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Iria awoke the next morning, with a quick trip to the 'fresher for a shower.
Afterwards she then returned to the guest room to once again don her red and black Imperial Knight armor, lamenting that she would not be in nice civilian clothes all the while, before joining the others in the living room.
"Would you say that's enough credits to procure transportation?" was her only comment on the credit-filled suitcase.

The Tusken roared and charged in, raising the axe-mace of his gaffi above his head for a killing downward blow.

As the blow sped down, Link's blade vanished from it's scabbard and struck directly upward at the weapon with a resounding Crash. The Tusken suddenly found himself thrown upwards into the air, watching the jedi below him finish his upward swipe and sheath his sword. The Sandperson then saw the hard stone rush up to meet him with a thud.

Link watched the tusken smack down on the rock hard. He glanced over to the Lead Tusken.
[So, is that good enough?]

Ghk'ik shook his head. [The fight is not over yet.]
Link stared at the mounted Sandpeople as the warrior he had been fighting slowly stood and moved with a predator's silence to a striking position behind Link.

[This one has soundly bested your warrior in a single stroke. Is that not enough?]

The Warrior raised the spike of his club, prepared to give Link's skull a new breathing hole, seeminly unoticed by the young jedi.
[No. The World is a harsh and perilous place outlander. Those who show mercy or pity will Die. It is either kill, or be killed.]

Neither the Tuskens, nor the Monks saw the jedi even draw his sword.

The tusken warrior seemed to fall apart before their eyes as Link slid a cloth along his sword and scabbarded it.
He turned back to face the Tuskens, his emotion concealed by the mask he wore.

[The matter is settled now, I trust?] The Young warrior replied casually.

There was a moment of silence from the tuskens as the Human Monks stared in frightened suprise at the demonstration of deadly precision and speed.

Then the Tuskens laughed. They laughed the Sandpeople equivalent of a belly laugh, their guffaws a frightenin noise to be heard.

[You will do Jedi. You will do.] Ghk'ik stated, seemingly pleased. [Mount up. Let us ride out and see if your kitchen knife is a match for the Swallower of Worlds.]

"Very good, Iust," Iria approvingly commented. "For me, anywhere that's not controlled by the Sith is fine with me,"

The fleet dropped out of hyperspace over the world of Garos IV and slowly began moving toward the waiting stardocks. Onboard the Hektor's Shield Borill Elsyn paced along the command walk of the bridge, "Hail Fleet Admiral Akla and prepare a priority one transmission to Ord Mantell."

Commodore Kull nodded to the comm officers before walking up beside him, "The after action reports you requested Admiral..."

Borill took the card from his chiss second and command and plugged it into the datapad, "Alright, less then ten percent casualties among starfighter crews. Less then a hundred killed on the Trafalgar. All in all we faired quite well for the first combat operation this force has seen in awhile. Wouldn't you agree Commodore?"

"Yes sir, our losses were light, his casualties however are much more severe. He won't be able to continue such losses in further engagements. Our retreat may appear to be a tactical victory for his forces, but was it necessary sir?" Commodore Kull glanced around the bridge, "We could have eliminated the force he sent against us... Even with the arrival of those reinforcements he could not have won the engagement, our ship..."

"Yes Commodore, we could have won the engagement but at what cost? This force is largely untested. If we'd launched ourselves into the fight would the threat be eliminated? Could Elladan Kenet have fielded additional forces? It was a risk I wasn't willing to take."

"I understand sir," The Commodore nodded, "What of morale? Won't this be a blow against it?"

"No Commodore, they utterly destroyed the forces they engaged. This is a proud moment, and when they realize I withdrew to preserve their lives they'll fight like dragons," Borill grinned.

The Comm officer turned toward them, "Sir, I've got a channel with the Admiral."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," The Bothan Admiral turned and walked to the comm officer and pulled the headset from him, "This is Elsyn."

"Roger that Admiral, I've read your initial report on the engagement and have already got the repair facilities ready and open for the Trafalgar."

"Thank you sir," Admiral Elsyn answered, "I trust you realize what this apparent alliance with the Mandalorians means."

"Yes Admiral, my forces have already begun moving to seal off Elladan Kenet's little empire." Borill smiled, the Garos IV sector fleet composed of over sixty Nemisis-class Star Destroyers, ninety Stalwarth-class Star Destroyers, and hundreds of other vessels. It could make short work of most war fleets. It even had a Pelleaon-class as its command ship. Now that it was being deployed around Elladan Kenet's fleet he would find himself cut off from additional allies.

"Is my command still independent of your own sir?" Borill asked nervously.

There was a chuckle on the line, "Yes, I'll keep him bottled up... It's your job to destroy him."

"Thank you sir, that'll be all." With a click the line was cut and Borill handed the reciever back to the comm officer. Then he turned and headed toward the turbolift, "Commodore, you have the conn. I'll be in my quarters if you need me."

With that the doors hissed shut behind him and he stood in the moving turbolift thinking about the message he was going to have to craft destined for an honorable man on Ord Mantell.

Mandalore the Immortal,

It has come to my attention...

The day he planned on leaving Bestine, Detre and his two Commandos made their way to Warehouse 710 in the Storage District of the city. Defenses here were less strict, partly due to the number of brigands that frequented here, and partly to the nearby bar that attracted even the most noble stormtroopers. Making their way to the Warehouse, they found only a single pair of guards.

"How should we do this?"

Detre regarded his human companion. "Killing the guards might give us a whole five minutes to get to our ship and leave. No guarantees, and I wouldn't risk it. Can we entice them some how?"

"Possibly," the other commando answered. "If we could somehow get them into the bar."

"What if we got uniforms?" the first one suggested. "Became their shift replacements?"

Detre nodded. "That'll be easiest. I'll secure those."

~

In the bar, it was astoundingly easy to convince a few stormies to have some drinks with him. The locals didn't care; most of them despised the soldiers. After a few rounds of the local potencies, Detre paid off a couple of cantina girls, and had the unlucky pair stripped of their uniform. The Noghri allowed the girls to keep all the credits they ahd on them, which left everyone happy.

Save the two unfortunate soldiers.

As quickly as possible, the commandos changed into the stormtrooper armor and equiptment, and right at shift change, they went to the Warehouse. "Time for you two to head to the bar."

The stormies nodded, sighing in relief. "About time to. I hate these guard details..." They were too tired to ask anything else; they were ordinary people beneath the white armor, and they were relieved to be relieved. In a matter of moments, Detre cleanly got into the warehouse.

Finding the EMP was a different matter altogher. Like the informant had claimed, it was indeed well hidden. The metal alloys mentioned were too large to be concealed, but these were the least of his worries. The sooner he had the EMP, he could leave.

Eventually, he found the device burried in a corner under a blanket, hidden behind a stack of durasteel. It was little more than a phase-power converter with extra lights, and he doubted what it could do. Yet, he put his doubts aside, gathered up the device, and left with the commandos.

~

Six minutes later, the infiltration team was loaded onto the Noghri shuttle and preparing to leave. However, there was one last impident in their path: customs.

"I thought you were getting a shipment of metal?" the man inquired as he spotted the commandos.

"We did, but had a back-up report to exchange it for this."

"And that is?"

Detre looked back, then walked up to the human. He glowered. "How much are you paid, human?"

The man looked suspiciously at him. "Why?"

Detre was about to remove some credits to pay him off, when Detre's fears came to him. Stormtroopers were approaching them. Before he could do anything, he left for the ship. "Leave, now!"

In a hassle of confusion, the stormtroopers opened fire on the Noghri shuttle as it blasted off, hyperspace coordinates already planned. As soon as they broke atmosphere at met a picketline of ships, they punched the coordinates and blasted off torwards Correlia, and from there to Taris.

"Oh, really?" Freya scoffed. Pointing to Ashe, she said, "It sure sounded like your friend here isn't too happy with Krayt running things." She then fixed Vaan with a stern expression. "Oh, it's so totally your affair, allright," she stated, pacing between the two Chiss. "Don't think for a moment that Krayt's totally going to leave you alone. Especially if you worked for Fel."

Mandalore the Immortal

It has come to my attention that a force of mandalorians have allied themselves with the rogue chiss warlord Elladan Kenet in direct opposition to the Empire. If these forces are under your control they must disband immediately. If not we will be unable to continue to guarantee the security of the Mandalorian Tribes within territitories under our control.

It is unfortunate that such actions must be taken, I greatly respect the honorable Mandalorian People and have served with many who have joined the ranks of the Empire. I would grieve such a loss, but as my honor and duties dictate, I must not allow such a threat to Imperial security stand.

Honorably,
Rear Admiral Borill Elsyn

Aboard his starship, Mandalore the Immortal finished reading the message that had been sent to him by Mando'ade on Ord Mantell. His helmeted visage betrayed no emotion as he crumpled the sheet of flimsi and dropped it to the deck.

From the pilot's seat of the vessel came an inquiry in Mando'a.

The speaker, a slim Mando clad in forest green armor with black predator stripes across his arm and leg plates looked at his leader with an inquisitive tilt of his masked head.

Mandalore nodded and crossed his arms over his chestplate.


From behind him, a burly Mando clad in sandy yellow armor decorated with beast claws and teeth grunted in annoyance.

Mandalore threw a glare back at the sand yellow warrior. < You do not need to remind me of my past mistakes. I am reminded of them every day I see Mandalore in the hands of Dar'manda. But we will deal with him when the time comes.>

The taller mando gave an inhuman chuckle.

He turned his visored gaze to the cockpit windshield and stared at the stars. he shifted his head to glance at the pilot.

Wedge looked back to his computer monitors and typed in a few commands. He tilted his head slightly as he tired to pronounce the word. "Hecter...Hectar..."

Mandalore leaned over to read the screen. "Hektor's Shield, Wedg'ika. Its an old Coruscanti name."

Muttered Voor in Mando'a.

The two other mando'ade glanced back at him briefly before returning to the screen.
Mandalore said as he stood up again and flipped his sash back over his shoulder.

Wedge looked back at him confusedly.

Mandalore shook his head.



Voor gave his odd inhuman chuckle again. "Ke nu jurkad sha Mando'ade." he stated as Wedge made the jump to Hyperspace.