounty hunter, Lord Malak?

No mere bounty hunter can stand against a Jedi. I shall not make the same mistake again.



It took me entirely too long to figure out the name "Bandon" came from "abandon".



Hey, we know that guy! That's Darth Whatever from the Endar Spire.







To demonstrate his prowess with the dark side and show what a badass edgelord Sith Lord he is, Darth Bandon decides to smash half the bridge with the Force.



Thanks for that, Bandon. Hopefully, that computer didn't control anything important. It'd be a shame if the ship suddenly went down because some idiot wanted to show off his cool dark side powers to his boss.



"I'm so fucking cool."





Darth Bandon's face vaguely reminds me of someone but I can't quite place it. In any case, it seems he'll be our next proper boss fight.



Of course, the crew of the Ebon Hawk is blissfully unaware of this new Sith Lord pursuing them.



Oh? Looks like Suvam's got some visitors.



What? You can't just rewrite our agreement whenever you feel like it! The Exchange won't stand for it!

The Exchange is in no position to dictate orders anymore, Suvam...

On the Xbox, these Trandoshans don't actually have voices for whatever reason. I could swear they added voiced lines for them on the PC version, but here they're completely quiet.



Hey, guys.



Tell you everything? What are you talking about? I don't have to clear everything through you!



They're trying to extort me, that's what! They think that just cause the Exchange is gone, they can take whatever they want from me!





We're trying to sell off some of our vendor trash here, and the last thing we need is for Suvam to get blasted by one of these morons so we'll tell them to piss off.







No! No! Don't fight in here! You'll destroy everything!

We'll be back for you, human... and you as well Suvam.



Bye, guys. Somehow I get the feeling that's not the last time we see them.



Still, at least I ended up all in one piece, right?



Suvam has some new items in stock, such as this Environmental Bastion Armor which makes the wearer immune to every type of environmental damage. Might be nice against droids with flamethrowers or freeze rays, actually, but it's also very expensive and none of the people we'll be putting in our party for any length of time are even able to equip medium armor.



An unlimited droid flamethrower for only 3000 credits? Sure! We'll also sell off some of the crap we've been lugging around, and leave the station with roughly 35,000 credits.



Now that we've left Kashyyyk, Jolee will actually talk to us properly.



So you wanted a ride on my ship?

Or it could be for the free food. What's the gunk that comes out of the synthesizer on this bucket, anyway? Do you never clean the darned thing?





You know, you remind me of someone else I knew ages ago. Pleasant enough fellow, great destiny... all of that. Breath like a bantha.





Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes. Andor Vex, was his name. The Force swirled around him like a hurricane, that's how great his destiny was.





Well, it turned out that poor Andor believed a wee bit too much in the infallibility of that destiny. That overconfidence turned out to be his downfall.





Let's see... oh, yes. Andor's downfall. I was pretty young, myself, when it happened. At the time, I thought that Andor's destiny couldn't be more boring.





I was just about to abandon Andor to whatever the Force intended for him when his ship was overtaken by a Dimean warship. Now, you've probably never heard of the Dimeans, but at the time they were a nasty lot led by a nastier overlord named Kraat. Tall fellow. Big teeth. Kraat has us hauled onto the bridge of his ship for questioning, and that's when I knew that Andor's destiny was at hand.

This oughta be good.





Well, Andor decides that his destiny makes him invulnerable and starts making all sorts of demands. Free me now, I'm not answering questions, blah blah blah. Don't you know who I am? Kraat decides he's had enough and begins crushing Andor's neck. I told the boy he should have kept his mouth shut. I think he agreed, too... or those could have just been gurgling noises. Well... well, anyway. Finally, Kraat has enough of Andor and tosses him aside into this giant energy intake shaft. Andor gets sucked in and starts bouncing around, heh, screaming... heh.

Well. That certainly took a turn.



You're kidding...

Everyone panics and I run, barely making it to the ship in time before the explosion. Kraat dies horribly, and the Dimeans never quite recovered. Changed the political course of the entire sector for centuries to come. I'd call that quite a destiny, wouldn't you?





You should do so well as to be sucked into the engine of some evil Sith Lord, you know. Andor was a hero... sort of.

I think we should probably stay away from any starship engines in the near future.



Jolee is pretty great.



Anyway, as I said, we need to bring the tach glands to Mission's brother on Tatooine. No time like the present.



Well, not really, but we'll need to bring Carth along just in case we can activate his personal sidequest.



Oh. I didn't expect it to actually pop up here.





I was. I crashed.

Ha ha ha! That's pretty rich. I can't imagine what it would take to keep you on the ground.





Sure am. We joined the militia together back on Telos. That was a lot of years ago, of course.

So, what are you doing here, Jordo? The last time I saw you was on, um... well, Telos, actually.

Yeah... it's a shame about home. Telos still hasn't recovered. The family and I moved on, and I'm working for Czerka now. I didn‘t see you after... er, what I mean is, my condolences on your wife. I heard what happened. At least your boy made it through alright.





No! Jordo, Dustil has been missing since the attack on Telos! Are you... are you absolutely certain it was him?!

Yeah. I'd recognize Dustil anywhere. Positive. He's, uh... he's joined the Sith, Carth...

What? Why in the hell would Carth's son join the Sith? That doesn't seem right. The Sith destroyed his home planet and killed his mother!



There's an academy for the Sith on Korriban. He's a student there. I saw him suited up in their outfit and everything. Sorry... I thought you knew.

No... no, I... I didn't. Well, thanks for telling me, Jordo.

Sure, no problem. Good to see you again, Carth. Hope everything works out with Dustil.

Huh. Talk about a curve ball.



We probably should do that, yeah.





All this time I've thought he was... he must be a man by now...

This is obviously very important to Carth, so I suppose we should head to Korriban next. It doesn't actually matter if you don't go to Korriban immediately, but since we don't have any particular reason to go to Manaan first, we might as well go to Korriban now.



Jordo simply disappears after the cutscene. Was he a ghost all along?



Yes, Dustil joining the Sith could be described as a "hitch". Maybe if we find him, he'll tell us why he joined the Sith because that just doesn't seem like a sensible move for him.



Carth levels up to 13 and learns Improved and Master Power Blast (+8 and +10 Damage respectively, -3 to hit) as well as Improved Rapid Shot. He also gains a DEX point.



Calo Nord's battle armor doesn't look that great, to be honest, but it does provide good defense. The maximum DEX bonus is reduced to +1, though.



Right then. Griff, we've got your monkey asses right here so you can brew Tarisian ale out of them.







Thanks, Mission. You won't regret helping me out with this!

That remains to be seen.



Hey, sis, no need to worry about that. I've turned over a new leaf. From now on I'm going to stay out of trouble and do things right. And once we've cornered the market on Tarisian ale good things will be heading my way. Then I'll make it up to you, Mission. Just wait - you'll see!

Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Griff.



You give me a couple hundred credits and I can get you in on the ground floor. You'll get a return of... oh, at least twenty times your investment!

You already promised me a few thousand credits.

Hey, don't worry, you'll get your credits as soon as we start mass producing that Tarisian ale. I just wanted to know if you were interested in an even bigger payoff.



Well, we do have over 35,000 credits, so I think we can afford to humor him even though we're probably never seeing any of that money again.



I better get started on brewing that ale. Meet me back here later and I'll have a downpayment on what I owe you.

I don't know if you actually have to leave the planet and come back, but I decided to do so just in case. While we're on the Ebon Hawk, we should talk to Mission as well.



I guess we'll find out when he meets up with us at the Czerka Corp shop. If he's got those credits he promised you then maybe there's hope for him yet.

Alright then, let's return to the Czerka shop and meet with Griff.



Son of a bitch!



Oh, great.





Griff, you utterly useless moron.







Gone without a trace, we presume.



He was one of the worst employees I ever had. He was always on a break, he mixed up orders and I think he might have been stealing from me.



I don't think we do.







Aww. At least for once he realized he had fucked up and bothered to apologize, probably for the first time in his life.



As the quest journal suggests, we'll never see Griff again. Good riddance.



I know it might look like it didn't make any difference in the end... Griff's in debt and on the run like usual. But at least I know we tried to help him.

I think most people would've left him with the Sand People, or possibly strangled him with their own hands.





My brother is what he is, but I've learned to deal with that. I'll never forget that he looked after me when I was just a kid, but I don't feel like I owe him anything anymore.





Damn right, Mission.



Before we leave, let's see if we can get anything else out of Carth.



I'll understand if we can't look for him right now, but if we could it would be a huge load off my mind.

Well, as I said, we don't really have any reason not to go to Korriban before Manaan (except to spite Carth, which is understandable but we won't be doing that).



So, we have our next Star Map destination. What will we find on the Sith world of Korriban? Speaking of which, I just noticed Korriban is actually supposed to be the volcanic planet mentioned by the Builder computer on Dantooine. Sleheyron would've been the barren one, I guess.