Chapter 19

714FNM (24 BBY)

M0nth 9

Gargon, Nomad's Forest Hideout

Fenn Rau

'I need to rough it out more,' I thought as I pulled myself out of the sleeping bag I've been resting in. Shaking myself awake, I got up and stretched out all of the kinks and knots I got from sleeping on the floor. Once I took a sip of water I stepped out of my tent, catching a breath of fresh air and enjoying the midday sun.

Last night I was involved in a raid on a train line that ran from the city to a local spice mine, and got back to camp by sunrise. I'm not exactly a fan of getting drugs into the streets, but denying resources to an enemy was a legitim atate and time honored strategy. What my allies do with that spice, I did not care. All that mattered was one of the few natural resources that kept the city of Gargan running was being denied which would raise discontent among the populace and hopefully, that discontent would get directed at the person who was antagonizing the Nomads instead of the Nomads themselves.

It was 50/50 in my mind on who they would put the blame on but denying the resources running into the city had a good chance of at the bare minimum preventing Bresug Gerr from prospering. For the past couple weeks all I've been doing was organizing efforts to starve the city of resources, striking places of weakness in order to gain resources for ourselves and occasionally transferring resources to parties within the city that supported our cause.

This was, so far, the recipe for success. Though things had taken an odd turn as one of the clans we've been working with, Clan Morson, had broken contact with us. There are roughly 12 major nomadic clans of Gagon, all of which are against Bresug's vision of the sector. Clan Myra and Urlan are mercenary clans that didn't sign up with Gerr due to the fact that their main patrons are other nomadic clans, and they were paid to join in by the other clans. Clan Skale, Senlu, and Ylvan are merchant clans and as clans aren't willing to get involved in an actual war, while they could defend themselves and a few of their number volunteered to join, they prefer to supply the other clans with whatever they need rather than fighting themselves. Clan Grom, Azul, Byran, and Kol are mining clans that specialize in a certain resource, beskar, iron, gold, and coal respectively, and are not in favor of the place coming under the control of a corporation and so they volunteered their wealth and skills to the fight. Last but not least are Clan Glint, Kolt, and Morson, herdsman clans that watch over great herds of cattle and had all been in favor of the fighting, up until recently with Clan Morson.

Before Clan Morson left, they got word that the chieftain's daughter was captured when Black Iron mercenaries managed to track down her cell of Morson warriors after they had successfully raided a Hypernautic warehouse. The Black Irons left a comm unit for us, their terms were that they would release the Morson heir and all of the other clan members that they captured for a signed agreement that Clan Morson would stay out of the conflict. Having no other choice, the chief brought the rest of Clan Morson with him to Gargon city.

It is likely that supply trains are now being tagged with trackers and since the Nomads don't have a means to find and detect these trackers without the right frequency, they have to manually search every looted item for the physical tracker itself. And when you have a train full of resources, it is like finding a Kal in several haystacks. Thankfully, Clan Urlan proposed a solution, through the use of an Ion Pulse Blaster they can fry any tracker or electronic that Black Iron would put on the cargo. Of course it is only available in very limited numbers due to the amount of effort needed to make one by hand, so only half a dozen of these Ion Pulse Blasters were distributed to all of the cells, with more being made.

While this helps prevent what happened to Clan Morson from happening again, it only highlights a major issue that the Nomads are currently facing, in that we are bleeding manpower. With each battle, more and more fighters are injured and need time to recover. While this is mitigated somewhat thanks to beskar armor, it does not make them invincible. Blaster bolts still felt like getting hit with a fist when in beskar armor, and multiple hits at the same area will bruise or crack bones. One notable example was that a Nomad got hit in the liver and was down for a week. Another got cracked ribs after getting hit in the chest from a dozen blaster bolts during an ambush.

I was going to need to get in contact with Bo Katan soon, she was still operating in the city, working with gangsters who were unsatisfied with the current affairs to attempt to unseat Bresug Gerr. Their information network proved invaluable in giving us the time and place of various assets for us to raid and take as well as avoid patrols. However, Bresug's mercenaries and militia outnumber our fighters 5 to 1 with that gap growing larger each day as more of our fighters are injured and more mercenaries join Bresug's Silver banner. Bleeding Gargon City of resources isn't going to be enough, we need to deal a crippling blow soon before the Nomads are ground down by attrition.

Looking across the camp I saw men in various types of armor and shades of color working on various tasks. Some are cleaning plates in the nearby stream, others are fixing their speeders, and a few are cleaning their guns, standard things you'd see of men on campaign. Even though they probably didn't get to fight and they seem to have thrown themselves wholly into this one. Guess it was just one of those remnants of the ancient ways that wasn't as prevalent with the New Mandalorians or even with the Traditionalists at this point. The willingness to drop everything and get involved in a fight when it was presented.

All I did was invite them to go join the fight and they started talking about the ancient gods and their ancestors. From what I knew about Gargon's history, they didn't actually get involved in the Clan Wars or the Mandalorian Civil War. Too busy with their own affairs so they hadn't gone through the near collective trauma of those conflicts, not only that, they've also been separated from most of the fighting for the last 500 years. In a way I was looking at a window into the past, not as bad as say the people of Shogun reportedly were, but perhaps these people had more in common to pre-Mandalorian Excision Mandalorians, than any of the Mandalorians who ran around the sector nowadays, which was an interesting thought when you picked at it.

I recognize some of the nomads that joined me on last night's raid are reheating the leftovers in the mess area. A few plates of grilled meats, poultry stew, and roasted vegetables seemed to be the order for today. I have to admit, the Nomads knew how to cook with only salt, pepper, and a few herbs they found in the surrounding forest. I was skeptical when they used an actual shovel to grill their meat; Clan Glint's Chieftain has assured me that they always wash it with soap and then put it over an open flame to kill any germs so it is probably cleaner than the plates we were using to eat it. After I was proven wrong when I tried it for the first time, the chef had been pretty smug that his dishes could compete with those high-class food in Mandalore, using only a shovel, herbs and mushrooms he foraged from the forest, and sea salt.

'Now I'm feeling hungry.' My thoughts were interrupted when a Mandalorian in brownish armor ran up to me and gave one of the more ancient salutes. "Boss, Rath's squad is back from scouting Garvel. They brought along a few people who say they're here to join up with us."

"Couple more hands wouldn't hurt." I said matter of factly as I cracked my neck looking for Rath and the new arrivals.

"The issue is that there's a Jedi with them."

"A Jedi?" I said, turning to look at him. I knew there was a chance that the defenders of the Republic might show up. I just didn't expect one would show up so quickly. "Take me to this Jedi." I said, grabbing my helmet from my tent before putting it on.

The younger Mandalorian led the way to Rath near the edge of the camp where he and several other Mandalorians were guarding two Mandalorians in silver and white armor and a Jedi in their all too recognizable robes.

Looking over the pair one was a man in rather standard silver and white armor, thick plate for the chest plate, and was carrying a blaster rifle by the looks of it. The other silver armored man had a very similar set of armor, though he was bigger and taller than the first and had a larger pauldron on one shoulder most likely the one that would be facing the enemy while firing. They were wearing modern standard designed armor, in fact a lot of their armor looked very standard as if they had been created at the same time. The Jedi on the other hand was an older man with green hair and a chin beard.

Looking the three over I said, "I am Fenn Rau, coordinator of the nomadic clans against Mandal Hypernautics corporation. Who are you and why are you here?"

The bigger guy with the heavy shoulder pad nodded his helmet and said, "I'm Zero and this is Strike we're here to stop Bresug Gerr at the behest of our leader." The bigger man said with a strange tone to his voice almost like the helmet was altering it a bit. Then he pointed to the Jedi, "That's Jedi Master Rahm Kota, he invited himself along."

I nodded and said, "Wearing the colors of the enemy yet claiming to fight the enemy is an interesting way of introducing yourselves."

The other Mandalorian spoke up, "Our leader is the real White Silver and is simply here to remove the fabrication of the False White Silver as they would put it."

Under my helmet my eyebrow raised, I found the idea that the "real White Silver" had stepped up rather amusing but very unlikely. However, I wasn't going to dismiss two Mandos in modern Beskar armor and a Jedi if I could help it. So I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt depending on what the Jedi said. Turning to the Jedi I said, "Are they telling the truth? There's no way the Jedi Order is in favor of Bresug Gerr's little coup here, so unless you've been conned into letting these people into finding our camp I'm going to have to assume you're the most likely to know if they're telling the truth or not."

The Jedi, Kota nodded his head, "They're telling the truth as far as they're concerned. I can confirm they are interested in unseating this Bresug Gerr and I have met their leader myself, who claims to be the real White Silver. Are they telling the truth past that point? Hard to say, though I will say that their leader does have a philosophical mind, so it's not impossible that the leader is the real deal from what I understand about the original Silver Codex."

"Hmm," I thought about for a moment then finally shrugged, "Fine, I'm assuming you're here to help as well?" I said looking at the Jedi who nodded. "Great then, a couple pairs of hands and a Jedi could help in this operation. Anything else I should know before I go get a bite to eat?"

"We have agents inside the city who have been gathering in town." the larger Mandalorian, Zero said. "Some of the information you might be interested in."

Folding my arms across my chest I said, "I'm listening."

The other more nondescript Mandalorian spoke up his helmet, definitely altering his voice though something about the cadence was familiar. "We have a slicer inside their system and they've reported that Bresug Gerr has outside help who are bringing in droids to support his operations. We've confirmed this with another agent, who is gathering intel as well, that Clan Morson is being set for execution tomorrow."

"They what!?" Someone yelled, turning to look over my shoulder I saw several other clan leaders had been coming up to meet the group and they overheard the last bit of the story. Stepping quickly they joined us and demanded to know more, "What do you mean they're setting Clan Morson to be executed tomorrow? I thought that they already agreed to surrender and stop fighting. Why are they going to be executed?"

"We're just reporting what we've heard, Clan Morson is scheduled to be executed tomorrow at the Hutt Colosseum. We think that they have no interest in negotiating with nomads that didn't side with them, early on."

"They're breaking ancient codes of hospitality and negotiation at this point. Frack this Osik, we're burning that city to the ground." One of the other clan leaders said marching off in the direction of his men. The rest started mumbling their agreements before breaking off heading in their own direction and I was left there to sigh annoyance as this was obviously a tactic to draw us into a protracted fight at the edges of the city.

A tactic that by all accounts appears to have worked. I'd have to move up trying to get in contact with Bo to see if we could at least get some cooperation between the clans and gangs in this coming fight. Might be the difference between a lot of dead Nomads or a dead CEO.

Turning to the people who just stirred up the hornet's nest I said, "Well I hope you're ready for a fight you've just incidentally caused a massive one."

"Works for them," Rahm Kota said, "the whole idea is to get their leader to Bresug Gerr and put an end to this whole situation so the sooner the fight happens the better I believe."

Turning to the Jedi I asked, "Did the Order send you here just to cause mayhem or what?"

The Jedi smiled, "The Order didn't send me, I just thought I could do the most good here."

I shook my head, "Let's hope your forces are strong enough that we can avoid mass casualties. It would probably take 12 to 14 hours for everything to put in position so the fighting won't happen till tomorrow. I'll have someone around here to show you to a tent for you guys can get a break. I don't know how long you've been about, but I figure the walk up the mountain was probably not the greatest journey so get rested. Tomorrow is going to be the fight of our lives."

Saying that I turned and walked back towards the command tent grabbing a Mandalorian aid and telling him to try and get the chieftains to meet me at the tent. I'll see if I could get them organized better than throwing themselves at the defense perimeter of Gargon city, for now I have leftovers with my name on it.

Gargon City, Central District Hotel Suite

Ursa Wren

'This whole place really needed to be burned to the ground.' That's a thought I kept having as my clan members brought the intel they gathered to me.

We had arrived on the planet 3 days ago with a simple mission and a small detachment of 15 of my clan. We were to gather as much intel we could, steal blueprints or weapons, and push things along to ensure the fall of this fake Mandalore. The Mandalorian sector already had two running around with that Duchess of Kalevala, we didn't need this silver one trying to break in as well.

And that is why as members of the House Vizsla, Clan Wren had answered the call to bring down this pretender. Wasn't even a very good pretender at that, at least the New Mandalorian fake was trying to unify people. And the secret Mandalore of Pre Vizsla understood the importance of not pissing off everyone. This Bresug Gerr pretender had apparently learned his statesmanship from the traditionalists like Governor Vrox. Everyone's a Mandalorian unless you have a goal then only the people you care about are the Mandalorians.

This whole operation and plan felt more and more haphazard the longer we explored it and most likely it would have fallen apart on its own without the pushes we were going to give it. But, this presented an opportunity, an opportunity that doesn't come along very often.

Support weapons and gear of various types could fall into our hands if we played our cards right. Which would increase the chances of the eventual anti-New Mandalorian movement.

Over the last few days we had felt out every possible faction on Gargon, from the clans of the Nomads to the clans of the gangsters and Mafia that ran the city. We knew what factions were displeased and what factions were willing to deal with Bresug as long as he looked strong. And we were finding plenty of opportunities to push things along. We'd already stolen quite a bit of gear under the appearance of rebel gangs or nomadic raiders. If we don't leave witnesses well anyone would come up with a story that makes the most sense. At the moment we had several caches of gear waiting for the right opportunity to be used.

And tomorrow was proving to present the biggest opportunity of them all. Apparently Bresug Gerr sent Clan Morson an ultimatum to come to Gargon city with his clan to negotiate his daughter's release or they would execute her. Seeing no other choice, the chieftain complied and the clan was promptly captured to be publicly executed tomorrow. How the chieftain's daughter got captured, I don't know the exact details but according to my men, the Black Iron Mercenaries have a few competent members under their employ as they were able to track them down after they raided a warehouse of speeders and defeated them, resulting in their capture.

Other than the fact, he broke ancient clan tradition as well as using a family member to force their compliance. This act would definitely set the rest of the nomads against him and if my clan were to swoop in at that time to save the Nomads. Well then the nomads would owe a favor to Clan Wren and since Clan Wren is a member of House Vizsla, they may answer the call for a war with the New Mandalorians.

I had learned enough of the plan over the years to know that Vizsla didn't want to start a massive war but create enough discontent that the people would remove the New Mandalorians themselves. But I thought he was a bit on the hopeful side.

War is the way of Mandalore, one does not earn the title of Mandalore through peace. It is fought for and he would have to fight for it too. Of course, my husband mentioned that Vizsla likely doesn't want to go through the trouble of repairing the damage a 2nd Clan War would have caused on Mandalore, but I still think a hostile takeover wouldn't break anything important. Other than the Royal Guards, there aren't any Mandos that are still combat capable among the pacifist Hut'uun, they'd just roll over and wait for death when we take over.

Anyway, I looked at the clan suite Hypernautic provided for us as some of my agents in their yellow and gray armor prepped their equipment. Tomorrow will be a good day. No doubt the fighting would be fierce but the Black Iron mercs and their few Mandalorian leaders would not do much against real Mandalorians. As for the foolish Silver Militia, while they may be made up of Mandalorians, from what I had seen they were foolish youngsters. People who hadn't matured to the point they understood what they were signing up for and hadn't completed their training as real Mandalorians should. I suspected they would be cannon fodder when the fighting started. And it would not just be my Mandalorians in the fight, we are preparing weapons to be dropped off with the Nomads as we freed them. The more guns in the field the better chances of survival, and from what I understood about the local plans, it would be at least 50 Mandalorian Nomads, tough Mandos who'd spend all their lives on the frontier. Perhaps not the greatest of warriors but better than the Silver Militia and some of the Black Iron Mercenaries that gave their allegiance to Bresug Gerr.

I didn't know if tomorrow would bring a complete victory, but I am fairly sure. Bringing the whole city down would be a great thing to sing about, but punching the fake Mandalore in the nose and stealing something from him in his own house would do wonders to break his hold on people's minds. It would be a massive embarrassment to his honor, if he had any, but it would do more harm than just that.

As long as someone's winning, the people will believe anything you tell them. But the moment you start losing, well that's when people start asking questions. And having something stolen from you in such a public way will have people asking questions, perhaps even choosing sides.

No doubt the gangsters who were allowing him to use the city would formally sign up against him if he appeared weak and unable to defend himself. After all, what use is a leader if they can't even guarantee the safety of their home city. Not much use really and that's why the gangsters and mafia types would make their own moves once it became apparent that he couldn't protect the city.

Yes, tomorrow would be a good day to start the fall of Bresug Gerr. And it must be a good day to steal as much equipment as we could get our hands on. As much as his soldiers were absolutely terrible I would give Gerr one thing, he didn't skimp on the funding of their equipment. We stole a few of Hypernautic's excess silver armor and confirmed that they were high quality, not beskar but they have many modern systems integrated into the armor. The guns were also Concordian made, how he'd gotten those we weren't sure. As far as we knew Concordia Crescent was only sold on Concordia which would mean that he had to have agents on Concordia to purchase the equipment. If that was true, you'd have to hunt them down to make sure they didn't continue selling gear that we plan to use when the New Mandalorians were pushed out.

But that was for the future, for tonight I needed to get the men back to the suite we were in so that everyone can have a good night's rest and be ready for the fight tomorrow.

Gargon, Downtown Motel

Kuth Mok

Uncomfortably, I moved my left shoulder a bit, feeling the heavy weight of my prosthetic arm hanging there. A constant reminder of the event that changed my life, when rival clans worked together to attack MandalTech to deny it to the New Mandalorians, and many lives, including my parents, were killed in the attack. Once the Civil War ended, I dedicated my life to preserving the peace so that no child has to lose their loved ones. I joined the Journeyman Protectors as their slicer and helped catch criminals with them before I heard that the Royal Guard were searching for skilled slicers for their electronic security, I volunteered and the rest is history.

We are currently gathered in a cheap motel we rented for our stay. It is about what you expect from a cheap motel, two double beds, a bathroom and a closet. We are each sitting on the double beds, boys on one bed and the girls are on the other. After a day of gathering intel, we have just debriefed each other on what the other team did. I sent a summary of what we have found to X4 so he could send it to Struc. That Hypernautic hired pirates to loot ancient Mandalorian Wars era battle for their beskar, half of the beskar they looted is stored off-world, Mandal has a foreign supporter that is supplying them with new Battle Droids as well as "Supervisor Droids" to oversee and defend their factories, and the that Clan Morson is about to be executed in the Colosseum tomorrow at noon.

X4 sent back a message that Struc's team are on their way to meet with the Nomads and X4 would let them know once they make contact. Buses in and out of the city were heavily monitored, and as far as we could tell, leaving the city was not going to do us any good. We may not be able to get back in for one, for two the chances of being picked up by the Silver Militia, who were a cult from what we could understand, were going to grow and they were most likely already monitoring the ways in and out of the city, though moving about inside the city was a bit easier since people apparently unless directly connected to the cult just assumed you were already in it.

With nothing else to do, we decided to go out and buy some lunch. We found a local diner near the motel and enjoyed the deli meat that is served there. It was really good, I wouldn't mind eating that every so often. When we got back to the motel, it was well into the afternoon. Sitting around the room, we were basically stumped, unsure how to proceed with the operation. That was until Tanya tilted her head, obviously getting a message from X4.

Leaning forward and turning her helmet comms to internal she said, "The Nomads are pissed about the whole execution thing, they're going to strike the city tomorrow."

"Probably for the best if our intel's right." I said, "If they're bringing in droids next week, the defenses will just grow to the point where the Nomads will be ineffective in hitting the city. Their window of opportunity to strike is closing, not to mention that also means that that execution is going to draw them into a prolonged fight, the casualties will be horrendous."

"No doubt," Tanya said, her left hand cradling the chin of her helmet as she thought, "but that does mean that the defenses inside the city will all be pointed outwards to meet this attack. Assuming that this is their plan to draw the nomads out into a single fight and destroy them as best they can, they'll have everything they have along the edges of the city and internal defenses will be minimal."

I lean forward at that, "Yeah, they might be minimal but that doesn't mean they're non-existent. There's not much we can do with only the four of us and if we start causing trouble, we're likely to get shot dead before we can do anything permanent."

"Four people in the right location can do a lot." Ordo said, matter of factly. "It's how to use them in those locations that matters."

Tanya tilted her head in his direction in a nod before continuing, "What do we know about the Colosseum?"

I shrugged before saying, "Old Hutt style, lots of cameras for filming the proceedings and projecting them on large screens so everyone can see them. Usually used for fights to the death between people and other creatures though that varied. It looked like it could hold a couple thousand people."

Tanya nodded, "They'll probably want an audience for this, people to spread the message even if they miss the camera showing so they'll let a population into the stadium. Click, you're a skilled slicer, yes? If you are inside the stadium what do you think you could do to make this execution go off with many hitches?"

"That's right," then said, "it's old Hutt, they weren't exactly great with their security systems on civilian infrastructure and a colosseum like that is civilian infrastructure. I could turn off the lights or drop the floor out into the under area that all stadiums usually have. Even put on a personal message on the big screen TVs if you wanted to."

Tanya immediately leaned forward with interest, "What you're saying is if we can get you inside that stadium you can feed so much chaos that the people marked for execution would have a chance of escaping into the streets if we gave him a little help. Which considering they were about to be murdered, would most likely help us in taking down False Silver once we equipped them with weapons and armor. The chaos would draw troops from the edges of the city allowing the Nomads a much easier time to break inside."

"I don't like where this is going but yes that is an opportunity that could be available if we were inside the colosseum. Creating chaos like that doesn't mean we're going to win just means-"

"It means, more opportunities might present themselves. Perhaps we will simply get out of the city with the escaping Nomads. Perhaps we'll find an opportunity to make allies within the city and strike at Bresug Gerr in his own Tower, everything will be upheaved."

I sigh as she was speaking the truth, chaos that would churn through the streets would present many opportunities for many people. Whatever peace Bresug Gerr had created would be made unstable and the chances of striking Bresug Gerr in his home would never be better.

Letting out a breath of annoyance I said, "Alright but how are we going to get in the Colosseum?"

Tanya nodded before saying, "As I said, they want a captive audience in the stadium and would likely just let us in themselves. If we play our cards right, they might even think we're part of their little Silver Militia and let us get into places we're not supposed to be."

That was an intriguing thought, leaning forward I had to think about that, as Tanya continued. "False Silver has seemed to have created this whole plan on the idea that the real Silver would never come forward or that they would never attempt to infiltrate his base. They believe that using the color will simply allow him to mark his easily persuaded people and those who are the most loyal. But that gives us an opportunity, we can get into this little execution and move around without much notice because we're members of the Silver Militia, of course we're loyal to White Silver and Mandel Hypernautics."

I nodded my helmet, then said one problem, "By that same logic we are now wearing the colors of the enemy. If we make any moves and run into anyone who's against the enemy we have a good chance of getting ourselves shot don't we?"

"If we allow him to keep the colors." Tanya said, still rubbing the front of her helmet as if it was her chin. "You said you could put anything up on the screen? If we were to pre-record a video could you put it up on the screen for the whole stadium to watch?"

Exhaling deeply I thought for a moment and said, "Theoretically yes, if the stadium's security systems have not been upgraded from Hutt standard too much, I could put anything you want on their cameras."

"So if we were to create a video pointing out a few inconsistencies between the Silver Codex and his statements as well as claim that the real Silver was in the stadium here to take back their name, that would cause a bit of confusion. Sure there'd be some diehards but there'd be others who'd take a step back at the very minimum and wait to see who wins."

"If the video is done right, we might be able to just wait for a few of the people to come to our side." Ordo said matter of factly.

"And how exactly is the video going to be done right?" I asked, looking at the kid.

"There are some definite breakaway points between his speech on the matter and the first codex." Tanya said. "Trying to strike those issues from anonymity across the galaxy would not be effective but if the person is in the building. There's a promise of coming violence that can add to the argument. It doesn't matter who's under the mask, if a person's telling you that you are a liar, these are the reasons why, and I'm going to personally prove you're a liar just wait a few moments till I'm upstairs, all that matters is that that person is there and coming."

Sighing, I shook my head and said, "Fine, I understand your point. We'll create a video for tomorrow and then we will infiltrate the colosseum to free the clan. Hopefully your plan works out, and from there we'll see what happens."

Gargon City, Colosseum

Tanya Kryze

It would appear my assumptions on the state of security are correct and wrong at the same time. As I suspected all the black clad mercenaries were not present near the colosseum. Most likely been sent to the edges of the city in preparation of whatever assault was to come.

It would seem that whoever was in command of this execution was smart enough to keep some sort of security around the colosseum. Though considering who they were, it was possibly a plus to me if everything worked out. All the silver wearing soldiers around here who had fallen for the False Silver's words would either be my enemy or my ally, it all depends on how things went.

In order to try and mitigate any suspicion, we'd split back up into groups of two, two couples could get in a lot easier than four. Plus if something went wrong one group would be free to rescue the other with any luck.

With nothing to do whilst we are waiting in line, I look around. The crowds being funneled into the stadium / colosseum were quite large, most appear to be silver wearing loyalist fools. There were a few corporate men by the look of their suits and they're less than notable bits of armor. The city itself is very utilitarian, similar in feel to what New York City was like when I entered the Unified States for the first time after the war. Large concrete skyscrapers all around, advertisements everywhere, and scores of sentients crowd the streets.

I also saw a few other Mandalorians entering the Colosseum, what their plans were? I don't know. Were they loyal to the False Silver? Were they there because they hated the nomads? Did they just want to see if things would go to hell? Anything could be possible so where they would fall on the line in the chaos we were about to unleash, I didn't know.

What I did know was that we were almost at the ticket booth. Once we are inside, we'd make our way to the technical box where we would meet up with Mok and Skota to see what we could do to get ourselves in control of the stadium. All we needed was for everything to go perfectly.

Which was why I was incredibly worried. Because, well, I remembered my last life and I know the old adage that no plan survives contact with the enemy, though I would admit most of the times I had been the enemy that threw the situation into chaos. Didn't mean that it wouldn't be true here also. It would be quite easy for the situation to flip around on me and for something to go absolutely wrong.

And of course just as I was thinking about that, I felt a hand grab my shoulder, as we were almost at the front of the queue. Turning my head, I saw a man in silver armor looking at us, his face hidden by the helmet but it was tilted in a way of showing that he was curious and meant no harm. He had one hand on my shoulder and another one on Ordo as he said, "Hey, you two any good with a blaster?"

If my face was revealed the look of incredulousness said that question would have probably caused a fight. Thankfully Mandalorian helmets cut down on such situations when you thought about it. "We're excellent shots, why do you ask?" I asked, thankful that my voice was being changed to something a little bit deeper.

"Great, a few conscripts pissed off the Ingra by refusing to take part in the execution. He has stripped them of their armor and lined them up next to the nomads, so we need a few more hands."

"I don't know about-" Ordo started but I stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Very unfortunate that they would betray their oath to the Silver Codex like that, we will gladly join the execution squad to put down these disobedient dogs."

"A bit harsh but Ingra loves being dramatic so more power to ya." the Mandalorian said before pulling us out of the line.

Over the internal comms of my helm and I heard Engiz ask, "What's the plan? This wasn't in the initial draft."

"I'm altering the plan, this is an opportunity that can be used for our benefits." I responded back before touching my vambrace to change the signal strength in hopes of reaching the others.

"Proceed on mission, we've been sidetracked but will be in place to cause as much chaos as possible when the party starts."

Luckily we got a response from Click, "Fine, wander off and have your own adventure. I'll just handle the tech stuff, just don't get killed. Pretty sure if you do, we're all going to get prices on our head set there by The Duchess."

I chuckled at that not believing she would go that far. Although I do admit she seemed to have a fonder view of our relationship than most bosses would, so maybe I was selling short how far she would go.

We were quickly pulled through several hallways until we were filed out into a waiting room with a bunch of other Mandalorians in silver. Most of them had other colors mixed in with their silver and white markings, a few green, few red, a couple blue, and one potential person over there had pink, in total there are about 30 people. But otherwise nothing too interesting about the group. Before we even had a chance to get settled in, two Mandalorians in black armor came in and started passing out blaster rifles. GALAAR-15s are basically oversized WESTAR-35, but otherwise a good blaster. I actually already had one on my back hidden by the extension of my shoulder cape in better condition than the one that had been handed to me. This one looks like it had seen a few years of service in some war somewhere based on its damage marks. A quick check of my ammunition count also found that there was only about enough gas in it for two or three rounds.

Smart move when you think about it, if something goes wrong you don't want the people you're giving guns to have the best things. You want them to have the worst with the least amount of ammunition possible.

The compentence ended there though, since no one was asking me for my pistols or checking me for my rifle and many of the other Mandalorians had their own weapons. Not as good as a GALAAR-15 I've noted but still, a sign that they weren't thinking through this plan thoroughly. Granted, unless everyone wrote their name on their blasters, it is very easy for someone to claim that someone elses blaster is their own. So to make sure this doesn't happen and prevent the hassle, they don't bother to confiscate personal weapons.

If I was an assassin I'd get pretty damn close to their leader with a full stack of ammunition with the rate this is going. This man was really needlessly self-destructive and was basically a prime example of why Mandalorians need to move past the ideology of conquest.

Before I could really give much thought on the subject, a man in silver with black striped armor, stepped into the room, started looking us over, and then nodded his helmet with approval. He had markings on his helmet, indicating he was familiar with combat, especially aerial combat and was wearing a jetpack painted black and white striped.

"Yes you'll do, congratulations children of the Silver Codex. Today we prove that we are the loyal members of the new order that is going to be created on this planet and in time throughout the sector. Today we show what happens to those who try and play games with their loyalty. In a few minutes we will march out there and listen to a speech from our leader who could not be here today due to extenuating circumstances. After the speech is given we will take aim and execute the traitors and show that they were never real Mandalorians but just wasteland refuse."

Well shit, the man was such a coward he wasn't even going to be here to see them die with his own eyes, but that was probably for the best. Oh, it would be nice to end this today, have the fight right there in the arena and get this situation handled but that probably would have meant more guards here. The less guards I had to fight in the arena the better.

The figure looking over us once again said, "It is an honor to have such loyal members of the Silver Militia with me today. I know, like most of you, the first codex probably intrigued you. I've had your doubts about the viability of the work. But the second codex has shown that he is willing to improve his methods and revealing his identity has shown that he is putting his money where his mouth is. With his financial backing we will have the ability to finally unseat the New Mandalorians and put the sector back on course to a prosperous future. Pledge now your allegiance to the White Silver and the future Mandalore of the Mandalorian sector!" He said putting his fist across his chest and some sign of salute.

Oh come on, the codex supported the New Mandalorians and advocated their viability for a prosperous future. The fact people would fall for this either shows their gullibility to side with anyone who says something against someone they dislike or they're just lying about supporting the codex and simply were looking for opportunities to screw over the New Mandalorians. Frankly, I didn't care to find out the real answer.

Maybe having that real answer would be helpful but at this point it was pretty much certain what I needed to do and I didn't need the real answer of why so many had sided with this fanatical moron. I just knew that I needed to make an example of him and those who would follow him, starting with this genocidal maniac who was going to attempt to kill an entire clan of Mandalorians just because they didn't decide to immediately side with this dictator. At this rate I really was going to have to come up with a second volume of the codex to release secretly just to make it clear to not follow dictators into genocidal wars or stupid civil wars.

Oh and this corporate stooge was definitely a dictator at this point. I hadn't heard anyone say anything about any of the clans declaring him a Mand'alor or that he just declared himself that and let people believe he was the original White Silver while also forcing people to side with him through military might. That's a dictator, not an elected leader as I proposed in my codex.

But those were arguments to be made another time. For now I kept my mouth shut as I didn't want to make any moves until we were in position. Not to mention the fact that we were about to be sent out there to execute not only a clan but members of the Silver Militia who apparently started asking questions, theoretically the people I've been reaching out towards. It said a lot about the man in front of me that making too much noise would result in front row tickets to a firing line. So I would wait for my opening carefully. I put my hand across my chest and mentally pledge allegiance to myself because I'm going to make sure they know who the real White Silver is by the end of this.

Nodding in approval he said, "Alright then, let's get out there and kill some traitors."

With that what were probably his sergeants started ordering us through a set of double doors into a ramp that led up into the main area of the colosseum.

Quickly these sergeants forced us into a line facing a line of people with their hands tied behind their backs and blindfolds on them. Thankfully though their helmets have apparently been removed and thrown in front of them into the sand on the ground of the arena.

Once the line was settled the leader of the militia took a step in front of us and yelled to the crowd. "These traitors have been found disloyal to our leader and though White Silver is not here to pass judgment in person, we shall do it in his name. He is however able to speak to us for a moment to give us a message on the merits of loyalty to our leaders."

He pointed off to a screen as two things happened, there was a series of booms from the distance sounding like a firefight of some kind. No doubt the False Silver would be preoccupied for a moment as he dealt with that so the execution would be postponed a few seconds. It gave me time to deal with the second thing that happened.

The second was Click coming over my communications saying, "We're in, when do you want the video?"

"Wait until White Silver's broadcasted himself, give him about a moment to get a few words out then interrupt him."

"Got it." he responded and I stood in the line waiting. I wasn't one for theatrics most times but I understood enough about Mandalorian culture to understand the merits of theatrics in a few cases.

False Silver had come onto the scene with a propaganda video, in order to appear as in control and legitimate as possible.

In order to shake that perception of control, what was needed is to be just as theatrical.

Gargon City Outskirts

Rahm Kota

Well this brought up old memories, all around me were men charging screaming and shooting blasters thankfully not at me.

In front of me we're up a bunch of semi entrenched troops who apparently had not been taught that a trench needs to actually be used for cover. Either that or they've been told the armor they were wearing were beskar since a lot of them had been standing in line waiting to shoot at us as we drove into range of their blasters on speeder bikes and speeder cars.

They've learned very quickly that their armor was not beskar and to not do that by now. As quite a few of them had died to the initial volley of speeder mounted cannons and dismounted Mandalorians moving from cover to cover.

Zero and Strike are somewhere around here, we have been riding in the same speeder. But well, the Black Mercenaries have a blaster cannon of some kind and it shoots our speeder out from underneath us, sending us flying in several directions. Where they'd ended up, I don't know. All I do know is that my Jedi robes were covered in mud, I had a blaster pistol in one hand, and a deactivated lightsaber in the other. Though I was thinking about turning it on with every moment a shot near missed me. I was hunkering down behind a concrete slab that used to be a building, one that appeared to have been blown up in preparations to remove all cover from the killing field.

They apparently did not know that when you remove all cover from the killing field you're supposed to remove the debris left behind by the demolition that several Mandalorians and myself could still use to hide behind.

Considering my situation, from where I stood I could see several Mandalorians pushing up slowly using their armor to absorb some of their blaster fire from a distance away. Unfortunately though some of them got hits and didn't get back up while others were able to hold their position even under constant stream of fire. There was a particular chance that this little advance into the city could fail if that fire rate kept up. I wasn't exactly about to let that happen, we had come this far and what had White Silver called me? Ah right, a good Force multiplier.

"Well time to do my part." I muttered and with my lightsaber activated, I stepped into the field. Focusing on defense I deflected a few bolts back at them which caused more bolts to come my way as they saw my glowing lightsaber. But the important thing is that they took their eyes off the Mandalorians around me who saw the opening. They popped out of their hidey holes and started firing into the enemy line, catching those who were trying to shoot me by surprise.

After a few moments I started to advance reflecting bolts back at the line as Mandalorians covered me. In fact three or four of them fell in behind me shooting past my shoulder. It was rather comical in a way but how it may look didn't matter. What mattered was that this was effective as we quickly crossed the distance between the impromptu line we had been forced into and the enemy's terribly entrance position.

Jumping down into the trench I pointed my lightsaber at the closest black clad soldier and said "Yield now or face the consequences of your actions."

The soldier in particular looked at the Mandalorians piling into the trench behind me, adding their guns to the line, and simply dropped his weapon and himself on the ground. The one behind him though put up more of a fight immediately attempting to shoot me. I deflected it back at him and he fell back to the ground. The third one came around a corner and then said something in Mando that I didn't catch before running the other direction. Turning to look over my shoulder I saw that the Mandalorians Nomads were cleaning up the trench in the other direction too, though the ones that were behind me were ready to advance the direction I was facing.

I smiled and said, "Gentlemen, have a few men capture any prisoners that surrendered, they may have useful information we could use later. Everyone else, we have a clan to save and a company to overthrow." Turning toward the direction of the trench, lightsaber close at my side, feeling a bit of nostalgia from my youth.

I basically grew up in trenches like these, though it was in much better condition than this one is. My planet of birth had been stuck in a trench war for generations and I'd come accustomed to fighting since I was a kid. So clearing out a trench? that has become second-hand nature to me. Though I hadn't done it in a good 30 years, it does come back to me like riding a speeder bike.

Pushing on into the trenches, I tried to force surrenders whenever I could, a few took me up on my offer, those that didn't either ended up getting themselves killed or shot by the Mandalorians with me. In one of the more improved sections of the trenches though, I found the first person to make it past the Mandalorian shooting over my shoulders.

As we passed by a section of the trench that seemed to go into a bunker, someone sprung free of their hiding place. I heard the loud and reverberant gong and one of the Nomads went down followed by a sound of a weapon being slammed to the ground from an impact followed by another bong. Quickly, I turned and had my lightsaber up just in time to meet the attacker's weapon.

A shovel smashed into my lightsaber and cut itself in half causing the Mandalorian who's sprung that trap to jump back looking at their weapon and confusion before looking at me again. Quickly noted that she is not one of the black clad mercs, she was wearing blue and red armor. With yellow accents around the face of the helmet.

Taking a step back, the Mandalorian gave it a couple of practice swings before promptly dropping it. Looking at me she said, "Well, I feel out matched." The Mandalorian said, revealing a female voice, something that became more apparent as I took a closer look at her armor."Tell you what? How about we call this a draw and you just let me run into the city?"

I raised an eyebrow and said "I see no problem with that, I doubt one extra blaster inside the city would be much more help than you were here."

"Yeah, I know. I'm done with this." she said matter of factly waving her hand at your lightsaber. "I signed up to fight other Mandalorians. I did not sign up to die by laser sword. I'm going to go back into that city, find a ship leaving this God forsaken mud hole, and get off of it."

"Aren't you breaking your code or allegiance you made by betraying your leader in such a way?" I asked.

The Mandalorian shrugged and shook her head, "Nope, I just need the money. Now that I got it and everything's going to shit, I have no interest in dying for an idiot."

'Reasonable response,' I thought before lowering my lightsaber and nodding my head.

"Well then you're free to go, don't cause any trouble, stay out of our way, and hope we never see each other again today."

"Same," the woman said with a nod of her head before vaulting up the sides of the trench before running off into the city.

I took a breath of air lightly winded before checking on the two Mandalorian she'd knocked unconscious with that shovel. From a quick check of their pulse and sense of the Force I figured they were merely unconscious and would survive but I stood up and tried to look around for other Mandalorian Nomads.

Thankfully, I didn't have to look long as Mandalorian Nomads jumped into the trench around me, some jumped over to the other side to charge into the city, others taking note of their fallen comrades and seeing to them. The big silver Mandalorian, Zero, has stepped down into the trench next to me.

"Damn good work probably just saved a whole bunch of lives with that little lightshow you pulled back there."

I smiled and nodded, "That is the way of the Jedi, how's the situation looking?"

Zero shrugged, "Not sure," he said while looking everywhere "from what I've seen, this attack has basically broken the defensive line and black mercs are either retreating or dead."

"So we've crossed the first hurdle. Now the question is how well are they going to do in urban warfare and if they have any other tricks up their sleeve?"

I nodded, there was always the possibility that they could drain the attack dry as we pushed into the city. Hopefully we would be able to avoid too many casualties. I was curious so I asked, "What kind of tricks could they have?"

The big man shrugged before saying, "It's Mandel Hypernautics, they were involved with everything from shipbuilding to armored personnel carriers. I wouldn't put anything past them and just because we're attacking before they receive their next shipment of droids doesn't mean they don't have any droids at all."

I nodded my head in understanding before saying, "We don't know what's ahead of us but we know we have to go into the city, otherwise your leader might be in trouble and we will be nowhere near to help them."

Zero nodded his helmet before saying, "Hope they don't do anything too stupid." He pulled himself out of the trench on the other side but offered a hand to help me up as well. I brushed some mud off my robes and then looked into the city. This was not going to be an easy fight and clearing buildings is always a messy fight, especially when we are the attackers. I had to guess these buildings were constructed with a general idea that assaults could happen and needed to be defended by Ancient Mandalorians who expected such conflicts. Shaking my head I said, "Let's go." before turning my lightsaber back on and walking towards the city.

Gargon City, Mandel Hypernautic's HQ

False Silver

"Sir, the Nomad's have broken through the outer defense perimeter." Came the panic yell from one of my newer hires. A supposed strategist from the planet Alzar, who was given to me to support this little uprising. He claimed he was a somewhat seasoned veteran though with how panicky he sounded, I highly doubt that.

I knew I should have gone for someone a little bit more experienced but he was a cheap employee and the position he occupied was easily replaceable in the future if need be. Shaking my head I said, "Do not worry, Haurs things are unfolding as I expected."

A lie but I had built plenty of redundancies into this defensive operation so the possibility that the Nomads would break through the first line was well within expectations. I would have preferred to have blocked them at the first line but I would destroy the Nomads today and that was all that mattered.

Stepping back from the holographic display of the city, where the enemy had been marked as breaking through the first line. I moved across my office to the front of my favorite fireplace next to the camera crews who had been setting up for my next speech, the one I was to deliver at the execution of the so-called Mandalorians of Clan Morson.

"Just tell the commanders in the field to follow their operational tactical manuals that I purchased from your homeworld and everything will go fine. They are some of the best fighters in the Galaxy under my employ here. Losing the front line happens but as long as we win in the long run no one will care." I commented over my shoulder to Haurs before I took a seat in my favorite chair enjoying the soft fabric of the seat.

Looking at my Propaganda Minister, Sinno Qing, I said, "How are things at the stadium? Are they waiting in anticipation for my arrival?"

He looked up from the cameras and nodded with a general thumbs up. "They're on the edge of their seats. They can hear the fighting so they must be wondering what's going on."

"Perfect, then all I need to do is appear to be in complete control and submit my legend in their minds. Let's get this show on the road, Qing."

Qing nodded before shouting orders to the camera crew, focusing it in, getting everything just right. One of them ran past me and quickly lit the fire of the fireplace, to give the appearance of being warmed by it and make me appear completely at ease and in control.

Taking a breath I put my silver helmet on the left arm rest of my chair. I hated the color silver, it looked gaudy and ugly but I had to work with what I had. As soon as I had governorship of the Mandalorian Sector in my hands I'd probably go back to black and do my best to vaporize the idea that I'd been White Silver for most people's minds. They would know me by my name and not some strange title thought up by a fool of a person who created a great tool in my rise. If I ever found out who they were I'd probably thank them before having them executed to make sure the secret died with them.

Qing nodded his head to my direction and started counting down with his hand indicating that we were about to start. So I put on my best smile and waited for the red light to turn on, signaling I was live.

Immediately when the red light turned on, the screen over the Qing'shead which gave me a look of the Colosseum and there was quite a lot of silver in that audience, though there were other colors as well. I saw that go-getter fool of a cult leader, Ingra, managed to get everything set up. At least there was a solid line of silver armored soldiers waiting to execute the Nomads, all in line with my plan for the eventual removal of White Silver from my identity. What better way to excuse my stopping the use of the color than to blame honorable fools like them by tarnishing it with their blood.

The fool gave one of his salutes which was fine by me. Keeping a smile I said, "Good morning my people, for today is a sad day. As you may have heard, the Nomads have chosen to attack Gargon City with the goal of plundering and pillaging what is rightfully ours and so they must be destroyed. A fitting end to those who would rebel against their leader. As easily as we shall remove those so-called Mandalorians from the city, we shall remove these Mandalorians with a firing line of blaster fire."

"But before that I would like to speak to you about the importance of following your leader. For without a leader, the Mandalorian people are nothing. We must always have a strong leader in command, someone who can guide our people to greatness. Someone-" before I could continue, there was an interruption in the transmission from the stadium as the Colosseum's camera shifted from where it had been showing me to the audience below to the large screen of the Colosseum itself. What had been a stable connection was no longer stable, as there was a general interruption before another figure, slightly hidden by shadow, appeared on the screen.

Signaling the crew with my hand to cut the sound transmission by running my hand across my neck, I asked, "What's going on?"

"I don't know sir." Qing said in confusion as he looked over the shoulder of one of the technicians in charge of keeping the connection going.

"Someone's hacked into the system and is transmitting their own video."

"Oh perfect, who the hell would do that? It's one of those gangsters, isn't it. They must have hired a slicer to screw with me, more people I'm going to have to hunt down and deal with." I muttered looking back up at the screen to see what was going on. "Turn on the audio. I want to know what's going on."

"The Mand'alor must show no favor to any particular clan. The Mand'alor must heed the will of the Mandalorians. The Mand'alor must act for the good of all Mandalorians. The Mand'alor must allow the Mandalorians a common representative body. The Mand'alor must be above the petty politics of the day. Only the Mand'alor may call the Mandalorian people to war."

"You know, this was a rather reasonable statement when I wrote it. I thought it would be quite clear that I was not in favor of a return to the god king complex of the Crusaders but apparently all it took for people to believe otherwise was a Second Codex written by someone else who couldn't even project an idea without sounding like a corporate stooge."

"What?" I muttered sitting forward in my chair, someone was actually trying to claim they were the real White Silver now of all times. I would have figured no one would have been that stupid, you needed an army to hold such a title without worry of being assassinated by a dozen other factions wanting to pull their own little Crusade against the New Mandalorians. I mean, I guess there was the possibility of the real White Silver coming to Gargon but that was unlikely. No coward who would write their thesis as an anonymous codex would have the balls to come attack me in my castle.

The shadow figure continued with their own speech, "And to think people would so easily turn on their fellow Mandalorians by the words of another. Why are we here? Because someone decided that executing an entire Mandalorian clan is a bright idea. Oh, I can predict the general outcome of the idea of execution, 'They're not true Mandalorians, just nomadic steppe herders' or some other culturally superior Osik but I made it quite clear in my codex what a Mandalorian is. They teach their kids to be Mandalorian, they wear the armor, they learn self defense, they have an understanding of our language, and they are trying to improve the lives of other Mandalorians not bring them down."

"The Resol'nare was quite clear in pointing out what makes a Mandalorian a Mandalorian. You have to muddy the waters by adding more definers, making more people less Mandalorian with each iteration of definer until you only have a certain group in command. And what are the rest of the people who aren't in command? Serfs and slaves. We've seen that before and we've seen how that ends. This path this False Silver is setting Gargon on will bring nothing but destruction not only of this planet and its people, but its culture and history. You'd actively harm Mandalore and most of all it offends me."

"Because I thought I made it quite clear that the Silver Codex did not need a leader. It is a philosophy, not a movement. Why else would I have let it propagate without one and strictly implied that the true leader of Mandalore was Duchess Satine? And from where I had been sitting for the last few years with my silence away from the realm of politics, things have been going well. The Duchess has in her own way acknowledged that the codex has done wonders in improving the economy along the ways I had suggested. From my perspective things are good and they're only going to get better as time goes on, as we build up a strong Mandalorian economy. And then this Silver has set that back, so I leave you with a choice dear watchers and readers of the codex. Either let this fool take you and Gargon to hell, for that is where you're going if you stay with him, or stand by me as we do the job of sending those who would follow this False Silver's madness there."

The screen cut out as the stadium erupted into confused chatter, people unsure of what's going on and probably questioning my authority. Grabbing my helmet I tap the communications on it and put it on, quickly contacting Ingra. "Get a handle on that situation now! I will find out who this Fake Silver is and deal with them in a moment." I said before muting whatever command he was about to say and looking at Qing.

"Where did that transmission come from? If you don't know where it is, figure it out and send someone there to kill them before this turns into a chaotic shit show." Out of the corner of my eye I watched as the cameras turned back to look at the stadium. I could see Ingra getting out of position as he yelled at the line of Silver Militia to open fire, they apparently weren't obeying.

"Sir, the video wasn't sent from anywhere outside the stadium, someone in the stadium put that on."

"What? Who the Haran is bold enough to try putting that up in a Colosseum full of people who support me?" I asked, watching out of the corner of my eye as Ingra walked forward and grabbed a blaster from a Militia before aiming it at the Nomads. A bit brutal but it would get the job done in reasserting control I assumed.

Then a blaster shot sounded a bit elongated like he may have fired two shots and short concession and then the noise went quiet, looking at the screen I expected to see one of the nomads dead. Instead I saw a female Mandalorian in silver armor standing in front of the Nomads, a black scorch mark on the front of her armor where she had apparently taken the hit, in her hand was a smoking blaster pistol. Across from her was Ingra with the blaster he'd been holding had been turned to slag by a direct shot from her pistol and he was looking at it confused.

That's when the chaos really began as the cameras then panned up as more than a dozen Mandalorians with jetpacks in silver and yellow began to open fire into the chaos from above. The cameras quickly went out as their crews either fled or were shot.

Gargon Colosseum

Tanya Kryze

What the hell did I just do? I have been listening to myself give a speech on why the False Silver is a fool and wrong, when I noticed the Silver Militia's leader, I remembered his name was Ingra, was getting very annoyed and moving to try and get control of the situation.

I've seen him grab a blaster off a Militia who looked to be having some sort of midlife crisis by the way he had lost grip of the weapon. And start to aim it at the Nomads.

And well I… I snapped into action. I knew I could disable that blaster if I was able to get a shot off at him and I knew that I could prevent the death of a Nomad if I got in front of him because my armor is made out of pure beskar. I simply knew that I could survive a hit and so I let myself take the hit whilst blasting the blaster out of his hands at the same time.

What had been presented to me was a classical hero situation. Something that got your name spoken of in legend. It was a golden opportunity to continue the chaos already starting to grow as arguments in the stands broke out into fist fights.

And logically the risk to my life had been minimal. The weapon was old most likely it's ammunition was barely functional and considering they'd strip the nomads of their armor to murder them, I knew that the beskar can handle it.

Sure it had hurt, like I had been punched by Visha without any strength enhancement magic but I was alive, his gun had been slagged, and I was holding him at gunpoint. The situation was firmly in my hands.

Although a part of me was feeling an old familiar smile on my lips. The rush of blood running through my veins, the sensation of adrenaline pumping my heart. And I was forced to wonder if I've let my old habits pick themselves back up. Did I just risk my life because I knew I had control of the situation thanks to my Mandalorian training or did I risk it because of an old familiar high creeping up on my skin wanting to go all out?

Well, if it was the second then I was not going to let it take control of me. Not this life, my thumb slipped to the switch next to the trigger flipping it into stun mode. I would try not to kill them, simply to prove myself better than what I was in my last life.

Before I could make any demands things went sideways. A dozen or more Mandalorians on jetpacks landed in the arena unloading their guns into Silver Militia who didn't immediately start dropping their weapons and fell to the ground.

Ordo, as well as a dozen other Mandalorians who were wearing silver rushed by my side, some going past me to free the Nomads. While I kept my gun on the Silver Leader in case he tried anything.

"Let me guess, you're the one claiming to be the real White Silver." He called as the battle devolved around us. Some silver wearing folks ran, others stood and fought, most fell to the ground trying to not get shot though there was a good mix of Hypernautic employees standing up and pulling out guns to take part in the festivities.

"What tipped you off? The fact that I'm competent?" I goaded while keeping my focus on the man.

"Wonderful, it means I don't have to track you down." With that he activated a pair of jets on his boots, hurtling himself towards me. I dodged out of the way while firing to stun bolt at him though the speed was enough that I missed. The man was able to stop himself directly behind me before trying to grab me, which I was able to jump out of the way of. It would appear he had decided the best course of action, now that he no longer had a gun, was to close distance and engage me in melee combat.

A very poor tactic as I had a pistol in my hand and was able to fire a stun bolt into his fist as he tried to hit me in the helmet, when he took a swing. Stepping back, I drew my second pistol, which was not on stun.

He attempted to dodge out of the way but Ordo came up behind him and smashed the galaar15 rifle over his head. Moments later my blaster bolt hit his knee, a well known weak spot in armor, which caused his leg to give out. Ingra went down to his knees, and looked up at me. I took the opportunity that he is a sitting duck and fired my pistol set on stun at point blank range. Even if there is beskar in that armor, if there was any, he was going down.

With a gasp he tumbled forward as I stepped out of the way of his body before shaking my head and getting a hold of the situation. The 16 yellow and gray Mandalorians had gotten most of the colosseum pacified. The Silver Militia that had stood with their had been wiped out. Those that hadn't were either hiding or running away. Besides, the group that had been part of the attempted execution had changed their minds either because I'd gone through their thick skulls with the speech or for not wanting to be seen as the bad guys, I'll take either one.

They quickly untied the Nomads and a few others I assumed had also pissed off the local government.

One of the yellow and gray Mandalorians holstered their pistol before walking towards me.

"So we were going to free those people?" she said looking past me "I was under the impression that everyone in silver would be the bad guys today."

"The situation is a lot more confusing than that." I said with a shug. "I thought I was going to have to fight his entire Colosseum with whatever people managed to rebel. Looks like we both pulled an idiot's array today."

The Mandalorian chuckled at that before nodding. "Yeah, luck is on our side. Now quick question, was that you on the screen claiming to be the real White Silver?"

The way she tilted her helmet seemed to imply a bit of a threat so I tilted mine in a similar way "Perhaps, perhaps I'm just an agent. Either way numbers are about even so fighting amongst each other over whatever displeasure you have with the Silver Codex seems foolish when we could simply ally and deal with the false Silver and then I would go back into hiding as I've been before. As I said I'm not interested in leading movements just creating a different way of looking at things."

The Mandalorian nodded before extending her hand, "Ursula Wren."

I nodded and took the hand for a shake, "Silver will do."

"Alright Silver, what are you going to do about your men over there? Situation in the streets is going to be very confusing because everyone's wearing silver armor and fighting each other." Wren said matter of factly.

I nodded before looking at the motley crew of Mandalorians wearing silver who decided to join me. Looking around, I saw a Mandalorian with a white cape and immediately got an idea. Ripping off a strip of the fabric I tied it around my arm before tossing the cape to the next Mandalorian. "Tie that strip around your arm, this fabric will determine who's with me or staying out of this fight versus who's sided with the false Silver."

The Mandalorian nodded before ripping some fabric and tossing it to the next. While they did that, I tapped the comms and said to Team 2. "Situation in the arena is secure, come on down. We need to figure out what our next move is."

Turning to Wren again I asked, "So do you have a plan for taking Bresug Gerr out or shall we wing it?"

Wren shrugged as several of her Mandalorians brought over several crates, opening them revealed stockpiles of weapons.

"The plan was to cause mayhem and arm the Nomads. Looks like the mayhem is already well underway so arming the nomads and seeing what comes from that seems reasonable enough. Do you have a plan?"

"The outline of one." I said.

"Well then White Silver, why don't you show me how good of a not leader you are?" Wren said in a jesting tone.