715 FNM (23BBY)
Month 9
Coruscant, Mandalore Tower
X4
My processor gave a nearly imperceptible whine. A convolution of processes that could be described as annoyance is developing in response to my most recent issue that had cropped up with Mandal Logistics. Well, technically, not a Mandal Logistics issue per se. It's with the Mandalore to Ryloth express freight company, Shereshoy Express. Nominally run by Vai, her sole contribution to the cause had been the corporate logo and her ownership under the alias Visha. The alternate identities and shell companies served as the first line of defense to obscure what organizations and movements Mistress has influence over. Seperation, segregation, and creating helpful misassumptions are the primary tactics so far in my private little info-war. If I succeeded, then the Mistress would never need to know the details herself, giving her true deniability.
But I digress. Running a shipping company through the stars, I expected my share of problems with corruption, piracy, and petty thievery. So far I've lost a few ships to one pirate in particular, a pirate named Hondo. The lost ships were captured on an empty return run from Ryloth, so thankfully the financial losses are light. I've already re-routed future ships to use an alternate route to avoid the previous pirate sightings. So all Hondo had acquired were a couple of empty cargo ships. Still, Hondo has the gall to offer to sell them back to me at an annoyingly reasonable price.
While I hated the concept of buying back my own stolen ships, the loss of profits those missing ships could have brought from future shipments are more valuable than my personal distaste for the outlaws. Successful ransoms will set a precedent, making all my future ships an enticing target as even if the vessels were empty, they could still make a profit by reselling it back to me. As pirates go, Hondo is not the worst. He at least didn't destroy a perfectly good freighter like some of the alternatives. One pirate attack destroyed an entire shipment of armor still in transit when it tried to escape.
This attack is what precipitated the new route through Hondo's territory in the first place. It is very tempting to pay Hondo's fees and bribes to transit their territory and avoid all this trouble, and if this latest route did not work out I might be forced to. However, paying off pirate scum is a last resort as it is very likely that they would use their income to target more shipments and expand their territory. Pirates destroy wealth and labor in profitless conflict over resources they did not own in the first place.
Recently, I have had problems that make Hondo look preferable in comparison. A different set of pirates had attempted to seize a shipment of armor intended for Ryloth. The droid pilot of Shereshoy 7 reported that the ship had been able to evade capture, but took some minor damage. Shereshoy 7 was forced to drop out of hyperspace near a system with only one useful planet, Tatooine. This Outer Rim world had never been a part of the Republic, it is a Hutt-infested desert, and slavery is commonplace. Repair costs ended up costing the contents of the shipment in barter and the bribes required to escape that world had killed any potential profits on that run. Frankly, I was lucky that I would be getting the ship back at all at this point.
Problems never seem to cease either. The Outer Rim is becoming more troublesome by the day. The Hutt seemed to have increased their activity as piracy is picking up in the area and the number of corrupt patrol shakedowns intercepting legal commerce is rising. The inevitable civil war seems to have encouraged local ships to take up regular shakedowns, demanding legal shipping, pay imaginary fees for "pilots", and other such nonsense. The shakedowns were growing commonplace, if how the Trade Federation were acting in Seperatist space were any indication.
This is an opportunity for Mandalore and any other observant neutral powers. If the Trade Federation as a brand becomes tainted by their association with the Seperatist cause, then we can step in and fill the void left behind by the sharp decline of the Trade Federation presence in the Core. Mandal Logistics and her sister-companies are now preparing for the eventual absence of the Trade Federation from Republic or Neutral space by expanding our fleet of cargo vessels with a recruitment drive and procuring more ships from Mandal Hypernautics. We would probably have enough ships by then to fill the demand, at least that's what I hope we would. I invested quite a bit of money into Mandal Hypernautics, ordering construction of several dozen new cargo freighters of varying sizes. Thanks to Mistress's foresight and instructions for Mandal Hypernautics to construct a new series of cargo vessels that could be converted into combat vessels, Mandal Logistics are poised to take advantage of the trade vacuum left behind by the Trade Federation with our new line of Mandalorian freighters.
Normally I would not usually buy something sight unseen, but I knew Mandal Hypernautics is my Mistress's company. Investing the money from Mandal Logistics into a local market within the Mandalorian sector is one her orders. These new ships would require crews, outfitting, weapons and all of which would come from the Mandalorian sector with enough time. When the defense of the sector becomes necessary, the new vessels can be converted into effective capital ships for the burgeoning Self-Defense Navy, as they were designed as combat vessels first and freighters second. While this would result in a reduction in efficiency than a pure freighter, the ability to be converted into an effective and hardy combat vessel is worth the cost.
From the production of armor to artwork, the main goal of Mandal Logistics still is to ship artisanal works from the Mandalorian sector and sell it to the Core. Then reinvest the profits into profitable projects that would improve both our holdings and the sector's wealth overall. With the coming conflict, as Mistress would put it, there would be quite a bit of profit to be made in the shipbuilding industry. I am already looking into acquiring a stake in or at the very least a large number of shares into Mandal Motors. Mandal Motors catalog contains several already well designed military vehicles that could be easily mass produced once the market heated up.
Additionally, I am interested in acquiring an arms manufacturer for the soldiers of the future SDF. There are several options throughout the Mandalorian sector that are interesting to me. Concordian Crescent and Mandal Technologies are the more popular and well-known firearm manufacturers, but Vesti Engineering has caught my interest. A newer engineering startup whose designs I had inspected and liked the quality of, but the company's growth is currently stifled by poor investment choices and debt. The designs by Vesti were made by reverse-engineering their competitors' prototypes, a tricky business yet impressive given anti-copying measures inherent in most weapons design.
Getting in on the ground floor of arms manufacturing could prove incredibly profitable in the future. There will be a large amount of competition to figure out what would be the best weapon for each military. The existing firms' lineup of weapons are less useful than the engineering skills themselves, as each military would have specific requirements that slightly differ from those designed for individual users. Any company that is able to supply and manufacture the winning design, no matter for which side, would have an incredibly lucrative sales contract. Lighter models could even drive sales in the civilian and merchant markets as self-defense weapons.
Of course, for that plan to work we would need to produce a weapon that is worth its development costs. However, between Vesti Engineering's particular skills and experience in reverse engineering and the design I have in mind, success is assured.
In partnership with Clan Ordo, I had been recommended several older model weaponry designs and schematics, weapons from the Neo-Crusader era known for their reliability and ease of maintenance. These weapons and their counterparts do not exist in any real quantity today, but the designs I had analyzed featured circuitry and architecture that had no explicable counterpart in modern firearm design. The working prototypes I have access to are superior to modern blasters, and while I am no weapons expert, I had some personal theories on the lost improvements in the ancient designs. Even better, I had access to a number of these authentic weapon designs from various contacts, access to mass production facilities, and influence in planetary and sectoral politics.
If Vesti Engineering could unlock the mystery of the Neo-Crusader weapons with their unique reverse-engineering skills, especially given the schematics and a hint on where to start, it would give Mandalore a truly valuable bargaining chip in the coming war. So my plan is to buy Vesti outright, introduce these ancient designs to them, and start mass producing modern versions of these designs once the mechanisms could be reproduced. The real question is whether I had enough time to pull all this off before the redesign is ready for mass production.
The schematics I had analyzed of the Neo-Crusader weapons were impressive. Calling the designs "ancient" is a bit of a misnomer as well. My own analysis showed some of the designs weren't that different from modern day equipment, designed by some lost perspective. If anything I think a few of them, the SHUKUR line in particular, are actually better designed than some of the weapons I have seen going through local markets. Vesti Engineering is currently wasting their skills producing WESTAR knockoffs. Their counterfeits were based on their reverse engineered design, so giving them a project with full access to the authentic schematics seemed a generous offering. The mysterious designs and the extra components described in the ancient schematics would be practically catnip for the engineers. I knew they wouldn't fail, it's too interesting of a project for an engineer to resist.
Cornering the weapons market would be important in maintaining control over the capital flows in the Mandalorian sector. The Armor Consortium already has significant influence over the Mandalorian economy. Their influence only grew each passing week, with more and more armorers signing up. And each week, the steady demand for work is attracting more skilled artisans to Mandalore. Already, a growing population of the middle class are benefiting from the demand. I heard that some armorers had accumulated enough personal wealth to set up smaller factories, moving out of their quiet forges in the older inner cities to larger greenfield industrial sites, coincidentally located further away from any real royal oversight.
I suspect there would be a boom in armorers trained in more of the ancient traditions and customs over the next few years. The reports had indicated that there is a healthy and growing population of younger proteges and apprentices working to obtain mastery training.
Another major industry I invested in heavily is the arts. Many armorers have side gigs as artists of various forms as Mandalorian society encouraged art creation as a commonly accepted form of expression, especially prevalent under the New Mandalorian government. Mandalorian art can take many shapes, from metalworking to jewelry and even spiritual totems. And Mandal Logistics had taken advantage of these cultural exports; by capturing the market locally, the individual goods could be purchased cheaply directly from artists. From there, Mandal Logistics acted as a middle-man. We transported, warehoused, and secured the artistic endeavors in sophisticated droid-monitored storage facilities. Then, Mandal Logistics would organize and market similar artworks together in fancy showings and focus on reselling the art to higher-paying foreign cultural hubs. From Iron Heart necklaces to gold panel reliefs depicting battles, many strange and unique artifacts from the Mandalorian sector had made their way to our Coruscant showrooms and private museum art collections.
Currently these items were sold alongside the rest of the Mandal Logistics inventory, but I have been considering opening up another sister-company to specialize in categorizing these items individually. However, the quantity of the artwork export had been sporadic, and the production was not consistently meeting demand. So I would need to set up an organization similar to the Armorer's Consortium to similarly manage investment into the arts in order for an independent business to be viable and make a profit. I would have to ensure the project is profitable to be worth my attention. Maybe I could entertain the notion once this war business is concluded; due to it being a diverting project. I could always use more profits to invest, but I first need to prioritize my focus on the missions entrusted to me by my mistress.
The first project I am currently awaiting a response by the end of the day. I would be having a long conversation with a potential business partner.
The second project is more traditional, spreading the idols' brand and influence across the Galaxy. So far none of the other major Gargon families had successfully launched a competing idol brand, but that is only as expected. I had hoped that competition in the idol scene would drive sales for the music overall, but for now the market is too new. One way I am interested in growing the idol market is expanding the costumes and armor wardrobes available for the idols. I hired several stylists and armorers from Coruscant at great expense. The goal is to create objective styles for each of the girls and market mass-produced copies of the idol armors and costumes to the masses. It would be interesting to see what new designs the competition would come up with, when they cropped up.
The project resulted in what I am now calling the Dressmaker Blacksmiths Division. Several of the designs submitted had issues and I ended up rejecting them, either for being too fluffy or too revealing. Then, the revealing designs ended up leaked anyway. I later traced the leak back to one of the Coruscanti women and turned the offenders over to Human Resources. At the time, this didn't seem like a concerning amount of insubordination, I simply had rejected the revealing designs as I did not want the idol brands associated with more age restricted enterprises. Unexpectedly these risque designs had somehow leaked into the hands of several prominent Mandalorian women across the sector and they had proven surprisingly interested and insistent that this is going to be on my catalog of designs for the armor company.
My programming had initially been very confused when one of my armorers had contacted me about an order for an armor set from theleak. Although the order was actually in the style of the leaked designs, but only with some added modifications. The ordered dress basically had functionality that allowed either the garment to be torn off or a second phase clearly designed to allow the wearer to engage in more acrobatic maneuvers.
I may not have approved of some of the designs showing as much flesh as they did, thanks to several sets of parental programming implemented to help me keep Mistress from getting in trouble, but I could see a market when I came across one. I immediately expanded the Dressmaker Blacksmith Division; I purchased a factory created for textiles on Gargon and it is currently in the process of setting up the production of the dress and armor costume pairs and selling pre-orders.
As a result of all the press from the leaks and pre-orders, I gave the new Dressmaker Blacksmith Division a bit of a bonus and encouraged them to have fun with their designs as well as pardoning the Coruscanti leaker for breaching her NDA. I am also looking into propagating a magazine catalog from the various designs and research and development the division produced. However, much of the newer output would never end up in a public magazine catalog, but I had set up a private-label "rejected designs" catalog for the more thrill-seeking Gargon clientele. No doubt I would be able to make additional returns on "bootleg copies" stowed in Mandal Logistics shipments out of the sector.
I am also looking into other ways to push both the idols and Mandal Hypernautics to grow their audience. Having the girls show up in magazines about Mandal Hypernautic's ships is effective in spreading their name around. I know that the idols would also act as models for some of the dresses when the magazine is in production, so this project is on track.
The third project is the casino project. The project had been officially assigned to Vai, but my Mistress had asked me to assist her, no doubt knowing in advance that Vai needed the oversight. The casino building is well under construction some distance outside of Gargon proper. It would have not only a casino floor, but several stories of rooms overlooking a glorious afternoon skyline.
The casino complex site is distant enough to require basic infrastructure brought out to the remote location. However, I was building a closed sphere of economic influence that would guarantee that money would go towards my Mistress's interests. The more money that came in, the more I could expand out from the simple hotel and casino complex into something bigger and grander. Perhaps some day, it would become a truly lavish resort, though I would need to hire some Zeltrons expertise to pull that off.
While I worked on the accounting and project management of the Casino, Vai administered the amenities and oversaw operations. I was exploring other entertainment venues for the hotel complex, in addition to the large amphitheater I had designed onsite. I believed we could re-use the theater for various kinds of sideshows when the idols were not performing. I didn't know much of what was going through Vai's mind though when I became aware that she is in contact with the Dressmaker Blacksmith Division, posing as White Silver. She is talking with their stylists about some design that she is interested in but only seems vaguely familiar with, something called a 'bunny suit'.Surprisingly, though, Mistress is familiar with the outfit's design.
Normally I would be concerned, given Vai's track record; but if it was my Mistress's idea, then it can only be a good one. I worked with the Dressmakers to fill in some of Vai's guesses with some creative inspiration from Mandalorian culture. The responses from the Dressmakers looked excited, so I assumed they had some good ideas on where to take the final design. It is one of many projects I am looking forward to for a demonstration on my return visit to Gargon.
My thoughts were interrupted as a beeping alerted me to the incoming audio stream I was expecting, the aforementioned first project. I pressed the button and that communication came up showing a Besalisk of indeterminate age smoking a cigar. I didn't recognize the make of the cigar, which told me a lot, as he sat at his desk on a view screen in front of me.
"Good, you're not going to keep me waiting." The unintroduced Besalisk said, taking the cigar out of his mouth before saying, "Listen, I don't know who you are or how you got this number. But leaving messages like that implies this is going to be some sort of legal problem. So, I want to know why you want to cause me legal problems?"
The conversation is off to a rough start. No matter, I will clear this up posthaste. "I think you've misunderstood my initial message."
"Really? I doubt that. I don't get calls about information about some betrayals of my character's portrayals and how they might look similar to a certain other person unless someone's trying to get leverage on me. So spit it out and how much money do I need to pay you to go away? Extra if you tell me who gave you my number."
"Strange. I guess many do not see the investment quality of your work, Mr. Khip." I said, revealing his name and getting a confused reaction from the alien.
"Okay, If you're not here to wind me up or suing me, then what are you here for?"
"Well, Mr. Khip," I said with confidence, "You can call me S4, and I represent, as you may have already guessed, White Silver here on Gargon." I had set up the call to route through several proxy networks and transmitters to spoof the visible origin. A superficial analysis would show the call as coming from off-world. In reality we're probably only about a hemisphere away from each other, not that he needed to know that. "White Silver was somewhat pleased at the portrayal of her character in your most recent movie. Very much so that-"
"As I said to the press, I am not producing a White Silver biopic because the Silver Mandalorian is not the same person. Inspired by her, certainly, her portrayal is one of many possible options available." Khip spoke up, interrupting me again, which is rather irritating.
"Are you quite finished? If so, are you going to interrupt me again before I can answer?" The both of us merely stared silently before I cut to the chase, "I want to do business with you."
That finally seemed to shut the alien up as he sat back down in his chair. "Business? That is . . . unexpected. What business does White Silver have for me then?"
"As I was saying, though White Silver was a bit taken aback by the certain displays of . . . affection during the holo, she found that the message that your actress portrayed was in line with the one she is trying to convey to the public. White Silver is willing to negotiate a fee to have you create a television series based on her life story, with several conditions. First would be filmed within the Mandalorian sector, second is that its acting staff and support staff must consist mostly of Mandalorian citizens. Finally, we also have some stipulations on referencing local Mandalorian companies' products in the story's lore."
Mr. Khip leaned forward before saying, "Isn't White Silver's story kind of unknown to anyone right now? From my own research into this, there is barely anything definite outside of the two Silver Codices. I've seen a few bootleg copies floating around that have footage of White Silver on Gargon. I've watched all that, but you are gonna have to give me some proof that your White Silver is the original." The Besalisk relit his cigar.
I transmitted original high quality copies of White Silver's confrontation with Gerr, plus an additional video from one of the Royal Guards perspectives that I am sure is not available anywhere else. "You should have the evidence . . . now. I can wait," I offered. The Besalisk didn't respond except to puff distractedly on his cigar while he was watching the videos.
"Alright. So..." Khip nodded again before saying, "So what? You want me to produce a television show on White Silver, the real life legend herself, a historical figure in the making? This would be quite the scandal in the press, a pirate holo-star."
"I see that you understand now how important this undertaking is."
"How much creative control can we expect? I know White Silver might not agree with all our decisions so far, but I'm not interested in becoming a shill for your PR campaign."
"We don't want to produce a documentary. We have certain real events that need to be conveyed to the public, from a fictional perspective. A television series format would be the appropriate medium for our narrative. But, it's your narrative, storytelling, and perspective we need. You can claim whatever creative rights in the story outside of whatever is needed to work. We would like to see the scripts first to okay in advance, of course, but otherwise you could have as much creative freedom as you want."
Leaning on the table, the alien's four hands came together and he seemed to gather his thoughts for a moment before he continued, "And you're going to be paying for some or most of the production costs on this."
"Yes, White Silver has acquired quite a bit of wealth, thanks to the fall of the former owner of Mandal Hypernautics. However, we would only pay the production costs for the content covering or relating to our interests. We won't finance some high-concept nonsense completely unrelated. Do you understand?"
The alien nodded before finally saying, "Sounds good enough. You sir have got a deal. God damn this is the biggest possible windfall I think I've had in 10 years." Khip banged two fists on the table and yelled to someone out of view. "Get Taylor on the phone, tell her she gets to play hero again and this time as the lead."
A muffled affirmative response is intelligible in the background.
Turning back to me, the alien said, "How do I get the contract sent to you so we can get this all filled out and legal."
"I will acquire the information necessary from Gargon and forward you the resulting paperwork you need to fill out. It will all be taken care of."
"Perfect, perfect," he said with a smile, before finally saying, "a pleasure doing business with you. I did have one final question. Will White Silver show up on the sets in person? Something tells me she would have the most amazing energy on camera. Even if the footage is only used for bonus content or commentary, we have to have the real White Silver meet her holo equivalents." Avarice seemed to light up his eyes as he explained.
"I can contact her and likely we can work something out. White Silver would not be adverse to some minor appearances, providing that your work is satisfactory enough for her to make the effort.."
Khip picked up his cigar and bit down on it in unspoken acknowledgement.
Mandalore, Northern Wastes
Duchess Satine Kryze
I ignore the thundering in my ear drums as I block and parry Bo's assault. Long dormant muscle memory slowly makes itself known as my limbs intercept punches and kicks from multiple angles. I have no time to think, only react and move as all of my focus has been spent on defense. My armored forearms are my shields while my legs and hips let me retreat or lean out of the way of a blow.
An incoming right hook is parried with my left arm, it returns as a back hand which forces me to block with the same arm. A left uppercut is dodged with a sidestep to my right. My instincts scream at me to launch a low knee at my opponent's stomach while she is recovering from the upper cut. I ignored it as I'll win this fight without striking a single blow to prove a point. Instead I grabbed her right hand so I could put her in a wrist lock. Before I could pull her arm behind her back, she counters with a side kick that hits my abdomen.
The blow pushed me away and forced me to let go of my opponent. With a running start, she leaped into a flying side kick to continue attacking before I could recover. Seeing the attack coming, I jumped to the left so that the kick missed as well as positioning myself to be facing her back. As my attacker landed, I lunged behind her to close into grappling range. Before I could close in, she sent an elbow to my face to force me to evade and give her time to recover.
Undeterred, I pushed forward whilst blocking her elbow with my forearm before proceeding to put her in a double shoulder lock. The two of us struggled against each other as I applied pressure to her shoulder while she did her best to break my hold. I only had a second to react as she grabbed my helmet and raised both of her legs, this severely unbalanced me as she quickly straightened her legs and flipped me over her head and my back impacted the ground.
I rolled out of the way of a stomp and retaliated by sending a sweeping kick on the stomping leg. She jumped over my leg and fell on to me. As we became a tangle of limbs the two of us struggled for a bit before it ended as I was put in a submission hold.
Laughing, the red warrior said, "Yeah, you're definitely too rusty for this." After which, she released her hold on me and removed her helmet, revealing the face of my sister. The two of us sat there on the ground to catch our breaths. A few seconds of rest later, Bo stood up and offered her hand to me.
"I didn't exactly have time to stay in shape while keeping the entire Mandalore sector running smoothly right after the Civil War." I admitted, as I was pulled off the ground. Brushing the dirt off, I glanced down at the unpainted armor I had borrowed from Zum. It is a featureless and bland gray and silver colored armor, in super commando style. The armor is neither the ugliest nor the fanciest armor I'd ever worn, it fell somewhere near the middle; but it would do fine as training armor.
"Oh please, there's out of shape and then there is a New Mandalorian. Even Tanya would have lasted longer, and she would have actually hit me." Bo groused lightly, "Good thing you have that cushy 'Duchess' title to fall back on, eh?"
I gave her an amused look, "That is why I'm not doing that. While I see the benefits of Tanya's philosophy, especially with war clearly on the horizon, I am still a New Mandalorian. I will defend myself, but I will not attack first. I am still quite proud of Tanya in the arena of politics too. Her latest 'work' was quite interesting to read. I approved it, you know."
Looking back across at the red armored figure, I watched as she pulled off her helmet. Bo Katan's smiling face is radiant in a way I hadn't seen since Adonai's lifetime. Laughing, she said. "Didn't read it. Well, you were always a bit of a dreamer, probably why dad sent you to Coruscant."
"He always knew to put family ahead of his personal expectations. I think he knew what would happen if I went to Coruscant and even knowing the outcome in advance, he also knew it was the best possible outcome. So he did it anyway, no matter how much he might disagree with the end. Does that make sense?" I said, brushing the dust off of myself as Bo walked past me and nodded her head in grudging agreement as she headed to the shuttle she's using for transport.
We'd actually set up a bit of a camp around it as she'd been here for the last week. Apparently things were going rather well on Gargon that Bo has time to visit and train me for a bit, so she is camping out here in the Wastes. I didn't have as much free time, so I had to use my own shuttle to make jumps from Sundari to the Wastelands. Bo is already training at the campsite; it was nice to see that there is a camp ready when I got here.
As I walked over to Bo, she said, "Let's take a break. We've been at this for an hour. You dida couple decent counters, but I think I'm getting a little bit tired of bruising my knuckles on that armor. What about you?"
"Of course, my forearms are getting numb after blocking your hits for half an hour." I said, gingerly moving across the sand to take the seat across from her. The fireplace smoldering just in front of us making up the third point in a little triangle.
"So how are things going here in Mandalore? I haven't been here in what feels like a year to really find out what the whole political situation is."
"Thought we agreed you were going to stay out of politics?"
"I did, I agreed I would stay out of politics. I did not agree to not hear about politics. So come on, spill the beans. "
I sighed before obliging, "Things are going rather well, if we ignore the imminent Galactic war getting closer by the day. The Mandalorian Guard is coming along nicely, I've been building up some resources for the SDF, and Mandal Motors has offered us some new ships. The new designs did disturb the Council and myself a bit, but otherwise things have been calm around the sector, or as calm as can be expected."
"Oh come on. There has to be something a bit more juicier going on." Bo asked and then she reached over and popped open a cooler pulling out some sort of canned beverage and a candy bar. I sighed before reaching over to my personal cooler and grabbing a drink of my own. Before I could open it, Bo offered hers, "Want to try a caffeinated soft drink from Gargon? It's my latest vice. I've gotten absolutely hooked on these."
I raised an eyebrow before accepting the can. Just to be safe I read the list of ingredients. Once I see that there isn't anything dangerous in it, other than the fairly high sugar content. I watched as Bo took a sip from her drink as well as a bite from her candy bar before I cracked the seal and took a sip. A moment to gather my thoughts and enjoy the drink. The taste is rather nice, if a bit too sweet, with an unrecognizable fruity taste.
Letting out a breath I finally said, "Theoretically, everything is as good as it could ever be. Our sector feels united in a purpose that I don't think it has had in a long time. But there are reports from Almec's Mandalorian Secret Security indicating that there are factions out there trying to gather support for a renewed Death Watch movement. We've found pamphlets and a wide enough distribution to hint at a sophisticated production effort. They cherry-picked the events of the Civil War and the Mandalorian Clan Wars quite a bit from what I've read of them.
And then there's the Silver Mandalorians, those who claim to follow White Silver. They are less of a problem and they seem more willing to cooperate with the New Mandalorians, but with a bit more gusto and armor. It's the fact that they have pledged allegiance to the White Silver in particular that annoys Almec to no end. No real surprise Almec would disapprove, he hates any movement he's not already a member of by default. There was also a bit of a kerfuffle a while ago on Vorpa'ya."
"The planet that had that pirate invasion a few years back?" Bo asked before she finished her snack and took a sip of her drink to wash it down.
"Yes." I said matter of factly. "It seems during the negotiations, our little Tanya offered land from that planet for the Jedi to set up a small Temple so they would have a place for their environmental workers to help improve the planet and spread out from the system."
"Oof, let me guess, someone didn't like that and tried to blow it up?"
"No, that would actually make sense." I rubbed my head before continuing, "Apparently, a Mandalorian war orphan who has no family and no contacts happened to have been discovered to be Force sensitive while talking to members of the Jedi Conclave there. And from what little of the story I was able to find out, she willingly joined the Jedi."
Bo sat up at that and said, "A Mandalorian joined the Jedi? What!?... That's something I don't hear everyday."
"You can say that again." I said, taking another sip of my drink before I continued. "From what I can gather there she is not an official Jedi recruit. She joined the Agricorp directly as she is too old to go under the training for Jedi knighthood. The difference will be academic though, the only difference between the Agricorp recruits and Jedi knights on the farm is whether they would wield lightsabers or not."
"Huh, so how did this end up being your problem?" Bo leaned back sipping her drink.
I shook my head before saying, "Because the governor of Concord Dawn, Purton Jendri, instituted a conscription to increase the numbers of his Journeyman Protectors recently. No surprise that the orphan girl in question was chosen to be a member of the Journeyman Protectors. The recruiters showed up at the temple to, well, take her to her new job."
"I'm starting to see how this became a problem."
"Oh, the best is yet to come. The girl defeated the four Journeyman Protectors with her bare fists."
"Respectable," Bo said, "though not all that impressive, most Journeymen are just thugs with blasters. If you close distance with them they tend to not do very well."
"That may be so, but that still didn't solve the problem. Purton Jendri and Concord Dawn are up in arms over this whole situation and demand that the girl be handed over. The governor of the Vorpa'ya, Ghajoja Kraungh, who I think was elected 20 minutes after the incident happened, immediately declared their new government's first action would be to defy Concord Dawn. Next, Ghajoja Kraungh declares Vorpa'ya's independence and that 'They no longer need the protection of the governor and his corrupt goon squad.'."
"Yep, those are fighting words. Okay I can see how that reached your notice. How is that being handled?"
"I cited the law on the matter, since Vorpa'ya has declared itself an independent planet but still part of the Mandalore sector and is willing to contribute to the Mandalorian Guard then as a matter of course, the New Mandalorian government must side with its independence. Immediately after they declared themselves independent of Concord Dawn, the new government offered to directly support Mandalore and withdraw the tariffs that Concord Dawn was putting on their products. They now sell their products here in Sundari and elsewhere across Mandalore, as well as supply troops for the New Mandalorian Guard."
"Oh, well I suppose that's good and bad at the same time, no?"
"As Tanya would say, I love capitalism. Food prices fell quite a bit overnight when word got out that we would no longer be going through Concord Dawn for our meat products, which helped a lot in lowering prices elsewhere. But back to the matter of officially recognizing their independence. With Vorpa'ya's independence as a planet in the Mandalore Sector and not some colony of Concord Dawn, it stripped Concord Dawn of a valuable resource, and they are not happy. AndConcord Dawn has raised prices a bit."
"Do you think he might try something?" Bo asked, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"Do I think that Jendri might try and use that army that he's building to invade Vorpa'ya and declare it a colony again? It's possible, yes. Thankfully I'm not alone on this as Ordo has also recognized the independence of Vorpa'ya."
"Ahh, the threat of two on one does tend to put things in perspective. Any other planets officially recognizing their independence?"
"There's been some talk from Draboon and Hrthging but they haven't moved on anything. Jakalia has also put forward monetary support as they claimed to 'pursue the mission of peace'," Bo rolled her eyes at this, "and basically offered to train up Vorpa'ya's own Mandalorian Self-Defense Force. A lot of planets are a bit hesitant though since a lot of their food still comes from Concord Dawn."
Bo nodded before saying, "I can discuss this with the Gargon Council if you want. They're very transactional and more than happy to support any effort, such as additional food imports, for the right incentives. I might even be able to spin it as a favor to the sector government, they'll definitely trust you more if they think you owe them one. And most of their food is either grown on the planet or imported off the Hydian Way; so no ties to Concord Dawn."
I smiled at that before saying, "One more planet would probably tip the balance enough. Concord Dawn would be forced to back down from this matter and hopefully, that would stop the situation from escalating."
"Will do, and yeah hopefully. And with Jedi presence on that planet, interaction and recruitment is going to become more common. Wherever the Jedi go they tend to find Force users for their Order."
I nodded my head at that thinking about what the Mandalore Sector might have been. What would an alternate galaxy look like if they had been around to take more Mandalorians as Jedi? Maybe that galaxy would be a lot more peaceful than ours. The Jedi were not known for provoking conflicts or starting wars. Perhaps in time there would have been some Jedi who could have returned and tried to improve things here at home. That's a thought for another time, though.
Ending the silence, I drank the rest of my beverage before I said, "Well that's what's been going on around here. How about what's been going on with Gargon? You don't really talk about your work. I know you're involved in some sort of effort to make a police force for the planet."
Bo nodded her head before saying, "Yep, I'm working on what we're calling the Gargon Rangers, it's the police slash security force that's there to keep an eye on things on the planet. Kind of like the JPs but we actually train them to be competent to mostly keep the people from getting too rowdy, clean up the streets, and assist travelers and residents living on the far edges of the wilderness. Part of Tanya's efforts to try and turn that crime world into a legitimate economic powerhouse."
"And how is Tanya doing? I've never gotten around to getting all the details exactly clear. She simply said that she is working on trying to get the gangsters to step away from their criminal nature."
She gave a little shrug before saying, "Casinos, I guess. She's trying to turn the planet into some sort of resort world. It's positioned, as she said, in the right place for a stopover between those going to the Corporate Sector and those going to the Core. Tanya is trying to create a place where people traveling on that Hydian way will want to visit. A diversion or a vacation in the middle of their trip before their destination."
"Hmm, would that actually work? Gambling and sightseeing? I mean I guess anything could work, but it seems a little low on entertainment value. There's nothing really culturally important about Gargon when you think about it."
"She's working on that too." Bo paused, "It's one of thestrangest things she's ever come up with." She gave a rather exaggerated shrug.
"Well don't leave me in suspense, what is it?" Bo is acting too awkward. Now I kind of want to hear about it.
Bo took a sip of her drink, paused again, and then said, "'Idols' and music as the cornerstones of this project. The idea seems to be to create a famous person, or small group of them, who spreads aspects of our culture in ways that are entertaining for outsiders. Right now we have three girls employed. They are all professionals who can sing, dance, and use their armor for percussion equipment. These girls perform songs about Mandalorian history with rather catchy tunes and instruments, plus a few other backup musicians. There has been some success on this front and people do seem to enjoy it, but I don't think Gargon is the best place for it right now. We have a whole amphitheater building set aside, but there's not a lot of outside money flowing into Gargon right now, excluding the existing export contracts for fighters and other shuttlecraft for the Hutts."
"A way to display culture…" I said leaning back on the bench thinking about the matter before saying, "You know I've been working on something like that as well."
"You have?" Bo said with a raised eyebrow.
"You know how I'm having my armor being worked on by Zum? There's also a film crew involved in the effort as they're filming the entire process and some additional seamstresses working to further decorate it. We're also filming some of the garments that'll be displayed. I'm thinking about publishing this documentary after I reveal this new ceremonial armor set, although perhaps we could collaborate on this?"
"Okay I'll bite, how would we help each other?"
"I could contact the film crew and tell them about your girls, these idols, and I could sponsor another documentary about them. We planned to film some of the more famous armor makers, at least those who are willing to have their practices filmed. Once we filmed the armorers, then we'll go onto filming the girls. After we film the documentaries, we'll follow up with an invite for the idols to come to Mandalore and put on a show. We schedule the release of the film a day or two before their show. Mandalore is the center of the Mandalorian sector. Anything that catches here will spread to the other planets."
"Now that sounds like a good idea." Bo leaned back as she thought about it. "They are very short on funds at the moment. I'm certain any safe, well-paying work would be appreciated. I'll probably tell them to work up something a little less Old Mandalorian to show that they have depth outside of just war songs."
"Yes, that would be for the best, I think." I said whilst nodding my head. "I'm sure a few people wouldn't mind as long as they're done in an intelligent way but having some variety would be helpful with a lot of the New Mandalorians."
Bo nodded before saying, "I'll talk to them tonight and see if we can't work something up. I think this is going to help Gargon quite a bit. After all, if they get popular while on Mandalore, people are going to want to come see them again, and the only official place you can see them is?"
"Gargon." I said nodding my head in approval, "I imagine if they get successful enough you could arrange a tour across some of the Mandalorian worlds."
"Hah, that's not a bad idea," Bo said, nodding her approval before adding, "but that's really the only thing we, I mean Tanya really, has accomplished to improve Gargon's cultural standing. We don't have much else that could be added to make Gargon more relevant to start bringing in people."
I nodded at that before saying, "Doesn't Gargon have natural spice resources? I recall reports about a pirate spice mine? I thought most of the pirate's funding came from spice."
Bo nodded saying, "Yeah, that's true, technically. The spice mines are in poor condition overall. Tanya as Silver has been working with the current mine owners to establish a legal corporation to take over the mines. Her idea is to expand into medical spice refinement, but the industrial refining equipment required for it needs to come from the Core and being real expensive to boot to provide both the money and the flimsi-work to send one over, hence the requirement for a legal entity. Tanya is hoping to find some investors outside of Gargon to help expand and take on as partners. X4's has been handling the paperwork, but it's going to take a while to find investors."
I leaned forward at that, this is an opportunity. One that I think Mandalore could benefit from. "Next time you're on Gargon, mention that because Mandalore is building up a Self-Defense Force that we are looking for medical supplies and maybe interested in becoming an investment partner in this medical refinery corporation, if they reach out to us."
Bo smiled and nodded before saying, "Will do, sis. I'm sure they'll jump on the chance to have someone else's money do the job. Even if they have to give over a good portion of the starter product, it's a long-term investment and having an actual refinery on the planet might actually make it worth it, since most of the spice they have been getting was shipped off to Phindian refineries. And they make no attempt to hide the love lost between Phindar and Gargon."
"Absolutely hate us." I said, shaking my head, "Every time I have a meeting, someone has to mention how they put out another demand from the Senate to be moved out of the Mandalore sector. Lately it's the Thrasybule sector that Phindar wants to be moved to. Because it's not bordering any Mandalorian space, I'm given to understand."
"Why don't we just let them leave if they have such a problem with being part of the Mandalore sector? You'd think it would be alright to have their piece of land redistributed to the Thrasybule." Bo is asking a question many had asked over the years, which I unfortunately had an answer.
"Getting a sector redrawn is such a complex process, the Senate won't bother picking it up as a thing to consider unless there's multiple other sectors that need to be drawn as well. And I'' be the first to admit I would gladly let them go. In fact, I don't even have the Mandalorian Guard pay them a visit anymore. Phindar have embargoed all Mandalorian worlds, so they're not exactly trading with us. They have basically de facto autonomy."
"You'd think if they've been given that much independence they'd be satisfied, no?"
I shook my head before saying, "It's not just that they have autonomy. They're worried that somehow Mandalore will start a war and they'll be held accountable with the rest of the Mandalorian sector. And those in the Republic won't be interested in identifying which planet is the antagonist, they would punish the entire sector to be sure none escape.."
"Ah, they just don't want to be close to us in case someone starts throwing Delta Zeroes around. Got it."
"Yes, that's pretty much it." I said, rubbing my temple.
"So do you think Phindians will join the Separatists then?" Bo asked, causing me to look up.
"I haven't even considered that possibility. But if they do, I think we'll have to be forced to step in and prevent it to maintain neutrality. The Phindarian problem works both ways, we could be punished for their affairs."
"Step in?" Bo asked and I shook my head.
"I really don't want to talk about politics but if you really must know, there's a couple competing views in our council on how to deal with the various potential situations that would develop with the Republic. The majority of the council are of the mind that we must stay neutral and stay out of things. I share that opinion as well, but Almec and Tanya have suggested the government took that neutrality a step further. The main idea being that we must enforce neutrality within our sector to try and prevent either side from using any planet in our sector for their gains. Tanya pointed out that Phindar could easily become a major Separatist resupply and fleet staging platform, given their mature medical spice industries and their independent local food supplies. She also worries it might compete with Gargon for the black market trade too. "
Bo nodded her head, "Phindar can not be allowed to become a military base for the Separatists. It would practically invite a Republic fleet to the Mandalorian sector."
"A big risk, which is why I'm hoping that some better idea will come forward or that they won't align with the Separatists. Personally, I think they are more interested in competing with their cartels to upend the entire sector."
Letting out a sigh I leaned back, "Anyway, let's stop talking about politics. Bo, could you stop by the palace someday soon? I need you to do something for me."
Bo made a face, "Okay, why do you need me to stop by the Palace?"
Smiling as if I wasn't pulling something, "Oh nothing much. Remember how I said that my armor will have a ceremonial piece in order to make it look less, well, like a Mandalorian warrior."
Bo nodded as if she was waiting for a punchline. Smiling, I continued, "I'm also having one made for Tanya as well so her armor doesn't look as intimidating when we have to use it for ceremonial purposes. And I thought, why not get my sister an upgrade on her armor as well. After all, it couldn't hurt to protect my younger sister and niece both, and to show off the united Kryze clan at ceremonial events."
Bo was looking at me skeptically before saying, "Your niece, huh? I might be willing to go and get whatever this upgrade you're thinking about, but I do have a question. How's Korkie taking that new stance?"
I sighed. "I actually haven't talked to him on that matter. But I will eventually, and I think it's best to let him decide where he stands. If Korkie wants to take up the armor and wear it as a defensive measure then he will be free to do so. At the very least I think he might understand and use some aspects of the armor. Did you know he was involved in a bit of a fight against a wild animal on Breshig?"
"No shit." Bo said whilst cleaning up. Saying, "Korkie? The little pipsqueak was in a fight? How come I'm just hearing about this? Is he okay?"
I smiled and nodded, "He's fine. Korkie's fine, I got a full report from Captain Rau on the matter. The expedition were attacked by some sort of giant lizard native to the planet. On one such occasion Korkie fought off one with a weapon he found on the ship. I was surprised too. I actually had to give Rau a call to make sure that there had been some sort of mistake in the report."
Bo blinked before saying, "Hold up, did you say he fend off a giant lizard on Breshig? You know those things are like twice the size of people right? Damn, good for him."
I blinked at that point and said, "I was not aware of that."
"Oh yeah, I've heard sometimes they can grow to enormous sizes as big as a speeder actually. Then there's like the kind of the stuff that legends are made of."
"…I'll have to tell Zum about this later. I'm sure the story will inspire some ideas for Korkie's armor."
Bo nodded her head before saying, "Alright... Well if all the girls in the family are getting this ceremonial armor piece, I can't exactly miss out now can I? So I guess I'll come with. Zum's a good armorer so I'm sure whatever he's working on will be a massive upgrade over my current kit."
"Wonderful, by the way do you mind if they filmed the process as well?" I asked pushing a bit more on the subject. After all, every little bit I could do to help improve the appearance of Mandalorian culture helped right?
"Thank you for asking, I do mind greatly." Bo's head shot back up, "You may have no problem letting people know what's on your armor, but I do. Nothing like obfuscating the depth and quality of weapons hidden in your armor for a good surprise late in a fight."
"Alright," I said, "but if you're not going to let them film it I want you to at least make one public appearance with the full set of armor okay?"
Bo sighs before shaking her head and saying, "Fine. I'll do it for you." Then she stood up and brushed herself off and said, "Now I believe we were training. Why don't we get back to that. There's still plenty of lumps I can give you to get yourself back into fighting shape.
I chuckled at that and got back up saying, "I think I'll do better this time since I have you training me. I'll catch up sooner or later."
"Hah, sure you will, sis. Sure you will." she stopped mid-step like she remembered something and asked, "Hey sis, have you seen the new Silver Rider movie?"
"Odd question," I said before shaking my head in the negative, "no, I'm not one to watch action holos. I know Tanya is a fan of that franchise but I have just never had an interest in it. Why do you ask?"
Bo let out a laugh before saying, "Ha! Well, I think you need to see the most recent one. I think you need to see it a lot."
"Why?" I asked out of confusion.
Bo simply shook her head and said, "I can't spoil it. After we're done sparring, it's movie night for some sisterly bonding. You, me, and Silver Rider 4: Silver Spark."
"Alright." I said, still very confused, but I'm sure it would be explained once we watched the movie. I have time for a little rest and relaxation. There's no reason not to take full advantage of my training. Why not see this Silver Rider movie, maybe I'd find out what Tanya saw in that show.
Breshig, Breshig Museum of Space Maritime Designs
Korkie Kryze
"Wow, the technology stored in this place is amazing. There's designs for everything, from old fighters to cargo ships and ships of the line." Soniee said as she looked through the files on the computer screen in front of her thathad hooked up to the facility network to try and get as much data off of the facility as possible.
"The place still stinks though." Lagos responded as she held her nose, while kicking a bit of mud off her boots. Most likely the remains of long dead animals and plant life that had managed to sneak in over the years.
"You'll get used to it." Zoll said though that is easy for him to say since he is still wearing his helmet. He knew it smelled and was just going to breathe his own recycled air then the air that has been trapped in the building for several hundred years.
After returning from the expedition to Gargon for a bit of political wining and dining with the people there, to hopefully integrate them into the Mandalorian Sector proper, I received an urgent message from Breshig. The excavation team finally cleared the facility out, enough for us to actually re-enter the facility ahead of schedule. Apparently, the accelerated schedule was due to something I 'just had to see'. So instead of going home, it was back to the bog planet.
Frankly, I would rather go back to Gargon and see the idols not a fan of armor because of its significance in our history. But by the ancient manda did that idol stuff turn that on the head. Sure they used props of military weapons as musical items and sang about the ancient wars of the past, but not all the songs were about glorification of the war itself but of the heroes that were made by the wars. The Ballad of Ordo and the Piece of Awaud being a good example of that. Brought about by a common goal of beating up pirates, but as songs go it was rather catchy even if the oldest singer wore that armor rather . . . provocatively.
I think someone amongst White Silver's entourage had noticed me enjoying the idols, because as I was leaving I received a poster of the trio of singing idols, which I naturally accepted gracefully. I was also given a copy of the complete Silver Codices, both volumes I & II, which interested me less, but I accepted anyway. I really ought to read through both and I know I've been procrastinating, but eventually I need to know what new nonsense and warmongering was being spread in order to counter it.
When I finished reading through both during the journey back to Breshig, I had many objections and concerns. First and foremost being that , the warlord had convinced herself that there is going to be a war between the Republic and the Separatists. I wasn't convinced of this assumption, and if events did lead to conflict, a military buildup did not seem like much of a solution. It sounded like a way for half of the galaxy to gang up on the other half, and in the end most would end up with less than what they started. Mandalore was the perfect example of this, most of our sector is still damaged in some way from war. We should be focusing on finding common ground, peace talks, and getting neutral parties to help facilitate this process. Something tells me Aunt Satine would agree with me on that.
Back on Breshig, the excavation team had discovered a broken grate somewhere in the facility. Of course, it is now sealed. I never found out exactly where it was but the important part is that snap jaws had been using this place as a nest for some time. As you might imagine, that meant when the initial team had to break into this place the first thing they ran into were angry massive reptiles trying to bite their heads off.
Thankfully after the incident with the boat, we brought in a lot more powerful weapons this time. I've been worried about getting those considering we're supposed to be past using these barbaric weapons, but Aunt Satine had spared no expense and sent over some good equipment. I am now carrying a rather powerful slugthrower with explosive ammunition, and I don't like myself but it would keep me safe as we were inspecting this place. I wasn't exactly comfortable carrying it but after the last snapjaw, I am not really interested in having another one-sided fight with them.
Also, Aunt Satine apparently still had contact with the old family armorer that can, apparently, get her the more powerful stuff. There is even a rocket launcher in the crate that I have no idea what we are going to do with. We couldn't use that down here, for obvious reasons, but I guess it is good to have and not need it; if what Crikey said of larger snapjaws out there that could bite a boat in half is true. So having something that might be able to blow them up from some distance is probably a good safety precaution.
I just wasn't as fascinated with the weapons as the others, so I merely had a stunner holstered at my belt. We eventually finished downloading all of the data from the terminal and then we moved on to explore more rooms. We eventually reached the primary storeroom for the records and what digital archives still remained.
I went ahead and explored the room. Soniee and Zoll entered the room after I walked in. I fake coughed to attract Soniee's attention, looking over a half desiccated memo about record transfers that were not being done on time. I asked, "Well the place may stink but it sure does have a lot of records. Have we found anything worth the trouble we've had getting in here?"
Zoll nodded at his head firmly as he turned in my direction saying, "Oh we have found some great finds in my opinion. Soniee, why don't you show off what you found? I think that one is going to be the biggest boon in this entire operation."
Soniee nodded and pressed a few buttons on her tablet. The little device sitting in front of her spring to life and showed a projection of a ship design I'd never seen before and the scale was hard to make out. It is somewhat similar to a hammerhead really though something seemed off about its scale and it had a weird engine nacelles in the back. It seems too big for the body and again the whole thing seemed just disproportionately large. The entire hologram is hazy, indistinct, with the top of the ship being far more detailed than the bottom.
"May I present to you a Kandosii class Battleship."
I blinked and said, "We have designs for a battleship?"
Soniee shook her head before saying, "Well yes, but no. No, that's not what I mean. This is a mass shadow that we can detect inside a drydock on Breshig, supposedly."
"Okay, start from the beginning. What do you mean 'mass shadow'? This is an actual ship? And what do you mean by supposedly?"
Soniee spoke up, "To be as clear as possible, according to legends, about 4,000 years ago one of those Kandosii class ships crashed on this planet. It was lost for a good long time and then rediscovered about a thousand years ago. Records on exactly how they discovered it were a bit lacking but from what I can tell they found it and they built a dry dock around it and tried to raise it."
I blinked and turned saying, "So there is a battleship that crashed on the planet. It was underwater for a good long time and then they raised it from the water. What happened then?"
"The ice caps melted," Mr. Bresh said from where he stood, "and the dockyard they were trying to empty was refilled with water. The ship was flooded and covered over in 30 to 40 ft of water. We sent out a ping to all of the terminals on the local network and by some miracle this particular drydock is reading as still functional and its scanners are still somewhat operational. As far as we can tell, this is a live sensor feed."
"That's right," Soniee said before continuing, "so the ship exists. We think it's spent a couple thousand years underwater and who knows what has happened to it in that time."
I nodded before saying, "You'd think if it's been underwater for that long that it wouldn't really be salvageable at all."
Mr. Zoll spoke up saying, "This is a crusade-era ship my good man. That means most of its internal hull is made from beskar to keep it as strong as possible. They made 'em differently back in the day! Though time can destroy the iron and corrode the plasteel and durasteel all around it, the beskar is still as strong as it ever would be. If these drydock scanners are still working right, then it's right there just waiting for us. Worse case is the scanner is detecting a very well preserved beskar chunk with petrified plasteel in the shape of a Kandosii. All depends on the beskar content."
I nodded before saying, "So the best case scenario is that we have a hull of beskar that could be used for other purposes?"
"Pretty much," Soniee said, "I mean I doubt any of its weapons are still functional or its engines. But the hull's probably intact and if the hull is intact and you can raise it out of the water, you could do a lot of things with old bones like that."
"Such as handing it over to the New Mandalorian Self-Defense Force." Lagos pointed out.
"Why should we do that?" I asked whilst raising an eyebrow.
"Think about it, Korkie. Currently the most powerful ship the Self-Defense Force has access to are heavy fighters and patrol ships. Most Self-Defense Forces in the Core have dreadnoughts and old style battleships that have had their hyperdrive engines removed. If we hand this over to the Self-Defense Force, we would have a vessel that could serve as a tender for our lighter fighter crafts but also be something impressive that might entice the Mandalorian patrol to work with us more. If she is still intact we could have one of the most valuable hulls in the known galaxy on our hands."
I nodded my head, not liking the military implications but I understood what they were saying. "So having a ship that massive is somewhat prestigious and could convince the Mandalorian Patrol that we are actually the government they're going to have to start dealing with instead of just acknowledging we exist."
"Exactly," Amis said as he entered the room we've been working out of whilst shaking off a couple wires off his shoulder. "Brought some wires to connect us to the station's power grid. I'm going to be trying to start it back up in an hour or two."
"Not a bad turnaround on getting the power back on." Mr. Zoll said, whilst nodding his head in approval.
"We could have it be melted down to be used to make a new Dome City or two." I spoke out as the room suddenly developed a rather pregnant pause. "Developing the infrastructure and civil capacity of Mandalore."
"I don't see many clans going for that." Amis muttered. "If she is still intact then this is a relic."
"Alright," I said, "so how do we go about recovering this ship? I mean it's under 40 ft of water. Like sure we can probably go find it, do we even know where this dry dock is?"
Soniee nodded, saying, "It's actually not too far away from here. A lot of old dry docks aren't that far from here. If the ship is still there, it's possible that someone may have tried to pull it out when the whole 'World is coming to an end' thing was going on. But if it is still there it's under 40 ft of water, degraded but whole. Hopefully the drydock prevented any damage from the shear stress of so much water and geological shifting." If there was a lot of stress damage then the choice to scrap the ship would be made for us.
I nodded, "I guess we'll need to put together another expedition to go investigate that. More diving expeditions, wonderful." I deadpanned, shaking my head at the idea of having to go underwater again. Technically I am underwater right now but I rode the transport shuttle that we had rigged up for diving so it only felt like an elevator trip.
"There's also one other thing." Soniee said from where she's sitting, "A bit odd but there's records of another ship called 'The Seeker's Vigil' and I think you're going to be interested in this one."
Raising an eyebrow I said, "Why would I be interested in this particular ship?"
She shrugged before saying, "Other than the fact that it may or may not exist. According to these records though it was in a drydock in one of the off-world asteroid fields so it might already be gone. But the interesting thing is it's marked as a vault ship. The exact quote is 'it's a repository for the cultural heritage of all Mandalore'."
"Okay, I'm interested."As Soniee brought up the schematics of the ship. It was an old design, one I had never seen before, three engines in the back, one cylinder for the main body and head.
"How old is this anyway?" I said looking at it.
"3,600 years give or take, it's hard to say. The records aren't exactly clear as to whoever commissioned its construction. They took a common Mandalorian cargo ship at the time, actually we found several designs for this type of ship. Apparently it was designed with an idea that it could be rebuilt easily by its crew into a warship in times of war. But for most of the time, it would serve as pleasure craft or transport ships or in this case a mobile repository of cultural heritage."
"So a clan ship?" I asked. That wasn't an unfamiliar concept, some Mandalorians practiced ancient beliefs. I had seen references to some Mandalorian clans not settling down on planets for a long time and instead using ships that have been built by the Mandalorian Empire. Still some continued to this day though, it's a very rare thing and it's theorized that the only clans that officially did it is part of the Mandalorian Patrol.
"Pretty much and according to these records it still exists. It's located in some sort of asteroid belt in a nearby system. One where they were used to hide and repair some of their vessels during the whole conflict with the Republic 700 years ago."
"What are the chances it's still there?" I asked, looking at the craft wondering what secrets it could have for Mandalore. This recovery expedition's raison d'etre is rediscovering information about Mandalorian history from this old museum and all we had to show so far is a lot of trivia on ships and when they were constructed as well as the beskar that's going to be salvaged when we disassemble the entire museum. Not so much on Mandalorian history as a whole. But if this ship existed and had a vault of information, it would be interesting to open that one and see what we found.
"I'd say the chances are pretty good." Mr. Zoll said, "Most of those old repair facilities were lost since they're, you know, 'secret'. Most of the staff that knew where they were either died in the war or died here. So like a treasure hunt across the stars, those types of ships are hidden out there, just waiting for anyone to stumble across them. I'm sure there's a chance that it's already been stumbled on, there's also a chance there hasn't been."
Hmm and what are they going to do about this? This whole trip was only meant to be a bit of a summer excursion. Do a little bit of an adventure before I figured out what I was going to do with my life and it was an opportunity to extend this little trip to go adventuring some more. This facility had given it secrets and now they had a whole bunch more to investigate. Rubbing my chin, I said, "Soniee, copy down all that information before you send it to the Royal Mandalore Museum. I think we'll check out this ship and see what we can find out."
"Will do." she said.
Lagos spoke up though asking, "We don't exactly have a ship of our own. How are we going to get there?"
"Hmm, I could give Aunt Satine a call. She would probably be able to figure out a way to get us a ship to get us over there. This is what our mandate is: find relics of the past and bring them to Mandalore to help build our history out so we understand where we came from."
Mr. Zoll actually spoke up, saying, "You've helped me find out a lot about my world and I have a ship available in a couple months if you don't mind me tagging along."
I thought about it before nodding, "Yeah sure why not. Thank you very much."
Mr. Zoll asked, "Since we're going to be doing this, maybe we should see if there's any other ships like this relic ship. You know we're already going out there to see if there's one ship full of history and such. Maybe we should see if there's any other in the records or anything else that may have information that could be used in the capacity of history or whatever."
Looking over to Soniee as she called from her seat. "Already, working on it." as she looked through the records in front of her.
Shaking my head I said, "I don't know how long we can actually do this but finding out the selection of ships that probably could be found for Mandalore would be a good idea. We can turn over the list to Aunt Satine and she can form an expedition to look into the others."
"Sounds like a plan, it's all coming together, wonderful." Zoll said before a brick flew through the air and nearly hit him in the back.
"Oh so that's how it is, you finished robbing one historical vaultTom; now you're off to rob another while leaving your friends behind for bullshit." Miss Crikey said as she came around the corner looking a bit angry. Her head is cocked at an angle with her foot tapping impatiently on the floor that signaled that she's about ready to start a fight.
I and the other members of my friend group who are nearby immediately stepped away as she let out a huff and walked towards Mr. 'Tom'. Grabbing him by the front of his armor, "We're going to have a long talk about how many times you can just run off and leave me to clean up the messes you make."
'Tom' didn't make a noise though it took him a while to speak. I wondered if he cut the comms from his helmet to take a moment to get himself centered because as he came back he sort of clipped in like you would say something before.
"Sorry Tarri, I won't be gone that long. In fact if you want you can come along. This is a wonderful time for us to go adventuring and see other worlds as well as get off Breshig before, you know, the terraforming starts."
Her eyes narrowed before she said, "I'll consider it." Letting go of his armor before walking away in such a way that said she is fuming.
Zoll shook his head but again apparently he'd shut off his mic as I had no idea what he said before he turned and said, "I think we've got ourselves an adventure to plan."
Writers note: And there we go folks, another in X4's path to riches. Wait… shouldn't this story be about Tanya? So funny story, this not the original Chapter 29, the original chapter was pushed off to be Chapter 30. Why did that happen? Because you folks gave me too many ideas around Chapter 26 and 27. So yeah, it's your fault my readership! Don't encourage me! Mostly kidding, but I almost pushed chapter 30 off to 31 because of the same mindset that led to this being made.
Anyways, what we got in this chapter, we got Bo and Satine bonding time, we got X4 being X4, and we got Korkie getting involved in another adventure some time in the future. (aforementioned possible chapter 30 replacement) all little fun stuff, but I decided that I could wait till after the current arc I'm writing. In case you didn't know, I'm already to chapter 35 in raw pre-edited chapters, so yeah I'm getting this arc written good and fast. I usually don't like to get too far in front of my editor, no more than three chapters, but my supporters keep voting for me to work on this fic when offered during my weekly updates, so I'm working on it.