The Hard Choice

[The End Narrator]

The Outer Rim​

​

The Hard Roil​

As the The Ardent exited hyperspace from one of the few secret routes that had been stored in its navigational computers – it was immediately flagged by the intense security surrounding the Roil. The alarms began blarring throughout the vessel causing Mira to rush to her seat and flip several switches and push a variety of buttons. She muttered a curse as she began to slow her ship to a low cruising speed as two patrol craft did a close flyby of the YT-2400. Her crimson gaze would turn to the comm channel, which was blinking a soft red and a sudden nervousness came over her as she pressed the button.

“Unidentified vessel, transmit clearance codes and identification.” A rather stern voice barked through the cockpit, causing Mira to tense slightly. She slapped the button quickly. “Yeah, one second.” She quickly looked around the cockpit for the datadisc that was left behind, one that her mother used frequently when visiting the various places that were home to the Rekali clan. With an exclamation she lifted it up and put the disc into the port, and hit the transmit button. The sound of eerie silence would fill the cockpit until the stern voice suddenly came back on through the speakers.

“Unidentified vessel, power down shields and kill your engines.” He barked.

“The feth is he talking about!?” She scrambled to eject the disc and examine it before tossing it behind her. It was the right code wasn’t it? It was older, sure but it had all the proper markings and – oh. Mira groaned loudly and brought both hands to her face with a loud slap. Mira brought her hands down harshly against the console and reached for the shield controls, shutting them down. The sound of the generators going offline would be followed by the throttling back of her engines until they went dark. “That was probably the dumbest idea ever, I should have just transmitted who I was, huh?” She looked down at Pixel. The BB unit spun in a circle before rolling out of the cockpit with a loud warble, leaving her there to stare out at the station. Maybe if she reached out through the Force and looked for Alec, touched her mind and let her know that it was her and this whole mess would go away?

“No, Force knows what is going on – might think it’s some Sith trying to trick them or something. This family is so weird sometimes.” She groaned loudly and fell back into her seat, crossing her arms. “How else would I have gotten out here if I didn’t know the fething route!?” She exclaimed at the cockpit glass towards the station. “Oh right, I am on her ship – they probably think I stole the damned thing!”

Perhaps she was being punished for being gone so long. Mira believed she was doing something right by taking a step back from the Galaxy at large and drowning herself in her training. She had to do something to ignore the misery that was tugging away at her core or else she’d become something, no, someone else entirely.

Her mother wouldn’t want that, would she?

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

Times were tense. The Mandalorians had united and declared war on both the Republic and the One Sith. Only days ago, a traumatized young Jedi had circulated a heavily spun report of Mandalorian quote-unquote atrocities, prompting an Alor'e Council investigation. Silver Sanctum fleets had tried to enter Rekali territory and been politely but firmly rebuffed. Security was definitely a thing just now. In short order, though, the Tegaanalir patrol ships got a signal to let Mira's freighter pass. Rekali was a far-flung and loosely-related clan, but you didn't have to go far to meet someone who'd seen Aaralyn's freighter touch down at the Dathomir Sanctuary a time or twelve. It didn't hurt that this whole region was a warren of Rekali comm relays and waystations, and Alec knew about the freighter's incursion from ten jumps away before Mira even powered down her shields.

The patrol ships powered down their weapons and ushered the freighter toward a waystation. Rekali trawlers were ramscooping rare nebular elements and probing subspace anomalies. Nearby, an unstable wormhole disgorged an expeditionary freighter that carried exotic ores. A miniature planet rolled by under impulse power, a four-kilometre sphere with an atmosphere and impregnable shields. The Hard Roil was a weird place, and the Rekali presence here was something else.

Aboard the waystation, Mira would be met by a welcome party in Rekali'gam, spiked spaceworthy Mandalorian armor covered in Witch runes. "Welcome aboard, cousin," was the standard greeting. "The Aliit'buir will be here in a minute."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira stepped off the boarding ramp and onto the platform, hands crossing over her chest as she stared at the armored Mandalorian before her, nodding gently. “I’m sure that he’ll be thrilled to see me.” She said sarcastically. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked behind her and down at Pixel who swiveled upwards and tweeted softly. Mira shook her head and wave a hand beneath her arms. “Don’t worry about it, it won’t be a problem – I promise.” The droid responded with a loud and drawn out wail to which Mira dismissed with an eyeroll before turning back to the Mandalorian before her. She was tempted to ask questions but stopped herself short.

No, it was best to save it for him – right?

This cousin, whoever it was, probably didn’t have the same answers.

How deep was her family? That seemed to be the right thing to ask. Mira raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the armored individual. “Who are you related to? I mean, besides me obviously.” It sounded silly when it came out of her mouth but the question was legitimate. There were some of direct relation and a lot of who were adopted. Confusing at times to Mira but none the less – it was an important detail that she probably needed to keep up with given the circumstances. She tried to make sure she framed the question as polite as possible, not wanting to obviously offend whomever this individual was or even whomever they might be related to.

Sometimes people were a bit touchy when questioning relations.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

At her first statement, the Rekalis exchanged inscrutable faceplated looks. At her last, the question, they shared glances again.

"Each other. You. If you mean by blood, that's not really relevant. I'm from a Dathomiri family, he's from a Vahla subclan, she's from Keldabe, we're all Rekalis." The spike-armored figure gestured at the old freighter. "You've been out for a while, cousin. Welcome back from the cold. The Aliit'buir's coming here personally, and she wants to sit down with you a while, let you know what you've missed."

They turned as another Mando came into the docking bay. She wore a less bulky suit, mainly duraplast, with only a couple of Dathomiri and Vahla runes. She removed her buy'ce, revealing the face of Mira's blood cousin, Alec Rekali. Long years in time warps -- the Chiloon Rift, the Role Model, certain sites in the Maw -- had put her in her early thirties, though she'd been born maybe fifteen years ago.

"Hey there, Mira. Been too long. Welcome to the Hard Roil -- Rekali central."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira’s eyes widened at the mention of a female Aliit’buir and then narrowed suspiciously as she looked between them exchanging gazes and speaking about their relations. As Alec entered the hanger and removed her buy’ce, Mira peaked beyond them to catch a glimpse of her blood cousin – a girl that was so closer to her age at one point, but now seemed so much older. A smile crept up on her lips as she shouted out to Alec as she approached. “Alec! It’s been forever!” The girl, well, woman had been someone she had looked up to when she was growing up – that was truth. Between her and Aaralyn, they had been close to her and well, now there was just Alec. As she approached the other woman closer, she noted the visible differences between the last time she saw her and now.

Time was a funny thing, with everything going on, all the crazy events in the Galaxy – it had shifted everything out of balance. Mira blinked a few times and took a few steps forward, passing the group of cousins to stand before Alec – looking over her shoulder for a moment and then to the woman infront of her. A frown creased her lips as the excitement of seeing Alec suddenly lost its touch to something else, something foreign. “Where is grandfather?” A sinking feeling began to take hold somewhere in the depths of her chest as she looked behind Alec again and then at the girl.

Emotions were swirling somewhere in her mind – confusion, rage, despair. She knew the answer already. She couldn’t sense him, not within fifty kilometers of where she stood. It explained the strange emptiness that took hold when she stepped off the boarding ramp. Mira admitted she felt this sensation before – when she arrived home on Dathomir.

The sensation wasn’t welcoming, nor wanted.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

Alec, not being a Forcer, had to rely on mundane but subtle ways of reading people: face, posture, tone. Not like Mira had ever been hard to read, of course.

"Feth, wish I didn't have to be the one to say it. Thought you'd have heard by now." She set her buy'ce on a nearby packing crate, the metal kind, and ran her fingers through her hair. "He's gone for good. He fought a Gen'Dai dar'manda named Saverok on a station over Manda'yaim, and Saverok had these explosive droids scattered all through the station. The place blew up and Grandpa chose to save the folks with him -- Mia Monroe, a couple other vode -- instead of himself. We recovered his armor, found him in the Netherworld, had a chat. He's doing fine, but he's not coming back, just over there killing Sith for eternity in the Field of Blades. That's where this sword came from." She patted the hilt of the long blade at her belt.

She was speaking of what some considered sacred things, and the cousins, the other Rekalis, shifted uncomfortably. But Alec had never been one to circumvent the core of a subject.

"I won't pretend it doesn't hurt, but he saw it coming, made his choices, did what he thought was best. Now Uncle Isley's got his title of Warmaster, and he'd have liked that -- he and Isley were close. And I've got his seat on the Alor'e Council, for my sins."

 

[The End Narrator]

The room felt different than it did moments before. A gloved hand came up to touch her forehead as Mira processed the information that was so quickly passing through her ears and into her cerebral cortex. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t move or speak – the words of Alec seemed to be drowned out by the sensation of floating or even weightlessness. An intense heat rushed through Mira that caused her face to redden in the cheeks. Anger boiled somewhere in the depths of her chest as the room began to spin and Mira stumbled. She couldn’t see straight – was this normal? What was this? Maybe she was just overwhelmed from all the training and the sudden overload of information. That had to be it.

Mira held a hand up to Alec and quickly stumbled over to the boxes beside them, propping herself up as best she could. Deep inhales and rough exhales began filling the uncomfortable gap of silence between Alec’s brief and Mira’s emotional meltdown. The thing was, she wasn’t crying – she was angry. She could feel the intensity within. Why? It took another moment or two before Mira finally composed herself and slowly rose to her feet, her face clearly flushed as she turned to Alec. There was a desire to lash out at her cousin – but that wouldn’t prove useful. It wasn’t her fault that Ember did what he did, just the same way her mother did.

“I…” She didn’t bother finishing the sentence, instead bringing both arms back up to cross her chest and firmly grip her sides. She was of course, pissed at this point. She didn’t understand why those closest to her made the sacrifices and there was nothing down in their name. Where was the justice? Where was the retribution for their deaths? She continued to breath roughly, simply nodding. “I understand.” With some pep talk in her mind, her tension eased and her arms relaxed a bit. She had to let go – it’s what was best for the situation. Maybe in the grand scheme she was mad at herself. She wasn’t there when her mother died, she wasn’t there when her grandfather died – who else would she fail to be there for?

The tension around Mira would subside quickly as she became lost in her own thoughts and contemplation. Her cheeks would return their softer color as she turned her attention away from Alec. “I’m sorry for your loss…” She looked back at her cousin. “Our loss, what he did was a brave thing and it isn’t easy for me to hear. I didn’t know him that well – beyond what my mother told me, but he was a great man to whom she looked up to.” Mira nodded softly, dropping her hands down to her side with yet another sigh. “So, what else have I missed?”

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

Alec was grateful to change the subject. As she dismissed the welcoming committee, she began figuring out what Mira might or might not know.

"Well, for one, we've got a Mand'alor finally. Ra Vizsla, old school, good leader so far. He thrashed or won over all the challengers, and now we're united in a way we haven't been in a good few years. We're at war against the Republic and the One Sith -- too many skirmishes, too many insults, too many provocations. The same old Rekali wars, Grandpa's wars, but now it's all the Mandalorians. So far it's going well, really well. We're making the Pubs and the Sith realize that they were way off base with their contempt for us. Heck, the other day I shot a Sith Lord in the feet and made him crawl off Yavin. Fething grand." She clapped Mira on the shoulder. "It's a good time that you've come back. Good time to make a difference, make a dent, and make things safe for the Clan."

 

[The End Narrator]

War.

More war.

The galaxy at large was in so much turmoil when she had left for Ilum and then went beyond into the Unknown Regions – now she returned to find it even further enveloped in the flames of war. However, this time, it was a united front against the tyrannical Sith and the corrupt Republic. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe it wasn’t. She wasn’t too sure. Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, Mira felt uneasy. She had found comfort in the Galactic Alliance but left for her own reasons – more so, to focus on her Jedi training. Was it time to give up on the notion of Republics and Alliances and join her family? Even the Jedi? She thought she made this choice long ago with her other grandfather – Grandpa Strider. She cocked an eyebrow and gestured to Alec as she clapped her shoulder.

“Are you asking me to stay and fight with you, as a Rekali?” She gestured. “And what of the Republic paying for what they did to my mother, has anything been done about that?” Of course she didn’t expect much beyond what was being done now – she didn’t expect the Republic to have handed over that slimeball who was responsible for the loss of the one thing that held her family together. Why would they?

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

"Of course I am. It's the resol'nare: you do what's best for your clan, and you obey the mand'alor. Your clan is asking you to serve. Mand'alor is asking you to serve. This is your place; you belong with us, with family. Your dad's fighting alongside us. Even your brother showed up for the big clan councils a couple of weeks ago, and it's not easy dragging Aton out to play. Heck, Great Uncle Sam is onboard in his way. This is the real deal, Mira. We're carving out our own sovereignty and agency in this fethed-up verse. And you'd better believe we've made the Republic hurt for your mom. We stole their last big shipyard at Carida, made them build all new ones from scratch. We're stealing those too. They've got strong ships, good ships, but we're biting away at them from all directions; we're more than they can handle. We're hitting military crap, fighting Republic Jedi and Sith too -- there's all kinds of progress. When I say the Mandos are united under the new mand'alor, I mean it. We're out there doing things in a way we haven't gone and done things since Mia Monroe was in charge. The Alor'e Council is making decisions faster and better than it ever did. We're on the road to something special, and you're part of it."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira gently pulled away from her cousin and looked down at her feet.

“Fighting Jedi?” She looked up at Alec and frowned deeply before reaching behind her to pull a holodisc from her belt and producing it between them. “Is that what you call what happened on Ilum?” Straight and to the point. Mira hadn’t had a moment to focus on one of the reasons she sought out the elders of her family in the first place. She couldn’t say Ember anymore because it wasn’t him, now it was her closest cousin – a girl she looked up to. She looked down at the holodisc in her hand and then back up to Alec. “Killing children?! Really? Is this something to be proud of? How am I supposed to side with that!?” She was torn of course, between the Jedi Code and the Resol’nare. She knew that she would be confronted in some manner – hell if Alec wanted to, well she wouldn’t let her thoughts get that far. Mira had made her choice long ago, atleast she thought she had.

She made the choice to live by both, as her mother once had. Now she was being pushed to choose one or the other. What would happen if they did it again and Mira was forced to intervene? Could they contain her? Would she be labeled as a threat? Who was this new Mand’alor? “Does your new leader condone these actions? The proud warrior he may or may not be? What would grandpa think of this!? What would your aunt, my mother think of this!? This is what they died for! Because people didn’t think before they acted!” She exclaimed, her voice raising.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

"You want to talk about thinking before you act, let's talk about flipping out before you have the truth. I'm sick to gorram death of that transmission, of explaining the things Mara Merrill didn't know or chose not to mention.

"She has no proof. None. Whereas our side has helmet recordings, and they've been reviewed. There was an investigation at the highest levels.

"Nobody knew there were going to be younglings there. Ilum is remote and unaffiliated and behind One Sith lines. But when we figured it out, Merrill ignored multiple requests for a peaceful resolution, crammed the tunnels full of traps, and deployed commandos. She got those kids killed and she's trying to shift blame so she can live with herself.

"Every Jedi that was killed in person was armed and fighting. We're talking Padawans old enough to kill, not helpless kids. Merrill wasn't even present for most of it, and like I said, we have helmet recordings. As for your younglings, a ship lifted off, all our ships were grounded, and one hothead shot it down without calling the boss rather than risk the whole attack force. It was only after the ship blew up that the Mandalorians learned there were younglings aboard. Tragedy? Yeah. Avoidable? Yeah. But we both know it's a far cry from the picture she paints of Mandos hacking down defenseless kids.

"Also worth noting? All the armed and deployed Padawans -- think child soldiers -- were killed by three young blood hotheads who went off the rails in the tunnels, and those three men got hard labour. And frankly, I'm not even sure they did go off the rails. Someone comes at me with a lightsabre, I'm not going to ask whether they're fourteen or forty, and those are the ages we're talking about.

"Oh, and the last man she names, Claden? At the final battle, he and his men backed down and showed mercy, let her live.

"It's also worth noting that this raid happened before Ra Vizsla became mand'alor. He and the Alor'e Council sat down, investigated all this, and made sure that all the Clans are still on the same page. We don't butcher defenseless children -- and we didn't at Ilum. You're a victim of a victim's spin, Mira, so gorram think twice before you tar us all with the same brush. We're fighting Grandpa's war here, for your mom's sake and the sake of all the others we've lost to the Republic. We've thought plenty. Now we're acting.

"I get that you like to be contrary and fight the power and all that jazz, I do. Your mom was the same way. But just fething once, it'd be nice for one of you to rage against, you know, the people who've killed and sneered at your family, instead of taking every family reunion as a chance to stir clart. You hear about a new mand'alor and all you can think is 'ooh, new authority to resent.' Well guess what, you're a Rekali. You're a Mandalorian like your mother. You wear gorram beskar'gam. You follow the resol'nare. Our wars are your wars, if you take thirty seconds to get the full picture before flying off the handle. There are all kinds of people worth resenting and fighting and defying, and they're right across that border wearing burlap and white plasteel, spitting at you because of what you wear, what you believe, what your mother believed and did.

"You think they honor her memory over there in the Republic? They call her a traitor for saving lives at Roche. They call Grandpa a traitor because he stayed strong in the Light his whole life, and losing his last kid finally broke him. They call you a traitor for being Mandalorian, for signing on with the Galactic Alliance, for daring to be part of worthwhile things. And when Jedi call people traitors, they're already halfway to locking them up and throwing away the key. You're tainted in their eyes: you fight for someone other than them, your blood is Vahla, you wear Mandalorian armor, so obviously you're lesser, corrupted, unworthy. The kind of person who'd be swept aside if the Republic went on another of its righteous crusade purges that got Uncle Faran and Aunt Benna killed, not to mention your mom. No, Mira, it's time for you to stop defaulting to 'my family is wrong, my people are wrong,' and start seeing that there are evils to fight and people to kill, and they have nothing to do with color scheme or wardrobe choice or whether they call themselves heroes."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira stared for a moment in stunned silence at her cousin before her arms came up to fold across her chest. She turned away in a bit of shock, taken aback by what Alec had said – it had been some time since someone had knocked her down a couple of pegs, a very long time. Her face flushed slightly as she felt the rebellious streak return, her voice kept low and a bit subtler than before – perhaps even resigned to what Alec was saying. Her hand waved beneath her arm, fingers manipulating various motions. “And I suppose I’m to just give up everything I’ve worked for – forgo my responsibilities as a Jedi?” She turned to look at Alec, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Maybe settle down, hunt like the good proud Mando that we all are and you know, be all loyal and ensure that my…” Her voice turned to mockery. “Strong warrior husband is pleased while I’m popping out the next generation of warriors? That it?” Mira groaned softly as her arms dropped down to her side. She knew she was being stubborn and her last defense was a weak one – she had no surefire defense against anything that Alec threw at her. The woman was right, there was so much more to look at and Mira was so blindsided by one ideal that she didn’t see what was all around her. This sure was a hell of a choice to make but one that she couldn’t argue with. Alec was right, and there was nothing that Mira could do to escape that. Sure, she could act childish and continue to rebel – but that wouldn’t help and she’d end up on the wrong side.

She might even end up like her mother, trying to do something right only to have it thrown back in her face and cost her everything.

Mira shook her head and looked down at the hangar floor. “I’m sorry Alec, that wasn’t right of me to say…”

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

Alec enfolded her cousin in a hug, eyes stinging. "Just means you need to come home and stay," she said quietly. "None of that has much to do with what we're about. The longer you stick around, the more you'll understand why Grandpa and your mom picked this life, this culture. The more you'll understand what you are."

She released Mira and stepped back, hands on the young woman's shoulders. "You're not the first to say something dumb when they're hurting. Fethed if I haven't gone off too. I miss him, but it's time to continue his work, and that means making things safe for the family. You're a Rekali. Take what you respect about the Jedi way and use it to protect our people, 'cause like feth are any other Jedi going to look to their welfare, ever. You know as well as I do how many different kinds and qualities of people call themselves Jedi. The ones we're fighting aren't the genuine article. There've been three, four major schisms, people of conscience leaving the Republic's Order, until all that's left is some vestige under the direct control of their corrupt government. It's like the stories Grandpa used to tell us about the Pius Dea era -- when the Jedi were evil, and the real Jedi left. Well, all that's left to the Republic fears and sneers at us. It's no dishonor to go against them. It's just what needs to happen, or they'll keep stepping on us because they call us a rump state, because they think we're weak."

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira returned the hug of Alec, something she hadn’t felt in a long time – the comfort of another. She relished in the embrace for a few seconds before the other woman pulled away and held her by the shoulders. Through teary eyes she simply stared at her and nodded throughout the conversation, saying nothing at all. What was there for her to say? Alec had more validity to what she was saying than anything Mira had heard in a long time. It wasn’t until she was finished that Mira brought an arm up through the partial embrace to wipe away what was clouding her vision that she finally spoke.

“What is it you want me to do?” Her voice was slightly choked as she managed to get off a smile though crooked as it was. “Aliit’buir…” She said lowly. The title sounded almost foreign to her, a bit off. A weird sensation overcoming Mira as it once had when she arrived. Maybe it was a sensation of renewed purpose – something beyond herself. Maybe it was because she was finally home.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Mira Rekali"]

"Right now we're about to launch a raid, a serious one, to steal one of the Republic's shipyards close to Mando territory, one of the emplacements that violates their treaty with us. It's orbiting Kashyyyk. What I'm going to do is take a transport full of Ganker Limpets, big linked hyperdrives for stealing stations, and plant them all over the shipyard. There's more to it -- Draco Vereen is leading a decoy flotilla to buy time, I'm staging a ruse -- but we need someone for a fairly crucial job. See, first thing we've got to do is move it to a place where a huge, vulnerable ship of Vereen's can tow it into hyperspace. To do that we need time, so we're bribing patrols around Trandosha. Trandosha's in the same system as Kashyyyk, but the Republic doesn't control it. What I need you to do is be waiting near Trandosha, in a Trandoshan transport, and when the shipyard microjumps to your position, you need to transmit recordings of some really loud Trandoshans warning the Republic not to follow it with a fleet. Not to violate Trandoshan territory. It won't last long, the ruse, but it should buy us the time we need to hook the station to the big transport and leave.

"Can you do it?"

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira nodded gently.

“Consider it done.”

Mira went to step away to board The Ardent assuming instructions would be given to her enroute, as well as any contingency plans, she paused to look back at Alec. A smile would cross her lips as she reached up to grab the edge of the ramp pylons, bracing herself against it. “We will make them pay for what they have done to our family…” Her smile went grim as she did her best to hold back the emotions that tore through her like a hot knife. She tried her best to give Alec one last smile but failed to do so, all she could manage was to pat the pylon and move up the ramp without another word.

Alec had been through just as much emotional hell as she had – the two of them had lost so much in so little time. The other woman was right and once again, Mira knew it. It was time for her to head home to Dathomir – before poodoo hit the fan.

She had some other loose ends to tie up.

[member="Alec Rekali"]