Mandalorian Legend
"The Vong Dead Zone is where the mettle of a Mandalorian is truly tested; whether you find the iron within."- Romul Saxon
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To codify a location that serves as a Mandalorian training ground and further fleshes out the world of Kestri.
- Image Credit: x
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links:
- Landmark Name: Vong Dead Zone | Jibr Glacier
- Classification:
- Glacier
- Taiga
- Location: Kestri
- Affiliation: The Mandalorian Enclave
- Size: Massive
- Population: Moderate
- Demographics:
- Yuuzhan Vong [Mutated] > 99%
- Other < 1%
- Accessibility:
- Access to the Dead Zone is highly restricted and monitored because of the danger of the area.
- Description: What used to be the sparkling and fertile Jibr valley was frozen over by a massive glacier, a direct result of the ice age that the Mind Forge plunged Kestri into. The glacier formed over the downed remains of a Vong Worldship that had crashed during the brief but intense war between Clan Kyron Mandalorians and the invading Yuuzhan Vong. In the millennia that followed, the Worldship became the Vong's largest breeding ground and a tunnel network carved into the ice expanding outwards from the Worldship that stretches thousands of kilometers.
The glacier is ringed by high mountain peaks and dense boreal forests, forming a natural barrier between the Vong Dead Zone and the rest of Kestri. Exterminating the Vong would cost thousands of Mandalorian lives, and so instead the Vong are contained within the dead zone. With numerous outposts established and a task force numbering in the hundreds of Mandalorians outfitted with gunships and heavy artillery to man them, as well as the natural barriers of the landscape, keeping the Vong in is easy. Occasionally hordes of Vong will push at a boundary, but seldom will a gunship outfitted with several heavy repeating blasters not be enough to eliminate them.
At the very border of the dead zone sits the Citadel of the Kom'rk, a massive fortification that is host of the Kom'rk, the training and proving grounds of Enclave Mandalorians. The citadel both handles training and monitoring of the dead zone, as the largest fortification in the outpost network that rings the area. From it gunships can quickly be issued, whether to resupply other outposts, swiftly eliminate Vong incursions, or drop Mandalorian trainees into the dead zone and provide extraction. Along the rim are also massive, fortified weapons emplacements artificially controlled by ARTUS, the artificial intelligence Forgemind in Tor Valum.
Different areas of the dead zone have various Vong densities, and certain portions of the tunnel network are regularly cleared of Vong by trained Si'kayha teams so artificial objectives can be placed for trainees, such as packages to be retrieved or training data networks to locate and slice into. These areas are regarded as the 'easier' areas of the Vong Dead Zone and are most often run by newer Mandalorian trainees. Areas with denser Vong populations are reserved for more advanced trainees, or even full Mandalorian warriors and Si'kayha commandos looking to further hone their skills. Another component to the 'difficulty' of an area is the ability for aid and extraction to be provided, ranging from extremely easy to provide to impossible to provide.
- The Citadel of the Kom'rk: Nestled on top of the mountains that surround the glacial valley, the Citadel is a massive fortification that is host of the Kom'rk, the training and proving grounds of Enclave Mandalorians. The Si'kahya in particular favor this site as their rite of passage, living atop the cold peak while they undergo the crucible of the Kom'rk. Tournaments and duels are hosted here regularly, and challenges, trials and gauntlets into the Vong Dead Zone below are overseen from here. Due to its dual nature as a training ground and the center of coordination for the containment of the Vong Dead Zone, it is one of the most heavily fortified locations on Kestri.
- Ring Fortifications: Located mostly atop of the mountains that surround the forest and glacier, the Ring Fortifications are a network of manned outposts and autonomous artillery systems that work together to provide a comprehensive barrier around the valley. Transportation is mainly achieved through the use of dropships to transport personnel and material from the various fortifications, and the
- Tracyn Gauntlet: Located on the edge of the glacier and somewhat within the taiga forest that surrounds the glacier, the Tracyn Gauntlet is regarded as the easiest of the Vong Dead Zone's training grounds. The area is regularly cleared by Si'kayha teams to manage the Vong population, and artificial objectives are placed here for new trainees; packages to retrieve, pretend network uplinks to slice into, zones to clear and capture.
- Forge of Daraxes: Nestled deep within the Jibr Glacial Cave Network, the Forge of Daraxes was one of the smithies of the Five Forgemasters of Clan Kyron. Heavily overrun by Vong, teams are sent in to retrieve ancient technology that can be reverse-engineered for use by the Enclave. It is considered medium difficulty and is somewhat mapped out and patrolled.
- Worldship Nest: In the center of the glacier, deep below the ice lies the worldship itself. Within it, the Vong have made a nest where their mutated creatures are bred, raised, and issue from. Operations into the Worldship Nest are considered the most difficult and often once inside, no outside support or extraction can be given. The Vong are at their thickest and strongest here, and permission is required to challenge the Trial of the Worldship Nest.
When the Enclave had destroyed the Yuuzhan Vong leadership on Kestri and successfully freed the ancient Mandalorian world, they had cut off the head of the beast. But they hadn't fully eradicated the mutated horde when they killed the shaper in Tor Valum's ruins. Pockets of resistance -- Vong outposts, nests, breeding grounds -- remained, and it took the Enclave the better part of a year to eradicate most of the troublesome spots. But there was one nest so deep and so entrenched that they had not even been able to scratch the surface.
The worldship had crashed millennia ago into a massive glacier, and over the thousands and thousands of years, Vong had created a massive tunnel network extending out from the worldship through the ice. Radiological surveys suggested that the network spanned for thousands of kilometers, and millions of mutated Yuuzhan Vong. And worse, it is one of the largest breeding grounds meant that the population was still replenishing. The estimated cost of Mandalorian lives that would be lost clearing out the worldship was too much for even the Quartermaster to sanction an operation of.
So they did the next best thing: turning it into training grounds.
Sanctioned as the 'Vong Dead Zone,' the sector was heavily monitored by border patrols that would quickly eliminate any sign of Vong activity pushing beyond the boundaries. As Kestri's infrastructure and the firepower and manpower of the Enclave grew, these reprisals grew so sudden and swift that the semi-intelligent creatures among the Vong mutants learned not to stray too far from their nest. It had been Romul Saxon's idea to turn the area into a training ground, a way to test a Mandalorian's mettle against creatures that would most certainly kill you if you gave them the chance. And so reluctantly, with the caveat that a great deal of oversight and caution be exercised in case things were to go wrong, the Quartermaster had approved the conversion into a training grounds.
Now, the Vong Dead Zone is primarily used as a way to train Mandalorians; whether it be the highly-skilled Si'kayha commandos or young Mandalorians undergoing their Verd'gotten, the Vong Dead Zone is one of the Enclave's most useful resources as a way to prepare and strengthen its population for battles in the future.
