Not original

I nodded and followed Captain Briyuk in. The rest of the Royal Guards spread out into their formation as we made our way to the ominously open docking bay entrance.

Once there, I saw that the situation was a bit different than I had suspected from a distance. The doors had been popped open, but not by a clever slicer, instead the doors were blasted open, with obvious damage showing from the aftermath of an explosion. Further inside, the destroyed doorway revealed a second set of doors that seemed to be firmly locked.

Carefully, we made our way past the debris of the outer doorway. Soniee made a beeline straight for the interior access panel. Half the squad of guards remained outside the exterior to guard, while Captain Briyuk and three others joined us inside the passageway.

"How's it looking, Soniee?" I called, a few moments of searching turned up nothing else interesting visible in the passageway.

Soniee replied, not bothering to look up from her personal datapad, "There's a basic atmosphere control still in effect. These doors are just here for backup, there's an active low level force field on the other side of that door. I should be able to open it whenever we want." She pointed to the indicated doors.

"Well, that's good, but not yet." Captain Briyuk, said before signaling his men to be ready to enter the facility. Once the squad was in formation and clustered around the door, he turned to us and said, "Stay back here, and if you see someone coming that's not us, either seal the door or start running. There's no reason to fight them if they are not Death Watch; lives are more important to Mandalore than any relics, so just get the hell out. Got it?"

I joined the group chorus of crackled, "Yes," and other forms of agreement from Lagos, Soniee, Amis, and the rest.

Captain Briyuk stepped forward from the group, and nodded towards Soniee. "Okay kid, after you open the door, move back against the passage bulkhead and stay clear. Ready?" There was a collective pause. "Open it!"

The door opened.

It was an instant standoff.

On one side of the room are seven Mandalorians wearing Supercommando armor of a modern make, all clad in a blue-black coloration, and wielding either dual pistols or carbine rifles. They each had the same three-clawed symbol on their shoulders, with a dash of red showing which side they were on.

On the other side of the room are two individuals. One is carrying a rifle of unknown make, wearing blue and red armor with yellow markings on their face mask. The other is a towering woman, carrying what could only be described as a rotary blaster cannon, as it had six barrels that were already warmed up, slowly and menacingly spinning. She's wearing blue and black armor that has a single solid plate over her chest, instead of the Supercommando pattern of several smaller plates.

As the door parted, both parties turned towards us. There are visible expressions of confusion on all parties present; neither one of them had expected more people to show up.

"Fucking traitors! You called the Royal Guard on us!?" An angry voice yelled from the crowd of Death Watch minions. Some of them aimed weapons towards the Royal Guards. Immediately, all my guards raised their blasters towards the Death Watch soldiers.

"Why the fuck would we do that?" Called the taller woman, who swung her rotary blaster cannon back to face the Death Watch group.

"Oh! I don't know, maybe because you're a Manda-cursed bitch! A thief that wants to steal all these relics and fence them on the open market! I see how it is... If we can't have them, better to destroy them by handing them over to the damn pacifist. Do you know how much time it took to get the intel on this Manda-forsaken asteroid?"

"Probably got the intel from the same Hutt that sold you yours, you harpy!" taunted the voice of a shorter woman pointing her rifle at the original speaker.

"Ladies!" Captain Briyuk said, suit transmitting his voice over its loudspeakers, "All of you will lower your weapons now."

"Fuck you, pacifist!" shouted one of the male voices of the Death Watch members. One of them opened fire and one of his shots struck a Royal Guard in the face. He fell over, and I couldn't tell what state he was in, but I never had the chance to check as the room erupted into chaotic blaster fire as my Royal Guard charged the Death Watch members.

I grabbed Soniee's hand, since the doorway is open she is alone and vulnerable against the passageway bulkhead. So I pulled her along and took cover behind some crates.

Looking up, the shorter yellow-marked Mandalorian was standing on the boxes, and seemed to examine the fallen Royal Guard from a safe distance, before moving on. She moved at a rather incredible pace, returning fire at someone that shot at her.

"Well, I think she's on our side." I commented in a private comm channel, as Soniee nodded her head in agreement. A few more blasts missed us, aimed above our cover.

"Maybe we should move back towards the door and try to escape. I think the battle has diffused enough that we could sneak outside and not be noticed."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." I agreed, peeking around the corner to see what was going on.

As I peeked, I saw the tall Mandalorian, with her rotary blaster cannon discarded on the ground, caught up in a fist fight between one of the Death Watch members. From my position, it seemed she was doing a rather good job punching through the armor. I don't know what planet she was from, but apparently she was obviously superhumanly strong; far superior to baseline strength. Not even Mandalorian armor was able to stop her from breaking bones.

Another Death Watch minion snuck around behind her, and slowly raised her own blaster towards the fistfight, clearly aiming towards the taller Mandalorian. I was forced to act. I brought out my blaster, setting the staff on the ground, and aimed it at the hidden Death Watch minion. She immediately reacted to my motion, switching targets towards aiming at my position. My trigger was pulled and I felt the impact of a blaster shot at the same moment. My chest felt scorching hot and bruised from the blaster bolt, but the minion staggered as she fell onto his back, stunned. I am now really grateful for the beskar upgrade Aunt Satine insisted on adding.

The towering Mandalorian woman seemed to have heard the brief blaster exchange and abandoned her defeated opponent, scanning the area. Her opponent is completely still, either unconscious, or worse.

Turning to me, she gave me a thumbs up and said, "Thanks kid." She gave her opponent one final kick to the head, before moving on to complete some other objective out of sight. Then, I saw Soniee also peeking around the other side of the boxes. Soniee and I turned towards each other. We couldn't hear any more sounds of violence or yelling after a few more tense seconds of silent waiting. I wondered what side had won.

The answer came in the form of Captain Briyuk asking, "Clear, who's still alive? Sound off."

Popping my head up to look around, I answered, "Soniee and I are good." Surprisingly, the two individuals who weren't with the 'Death Watch' group from the previous standoff are standing next to the Captain.

Mr. Bresh and Ms. Crikey crawled out from behind a set of cargo containers, dragging an unconscious Death Watch minion. Ms. Crikey apparently had lost her helmet in the fight, but she looked like a victorious lion dragging her kill. I am pretty sure I recognized the knife that is sticking out of the Death Watch's body as hers. And Amis and Lagos came out from where they've been hiding. They'd somehow gotten their hands on Death Watch weapons by the looks of it.

"That could have gone better." Captain Briyuk remarked, examining the aftermath. He turned towards Soniee and asked, "Can you access their systems?" He swept his hand out, indicating the equipment from the fallen 'Death Watch'. "We still haven't found where the ship is hidden. We also don't know if that group is all of them, either; they might have backup nearby. I'd rather be on the way back to Mandalore before they show up."

Soniee moved over to a console and meanwhile, I asked, "Think these guys are Death Watch or just wannabes?"

Captain Briyuk shook his head, "I don't think they're the real deal. Their training wasn't up to snuff to the one we fought in the Civil War. I would like to think there'd be no reinforcements, but making an assumption like that is often just asking for trouble." Suddenly, Captain Briyuk's voice was only coming over my comm. "Prince Korkie. Those two interlopers assisted us back there, but they seem the skittish type. What are your orders?" The odd question almost caused me to miss that he had switched to my hardsuit private comm line.

I gave it some thought as I thumbed the discrete comm button on the suit vambrace before saying, "I think we can let them go, after we questioned them. They helped us out and it wouldn't be fair if we imprisoned them for helping. We still have to find the Relic Ship, and having to keep watch over prisoners will make it more difficult."

Captain Briyuk nodded his head, "As you wish, Prince Korkie."

I nodded in understanding as I scanned the room. A Royal Guard is bandaging our fallen guardsman, two Royal Guards are looking after Lagos and Amis who are standing next to Soniee on a console, and the others are examining the Death Watch group to make sure all of them are secured. The two unknown women kept themselves close together as they shifted around and eyed Captain Briyuk as he walked closer.

"The Prince has agreed to let you go after you answer a few questions. We won't pry into your identities, but we will need you to answer some of our questions."

The tall one replied, "And what if we don't answer them?"

"Then I will have to report you as members of Death Watch and have arrest warrants with your armor's description spread around the Mandalore sector. Trust me, It would be a lot easier for all parties involved if you cooperate." Captain Briyuk said with a nonchalant tone.

The short one placed her hand on the taller one and said. "What do you want to know?"

"First things first, how did you find this asteroid base? We had to find it in an underwater wreck." As Captain Briyuk asked his question, the taller woman walked to the side and started to pick up what looked like blaster components

The shorter one shrugged, "No idea, we were hired by them for our… uh, unique set of skills. So you'll have to ask them once they're awake about where they got that info."

Captain Briyuk nodded his head while keeping an eye on the taller one, "How did you get hired exactly? I am guessing through the bounty hunter's guild?"

The shorter woman nodded her head too, "Yeah, we were hired to salvage a shipwreck but we didn't know what exactly we would be salvaging. I would have preferred if this stuff went to a museum but we had to spend a week checking every asteroid in this area."

"Alright, last question, is the Corellian ship yours?"

The woman nodded her head, "That's right."

"Good, that means that we can impound that Death Watch ship and sweep it for evidence." Captain Briyuk said. "Alright I think that is all of the questions that I want answered. You're free to leave."

Soniee's voice suddenly boomed over the loudspeakers at an excessive volume. "I found the Seeker's Vigil!" She had clearly sliced her suit speakers up to eleven, again. I watched the two mercenaries leave back outside the base before I walked over to see what Soniee was looking at on the console display.

"It's two levels down, inside a vault. The facility is reporting the doors are sealed, but I can open them from here. The ship's fuel is showing empty. Either that or the tanks are ruptured." Soniee explained to the group, once the four of us joined up with the others.

I felt a slight vibration in the floor through the soles of my boots, it only lasted for a few seconds. Captain Briyuk started giving orders, "Baar'ur, how is he?" as he pointed to the Royal Guard that got shot in the head.

"He'll need an aspirin but he'll live." the medic replied.

Captain Briyuk then said, "Alright, half of you stay here to watch the prisoners, the rest will follow me with the Prince to the Seeker's Vigil." After the Royal Guards saluted, we headed deeper into the facility to get what we came for.

Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers

Pre Vizsla

Someone is posing as Death Watch. Someone is trying to cause problems. Again. And someone is going to pay dearly for that.

News of the attack on Prince Korkie Kryze had traveled quickly back to Mandalore and currently the Duchess is probably the angriest he'd ever seen her. You could really tell that the Mandalorian blood in her is flowing right now as she paced back and forth, almost having the stomping of a march to it.

She took a seat in her throne; the backlight on the wall behind her lit up. She took in a deep breath, before saying, "So Death Watch has returned and in actuality; it's not just some rogue agent who happened to strike at Gargon. Now they've struck at the heart of the Mandalorian government."

"How did we miss their return? And what are we going to do about it?" I asked, guilelessly.

Death Watch never truly went away. Remnants have been under my command since, oh, quite a long time now. But my remnants, as far as I was aware, had not been involved in this operation.

Oh, I heard about the mission to find this lost Relic ship and I shrugged it off as it was not important in the grand scheme of things. What importance would come from capturing an ancient Relic ship when the end goal is control of the whole sector. Sure, it would gain us knowledge of our past, but does it grant the Death Watch movement legitimacy? Not really, unless the Mask of Mandalore is hidden there which I highly doubt.

Someone wanted to pose as Death Watch? I'll simply take a page out of White Silver's book. It had done wonders for her image when she destroyed an extremist splinter-faction; it might do wonders for my own faction as well.

Prime Minister Almec spoke after shaking his head, "It's impossible that these Death Watch have completely missed our notice. So I may have some theories on the matter on why we might have been blinded to their movements or their rise."

'Oh, this will be good.' I thought, as I leaned back in my chair.

Mandalore, Sundari Palace, Council Chambers

Almec

I stood up and addressed Satine, I glanced at Governor Vizsla, but I ignored his smirk, "Ever since White Silver made her debut a few years ago, I've been devoting resources to monitor their operations. So far, most of her operations are above board and legal. Which seems strange considering how they came onto the board in the first place - I suspect these legal businesses are merely a front to hide their true illegal operations. And perhaps these 'Death Watch' aren't truly the real Death Watch. Perhaps they are agents of White Silver, used to draw attention away from her operations so that she'll have free rein in the Mandalore sector."

Satine had an expression of complete astonishment; the only thing that could have made it better was... I turned to take in the rest of the council. The look on Governor Vizsla's face... it shared the same expression of complete shock. As usual, I am the only one paying attention to the serious threats circling Mandalore. The Duchess spoke first, "That… makes no sense. Why would she have used her own movement to attack the Gargon Girls?"

I nodded, "Yes, that's a good question. I believe that assassination attempt is a false-flag attack from White Silver, to make the Gargon Girl's a martyr. Right now we are assuming that because they attacked White Silver, they are enemies. All we have to show that they are enemies is the attack itself, which is circumstantial evidence at best. And the attack failed."

"It only failed because the Gargon girls actually wore beskar armor. Something White Silver herself endorses pretty heavily." Governor Vizsla pointed out.

"Yes, and very few people probably knew that before the attack." I countered.

Governor Vizsla shrugged his shoulders at that.

Satine still seemed puzzled, "That's a possibility, so let's prepare for the worst case and assume that this really is a faction of Death Watch reborn. How are we going to handle this situation?"

I was prepared for this possibility. "We reactivate the old apparatus for hunting down any Death Watch sympathizers, keep an eye out for their movements, and try to figure out what their overall strategy is." The previous efforts to root out the Death Watch had succeeded after all, the only problem was that we let our vigilance down. If Satine approves of this proposal, maybe I could transform the task force monitoring White Silver into a permanent department. I retook my seat, so the council could discuss the proposal further.

Satine nodded her head in agreement, obviously lost in thought, looking for any way to deal with the potential threat of another terrorist organization.

Governor Vizsla seemed less convinced by my proposal. He shook his head in disagreement. "This all seems premature. Have the attackers that targeted Prince Korkie been identified yet?"

Satine shook her head, "No, they have not been fully identified yet. The Royal Guard are transporting them and their ship back to Mandalore, in addition to the recovered relics and the ship. They should return in a week's time, why?"

Governor Vizsla stood up and explained, "Well, my Duchess. I'm concerned that the Prime Minister's plan, while well-meaning, could turn into a witch-hunt. Many Mandalorians have family ties to exiled or dead Death Watch members. And I have serious doubts if any of them are involved in the attacks. So I have an alternative proposal, allow me to investigate these Death Watch. We will pursue a thorough investigation as Concordia has the largest database of Mandalorian chain codes in the sector, a sad legacy of the last Civil War."

My first reaction to that proposal is annoyance. While Governor Vizsla is right in that Concordia had the largest collection of chain codes, since most of the warriors were exiled to the moon after they lost the Civil War. However, it is fairly obvious that he is empire-building. Always had been with Concordia, he had an endless amount of superiority about Concordia being an agricultural exporter. I merely tolerated it, as long as it didn't harm Mandalore.

Satine still seemed lost in thought as she considered her options. A few tense seconds of silence passed, before she nodded in Governor Vizsla's direction. "Once they arrive back to Mandalore, I'll let you know so that you can begin your investigation." Satine turned to face me, "Put together a task force for your investigation. We need to have a complete understanding of what's going on. Someone out there is trying to cause trouble for the Mandalorian Sector, and we need to know why in order to stop them."

I am glad to be put in charge of the task force, but interestingly, Governor Vizsla also seemed pleased with this outcome. Now I could repurpose my existing White Silver task force with this new investigation, and it would have more funding. "It will be done," I said to Satine. "I will have my top men look into this and we will find out who is responsible, you have my word, my Duchess."

Governor Vizsla nodded at my words and stroked his chin, "Concordia will offer any information we can as well. When your task force has custody of the bodies, we can run their chain codes on our database."

The other members of the council seemed happy we had come to a consensus, as they are not nearly as interested in security concerns.

I didn't want Concordia to steal all the credit though, so I added, "Perhaps we should also get some of the other governments involved in this task force. Gargon in particular has an interest in tracking down the Death Watch responsible for the latest attack. I'm sure many other Mandalorian systems would accept extra security measures to avoid an influx of 'Death Watch' terrorist attacks."

Governor Vizsla frowned, he did not look pleased by my assertion, but said, "Yes, we should try and work out a more legal framework to cooperate in criminal investigations between systems. Criminals can easily skirt around local law enforcement in the sector by simply leaving the system. We can put into place new legislation on information sharing to make it easier to track these criminals down."

And I would be able to gather as much information as possible on what they actually knew about White Silver and the Silver Mandalorians. I had my theories of how deep they went, but until I had proof, I could only speculate on what they are truly up to.

Coruscant, Goodvalor's Little Bivoli

Engiz Ordo

This is not how I expected things to go. But the way things had gone... is the opposite of terrible.

I am sitting at a fine table in my actual dress uniform, not my usual Royal Guard armor, across from Tanya in a rather expensive restaurant.

At Tabbi's suggestion I had made my move and asked Tanya to come out on a date with me. A date at a place that probably is going to cost half of my salary from last year.

But right now, it's completely worth it. The food is great and the conversation is about the history of the Mandalorian worlds, various ideas that had been tried throughout the long history of Mandalore, and how the government could be better run.

None of the other Royal Guards had much interest in these rather nerdy topics, but she's been smiling the entire time talking about them and so have I, so nothing wrong here.

Sure we just spent the last 20 minutes of our meal talking about the effect of the economy due to the war with how it could both be spurred on and stopped depending on how terrible the war is. But the conversation is academic, not something that would be detracting from our night, so it is enjoyable.

Unfortunately, all good nights have to come to an end and as conversations draw to a close, the bill arrives.

Sliding my credits onto the little tray, I said, "So Princess Kryze, how did you find tonight?" Yes, I know that that particular question showed just how on edge I really was, but I am hoping that she wouldn't notice that.

Tanya smiled at that and leaned back in her chair. "Tonight is good, I've been so busy with politics that it's nice to just have a theoretical conversation with someone again. One that doesn't require me to worry about how it's going to work or the right way to implement these changes."

…Oh, she's not complaining about me. Though, she hadn't actually said anything in favor of my invite. Ahh... baby steps this would take baby steps.

Hiding my inner turmoil with a smile, I said, "That's good. You always seem happier and more yourself when you're not stressed out, in my opinion."

"Thank you, Engiz." she said with a smile that I could feel.

The waiter came by and picked up the little plastic tray tearing off the credits and left the receipt, so I got up and moved around to help Tanya stand up. Unfortunately, Tanya is a bit faster as she got up herself.

Although, she did offer her arm, so we walked together out of the restaurant onto one of the upper level streets of the capital city of the Republic.

"Smells like the air cleaners around here aren't working right." Tanya noted. I nodded my head in agreement, there is a definite smell of burnt fuel. Coruscant is a rather complex system built up from its millenia long history, so it wouldn't be impossible for one of those systems to have broken down around here.

"We should probably get back to the speeder faster to avoid the stink then," I suggested. We moved towards a stairway leading down to the parking garage where we parked the speeder I rented for this evening.

I turned the corner and only my training allowed me to dodge a fist that's been flying in my direction. Tanya and I took a few steps back, just gawking at the scene.

Looking down the garage interior, it's déjà vu, as in front of me are two groups of men fighting. Both groups had cybernetics enhancements and are beating the hell out of each other.

"Die snake in the grass, CIS bootlicker!"

"Eat Republic cheese ass-kisser!"

Came the battle cries of both groups, as they beat the hell out of each other.

Then, one of them looked in our direction and tilted his head saying "Hey! Don't I know you two?"

"You must have confused us for someone else." Tanya said, holding on to my arm tightly as she backed up further.

"Nah, I swear I've seen you." The belligerent didn't get to finish that sentence, as one of the 'CIS bootlickers' smashed a metal panel into his face, causing him to collapse into the side of the building. The tragedy continued with him collapsing on the stairs and rolling down several steps, only stopping once his comrades grabbed him.

"I think we should not use underground parking from now on." I said, shaking my head as I backed off with her. "I can have the valet bring us the speeder."

"Yeah, I think that's probably for the best." Tanya eagerly agreed with my suggestion. We continued to back away, keeping our eyes locked on the ongoing conflict, hoping they would not pay us any more attention.

"Hey, wait a moment! That guy's wearing the colors of the CIS! Get them!"

I looked down at my dress uniform, realizing yes it is a rather grayish color and very similar to the color that the 'CIS bootlickers' are wearing.

"Oh boy." I muttered as a man came charging at me, ready to punch my head off. I moved faster than him and leaned to the side to dodge his swing. In retaliation, I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer so I could deliver a knee strike into his intestines. I finished by pushing him back down the stairs into another onrushing cyberthug.

I turned to Tanya to see if she's okay. She is laughing in pure joy as she kicks an incoming attacker between his legs, ripping her dress in the process. The maneuver is perfectly timed, causing him to stop right in front of her as he cradled his groin to ease the pain. This leaves him open for Tanya to land a front kick to his face, pushing him down the stairs and taking out two more of the gangsters in an avalanche of bodies.

I took advantage of the lull in combat to escape as I grabbed Tanya by the hand and started running in the other direction. I activated my communicator in my vambrace and called Tabbi. He should be nearby, he said he was having a date with Vai tonight as well.