Halsey POV
Serin was a fantastic aid. As one of the few Spartans with a mind for ONI work, I enjoyed working with her. She was one of the lucky few to have no repercussions from her failed augmentations. I had worked closely with her for some time but had kept her separate from her fellows. I didn't need her to form close bonds with the other Spartans, I need her to function as if she was above them. She would soon become their commanding officer.
Cortana was many things, skilled at many things, but she wasn't ONI material and especially not suitable to become my replacement. Serin was. She excelled in all the areas I need her to, intelligence, resourcefulness, ruthlessness, loyalty, the list went on. Perhaps the most important trait she held was her belief in John.
She too saw what I saw in him, the majesty of his creation, and would become one of his staunchest allies upon his takeover of Mandalore. Good, he would need her soon.
John had finished his little Carlac escapade quickly, barely planetside for three days. He and his fleet were now on their way to Mandalore to deal with Vizsla, with some surprising company. I had never expected John to work with members of Death Watch. As soon as they had arrived on Kamino I had spent a significant amount of time instilling into the children the belief that they were Mandalore's last hope, discrediting everyone else. I paint Satine as weak, the True Mandalorians as ineffective and Death Watch as something to be fully eradicated. To see John working with some of their members, previous members, was actually a pleasant surprise. It showed he was growing as a person, using his experiences to make decisions, not just relying on what I taught him. Granted, he was a bit, how shall we say…, overzealous when trying to get information from them. The anger I had instilled in him spilling through into his actions.
I moved from thoughts of John and his little Death Watch followers to Serin's report. My timetable had to be accelerated slightly. John was closing in on Vizsla and would soon become Mandalore, I was sure of it, and that meant I need to take steps to reduce any backlash while also moving up my plans for Mandalore. While I doubt the Chancellor will be happy with my meddling he will at least be pleased that my, our, plans for the planet will soon begin.
I had expressed doubt on Kamino's viability as the basis for clone production on numerous occasions. During the lead up to the war a facility, whose sole purpose was dedicated to creating and training the clone army, like Tipoca City made sense. Tipoca had nothing in the way of defensive structures because everything had been used to maximise clone output. During the war, however, this just left us vulnerable. The assault on Kamino was a prime example of this so the Chancellor and I, after numerous complaints on the viability of Tipoca, made plans to move clone production and training off-world to a better, more secure, military site. We chose Mandalore.
When Satine was brought before the Senate to discuss Republic intervention on Mandalore I was almost certain we had the opportunity we were looking for. The Chancellor agreed and had me begin preparations to begin moving the Tipoca operations to Mandalore, except Amidala stepped in. I held nothing against Amidala, she was merely an unplanned variable, but it was annoying to have to undo all of the preparations.
Serin's report was more of a highly detailed list of possible distractions for the Senate. It wouldn't take a genius to see the picture I was making from all of my puzzle pieces. For key Republic military assets to suddenly and swiftly move to a key strategic planet that had routinely opposed Republic intervention and had very recently fallen under the control of a Republic military official made it look like the takeover of Mandalore was a very deliberate move by the Republic, which it was, but we didn't want people thinking about that way. We need people to more readily believe that John had intervened because of Death Watch's actions and that he had open Mandalore's doors to the Republic due to him siding with the Republic as a now independent third party, not because he was ordered too by the Chancellor.
Mandalore aligning itself with the Republic would be a huge benefit for the Senate, they could even stop their debates on how to fill the ranks with John offering them the Mandalorian army. If we don't give them a distraction they will look into the why's of Mandalore's sudden shift in policy. I wanted to distract the Senate with something that would have them scrambling over themselves to fix. After all, why question good fortune when you are plagued by bad luck. Then, they wouldn't question Mandalore's sudden switch but welcome it.
Serin had listed a number of possible options, everything from blowing up key military installations to the assassination of senators, ones who oppose ONI's goals of course. The one that really stood out was Serin's suggestion of assassinating members of our military, specifically members of the Military High Council. It would, one, give me a chance to instil some trusted members onto the Council, Serin and Jerome would be good choices that I couldn't see the Chancellor rejecting. Two, it would mean the Senate would be scrambling to figure out how such high ranking members of the military, and powerful Jedi, were assassinated. And three, it would only make the final execution of Order 66 that much easier.
While I didn't want to be a pawn to some Sith Lord I did see the benefits in ridding the galaxy of the Jedi. They had become an old and antiquated Order that no longer served a purpose in this galaxy, nor in the one I would help John create. The fact that Mandalorians and Jedi have been enemies for millennia was just the icing on the cake. What better way to prove Mandalorian superiority than to be rid one of only two cultures that have ever survived Mandalorian conquest, the Jedi and the Sith.
The only question now was which Jedi to kill. I had thought quite a bit on the subject, having already decided on this course of action long before Serin delivered her report. The report was merely a test to see to what extremes Serin would go to, to further our people and to protect the Chief.
Clone Captain Bacara of the Galactic Marine attachment of the 516th had been chosen to deliver the first blow to the Jedi. He had a loyalty to the Republic that few others possessed. If anyone betrayed the Republic then he saw it as his sworn duty to eliminate them. He, and his Galactic Marines, had been some of the best at hunting down deserters in the entire GAR. He would even kill a Jedi if he had to, which was precisely why he had been chosen.
It wasn't hard to convince him of Mundi's treachery, after all, it was ONI's job to know these things and why would we lie about something like that. He had about as much loyalty to Mundi as he did to every other officer in the GAR, which was enough to follow their orders. Bacara was to do this alone, he had Mundi's trust, the element of surprise and we wanted to limit the spread of the knowledge that Order 66 had been activated. Even if he failed, an investigation into why a clone would turn on their Jedi General would be launched. An investigation carried out by ONI.
A Captain Neyo had also been selected. As one of the first 100 troopers to graduate from the command school on Kamino I knew him personally. He was a nihilist, someone who saw morality as a meaningless concept that bared no meaning on life. He followed orders, not out of loyalty, but purely because he had a job to do. He also had a sadistic streak that was rarely expressed due to his job as a member of the 91st Mobility Legion. His job consisted of reconnaissance and insurgency suppression and he had no loyalty to anyone, only doing as he was ordered to because he had nothing better to do. His commanding Jedi was Stass Allie, the cousin of Adi Gali and a short runner for a position on the Jedi council now that Shaak Ti was dead.
The final Clone Captain to take part in this clandestine operation was a Captain Fordo. Like Bacara, he prefers a straightforward assault to a complex stratagem. He had gained some renown for his rather bombastic approach to battle and how well it had served him and his men. He served as part of the 467th Attack Legion under Saesee Tiin. While Fordo was a loyal soldier he had taken more convincing than either of the others. I had no doubt he would eliminate his Jedi General without hesitation, though with great regret. I had spun him a tale of his Jedi begin a Separatist sympathiser, not a far-fetched concept with the amount of Jedi falling to Dooku, and that he had other associates that were part of a plot to kill the Chancellor. After assuring him that the other associates were known and being dealt with he accepted his mission and went to work. I made sure to remind him that while he may eliminate the Jedi in any way he chooses he mustn't make it known it was him who killed the Tiin. We wouldn't want the Republic to start doubting the other Generals, would we Captain?
I left Serin in charge of overseeing the Captains' Assassinations and to keep an eye on John. While I held no doubt he could take care of himself, and that he could stop any Death Watch trooper who got a bright idea, I didn't want any to be able to sabotage any ships in his fleet. While none of the Death Watch are allowed on any of his ships, the possibility that they could turn on him was there. While the 2 Venators were both fully equipped with fighters, bombers and gunships none of the 4 Acclamator's were designed with a hangar bay, they were designed to be oversized gunships. This meant the Acclamator's could be easily swarmed by the Death Watch ships if they turned on John. They might only get one before the 501st could mount a defence but one ship was 30,000 ground troops plus the troopers manning the ship, a massive loss no matter how you look at it.
I was glad Death Watch had been keeping a low profile for so long as it meant they hadn't been able to build any capital ships. While they had a large number of fighters, bombers and drop/gunships they didn't have anything the size of an Acclamator, let alone a Venator. It would certainly allow John to quickly establish planetary dominance as the Mandalorians were in the same boat as Death Watch, only the reason they lacked capital ships was due to not having enough time to make any.
While Serin attended to her matters I moved onto something that needed my personal touch. Captain Shonn Volta had been very cooperative, to an extent, with me and my questioning. Her surrender had intrigued me, very few Separatists were willing to do so, either out of pride or stubbornness. She had been forthcoming with her early years and her reasons for joining the Separatists, a failing on the Republic part. I argued that the Republic couldn't save everyone, not out of any real need to convince her but to test her reactions. Her response, 'they should have failed to save someone elses' husband.'
I liked her, very much so. She knew very well that not everyone could be saved and that no one was perfect and yet she still blamed the Republic for failing to save her husband. She also knew that civilians got caught in the crossfire of the fighting between the Republic and the Confederacy all the time, she simply took exception that it had happened to her and her family.
"I have an offer for you." She rolled her eyes. She knew what it was that I wanted, to recruit her. I hadn't exactly made my interest in her unclear. She would never serve the Republic, I knew that, but I didn't want her too. Mandalore was in need of capable captains to captain the capital ships they had under construction and to lead their fleets. Volta presented a unique opportunity to recruit one such captain.
"I will never work for the Republic." I gave her a little grin, brimming with smugness.
"I didn't say you would have to." She knew what I was doing, baiting her, my grin said it all, but she was curious all the same. Her resolve to not ask lasted about a minute.
"What do you want?" So I told her. I told her about John, about how he would soon become Mandalore, and about how he would need capable people helping him. I told her about the fact that, while she wouldn't be fighting for the Republic, she would be fighting the Separatist.
While she hadn't exactly said yes she hadn't said no either. She was sizing me up, looking for any indication as to why I would basically admit to open treason against the Republic, so I told her that too. I told her how my deal with the Republic was merely a means to an end, and that end was the resurrection of Mandalore and her people. I told her how I would do everything I could to ensure, not only that the Mandalore of old lived, but thrived. Even betraying the Republic. It was not them to whom I was loyal.
I could see she needed time to decide, so I gave it to her. I knew I wouldn't be able to convince her with just one try but we all need to start somewhere. I left her to be taken back to her cell by some Commando troopers, they wouldn't let her escape, no matter how good a Force-sensitive assassin she was. I was surprised she hadn't tried to escape yet. I had thought, with her skills, she would be confident she could break out, or even kill me in one of our 1 to 1 sessions, but she hadn't. Perhaps she thought she could hide her Force-sensitivity from me. Too bad for her I ran the single most effective information gathering organisation in the galaxy. Nothing was hidden from me. Not even the Sith.
From my pocket, I pulled out a small jammer I had designed. It only blocked the military frequencies the Republic used and I was the only one who knew how to make it or that it even existed. As ONI was the centre of nearly every operation that the Republic made, despite how much people liked to think that ONI only ran ONI op's, it was imperative to ensure ONI's complete safety. To do that we had to sacrifice privacy. Nothing on Kamino was private. Not bathroom breaks, not secret ONI meetings, not secret non-ONI meetings and not even the troopers alone time. If you want ultimate safety than you cannot have any privacy.
Some may believe this would pose a security risk from anyone splicing into the mainframe, and they would be right. I, however, had already accounted for this. The ONI mainframe only included top secret information and could only be accessed from ONI command. All the computers that took in and compiled information from outside of command had access to the holonet but the ONI mainframe did not. Any piece information that was to be input into the mainframe had to be physically removed from the compilation computers and manually installed into the mainframe. The computers that compiled information had hidden pieces of code that deleted any information that was physically removed from it, to ensure nothing was mistakenly not deleted.
Anything that was above top secret was written on paper. I didn't trust that the mainframe couldn't be broken into so everything that could possibly incriminate ONI or the Republic was stored on paper in a secret vault, the location of which was known to only five individuals. All paper-based documents went through one of these five individuals who then filed it within the vault.
My little jammer gave me a small bit of privacy by jamming the cameras and microphones within 15 feet of the jammer's location. I can, and did, reduce the jammers area of influence to the size of the interrogation room. I then reached into my pocket and pulled out a syringe and carefully stuck it into a vein on my left arm and pushed the plunger.
It was a shame it took me telling John I was dying for him to embrace his destiny as the leader of our people. But then, what is more powerful to a devoted son then the dying wish of his beloved mother. My death would only solidify his resolve to become the best Mandalore he could be, all in an attempt to make his fallen mother proud.
After pulling the empty syringe from my arm I placed it back into my pocket. It was the last one I would need. It was a shame John needed me dead to become what he was always meant to be, I would have liked to be by his side to watch him grow. Dr. Catherine Halsey, dying of an incurable disease. Not the death I had hoped for but it is what it is.
Now that the last of the cure was running through my veins I got to work. It was truly a unique experience. After all, who could say they planned their own death and funeral, or that they had survived both?
