Chapter 17

714FNM (24BBY)

Month 8

Coruscant, Mandalore Tower

Tal Merrik

What game is she playing? Last night was... Well, it could have gone better. I had to deal with the announcement of a breakaway state from the ruling government of the Mandalorian Sector, which was not something I wanted to deal with.

I was likely going to have a talk with the Chancellor about this at some point if the situation kept getting worse, which is something I'd rather not do. If only the government was a bit stronger, then that upstart wouldn't dare pull something like this. Hopefully, Satine could deal with it but her limp-wristed pacifism was going to be the end of the Mandalore sector. It's more likely that Vizsla would have to step in instead. If his group took out the Silver faction without announcing themselves as Deathwatch, but did so later, it would gain a lot of favor with Mandalorians who are still on the fence.

My day was already full dealing with the insanity that was this farce of a CEO trying to take over the Mandalorian sector and now I had to deal with the little representative Kryze. Looking down at the paperwork again I asked, "You wish to take a sabbatical?" trying to confirm exactly what was going on.

The blonde-haired girl and her trademarked typical green dress sat in front of me in a comfortable chair I had for such meetings in my personal office. Outside the window of my office the traffic passed leisurely casting shadows into the richly decorated room in the midday sun.

"Yes Senator Merrik, I have decided to proceed with your offer of taking some time off after that whole fiasco last month." She said it with a smile that was uniquely 'her'. As if this was a simple request and not some sort of play.

I am not a blind man, I could see the connection. She denied leaving Coruscant when things were running fine in the Mandalore sector but the moment this White Silver decided to declare independence, all of a sudden she wanted to go back to the sector, because of the embarrassment of winning a fight against street thugs? A likely story, yes? No, no she was being called back by Satine and was probably going to be her chosen envoy to run around the sector to try and prevent individual planets from joining White Silver.

On one hand, this would be good for sector stability, as this White Silver fellow was not part of any plans for the sector's future and I would rather he met failure than success. On the other hand, allowing her to go running off to meet and greet the political blocs of every planet in the sector would surely further her plans to no doubt replace me in my position in the Senate. So the question is, am I willing to let a short-term good endanger the long-term stability of my role in the Senate?

Thankfully, Count Dooku's latest political speech had quite an impact on the Republic. That alone has already resulted in over a dozen sectors pulling out of the Republic to join this newly forming Confederacy. My time in the Senate would probably be cut short anyways, as soon as the successful coup took place, and I doubted Vizsla would keep this child around with her connections to Satine. She'd likely be banished outside the sector just for being politically connected to the Pacifists and the senatorial seats, which would be transferred to the Confederacy, would remain in my hands.

Sighing, I filled my name out on the sheet and said, "You chose a remarkably bad time to put in a request like this. I imagine the sector is going to be set alight with that whole Silver Codex situation coming to fruition. Always knew that thing was going to be a problem." Shaking my head I continued, "What planets are you planning to visit exactly?"

"Nothing too strenuous, I want to stay as far away from the current situation with the Silver Codex as I can, I will probably be visiting Concordia, Harswee, Jakelia, and then finally Ordo. All in all, it should take a month to visit all those planets, maybe make a few stops along the way depending on what travel arrangements I end up making."

I nodded, noting that all those planets were more in the southern edge of the core of the Mandalore sector. Gargon was closer to the Hydian Way but also further to the north so theoretically she would be safe from any direct attacks if the White Silver decided to play any assassination games. Unfortunate opportunity lost, if she was a little bit closer I might have leaked her itinerary to Dooku. Still might… yeah he did take some interest in possibly removing her and I was not going to say no to a political rival being knocked off the board. But looking at the schedule, accounting for the weeks of travel she would be doing back in the Mandalore Sector and the weeks needed to travel back, I'd be free of her till almost to the end of the year. Actually, that wasn't a bad idea.

Nodding my head I looked up at the young representative and said, "Well…try not to get into any trouble during the trip. Though things are fairly quiet in the Senate, if you wanted to stay in the Mandalore Sector till the start of next year, to visit with your family on Mandalore, that would be fine. I can handle the negotiations with the Ithorians while you're away."

Tanya nodded her head and seemed to understand my implication and said, "That sounds quite reasonable, yes I think I will avail myself of a little bit of a longer trip than originally planned for. Make the final stop at Mandalore before returning to Coruscant."

Smiling, I handed back her datapad and said, "Enjoy your vacation Tanya and tell Satine that I stand with her on any decisions she makes with this Silver Codex tomfoolery."

She nodded her head and said, "I will do so, see you when I return in the new year Senator Merrik." before she stood up from her seat to leave.

"See you in the new year Tanya." I said with a pleasant smile, hoping that I would not.

Coruscant Spaceport, Private Dockyard

Struc Ordack

"Well isn't this just a cozy ship." I said, looking at the familiar sight of a Lancer pursuit craft. The Lancer was a 34m long vessel, and about that wide as well with the main body in the shape of a saucer. From the sides poked two engine assemblies, as well as a third from the rear and a pilot's compartment protruding out of the front.

From the military-grade variants I had served on, I'd expected two forward-mounted laser cannons to either side of the pilot's compartment. It looked like this particular model, being made for civilians, only had the dorsal-mounted cannon. No doubt the tractor beam that was also a favorite of the military variants was also missing. This one didn't have much of a paint job, the burnished iron color with a few silver streaks being the only thing of note.

Skota was standing next to me shaking her head, "I would have thought the princess would have waited for the Coronet or maybe even taken regular transport back to the Mandalore sector. Buying her own ship seems a bit excessive. Where'd she even get the money for this?"

"Proper investments." came the voice of X4, who was coming up the gangway towards the dock where we had found the ship. He was carrying a suitcase most likely full of Tanya's possessions. Before any of us could ask what he meant X4 continued. "And knowing who to speak to, the manager of the local branch of Mandel Motors currently had three of these modified Lancer Pursuit Craft for show and was selling them individually at around 120,000 credits each. However, a discount for royalty of 20% with a bulk deal brought down the price to 200,000 credits for all three of them."

I looked at X4 and asked the question I'm sure all of the Royal Guard on the dockyard was thinking at that exact moment. "Multiple? As in, she owns how many of these now?"

"Three," Tanya said interrupting X4 and she and her handmaiden walked across the landing area towards us. "I technically own three of these. I would have only bought one but X4 convinced me that having a couple extra would be beneficial for the mission."

"What mission?" I asked, narrowing my eyes, glad that I had my helmet off otherwise they wouldn't have seen it.

"Need to know as of right now, we can talk once we are inside the ship." She said matter of factly, walking past us into the vessel which lowered the ramp as she pressed a button on her vambrace.

Looking to the other Royal Guards I saw them all shrugging in confusion before I led the way on board the ship.

The interior of the ship was rather sleek, though I noted that there seemed to be a larger cargo space than the military variant I'd served on. As soon as we were aboard Tanya pressed a few buttons and the door started to close. She then said, "X4 please show them the rooms we will be staying in."

The droid nodded before pointing to a door. "Through that doorway is a Passageway that leads to two bunk rooms, one with two beds and the other with four the Royal Guard can use. ." He pointed toward the front of the ship and said, "The pilot's cabin and the captain's cabin would of course be the room for Mistress Tanya and her Handmaiden, past that is the cockpit. Captain Stuc you're rated for flight I believe, correct?"

I nodded, "We'll have to go up there later to let you familiarize yourself with the controls." X4 commented before continuing, "it's a two-person gunship style seating arrangement."

I simply nodded. X4 turned to point to the door opposite the crew area, "Through there is the common area and galley." and pointing towards the back of the ship indicated the cargo area we came through. "In case of emergency, the escape pods are near the front of the ship by the pilot's area"

As soon as X4 was done, Tanya spoke up, "Now that everyone's familiarized with where everything is, get yourself settled in. Captain Struc, see about getting us on our way to the Mandalore Sector and at 1600 hrs we will hold a meeting to discuss the mission."

Part of me wanted to ask what mission since as far as I was aware this was a simple transport mission back to the Mandalore Sector but the other part of me, the part that kept me alive during the Civil War, noticed that the princess said she was going to do it at 1600 hrs. Strange that she dropped into military time for this, it wasn't like she had spent any time there.

"Understood," I shook my head and looked to the other Royal guards before saying, "Tabi, Ordo, Kastel, and Mok you're getting the room with four beds. Skota and I will take the room with two. As for the piloting situation, I'll be up at the front of the ship and since I have the opportunity might as well give you all a little bit of flight training in case an emergency happens. Let's start with Mok." I said looking towards the slicer.

I got a chorus of 'yes sirs' before everyone started to move about. I followed Tanya and the handmaiden towards the front of the ship before they sealed themselves off in the captain's quarters to have some sort of privacy. I finished walking to the front of the ship and found the droid had not been lying. The seats were still in a gunship configuration which was at least something familiar. Taking the pilot seat, I had Mok take the copilot seat and negotiated with Coruscant Port Authority to get our ship permission to leave the planet.

It wasn't a long conversation and we were soon in the air heading through the atmosphere. A few negotiations with traffic control later and we were in space. I did enjoy the handling of the vessel, she was rather fast for her size and maneuverable. The three-engine placement allowed the ship to turn on a theory, I couldn't actually test it without shaking everybody about inside, and when you're transporting royalty that's not really the smartest move.

Once I had the ship on course and set her to hyperspace, I stretched back and got up from my seat heading back to the area with Mok following behind me. I saw most of the Royal Guard were sitting on a bench or the dining table and someone apparently had access to the holo-net as they were watching some of the Silver Ranger show on a panel at the side of the room.

Checking my vambrace, I saw we were only about 5 minutes from Tanya's meeting time so I asked the obvious question. "Anyone else think that this is really suspicious?" Immediately all five hands of the royal guards in front of me went up in the air.

"That's about what I figured, any ideas what's going on?" I asked while taking a seat at the table.

"No idea," Tabby said matter of factly, "all I know is that there is a bit of trouble starting in the Mandalorian Sector and all the sudden she wants to go home."

"What kind of trouble?" Ordo asked, looking up from his book.

"The 2nd Mando Civil War kind, that Silver Codex writer finally made an appearance and declared himself independent from the Mandalorian Sector and is, you know, stirring the pot," Skota said from where she sat matter of factly.

"Still can't believe that the Silver Codex was written by that guy. The man was a slave driver during the bombardment of Keldabe. There's no way he'd be all for the personal freedoms that were implied in the first codex." Mok said, matter of factly.

"A slave driver to one is a hero to another," Kastel said, "lot of Old Mandalorians think if you served in the defense of Keldabe during that siege, you were doing the right thing even if you pulled crap like explosive collars on your workers."

"Was that ever confirmed? I heard that was more of a legend." The slicer asked out of curiosity.

"It cannot be confirmed or denied because the factory blew up. There wasn't even an attempt to excavate it thoroughly to discover if it was true or not. A lot of the leadership of Keldabe stayed in place well into New Mandalorian control so if there was any evidence it was all destroyed through the rebuilding efforts or outright paid to be destroyed by Mr. CEO-turned-demagogue-leader." I answered.

"Smart move on his part, publishing that codex the way he did before he revealed himself allowed people to become comfortable with his ideas," Kastel said matter of factly, shaking his head.

"And this is why you don't build your ideology off of things you read online from anonymous people. You end up with a situation where you've built your worldview around the teachings of a man who's probably going to lead the sector into a civil war if he is allowed to run rampant." Skota, being the voice of reason in the group, said what needed to be said.

"Then it is fortunate that he didn't write it." Tanya's voice broke up our conversation and I turned around to face her. Of all the things I expected to see her wearing, full Mandalorian armor with her helmet under her arm and her handmaiden just behind her in her own armor would be the last thing on the list.

Stepping into the room she put her helmet on the table before standing before us. "The CEO of Mandal Hypernautics did not write the Silver Codex. I did."

There was a moment's pause as everyone took that in before Tabi laughed. "You're joking, right? Whoever wrote the Silver Codex couldn't have been a New Mandalorian, you're always doing whatever Satine says."

"Do I look like I'm joking? But yes, I always do whatever Duchess Satine says." Tanya said, looking at Tabi, leaving the implied implications of that statement for him to finally puzzle out.

"The Silver Codex is state-sponsored?" I asked, surprised by this turn of events.

"No, not state-sponsored per se, state accepted would be a better term," Tanya said, shaking her head. "I wanted to create a Middle-of-the-Road option to try and draw people who were annoyed with the New Mandalorians and also appeal to New Mandalorians who wanted to experience some of what the Old Mandalorians were talking about. A way to encourage peace as it were, as well as open up economic opportunities. Unfortunately, I didn't suspect that a corporate-minded CEO would use this as an opportunity to create a splinter state and attempt to usurp New Mandalorian rule. That one is on me, which is why I have to do something to discredit this False Silver before he sparks another Mandalorian Civil War."

"You're not going on vacation, you're going to Gargon," Ordo said it first, but all of us were thinking it.

"Yes, that would be the correct assumption in this situation," Tanya said with a shrug. "I cannot allow this False Silver to destroy the work I've created with the Silver Codex. It took me several years to create a document that would stimulate discussion without causing a civil war and this man is doing everything in his power to ruin all those years of work."

"Alright," I said standing up, "so let me see if I understand the situation correctly, we are going to be going to Gargon so you can get killed by an unknown number of Mandalorians who have pledged themselves to a document you created and ended up on the wrong side of an ideological civil war between the actual creator and a false prophet as it were."

"I hate the fact you used the word, 'prophet' but yes we are going to Gargon, mostly to find some way to bring down the CEO before he can plunge the sector into war. But no, I will not be dying as I plan on living until retirement."

I shook my head at that, "I've seen you fight, I'll admit you're pretty good but this will be against trained Mandalorian warriors, people who have spent their lives fighting. I don't know how well you've been trained but I don't think you can take on those warriors, you might be able to take on the CEO himself, as I doubt he's trained as well as he could have while running a major corporation."

"Captain Struc, would you say that those Gargon Manadalorian's training is up to your Royal Guard standards?" Tanya asked, looking directly at me.

"No, not to my standards anyway." Mostly because I regarded us to be some of the highest trained Mandalorians in the sector.

"So if I were to train to meet your standards, do you think I would have a chance?" She said with a smile.

I crossed my arms, not liking where this conversation is going before saying, "Theoretically yes, though I don't like what you are implying there."

"I mean the implications are quite simple. If I meet your standards of training, would not the chances of successfully bringing down False Silver increase."

I sigh and shake my head. "Yes, but here's a question that I'm more interested in. Does the Duchess know that you've made it your mission to stop this False Silver?"

"Theoretically no, and for the simple reason, this operation cannot be seen as being directed by the Duchess. Any attack from the Duchess will be used by False Silver to increase his notoriety and bring the sector closer to civil war. If the real White Silver makes an appearance though, it destroys their efforts to raise an army to fight for the Mandalore Sector. That would be preferable as the real White Silver can then disappear again back into anonymity."

"Alright, I'm starting to see the general idea of your plan here," I said, leaning back on the table. "I'll run through the few flaws I see and you can try and answer them as we go. Once we enter the Mandalorian Sector, you have to be in certain places and no doubt people will know if you don't show up in this ship… the multiple ships that's why you bought multiple ships."

"Correct," Tanya said matter of factly, "the two other ships are under control of crews X4 hired. X4?" She looked at the droid who walked into the room.

"Light Cargo Ships 2 and 3 will be picking up a cargo of Mandalorian goods on each planet that Mistress was meant to land on before returning to Coruscant. I'll have to adjust their schedules as necessary but they should serve as proper decoys."

"Not only that, Vai and two Royal Guards of your choosing can be on board one of those cargo ships making various appearances in very public places so people assume I am where I'm supposed to be."

"Sounds like you need more handmaidens," I uttered, noting that would decrease the forces at her disposal by three warriors.

"Something I'll take note of in the future and will rectify." The princess explained with a shrug.

"Okay then so you have decoys out so people don't know where you are, this I can understand. Your armor though is fairly distinctive and Royal Guard armor is really distinctive. How are we going to handle that?"

"I have contacted an armorer by the name of Zum and explained a portion of the situation." He's going to meet us on Concordia and supply us with sets of armor so we don't stand out in ways we don't want to."

"So you've got your alibi and how you're going to fight incognito figured out. Do we have any contacts on Gargon that can support us?." Holding out my hand I listed each point with a finger.

"Bo Katan is currently in Gargon and she has some contacts with the local factions. Hopefully, with her aid, we can expand our forces and make this operation more of an even fight."

I let my finger up. "Anyone else have something to point out here?" I asked hoping someone would come up with a better way to stop this mission from happening because frankly she had thought out quite a bit and the fact she was willing to undergo training to increase her chances of pulling it off spoke quite well for her.

Everyone was apparently in too much shock about the reveal of White Silver's true identity so no one said anything relevant to stopping this insanity. Tabi on the other hand had a question. "So you named yourself White Silver because you have a crush on the Silver Ranger right?"

I had to let out a smirk as the princess's face went red and flustered a bit. "I will have you know I worked very hard on selecting that name and it was not chosen for some crush. White is symbolic of purity, silver is symbolic of redemption, it means pure redemption."

"Wait, really? that's how you chose the name?" Tabby said with a laugh, "Also, did anyone else notice she did not deny the crush?"

That got an exhale out of me as most of the room was on the verge of hysterics and Tanya just looked, well she looked annoyed.

So I thought I would sidestep the issue of having to rescue Tabi from getting shoved out the airlock by saying "Alright here's the deal. We will train you up to Royal Guard standard, if you can't meet that standard we're going to tell Duchess Satine all about your little plot to go run off and get killed to prevent a civil war. If you can meet that standard we'll keep our traps shut on the subject unless we're asked directly by Duchess Satine if we were involved. An acceptable deal Princess Kryze?"

Tanya turned and nodded, "Quite acceptable, Captain."

"Alright then," I said whilst getting up, "Let's get started. We have a long flight ahead of us and no time like the present to start your training. Skota, you're our ref and medic, if it looks like someone is going to die, you have authority to end the spar." I may have been a little brutal with my explanation of what was about to happen in the hopes I could scare her off at the last moment but she simply smiled and said, "Right this way." and started towards the door.

Eventually, everyone was in the Lancer's cargo hold, the spectators seated on a few crates or leaning against them. Tanya and I were in our armor at the center of the hold, which had been cleared of cargo beforehand, creating a pseudo sparring circle. "The first test will be on your skills in hand-to-hand combat. No weapons, we rely only on our armor and our skills. The longer you can stay standing, the more chances you have to impress me. If you impress me you will pass this test."

Tanya merely nodded and entered a fighting stance, left arm and leg forward, right leg back with her toes pointed to the side, and her right hand in a fist by her hip. I followed suit with my own fighting stance, my left foot slightly forward, my right foot slightly behind me to provide a stable footing, and both arms raised, ready to attack or defend whatever Tanya decided to throw at me. I sent a nod for Skota to begin the spar.

"In 3, 2, 1, Fight."

Instead of both of us rushing in to pummel each other, we both slowly move closer inch by inch. Just before our hands touch each other, I grab her left wrist with my right hand and push it up and away from her torso. In retaliation, Tanya launches her right fist for a body shot, which I grab hold of with my left hand. With both of her arms trapped, I pull her closer and deliver a rising knee to her abdomen, then release her left hand to deliver an elbow drop to her back, and finish the combo with a left roundhouse kick to her side.

The kick pushes Tanya to the ground and I pursue immediately for follow-up attacks. Tanya uses the momentum of the kick to roll into an upright position, just in time to deflect my roundhouse kick away. I quickly plant the leg that I had just used for the roundhouse kick, to the floor and pivot for a spinning hook kick. Tanya gives my leg a simple push so my kick passes above her head, after which Tanya closes the distance so she could launch her own blows.

That second kick served two purposes, it kept Tanya distracted from striking me when my back was turned as well as spinning me around so that I am now facing her and ready to deflect any attack with my hands. Several probing punches and jabs are deflected or blocked before I begin my counterattack. I twist my torso to the side, so that Tanya's right straight deflects off my armor. Before Tanya can retract her arm, I grab her wrist with my right arm and pull her forward, unbalancing her. A rising knee to her gut stuns her long enough for me to put her in a chokehold. There is just enough space between the helmet and breastplate to squeeze an arm around her neck.

Tanya struggled to free herself, I merely leaned back so my arm lifted her off the ground so she couldn't get any leverage. Tanya quickly changed tactics and started to elbow my stomach in the hopes of loosening my hold. While my arm stayed tight around her neck, the elbow strikes forced my torso to lean forwards. With contact to the ground reestablished, Tanya quickly wrapped her hands around the back of my helmet before pulling it over her shoulder so that she could jump up and knee my helmet. Tanya put her weight onto my neck which pulled my head lower so that she could hit my helmet again with another knee strike before removing herself from my hold. She immediately took advantage of her freedom to kick my right knee, causing me to kneel before delivering a third blow with her knee to my helmet, which put me on my back.

My instincts screamed to get away from the ground, horrible things happen to those that lay on the ground in a hand-to-hand fight. I let my instincts guide me and rolled to the side, avoiding Tanya's incoming stomp. From there, I quickly stood up and continued to block and parry attacks, waiting for the right opening to turn the tide. That opportunity came when Tanya tried a roundhouse kick of her own. I quickly moved forward and intercepted her kick by blocking it with both of my forearms before wrapping my left arm around her leg. With her leg trapped, I hooked her other one with my right leg. With both of her legs in the air, Tanya's back is inevitably slammed into the floor. Before she could move, I dropped my knee into her chest to pin her and landed a straight punch to her helmet.

"Alright, that is enough." Skota signaled the end of the spar before she walked up towards Tanya to inspect her condition. She gently removed Tanya's helmet and activated a flashlight to check for a concussion. I stood back and waited while Skota examined Tanya for any long-lasting injuries.

"Well, she'll be dizzy for a couple of hours but the helmet's padding help absorb most of the impact. But getting slammed to the ground is going to cause her brain to bounce around inside her skull, that final punch to her face did not help. I'll also need to check you for injuries too, getting kneed in the head is not conducive to your health and well-being."

I simply nodded and removed my helmet so that Skota could inspect it. While Skota was checking for signs of a concussion, I watched as Vizla and Ordo helped Tanya up to take a seat on a nearby crate. It looked like the princess was lucid enough to know that she lost as her face was furrowed with frustration and intense concentration as she attempted to think up a new plan.

"Need I remind you that the goal isn't to win? The goal is to impress me," I see her eyes widen in shock as I continue my verdict. "and you certainly lasted much longer than I thought, even landed several good hits. For now, you passed my standard for hand-to-hand combat. Tomorrow we'll test your physical conditioning so better get as much rest as you can before then."

"Thank you, Captain Struc. I won't let you down." With a nod Tanya made her way to the room with Vizla lending her shoulder for support.

Once the door to the cargo hold was shut, I looked toward my fellow guards as they stayed behind. "Something on all of your minds?"

Mok was the first to respond, "Are you sure this is a good idea boss?"

"Not really, no." Came my immediate reply. "The right thing to do would be to call Duchess Satine right now and tell her what Tanya is planning. But with the fate of our sector at stake, we can't afford to throw away a plan that could work in defusing the situation before a civil war broke out."

Skota chimed in, "You are putting the fate of the sector into the hands of a teenage girl."

"A teenage girl who could go toe-to-toe with me, and you all know from experience that is no easy feat." I saw Ordo and Tabi cringe at the memory of the beat down I had given them under the guise of extra melee training after the clubbing incident.

"I believe that she can do it." Ordo spoke for the first time since arriving at the cargo hold. "I've been Tanya's friend for several years now, I know what she is capable of when she puts her mind to it."

"No signs of head trauma, but just to be safe I'll check up on you again in a few hours." Skota delivered her assessment as she tucked away her flashlight.

"Thanks, Doc."

"If you really want to thank me, don't get any injuries that require an operating room for me to fix."

"I'll be sure not to cause permanent damage," I replied.

"That's probably the best I'm going to get."

I then turn my attention to the rest of the guards that stayed in the cargo hold. "So while we are all here, just in case Lady Kryze proves herself, who's going to be Vizla's escort while the rest of us are in Gargon."

Tabi raised his hands, "I volunteer, after Concordia, they are going to Harswee and a local would help a lot in maintaining the ruse so that we don't have to need a local guide."

"Good idea, anyone else wanna volunteer?"

"I'll go, Lady Kryze is going to need your fighting skills, Skota's medical skills, and Mok's slicing skills on Gargon. Plus having 2 rookies to protect Vizla might not be enough in case there is a kidnapping attempt or something." Kastel said from his seat at the back.

"That settles that then, if there is nothing else I'm going to sleep off this headache."

After accepting their farewells and goodnights, I exited the cargo hold to head to my room and laid down on my bed. The fact that Tanya could have won that spar if she didn't make a few mistakes was a surprise. I knew that she was trained by a 'defense instructor' but what Tanya did is not something you can teach, especially when the New Mandalorian philosophy is the main philosophy governing the sector. No, that was talent and finely honed instinct. Not fine enough to beat a veteran but with the right training, she'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Mandalore, Royal Palace

Korkie Kryze

Shaking my head I stood outside of one of the Palace's meeting rooms, listening to aunt Satine talk to various public officials about White Silver's announcement. By the sounds of it they were arguing about what to do and the general consensus was no one knew what to do.

Being openly hostile could cause a civil war, while letting them just do whatever they want was even more fact of the matter was Gargon was on the periphery of the Mandalorian Sector and it had not really integrated into the economy since the New Mandalorians took over. So there was an argument being made to just ignore them. And to be fair, that argument sounded like it was winning since no New Mandalorian wanted to engage in an open war against any other Mandalorian.

Sighing, I shook my head and stepped away, heading towards the gardens. I could not feel more annoyed at being vindicated. A few years back Tanya had said that the Silver people were different from the warmongers of ancient times. Well it looks like Tanya was wrong, something that didn't happen often but I was happy to be proven right this time. Just wish it didn't come with the potential for a war.

Entering the garden I found someplace to sit and look at the city taking a breath to try and center myself. I really wasn't sure what Satine was going to do about my sister. She pretty much openly flirted with the ideology of the Silver Warmonger and nearly got me to go along with it as well.

I didn't like the ancient warmongers and their ideology was the reason I didn't know my parents, but if my sister was willing to defend something with such passion, I was willing to give it a read at least. And what I had read wasn't terrible and it did seem to take the emphasis off of war and more on defense and the economy. But of course, that was all a front wasn't it, something to sucker people into the ideology so that they would go along with the Silver Warmonger's plans.

"Korkie." Satine's voice called from over my shoulder, causing me to look in her direction.

"Auntie Satine," I said with a smile as she walked over to take a seat next to me on the bench.

"Been a busy day isn't it?" she commented looking out over the city. "Thought you'd like to know that Tanya's on her way home, she was apparently a bit embarrassed about getting in that fight a few weeks ago and decided to do a working vacation by visiting a few worlds in the Mandalorian Sector before coming home."

I smiled at that, even if I was annoyed with her political leanings I would be happy to have my sister home. Though, I was sure Auntie Satine was going to give her an earful for that whole fight situation.

I've been in the room when that had popped up on the news and Satine had been drinking one of her teas at the time. The moment that popped up on the news she nearly choked on her tea and had to spit it out and before immediately trying to contact Tanya.

"That's good, it'll be good to find out what she's been up to," I said with a smile. Ha, I was more curious about what she had been up to that ended up with her getting in a fistfight in an alley. From what footage I found on the hall it looked like she's been there with several people including Vai.

"Yes, she'll be here in a little more than a month or so, I just hope that this whole Silver nonsense is wrapped up before then." She said, sounding concerned.

I leaned in over to give her a hug saying, "Everything would be alright auntie."

Gargon City Outskirts

Fenn Rau

"Well, this is not how I thought this mission would go," I muttered as I ducked lower as a series of blaster bolts fired over my position. I tracked the second Silver Codex back to this planet rather quickly. And then I'd go about getting myself to this planet to continue the investigation, find out who was responsible, and bring them to justice if need be.

Being prepared for what I thought was every eventuality from nomadic warlord to gangster pirate. What I had not prepared for was a corporation-owned army and for the creator of the Silver Codex to literally announce his position as declaring independence.

I had also not been prepared for them to seize all the ships in the landing area or to seize the holo communications station.

The information coming in and out of Gargon was, at this point, completely under his control. Which meant I was on my own. Being on my own was not good for my odds of survival. There was no doubt someone would figure out that one of those ships belonged to a member of the royal guard and would start hunting me. So I went about improving my odds, I got as far away from the city as possible and joined up with the local nomads. The nomads of this world were a lot more religious than most Mandalorians, still back in the olden days with many other practices. They weren't Concordia-sect religious, demanding that you never take off your helmet if you want to consider yourself a Mandalorian. But they did tend to revel in the fighting of war. So the moment I had told them that Gargon was declaring war on the Mandalorian sector, they had asked if they could help the Mandalore vs Mandalore war.

If I was not a member of the Royal Guard and my family had not been serving the rulers of Mandalore for generations I might have made the classic mistake of saying "well there is no Mandalore vs Mandalore war. As Duchess Satine refused that title." But I was someone who'd been a part of the Royal Guards for a long time. So I immediately said 'yes they could,' that 'we needed to keep this fake Mandalore from attaining more power.'

Which is how I got into this situation ducking behind rubble on the outskirts of Gorgon as black-clad troopers fired their blasters with pitiful accuracy but plenty of volume at myself and the various colored nomadic Mandalorians who for the most part are using slug throwers and are much more accurate.

This little fight had been going on for about 20 minutes now and it was taking that long mainly because the nomadic Mandalorian in charge of stealing the speeders had apparently not been able to unlock the warehouse they were stored in.

Said speeders were military grade and most likely were going to be used by the fake Mandalore for whatever conflict he intended to unleash on the sector. A speeder with a cannon mounted on a tripod on the back could do a lot of damage. Which is why I wanted us to have them, as we could probably keep the fighting going a good long time if we had them. The nomads were not entirely animal riders, most of them rode around on speeders so it was not like they didn't have the tech know-how to operate these machines.

We just needed to get them out of here first which was getting harder and harder as more and more of the enemies seem to be popping up.

Taking a stand I unleashed a volley of fire from my carbine sending two of the, what I could best guess, were durasteel armored Mandalorians who had been trying to make their way across the open square to whatever gods they believed in.

But before I could duck back down I got shot in my shoulder causing me to tumble out of sight, probably for the best as more shots rang out through where I had been standing.

Checking myself over to make sure I had no permanent damage, I looked at the nomadic Mandalorian on my right and said, "Do we have any other plans in case we can't get those doors open?"

Amanda Lauren, a nomad, looked at me and then held up a grenade, "When all else fails just blow it up."

Well, I couldn't deny that was not a bad plan, if we couldn't have it, deny it to the enemy. So I didn't and instead said, "How long till we are forced to use the 'blow kriff up' plan?"

She reloaded her slugthrower with ammunition before loading it by moving the lever at the trigger before saying, "We're having a good little bit of fun fighting these Dar'manda pretending to be Mando, if things get a little bit more desperate after like 20 minutes maybe, then we'll call it but until then just enjoy sending these fake Manda to their graves."

Said Mandalorian nomad then popped up and fired off a few shots while another took a shot to his helmet. He fell back stunned for a moment but then he rolled over and got back into a sitting position next to me, giving a thumbs up.

I just shook my head with amusement before getting ready for my own attempt at popping up the fire off a few rounds when I heard an explosion in front of us.

Said explosion was quickly followed up by an increase in fire from behind the enemy's position. Popping my head up I saw a third unknown force had appeared, not wearing the black armor of the fake Mandalorians, instead wearing several variants of color mostly sorted around browns.

There was one Mandalorian there that had a more flashy colored armor that was dual-wielding pistols, a Mandalorian in red jetpack flew over the black-clad troopers and fired shots directly from above, killing several of them before landing closer to our position. They began backing us up, continuing the rain of fire at the black clad troopers who were starting to panic by looks of it, several of them already running full sprint in the other direction.

As soon as the enemy force gave up the fight and ran, the figure slotted their pistols into their holsters and turned towards us.

Shaking my head I stood up fully and said, "Bo Katan, I did not expect to run into you here."

Bo Katan stopped and looked in my direction, probably with a look of confusion on her face before she recognized the armor.

"I know I did not expect to see real Mandalorian Royal Guard armor, guess we're two for two on that." She said walking in my direction, "What are you doing here Royal Guard?"

"The duties of any Royal Guard, preventing upstarts from causing problems for the leadership of Mandalore. What about you? What are you doing here Bo Katan?" I said with some suspicion.

"I was asked to do a little bit of investigation as to who was publishing this False Silver Codex. But once I found out who they were, they seized my ship, and well they kind of got on my bad side. So I've been working with some of the local gangs to cause issues for False Silver here since I had nothing better to do."

"Ahuh, and who requested that you do this investigation?"

"Probably the same person who requested you to do your investigation. Kind of annoyed that they didn't trust me to get the job done but you know how it is. I'd say the fact that we're both here says we at least can confirm this is the jackass that put out the second codex."

I nodded at that, and shrugged, "Well it seems we have an aligned goal. Care to work together to, as you say, screw with this jackass." I said offering a hand.

"Sure, why not, the more hands on deck, the better." Bo Katan said, taking my hand and giving it a shake.

Concordia, 'Abandoned' Mine

Zum Murdoc

"Well, Zum old buddy you've made a fuck up of this." I'm uttered looking at the contract that had appeared on my desk a few years back when I first got access to a functioning base of operations to work on armor again.

All those years ago I was a little bit desperate, so desperate that my droids had actually been ransacking the place when we first showed up looking for anything of value that we could either sell or meltdown to be sold.

All these years later my financial position was a bit better thanks to various contracts I had taken over the years but the first contract was… well first if you don't count the one to produce armor for the young Lady Kryze. The first one was to an individual who needed a large portion of armor created to arm his Garrison of self-defense force for Gargon.

I had simply thought nothing of it at the time since it was an opportunity to make armor again. Apparently, it was a bit more than that as my client was now declaring the independence of the Mandalorian sector and stirring up a nest of radicalism.

"I sure know how to pick people to work for," I muttered as I looked at the contract again. I had produced quite a bit of armor and had helped a bunch of other armorers move their gear to that planet to produce more and now, now I'm an accessory to what is this? Treason? Terrorism? Whatever it is, it's not good for me.

I just had to help the man responsible for this, I'll either end up dead or out of the picture enough that I wouldn't be cast as a main villain in whatever plot he was putting out there or at least wouldn't tell people that I was the one who had been arming him with armor and weapons.

Weapons probably being the bigger deals as armor was a self-defense thing, everyone was okay with that now, but weapons were still up in the air. Granted all I've been doing was smuggling a few rifles here or there from stash piles I knew about from the last Civil War and the Clan Wars and all the gear was frankly really out of date or pretty beat up.

But the laws tended to not care if the things were already in the sector when it came to moving weapons around, in fact, they tended to lean towards punishment even if they were already in the sector. That's why I had been up to this point mostly selling the weapons outside the Mandalorian sector, moving them out of the sector in hopes that if I was ever caught I'd get a slap on the wrist since I was demilitarizing the Mandalorian sector. I should have stayed with that mentality, if I did I would probably not be in this situation.

Fine, I stood up and grabbed the contract, wondering if I should destroy it or stash it somewhere in case of evidence that could be used to keep me from a short drop with a sudden stop. Actually, I should probably check and see what the New Mandalorians use for executions. I hadn't really paid attention to that particular part of the justice system they set up I only knew that the Traditionalists had preferred hangings and firing squads for dealing with people who are given the death sentence and that was usually enough to keep people in line unless they were a mad murderous psycho.

Shaking my head I considered my options, maybe going under the radar and leaving the sector till this all blew over was the right direction to go. Or perhapsI should reach out to Satine, she has been more reasonable in recent years. Maybe she'd be willing to hear me out on why this was a terrible misunderstanding that had led me to the wrong side of the conflict and would like to make it right somehow.

Yeah, she's been getting more reasonable but as I thought about it I didn't think she'd be that reasonable, not yet at least. The day she called me to make armor for her was the day that she'd be reasonable enough to accept an apology for something like that and I don't think that would ever happen. She was too sold on the idea of the pacifist ways to ask for armor to ever be built in her name.

As I sat back trying to think of a way out of this situation I heard a beeping from one of the panels on the upper decks of the mining facility where I stayed and where most of the security systems were located. I set down the datapad that had the contract on the table and walked up the stairs to see what the beeping was all about. I wondered where Bo had gone to, I hadn't seen her since I had gotten back 2 days ago. But then again I wasn't her father, I was just an old friend of the family. She could run off and do whatever she wanted and I didn't need to be paying that much attention to it.

Looking at the screen I quickly realized what the beeping was about, it was detecting three ships entering the atmosphere. And on a direct course for the mining facility, all three of them appear to be Lancer Pursuit Craft…

And like that, I was moving, heading to get to my ship in hopes of getting out of here quickly. Why were three Lancers landing at this mining facility? Those ships were only used by the Royal Guard, as far as I was aware, so that means it was on Royal Guard business. Well according to all information I knew, the only people who knew about this facility were both Bo Katan and Tanya, both of whom were close to Satine to various levels. And it was not without reason to think they had turned me over after recognizing some of the armor I'd created in the forges below as the same kind of armor being worn by whatever Gargon army was in control of said planet.

I'd just managed to get outside as the first of the three ships landed on the three remaining landing pads, the other two soon joined quietly sitting down in front of me. At that moment I had two options, run for my ship or try and talk my way out of this till I got a position to get to my ship without getting shot. I decided that to try and talk really was the only option that probably wouldn't get me shot.

At least that's what I thought till the doors opened on two of the ships and a couple droids stepped out and started doing checks of the vessel. If the Royal Guard were doing a 'smash and grab the evildoer' I was sure the droids would stay on the ship till the guards were out. The third vessel opened and out stepped Tanya, Vai, and a retinue of Royal Guards.

"Zum, wonderful you're exactly where I thought you would be." She said with a cheery tone.

I blinked a couple times confused before saying, "Lady Kryze, to what do I owe the pleasure of your arrival and security detachment."

Tanya simply smiled and said, "If I were to ask you to make five suits of armor to a set of specifications I provided, would you keep silent about it?"

"You need me to reforge your armor?" I asked to be curious as to where this was going.

"No no, these are new sets of armor, fresh sets and they will need to be as polished as you can get them."

"You want silver armor?" I asked incredulously, "Tanya, I know there's a thing called a rebellious phase but running off to join a madman and his pursuit of a corporate empire is a bit much I think."

That got a laugh from everyone in front of me though I didn't find this very funny.

Tanya simply smiled and said, "No we won't be joining the False Silver, I will be dealing with him very harshly in fact."

I blinked and looked at the Royal Guard Captain, "It's your job to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't get killed right? Are you okay with her implication that she's going to go out there and try and kill Bresug Gerr and his attempt for an empire?"

"No, but we've had three weeks on that vessel and I've tried to break her of this through every form of training I can come up with. She just keeps coming back. I find it rather respectable the amount of determination she's put into dealing with this 'False Silver' so I'm going to help her with it to make sure she comes out of this alive."

"Why do you keep saying False Silver?" I asked before 2 + 2 became 4 in front of my eyes, "Tanya, did you write the Silver Codex?" My head turned from looking at the Royal Guard as my finger still pointed towards him.

"Correct armorer," Tanya said as a droid stepped out from behind the Royal guards and opened a briefcase presenting quite a substantial amount of credit chips. "X4 has kindly donated profits from one of his ventures to help in our operation to undo the False Silver's influence. This should be enough to purchase any materials you need for the armor we want constructed and a little bit extra to keep silent about who the real White Silver is."

I stood there taking this in thinking for a moment trying to figure out if I'd lost my mind or if this was really happening before I decided, screw it. Nodding my head, I took the suitcase and shut it, and said, "You have a deal, six suits of silver armor coming right up."

"Six?" Tanya said, sounding confused.

"Let's just say I have a personal score to settle with your so-called False Silver and this is a great opportunity to settle it." A great opportunity to kill the witness to my mistakes and keep my family from suffering any ill reprisals from the New Mandalorian government.

Turning to head inside I said, "I probably have all the resources inside to make the armor you need. Any fine details we can talk about as we're working though I will expect you folks to help out around here while we get this sorted." Also, I turned towards the group, "Six armors counting me, but there's nine of us here. What's the deal with that?"

"Vai and two of the other guards will be taking one of these ships on to make appearances around the Mandalorian Sector over the next month or so. Just to build an alibi for my location during these events."

I nodded "Seems reasonable. Alright, six sets of silver armor coming right up. Do you want them all the same or semi-customized?" I called stepping into the darkness of the mountain.

"Really customized," Tanya said following with the majority of her guards as Vai and two others started moving materials from one ship to the other, I assumed that was their luggage.

Concordia, Wilderness

Rahm Kota

Being assigned to guard over a bunch of jumped-up farmers with the Force was in my opinion not the best use of my abilities. But I had gone along with it because the order had asked me to look after them. And because I had always heard stories about how fearsome and terrifying Mandalorians were on the battlefield. Having served in prolonged conflict for most of my life I kind of was interested in seeing what was so terrifying about these Mandalorian warriors.

In some ways, I was impressed by what I had found. Their whole culture seemed to vibrate with a knowledge that fighting was a natural state of the world and thus they must be ready to fight at any moment. But then, I was disappointed to hear some people's descriptions of Mandalorians, they were simply monsters and no better than the Hutts. From what I had seen by traveling this world they were just people, proficiently trained in the ways of combat, but people nonetheless.

I was sure that in another life I would count many of these people as friends as I found many of the Mandalorians compatible with my sense of duty. And it was this sense of duty that pushed the need to send a letter via cargo transport back to the Jedi Order, telling them that I was going to investigate the ongoing insurrection on Gargon.

I probably should have used the holo-net to inform them of this, but they probably would have told me no. The Jedi were always focused on preserving the stability of the Republic, but I swore they were a bit slow to take action sometimes and I was sure that if I told them I was going to do it through holo-net they would say no due to my job being one of guarding the farmers with Force powers in the Agricorp. However if I sent it through cargo transport and simply said the holo-net was down when I made the decision, I would have enough leeway to get away with doing what I thought was right and that was to try and handle this situation before it became a threat to the stability of the region.

Of course, how I was going to get to Gargon was a bit of an issue. Simply put, I have not been given a vessel for the trip to this moon, which is why I could probably get away with not having a holonet connection. But in times like these, I fell back on the most trusted tool in my possession. I let the Force guide me. However, I do say the Force had guided me into the middle of nowhere this time.

And traveling for two and a half weeks to end up at some old mining base by the looks of it. Well, off any known roads and quite in the middle of nowhere, even middle of nowhere Concordia.

I would question if the Force had made a mistake if there weren't two ships landed in front of the mining base and a crew of Mandalorians in silver armor currently loading up the smaller of the two vehicles for what looked like a space flight or fights as there were quite a lot of weapons being loading as well.

There were four males, two female Mandalorians, and a droid slowly loading up the ship. One of the females appeared younger by the slight shortness she had compared to the others and was acting more in an observation role. The auburn-haired girl was observing the others as if she was the leader and making sure that everything was loaded. A strange thing and she looks so young, I would assume the larger individual with a heavy pauldron on his left shoulder was the leader just from how Mandalorians usually work, their command structure usually centers around the toughest being the one in control. I wondered what that could be about before I noticed that the girl had stopped and started looking in my general direction. No, I was far enough back in the tree line that there was no way she could see me and I was having to use vision-enhancing binoculars just to make out some of the details. So how she had such a reaction was intriguing and I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew why the Force had sent me here.

Smiling, I got up from where I had been laying down and started moving out of the tree line toward their general direction wondering what would happen. I was not afraid they'd shoot me or anything like that, if they tried I was pretty sure it would be an even fight but I raised my hands nonetheless to show I was no threat.

The moment I came into view the girl immediately grabbed her helmet and shoved it on top of her head obscuring her identity. She then said something to the other Mandalorians who immediately grabbed their own helmets and turned to face my general direction, some of them raising their weapons.

Smiling as I approached, I said, "Good morning."

The second-largest individual was pointing a blaster in my general direction and said. "Good morning Jedi, may I ask what you're doing out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Would you believe me when I say that I'm out for a walk?" I said with a smile. But when none of them chuckled or gave any other impression other than 'we're going to shoot you if you don't give us the answers we want' I continued with. "I believe you've heard about the whole mess going on in Gargon, a very terrible thing in my opinion. I have the distinct feeling it will destabilize this region quite a bit and the Jedi Order exists to stop such violent upheavals. But I don't have an easy way to get to the planet so I thought I'd let the Force guide me and the Force led me here."

The Mandalorians shared a look between each other that I couldn't understand, considering their helmets were rather featureless. Though I somewhat assumed that they might have some sort of internal communication system and were having a bit of a conversation in a way that I couldn't hear them.

The shortest of the group, the auburn-haired girl who'd hid her identity spoke up next. "Well, your Force seems to have been directing you in the general direction of us as we are going to Gargon, though I'm not sure about letting you onboard our ship for this trip. We can't exactly be seen as being working with the Jedi for the operation that needs to be done."

"Well, the Jedi Order hasn't exactly sanctioned my mission to deal with this problem. I'm sure they will get around to it eventually."

The shorter figure pressed her palm to her helmeted face and then appeared to continue whatever conversation they were having through whatever back channels those helmets afforded them. After a bit, she finally said, "Fine you can come along, but you're expected to pull your own weight. "

"Sounds reasonable, Miss?" I asked, fishing for a name.

"White Silver will do."

I blinked then looked around me at the other silvered armored Mandalorians. Before looking at the figure again noting she had put out her hand to shake.

"Strange, aren't the problems going on on Gargon related to someone calling himself White Silver?"

"A thief and pretender," Silver said, still holding up their hand. "We intend to make sure that thievery is undone and that is all we will do, not try to take this person's attempt at destabilizing the sector and push it on if that's what you're concerned about."

I nodded my head understanding the implicit implication, that what mattered was that our goals were aligned not why we were doing it so I took her hand and shook it, "Sounds like a deal then."

Nodding her head she looked to the droid and said, "Silver X, escort the Jedi to a room he can stay in."

"Yes, mistress." the droid said, stepping forward before saying to me, "Please follow, Master Jedi."

Laughing and I started to follow but not before saying, "So why do you all have code names around the word silver?"

"And white." White Silver said matter of factly, before turning to look at her Mandalorian warriors most likely having another private conversation that I couldn't hear since I didn't have a helmet.

Shrugging, I followed the droid into the ship.