714 (24 BBY)
Month 7
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
Tanya Kryze
"Well, there goes my timetable." I muttered as I watched the speech from Raxus again. When I first heard about the growing issue in the Senate, where there might be a "divorce" between the Outer Rim and the Core Regions of the Galaxy, I thought that 4 years was how long it would take for the divorce to be getting into its final phases. Maybe another 3 years after that for a war to get declared, as long as there wasn't a repeat of the American Civil War where some garrison decided to be stubborn about surrendering the forts. Now things were a bit more fluid as the speech I had just watched pretty much made it an inevitability that this divorce would happen and the time scale was more unknown.
Though to give credit where it was due, Count Dooku's take over of a holo-net relay was an impressive feat, considering they were supposedly stationed in hyperspace. You would think that something so vital as a major artery of galactic communication and information would be more heavily guarded.
As for the speech itself, that was a doozy. Count Dooku had claimed that the Galactic Republic was a Feudal Enterprise, hopelessly burdened by corruption and favoritism towards the Core Worlds. That was of course true from my point of view and I'm sure anyone with a political mind for the subject would agree with him as well, althoughblaming the Jedi for the degradation of the morals of the Republic was a bit of a stretch. That line of thinking only works if you believe the Jedi should be ruling the Republic as they had during the Old Republic.
Which itself was a concerning thought, as I don't believe that a theocratic republic was in any way a good move for the galaxy. Perhaps in practice, it wouldn't be as bad as I imagined it to be, but if this Count wanted the Jedi to play a larger role in governing, I can't help but suspect that there may be a bit of a power grab going on.
All in all I would have to take a deeper look into Count of Serenno, as he would most likely be a key figure in the coming years of politics. At a bare minimum he had at least declared himself the president of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which was the main reason I was now on a fluid timeline for when exactly the war would start.
Prior to this declaration, the Republic had no true enemies of its own, simply a bunch of separate parties levying complaints and threats of withdrawal to the senate. Now, however, there was an enemy, one focused on gathering these disparate worlds under a singular banner that the Republic could propagandize against. There were no greater means of channeling the dissatisfaction of the masses than an enemy at the gates, after all, it was only a matter of time. The most concerning to me, however, was why the Count seemed to be meeting with the senator of Mandalore.
Oh, I had certainlyrecognized him as soon as the speech had begun, that this was definitely the individual who had been in the senator's office several months ago. Most likely, Dooku had been attempting to bring Mandalore into this Confederacy. It would make sense to get our support, as militarily speaking Mandalore did have a largely trained population and I had no doubt that our proximity to a major trade lane would serve well in holding whatever front line the Confederacy planned to hold if a war broke out.
Such was my assumption in any case and considering Senator Merrik had mentioned a Jedi running around and entering politics as well as warning her to stay away from him then no doubt Senator Merrik had been dealing with Count Dooku's efforts to draw Mandalore to their side this entire time. I would assume the senator was in contact with the security bureaus and that those charged with dealing with this sort of thing, were told to keep quiet about it in public which is why he hadn't mentioned more than just that. Either way I was sure Mandalore was not joining this Confederacy, Duchess Satine would have wanted nothing to do with it, of that I was sure. With the amount of effort I needed to get her just to approve armor construction, there was no way she had gone full warmonger in secret.
I replayed the speech for a third time as I sat back on a fine luxury chair in my apartment, looking out at a sunset, dipping beneath the horizon of Coruscant. I had no doubt that over the next few months there would be attempts to draw Mandalore into this conflict from both the Republic and the Confederacy. Whether that be for manpower, strategic resources, or simply the ability to navigate our space unhindered didn't really matter, things were going to get complicated and I would especially need to be on guard. There were less effective ways of gaining leverage over my world than a simple good old fashioned kidnapping of someone of importance and who could fit that bill if not the niece of its Grand Duchess. There would be attempts, of that I was sure to convert me to their individual causes in hopes that I would influence Satine in turn but I knew where my influence came from and I had every intention of staying loyal to my aunt. Still, the captured princess was a well-used trope for good reason which begged the question in the event of my capture. Would the Duchess play ball with my captors or would she stand strong and defiant in the face of such demands?
I didn't want the answer to either one of those questions, considering the wide variety of technologies and quasi magics that apparently existed in this galaxy, I didn't want to be a victim to any of that so I would just have to be on extra guard against any efforts.
Looking over at X4 as he was pouring over economic data, I thought that I probably should also get him some upgrades. There's always a chance that my Royal Guards and my Handmaiden would not be enough, having a droid who could help defend me is a nice contingency plan to better ensure my safety. Maybe I was being a little bit paranoid? Probably, most people wouldn't even think about all the defenses they would need in case war broke out. But then again, most people did not have the past life experience of having an angry entity with powers beyond their comprehension attempting to convert them into a choir girl that worshiped them. Once I had experienced something like that, taking any threat to my safety seriously seems like a wise use of my time.
Well at least I could deal with this, the prospect of a civil war rupturing the galaxy with hatred and violence until only one side is left is one that I can understand. Stumbling across fanfiction of yourself on the holo-net? That was just utterly horrifying.
I already had agents out looking for this False Silver with thanks to Bo Katan, so I didn't need to focus on that situation just yet. I was sure she would find something and I would then make moves to deal with it. Perhaps find a way to discredit the person or publish my own updated version and hope that it would detract enough power from the growing Second Codex and let people abandon it eventually. So I had some free time over the last month to peruse the holo-net and I had been greeted by an absolutely horrifying moment when I realized that whoever owns the camera that had caught the fight in the stairway had decided that it was such a good fight that he was going to post it online.
It did not come out immediately, it had only been in the last 2 weeks that this situation had developed. But oh had it screwed with my head seeing not only the fight from another angle but seeing the comment section of the video. All my efforts to try and hide my little adventure had been for naught. Apparently someone had recognized me and pointed people toward the Mandalorian Representative holo-page, which had my face as well as my name.
So not only had my unfortunate fight that I had gotten involved in been recorded, my face and name were now firmly attached to the images of that fight and any chance to attempt to make this go away had firmly been destroyed. The only good part about this was that at least half of the people in the comment section were on my side since it was obvious that I had wandered into the fight by accident and simply responded to violence with violence. Though I didn't like the other half of the comments, comments that belonged in the dark corners of the holo-net were extremely… what was that term that was used in my first life? 'is horny on main'.
But frankly, I was so embarrassed by the whole thing I was considering possibly putting in a request for vacation time to get away from Coruscant until the whole situation calmed down. Stepping away from politics until I could have a conversation without people going, "Hey weren't you the person in that video a while back?" would probably be the wisest move. Thankfully my infamy or fame, whichever you preferred, was still a minor problem. Only a concern to a few of the politicians I've met, as most had apparently better things to do than spend time watching holovids and not paying attention to the whole situation with the Confederacy. Which was good and the only reason I had not gone for the vacation days immediately.
Though when Satine had heard about it, she had called me up directly on the holo-net to ask what had happened and why I had been involved in such a conflict. Which had been a rather nice experience all in all. Having your boss look out for you is a generally good feeling as that meant you were still a valued member of the organization.
Frankly the amount of worry in the Duchess' voice had made me wonder if she saw me as some sort of surrogate daughter, which was a funny thought and useful for my political future. I never really thought much about the fact that that could be a thing. Before I had always just seen myself as a ward in her care but if she saw me as something more, that was frankly a useful advantage for my continued efforts to improve the conditions on Mandalore and the rest of the sector. That level of trust also meant I really couldn't run away from a small setback like this.
It would frankly be a betrayal of that trust if I took advantage of my boss's emotional connection to me over something as small as this, so I calmed her down the best I could and informed her I would be staying for now on Coruscant working out the situation.
Besides that, this was the center of political talks in the entire galaxy. I need to be here to understand exactly what was going on with this new Confederacy. At least until how many systems were pulling out of the Republic to join this Confederacy was made clear. The more that pulled out, the more likely there was a chance of war and that would give me a better way to predict how long Mandalore had before we were forced into taking a stance on the conflict.
714 (24BBY)
Mandalorian Sector, Gargon
Bo-Katan Kryze
Out of all the places I could have ended up within the Mandalorian Sector, this was one destination I would have definitely avoided. I had been here once before, decades ago, during the Clan Wars. At the time it had been a planet broken up between two types of people. The Nomads, who roamed the planet and lived what they considered a Traditional Mandalorian lifestyle, living off the countryside and trading for gear once in a while. And the people of the City of Gargon, who could best be summed up as criminals and sleazy businessmen.
Gargon was right on the edges of the main trade way, running by the Mandalorian Sector as well as having been a defective trade port at various points in history that also served as a pirate port at other points. Just 30 years ago a Hutt had even run the place, though the local clans had pushed him out eventually, just before the Clan Wars took off.
However those clans were not exactly the most noble in the Mandalorian Sector, they tended to be more criminal in nature and would work with whatever illegal enterprise was interested in running resources through the edges of the Mandalorian Space.
Mandalorian and Republic laws were paid no heed here, instead it was the laws of the families who ran the illegal industries and casinos that held power. At least that's how it had been when I was last here during the Clan Wars. Tracking down grandfather's silver beskar sword after it'd been taken from my father's body at the last battle he had fought in.
I had managed to track down the mercenary who had been hired for that battle and get a little bit of payback, maybe a lot of payback, for the crime of taking my father's life. Unfortunately, the sword had been sold, so that disgusting mercenary could have a night on the town and I had never been able to recover it. No doubt it had been lost or melted down for armor by now but it had always ticked me off that I had never recovered it.
Things seemed to have changed since my last trip here. As I said, last time I'd been here the city had been fairly well run by a mix of gangsters and Mandalorians under the control of local clans who ran the underworld. The city was as much a territory divided up between criminal organizations as it was a single city.
But things were definitely taking a turn towards consolidation. Where once there were gangsters and Mandalorians holding positions on street corners to remind all of who ran their individual districts, now soldiers clad in black armor, helmed with T-visors tinted a faint orange and displaying proudly upon their shoulders the insignia of Mandel Hypernautics, stood in their place. Some of them carried themselves as if they were Mandalorians, as if the armor was a second skin and there were a few that were definitely beskar but others were plasteel or plastoid and carried themselves as if they were unfamiliar with the armor they wore. If I had to make a guess they were non-Mandalorians brought in to augment the numbers of actual Mandalorians serving Hypernautics.
Hypernautics had been there after the Fall of Mandalore, before the Clan Wars, so their influence had not been as large the last time I'd been around here. I believe I saw soldiers in similar uniforms around their factory, which had only been one at the time, but this was different.
Even factoring in them growing their number of factories on this planet to a large enough number, I don't think they would have this many troops just wandering the city protecting the peace. Especially considering the Clans who had run the illegal markets on this planet before had done that job fine enough.
The whole situation was putting me on edge, because it looked more like someone was trying to raise an army and not like they were trying to secure the city. Hell, I bet if I looked around I'd find a recruiting station, I might even be able to find out what the whole plan is. But that wasn't my goal with this little trip. I'd come to Gargon because after I got on Tanya's ship to get off Concordia, I hired a slicer friend of mine, someone good with tech, to research where the Second Codex had come from. And apparently the new Silver was not doing as good a job at hiding as the old one did and that is solely because the original Silver made his or her codex in analogue form before it was spread across the net by independent civilians. My attempts to track the old one had never turned up anything substantial as they had done a good job by not posting it directly to the holonet and just dispersing it in enough places that it would make its way there on its own. This new one apparently didn't care and had posted it directly to the net. With the data on it, it was not hard to track down from where it came, which led me to Gargon.
Now narrowing something down to a planet was a good step in the right direction, I wanted more though. So I had come to Gargon in hopes of meeting with an old agent, the same one who helped me track down the bastard who killed my father. In the hopes that they would have more details. Said agent was a member of the Tutt clan, one of the clans that ran the gambling institutions on this planet. They would have as many details as I was willing to pay for, of that I was sure, as long as it didn't interfere with their own operations and if it did interfere with their own operations at least it would give me a direction to point towards.
If I could just avoid these patrols though I would get to my meeting much faster. The black armored Mandalorian wannabes were proving to be problematic in getting to the section of the city my contact told me to meet him in, as they were cordoning the area off, it felt like. It finally got so bad that I had used my jetpack to get up to the roof of one of the larger buildings and carefully maneuver my way from rooftop to rooftop in the way I wanted to go. But once I got past the main blockade I was able to jump down to the street again and make my way towards a warehouse district.
Carefully, I scanned the area to make sure this wasn't some sort of elaborate trap before making a move to enter the building, keeping one of my pistols closed at hand as I entered a dilapidated warehouse made up of more rust than steel by the look of it outside.
"Ah Bo, I was wondering when you would make it here." Said a voice from the shadows of the warehouse before a man I did not recognize steped out of the shadows into a central lighted area. Before me stood an overweight gentleman wearing a pair of sunglasses and a large overcoat to hide the fact that his armor appeared to have been made for a younger and thinner man. He was definitely wearing Mandalorian style armor, though the orange and maroon coloration of the armor was a bit strange.
"Where is Lerus?" I barked immediately, going on the defensive upon seeing a stranger.
"At home most likely, I told him to take the day off and that I would take this meeting for him, after all I had a feeling our goals may align."
"And our goals would be?" I asked. I still had no idea who he was though I figured he must be connected to Lerus's particular clan just from his previous statement.
"Dealing with White Silver of course," he said with a smile before continuing, "also known as the CEO of Mandel Hypernautics, Bresug Gerr."
"Okay, now you have my attention. How do you know that he is White Silver?"
"It's quite simple really, my good Kryze, he's made it apparent to the families that run this city that he's going to be taking it over. He's pushed us out of the streets and has told us quite frankly that soon Gargon will be his new Mandalore. Someone with aspirations that large has to be playing politics somewhere else and the moment I saw the Codex appear a few years ago and he started aligning his company to aspects of that Codex, I knew he was responsible. Just as I knew that sooner or later the Duchess of Mandalore would take note as well and send someone to deal with him. And though I would prefer Mandalore keep its hands off the going ons of Gargon, I know that in order to maintain that preferred environment I would need to ally with whatever agent they sent."
"Uh-huh." I said tilting my helmeted head. I had not expected to run into a situation like this, it looks like there was about to be a bit of a clan war on this planet between the Old Guard of Gargon and the New Guard who were trying to muscle in on their territory. Maybe they'd knock each other out, but she's never that lucky. "So he's muscling in on your territory and pretending to be the White Silver. Why is he doing this?" I asked, a bit curious.
"I have no idea yet, it's not like he's often invited to the inter-clan meetings for running the city. We attempted to bring him in when he first arrived but he's always been a bit standoffish. If I was to twist several arms I would say his goals are quite larger than just a new Mandalore on Gargon. He's been running his arms industry at full capacity for the last few years and a lot of those ships don't seem to be going to Hutt Space."
"You think he's going to try and take over the sector don't you."
"I don't know if he plans to take it through military force or just find like minded men and make sure they have the weapons necessary to overthrow the local governments. But yes I believe his designs are on the entire sector."
"If he's such a problem why don't you just take him out?" I asked, as that was the most reasonable question.
"He's a problem on a small scale. He doesn't interfere with our legal businesses so we don't care that much at the moment and there is the unique possibility that we could expand our businesses if he's successful." The gentleman said matter of factly before continuing. "There's no reason for us to raise a hand against him but there's also no reason for us not to make sure those who would raise a hand against him don't succeed in gathering the intel they needed. If the Duchess and her Royal Guard decide to smash up Gargon we'd simply prefer if they focus on Hypernautic's forces and not, well the rest of the planet."
I nodded my helmeted head in understanding before asking. "So if we move against him, none of the other criminal organizations on this planet would interfere as long as we stay clear of them."
"Of course, as long as you don't cause too much mayhem, we will stay as quiet as the dead." He said matter of factly with a shrug. "Though if I were you I would get moving, word on the grapevine is that he's planning to take over the spaceport tonight. And when that happens it's very likely any ships stashed there will be confiscated for his new fleet and no doubt all signals in and out of the planet will soon fall under his control as well, if you want to tell the Duchess about this or even escape the planet, best to be moving on, you understand."
I nodded my head immediately, taking my hand away from the pistol before saying, "Thank you for the intel Mr. Tutt." guessing that he was from the same clan as my contact. He nodded his approval before I continued and said, "I'll see about getting this whole situation with Hypernautics dealt with as fast as I can." Before I backed up and opened the door, never really taking my eyes off him just in case. Once I was outside, I looked towards the city's neon lights and sighed. I probably didn't have much time but I would try to get to my ship and out of here before everything is locked down and hopefully get off the planet too. Though if I ended up stuck here I'm sure I'd find some way to hold out till everything was under control.