The Smuggler: A SWTOR Story
I played Smuggler for the first time recently, and I played her as chaotic good, making light-side choices, but also basically cheating on Corso (who she wouldn't commit to) with literally everyone she met. I decided she needed to have a bit part in my Sith Warrior turned Jedi Knight's story, so I decided to drop her like a bomb into two nights out on Nar Shaddaa and Odessen. This is very unserious but I kind of love it.
As Seren entered the cantina on Odessen she saw Hylo waving from her table. She waved back then headed to the bar to grab a drink. As she approached Hylo’s table with her glass of wine the redhead sitting with her laughed loudly. Seren frowned, that laugh was familiar, but she didn’t quite remember why. She squinted at the back of the other woman’s head. Shocking bright orange curls pushed back with a cybernetic headset. The skimpy backless top, the long skin-tight gloves… No. Was that..?
Tindra Sterlas turned to regard her as she approached, smirking as she noticed the consternation on her face.
“Hey there, Seren.” she greeted her, looking her up and down as she did so.
Seren suddenly wished that she was wearing something other than cropped leggings and a loose sleeveless top; that she’d applied her cosmetics more carefully this morning; that the ends of her braids weren’t fluffy from where she’d dipped them in baby sick, then hastily washed them in hand soap.
“Seren?” Hylo queried, “Do you two know each other?”
“Kinda.” Tindra said, still smirking.
She turned back to Seren. “You gonna throw me across the room again?”
Seren finally found her voice. “That depends.” she said, and was gratified that at least she sounded calm and collected. “Are you going to sit on Theron’s lap and push your boobs into his face again?”
“WHAT?”
Hylo’s shriek went unnoticed by the other women, focussed as they were on each other, but drew Gault, Vette, and Kaliyo as curious onlookers. Of the three only Vette recognised Tindra. She grabbed Seren’s arm.
“Oh no. No. Don’t throw her! People are watching, Commander.”
Seren looked at her friend. “Like I said, I have no intention of throwing anyone across the room. Assuming she doesn’t straddle Theron.”
Tindra laughed. “Hey, if I thought for one second I’d ever see that guy again, I wouldn’t rule it out! It’s been a while since I hooked up with anyone, and I still remember his big…” she trailed to a halt as Hylo, Gault, and Vette drew back from Seren, looking nervous.
“No, no, don’t stop.” Kaliyo said to Tindra, “I wanna hear this.” She turned to Seren, “You been holding out on me, girl? Why did I not know about his big…”
“Why would you need to know?” Seren hissed at her, completely unamused.
Tindra was frowning in confusion. “Hold on a second… You’re not telling me that Theron is here? And that you guys are still together?!”
“Yes, and yes.” Seren told her flatly.
“But that was, like, ten years ago!” Tindra said, astonished.
“Fifteen.” Seren corrected her.
“But… why?” Tindra asked, still astonished. “I mean, aren’t you bored of each other by now?”
Seren opened her mouth to answer, but none other than Theron appeared at her elbow, seeming panicked.
“Seren, you need to look at Astrid, I think she’s falling to the dark side.” he said without preamble, not even glancing at the rest of the table. He thrust Astrid at her and looked at her anxiously.
“Theron, she’s six months old. Babies do not fall to the dark side.” Seren peered into her daughter’s eyes; golden like Theron’s, and all the more startling set in her own pale pinkish skin.
“Yeah? How sure are you?” Theron said, still sounding panicky. “All I know is Scourge babysat her this afternoon then she threw her toy at my head using the Force!”
Seren jiggled Astrid up and down and she gurgled happily, like a standard issue baby. “Noooo, I don’t think so, Theron, she’s too young. She must have knocked the toy upwards somehow, flailing her little arms around?”
“I’m telling you! I…” He stopped, suddenly remembering that they had an audience.
“Uh huh, I get it now.” Tindra said, satisfaction in her voice. “Kids. It’s always the way. Corso’s settled down on a farm on Dantooine with a little wife and five of ‘em.”
“Tindra?” Theron said in astonishment. “What are you doing here?”
“Er, new recruit.” Hylo interjected. “If uh that’s ok with you guys?”
“Theron and I are not together because of the baby!” Seren said angrily to Tindra instead of answering Hylo.
“Nah,” Kaliyo drawled, “sounds like there’s other good reasons anyhow.”
Theron shifted uncomfortably as the rattataki looked him up and down slowly, a suggestive smile on her face, her gaze lingering on his crotch for a disturbingly long moment. He sat down on a free stool, tucking the lower part of his body safely under the table.
“So um, Seren, you’re not thinking of… y’know?” Theron mimed pushing at the air.
“No!” Seren said impatiently, “Why does everyone keep asking that? I did it once!”
Theron put his arm around her, and Seren stopped scowling at Tindra and Kaliyo, relaxing as she met his eyes. They smiled at each other, the rest of the world fading into the background.
Kaliyo gave an exaggerated yawn, “Ugh, back to business as usual for you two then. It was almost exciting for a minute.”
Seren rolled her eyes. “I’m so sorry to disappoint you Kaliyo, you know I live to entertain you.” she said. She was smiling however.
Kaliyo huffed to herself, but then cheered up when she remembered she could still make hilarious trouble given the present company at the table. “So,” she began, looking at Theron. “You and the redhead?”
“The redhead has a name, princess.” Tindra interjected testily.
Kaliyo shrugged, “Whatever.” She poked Theron’s shoulder and he gritted his teeth. “Spill, spy-boy.” she told him.
“Fine. Tindra and I dated when we were teenagers. The end.” Theron said.
“Ugh. Still boring.” Kaliyo sighed. “I guess that was well before you and the Commander met?”
Theron reached out to take a slug of his whisky, before realising with disappointment that he didn’t have one. They’d agreed that he would stay in and look after Astrid while Seren socialised in the cantina tonight. Somehow he’d now brought his baby on a very concerning night out. The least he could do was take her back from Seren so she could relax, he guessed. Theron shifted his stool back to free up his lap for the baby and Kaliyo pointedly stared at his crotch again, grinning at his outraged expression. He lifted Astrid out of Seren’s arms into his own. Seren smiled at him gratefully and drank some of her wine now that her hands were free.
“Yeah, well before.” Theron eventually answered, “And thanks for asking, Kaliyo.” He said sarcastically.
“No problem.” Kaliyo smirked at him, pleased that at least she’d rattled him.
“Hold on a second.” Gault broke off from a vehement looking argument that he and Hylo had been having under their breaths across the table. “If this was all ‘well before’ you met the Commander, how come she threw Tindra here across the room?”
“I told you to leave it.” Hylo hissed at Gault furiously.
Tindra stretched, arching her back and rolling her shoulders back to loosen the muscles, coincidentally emphasising her breasts in her tiny crop top.
“Theron and I weren’t exactly dating, as he put it.” Tindra told the group. “We were just swoop rivals, then kinda friends, then friends who fucked, a lot.”
“And thanks for clearing that up, Tindra.” Theron said, his face flushing. He covered Astrid’s tiny ears as she sat gurgling happily on his lap.
“No problem!” she said to him, “Do you remember that time we both missed the semis of that circuit because we were…”
Seren was finding it much easier to stay calm now that she realised that Tindra was very obviously baiting her to get a reaction. “Are you going to answer Gault’s question, or shall I?” she interrupted to ask Tindra, her voice even.
“I was just getting to that.” Tindra replied to Seren, then addressed the group again. “Imagine you’re happily fucking your best buddy for a couple of years, travelling around, winning big on the swoop circuits, having fun, then BAM! He ups and leaves you without a word. I was nineteen and stuck on Manaan, I mean Manaan of all places!”
“Classy.” Kaliyo told Theron. She was enjoying this immensely.
“Hey! I’d just got the opportunity to join the SIS! I left her all our winnings! I was only nineteen too! And yeah! How many times have you done something similar, Kaliyo?” Theron pointed out, his tone heated.
Kaliyo shrugged, “At least I own it. I never pretended to be anything other than what I am.”
“I don’t think comparing yourself to Kaliyo is a winning moral argument, love.” Seren suggested.
“HEY!” said Kaliyo. “I mean, true. But hey!”
“Anyway…” Tindra was ready to continue her story. “I see him, like, years later in a cantina with a girl who, fyi, was wearing a lot less than me…”
“It was Nar Shaddaa.” Seren said quickly, “And I was in disguise.”
Vette laughed. Back then when Seren had still been trying to be a proper Jedi, she and Kira had both noticed that somehow all her disguises had involved very little clothing.
“And so I decided to get him back a little.” Tindra continued, “Make trouble for him with his new chick, y’know?”
“Understandable.” Kaliyo told her.
“Right?” Tindra nodded. “And so like Seren said, I straddled him and kinda rubbed myself on him. I was hoping to get a reaction, if you know what I mean, that would get his girl pissed at him. But before I had a chance to get anywhere with that, I was suddenly flying across the room, and…”
“You were not ‘flying across the room’, Tindra.” Seren interrupted her to point out. “I threw you across the booth, not the room!”
“Yeah with magic!” Tindra said, her voice rising. “And then you snatched my blaster away from me, also using magic, so I was completely defenceless!”
“Ok, firstly, it was the Force, not ‘magic’,” Seren interjected, her voice also rising, “and secondly, you had your blaster pointed straight at me!”
“Yeah? Can you blame me? You’d just thrown me across the room!” Tindra almost shouted.
“Across the booth, not the room.” Seren reiterated, teeth gritted, “And can you blame me? You were rubbing your crotch on my boyfriend’s dick!” She reached over and covered Astrid’s ears.
“Wow, I am not enjoying this as much the second time around.” Theron mused, seemingly to himself. “Maybe I am more mature now.”
Seren and Tindra stopped arguing and everyone turned to stare at Theron. Who looked around in confusion.
“You said that out loud buddy.” Gault supplied helpfully.
Theron’s eyes widened, “I, er. That is. Um, what I meant was that…”
On the table in front of her, Seren’s glass of wine suddenly flipped forwards, the long stem providing the leverage to fling the contents forward at enough velocity to splash it over Tindra’s face, a few drops also landing on Kaliyo.
“What the hells?” Tindra jumped up and faced Seren, her face flushed with temper and embarrassment.
Seren got up too and the women stood staring at each other angrily over the table.
“That wasn’t me!” Seren yelled.
“Are you twelve?” Tindra yelled back, “Who the hells else was it, then?”
Theron gasped, his eyes swivelling down to his daughter. He picked her up and held her out at arms length, like she was a bomb instead of a baby. Astrid clapped her tiny hands together, looking delighted.
“Theron, you’re not seriously suggesting that…” Seren started.
“Well if you’re saying it wasn’t you, and…” Theron interrupted her.
“It wasn’t!” Seren said, then sarcastically continued, “Sorry to disappoint you that the girls aren’t fighting over you again.”
“Er, can we please focus on the fact that our daughter is falling to the dark side, like I told you earlier?!” Theron exclaimed.
Seren threw her hands up in exasperation, only her Jedi training allowing her to avoid smirking herself as Tindra flinched away from her. “Fine, Theron, we’ll take her to see Dr Oggurobb in the morning, but I’m sure there’s another explanation. And in the meantime, hold her normally, she is not a thermal detonator.”
Theron hugged Astrid and she rested her little head on his shoulder. He looked down at her lovingly, but with obvious nervousness, and Seren sighed and opened her mouth to reason with him.
Before she could do so however, Tindra said to Theron, her tone suggestive, “Hey, remember, if you ever need a break from all this domestic drama, you know where to come.”
The rest of the cantina, who had been studiously and politely ignoring the Commander’s confrontation, looked around en masse as there was a huge crash. They saw a redheaded spacer pick herself up from a broken pile of tables and stools metres from where she’d been sitting, shaking her head to clear it, her glamorous curls slightly askew.
“Ok, that fucking was me.” Seren told the rest of her table.
Theron swallowed. “That er, kinda was as hot as I remember it, actually.” he told Seren, looking into her eyes.
They stared at each other, pupils dilated, until Vette cleared her throat.
“Um, so we really should be getting to bed, I mean putting the baby to bed.” Seren said to their friends.
“Uh huh, sure.” Said Kaliyo, looking down at Theron’s crotch again, her eyebrow raised.
“That was a joke, Ser… Commander, I was joking!” Tindra walked back to them, rubbing her bruised back.
Seren rolled her eyes, but said nothing.
“So um, do I still get to be part of your Alliance or not?” She asked Seren.
“Assuming you stay out in open space, and away from my husband, sure.” Seren told her. “We do need good smugglers as it happens.”
“Are you certain, Commander?” Hylo asked her. “We do have other options.”
Seren shrugged. “I’m sure. It’s not like I’m threatened, just irritated.”
Theron had moved behind her and had his free arm around her shoulders, partially to reassure her that she definitely didn’t have any reason to be concerned, and partially to shield his privates from Kaliyo’s extremely disturbing gaze. “Good night, everyone.” he said, gently steering Seren away from the table.
As they got further away from the table, Theron whispered something in Seren’s ear that nobody else heard, but that made her bite her lip, the hand that she’d had on his waist sliding down to his butt.
“That was great.” said Kaliyo loudly. “Almost makes up for missing out on that night when Theron and Quinn got really really drunk.”
“Sh-SHUSH,” Vette said. “They don’t know you know about that!”
Kaliyo shrugged. “Eh, everyone knows about that. And they didn’t hear me anyway.”
“Who’s Quinn?” Tindra asked, sensing the potential for some more super-fun trouble.
“Ugh.” said Kaliyo. “Imagine the most rigid stuffed shirt Imperial Officer ever, then double it.”
“I hate to agree with Kaliyo,” said Vette, “but yeah, I agree with Kaliyo.”
“Oh. Boring.” said Tindra. “Unless… under his starched polyfibre uniform there lies the passionate beating heart of a… What?” Everyone was looking at her shaking their heads.
“Don’t even go there, girly.” Said Hylo.
“Yeahhhh, even I don’t pull at that thread in front of the Commander and Theron.” Kaliyo told her.
“Hey guys!” said Doc, as he approached their table. “I just saw Mr Grumpy Pants heading out of here with Seren and their kid, so I thought it would be safe for me to come in for a drink. What’s new?”
He suddenly noticed Tindra, and his eyes lit up. “Hi gorgeous, what’s your name?”
She looked him up and down, grinning, “What would you like it to be, handsome?”
7 notes
·
View notes
Rain Plays SWTOR - Solo Uprisings 3
If you enjoy these posts or find them helpful, please like and reblog. After doing all these Uprisings in a day, I have no wrists left.
Here are the final two solo Uprisings I'll be covering. For the rest of the series, check the tags #solo swtor and #rain plays swtor.
Landing Party - Set on Rakata Prime
We return to the area we explored during the Rakata Prime flashpoint in the Shadow of Revan Prelude. It's still gorgeous. Look at this scenery. Even with the crashed starships, it's beautiful. Another advantage - for the first two bosses, the on-screen text will essentially coach you through the gameplay.
The beginning of the Uprising feels a lot like a flashpoint. The mobs aren't overwhelming, and there are breaks between them as you run through the jungle. They're mostly skytroopers that you can one-shot if you are level 75.
Sterla - If you read the on-screen text that pops up, you should be fine. Basically, there will be white circles filled with lightning circulating around the floor. As the text says, avoid them at all costs. More and more will appear as the fight goes on.
Ambush - This is a really challenging part of the Uprising. I would advise saving grenades for this part. They're hard to find and you need them here. I would also advise, especially if you are melee and don't have a lot of AOE abilities, waiting in Sterla's area until your Heroic Moment cools down. You will need Orbital Strike here. The NPCs are quantity over quality. There are a lot of them, though, so you need to use everything you can to take them out at once. There are one or two incendiary barrels. Don't waste them.
Primal Gargantuan - Once again, you will be coached through the fight by the visual cues and on-screen text. Basic: hit the Gargantuan with everything you've got. The screen will flash a message that it's about to scream, and you will see a large orange column of light appear. Get inside that orange column; you will be shielded from the piercing howl. You can still attack from inside the shield if you have anything ranged to throw.
Before you get to the beach, you will see this shelter on the righthand side. You can choose to take a carbonite turret, a turret like the one you can get in the Star Fortress, or a Missile Turret. I found the Missile Turret most helpful.
Defend the Beach - Click the temporary ability bar to set up your turret. This is like the ambush but more orderly and there's more time between each wave.
Now, before you click the panel on the satellite dish - pull back from the beach and wait for all your abilities to cool down.
From this point on, if you are melee (and even if you are not) you may find a ranged companion most helpful. I switched from Lana level 50 to Vette level 50.
Tessar - The best way to deal with her is to keep running. This is a fight where she can drain your HP very very quickly, and your toon will be defeated before you know what hit you. I kept to the perimeter, running in a circle that took me past the kolto stations. Do you see this picture? This is what you see during the fight. Keep running. Hit her with everything you have - provided it's ranged and keeps you away from her. She will sometimes make you into an "unstable conduit;" you want to run for a kolto station and stay away from your companion.
Destroyer of Worlds - Set on Makeb
This Uprising brings you back to the mine you visit in the Imperial-side story. This one is reasonable. I find that as a melee character, it works better with a ranged companion.
First, you have to head to the room on the left and activate a droid, D-5X. D-5X will be with you for the entire Uprising. D-5X also has very poor survival and self-preservation instincts. See these blue tool boxes? You will be using these. A lot. When you use one, immediately try to pick up another. If you are on your own, the droid will get hurt a lot. Honestly, I let it go down and then don't repair it until I need to escort it to the next point in the Uprising.
Most of the NPCs have musical names - Hymn, Dirge, etc. They worship a god named Gethul. In the mines of Makeb, Okay.
Chief Engineer Penzaren - He will shield himself and you will need to take down waves of droids. The shield around him will gradually weaken until you can kick his ass.
The next corridor has some very challenging mobs. I would save my Heroic Moment Orbital Strike, grenades and any AOE skills for this section.
Go repair the droid. You can't move on until you do. Stay with it; if you don't, a tentacle may rise from the floor to take it down again.
Vellos and Skurr - The deal with these fellows is that you need to make sure you keep an eye on both of their HP. They need to die together, or as close to it as possible. If they do not, one will regenerate the other in seconds.
See these purple smoky things? Leave them alone. And don't click that ancient coffin. Don't.
You will now head down switchback ramps defeating more mobs. Again, I would leave the droid until you have defeated the mobs all the way to the bottom. Then go back, repair D-5X and stick to it like glue as you head to the final boss.
- Adelade - Jedi. She jumps around a lot. Nasty yellow circles; nasty purple circles; nasty black circles; keep running to avoid them all.
You've finished with Adelade, and now you meet...Gethul. Eeep. Please don't tell me we have to kill the giant tentacles now.
You don't. D-5X will take care of it. Thanks, little buddy. We appreciate your dedication.
11 notes
·
View notes