Private Dreams and Doubts

[Mia Monroe]

"KATLAYADYR," he roared.


"LIBERATOR," he roared louder.



"MONROE!"

Mia woke with a start, Ra's voice echoing in her mind. Rattling her to her very core. Her dream had been filled with blood, with the screams of battle. Quietly she rose, careful not to disturb Ijaat Mereel , padding barefoot out of the room. Her breath was coming in short, something was closing about her chest.

Just a dream, just a memory.

She donned her armour with trembling hands and stepped into the cold night air. There were a few mandalorians awake around the Iron Fortress, they bowed their heads in respect. Respect she did not deserve. Respect she only received by standing by Ijaat. The grip tightened on her chest. Forty years she'd wandered the nether wastes. A thousand times she'd fought a version of Ra Vizsla created by her own mind. but only in the waking world did she feel the fear of his wrath.


She let her feet carry her beyond the fortress walls, waving back brothers who stepped in to flank her. Do not protect me, do not serve me. I am not worthy.

Her jet pack kicked in, carrying her high into the night sky. She had no idea where she was going. She just needed to put distance between her and the people she loved. If she was going to lose her grip on reality, she would do so alone.

 

[Mia Monroe]

"You stand accused of the destruction of Mand'yaim,

"I paid the price."

She set down under the stars, nothing but barren wasteland as far as the eye could see. Her fuel reserves were low, she wouldn't make it back with that tank. Good.

of bearing responsibility for countless Mando'ade deaths,

A bitter laugh slipped from her mouth, she pulled free her helmet and let it drop at her feet. The world around her flickered, Ra stood before her a mountain of a man, they stood in a field of blood, armoured bodies littered the ground around them. Explosions rattled in the distance. He rippled with the nights breeze. None of this was real.

"I paid the price." she repeated.

the attempted usurping of the mantle without proper trial,

and the betrayal of your heritage,

your culture,

and your people.

There was movement behind her, Jasper Ordo stood behind her. "Mi'ika..." his voice was so far away. Gilamar Skirata stepped up beside him, his expression cold. She'd taken his only son from him. Something he would never forgive her for. Her heart broke.

 

[Mia Monroe]

You are my failure, Katlayadr,

"I AM NOT YOU'RE ONLY FAILURE, PRETENDER!"

Mia rounded on the ghost, the figment of her imagination, corporeal memory. "LOOK AT IT!" she screamed, the bloody wastes vanished, replaced with the barren wastes that had become the northern hemisphere.

"You were nothing but a puppet. A pretender. A lie. AND I. PAID. YOUR. PRICE!"

Pain and fury collected in her chest, drawing in the force. Energy pooled at her centre, white hot and burning.

"You promised me, that you would not fail us. I went to the netherworld wastes, believing that you would lead our people right. But you were a lie, Undying. And you are dead and gone, so get the feth out of my head."

She threw her arm forward, the energy rippled out from her with a sonic boom, destruction ploughing into nothing, tearing at the already barren waste before her.

Ra was gone.

She was alone again.

Mia sank to her knees, palms coming to rest on the rock. "He will do, what we could not. And I will do everything in my power to make sure he succeeds. I will fight in the shadows to deal with those that try to come at him sideways."

"He will be better than both of us."

 

[Mia Monroe]

ONE WEEK LATER
Space above Myrkr

Once upon a lifetime, this planet had been her sanctuary. A place to hideaway from the rest of the galaxy. She stood over the console, waiting for the scans to come in, a ghostly visage of Myrkr and the meteors impact site illuminated her face. Deep beneath the planets surface, Miri Farms Headquarters rested. She was here for one thing only, and that was the artificial intelligence that had helped her develop everything Miri Farms had produced.

The Protectors needed assets, she needed assets. Ori'vod was that and more. With a few tweaks their purpose could be redesigned, their intelligence turned, unbiased to Manda'yaims rebuilding and its protection.

A gentle ping told her the scans would be complete, she blinked herself back into the room, into the moment and read the report. Myrkrs landscape had been changed long before the sith threw a rock at it. The creation and introduction of Golka, a hound bred for war had damaged the eco system, increasing food competition for the local vornskr. The Ysalamycota, fungus to settle on the olbio trees developed by her and Galeth had already decimated the ysalamiri population.

Galeth...

Her late husband. Her first love. She'd driven that man to the edge. A sigh, and she pushed him from her mind. She needed to set the past aside, if she was to help Ijaat succeed. She had to stop looking over her shoulder.

If anything, the meteor had levelled the playing field, reset the stage. Life forms were in abundance. And the base deep beneath the surface? She zoomed in, intact, mostly. Five upper levels decimated, known entrances gone. The two lowest levels were intact, and there were ways in, through the overgrown rubble.

Satisfied, she took the helm and began her descent.

 

[Mia Monroe]

There was something calming moving through the force null bubbles. It wasn't quite what it used to be, before she'd have been engulfed in it a few kilometres from the planets surface. Now it existed in small pockets, many of the olbio trees were supporting the long ghostly ysalamycota creating gaps in the overlapping bubbles produced by the ysalamir. She wondered if it was possible to plant some of the olbio trees on Mandalore, away from the fungus, and give the ysalamir a chance to recover their numbers elsewhere. Perhaps it would be something Elise Ahana-Gwyneira or Akar Rhonvogg would be able to help with, plants were after all their speciality.

A idea to be filed away for later contemplation. She kept a hand on her bolter as she moved, HUD switching from normal to thermal display. If there were golka about, they weren't here. The oblio trees were started to thin, opening into a wide crater, stretching at least three kilometres across, wilderness had long started its reclamation, young olbio trees, no more than a few feet tall were scattered throughout, shrubs and greenery had covered the scar the sith had left.

Mia took a knee at its edge, scanning it for movement, concealed at the forests edge. A few beats passed before she heard them, snapping ans snarling. A pack of around fifteen juveniles, lazing in the mid morning sun, smack bang int the middle of her path. She zoomed in and sighed as she recognised the rubble they were using as sunbeds. "Feth."

It would only be poetic, that a creature of her own creation sat between her and her goal. Juveniles were aggressive, killing often for the sake of killing. While there was opportunity to perhaps identify the oldest and bond, she didn't fancy her odds of doing so with so many of them at her back. She'd have to either wait till they moved on, or set out for a hunt.