As a side note: why are there weird secret passages all over Coruscant? And why is no one curious or concerned about this?
I realize that this question takes a strong back seat to the bigger question of WTF is wrong with everyone in that mission. I mean, youâve got the supposedly overworked Coruscant Security Forces dude whoâs just like lounging around the speeder pad whining about how hard his job is...who has been asked to retrieve the disc with the map of the secret passages no one knew about...which was stolen by the Justicars...who are not even in the same sector as he is... and somehow this elderly SIS agent is involved, but is not (as you might expect) the main force trying to get the map back, and in fact only wants a copy of the map for her daughter who runs a relief agency. What.
Also, despite you copying the map disc for the elderly SIS agent, no one - and I mean no one - stops to think that the Justicars could have made, oh, ninety million copies of the disc while it was in their possession. *headdesk*
I feel like there is a possible plot in the Justicars having access to the secret tunnels of Coruscant.
Except for the fact that there being secret tunnels all over Coruscant feels like a thing that should have been explained somehow. Because what.
Still, skipping over the Migrant Merchants Guild (and the associated WTF plot there), the constant hazards of Coruscant...besides the lack of rebuilding of the lower levels...are Black Sun and the Justicars. (Because, damn it, no, there are not hordes of uniformed Imperials and Sith running amok in the Works. (I swear to god, despite the cold war premise seemingly being baked into Chapter One, it often feels like the writers couldnât write anything but open conflict.))
Black Sun is a gang...crime syndicate...thing...that steals weapons and supplies and has taken over a chunk of Coruscantâs lower levels, terrorizing its citizenry and driving off the largely ineffectual CSF. (And, according to the tie ins, is kidnapping citizens and selling them to the Empire as slaves.) It also offers plastic surgery to wanted criminals, has a hit list that you steal for someone who may be law enforcement, and the CSF may or may not be actively trying to stop them depending on which mission you look at, and may or may not be making progress on doing so. (Again, depending on which mission you look at.)
The Justicars are a bunch of former Republic military people who came home from the war to discover that Black Sun and other gangs were running amok on their home planet, and went full on creepy militia, declaring themselves the protectors of a sector of the lower levels, tossing the gangs and the CSF out and instituting what amounts to martial law, and their own disturbing brand of justice. (They have a prison, and what appear to be torture droids. They execute people based on their own âlaws,â force people to serve them, and supposedly go so far as to shoot people for breaking the curfews that theyâve declared. They stared into the abyss and became the abyss.)
...Itâs pretty obvious the Justicars got a lot more backstory there. Pity the game didnât do more with it, and instead kept overlooking that taking over a sector of a city and throwing the police out is by itself a crime, no further investigation required. (Side note: whether it is a bad thing or not depends a great deal on who you are, why youâre doing it, and whether the police are good or bad. Also what you do afterward...) Granted, the game also canât decide whether the Justicars actively threw the CSF out, or merely took over after they abandoned the sector.Â
I admit that using Justicars as baddies for a story has some thematic appeal when my heroes are a criminal and an ex-Imperial Intelligence agent. In slightly different ways, both Jezari and Kyrian are kind of the antithesis of the Justicars - while the Justicars have chosen order above all else, they have chosen helping people above all else - including their respective careers. Lawful Neutral* vs. Chaotic/Neutral Good.
But maybe thatâs too cliche and silly.
And, no, Iâm not sure how the unexplained secret tunnels might fit in. Besides as a sneaky way of getting to and from places. Or even if I want to try to explain - or somehow de-WTF - random unexplained secret tunnels.
In any event, the Justicars are definitely a group that people could need rescuing from, or things (more sensible than architectural plans) could need retrieving from.
* I canât quite call the Justicars Lawful Evil because they really do - at least I think weâre supposed to believe they really do - think that theyâre doing the right thing. Theyâre harming the very people they think theyâre protecting, but they do think theyâre protecting them. Theyâre Knights Templar by TV Tropeâs definition. Or something similar, anyway.
