KOTOR 2 - Gray Meetra: The Hunter

STRONG WARNING: The following contains heavy spoilers about KOTOR 1 and mild spoilers about KOTOR II. If you have not played KOTOR I, DO NOT READ THIS. Go play KOTOR I first then come back. I promise I'll wait.

WEAK WARNING: If you have not played KOTOR II, you may want to read this, as it doesn't give away much at all. It is basically just on idea about might have happened to the KOTOR II main character just before the game starts.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: this was written in preparation for a 2023 TSLRCM Gray-sh playthrough. An actual neutral playthrough of KOTOR II is a bad idea unless you really know what you're sacrificing. The game is really designed for you to go one way or the other. This character probably won't make either Dark or Light Mastery, but will likely end up about 3/4 of the way to one end. I just don't know yet which end, and may not until I actually do the playthrough.

CONTEXT: It is about five years after the end of the events of KOTOR I, and just before the beginning of KOTOR II. Or maybe four years. Or maybe nine or ten. I've seen several timelines. Anyway, some time has passed...

This is really just a rough idea. I haven't even finished the fanfic for my 2022 playthrough (or started by KOTOR II 2022 playthrough, for that matter). But someone on Reddit mentioned an idea along these lines, and it got me thinking. So I made these notes while it was fresh in my mind. I don't even know if my Exile will be male or female and, if male, what I'll name him. But the notes use female, and "Meetra", just for the sake of not having to write around my uncertainty. I can fix it up if I switch name/gender.

Probably start out in that same bar that I used for my 2021 and 2022 fanfics, because, why not? It worked twice already.


As an alternative to the gray angle, I could do this a Light Side as follows:
Same bar fight, probably along the lines of the 2022 one, because there won't be any Jarad Jann to play omniscient narrarator about events in the Republic. So Meetra gets into it with the three men, kills the first two, and is struggling with the third.

Then she sees the third man's head basically explode. Last thing she's aware of is either a blow to her head, or a stun blast (she's been stunned enough times to know what it feels like as you go down).
Wakes up on an unfamiliar ship. Bound.

Turns out she's been captured by a bounty hunter. She wakes up super groggy, unable to move or properly think. Make sure to talk a lot about how hard it is to focus during the conversation.

BH: no use struggling. You're well secured, and you're wearing a neural inhibitor to prevent you from using any of your Jedi magic on me. M: I'm no Jedi BH: tell that to the people who hired me. They're paying top dollar for ordinary Jedi. And you're far from ordinary. You're top of the list. Well, Revan is top of the list, but no one has any clue where he's at. M: wait, isn't Darth Revan running the Republic by now? BH: LOL, Darth Revan? How long have you been out here? He was impressive back when he was Darth Revan alright. Then he turned all goody two-shoes, whacked his buddy Malak, and handed the Republic back to the Jedi. Or something like that. Above my pay grade. M: your employer will be disappointed. I'm no Jedi. They kicked me out. That's why I left. BH: Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. You're still not using any mind tricks on me. M: I can't do that anymore. When they kicked me out, they cut me off from the Force. BH: Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Bounty is the same either way. I drop you off, I get paid. And be glad it was me that found you. I'm crazy enough to try bringing you back alive for the big money. Most of the others would have brought back your corpse. M: Others? BH: Oh yeah. Jedi hunting is the best game around right now. All the best hunters are in on it (he can name some from KOTOR II). M: why is someone hunting Jedi? BH: dunno. Would have thought it was the new Sith, but I don't think so. These folks seem to have their own agenda. But I don't ask questions. M: New Sith? BH: yeah, crazy vampire planet sucker guy, assassin guy, and some big boss in the background. No idea about that one. Anyway, they're picking up the pieces where Revan and Malak left off. May win this time. I think the Republic has finally taken too many back-to-back hits to hold things together. That's probably why the Jedi all ran off. M: the Jedi ran off? BH: Yep. Jedi Order is kaput. And I'm pretty sure the folks putting these bounties out want to keep it that way. That's why they have people like me picking up the last leftovers. (Meetra is really wondering what the heck is going on. But she knows for sure that she prefers hunting to being hunted, so she decides to get out of this mess and go on the offensive) BH: btw, don't bother trying to squirm around and activate that panic button that was woven into your outfit under your arm. I searched you pretty good (sees looks of revulsion on Meetra's face) BH: oh, don't worry, I didn't get too friendly. I'm not into humans (not sure what species he is) Meetra shifts and doesn't feel any pain. That's good, because the panic button was mostly a decoy, even though it did come in handy once or twice when she needed to call for help. The real hidden item, though is surgically implanted into her hip. The low-power dispersal field it emits wouldn't fool a military-grade scanner, but would be sufficient for the duct-taped-together scanners that bounty hunters tend to carry. Doesn't seem like it had been detected/removed. Has trouble activating it - it triggers off a certain hormone combination that doesn't occur naturally (I need to look up something reasonable to use for this). Her Jedi training allows her to control her autonomous functions are release this unlikely chemical combo, but requires great focus. And the neural inhibitor makes focus impossible. She powers through (does she trick him into removing it somehow? Disable it? Or just have enough mental discipline to cut through it?) It release an EM pulse that disables the ship. Everything powers off and goes black. How does she get out of the bonds? Need something impressive for that. Or maybe they're magnetic and get disabled by the pulse. She thrashes him in the dark. Lights come back on, he's the one tied up and she's flying the ship. She decides being hunted sucks. So she heads back to Republic space to find out who's hunting her. And deal with them.

This version of Meetra might be less loyal to Revan. Maybe even outright hostile. She's had awhile to think things through. Revan maneuvered her into the Malachor V situation, then didn't show up himself. She realizes he used it to kill off those who were more loyal to the Republic than to him. And she realized he manipulated her into appearing before the Council, as a last proof of their incompetence and stubborness. Then threw her to the wolves. So this might be the playthrough where everybody hates each other.

Could link this to a gray Revan in a KOTOR I playthrough, where all the companions hate each other too. Or at least, the main ones. Mission and Zaalbar will always get along, and Jolee is pretty zen about everything. But everybody else can be pretty pissy and still accomplish the objective. Would this link up to KOTOR II in some way as a unified playthrough? If so, how?

The title is a three-way play on words. First, Meetra was a bounty hunter in Wild Space. Second, she gets captured by a bounty hunter. Third, she ends going hunting for whoever is behind the person who came after her.