Chapter 20

714FNM (24 BBY)

Month 9

Gargon City, Central District

Tanya Kryze

Well, things turned out alright so far. After the situation at the stadium had been de-escalated and handled, I was able to negotiate a working agreement with the Wrens, the recently freed Nomads, and the Silver Militia members who decided I was a better Silver than Bresug.

There were not that many Silver Militia left, there were probably around two or three hundred around the stadium. A hundred of them stayed to join me, the other hundred seemed to have vanished into the night hopefully to stay out of trouble, and the last hundred or so had to be subdued through combat.

There were some deaths, it has to be expected in battle. To think that there would not be any deaths would be foolhardy, but so far my hands are still clean. The stun setting is a wonderful, wonderful thing and the fact it could theoretically bypass beskar, actually made it more effective than a regular blaster bolt. That being said, it wasn't like I didn't severely wound a few people during the battle. Thankfully, bacta does a tremendous job of putting a person back on their feet, especially since I had avoided aiming for their vitals so they probably might make a full recovery. If they didn't, well that's what they get for signing up with a warmongering fascist.

Anyways, after we'd managed to get the whole stadium under control, I introduced myself to the clan leader of Clan Morson, Mlyr Morson, who was very grateful for the timely save. We didn't have much time for anything more than general introductions before we pushed onwards from the stadium towards Mandal Hypernautics Tower. With Wren's forces providing overhead intel, we started making our way towards the center of the city where Mandal Hypernautics had their main headquarters. But not before taking the idiotic Ingra's jetpack for my own use, it's not like he'll be using it anytime soon. I had hoped that the journey would be quick and we'd be able to smash our way in and get this over within half an hour.

But of course I was mistaken in thinking that he wouldn't have any security in the city. We rounded a corner and came face to face with a group of black armored mercenaries attempting to use speeders as an impromptu barricade to prevent us from reaching their employer's headquarters.

As soon as a couple of Silver Militia turned the corner, three heavy blasters on tripods opened fire killing one of the Militia while the other was able to jump back into cover but not without taking enough fire that left his armor scorched..

Peeking around the corner I take a swift scan of the chokepoint. If I had complete control over the force behind me I would probably pull back and try to find another way around. There was no way that every position was well and truly guarded like this one.

Now, in any other circumstances we could simply overwhelm their position as I counted only 20 mercenaries and we had at least six to seven times that but there's one rule in all universes that's true of every battlefield. Heavy blasters can even the odds on all defensive operations.

However looking over my shoulder at the Nomads and Silver Militia I could see they were itching for a fight. Thus it was up to me to figure out how to take that position with minimal casualties. Thankfully that was an easy thing to do.

Signaling Wren to land, I waited for the female Mandalorian warrior to decend next to me and said, "The heavy blasters don't appear to be on mounts that allow them to aim up. If your warriors attack from the rooftops, I can clear a path for us to take the barricade from this position."

The woman peeked out around the corner to see for herself before pulling back and nodding her head in agreement. "I think we can hit them pretty hard as long as you don't mind losing the honor of being the first across the barricade."

I laughed at that before saying, "Honor is something the living get to brag about, better to make sure as many of us live to do so than to have a few of us toasting the dead who gained on you."

Wren nodded her helmeted head, before jetpacking her way up with her other 15 compatriots following her. Checking my Galaar blaster, I waited for a sign that the attack had begun.

Until then I checked up on the situation amongst my… retinue, I guess. Ordo was talking with many of the Silver Militia assuring them I was the real deal and generally keeping them on my side. Which was an important task considering we were about to charge over a No Man's Land of death and despair but that's future Tanya's problem. Skota had gathered everyone with medical or first aid training to form a medic squad, to pull downed fighters to safety and administer aid. Mok on the other hand, elected to stay close to me so he could be my bodyguard as well as prevent me from charging headfirst into danger situations, like putting myself in front of a blaster in the Colosseum.

As for the Nomads we picked up from the Colosseum, they were generally led by the Morson Chieftain, a Mandalorian who wore fairly old armor by the looks of it in bronze and orange. It was times like this I was glad I had memorized Color Theorem. Bronze meant nobility which could be a way to distinguish those from the main family from branch members. Orange stood for "I long for freedom in life" considering nomadic peoples tended to be a traveling lot, I would assume that's where the orange came in. Looking at the Nomads, I noticed there are a lot of orange colored armors. In fact, based on their coloration perhaps that color had been adopted as a clan color? I wouldn't know until I asked Chief Morson about it after we're victorious.

One of the female Mandalorians with brown armor noticed me looking over her and decided to approach me. She came to a stop leaning against the wall I was laying against though in a much more relaxed posture. "Howdy there White Silver, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for saving me." The girl said with a rather musical tone to her voice.

"No problem,though I wouldn't be thanking me just yet. We still haven't gotten out of the city and we still haven't removed the pretender. So we still have a long ways to go before I've made good on saving you."

Glancing at her through the edge of my visor I saw the older helmet of the Mandalorian girl shake side to side. "No, I don't mean in a general 'you're saving me and my people'. Back at the stadium the one that psycho was going to shootwas me, till you took the it for me."

"Really?" I asked, a bit surprised. I didn't notice who exactly I was saving at the time, which was understandable I think since I hadn'tstudied the identities of every member of Clan Morson, so they all very much just blended into each other at the moment. 'Well, I'd better say something.' I thought, "It's an honor to have saved a princess, don't get to do that very often."

The girl giggled, "No, no I don't think most people do. So why don't we make this one a bit special?" Before I could register what was happening the princess's hands were on the sides of my helmet and she was laying her head against mine. Well two Keldabe kisses in two days, that was unexpected and in both cases my cheeks were absolutely burning. It only lasted a moment but she quickly broke it, adding, "For luck." before skipping away to her fellow Nomads.

Today was a day that I was glad that Mandalorians wore full helmets because I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up my air of authority without the blank gaze of the T-visor. Looking over towards Ordo wondering what he thought of the situation, I saw that he was still busy speaking with several of the Silver Militia members and so was not looking my way at the time, which is good as I didn't want to have to explain more than I had to. Though by the amount of Silver visors looking my way as well as Mok's poorly disguised coughing, there were definitely those who'd seen what had just happened.

With no good options I just decided to ignore it and look back around the corner wondering what was taking Wren so long. As is hearing my thoughts, I see several grenades fall from the rooftops above the blockade exploding amongst the heavy blaster crews.

Already the jetpacked Mandalorians were decending with dual pistols shooting at anything that moved. There were a few people attempting to shoot back at them, so it wasn't like we could sit back here and wait for everything to be settled.

"Come on boys and girls, we've got a barricade to break." I barked activating my newly acquired jetpack and launching myself at the now distracted barricade, a few Mandos with jetpacks of their own following suit while the others quickly ran to cover the distance. They had to cover 25 yards to get to the barricade and the entire time there was always the chance one of the defenders would get back on the heavy blasters and lay into us.

Thankfully they were too preoccupied with the airborne warriors as we made the first 15 yards without even noticing us. At the last 10 yards, one of them did notice and tried to grab the heavy blaster but Ordo and I, stopping at the same time, raised our rifles and unloaded several bolts into him. Unfortunately we were out of stun range so that man, as he toppled over the heavy blaster, was undoubtedly dead. Just because I had some qualms about outright murdering people, now that I wasn't being paid to do so and because I'm sure Satine isn't a big fan of such, didn't mean I was going to risk my life unnecessarily, especially for the enemy.

With the heavy blasters cleared, we quickly flew over the barricade and joined the fight, although with the numbers on our side, it wasn't much of one and more of a clean up. We quickly subdued the mercenaries as several of them surrendered once they saw their barricade was overrun, and we took a moment to get ourselves collected. I saw several of the Nomads ransacking the bodies of the dead and wounded for equipment and supplies. I was not going to say no, since we needed everything we could get. Instead I moved to the edge of the barricade and looked out towards our destination, Mandal Hypernautics Tower. We were still a good six-seven blocks away and it looked like there were a couple more barricades between here and there. We were going to need to come up with a few new tricks if we wanted to pull this attack off.

Gargon City, Downtown

Struc Ordack

"How many defensive lines do they have?" I muttered as another round of heavy blaster fire came over a barricade at the formation of Nomads. The plan to breach the city had been successful. After our speeder got hit with a blaster cannon and multiple heavy blasters sprayed our position, forcing us to scatter and seek whatever cover we could. I eventually managed to gather a squad of Nomads, crawled into a trench, and systematically cleared it and the trench's command bunker. I ordered everyone to rest and regroup here to give time for our logistics train to catch up and resupply us before we continued our push into the city. Once everyone was rested, resupplied and regrouped we advanced into the city.

As far as I could tell, there were three units of nomads fighting towards the central area and Mandal Hypernautics headquarters. Two of which were slightly behind my particular unit, led by the other clan leaders. Our group pushed a little bit harder since I plan to link up with Tanya at the Colosseum before pushing for the headquarters.

Tanya on the other hand had other ideas, since she decided to just push on ahead without us. I was going to have a long talk with her about this, when this is over. The Royal Guard were meant to defend her from enemy action not chase after her as she charges after them. Oh who was I kidding, this was standard behavior for a teenage Mandalorian, they're all far too hot blooded, ready to commit war crimes if you looked away for 5 seconds. The fact that she wasn't committing any so far was a blessing, and probably due to her being raised as a New Mandalorian.

Anyways, as it was we were probably one or two blockades from Tanya's position. Assuming she hadn't pushed even further into the city from the Colosseum and equally assuming that the enemy were not reoccupying any blockades after her forces pushed on. I had to hope that the enemy was at least being pushed because otherwise her forces would probably be surrounded and destroyed. I'd probably need to either go into hiding to avoid the Duchess's anger or hope I didn't make it back alive.

When this was over I didn't care that she was the Duchess's niece, I was going to put her through as much training as a Royal Guard could get away with, to drill some sense into the girl's head but those are thoughts for the future, right now I need to figure out how to get past this blockade.

This one had 4 heavy blasters and it was keeping the main thorough way covered. Anybody that exposed themselves for more than a second, gets cooked immediately. So for now, several Nomads are keeping the gunners busy by blindfiring shots around corners. I thought about sending the Jedi, Kota, forward but the amount of fire coming down the street was likely a little bit too much for even a Jedi to handle. In my opinion, I doubt he'd be able to keep up with his lightsaber.

So we needed some sort of strategy to keep the enemy supressed. Well there was one thing, though it wasn't exactly the royal guard's way of doing things. It was more of a bounty hunter way. Better to use your skills than lose them, I finally decided before turning back to the majority of the party. "Zero you're with me and I'll need six volunteers, we're going to try and flank the position through the buildings."

One of the Nomads looked at the building before saying. "Not sure about that sir, that building is under the protection of the Kroggooss and they'll be a bit unhappy if a nomad even steps into the place. Trying to walk through there during the shootout is probably going to piss them off."

I looked at the building letting out a deep sigh, knowing I would have to negotiate before saying, "Alright, I'll talk to them before going through." I walked up to one of the entrances and knocked loudly.

After a few minutes someone came to the door. The armor, a general brown in color, they didn't have their helmet on, were tan skin bald and looked rather displeased. "What do you want? Silver Cultist."

Oh, a great way to start off I thought before saying. "Access to the building to flank Mandal Hypernautic's goons that are blocking the street."

The man leaned out and looked at the side of the building that faced the road that was currently pinned down and blaster fire. "Looks like most of the blasts are not penetrating the wall armor," he said before turning back to me. "So this is not a concern of the family, if you wish to flank them, might as well go down the street to the other side of our complex though there's a blockade there too."

"Thanks for that information," I said before continuing, "listen I understand a bit about how things work when it comes to profit margins in the underworld and all that. Tell your boss that we are trying to unseat the CEO of Mandal Hypernautics before he causes a major shitstorm centered on this planet, which would be very unhelpful for your criminal network."

The balding man nodded and closed the door in my face. I waited hoping that he wasn't going to just leave and pretend I never appeared at his door. But after a bit the door opened again and he returned now with a heavy set man sporting a slick looking haircut and a handlebar mustache.

"So you guys are creating all this chaos in the streets to unseat the Silver Shebs? Interesting." he said looking at the mix of nomads and myself. He shook his head before saying, "Absolute madness, although I'm not a big fan of MH, why should I risk my legitimate casino in your squabble? If I let you through ,there's now a target on my casino's front door. I'm sorry but the Skanah has the ships that can destroy my entire casino with a push of a button."

Well this was interesting. I don't usually meet with the leader of an organization, but when I do they'd usually give a yes or no answer especially when the meeting would be between people who are armed or well just two people. I narrowed my eyes before I looked past him to see the cameras inside the main lobby. Smiling, I realized what he's doing, he's asking for an excuse.

Quick drawing my pistol I fired a stun bolt directly into the balding guard's chest causing him to topple over. The overweight boss feigned surprise rather confidently before saying, "Oh no, I knew I should have brought more guards to prevent me from being taken prisoner."

"Yes, yes you should have." I said jokingly, while aiming my pistol slightly off the side of his head but making it appear like I was threatening him. "Lead us to the other side of the building so we can give the MH's goons a surprise."

"Well you're the man with the gun, what could a legitimate businessman, like me, could do?" the mob boss said, leading the way through the facility. Nodding in assurance to the others, I led the way after him. Quickly, we made our way through rows of slot machines and sabok tables. The mob boss let us through the facility several guards looking at us with anger as they had their hands on their own guns. I doubt they actually knew what the mob boss was doing right now, so it is very likely real anger.

Finally the mob boss unlocked the door to the back of his casino and opened it before saying, "Well have fun out there and don't come back."

Lowering my pistol, I nodded and stepped through the exit, quickly surveying the situation finding that we had indeed come out on the other side of the building in an alleyway. And since the blockade was placed on the main roads it was not visible from where you are. I looked around the lip of the alley to see the rear of the barricade.

"Zero, have any explosives?" I asked the big man as he was already walking past me while reaching into his bag of tricks. Stepping up to the corner, he pulled out what looks like a thermal detonator pressing a few buttons on the sides to arm it before throwing it around.

Now thermal detonators are a terrifying thing to be using, in fact I believe they are currently illegal in a few sectors because they tend to blow up a lot more than you would expect. The moment I saw that thing appear, I backed away and wondered if it would be possible to retreat into the casino.

Zero increased my level of fear by saying, "No worries, off-brand and expired. It's just a cheap grenade." As he finished, the streets behind him exploded into a firestorm, the fire rushing out in plumes of heat, carbonizing the street and walls quite thoroughly.

Looking over his shoulder he said, "Maybe not as expired, you can never tell with those things."

"Yeah," I said, looking at his bag of tricks wondering just how many he had in there, "just be careful with those things, don't want to turn ourselves into ashes."

Zero responded with a chuckle and with a humorous tone said, "No worries Strike, I have everything under control."

As he said that the building across from us opened up and a group of Mandalorians in green armor came charging out, their weapons raised pointing towards the alleyway that had just exploded. They looked generally confused at the fire and burnt streets until another man, his armor looking a bit too small on him, stepped out of the building.

Looking at the scorched street, he shook his head before walking over to us. "Are you part of the Nomads we've been working with to take down MH?"

I nodded my head as that was basically the truth.

He nodded his head in return before saying, "Good these men are under your command, I have more troops throughout the city causing mayhem. They should keep the road to Mandal Hypernautics open long enough for you to make it there and kill the Shabuir and get rid of him before we end up bombarded by Republic Judicials for non-compliance or whatever Osik they'll come up with, got it?"

I nodded my head and said "Got it."

The man nodded back, starting to turn before he turned back and said, "Oh and tell your White Silver that she's made a good speech. Half my clan weren't in on the whole 'bringing down Mandal Hypernautics' thing till they saw her little performance today. I bet a few other clans will also side with dethroning the Skanah now, Never going to have a better opportunity than now."

"Speech?" I asked, confused. I don't remember anything about a speech or X4 didn't mention that the plan had a speech. I'm going to have to ask her about that.

"Yeah, give a speech at the Colosseum, damn good one. Unbrainwashed a good portion of the Silver Sheb'urcyin." He said before turning aside "Anyways have fun murdering the Dar'Manda. Walking around in Mandalorian armor acting like this planet is his, makes me sick." The Mob boss continued his rant as he left, leaving me with confusion as to what the Haran Tanya have been up to during the time we've been out of contact with her.

Gargon City, Industrial District

Bo-Katan Kryze

Well, today had taken a rather violent turn from my expectations. I've been running with the Tutt clan, the clan I had a few contacts with thanks to Lerus Tutt. And we've been causing quite a bit of mayhem inside the industrial districts of the city. The best I could do under the situation since my ship had been impounded not too long after I got a message out about what was going on to Tanya and Satine.

If I could have I would have fled, getting involved in this whole crazed plot to take over the Mandalorian sector was not exactly on my agenda. I mean, I am part of Death Watch, sure, but that was at least a reasonable plot to take over the sector based around putting the New Mandalorians out of power. Because they were, well, they had been screwing with a lot of Mandalorians who wanted no part of their pacifism.

This guy though was Vrox levels of stupid, the kind of Mandalorian that had seen the fall of the sector into its current state. I suspected the whole reason he was letting everything go crazy was the old adage of letting all the little factions fight each other so your faction got stronger. Vrox's methods worked for a good long time until the Republic smashed him and the traditionalist up. Gerr's current attempt though will not work out as well, considering he is working out of just one planet and it's not even the most important planet of the sector.

But that wasn't really my concern, my concern was my current situation. I had planned to take today off, I heard about the executions, but most of the Mandalorians I was with had decided that trying to attack the Colosseum full of the Silver wackos was crazy. We could do it but the result would just be Gerr redoubling his efforts to find our holdup spots and attempt to murder us. I've been trying to get in contact with the Nomads but our main contact points are pretty spotty right now. One of our agents had been grabbed up in one of the Black Iron merc's raids, so we were still in the process of figuring out if they had sliced our communication networks and had our drop off points exposed.

That plan had been thrown out the window when the explosions started on the edge of the city. Which pretty much told us the Nomads were on the attack and to top it all off, the broadcast from the Colosseum showed a crazy turn of events. Out of all the possible scenarios to happen at that execution the White Silver, or at least someone claiming to be, the real White Silver popping out of nowhere and starting a riot was not one of them. Whatever happened after that? I don't know, as the feed has been cut. But by the explosions that started up across the city, in time to the ones that have been going on at the edges, I'd say people were pissed mad and willing to tear down the imposed system by Gerr.

Which presented plenty of opportunity. Gathering up the mafia clans I've been working with, we'd set out and started causing some more trouble ourselves. We attacked several barricades before they were completed, killing the MH troops and any mercenaries that had still maintained their loyalty to Gerr.

We are also pushing our way towards MH HQ ourselves. I don't know if we'd actually make it but with the amount of chaos going on, there wasn't going to be a better shot than today.

Things have been going good until we hit the latest barricade. We were just outside the Industrial Park area around the MH Tower, which meant they had access to all the resources they could bring to bear. Including a Starfighter that was hovering over the streets firing its blaster cannons at anyone who tried to approach.

I would try to take a shot at it with my backpack missile but the pilot knew their stuff and was turning most of the street to slag if anyone even tried to step out to get a shot at it. And because the Industrial Park area was built in such a way that there was a large street between it and the main area of the city, I couldn't simply get to the top of a building and attempt to shoot it from up there. There would be no cover and he'd probably see me the first chance I got.

Currently we were waiting for more forces to try and meet up with us hoping that some of the other Mandalorian crime families would take the moment to open up their stores and find any missile launchers or other weapons that could be used. In this situation we needed to overwhelm the fighter with as much fire from as many positions as possible. And currently one backpack mounted missile was not going to do it.

As I hunkered down behind the remnants of a speeder car to get a look over at the industrial park I heard the sound of jetpacks landing to my rights. Turning I saw something I did not expect to see, a group of Mandalorians in gray and yellow armor in an armor set I recognized. Slipping back out behind the barricade, to put a building between me and the Starfighter, I stood up and said, "Ursa Wren, you're not who I expected to see."

The female Mandalorian turns her head when her name is called. She had been in the process of intimidating one of the mafia lieutenants who was helping me organize the Mandalorians on my side of this conflict. "Bo-Katan, last thing I heard about you, you've been brought back into the fold of the false Mand'alor. Would have thought you'd gone full pacifist by now. What are you doing here?"

"Oh a little this and a little that, trying to unseat the False Silver, you know how it is. So am I to take this as a Wren clan operation or Vizsla house operation?" I was careful not to say Death Watch. Too many unknown ears around but I wouldn't be surprised if many of these Mandalorians would side with Death Watch if given the opportunity.

"House Vizsla operation of course." Wren said with a nod, "Can't let rogue regions like this interfere with our own operations after all. Not to mention there's a lot of resources to take by bringing him down and a lot of allies to be made, even strange ones."

"Strange ones?" I asked seriously. Well the forces that rounded the corner behind her answered my question that rather quickly.

A hundred silver Mandalorians and several dozen nomads came into view led by a female Mandalorian in white and silver armor wearing a shoulder cape holding a Galaar blaster rifle. There was a blaster scorch mark on the armor and a small set of wings engraved on one plate. Only evidence I needed to recognize her as the one who took the shot from Gerr's agent in the Colosseum.

Before I could ask any questions to Wren, the white armored Mandalorian woman came up to us and said, "What's the situation here, Ursa?"

"Trying to find that out now." Ursa said, sounding a bit smug.

"We got a Starfighter around the corner." I said, "We can easily take it out with our jetpack missiles but we'll need at least three or four people to do it."

The female Mandalorian nodded before turning the Ursa. "Think you can take it out?"

"Please, remember who you are talking to. We got more than enough missiles to pull that off."

The silver and white Mandalorian nodded before saying, "We're in sight of our goal, let's keep pushing and putan end to this madness."

With that, the Silver Mandalorian moved past me to take up a position with the other Mandalorians waiting for an opportunity to move in the industrial district. The rest of her forces follow in line behind her. Shaking my head I used my jetpack to get up to the roof with Ursa joining me as well as the other 15 warriors she brought along.

"So strange allies," I said, "last thing I heard Pre wanted White Silver gone, since she had created a bit of disquiet amongst the clans. What's the deal? Why are you working with her?"

Ursa shrugged as she started walking towards the side of the building that would give us the ability to shoot at the Starfighter. "My orders were to see if I could bring down Gerr, he never said anything about dealing with the real White Silver. And as to why I'm not making any moves against her, it's quite simple. Little bit of chaos in Mandalore always ensures that we have the strongest leaders, that girl showed herself to be quite capable in not only being a leader but providing the chaos. If Pre wants to destroy the real White Silver then he can do it himself. She'll be a good challenge compared to the false Mand'alor currently sitting on the throne. And if Pre loses well, if the other clans pledge loyalty to her then I guess she's now the inheritor and Leader of Death Watch."

As I followed after her, we got lower to the ground to stay under what cover there was on the top of the building while also being close enough to give fire support. Looking over to WrenI asked, "Sure that's the right move? White Silver seems anti Death Watch in her writings."

Wren nodded her head, "Yes, I've read her work. She took quite a few shots at Tor Vizsla's Old Ba'jurne Kyr'tsad Mando'ad, but the fact of the matter is, she's not New Mando levels of pacifism. I've seen her fight for the last hour and a half. Besides a preference for using stun modes, she has no problem harming people to get what she wants. At the bare minimum even if she doesn't become the Death Watch Mand'alor it'll give Death Watch a purpose the New Mandalorians have robbed from us. An enemy we can actually fight to show our superiority over their ways."

I shook my head at that, always surprised by how traditionalist some of the Traditionalists were but I said, "Well guess that depends if this White Silver is actually the real one or just another fake using the name for a power grab."

"Yeah, I guess it does. But we'll know soon enough how she handles False Silver, which will determine her philosophy." Wren commented.

Nodding my agreement, we came to a stop next to the wall and prepared for all the other Mandalorians to signal they were in position. As soon as they did, we all stood up at once and fired a barrage of missiles at the Starfighter. The pilot apparently had not been watching the roofs too. Good and it received about a dozen of the 16 missiles fired its way, engines flared and it began to spin, crashing into the streets, and taking out a portion of the industrial district's front wall.

The mercs on the ground were apparently stunned by this and we're not paying attention to the situation around them. As White Silver leads her forces in a charge right onto them.

Looking down I got a good view of the fights. I was able to watch the White Silver easily take out their fair share of Mandalorians and mercenaries. Something about the fighting style was actually kind of familiar. I couldn't place it off the top of my head, quick and sudden strikes, always having a gun in the off hand to fire off a few shots before getting into melee. Feels like I should know that fighting style from somewhere.

Shaking my head, I jumped over the side of the building and used my jetpack to cushion my fall. The fighting was still going on and it's time to push into the industrial area and take out MH's CEO.

Gargon City, Central District

Zum Murdoc

"Tank!" a nomad screamed as the massive squarish steel beast hovered down the street. Mandal Hypernautics symbols all over the damn thing as its turret turned to fire off a cannon blast from one of its twin guns into a building that several gangsters had taken cover in.

The side of the building collapsed downwards causing the structure to tilt fairly noticeably towards the tank. Said tank started to drive away from the damage it had caused towards the formation of nomads and gangsters that made up our assault force.

We've been making good progress, blasting through barricades. And I believe we were just behind Tanya's group, as noted by a destroyed Starfighter by the entrance of the Industrial Park. However before we could get into the Industrial Park, this beast had rolled out down the street laying into us with missiles and mass driver fire.

Damn thing was easily gliding across the ground having no issue as it slaughtered nomads and gangsters alike.

Thankfully, I have come prepared. I tossed a few of the old expired thermal designators in its direction as it came around the corner with it set to proximity mode. After which I simply grabbed the two closest people, the Jedi and the Royal Guard and pulled them down behind some cover just as the street was engulfed in a fireball as the tank drove over it.

'Hopefully that would kill it.' I thought as I peeked over to see what had happened. Unfortunately that did not happen as the tank kept moving towards our lines, the crew firing off shots at anyone they could see. Although, as it moved I noticed that it seemed to have terrible situational awareness, as it didn't even see us right next to it. Either the crew was untrained and how to avoid soldiers flanking it or we're just too focused on fighting what was in front of them.

With a look at the Jedi I said, "Hey can you do one of those Force hold things to keep that thing steady for a moment?"

The Jedi looked over at the tank and shrugged, "I could give it a shot. If it was on treads I'd probably not have much luck but since it's floating it's possible, but it'll only be able to hold it for like 15 seconds."

I nodded my head and said, "Alright, probably enough time." before climbing over the debris and running towards the tank. The armored tank was about to drive onward towards the running nomads when it suddenly stopped, held there as if some unknown Force was compelling it to not move. Quickly, I got up onto the back of the thing looking for any hatches or vision slits, something I could use to stop this thing.

Today was my lucky day, as apparently the turret was meant to hold a missile firing section. I could tell this because there was a large section of the roof not finished, the armor obviously being bolted on at the last moment in a rush to get this tank out onto the field.

As I found that out, the tank started moving again while shooting its guns making my job a bit harder but not impossible. Pulling out my plasma cutter, I get to work cutting a fist sized hole through the paneling of the roof, exposing a missile tube that looked like it went all the way down into the main turret head.

Reaching in my backpack I pulled out three of the off-brand thermal detonators and tossed them down the hole after setting them to go off by remote detonation. With that accomplished, I jumped off the back of the tank and ran behind some debris left over from the down Starfighter.

Not bothering to look, I pulled out my detonator and pressed the trigger.

There was a loud bang followed by a roaring sound of a large fire followed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground.

Getting up to look, I saw the tank was no longer moving, its repulsors had died in the explosion. It's currently broken down, with its turret having popped off with fire pouring out from every possible hole that it could find as its ammo burned.

A hatch sprang open and someone attempted to pull themselves out of the hull of the tank but he was already on fire and his attempt was aborted when a Nomad put him out of his misery with a shot to his head. General celebration broke out at the defeat of the tank as the Nomads and Mafia types looked over the exploded vehicle while I admired my handiwork. Now I kind of wish there had been a way to capture it, it would have made a good sale on the open markets. If there were any more of those tanks around here I'd have to see about getting control of them.

Getting up from behind the Starfighter I saw the other two members of my group, the Jedi and the Royal Guard as well as the Royal Guard leading the Nomads walking over towards me.

"Good work there." the Jedi said, nodding his head at the burning wreck.

"Thanks, it's always fun to blow stuff up." I said looking at the burning debris.

Strike nodded his head. "Now nothing stands in the way of us catching up with White Silver."

"And nothing stands in the way between us and Bresug Gerr." The Royal Guard responded matter of factly. "I hope your White Silver doesn't get herself killed storming the place. But considering the destroying Starfighter, I'm wondering just how skilled of a fighter she is. Where is she from anyways?"

I chuckled at that obvious fishing statement so I decided to give them a wrong answer, "They're from Concordia."

"Concordia? That's the last place I would expect this person to be from." The royal guard said it's a bit suspicious.

"Exactly why no one's looking there. Last place you look is always where you'll find it."

The Royal Guard made a noise that said he didn't believe me but that didn't matter I'd throw it up a little bit of flack for Tanya distracted investigations on where she had come from in this guise of the White Silver that was the best I could do and hopefully it would be enough.

Shaking my head I said, "Well we better get in there, find out just how much of this place has been burned down or going to be burned down for the day is over." I started to walk into the facility, noticing quite a lot of bodies and wounded of MH mercs.

'Little Tanya and her allies had cleaned the road pretty good.' I thought as I walked along hearing the others following. Of course that didn't mean that the road was clear. As we made our way forward I saw several groups of Black Iron troops come out into the devastated pathway between the front entrance and the building Mandal Hypernautics operate out of. They took one look at the disaster around them and either lowered their weapons and started to try to check people who were wounded or they fled. One guy did turn his gun on us but the amount of guns that turned on him in return did get him to just drop the gun and run, so I think we'd broken the spirit of MH's soldiers or Tanya had.

Either way as I came to a stop I could see that the front doors of MH's main facility had been blasted open with bodies lining the hallway past that.

The royal guard came up to stand by us and shook his head. "This White Silver of yours really goes hard, for the enemy leadership doesn't she?"

I think all three of us members of group two shook our heads in agreement by saying, "She sure does."

Gargon City, Mandal Hypernautics Tower

Bresug Gerr

Madness absolute insanity, the city was practically burning with ravaging nomads and gangsters rising up against my forces in every corner. All because some damn Jedi pawn had decided to pretend to be a Mandalorian.

Well I was making it as clear as possible exactly what she was. We're sending out footage of the Jedi amongst the nomadic Mandalorians currently besieging the city as well as a short message explaining how this is obviously a method to divide the followers of the Silver Codex that this was a fake White Silver.

Was it having an effect? I didn't know. I was hoping it was though and I doubted that all Mandalorians would sign up with a Jedi operation. The Jedi were using their pawns and the New Mandalorians to control us in the sector and now they were using pawns and the White Silver to try and unseat real Mandalorians like myself, preventing us from bringing the sector back under our control. The Republic's crimes knew no end, first they destroyed our sector and now they come for our very culture.

And I made those comments very clear in the recording. However that is a non-issue, the major issue was that White Silver was at the head of a column of troops making their way through my headquarters, destroying anyone who tried to block their way, and over-running positions that I thought were rather defensible when I designed this building.

I've been through the Siege of Mandalore. I knew how soldiers conduct room clearing so I designed this building with a few tricks to make it harder for attackers to clear it. Apparently I did not plan for Mandalorians attacking my headquarters as they were just mulching through the mercenaries I hired and the defenses I designed.

No matter, I've sent out a recall order so that all of my forces currently outside should now converge here to help maintain control of my office and then retake control of the entire facility. I've worked 16 years to build up this corporation from the disaster I've been left in at the end of The Siege of Mandalore. There was no way I was going to let some white armored Dala take it from me. Not without a fight and not without making sure that she'd be seen as the villain.

In fact that was a good line of thought, standing up I said, "Prepare the communication satellite. We will send out one last message calling out the Jedi and the New Mandalorians for supporting this attack against us. That'll make sure that no Mandalorian will ever believe they are the real White Silver."

Qing, my propaganda Minister, nodded in agreement and started yelling at the men to get the cameras rolling. Calmly I walked over to the fireplace and took my seat, putting the helmet down at my feet. Before putting on my best smile waiting for the lights to turn red.

As the light turned red, the doors to my office exploded into wooden shrapnel hitting the back of the chair I was sitting in. Probably saving my life from a nasty wood splinter lodging itself in the back of my neck, the one place where Mandalorian armor was a bit lacking sometimes.

Quickly, I stood up and grabbed the sword from my above fireplace. I left my pistol across the room so I couldn't exactly shoot whoever was about to come through but I would meet them with blades if that's all I had.

And walked a female Mandalorian with a cape over one shoulder and a blaster rifle in her hands. She looked about the room and said with a rather calm voice, "Everyone drop your weapons and no one needs to be harmed." I glanced to my side and saw that my propaganda staff and regular staff were all in the midst of either drawing for weapons or going for cover but I noticed with some concern that most were going for cover, I'll have to purge those who did that. Before I could make any moves though I noted that the red light was on the camera. This was still being broadcasted, well I'd make this a spectacular broadcast.

Turning my eyes back to the girl I said, "That's not happening Fake Silver, the True Mandalorians of this planet will not concede to your New Mandalorian puppets or your Jedi overlords. I will show the Galaxy that the Republic is not against using terrorists to accomplish their goals."

The silver and white helmets slowly turned to look at me tilting to the side before shaking itself. "Terrorists, that's a interesting term to be throwing around False Silver. Earlier today you were going to execute Nomadic Mandalorians, why would you do that when you're supposedly trying to unify the Mandalorians? That's a rather terrorist-ic act."

"They were not real Mandalorians they were-" the Dala cut me off.

"Not real Mandalorians? Well that's strange, according to the Codex I created, they're following all the rules Mandalorians should follow to be considered a Mandalorian. Which means you're saying rules that were not in the Codex, these rules happen to be the Old Traditionalist rules. That no Mandalorian is a True Mandalorian unless they're born in Mandalore."

"Well of course, real Mandalorians are made strong by the planet of Mandalore." I said, still pointing my sword at her waiting for her to make a move. The smoke was still billowing into the room from the explosion of the doorway, so I had no idea what was behind her. I had a feeling there had to be more troops ready to spring out.

"Funny, that last time I checked, your super traditionalist ways were defeated by the New Mandalorians who besides deciding to give up weapons after the fighting were more than willing to fight you then."

"They were Hut'uun and Kalevalians, they wouldn't have managed that without the Republic's aid or the Jedi's interference just like how you would not have managed to make it all the way here without the Jedi."

"Jedi? What Jedi? In case you missed it, I came from the Colosseum and fought my way here. There was no one else with me but other Mandalorians. Mandalorians you don't deem Mandalorian but still I beat the ones that you were arming in Mandalorian armor. How many of your black armored goons actually have Mandalorian clan status or are they just mercenaries you hired from throughout the Galaxy and told to wear the armor to make you look official?"

"I would do no such thing, they are true and proper Mandalorians."

"They have no sense of tactics, no sense of how their armor can take a hit, and for the most part ran when the situation got too hard. They're not Mandalorians, they're goons hired from throughout the Galaxy. Just like you're a goon who's gotten two big for his britches. What did you think after the Siege of Mandalore? When the planet finally fell and you fled? What? Did you think that it was now your turn to take the reins as Mandalore?"

"Of course that's what you thought. You thought the moment you got away with all the crimes you committed to maintain the support structure of the traditionalist in the Mandalore system, it would all be washed away and no one was ever going to come looking for you?"

"What do you mean Silver Faker?" I said disliking the tone of contempt she seemed to have about her and in her voice. She acted like I was below her in some way.

"I mean what I said I'm putting you under arrest for crimes committed during the Siege of Mandalore, which do not have any end date according to current law. And you're under arrest for attempted rebellion against the Mandalorian state. Any attempt to resist arrest will be met with hostility until attempted resistance ends. Anyone who attempts to stop the arrest will meet the same fate."

"Are you trying to scare my men? Who do you think I am? These are my trusted associates that would never betray me for some crazed lunatic pretending to be me."

"Really? Same." Out of the smoke came out a range of shots going past our little stare off I was having with the fake Silver and into my staff. Some fell over dead others fell over unconscious, all of them were disabled in one way or another as weapons were targeted in the attack. The side of the room that once contained twenty Mandalorians, five are still standing but they were nursing hand wounds. Out of the smoke came several more silver Mandalorians wearing their helmets on. It wasn't hard to figure out what just happened, the girl had used her helmet to mark down the location of every member of my staff and then transmitted the data to their helmets allowing for a perfectly executed alpha strike.

I hate to admit it, but I knew I had lost. There will not be any victories today, the results are either simply dying going to jail. And I did not want to go to jail.

With my course of action decided, I charged and attempted to slice the girl's head off with a swipe from my sword while saying, "You little Mir'sheb!" as I did.

Once she was in range of my beskad, I unleashed a flurry of slashes at her. I noticed that she rotated her blaster by the trigger guard so that her blaster is upside down. I ignored that and focused on removing her head from her body. She evaded a majority of my attacks and those she can't dodge she parried with her blaster like an improvised shield. After a horizontal slash was ducked under, she immediately closed in and held my elbow in place with her right hand, before punching me in the face with her blaster's butt.

The blow crunched my nose before I felt a pair of legs lock on my neck and pulled me forwards to the ground. After my back slammed into the floor, I was turned on my belly before she put me in an elbow lock. I tried to get up but she just stomped on my head and kept applying more pressure on my sword arm until I was forced to let the sword go. Once I let go of the sword she released me, allowing me to roll away from her. I can only watch and nurse my aching arm as she picks up the sword to inspect it.

"Excellently balanced, I think I'll keep this until I find the original owners. Care to tell me where you plundered such a weapon? I doubt you got this through legitimate means, considering who you are."

"Shut up, Fake Silver. Mandalore knows who its true heroes are, not the ones placed there by the Jedi." As I was in the process of standing up, I was not expecting the kick to the face I got, but there it was. The blow landed on my chin and I ended up spitting out blood and maybe a tooth as the girl drew a pistol and aimed it at my head.

Taking my seat, she arranged it so she could sit in it and look down on me before saying, "As I was saying, you are going away for crimes against Mandalore. You are not a hero, you never were a hero, and you were never White Silver. You misquoted every aspect of the Codex in order to get what you wanted out of it. This was a traditionalist plot, the last gasp of a dead ideology that would see our sector brought to war for no other reason other than the fact that conflict is cool."

"The Silver Codex is not about conflict being cool, it's about preserving our warrior ways while looking towards the future, not falling back into our warrior ways and killing each other until we wipe ourselves out completely like what you are doing. Why are you so confident in trying to keep this disgusting lie up? What point is there in lying to a room full of people who are going to make sure you go to jail?"

I spit on her boot, "Because it is not a lie it's the truth. I'm the White Silver and we will not be put down by New Mandalorian dogs anymore."

She looked down at me, her helmet radiating disgust before looking up around the room. Her visor looked at the camera before she said, "You're broadcasting this entire thing to the public? Well that's the first smart thing I've seen you do since I arrived on this planet. I'll let them make up their own minds, of course it would be smarter if you actually were making any reasonable points and weren't giving me a perfectly good place to make the stance that I'm the real White Silver."

"Oh yeah? and how are you going to do that?" I said smugly knowing there was no way to do that, the public would make up their own minds and most likely the public would follow my narrative, not hers.

"Quite simple, by breaking your belief with the hammer of logic and a stun bolt to shut you up." She raised her gun and everything went black.

Footage

The silver armored woman sighed, her voice sounding slightly distorted as if being changed by a voice alternator. Before she looked up at the camera." Let's begin a lesson, shall we?"

"Lesson one, I am the White Silver. This," she smashed her heel into the sternum of the armored CEO, "is False Silver, a man who thought he could take control of my Codex through sheer wealth and zealotry while assuming that I would stay out of it, because I decided to stay out of all the debates that raged for the last few years. Which I've greatly enjoyed perusing through by the way."

"You see, that was the goal of my Codex. I have no interest in leading a movement. I have an interest in creating a debate. One to see if we can make a stable middle ground between the Old and the New and as far as I could tell we're well on our way to meeting that middle ground as people are finding things about the Codex that they like and implementing them. And that is perfectly fine with me."

"What I am not fine with is pointless war. Let me be clear, my friends, those who have seen my conduct here will know that I am no novice to war. To conflict and strife. Indeed this is to be expected of any respected Mandalorian! Mastery of battle is in our blood and I do take pride in the ability I have cultivated, as should every respectable Mandalorian. But I know my heart thunders in sympathy for every scattered child of Mandalore, a burning hate that consumes every fiber of my being!"

"I hate war!" There was a pause, a stunned silence. "I hate the battlecry of men and women too young to know life before they fall nameless and alone. I hate the cold calculus of orbital bombardment. I hate the savage desperation of a charge and the bloody duty of a defensive line."

"I hate homes blasted to ruin. I hate industry turned to nothing but bombs and blasters. I hate the brilliance of programming twisted to produce insidious droids that do nothing but snuff out life. I hate battles across fields of grain and I hate forests turned to ash. I hate cities turned to rubble and the abundant beauty of nature turned to mud and craters. I hate wars that rage across worlds, across systems, across the galaxy!"

"Pointless war takes everything good and turns it into a wasteland, it fills our graves and deprives our children! It steals from us! Robs us of our best and brightest and leaves us friendless and alone! Isolated from the galaxy and residing on a desert world of our own making!"

"The New Mandalorians turn away from all conflict, turn away from strength and our ancient customs in the hope of never seeing a war again. I understand them, truly I do! But I do not agree with them. No, I do not. I do not fear strength, the blaster, our armor, our heritage! I do not fear our ability to fight for what is right! No Mandalorian should! The right to unify Mandalore shall fall to the men and women who shall carry swords but know when to keep them sheathed! We are not animals! Rabid and wild and less than sapient! We are MANDALORIAN! Each and every one of us! We can reason and debate and turn away from battle until we have no other choice! It is only then, when we have demonstrated our patience and rationality that we shall draw the sword and strike down our enemy with a ferocity that will shock and awe the galaxy! That is THE WAY!" White Silver seemed to take a moment to compose herself before she spoke again.

"Duchess Satine has shown herself to be adaptable and has allowed the Silver Codex and its followers to implement some of the ideas into the New Mandalorian culture. She is a true leader amongst our people, a duly elected leader, and more on our side than animals like this." She kicked Bresug Gerr away from the chair. "Who would use Mandalorian lives for his own gains and then declare anyone who speaks out against him to not be a True Mandalorian and deserving of death."

She held her thoughts on that for a moment before continuing. "Now that I've made that clear, let me make a few other things clear. Out of respect for my leader, I have arrested the False Silver and will deliver him to her agents. If you dislike the fact that I'm handing him over to Duchess Satine then you should really be wondering why you even care. Do you care because you believe he's the real deal? The real Silver or because he made a second Codex that corrupts the first? Then I guess you weren't really a follower of the first Codex were you? You are likely just some Death Watch reject looking for someone to tell you what to do, which is to rise up and rebel against your rightful leader as proclaimed by the majority of clans within the sector."

"Make it clear that's who you are in the future because here's what's going to happen from this day onwards. If anyone attempts to claim the title of White Silver. If anyone tries to use it for rebellion like this fool tried to do, one of two things will happen. You will raise my ire and I will hunt you down personally, before turning you over to the Royal Guard like what I will do with him. Or, this is the more likely scenario, if you don't have the immense wealth this fool did, you will be hunted down by whatever factions already exist waiting for their own opportunity to shut you up. And let me tell you, you better hope I find you first because I will merely send you to jail. Any faction that truly wants to take over this sector and has had their plans in the works for who knows how long, won't let you live to see another day."

Standing up from the chair she said, "Now I'm going to go deal with getting this man sent to the Royal Guard. After that I'm going to disappear, maybe go on vacation. I think I deserve it after toppling this warmongering idiot's tyrannical regime. I'll let the people debate and discuss the Silver Codex while I work on a more updated version of the Silver Codex with new lessons learned over the years as well as feedback from various constructive criticisms I gathered from various discussion boards and forums. However, don't even think about making your own 2nd edition like what this fool tried to do, because not even an army would save you from me."

She nodded to someone off screen and the feed cut off.

Anteevy, The Ge'tal Nau'ur Droten

General Secretary Liliya Vhekayno Shepest

"Well that was unexpected, but not unwelcome." I said as the footage ended and the projector was deactivated. Turning away from the screen, I looked at the six other members of the Workers Council. Men and women of high regard and leaders who had helped me overthrow the government of clan heads 10 years ago, when I was just a teenager. They were my closest allies, though I always kept an eye on them just in case. I knew every single one of their deepest darkest secrets and if they ever tried to betray me, well those secrets coming out would be the least of their problems.

The gathered assembly looked rather concerned, as they sat around the redwood table in the finely decorated room, set aside for such private meetings. They're worried, which was to be expected. We had decided to meet today at the Ge'tal Nau'ur Droten to talk about the support I had given to White Silver in recent months. An overarching strategy to hopefully destabilize the sector and allow true workers to take control of it. Though to tell the truth I had hoped they would be more successful than this. My overarching plan had been quite simple and would have spelled the downfall of the monarchists and the corporatists.

Finally, Konk Cova, Head of the National Police Force, spoke up. "Ma'am, the whole plan just went up and smoke as far as I can see. Could you explain how this is not unwelcome news?"

I gave her an amused look before saying. "While yes the plan was to have White Silver stir the nest and show that the original so-called ideology was bunk and trash as well as show that the New Mandalorians are weak and unable to defend the people or the people's right to work. Unfortunately, it would seem the White Silver we supported was a fake which is a lot more interesting when you think about it. Because now, a movement that didn't have a leader does, in a way it is proclaimed that it is in favor of New Mandalorians or at least align themselves with them in such a way that they seem indivisible. Sure our plans to destabilize the sector have failed, but now we know that there is a capitalist watchdog there and we would not have known that without this experiment. A brute reactionary who will fight when the New Mandalorians won't."

"Of course, now we can plan around her." the leader of the national Police said, smacking her fist into her palm.

"Exactly, imagine what would have happened when the eventual Separatist War started up and we didn't know about her before going into it? I imagine many of our droids would have been destroyed in the fighting as she would have rallied her silver minions to her cause the moment we attempted to liberate the sector."

Nodding the officer in charge of diplomacy with the Separatists spoke up, "This was a terrible gamble though. If Dooku found out we were involved in it, we could face reprisals for jumping a scheme ahead of time."

"Dooku may be annoyed, yes but he's a man in a bad position. He needs all the allies he can get to pull off this Sepratist plot so he will most likely just shrug it off. Besides that, it's not like we've wasted any resources on this operation if anything we've only gained. The Legionnaire droids we constructed are still in our hands to do with as we please, we've gained a steady supply of beskar which will increase the number of our beskar clad soldiers, and have made inroads with local pirates to mine the rest of those old forgotten wrecks for as much beskar as we can get. Overall, a very worthwhile gamble."

"The only thing we've lost in this whole operation was maybe a bit of surprise but the gains in my opinion far outweighs any loss. Though perhaps we should hire an assassin to make sure that False Silver keeps his mouth shut. We can't have him talking about exactly who he was working with who was supporting him if we can help it. If everyone agrees I will see about arranging a bounty on his head for death."

There was a round of the nods in agreements before they smiled at how well things have been going.

When I was born on this planet it had been like a Siberian wasteland with the population living underground in caves to shelter themselves from the frostbiting winds. Well that had not improved much but people lived a bit more comfortably now thanks to the droids we have been building. Wonderful technology that was, it removed the need for the worker in some cases allowing production to be fully automated. Turning to look out the window I saw the blasted ice sheets of the planet reminding me of home.

The Ge'tal Nau'ur Droten was a tower in the largest cave of the underground system that the people of Anteevy lived in. The top floor is actually punctured through the cave's roof into the surface allowing us to have a splendid view of the night sky that was constant on this planet and the glowing ice. Outside a droid was currently cleaning ice from the window. A constant fight on this planet was ice, it got everywhere in ways that the winters of my homeland had never done. Smiling at the droid, I can only think if only we had some of those in the Russy Federation, the production rates would have been astounding and the vile imperialists would never have made it as far into the glorious motherland. But that was another life, one far removed from this one.