Good Morning Mandalore: Every Day Is An Open Door

[Jorus Merrill]

MANDALORE HIGH ORBIT

Starlines burned down to stars, and S.S. Gossamer decanted to realspace. A handful of other ships, all freighters, dropped out in its wake.

In the weeks since Utapau and the days since his rescue on D’Qar, tension had gripped Jorus whenever he found himself in realspace. He let out a slow breath. “Adurak, give me a systemwide broadcast, please.”

A tiny light blinked red on the holo pickup. Right now, the Mandalorian system was seeing a heavily bandaged man in spacer clothes.

“Su cuy’gar, Manda’yaim.” He didn't butcher the accent. Adurak gave him an offscreen thumbs-up. “I'm Captain Jorus Merrill, a sheriff of the Outer Rim Coalition. Your leaders came halfway across the galaxy to take a swing at us. We killed some, captured others.” He caught himself rubbing his shoulder and stopped. Mandos didn't like weakness.

Too bad.

“Turns out I don't think much of your priorities. Your planet got hurt bad, and I hear that. I'm Corellian. Know what we did when our world got burned? We didn't throw a tantrum, we fixed it. Just like I'm here to fix you.”

Shuttles boiled out of the Gossamer's hangar and made a beeline for the burnt planet below.

“Feel free to scan the feth out of those transports. They're crewed by multipurpose droids and carrying nutrients, water purifiers, medical supplies, seeds, fertilizer, prefab shelters, and machines that convert raw biomass to food and fuel. No strings attached.

“We still owe your leaders a knock upside the head, but so do you. They owe you a lot more than they've been giving. So speaking to some other folks screwed over by the Cuir Rekr...have a hot meal on us.”

 

[Shia Kryze]

Shia waved one hand at the holo-vid.

"Turn him off."

"Alor?"

"Turn him off, he thinks we're weak and wants to talk to us like we're children. All he's going to get is hatred. Plus, what are we going to do with those supplies? Now, if he'd brought biome restoration or terraforming supplies, I might be a little less pissed off at the grandstanding."

She rose to her feet from where she was helping repair one of the old power lines that should, all things being equal, restore some shielding to this part of the planet and prevent the dust storms from raking it. Turning her head skywards as she did so.

"I'm sure Yasha will have something to say to him, in the meantime, if anyone needs me I'll be en-route to the Huntress, or aboard her."

"Alor?"

"This is all going to go completely non-linear and when it does, I'd like to be somewhere I can affect it."

She walked over to the shuttle that had brought the group out here, keeping her focus on her footsteps and her goal, not letting the ruins of her surroundings - or their presence - sink in.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The alarums sounded from planetary defence systems too late for Yasha’s liking. She sprinted from the engineer’s workshop in the Sundari Palace, leaving two dozen of Mandalore’s best environmental engineers to blink and wait before the comm from [member="Jorus Merrill"] blasted across Manda’yaim.

“Screwed over by the Cuir Rekr, huh? Dang people and their skewed views…” Utapau had been bad. It begged to be rectified, with Aryn dead, her father [member="Preliat Mantis"] deserting Mandalore and [member="Malika Mantis"] missing, there were only two members of the Cuir Rekr left.

Yasha Mantis, and [member="Vilaz Munin"]. Famine and War.

Lucky for Jorus Merrill, Yasha had gone under a metamorphosis at the feet of [member="Ember Rekali"]. She stood her ground with [member="Darth Carnifex"] and sat at the table of [member="Gray Raxis"] as he reminded her and [member="Kaden Mantis"] what the Resol’nare was, and what the most important pieces of it were.

Three Rekr Dreadnoughts in Mandalore’s orbit took notice of the freighters. Comms buzzed in Yasha’s ears. “Get Akaan in charge of the defences!”

“… Katlaydr, do you know what happened the last time Vilaz Munin talked to aide workers!?” Ambrose Vizsla barked, as he ran beside her.

“I didn’t say put Vilaz on the holo, I said I need him up there! If anyone knows how to blow an ORC to Manda if things go sour, it's Akaan. I want a gunship on every freighter. Don’t… fire.” Yasha made it to the throne room, and a series of holo screens showed her the fleet of ‘support’.

“Scan everything! Scan them all. If even one looks twitchy on its’ flight plan or scans differently than humanitarian aide?” Yasha slid her buy’ce on, her teeth grit. “Give it to Akaan. Akaan… [member="Quoron Viszla"]... you have the fleet.”

She rounded the corner and a member of the Yalilyr trotted up, clipping Yasha’s crimson cloak to her backplate. “[member="Shia Kryze"], I need you coordinating. Whatever you feel is right, do it. Every shuttle gets a physical Mando’ad presence making sure nothing goes awry. If this is a thinly veiled attack, I want their heads to have new vent holes before they can say, ‘don’t shoot’. If this isn’t an attack?”

Yasha snapped her teeth together. “… I’d rather our people receive aide, than my pride get a bit dinged by a Merrill. Take the supplies and if they’re on the level… distribute them all. Hold back 20% for future use.” Shia understood. Nothing mattered more than the health and future plenty of the Mando’ade.

Flashing up a hand signal, Katlaydr stood in front of and beside the Mand’alor’s throne. Her armour shone. Merrill throwing down handouts was a despicably large hit to Yasha, and Mandalore’s pride. The call out for the Cuir Rekr even more so. It was well within her warrior’s way to blast, or attempt to blast, the man and his provisions out of the sky.

But Ember and Gray taught her that personal pride doesn’t take precedence over the welfare of her people. A priority signal to Merrill’s ship. A tall woman in gold and black beskar’gam… the beskar’gam matched Katlaydr’s, but it’d gotten taller. The woman who spoke was eerily similar, but not the same, as the teenaged girl who coordinated the attack on Pau City.

“Captain Jorus Merrill. This is Katlaydr of the Cuir Rekr. Your transports are being followed down to the surface by Mando’ade gunships. Any deviation from flight plans… anything akin to a finger twitch and we blow them… You have my Aunt [member="Malika Mantis"]. I demand Shukalar’s return.” The armoured maiden seemed to stop, tilt her head and ponder what to say next.

“There will be no next time to aide drops. There will be no return of the transports. If we find so much as a microchip of spyware in a single droid, we will return to your coalition space with such a vengeance Utapau will look like a child throwing checkers at a window. Anything which touches Manda’yaim’s lower atmosphere is ours… I’m sure you’ll understand if half of us find this threatening and the other half find it amusing that our enemies are giving us the ability to strengthen our position…” A dehumanizing helmet of opaque transparisteel and black beskar tilted once again, as Yasha flourished in an over-exaggerated courtly bow. “… Manda’yaim thanks her opponent, Sheriff. I am confident the systems we would have had to raid for these supplies will thank you, too. Pat yourself on the back, release my fething aunt and get the kark out of my sovereign space.”

It was the closest thing to a ‘thank you, Sir’ Merrill or anyone could receive from a proud Mandalorian. The sheer fact the Mando'ade didn't start firing immediately was novel. A curious and fairly wise turn of events so unlike the leaders who came before. Whatever happened to the Hell Wolf to cause the official Mandalorian reaction to be one of practical peace was no small thing.

“So help me Captain Merrill, I will have my Aunt back. You can release her or I will drive forward until she is in my arms again.”

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

She wasn’t sure what to feel, not after Utapau. The Starchaser made her way D’Qar to help set up shop there, but this was still… Life was tricky in the Outer Rim. They had soldiers but no unifying group. The Wardens and Judges did what they could but it was only so much. Still, when a call came out to head towards Mandalore proper? Kaia was one of the first to sign up into the fleet. A quick call repurposed another one of the Starchaser Enterprises’ Gentes-class Bulk Freighters. The ‘Sanctum’s Promise’ was a mobile tender for the group that traveled with the Dawn Treader. The ship had met up with the Gossamer and filled to the brim.

Kaia herself was in the Pulsar serving as a pilot ship for her larger vessel, but she was here to help out Merrill and do what she could to help those in need. That was the whole thing of the Wardens, after all. And this wasn’t space lanes, but no one else was helping, why shouldn’t ORC?

Her father and brother were out helping the Alliance, and she knew that things were changing with their own relationship, but all she could do here was help herself do the best job of being her she could. What she was going to do was set up her ship in a place to help other shuttles load up and launch. They had a handful of Corellian light freighters that were following the ones from the Gossamer.

“Keep the feeds running, Drifter. Let me know if things get… messy?”

Since the Mandos had come for Utapau, she assumed they were always cranky.

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Double post

 

[Gray Raxis]

Mandalore mourned for her children. Gray knew this as surely as the ash fell. To make matters worse, he could feel it whenever he spent any time focusing on the force. His people's sacred home was in dire need of help, even if many of them would never admit it to others. But it didn't matter if they would or wouldn't for him. His goal was to see that some sense of Mandalorian culture and ways remained through all of this. Change was a part of life and a part of Mandalorian culture, but that didn't give people a right to strip it away entirely. And right now one of these people trying to strip it away although not on purpose was [member="Jorus Merrill"] .

Gray had arrived into the space around Mandalore with some freighters full of RID's HE suits and helmets for the people below. The ultimate goal might be terraforming the planet back into shape, but people still had to live there in the mean time. The equipment he was just handing over was part of letting people deal with the extreme conditions. His arrival was followed a less than a minute later by Jorus and [member="Kaia Starchaser"] ships. So he got to hear everything that was said over coms by the man and by [member="Yasha Mantis"] . The transaction caused a frown. This situation was going to turn volatile, he just knew it. Mandalore couldn't afford more enemies, even if this was group was one already. Seemed the best option for him right now was to do what Raxis do best: independent action.

Gray instructed the clansman in charge of the coms to send his transmission out to both Yasha and Jorus. He cleared his throat and then as soon as he was given the okay said, " This is Gray Raxis alor of Clan Raxis. I would like to request permission to board your vessel and speak with you Jorus Merrill. I have some business with you." With that the transmission ended. He instructed that all the clan ships land on Mandalore to hand the cargo over to Yasha herself or to [member="Kaden Mantis"] either one but no one else. Then with that done he went to board a shuttle with his little astrodroid Key. Hopefully Jorus accepted because he was heading to the hangar of his ship either way.

[member="Shia Kryze"]

 

[Shia Kryze]

Shia settled back into the flight couch of the shuttle.

"By your command, alor." She replied to [member="Yasha Mantis"], her tone only slightly sardonic. This would have been a lot easier if she wasn't hundreds of miles from anywhere.

Her fingers flew over the command console on the shuttle as the pilot took it skywards, authorising her control over local ground to space traffic and traffic control, re-routing civilian flights out of the way of the incoming supplies and pinging each of them with identification requests and signals to (varying) come in to land, hold orbital altitude or to ascend to a higher altitude as she frantically prioritised shuttles to spaceports with active air to ground defences, warning those space ports and requesting that they provide appropriate ground workers and aid crews for each shuttle.

Thank the Force she didn't need to assign guards, just flag each request as actively dangerous to ensure only armoured Mando'ade got sent to those duties.

For a logistical exercise conducted from the back of a shuttle powering up through the atmosphere to one of those Rekr Dreadnaughts, it was really quite efficient. But really, she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Kaveh Garshasp]

Across Mandalore on all sorts of channels Merrill's broadcast went out. While it wasn't obvious to all, some were suspicious of such a play. Declaring to the people on an open channel that they were being given supplies meant that if the Cuir Rekr denied them there would be unrest throughout the Mandalore sector. From his small broadcasting office Kresh cursed under his breath. MGA had been ordered by the Mandalorian Empire to broadcast their response across Mandalorian controlled worlds. Everyone was watching now...

Sundari - MGA Broadcast - Sundari Spaceport

A Togruta in red, well fitted Beskar'gam nodded at the holocam as the live stream began.

"Moments ago a man calling himself an Outer Rim Coalition Sheriff entered Manda'yaim space with a promise of aid in the form of food stuffs, nutrient packs, shelters, medical supplies and other things crucial to the rebuilding of Manda'yaim. While cities such as Sundari and Padelfia were easily up and running not even a week after the Monroe Event due to their environmental domes, shields, and remote open locations, many smaller towns and cities such as K'apruni, Norg Bral, and Enceri are still suffering. The Cold Iron City, the heart of Mandalore's Beskar mining technology and Beskar ore is still covered in ice and snow, and with summer just around the corner the threat of cave-ins and mudslides have griped the northern city."

She paused.

"It is with these things in mind that Mand'alor Ra Viszla has begun prepping shuttles in the major cities of Sundari, Padelfia, Keldabe, and the new city of Kelita to intercept these ORC shuttles. As we've been told this could be a retaliatory trap set by the Outer Rim Coalition after our assault on Utapau." In the background the wind began to pick up as Mandalorian cargo shuttles and bulk freighters began to lift off, throwing bits of sand and debris into the face of the Togrutan reporter.

"It seems like the operation is under way! We'll keep you all updated on how this operation continues. Grahm, back to you in Keldabe."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Jorus smiled without humor as a completely predictable response unfolded across the comscan panels. “Cool it, kid,” he said to both [member="Yasha Mantis"] and the entire Mandalore system. “It's no trick; the supplies are fine and I didn't need the boats back anyway. I don't have a clue who your aunt is, but I'll look into it and see if we've got her. Oh, and I'm sure Pau City will be glad to hear about your newfound respect for sovereign territory. Feel free to have the last word.”

The droid-piloted shuttles just continued along on their innocuous courses. The Gossamer turned to put the planet on its starboard side. [member="Gray Raxis"] received automated clearance to land in the armed freighter's cavernous hangar.

 

[Gray Raxis]

As the little droid piloted the shuttle towards the Gossamer, Gray just sat in his seat thinking things over. A message over the coms went off. Seemed that [member="Jorus Merrill"] had replied to things, and it went about as well as he expected. No one was really wanting to play nice here and just looking for an excuse. Seemed it was an average day on Mandalore then. Not long after came an automated message giving him clearance. He frowned as he heard it. Where they going to play games with him or be serious? He hoped they were going to be serious.

Pressing the com button, Gray said back to the Gossamer, " Repeat please. Did I receive permission to land or did Jorus turn into a female robot? If so please tell that he is a large chested battle droid with curly pig tails now. I really want to hear you say it is true." With that he let go of the button. He couldn't help himself. He said to Key, " Land us in the hangar. We have permission already anyways." The little droid gave him a nervous beep but did as asked. Hopefully this time around things went better than they did on Ilum.

 

[Itash Mecetti]

This was already turning into a mess and Itash couldn't help but wonder if any of this was a good idea.

Oh, it send a message alright.

The kind where the Mandalorians were forced to look like idiots and the Outer Rim looked magnanimous as feth. There was style to the way [member="Jorus Merrill"]'s was handling the situation, part of him might even have been moderately impressed. Once more Didact had been hired- the fight against the Ancient Eye had been profitable and apparently satisfying enough for the Council to hire him again.

Worked well for him.

This time around Itash was in the hangar of the S.S. Gossamer. His men were working in concert with the rebels to secure the supplies, make sure they were solid, before they'd be passed on over to the Mando'ade.

If something popped off Didact would lend their firepower.

But Mecetti hoped that wouldn't be the case this time around. He had enough boarding fights for a lifetime after that last one.

[member="Tryp West"] | [member="Gray Raxis"] | [member="Kaia Starchaser"]​

 

[Tryp West]

"Hey! Hey hey you, yah you. Where didja learn ta stack crates? Dat's gonna topple right ovah the first time da ship shakes. 'Ere, lemme give ya a hand. Nope nope nope, stay right der, I'll 'op up an' steady it, savvy?"

Shrugging off her jacket and setting it down out of the way, Tryp bounded up the stack to steady the top crate while they worked to get the line next to it straighter and more steady. Peering over the top edge, she watched their progress.

After Utapau there'd been a bad taste in Tryp's mouth. Not literally, but she didn't like what had happened or why. She knew there wasn't much that could be done to, well, undo it- she hadn't taken many lives, and those she had? Well, it had been that or stand there like a idiot and take a blaster bolt to the head herself.

But it didn't sit right.

So she's signed on with the relief effort. The opposite of war wasn't peace..... it was creating something, helping build something. This didn't erase anything, from anyone on any side.

But it was right.

"Hey, dat tird crate's crooked," she called down helpfully. "Put more weight on it an' da 'ole stack'll topple too."

She didn't really know anyone on board, not the rest of the Gossamer's crew, not the security men who were giving her funny looks, but listening (it was just good sense after all). But that had never bothered Tryp, and it didn't now. Not knowing people was just another chance to get to know them, after all.

[member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Kaia Starchaser"]

 

[Shia Kryze]

Shia made it to the bridge of the Huntress at a dead run, who on earth thought it was a good idea to put the docking bay a whole kilometer from the bridge? Someone who wants borders to get good exercise, and officers doubly so.

She collapsed into the flag chair - well, pack hunters throne, as it translated in Mando'a - and took a minute or two to check on the deliveries, then thumbed the com.

"Yasha, this is Huntress'alor, can you ask... oh you know what, I have a voice. Huntress'alor out." She flicked channels from Yasha to a direct broadcast - not a system broadcast - to the Gossamer. "Gossamer, this is Huntress'alor. I need you to slow your deliveries once you're done grandstanding. As you can quite obviously see, we're down an entire starport due to the ash storms and I don't have room for those droid freighters. And while I'm on the line being bitchy, could you maybe drop by with some terraforming recyclers and high level atmo-clearer droids next time? Give a vod a fish and you feed them for a day, clear their skies and you win those hearts and minds you're so keen on, not on scoring points against Ra the Undying - who, just to be clear - is Mandalore, which if you know anything means unlike your allies, we're holding to the tenets of our culture, you know, those things that make us Mando'ade, not just some jerk in beskar'gam. Huntress'alor over."

She flicked to an all system channel.

"This is Huntress to all craft in Mandalorian orbit. All civilian traffic is requested to assume standard orbital attitudes, or you know, if you've got rough landing capability you can set down in the desert, but all starports are full and I've got an earful of traffic control requests so just be patient. Huntress out."

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Gray Raxis"] [member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Yasha Mantis"]​

 

[Kaden Farr]

Kaden waited for the comm channels to close before he said a word. Yasha was always wanting the best for her people that anything which could be viewed as a threat was. Kaden didn’t blame her. Their experience in the Netherworld wired their minds to think exactly that way. It was a survival instinct. If it felt like a trap it was. This certainly didn’t seem, or feel, like good will, not coming from this @Jorrus Merril. His tone was full of condescending pride. There was no reason to address the people as he had, and how in the hell had he hacked into the Emprie’s broadcast frequency to begin with?

”If I am to guess his rhetoric is the kind which one would use to insight a rebellion,” Kaden said. ”He speaks as though our current state is the fault of the Cuir Rekr when they have been working diligently to rebuild. Casting blame on the leadership only serves one purpose. It is an attempt to create distrust and disloyalty.”

Kaden looked to the empty throne and then he looked to Yasha.

She knew what he meant by it, and what needed to be done. When was she going to do it?

”I suggest we find out for ourselves what he means do here. If he is genuine then he moment the drop ships land he will leave our space. If he does not, then his motives are not genuine and we leave him to [member="Vilaz Munin"]. I do not trust him, and I believe this is a distraction for something else. If he was genuine then his little speech had no purpose and should have been a direct contact to the palace. That one fact makes this a contradiction to me. If he is genuine, then this will be over in less than an hour.”

Kaden simply shook his head. This all seemed like a charade to him, an act. The speech had destroyed an credibility his actions attempted to convey. This was no borne out of aide. It was simply an excuse to pretend he was more righteous than he viewed the Mando’ade to be.

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Kaden Farr]

Double post

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Starchaser was watching her ships head in for landing. Listening to Jorus, the dark haired girl had set up her own ships to run on droid power. The YT freighters were set up to carry cargo, but they’d return empty and start to make a second run. She didn’t have a lot of pilots in her company anyway, but owning a few ships was better than not enough. She smiled as she spun her YT-2400 and moved before hitting the retry angle, looping back up to the Sanctum and towards Gossamer.

“Everything ok, Merrill?” She called over the commlink to [member="Jorus Merrill"]’s ship. She saw some other vessel heading that way. She had a few tractor beams strapped to her vessel in case any of the droids went rogue, she’d be able to pull them into a path and ion the ship for pick up after. She wasn’t taking chances here.

The tender, that was what she was doing.

But her ship was keeping the one heading for the Gossamer in her view.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]
[member="Itash Mecetti"]
[member="Gray Raxis"]
[member="Tryp West"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Shia Kryze"]

On the bridge of the Gossamer, Jorus cracked a can of lum and took a long drink.

"No idea what allies you're talking about, Huntress'alor. We've got plenty of'em, but I don't know of any Mando faction that's signed on with us. Couple of loners maybe. Anyways, the droid freighters will be setting down on land here and there instead of clogging your port. As for the atmo recyclers and terraforming gear, your boss just told me I'm not welcome to make a second trip, and I'll be sticking to that." He bared his teeth in a grin. "Wouldn't want to hang around where help's not wanted."

He stopped transmitting and switched to the intercom and the mission channel.

[member="Kaia Starchaser"] [member="Tryp West"] [member="Itash Mecetti"] [member="Gray Raxis"]

"Folks, this is the Captain. All the droid freighters are out or about to launch. We've reoriented and we'll be hitting hyperspace in a minute. I'm getting the distinct feeling that not everyone's happy to see us."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Double post

 

[Kaia Starchaser]

Kaia got the communication loud and clear. The youngest of the central Starcahsers nodded. She double-clicked an affirmative and looped around, heading back for ‘Sanctum’s Promise.’ “Copied Merrill, yeah, Promise? Can you send the program to have the droids unload their gear, and whichever ships can make it, begin the jump sequence to head home?” She bit her lip. The trade off for helping the mandos was going to be worth the ships, but the reception they had gotten? That kind of soured her mood.

“Prep to jump following the Gossamer, you may go when ready.” Kaia ordered. She’d stay behind and jump with the Gossamer but had come up alongside the Sanctum’s Promise, her dark red YT-2400 keeping near her ship, she knew it wouldn’t take long to realign for her.

And the group wasn’t all that far away. Still, they had some food stuffs on board, they could bring to one of the outlying worlds of ORC space. Somewhere it was wanted and appreciated.

Pushing her throttle, she smiled as she saw the larger ship leave the local real space.

“Sanctum’s Promise is safely in hyperspace.” She announced over to the Gossamer control. Time to stay alongside the larger ship.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Ria Misrani]

Concord Dawn.

"My love," Teyn called, "the Outer Rim Coalition has dispatched supplies, and our people have ... a pointed response."

Amaya who had been balancing her son Isley the Younger on one hip and looking over charts as he played with his toy, turned and looked at her husband. A man of a minor Betna clan, "of course they do, after a thousand years they've yet to develop manners. Inform the Outer Rim Coalition they will find peace here with me, I'm not one to turn away a helping hand, Concord Dawn while bountiful can no more feed the whole of our people."

"Hubris is a sin," she said as an afterthought and moved to give Isley to his father. "Hold our son, I'll make contact with... this Coalition."

She was different, and after her time with Naboo perhaps more so than most Mandalorians. Amaya left the upstairs of the longhouse. In the center of the longhouse a fire would normally burn, but the climate here on Concord Dawn was relatively warm and so for now, she placed the holotable here. "Captain [member="Jorus Merrill"], I am Amaya Cardei, Daughter of Isley Verd, Lady of House Cardei on Naboo - a lot of pretentious titles to be sure. I know my people are a rather aggressive lot but I thank you for your generosity. There was absolutely no reason for you to come halfway across the galaxy to deliver aid to those in need."

"So I thank you, on behalf of my clan and my village. Should you ever find yourself on Concord Dawn, I'll be here. Lady Cardei out."

When the holotable switched off she turned to her husband, "dispatch our ships, let us be ready to take any supplies we can."