yeah, there is nothing legally she can do...
yep if someone drops an idea they end up with a sheet of ideas that I look at while writing and have good chances to be used
pretty much
Princess of Mandalore (Youjo Senki/Star Wars)
- Thread starter L4oftheWEST
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Chapter 15
Chapter 15
714 (24 BBY)
Month 6
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Satine Kryze
Things in the Mandalore sector have been going rather smoothly as of late, the little pirate invasion of Vorpa'ya had been dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors and Royal Guards rather quickly and there hadn't been any other attempts to seize a planet for criminal behavior.
Besides that, we were having a bit of an economic boom as a new company, Mando Logistics, has purchased several old freight ships and are transporting goods from the Mandalorian Sector directly to markets in the Core. From what I had seen, the initial prices were fair and after Mando Logistics had made a tidy profit, several other smaller companies had sprouted up to do the same. Granted, most of the items being sold were armor sets and most of the items being brought in were materials to build more armor sets but one little thing I had to give to Tanya, armor was meant for protection, and though I generally lean against war, letting this business take off was good for the economy and good for the culture.
Thankfully, the pile of paperwork on my desk was not too terrible today. My Royal Guard is still running background checks and interviews on all of the applicants before submitting those that passed their checks for my perusal. The lack of a head of staff and I not having an assistant to take care of the day-to-day stuff that needed to be filled out, had resulted in a slight pile up over the last several months. Everything important is handled by a member of my Royal Guard, who volunteered to be my temporary assistant until a suitable replacement is hired. I am really considering just buying a droid to help cut down on the backlog immediately. Once I have chosen the new head of staff, the droid could be my assistant, like what Tanya's X4 is currently doing for her, but that would be a problem for another day.
My musings were cut short when there was a knock on my door. A Royal Guard entered the room before standing at attention and giving a bow. "My lady, Governor Vizsla has arrived."
I direct my eyes away from the financial report to face my Royal Guard. "Excellent, send him in please." I set down my datapad before leaning back in my chair. "Good afternoon Governor Vizsla, what brought you to the palace today?" I asked with a smile on my face as the governor of Concordia sat heavily in the chair across from me in my office.
From what I knew, Pre was seeing a general uptick in tax revenue as a large portion of the armorers that made up the ancient class had been dissatisfied with my rule had gone specifically to Concordia during the whole exiling phase of putting the Mandalore system back together after the Clan Wars. So I figured he would be in a splendid mood, however he seemed a bit put off by something, judging by the frown on his face.
"A bit of a developing situation I'm afraid. Remember those Jedi that showed up about a week ago from the Agricorp?"
I nodded my head. Jedi in the Mandalorian Sector was not something normal, frankly it was abnormal. The culture of Mandalorians was too prone to challenging them to a fight or being annoyed when they found a Force sensitive among our people and asked if they could join the Order. Though since they only took those of the youth, in this day and age that was unlikely to ever happen. Family was everything for a Mandalorian and the thought of a family member being taken away by the Order was unthinkable.
"Let me guess," I said, "they found a Force sensitive in Concordia?"
Pre nodded before continuing, "Five of them, actually. That was one of the issues, yes. Most of the Agricorp have stayed away from the general population so I thought this was not going to be an issue and they've been doing their job looking to see if any of the indigenous life forms that keep our planet from developing are still alive but the Jedi Master sent to watch over them and make sure nothing happens to them? Well he apparently likes to travel. I've got reports from nearly the entire planet of him just showing up and either hanging out in the local bar and sharing war stories with the veterans there. In five different reports, they mentioned that he's found Force sensitives within our population and he said they would make fine Jedi if they were given training."
"Hold on, five candidates? They've only been here a month. How did he find five candidates?" I asked, looking a bit perplexed by that.
Pre shrugged before saying, "I don't know for sure, though the Jedi has said something about the untapped potential of Mandalorians. Thankfully he's not pushed for the kids he's found to join the Order, at least not loudly enough that the parents are complaining about that. Many more are just unsettled by the older gentleman and Jedi robes showing up on their doorstep."
"If he's too much of a nuisance, I could send a message back to the Order. Perhaps they can have him removed and replaced with someone more tactful."
Pre scoffed and said, "To be frank, I think this is the most tactful Jedi we're going to get. I've had a meeting or two with him and he seems very grounded for a Jedi. I just think a little bit of a warning from The Duchess would do him good. With how active he's being, he's likely to run into some of the more, less forgiving elements of the Exiles. Those who blame the Jedi for the Clan Wars, and if that were to happen I'm sure either he would die or they would die and it would be an inter-sector incident that could upset the process to get Concordia off the Protected Planet status so we can start trading with the rest of the sector instead of having to rely on going through Mandalore."
I nodded my head, "I'll put a note out and have the Royal Guard pick him up and meet with him to see if we can't get him to be a little less active as you say. What is this Jedi Master's name?"
"Rahm Kota, last thing I heard about him he was in the northern latitudes. Which is probably the wisest thing he's done since most of the people who would generally blame him for the Clan Wars are in the southern latitudes."
I nodded before asking, "Is there anything else I should know about the goings on with the Jedi and the Agricorp?"
"Well nothing much. They haven't found any of the supposed protected species on our planet yet. They're evaluation of our terraforming work has been interesting though."
"Interesting how?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They take umbrage with the fact that so much of the plant life that we've introduced over the years is basically the exact same plant life throughout the entire planet. Which is to be expected since we have a very limited amount of plants that we can use, due to the protected planet status. But they have concerns based on this, of what a biosphere with such minimal biodiversity is vulnerable to."
"So they're telling you, you need different plants to try to change the biosphere in a few places for diversity and better longevity right?"
"Exactly, which I would gladly start doing as soon as the Protected Planet status gets removed. I've had a lot of debates about this subject over the last month and I think they're finally getting that the rules placed down on us by the Protected Planets is leading to a worse situation down the line, because we can't do anything to fix the lack of biodiversity with the status of this planet. Sure we'll have plenty of lumber in the next decade and some farmland but we won't be allowed to diversify unless the Protected Planet status is removed. Which, I think, is currently dividing the team on the planet as half of them that seem to get it and understand are already pushing for the report to basically imply that it needs to be removed, while the other half are still not sold on the idea of it that the species we say are extinct are actually extinct and want to continue their search. It's slow going but I hope we'll have them finished and off-world in the next 6 months."
I nodded well six months isn't too bad, that's quicker than Merrik 's and Tanya's efforts to get the Ithorian to sign off on the deal for terraforming planets. With the income we have coming in, because of the recent windfall we've been having, I was really hoping we could get the terraforming started by the end of this year but it's looking more like it'll be sometime in 716 fnm.
"I still can't believe Merrik was able to get a deal through with those terraformers, finally. Took him 10 years to get settled in but at least he's finally doing his job." Pre said, shaking his head and I was forced to nod as well.
Merrik was an old friend from Kalevala, the man had been working hard to build relationships with the Senate for a good long time. But I had to admit the last few months he'd been doing an excellent job. And I had to wonder if perhaps Tanya was somehow involved in that. After all it was her idea for the Silver Codex which was currently creating an economic boom. But if Tanya wanted to be humble and not take credit for it and let Merrick say it was all his idea then she could understand.
She didn't seem to enjoy the spotlight that much so perhaps letting other people take credit for her ideas was a way to cope with some bit of shyness she had.
Although that being said, next time she and Tanya met she should really ask if Tanya had taken any part in the deal besides the minimal part that Merrick was saying.
"Give it enough time you make enough contacts I would assume that he finally found the pieces necessary to get this plan to work." I answered Pre's question.
He nodded before adding, "While I am here, did you see that Silver Codex Volume 2 that was spread all over the local net? I am curious about what your stance is on the matter?"
"No, I have not." I said a bit concerned as my brows furrowed. As far as I knew, Tanya hadn't planned to create a 'volume two' yet, and I would assume she would have run anything like that by me first.
"A new volume cropped up a few days ago, I think whatever magic that White Silver had is wearing off because the new one puts a lot of power in the hands of corporations. I don't think a lot of people are going to be in favor of that."
"I've not read it yet. I'll have to look into it and see what's going on. Is it as big as the first one?" I asked warily.
"I don't think it'll be that big, sure you'll find supporters but from what I've seen it's likely to bring down the first one more than build that one up.
That was concerning, Silver could actually have been a very useful tool for rebuilding Mandalore and if it was being damaged by some unknown source, I would need to look into this. Little Tanya had worked years on creating that document, and it was paying off. I was not going to let something she worked so hard on be tainted by some fool screwing it up. I would have to have a member of the Royal Guard detached and look into this situation, figure out where this volume two came from if it turned out it was not Tanya's handiwork. Which I am sure she wasn't responsible for, she'd never spoken to me about having a volume two in the works. Although we haven't talked in along time since she's gone to Coruscant I doubted she would dump something like this on me without a proper warning.
Looking at Pre I said, "Keep me apprised about this volume two. That Silver Codex was very good for Mandalore so far and I would hate to see something good be turned into something not."
Pre nodded his head and said, "I'll keep my eyes on it. I didn't trust the first one to begin with so I've been having a few agents looking around for a while now. You know how these codexes turn out after all. One moment it's a theological debate, the next moment is a full on civil war."
I nodded though I hoped it wouldn't get that bad. The whole reason the Silver Codex existed was to try and prevent a civil war from what I understood and if it somehow triggered one, it would make itself no better than the codexes that came before, in the generation leading up to the Mandalorian Civil War.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Anakin Skywalker
I blinked in confusion at the scene before me. Sitting on a bench in one of the garden terraces of the Jedi Temple sat Grand Master Yoda of the Jedi Order having a chat with a person I did not expect to run into inside the walls. Tanya Kryze the representative of Mandalore. The two appear to be having a conversation that was, frankly, a little beyond my mind, and they were so deep into it that I wasn't gaining much context from listening in.
This was not something I had expected to run into today. I had a lot of meditation and training I need to be doing as well as general chores, but I just so happen to come through this direction. I felt what could be best described as a disturbance in the force. Not exactly pain, more of a tightness as if something had been wound up.
And that was not something I normally felt on Temple Grounds. I had experienced something like this while out with Master Obi-Wan but here in the Temple, the closest to something like this was when someone was excited for the start of their training. But even then that had been more of a joy, this tightness was more edged.
So feeling something unusual, I had followed it to its source and it started to dissipate when I entered the Temple Garden terrace.
Where has the presence of tightness gone? I had a pretty good idea. You don't run into a person you didn't expect after feeling something like that without there being a connection. And seeing that Master Yoda was here, I would have to assume he had sensed it as well and come to investigate himself. Though I was a bit perplexed and how easygoing he was with the young woman he was speaking with. Heck, the two were chatting more like old masters in their fields than the Master of the Jedi Order, and some Republic Representative.
Then again she wasn't just some Republic Representative, was she. I was very suspicious about her parentage, of why Obi-Wan had brought me to meet her and I had the sneaking suspicion that he had been looking for an excuse to meet her. The hair color, the age, the wanting to meet her, things kind of added up in a way that made me believe that Tanya very well could be Obi-Wan's daughter and he had been trying to use this meeting as a teachable moment to me. That it was possible to have a family outside the order as long as you kept your distance.
Master Ki-Adi-Mundi had a family but that was a special disposition, since his species had a male to female imbalance that required him to take part in a continuation of their species. Besides that one case, as far as I knew most other Jedi didn't have families, didn't have kids, as attachments outside the order made it harder for the Jedi to do their duties.
There was no doubt in my mind that Obi-Wan knew that Tanya was his child and he had chosen to take a hands off approach. But a person is always curious, which is why he had made time for that meeting with the representative.
And going by her hair color I suspected that she knew too, as her auburn hair had been dyed blonde at some point since I last saw her. It was already starting to go red near the roots again so she would have had to have done it at least a couple months ago, right about after we had our meeting. I wonder why she did that? Did she know?
But before I could get too deep into that wondering, the blonde representative waved me over. "Padawan Skywalker, how wonderful to see you again." She called to give me no way to back away.
"Representative Kryze,"I said with a bow, then repeated it and said, "Master Yoda."
Sitting in her green dress, Tanya turned to look at Yoda and said, "Master Yoda, that's an impressive title."
The old Master chuckled and said, "No less impressive, representative is, young Tanya. Herh herh herh.."
I looked up at the two and realized they hadn't known each other's positions until I spoke about it, which was rather shocking, how could they have conversations without knowing who each other were?
Yoda looked at me and chuckled before saying, "Best had away from titles, sometimes conversations are, hmm? Titles carry weight, weight that brings expectations into conversations. To speak with more freedom, to speak without a title is. Yes."
Tanya nodded her head as Yoda spoke before adding. "That I can agree with, though I will add that speaking with someone outside your social circle has a very similar effect. People need to be able to express themselves in some way or they just become balls of stress, ready to snap."
I nodded, understanding what the two are saying though not exactly sure why giving up your title would make you freer. I would think having more titles would mean more power which would get you more freedom. Perhaps it was rhetorical freedom they're talking about? I don't know, this kind of goes above my head.
Either way though, I asked out of curiosity, "So why are you here Representative Kryze?"
"Oh, I've just finished having a meeting with the Agricorp Council. I've been working with them to get help with the terraforming process of one of our planets. And then I decided to stop by this little garden here to have a chat with "Master" Yoda. We often have debates about Jedi mindset versus Mandalorian mindset and it's rather intriguing, to say the least."
"The matter of family we talk about today," Master Yoda said. "Other times economic theory, and the best way to obtain peace."
"Personally I'm not sold on the idea of a will in the living Force," Tanya said, rubbing her chin before adding, "but I can acknowledge that the Jedi order seems to have a monopoly for using it for the betterment of a galaxy. Though if that is the 'Will of the Force' or just a well thought out philosophy, it is still up to debate in my mind."
Master Yoda seems to chuckle at that, "Guide us, the Force does, even if we do not believe in it."
"Sounds a bit like fate to me and I'm not a big fan of the idea that people are destined or fated to do things. It removes the bit of agency that sapient life should have in my mind, not to mention it's a bit unsettling of a thought when you really think about it."
"Unsettling?" I asked, curious about her point of view.
"The idea that there is an entity pulling the strings of life behind the curtains is concerning to me. I dislike the thought of such a being since they are just as likely to be as flawed as the rest of us and so, prone to mistakes. However, where a minor mistake on my part would be just that, the same made by an entity of such scale may very well involve the destruction of a quarter of the Galaxy."
"The Force guides us, it doesn't compel us, there are no strings pulling us like puppets." Master said, sounding like he was trying to be assuring.
"I hope so." Tanya said, sounding rather weary as if remembering a particularly bad experience and she looked down at the cobblestone ground. In fact I was definitely feeling an aura of tiredness from her.
Unsure what to say I decided to try and find out why her hair color had changed and asked the simplest question to get that answer. "So why did you change your hair color?"
Tanya looked up and smiled saying, "My handmaiden, Vai, suggested I should change it and I had no other reason not to."
I nodded my head, quickly remembering her from our meeting months ago. She was the slightly older blonde girl that had shared a look with me that said she'd seen the same things I'd seen. Had she pointed out that the similarities were a little too much to Tanya and Tanya had changed her hair color so people wouldn't put two and two together? It made sense so that was probably it then.
"Well it looks good," I said, trying to be polite. And hide why I asked in the first place without going into her hair color in front of the grandmaster of the Jedi Order.
"Thank you, I was a bit concerned about the brand I use but it's working well so far." Tanya responded with a smile.
"Hair color matters not, neither does hair for that matter." Master Yoda said, tapping his cane to his balding head.
Everyone had a little bit of a friendly laugh at that before he continued on. "Though Tanya, much distress I felt in this garden earlier, much more than normal. Is there something wrong?
Tanya seemed taken aback for a moment before she nodded her head and said. "Anakin, remember that Silver Codex we spoke about when we met 6 months ago?"
I nodded my head vaguely remembering the item.
"Well someone has released volume two and I say someone because I don't believe that that is the same person who issued volume one." Tanya said, her presence in the Force feeling more annoyed than what she was portraying outside. "This new volume is going to be a problem if it takes off and I'm not exactly sure what to do about it." She said, while indicating that I could take a seat next to her.
"Why would it be a problem?" I asked, curious whilst taking a seat at Tanya's right side, "The first volume as you said was a code for carving a defensive way of being Mandalorian, wouldn't the second volume just expand on that idea?"
Tanya nodded her head but said, "That's what a second volume should do, this document that appeared last week was not that, though it was very focused on giving power to corporations. Empowering them to the point that they would become governments unto themselves, while also playing to the nationalism of the Mandalorians in a way that is unhealthy for a defensive doctrine. True defensive doctrine tries to hold on to what you have, the doctrine that this document is advocating for could easily be manipulated to see worlds that were never once part of the Mandalorian empire as areas that need to be retaken in a defensive manner."
"Hmm, a Regression then," Yoda said from her left nodding his head. "complex Mandalore is, but even I can see how that can be misused by those of a darker view of the galaxy."
"Exactly and that's what's got me concerned. Because as much as I want to believe that the first Silver Codex will be superior and longer lasting, I can't deny the ability of something like this to take off as well for someone to steal the good that was meant to be made and turn it to as you said a darker path."
Yoda nodded before saying, "A darker path they may attempt to tread, but as long as both the original author and this new author remain unknown it is up to the people to choose which path they would take."
Tanya nodded her head saying, "This is what I believe too but I worry that this is a prelude to something more. As you said, as long as both writers remain anonymous it's up to the people to choose what path they will take. What if one of the writers does not stay anonymous or at least becomes more than anonymous? An icon making appearances in this White Silver's name?"
"Then we must hope that White Silver shares your views, that this darker path is not right for Mandalore and make their own appearance." Yoda commented.
"That could start a civil war though," Tanya said, shaking her head, "every attempt to try and fight over doctrine in the past has created one. If two people try to claim themselves as leaders of a faction, it'll always end in civil war with Mandalorians."
"Then it would seem the best way would be to not declare themselves the leader of a faction and just deal with the writer of the second volume directly." I said matter of factly.
Tanya looked over at me a bit amused saying, "Attack the leadership? That would be a dangerous gamble, a very dangerous gamble."
"Attack they should not, you would have said, in a perfect world at least. Destroying a faction's leadership often leads to the faction just continuing on. If I knew this White Silver, I would suggest they look to their own culture and find a way to depower this, this…" Yoda stopped as if thinking of a correct term to use for the fake codex writer.
"False Silver?" Tanya provided.
"Yes, False Silver, if one wishes to make sure that his ideas are not carried on, it would be best to find a way to defeat the credibility of his ideas."
Tanya nodded her head in understanding before she said, "And let's hope that White Silver can figure out how to do that on his own. Otherwise, my time on Coruscant is going to come to an end rather quickly."
I saw Yoda had to put his hand on Tanya's elbow before he said, "Trust the Force, you must young Tanya. If this White Silver's path is meant to be the one the Mandalorians walk, it will guide them to the right path."
Tanya smiled, "I'll try that Master Yoda." Before the conversation could continue though her vambrace began to chirp drawing her notice causing her to look at it.
"Well shoot." she said before standing, turning to look at us she said, "I'm afraid I must be going, important meetings and all that I'm afraid. Until next time Padawan Skywalker and Master Yoda." She said, bowing her head.
"Until next time, Miss Kryze."Yoda said, returning the bow from his seated position.
I simply nodded my head and commented, "Until we see each other again, Representative Kryze."
And with that she turned and walked away, heading for one of the elevators that would take her down to the main floor where she could get a ride away from the Temple, I assumed.
Master Yoda chuckled as she turned the corner and was far enough away from hearing him. "Worried I was, that you would blow my cover young Skywalker."
"Master Yoda? "I said, confused.
"She does not know about the Jedi ways or our leadership, she thinks of me as simply an old man who gives guidance to the younglings. I wonder how long it will take her to realize I'm the grandmaster of the Order."
"You're doing that on purpose?" I asked.
"New friends are hard to come by sometimes, might as well make those friendships special with jokes that only two or three may know."
I couldn't help myself, I laughed at the idea that he was keeping the exact nature of his position away from Tanya to simply see her reaction when she finally learned was rather hilarious and in keeping with some of Master Yoda's more mischievous behaviors.
Concordia Training Area
Bo-Katan Kryze
"Stupid piece of junk, work." I muttered as I hit the edge of the panel. Either because I bumped something into place or something I had already done finally started working, the panel lit up. "That's more like it." I said with a smile trying to get the communication panel to connect to the local holo net.
My luck had taken a turn for the worse ever since Tanya had left. Nothing too drastic but at the moment my ship was currently inoperable meaning its communication systems were unpowered. And considering I was a good 30 to 40 miles from civilization, it would be a hell of a walk.
Thankfully it wasn't too terrible a place to be stuck in. I had been stashing supplies at this mine ever since I got the rights to use it. And since Pre is too busy trying to build up Death Watch, I still firmly controlled 30% of its members through alliances I built up over the years so he wasn't exactly looking to run me out. Theoretically I might actually control something closer to 40% now since a good portion of the less radical members have declared themselves more in favor of the Silver Codex, which is becoming more and more a state accepted doctrine, even if it wasn't officially state accepted doctrine.
But that's besides the point. I'd been stuck at the mountain training area alone for the last 2 weeks and even though I had enough supplies to last 3 months I had been working on this kriffing communications system all for the last week ever since Zum did not come back from his last armor run.
I'm sure he was fine, his runs could take him pretty far away from the Mandalore system and he wasn't here all that often since he still maintained a portion of his business out of his ship. But I was getting a bit concerned about my situation since who's to say he wasn't fine, or that he wouldn't be gone for upwards of 3 months. I hadn't known that to happen yet but that didn't mean it couldn't.
So with a bad situation that could get worse I had gone to work trying to dig myself out of the hole I stuck myself in. Watching the old style panel slowly rotate as I tried to connect to the holo-net, I looked around at the upper facility of the mining complex that turned into my home away from home and realized I really needed to improve on the decor of it. The lighting was terrible so that hid most of the issues but it was all too industrial for what I've been using it for the last few years. Well then again I've been treating my ship like my second home so it was understandable I'd never really given a thought to putting down a more permanent residence at this place. Well, that would have to change. I had a nice little nest egg stashed away thanks to Satine giving me a bonus for the completion of Tanya's training as 'her Royal Defense Tutor'. I should probably use that money to pretty this place up a bit. At least get a small droid to clean one of the halls and make sure no rodents or other pests got in.
Looking away from the black metallic panels of, well everything, I wondered how I was going to get myself out of this one. Maybe I could call in one of the local shipwrights to take a look at my ship, see if they couldn't figure out what had jammed up the engine block enough that it was not working. Only real problem with that is if the local shipwright turned out to be a Death Watch sympathizer they would then know exactly where I lived and would report that to Pre.
I doubt he would do anything about it right now but I trusted Pre as far as I could throw him and while I could throw him pretty far, that wasn't far enough.
I would have to contact Satine and ask her to send out some of her Royal Guards to help me out. I knew they could at least keep their mouth shut about the goings on in the palace. I was a 40% leader of the Death Watch, I may not get all the intelligence reports but I got enough to know that they had never got a member of the Royal Guard to ever join up with them, at least none that I was aware of which meant if there was one that was probably the only one.
Finally, the panel in front of me beeped signaling it was connected to the network and I leaned over ready to press a few buttons to contact Satine. The moment I logged into my holo-net account I saw something that distracted me from the terrible time I've been having and brought a smile to my face.
Six messages from Tanya, three of them over the last 48 hours. Considering I hadn't heard from her since she left, it was nice to see that she still cared enough to call, she was doing better than Satine as no other calls were on the account.
Well, I could put her along getting my escape out of the situation to see what had got her to call me. With the amount of calls, I suspected she had done something stupid and had some alone time with a partner. Of course there was always the possibility that she was in danger but to be frank after the training she put herself through under my watch, I think anyone trying to put her in danger was in more danger than they realized. Pressing the call button as I sat back in the swivel chair that was probably older than my long past grandfather by how much it squeaked. I really need to spend some time turning this place into a livable habitat, at least oil the damn chair.
Finally, the call connected and there was Tanya standing in front of what I guess was a holographic projector on her side with a smile on her face as she said, "Auntie Bo, good to finally get through to you. I was a bit worried when I didn't hear anything for nearly a week."
"No worries kid," I said with a smile, "just dealing with some technical issues with my ship and some of the equipment around here." I said with a smile leaning back stretching out my arms over my head. "So what brings the honorable Representative Kryze to call on her beautiful warrior Aunt Bo?"
Tanya seemed to smirk at that series of comments before she said, "Many things, but the thing that's drawn my ire of late is a recent variance of the Silver Codex. Someone is proclaiming themselves as White Silver and it's produced a new version, one that is likely to inflame people against the Codex if left alone."
I raised an eyebrow at that before leaning forward on my arms, "Ooh? What's so terrible about this variant of the codex?"
She frowned before she said, "Well it's quite simple, this variant could be used for justifications of rebellion and civil war. Satine has asked me to look into where it comes from. She doesn't want the Royal Guard involved since this variant is still rather new, and people may suspect she's trying to find out the identity of the first Silver Codex creator when we simply want to know who the identity of this second one is."
I took a moment sitting back wondering if Pre was behind the situation then I shrugged it off as very unlikely. The few speeches he had given on the Silver Codex did not speak well of using it for his own purposes. For the most part he found the whole thing offensive at least from his speeches.
"So Satine is using you as a middleman to investigate this Second Codex writer and find out who he is and expose him?"
"Correct." Tanya said with a smile. "We want to keep this in-house as it were, until we're sure if this is actually going to be an issue or not. For all we know this second codex entry will fade away into history and people won't even remember it but on the off chance it doesn't. It would do us all a bit of good to know who's behind it and who to send the Royal Guard after."
"Alright, alright that can be done, though I'm in a bit of an issue here. As I said, my ship is currently not functioning so until I can get that sorted I'm not going to be able to do much to help you on that front."
Tanya nodded and then looked over the camera's shoulder at what I would assume was someone else talking though whatever they were saying was lost in transmission between Coruscant and my little abode.
Whatever it was though seemed to get a nod from Tanya before she looked back at the camera. "I have contacts that can get a ship to your location within a week and they can also haul off your ship for repairs, if that's acceptable of course."
"Contacts?" I said looking at my niece a little bit confused by that particular use of the word. I wonder what she's been up to that she somehow got herself contacts and I hope none of them are illegal in nature. my thoughts wondered before I said out loud. "That's fine by me, kind of stuck here for the next 3 months unless I get help so that's definitely okay though I would prefer that your contact kept a bit silent about the location of my little training area."
Tanya nodded and said, "That can be arranged and that confirms where I thought you were. You'll have a ship there in a week."
"Sounds good," I said with a smile, "Good to hear from you again though, Tanya. I kind of worried you had forgotten about me all the way in Coruscant."
"I could never forget about you or Mandalore, Auntie Bo. I'm simply busy doing the best I can to make sure things improve for our people."
It warmed her heart a little bit to see Tanya so driven by the plight of the Mandalorian people and made her proud to have trained the girl. Smiling all I could say was, "I know, that's good to hear but don't forget to take care of yourself too. Mandalore will always be here, if you see an opportunity to make your life a little bit more enjoyable, feel free to do it just be safe and follow Vai's lead-."
The panel exploded right then sending me flying back a few feet on the wheels of the chair trying to avoid the glass shrapnel and fire.
"Kriff kriff kriff" I muttered as I rolled off the chair and ran off to find a fire extinguisher. That was one of the few things I had bought for this little location, mainly because I already had an incident where something exploded on me inside the base.
Quickly, I got to work spraying down the panel with anti-fire foam and soon had it under control though the panel was thoroughly cracked and ruined now which means I was not going to be making any more calls. Not the worst problem in the world. I'd already had that situation settled at least and I just had to wait on my niece's contact to show up with a ship.
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Fenn Rau
Standing in front of the Duchess's desk I held my helmet under my arm as I stood in parade ground rest. "My lady, I wish to report that the contingent that has returned from Vorpa'ya has arrived without issue. The men are settling back into their normal routines and we await further orders."
"Any casualties Commander Rau?" The Duchess asked as she leaned forward on her desk with a bit of concern playing across her face.
"None, my lady. The band of brigands was easily dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors on the ground and most of my men used the fighters we brought along for air combat to make sure the pirates couldn't attempt an escape without great losses." I said this was some proudness to my speech as a mission you come away from with no casualties was worth celebrating in my mind.
"That's good to hear. I was worried that the operation would be more trouble than I anticipated, considering how it could have ended up being." She said, sounding concerned before laying out a sigh and continuing. "Rau, if you were asked to investigate something for me would you be willing to keep what you find secret if I asked?"
A strange question but one I had no problem answering. "My lady, if the Duchess asks me to keep a secret on behalf of Mandalore that secret will go to the grave with me, I pledge my honor on that."
The duchess nodded her head before saying, "I need someone to investigate the recent document produced by the White Silver, you can read up on the most recent at your own time but let's just cut to the chase and say it's possibly problematic for the Mandalorian people. And I would like any details to be reported directly to me and not through the chain of command."
"Of course my lady, I'll look into the situation on your behalf." I said, feeling a sense of pride knowing my accomplishments on Vorpa'ya had gained me an opportunity to show my worth to the Duchess. "What am I to do once I have the information on who's behind this recent document?"
"Report it to me and depending on what you find, I will give you your answer. Just remember this needs to be off the Royal Guard's book. I will arrange it so you have as much time as you need."
I nodded my head knowing that I would need to clean up my old family armor for this operation then. Some Royal Guards have had their old armors converted into royal guard armor but I had always felt it was better to keep the family set of armor intact and out of the way. It was most likely collecting a lot of dust at the back of the closet at Rau Manner. "I'll get right on it my lady and we'll report as soon as I have anything on this White Silver for you," I said with the certainty that I could do this mission and have it under wraps quickly enough.
Writers note: Alright, here's today's chapter. No Tanya Pov just sorta happened but I'm sure no one is too disappointed since she did show up and showed what misunderstandings are going on. What we got in this chapter is a reaction to a new Silver Codex, some references to events going on around universes, and well a lot of little things buried in there. I don't want to spoil it for you, I want you to dig it out. A person on fanfiction said they felt the other characters felt too much like Tanya so that may be why there's no Tanya Pov, they also mentioned I wasn't doing such great job on setting environments so I have attempted to improve.
Edited by: Warmach1ne32, Lord Feunoyr
Community edited: Pirtle, Sound Logic
Community editable doc (Chapter 15) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
Supporters:: Neso, Markus, Mackenzie Buckle, Silver Wolf, Falk H, Mana Rope
714 (24 BBY)
Month 6
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Satine Kryze
Things in the Mandalore sector have been going rather smoothly as of late, the little pirate invasion of Vorpa'ya had been dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors and Royal Guards rather quickly and there hadn't been any other attempts to seize a planet for criminal behavior.
Besides that, we were having a bit of an economic boom as a new company, Mando Logistics, has purchased several old freight ships and are transporting goods from the Mandalorian Sector directly to markets in the Core. From what I had seen, the initial prices were fair and after Mando Logistics had made a tidy profit, several other smaller companies had sprouted up to do the same. Granted, most of the items being sold were armor sets and most of the items being brought in were materials to build more armor sets but one little thing I had to give to Tanya, armor was meant for protection, and though I generally lean against war, letting this business take off was good for the economy and good for the culture.
Thankfully, the pile of paperwork on my desk was not too terrible today. My Royal Guard is still running background checks and interviews on all of the applicants before submitting those that passed their checks for my perusal. The lack of a head of staff and I not having an assistant to take care of the day-to-day stuff that needed to be filled out, had resulted in a slight pile up over the last several months. Everything important is handled by a member of my Royal Guard, who volunteered to be my temporary assistant until a suitable replacement is hired. I am really considering just buying a droid to help cut down on the backlog immediately. Once I have chosen the new head of staff, the droid could be my assistant, like what Tanya's X4 is currently doing for her, but that would be a problem for another day.
My musings were cut short when there was a knock on my door. A Royal Guard entered the room before standing at attention and giving a bow. "My lady, Governor Vizsla has arrived."
I direct my eyes away from the financial report to face my Royal Guard. "Excellent, send him in please." I set down my datapad before leaning back in my chair. "Good afternoon Governor Vizsla, what brought you to the palace today?" I asked with a smile on my face as the governor of Concordia sat heavily in the chair across from me in my office.
From what I knew, Pre was seeing a general uptick in tax revenue as a large portion of the armorers that made up the ancient class had been dissatisfied with my rule had gone specifically to Concordia during the whole exiling phase of putting the Mandalore system back together after the Clan Wars. So I figured he would be in a splendid mood, however he seemed a bit put off by something, judging by the frown on his face.
"A bit of a developing situation I'm afraid. Remember those Jedi that showed up about a week ago from the Agricorp?"
I nodded my head. Jedi in the Mandalorian Sector was not something normal, frankly it was abnormal. The culture of Mandalorians was too prone to challenging them to a fight or being annoyed when they found a Force sensitive among our people and asked if they could join the Order. Though since they only took those of the youth, in this day and age that was unlikely to ever happen. Family was everything for a Mandalorian and the thought of a family member being taken away by the Order was unthinkable.
"Let me guess," I said, "they found a Force sensitive in Concordia?"
Pre nodded before continuing, "Five of them, actually. That was one of the issues, yes. Most of the Agricorp have stayed away from the general population so I thought this was not going to be an issue and they've been doing their job looking to see if any of the indigenous life forms that keep our planet from developing are still alive but the Jedi Master sent to watch over them and make sure nothing happens to them? Well he apparently likes to travel. I've got reports from nearly the entire planet of him just showing up and either hanging out in the local bar and sharing war stories with the veterans there. In five different reports, they mentioned that he's found Force sensitives within our population and he said they would make fine Jedi if they were given training."
"Hold on, five candidates? They've only been here a month. How did he find five candidates?" I asked, looking a bit perplexed by that.
Pre shrugged before saying, "I don't know for sure, though the Jedi has said something about the untapped potential of Mandalorians. Thankfully he's not pushed for the kids he's found to join the Order, at least not loudly enough that the parents are complaining about that. Many more are just unsettled by the older gentleman and Jedi robes showing up on their doorstep."
"If he's too much of a nuisance, I could send a message back to the Order. Perhaps they can have him removed and replaced with someone more tactful."
Pre scoffed and said, "To be frank, I think this is the most tactful Jedi we're going to get. I've had a meeting or two with him and he seems very grounded for a Jedi. I just think a little bit of a warning from The Duchess would do him good. With how active he's being, he's likely to run into some of the more, less forgiving elements of the Exiles. Those who blame the Jedi for the Clan Wars, and if that were to happen I'm sure either he would die or they would die and it would be an inter-sector incident that could upset the process to get Concordia off the Protected Planet status so we can start trading with the rest of the sector instead of having to rely on going through Mandalore."
I nodded my head, "I'll put a note out and have the Royal Guard pick him up and meet with him to see if we can't get him to be a little less active as you say. What is this Jedi Master's name?"
"Rahm Kota, last thing I heard about him he was in the northern latitudes. Which is probably the wisest thing he's done since most of the people who would generally blame him for the Clan Wars are in the southern latitudes."
I nodded before asking, "Is there anything else I should know about the goings on with the Jedi and the Agricorp?"
"Well nothing much. They haven't found any of the supposed protected species on our planet yet. They're evaluation of our terraforming work has been interesting though."
"Interesting how?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They take umbrage with the fact that so much of the plant life that we've introduced over the years is basically the exact same plant life throughout the entire planet. Which is to be expected since we have a very limited amount of plants that we can use, due to the protected planet status. But they have concerns based on this, of what a biosphere with such minimal biodiversity is vulnerable to."
"So they're telling you, you need different plants to try to change the biosphere in a few places for diversity and better longevity right?"
"Exactly, which I would gladly start doing as soon as the Protected Planet status gets removed. I've had a lot of debates about this subject over the last month and I think they're finally getting that the rules placed down on us by the Protected Planets is leading to a worse situation down the line, because we can't do anything to fix the lack of biodiversity with the status of this planet. Sure we'll have plenty of lumber in the next decade and some farmland but we won't be allowed to diversify unless the Protected Planet status is removed. Which, I think, is currently dividing the team on the planet as half of them that seem to get it and understand are already pushing for the report to basically imply that it needs to be removed, while the other half are still not sold on the idea of it that the species we say are extinct are actually extinct and want to continue their search. It's slow going but I hope we'll have them finished and off-world in the next 6 months."
I nodded well six months isn't too bad, that's quicker than Merrik 's and Tanya's efforts to get the Ithorian to sign off on the deal for terraforming planets. With the income we have coming in, because of the recent windfall we've been having, I was really hoping we could get the terraforming started by the end of this year but it's looking more like it'll be sometime in 716 fnm.
"I still can't believe Merrik was able to get a deal through with those terraformers, finally. Took him 10 years to get settled in but at least he's finally doing his job." Pre said, shaking his head and I was forced to nod as well.
Merrik was an old friend from Kalevala, the man had been working hard to build relationships with the Senate for a good long time. But I had to admit the last few months he'd been doing an excellent job. And I had to wonder if perhaps Tanya was somehow involved in that. After all it was her idea for the Silver Codex which was currently creating an economic boom. But if Tanya wanted to be humble and not take credit for it and let Merrick say it was all his idea then she could understand.
She didn't seem to enjoy the spotlight that much so perhaps letting other people take credit for her ideas was a way to cope with some bit of shyness she had.
Although that being said, next time she and Tanya met she should really ask if Tanya had taken any part in the deal besides the minimal part that Merrick was saying.
"Give it enough time you make enough contacts I would assume that he finally found the pieces necessary to get this plan to work." I answered Pre's question.
He nodded before adding, "While I am here, did you see that Silver Codex Volume 2 that was spread all over the local net? I am curious about what your stance is on the matter?"
"No, I have not." I said a bit concerned as my brows furrowed. As far as I knew, Tanya hadn't planned to create a 'volume two' yet, and I would assume she would have run anything like that by me first.
"A new volume cropped up a few days ago, I think whatever magic that White Silver had is wearing off because the new one puts a lot of power in the hands of corporations. I don't think a lot of people are going to be in favor of that."
"I've not read it yet. I'll have to look into it and see what's going on. Is it as big as the first one?" I asked warily.
"I don't think it'll be that big, sure you'll find supporters but from what I've seen it's likely to bring down the first one more than build that one up.
That was concerning, Silver could actually have been a very useful tool for rebuilding Mandalore and if it was being damaged by some unknown source, I would need to look into this. Little Tanya had worked years on creating that document, and it was paying off. I was not going to let something she worked so hard on be tainted by some fool screwing it up. I would have to have a member of the Royal Guard detached and look into this situation, figure out where this volume two came from if it turned out it was not Tanya's handiwork. Which I am sure she wasn't responsible for, she'd never spoken to me about having a volume two in the works. Although we haven't talked in along time since she's gone to Coruscant I doubted she would dump something like this on me without a proper warning.
Looking at Pre I said, "Keep me apprised about this volume two. That Silver Codex was very good for Mandalore so far and I would hate to see something good be turned into something not."
Pre nodded his head and said, "I'll keep my eyes on it. I didn't trust the first one to begin with so I've been having a few agents looking around for a while now. You know how these codexes turn out after all. One moment it's a theological debate, the next moment is a full on civil war."
I nodded though I hoped it wouldn't get that bad. The whole reason the Silver Codex existed was to try and prevent a civil war from what I understood and if it somehow triggered one, it would make itself no better than the codexes that came before, in the generation leading up to the Mandalorian Civil War.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Anakin Skywalker
I blinked in confusion at the scene before me. Sitting on a bench in one of the garden terraces of the Jedi Temple sat Grand Master Yoda of the Jedi Order having a chat with a person I did not expect to run into inside the walls. Tanya Kryze the representative of Mandalore. The two appear to be having a conversation that was, frankly, a little beyond my mind, and they were so deep into it that I wasn't gaining much context from listening in.
This was not something I had expected to run into today. I had a lot of meditation and training I need to be doing as well as general chores, but I just so happen to come through this direction. I felt what could be best described as a disturbance in the force. Not exactly pain, more of a tightness as if something had been wound up.
And that was not something I normally felt on Temple Grounds. I had experienced something like this while out with Master Obi-Wan but here in the Temple, the closest to something like this was when someone was excited for the start of their training. But even then that had been more of a joy, this tightness was more edged.
So feeling something unusual, I had followed it to its source and it started to dissipate when I entered the Temple Garden terrace.
Where has the presence of tightness gone? I had a pretty good idea. You don't run into a person you didn't expect after feeling something like that without there being a connection. And seeing that Master Yoda was here, I would have to assume he had sensed it as well and come to investigate himself. Though I was a bit perplexed and how easygoing he was with the young woman he was speaking with. Heck, the two were chatting more like old masters in their fields than the Master of the Jedi Order, and some Republic Representative.
Then again she wasn't just some Republic Representative, was she. I was very suspicious about her parentage, of why Obi-Wan had brought me to meet her and I had the sneaking suspicion that he had been looking for an excuse to meet her. The hair color, the age, the wanting to meet her, things kind of added up in a way that made me believe that Tanya very well could be Obi-Wan's daughter and he had been trying to use this meeting as a teachable moment to me. That it was possible to have a family outside the order as long as you kept your distance.
Master Ki-Adi-Mundi had a family but that was a special disposition, since his species had a male to female imbalance that required him to take part in a continuation of their species. Besides that one case, as far as I knew most other Jedi didn't have families, didn't have kids, as attachments outside the order made it harder for the Jedi to do their duties.
There was no doubt in my mind that Obi-Wan knew that Tanya was his child and he had chosen to take a hands off approach. But a person is always curious, which is why he had made time for that meeting with the representative.
And going by her hair color I suspected that she knew too, as her auburn hair had been dyed blonde at some point since I last saw her. It was already starting to go red near the roots again so she would have had to have done it at least a couple months ago, right about after we had our meeting. I wonder why she did that? Did she know?
But before I could get too deep into that wondering, the blonde representative waved me over. "Padawan Skywalker, how wonderful to see you again." She called to give me no way to back away.
"Representative Kryze,"I said with a bow, then repeated it and said, "Master Yoda."
Sitting in her green dress, Tanya turned to look at Yoda and said, "Master Yoda, that's an impressive title."
The old Master chuckled and said, "No less impressive, representative is, young Tanya. Herh herh herh.."
I looked up at the two and realized they hadn't known each other's positions until I spoke about it, which was rather shocking, how could they have conversations without knowing who each other were?
Yoda looked at me and chuckled before saying, "Best had away from titles, sometimes conversations are, hmm? Titles carry weight, weight that brings expectations into conversations. To speak with more freedom, to speak without a title is. Yes."
Tanya nodded her head as Yoda spoke before adding. "That I can agree with, though I will add that speaking with someone outside your social circle has a very similar effect. People need to be able to express themselves in some way or they just become balls of stress, ready to snap."
I nodded, understanding what the two are saying though not exactly sure why giving up your title would make you freer. I would think having more titles would mean more power which would get you more freedom. Perhaps it was rhetorical freedom they're talking about? I don't know, this kind of goes above my head.
Either way though, I asked out of curiosity, "So why are you here Representative Kryze?"
"Oh, I've just finished having a meeting with the Agricorp Council. I've been working with them to get help with the terraforming process of one of our planets. And then I decided to stop by this little garden here to have a chat with "Master" Yoda. We often have debates about Jedi mindset versus Mandalorian mindset and it's rather intriguing, to say the least."
"The matter of family we talk about today," Master Yoda said. "Other times economic theory, and the best way to obtain peace."
"Personally I'm not sold on the idea of a will in the living Force," Tanya said, rubbing her chin before adding, "but I can acknowledge that the Jedi order seems to have a monopoly for using it for the betterment of a galaxy. Though if that is the 'Will of the Force' or just a well thought out philosophy, it is still up to debate in my mind."
Master Yoda seems to chuckle at that, "Guide us, the Force does, even if we do not believe in it."
"Sounds a bit like fate to me and I'm not a big fan of the idea that people are destined or fated to do things. It removes the bit of agency that sapient life should have in my mind, not to mention it's a bit unsettling of a thought when you really think about it."
"Unsettling?" I asked, curious about her point of view.
"The idea that there is an entity pulling the strings of life behind the curtains is concerning to me. I dislike the thought of such a being since they are just as likely to be as flawed as the rest of us and so, prone to mistakes. However, where a minor mistake on my part would be just that, the same made by an entity of such scale may very well involve the destruction of a quarter of the Galaxy."
"The Force guides us, it doesn't compel us, there are no strings pulling us like puppets." Master said, sounding like he was trying to be assuring.
"I hope so." Tanya said, sounding rather weary as if remembering a particularly bad experience and she looked down at the cobblestone ground. In fact I was definitely feeling an aura of tiredness from her.
Unsure what to say I decided to try and find out why her hair color had changed and asked the simplest question to get that answer. "So why did you change your hair color?"
Tanya looked up and smiled saying, "My handmaiden, Vai, suggested I should change it and I had no other reason not to."
I nodded my head, quickly remembering her from our meeting months ago. She was the slightly older blonde girl that had shared a look with me that said she'd seen the same things I'd seen. Had she pointed out that the similarities were a little too much to Tanya and Tanya had changed her hair color so people wouldn't put two and two together? It made sense so that was probably it then.
"Well it looks good," I said, trying to be polite. And hide why I asked in the first place without going into her hair color in front of the grandmaster of the Jedi Order.
"Thank you, I was a bit concerned about the brand I use but it's working well so far." Tanya responded with a smile.
"Hair color matters not, neither does hair for that matter." Master Yoda said, tapping his cane to his balding head.
Everyone had a little bit of a friendly laugh at that before he continued on. "Though Tanya, much distress I felt in this garden earlier, much more than normal. Is there something wrong?
Tanya seemed taken aback for a moment before she nodded her head and said. "Anakin, remember that Silver Codex we spoke about when we met 6 months ago?"
I nodded my head vaguely remembering the item.
"Well someone has released volume two and I say someone because I don't believe that that is the same person who issued volume one." Tanya said, her presence in the Force feeling more annoyed than what she was portraying outside. "This new volume is going to be a problem if it takes off and I'm not exactly sure what to do about it." She said, while indicating that I could take a seat next to her.
"Why would it be a problem?" I asked, curious whilst taking a seat at Tanya's right side, "The first volume as you said was a code for carving a defensive way of being Mandalorian, wouldn't the second volume just expand on that idea?"
Tanya nodded her head but said, "That's what a second volume should do, this document that appeared last week was not that, though it was very focused on giving power to corporations. Empowering them to the point that they would become governments unto themselves, while also playing to the nationalism of the Mandalorians in a way that is unhealthy for a defensive doctrine. True defensive doctrine tries to hold on to what you have, the doctrine that this document is advocating for could easily be manipulated to see worlds that were never once part of the Mandalorian empire as areas that need to be retaken in a defensive manner."
"Hmm, a Regression then," Yoda said from her left nodding his head. "complex Mandalore is, but even I can see how that can be misused by those of a darker view of the galaxy."
"Exactly and that's what's got me concerned. Because as much as I want to believe that the first Silver Codex will be superior and longer lasting, I can't deny the ability of something like this to take off as well for someone to steal the good that was meant to be made and turn it to as you said a darker path."
Yoda nodded before saying, "A darker path they may attempt to tread, but as long as both the original author and this new author remain unknown it is up to the people to choose which path they would take."
Tanya nodded her head saying, "This is what I believe too but I worry that this is a prelude to something more. As you said, as long as both writers remain anonymous it's up to the people to choose what path they will take. What if one of the writers does not stay anonymous or at least becomes more than anonymous? An icon making appearances in this White Silver's name?"
"Then we must hope that White Silver shares your views, that this darker path is not right for Mandalore and make their own appearance." Yoda commented.
"That could start a civil war though," Tanya said, shaking her head, "every attempt to try and fight over doctrine in the past has created one. If two people try to claim themselves as leaders of a faction, it'll always end in civil war with Mandalorians."
"Then it would seem the best way would be to not declare themselves the leader of a faction and just deal with the writer of the second volume directly." I said matter of factly.
Tanya looked over at me a bit amused saying, "Attack the leadership? That would be a dangerous gamble, a very dangerous gamble."
"Attack they should not, you would have said, in a perfect world at least. Destroying a faction's leadership often leads to the faction just continuing on. If I knew this White Silver, I would suggest they look to their own culture and find a way to depower this, this…" Yoda stopped as if thinking of a correct term to use for the fake codex writer.
"False Silver?" Tanya provided.
"Yes, False Silver, if one wishes to make sure that his ideas are not carried on, it would be best to find a way to defeat the credibility of his ideas."
Tanya nodded her head in understanding before she said, "And let's hope that White Silver can figure out how to do that on his own. Otherwise, my time on Coruscant is going to come to an end rather quickly."
I saw Yoda had to put his hand on Tanya's elbow before he said, "Trust the Force, you must young Tanya. If this White Silver's path is meant to be the one the Mandalorians walk, it will guide them to the right path."
Tanya smiled, "I'll try that Master Yoda." Before the conversation could continue though her vambrace began to chirp drawing her notice causing her to look at it.
"Well shoot." she said before standing, turning to look at us she said, "I'm afraid I must be going, important meetings and all that I'm afraid. Until next time Padawan Skywalker and Master Yoda." She said, bowing her head.
"Until next time, Miss Kryze."Yoda said, returning the bow from his seated position.
I simply nodded my head and commented, "Until we see each other again, Representative Kryze."
And with that she turned and walked away, heading for one of the elevators that would take her down to the main floor where she could get a ride away from the Temple, I assumed.
Master Yoda chuckled as she turned the corner and was far enough away from hearing him. "Worried I was, that you would blow my cover young Skywalker."
"Master Yoda? "I said, confused.
"She does not know about the Jedi ways or our leadership, she thinks of me as simply an old man who gives guidance to the younglings. I wonder how long it will take her to realize I'm the grandmaster of the Order."
"You're doing that on purpose?" I asked.
"New friends are hard to come by sometimes, might as well make those friendships special with jokes that only two or three may know."
I couldn't help myself, I laughed at the idea that he was keeping the exact nature of his position away from Tanya to simply see her reaction when she finally learned was rather hilarious and in keeping with some of Master Yoda's more mischievous behaviors.
Concordia Training Area
Bo-Katan Kryze
"Stupid piece of junk, work." I muttered as I hit the edge of the panel. Either because I bumped something into place or something I had already done finally started working, the panel lit up. "That's more like it." I said with a smile trying to get the communication panel to connect to the local holo net.
My luck had taken a turn for the worse ever since Tanya had left. Nothing too drastic but at the moment my ship was currently inoperable meaning its communication systems were unpowered. And considering I was a good 30 to 40 miles from civilization, it would be a hell of a walk.
Thankfully it wasn't too terrible a place to be stuck in. I had been stashing supplies at this mine ever since I got the rights to use it. And since Pre is too busy trying to build up Death Watch, I still firmly controlled 30% of its members through alliances I built up over the years so he wasn't exactly looking to run me out. Theoretically I might actually control something closer to 40% now since a good portion of the less radical members have declared themselves more in favor of the Silver Codex, which is becoming more and more a state accepted doctrine, even if it wasn't officially state accepted doctrine.
But that's besides the point. I'd been stuck at the mountain training area alone for the last 2 weeks and even though I had enough supplies to last 3 months I had been working on this kriffing communications system all for the last week ever since Zum did not come back from his last armor run.
I'm sure he was fine, his runs could take him pretty far away from the Mandalore system and he wasn't here all that often since he still maintained a portion of his business out of his ship. But I was getting a bit concerned about my situation since who's to say he wasn't fine, or that he wouldn't be gone for upwards of 3 months. I hadn't known that to happen yet but that didn't mean it couldn't.
So with a bad situation that could get worse I had gone to work trying to dig myself out of the hole I stuck myself in. Watching the old style panel slowly rotate as I tried to connect to the holo-net, I looked around at the upper facility of the mining complex that turned into my home away from home and realized I really needed to improve on the decor of it. The lighting was terrible so that hid most of the issues but it was all too industrial for what I've been using it for the last few years. Well then again I've been treating my ship like my second home so it was understandable I'd never really given a thought to putting down a more permanent residence at this place. Well, that would have to change. I had a nice little nest egg stashed away thanks to Satine giving me a bonus for the completion of Tanya's training as 'her Royal Defense Tutor'. I should probably use that money to pretty this place up a bit. At least get a small droid to clean one of the halls and make sure no rodents or other pests got in.
Looking away from the black metallic panels of, well everything, I wondered how I was going to get myself out of this one. Maybe I could call in one of the local shipwrights to take a look at my ship, see if they couldn't figure out what had jammed up the engine block enough that it was not working. Only real problem with that is if the local shipwright turned out to be a Death Watch sympathizer they would then know exactly where I lived and would report that to Pre.
I doubt he would do anything about it right now but I trusted Pre as far as I could throw him and while I could throw him pretty far, that wasn't far enough.
I would have to contact Satine and ask her to send out some of her Royal Guards to help me out. I knew they could at least keep their mouth shut about the goings on in the palace. I was a 40% leader of the Death Watch, I may not get all the intelligence reports but I got enough to know that they had never got a member of the Royal Guard to ever join up with them, at least none that I was aware of which meant if there was one that was probably the only one.
Finally, the panel in front of me beeped signaling it was connected to the network and I leaned over ready to press a few buttons to contact Satine. The moment I logged into my holo-net account I saw something that distracted me from the terrible time I've been having and brought a smile to my face.
Six messages from Tanya, three of them over the last 48 hours. Considering I hadn't heard from her since she left, it was nice to see that she still cared enough to call, she was doing better than Satine as no other calls were on the account.
Well, I could put her along getting my escape out of the situation to see what had got her to call me. With the amount of calls, I suspected she had done something stupid and had some alone time with a partner. Of course there was always the possibility that she was in danger but to be frank after the training she put herself through under my watch, I think anyone trying to put her in danger was in more danger than they realized. Pressing the call button as I sat back in the swivel chair that was probably older than my long past grandfather by how much it squeaked. I really need to spend some time turning this place into a livable habitat, at least oil the damn chair.
Finally, the call connected and there was Tanya standing in front of what I guess was a holographic projector on her side with a smile on her face as she said, "Auntie Bo, good to finally get through to you. I was a bit worried when I didn't hear anything for nearly a week."
"No worries kid," I said with a smile, "just dealing with some technical issues with my ship and some of the equipment around here." I said with a smile leaning back stretching out my arms over my head. "So what brings the honorable Representative Kryze to call on her beautiful warrior Aunt Bo?"
Tanya seemed to smirk at that series of comments before she said, "Many things, but the thing that's drawn my ire of late is a recent variance of the Silver Codex. Someone is proclaiming themselves as White Silver and it's produced a new version, one that is likely to inflame people against the Codex if left alone."
I raised an eyebrow at that before leaning forward on my arms, "Ooh? What's so terrible about this variant of the codex?"
She frowned before she said, "Well it's quite simple, this variant could be used for justifications of rebellion and civil war. Satine has asked me to look into where it comes from. She doesn't want the Royal Guard involved since this variant is still rather new, and people may suspect she's trying to find out the identity of the first Silver Codex creator when we simply want to know who the identity of this second one is."
I took a moment sitting back wondering if Pre was behind the situation then I shrugged it off as very unlikely. The few speeches he had given on the Silver Codex did not speak well of using it for his own purposes. For the most part he found the whole thing offensive at least from his speeches.
"So Satine is using you as a middleman to investigate this Second Codex writer and find out who he is and expose him?"
"Correct." Tanya said with a smile. "We want to keep this in-house as it were, until we're sure if this is actually going to be an issue or not. For all we know this second codex entry will fade away into history and people won't even remember it but on the off chance it doesn't. It would do us all a bit of good to know who's behind it and who to send the Royal Guard after."
"Alright, alright that can be done, though I'm in a bit of an issue here. As I said, my ship is currently not functioning so until I can get that sorted I'm not going to be able to do much to help you on that front."
Tanya nodded and then looked over the camera's shoulder at what I would assume was someone else talking though whatever they were saying was lost in transmission between Coruscant and my little abode.
Whatever it was though seemed to get a nod from Tanya before she looked back at the camera. "I have contacts that can get a ship to your location within a week and they can also haul off your ship for repairs, if that's acceptable of course."
"Contacts?" I said looking at my niece a little bit confused by that particular use of the word. I wonder what she's been up to that she somehow got herself contacts and I hope none of them are illegal in nature. my thoughts wondered before I said out loud. "That's fine by me, kind of stuck here for the next 3 months unless I get help so that's definitely okay though I would prefer that your contact kept a bit silent about the location of my little training area."
Tanya nodded and said, "That can be arranged and that confirms where I thought you were. You'll have a ship there in a week."
"Sounds good," I said with a smile, "Good to hear from you again though, Tanya. I kind of worried you had forgotten about me all the way in Coruscant."
"I could never forget about you or Mandalore, Auntie Bo. I'm simply busy doing the best I can to make sure things improve for our people."
It warmed her heart a little bit to see Tanya so driven by the plight of the Mandalorian people and made her proud to have trained the girl. Smiling all I could say was, "I know, that's good to hear but don't forget to take care of yourself too. Mandalore will always be here, if you see an opportunity to make your life a little bit more enjoyable, feel free to do it just be safe and follow Vai's lead-."
The panel exploded right then sending me flying back a few feet on the wheels of the chair trying to avoid the glass shrapnel and fire.
"Kriff kriff kriff" I muttered as I rolled off the chair and ran off to find a fire extinguisher. That was one of the few things I had bought for this little location, mainly because I already had an incident where something exploded on me inside the base.
Quickly, I got to work spraying down the panel with anti-fire foam and soon had it under control though the panel was thoroughly cracked and ruined now which means I was not going to be making any more calls. Not the worst problem in the world. I'd already had that situation settled at least and I just had to wait on my niece's contact to show up with a ship.
Mandalore, Royal Palace, Duchess Office
Fenn Rau
Standing in front of the Duchess's desk I held my helmet under my arm as I stood in parade ground rest. "My lady, I wish to report that the contingent that has returned from Vorpa'ya has arrived without issue. The men are settling back into their normal routines and we await further orders."
"Any casualties Commander Rau?" The Duchess asked as she leaned forward on her desk with a bit of concern playing across her face.
"None, my lady. The band of brigands was easily dealt with by the Journeyman Protectors on the ground and most of my men used the fighters we brought along for air combat to make sure the pirates couldn't attempt an escape without great losses." I said this was some proudness to my speech as a mission you come away from with no casualties was worth celebrating in my mind.
"That's good to hear. I was worried that the operation would be more trouble than I anticipated, considering how it could have ended up being." She said, sounding concerned before laying out a sigh and continuing. "Rau, if you were asked to investigate something for me would you be willing to keep what you find secret if I asked?"
A strange question but one I had no problem answering. "My lady, if the Duchess asks me to keep a secret on behalf of Mandalore that secret will go to the grave with me, I pledge my honor on that."
The duchess nodded her head before saying, "I need someone to investigate the recent document produced by the White Silver, you can read up on the most recent at your own time but let's just cut to the chase and say it's possibly problematic for the Mandalorian people. And I would like any details to be reported directly to me and not through the chain of command."
"Of course my lady, I'll look into the situation on your behalf." I said, feeling a sense of pride knowing my accomplishments on Vorpa'ya had gained me an opportunity to show my worth to the Duchess. "What am I to do once I have the information on who's behind this recent document?"
"Report it to me and depending on what you find, I will give you your answer. Just remember this needs to be off the Royal Guard's book. I will arrange it so you have as much time as you need."
I nodded my head knowing that I would need to clean up my old family armor for this operation then. Some Royal Guards have had their old armors converted into royal guard armor but I had always felt it was better to keep the family set of armor intact and out of the way. It was most likely collecting a lot of dust at the back of the closet at Rau Manner. "I'll get right on it my lady and we'll report as soon as I have anything on this White Silver for you," I said with the certainty that I could do this mission and have it under wraps quickly enough.
Writers note: Alright, here's today's chapter. No Tanya Pov just sorta happened but I'm sure no one is too disappointed since she did show up and showed what misunderstandings are going on. What we got in this chapter is a reaction to a new Silver Codex, some references to events going on around universes, and well a lot of little things buried in there. I don't want to spoil it for you, I want you to dig it out. A person on fanfiction said they felt the other characters felt too much like Tanya so that may be why there's no Tanya Pov, they also mentioned I wasn't doing such great job on setting environments so I have attempted to improve.
Edited by: Warmach1ne32, Lord Feunoyr
Community edited: Pirtle, Sound Logic
Community editable doc (Chapter 15) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
Supporters:: Neso, Markus, Mackenzie Buckle, Silver Wolf, Falk H, Mana Rope
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- Location
- United States
Just wondering, but is that my just an extra or meant to be something else?
Also I feel like theres gonna be some entaglement by those investingating this. Almost wish some members of Death Watch investigating and wanting to "remove" this White Silver somehow finds the False Silver instead. Or cause a battle between everyone such as the False Silver, Death Watch, and others investigating the False Silver who may or may not be working together.
Also interesting to see the Jedi whose apparently with the Agricorps, also the mention of how many force sensitives they already encountered.
Also kinda want to see Bo's reaction to whoever picks her up.
extra word, next update come morning will fix it,
knew I forgot something.
Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
Now I'm really curious if Obi Wan even suspect let alone knows that Tanya is his daughter.
- Location
- Canada
It'll probably be when the say "I have a bad feeling about this" in concert
Something to consider through the actions of X4 is what is logistics technology is like in the Star Wars really like and what sort of standards and standardization is there? That is is there something like intermodal containers and container ship equivalents for storage container in the Star Wars universe that is a "galactic standard" that allows stacking of containers, transported on the equivalent of trucks/ships/trains/etc? If there is, then it could be used in the space freighter design idea based on what can be done to work with the standards and have them be able to hold enough containers that handle most transportation needs. Just for comparison the smaller container ships in the real world can hold under 3,000 twenty-foot containers and can have their own cranes, while the largest ones can hold around 15,000 twenty-foot containers and more. I wonder if those like the agricorps have transportation ships with even larger volume (for moving waste, food, fertilizer, etc. for entire worlds) and how that affects trade if there is any standardization for manufacturing such large ships to support the economies of the galaxy. Presumably such space ships would have to have means of protecting themselves from pirates that would view them as "whales" (using a variant of the game terminology). If successful, they could be very profitable with perhaps entire planets serving as warehouses and doing the equivalent of Sears Catalog or Amazon for ordering and delivery of materials.
The above could be used to help the merchandising market for Mandalorian themed goods.
If the above can be done or along those lines and look good, some of the container space ships might have special modules that can be installed. Such as some of them might have more luxurious interiors or at least livable for long periods of time so that they can serve as the equivalent of motorhomes while more expensive ones might be more like mansions built in (and maybe have exterior and interior art as specified by the customer when ordering them). Likewise some containers might be special ordered to contain special equipment or be designed to be portable offices, homes, factories, etc.
The above could be used to help the merchandising market for Mandalorian themed goods.
If the above can be done or along those lines and look good, some of the container space ships might have special modules that can be installed. Such as some of them might have more luxurious interiors or at least livable for long periods of time so that they can serve as the equivalent of motorhomes while more expensive ones might be more like mansions built in (and maybe have exterior and interior art as specified by the customer when ordering them). Likewise some containers might be special ordered to contain special equipment or be designed to be portable offices, homes, factories, etc.
- Pronouns
- First/And/Last
I wonder if after the ithorians have started the terraforming of mandalore and other planets in the mandalore sector will Tanya learn about and approach the Kaminoans, having them establish a minor outpost in mangalore space to help the ithorians. The kaminoans are cloners and genetic engineers and would be invaluable to helping in a terraforming process by helping species become better genetically adapted to the worlds planned to be terraformed or even bringing back the extinct species that got concord put on that preserved planet list, such an act would certainly increase tanya's standing among the ithorians. I could see it going a few ways such as Tanya learning about them before the clone wars begins and either reaches out to them herself or her droid acting on her comments gets in contact with them for her, by this point she should have both a significant amount of wealth even without including her droids companies as well as significant influence among all her medical investments something the Kaminoans would actually be interested in, making them willing to hear out any offer she makes if she's willing to share the research with them. Tanya at least in business matters is a rational person as are the Kaminoan's I could see them actually getting along quite well and as both the remaining mandalorian supercommando are there under Jango Fett a claimant to the title of mandalore and the Sith have their secret deals with the Kaminoan's that could be a way for Tanya to come to the attention of various people of interest without realising it, just my opinion but something like this might make for an interesting chapter or even a story arc if done right.
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this whole post is going to take me a week to digreset it so informative
kaminoans are currently in hiding and are isolationist, there not going to pop up till the cloning wars and even then it is unlikely they would help for something like this i would think.
- Pronouns
- First/And/Last
okay fair enough I just thought it would be interesting if when contacting kamino Tanya's misunderstanding field caused panic with the Sith's plans and the mandalorians on kamino.
still I think Tanya would contact some other group to help with speeding up the terraforming given the slow and patient Nature of the ithorians and the need for Tanya to prove that things are getting better in the Mandalore sector so people don't start getting more interested in more extremist ideologies than the ones of the new mandalorians or silver codex.
if the Kaminoans aren't going to get on Tanya's Radar what about the Arkanian's as like the Kaminoans they're also experts in genetic engineering and given Tanya's medical investments might be willing to help out if she's willing to share the research or some of her medical or research investments could be the Arkanians already making getting in contact with them and convincing them to help that much easier as well as her willingness to pay for the cost of any research base in the Mandalore sector.
The funny thing about the arkanian's is that they're practically a species of tanya's previous life's shugel. It would be really funny if Tanya thought that they were reasonable scientists and helped them start a research base somewhere in the Mandalore sector only to find out at a later date she hired a bunch of scientists comparable to shugel before being X got involved, the look on Tanya face when she discovers something like that would be priceless.
https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjf0OHI6pj3AhVRVsAKHRYTC-YQFnoECAsQAQ&url=https://youjo-senki.fandom.com/wiki/Adelheid_von_Schugel&usg=AOvVaw1KNrfq97W914BwCikCcNdS
Arkanian/Legends
The Arkanians were a near-Human species which resided primarily on the frozen planet of Arkania in the Perave system of the Colonies region of the galaxy. Arkanians considered themselves the pinnacle of evolution, and as such many were distinctly arrogant. Arkanian scientists had been experts in...
starwars.fandom.com
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- Location
- United States
There are many thigns relating to freight and stuff....I got carried away...
- Freight-Loading External Rover
- More a YT auxillery craft.
- YT Dart
- Another YT auxillery craft.
- Cargo container/Legends
- Intermodal freight container
- Light freighter/Legends
- YT are under this.
- Bulk freighter/Legends
- BFF-1 bulk freighter/Legends
- Action VI transport
- Action V transport
- Action IV transport
- Brayl-class bulk freighter
- Class VI bulk freighter
- PCL 27
- Is apparently popular with terraforming expeditions.
- Not sure if it exists yet....
- Maxwell & Son They built it and were refered to as a terraforming company in the PCL 27 page.
- Baleen-class heavy freighter
- Bulwark Mark I
- A Seperatist ship
- Containers
- Class-A cargo container
- Class-B cargo containers
- Class-C cargo containers
- Class-G cargo containers
- Class-L cargo containers
- R-Coil Crate
- HT-50 Heated Crate
- Yes, there is a type of container meant to keep cargo warm.
- Modular passenger compartment
- Self-sufficent and turn a cargo ship into passenger ship. Was a case where people were rescued from these after a hyperspace disaster.
- Containment capsule
- Has been used to store prototypes.
- Gun of Command
- Containment field 776
- Why yes, of course a mind control gun exists, though the force neutralizes it.
- The Ithorians have one contained on a herd ship that gets stolen during the Galactic Civil War.
- Shock field
- Contact stunner
- Containment field
- Stormseed
- Apparently the next stage after gravity well projectors. Meant to destroy ships in Hyperspace. Don't think they exist yet though...
- Advert-sphere
- These are the things used for advertisments. Common on Coruscant.
- https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Archaeotech
- term used for ancient technology.
- https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Anomid/Legends
- https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_Army
- The Republic Army and the Grand Army of the republic are two different branches. The later being the clones. Many are in either https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Planetary_Security_Forces or https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Judicial_Forces/Legends . Could see it as they were the ones later reorganized as the Imperial army while the Grand Army became the Stormtrooper corps.
- Used to have https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Rocket-Jumper_Elite_Advance_Unit though not anymore. Precussors of the https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Clone_jet_trooper?so=search / https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Clone_jetpack_trooper?so=search though might be interesting if someone tries to restore the original?
- ...Would the Jedi leading non-clones fall under the Republic army or Grand Army?
It seems like that there is a certain "style over substance" for Star Wars technology.
For containers it looks like anything for most bulk containers (outside of those intended to be carried by humanoids), they are designed for only proprietary (and very odd) connections and would be very difficult to use them in any other means like stacking them like boxes or efficiently locked on flat platforms like the equivalent of a bed of a trailer of a truck or train. Then again maybe this might have been an equivalent of tricking people to buy their other merchandise due to the specific compatibility of what can be connected or fitted into place.
For the cargo spacecraft, it appears that everything over a relatively small cargo limit (compared to the real world ocean-going cargo ships) they can't even dock on land or water of planets to unloading and loading at logistic network hubs like ports, landing zones, or train stations; and instead have to stay in orbit of a planet to do so with lots of small ships going to and from orbit.
As a suggestion, for X-4, maybe having cargo spaceships be designed to go to the planet's surface could get rid of that bottleneck to speed up loading and unloading and reducing costs. For planets with oceans or even artificial "landing ponds", the bottom the ship might be water tight with bay doors above the waterline for human-compatible worlds though the ship buoyancy and cargo load design would need to be careful of what depth of harbor can be used. For planets that have no water, then the ship might need to have specialized tractor beams and sensors with the bottom beam and outer structure sufficiently strong so that the tractor beams can make sure the landing zone is sufficiently shaped to handle the ship landing on the surface (if there are no existing landing zones designed for the ship whether or not it has the equivalent of "feet" and hover technology to help the ship in coming to rest on such spaceports or other logistic hubs).
I wonder how the Star Wars equivalent of the internet stack up the presumably primitive real world version? I only seem to recall them showing it (officially?) once from the old Christmas special which I think was archaic looking even if it had some holographic displays though I think it was used to be able to order goods online and some equivalent of websites.
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Fully possible I either missed something or not on wookipedia or simply missed. There probably was actual box containers and simply missed. Think I've seen in some games such.
As for the larger type of freighters I think there was the concern of them being unable to take off or something? I know the Lucerhulk has it where the central sphere part can be detatched. Think I one time came across something relating to in it's page but not sure...
I think most ships just hover over oceans though there are ones able to go from space to ocean and back. Depends on who makes them. But yeah, tends to be other craft I think transporting things.
Anyways, I think the HoloNet is what your thinking of.
As for the larger type of freighters I think there was the concern of them being unable to take off or something? I know the Lucerhulk has it where the central sphere part can be detatched. Think I one time came across something relating to in it's page but not sure...
I think most ships just hover over oceans though there are ones able to go from space to ocean and back. Depends on who makes them. But yeah, tends to be other craft I think transporting things.
Anyways, I think the HoloNet is what your thinking of.
- Hyperwave transceiver/Legends
- HoloNet relay/Legends
- S-thread
- small hyperspace tunnels involved.
- Naboo message exchange
- A forum that exists on the HoloNet and Padme has posted on before.
- Communications ship
- Holo-bit generator
- Manipulate pre-recorded holo-transmissions to create a false transmission.
- Holo-Megacaster
- Also some news networks
- Holo-Gaftikar Channel Ten
- CIS aligned
- HoloNet News/Legends
- Holo-Gaftikar Channel Ten
- Hologram projection pod
- Holotelevision
- tv
- HoloNet relay
- HoloNet Waystation
- Holobook (HoloNet)
- socialmedia
- Infocache/Legends
- This is what they refer to webpages as.
- Cularin holonet node
- Murkhana HoloNet relay
- Transmitted shadowfeed.
- Holofeed
- RES23
- Channel operating before the clone wars
- Shadowfeed
- Unauthorized holofeeds and used by the Seperatists.
- Ansibella Dellu was in charge of the Shadowfeeds in Republic space.
- Taris Holofeed
- Office it was based in was destroyed back during the Mandalorian wars, but probably has been rebuilt.
- HoloNet entertainment suite
- HoloNet transceiver
hmm Arkanian, they popped up before in the other thread, manly about that civil war they have over fact thre created salve race from primitives though cybernetics, i should look into them more... *reads... SCREAMNING* yeah... ho boy... fucking evil mad scientists who may gives the kaminio a run for their money, hell i think shugel had more ethics... and I can't ignore them if you look map at where their systems is... there basically next-door neighbors to Mandalore... haha...
going... going to have to gives this one a thinking
Chapter 16
Chapter 16
714 (24 BBY)
Month 7
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Tanya Kryze
"Well, there goes my timetable." I muttered as I watched the speech from Raxus again. When I first heard about the growing issue in the Senate, where there might be a "divorce" between the Outer Rim and the Core Regions of the Galaxy, I thought that 4 years was how long it would take for the divorce to be getting into its final phases. Maybe another 3 years after that for a war to get declared, as long as there wasn't a repeat of the American Civil War where some garrison decided to be stubborn about surrendering the forts. Now things were a bit more fluid as the speech I had just watched pretty much made it an inevitability that this divorce would happen and the time scale was more unknown.
Though to give credit where it was due, Count Dooku's take over of a holo-net relay was an impressive feat, considering they were supposedly stationed in hyperspace. You would think that something so vital as a major artery of galactic communication and information would be more heavily guarded.
As for the speech itself, that was a doozy. Count Dooku had claimed that the Galactic Republic was a Feudal Enterprise, hopelessly burdened by corruption and favoritism towards the Core Worlds. That was of course true from my point of view and I'm sure anyone with a political mind for the subject would agree with him as well, althoughblaming the Jedi for the degradation of the morals of the Republic was a bit of a stretch. That line of thinking only works if you believe the Jedi should be ruling the Republic as they had during the Old Republic.
Which itself was a concerning thought, as I don't believe that a theocratic republic was in any way a good move for the galaxy. Perhaps in practice, it wouldn't be as bad as I imagined it to be, but if this Count wanted the Jedi to play a larger role in governing, I can't help but suspect that there may be a bit of a power grab going on.
All in all I would have to take a deeper look into Count of Serenno, as he would most likely be a key figure in the coming years of politics. At a bare minimum he had at least declared himself the president of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which was the main reason I was now on a fluid timeline for when exactly the war would start.
Prior to this declaration, the Republic had no true enemies of its own, simply a bunch of separate parties levying complaints and threats of withdrawal to the senate. Now, however, there was an enemy, one focused on gathering these disparate worlds under a singular banner that the Republic could propagandize against. There were no greater means of channeling the dissatisfaction of the masses than an enemy at the gates, after all, it was only a matter of time. The most concerning to me, however, was why the Count seemed to be meeting with the senator of Mandalore.
Oh, I had certainlyrecognized him as soon as the speech had begun, that this was definitely the individual who had been in the senator's office several months ago. Most likely, Dooku had been attempting to bring Mandalore into this Confederacy. It would make sense to get our support, as militarily speaking Mandalore did have a largely trained population and I had no doubt that our proximity to a major trade lane would serve well in holding whatever front line the Confederacy planned to hold if a war broke out.
Such was my assumption in any case and considering Senator Merrik had mentioned a Jedi running around and entering politics as well as warning her to stay away from him then no doubt Senator Merrik had been dealing with Count Dooku's efforts to draw Mandalore to their side this entire time. I would assume the senator was in contact with the security bureaus and that those charged with dealing with this sort of thing, were told to keep quiet about it in public which is why he hadn't mentioned more than just that. Either way I was sure Mandalore was not joining this Confederacy, Duchess Satine would have wanted nothing to do with it, of that I was sure. With the amount of effort I needed to get her just to approve armor construction, there was no way she had gone full warmonger in secret.
I replayed the speech for a third time as I sat back on a fine luxury chair in my apartment, looking out at a sunset, dipping beneath the horizon of Coruscant. I had no doubt that over the next few months there would be attempts to draw Mandalore into this conflict from both the Republic and the Confederacy. Whether that be for manpower, strategic resources, or simply the ability to navigate our space unhindered didn't really matter, things were going to get complicated and I would especially need to be on guard. There were less effective ways of gaining leverage over my world than a simple good old fashioned kidnapping of someone of importance and who could fit that bill if not the niece of its Grand Duchess. There would be attempts, of that I was sure to convert me to their individual causes in hopes that I would influence Satine in turn but I knew where my influence came from and I had every intention of staying loyal to my aunt. Still, the captured princess was a well-used trope for good reason which begged the question in the event of my capture. Would the Duchess play ball with my captors or would she stand strong and defiant in the face of such demands?
I didn't want the answer to either one of those questions, considering the wide variety of technologies and quasi magics that apparently existed in this galaxy, I didn't want to be a victim to any of that so I would just have to be on extra guard against any efforts.
Looking over at X4 as he was pouring over economic data, I thought that I probably should also get him some upgrades. There's always a chance that my Royal Guards and my Handmaiden would not be enough, having a droid who could help defend me is a nice contingency plan to better ensure my safety. Maybe I was being a little bit paranoid? Probably, most people wouldn't even think about all the defenses they would need in case war broke out. But then again, most people did not have the past life experience of having an angry entity with powers beyond their comprehension attempting to convert them into a choir girl that worshiped them. Once I had experienced something like that, taking any threat to my safety seriously seems like a wise use of my time.
Well at least I could deal with this, the prospect of a civil war rupturing the galaxy with hatred and violence until only one side is left is one that I can understand. Stumbling across fanfiction of yourself on the holo-net? That was just utterly horrifying.
I already had agents out looking for this False Silver with thanks to Bo Katan, so I didn't need to focus on that situation just yet. I was sure she would find something and I would then make moves to deal with it. Perhaps find a way to discredit the person or publish my own updated version and hope that it would detract enough power from the growing Second Codex and let people abandon it eventually. So I had some free time over the last month to peruse the holo-net and I had been greeted by an absolutely horrifying moment when I realized that whoever owns the camera that had caught the fight in the stairway had decided that it was such a good fight that he was going to post it online.
It did not come out immediately, it had only been in the last 2 weeks that this situation had developed. But oh had it screwed with my head seeing not only the fight from another angle but seeing the comment section of the video. All my efforts to try and hide my little adventure had been for naught. Apparently someone had recognized me and pointed people toward the Mandalorian Representative holo-page, which had my face as well as my name.
So not only had my unfortunate fight that I had gotten involved in been recorded, my face and name were now firmly attached to the images of that fight and any chance to attempt to make this go away had firmly been destroyed. The only good part about this was that at least half of the people in the comment section were on my side since it was obvious that I had wandered into the fight by accident and simply responded to violence with violence. Though I didn't like the other half of the comments, comments that belonged in the dark corners of the holo-net were extremely… what was that term that was used in my first life? 'is horny on main'.
But frankly, I was so embarrassed by the whole thing I was considering possibly putting in a request for vacation time to get away from Coruscant until the whole situation calmed down. Stepping away from politics until I could have a conversation without people going, "Hey weren't you the person in that video a while back?" would probably be the wisest move. Thankfully my infamy or fame, whichever you preferred, was still a minor problem. Only a concern to a few of the politicians I've met, as most had apparently better things to do than spend time watching holovids and not paying attention to the whole situation with the Confederacy. Which was good and the only reason I had not gone for the vacation days immediately.
Though when Satine had heard about it, she had called me up directly on the holo-net to ask what had happened and why I had been involved in such a conflict. Which had been a rather nice experience all in all. Having your boss look out for you is a generally good feeling as that meant you were still a valued member of the organization.
Frankly the amount of worry in the Duchess' voice had made me wonder if she saw me as some sort of surrogate daughter, which was a funny thought and useful for my political future. I never really thought much about the fact that that could be a thing. Before I had always just seen myself as a ward in her care but if she saw me as something more, that was frankly a useful advantage for my continued efforts to improve the conditions on Mandalore and the rest of the sector. That level of trust also meant I really couldn't run away from a small setback like this.
It would frankly be a betrayal of that trust if I took advantage of my boss's emotional connection to me over something as small as this, so I calmed her down the best I could and informed her I would be staying for now on Coruscant working out the situation.
Besides that, this was the center of political talks in the entire galaxy. I need to be here to understand exactly what was going on with this new Confederacy. At least until how many systems were pulling out of the Republic to join this Confederacy was made clear. The more that pulled out, the more likely there was a chance of war and that would give me a better way to predict how long Mandalore had before we were forced into taking a stance on the conflict.
714 (24BBY)
Mandalorian Sector, Gargon
Bo-Katan Kryze
Out of all the places I could have ended up within the Mandalorian Sector, this was one destination I would have definitely avoided. I had been here once before, decades ago, during the Clan Wars. At the time it had been a planet broken up between two types of people. The Nomads, who roamed the planet and lived what they considered a Traditional Mandalorian lifestyle, living off the countryside and trading for gear once in a while. And the people of the City of Gargon, who could best be summed up as criminals and sleazy businessmen.
Gargon was right on the edges of the main trade way, running by the Mandalorian Sector as well as having been a defective trade port at various points in history that also served as a pirate port at other points. Just 30 years ago a Hutt had even run the place, though the local clans had pushed him out eventually, just before the Clan Wars took off.
However those clans were not exactly the most noble in the Mandalorian Sector, they tended to be more criminal in nature and would work with whatever illegal enterprise was interested in running resources through the edges of the Mandalorian Space.
Mandalorian and Republic laws were paid no heed here, instead it was the laws of the families who ran the illegal industries and casinos that held power. At least that's how it had been when I was last here during the Clan Wars. Tracking down grandfather's silver beskar sword after it'd been taken from my father's body at the last battle he had fought in.
I had managed to track down the mercenary who had been hired for that battle and get a little bit of payback, maybe a lot of payback, for the crime of taking my father's life. Unfortunately, the sword had been sold, so that disgusting mercenary could have a night on the town and I had never been able to recover it. No doubt it had been lost or melted down for armor by now but it had always ticked me off that I had never recovered it.
Things seemed to have changed since my last trip here. As I said, last time I'd been here the city had been fairly well run by a mix of gangsters and Mandalorians under the control of local clans who ran the underworld. The city was as much a territory divided up between criminal organizations as it was a single city.
But things were definitely taking a turn towards consolidation. Where once there were gangsters and Mandalorians holding positions on street corners to remind all of who ran their individual districts, now soldiers clad in black armor, helmed with T-visors tinted a faint orange and displaying proudly upon their shoulders the insignia of Mandel Hypernautics, stood in their place. Some of them carried themselves as if they were Mandalorians, as if the armor was a second skin and there were a few that were definitely beskar but others were plasteel or plastoid and carried themselves as if they were unfamiliar with the armor they wore. If I had to make a guess they were non-Mandalorians brought in to augment the numbers of actual Mandalorians serving Hypernautics.
Hypernautics had been there after the Fall of Mandalore, before the Clan Wars, so their influence had not been as large the last time I'd been around here. I believe I saw soldiers in similar uniforms around their factory, which had only been one at the time, but this was different.
Even factoring in them growing their number of factories on this planet to a large enough number, I don't think they would have this many troops just wandering the city protecting the peace. Especially considering the Clans who had run the illegal markets on this planet before had done that job fine enough.
The whole situation was putting me on edge, because it looked more like someone was trying to raise an army and not like they were trying to secure the city. Hell, I bet if I looked around I'd find a recruiting station, I might even be able to find out what the whole plan is. But that wasn't my goal with this little trip. I'd come to Gargon because after I got on Tanya's ship to get off Concordia, I hired a slicer friend of mine, someone good with tech, to research where the Second Codex had come from. And apparently the new Silver was not doing as good a job at hiding as the old one did and that is solely because the original Silver made his or her codex in analogue form before it was spread across the net by independent civilians. My attempts to track the old one had never turned up anything substantial as they had done a good job by not posting it directly to the holonet and just dispersing it in enough places that it would make its way there on its own. This new one apparently didn't care and had posted it directly to the net. With the data on it, it was not hard to track down from where it came, which led me to Gargon.
Now narrowing something down to a planet was a good step in the right direction, I wanted more though. So I had come to Gargon in hopes of meeting with an old agent, the same one who helped me track down the bastard who killed my father. In the hopes that they would have more details. Said agent was a member of the Tutt clan, one of the clans that ran the gambling institutions on this planet. They would have as many details as I was willing to pay for, of that I was sure, as long as it didn't interfere with their own operations and if it did interfere with their own operations at least it would give me a direction to point towards.
If I could just avoid these patrols though I would get to my meeting much faster. The black armored Mandalorian wannabes were proving to be problematic in getting to the section of the city my contact told me to meet him in, as they were cordoning the area off, it felt like. It finally got so bad that I had used my jetpack to get up to the roof of one of the larger buildings and carefully maneuver my way from rooftop to rooftop in the way I wanted to go. But once I got past the main blockade I was able to jump down to the street again and make my way towards a warehouse district.
Carefully, I scanned the area to make sure this wasn't some sort of elaborate trap before making a move to enter the building, keeping one of my pistols closed at hand as I entered a dilapidated warehouse made up of more rust than steel by the look of it outside.
"Ah Bo, I was wondering when you would make it here." Said a voice from the shadows of the warehouse before a man I did not recognize steped out of the shadows into a central lighted area. Before me stood an overweight gentleman wearing a pair of sunglasses and a large overcoat to hide the fact that his armor appeared to have been made for a younger and thinner man. He was definitely wearing Mandalorian style armor, though the orange and maroon coloration of the armor was a bit strange.
"Where is Lerus?" I barked immediately, going on the defensive upon seeing a stranger.
"At home most likely, I told him to take the day off and that I would take this meeting for him, after all I had a feeling our goals may align."
"And our goals would be?" I asked. I still had no idea who he was though I figured he must be connected to Lerus's particular clan just from his previous statement.
"Dealing with White Silver of course," he said with a smile before continuing, "also known as the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics, Bresug Gerr."
"Okay, now you have my attention. How do you know that he is White Silver?"
"It's quite simple really, my good Kryze, he's made it apparent to the families that run this city that he's going to be taking it over. He's pushed us out of the streets and has told us quite frankly that soon Gargon will be his new Mandalore. Someone with aspirations that large has to be playing politics somewhere else and the moment I saw the Codex appear a few years ago and he started aligning his company to aspects of that Codex, I knew he was responsible. Just as I knew that sooner or later the Duchess of Mandalore would take note as well and send someone to deal with him. And though I would prefer Mandalore keep its hands off the going ons of Gargon, I know that in order to maintain that preferred environment I would need to ally with whatever agent they sent."
"Uh-huh." I said tilting my helmeted head. I had not expected to run into a situation like this, it looks like there was about to be a bit of a clan war on this planet between the Old Guard of Gargon and the New Guard who were trying to muscle in on their territory. Maybe they'd knock each other out, but she's never that lucky. "So he's muscling in on your territory and pretending to be the White Silver. Why is he doing this?" I asked, a bit curious.
"I have no idea yet, it's not like he's often invited to the inter-clan meetings for running the city. We attempted to bring him in when he first arrived but he's always been a bit standoffish. If I was to twist several arms I would say his goals are quite larger than just a new Mandalore on Gargon. He's been running his arms industry at full capacity for the last few years and a lot of those ships don't seem to be going to Hutt Space."
"You think he's going to try and take over the sector don't you."
"I don't know if he plans to take it through military force or just find like minded men and make sure they have the weapons necessary to overthrow the local governments. But yes I believe his designs are on the entire sector."
"If he's such a problem why don't you just take him out?" I asked, as that was the most reasonable question.
"He's a problem on a small scale. He doesn't interfere with our legal businesses so we don't care that much at the moment and there is the unique possibility that we could expand our businesses if he's successful." The gentleman said matter of factly before continuing. "There's no reason for us to raise a hand against him but there's also no reason for us not to make sure those who would raise a hand against him don't succeed in gathering the intel they needed. If the Duchess and her Royal Guard decide to smash up Gargon we'd simply prefer if they focus on Hypernautic's forces and not, well the rest of the planet."
I nodded my helmeted head in understanding before asking. "So if we move against him, none of the other criminal organizations on this planet would interfere as long as we stay clear of them."
"Of course, as long as you don't cause too much mayhem, we will stay as quiet as the dead." He said matter of factly with a shrug. "Though if I were you I would get moving, word on the grapevine is that he's planning to take over the spaceport tonight. And when that happens it's very likely any ships stashed there will be confiscated for his new fleet and no doubt all signals in and out of the planet will soon fall under his control as well, if you want to tell the Duchess about this or even escape the planet, best to be moving on, you understand."
I nodded my head immediately, taking my hand away from the pistol before saying, "Thank you for the intel Mr. Tutt." guessing that he was from the same clan as my contact. He nodded his approval before I continued and said, "I'll see about getting this whole situation with Hypernautics dealt with as fast as I can." Before I backed up and opened the door, never really taking my eyes off him just in case. Once I was outside, I looked towards the city's neon lights and sighed. I probably didn't have much time but I would try to get to my ship and out of here before everything is locked down and hopefully get off the planet too. Though if I ended up stuck here I'm sure I'd find some way to hold out till everything was under control.
714 (24 BBY)
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
X4
Standing in front of a console, I perused the various companies and stockholdings I ran for my mistress. Mando Logistics is having a very profitable time moving resources out of the Mandalore Sector to Coruscant where their items were novelties and to various hot zones prone to conflict, where they were most likely to be used as intended; defensive armaments in line with Tanya's musings on what a company should do in order to maximize profits. Often I would use the vessels that were contracted to work under the logistics company to bring in resources for the armorers as well as luxury items, though those were a smaller component of the business.
Profits are up across the board and I was able to purchase ships directly for the company. Negotiating those contacts with Mandel Motors was such a wise move on my mistress's part and now Mando Logistics has several cargo haulers running long haul missions across the galaxy. I am considering getting some of the new smaller cargo ships that have just come on the market from Mandel Motors. It appeared to be a redesign of the Lancer-class pursuit craft used by the Royal Guard for operations off-world of Mandalore.
While the cargo haulers were slow affairs and had to stick to the safer trade ways in order to move resources around, there was quite a lot of credit potential in these smaller yet faster crafts as they could travel through some of the more pirate infested areas of space. Skimming Hutt territory, was a profitable venture in my robotic mind, but finding capable pilots and smugglers was a harder task since many had criminal records and could be seen as potential thieves who would run off with the ships if given the opportunity. I had toyed with the idea of purchasing droids for that purpose. The funding coming in would make that more than possible though he had concerns about owning other droids. While it would cut down on the overhead, droids weren't exactly the best for those particular types of missions. Perhaps I should look into buying droids for the cargo haulers or at least to augment their crew.
Stepping away from the computer he walked into the main living area of the Tower where mistress Tanya and Vai were watching an episode of the Silver Ranger, the hero was in a hand-to-hand fight with a group of thugs by the looks of it. I stood there, waiting to be called upon not wanting to interrupt, Tanya noticed me right away and said, "X4, what's on your mind?"
"Mistress, I was having a thought and wondered what your own would be on droid ownership?" I said as clearly as possible
Vai immediately stopped munching on the popcorn she had and looked up worried. "Well," Tanya shrugged and said with a chuckle, "The old 'do droids have a soul?' question, I'll ask in return, do you think humans have a soul?"
If I could tilt my head I would have, though given that my head was firmly grafted onto my neck the most I could do was spin the cylinder a bit in thought. This wasn't exactly the answer to the question of 'is it okay for me to own droids?' but it felt like she was trying to present a teachable moment so I played into it. "I don't know, mistress."
"And that's the answer to that question, we don't know if biological life has a soul. Why do we even believe that droids don't have a soul? Either way they're both forced to endure forms of indentured servitude or slavery depending on where they end up in life. In a perfect galaxy such barbarism would not be allowed, but it's not a perfect galaxy so the best we can do is treat those who are forced to live in such conditions with as much respect as we can grant them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
I tilted my body forward in a shallow bow, "Yes mistress, I understand completely." Mistress was okay with me owning droids, as long as I treated them with as much respect as she treated me. Perhaps even more, perhaps I should give droids stock options within the company to accrue more loyalty than restraining bolts would. I would have to give this much more thought.
Before I could step away a message beeped on Tanya's vambrace, causing her to look down. She pressed a few buttons and a moment later was smiling broadly.
"Got the bastard." she said, causing Vai to look over from the Holo-screen.
"Got who?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"False Silver, Bo located the name of the charlatan trying to take the White Silver name for himself. Now I can go about the process of discrediting him. "
"How and why would you do that mistress?" I asked frankly curious why she was so concerned with the goings on of the Silver Codex.
Tanya looked up at me, deep in thought and then said, "The Silver Codex is a prime example of good free market principles being applied correctly. At least the first one is, the second one is an attempt to end the free market and create a corporate market, if not move to a full corporate government, which is never good for the free markets. It's a threat to a prosperous and peaceful Mandalore which is why I would prefer to expose this False Silver as quickly as possible if not outright hamper and destroy his efforts."
"How will exposing this False Silver hamper his efforts?" Vai asked from her seat.
"Simple, as long as this person's playing the anonymity game, they can claim they are the first writer without having any evidence to say otherwise. Strip away his anonymity though, you can compare the first writer's writings to the life of the person claiming to be the writer and if they don't match up too well, there's a good chance it's a fake and that's what I need to do. I need to create a document to show that he is not the same individual who wrote the first Silver Codex. If I do that, his ability to manipulate the document is hampered if not outright stopped. Of course it'll take me a while to do the research, knowing someone's name does not mean you understand everything about them. But once I have research done, I could write a paper under another false name and have this False Silver business wiped away within the year."
"So who is this guy anyway then?" Vai asked as she munched on a bit of popcorn.
"Bresug Gerr of Mandal Hypernautics huh, that's the company Kark Trig was complaining about a few months ago, a thief and possible warlord in the making." Tanya said, tilting her head a bit. "What game are you playing that you would need a fleet of ships and commandeer the…" her eyes wide and does she seem to have some revelation before asking, "X4, you're more efficient with holo-net searches, can you do a cross reference of the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics and White Silver."
"Of course, mistress." I said moving over to a console and starting to run the search requested. "I will have the information within 5 minutes if there is any."
"What are you thinking Tanya?" Vai asked, sitting up.
I couldn't see it from my angle but I could hear a disturbed tone in Tanya's voice. "Building a fleet of ships and converting a defensive ideology, into his own idea? Well it almost sounds like something someone would do if they were planning to be the center point of a rebellious movement. Make yourself as big of a threat as possible so when someone tries to bring you down in the government, surprise them with the fleet of ships they couldn't have known you had to make it appear like you've won a great victory and then all of a sudden you have a steady supply of volunteers from across the Mandalore Sector willing to fight for White Silver."
"You think this guy is trying to start a civil war?" Vai asked.
"Might be the ultimate end goal, even if he doesn't try to start a civil war outright. If he can play up the threat, with the New Mandalorian government taking issue with his version of the Silver Codex he could draw in people who simply dislike the current government to work for him. Good old use of spite against a common enemy to increase your workforce and loyal supporters."
"Yeah, but if they did that, he would have to tell them where to go, he would have to tell them that he is White Silver. Wouldn't that expose him like you said?" Vai questioned.
"That depends on him remaining anonymous, if he is planning to take the title of White Silver or not. Whether he becomes a public figure as White Silver changes the situation greatly."
"How greatly?" Vai asked, sounding worried.
I interrupted before Mistress could answer by saying, "Mistress, I have found a recent holo-video uploaded to the Gargon relay about White Silver shall I play it?"
"Yes, X4. Play it."
Turning my head to face the screen, I paused the Silver Ranger and brought up the video. Said video had a title card showing a man wearing silver Mandalorian armor sitting in a fine black chair next to a roaring fire. The room was richly decorated in woods and brick as well as fine tapestries of battles long since condemned to history over the fireplace. As well as a sheathed traditional beskad hanging just below that. Sitting on the table next to him was a pile of books and a glass of liquid. Not wanting to waste my mistress's time I started playing the video.
The silver armored warrior looked to the screen as he said, "Good afternoon my fellow citizens of the Mandalorian Sector. You might recognize me as White Silver, but in the case you don't," he reached up and pressed a button on the side of his helmet before pulling it off revealing a gentleman with long dark brown hair and green eyes. "You may also know me as Bresug Gerr of Mandel Hypernautics. During the Siege of Mandalore and the Bombardment of Kalevala, my factory stayed operational to use the last bit of resources we could scrounge up to produce fighter craft."
Setting his helmet down on the wooden floor in front of his boots he continued. "Those were great and terrible times, times of legends and times of failure. I look back on those times with both sorrow and fondness for it showed how dedicated the Mandalorian people were to maintaining our independence, and even if we were to go out we would go out fighting."
"It's been long 20 years since the Fall of Mandalore and the rise of the New Mandalorians. Over those 20 years I have attempted to try and mend bridges with them. Tried to get them to see reason and let Mandel Hypernautics bring back wealth to the sector."
"But the ruler of Mandalore is set in her ways of pacifism. Oh sure, she has recently let some companies take up efforts to try and make money again to bring our people out of the dirt they were thrown into by the Jedi and the Republic, but this was led by the people not by her own effort, she was forced into."
"If I hadn't published the Silver Codex the way I did all those years ago and attempted to try and get my way of thinking out there, she would have come down on me like a hammer and made sure that no one was making any improvements in this sector. At the time, secrecy was needed but now it is no longer necessary. I have secured the planet Gargon for the people of Mandalore. It'll be the basis by which the new system of government I proposed in my second Codex can be practiced. Where our people will be allowed true economic freedom in service to the government. And not have to be worried about being crushed by an uncaring and unfaithful Mandalorian government headed up by Kalevalians who see themselves as saviors but have shown themselves to be nothing but our cultural executioners. Here on this planet we will build a new and better Mandalore and show the New Mandalorians the error of their ways."
"We will unleash the economic power of Mandalore's potential and show the entire sector that our way is the future. Gargon will become a new Mandalore, a new start for those held down by the Republic and their lackeys. And we are waiting for you to join us here, my brothers and sisters of many clans."
"Here on Gargon we will reforge our people's strength, our honor, and our pride." He said as if offering it in friendship. "The future of our people is here my brothers and sisters, not on Mandalore with the dogmatic factions that will inevitably fight each other to the end of time, and not on Kalevala with their pacifism. Gargon is waiting."
The scene changed from that of the expensive richly decorated room to a picture of the planet Gargon rotating in the distance as a ring of words saying "A Better Future Awaits" circles the planet.
714 (24BBY)
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Vai Viktis Visla
As the video ended I watched Tanya let out a sigh that could mimic the dead before taking a few steps away from the TV and sitting down in a very plush chair.
It appeared that she was trying to calm herself down but I could tell it wasn't working as I could basically hear her grinding her teeth as she looked at the screen still showing the planet Gargon.
"So he revealed his identity himself?" I asked.
"Exactly in the worst possible way to have his identity revealed." Tanya said, with a cold sharpness I hadn't heard in her voice before. "What he has just done is claim that the Silver Codex is not only his, but a work in progress that he's been working on for years. Not only that, he has implied that the only reason I was saying that Duchess Satine was the proper Mandalore was to keep her from going full genocide mode on his people."
"I?" X4 questioned from where he stood causing Tanya to look over at him.
"Yes", Tanya sighed before saying "I'm the real writer of the Silver Codex. It was my attempt to try and straighten out the unequal opportunities presented by going full New Mandalorian and not embracing some traditional ways from the Old Mandalorians."
X4 twitched his head a bit before saying, "This makes perfect sense." Then he walked further into the room saying, "I'll go get you your tea mistress, it'll help you think."
"Thank you X4." Tanya said before turning to stare at the screen with a look that would kill planets if she had the ability to.
"He is creating a narrative where the Duchess is a mad monarch who needs to be deposed for his version of madness, that she is going to attack him and any of his supporters."
"Yeah, but his identity has been revealed, shouldn't that just allow people to look through his records and see that he's most likely not the person who wrote it?"
"Won't matter, the Codex doesn't matter anymore. What matters is the title he's made, the title is the focus, he is Bresug Gerr CEO of Mandel Hypernautics and White Silver. Those who notice the differences between his personality and the codex will just shrug it off as him developing as time goes on. And anyone who tries to claim that he isn't White Silver without quite a bit of evidence will be laughed at, as taking the name White Silver is too potentially dangerous a prospect for anyone but the person who made it in most people's mind. They're not wrong, I suspect every organization that's got an issue with White Silver will be gunning for him but if I have to take a guess he wouldn't be doing this unless he has complete control of Gargon, possibly military control."
"Well then I guess the Duchess will have to step in." I said, not sure what to do.
"She can't or I would prefer she wouldn't, if she steps in to try and restore order on Gordon now she will appear to be the dictator he's claiming her to be and will start a civil war as factions that generally dislike her will join with him seeing the potential in the situation to gain power."
"He's framed it quite nicely 'compete with me on economics or come at me and start a civil war'. No, I don't think he'll have the ability to win the war through economics but I wouldn't be surprised if he uses that nice fleet of his to make sure that the proper Mandalorian government doesn't win either. Scare off enough trade convoys and you can start an economic crisis on a planet then use that economic crisis to get your fingers in the planet's government."
"Then maybe assassinate him?" I said, thinking of a few people who may have bounty hunters and assassins that could be hired for this situation.
"That would just start the civil war early if it failed or turn him into a martyr and then start the civil war if it succeeded. It wouldn't matter who was responsible, he's created a situation where it looks like if he dies, Satine is responsible and will take the blame."
"Then what options do we have available?" I asked, shrugging and putting my popcorn down to the side of the chair I was sitting in.
"We have two options, but neither of them are good. The real White Silver must kill him or humiliate him in such a way that it proves that he is not the real White Silver."
I blinked and said, "Tanya, are you suggesting you need to murder the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics? I know you're a good fighter but I'm not sure you're ready for that yet. I don't think I'm ready for that?"
Tanya simply chuckled and looked at me, "That is not a concern you need to worry about. What we need to worry about is the fact that of the two options both of them include me having to defeat him in combat in some way. I either have to raise an army to fight this theorem stealing bastard, bring the Mandalore Sector into its second civil war in the last 20 years or infiltrate his complex, get past his guards and remove him from power of the planet of Gargon."
I could immediately tell she was not going with the first option so I said, "Okay let's think this through Tanya. First we would need to get past the Planetary Security, second you would need to find allies on the planet to keep that Security Force preoccupied so you could even get close to him, and third you would need to beat a 40 something Mandalorian who served in the Siege of Keldabe. I know you're a good fighter Tanya but I'm not sure you can pull off all three of those things."
"I'm going to have to." Tanya said matter of factly. "The Silver Codex represents the best chance for a peaceful Mandalore and this man is destroying that chance. If I can't stop him, the peace we've lived in for the last 20 years will be gone within the next few years…. son of a bitch." Tanya stopped mid-sentence as her eyes widened.
"What?" I said, wondering what had spooked her.
"This corresponds with the Confederacy's little uprising a little too well in my thinking. This is most likely a revenge action because Senator Merrik has told Count Dooku, no."
"Wait what?" I said, confused sitting up. "When did Senator Merrik meet Count Dooku?"
"Remember a few months ago when we entered his office and there was an old man in the corner?"
"Vaguely, I did recall being a bit surprised when the man had been there and sworn when we first entered the room no one was there and then all of a sudden poof I assume he just blended into the background good enough."
"There's no way Satine wants to take part in this current conflict that's brewing. But getting Mandalore on their side would be useful so what better way than to create a situation that puts a pirate fleet of Mandalorians right on the border of the main trade way? The Republic will be forced to send ships and the Mandalore Sector will be angry, wanting nothing to do with Satine or the Republic."
Tanya shook her head, "There's no "waiting him out", there's no "hoping he goes away", and the actions needed to unseat him by government means, will result in a civil war in the Mandalore Sector. The only option is for someone claiming to be the real White Silver to step forward, to defeat him, comment, and then bow out in such a way that no one will try to take the title again."
"Alright let's take this one step at a time. You're going to need a ship that could get to Gargon and I don't think any ship in the Mandalore sector is going to be going anywhere near there anytime soon for official business." I said trying to poke a hole in the plan.
"I have access to a new style transport ship." X4 said, coming back with a cup of tea and setting it before Tanya. "Sorry, I mean my contacts at Mando Logistics can get us access to a new type of transport vessel from Mandel Motors, it could easily make it to the Mandalore Sector within a week or two depending on the skill of the pilot."
"Okay, well cool you have access to a ship. How are you going to gather allies on the planet?"
"According to Bo, the planet is mostly populated by criminals and nomadic peoples. I don't think they're going to be a big fan of Mr. Corpo Authoritarianism over there. We just need to have a few conversations with the right people and then we would have allies for this operation."
"Alright so you have possible allies and a ship, there still seems to be a lot of holes in this plan. How would we even get permission from Senator Merrik to leave Coruscant?"
"Not as many as you think. I've already filled out a few holes you haven't even thought of, but as for how we would get out of this system. Well I did suggest I might need to take a little time off to recover from the alley fight and the embarrassment that it has put on my record. Engiz has always wanted to show me the library on Ordo. A good opportunity to win hearts and minds by exploring the Mandalorian Sector and meeting the people I represent." Tanya said with a smile before she sipped her tea.
Before I could try and think of anything else to talk her out of this she said. "Give me 24 hours and I will have this all sorted out, Vai. Trust me I know what I'm doing when it comes to military operations of this type."
"I don't think history books are going to teach you how to perform a decapitating action against enemy leadership." I said with a sigh. I wasn't really going to fight this anymore as far as I could tell Tanya was right. Bresug Gerr had turned the White Silver into a title no different than Mandalore. As long as he held that title or those who attempted to use that title after he fell existed, who were not Tanya, things would not go well.
Shaking my head I saw X4 place a cup of tea in front of me at my side so I picked it up. I would just have to trust Tanya on this. There was no other option and for that matter she'd set her mind to it.
714 (24BBY)
Concordia, Governor's Mansion
Pre Viszla
Letting out a deep sigh, I shook my head as I stepped away from the console. I knew I should have killed that man, he's been on my list of potential problem characters for a long time. It was nothing personal per se, I just didn't like someone threatening my position in Mandalorian society even if that position was a secret.
But I have been too busy the last few years. Concordia was in a bit of an improvement boom recently and I noted a slight lessening of my people's will to get rid of the New Mandalorians. Or at least the ones that were willing to accept the Silver leaning ones. I wondered how well that would go off now that someone had attempted to turn the name White Silver into a title no different than the title of Mandalore.
I think even if this situation doesn't get sorted out in my favor I might have a few more supporters back on the train for removing the New Mandalorians from power. Such an abuse of the ancient titles would tick off most of the more zealous clans that was for sure.
Well, it's not the worst outcome then, it's just some fool who has tried to declare himself the head of a new ideology. And this would serve his goals too in a way, as the way he positioned himself was in such a way that Satine would probably not try and remove him, not for a few months at least, a weakness that would be on display for all the Old Mandalorians.
The real question though was who would give this man the go ahead to attempt this. I know I've been busy for the last few years prepping for the inevitable conflict between New and Old Mandalorians as well as getting sidetracked more recently by both the great economic growth of Concordia, the Jedi poking around where they shouldn't be, and Dooku's machinations which may give me the opportunity to finally put Mandalore back under the house of Vizsla again.
But I was damn sure I had not missed this, this was too early for Dooku to have given the go-ahead and Merrik definitely would not have signed on to this plan as well, he wanted to return the noble titles to full power instead of the democratized version that the New Mandalorians had brought in. And I really doubted that he was the person who'd put together the original Silver Codex. My agents may have never found that person, but I had suspicions that they were from New Mandalorian stock, and there was no way a New Mandalorian would be so openly brazen about attempting to draw the Mandalorian Sector into war.
I guess there was the possibility that this was just some unknown player on the board that finally flipped his cards to reveal himself, it's not impossible but it seems odd. And I guess it was also possible that one of the members of the CIS had their own goals on Mandalore outside of Dooku's plan, given that the man was pushing for a corporatist state.
Either way though I needed to make a move against this Silver Corpo. As long as he was around he would be a threat to my leadership of the Old Mandalorians and Death Watch. I have worked too hard, suffered too much, and then been way too patient to let some fool screw it all up.
On one hand, I wanted to stop waiting, rally Death Watch, and then march on Gargon, take the planet for myself and then start the coup d'état by getting rid of a potential competitor. On the other hand, I knew we weren't ready yet, even with the lifting of restrictions on armor, the construction of weapons was still proving a bit difficult, and Mandel Motors was being a little cagey about those ships they were supposed to deliver. They would come around eventually, but if they didn't, well, I know where several other factories are. I know where they stored a lot of their ships, and it wouldn't be too difficult to organize a raid to acquire as many as possible.
If I could take some of Hypernautic's fleet that they've been building, that might improve my odds of winning a civil war. But that still meant I needed to figure out a way to deal with this Silver CEO. Perhaps I should send in a few agents under the guise of joining his faction and find out as much as possible about this Gargon situation before I make any moves.
'Yes,' I thought, nodding my head, turning away from the console to look at my fully decorated office. Thinking hard about who is loyal enough to the dream of an independent Mandalore and would not fall for the lies of a corpo slick talker, I settled on the Wrens. They have always been loyal to the secret Mandalore and I doubted they would jump ship for the pipe dream this man proposed.
I would have to contact them and tell them to get some agents over to Gargon to get me as much intel on the situation as possible. Then I would contact Dooku and make sure that he realized that this was not part of my plan and inquire if this was part of his plan or not. Finally, after that, I'd contact the Duchess and find out when she had scheduled a meeting on this situation. Surely it would not be too long from now, but probably within the next 24 to 36 hours. I'm certain she would not do anything against this little uprising, not yet at least.
Writers note: Let the games begin, pieces are moving, and the Devil is coming to Gargon.
This was not in my original plan, this just happened a few weeks back, as well the idea of someone stealing Tanya attempts at peace seemed… fun. Also, shows a bit of well, just remember what Tanya was first thinking when she thought about things happening in the Mandalore sector and her plans to deal with that.
Edited by: Markus Gollinger, Warmach1ne32
Community edited: Alexander Paulsen, TroubleFait, Gold God, Ryan Pirtle, Sound Logic
Community editable doc (Chapter 16) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
Supporters: Neso, Markus, Mackenzie Buckle, Silver Wolf, Falk H, Mana Rope, Daniel Martinez, michael, Devilstar101, Hats88, DrkShdow
714 (24 BBY)
Month 7
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Tanya Kryze
"Well, there goes my timetable." I muttered as I watched the speech from Raxus again. When I first heard about the growing issue in the Senate, where there might be a "divorce" between the Outer Rim and the Core Regions of the Galaxy, I thought that 4 years was how long it would take for the divorce to be getting into its final phases. Maybe another 3 years after that for a war to get declared, as long as there wasn't a repeat of the American Civil War where some garrison decided to be stubborn about surrendering the forts. Now things were a bit more fluid as the speech I had just watched pretty much made it an inevitability that this divorce would happen and the time scale was more unknown.
Though to give credit where it was due, Count Dooku's take over of a holo-net relay was an impressive feat, considering they were supposedly stationed in hyperspace. You would think that something so vital as a major artery of galactic communication and information would be more heavily guarded.
As for the speech itself, that was a doozy. Count Dooku had claimed that the Galactic Republic was a Feudal Enterprise, hopelessly burdened by corruption and favoritism towards the Core Worlds. That was of course true from my point of view and I'm sure anyone with a political mind for the subject would agree with him as well, althoughblaming the Jedi for the degradation of the morals of the Republic was a bit of a stretch. That line of thinking only works if you believe the Jedi should be ruling the Republic as they had during the Old Republic.
Which itself was a concerning thought, as I don't believe that a theocratic republic was in any way a good move for the galaxy. Perhaps in practice, it wouldn't be as bad as I imagined it to be, but if this Count wanted the Jedi to play a larger role in governing, I can't help but suspect that there may be a bit of a power grab going on.
All in all I would have to take a deeper look into Count of Serenno, as he would most likely be a key figure in the coming years of politics. At a bare minimum he had at least declared himself the president of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which was the main reason I was now on a fluid timeline for when exactly the war would start.
Prior to this declaration, the Republic had no true enemies of its own, simply a bunch of separate parties levying complaints and threats of withdrawal to the senate. Now, however, there was an enemy, one focused on gathering these disparate worlds under a singular banner that the Republic could propagandize against. There were no greater means of channeling the dissatisfaction of the masses than an enemy at the gates, after all, it was only a matter of time. The most concerning to me, however, was why the Count seemed to be meeting with the senator of Mandalore.
Oh, I had certainlyrecognized him as soon as the speech had begun, that this was definitely the individual who had been in the senator's office several months ago. Most likely, Dooku had been attempting to bring Mandalore into this Confederacy. It would make sense to get our support, as militarily speaking Mandalore did have a largely trained population and I had no doubt that our proximity to a major trade lane would serve well in holding whatever front line the Confederacy planned to hold if a war broke out.
Such was my assumption in any case and considering Senator Merrik had mentioned a Jedi running around and entering politics as well as warning her to stay away from him then no doubt Senator Merrik had been dealing with Count Dooku's efforts to draw Mandalore to their side this entire time. I would assume the senator was in contact with the security bureaus and that those charged with dealing with this sort of thing, were told to keep quiet about it in public which is why he hadn't mentioned more than just that. Either way I was sure Mandalore was not joining this Confederacy, Duchess Satine would have wanted nothing to do with it, of that I was sure. With the amount of effort I needed to get her just to approve armor construction, there was no way she had gone full warmonger in secret.
I replayed the speech for a third time as I sat back on a fine luxury chair in my apartment, looking out at a sunset, dipping beneath the horizon of Coruscant. I had no doubt that over the next few months there would be attempts to draw Mandalore into this conflict from both the Republic and the Confederacy. Whether that be for manpower, strategic resources, or simply the ability to navigate our space unhindered didn't really matter, things were going to get complicated and I would especially need to be on guard. There were less effective ways of gaining leverage over my world than a simple good old fashioned kidnapping of someone of importance and who could fit that bill if not the niece of its Grand Duchess. There would be attempts, of that I was sure to convert me to their individual causes in hopes that I would influence Satine in turn but I knew where my influence came from and I had every intention of staying loyal to my aunt. Still, the captured princess was a well-used trope for good reason which begged the question in the event of my capture. Would the Duchess play ball with my captors or would she stand strong and defiant in the face of such demands?
I didn't want the answer to either one of those questions, considering the wide variety of technologies and quasi magics that apparently existed in this galaxy, I didn't want to be a victim to any of that so I would just have to be on extra guard against any efforts.
Looking over at X4 as he was pouring over economic data, I thought that I probably should also get him some upgrades. There's always a chance that my Royal Guards and my Handmaiden would not be enough, having a droid who could help defend me is a nice contingency plan to better ensure my safety. Maybe I was being a little bit paranoid? Probably, most people wouldn't even think about all the defenses they would need in case war broke out. But then again, most people did not have the past life experience of having an angry entity with powers beyond their comprehension attempting to convert them into a choir girl that worshiped them. Once I had experienced something like that, taking any threat to my safety seriously seems like a wise use of my time.
Well at least I could deal with this, the prospect of a civil war rupturing the galaxy with hatred and violence until only one side is left is one that I can understand. Stumbling across fanfiction of yourself on the holo-net? That was just utterly horrifying.
I already had agents out looking for this False Silver with thanks to Bo Katan, so I didn't need to focus on that situation just yet. I was sure she would find something and I would then make moves to deal with it. Perhaps find a way to discredit the person or publish my own updated version and hope that it would detract enough power from the growing Second Codex and let people abandon it eventually. So I had some free time over the last month to peruse the holo-net and I had been greeted by an absolutely horrifying moment when I realized that whoever owns the camera that had caught the fight in the stairway had decided that it was such a good fight that he was going to post it online.
It did not come out immediately, it had only been in the last 2 weeks that this situation had developed. But oh had it screwed with my head seeing not only the fight from another angle but seeing the comment section of the video. All my efforts to try and hide my little adventure had been for naught. Apparently someone had recognized me and pointed people toward the Mandalorian Representative holo-page, which had my face as well as my name.
So not only had my unfortunate fight that I had gotten involved in been recorded, my face and name were now firmly attached to the images of that fight and any chance to attempt to make this go away had firmly been destroyed. The only good part about this was that at least half of the people in the comment section were on my side since it was obvious that I had wandered into the fight by accident and simply responded to violence with violence. Though I didn't like the other half of the comments, comments that belonged in the dark corners of the holo-net were extremely… what was that term that was used in my first life? 'is horny on main'.
But frankly, I was so embarrassed by the whole thing I was considering possibly putting in a request for vacation time to get away from Coruscant until the whole situation calmed down. Stepping away from politics until I could have a conversation without people going, "Hey weren't you the person in that video a while back?" would probably be the wisest move. Thankfully my infamy or fame, whichever you preferred, was still a minor problem. Only a concern to a few of the politicians I've met, as most had apparently better things to do than spend time watching holovids and not paying attention to the whole situation with the Confederacy. Which was good and the only reason I had not gone for the vacation days immediately.
Though when Satine had heard about it, she had called me up directly on the holo-net to ask what had happened and why I had been involved in such a conflict. Which had been a rather nice experience all in all. Having your boss look out for you is a generally good feeling as that meant you were still a valued member of the organization.
Frankly the amount of worry in the Duchess' voice had made me wonder if she saw me as some sort of surrogate daughter, which was a funny thought and useful for my political future. I never really thought much about the fact that that could be a thing. Before I had always just seen myself as a ward in her care but if she saw me as something more, that was frankly a useful advantage for my continued efforts to improve the conditions on Mandalore and the rest of the sector. That level of trust also meant I really couldn't run away from a small setback like this.
It would frankly be a betrayal of that trust if I took advantage of my boss's emotional connection to me over something as small as this, so I calmed her down the best I could and informed her I would be staying for now on Coruscant working out the situation.
Besides that, this was the center of political talks in the entire galaxy. I need to be here to understand exactly what was going on with this new Confederacy. At least until how many systems were pulling out of the Republic to join this Confederacy was made clear. The more that pulled out, the more likely there was a chance of war and that would give me a better way to predict how long Mandalore had before we were forced into taking a stance on the conflict.
714 (24BBY)
Mandalorian Sector, Gargon
Bo-Katan Kryze
Out of all the places I could have ended up within the Mandalorian Sector, this was one destination I would have definitely avoided. I had been here once before, decades ago, during the Clan Wars. At the time it had been a planet broken up between two types of people. The Nomads, who roamed the planet and lived what they considered a Traditional Mandalorian lifestyle, living off the countryside and trading for gear once in a while. And the people of the City of Gargon, who could best be summed up as criminals and sleazy businessmen.
Gargon was right on the edges of the main trade way, running by the Mandalorian Sector as well as having been a defective trade port at various points in history that also served as a pirate port at other points. Just 30 years ago a Hutt had even run the place, though the local clans had pushed him out eventually, just before the Clan Wars took off.
However those clans were not exactly the most noble in the Mandalorian Sector, they tended to be more criminal in nature and would work with whatever illegal enterprise was interested in running resources through the edges of the Mandalorian Space.
Mandalorian and Republic laws were paid no heed here, instead it was the laws of the families who ran the illegal industries and casinos that held power. At least that's how it had been when I was last here during the Clan Wars. Tracking down grandfather's silver beskar sword after it'd been taken from my father's body at the last battle he had fought in.
I had managed to track down the mercenary who had been hired for that battle and get a little bit of payback, maybe a lot of payback, for the crime of taking my father's life. Unfortunately, the sword had been sold, so that disgusting mercenary could have a night on the town and I had never been able to recover it. No doubt it had been lost or melted down for armor by now but it had always ticked me off that I had never recovered it.
Things seemed to have changed since my last trip here. As I said, last time I'd been here the city had been fairly well run by a mix of gangsters and Mandalorians under the control of local clans who ran the underworld. The city was as much a territory divided up between criminal organizations as it was a single city.
But things were definitely taking a turn towards consolidation. Where once there were gangsters and Mandalorians holding positions on street corners to remind all of who ran their individual districts, now soldiers clad in black armor, helmed with T-visors tinted a faint orange and displaying proudly upon their shoulders the insignia of Mandel Hypernautics, stood in their place. Some of them carried themselves as if they were Mandalorians, as if the armor was a second skin and there were a few that were definitely beskar but others were plasteel or plastoid and carried themselves as if they were unfamiliar with the armor they wore. If I had to make a guess they were non-Mandalorians brought in to augment the numbers of actual Mandalorians serving Hypernautics.
Hypernautics had been there after the Fall of Mandalore, before the Clan Wars, so their influence had not been as large the last time I'd been around here. I believe I saw soldiers in similar uniforms around their factory, which had only been one at the time, but this was different.
Even factoring in them growing their number of factories on this planet to a large enough number, I don't think they would have this many troops just wandering the city protecting the peace. Especially considering the Clans who had run the illegal markets on this planet before had done that job fine enough.
The whole situation was putting me on edge, because it looked more like someone was trying to raise an army and not like they were trying to secure the city. Hell, I bet if I looked around I'd find a recruiting station, I might even be able to find out what the whole plan is. But that wasn't my goal with this little trip. I'd come to Gargon because after I got on Tanya's ship to get off Concordia, I hired a slicer friend of mine, someone good with tech, to research where the Second Codex had come from. And apparently the new Silver was not doing as good a job at hiding as the old one did and that is solely because the original Silver made his or her codex in analogue form before it was spread across the net by independent civilians. My attempts to track the old one had never turned up anything substantial as they had done a good job by not posting it directly to the holonet and just dispersing it in enough places that it would make its way there on its own. This new one apparently didn't care and had posted it directly to the net. With the data on it, it was not hard to track down from where it came, which led me to Gargon.
Now narrowing something down to a planet was a good step in the right direction, I wanted more though. So I had come to Gargon in hopes of meeting with an old agent, the same one who helped me track down the bastard who killed my father. In the hopes that they would have more details. Said agent was a member of the Tutt clan, one of the clans that ran the gambling institutions on this planet. They would have as many details as I was willing to pay for, of that I was sure, as long as it didn't interfere with their own operations and if it did interfere with their own operations at least it would give me a direction to point towards.
If I could just avoid these patrols though I would get to my meeting much faster. The black armored Mandalorian wannabes were proving to be problematic in getting to the section of the city my contact told me to meet him in, as they were cordoning the area off, it felt like. It finally got so bad that I had used my jetpack to get up to the roof of one of the larger buildings and carefully maneuver my way from rooftop to rooftop in the way I wanted to go. But once I got past the main blockade I was able to jump down to the street again and make my way towards a warehouse district.
Carefully, I scanned the area to make sure this wasn't some sort of elaborate trap before making a move to enter the building, keeping one of my pistols closed at hand as I entered a dilapidated warehouse made up of more rust than steel by the look of it outside.
"Ah Bo, I was wondering when you would make it here." Said a voice from the shadows of the warehouse before a man I did not recognize steped out of the shadows into a central lighted area. Before me stood an overweight gentleman wearing a pair of sunglasses and a large overcoat to hide the fact that his armor appeared to have been made for a younger and thinner man. He was definitely wearing Mandalorian style armor, though the orange and maroon coloration of the armor was a bit strange.
"Where is Lerus?" I barked immediately, going on the defensive upon seeing a stranger.
"At home most likely, I told him to take the day off and that I would take this meeting for him, after all I had a feeling our goals may align."
"And our goals would be?" I asked. I still had no idea who he was though I figured he must be connected to Lerus's particular clan just from his previous statement.
"Dealing with White Silver of course," he said with a smile before continuing, "also known as the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics, Bresug Gerr."
"Okay, now you have my attention. How do you know that he is White Silver?"
"It's quite simple really, my good Kryze, he's made it apparent to the families that run this city that he's going to be taking it over. He's pushed us out of the streets and has told us quite frankly that soon Gargon will be his new Mandalore. Someone with aspirations that large has to be playing politics somewhere else and the moment I saw the Codex appear a few years ago and he started aligning his company to aspects of that Codex, I knew he was responsible. Just as I knew that sooner or later the Duchess of Mandalore would take note as well and send someone to deal with him. And though I would prefer Mandalore keep its hands off the going ons of Gargon, I know that in order to maintain that preferred environment I would need to ally with whatever agent they sent."
"Uh-huh." I said tilting my helmeted head. I had not expected to run into a situation like this, it looks like there was about to be a bit of a clan war on this planet between the Old Guard of Gargon and the New Guard who were trying to muscle in on their territory. Maybe they'd knock each other out, but she's never that lucky. "So he's muscling in on your territory and pretending to be the White Silver. Why is he doing this?" I asked, a bit curious.
"I have no idea yet, it's not like he's often invited to the inter-clan meetings for running the city. We attempted to bring him in when he first arrived but he's always been a bit standoffish. If I was to twist several arms I would say his goals are quite larger than just a new Mandalore on Gargon. He's been running his arms industry at full capacity for the last few years and a lot of those ships don't seem to be going to Hutt Space."
"You think he's going to try and take over the sector don't you."
"I don't know if he plans to take it through military force or just find like minded men and make sure they have the weapons necessary to overthrow the local governments. But yes I believe his designs are on the entire sector."
"If he's such a problem why don't you just take him out?" I asked, as that was the most reasonable question.
"He's a problem on a small scale. He doesn't interfere with our legal businesses so we don't care that much at the moment and there is the unique possibility that we could expand our businesses if he's successful." The gentleman said matter of factly before continuing. "There's no reason for us to raise a hand against him but there's also no reason for us not to make sure those who would raise a hand against him don't succeed in gathering the intel they needed. If the Duchess and her Royal Guard decide to smash up Gargon we'd simply prefer if they focus on Hypernautic's forces and not, well the rest of the planet."
I nodded my helmeted head in understanding before asking. "So if we move against him, none of the other criminal organizations on this planet would interfere as long as we stay clear of them."
"Of course, as long as you don't cause too much mayhem, we will stay as quiet as the dead." He said matter of factly with a shrug. "Though if I were you I would get moving, word on the grapevine is that he's planning to take over the spaceport tonight. And when that happens it's very likely any ships stashed there will be confiscated for his new fleet and no doubt all signals in and out of the planet will soon fall under his control as well, if you want to tell the Duchess about this or even escape the planet, best to be moving on, you understand."
I nodded my head immediately, taking my hand away from the pistol before saying, "Thank you for the intel Mr. Tutt." guessing that he was from the same clan as my contact. He nodded his approval before I continued and said, "I'll see about getting this whole situation with Hypernautics dealt with as fast as I can." Before I backed up and opened the door, never really taking my eyes off him just in case. Once I was outside, I looked towards the city's neon lights and sighed. I probably didn't have much time but I would try to get to my ship and out of here before everything is locked down and hopefully get off the planet too. Though if I ended up stuck here I'm sure I'd find some way to hold out till everything was under control.
714 (24 BBY)
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
X4
Standing in front of a console, I perused the various companies and stockholdings I ran for my mistress. Mando Logistics is having a very profitable time moving resources out of the Mandalore Sector to Coruscant where their items were novelties and to various hot zones prone to conflict, where they were most likely to be used as intended; defensive armaments in line with Tanya's musings on what a company should do in order to maximize profits. Often I would use the vessels that were contracted to work under the logistics company to bring in resources for the armorers as well as luxury items, though those were a smaller component of the business.
Profits are up across the board and I was able to purchase ships directly for the company. Negotiating those contacts with Mandel Motors was such a wise move on my mistress's part and now Mando Logistics has several cargo haulers running long haul missions across the galaxy. I am considering getting some of the new smaller cargo ships that have just come on the market from Mandel Motors. It appeared to be a redesign of the Lancer-class pursuit craft used by the Royal Guard for operations off-world of Mandalore.
While the cargo haulers were slow affairs and had to stick to the safer trade ways in order to move resources around, there was quite a lot of credit potential in these smaller yet faster crafts as they could travel through some of the more pirate infested areas of space. Skimming Hutt territory, was a profitable venture in my robotic mind, but finding capable pilots and smugglers was a harder task since many had criminal records and could be seen as potential thieves who would run off with the ships if given the opportunity. I had toyed with the idea of purchasing droids for that purpose. The funding coming in would make that more than possible though he had concerns about owning other droids. While it would cut down on the overhead, droids weren't exactly the best for those particular types of missions. Perhaps I should look into buying droids for the cargo haulers or at least to augment their crew.
Stepping away from the computer he walked into the main living area of the Tower where mistress Tanya and Vai were watching an episode of the Silver Ranger, the hero was in a hand-to-hand fight with a group of thugs by the looks of it. I stood there, waiting to be called upon not wanting to interrupt, Tanya noticed me right away and said, "X4, what's on your mind?"
"Mistress, I was having a thought and wondered what your own would be on droid ownership?" I said as clearly as possible
Vai immediately stopped munching on the popcorn she had and looked up worried. "Well," Tanya shrugged and said with a chuckle, "The old 'do droids have a soul?' question, I'll ask in return, do you think humans have a soul?"
If I could tilt my head I would have, though given that my head was firmly grafted onto my neck the most I could do was spin the cylinder a bit in thought. This wasn't exactly the answer to the question of 'is it okay for me to own droids?' but it felt like she was trying to present a teachable moment so I played into it. "I don't know, mistress."
"And that's the answer to that question, we don't know if biological life has a soul. Why do we even believe that droids don't have a soul? Either way they're both forced to endure forms of indentured servitude or slavery depending on where they end up in life. In a perfect galaxy such barbarism would not be allowed, but it's not a perfect galaxy so the best we can do is treat those who are forced to live in such conditions with as much respect as we can grant them. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
I tilted my body forward in a shallow bow, "Yes mistress, I understand completely." Mistress was okay with me owning droids, as long as I treated them with as much respect as she treated me. Perhaps even more, perhaps I should give droids stock options within the company to accrue more loyalty than restraining bolts would. I would have to give this much more thought.
Before I could step away a message beeped on Tanya's vambrace, causing her to look down. She pressed a few buttons and a moment later was smiling broadly.
"Got the bastard." she said, causing Vai to look over from the Holo-screen.
"Got who?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"False Silver, Bo located the name of the charlatan trying to take the White Silver name for himself. Now I can go about the process of discrediting him. "
"How and why would you do that mistress?" I asked frankly curious why she was so concerned with the goings on of the Silver Codex.
Tanya looked up at me, deep in thought and then said, "The Silver Codex is a prime example of good free market principles being applied correctly. At least the first one is, the second one is an attempt to end the free market and create a corporate market, if not move to a full corporate government, which is never good for the free markets. It's a threat to a prosperous and peaceful Mandalore which is why I would prefer to expose this False Silver as quickly as possible if not outright hamper and destroy his efforts."
"How will exposing this False Silver hamper his efforts?" Vai asked from her seat.
"Simple, as long as this person's playing the anonymity game, they can claim they are the first writer without having any evidence to say otherwise. Strip away his anonymity though, you can compare the first writer's writings to the life of the person claiming to be the writer and if they don't match up too well, there's a good chance it's a fake and that's what I need to do. I need to create a document to show that he is not the same individual who wrote the first Silver Codex. If I do that, his ability to manipulate the document is hampered if not outright stopped. Of course it'll take me a while to do the research, knowing someone's name does not mean you understand everything about them. But once I have research done, I could write a paper under another false name and have this False Silver business wiped away within the year."
"So who is this guy anyway then?" Vai asked as she munched on a bit of popcorn.
"Bresug Gerr of Mandal Hypernautics huh, that's the company Kark Trig was complaining about a few months ago, a thief and possible warlord in the making." Tanya said, tilting her head a bit. "What game are you playing that you would need a fleet of ships and commandeer the…" her eyes wide and does she seem to have some revelation before asking, "X4, you're more efficient with holo-net searches, can you do a cross reference of the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics and White Silver."
"Of course, mistress." I said moving over to a console and starting to run the search requested. "I will have the information within 5 minutes if there is any."
"What are you thinking Tanya?" Vai asked, sitting up.
I couldn't see it from my angle but I could hear a disturbed tone in Tanya's voice. "Building a fleet of ships and converting a defensive ideology, into his own idea? Well it almost sounds like something someone would do if they were planning to be the center point of a rebellious movement. Make yourself as big of a threat as possible so when someone tries to bring you down in the government, surprise them with the fleet of ships they couldn't have known you had to make it appear like you've won a great victory and then all of a sudden you have a steady supply of volunteers from across the Mandalore Sector willing to fight for White Silver."
"You think this guy is trying to start a civil war?" Vai asked.
"Might be the ultimate end goal, even if he doesn't try to start a civil war outright. If he can play up the threat, with the New Mandalorian government taking issue with his version of the Silver Codex he could draw in people who simply dislike the current government to work for him. Good old use of spite against a common enemy to increase your workforce and loyal supporters."
"Yeah, but if they did that, he would have to tell them where to go, he would have to tell them that he is White Silver. Wouldn't that expose him like you said?" Vai questioned.
"That depends on him remaining anonymous, if he is planning to take the title of White Silver or not. Whether he becomes a public figure as White Silver changes the situation greatly."
"How greatly?" Vai asked, sounding worried.
I interrupted before Mistress could answer by saying, "Mistress, I have found a recent holo-video uploaded to the Gargon relay about White Silver shall I play it?"
"Yes, X4. Play it."
Turning my head to face the screen, I paused the Silver Ranger and brought up the video. Said video had a title card showing a man wearing silver Mandalorian armor sitting in a fine black chair next to a roaring fire. The room was richly decorated in woods and brick as well as fine tapestries of battles long since condemned to history over the fireplace. As well as a sheathed traditional beskad hanging just below that. Sitting on the table next to him was a pile of books and a glass of liquid. Not wanting to waste my mistress's time I started playing the video.
The silver armored warrior looked to the screen as he said, "Good afternoon my fellow citizens of the Mandalorian Sector. You might recognize me as White Silver, but in the case you don't," he reached up and pressed a button on the side of his helmet before pulling it off revealing a gentleman with long dark brown hair and green eyes. "You may also know me as Bresug Gerr of Mandel Hypernautics. During the Siege of Mandalore and the Bombardment of Kalevala, my factory stayed operational to use the last bit of resources we could scrounge up to produce fighter craft."
Setting his helmet down on the wooden floor in front of his boots he continued. "Those were great and terrible times, times of legends and times of failure. I look back on those times with both sorrow and fondness for it showed how dedicated the Mandalorian people were to maintaining our independence, and even if we were to go out we would go out fighting."
"It's been long 20 years since the Fall of Mandalore and the rise of the New Mandalorians. Over those 20 years I have attempted to try and mend bridges with them. Tried to get them to see reason and let Mandel Hypernautics bring back wealth to the sector."
"But the ruler of Mandalore is set in her ways of pacifism. Oh sure, she has recently let some companies take up efforts to try and make money again to bring our people out of the dirt they were thrown into by the Jedi and the Republic, but this was led by the people not by her own effort, she was forced into."
"If I hadn't published the Silver Codex the way I did all those years ago and attempted to try and get my way of thinking out there, she would have come down on me like a hammer and made sure that no one was making any improvements in this sector. At the time, secrecy was needed but now it is no longer necessary. I have secured the planet Gargon for the people of Mandalore. It'll be the basis by which the new system of government I proposed in my second Codex can be practiced. Where our people will be allowed true economic freedom in service to the government. And not have to be worried about being crushed by an uncaring and unfaithful Mandalorian government headed up by Kalevalians who see themselves as saviors but have shown themselves to be nothing but our cultural executioners. Here on this planet we will build a new and better Mandalore and show the New Mandalorians the error of their ways."
"We will unleash the economic power of Mandalore's potential and show the entire sector that our way is the future. Gargon will become a new Mandalore, a new start for those held down by the Republic and their lackeys. And we are waiting for you to join us here, my brothers and sisters of many clans."
"Here on Gargon we will reforge our people's strength, our honor, and our pride." He said as if offering it in friendship. "The future of our people is here my brothers and sisters, not on Mandalore with the dogmatic factions that will inevitably fight each other to the end of time, and not on Kalevala with their pacifism. Gargon is waiting."
The scene changed from that of the expensive richly decorated room to a picture of the planet Gargon rotating in the distance as a ring of words saying "A Better Future Awaits" circles the planet.
714 (24BBY)
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Vai Viktis Visla
As the video ended I watched Tanya let out a sigh that could mimic the dead before taking a few steps away from the TV and sitting down in a very plush chair.
It appeared that she was trying to calm herself down but I could tell it wasn't working as I could basically hear her grinding her teeth as she looked at the screen still showing the planet Gargon.
"So he revealed his identity himself?" I asked.
"Exactly in the worst possible way to have his identity revealed." Tanya said, with a cold sharpness I hadn't heard in her voice before. "What he has just done is claim that the Silver Codex is not only his, but a work in progress that he's been working on for years. Not only that, he has implied that the only reason I was saying that Duchess Satine was the proper Mandalore was to keep her from going full genocide mode on his people."
"I?" X4 questioned from where he stood causing Tanya to look over at him.
"Yes", Tanya sighed before saying "I'm the real writer of the Silver Codex. It was my attempt to try and straighten out the unequal opportunities presented by going full New Mandalorian and not embracing some traditional ways from the Old Mandalorians."
X4 twitched his head a bit before saying, "This makes perfect sense." Then he walked further into the room saying, "I'll go get you your tea mistress, it'll help you think."
"Thank you X4." Tanya said before turning to stare at the screen with a look that would kill planets if she had the ability to.
"He is creating a narrative where the Duchess is a mad monarch who needs to be deposed for his version of madness, that she is going to attack him and any of his supporters."
"Yeah, but his identity has been revealed, shouldn't that just allow people to look through his records and see that he's most likely not the person who wrote it?"
"Won't matter, the Codex doesn't matter anymore. What matters is the title he's made, the title is the focus, he is Bresug Gerr CEO of Mandel Hypernautics and White Silver. Those who notice the differences between his personality and the codex will just shrug it off as him developing as time goes on. And anyone who tries to claim that he isn't White Silver without quite a bit of evidence will be laughed at, as taking the name White Silver is too potentially dangerous a prospect for anyone but the person who made it in most people's mind. They're not wrong, I suspect every organization that's got an issue with White Silver will be gunning for him but if I have to take a guess he wouldn't be doing this unless he has complete control of Gargon, possibly military control."
"Well then I guess the Duchess will have to step in." I said, not sure what to do.
"She can't or I would prefer she wouldn't, if she steps in to try and restore order on Gordon now she will appear to be the dictator he's claiming her to be and will start a civil war as factions that generally dislike her will join with him seeing the potential in the situation to gain power."
"He's framed it quite nicely 'compete with me on economics or come at me and start a civil war'. No, I don't think he'll have the ability to win the war through economics but I wouldn't be surprised if he uses that nice fleet of his to make sure that the proper Mandalorian government doesn't win either. Scare off enough trade convoys and you can start an economic crisis on a planet then use that economic crisis to get your fingers in the planet's government."
"Then maybe assassinate him?" I said, thinking of a few people who may have bounty hunters and assassins that could be hired for this situation.
"That would just start the civil war early if it failed or turn him into a martyr and then start the civil war if it succeeded. It wouldn't matter who was responsible, he's created a situation where it looks like if he dies, Satine is responsible and will take the blame."
"Then what options do we have available?" I asked, shrugging and putting my popcorn down to the side of the chair I was sitting in.
"We have two options, but neither of them are good. The real White Silver must kill him or humiliate him in such a way that it proves that he is not the real White Silver."
I blinked and said, "Tanya, are you suggesting you need to murder the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics? I know you're a good fighter but I'm not sure you're ready for that yet. I don't think I'm ready for that?"
Tanya simply chuckled and looked at me, "That is not a concern you need to worry about. What we need to worry about is the fact that of the two options both of them include me having to defeat him in combat in some way. I either have to raise an army to fight this theorem stealing bastard, bring the Mandalore Sector into its second civil war in the last 20 years or infiltrate his complex, get past his guards and remove him from power of the planet of Gargon."
I could immediately tell she was not going with the first option so I said, "Okay let's think this through Tanya. First we would need to get past the Planetary Security, second you would need to find allies on the planet to keep that Security Force preoccupied so you could even get close to him, and third you would need to beat a 40 something Mandalorian who served in the Siege of Keldabe. I know you're a good fighter Tanya but I'm not sure you can pull off all three of those things."
"I'm going to have to." Tanya said matter of factly. "The Silver Codex represents the best chance for a peaceful Mandalore and this man is destroying that chance. If I can't stop him, the peace we've lived in for the last 20 years will be gone within the next few years…. son of a bitch." Tanya stopped mid-sentence as her eyes widened.
"What?" I said, wondering what had spooked her.
"This corresponds with the Confederacy's little uprising a little too well in my thinking. This is most likely a revenge action because Senator Merrik has told Count Dooku, no."
"Wait what?" I said, confused sitting up. "When did Senator Merrik meet Count Dooku?"
"Remember a few months ago when we entered his office and there was an old man in the corner?"
"Vaguely, I did recall being a bit surprised when the man had been there and sworn when we first entered the room no one was there and then all of a sudden poof I assume he just blended into the background good enough."
"There's no way Satine wants to take part in this current conflict that's brewing. But getting Mandalore on their side would be useful so what better way than to create a situation that puts a pirate fleet of Mandalorians right on the border of the main trade way? The Republic will be forced to send ships and the Mandalore Sector will be angry, wanting nothing to do with Satine or the Republic."
Tanya shook her head, "There's no "waiting him out", there's no "hoping he goes away", and the actions needed to unseat him by government means, will result in a civil war in the Mandalore Sector. The only option is for someone claiming to be the real White Silver to step forward, to defeat him, comment, and then bow out in such a way that no one will try to take the title again."
"Alright let's take this one step at a time. You're going to need a ship that could get to Gargon and I don't think any ship in the Mandalore sector is going to be going anywhere near there anytime soon for official business." I said trying to poke a hole in the plan.
"I have access to a new style transport ship." X4 said, coming back with a cup of tea and setting it before Tanya. "Sorry, I mean my contacts at Mando Logistics can get us access to a new type of transport vessel from Mandel Motors, it could easily make it to the Mandalore Sector within a week or two depending on the skill of the pilot."
"Okay, well cool you have access to a ship. How are you going to gather allies on the planet?"
"According to Bo, the planet is mostly populated by criminals and nomadic peoples. I don't think they're going to be a big fan of Mr. Corpo Authoritarianism over there. We just need to have a few conversations with the right people and then we would have allies for this operation."
"Alright so you have possible allies and a ship, there still seems to be a lot of holes in this plan. How would we even get permission from Senator Merrik to leave Coruscant?"
"Not as many as you think. I've already filled out a few holes you haven't even thought of, but as for how we would get out of this system. Well I did suggest I might need to take a little time off to recover from the alley fight and the embarrassment that it has put on my record. Engiz has always wanted to show me the library on Ordo. A good opportunity to win hearts and minds by exploring the Mandalorian Sector and meeting the people I represent." Tanya said with a smile before she sipped her tea.
Before I could try and think of anything else to talk her out of this she said. "Give me 24 hours and I will have this all sorted out, Vai. Trust me I know what I'm doing when it comes to military operations of this type."
"I don't think history books are going to teach you how to perform a decapitating action against enemy leadership." I said with a sigh. I wasn't really going to fight this anymore as far as I could tell Tanya was right. Bresug Gerr had turned the White Silver into a title no different than Mandalore. As long as he held that title or those who attempted to use that title after he fell existed, who were not Tanya, things would not go well.
Shaking my head I saw X4 place a cup of tea in front of me at my side so I picked it up. I would just have to trust Tanya on this. There was no other option and for that matter she'd set her mind to it.
714 (24BBY)
Concordia, Governor's Mansion
Pre Viszla
Letting out a deep sigh, I shook my head as I stepped away from the console. I knew I should have killed that man, he's been on my list of potential problem characters for a long time. It was nothing personal per se, I just didn't like someone threatening my position in Mandalorian society even if that position was a secret.
But I have been too busy the last few years. Concordia was in a bit of an improvement boom recently and I noted a slight lessening of my people's will to get rid of the New Mandalorians. Or at least the ones that were willing to accept the Silver leaning ones. I wondered how well that would go off now that someone had attempted to turn the name White Silver into a title no different than the title of Mandalore.
I think even if this situation doesn't get sorted out in my favor I might have a few more supporters back on the train for removing the New Mandalorians from power. Such an abuse of the ancient titles would tick off most of the more zealous clans that was for sure.
Well, it's not the worst outcome then, it's just some fool who has tried to declare himself the head of a new ideology. And this would serve his goals too in a way, as the way he positioned himself was in such a way that Satine would probably not try and remove him, not for a few months at least, a weakness that would be on display for all the Old Mandalorians.
The real question though was who would give this man the go ahead to attempt this. I know I've been busy for the last few years prepping for the inevitable conflict between New and Old Mandalorians as well as getting sidetracked more recently by both the great economic growth of Concordia, the Jedi poking around where they shouldn't be, and Dooku's machinations which may give me the opportunity to finally put Mandalore back under the house of Vizsla again.
But I was damn sure I had not missed this, this was too early for Dooku to have given the go-ahead and Merrik definitely would not have signed on to this plan as well, he wanted to return the noble titles to full power instead of the democratized version that the New Mandalorians had brought in. And I really doubted that he was the person who'd put together the original Silver Codex. My agents may have never found that person, but I had suspicions that they were from New Mandalorian stock, and there was no way a New Mandalorian would be so openly brazen about attempting to draw the Mandalorian Sector into war.
I guess there was the possibility that this was just some unknown player on the board that finally flipped his cards to reveal himself, it's not impossible but it seems odd. And I guess it was also possible that one of the members of the CIS had their own goals on Mandalore outside of Dooku's plan, given that the man was pushing for a corporatist state.
Either way though I needed to make a move against this Silver Corpo. As long as he was around he would be a threat to my leadership of the Old Mandalorians and Death Watch. I have worked too hard, suffered too much, and then been way too patient to let some fool screw it all up.
On one hand, I wanted to stop waiting, rally Death Watch, and then march on Gargon, take the planet for myself and then start the coup d'état by getting rid of a potential competitor. On the other hand, I knew we weren't ready yet, even with the lifting of restrictions on armor, the construction of weapons was still proving a bit difficult, and Mandel Motors was being a little cagey about those ships they were supposed to deliver. They would come around eventually, but if they didn't, well, I know where several other factories are. I know where they stored a lot of their ships, and it wouldn't be too difficult to organize a raid to acquire as many as possible.
If I could take some of Hypernautic's fleet that they've been building, that might improve my odds of winning a civil war. But that still meant I needed to figure out a way to deal with this Silver CEO. Perhaps I should send in a few agents under the guise of joining his faction and find out as much as possible about this Gargon situation before I make any moves.
'Yes,' I thought, nodding my head, turning away from the console to look at my fully decorated office. Thinking hard about who is loyal enough to the dream of an independent Mandalore and would not fall for the lies of a corpo slick talker, I settled on the Wrens. They have always been loyal to the secret Mandalore and I doubted they would jump ship for the pipe dream this man proposed.
I would have to contact them and tell them to get some agents over to Gargon to get me as much intel on the situation as possible. Then I would contact Dooku and make sure that he realized that this was not part of my plan and inquire if this was part of his plan or not. Finally, after that, I'd contact the Duchess and find out when she had scheduled a meeting on this situation. Surely it would not be too long from now, but probably within the next 24 to 36 hours. I'm certain she would not do anything against this little uprising, not yet at least.
Writers note: Let the games begin, pieces are moving, and the Devil is coming to Gargon.
This was not in my original plan, this just happened a few weeks back, as well the idea of someone stealing Tanya attempts at peace seemed… fun. Also, shows a bit of well, just remember what Tanya was first thinking when she thought about things happening in the Mandalore sector and her plans to deal with that.
Edited by: Markus Gollinger, Warmach1ne32
Community edited: Alexander Paulsen, TroubleFait, Gold God, Ryan Pirtle, Sound Logic
Community editable doc (Chapter 16) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread
Supporters: Neso, Markus, Mackenzie Buckle, Silver Wolf, Falk H, Mana Rope, Daniel Martinez, michael, Devilstar101, Hats88, DrkShdow
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Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
Tanya may not be personally as powerful as she was in her last life, but she still has her war experience. Even if she have to make them work in an interstellar level, and not a continental level. Then again Gargon is a single planet. This can be practice for Tanya.
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In the X4 section you are a bit all over the place, perspective-wise. You start off with first person, then go to third whenever you use the name X4 when describing its actions, then I think you use 'I' on a paragraph that, I assume, Tanya is meant to be speaking.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Hm... I feel like Tanya jumped pretty fast to 'personally defeat the fake,' but I suppose she is part of a warrior culture now.
That "not" shouldn't be there, it reverses the meaning of the sentence into "It's so easy to find capable pilots that I have to try to avoid it."
Warmach1ne32
Machine of War and Quests
- Location
- Indonesia
Anything less would not work
- Location
- Gotham
Tanya may lie to here self but she does like to fight
fixed
I think the issue is fixed though only because I think, you miss the transfer over to Vai which had issues with Tanya you describe.
yep, this is true... very true.
- Location
- United States
Huh so some from clan Wren are gonna show up. Sure won't be Sabine (Unless time travel is involved. There was time travel at one point in Legends somewhere. There was also the whole thing in Star Wars Rebels as well.) But I think a possibility exists of at least one being present to witness the real White Silver show up to deal with the false one.
Seems like it might be interesting if she just shows up, completely owns him, then leaves without saying anything. Or alternatively just say something like don't try claiming what he didn't make again or something...which I suppose could lead to a thought of White Silver takes seriously the stance of Anti-corruption.
Seems like it might be interesting if she just shows up, completely owns him, then leaves without saying anything. Or alternatively just say something like don't try claiming what he didn't make again or something...which I suppose could lead to a thought of White Silver takes seriously the stance of Anti-corruption.
- Location
- Canada
I honestly can't wait until her battle aura and her manic war smile to be witnessed, I imagine knowing that one of their potential future leaders could be Tanya would appeal to more than a few Mandalorians.
- Location
- Alabama
Prer Pre with grand dreams, that's not likely to go well with Tanya already mobilizing.
Nerrevarrine
Formerly of House Indoril
- Location
- Stranded in Akavir
Don't think I didn't notice what you did with the heirloom sword on the mantlepiece. Tanya's going to confront this guy in his own territory, and this businessman with delusions of grandeur seems to have been the one to purchase the looted Kryze heirloom. She might not be getting a lightsaber anytime soon, but I'm willing to bet she'll be getting the next best thing.
And let's be honest, a lightsaber might be shorthand for, "uh oh, freaky space wizard time!" but a beskad means that the warrior currently bent on your death is the kind of person who will throw hands at the aforementioned freaky space wizard for fun.
Also, one other thing, I'm a little confused about something: Is Tanya actually a Kenobi? Or is that just Vai and Anakin being entertainingly wrong? Being entertainingly wrong is kind of a thing in YS, but Tanya is force sensitive and is noted to look oddly like Satine.
Finally, I'd just like to point out that it'd be really funny if Yoda was secretly teaching Tanya how to use the force, to the point where even she doesn't realize it. I don't know how that'd work, and it honestly might not work at all, but it would be funny.
And let's be honest, a lightsaber might be shorthand for, "uh oh, freaky space wizard time!" but a beskad means that the warrior currently bent on your death is the kind of person who will throw hands at the aforementioned freaky space wizard for fun.
Also, one other thing, I'm a little confused about something: Is Tanya actually a Kenobi? Or is that just Vai and Anakin being entertainingly wrong? Being entertainingly wrong is kind of a thing in YS, but Tanya is force sensitive and is noted to look oddly like Satine.
Finally, I'd just like to point out that it'd be really funny if Yoda was secretly teaching Tanya how to use the force, to the point where even she doesn't realize it. I don't know how that'd work, and it honestly might not work at all, but it would be funny.