Part 34: Ahto Confidential

Part 34: Ahto Confidential

Last time, we arrived on Manaan and were appointed Arbiter in the Sunry murder case. Our next order of business is to find out more information about the murder, as well as locate the Republic embassy here in Ahto City.



We should talk to Sunry's wife Elora again to see if she's got any useful information.





That's not at all what they're claiming, actually. According to the judges, the victim was found with a blaster wound on her back.



Guys? Blaster wound to the back?



Hmph. I'm a Jedi... and one who was living alone in the Shadowlands until recently. That keeps you in shape, damn it! We're talking about Sunry, here.

Again, we're not saying Sunry killed this Elassa, but we should at least keep the established facts in mind. Sunry is being accused of shooting Elassa in the back, which does not involve much overpowering.



I don't know. We need to find some concrete evidence soon.



Find the real evidence, that's all I ask. The real evidence will prove Sunry didn't do this.



That's all there is to do in Ahto West for now, so let's head back east.



Oh, great. More of this.



No, I'm pretty sure Malak is stupid enough to do that.



Of course, the Sith also have a massive numbers advantage so they probably would win a straight fight, especially now that Bastila's not there to help them with her Battle Meditation skill.





He probably could.





It's nice to see everyone's getting along here on Manaan.



We won't be visiting the general store because there isn't really anything we need to buy at the moment. We're doing well in terms of healing items, and if we want any equipment we'll stop by Suvam's.



There's Hulas, who was mentioned in the suspicious datapad we got on Tatooine. If we talk to him alone, he'll send us on assassination missions around the galaxy and we earn some pretty good equipment from completing the jobs. The targets are also terrible people such as slavers so you probably shouldn't feel too bad for killing them, but since the quest also gives you a shitton of dark side points we'll simply avoid it.



This shady Rodian sells Pazaak cards. We will not be purchasing any Pazaak cards.



Instead, we'll head north. Here we can find two doors - the west door leads to the hotel, the east one to the Republic embassy.



We'll go to the hotel, because that's where the murder occurred and where the witnesses are.



Let's start by talking to the proprietor, Ignus.





Going straight to business.



Okay, nothing new so far.



Why does everyone keep calling Sunry "a cripple"? Isn't that a straight-up slur?



In any case, Ignus says Sunry started running after the blaster went off. That's consistent with what we heard from the judges.



Alright. Let's just make sure there's no way he couldn't have left before the blaster shot.



No, I don't think so. I mean, it's possible, just barely, but I wouldn't say that to the court.

Okay then.



Somehow, I feel like we shouldn't try to persuade him to change his story for the court.



Let's ask about Sunry and Elassa instead.



It doesn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.

Sunry said he was trying to turn Elassa into a double agent, but Ignus seems to think there was something else going on.



There were only two other people in the hotel when it happened. One was a Rodian named Gluupor. Seems like a really dirty, shifty type. Normally I don't let his kind in here - I'm a reputable business man, you know! - but there weren't many people here, so I decided to take a chance.

Gluupor the Rodian, okay. Anyone else?



Don't know anything about him other than that.

Firith Me the Pazaak player. Got it. Hopefully we don't have to play Pazaak with him.



The hotel has four rooms, all of which can be found along this small hallway.



Well, make it three rooms because this door is just decoration. It does look like there is an actual room here on the map, but we can't access it. Was this Elassa's room that is now sealed off?



Guys, you're kind of in the way. I had to take control of Juhani to free Zila from the dead end.



Now that we're free from that slightly embarrassing predicament, let's go hear what Firith Me has to tell us.



I told the damn fish everything I knew, what more do you all want from me?





Kept the rest of the building up half the night with their damn antics usually!

Okay, that doesn't sound like turning someone into a double agent. Or maybe it does in some cases, but Sunry assured us nothing like that was going on.



We should confront him about this.



And there isn't any rule against Sith and Republics seeing each other for personal reasons. Although if you think her Sith Master didn't know, heh, you must be fooling yourself.

Now hold on a second...





I'll bet.





Wrong answer. Let's try that again.





Well... one time... I saw Elassa coming in wearing this big cloak. I was on my way to my room, and she normally wears stuff like that so I didn't pay her too much attention. But this time I accidentally brushed up against her - accidentally of course! - and her cloak fell open... Now I don't have no qualms about the Sith! I leave them alone and they leave me alone. And seeing as how Elassa had a Sith lightsaber under her cloak, I'm not going to poke that hornet's nest.

A lightsaber? How about that.





Now that's all I'm going to tell you. I'll testify it to the court, but you aren't going to get anything else out of me.

No, that is not how this goes. There was another dialogue tree we didn't explore, so let's talk to Firith again.





Being still alive - and therefore smart enough not to stick my head out immediately - I didn't go out right away. I looked out after a minute and saw Gluupor in the hall by Elassa's room, and Sunry running like the wind. You can't tell me that someone who was running like that - and he was pretty fast for a cripple! - isn't guilty.

I have nothing more to ask for now.

Yes, well I'll be right here... Not like they're letting me go anywhere else...



This room was locked, so I thought it might have been Elassa's room but there's nothing in here except a footlocker containing a single medpac. That's not gonna help us much, so let's find Gluupor in the last room.



Unlike most aliens in the game, Gluupor actually has some unique voice lines. You can hear him say "Selkath" and "Gluupor". This isn't the only time this kind of thing happens (Ajuur the Hutt on Taris would say his name and "Bendak Starkiller") but it's extremely rare.





Let's hear it all, Gluupor.





Using Gluupor's chance to live better for a while.

Good for you, Gluupor.





Gluupor see nothing else. Nothing else at all. Especially not in Sith lady's room!

Okay, well, that is incredibly suspicious.





Someone absolutely paid Gluupor to do something in Elassa's room.





Well... Sith man came up to Gluupor after murder, before Selkath arrive. He say he give Gluupor good money if Gluupor put medal into Sith's hand. Gluupor good. Gluupor plant evidence and leave no trace. But Gluupor not recognize Sith man anyway. Gluupor not recognize humans very well. No use to Selkath, so not bother to tell them. Well, that, and the Sith man say he kill Gluupor if Gluupor speaks. Uh... Oh, no...

Why, thank you, Gluupor. This has been very enlightening.



Carry on, Gluupor. So, we've learned that 1) Elassa was a dark Jedi, 2) she and Sunry had a relationship, and 3) the medal in her hand was indeed planted by the Sith as anyone with half a brain (which excludes most of the Selkath judges) could've figured. If Elassa was a dark Jedi, her master would surely have known of her relationship with Sunry. If Sunry was indeed trying to turn her into a double agent while they weren't too busy with... other things I'd rather not think about, there is a distinct possibility the Sith had Elassa killed and tried to pin it on Sunry by planting evidence on the body. Still, we shouldn't jump to conclusions.



When we exit the hotel, this shifty fellow stops us on our way.





We've figured out that much, thanks.



Eh?



Hmm, dear dear. I'm saying they both had something to do with it! They've both kept their hands in this from the start!



Well, the Republic embassy is right behind him, so it'll certainly be easier to check that one first and see if there's any pertinent information to be found.



What's this guy's agenda, though?



And if you take my advice, what have you to lose?

Surely, he's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart.



I suppose we should follow his advice just in case. But first, we'll head back to Ahto West to confront Sunry and question Elora again.



Not the most pleasant topic of conversation, but we need all the info we can get.





Understandably, Elora isn't too pleased about us suggesting her husband was having an affair.



After all these years we've been together he just... just dropped me like that. Not publicly, oh no, but inside that's what it feels like. He started seeing Elassa last year. I... I had my suspicions for a while, but he was careless. Pretty soon everyone knew.

Sunry is kind of a piece of shit, isn't he?



Maybe the Sith woman attacked him and he had to defend himself?

That's unlikely. Even if we ignore the fact (as everyone seems to be doing) Elassa was shot from behind, we know Elassa was a dark Jedi. If she had attacked Sunry, Sunry wouldn't have had a chance.





That was a long time ago, in a war far, far away. He's changed now... settled down. Just please, prove his innocence.

We'll certainly try.



Let's talk to the man himself and see how he responds to the information we've learned.



I grow weary of staring at these four bare walls. But I suppose you know what you are doing. You know the role of Arbiter cannot be taken lightly.

Yeah... about that.





We knew this already, of course. There was no reason to assume Elora was lying about Sunry and Elassa. Speaking of Elora and Elassa, why do they need to have such similar names? I keep accidentally typing the wrong one.



Please, I know I made a terrible mistake getting involved with Elassa, but I was going there to break it off with her. I did it, but found out later that she was dead. I don't deserve to go to jail just for having an affair, do I? You have to help me prove that I wasn't the killer!

Well, maybe the next bit of info we learned will help with that.





That's... not really relevant to the matter at hand, is it?



The evidence of a Sith conspiracy keeps getting stronger, doesn't it? But I suspect there is still stuff you want to clear up.

Gluupor didn't say anything about any other evidence on the scene. I guess he might've simply forgotten.



Before we go to the Republic embassy, we should check out the east part of Ahto City just to make sure we don't miss anything.



Oh, do so entirely piss off.









In Ahto East, we find the swoop registration office. We'll go there in a minute, but first let's have a look at the rest of this area.



Yortal sells droid parts. We have no business in his store, but there's a little cutscene there so let's check that out.





Yes, I have a fine piece right here. A little dented, but still serviceable. And a real bargain at that price.

I thought this garbage was free! You actually sell this junk? You fish are a strange breed.

Umm... Yortal is not a Selkath, so calling him a fish doesn't even make sense.



I've got real customers to worry about - I don't need you coming in here and making fun of my inventory every day!

Every day? Damn. This Sith really needs to find another hobby.



Lovely.





I suppose we can take a look at his inventory.



But that is no excuse for my tone. I apologize. Please, let us start off on the right foot. Welcome to the used goods store of Yortal Ixlis. If there is anything I can help you with, all you need to do is ask.

I'd like to take a look at your inventory.

Of course, human. My stock is all second hand, and some of it has minor damage. But with the repairs I have done to them, my items are as good as new - for a fraction of the price.



I'm not sure if his prices actually are any cheaper than other similar shops. In any case, we don't need to buy anything right now so let's get out of here.



The Sith embassy is at the end of the corridor. It's heavily guarded, but of course they can't shoot us on sight because that'd get them into trouble with the law.



Before we continue the investigation, let's race some swoops. We could always use a bit of extra cash.







Of course, with the destruction in Taris, we're in a bit of a rebuilding phase. Our Sector Champion was one of the casualties there.

Oh, that's a shame.



Again, we could say we won the race on Taris but he won't believe us because we have no way to confirm that.



100 credits must be paid for each officially timed attempt that you make. This amount will be due before each race.

Of course it will. Same deal as Tatooine.



I seem to remember the rewards working differently on Manaan, so let's ask about that.



What does each round pay?

Round One pays 500 credits. Round Two pays 2000 credits. Round Three is 5000 credits. These are relatively standard values for the sport.

Well, that sucks. No race bonds here, which means we can't sell them to Suvam at 2.6 times their value and the maximum amount we can earn from the Manaan swoop races is 7500 credits. Well, 7500 minus whatever track fees you have to pay. In the absolute best case scenario, that means 7250 credits. Still a decent amount of money, but nowhere near as much as we'd get from selling race bonds to Suvam.







Here on Manaan, Round One is the domain of hobbyists and amateurs. I mean no disrespect by that. They just can't afford the faster swoops yet. Round Two is populated by the beginner touring racers. They have decided to invest in the sport, and are attempting to make it pay. Round Three is usually only attainable by seasoned professionals. There have been exceptions, but only rarely.

Alright, nothing too complicated there.





Currently our biggest attractions are Casandra Mateil and Hukta Dax. They are the only touring professionals present for this tournament. But, even with such auspicious competition, Queedle is the racer getting the biggest responses. He's a local favorite, and very talented.

That's supposed to be Hukta Jax, not Dax. But that's enough of that, let's go racing.







Like on Tatooine, you only get this discount once.





Queedle is a local favorite, but this won't be much of a race. His swoop simply isn't professional quality. Time to beat, 0:23:82.

Alright, let's get this started.





The Manaan swoop races take place on the surface of the ocean, which is pretty cool. The course itself is absolutely littered with obstacles, and some of them are in very tricky places so you'll easily hit them if you're not careful.



Just barely missed that one.



Well, we beat Queedle's time by 1.5 seconds, so that's a solid start.



Celebratory fistpump!



And the crowd goes wild.



We'll record this for future reference, and wish you well on your attempt to reach Sector Champion.



Let's talk to Queedle here. Hopefully, he isn't a sore loser.



What? No!



I really wanted to make a go of it... but I guess you can't always do what you want. Well, you can. Nice racing. Good luck on your career.

No, he's got it all wrong! We're using the Force, which is basically cheating!



Come on, buddy, don't give up just because you lost to a Jedi!



Thanks anyway, but I'll be leaving now. Back to the processing job, I guess. This was fun while it lasted. Goodbye.

Holy shit, that's depressing. I completely forgot this could happen, because if you talk to him before the race you can actually give him money to upgrade his bike. If you do so and come back after returning to the Ebon Hawk, Queedle will become the Sector Champion and you'll have to beat his time in the final round. I totally fucked this up.



Those must be Hukta Jax and Casandra Mateil. Let's have a chat with them and see what's up.



Wait, you're that new racer. I don't give out racing secrets, if that's what you're asking for.

Always nice to bond with our fellow racers.







Of course you do. Everyone wants time with the fabulous Casandra Mateil. There just isn't enough of me to go around.

How long have you been at this?

Two years, but that's more than enough time to know the secrets behind the sport. It's all about the image you portray.

What do you mean by that?

Hukta is the thug; people like him because he's mean. I'm the pretty one; the one that people want to take home. Even if we don't win, we're easy to remember. That keeps the fans coming back, so race organizers want us at their tracks. Local racers don't bring in off-world crowds. They need us. At least, they would if there was still a functioning circuit.

Okay, that's all. Let's leave her in peace because she clearly doesn't want to talk to us.



Rude.



Somehow, I don't think Hukta's going to be any friendlier.





Yeah, okay, but you keep it short. I got no reason to talk to you.

I want to ask about you and racing.



How long have you been at this?

Lots of years. I got my swoop after we raided... I mean, I got my swoop when someone left it to me. It was sad, but happy too.



Nothing, and I'm not saying any more.

Alright, fine. Let's go.



See you on the track, friends.



This terminal in the room shows our best times, as well as those of our opponents. Apparently, Hukta's time is 0:22:50, which is slower than our Round 1 run. This shouldn't be too difficult.



Racing fans, your attention! A new challenger will now attempt to unseat Casandra Mateil! Let them hear you!

I really wish the game would take into account the fact we've already smashed everyone's records.



I actually hit that obstacle, which slowed our swoop down quite a bit.



Even with that, we easily beat Casandra's time. I bet she'll be a delight after this.



Celebratory terrible dancing!



The next round of races will determine Sector Champion. You'll have to be flawless to achieve that.

I think we've got this. Even though we hit one of the obstacles on our last run, it was only 0.13 seconds off Hukta's best time, so as long as we don't screw up we'll be fine.



Nobody was expecting a warm hello from you anyway.



Looks like our mighty Sector Champion is getting a little worried about our pace out there.



Oh no, that'd be terrible. Whatever will we do?





See you after the round, Hukta!



Manaan race fans! A new contender now addresses the time of Hukta Jax! A race to end all races! Beginning now!

They've now misspelled the word "opponent" twice.

VIDEO: Manaan Swoop Final



Still not quite as fast as our Round 1 time, but more than good enough to unseat Hukta Jax as the Sector Champion. I'm sure he'll take the loss in stride.



One more fistpump.



You have won a great deal of money. The payment for becoming Sector Champion is 5000 credits! That will be the last amount offered for now. When we begin a new round of races we will make certain you are notified.

That was the final swoop race, and I think it's safe to say we've won all of them in style.





So, let's collect our winnings and go taunt Hukta Jax.



Not here, because Selkath cameras are watching. l's too smart for that. I get you when you least expect. You just wait.

I could've sworn Hukta ambushes you when you try to leave Manaan, but apparently he never does and you won't see him again at any point.



Casandra is her usual charming self.



Now that we've got that little diversion out of the way, we should finally visit the Republic embassy.



There's the man in charge, Roland Wann.





Let's see if he knows anything about the case.



Guess not.



I wouldn't put it past the Sith, but once again we'll need more evidence.



If you want to solve this mess, I would focus on the Sith. That, or check out the murder scene at the hotel. Talk to the other guests - maybe they know something.

Way ahead of you. Well, as far as the hotel goes, anyway.





Let's ask about kolto while we're here.



As long as we have the permits, we will continue to harvest kolto and ship it to our Republic soldiers battling against the Sith. Of course, the Sith enjoy the very same privileges. If there was some way we could gain an edge over the Sith in our kolto supply... But the Selkath are fiercely protective of their neutrality in this conflict. They do not want to grant either side an advantage.



Oh yeah, the mission. Almost forgot about that in all the excitement and running around (mostly running around, because Manaan has a lot of that).



I seek a Star Map, the remnant of an ancient and forgotten race.

An ancient and forgotten race... and you think it may be here on Manaan? Hm...

You know something?

Well... perhaps. But if you want to get information about that, you'll have to do something for me first.

What? Since when have Jedi had to run errands before Republic representatives will help them?





But while it was returning to the surface it encountered difficulties and was disabled. Its automatic systems floated it to the surface, but we could not retrieve it in time. The Sith were applying subtle pressure to the Selkath authorities for some reason we have not determined, and were able to delay us long enough that they could retrieve the droid before we did. The droid's data centers are heavily encrypted, so it will take the Sith several days, we believe, to get to its data. It was captured 12 hours ago. It is imperative that we get it back!

Of course. And we'll be the ones to get it, I presume.





That is what we would ask you to do.

Well, I'm glad they're not asking for anything difficult.





The first method that's possible is to help us interrogate a Sith prisoner we managed to catch after he tried to infiltrate our base. He is being held just inside our enclave. We think he may be able to give us the passcode that the Sith give their informers to enter the base. He has proved most resilient so far...

Eh, maybe. Let's hear about the other methods.





The encryption system to unlock them is very difficult however, but if you are more skilled than our technicians, you may be able to gain access that way.

Okay. Anything else?





Visiting Sith masters use this bay to land, then take a speeder over the water to an external entrance to the Sith enclave.

That's the dock that had the blue "enter" marker on it on the map.



The Sith base itself is very heavily guarded. If they became aware of your presence, I fear you would be quickly outnumbered and killed. Here is a passcard to get you inside our facility. You should find all you need to get started in there. You can choose whichever of the methods you want as long as you get in the base and get the data recording back. Which method do you think you would like to try first?

Hmm... let's see now.



Decrypting the passcard would give us a good excuse to use one of the Republic computers and maybe find some information about the Sunry case, so let's start with that.



I wish you luck in your task. Should you retrieve the data recording from the droid, return it here to me and we can see about getting you that information.



We can just about see the Sith prisoner in the cage, but of course we won't be interrogating him at this point.



Past the cages is a locked door that leads to the submersible bay. That'll remain inaccessible to us for quite some time.



So, let's see about decrypting this passcard.



This is our main computer room here. We've got the box of passcards we got from the Sith, but we haven't been able to break their encryption yet. We have been able to decode the numeric system they use, but there are holes in our terminal sequence patterns.





Oh, good. Math. My specialty.



The second-last matrix has a pattern looping back on itself, or something, and the last is divided into smaller subparts. Maybe the pattern for that is within each part... But I have to admit, all this is a bit over my head. I haven't even been able to slice past the first matrix and I've been at this for hours. I've ruined a dozen cards already... But the good thing is we have a whole box of them, so you don't have to worry about running out any time soon.

Well, that's good at least.



Let's get started.



And by that, I mean let's have T3 slice into their data files.





The top and bottom options will not work even if you have the spikes, because that would be silly.



And we've gained access. Let's see what we can find.



Hm? That looks promising.



Looks like the Republic had the hotel bugged with hidden cameras.



That'll be Elassa and Sunry. Wait... if the Republic had cameras in the hotel room, did that mean someone had to watch... never mind. Let's get back to the surveillance feed, shall we? Yes, let's move swiftly on.



Oh, shit. Sunry, what have you done?



This is inconsistent with the hotel owner's account as he said Elassa and Sunry were in the room for a couple of hours before the murder happened, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that we now have video evidence of Sunry murdering Elassa - evidence the Republic tried to hide, no less.



What are we going to do now? If we show this evidence to the court, Sunry will surely face severe punishment, maybe even execution. Technically speaking, justice would be served and Sunry would pay for his crime. However, if we expose Sunry we might also cause problems for the Republic and possibly even cut off their supply of kolto here on Manaan. Besides, Elassa was a dark Jedi and would surely have gone on to kill many others if Sunry hadn't killed her.

Sunry is clearly a terrible person in many ways, but is it really worth exposing him? We'll have to confront him about this and figure out our next move.



Right now, we should focus on the task at hand. Let's see if we can figure out these math problems.



Alright, here we go.



Starting things off easy. The addend increases by 1 for each number in the sequence to form the next number, i.e. 1 + 1 = 2; 2 + 2 = 4; 4 + 3 = 7, and so on. Following that logic, we just need to find the correct answer to 16 + 6, and that's obviously 22.



Of course, as the technician said, it's the last two matrices that are supposed to be the difficult ones. I'm not showing this "Matrix terminated" screen again because it's the same message every time, just with a different matrix name.



Again, quite simple. 21 - 18 = 3; 18 - 16 = 2; 16 - 15 = 1; 15 - 15 = 0. When we reach zero via subtraction, we'll get back to addition: 15 + 1 = 16. Next in the sequence would be 16 + 2, which of course is 18.



Now we're multiplying each number in the sequence by 2. 32 x 2, as the old Atari Jaguar commercials were keen to point out, is 64.



And now we're dividing by 2, which is also the next number in the sequence.



Okay, here's where things start to get a little tougher. We're looking at the exponential matrix here, so 1 can be safely ignored since it can't be multiplied with itself and we should look at the rest of the numbers instead. 32 is 2^5, 81 is 3^4, 64 is 4^3, and 25 is 5^2. Next up has to be 6^1, which of course is 6.

(I'll admit I looked up the answer for this one when recording. I'm sure I would've figured it out eventually because it's not that difficult, but I wanted to get through this without spending a million years on each matrix)



Our final test is the logarithmic matrix. Even if I learned about logarithms at some point (which I'm not so sure about), I've long since forgotten it and this sequence might as well have consisted of random gibberish so I looked up the answer and still didn't know what the whole deal was. Anyway, I think I've finally understood how this works, so let's see if I can explain it.

This sequence uses 2 as the base, and logarithm operation is the inverse of exponentiation. 2^0 is 1, so log₂(1) = 0. 2^3 is 8, so log₂(8) = 3. 2^5 is 32, so log₂(32) = 5. So, what is log₂(128)? Well, at this point even I can tell that it's 7, because 2^7 is 128.



And that'll do it, there's our card. It's honestly a lot easier to interrogate the prisoner or just kick the door down. I'm not sure why we can't use T3 to just bypass the whole thing, because surely his computer brain would easily make these kinds of calculations in an instant.



We'll get to that soon enough.



However, next time we'll start with Sunry's trial.