He's torn between love and political opinions.
Princess of Mandalore (Youjo Senki/Star Wars)
- Thread starter L4oftheWEST
- Start date
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- Tags
- star wars youjo senki
re-editing project continues Chapters 11-20 have been updated with the most recent community doc, which includes fix, reformatting to fit the current format, and fan art, across SB, SV, QQ, Alt Hist, Ao3, And Fanfic.
very true
very true
not meant to but i was concerned about that
truth
yes agreed
- Location
- East of Sun, West of Moon
They already met; unfortunately, it was in a public setting so all Tanya could do was disengage, distance herself, and burn the dress Liliya touched.
No, what's needed is for White Silver to have a discussion with Liliya, preferably in a dark alley with no witnesses.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
No, that black powder is a detox powder. To remove any remaining evidence in his system
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
Wow Korkie not being a complete moron.
I hope Tanya pushes for more self sufficiency. Using space transport for food is hugely inefficient and dumb, even if space travel is cheap.
Even space stations and inhospitable mining planets should have hydroponics meeting most of their needs.
I hope Tanya pushes for more self sufficiency. Using space transport for food is hugely inefficient and dumb, even if space travel is cheap.
Even space stations and inhospitable mining planets should have hydroponics meeting most of their needs.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
It isn't if the food came from Agri worlds that produce huge batches of food and using economies of scale to make them really cheap. Add stuff like vacuum sealing and sci-fi disinfectants, I think food could last for a while with proper storage.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
That's just soft sci-fi bs. Space travel by default takes an enourmous amount of energy. If you converted that energy into matter, you'd get way more than the foodstuff being carried. Just because they have the bs fuel now, doesn't mean they should spend it frivously. The galaxy isn't infinite and they've been strip minning it for millenia.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
Good thing we are in a soft scifi where we can wav away that problem
Chapter 49
Chapter 49
717 FNM (21 BBY)
Month 3
Coruscant, Senate Building
Tanya Kryze
Long days of thankless work are the best kind of long days. Especially when I accomplish something that I consider to be major and important for the survival of my career, people, job, but most importantly, my career.
Today is the official announcement of the Council of Neutral Systems. I worked for the last two months to get this darn thing done, but it's finally finished. As a result, I need to deliver this directly to Palpatine himself. It shouldn't be that hard; he's been in favor of the CNS for some time. I had already sent a draft of the proposal to his office and given him a few days to have his subordinates go over the matter. He would no doubt have a list of changes and demands to make after I had made the 'official' presentation of the document to him. The CNS has already agreed on a number of elements that the organization is willing to compromise on ahead of time, so with some luck I would be able to get the CNS signed into law without needing to reconvene a meeting with the rest of the member systems.
The frustrating thing about all this is that it had taken the war breaking out on Garos IV to finally get this whole thing settled. You would think when Ryloth was invaded, that would have put a fire under people's feet to get the job done as soon as possible. But Ryloth is in the Outer Rim and barely connected to the Republic. It's so far out there that if someone asked where it was, some people would mistakenly point in the wrong direction, hell, a few of them might even point to Mandalore.
Startlingly few people had a good grasp of galactic geography, the mechanics of hyperlane travel or the concept of shadow mass. Such people simply lurched though life, content that if they did not know something it was clearly not all that important. The sort of lackadaisical mentality that, when allowed to fester, brought down empires.
Garos IV was almost in the same boat, except it's a rather populous world that has a large academy that helped produce some of the best scientists in the Outer Rim while being a very loyal world to the Republic. So loyal, in fact, that many of the worlds that are part of the now Council of Neutral Systems had signed on to the Refugee Relief Movement. This agreement would see that any planet that was invaded by Separatists could have their population take up refugee status on Garos IV.
This agreement had been signed before the invasion had even broken out, but since it hasn't been put into effect, it might as well not matter. Technically, the leader of Garos IV had been fairly on the ball by quickly realizing the situation and trying to set themselves up as a neutral world that could be left alone.
Mandalore had signed onto the agreement within the first week. I had overseen the signing, in fact, a rather unimportant event in my mind as it was just another step towards the Council of Neutral Systems. One of many thousands of meetings, signings and other-such groundwork for the CNS. Now, it is a little bit more important.
The same agreement that designated Garos IV as a safe haven and destination for refugees also stipulated that the other signatory members would become refugee havens of last resort. Now that Garos IV was occupied, this clause was suddenly put into effect; this technically bound Mandalore to take in refugees in Garos IV's place. While we'll do the best we could, we're always strapped for the ability to do so. Mandalore had enough trouble taking care of itself and was kind of depending on Garos IV for housing incoming refugees. Before, we may have been able to supply a little bit of extra food here or there when we have the chance. But now, that is out of the question.
It was hardly a problem finding the space to put refugees, Mandalorian space is flush with barely settled habitable planets. The problem is that there is barely any infrastructure to support them. Things like clean water, medical supplies, food, generators, transport, and shelter all cost money to establish and maintain. Mandalorian space is perfect for hardy settlers or wealthy refugees who could afford to buy equipment to support themselves in a safe region. But not for the people who had fled war with nothing but the clothes on their backs. That's not even to mention the fact that wealthy or capable refugees would flee to Mandalore simply as a stopover before moving onto a more wealthy system to rebuild their lives.
As confusing as it was, Mandalore was still developing. Mandalore was the largest poor polity in the known galaxy. A stark reminder that an abundance of territory and resources did not translate to wealth when one had a dysfunctional culture. But it was getting better. It is very likely that refugee villages, like those found in war torn Africa in my first life, will have to be made to house as many of the refugees that we could.
The Separatist occupation of Garos IV had spurred the rest of the potential Council of Neutral Systems to finally get their act together and sign the Mutual Defense Act. This would technically allow local defense forces to work together in the possibility that they are invaded by the CIS. In reality, it was more complex than that and would likely take several years for any sort of unified defensive capabilities to manifest, but on paper, the CNS now had a sizable collective armed forces and that's what mattered.
The CIS is currently the main threat to our sovereignty out there. Though I had pushed for the wording to be "any and all threats" simply because who knows what could happen. The Hutts could take advantage of this opportunity to try and expand their domain, picking off worlds that were on their border and part of the CNS.
Garos IV is also technically part of the Mandalore sector. Well, to be more exact, it was part of the overarching sectors that had cultural ties to the Mandalore sector. That sometimes gets sort of shoved into the Mandalore sector for representation. Garos IV had its own representation, of course, but now it really didn't matter what it had. It's now occupied by the CIS, and the Republic is probably thinking of trying to free it and ensure its neutrality is completely destroyed.
The only good outcome about the loss of Garos IV is that it accelerated the formation of the CNS for Mandalore. For me specifically, there is actually another side benefit. The CNS has immediately started to put money together to start purchasing armor and equipment. And well, Mandalore had quite the developed armor, ship, and blaster production lines ready to start cranking out orders. Mandalore's military industrial complexes are better than most and definitely have enough designs, expertise, and equipment to accommodate the CNS.
I imagine that the CNS will soon issue better equipment than what they have right now, rather quickly. Hopefully enough to just defend themselves and keep the CIS and any other faction from thinking about invading them. But if it did come down to an actual fight, well, weapon commonality for spare parts, armor maintenance and repair, ship construction, and that sort of thing, could be of large benefit in the long term.
Not to mention, once they have those designs, well, they would need someone to maintain those designs. I'm sure there are some who would come up with ways to do it themselves, but a repeat customer is a good customer. And I would imagine that there'd be some repeat customers throughout the war, if not all the way out of the war.
X4 is designed to handle that sort of thing, so I leave that to him. Although I am paying aldo some attention to goings-on at Mandal Hypernautics.
There are already attempts to try and replicate the technology recovered from the war droid's memory, though I am a bit concerned about what it could bring. My research into this particular situation had me a bit worried, since technically the Basilisk is a war droid. And Mandalore is not allowed to make any battle droids, the Mandalorian detractors that Sheev told me about would use that fact as ammunition against us.
However, this particular design of "war droid" is piloted, and once a war droid had the ability to basically be a mech, the situation got a little bit fuzzier and in a gray area. Frankly, it seems to me if we mark the Basilisk as a fighter or some sort of land assault craft, it's no longer under the auspices of a war droid.
And if it no longer fell under the auspices of a war droid, then could it be sold on the open market? I had resisted the urge to suggest the name 'Gundam' to X4. Barely.
That is a question that bugged me because there is a potentially large market out there that would be interested in such a vehicle, especially with a war going on. A craft that could fight by your side when you jump out of it, or at least had a bit of intelligence that could sense things before you do and react.
It's a potential money maker. The question is, should I openly sell it or only have it available to members of the CNS? That is a harder question. If it is put out on the open market, much more money could be made. But it would easily be bought by the other side and be reverse engineered to find ways to screw with it.
For now, I had simply let Mandal Hypernautics figure out how to efficiently reproduce a couple of them. Once we know it's possible to mass produce them, maybe I would look deeper into the possibility of selling them to the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force. I'm sure they would sell like panna cakes, at least in the sector, just based on the cultural significance of the Basilisk War Droid alone.
There's also the possibility that this might also affect the light tanks that are currently in production. The Predator family of tanks that Mandal Hypernautics is currently selling had been based on the Canderous Heavy Assault Tank but split into three more specialized vehicles. Currently, those vehicles are being sold to the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force on several planets and will be sold to CNS worlds soon enough. But there is research to see if implementing a Basilisk Droid brain into some of those tanks might be a worthwhile investment. After all, if all it took to prevent something from being considered a Droid is having a human operator, having the benefits of a Droid's speed and calculation capacity in a combat vehicle could potentially do a lot of damage.
Even if we go through with putting Basilisk brains in our tanks, X4 and I had some concerns about the Basilisk's persona cores themselves though. They are based on an entirely different branch of droid design, one that had been long abandoned, learning algorithms. A newly created Basilisk war droid mind, while more than able to do battle from the moment of 'birth', is genuinely closer to that of an animal than a person. It requires time and experience for them to become as capable and clever as Big Bear, and it's not a consistent thing either. Some would learn quickly and others very slowly. It's not surprising why the technology had been abandoned for the more predictable, fully pre-programmed droids commonly used in the galaxy today.
A newborn Basilisk mind inside a tank would be more than capable of using its newfound body to do a great deal of damage, understand friend from foe, and follow orders from riders it trusted or imprinted upon that it could understand. But it would struggle to communicate with its limited awareness of itself and the world around it.
I could think of few things as risky to deal with on the battlefield than a thinking tank with the mind of a dog trying to impress its master. It is, however, very Mandalorian.
Something I am not yet convinced is a good idea to implement is the Senate continuing to give more emergency powers to the Chancellor. But if the Senate decided to remove its checks and balances again, there isn't much I could do since I'm only a Representative. I am referring to the Reflex Amendment, the most recent legislation passed by the Senate. It amended the Republic's constitution to give the Chancellor direct control of the military, amongst other emergency powers. Meaning he could decide where and when the GAR fought, well, he and the Jedi, of course. The Senate would just vote on how to fund it, which I guess is good enough, though the power of the purse didn't seem to stop the creation of a Clone Army, now did it?
There was still a bit of a mystery about that. Who had funded it in the first place? I had tried to look into it once or twice, but the most I'd come up with is that it had been loans from the Banking Clans. Past that, well, the Banking Clans kept all that stuff secret. I'm sure the Jedi would come up with something sooner or later. Unless, of course, they were the ones responsible for the creation of the Clone army. Currently, they stated that a former Jedi Master who had died ten years ago had funded it. It's awfully convenient that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas died over a decade ago as soon as he ordered the production of the Clone army.
If a Jedi paid someone money before immediately dying, I have to question if there wasn't something suspicious going on there. I had to assume that the Jedi thought the same. Hopefully, they will find something.
My thoughts were brought back into the present as the elevator finally came to a stop at Palpatine's office. The Senatorial Guards are standing on either side of the doorway as I walk in. I glanced into the closed atrium and main office, and the secretary waiting out front recognized me and welcomed me into her office to wait. "The Chancellor will see you for your appointment soon. He's finishing up a meeting with the representatives of COMPOR."
That raised an eyebrow, as I had heard of COMPOR once or twice. It's the Commission for the Protection of the Republic, an organization formed rather recently that seemed more like a lobbyist group than anything else. But they were trying to get the public to support the Republic through wartime propaganda to rally the populace against the CIS.
It seemed very '50s-esque, like the US's Red Scare propaganda program. If that is all they are, that might not be a problem, but they have money and backing behind them which gives their voices weight. I had to acknowledge that there's a good chance that the reason that the Reflex Amendment passed is because of their message. Primarily, that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine should be given as much executive power as possible for the Republic to win the war without bureaucracy to slow it down.
I did not know that they are in contact with Palpatine, but there must be some connection between them, which is a bit concerning. Getting power because the Senate voted for it is one thing, but getting power because he has an organization to convince senators to give you that power is another.
I nodded before taking a seat in one of the empty chairs outside the Chancellor's office. While I waited, I opened the datapad in my hands for some last minute memorization. Even if it is going to be dismissed and be revised further, I can't be making a mistake in front of the head of a galactic government.
After waiting for a moment, the doors opened and the secretary said, "You may go in now."
Nodding my head, I entered the office, seeing Palpatine behind his desk and one or two other officials in what looked like pseudo-military uniforms sitting around the room. It appeared they had been having some sort of conversation but were now over.
"Ah, young Representative Kryze, we were just talking about your exploits." Palpatine said with a cheery voice as he waved me in. I suppressed a frown, X4 was supposed to keep the war droid developments secret so I doubt he is talking about that. "I was just talking with these fine gentlemen about your role during the Geonosis event." I nodded in relief at my misunderstanding.
"It wasn't that big of an exploit, Chancellor. I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Some would argue you were in the right place at the right time." Palpatine spoke up, drawing my eyes to a young man in the military uniform with tan skin.
"Those people never experienced the feeling of having your ship shot out from underneath you and crash landing."
The man nodded before saying, "Understandable that you would have that opinion, but I must say, having a figure like you there on the day does wonders for morale. The story of a young Representative from Mandalore fighting back against the dastardly Confederacy for the Republic is quite well-known amongst our organization. Your story is an excellent example to talk about what we want to fight for: a Republic that serves its own interest and does not subordinate itself to the monied interests of corporations nor the more insidious populations in the Outer Rim."
"Insidious populations?" I mused, the tone he took with that statement was somewhat concerning. Since Mandalorians are one of those often maligned Outer Rim cultures.
"The Geonosian people for example, are biologically predisposed to act against the interests of the good people of the Republic. There is no real way that individualistic minded people like us can live with a hive species." The man explained calmly, as I was careful to maintain a neutral expression. The various species in the Republic are vast and disparate and the sentiments expressed by this man would exclude quite a substantial amount of them.
"I understand that the CIS has a large number of different species supporting them, I think it would be unwise to conclude that they can be so easily categorized and dismissed. The Geonosians for example are individually talented and independently cognizant, even if they do choose to live in hive systems." I pointed out, I was starting to get an uncomfortable feeling about this man.
"Such empathetic and tolerant sentiments like that is something many species within the CIS would not return, I'm afraid. We cannot allow our kindness and morality to be used against us." He blinked and smiled. "Oh, where are my manners?" The man stood up and bowed, "I am Ishin-Il-Raz, Chief Spokesperson of the Preservation of the Republic. You know, if you ever feel like coming to one of our rallies, we would really enjoy hearing your take on what happened there on Geonosis. I'm sure many people are interested in the story, as we only get second-hand or third-hand accounts. Most of them seem rather fanciful, such as a story that you had stunned the leader of the Trade Federation."
He chuckled at that before continuing, "Not to mention, a large contingent of our people are somewhat enamored with the technology coming out of the Mandalore sector. The vambrace system is quite useful. It allows our people to stay in communication and organize things quite better than some of the more modern systems we could have acquired from local tech companies."
I smiled and even did a curtsy. "Nice to meet you, Ishin-Il-Raz. I don't know if I could go to one of your rallies anytime soon. I have a fairly packed schedule for the foreseeable future, but I'll keep that in mind. It is good to hear that our technology is finding customers here on Coruscant." I would have to play it safe around this character and their staff, just in case they tried to use anything I say to try and support their movement. "While it's quite enjoyable speaking with you, Ishin-Il-Raz. I'm here to speak with Chancellor Palpatine for an important announcement." I shifted closer to the Chancellor's desk for emphasis. Palpatine nodded to Ishin who stood and offered a polite bow himself before he and the other gentleman departed from the office.
When Ishin had left I put the datapad in front of the Chancellor and slipped into a rehearsed script, "I, Tanya Kryze of Mandalore, hereby present the official announcement of the Council of Neutral systems to the rightful chancellor of the Galactic Republic."
"Bravo, my dear." Palpatine said as he clapped at the necessary pomp and ceremony before he took up the datapad, looking at it with undisguised interest. "How unfortunate that such a Council has to be formed. Hopefully, this will mark the first step on the long and arduous road to peace and security for the galaxy." Palpatine said soberly before checking though the datapad. "You assent that this is document NS-A7 without edits and revisions?"
"Of course. I, Tanya Kryze, assent that this is document NS-A7 without edits or revisions." I said following the standard script these sorts of signings required. Then I smiled and said, "That is the hope. At the very least, it should put a halt to any further invasions into CNS space, since that may force the CNS to take a side. With this many systems, it's not a line I think the CIS wants to push."
"Or the Republic." Palpatine said with a small smile and a nod before taking out a pen and quickly signing at the end of the datapad before handing it back. "I'll have the official recognition of the Council put out to the rest of the senators tonight, but this will do for your end." I blinked as Palpatine went entirely off script.
"You have no revisions for our declaration?" I asked slowly, confused.
"Everything appears to be in order so I don't think a revision is necessary." Palpatine said softly, leaning back with a calm, warm smile. "I think the proposal suits all of our interests perfectly as it is."
"Thank you, Chancellor." I said quickly as I took the datapad and started to move back towards the door. I had never anticipated the CNS getting absolutely everything it had demanded. I glanced back at Sheev, the man who had unexpectedly become the greatest ally to the CNS movement in a single stroke of the pen. I truly had no idea that his anti-war predilections are so strong. I could only hope that the rest of the Republic could see that the CNS is acting in the best interests of not only ourselves, but the entire Republic. Sheev, for his part, seems almost... amused?
I cast aside that thought and stepped out of the grand office of the Chancellor and made way to my own office to make the declaration of the CNS public.
Kro'eval System, Kom'rk-class Starfighter
Pre Vizsla
I reclined in the now-familiar commander's seat of the cramped Gauntlet starfighter cockpit, allowing myself a moment to relax after the flurry of activity of the last few weeks. Our squadron had been operating in the outskirts of Mandalorian space, within the contested region between the Republic and the CIS.
The Kom'rk-class "Gauntlet" that made up the bulk of Death Watch's void capabilities had been supplied by MandalMotors. Even if they invested less into Death Watch ever since Satine had seen reason, they had still honored my request for assets at a reduced cost. Taking ships from MSDF stockyards, even the ones we administered directly, is practically impossible with how tight a leash the MSDF kept on any and all equipment. Thankfully, MandalMotors's shipyards are far more receptive.
After we launched the latest batch of starfighters from their yard, we navigated them away from Mandalorian space, beyond the reach of the Republic. Out here, what is Mandalorian and what isn't became blurred. Ancient grudges, battlefields, and installations are rampant, and there are always small clans or materials to recover for Death Watch. Even if the majority of the space is occupied by non-Mandalorians.
Still, there are plenty of opportunities out here now that the war has gone into motion. Our focus had been on Garos IV. While there were barely any Mandalorians on that world, there are plenty of people who are displaced by war, with homes and lives destroyed by foreign invaders of no fault of their own. It was a simple matter of gathering the angry and dispossessed, and reforming them into a formation that is useful for Death Watch. They might never become actual Mandalorians, but they would serve Mandalore with glee after what they had suffered.
However our true prize is the war orphans. Children who had seen everything they knew destroyed. It's easy to simply pluck the confused foundlings from shanty camps and spirit them away to Death Watch aligned clans and encampments, where they would be safe and trained to become Mandalorians.
Of course, our operations within Separatist-occupied worlds had necessitated raids on CIS occupational forces and infrastructure now and then. It is for a good cause. We are merely taking care of people that the CIS could not support or care for. Medical and food supplies in occupied regions are scarce, and hundreds of children had died before we could get to them. It was undeniably risky, considering that the CIS are the ones supplying Death Watch with tanks and speeders, but considering that the shipments continued, I could only presume that my small indiscretions are tolerated by the Separatist command.
It's likely that Dooku and Merrik are keeping the CIS from making more of a fuss about my operations, but the pair of them have become rather insistent that I use my assets to engage in the planned operations of either attacking the Republic or launching an uprising in Mandalorian space. I had assured them that the attacks would happen soon...ish.
For the past week, I had scattered my fighter core across several systems, tracking the movement of a Republic Cruiser that had skipped in and out of the Mandalorian neutral zone without any regard for Satine's edict. The MSDF had logged the intrusions, but since the Cruiser was only passing through, there was no option to waylay the craft as it exited into contested space.
Death Watch officers within the MSDF had transmitted details of the ship and its heading to me. Our careful chase had led us to the little-known Kro'eval system. One of the worlds in the system had been earmarked by Dooku as off-limits to any of my raiders. I entered realspace close to a debris field that had been captured by the fifth planet from the star. It's a dry and cold world but is nevertheless covered in thick green bands of endless forests. Despite the habitable biosphere the world hosted, it only has a scant few logging settlements and little else.
My attention is instead focused on the orbit of the fourth planet of the system. I confessed to having little knowledge of the world, except that it hosted a few thousand Mandalorians and roughly a billion near-humans who were happy to trade with Mandalore for the most part. They are rather inoffensive people as far as I was concerned.
The world had been invaded by the CIS months ago a small defense fleet had been stationed here spitting fire at the Republic Cruiser we had been shadowing. This far out, my ship might as well be invisible. I sent out a sensor ping that would look unimportant to most eyes and waited for my forces to gather in this system.
Kro'eval System, Kom'rk-class Starfighter
Pre Vizsla
The battle is very protracted. Both the Republic Cruiser and the four CIS frigates were firing at each other from a great distance, while wings of fighters fought for space between the forces.
"Eight hundred on the Jetiise." came the amused tone of my pilot. I glanced at her, along with Ursa Wren as she is my second in this operation.
"Why? The code on that Pubbie ship says Command, yet the idiots don't have any support." Ursa waved a hand dismissively. "I will spot you. Eight on the Banker fleet."
"It's a Battle-Cruiser," the pilot explained. "Pride of the Rep fleet, they poured a ton of credits into the monster. It's got twenty heavy turbolaser batteries, even more ion cannons, proton torpedo launchers, quad assault concussion missile launchers, fighter craft, gunships, landers, and the works. That ship has enough firepower to turn a planet to glass. Even better, the ID on that ship is the Maelstrom, the namesake and first of her class for the Maelstrom Battle-Cruiser line."
"And how do you know that?" Ursa asked.
"I saw it on the propaganda holo a week ago. They say that this is the Jetiise's answer to the Malevolence."
"So why is she out here all on her own?" I asked, nobody in particular. The women in the cockpit considered that for a moment, before the three of us fell into an uneasy silence. The battle continued as my forces snuck into the system, one after the other, using micro-thrusts to get into formation, so as not to ping any sensors on our prey.
Just as the last of my forces entered the system and fell into position, one of the Banking Clan frigates detonated as a squadron of Republic starfighters made a pass over the ship. The combat computer counted no more droid fighter resistance to the Republic.
"Formation, move in." I gave the order, and my pilot went to work. In the shadow of an irregularly shaped continent-sized rock, two dozen engines burst to life with enough force to overwhelm the inertial dampeners and nearly strangle the passengers of the Gauntlet starfighters before the thrusters are halted so the heat signatures of our drive plumes doesn't give us away, and over five hundred Mandalorians were sent hurtling towards the battle. The maneuver was performed perfectly by every pilot, and to any sensor, we were little more than specs of dust traveling across the system.
Nothing for them to worry about. Until it was too late.
"Battle on the surface is heating up. The Republic really wants this CIS facility badly." Ursa commented, looking at a screen just out of my line of sight. I am more focused on the war in the void. It's still going to take a while before we drift in range to begin our attack, and I hoped that this 'Battle-Cruiser' would still be in the perfect position for our attack.
The ship in question, the Maelstrom, is busy chasing down the remaining Banking Clan frigates. While the firepower of four had been enough to hold the ship back, it seems that three are insufficient. The trio are attempting to keep outside of brawling range for as long as they could, while the Republic captain pressed forwards with his advantage. Out of curiosity, I tapped into the few feeds of the ground forces that our slicers had managed to break into to reveal that the ground operation is a mess. The Republic had deployed the Maelstrom's entire complement of clones to take the expansive CIS facility. It's a colossally huge tower with six large docks arrayed around the structure. Large enough for a capital ship to be built in each dock.
The facility is also situated in the middle of a city with towers that reach up to touch the clouds. The droids and clones below are doing a fine enough job of turning the city to rubble in the desperate battle for the facility as locals attempt to flee the carnage suddenly thrust upon them.
"Got a hyperdrive spooling up." the pilot said, tapping at her instruments. "It's not the Maelstrom." I released a breath I didn't know I was holding before tapping at the data the slicers were feeding us.
"Looks like that CIS facility is a shipyard. Something is trying to escape. If that drive can handle spooling for a couple of minutes, then she will be gone the moment she hits high orbit."
Ursa frowned and tapped the screen before adding. "That can't... oh hell."
I was about to ask her to explain when there was a flash of light.
"Gods... they just..." There was a moment of utter disbelief. I could scarcely believe it myself as a plume of dust and poison was ejected into space from the armageddon below. So great was the explosion that I could see the cloud of debris from here.
"Record everything. I want all the footage we can get!" I ordered, sending a tight-band communication to the other fighters, despite the risk. I could hardly breathe through the horror and excitement that filled me.
At the epicenter of the Republic atomic strike, the ground split apart, and a hellish red crack consumed the city before spreading out across the surface of the doomed planet. I am fairly certain that the Republic does not have an atomic weapon capable of cracking a planet like that. If they did, they would have used it during the Excision. No, this is likely the result of a Separatist superweapon of some kind, they have a habit of making a new one every other week. While the Separatist might have placed the Tibanna barrel there, the Jetii was still the one to pull the trigger, so the blame still lies with the Jetii.
Cities thousands of kilometers away are soon consumed by the spreading firestorm and tectonic calamity. We could only watch as a green world is reduced to ash, and a billion lives are extinguished. Debris spitting out into space crippled the remaining CIS ships as low orbit became inundated with gravitational anomalies so fierce they could be seen with the naked eye.
"What did they do?" Ursa spoke softly, knowing exactly what she was looking at but desperate for there to be some mistake as a way for her to distance herself from stark reality.
I am also in shock that the Republic would have the will to kill a planet but I quickly return my focus to the present and think about how this event will benefit Death Watch. Ursa, in many ways, is soft, as are many in Death Watch. To see such senseless and wanton destruction would be distressing. I had to refocus the softer hearts of my forces if they were to be of any use to me. I reached for the controls of my console, and in a few taps, I am broadcasting to my entire force.
"There will be a change of plans." I began, carefully crafting every word to possess enough resolve for the weakest of my formation to anchor themselves around. A firm hand offered to stabilize their frayed emotions. "The Republic aruetii who believe themselves so righteous, so just, have committed an unthinkable atrocity. To murder innocent Mandalorian men, women, and children as well as murder a billion friends of Mandalore. To strip a world of all life! I proclaim that every sentient upon the warship Maelstrom a Demagolka!" Ursa stiffened at my side. To be found by Mandalorian law to be a Demagolka, a serial murderer, and abuser of children, was to be condemned to death by flaying even in Satine's more 'civilized' age.
"Our original intent is to cripple this warship and allow the CIS to deal the final blow, but the situation has changed. By our honor, we must seek justice for the lives taken before our very eyes." I didn't bring up the Republic's dishonorable destruction of their own forces, but I had plans for that as well. Silver Mandalorians might be swayed after seeing the Republic betray its own forces to hellfire and ruin.
"We must carry the cloak of the executioner for this horrific crime. We shall board this ship, we will hunt down every rat aboard, and we will make them pay! As is our pledge of eternal vigilance against the evils of this galaxy! Our endless duty as Death Watch!" The radio is filled with animalistic roars of approval. As if sent into a battle frenzy, the fighters around me ignited their drives and flung themselves at full speed towards the dazed Republic Battle-Cruiser, its sensors blinded by the dust kicked up into orbit.
I reclined as my pilot sent my own fighter into overdrive to catch up with the others. I felt a grin overcome my face. Any other day, five hundred Mandalorians attacking a warship of this size would be a rather pitiful example of suicide. But this ship did not have the fifteen thousand clone troopers on board to defend the ship and the crew.
They had vaporized all of their defenders in their efforts to destroy the CIS facility and their escaping vessel. What few fighters remained from the extended battle in orbit had been crippled by the ion pulse thundering through the orbital plane of the doomed world. The Republic had gift-wrapped one of the most powerful ships in their navy just for me.
It was a stunning sight I beheld when the Maelstrom pushed out of the poison dust of low orbit and into the void itself, directly into the path of my forces. Ash clinging to the body of the murderous ship as it departed its terrible hunting grounds.
"They see us!" the pilot cried out as the Maelstrom spat out a flurry of point defense battery fire in the general direction of my formation.
"Too late." I said, as indeed a moment later all of our Kom'rks launched their Ion Torpedoes. At such close range, the torpedoes barely have several seconds of flight before they impact. Immediately, the point defense slackens as their systems are overloaded, giving us a clear window to board it. We darted through the open hangar bay doors intended to accept the surviving ships from the atomic calamity.
I felt my stomach twist as the gravity generator of my Gauntlet Fighter fought against the gravity of the Battle-Cruiser for a moment before the Battle-Cruiser won out and my craft made a graceless landing, skidding across the hangar and doing a great deal of damage to my expensive craft.
Once it stopped, I immediately unclipped myself from my seat and stepped forward as the doors of the craft opened, and twenty Mandalorian warriors rushed into the Maelstrom, blasters alight.
"Shall we join them?" I asked Ursa and the pilot.
"Let's kill them all." Ursa said with deadly resolve.
Kro'eval System, "Maelstrom" Maelstrom-class Battle-Cruiser
Pre Vizsla
It was total pandemonium. Several of the Gauntlet fighters had crashed into refueling or rearming starfighters in the expansive hangar, while most managed to land without issue after stopping over an empty part of the hangar. I'll have to have those pilots that crashed undergo remedial training after this so they would not repeat it in future operations. Each of them were the veterans of dozens of battles and should not suffer such failures when those fighters are very expensive to replace, even with MandalMotors' discount. Scattered equipment and fires littered the hangar with dead crewmen scattered around in ungainly heaps.
Mandalorians quickly departed from their Gauntlet Fighter-Transports, each one containing roughly twenty souls. Like the Dauntless fighters of a forgotten age, they cast out over the deck, bringing carefully controlled death to the few terrified Republic survivors.
There's little time to form up and organize our operation, but that is hardly a problem. These are the greatest Mandalorian warriors in all of Death Watch, the most dedicated, talented, and experienced. Officers have already divied up assignments without a care for personal glory. Two hundred are directed towards the bridge, a hundred are directed to the engine room, and the rest are given various other tasks that were no less critical for the success of this impromptu operation. This is not our first boarding operation, but it is the first time we have done it to a ship this size.
Wounded are to remain in the hangar and keep it secured as well as see to the Mandalorians who had died on our entry. I did not take command of the operation as I have full confidence in the competence of my officers to do their jobs well. Instead, Ursa would oversee the operation while I would join the warriors destined for the bridge. It's the duty of the leader to fight from the front, after all.
All of this happened in moments, as the scared and confused screams of Republic deck hands still called out. Objectives are projected in the disparate and complicated software of ancient armor systems. I felt a hiss as my own armor considered the atmosphere unsuitable and sealed itself against the smoke and toxins. A moment later, my targeting systems identified a squad of Republic Clones entering the hangar at the far side, and I feel the sudden rush as a light battle adrenal is injected into my system.
I and hundreds of others thundered across the hangar. Several activated their jetpacks both to have clear lines of sight on their targets and to present a wall of mayhem to the scant Republic forces that the ship had left. Blaster fire filled the air before us as blue bolts, carefully calibrated to deal as much damage to droids as possible, were shrugged off by Mandalorian beskar. With overwhelming return fire, the squad was riddled with hundreds of deadly yellow bolts, and they crumpled without much fuss. Not long after, Mandalorian forces entered the ship proper.
Like a flood of death, we moved through the ship, gunning down anyone we found. Bulkheads and auxiliary ship systems were desperately fought over as our talented slicers fought against the Republic's own electronic warfare officers in an invisible war. Without Clone defenders, isolated crewmen ill-equipped and ill-suited for battle tried desperately to halt our advance. I stopped counting my kills after the first fifty, but a warship of this class must have required a crew in the thousands. The legendary efficiency of Mandalorian blasters are tested by the sheer amount of targets we had to contend with.
I was treated to the odd novelty of having to reload my own blaster rifle with a new Tibanna gas canister while in the throes of battle, something that I had never before needed to do in the field in all of my years of combat. This, I thought, must have been what the ancient Neo-Crusaders had to contend with. Innumerable enemies utterly unsuited to war.
It felt like a single breath, yet according to my mission clock, I had battled across the Maelstrom for more than an hour. There's a lull to the fighting, and it took me a moment to realize that the bulkhead before us is more secure than the rest. We are adjacent to the bridge itself.
"The circuit for this bulkhead is isolated from the rest of the network." a Mandalorian called out while tapping away at his vambrace, which was jacked into a data cable in the wall. "We need a det-charge or something. Can't slice this."
"Stand aside." I called out. Several helmets turned in my direction before moving out of my way. I reached for my hip and produced a handle, weighty despite its small size. I held it out, and a moment later, the Darksaber ignited. The blade seemed to pull light towards it, resulting in a fine pale glow surrounding the deepest, blackest darkness.
Without any ceremony, I plunged the blade into the bulkhead, steadying my grip with both hands. The blade passed through reinforced durasteel like a hot knife through bantha butter. Despite that, the magnetic containment sent shockwaves through my arm as the lightsaber contended with the sheer amount of molten material flowing over the force field.
I pushed, watching as the bulkhead began to glow cherry red around the blade as I slowly cut through the barrier to the Maelstrom bridge. Pools of melted durasteel pooled at the ground at my feet as I could feel the terrible heat through my armor.
It was hard work, but eventually, I had cut a rough rectangle large enough for two Mandalorians to move through at a time. I placed a thermal detonator to the bulkhead before darting to the side, ignoring how my muscles screamed in protest, and looked at the Mandalorian on the other side of the bulkhead. Everyone else is in position to the side, ready to breach. Using my left hand to count down, I wait until my last finger falls before triggering the detonator. As the shock wave washes over me, I feel a sense of satisfaction as the rectangle is blasted inwards, likely injuring any defenders that stood too close to the bulkhead.
Without waiting for the smoke to clear, the Mandalorian across from me threw flash grenades through the hole before charging into the breach as blaster fire rang out. I felt a rush of strength as my armor provided me with another adrenal for the final stretch, and darted through the hole with my fellow Mandalorians.
The bridge is expansive. We had entered a command room that opened out into a two-level room with dozens of command consoles, all overlooked by a fleet command throne. Tall, reinforced plasteel glass windows gave an incredible view of any battle the Maelstrom would contend with.
Bridge crew were situated behind consoles and chairs, firing blindly as the flash grenade did its job, turning them into targets as we pushed into the bridge. In the middle of the room, coordinating the defense, stood the indomitable form of a Jetii. His violet blade shifted about him in a dizzying pattern, turning away dozens of deadly yellow bolts. His shins, arms, and midsection are protected by white plastoid armor that blackened as blaster fire played over the armored plates, denoting a high concentration of chromium rather than the pristine Beskar plates of my own armor.
Over the form-fitting bodysuit and armor plates, he wears a brown robe that did not seem to restrict the Jetii's movement in the slightest. I watched as the man darted to the side to deflect a yellow bolt that found itself striking the neck of a Mandalorian at my side. She let out a confused gurgle before crumpling in place.
Without thinking, with the rage of a thousand generations, I rushed forward with my Darksaber ignited. As if acknowledging my challenge, the dark-haired Jetii advanced upon me with measured steps. Blaster fire seemed to part around us as we both approached.
"Mandalorian!" he roared, menace dripping from the Republic Sorcerer. "Your treachery is revealed. The galaxy will know that your neutrality is a lie!"
"So lost you defeat yourself and think it treachery! You are judged, murderer." I said, feeling the words more than thinking them, as if the Manda itself was speaking through me. "You die here, Jetii!" In an instant, we were locked in mortal combat. Our lightsabers clashed, the blades seemingly playing across each other with glee and parting with heavy resistance.
The battle around us is forgotten, the screams and sounds of blaster fire dimming from my mind as we took measure of each other. He probed my defenses before dashing forward to strike again and again with incredible speed and brutality. Each blow he exacted, I met with my own with incredible effort. As much as it galls me, I am forced to give ground to the Jedi's aggressive advance.
I felt a wave of clarity, the inexorable call of a battle trance, fall over me as I changed tactics and released my left hand from my Darksaber. With one hand, I now have the speed to parry his blows rather than to meet it head on, which managed to check his advance. Our blades called to each other, and in an instant, we both struck. The deadly plasma joined together, containment fields attracting and rejecting the other in equal measure, as he attacked and I deflected. In a contest of strength and determination, I will lose. The only option I have is to use his strength against him, make him overcommit to an attack, and strike while he is recovering.
The opportunity presented itself when he delivered a diagonal overhead swing. I quickly sidestepped to the left and pushed the saber as far away as I could as I used my free left hand to grab hold of his arm to lock it in place. Now that his saber is out of the way, I pressed forward and struck, smashing my helmet against his face before following up with kneeing his groin. I managed to land a second knee before I saw that he had freed his left hand before sending an open palm in my direction as he let out a roar of fury. His eyes glowed with power as bubbling blood ran down his lips and chin, granting him a crazed appearance. It is the last thing I see before he unleashed his magic, and I was thrown head over heels by impossible forces and crashed over a bridge console before landing on my back.
There was not a moment for me to gather my wits from the attack as the Jetii jumped above me, intending to plunge his lightsaber down upon me. I deactivated my Darksaber as I rolled to the side and dodged the stab, but the follow-up rising cut managed to strike my chest plate. Before he could send another attack, I extended my right arm and from my wrist came a jet of jellied flame that coated his form and elicited a scream of rage and pain. Using the distraction, I got back on my feet and used my free hand to grab a flash grenade from my belt. Just as I was about to throw it, an unseen force pushed me back into another console at the front of the bridge. Despite his flesh melting from the burning jelly, the Jedi rushed upon me still, faster and stronger than ever before.
I dropped the grenade near my feet and reignited the Darksaber. Our blades clashed as I did my best to hold the burning Jetii in place. My muscles scream in agony as the Jetii's blade inches closer and closer to my face that if it wasn't for the polarization of my helmet I would have to close my eyes which would be a death sentence in melee combat. Eventually, the flash grenade went off underneath us, causing him to flinch and shout in surprise. This momentary distraction allowed me to sidestep to the side and with a twist of the Darksaber, I cut off his arms before stabbing him in his stomach.
The power that had once filled the man seemed to dissipate. The dark magic that sustained him, perhaps an aspect of Arasuum himself, abandoning a broken toy. With the last of my strength, I twisted the Darksaber and bisected him.
The bridge is quiet. I glanced about to find the battle for the bridge is truly over, with Mandalorians watching me all around. A strange compulsion came over me, and I looked at the fallen Jetii, my body at its limit as I took deep breaths.
He is badly burned, horrific wounds covering his body as I turned him onto his back, but still, his eyes turned to me. As I crouched beside the dying sorcerer. Even bisected, the cauterized wounds keep him alive enough for him to answer my question.
"Why?" I asked, looking at a tired man at the end of his life.
"I... I had to, you don't... I saved billions, hundreds of billions."
"You murdered a planet." I countered.
"You don't understand, I saw... the superweapon, the Shadowblade. It had to be destroyed, no matter the cost. I saved them all..."
"I expected more from you, Darjetii. Instead of deeming every life precious you murdered millions because you deem it easier than the alternative. Your hubris caused the death of a planet. Die knowing that I am the consequence of your actions." With that said I drew my pistol and executed him with a shot to his head. His body stilled afterwards as this Demagolka passed to the afterlife, likely to be judged by others of his kind.
Kro'eval System, "Maelstrom" Maelstrom-class Battle-Cruiser
Pre Vizsla
Seated in the command throne of the Maelstrom, I could barely find the strength to tap at the controls to gather a clear picture of the current situation. The ship is ours, even if my Death Watch are still hunting down survivors throughout the colossal Battle Cruiser. We already have access to the life support system and have voided the entire vessel, which is not an issue for us as we all have void rated armor. This should wipe out any survivors that have not managed to get void gear, which would help make clearing the vessel easier.
The ship had taken damage during the battle and boarding operation but remained fully operational. However, it's unclear how long that would last. I briefly considered remaining in the system to attempt to evacuate any survivors from the planet, but considering the entire thing resembled a single hellish firestorm with deadly gravity eddies in the orbital band, I highly doubt there is anyone alive down there. The crippled CIS frigates that got caught in the blast are slowly being pulled by gravitational anomalies into the planet and are now re-entering the atmosphere, so they are a lost cause. A shame, having an extra frigate or two would be a useful trump card. Thus with nothing of value left in the system, I navigated the ship to a safe jump point, spooled up the Maelstrom's hyperdrive and set a course to a hidden outpost in an uninhabited Mandalorian system.
Keeping a ship this large hidden is a tall order, not only because of the physical requirements. There are trillions of asteroids in uninhabited Mandalorian systems that could house such a craft indefinitely. No, what would be difficult would be maintaining and crewing such a craft without the major factions finding it. The Maelstrom would require thousands of crewmen to operate, and while Death Watch had the capacity to accommodate the craft, the loyalties of such a crew would never be absolute.
The Battle-Cruiser is perhaps the most impressive scalp in the galaxy, but it's a scalp that could not be ignored. I would need to consider if keeping the ship is worth it in the long run. Even if Death Watch could not make use of it, perhaps Mandalore would require such a vessel in the future. There was much to consider.
At the very least, Count Dooku would stop leaning on me to attack the Republic now. We had played our part with interest; now that I thought about it, yes, a victory like this is grounds to demand more from that little arrangement. The CIS owed Death Watch for taking out an asset as powerful as the Maelstrom from the Republic's arsenal, and I would see to it that every drop of split Mandalorian blood would be compensated.
Unfortunately, with the footage being collected, my rebranding project had become a confounded mess. With our iconography clearly visible and my open proclamation of our duty as Death Watch, there is little appetite for any change at this point. There had been a malaise over my organization, one that was felt even in this group of loyalists and elites. A listlessness that had grown along with the influence of White Silver in Mandalorian space.
This operation, the capture of this warship, and the execution of a Jedi and his forces, had reinvigorated us. Rather than abandoning the name Death Watch, I would reform its spirit. A group dedicated to purging the galaxy of evil above all else, one that would not bring violence upon our fellow Mandalorian, but turn its gaze outwards to the many enemies of the Mandalorian people.
Who else had the power, the strength of character to slay evil Jedi and Sith but us? The rest of the galaxy is too weak and hapless. They needed Mandalore, they needed Death Watch.
"Just spaced the last of the dead." Ursa called out as she entered the bridge, stepping through the destroyed bulkhead. Apparently, my trick with the Darksaber had fused some internal mechanism, and the entire thing is stuck permanently until we could cut it apart and replace it entirely.
"Good, just the stragglers now." The ship's internal sensors were incredibly limited, and some of the surviving Republic Crew had started to damage the security systems while hiding in the miles upon miles of crawl spaces across the Maelstrom. It's likely that a few clones have managed to get some spare armor before the ship is voided.
"I am taking leave after this Op." Ursa said softly, looking at the technically minded Death Watch experts trying to repair the Bridge with, as far as I understood, very limited success.
"Reason?" I said, without the energy for much more. She looked at my slouched form before reaching a hand to her belly. I raised my eyebrow in surprise, not that she could see it under my helmet. "When did you find out?" I asked.
"A few hours ago. Waste cycle detected it."
"Ah, granted. I am going to be restricting active operations in the coming months anyway." She nodded and turned away from me. "Congratulations." I said, suddenly feeling awkward. Clan Wren is a close ally, even if they are more spirited and independent than most. With the heir of the clan growing within Ursa, now was the time to curry favor with them.
A hunting party had found the Jetti's quarters and had identified some interesting artifacts that are now mine by right of conquest. It's some good fortune that the Jetti I had slayed was a collector of sorts.
"Thank you." came the curt reply, before Ursa moved over to the sub command throne and began to pull out damaged and melted circuits.
I believe the Songsteel sword, recovered from the Jetti's possessions, engraved with the Wren clan motto and icon would be an excellent gift to the child on the day of their birth. I knew little of working metal, let alone Songsteel, but I'm sure the Vizsla Clan armorers would likely enjoy the challenge. A fine and rare artifact for the heir to carry, I am curious however why the Jetti had owned a legendary Jetti killing weapon. I would likely find more information by digging through his possessions, with reduced Death Watch activity I should have the time to do that in between my work as Concordia's governor and spending time with Paz.
As Ursa and the rest of Death Watch worked to secure the ship, I felt the adrenals I had used fade and sap my strength. As my heart rate calmed down, my mind gradually slows to the point that sleep overtook me.
Coruscant, Chancellor's Retreat
Darth Sidious
In a dark chamber lit only by a pair of blood-red sconces, I listened impatiently for news that I could already sense.
"The world is uninhabitable, my lord. The loss of the hyper-point destabilizer and its delivery vehicle has caused a thermal shift in the planet's atmosphere, and the tectonic instabilities have been... severe. Such forces might yet tear Kromus apart. We are continuing to monitor the world as you instructed, but it is increasingly dangerous to remain in orbit." A holoprojector with a spinning icon of the ancient Sith reported what I already felt through the Force.
"The Jedi?" I asked, knowing full well the answer.
"The Mandalorians slew him during the attack on the Maelstrom. We have absolute confirmation of that, my lord. They killed the crew too, ejected thousands of them into space via the airlocks after they took control of the ship." It was frustrating to say the least, that a Jedi I had spent so much time and effort carefully grooming to become a potential apprentice is killed by uninvited guests.
It took quite a bit of effort to present a situation wherein a Jedi would be willing and able to slay over a billion people, after all. What a waste of effort.
"Yes, yes... Remain until the last possible second, and then proceed to Count Dooku with your findings. The data might yet prove useful for other projects."
"Yes, my lord. We live to serve."
That elicited a wry chuckle as I terminated the transmission. "Of course, you do. For a while longer, at least."
The situation is so fairly aggravating. To think that Death Watch now possessed such a powerful Battle-Cruiser. Parties such as Death Watch were not fit to control such assets. It made the game far too unpredictable. Perhaps I had been too lenient on the Mandalorians and their CNS ploy. Collective actions against a bloc of troublesome systems requires them to be weak enough for my new Empire to dictate terms to the collective bloc. Now, the Mandalorians have revealed that their bark has some bite. This is something I could not allow to continue, even if I did enjoy the company of a particularly cunning representative.
Effort would have to be made to recover or destroy the ship. The Jedi themselves are, of course, an obvious candidate. This was, after all, a Mandalorian attack against a Republic asset and the killing of a Jedi Master. The Order could not ignore a Mandalorian killing Darrus Jeht. They would send Jedi to Mandalore to demand answers.
I should add some redundancy to my plans to curtail Death Watch. I carefully sifted through the data sent to me and slipped out of my slippers for more substantial shoes. A lovely young friend should visit our favorite coffee house soon, and I think she would be rather interested in an exclusive tip about the current situation.
For the good of Mandalore, of course.
I allowed myself a warm chuckle as I marched out of the dark room.
Editor's note: Believe it or not, this was once chapter 46
Writers note: Woo chapter out and now the fun begins. This is going to have major effects on things, trust me. Now some you are going "What the *Beep* just happened?" Well the short answer is, butterfly effect running into lore. Pre does not trust the Reds and has been operating in the area between Red and Republic to make sure they don't gain influence. He is also picking up new recruits here and there. This area of space has a whole event in Legends where a Jedi accidentally blew up a planet right next to Mando space. We already know that Death Watch are more than willing to board and attack Republic vessels for good reason and well, this was a good reason. To make it simple, the battle of the story accidentally put Pre in a position that, when I was doing research, allowed them to play vengeance and shake things up greatly.
Edited by: Pedersen, aemon, fallqm, Guardsman Pius, Orlov, Warmach1ne32, Afforess
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717 FNM (21 BBY)
Month 3
Coruscant, Senate Building
Tanya Kryze
Long days of thankless work are the best kind of long days. Especially when I accomplish something that I consider to be major and important for the survival of my career, people, job, but most importantly, my career.
Today is the official announcement of the Council of Neutral Systems. I worked for the last two months to get this darn thing done, but it's finally finished. As a result, I need to deliver this directly to Palpatine himself. It shouldn't be that hard; he's been in favor of the CNS for some time. I had already sent a draft of the proposal to his office and given him a few days to have his subordinates go over the matter. He would no doubt have a list of changes and demands to make after I had made the 'official' presentation of the document to him. The CNS has already agreed on a number of elements that the organization is willing to compromise on ahead of time, so with some luck I would be able to get the CNS signed into law without needing to reconvene a meeting with the rest of the member systems.
The frustrating thing about all this is that it had taken the war breaking out on Garos IV to finally get this whole thing settled. You would think when Ryloth was invaded, that would have put a fire under people's feet to get the job done as soon as possible. But Ryloth is in the Outer Rim and barely connected to the Republic. It's so far out there that if someone asked where it was, some people would mistakenly point in the wrong direction, hell, a few of them might even point to Mandalore.
Startlingly few people had a good grasp of galactic geography, the mechanics of hyperlane travel or the concept of shadow mass. Such people simply lurched though life, content that if they did not know something it was clearly not all that important. The sort of lackadaisical mentality that, when allowed to fester, brought down empires.
Garos IV was almost in the same boat, except it's a rather populous world that has a large academy that helped produce some of the best scientists in the Outer Rim while being a very loyal world to the Republic. So loyal, in fact, that many of the worlds that are part of the now Council of Neutral Systems had signed on to the Refugee Relief Movement. This agreement would see that any planet that was invaded by Separatists could have their population take up refugee status on Garos IV.
This agreement had been signed before the invasion had even broken out, but since it hasn't been put into effect, it might as well not matter. Technically, the leader of Garos IV had been fairly on the ball by quickly realizing the situation and trying to set themselves up as a neutral world that could be left alone.
Mandalore had signed onto the agreement within the first week. I had overseen the signing, in fact, a rather unimportant event in my mind as it was just another step towards the Council of Neutral Systems. One of many thousands of meetings, signings and other-such groundwork for the CNS. Now, it is a little bit more important.
The same agreement that designated Garos IV as a safe haven and destination for refugees also stipulated that the other signatory members would become refugee havens of last resort. Now that Garos IV was occupied, this clause was suddenly put into effect; this technically bound Mandalore to take in refugees in Garos IV's place. While we'll do the best we could, we're always strapped for the ability to do so. Mandalore had enough trouble taking care of itself and was kind of depending on Garos IV for housing incoming refugees. Before, we may have been able to supply a little bit of extra food here or there when we have the chance. But now, that is out of the question.
It was hardly a problem finding the space to put refugees, Mandalorian space is flush with barely settled habitable planets. The problem is that there is barely any infrastructure to support them. Things like clean water, medical supplies, food, generators, transport, and shelter all cost money to establish and maintain. Mandalorian space is perfect for hardy settlers or wealthy refugees who could afford to buy equipment to support themselves in a safe region. But not for the people who had fled war with nothing but the clothes on their backs. That's not even to mention the fact that wealthy or capable refugees would flee to Mandalore simply as a stopover before moving onto a more wealthy system to rebuild their lives.
As confusing as it was, Mandalore was still developing. Mandalore was the largest poor polity in the known galaxy. A stark reminder that an abundance of territory and resources did not translate to wealth when one had a dysfunctional culture. But it was getting better. It is very likely that refugee villages, like those found in war torn Africa in my first life, will have to be made to house as many of the refugees that we could.
The Separatist occupation of Garos IV had spurred the rest of the potential Council of Neutral Systems to finally get their act together and sign the Mutual Defense Act. This would technically allow local defense forces to work together in the possibility that they are invaded by the CIS. In reality, it was more complex than that and would likely take several years for any sort of unified defensive capabilities to manifest, but on paper, the CNS now had a sizable collective armed forces and that's what mattered.
The CIS is currently the main threat to our sovereignty out there. Though I had pushed for the wording to be "any and all threats" simply because who knows what could happen. The Hutts could take advantage of this opportunity to try and expand their domain, picking off worlds that were on their border and part of the CNS.
Garos IV is also technically part of the Mandalore sector. Well, to be more exact, it was part of the overarching sectors that had cultural ties to the Mandalore sector. That sometimes gets sort of shoved into the Mandalore sector for representation. Garos IV had its own representation, of course, but now it really didn't matter what it had. It's now occupied by the CIS, and the Republic is probably thinking of trying to free it and ensure its neutrality is completely destroyed.
The only good outcome about the loss of Garos IV is that it accelerated the formation of the CNS for Mandalore. For me specifically, there is actually another side benefit. The CNS has immediately started to put money together to start purchasing armor and equipment. And well, Mandalore had quite the developed armor, ship, and blaster production lines ready to start cranking out orders. Mandalore's military industrial complexes are better than most and definitely have enough designs, expertise, and equipment to accommodate the CNS.
I imagine that the CNS will soon issue better equipment than what they have right now, rather quickly. Hopefully enough to just defend themselves and keep the CIS and any other faction from thinking about invading them. But if it did come down to an actual fight, well, weapon commonality for spare parts, armor maintenance and repair, ship construction, and that sort of thing, could be of large benefit in the long term.
Not to mention, once they have those designs, well, they would need someone to maintain those designs. I'm sure there are some who would come up with ways to do it themselves, but a repeat customer is a good customer. And I would imagine that there'd be some repeat customers throughout the war, if not all the way out of the war.
X4 is designed to handle that sort of thing, so I leave that to him. Although I am paying aldo some attention to goings-on at Mandal Hypernautics.
There are already attempts to try and replicate the technology recovered from the war droid's memory, though I am a bit concerned about what it could bring. My research into this particular situation had me a bit worried, since technically the Basilisk is a war droid. And Mandalore is not allowed to make any battle droids, the Mandalorian detractors that Sheev told me about would use that fact as ammunition against us.
However, this particular design of "war droid" is piloted, and once a war droid had the ability to basically be a mech, the situation got a little bit fuzzier and in a gray area. Frankly, it seems to me if we mark the Basilisk as a fighter or some sort of land assault craft, it's no longer under the auspices of a war droid.
And if it no longer fell under the auspices of a war droid, then could it be sold on the open market? I had resisted the urge to suggest the name 'Gundam' to X4. Barely.
That is a question that bugged me because there is a potentially large market out there that would be interested in such a vehicle, especially with a war going on. A craft that could fight by your side when you jump out of it, or at least had a bit of intelligence that could sense things before you do and react.
It's a potential money maker. The question is, should I openly sell it or only have it available to members of the CNS? That is a harder question. If it is put out on the open market, much more money could be made. But it would easily be bought by the other side and be reverse engineered to find ways to screw with it.
For now, I had simply let Mandal Hypernautics figure out how to efficiently reproduce a couple of them. Once we know it's possible to mass produce them, maybe I would look deeper into the possibility of selling them to the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force. I'm sure they would sell like panna cakes, at least in the sector, just based on the cultural significance of the Basilisk War Droid alone.
There's also the possibility that this might also affect the light tanks that are currently in production. The Predator family of tanks that Mandal Hypernautics is currently selling had been based on the Canderous Heavy Assault Tank but split into three more specialized vehicles. Currently, those vehicles are being sold to the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force on several planets and will be sold to CNS worlds soon enough. But there is research to see if implementing a Basilisk Droid brain into some of those tanks might be a worthwhile investment. After all, if all it took to prevent something from being considered a Droid is having a human operator, having the benefits of a Droid's speed and calculation capacity in a combat vehicle could potentially do a lot of damage.
Even if we go through with putting Basilisk brains in our tanks, X4 and I had some concerns about the Basilisk's persona cores themselves though. They are based on an entirely different branch of droid design, one that had been long abandoned, learning algorithms. A newly created Basilisk war droid mind, while more than able to do battle from the moment of 'birth', is genuinely closer to that of an animal than a person. It requires time and experience for them to become as capable and clever as Big Bear, and it's not a consistent thing either. Some would learn quickly and others very slowly. It's not surprising why the technology had been abandoned for the more predictable, fully pre-programmed droids commonly used in the galaxy today.
A newborn Basilisk mind inside a tank would be more than capable of using its newfound body to do a great deal of damage, understand friend from foe, and follow orders from riders it trusted or imprinted upon that it could understand. But it would struggle to communicate with its limited awareness of itself and the world around it.
I could think of few things as risky to deal with on the battlefield than a thinking tank with the mind of a dog trying to impress its master. It is, however, very Mandalorian.
Something I am not yet convinced is a good idea to implement is the Senate continuing to give more emergency powers to the Chancellor. But if the Senate decided to remove its checks and balances again, there isn't much I could do since I'm only a Representative. I am referring to the Reflex Amendment, the most recent legislation passed by the Senate. It amended the Republic's constitution to give the Chancellor direct control of the military, amongst other emergency powers. Meaning he could decide where and when the GAR fought, well, he and the Jedi, of course. The Senate would just vote on how to fund it, which I guess is good enough, though the power of the purse didn't seem to stop the creation of a Clone Army, now did it?
There was still a bit of a mystery about that. Who had funded it in the first place? I had tried to look into it once or twice, but the most I'd come up with is that it had been loans from the Banking Clans. Past that, well, the Banking Clans kept all that stuff secret. I'm sure the Jedi would come up with something sooner or later. Unless, of course, they were the ones responsible for the creation of the Clone army. Currently, they stated that a former Jedi Master who had died ten years ago had funded it. It's awfully convenient that Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas died over a decade ago as soon as he ordered the production of the Clone army.
If a Jedi paid someone money before immediately dying, I have to question if there wasn't something suspicious going on there. I had to assume that the Jedi thought the same. Hopefully, they will find something.
My thoughts were brought back into the present as the elevator finally came to a stop at Palpatine's office. The Senatorial Guards are standing on either side of the doorway as I walk in. I glanced into the closed atrium and main office, and the secretary waiting out front recognized me and welcomed me into her office to wait. "The Chancellor will see you for your appointment soon. He's finishing up a meeting with the representatives of COMPOR."
That raised an eyebrow, as I had heard of COMPOR once or twice. It's the Commission for the Protection of the Republic, an organization formed rather recently that seemed more like a lobbyist group than anything else. But they were trying to get the public to support the Republic through wartime propaganda to rally the populace against the CIS.
It seemed very '50s-esque, like the US's Red Scare propaganda program. If that is all they are, that might not be a problem, but they have money and backing behind them which gives their voices weight. I had to acknowledge that there's a good chance that the reason that the Reflex Amendment passed is because of their message. Primarily, that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine should be given as much executive power as possible for the Republic to win the war without bureaucracy to slow it down.
I did not know that they are in contact with Palpatine, but there must be some connection between them, which is a bit concerning. Getting power because the Senate voted for it is one thing, but getting power because he has an organization to convince senators to give you that power is another.
I nodded before taking a seat in one of the empty chairs outside the Chancellor's office. While I waited, I opened the datapad in my hands for some last minute memorization. Even if it is going to be dismissed and be revised further, I can't be making a mistake in front of the head of a galactic government.
After waiting for a moment, the doors opened and the secretary said, "You may go in now."
Nodding my head, I entered the office, seeing Palpatine behind his desk and one or two other officials in what looked like pseudo-military uniforms sitting around the room. It appeared they had been having some sort of conversation but were now over.
"Ah, young Representative Kryze, we were just talking about your exploits." Palpatine said with a cheery voice as he waved me in. I suppressed a frown, X4 was supposed to keep the war droid developments secret so I doubt he is talking about that. "I was just talking with these fine gentlemen about your role during the Geonosis event." I nodded in relief at my misunderstanding.
"It wasn't that big of an exploit, Chancellor. I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Some would argue you were in the right place at the right time." Palpatine spoke up, drawing my eyes to a young man in the military uniform with tan skin.
"Those people never experienced the feeling of having your ship shot out from underneath you and crash landing."
The man nodded before saying, "Understandable that you would have that opinion, but I must say, having a figure like you there on the day does wonders for morale. The story of a young Representative from Mandalore fighting back against the dastardly Confederacy for the Republic is quite well-known amongst our organization. Your story is an excellent example to talk about what we want to fight for: a Republic that serves its own interest and does not subordinate itself to the monied interests of corporations nor the more insidious populations in the Outer Rim."
"Insidious populations?" I mused, the tone he took with that statement was somewhat concerning. Since Mandalorians are one of those often maligned Outer Rim cultures.
"The Geonosian people for example, are biologically predisposed to act against the interests of the good people of the Republic. There is no real way that individualistic minded people like us can live with a hive species." The man explained calmly, as I was careful to maintain a neutral expression. The various species in the Republic are vast and disparate and the sentiments expressed by this man would exclude quite a substantial amount of them.
"I understand that the CIS has a large number of different species supporting them, I think it would be unwise to conclude that they can be so easily categorized and dismissed. The Geonosians for example are individually talented and independently cognizant, even if they do choose to live in hive systems." I pointed out, I was starting to get an uncomfortable feeling about this man.
"Such empathetic and tolerant sentiments like that is something many species within the CIS would not return, I'm afraid. We cannot allow our kindness and morality to be used against us." He blinked and smiled. "Oh, where are my manners?" The man stood up and bowed, "I am Ishin-Il-Raz, Chief Spokesperson of the Preservation of the Republic. You know, if you ever feel like coming to one of our rallies, we would really enjoy hearing your take on what happened there on Geonosis. I'm sure many people are interested in the story, as we only get second-hand or third-hand accounts. Most of them seem rather fanciful, such as a story that you had stunned the leader of the Trade Federation."
He chuckled at that before continuing, "Not to mention, a large contingent of our people are somewhat enamored with the technology coming out of the Mandalore sector. The vambrace system is quite useful. It allows our people to stay in communication and organize things quite better than some of the more modern systems we could have acquired from local tech companies."
I smiled and even did a curtsy. "Nice to meet you, Ishin-Il-Raz. I don't know if I could go to one of your rallies anytime soon. I have a fairly packed schedule for the foreseeable future, but I'll keep that in mind. It is good to hear that our technology is finding customers here on Coruscant." I would have to play it safe around this character and their staff, just in case they tried to use anything I say to try and support their movement. "While it's quite enjoyable speaking with you, Ishin-Il-Raz. I'm here to speak with Chancellor Palpatine for an important announcement." I shifted closer to the Chancellor's desk for emphasis. Palpatine nodded to Ishin who stood and offered a polite bow himself before he and the other gentleman departed from the office.
When Ishin had left I put the datapad in front of the Chancellor and slipped into a rehearsed script, "I, Tanya Kryze of Mandalore, hereby present the official announcement of the Council of Neutral systems to the rightful chancellor of the Galactic Republic."
"Bravo, my dear." Palpatine said as he clapped at the necessary pomp and ceremony before he took up the datapad, looking at it with undisguised interest. "How unfortunate that such a Council has to be formed. Hopefully, this will mark the first step on the long and arduous road to peace and security for the galaxy." Palpatine said soberly before checking though the datapad. "You assent that this is document NS-A7 without edits and revisions?"
"Of course. I, Tanya Kryze, assent that this is document NS-A7 without edits or revisions." I said following the standard script these sorts of signings required. Then I smiled and said, "That is the hope. At the very least, it should put a halt to any further invasions into CNS space, since that may force the CNS to take a side. With this many systems, it's not a line I think the CIS wants to push."
"Or the Republic." Palpatine said with a small smile and a nod before taking out a pen and quickly signing at the end of the datapad before handing it back. "I'll have the official recognition of the Council put out to the rest of the senators tonight, but this will do for your end." I blinked as Palpatine went entirely off script.
"You have no revisions for our declaration?" I asked slowly, confused.
"Everything appears to be in order so I don't think a revision is necessary." Palpatine said softly, leaning back with a calm, warm smile. "I think the proposal suits all of our interests perfectly as it is."
"Thank you, Chancellor." I said quickly as I took the datapad and started to move back towards the door. I had never anticipated the CNS getting absolutely everything it had demanded. I glanced back at Sheev, the man who had unexpectedly become the greatest ally to the CNS movement in a single stroke of the pen. I truly had no idea that his anti-war predilections are so strong. I could only hope that the rest of the Republic could see that the CNS is acting in the best interests of not only ourselves, but the entire Republic. Sheev, for his part, seems almost... amused?
I cast aside that thought and stepped out of the grand office of the Chancellor and made way to my own office to make the declaration of the CNS public.
Kro'eval System, Kom'rk-class Starfighter
Pre Vizsla
I reclined in the now-familiar commander's seat of the cramped Gauntlet starfighter cockpit, allowing myself a moment to relax after the flurry of activity of the last few weeks. Our squadron had been operating in the outskirts of Mandalorian space, within the contested region between the Republic and the CIS.
The Kom'rk-class "Gauntlet" that made up the bulk of Death Watch's void capabilities had been supplied by MandalMotors. Even if they invested less into Death Watch ever since Satine had seen reason, they had still honored my request for assets at a reduced cost. Taking ships from MSDF stockyards, even the ones we administered directly, is practically impossible with how tight a leash the MSDF kept on any and all equipment. Thankfully, MandalMotors's shipyards are far more receptive.
After we launched the latest batch of starfighters from their yard, we navigated them away from Mandalorian space, beyond the reach of the Republic. Out here, what is Mandalorian and what isn't became blurred. Ancient grudges, battlefields, and installations are rampant, and there are always small clans or materials to recover for Death Watch. Even if the majority of the space is occupied by non-Mandalorians.
Still, there are plenty of opportunities out here now that the war has gone into motion. Our focus had been on Garos IV. While there were barely any Mandalorians on that world, there are plenty of people who are displaced by war, with homes and lives destroyed by foreign invaders of no fault of their own. It was a simple matter of gathering the angry and dispossessed, and reforming them into a formation that is useful for Death Watch. They might never become actual Mandalorians, but they would serve Mandalore with glee after what they had suffered.
However our true prize is the war orphans. Children who had seen everything they knew destroyed. It's easy to simply pluck the confused foundlings from shanty camps and spirit them away to Death Watch aligned clans and encampments, where they would be safe and trained to become Mandalorians.
Of course, our operations within Separatist-occupied worlds had necessitated raids on CIS occupational forces and infrastructure now and then. It is for a good cause. We are merely taking care of people that the CIS could not support or care for. Medical and food supplies in occupied regions are scarce, and hundreds of children had died before we could get to them. It was undeniably risky, considering that the CIS are the ones supplying Death Watch with tanks and speeders, but considering that the shipments continued, I could only presume that my small indiscretions are tolerated by the Separatist command.
It's likely that Dooku and Merrik are keeping the CIS from making more of a fuss about my operations, but the pair of them have become rather insistent that I use my assets to engage in the planned operations of either attacking the Republic or launching an uprising in Mandalorian space. I had assured them that the attacks would happen soon...ish.
For the past week, I had scattered my fighter core across several systems, tracking the movement of a Republic Cruiser that had skipped in and out of the Mandalorian neutral zone without any regard for Satine's edict. The MSDF had logged the intrusions, but since the Cruiser was only passing through, there was no option to waylay the craft as it exited into contested space.
Death Watch officers within the MSDF had transmitted details of the ship and its heading to me. Our careful chase had led us to the little-known Kro'eval system. One of the worlds in the system had been earmarked by Dooku as off-limits to any of my raiders. I entered realspace close to a debris field that had been captured by the fifth planet from the star. It's a dry and cold world but is nevertheless covered in thick green bands of endless forests. Despite the habitable biosphere the world hosted, it only has a scant few logging settlements and little else.
My attention is instead focused on the orbit of the fourth planet of the system. I confessed to having little knowledge of the world, except that it hosted a few thousand Mandalorians and roughly a billion near-humans who were happy to trade with Mandalore for the most part. They are rather inoffensive people as far as I was concerned.
The world had been invaded by the CIS months ago a small defense fleet had been stationed here spitting fire at the Republic Cruiser we had been shadowing. This far out, my ship might as well be invisible. I sent out a sensor ping that would look unimportant to most eyes and waited for my forces to gather in this system.
Kro'eval System, Kom'rk-class Starfighter
Pre Vizsla
The battle is very protracted. Both the Republic Cruiser and the four CIS frigates were firing at each other from a great distance, while wings of fighters fought for space between the forces.
"Eight hundred on the Jetiise." came the amused tone of my pilot. I glanced at her, along with Ursa Wren as she is my second in this operation.
"Why? The code on that Pubbie ship says Command, yet the idiots don't have any support." Ursa waved a hand dismissively. "I will spot you. Eight on the Banker fleet."
"It's a Battle-Cruiser," the pilot explained. "Pride of the Rep fleet, they poured a ton of credits into the monster. It's got twenty heavy turbolaser batteries, even more ion cannons, proton torpedo launchers, quad assault concussion missile launchers, fighter craft, gunships, landers, and the works. That ship has enough firepower to turn a planet to glass. Even better, the ID on that ship is the Maelstrom, the namesake and first of her class for the Maelstrom Battle-Cruiser line."
"And how do you know that?" Ursa asked.
"I saw it on the propaganda holo a week ago. They say that this is the Jetiise's answer to the Malevolence."
"So why is she out here all on her own?" I asked, nobody in particular. The women in the cockpit considered that for a moment, before the three of us fell into an uneasy silence. The battle continued as my forces snuck into the system, one after the other, using micro-thrusts to get into formation, so as not to ping any sensors on our prey.
Just as the last of my forces entered the system and fell into position, one of the Banking Clan frigates detonated as a squadron of Republic starfighters made a pass over the ship. The combat computer counted no more droid fighter resistance to the Republic.
"Formation, move in." I gave the order, and my pilot went to work. In the shadow of an irregularly shaped continent-sized rock, two dozen engines burst to life with enough force to overwhelm the inertial dampeners and nearly strangle the passengers of the Gauntlet starfighters before the thrusters are halted so the heat signatures of our drive plumes doesn't give us away, and over five hundred Mandalorians were sent hurtling towards the battle. The maneuver was performed perfectly by every pilot, and to any sensor, we were little more than specs of dust traveling across the system.
Nothing for them to worry about. Until it was too late.
"Battle on the surface is heating up. The Republic really wants this CIS facility badly." Ursa commented, looking at a screen just out of my line of sight. I am more focused on the war in the void. It's still going to take a while before we drift in range to begin our attack, and I hoped that this 'Battle-Cruiser' would still be in the perfect position for our attack.
The ship in question, the Maelstrom, is busy chasing down the remaining Banking Clan frigates. While the firepower of four had been enough to hold the ship back, it seems that three are insufficient. The trio are attempting to keep outside of brawling range for as long as they could, while the Republic captain pressed forwards with his advantage. Out of curiosity, I tapped into the few feeds of the ground forces that our slicers had managed to break into to reveal that the ground operation is a mess. The Republic had deployed the Maelstrom's entire complement of clones to take the expansive CIS facility. It's a colossally huge tower with six large docks arrayed around the structure. Large enough for a capital ship to be built in each dock.
The facility is also situated in the middle of a city with towers that reach up to touch the clouds. The droids and clones below are doing a fine enough job of turning the city to rubble in the desperate battle for the facility as locals attempt to flee the carnage suddenly thrust upon them.
"Got a hyperdrive spooling up." the pilot said, tapping at her instruments. "It's not the Maelstrom." I released a breath I didn't know I was holding before tapping at the data the slicers were feeding us.
"Looks like that CIS facility is a shipyard. Something is trying to escape. If that drive can handle spooling for a couple of minutes, then she will be gone the moment she hits high orbit."
Ursa frowned and tapped the screen before adding. "That can't... oh hell."
I was about to ask her to explain when there was a flash of light.
"Gods... they just..." There was a moment of utter disbelief. I could scarcely believe it myself as a plume of dust and poison was ejected into space from the armageddon below. So great was the explosion that I could see the cloud of debris from here.
"Record everything. I want all the footage we can get!" I ordered, sending a tight-band communication to the other fighters, despite the risk. I could hardly breathe through the horror and excitement that filled me.
At the epicenter of the Republic atomic strike, the ground split apart, and a hellish red crack consumed the city before spreading out across the surface of the doomed planet. I am fairly certain that the Republic does not have an atomic weapon capable of cracking a planet like that. If they did, they would have used it during the Excision. No, this is likely the result of a Separatist superweapon of some kind, they have a habit of making a new one every other week. While the Separatist might have placed the Tibanna barrel there, the Jetii was still the one to pull the trigger, so the blame still lies with the Jetii.
Cities thousands of kilometers away are soon consumed by the spreading firestorm and tectonic calamity. We could only watch as a green world is reduced to ash, and a billion lives are extinguished. Debris spitting out into space crippled the remaining CIS ships as low orbit became inundated with gravitational anomalies so fierce they could be seen with the naked eye.
"What did they do?" Ursa spoke softly, knowing exactly what she was looking at but desperate for there to be some mistake as a way for her to distance herself from stark reality.
I am also in shock that the Republic would have the will to kill a planet but I quickly return my focus to the present and think about how this event will benefit Death Watch. Ursa, in many ways, is soft, as are many in Death Watch. To see such senseless and wanton destruction would be distressing. I had to refocus the softer hearts of my forces if they were to be of any use to me. I reached for the controls of my console, and in a few taps, I am broadcasting to my entire force.
"There will be a change of plans." I began, carefully crafting every word to possess enough resolve for the weakest of my formation to anchor themselves around. A firm hand offered to stabilize their frayed emotions. "The Republic aruetii who believe themselves so righteous, so just, have committed an unthinkable atrocity. To murder innocent Mandalorian men, women, and children as well as murder a billion friends of Mandalore. To strip a world of all life! I proclaim that every sentient upon the warship Maelstrom a Demagolka!" Ursa stiffened at my side. To be found by Mandalorian law to be a Demagolka, a serial murderer, and abuser of children, was to be condemned to death by flaying even in Satine's more 'civilized' age.
"Our original intent is to cripple this warship and allow the CIS to deal the final blow, but the situation has changed. By our honor, we must seek justice for the lives taken before our very eyes." I didn't bring up the Republic's dishonorable destruction of their own forces, but I had plans for that as well. Silver Mandalorians might be swayed after seeing the Republic betray its own forces to hellfire and ruin.
"We must carry the cloak of the executioner for this horrific crime. We shall board this ship, we will hunt down every rat aboard, and we will make them pay! As is our pledge of eternal vigilance against the evils of this galaxy! Our endless duty as Death Watch!" The radio is filled with animalistic roars of approval. As if sent into a battle frenzy, the fighters around me ignited their drives and flung themselves at full speed towards the dazed Republic Battle-Cruiser, its sensors blinded by the dust kicked up into orbit.
I reclined as my pilot sent my own fighter into overdrive to catch up with the others. I felt a grin overcome my face. Any other day, five hundred Mandalorians attacking a warship of this size would be a rather pitiful example of suicide. But this ship did not have the fifteen thousand clone troopers on board to defend the ship and the crew.
They had vaporized all of their defenders in their efforts to destroy the CIS facility and their escaping vessel. What few fighters remained from the extended battle in orbit had been crippled by the ion pulse thundering through the orbital plane of the doomed world. The Republic had gift-wrapped one of the most powerful ships in their navy just for me.
It was a stunning sight I beheld when the Maelstrom pushed out of the poison dust of low orbit and into the void itself, directly into the path of my forces. Ash clinging to the body of the murderous ship as it departed its terrible hunting grounds.
"They see us!" the pilot cried out as the Maelstrom spat out a flurry of point defense battery fire in the general direction of my formation.
"Too late." I said, as indeed a moment later all of our Kom'rks launched their Ion Torpedoes. At such close range, the torpedoes barely have several seconds of flight before they impact. Immediately, the point defense slackens as their systems are overloaded, giving us a clear window to board it. We darted through the open hangar bay doors intended to accept the surviving ships from the atomic calamity.
I felt my stomach twist as the gravity generator of my Gauntlet Fighter fought against the gravity of the Battle-Cruiser for a moment before the Battle-Cruiser won out and my craft made a graceless landing, skidding across the hangar and doing a great deal of damage to my expensive craft.
Once it stopped, I immediately unclipped myself from my seat and stepped forward as the doors of the craft opened, and twenty Mandalorian warriors rushed into the Maelstrom, blasters alight.
"Shall we join them?" I asked Ursa and the pilot.
"Let's kill them all." Ursa said with deadly resolve.
Kro'eval System, "Maelstrom" Maelstrom-class Battle-Cruiser
Pre Vizsla
It was total pandemonium. Several of the Gauntlet fighters had crashed into refueling or rearming starfighters in the expansive hangar, while most managed to land without issue after stopping over an empty part of the hangar. I'll have to have those pilots that crashed undergo remedial training after this so they would not repeat it in future operations. Each of them were the veterans of dozens of battles and should not suffer such failures when those fighters are very expensive to replace, even with MandalMotors' discount. Scattered equipment and fires littered the hangar with dead crewmen scattered around in ungainly heaps.
Mandalorians quickly departed from their Gauntlet Fighter-Transports, each one containing roughly twenty souls. Like the Dauntless fighters of a forgotten age, they cast out over the deck, bringing carefully controlled death to the few terrified Republic survivors.
There's little time to form up and organize our operation, but that is hardly a problem. These are the greatest Mandalorian warriors in all of Death Watch, the most dedicated, talented, and experienced. Officers have already divied up assignments without a care for personal glory. Two hundred are directed towards the bridge, a hundred are directed to the engine room, and the rest are given various other tasks that were no less critical for the success of this impromptu operation. This is not our first boarding operation, but it is the first time we have done it to a ship this size.
Wounded are to remain in the hangar and keep it secured as well as see to the Mandalorians who had died on our entry. I did not take command of the operation as I have full confidence in the competence of my officers to do their jobs well. Instead, Ursa would oversee the operation while I would join the warriors destined for the bridge. It's the duty of the leader to fight from the front, after all.
All of this happened in moments, as the scared and confused screams of Republic deck hands still called out. Objectives are projected in the disparate and complicated software of ancient armor systems. I felt a hiss as my own armor considered the atmosphere unsuitable and sealed itself against the smoke and toxins. A moment later, my targeting systems identified a squad of Republic Clones entering the hangar at the far side, and I feel the sudden rush as a light battle adrenal is injected into my system.
I and hundreds of others thundered across the hangar. Several activated their jetpacks both to have clear lines of sight on their targets and to present a wall of mayhem to the scant Republic forces that the ship had left. Blaster fire filled the air before us as blue bolts, carefully calibrated to deal as much damage to droids as possible, were shrugged off by Mandalorian beskar. With overwhelming return fire, the squad was riddled with hundreds of deadly yellow bolts, and they crumpled without much fuss. Not long after, Mandalorian forces entered the ship proper.
Like a flood of death, we moved through the ship, gunning down anyone we found. Bulkheads and auxiliary ship systems were desperately fought over as our talented slicers fought against the Republic's own electronic warfare officers in an invisible war. Without Clone defenders, isolated crewmen ill-equipped and ill-suited for battle tried desperately to halt our advance. I stopped counting my kills after the first fifty, but a warship of this class must have required a crew in the thousands. The legendary efficiency of Mandalorian blasters are tested by the sheer amount of targets we had to contend with.
I was treated to the odd novelty of having to reload my own blaster rifle with a new Tibanna gas canister while in the throes of battle, something that I had never before needed to do in the field in all of my years of combat. This, I thought, must have been what the ancient Neo-Crusaders had to contend with. Innumerable enemies utterly unsuited to war.
It felt like a single breath, yet according to my mission clock, I had battled across the Maelstrom for more than an hour. There's a lull to the fighting, and it took me a moment to realize that the bulkhead before us is more secure than the rest. We are adjacent to the bridge itself.
"The circuit for this bulkhead is isolated from the rest of the network." a Mandalorian called out while tapping away at his vambrace, which was jacked into a data cable in the wall. "We need a det-charge or something. Can't slice this."
"Stand aside." I called out. Several helmets turned in my direction before moving out of my way. I reached for my hip and produced a handle, weighty despite its small size. I held it out, and a moment later, the Darksaber ignited. The blade seemed to pull light towards it, resulting in a fine pale glow surrounding the deepest, blackest darkness.
Without any ceremony, I plunged the blade into the bulkhead, steadying my grip with both hands. The blade passed through reinforced durasteel like a hot knife through bantha butter. Despite that, the magnetic containment sent shockwaves through my arm as the lightsaber contended with the sheer amount of molten material flowing over the force field.
I pushed, watching as the bulkhead began to glow cherry red around the blade as I slowly cut through the barrier to the Maelstrom bridge. Pools of melted durasteel pooled at the ground at my feet as I could feel the terrible heat through my armor.
It was hard work, but eventually, I had cut a rough rectangle large enough for two Mandalorians to move through at a time. I placed a thermal detonator to the bulkhead before darting to the side, ignoring how my muscles screamed in protest, and looked at the Mandalorian on the other side of the bulkhead. Everyone else is in position to the side, ready to breach. Using my left hand to count down, I wait until my last finger falls before triggering the detonator. As the shock wave washes over me, I feel a sense of satisfaction as the rectangle is blasted inwards, likely injuring any defenders that stood too close to the bulkhead.
Without waiting for the smoke to clear, the Mandalorian across from me threw flash grenades through the hole before charging into the breach as blaster fire rang out. I felt a rush of strength as my armor provided me with another adrenal for the final stretch, and darted through the hole with my fellow Mandalorians.
The bridge is expansive. We had entered a command room that opened out into a two-level room with dozens of command consoles, all overlooked by a fleet command throne. Tall, reinforced plasteel glass windows gave an incredible view of any battle the Maelstrom would contend with.
Bridge crew were situated behind consoles and chairs, firing blindly as the flash grenade did its job, turning them into targets as we pushed into the bridge. In the middle of the room, coordinating the defense, stood the indomitable form of a Jetii. His violet blade shifted about him in a dizzying pattern, turning away dozens of deadly yellow bolts. His shins, arms, and midsection are protected by white plastoid armor that blackened as blaster fire played over the armored plates, denoting a high concentration of chromium rather than the pristine Beskar plates of my own armor.
Over the form-fitting bodysuit and armor plates, he wears a brown robe that did not seem to restrict the Jetii's movement in the slightest. I watched as the man darted to the side to deflect a yellow bolt that found itself striking the neck of a Mandalorian at my side. She let out a confused gurgle before crumpling in place.
Without thinking, with the rage of a thousand generations, I rushed forward with my Darksaber ignited. As if acknowledging my challenge, the dark-haired Jetii advanced upon me with measured steps. Blaster fire seemed to part around us as we both approached.
"Mandalorian!" he roared, menace dripping from the Republic Sorcerer. "Your treachery is revealed. The galaxy will know that your neutrality is a lie!"
"So lost you defeat yourself and think it treachery! You are judged, murderer." I said, feeling the words more than thinking them, as if the Manda itself was speaking through me. "You die here, Jetii!" In an instant, we were locked in mortal combat. Our lightsabers clashed, the blades seemingly playing across each other with glee and parting with heavy resistance.
The battle around us is forgotten, the screams and sounds of blaster fire dimming from my mind as we took measure of each other. He probed my defenses before dashing forward to strike again and again with incredible speed and brutality. Each blow he exacted, I met with my own with incredible effort. As much as it galls me, I am forced to give ground to the Jedi's aggressive advance.
I felt a wave of clarity, the inexorable call of a battle trance, fall over me as I changed tactics and released my left hand from my Darksaber. With one hand, I now have the speed to parry his blows rather than to meet it head on, which managed to check his advance. Our blades called to each other, and in an instant, we both struck. The deadly plasma joined together, containment fields attracting and rejecting the other in equal measure, as he attacked and I deflected. In a contest of strength and determination, I will lose. The only option I have is to use his strength against him, make him overcommit to an attack, and strike while he is recovering.
The opportunity presented itself when he delivered a diagonal overhead swing. I quickly sidestepped to the left and pushed the saber as far away as I could as I used my free left hand to grab hold of his arm to lock it in place. Now that his saber is out of the way, I pressed forward and struck, smashing my helmet against his face before following up with kneeing his groin. I managed to land a second knee before I saw that he had freed his left hand before sending an open palm in my direction as he let out a roar of fury. His eyes glowed with power as bubbling blood ran down his lips and chin, granting him a crazed appearance. It is the last thing I see before he unleashed his magic, and I was thrown head over heels by impossible forces and crashed over a bridge console before landing on my back.
There was not a moment for me to gather my wits from the attack as the Jetii jumped above me, intending to plunge his lightsaber down upon me. I deactivated my Darksaber as I rolled to the side and dodged the stab, but the follow-up rising cut managed to strike my chest plate. Before he could send another attack, I extended my right arm and from my wrist came a jet of jellied flame that coated his form and elicited a scream of rage and pain. Using the distraction, I got back on my feet and used my free hand to grab a flash grenade from my belt. Just as I was about to throw it, an unseen force pushed me back into another console at the front of the bridge. Despite his flesh melting from the burning jelly, the Jedi rushed upon me still, faster and stronger than ever before.
I dropped the grenade near my feet and reignited the Darksaber. Our blades clashed as I did my best to hold the burning Jetii in place. My muscles scream in agony as the Jetii's blade inches closer and closer to my face that if it wasn't for the polarization of my helmet I would have to close my eyes which would be a death sentence in melee combat. Eventually, the flash grenade went off underneath us, causing him to flinch and shout in surprise. This momentary distraction allowed me to sidestep to the side and with a twist of the Darksaber, I cut off his arms before stabbing him in his stomach.
The power that had once filled the man seemed to dissipate. The dark magic that sustained him, perhaps an aspect of Arasuum himself, abandoning a broken toy. With the last of my strength, I twisted the Darksaber and bisected him.
The bridge is quiet. I glanced about to find the battle for the bridge is truly over, with Mandalorians watching me all around. A strange compulsion came over me, and I looked at the fallen Jetii, my body at its limit as I took deep breaths.
He is badly burned, horrific wounds covering his body as I turned him onto his back, but still, his eyes turned to me. As I crouched beside the dying sorcerer. Even bisected, the cauterized wounds keep him alive enough for him to answer my question.
"Why?" I asked, looking at a tired man at the end of his life.
"I... I had to, you don't... I saved billions, hundreds of billions."
"You murdered a planet." I countered.
"You don't understand, I saw... the superweapon, the Shadowblade. It had to be destroyed, no matter the cost. I saved them all..."
"I expected more from you, Darjetii. Instead of deeming every life precious you murdered millions because you deem it easier than the alternative. Your hubris caused the death of a planet. Die knowing that I am the consequence of your actions." With that said I drew my pistol and executed him with a shot to his head. His body stilled afterwards as this Demagolka passed to the afterlife, likely to be judged by others of his kind.
Kro'eval System, "Maelstrom" Maelstrom-class Battle-Cruiser
Pre Vizsla
Seated in the command throne of the Maelstrom, I could barely find the strength to tap at the controls to gather a clear picture of the current situation. The ship is ours, even if my Death Watch are still hunting down survivors throughout the colossal Battle Cruiser. We already have access to the life support system and have voided the entire vessel, which is not an issue for us as we all have void rated armor. This should wipe out any survivors that have not managed to get void gear, which would help make clearing the vessel easier.
The ship had taken damage during the battle and boarding operation but remained fully operational. However, it's unclear how long that would last. I briefly considered remaining in the system to attempt to evacuate any survivors from the planet, but considering the entire thing resembled a single hellish firestorm with deadly gravity eddies in the orbital band, I highly doubt there is anyone alive down there. The crippled CIS frigates that got caught in the blast are slowly being pulled by gravitational anomalies into the planet and are now re-entering the atmosphere, so they are a lost cause. A shame, having an extra frigate or two would be a useful trump card. Thus with nothing of value left in the system, I navigated the ship to a safe jump point, spooled up the Maelstrom's hyperdrive and set a course to a hidden outpost in an uninhabited Mandalorian system.
Keeping a ship this large hidden is a tall order, not only because of the physical requirements. There are trillions of asteroids in uninhabited Mandalorian systems that could house such a craft indefinitely. No, what would be difficult would be maintaining and crewing such a craft without the major factions finding it. The Maelstrom would require thousands of crewmen to operate, and while Death Watch had the capacity to accommodate the craft, the loyalties of such a crew would never be absolute.
The Battle-Cruiser is perhaps the most impressive scalp in the galaxy, but it's a scalp that could not be ignored. I would need to consider if keeping the ship is worth it in the long run. Even if Death Watch could not make use of it, perhaps Mandalore would require such a vessel in the future. There was much to consider.
At the very least, Count Dooku would stop leaning on me to attack the Republic now. We had played our part with interest; now that I thought about it, yes, a victory like this is grounds to demand more from that little arrangement. The CIS owed Death Watch for taking out an asset as powerful as the Maelstrom from the Republic's arsenal, and I would see to it that every drop of split Mandalorian blood would be compensated.
Unfortunately, with the footage being collected, my rebranding project had become a confounded mess. With our iconography clearly visible and my open proclamation of our duty as Death Watch, there is little appetite for any change at this point. There had been a malaise over my organization, one that was felt even in this group of loyalists and elites. A listlessness that had grown along with the influence of White Silver in Mandalorian space.
This operation, the capture of this warship, and the execution of a Jedi and his forces, had reinvigorated us. Rather than abandoning the name Death Watch, I would reform its spirit. A group dedicated to purging the galaxy of evil above all else, one that would not bring violence upon our fellow Mandalorian, but turn its gaze outwards to the many enemies of the Mandalorian people.
Who else had the power, the strength of character to slay evil Jedi and Sith but us? The rest of the galaxy is too weak and hapless. They needed Mandalore, they needed Death Watch.
"Just spaced the last of the dead." Ursa called out as she entered the bridge, stepping through the destroyed bulkhead. Apparently, my trick with the Darksaber had fused some internal mechanism, and the entire thing is stuck permanently until we could cut it apart and replace it entirely.
"Good, just the stragglers now." The ship's internal sensors were incredibly limited, and some of the surviving Republic Crew had started to damage the security systems while hiding in the miles upon miles of crawl spaces across the Maelstrom. It's likely that a few clones have managed to get some spare armor before the ship is voided.
"I am taking leave after this Op." Ursa said softly, looking at the technically minded Death Watch experts trying to repair the Bridge with, as far as I understood, very limited success.
"Reason?" I said, without the energy for much more. She looked at my slouched form before reaching a hand to her belly. I raised my eyebrow in surprise, not that she could see it under my helmet. "When did you find out?" I asked.
"A few hours ago. Waste cycle detected it."
"Ah, granted. I am going to be restricting active operations in the coming months anyway." She nodded and turned away from me. "Congratulations." I said, suddenly feeling awkward. Clan Wren is a close ally, even if they are more spirited and independent than most. With the heir of the clan growing within Ursa, now was the time to curry favor with them.
A hunting party had found the Jetti's quarters and had identified some interesting artifacts that are now mine by right of conquest. It's some good fortune that the Jetti I had slayed was a collector of sorts.
"Thank you." came the curt reply, before Ursa moved over to the sub command throne and began to pull out damaged and melted circuits.
I believe the Songsteel sword, recovered from the Jetti's possessions, engraved with the Wren clan motto and icon would be an excellent gift to the child on the day of their birth. I knew little of working metal, let alone Songsteel, but I'm sure the Vizsla Clan armorers would likely enjoy the challenge. A fine and rare artifact for the heir to carry, I am curious however why the Jetti had owned a legendary Jetti killing weapon. I would likely find more information by digging through his possessions, with reduced Death Watch activity I should have the time to do that in between my work as Concordia's governor and spending time with Paz.
As Ursa and the rest of Death Watch worked to secure the ship, I felt the adrenals I had used fade and sap my strength. As my heart rate calmed down, my mind gradually slows to the point that sleep overtook me.
Coruscant, Chancellor's Retreat
Darth Sidious
In a dark chamber lit only by a pair of blood-red sconces, I listened impatiently for news that I could already sense.
"The world is uninhabitable, my lord. The loss of the hyper-point destabilizer and its delivery vehicle has caused a thermal shift in the planet's atmosphere, and the tectonic instabilities have been... severe. Such forces might yet tear Kromus apart. We are continuing to monitor the world as you instructed, but it is increasingly dangerous to remain in orbit." A holoprojector with a spinning icon of the ancient Sith reported what I already felt through the Force.
"The Jedi?" I asked, knowing full well the answer.
"The Mandalorians slew him during the attack on the Maelstrom. We have absolute confirmation of that, my lord. They killed the crew too, ejected thousands of them into space via the airlocks after they took control of the ship." It was frustrating to say the least, that a Jedi I had spent so much time and effort carefully grooming to become a potential apprentice is killed by uninvited guests.
It took quite a bit of effort to present a situation wherein a Jedi would be willing and able to slay over a billion people, after all. What a waste of effort.
"Yes, yes... Remain until the last possible second, and then proceed to Count Dooku with your findings. The data might yet prove useful for other projects."
"Yes, my lord. We live to serve."
That elicited a wry chuckle as I terminated the transmission. "Of course, you do. For a while longer, at least."
The situation is so fairly aggravating. To think that Death Watch now possessed such a powerful Battle-Cruiser. Parties such as Death Watch were not fit to control such assets. It made the game far too unpredictable. Perhaps I had been too lenient on the Mandalorians and their CNS ploy. Collective actions against a bloc of troublesome systems requires them to be weak enough for my new Empire to dictate terms to the collective bloc. Now, the Mandalorians have revealed that their bark has some bite. This is something I could not allow to continue, even if I did enjoy the company of a particularly cunning representative.
Effort would have to be made to recover or destroy the ship. The Jedi themselves are, of course, an obvious candidate. This was, after all, a Mandalorian attack against a Republic asset and the killing of a Jedi Master. The Order could not ignore a Mandalorian killing Darrus Jeht. They would send Jedi to Mandalore to demand answers.
I should add some redundancy to my plans to curtail Death Watch. I carefully sifted through the data sent to me and slipped out of my slippers for more substantial shoes. A lovely young friend should visit our favorite coffee house soon, and I think she would be rather interested in an exclusive tip about the current situation.
For the good of Mandalore, of course.
I allowed myself a warm chuckle as I marched out of the dark room.
Editor's note: Believe it or not, this was once chapter 46
Writers note: Woo chapter out and now the fun begins. This is going to have major effects on things, trust me. Now some you are going "What the *Beep* just happened?" Well the short answer is, butterfly effect running into lore. Pre does not trust the Reds and has been operating in the area between Red and Republic to make sure they don't gain influence. He is also picking up new recruits here and there. This area of space has a whole event in Legends where a Jedi accidentally blew up a planet right next to Mando space. We already know that Death Watch are more than willing to board and attack Republic vessels for good reason and well, this was a good reason. To make it simple, the battle of the story accidentally put Pre in a position that, when I was doing research, allowed them to play vengeance and shake things up greatly.
Edited by: Pedersen, aemon, fallqm, Guardsman Pius, Orlov, Warmach1ne32, Afforess
Community edited by:
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Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
Basilisk mind in the body of a tank. Make it a giant tank and we have a Bolo.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Or a Tachikoma.
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
She had a pretty chill childhood and a few months of vacation before
Jango is going to be mad
canned Tomatoes
verified non-perishable
- Location
- Germany
Is my pattern recognition going wild or are they going to put a Basilisk mind into that ship?
Not enough crew, loyalty of the crew is questionable, plus faster reaction times.
Ideally after the ship got wrecked around Gargon because of a battle near the hydian way.
What would his reaction be if that ship comes back to haunt the CIS as an AI controlled vessel.
With a few wings of Basiliks space, air and ground supremacy fighters for the extra spicy boarding actions.
Not enough crew, loyalty of the crew is questionable, plus faster reaction times.
Ideally after the ship got wrecked around Gargon because of a battle near the hydian way.
What would his reaction be if that ship comes back to haunt the CIS as an AI controlled vessel.
With a few wings of Basiliks space, air and ground supremacy fighters for the extra spicy boarding actions.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
No, Death Watch doesn't have enough members but Mandalorians do. Besides this chapter explained basilisk brain is animal like, you don't want a smart doggo as a warship.
canned Tomatoes
verified non-perishable
- Location
- Germany
From a personality and development point, when they come online.
They are still an AI and capable of making use of their body and can discern friend and foe when they come online.
It only goes up from there as time goes on.
You could automate a lot of systems that way.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
Yeah but Star Wars is stupid about automation. Droid rebellions, super movie hacking blabla. I've seen one author's SI make money out of all the stuff that's missing on holonet, but we have on internet, coz no one in the 20th century imagined internet, let alone George Lucas.
Don't get me wrong, he's great, but more of a fantasy writer.
canned Tomatoes
verified non-perishable
- Location
- Germany
True enough, they can do automation, you have seen the droid factory on Geonosis, and it's simply unbelievable that they don't have automated factories on other planets for other commonly used items.
One of the things I wonder about, however, is if that lack of automation we see in the ships is simply because they haven't been building large warships before then.
For smaller ships, all those automation options would take up more room in your ship but with larger ships that starts to change.
There might be the problem that in the setting, it would be cheaper to use a droid brain for the automated controls than a dumb expert system that can't develop sentience.
Though most of those things are also because of the inspiration by a WWII movie and the choice of Starwars being a space opera.
So design choice was more geared towards looks cool rather than more efficient sci fi.
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
Nah, I've already asked SW EU fans. They said ships have thousands of crew members, because they don't wanna get hacked.
Why do automated ships have wi-fi to their every system? Well it's so the bullshit super hackers can take them over.
So what do they do? Remove the wi-fi, no. Simply have every turret/canon/missile manually operated by crew...
You see, in space battle, just like WWII naval battle, a gunman will aim mounted guns that fire at the speed of light at ships moving at thousands of kilometers per hour and away in the blackness of space, just by their eyesight.
They use droids, except for when they don't.
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not a CNS world Kromus is closes CIS then CNS and part of the republic
yes
no
most likely
and since i posted this over on space battles
Chapter 50
Chapter 50
21 BBY Month 4
Mandalore, Sundari, Royal Palace
Obi-Wan Kenobi
I had not expected that I would be returning to Mandalore anytime soon, especially with the galaxy embroiled in a war. While meeting an old friend is always a good thing, this is not a social call, especially with what I have been charged with undertaking by the Jedi Order and the Republic.
As I approached the front doors of the main atrium. Several of the Royal Guards stood to either side of the door. One of them held up a hand, indicating that the Duchess is not ready to receive visitors yet. However, after a moment, he lowered it and indicated with a nod that I could enter. "The Duchess will see you shortly."
Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for whatever was about to happen. I stepped through the doors and enjoyed the slight quietness of the upper palace meeting area. It's spacious with plenty of sunlight streaming through the windows. I enjoyed the peaceful cityscape of Sundari each time I visited, earned all those years ago in the Clan Wars with Satine. However, I could sense I was about to be interrupted.
"Master Kenobi." I turned my eyes from the city beyond to Prime Minister Almec as he came out of a side chamber.
"Minister Almec." I inclined my head slightly in acknowledgement.
"It's an honor to have you back on Mandalore, Master Jedi." he replied. "It is unfortunate that this visit is under such dire circumstances."
I nodded, saying, "Likewise, unfortunately, the investigation into the attack on the Maelstrom leads back to the Mandalore sector."
"Mandalore?" Minister Almec said slowly, confusion in his voice, "I don't understand how that could be the case. Satine... Mandalore enjoys its relationship with the Republic. You must be mistaken, because Mandalore has o reason to involve itself in any way. How certain are you of this evidence? Perhaps this is the Separatists manufacturing false trails?"
I nodded slowly at that possibility. "I understand your skepticism and it is a possibility. But if the CIS were responsible for the attack on the Maelstrom they used Mandalorians to do it." I reached into a pocket and pulled out a holo projector. I pressed a button to activate it, revealing a bit of footage that had been recovered from a data transmission. Shown most prominently are Mandalorian warriors with various symbols on their armor storming a hallway, ignoring shots from Republic troopers as if it were nothing, before retaliating with their own shots at the clones with predictable results. I froze the footage and zoomed in on the Mandalorian warrior to show the Minister.
"Oh my, this is troubling." Prime Minister Almec said, examining the footage in closer detail. "That does appear to be real beskar." He watched the footage loop again, scrutinizing it more closely, and I him, but I failed to sense any dishonesty from the Prime Minister.
"Yes, they are wearing Mandalorian armor, but I can't say for sure that they are Mandalorians. At least, I can guarantee that they are not New Mandalorians. The people here have given up our warlike ways. Peace, culture, and freedom are all that we want. There are some who still cherish the old ways, primarily those of Concordia and the planets of the Mandalorian sector, though it's unlikely that they would dare attack a Republic ship." That is irrelevant as far as the Senate is concerned, the attack happened, it didn't matter if it was unlikely.
"They did more than just attack the ship, they have captured the ship as a spoil." I explained, causing him to stop his thoughts as he looked at me in wide-eyed shock. "The Maelstrom is missing, and the lack of debris indicates that they have taken it for themselves. That is why we are so concerned about the situation. The Maelstrom was on a priority mission to destroy a Separatist superweapon in the region and is carrying devastating weapons."
"As alarming as that is, what you've told me already has me convinced this is the work of the CIS."
I stared into Almec's eyes, while also feeling for any sign of duplicity in the Force. And yet, he radiated certainty, "What makes you so convinced?"
"No Mandalorian organization has the strength to capture such a ship. White Silver doesn't have the access to enough beskar to outfit a strike force capable of taking over a large Republic Cruiser the size of the Maelstrom, even if they might have enough fools to make the attempt. Death Watch doesn't have the resources or depth for something like this, as they are merely rebellious vain glorious kids spouting about the old days when we could wage war against the galaxy. Not even the Royal Guards and the MSDF could have accomplished something like this." He answered, and I couldn't spot any obvious untruths.
"I too doubt it's White Silver. She's rather mercantile when it comes to her operations, from what I have seen. Alienating the Republic would be counterproductive to her stated goals especially when her mercenaries are already working for the Republic." I said.
Almec looked back up and raised an eyebrow, "You've met White Silver?"
I nodded since it is the truth. Though I did not know her well, this did not align with what I'd seen of her motives. She wanted to keep Mandalore out of the war. Attacking a Republic vessel would draw too much attention. "This Death Watch organization. What have they been up to exactly?" I asked.
"There was an attempt to kill an idol a few months back as well as the Prince of Mandalore not long after. Though thankfully, the Royal Guard were quite able to handle the situation." Almec explained.
"What about the Workers' Council? I heard from Representative Kryze that they are native to the region that the Maelstrom vanished in." I said.
Almec shook his head. "I doubt they would engage in any open hostility. There is some connection between them and the CIS, I'm sure of that. Arms smuggling, we believe. But they are currently not engaging in any hostility against the Mandalorian government. We're monitoring the situation, we'd inform the Republic if it got out of hand." A half-truth there, interesting. I'd have to send a message to R4 to follow up on Anteevy.
"The Republic needs to know immediately if the Maelstrom resurfaces. Do not move against the ship without first informing us. If the perpetrators show up in the next few months with the Maelstrom as their new flagship, I think we'll agree they were responsible." I said with a nod before I spoke plainly.
"To be honest, Prime Minister, the Republic is not happy. There have been some reports of ships tailing our vessels crossing through Mandalorian-controlled space and outlying sectors. The fact that this has happened more than once worries me that it might happen again. The Republic is wondering if Mandalore has decided that it would be better to be part of the CIS than staying neutral."
Prime Minister Almec looked genuinely insulted, so I turned down the politics a bit and emphasized my priorities, "I personally do not believe this is true, of course, but the Senate does. When the Senate believes something is amiss, the Jedi need to investigate it."
"What happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'? Has that been thrown to the wayside?" came Satine's voice and she doesn't sound happy. Turning, I saw her enter the atrium along with Senator Merrik. He's by her side and looking a bit worse for wear.
"Duchess Satine." I bowed, my mood brightening. Perhaps we could cut straight to the heart of matters now.
"Master Kenobi, or is it 'General' Kenobi now?" She twisted her tone and emphasized the word, and in so made it clear what she thought of the military rank.
I withstood her tone and folded my arms behind my back, "I'm afraid it's General Kenobi for now. Though I will be glad when this war is over, and I can relinquish that command." Shaking my head at that, I continued, "But it is good to see you, Duchess Satine. You're as radiant as ever."
For a brief moment, I saw a twitch of her lips before she suppressed it. However, I didn't sense any real animosity, which told me that this was more about pomp and circumstance than actual anger at me. Satine shook her head before saying, "Kind words from someone who accuses Mandalore of treachery. Tell me, then, is this investigation ordered by the Senate going to interfere with our internal affairs?"
I shook my head in the negative, "The actual investigation was ordered by the Jedi Council. The Senate is simply watching this investigation with interest."
"Of course they are." She muttered under her breath before she said, "Well then, General Kenobi, would you care to go for a walk with me? I'm willing to have a more in depth conversation about the situation here in Mandalore." I would never say no to ditching the politicians, and Satine didn't count.
"Gladly, Duchess." I agreed as she walked up to me, smiled, and walked past. I nodded and said a brief farewell to Almec and Merrik, before following her at a slight angle, letting her lead the way. We moved through the hallway towards the steps into the main area of the palace. I sensed more than saw the pair of Satine's Royal Guards following us discreetly.
Stepping out into the main city, I noticed just how much glass there is used in the city's architecture. Even the floors of certain areas were made of glass, allowing people to look up through the structures into the light. This great domed city is just full of natural light. It is quite enjoyable from an architectural design perspective.
Once we were a bit further away from the palace, Satine stopped as we reached a corner and nodded towards a wall. On the wall were several posters, seeming to be against whoever the owner was, as there were indications they had been ripped down over the years. Although, the fact that they were nearly layered on top of each other indicated an underlying problem.
Shaking her head, Satine said, "Things had been peaceful on Mandalore until this war started, at least I'd like to think so. I mean, we had that issue a few years ago, but-"
"I know." I interrupted, "This whole galactic conflict is just stirring up issues throughout the galaxy. Ancient rivalries, old grudges. What exactly is going on here in Mandalore?"
Satine sighed before saying, "Honestly, a bit of a quagmire. Yes, Death Watch has been a slight issue, as hooligans and radicals, for years. All of a sudden, they started being more active in the previous year, possibly encouraged by the current conflict." She indicated one of the posters showing a strange mark, which appeared to be a three-slash with a central slash down the middle of the three. "Someone is putting up posters promising adventure and 'A return to the Old Ways if you join up with the Death Watch'." She said, translating the Mandalorian letters for me on it. I could just make out enough of the Mando'a to agree with her translation.
Shaking her head, there was a look of frustration toward the other two posters. "That's not the only posters that have been appearing recently. You're familiar with White Silver?" She indicated a pair of four feathers on a diamond-like shape. "These posters have been popping up as well, talking about how Mandalorians should join the Mercenary Guild that White Silver is running. Go see the galaxy, have adventures, go die out in wars that they should not be involved in."
"And this poster?" I asked, indicating the third one next to it, a strange symbol, looks like a hammer and sickle crossing each other.
Satine looked at it before saying, "That's a call for peace. That Mandalorians should stay far, far away from the conflict."
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad." I said, noting that the poster was in better shape than the other two. "The other two seem to have had people vandalize them to some extent, while the third one was left alone for the most part."
"Yes, on the other hand, they are questioning my sanity for wishing to defend Mandalore by creating the Self-Defense Force."
"Ah yes… the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force. That's one of the other reasons I believe the Senate is concerned."
She scoffed at that. "Of course they are. Doesn't matter that they are legally unable to be used for a military campaign other than self-defense. Mandalorians with a military arming up? Now they're going to invade the galaxy." While Satine said it with obvious mockery in her tone. Unfortunately, nearly those exact words had been uttered by one Senator during a recent Senate debate. "I want to preserve the peace of Mandalore. It seems that certain people out there are uninterested in that, wanting to go back to the Old Ways."
"Of the three factions, which one do you think probably invaded the Maelstrom?" I asked.
She looked at me for a tense beat, "Death Watch for certain. They've become more active and have a motive, but I just don't see how they could have amassed such an ability without us knowing. Prime Minister Almec has always been one of my chief advisors on internal security concerns. We should have had much more warning before they were even capable of this."
I nodded before saying, "Perhaps he has been distracted. He seems to be rather sure it wasn't any proper Mandalorians."
"Perhaps. Almec has been fixated on the Silver Mandalorians' base on Gargon, so maybe he's been focusing too much on the Silvers than he should have been. But still, where would they have gotten the capability to do this? Mandalore has no rogue shipyards, most of our assets are still under construction to be honest."
Shaking my head, I said, "Only Death Watch knows where it could be hidden. When we finally catch up to whoever's leading this Death Watch, we'll be able to solve that mystery…"
"Perhaps. But I worry that you, a Jedi, leading this investigation could have unintended consequences. Mandalorians still have issues with the Jedi, to say the least. Not to mention, the Jedi's transformation from peacekeepers to generals are not helping the opinions of most Mandalorians."
"We're still peacekeepers, we're just doing it from the front lines." I said with a smile, but she only frowned in disagreement.
"That's part of the problem. If you are real peacekeepers, you wouldn't need to be on the front lines. There would be no conflict."
"In a better galaxy, you'd be right." I said with a nod. "Unfortunately, we don't live in that galaxy. Even you know that is true, otherwise you would never have authorized the creation of the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force."
That seemed to have been a bit too much because I saw a bit of annoyance pass over her before she sighed. "That may be true. I long so much for the days of believing that we could come to a fully peaceful society like what is found in the Core of the Republic, perhaps that is just a foolish dream."
"It's not foolish." I reassured her. "Mandalore is still peaceful, but you have acknowledged that you needed a defense force to protect yourself, something more well-equipped and numerous than the Royal Guards. Even the Jedi, at its most peaceful, carry a lightsaber not because we want to use it, but because we know it is necessary."
That brought a smile to her face, "Perhaps the Jedi and Mandalorians are not so different after all. Come, there are better places in Sundari to visit than this wall."
She offered her elbow, allowing me to lock arms with her as we walked more towards the center of the city. The central plaza had plenty of greenery, benches, and a large water feature a bit further away. It was as inviting as the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, except for my purpose here.
Smiling, I looked across the city, saying, "Every time I come here, I do have to say, it is a wondrous place you have built."
"Thank you, but it's not just me. It's through the cooperation of the peaceful people of Mandalore that have built this."
"Of course." Satine always underplayed her role in how things turned out, but I admired that trait too. The water fountain is an interesting design with the water spraying up through a decorative fountain, above it is a holographic projector showing the time and other various bits of information.
I looked away from it, focusing on Satine, "But the people of Mandalore made it because you..." The holo-projector I was staring through suddenly glitched, and switched to an ominous graphic, interrupting me. I stared at it, it's a display of three-slash with a central slash down the middle, the sign of Death Watch. Hovering right above the delicate water fountain. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"People of Mandalore, I am the leader of Death Watch, defenders of the Mandalorian people and guardians of the ancient ways. The Republic will label me a criminal, terrorist, and murderer. Those are strong claims, considering what they themselves have done to Kromus." The mysterious voice from various holo-speakers around the park and advertisements remarked.
The pair of Royal Guards that had been trailing us approached Satine, and one stepped close, to whisper something to her.
Meanwhile, the display on the holo-projector changed, showing a glowing ashen hellscape. Distorted and clearly footage taken in high orbit from an incredibly expensive sensor array. Tall husks of skyscrapers all bent outwards from a single point jutting out of a slowly shifting black crust, oozing magma everywhere. What had once been structures that towered hundreds of floors above the ground were twisted and burnt, in the distance one of the blackened bones of a tower bowed before crashing to the ground with little fanfare.
"Last week, the Kro'eval system had a population of just over one billion, now it is a tomb world. It was once part of the Mandalorian Empire and had several enclaves of our people still on it. It was also going to join the Council of Neutral Systems if it had not already been invaded by the Separatists."
"Now it's nothing but a burnt ruin, but not by the Separatists' doing. Oh no, this was the work of the Republic flagship, the Maelstrom." The hologram shifted to show an image of the Maelstrom next to a propaganda poster of the Maelstrom. "A Battle-Cruiser designed for mass destruction, carrying what we believe to be a tandem atomic-super weapon. A device the Jetti commanding the Republic ship deployed and detonated it in the middle of Kromus's capital city, knowing full well that this is the result. The Jetti had no regard for the population; he had no regard if the people there were for or against the Separatists. The Republic feared the superweapon on their world, and so the Jetti extinguished them all because it is more convenient."
To say I am stunned is an understatement, but the audience is even more appalled. Everyone is looking towards the screen in shock and horror at the destruction on screen. I could feel that Satine is a firestorm of emotions. I am also aware that a crowd is forming, from the agitated murmurs surrounding us. Someone muttered something in Mandalorian about Keldabe.
"The Republic, for as much as they would like to pretend they are just, are no better than the Separatists they are fighting against, nothing but Demagolka." Several members of the crowd gasped at the Mando'a word, "Those two monsters now choose to fight to destroy the other so they could become the sole ruler of the galaxy. And they fight alone; the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force, the Mandalorian people, stands strong. And it is because our Mand'alor, Duchess Satine has guided us to strength once more. Mandalore is strong again! We have the largest warband of Mandalorians seen since the days of the Neo-Crusaders!"
Now I am wide-eyed. Satine is vulnerable to whatever narrative this madman was crafting. I stepped next to Satine, noticing both her guards scanning the gathering crowd with concern. She met my eyes and shook her head, drat, I was going to suggest leaving. I turned back to listen to the rest of the screed. All Mandalorian villains seemed prone to monologue, in my experience, so I expanded my awareness further over the emotions of the crowd.
"Never before in all of our history have so many sons and daughters of Mandalore been assembled into a single warband, given a single purpose. More clans than ever before have rallied to you, Satine Kryze, millions of Mandalorians under arms march to your command. You have forged our people into a unified and potent force, and every day we grow stronger. When White Silver proclaimed you the true Mand'alor all those years ago, I admit, I was unconvinced. I was wrong, forgive me, my Mand'alor."
I turned back again to look at Satine, who was dawning in horror at the implications of it all. She seemed more upset by the effusive praise than the implication that she created the largest Mandalorian army since the Crusades, and especially bothered with the title of Mand'alor. Also, I could sense guilt? I suspected that Satine was not as sanguine about the creation of the MSDF as she professed. At some point, she had grabbed hold of my arm.
"I shall honor your goal to maintain neutrality for Mandalore. However, there are homes and families outside Mandalore, Mandalorians and friends of Mandalore that are under threat from the Republic. Their actions in these waning days of Republic power and influence, to so carelessly toss lives away if they are not from the Core, cannot be ignored. So, I will continue to do as I have done. I attacked the Maelstrom and I have taken it from them. It is now the rightful spoil of Death Watch, an organization that protects Mandalorians and beleaguered friends of Mandalore outside of the Mandalore sector."
"For those who would help me protect those outside the sector, I open my hand. Death Watch is willing to take you in. Seek us out and you will find us. Join us for honor and glory. I will be releasing footage of our legendary battle aboard the Maelstrom, behold as we avenge a billion souls and slay the Republic's Darjetti! His dark magic found no match for the might of Mandalore. Such glorious purpose awaits you. Come sons and daughters of Mandalore! Come and push back the darkness that seeks to overcome the galaxy! Join us in our eternal Death Watch!"
The fury that is radiating off Satine is such that I didn't need the Force to feel it. The amount of pressure on my arm betrayed her considerable physical strength. I hadn't realized she kept up with her combat fitness.
"Satine-" I tried to say, but she only turned and gave me a look.
"Take me to the Palace, now." We quickly made our way back to the Palace, the guards shutting the doors behind us as we entered the main area. Looking at the crowd, all of whom are simply staring slack jawed at the scene to really notice us leaving.
When we arrived back at the palace, Almec had not waited behind, so we were left only with a few Royal Guards in the room.
"Satine…" I began, but she immediately turned on me with a look of anger.
"Is what Death Watch said about Kromus true? Has it been wiped off the face of the galaxy by weapons launched from a Republic warship?!"
I didn't really know what to say, so I said the truth. "I don't know. The Maelstrom was involved in an operation to destroy a research site, but according to the records stored within the Jedi Temple and the Senate, the planet that was being used as a research site is uninhabited."
"So what was that? Some doctored footage? It didn't look fake to me."
"By the Force," I said with a nod, "there's something more going on here, something that we're unaware of, and we need to know more. I need to speak to the leader of Death Watch. I need to know what happened. Do you think there's any way we can track him down?"
Satine, who was looking rather furious, turned to look out the window, tapping her foot a couple of times before finally saying, "There might be a way."
Pulling back a sleeve, she revealed a wrist-mounted device and pressed a button, saying, "Zum, I need you to prepare a set of armor for me and one for an old friend."
A voice came back, saying, "Can do, my Duchess. I'll get on it right away. Need any weapons?"
"I'd rather not." She paused, as she contemplated his question. She finally answered, "Actually, stun only."
"Color for the other's armor?" the voice asked.
She looked at me and said, "Preferred color?"
Confused, I answered with my favorite color, "Blue."
She nodded as she said, "Really blue." into the comms before turning back to me.
"Satine, what are you planning?"
"There's an accent to that voice. Whoever is leading Death Watch is from the moon Concordia, of that I am sure. So we are going to go to Concordia. We are going to find the leader of Death Watch and we are going to make him stop. Hopefully, he'll tell you everything you need to know about what happened at Kromus."
I nodded before asking, "Do we have any other leads, other than that he is from Concordia? That seems like a large celestial body to search."
"I have one lead that I think might help us. Plus, the governor may be able to give us some information on where to look, but I won't be sure until we talk to him."
I nod before saying, "Alright then. As the expert on Mandalorian politics, I will leave it in your capable hands and guard you on this mission.'"
She smiled, and then said, "Just like old times," before letting out a sigh. "Obi-Wan, I do want to say, it is nice to see you again. We do not get together as often as we should."
I smile back, saying, "I agree. The life of a peacekeeper keeps me busy. I hope that we could have a nice meeting and talk this out without worrying about the conflicts going on inside the galaxy, but well, the galaxy finds a way.'"
She nodded before saying, "Hopefully, the galaxy will find a way to find peace again."
"By the Force, I hope you're right." I said, nodding my head in agreement.
Mandalore System, Concordia Space Port
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The shuttle ride from Mandalore to Concordia did not take long, as it only took twenty minutes, but I digress. We arrived at Concordia with the escort of several Royal Guards, landing in a more well-maintained city than I would have expected from what I had heard of Concordia. Shining bright towers came out of the side of a mountain; it almost reminded me of a fortress in its own way. It seemed rather peaceful, surrounded by the slowly growing back forests of the world.
Farmland buffeted quite a large portion of the area directly around the city, but it's not very deep farmland and would often trade zones with uncapped forests. From this altitude, the farmland seemed dwarfed by the old-growth forests, as the majority of the moon is still undeveloped.
"Here we are." Satine said, as the Royal Guards brought the shuttle in for a landing. I stood up and stretched myself out, and she stood up from her seat. She's wearing rather normal-looking clothing, not the extremely fancy dress that she had been wearing when I first walked into the palace. Carefully, she moved over and pressed a button; two slabs were dislodged from the wall, and the Royal Guards quickly moved them to a speeder in the back of the shuttle, stashing them in the boots of the vehicle.
Raising an eyebrow, I said, "The armor?"
She nodded before saying, "Best to keep that under wraps until we make our move. I don't know who is responsible for this, but I want to keep it anonymous until we're sure about what we're doing."
Nodding in agreement, I followed her down the ramp and saw an individual standing at the edges of the landing area. Satine smiled and led the way as her guards went about moving the transport vehicle out of the craft, so we could use it for movement.
"Governor Pre Vizsla." The Duchess said as she came up to him, giving a small nod as a greeting, not quite a bow but something similar.
"Duchess Satine welcome to Concordia. I did not expect to hear from you today but then again, I don't think anyone expected that broadcast earlier." He replied.
She nodded before saying, "Yes, I happened to recognize the accent of the new leader of Death Watch as being Concordian. I thought it would be best to investigate here and see what we would dig up on that matter." He winced as Satine mentioned the accent. It seems he had come to similar conclusions then. I could sense his frustration with the Force, so it seemed the broadcast had injured his pride in some way. Likely frustrated that a Concordian had been the one leading a terrorist organization.
"Oh, where are my manners?" She gestured to me and said, "This is Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, an old friend of Mandalore. Obi-Wan, this is Pre Vizsla, Governor of Concordia."
"Nice to meet you, Governor." I said, giving him a nod.
"Likewise, Master Jedi." Governor Vizsla said with a nod before turning his eyes back to Satine. "I recognize the accent as well and have already begun investigating. We are on the trail of an old mining outpost that may have been used as a Death Watch recruitment camp. Unfortunately, if it was one, it had already been abandoned. But that does indicate that there are elements of Death Watch here on Concordia. We will continue to investigate and as soon as I have information on the matter, I will let you know."
Satine nodded her head before saying, "Good, good. If you have any other clues, let me know. I'm going to accompany Master Obi-Wan on his own investigation."
"Oh, does he have any information that could help us find these terrorists?" Governor Vizsla asked.
I shook my head and replied, "I'm afraid not. I'm simply conducting this investigation on the orders of the Jedi Council. But I will say the leader of this Death Watch has created a bit of a precarious situation. I don't think they are prepared for both operating a Battle Cruiser nor having the Republic coming to take back their ship. I will definitely need to investigate the matter of the Maelstrom closer, find out who gave orders to destroy that planet and why it happened."
"Hmm, that is understandable. You need to hold your own accountable, after all. We've been doing the same for nearly twenty years here on Mandalore." Governor Vizsla said with a nod. "I would have thought the Maelstrom had a Jedi on board to prevent such acts of destruction. What happened?"
"I'm wondering that as well. The Jedi in question was not in good standing and I'm afraid he may not have been as thorough in his investigation of the planet as he should have been before authorizing this mission. That is another mystery that we need to solve. What happened to the Jedi who was on board the Maelstrom? I would assume nothing good, but we need to know nonetheless and recover his lightsaber if possible to at least put it in its proper place in the temple."
"Well, if we happen to run an operation against these Death Watch and recover such an item, I will have it transferred to you. I have no need for a lightsaber." Governor Vizsla said.
"Thank you. That is quite generous of you, Governor." I replied with a nod. I suspect the Governor is more interested in avoiding Jedi entanglements, though, but fair enough.
Satine spoke up, "I understand that Jango Fett has come to live on Concordia. Do you happen to have his address?"
Governor Vizsla raised an eyebrow before saying, "Yes, the former bounty hunter has taken up residence here, and I do have his address. I sold the land to him after all. Why do you want to speak with him?"
"I am curious as well." I replied. "I have questions that need answering about the Clone army — questions that only he could answer. Perhaps I would have an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone here."
Satine commented, "Quite simply, he is a former rival of Death Watch. So if there's anyone in this sector who would know the most about the Death Watch that would be willing to help us, it would be him. Perhaps he has some key bit of information that could tell us something about how they move, their motives, reasons they might have done what they've done, or perhaps even some secret location where they may have hid the Maelstrom, so we could return it to the Republic and prevent an intersector incident."
Governor Vizsla frowned, but nodded at the explanation. "It could also be a wild goose chase." He said matter-of-factly before shrugging. "But we don't really have any other leads, do we?" Turning to one of his men, he picked up a pad and quickly jotted something down before handing it to Satine. "This is his address. I believe he's moved in full time now. His watch dogs finally allowed him to go off-world as long as it's Concordia, so he's moving his family to the moon to start up his own farm."
"He's taking up farming? That's an unexpected career change for a bounty hunter." I remarked.
Governor Vizsla shook his head. "Not at all. Many Mandalorians in the past throughout our history had trades and crafts outside of combat. A large portion of the Mandalorians involved in the Crusades and Neo-Crusades were also farmers, hunters, and other minor jobs that were needed for civilization but weren't needed for the operations of the military. It was, after all, a near full mobilization in those days."
"Good point, Governor Vizsla. I'll keep that in mind as I speak to him."
Nodding, he said, "That is good. I see you already have transportation arranged, so I wish you luck in your mission. I hope everything goes wonderfully well while you're here on Concordia. Be careful of the mines though, as they are dangerous. A lot of them are old, abandoned, and not well maintained. If it doesn't look safe, don't enter them as it could collapse at any moment. That's just a word of warning."
Concordia, Fett Homestead
Jango Fett
I do not know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to farming. I am willing to admit that after a few weeks of trying. I may have been a farmer once, but that was a long time ago, and father did most of the work. Sure, I knew the basics of digging up the fields and planting things, but it was just not something I knew deep down. I spent most of my life learning how to hunt a man, not how to grow food. Maybe I should have taken up ranching instead, but I wanted to honor my late father.
But as long as I'm contracted to stay in the Mandalore system, I couldn't exactly go bounty hunting now, could I? So, I needed to find another job and farming made sense. Since I did not know what I was doing, I found some people who did, sort of.
I had quite a large amount of money stored up, enough so that I was able to purchase several droids meant for farming. They were out in the fields now, working the area and getting it prepared, while I just sat back here on the porch sipping a glass of lemonade. This does feel like cheating, but I doubt my father would mind.
I am watching those farming droids and learning from them in case I had to do it myself though. After all, there's always time to pick up a few new skills or refresh the old ones that are quite degraded. But there is something nice about just sitting back and letting the droids do most of the work, at least some of the time. I had helped out today for about 3 to 4 hours; but I had to pace myself to get back into farming shape.
That being said, while I didn't know everything I needed to know about farming, what I did know was working. As far as places go, this farm is turning out to be a nice place to live.
There's no one to bug us, a lot of open air. It's just ourselves and a bit of Holo-Net connection. It did kind of remind me of Concord Dawn. Boba is in his room, probably watching one of the idol shows or maybe that Silver Mandalorian junk that started broadcasting recently. And Arla is in the kitchen, she has taken up baking, of all things. I couldn't complain, for a former assassin, she makes a damn good cookie.
All in all, the Fett household is a relatively peaceful place. When I'm no longer under contract and this war is over, I am definitely going to make this my main place of operations. I'd still probably go out there and hunt from time to time, but this is a nice place to live.
Sipping my lemonade, I'm thinking about getting up and maybe getting the boy to go do some night hunting together. Hunting the local animals rather than bounty hunting is surprisingly legal here. There aren't many dangerous ones to worry about, but there are plenty of deer that have been introduced recently that are doing rather well for themselves since there aren't any major predators yet. Pretty soon, if nothing else is introduced, there would likely be a situation where there would be bounties offered in actively hunting the deer, just to keep them from tearing up the countryside too much. Though, I imagine they were just letting the deer population get established before introducing the predators that are safe enough for humans but dangerous for deer.
But I did not get to move forward with that when I saw a hover car coming down the road at a rather brisk pace. Wondering what that was about, I got up and put my drink down, walking across the porch to put my hand on one of the supports that kept the roof above the porch. Looking out, I tried to determine if it was some sort of threat or just someone who is very, very lost.
"Jango, what's going on?" I turn to see Arla poking her head out of the window, a blaster rifle already in her hands.
"No idea, but just stay in the house for now." She nodded and then slipped back in the house, closing the window. Probably going to find somewhere where she could post up in case this turned into a gunfight. I laid my hand next to my pistol, but not on the grip completely. This way, it's not threatening cause I don't want a firefight to damage my farm, yet I could quickly draw and fire if anything happened.
The hovercar finally came to a stop in front of our house, and two individuals got out. Two individuals I had not expected to see.
"I think you could have gone a little bit slower, Satine." The bearded individual said. As a blonde woman, a familiar enough blonde woman though I had never met her personally, shook her head. "Time is of the essence and we need information as soon as we can." Turning towards me, she said, "Jango Fett? You're Jango Fett, right?"
"Yes, that would be me, and you're the Duchess of Mandalore." I said with a nod. "Welcome to my humble abode." I gestured at the homestead with my hand, "Though, I wasn't prepared for a guest of your distinction. I hope you don't mind."
She smiled and said, "I don't really. I did not want to bother you at all, as I heard you were trying to go straight, so I left you to your own devices. But I needed help and you are the first person that came to mind."
Shaking my head, I said, "You need my help? I'm just a simple man making his way in the universe, Duchess. There's probably nothing I can help you with. Don't you have a Self-Defense Force, Mandalorian Guard, even the Royal Guards? They could all help you, while I'm just a simple bounty hunter."
"Simple? Well, I doubt that." The man said. I looked over to him and noticed a few things quickly. He was wearing plas-steel armor, reminiscent of what the clones wore on their arms, and obviously there is his lightsaber on his hip.
"Jedi, I take it? One of the generals leading the Clone army, I would guess?" I asked. I got a nod from him.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi. I actually tried to locate you before the war started. I still have some questions if you don't mind answering those once we get through with our conversation here."
"I have a deal with the Mandalorian government, so I'll listen to your questions. But depending on where this conversation leads... As this is property of the Fett clan, if I ask you to leave, you are to leave, understand Jedi?"
"Perfectly." Obi-Wan nodded.
I stepped away from the support pole and indicated a couple of seats on the deck. "Alright, take a seat. Let's have this little conversation." Then moving over, I sat down in a prepared spot as the two came up onto the deck. Satine sat closest to me, with the Jedi sitting next to her.
"Mr. Fett, as I understand it, you used to be the Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians and fought against Death Watch twenty years ago." Obi-Wan said.
"Yeah, that is true. That was a long time ago. I don't see why this is being brought up now. I'm not the Mand'alor nor do I have the ambition to lead the entire sector, if that's what you're worried." I replied.
Shaking her head, Satine said, "Death Watch has made a move recently."
"Hah, really should not be surprised, factoring in the Mandalorian Civil War. We thought we destroyed Death Watch's leadership ten years ago before they came back, like the cockroaches they are. You think you knock one down, the others come back a few years later stronger than before." I said. Satine seemed troubled by my words, while Kenobi didn't answer, considering my words for a bit.
Shaking my head, I added, "I don't see how this affects me, though."
Obi-Wan brought up a device and played it, showing footage of a Mandalorian in combat. "Could you identify this individual? The armor scheme belongs to the leader Death Watch. I understand that you would have some knowledge on that matter."
I looked at it and shook my head, saying, "If that's what the Death Watch wears nowadays, they've given up their little motif of having the very pronounced T-shape visor and gone with just a regular super commando style. It tells me that they're not what they used to be. At the very least, it was one of the gimmicks that made them sort of separate from regular Mandos." Looking at the pair, I said, "But I doubt that this footage was what's caused the ruckus prompting you to seek me out. So spill it. What's got the Duchess of Mandalore and a Jedi on my doorstep this evening?"
And they spilled, explaining quickly that Death Watch had taken control of a Republic warship and they had to announce themselves as freedom fighters against the Republic. That left me rather in disbelief. "That is very much unlike the Death Watch I know. The one that had screwed over my family had been unequivocally barbaric and evil. The fact that the new head honcho is trying to play freedom fighter, immediately tells me that this is unlike the previous Death Watch. Most likely, whoever is in charge of Death Watch nowadays is not a zealot or an ideologue like Tor Vizsla was. Or this new guy is keeping his zealotry to a minimum, hard to say with Death Watch." I tapped a hand against my thigh as I considered the situation.
"It's a right mess they've made. The kind that threatens the Neutrality without really threatening the Neutrality. Which makes them the heroes of the story." I said while sipping my lemonade, as Arla came out with a tray carrying two more glasses of lemonade with some cookies, offering it to the Jedi and the Duchess.
"Thank you." Satine said, taking a cookie and the drink.
Obi-Wan did the same, nodding. "Thank you." he said, sipping his lemonade.
Satine sighed, taking a moment thinking before saying, "This is why I wanted to speak with you about a job. We need to talk to this Death Watch. You are the only one who's ever tracked down Death Watch that I might be able to trust."
I chuckled at that, sipping my lemonade and thinking for a moment before saying, "I see, you want me to find Death Watch for you, but there'll be a finder's fee. I assume you can afford that."
She started to nod before Obi-Wan spoke up, saying, "If she can't, which I doubt, the Jedi Order will cover half the cost. If it is true that the Maelstrom was involved in an incident like this, the Jedi Order must find out why it happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. This war is bad enough already; we do not need our own side causing misery and suffering for the Republic."
"Hmm, deep pockets and I don't even have to leave the Mandalore system to do a job. All right, I'm in." I said, getting up. Giddy at the chance to send an outrageous bill to the Jedi Temple of all things. "I already have an idea where I could find the Death Watch."
"You do?" Satine said as I started to walk towards my door.
"I've been on Concordia for a couple of weeks now. I've seen a few flyers and symbols I recognize as Death Watch's, or the organization using their name at least. Didn't think too much of it at the time, figured it was just kids being kids. But if Death Watch is really alive and well, then I have to assume that there might be a bit more to it than that. Though not sure exactly how we're going to get you to see the leader himself. You two kind of stand out in a crowd. Just going to say that now."
"I have made preparations." Satine said, getting up. "Do you have a couple of rooms we can use to change?"
I raised an eyebrow, looking at her before saying, "You brought armor? Ha, that'll be a sight to see. There are a couple of empty rooms. Boba!" I called, knowing he would hear me.
A few moments later, he appeared in a bit of a huff. "Yes, Father?"
"Show the Duchess of Mandalore and this Jedi Knight the guest rooms, would you?"
"Yes, Father." he said, as the Duchess's team followed behind him.
Obi-Wan moved over towards the car and said, "Do you mind helping me get the sets of armor and their rather large containers in the back of the vehicle?"
"Sure." I said, moving to help him. The back of the vehicle was open, and yes, they were in some heavy-duty crates, especially designed for armor moving. Though there was obviously a hover feature on them, which gave me a moment to give him a side-eye. "You want to ask your questions, don't you?"
"Off the record, not about the current Mandalorian situation, yes."
"Well, go ahead then. I'm sure Satine won't be waiting too long, though. We need to get this operation moving. I don't know how long it will take to get where we're going, not to mention if it'll still be there."
He nodded before saying, "You were the template for the clones. Who hired you? Was it Master Sifo-Dyas?"
"Ah, this question. Well, I've been preparing for this question for some time." Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "Tyrannus. A man named Tyrannus hired me for that job. He said something along the lines of the Republic is going to need an army and that the galaxy is heading straight to a galactic civil war. Tyrannus, though, could very well have been a fake name. I don't really know what his true name was."
"It's not Count Dooku, correct?"
Shaking my head, I said, "Nope, the man who hired me was not Count Dooku." Which is true from a certain point of view. I would not say the man, Jedi Master Dooku, who'd been involved in the fight that sent me to slavery at the end of the Mandalorian Civil War, is the same man as Tyrannus. Let's say they had a lot of ideological changes since then.
Obi-Wan continued to look at me, not sure if he believed me or not, but he pressed the button on the case, pushing one to me so that I could help move them into the house, and said. "Alright then, I'll take your word for it, but if you ever come across any information on who Tyrannus is, please let me know."
"Will do." I said calmly as I pushed the crate towards the house.
Concordia, Rural Southern Countryside
Satine Kryze
Perhaps I was being a bit too forward, maybe even a bit too naive. Perhaps I had seen Tanya pull this off one too many times and wondered if maybe there is something to Tanya's more hands on method. Either way, I found myself in the back of a truck with Obi-Wan, squeezed tightly together due to the lack of space. I am wearing my armor, bearing my standard blue, green, and purple coloration, but otherwise lacking the ceremonial adornments and less rugged attachments. It hopefully made me look like a Mandalorian with an artistic flair.
There are some small upsides to this, like Obi-Wan is sitting next to me. There isn't much room in the back of the truck, so he is trying and failing to not encroach into my personal space. His armor is a standard Mandalorian blue, with some coating of shine to make it a bit more noticeable. I blame Tanya for making the silver-chrome armor look popular again, though Ben would have to suffer the laser blue look because of her. Obi-Wan traded out his personal armor so that he could blend in more, and is hiding his lightsaber behind a jetpack that I had requisitioned from Zum.
The truck jostled us again, pushing my own jetpack into my back painfully. I didn't really want to bring them, but I've listened to Tanya's many passionate speeches about its maneuverability in combat, and that I might need it to escape. Flight would be preferable to fighting, so in this case I do appreciate having a jetpack. I am also armed with a few hidden blasters with stun settings. Hopefully this is enough to delay and escape if the situation gets out of control.
But that's really the question: would the situation get out of control? I hoped to talk down this Death Watch leader, convince them into possibly returning the Maelstrom. The Maelstrom is probably going to be the biggest issue of this whole conflict. The fact that a terrorist organization had access to what amounted to a Battle-Cruiser and is threatening to continue its assaults on Republic warships whenever they drove too near to Mandalorian allied space is a serious problem. A problem I needed to solve if I wanted the peace of neutrality to maintain itself. This was, without a doubt, exactly what the Republic needed to disregard the neutrality that had finally been officially set up.
Not to mention, this whole situation made the entire region look unsafe. The 10th Army, which oversees the Mandalore sector according to the Republic military, is already on edge from the Mandalorian Protectors' continued assaults. They control the Hydian Way, and if they were ordered to move on Mandalore, there is not much I could do without a bloody battle between the Republic and the new MSDF.
Thankfully, we only had to worry about the 10th Army. Though the region that the Maelstrom had been taken from is under the control of the 11th Army. They are currently busy fighting droids at the end of the Hydian Way frontier to look back at Mandalore.
We needed Death Watch to stand down, otherwise this would be more than enough justification for the Senate to orchestrate an invasion and bring war to Mandalore. Which I am willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.
Looking forward, I saw Jango in his own armor, humming something in his helmet as a band I am unfamiliar with played on the radio.
Tilting his helmet to look up at the rearview mirror, Jango said, "Sorry we couldn't do this in my ship. Haven't had the time to build a landing port at the homestead yet. Soon as I do, I'll probably be able to park Slave 1 back there, but we'll just have to make do with this car." He tapped the hood.
"It's quite alright." I said. "I do wonder how you know where the Death Watch is?" I asked as he looked back on the road.
"The Death Watch may have changed some of their technology, but they're not all that different from what they were twenty years ago. I've seen their symbolic indicators and road markers around the area a few times. But I assumed, of course, that these were just kids playing at being warriors. Every Mandalorian kid does that at one point in their lives. But if they really are out there, well I can follow those markers to their destination. I have a feeling we're going to be finding out the truth of the situation sooner or later." he said, tilting his head and indicating I should look out the front window. Doing so, I quickly saw what he was getting at.
We are approaching a small town that looked to have been abandoned decades ago. However, someone was still occupying the ruins. There is even a banner of a Death Watch symbol floating in the wind off one of the windows. A lot of debris had been moved out of the way. It is also quite lit up, as vehicles are parked here and there, sometimes ground-based, sometimes more space-based.
"Some sort of rally, I think." Jango said as he came to a stop behind another vehicle that was waiting in line as a Mandalorian guard spoke to them. "Sounds like they're doing a check to make sure that everyone who enters is really a Mandalorian supporter of the Death Watch."
"Will that be a problem?" I asked.
Jango shook his head before saying, "It should be fine. I've read the book the Death Watch based their ideas off of so I know what to say. So keep quiet and let me do the talking. Also, if you don't know Mando'a, don't speak. It's likely they will default to Mando'a during this meeting. Probably so they could catch anyone who's not really a Mandalorian."
Obi-Wan nodded. Thankfully, I didn't need to nod along. My Mandalorian is just a bit weaker than it had been. Most people I spoke to spoke in Basic, but I did still speak the ancient tongue. Bo had also given me a few remedial lessons over the last year or so.
Our truck waited in line, and before long, the speeder in front of us moved forward. Jango drove forward to the towering figure of the guard, likely the result of some near-human admixture, leaned over, and flashed the lights through the side viewing. All three of us were checked before the guard spoke in Mando'a with the tone of someone who has said the same thing dozens of times, "Who comes to join us against Demagolka of the Republic, who would use this war to cause pain and suffering for the Mandalorian way?"
Jango tilted his head and thought for a moment before deciding to do something I could only see as insane. "Clan Fett."
The giant of a woman nodded along for a second before she stiffened and looked over the three of us again. "Jango Fett?" She asked.
"Not many of my clan left." Jango said with a cool confidence.
The Death Watch guard tapped her helmet and said something over an internal channel that we could not hear. After a few moments, she nodded. "Who's with you?"
Jango chuckled and leaned back. "Duchess Satine and her Jedi boyfriend."
The giant laughed and shook her head as Jango joined her.
"You're a funny guy, but come on, I need to…" She seemed to pause for a moment before slapping a hand on the front of the speeder. "They are cleared. Everyone is to gather at the main tent in a few minutes; you can't miss it." Jango nodded and pulled forward as the large woman's helmet turned to Obi-Wan and me.
"I hope you know what you're doing." I said as we pulled out of the guard's earshot.
"What did he do?" Kenobi asked.
"He told her our names. Thankfully, she didn't believe him." I said, leaving out what else the man had said.
"I had assumed we would be avoiding attention, but then again, I guess we don't really need to be stealthy if everyone's eyes are on you." the Jedi said, getting a nod from the front seat.
"This does two things. One, keeps their eyes on me, not you. Which gives you more room to work, too. And two, well, I think I've just guaranteed that you'll have that chat with the leader of Death Watch. That or he'll try to kill me on sight, which will be more than enough to tell us about their motives."
"How so?" the Jedi asked.
But I had that answer covered, "If they try to kill him, that means that they can't really be reasoned with. Jango is a former Mand'alor. Killing him grants the leader the right to rule the sector. Which also means if they know I'm here, they could try to kill me as well."
"It's a dangerous game we're playing. With any luck, we should be able to negotiate our way out, though."
"I hope you're right." I said as the truck came to a stop and we were finally able to get out. Stretching my back, I looked over at the town, seeing that there were several guards wearing dark blue armor on patrol. I tried to look for the usual clan symbols on their shoulders, but they didn't have any. If they did, they seemed to have been replaced with general Death Watch symbology, most likely to keep which clans they came from a secret. From snoopers like me in this case.
Fett got out of the hover truck and said in Basic, "Let me lead the way. Pretend to be hangers-on."
Obi-Wan nodded, as we started moving. We passed by several more speeders and large tents with several individuals doing various chores. From painting armor to cleaning blasters to working on several large fighters I've never seen before. We quickly arrived at the front of a large tent in the center of a public square.
The two guards lowered their weapons to halt us as one asked in a very Concordian accent, "Jango Fett, what are you doing here? Considering you are responsible for the destruction of the Death Watch twenty years ago. I would have thought you'd stay far, far away from this organization or come for it, but to proudly walk in on one of our recruiting rallies has the leader confused."
Jango tilted his helmet before saying, "Well, I'm not here to join, not really a joiner, but I wanted to see what kind of an organization this Death Watch is like compared to the old one. Just to know if you are a threat to myself and my family, as well as maybe settle any old grudges now before they boil over into the same sort of mess they were twenty years ago."
There was a pause before the armored soldier nodded, stepping to the side, saying, "Then you may go in, but before that who are the two with you?"
Jango looked over his shoulder before shrugging and saying, "I found these two lovebirds found on the side of the road that wanted to join. So I did you guys a good deed and brought them with me. They can decide on their own if they want to join your organization or not."
I felt my face burning up underneath my helmet. I could feel it growing warm at the chuckles from the two guards, as they looked at Obi-Wan and me.
"Hah! A pair of burcyans out for a midnight stroll. We'll let them in so they could have the full take of the Death Watch before they go out and do what normal couples do on a midnight stroll." One of them called, stepping to the side and allowing us to enter the entryway of this old abandoned city.
"Make sure to find a place off the road that's comfortable first." Another guard added before the two broke out in laughter.
We were just out of their hearing when Obi-Wan commented, "It feels like I am missing some context. What did they say?"
"Nothing important." I said quickly, hoping that he couldn't understand Mandalorian and never knowing exactly what the two had implied. "We would not be doing that again, that's for sure." I whisper under my breath.
The room is full of Mandalorians, mostly wearing the blue and black of Death Watch. Whatever clan symbols they had, for the most part, had been removed too. Though there are plenty of Mandalorians who are obviously new to the organization, newcomers who had seen the broadcast earlier today since their armor isn't the same shade of dark blue as the rest. This should make it easier for us to blend in with the rest. No one looked at us twice as we stood inside the large tent where they were shuffling all the Mandalorians into. I did not recognize any of the newcomer's clan symbols, so they are either such minor clans that they were not politically powerful enough to be recognized or from far away, possibly the Dysphoria, returned to join with Death Watch.
The room is relatively quiet, with some minor conversations here and there. We found an empty spot at the corner to observe the proceeding, but we didn't get to wait long before the recognizable ignition of a lightsaber went off. As everyone turned to face the front of the room, I clicked the button on my glove, which turned on a camera in my helmet, so we could record this.
Standing there is a Mandalorian. In his hand is the Darksaber, a weapon that had forged the history of Mandalore for the last thousand years, a replacement for the Mask of the Mand'alor that had been lost nearly 4,000 years ago.
Holding the sword up, he got everyone's attention before turning it off, placing it on a pedestal next to him as he looked across the crowd, seeming to be deciding what to say next. Finally, he said, "Children of Mandalore, welcome to Death Watch. We are an organization founded on preserving the ancient ways in this so-called peaceful time. If you're here, you've seen our broadcast. You've seen what the Republic did and you know that they will do it again. They did it to Mandalore no more than twenty years ago and they did it two centuries before that. The Republic had set a precedent that killing entire planets can be deemed as acceptable losses in war. What's to stop them from doing it again? And they will do it again. Since we can't rely on the Republic or the Separatists to hold themselves accountable for their actions, we will."
He paused before saying, "As I said in my broadcast earlier, our Mand'alor, Duchess Satine Kryze, has done an excellent job of preparing the Mandalore Sector to defend itself against the inevitable. But we are just one sector. There are Mandalorian worlds outside the sector and worlds of the Neutral Council that could not adequately defend themselves. Sooner or later, the Republic will strike against the Neutral Council so we must be prepared to defend ourselves so that what happened to Kromus does not happen to our homes. But, we must not only be capable enough to defend ourselves, we must also be able to attack outwards and retaliate. To push against the Republic and maybe the CIS too, if they have gone too far."
The crowd is eating this up, cheering to some extent and holding up their gauntlets in a salute.
"Of course, in order to do this, we may have to work with the CIS. Their support may be invaluable. They've already promised us weapons if we engage the Republic's forces inside the Neutral Zone. In addition, I have come into contact with Spar Fett, leader of the Mandalorian Protectors. He has already firmly sided with the CIS and is willing to join us in protecting the Mandalorian sector when it calls for aid."
"What if the Duchess calls for aid?" someone called from the crowd.
"I don't know. Why don't we ask her yourself?" He said, his eyes firmly landing on me as a spotlight activated from the ceiling shined its light on me. "Your armor may not be as pretty as it usually is, my Duchess, but it's still recognizable enough from the holoshow you had put out months ago."
Biting my lip, I tried to think. This is a situation where I should escape. But, I realized that he isn't threatening me. There are plenty of Mandalorians all around me, yet none of them are reaching for their weapons. The only one who really looked ready to fight is Obi-Wan. His hand sliding towards the area hidden underneath his jetpack, which would allow him to get his lightsaber.
Taking a breath, I reached up and pulled my helmet off. Loud gasps could be heard from the audience as I rested my helmet under my arm and looked up at the Death Watch leader.
"To answer the question, I will never call upon Death Watch for the aid of Mandalore. I believe the Self-Defense Force is capable enough for the task. Our allies in the Neutral Council are enough. These are the proper and official ways of dealing with such a situation. Not to mention, as long as the Mandalorian government is not brought low by external conflict, and we do not break any of our treaties, the Republic has no grounds to invade the Mandalorian system as they would be breaking the conditions of our disarmament."
"A very legalistic perspective that I'd even say it's true. From a certain point of view the Republic should have no way to legally invade the sector. However,you have to forgive me for not taking them up on their word. Nothing is preventing the rulesetters from changing their own rules for their own benefit, as they've obviously shown themselves capable and willing of doing. Why else would they have had no problem destroying an entire planet and a billion lives simply for war against the CIS?"
We had switched to Basic at this point, so Obi-Wan spoke up in response. "The Republic did not order the destruction of Kromus, at least not on purpose. I would think war is a terrible thing when atrocities can happen as easily as an accident."
The Death Watch leader tilted his head to look at Obi-Wan before saying, "Well, that may be true, but maybe you have a bit of a hat in the ring, young Mandalorian, if that's really who you are. Why don't you pull your helmet off and tell us what clan you come from?"
I would have told him not to do what he did, but he did it anyway. Pulling his helmet off and letting it fall to the ground, Obi-Wan said. "I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master of the Order. I'm here to investigate what has happened with the Maelstrom and to try as well as prevent the war that you are starting by taking control of that ship."
"The war I'm starting? Now that's an interesting point of view. As far as I've seen, the Republic has started this war. They invaded Geonosis before letting the CIS go free and now they've destroyed a planet on the border of the Neutral Council. I simply stepped in to do what the Neutral Council could not. Delivering merciless justice for those who died upon the heads of those responsible." The Death Watch leader said.
"And killed the Jedi in the process." Obi-Wan said.
"Yes, a monster, the Demagolka." He reached onto the podium and pulled something out that looked like a data chip and tossed it into the distance. Obi-Wan caught it in his hands, possibly with help from the Force, I would assume.
"These are all records I was able to extract from the Maelstrom. They will show you that the Jedi responsible for this atrocity had no remorse for what he did and sent his clones to die on Kromus. If anything, I think you should be thanking me, Master Jedi, because I've just weeded out one of your bad eggs. I wonder how many more are amongst your Jedi Order, ready to be pushed into murderers and monsters just by getting a little bit of conflict in them." The leader said.
Obi-Wan did not look happy at that, but he did look around and noted that while everyone was ready to start a fight, no one pulled out their weapons yet.
"I hope your statement is true, Leader of Death Watch." Obi-Wan said, sliding the chip into a pocket. "I will bring this back to Coruscant to be investigated, but that doesn't change the fact that as long as you hold the Maelstrom, you have committed a crime against the Republic."
"I don't think of it that way. I've removed a weapon that the Republic is going to use to kill more from their hands. If the Republic cannot fight a war responsibly, then perhaps you shouldn't have access to such weapons, like the children you are." The Death Watch leader said.
There was a good amount of laughing at that comment. Obi-Wan did not look amused.
Shaking my head, I said, "Well, Leader of Death Watch, since you are going to continue to claim that what happened here is your organization doing a good deed, maybe you'd like to show your face and tell us who's behind the helmet."
The Death Watch leader tilted his horned helmet for a moment before saying, "I'll do that the moment White Silver does. If White is still free, parading around the galaxy for nearly three years doing her 'good deeds' without showing her face, I think it's fair if I can do the same. Don't you?"
What was he implying? That I knew something about White Silver? Or was he simply noting the fact that White Silver had said she served me in her documents and was just trying to pressure me to reveal her identity? In either case, I am not going to do that. Biting my lip, I lied, "I don't have control over White Silver. I don't know who she is." I hoped Obi-Wan's focus was on the Death Watch.
The leader nodded before replying, "Then I guess Death Watch will remain faceless for now. We will continue our watch on the Republic's attempts to destroy the neutrality you want to keep safe."
"You're doing that by holding on to the ship." Obi-Wan remarked.
"If they come after me for taking a mass murderer's ship, I would think they are the aggressor in this situation. But despite their threats, we could negotiate the return of the ship. Perhaps for an expansion of the Mandalorian sector, full rights over areas of space that should be considered Mandalorian and not separated by terrible maps drawn up half the galaxy away."
"You know that'll never happen." Jango Fett said from the side with a chuckle.
"Ah yes, Jango Fett. What brings you here to my humble rally?" The Death Watch leader said, looking at him.
Jango replied. "Client asked me to do a job. That job is getting the two of them here to meet you."
"Do you want to join Death Watch and help protect the Mandalorian sector from the conflict that the Republic will bring?" The Death Watch leader asked.
"Nope. The Republic already got my DNA in spades for their Clone army. Would not want to fight millions of me even if they aren't as good as I am. But that's besides the point, I think Satine is the better option for the sector's neutrality overall. I've been watching her career for the last few decades, when I have the time. Always been a fan of what she's doing. Didn't think it would work out, but hey, twenty years and no official war. I think that's a new record, it feels like it for me."
The Death Watch leader looked at Jango in what I could guess is surprise before clearing his throat and saying, "Yes, Duchess Satine has done a good job of keeping war outside the sector. That's why we respect her recent efforts to build a defensive formation to protect our planets. Oh, before I forget."
Reaching into the pillar in front of him, he pulled out a weapon. It took me a moment to realize that it was a lightsaber, then he tossed it in our direction. A moment later, it flew into Obi-Wan's outstretched hand.
"I've heard you Jedi like to do something special with the blades of the fallen. This weapon is a cursed purple and came from the hands of a Jedi who is obviously no longer serving your so-called goals. I hope you destroy that cursed blade."
He nodded to the guards, and they started to push people out of the way, creating an exit for the three of us.
"You may go about your business. Duchess Satine, I'm sure you'll be quite busy trying to put this fire out. I won't stop you. And don't bother trying to come back here with any security forces. This is merely a temporary base. We'll be long gone before you get the MSDF up and moving."
I bit my lip before I said, "Fine. We'll meet again, leader of Death Watch."
"Of that, I have no doubt." He said as I turned, sliding the helmet on my head.
"I've got something to say." Jango said with a cool tone. The man looked out at the mass of armed Mandalorians. "I killed Death Watch once, I'm more than happy to do it again." He said simply, causing the gathered Mandalorians to mutter and bristle at the challenge.
"I expect nothing less." The leader of Death Watch replied, causing the entire tent to turn to him in shock. "Should Death Watch be led astray, should we no longer serve the interests of the Mandalorian People, it would be your duty to do battle with us and to slay us Jango Fett, I do not begrudge you that. But you know in your heart that we have a righteous cause here. That's why you came here openly, honestly, and without your blaster drawn."
Jango looked at the leader of Death Watch, the two men taking measure of the other for a while before Jango clicked his tongue. "So that's how it is. Alright, then we'll see how it goes." Jango said simply before turning about, and the three of us left the tent.
As soon as we got outside, we made our way towards the truck and slid into it. Though Jango quickly did a search, making sure no trackers or explosives had been placed on the truck while we were inside.
"Well, I think that went rather well." Obi-Wan said.
"Could have gone much worse." Jango agreed as the hovertruck started to back up. "Could have been blasted to bits. So, just what's your plan now? What are you going to do to try and save the Mandalorian sector from war? I just backed you, so you better have something."
I bit my lip inside my helmet, leaned back as I thought, trying to come up with the best possible option for this situation. There weren't that many of them and there's really only one solution.
"I'm going to need to go to Coruscant. Bring as much evidence as possible that this Death Watch is under control within the Mandalorian sector. They are not causing problems and that we will not tolerate any recruitment activities. That's the only way to prevent the Republic from voting to marshal their fleet into the sector."
"I'm afraid you're right." Obi-Wan said with a nod. "They are not exactly in the best of moods since the start of this war, and the idea that this Death Watch is using the Mandalore sector as recruiting grounds and a shield is bad enough. Factor in that you have your own military again, the Senate will probably start worrying that Death Watch will unseat you and then declare a crusade in the name of the CIS. My report will have to include the fact that they are in contact with the CIS."
Part of me wanted to prevent him from doing that. But if I did that, I would not be helping the situation. It would look like I am trying to hide that, which will only raise suspicions. Letting out a sigh, I finally said, "Alright, we'll need to go back to Mandalore. I need to get prepared."
Jango nodded from the front seat, as Obi-Wan said, "I'll go with you. If he is playing fair, he won't do anything. But if he's not, it would be best to have some sort of security while you're in transport."
"I'd bet my life on that." I didn't believe the extra security is necessary but knowing how precarious the situation is, it might be better for everyone's peace of mind if I am better protected. The fact that I could spend more time with Obi-Wan a bit longer has nothing to do with it. What's the worst that could happen?
"I'd come too." Jango said from the front seat. "But I'm pretty sure the contract I have signed says I can't leave the sector, let alone the system. So, I guess this is goodbye after we stop at my place."
"That's alright." I said. "Thank you for your service Mr. Fett. You've been a great help to Mandalore today, and I will make sure you're well compensated for this help."
He nodded, "Just doing my civic duty, Mand'alor." He said with a chuckle as I glared at the man.
Writer's note: And there we have the opening of a familiar but different arc and as we can see, things are getting tense in many ways in the Mandalore system. What will happen? Who knows, not me or do I? Only time will tell what plot lines will come to end from this arc bahahaha.
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by: Pedersen Guardsman Pius, fulgurant, Fallqm, Warmach1ne32, Afforess
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21 BBY Month 4
Mandalore, Sundari, Royal Palace
Obi-Wan Kenobi
I had not expected that I would be returning to Mandalore anytime soon, especially with the galaxy embroiled in a war. While meeting an old friend is always a good thing, this is not a social call, especially with what I have been charged with undertaking by the Jedi Order and the Republic.
As I approached the front doors of the main atrium. Several of the Royal Guards stood to either side of the door. One of them held up a hand, indicating that the Duchess is not ready to receive visitors yet. However, after a moment, he lowered it and indicated with a nod that I could enter. "The Duchess will see you shortly."
Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for whatever was about to happen. I stepped through the doors and enjoyed the slight quietness of the upper palace meeting area. It's spacious with plenty of sunlight streaming through the windows. I enjoyed the peaceful cityscape of Sundari each time I visited, earned all those years ago in the Clan Wars with Satine. However, I could sense I was about to be interrupted.
"Master Kenobi." I turned my eyes from the city beyond to Prime Minister Almec as he came out of a side chamber.
"Minister Almec." I inclined my head slightly in acknowledgement.
"It's an honor to have you back on Mandalore, Master Jedi." he replied. "It is unfortunate that this visit is under such dire circumstances."
I nodded, saying, "Likewise, unfortunately, the investigation into the attack on the Maelstrom leads back to the Mandalore sector."
"Mandalore?" Minister Almec said slowly, confusion in his voice, "I don't understand how that could be the case. Satine... Mandalore enjoys its relationship with the Republic. You must be mistaken, because Mandalore has o reason to involve itself in any way. How certain are you of this evidence? Perhaps this is the Separatists manufacturing false trails?"
I nodded slowly at that possibility. "I understand your skepticism and it is a possibility. But if the CIS were responsible for the attack on the Maelstrom they used Mandalorians to do it." I reached into a pocket and pulled out a holo projector. I pressed a button to activate it, revealing a bit of footage that had been recovered from a data transmission. Shown most prominently are Mandalorian warriors with various symbols on their armor storming a hallway, ignoring shots from Republic troopers as if it were nothing, before retaliating with their own shots at the clones with predictable results. I froze the footage and zoomed in on the Mandalorian warrior to show the Minister.
"Oh my, this is troubling." Prime Minister Almec said, examining the footage in closer detail. "That does appear to be real beskar." He watched the footage loop again, scrutinizing it more closely, and I him, but I failed to sense any dishonesty from the Prime Minister.
"Yes, they are wearing Mandalorian armor, but I can't say for sure that they are Mandalorians. At least, I can guarantee that they are not New Mandalorians. The people here have given up our warlike ways. Peace, culture, and freedom are all that we want. There are some who still cherish the old ways, primarily those of Concordia and the planets of the Mandalorian sector, though it's unlikely that they would dare attack a Republic ship." That is irrelevant as far as the Senate is concerned, the attack happened, it didn't matter if it was unlikely.
"They did more than just attack the ship, they have captured the ship as a spoil." I explained, causing him to stop his thoughts as he looked at me in wide-eyed shock. "The Maelstrom is missing, and the lack of debris indicates that they have taken it for themselves. That is why we are so concerned about the situation. The Maelstrom was on a priority mission to destroy a Separatist superweapon in the region and is carrying devastating weapons."
"As alarming as that is, what you've told me already has me convinced this is the work of the CIS."
I stared into Almec's eyes, while also feeling for any sign of duplicity in the Force. And yet, he radiated certainty, "What makes you so convinced?"
"No Mandalorian organization has the strength to capture such a ship. White Silver doesn't have the access to enough beskar to outfit a strike force capable of taking over a large Republic Cruiser the size of the Maelstrom, even if they might have enough fools to make the attempt. Death Watch doesn't have the resources or depth for something like this, as they are merely rebellious vain glorious kids spouting about the old days when we could wage war against the galaxy. Not even the Royal Guards and the MSDF could have accomplished something like this." He answered, and I couldn't spot any obvious untruths.
"I too doubt it's White Silver. She's rather mercantile when it comes to her operations, from what I have seen. Alienating the Republic would be counterproductive to her stated goals especially when her mercenaries are already working for the Republic." I said.
Almec looked back up and raised an eyebrow, "You've met White Silver?"
I nodded since it is the truth. Though I did not know her well, this did not align with what I'd seen of her motives. She wanted to keep Mandalore out of the war. Attacking a Republic vessel would draw too much attention. "This Death Watch organization. What have they been up to exactly?" I asked.
"There was an attempt to kill an idol a few months back as well as the Prince of Mandalore not long after. Though thankfully, the Royal Guard were quite able to handle the situation." Almec explained.
"What about the Workers' Council? I heard from Representative Kryze that they are native to the region that the Maelstrom vanished in." I said.
Almec shook his head. "I doubt they would engage in any open hostility. There is some connection between them and the CIS, I'm sure of that. Arms smuggling, we believe. But they are currently not engaging in any hostility against the Mandalorian government. We're monitoring the situation, we'd inform the Republic if it got out of hand." A half-truth there, interesting. I'd have to send a message to R4 to follow up on Anteevy.
"The Republic needs to know immediately if the Maelstrom resurfaces. Do not move against the ship without first informing us. If the perpetrators show up in the next few months with the Maelstrom as their new flagship, I think we'll agree they were responsible." I said with a nod before I spoke plainly.
"To be honest, Prime Minister, the Republic is not happy. There have been some reports of ships tailing our vessels crossing through Mandalorian-controlled space and outlying sectors. The fact that this has happened more than once worries me that it might happen again. The Republic is wondering if Mandalore has decided that it would be better to be part of the CIS than staying neutral."
Prime Minister Almec looked genuinely insulted, so I turned down the politics a bit and emphasized my priorities, "I personally do not believe this is true, of course, but the Senate does. When the Senate believes something is amiss, the Jedi need to investigate it."
"What happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'? Has that been thrown to the wayside?" came Satine's voice and she doesn't sound happy. Turning, I saw her enter the atrium along with Senator Merrik. He's by her side and looking a bit worse for wear.
"Duchess Satine." I bowed, my mood brightening. Perhaps we could cut straight to the heart of matters now.
"Master Kenobi, or is it 'General' Kenobi now?" She twisted her tone and emphasized the word, and in so made it clear what she thought of the military rank.
I withstood her tone and folded my arms behind my back, "I'm afraid it's General Kenobi for now. Though I will be glad when this war is over, and I can relinquish that command." Shaking my head at that, I continued, "But it is good to see you, Duchess Satine. You're as radiant as ever."
For a brief moment, I saw a twitch of her lips before she suppressed it. However, I didn't sense any real animosity, which told me that this was more about pomp and circumstance than actual anger at me. Satine shook her head before saying, "Kind words from someone who accuses Mandalore of treachery. Tell me, then, is this investigation ordered by the Senate going to interfere with our internal affairs?"
I shook my head in the negative, "The actual investigation was ordered by the Jedi Council. The Senate is simply watching this investigation with interest."
"Of course they are." She muttered under her breath before she said, "Well then, General Kenobi, would you care to go for a walk with me? I'm willing to have a more in depth conversation about the situation here in Mandalore." I would never say no to ditching the politicians, and Satine didn't count.
"Gladly, Duchess." I agreed as she walked up to me, smiled, and walked past. I nodded and said a brief farewell to Almec and Merrik, before following her at a slight angle, letting her lead the way. We moved through the hallway towards the steps into the main area of the palace. I sensed more than saw the pair of Satine's Royal Guards following us discreetly.
Stepping out into the main city, I noticed just how much glass there is used in the city's architecture. Even the floors of certain areas were made of glass, allowing people to look up through the structures into the light. This great domed city is just full of natural light. It is quite enjoyable from an architectural design perspective.
Once we were a bit further away from the palace, Satine stopped as we reached a corner and nodded towards a wall. On the wall were several posters, seeming to be against whoever the owner was, as there were indications they had been ripped down over the years. Although, the fact that they were nearly layered on top of each other indicated an underlying problem.
Shaking her head, Satine said, "Things had been peaceful on Mandalore until this war started, at least I'd like to think so. I mean, we had that issue a few years ago, but-"
"I know." I interrupted, "This whole galactic conflict is just stirring up issues throughout the galaxy. Ancient rivalries, old grudges. What exactly is going on here in Mandalore?"
Satine sighed before saying, "Honestly, a bit of a quagmire. Yes, Death Watch has been a slight issue, as hooligans and radicals, for years. All of a sudden, they started being more active in the previous year, possibly encouraged by the current conflict." She indicated one of the posters showing a strange mark, which appeared to be a three-slash with a central slash down the middle of the three. "Someone is putting up posters promising adventure and 'A return to the Old Ways if you join up with the Death Watch'." She said, translating the Mandalorian letters for me on it. I could just make out enough of the Mando'a to agree with her translation.
Shaking her head, there was a look of frustration toward the other two posters. "That's not the only posters that have been appearing recently. You're familiar with White Silver?" She indicated a pair of four feathers on a diamond-like shape. "These posters have been popping up as well, talking about how Mandalorians should join the Mercenary Guild that White Silver is running. Go see the galaxy, have adventures, go die out in wars that they should not be involved in."
"And this poster?" I asked, indicating the third one next to it, a strange symbol, looks like a hammer and sickle crossing each other.
Satine looked at it before saying, "That's a call for peace. That Mandalorians should stay far, far away from the conflict."
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad." I said, noting that the poster was in better shape than the other two. "The other two seem to have had people vandalize them to some extent, while the third one was left alone for the most part."
"Yes, on the other hand, they are questioning my sanity for wishing to defend Mandalore by creating the Self-Defense Force."
"Ah yes… the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force. That's one of the other reasons I believe the Senate is concerned."
She scoffed at that. "Of course they are. Doesn't matter that they are legally unable to be used for a military campaign other than self-defense. Mandalorians with a military arming up? Now they're going to invade the galaxy." While Satine said it with obvious mockery in her tone. Unfortunately, nearly those exact words had been uttered by one Senator during a recent Senate debate. "I want to preserve the peace of Mandalore. It seems that certain people out there are uninterested in that, wanting to go back to the Old Ways."
"Of the three factions, which one do you think probably invaded the Maelstrom?" I asked.
She looked at me for a tense beat, "Death Watch for certain. They've become more active and have a motive, but I just don't see how they could have amassed such an ability without us knowing. Prime Minister Almec has always been one of my chief advisors on internal security concerns. We should have had much more warning before they were even capable of this."
I nodded before saying, "Perhaps he has been distracted. He seems to be rather sure it wasn't any proper Mandalorians."
"Perhaps. Almec has been fixated on the Silver Mandalorians' base on Gargon, so maybe he's been focusing too much on the Silvers than he should have been. But still, where would they have gotten the capability to do this? Mandalore has no rogue shipyards, most of our assets are still under construction to be honest."
Shaking my head, I said, "Only Death Watch knows where it could be hidden. When we finally catch up to whoever's leading this Death Watch, we'll be able to solve that mystery…"
"Perhaps. But I worry that you, a Jedi, leading this investigation could have unintended consequences. Mandalorians still have issues with the Jedi, to say the least. Not to mention, the Jedi's transformation from peacekeepers to generals are not helping the opinions of most Mandalorians."
"We're still peacekeepers, we're just doing it from the front lines." I said with a smile, but she only frowned in disagreement.
"That's part of the problem. If you are real peacekeepers, you wouldn't need to be on the front lines. There would be no conflict."
"In a better galaxy, you'd be right." I said with a nod. "Unfortunately, we don't live in that galaxy. Even you know that is true, otherwise you would never have authorized the creation of the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force."
That seemed to have been a bit too much because I saw a bit of annoyance pass over her before she sighed. "That may be true. I long so much for the days of believing that we could come to a fully peaceful society like what is found in the Core of the Republic, perhaps that is just a foolish dream."
"It's not foolish." I reassured her. "Mandalore is still peaceful, but you have acknowledged that you needed a defense force to protect yourself, something more well-equipped and numerous than the Royal Guards. Even the Jedi, at its most peaceful, carry a lightsaber not because we want to use it, but because we know it is necessary."
That brought a smile to her face, "Perhaps the Jedi and Mandalorians are not so different after all. Come, there are better places in Sundari to visit than this wall."
She offered her elbow, allowing me to lock arms with her as we walked more towards the center of the city. The central plaza had plenty of greenery, benches, and a large water feature a bit further away. It was as inviting as the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, except for my purpose here.
Smiling, I looked across the city, saying, "Every time I come here, I do have to say, it is a wondrous place you have built."
"Thank you, but it's not just me. It's through the cooperation of the peaceful people of Mandalore that have built this."
"Of course." Satine always underplayed her role in how things turned out, but I admired that trait too. The water fountain is an interesting design with the water spraying up through a decorative fountain, above it is a holographic projector showing the time and other various bits of information.
I looked away from it, focusing on Satine, "But the people of Mandalore made it because you..." The holo-projector I was staring through suddenly glitched, and switched to an ominous graphic, interrupting me. I stared at it, it's a display of three-slash with a central slash down the middle, the sign of Death Watch. Hovering right above the delicate water fountain. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"People of Mandalore, I am the leader of Death Watch, defenders of the Mandalorian people and guardians of the ancient ways. The Republic will label me a criminal, terrorist, and murderer. Those are strong claims, considering what they themselves have done to Kromus." The mysterious voice from various holo-speakers around the park and advertisements remarked.
The pair of Royal Guards that had been trailing us approached Satine, and one stepped close, to whisper something to her.
Meanwhile, the display on the holo-projector changed, showing a glowing ashen hellscape. Distorted and clearly footage taken in high orbit from an incredibly expensive sensor array. Tall husks of skyscrapers all bent outwards from a single point jutting out of a slowly shifting black crust, oozing magma everywhere. What had once been structures that towered hundreds of floors above the ground were twisted and burnt, in the distance one of the blackened bones of a tower bowed before crashing to the ground with little fanfare.
"Last week, the Kro'eval system had a population of just over one billion, now it is a tomb world. It was once part of the Mandalorian Empire and had several enclaves of our people still on it. It was also going to join the Council of Neutral Systems if it had not already been invaded by the Separatists."
"Now it's nothing but a burnt ruin, but not by the Separatists' doing. Oh no, this was the work of the Republic flagship, the Maelstrom." The hologram shifted to show an image of the Maelstrom next to a propaganda poster of the Maelstrom. "A Battle-Cruiser designed for mass destruction, carrying what we believe to be a tandem atomic-super weapon. A device the Jetti commanding the Republic ship deployed and detonated it in the middle of Kromus's capital city, knowing full well that this is the result. The Jetti had no regard for the population; he had no regard if the people there were for or against the Separatists. The Republic feared the superweapon on their world, and so the Jetti extinguished them all because it is more convenient."
To say I am stunned is an understatement, but the audience is even more appalled. Everyone is looking towards the screen in shock and horror at the destruction on screen. I could feel that Satine is a firestorm of emotions. I am also aware that a crowd is forming, from the agitated murmurs surrounding us. Someone muttered something in Mandalorian about Keldabe.
"The Republic, for as much as they would like to pretend they are just, are no better than the Separatists they are fighting against, nothing but Demagolka." Several members of the crowd gasped at the Mando'a word, "Those two monsters now choose to fight to destroy the other so they could become the sole ruler of the galaxy. And they fight alone; the Mandalorian Self-Defense Force, the Mandalorian people, stands strong. And it is because our Mand'alor, Duchess Satine has guided us to strength once more. Mandalore is strong again! We have the largest warband of Mandalorians seen since the days of the Neo-Crusaders!"
Now I am wide-eyed. Satine is vulnerable to whatever narrative this madman was crafting. I stepped next to Satine, noticing both her guards scanning the gathering crowd with concern. She met my eyes and shook her head, drat, I was going to suggest leaving. I turned back to listen to the rest of the screed. All Mandalorian villains seemed prone to monologue, in my experience, so I expanded my awareness further over the emotions of the crowd.
"Never before in all of our history have so many sons and daughters of Mandalore been assembled into a single warband, given a single purpose. More clans than ever before have rallied to you, Satine Kryze, millions of Mandalorians under arms march to your command. You have forged our people into a unified and potent force, and every day we grow stronger. When White Silver proclaimed you the true Mand'alor all those years ago, I admit, I was unconvinced. I was wrong, forgive me, my Mand'alor."
I turned back again to look at Satine, who was dawning in horror at the implications of it all. She seemed more upset by the effusive praise than the implication that she created the largest Mandalorian army since the Crusades, and especially bothered with the title of Mand'alor. Also, I could sense guilt? I suspected that Satine was not as sanguine about the creation of the MSDF as she professed. At some point, she had grabbed hold of my arm.
"I shall honor your goal to maintain neutrality for Mandalore. However, there are homes and families outside Mandalore, Mandalorians and friends of Mandalore that are under threat from the Republic. Their actions in these waning days of Republic power and influence, to so carelessly toss lives away if they are not from the Core, cannot be ignored. So, I will continue to do as I have done. I attacked the Maelstrom and I have taken it from them. It is now the rightful spoil of Death Watch, an organization that protects Mandalorians and beleaguered friends of Mandalore outside of the Mandalore sector."
"For those who would help me protect those outside the sector, I open my hand. Death Watch is willing to take you in. Seek us out and you will find us. Join us for honor and glory. I will be releasing footage of our legendary battle aboard the Maelstrom, behold as we avenge a billion souls and slay the Republic's Darjetti! His dark magic found no match for the might of Mandalore. Such glorious purpose awaits you. Come sons and daughters of Mandalore! Come and push back the darkness that seeks to overcome the galaxy! Join us in our eternal Death Watch!"
The fury that is radiating off Satine is such that I didn't need the Force to feel it. The amount of pressure on my arm betrayed her considerable physical strength. I hadn't realized she kept up with her combat fitness.
"Satine-" I tried to say, but she only turned and gave me a look.
"Take me to the Palace, now." We quickly made our way back to the Palace, the guards shutting the doors behind us as we entered the main area. Looking at the crowd, all of whom are simply staring slack jawed at the scene to really notice us leaving.
When we arrived back at the palace, Almec had not waited behind, so we were left only with a few Royal Guards in the room.
"Satine…" I began, but she immediately turned on me with a look of anger.
"Is what Death Watch said about Kromus true? Has it been wiped off the face of the galaxy by weapons launched from a Republic warship?!"
I didn't really know what to say, so I said the truth. "I don't know. The Maelstrom was involved in an operation to destroy a research site, but according to the records stored within the Jedi Temple and the Senate, the planet that was being used as a research site is uninhabited."
"So what was that? Some doctored footage? It didn't look fake to me."
"By the Force," I said with a nod, "there's something more going on here, something that we're unaware of, and we need to know more. I need to speak to the leader of Death Watch. I need to know what happened. Do you think there's any way we can track him down?"
Satine, who was looking rather furious, turned to look out the window, tapping her foot a couple of times before finally saying, "There might be a way."
Pulling back a sleeve, she revealed a wrist-mounted device and pressed a button, saying, "Zum, I need you to prepare a set of armor for me and one for an old friend."
A voice came back, saying, "Can do, my Duchess. I'll get on it right away. Need any weapons?"
"I'd rather not." She paused, as she contemplated his question. She finally answered, "Actually, stun only."
"Color for the other's armor?" the voice asked.
She looked at me and said, "Preferred color?"
Confused, I answered with my favorite color, "Blue."
She nodded as she said, "Really blue." into the comms before turning back to me.
"Satine, what are you planning?"
"There's an accent to that voice. Whoever is leading Death Watch is from the moon Concordia, of that I am sure. So we are going to go to Concordia. We are going to find the leader of Death Watch and we are going to make him stop. Hopefully, he'll tell you everything you need to know about what happened at Kromus."
I nodded before asking, "Do we have any other leads, other than that he is from Concordia? That seems like a large celestial body to search."
"I have one lead that I think might help us. Plus, the governor may be able to give us some information on where to look, but I won't be sure until we talk to him."
I nod before saying, "Alright then. As the expert on Mandalorian politics, I will leave it in your capable hands and guard you on this mission.'"
She smiled, and then said, "Just like old times," before letting out a sigh. "Obi-Wan, I do want to say, it is nice to see you again. We do not get together as often as we should."
I smile back, saying, "I agree. The life of a peacekeeper keeps me busy. I hope that we could have a nice meeting and talk this out without worrying about the conflicts going on inside the galaxy, but well, the galaxy finds a way.'"
She nodded before saying, "Hopefully, the galaxy will find a way to find peace again."
"By the Force, I hope you're right." I said, nodding my head in agreement.
Mandalore System, Concordia Space Port
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The shuttle ride from Mandalore to Concordia did not take long, as it only took twenty minutes, but I digress. We arrived at Concordia with the escort of several Royal Guards, landing in a more well-maintained city than I would have expected from what I had heard of Concordia. Shining bright towers came out of the side of a mountain; it almost reminded me of a fortress in its own way. It seemed rather peaceful, surrounded by the slowly growing back forests of the world.
Farmland buffeted quite a large portion of the area directly around the city, but it's not very deep farmland and would often trade zones with uncapped forests. From this altitude, the farmland seemed dwarfed by the old-growth forests, as the majority of the moon is still undeveloped.
"Here we are." Satine said, as the Royal Guards brought the shuttle in for a landing. I stood up and stretched myself out, and she stood up from her seat. She's wearing rather normal-looking clothing, not the extremely fancy dress that she had been wearing when I first walked into the palace. Carefully, she moved over and pressed a button; two slabs were dislodged from the wall, and the Royal Guards quickly moved them to a speeder in the back of the shuttle, stashing them in the boots of the vehicle.
Raising an eyebrow, I said, "The armor?"
She nodded before saying, "Best to keep that under wraps until we make our move. I don't know who is responsible for this, but I want to keep it anonymous until we're sure about what we're doing."
Nodding in agreement, I followed her down the ramp and saw an individual standing at the edges of the landing area. Satine smiled and led the way as her guards went about moving the transport vehicle out of the craft, so we could use it for movement.
"Governor Pre Vizsla." The Duchess said as she came up to him, giving a small nod as a greeting, not quite a bow but something similar.
"Duchess Satine welcome to Concordia. I did not expect to hear from you today but then again, I don't think anyone expected that broadcast earlier." He replied.
She nodded before saying, "Yes, I happened to recognize the accent of the new leader of Death Watch as being Concordian. I thought it would be best to investigate here and see what we would dig up on that matter." He winced as Satine mentioned the accent. It seems he had come to similar conclusions then. I could sense his frustration with the Force, so it seemed the broadcast had injured his pride in some way. Likely frustrated that a Concordian had been the one leading a terrorist organization.
"Oh, where are my manners?" She gestured to me and said, "This is Master Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, an old friend of Mandalore. Obi-Wan, this is Pre Vizsla, Governor of Concordia."
"Nice to meet you, Governor." I said, giving him a nod.
"Likewise, Master Jedi." Governor Vizsla said with a nod before turning his eyes back to Satine. "I recognize the accent as well and have already begun investigating. We are on the trail of an old mining outpost that may have been used as a Death Watch recruitment camp. Unfortunately, if it was one, it had already been abandoned. But that does indicate that there are elements of Death Watch here on Concordia. We will continue to investigate and as soon as I have information on the matter, I will let you know."
Satine nodded her head before saying, "Good, good. If you have any other clues, let me know. I'm going to accompany Master Obi-Wan on his own investigation."
"Oh, does he have any information that could help us find these terrorists?" Governor Vizsla asked.
I shook my head and replied, "I'm afraid not. I'm simply conducting this investigation on the orders of the Jedi Council. But I will say the leader of this Death Watch has created a bit of a precarious situation. I don't think they are prepared for both operating a Battle Cruiser nor having the Republic coming to take back their ship. I will definitely need to investigate the matter of the Maelstrom closer, find out who gave orders to destroy that planet and why it happened."
"Hmm, that is understandable. You need to hold your own accountable, after all. We've been doing the same for nearly twenty years here on Mandalore." Governor Vizsla said with a nod. "I would have thought the Maelstrom had a Jedi on board to prevent such acts of destruction. What happened?"
"I'm wondering that as well. The Jedi in question was not in good standing and I'm afraid he may not have been as thorough in his investigation of the planet as he should have been before authorizing this mission. That is another mystery that we need to solve. What happened to the Jedi who was on board the Maelstrom? I would assume nothing good, but we need to know nonetheless and recover his lightsaber if possible to at least put it in its proper place in the temple."
"Well, if we happen to run an operation against these Death Watch and recover such an item, I will have it transferred to you. I have no need for a lightsaber." Governor Vizsla said.
"Thank you. That is quite generous of you, Governor." I replied with a nod. I suspect the Governor is more interested in avoiding Jedi entanglements, though, but fair enough.
Satine spoke up, "I understand that Jango Fett has come to live on Concordia. Do you happen to have his address?"
Governor Vizsla raised an eyebrow before saying, "Yes, the former bounty hunter has taken up residence here, and I do have his address. I sold the land to him after all. Why do you want to speak with him?"
"I am curious as well." I replied. "I have questions that need answering about the Clone army — questions that only he could answer. Perhaps I would have an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone here."
Satine commented, "Quite simply, he is a former rival of Death Watch. So if there's anyone in this sector who would know the most about the Death Watch that would be willing to help us, it would be him. Perhaps he has some key bit of information that could tell us something about how they move, their motives, reasons they might have done what they've done, or perhaps even some secret location where they may have hid the Maelstrom, so we could return it to the Republic and prevent an intersector incident."
Governor Vizsla frowned, but nodded at the explanation. "It could also be a wild goose chase." He said matter-of-factly before shrugging. "But we don't really have any other leads, do we?" Turning to one of his men, he picked up a pad and quickly jotted something down before handing it to Satine. "This is his address. I believe he's moved in full time now. His watch dogs finally allowed him to go off-world as long as it's Concordia, so he's moving his family to the moon to start up his own farm."
"He's taking up farming? That's an unexpected career change for a bounty hunter." I remarked.
Governor Vizsla shook his head. "Not at all. Many Mandalorians in the past throughout our history had trades and crafts outside of combat. A large portion of the Mandalorians involved in the Crusades and Neo-Crusades were also farmers, hunters, and other minor jobs that were needed for civilization but weren't needed for the operations of the military. It was, after all, a near full mobilization in those days."
"Good point, Governor Vizsla. I'll keep that in mind as I speak to him."
Nodding, he said, "That is good. I see you already have transportation arranged, so I wish you luck in your mission. I hope everything goes wonderfully well while you're here on Concordia. Be careful of the mines though, as they are dangerous. A lot of them are old, abandoned, and not well maintained. If it doesn't look safe, don't enter them as it could collapse at any moment. That's just a word of warning."
Concordia, Fett Homestead
Jango Fett
I do not know what the hell I'm doing when it comes to farming. I am willing to admit that after a few weeks of trying. I may have been a farmer once, but that was a long time ago, and father did most of the work. Sure, I knew the basics of digging up the fields and planting things, but it was just not something I knew deep down. I spent most of my life learning how to hunt a man, not how to grow food. Maybe I should have taken up ranching instead, but I wanted to honor my late father.
But as long as I'm contracted to stay in the Mandalore system, I couldn't exactly go bounty hunting now, could I? So, I needed to find another job and farming made sense. Since I did not know what I was doing, I found some people who did, sort of.
I had quite a large amount of money stored up, enough so that I was able to purchase several droids meant for farming. They were out in the fields now, working the area and getting it prepared, while I just sat back here on the porch sipping a glass of lemonade. This does feel like cheating, but I doubt my father would mind.
I am watching those farming droids and learning from them in case I had to do it myself though. After all, there's always time to pick up a few new skills or refresh the old ones that are quite degraded. But there is something nice about just sitting back and letting the droids do most of the work, at least some of the time. I had helped out today for about 3 to 4 hours; but I had to pace myself to get back into farming shape.
That being said, while I didn't know everything I needed to know about farming, what I did know was working. As far as places go, this farm is turning out to be a nice place to live.
There's no one to bug us, a lot of open air. It's just ourselves and a bit of Holo-Net connection. It did kind of remind me of Concord Dawn. Boba is in his room, probably watching one of the idol shows or maybe that Silver Mandalorian junk that started broadcasting recently. And Arla is in the kitchen, she has taken up baking, of all things. I couldn't complain, for a former assassin, she makes a damn good cookie.
All in all, the Fett household is a relatively peaceful place. When I'm no longer under contract and this war is over, I am definitely going to make this my main place of operations. I'd still probably go out there and hunt from time to time, but this is a nice place to live.
Sipping my lemonade, I'm thinking about getting up and maybe getting the boy to go do some night hunting together. Hunting the local animals rather than bounty hunting is surprisingly legal here. There aren't many dangerous ones to worry about, but there are plenty of deer that have been introduced recently that are doing rather well for themselves since there aren't any major predators yet. Pretty soon, if nothing else is introduced, there would likely be a situation where there would be bounties offered in actively hunting the deer, just to keep them from tearing up the countryside too much. Though, I imagine they were just letting the deer population get established before introducing the predators that are safe enough for humans but dangerous for deer.
But I did not get to move forward with that when I saw a hover car coming down the road at a rather brisk pace. Wondering what that was about, I got up and put my drink down, walking across the porch to put my hand on one of the supports that kept the roof above the porch. Looking out, I tried to determine if it was some sort of threat or just someone who is very, very lost.
"Jango, what's going on?" I turn to see Arla poking her head out of the window, a blaster rifle already in her hands.
"No idea, but just stay in the house for now." She nodded and then slipped back in the house, closing the window. Probably going to find somewhere where she could post up in case this turned into a gunfight. I laid my hand next to my pistol, but not on the grip completely. This way, it's not threatening cause I don't want a firefight to damage my farm, yet I could quickly draw and fire if anything happened.
The hovercar finally came to a stop in front of our house, and two individuals got out. Two individuals I had not expected to see.
"I think you could have gone a little bit slower, Satine." The bearded individual said. As a blonde woman, a familiar enough blonde woman though I had never met her personally, shook her head. "Time is of the essence and we need information as soon as we can." Turning towards me, she said, "Jango Fett? You're Jango Fett, right?"
"Yes, that would be me, and you're the Duchess of Mandalore." I said with a nod. "Welcome to my humble abode." I gestured at the homestead with my hand, "Though, I wasn't prepared for a guest of your distinction. I hope you don't mind."
She smiled and said, "I don't really. I did not want to bother you at all, as I heard you were trying to go straight, so I left you to your own devices. But I needed help and you are the first person that came to mind."
Shaking my head, I said, "You need my help? I'm just a simple man making his way in the universe, Duchess. There's probably nothing I can help you with. Don't you have a Self-Defense Force, Mandalorian Guard, even the Royal Guards? They could all help you, while I'm just a simple bounty hunter."
"Simple? Well, I doubt that." The man said. I looked over to him and noticed a few things quickly. He was wearing plas-steel armor, reminiscent of what the clones wore on their arms, and obviously there is his lightsaber on his hip.
"Jedi, I take it? One of the generals leading the Clone army, I would guess?" I asked. I got a nod from him.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi. I actually tried to locate you before the war started. I still have some questions if you don't mind answering those once we get through with our conversation here."
"I have a deal with the Mandalorian government, so I'll listen to your questions. But depending on where this conversation leads... As this is property of the Fett clan, if I ask you to leave, you are to leave, understand Jedi?"
"Perfectly." Obi-Wan nodded.
I stepped away from the support pole and indicated a couple of seats on the deck. "Alright, take a seat. Let's have this little conversation." Then moving over, I sat down in a prepared spot as the two came up onto the deck. Satine sat closest to me, with the Jedi sitting next to her.
"Mr. Fett, as I understand it, you used to be the Mand'alor of the True Mandalorians and fought against Death Watch twenty years ago." Obi-Wan said.
"Yeah, that is true. That was a long time ago. I don't see why this is being brought up now. I'm not the Mand'alor nor do I have the ambition to lead the entire sector, if that's what you're worried." I replied.
Shaking her head, Satine said, "Death Watch has made a move recently."
"Hah, really should not be surprised, factoring in the Mandalorian Civil War. We thought we destroyed Death Watch's leadership ten years ago before they came back, like the cockroaches they are. You think you knock one down, the others come back a few years later stronger than before." I said. Satine seemed troubled by my words, while Kenobi didn't answer, considering my words for a bit.
Shaking my head, I added, "I don't see how this affects me, though."
Obi-Wan brought up a device and played it, showing footage of a Mandalorian in combat. "Could you identify this individual? The armor scheme belongs to the leader Death Watch. I understand that you would have some knowledge on that matter."
I looked at it and shook my head, saying, "If that's what the Death Watch wears nowadays, they've given up their little motif of having the very pronounced T-shape visor and gone with just a regular super commando style. It tells me that they're not what they used to be. At the very least, it was one of the gimmicks that made them sort of separate from regular Mandos." Looking at the pair, I said, "But I doubt that this footage was what's caused the ruckus prompting you to seek me out. So spill it. What's got the Duchess of Mandalore and a Jedi on my doorstep this evening?"
And they spilled, explaining quickly that Death Watch had taken control of a Republic warship and they had to announce themselves as freedom fighters against the Republic. That left me rather in disbelief. "That is very much unlike the Death Watch I know. The one that had screwed over my family had been unequivocally barbaric and evil. The fact that the new head honcho is trying to play freedom fighter, immediately tells me that this is unlike the previous Death Watch. Most likely, whoever is in charge of Death Watch nowadays is not a zealot or an ideologue like Tor Vizsla was. Or this new guy is keeping his zealotry to a minimum, hard to say with Death Watch." I tapped a hand against my thigh as I considered the situation.
"It's a right mess they've made. The kind that threatens the Neutrality without really threatening the Neutrality. Which makes them the heroes of the story." I said while sipping my lemonade, as Arla came out with a tray carrying two more glasses of lemonade with some cookies, offering it to the Jedi and the Duchess.
"Thank you." Satine said, taking a cookie and the drink.
Obi-Wan did the same, nodding. "Thank you." he said, sipping his lemonade.
Satine sighed, taking a moment thinking before saying, "This is why I wanted to speak with you about a job. We need to talk to this Death Watch. You are the only one who's ever tracked down Death Watch that I might be able to trust."
I chuckled at that, sipping my lemonade and thinking for a moment before saying, "I see, you want me to find Death Watch for you, but there'll be a finder's fee. I assume you can afford that."
She started to nod before Obi-Wan spoke up, saying, "If she can't, which I doubt, the Jedi Order will cover half the cost. If it is true that the Maelstrom was involved in an incident like this, the Jedi Order must find out why it happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. This war is bad enough already; we do not need our own side causing misery and suffering for the Republic."
"Hmm, deep pockets and I don't even have to leave the Mandalore system to do a job. All right, I'm in." I said, getting up. Giddy at the chance to send an outrageous bill to the Jedi Temple of all things. "I already have an idea where I could find the Death Watch."
"You do?" Satine said as I started to walk towards my door.
"I've been on Concordia for a couple of weeks now. I've seen a few flyers and symbols I recognize as Death Watch's, or the organization using their name at least. Didn't think too much of it at the time, figured it was just kids being kids. But if Death Watch is really alive and well, then I have to assume that there might be a bit more to it than that. Though not sure exactly how we're going to get you to see the leader himself. You two kind of stand out in a crowd. Just going to say that now."
"I have made preparations." Satine said, getting up. "Do you have a couple of rooms we can use to change?"
I raised an eyebrow, looking at her before saying, "You brought armor? Ha, that'll be a sight to see. There are a couple of empty rooms. Boba!" I called, knowing he would hear me.
A few moments later, he appeared in a bit of a huff. "Yes, Father?"
"Show the Duchess of Mandalore and this Jedi Knight the guest rooms, would you?"
"Yes, Father." he said, as the Duchess's team followed behind him.
Obi-Wan moved over towards the car and said, "Do you mind helping me get the sets of armor and their rather large containers in the back of the vehicle?"
"Sure." I said, moving to help him. The back of the vehicle was open, and yes, they were in some heavy-duty crates, especially designed for armor moving. Though there was obviously a hover feature on them, which gave me a moment to give him a side-eye. "You want to ask your questions, don't you?"
"Off the record, not about the current Mandalorian situation, yes."
"Well, go ahead then. I'm sure Satine won't be waiting too long, though. We need to get this operation moving. I don't know how long it will take to get where we're going, not to mention if it'll still be there."
He nodded before saying, "You were the template for the clones. Who hired you? Was it Master Sifo-Dyas?"
"Ah, this question. Well, I've been preparing for this question for some time." Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "Tyrannus. A man named Tyrannus hired me for that job. He said something along the lines of the Republic is going to need an army and that the galaxy is heading straight to a galactic civil war. Tyrannus, though, could very well have been a fake name. I don't really know what his true name was."
"It's not Count Dooku, correct?"
Shaking my head, I said, "Nope, the man who hired me was not Count Dooku." Which is true from a certain point of view. I would not say the man, Jedi Master Dooku, who'd been involved in the fight that sent me to slavery at the end of the Mandalorian Civil War, is the same man as Tyrannus. Let's say they had a lot of ideological changes since then.
Obi-Wan continued to look at me, not sure if he believed me or not, but he pressed the button on the case, pushing one to me so that I could help move them into the house, and said. "Alright then, I'll take your word for it, but if you ever come across any information on who Tyrannus is, please let me know."
"Will do." I said calmly as I pushed the crate towards the house.
Concordia, Rural Southern Countryside
Satine Kryze
Perhaps I was being a bit too forward, maybe even a bit too naive. Perhaps I had seen Tanya pull this off one too many times and wondered if maybe there is something to Tanya's more hands on method. Either way, I found myself in the back of a truck with Obi-Wan, squeezed tightly together due to the lack of space. I am wearing my armor, bearing my standard blue, green, and purple coloration, but otherwise lacking the ceremonial adornments and less rugged attachments. It hopefully made me look like a Mandalorian with an artistic flair.
There are some small upsides to this, like Obi-Wan is sitting next to me. There isn't much room in the back of the truck, so he is trying and failing to not encroach into my personal space. His armor is a standard Mandalorian blue, with some coating of shine to make it a bit more noticeable. I blame Tanya for making the silver-chrome armor look popular again, though Ben would have to suffer the laser blue look because of her. Obi-Wan traded out his personal armor so that he could blend in more, and is hiding his lightsaber behind a jetpack that I had requisitioned from Zum.
The truck jostled us again, pushing my own jetpack into my back painfully. I didn't really want to bring them, but I've listened to Tanya's many passionate speeches about its maneuverability in combat, and that I might need it to escape. Flight would be preferable to fighting, so in this case I do appreciate having a jetpack. I am also armed with a few hidden blasters with stun settings. Hopefully this is enough to delay and escape if the situation gets out of control.
But that's really the question: would the situation get out of control? I hoped to talk down this Death Watch leader, convince them into possibly returning the Maelstrom. The Maelstrom is probably going to be the biggest issue of this whole conflict. The fact that a terrorist organization had access to what amounted to a Battle-Cruiser and is threatening to continue its assaults on Republic warships whenever they drove too near to Mandalorian allied space is a serious problem. A problem I needed to solve if I wanted the peace of neutrality to maintain itself. This was, without a doubt, exactly what the Republic needed to disregard the neutrality that had finally been officially set up.
Not to mention, this whole situation made the entire region look unsafe. The 10th Army, which oversees the Mandalore sector according to the Republic military, is already on edge from the Mandalorian Protectors' continued assaults. They control the Hydian Way, and if they were ordered to move on Mandalore, there is not much I could do without a bloody battle between the Republic and the new MSDF.
Thankfully, we only had to worry about the 10th Army. Though the region that the Maelstrom had been taken from is under the control of the 11th Army. They are currently busy fighting droids at the end of the Hydian Way frontier to look back at Mandalore.
We needed Death Watch to stand down, otherwise this would be more than enough justification for the Senate to orchestrate an invasion and bring war to Mandalore. Which I am willing to do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.
Looking forward, I saw Jango in his own armor, humming something in his helmet as a band I am unfamiliar with played on the radio.
Tilting his helmet to look up at the rearview mirror, Jango said, "Sorry we couldn't do this in my ship. Haven't had the time to build a landing port at the homestead yet. Soon as I do, I'll probably be able to park Slave 1 back there, but we'll just have to make do with this car." He tapped the hood.
"It's quite alright." I said. "I do wonder how you know where the Death Watch is?" I asked as he looked back on the road.
"The Death Watch may have changed some of their technology, but they're not all that different from what they were twenty years ago. I've seen their symbolic indicators and road markers around the area a few times. But I assumed, of course, that these were just kids playing at being warriors. Every Mandalorian kid does that at one point in their lives. But if they really are out there, well I can follow those markers to their destination. I have a feeling we're going to be finding out the truth of the situation sooner or later." he said, tilting his head and indicating I should look out the front window. Doing so, I quickly saw what he was getting at.
We are approaching a small town that looked to have been abandoned decades ago. However, someone was still occupying the ruins. There is even a banner of a Death Watch symbol floating in the wind off one of the windows. A lot of debris had been moved out of the way. It is also quite lit up, as vehicles are parked here and there, sometimes ground-based, sometimes more space-based.
"Some sort of rally, I think." Jango said as he came to a stop behind another vehicle that was waiting in line as a Mandalorian guard spoke to them. "Sounds like they're doing a check to make sure that everyone who enters is really a Mandalorian supporter of the Death Watch."
"Will that be a problem?" I asked.
Jango shook his head before saying, "It should be fine. I've read the book the Death Watch based their ideas off of so I know what to say. So keep quiet and let me do the talking. Also, if you don't know Mando'a, don't speak. It's likely they will default to Mando'a during this meeting. Probably so they could catch anyone who's not really a Mandalorian."
Obi-Wan nodded. Thankfully, I didn't need to nod along. My Mandalorian is just a bit weaker than it had been. Most people I spoke to spoke in Basic, but I did still speak the ancient tongue. Bo had also given me a few remedial lessons over the last year or so.
Our truck waited in line, and before long, the speeder in front of us moved forward. Jango drove forward to the towering figure of the guard, likely the result of some near-human admixture, leaned over, and flashed the lights through the side viewing. All three of us were checked before the guard spoke in Mando'a with the tone of someone who has said the same thing dozens of times, "Who comes to join us against Demagolka of the Republic, who would use this war to cause pain and suffering for the Mandalorian way?"
Jango tilted his head and thought for a moment before deciding to do something I could only see as insane. "Clan Fett."
The giant of a woman nodded along for a second before she stiffened and looked over the three of us again. "Jango Fett?" She asked.
"Not many of my clan left." Jango said with a cool confidence.
The Death Watch guard tapped her helmet and said something over an internal channel that we could not hear. After a few moments, she nodded. "Who's with you?"
Jango chuckled and leaned back. "Duchess Satine and her Jedi boyfriend."
The giant laughed and shook her head as Jango joined her.
"You're a funny guy, but come on, I need to…" She seemed to pause for a moment before slapping a hand on the front of the speeder. "They are cleared. Everyone is to gather at the main tent in a few minutes; you can't miss it." Jango nodded and pulled forward as the large woman's helmet turned to Obi-Wan and me.
"I hope you know what you're doing." I said as we pulled out of the guard's earshot.
"What did he do?" Kenobi asked.
"He told her our names. Thankfully, she didn't believe him." I said, leaving out what else the man had said.
"I had assumed we would be avoiding attention, but then again, I guess we don't really need to be stealthy if everyone's eyes are on you." the Jedi said, getting a nod from the front seat.
"This does two things. One, keeps their eyes on me, not you. Which gives you more room to work, too. And two, well, I think I've just guaranteed that you'll have that chat with the leader of Death Watch. That or he'll try to kill me on sight, which will be more than enough to tell us about their motives."
"How so?" the Jedi asked.
But I had that answer covered, "If they try to kill him, that means that they can't really be reasoned with. Jango is a former Mand'alor. Killing him grants the leader the right to rule the sector. Which also means if they know I'm here, they could try to kill me as well."
"It's a dangerous game we're playing. With any luck, we should be able to negotiate our way out, though."
"I hope you're right." I said as the truck came to a stop and we were finally able to get out. Stretching my back, I looked over at the town, seeing that there were several guards wearing dark blue armor on patrol. I tried to look for the usual clan symbols on their shoulders, but they didn't have any. If they did, they seemed to have been replaced with general Death Watch symbology, most likely to keep which clans they came from a secret. From snoopers like me in this case.
Fett got out of the hover truck and said in Basic, "Let me lead the way. Pretend to be hangers-on."
Obi-Wan nodded, as we started moving. We passed by several more speeders and large tents with several individuals doing various chores. From painting armor to cleaning blasters to working on several large fighters I've never seen before. We quickly arrived at the front of a large tent in the center of a public square.
The two guards lowered their weapons to halt us as one asked in a very Concordian accent, "Jango Fett, what are you doing here? Considering you are responsible for the destruction of the Death Watch twenty years ago. I would have thought you'd stay far, far away from this organization or come for it, but to proudly walk in on one of our recruiting rallies has the leader confused."
Jango tilted his helmet before saying, "Well, I'm not here to join, not really a joiner, but I wanted to see what kind of an organization this Death Watch is like compared to the old one. Just to know if you are a threat to myself and my family, as well as maybe settle any old grudges now before they boil over into the same sort of mess they were twenty years ago."
There was a pause before the armored soldier nodded, stepping to the side, saying, "Then you may go in, but before that who are the two with you?"
Jango looked over his shoulder before shrugging and saying, "I found these two lovebirds found on the side of the road that wanted to join. So I did you guys a good deed and brought them with me. They can decide on their own if they want to join your organization or not."
I felt my face burning up underneath my helmet. I could feel it growing warm at the chuckles from the two guards, as they looked at Obi-Wan and me.
"Hah! A pair of burcyans out for a midnight stroll. We'll let them in so they could have the full take of the Death Watch before they go out and do what normal couples do on a midnight stroll." One of them called, stepping to the side and allowing us to enter the entryway of this old abandoned city.
"Make sure to find a place off the road that's comfortable first." Another guard added before the two broke out in laughter.
We were just out of their hearing when Obi-Wan commented, "It feels like I am missing some context. What did they say?"
"Nothing important." I said quickly, hoping that he couldn't understand Mandalorian and never knowing exactly what the two had implied. "We would not be doing that again, that's for sure." I whisper under my breath.
The room is full of Mandalorians, mostly wearing the blue and black of Death Watch. Whatever clan symbols they had, for the most part, had been removed too. Though there are plenty of Mandalorians who are obviously new to the organization, newcomers who had seen the broadcast earlier today since their armor isn't the same shade of dark blue as the rest. This should make it easier for us to blend in with the rest. No one looked at us twice as we stood inside the large tent where they were shuffling all the Mandalorians into. I did not recognize any of the newcomer's clan symbols, so they are either such minor clans that they were not politically powerful enough to be recognized or from far away, possibly the Dysphoria, returned to join with Death Watch.
The room is relatively quiet, with some minor conversations here and there. We found an empty spot at the corner to observe the proceeding, but we didn't get to wait long before the recognizable ignition of a lightsaber went off. As everyone turned to face the front of the room, I clicked the button on my glove, which turned on a camera in my helmet, so we could record this.
Standing there is a Mandalorian. In his hand is the Darksaber, a weapon that had forged the history of Mandalore for the last thousand years, a replacement for the Mask of the Mand'alor that had been lost nearly 4,000 years ago.
Holding the sword up, he got everyone's attention before turning it off, placing it on a pedestal next to him as he looked across the crowd, seeming to be deciding what to say next. Finally, he said, "Children of Mandalore, welcome to Death Watch. We are an organization founded on preserving the ancient ways in this so-called peaceful time. If you're here, you've seen our broadcast. You've seen what the Republic did and you know that they will do it again. They did it to Mandalore no more than twenty years ago and they did it two centuries before that. The Republic had set a precedent that killing entire planets can be deemed as acceptable losses in war. What's to stop them from doing it again? And they will do it again. Since we can't rely on the Republic or the Separatists to hold themselves accountable for their actions, we will."
He paused before saying, "As I said in my broadcast earlier, our Mand'alor, Duchess Satine Kryze, has done an excellent job of preparing the Mandalore Sector to defend itself against the inevitable. But we are just one sector. There are Mandalorian worlds outside the sector and worlds of the Neutral Council that could not adequately defend themselves. Sooner or later, the Republic will strike against the Neutral Council so we must be prepared to defend ourselves so that what happened to Kromus does not happen to our homes. But, we must not only be capable enough to defend ourselves, we must also be able to attack outwards and retaliate. To push against the Republic and maybe the CIS too, if they have gone too far."
The crowd is eating this up, cheering to some extent and holding up their gauntlets in a salute.
"Of course, in order to do this, we may have to work with the CIS. Their support may be invaluable. They've already promised us weapons if we engage the Republic's forces inside the Neutral Zone. In addition, I have come into contact with Spar Fett, leader of the Mandalorian Protectors. He has already firmly sided with the CIS and is willing to join us in protecting the Mandalorian sector when it calls for aid."
"What if the Duchess calls for aid?" someone called from the crowd.
"I don't know. Why don't we ask her yourself?" He said, his eyes firmly landing on me as a spotlight activated from the ceiling shined its light on me. "Your armor may not be as pretty as it usually is, my Duchess, but it's still recognizable enough from the holoshow you had put out months ago."
Biting my lip, I tried to think. This is a situation where I should escape. But, I realized that he isn't threatening me. There are plenty of Mandalorians all around me, yet none of them are reaching for their weapons. The only one who really looked ready to fight is Obi-Wan. His hand sliding towards the area hidden underneath his jetpack, which would allow him to get his lightsaber.
Taking a breath, I reached up and pulled my helmet off. Loud gasps could be heard from the audience as I rested my helmet under my arm and looked up at the Death Watch leader.
"To answer the question, I will never call upon Death Watch for the aid of Mandalore. I believe the Self-Defense Force is capable enough for the task. Our allies in the Neutral Council are enough. These are the proper and official ways of dealing with such a situation. Not to mention, as long as the Mandalorian government is not brought low by external conflict, and we do not break any of our treaties, the Republic has no grounds to invade the Mandalorian system as they would be breaking the conditions of our disarmament."
"A very legalistic perspective that I'd even say it's true. From a certain point of view the Republic should have no way to legally invade the sector. However,you have to forgive me for not taking them up on their word. Nothing is preventing the rulesetters from changing their own rules for their own benefit, as they've obviously shown themselves capable and willing of doing. Why else would they have had no problem destroying an entire planet and a billion lives simply for war against the CIS?"
We had switched to Basic at this point, so Obi-Wan spoke up in response. "The Republic did not order the destruction of Kromus, at least not on purpose. I would think war is a terrible thing when atrocities can happen as easily as an accident."
The Death Watch leader tilted his head to look at Obi-Wan before saying, "Well, that may be true, but maybe you have a bit of a hat in the ring, young Mandalorian, if that's really who you are. Why don't you pull your helmet off and tell us what clan you come from?"
I would have told him not to do what he did, but he did it anyway. Pulling his helmet off and letting it fall to the ground, Obi-Wan said. "I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master of the Order. I'm here to investigate what has happened with the Maelstrom and to try as well as prevent the war that you are starting by taking control of that ship."
"The war I'm starting? Now that's an interesting point of view. As far as I've seen, the Republic has started this war. They invaded Geonosis before letting the CIS go free and now they've destroyed a planet on the border of the Neutral Council. I simply stepped in to do what the Neutral Council could not. Delivering merciless justice for those who died upon the heads of those responsible." The Death Watch leader said.
"And killed the Jedi in the process." Obi-Wan said.
"Yes, a monster, the Demagolka." He reached onto the podium and pulled something out that looked like a data chip and tossed it into the distance. Obi-Wan caught it in his hands, possibly with help from the Force, I would assume.
"These are all records I was able to extract from the Maelstrom. They will show you that the Jedi responsible for this atrocity had no remorse for what he did and sent his clones to die on Kromus. If anything, I think you should be thanking me, Master Jedi, because I've just weeded out one of your bad eggs. I wonder how many more are amongst your Jedi Order, ready to be pushed into murderers and monsters just by getting a little bit of conflict in them." The leader said.
Obi-Wan did not look happy at that, but he did look around and noted that while everyone was ready to start a fight, no one pulled out their weapons yet.
"I hope your statement is true, Leader of Death Watch." Obi-Wan said, sliding the chip into a pocket. "I will bring this back to Coruscant to be investigated, but that doesn't change the fact that as long as you hold the Maelstrom, you have committed a crime against the Republic."
"I don't think of it that way. I've removed a weapon that the Republic is going to use to kill more from their hands. If the Republic cannot fight a war responsibly, then perhaps you shouldn't have access to such weapons, like the children you are." The Death Watch leader said.
There was a good amount of laughing at that comment. Obi-Wan did not look amused.
Shaking my head, I said, "Well, Leader of Death Watch, since you are going to continue to claim that what happened here is your organization doing a good deed, maybe you'd like to show your face and tell us who's behind the helmet."
The Death Watch leader tilted his horned helmet for a moment before saying, "I'll do that the moment White Silver does. If White is still free, parading around the galaxy for nearly three years doing her 'good deeds' without showing her face, I think it's fair if I can do the same. Don't you?"
What was he implying? That I knew something about White Silver? Or was he simply noting the fact that White Silver had said she served me in her documents and was just trying to pressure me to reveal her identity? In either case, I am not going to do that. Biting my lip, I lied, "I don't have control over White Silver. I don't know who she is." I hoped Obi-Wan's focus was on the Death Watch.
The leader nodded before replying, "Then I guess Death Watch will remain faceless for now. We will continue our watch on the Republic's attempts to destroy the neutrality you want to keep safe."
"You're doing that by holding on to the ship." Obi-Wan remarked.
"If they come after me for taking a mass murderer's ship, I would think they are the aggressor in this situation. But despite their threats, we could negotiate the return of the ship. Perhaps for an expansion of the Mandalorian sector, full rights over areas of space that should be considered Mandalorian and not separated by terrible maps drawn up half the galaxy away."
"You know that'll never happen." Jango Fett said from the side with a chuckle.
"Ah yes, Jango Fett. What brings you here to my humble rally?" The Death Watch leader said, looking at him.
Jango replied. "Client asked me to do a job. That job is getting the two of them here to meet you."
"Do you want to join Death Watch and help protect the Mandalorian sector from the conflict that the Republic will bring?" The Death Watch leader asked.
"Nope. The Republic already got my DNA in spades for their Clone army. Would not want to fight millions of me even if they aren't as good as I am. But that's besides the point, I think Satine is the better option for the sector's neutrality overall. I've been watching her career for the last few decades, when I have the time. Always been a fan of what she's doing. Didn't think it would work out, but hey, twenty years and no official war. I think that's a new record, it feels like it for me."
The Death Watch leader looked at Jango in what I could guess is surprise before clearing his throat and saying, "Yes, Duchess Satine has done a good job of keeping war outside the sector. That's why we respect her recent efforts to build a defensive formation to protect our planets. Oh, before I forget."
Reaching into the pillar in front of him, he pulled out a weapon. It took me a moment to realize that it was a lightsaber, then he tossed it in our direction. A moment later, it flew into Obi-Wan's outstretched hand.
"I've heard you Jedi like to do something special with the blades of the fallen. This weapon is a cursed purple and came from the hands of a Jedi who is obviously no longer serving your so-called goals. I hope you destroy that cursed blade."
He nodded to the guards, and they started to push people out of the way, creating an exit for the three of us.
"You may go about your business. Duchess Satine, I'm sure you'll be quite busy trying to put this fire out. I won't stop you. And don't bother trying to come back here with any security forces. This is merely a temporary base. We'll be long gone before you get the MSDF up and moving."
I bit my lip before I said, "Fine. We'll meet again, leader of Death Watch."
"Of that, I have no doubt." He said as I turned, sliding the helmet on my head.
"I've got something to say." Jango said with a cool tone. The man looked out at the mass of armed Mandalorians. "I killed Death Watch once, I'm more than happy to do it again." He said simply, causing the gathered Mandalorians to mutter and bristle at the challenge.
"I expect nothing less." The leader of Death Watch replied, causing the entire tent to turn to him in shock. "Should Death Watch be led astray, should we no longer serve the interests of the Mandalorian People, it would be your duty to do battle with us and to slay us Jango Fett, I do not begrudge you that. But you know in your heart that we have a righteous cause here. That's why you came here openly, honestly, and without your blaster drawn."
Jango looked at the leader of Death Watch, the two men taking measure of the other for a while before Jango clicked his tongue. "So that's how it is. Alright, then we'll see how it goes." Jango said simply before turning about, and the three of us left the tent.
As soon as we got outside, we made our way towards the truck and slid into it. Though Jango quickly did a search, making sure no trackers or explosives had been placed on the truck while we were inside.
"Well, I think that went rather well." Obi-Wan said.
"Could have gone much worse." Jango agreed as the hovertruck started to back up. "Could have been blasted to bits. So, just what's your plan now? What are you going to do to try and save the Mandalorian sector from war? I just backed you, so you better have something."
I bit my lip inside my helmet, leaned back as I thought, trying to come up with the best possible option for this situation. There weren't that many of them and there's really only one solution.
"I'm going to need to go to Coruscant. Bring as much evidence as possible that this Death Watch is under control within the Mandalorian sector. They are not causing problems and that we will not tolerate any recruitment activities. That's the only way to prevent the Republic from voting to marshal their fleet into the sector."
"I'm afraid you're right." Obi-Wan said with a nod. "They are not exactly in the best of moods since the start of this war, and the idea that this Death Watch is using the Mandalore sector as recruiting grounds and a shield is bad enough. Factor in that you have your own military again, the Senate will probably start worrying that Death Watch will unseat you and then declare a crusade in the name of the CIS. My report will have to include the fact that they are in contact with the CIS."
Part of me wanted to prevent him from doing that. But if I did that, I would not be helping the situation. It would look like I am trying to hide that, which will only raise suspicions. Letting out a sigh, I finally said, "Alright, we'll need to go back to Mandalore. I need to get prepared."
Jango nodded from the front seat, as Obi-Wan said, "I'll go with you. If he is playing fair, he won't do anything. But if he's not, it would be best to have some sort of security while you're in transport."
"I'd bet my life on that." I didn't believe the extra security is necessary but knowing how precarious the situation is, it might be better for everyone's peace of mind if I am better protected. The fact that I could spend more time with Obi-Wan a bit longer has nothing to do with it. What's the worst that could happen?
"I'd come too." Jango said from the front seat. "But I'm pretty sure the contract I have signed says I can't leave the sector, let alone the system. So, I guess this is goodbye after we stop at my place."
"That's alright." I said. "Thank you for your service Mr. Fett. You've been a great help to Mandalore today, and I will make sure you're well compensated for this help."
He nodded, "Just doing my civic duty, Mand'alor." He said with a chuckle as I glared at the man.
Writer's note: And there we have the opening of a familiar but different arc and as we can see, things are getting tense in many ways in the Mandalore system. What will happen? Who knows, not me or do I? Only time will tell what plot lines will come to end from this arc bahahaha.
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by: Pedersen Guardsman Pius, fulgurant, Fallqm, Warmach1ne32, Afforess
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