kale whatsits (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deescalate) wrote2030-05-30 04:22 am
deescalate) wrote2030-05-30 04:22 am
Entry tags:
Jedi: Survivor History
I tried to make this more digestible but I failed step one. BIG HONKING SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME
About two years previous, the crew of the Mantis had gone their separate ways, claiming finding purposes in life that just don’t align with Cal’s need to constantly fight the Empire. Greez entrusts the Mantis to him, though.
Cal gathers up a new crew in that time, the newest member of which is Bode Akuna, a gun for hire, who becomes fast friends with Cal. He’s fighting the Empire because they killed his wife, and he will do anything to protect his daughter, Kata, the only family he has left. On Coruscant, they pose as a police force who have captured Cal in order to gain an audience with an Imperial senator since he has sensitive information about how widespread the Empire has become across the galaxy. The heist is a success until the Inquisitor, the Ninth Sister, whom Cal had defeated five years ago, comes back for revenge. Cal kills her this time, but by the time he escapes Coruscant his current crew has all been killed, except for Bode.
He travels to Koboh since the Mantis was badly damaged in the escape. Greez has settled down there and Cal knows he’s the best person to fix the ship. He also isn’t a wanted man on Koboh, which is always a plus. He discovers the Bedlam Raiders are causing trouble on Koboh, led by a Gen’Dai named Rayvis.
Upon meeting up with Greez in his new cantina, Pyloon’s Saloon, Greez convinces Cal to take a break and a nap in the basement, then tries to get Cal to rethink his plans. He can’t fight the Empire forever, especially when it grows stronger every day. Cal resists because if he doesn’t fight, then who will? But he eventually tells Greez that he’ll think about what he’s said. Greez tells him there are random parts in a smuggler’s tunnel under the cantina. Cal finds the piece he needs, but also literally falls into a High Republic training chamber where he discovers a droid trapped inside. The droid is old and clutches a strange device. Cal touches it and is presented with a flashback from a few hundred years ago of a High Republic Jedi woman, Santari Khri. She wipes a portion of the droid’s memory on the Jedi Council’s orders, supposedly the knowledge of how to navigate the Koboh Abyss to reach the hidden planet Tanalorr. Santari tells the droid – ZN-A4, or Zee – to find the key to Tanalorr in the Forest Array on Koboh. After the flashback, Zee wakes up and Cal frees her, taking her back to Pyloon’s for safekeeping. She gives Cal the device she had been clutching, a tuner that leads to a way to Tanalorr, and asks Cal to complete her mission for her since she is old and it is dangerous.
Cal travels to the Forest Array and arrives at a massive tower. Inside, he discovers a bacta tank containing a one-armed man. Touching the tank, he receives a series of flashbacks, this time of the same man accompanied by Santari on the planet Tanalorr. He is Dagan Gera, who has been in the tank for hundreds of years, and Tanalorr was his discovery, of which he became protective and obsessive. The Jedi Order eventually built a Temple there, but as the flashback comes to a close, Tanalorr is attacked by marauders. He senses Cal’s presence, declaring that he shouldn’t be there, and Cal comes out of the echo to see that Dagan has awoken in the tank. Cal releases him because another Jedi could be an ally in his fight against the Empire, but as Dagan regains his lightsaber and gets back on his feet, it becomes clear very quickly that he has no desire to help Cal, since he resents the Jedi for abandoning Tanalorr after the marauder attack. He bleeds the crystal in his lightsaber until it turns red and then fights Cal. The fight comes to a draw, but Dagan escapes with Rayvis, revealing that they are in cahoots and are trying to get to Tanalorr.
Cal returns to Pyloon’s and tells Greez and Bode, who has found Cal on Koboh due to a shared locator beacon, of what he learned. Tanalorr could be a safe haven for any surviving Jedi or people running from the Empire. But they need more information and there’s no one better to help than Cere, who has settled down on Jedha. Greez agrees to pilot the Mantis once again.
There’s a sandstorm brewing on Jedha so the Mantis can’t safely land where Cere is. Instead, Cal will have to rendezvous with one of Cere’s allies in order to get to her first. There is an Imperial presence on Jedha, so Cal fights his way through them until the ally catches up with him. It’s Merrin, whom Cal is plainly happy to see, having thought Cere and the Narkis Anchorites would have sent someone completely unknown to him. Merrin’s landspeeder is destroyed by some stormtroopers, so the two of them rely on a spamel – basically a camel…with a snakelike head…space camel…spamel – to get them the rest of the way, but the storm catches up with them. They shelter in a cave for the night, where Cal tells her about Tanalorr and how it might be his newest fight. She tells him that fire can be a comfort and warm him on cold nights, but if it goes unchecked, it can get out of control and destroy everything. (It’s a ~*~metaphor~*~.) Cal also admits that he missed Merrin and it hurt when she left, but it’s clear to him that the time spent away was good for her. She found herself as she traveled the galaxy. They do a good cuddle until the storm, and the night, passes.
They make it to Cere’s hideout and Cal learns that she is now part of the Hidden Path, basically an underground railroad for Force-sensitive fugitives who need to hide or get a new identity. She’s also been collecting what she can to rebuild the Jedi archives. Cal had thought she had given up on the fight but realizes that Cere is just fighting in a different way. She tells him that him becoming the Empire’s most wanted is actually kind of helpful, too, because it keeps the Empire’s eyes off them. It’s her turn to try and warn Cal away from obsession by reminding him that he was only a child when he was sent to the Clone Wars, but there was a time when the Jedi weren’t used as weapons. Cere’s old master, Eno Cordova, is on Jedha, as well, and he helps research Tanalorr and Dagan. Dagan had a retreat on Koboh, but also visited a laboratory on Koboh’s shattered moon often. Cal has his next lead and Bode gifts Cal a blaster he used when he started freelancing.
In both locations, Cal finds a strange device. He had received a vision of Dagan killing those who had previously damaged these devices. Taking them back to Cordova on Jedha, Cal learns that they are compasses, but because they are damaged, Cordova cannot do much with them, though he will try. It is at this time that word reaches the Anchorites that the Empire is approaching a Hidden Path safehouse and one of their own with the Path’s contact codes isn’t responding to their calls. Cal and Merrin volunteer to find the safehouse and rescue the man with the codes. On the way, they take out the Imperials who are heading toward the safehouse for an unrelated kind of excavation and eventually find the Anchorite in the safehouse. Unfortunately, he is killed by the Imperial excavation drill, but not before he gives the contact codes to Cal. Merrin and Cal try to get out of the safehouse, but eventually come to a dead end. Merrin opens up a portal with her magick and asks Cal if he trusts her. He answers immediately that, of course, he does, though Merrin doesn’t feel like that’s good enough. She asks again, more insistently, and when Cal still answers in the affirmative, she kisses him. They use her portals and take out the drill, returning to Cere and Cordova with the contact codes. The Hidden Path remains hidden.
Meanwhile, Cordova did more research and found out that Santari was head of a research team on Koboh to study the Koboh Abyss. She also is the one who created the compasses to navigate the Abyss, since doing so without a compass would lead to almost certain death. So many people who attempted the trek had already died. When the marauders invaded, as Cal had seen in the earlier flashback, the Republic and the Jedi Council abandoned Tanalorr and ordered Santari to have the compasses destroyed so no one else could go there. They also learn that Dagan had allied himself with Rayvis all those years ago, hence why they are working together in the present day, and that the archives show there being three compasses that were made for the Abyss. Cal must find that final compass now. Merrin decides to join the crew again and Cal is a very happy boy.
Upon returning to Koboh, they learn that Zee has been droid-napped by the Bedlam Raiders. Dagan must believe that there is something still hidden in her memory banks despite her partial memory wipe. Cal and Bode head to the swamp on Koboh where the Bedlam Raiders have made a base out of a crashed Separatist Lucrehulk. As they infiltrate, Bode mentions more than once how happy Cal is now that Merrin is part of the crew. Cal, either embarrassed or just unsure how to respond, brushes him off every time. But one more time Bode tries to convince Cal to make something of his life with Merrin, and if he likes her, then he should listen to that. Life is precious. And Bode should know, right? He lost his wife. Cal, again, pushes back because Jedi aren’t supposed to form attachments.
Cal and Bode are separated and Cal has a run-in with Rayvis. Cal tries to fight back, but even though he impales Rayvis in the chest and even cuts off his hand, Rayvis doesn’t react and even sticks his severed hand right back on. So that’s great. BD-1 comes in clutch and shoves Rayvis through a wall with a big hunk of metal, giving Cal the chance to escape. He eventually finds himself on top of an elevator where he eavesdrops on Dagan and Rayvis. Dagan knows the final compass is on the shattered moon, so Cal will have to get there first. Rayvis also tells Dagan not to underestimate Cal, though the warning falls on deaf ears.
Cal finds Zee and starts to free her,but then Dagan walks in. The two face off for a second time but Bode comes in just in time to save the day. Dagan escapes, Cal and Bode rescue Zee fully, and they get ready for their next move.
On the shattered moon, Cal finds an echo of Santari and Dagan, where Dagan tries to take the compass for himself because he can’t let Tanalorr go. Santari cuts his arm off and orders a bacta tank for him, where he would remain for hundreds of years. Moving further on, Cal confronts Rayvis, who is there on Dagan’s orders. They fight and Cal emerges victorious and Rayvis reveals that the location of the final compass is actually back on Koboh in Santari’s observatory. Cal tries to get Rayvis to join him against Dagan, but Rayvis has no love for the Jedi and refuses, instead asking for a warrior’s death. Cal gives it to him. Back on the Mantis, Merrin notices that Cal is brooding (again) and Cal admits that he is afraid of losing himself to a goal. Dagan has Tanalorr. Cal has the fight against the Empire. Merrin reassures him that if he strays from his path, his friends will guide him back.
When they return to Koboh, Cal makes his way to the observatory in order to confront Dagan one more time. While in the Imperial base, Cal meets his match.
Rick the Door Technician.
Bode joins Cal at the top of the observatory to find Dagan with the last compass. They fight, though Bode doesn’t stay in it for long. Cal eventually defeats Dagan by turning Dagan’s Force hallucinations back on him. After the fight, though, he wonders if Dagan’s idea of using Tanalorr to raise a new army against the Empire isn’t actually a bad idea. They could move the Hidden Path there and bide their time until they were strong enough to fight back. Bode, however, doesn’t seem too excited by this, even though the reminder that he would do anything for his daughter is still the truth.
The crew returns to Jedha with the final compass in their possession and this time it isn’t completely destroyed so Cordova will be able to repair it and they’ll be able to get through the Abyss. That night they celebrate. Cere decides to return to the crew, as well as relocate the archive and the Hidden Path to Tanalorr. Bode wants to head there first, just him and Cal, but Cal disagrees, saying they need to move the Hidden Path as soon as possible. Merrin returns when it’s just the two of them and Cal confesses his feelings for her before they share another kiss.
The next day Cordova has the compass fixed, but before they can do anything about it, sirens sound. The Empire has the base surrounded on all sides. And when Cal turns around, he sees that Bode has Cordova at blaster-point and the compass in his possession. Ah. Top 10 anime betrayals. Bode kills Cordova and escapes the base. Cal chases after him and, after a speeder bike chase, catches up with Bode. Cal demands to know why he’s done this and why he’s going to give the compass, and thus Tanalorr, to the Empire, but Bode says he’s not giving it to the Empire. Bode tries to get Cal to back off, to return to the base to save the rest of his crew, his family, because there is something horrible coming their way. Cal won’t just give up because that isn’t in his nature but then Bode Force pushes him and Cal has a horrible realization that not only has Bode betrayed him and his family, but he used to be a Jedi, too. Bode ignites his lightsaber – though it’s actually Dagan’s that he took off the man’s corpse back in the observatory – and fights Cal. It’s no contest as Bode is quite strong and Cal doesn’t have BD-1 and his healing stims. Cal loses the fight, Bode shoots him in the shoulder, and he falls off the tall cliff on which they were fighting. As Cal reaches futility for his lightsaber, his body fails him, though he sees Bode fly away in his personal starfighter. Cal passes out.
Cal is out for at least a few hours, which is long enough for the Empire to infiltrate the base. In the meantime, Cere and Merrin join forces with the Anchorites for as long as they can to hold off the Imperial forces. Eventually, though, they are driven inward, and Cere makes sure to give BD-1 the same contact codes that Cal and Merrin had rescued from the safehouse. She sends him to the Mantis where Merrin had retreated not long before. The codes cannot fall into the hands of the Empire. But Cere still remains behind even as Darth Vader himself comes to pay a visit. Cere and Cal had escaped his clutches five years previously and this is the perfect opportunity to get payback on at least one of them. Cere puts up a hell of a fight, but it’s Darth Vader and the original movie trilogy hasn’t happened yet. Of course, she can’t win. Of course, she is killed.
It is implied that Cal sees this last stand as a Force echo while he clings to and weeps over her dead body when he finally gets back to the base, far too late.
When Cal reunites with Merrin and Greez and BD-1, he has Cordova and Cere’s bodies wrapped in their own shrouds. The remaining crew doesn’t say anything, just comforts each other with touches or hugs or their simple presence as they mourn over their fallen allies and friends. Back on the ship, they grapple with the fact that Bode has the last compass and they can no longer get to Tanalorr, on top of this horrible betrayal and the death of their friends. Again. The Empire took loved ones from them again. Merrin says she wishes Bode had a bounty on him, that way they could track him. That reminds Cal of the locator beacon he gave Bode after the Coruscant mission. They track him to Nova Garon, a frozen asteroid that turns out to be an Imperial Security Bureau base and where Bode has been living with his daughter.
Cal infiltrates the base and finds the commander, Lank Denvik. Denvik confirms that Bode was sent to infiltrate Cal’s team, all the way back on Coruscant, and has been reporting to the ISB the whole time, up to the attack on Jedha. Cal also begins to understand that while it was obviously a trap for Bode to turn the locator beacon on so Cal could find it, it was too convenient. He wants Cal to learn the truth so that he’ll take out the whole base for Bode and then Bode can escape with his daughter without a problem. Cal could kill Denvik, but he knocks him out instead, donning his uniform so he can make his way to Bode’s quarters uninterrupted. He searches the room until Kata comes in. She says her father told her to pack their things, though he didn’t say where they were going. Bode comes in not long after and tells Cal that he survived Order 66 because he was assigned to intelligence during the Clone Wars and wasn’t necessarily in the direct line of fire. He hid, fell in love with Kata’s mother, and was content to stay like that. But then the Inquisitors found her and killed her and Bode cut a deal with the Empire. They would keep Kata safe as long as Bode worked for them. He can’t stand the idea of letting strangers come to Tanalorr when it could be a safe haven for both his family and Cal’s only. The less who know about Tanalorr, the easier it is to protect. If only a few people are there, then the Empire won’t look for it, but if countless wanted people are there, then it only paints a bigger target on the planet.
Cal is disgusted with Bode, calling him a monster for wanting to sacrifice so many lives for the sake of his single daughter. Bode runs with Kata and Cal chases after him. But he’s so angry and hurt that the temptation to give into the Dark Side and become momentarily more and more powerful is too hard to resist. He embraces the darkness and takes out waves of Imperials with ease as he stews in his anger. He does this again and again until he gets to the hangar, only to see Bode slip away yet again. Merrin, having grown worried that something would go wrong, finds Cal and helps him fight the Imperial forces until Denvik himself finds Cal. Cal nearly loses it and begins to Force choke him, blaming him for his former team’s deaths, then Cordova’s, and Cere’s. Merrin sees this and talks him down, telling him that the Empire has taken enough from them already and she will not lose him, too. Remember how she said the fire, if unchecked, could consume everything in its path? Cal hears her, though, and releases Denvik so he doesn’t actually kill him. He reassures Merrin that she won’t lose him and they go back to the Mantis
In Bode’s quarters, Cal had collected a datadisc. On it is a message from Santari saying that there is one more way to reach Tanalorr. All the arrays that have been activated up till now have to be aligned. They will create a wide enough channel in the Koboh Abyss for someone to pass through. This is the last chance Cal and the crew have to get to Tanalorr so they have to take it. But while they do, the arrays start to fail because it’s really old tech. Cal has a crazy idea to get them through the last stretch. Jump to hyperspace blind. Greez is against it, of course, because there’s a good chance they end up in pieces in space. But Cal asks if Greez trusts him, which, of course, he does. Cal closes his eyes and waits until he hears Cere’s voice direct him from the Force. They jump to hyperspace, make it out of the Abyss, and finally arrive at Tanalorr.
Merrin joins Cal as he goes to the Jedi temple he saw in Dagan’s memories to confront Bode. They decide to give Bode one last chance to step down and hand over the compass, though Merrin doesn’t think he will. He is like a cornered animal who will do anything to survive and Bode will do anything to protect his daughter. They find Kata at the temple, and she seems to go along with them more than with her own father. More than once even she pleads with him to listen to Merrin and Cal, but Bode is too far gone. They fight him, Merrin providing the occasional support attack from the shadows while Cal takes the brunt of the fighting. Bode nearly overpowers him, but then Cal embraces the darkness yet again in order to gain the upper hand. Finally, the fight comes to an end with Cal’s lightsaber at Bode’s throat and Cal tries one more time to convince Bode to relent. But he asks Cal if he could really protect Kata if the Empire were to come to Tanalorr and find them. Cal doesn’t say anything, which is its own answer, and one that Bode doesn’t find satisfactory. Cal lets himself get distracted for a moment and Bode gets him in a chokehold. When Merrin tries to attack him, Bode starts to Force choke her. Cal struggles against the hold, desperate to save Merrin, but Bode is so strong. Cal finally manages to knee Bode in the face, which releases the choke on Merrin. She throws a knife into his shoulder and Cal can finally pull himself free. He takes out the same blaster that Bode had given him back on Jedha, aims, and waits for a second as if giving Bode yet another chance, but when no surrender comes, he shoots. Bode is alive still, but Cal looks to Merrin, seeing she’s okay but doesn’t stop Cal. Then he turns back to Bode and shoots him again, this time killing him. It leaves him shaken, having clearly not wanted to kill Bode, but the other man gave him no choice.
On Tanalorr, the small group set up three funeral pyres for Cordova, Cere, and Bode. Throughout the night, Cal doesn’t move or speak, though the others pay their respects and comfort each other. Finally, Merrin is the last to leave Cal’s side and he finds himself alone. As the sun rises, he speaks to Cere, promising that he will build something to outlast the Empire and continue her legacy, but also admits that he is scared because he almost lost himself in the process of getting here and he doesn’t know if he’s ready for what comes next. A few moments pass and Cere appears, though Cal doesn’t seem to see her. She tells him to “guide her through the darkness,” most likely speaking of Kata, and Cal walks away, glancing back only to see Cere’s lightsaber left among the ashes.
About two years previous, the crew of the Mantis had gone their separate ways, claiming finding purposes in life that just don’t align with Cal’s need to constantly fight the Empire. Greez entrusts the Mantis to him, though.
Cal gathers up a new crew in that time, the newest member of which is Bode Akuna, a gun for hire, who becomes fast friends with Cal. He’s fighting the Empire because they killed his wife, and he will do anything to protect his daughter, Kata, the only family he has left. On Coruscant, they pose as a police force who have captured Cal in order to gain an audience with an Imperial senator since he has sensitive information about how widespread the Empire has become across the galaxy. The heist is a success until the Inquisitor, the Ninth Sister, whom Cal had defeated five years ago, comes back for revenge. Cal kills her this time, but by the time he escapes Coruscant his current crew has all been killed, except for Bode.
He travels to Koboh since the Mantis was badly damaged in the escape. Greez has settled down there and Cal knows he’s the best person to fix the ship. He also isn’t a wanted man on Koboh, which is always a plus. He discovers the Bedlam Raiders are causing trouble on Koboh, led by a Gen’Dai named Rayvis.
Upon meeting up with Greez in his new cantina, Pyloon’s Saloon, Greez convinces Cal to take a break and a nap in the basement, then tries to get Cal to rethink his plans. He can’t fight the Empire forever, especially when it grows stronger every day. Cal resists because if he doesn’t fight, then who will? But he eventually tells Greez that he’ll think about what he’s said. Greez tells him there are random parts in a smuggler’s tunnel under the cantina. Cal finds the piece he needs, but also literally falls into a High Republic training chamber where he discovers a droid trapped inside. The droid is old and clutches a strange device. Cal touches it and is presented with a flashback from a few hundred years ago of a High Republic Jedi woman, Santari Khri. She wipes a portion of the droid’s memory on the Jedi Council’s orders, supposedly the knowledge of how to navigate the Koboh Abyss to reach the hidden planet Tanalorr. Santari tells the droid – ZN-A4, or Zee – to find the key to Tanalorr in the Forest Array on Koboh. After the flashback, Zee wakes up and Cal frees her, taking her back to Pyloon’s for safekeeping. She gives Cal the device she had been clutching, a tuner that leads to a way to Tanalorr, and asks Cal to complete her mission for her since she is old and it is dangerous.
Cal travels to the Forest Array and arrives at a massive tower. Inside, he discovers a bacta tank containing a one-armed man. Touching the tank, he receives a series of flashbacks, this time of the same man accompanied by Santari on the planet Tanalorr. He is Dagan Gera, who has been in the tank for hundreds of years, and Tanalorr was his discovery, of which he became protective and obsessive. The Jedi Order eventually built a Temple there, but as the flashback comes to a close, Tanalorr is attacked by marauders. He senses Cal’s presence, declaring that he shouldn’t be there, and Cal comes out of the echo to see that Dagan has awoken in the tank. Cal releases him because another Jedi could be an ally in his fight against the Empire, but as Dagan regains his lightsaber and gets back on his feet, it becomes clear very quickly that he has no desire to help Cal, since he resents the Jedi for abandoning Tanalorr after the marauder attack. He bleeds the crystal in his lightsaber until it turns red and then fights Cal. The fight comes to a draw, but Dagan escapes with Rayvis, revealing that they are in cahoots and are trying to get to Tanalorr.
Cal returns to Pyloon’s and tells Greez and Bode, who has found Cal on Koboh due to a shared locator beacon, of what he learned. Tanalorr could be a safe haven for any surviving Jedi or people running from the Empire. But they need more information and there’s no one better to help than Cere, who has settled down on Jedha. Greez agrees to pilot the Mantis once again.
There’s a sandstorm brewing on Jedha so the Mantis can’t safely land where Cere is. Instead, Cal will have to rendezvous with one of Cere’s allies in order to get to her first. There is an Imperial presence on Jedha, so Cal fights his way through them until the ally catches up with him. It’s Merrin, whom Cal is plainly happy to see, having thought Cere and the Narkis Anchorites would have sent someone completely unknown to him. Merrin’s landspeeder is destroyed by some stormtroopers, so the two of them rely on a spamel – basically a camel…with a snakelike head…space camel…spamel – to get them the rest of the way, but the storm catches up with them. They shelter in a cave for the night, where Cal tells her about Tanalorr and how it might be his newest fight. She tells him that fire can be a comfort and warm him on cold nights, but if it goes unchecked, it can get out of control and destroy everything. (It’s a ~*~metaphor~*~.) Cal also admits that he missed Merrin and it hurt when she left, but it’s clear to him that the time spent away was good for her. She found herself as she traveled the galaxy. They do a good cuddle until the storm, and the night, passes.
They make it to Cere’s hideout and Cal learns that she is now part of the Hidden Path, basically an underground railroad for Force-sensitive fugitives who need to hide or get a new identity. She’s also been collecting what she can to rebuild the Jedi archives. Cal had thought she had given up on the fight but realizes that Cere is just fighting in a different way. She tells him that him becoming the Empire’s most wanted is actually kind of helpful, too, because it keeps the Empire’s eyes off them. It’s her turn to try and warn Cal away from obsession by reminding him that he was only a child when he was sent to the Clone Wars, but there was a time when the Jedi weren’t used as weapons. Cere’s old master, Eno Cordova, is on Jedha, as well, and he helps research Tanalorr and Dagan. Dagan had a retreat on Koboh, but also visited a laboratory on Koboh’s shattered moon often. Cal has his next lead and Bode gifts Cal a blaster he used when he started freelancing.
In both locations, Cal finds a strange device. He had received a vision of Dagan killing those who had previously damaged these devices. Taking them back to Cordova on Jedha, Cal learns that they are compasses, but because they are damaged, Cordova cannot do much with them, though he will try. It is at this time that word reaches the Anchorites that the Empire is approaching a Hidden Path safehouse and one of their own with the Path’s contact codes isn’t responding to their calls. Cal and Merrin volunteer to find the safehouse and rescue the man with the codes. On the way, they take out the Imperials who are heading toward the safehouse for an unrelated kind of excavation and eventually find the Anchorite in the safehouse. Unfortunately, he is killed by the Imperial excavation drill, but not before he gives the contact codes to Cal. Merrin and Cal try to get out of the safehouse, but eventually come to a dead end. Merrin opens up a portal with her magick and asks Cal if he trusts her. He answers immediately that, of course, he does, though Merrin doesn’t feel like that’s good enough. She asks again, more insistently, and when Cal still answers in the affirmative, she kisses him. They use her portals and take out the drill, returning to Cere and Cordova with the contact codes. The Hidden Path remains hidden.
Meanwhile, Cordova did more research and found out that Santari was head of a research team on Koboh to study the Koboh Abyss. She also is the one who created the compasses to navigate the Abyss, since doing so without a compass would lead to almost certain death. So many people who attempted the trek had already died. When the marauders invaded, as Cal had seen in the earlier flashback, the Republic and the Jedi Council abandoned Tanalorr and ordered Santari to have the compasses destroyed so no one else could go there. They also learn that Dagan had allied himself with Rayvis all those years ago, hence why they are working together in the present day, and that the archives show there being three compasses that were made for the Abyss. Cal must find that final compass now. Merrin decides to join the crew again and Cal is a very happy boy.
Upon returning to Koboh, they learn that Zee has been droid-napped by the Bedlam Raiders. Dagan must believe that there is something still hidden in her memory banks despite her partial memory wipe. Cal and Bode head to the swamp on Koboh where the Bedlam Raiders have made a base out of a crashed Separatist Lucrehulk. As they infiltrate, Bode mentions more than once how happy Cal is now that Merrin is part of the crew. Cal, either embarrassed or just unsure how to respond, brushes him off every time. But one more time Bode tries to convince Cal to make something of his life with Merrin, and if he likes her, then he should listen to that. Life is precious. And Bode should know, right? He lost his wife. Cal, again, pushes back because Jedi aren’t supposed to form attachments.
Cal and Bode are separated and Cal has a run-in with Rayvis. Cal tries to fight back, but even though he impales Rayvis in the chest and even cuts off his hand, Rayvis doesn’t react and even sticks his severed hand right back on. So that’s great. BD-1 comes in clutch and shoves Rayvis through a wall with a big hunk of metal, giving Cal the chance to escape. He eventually finds himself on top of an elevator where he eavesdrops on Dagan and Rayvis. Dagan knows the final compass is on the shattered moon, so Cal will have to get there first. Rayvis also tells Dagan not to underestimate Cal, though the warning falls on deaf ears.
Cal finds Zee and starts to free her,but then Dagan walks in. The two face off for a second time but Bode comes in just in time to save the day. Dagan escapes, Cal and Bode rescue Zee fully, and they get ready for their next move.
On the shattered moon, Cal finds an echo of Santari and Dagan, where Dagan tries to take the compass for himself because he can’t let Tanalorr go. Santari cuts his arm off and orders a bacta tank for him, where he would remain for hundreds of years. Moving further on, Cal confronts Rayvis, who is there on Dagan’s orders. They fight and Cal emerges victorious and Rayvis reveals that the location of the final compass is actually back on Koboh in Santari’s observatory. Cal tries to get Rayvis to join him against Dagan, but Rayvis has no love for the Jedi and refuses, instead asking for a warrior’s death. Cal gives it to him. Back on the Mantis, Merrin notices that Cal is brooding (again) and Cal admits that he is afraid of losing himself to a goal. Dagan has Tanalorr. Cal has the fight against the Empire. Merrin reassures him that if he strays from his path, his friends will guide him back.
When they return to Koboh, Cal makes his way to the observatory in order to confront Dagan one more time. While in the Imperial base, Cal meets his match.
Rick the Door Technician.
Bode joins Cal at the top of the observatory to find Dagan with the last compass. They fight, though Bode doesn’t stay in it for long. Cal eventually defeats Dagan by turning Dagan’s Force hallucinations back on him. After the fight, though, he wonders if Dagan’s idea of using Tanalorr to raise a new army against the Empire isn’t actually a bad idea. They could move the Hidden Path there and bide their time until they were strong enough to fight back. Bode, however, doesn’t seem too excited by this, even though the reminder that he would do anything for his daughter is still the truth.
The crew returns to Jedha with the final compass in their possession and this time it isn’t completely destroyed so Cordova will be able to repair it and they’ll be able to get through the Abyss. That night they celebrate. Cere decides to return to the crew, as well as relocate the archive and the Hidden Path to Tanalorr. Bode wants to head there first, just him and Cal, but Cal disagrees, saying they need to move the Hidden Path as soon as possible. Merrin returns when it’s just the two of them and Cal confesses his feelings for her before they share another kiss.
The next day Cordova has the compass fixed, but before they can do anything about it, sirens sound. The Empire has the base surrounded on all sides. And when Cal turns around, he sees that Bode has Cordova at blaster-point and the compass in his possession. Ah. Top 10 anime betrayals. Bode kills Cordova and escapes the base. Cal chases after him and, after a speeder bike chase, catches up with Bode. Cal demands to know why he’s done this and why he’s going to give the compass, and thus Tanalorr, to the Empire, but Bode says he’s not giving it to the Empire. Bode tries to get Cal to back off, to return to the base to save the rest of his crew, his family, because there is something horrible coming their way. Cal won’t just give up because that isn’t in his nature but then Bode Force pushes him and Cal has a horrible realization that not only has Bode betrayed him and his family, but he used to be a Jedi, too. Bode ignites his lightsaber – though it’s actually Dagan’s that he took off the man’s corpse back in the observatory – and fights Cal. It’s no contest as Bode is quite strong and Cal doesn’t have BD-1 and his healing stims. Cal loses the fight, Bode shoots him in the shoulder, and he falls off the tall cliff on which they were fighting. As Cal reaches futility for his lightsaber, his body fails him, though he sees Bode fly away in his personal starfighter. Cal passes out.
Cal is out for at least a few hours, which is long enough for the Empire to infiltrate the base. In the meantime, Cere and Merrin join forces with the Anchorites for as long as they can to hold off the Imperial forces. Eventually, though, they are driven inward, and Cere makes sure to give BD-1 the same contact codes that Cal and Merrin had rescued from the safehouse. She sends him to the Mantis where Merrin had retreated not long before. The codes cannot fall into the hands of the Empire. But Cere still remains behind even as Darth Vader himself comes to pay a visit. Cere and Cal had escaped his clutches five years previously and this is the perfect opportunity to get payback on at least one of them. Cere puts up a hell of a fight, but it’s Darth Vader and the original movie trilogy hasn’t happened yet. Of course, she can’t win. Of course, she is killed.
It is implied that Cal sees this last stand as a Force echo while he clings to and weeps over her dead body when he finally gets back to the base, far too late.
When Cal reunites with Merrin and Greez and BD-1, he has Cordova and Cere’s bodies wrapped in their own shrouds. The remaining crew doesn’t say anything, just comforts each other with touches or hugs or their simple presence as they mourn over their fallen allies and friends. Back on the ship, they grapple with the fact that Bode has the last compass and they can no longer get to Tanalorr, on top of this horrible betrayal and the death of their friends. Again. The Empire took loved ones from them again. Merrin says she wishes Bode had a bounty on him, that way they could track him. That reminds Cal of the locator beacon he gave Bode after the Coruscant mission. They track him to Nova Garon, a frozen asteroid that turns out to be an Imperial Security Bureau base and where Bode has been living with his daughter.
Cal infiltrates the base and finds the commander, Lank Denvik. Denvik confirms that Bode was sent to infiltrate Cal’s team, all the way back on Coruscant, and has been reporting to the ISB the whole time, up to the attack on Jedha. Cal also begins to understand that while it was obviously a trap for Bode to turn the locator beacon on so Cal could find it, it was too convenient. He wants Cal to learn the truth so that he’ll take out the whole base for Bode and then Bode can escape with his daughter without a problem. Cal could kill Denvik, but he knocks him out instead, donning his uniform so he can make his way to Bode’s quarters uninterrupted. He searches the room until Kata comes in. She says her father told her to pack their things, though he didn’t say where they were going. Bode comes in not long after and tells Cal that he survived Order 66 because he was assigned to intelligence during the Clone Wars and wasn’t necessarily in the direct line of fire. He hid, fell in love with Kata’s mother, and was content to stay like that. But then the Inquisitors found her and killed her and Bode cut a deal with the Empire. They would keep Kata safe as long as Bode worked for them. He can’t stand the idea of letting strangers come to Tanalorr when it could be a safe haven for both his family and Cal’s only. The less who know about Tanalorr, the easier it is to protect. If only a few people are there, then the Empire won’t look for it, but if countless wanted people are there, then it only paints a bigger target on the planet.
Cal is disgusted with Bode, calling him a monster for wanting to sacrifice so many lives for the sake of his single daughter. Bode runs with Kata and Cal chases after him. But he’s so angry and hurt that the temptation to give into the Dark Side and become momentarily more and more powerful is too hard to resist. He embraces the darkness and takes out waves of Imperials with ease as he stews in his anger. He does this again and again until he gets to the hangar, only to see Bode slip away yet again. Merrin, having grown worried that something would go wrong, finds Cal and helps him fight the Imperial forces until Denvik himself finds Cal. Cal nearly loses it and begins to Force choke him, blaming him for his former team’s deaths, then Cordova’s, and Cere’s. Merrin sees this and talks him down, telling him that the Empire has taken enough from them already and she will not lose him, too. Remember how she said the fire, if unchecked, could consume everything in its path? Cal hears her, though, and releases Denvik so he doesn’t actually kill him. He reassures Merrin that she won’t lose him and they go back to the Mantis
In Bode’s quarters, Cal had collected a datadisc. On it is a message from Santari saying that there is one more way to reach Tanalorr. All the arrays that have been activated up till now have to be aligned. They will create a wide enough channel in the Koboh Abyss for someone to pass through. This is the last chance Cal and the crew have to get to Tanalorr so they have to take it. But while they do, the arrays start to fail because it’s really old tech. Cal has a crazy idea to get them through the last stretch. Jump to hyperspace blind. Greez is against it, of course, because there’s a good chance they end up in pieces in space. But Cal asks if Greez trusts him, which, of course, he does. Cal closes his eyes and waits until he hears Cere’s voice direct him from the Force. They jump to hyperspace, make it out of the Abyss, and finally arrive at Tanalorr.
Merrin joins Cal as he goes to the Jedi temple he saw in Dagan’s memories to confront Bode. They decide to give Bode one last chance to step down and hand over the compass, though Merrin doesn’t think he will. He is like a cornered animal who will do anything to survive and Bode will do anything to protect his daughter. They find Kata at the temple, and she seems to go along with them more than with her own father. More than once even she pleads with him to listen to Merrin and Cal, but Bode is too far gone. They fight him, Merrin providing the occasional support attack from the shadows while Cal takes the brunt of the fighting. Bode nearly overpowers him, but then Cal embraces the darkness yet again in order to gain the upper hand. Finally, the fight comes to an end with Cal’s lightsaber at Bode’s throat and Cal tries one more time to convince Bode to relent. But he asks Cal if he could really protect Kata if the Empire were to come to Tanalorr and find them. Cal doesn’t say anything, which is its own answer, and one that Bode doesn’t find satisfactory. Cal lets himself get distracted for a moment and Bode gets him in a chokehold. When Merrin tries to attack him, Bode starts to Force choke her. Cal struggles against the hold, desperate to save Merrin, but Bode is so strong. Cal finally manages to knee Bode in the face, which releases the choke on Merrin. She throws a knife into his shoulder and Cal can finally pull himself free. He takes out the same blaster that Bode had given him back on Jedha, aims, and waits for a second as if giving Bode yet another chance, but when no surrender comes, he shoots. Bode is alive still, but Cal looks to Merrin, seeing she’s okay but doesn’t stop Cal. Then he turns back to Bode and shoots him again, this time killing him. It leaves him shaken, having clearly not wanted to kill Bode, but the other man gave him no choice.
On Tanalorr, the small group set up three funeral pyres for Cordova, Cere, and Bode. Throughout the night, Cal doesn’t move or speak, though the others pay their respects and comfort each other. Finally, Merrin is the last to leave Cal’s side and he finds himself alone. As the sun rises, he speaks to Cere, promising that he will build something to outlast the Empire and continue her legacy, but also admits that he is scared because he almost lost himself in the process of getting here and he doesn’t know if he’s ready for what comes next. A few moments pass and Cere appears, though Cal doesn’t seem to see her. She tells him to “guide her through the darkness,” most likely speaking of Kata, and Cal walks away, glancing back only to see Cere’s lightsaber left among the ashes.