Beacon Company 2

This is the page for the Beacon Company 2 campaign, a sequel to the prior campaign of the same name.

The Tion Cluster
Deep in the Tion Cluster, a small passenger liner from the Tionese Flight Company carried a group of quasi-criminals, smugglers, hunters, and traders along the Perlemian Trade Route. The passengers included Yhin Xonirr and his droid Z-S23 "Takali" (for he was of Takali Corporation make), Jhoras Dianto, Bixby Cabaril, Paladin, Fulton Barn, Keth Sirek, Nolark Ming, and a few Exchange hirelings led by Callan Felk.

The ship received an urgent communication and emerged from hyperspace near Raxus Prime, only to find that the communication was from a Republic battleship looking to scan the ship for illicit cargo (which it most certainly had). Callan, determined to prevent the search, ordered his men to hold the ship at gunpoint while he convinced the pilot to help break free of the cruiser's umbilical seal and engineer an escape.

The situation escalated when he executed the pilot, whereupon a firefight broke out between his men and some of the more rambunctious crew members. In the fight, the ship was damaged, and the survivors battled to secure the two escape pods (with insufficient space for all of the passengers). While the party plus Fulton Barn, Keth Sirek, and Nolark Ming escaped in one pod, Callan managed to escape in his lonesome aboard the other, and both parties were sent careening down to the planet below.

On a distant world, Zanno Takali aboard his vessel the Golden Brandy was abducted by a Czerka agent named Visser Kroan who interrogated him for information about the Beacon Company and the Manifest.

Raxus Prime
The party crash landed into a derelict capital ship, barely escaping a small lake of toxic fluid (no thanks to Paladin's indulgent jetpacking heedless to the dangers of open flames and flammable lakes, but yes thanks to his command of the grappling hook). They decided to stay the night on the ship and heal their minor injuries while a small group scouted the interior of the ship, discovering the existence of a scanning spire nearby and infecting Takali with a GenoHaradan virus protocol which quickly fled the feeble entrapment of the group's attention span.

The next day, the group made for the spire and was able to battle through a small army of deranged, vagrant droids that clung to the inner walls of the spire in silent anticipation of the scanner's melodious active pinging, which was promptly activated by the group. The droids went insane, but the party managed to abscond with the location of a nearby vessel picked up by the scanners.

This vessel was the Astral Tortoise, and the group found it in disrepair. It was missing a few engine parts; more concerningly, its main computer processor had been removed. Aboard, the party also discovered the corpses of several Czerka agents in addition to one live one named Dorrun Csur.

Using the Tortoise’s scanners, the party tracked Callan Felk‘s escape pod to a nearby ravine; the pod was found vacant of their quarry, but they managed to track him to a nearby scavenging village. Unfortunately, the Republic had also found this village and acquired Felk.

Ever the opportunist, Bixby devised a plan to steal the Republic troop shuttle’s primary mainframe processor to replace the inoperative processor on the Tortoise, which would enable the party to use it to escape Raxus Prime. Meanwhile, Jhoras infiltrated the Republic camp to cause a distraction, and he was promptly captured and brought before the leader of the Republic outfit, Master Orson Prax. Prax, claiming to be a Jedi but demonstrating otherwise through his capriciousness and violence, interrogated Jhoras (and Felk). He also revealed that this was no ordinary Republic legion — this was a contingent of the revitalized Beacon Company initiative. The pair managed to escape; reportedly, Jhoras nearly nabbed Prax’s lightsaber. Prax and the Republic soldiers fell in pursuit.

Felk in tow, the party fled the village; in the chaos, Bixby escaped with the processor unseen — Jhoras and Felk were not quite so lucky. Jhoras stole a speeder bike and inexpertly fled the camp, breaking Felk’s leg in the process but managing to pull him aboard at the last minute. The group returned to the Tortoise and found a group of Czerka soldiers there; they had dispatched the (now mostly deceased) agents to recover something from the ship’s computer. The computer repaired, the party found a message on the console from a certain T2-44 informing a certain Zanno Takali that he had located something called the Manifest and that he needed Zanno to find him and retrieve it.

The Czerka agents informed the party that the Manifest contained valuable information about criminal dealings in the Outer Rim (it was a descendent of the Nexuspire); they also mentioned that they would pay handsomely for it. The party agreed to partner up with Czerka (who sent Dorrun Csur as a liaison) to find it.

The Tortoise somewhat repaired, the party made for T2, who had left them coordinates for Makem Te.

Makem Te
"Please die!"

-Z-S23

The party discovered that T2’s coordinates were on the Tract of Makem Te, an immense desert graveyard that covered 10% of the planet’s surface. They landed in the nearby village of Saben Dhall Sab and coughed up the tourist fee for the Tract (flight over the Tract was strictly forbidden and monitored by drones).

Braving the desert on speeders, they made for T2’s location — after parting ways with Callan Felk. Paladin managed to capture an Exchange Bounty named Unwe Tark. The party soon discovered that they were being followed by Tal’darian Elko, an agent with a skill for stealth and subterfuge and a history with the Sith Empire. Tal’darian had heard that the party was tracking the Manifest and offered his services. They accepted him into their band and made camp for the evening. In the midst of the night, the party was quite suddenly waylaid by a Hol’dorr attack shuttle, raining Hol’dorr troops led by Roordrak Berin upon them. Berin recognized Paladin as an escaped Jason Clone; reciprocally, Paladin recognized Berin as his tormenter and rival both in this life and the one programmed into his mind. The two were locked in a ferocious jetpack battle; trapped in the skies with an overwhelming adversary, Paladin managed to steer the grappling duo into a gravestone, rending Berin’s armor and injuring him grievously.

Meanwhile, the party held off waves of Hol’dorr soldiers. As the tides began to turn, the shuttle started to depart; Yhin desperately grabbed one of the deployment cables, which was soon severed by blademaster Tyzen, lurking on the shuttle, sending Yhin plummetting to the ground to be retrieved by Takali.

Meanwhile, Tal’darian located the crash site with Berin and Paladin; Berin had delivered the coup de grace to Paladin, and though Tal’darian managed to cripple the already injured Berin, he did not kill him, and Berin was retrieved by the fleeing attack shuttle.

All of the party survived the attack, and they licked their wounds as night became morning. The party made it to the coordinates, noting that the horizon had been blotted out by an impending sandstorm. At the coordinates was the entrance to an ancient crypt; inside, the party found a biometric scanner intended to identify Zanno. Needless to say, the party failed the scan, and they had to navigate through a heavily trapped cave system to locate where T2 had left the next clue — an active tracker with his location (now Felucia), and a warning that a dangerous enemy was dogging his steps. The party also discovered a legless TD-12 in the tunnels who had been abandoned by T2.

Tal’darian, not trusting Dorrun, purloined his communicator from his belt. This came up as the party left the cave but remained unresolved. When the party emerged from the crypt, they found that the storm was upon them. They received a communication from Keth saying that the Tortoise was being attacked by Hol’dorr and that they were en route to retrieve the party.

The Tortoise made it most of the way to the party before it was shot down by a Hol’dorr spider fighter; they fried its entire computer system, which now needed to be jump-started. Using a single metal leg acquired from an unsuspecting Unwe Tark, the party scaled a nearby spire amidst another Hol’dorr troop attack and installed a rudimentary lightning rod to attract a nearby lightning bolt to jumpstart the computer system. Bixby, who had reached the top, was suddenly met by Tyzen, who, sword raised, was suddenly struck by lightning himself and blown off the top of the spire. He survived. The heroism of Jhoras and Paladin prevented the Hol’dorr troops from overtaking Bixby, and the skill of the rest of the crew helped protect the ship from the fighters and the troops.

Amidst the horrible storm, the party guided the Tortoise into the skies, dogfighting more spider fighters and nearly perishing; they did escape, and they were free to make their way to Felucia.

Felucia
Above Felucia, the party was intercepted by the Ultimate, a Czerka cruiser headed by Agent Visser Kroan. They had not received their periodic update from Dorrun and had tracked the communicator. A bit of an altercation broke out, but the party diffused the conflict by docking on the Ultimate and allowing Dorrun to negotiate with Kroan.

The party left the Ultimate and landed on Felucia, finding T2’s coordinates in an overgrown jungle thicket. They found a Czerka bunker amidst a sea of transmitting equipment including atmospheric regulators and biometric spire transmitters, which damaged Z-S23’s circuitry. In the bunker, which was a control center for the terraforming project, they found T2 in a cluster of traps; he recognized Paladin, thinking it was Jason, and the group was able to convince him that they could help him find Zanno.

Back at the Tortoise 's landing site, the party was ambushed by Republic soldiers led by Io Urandukan, an apprentice to Orson Prax. She took them prisoner and escorted the Tortoise and its crew to the Nimbus, a Republic hammerhead vessel.

Meanwhile...
...somewhere above Tion, Zanno Takali was rescued from the clutches of Kroan by Jedi Knight Bendarin Fellspire and Wookiee Frocukkabukk. They fled aboard the Brandy to the nearby world of Corlass, where they conducted ship repairs.

The ship computer, VIN-SAAR (the scion of Dreyo Vin-Saar's personality matrix) revealed that, through close proximity with the Vindicator 's ship systems, it had found the location of the Nexuspire; if they broke in, they could remove the Exchange's backdoor access and seal them off. The group would need to find an adept slicer; luckily, the pirate world of Corlass was conducive to such a search.

They found Jero Ballast, a notorious slicer and criminal, aboard a yacht party spiraling around an oceanic vortex surrounding the wreckage of a Republic cruiser that was once piloted by the admirable General Frubble. Though in pursuit by Republic guards and Jason Clones alike, they successfully fled with Jero and made it to Coruscant.

On Coruscant, they broke into the Nexuspire, which was hidden in The Works beneath the derelict scaffolding of a smokestack, and were quite prepared to seal of the Exchange's access when they met Captain Renarus, who had been tasked with guarding the installation and who had been coerced into maintaining the Exchange backdoor. The party rescued him from the influence of the Exchange, and, when they discovered that the Nexuspire contained information not only on notorious criminals but on corrupt Republic officials, war crimes, families who had evaded the draft, and supposed traitors who refused to surrender to the rule of the Republic, they utterly destroyed the Nexuspire, leaving nothing in their wake.

The Nimbus
Aboard, the party was brutally interrogated by Orson Prax; he revealed that he was the leader of a Jedi-adjacent but clearly contemptible organization called the Children of the First Light. He viciously pressed the party for information on the Auxiliant Mandate, an elusive criminal organization. Prax’s torture resulted in the death of Nolark Ming. Jhoras stood up to his abuse and taunted him to spare the rest of the party more torment; he paid the ultimate price at the hands of Prax’s lightsaber. Bixby, devastated, unleashed dark energy on Prax, choking him and driving him from the room.

Meanwhile, Tal’darian, who had evaded capture, found T2 and Takali and started to engineer an escape. The saving grace of the group came in the form of Osto Sol, a Republic soldier who defected after witnessing the atrocities of the Children of the First Light; he disabled the docking seals in the hangar bay and freed the party, leading them back to the hangar, where they rendezvoused with Tal’darian and the droids and escaped.

Unfortunately, Fulton Barn and Keth Sirek were left behind. The party would later learn that General Frubble was also a prisoner aboard the ship, and that trio would devise an escape plan.

The Vindicator
''Berin's gaze refocused on Paladin, and recognition twinkled behind his bloodied visage. ''

''"Jason?" he murmured.''

''"Glory to Mandalore," hissed Paladin, releasing Berin's broken body into the centrifuge. ''

T2 revealed to the rest of the party that Zanno’s ship, the Golden Brandy, had launched a distress signal, meaning that Zanno had likely been captured. The party followed the coordinates to the Vindicator, which was above the world of Tion.

They went aboard under the guise of Callan Felk and Subject 8 with a crew of mercenaries bringing in the Manifest. T2 was able to sneak to the scanners to pinpoint Zanno’s location while the rest of the crew was escorted to the bridge. There, they were greeted by Khal Noose, who revealed that he was part of a triumvirate in charge of the Auxiliant Mandate, sharing the mantle with Czerka and Hol’dorr. This organization was founded from the remnants of Tarask Kahzan’s empire by these three organizations with the sole purpose of driving the instable Republic from the Outer Rim so that the crime moguls of the region could retain power and continue to be the infrastructure of a slowly healing galaxy.

The leader of the Czerka branch, Visser Kroan, contacted Noose, and the party’s plan began to burst at the seams under scrutiny from the pair. Paladin, claiming to be Subject 8, was escorted by Berin to a separate deck of the ship for reconditioning. He took this moment to reveal his true identity to Berin, and another vicious brawl between them ensued, leading them to the centrifuge of the Vindicator. Paladin grappled Berin through the air on jetpacks before driving Berin through a platform, cutting out his eye, hissing, “Glory to Mandalore,” and releasing him into the centrifuge.

The ship alarms began to blare. T2, chirping that he’d found Zanno’s location, urged the party to get moving. They did, fleeing to the Astral Tortoise while more Jason Clones pursued. The full party made it to the Tortoise, and they escaped, leaving the Vindicator inoperative.

Coruscant
The party made their way to Coruscant, where a launch vector analysis had placed him.

Meanwhile, Kyja Avery's mother, Verenna, was found by Hol'dorr soldiers led by Yara Vogoss. They were searching for more information about the original Beacon Company and their connection to the Nexuspire and Manifest. Yara led Verenna back to the Czerka base on Nar Shaddaa where the Auxiliant Mandate kept a base of operations, and Yara tasked Verenna with interrogating Raseni Takali (Zanno's mother, abducted two months prior) for information on the whereabouts of her son.

Appealing to Raseni's motherhood, Verenna convinced her that she would protect Zanno. Raseni gave them Zanno's location through a personal tracking beacon, and Yara assembled the strike team that would capture him (or, little did Verenna know, kill him, for they knew that T2 was coming for him, and they simply needed him to be out of the picture).

Back on Coruscant, the party found Zanno Takali at the Takali embassy, but their quasi-reunion was brief; the Hol'dorr strike team rained hell upon the embassy, destroying it and the Brandy, forcing the party to escape via a Hol'dorr shuttle having captured Verenna and killed the rest. The party laid low for a little while before being invited by Kroan to his asteroid base to negotiate terms for the cession of the Manifest and the end of hostilities.

They sold the Hol'dorr shuttle to a merchant who was soon after their departure found and viciously murdered by Hol'dorr agents. Of course.

The Asteroid Base
At the asteroid base, Kroan sat down with them to negotiate. Zanno managed to convince him that the Manifest was hidden in a database on his homeworld Glee Anselm; pleased, convinced, and utterly self-assured, Kroan agreed to let them go, but not before exacting one more measure of torment: forcing them to choose between killing Zanno's mother and a hangar bay full of Republic prisoners. Zanno chose to save his mother, and she was returned to him.

Zanno, Raseni, Verenna, and T2 were dropped off on Alderaan to lay low.

Corellia
Now keen on striking back against the Mandate, the party headed to Corellia to locate Doctor Scaresh Sallow, a Selkath doctor who had worked on the Mammon Project, a Czerka-funded Mandate-directed restoration project found in T2's Manifest databanks.

When they arrived, they found him happily retired and gambling to his heart's desire. He revealed that the Mammon Project was a terraforming, biorestorative effort that sought to repair war-torn worlds -- or, rather, it masqueraded as such, being in reality a nefarious plot to reap the local resources of helpless worlds. Czerka had poured considerable resources into the effort, and if it were to fail, their displeasure with the Mandate was assured; they would likely pull funding. The party purchased the Terminus from Doctor Sallow, a program that would kill the Mammon device if uploaded to it.

The three worlds on which it was being tested were Felucia, Cathar, and Serroco. It having already failed on Felucia (the party witnessed it when they found T2), the party made for Cathar to begin bringing it down.

Cathar
Little remained on Cathar, which had neared total annihilation at the hands of the Mandalorians; the Cathar people, driven to near extinction, had been herded to the city-tree of Quolla. The temporary, Czerka-appointed regent, Brenn Xonirr (Yhin's father), had agreed to the forced internment of the Cathar people as a workforce for Czerka's extortion efforts. The environment, which was filled with fumes from the Mammon, was toxic, but Czerka didn't give the vaccination serum to the Cathar people.

When they arrived, the group made short work of the place; Yhin killed his father, the Regent, and the party rushed the weather spire that was controlling the Mammon -- unfortunately, when Bixby attempted to use the Terminus, she found that it was a fake; there was no Terminus. Nevertheless, she managed to program a virus that destroyed every Czerka system in the city. The party escaped Cathar, but not before Yhin charged the Cathar with liberating themselves from Czerka rule.

Serroco
The party made similarly short work of the storm world of Serroco. Finding that Czerka had extorted the local Stereb, and locating their main spire (shielded from the harsh environment by a force field), they infiltrated the Czerka base, posing as an inspection team. They were able to disable the Mammon system without alerting Czerka forces, and they disabled the shield, allowing the storm to ravage Czerka's installation. On their way back to the ship, they were waylaid by the Dire Pursuit bearing Subjects IV, V, and X. Subject X, towering 8 feet tall, was programmed to believe that the party was responsible for the death of his (Jason's) wife, Maria, and flung himself at them with abandon. The party killed Subjects IV and V, but X escaped onto the Pursuit... his relief was short lived, however, for the Tortoise's batteries landed a trio of precise shots that crippled the ''Pursuit. ''

At this point, Takali received an automated message sent to all Takali-make droids: Glee Anselm was under attack, and they needed help.

Zanno also received this message on Alderaan, so he, Raseni, Verenna, and T2 all made for Glee Anselm to help out.

Glee Anselm
"I couldn't imagine going out with a better group of people."

-Paladin

"It was a hell of a ride -- glad we could fly together one last time."

-General Frubble

Above the aquatic world of Glee Anselm, the party witnessed the beginnings of an immense space battle between the Mandate Fleet, headed by The Ultimate and a Hol'dorr dreadnaught versus a pair of Republic hammerhead cruisers, the Persistence and the Breach, a Glee Anselm military cruiser, and a smattering of Takali Corporation ships. The Persistence was helmed by Professor Fulton Barn, who welcomed the aid of the party, and the the Breach was helmed by General Frubble. Keth Sirek led Aurek Squadron.

The Mandate had dispatched bomber drones across the planet to drop torpedo bombs on Nautolan cities in return for their alleged betrayal in refusing to give over the Manifest. The central control relay was aboard the dreadnought, so the party assembled a fighter squadron to fight past Hol'dorr defenses to disable it. In the ensuing space battle, a bounty hunter ship nearly destroyed the main bomber of the fleet; Paladin heroically drew off the ship and paid the ultimate price.

Aboard the dreadnought, the group disabled the central control relay, but not before they were ambushed by Tyzen and his elite Hol'dorr Shadows. Despite sustaining severe injuries, they overcame Tyzen, thanks in part to the remote intervention of Doctor Zanni, who flooded the ship with poisonous gas in an attempt to kill Tyzen and the party, and also thanks to the unexpected appearance of Furvus Malos, who had been hunting Hol’dorr. The party escaped nonetheless with an injured Tyzen in tow, and they escaped the dreadnought, which fled into the night along with the ''Ultimate. ''

The Battle of Glee Anselm was a coup, but the party had sustained heavy losses; the Breach had been shot down as it drew away fire from the Nautolan fleet, and it had perished along with its heroic captain. Millions of Nautolan lives were lost in the bombing, but under the guidance of Raseni Takali, the Takali Corporation pledged to aid the government in the restoration effort.

Most significantly, Hol'dorr had withdrawn support from the Mandate, as had Czerka Corporation after the crippling failure of the Mammon project. Kroan personally swore to bring the party to their knees, having been destabilized, and having only one support to lean on -- the Exchange.

The party resolved to send a band of Force users in pursuit of Kavel Caranthyr, a long-time foe of the Children of the First Light, in the hopes that, together, they could end Orson Prax's corruption. Meanwhile, the rest of the party went to Nar Shaddaa in the hopes of bringing down the final pillar of the Mandate and driving the final nail into Kroan's icy coffin.

Meanwhile...
Bendarin Fellspire took a trip to Dromund Kaas and rescued a young Mandalorian boy, Adin, from the lair of the Mind Collector, where he had been trapped and sustained by the dark energy. In purging the darkness, he released the tormented spirit of Azkal Rahm, who admitted that he had been seduced by the dark side and by Dusk’s promises. Dusk had, indeed, created the Mind Collector so that powerful Force users would be bent to his will.

Bendarin took Adin back to the abandoned Coruscant Jedi Temple, which was being rebuilt. Soon after, Bendarin took to the Senate to ask for help in the coming fight; he was countered by Orson Prax, who renounced Bendarin as a false Jedi, but Bendarin was able to convince the war council that Prax was, indeed, the impostor. Prax was exiled, and the Beacon Company was once again returned to the hands of the Republic.

As a result of this feat of diplomacy and Jedi skill, Bendarin was appointed to the position of Grand Negotiator for the Jedi Order, and he was taught his final lesson by Master Vrook before Vrook passed on and bestowed the title of Jedi Master upon Bendarin.

Nar Shaddaa
The party made their way to Nar Shaddaa aboard the cloaked Persistence, taking the Tortoise to planetfall. They managed to sneak into the primary Czerka compound and discover the location of Khal Noose(inveterate crime boss and notorious scumbag)’s Exchange fleet.

Upon reaching the fleet, the party was invited aboard Noose’s flagship, the Enervator. The parlay between Noose and the anodyne party went fairly smoothly; in exchange for Noose’s support in taking down Kroan, the party would allow him to take the Manifest. He imprisoned Yhin on his vessel as collateral before revealing that the Mandate’s main stronghold was on Rhen Var.

Rhen Var
The stronghold, as the party found, had recently become a mausoleum for the Hol’dorr forces that occupied it — it had fallen to the increasingly capricious Kroan. The party was able to recover information from the sole survivor of the base regarding Kroan’s whereabouts: he had taken up a defensive position in the Jagged Corridor, a deadly asteroid field bent to the contour of a dangerous space lane.

The Jagged Corridor
Noose’s fleet plus the Persistence arrived outside the Jagged Corridor, overlooked by an emerald sun. The party made contact with Kroan, who invited them to join him in the heart of the asteroid field to finish this once and for all. The allied fleet carved a path to the center of the field where Kroan awaited them aboard the Vindicator.

As the first shots were being fired, Kroan suddenly activated the Ion Isolator, a superweapon that generated a pulse of ion energy from the two generator prongs of the Vindicator. All ships, allied and enemy alike, were suddenly deactivated, with the exception of the Vindicator, which began to bombard the fleet with its turbolasers.

Amidst the blazing fleet, the only piece of electronics that had been spared the blast was the ship computer of the Tortoise (though the engines were damaged), from which the energy had been redirected by T2 (who absorbed it in his own systems, nearly killing himself). The party devised a plan to open the hangar bay and utilize Bernoulli’s Principle to propel the Tortoise at the Vindicator.

Within minutes, the ship was hurtling through space at the Vindicator. Once it penetrated the ion barrier, its engines roared to life, and it crash-landed inside the Vindicator, narrowly avoiding its point-defense cannons.

Through a series of daring feats, the party managed to disable the Ion Isolator by sending a team to each of the prong generators and to the centrifuge. Unfortunately, the immense power buildup needed to be redirected somewhere, either to one of the generators, the outside emitter, or the centrifuge, and Sam’s hitherto unmentioned character (an agent of Noose’s) decided to spite his boss and keep the power in the centrifuge. It exploded, killing T2, Noose, and this badass Rodian (not before Noose did a neat jetpack thing).

The rest of the group (plus Yhin, who had escaped Noose’s ship after the isolator disabled the security) headed to the bridge to finish off Kroan as the Vindicator fell apart. They battled Kroan and Subject X before Kroan sealed himself and X behind a ray shield on the bridge, threatening to space the entire room. The party managed to convince X that his master, distracted by his own hubris in finally ‘beating’ the party, was a bad dude, and X suddenly grabbed Kroan by the throat and crushed him.

The party descended to the lower levels to leave, but not before they found Doctor Zanni pleading before the hologram figure of Tarask Kahzan, which disappeared as they entered the room. They took Zanni and X and fled the Vindicator, which, at long last, was destroyed. In the final moments of the battle, the Persistence (in its death throes), captained by Zanno Takali, managed to evacuate most of its crew thanks to the heroism and leadership of Zanno — but the captain went down with the ship.

The party floated past the remains of Noose’s fleet, now simply scrap metal and rubble, and collected the escape pods from the Persistence, saving the crew. Upon learning of Zanno's fate, Takali sent a message to the Takali Droid Corporation conveying the unfortunate news.

They returned to Coruscant, finding the Jedi temple now occupied by Jedi roaming its gardens and terraces, and being once again pardoned and thanked for their immense heroism. The new members of the group were appointed to the Vigil, the foremost defense league of the Republic created from the ashes of the first Beacon Company.

Aftermath
Over the course of the next year, Orson Prax sequestered himself at the edge of the galaxy and regrouped, still a thrall to Dusk in the guise of Prax’s old master, Rivara, with whom he had shared a romantic relationship.

Tyzen was convinced by the imprisoned Zanni, an old flame, to kill Subject X in the medbay to put an end to Kahzan’s clones and at last let Jason rest.

After the battle, a recon crew aboard the Verdant Voyager returned to the Jagged Corridor and stumbled upon barely-intact T2, who had consumed the last of his power reserves searching for Zanno among the wreckage. They found the Manifest in him, but instead of erasing his memory banks to retrieve it, they repaired his main processor, and after learning of Zanno’s death, he simply gave it to them.

Meanwhile, the varicose, cadaverous Kahzan, resuscitated by Zanni during the Battle of Dromund Kaas (now truly Tarask Kahzan, as Cairon had become one with the Force), led an expedition in dark space in pursuit of Dusk. A Clawdite hunter, Tono, brought Kahzan Vashask, a Trandoshan who had killed Froccy’s family and who now was searching for Hol’dorr, and Adin, the boy Bendarin discovered on Dromund Kaas, sustained by the energy of the dark side (Tono abducted him by impersonating Bendarin). When the crew of the Verdant Voyager sent out the signal letting the Republic know that they’d found the Manifest, Kahzan intercepted it and sent Tono to retrieve it.

Tono, impersonating Commodore Renarus, arrived at the Jagged Corridor. He boarded the Voyager with shock troopers and killed nearly everyone on board — in the end, young engineer Raina Harrid chose to destroy the Manifest and sacrifice her own life to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy once more.