KotFE Chapter by Chapter - Chapter 11: Disavowed

Yes, I'm back with yet another chapter discussion - I feel like I'm on a roll here. As usual, beware of spoilers.

Click here to go back to Chapter 10. 

If Koth left you in the last chapter, this one starts with an awkward little chat with Tora in which she assures you that both she and the rest of Koth's crew are still loyal to you - not out of any sort of sense of sentimentality mind you, but simply because you're the one who pays the bills.

Soon afterwards (and this is where the chapter starts if Koth hasn't left you), Theron Shan summons you to talk to you about some new potential allies. Hm, when have we heard that before? Apparently sharing some of the data you secured from the Overwatch with an SIS contact of his (Jonas Balkar from the trooper class story, if you must know) has inclined the infamous Havoc Squad favourably towards you. (I commented on how as a trooper, you seem curiously disinterested in this.) Theron wants you to be the one to recruit them, as he can't openly be seen to "poach" Republic troops. Once again, he's set up a meeting on Zakuul - where else?

You meet Havoc Squad in the swamp there, now under the leadership of former trooper companion Aric Jorgan, but otherwise consisting of a whole new bunch of people. If you're a trooper, he's happy to see you and the whole squad salutes you, otherwise his reaction ranges from grudging admiration for you to healthy skepticism about your motives. Either way he admits that they are on an operation with which they could use your help. At that moment, skytroopers crash the meeting and you have to fight them off.

Aric orders his squad to split up and make their way back to camp, while he will do the same in your company. On the way you run into a new type of skytrooper - they have little flashlights on their heads! Totally different experience, man! While Jorgan scouts the area through the scope of his sniper rifle, you get to watch his backside (quite literally!) while he quizzes you about Arcann and complains about how disenchanted he feels with the Republic's leadership since Saresh seems to have abandoned all principles in her quest for absolute victory.

Suddenly you spot some civilians being chased by skytroopers and of course you have to help them out. You can protest, but Aric will insist on helping them anyway. They tell you that skytroopers showed up out of nowhere to drive them out of their homes in the swamp and beg for you to go and rescue their friends as well. Again, you can protest that this is a waste of time, but Jorgan wants to do it and since you're there to get on his good side you kind of have to go along with his wishes for now.

You clear the nearby village of skytroopers and evacuate its inhabitants, but they are not actually that pleased to be rescued by you because they blame you for the fact that the attack even happened, as the skytroopers were out searching for you. Previously they were "just" exiles, cast out from Zakuul for daring to doubt the Emperor and his policies. Jorgan offers to take them to Havoc's camp to help them to the best of your ability (again, you get no option to veto this), so you have to clear a bit of a path through the swamp. Once you arrive at camp, Jorgan has a bit of a personal conversation with you if you are a trooper about what both of you have been up to, otherwise he just reiterates that he's in charge of Havoc Squad, not you, and tells you to go to bed.

The next morning you have a war council with Theron, Havoc Squad and one of the exiles, who is a lot more grateful and appreciative after a good night's sleep. The data Theron leaked to the SIS has given Havoc a target in the form of a planetary transmitter that they want to wiretap. You are supposed to come along to this, and your Alliance is needed to provide a major distraction. You agree to provide this.

You and Aric assault the Outpost together while Havoc Squad covers you. Thanks to the distraction there are relatively few enemies in the base, however you have to solve a little puzzle to get past a forcefield. Eventually you successfully bug the transmitter, however the enemy is alerted to your presence and you have to fight your way back out through reinforcements, which includes an (in my opinion) reasonably interesting fight against a battle droid.

You reunite with Havoc Squad but get cornered by a bunch of skytroopers... which isn't as convincing a threat as it's supposed to be, considering the ease with which you've been offing these guys even while all on your own. Luckily however, a bunch of exiles show up with stolen weaponry and open a breach for you. They explain that after having been protected all of their lives, they finally want to fight for themselves.

You all agree that the mission was a success, and Aric is excited by the idea of Arcann involuntarily breeding his own resistance in the swamp, to the point where he offers to stay there with Havoc to train the exiles as proper fighters. You can approve this or note that it's a waste of talent as Havoc's abilities are needed elsewhere. Note that Koth (if he's still with you) won't really be entirely happy with either option! There's just no pleasing that man.

The chapter ends on Odessen with your companions doing their usual bickering. You go to "relax" in the cantina, but all that happens is that Nico (or Hylo, if you haven't recruited Nico) comes to sit across from you, nods, and then you get called back to the war room because Scorpio made an important new discovery. In one of the transmissions you've been able to monitor thanks to the wiretap, she's found something called the Gemini frequency, which is used to communicate with the Eternal Fleet. You instruct your companions to work out a plan of attack that makes use of this new information.

Conclusion

Chapter eleven's launch was marred by some annoying bugs, such as Aric showing up in nothing but his undies, however otherwise it felt like a step up from chapter ten, if not by much.

People criticised it for feeling too short, as well as being yet another recruitment mission that didn't really seem to advance the story very much (though the discovery of the Gemini frequency at the end seemed to at least hint at larger things). Some people also seemed to get quite annoyed with the door puzzle, though personally I thought that was a nice change of pace. I also didn't mind the shortness too much - it was certainly preferable to the chapter being stuffed with unnecessary skytrooper padding like chapter ten. The only point where it felt like something was maybe cut out was the little cantina scene near the end, which didn't seem to actually do anything other than mark that some time had passed since you last spoke to Scorpio.

I admit that I'm biased here since my main is a trooper and I found the trooper-exclusive bits of dialogue to be very satisfying, but I also thought that Jorgan was a less offensive choice of mandatory story companion than Kaliyo. Sure, he's not exactly universally beloved either, but at least wanting to recruit a bunch of elite soldiers onto your team makes some sense regardless of your character's alignment. Personally I would have appreciated an opportunity to learn a bit more about the new Havoc Squad, especially as a trooper, but I can understand that resources for that kind of thing are limited.

We also learn a bit more about Zakuulan dissenters, though to be honest I didn't feel that they got a lot of characterisation. There's also a bit of a lack of interesting choices in this chapter, as you get shot down every time you disagree with Aric and then grudgingly go along with his opinion anyway. Overall, a fun chapter for troopers but probably a bit boring for everyone else.

Onwards to Chapter 12!