#false emperor

Fade fought across Corellia until the moment Garza told her to evacuate the planet. She had won every battle and lost the war, at least here. When Fade suited up and led her squad off the shuttle into the Republic’s cavernous toehold on Ilum, she knew she had to do better.

So this time, when she heard the Jedi’s voice, echoing through the starkly lit gray base, she went toward it. Master Tebbith was shrugging into a furry coat the size of an uxibeast.

“Master Jedi,” she called. “Where’s your friend?”

Tebbith turned around. His face was already covered in mask, and Fade had her helmet on; it wasn’t the best circumstance for heartfelt conversation. But he said, “She’s on her own tour. I will give her your regards.”

Fade wouldn’t go that far, but whatever. “Are you reinforcing Master Kaedan? I’m signed on to help.”

“Then we cannot fail,” Tebbith said warmly. “You are well? You finished what you wanted on Corellia?”

“Everything but winning,” she said. “We’ll make up for it here. Those crystals will turn the tide.”

“I’m no expert, but that’s what I hear. Come. Qyzen, Tharan, Zenith, Felix, Nadia, you remember Havoc Squad.” Generally cordial gestures ensued. “Come, I’ve studied the way.”

Ilum in the daytime was a sheet of glare relieved only by crystalline formations so high and shallowly angled that Fade was sure their tips would disintegrate onto her and her team as they rode. The ice was sometimes black, sometimes white, always forcing a whine from her speeder’s engines as the repulsor field struggled against the smooth crystalline surface. The sky was a high white arch fretted with thin clouds. Fade didn’t realize they were going up until she turned back and saw a wide, lowering sweep of spikes and blown snow between here and the base. And then they turned at an angle and went on.

At the base of a slick hill Tebbith stopped his speeder beside Fade’s and dismounted, peering up the hill at an unguarded archway and a few hints of old stone towers beyond.

“There should be people there,” he said under the soughing of the wind. “Something’s wrong. What’s our approach?”

Fade felt her cheek twitch. He was the Jedi. “You’re asking me?”

“You’re the ranking veteran, Major. You’ve seen what I can do in battle, and I’m no tactician. I welcome your expertise.”

She knew about looking gift dewbacks in the mouth, so she didn’t ask again. “I want your sniper to cover the approach from there, and mine will go there. If you walk right up, can you shield yourself from one round of enemy fire?”

“I believe so.”

“Then our ground forces can follow behind you. Your apprentice—”

Zenith took a stance Fade had never seen a professional take, and fired at something near the base of the arch.

“Zenith?” Tebbith said.

“Something was creeping out. Missed.” He looked at his rifle, at Tebbith, at Fade. “Permission to pursue.”

“No,” Tebbith said firmly. “If there’s a problem, we mustn’t split our forces. Major Fade? I’m prepared to shield us on our way up.”

“Jorgan.” Fade jerked her head. “Forex, you stay at Master Tebbith’s elbow, but if you see a blade of grass out of place you charge.”

“Sir! I have not detected grass on this planet before, but if my sensors perceive any, I will attack at once!”

Fade and Vik crisscrossed the wedge formation as they approached the arch. Yuun darted forward to investigate a console at one massive ice column.

“This was a forcefield,” he reported. “It’s been smashed.”

As the party made it to the flat stone entrance of the fortress, Tebbith started accelerating. Fade tried to look at every corner while the Jedi ran to…

A body. The only sentient they had seen since they’d approached the Jedi fortress.

“Dorne,” Fade said shortly.

But Tebbith was already on his knees. “Master Kaedan,” he said, loud enough to carry but not quite intact. “Master Kaedan, no, I was on my way, I would have backed you up…”

Fade approached. The body was swimming in brown robes, not so unlike Tebbith himself. But very, very dead. “You knew him, Master Jedi?”

Tebbith’s masked face turned up. “Jaric Kaedan has served on the Jedi Council since I was a child. He was a great man. He deserved better than to die alone to…to whoever did this.”

The ghost Zenith had fired at. “I’m sorry. But if he’s dead, there’s all the more need for you and me to get the Republic back on track on this planet. We can bring his body back to base for proper treatment.”

“It can’t be this,” Tebbith whimpered. “After everything, to be so close…it can’t be this.”

The realization dropped through Fade like a drop of ink through water. He wasn’t an unstoppable Jedi. He was a person, a young person, facing death badly. Even a Force user could be reduced to grief.

M1-4X hurried up to offer his durasteel arms for the moving of the body, but Tebbith took the Human’s frame and lifted it across his arms, not seeming the slightest bit inconvenienced by the full weight of a man. “Let’s go,” he said. “The Republic will have more work for us, and Master Kaedan wouldn’t tell me to give up.”

*

The Republic base on Ilum was spacious but stark. It had the look of a place that had hoped for a division and received a squad.

Havoc Squad, though, so that was good.

The vast bulkhead slid shut and the Jedi and Havoc Squad were already halfway to the elevator. Fade rushed with her team between icy packing crates and racks of tools, down to the lift, down below to where the cantina, too, was optimistically large.

At least the lower level was warm. Someone had clearly learned from Hoth, at what expense to their HVAC operating costs Fade didn’t know. It was warm, and the music piped in was a hectic adolescent pop that seemed to drive away the grim watchfulness of the ice.

Fade was unsealing her outer coat by the bar, and Tebbith’s party was populating a booth, when the main holo coughed and someone appeared.

Fade stiffened. She had a mission profile on this huge Sith in black armor. She was to prioritize his death if the opportunity arose.

His holo image spread his arms as if welcoming the room entire.

“Fellow Sith,” he said in a voice of needles and thunder. “Citizens of the Empire. Too long the strength of the Empire has been beholden to the infighting of the Dark Council and the disappearance of an apathetic Emperor. Sith, children of Sith and warriors everywhere, I declare a new Empire, open to all who long for conquest, freedom from inhibition and the right to follow their passions. The Dark Council is dissolved. Those who would join Darth Serevin in supporting me, cast aside your titles and let me lead you to victory. Those who will not, prepare to face our stealth armada. The Emperor is gone. His station and power are mine. We will conquer the galaxy while the Emperor sleeps.”

The room was quiet.

“Is that…bad?” said a Twi’lek in the doorway. A Republic contractor: Vette, from Voss. “I mean, sweeping out the Dark Council, and I heard some code words surrounding aliens’ rights.”

“One Empire or another has the use of the adegan crystals,” Tebbith said. “One way or another, a stealth armada will attack the Republic. We cannot allow this.” He stood, a massive presence at his table. “You, friend. I saw you at the Shrine of Healing. You seemed to know that young Sith, the one who helped us against the mad Voss, who aided us with the Trials. What became of her?”

Vette set her jaw and seemed to look through Tebbith. “Someone killed her. We have a new Wrath. You may have seen her on the holovids.”

“I’m sorry. Your friend was brave, and open-minded. I am Tebbith.”

“Jedi Master and Warden of the Order,” Nadia supplied, dwarfed by her mentor. “I’m Nadia. This is Zenith, Iresso, Tharan, and Qyzen Fess.”

“Vette. This is Corso, Risha, Akaavi, Guss, and…”

The Wookiee growled in a deep register. Vette said, “What’s wrong?”

“Trandoshan,” Bowdaar said.

Suddenly, everybody was paying attention.

Vette examined Qyzen Fess. “I know there’s some bad blood, but this guy’s with a Jedi Master. I don’t think he personally hunts Wookiees for sport.”

“Do not insult my competence,” the Trandoshan said. Suddenly Fade understood why the big guy usually let Tebbith do the talking.

“Well, that could be taken a few different ways,” said Vette. “Can you be more definite?”

“No,” said Bowdaar. “Bowdaar has killed sixty-seven lizards, in the years he bothered to count. They died without points. Ask this one if he has been to Kashyyyk. Ask him if he has butchered those of Bowdaar’s kin who escaped slavery. Ask him if his clan wears their skins.”

Tebbith put out one hand at waist level. And absolutely did not address those questions. “There’s no need for conflict. Qyzen, let us avoid tallying scores. Please guard the ship.”

“There is no room for prowess in all that fur,” Qyzen grumbled, but he walked. The Wookiee rotated to watch him go until he was safely on the lift.

The rest of the introductions went smoothly. Fade had fought alongside Vette on Voss, and Tebbith on Corellia. She had no problem with their skills or professionalism. Akaavi and Guss were new, but Akaavi’s stance and wariness boded well, and Guss…well, Fade wasn’t sure what to think of Guss.

“Major,” came a voice from the doorway. Fade gave up the idea of getting a drink and turned around.

“Supreme Commander Rans,” she said. “You want us to take down that Sith?”

“In so many words, Major. I’ll have a pilot to navigate whatever stealthed ships Malgus has within the hour.”

“Forex, please download all information we have on Malgus’s fleet.” Okay. A drink and some appetizers. “Everyone else. Eat like you’ve got a big day.”

*

Ilum. Adegan crystals, a technological breakthrough that Scythia knew about before Moff Regus condescendingly described them. The beginnings of a stealth armada. Only the rediscovery of the Republic’s abandoned Shadow Arsenal, or the recovery of the Balmorran cloak that the Jedi had swooped in and taken, could have excited her more.

Ilum was the site of ancient Jedi ruins, and with them, the possibility of forgotten technologies. Or some nattering about the Force, which Talos would respectfully yield to her rather than presuming to hand her an authoritative translation. Jedi blathering about the Force was ninety-nine point nine percent useless, but she allowed him to continue, because sometimes point one percent was all you needed.

She used a lot of Force lightning on the wretched Duros troops the Republic had shipped out here to protect their crystals. It made Ilum’s frigid nights just a little more tolerable.

Khem Val’s implants malfunctioned once again in the cold. Scythia left him at the Empire’s forward base with the odious Moff Regus and forged onward with Xalek.

There was a whole community here of Kaleesh, honing their bodies and weapons against the brutal conditions. They would make excellent Imperial shock troops. Regus’s big idea was to kill them to clear the way to strategic temple grounds.

Scythia stood in a little self-warmed bubble inside the forward base’s heavy doors. “Xalek, what do you think of Regus’s plan?”

“Lord. Challenge their leader and they will all follow.”

“Does that please you, my apprentice?”

“They do not know the Force. They do not concern me.”

She was of two minds about his arrogance. It was a messy look, but then, why not be confident about your superiority when you were superior? “I’ve always wanted a snippet of the military. And I don’t see Darth Marr here stopping me. Come, stay close. Tell me what ritual objects are required.”

The Kaleesh had occupied a Jedi temple that looked to be much better built than the Imperial bases. Perhaps Scythia would have the operation moved once the temple was cleared of its current residents. She left Talos in a small heated popup tent and went in to fight, until she had enough weapons to set up a challenge for the Kaleesh leader.

The Kaleesh were interesting. They fought fluidly and fearlessly, and died with the same level stoicism that Xalek wore. Their bone masks varied as much as individual faces, though none revealed the skin beneath. Scalloped shapes, streaking markings. “Xalek, do you make your own masks?”

“Upon adulthood.”

“Interesting. Should I collect the fallen’s masks?”

Xalek’s silence seemed to say that this was unspeakably wrong. Scythia stopped speaking.

The temple gave way to a ruined courtyard. A broken fountain in the middle was ringed with runes similar to some Scythia had seen before…similar but different. Another system to translate. Another challenge for her pet archaeologist.

The Kaleesh chieftain came. He came with a phalanx of masked figures who set up a dense ring around the fountain. Scythia had a considerable audience and didn’t even get the courtesy of the chieftain’s name before she toasted him.

Scythia raised a spear. “My dear citizens. I come to lead you to glory beyond anything this world has seen.” She surveyed them all, looking for weak points. Looking for differences. Looking for leverage.

Her eyes roved over two Kaleesh who stood very close together. Their weight was distributed a little differently. There was something else, something in their presence.

“You two are different. Women?”

The Kaleesh beside them hissed. Others looked, and began hissing, too. It was the tallest of the survivors who said, “Female! Why do you presume to fight?”

One of the two shouted in a raspy voice. “We do battle as well as any of you.”

“The penalty is death.”

The speaker looked to Scythia. “Sith! We swear ourselves in service if you will allow us to fight in your name.”

The tableau froze.

“They would kill you for dressing and fighting as men?” Scythia said slowly.

The commander snorted. “Gladly.”

“That won’t do. Xalek?”

But Xalek was staring at the two women with completely round yellow eyes. “As my master commands,” he breathed. It was nearly a whimper.

Something was going on. Scythia looked forward to unraveling it. “Come here. You will serve me personally. The rest of you, report to the Imperial forward camp. You will see how far an alien can come in the Empire.” She dropped her voice. “And Moff Regus will have a much-needed aneurysm.”

But Moff Regus was not paying attention when Scythia returned to base with a ritual spear in hand. He was staring at a holo image of Darth Malgus, who had been sent here to manage the crystal harvesting—a task that sounded deadly boring.

Malgus was not a boring speaker.

“Fellow Sith. Citizens of the Empire. Too long the strength of the Empire has been beholden to the infighting of the Dark Council and the disappearance of an apathetic Emperor. Sith, children of Sith and warriors everywhere, I declare a new Empire, open to all who long for conquest, freedom from inhibition and the right to follow their passions. The Dark Council is dissolved. Those who would join Darth Serevin in supporting me, cast aside your titles and let me lead you to victory. Those who will not, prepare to face our stealth armada. The Emperor is gone. His station and power are mine. We will conquer the galaxy while the Emperor sleeps.”

Scythia wasn’t certain what to salivate over first. She could live with a loss of title; she had Khem Val and commanded respect and fear wherever she went. An Empire ruled by a man who could tolerate aliens. That held possibility.

But the Empire would strike back with all the force at its disposal.

Scythia resolved to not be here when the Empire commanded a counterattack.

She made for the landing pads. General Hesker of the Imperial Guard ran to join her. “My lord. You’re going to stop Malgus?”

“I need to find his ship,” she said.

“Allow me to pilot a stealth fighter. We’ll be able to detect his stealth field and slip right in.”

“Good man. Send some of your guard to get transports. I have some troops I want to manage things.” It would help, when the Empire’s counterattack happened.

Hesker’s only commentary was a twitch of his lips. “As my lord commands.”

“Yes,” she said. “As I do.”

*

Scythia left Hesker's stealth fighter with Xalek and her two new Kaleesh in tow. The women went by Jefe, and they were as talkative as Xalek. They were also pleasingly wary. Scythia watched around her at all times, and more eyes doing so couldn’t hurt.

The hangar was empty; they met no resistance. Scythia left Xalek to direct the new Kaleesh recruits onto this, Malgus's flagship. She herself forged ahead to the long arterial passage that would take her to the single most interesting political proposal she had ever heard.

A figure joined the artery twenty yards ahead. Black-clad, smooth, thin enough to vanish if turned sideways, with a lightsaber on each flat-planed hip.

"Wrath," Scythia bellowed. "Would you GET a fucking HOBBY."

*

Boss #1: Jindo Krey Jindo Krey is a Mandalorian and he will get increasingly more damage as the fight goes on. As the screencap here shows, there's also a ship that looks like the bounty hunter's ship (IT ISN'T, AFAIK!) that will be firing missiles at you to complicate things. Run up to the console pictured in the second screencap and click it to temporarily send that ship away. Other than that: once again, you're on a platform with open sides so mind your step.

Mini-Boss(es) 2: Prototype B-16 and Prototype A-14

Eh. Droids. Just kill B and then A. That's how it usually shakes out for me. No major tricks. You're on a platform again. Boss #2: HK-47

If you are doing the HK-51 quest, HK-47 will drop a part you need when you defeat him. He should have a yellow loot "ray." YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS FLASHPOINT ON VETERAN OR NiM TO GET THE PART! I can personally vouch that it drops from HK-47 in story mode. HK-47 is not quite as lethal as he was when you faced him in The Foundry, if you did. He doesn't have the insta-kill or any panels to frantically click. He mostly stays in the center for this entire fight. Just stay out of his line of fire and keep moving around him. And guess what? You're on a platform! Surprise! When HK-47's health gets low he will vanish and reappear to hit your character with a very long stun. This is his most formidable trick in this flashpoint. Mini-Boss #4: Chondrus Berani

This is the only boss/mini-boss you will fight in this flashpoint who is NOT on a platform where you're in danger of falling over the edge. Enjoy it while it lasts. Chondrus does have a knockback but the most he can do here is throw you around the hallway Final Boss: Darth Malgus

BUG: If the fight goes on too long, or you get too far away from Malgus, he has been known to reset. He will return to the bottom of the stairs and reset himself back to 100% HP. That's not fun. So make sure you stay close.

Malgus has a nasty knockback that will toss you right into the air shaft if you are unlucky. He also throws Inquisitor skills like Force Storm as well as single lightsaber skills. There are a few on-screen announcements about how you will have to face Malgus alone or whatever - just keep fighting. The trick for this fight is to anchor yourselves on the stairs, with your back to the wall, so that Malgus cannot throw you anywhere. He will actively try to do that. He will also sometimes end up fighting your companion and the combat assistance droid at the bottom for the stairs, so taunt him or put your companion on passive to pull him back to you. Remember: when Malgus is defeated the loot will not be on his person. It will be in this box that appears at the bottom of the stairs.