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Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 4: Commencement, Part 4

What is it ? : Zayne, Gryff, Jarael and Camper are aboard campers starship, the Last Resort, and Campers rewiring of the ship has led to it losing power in orbit, allowing Taris Authority Cruisers to surround it. Camper is trying to remember what changes he's made, and suddenly there's a surge of power and the vessel races out of orbit into an asteroid field around Taris's star. Before power fails again, but this means that the dead vessel is impossible to locate among the asteroids, and the Police Cruisers lose them.
Jarael is going to throw Zayne and Gryff out of an airlock from bringing this trouble on her and Camper, but Gryff points out that their ship will have been identified and they will now be listed as accomplices. Jarael complains that she hates it when people make sense, and Gryff promises to cut down. He also raves about the status he'll now have among the gangs of Taris, that's his career is made.
Zayne spots that the communication system still has power, and suggests he could contact Master Vandar on Dantooine to ask for help, but the others object because Jedi are the ones looking for them so speaking to Jedi is the last thing they want to do. But Camper becomes weak, and Gryff and Jarael take him to his quarters to rest, leaving Zayne alone.
He uses the communications system to contact Dantooine, but the Asteroids are causing static, so he manoeuvres the ship out of the Asteroids and asks to speak to Master Vandar, telling them that it's Zayne Carrick.
Vandar appears as a hologram, and asks Zayne how he could have done it, killing the other Padawan's, people he grew up with. But Zayne tells him what actually happened, which Vandar meditates on for a moment, realising that Zayne actually believes what he's saying. But instead of believing him, he thinks that Zayne is deceiving himself, perhaps beguiled by the Dark Side. Zayne points out that he's always been the worst of the Jedi Padawan's, and there's no way he could have overpowered and killed the others, he's just not good enough.
Vandar decides that a Jedi Consular could help determine the truth, and could help heal Zayne's mind if he is diseased, he wonders if there are any on Taris, but realises that rather unusually there are several Consulars on Taris, before the communication ends as Jarael uses a shock baton on Zayne knocking him unconscious.
When Zayne awakens, Jarael apologises, telling him his communication attracted attention from someone apart from the police, someone she is having difficulty evading, and Zayne feels the presence of the Jedi Masters nearby.
Zayne discusses what was revealed by talking to Vandar, that Vandar wants him to hand himself in, but the fact that all of the Jedi Masters on Taris except for Lucien are Consulars is weird, he also remembers the space walk that he and the other Padawans made, and that the Masters were behaving oddly then too. But they also lost a droid on the moon where they visited and it might have witnessed something.
So they head to the moon and Zayne and Jarael head out onto the surface to find the missing droid, but Camper and Gryph have to move the Last Resort as the moon is constantly bombarded by Asteroids from the field it is within.
Zayne remembers more about his previous visit, that the Masters had the droid, Elbee, erect a forcefield to protect them, while the Padawan's had to close their blast helmets and navigate and survive using the force alone.
The find the body of Elbee, but a starship pulls overhead, and the Jedi Masters is spacesuits leap out, their lightsabers already ignited. . . .

High Points : And while there's not much action in this one, the mystery has a few extra pieces added to it, as we discover that the fact that most of the Masters on Taris are Consulars, the seers of the Jedi. Master Vandar finds this odd, although not suspicious, but Zayne finds is suspicious as he's never noticed it before, and Gryff suggest the masters might have been clouding his mind from noticing.

We're also getting the formation of Zayne's group, with Gryff being skilled at convincing people, and Jarael trying to solve all problems through violence, down to knocking Zayne out to end his communication with Vandar when she realises it's being traced.

Low Points : I find it odd that Vandar isn't willing to help Zayne more, even if he doesn't believe his story and truly believes he's become corrupted by the Dark Side and killed his fellow Padawan's. Then surely he would want to help bring him in, that Zayne would surrender to him peacefully rather than trying to avoid capture as he is with the Masters on Taris.

Zayne remembering and realising the relevance of Elbee being lost during a training mission does seem to be a bit tenuous, as there's no real reason for him to connect this to what's currently going on. The only possible reason that I can see, is that he had the dream of the training mission a couple of issues ago, so it could be the Force that is guiding him? But if it is, it would be nice if we received some indication.

So what do you really think ? : I'm enjoying witnessing the mystery of why the Masters killed the Padawan's continue to be revealed, and really enjoying the way the characters in the team are interacting and coming together. To a degree they're all outcasts and failures, and although they only have the thinnest of reasons to be working together, they're already helping one another because they recognise the others need help. They're not willing to put themselves in much danger for one another yet, but the bonds are starting to form.

Final Words : Commencement is obviously just the start of the story, so it's all being quite heavy handed about feeding us the storyline and introducing everyone. So while there's an interesting storyline going on, and there's a bunch of action throughout, it does all feel very explanatory, and very much like the first part of the story as it sets everything up.

Score : 8.5/10

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