Duel in the Jedi Temple ruins

"You return to me as a hero of the Empire, my son. Our victory is complete.''" "''I wouldn't count on that."

- The Knight interrupts Tarnis' father, Darth Angral

During the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, an unknown Jedi Knight and the Padawan Kira Carsen fought a duel with the Sith Lord Tarnis in the ruins of the Jedi Temple. The Knight and Carsen had learned that the Republic scientist Tarnis was actually a Sith Lord, and that he had stolen the Planet Prison superweapon and was setting it up in the ruins of the Jedi Temple.

Prelude
"Running a thermal scan&hellip; whoa, the technician wasn't kidding. Somethings's really lighting up. Tracking&hellip; Here we go. Sector 167, coordinates 8863&hellip; Oh, you've got to be kidding me. The signal's coming from the ruins of the Jedi Temple."

- Kira Carsen

During the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire, a young Jedi Knight was sent to the Republic capital of Coruscant by the Jedi Council. On Coruscant, the Knight and the astromech droid T7-O1 recovered stolen military datafiles and supplies for General Var Suthra and the SIS. However, the Knight was forced to try and rescue the scientist Doctor Tarnis from Black Sun kidnappers when the duo returned to the Senate Building, and learned that Tarnis had been taken to the gang's territory.

However, when the Knight and T7 raided Black Sun Territory to find Tarnis, the two discovered that the scientist was in fact a Sith Lord who had been masquerading as a Republic scientist. Tarnis had stolen the Planet Prison superweapon, a device that supercharged a planet's atmosphere and turned it into an enormous ion cannon, and he now planned to activate on Coruscant. Teaming up with the Padawan Kira Carsen, the Knight tracked Tarnis to the territory of the paramilitary Justicars' Brigade, and learned that Tarnis had tricked the project research team into bringing him the real prototype before murdering them. From a dying scientist named Jonkan, the two Jedi learned that the device needed time to charge up to full capacity, and that it generated immense amounts of heat while doing so. Thanks to Jonkan's information, the Knight and Carsen were able to locate the device in the ruins of the Jedi Temple, which had been destroyed in the Sacking of Coruscant by the Imperials over ten years earlier.

The duel
Since the fastest way to reach the ruins of the Temple was through The Works, the industrial sector of the planet, Carsen led the Knight to the closest access elevator in the Justicars' Sector. Within the Works, the two Jedi fought their way through rogue droids known as "mobiles"&mdash;droids whose programming had become corrupted when they were damaged in the Sacking of Coruscant &mdash;and reached a Republic barricade. Beyond that barricade, the two were forced to fight their way through Imperial forces who, unbeknownst to them, were searching the Temple ruins for a top-secret navicomputer. However, the Imperial troopers and their patrol droids were no match for the combined strength of the Knight and Carsen, and the two Jedi were able to venture into the Temple without too much trouble.

Deep within the Temple, the duo found Tarnis amidst the tangle of wires, computers, and generators that formed the Planet Prison. The Sith Lord was standing before a holoterminal, deep in discussion for four figures: a Pureblood Sith, a masked humanoid figure, a short robed human, and a red-robed older human. older man, clearly the leader of the four, praised Tarnis on his work, and astonished the two Jedi by calling Tarnis his son. As the two Jedi stormed into the room and confronted him, Tarnis revealed to the intruders the identity of his father: Darth Angral, the architect of the Sacking of Coruscant, and a personal enemy of the Knight's master Orgus Din. Tarnis also informed the pair the Planet Prison was minutes away from being ready to fire, and that they would not be able to stop it.

At his father's urging, Tarnis refused the Knight's request that he surrender and drew his red-bladed lightsaber. The Sith Lord attacked the two Jedi, dueling them before the holoterminal in clear view of Angral and the others. However, despite Tarnis' training by his master Lord Praven&mdash;one of Darth Angral's apprentices and the Pureblood Sith who was watching the fight &mdash;and the strength in the dark side he inherited from his father, the Sith Lord was no match for the Knight and Carsen together. Angral was forced to watch as the Knight struck down his son before his very eyes, driving the Sith into a furious rage. Angral declared an undying hatred for the Knight, warning the Jedi that he would receive retribution no matter how many had to die in the process. His companions, his apprentices Lords Sadic, Praven, and Nefarid, all promised to avenge Tarnis in an attempt to please their master, and Angral abruptly ended the conversation.

Aftermath
Fortunately, the Planet Prison had not yet completed its startup sequence, and the two Jedi were able to disable the device and destroy it. But upon returning to the Senate Tower and speaking with General Suthra, the two Jedi realized something terrible. Earlier, one of Agent Galen's analysts had decrypted the files recovered by the Knight and T7, and had discovered that they contained information on all of the Republic's weapon projects. When the Knight had departed for Black Sun Territory to rescue Tarnis, the Knight's master Din had also left with Agent Galen and Kira' master Bela Kiwiiks to each secure one of the three off-world research facilities. At that time, the Jedi and the SIS had only believed that Black Sun possessed copies of the files; but now, with the added involvement of the Sith, the SIS had traced a transmission from Tarnis to Angral before the former's death containing the project files. As neither Galen nor the Masters had reported in, Var Suthra feared that Angral was already making his move&mdash;and he was correct. Declaring war on the Jedi in transmissions across all Republic channels, Angral began to seize control of the Republic weapons projects. While the Empire officially disowned Angral and stated that he was no longer acting with their interests, many in the Republic doubted their sincerity.

Suthra asked the Jedi to go to Ord Mantell, where his agents had discovered one of Angral's bases, and gave the Knight a Defender-class light corvette as the young Jedi's own personal ship. The Knight also took Kira Carsen on as an official Padawan, assuming the role of Carsen's teacher. From their, the two Jedi and T7 would travel to Taris, Nar Shaddaa, Tatooine, and finally Alderaan in an attempt to destroy the superweapon projects now under Sith control.

Behind the scenes
The duel in the Jedi Temple ruins was created for Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released by BioWare on December 20, 2011. It appears in the Jedi Knight class story mission "Race to the Ruins", the finale of the Jedi Knight's storyline on Coruscant and the Jedi Knight class' Prologue. After the player discovers that Tarnis has taken the Planet Prison to the Jedi Temple, the player must make their way through The Works, a map accessible by an elevator in the Justicars' Sector map. As the Jedi Temple taxi pad is only accessible once the player has unlocked the taxi pad at the end of The Works, the player must make their way through The Works to the taxi pad at the far end of the map. Throughout the area, the player must fight rogue droids, which are expanded on in the general mission "Meltdown!", and later Imperial soldiers in the second half of The Works and the Jedi Temple map itself. The Imperials' presence is explained in the Heroic mission "Enemies of the Republic", where the players must recover a navicomputer from the ruins of the Temple, which the Imperials are also searching for.

The mission itself features only one alignment-based choice; namely, whether to ask Tarnis to surrender or not. Regardless of the player's choice, Tarnis will still fall in the duel, and events proceed as they do above whether the player chooses the light side or dark side option. The mission itself introduces many of the main character for the class' Act I storyline, and serves as the main event that drives the plot of the next Act. Tarnis' death causes Darth Angral to declare war upon the Republic, and Act I consists of the player attempting to find and destroy the Republic superweapon projects &mdash;or, in the case of Taris, the former Republic scientist Nasan Godera &mdash;which have been captured by Angral's three apprentices Sadic, Praven, and Nefarid. The player also receives their personal ship at the end of this mission, as Suthra sends them to Ord Mantell to investigate a Sith base.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic