Defending the Shuttleport

Last night I’m taking the shuttle back from Theed to my player city. The guild chat starts buzzing with talk of Imperials running rampant in the city (which is a Rebel city).

When I arrive in town, I see a couple of Imperial dudes running around, and then at least 12 Rebels in a group, running en masse toward the shuttleport, maybe two of whom I recognized. Whoa! They swamped the port, there was some fighting, some city banning… it was all a bit rushed and confusing… but it seemed like they got there a little late, because that was it for conflict. Afterwards there was a lot of tense standing around and tooth-gnashing.

I tried to talk to a couple of other guild members, but I think they were preoccupied, or else just didn’t want to talk to me then, maybe because I’m covert instead of overt. One player (the second Jedi I’ve seen) began shouting orders for some of the group to take positions. The group dispersed, with the exception of a few people manning the shuttleport. It seemed like a denouement.

So, I decided to take some solo missions for a while and then log off and go to bed. I’m outside the city sparring with some NPC cadets in a spawned Rebel mission, and the guild chat erupts again: Imps in town. Imps attacking. I hop on the speederbike and head for town.

And promptly get killed. I figured out the rules of PvP engagement last night: as a covert, I can’t usually get involved in combat… unless I’ve been fighting Imperials (as I had been), in which case I get the Temporary Enemy Flag and am fair game. Until now, fighting Imperials has been me vs. the server, discrete missions that I choose and seek out. This was different: I walked in and was clocked.

Once I cloned and emerged back into the city (now unflagged and invulnerable/invisible), I saw a huge number of imps, who seemed to be getting corralled and banned from the city. They all headed out, full of bravado, to kill more Rebels. Some of our team chased after. And then another big band of Rebels got there again, too late.

Developing a stronger Rebel presence in town has been a big topic for the guild. We’re accumulating faction and ammunition, and building alliances. I’m new, so I haven’t gotten too involved in it, but now it seems to have involved me. I have imaginings of our city becoming a battleground, of the bucolic hunting missions I take being regularly interrupted by Imperial attacks. Part of me wants to go overt and dedicate myself to PvP and an imagined “cause,” while another part just wants to be left alone to skilling, training animals, getting hides. I’m being swept up in a war and I don’t know how to feel about it or the future.

This is the emergent narrative I’ve been looking for.