Chapter 22

714 FNM (24 BBY)

Month 10

Hyperspace, En-route to Ordo

X4

Brewing a cup of tea, I maintained my stance as the ship jumped into Hyperspace. We had just left the planet of Gargon, my Mistress's new holdings in a manner of speaking. Yes, Mistress handed over daily operations of Mandal Hypernautics to a local and her aunt. However, the fact that I was to be Mistress's liaison with those two, as well as handling much of the financials of the company until the situation was completely under control, indicated that for all due purposes Mandal Hypernautics is now her company and everything it touched is her holding, including Gargon.

I was always amazed by my Mistress's capabilities. She had come to this planet to deal with someone stealing her name and here she was walking away with the planet as her property. Of course the local gangs and nomads would say that they owned it but do they really?

The gangs were looking for someone to make their planet more legitimate. In order to bring it into compliance with the rest of the sector so as to bring in more wealth. Which would work perfectly for my Mistress's plan for a luxury world for the rich and famous to stop off on.

The Nomadic Clans were, in essence, indebted to her for her act to save a fellow Nomadic Clan, ensuring that they would come to her call if she ever needed it.

The planet may have its own rulership but it was definitely leaning in favor towards my Mistress now. And it will be her power base that she could call upon if something troubling were to happen and their resources required to mitigate or fix the problem. It was amazing that she was able to think so far ahead to create a series of events that resulted in her having such strong control over the people around her.

Really, she was setting herself up to be a glorious leader of her people while claiming not to be interested in such roles. No doubt this was a ruse or at the very least to maintain deniability. When it is time for her to take control of Mandalore as the new Mand'alor, I do not know how she will do it but I know I would be there serving graciously under her as is my role in existence.

Once the tea finished brewing I walked across the dining area of the little ship and put the cup of tea on the table in front of Tanya who nodded her appreciation. "Thank you, X4." She said with a smile, taking the glass and sipping at it.

I was about to turn away when Tanya asked a question, "Any reports from Vai I should know about?"

I spun my neck a little as a best approximation of a shake of a head. "No Mistress Tanya. Lady Vizla has completed the majority of their stops and is on schedule to travel to Ordo in 74 hours and 39 minutes from Jakelia."

"Perfect," she said with a smile as she leaned back in her chair, "and I can finally get back to being a senator and not a glorified freedom fighter." She sipped her tea before looking to the side of her head at a little bit of auburn hair hanging there.

"Need to dye my hair back to blonde." she muttered in annoyance, before sipping her drink again.

"I have already picked up a few shades of dye from Gargon City while we were there, Mistress, in preparations for reapplying your disguise." I said stepping away to get to work on something else.

"Thank you X4." Tanya said before putting her cup down and reaching down to her side grabbing the sword that hung there she put it on the table, "Now what am I going to do about you?" she muttered and she looked at the blade.

The blade was taken from the CEO of Mandal Hypernautics when Mistress beat him to the ground on live holo. She already had it transferred here as well as a slug throwing revolver that Clan Morson commissioned as a thank you gift for saving their lives. I've already inspected both and determined that it should be her property though she had yet to take a look at it. The revolver is a rather elegant model that has been known among the locals for being reliable, well balanced, accurate, and fairly deadly to those without armor. It is lined with chrome to give it a silvery finish as well as being engraved with her signature wing design.

Carefully, Mistress unsheathed the blade and looked at the writing along the flat of it. It was interesting watching her read it as she blinked several times in confusion. I already translated it from Mandoa to Basic when I inspected it, 'So I wear it, proclaimed itself to be the blade of the Warlord of Clan Kryze, rightful Ruler of Kalevala'. Though I was curious what my Mistress's reaction to it would be, being that it was most likely my Mistress's ancestor's sword.

"Huh, I have to figure out a way to get this to aunt Satine. It's her blade as far as I'm concerned." She said before she sheathed it again before reaching for her tea once more.

I would have said something but Mr. Muduuc had stepped into the room and walked up next to me reaching into a cupboard to grab a cup.

"Hey X4," he said in a rather gruff tone whispering in a very conspiratorial way, "did you happen to take care of that thing I asked you to take care of?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, the record you wished to remove has been removed." Referring to his request that I delete any indication that he had ever worked for Mandal Hypernautics. I was unaware of what he had been doing for Mandal Hypernautics but I was suspicious that there was quite a lot going on that even I was unaware of.

An agent of my Mistress just happens to be working for the company that my Mistress is now in control of before then. Well that was an interesting coincidence or is it perhaps this was part of one of many Tanya's schemes? Has all of this been a plan from the start to take over the company? There is no proof of course, my Mistress was too good for that for my Mistress was a wise and mischievous Mandalorian. I can only wish to be as good as her one day, so that I may serve her better.

Mr. Muduuc nodded his head before walking over and sitting down next to Mistress. "Hey kid, how are you doing?" He commented rather plainly before spotted the blade and reached down to pick up the sword. "Huh, this reminds me of your grandfather's sword. Old bastard loved that thing. It was shaped sometime during the Mandalorian Wars only slightly altered over the last thousand years or so." He said pulling the scabbard off, revealing the information written on the flight of the blade.

Mr. Muduuc's normally passive face changed as his eyes bugged out looking at the blade. He quickly turned it over on the sides, examining it before stating, "This is your grandfather's blade, isn't it."

Mistress made a noise of compliance before saying, "Technically I believe it would be Satine's blade now, as it says it goes to the ruler of Kalevala."

Mr. Muduuc immediately shook his head, "No no, this blade belongs to a warrior not to someone who has been running away from her warrior ways for all her life. If anyone should have it, it should be you." he seemed to stop before looking at her and saying, "Well I think it's already found the rightful owner as far as I'm concerned." Before reseheathing it and putting it back down on the table.

"I'm not a warrior, I am simply a politician." Mistress said, waving the idea away which resulted in him laughing in her face.

"That's what your grandfather said actually, word for word. You understand that war is just diplomacy by other means, if anything this proves you are the rightful owner of this sword, kid." He said as he reached over and messed up her hair a bit. "Maybe you come from the other direction but you understand the necessity of actually being able to fight, which makes you the perfect one to own this. Leave it up on a mantle if you want but have it close by so that he will bring you luck."

"He?" Mistress asked, sounding confused.

"Ah right, old traditions have the Mandalorian's spirit be imbued within their armor and weapons when they die. So in essence your grandfather's blade is your grandfather, here to watch after you and your fights."

"Ah, that makes sense," Mistress said before continuing, "though I really believe that the blade should go to Satine, so that she could at least be given the chance to have it first. I need to find some way to arrange it to fall into her hands."

Mr. Muduuc shrugged and said, "That's what you want to do kid, but trust me with how often she melts down beskar armor and weapons, it would be better just to hang it up on the wall and get more use out of it than if you handed it over."

"Noted." Tanya said matter of factly before sipping her drink.

Shaking my head, I wondered how she was able to do this already as she was making moves to take over Kalevala. She even managed to get someone to basically beg her to do it. I must double my efforts to be even better at creating the funding she needed in order to make sure she was successful in her efforts to rebuild Mandalore in the image she saw it in.

Shouldn't be that hard now that there is a worthy planet to base most of my Mistress's company out off as Gargon had quite a large smuggler population that transited its way through, plenty of pilots to choose from, and the legalities of the planet were such that no one would look about a few holding corporations claiming to be from there. Not to mention I could acquire quite a lot of muscle from the local mercenaries. Yes, Gargon would be a perfect planet to build a functional financial empire out of, to support my Mistress's goals of course.

Before I could get any deeper into those thoughts, more of the crew of the ship started finding their way in, grabbing drinks and food, talking, and chatting turning the atmosphere into a pleasant one. One of them had turned on the TV to watch some of the recorded episodes of the Silver Rider that had been loaded into the mainframe.

It's quite a pleasant environment to return to after the combat they had been through I imagined. And now their loyalty was all but assured since they had fought by my Mistress's side to unseat the False Silver. Perhaps I should involve them in a few of my operations to make money? I would have to be careful though, make sure the Royal Guards are not going to think I was doing anything illegal or getting involved in anything that was too morally ambiguous. But it would be beneficial for all parties involved if I were to utilize some of their skills. The slicer, Mr. Mok would be quite useful in setting up some more of the harder companies to fund.

Yes, I should look into that. Perhaps I should also look into getting a few more droids for the growing space fleet I would now be acquiring through ownership of Mandal Hypernautics. So many different opportunities, so many options to know where to even start. However I knew one thing, to trust in my Mistress and the plans she creates and everything would work out. Now what should I make my Mistress for today? I picked up something called a sugar cookie dough that would be fine I think, right? She did seem to enjoy sweets, yes that would be perfect.

Kalevala, Kryze Clan Fortress

Satine Kryze

'How many years has it been since I've been home?' I wondered as I looked up from the shuttle platform at the old family estate. It has been close to a decade, if not more. The last time I was here was to say goodbye as I left for Mandalore.

Shaking my head I moved across the somewhat clean platform, sand had somehow found its way up here, which is to be expected in a desert world, It finds its way everywhere. I made my way to the front door quickly typed in the old security code. Without fuss or issue, the doors opened before me, allowing me to step inside as two of my Royal Guards accompanied me. They weren't really needed, this place was so well defended and out in the middle of nowhere I doubted anyone would set up an ambush here but it is their job to be by my side and I might need their help to haul the armor back.

I still had not heard from the Zum yet, but it was only a matter of time. He'll pop up sooner or later, I am sure. If not, well I guess I could use the Royal Guard's armorer for the task and all that. But either way, it was time for me to find my old armor. The beskar in it was a family heirloom and I should probably have it ready for the creation of this new set. If I decide to go through with it, I'm still a bit unsure on the matter. At the time I originally came up with the idea I was certain, now I was having second thoughts.

Old pacifist habits die hard I suppose. I've probably been drawn too far into the nature of pacifism over the last few decades, assuming that complete pacifism as the New Mandalorians dictated was the right way when there probably was, as Tanya had proposed, a middle ground somewhere that both sides could come to an agreement or compromise. I'll have to see if I could find this middle ground now and that would take time. Old strill, new tricks as the saying goes.

Clearing my mind, I reached up and removed the atmospheric mask before putting it on a rack. The other two guards reached up and pulled off their masks as well. It's a design that fits neatly under their helmets compared to mine which was more of an older model with notable filters.

Once that was done, I moved over to the panel and pressed a button to initiate the decontamination procedures, removing any chemical or radioactive material that might have flowed into the building with us.

This is a constant fight on Kalevala, while it wasn't as badly bombarded as Mandalore since Kalevala's ecosystem is still somewhat functioning but a large swath is covered in poison. Kalevala had been bombarded with a lot of stuff over the decades, heavy metals being one of the more notable poisons in the atmosphere. That's why most of Kalevala lived in atmospherically controlled cubes that allowed them to make sure nothing dangerous got into the buildings. Really, Mandalore had gotten off comparatively lightly since Mandalore doesn't have to deal with a poisoned atmosphere. Although the biosphere was still functioning on Mandalore, well everything was dead and nothing really moved so any poisons were able to be cleaned up rather easily and buried deep underground. In most cases I'm sure there are regions that were worse than others but they tended to be far away from population centers and safely forgotten.

As soon as the decontamination room stopped cycling, I stepped out and started walking down the hallway admiring the sculptures of my ancestors and the paintings on the walls. One thing that I shared with most of my family was an enjoyment of Mandalorian art. One of the first things I had done when I had taken up residency at the Royal Palace of Mandalore was commissioning cubic art for the walls, in order to remind me of home. Here the paintings are, for the most part, depicting various members of the Clan Kryze throughout the last hundred years. Most of the older stuff were on other levels since the platform had only been constructed 100 years back. So I recognized some of these faces, from grandfather to father to brother and his wife. I stopped and looked at a particular wall, noting how much Korkie took after his father. Give it a few more years and I probably would not be able to tell the difference, besides the slight hair color change between the two. Shaking my head with a chuckle I continued on my way paying some respects to a bust of my father, commissioned after his death.

He's always been a strong warrior and a good man who has done his best to maintain the peace after grandfather died. I suspected if things had gone differently, he would have ended up ruler of Mandalore and probably brought in the type of society Tanya wanted. Maybe a little bit more aggressive than what she stated, since he was a True Mandalorian after all. He reveled in combat but he understood that there was a need for peace more than any other leader in the sector I'd seen.

It was a terrible thing how he died. The only thing I have been able to dig up over the years was that Martial Traditionalists, that had been connected to the clans currently running Mandalore after The Siege, had invaded Kalevala for material aid after all their ability to produce food on Mandalore during that time was all but destroyed. I have been trying to negotiate some sort of agreement when they had decided to backstab him and launched the raid. After that things became murky as my father's sword and armor were stolen. I know my brother died that day with his armor taken as well as my sister, Bo Katan, went into hiding. As for my sister-in-law, she supposedly survived but died sometime later with her armor stolen after her death.

Over the years I had actually managed to get a hold of my father and my brother's armors. Some low life had been trying to sell them on the open market but I thankfully put a stop to that. It was actually the last time I've been here as I placed their armors into their rooms as a final testament to them returning home. Bit of the Old Mandalorian still in me, I guess.

As for my sister-in-law's armor, that was still a bit of a mystery. Being of Clan Keldau her family line was somewhat important to the Traditionalist, so I suspected it had ended up in their hands. A lot of Mandalorians had come from Clan Keldau and I wouldn't be surprised if it was in some reliquary somewhere, as a testament to the final Keldau. But just as likely it could have been melted down at some point. Maybe even becoming part of the Sundari's walls which were reinforced with bits of beskar.

Moving on, I walked further into the fortress only stopping when I reached a familiar doorway, the entrance to one of the few rooms in the building. Smiling, I looked at the old door with fond memories. Remembering long gone days of my childhood and early teenage years before things went terrible.

Once I had my fill of nostalgia, I reached down and grabbed the door handle, expecting it to be locked. After all, it had been years since I've been here and I'm pretty sure I had locked it. But it wasn't, as a simple touch the door slid open. Now these doors were normally hermetically sealed shut, there was a locking mechanism that kept them locked and then there was the mechanism that kept the environment from being exposed to any contaminants if something ever happened to blast a wall open. So by all rights the door should not have opened like that, but it did. It slid open to the side before coming to a stop without a hiss to indicate that it was sealed tight, leaving me there stunned.

Has someone broken in? But the facility had been locked down perfectly fine and no alarms ever sprung up. Someone had to have snuck in and if there was someone inside why would they have broken into my room? Confused, I walked into my room smiling at the fact that besides the strangeness of my door being broken in it was still as I remembered it. My bed sheets are still neatly made, in fact the room was somewhat lit by a window through the curtains and a few posters from Coruscant musical groups I have been into at the time of my youth were on the walls. And on my old desk there were a few etchings that reminded me of how bored I could get one if I didn't have a lot of things to do, something you just didn't have once you got older.

If anything the room looks perfectly inta-, No, wait there was something off. The bed may have been made but it was slightly wrinkled as if someone or something had laid on top of it. Right in front of my closet in fact, like someone sat on it. Facing my closet I immediately walked over to the door and hit a button to open it, revealing an empty armor stand. Someone had stolen my armor. Who the hell would steal my armor!? Why would anyone steal my armor? What point is there to steal my armor? Why? This was possibly the most disconcerting event I had ever had and I had no idea who was behind this transgression.

If someone had broken in to steal my armor had they stolen everyone else's armor as well? I stepped out of my room and started walking down the hall quickly, reaching my parents room pressing a few buttons, the door sprung open and I stepped inside. It was still as it should be, the bed was made and besides a little bit of dust from what appeared to be a crack in the wall it was fine, I'll need to have someone send over here and fix that up later. Walking over to my parents' closet, I pressed a few buttons and opened both doors revealing my mother's armor and my father's armor exactly where they should be so they had not been stolen.

Turning to the guards I said, "Check the building for any signs that someone had broken in."

They both saluted and said, "Yes, my Duchess." before walking out. Turning back to the sets of armor, I was trying to figure out what had gone down here. Someone had broken into my estate just to steal my armor specifically. Who would do that and why? I know I'm going to get back into that circle. So after shaking my head I stepped outside and walked down the hall to my brother's room. Perhaps there are more stolen that might explain something or it might not, pressing a few buttons I walked across it to the closet and pressed a few more to open it and there his armor was, exactly where I left it all those years ago.

Shaking my head I walked back into my parents' room. Closing the door to get myself a moment to think, who would break into my room to steal my armor? Wait a moment I thought as I tilted my head towards a camera at the corner of the room. Standing up I walked across the room to a terminal and pressed a few buttons before bringing up security footage of the building. There was nothing in the room but it would tell me who had entered it in the last decade or so.

And according to this there had only been two groups in this building in the last decade, one was Tanya, Korkie, and Bo Katan, obviously exploring the building for its architectural and artistic merits.

The other was Bo Katan and Tanya and as I watched them leave on their way out Tanya was carrying a sack full of something that looks suspiciously like armor.

I had to take several deep breaths when I saw Tanya steal something from me, it was a little too much. Seeing that it was my sister's influence that had done it, I will ring her neck the next time I see her. Although I had to wonder why she had to steal my armor, did she know? No, that was impossible, just a random chance could have easily stolen my mother's or her father's armor for what was obviously a reforging project. Re-forging project… Zum was going to have to answer me on that. I have a feeling they've been moving around and behind my back and I felt a bit betrayed. Not too greatly since obviously the armor had been for protection, but it is the principle of the matter. I was going to have to come down a little bit hard on them so they didn't do things like this behind my back ever again. Kriff I'm already going to have to come down hard on them for the whole Gargon business so I would just add that to my list of things to quietly yell at them about.

Shaking my head I walked over to my parents' armor giving them a bit of a test before sighing. I was now without armor and here are two perfectly good sets right here in front of me. It may not be my original armor set but this one was as good as any. Carefully I removed pieces from both sets and stored them on the bed sheet. As much as I would like to keep them as a little bit of a shrine for my parents, they would do better to help me protect Mandalore in a new role if they were reforged. That's what I needed in this coming age.

Ordo, Clan Ordo Museum

Tanya Kryze

Finally, safe and sound. Away from the craziness I had to get myself involved in for the betterment of the sector, we arrived on Ordo's home planet of Ordo. I always find it hilarious how there could be a clan named after a planet with a planet named after a clan, like how Mandalore is the name of the sector, a planet, and a political position. I'll have to take a moment to look into which came first when I get a chance. Either way, we'd arrived at a rather secluded area in the far north of the planet, one of the many desert stretches where we arrived at Clan Ordo's main museum complex.

Engiz has always wanted to bring me here to look around so I figured it would be a great place for our little trip. Not to mention it wasn't a very popular tourist destination, which means there weren't a lot of people watching this area as far as I was aware. So when Vai and the other guards showed up here, they could simply just walk into our room and as far as anyone would know they had been with the group the entire time.

Well, that was the hope at least. With any luck, nothing had gone completely wrong and my alibi was firmly secured. If it wasn't, well I'll just deal with it if something comes up.

Anyways, the complex we've landed in was apparently not a very busy place, mostly academics interested in looking at records. That's why we came here though, this place had been set up to be a tourist spot, but it never became a popular one. We were staying in a hotel that was part of the museum. It overlooked most of the desert around us which was a light pink in color. I am not sure how the sand came out that way, probably due to trace minerals like those pink salts that a colleague in your first life. He talked about how his wife bought a bag of it after reading their health benefits off the internet. He swore that soaking in a bath with the pink salt every night helped ease his chronic his back pain. I wasn't a geologist so it was not like I would know something like this. If I was curious enough, I might look it up when I get a chance.

Besides that, the place was a very finely furnished hotel, it could probably give some of the places of my first life a run for its money, with the amenities offered. A small holovid theater, on one end of the roof is a pool inside a glass room to prevent contaminants from getting in, several traditional Ordo restaurants although most of them were closed for the off season. I guess we had arrived at a fairly quiet time for the facility. And most importantly, the complex also has private landing pads on several of the floors that were meant for security details of the rich and famous.

I would have to thank X4 when I got the chance and reimburse him because he had outdone himself by having the funding to rent this hotel suite for the time we needed it. It also makes rejoining Vai even easier since all they need to do is land on the pad walk in the building and we'd be good. I doubted anyone was looking for me but it was better to be safe than sorry.

But worrying about that kind of stuff was for later when Vai finally arrived, right now I was enjoying my time looking at the museum. Ordo was leading the way, showing off several relics, artifacts, and recreations talking about their history. There were quite a lot of items here, mostly weapons and a few pieces of ancient mandalorian armor with names related to various clans and other time periods.

There were walls of blasters of various designs, obviously some of them were older than the Galactic Republic. As well as a few slug throwers the further back in history we get.

It is to be expected really, considering what Ordo was in the long run. Ordo could be considered an arsenal world as it produced a lot of weapons and sold them to anyone with the money. They kind of proved my point about how we can profit off our abilities without having to take part in major conflicts.

Oh sure, members of Clan Ordo had been involved in the recent Civil War but the clan itself has never taken an official side. Those are just elements of their population who decided to join up with either side or settle old grudges. As far as the government was concerned they were not part of the conflict and they sold weapons to either side as a true neutral. A lot of their examples could probably be applied to the rest of the sector and would save the Mandalorian sector a lot of pain. They also proved my point about museums, this museum was also a fortress designed to protect the relics and data about how to make them.

Under each weapon was a design sheet explaining exactly how they were built, what equipment and material was used, and how to set up a factory to construct them. Important information for if you ever needed to rebuild a weapons factory or create a replica. And as we progressed through the facility I found more and more examples of this type of thinking. They preserve a relic or replicate it and then have a data pad attached to the display that explains exactly how it was constructed, with what materials, and how to do it. Additional information on the history of the design, its impact on history, and interesting trivia are available in various labeled tabs at the top of the pad.

Considering large parts of the facility were underground, I could assume that there were servers deep below with this information in triplicate. Ordo was ready to rebuild its arm industry with whatever was left if something were to happen. However, most of these weapons are outdated museum pieces that would not cut it in a modern battlefield. Like a muzzle loading rifle facing off against a modern M4 assault rifle. Of course war is not as simple as Gun A vs Gun B, its Army A with their tanks, aircraft, and logistics vs Army B with their tanks, aircraft, and logistics. A Mandalorian Battlegroup from the Mandalorian Wars would still mop the floor of the Trade Federation blockade over Naboo, even if the Mandalorians had a more primitive arsenal. In either case, Ordo also has several more modern equipment like a few WESTAR pistols or Galaar blasters but they don't have the manufacturing information listed, most likely it is under copyright protection. Weapons that do have their manufacturing information listed were probably old enough to fall under Fair Use or too obsolete to compete with modern designs.

Stepping into the next room, I saw that the museum wasn't just restricted to armor and weapons. There's an ancient aerofighter jet just sitting there as well as walls of little models of various ship designs with screens below to access each one. I could only smile at the repository of knowledge hidden under the sands of this world. It might seem to be mainly focused on the weapons but that was just because of Mandalorian nature.

There were other rooms we had gone through, libraries of reference pads and information detailing the history of Mandalore from Clan Ordo's point of view. There was even a system for you to check out those datapads while you're staying at the hotel, which I had picked out a couple already.

The one peaking my interest the most was a datapad by the title of 'The Last True Mandalore' a biography of Canderous Ordo. Considering that particular Mand'alor had been from 4,000 years ago. I wondered why they called him the last Mand'alor, then again he was probably one of the last Ordo to be a Mand'alor so it was likely just a simple opinion on the matter. Either way I'd pick that up as well as a few other datapads that I would read when I got the chance while staying here. Didn't even need to return them officially as long as you left them in the hotel room when you left, it would be returned for you so I felt no worries about making a mistake and not returning them.

I started walking towards the next room when Ordo took me over to a side passage. Pointing down the way he said, "There's a restaurant over here that's really great and it's almost lunch time, you want to get something?"

'I wouldn't say no to that.' I thought before saying, "Sure." Falling behind him as he led the way. After all it has been a long day and I was technically his guest in this world when you really thought about it.

His family ran the place after all and… hmm now that I thought about it Engiz is a Prince for lack of better words and it's strange that he had basically ended up in my retinue. I wonder if there was some sort of political game being played here? My aunt was rather shrewd and ensuring an alliance with Clan Ordo would definitely make sure her reign would continue. No, there was no guarantee for anything like that. Yes, I knew that there was a chance I might be married off at some point for playing the political game, but putting a potential marriage candidate next to them at all times in order to build a relationship was a little bit much. No guarantee it would work out, but if you're going to do that you would include more than one just so you would have double the chances it would work out. As far as I was aware Ordo was the only one with any political family relations.

Leading the way to the hallway, we arrived at a small stall where a man was cooking what looked like some sort of ramen noodle type of food. Like a lot of spices and greenery was going in the pot though I wasn't exactly sure what was being cooked.

Ordo pulled out a seat for me and I took it before he took one himself saying, "This place is a little out of the way but I've had food here before and it's pretty good especially their Munit Gi Soup."

"I'll take that under recommendation." I said as the chef of the installation walked over and said "What will you have?" Having no particular idea what was here I simply went with what order suggested saying, "Munit Gi Soup for me."

"The same." Ordo said not even bothering to open up his menu. The older gentleman who was the chef nodded before walking away starting to cook something. Whatever it was, it smelled incredible and was making me a bit hungry.

"So how are you enjoying the museum so far?" Ordo asked, seeming a bit wound up.

Smiling, I said, "I enjoyed it quite a bit, lots of neat little artifacts and weapons are cool. Can't wait to get to the second half of it to see what other stuff is in there. Though I wonder how this facility came to be? What led people to create it?"

"I think it was five generations after Canderous Ordo, he did a lot to rebuild the planet and the clan after our return from Duxon. But after the conflicts that followed his time, his armor was lost which became kind of a shame to the whole clan. Not wanting that to ever happen again they decided to turn the old Ordo's home into this facility and it's just been built up over the millennia ever since."

"So this used to be a Mand'alor's Palace then." I noted which Ordo nodded his agreement.

"One of the larger ones, I believe. Though that might just be a rumor, it could have been very small. Again, things have been lost to history, things we've regretted being lost so we've done our best to store things better ever since."

"As it should be." I noted as the chef walked over putting two bowls in front of us. It looked and smelled like ramen with dumplings yet it smelled like fish sauce. Carefully I grabbed the utensils and picked up the food before putting it in my mouth. "Mmm, it is very good." I said digging and enjoying the strange yet pleasant taste of pumpkin spice fish dumplings as well as the peaceful atmosphere of this whole trip. A complete 180 of the last few days of chaos. Hopefully everything would remain this way for the rest of the trip.

Ordo, Ordo Hotel

Vai Viktis Vizla

Stepping down the ramp I had nothing but a smile on my face after being on a long trip from Jakelia to Ordo. I was glad to finally be heading towards my escape out of this green dress, to be able to wear my colors again and stop pretending to be Tanya.

As much as I had fun spending time with Tabi during the trip, I've been constantly worried of being caught out or exposed. But that worry was soon to be over as far as I was concerned. Carrying my bags, I moved quickly across the landing platform heading for the door that would enter the room where Tanya was staying. Once inside, it was mission completed and I can go back to being relaxed as a handmaiden instead of a body double.

Well, technically I was always a body double but active body double would be the correct term I guess. Either way, I only stopped for a moment to struggle with the door before I stepped inside, happy to see that the accommodations were quite nice.

It would appear that the suite has a kitchen, a living room, and central area overlooking the landing pad with two floors. I assume the floor on top was for me and Tanya's rooms since those would be harder to get to while the rooms on the bottom floor will probably be for everyone else.

As soon as I stepped inside, I heard someone call my name from above and looking up I saw Tanya standing there, her hand on the banister with a smile on her face. I smiled back before saying, "I have returned from the mission princess, and I brought gifts from Harswee and Jakelia." whilst holding up the bags in my hands, full of clothing that I'd purchased for me and her.

"Good work Vai." she said, starting to walk down the stairs. "I don't think we'll get a chance to use those gifts before we get back to Coruscant. We're only here for another 3 days and then we're going to Mandalore. It's not like there's a lot of partying here or events to wear the fancy clothes that Harswee produces.

"I doubt that." Tabi said coming in carrying suitcases full of my stuff. Kastel came in after him carrying all of their stuff. And as the door closed the Regum sealed up its forward doors and locked itself the droid inside, having been programmed to do that to prevent theft.

"Oh? Well that's unfortunate, though still I think we might get some use out of these clothes before then." I said holding out one bag for her as she finally stepped onto the ground floor.

Before Tanya looked inside, Kastel spoke up, "Hey, where's the other ship that you guys came in here with?"

Tanya matter of factly reached out and grabbed the bag before saying, "The Ratio has set sail on a mission to make a few appearances around the sector, trying to create false trails on which way I went after the chaos at Gargon."

Kastel nodded as Tabi spoke up, "By the way, that was awesome, well you just took that bolt in the chest like it was nothing and melted that guy's gun to slag in his hands, that's the stuff of Legends. And the beat down you gave the fake Silver, yeah there's going to be a few people who wanted to have your boot on top of them."

I turned my head to look at Tabi with a look of disdain on my face. He saw my quick movement and said, "What? The holonet is a sick place and there are a lot of weirdos in the Galaxy. Anything you do will be taken out of context, that is just the way the galaxy works."

"Still that's not exactly polite conversation." I pointed out. Tanya, who had cracked her eyebrow a bit, shakes her head in mock disgust. "Denisons of the internet are the same everywhere you go." she muttered, making me tilt my head as I wondered what is the internet?

But I shook it off and immediately just said, "Come on open the bag. I want to see your reaction to what we got you."

"Fine, fine." she said, shaking her head with a look of amusement before she finally opened the bag and looked inside. At first she looked in there and seemed to not realize what it was having a sort of a confused look on her face but then, the look on her face was priceless as her entire body went rigid. Her eyes wide with a bit of shock, her hair sending a little bit more straighter, not to mention a little bit of flush that went to her as realization dawned on her. It was absolutely perfect and exactly what I was hoping to get.

Tanya closed the bag and coughed before saying, "Yes, very nice Vai. I am uh, thank you for this gift, um I'll make sure to use it when I get a chance."

"Oh? But there's a chance right now." I said matter of factly, pointing out that the ceiling. "I saw a pool on top of the roof so we can spend the day in the water and relax while I tell you that running around the planet trying to pretend to be you is hard work. I could use a soak in the water and sun. I imagine you're in no better shape after fighting your way through a city."

The redness in her cheeks was cute, the look of consternation from the fact that she really had no way out of it is even better. Oh, sure she could say 'No, no, I'm not interested' but I'm going to the pool considering there was nothing else on this planet I wanted to do. Seriously, this whole complex was something Tanya was interested in. I'd rather have gone to one of the more equatorial regions. I heard Ordo had a kick-ass party scene but we were here at the ass end of nowhere surrounded by deserts and a bit of ice that managed to survive the day.

Tanya audibly gulped before finally saying, "Yes I guess that's right. I'll go put this on." before turning to walk up the stairs looking rather defeated with her lowered shoulders, like she is on her way to a firing squad. Actually I think she would prefer the firing squad. I held it in until she finally closed the door to her room on the second floor then I let out a chuckle and high-fived Tabi who was laughing as well.

"Perfect revenge." he said matter of factly, with a smile.

"But wait, there's more." I said as the subject that would make it a perfect revenge came into the room.

Engiz Ordo stepped out from his room on the first floor looking around, "Oh hey guys, you're back." he said with a smile.

"Hey Engiz, you have a Royal Guard swimsuit right? They give those out as part of your uniforms for training I believe?"

"Yeah, we got something like that. Why?"

"Oh nothing much, me and Tanya are going to go up to the pool to enjoy the water and I thought it would be best to have you, Tabi, and Kastel up there to make sure we're safe."

Immediately he nodded his head in understanding and gave us a salute "Will do." Before heading back into his room to get his stuff.

"You two are absolutely evil, you know that right?" Kastel said, putting the luggage down on the couch and shaking his head as he did so.

"Correction, we two are fun." Tabi said, putting his arm around me before giving me a kiss on the cheek. "And this is probably the second funnest thing we've done with Tanya."

"Probably would be third if we had been allowed to go with her to Gargon." I muttered with annoyance before picking up my bag with my swimsuit in it. "See you two on the roof." I said before ascending the stairs and heading to my room, closing the door behind me.

Ordo, Ordo Hotel Pool

Vai Viktis Vizla

Smiling, I sat on a chair that can lean back quite a bit while enjoying the sun. I've managed to get out before Tanya, mainly because I wanted to see the reaction of the boys' faces when she gets here. This whole thing was hilarious and I was going to enjoy every moment of it, just had to wait till she got out here.

Currently Kastel and Ordo are tossing a ball back in the pool enjoying the water they are in regular swimsuits which they cut some nice figures with all the training that they got. Though I had to say the amount of tattoos Kastel had on his skin was a surprising wonder. What most of them meant, I think a few are ancient symbols. There is definitely an iron heart in the center of his chest, perhaps a mythosaur skull on his shoulder, and on the other shoulder isn't one of the more known ones so perhaps it's a local clan one? 'I need to find out more about him. He's too closed off.' I thought as they continued to toss the ball around.

Tabi was currently swimming laps back and forth, in a rather tight fitting swim suit which was enjoyable to watch. I'm wondering if I should get the other guards up here, but they are probably busy with their own stuff.

Plus, I figure they probably would not have given the right amount of embarrassment out of Tanya. I've seen the way she'd look at the Silver Rider on the holo-screen. She was attracted to young muscular men like any Mandalorian girl, and well the three veteran members fell out of that category rather quickly even if they weren't that much older.

Whatever I thought I was going to have we're interrupted as the door to the swimming area opened and Tanya walked in. Looks like I'd gotten the measurements right and she seemed to have no trouble entering the area with a slightly defiant look on her face as she looked around the area seeing that it was not just me and her up here.

Ever since I've known her she's only ever really worn one piece swimsuits and I don't know why. We may have only been swimming three or four times as a pastime so maybe she didn't really have time to get a real swimsuit. All the other times she'd swim, she'd done it in full clothing or her armor as part of our survival training so we were both quite adept at swimming in full kit.

That is of course not what I had gotten for her, instead I bought her a two-piece swimsuit. A little bit tight that shows so much skin but did the job of covering up everything important. It even came with a sheer fabric wrapped to go around the waist if the person was a little bit more self-conscious. It is a very good swimsuit, so I got her one in green and mine in blue so we matched.

She looked absolutely stunning in it, thanks to her long years of training she had a very fit, slightly muscular form. Nothing too hard and there are a few areas of softness but it worked for her. I heard more than saw a bonk, causing my head to turn to see that Ordo had apparently been so stunned he didn't see the ball coming from Kastel as it bounced off his head into the ceiling up above before landing in the water.

Shaking her head, Tanya walked along the edge of the pool to the set of chairs I had set up on and pulled off her wrap before putting it on one of the chairs saying, "I thought you said you were going to go for a swim?"

"Thought I'd wait for you." I said, matter of factly, starting to get up.

She made a huff that said she didn't believe me but simply shook her head for walking over to the pool. Cleaning her hands on her hips as she looked at the board across from her to read the pool instructions and saying "Sure sure, I believe you Vai." Without waiting for my response, she dove in head first to the deep end before starting to do a few laps in the pool.

I laughed as I realized she was attempting to cope with the little bit of embarrassment about this whole thing by turning it into an exercise, something that would not be wasted on her. Shaking my head, I cannon balled in after her before joining her in her laps. Might as well make it a bit of a competition between us and I'm sure the boys wouldn't mind.

Ordo, Ordo Museum Library Section

Tanya Kryze

After an hour of exercising in the pool, I am now exploring through one of the older sections of the library that made up the Ordo Museum. I marvel at some of the relics that apparently were kept on display but hidden from the outside world.

I was in one of the deeper sections, supposedly dating back to the original establishment of the complex and apparently they felt that this was so far deep in that no one would ever go looking here. On the wall were several lightsabers, ancient affairs mostly marked as war loot taken from conflicts that's generally from the Mandalorian Wars.

One of them had a plaque hanging underneath it that proclaimed that this was Revan's lightsaber. Hard to say if that was the same Revan from the ancient stories dating back to nearly 4,000 years ago or if that was just a lightsaber that matched descriptions of the blade. The plaque was not very helpful considering that it looked like it was almost as old as the walls itself and doesn't have a digital interface like many of the other items stored throughout the facility.

So there was no way to check the evidence on that, you just had to either believe it was the sword of the long dead warrior or not, personally I was leaning towards not. Strange little mystery but nothing I was too interested in solving, this area of the museum was seemingly devoted to the Mandalorian Wars with lots of little neat trinkets from the time behind a glass wall. There are various weapons used by Mandalorians to fight the Jedi from what looked like a World War 1 backpack flamethrower to a beskad not too different from the one I had received by beating the hell out of the False Silver. There were several strange boxes and pyramids with intricate designs haphazardly tossed together with a bunch of other jewelry and assorted wealth taken from who knows where across the Galaxy.

The only reason I made any mental note about the boxes was it kind of reminded me about the puzzle boxes from Hellraiser which gave me good reason not to stand too close to them. Sure I'd not seen anything like those movies in my three lives but I really did not want to find out that cenobites existed if they did.

Shaking my head I walked into the next room and realized I was standing in what appeared to be a crypt. There was a glass case containing a suit of armor laying on its back across from me. It's an ancient Mandalorian armor, silver in coloration rather plain and looking. Stepping closer, I saw that the helmet was connected to the armor by 2 pipes that seemed to run into the back plate which probably meant this armor had been designed for fighting in space. Looking down at the armor I thought it was consistently plain and rather unassuming with no real sign of why it was given any special treatment for its own room. There is one interesting thing in its hands, it looks like it was carrying what could be best described as an ancient shotgun. Looking around I quickly found the plaque, this one being digital so it's likely been installed recently.

It read 'Armor of the Unknown Warrior', apparently it was discovered deep within the castle that has been used to be the basis for the Ordo Museum complex. No one knows who it belongs to or where it came from, only that it had been well preserved. They rarely find examples of ancient Mandalorian armor, which was the only reason that it had not been scrapped. I had to give the Ordos credit, they know how to preserve written history.

What I've been able to dig up immediately after Mandalore the Preserver rebuilt Clan Ordo, they had run into some bad times with succeeding Mandalores which was why a lot of their history had gotten screwed up and lost to time. Which was why remembering history has been driven into their heads and places like this and finally been built. Shaking my head I hope we could export the model of this facility to other planets. The Silver Codex did call for turning fortresses into historical monuments for non-fighting reasons and this place proved the worth the time.

With every step in here I found something that, more often than not, had not been seen for generations that meant something to someone. Turning to leave, I stopped when I noticed that the wall across from it was covered in masks, T-visors galore, yellows, reds, pinks, a few greens, and lots of blues. Stepping forward I looked over the digital information displayed in a central screen explaining how these were various masks that have been donated from several private collections or had been found within the ruins of various Mandalorian conflicts.

Not all of them are masks, some of them appear to be helmets that had their front cut off which made sense. You didn't need the full helmet to show the changes in style over time. Most of them were T-Visors, a few were non-T-Visors though which was a bit surprising considering their prevalence in our culture for just a simple visor. One mask had a sort of proto T-Visor on it, which is a black set of glass growing across the eyes with red painted around the glass and then a red line going down the front, giving it a lot of angularity to it which makes it look impressively menacing. No real plaque denoting when it was created, only information on it was that had been donated by clan Ordo about 2,500 years ago to the museum. Shaking my head at the impressive collection I turned to leave, this whole place was an example of what needed to be built on every planet and the Mandalore Sector. Too many Mandalorians were obsessed with reliving the past instead of simply remembering it and going towards the future.

As I stepped out of the room I'd come from, I looked around once more at the lightsabers, wondering if the Ordo Museum should probably see about returning some of these pieces of Mandalorian culture. Yes, it makes sense that storing Jedi stuff might upset them, I was reminded about the issues between the United Kingdom and Egypt that had been going on for generations by the time I died because of the relics that had been taken from Egypt while under British rule, the same rule might apply to this situation. Then again maybe the Jedi didn't really care all that much about old lightsabers. They never really went after Clan Vizsla for stealing the lightsaber of their family member a century ago. I'd have to poke around and find out what their official stance on relics of their Order were.

My thoughts were interrupted as something bit my neck causing me to smack it in confusion. I looked around as what appeared to be a small black fly flew away. Shaking my head I wondered how that thing had gotten in here, when I pulled my hand away I saw that it didn't do more than just bite my neck as it had drawn blood. Sighing in contempt, I started heading towards the upper levels, wanting to be somewhere that I can get a little bit of medical aid. Just in case that bug was carrying some sort of disease I should be worried about.

Ordo, Ordo Museum Holo Archive

Engiz Ordo

'Focus, stay focused, you have a job, don't think about it.' Those were the words that are currently in my head as I looked through a library of what would best be described as war films. Technically they were documentaries that have been stored here from various ages long past. The oldest of which was somewhere around 1,500 years ago. I have been given an order to find some of the best to view for the last few days we were here and if possible maybe getting a copy for the trip back to Mandalore is a job that I was going to do no matter how distracted I was by what I had seen earlier that day.

'Why had she worn that? No! stay focused, Stay focused. Your boss has given you a job and professionalism was utmost for her from what I have seen at least.' I needed to find good war films to help her with understanding how people have been trained to fight throughout Mandalorian history. She wanted to see if there was any information about the changes that had happened over time. I didn't know much about it myself, I did know that about 4,000 years ago we favored heavy infantry up till our first fights with the Republic and we met Republican drop troops. Their jetpacks had been easily integrated into our own systems and in my opinion we've mastered it at a level that's put them to shame though that might just be a bit of Mandalorian chauvinism showing.

After all, mastering your enemy's skills is an important aspect of Mandalorian culture. In fact, many of the techniques such as grappling hooks and flamethrowers had been adopted by Mandalorians wholesale because we couldn't compete with Jedi in a head on fight. And where we couldn't compete we either found other routes or built technology to mimic their abilities. Some vambraces had magnetic or gravity generators allowing them to pull objects to them for example.

'Was that why she had done it? She is after all learning to be a diplomat. The planet she is going to has people who were going to expect her to do certain things and be kind of like them so mastering their skills was important. Not to mention having loyal soldiers who could do the same was also important. Did she wear a revealing swimsuit like she had to throw him off his game on purpose? So he would learn to master professionalism and such situations?' If so he'd flunked that test right off the bat and had to search the bottom of the pool for his glasses for a good 5 minutes.

'No he had to be overthinking this, why would she need him to be able to take such a stressor as that? Then again, what did she say during the operation on Gargon? He was perfectly close? Perhaps he'd pass some sort of test for being a good agent to play a role as a boyfriend or partner in espionage operations. If so she must be considering using him for such operations in the future then he had to prepare himself. Make myself able to see her in such a costume without gapping like a fish if I have to do a similar operation like that again.'

My thoughts stopped when I heard a voice behind me, "Boy, good to see you again."

Turning to the familiar voice, I saw my adopted father Raz Ordo the patriarch of clan and planet Ordo. He seemed to be in a good mood as he walked by me to look at some of the films on the wall. "Father-" I began before he raised his hand. "No need to go all ceremonial on me. You're a man now, you've gone out of the house and you have a job. Raz is fine ."

"Right, Raz. Good to see you, how's Ikudtovu?"

"She's doing fine. Finally got trained enough that she should be able to join the Ordo Self-Defense Force next year. I've been having to find an armorer to build her a helmet to deal with her head tails. Surprisingly it seems like that's a lost art, I only found three people who can say they can do it and two of them had work so shoddy that I considered banishing them from ever working on this planet again. But other than that things have been fine."

Shaking my head I said, "Well I'm sure she's happy to simply be in the military. It's always been her dream."

"That it has. And how's your dream going? How are your Royal Guard duties treating you?"

Smiling, I said, "It treats me fine sir. I think I made the right choice."

He reached over and messed my hair before saying, "Good, never back down from your own choices even if you don't think they're right, but if they are right that's always good. Now why are you in the movie section of this library?"

"Princess Tanya wanted me to come down here and find a few films for us to watch tonight, maybe get a couple copies that we could load up on the ship tomorrow."

Raz nodded at his head before reaching up towards the top and pulling a film out. "Yeah this should be a good one for your collection of films you've already got.

Taking the holo tab I looked at it and saw it was marked 'Mandalore the Preserver, The Canderous Ordo Story.' It was not a film I'd seen before, although I think there were titles similar to this I don't remember it being here at all.

"Just came out 3 months ago. New director, inspired by the Silver Codex section about building our own media, wanted to build a story about our Ordo Mandalore. Spent 7 months living in the basement using a suit of armor that we got hanging around down there as an example of the armor we used in that time period. So it's as realistic as he could get it. Pretty good fight scenes too, or so I've heard."

"Thanks Dad- I mean sir."

He chuckled as he started to walk away before stopping and saying, "That reminds me, I know we were supposed to have a meeting with your princess sometime tonight but I'm going to have to cancel. Some Osik came up, an Arkanian apparently snuck into the museum and caused some sort of trouble and is currently on the run. I don't know all the details yet but till we get the situation under control I can't really have diplomatic meetings running around. Best to get heading back to your room to make sure your princess is safe as well. Those creeps can show up anywhere."

"Will do, sir." I said, giving him a salute as he started to leave again before tapping his head as he remembered something, reaching into his pocket he tossed me a cube with a bow on it.

"Make sure that gets to your princess as well, it's a desk ornament really. Apparently some of my guards saw her hanging about some of the older sections where we keep this junk and I thought she might like a souvenir to remind her of her stay at Ordo."

"Will do, sir. Please say hi to Ikud for me." I said as I put the cube in the sack of movies I've been gathering up.

Nodding at me, he walked off and I got ready to head back to our rooms.

Ordo, Ordo Hotel Suite

Tanya Kryze

Thankfully the bug bite was all it was, there was no implication of anything dangerous about it. So they've given me a course of antibiotics just to be on the safe side, the privileges of being a princess. Anyways I had returned back to the main room of my hotel suite and was sitting in a chair as Vai and Tabi watched the local stations while various other Royal Guard members did their own things around the room.

It was the last day of our time in Ordo, tomorrow we would load up on the ship and head out for Mandalore where I would get to see Satine again and see if everything was alright.

Well almost everyone, Zum had already departed aboard the Ratio. One of the many stops that ship would make would be to Concordia to drop him off at his ship, which would put everyone in position safely away from ever being in Gargon. With the hope that no one would ever suspect what had happened to have actually happened.

During this moment of peace, I am reading a datapad about the Basilisk War Droid used in the Mandalorian Wars whilst listening to the others chat in the background. Mok and Struc were having a debrief on what their saw and did during the Gargon conflict. Skota is currently cooking popcorn, Ordo is in a chair across from me cleaning his glasses as he gets ready to work on his shock staff. And Kastel is reading a datapad about some sort of ancient Mandalorian tattooing practice. Which proved one thing to me, it was not just Ordo and I who enjoyed our time on this planet.

Tabi and Vai are being Tabi and Vai, by flicking through the channels looking for, I would hope it's the latest episode of the Silver Rider though I'd probably take anything at this point to watch.

Smiling, I sat back enjoying the very calming and soothing atmosphere. This trip was well warranted and I was glad I've gotten some time off. And I will admit the whole 'Fighting for Gargon', though a chaotic mess, I had scratched a bit of my adrenaline itch I had not had in a long time. There was something simple about being in a combat zone where you knew your purpose and your purpose was to crash into each other and a spectacular disaster of blood and gore or one of you was simple, even if the reasons you were in the combat zone were due to complex natures of political or economic reasons.

Hopefully I could avoid it, that simplicity was alluring. The CIA drew me into mercenary work in my second life, oh sure fighting the Commies was a very good deed for karmic reasons but it was not good for a person to build their life about the pursuit for a combat high of simplicity.

Reaching for a glass of water on the table I was stopped when I heard a distinctive tone from the TV. The fact the channel didn't change again indicated that they had settled on something to watch as I picked up the glass. Nope, I saw they were just busy being a couple. Shaking my head I looked at the TV and saw that it was some sort of news program called The Daily Ordo.

What appeared before me reminded me a bit of any news program from my first world, with two individuals staying across from each other. There's a bit of a difference as both were male, one was a sturdy fellow balding and had a knowing smirk on his face while wearing a Mandalorian style suit. The other was a slightly older gentleman, rail thin with a mustache that would make most men jealous, it appeared to be wearing the remnants of a suit having left his jacket somewhere showing that he was one who favored suspenders over a belt.

The older gentleman started first and said, "Good evening and welcome to the Daily Ordo. I am Juup Jir Jidoss from the Newspaper, Ordo Journal."

The more sturdy fellow spoke up, "Are they still allowing you to call your rag a newspaper?"

"Hey, at least I don't engage in wild speculation like you do on your holocast, brother."

"That's a point of view I do not share." the sturdier man said, straightening a stack of papers in his hands before introducing himself "Hello, Aipex Jidoss here, freedom fighter, warrior, and everyman survivalist."

"Yeah yeah, talk yourself up." Juup said with a sigh before getting on with it by saying, "Welcome to the Daily Ordo where we do a balanced take on the big news of the day. If it isn't balanced enough for you, that's your problem. Now let's get on to the first story of the day the terrorist known as White Silver has escaped Gargon."

I sat up fearing that all my work for the past few weeks had just gone up in smoke until the other gentleman interrupted the first one's flow. "He's referring to the True White Silver, the freedom fighter who single-handedly took down Mandal Hypernautics CEO Bresug Gerr and his obvious plans for a one Mandalorian government under his corporation."

"Of course, there's no proof of that," Juup said, "after taking over Gargon there is no evidence that he had plans outside of that. As far as I'm concerned, if you take over a planet, from who appears to be the rightful ruler, you're probably an insurgent considering this clip from Prime Minister Almec."

He pointed off screen and a clip of Prime Minister Almec appeared, "This White Silver is a completely unhealthy affair for the Mandalorian government. Gargon's status within the government is still up in the air so we cannot interfere directly, but we do not support random barbarians claiming to be Mandalore by taking over a planet from the rightful government. For sure, this time the man was a lunatic but what's to stop them from getting the idea in their head of trying to take Mandalore for themselves. As such, the 'True White Silver's' acts are condemned by the Duchess of Mandalore as a violent case of extremism."

"See violent extremism, terrorist." Juup said matter of factly, crossing his arms across his chest.

"You left out the bit where they said they would not be taking direct action just condemning the actions of White Silver as dangerous. It's not really saying she's a terrorist that's saying that 'We do not support overthrowing governments', which every government in the galaxy says. And considering how screwed up some governments in this galaxy are, I'm going to say that's just normal propaganda from the status quo."

"You are too light on a menace, brother. This person has a propaganda document floating about trying to entice people to join her cause and we're just supposed to believe that they are not planning to take over the sector?"

"Yes, because they're like me, a freedom fighter. They want to make the Mandalorian sector a better, more stable place for our people. Also if you had read the document you would see that they are in full support of unrestricting the militia's. A bit which would ultimately mean arming the civilian population again, which is better for the people. Tyranny can only be held accountable at the barrel of a gun."

"Pretty sure the quote goes, 'Tyranny springs fourth from the barrel of a gun.' but whatever brother. We're not going to settle this argument tonight I am sure."

Had to agree with the older gentleman on that last point though, I am not a big fan of being called a menace.

Shaking his head he signaled something to someone off screen in a small box appeared in the corner of the screen with a photo of me and Tabi? I had to blink a couple times before I figured out that it was Vai. The picture in question showed the two basically arm in arm and heads close together.

"In other news, Princess Tanya is currently conducting a tour of the sector where she is trying to make friends with all the diplomatic sort. She has appeared on a couple of Mandalorian worlds and is believed to be on Ordo at this very moment somewhere. And as we can see from my intrepid reporters, she is no slouch in making connections with people. These two lovebirds were spotted practically making out entering a clothing shop on Harswee. Details are still coming in but we've been able to determine that her young courtier there is Tabi Kregg, 5th in line to House Kregg who are the current rulers of Harswee as he appears to be showing the Princess the various sights his planet has to offer. And several days ago, there have been sightings of the couple enjoying their time on Jakelia after her trip to Harswee ended. They were seen enjoying their visit as they were seen enjoying a tour of Jakelia's tree top towns. A brave citizen who recognized the princess was able to share a picture of the princess enjoying a steamy kiss with her paramour under the setting sun."

My jaw was firmly dropped as a picture of Vai, in my disguise, is shown being held by the small of her back as Tabi leaned down to kiss her with a sunset in the background from a hidden angle because this is not good. The simple operation to make a solid alibi for where I've been during the period of False Silver was secure, but now everyone thought I was dating Tabi, which was something I did not want. No offense to Tabi, he's not my type. I would like my personal life to stay private and this right here would indicate that I now would have paparazzi following me around trying to turn my life into some sort of TV show for the masses.

"See brother, this is what's wrong with the New Mandalorians." Aipex spoke up before continuing, "They bring in Coruscanti behaviors and ways of doing things. Instead of a warrior princess, we now have some fashionista princess that might be a little bit too loose if you ask me."

"Hey, that's not entirely a fair assessment, you saw the footage of her fight from last month?"

"I saw that one and I saw the way Tabi there tried to rescue her. I also know that according to holonet rumors, she started that night with the Ordo boy, which means over the course of the last month she's dumped a good Ordo of a kid and stolen her handmaid's boyfriend. Or more likely knowing Corusantis she's playing both and her handmaiden is part of her harem." I swear I heard somebody give an audible shocked breath of intake from the TV.

Though apparently Juup was unshocked by the statement and simply said, "Brother there are no rules in Mandalorian culture against a harem. If the princess wants a harem she can have a harem."

"You're just saying that so you can make money off her in your newspapers."

"At least I'll make money that's better than your water filters."

Aipex smacked his hands down on the desk and gots up, "That's it, go time. Going to teach you a lesson about water filters."

"Bring it on, fatzo." Juup said standing up.

Before the fight on screen could really take off, someone turned off the TV and I was able to turn my head to look at Tabi and Vai. Trying to determine how much I was going to have to do to undo the situation they have forced me into.

Only to see that Tabi was currently being strangled in a chokehold by Captain Struc saying, "That's it, I'm going to have to beat some goddamn sense into you until you either learn to not screw up a single mission or get you removed for this God damn detail. Hell knows that as soon as this is over you will be removed. I am not going to stand for your idiocy in the field."

"Don't do that." I said matter of factly. Causing the Royal Guard to look up with a look that said that I better have a very good reason.

"If he's fired from this position that'll draw more attention to the whole thing. And as much as I would not like whatever outcome is going to come out of this, I will know that their little love affair has created a very solid alibi." I let out a deep sigh.

Not to mention if he was actually a 5th in line Prince that meant Satine had put him in this position as a possible husband-to-be like Ordo, confirming that theory I had earlier this week. I need to keep him in line, yes, but I also needed to keep in mind that this was possibly a political position that he'd been put in.

I would simply have to deal with it, though I would still have some vengeance on him. "However," I continued, "do put some sense into the man so he does not do anything like this ever again while on mission."

Standing up, I moved to the couch and looked directly down at Tabi as he gasped for air with the captain's arm around his neck. "Because of his little mess up, we are going to have to arrange a fake break up. So we'll have to make sure that's as public as possible to make sure there's shame on him for that. You understand what we need to do, correct?"

Struc loosened his grip so Tabi could speak, holding up his thumb he said, "Right fake date and fake a break up. Perfectly understandable, can I breathe now?"

I nodded to Struc who released Tabi's neck. Shaking my head I went back to my seat and let out a sigh. 'Teenagers' I mentally muttered.

Only being interrupted from that thought of just how much annoyance I had with teenagers, Vai leaned in close and said, "Thank you." That was a bit confusing for a second then I realized that I just saved Tabi's job which meant I saved their continued relationship. I should have thought that through more, oh well keeping your handmaiden happy was probably good for your longevity.