Shouldn't this be a Powerful Dark side user? Its not like Sith is some kind of drug you snort.
Princess of Mandalore (Youjo Senki/Star Wars)
- Thread starter L4oftheWEST
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- star wars youjo senki
Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
Palpatine misunderstanding the vision. That's not the future! That's the past.
Or maybe it is the future, with the war going to go out of control until everyone is reduced to fighting with slugthrowers again.
TimEd
Meteor maker
Is Amdedda aware of Sidious' existence?
Yes. He's part of his inner circle and effectively his right-hand man in the political circles. if he's the politician I'm thinking of.
So palps has seen a peek at the new player, and misinterpreted it as the rise of a new Sith. We know if Tanya starts tapping into the same power well, she'd immediately treat it in a similar manner to that super orb.
Also, I give decent odds that the visions that make it look like the plan on track is but part of the story. A schism that forms a separate order in the neutrality league per chance?
Also, I give decent odds that the visions that make it look like the plan on track is but part of the story. A schism that forms a separate order in the neutrality league per chance?
noted
fixed in master doc
fixed in the master doc
ah a vision with manny possible out comes... i pulled that off
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
I tweaked it so that Palp think its the future
L4 commissioned ark work, a_yoshikage, Keldabe kiss chapter 18, Plus ark work from Sky66- Commission- Artist: J-likes-to-draw, chapter 17,18,20,22
![[IMG]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1039251990754115674/1081415159974744074/Keldabe_kiss.jpg?width=419&height=552 "[IMG]")
and the third commissioned project from a_yoshikage, something that Sky teased me with the possibility of seeing all way back after chapter 18 but was taken away by Morson *shakes fist cartoonishly* Fine I will do it myself
with that being said this art fire turned out damn good and I will continue to be working on that a_yoshikage in the future though not sure how yet, maybe proper SFW Mando Bunny girls? who knows only time will tell.. and if you want to see things like this when they are completed feel free to join the discord server! Join the L4 News Network Discord Server!
Sky66- Commission- Artist: J-likes-to-draw
Chapter 17
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Chapter 22
Chapter 40
Chapter 40
716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 7
Mandalore, Sundari Palace
Tanya Kryze
I knew that my meddling in Republic politics wouldn't bode well for me in the short-term. But I had no idea it would get this bad when I set off on my little adventure. However, I did anticipate that I would be summoned to Mandalore to explain my actions to Aunt Satine.
The most straightforward way that I knew how to explain my situation is with a report. I made sure to document everything in the most understandable way possible. The report outlined the general situation as I understood it, including details of what I had observed and what diplomatic talks I had been involved in. However, I kept several secrets out of the report, such as White Silver's identity. It is likely that this report would become public record, so best to keep secret information from being written down.
After arriving in the system and submitting my report to Aunt Satine, I hoped we would begin high-level discussions on strategy for Mandalore. As much as I wanted a day to unwind, with the galaxy at war, now is not the time to relax. Once my ship landed back home on Sundari, I was not surprised to receive a notification once my vambrace reconnected with the local comm network. The urgent message came from Captain Rau and it informed me that I have been summoned to Aunt Satine's office, one of the most highly secured rooms in the entire Palace, which meant she wanted to discuss everything.
Interestingly enough, when I arrived at the Palace, I noticed that Captain Rau was not present to greet me. In fact, there were no signs of any guards anywhere nearby. Not even Obyrd or Briyuk, the guards who are usually in front of her doors at the end of the hallway, are visible. Aunt Satine only dismissed the guards and attendants when she was being very careful. It's very likely that she wanted to extract every detail she could from me about what had happened and I couldn't exactly say no this time.
Taking a deep breath, I paused at the door to make sure I had everything straight in my head. I expected this would be a rather long conversation, but I had to hope that we could quickly move on to what could be done for Mandalore and our people instead of my mistakes. The situation is not an irredeemable disaster. There are ways we could profit off the war, even if we didn't want to participate. Hopefully, this conversation would be the first step in making sure that Mandalore came through this crisis without too much damage.
I knocked on the door and waited for a call to enter. I brushed at my dress to make sure I was in perfect form as I waited for a response.
Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. After only a minute or two, I heard Aunt Satine's voice call out, "Come in, Tanya." Once I heard her reply, I put my hand on the scanner next to the door. After it confirmed my identity, the Beskar-lined door opened for me.
As I entered the old office, one that I had visited numerous times in the past, I saw Aunt Satine sitting at her desk in front of the large window that overlooked parts of Sundari. Her hands were folded in front of her on the desk while looking at me with a slightly severe expression, suggesting that this would not be a light conversation.
"Tanya, take a seat." she said, gesturing towards the chair across from her, "Let's discuss what had happened in your report."
I nodded and confidently crossed the finely decorated office to take the seat indicated. "Where should I begin, Duchess Satine?"
Aunt Satine looked at me calmly before saying, "How about the fact that you got into a fight with the former leader of a terrorist organization?"
I was expecting this question. "I was not aware at the outset that the bounty hunter hired to kill Padme was also involved with political terrorists."
For some reason, that defense only earned me narrowed eyes from Aunt Satine, so I continued, "Senator Amidala represents one of the few parties trying to prevent a war from breaking out in the galaxy. Additionally, I was aware that the additional security Senator Amidala had acquired were insufficient and vulnerable to Mandalorian tactics. I thought it was in Mandalore's best interest for Senator Amidala's security to be ensured by Mandalore, given the bounty hunter's tactics would bring extra scrutiny to us in any outcome. How it all went down might not have been optimal, but I think it is preferable to the alternative of Mandalore being partially blamed for Senator Amidala's death." Hopefully matters were well and truly explained now.
"You got in a fist fight with the former Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians." Aunt Satine pointed out again. "We are lucky that no one recognized you in your new set of armor. Your fight was caught on holovid, according to my contacts it caused quite the local stir on Coruscant. A fight between Mandalorians on Coruscant over the city skyline."
My left eye twitched at Aunt Satine's comment. "Did they capture images of the Mandalorian Royal Guard?" I managed to keep my voice level and body relaxed, somehow. I hadn't heard of the holovid recording, but the last few weeks had been rather hectic.
Aunt Satine stared at me for a moment, before shaking her head in answer. "No, thankfully the camera only picked up the initial few minutes of the fight. The shuttle's arrival blocked the view from the camera, so there's no evidence that it was you or anything that could be traced back to Mandalore's government."
I slumped and let out a sigh of relief, "Good, they didn't catch us returning then." Although, as I thought about it, I realized that there was potential for my armor to be recognized now. I had worn it, not only on Coruscant, but also on Geonosis. Who's to say if any of the mercenaries Vai had brought camera attachments on their gear. Perhaps I should look into having my armor altered in some way to make it different from the one on Coruscant, but if people are able to put two and two together… That could be an issue.
"Let us return to the topic of this former Mand'alor." Aunt Satine said, dryly.
"Once I figured out the identity of the bounty hunter, I was able to send him a message and arranged a meeting. When I met the bounty hunter, Jango Fett, I convinced him to abandon his mission and report back here. Unfortunately, this had the exact opposite effect as my intentions. I thought clearing up who was responsible for the assassination attempt would calm tensions and this would go through the courts." Instead, the report appears to have triggered the war early.
"Yes." Aunt Satine said, nodding at my summary, "That certainly sounds like something you would think. Now how about the part where you ended up on the first battlefront of this war?"
"An unintentional situation. My ship and my Royal Guards were commandeered by the local Hutt while I was meeting with Jango Fett on Tatooine. Apparently they were in contact with Count Dooku, who strong-armed me into visiting Geonosis as a way of resolving the situation with the Hutts. That was why I was on Geonosis, to meet with Count Dooku, and then it was invaded by the army of the Republic." An army that had been kept secret from everyone when I left Coruscant. Padme had been negotiating the Military Creation Act when I left for Tatooine, I still wasn't sure how much I had missed while out in the Outer Rim.
"So just an unlucky coincidence." Satine said, although there was a new brittleness to her voice.
"I'm afraid so," I said with a shrug, "though I believe that my presence did help prevent the situation from turning out even worse than it could have."
"And why is that?" Satine asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"I had a backup plan in case the situation is too much to handle." Start with the successes and don't highlight the failures. "In case of emergency, I had Vai standing by as White Silver with a large force of volunteers to rescue me."
"I was wondering when we were going to get to that situation." Satine said, interrupting me. "Mind explaining to me why White Silver had to come rescue you?"
"It seemed the most reasonable idea at the time, since White Silver exists to appeal to the New Mandalorians. Having them come out and support a representative and princess of Mandalore during her time of need would be useful for affirming that she isn't some rogue Mand'alor out for conquest."
"That sounds like the long-term goal. What was the short-term goal?" Satine asked, still seeming a little bit annoyed.
"If I got myself in trouble that I can't get out of, I figured a small company of Mandalorians could rescue me. By the way, that reminds me, I have brought the family Beskad back to Mandalore now that its ownership has been transferred in such a way that will not raise any eyebrows."
Satine sighed. "I suppose Bo was right after all." Shaking her head she said, "I'll have it be put on display in court later. So to summarize, your part in this was that you were trying to help protect a friend and things just kept getting out of control. That's your thoughts on this situation?"
"Yes," I agreed with her summary of events, it was even true. "I couldn't stand by and do nothing - Padme would be injured or worse! It was just a series of unfortunate events that put me at the center of a problem that was going to fester no matter what."
Letting out another sigh, this one even more exasperated than the last. Finally, Satine smiled at the last rush of words. "Alright then, at least you did this to help a friend and you were trying to prevent the war. I approve of the motive, if not the means, but we have to talk about the situation now as it is. How does this political quagmire that's been created in the Southern Rim affect us?"
Finally, I took a breath before laying it out as I saw it, "I'm going to need to speak to Jango Fett again at some point to try and understand exactly what he was working on before his bounty hunting job on Padme's life. It seems that my assumptions on what's going to happen are somewhat off by a couple of years."
By now, Satine was frowning again at my explanation, but I kept going. "The conflict is inevitable now. I've been laboring under the assumption that we would have time to prepare, that there would be some spark in the future that led to the war. The Republic had no military, the Separatists were still talking to us, mostly anyway. The war came early because the Republic had a secret army apparently funded by a Jedi and they invaded Geonosis to rescue one of their own, Kenobi to be exact."
"Is Obi-Wan alright?" That is an odd one to prioritize, before the rest of my statement seemed to catch up to her. "The Jedi created an army for the Republic!?" Satine gasped, her face showing shocked horror.
"Yes, Jedi Kenobi is alright, no permanent injuries. And yes the Jedi did make an army, apparently this army is made up of clones. Clones of Jango Fett, some that are trained by Mandalorian warriors and exposed to parts of Mandalorian culture. Millions of them."
"That... is not good." Satine breathed. "If this army was trained in the Old Mandalorian ways, it won't help in our efforts to try and improve the perspective of people on what Mandalore is."
"My thoughts exactly." I nodded, "In the short term, many people who don't often meet Mandalorians will form some ideas about our culture from their encounters with the Fett clones. In the long term, any survivors of this Clone Army after the war might feel a sense of familiarity with Mandalore, which may be both good and bad. It's good because we can use the extra hands to rebuild Mandalore, but bad because anyone who comes here will bring their own baggage. Perhaps they were involved in something unconscionable outside the sector and are a war criminal. We need to be vigilant and ensure we don't allow in the kind of people who will tarnish Mandalore's reputation."
"You're talking about immigration control." Satine said.
"Yes, although immigration control is not quite right, it will do as a start." I said with a nod.
"How about the war itself? What are your thoughts on the matter?" She asked and I bobbed my head, as this was the most complex topic.
After taking a deep breath, I said, "This war was inevitable the moment the CIS began withdrawing from the Republic. As I mentioned, I thought it would take a couple of years, but it's already here, so we have to deal with it. We needed to stay out of this war. Mandalore has suffered enough in the last century, we have little to gain from being involved. However, both sides and even third parties will try to drag us into it. I haven't seen the frontier of the battlefields yet, but since Count Dooku's home planet is on the main galactic hyperspace lane, next to ours. Mandalore is a frontier now, we're on the border between the Republic and this new nation trying to break away from it.
The best path for us is to declare total neutrality and announce that we want nothing to do with this war. We will not support either side, but we will continue to trade normally with both sides and find as many allies as possible to do the same. It's the same goal as I've already begun work on over the years I've been a representative, so I've already made some progress. Now that the war has gone hot, it shouldn't be too hard to find allies that are willing to work with us."
"Allies would be welcome." Satine nodded approvingly.
"There are some problems, though, facing our sector and our search for neutrality. Of the most urgent is the Workers' Council of Anteevy, they attempted to assassinate or kidnap me on Tatooine. I'm honestly not sure which."
"They what?" Satine said in the coldest inflection I have ever heard out of her at this remark. I held back a flinch and paused in my story.
After giving Satine a moment to catch her breath, I nodded in confirmation. "Apparently they thought they could capture me and use me as some sort of bargaining chip of some kind. Knowing them, it was in a bid to take control over the entire Mandalorian sector."
Aunt Satine closed her eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling, in a technique that was very reminiscent of some of the training I had observed the younglings perform at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She took a few deep breaths and opened her eyes, clearly struggling to maintain her composure. "This is deeply troubling," she said softly. "We must find a peaceful resolution to this. I will bring this matter up to the courts and try to seek a civilized solution."
I shook my head in disagreement. "I'm afraid bringing it up to the courts is no longer an option as I believe the Workers' Council of Anteevy is a member of the CIS now. They deployed the same model B1 battle droids that the Trade Federation fields, with slight modifications."
"So a puppet government is already in the hands of the CIS?" Satine asked in the same soft tone as she palmed her face with her left hand. I nodded in confirmation. "And they are waiting for an opportunity to take over the sector. Do you think the CIS will really recognize this puppet government as the legitimate government of Mandalore?"
"I doubt it. The CIS is trying to cast themselves as the legitimate and superior alternative government system to the Republic. Creating false puppet governments that lack authority and misleading people is harmful to CIS's interests. Especially right now, when they are trying to gather allies. That being said, I would not be surprised if the Workers' Council continues its own efforts to gain control of the Mandalorian sector. We will likely have to deal with them agitating existing factional divisions and interfering in our government in several ways. They may try messing with elections, causing riots, or any number of things to try to gain power and make themselves seem like an official government. After they have created enough popular support, then Anteevy will use that momentum to call for the CIS to liberate the sector."
"Prime Minister Almec has informed me that the government is reviewing recent staffing decisions. We're going to have to keep our eyes open for infiltrations. The Mandalorian Self-Defense Forces have instructions to begin stockpiling reserves. They will be ready to mobilize if Anteevy or the CIS force the issue."
I nodded, "I hate that we're going to have to use that force, but they won't hesitate to use violence to try and destroy what we've been building. We will need to be prepared."
War is an ultimately irrational decision, a lose-lose scenario that makes both sides poorer. However, it was also necessary, both to protect the lives and property of people from a tyrannical government or even worse, a communist government. I'm still puzzled about how the latest iteration of the Workers' Council of Anteevy came into existence. Right now, I suspect outside interference from Being X, but I can't rule out any possibility since the "Force" is also a real thing. At any rate, someone who is familiar with Marxist-Leninist terminology seems to be manipulating events. Stranger still, another distantly settled world, Shogun, also exists. Shogun was a hereditary title I was familiar with from my first life. More puzzling, Shogun, the planet was named and colonized by Mandalorians in the distant past. How many Japanese have been isekai'd into this universe? If I have been isekai'd to this universe then it's likely that someone on Anteevy could have been a communist that had also been isekai'd here.
I worked my way through those thoughts and returned my attention to the room. Aunt Satine was similarly lost in thoughts, so shifted slightly in my chair and folded my hands to remind her I was still in the room. "Anyway, I think that's the situation as it stands. There's going to be a war, and we're going to be in the middle of it. There are ways we can avoid being drawn into the conflict, such as a declaration of neutrality. Additionally, we have to keep our eyes on any factions that take advantage of the situation or ally with the CIS."
Satine thought for another long moment before sighing, "Alright." I nodded, then she got up from her chair and moved around the desk before leaning down to give me a hug. "I'm just glad you're safe," she whispered to my side. "However, in the future, can you not get yourself in a situation this dangerous? I know you were helping a friend, but perhaps leaving it to the official authorities would have been better."
"The Senatorial Guard are corrupt." I complained as Satine kept hugging me and didn't let go. I gave a helpless shrug, not fighting the continued hug, before giving up, "But in the future I will try."
"Well, you said you'll try." Satine said, letting me go with a laugh before moving back towards the desk.
"Now we have to discuss how we're going to officially make our statement of neutrality, do you have some ideas on this matter?"
"A few." I said, preparing another report that I had yet to write down in my head.
Mandalore, Sundari Mandalorian Hospital
Jango Fett
'This ain't exactly my usual stomping ground.' I thought as I surveyed the sterile halls of the mental hospital. Can't say I've had much reason to visit places like this before. People don't usually put bounties on the mentally unstable. It's not like they get sent to prisons. These places are reserved for the 'broken,' the ones that society tries to fix but often never can.
Today is the day I'd come face-to-face with my long-lost sister again after decades apart. I don't know how I feel about it yet. Part of me still wondered if this was all some sort of elaborate con. If it was, Kryze and I were going to have some words as well as a few blaster bolts when I see her again.
I already gave my statement on who hired me for the job, and in return I received an official pardon for all my crimes on Mandalore and Coruscant. They even sent over a nice little document as proof. I could probably go back to bounty hunting openly without much issue. But there was something odd about that document that concerned me. Nowhere did it list Zam's death as one of the crimes that I was pardoned of. There was an assault with a deadly weapon, which is probably from my fight with the Princess, but no death. It could mean that my dart may have missed something as vital as her neck and landed somewhere else or Zam was dead and I could be arrested the second I step foot on Coruscant, one of the two.
That dart is full of toxins that should kill any sentient instantly. But if the blood flow wasn't good or a Jedi interfered, it's possible that Zam survived. Finding out how she managed to survive would be a hell of a thing and the last thing I want to do is find out, as she most likely won't be happy about the whole situation. She's probably pissed at having been poisoned but faking her death is another way she could get out of her debts.
Granted, this was just conjecture. It's very possible that Zam is dead and that I'm not listed as her killer in official police reports for whatever reason. If that's the case, I won't be stirring up any trouble or going back to Coruscant just to be safe. As far as I'm concerned, that holopic clears me of all charges on Coruscant from the moment I first set foot there to the moment I signed Kryze's contract. So, if anyone asks, I'm in the clear.
Local reporting throughout most of the Hutt sector also indicated that they believe she is dead. Old contacts of mine have told me the same thing, that she died on Coruscant. So, perhaps there was nothing to worry about.
I shook my head and glanced around the meeting area over to Boba, who was staring out the window while we waited for my sister to arrive. The hospital we were in was on the outskirts of Sundari, near the capital city's dome. I had to admit, it wasn't a bad place. There were a lot of windows, no bars, and plenty of light. From what I could tell, the people were treated more like long-term residents than prisoners. Which makes sense, as I doubt the bleeding hearts would allow any inhumane facility that would offend their delicate sensibilities in their capital.
I may not have visited a mental hospital before, but I'd heard stories on what goes on in them. Not every world had the resources or the mercy to provide for their less-than-baseline populations. As I looked over the fancy facility, the resources on display, the string of kept promises, so far... I felt an unfamiliar emotion. Hope.
I cringed at myself in embarrassment. I am the deadliest Mandalorian in the galaxy and here I am going soft like a New Mandalorian the moment things go my way. While Jasper taught me that family is important, I do have a reputation to maintain. Once I finished that thought, the door opened to reveal a doctor and a woman. The blonde woman, who I was told was my sister, looked like she was struggling to hold herself together. Her eyes were downcast, and she seemed to be avoiding any eye contact, her eyes looking down at the ground.
I stood up to get a better look at her, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disbelief. It was hard to imagine this was the same girl I remembered from so long ago. Sure, the hair was the same, but everything else about her seemed foreign. I struggled to match my last memory of my tough as nails sister with this broken woman in front of me.
But then again, she knew my story. She knew everything that had happened between us that no one else should have known. I could only think of one person who might have known and that was Jaster Mereel. But he was long gone and I was sure he wouldn't have revealed my life story to anyone.
I stepped forward towards her, not liking to take things on faith, but there was no other way. "Arla?" I said, my voice gruff. Her eyes jumped up towards me, full of sorrow and hate. It was hard to see the sister I once knew, but as our eyes locked for a brief moment, I saw her.
"It's you, Jango." she said, taking a halting step towards me before stopping and looking at Boba with confusion. "Has my madness progressed further than I thought? It appears there are two Jango's in this room."
I smirked, knowing that only someone who knew me when I was a kid would recognize Boba as an exact likeness of me. Hearing her speak in the old Concord Dawn accent was also reassuring.
"Your madness hasn't progressed further, sister," I replied, still gruff. "Boba, come here and meet your aunt."
Arla blinked before realization dawned on her. "Your son? He looks exactly like you."
I smiled at that before saying, "It's a long story, but I'll gladly tell it to you, sister."
Concord Dawn, Bralir Chaavla
Spar
In a rush, I shot up from my bed covers, heart racing. That damned memory again, the last battle of the True Mandalorians. It wasn't a dream, it was a curse. One that did not belong to me.
A nightmare that Jango carried with him for most of his life and now it haunted me. The reason behind why I inherited his memories is a mystery, but clearly the Kaminoans missed a lot of things with me. I didn't need more confirmation of aberration, though, the fact that I've been able to escape the coming war is solid evidence that I'm not a normal clone.
Hell, I used to borrow Jango's identity, after he'd helped me escape. Jango didn't trust any of the clones, it was the Cuy'val Dar, the hundred experts from across the Galaxy who trained us. Only Mij Gilamar, one of the doctors among the Cuy'val Dar, had realized and understood what was happening to me, even before I had understood. He had explained matters to Jango, which is how I escaped aboard the Slave I. However, even then, we didn't trust one another. It was only after Jango realized that I wasn't going to expose the cloning operation, did we understand each other.
Now I've been given a chance to form my own life out in the galaxy and so far I had a good life. We even had a long-distance academic debate a few years back, the topic had been those new Silver Codices.
I'm still not sure if I even agree with their new version of the Supercommando Codex. To be more exact, I wasn't sure about their seeming ability to ignore the thousands of years of bloodshed by the Jedi. The revisionist history in the new codex is troubling because I knew that the Jedi were planning to use Mandalorian slaves to fight their wars.
Personally, I suspected my disquiet about Mandalore and the Jedi are driving these nightmares back to the forefront. There is a war coming and my brothers were going to be used as cannon fodder for it. They would walk to their deaths with a smile because the Jedi told them to.
It's disgusting. The Republic and the Jedi are lauded as heroes for their actions, despite the fact they were willing to do such naturally evil things. To create life only to use it to kill? What kind of monstrous civilization would do that? The Republic evidently, the greatest monster of them all. Unlike how the past Mandalorians had tried to slay it and failed, I will succeed and slay it in their name.
I extracted myself from my bunk and moved over to the kitchen. I walked to the insta-caf machine and started brewing a cup to drink. Later today I'm going to the meeting hall in the local township. There will be a large forum that is going to discuss what Concord Dawn would do about the current war. I planned to make my intentions very clear there. I will raise a company of Mandalorians to fight for the Separatists. We would fight the Republic and defeat it, to free Mandalore from the clutches of its control. And I am not afraid to use my connections to the local hero, Jango Fett to do it.
Nothing too extreme though, I would claim that I was just a member of Clan Fett, a distant cousin, who served with him during his time as the Mand'alor. One of the few survivors of the True Mandalorians.
It wasn't exactly true, but if Jango Fett caught wind of it he'd probably get a good laugh out of it. Claiming to be a distant cousin when I am his clone is something that I was sure he'd laugh at. I could have been bolder, claiming I was his bastard son, but then Jango would have dropped everything and come directly for me. Jango would never let someone take over his mantle while he was still alive. It's what I would do if the situation was reversed.
I couldn't help but be hesitant about my plans to declare myself the Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians, though. Would Jango Fett come for me over that? On one hand, he had given up the title when he became a bounty hunter. On the other hand, Jango had given up on the Mandalorian sector entirely, so theoretically he should have no claim to the title. But theory and practice differ on the battlefield. I, too, would have complicated feelings when someone succeeds me and takes on the title of Mand'alor for the True Mandalorians from me.
Hopefully, Jango would not take it too hard.
I grabbed the now ready insta-caf drink and started sipping gently on it. I may not agree with the Silver Mandalorians opinion of the Jedi, but I had to admit they had done good work in improving the sector as well as having great taste in caf.
One of the ships that came through here to trade, brought a whole stockpile of stuff. They had purchased it outside the sector and it quickly became a favorite among the locals that a trade deal is quickly hashed out for a monthly supply of the stuff.
Almost everyone in the entire planet is drinking it at this point, it was just that good and the local caf strains were not even close. The ship was from Mandal Logistics, which definitely seems to have some sort of link to the Silver Mandalorian. Especially when it's now operating in the Silver capital of Gargon.
The Silver Mand'alor is probably the biggest issue with my future plans. White Silver came after False Silver for declaring himself as the real White Silver. Would she also see my declaration for the True Mandalorians as a similar act? Or would it be my alignment with the CIS that would spark a conflict?
Only time would tell, but I had hope. I wouldn't seek out a contest with White Silver if they would leave me alone, but if there had to be a fight between Mand'alors though, so be it. Jango Fett defeated Tor Vizsla, the Mand'alor of the Death Watch. Should White Silver get in my way, I will defeat her.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Pre Vizsla
The war is here. However, instead of relishing the moment of triumph and anticipating my ascension to Mand'alor, I found myself grappling with unforeseen challenges, more than I had originally thought possible.
For one, there is the matter of Jango Fett. Not only is he still alive, but he is here, in Mandalore! Of course, the problem isn't that I held a grudge against the man for killing Tor Vizsla, the previous Death Watch leader and our former 'Secret Mandalore'. The exact opposite is the case, I had no great love for Tor as he had failed to become the undisputed Mand'alor after crushing the True Mandalorians. If Tor had not been slain by Jango Fett, he would have become my problem. I could have never become the 'Secret Mandalore' with Tor still around to dispute the position.
Tor's extremism had pushed away a lot of the factions that would have been natural allies to Death Watch. The Martial Traditionalists are a large portion of the Mandalorian population and clans still living in Mandalore, but even after all these years after Tor's death, his actions and reputation caused most of them to want nothing to do with Death Watch. Tor had caused a lot of bad blood between us and the Martial Traditionalists by being extremely brutal with members of the True Mandalorians. Overly brutal, most would say, and had instilled that attitude within much of the older members. His extreme methods were useful for winning a war as a psychological warfare tactic but not at times of peace as many view him as a sadistic beast, not as a leader that is worth following.
I could see the utility of the older Death Watch's mindset and methods, especially in the context of a fight for survival. However, I broke with it in one key way: Mandalore must stand united if it is to prosper. Justice, if it must be meted out to fellow Mandalorians, requires a fair trial not an individual being the judge, jury, and executioner. Anything less perpetuates a cycle of violence that makes for an unstable sector. Any killing of the people of Mandalore must have proper cause, so hunting down someone's family just for supporting their son who was in the True Mandalorians was something that I would take action against. We must focus our energy on those outside the Mandalorian sector, not tear our people apart in ancient rivalries and old blood feuds.
The reappearance of the Fetts and old blood feuds is what had me worried. Jango Fett had most likely been the cause of Tor Vizsla's death, but even he wasn't, no doubt the man carried a grudge against the Death Watch for killing his family. When Death Watch makes its public appearance, there would be trouble. Would he come for me, personally? This is further complicated by the fact that his sister, Arla Fett, was a former Death Watch member. She had apparently been sprung from whatever hole she's been kept in on Coruscant.
For a lesser leader, like Tor, their first instinct when old rivals resurfaced would be to reignite vengeance and resume ancient blood feuds. However, my methods are clearly superior. I had privately communicated to key Death Watch members that had been uninvolved with the Fett's, such as Bo-Katan, that I would not be defending any Death Watch members who had committed provable crimes against the True Mandalorians in the past. In handing them over for justice, I would only lose the corrupted and depraved elements among us. In fact, a public reveal would probably be heralded very differently if my new Death Watch membership were of unimpeachable records. Every crisis is an opportunity and this is an opportunity to finally shed Tor's influence from Death Watch.
Still, this was the most unfortunate missed opportunity in my entire career. Had I known Arla is alive and on Coruscant, I would have gone out of my way to have her rescued. It is a fairly simple propaganda win. Not only because she was a former member of Death Watch, brought back into the fold and rescued from an unjust imprisonment, but the simple fact that she is the sister of the last Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians. Arla's rescue might have enticed the remaining True Mandalorians to join my cause, at least some of them.
I have to applaud Representative Kryze, her actions had just secured quite a bit of favor among the True Mandalorians and Death Watch to the New Mandalorian side. Of course, she wouldn't know that. Both organizations, as far as she is aware, are defunct. However, I could read the mood from a few conversations with some of the clan heads among Death Watch. Arla Fett's rescue and return to Mandalore is the right outcome, no matter what faction, the person responsible for this outcome represents what it means to look after family. I imagine many of the True Mandalorians felt the same, though my contacts among them were limited to say the least.
The major propaganda failure in the whole situation was how Arla Fett could be used as a political pawn. Arla could have been a weapon - used to criticize and paint all of Death Watch as responsible for her abuse. It would have been so easy to change the narrative to imply that they were all in thralls of Tor Vizsla's doomed vision, unhinged monsters instead of fellow Mandalorians.
Such a possibility would make using the word Death Watch much harder, but there were possible ways of dealing with that. Perhaps a change of name is in order. It would be unfortunate to resort to renaming the organization, names carried a lot of power, power that could be used to draw in support.
Perhaps there would be a way to alter the name, maybe designate a lineage or link to the Death Watch, without the baggage of past failures and mistakes. Something like The Children of the Watch? Implying a connection to Death Watch but being a successor would be better than its predecessor in many ways, like being more tolerant of other Mandalorians. To replace the old with the new would probably help with my efforts to become Mand'alor. I'll give it more thought another time.
For the moment, I needed to dissuade Jango Fett from returning to politics, especially considering his strong influence among the remnants of the True Mandalorians. He is a formidable opponent and could easily rally the True Mandalorian supporters to his cause, especially if he decided to go after me.
However, Jango Fett was not the only issue that had sprung up. Many issues needed personal solutions and my private intervention to resolve correctly, such as this council meeting I am attending, and it is time-consuming.
As soon as Duchess Satine's semi-monthly council meeting was over, I would have to rush back to Concordia and start putting things into action. I frowned at the thought, I would need to rush to avoid being outpaced by events, as much as I hated rushing.
The next issue was Senator Tal Merrik. I no longer trusted the good senator to perform his role anymore. Somehow, information regarding the location of Princess Tanya had leaked. Now it could be that it wasn't Senator Merrik who was responsible for the leak, perhaps one of his guards would take the fall in the next few days. One of his guards, who were all members of Death Watch... My frown deepened.
Senator Merrik could use us to take the fall for an assassination attempt on the Princess. Granted, he'd used a rather wild and roundabout way to do it. Contacting the Workers' Council of Anteevy was a bold play, considering they were definitely not Mandalorians, not after their insane elimination of all of the clans on Anteevy. The latest report mentioned that they had organized themselves into a bizarre super clan that they were all forced to contribute to. Merrik's decision to use these faithless allies are further examples of his rash behavior and disloyal motives.
A fragment of a prior conversation with Representative Tanya kept turning over in my mind. Her words in answer came unbidden, 'The Republic for the most part would do what they always do, label it an internal affair and maybe drop a few blockade orders and embargoes.' She had shrugged, as if this fact was common knowledge and maybe it was, to the Coruscanties. This Merrik affair reeked of something that I had started to get a feeling about for a while now, ever since Tanya had mentioned that the Republic didn't care about what happened beyond the core.
I had thought Senator Merrik a loyal Death Watch man, one placed highly to be of service to his Mand'alor. Recent actions said otherwise, they implied to me that he saw himself as the ruler of the Mandalorian Sector, using his position on Coruscant to play the factions against each other to maintain his wealth.
The corruption of the Core had taken over and infected Senator Merrik. He no longer has any interest in the people of the Mandalorian sector, except in how to maintain his position in the Core. Now his interests are satiating his own selfish desires.
The question is, what am I going to do about it? Theoretically I could move against him, have one of the Death Watch members in his company kill him. However, right now, as far as anyone was concerned, he is a New Mandalorian. If I had him killed, he would be nothing but a martyr for the New Mandalorian cause, a sign that Death Watch had not changed in the slightest. No, I needed to make him make another mistake, one that I can use to discredit and ruin his reputation first. He already made a mistake by working with Anteevy the way he did, but that action is not public knowledge and unless I could force it to be public, I would need some other rationale to replace Senator Merrik.
Anteevy had made one bold play against the sector and that had failed. Was it a one-off attack of opportunity or a test of their strength? If it was the latter, then no doubt future attacks would be redoubled and be even more aggressive, which was both bad and good. Bad because it would pit Mandalorians against these fallen Mandalorians. Good in that Death Watch would be the ones to step up and take credit for the defense against the foreign invaders.
I will start having my men infiltrate the Esuain sector, the home sector of Anteevy, but there were other opportunities present as well. Esuain is currently one of the possible front lines of the war, many people would be displaced if the Republic intervenes there. There is a significant Mandalorian expatriate population present, not enough to form a majority on any world or system, but the absolute numbers are in the millions. Refugees could be a fertile ground for recruitment, and having agents present would give us that opportunity, as well guard against Anteevy.
But that can wait for now. Before I could deal with Anteevy, I would need spies and infiltrators inside their government. Right now, the Death Watch had no actionable intelligence on Anteevy. Perhaps when the sector is embroiled in open conflict and I have built up enough of a force, I could strike out against Anteevy. Taking that ice ball would provide Death Watch with a fortress to operate out of, as well as an industrial base to sustain future conquests. Given the evidence of ties between Anteevy and the CIS, the failed strike against the Princess, and whatever other crimes they have gotten up to, Death Watch would be hailed as heroes for removing a threat to Mandalore.
As for Senator Merrik, well I did have a few agents in his group, but I already know that he has his own agents pretending to be part of Death Watch. I would have to settle for observations, my agents are not enough to overwhelm his guards. Senator Merrik hires from Clan Gedyc and their Death Watch members were some of the most radical hardliners from Tor Vizsla's original Death Watch. They weren't satisfied with my current direction, they still clung to the previous plan, to launch a doomed civil war in the Mandalorian sector.
They might claim to be Death Watch, but I doubted they would follow any of my orders at this point. The Gedyc were not ones for backroom deals or political wheeling and dealing. No doubt their lack of curiosity is why Senator Merrik chose them to be his loyal henchmen. They will regret that. I am not one to launch a doomed vendetta against Satine for Clan Gedyc or others just to win over their support. Not while Satine's reforms gave the Death Watch what we wanted for practically nothing. Senator Merrik would dispose of Gedyc whenever he accomplished his objective, as there was no chance he could replace me or gain the trust of the rest of the Death Watch. However, Gedyc clansmen would resist any orders I gave to take out Senator Merrik, of that I was certain.
Count Dooku had also contacted me a few days ago, implying that he was not a fan of what the Senator had gotten up to as well. He was interested in whether I would begin my operations to unseat the Duchess anytime soon.
Thankfully, I had a reasonable answer for Dooku; everything had happened so quickly that my resources weren't properly in their final position. It would probably be by the end of this year or the start of the next before we begin our efforts. Be it for the CIS or just for Mandalore, I was still considering the options there.
He seemed pleased before ending the communication, so hopefully he would not be calling for another several months. In that time I should have more information and more of an idea of what I was dealing with. However, if he was putting pressure on me to start the war, he is most likely also pressuring his other assets. Anteevy, I don't know what their objective is yet other than conquering the sector to spread their faithless ideas. But I know what Merrik's objective is, he wanted to be the Senator of Mandalore for the CIS… which meant that he might do something stupid in order to stay in Count Dooku's good graces. I just needed to make him desperate enough to do something stupid. Perhaps I could turn up the heat and tell Bo-Katan to warn her sister about Merrik? Or I could have Dooku provoke Merrik into a treasonous act so that he would be considered a traitor and his protections be removed. I would need to think this through before I decide.
Which brings me back to why I was attending this semi-monthly council meeting in person. I needed more information on what Satine's stances for Mandalore are, as well as her next course of actions for handling the outbreak of the war. And I'm frankly not liking what I was hearing about her neutral stance.
Duchess Satine had been holding a conversation about the details of her neutrality plan with Prime Minister Almec for the last half hour. Satine wanted to create a faction that could remain as a member of the Republic, but stay out of the conflict. Create some sort of 'neutral zone' to prevent the conflict from spilling out into the Mandalorian sector and the regions around the sector that wanted to stay out of the conflict. It's something I thought was rather unlikely to work, considering we were on the main highway for the conflict and that Dooku might just invade anyway. This war would be right next door at the very least, and there were going to be ships trying to sneak through our sector to attack both sides from both directions.
Hell, there was a chance we might play host to some battles in space. Probably some of the larger astronomical objects would be used as waypoints. It was even possible that there would be battles over some of our planets as forces tried to sneak past each other and ran into each other in the Mandalorian sector. Too bad that Satine's idea of a defensive void doctrine is a blindfold; demarcated minefields to control traffic and create corridors or nearly-invisible passive monitoring satellites would give us an edge if this played out.
Currently, the conversation was stuck on the fact that food imports may take a hit. Concordia was mentioned again, and I finally took an active interest in what Prime Minister Almec was saying.
"We always have Concordia, Concord Dawn, and even Vorpa'ya for their food production." Satine said softly, clearly trying to placate the worried Prime Minister. Concordia would be able to support itself indefinitely without imports. The Death Watch still existed today, in no small part due to my generous and significant resource contributions.
"If food imports are blockaded by the CIS, we wou-" Almec repeated, anxiety clear in his voice.
"If food imports are blockaded by either side." I interrupted and gave Almec and Satine a meaningful glance. Sitting back and sweeping my gaze across the other participants, I finished, "This is a war. We have to assume the worst, especially if we are taking this 'neutral' route instead of choosing a side."
Satine paused and nodded. Almec took no notice of her reaction, resuming the conversation overtop of Satine's sigh. "Exactly, if food imports are blockaded, we will have riots. We need to secure food supplies and stockpile, yesterday."
I sneered slightly. Concordia boasted significant granaries and long-term storage built into depleted mine shafts underground, safeguarded by my Death Watch. "Concordia's food stockpiles are secure. We have enough grain stockpiled to feed the Mandalore system for a year if the rest of the sector has their own food production." I stated, dismissing the concern. "I'd worry more about an invasion than riots. Vorpa'ya is right on the border with the CIS. We'd need a defensive fleet to respond to that." I pointed out. Concordia was safe from an invasion, except in the final extremity, its lunar position above Mandalore provided it significant tactical support from the planet's surface.
"The existing self-defense force of Vorpa'ya is being brought up to full strength and will have priority funding, with the other self-defense forces on standby to help defend Vorpa'ya in case that happens." Satine answered. I doubted it would be sufficient, and judging by Almec's displeased expression, he was of the same opinion.
The MSDF was struggling to secure equipment and create training facilities. I received constant reports from officers in the MSDF loyal to Death Watch. The entire structure was a mess with many battalions encouraging soldiers to get family to send them blasters or other basic equipment. With the foolish push for the clanless to join rather than recruiting purely from clans that actually had equipment already there was widespread corruption.
A new practice had arisen from the chaos. Clanless soldiers and officers contracting various clans for equipment and armor. Such contracts even had a nickname, Loneskar, for loned Beskar and other such equipment. Some of the contracts were rather extreme but when the choice was to potentially go to war without protection or to sell one's freedom to a clan for Beskar. The choice was obvious to most.
Satine wanted to have some sort of plan to create an alliance of neutral powers within the Republic that wanted to stay out of the conflict. But I doubted that would go over very well considering many Mandalorians would want to take a side, either side of the conflict really. If she was going to declare neutrality like that, she is going to cause problems for those who wanted to choose a side in the conflict. In the meanwhile, the Death Watch would take advantage and have a little bit of a jump in recruitment.
My thoughts were interrupted as the Minister of Finance, Droxun, spoke up asking that exact question. "What do we do if members of the Mandalorian sector go and join one of these conflicts? Doesn't that reflect poorly on the government?" Yes, it will, and I was glad not to be the lone voice of reason on the council.
Satine, who had been in the middle of a conversation with Prime Minister Almec, stopped to think for a moment before saying, "No, and we will be doing nothing." I looked up in shock.
"The fact of the matter is people will choose a side in this conflict with or without our approval. I've already had several Royal Guards say they want to help the Republic, and I've given them permission to take a leave of absence, so they can do that. I imagine there will be those who want to join the CIS or the Republic as the years go on, and as long as they do not try to draw the Mandalore sector in, I don't think we need to care about this situation." What of the blowback? If a Mandalorian warrior conquered a Republic world for the CIS... this could end in disaster.
Almec blanched, "What if the recruitment of our people for this conflict causes a political firestorm? We could face another Excision!" Several of the others in attendance visibly shuddered, hissed, or winced at the reminder. Satine was already shaking her head in disagreement, so I turned to face her, curious.
"No we won't. The Republic will be focused on the CIS, not some neutral periphery. And this is just an extension of Mandalore's existing policy; it seems that some of our people have already been involved in this conflict for the last ten years and we didn't know about it. The Clone Army was created using Jango Fett as a template, and they were trained by Mandalorians under his command."
This caused me to blink several times. I already had a bad impression when I heard about the Clone Army, but this was worse. Someone had been teaching our ways to a bunch of hollow copies and yes, maybe they may be as good as Jango, but they are more like slaves to the Republic than people with free will to decide for their own. Who knew what else those alien cloners had done along the way. I had concerns about that. It did make them an interesting source of recruitment. I wasn't sure if I could break them of their conditioning, but it may be something to look into as time goes on.
The conversation continued though as Droxun said, "That is a point in our favor then. Without us, the Republic would not have their army. So they were serving the Republic before the conflict even started? Then as long as these Mandalorians who left to fight did not abuse Mandalore's neutrality to escape their own punishment or for fraudulent purposes during the war, that would be acceptable."
"My thoughts exactly, Mrs. Droxun." Satine agreed with a nod before continuing, "In fact, I think we should plan our legislation that makes it quite clear that Mandalorians can go out there to volunteer in this war with the Republic or the Separatists on their own volition without our support. We will also need to make it clear that if they leave to fight, they will not be allowed to return until the war is over. At the very least, this will prevent people from jumping back and forth over the border. This way, we can prevent most of the abuse of our neutrality from the start."
There were quite a lot of affirmative nods, so even I nodded myself. Although I was kind of against it, one of the things you had to do when you were pretending to be something you're not is vote against your own interests. Cynically, I suspected sacrificing the ability to switch sides if the war started looking bad was worth it if it locked others into the same choice. And it wasn't like I particularly wanted either the CIS or the Republic to win outright. I would prefer Mandalore be independent or to be part of the independent systems. Leaving an escape route for those who decided that the Republic was the way, well that would be useful for me.
"What about the companies?" Droxun asked, "I'm sure several companies will want to sell their equipment to either side. What are we going to do about them?" She seemed more curious and eager than concerned. Interesting. I should send some more agents to her department, my last good one had been replaced by a droid recently. Hmm… maybe I only needed a good slicer instead.
There was an immediate shake of her head from Satine, as she said "That's a little too far. We will table that particular discussion for a later date, but right now it would be preferable that we are not selling military equipment to either side. Civilian products are allowed though, I know MandalMotors has been producing a line of tugboats for the Republic and we don't want that to get canceled. We just need to be careful with what equipment is being sold to both sides, make it clear that we are not favoring one or the other."
"So if we sell to both sides equally in some way, the companies could do that." Droxun grinned and seemed to interpret Satine's answer broadly as granting wide permission to do just that. I watched the byplay, a bit interested that it was Mrs. Droxun pushing an agenda. How uncharacteristic of the typically forgettable Councilwoman.
Satine hesitated at Droxun's summary, "Theoretically yes. However, this is a subject that will be tabled for another time, once we have a better understanding of the situation. I would prefer for us to stay out of the war, though."
A silly statement since the war was already here, but I could understand her point of view. Satine wasn't privy to the actions going on in the background and how many of her allies had secret agendas. My secret agenda was merely to preserve the Death Watch as protectors for the good of all Mandalore, but the rest, who truly knew? And they were allies until the moment they stabbed her in the back. If she knew, she would probably be all in on selling equipment to the Republic or the CIS, depending on the deal they offered.
The deal they offered…
Well, that's an interesting thought.
Coughing, I said, "What if they offer us a neutrality deal in exchange for the right to buy equipment from our market? They would have to transport it to their own lines themselves, as well as agree to our neutrality in the conflict."
Satine thought for a moment before nodding her head and saying, "Yes, that would actually be a rather safe approach. It would encourage both sides to keep our neutrality at the top of their minds. That's a good idea, Governor Vizsla. I will see if we can work up some sort of contract to offer to both the Republic and the CIS when the situation is available."
I smiled and nodded, taking the faint praise, despite suspecting that I probably just set this situation up rather nicely for something to go wrong.
The chances that the Republic would secure that neutrality in my mind were null. Sooner or later they would break their contract, it was only a matter of time. And when that happens, well I'm sure things would spin out of control.
Of course, the CIS might do the same thing. At the very least, I prevented the Workers' Council of Anteevy from striking the Mandalore sector openly, giving me more time to build up my own forces and prepare for securing my rise to Mand'alor.
"Speaking of companies, how is Gargon's integration coming along?" Satine asked Droxun, who was in charge of integrating Gargon into the Mandalore sector proper after Gerr was ousted by the real White Silver. I noticed that Almec looked like he had a whiff of Kri'gee with how severe his expression became. Which is understandable as he was never a fan of any non-New Mandalorian.
"So far, integration has been going smoothly. The ruling clans have decided that due to their proximity to the Hydian Way, they would become a resort world as their main source of income. They are in the process of opening various hotels and casinos as their main form of income generation. To supplement it, they are selling various cattle products and various industrial products to Mandal Logistics who then sell it to other planets and businesses in the sector. We should receive our first tax revenue from Gargon at the end of the year, which should boost our GDP by 9.8% from last year."
My thoughts on Mandal Logistics are mixed. When they entered the public domain, Death Watch didn't bat an eye. It is merely a small delivery corporation, nothing to be alarmed about. But over the years they grew exponentially and integrated themselves into the Mandalorian economy so well that they became household names like MandalTech or the Trade Federation.
The fact that Mandal Logistics was even used to deliver some of Death Watch's military assets, albeit hidden under Concordia's numerous grain deliveries, is a worry that I only noticed very recently. I planned to recruit Mandal Logistics to our side eventually, similar to how we commissioned MandalMotors to supply us with Kom'rk Fighters. However, the fact that they have quickly built an office on Gargon has concerned me. I hoped that it is merely because the CEO, someone called Visha that I found no records of and is likely a pseudonym to hide her identity, is merely a proactive and savvy businesswoman.
"Other than that, the Spice Refinery being constructed on Gargon is proceeding as planned and should begin production of pharmaceutical drugs in three to four months. The refinery will be part of a publicly traded company with the crown owning a majority of the shares with the Gargon clans having partial ownership."
"With the galaxy at war, medicine will be in high demand everywhere. Having our own supply of medicine would mean we won't run out of medicine in an emergency. It could also provide us an extra source of revenue if we export them to either side." I commented as I wondered if I should also invest in this refinery as well. It would give me an official excuse to have one of my men stationed there to monitor the planet, as well as have a supply of high grade medical drugs at a lower cost than importing it from outside the sector.
"That is the idea. Once we have a large enough production to meet local demand, we can export it to Taris or other planets that might need it."
From there, the conversation continued without much fanfare, since this is a room full of New Mandalorians after all. We spent the rest of the time discussing possibilities of trying to stay out of the war and improving our economy. It's a rather boring affair, we set the economic agendas for the next few years, like infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment from the upcoming recession caused by the war, food subsidies to encourage more food production, and even having Kalevala Shipworks sell Power Cores of ships to rural villages so that they have a reliable source of electricity that could boost our taxes as well as raise the standard of living for many villages. I noted that there seemed to be plans to improve Concordia's agricultural output. At least someone was thinking that, while we wouldn't have the ability to fully support the population of the sector sooner or later, I wouldn't turn down extra investments.
I could tell that the council wasn't taking the gravity of this situation seriously, and so my mind was elsewhere. The rest of the sector would not be ready for when the conflict was at their front door.
It took every ounce of control not to smile at the realization that while these people may have been preparing an army for Mandalore's defense, and they have no idea how they were going to use it. When I was finally Mand'alor, that army would serve me well. After all, when the Confederacy and the Republic are done beating each other to a pulp, there is likely to be quite a big change in the maps of the Galaxy. Sectors were just lines on maps, in the end. Perhaps we could break away part of this little borderland between the two, it would serve well as a defensive buffer for Mandalore.
Gargon, Mandal Hypernautics Tower
Bo-Katan Kryze
I drummed my fingers impatiently as I looked over my desk at the returning hero or rather Vai clad in Tanya's White Silver armor. Why was I not included in the plan to create a mercenary force and rescue Tanya? I would have joined in a heartbeat. "Muun'bajir ad'ika..." I muttered absentmindedly - I will have to remind Tanya about the importance of family and not going into battle alone, the Mando way. Either way, that's who I'm staring down in annoyance.
This was the perfect opportunity for White Silver to forge an alliance with me and my comrades, both the new allies I've made on Gargon and the few friendly factions in the Death Watch. But no~. No, they go off and do their own plan, their own plan that got a Lancer scuttled, and about a dozen Mandalorians killed in some foreign hellhole. And what did they have to show for this waste of blood and durasteel?
They put White Silver on the map as a supporter of the Republic, even if it was only by way of supporting Tanya.
Frowning, I gave Vai a stern look. "Alright, so, where to begin?" I asked, focusing on her. It was not amusing to me that White Silver was being hailed as a hero, despite the celebratory parade that had hailed her 'victorious' return to Gargon; I knew the truth. The fact that people were calling her the "Princess Savior" was even more ridiculous to me. Vai was shameless in response to my fixed stare, she gave a helpless shrug and wry smile.
White Silver had been welcomed back as some sort of conquering hero and had even crowd-surfed for a bit on our way back to the Tower. A lot of people had really liked that Mandalore had stepped out of its imposed pacifism to strike out. And apparently people really like the idea that White Silver had rescued another princess.
"We could begin with a 'Hooray' and 'Welcome back?'" Vai said expansively. This was the wrong attitude. I replied with silence and a deadpan stare.
After a minute like that passed, I played along, "Hurray, welcome back. How was your trip?" Time for the hammer blow. "How many people did you kill while posing as White Silver?"
Vai smiled and said, "Zero, thankfully, since we only fought droids. Not to say that no one died during that conflict, the Geonosians and the clones went at each other pretty hard."
"Great," I said with a shake of my head before adding, "so now that that's been stated, why was I not informed? I was off-world at the time but come on. All you needed to do was to send a message and I would have met you anywhere along the way."
Vai finally looked sheepish, staring down at her feet before saying, "I forgot, we came up with the plan to mainly have me being the one responsible for gathering troops, so we just went with it."
"That's it? You forgot? That's why you didn't call me? What am I? Chopped Bilerat?" I said, wanting to stand up and slap the girl for her stupidity, but I kept myself in check. I'd slap her later. For now, I keep on getting her story out of her.
"That's really it, though. Tanya knows more of what went wrong. I was only there for some of it, and from what I heard, everything was happening so fast."
I nodded slowly, considering her words. "Fine, fine. So you didn't give me a call because you were too busy running off and playing adventurer. You raised a mercenary army and fought for the Republic. So what's the plan now? Is Tanya planning to continue having this army fight for the Republic, or was this a one-time deal? A situation out of control and requiring brute force to get out of it."
Vai shrugged before saying, "I think it was mainly the second one. Tanya was trying to defuse the conflict in her negotiations, she didn't want to start the war. We accomplished our mission, so we could let the mercenary force that was created here be disbanded, unless well…"
"Unless what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her leading statement.
"Tanya did mention that if the Republic wanted to contract this mercenary force to help train their clone army or in any other capacity, they could. But she has no intention for them to serve the Republic as a military arm."
"Manda gaa'taylir mhi..." I muttered, I doubted Vai would understand anyway. I sighed and leaned back on my chair as I thought this over.
This was still in line with some of the plans Tanya had shared before. Gargon was in a good location to serve as a mercenary outpost, and sending troops off from Gargon to the Republic would be beneficial. Though I do wonder what Pre would think about that.
After a few minutes, I straightened up and said, "We'll go with Tanya's plan. However, I want you on a shuttle returning to Mandalore before the end of the day. No more celebrations, White Silver needs to go into hiding because of her tomfoolery and we need to make it clear to Tanya that going on vendettas like that has consequences."
Vai nodded and started getting up from her chair before I said, "One more thing. What's this I hear about White Silver is a lesbian?"
Vai laughed before she saw my expression and cut off. "Uh, just a little prank I was playing on Tanya, nothing too serious."
I continued to give her an annoyed look before I stifled a laugh and said, "Nice one, just don't overdo it. Maybe get permission and work it into White Silver's lore. I'm sure it's going to be annoying to keep track of things you do from Tanya's perspective."
"Will do." Vai said with a salute, and she got up from her chair and exited the room. Once Vai left, I turned to look out the window.
This was a right mess, but nothing that my niece couldn't figure out. Now I wondered how she would do when the whole conflict across the sector really ramped up. This was the war that Pre had been talking about for a long time. So after what had happened, how would Pre handle it is the real question.
Worse yet, what would I do when Tanya found out that I was working for Death Watch? It's something I had never really thought about. I didn't really feel like it'd ever be a possibility that Death Watch would actually make a move. Now there was, would she be angry with me or understand my point of view about trying to protect the clan by having someone within Death Watch?
Only time would tell, and I had to hope that time would tell us a good tale, one where Clan Kryze survived the war intact and the Mandalore sector is able to rebuild and continue to expand into a power out here on the Rim. Otherwise, things are going to get chaotic and terrible real quick.
Sighing, I started to put together a letter to Satine, letting her know that I probably would not be able to come by for our training session for a while, not with the galaxy at war. I wrote some about the hassle of managing the mercenaries, until I realized Satine wouldn't understand in the slightest. Ugh, New Mandalorians, I wished Tanya was around instead, she understood... so I trimmed off that portion, and sent the letter.
Now that I was finished writing that letter, I opened a new one that was going to Pre. Last time we met, he hinted that he was unclear where my loyalties lay, so I needed to re-affirm that I would still serve Death Watch.
Then right after that, I would have to be ready to serve with Death Watch when they called. I just had to make sure that it was all official, make sure that Pre Vizsla was not our enemy, and that my sister, nephew and niece would be protected.
Sure, we come a long way from calling her the Anti-Mand'alor. But there was always a chance that if I wasn't in Death Watch, they would renege on their agreements to not go after Clan families.
The war is here. Now all the alliances and interpersonal connections that have been built up would be stressed to see what would happen, and I just had to hope that it ends with Mandalore coming out of it stronger.
Writers note: That should be the last of the wrap-up chapters, I think? Next chapter, we move forward into the next preamble before a mini arc before we get to the real arc starting the chapter after that. This is going to be epic…
Edited by: L, Aemon, BigKuma DM, Afforess, Guardsman Pius, freelancerdeltazero, Warmach1ne32, Waters, FallQM
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716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 7
Mandalore, Sundari Palace
Tanya Kryze
I knew that my meddling in Republic politics wouldn't bode well for me in the short-term. But I had no idea it would get this bad when I set off on my little adventure. However, I did anticipate that I would be summoned to Mandalore to explain my actions to Aunt Satine.
The most straightforward way that I knew how to explain my situation is with a report. I made sure to document everything in the most understandable way possible. The report outlined the general situation as I understood it, including details of what I had observed and what diplomatic talks I had been involved in. However, I kept several secrets out of the report, such as White Silver's identity. It is likely that this report would become public record, so best to keep secret information from being written down.
After arriving in the system and submitting my report to Aunt Satine, I hoped we would begin high-level discussions on strategy for Mandalore. As much as I wanted a day to unwind, with the galaxy at war, now is not the time to relax. Once my ship landed back home on Sundari, I was not surprised to receive a notification once my vambrace reconnected with the local comm network. The urgent message came from Captain Rau and it informed me that I have been summoned to Aunt Satine's office, one of the most highly secured rooms in the entire Palace, which meant she wanted to discuss everything.
Interestingly enough, when I arrived at the Palace, I noticed that Captain Rau was not present to greet me. In fact, there were no signs of any guards anywhere nearby. Not even Obyrd or Briyuk, the guards who are usually in front of her doors at the end of the hallway, are visible. Aunt Satine only dismissed the guards and attendants when she was being very careful. It's very likely that she wanted to extract every detail she could from me about what had happened and I couldn't exactly say no this time.
Taking a deep breath, I paused at the door to make sure I had everything straight in my head. I expected this would be a rather long conversation, but I had to hope that we could quickly move on to what could be done for Mandalore and our people instead of my mistakes. The situation is not an irredeemable disaster. There are ways we could profit off the war, even if we didn't want to participate. Hopefully, this conversation would be the first step in making sure that Mandalore came through this crisis without too much damage.
I knocked on the door and waited for a call to enter. I brushed at my dress to make sure I was in perfect form as I waited for a response.
Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. After only a minute or two, I heard Aunt Satine's voice call out, "Come in, Tanya." Once I heard her reply, I put my hand on the scanner next to the door. After it confirmed my identity, the Beskar-lined door opened for me.
As I entered the old office, one that I had visited numerous times in the past, I saw Aunt Satine sitting at her desk in front of the large window that overlooked parts of Sundari. Her hands were folded in front of her on the desk while looking at me with a slightly severe expression, suggesting that this would not be a light conversation.
"Tanya, take a seat." she said, gesturing towards the chair across from her, "Let's discuss what had happened in your report."
I nodded and confidently crossed the finely decorated office to take the seat indicated. "Where should I begin, Duchess Satine?"
Aunt Satine looked at me calmly before saying, "How about the fact that you got into a fight with the former leader of a terrorist organization?"
I was expecting this question. "I was not aware at the outset that the bounty hunter hired to kill Padme was also involved with political terrorists."
For some reason, that defense only earned me narrowed eyes from Aunt Satine, so I continued, "Senator Amidala represents one of the few parties trying to prevent a war from breaking out in the galaxy. Additionally, I was aware that the additional security Senator Amidala had acquired were insufficient and vulnerable to Mandalorian tactics. I thought it was in Mandalore's best interest for Senator Amidala's security to be ensured by Mandalore, given the bounty hunter's tactics would bring extra scrutiny to us in any outcome. How it all went down might not have been optimal, but I think it is preferable to the alternative of Mandalore being partially blamed for Senator Amidala's death." Hopefully matters were well and truly explained now.
"You got in a fist fight with the former Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians." Aunt Satine pointed out again. "We are lucky that no one recognized you in your new set of armor. Your fight was caught on holovid, according to my contacts it caused quite the local stir on Coruscant. A fight between Mandalorians on Coruscant over the city skyline."
My left eye twitched at Aunt Satine's comment. "Did they capture images of the Mandalorian Royal Guard?" I managed to keep my voice level and body relaxed, somehow. I hadn't heard of the holovid recording, but the last few weeks had been rather hectic.
Aunt Satine stared at me for a moment, before shaking her head in answer. "No, thankfully the camera only picked up the initial few minutes of the fight. The shuttle's arrival blocked the view from the camera, so there's no evidence that it was you or anything that could be traced back to Mandalore's government."
I slumped and let out a sigh of relief, "Good, they didn't catch us returning then." Although, as I thought about it, I realized that there was potential for my armor to be recognized now. I had worn it, not only on Coruscant, but also on Geonosis. Who's to say if any of the mercenaries Vai had brought camera attachments on their gear. Perhaps I should look into having my armor altered in some way to make it different from the one on Coruscant, but if people are able to put two and two together… That could be an issue.
"Let us return to the topic of this former Mand'alor." Aunt Satine said, dryly.
"Once I figured out the identity of the bounty hunter, I was able to send him a message and arranged a meeting. When I met the bounty hunter, Jango Fett, I convinced him to abandon his mission and report back here. Unfortunately, this had the exact opposite effect as my intentions. I thought clearing up who was responsible for the assassination attempt would calm tensions and this would go through the courts." Instead, the report appears to have triggered the war early.
"Yes." Aunt Satine said, nodding at my summary, "That certainly sounds like something you would think. Now how about the part where you ended up on the first battlefront of this war?"
"An unintentional situation. My ship and my Royal Guards were commandeered by the local Hutt while I was meeting with Jango Fett on Tatooine. Apparently they were in contact with Count Dooku, who strong-armed me into visiting Geonosis as a way of resolving the situation with the Hutts. That was why I was on Geonosis, to meet with Count Dooku, and then it was invaded by the army of the Republic." An army that had been kept secret from everyone when I left Coruscant. Padme had been negotiating the Military Creation Act when I left for Tatooine, I still wasn't sure how much I had missed while out in the Outer Rim.
"So just an unlucky coincidence." Satine said, although there was a new brittleness to her voice.
"I'm afraid so," I said with a shrug, "though I believe that my presence did help prevent the situation from turning out even worse than it could have."
"And why is that?" Satine asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"I had a backup plan in case the situation is too much to handle." Start with the successes and don't highlight the failures. "In case of emergency, I had Vai standing by as White Silver with a large force of volunteers to rescue me."
"I was wondering when we were going to get to that situation." Satine said, interrupting me. "Mind explaining to me why White Silver had to come rescue you?"
"It seemed the most reasonable idea at the time, since White Silver exists to appeal to the New Mandalorians. Having them come out and support a representative and princess of Mandalore during her time of need would be useful for affirming that she isn't some rogue Mand'alor out for conquest."
"That sounds like the long-term goal. What was the short-term goal?" Satine asked, still seeming a little bit annoyed.
"If I got myself in trouble that I can't get out of, I figured a small company of Mandalorians could rescue me. By the way, that reminds me, I have brought the family Beskad back to Mandalore now that its ownership has been transferred in such a way that will not raise any eyebrows."
Satine sighed. "I suppose Bo was right after all." Shaking her head she said, "I'll have it be put on display in court later. So to summarize, your part in this was that you were trying to help protect a friend and things just kept getting out of control. That's your thoughts on this situation?"
"Yes," I agreed with her summary of events, it was even true. "I couldn't stand by and do nothing - Padme would be injured or worse! It was just a series of unfortunate events that put me at the center of a problem that was going to fester no matter what."
Letting out another sigh, this one even more exasperated than the last. Finally, Satine smiled at the last rush of words. "Alright then, at least you did this to help a friend and you were trying to prevent the war. I approve of the motive, if not the means, but we have to talk about the situation now as it is. How does this political quagmire that's been created in the Southern Rim affect us?"
Finally, I took a breath before laying it out as I saw it, "I'm going to need to speak to Jango Fett again at some point to try and understand exactly what he was working on before his bounty hunting job on Padme's life. It seems that my assumptions on what's going to happen are somewhat off by a couple of years."
By now, Satine was frowning again at my explanation, but I kept going. "The conflict is inevitable now. I've been laboring under the assumption that we would have time to prepare, that there would be some spark in the future that led to the war. The Republic had no military, the Separatists were still talking to us, mostly anyway. The war came early because the Republic had a secret army apparently funded by a Jedi and they invaded Geonosis to rescue one of their own, Kenobi to be exact."
"Is Obi-Wan alright?" That is an odd one to prioritize, before the rest of my statement seemed to catch up to her. "The Jedi created an army for the Republic!?" Satine gasped, her face showing shocked horror.
"Yes, Jedi Kenobi is alright, no permanent injuries. And yes the Jedi did make an army, apparently this army is made up of clones. Clones of Jango Fett, some that are trained by Mandalorian warriors and exposed to parts of Mandalorian culture. Millions of them."
"That... is not good." Satine breathed. "If this army was trained in the Old Mandalorian ways, it won't help in our efforts to try and improve the perspective of people on what Mandalore is."
"My thoughts exactly." I nodded, "In the short term, many people who don't often meet Mandalorians will form some ideas about our culture from their encounters with the Fett clones. In the long term, any survivors of this Clone Army after the war might feel a sense of familiarity with Mandalore, which may be both good and bad. It's good because we can use the extra hands to rebuild Mandalore, but bad because anyone who comes here will bring their own baggage. Perhaps they were involved in something unconscionable outside the sector and are a war criminal. We need to be vigilant and ensure we don't allow in the kind of people who will tarnish Mandalore's reputation."
"You're talking about immigration control." Satine said.
"Yes, although immigration control is not quite right, it will do as a start." I said with a nod.
"How about the war itself? What are your thoughts on the matter?" She asked and I bobbed my head, as this was the most complex topic.
After taking a deep breath, I said, "This war was inevitable the moment the CIS began withdrawing from the Republic. As I mentioned, I thought it would take a couple of years, but it's already here, so we have to deal with it. We needed to stay out of this war. Mandalore has suffered enough in the last century, we have little to gain from being involved. However, both sides and even third parties will try to drag us into it. I haven't seen the frontier of the battlefields yet, but since Count Dooku's home planet is on the main galactic hyperspace lane, next to ours. Mandalore is a frontier now, we're on the border between the Republic and this new nation trying to break away from it.
The best path for us is to declare total neutrality and announce that we want nothing to do with this war. We will not support either side, but we will continue to trade normally with both sides and find as many allies as possible to do the same. It's the same goal as I've already begun work on over the years I've been a representative, so I've already made some progress. Now that the war has gone hot, it shouldn't be too hard to find allies that are willing to work with us."
"Allies would be welcome." Satine nodded approvingly.
"There are some problems, though, facing our sector and our search for neutrality. Of the most urgent is the Workers' Council of Anteevy, they attempted to assassinate or kidnap me on Tatooine. I'm honestly not sure which."
"They what?" Satine said in the coldest inflection I have ever heard out of her at this remark. I held back a flinch and paused in my story.
After giving Satine a moment to catch her breath, I nodded in confirmation. "Apparently they thought they could capture me and use me as some sort of bargaining chip of some kind. Knowing them, it was in a bid to take control over the entire Mandalorian sector."
Aunt Satine closed her eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling, in a technique that was very reminiscent of some of the training I had observed the younglings perform at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She took a few deep breaths and opened her eyes, clearly struggling to maintain her composure. "This is deeply troubling," she said softly. "We must find a peaceful resolution to this. I will bring this matter up to the courts and try to seek a civilized solution."
I shook my head in disagreement. "I'm afraid bringing it up to the courts is no longer an option as I believe the Workers' Council of Anteevy is a member of the CIS now. They deployed the same model B1 battle droids that the Trade Federation fields, with slight modifications."
"So a puppet government is already in the hands of the CIS?" Satine asked in the same soft tone as she palmed her face with her left hand. I nodded in confirmation. "And they are waiting for an opportunity to take over the sector. Do you think the CIS will really recognize this puppet government as the legitimate government of Mandalore?"
"I doubt it. The CIS is trying to cast themselves as the legitimate and superior alternative government system to the Republic. Creating false puppet governments that lack authority and misleading people is harmful to CIS's interests. Especially right now, when they are trying to gather allies. That being said, I would not be surprised if the Workers' Council continues its own efforts to gain control of the Mandalorian sector. We will likely have to deal with them agitating existing factional divisions and interfering in our government in several ways. They may try messing with elections, causing riots, or any number of things to try to gain power and make themselves seem like an official government. After they have created enough popular support, then Anteevy will use that momentum to call for the CIS to liberate the sector."
"Prime Minister Almec has informed me that the government is reviewing recent staffing decisions. We're going to have to keep our eyes open for infiltrations. The Mandalorian Self-Defense Forces have instructions to begin stockpiling reserves. They will be ready to mobilize if Anteevy or the CIS force the issue."
I nodded, "I hate that we're going to have to use that force, but they won't hesitate to use violence to try and destroy what we've been building. We will need to be prepared."
War is an ultimately irrational decision, a lose-lose scenario that makes both sides poorer. However, it was also necessary, both to protect the lives and property of people from a tyrannical government or even worse, a communist government. I'm still puzzled about how the latest iteration of the Workers' Council of Anteevy came into existence. Right now, I suspect outside interference from Being X, but I can't rule out any possibility since the "Force" is also a real thing. At any rate, someone who is familiar with Marxist-Leninist terminology seems to be manipulating events. Stranger still, another distantly settled world, Shogun, also exists. Shogun was a hereditary title I was familiar with from my first life. More puzzling, Shogun, the planet was named and colonized by Mandalorians in the distant past. How many Japanese have been isekai'd into this universe? If I have been isekai'd to this universe then it's likely that someone on Anteevy could have been a communist that had also been isekai'd here.
I worked my way through those thoughts and returned my attention to the room. Aunt Satine was similarly lost in thoughts, so shifted slightly in my chair and folded my hands to remind her I was still in the room. "Anyway, I think that's the situation as it stands. There's going to be a war, and we're going to be in the middle of it. There are ways we can avoid being drawn into the conflict, such as a declaration of neutrality. Additionally, we have to keep our eyes on any factions that take advantage of the situation or ally with the CIS."
Satine thought for another long moment before sighing, "Alright." I nodded, then she got up from her chair and moved around the desk before leaning down to give me a hug. "I'm just glad you're safe," she whispered to my side. "However, in the future, can you not get yourself in a situation this dangerous? I know you were helping a friend, but perhaps leaving it to the official authorities would have been better."
"The Senatorial Guard are corrupt." I complained as Satine kept hugging me and didn't let go. I gave a helpless shrug, not fighting the continued hug, before giving up, "But in the future I will try."
"Well, you said you'll try." Satine said, letting me go with a laugh before moving back towards the desk.
"Now we have to discuss how we're going to officially make our statement of neutrality, do you have some ideas on this matter?"
"A few." I said, preparing another report that I had yet to write down in my head.
Mandalore, Sundari Mandalorian Hospital
Jango Fett
'This ain't exactly my usual stomping ground.' I thought as I surveyed the sterile halls of the mental hospital. Can't say I've had much reason to visit places like this before. People don't usually put bounties on the mentally unstable. It's not like they get sent to prisons. These places are reserved for the 'broken,' the ones that society tries to fix but often never can.
Today is the day I'd come face-to-face with my long-lost sister again after decades apart. I don't know how I feel about it yet. Part of me still wondered if this was all some sort of elaborate con. If it was, Kryze and I were going to have some words as well as a few blaster bolts when I see her again.
I already gave my statement on who hired me for the job, and in return I received an official pardon for all my crimes on Mandalore and Coruscant. They even sent over a nice little document as proof. I could probably go back to bounty hunting openly without much issue. But there was something odd about that document that concerned me. Nowhere did it list Zam's death as one of the crimes that I was pardoned of. There was an assault with a deadly weapon, which is probably from my fight with the Princess, but no death. It could mean that my dart may have missed something as vital as her neck and landed somewhere else or Zam was dead and I could be arrested the second I step foot on Coruscant, one of the two.
That dart is full of toxins that should kill any sentient instantly. But if the blood flow wasn't good or a Jedi interfered, it's possible that Zam survived. Finding out how she managed to survive would be a hell of a thing and the last thing I want to do is find out, as she most likely won't be happy about the whole situation. She's probably pissed at having been poisoned but faking her death is another way she could get out of her debts.
Granted, this was just conjecture. It's very possible that Zam is dead and that I'm not listed as her killer in official police reports for whatever reason. If that's the case, I won't be stirring up any trouble or going back to Coruscant just to be safe. As far as I'm concerned, that holopic clears me of all charges on Coruscant from the moment I first set foot there to the moment I signed Kryze's contract. So, if anyone asks, I'm in the clear.
Local reporting throughout most of the Hutt sector also indicated that they believe she is dead. Old contacts of mine have told me the same thing, that she died on Coruscant. So, perhaps there was nothing to worry about.
I shook my head and glanced around the meeting area over to Boba, who was staring out the window while we waited for my sister to arrive. The hospital we were in was on the outskirts of Sundari, near the capital city's dome. I had to admit, it wasn't a bad place. There were a lot of windows, no bars, and plenty of light. From what I could tell, the people were treated more like long-term residents than prisoners. Which makes sense, as I doubt the bleeding hearts would allow any inhumane facility that would offend their delicate sensibilities in their capital.
I may not have visited a mental hospital before, but I'd heard stories on what goes on in them. Not every world had the resources or the mercy to provide for their less-than-baseline populations. As I looked over the fancy facility, the resources on display, the string of kept promises, so far... I felt an unfamiliar emotion. Hope.
I cringed at myself in embarrassment. I am the deadliest Mandalorian in the galaxy and here I am going soft like a New Mandalorian the moment things go my way. While Jasper taught me that family is important, I do have a reputation to maintain. Once I finished that thought, the door opened to reveal a doctor and a woman. The blonde woman, who I was told was my sister, looked like she was struggling to hold herself together. Her eyes were downcast, and she seemed to be avoiding any eye contact, her eyes looking down at the ground.
I stood up to get a better look at her, I couldn't help but feel a sense of disbelief. It was hard to imagine this was the same girl I remembered from so long ago. Sure, the hair was the same, but everything else about her seemed foreign. I struggled to match my last memory of my tough as nails sister with this broken woman in front of me.
But then again, she knew my story. She knew everything that had happened between us that no one else should have known. I could only think of one person who might have known and that was Jaster Mereel. But he was long gone and I was sure he wouldn't have revealed my life story to anyone.
I stepped forward towards her, not liking to take things on faith, but there was no other way. "Arla?" I said, my voice gruff. Her eyes jumped up towards me, full of sorrow and hate. It was hard to see the sister I once knew, but as our eyes locked for a brief moment, I saw her.
"It's you, Jango." she said, taking a halting step towards me before stopping and looking at Boba with confusion. "Has my madness progressed further than I thought? It appears there are two Jango's in this room."
I smirked, knowing that only someone who knew me when I was a kid would recognize Boba as an exact likeness of me. Hearing her speak in the old Concord Dawn accent was also reassuring.
"Your madness hasn't progressed further, sister," I replied, still gruff. "Boba, come here and meet your aunt."
Arla blinked before realization dawned on her. "Your son? He looks exactly like you."
I smiled at that before saying, "It's a long story, but I'll gladly tell it to you, sister."
Concord Dawn, Bralir Chaavla
Spar
In a rush, I shot up from my bed covers, heart racing. That damned memory again, the last battle of the True Mandalorians. It wasn't a dream, it was a curse. One that did not belong to me.
A nightmare that Jango carried with him for most of his life and now it haunted me. The reason behind why I inherited his memories is a mystery, but clearly the Kaminoans missed a lot of things with me. I didn't need more confirmation of aberration, though, the fact that I've been able to escape the coming war is solid evidence that I'm not a normal clone.
Hell, I used to borrow Jango's identity, after he'd helped me escape. Jango didn't trust any of the clones, it was the Cuy'val Dar, the hundred experts from across the Galaxy who trained us. Only Mij Gilamar, one of the doctors among the Cuy'val Dar, had realized and understood what was happening to me, even before I had understood. He had explained matters to Jango, which is how I escaped aboard the Slave I. However, even then, we didn't trust one another. It was only after Jango realized that I wasn't going to expose the cloning operation, did we understand each other.
Now I've been given a chance to form my own life out in the galaxy and so far I had a good life. We even had a long-distance academic debate a few years back, the topic had been those new Silver Codices.
I'm still not sure if I even agree with their new version of the Supercommando Codex. To be more exact, I wasn't sure about their seeming ability to ignore the thousands of years of bloodshed by the Jedi. The revisionist history in the new codex is troubling because I knew that the Jedi were planning to use Mandalorian slaves to fight their wars.
Personally, I suspected my disquiet about Mandalore and the Jedi are driving these nightmares back to the forefront. There is a war coming and my brothers were going to be used as cannon fodder for it. They would walk to their deaths with a smile because the Jedi told them to.
It's disgusting. The Republic and the Jedi are lauded as heroes for their actions, despite the fact they were willing to do such naturally evil things. To create life only to use it to kill? What kind of monstrous civilization would do that? The Republic evidently, the greatest monster of them all. Unlike how the past Mandalorians had tried to slay it and failed, I will succeed and slay it in their name.
I extracted myself from my bunk and moved over to the kitchen. I walked to the insta-caf machine and started brewing a cup to drink. Later today I'm going to the meeting hall in the local township. There will be a large forum that is going to discuss what Concord Dawn would do about the current war. I planned to make my intentions very clear there. I will raise a company of Mandalorians to fight for the Separatists. We would fight the Republic and defeat it, to free Mandalore from the clutches of its control. And I am not afraid to use my connections to the local hero, Jango Fett to do it.
Nothing too extreme though, I would claim that I was just a member of Clan Fett, a distant cousin, who served with him during his time as the Mand'alor. One of the few survivors of the True Mandalorians.
It wasn't exactly true, but if Jango Fett caught wind of it he'd probably get a good laugh out of it. Claiming to be a distant cousin when I am his clone is something that I was sure he'd laugh at. I could have been bolder, claiming I was his bastard son, but then Jango would have dropped everything and come directly for me. Jango would never let someone take over his mantle while he was still alive. It's what I would do if the situation was reversed.
I couldn't help but be hesitant about my plans to declare myself the Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians, though. Would Jango Fett come for me over that? On one hand, he had given up the title when he became a bounty hunter. On the other hand, Jango had given up on the Mandalorian sector entirely, so theoretically he should have no claim to the title. But theory and practice differ on the battlefield. I, too, would have complicated feelings when someone succeeds me and takes on the title of Mand'alor for the True Mandalorians from me.
Hopefully, Jango would not take it too hard.
I grabbed the now ready insta-caf drink and started sipping gently on it. I may not agree with the Silver Mandalorians opinion of the Jedi, but I had to admit they had done good work in improving the sector as well as having great taste in caf.
One of the ships that came through here to trade, brought a whole stockpile of stuff. They had purchased it outside the sector and it quickly became a favorite among the locals that a trade deal is quickly hashed out for a monthly supply of the stuff.
Almost everyone in the entire planet is drinking it at this point, it was just that good and the local caf strains were not even close. The ship was from Mandal Logistics, which definitely seems to have some sort of link to the Silver Mandalorian. Especially when it's now operating in the Silver capital of Gargon.
The Silver Mand'alor is probably the biggest issue with my future plans. White Silver came after False Silver for declaring himself as the real White Silver. Would she also see my declaration for the True Mandalorians as a similar act? Or would it be my alignment with the CIS that would spark a conflict?
Only time would tell, but I had hope. I wouldn't seek out a contest with White Silver if they would leave me alone, but if there had to be a fight between Mand'alors though, so be it. Jango Fett defeated Tor Vizsla, the Mand'alor of the Death Watch. Should White Silver get in my way, I will defeat her.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Pre Vizsla
The war is here. However, instead of relishing the moment of triumph and anticipating my ascension to Mand'alor, I found myself grappling with unforeseen challenges, more than I had originally thought possible.
For one, there is the matter of Jango Fett. Not only is he still alive, but he is here, in Mandalore! Of course, the problem isn't that I held a grudge against the man for killing Tor Vizsla, the previous Death Watch leader and our former 'Secret Mandalore'. The exact opposite is the case, I had no great love for Tor as he had failed to become the undisputed Mand'alor after crushing the True Mandalorians. If Tor had not been slain by Jango Fett, he would have become my problem. I could have never become the 'Secret Mandalore' with Tor still around to dispute the position.
Tor's extremism had pushed away a lot of the factions that would have been natural allies to Death Watch. The Martial Traditionalists are a large portion of the Mandalorian population and clans still living in Mandalore, but even after all these years after Tor's death, his actions and reputation caused most of them to want nothing to do with Death Watch. Tor had caused a lot of bad blood between us and the Martial Traditionalists by being extremely brutal with members of the True Mandalorians. Overly brutal, most would say, and had instilled that attitude within much of the older members. His extreme methods were useful for winning a war as a psychological warfare tactic but not at times of peace as many view him as a sadistic beast, not as a leader that is worth following.
I could see the utility of the older Death Watch's mindset and methods, especially in the context of a fight for survival. However, I broke with it in one key way: Mandalore must stand united if it is to prosper. Justice, if it must be meted out to fellow Mandalorians, requires a fair trial not an individual being the judge, jury, and executioner. Anything less perpetuates a cycle of violence that makes for an unstable sector. Any killing of the people of Mandalore must have proper cause, so hunting down someone's family just for supporting their son who was in the True Mandalorians was something that I would take action against. We must focus our energy on those outside the Mandalorian sector, not tear our people apart in ancient rivalries and old blood feuds.
The reappearance of the Fetts and old blood feuds is what had me worried. Jango Fett had most likely been the cause of Tor Vizsla's death, but even he wasn't, no doubt the man carried a grudge against the Death Watch for killing his family. When Death Watch makes its public appearance, there would be trouble. Would he come for me, personally? This is further complicated by the fact that his sister, Arla Fett, was a former Death Watch member. She had apparently been sprung from whatever hole she's been kept in on Coruscant.
For a lesser leader, like Tor, their first instinct when old rivals resurfaced would be to reignite vengeance and resume ancient blood feuds. However, my methods are clearly superior. I had privately communicated to key Death Watch members that had been uninvolved with the Fett's, such as Bo-Katan, that I would not be defending any Death Watch members who had committed provable crimes against the True Mandalorians in the past. In handing them over for justice, I would only lose the corrupted and depraved elements among us. In fact, a public reveal would probably be heralded very differently if my new Death Watch membership were of unimpeachable records. Every crisis is an opportunity and this is an opportunity to finally shed Tor's influence from Death Watch.
Still, this was the most unfortunate missed opportunity in my entire career. Had I known Arla is alive and on Coruscant, I would have gone out of my way to have her rescued. It is a fairly simple propaganda win. Not only because she was a former member of Death Watch, brought back into the fold and rescued from an unjust imprisonment, but the simple fact that she is the sister of the last Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians. Arla's rescue might have enticed the remaining True Mandalorians to join my cause, at least some of them.
I have to applaud Representative Kryze, her actions had just secured quite a bit of favor among the True Mandalorians and Death Watch to the New Mandalorian side. Of course, she wouldn't know that. Both organizations, as far as she is aware, are defunct. However, I could read the mood from a few conversations with some of the clan heads among Death Watch. Arla Fett's rescue and return to Mandalore is the right outcome, no matter what faction, the person responsible for this outcome represents what it means to look after family. I imagine many of the True Mandalorians felt the same, though my contacts among them were limited to say the least.
The major propaganda failure in the whole situation was how Arla Fett could be used as a political pawn. Arla could have been a weapon - used to criticize and paint all of Death Watch as responsible for her abuse. It would have been so easy to change the narrative to imply that they were all in thralls of Tor Vizsla's doomed vision, unhinged monsters instead of fellow Mandalorians.
Such a possibility would make using the word Death Watch much harder, but there were possible ways of dealing with that. Perhaps a change of name is in order. It would be unfortunate to resort to renaming the organization, names carried a lot of power, power that could be used to draw in support.
Perhaps there would be a way to alter the name, maybe designate a lineage or link to the Death Watch, without the baggage of past failures and mistakes. Something like The Children of the Watch? Implying a connection to Death Watch but being a successor would be better than its predecessor in many ways, like being more tolerant of other Mandalorians. To replace the old with the new would probably help with my efforts to become Mand'alor. I'll give it more thought another time.
For the moment, I needed to dissuade Jango Fett from returning to politics, especially considering his strong influence among the remnants of the True Mandalorians. He is a formidable opponent and could easily rally the True Mandalorian supporters to his cause, especially if he decided to go after me.
However, Jango Fett was not the only issue that had sprung up. Many issues needed personal solutions and my private intervention to resolve correctly, such as this council meeting I am attending, and it is time-consuming.
As soon as Duchess Satine's semi-monthly council meeting was over, I would have to rush back to Concordia and start putting things into action. I frowned at the thought, I would need to rush to avoid being outpaced by events, as much as I hated rushing.
The next issue was Senator Tal Merrik. I no longer trusted the good senator to perform his role anymore. Somehow, information regarding the location of Princess Tanya had leaked. Now it could be that it wasn't Senator Merrik who was responsible for the leak, perhaps one of his guards would take the fall in the next few days. One of his guards, who were all members of Death Watch... My frown deepened.
Senator Merrik could use us to take the fall for an assassination attempt on the Princess. Granted, he'd used a rather wild and roundabout way to do it. Contacting the Workers' Council of Anteevy was a bold play, considering they were definitely not Mandalorians, not after their insane elimination of all of the clans on Anteevy. The latest report mentioned that they had organized themselves into a bizarre super clan that they were all forced to contribute to. Merrik's decision to use these faithless allies are further examples of his rash behavior and disloyal motives.
A fragment of a prior conversation with Representative Tanya kept turning over in my mind. Her words in answer came unbidden, 'The Republic for the most part would do what they always do, label it an internal affair and maybe drop a few blockade orders and embargoes.' She had shrugged, as if this fact was common knowledge and maybe it was, to the Coruscanties. This Merrik affair reeked of something that I had started to get a feeling about for a while now, ever since Tanya had mentioned that the Republic didn't care about what happened beyond the core.
I had thought Senator Merrik a loyal Death Watch man, one placed highly to be of service to his Mand'alor. Recent actions said otherwise, they implied to me that he saw himself as the ruler of the Mandalorian Sector, using his position on Coruscant to play the factions against each other to maintain his wealth.
The corruption of the Core had taken over and infected Senator Merrik. He no longer has any interest in the people of the Mandalorian sector, except in how to maintain his position in the Core. Now his interests are satiating his own selfish desires.
The question is, what am I going to do about it? Theoretically I could move against him, have one of the Death Watch members in his company kill him. However, right now, as far as anyone was concerned, he is a New Mandalorian. If I had him killed, he would be nothing but a martyr for the New Mandalorian cause, a sign that Death Watch had not changed in the slightest. No, I needed to make him make another mistake, one that I can use to discredit and ruin his reputation first. He already made a mistake by working with Anteevy the way he did, but that action is not public knowledge and unless I could force it to be public, I would need some other rationale to replace Senator Merrik.
Anteevy had made one bold play against the sector and that had failed. Was it a one-off attack of opportunity or a test of their strength? If it was the latter, then no doubt future attacks would be redoubled and be even more aggressive, which was both bad and good. Bad because it would pit Mandalorians against these fallen Mandalorians. Good in that Death Watch would be the ones to step up and take credit for the defense against the foreign invaders.
I will start having my men infiltrate the Esuain sector, the home sector of Anteevy, but there were other opportunities present as well. Esuain is currently one of the possible front lines of the war, many people would be displaced if the Republic intervenes there. There is a significant Mandalorian expatriate population present, not enough to form a majority on any world or system, but the absolute numbers are in the millions. Refugees could be a fertile ground for recruitment, and having agents present would give us that opportunity, as well guard against Anteevy.
But that can wait for now. Before I could deal with Anteevy, I would need spies and infiltrators inside their government. Right now, the Death Watch had no actionable intelligence on Anteevy. Perhaps when the sector is embroiled in open conflict and I have built up enough of a force, I could strike out against Anteevy. Taking that ice ball would provide Death Watch with a fortress to operate out of, as well as an industrial base to sustain future conquests. Given the evidence of ties between Anteevy and the CIS, the failed strike against the Princess, and whatever other crimes they have gotten up to, Death Watch would be hailed as heroes for removing a threat to Mandalore.
As for Senator Merrik, well I did have a few agents in his group, but I already know that he has his own agents pretending to be part of Death Watch. I would have to settle for observations, my agents are not enough to overwhelm his guards. Senator Merrik hires from Clan Gedyc and their Death Watch members were some of the most radical hardliners from Tor Vizsla's original Death Watch. They weren't satisfied with my current direction, they still clung to the previous plan, to launch a doomed civil war in the Mandalorian sector.
They might claim to be Death Watch, but I doubted they would follow any of my orders at this point. The Gedyc were not ones for backroom deals or political wheeling and dealing. No doubt their lack of curiosity is why Senator Merrik chose them to be his loyal henchmen. They will regret that. I am not one to launch a doomed vendetta against Satine for Clan Gedyc or others just to win over their support. Not while Satine's reforms gave the Death Watch what we wanted for practically nothing. Senator Merrik would dispose of Gedyc whenever he accomplished his objective, as there was no chance he could replace me or gain the trust of the rest of the Death Watch. However, Gedyc clansmen would resist any orders I gave to take out Senator Merrik, of that I was certain.
Count Dooku had also contacted me a few days ago, implying that he was not a fan of what the Senator had gotten up to as well. He was interested in whether I would begin my operations to unseat the Duchess anytime soon.
Thankfully, I had a reasonable answer for Dooku; everything had happened so quickly that my resources weren't properly in their final position. It would probably be by the end of this year or the start of the next before we begin our efforts. Be it for the CIS or just for Mandalore, I was still considering the options there.
He seemed pleased before ending the communication, so hopefully he would not be calling for another several months. In that time I should have more information and more of an idea of what I was dealing with. However, if he was putting pressure on me to start the war, he is most likely also pressuring his other assets. Anteevy, I don't know what their objective is yet other than conquering the sector to spread their faithless ideas. But I know what Merrik's objective is, he wanted to be the Senator of Mandalore for the CIS… which meant that he might do something stupid in order to stay in Count Dooku's good graces. I just needed to make him desperate enough to do something stupid. Perhaps I could turn up the heat and tell Bo-Katan to warn her sister about Merrik? Or I could have Dooku provoke Merrik into a treasonous act so that he would be considered a traitor and his protections be removed. I would need to think this through before I decide.
Which brings me back to why I was attending this semi-monthly council meeting in person. I needed more information on what Satine's stances for Mandalore are, as well as her next course of actions for handling the outbreak of the war. And I'm frankly not liking what I was hearing about her neutral stance.
Duchess Satine had been holding a conversation about the details of her neutrality plan with Prime Minister Almec for the last half hour. Satine wanted to create a faction that could remain as a member of the Republic, but stay out of the conflict. Create some sort of 'neutral zone' to prevent the conflict from spilling out into the Mandalorian sector and the regions around the sector that wanted to stay out of the conflict. It's something I thought was rather unlikely to work, considering we were on the main highway for the conflict and that Dooku might just invade anyway. This war would be right next door at the very least, and there were going to be ships trying to sneak through our sector to attack both sides from both directions.
Hell, there was a chance we might play host to some battles in space. Probably some of the larger astronomical objects would be used as waypoints. It was even possible that there would be battles over some of our planets as forces tried to sneak past each other and ran into each other in the Mandalorian sector. Too bad that Satine's idea of a defensive void doctrine is a blindfold; demarcated minefields to control traffic and create corridors or nearly-invisible passive monitoring satellites would give us an edge if this played out.
Currently, the conversation was stuck on the fact that food imports may take a hit. Concordia was mentioned again, and I finally took an active interest in what Prime Minister Almec was saying.
"We always have Concordia, Concord Dawn, and even Vorpa'ya for their food production." Satine said softly, clearly trying to placate the worried Prime Minister. Concordia would be able to support itself indefinitely without imports. The Death Watch still existed today, in no small part due to my generous and significant resource contributions.
"If food imports are blockaded by the CIS, we wou-" Almec repeated, anxiety clear in his voice.
"If food imports are blockaded by either side." I interrupted and gave Almec and Satine a meaningful glance. Sitting back and sweeping my gaze across the other participants, I finished, "This is a war. We have to assume the worst, especially if we are taking this 'neutral' route instead of choosing a side."
Satine paused and nodded. Almec took no notice of her reaction, resuming the conversation overtop of Satine's sigh. "Exactly, if food imports are blockaded, we will have riots. We need to secure food supplies and stockpile, yesterday."
I sneered slightly. Concordia boasted significant granaries and long-term storage built into depleted mine shafts underground, safeguarded by my Death Watch. "Concordia's food stockpiles are secure. We have enough grain stockpiled to feed the Mandalore system for a year if the rest of the sector has their own food production." I stated, dismissing the concern. "I'd worry more about an invasion than riots. Vorpa'ya is right on the border with the CIS. We'd need a defensive fleet to respond to that." I pointed out. Concordia was safe from an invasion, except in the final extremity, its lunar position above Mandalore provided it significant tactical support from the planet's surface.
"The existing self-defense force of Vorpa'ya is being brought up to full strength and will have priority funding, with the other self-defense forces on standby to help defend Vorpa'ya in case that happens." Satine answered. I doubted it would be sufficient, and judging by Almec's displeased expression, he was of the same opinion.
The MSDF was struggling to secure equipment and create training facilities. I received constant reports from officers in the MSDF loyal to Death Watch. The entire structure was a mess with many battalions encouraging soldiers to get family to send them blasters or other basic equipment. With the foolish push for the clanless to join rather than recruiting purely from clans that actually had equipment already there was widespread corruption.
A new practice had arisen from the chaos. Clanless soldiers and officers contracting various clans for equipment and armor. Such contracts even had a nickname, Loneskar, for loned Beskar and other such equipment. Some of the contracts were rather extreme but when the choice was to potentially go to war without protection or to sell one's freedom to a clan for Beskar. The choice was obvious to most.
Satine wanted to have some sort of plan to create an alliance of neutral powers within the Republic that wanted to stay out of the conflict. But I doubted that would go over very well considering many Mandalorians would want to take a side, either side of the conflict really. If she was going to declare neutrality like that, she is going to cause problems for those who wanted to choose a side in the conflict. In the meanwhile, the Death Watch would take advantage and have a little bit of a jump in recruitment.
My thoughts were interrupted as the Minister of Finance, Droxun, spoke up asking that exact question. "What do we do if members of the Mandalorian sector go and join one of these conflicts? Doesn't that reflect poorly on the government?" Yes, it will, and I was glad not to be the lone voice of reason on the council.
Satine, who had been in the middle of a conversation with Prime Minister Almec, stopped to think for a moment before saying, "No, and we will be doing nothing." I looked up in shock.
"The fact of the matter is people will choose a side in this conflict with or without our approval. I've already had several Royal Guards say they want to help the Republic, and I've given them permission to take a leave of absence, so they can do that. I imagine there will be those who want to join the CIS or the Republic as the years go on, and as long as they do not try to draw the Mandalore sector in, I don't think we need to care about this situation." What of the blowback? If a Mandalorian warrior conquered a Republic world for the CIS... this could end in disaster.
Almec blanched, "What if the recruitment of our people for this conflict causes a political firestorm? We could face another Excision!" Several of the others in attendance visibly shuddered, hissed, or winced at the reminder. Satine was already shaking her head in disagreement, so I turned to face her, curious.
"No we won't. The Republic will be focused on the CIS, not some neutral periphery. And this is just an extension of Mandalore's existing policy; it seems that some of our people have already been involved in this conflict for the last ten years and we didn't know about it. The Clone Army was created using Jango Fett as a template, and they were trained by Mandalorians under his command."
This caused me to blink several times. I already had a bad impression when I heard about the Clone Army, but this was worse. Someone had been teaching our ways to a bunch of hollow copies and yes, maybe they may be as good as Jango, but they are more like slaves to the Republic than people with free will to decide for their own. Who knew what else those alien cloners had done along the way. I had concerns about that. It did make them an interesting source of recruitment. I wasn't sure if I could break them of their conditioning, but it may be something to look into as time goes on.
The conversation continued though as Droxun said, "That is a point in our favor then. Without us, the Republic would not have their army. So they were serving the Republic before the conflict even started? Then as long as these Mandalorians who left to fight did not abuse Mandalore's neutrality to escape their own punishment or for fraudulent purposes during the war, that would be acceptable."
"My thoughts exactly, Mrs. Droxun." Satine agreed with a nod before continuing, "In fact, I think we should plan our legislation that makes it quite clear that Mandalorians can go out there to volunteer in this war with the Republic or the Separatists on their own volition without our support. We will also need to make it clear that if they leave to fight, they will not be allowed to return until the war is over. At the very least, this will prevent people from jumping back and forth over the border. This way, we can prevent most of the abuse of our neutrality from the start."
There were quite a lot of affirmative nods, so even I nodded myself. Although I was kind of against it, one of the things you had to do when you were pretending to be something you're not is vote against your own interests. Cynically, I suspected sacrificing the ability to switch sides if the war started looking bad was worth it if it locked others into the same choice. And it wasn't like I particularly wanted either the CIS or the Republic to win outright. I would prefer Mandalore be independent or to be part of the independent systems. Leaving an escape route for those who decided that the Republic was the way, well that would be useful for me.
"What about the companies?" Droxun asked, "I'm sure several companies will want to sell their equipment to either side. What are we going to do about them?" She seemed more curious and eager than concerned. Interesting. I should send some more agents to her department, my last good one had been replaced by a droid recently. Hmm… maybe I only needed a good slicer instead.
There was an immediate shake of her head from Satine, as she said "That's a little too far. We will table that particular discussion for a later date, but right now it would be preferable that we are not selling military equipment to either side. Civilian products are allowed though, I know MandalMotors has been producing a line of tugboats for the Republic and we don't want that to get canceled. We just need to be careful with what equipment is being sold to both sides, make it clear that we are not favoring one or the other."
"So if we sell to both sides equally in some way, the companies could do that." Droxun grinned and seemed to interpret Satine's answer broadly as granting wide permission to do just that. I watched the byplay, a bit interested that it was Mrs. Droxun pushing an agenda. How uncharacteristic of the typically forgettable Councilwoman.
Satine hesitated at Droxun's summary, "Theoretically yes. However, this is a subject that will be tabled for another time, once we have a better understanding of the situation. I would prefer for us to stay out of the war, though."
A silly statement since the war was already here, but I could understand her point of view. Satine wasn't privy to the actions going on in the background and how many of her allies had secret agendas. My secret agenda was merely to preserve the Death Watch as protectors for the good of all Mandalore, but the rest, who truly knew? And they were allies until the moment they stabbed her in the back. If she knew, she would probably be all in on selling equipment to the Republic or the CIS, depending on the deal they offered.
The deal they offered…
Well, that's an interesting thought.
Coughing, I said, "What if they offer us a neutrality deal in exchange for the right to buy equipment from our market? They would have to transport it to their own lines themselves, as well as agree to our neutrality in the conflict."
Satine thought for a moment before nodding her head and saying, "Yes, that would actually be a rather safe approach. It would encourage both sides to keep our neutrality at the top of their minds. That's a good idea, Governor Vizsla. I will see if we can work up some sort of contract to offer to both the Republic and the CIS when the situation is available."
I smiled and nodded, taking the faint praise, despite suspecting that I probably just set this situation up rather nicely for something to go wrong.
The chances that the Republic would secure that neutrality in my mind were null. Sooner or later they would break their contract, it was only a matter of time. And when that happens, well I'm sure things would spin out of control.
Of course, the CIS might do the same thing. At the very least, I prevented the Workers' Council of Anteevy from striking the Mandalore sector openly, giving me more time to build up my own forces and prepare for securing my rise to Mand'alor.
"Speaking of companies, how is Gargon's integration coming along?" Satine asked Droxun, who was in charge of integrating Gargon into the Mandalore sector proper after Gerr was ousted by the real White Silver. I noticed that Almec looked like he had a whiff of Kri'gee with how severe his expression became. Which is understandable as he was never a fan of any non-New Mandalorian.
"So far, integration has been going smoothly. The ruling clans have decided that due to their proximity to the Hydian Way, they would become a resort world as their main source of income. They are in the process of opening various hotels and casinos as their main form of income generation. To supplement it, they are selling various cattle products and various industrial products to Mandal Logistics who then sell it to other planets and businesses in the sector. We should receive our first tax revenue from Gargon at the end of the year, which should boost our GDP by 9.8% from last year."
My thoughts on Mandal Logistics are mixed. When they entered the public domain, Death Watch didn't bat an eye. It is merely a small delivery corporation, nothing to be alarmed about. But over the years they grew exponentially and integrated themselves into the Mandalorian economy so well that they became household names like MandalTech or the Trade Federation.
The fact that Mandal Logistics was even used to deliver some of Death Watch's military assets, albeit hidden under Concordia's numerous grain deliveries, is a worry that I only noticed very recently. I planned to recruit Mandal Logistics to our side eventually, similar to how we commissioned MandalMotors to supply us with Kom'rk Fighters. However, the fact that they have quickly built an office on Gargon has concerned me. I hoped that it is merely because the CEO, someone called Visha that I found no records of and is likely a pseudonym to hide her identity, is merely a proactive and savvy businesswoman.
"Other than that, the Spice Refinery being constructed on Gargon is proceeding as planned and should begin production of pharmaceutical drugs in three to four months. The refinery will be part of a publicly traded company with the crown owning a majority of the shares with the Gargon clans having partial ownership."
"With the galaxy at war, medicine will be in high demand everywhere. Having our own supply of medicine would mean we won't run out of medicine in an emergency. It could also provide us an extra source of revenue if we export them to either side." I commented as I wondered if I should also invest in this refinery as well. It would give me an official excuse to have one of my men stationed there to monitor the planet, as well as have a supply of high grade medical drugs at a lower cost than importing it from outside the sector.
"That is the idea. Once we have a large enough production to meet local demand, we can export it to Taris or other planets that might need it."
From there, the conversation continued without much fanfare, since this is a room full of New Mandalorians after all. We spent the rest of the time discussing possibilities of trying to stay out of the war and improving our economy. It's a rather boring affair, we set the economic agendas for the next few years, like infrastructure projects to reduce unemployment from the upcoming recession caused by the war, food subsidies to encourage more food production, and even having Kalevala Shipworks sell Power Cores of ships to rural villages so that they have a reliable source of electricity that could boost our taxes as well as raise the standard of living for many villages. I noted that there seemed to be plans to improve Concordia's agricultural output. At least someone was thinking that, while we wouldn't have the ability to fully support the population of the sector sooner or later, I wouldn't turn down extra investments.
I could tell that the council wasn't taking the gravity of this situation seriously, and so my mind was elsewhere. The rest of the sector would not be ready for when the conflict was at their front door.
It took every ounce of control not to smile at the realization that while these people may have been preparing an army for Mandalore's defense, and they have no idea how they were going to use it. When I was finally Mand'alor, that army would serve me well. After all, when the Confederacy and the Republic are done beating each other to a pulp, there is likely to be quite a big change in the maps of the Galaxy. Sectors were just lines on maps, in the end. Perhaps we could break away part of this little borderland between the two, it would serve well as a defensive buffer for Mandalore.
Gargon, Mandal Hypernautics Tower
Bo-Katan Kryze
I drummed my fingers impatiently as I looked over my desk at the returning hero or rather Vai clad in Tanya's White Silver armor. Why was I not included in the plan to create a mercenary force and rescue Tanya? I would have joined in a heartbeat. "Muun'bajir ad'ika..." I muttered absentmindedly - I will have to remind Tanya about the importance of family and not going into battle alone, the Mando way. Either way, that's who I'm staring down in annoyance.
This was the perfect opportunity for White Silver to forge an alliance with me and my comrades, both the new allies I've made on Gargon and the few friendly factions in the Death Watch. But no~. No, they go off and do their own plan, their own plan that got a Lancer scuttled, and about a dozen Mandalorians killed in some foreign hellhole. And what did they have to show for this waste of blood and durasteel?
They put White Silver on the map as a supporter of the Republic, even if it was only by way of supporting Tanya.
Frowning, I gave Vai a stern look. "Alright, so, where to begin?" I asked, focusing on her. It was not amusing to me that White Silver was being hailed as a hero, despite the celebratory parade that had hailed her 'victorious' return to Gargon; I knew the truth. The fact that people were calling her the "Princess Savior" was even more ridiculous to me. Vai was shameless in response to my fixed stare, she gave a helpless shrug and wry smile.
White Silver had been welcomed back as some sort of conquering hero and had even crowd-surfed for a bit on our way back to the Tower. A lot of people had really liked that Mandalore had stepped out of its imposed pacifism to strike out. And apparently people really like the idea that White Silver had rescued another princess.
"We could begin with a 'Hooray' and 'Welcome back?'" Vai said expansively. This was the wrong attitude. I replied with silence and a deadpan stare.
After a minute like that passed, I played along, "Hurray, welcome back. How was your trip?" Time for the hammer blow. "How many people did you kill while posing as White Silver?"
Vai smiled and said, "Zero, thankfully, since we only fought droids. Not to say that no one died during that conflict, the Geonosians and the clones went at each other pretty hard."
"Great," I said with a shake of my head before adding, "so now that that's been stated, why was I not informed? I was off-world at the time but come on. All you needed to do was to send a message and I would have met you anywhere along the way."
Vai finally looked sheepish, staring down at her feet before saying, "I forgot, we came up with the plan to mainly have me being the one responsible for gathering troops, so we just went with it."
"That's it? You forgot? That's why you didn't call me? What am I? Chopped Bilerat?" I said, wanting to stand up and slap the girl for her stupidity, but I kept myself in check. I'd slap her later. For now, I keep on getting her story out of her.
"That's really it, though. Tanya knows more of what went wrong. I was only there for some of it, and from what I heard, everything was happening so fast."
I nodded slowly, considering her words. "Fine, fine. So you didn't give me a call because you were too busy running off and playing adventurer. You raised a mercenary army and fought for the Republic. So what's the plan now? Is Tanya planning to continue having this army fight for the Republic, or was this a one-time deal? A situation out of control and requiring brute force to get out of it."
Vai shrugged before saying, "I think it was mainly the second one. Tanya was trying to defuse the conflict in her negotiations, she didn't want to start the war. We accomplished our mission, so we could let the mercenary force that was created here be disbanded, unless well…"
"Unless what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her leading statement.
"Tanya did mention that if the Republic wanted to contract this mercenary force to help train their clone army or in any other capacity, they could. But she has no intention for them to serve the Republic as a military arm."
"Manda gaa'taylir mhi..." I muttered, I doubted Vai would understand anyway. I sighed and leaned back on my chair as I thought this over.
This was still in line with some of the plans Tanya had shared before. Gargon was in a good location to serve as a mercenary outpost, and sending troops off from Gargon to the Republic would be beneficial. Though I do wonder what Pre would think about that.
After a few minutes, I straightened up and said, "We'll go with Tanya's plan. However, I want you on a shuttle returning to Mandalore before the end of the day. No more celebrations, White Silver needs to go into hiding because of her tomfoolery and we need to make it clear to Tanya that going on vendettas like that has consequences."
Vai nodded and started getting up from her chair before I said, "One more thing. What's this I hear about White Silver is a lesbian?"
Vai laughed before she saw my expression and cut off. "Uh, just a little prank I was playing on Tanya, nothing too serious."
I continued to give her an annoyed look before I stifled a laugh and said, "Nice one, just don't overdo it. Maybe get permission and work it into White Silver's lore. I'm sure it's going to be annoying to keep track of things you do from Tanya's perspective."
"Will do." Vai said with a salute, and she got up from her chair and exited the room. Once Vai left, I turned to look out the window.
This was a right mess, but nothing that my niece couldn't figure out. Now I wondered how she would do when the whole conflict across the sector really ramped up. This was the war that Pre had been talking about for a long time. So after what had happened, how would Pre handle it is the real question.
Worse yet, what would I do when Tanya found out that I was working for Death Watch? It's something I had never really thought about. I didn't really feel like it'd ever be a possibility that Death Watch would actually make a move. Now there was, would she be angry with me or understand my point of view about trying to protect the clan by having someone within Death Watch?
Only time would tell, and I had to hope that time would tell us a good tale, one where Clan Kryze survived the war intact and the Mandalore sector is able to rebuild and continue to expand into a power out here on the Rim. Otherwise, things are going to get chaotic and terrible real quick.
Sighing, I started to put together a letter to Satine, letting her know that I probably would not be able to come by for our training session for a while, not with the galaxy at war. I wrote some about the hassle of managing the mercenaries, until I realized Satine wouldn't understand in the slightest. Ugh, New Mandalorians, I wished Tanya was around instead, she understood... so I trimmed off that portion, and sent the letter.
Now that I was finished writing that letter, I opened a new one that was going to Pre. Last time we met, he hinted that he was unclear where my loyalties lay, so I needed to re-affirm that I would still serve Death Watch.
Then right after that, I would have to be ready to serve with Death Watch when they called. I just had to make sure that it was all official, make sure that Pre Vizsla was not our enemy, and that my sister, nephew and niece would be protected.
Sure, we come a long way from calling her the Anti-Mand'alor. But there was always a chance that if I wasn't in Death Watch, they would renege on their agreements to not go after Clan families.
The war is here. Now all the alliances and interpersonal connections that have been built up would be stressed to see what would happen, and I just had to hope that it ends with Mandalore coming out of it stronger.
Writers note: That should be the last of the wrap-up chapters, I think? Next chapter, we move forward into the next preamble before a mini arc before we get to the real arc starting the chapter after that. This is going to be epic…
Edited by: L, Aemon, BigKuma DM, Afforess, Guardsman Pius, freelancerdeltazero, Warmach1ne32, Waters, FallQM
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It's so nice that they aren't calling Satine the antichrist anymore.
I hope there's an opportunity for Tanya and Bo to get a heart to heart, or that it happens after Bo wresles Death Watch from Pre's cold dead hands. 'Oops, what's all this political infrastructure lying around? Thanks anyway'
I hope there's an opportunity for Tanya and Bo to get a heart to heart, or that it happens after Bo wresles Death Watch from Pre's cold dead hands. 'Oops, what's all this political infrastructure lying around? Thanks anyway'
hmm in canon i think they did try do that
it is nice... wonder how long that last...
Chapter 41
Chapter 41
716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 8
Coronet, en-route to Coruscant
Tanya Kryze
I blinked and looked away from my datapad and out the window, at the stars streaming by. The life of a galactic politician is usually a nomadic one. Sure, I could stay on Coruscant permanently, but I took my role seriously. As a Representative of the Mandalore Sector, I needed to understand the situation on the ground and I needed to physically visit places to gather the right kind of information. I know from experience that it's easy to be misled with reports and statistics if I've never visited the place personally. I probably should have spent a little bit more time on Mandalore to make sure everything was running smoothly with my operations there. I also wanted to visit and check on Gargon as White Silver, but matters on Coruscant are too pressing to justify an extra stop. Unfortunately, with my main and publicly known Lancer destroyed I would have to take other means of transportation, so I am once again on board the Coronet.
It isn't the worst way to travel, traveling aboard the Coronet is traveling in luxury, but it is not as fast as the Lancer and I rarely desired the luxuries the Coronet provided anyway. I preferred the Lancer's speed, so that I spent less time on the move and more time to get work done. The more I delay doing work, the less time I have to do them. Time crunches are exhausting and a pain to deal with, that it is the result of inefficient use of time or lazy and inconsiderate use of authority that dumps more work than the worker can physically handle. If your time is properly managed, more work could be completed with less time and pressure.
I would have to purchase a replacement Lancer when I had the chance, as well as make sure that all of them are upgraded with better defensive systems so that they wouldn't get shot down so easily. I used to have three of them, but one of them is used by X4 to travel between Gargon and Mandalore and the other is now exclusively for White Silver. Thus, I'll need to purchase 3 new Lancers if I want to have back up or decoy Lancers. But that is a concern for the future, today my concern is with the Republic and the ongoing war.
The Galactic Civil War had been raging for a month and a half by this point. What exactly is going on across all the fronts is still a muddled mess, but from what I could understand, it is in a stalemate. Like the First World War in my first life, but on a galactic scale, with neither side being able to push the other out. The clones are performing excellently on the frontline, as they are capable of taking on many times the number of droids in comparison to how many clone troops are deployed. Granted, deployments of partisan groups from local defense forces and other fighters are also fighting to keep their planets in the Republic. These groups support the clones and auditing the individual battles revealed that they are responsible for a significant number of the actual kills. But for the most part the clones are serving as the main fighting force and that is important.
A visible army kept morale up, even if the messaging is currently a bit mixed. The Senate is only focused on the headlines and battle outcomes. Even with the losses taken at Geonosis, the Senate considered the battle a great victory, as the strategic objective was completed. Sacking an important droid foundry was all they cared about. No one cared about the losses yet. Those would catch up to us, no doubt, but in the meantime, I was much more concerned about the Senate's decision to grant the Jedi the rank of General. The Jedi Order is running the Republic military and they have no idea how to strategize. You do not learn to command an army while on the job. At least throw a few of the Jedi into Officer school first, I know the Republic still has a few military academies for their Judicial Forces.
From what I understood, the general thinking was that if anyone had any combat experience, it would be the Jedi Order. However, their previous combat experiences weren't against armies and by my own reading of reports, they tended to favor warfare that looked like it belonged on the battlefields of Napoleon's Europe. Massive armies fighting openly in pitched battles, fighting at range until they closed distance. At least the droids and clones didn't use swords or bayonets.
I wish I could be harsher on the Jedi leadership, but my role is not that of a military advisor, I'm merely a politician. Overstepping here and pushing for Mandalore's "advice" in military matters while a mere Representative would not only ruin my professional relationship with Senator Merrik, but also anger Duchess Satine and the others who wanted neutrality. So, the most I could do was ensure that those who knew my worth are aware of my opinions.
Sending men and women who only knew how to fight by closing distance with lightsabers to fight a conventional war is an asinine mistake. One that will probably cost the Republic a lot of clone lives and waste all the credits that were spent to grow and educate them. Does the Senate even care about that waste, though? From the rhetoric I saw coming out of the Senate and on the newly organized Republic HoloNet News, they didn't even seem to consider the clones as sentient. That was another thing, the HoloNet News was seized by the Republic, apparently, and now broadcasting... propaganda. I glanced backwards towards the screen on the wall displaying the muted Republic HoloNet News broadcast on the other side of the room.
The broadcasters are discussing Kashyyyk. One of the moons of the planet had been attacked by the CIS with a superweapon called "Dark Reaper." The weapon operated by harvesting the "Force" energy out of matter, whatever that meant. The imagery on display showed a devastated forest moon, but the way the talking heads are describing the event is jarring. I skimmed the subtitles as the news played across the screen. Reading the subtitles and ignoring the audio is an old habit from my first life that I had resumed again.
"General Windu has reported that the superweapon has been destroyed by Jedi forces on the lunar surface, but the Senate is already preparing another appropriations bill for our Grand Army in response. With us is Ignar Ominaz, famous swoop racer and pilot who happened to be racing on Kashyyyk at the time! What did you see of this shocking Dark Reaper attack?" The male Twi'lek newscaster asked the famous guest correspondent, a human in a racing outfit.
"Far out, man. I didn't see no Sith, but like the whole sky on Kashyyyk went dark, and the moon just died. Stars in the daytime sky even, it was freaky." In the background, the news studio is replaced with footage of the attack. The Twi'lek nodded sagely at the inarticulate swoop pilot.
"You heard about it here, from Ominaz no less! Now the Clone Army has secured the planet and orbit, and no doubt they will keep the Separatist monsters at bay! Sith Lord Dooku is on the run from Kashyyyk and the Grand Army of the Republic!"
Ominaz nodded eagerly, "Yeah, the clones are great. I just wish the cloners sold to regular folks, an LA-AT gunship and crew would be just the thing to get my swoop bike to Outer Rim racetracks." The Twi'lek newscaster laughed forcefully at the distasteful joke; I was glad the audio was muted.
I turned away and stopped paying any further attention to the broadcast. Flesh droids, but droids nonetheless. I'm concerned about this, they had already dehumanized AI and droids, now they are dehumanizing literal humans just because they've been created through a test tube. Once you start dehumanizing people, it's hard to walk the rhetoric back.
There isn't even a pretense to try and be impartial; Count Dooku was declared a Sith Lord and traitor to the Republic, as if it were a fact or just sentencing. As far as I knew, he had declared no such thing and was not a Sith. Looks like my predictions about politics affecting the Jedi Council would be put to the test soon. Would they declare him a Sith Lord, like the Senate had? Using a superweapon that could kill a whole moon did not paint a good picture, so Dooku had handed the Jedi a perfect excuse to make the politically expeditious decision now.
This new Republic HoloNet News is not reporting much on any other force other than this "Grand Army of the Republic" either. The irregular units fighting to defend their home planets, even those in direct ground combat with the CIS right now, are glossed over. Instead, there were more cheap insults about the bug-like nature of the Geonosians.
Ideally, the Senate would not be too swayed by the political efforts to denigrate the image of the aliens living in the Outer Rim, but with the way the war was going, that seemed unlikely to change or improve. Before this conflict even really got started, the CIS already invaded planets that they thought are useful to them. Malastare had come under occupation due to its abundant fuel reserves, currently that conflict seemed to be on track for a Republic victory, but that is just a small example as there are other battles going on throughout the Galaxy.
For someone who said they are on the side of doing good, Count Dooku seems to have reached for any weapons within his grasp, no matter how dark or evil their origins. Which I could respect in a fight for survival, but the conflict between the Republic and CIS is more about corruption and trade disputes than survival. Or at least, that is how matters seemed at the start. Now it is turning into a dirty fight, using ancient Sith superweapons against a modern-day population.
The other recent controversy that cast Count Dooku as the villain in the conflict was the Decimator Incident. Personally, my opinion on the matter was that Count Dooku wasn't at fault, but the Senate majority loudly disagreed. What had happened, and the Republic HoloNet news failed to cover or present to its audience, was that the Wookies had a secret military research project to create a powerful land battleship equipped with turbolasers and shields, the 'Decimator', had been discovered by a Hutt spy and sold to the Separatists. We knew this much because the Hutt also sold their information to a Republic agent. After that, everything became a disaster. The technology had been captured and lost to a surprise CIS invasion at the Wookiee's secret facility. The final outcome had been swift - Jedi forces destroyed the captured technology, but lost the secret plans and research in the process.
I had the feeling that there was more to it that had been kept hidden from the public, something that I didn't know. Rather suspicious how agents of the Hutts had learned of this Decimator project and led the CIS to capture it, when the Senate and Jedi seemed to be caught off-guard by the entire affair. The Wookiee's project was entirely legal and squeaky clean, but that was only on the surface. When I investigated the details, at least those I had access to as a Representative, it made no sense. The Wookiees had begun research and development on the military contract for the project only after the passage of the Military Creation Act, earlier this year. They had researched and developed an entire mobile military platform to the prototype stage in only a dozen weeks? The project showed the signs of years of investment, and the large, spread-out project sites across several worlds only reinforced my suspicions.
But as it stood now, the Separatists had used several superweapons in response and had even invaded multiple planets along the border region between them and the Republic.
So far, they thankfully haven't attacked any planets that are claiming neutrality, instead focusing on worlds who declared themselves for the Republic. Hopefully that would spare Mandalore any invasions, but if it didn't, we'd give them a hell of a fight, that's for sure.
That being said, it was quite apparent at this point that the Separatists are not going to be the reasonable or diplomatic party in this conflict for some time. However, by the same token, the Republic wasn't even attempting any diplomacy as it seems that war is the only mutual interest for both sides.
The Separatists adopted the role of revolutionaries and freedom-fighters, trying to spread their revolution as far and wide as they can, which would be good if they were genuine. But there are also corporate interests backing this revolution, ensuring that planets that submitted to the Separatists' Council would become second-class citizens, or feudal vassals.
The Republic is treating the war as a Sith invasion and existential threat. Even though there aren't any Sith currently leading the Separatists. Except maybe Count Dooku, who was seen wielding a red lightsaber, despite originally owning a blue lightsaber during his years as a Jedi Master. The Senate fixated on this detail and then used the accounts from the Jedi that had faced Dooku in combat and survived to justify their declaration and name him a Sith Lord.
How long this war would go is anyone's guess. If it is like the ancient Sith wars, it had the potential to go on for hundreds of years. Those wars had decades where they switched between going hot and cold, but of course, the Galaxy had been a much smaller place and more spread out. Many planets back then weren't charted and didn't care about the galactic community or interstellar trade as long as they were left alone.
Things are different now, planets that suffered under the control of the Sith would call for aid, the Jedi would respond, and conflict would spring up there. The Jedi are obligated to defend any world or peoples that could lodge a request and had valid cause. This meant Sith influence on any world would cause the conflict to expand and open a new front, creating a new battlefield the Jedi must defend. This cycle would only end once one side had defeated the other in totality, no compromise or tolerance is possible.
That was the danger of a conflict between the Jedi and Sith, it would keep growing the longer this went on.
Mainly I hoped we could avoid that kind of conflict, the crimes and horrors I had dug up in my research on the ancient wars between the Jedi and the Sith were often so wild as to be unbelievable. The Rakghoul Plague was one of those Sith horrors I had not given much stock when learning Mandalorian history until recent events. Thousands of years ago, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders had been advancing on their prize, the ecumenopolis world of Taris, so their armies had conquered the nearby world of Jebble as a staging ground. The frozen colony world of Jebble was mostly a mine and foundry, but after the Rakghoul plague was unleashed on the gathering army, the inhabitants had been transformed into Rakghoul. The details all added up to an unbelievably tall tale, which explained why I had slotted that particular history into the "embellishment" category, one of those confabulations invented by a prideful historian to mask an embarrassing battlefield defeat or some other blunder. Except my occasional quiet questions to Yoda in the past confirmed details and past events, so there was little chance in my mind it was all embellishment.
A straightforward conflict between civilized peoples over resources sounded preferable to the histories of pseudo-religious Jedi-Sith conflicts. In the case of the Rakghoul, the exact creation process was lost to time, but the end result of the plague is the creation of mindless slaves to a Sith artifact. Those that transformed reminded me of fictional zombies from my first life, endlessly infecting others with a scratch, or a bite. The Neo-Crusader Era Mandalorians had no answer for the Rakghoul and resorted to "nuking the planet from orbit". A strategy justifiably given much scorn in all my lives. Today, Jebble is lifeless; abandoned and forgotten by nearly all Mandalorians. I sighed and toyed with the caf in my saucer, blinking briefly in surprise at the stars streaming out the window. Soon, we would be back on Coruscant and I would have to resume my duties as Representative.
Count Dooku had clearly been attempting to convince both Obi-Wan and I to switch sides and join the Separatists before the war began. If he was willing to try and persuade someone as straight-laced as Obi-Wan was, he's probably desperate enough to try and recruit anyone he can from the Jedi Order. The more Jedi he persuaded to switch sides, the greater the chance their organization would be declared a Sith Order. Then this war would expand into a never-ending series of conflicts that kept growing and growing as the years went on.
Letting out a sigh, I reached again for the saucer of caf on the table next to me. I took the drink and enjoyed the smooth flavor of this particular blend.
I'm relaxing in the main viewing area of the ship, it has a large window that faces towards the front, towards the hyperspace we are traveling through. The dimension of hyperspace is fascinating, while the research is still unsettled on the topic, there are persistent rumors about it being dangerous to stare at too long. I doubted staring at something could turn anyone insane, but then again, the Force existed. Anakin had told me that was all nonsense the one time the topic had come up on Tatooine, but then he had started frowning and mentioned dark-siders found hyperspace relaxing. So now I had two reasons not to stare overly long, even if it was very interesting and cool to look at.
"Tanya, you in here?" called a familiar voice, causing me to turn and glance back at Vai entering the room.
"Hello Vai." I said with a smile, beckoning her to sit next to me. Vai had finally put away the White Silver disguise after returning to Gargon. Now that we are returning as a group to Coruscant, I could get back to the normal life of Tanya Kryze and not the abnormal alter-ego I had let myself fall into in the hope of preventing a war. "How are you doing?" I asked.
"Good, just wondering why you wanted to speak to me." She commented.
I played along, tapping my chin dramatically and posing thoughtfully. "Hmm, why did I want to speak to you? It didn't have something to do with something you did on our latest mission. Something that Morson can't stop talking about."
Vai's cheeks turned red, and she deflected my attention with an obvious cough into her fist, "No, I don't know what you're talking about."
I adopted a puzzled look and tone, speaking slowly as to enjoy the new colors on Vai's face. "Strange, she keeps talking about how the White Silver gave her another kiss, a special, elongated one."
"Huh, well, that's a fascinating story."
"Yes," I said, looking her straight in the eye, "What exactly do you think White Silver was thinking with that action?" I probed.
Vai paused and scratched her neck, then finally seemed to compose herself. "Perhaps she was thinking about using Khae as a way to blind people with the dissimilarities between her and her true identity."
I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head, "And what exactly does that mean?"
"It might mean that she is merely pretending to be interested, but she prefers the opposite gender. I imagine sooner or later... when her public identity starts dating, it will be another layer of obfuscation."
I narrowed my eyes, annoyed with her, but the facts are hard to refute. It's frustrating, but I had to admit it is a damn good point. Building a deniable cover required ensuring that the cover had a lot of differences; enough so no one would associate you with the alternative identity. Even if people started thinking that Vai is White Silver, the fact that she hung out a lot with her boyfriend would do a lot to diminish that connection.
Shaking my head, I said, "Fine, but when we meet White Silver again, she will have to apologize to Morson if she doesn't actually have feelings for her." Vai nodded, and before she could respond I leaned forward, "Also, White Silver is not allowed to lead Morson on. She is a friend, not an asset that she can use for her cover. Is that clear?"
"Understood, but what if Khae agrees to be an asset for White Silver's cover?" Vai asked with a mischievous smile.
I glared back. "In that case, we will have a conversation with her on that matter in the future."
Vai nodded and leaned back in her chair, as Ordo joined the two of us and offered her a saucer of caf off a tray. He is the only Royal Guard in the room; Engiz was enough to protect us. Although I do have a deactivator hidden in my sleeve and Vai likely has a vibroknife and blaster pistol under her dress.
Vai snatched the drink with a quick, "Thanks, Ordo". I began to sip at my caf drink again, trying to enjoy the blend.
"By the way... are you Tanya's first kiss?" Vai asked Ordo, who had been reading my datapad over my shoulder. I coughed as my caf went down the wrong pipe, and I saw Ordo's shadow freeze up.
"Knew it!" Vai exclaimed, fist-pumping in celebration, as she sipped her drink.
"Knew what?" I asked as Ordo handed me his handkerchief and I cleaned myself off a bit.
"Tabi mentioned that Engiz was acting a little bit off after the mission to Gargon. He said that Engiz used to be a lot more love drunk, then acted a lot more confident after Gargon. Put together with your comment about Khae not being your first..."
I finished cleaning myself off and said, "Wonderful deduction. Now can you keep that to yourself or are you going to be blabbing it to Morson?"
"I'll keep it to myself if you can meet at least one of my two conditions."
"And they are?" I asked.
"Tell me exactly what happened back then, every detail, or swear to me you'll never do it again. Pick your poison."
I narrowed my eyes at her imposed conditions. "Interesting tactic. What if I lie? How will you tell the difference? You might not get anything out of this scheme."
"Oh I didn't say I don't get anything, I'm sure getting you to lie would be an interesting experience, you're not that good at it."
I raised an eyebrow, I am rather good at lying, otherwise she would know that I was a reincarnate in my third life. But I kept that to myself, instead saying, "It was not a big deal, we were almost found while undercover and had to pose as a couple, making out in an alleyway. It was just that one time."
"That time." Vai emphasized, leaning forward.
Setting my saucer down, I said, "You never asked about later encounters, so you will not be receiving more information. My private life is my own, thank you very much. You don't hear me talking to you about your relationship all the time."
"Oh… so are you saying that if I started talking to you about my relationship with Tabi you'd be more open about your relationship with Engiz?"
"What? No!"
"So you admit you have a relationship with Engiz?!"
"..." I turned back towards the stars flitting by and hyperspace view, it is much more fascinating than this conversation.
Gargon, Mandal Hypernautics Assembly Center
Bo-Katan Kryze
'This is an exciting way to start the day.' I thought as blaster bolts streamed past my position behind the doorway.
Today started like any other day: wake up, do my morning work out, eat breakfast, read reports, prep for a day of training newbies the basics of fighting. But instead, I found myself fighting three Mandalorians of an unknown clan who broke into the library of the Mandal Hypernautics Assembly Center. It is unclear how much they had already stolen and extracted, but the security network flagged the theft of a lot of designs by the time we responded. The upgraded security network also alerted everyone in the facility of the theft, leading to the current situation. So I am hiding behind cover as one of the infiltrators unleashed a torrent of bolts from a handheld rotary blaster cannon, tearing apart everything around me.
My trusty subordinate, Cylah Troa, is crouched beside me and my armored form. She is similarly armored up in her ranger's gear, a mix of silver and brown with a red highlight on her helmet. We were on our way to my office when the alert sounded that there were intruders in the library. When we made it to the library, we joined up with some security guards that were forced to take cover from the rotary blaster fire coming from the library. We exchanged a quick glance before I gestured for her to take half of the men and flank the intruders, while I kept their attention. She nodded, so I took out my pistol and fired a few blasts around the corner.
As I did so, a disheveled man with glasses appeared, clearly distraught by the loud sounds and unruly occupants in his library. "What is going on here!" He then paused, clearly not expecting my pistol and the scene of open warfare before him.
"You're going to destroy priceless records and who knows what information is going to be harmed by your inappropriate barbarism! Savagely uncultured-" I ignored him, the eggheads never react well to their ivory towers being knocked over.
I tilted my head a bit and activated the camera attached to my pistol, so I could get a view around the corner at what we are dealing with. My pistol camera saw three Mandalorians, no obvious clan markings, and their armor is thoroughly tinted a rather strange color of dark red. Two of them are still busy, apparently still trying to steal as many records as possible.
I observed the situation from behind cover as the heavy set Mandalorian wielding the rotary blaster cannon stood guard over the doorway. Two smaller figures are somewhat visible, obviously slicing into the archives and busy downloading information from the library wall, likely searching for more designs of some sort. What their exact motives are, I couldn't say for certain. Maybe they are pirates or mercenaries hired for some corporate espionage. Maybe they are after the plans for the Sundari-class freighter or perhaps one of the fighter designs we sold. It is possible they simply wanted everything. Whatever the case may be, nothing good would come from this if they succeeded.
Hopefully, we could capture one of them so that I could interrogate them to find out who ordered this operation. Whether Mandal Motors is behind this or if some other company had hired Mandalorian mercenaries to steal from us, it had to be Mandalorian, though. Their armor design has some peculiarities that are consistent with the Supercommando style, but it also has additional features, such as those thick pilot suits to keep the wearer as warm as possible. This detail could indicate that they are local muscle, as foreigners were often unfamiliar with Gargon's climate. The "mild" temperatures the weather forecasts gave to tourists are deceptive as Gargon is quite cool, often chilly and wet, year-round. But it didn't make sense for another local organization to attack Mandal Hypernautics.
Our activities are aimed at improving the overall economy and quality of life on Gargon and we're broadly popular. Besides, the hotel under construction was finally completed and had its ribbon-cutting ceremony only a few weeks ago. The numbers of guests are still low, but the live shows and concerts were drawing a significant number of people, especially those interested in seeing the Gargon Girls. No, they must be someone from off-world or a Gargon corporation we didn't already know about.
There is a beep on my comms, I picked up the message and asked, "In position?"
"Yes ma'am. We've sealed off all entrances and exits to the library. They are not getting out without a fight."
Judging by the earlier blaster fire, the window for talking is over.
"Your call, boss. We're waiting for the signal." Whoops, I had been thinking aloud again. Well, whatever, she's my aide, so it was fine.
"Got it, on my mark. Go." No point in negotiating with these invaders, just going to give away information to the enemy.
At my signal, there were several explosions from different sources up ahead before the shooting started up again. My instinct was to jump out and confront the adversaries head on, guns blazing. However, that rotary blaster cannon posed an actual risk to me, I wasn't ready to gamble my beskar armor against it. So instead, I poked my pistol around the corner.
Currently, said rotary blaster cannon is being wielded by the big guy, who was distracted by the earlier explosions and aimed it towards the west side of the room. I used the distraction to shoot a few blaster shots at it. The bolts melt the main body of the blaster cannon causing it to crackle and pop. Its wielder, the big thief, turned in my general direction and tossed the now ruined gun like it was a log at me before running inside the library. I dodged the cannon by rolling forwards under it as two security guards used the walking fire tactic I taught them months ago to both shoot and walk past me, unleashing blaster fire into the main door into the Library. The big guy retreated inside the room before closing the door. Once the door was shut, they sprinted forwards to take breaching positions beside the Library door.
It took me a moment to stand back up and sprint to the doorway myself. Once I was in position, I opened the door and put my pistol around the corner again to see what the situation inside is like.
The room is a wreck. Most of the digital displays and servers were shot to hell, thankfully there is an emergency backup facility off-site that backs up all of Hypernautics' data, so nothing would be lost. Even if something had been lost before the backup, we might also be able to recover it off the thieves' equipment, as they won't need it anymore.
The three thieves are in the center of the room, firing back to back. It's a good strategy to keep the various entry points suppressed but it is a doomed one. With them out in the open with no cover, I said, "On my mark, spray them down. Mark!" With the signal sent, I breached the room along with every guard as everyone popped out cover, and gunned down the thieves in a shower of bolts from all sides. All three of the thieves are knocked to the ground by the overwhelming impact of a dozen S2 SHUKURs at high impact mode.
While you doubt any blaster can penetrate beskar armor, the high impact mode can deliver enough kinetic energy to cause internal hemorrhaging and a couple dozen shots from that would pummel anyone to death. A few of the security guards that were hit in the initial breach are now being evac-ed to the infirmary, their beskar armor might have saved their lives, but they'll still need to spend a few days in the infirmary.
However, there is something strange about the thieves' armor. I stepped closer to get a better look and knelt down in front of one of the bodies before pushing it over. These aren't blaster marks, they are blaster burns that bore a hole through their armor. Their armors aren't made of beskar at all, they are just some knock-offs. Made of Plasteel, perhaps?
Troa walked over to me and looked down at the bodies, confused. "That's odd, no self-respecting Mandalorian would ever wear plasteel. Not even the most impoverished local nomads would degrade themselves that much."
I nodded my head in agreement and said, "Yeah, there's something off here. Probably someone wanted to frame the theft from some local Mandalorians."
Troa paced around the armor, examining the damage more closely, inspecting other angles. "Either that or they're very cheap, but that makes no sense either. From what I saw, they acted like they expected their armor to hold up a bit better than it did."
I raised an eyebrow at that, asking the obvious question, "Could they have thought their armor was better than it was?" Or maybe the SHUKUR is something they didn't think they needed to worry about.
"Yeah," Troa nodded her head, "that sounds about right." She stopped and pointed at a few of the blaster burns on the other side of the armor, "Any idiot wearing beskar'gam for the first time would probably think they are blaster-proof." Even I thought I was blaster-proof when I first put on my beskar'gam before my trainer knocked the youthful arrogance out of me.
That just raised more questions, though, too many questions for my liking. Whoever these thieves are, they are obviously expendable and were given plasteel armor so that they won't have any identifiable markings.
I got up and brushed myself off before saying, "Have the armor and weapons sent to a local armorer we trust. I doubt they would find anything, but might as well check to see if they could find out where they came from, otherwise scan their chain code before throwing their bodies in a pit somewhere and setting them on fire."
Troa nodded, then gave a salute before giving out orders to the security forces. In a moment, she turned them to work, picking up the bodies and taking them out of the library.
"God damn barbarians." came the hysterical voice of the librarian as he stumbled into the room and fell to his knees, theatrically raising balled up fists to the sky. "It's ruined!" After that declaration, the man seemed to collapse in on himself.
Shaking my head at this drama, I walked over to him and slapped him upside his head, getting him to focus on me.
"There's a backup, stop being such a weakling. Now do me a favor," I pointed towards the machinery and equipment the thieves left behind. "Search that gear and find out exactly what they were looking for. I want a report about it on my desk by tomorrow morning. Got that?"
The librarian sighed before nodding his head, despondently, but he showed enough signs of listening as he stumbled over to the equipment.
The librarian wasn't the only one who is going to have to suffer writing a report tonight. Many of Hypernautics' most important designs and documents are kept in the archives here. I would have to send my niece a message about all of this. I had to get more evidence and a better explanation first, though.
Breshig, Excavation Site
Zoll "Tom" Bresh
Six months, that is how long it took. Six months to not only discover the location, but also clear it out of local flora and fauna. Six months to recover the lost warship, a Kandosii-class ship of unusual size that was lost to time and nature. Also, we finally found the name of this ancient vessel from its own database, the Darasuum'orar. We were still working to weld up all leaks we could find, and from there then pump out the water.
This is the largest project I have ever undertaken, but we took our time to do it right. We carefully and steadily cleaned it out. Once it was airtight and all the water inside of it had been pumped out, the warship is slowly lifted to the surface with some flotation devices to prevent the ship from tipping over to its side on the surface. It is now bobbing calmly on the surface of the swamp.
I often caught myself just staring at the enormous hull. A glorious example of the former majesty of the Mandalorian Empire, so close I can reach out and touch it. Its metal is aged green with time and covered with swamp-life, but the internals we had discovered and restored are strong. There is an easy explanation for the warship's survival, in that it was just that well-built and the quality showed.
Theoretically, this is probably one of the strongest warships in the Mandalore sector due to its beskar hull. It was a ship-building design that had long since been abandoned due to the scarcity of beskar as the Galaxy grew bigger. Most of the weapon systems on board are outdated junk, but the beskar they were made of is recoverable if we melt it down.
The Prince of Mandalore wanted the ship sent off to Mandalore as a museum. That is alright in my opinion, as there are too many factions trying to get their hands on this literally priceless piece of Mandalorian history. I would prefer to find it a berth somewhere on Mandalore and have it restored and shown off at the capital. The old beauty deserved to spend its retirement in peace; either a carefully maintained museum or as a show for the kids.
The Ithorians had concerns, of course. They are helping to terraform Breshig, though they were a bit alarmed by us disturbing the biosphere, since a natural habitat had developed aboard the ship. The Ithorians took their time studying the wildlife, even though it delayed us in clearing the ship and preparing it for transport. I didn't really mind, but some of the crew had complained about having to rely on the kindness of the Ithorians, who were all about maintaining the natural order of the world.
They had been upset when we had continued to clear the ship despite them only documenting the life forms of the upper decks. Although I'm pretty sure what convinced them not to push us harder was the potential expense in trying to recreate or rehouse the life in a similar beskar-contained environment; the beskar alone would bankrupt the sector! Once they finished, we could deport the last of the lizards out of the ship and just let the last of the water pour out into the sea.
But of course to get there they needed to get the ship airworthy. Right now, it is merely seaworthy yet a little bit unbalanced as it was never meant to ride on the surface. But the lower decks still being flooded acted as a sort of ballast to the voidcraft.
Thankfully, most of the water on Breshig is stagnant and doesn't move around a lot. There are rivers and abundant underwater currents, but never major waves on the surface as Breshig doesn't have a moon to create tides. While we have attached flotation devices and outriggers to stabilize the craft on the surface of the water, having to deal with surface waves or choppy water would have been a nightmare. Anything that could flip the thing upside down or destabilize it would have been a massive problem to everyone inside.
While the smooth surface of Breshig and calm weather provided an easy platform to work off, the engines of the warship are a problem. Rust, mud, and all kinds of particulates have gotten into them over the centuries underwater. Flushing them out is turning into a slog. High-powered hoses are used in several stages, cleaning out individual engine components. However, even with this multi-stage process, parts of the engines are completely ruined and would need disassembly. Only then could the engineers and their Ithorian counterparts reference the known designs and working parts to rebuild the broken engine components. I wasn't even sure that the engines would even work after the repairs, we hadn't even cleared the water out of all of them yet.
The fact of the matter was, if this ship were to get space-borne again, we should try taking the ship to the shipyards at Kalevala before retiring it on Mandalore. They have the facilities to be able to clean up the engines or replace them entirely, such repairs would prove very difficult on Breshig's surface.
I also wanted to outfit the ship with some kind of modern weapon system. An old warship like this needs weapons, it would be a shame that such a fine ship hull is left defenseless, especially at a time in history like now. I didn't want the old girl to fight any battles for Mandalore, but it is a practical matter. Mandalore didn't have many allies, and the warship is practically a sitting duck for the likes of the Trade Federation. A few guns could change or deter that possibility, in my mind. .
If I am being honest, the weapon system is not, strictly speaking, part of the original mission or project scope. However, with recent events in the Republic, I suspected the addition would be overlooked, or at least, approved without too much commentary. Okay, maybe even that was a bit of hopeless optimism, but a man can dream. I dreamed of the day that my homeworld would be fixed; full of cities filled with Mandalorians, full of life to practically bursting. For as long as I could remember, Breshig had been a doomed planet where only lost wonders could be found. Now, things are changing and the possibility of my dreams didn't seem so hopeless.
Mandalore seemed to be experiencing a revitalization, and I would not miss my chance to be a part of restoring this old beauty for the galaxy. The Mandalorian Prince did not seem to appreciate much of the revitalization and was uneasy even discussing the topic as it was Mandalorian armorers, Mandalorian fighters, and Mandalorian weapons which are at new heights. However, I'm confused by his unease; this is a good thing, we always needed to train and be prepared as Mandalorians. I would also have to give my thanks to his sister, Ms. Kryze, the younger Kryze Representative, of course. Her knowledge of Mandalorian history would be preserved and used for its fullest potential, and that is a blessing. Something that would see the galaxy better off, and a small down payment on rolling back the centuries of decline of Mandalore.
My daydreams were interrupted by a knife blade's sinking into the wooden structure next to my face. I turned in shock, causing me to face towards the blade's owner. "Hello Crikey."
"Zoll Tom Bresh." Crikey's loud voice announced my full name, as she stomped over from a considerable distance away. She sounded more annoyed than usual. "Mind explaining to me why I found out today that they are prepping your ship for an exploration job?"
I managed to avoid flinching, but Crikey had ears and eyes everywhere. Somehow she figured out I was planning to move forward with the Prince's exploration of that missing ship now that the Kandosii-class battleship was on its way to being restored.
Sighing, I admitted my plans, perhaps she would not be interested if she knew what the mission entailed. "Well it's quite simple Tarri, I owe the Prince of Mandalore a favor. I'm supposed to help him search for a second ship, 'The Seeker's Vigil,' a mystery ship supposedly full of relics. Its last known location is an asteroid belt nearby." I sold the story as owing the Prince a favor, but the fact of the matter was that the Prince likely wouldn't have ever become aware of the ship and its location if not for my involvement. I just didn't need Crikey to go when she is perfectly safe here, on Breshig. Who knows what kind of traps and other risks we will find aboard such a relic ship, if we even find it.
"Right, so why are you doing it in secret and not telling me? I want to go with you." She moved towards me, so I reflexively covered my throat with a hand before I realized she had only recovered her knife.
Shaking my head, I played the fool. "I forgot, didn't know you wanted to go..." I mumbled, but didn't protest any further. Trying to argue against her coming would have ended poorly, might as well just give up now.
"Sure you did," she backhanded my left shoulder quite hard, even through the plate of armor there. "Well then, since I know now what exactly the plan is, Tom, I remembered some extra details about this lost ship. Its last known location was an asteroid base that served as a dockyard during the wars. How are we planning to get aboard such a base, and how are we planning to find this dockyard?"
I soothed and rubbed the sore left side of my neck, "That dockyard was already found, it's all about gathering the resources for the expedition at this point. I believe the young Prince is already gathering some Royal Guards to support the operation, in addition to some researchers to investigate the information and relics we recover. My role is to provide the ships and resources for the expedition. I have already acquired my own ship, and one other that will help with the support operation."
"Hmm, better hope that that little ship in the asteroid base still functions. And if it's still even there."
"Always hoping for the best, yes." I agreed with a nod. "It's been in space for who knows how long. Besides having cold engines, it probably isn't in a better condition than this old gal." As I indicated towards the battleship that is floating about a hundred yards away from the impromptu dock that had been built over the last few months. At least while underwater, the ship was not exposed to micro meteorites, electromagnetic storms, and other exotic phenomena.
The scaffolding and dock construction are on top of poles driven into a shallow section of what used to be large dry docks, three to be exact. They were probably built on top of the ruins of an administration building, judging by the dock design and layout. At one point in time, the dock administration would have employed hundreds of workers, along with this massive dockyard as well.
Of course now it is just a ruin, but it is history that is being rebuilt on top of. I had to wonder what those buildings would look like after the terraforming was done. The Ithorians had promised the terraforming would shrink the sea level and cause the water to recede, but would it be enough? So much of the land had been submerged for so long, Breshig would be different and altered by the passage of time.
Crikey looked ready to punch me again for just staring off at the ship and dock, so I refocused on the conversation and what she had last said. "Even if we find the ship non-functional, we can tug it from the abandoned asteroid base. From there we set course for Mandalore and arrive in orbit. We can let the good folks on Mandalore deal with finding out what's useful and still functional aboard. I'm sure the Prince will be very interested in the ancient history buried in its records. I know I'm quite excited to find out what's in there, that's for sure."
Crikey shrugged, seeming to not be interested. "Whatever. Make sure you do not try to leave me behind again. Or else. I am going to be there to make sure you don't get yourself killed."
I chuckled at that threat, "I prefer that outcome as well.", I admitted, trying to defuse the tension. It's not like I could overpower Tarri, she would just win any fight, and I'd be so bruised afterwards that I would require her assistance to recover, let alone go on an expedition. So I just had to accept it.
I was about to say something more when there was a loud clanging noise followed by the sound of something powering up.
Confused, I looked around before I looked at the ship. That's where the noise was coming from, and with some wonder I watched the back engines light up and slowly but steadily lift itself out of the water.
"What in the blazes?!" I yelled, leaning over on the railing that overlooked where this project had been underway. I thought the engine was shot, they couldn't get it working earlier.
Crikey gave a guttural laugh. "That's what you thought, that's what everyone thought, but then last night the chief engineered a way. Specifically, they found a bypass to a secondary engine that was in relatively good condition that could be used to ignite the main engine. So he sent me over here to let you know, but you also spilled the beans on your damn project that you were trying to hide from me, so I had to make a choice of which would be the one I talked about first."
So it was my fault, is that what she is dancing around? I glared at her, but let it pass as I got a better look at the engines. This is a good moment, an old war horse is returning to her sky; I have to enjoy it as it is, at this moment. Not worry about needling from Crikey.
Coruscant, Senate Building
Tal Merrik
Sitting in the Mandalorian sector's senate seat is quite the experience. To watch the conversations go back and forth over the last decade. I wouldn't have imagined that I'd see Senators declaring themselves for an open war in the galaxy, but here we are. Votes are being passed at breakneck speed. Many factions and worlds are signaling their loyalty through their votes. Their desire to outdo one another made them all the louder in their claims that the CIS is an evil organization that must be defeated at all costs.
Currently, there is some arguing about how systems should not be allowed to go neutral in this conflict. Granted, I could see why neutral fence sitters are a problem. If you have no idea whether a sector will support you or not, then you could not plan the war effectively. But even so, I had no say on Mandalore's standing in this conflict and how it should handle it. At least not yet.
No, I was told by Duchess Satine that we must proclaim ourselves neutral, and so I had. As well as about a thousand other systems in the region around Mandalore.
This borderline region represented a neutral block that wanted nothing to do with the war. And I will admit that it seemed to be rather successful, since it contained nearly an entire sub-sector worth of systems.
However, there is no chance this temporary neutral zone would last. These systems did not have any large militaries of their own, so they would be forced to pick a side eventually, or that decision be made for them by one of the two factions. The factions would push those neutral systems to make a choice to either stay with the Republic and join the war or join the CIS. If we waited for the neutrals to slowly fall away, Mandalore would eventually be left standing alone against the victor of this conflict. So, we will have to join the war sooner or later. Duchess Satine is too weak to make the choice herself; so the decision would be made the very moment after the change of leadership in Mandalore.
Duchess Satine's declaration of neutrality is in line with what I expected. The Mandalorian people would come to hate it in time, and when they do, they would rise up against her. I personally suspected Pre would take over as he is still a strong faction with control of Death Watch. But there are other smaller important factions, so my choice on who to back is as of yet, undecided.
As long as I played my cards right, I would maintain my seat either in the Republic or the CIS. As far as I could tell, this whole war is a win-win for me. Personally, I preferred the CIS, they have a lot more freedom and a lot more chances for opportunity.
Oh sure, the CIS Parliament claimed that the Separatists are leaving due to the abusive trade relationship with the Core worlds and widespread corruption in the Republic. They aren't wrong, but from what I could see of the Corporate Alliance and Banking Clans of the CIS, they aren't any different. The same corruption existed on a widespread scale in the Separatists, except it was legalized and formalized within the government's rules.
The massive list of corporations on their security council are no doubt only voting with only their financial interests in mind. There is no doubt that they would adopt the same corrupt practices that led the Republic astray. I think that they are probably on their way to being the most corrupt parts of the CIS Parliament. Corporate authorities amongst the Separatists eagerly adopted formal rules for "lobbying" in the CIS; they are more than willing to exchange money for local systems' votes, all to ensure corporate interests are secure. It would be just like the Republic, only this time more centralized in the Outer Rim.
Without the shackles of the Republic on them, a leader like Pre would no doubt be interested in expanding borders again. Mandalore is a Mid Rim sector, but the adjacent sectors and Outer Rim are only sparsely explored and settled for the most part. I could easily imagine Pre building a new Mandalorian Empire, especially if the CIS granted him a charter acknowledging his authority within its territory. Only a lack of resources and the threat of another Excision keep the New Mandalorians in power. A reborn Mandalorian Empire would be the force necessary to truly reform the galaxy.
The Corporate Sector is rather odd, too. Unlike the rest of the Corporate Systems and Banking Clans, they decided to stay loyal to the Republic. Even though they are in the Outer Rim, in fact, they are on the exact opposite end of the Outer Rim. I wonder why they were doing that. Are they possibly playing both sides? Are they just waiting for the war to be over before switching to the CIS? The Corporate Sector is almost completely surrounded, now the only free approach is from the extragalactic side, the sector could be considered de facto blockaded, no captain is crazy enough to hyperjump that far out of the galaxy and back to make a route. So I doubted the Republic would be getting any trade through the CIS to the Corporate sector soon. While the war is going on, they could be ignored, though that is a bit of a risk to keep at the back of the CIS's mind.
Whatever is going on with the Corporate Sector is not my concern however. I'm sure they came up with their own neutrality clause as many systems that didn't want anything to do with this conflict, like what the Mandalore Sector is doing.
It would be interesting to see how that played out, as I doubted the Republic would keep those systems that wish to stay neutral. Neutrality gave systems the possibility that they could switch sides. There had been a lot of frustrated Senators and upset factions when I had declared Mandalore's neutrality, so I know the Republic is looking into ways to crack down on the whole concept. I'm sure the Republic would eventually force all the neutrals who tried to stay on the fence to choose a side.
Sheev Palpatine is now an iconoclast, dictating a new strategy for the galaxy, originally I doubted he would rise to the occasion. However, he had already managed to force a confrontation with the Trade Federation, trying to make them pick a side. Palpatine declared Nute Gunray a criminal and paved the legal path for the Grand Army of the Republic to invade and conquer Geonosis. The Trade Federation blinked, cutting ties with Gunray in order to continue to do business within the Republic. No one in the Senate is fooled, though, this declaration is widely understood amongst my colleagues to be a stalling tactic. No doubt, the Trade Federation needed more time to replace the lost droids and retrofit ships to make up for those destroyed on Geonosis.
Meanwhile, the Trade Federation's Senators are voting with the neutral bloc. No doubt that would be rejected and stamped out soon. Foreign interference from an enemy state would not be tolerated in warfare and when that happened, the real fun would begin. Plenty of systems would be forced to make uncomfortable decisions once the Trade Federations goods and services are no longer available in the Republic. And plenty more systems are internally split on the issue to remain in the Republic, so this is very much a war between brothers and sisters, a conflict and opportunity for the ages.
Sighing, I shook my head, docked my repulsorpod against the wall, and stepped back from the podium. Exiting the pod, I looked around and moved towards a seat in one of the side bars. There is no reason for me to be that interested in the current conversations, my response from the last few days had been for neutrality with only the occasional voting here or there, in a few cases where someone tried to discuss ending the war. So my participation is reduced to voting in favor of every ceasefire measure, despite fully expecting the war to continue much longer.
All of this is for keeping up appearances and all that, but the fact of the matter was I have no interest in this. I just wanted the day to be over, so I could get back to my apartment and enjoy myself.
I had to try and find out what the hell happened with Anteevy and the Workers' Council. They were supposed to get rid of the problem that threatened my Senate seat. From what I could gather, that hadn't happened, so I had one of my guards slip away in the night and I am blaming him for a leak of information. Hopefully no one would look too closely into why it happened.
Maybe I'd been a little too bold, choosing an untested partner like Anteevy. The Workers' Council had obviously failed, and working with them is probably a bad idea going forward. Any and all contact with them after this point would just confirm the mistake, so I had to investigate other avenues. I had one of my agents in Death Watch contact any interested parties I could use, perhaps an assassin from Shogun. Worst case, I could look towards darker paths, I'm certain the Hutts could solve my problem for the right price.
Well, there would be plenty of opportunities now or in the future to create chaos. At least, that's what I'd seen during the Mandalorian Civil War and the Clan Wars. Plenty of chaos would be created as the galactic war spun out of control, and she had already gotten tangled with the CIS once. Perhaps a case of mistaken (or not-so-mistaken) identity would result in the CIS bombing of one of her ships; I only needed to make sure that I had no fingers in that particular pot when it happened.
Of course, I could just wait and allow events to unfold. Sooner or later, Pre would stand up to Duchess Satine. When Pre confronted Duchess Satine, Pre would move Mandalore's Senate seat from the Senate of the Republic to the CIS Parliament. After we switched sides, I would have enough justification to fire Tanya.
However, a dark worry in the back of my mind suggested Pre might decide to keep Tanya around, afterward. She is young, impressionable, and showed a link between the last government and its successor, so that could be useful. In that case, her presence would still be a menace to my seat in the Senate. So taking action of my own and not relying on Pre's favor and rationality is preferable. I could only trust myself when it came to political action on a galactic scale.
One of the Jedi guards passed nearby overhead in a repulsorpod, and I stifled a grimace. Several other Senators didn't bother to hide their own unease, while some looked on appreciatively. Palpatine might be strong in some ways, but I resented him allowing the Jedi to install "guards" in the Senate after Amidala's insistence.
If only Tanya had been a typical royal heiress. As a fellow royal, I was all too aware that the noble heights are filled with the most spectacular fools. If she had been like those, then I could have just ignored her or have her sent away. Instead, she negotiated a complex terraforming project with the normally standoffish Ithorians and then somehow even managed to make the Jedi and Vorpa'yans play nice.
How she managed that I would never know, and how that had not blown up in her face yet still perplexed me further. I would have figured that selling Mandalorian territory to foreign colonizers would have put many people against her. Instead, the site Tanya chose had met no real resistance, despite the fact they are building a miniature Jedi Temple! And no one in the Mandalorian sector seemed to give a damn.
The more I considered it, the more confused I was. I consider myself clever, I should be able to unravel this apparent mystery and contradiction. So, I began tuning out my dull colleagues' speech on the necessity of a ceasefire, instead focusing on the puppet strings I could imagine in my mind's eye, hovering above the Princess. Unbidden, the mental image included a lightsaber in the background. Is some third party, like the Jedi, controlling her as a puppet to control the whole Mandalorian Sector?
None of Tanya's actions made sense on their own. Why would she care about terraforming, especially when it undermined the domed-cities of Mandalore? After all, Tanya Kryze is a New Mandalorian, one raised in the safety and comfort of Sundari. How did she have such a good understanding of the minutiae of the culture throughout the Mandalore sector? The Jedi are typically clueless about Mandalore, so possibly the third party isn't the Jedi at all, but a faction closer to home. Her Aunt Bo-Katan, perhaps? I recall hearing of Bo-Katan training Tanya, but that didn't seem like a sufficient explanation.
I blinked as I sat forward, another, more dangerous thought occurring to me. Bo-Katan is still a member of Death Watch if I wasn't mistaken, I had spotted her departing backside in a recent meeting. However, she wasn't wearing Pre's colors, which was what I noted at the time. I knew Duchess Satine had welcomed Bo-Katan back into her household nearly a decade ago... but now, today, Duchess Satine was making me vote for ceasefire after ceasefire in this farce of a Senate. Satine might not know Bo's true leanings.
At that realization, everything started falling into place. It was horrifying how easily mysterious events made sense; if Bo-Katan wasn't in Pre's camp, but was still part of the Martial Traditionalists political bloc, then Tanya is Bo's agent, her new path to power as Tanya's advisor. All of Tanya's actions as a Representative, the Ithorians, the Jedi, the "diplomatic meeting with Dooku" on Geonosis, it's all starting to make sense now. Tanya's actions are overtures to the other factions and major foreign powers, raising her standing in her future bid for Mand'alor. I am training a potential Mand'alor, and Tanya isn't going to be the one who wants a more moderate Republic, but rather a more militaristic and Mandalorian Republic.
What better agent for Bo-Katan than a Representative from Mandalore to the Senate, she had all the access but none of the responsibility. Now my only question is whether this was Bo-Katan's design or is Tanya acting independently to support Bo? Hmmm... Either way, they would become a problem once my political usefulness had been exhausted, so I had to discard my previous idea of allowing events to unfold naturally. I needed to move up Tanya's assassination a bit further. So many possible enemies, so little time.
Shaking my head, I realized I had missed several speeches. I checked the side display, the few topics I had missed and the following agendas are nothing of note. Good, I hadn't missed anything important. So I quickly put down votes in favor of the upcoming neutral legislation and stood up, walking outside the Senate to get a break. The Senate's voting reforms are one of the things that had been added over the last few years to speed things up, if someone really didn't care about the whole event they could cast their vote before the voting really began.
Stretching my shoulders, I walked around the Senate building, heading towards the central entrance and the carport. I wasn't needed for this process really right now, and the Senate is just green lighting everything that would be going on for the next few months while they tried to figure out how to fight a war and probably failed at it. Hopefully the CIS did something spectacular too, so that the Republic couldn't win this war. Such an event might be the push Pre needed to encourage him to do the right thing. Pre's time for a confrontation with Satine is no doubt right around the corner, and I too would need to have a response prepared.
Raxus Secundus, Dooku Estate
Count Dooku
I blinked as the hulking frame of the alien rested on the offered seat, nearly causing the wooden structure to protest and shift under his weight. I am unfamiliar with this creature, all I knew is his name. Durge is what he called himself. His name and that he wished to serve the CIS. Why would he want to do that would have to be determined, but I figured a little conversation with this creature couldn't hurt. That and the CIS needed any weapon it could find to resist the Jedi's corruption, so I had allowed him into my sanctum.
The appearance of Durge is a bit odd to say the least, his body is completely covered in armor and stood a good head or two taller than me. Part-cyborg, if not completely mechanical, it is hard to tell. The armor looked like it was covered in weapons, so perhaps he was a former bounty hunter. He is definitely not one I'd ever heard of, but I am willing to hear them out, considering their offer. "So Mr. Durge, I understand you wished to serve the CIS, can I have an understanding of why you wish to fight for us? We have plenty of resources for employing mercenaries such as yourself, if money is your main motivation."
The mercenary chuckled and gave a deep frown before saying, "I've been squared away for a long time. My understanding of the recent galactic situation is not the best, I understand that, but I have a certain series of goals. Goals that align with your current campaign, it's not so much money, but I could always use a little money after being buried underground for a thousand years. After all that time, the bankers just assume that you're dead and steal all the money you've carefully saved away."
I'm blinked at that, tilting my head. Timescales that large would make certain plans more complicated, for certain. "A thousand years, are you trying to tell me you are older than the Ruuson Reformation?"
"Never heard of that, last landmark I recall... I was serving in, what was at the time called, the New Sith Wars, but I wasn't really in it for that Force nonsense. We had the misfortune of sharing similar enemies; the same enemies I'm interested in dealing with in this war, in fact."
I narrowed my eyes at that, if the Republic and the Jedi were not his enemies, then who are his enemies? "If you are not enemies with the Jedi, then what enemies are you interested in fighting in this war?"
The creature made another grinding, laughing noise, its face hidden behind the metal mask. "The Mandalorians to be more exact. I've heard rumors that these clones are a copy of some sort of former Mandalorian warlord."
"Why are you after the Mandalorians?" I asked, quite curious at this point, though having someone who wanted to go after the clones specifically would be a strange yet useful asset. Antagonizing the Mandalorians, that is a little less useful to my plan as I had my own designs for them. I am not so flush with weapons I could afford to dispose of one for a little backlash, and anyway, the Mandalorians I cared about are made of sterner stuff.
The creature chuckled in its raspy mechanical way, before saying, "Simple, I had a friend and they killed him." At this point, the mechanical creature leaned towards Dooku, slight traces of smoke emanating from his mouth and noseport, and whispered in a low monotone that had my Force Senses warn me of his malice, "And so I swore a blood oath to eliminate their culture from the galaxy."
Then Durge lurched backwards to his previous position and resumed his previous volume, "Was doing a pretty damn good job of it too up till a hundred years ago. I guess they got lucky, they trapped me in a couple dozen feet of cement. Took a few lifetimes to work myself free from it, especially considering they buried that under another pile of rubble."
I nodded, silent, my mind still whirling through the incredible possibilities this monstrosity presented.
There would be battlefronts that are nowhere near the Mandalorian sector, so sending Durge off to those places could be quite advantageous. If Senator Merrick proved to be... insufficient to the CIS, well, I wouldn't mind sending this creature as motivation. Especially after the way he had used my own assets within Mandalorian space without my permission. Truly, there are possibilities here, especially given that the Jedi tended to avoid Mandalorians to reduce potential conflicts, as a general rule.
I hummed before saying, "A man who's hard to kill and has gone toe-to-toe with some of the greatest warriors of their time. I've heard what the Sith and the Jedi are capable of in those wars. A thousand years ago, the most average sword fighter would beat the top ten fighters of today." The big brute chuckled, and I paused to gauge his reaction. I didn't want to promise too much, or anything really, to this ancient monster. Better to stick to flattery and generous gifts of 'knowledge', as apparently it worked the same then as now.
Durge replied, "I don't know about that, I haven't had a chance to fight the Jedi of this era. I will say that it was a rather flashy show whenever we fought. I was always amused that they assumed stabbing me through the chest would kill me, that joke never gets old. The last time their lightsaber got stuck in me, I beat the hell out of them until they died."
I nodded before I said, "I would be willing to engage in your services, though I am concerned by your blood vendetta against the Mandalorian people, they're not the barbarians they were a thousand years ago. I assume you've heard of the New Mandalorians? Many Mandalorians have adopted pacifism and follow the Republic's beliefs now, whatever faction or peoples that wronged you in the past are most certainly defunct by now."
Durge laughed at that final statement. "Mandalorians are always divided. If these New Mandalorians are different enough, I will spare them." Then the monster gave a loud mechanical cough. "It's just hilarious thinking that the line of the galaxy's greatest warriors have become pacifist, I couldn't have come up with a greater insult to their lineage myself." The monster laughed deeply again at that.
"I think you will find them quite different than you expect." I noted, with a nod, "But for now I think I will agree to hire your services. We do need a man on Muunilinst. While you are there, perhaps you can convince those bankers to give back the money you had a thousand years ago. You will be protecting them this time around... for my services." I smiled at the thought of this monster and the bankers butting heads.
"Hmm, perhaps you're right, getting my money back and getting paid to kill these knock-off Mandalorians that have been created for the Republic, that sounds like a good time." He laughed again, and I privately suspected it would not be such a good time. No doubt, the bankers would just purchase their own monster to defend themselves in response, and the Jedi are no threat to be laughed off. However, it would be nice for both those enemies to have to deal with an unexpected surprise, instead of the other way around. I had too many surprises this year regarding Mandalore already, let's see how they like it.
Writers note: Oh shit! Durge moves fast! He's coming FOR MANDO BLOOD! We also have political moves playing out, but in the Republic and in the Mando sector, and Tanya, Vai, and Khae forming a five pointed mullet of annoyed lovers. Sure, that will be fun. By the way, next chapter may take an extra week compared to the usual two week thing we had going here. While doing are pre production this week on 42 it was discovered that it had some, pacing issues, and 43 was found to have same issues… so we merged them and ended up with chapter that 20k word that were working on making it not have pacing issues by grinding it down to something like 15K. Looks like three weeks of work to me, though some on the team think only 2, ahh we will see.
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716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 8
Coronet, en-route to Coruscant
Tanya Kryze
I blinked and looked away from my datapad and out the window, at the stars streaming by. The life of a galactic politician is usually a nomadic one. Sure, I could stay on Coruscant permanently, but I took my role seriously. As a Representative of the Mandalore Sector, I needed to understand the situation on the ground and I needed to physically visit places to gather the right kind of information. I know from experience that it's easy to be misled with reports and statistics if I've never visited the place personally. I probably should have spent a little bit more time on Mandalore to make sure everything was running smoothly with my operations there. I also wanted to visit and check on Gargon as White Silver, but matters on Coruscant are too pressing to justify an extra stop. Unfortunately, with my main and publicly known Lancer destroyed I would have to take other means of transportation, so I am once again on board the Coronet.
It isn't the worst way to travel, traveling aboard the Coronet is traveling in luxury, but it is not as fast as the Lancer and I rarely desired the luxuries the Coronet provided anyway. I preferred the Lancer's speed, so that I spent less time on the move and more time to get work done. The more I delay doing work, the less time I have to do them. Time crunches are exhausting and a pain to deal with, that it is the result of inefficient use of time or lazy and inconsiderate use of authority that dumps more work than the worker can physically handle. If your time is properly managed, more work could be completed with less time and pressure.
I would have to purchase a replacement Lancer when I had the chance, as well as make sure that all of them are upgraded with better defensive systems so that they wouldn't get shot down so easily. I used to have three of them, but one of them is used by X4 to travel between Gargon and Mandalore and the other is now exclusively for White Silver. Thus, I'll need to purchase 3 new Lancers if I want to have back up or decoy Lancers. But that is a concern for the future, today my concern is with the Republic and the ongoing war.
The Galactic Civil War had been raging for a month and a half by this point. What exactly is going on across all the fronts is still a muddled mess, but from what I could understand, it is in a stalemate. Like the First World War in my first life, but on a galactic scale, with neither side being able to push the other out. The clones are performing excellently on the frontline, as they are capable of taking on many times the number of droids in comparison to how many clone troops are deployed. Granted, deployments of partisan groups from local defense forces and other fighters are also fighting to keep their planets in the Republic. These groups support the clones and auditing the individual battles revealed that they are responsible for a significant number of the actual kills. But for the most part the clones are serving as the main fighting force and that is important.
A visible army kept morale up, even if the messaging is currently a bit mixed. The Senate is only focused on the headlines and battle outcomes. Even with the losses taken at Geonosis, the Senate considered the battle a great victory, as the strategic objective was completed. Sacking an important droid foundry was all they cared about. No one cared about the losses yet. Those would catch up to us, no doubt, but in the meantime, I was much more concerned about the Senate's decision to grant the Jedi the rank of General. The Jedi Order is running the Republic military and they have no idea how to strategize. You do not learn to command an army while on the job. At least throw a few of the Jedi into Officer school first, I know the Republic still has a few military academies for their Judicial Forces.
From what I understood, the general thinking was that if anyone had any combat experience, it would be the Jedi Order. However, their previous combat experiences weren't against armies and by my own reading of reports, they tended to favor warfare that looked like it belonged on the battlefields of Napoleon's Europe. Massive armies fighting openly in pitched battles, fighting at range until they closed distance. At least the droids and clones didn't use swords or bayonets.
I wish I could be harsher on the Jedi leadership, but my role is not that of a military advisor, I'm merely a politician. Overstepping here and pushing for Mandalore's "advice" in military matters while a mere Representative would not only ruin my professional relationship with Senator Merrik, but also anger Duchess Satine and the others who wanted neutrality. So, the most I could do was ensure that those who knew my worth are aware of my opinions.
Sending men and women who only knew how to fight by closing distance with lightsabers to fight a conventional war is an asinine mistake. One that will probably cost the Republic a lot of clone lives and waste all the credits that were spent to grow and educate them. Does the Senate even care about that waste, though? From the rhetoric I saw coming out of the Senate and on the newly organized Republic HoloNet News, they didn't even seem to consider the clones as sentient. That was another thing, the HoloNet News was seized by the Republic, apparently, and now broadcasting... propaganda. I glanced backwards towards the screen on the wall displaying the muted Republic HoloNet News broadcast on the other side of the room.
The broadcasters are discussing Kashyyyk. One of the moons of the planet had been attacked by the CIS with a superweapon called "Dark Reaper." The weapon operated by harvesting the "Force" energy out of matter, whatever that meant. The imagery on display showed a devastated forest moon, but the way the talking heads are describing the event is jarring. I skimmed the subtitles as the news played across the screen. Reading the subtitles and ignoring the audio is an old habit from my first life that I had resumed again.
"General Windu has reported that the superweapon has been destroyed by Jedi forces on the lunar surface, but the Senate is already preparing another appropriations bill for our Grand Army in response. With us is Ignar Ominaz, famous swoop racer and pilot who happened to be racing on Kashyyyk at the time! What did you see of this shocking Dark Reaper attack?" The male Twi'lek newscaster asked the famous guest correspondent, a human in a racing outfit.
"Far out, man. I didn't see no Sith, but like the whole sky on Kashyyyk went dark, and the moon just died. Stars in the daytime sky even, it was freaky." In the background, the news studio is replaced with footage of the attack. The Twi'lek nodded sagely at the inarticulate swoop pilot.
"You heard about it here, from Ominaz no less! Now the Clone Army has secured the planet and orbit, and no doubt they will keep the Separatist monsters at bay! Sith Lord Dooku is on the run from Kashyyyk and the Grand Army of the Republic!"
Ominaz nodded eagerly, "Yeah, the clones are great. I just wish the cloners sold to regular folks, an LA-AT gunship and crew would be just the thing to get my swoop bike to Outer Rim racetracks." The Twi'lek newscaster laughed forcefully at the distasteful joke; I was glad the audio was muted.
I turned away and stopped paying any further attention to the broadcast. Flesh droids, but droids nonetheless. I'm concerned about this, they had already dehumanized AI and droids, now they are dehumanizing literal humans just because they've been created through a test tube. Once you start dehumanizing people, it's hard to walk the rhetoric back.
There isn't even a pretense to try and be impartial; Count Dooku was declared a Sith Lord and traitor to the Republic, as if it were a fact or just sentencing. As far as I knew, he had declared no such thing and was not a Sith. Looks like my predictions about politics affecting the Jedi Council would be put to the test soon. Would they declare him a Sith Lord, like the Senate had? Using a superweapon that could kill a whole moon did not paint a good picture, so Dooku had handed the Jedi a perfect excuse to make the politically expeditious decision now.
This new Republic HoloNet News is not reporting much on any other force other than this "Grand Army of the Republic" either. The irregular units fighting to defend their home planets, even those in direct ground combat with the CIS right now, are glossed over. Instead, there were more cheap insults about the bug-like nature of the Geonosians.
Ideally, the Senate would not be too swayed by the political efforts to denigrate the image of the aliens living in the Outer Rim, but with the way the war was going, that seemed unlikely to change or improve. Before this conflict even really got started, the CIS already invaded planets that they thought are useful to them. Malastare had come under occupation due to its abundant fuel reserves, currently that conflict seemed to be on track for a Republic victory, but that is just a small example as there are other battles going on throughout the Galaxy.
For someone who said they are on the side of doing good, Count Dooku seems to have reached for any weapons within his grasp, no matter how dark or evil their origins. Which I could respect in a fight for survival, but the conflict between the Republic and CIS is more about corruption and trade disputes than survival. Or at least, that is how matters seemed at the start. Now it is turning into a dirty fight, using ancient Sith superweapons against a modern-day population.
The other recent controversy that cast Count Dooku as the villain in the conflict was the Decimator Incident. Personally, my opinion on the matter was that Count Dooku wasn't at fault, but the Senate majority loudly disagreed. What had happened, and the Republic HoloNet news failed to cover or present to its audience, was that the Wookies had a secret military research project to create a powerful land battleship equipped with turbolasers and shields, the 'Decimator', had been discovered by a Hutt spy and sold to the Separatists. We knew this much because the Hutt also sold their information to a Republic agent. After that, everything became a disaster. The technology had been captured and lost to a surprise CIS invasion at the Wookiee's secret facility. The final outcome had been swift - Jedi forces destroyed the captured technology, but lost the secret plans and research in the process.
I had the feeling that there was more to it that had been kept hidden from the public, something that I didn't know. Rather suspicious how agents of the Hutts had learned of this Decimator project and led the CIS to capture it, when the Senate and Jedi seemed to be caught off-guard by the entire affair. The Wookiee's project was entirely legal and squeaky clean, but that was only on the surface. When I investigated the details, at least those I had access to as a Representative, it made no sense. The Wookiees had begun research and development on the military contract for the project only after the passage of the Military Creation Act, earlier this year. They had researched and developed an entire mobile military platform to the prototype stage in only a dozen weeks? The project showed the signs of years of investment, and the large, spread-out project sites across several worlds only reinforced my suspicions.
But as it stood now, the Separatists had used several superweapons in response and had even invaded multiple planets along the border region between them and the Republic.
So far, they thankfully haven't attacked any planets that are claiming neutrality, instead focusing on worlds who declared themselves for the Republic. Hopefully that would spare Mandalore any invasions, but if it didn't, we'd give them a hell of a fight, that's for sure.
That being said, it was quite apparent at this point that the Separatists are not going to be the reasonable or diplomatic party in this conflict for some time. However, by the same token, the Republic wasn't even attempting any diplomacy as it seems that war is the only mutual interest for both sides.
The Separatists adopted the role of revolutionaries and freedom-fighters, trying to spread their revolution as far and wide as they can, which would be good if they were genuine. But there are also corporate interests backing this revolution, ensuring that planets that submitted to the Separatists' Council would become second-class citizens, or feudal vassals.
The Republic is treating the war as a Sith invasion and existential threat. Even though there aren't any Sith currently leading the Separatists. Except maybe Count Dooku, who was seen wielding a red lightsaber, despite originally owning a blue lightsaber during his years as a Jedi Master. The Senate fixated on this detail and then used the accounts from the Jedi that had faced Dooku in combat and survived to justify their declaration and name him a Sith Lord.
How long this war would go is anyone's guess. If it is like the ancient Sith wars, it had the potential to go on for hundreds of years. Those wars had decades where they switched between going hot and cold, but of course, the Galaxy had been a much smaller place and more spread out. Many planets back then weren't charted and didn't care about the galactic community or interstellar trade as long as they were left alone.
Things are different now, planets that suffered under the control of the Sith would call for aid, the Jedi would respond, and conflict would spring up there. The Jedi are obligated to defend any world or peoples that could lodge a request and had valid cause. This meant Sith influence on any world would cause the conflict to expand and open a new front, creating a new battlefield the Jedi must defend. This cycle would only end once one side had defeated the other in totality, no compromise or tolerance is possible.
That was the danger of a conflict between the Jedi and Sith, it would keep growing the longer this went on.
Mainly I hoped we could avoid that kind of conflict, the crimes and horrors I had dug up in my research on the ancient wars between the Jedi and the Sith were often so wild as to be unbelievable. The Rakghoul Plague was one of those Sith horrors I had not given much stock when learning Mandalorian history until recent events. Thousands of years ago, the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders had been advancing on their prize, the ecumenopolis world of Taris, so their armies had conquered the nearby world of Jebble as a staging ground. The frozen colony world of Jebble was mostly a mine and foundry, but after the Rakghoul plague was unleashed on the gathering army, the inhabitants had been transformed into Rakghoul. The details all added up to an unbelievably tall tale, which explained why I had slotted that particular history into the "embellishment" category, one of those confabulations invented by a prideful historian to mask an embarrassing battlefield defeat or some other blunder. Except my occasional quiet questions to Yoda in the past confirmed details and past events, so there was little chance in my mind it was all embellishment.
A straightforward conflict between civilized peoples over resources sounded preferable to the histories of pseudo-religious Jedi-Sith conflicts. In the case of the Rakghoul, the exact creation process was lost to time, but the end result of the plague is the creation of mindless slaves to a Sith artifact. Those that transformed reminded me of fictional zombies from my first life, endlessly infecting others with a scratch, or a bite. The Neo-Crusader Era Mandalorians had no answer for the Rakghoul and resorted to "nuking the planet from orbit". A strategy justifiably given much scorn in all my lives. Today, Jebble is lifeless; abandoned and forgotten by nearly all Mandalorians. I sighed and toyed with the caf in my saucer, blinking briefly in surprise at the stars streaming out the window. Soon, we would be back on Coruscant and I would have to resume my duties as Representative.
Count Dooku had clearly been attempting to convince both Obi-Wan and I to switch sides and join the Separatists before the war began. If he was willing to try and persuade someone as straight-laced as Obi-Wan was, he's probably desperate enough to try and recruit anyone he can from the Jedi Order. The more Jedi he persuaded to switch sides, the greater the chance their organization would be declared a Sith Order. Then this war would expand into a never-ending series of conflicts that kept growing and growing as the years went on.
Letting out a sigh, I reached again for the saucer of caf on the table next to me. I took the drink and enjoyed the smooth flavor of this particular blend.
I'm relaxing in the main viewing area of the ship, it has a large window that faces towards the front, towards the hyperspace we are traveling through. The dimension of hyperspace is fascinating, while the research is still unsettled on the topic, there are persistent rumors about it being dangerous to stare at too long. I doubted staring at something could turn anyone insane, but then again, the Force existed. Anakin had told me that was all nonsense the one time the topic had come up on Tatooine, but then he had started frowning and mentioned dark-siders found hyperspace relaxing. So now I had two reasons not to stare overly long, even if it was very interesting and cool to look at.
"Tanya, you in here?" called a familiar voice, causing me to turn and glance back at Vai entering the room.
"Hello Vai." I said with a smile, beckoning her to sit next to me. Vai had finally put away the White Silver disguise after returning to Gargon. Now that we are returning as a group to Coruscant, I could get back to the normal life of Tanya Kryze and not the abnormal alter-ego I had let myself fall into in the hope of preventing a war. "How are you doing?" I asked.
"Good, just wondering why you wanted to speak to me." She commented.
I played along, tapping my chin dramatically and posing thoughtfully. "Hmm, why did I want to speak to you? It didn't have something to do with something you did on our latest mission. Something that Morson can't stop talking about."
Vai's cheeks turned red, and she deflected my attention with an obvious cough into her fist, "No, I don't know what you're talking about."
I adopted a puzzled look and tone, speaking slowly as to enjoy the new colors on Vai's face. "Strange, she keeps talking about how the White Silver gave her another kiss, a special, elongated one."
"Huh, well, that's a fascinating story."
"Yes," I said, looking her straight in the eye, "What exactly do you think White Silver was thinking with that action?" I probed.
Vai paused and scratched her neck, then finally seemed to compose herself. "Perhaps she was thinking about using Khae as a way to blind people with the dissimilarities between her and her true identity."
I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head, "And what exactly does that mean?"
"It might mean that she is merely pretending to be interested, but she prefers the opposite gender. I imagine sooner or later... when her public identity starts dating, it will be another layer of obfuscation."
I narrowed my eyes, annoyed with her, but the facts are hard to refute. It's frustrating, but I had to admit it is a damn good point. Building a deniable cover required ensuring that the cover had a lot of differences; enough so no one would associate you with the alternative identity. Even if people started thinking that Vai is White Silver, the fact that she hung out a lot with her boyfriend would do a lot to diminish that connection.
Shaking my head, I said, "Fine, but when we meet White Silver again, she will have to apologize to Morson if she doesn't actually have feelings for her." Vai nodded, and before she could respond I leaned forward, "Also, White Silver is not allowed to lead Morson on. She is a friend, not an asset that she can use for her cover. Is that clear?"
"Understood, but what if Khae agrees to be an asset for White Silver's cover?" Vai asked with a mischievous smile.
I glared back. "In that case, we will have a conversation with her on that matter in the future."
Vai nodded and leaned back in her chair, as Ordo joined the two of us and offered her a saucer of caf off a tray. He is the only Royal Guard in the room; Engiz was enough to protect us. Although I do have a deactivator hidden in my sleeve and Vai likely has a vibroknife and blaster pistol under her dress.
Vai snatched the drink with a quick, "Thanks, Ordo". I began to sip at my caf drink again, trying to enjoy the blend.
"By the way... are you Tanya's first kiss?" Vai asked Ordo, who had been reading my datapad over my shoulder. I coughed as my caf went down the wrong pipe, and I saw Ordo's shadow freeze up.
"Knew it!" Vai exclaimed, fist-pumping in celebration, as she sipped her drink.
"Knew what?" I asked as Ordo handed me his handkerchief and I cleaned myself off a bit.
"Tabi mentioned that Engiz was acting a little bit off after the mission to Gargon. He said that Engiz used to be a lot more love drunk, then acted a lot more confident after Gargon. Put together with your comment about Khae not being your first..."
I finished cleaning myself off and said, "Wonderful deduction. Now can you keep that to yourself or are you going to be blabbing it to Morson?"
"I'll keep it to myself if you can meet at least one of my two conditions."
"And they are?" I asked.
"Tell me exactly what happened back then, every detail, or swear to me you'll never do it again. Pick your poison."
I narrowed my eyes at her imposed conditions. "Interesting tactic. What if I lie? How will you tell the difference? You might not get anything out of this scheme."
"Oh I didn't say I don't get anything, I'm sure getting you to lie would be an interesting experience, you're not that good at it."
I raised an eyebrow, I am rather good at lying, otherwise she would know that I was a reincarnate in my third life. But I kept that to myself, instead saying, "It was not a big deal, we were almost found while undercover and had to pose as a couple, making out in an alleyway. It was just that one time."
"That time." Vai emphasized, leaning forward.
Setting my saucer down, I said, "You never asked about later encounters, so you will not be receiving more information. My private life is my own, thank you very much. You don't hear me talking to you about your relationship all the time."
"Oh… so are you saying that if I started talking to you about my relationship with Tabi you'd be more open about your relationship with Engiz?"
"What? No!"
"So you admit you have a relationship with Engiz?!"
"..." I turned back towards the stars flitting by and hyperspace view, it is much more fascinating than this conversation.
Gargon, Mandal Hypernautics Assembly Center
Bo-Katan Kryze
'This is an exciting way to start the day.' I thought as blaster bolts streamed past my position behind the doorway.
Today started like any other day: wake up, do my morning work out, eat breakfast, read reports, prep for a day of training newbies the basics of fighting. But instead, I found myself fighting three Mandalorians of an unknown clan who broke into the library of the Mandal Hypernautics Assembly Center. It is unclear how much they had already stolen and extracted, but the security network flagged the theft of a lot of designs by the time we responded. The upgraded security network also alerted everyone in the facility of the theft, leading to the current situation. So I am hiding behind cover as one of the infiltrators unleashed a torrent of bolts from a handheld rotary blaster cannon, tearing apart everything around me.
My trusty subordinate, Cylah Troa, is crouched beside me and my armored form. She is similarly armored up in her ranger's gear, a mix of silver and brown with a red highlight on her helmet. We were on our way to my office when the alert sounded that there were intruders in the library. When we made it to the library, we joined up with some security guards that were forced to take cover from the rotary blaster fire coming from the library. We exchanged a quick glance before I gestured for her to take half of the men and flank the intruders, while I kept their attention. She nodded, so I took out my pistol and fired a few blasts around the corner.
As I did so, a disheveled man with glasses appeared, clearly distraught by the loud sounds and unruly occupants in his library. "What is going on here!" He then paused, clearly not expecting my pistol and the scene of open warfare before him.
"You're going to destroy priceless records and who knows what information is going to be harmed by your inappropriate barbarism! Savagely uncultured-" I ignored him, the eggheads never react well to their ivory towers being knocked over.
I tilted my head a bit and activated the camera attached to my pistol, so I could get a view around the corner at what we are dealing with. My pistol camera saw three Mandalorians, no obvious clan markings, and their armor is thoroughly tinted a rather strange color of dark red. Two of them are still busy, apparently still trying to steal as many records as possible.
I observed the situation from behind cover as the heavy set Mandalorian wielding the rotary blaster cannon stood guard over the doorway. Two smaller figures are somewhat visible, obviously slicing into the archives and busy downloading information from the library wall, likely searching for more designs of some sort. What their exact motives are, I couldn't say for certain. Maybe they are pirates or mercenaries hired for some corporate espionage. Maybe they are after the plans for the Sundari-class freighter or perhaps one of the fighter designs we sold. It is possible they simply wanted everything. Whatever the case may be, nothing good would come from this if they succeeded.
Hopefully, we could capture one of them so that I could interrogate them to find out who ordered this operation. Whether Mandal Motors is behind this or if some other company had hired Mandalorian mercenaries to steal from us, it had to be Mandalorian, though. Their armor design has some peculiarities that are consistent with the Supercommando style, but it also has additional features, such as those thick pilot suits to keep the wearer as warm as possible. This detail could indicate that they are local muscle, as foreigners were often unfamiliar with Gargon's climate. The "mild" temperatures the weather forecasts gave to tourists are deceptive as Gargon is quite cool, often chilly and wet, year-round. But it didn't make sense for another local organization to attack Mandal Hypernautics.
Our activities are aimed at improving the overall economy and quality of life on Gargon and we're broadly popular. Besides, the hotel under construction was finally completed and had its ribbon-cutting ceremony only a few weeks ago. The numbers of guests are still low, but the live shows and concerts were drawing a significant number of people, especially those interested in seeing the Gargon Girls. No, they must be someone from off-world or a Gargon corporation we didn't already know about.
There is a beep on my comms, I picked up the message and asked, "In position?"
"Yes ma'am. We've sealed off all entrances and exits to the library. They are not getting out without a fight."
Judging by the earlier blaster fire, the window for talking is over.
"Your call, boss. We're waiting for the signal." Whoops, I had been thinking aloud again. Well, whatever, she's my aide, so it was fine.
"Got it, on my mark. Go." No point in negotiating with these invaders, just going to give away information to the enemy.
At my signal, there were several explosions from different sources up ahead before the shooting started up again. My instinct was to jump out and confront the adversaries head on, guns blazing. However, that rotary blaster cannon posed an actual risk to me, I wasn't ready to gamble my beskar armor against it. So instead, I poked my pistol around the corner.
Currently, said rotary blaster cannon is being wielded by the big guy, who was distracted by the earlier explosions and aimed it towards the west side of the room. I used the distraction to shoot a few blaster shots at it. The bolts melt the main body of the blaster cannon causing it to crackle and pop. Its wielder, the big thief, turned in my general direction and tossed the now ruined gun like it was a log at me before running inside the library. I dodged the cannon by rolling forwards under it as two security guards used the walking fire tactic I taught them months ago to both shoot and walk past me, unleashing blaster fire into the main door into the Library. The big guy retreated inside the room before closing the door. Once the door was shut, they sprinted forwards to take breaching positions beside the Library door.
It took me a moment to stand back up and sprint to the doorway myself. Once I was in position, I opened the door and put my pistol around the corner again to see what the situation inside is like.
The room is a wreck. Most of the digital displays and servers were shot to hell, thankfully there is an emergency backup facility off-site that backs up all of Hypernautics' data, so nothing would be lost. Even if something had been lost before the backup, we might also be able to recover it off the thieves' equipment, as they won't need it anymore.
The three thieves are in the center of the room, firing back to back. It's a good strategy to keep the various entry points suppressed but it is a doomed one. With them out in the open with no cover, I said, "On my mark, spray them down. Mark!" With the signal sent, I breached the room along with every guard as everyone popped out cover, and gunned down the thieves in a shower of bolts from all sides. All three of the thieves are knocked to the ground by the overwhelming impact of a dozen S2 SHUKURs at high impact mode.
While you doubt any blaster can penetrate beskar armor, the high impact mode can deliver enough kinetic energy to cause internal hemorrhaging and a couple dozen shots from that would pummel anyone to death. A few of the security guards that were hit in the initial breach are now being evac-ed to the infirmary, their beskar armor might have saved their lives, but they'll still need to spend a few days in the infirmary.
However, there is something strange about the thieves' armor. I stepped closer to get a better look and knelt down in front of one of the bodies before pushing it over. These aren't blaster marks, they are blaster burns that bore a hole through their armor. Their armors aren't made of beskar at all, they are just some knock-offs. Made of Plasteel, perhaps?
Troa walked over to me and looked down at the bodies, confused. "That's odd, no self-respecting Mandalorian would ever wear plasteel. Not even the most impoverished local nomads would degrade themselves that much."
I nodded my head in agreement and said, "Yeah, there's something off here. Probably someone wanted to frame the theft from some local Mandalorians."
Troa paced around the armor, examining the damage more closely, inspecting other angles. "Either that or they're very cheap, but that makes no sense either. From what I saw, they acted like they expected their armor to hold up a bit better than it did."
I raised an eyebrow at that, asking the obvious question, "Could they have thought their armor was better than it was?" Or maybe the SHUKUR is something they didn't think they needed to worry about.
"Yeah," Troa nodded her head, "that sounds about right." She stopped and pointed at a few of the blaster burns on the other side of the armor, "Any idiot wearing beskar'gam for the first time would probably think they are blaster-proof." Even I thought I was blaster-proof when I first put on my beskar'gam before my trainer knocked the youthful arrogance out of me.
That just raised more questions, though, too many questions for my liking. Whoever these thieves are, they are obviously expendable and were given plasteel armor so that they won't have any identifiable markings.
I got up and brushed myself off before saying, "Have the armor and weapons sent to a local armorer we trust. I doubt they would find anything, but might as well check to see if they could find out where they came from, otherwise scan their chain code before throwing their bodies in a pit somewhere and setting them on fire."
Troa nodded, then gave a salute before giving out orders to the security forces. In a moment, she turned them to work, picking up the bodies and taking them out of the library.
"God damn barbarians." came the hysterical voice of the librarian as he stumbled into the room and fell to his knees, theatrically raising balled up fists to the sky. "It's ruined!" After that declaration, the man seemed to collapse in on himself.
Shaking my head at this drama, I walked over to him and slapped him upside his head, getting him to focus on me.
"There's a backup, stop being such a weakling. Now do me a favor," I pointed towards the machinery and equipment the thieves left behind. "Search that gear and find out exactly what they were looking for. I want a report about it on my desk by tomorrow morning. Got that?"
The librarian sighed before nodding his head, despondently, but he showed enough signs of listening as he stumbled over to the equipment.
The librarian wasn't the only one who is going to have to suffer writing a report tonight. Many of Hypernautics' most important designs and documents are kept in the archives here. I would have to send my niece a message about all of this. I had to get more evidence and a better explanation first, though.
Breshig, Excavation Site
Zoll "Tom" Bresh
Six months, that is how long it took. Six months to not only discover the location, but also clear it out of local flora and fauna. Six months to recover the lost warship, a Kandosii-class ship of unusual size that was lost to time and nature. Also, we finally found the name of this ancient vessel from its own database, the Darasuum'orar. We were still working to weld up all leaks we could find, and from there then pump out the water.
This is the largest project I have ever undertaken, but we took our time to do it right. We carefully and steadily cleaned it out. Once it was airtight and all the water inside of it had been pumped out, the warship is slowly lifted to the surface with some flotation devices to prevent the ship from tipping over to its side on the surface. It is now bobbing calmly on the surface of the swamp.
I often caught myself just staring at the enormous hull. A glorious example of the former majesty of the Mandalorian Empire, so close I can reach out and touch it. Its metal is aged green with time and covered with swamp-life, but the internals we had discovered and restored are strong. There is an easy explanation for the warship's survival, in that it was just that well-built and the quality showed.
Theoretically, this is probably one of the strongest warships in the Mandalore sector due to its beskar hull. It was a ship-building design that had long since been abandoned due to the scarcity of beskar as the Galaxy grew bigger. Most of the weapon systems on board are outdated junk, but the beskar they were made of is recoverable if we melt it down.
The Prince of Mandalore wanted the ship sent off to Mandalore as a museum. That is alright in my opinion, as there are too many factions trying to get their hands on this literally priceless piece of Mandalorian history. I would prefer to find it a berth somewhere on Mandalore and have it restored and shown off at the capital. The old beauty deserved to spend its retirement in peace; either a carefully maintained museum or as a show for the kids.
The Ithorians had concerns, of course. They are helping to terraform Breshig, though they were a bit alarmed by us disturbing the biosphere, since a natural habitat had developed aboard the ship. The Ithorians took their time studying the wildlife, even though it delayed us in clearing the ship and preparing it for transport. I didn't really mind, but some of the crew had complained about having to rely on the kindness of the Ithorians, who were all about maintaining the natural order of the world.
They had been upset when we had continued to clear the ship despite them only documenting the life forms of the upper decks. Although I'm pretty sure what convinced them not to push us harder was the potential expense in trying to recreate or rehouse the life in a similar beskar-contained environment; the beskar alone would bankrupt the sector! Once they finished, we could deport the last of the lizards out of the ship and just let the last of the water pour out into the sea.
But of course to get there they needed to get the ship airworthy. Right now, it is merely seaworthy yet a little bit unbalanced as it was never meant to ride on the surface. But the lower decks still being flooded acted as a sort of ballast to the voidcraft.
Thankfully, most of the water on Breshig is stagnant and doesn't move around a lot. There are rivers and abundant underwater currents, but never major waves on the surface as Breshig doesn't have a moon to create tides. While we have attached flotation devices and outriggers to stabilize the craft on the surface of the water, having to deal with surface waves or choppy water would have been a nightmare. Anything that could flip the thing upside down or destabilize it would have been a massive problem to everyone inside.
While the smooth surface of Breshig and calm weather provided an easy platform to work off, the engines of the warship are a problem. Rust, mud, and all kinds of particulates have gotten into them over the centuries underwater. Flushing them out is turning into a slog. High-powered hoses are used in several stages, cleaning out individual engine components. However, even with this multi-stage process, parts of the engines are completely ruined and would need disassembly. Only then could the engineers and their Ithorian counterparts reference the known designs and working parts to rebuild the broken engine components. I wasn't even sure that the engines would even work after the repairs, we hadn't even cleared the water out of all of them yet.
The fact of the matter was, if this ship were to get space-borne again, we should try taking the ship to the shipyards at Kalevala before retiring it on Mandalore. They have the facilities to be able to clean up the engines or replace them entirely, such repairs would prove very difficult on Breshig's surface.
I also wanted to outfit the ship with some kind of modern weapon system. An old warship like this needs weapons, it would be a shame that such a fine ship hull is left defenseless, especially at a time in history like now. I didn't want the old girl to fight any battles for Mandalore, but it is a practical matter. Mandalore didn't have many allies, and the warship is practically a sitting duck for the likes of the Trade Federation. A few guns could change or deter that possibility, in my mind. .
If I am being honest, the weapon system is not, strictly speaking, part of the original mission or project scope. However, with recent events in the Republic, I suspected the addition would be overlooked, or at least, approved without too much commentary. Okay, maybe even that was a bit of hopeless optimism, but a man can dream. I dreamed of the day that my homeworld would be fixed; full of cities filled with Mandalorians, full of life to practically bursting. For as long as I could remember, Breshig had been a doomed planet where only lost wonders could be found. Now, things are changing and the possibility of my dreams didn't seem so hopeless.
Mandalore seemed to be experiencing a revitalization, and I would not miss my chance to be a part of restoring this old beauty for the galaxy. The Mandalorian Prince did not seem to appreciate much of the revitalization and was uneasy even discussing the topic as it was Mandalorian armorers, Mandalorian fighters, and Mandalorian weapons which are at new heights. However, I'm confused by his unease; this is a good thing, we always needed to train and be prepared as Mandalorians. I would also have to give my thanks to his sister, Ms. Kryze, the younger Kryze Representative, of course. Her knowledge of Mandalorian history would be preserved and used for its fullest potential, and that is a blessing. Something that would see the galaxy better off, and a small down payment on rolling back the centuries of decline of Mandalore.
My daydreams were interrupted by a knife blade's sinking into the wooden structure next to my face. I turned in shock, causing me to face towards the blade's owner. "Hello Crikey."
"Zoll Tom Bresh." Crikey's loud voice announced my full name, as she stomped over from a considerable distance away. She sounded more annoyed than usual. "Mind explaining to me why I found out today that they are prepping your ship for an exploration job?"
I managed to avoid flinching, but Crikey had ears and eyes everywhere. Somehow she figured out I was planning to move forward with the Prince's exploration of that missing ship now that the Kandosii-class battleship was on its way to being restored.
Sighing, I admitted my plans, perhaps she would not be interested if she knew what the mission entailed. "Well it's quite simple Tarri, I owe the Prince of Mandalore a favor. I'm supposed to help him search for a second ship, 'The Seeker's Vigil,' a mystery ship supposedly full of relics. Its last known location is an asteroid belt nearby." I sold the story as owing the Prince a favor, but the fact of the matter was that the Prince likely wouldn't have ever become aware of the ship and its location if not for my involvement. I just didn't need Crikey to go when she is perfectly safe here, on Breshig. Who knows what kind of traps and other risks we will find aboard such a relic ship, if we even find it.
"Right, so why are you doing it in secret and not telling me? I want to go with you." She moved towards me, so I reflexively covered my throat with a hand before I realized she had only recovered her knife.
Shaking my head, I played the fool. "I forgot, didn't know you wanted to go..." I mumbled, but didn't protest any further. Trying to argue against her coming would have ended poorly, might as well just give up now.
"Sure you did," she backhanded my left shoulder quite hard, even through the plate of armor there. "Well then, since I know now what exactly the plan is, Tom, I remembered some extra details about this lost ship. Its last known location was an asteroid base that served as a dockyard during the wars. How are we planning to get aboard such a base, and how are we planning to find this dockyard?"
I soothed and rubbed the sore left side of my neck, "That dockyard was already found, it's all about gathering the resources for the expedition at this point. I believe the young Prince is already gathering some Royal Guards to support the operation, in addition to some researchers to investigate the information and relics we recover. My role is to provide the ships and resources for the expedition. I have already acquired my own ship, and one other that will help with the support operation."
"Hmm, better hope that that little ship in the asteroid base still functions. And if it's still even there."
"Always hoping for the best, yes." I agreed with a nod. "It's been in space for who knows how long. Besides having cold engines, it probably isn't in a better condition than this old gal." As I indicated towards the battleship that is floating about a hundred yards away from the impromptu dock that had been built over the last few months. At least while underwater, the ship was not exposed to micro meteorites, electromagnetic storms, and other exotic phenomena.
The scaffolding and dock construction are on top of poles driven into a shallow section of what used to be large dry docks, three to be exact. They were probably built on top of the ruins of an administration building, judging by the dock design and layout. At one point in time, the dock administration would have employed hundreds of workers, along with this massive dockyard as well.
Of course now it is just a ruin, but it is history that is being rebuilt on top of. I had to wonder what those buildings would look like after the terraforming was done. The Ithorians had promised the terraforming would shrink the sea level and cause the water to recede, but would it be enough? So much of the land had been submerged for so long, Breshig would be different and altered by the passage of time.
Crikey looked ready to punch me again for just staring off at the ship and dock, so I refocused on the conversation and what she had last said. "Even if we find the ship non-functional, we can tug it from the abandoned asteroid base. From there we set course for Mandalore and arrive in orbit. We can let the good folks on Mandalore deal with finding out what's useful and still functional aboard. I'm sure the Prince will be very interested in the ancient history buried in its records. I know I'm quite excited to find out what's in there, that's for sure."
Crikey shrugged, seeming to not be interested. "Whatever. Make sure you do not try to leave me behind again. Or else. I am going to be there to make sure you don't get yourself killed."
I chuckled at that threat, "I prefer that outcome as well.", I admitted, trying to defuse the tension. It's not like I could overpower Tarri, she would just win any fight, and I'd be so bruised afterwards that I would require her assistance to recover, let alone go on an expedition. So I just had to accept it.
I was about to say something more when there was a loud clanging noise followed by the sound of something powering up.
Confused, I looked around before I looked at the ship. That's where the noise was coming from, and with some wonder I watched the back engines light up and slowly but steadily lift itself out of the water.
"What in the blazes?!" I yelled, leaning over on the railing that overlooked where this project had been underway. I thought the engine was shot, they couldn't get it working earlier.
Crikey gave a guttural laugh. "That's what you thought, that's what everyone thought, but then last night the chief engineered a way. Specifically, they found a bypass to a secondary engine that was in relatively good condition that could be used to ignite the main engine. So he sent me over here to let you know, but you also spilled the beans on your damn project that you were trying to hide from me, so I had to make a choice of which would be the one I talked about first."
So it was my fault, is that what she is dancing around? I glared at her, but let it pass as I got a better look at the engines. This is a good moment, an old war horse is returning to her sky; I have to enjoy it as it is, at this moment. Not worry about needling from Crikey.
Coruscant, Senate Building
Tal Merrik
Sitting in the Mandalorian sector's senate seat is quite the experience. To watch the conversations go back and forth over the last decade. I wouldn't have imagined that I'd see Senators declaring themselves for an open war in the galaxy, but here we are. Votes are being passed at breakneck speed. Many factions and worlds are signaling their loyalty through their votes. Their desire to outdo one another made them all the louder in their claims that the CIS is an evil organization that must be defeated at all costs.
Currently, there is some arguing about how systems should not be allowed to go neutral in this conflict. Granted, I could see why neutral fence sitters are a problem. If you have no idea whether a sector will support you or not, then you could not plan the war effectively. But even so, I had no say on Mandalore's standing in this conflict and how it should handle it. At least not yet.
No, I was told by Duchess Satine that we must proclaim ourselves neutral, and so I had. As well as about a thousand other systems in the region around Mandalore.
This borderline region represented a neutral block that wanted nothing to do with the war. And I will admit that it seemed to be rather successful, since it contained nearly an entire sub-sector worth of systems.
However, there is no chance this temporary neutral zone would last. These systems did not have any large militaries of their own, so they would be forced to pick a side eventually, or that decision be made for them by one of the two factions. The factions would push those neutral systems to make a choice to either stay with the Republic and join the war or join the CIS. If we waited for the neutrals to slowly fall away, Mandalore would eventually be left standing alone against the victor of this conflict. So, we will have to join the war sooner or later. Duchess Satine is too weak to make the choice herself; so the decision would be made the very moment after the change of leadership in Mandalore.
Duchess Satine's declaration of neutrality is in line with what I expected. The Mandalorian people would come to hate it in time, and when they do, they would rise up against her. I personally suspected Pre would take over as he is still a strong faction with control of Death Watch. But there are other smaller important factions, so my choice on who to back is as of yet, undecided.
As long as I played my cards right, I would maintain my seat either in the Republic or the CIS. As far as I could tell, this whole war is a win-win for me. Personally, I preferred the CIS, they have a lot more freedom and a lot more chances for opportunity.
Oh sure, the CIS Parliament claimed that the Separatists are leaving due to the abusive trade relationship with the Core worlds and widespread corruption in the Republic. They aren't wrong, but from what I could see of the Corporate Alliance and Banking Clans of the CIS, they aren't any different. The same corruption existed on a widespread scale in the Separatists, except it was legalized and formalized within the government's rules.
The massive list of corporations on their security council are no doubt only voting with only their financial interests in mind. There is no doubt that they would adopt the same corrupt practices that led the Republic astray. I think that they are probably on their way to being the most corrupt parts of the CIS Parliament. Corporate authorities amongst the Separatists eagerly adopted formal rules for "lobbying" in the CIS; they are more than willing to exchange money for local systems' votes, all to ensure corporate interests are secure. It would be just like the Republic, only this time more centralized in the Outer Rim.
Without the shackles of the Republic on them, a leader like Pre would no doubt be interested in expanding borders again. Mandalore is a Mid Rim sector, but the adjacent sectors and Outer Rim are only sparsely explored and settled for the most part. I could easily imagine Pre building a new Mandalorian Empire, especially if the CIS granted him a charter acknowledging his authority within its territory. Only a lack of resources and the threat of another Excision keep the New Mandalorians in power. A reborn Mandalorian Empire would be the force necessary to truly reform the galaxy.
The Corporate Sector is rather odd, too. Unlike the rest of the Corporate Systems and Banking Clans, they decided to stay loyal to the Republic. Even though they are in the Outer Rim, in fact, they are on the exact opposite end of the Outer Rim. I wonder why they were doing that. Are they possibly playing both sides? Are they just waiting for the war to be over before switching to the CIS? The Corporate Sector is almost completely surrounded, now the only free approach is from the extragalactic side, the sector could be considered de facto blockaded, no captain is crazy enough to hyperjump that far out of the galaxy and back to make a route. So I doubted the Republic would be getting any trade through the CIS to the Corporate sector soon. While the war is going on, they could be ignored, though that is a bit of a risk to keep at the back of the CIS's mind.
Whatever is going on with the Corporate Sector is not my concern however. I'm sure they came up with their own neutrality clause as many systems that didn't want anything to do with this conflict, like what the Mandalore Sector is doing.
It would be interesting to see how that played out, as I doubted the Republic would keep those systems that wish to stay neutral. Neutrality gave systems the possibility that they could switch sides. There had been a lot of frustrated Senators and upset factions when I had declared Mandalore's neutrality, so I know the Republic is looking into ways to crack down on the whole concept. I'm sure the Republic would eventually force all the neutrals who tried to stay on the fence to choose a side.
Sheev Palpatine is now an iconoclast, dictating a new strategy for the galaxy, originally I doubted he would rise to the occasion. However, he had already managed to force a confrontation with the Trade Federation, trying to make them pick a side. Palpatine declared Nute Gunray a criminal and paved the legal path for the Grand Army of the Republic to invade and conquer Geonosis. The Trade Federation blinked, cutting ties with Gunray in order to continue to do business within the Republic. No one in the Senate is fooled, though, this declaration is widely understood amongst my colleagues to be a stalling tactic. No doubt, the Trade Federation needed more time to replace the lost droids and retrofit ships to make up for those destroyed on Geonosis.
Meanwhile, the Trade Federation's Senators are voting with the neutral bloc. No doubt that would be rejected and stamped out soon. Foreign interference from an enemy state would not be tolerated in warfare and when that happened, the real fun would begin. Plenty of systems would be forced to make uncomfortable decisions once the Trade Federations goods and services are no longer available in the Republic. And plenty more systems are internally split on the issue to remain in the Republic, so this is very much a war between brothers and sisters, a conflict and opportunity for the ages.
Sighing, I shook my head, docked my repulsorpod against the wall, and stepped back from the podium. Exiting the pod, I looked around and moved towards a seat in one of the side bars. There is no reason for me to be that interested in the current conversations, my response from the last few days had been for neutrality with only the occasional voting here or there, in a few cases where someone tried to discuss ending the war. So my participation is reduced to voting in favor of every ceasefire measure, despite fully expecting the war to continue much longer.
All of this is for keeping up appearances and all that, but the fact of the matter was I have no interest in this. I just wanted the day to be over, so I could get back to my apartment and enjoy myself.
I had to try and find out what the hell happened with Anteevy and the Workers' Council. They were supposed to get rid of the problem that threatened my Senate seat. From what I could gather, that hadn't happened, so I had one of my guards slip away in the night and I am blaming him for a leak of information. Hopefully no one would look too closely into why it happened.
Maybe I'd been a little too bold, choosing an untested partner like Anteevy. The Workers' Council had obviously failed, and working with them is probably a bad idea going forward. Any and all contact with them after this point would just confirm the mistake, so I had to investigate other avenues. I had one of my agents in Death Watch contact any interested parties I could use, perhaps an assassin from Shogun. Worst case, I could look towards darker paths, I'm certain the Hutts could solve my problem for the right price.
Well, there would be plenty of opportunities now or in the future to create chaos. At least, that's what I'd seen during the Mandalorian Civil War and the Clan Wars. Plenty of chaos would be created as the galactic war spun out of control, and she had already gotten tangled with the CIS once. Perhaps a case of mistaken (or not-so-mistaken) identity would result in the CIS bombing of one of her ships; I only needed to make sure that I had no fingers in that particular pot when it happened.
Of course, I could just wait and allow events to unfold. Sooner or later, Pre would stand up to Duchess Satine. When Pre confronted Duchess Satine, Pre would move Mandalore's Senate seat from the Senate of the Republic to the CIS Parliament. After we switched sides, I would have enough justification to fire Tanya.
However, a dark worry in the back of my mind suggested Pre might decide to keep Tanya around, afterward. She is young, impressionable, and showed a link between the last government and its successor, so that could be useful. In that case, her presence would still be a menace to my seat in the Senate. So taking action of my own and not relying on Pre's favor and rationality is preferable. I could only trust myself when it came to political action on a galactic scale.
One of the Jedi guards passed nearby overhead in a repulsorpod, and I stifled a grimace. Several other Senators didn't bother to hide their own unease, while some looked on appreciatively. Palpatine might be strong in some ways, but I resented him allowing the Jedi to install "guards" in the Senate after Amidala's insistence.
If only Tanya had been a typical royal heiress. As a fellow royal, I was all too aware that the noble heights are filled with the most spectacular fools. If she had been like those, then I could have just ignored her or have her sent away. Instead, she negotiated a complex terraforming project with the normally standoffish Ithorians and then somehow even managed to make the Jedi and Vorpa'yans play nice.
How she managed that I would never know, and how that had not blown up in her face yet still perplexed me further. I would have figured that selling Mandalorian territory to foreign colonizers would have put many people against her. Instead, the site Tanya chose had met no real resistance, despite the fact they are building a miniature Jedi Temple! And no one in the Mandalorian sector seemed to give a damn.
The more I considered it, the more confused I was. I consider myself clever, I should be able to unravel this apparent mystery and contradiction. So, I began tuning out my dull colleagues' speech on the necessity of a ceasefire, instead focusing on the puppet strings I could imagine in my mind's eye, hovering above the Princess. Unbidden, the mental image included a lightsaber in the background. Is some third party, like the Jedi, controlling her as a puppet to control the whole Mandalorian Sector?
None of Tanya's actions made sense on their own. Why would she care about terraforming, especially when it undermined the domed-cities of Mandalore? After all, Tanya Kryze is a New Mandalorian, one raised in the safety and comfort of Sundari. How did she have such a good understanding of the minutiae of the culture throughout the Mandalore sector? The Jedi are typically clueless about Mandalore, so possibly the third party isn't the Jedi at all, but a faction closer to home. Her Aunt Bo-Katan, perhaps? I recall hearing of Bo-Katan training Tanya, but that didn't seem like a sufficient explanation.
I blinked as I sat forward, another, more dangerous thought occurring to me. Bo-Katan is still a member of Death Watch if I wasn't mistaken, I had spotted her departing backside in a recent meeting. However, she wasn't wearing Pre's colors, which was what I noted at the time. I knew Duchess Satine had welcomed Bo-Katan back into her household nearly a decade ago... but now, today, Duchess Satine was making me vote for ceasefire after ceasefire in this farce of a Senate. Satine might not know Bo's true leanings.
At that realization, everything started falling into place. It was horrifying how easily mysterious events made sense; if Bo-Katan wasn't in Pre's camp, but was still part of the Martial Traditionalists political bloc, then Tanya is Bo's agent, her new path to power as Tanya's advisor. All of Tanya's actions as a Representative, the Ithorians, the Jedi, the "diplomatic meeting with Dooku" on Geonosis, it's all starting to make sense now. Tanya's actions are overtures to the other factions and major foreign powers, raising her standing in her future bid for Mand'alor. I am training a potential Mand'alor, and Tanya isn't going to be the one who wants a more moderate Republic, but rather a more militaristic and Mandalorian Republic.
What better agent for Bo-Katan than a Representative from Mandalore to the Senate, she had all the access but none of the responsibility. Now my only question is whether this was Bo-Katan's design or is Tanya acting independently to support Bo? Hmmm... Either way, they would become a problem once my political usefulness had been exhausted, so I had to discard my previous idea of allowing events to unfold naturally. I needed to move up Tanya's assassination a bit further. So many possible enemies, so little time.
Shaking my head, I realized I had missed several speeches. I checked the side display, the few topics I had missed and the following agendas are nothing of note. Good, I hadn't missed anything important. So I quickly put down votes in favor of the upcoming neutral legislation and stood up, walking outside the Senate to get a break. The Senate's voting reforms are one of the things that had been added over the last few years to speed things up, if someone really didn't care about the whole event they could cast their vote before the voting really began.
Stretching my shoulders, I walked around the Senate building, heading towards the central entrance and the carport. I wasn't needed for this process really right now, and the Senate is just green lighting everything that would be going on for the next few months while they tried to figure out how to fight a war and probably failed at it. Hopefully the CIS did something spectacular too, so that the Republic couldn't win this war. Such an event might be the push Pre needed to encourage him to do the right thing. Pre's time for a confrontation with Satine is no doubt right around the corner, and I too would need to have a response prepared.
Raxus Secundus, Dooku Estate
Count Dooku
I blinked as the hulking frame of the alien rested on the offered seat, nearly causing the wooden structure to protest and shift under his weight. I am unfamiliar with this creature, all I knew is his name. Durge is what he called himself. His name and that he wished to serve the CIS. Why would he want to do that would have to be determined, but I figured a little conversation with this creature couldn't hurt. That and the CIS needed any weapon it could find to resist the Jedi's corruption, so I had allowed him into my sanctum.
The appearance of Durge is a bit odd to say the least, his body is completely covered in armor and stood a good head or two taller than me. Part-cyborg, if not completely mechanical, it is hard to tell. The armor looked like it was covered in weapons, so perhaps he was a former bounty hunter. He is definitely not one I'd ever heard of, but I am willing to hear them out, considering their offer. "So Mr. Durge, I understand you wished to serve the CIS, can I have an understanding of why you wish to fight for us? We have plenty of resources for employing mercenaries such as yourself, if money is your main motivation."
The mercenary chuckled and gave a deep frown before saying, "I've been squared away for a long time. My understanding of the recent galactic situation is not the best, I understand that, but I have a certain series of goals. Goals that align with your current campaign, it's not so much money, but I could always use a little money after being buried underground for a thousand years. After all that time, the bankers just assume that you're dead and steal all the money you've carefully saved away."
I'm blinked at that, tilting my head. Timescales that large would make certain plans more complicated, for certain. "A thousand years, are you trying to tell me you are older than the Ruuson Reformation?"
"Never heard of that, last landmark I recall... I was serving in, what was at the time called, the New Sith Wars, but I wasn't really in it for that Force nonsense. We had the misfortune of sharing similar enemies; the same enemies I'm interested in dealing with in this war, in fact."
I narrowed my eyes at that, if the Republic and the Jedi were not his enemies, then who are his enemies? "If you are not enemies with the Jedi, then what enemies are you interested in fighting in this war?"
The creature made another grinding, laughing noise, its face hidden behind the metal mask. "The Mandalorians to be more exact. I've heard rumors that these clones are a copy of some sort of former Mandalorian warlord."
"Why are you after the Mandalorians?" I asked, quite curious at this point, though having someone who wanted to go after the clones specifically would be a strange yet useful asset. Antagonizing the Mandalorians, that is a little less useful to my plan as I had my own designs for them. I am not so flush with weapons I could afford to dispose of one for a little backlash, and anyway, the Mandalorians I cared about are made of sterner stuff.
The creature chuckled in its raspy mechanical way, before saying, "Simple, I had a friend and they killed him." At this point, the mechanical creature leaned towards Dooku, slight traces of smoke emanating from his mouth and noseport, and whispered in a low monotone that had my Force Senses warn me of his malice, "And so I swore a blood oath to eliminate their culture from the galaxy."
Then Durge lurched backwards to his previous position and resumed his previous volume, "Was doing a pretty damn good job of it too up till a hundred years ago. I guess they got lucky, they trapped me in a couple dozen feet of cement. Took a few lifetimes to work myself free from it, especially considering they buried that under another pile of rubble."
I nodded, silent, my mind still whirling through the incredible possibilities this monstrosity presented.
There would be battlefronts that are nowhere near the Mandalorian sector, so sending Durge off to those places could be quite advantageous. If Senator Merrick proved to be... insufficient to the CIS, well, I wouldn't mind sending this creature as motivation. Especially after the way he had used my own assets within Mandalorian space without my permission. Truly, there are possibilities here, especially given that the Jedi tended to avoid Mandalorians to reduce potential conflicts, as a general rule.
I hummed before saying, "A man who's hard to kill and has gone toe-to-toe with some of the greatest warriors of their time. I've heard what the Sith and the Jedi are capable of in those wars. A thousand years ago, the most average sword fighter would beat the top ten fighters of today." The big brute chuckled, and I paused to gauge his reaction. I didn't want to promise too much, or anything really, to this ancient monster. Better to stick to flattery and generous gifts of 'knowledge', as apparently it worked the same then as now.
Durge replied, "I don't know about that, I haven't had a chance to fight the Jedi of this era. I will say that it was a rather flashy show whenever we fought. I was always amused that they assumed stabbing me through the chest would kill me, that joke never gets old. The last time their lightsaber got stuck in me, I beat the hell out of them until they died."
I nodded before I said, "I would be willing to engage in your services, though I am concerned by your blood vendetta against the Mandalorian people, they're not the barbarians they were a thousand years ago. I assume you've heard of the New Mandalorians? Many Mandalorians have adopted pacifism and follow the Republic's beliefs now, whatever faction or peoples that wronged you in the past are most certainly defunct by now."
Durge laughed at that final statement. "Mandalorians are always divided. If these New Mandalorians are different enough, I will spare them." Then the monster gave a loud mechanical cough. "It's just hilarious thinking that the line of the galaxy's greatest warriors have become pacifist, I couldn't have come up with a greater insult to their lineage myself." The monster laughed deeply again at that.
"I think you will find them quite different than you expect." I noted, with a nod, "But for now I think I will agree to hire your services. We do need a man on Muunilinst. While you are there, perhaps you can convince those bankers to give back the money you had a thousand years ago. You will be protecting them this time around... for my services." I smiled at the thought of this monster and the bankers butting heads.
"Hmm, perhaps you're right, getting my money back and getting paid to kill these knock-off Mandalorians that have been created for the Republic, that sounds like a good time." He laughed again, and I privately suspected it would not be such a good time. No doubt, the bankers would just purchase their own monster to defend themselves in response, and the Jedi are no threat to be laughed off. However, it would be nice for both those enemies to have to deal with an unexpected surprise, instead of the other way around. I had too many surprises this year regarding Mandalore already, let's see how they like it.
Writers note: Oh shit! Durge moves fast! He's coming FOR MANDO BLOOD! We also have political moves playing out, but in the Republic and in the Mando sector, and Tanya, Vai, and Khae forming a five pointed mullet of annoyed lovers. Sure, that will be fun. By the way, next chapter may take an extra week compared to the usual two week thing we had going here. While doing are pre production this week on 42 it was discovered that it had some, pacing issues, and 43 was found to have same issues… so we merged them and ended up with chapter that 20k word that were working on making it not have pacing issues by grinding it down to something like 15K. Looks like three weeks of work to me, though some on the team think only 2, ahh we will see.
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"This battle will be fought forever, and we will all burn together" - Tol Braga, Jedi Master from The Old Republic
Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
Merrik's paranoid misunderstanding...
Holey Cheese that got a lot of potential.
Holey Cheese that got a lot of potential.
yep
YEAPPPPP lot of potential
quite impossible tanay very clear in her meaningSomeone is misunderstanding Tanya's intentions?
Chapter 42
Chapter 42
716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 9
Gargon, Baarpir'balac Resort, Grand Amphitheater
Miri Chour
In the years I had been out there working various jobs, I had worn many disguises that tended to hide my armor rather than accentuate it. This is why I am somewhat used to having to wear a new costume almost every day. When I had taken this job a year ago, I had suspected that I would end up disliking it, or worse, my sisters would hate it.
However, my opinion slowly improved over time. Shomso always insisted that I am a bit over the top in my bounty hunting antics. She criticized my last hit as "theatrical." Now I didn't feel like I needed to resist that urge anymore, the drama is celebrated rather than a liability; no more frowns from the girls... okay mostly Shomso. Not only that, but the credits coming in are very good. There was no other way to say it. Instead of having to murder a person every other month, all I had to do was sing, dance, and act very flirtatious for the camera once every couple of weeks.
Of course, it took time to build up to the status we are at now. A few months ago, we were playing in a small lounge-like theater that could squeeze a few dozen people inside. Now, we have a major theater that we visit every couple of weeks to perform, and things are starting to get a little bit crowded in those theaters. There had even been a fight in front of the theater over someone scalping tickets, which Bo-Katan had told me not to worry about, but it kind of did worry me. Anyone could slip in and try to assassinate us if they were crazy enough. I am sure that sooner or later, someone who had a vengeance debt on us for killing their spouse or son would get word that I had taken up a career as an idol and try to get a little bit of revenge. That is one of the reasons I often walked on stage not with prop pistols, but real ones. It's set to stun, just in case I need to defend myself in an emergency.
It's a bit risky, I know, since some of our stage performances included some rather acrobatic fighting choreography, which we worked hard on. About half of our so-called 'play fights' on stage left us somewhat bruised, because we wanted it to look as real as possible. Which seemed to work well with our audience, they seemed to enjoy the action.
Thankfully though, we only did a play fight every two months or so. Tonight's performance, a rendition of Agol'skira, did not have a fighting sequence, but it would be the largest audience we'd ever played for. Our schedule revolved around getting ready for the next big thing, which kept us a little bit too busy. I was working with designers to get into a new dress ready for this current concert, but my standards are moderate for this piece, nothing too spectacular. I did notice the executives had rejected some of my color choices, though, it seems like they were trying to minimize the black and the color scheme I preferred. Maybe the white and silver colors were chosen instead so that White Silver could try to live vicariously through my performances. After all, I was fairly certain she's signing my paychecks through Mandal Hypernautics, so it made sense if she chose her preferred colors as well.
I'd caught a glimpse of White Silver before, and regularly saw her underlings. So I know that they are female, that wore silver and white as the main colors of their armor. I also ran into the fancy actress they had brought out to Gargon to film some kind of television series, which made me suspect White Silver was living it up a little. The Balac Resort only recently opened after all, it's an entirely brand-new Hotel and Casino resort complex that White Silver had built out in the middle of nowhere, her private kingdom on Gargon. But since it's her credits, she can spend it however she likes.
Anyway, today is going to be like any other. We have a concert in about half-hour and we are finishing our preparations. I am wearing the armor that had been modified and created for us. It bore some resemblance to the modern and sleek Super Commando armor set, although they had stripped out the under vest that the plates usually went on and arranged it more like a corset. As a result, the upper plates lined up on top of my breasts, accentuating them to some extent. Of course, that also left a rather open area in the center that showed a bit of cleavage, and in that area is a pendant of an iron heart that I was supposed to wear as armor. It's not functionally great, but as a secondary piece of armor for a costume, I didn't mind. To actually hit that small opening, you'd have to be a damn good shot.
My arms are left bare for the most part, except for vambraces that are specially designed to make particular noises when they hit each other. There are also a few buttons to trigger some pyrotechnics hidden on the armor in a few places. Over my shoulders, I wore a cape—not the one I usually wore when I wanted to combat, but a shorter one coming down to the small of my back. Like the front of my armor, it's somewhat revealing. Well, quite a bit of my back is exposed in this getup, but I wasn't as concerned with the small of my back. The cape, from what I understood, used anti-blaster fabric, so it's technically armored - not the best armor, but it's something.
As for my lower body, I am wearing a short but fluffy skirt with armored plates just visible underneath it on my thighs, and some heavy armored boots, with high heels. If I hadn't been practicing with heels for a long time, I might have had a problem, but I am familiar with this particular formation.
This is also where the pyrotechnics are hidden. The leg armor or boots had little rockets that would fire up and shoot into the sky when I moved over hidden activation plates on the stage. I activated the hidden plates with a button on my vambraces, so I could make quite the entrance or quite the exit, depending on what the performance needed.
Khovi and Shomso are wearing something a bit more conservative. They are wearing armor in their style colors, pink, green, and black, but whereas I'm wearing a sexy dress that showed a lot of skin, they wore dresses that are a lot more fluffy and traditional, and to be very frank, cute.
The Dressmakers that provided our costumes are doing a good job of trying to figure out ways to work armor into clothing, making it cute, sexy, and in a few cases, just good-looking. Granted, it was only for the female style, but guys tended to not notice style unless it was pointed out to them, or they were trained for a job. From what I've seen over the years, men wore the minimum that worked, so what they wore tended to be rather plain. So we let them wear plain clothing, and let our girls have fun.
Girls with a cuter aesthetic seemed to have a little bit more fun than my sexy style. All of us had to work out thoroughly whenever we got the chance to maintain a level of acrobatics and strength to perform at the top of our ability. While I mainly just walked on stage and sang, maybe getting into a fake fistfight with some crew member pretending to be a villain in the song, they got to do more exciting things. For example, Shomso had wheels in her shoes which allowed her to move around the stage quite quickly, especially considering there are also jets on the back of her shoes, allowing her to perform some rather acrobatic spins.
Khovi instead tended to carry a spear, one that she used to make rhythm on the ground. It was specially designed with electronics that allowed for different sounds to be produced, depending on what area of the spear she is holding.
To be honest, I thought our gear was already impressive enough. Khovi's spear can double as a synthesizer guitar with just a few tweaks, and Shomso is getting an upgrade that supposedly improved the musical aspects of her armor. As for me, I am supposed to check out a new item today that is meant to complete our image, whatever that means.
I shook my head as I looked at myself in the mirror, thinking I should probably touch up my makeup. I picked up the box containing the mysterious item and laid it out on the table in front of me. After popping the locks on the side, I opened it up and was pleasantly surprised.
Inside is a rapier-style sword, unlike any traditional swords from Mandalore such as a beskad. The blade edge is practically nonexistent as it is basically a long pole coming up in a straight line before branching out into a handguard. It's more like a fancy cane than a functional weapon and at the base of the handle is an unnoticeable microphone.
I could probably have a little fun, do a few mock fights with it; I swapped it around from hand to hand, to sing into the mic at the pommel. Of course, we already had in-ear mics, so I didn't really need it, but there might be some extra functionality hidden within. I turned the rapier about, inspecting it for anything else, and when I checked the base I found a symbol that seemed important. My vambrace chirped when I scanned it, displaying the user manual for the device. I quickly browsed through the manual and discovered a few other modes, such as adding echo to my voice or other digital effects to alter the sound. I'll have to play around with it more when we have time to produce a song, but for now, it would serve as a regular mic. It added a unique touch to the costume, and I wouldn't be surprised if hitting the mic against my armor produced some fancy sound effects.
My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door, and an attendant pops his head in to say, "Three minutes till curtains. The opener fired them up, and it looks like we've got a big crowd tonight. Have fun!"
Smiling, I nodded and said, "We will." He nodded and left the door open, leaving me with my sisters. I turned to them and said, "Alright, girls, let's go out there and meet our adoring fans. I'm sure they can't wait to see us again."
"Woo, let's do this!" Khovi exclaimed, pulling up her spear. Shomso nodded her head silently, smiling warmly back at us as she followed along.
As we ascended the steps, I am happy to see that we had a rather large cheering crowd today. The open-air theater is large enough that several thousand people could view the large screens near the top. It's located in the center of the sprawling Balac Casino complex, so anyone outside the theater's range would have to be on the next mountain over or have paid an entry fee at the gate down the mountain.
Approximately half of the audience are women, with half of them donning variations of uniforms we've worn during previous concerts, or clothing that proclaimed our colors: pink and black, green and black, and black and silver. While some may have created the outfits themselves, I could tell that a few nearer to the stage had purchased replicas from the stores on the property.
Furthermore, some attendees wore armor in our colors, which I hoped was purchased from an armor painter on the property, as they did an excellent job. In fact, I had them look over original Mandalorian armor, and spruce it up a bit; I must say, it turned out quite nicely.
Glow sticks are also present, in green, pink, and silver variants. Unfortunately, black wasn't available for the material used for the glow sticks, at least from what I've seen. Knowing the owner, they are probably on the lookout for a way to merchandise my preferred darker coloration.
And last week, they even auctioned a speeder with my face on it in my colors. I physically cringed when I found out, and the girls' teasing didn't help. I'm still not sure how they managed that or who was dumb enough to actually bid on it. I'm half-expecting to have to show up on stage holding the keys, and make an embarrassing exchange to some local who bid something astronomically high because of how terrible of an idea the whole auction was. Instead, it ended up going to some foreign off-worlder with a million credits to waste.
Putting that embarrassing sequence of events out of my mind, I focused on tonight. It's showtime. I walked across the grand expanse of the main stage, which is cluttered with different props that we will be using in tonight's performance, my heeled boots tapping as I led the girls to their positions on the left and right. We prepared a series of songs for tonight's performance. Taking a deep breath, I held the mic sword up to my face and clicked on the mic, saying, "Good evening, Gargon. I hope everyone enjoyed the opening song from the band. They're pretty good at what they do, if you ask me." The crowd answered with a loud cheer. It is an aspect of this new job that I don't think I could ever get used to, being on stage in front of a cheering crowd.
"This next song is based on the killing of the great monster Durge. My great-great-something or another from centuries ago was one of the contenders for the seat of Mand'alor and was involved in the destruction of a creature who had sworn the extinction of all Mandalorian culture. Obviously, he failed, just another example of how tough our people are." I grinned, happy to share an old family story that had been passed down through the generations. I wasn't even sure if Durge was real or not, but as my father had once said, it's always good to dance on a monster's grave.
The crowd seemed ready and pumped ready for the song, so I nodded to the droid musicians in the band, and they started to play the first few notes. In an instant, the high-octane series of notes got my blood pumping.
I actually couldn't wait to sing this song. I've been preparing it for some time, translating an old family story. After all, translation and editing of a recorded copy of an oral history is challenging. Much of my time was spent making sure it would come off right when sung; if the story made people sympathetic to the monster, well, you did it wrong. Yes, there were moments of the story that were a bit sympathetic, Durge in the tale had been close friends with the Mandalorians, but that detail is a distraction if I tried to explain it in full in the song. What was important to the story is the epic battle and aftermath, how he was buried under hundreds of feet of duracrete to die.
As I brought the mic to my face about to sing the first line, a Mandalorian in full blue armor rocketed up past me on stage, before stopping in midair and falling back down. Their jetpack halted their fall, turning it into a graceful landing, right next to me.
I turned, drawing my pistol on the intruder, as he pulled up a pistol of his own. Unfortunately, he was faster and landed his first hit on my blaster, damaging it to uselessness. The assassin moved his gun towards my torso, next saying, "In the name of Death Watch, die, dog of White Silver!" He pulled the trigger, and for a moment, I thought I was dead as I felt the impact on my gutt. Then I realized that instead of aiming for the literal open space that's my cleavage, he'd gone for center mass and fired at the protective beskar armor. He is already turning away from me, seeming to have assumed that I was dealt with, swinging the gun towards Khovi.
I am not exactly happy about all of this. I had just been shot, my sisters were in the line of fire, and he had assumed that this armor was just for show and didn't have any beskar in it. These are all very grave insults, ones I would not forgive.
I sprung into action, glad that the high heel on my boots was reinforced as I covered the three steps needed to get between me and the assassin. I smacked my sword mic upward to knock his pistol out of his hands and send it flying into the air. Funny enough, the impact was in sync with the musicians in the droid band. The lead droid of the band decided not to stop and was continuing to direct musicians. I ignored it and focused entirely on the fight in front of me.
The assassin, realizing that he'd made a mistake, started to turn back towards me. I saw him jump back and draw a knife from an arm sheath, but I wasn't finished with him yet.
The two of us engaged in a melee, each impact of our blades reverberated across the stage by the microphone in my blade transmitting the sound to the speakers. Eventually, it seemed he grew tired of being on the defensive as he closed in. I sent a swing to his head, but he blocked it with his knife before grabbing hold of my sword with his other hand. With my sword locked in his grasp, he wound up his knife arm to deliver an ice pick stab to my face. I let go of my sword so that I could duck under the blow. Noticing how overextended he is, I turned my back to him while reaching up to grab hold of his forearm. With his arm locked in place, I pulled it down over my shoulder at the same time I stood to my full height as an audible snap was heard.
A lot of "Ooh's" from the crowd were heard when I broke his elbow before it was drowned out by Death Watch wannabe as he screamed in pain and his knife was dropped from his limp fingers. To shut him up, I caught the dropped knife, pushed his head back to reveal his neck, before I plunged his own knife right into his jugular just as the music reached its peak and wound down.
The man stumbled back a foot as he clawed at his own neck before falling down onto his back. Without hesitation, I approached him and slammed the heel of my boot down onto his knife, pushing it deeper into his throat.
The man weekly grabbed onto my leg, trying to push me off, but I only added more weight, causing him to gag and choke on his own blood. As I looked down past my bust, I put more weight on until I heard a crack. As something important, most likely his vertebra, broke he finally stopped moving and let go of my leg.
Good riddance. That should teach everyone not to mess with my sisters.
Once I am sure that he is no longer a threat, I took a step away from the body and turned back to the cheering crowd as the band ended their song. I spotted the security guards, hired more for their muscle than their brains, already surreptitiously moving around the background of the stage. I nodded towards them. They ran over and dragged the body off-stage, dodging my sisters still dancing on the stage.
I wondered how they would take a literal live murder on holovision. It turned out that they were quite pleased with my actions, considering they were cheering for me. They started with a rigorous applause that quickly turned into outright cheering and clapping, followed by chanting our names. "Miri!" followed by equally loud "Khovi!" and "Sho!". I felt my face flush as I watched the glow sticks bob about in the darkness. It was something incredible, a spell-binding moment.
When I got my bearings again, Khovi gave me back my sword mic, I said to the mic, "Sorry about that, folks. Just a little bit of an overzealous detractor." I downplayed the danger, no need to alarm anyone now that the action was over.
The audience laughed, and I went with the flow. "Seems he thought I was White Silver's agent or something. A very strange line of thought. Must be a sign of how desperate the Death Watch, I think he called himself, are." The audience feedback mixed with the fading battle high is intoxicating, I felt much better after that fight when compared to any of my previous jobs. So I went on, eager to continue, "On the off chance that any other Death Watch people are watching this, I would like to affirm that terrorism is a terrible, terrible way to recruit Mandalorians to your cause. I thought you would have learned this during the last civil war, twenty years ago. Also, if any of you harm a hair on my sister's head, you'll end up like that Di'kutla back there."
I signaled the lead droid to start playing the music once more from the top. Khovi began to pound her spear on the stage, starting the rhythm with the music. Meanwhile, I swapped the mic sword back into position and said, "Now, back to your regularly scheduled performance before we were rudely interrupted. Hit it girls."
Concordia, Governor's Castle, Underground
Pre Vizsla
"Who. Ordered. That?" I demanded in a low growl as I pointed toward a recording of a Mandalorian news report on a "Death Watch" Assassin attempt to kill a performer. I cast my gaze around the room as I watch everyone's faces be confused at what is happening on the holoscreen before looking side to side. No one moved forward to break the silence or claim that they were responsible. Notably, Bo-Katan was absent from this emergency summons. She has been attending fewer and fewer meetings lately, but recently provided us with messages and dossiers detailing her recent activity as Mandal Hypernautics' Head of Security on Gargon, the contents of which I was still verifying.
Gar Saxon decided to speak up, "Perhaps there's a rogue element within the Death Watch. One who has broken with our plans and decided to take action for themselves."
"Merrik and Kryze are absent, could be them." Rook Kast unhelpfully noted, a gleeful smile playing across her dark lips. I frowned, of course, she would want to stir trouble.
"Merrik is back on Coruscant, where he is supposed to be." It was possible he was involved, but there is no obvious motive, as he would have nothing to gain from this. Merrik is dismissive of Gargon, he didn't even consider them Mandalorian enough to be worth his attention. "Bo-Katan is working on a secret project." I lied as naturally as I breathed. I'd cover for her because I knew Bo-Katan would never attack her own people for some plot. She is the type to prefer the direct approach every time.
At that last thought, I caught a glimpse of Rook Kast's face flickering to anger for a second before she calmed down and nodded silently. I'll remember that she could be a problem, but I have bigger Gi to fry.
"This rogue element has taken action for themselves and dragged our name into it." I am livid as it seemed that this was all over nothing, at least nothing that made sense to me. "Why would someone even want to assassinate a damn musician in a public concert in front of thousands of witnesses?"
"Maybe they believed those rumors that the Miri Chour is actually White Silver?" Freder Priest, head of Clan Priest, proposed with a shrug. "It's not that far-fetched. I dug into Chour's past a bit, and she has done a lot of jobs as a bounty hunter with her sisters." I glared back at that, he is taking this all a bit too calmly.
Gar Saxon glanced meaningfully at Freder Priest, before speaking up again. "My Mand'alor. As much as I think you are right in our efforts to try and minimize damage to the Mandalorian sector; the fact of the matter is that Gargon is barely Mandalorian. It could be seen as outside the sector, and if so, then it would not count as fighting within the Mandalore sector like you proposed."
"Ignoring the spirit of the rules and only following the letter, that makes us no better than the fools on Coruscant or Raxus!" I would not let this slide by, someone is undermining my authority and I must find out who and why. "Infighting in the Mandalorian sector, at a time like this, when the entire galaxy is on fire, will only push the people away from us. It might even cause a new crackdown on the Death Watch."
"Things are not in the right position yet where we can benefit from such a crackdown." Rook Kast noted, finally, someone seemed to catch up to my thoughts.
Freder Priest nodded, seeming to agree with Rook Kast, but said, "This may be true and maybe some of our people don't understand what exactly is the Mandalorian sector. We say sector, but this is terminology borrowed from the Republic. Sectors are mere lines on a map." I nodded in agreement and motion for Freder Priest to continue. "Mandalorians are spread out across three to four sectors within the Republic, and we have planets that are within the sector that we don't acknowledge as Mandalorian. It would be easy for a misunderstanding to occur like this, even among members of the Death Watch in good standing." He explained.
I nodded, as he had a good point. "Could be. I can understand any past confusion then, but I will not tolerate any would take advantage of confusion for personal exploit or to settle vendettas. I'll work up some documentation to clarify what exactly the Death Watch views as the rightful Mandalorian territory. However, while we don't know who is responsible, it could be some minor officer stepping out of line or we could have someone using our name to cause trouble. Governor Vrox would often use such tactics to keep Mandalore in check, let's not discount the possibility of someone learning from history. Let it be known we are searching for who orchestrated this, and when we do find them, we'll show them no mercy."
"Of course, my Mand'alor." Freder Priest said, and judging by the reaction of the others, they seemed to think the issue fully resolved for now. I needed to speak with Bo-Katan, perhaps she knew more. Perhaps she may have been the cause, although I strongly doubted it. Bo-Katan preferred an open duel to a blaster in the dark, she'd never do something underhanded like this intentionally. Freder Priest started speaking again, interrupting my line of thinking. "Also, I have been in contact with agents on Shogun. They have agreed to send aid to our cause."
I sat up at that, raising an eyebrow. "Shogun is sending aid? Last I heard, they were not interested in Mandalore. I know they hated White Silver's document, but they mentioned nothing about an alliance before."
Freder Priest shook his head, "There's a new rabble-rouser, calling for a return to Mandalore. Kahl Keldau from Clan Keldau has been lobbying hard for the aid of Shogun, part of why they are coming. A lot of younger Mandalorians there want to help Death Watch restore Mandalore's ancient ways. I don't know when they'll be arriving, but I do know they will double our numbers."
"We will welcome our brothers from Shogun then." I instructed Freder Priest. These young Mandalorians might be hot-blooded with conquest in their hearts, but frankly Shogun had never achieved much, nor impacted politics in any major way. Shogun is isolated, stuck out on the complete other side of the Galaxy, so we had few connections and ties back to them. However, Death Watch needed new blood, and these Shogun youths might be just the thing. Turning to Gar Saxon and the others, I added, "We will let them come, when they arrive, keep a firm eye on the new arrivals. They may not be familiar with the ways of Mandalore, so instruct them in the code. Take them as apprentices, if they are worthy. Instruct them in our ways and guide them. Otherwise, left to their own devices and plots, they may draw us further into the Civil War."
"Of course, my Mand'alor." Several voices at once agreed.
I was about to move to adjourn the meeting, and had stood up from the meeting table, when Gar Saxon spoke up, "My Mand'alor, I would like your opinion on a matter."
"Go on." I said, retaking my seat.
Gar Saxon looked quite pleased, and started stroking his chin, as if in thought, "The Duchess has declared Mandalore as neutral in this galactic war and so the Republic should not be sending any ships into our space, except through the neutral trade corridors for the Hydian Way. Yet, I have proof that the Republic is already violating that neutrality. Several agents are tracking ships currently in violation through Mandalorian space at this very moment." He paused meaningfully. It seemed forced, though, as if... "However, I would not wish to act in this matter until hearing your thoughts."
I am curious where Gar Saxon is going with this. The man usually had little experience or patience for politics, preferring a straightforward frontal assault. "What would you do with these vessels invading Mandalorian space, if given a free hand, Saxon?" I probed, interested in what his plot would be. Rook Kast smirked knowingly, but kept silent. I sharpened my gaze at that suspicious gesture before returning my attention to Gar.
He adopted a contemplative expression, as if he needed to take his time and collect his thoughts. Gar is an excellent tactician, but a poor leader, he never demonstrated any aptitude or care for understanding the intricacies of politics. This is entirely unlike him.
Was Gar put up to this by someone else? I tried to recall what news I had heard of Clan Saxon. Maybe this is related to his new wife? Vera Eldar, the former clan princess of the Eldar clan, had recently married Gar and entered into Clan Saxon. There were very few Clan Eldar members in Death Watch, as they were mostly Martial Traditionalists, among those angry with Tor and the treatment of the True Mandalorians. So if this was Clan Eldar making a move with Clan Saxon, that is something to keep an eye on with interest.
Finally, Gar Saxon seemed to have collected his thoughts and met my eyes. "My Mand'alor, I propose that we capture some of these vessels. Their security is quite poor. My agents already discovered the ships are expecting deliveries of cargo from a transport outfit in the sector. Mando Logistics is chartered to deliver their cargo. I believe a small team of skilled infiltrators could pose as these contractors and seize the ships... for the Death Watch."
Seizing the ships is more in line with Gar's typical proposals. However, simply seizing the ships was potentially throwing away an opportunity to rebuild the Death Watch name. How to handle this suggestion?
"A useful idea." I agreed out loud. "Prepare a list of candidates for at least three such strike teams. Start training them for such an operation in the near future. If this violation has happened multiple times and is still happening, we have time to prepare a perfect strike." Gar looked very pleased that I had accepted his proposal.
"However, while they prepare for such an operation, we will turn over this information to the Mandalorian government, and defer to their first move. By doing so, the Death Watch proves its commitment to defending Mandalore is genuine. It will go part of the way to repairing the damage done by Tor, as well as restore some of the harm caused by this false Death Watch attack. Mandalore must be united."
Gar Saxon frowned, "What if the Duchess handles these intruders herself? Will Death Watch be giving up the element of surprise?"
I shook my head in disagreement, "We can only hope for that outcome, it would be best if Mandalore is strong enough to deal with this. We will only step in with your plan if Mandalore does not act."
Gar Saxon grumbled, but nodded after a moment, "A political game and the possibility of gaining resources, I hadn't considered that."
"Two victories for the price of one. Either way, we acquire some new freighters for transporting gear or earn the favor of the Mandalorians as the protectors of the sector." I could tell he was not completely satisfied by this, but it would have to do. "Well done, Gar Saxon, for bringing this to my attention. Congratulations on your marriage as well." Gar Saxon spluttered at this, but I turned towards the rest of the faces.
"Monitor every foreign ship, Republic or CIS, entering Mandalorian space. As Freder suggested, I will be sending updated documentation on what encompasses the rightful territory of Mandalore. Any foreign ships inside of that, we need to know about. Understood?" I locked my gaze with each of the members in the meeting in turn.
"Yes, my Mand'alore." A number of voices spoke at once, and nodded their agreement.
I stood up and concluded the meeting. "All right, then I think we've officially concluded this meeting. Remember our objectives: find the enemy using Death Watch's name for their own agenda, and watch out for foreign interference in our territory. Dismissed."
The group of clan leaders nodded their understanding, and we all broke from the table. I walked out of the room and immediately turned left, heading towards my office. Today's meeting of Death Watch clan leaders is over, but I had further mysteries to solve today.
I shut my office door a bit too quickly, the hinges squeaking softly. I shouldn't focus on that; I needed to calm my nerves after that complex meeting. I would have to get another agent in the Clan Saxon to keep an eye on them. I sighed as I moved to massage my forehead with my fingers, and reached for the holocommunicator controls on the desk. I pressed a few buttons to activate the comm. I need more information on the assassin, and there is only one person that is in a position to answer that question.
"Good evening," I said with a nod as Bo-Katan Kryze's holographic upper torso appeared, hovering over the wooden desk. I am a bit surprised, she answered that comm request almost immediately. She is looking at me furiously too.
"Ori'buyce, kih'kovid! So is it war, then? Is that what this is about?" Bo-Katan's face is sharp as obsidian.
My eyebrows shot up. "Peace." I intoned slowly. I said it twice to emphasize the message. "War? Why would there be war?" What is she talking about? Is it because of the "Death Watch" assassin? "I wanted to check in on you, you know you can always rely on us. Death Watch can always provide relief or medical supplies should you need it."
"You're good, I almost believed that. I'm not buying this peaceful act, though, you aren't some unblooded New Mandalorian." Bo-Katan spat the words as if they were a gauntlet thrown down. "You sent dangerous, armed thugs to rob my employer's company headquarters in broad daylight. Some of my men are dead, thanks for that. Then you attacked White Silver's idols live in public." She shook her head in obvious disbelief. "I didn't think you'd sunk so low, Pre."
"I'm certain your judgment is premature. I did not authorize any Death Watch operation at Gargon after Gerr. As for the recent assassination attempt, I only knew what everyone else saw on the holonet." I paused, perhaps this could yet be salvaged. "However, I understand your point of view better now. I'd be willing to meet with you and White Silver in person at a suitable meeting site on Gargon to share information and resolve this dispute formally."
Bo-Katan looked frustrated, but didn't answer immediately, turning her head to the side. A few moments passed. "Fine. Against my better judgment. I'll have my secretary arrange the details." I held in a chuckle, I thought I would never see the day Bo-Katan learned to delegate. It's one of the weaknesses that held her back in Death Watch.
"Is there any way I could be of assistance then?" I asked with a tone of concern, checking again.
Bo simply shook her head, face still a silent mask of anger.
"Death Watch is looking to rent some more berths and construction docks, and we could be convinced to invest significantly in Gargon's spaceport. It would be counterproductive for us to instigate hostilities on a planet that we prefer to work with." I continued, the obvious olive branch even had the benefit of being mostly true. Of course, Death Watch could try to invade Gargon, but not only would it cost an enormous amount of manpower to accomplish, it would also reveal Death Watch to the Mandalore sector as a whole. Satine might even authorize a counter invasion, now that Gargon has agreed to be under New Mandalorian protection. In short, it is not worth the effort to start problems in Gargon, when the Mandalore sector as a whole is what I am aiming for.
If talks with White Silver broke down, we could sell back the slots for a profit in the future. Every fool could see Gargon is a sure investment thanks to the Civil War, with its prime position near the Hydian Way Hyperlane. Clans are clamoring to build businesses to cater to the Republic's sudden new military force. And White Silver has proven herself to be strong enough to defend her prize, judging by her opening display on Geonosis. Is that why White Silver interceded in Geonosis, I wondered with my refreshed perspective. I'd have to revisit that thought later.
"And it wasn't from someone else's order in Death Watch?" Bo-Katan pressed with serious concern in her eyes. Judging by that reaction, I am pretty sure I convinced her with the previous meeting offer.
I shook my head in the negative. "Senator Merrik is in Coruscant, obeying the Duchess's wishes. Gar Saxon is busy plotting to hijack some freighters violating the neutrality of the Mandalore sector by trespassing. Freder Priest is utterly loyal, to a fault, you as you know. And I highly doubt that you would order such an operation to those under your protection. So no, it wasn't Death Watch at the very least Death Watch that is loyal to me."
Bo-Katan's face is pure bewilderment. "Then who are they then?" She punched something out of frame. "You know, it's almost worse, if it's not Death Watch. Before, I thought I knew the enemy. Now..."
I shrugged. I knew less than she did, but I too am very interested in getting to the bottom of this, even more so now. "Did the assassin's chain code reveal any information?"
Bo-Katan merely shook her head. "Nothing, there's no info back from the Mandalorian chain code system and his armor is basic durasteel without any beskar. There is no info on their family or identity in them, he's a ghost. The ones who broke into MH are similarly unidentifiable, but they use red Plasteel armor."
That was odd, but not impossible, the chain code system had always been a rather useful but under-used system. Many Mandalorians did not trust the centralization such codes required and avoided them, but to have no family history in armor, that is not the norm as they would have to commission an entire set of armor and that is, this is a bit deeper of a mystery than I anticipated. Sighing, I asked, "Any suggestions on how I can mend fences with the White Silver before the meeting?" Earnestness and flattery being the central idea here.
"As you suggested: Docks. If you want to mend fences, rent, sponsor or invest in her shipbuilding. That will bring more jobs to the Mandalore sector and will raise the sector's defensive capabilities." That is unexpected. Just how much time did Bo-Katan spend on Gargon in order to learn how to talk like that? A question for another time, perhaps.
"And what about the sector's opinion? Someone claiming to be Death Watch just tried to kill a singer on live holo." Maybe she will have an answer to that as well?
"Idols." was the response, which caught me by surprise yet again.
"Pardon?" I asked, not following the sudden change in topic.
"White Silver's idols are a hopeful aspiration to what Mandalore could be. Under her influence, Mandalore would transform into a cultural hub, built on our military past. A cultural hub, but also of people and traditions, a way of life compatible with the possibility of fighting a war, but aspiring to cooperate. Tickets on Gargon are sold out for the idols. Stars, the shows on Mandalore are completely sold out as well."
I sat there, my jaw slightly lowered. I was pretty sure I had a bottle of strong whiskey hidden somewhere in this desk. I might have a need to find it, as I am wondering what universe I currently reside in. "Yes, well, I'm going to have to pay a bit more attention to these idols, aren't I?" I adopted a thoughtful expression. "Hmm. Who did you use to find your idols?"
Bo-Katan finally smiled, "I was the one in charge of the project, why?"
"How would you like to help Death Watch out from the shadows on this one?" I asked, amused at the chance to delegate this task right back to its sender. No amount of torture could reveal my secret leadership techniques.
Bo-Katan looked at me a bit unsure as she scratched her head, but after a moment, she nodded. "Alright, I guess I found one set of superstar idols. I could try and repeat my success."
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Duchess Satine
I covered my mouth reflexively in shock, reviewing the reason and cause of this emergency council meeting. Prime Minister Almec paused the holovideo playing the recording for the council.
"She... did she just kill a man on stage?" I asked, hesitating, alternating between looking at the council members, back towards the still frame of the scene, or putting my head in my palms at the amount of work I would need to fix this mess. The now-infamous lead idol Miri Chour is part of the Gargon Girls, the same idol group we had scheduled to appear at the cultural festival next month. The same festival that Bo and Tanya had hoped would demonstrate brighter Mandalorian ideals and encourage their fellow Mandalorians to embrace their better natures.
And now, this whole thing had gone completely sideways, and I was left carrying the bag. The silence stretched uncomfortably.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Droxun, is bold enough to be the first to answer my question, "Yes, a week ago, our official spokeswoman for the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force killed a man on a live holonet broadcast."
The Minister of the Interior, Mr. Armatan, spoke up after Mrs. Droxun finished, "Not exactly the best look. Perhaps we should try and pretend this never happened? We can still terminate the contract."
"I agree with that." Prime Minister Almec said with a nod of his head. He paused for a moment and shifted his purple gaze on me, "In fact, we should start pulling back on a lot of our ideas when it comes to the Self-Defense Force and the Silver Documents. I have a very bad feeling that this might be the start of a civil war between Death Watch and the Silver Mandalorians."
The Minister of the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force, Ikudtovu Ordo, is the newest councilwoman to join the council, went a bit pale as Almec droned on. She stood up, clearly itching to interject, but too polite to interrupt. Almec paid her no mind, but then he paused for a breath. "No! That would be a disaster!" She spoke towards the group, ignoring him. "We can't scale back now, there's never been so much focus or attention on the SDF. In fact, I would say this is probably the best thing to ever happen to our efforts to create a Mandalorian Self-Defense..."
"Are you mad?" Prime Minister Almec interrupted, looking at her with bewilderment. "She just murdered a man! Live on holonet broadcast! This will be all over the galaxy in no time, so all will know that Miri Chour is a bounty hunter and a cold-blooded killer. What will the rest of the galaxy see us as, if we celebrate such creatures?"
"Actually, that's not really an issue." chimed in the soft-spoken and junior councilman, Alrich Wren. Mr. Wren had been selected as Minister of Cultural Affairs two months prior. Mr. Wren was a professor at the Royal Academy, and Korkie's advisor for his academic merit project.
"The cultural festival has sold out three times over in the last nineteen hours. I've spent the last day lining up more venues to keep accommodating the demand. We're going to be making credits hand over fist on this." Mr. Wren paused to take a drink of water. I don't know him well enough to understand his character yet. Korkie had nothing but excellent stories about his time with the former professor, but it is interesting that when I had surveyed my council for a shortlist of names, Governor Vizsla had also independently submitted the man's name to my attention. Which is a strange coincidence but seeing as two independent sources that I trust vouched for him, he must be very capable. "The other cultural volunteers groups that will be demonstrating for live events throughout the Mandalore Sector, they've all not said a thing about this. They seem to have not cared or simply not cared enough to disprove it openly."
"Really?" The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Droxun said, raising an eyebrow before shaking her head in amusement.
The Minister of the Interior, Mr. Armatan, shifted uneasily, "We do have to contend with a budget shortfall this year. If no one else cares and it's actually going to make us a lot of credits..."
Prime Minister Almec looked shocked at his sudden betrayal. Before he could respond, though, Ms. Ordo spoke up again, "We don't have to worry about any criminal charges as Ms. Chour is in the clear, legally. This was a clear-cut case of self-defense. We do have a bit of a problem with the volunteer system because of this event, but not the way you would think."
Prime Minister Almec looked appalled, mouth moving with no words for a moment. Finally, he spluttered, "You're not saying volunteers are up... are you?"
Ms. Ordo did not hide her obvious military discipline or pride on her face as she answered Almec. "It's through the roof actually. The volunteer rate might as well be a vertical line upwards, especially when the ads dropped a day in advance of the story. Ms. Chour's self-defense legal defense triggered a second cascade of volunteers, even more than the initial wave. Right now we cannot even process a fraction of the applications. Some of the administrative regions have even begun to charge people for the right to volunteer."
Mr. Wren gave a polite cough into the sudden silence at the end of Ms. Ordo's last comment. The Minister of Cultural Affairs adjusted his glasses and muttered, "Well, the Self-Defense Force coordinated with the Cultural Affairs office." Ah, that explained things. However, Prime Minister Almec just gave him a confused look, so he continued. "What I mean to say is that there's a 25% discount if you're a government employee. This happens to include SDF soldiers, trainees, and enlistees."
I couldn't help myself, I chuckled behind my palm. He shot me a grieved look, but what could I do with this situation? It had gotten absolutely insane. Taking a breath, I finally said, "Alright, well, I think it is safe to say that we will not be breaking the contract with the Gargon Girls. We will get a few people upset with the fact that there's a connection between the Gargon Girls and the Self-Defense Force, even if it's just a little bit of mutual advertisement."
"People are upset about everything." Ms. Ordo said dismissively, waving away the concerns. "If this specific event had not happened, some other distraction would occupy our focus, and people would still be upset. At least we can gain some control of the narrative right now."
She shook her head, before adding, "Speaking of distractions, there was an interesting offer sent to us from the Mandalorian Patrol. They contacted the Palace's Royal Guard."
"Oh yes," I nodded, I had already been informed about this, and had planned to talk about it in the next council meeting, but then the craziness from Gargon had reared its head. "We should talk about the Mandalorian Patrol and their recent offer."
Prime Minister Almec looked at me in confusion yet again, "What offer?"
"To be clear, this is still being investigated, but from my understanding the Mandalorian Patrol is willing to sell some of their vessels that they've acquired over the years to the Self-Defense Force. We could use them to create a proper navy."
Prime Minister Almec shook his head, before saying, "How are we going to get the resources to purchase these ships, let alone maintain them? Sure, we have a manpower surplus right now, but we still don't have the credits for it."
Mrs. Droxun coughed, before speaking, "I might have an idea about that." Everyone focused on her as she said, "If the cultural festival is as successful as it is forecasted to be, perhaps we should send some screenings to off-system planets. We could sell the rights to holonet stations, syndicate shows that demonstrate Mandalorian culture and musical excellence."
"Make some extra cash off the cultural festival, buy the ships off the local mercenaries, and organize them into a proper Navy. That's not bad." Ms. Ordo said approvingly.
"As a one-off source of funding, it's good, but we can do even better. There's a week-long festival celebrated all across the Republic, the Festival of Life. It's about five months from now." Mr. Wren explained and nodded at Ms. Ordo. "We could make this cultural event a regular tradition and funding mechanism for the SDF." Part of me wondered why Mr. Wren cared so deeply about funding the SDF. Perhaps he wanted to turn his temporary ministry appointment into a permanent council position. "We should use the Republic's holiday week to start our own Mandalorian traditions and show off on Coruscant."
I gave Mr. Wren a slight nod, having more compatible sources of credits is always nice to have. "I'm interested, but not convinced. Create a more formal proposal and submit it for the next meeting."
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Tanya Kryze
My report back to Coruscant was less exciting than I had anticipated, with the Civil War on. I hurried back to Senator Merrick's office. His bodyguard let me in, and I nodded at the unfamiliar man approvingly. I strongly agreed with the wisdom of self-protection, especially after recent events.
Senator Merrick nodded at me from behind his desk, while his bodyguard took up a position near the door again. "Welcome back, Representative Tanya." He said slowly. "The Duchess has informed me that we need to improve our security. I'd suggest you stay away from the Senate."
"I met your new bodyguard. I also have some new staff; I think Ms. Morson will be ready to take the trials for the Royal Guards soon."
"I see, fine. However, I still suggest you stick clear of the Senate and your friends from Naboo. The Trade Federation Senators and agents are investigating you. Your recent actions are very interesting to them. Unless you like danger, I'd stick to areas where your diplomatic immunity actually protects you, like Mandalore Tower." At this particular moment, it was very hard to not act my age.
"Alright, I don't want to upset Aunt Satine." I bobbed my head.
"Very good." Senator Merrik nodded, and indicated I could depart.
After that conversation, I wasn't so foolish as to ignore Merrik's helpful warning about the Trade Federation. I should have expected that they would be interested in me, especially after their previous vendetta with Senator Amidala. So I am keeping clear of the usual Senate buildings and meeting areas.
Avoiding the Senate made me feel a little redundant, a backup singer to a world-class singer, but I appreciated Merrik looking out for things like that. Aunt Satine would be very annoyed if I was involved in another diplomatic incident so soon. However, it did give me time to run my businesses as White Silver, as well as keep an eye on how the war was progressing. My access to internal Senate documents and military documents is substantial, more than I was initially comfortable with, but apparently this is standard.
"X4, did we set up any substantial interests in Christophsis?" I queried. The documents I saw about troop movements were odd. While superweapons were the focus of public attention, the Confederacy are invading worlds all over the Galaxy. The planet Christophsis had been invaded, and it seemed that a large force in response from the Republic was being assembled to retake the planet. How important that planet was to the war effort is debatable since there are hundreds of mining worlds in the Outer Rim alone, but it did require some sort of response.
"No Mistress. Christophsis is directly on the Corellian Run. Mandal Logistics has been focusing on profitable trade routes that bypass major hyper-routes as those have less competition." I grunted, well, that was a good decision now, considering the Galactic Civil War is focused along those same primary hyperlane routes.
If the Republic did nothing to stop the Confederacy from invading worlds, well, that would make it rather apparent that the Republic treated some planets as more important than others. So the Republic is forced to respond to every invasion, or risk more planets joining the Confederacy in order to avoid being directly invaded.
The Senate had been terribly surprised by the invasion of Kamino as well, but the invasion hadn't surprised me in the slightest. If your enemy knows you have a supply network coming out of a single point of failure: one planet for all their clones, then of course they're going to attack it. There is no better way to cut off the supply of clones to the front line than to kill them before they've even been equipped. A battle prevented is a battle won, and it seems Count Dooku understood that as well.
Unlike Christophsis, where the conflict is still ongoing, the battle for Kamino had been won quickly. The Republic had no choice but to defend Kamino. I understand the planet had survived the assault and would be back in production, albeit at a slower rate for a bit. The new bottleneck in clone production had started a debate in the Senate about creating secondary clone laboratories elsewhere. However, I was still concerned about the use of clones at all for the Republic's infantry.
It's a lot easier to grab a man off the street and give them 2 months of basic training for a blaster than it was to grow a clone. Clone training is more complicated and expensive than arming a militia, no doubt due to clones being detached from society and lacking a proper childhood. The cost to train clones and send them out to fight is something like four times the price of arming existing citizens for a militia. The Senate is fixated on using clones, though, as it is obviously working, and they are hoping it will keep working until they win the war.
Shaking my head, I sat back in my seat and gazed out the window across Coruscant, staring at the endless ecumenopolis. There are a lot of worlds interested in improving their security and defenses now. The more well-known defense firms charged premium prices, they would probably cost them an arm and a leg. Alternatively, worlds could invest in security from Mandalore, as Mandal Hypernautics are producing their own local fighters for a relatively cheap rate. Not to mention, the Crusader-class freighters Mandalore produced had a moment in the spotlight since my rescue from Geonosis. The Peacekeeper had held its own against the droid fighters during its insertion and attracted outside interest.
"X4, did the Republic contact us regarding the Crusader-class freighters after Geonosis?" I might as well double and triple-check things in my downtime.
"Negative, my Mistress." X4 replied tersely.
Hmm, I turned my head slowly to move one of the bangs out of my eyes. "Who has been interested in them, then?" I asked.
"Would you like me to enumerate systems that have requested its technical specifications?" X4 replied.
"Just the ones that have placed orders or made an offer." I watched the traffic lanes of speeders and repulsor craft on the other side of the window, my eyes naturally seeking any pattern lurking in the chaos.
"Mistress, the following institutions have purchased at least one Crusader-class freighter: Corellian Security Forces, Arkania Defensive Navy, the Grand Protector of Rodia, the Taris Civil Authority, and of course, the Mandalorian Government. Additionally, many institutions have made offers, in particular the Telerath Banking Guild and Ryloth Clan Council have both asked for a license to produce the freighter themselves. Did you wish to respond to any of the licensing or other offers?" X4 asked.
"No... not right now. It would not be a good long-term investment for Mandalore. Maybe if we need credits in a hurry, but there's no reason to sell the rights right now. Even if they share improvements or technology for the Crusader-class back with us, we're much better off if it's Mandalorians making the discoveries and gaining the experience." I explained to X4, putting my back to the window again and facing the droid.
He made a confused beep in response, but followed that up with a chirp in the affirmative. "As you wish, Mistress."
I sighed and tried to explain it in terms X4 might understand. "Mandalore, and by extension, Mandal Hypernautics, has a lot of solid engineers, IT personnel, and ship-building experience. These human resources have been built up as a result of our investments in local companies. And yes, the licensing of the designs might draw in immediate credits or new technology, but it would waste all the credits we spent building up local companies for the same quality of work, as most will go out of business without our contracts. The more technology we built in-house, local to the sector, the higher-quality ships Mandalore will produce long-term."
X4 beeped in the affirmative again.
At least that's what I have hoped. The Ordo system and the Mandalorian Patrol in talks with Mandal Hypernautics, expressed interest in purchasing ships, and a few local worlds have expressed interest as well. I was also hoping they were willing to transfer their knowledge on shipbuilding for the plans on the Crusader-class freighter or other ship designs we had. The Civil War held the real possibility of transforming Gargon and Mandal Hypernautics into economic powerhouses.
A lot of my business operated out of Gargon; I need to consolidate my businesses on that planet to offer them all protection. Bo-Katan sent me a terse holocom about a group of thugs that broke into Mandal Hypernautics recently. It would be ideal if all my businesses could share the same security, same resources, etcetera. I believe that's why conglomerates and other megacorporations tended to form in the first place. I needed a Mandalorian supercorporation.
"X4, can you look into relocating the Armorer's Consortium, Vesti Engineering, and any other of my major firms not already on Gargon to the planet?" I definitely want the armor and weapons manufacturers included. "I would like to incorporate all my major companies into a single entity to offer them access to shared security and resources in the sector. Not to mention, it will make them easier to manage." Looking back at my datapad, showing the tangled web that is my personal finances, I longed for a proper corporate accounting structure.
"Vesti Engineering already has Phobium Power Cell facilities located on Gargon, Mistress." X4 corrected, "But of course, I will look into this. Is there anything else you need?"
Really, I needed to find something other than business to do with my life, otherwise I would become rather stagnant. Fine. I put my saucer down on the desk and turned back towards where X4 is working away, at several computers at once. Managing the companies as best as he could.
"Thanks X4, do you mind contacting Vai and asking her to perhaps prepare one of her expeditions to the city in the next week or so? I feel like I'm becoming stagnant in my position and need to let off some steam."
"Of course, my Mistress. Your schedule is clear for the next two weeks." He helpfully added. I am already painfully aware of my free schedule, however.
"Thank you, X4." I said, leaning back in my chair. I knew I probably am opening a can of chaos, but I could use something mundane and chaotic over the constant war updates I had to read about daily. Whatever Vai came up with would be entertaining, at least, of that I was certain. There is a reason that I kept her around, and it isn't because she's a good employee. If I'm pressed to admit it, perhaps I had grown fond of her chaos, as it complimented my order. As long as she is a controlled chaos under me, that is fine by me.
Msst System, Ancient Asteroid Base, Royal Aka'jor Shuttle
Korkie Kryze
What a difference four months can make. Four months ago, I was planning for an expedition to an asteroid to go looking for a lost relic ship, one that supposedly had unknown cultural relics. I was interested in what the Royal Museum of Mandalore could learn to get a better idea of the ancient past of Mandalore.
But by the time I was prepared to go exploring with my schoolmates and investigate this asteroid belt for the ancient ship, the galaxy had radically changed. The Republic is at war with the Confederacy of Independent Systems and Mandalore is in between the two of them
It was hard to truly grasp the reality of the situation. There was a dreadful aura of normality to the whole thing. The galaxy had gone mad, and everything just went on like normal. As if we were meant to simply accept this as the new status quo. People protested, condemned, justified, argued, but my classes resumed at the Royal Academy, and in Sundari life continued on as usual. Everyone still needed to get paid, everyone still needed to finish their education, and everyone still went home at the end of the day to warm food and a safe bed. I was no different in truth, as the days went on and the shock wore off, I became worried about how the state of the galaxy would affect my expedition.
The Prime Minister of Mandalore, Almec had strongly urged my Academy advisor against the expedition, and finally the Academy canceled the entire expedition a few weeks ago. However, my schoolmates and I protested his decision and with Aunt Satine's help we eventually overruled him on that matter.
I was happy about that, ecstatic. As people were displaced by war and bloodshed, I was happy that my little void archaeology expedition was given the green-light. I felt, honestly, I had no idea how I felt, but it was what I was meant to do. It's also a nice change of pace from those occasional diplomatic missions to the various planets inside the Mandalore system that Auntie Satine usually sent me on. So when it came to my life in this time of Galactic unrest, I simply did the same thing everyone else was doing. I kept calm and carried on. Which had resulted in a slow start and finally getting here to this asteroid in the middle of Msst system, the asteroid base that supposedly had a vault inside of it that carried a large ship full of relics.
Is the ship really there? It's hard to say. If the asteroid base is still operational, we could send a coded broadcast that would trigger the asteroid base to reveal itself. If we didn't find this code in the Kandosii, we would have to spend months looking for each asteroid large enough to fit a space dock manually since the dock's spatial coordinates would not have remained the same after several thousand years of drift. I am excited, though. Well, less excited about the fact that we are going to have to do a space walk across a small open area to the main doors.
Lagos, Soniee, Amis and I are wearing modified versions of the Academy hardsuits. The modifications ensured the suits were sealed and fully covered the body, allowing us to remain in the suit for an extended period without running out of air. Aunt Satine had our suits up-armored with some spare beskar from the Royal Armorer. I thought it was unnecessary, but she said that she will only allow our expedition if we wear armored suits in the event that trouble finds us, like the animal attack on Breshig.
Once we land we are going to have to do a bit of a walk across the sandy surface of the asteroid, before we could make it inside the dock. We can't land our shuttle inside because the docking bay is likely to be closed and can only be opened by someone inside. I doubt anyone is still alive after a thousand years.
Our objective is to search the abandoned base, find a way into the ship, and release it from whatever docking clamps held it inside the asteroid. However, there is always the possibility that the clamps had failed centuries ago, causing the ship to continually bump around inside the asteroid, trashing it completely and resulting in the loss of all relics. If that were the case, this mission would be a complete failure. But I held onto the hope that it would all work out.
Even if we confirmed the ship's destruction, there might be something left floating around inside. If we could confirm the ship's presence and the existence of relics, we could arrange for another expedition to explore the ship and see what had been left behind.
"I kriffing hate these things." muttered Crikey as she struggled to fit herself into a set of Mandalorian armor that resembled an earlier version of Super Commando armor.
"You shouldn't." said Tom, who was already decked out in his orange mechanical armor. He stood behind her, overseeing the task of making sure her gear is double-checked and fastened correctly to prevent oxygen loss.
The standard practice is to have someone else double-check your equipment before a spacewalk. So, everyone had paired up: Soniee and I are in one corner, Amis and Lagos are in another, Tom and Crikey in their own corner, and in the last corner are my squad of Royal Guards. Unfortunately, Captain Rau was no longer with us. He had been assigned to my guard duty ever since our visit to Breshig, but as soon as the Civil War started, he apparently took a leave of absence and began offering his services to the Republic as a fighter pilot trainer.
I wasn't a fan of the idea of one of our own training military forces inside the Republic, but I understood his motivations - Captain Rau felt it was the best way to protect Mandalore. After the incident with my younger sister and several other notable Mandalorians showing up in the midst of CIS deployments, it seemed apparent that Mandalore had made a poor first impression in the Civil War.
It was better to appear neutral and allow individuals to choose which side they supported than to appear to support one side or the other. At least that's what my sister's recent letters recommended regarding the situation.
Crikey's voice then crackled out of the ship intercom, interrupting my worrying with fresh concerns. "Hey! We are coming in for a landing. Unfortunately, the asteroid docking bay is already open! There are two ships already in the docking bay!"
A collective exclamation of "What!?!" went throughout the room, and I immediately moved towards a window to look out. Outside, I saw a strange vessel, one of a design I am unfamiliar with; it is long and had two wings that apparently rotated up. The ship reminded me a bit of the Aka'jor transport shuttle we are using, but sleeker and more combat-oriented.
The other ship is some sort of Corellian vessel, obvious from its discreet nature, and it looked fairly old.
My new Royal Guard Captain, whose name escaped me right now, moved to the window next to me. He also peered out the window as the ship came to a landing next to the two other vessels. When he turned back to face me, I caught a glimpse of his name lapel, Captain Briyuk. He said, "Well, what do we have here... Prince Korkie, I think we should call this off. We have an unknown force already inside the facility, this could be dangerous."
I just shook my head at his ignorance. "No way. We can't give up here. Those relics represent centuries of Mandalorian history, and they belong to the people of Mandalore... not these interlopers, whoever they are."
Captain Briyuk tilted his head in thought. "You think the Mask of Mandalore is there?" He jerked his thumb towards the ships, obviously joking by his expression.
"No idea." I wasn't here to find any specific relic, but those unknown ships indicated something was here. "Honestly, I hope not. But those others are here..." Both Lagos and Soniee were already heading over towards me, concern clear on their faces.
Amis had found one of the blasters, the same model I already had holstered at my side, and was examining it in his hands, seeming a bit too interested in it. His expression reminded me of my little sister. "I have a bad feeling about this." Lagos noted after one look at Amis.
Captain Briyuk immediately got serious, "Okay, if we are going to do this, we are going to do this my way. Staff Sergeant Obyrd and I will lead the way in. You and your friends will follow behind us and stick to the center of the group. The remaining guards will provide cover and rearguard. If any of your friends aren't prepared for a fight, they should stay aboard the ship. Got it, kids?" By the end of his instructions, a circle of us had formed around him.
Captain Briyuk moved through the group, and reached over to grab one of the extra staves stashed along the bulkhead of the ship. The guards had brought some kit from their armory for this mission. After grabbing one for himself, Briyuk tossed one to me.
"I know you're not one for weapons, but I doubt your little blaster you got there is going to be something you will feel comfortable with. So here, take this staff; shock anyone who gets too close. Don't get killed."
I chuckled politely, while he immediately started helping Obyrd prepare some additional firepower. I navigated around Lagos and grabbed my helmet and put it on. Soniee immediately started fussing with it, to ensure that the seal was secure. Eventually, we finished checking each other's equipment and once Briyuk was satisfied, we all headed toward the exit ramp. Crikey and Tom were there waiting for us by the ramp, and we started tracking across the sandy dirt of the asteroid to the facility.
As we passed the strange blue craft, my Royal Guards paused and examined the ship. One of them pointed, and then Obyrd's voice was audible in the suit speakers, "That's not good." I moved towards their position to get a better view, and then I saw the symbol on the external bulkhead. The symbol had three claw-like lines, connected by a central line.
A familiar symbol to me, but only because I had seen one on a manifesto recently while on Breshig. "Death Watch?" I said. Then I remembered I needed to use the suit radio. Pressing it, I asked, "The Death Watch symbol?"
Captain Briyuk nodded, "Yep. That's exactly what that symbol represents. We're going to have to be careful. If these guys are just jackasses pretending to be Death Watch, this could be a problem."
"And if they are Death Watch?" I asked.
"Well then, this is going to be the fight of our lives. Let's hope it's just pretenders."
I nodded and followed Captain Briyuk in. The rest of the Royal Guards spread out into their formation as we made our way to the ominously open docking bay entrance.
Once there, I saw that the situation was a bit different than I had suspected from a distance. The doors had been popped open, but not by a clever slicer, instead the doors were blasted open, with obvious damage showing from the aftermath of an explosion. Further inside, the destroyed doorway revealed a second set of doors that seemed to be firmly locked.
Carefully, we made our way past the debris of the outer doorway. Soniee made a beeline straight for the interior access panel. Half the squad of guards remained outside the exterior to guard, while Captain Briyuk and three others joined us inside the passageway.
"How's it looking, Soniee?" I called, a few moments of searching turned up nothing else interesting visible in the passageway.
Soniee replied, not bothering to look up from her personal datapad, "There's a basic atmosphere control still in effect. These doors are just here for backup, there's an active low level force field on the other side of that door. I should be able to open it whenever we want." She pointed to the indicated doors.
"Well, that's good, but not yet." Captain Briyuk, said before signaling his men to be ready to enter the facility. Once the squad was in formation and clustered around the door, he turned to us and said, "Stay back here, and if you see someone coming that's not us, either seal the door or start running. There's no reason to fight them if they are not Death Watch; lives are more important to Mandalore than any relics, so just get the hell out. Got it?"
I joined the group chorus of crackled, "Yes," and other forms of agreement from Lagos, Soniee, Amis, and the rest.
Captain Briyuk stepped forward from the group, and nodded towards Soniee. "Okay kid, after you open the door, move back against the passage bulkhead and stay clear. Ready?" There was a collective pause. "Open it!"
The door opened.
It was an instant standoff.
On one side of the room are seven Mandalorians wearing Super Commando armor of a modern make, all clad in a blue-black coloration, and wielding either dual pistols or carbine rifles. They each had the same three-clawed symbol on their shoulders, with a dash of red showing which side they were on.
On the other side of the room are two individuals. One is carrying a rifle of unknown make, wearing blue and red armor with yellow markings on their face mask. The other is a towering woman, carrying what could only be described as a rotary blaster cannon, as it had six barrels that were already warmed up, slowly and menacingly spinning. She's wearing blue and black armor that has a single solid plate over her chest, instead of the Supercommando pattern of several smaller plates.
As the door parted, both parties turned towards us. There are visible expressions of confusion on all parties present; neither one of them had expected more people to show up.
"Fucking traitors! You called the Royal Guard on us!?!" An angry voice yelled from the crowd of Death Watch minions. Some of them aimed weapons towards the Royal Guards. Immediately, all my guards raised their blasters towards the Death Watch soldiers.
"Why the fuck would we do that?" Called the taller woman, who swung her rotary blaster cannon back to face the Death Watch group.
"Oh! I don't know, maybe because you're a Manda-cursed bitch! A thief that wants to steal all these relics and fence them on the open market! I see how it is... If we can't have them, better to destroy them by handing them over to the damn pacifist. Do you know how much time it took to get the intel on this Manda-forsaken asteroid?"
"Probably got the intel from the same Hutt that sold you yours, you harpy!" taunted the voice of a shorter woman pointing her rifle at the original speaker.
"Ladies!" Captain Briyuk said, suit transmitting his voice over its loudspeakers, "All of you will lower your weapons now."
"Fuck you, pacifist!" shouted one of the male voices of the Death Watch members. One of them opened fire and one of his shots struck a Royal Guard in the face. He fell over, and I couldn't tell what state he was in, but I never had the chance to check as the room erupted into chaotic blaster fire as my Royal Guard charged the Death Watch members.
I grabbed Soniee's hand, since the doorway is open she is alone and vulnerable against the passageway bulkhead. So I pulled her along and took cover behind some crates.
Looking up, the shorter yellow-marked Mandalorian was standing on the boxes, and seemed to examine the fallen Royal Guard from a safe distance, before moving on. She moved at a rather incredible pace, returning fire at someone that shot at her.
"Well, I think she's on our side." I commented in a private comm channel, as Soniee nodded her head in agreement. A few more blasts missed us, aimed above our cover.
"Maybe we should move back towards the door and try to escape. I think the battle has diffused enough that we could sneak outside and not be noticed."
"Yeah, that's a good idea." I agreed, peeking around the corner to see what was going on.
As I peeked, I saw the tall Mandalorian, with her rotary blaster cannon discarded on the ground, caught up in a fist fight between one of the Death Watch members. From my position, it seemed she was doing a rather good job punching through the armor. I don't know what planet she was from, but apparently she was obviously superhumanly strong; far superior to baseline strength. Not even Mandalorian armor was able to stop her from breaking bones.
Another Death Watch minion snuck around behind her, and slowly raised her own blaster towards the fistfight, clearly aiming towards the taller Mandalorian. I was forced to act. I brought out my blaster, setting the staff on the ground, and aimed it at the hidden Death Watch minion. She immediately reacted to my motion, switching targets towards aiming at my position. My trigger was pulled and I felt the impact of a blaster shot at the same moment. My chest felt scorching hot and bruised from the blaster bolt, but the minion staggered as she fell onto his back, stunned. I am now really grateful for the beskar upgrade Aunt Satine insisted on adding.
The towering Mandalorian woman seemed to have heard the brief blaster exchange and abandoned her defeated opponent, scanning the area. Her opponent is completely still, either unconscious, or worse.
Turning to me, she gave me a thumbs up and said, "Thanks kid." She gave her opponent one final kick to the head, before moving on to complete some other objective out of sight. Then, I saw Soniee also peeking around the other side of the boxes. Soniee and I turned towards each other. We couldn't hear any more sounds of violence or yelling after a few more tense seconds of silent waiting. I wondered what side had won.
The answer came in the form of Captain Briyuk asking, "Clear, who's still alive? Sound off."
Popping my head up to look around, I answered, "Soniee and I are good." Surprisingly, the two individuals who weren't with the 'Death Watch' group from the previous standoff are standing next to the Captain.
Mr. Bresh and Ms. Crikey crawled out from behind a set of cargo containers, dragging an unconscious Death Watch minion. Ms. Crikey apparently had lost her helmet in the fight, but she looked like a victorious lion dragging her kill. I am pretty sure I recognized the knife that is sticking out of the Death Watch's body as hers. And Amis and Lagos came out from where they've been hiding. They'd somehow gotten their hands on Death Watch weapons by the looks of it.
"That could have gone better." Captain Briyuk remarked, examining the aftermath. He turned towards Soniee and asked, "Can you access their systems?" He swept his hand out, indicating the equipment from the fallen 'Death Watch'. "We still haven't found where the ship is hidden. We also don't know if that group is all of them, either; they might have backup nearby. I'd rather be on the way back to Mandalore before they show up."
Soniee moved over to a console and meanwhile, I asked, "Think these guys are Death Watch or just wannabes?"
Captain Briyuk shook his head, "I don't think they're the real deal. Their training wasn't up to snuff to the one we fought in the Civil War. I would like to think there'd be no reinforcements, but making an assumption like that is often just asking for trouble." Suddenly, Captain Briyuk's voice was only coming over my comm. "Prince Korkie. Those two interlopers assisted us back there, but they seem the skittish type. What are your orders?" The odd question almost caused me to miss that he had switched to my hardsuit private comm line.
I gave it some thought as I thumbed the discrete comm button on the suit vambrace before saying, "I think we can let them go, after we questioned them. They helped us out and it wouldn't be fair if we imprisoned them for helping. We still have to find the Relic Ship, and having to keep watch over prisoners will make it more difficult."
Captain Briyuk nodded his head, "As you wish, Prince Korkie."
I nodded in understanding as I scanned the room. A Royal Guard is bandaging our fallen guardsman, two Royal Guards are looking after Lagos and Amis who are standing next to Soniee on a console, and the others are examining the Death Watch group to make sure all of them are secured. The two unknown women kept themselves close together as they shifted around and eyed Captain Briyuk as he walked closer.
"The Prince has agreed to let you go after you answer a few questions. We won't pry into your identities, but we will need you to answer some of our questions."
The tall one replied, "And what if we don't answer them?"
"Then I will have to report you as members of Death Watch and have arrest warrants with your armor's description spread around the Mandalore sector. Trust me, It would be a lot easier for all parties involved if you cooperate." Captain Briyuk said with a nonchalant tone.
The short one placed her hand on the taller one and said. "What do you want to know?"
"First things first, how did you find this asteroid base? We had to find it in an underwater wreck." As Captain Briyuk asked his question, the taller woman walked to the side and started to pick up what looked like blaster components
The shorter one shrugged, "No idea, we were hired by them for our… uh, unique set of skills. So you'll have to ask them once they're awake about where they got that info."
Captain Briyuk nodded his head while keeping an eye on the taller one, "How did you get hired exactly? I am guessing through the bounty hunter's guild?"
The shorter woman nodded her head too, "Yeah, we were hired to salvage a shipwreck but we didn't know what exactly we would be salvaging. I would have preferred if this stuff went to a museum but we had to spend a week checking every asteroid in this area."
"Alright, last question, is the Corellian ship yours?"
The woman nodded her head, "That's right."
"Good, that means that we can impound that Death Watch ship and sweep it for evidence." Captain Briyuk said. "Alright I think that is all of the questions that I want answered. You're free to leave."
Soniee's voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeakers at an excessive volume. "I found the Seeker's Vigil!" She had clearly sliced her suit speakers up to eleven, again. I watched the two mercenaries leave back outside the base before I walked over to see what Soniee was looking at on the console display.
"It's two levels down, inside a vault. The facility is reporting the doors are sealed, but I can open them from here. The ship's fuel is showing empty. Either that or the tanks are ruptured." Soniee explained to the group, once the four of us joined up with the others.
I felt a slight vibration in the floor through the soles of my boots, it only lasted for a few seconds. Captain Briyuk started giving orders, "Baar'ur, how is he?" as he pointed to the Royal Guard that got shot in the head.
"He'll need an aspirin but he'll live." the medic replied.
Captain Briyuk then said, "Alright, half of you stay here to watch the prisoners, the rest will follow me with the Prince to the Seeker's Vigil." After the Royal Guards saluted, we headed deeper into the facility to get what we came for.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Pre Vizsla
Someone is posing as Death Watch. Someone is trying to cause problems. Again. And someone is going to pay dearly for that.
News of the attack on Prince Korkie Kryze had traveled quickly back to Mandalore and currently the Duchess is probably the angriest he'd ever seen her. You could really tell that the Mandalorian blood in her is flowing right now as she paced back and forth, almost having the stomping of a march to it.
She took a seat in her throne; the backlight on the wall behind her lit up. She took in a deep breath, before saying, "So Death Watch has returned and in actuality; it's not just some rogue agent who happened to strike at Gargon. Now they've struck at the heart of the Mandalorian government."
"How did we miss their return? And what are we going to do about it?" I asked, guilelessly.
Death Watch never truly went away. Remnants have been under my command since, oh, quite a long time now. But my remnants, as far as I was aware, had not been involved in this operation.
Oh, I heard about the mission to find this lost Relic ship and I shrugged it off as it was not important in the grand scheme of things. What importance would come from capturing an ancient Relic ship when the end goal is control of the whole sector. Sure, it would gain us knowledge of our past, but does it grant the Death Watch movement legitimacy? Not really, unless the Mask of Mandalore is hidden there which I highly doubt.
Someone wanted to pose as Death Watch? I'll simply take a page out of White Silver's book. It had done wonders for her image when she destroyed an extremist splinter-faction; it might do wonders for my own faction as well.
Prime Minister Almec spoke after shaking his head, "It's impossible that these Death Watch have completely missed our notice. So I may have some theories on the matter on why we might have been blinded to their movements or their rise."
'Oh, this will be good.' I thought, as I leaned back in my chair.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Almec
I stood up and addressed Satine, I glanced at Governor Vizsla, but I ignored his smirk, "Ever since White Silver made her debut a few years ago, I've been devoting resources to monitor their operations. So far, most of her operations are above board and legal. Which seems strange considering how they came onto the board in the first place - I suspect these legal businesses are merely a front to hide their true illegal operations. And perhaps these 'Death Watch' aren't truly the real Death Watch. Perhaps they are agents of White Silver, used to draw attention away from her operations so that she'll have free rein in the Mandalore sector."
Satine had an expression of complete astonishment; the only thing that could have made it better was... I turned to take in the rest of the council. The look on Governor Vizsla's face... it shared the same expression of complete shock. As usual, I am the only one paying attention to the serious threats circling Mandalore. The Duchess spoke first, "That… makes no sense. Why would she have used her own movement to attack the Gargon Girls?"
I nodded, "Yes, that's a good question. I believe that assassination attempt is a false-flag attack from White Silver, to make the Gargon Girl's a martyr. Right now we are assuming that because they attacked White Silver, they are enemies. All we have to show that they are enemies is the attack itself, which is circumstantial evidence at best. And the attack failed."
"It only failed because the Gargon girls actually wore beskar armor. Something White Silver herself endorses pretty heavily." Governor Vizsla pointed out.
"Yes, and very few people probably knew that before the attack." I countered.
Governor Vizsla shrugged his shoulders at that.
Satine still seemed puzzled, "That's a possibility, so let's prepare for the worst case and assume that this really is a faction of Death Watch reborn. How are we going to handle this situation?"
I was prepared for this possibility. "We reactivate the old apparatus for hunting down any Death Watch sympathizers, keep an eye out for their movements, and try to figure out what their overall strategy is." The previous efforts to root out the Death Watch had succeeded after all, the only problem was that we let our vigilance down. If Satine approves of this proposal, maybe I could transform the task force monitoring White Silver into a permanent department. I retook my seat, so the council could discuss the proposal further.
Satine nodded her head in agreement, obviously lost in thought, looking for any way to deal with the potential threat of another terrorist organization.
Governor Vizsla seemed less convinced by my proposal. He shook his head in disagreement. "This all seems premature. Have the attackers that targeted Prince Korkie been identified yet?"
Satine shook her head, "No, they have not been fully identified yet. The Royal Guard are transporting them and their ship back to Mandalore, in addition to the recovered relics and the ship. They should return in a week's time, why?"
Governor Vizsla stood up and explained, "Well, my Duchess. I'm concerned that the Prime Minister's plan, while well-meaning, could turn into a witch-hunt. Many Mandalorians have family ties to exiled or dead Death Watch members. And I have serious doubts if any of them are involved in the attacks. So I have an alternative proposal, allow me to investigate these Death Watch. We will pursue a thorough investigation as Concordia has the largest database of Mandalorian chain codes in the sector, a sad legacy of the last Civil War."
My first reaction to that proposal is annoyance. While Governor Vizsla is right in that Concordia had the largest collection of chain codes, since most of the warriors were exiled to the moon after they lost the Civil War. However, it is fairly obvious that he is empire-building. Always had been with Concordia, he had an endless amount of superiority about Concordia being an agricultural exporter. I merely tolerated it, as long as it didn't harm Mandalore.
Satine still seemed lost in thought as she considered her options. A few tense seconds of silence passed, before she nodded in Governor Vizsla's direction. "Once they arrive back to Mandalore, I'll let you know so that you can begin your investigation." Satine turned to face me, "Put together a task force for your investigation. We need to have a complete understanding of what's going on. Someone out there is trying to cause trouble for the Mandalorian Sector, and we need to know why in order to stop them."
I am glad to be put in charge of the task force, but interestingly, Governor Vizsla also seemed pleased with this outcome. Now I could repurpose my existing White Silver task force with this new investigation, and it would have more funding. "It will be done," I said to Satine. "I will have my top men look into this and we will find out who is responsible, you have my word, my Duchess."
Governor Vizsla nodded at my words and stroked his chin, "Concordia will offer any information we can as well. When your task force has custody of the bodies, we can run their chain codes on our database."
The other members of the council seemed happy we had come to a consensus, as they are not nearly as interested in security concerns.
I didn't want Concordia to steal all the credit though, so I added, "Perhaps we should also get some of the other governments involved in this task force. Gargon in particular has an interest in tracking down the Death Watch responsible for the latest attack. I'm sure many other Mandalorian systems would accept extra security measures to avoid an influx of 'Death Watch' terrorist attacks."
Governor Vizsla frowned, he did not look pleased by my assertion, but said, "Yes, we should try and work out a more legal framework to cooperate in criminal investigations between systems. Criminals can easily skirt around local law enforcement in the sector by simply leaving the system. We can put into place new legislation on information sharing to make it easier to track these criminals down."
And I would be able to gather as much information as possible on what they actually knew about White Silver and the Silver Mandalorians. I had my theories of how deep they went, but until I had proof, I could only speculate on what they are truly up to.
Coruscant, Goodvalor's Little Bivoli
Engiz Ordo
This is not how I expected things to go. But the way things had gone... is the opposite of terrible.
I am sitting at a fine table in my actual dress uniform, not my usual Royal Guard armor, across from Tanya in a rather expensive restaurant.
At Tabbi's suggestion I had made my move and asked Tanya to come out on a date with me. A date at a place that probably is going to cost half of my salary from last year.
But right now, it's completely worth it. The food is great and the conversation is about the history of the Mandalorian worlds, various ideas that had been tried throughout the long history of Mandalore, and how the government could be better run.
None of the other Royal Guards had much interest in these rather nerdy topics, but she's been smiling the entire time talking about them and so have I, so nothing wrong here.
Sure we just spent the last 20 minutes of our meal talking about the effect of the economy due to the war with how it could both be spurred on and stopped depending on how terrible the war is. But the conversation is academic, not something that would be detracting from our night, so it is enjoyable.
Unfortunately, all good nights have to come to an end and as conversations draw to a close, the bill arrives.
Sliding my credits onto the little tray, I said, "So Princess Kryze, how did you find tonight?" Yes, I know that that particular question showed just how on edge I really was, but I am hoping that she wouldn't notice that.
Tanya smiled at that and leaned back in her chair. "Tonight is good, I've been so busy with politics that it's nice to just have a theoretical conversation with someone again. One that doesn't require me to worry about how it's going to work or the right way to implement these changes."
…Oh, she's not complaining about me. Though, she hadn't actually said anything in favor of my invite. Ahh... baby steps this would take baby steps.
Hiding my inner turmoil with a smile, I said, "That's good. You always seem happier and more yourself when you're not stressed out, in my opinion."
"Thank you, Engiz." she said with a smile that I could feel.
The waiter came by and picked up the little plastic tray tearing off the credits and left the receipt, so I got up and moved around to help Tanya stand up. Unfortunately, Tanya is a bit faster as she got up herself.
Although, she did offer her arm, so we walked together out of the restaurant onto one of the upper level streets of the capital city of the Republic.
"Smells like the air cleaners around here aren't working right." Tanya noted. I nodded my head in agreement, there is a definite smell of burnt fuel. Coruscant is a rather complex system built up from its millenia long history, so it wouldn't be impossible for one of those systems to have broken down around here.
"We should probably get back to the speeder faster to avoid the stink then," I suggested. We moved towards a stairway leading down to the parking garage where we parked the speeder I rented for this evening.
I turned the corner and only my training allowed me to dodge a fist that's been flying in my direction. Tanya and I took a few steps back, just gawking at the scene.
Looking down the garage interior, it's déjà vu, as in front of me are two groups of men fighting. Both groups had cybernetics enhancements and are beating the hell out of each other.
"Die snake in the grass, CIS bootlicker!"
"Eat Republic cheese ass-kisser!"
Came the battle cries of both groups, as they beat the hell out of each other.
Then, one of them looked in our direction and tilted his head saying "Hey! Don't I know you two?"
"You must have confused us for someone else." Tanya said, holding on to my arm tightly as she backed up further.
"Nah, I swear I've seen you." The belligerent didn't get to finish that sentence, as one of the 'CIS bootlickers' smashed a metal panel into his face, causing him to collapse into the side of the building. The tragedy continued with him collapsing on the stairs and rolling down several steps, only stopping once his comrades grabbed him.
"I think we should not use underground parking from now on." I said, shaking my head as I backed off with her. "I can have the valet bring us the speeder."
"Yeah, I think that's probably for the best." Tanya eagerly agreed with my suggestion. We continued to back away, keeping our eyes locked on the ongoing conflict, hoping they would not pay us any more attention.
"Hey, wait a moment! That guy's wearing the colors of the CIS! Get them!"
I looked down at my dress uniform, realizing yes it is a rather grayish color and very similar to the color that the 'CIS bootlickers' are wearing.
"Oh boy." I muttered as a man came charging at me, ready to punch my head off. I moved faster than him and leaned to the side to dodge his swing. In retaliation, I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer so I could deliver a knee strike into his intestines. I finished by pushing him back down the stairs into another onrushing cyberthug.
I turned to Tanya to see if she's okay. She is laughing in pure joy as she kicks an incoming attacker between his legs, ripping her dress in the process. The maneuver is perfectly timed, causing him to stop right in front of her as he cradled his groin to ease the pain. This leaves him open for Tanya spartan kick to his face, pushing him down the stairs and taking out two more of the gangsters in an avalanche of bodies.
I took advantage of the lull in combat to escape as I grabbed Tanya by the hand and started running in the other direction. I activated my communicator in my vambrace and called Tabbi. He should be nearby, he said he was having a date with Vai tonight as well.
Writer's note: Political fight in street? That's not a good sign, at least those Mandos are having fun, and agents are moving in the background to unleash chaos. What will happen? Hard to say, but I'm sure everything will be fine~~~ also this chapter was pain to get right, mashing two 20k doc together was hard, and sometimes when we editing it, it felt like we have gone over the same part couple times and we're having "Left hand did not know what right hand was doing." I think it's because it's just too long. I might have to keep that in mind for the future.
Edited by: L4, Warmach1ne32, Afforess, D3ad0S
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716 FNM (22 BBY)
Month 9
Gargon, Baarpir'balac Resort, Grand Amphitheater
Miri Chour
In the years I had been out there working various jobs, I had worn many disguises that tended to hide my armor rather than accentuate it. This is why I am somewhat used to having to wear a new costume almost every day. When I had taken this job a year ago, I had suspected that I would end up disliking it, or worse, my sisters would hate it.
However, my opinion slowly improved over time. Shomso always insisted that I am a bit over the top in my bounty hunting antics. She criticized my last hit as "theatrical." Now I didn't feel like I needed to resist that urge anymore, the drama is celebrated rather than a liability; no more frowns from the girls... okay mostly Shomso. Not only that, but the credits coming in are very good. There was no other way to say it. Instead of having to murder a person every other month, all I had to do was sing, dance, and act very flirtatious for the camera once every couple of weeks.
Of course, it took time to build up to the status we are at now. A few months ago, we were playing in a small lounge-like theater that could squeeze a few dozen people inside. Now, we have a major theater that we visit every couple of weeks to perform, and things are starting to get a little bit crowded in those theaters. There had even been a fight in front of the theater over someone scalping tickets, which Bo-Katan had told me not to worry about, but it kind of did worry me. Anyone could slip in and try to assassinate us if they were crazy enough. I am sure that sooner or later, someone who had a vengeance debt on us for killing their spouse or son would get word that I had taken up a career as an idol and try to get a little bit of revenge. That is one of the reasons I often walked on stage not with prop pistols, but real ones. It's set to stun, just in case I need to defend myself in an emergency.
It's a bit risky, I know, since some of our stage performances included some rather acrobatic fighting choreography, which we worked hard on. About half of our so-called 'play fights' on stage left us somewhat bruised, because we wanted it to look as real as possible. Which seemed to work well with our audience, they seemed to enjoy the action.
Thankfully though, we only did a play fight every two months or so. Tonight's performance, a rendition of Agol'skira, did not have a fighting sequence, but it would be the largest audience we'd ever played for. Our schedule revolved around getting ready for the next big thing, which kept us a little bit too busy. I was working with designers to get into a new dress ready for this current concert, but my standards are moderate for this piece, nothing too spectacular. I did notice the executives had rejected some of my color choices, though, it seems like they were trying to minimize the black and the color scheme I preferred. Maybe the white and silver colors were chosen instead so that White Silver could try to live vicariously through my performances. After all, I was fairly certain she's signing my paychecks through Mandal Hypernautics, so it made sense if she chose her preferred colors as well.
I'd caught a glimpse of White Silver before, and regularly saw her underlings. So I know that they are female, that wore silver and white as the main colors of their armor. I also ran into the fancy actress they had brought out to Gargon to film some kind of television series, which made me suspect White Silver was living it up a little. The Balac Resort only recently opened after all, it's an entirely brand-new Hotel and Casino resort complex that White Silver had built out in the middle of nowhere, her private kingdom on Gargon. But since it's her credits, she can spend it however she likes.
Anyway, today is going to be like any other. We have a concert in about half-hour and we are finishing our preparations. I am wearing the armor that had been modified and created for us. It bore some resemblance to the modern and sleek Super Commando armor set, although they had stripped out the under vest that the plates usually went on and arranged it more like a corset. As a result, the upper plates lined up on top of my breasts, accentuating them to some extent. Of course, that also left a rather open area in the center that showed a bit of cleavage, and in that area is a pendant of an iron heart that I was supposed to wear as armor. It's not functionally great, but as a secondary piece of armor for a costume, I didn't mind. To actually hit that small opening, you'd have to be a damn good shot.
My arms are left bare for the most part, except for vambraces that are specially designed to make particular noises when they hit each other. There are also a few buttons to trigger some pyrotechnics hidden on the armor in a few places. Over my shoulders, I wore a cape—not the one I usually wore when I wanted to combat, but a shorter one coming down to the small of my back. Like the front of my armor, it's somewhat revealing. Well, quite a bit of my back is exposed in this getup, but I wasn't as concerned with the small of my back. The cape, from what I understood, used anti-blaster fabric, so it's technically armored - not the best armor, but it's something.
As for my lower body, I am wearing a short but fluffy skirt with armored plates just visible underneath it on my thighs, and some heavy armored boots, with high heels. If I hadn't been practicing with heels for a long time, I might have had a problem, but I am familiar with this particular formation.
This is also where the pyrotechnics are hidden. The leg armor or boots had little rockets that would fire up and shoot into the sky when I moved over hidden activation plates on the stage. I activated the hidden plates with a button on my vambraces, so I could make quite the entrance or quite the exit, depending on what the performance needed.
Khovi and Shomso are wearing something a bit more conservative. They are wearing armor in their style colors, pink, green, and black, but whereas I'm wearing a sexy dress that showed a lot of skin, they wore dresses that are a lot more fluffy and traditional, and to be very frank, cute.
The Dressmakers that provided our costumes are doing a good job of trying to figure out ways to work armor into clothing, making it cute, sexy, and in a few cases, just good-looking. Granted, it was only for the female style, but guys tended to not notice style unless it was pointed out to them, or they were trained for a job. From what I've seen over the years, men wore the minimum that worked, so what they wore tended to be rather plain. So we let them wear plain clothing, and let our girls have fun.
Girls with a cuter aesthetic seemed to have a little bit more fun than my sexy style. All of us had to work out thoroughly whenever we got the chance to maintain a level of acrobatics and strength to perform at the top of our ability. While I mainly just walked on stage and sang, maybe getting into a fake fistfight with some crew member pretending to be a villain in the song, they got to do more exciting things. For example, Shomso had wheels in her shoes which allowed her to move around the stage quite quickly, especially considering there are also jets on the back of her shoes, allowing her to perform some rather acrobatic spins.
Khovi instead tended to carry a spear, one that she used to make rhythm on the ground. It was specially designed with electronics that allowed for different sounds to be produced, depending on what area of the spear she is holding.
To be honest, I thought our gear was already impressive enough. Khovi's spear can double as a synthesizer guitar with just a few tweaks, and Shomso is getting an upgrade that supposedly improved the musical aspects of her armor. As for me, I am supposed to check out a new item today that is meant to complete our image, whatever that means.
I shook my head as I looked at myself in the mirror, thinking I should probably touch up my makeup. I picked up the box containing the mysterious item and laid it out on the table in front of me. After popping the locks on the side, I opened it up and was pleasantly surprised.
Inside is a rapier-style sword, unlike any traditional swords from Mandalore such as a beskad. The blade edge is practically nonexistent as it is basically a long pole coming up in a straight line before branching out into a handguard. It's more like a fancy cane than a functional weapon and at the base of the handle is an unnoticeable microphone.
I could probably have a little fun, do a few mock fights with it; I swapped it around from hand to hand, to sing into the mic at the pommel. Of course, we already had in-ear mics, so I didn't really need it, but there might be some extra functionality hidden within. I turned the rapier about, inspecting it for anything else, and when I checked the base I found a symbol that seemed important. My vambrace chirped when I scanned it, displaying the user manual for the device. I quickly browsed through the manual and discovered a few other modes, such as adding echo to my voice or other digital effects to alter the sound. I'll have to play around with it more when we have time to produce a song, but for now, it would serve as a regular mic. It added a unique touch to the costume, and I wouldn't be surprised if hitting the mic against my armor produced some fancy sound effects.
My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the door, and an attendant pops his head in to say, "Three minutes till curtains. The opener fired them up, and it looks like we've got a big crowd tonight. Have fun!"
Smiling, I nodded and said, "We will." He nodded and left the door open, leaving me with my sisters. I turned to them and said, "Alright, girls, let's go out there and meet our adoring fans. I'm sure they can't wait to see us again."
"Woo, let's do this!" Khovi exclaimed, pulling up her spear. Shomso nodded her head silently, smiling warmly back at us as she followed along.
As we ascended the steps, I am happy to see that we had a rather large cheering crowd today. The open-air theater is large enough that several thousand people could view the large screens near the top. It's located in the center of the sprawling Balac Casino complex, so anyone outside the theater's range would have to be on the next mountain over or have paid an entry fee at the gate down the mountain.
Approximately half of the audience are women, with half of them donning variations of uniforms we've worn during previous concerts, or clothing that proclaimed our colors: pink and black, green and black, and black and silver. While some may have created the outfits themselves, I could tell that a few nearer to the stage had purchased replicas from the stores on the property.
Furthermore, some attendees wore armor in our colors, which I hoped was purchased from an armor painter on the property, as they did an excellent job. In fact, I had them look over original Mandalorian armor, and spruce it up a bit; I must say, it turned out quite nicely.
Glow sticks are also present, in green, pink, and silver variants. Unfortunately, black wasn't available for the material used for the glow sticks, at least from what I've seen. Knowing the owner, they are probably on the lookout for a way to merchandise my preferred darker coloration.
And last week, they even auctioned a speeder with my face on it in my colors. I physically cringed when I found out, and the girls' teasing didn't help. I'm still not sure how they managed that or who was dumb enough to actually bid on it. I'm half-expecting to have to show up on stage holding the keys, and make an embarrassing exchange to some local who bid something astronomically high because of how terrible of an idea the whole auction was. Instead, it ended up going to some foreign off-worlder with a million credits to waste.
Putting that embarrassing sequence of events out of my mind, I focused on tonight. It's showtime. I walked across the grand expanse of the main stage, which is cluttered with different props that we will be using in tonight's performance, my heeled boots tapping as I led the girls to their positions on the left and right. We prepared a series of songs for tonight's performance. Taking a deep breath, I held the mic sword up to my face and clicked on the mic, saying, "Good evening, Gargon. I hope everyone enjoyed the opening song from the band. They're pretty good at what they do, if you ask me." The crowd answered with a loud cheer. It is an aspect of this new job that I don't think I could ever get used to, being on stage in front of a cheering crowd.
"This next song is based on the killing of the great monster Durge. My great-great-something or another from centuries ago was one of the contenders for the seat of Mand'alor and was involved in the destruction of a creature who had sworn the extinction of all Mandalorian culture. Obviously, he failed, just another example of how tough our people are." I grinned, happy to share an old family story that had been passed down through the generations. I wasn't even sure if Durge was real or not, but as my father had once said, it's always good to dance on a monster's grave.
The crowd seemed ready and pumped ready for the song, so I nodded to the droid musicians in the band, and they started to play the first few notes. In an instant, the high-octane series of notes got my blood pumping.
I actually couldn't wait to sing this song. I've been preparing it for some time, translating an old family story. After all, translation and editing of a recorded copy of an oral history is challenging. Much of my time was spent making sure it would come off right when sung; if the story made people sympathetic to the monster, well, you did it wrong. Yes, there were moments of the story that were a bit sympathetic, Durge in the tale had been close friends with the Mandalorians, but that detail is a distraction if I tried to explain it in full in the song. What was important to the story is the epic battle and aftermath, how he was buried under hundreds of feet of duracrete to die.
As I brought the mic to my face about to sing the first line, a Mandalorian in full blue armor rocketed up past me on stage, before stopping in midair and falling back down. Their jetpack halted their fall, turning it into a graceful landing, right next to me.
I turned, drawing my pistol on the intruder, as he pulled up a pistol of his own. Unfortunately, he was faster and landed his first hit on my blaster, damaging it to uselessness. The assassin moved his gun towards my torso, next saying, "In the name of Death Watch, die, dog of White Silver!" He pulled the trigger, and for a moment, I thought I was dead as I felt the impact on my gutt. Then I realized that instead of aiming for the literal open space that's my cleavage, he'd gone for center mass and fired at the protective beskar armor. He is already turning away from me, seeming to have assumed that I was dealt with, swinging the gun towards Khovi.
I am not exactly happy about all of this. I had just been shot, my sisters were in the line of fire, and he had assumed that this armor was just for show and didn't have any beskar in it. These are all very grave insults, ones I would not forgive.
I sprung into action, glad that the high heel on my boots was reinforced as I covered the three steps needed to get between me and the assassin. I smacked my sword mic upward to knock his pistol out of his hands and send it flying into the air. Funny enough, the impact was in sync with the musicians in the droid band. The lead droid of the band decided not to stop and was continuing to direct musicians. I ignored it and focused entirely on the fight in front of me.
The assassin, realizing that he'd made a mistake, started to turn back towards me. I saw him jump back and draw a knife from an arm sheath, but I wasn't finished with him yet.
The two of us engaged in a melee, each impact of our blades reverberated across the stage by the microphone in my blade transmitting the sound to the speakers. Eventually, it seemed he grew tired of being on the defensive as he closed in. I sent a swing to his head, but he blocked it with his knife before grabbing hold of my sword with his other hand. With my sword locked in his grasp, he wound up his knife arm to deliver an ice pick stab to my face. I let go of my sword so that I could duck under the blow. Noticing how overextended he is, I turned my back to him while reaching up to grab hold of his forearm. With his arm locked in place, I pulled it down over my shoulder at the same time I stood to my full height as an audible snap was heard.
A lot of "Ooh's" from the crowd were heard when I broke his elbow before it was drowned out by Death Watch wannabe as he screamed in pain and his knife was dropped from his limp fingers. To shut him up, I caught the dropped knife, pushed his head back to reveal his neck, before I plunged his own knife right into his jugular just as the music reached its peak and wound down.
The man stumbled back a foot as he clawed at his own neck before falling down onto his back. Without hesitation, I approached him and slammed the heel of my boot down onto his knife, pushing it deeper into his throat.
The man weekly grabbed onto my leg, trying to push me off, but I only added more weight, causing him to gag and choke on his own blood. As I looked down past my bust, I put more weight on until I heard a crack. As something important, most likely his vertebra, broke he finally stopped moving and let go of my leg.
Good riddance. That should teach everyone not to mess with my sisters.
Once I am sure that he is no longer a threat, I took a step away from the body and turned back to the cheering crowd as the band ended their song. I spotted the security guards, hired more for their muscle than their brains, already surreptitiously moving around the background of the stage. I nodded towards them. They ran over and dragged the body off-stage, dodging my sisters still dancing on the stage.
I wondered how they would take a literal live murder on holovision. It turned out that they were quite pleased with my actions, considering they were cheering for me. They started with a rigorous applause that quickly turned into outright cheering and clapping, followed by chanting our names. "Miri!" followed by equally loud "Khovi!" and "Sho!". I felt my face flush as I watched the glow sticks bob about in the darkness. It was something incredible, a spell-binding moment.
When I got my bearings again, Khovi gave me back my sword mic, I said to the mic, "Sorry about that, folks. Just a little bit of an overzealous detractor." I downplayed the danger, no need to alarm anyone now that the action was over.
The audience laughed, and I went with the flow. "Seems he thought I was White Silver's agent or something. A very strange line of thought. Must be a sign of how desperate the Death Watch, I think he called himself, are." The audience feedback mixed with the fading battle high is intoxicating, I felt much better after that fight when compared to any of my previous jobs. So I went on, eager to continue, "On the off chance that any other Death Watch people are watching this, I would like to affirm that terrorism is a terrible, terrible way to recruit Mandalorians to your cause. I thought you would have learned this during the last civil war, twenty years ago. Also, if any of you harm a hair on my sister's head, you'll end up like that Di'kutla back there."
I signaled the lead droid to start playing the music once more from the top. Khovi began to pound her spear on the stage, starting the rhythm with the music. Meanwhile, I swapped the mic sword back into position and said, "Now, back to your regularly scheduled performance before we were rudely interrupted. Hit it girls."
Concordia, Governor's Castle, Underground
Pre Vizsla
"Who. Ordered. That?" I demanded in a low growl as I pointed toward a recording of a Mandalorian news report on a "Death Watch" Assassin attempt to kill a performer. I cast my gaze around the room as I watch everyone's faces be confused at what is happening on the holoscreen before looking side to side. No one moved forward to break the silence or claim that they were responsible. Notably, Bo-Katan was absent from this emergency summons. She has been attending fewer and fewer meetings lately, but recently provided us with messages and dossiers detailing her recent activity as Mandal Hypernautics' Head of Security on Gargon, the contents of which I was still verifying.
Gar Saxon decided to speak up, "Perhaps there's a rogue element within the Death Watch. One who has broken with our plans and decided to take action for themselves."
"Merrik and Kryze are absent, could be them." Rook Kast unhelpfully noted, a gleeful smile playing across her dark lips. I frowned, of course, she would want to stir trouble.
"Merrik is back on Coruscant, where he is supposed to be." It was possible he was involved, but there is no obvious motive, as he would have nothing to gain from this. Merrik is dismissive of Gargon, he didn't even consider them Mandalorian enough to be worth his attention. "Bo-Katan is working on a secret project." I lied as naturally as I breathed. I'd cover for her because I knew Bo-Katan would never attack her own people for some plot. She is the type to prefer the direct approach every time.
At that last thought, I caught a glimpse of Rook Kast's face flickering to anger for a second before she calmed down and nodded silently. I'll remember that she could be a problem, but I have bigger Gi to fry.
"This rogue element has taken action for themselves and dragged our name into it." I am livid as it seemed that this was all over nothing, at least nothing that made sense to me. "Why would someone even want to assassinate a damn musician in a public concert in front of thousands of witnesses?"
"Maybe they believed those rumors that the Miri Chour is actually White Silver?" Freder Priest, head of Clan Priest, proposed with a shrug. "It's not that far-fetched. I dug into Chour's past a bit, and she has done a lot of jobs as a bounty hunter with her sisters." I glared back at that, he is taking this all a bit too calmly.
Gar Saxon glanced meaningfully at Freder Priest, before speaking up again. "My Mand'alor. As much as I think you are right in our efforts to try and minimize damage to the Mandalorian sector; the fact of the matter is that Gargon is barely Mandalorian. It could be seen as outside the sector, and if so, then it would not count as fighting within the Mandalore sector like you proposed."
"Ignoring the spirit of the rules and only following the letter, that makes us no better than the fools on Coruscant or Raxus!" I would not let this slide by, someone is undermining my authority and I must find out who and why. "Infighting in the Mandalorian sector, at a time like this, when the entire galaxy is on fire, will only push the people away from us. It might even cause a new crackdown on the Death Watch."
"Things are not in the right position yet where we can benefit from such a crackdown." Rook Kast noted, finally, someone seemed to catch up to my thoughts.
Freder Priest nodded, seeming to agree with Rook Kast, but said, "This may be true and maybe some of our people don't understand what exactly is the Mandalorian sector. We say sector, but this is terminology borrowed from the Republic. Sectors are mere lines on a map." I nodded in agreement and motion for Freder Priest to continue. "Mandalorians are spread out across three to four sectors within the Republic, and we have planets that are within the sector that we don't acknowledge as Mandalorian. It would be easy for a misunderstanding to occur like this, even among members of the Death Watch in good standing." He explained.
I nodded, as he had a good point. "Could be. I can understand any past confusion then, but I will not tolerate any would take advantage of confusion for personal exploit or to settle vendettas. I'll work up some documentation to clarify what exactly the Death Watch views as the rightful Mandalorian territory. However, while we don't know who is responsible, it could be some minor officer stepping out of line or we could have someone using our name to cause trouble. Governor Vrox would often use such tactics to keep Mandalore in check, let's not discount the possibility of someone learning from history. Let it be known we are searching for who orchestrated this, and when we do find them, we'll show them no mercy."
"Of course, my Mand'alor." Freder Priest said, and judging by the reaction of the others, they seemed to think the issue fully resolved for now. I needed to speak with Bo-Katan, perhaps she knew more. Perhaps she may have been the cause, although I strongly doubted it. Bo-Katan preferred an open duel to a blaster in the dark, she'd never do something underhanded like this intentionally. Freder Priest started speaking again, interrupting my line of thinking. "Also, I have been in contact with agents on Shogun. They have agreed to send aid to our cause."
I sat up at that, raising an eyebrow. "Shogun is sending aid? Last I heard, they were not interested in Mandalore. I know they hated White Silver's document, but they mentioned nothing about an alliance before."
Freder Priest shook his head, "There's a new rabble-rouser, calling for a return to Mandalore. Kahl Keldau from Clan Keldau has been lobbying hard for the aid of Shogun, part of why they are coming. A lot of younger Mandalorians there want to help Death Watch restore Mandalore's ancient ways. I don't know when they'll be arriving, but I do know they will double our numbers."
"We will welcome our brothers from Shogun then." I instructed Freder Priest. These young Mandalorians might be hot-blooded with conquest in their hearts, but frankly Shogun had never achieved much, nor impacted politics in any major way. Shogun is isolated, stuck out on the complete other side of the Galaxy, so we had few connections and ties back to them. However, Death Watch needed new blood, and these Shogun youths might be just the thing. Turning to Gar Saxon and the others, I added, "We will let them come, when they arrive, keep a firm eye on the new arrivals. They may not be familiar with the ways of Mandalore, so instruct them in the code. Take them as apprentices, if they are worthy. Instruct them in our ways and guide them. Otherwise, left to their own devices and plots, they may draw us further into the Civil War."
"Of course, my Mand'alor." Several voices at once agreed.
I was about to move to adjourn the meeting, and had stood up from the meeting table, when Gar Saxon spoke up, "My Mand'alor, I would like your opinion on a matter."
"Go on." I said, retaking my seat.
Gar Saxon looked quite pleased, and started stroking his chin, as if in thought, "The Duchess has declared Mandalore as neutral in this galactic war and so the Republic should not be sending any ships into our space, except through the neutral trade corridors for the Hydian Way. Yet, I have proof that the Republic is already violating that neutrality. Several agents are tracking ships currently in violation through Mandalorian space at this very moment." He paused meaningfully. It seemed forced, though, as if... "However, I would not wish to act in this matter until hearing your thoughts."
I am curious where Gar Saxon is going with this. The man usually had little experience or patience for politics, preferring a straightforward frontal assault. "What would you do with these vessels invading Mandalorian space, if given a free hand, Saxon?" I probed, interested in what his plot would be. Rook Kast smirked knowingly, but kept silent. I sharpened my gaze at that suspicious gesture before returning my attention to Gar.
He adopted a contemplative expression, as if he needed to take his time and collect his thoughts. Gar is an excellent tactician, but a poor leader, he never demonstrated any aptitude or care for understanding the intricacies of politics. This is entirely unlike him.
Was Gar put up to this by someone else? I tried to recall what news I had heard of Clan Saxon. Maybe this is related to his new wife? Vera Eldar, the former clan princess of the Eldar clan, had recently married Gar and entered into Clan Saxon. There were very few Clan Eldar members in Death Watch, as they were mostly Martial Traditionalists, among those angry with Tor and the treatment of the True Mandalorians. So if this was Clan Eldar making a move with Clan Saxon, that is something to keep an eye on with interest.
Finally, Gar Saxon seemed to have collected his thoughts and met my eyes. "My Mand'alor, I propose that we capture some of these vessels. Their security is quite poor. My agents already discovered the ships are expecting deliveries of cargo from a transport outfit in the sector. Mando Logistics is chartered to deliver their cargo. I believe a small team of skilled infiltrators could pose as these contractors and seize the ships... for the Death Watch."
Seizing the ships is more in line with Gar's typical proposals. However, simply seizing the ships was potentially throwing away an opportunity to rebuild the Death Watch name. How to handle this suggestion?
"A useful idea." I agreed out loud. "Prepare a list of candidates for at least three such strike teams. Start training them for such an operation in the near future. If this violation has happened multiple times and is still happening, we have time to prepare a perfect strike." Gar looked very pleased that I had accepted his proposal.
"However, while they prepare for such an operation, we will turn over this information to the Mandalorian government, and defer to their first move. By doing so, the Death Watch proves its commitment to defending Mandalore is genuine. It will go part of the way to repairing the damage done by Tor, as well as restore some of the harm caused by this false Death Watch attack. Mandalore must be united."
Gar Saxon frowned, "What if the Duchess handles these intruders herself? Will Death Watch be giving up the element of surprise?"
I shook my head in disagreement, "We can only hope for that outcome, it would be best if Mandalore is strong enough to deal with this. We will only step in with your plan if Mandalore does not act."
Gar Saxon grumbled, but nodded after a moment, "A political game and the possibility of gaining resources, I hadn't considered that."
"Two victories for the price of one. Either way, we acquire some new freighters for transporting gear or earn the favor of the Mandalorians as the protectors of the sector." I could tell he was not completely satisfied by this, but it would have to do. "Well done, Gar Saxon, for bringing this to my attention. Congratulations on your marriage as well." Gar Saxon spluttered at this, but I turned towards the rest of the faces.
"Monitor every foreign ship, Republic or CIS, entering Mandalorian space. As Freder suggested, I will be sending updated documentation on what encompasses the rightful territory of Mandalore. Any foreign ships inside of that, we need to know about. Understood?" I locked my gaze with each of the members in the meeting in turn.
"Yes, my Mand'alore." A number of voices spoke at once, and nodded their agreement.
I stood up and concluded the meeting. "All right, then I think we've officially concluded this meeting. Remember our objectives: find the enemy using Death Watch's name for their own agenda, and watch out for foreign interference in our territory. Dismissed."
The group of clan leaders nodded their understanding, and we all broke from the table. I walked out of the room and immediately turned left, heading towards my office. Today's meeting of Death Watch clan leaders is over, but I had further mysteries to solve today.
I shut my office door a bit too quickly, the hinges squeaking softly. I shouldn't focus on that; I needed to calm my nerves after that complex meeting. I would have to get another agent in the Clan Saxon to keep an eye on them. I sighed as I moved to massage my forehead with my fingers, and reached for the holocommunicator controls on the desk. I pressed a few buttons to activate the comm. I need more information on the assassin, and there is only one person that is in a position to answer that question.
"Good evening," I said with a nod as Bo-Katan Kryze's holographic upper torso appeared, hovering over the wooden desk. I am a bit surprised, she answered that comm request almost immediately. She is looking at me furiously too.
"Ori'buyce, kih'kovid! So is it war, then? Is that what this is about?" Bo-Katan's face is sharp as obsidian.
My eyebrows shot up. "Peace." I intoned slowly. I said it twice to emphasize the message. "War? Why would there be war?" What is she talking about? Is it because of the "Death Watch" assassin? "I wanted to check in on you, you know you can always rely on us. Death Watch can always provide relief or medical supplies should you need it."
"You're good, I almost believed that. I'm not buying this peaceful act, though, you aren't some unblooded New Mandalorian." Bo-Katan spat the words as if they were a gauntlet thrown down. "You sent dangerous, armed thugs to rob my employer's company headquarters in broad daylight. Some of my men are dead, thanks for that. Then you attacked White Silver's idols live in public." She shook her head in obvious disbelief. "I didn't think you'd sunk so low, Pre."
"I'm certain your judgment is premature. I did not authorize any Death Watch operation at Gargon after Gerr. As for the recent assassination attempt, I only knew what everyone else saw on the holonet." I paused, perhaps this could yet be salvaged. "However, I understand your point of view better now. I'd be willing to meet with you and White Silver in person at a suitable meeting site on Gargon to share information and resolve this dispute formally."
Bo-Katan looked frustrated, but didn't answer immediately, turning her head to the side. A few moments passed. "Fine. Against my better judgment. I'll have my secretary arrange the details." I held in a chuckle, I thought I would never see the day Bo-Katan learned to delegate. It's one of the weaknesses that held her back in Death Watch.
"Is there any way I could be of assistance then?" I asked with a tone of concern, checking again.
Bo simply shook her head, face still a silent mask of anger.
"Death Watch is looking to rent some more berths and construction docks, and we could be convinced to invest significantly in Gargon's spaceport. It would be counterproductive for us to instigate hostilities on a planet that we prefer to work with." I continued, the obvious olive branch even had the benefit of being mostly true. Of course, Death Watch could try to invade Gargon, but not only would it cost an enormous amount of manpower to accomplish, it would also reveal Death Watch to the Mandalore sector as a whole. Satine might even authorize a counter invasion, now that Gargon has agreed to be under New Mandalorian protection. In short, it is not worth the effort to start problems in Gargon, when the Mandalore sector as a whole is what I am aiming for.
If talks with White Silver broke down, we could sell back the slots for a profit in the future. Every fool could see Gargon is a sure investment thanks to the Civil War, with its prime position near the Hydian Way Hyperlane. Clans are clamoring to build businesses to cater to the Republic's sudden new military force. And White Silver has proven herself to be strong enough to defend her prize, judging by her opening display on Geonosis. Is that why White Silver interceded in Geonosis, I wondered with my refreshed perspective. I'd have to revisit that thought later.
"And it wasn't from someone else's order in Death Watch?" Bo-Katan pressed with serious concern in her eyes. Judging by that reaction, I am pretty sure I convinced her with the previous meeting offer.
I shook my head in the negative. "Senator Merrik is in Coruscant, obeying the Duchess's wishes. Gar Saxon is busy plotting to hijack some freighters violating the neutrality of the Mandalore sector by trespassing. Freder Priest is utterly loyal, to a fault, you as you know. And I highly doubt that you would order such an operation to those under your protection. So no, it wasn't Death Watch at the very least Death Watch that is loyal to me."
Bo-Katan's face is pure bewilderment. "Then who are they then?" She punched something out of frame. "You know, it's almost worse, if it's not Death Watch. Before, I thought I knew the enemy. Now..."
I shrugged. I knew less than she did, but I too am very interested in getting to the bottom of this, even more so now. "Did the assassin's chain code reveal any information?"
Bo-Katan merely shook her head. "Nothing, there's no info back from the Mandalorian chain code system and his armor is basic durasteel without any beskar. There is no info on their family or identity in them, he's a ghost. The ones who broke into MH are similarly unidentifiable, but they use red Plasteel armor."
That was odd, but not impossible, the chain code system had always been a rather useful but under-used system. Many Mandalorians did not trust the centralization such codes required and avoided them, but to have no family history in armor, that is not the norm as they would have to commission an entire set of armor and that is, this is a bit deeper of a mystery than I anticipated. Sighing, I asked, "Any suggestions on how I can mend fences with the White Silver before the meeting?" Earnestness and flattery being the central idea here.
"As you suggested: Docks. If you want to mend fences, rent, sponsor or invest in her shipbuilding. That will bring more jobs to the Mandalore sector and will raise the sector's defensive capabilities." That is unexpected. Just how much time did Bo-Katan spend on Gargon in order to learn how to talk like that? A question for another time, perhaps.
"And what about the sector's opinion? Someone claiming to be Death Watch just tried to kill a singer on live holo." Maybe she will have an answer to that as well?
"Idols." was the response, which caught me by surprise yet again.
"Pardon?" I asked, not following the sudden change in topic.
"White Silver's idols are a hopeful aspiration to what Mandalore could be. Under her influence, Mandalore would transform into a cultural hub, built on our military past. A cultural hub, but also of people and traditions, a way of life compatible with the possibility of fighting a war, but aspiring to cooperate. Tickets on Gargon are sold out for the idols. Stars, the shows on Mandalore are completely sold out as well."
I sat there, my jaw slightly lowered. I was pretty sure I had a bottle of strong whiskey hidden somewhere in this desk. I might have a need to find it, as I am wondering what universe I currently reside in. "Yes, well, I'm going to have to pay a bit more attention to these idols, aren't I?" I adopted a thoughtful expression. "Hmm. Who did you use to find your idols?"
Bo-Katan finally smiled, "I was the one in charge of the project, why?"
"How would you like to help Death Watch out from the shadows on this one?" I asked, amused at the chance to delegate this task right back to its sender. No amount of torture could reveal my secret leadership techniques.
Bo-Katan looked at me a bit unsure as she scratched her head, but after a moment, she nodded. "Alright, I guess I found one set of superstar idols. I could try and repeat my success."
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Duchess Satine
I covered my mouth reflexively in shock, reviewing the reason and cause of this emergency council meeting. Prime Minister Almec paused the holovideo playing the recording for the council.
"She... did she just kill a man on stage?" I asked, hesitating, alternating between looking at the council members, back towards the still frame of the scene, or putting my head in my palms at the amount of work I would need to fix this mess. The now-infamous lead idol Miri Chour is part of the Gargon Girls, the same idol group we had scheduled to appear at the cultural festival next month. The same festival that Bo and Tanya had hoped would demonstrate brighter Mandalorian ideals and encourage their fellow Mandalorians to embrace their better natures.
And now, this whole thing had gone completely sideways, and I was left carrying the bag. The silence stretched uncomfortably.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Droxun, is bold enough to be the first to answer my question, "Yes, a week ago, our official spokeswoman for the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force killed a man on a live holonet broadcast."
The Minister of the Interior, Mr. Armatan, spoke up after Mrs. Droxun finished, "Not exactly the best look. Perhaps we should try and pretend this never happened? We can still terminate the contract."
"I agree with that." Prime Minister Almec said with a nod of his head. He paused for a moment and shifted his purple gaze on me, "In fact, we should start pulling back on a lot of our ideas when it comes to the Self-Defense Force and the Silver Documents. I have a very bad feeling that this might be the start of a civil war between Death Watch and the Silver Mandalorians."
The Minister of the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force, Ikudtovu Ordo, is the newest councilwoman to join the council, went a bit pale as Almec droned on. She stood up, clearly itching to interject, but too polite to interrupt. Almec paid her no mind, but then he paused for a breath. "No! That would be a disaster!" She spoke towards the group, ignoring him. "We can't scale back now, there's never been so much focus or attention on the SDF. In fact, I would say this is probably the best thing to ever happen to our efforts to create a Mandalorian Self-Defense..."
"Are you mad?" Prime Minister Almec interrupted, looking at her with bewilderment. "She just murdered a man! Live on holonet broadcast! This will be all over the galaxy in no time, so all will know that Miri Chour is a bounty hunter and a cold-blooded killer. What will the rest of the galaxy see us as, if we celebrate such creatures?"
"Actually, that's not really an issue." chimed in the soft-spoken and junior councilman, Alrich Wren. Mr. Wren had been selected as Minister of Cultural Affairs two months prior. Mr. Wren was a professor at the Royal Academy, and Korkie's advisor for his academic merit project.
"The cultural festival has sold out three times over in the last nineteen hours. I've spent the last day lining up more venues to keep accommodating the demand. We're going to be making credits hand over fist on this." Mr. Wren paused to take a drink of water. I don't know him well enough to understand his character yet. Korkie had nothing but excellent stories about his time with the former professor, but it is interesting that when I had surveyed my council for a shortlist of names, Governor Vizsla had also independently submitted the man's name to my attention. Which is a strange coincidence but seeing as two independent sources that I trust vouched for him, he must be very capable. "The other cultural volunteers groups that will be demonstrating for live events throughout the Mandalore Sector, they've all not said a thing about this. They seem to have not cared or simply not cared enough to disprove it openly."
"Really?" The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Droxun said, raising an eyebrow before shaking her head in amusement.
The Minister of the Interior, Mr. Armatan, shifted uneasily, "We do have to contend with a budget shortfall this year. If no one else cares and it's actually going to make us a lot of credits..."
Prime Minister Almec looked shocked at his sudden betrayal. Before he could respond, though, Ms. Ordo spoke up again, "We don't have to worry about any criminal charges as Ms. Chour is in the clear, legally. This was a clear-cut case of self-defense. We do have a bit of a problem with the volunteer system because of this event, but not the way you would think."
Prime Minister Almec looked appalled, mouth moving with no words for a moment. Finally, he spluttered, "You're not saying volunteers are up... are you?"
Ms. Ordo did not hide her obvious military discipline or pride on her face as she answered Almec. "It's through the roof actually. The volunteer rate might as well be a vertical line upwards, especially when the ads dropped a day in advance of the story. Ms. Chour's self-defense legal defense triggered a second cascade of volunteers, even more than the initial wave. Right now we cannot even process a fraction of the applications. Some of the administrative regions have even begun to charge people for the right to volunteer."
Mr. Wren gave a polite cough into the sudden silence at the end of Ms. Ordo's last comment. The Minister of Cultural Affairs adjusted his glasses and muttered, "Well, the Self-Defense Force coordinated with the Cultural Affairs office." Ah, that explained things. However, Prime Minister Almec just gave him a confused look, so he continued. "What I mean to say is that there's a 25% discount if you're a government employee. This happens to include SDF soldiers, trainees, and enlistees."
I couldn't help myself, I chuckled behind my palm. He shot me a grieved look, but what could I do with this situation? It had gotten absolutely insane. Taking a breath, I finally said, "Alright, well, I think it is safe to say that we will not be breaking the contract with the Gargon Girls. We will get a few people upset with the fact that there's a connection between the Gargon Girls and the Self-Defense Force, even if it's just a little bit of mutual advertisement."
"People are upset about everything." Ms. Ordo said dismissively, waving away the concerns. "If this specific event had not happened, some other distraction would occupy our focus, and people would still be upset. At least we can gain some control of the narrative right now."
She shook her head, before adding, "Speaking of distractions, there was an interesting offer sent to us from the Mandalorian Patrol. They contacted the Palace's Royal Guard."
"Oh yes," I nodded, I had already been informed about this, and had planned to talk about it in the next council meeting, but then the craziness from Gargon had reared its head. "We should talk about the Mandalorian Patrol and their recent offer."
Prime Minister Almec looked at me in confusion yet again, "What offer?"
"To be clear, this is still being investigated, but from my understanding the Mandalorian Patrol is willing to sell some of their vessels that they've acquired over the years to the Self-Defense Force. We could use them to create a proper navy."
Prime Minister Almec shook his head, before saying, "How are we going to get the resources to purchase these ships, let alone maintain them? Sure, we have a manpower surplus right now, but we still don't have the credits for it."
Mrs. Droxun coughed, before speaking, "I might have an idea about that." Everyone focused on her as she said, "If the cultural festival is as successful as it is forecasted to be, perhaps we should send some screenings to off-system planets. We could sell the rights to holonet stations, syndicate shows that demonstrate Mandalorian culture and musical excellence."
"Make some extra cash off the cultural festival, buy the ships off the local mercenaries, and organize them into a proper Navy. That's not bad." Ms. Ordo said approvingly.
"As a one-off source of funding, it's good, but we can do even better. There's a week-long festival celebrated all across the Republic, the Festival of Life. It's about five months from now." Mr. Wren explained and nodded at Ms. Ordo. "We could make this cultural event a regular tradition and funding mechanism for the SDF." Part of me wondered why Mr. Wren cared so deeply about funding the SDF. Perhaps he wanted to turn his temporary ministry appointment into a permanent council position. "We should use the Republic's holiday week to start our own Mandalorian traditions and show off on Coruscant."
I gave Mr. Wren a slight nod, having more compatible sources of credits is always nice to have. "I'm interested, but not convinced. Create a more formal proposal and submit it for the next meeting."
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Tanya Kryze
My report back to Coruscant was less exciting than I had anticipated, with the Civil War on. I hurried back to Senator Merrick's office. His bodyguard let me in, and I nodded at the unfamiliar man approvingly. I strongly agreed with the wisdom of self-protection, especially after recent events.
Senator Merrick nodded at me from behind his desk, while his bodyguard took up a position near the door again. "Welcome back, Representative Tanya." He said slowly. "The Duchess has informed me that we need to improve our security. I'd suggest you stay away from the Senate."
"I met your new bodyguard. I also have some new staff; I think Ms. Morson will be ready to take the trials for the Royal Guards soon."
"I see, fine. However, I still suggest you stick clear of the Senate and your friends from Naboo. The Trade Federation Senators and agents are investigating you. Your recent actions are very interesting to them. Unless you like danger, I'd stick to areas where your diplomatic immunity actually protects you, like Mandalore Tower." At this particular moment, it was very hard to not act my age.
"Alright, I don't want to upset Aunt Satine." I bobbed my head.
"Very good." Senator Merrik nodded, and indicated I could depart.
After that conversation, I wasn't so foolish as to ignore Merrik's helpful warning about the Trade Federation. I should have expected that they would be interested in me, especially after their previous vendetta with Senator Amidala. So I am keeping clear of the usual Senate buildings and meeting areas.
Avoiding the Senate made me feel a little redundant, a backup singer to a world-class singer, but I appreciated Merrik looking out for things like that. Aunt Satine would be very annoyed if I was involved in another diplomatic incident so soon. However, it did give me time to run my businesses as White Silver, as well as keep an eye on how the war was progressing. My access to internal Senate documents and military documents is substantial, more than I was initially comfortable with, but apparently this is standard.
"X4, did we set up any substantial interests in Christophsis?" I queried. The documents I saw about troop movements were odd. While superweapons were the focus of public attention, the Confederacy are invading worlds all over the Galaxy. The planet Christophsis had been invaded, and it seemed that a large force in response from the Republic was being assembled to retake the planet. How important that planet was to the war effort is debatable since there are hundreds of mining worlds in the Outer Rim alone, but it did require some sort of response.
"No Mistress. Christophsis is directly on the Corellian Run. Mandal Logistics has been focusing on profitable trade routes that bypass major hyper-routes as those have less competition." I grunted, well, that was a good decision now, considering the Galactic Civil War is focused along those same primary hyperlane routes.
If the Republic did nothing to stop the Confederacy from invading worlds, well, that would make it rather apparent that the Republic treated some planets as more important than others. So the Republic is forced to respond to every invasion, or risk more planets joining the Confederacy in order to avoid being directly invaded.
The Senate had been terribly surprised by the invasion of Kamino as well, but the invasion hadn't surprised me in the slightest. If your enemy knows you have a supply network coming out of a single point of failure: one planet for all their clones, then of course they're going to attack it. There is no better way to cut off the supply of clones to the front line than to kill them before they've even been equipped. A battle prevented is a battle won, and it seems Count Dooku understood that as well.
Unlike Christophsis, where the conflict is still ongoing, the battle for Kamino had been won quickly. The Republic had no choice but to defend Kamino. I understand the planet had survived the assault and would be back in production, albeit at a slower rate for a bit. The new bottleneck in clone production had started a debate in the Senate about creating secondary clone laboratories elsewhere. However, I was still concerned about the use of clones at all for the Republic's infantry.
It's a lot easier to grab a man off the street and give them 2 months of basic training for a blaster than it was to grow a clone. Clone training is more complicated and expensive than arming a militia, no doubt due to clones being detached from society and lacking a proper childhood. The cost to train clones and send them out to fight is something like four times the price of arming existing citizens for a militia. The Senate is fixated on using clones, though, as it is obviously working, and they are hoping it will keep working until they win the war.
Shaking my head, I sat back in my seat and gazed out the window across Coruscant, staring at the endless ecumenopolis. There are a lot of worlds interested in improving their security and defenses now. The more well-known defense firms charged premium prices, they would probably cost them an arm and a leg. Alternatively, worlds could invest in security from Mandalore, as Mandal Hypernautics are producing their own local fighters for a relatively cheap rate. Not to mention, the Crusader-class freighters Mandalore produced had a moment in the spotlight since my rescue from Geonosis. The Peacekeeper had held its own against the droid fighters during its insertion and attracted outside interest.
"X4, did the Republic contact us regarding the Crusader-class freighters after Geonosis?" I might as well double and triple-check things in my downtime.
"Negative, my Mistress." X4 replied tersely.
Hmm, I turned my head slowly to move one of the bangs out of my eyes. "Who has been interested in them, then?" I asked.
"Would you like me to enumerate systems that have requested its technical specifications?" X4 replied.
"Just the ones that have placed orders or made an offer." I watched the traffic lanes of speeders and repulsor craft on the other side of the window, my eyes naturally seeking any pattern lurking in the chaos.
"Mistress, the following institutions have purchased at least one Crusader-class freighter: Corellian Security Forces, Arkania Defensive Navy, the Grand Protector of Rodia, the Taris Civil Authority, and of course, the Mandalorian Government. Additionally, many institutions have made offers, in particular the Telerath Banking Guild and Ryloth Clan Council have both asked for a license to produce the freighter themselves. Did you wish to respond to any of the licensing or other offers?" X4 asked.
"No... not right now. It would not be a good long-term investment for Mandalore. Maybe if we need credits in a hurry, but there's no reason to sell the rights right now. Even if they share improvements or technology for the Crusader-class back with us, we're much better off if it's Mandalorians making the discoveries and gaining the experience." I explained to X4, putting my back to the window again and facing the droid.
He made a confused beep in response, but followed that up with a chirp in the affirmative. "As you wish, Mistress."
I sighed and tried to explain it in terms X4 might understand. "Mandalore, and by extension, Mandal Hypernautics, has a lot of solid engineers, IT personnel, and ship-building experience. These human resources have been built up as a result of our investments in local companies. And yes, the licensing of the designs might draw in immediate credits or new technology, but it would waste all the credits we spent building up local companies for the same quality of work, as most will go out of business without our contracts. The more technology we built in-house, local to the sector, the higher-quality ships Mandalore will produce long-term."
X4 beeped in the affirmative again.
At least that's what I have hoped. The Ordo system and the Mandalorian Patrol in talks with Mandal Hypernautics, expressed interest in purchasing ships, and a few local worlds have expressed interest as well. I was also hoping they were willing to transfer their knowledge on shipbuilding for the plans on the Crusader-class freighter or other ship designs we had. The Civil War held the real possibility of transforming Gargon and Mandal Hypernautics into economic powerhouses.
A lot of my business operated out of Gargon; I need to consolidate my businesses on that planet to offer them all protection. Bo-Katan sent me a terse holocom about a group of thugs that broke into Mandal Hypernautics recently. It would be ideal if all my businesses could share the same security, same resources, etcetera. I believe that's why conglomerates and other megacorporations tended to form in the first place. I needed a Mandalorian supercorporation.
"X4, can you look into relocating the Armorer's Consortium, Vesti Engineering, and any other of my major firms not already on Gargon to the planet?" I definitely want the armor and weapons manufacturers included. "I would like to incorporate all my major companies into a single entity to offer them access to shared security and resources in the sector. Not to mention, it will make them easier to manage." Looking back at my datapad, showing the tangled web that is my personal finances, I longed for a proper corporate accounting structure.
"Vesti Engineering already has Phobium Power Cell facilities located on Gargon, Mistress." X4 corrected, "But of course, I will look into this. Is there anything else you need?"
Really, I needed to find something other than business to do with my life, otherwise I would become rather stagnant. Fine. I put my saucer down on the desk and turned back towards where X4 is working away, at several computers at once. Managing the companies as best as he could.
"Thanks X4, do you mind contacting Vai and asking her to perhaps prepare one of her expeditions to the city in the next week or so? I feel like I'm becoming stagnant in my position and need to let off some steam."
"Of course, my Mistress. Your schedule is clear for the next two weeks." He helpfully added. I am already painfully aware of my free schedule, however.
"Thank you, X4." I said, leaning back in my chair. I knew I probably am opening a can of chaos, but I could use something mundane and chaotic over the constant war updates I had to read about daily. Whatever Vai came up with would be entertaining, at least, of that I was certain. There is a reason that I kept her around, and it isn't because she's a good employee. If I'm pressed to admit it, perhaps I had grown fond of her chaos, as it complimented my order. As long as she is a controlled chaos under me, that is fine by me.
Msst System, Ancient Asteroid Base, Royal Aka'jor Shuttle
Korkie Kryze
What a difference four months can make. Four months ago, I was planning for an expedition to an asteroid to go looking for a lost relic ship, one that supposedly had unknown cultural relics. I was interested in what the Royal Museum of Mandalore could learn to get a better idea of the ancient past of Mandalore.
But by the time I was prepared to go exploring with my schoolmates and investigate this asteroid belt for the ancient ship, the galaxy had radically changed. The Republic is at war with the Confederacy of Independent Systems and Mandalore is in between the two of them
It was hard to truly grasp the reality of the situation. There was a dreadful aura of normality to the whole thing. The galaxy had gone mad, and everything just went on like normal. As if we were meant to simply accept this as the new status quo. People protested, condemned, justified, argued, but my classes resumed at the Royal Academy, and in Sundari life continued on as usual. Everyone still needed to get paid, everyone still needed to finish their education, and everyone still went home at the end of the day to warm food and a safe bed. I was no different in truth, as the days went on and the shock wore off, I became worried about how the state of the galaxy would affect my expedition.
The Prime Minister of Mandalore, Almec had strongly urged my Academy advisor against the expedition, and finally the Academy canceled the entire expedition a few weeks ago. However, my schoolmates and I protested his decision and with Aunt Satine's help we eventually overruled him on that matter.
I was happy about that, ecstatic. As people were displaced by war and bloodshed, I was happy that my little void archaeology expedition was given the green-light. I felt, honestly, I had no idea how I felt, but it was what I was meant to do. It's also a nice change of pace from those occasional diplomatic missions to the various planets inside the Mandalore system that Auntie Satine usually sent me on. So when it came to my life in this time of Galactic unrest, I simply did the same thing everyone else was doing. I kept calm and carried on. Which had resulted in a slow start and finally getting here to this asteroid in the middle of Msst system, the asteroid base that supposedly had a vault inside of it that carried a large ship full of relics.
Is the ship really there? It's hard to say. If the asteroid base is still operational, we could send a coded broadcast that would trigger the asteroid base to reveal itself. If we didn't find this code in the Kandosii, we would have to spend months looking for each asteroid large enough to fit a space dock manually since the dock's spatial coordinates would not have remained the same after several thousand years of drift. I am excited, though. Well, less excited about the fact that we are going to have to do a space walk across a small open area to the main doors.
Lagos, Soniee, Amis and I are wearing modified versions of the Academy hardsuits. The modifications ensured the suits were sealed and fully covered the body, allowing us to remain in the suit for an extended period without running out of air. Aunt Satine had our suits up-armored with some spare beskar from the Royal Armorer. I thought it was unnecessary, but she said that she will only allow our expedition if we wear armored suits in the event that trouble finds us, like the animal attack on Breshig.
Once we land we are going to have to do a bit of a walk across the sandy surface of the asteroid, before we could make it inside the dock. We can't land our shuttle inside because the docking bay is likely to be closed and can only be opened by someone inside. I doubt anyone is still alive after a thousand years.
Our objective is to search the abandoned base, find a way into the ship, and release it from whatever docking clamps held it inside the asteroid. However, there is always the possibility that the clamps had failed centuries ago, causing the ship to continually bump around inside the asteroid, trashing it completely and resulting in the loss of all relics. If that were the case, this mission would be a complete failure. But I held onto the hope that it would all work out.
Even if we confirmed the ship's destruction, there might be something left floating around inside. If we could confirm the ship's presence and the existence of relics, we could arrange for another expedition to explore the ship and see what had been left behind.
"I kriffing hate these things." muttered Crikey as she struggled to fit herself into a set of Mandalorian armor that resembled an earlier version of Super Commando armor.
"You shouldn't." said Tom, who was already decked out in his orange mechanical armor. He stood behind her, overseeing the task of making sure her gear is double-checked and fastened correctly to prevent oxygen loss.
The standard practice is to have someone else double-check your equipment before a spacewalk. So, everyone had paired up: Soniee and I are in one corner, Amis and Lagos are in another, Tom and Crikey in their own corner, and in the last corner are my squad of Royal Guards. Unfortunately, Captain Rau was no longer with us. He had been assigned to my guard duty ever since our visit to Breshig, but as soon as the Civil War started, he apparently took a leave of absence and began offering his services to the Republic as a fighter pilot trainer.
I wasn't a fan of the idea of one of our own training military forces inside the Republic, but I understood his motivations - Captain Rau felt it was the best way to protect Mandalore. After the incident with my younger sister and several other notable Mandalorians showing up in the midst of CIS deployments, it seemed apparent that Mandalore had made a poor first impression in the Civil War.
It was better to appear neutral and allow individuals to choose which side they supported than to appear to support one side or the other. At least that's what my sister's recent letters recommended regarding the situation.
Crikey's voice then crackled out of the ship intercom, interrupting my worrying with fresh concerns. "Hey! We are coming in for a landing. Unfortunately, the asteroid docking bay is already open! There are two ships already in the docking bay!"
A collective exclamation of "What!?!" went throughout the room, and I immediately moved towards a window to look out. Outside, I saw a strange vessel, one of a design I am unfamiliar with; it is long and had two wings that apparently rotated up. The ship reminded me a bit of the Aka'jor transport shuttle we are using, but sleeker and more combat-oriented.
The other ship is some sort of Corellian vessel, obvious from its discreet nature, and it looked fairly old.
My new Royal Guard Captain, whose name escaped me right now, moved to the window next to me. He also peered out the window as the ship came to a landing next to the two other vessels. When he turned back to face me, I caught a glimpse of his name lapel, Captain Briyuk. He said, "Well, what do we have here... Prince Korkie, I think we should call this off. We have an unknown force already inside the facility, this could be dangerous."
I just shook my head at his ignorance. "No way. We can't give up here. Those relics represent centuries of Mandalorian history, and they belong to the people of Mandalore... not these interlopers, whoever they are."
Captain Briyuk tilted his head in thought. "You think the Mask of Mandalore is there?" He jerked his thumb towards the ships, obviously joking by his expression.
"No idea." I wasn't here to find any specific relic, but those unknown ships indicated something was here. "Honestly, I hope not. But those others are here..." Both Lagos and Soniee were already heading over towards me, concern clear on their faces.
Amis had found one of the blasters, the same model I already had holstered at my side, and was examining it in his hands, seeming a bit too interested in it. His expression reminded me of my little sister. "I have a bad feeling about this." Lagos noted after one look at Amis.
Captain Briyuk immediately got serious, "Okay, if we are going to do this, we are going to do this my way. Staff Sergeant Obyrd and I will lead the way in. You and your friends will follow behind us and stick to the center of the group. The remaining guards will provide cover and rearguard. If any of your friends aren't prepared for a fight, they should stay aboard the ship. Got it, kids?" By the end of his instructions, a circle of us had formed around him.
Captain Briyuk moved through the group, and reached over to grab one of the extra staves stashed along the bulkhead of the ship. The guards had brought some kit from their armory for this mission. After grabbing one for himself, Briyuk tossed one to me.
"I know you're not one for weapons, but I doubt your little blaster you got there is going to be something you will feel comfortable with. So here, take this staff; shock anyone who gets too close. Don't get killed."
I chuckled politely, while he immediately started helping Obyrd prepare some additional firepower. I navigated around Lagos and grabbed my helmet and put it on. Soniee immediately started fussing with it, to ensure that the seal was secure. Eventually, we finished checking each other's equipment and once Briyuk was satisfied, we all headed toward the exit ramp. Crikey and Tom were there waiting for us by the ramp, and we started tracking across the sandy dirt of the asteroid to the facility.
As we passed the strange blue craft, my Royal Guards paused and examined the ship. One of them pointed, and then Obyrd's voice was audible in the suit speakers, "That's not good." I moved towards their position to get a better view, and then I saw the symbol on the external bulkhead. The symbol had three claw-like lines, connected by a central line.
A familiar symbol to me, but only because I had seen one on a manifesto recently while on Breshig. "Death Watch?" I said. Then I remembered I needed to use the suit radio. Pressing it, I asked, "The Death Watch symbol?"
Captain Briyuk nodded, "Yep. That's exactly what that symbol represents. We're going to have to be careful. If these guys are just jackasses pretending to be Death Watch, this could be a problem."
"And if they are Death Watch?" I asked.
"Well then, this is going to be the fight of our lives. Let's hope it's just pretenders."
I nodded and followed Captain Briyuk in. The rest of the Royal Guards spread out into their formation as we made our way to the ominously open docking bay entrance.
Once there, I saw that the situation was a bit different than I had suspected from a distance. The doors had been popped open, but not by a clever slicer, instead the doors were blasted open, with obvious damage showing from the aftermath of an explosion. Further inside, the destroyed doorway revealed a second set of doors that seemed to be firmly locked.
Carefully, we made our way past the debris of the outer doorway. Soniee made a beeline straight for the interior access panel. Half the squad of guards remained outside the exterior to guard, while Captain Briyuk and three others joined us inside the passageway.
"How's it looking, Soniee?" I called, a few moments of searching turned up nothing else interesting visible in the passageway.
Soniee replied, not bothering to look up from her personal datapad, "There's a basic atmosphere control still in effect. These doors are just here for backup, there's an active low level force field on the other side of that door. I should be able to open it whenever we want." She pointed to the indicated doors.
"Well, that's good, but not yet." Captain Briyuk, said before signaling his men to be ready to enter the facility. Once the squad was in formation and clustered around the door, he turned to us and said, "Stay back here, and if you see someone coming that's not us, either seal the door or start running. There's no reason to fight them if they are not Death Watch; lives are more important to Mandalore than any relics, so just get the hell out. Got it?"
I joined the group chorus of crackled, "Yes," and other forms of agreement from Lagos, Soniee, Amis, and the rest.
Captain Briyuk stepped forward from the group, and nodded towards Soniee. "Okay kid, after you open the door, move back against the passage bulkhead and stay clear. Ready?" There was a collective pause. "Open it!"
The door opened.
It was an instant standoff.
On one side of the room are seven Mandalorians wearing Super Commando armor of a modern make, all clad in a blue-black coloration, and wielding either dual pistols or carbine rifles. They each had the same three-clawed symbol on their shoulders, with a dash of red showing which side they were on.
On the other side of the room are two individuals. One is carrying a rifle of unknown make, wearing blue and red armor with yellow markings on their face mask. The other is a towering woman, carrying what could only be described as a rotary blaster cannon, as it had six barrels that were already warmed up, slowly and menacingly spinning. She's wearing blue and black armor that has a single solid plate over her chest, instead of the Supercommando pattern of several smaller plates.
As the door parted, both parties turned towards us. There are visible expressions of confusion on all parties present; neither one of them had expected more people to show up.
"Fucking traitors! You called the Royal Guard on us!?!" An angry voice yelled from the crowd of Death Watch minions. Some of them aimed weapons towards the Royal Guards. Immediately, all my guards raised their blasters towards the Death Watch soldiers.
"Why the fuck would we do that?" Called the taller woman, who swung her rotary blaster cannon back to face the Death Watch group.
"Oh! I don't know, maybe because you're a Manda-cursed bitch! A thief that wants to steal all these relics and fence them on the open market! I see how it is... If we can't have them, better to destroy them by handing them over to the damn pacifist. Do you know how much time it took to get the intel on this Manda-forsaken asteroid?"
"Probably got the intel from the same Hutt that sold you yours, you harpy!" taunted the voice of a shorter woman pointing her rifle at the original speaker.
"Ladies!" Captain Briyuk said, suit transmitting his voice over its loudspeakers, "All of you will lower your weapons now."
"Fuck you, pacifist!" shouted one of the male voices of the Death Watch members. One of them opened fire and one of his shots struck a Royal Guard in the face. He fell over, and I couldn't tell what state he was in, but I never had the chance to check as the room erupted into chaotic blaster fire as my Royal Guard charged the Death Watch members.
I grabbed Soniee's hand, since the doorway is open she is alone and vulnerable against the passageway bulkhead. So I pulled her along and took cover behind some crates.
Looking up, the shorter yellow-marked Mandalorian was standing on the boxes, and seemed to examine the fallen Royal Guard from a safe distance, before moving on. She moved at a rather incredible pace, returning fire at someone that shot at her.
"Well, I think she's on our side." I commented in a private comm channel, as Soniee nodded her head in agreement. A few more blasts missed us, aimed above our cover.
"Maybe we should move back towards the door and try to escape. I think the battle has diffused enough that we could sneak outside and not be noticed."
"Yeah, that's a good idea." I agreed, peeking around the corner to see what was going on.
As I peeked, I saw the tall Mandalorian, with her rotary blaster cannon discarded on the ground, caught up in a fist fight between one of the Death Watch members. From my position, it seemed she was doing a rather good job punching through the armor. I don't know what planet she was from, but apparently she was obviously superhumanly strong; far superior to baseline strength. Not even Mandalorian armor was able to stop her from breaking bones.
Another Death Watch minion snuck around behind her, and slowly raised her own blaster towards the fistfight, clearly aiming towards the taller Mandalorian. I was forced to act. I brought out my blaster, setting the staff on the ground, and aimed it at the hidden Death Watch minion. She immediately reacted to my motion, switching targets towards aiming at my position. My trigger was pulled and I felt the impact of a blaster shot at the same moment. My chest felt scorching hot and bruised from the blaster bolt, but the minion staggered as she fell onto his back, stunned. I am now really grateful for the beskar upgrade Aunt Satine insisted on adding.
The towering Mandalorian woman seemed to have heard the brief blaster exchange and abandoned her defeated opponent, scanning the area. Her opponent is completely still, either unconscious, or worse.
Turning to me, she gave me a thumbs up and said, "Thanks kid." She gave her opponent one final kick to the head, before moving on to complete some other objective out of sight. Then, I saw Soniee also peeking around the other side of the boxes. Soniee and I turned towards each other. We couldn't hear any more sounds of violence or yelling after a few more tense seconds of silent waiting. I wondered what side had won.
The answer came in the form of Captain Briyuk asking, "Clear, who's still alive? Sound off."
Popping my head up to look around, I answered, "Soniee and I are good." Surprisingly, the two individuals who weren't with the 'Death Watch' group from the previous standoff are standing next to the Captain.
Mr. Bresh and Ms. Crikey crawled out from behind a set of cargo containers, dragging an unconscious Death Watch minion. Ms. Crikey apparently had lost her helmet in the fight, but she looked like a victorious lion dragging her kill. I am pretty sure I recognized the knife that is sticking out of the Death Watch's body as hers. And Amis and Lagos came out from where they've been hiding. They'd somehow gotten their hands on Death Watch weapons by the looks of it.
"That could have gone better." Captain Briyuk remarked, examining the aftermath. He turned towards Soniee and asked, "Can you access their systems?" He swept his hand out, indicating the equipment from the fallen 'Death Watch'. "We still haven't found where the ship is hidden. We also don't know if that group is all of them, either; they might have backup nearby. I'd rather be on the way back to Mandalore before they show up."
Soniee moved over to a console and meanwhile, I asked, "Think these guys are Death Watch or just wannabes?"
Captain Briyuk shook his head, "I don't think they're the real deal. Their training wasn't up to snuff to the one we fought in the Civil War. I would like to think there'd be no reinforcements, but making an assumption like that is often just asking for trouble." Suddenly, Captain Briyuk's voice was only coming over my comm. "Prince Korkie. Those two interlopers assisted us back there, but they seem the skittish type. What are your orders?" The odd question almost caused me to miss that he had switched to my hardsuit private comm line.
I gave it some thought as I thumbed the discrete comm button on the suit vambrace before saying, "I think we can let them go, after we questioned them. They helped us out and it wouldn't be fair if we imprisoned them for helping. We still have to find the Relic Ship, and having to keep watch over prisoners will make it more difficult."
Captain Briyuk nodded his head, "As you wish, Prince Korkie."
I nodded in understanding as I scanned the room. A Royal Guard is bandaging our fallen guardsman, two Royal Guards are looking after Lagos and Amis who are standing next to Soniee on a console, and the others are examining the Death Watch group to make sure all of them are secured. The two unknown women kept themselves close together as they shifted around and eyed Captain Briyuk as he walked closer.
"The Prince has agreed to let you go after you answer a few questions. We won't pry into your identities, but we will need you to answer some of our questions."
The tall one replied, "And what if we don't answer them?"
"Then I will have to report you as members of Death Watch and have arrest warrants with your armor's description spread around the Mandalore sector. Trust me, It would be a lot easier for all parties involved if you cooperate." Captain Briyuk said with a nonchalant tone.
The short one placed her hand on the taller one and said. "What do you want to know?"
"First things first, how did you find this asteroid base? We had to find it in an underwater wreck." As Captain Briyuk asked his question, the taller woman walked to the side and started to pick up what looked like blaster components
The shorter one shrugged, "No idea, we were hired by them for our… uh, unique set of skills. So you'll have to ask them once they're awake about where they got that info."
Captain Briyuk nodded his head while keeping an eye on the taller one, "How did you get hired exactly? I am guessing through the bounty hunter's guild?"
The shorter woman nodded her head too, "Yeah, we were hired to salvage a shipwreck but we didn't know what exactly we would be salvaging. I would have preferred if this stuff went to a museum but we had to spend a week checking every asteroid in this area."
"Alright, last question, is the Corellian ship yours?"
The woman nodded her head, "That's right."
"Good, that means that we can impound that Death Watch ship and sweep it for evidence." Captain Briyuk said. "Alright I think that is all of the questions that I want answered. You're free to leave."
Soniee's voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeakers at an excessive volume. "I found the Seeker's Vigil!" She had clearly sliced her suit speakers up to eleven, again. I watched the two mercenaries leave back outside the base before I walked over to see what Soniee was looking at on the console display.
"It's two levels down, inside a vault. The facility is reporting the doors are sealed, but I can open them from here. The ship's fuel is showing empty. Either that or the tanks are ruptured." Soniee explained to the group, once the four of us joined up with the others.
I felt a slight vibration in the floor through the soles of my boots, it only lasted for a few seconds. Captain Briyuk started giving orders, "Baar'ur, how is he?" as he pointed to the Royal Guard that got shot in the head.
"He'll need an aspirin but he'll live." the medic replied.
Captain Briyuk then said, "Alright, half of you stay here to watch the prisoners, the rest will follow me with the Prince to the Seeker's Vigil." After the Royal Guards saluted, we headed deeper into the facility to get what we came for.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Pre Vizsla
Someone is posing as Death Watch. Someone is trying to cause problems. Again. And someone is going to pay dearly for that.
News of the attack on Prince Korkie Kryze had traveled quickly back to Mandalore and currently the Duchess is probably the angriest he'd ever seen her. You could really tell that the Mandalorian blood in her is flowing right now as she paced back and forth, almost having the stomping of a march to it.
She took a seat in her throne; the backlight on the wall behind her lit up. She took in a deep breath, before saying, "So Death Watch has returned and in actuality; it's not just some rogue agent who happened to strike at Gargon. Now they've struck at the heart of the Mandalorian government."
"How did we miss their return? And what are we going to do about it?" I asked, guilelessly.
Death Watch never truly went away. Remnants have been under my command since, oh, quite a long time now. But my remnants, as far as I was aware, had not been involved in this operation.
Oh, I heard about the mission to find this lost Relic ship and I shrugged it off as it was not important in the grand scheme of things. What importance would come from capturing an ancient Relic ship when the end goal is control of the whole sector. Sure, it would gain us knowledge of our past, but does it grant the Death Watch movement legitimacy? Not really, unless the Mask of Mandalore is hidden there which I highly doubt.
Someone wanted to pose as Death Watch? I'll simply take a page out of White Silver's book. It had done wonders for her image when she destroyed an extremist splinter-faction; it might do wonders for my own faction as well.
Prime Minister Almec spoke after shaking his head, "It's impossible that these Death Watch have completely missed our notice. So I may have some theories on the matter on why we might have been blinded to their movements or their rise."
'Oh, this will be good.' I thought, as I leaned back in my chair.
Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers
Almec
I stood up and addressed Satine, I glanced at Governor Vizsla, but I ignored his smirk, "Ever since White Silver made her debut a few years ago, I've been devoting resources to monitor their operations. So far, most of her operations are above board and legal. Which seems strange considering how they came onto the board in the first place - I suspect these legal businesses are merely a front to hide their true illegal operations. And perhaps these 'Death Watch' aren't truly the real Death Watch. Perhaps they are agents of White Silver, used to draw attention away from her operations so that she'll have free rein in the Mandalore sector."
Satine had an expression of complete astonishment; the only thing that could have made it better was... I turned to take in the rest of the council. The look on Governor Vizsla's face... it shared the same expression of complete shock. As usual, I am the only one paying attention to the serious threats circling Mandalore. The Duchess spoke first, "That… makes no sense. Why would she have used her own movement to attack the Gargon Girls?"
I nodded, "Yes, that's a good question. I believe that assassination attempt is a false-flag attack from White Silver, to make the Gargon Girl's a martyr. Right now we are assuming that because they attacked White Silver, they are enemies. All we have to show that they are enemies is the attack itself, which is circumstantial evidence at best. And the attack failed."
"It only failed because the Gargon girls actually wore beskar armor. Something White Silver herself endorses pretty heavily." Governor Vizsla pointed out.
"Yes, and very few people probably knew that before the attack." I countered.
Governor Vizsla shrugged his shoulders at that.
Satine still seemed puzzled, "That's a possibility, so let's prepare for the worst case and assume that this really is a faction of Death Watch reborn. How are we going to handle this situation?"
I was prepared for this possibility. "We reactivate the old apparatus for hunting down any Death Watch sympathizers, keep an eye out for their movements, and try to figure out what their overall strategy is." The previous efforts to root out the Death Watch had succeeded after all, the only problem was that we let our vigilance down. If Satine approves of this proposal, maybe I could transform the task force monitoring White Silver into a permanent department. I retook my seat, so the council could discuss the proposal further.
Satine nodded her head in agreement, obviously lost in thought, looking for any way to deal with the potential threat of another terrorist organization.
Governor Vizsla seemed less convinced by my proposal. He shook his head in disagreement. "This all seems premature. Have the attackers that targeted Prince Korkie been identified yet?"
Satine shook her head, "No, they have not been fully identified yet. The Royal Guard are transporting them and their ship back to Mandalore, in addition to the recovered relics and the ship. They should return in a week's time, why?"
Governor Vizsla stood up and explained, "Well, my Duchess. I'm concerned that the Prime Minister's plan, while well-meaning, could turn into a witch-hunt. Many Mandalorians have family ties to exiled or dead Death Watch members. And I have serious doubts if any of them are involved in the attacks. So I have an alternative proposal, allow me to investigate these Death Watch. We will pursue a thorough investigation as Concordia has the largest database of Mandalorian chain codes in the sector, a sad legacy of the last Civil War."
My first reaction to that proposal is annoyance. While Governor Vizsla is right in that Concordia had the largest collection of chain codes, since most of the warriors were exiled to the moon after they lost the Civil War. However, it is fairly obvious that he is empire-building. Always had been with Concordia, he had an endless amount of superiority about Concordia being an agricultural exporter. I merely tolerated it, as long as it didn't harm Mandalore.
Satine still seemed lost in thought as she considered her options. A few tense seconds of silence passed, before she nodded in Governor Vizsla's direction. "Once they arrive back to Mandalore, I'll let you know so that you can begin your investigation." Satine turned to face me, "Put together a task force for your investigation. We need to have a complete understanding of what's going on. Someone out there is trying to cause trouble for the Mandalorian Sector, and we need to know why in order to stop them."
I am glad to be put in charge of the task force, but interestingly, Governor Vizsla also seemed pleased with this outcome. Now I could repurpose my existing White Silver task force with this new investigation, and it would have more funding. "It will be done," I said to Satine. "I will have my top men look into this and we will find out who is responsible, you have my word, my Duchess."
Governor Vizsla nodded at my words and stroked his chin, "Concordia will offer any information we can as well. When your task force has custody of the bodies, we can run their chain codes on our database."
The other members of the council seemed happy we had come to a consensus, as they are not nearly as interested in security concerns.
I didn't want Concordia to steal all the credit though, so I added, "Perhaps we should also get some of the other governments involved in this task force. Gargon in particular has an interest in tracking down the Death Watch responsible for the latest attack. I'm sure many other Mandalorian systems would accept extra security measures to avoid an influx of 'Death Watch' terrorist attacks."
Governor Vizsla frowned, he did not look pleased by my assertion, but said, "Yes, we should try and work out a more legal framework to cooperate in criminal investigations between systems. Criminals can easily skirt around local law enforcement in the sector by simply leaving the system. We can put into place new legislation on information sharing to make it easier to track these criminals down."
And I would be able to gather as much information as possible on what they actually knew about White Silver and the Silver Mandalorians. I had my theories of how deep they went, but until I had proof, I could only speculate on what they are truly up to.
Coruscant, Goodvalor's Little Bivoli
Engiz Ordo
This is not how I expected things to go. But the way things had gone... is the opposite of terrible.
I am sitting at a fine table in my actual dress uniform, not my usual Royal Guard armor, across from Tanya in a rather expensive restaurant.
At Tabbi's suggestion I had made my move and asked Tanya to come out on a date with me. A date at a place that probably is going to cost half of my salary from last year.
But right now, it's completely worth it. The food is great and the conversation is about the history of the Mandalorian worlds, various ideas that had been tried throughout the long history of Mandalore, and how the government could be better run.
None of the other Royal Guards had much interest in these rather nerdy topics, but she's been smiling the entire time talking about them and so have I, so nothing wrong here.
Sure we just spent the last 20 minutes of our meal talking about the effect of the economy due to the war with how it could both be spurred on and stopped depending on how terrible the war is. But the conversation is academic, not something that would be detracting from our night, so it is enjoyable.
Unfortunately, all good nights have to come to an end and as conversations draw to a close, the bill arrives.
Sliding my credits onto the little tray, I said, "So Princess Kryze, how did you find tonight?" Yes, I know that that particular question showed just how on edge I really was, but I am hoping that she wouldn't notice that.
Tanya smiled at that and leaned back in her chair. "Tonight is good, I've been so busy with politics that it's nice to just have a theoretical conversation with someone again. One that doesn't require me to worry about how it's going to work or the right way to implement these changes."
…Oh, she's not complaining about me. Though, she hadn't actually said anything in favor of my invite. Ahh... baby steps this would take baby steps.
Hiding my inner turmoil with a smile, I said, "That's good. You always seem happier and more yourself when you're not stressed out, in my opinion."
"Thank you, Engiz." she said with a smile that I could feel.
The waiter came by and picked up the little plastic tray tearing off the credits and left the receipt, so I got up and moved around to help Tanya stand up. Unfortunately, Tanya is a bit faster as she got up herself.
Although, she did offer her arm, so we walked together out of the restaurant onto one of the upper level streets of the capital city of the Republic.
"Smells like the air cleaners around here aren't working right." Tanya noted. I nodded my head in agreement, there is a definite smell of burnt fuel. Coruscant is a rather complex system built up from its millenia long history, so it wouldn't be impossible for one of those systems to have broken down around here.
"We should probably get back to the speeder faster to avoid the stink then," I suggested. We moved towards a stairway leading down to the parking garage where we parked the speeder I rented for this evening.
I turned the corner and only my training allowed me to dodge a fist that's been flying in my direction. Tanya and I took a few steps back, just gawking at the scene.
Looking down the garage interior, it's déjà vu, as in front of me are two groups of men fighting. Both groups had cybernetics enhancements and are beating the hell out of each other.
"Die snake in the grass, CIS bootlicker!"
"Eat Republic cheese ass-kisser!"
Came the battle cries of both groups, as they beat the hell out of each other.
Then, one of them looked in our direction and tilted his head saying "Hey! Don't I know you two?"
"You must have confused us for someone else." Tanya said, holding on to my arm tightly as she backed up further.
"Nah, I swear I've seen you." The belligerent didn't get to finish that sentence, as one of the 'CIS bootlickers' smashed a metal panel into his face, causing him to collapse into the side of the building. The tragedy continued with him collapsing on the stairs and rolling down several steps, only stopping once his comrades grabbed him.
"I think we should not use underground parking from now on." I said, shaking my head as I backed off with her. "I can have the valet bring us the speeder."
"Yeah, I think that's probably for the best." Tanya eagerly agreed with my suggestion. We continued to back away, keeping our eyes locked on the ongoing conflict, hoping they would not pay us any more attention.
"Hey, wait a moment! That guy's wearing the colors of the CIS! Get them!"
I looked down at my dress uniform, realizing yes it is a rather grayish color and very similar to the color that the 'CIS bootlickers' are wearing.
"Oh boy." I muttered as a man came charging at me, ready to punch my head off. I moved faster than him and leaned to the side to dodge his swing. In retaliation, I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer so I could deliver a knee strike into his intestines. I finished by pushing him back down the stairs into another onrushing cyberthug.
I turned to Tanya to see if she's okay. She is laughing in pure joy as she kicks an incoming attacker between his legs, ripping her dress in the process. The maneuver is perfectly timed, causing him to stop right in front of her as he cradled his groin to ease the pain. This leaves him open for Tanya spartan kick to his face, pushing him down the stairs and taking out two more of the gangsters in an avalanche of bodies.
I took advantage of the lull in combat to escape as I grabbed Tanya by the hand and started running in the other direction. I activated my communicator in my vambrace and called Tabbi. He should be nearby, he said he was having a date with Vai tonight as well.
Writer's note: Political fight in street? That's not a good sign, at least those Mandos are having fun, and agents are moving in the background to unleash chaos. What will happen? Hard to say, but I'm sure everything will be fine~~~ also this chapter was pain to get right, mashing two 20k doc together was hard, and sometimes when we editing it, it felt like we have gone over the same part couple times and we're having "Left hand did not know what right hand was doing." I think it's because it's just too long. I might have to keep that in mind for the future.
Edited by: L4, Warmach1ne32, Afforess, D3ad0S
Community edited by:
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Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
If a Japanese (most of modern Earth culture actually) idol killed someone in self defense, their popularity would drop, especially female ones. Mandalorian idols becomes more popular.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
Mandos love strong independent women.
- Location
- Adelaide, Australia
Honestly I wouldn't be so sure, it would totally depend on the circumstances.
what can i say mandos are weird
as it should be
considering inperation wa symphogear... yeah i can see that
Maryon has returned, and they brought fan art
Maryon has returned to discord server and with them they have brought Vai fan art
good to have them back it been to long
good to have them back it been to long
- Location
- Belgium
I've got no clue who these fake death watch could be except the friking commies that are trying to sow chaos in the sector