Flieger, grüß' mir die Sonne, grüß' mir die Sterne und grüß' mir den Mond. Dein Leben, das ist ein Schweben, durch die Ferne, die keiner bewohnt! - Hans Albers, F.P.1 antwortet nicht (Adaptation in the 80s: Extrabreit)

Saturday 19 December 2015

Tatooine 2

Having left Anchorhead, things seem to pick up speed. The Czerka employee sent us into an abandoned factory plant, now being taken by Gamorrean raiders. My heroine just joins the club when the person behind them is having a nice conversation, some sort of Czerka exec with lots of cyborg implants. No more nowledge gained, but I am sure my heroine will be briefed soon.



 - iconic from the first Star Wars movie










The shock drum facility ist overrun by sandraiders. Inside, locked in, the surviving crew of Javas with an adopted human scientist. A Sith invaded and took the shock drum and Master Kiwiks, the teacher of my crew member Kira, with him. One reactivation of the power supply later, it becomes clear that I have to triangulate the now activated shock drum by placing scanners around the desert. Time is running out for Tatooine.

What, just one side mission in between? A Java wants me to reprogramm his droids gone berserk. Done. And some Geonosians, humanoid grasshoppers, have crawled out from somewhere; I am sure there was a mission connected to this, but I do not find it this time.

After triangulation, the local Sith Lord Praven slices himself into my holocomm. Of course, Lord Angal sent him, but he turns out to be a fanatic duelist; he will exchange the shock drum versus a chance for a duel. How many seconds this will last? Five?

I need some longer backtracking to Anchorhead, just to continue the Czerka plot. An old farmer has the next clue to Czerka´s secret weapon location. In between: Some heroic S&R where some pirates raided a farm and took slaves. Another rescue of a robin hood kind of guy´s loved ones, which turn out to be droid toys...  A governor wants me to sabotage their mining op. Lots of bonus goals, my heroine single handedly lays waste to another crime cartel.

Then it is time to face Lord Praven. In order to have a fair duel for this very untypical Sith, I switch my companion to passive. Such indeed, the duel lasts about 30 seconds, and the Sith has the occasion to use some more nifty dark forces.



- Lord Praven, and my heroine turns another soul to the light side










Czerka quest moves along, more readings to do, taking out a Czerka listening post on the way. Then on to what should be the final map, the Dune Seas. The plot outdoes itself: I have two planet destroying weaponry to disable on one map. How can it get any better!




 - being sent from mission goal to mission goal...









I think this is the moment where all these missions on the side start to not make sense anymore. Supposedly time is pressing, after all, the shock drum is already close to its destructive burst, but I am clobbered with four more side missions. Rescue three ambassadors from slavery, cut down some Mandalorians who threaten to attack (they are pretty one-sided that way), save some sand people tribe from poisoning from the Empire. And a very sad one: Kill Republic sodiers who had been thrown into a Sarlacc mouth; it´s that beast from episode 7 which supposedly digests victims alive fro 1000 years (I wonder how anyone could know, but yeah it is Star Wars).

Oh, and yes, the Jawa family who adopted the Repulic scientists tried to find the shock drum themselves and of course are now in need of help. There is a sand demon in the way, some beast which has a lot of offspring and they look like giant crabs. However, as usual, the bossfights are pretty unimpressive these days. 4 seconds. My heroine then finds Master Kiwiks and can shut down the shock drum. However, she does not let it collapse but rather gives it to general Var Suthras. It makes no sense trying to hide such a weapon, it will fall in false hands. And maybe one day, the Republic will actually need it...

The quest for the Czerka weapon clarifies. Some more readins taken across the map, and the communications of scientist make clear, it is not a weapon, but an old artefact of the Infinite Empire; thus, again a nod to KOTOR where it played a pivotal role. I like these connected ideas and wonder how good a true single player game would have explored all those wonderful ideas. Even though this particular one I also seem to remember from KOTOR; a Rakata criminal imprisoned, of course trying to take over the galaxy. I imagine how with just a slight trust of the light saber, this thing goes boom while that Letheles guy from Czerka screams in rage. Four seconds later, he is dust, too.



- I wonder why I forgot to do a screenshot of the shock drum; but this artefact here was much more dangerous for the galaxy, anyways





This ends the adventures on Tatooine, except for the two heroic missions which I tick off quickly. Mandalorians, and the Sarlacc. I do not even need healing from my companion until I intentionally attack two and three groups at once.

After this, I fast travel back to the ship for a debrief. It seems the Republic is happy to have the shock drummer and are going to develop it into an aerial assault weapon. Not so fast, the general relativates. I wonder if there are different outcomes if my heroine destroyed all those weapons compared to saving them for the Republic. It would be cool, but I doubt it.




- this thing in the distance must be the ship of the Mandalorian raiders; you can get close but sadly not enter it

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