Chương 17: Chapter 14
714 (24 BBY)
Month 5
Coruscant, Green Singularity
Tanya Kryze
A modern dance club, something I thought I would never be in in any of my lives. I had no reason to dislike them per se, besides the uncomfortable loud music that I'm sure was taking years off my hearing. It just was not something I had to deal with in my first or second life. In my first life I had been too busy trying to prepare for my life as a higher ranking salaryman with a respectable career. And once that was secure I could worry about entertainment, relationships and the stuff that's supposedly made life more fulfilling. I think the closest I ever got to such a situation was getting dragged along to a high school party where I had to dance the robot because it was the only thing I knew.
My second life was a bit spottier on exactly what I had been up to since it had been much longer. Had been too busy dancing through the air in order to avoid hot death to dance on the ground. Even after I had survived the war, I believe my life had been too busy to indulge in such behaviors as I was now forced to indulge in.
This life at least I had some formal dance training but that was not very helpful with the particular brand of dancing going on around me. Frankly most it looked like people were just spazzing out on the dance floor but that was apparently the style so I just went with it though not as spazzy as some people. Thankfully my dance partner, Engiz, seemed to be just as terrible as I was so at least, I appeared normal and uneducated on how to dance and not weird. Being uneducated meant you could learn to dance, appearing weird meant that you were weird and should be avoided.
While I had to entertain the whole dancing phenomenon for a while, I was getting slightly tired and so had excused myself to find an area to sit down for a bit. I negotiated my way through the crowds and made my way towards a set of booths near the bar section of the club. Ordo was with me, no doubt just trying to make sure I stayed safe and as for Vai and her date, I've lost track of them. I was starting to get a deep suspicion that this was a bit of rebellion against her family. They were from a more traditionalist background and though I was not very familiar with all of the traditionalist's thoughts on modern society, I got the distinct feeling that hanging out in a club was a taboo. When I get a chance, I should really investigate the traditionalist point of view on moral ethics. As much as I had been more concerned with their stance on military matters, which at the time I believed was important since military matters was what was enraging them the most, I also needed to investigate what their other political point of views were so I didn't step too heavy on their toes. Hopefully Vai's rebelliousness didn't cause me too much problems with them.
The booths in question proved to be a bit more crowded then I would have liked but I needed to sit down for a bit so I asked a green skin alien with horns coming out of his head if I could have a couple spots at their table.
The green alien looked at me and nodded before saying, "Sure little miss, you and your boyfriend can I have those seats, though aren't you a little young to be in such an establishment?
I simply avoided that first question being it was useful to put up misinformation, considering I didn't want my time here tracked back to my representational career, and focused on the one that really mattered as I took a spot. "16 is the bare minimum to be let in but my friend really wanted to do something different so here we are."
The green headed alien nodded, "Oh yeah, as long as you avoid the actual bar you're allowed in here to party with your friends."
Well I couldn't actually go to the bar if I wanted to say quite clearly above it that they would check your ID and being that I was below the drinking age and I didn't want my ID checked by the machinery they had there, would leave a trail. They technically checked our IDs before we had entered the premises but that information was not recorded as it was done solely by the bouncer looking over the paperwork and saying yeah or nah. And there was a disturbing amount of yeah's when it came showing senatorial ID. I had a feeling that as long as you came in with a senatorial ID you would be let in.
The green alien held up his drink and said, "Well, welcome to the party Miss?" Fishing for my name.
"Tanya Degurechaff, representative of one of the Outer Rim worlds." I said matter of factly my face was slightly obscured by the sunglasses I was wearing so I hope enough of my identity would be kept secure. Everything else I said was the truth from a certain point of view. "This is Engiz Rerugen, my chaperone for the evening to make sure I don't get into too much trouble."
I got a chuckle from the green alien and his human date was also chuckling as well as she sat next to him. I hadn't taken much in about her besides the scandalous outfit that would never have played well in 1950s America, hell I don't think it would have played well in Japan 2010s. But the thing that really drew my notice was the pair of Mandalorian style bracers on her wrist. That raised my eyebrows, I wasn't exactly sure how they had gotten here so quickly. I'm still laying the groundwork of showing them it is a trendy and useful tool yet here they were already starting to be part of the trend.
The green alien, though, interrupted my thoughts and said "I'm Urmero Dirathis, representative of the Yminis sector and this is my coworker Racisi Grocan of the Abrion sector." I nodded, noting that both sectors were on the Outer Rim.
Curious about where she'd pick that up I raised my arm to show off my own and said, "Oh you have a Mandalorian bracer as well."
The woman looked at mine and smiled before showing off hers more properly. "Yeah, I just picked one up yesterday. There's this new company Mando Logistics, I think? They're bringing in what they term as civilian grade products from Mandalore and selling them here. Seems like a very useful tool and with how dangerous the Galaxy seems to be getting these days I thought I better pick one up while I still could before the inevitable blockade startup."
My eyebrow raised for two reasons. One, someone had already set up a company to bring in Mandalorian products. That was interesting and I would have to investigate more to find out exactly who was running this company and if they were paying their taxes to the sector. And two what blockades?
"Blockades?" I ask, curious as to what was going on that I may have missed.
The two shared a glance at each other before shrugging. Urmero leaned forward a bit conspiratorially and said, "You're aware of just how corrupt this system is right? The Republic is becoming more of a failed system every year. It's outlived its usefulness as a democracy and is frankly unable to do anything to improve the lives of the Outer Rim people. Slavery is an illegal practice in the Republic but if you told that to the people in the Other Reaches you'll be laughed at because about every other planet has issues with slavers from the Hut Empire wandering in or some other small faction taking advantage of just how out of the way our systems are from the Core."
Externally I was nodding my understanding, internally I was not in a good mood. You could even say I was screaming. But to keep up appearances I simply said "I'm aware that it has problems sure though I would assume through negotiations and reconciliations the problems could be worked out."
Urmero sighed and shrugged, "Over the years there's been attempts and there'll be more attempts in the future but a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that there needs to be a peaceful divorce between the Outer Rim and the Republic. If enough planets leave the Republic, they have no Army, no Navy, they can't really do anything about it, and we can get to work cleaning up the mess the Republic has left undealt with for the last thousand years."
This was not good, theoretically what they were saying was true, theoretically what they wanted was good. Having two nations in the Galaxy would be better for the economy as a whole as they would have reasons to compete against each other and if they're competing to show that each side is better that's privately fine. But the chances that each Nation needs a military rises quite a bit. The Galaxy was a tapestry of stories related to a conflict between two factions over the course of millennia. And I doubt that was going to change just because both of them were claiming democracy as the core tenant. So yes they might be right in that the Republic had no army and navy could do nothing about it now. But give it a couple years though and that situation would change drastically I'm sure.
The reason there was no army for the Republic is that there was no possible threat to the Republic. What they were wanting to create was a possible threat which put Mandalore in a terrible position. If it was between the Outer Rim and the Republic, Mandalore sat on one of the crossroads and could easily become a battlefield for any conflict between the two.
If a conflict were to arise, the middle could declare neutrality on the conflict but that only worked if you could defend that neutrality. Switzerland had pulled that off during World War II quite well with its armed neutrality stance though it also demonstrated the downfalls of such tactics as during the war United States had lost a few bombers to Switzerland's armed neutrality and then all of a sudden Switzerland gets bombed accidentally. That was a likely story for that and it was a likely story now in order to pull off armed neutrality you need to be on defense 24/7 and be worried about one side of a conflict deciding it didn't respect your armed neutrality enough and bombing the hell out of you nonetheless.
Frankly, Mandalore's stance on pacifism would have been the doom of the sector if such a conflict were to arise between the Outer Rim and the Core. We needed an army and self-defense force quickly, and a professional one at that, with enough backing to be able to hold an area. If only we weren't banned from building battle droids. Damn that governor Vrox whose short-sightedness screwed Mandalore over again, as by treaty the sector was prohibited from creating any kind of fighting droids.
But those are concerns for the future, right now I need to appear completely at ease and not freaking out in front of potential political opponents in the coming years.
"That does make some sense." I offered, trying to appease their thinking though I asked. "But what's to stop the Hutt Empire from taking the initiative and expanding into your new theoretical Outer Rim Republic.
Racisi spoke up, "The Count of Serenno has already been in negotiations with the Hutts, from what I know there's negotiations going on with several corporations about creating a self-defense army for the Outer Rim with droids."
'Congratulations you've just turned yourself into a threat, I mentally swore. 700 years ago Mandalore had been bombed for trying something like it, and then 20 years ago Mandalore had been bombed for building war droids and now they're doing both. You had to admire the audacity or stupidity on display. All out war was a certainty now, oh I can see the ploy they would probably use, the Outer Rim would simply say it would be their version of the Judicial Force meant to try and clean up the scum and villainy that had taken root. But again, 700 years ago the same thing happened. I swear none of these people that got elected to represent their governments had ever read a book on Galactic History. If I somehow made it to any position of power in Mandalore where I had the opportunity to determine who the next representative would be, the top requirement on the list was studying the damn history of the Galaxy.
Nodding my head as if I was not internally screaming I asked "Count of Serenno? isn't he a former Jedi Master ? " The pair nodded their heads in agreement, which was interesting. A thousand years ago most Chancellors of the Republic were Force sensitive or members of the Jedi, it would seem that one of them wanted to return to that style of government which made some sense. Perhaps he was a student of history and thought that system worked better than the current one. I doubt it, at least on the working better part, without actually having met the man I wouldn't know how he thought.
"So we are looking towards a return of a theocratic Republic?", I said, getting the pair to look at me confused. "This Outer Rim Republic would be guided by a Jedi leadership at least in some form which means it's not a republic but a theocratic Republic, as there's no doubt the leadership will listen to the Will of the Force presumably."
Urmero shook his head, "No, no it's only going to be a Republic, Count Dooku is a former Jedi, not a current Jedi. He is simply a leader amongst the systems that have seen the problems of the Republic because he is vocal about it and has experience in negotiations.."
I sat back in the seat and rubbed my chin. It was strange that a Jedi master would leave the Order, let alone take up a political cause like that. Unless, unless … the Jedi were students of history themselves, presumably, perhaps they've seen the writing on the wall long before anyone else about the possibility of rebellion and were already making moves to assure their Order's existence no matter what happened in the conflict. If there was a Jedi Order on both sides of the conflict it would not be as catastrophic since both sides would be trying to minimize losses. And since the Jedi Order was centralized in the Core region, they couldn't exactly be that effective in the Outer Rim. Perhaps this was some sort of method to create an Outer Rim Order to handle the situation directly with a general idea that someday in the future those Orders would merge into one again when it would not be a big issue. If that's what the Order was up to, that was some 3D chess on a level I could not understand as they were risking quite a lot in the possibility of war.
Shaking that thought off as a bit of a conspiracy theory, something I had found over the years I'd been too prone to when trying to figure out what was going on. I asked, "Doesn't this seem like a terrible subject to talk about, I mean you are in essence creating another nation inside the Republic in secret."
"Not that secret," Urmero said, "the first official documents are supposed to come out within the next 3 months. From what I hear it'll probably take 4 years for the divorce to be finalized but some hope that just putting up the threat that we might do it will be enough to get the Republic to take the situation in the Outer Rim more seriously and get them to actually do their job. I doubt it, the Republic is stagnant and doesn't want to do anything. More likely their Jedi Enforcers will threaten the planet that officially put in the paperwork."
I blinked and asked "Threaten? aren't they just simple peacekeepers and monks with laser swords? I would assume after a thousand years they're not the warriors of legend who kept the Old Republic together?"
Racisi chuckled before saying, "You have that right, they're not the warriors of legend anymore. I don't think they have their honor anymore, now they're just dogs of the Supreme Chancellor, sent to any planet that disobeys the Republic to engage in aggressive negotiations. Which half the time, ends in a percentage of the population needing new limbs. "
Urmero nod with his head before adding, "I'm sure the Jedi don't intend to be the Chancellor's dogs, but they've become too disconnected with the people in my mind, people call for them to deal with slavery and other Outer Rim sector issues, and maybe a Jedi will show up usually only if there was a report of a possible Force sensitive in the area. But if a politician tries to do anything to deal with the issue themselves, Oh the Jedi will show up then. And usually not to help but because they're worried you're going to start a war and they want you to stop."
A strange thing that I mentally noted, they seem to be heavily biased against the Jedi Order but they had no such issue with this, Count Dooku, who was a former Jedi. Was this just a 'He's one of ours so it's okay' sort of situation or was there something else to it.
"Sounds like to me the real issue is that the Jedi are too close to the rings of power then." I proposed sitting back in my seat. "They probably need to spend more time out in the Outer Rim doing good there and less time here in the Core working with politicians."
Urmero nodded, "That's about the truth of it when you really think about it. But who's going to tell them that to their face? They sit in their Temple living it up in the sunlight on top of the greatest city in the Galaxy and have everything taken care of for them by droids and staff. I'm sure they do more than just that, but they live in a different social economic environment than most of the Galaxy and it's easier to be detached from having to deal with terrible issues in my opinion."
"Probably lots of people," I said matter of fact, "there's probably no end of people who would be willing to say it. It's just if the Jedi are willing to believe it."
I would have said more but Vai came up to where we were sitting hanging off of Tabi obviously. Either tired or buzzed, either was possible since I believe the minimum for drinking was 18 on Coruscant. "Hey Tanya, time to get going, I think?" she said, sounding sober enough.
I nodded and turned to the two who would let us sit there and said, "Thank you for this wonderful conversation. I'll keep the things we've spoken of in mind." Before turning to Engiz and saying, "Let's get on our way then."
He nodded, seemed to be in some sort of daze, I'm not really sure why, maybe he had snuck a drink when I wasn't looking, but he got up right after I got out of the booth and we began our path back to the front entrance.
The information that I'd received was at the very minimum concerning and something I would have to think about deeply. Maybe in 4 years the Republic was going to wake up to the fact that a portion of their government just up and left and to form a new government which meant Mandalore could end up on the front lines of a conflict. I would have to push in some way for the armament and creation of a Self-Defense Force soon. Otherwise we would just end up overrun between two armies fighting each other.
Question was, could I do anything in 4 years? maybe five or six depending on how long it took for the Republic to respond.
Coruscant, Upper District Streets
Tabi Kregg
"We should have gotten a parking place that was much closer." Vai muttered onmy shoulder as she leaned heavily against me. She had drunk perhaps a bit too much of the low alcohol content drinks they served at that bar in the club. An unfortunate situation really as I believed things had gone a little bit more my way we would be spending the night together. However I was not a di'kut and engaging in such behaviors with the mentally impaired best friend of your boss was a good way to learn how to fly without a jetpack.
Well that and I was just not so crude as to engage in such behaviors. I was many things, a lover of the finer things such as arts and fashion, a charmer of women, able to bench press 3 and 1/2 times my own weight, and a fool for love and fights. However I was not a villain. Supporting the Mandalorian native with my shorter frame I simply said, "No worries dear, we'll be back at the speeder soon."
I had considered possibly calling Commander Ordack to come pick us up, but I figured we would be fine. Four Mandalorians, three of which are in good fighting shape, could take on any threat that the city could throw at us. And it was only a short walk a block or two down the street then a block downwards to get to the parking area. Granted this was a lot closer to the edges of the districts my charge was allowed to enter but I'm sure there would be no issue, the police should be more than adequate in this area. I would assume of course that was not a corrupt dystopia. On second thought I probably should have brought a blaster set to stun at least.
Tanya and Engiz were walking in front of us having a chat, about history by the sounds of it. The pair were absolute nerds, not that I held anything against that but history was not one of the things I was interested in. As was the past, it was dead, something to be forgotten. The future was more important followed closely by traditions and culture. It was probably for the best, I had abandoned my initial plan when I first joined up with the Royal Guard to charm the princess. If I really committed to it I was sure I could pull it off. It's just not something to do when there was not only competition, the one who had already started putting ground work in place. Going after someone's childhood friend, who they've had a crush on since then, usually ends with a lot of pain for the person going after said childhood friend. Usually the physical kind and sometimes leading to death as fights tend to be a lot more brutal when a girl was involved, at least back in his homeworld they did.
But that's besides the point, he simply was not going to risk his professional relationship with Engiz especially when Vai was more fun. He hadn't planned to start charming her, he'd simply been volunteering to be the driver whenever the princess had a meeting at the Jedi Temple and since Vai ended alone for a bit, looking at the art, he decided to go in one day, to keep her company. And it turned out they had a few things in common, mainly overbearing parental issues. He didn't know all the issues that Vai had with her mother, he wasn't one to push too hard on those sorts of things but he was willing to listen and listening is half the battle in charming a person.
Through it he learned she was a quote, unquote "Traditionalist Mandalorian", or at least her parents were and she was more free-spirited. Also known as she wanted to rebel against her parents, but she was not sure how she was going to be able to do that when she was supposed to stay by the princess all the time and stay in the Senatorial District.
An easy problem for a man of his caliber, he suggested since they were such good friends maybe, she could get Tanya to be more rebellious as well. And he mentioned he knew about this particular little club on the edges of the Senatorial District. Something he found out about in the first 3 months, when he got 8 hours free everyday he was going to do a little bit of exploring during that time. He had to make sure it would work but he portrayed enough confidence that she had been confident enough to attempt it. Most likely Tanya was a bit rebellious as well because it had been almost too easy to get an okay from her. All that really mattered then was to arrange things so we could pull it off. Engiz was invaluable, there was his obvious crush on the princess which not only made him a good date for the club but made him useful for the trip to the mall. Since two guards had to be near Tanya basically all times of the day, all I had to do was make sure that he was assigned to the same mall trip as me, then tada club night was a go.
And from what he'd seen, it had been a magical success. So much so he probably has to figure out how to pull it off again. Oh well, that was for the future, right now he just needs to get the girls and the nerd back to the safety of the Tower, he can worry about their next rebellious party night later.
Tanya and Engiz rounded the corner of a building in front of us which would lead to the stairs to the floors below so we could get our speeder when things went sideways.
Engiz stumbled back, appearing to have been hit. Where Tanya was, I didn't know but that was not a good sign. Had he done something to piss Tanya off? Had the nerd gotten too big for his britches and done something unsavory? Well the shouting and fighting sounds coming from the hallway he had just been knocked out of would say otherwise as both me and Vai sprung into action. Crossing the 5-ft distance that had separated us from the Ordo.
Turning to look down the hallway leading to our car I immediately saw the problem and knew things had gone pear-shaped, quite horribly. The hallway was currently being fought over by two groups both in nice suits and appeared to be upper class in nature. No matter their upper class status, it would seem they had some sort of ongoing feud as they were quite thoroughly beating the shit out of each other and what I could only assume was some sort of corporate gang warfare between the black suits versus the tan suits I know that there was some other reason behind it but that seemed to be the way the conflict lines were drawn. The majority appear to be human or humanoid though I thought I saw a few more brutish looking aliens near the back as the group fought each other on the stairs. It looked like there were 40 of them in total. But my guess was Tanya and the nerd had turned the corner just as the fighting had started and had been swamped into the conflict.
As for Tanya's condition and location, which was the most important part of this situation, she was doing fine from what I could tell. At her feet were three of the suited gangers two from the side wearing black suits and one wearing a tan suit. She was facing off against one in a tan suit who kept trying to punch her in the face but she appeared to have a miniature shield built into her vambrace and was blocking his attempts. Which was probably for the best since he was apparently one of those modded folks, every time he threw a fist, it would launch itself out a good 6 inches at a speed more inline with a speeding missile. The impact is having driven on her back against the wall as the corporate thug attempted to batter down her defenses.
No, that was something I could not let happen, any damage the princess took would no doubt reflect badly on me and the nerd, so we need to get her out of this situation quickly.
Without saying a word I moved to join the fight heading directly for the man who was trying to smash Tanya skull in with his automated jackhammer of a fist.
One of the black suits got in my way saying, "Get lost girly, that girls already gotten herself in this fight you don't need to join-" I didn't let him finish simply put all the muscle I had into a good right hook and sent him flying two feet into the air it came crashing down into the side of the jackhammer idiot, and both of them took a tumble down the stairs. Before I could move to get Tanya, to grab her hand and pull her out of this situation one of the tan suits came at me with a blade. I just managed to block the attack with my own vambrace and got a wonderful show of Vai performing an excellent flying kick sending that gangster rolling down the stairs and knocking down a few others like bowling balls. She landed on the step next to me and tilted around, obviously not exactly as balanced as she should be. So I grabbed her by the waist to steady her.
Ordo apparently pulled himself back up and was already back in the fight, brawling his way through two more of the black suits that had got in our way between us and Tanya.
As for Tanya herself, the pile of bodies at her feet had grown from three to six in the moment I looked away to deal with the knife attack. The gangsters had seemed to realize that their own petty fight was now a sideshow to our desperate assault to break through their fight to Tanya. And some of the suits had started to run away, the black suits heading back down the stairs towards the parking lot where unfortunately our car was and the tan suits trying to get past us to get to the street above presumably to wherever their vehicles are parked. And we were stuck in the middle as those who weren't running away were now trying to surround us.
And these gangsters were pulling out real weaponry, one of them even pulled out a blaster and aimed it at Tanya. The princess was much quicker than I would have assumed as she was able to put her shield in between herself and the bolt, charged right at the shooter to get her hand around the man's wrist, and pushed his hand up so the blaster was pointed at the ceiling. With a dull thud, Tanya slammed her knee into the suited man's groin stunning him enough for Tanya to yank the blaster from his hand. The gangster was then treated to Tanya knocking out his knees and sending him tumbling down the stairs to join the already growing group of bodies at the bottom of the stairs.
Before any of us could make a move to join up with the princess and consolidate our defensive line The telltale sound of electricity sparking off staves went off at the top of the stairs causing everyone to look in that direction. And causing a pit of 'Oh crap' to form in my stomach.
Charging in from the top of the stairs were Mandalorian Royal guards, their staves pointing in our general direction as they made their way down whilst zapping anyone who attempted to get in their way. One of them swung his staff into a ganger's gut before proceeding to roll over his back before delivering a brutal blow to his head with a two handed swing of his staff. Another delivered a brutal combo of fast strikes with both ends of the staff before ending with a thrust to the face and heavy swing at his head.
Someone drew their blaster and open fired at a Royal Guards only to have the blasts deflected into the wall by their staff. The shots that weren't deflected simply fizzled off when it connected to their beskar armor. The realization that they couldn't harm the guards bearing down on them seemed to snap the gangsters into realizing that they had screwed up and they began running down the stairs to get away from us.
Once the gangsters had been cleared out, the Royal Guards formed a perimeter around the princess. Commander Ordack pushed up the visor of his helmet and looked directly at me while saying, "You four, go up those stairs and get into the van, now." His tone made it quite clear there would be no talking our way out of this and it wasn't even worth trying to explain that we were not responsible so I simply nodded as did most of the rest of the group as we filed our way up. I did hear him muttering something about having to explain this to the proper authorities which looking up I realized we had been on camera the whole time. Hopefully that wouldn't come back to harm the princess in any way. Gave a damn good fight though, but now I understand why the nerd was interested in her.
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