The Price of Power
We’re introduced to Darth Lachris, a female Sith apprenticed to Darth Marr, a dude in spiky armor who previously appeared as a member of the Dark Council back in Blood of the Empire. There’s even a reference to the hero of that comic, Darth Thanaton. Good to know he’s still hanging around doing whatever it is he does.
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| The Dork Council convenes. |
Lachris is meeting with her master on Korriban, homeworld of the Sith and most evil planet in the galaxy, to discuss their strategy for pacifying the world of Balmorra, which is apparently in open revolt against its Sith rulers. Marr tells his apprentice that if she can put down the rebellion he will give her control of the planet, but to do so she must employ the heretical clairvoyance technique developed by Thanaton’s dead master, Calypho. The only way this technique works, however, is for the user to be on the brink of death.
Marr and Lachris duel one another, with Lachris blasting her master with Force lightning, to which he responds by telekinetically throwing her into the wall. She hits her head and has a vision of the field of human skulls from Terminator 2. Standing above the skulls is the leader of the Balmorran Resistance, a Republic soldier. John Connor reaches out to grab her but suddenly he’s cut in half by a shadowy figure whose face she can’t see. She reaches down to grab a handful of soil and is seized by roots that spring out of the ground. Two more anonymous figures loom over her and then she wakes up.
“You cannot escape death,” Darth Marr says, lifting her up by the throat. “Consider this my final lesson.” He tells her she is not a coward, which is the only compliment he’s ever given her.
Darth Lachris departs for Balmorra with the hope that she may still be able to change her fate.
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| Darth Lachrymose |
The writing in this story is actually pretty decent, but, like in “The Final Trial,” it’s far too short to leave any lasting impression. It’s a shame the author never got the opportunity to pen anything more substantial before the Expanded Universe was decanonized into Legends and left to continue exclusively as these sporadic TOR shorts; I definitely would have been interested in seeing how it turned out. As it is, this story adds some well-written context to characters in the MMO and the game events on Balmorra, but if you haven’t played the game and don’t know who these characters are you probably won’t get too much out of it. Still, decent writing is decent writing. 3.5/5 Death Stars.
The Sixth Line
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
As anyone who’s played Knights of the Old Republic knows, these are the five lines of the Jedi Code, often mentioned in the prequel trilogy but never recited on-screen. But what if there was a sixth line? A line that said:
There is no contemplation, there is only duty.
It would be pretty lame, right?
Apparently there’s a group of five Jedi who don’t think so, though. Surro, Landai, Garault, Onok, and Danak are a militant faction of Jedi aiding the Balmorran Resistance. Although the Treaty of Coruscant between the Sith Empire and the Republic is still in effect, military deserters have been fighting the Sith occupation for years. It’s these insurgents that Darth Lactose was sent to quash in the previous story. By this point she’s been largely successful, and the Jedi have sent in the “Sixth Line” to help out without letting the Sith know that they’re violating the Treaty. Even the Supreme Chancellor doesn’t know they’re here.
Honestly though I’m not sure what’s so great about these guys. Danak has been captured by the Sith, who mistake him for a mere Resistance spy. While the other Sixth Liners watch from cover of darkness, an Imperial officer named Bowenn blows their friend’s brains out. Garault in particular isn’t too happy about this, as Danak was his brother and Master Surro forbade him from intervening so their cover wouldn’t be blown.
They overhear Bowenn mention that a blue Balmorran Twi’lek named Ivo was responsible for turning Danak in. They go to this dude’s house and bust in while he’s making dinner. Surro asks why he would betray his own planet, to which Ivo replies that the Republic abandoned them and resisting the Sith is suicide. Garault prepares to murder Ivo with his lightsaber, but Surro hands him a blaster instead, presumably so there will be no evidence that Jedi are on the planet. For absolutely no reason established in the text, Garault doesn’t go through with killing Ivo, but instead uses the Force to erase his memory of meeting them.
We jump forward in time a few years. Surro enters her apartment on Coruscant (not sure if having your own apartment is a perk of being a Sixth Line Jedi, or if all the Jedi have to live in cheap off-campus housing after their Temple burned down) and finds Theron Shan waiting for her like Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. Is this like his trademark or something?
Theron Shan is like, “Yo, adding a line to the Jedi Code? Totally dope. I need some badasses like you for a secret mission to the planet Ziost, adopted homeworld of the Sith and third most evil planet in the galaxy following Dromund Kaas, second adopted homeworld of the Sith and second most evil planet in the galaxy.” Then the story ends.
All of these shorts from the TOR website feel kind of pointless and uneventful if you haven’t played the MMO. They basically just exist to give a little more backstory and context to certain characters and missions you encounter in the game, but without the context of the game to ground them, they’re kind of just floating out there in the EUther with no internal explanation of when they’re happening or why they matter. (In this case, you meet the surviving Sixth Liners on Ziost, where their minds get taken over by the Sith Emperor and I’m pretty sure they’re all killed.) “The Sixth Line” isn’t terribly written, but it might be better if it was. As it is, it has nothing to offer unless you’re already an invested fan of the MMO.
2/5 Death Stars. Why didn’t Garault just kill that guy?
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| The Sixth Line confronts Ron Howard. |
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