The day after I finished the Ilum arc, I went ahead and did the flashpoints to close out Anarya's origin story. It went better than expected, even though it did take quite a while. I don't hate them, but I don't know if I would replay them unless I'm running a new character.
Here I was kind of wishing I had played the Corellia story because I think you get some unique dialogue with Cole if you already know each other.
Ilum is so beautiful. I can't stress enough how much I love this game, the aesthetics of it, the voice acting, the stories, there's a reason I've been a fan for 10+ years.
Is Darth Serevin a character that's featured in the Imperial story lines? I don't know him, but his design doesn't look like a character that was created to just appear in a flashpoint.
I think I prefer The False Emperor to The Battle of Ilum. The latter is just not that eventful, it's a lot of grinding until you get to the final boss fight. I think The False Emperor has more memorable moments and it was just more fun for me.
I like HK!
lol, why do you have that here, Malgus?
In my opinion, this was a good boss fight. The only annoying thing was that Malgus pushed Kira into the reactor halfway through, so I was alone. I was surprised that I still managed to beat him.
Okay, Cole is kind of cute :)
And with that, I'm officially done with Anarya's story (for now). Next up is Naressia. I've already started with the Consular story, since I'm trying to get a bit of a move on. I have a lot of down time over the summer and I spend most of my evenings playing SWTOR, so I think I will try to get the legendary player achievement until autumn, because I will be busier then. Since I'm only doing the story missions it shouldn't take me super long. That being said, I still want to do some story building for my two families and maybe get creative in some way, writing or drawing. I'm also still not super happy with the way my blog looks, so that's another thing I want to figure out. I'm coming out of a bit of a low at the moment and I'm still feeling a little off, so I'm taking it one day at a time. I want to interact more with you guys, so hopefully there will be some asks coming your way ;) I appreciate you all! Xx
A/N: This is the Cole Cantarus fic that ran off. Clocking in at 1035 words. @vexa-legacy, here he be.
~~
All was quiet in the hangar. His breath sent up smoke in the frigid air. This had been one hell of a year. He’d started as a CorSec man, finished as a Republic officer, with accolades for restoring his planet to membership in the Republic. He’d earned his bloodstripes. He wasn’t the only one.
Not bad for a hoodlum with an attitude problem.
Cole Cantarus sat in his personal fighter. He had one, because he’d been captain of the guard for the Corellian Council before they turned traitor. He’d stripped off the “guard” aspect of the decal, leaving behind symbols of Corellia and his rank: Captain. Then the Republic had requested his assistance – no joke, they had asked him to help out at Ilum. If Cantarus had done so well at Coronet City, why not an ice ball?
His canopy was up, indicating that he was in there. No secret to anybody.
...but he was relishing the time alone. It was the first time he could enjoy the silence, here on this frigid planet. Everything had been loud since the Corellian crisis had started, and it hadn’t died down since he helped blow up the Foundry – some ancient Sithy workshop that Malgus had found.
Most of the credit for the last item went to someone else. And her Wookiee.
Eva Corolastor had earned her first-class Corellian bloodstripes too, twice over: she’d liberated the planet and personally had killed a member of the Dark Council. Sphere of Technology, supposedly.
As if the very thought of her was magic, Cole heard her footfalls in the hangar. She permitted him to hear her; he knew how quiet and stealthy she could be. Cole grabbed the lever on his pilot’s seat and ratcheted it so he was sitting up, rather than lying down (mostly).
“Hey, Captain.”
“Hey, Captain,” she returned, bright and easy. “Did you have the same idea I had?” She unhesitatingly grabbed the bottom of the ladder that led up to his cockpit.
“What’s that?” Cole asked her.
“Leaning back in that pilot’s seat –”
“Uh huh –”
“And fogging up that canopy with someone?” Eva Corolastor popped her head over the edge of the cockpit and flashed him a winning grin.
Cole perched his hands on top of his head and guffawed. “Stars, you aren’t shy.”
“And I’ve managed to avoid frostbite to this point, and I like pressing my luck.” Eva was very used to getting what she wanted, when it came to men.
He tried to smile back, but even that came reluctantly.
…he couldn’t give it to her. Wouldn’t. Shouldn’t.
And now he’d smiled awkwardly for too long. “What, been too long since I did a good deed?” Eva asked.
Now he smiled. “Naww…”
She teased him, “If you don’t think I haven’t heard about your juvie hall record, you really underestimate me.” A pause. “And we did a hell of a thing on the job together… what about off the clock?”
Cole must have shaken his head, slightly, and the lack of words – Eva filled them in herself.
Suddenly, that haunted look he’d seen back on Corellia filled her face. “Right. Damaged goods. Sorry for bothering y--”
And then she disappeared from view, and Cole leaned over the side of his fighter. She’d slid down the ladder in near record time and was already making tracks back out of the hangar, out toward wherever her ship was parked – he knew the name, he just forgot it so she could escape and he wouldn’t have to lie to cover for her.
God. Dammit.
“Eva!”
Cole swung himself down onto the ladder, slid down without hesitation (he’d done it every day for weeks now), and ran after her.
His legs were longer than hers, and he managed to catch up and even beat her to the entryway. “Listen –” He physically planted himself in front of her, bracing his arm against the doorframe.
“I get it, Cantarus.” She looked up at him, just to show him she could do it, and then she looked out into the darkness and the white that was spiral out there.
“It’s not what… you said.” Cole didn’t want to get into everything she must have been going through. He reached out and grasped both of her arms. “Eva, you are incredible. But I know you are at the top of the galaxy and at the absolute bottom of it right now, at the same time.”
Cole had heard about the lynch mob. How Pollaran had slutshamed her, only to have her turn that on its head and have him caught out as a sentient trafficker…and then ---
She was the most powerful criminal in the galaxy, slumming with guys like him.
She was barely 23, and he did know better.
She was wounded, and he wasn’t going to be able to fix it.
Eva peered up at him with those flat eyes that she pulled out when dealing with officers and hoity toity traitors. Somehow, she knew what he was thinking. “I don’t need you to make it feel better. I just need you as a distraction –”
“I don’t think that’s honest. For you or me.”
Eva lifted her chin slightly. “Nobody has to know what happens in a hangar with the security holos pulled.”
“I’d know.”
She stared at him. Eva did, not the flat-eyed creature. He felt good about scaring it off.
“You are such a noble bonehead.”
Cole looked at her in disbelief. “Was that supposed to hurt? No wonder you can’t get rid of Corso Riggs, if that’s all you got.”
He hoped it was enough, just enough –
Then she guffawed and looked more like herself. “Don’t want to get rid of old Corso anyway.”
“And it hasn’t been that way with him?” Cole decided that he wasn’t going to be coward about this, and he was pretty sure he could take a punch from her. She’d probably drop him, but he’d live.
She shook her head, immediately, no hesitation.
Wordlessly, Cole motioned at himself. “Go for a drink? As friends with … minimal benefits.”
Just finished the Corellian storyline on my newest Jedi Knight and was reminded of one of my favourite characters on the planet, Cole Cantarus. I was so delighted when he showed up again on Ilum.
But he doesn't show up again after that, so of course I need a headcanon for what happened to him since then.
Cole continues to serve as Captain of CorSec for a number of years after the Battle of Corellia until he is elected as a member of the Corellian Council a few months prior to the whole Ziost disaster.
As a member of the Council, he was widely respected and generally well-liked, especially as much of his focus was on repairing and rebuilding parts of Corellia that were still damaged following the Empire's takeover of the planet. (The Republic is the worst at fixing/rebuilding cities that are damaged in war and you cannot convince me otherwise, especially when Coruscant is right there.) He also tries to get the Council to significantly increase the planet's defense budget, but his proposals never gain significant traction as most of the other council members just roll their eyes and assume he's either paranoid or obsessed with his glory days of while in CorSec.
There's a lot of regret that they didn't listen to him when Zakuul invades and a star fortress is set in orbit around the planet, but by that point it was too late to do anything.
Cole was very outspoken against Zakuul's conquest and the existence of the star fortress and made numerous attempts to get Corellia and the Republic to fight back, seeing the Senate's decision to surrender every bit as much of a betrayal as the Corellian Council's decision to surrender to the Empire had been. Fearing that his attitude would attract Arcann's attention, Cole's husband and children convince him to step down as a Councilor believing that if Cole wasn't on such a public stage Zakuul would be less likely to hear or care about him encouraging people to fight back. And it worked. Either no one in Zakuul knew what he was doing, or because he wasn't anyone important, they didn't care.
A little over a year before the Outlander would be rescued, Cole and a group of likeminded Corellians flew a small ship up to the star fortress with plans of destroying it. They managed to dock, but when they exited the ship they were greeted by dozens of skytroopers and a Knight of Zakuul, who ordered all of them killed. No one escaped and their deaths were broadcasted to the rest of Corellia.
As intended, the broadcast discouraged any further attacks, but once the Alliance was formed Theron was able to convince a number of Corellians, including all of Cole's family, to either outright join the Alliance or to provide support - mostly in the form of donating as many starfighters as possible to the Alliance.
At risk of it being a spoiler for Ellaz’s backstory which I am like, halfway through writing and will post one day, I know who I’m running through the DS/LS event on Pub side 8D
