Rather Mauled, I Think.

"What attack pattern is that, anyway?  It looks like it's...what?  Alpha, Beta?  Those are two words I just learned, though."  Tiok babbled, the Sullustan already adjusting the Unchained Kiros' deflector fields in anticipation of the TIE/ln wing's attack.

Niobe glanced up from the point defense cannon controls, almost silently cursing the luck that put her in the bridge of the cruiser, rather than their more nimble, battle ready transport, the Swift Grifter.  They really needed to find her a new name, but at least she could dodge the TIE's aim in the smuggler ship.  It did not feel natural  or wise to her to accept ship blasters slamming into your shields.  A quick glance at the formation of the two incoming wings told her they were using the far more offensive tactics of Gamma pattern - a gusty move for just TIE/lns.  Her eyes narrowed.  Why would they...

"Gamma, obviously," sighed Athorn, standing next to Tiok at the tactical display.  It was, perhaps, more shaming than she would be to the Sullustan, but she figured Chiss had to over-emote with their voices to get certain ideas across.  They, as a culture, probably never picked up on rolling their eyes to express exasperation - because no one would pick up on that sort of movement from their softly glowing red orbs.

She nodded curtly to Athorn, in agreement with his assessment, though he was already angling around the display, so she doubted he saw it.  She went back to her previous though - Gamma was a very forwardly offensive pattern for just two wings, even supported by an ISD out of the nebulae clouds.  For that matter, why hadn't they launched the remainder of their fighter compliment?

~~~

The captain of the Imperial Star Destroyer Torment brought the comms to life over the sounds of the ion engine screams with a quick, throat-clearing cough.  "The cruiser is limping, its fighters spent in the last engagement.  Inferno, go in flying Imperial Attack Pattern Gamma.  We shall make it lesson to the other rebel scum.  Melt. It. Down."

"Fire One to command," a voice rasped over the comms,"Acknowledged.  Assuming Imperial Attack Pattern Gamma.  Check in, Inferno."  A number of somewhat muffled voices replied in turn, acknowledging the order.  "Fury One, yuuuuup!" DX-77-4 - cut in quickly to prevent the attack leader from calling her wingleader's...sense of humor. "Fury Two, ack," her jaw tightened with an effort not to laugh.  Miraculously, the check-in continued without any discipline threats.

"All wings, begin attack run."  After three quick passes from the TIE/INs, the shields of the oddly shaped, alien-built cruiser weakened, given no time to regenerate - but no rebel fighters launched to challenge theirs.  The bombers of Tuk'ata wing joined them on the fourth pass, and shields and hull crumpled and exploded, throwing wreckage that Fire Three wasn't quick enough to dodge.  DX-77-4's mouth tightened, and she rolled her eyes underneath her mask.  The cruiser had a skeleton crew aboard, enough to draw them in to kill it when it's remaining fighters and transports must have snuck out between jumps, before it got here and the Torment had been alerted.  They'd missed the bulk of the surviving rebels, and had no idea until the attack had been underway.  It had been the third time they'd just missed the enemy - but at least the scruffy anarchists had yet again had to sacrifice firepower in order to save themselves.

"A ration of Bonadan in honor of Fire Three, when we get back," she nearly spat across the comms.  Fury One responded soberly, quietly, "A drink, in honor of our loss today.  Sure."

~~~

Their attack pattern hadn't executed as tightly as she expected from the sort of diehards that would still be with the Imperial remnants these days.  Niobe muttered, "something's not right," even as she tore into the damaged wingman from the first group, sending panels spinning away from each other at a sharp angle.  They called for the Kiros' surrender, and looked like they were going to attempt to board.  When they sprang the trap, she guessed that the Destroyer had set a trap for any Alliance forces attempting to reach Hapan space - the way was dangerous, so the Hapans might not be in on the ambush.  The lack of fighters, and the attempt to capture them did not add up.  She shook her head - there was no way to explain this change in Imperial strategy.

Gyrinim called up the the bridge on the comms.  "I'm going to shout 'knock, knock.'  They'll pause cutting the door, and say, 'who's there,' then I'll say 'Nexu.' 'Nexu who?' 'Nexu one through this blast door is going to get rather mauled, I think.'"

She ignored the librarian and his distractions.  Her eyes widened, and she breathed in sharply in surprise.  They weren't Imperial remnant.  They were common pirates.

Accepting Violence.

The glowing, light blue form of the Saber Master leaned back, folded his arms, and began at a mild pace.

"One!  Not so wide a stance, padawan.  Two!  Not straddling a tuk'ata, here.  Three!  Better...Jung!"


~~~


Gyrinim reached out with his senses to the small crystal device sitting on the crate across the room.  The holocron's glow shifted, the deep red radiance brightened to a soft, light blue as he thought of his lightsaber, and his ideas for how to modify the weapon.  An instant after he mouthed the name of the saber master imprinted within, Xieran Halcyon's image appeared in the center of the room.

The imprint greeted Gyr as he always did.  "How can I help?"

The archivist responded as he always did - by clearing his throat.  "Saber Master, thank you.  I was wondering if you could help me apply the Ways of the Sarlacc and Ysalamiri to a...different weapon."

The imprint glanced down at the saber clipped to Gyrinim's belt, then at the metal staff lying across his legs.  It raised an eyebrow.  "This isn't about those regrets you had before, is it, padawan?  We can continue to work on your control with the saber.  And, I'd rather not be remembered by history as a Jedi stick master."

Gyr grinned at that.  "No, Saber Master.  Instead, I was thinking of modifying my saber..."

"Oh, now that could be interesting."  Halcyon's imprint tilted his head, as he cut Gyr off.  "A saberstaff?  And you, a padawan who didn't even complete his training in Form I with a Master supervising you?"

Gyr stood up, a challenging look in his eyes.  According to records, Master Halcyon had been quite proud of his accomplishments with the Ways, and would have a hard time passing by an opportunity to test himself.  "There is Knowledge, Saber Master.  You yourself have graded me proficient in both Forms I and II."

"Yes, but you are not what I would call a natural, consular.  We'll be working twice as hard."  The image looked Gyr up and down, frowning.  "Maybe three times.  Are you sure you don't want practice lifting rocks, instead?"

"If I am correct, Saber Master, I should adjust for the added length and change in grip by...." he held the staff horizontally in front of himself, but gripped it off-center, closer to the right hand side.

"No, padawan, unless you feel certain you prefer to be just a torso."  The image sighed, and Gyr breathed deeply to repress a grin of triumph.  "Three times."


~~~


The imprint counted off more quickly, calling out marks and maneuvers.

"One!  Two!  Three!  Jung!  Two and sai!"

Gyrinim breathed deeply and let the memory of the marks he had been practicing take over for his hands and feet.  He felt that he would start to trip and stumble if he tried to force his body to keep up normally, and the imprint would call out if his memory got something wrong.  For now, there was no rush, no fatigue, just his mind, and the Force.  His mouth formed the words "There is Knowledge," and began to anticipate what the imprint was about to call.


~~~


The holocron's glow was a deeper blue as it sat on the edge of the workbench.  Gyrinim hunched over the center of the table, and another imprint stood over them both.  The figure's pointed ears peeked out from it's long, white hair, and it's arms were folded, hidden somewhere in it's heavily-mantled robes.  The imprint's lack of motion, and it's expressionless, pupil-less eyes, gave the impression of a statue.  Gyr had read a few accounts that Jedi Master Arca Jeth gave that impression when he had been alive, too.

"The cystal shards seem to have responded well to our previous work, archivist.  By all accounts, you only need to weave the strands into the zeyd cloth and attach the thermoplast plates."

Gyr reached out his claws behind him to another worktable, and one of the jumble of tools he had gathered from around the base snapped into his hand.  He pulled down a heat-visor - working this close to some of the tools and the heated crystal strands put a strain on his vision, and would have left him blind after just a few minutes.

The imprint of Arca Jeth had used the right word - the crystals hadn't simply been worked, but had responded to the heat, the pressure, and being shaped by Gyr through the Force.  It was as if they knew the form the archivist wanted for them, and helped. He only needed the help of a legendary Jedi sage to figure it out.

"Armor, even more than weaponry, suggests a casual relationship with violence, archivist.  A lightsaber must be drawn and ignited.  Armor is clothing for battle, worn as an acceptance of combat."

Gyr nodded, and flipped up the visor to look at the imprint.  "Yes.  And as soon as i can, I'll take it off, and put it up on display.  I feel like I need to wear it, for now, though"

The imprint nodded, and they both though of other Jedi who felt like they needed to accept violence for a time.  Gyr went back to work.


~~~


"Onetwosaitwoonethreejung!"

The staff and Gyr both blurred through the marks as the Saber Master called them.

Force Lightning and Robes With Hoods.

In pure me fashion, I end up playing (relatively) good guys in the Sith Empire.

The game is Star Wars: The Old Republic, and as previously mentioned, I've been playing since just before public launch.  A handful of guildies from WoW were going to form up Imperial-side, but I wasn't sure I was going to play this game at first.  I was busy trying to keep our WoW guild afloat, and failing.  I wanted to be more dedicated to putting in the effort there, not spending time on another game.  Even if it is Star Wars.  And Bioware.

But it is Star Wars.  And it is Bioware.

And friends who played in the beta were sold--so, a couple of days left in the early access launch, I signed up. I made a character on the server (damnit, I hate having to choose servers) that my WoW guildies were talking about--a Sith Inquisitor, a master of the darker, esoteric disciplines of the Dark Side.

Palpatine-y! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Think lots of purplish lightning, robes with hoods.  You know.  Emperor Palpatine-y.

The game has a focus on story not seen in most MMORPGs.  Okay, any MMOs I've seen so far.  The story is personal for SWTOR.  Each main character class has a specific background and storyline that lasts through all 50 levels in 4 story arcs, and keeps pace with the more generic content designed for all characters.  As your class's story progresses, you gain access to a handful of companions that can fulfill various roles in combat, and have a range of personalities.  They come with their own quests that unlock as they learn to like and trust your character more--which happens as you make decisions while questing with them (or by giving them nifty gifts).  Oh!  and you make decisions while questing that can align you more-or-less with the Light side or Dark side of the Force!  Beware--evil makes you ugly.

The game content makes it obvious that it's a continuation of Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic games.  If you played those, enjoy a look at the galaxy 300 years later.

But what is this Legacy subsystem I mentioned before?

Well, it's late, but it's here, at least in part.  It's a rewards system, of sorts, for playing.  After your first character finishes Chapter 1 (which includes the Prelude) at around level 30, you gain Legacy XP along with your character's normal XP.  From them on, any character you play on that server also adds to the Legacy XP total.  Legacy XP (finally) unlocks a bunch of features that are either free, or cost in-game currency (credits, or creds if you're cool).  Got a character to level 50?  Congrats--you can now make a character of that race for ANY class in the game, Imperial or Republic side.  Is that level 50 character a human?  Like mine?  Then they give all your characters a bonus to the stat that makes their companion characters more effective.  You can also buy a bunch of convenience items for your starships--mailboxes, repair droids, Trade Network kiosks, etc....  Your characters gain special emote commands and abilities depending on which of your other characters reach certain benchmarks in the game.  Got a Sith Warrior to Chapter 2?  You unlocked the /warrior emote for all characters that makes them roar and flex with the power of the Dark side--and your class-based buffing ability now automatically includes the Sith Warrior buff as well.  Get your Sith Inquisitor to level 50, and now your characters can all summon a storm of Force Lightning  once in a heroic moment.

So, this stuff makes character creation and play more flexible.  Which is awesome if you want to go beyond the original restrictions to make an even more remarkable character.

See, I'm gushing about the game, and I haven't even mentioned how guilty I feel for not being more active in WoW in, like, paragraphs.

But, like WoW and other MMOs, sometimes something happens in the game world (galaxy), and suddenly there is new, special content to deal with the event!  Bioware has been pretty good with introducing more content with updates, but this week the game world (galaxy!) was rocked by an outbreak of a mutant-zombie-esque plague, infecting and killing "tens of thousands," and giving players even more reason to be more active, with new daily quests, world  bosses and rewards that include companion skins, pets and weapon color customizations.

Now, while temporary vaccines are available, some people have embraced (are down with) the sickness spreading throughout the game wor...the galaxy.  Since dying to the plague gives you special currency to use for the event's rewards, people on both sides of the new galactic war are cooperating to infect and reinfect each other using PvP mechanics.

Who knew that such a devastating event could bring the galaxy to a new peace?

Anyway.  I'm thoroughly invested in the game, now.  My characters are, by and large, relatively good guys who happen to be a part of a nasty, evil empire--and I have some characters on another server to explore the Republic side of the story.

I don't care what you've heard.  Get in there.

Related articles

• A look at Star Wars: The Old Republic's end game (news.cnet.com)
• Blizzard Admits that People May Be Leaving WoW For The Old Republic [World Of Warcraft] (kotaku.com)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Receives Huge Update 1.2 (godisageek.com)

Clones Needed.

Do you or someone you know have a cloning lab?  Because I may need one in order to keep up with all the beta tests and game updates hitting my computer all at once.

I'm a long-time World of Warcraft player, but recently I've lapsed from playing.  Cataclysm isn't as interesting to me, now, and many of my guildies have moved on to raiding guilds, other games or are taking a break.  But I've kept my account current for the year-long commitment that would guarantee me a spot in the Mist of Pandaria expansion and a free copy of Diablo III.  I check in from time to time so keep my main active, but that's basically it.

And then Blizzard sent me my Mists beta invitation.

Let's take a step back.  Meanwhile, I've been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (or SWTOR for short) since, well, two days before the game officially launched--I signed up for the early release kind of late.  I've been frustrated by the lack of, and greatly anticipating the introduction of the game's Legacy system--a way to tie your characters together in-game, and earn rewards for playing a variety of characters.

And I've been stopping in to update my characters' costumes and builds on Champions Online--a supers MMORPG with particularly great character creation.

Last week, Bioware finally updated SWTOR and introduced their Legacy system.  The day after, Cryptic Studios updated CO with a major overhaul to stats, equipment, crafting, and a host of other systems.  The day after that, Blizzard sent me an email inviting me to download and playtest the DIII beta.

Oh, I almost forgot.  After all of this, a Galaxy-wide game event started in SWTOR yesterday.

I'll be posting in the next few days about my thoughts on all of these games and updates.  I just wanted to break the surface and take a deep breath first.



Related articles

• World of Warcraft Lures Lapsed Players Back with Cataclysm Upgrades and High Level Characters [World Of Warcraft] (kotaku.com)
• Deliberately missing the bus (tobolds.blogspot.com)
• Blizzard producer attributes drop in WoW subscriptions to Star Wars: The Old Republic (arstechnica.com)