Shortly after his escape from the Empirical, Galen Marek, the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, undertook a quest to The Undertow located on the planet of Nar Shaddaa during 2 BBY. This particular quest, centered around locating Rahm Kota, culminated in a confrontation involving the Force-user, bounty hunters allied with the Empire within the tavern, and the military forces of the Galactic Empire. Prior to Starkiller's arrival on Nar Shaddaa, his master tasked him with assembling an army to challenge the Empire's dominance over the galaxy. Once Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith publicly known as Emperor Palpatine, was sufficiently preoccupied with the rebellion, Vader assured Starkiller of their joint plan to assassinate Sidious and subsequently seize control of the Empire.
Soon after Starkiller commenced his endeavor, he resolved to seek out an ally capable of furnishing him with the necessary contacts and resources to establish a rebel and dissident army. He ultimately selected General Rahm Kota, a fugitive Jedi whom Starkiller had seriously wounded on a TIE Fighter Construction Facility positioned above Nar Shaddaa. Upon tracing the Jedi Master to the Undertow, Starkiller discovered that Kota had been rendered blind; his eyes were burned by his own lightsaber during their duel with Starkiller above Nar Shaddaa.
While Starkiller was attempting to persuade the inebriated Jedi to once again oppose the Empire, a contingent of Imperials entered the cantina and identified their target—Rahm Kota. Consequently, Starkiller was compelled to engage Imperial soldiers throughout the cantina; he was also obligated to safeguard Kota, particularly given the general's drunken and despondent mental state. Despite Starkiller's triumph over the Imperial garrison, which included a member of the Emperor's Shadow Guard, Kota maintained that resistance against the Empire and its "infinite" army was a futile undertaking. Nevertheless, Starkiller still prevailed upon Kota to provide the contacts he required to initiate a galaxy-spanning rebellion.
Starkiller's quest to locate Rahm Kota led him across the galaxy, starting from the Jedi's last known location on Nar Shaddaa and extending to the ancient Sith world of Ziost. From there, he tracked Kota back to Nar Shaddaa. As a consequence of his defeat and blinding at the hands of Starkiller, Kota abandoned his struggle against the Galactic Empire and resorted to alcoholism to numb his disillusioned state of mind. Resolving to investigate the last place he had seen Kota, Marek subsequently arrived at the Undertow on Nar Shaddaa.
Upon entering the cantina, Marek approached the Whiphid bartender of the Undertow, who initially mistook him for another patron. Marek then inquired about the whereabouts of Rahm Kota, asking if he knew of his location. The bartender denied possessing any knowledge of him. Marek eventually attempted to employ a Mind trick on the bartender, but he continued to deny any knowledge. Driven to his breaking point, Marek then telekinetically strangled him and demanded to know his location. Ultimately, the bartender divulged that Kota was located a short distance from the Undertow, assuming he wasn't already "dead in a gutter." The bartender then alerted the patrons, all of whom were bounty hunters, that Marek was likely a Jedi and that they should apprehend him to collect a bounty. Marek was then compelled to fight the patrons within the bar while attempting to locate Rahm Kota.
Upon discovering the former Jedi General, Kota was in a semi-conscious state and heavily intoxicated. Consequently, he was uncooperative and insisted on being left alone.
Starkiller, who was posing as a Jedi at the time, attempted to reason with the disheveled general, but another group of bounty hunters arrived, forcing Marek to defend Kota against their assault. To compound matters, just as he was preparing to depart, Imperial Navy commandos and EVO troopers, who had presumably been informed of both Marek and Kota's presence at the cantina, were waiting just outside the door, thus compelling Marek to fight his way through them as he returned to the entrance.
Starkiller then reached the entrance, calling out Kota's name, only to be unexpectedly telekinetically shoved back by an Emperor's Shadow Guard, who appeared to be accompanied by four EVO troopers. After eliminating his accompanying troops, Marek then engaged in a duel with the Shadow Guard. Shortly thereafter, however, the Shadow Guard revealed a hidden advantage: Shadow Troopers who promptly decloaked to assist the Shadow Guard in subduing Marek. Despite a challenging battle, Marek ultimately succeeded in defeating the Shadow Guard by employing a Force Repulse when the latter attempted to use Force Grip, sending the Shadow Guard hurtling out of the tavern.
Kota, who had observed the fight from behind the bar, remained unimpressed by Starkiller's victory; his defeat on Nar Shaddaa had instilled in him a pessimistic outlook on the galaxy. Consequently, he asserted that achieving victory was ultimately impossible due to the "infinite army" that enforced Palpatine's Empire. However, after Starkiller appealed to his warrior's sense of honor, Kota agreed to provide partial assistance to the apprentice's cause. He confided in Starkiller that he had a contact within the Imperial Senate who could benefit from the assistance of a Force-sensitive warrior, particularly one eager to fight the Empire. Shortly after being extracted by the Rogue Shadow, Starkiller felt drawn to the Jedi Temple, prompting him to return to Coruscant for a third time.
This mission is absent from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, where the search for Kota instead occurs on Cloud City within a cantina called the Vapor Room and involves a Shadow Guard (four times as many in the novelization), numerous stormtroopers, and ugnaughts to combat. Despite this discrepancy, the mission was nonetheless implied to have occurred offscreen in that version, as Marek mentions to Kota that he tracked him down "from Nar Shaddaa to Ziost."