Big Trouble in Little Mandalore

[Insoulent]

Little Mandalore.

That's what the area was known as, or the Mandalorian Barracks to others. A makeshift home for the disenfranchised and near-extinct culture known as the Mandalorians. Granted by the gracious and merciful Hutt Lords. It was the safest they could be from the clutches of the Empire. Sure the Mandalorians were some of the most saught-out bounties and probably the most illegal people in the Galaxy, but for an organization that prided itself on illegal goods and merchendise, the Mandalorians weren't discriminated on Nal Hutta. The rest of the planet had spice-snorters, children-sellers, and a bunch more disturbing transactions taking place that a few testosterone-fueled warriors having a roof over their heads could really change much.

The greatest gift of the Mandalorians was that it wasn't limited to solely one species or archetype. There was a home in the society for all species and kinds of people, so long as they all shared was the core of their six tenants. For the unfamiliar, it basically revolved around fighting. Some, like Arkantos Rajax, were more passive in that philosophy. They fought only when they needed to, and they fought intelligently. Other more radical sects existed in the society however, much more aggressive and held no remorse for their action. Both had the best intentions for those around them, for their culture and society, but in dire times like these - the more prevalent of the two would decide the future for the next millenia or so. And so, it was imperative that the more radical be extinguished. And that was why Arkantos Rajax, or Elohim Aeon, was tasked to find a pest living among Little Mandalore.

Kandosii was the name of the group, fashioned themselves after the infamous Death Watch. A Mando'a word used for "ruthless" in basic, but it was a decleration of their effectiveness. The group itself was a terrorist organization that had grown bold in recent weeks. Having some success with outskirt Imperial settlements and even smaller Imperial Listening Posts, the group had begun their attacks on Cartel-supplied weapon shipments surrounding the space around Nal Hutta and even small Cartel-funded 'endeavors'. Clearly they soon would rack up enough enemies to bring upon even more ire to the Mandalorians as a whole. Surely they were looking to expand their capabilities and even membership and no doubt try and bite at the hand that fed them. For the Hutt Council, they didn't care what happened to them exactly, so long as they realized that they wouldn't sit idly by as someone blatantly attacked and stole from them. And so, here he was. Champios of the Cartel, sent on a simple mission: end them in any way possible. Granted, the human didn't know exactly what he would do once confronted against the group, all he knew was that they had to be stopped before they grew too popular and swayed more to their philosophy. The Mandalorians held into this belief of self-destruction in some selfish crusade, and Arkantos would try his best to end it.

His rusted swamp-racer came to a complete halt in the outskirts of Little Mando'a where what seemed to be an abandoned bait shop stood. A grumpy-looking gungan lazily shifted his gaze towards the human's loud and dying engine. Arkantos nodded his head as if to acknowledge the bait shop owner, but the gungan's gaze drifted back down unimpressed and disinterested in whatever the human was attempting to do. Clearing his throat in an awkward embarrassment, the human turned his attention to the rest of the neighborhood. Nothing that would notably distinguish it from any other alien-specific neighborhood. Some of the shops were inherently in Mando'a, but to non-Mandalorians, which was more easy to find, they couldn't really distinguish the language. But, the challenge was: how to find a terrorist group in their home turg without alerting them.

 

[Solus Genet]

Kandosii

In Mando'a it meant something like indomitable, or ruthless.

But it could have easily meant "suicidal moron who thinks his dick is big, and doesn't know how to do anything but shoot innocent people" given the predilection for groups such as that which had popped up on Nal Hutta to use the word as the name of the organization.

Because for whatever reason Death Watch just wasn't as popular as it had been once upon a time.

Really Solus had to wonder what the group had hoped to gain by naming themselves something like that. Gee they call themsleves Kandosii, I just bet they're all about ethics in Mandalorian society! Good people, great family values, clearly. And they'd set themselves up near the Clan Barracks on Nal Hutta.

Just kriffing perfect.

Normally Solus wouldn't have been privy to the information regarding the barracks, but from what she did know the structure had largely been abandoned, save for use as a meeting point, and the area around it for some limited settlement, by those Mandalorians who were unaffiliated with the major clans. Unbeknownst to her most of major clans that had shown up had left after security had been breached by an agent of the Keywork, another reason the bounty on the head of every last one of them was so high.

But this had to be the only situation in the galaxy where being a Mandalorian had its perks, even if she was trying to avoid giving off the impression of being one most of the time. It wasn't like it was a closed secret in its current state, and it wasn't like the Imperium was going to come marching to Nal Hutta without a little warning given the difficulties involved in such a task. Still it had been a place that Solus had avoided since joining the Cartel. Why?

The first was that she was under no illusion that someone in the Cartel didn't know both who she really was, and her relation to Jack. No point in sending in the old man down into the swamps with a cigar in one hand, and a glass of Corellian whiskey in the other, wondering why it was she was putting both of them at risk with such moves.

The second was that most Mandalorians she'd heard about were kriffing morons.

Anyone that wanted to strike back at the Imperium was a moron who sought the death of Mandalorian society.

There was no other way for her to put it.

Because having astonished the galaxy with their ability to die in droves, some of the remaining sought to follow that up by getting more Mando'ade. Mando'ade who didn't know any better, and swept up by the current, and the rousing speeches of charismatic leaders.

Mando'ade who were going to die throwing themselves at Imperial Guns.

Mando'ade who, even if the Imperium was defeated, weren't going to live to see what happened next.

Mando'ade who were going to be rotting in the ground instead of helping to rebuild.

Given how many Mando'ade were left already it didn't seem prudent to Solus to willingly subtract from that number.

That was about as dishonorable as it got.

And shit like that needed to stop if there were going to be any Mandalorians left to rebuild. Solus might not have been the chest thumping warrior, and she might not have thought the old ways deserved to survive, but she did think the Mandalorian people deserved to survive.

If only to forever spite the Sith, the tinpot Mand'alorse, and kriffing idiots like these.

But if they were going to survive, kriffing idiots like these had to be discouraged.

Solus still wasn't exactly a fighter, but she knew her people. And she knew words weren't going to convince this bunch that they were being forcedamned morons.

So she'd come to the swamps with the usual attire, armored vest, blaster pistol, and glop grenades, that she'd been using since she'd joined with the Cartel.

A bigger gun was probably something she was going to have to invest in soon, but for the moment she was reasonably certain that the pistol would do. It'd seen her through the total societal collapse that had marked the end of the Clan Wars, the Sith's campaign of extermination, and everything since then.

Trudging through the swamps wasn't exactly her idea of fun. Nal Hutta was hot, humid, and miserable. Another point against the intelligence of the group she was here to...confront? She wasn't actually sure what was going to happen when she finally came across them, but given she wasn't exactly wearing a set of beskar'gam like some morn who enjoyed slow roasting in a tin can, she doubted they were going to be pleased to see a presumed non-Mandalorian.

Passing an old Gungan as she came up on the so called "little Mando'a", she have him a stare that said she was as equally unimpressed by him as he was by her. There was a broken down speeder, and some tall, averagely good looking, human just standing around like a jackass. He looked kind of familiar, like she might have seen a relative of his once upon a time, but she couldn't quite place it.

Any which way it seemed like as good a place as any to start.

"Excuse me, you haven't seen a bunch of armored hoodlums running around have you?" She asked in her best Corellian accent. Depending on how he answered, she'd decide what her story would be. Either she was here to investigate said group under her alias, or she was here to do some investigating on behalf of the group under her alias.

 

[Aixa Morrow]

It seemed as though subtlety was a lost art among the bulk of Mandalore's children. The idea that violence could bring about an end to violence was laughable at best; and when destruction and chaos ran unchecked, their growth encouraged by the so-called leaders of their fallen people, it only served to sully the already-broken name of their culture. Aixa wasn't a historian, nor did she ever claim to be one. But she knew full well the kind of destruction that a group of small, dedicated killers could bring, and though they crusaded in the name of honor and glory and freedom from the Empire, Aixa knew better than to believe their promises. The men who wanted so desperately to reunite the various clans did so for a single reason - pride - and those who did it through overwhelming force were the worst of the bunch. They spared no thought for the families their actions would leave behind. Not a single, fraction of a second devoted to the aftermath of the destruction, both physical and psychological, that their methods would undoubtedly bring. No, the Mandalorians of the modern age were a joke, crusading for their egos under a thin veneer of integrity and a misplaced sense of duty. There was nothing honorable about revenge, and yet, they crusaded onward, oblivious or perhaps simply uncaring as to how many lives they crushed beneath their boot heels.

Unsurprisingly, Aixa wanted nothing to do with any of the coalitions, reformations, or confederacies that seemed hell bent on driving their shared culture into the ground. Instead, she turned her attention toward groups that could, and would, make a difference in the galaxy: the Rebellion, and their loose group of Imperial Knights in specific. To the small minded, it might've been strange to count a Mandalorian among the Forcers who once served the Empire, but Aixa knew well enough that the Empire itself was not the cause of the galaxy's problems. Rather it was the Sith and their perfidious ilk that had ruined things, sending the Core and half of the Outer Rim into a dangerous and violent tail spin. Perhaps her training had made her more amenable to Knights, somehow. Or maybe she was simply too stubborn to see past the 'Mandalorians are morons' axiom that had guided her life following the destruction of her second home.

They weren't all terrible, of course. But most of them? Aixa would rather watch them burn in their silly beskar'gam than be counted among their ranks.

There were few names that could pull her to Hutt Space, and to Nal Hutta in particular. But like the rest of the galaxy, Aixa had been convinced of the fact her.. friend was dead, lost to the galaxy, and so the idea of changing that notion had been enough to drag her to the heart of the Slugs' criminal empire. Unlike Arkantos, she made the journey more or less on foot. She didn't have any reason to buy a speeder, and renting one seemed like an awfully quick way to lose a few hundred credits in the security deposit. That "little Mando'a" was an absolute dump came as no surprise, and though she hadn't approached from the right angle to get an eyeful of the mean mugging Gungan, she felt the presence of various other lifeforms just the same. It was Arkantos' presence that had served as a dim beacon for her senses, and with her staff in hand - it wasn't exactly an easy thing to transport, unfortunately - she worked her way through the side streets, eventually happening upon two very familiar and decidedly not-stupid faces.

Oblivious to Solus' question and whatever Arkantos had replied with, she strolled up and offered a wave of her free hand, mumbling out a dry, ironic-sounding, "Su'cuy."

And maybe she even rolled her eyes at the phrase, even it it wasn't meant entirely in earnest. What a silly way for grown adults to speak.

 

[Arkantos Rajax]

The question was a simple, non-specific one. However given the location - a Hutt world - it was sort of odd, to say the least. "Armored hoodlums in the capital world of the galaxy's largest criminal organization...? Nah." the human said with a shrug, and was as dismissive as any crime member was. No doubt she'd of received the same treatment from the locals. Cartel or not, just because they were on the planet didn't mean the Mandalorians were completely safe. Hell, Arkantos was there to potentially kill Mandalorians himself. Before he could continue their conversation however another set of footsteps became increasingly louder.

The voice was familiar, a bit, but her tone of voice had changed. Of course her figure had grown a bit, a decade of time apart did that sort of stuff. But the way she walked, the look on her face - all was so familiar, but it was inherently different all at once. She had been his first fling, a girl from Coruscant. Not just any girl, of course, not an ordinary girl could pull away a budding Jedi from the Temple to bang each other's brains out.

Axia was of course different, she was special. That was every teenager's idea of their first love, right? They were similar in the past, shared similar thoughts about life and similar interests but they were quite young back then so maybe it wasn't so special. Seeing her alive had brought back so many memories of his past, before Coruscant's total decimation and it shocked him to see her alive. Billions if not trillions of people had died on Coruscant - and he deducted that Axia like his Master, were more than better off to be considered dead. He couldn't exactly pinpoint his feeling at seeing her. Shame, turmoil, excitement and joy swirled around him, tossing and turning his emotions from one end to the other. Yet she came in so cooly, as if there was no possibility she could of died. While usually Arkantos was good at suppressing emotions, he was completely blindsided with this. Not to mention the whole, "I learned Mando'a" thing since the last time they seen each other.

"Uh..Axia?" the man said with half-opened jaw. He momentarily forgot the other attractive girl in his vicinity as he closed the gap between himself and the white-haired vixen. He tried his best to fix his posture, hide his feelings and the like, considering there was an audience of one. "We just met, I swear." the man said nervously, for whatever reason he needed to explain that. I mean, it didn't help that the first girl was attractive to boot. "I don't even know her name." he let out. Pausing, he remembered his task.

He couldn't simply get caught up in the middle of a swamp world filled with slugs to play catch up. "I don't remember you knowing Mando'a." the human concluded, turning his view back to the first woman and pausing before he spoke. "...those armored hooligans wouldn't happen to be Mandalorians, would they?" he said bluntly, curious to know if this woman might of been Mandalorian too, and if she was looking for any, maybe they could of helped each other out. Or maybe they'd get into a scuffle and go about their day. You know, typical post-Mandalorian genocide stuff.

 

[Solus Genet]

Well shit, Solus thought watching the drama unfold. This was like the start of the bad joke. Three Mandalorians show up in the middle of a Hutt swamp...

She wasn't really sure what the relationship between the other two was, other than the obvious romantic bent to it judging by the way the man had acted. Standing there, Solus felt a bit like an outsider. Well they were two strangers but that was to be expected, it just felt a little odd being more of a stranger to the two of them, than they were to each other.

So the question for her was which name to give them. Her gut reaction was to keep up the Jillian ruse, which would let her stay on the outside from the little drama, at least a little more than being a Mandalorian would. But then again, if they were after the same people she was, and she didn't tell them that she was Mandalorian as well they might just try to leave her behind and probably go make out in some swamp tree.

"The name's Solus," She said dropping the accent, more in response to the man's earlier comment about not even knowing her name. "And you're not really my type."

Too generically good looking. Like you've probably got a better looking brother or something, she didn't say despite the strong urging to do so. There was definitely something about him that seemed sort of familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. She knew she definitely hadn't met him before, nor had she met the white haired woman he'd called Axia. The name sounded kind of funny to her, but better than the average Mandalorian name she supposed. What kind of parent named their kid crap like Fire or Shadow?

Then again, she didn't have much room to criticism on that front.

"And yeah they would be," She continued. "Bunch of dumb kriffs who think wearing armor makes them the best soldiers in the galaxy, and who apparently want to try to get the rest of us killed."

That kind of comment was dangerous depending on the man and the woman's feelings on the subject, but considering they weren't running around in Beskar'gam blowing up city blocks, she was certain they were somewhat reasonable.

But experience taught her to expect disappointment, which was also why she'd gone ahead and said it. To help gauge their opinions on such things.

Mandalorians see reason? Nahhh. She'd been let down on that subject before, by...well come to think of it by every Mandalorian she'd met since the genocide, and even more adding the Clan Wars into the mix.