Due to her prestigious role in the Battle of Rikal, Saya'ka has also built important contacts with the Jedi, particularly the wayward Knight Jahnn. Being a soldier able to call in Jedi backup has done wonders for her career, but not nearly as much as her dogged, determined approach to completing the mission.

Last Updated 2013-12-15: Eight more images added, including a new main outfit!

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Payback comes swiftly for the card-counting transgressor, though, as Saya'ka recieves a brand new crater-maker, the Corellian Bunker Buster Aurek. Saya'ka's an honorable soldier, though: she gives Jahnn to the count of ten before opening fire.

Still fighting her way through Balmorra, Saya'ka has to patiently explain to her superiors why dozens of enlisted personnel reported witnessing her opening fire on a decorated Knight of the Jedi Order.

Saya'ka: "But it was Jahnn, sir."

General Garza: "Understood, Captain. You should have said so sooner. Carry on."

Jahnn is nothing of not honorable (yeah, right...), and to make it up to his favorite Republic Captain, he volunteers to fight along side her through the rest of the Balmorra campaign and then on to Quesh. Here, the intrepid pair face down Brogga the Hutt and his Twi'lek majordomo.

Jahnn tries not to chuckle at the new experimental force-field armor harness Saya'ka has issued to her Cathar subordinate Aric. The harness provides protection comparable to heavy military armor, but fits unobtrusively under any loose-fitting clothing. Strangely, Saya'ka didn't provide any such loose-fitting clothing to Aric to wear over the harness...

Sayaka continues on to test-of-patience planet Hoth. Jahnn and Kira accompany, while Lieutenant Dorne oversees. As a stray tauntaun fawn wanders into the base, Jahnn finds himself bowled over in the wake of three maternally-powered women racing to scoop the tiny animal up in their arms.

The team confronts a local Mandalorian leader, and Jahnn is called on to negotiate. As you can tell by the way Scourge, Aric, and Saya'ka are staring at him in shock, it's going about as well as could be expected.

"Okay, what if the lady takes her chest-peice off for a quick holoimage? Would that change your mind?"

On a supply run to Coruscant, Saya'ka's limits are further tested as Jahnn purchases a new speeder that doesn't exactly meet the military operational standard. Refusing to even acknowledge the gaudy extravagance, she has to wonder if he's doing this just to get on her nerves.

The battle of wits continues.

Jahnn: "C'mon, Captain, don't be like that. Hop on, let me give you a ride."

Saya'ka: "I'm not talking to you, ridiculous Jedi whom I've never seen before and don't know."

Saya'ka's elite team is summoned by General Garza for a vital rescue mission: a high-ranking Imperial General named Rakton has lured a group of gullible and stupid diplomats into a trap and is holding them hostage.

"Havok Squad can take down whatever the Empire throws at us, Commander, sir."

And to prove it, Havok Squad strips down to their longjohns. o.0

A nice high-res profile image of Sayaka, looking contemplative as the details of the rescue mission are plotted out. I thought it was cool how, for this mission, the devs actually create the illusion of the player's entire squad all working together, instead of everyone except the player's favorite just kicking back on the ship and taking it easy.

Saya'ka is briefed by the Republic's top brass. She is assured that they have utmost confidence in her, and if she should fail in her mission, they will come to absolutely no harm here in their bombardment-proof bunker way back on Coruscant while she does all the work for 1/100th of their pay under plausible-deniability conditions.

Saya'ka discusses minor details with her CO, General Garza.

Saya'ka: "Nnnnnno sir, I don't think it'll be possible to infiltrate the enemy base by swimming to the space port. Thank you for your input, though."

Havok Squad continues their bizarre underwear'd vigil. Only Aric seems to be self-conscious about this, and judging by what he's trying to hide with his hands we can assume Saya'ka has just finished briefing the team about going in hard and fast to penetrate enemy territory.

You'd think Elara would at least be a little concerned about being out of uniform on duty, but no. The Admiralty doesn't seem to notice any of this, leading me to wonder if the whole cutscene wasn't intended to be some sort of drunken fever dream Saya'ka was having, right before she wakes up in bed next to Jahnn and never stops screaming.

The thoroughly awkward meeting completed and Havok Squad's mission goals defined, high command dismisses the Captain and her team. Saya'ka assures them of her team's success, since she's already decided to forget everything they've told her and just shoot everybody on the station between her and the hostages.

Havok piggiebacks onto a transport bound for the Imperial-held station and infiltrates successfully. Yuun, having been carefully talked into putting his armor back on, accompanies the Captain on the preliminary sabotage phase of the infiltration.

Tanno proves to be less receptive to the whole "wear something besides your PJ's to the super-important military operation" plan, giving both his CO and Yuun pause.

I love the whole "yeah, what're you gonna do about it?" look Tanno's giving Saya'ka here. It's like the game sprite knows he's in his longjohns and is daring the rest of the game to call attention to it.

After destroying the station's defenses and neutralizing the occupying troops, Havok links back up so they can safely retrieve the hostages. Just in time, General Rakton's been putting the squeeze on them and at least one of them is ready to turn traitor.

Saya'ka chooses Aric to back her up, and secures the meeting room where the captive diplomats are being held.

And Havok confronts their new nemesis, General Rakton, in hologram form. The General seems strangely confused by Havok Squad's sudden appearance, which is odd considering he sent them a very rude and threatening voicemail message just before the team embarked on this mission. Aric is dismissive but Saya'ka feels something more is afoot...

Saya'ka oversees the evacuation of the hostages while bare-chested kitty-boy subordinate looks on, pondering Rakton's threats. The Imperials have rallied and regrouped, though, and it looks like it's going to be a fight getting to the airlock where Yuun has parked their ship for extraction.

Havok's withdrawl to their LZ meets with dire complications: Lieutenant Dorne has apparently collapsed from severe lack of color-coordination.

...Actually she took a round to the chest while trying to patch up a careless Aric; she refused to move or find cover until he was fit to travel. Seriously, Elara is awesome.

Elara is unresponsive and Saya'ka isn't pleased with her team's botched move that put her in danger. Aric in particular showed poor judgement, and she lets them know in no uncertain terms.

It was actually a little surprising and validating to see Saya'ka's player choose to give Aric a harsh dressing-down, well-deserved though it was. Less surprising and more perturbing was seeing Aric refuse to accept any responsibility and pretend that she's blaming him because he just always gets blamed.

Well, maybe if you weren't such a screw-up, sergeant, you wouldn't catch so much blame all the time. You better believe you'll be changing your own kitty-litter tonight.

Havok Squad returns to Coruscant and reports to their CO, though they can only call this mission a qualified success so long as Lieutenant Dorna is still sitting unresponsive in the medical suite. Garza, at least, had the good graces to praise the Lieutenant and regret her situation before proceeding with the team's debreif.

But it's not all gloom and shadows for Havok; to her surprise, Saya'ka receives a long-overdue promotion to Major! Her team is effusive; even grumpy Aric is sincere with his congratulations.

After some badly-needed R&R, Havok Squad is deployed to the Republic's hostile-life-form-infested penal planet Belsavis. Jahnn, meanwhile, is fresh from leading a major campaign to victory on Corellia and has taken some R&R himself... which he choses to spend following Saya'ka around on her new mission. You can almost see how badly Jahnn's seething over how much more manly Aric's bare chest is, compared to his own.

Jahnn: "But he's got fur, how am I supposed to compete with that-?!

Saya'ka: "I'm not talking to you, ridiculous Jedi whom I've never seen before and don't know."

Overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the ongoing prison riot on the planet, though, Saya'ka can't pretend to be put-out by Jahnn's reappearance for long. Havok Squad and Jahnn's own elite Republic strike team join forces to complete Saya'ka's objectives on the planet.

The group greets the planet's head warden, who's apparently suffering from the paranoid delusion that someone's perpetually trying to sneak up on him and give him a wedgie.

The warden's about as pleasant as one might expect for a man who's spent the last several decades trying to keep an entire planet of war criminals under control, only to see it all fall apart in a huge planet-scale riot. Saya'ka is sympathetic, but makes it clear that she's not interested in debating who's in command here. The warden's stubborn refusal to salute the chain of command comes back on him almost immediately in karmic fashion.

The Major finally decides to allow Lieutenant Dorne some limited field duty. The lieutenant only recently recovered from her injuries on the team's last mission, though the trauma resulted in her hair dye being surgically amputated in order to save her life.

I think she's way better looking as a brunette anyway, so I'm not complainin'.

The team is sent to bring in a contact among the roiting prisoners, but arives too late. Jahnn provides the post-mortem.

Jahnn: "Rock and Roll. Just as I suspected."

The Belsavis operation continues. Saya'ka's team meets Colonel Hauer and Senator Tudos, who seem to be at the heart of the riot crisis and have a plan to resolve the situation. Saya'ka must salute the chain of command, but team-member Jahnn can be more open with his distrust. Something here doesn't feel right...

A nice wide shot of the four front members of Saya'ka's taskforce. Saya'ka tries to talk down a traumatized Assistant Warden Graal who's just watched one of his subordinates get gunned down by invading rioters and Imperials. The warden is out for blood but the Major keeps her cool.

The deputy warden's plan is a good one, though; the team uses captured magnetar rifles to circumvent the shields that the invading Imperials and their inmate collaborators (the "Condemned") have erected. The leader of these inmates proves to be more reasonable than the Imperials, and by joining forces they carry the day.

This plotline dealt with a prison inmate named Nyranos, who was actually born on this planet and not a convicted criminal. He's upset about this; that's reasonable. He starts a movement with other Belsavis-born inmates who've committed no crime; that's reasonable. He collaborates with the Empire and murders the Lieutenant Warden in cold blood, and that is not reasonable. And yet the player has no option to call Nyranos out on it! The player can either kill Nyranos flat out, or allow the willing murderer to escape without paying for his crimes on the premise that it wasn't really his fault he killed helpless hostages because he'd had a tough life.

And that's just ridiculous. Why not an option to let the Condemned go free (which they deserve), but make Nyranos stay in the prison to pay for his crimes?!

With the immediate crisis averted, Saya'ka can afford to address the fact that the military standard-issue has become insufficient for her duties. It's time for an armor upgrade!

Her new Galvanized Manhunter Armor-based outfit looks like some sort of officer's field fatigues; weatherproofed and obviously reinforced. I was surprised with how cheap this set went for on the GTN.

The outfit also has a lot of class. It's very dignified, sort of like a cross between combat armor and a dress uniform. It gives the Major a very commanding presence but also makes it clear she's someone who still gets her hands dirty.

Caboose-holopic! The backside view reveals that her scarf is actually a weather-proofing hoodie. Also her backpack is glowing, she should probably get a mechanic to look at that.

A better closeup view of the uniform and the Major wearing it. Tohru wanted an outfit that was obviously sturdy armor, but didn't have the typical stormtrooper look to it. We combed through the GTN for ideas, originally considering a set of Organa armor, and eventually the Manhunter outfit shoved its way to the top of the list.

Jahnn: "So Major! What kind of man are you hunting for?"

Saya'ka: "I'm not talking to you, ridiculous Jedi whom I've never seen before and don't know."

Saya'ka performs a weapons check, using the ever-helpful Jahnn as the test target.

Note that Saya'ka has eschewed her Corellian Bunker Buster for a simpler but more reliable lower model. Hey, have you ever tried to requisition field maintenance kits for a Bunker Buster out on the Outer Rim? I didn't think so, soldier. Dismissed.

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