Bek–Vulkar gang war

Leading up to the Mandalorian Wars, the Hidden Beks and Black Vulkars stood as the two most prominent and active swoop gangs on the Outer Rim world of Taris. They patrolled the Lower City on foot and on swoop bikes. When Mandalore escalated the conflict by attacking the Galactic Republic on multiple fronts, his Mandalorian forces besieged Taris, eventually invading and occupying the planet. In response, the Beks, under Gadon Thek's leadership, joined the Taris Resistance, led by Constable Noana Sowrs. The Snivvian con artist and guerrilla fighter Marn Hierogryph facilitated the alliance between the Beks and Sowers' group. The Vulkars, however, remained largely uninvolved in the resistance, only sporadically attacking the Mandalorian invaders. The Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders proved too strong, and the resistance was largely suppressed. Ultimately, Galactic Republic forces, led by Jedi Knights Revan and Malak, drove the Neo-Crusaders from Taris, restoring Republic control. However, this peace was short-lived.

Revan and Malak's decision to defy the Jedi High Council and lead the war against the Mandalorians put them at odds with the Jedi Order. They vanished into the unknown reaches of space, succumbed to the dark side of the Force, became Dark Lords of the Sith, and returned with a fleet of starships and Republic defectors to invade the Republic. War erupted once more, this time pitting the Republic and the Jedi against their former heroes from the Mandalorian conflict.

Before the gang war, Thek lost his sight in a swoop accident. Most Hidden Beks expected him to pass leadership to Brejik, his protégé and a veteran of the Beks' resistance against the Mandalorians. Brejik was considered by Thek to be almost a son. However, Thek deemed Brejik not ready for the responsibility. Brejik then left the Beks, taking control of the rival Vulkars, who had previously been led by a sentient being named Benno. While the gangs had always been rivals, Brejik transformed the Vulkars from petty criminals into a fanatical force bent on destroying the Beks and Thek. Thek wondered if the war could have been avoided if he had stepped down, but Zaerdra, his bodyguard, assured him that Brejik would have simply turned the Beks against the Vulkars.

Brejik quickly consolidated his power within the Vulkars through intimidation and force, demoting those who disagreed with him. With his authority secured, Brejik led his followers in a rampage against the Beks, engulfing the Lower City in conflict. Nonaligned civilians were often caught in the crossfire. The Vulkars' dedication to Brejik's vendetta caught the attention of even the Exchange, an interstellar crime syndicate rivaling the Hutt-controlled cartels. Vulkar thugs even attempted to extort Exchange operatives, prompting Canderous Ordo, a Mandalorian mercenary hired by Exchange boss Davik Kang, to keep them in line. Some Vulkar members also sought salvage from downed Republic escape pods from the Endar Spire, which had crashed in Taris's Undercity. This was done despite Kang wanting first access to the pods. This led to the Vulkars capturing Bastila Shan, the Jedi Knight who had escaped the doomed warship before it was destroyed by Sith forces under Darth Malak.

The war raged on as the Sith conquered Taris, imposing a planet-wide quarantine and orbital blockade after the Endar Spire's destruction. Revan, the amnesiac former Dark Lord of the Sith whose memory had been altered by the Council of the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, was aboard the vessel as part of the Jedi Order's plan to find and destroy the Star Forge, the source of the Sith's war materials. He and Carth Onasi escaped the stricken warship in a pod that crashed in the Upper City. Revan was knocked unconscious upon impact. After waking from a three-day coma, he and Onasi searched for other escape pods, including one containing Shan. Trapped on Taris, they hoped to find a way off-world and back to the Republic by locating Shan. Onasi had scouted the area while Revan was comatose, learning that pods had landed in the Undercity. This was confirmed by Kebla Yurt, owner of the Equipment Emporium, and Zelka Forn, a doctor. The Bek–Vulkar conflict was so widespread that Upper City residents complained about it, some hoping Malak's Sith forces would restore order in the Lower City. Meanwhile, the Vulkars, not content with fighting the Beks and the Exchange, began attacking Sith troopers in the Lower and Undercity.

The Sith preferred to remain in the Upper City, where they controlled the population. When Revan and Onasi, disguised as Sith troopers, entered the Lower City to find Shan, they encountered gang violence everywhere. At Javyar's Cantina, they learned about the conflict's origins from Mission Vao, a Twi'lek street urchin and friend of the Beks, along with her Wookiee companion Zaalbar. She directed them to the Hidden Bek Base. The lookout there informed them of the Beks' alertness, but allowed them to pass after Revan pledged his support. Meeting with Thek, guarded by the suspicious Zaerdra, they learned that Shan was a prisoner of the Black Vulkars, who intended to offer her as a prize in the Tarisian Season Opener, a major swoop race. The gang sponsoring the winner would gain recruits from smaller groups across the city.

Sensing Revan's potential, Thek offered him and Onasi a deal: in exchange for Sith trooper armor that they had acquired, Thek would give them access to the Undercity, allowing them to infiltrate the Black Vulkar Base and retrieve a stolen prototype accelerator. After the accelerator was returned, Thek would sponsor Revan in the race, allowing him to win Shan's freedom. To infiltrate the Vulkars' headquarters, Thek recommended Vao's services. Zaerdra objected, arguing that the fourteen-year-old Twi'lek was not the right guide and that Revan might be a Sith spy. Thek disagreed, citing Vao's knowledge of the Undercity and the sewer network. Revan agreed and set out to find Vao and her companion.

The pair ventured into the Undercity to find Vao. Reaching the dark surface of Taris, they navigated through a village of Outcasts, helping where they could, before encountering Vao outside the village gate. Seeking help in rescuing Zaalbar, who had been captured by Gamorrean slavers, she offered to get them inside the Vulkars' base. After freeing Zaalbar, Vao directed them to a secret rear entrance, the access codes for which she had stolen from a drunken Vulkar. Deeper in the sewers, the party killed a rancor and two Nikto guards. With the path clear, they entered the base.

After clearing the main level of the base, which was full of Vulkar gang members and guard droids, the team infiltrated the swoop garage, where the accelerator was stored. They encountered Kandon Ark, one of Brejik's lieutenants, who tried to recruit Revan into the Vulkar gang, noticing he was not wearing Hidden Bek colors. When Revan refused, a firefight broke out, killing Ark, his aide, and three Vulkar guards. With the accelerator, the party fought their way back out of the base, returning to the Hidden Beks and Thek.

Thek upheld his agreement, sponsoring Revan to ride for the Beks in the Season Opener. However, the accelerator was unstable. Thek admitted that even if the prototype blew and killed Revan, another of his riders could still win. The next day, with the accelerator installed, Revan competed and won the race, posting times that surpassed those of seasoned racers. Brejik, enraged, accused the Beks of cheating and refused to award the prize. Shan, however, used the Force to free herself from the neural disruptor, killed her guard, and confronted Brejik. Brejik ordered his gang to kill Revan, Shan, and the Beks. In the ensuing melee, the Vulkars, including Redros and Brejik, were killed.

The war's resolution brought Revan fame among the planet's fringe elements. His victory in the race and performance in the firefight caught the attention of Ordo, whom Revan had met before. The Mandalorian offered Revan, Onasi, and Shan a deal: in exchange for breaking into the local Sith military base to obtain clearance codes to bypass the Sith fleet, he would get them inside Davik Kang's estate. From there, they could steal Kang's ship, the Dynamic-class freighter Ebon Hawk, and break the blockade. After acquiring the launch codes, Ordo took the party to meet Kang, ostensibly to recruit Revan into the Exchange. After the meeting, the party infiltrated the mansion's hangar.

Darth Malak, frustrated with the unsuccessful hunt for Shan, ordered Admiral Saul Karath to prepare for an orbital bombardment of Taris to prevent her escape. The resulting deluge of turbolaser fire devastated the planet, wiping out almost the entire population and leaving few structures standing. Revan and his companions, who had been crucial to the war's resolution, barely escaped the world. Overcoming Kang and the bounty hunter Calo Nord as the Sith bombardment began, they boarded the Ebon Hawk, picked up the rest of Revan's companions, and fought their way through a patrol of Sith fighters before jumping to hyperspace and safety. This concluded the 20 year long war.

As a large and respected swoop gang on Taris, the Hidden Beks under Gadon Thek looked out for the less fortunate in the Lower City. Formed before the Mandalorian Wars, by 3,964 BBY the Beks were as respectable as outlaws could be on the ecumenopolis. During the Mandalorian Wars, the gang engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders alongside other resistance fighters. Despite their defeat by forces under Cassus Fett, key Beks survived, allowing the gang to re-emerge.

The gang was composed primarily of humans, Twi'leks, and Rodians, with Ithorians and Aqualish also included. Both males and females were members and riders. Notable individuals included Thek, his bodyguard Zaerdra, and riders Anglu and Phirk. While not official members, Mission Vao and Zaalbar were often seen in their enclave and were friendly with the leadership. Mission's brother, Griff, was also a member before leaving Taris. Unlike the Vulkars, the Hidden Beks did not practice slavery, so all members were there voluntarily.

The Hidden Beks were aided at the end of the gang war by three representatives of the Galactic Republic: Carth Onasi, a member of the Republic Navy, Bastila Shan, a Padawan of the Jedi Order, and Revan, the former Jedi–turned–Dark Lord of the Sith who had been kidnapped and had his memories erased by the Jedi. Although their arrival on Taris was coincidental, their assistance allowed the Beks to win the conflict. Onasi and Revan, after crashing on the planet, made it their mission to rescue Shan, whose abilities were vital to the Republic war effort, and their efforts aligned with cooperation with the Beks instead of the Vulkars.

Similar to the Hidden Beks, the Black Vulkars stood out as one of the more well-known gangs of swoop bike riders haunting the depths of Taris. Before the Mandalorian Wars, under Benno's leadership, the Vulkars were not known for their aggression, as their leader did not want to draw unwanted attention to his organization. Marn Hierogryph exploited this characteristic when he persuaded three Vulkar thugs to abandon their attempt to collect the reward for capturing the Republic fugitive Zayne Carrick. Some years later, the Vulkar leadership was overthrown when Brejik betrayed the Beks to pursue his personal revenge against his former mentor, Thek. This change in leadership brought about a change in policy, with the Vulkars becoming far more violent and uncontrollable, even to the point of openly challenging the established criminal hierarchy on Taris.

While Brejik was a human, the Vulkar gang, by the time of the Jedi Civil War, also included Nikto, like the skilled swoop racer Redros, and Rodians, such as Doba, also a racer. Twi'leks, including Kandon Ark and his partner, were members of the gang, as were individuals from other species, such as the Zabrak Frazznik and Wargo, who was a Drovian. Many of the older Vulkars, those who had been members before Brejik's takeover, were demoted to lower-level positions and often assigned humiliating tasks. Those who disagreed with the new leader's policy of warring with the Beks were often threatened with harsh punishments; those who tried to leave the gang were often executed as "traitors." Unlike the Beks, the Vulkars engaged in slavery, either by employing slaves within their base or selling debtors into forced servitude; one such victim was Ada. Their attempt to sell the Jedi Bastila Shan, whom they mistakenly believed to be a Republic officer, into slavery ultimately led to the gang's downfall.

The Bek–Vulkar gang conflict unfolds alongside Revan's and Carth Onasi's quest to find Bastila Shan in the second set of levels and quests in the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Numerous in-game dialogues, cinematic sequences, and interactions with various inhabitants of Taris's Upper City and the slums in the Lower City serve to illustrate the scope of the conflict. The player, controlling Revan, becomes the central figure in resolving the war.

If the player chooses to follow the dark side path throughout the game, they have the option to be recruited by the Black Vulkars, an offer made by Kandon Ark during Revan's attempt to steal the prototype accelerator from their base. The player will then be tasked with assassinating Gadon Thek and eliminating the Hidden Bek base before participating in the Season Opener race for the Vulkars. However, despite this, Brejik will still refuse to release Bastila, leading to an alternate version of the subsequent battle, resulting in neither side winning the war.