Mission to Copero

When the Sith Empire revealed itself to the larger galaxy in 3681 BBY and began to wage Great Galactic War again the Galactic Republic, the Chiss Ascendancy became the only actual ally of the Empire, unlike all other species that the Empire had subjugated. The exact details of the agreement remained a mystery to all but the highest-ranking officials, but to secure the Ascendancy interests the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force send a team to steal a collateral from Sith Emperor Vitiate in case the deal fell through. They obtained a holomap that kept one of Vitiate's greatest secrets - coordinates to Zildrog, a superweapon capable of destroying entire civilizations - which was brought for safekeeping to the Ascendancy world of Copero where only the highest-ranking Chiss could access it.

More than half a century later, in 3629 BBY, a group known as the Order of Zildrog began the search for Zildrog's location, intending to use it against the Eternal Alliance. Alliance member Theron Shan learned about it and faked defection to the Order, intending to bring it down from within. After proving his dedication on Umbara, Shan was tasked with obtaining the holomap from Copero's ruling House Inrokini and convinced ruling Syndic Zenta to provide him refuge in exchange for the Alliance secrets. This was seen as an act of treason by the head of Chiss Expansionary Defense Force Aristocra Saganu, who was unable to act against Zenta for political reasons. Instead, Saganu traveled to the Alliance capital of Odessen and revealed Shan's whereabout to the Alliance Commander, asking them to apprehend both traitors without the Ascendancy's official involvement. Though outsiders have never been allowed on Copero before, Saganu offered to bring the Commander there so they could apprehend both Shan and Zenta, asking only that Lieutenant Raina Temple accompany them to ensure Ascendancy's interests.

On Copero, Zenta's Force-sensitive brother Valss experienced a vision of Shan's victory, which led him and several of Zenta's best fighters to join the Order's cause. Shan sliced into Zenta's personal datapad to reveal the map's location in the ancient ruins and headed there along with Valss and others, abandoning the Syndic. Meanwhile, Saganu's shuttle delivered Temple and the Commander to Copero City landing platform, from which they proceeded to cut their way through House Inrokini security personnel. Along the way they were asked to destroy supplies stolen from the Ascendancy and to plant listening devices on House Inrokini communication relays. Believing the situation to be under her control, Zenta ordered citizens of Copero to stay away from the fighting, even as Temple and the Commander fought their way into the nearby shipyard. Inside they sliced House Inrokini security terminals, revealing that Zenta had been gathering both Alliance and Ascendancy secrets for a while, and eventually engaged the Syndic herself.

Zenta was disarmed by Temple, who took away her sniper rifle and opened a holochannel to Saganu. Defeated, the Syndic explained that she had been duped by the Shan just like the others were and revealed that Shan had joined a group searching a powerful superweapon. She provided Temple and the Commander with the map's coordinates so they could stop him, but Saganu insisted on settling her matter first, offering the Commander a promise of political alliance if they killed the Syndic on the spot. Meanwhile, Shan and Valss successfully accessed the map, and Theron learned that Zildrog was located on Nathema, after which they blew it with explosives to prevent anyone from following their trail.

The Commander refused to carry out Saganu's dirty work, much to the Aristocta's disappointment, and instead rushed to apprehend Shan along with Temple. Exiting the shipyard through an exit on a mountain slope, the Commander had to tame a pantran whitefang beast, whom the Chiss used to guard their secrets. They then had to contend with a test of logic, using a steam distributor to melt a wall of ice that blocked their way. After disabling security laser grid in the maze outside the temple, the Commander and Temple rushed in just as Shan's group was preparing to depart on a Zakuulan shuttle. Valss ordered the rest to go and despite Shan's protests engaged them in combat, giving Shan a chance to escape. The Commander and Temple fought Valss and eventually killed him, after which they were forced to return to Odessen empty-handed.

Back on Odessen, Temple informed the Commander on the political fallout resulting from the exposure of Aristocra's actions and volunteered to join the Eternal Alliance, believing her connections to the Ascendancy to be of value to it. Lana Beniko's team have recovered the remains of the holomap from Copero and Beniko put their best engineers into reassembling it. Meanwhile Shan transmitted Zildrog's the coordinates to the Order's leader Vinn Atrius, while intentionally leaving the channel open so that the Alliance could intercept their talk and learn of the Order's existence. The Order soon found Zildrog on Nathema and prepared to awaken it, and Shan, still maintaining his cover, send another encrypted message to the Alliance so that they could learn about the Order's plans and stop Zildrog's threat.

During the "A Traitor Among the Chiss" flashpoint players have three options to deal with Syndic Zenta. The Light side options are to either send her back to House Inrokini or take her prisoner for crimes against the Alliance, in both cases leading to a political turmoil and possible war among the Chiss. The Dark side options is to kill Zenta on the spot, in which case Saganu will privately offer the Alliance his support, while officially the Ascendancy will blame the Alliance for the Syndic's death.