Author's Note: Aight, since I've been asked a few times, I must reiterate this is a rewrite from the ground up of From Domination to Genocide V2. The reason is because I decided to become a narcissistic bastard and self-insert myself shamelessly to the story as a character. In addition, there were a lot of loose threads that no amount of reworking would correct, and I kept going, hoping no one would notice. Eventually, I saw the error of my ways, as well as the need to rewrite the story because I made myself such integral part of this, so I decided to do a total wipe and rework this bitch from the ground up. Hopefully that answers your burning questions, if you need to ask any more feel free to message me as I'm slowly getting my writing mojo back. Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
Scourge-Haven
The lunar bases were painfully easily to take by Mandalorian standards; falling within two hours of the initial assault. The Mandalorian fleet then lumbered towards the planet, coming into high atmosphere, and began a light bombardment of the planet, targeting key points on the surface, such as Anti-Air (AA), hard defensive emplacements, and any mobile enemy forces.
Whilst it was not the ideal, honorable, glorifying Mandalorian way of engaging in direct combat, Mandalore saw the galaxy as it truly was: constantly changing, never staying the same for too long, and swallowing the weak. Tactically and strategically, the tactics of the clans were outdated, making them weak. Weakness in the ranks of the Mandalorians was unacceptable; Mandalore would not accept weakness in his people, and thusly changed the way they fought. So, if he demanded that there be orbital bombardments before the initial landings, there would be orbital bombardments before the initial landings.
The moment the bombardments ceased, the Mandalorian cargo ships, which had moved into lower orbit shortly before the conclusion of the bombardments, disgorged their deadly cargo: Basilisk War Droids, the pride and joy of the Neo-Crusaders, accompanied by dropships filled with the oldest and hardest veterans of the Mandalorian Wars, the shock troopers. They fell upon Scourge Haven with unchecked abandon but guided purpose; it was they who were to secure the landing zones for the next wave. Their task, whilst normally a challenge, even for the Mandalorians, was pitifully easy for the experienced warriors; within two hours the zones were taken.
Then came the second wave, comprised of the younger, newer ranks and the well-seasoned warriors of the Mandalorian clans. While the shocktroopers were meant to take the landing zones, it was this wave that was meant to take the planet, the grunts, the infantry, the groundpounders. Over the next several hours, they would expand out from the meager landing areas to take large swaths of land and hold them against whatever the pirates could throw at them.
In the midst of all of this planned chaos, Mandalore made his own move. Several assault shuttles and gunships left the Mandalorian fleet on a course for what was supposedly the Sith's location. Over two hundred Mandalorians sat in the dark bays of the shuttles and gunships, each going through their own pre-battle rituals. Some brooded silently, some sang or hummed to themselves, others made jokes with others to take their minds off the coming battle, others still prayed to whatever deities they believed in, and the rest made continuous checks of their battle kit. Mandalore fell into this category.
"Blaster rifle? Check. Energy cells? All six, check. Vibroknives? Both in their sheathes, check. Grenades? Two concussion, one ion, one thermal, check. Lightsabers? Both there, check." He went on to check his armor, his implants, and then the whole process over and over and over again. He didn't notice the shuttle's entry into Scourge-Haven's atmosphere, the turbulence caused by the winds of the planet, or the countdown to landing. He did, however, notice something that the Hammerhead captain failed to mention; the simple, perhaps insignificant fact that the site the Sith had set up some anti-air equipment.
That fact was made very plain to him when a missile took out the starboard engine, shaking the shuttle as if thunder had gone off next to the craft. Restraints immediately slammed into place in the bay as the pilots desperately attempted to land safely. Mandalore, as everyone began to worry around him, took a deep breath, pushed the rising fear and panic into a tiny black box, and threw that box into the dark recesses of his mind. The shuttle hit the ground, hard, but the pilots had done their work, pulling the bulbous nose of the vessel up so that the hull scrapped along the ground violently, creating a hundred-meter-long ditch in the ground. The shuttle slowed to a halt, and as it came to rest, the restraints lifted off the Mandalorians.
"On your feet! Up, up, up, move!" Mandalore bellowed, his voice amplified by the cramped quarters of the shuttle bay and his helmet. The Mandalorians with him hurtled out of the shuttle, the pilots following quickly behind with blaster pistols and carbines in hand. Mandalore stepped out of the shuttle into a warzone; before him was a fortified, if hastily so, position where the Scourge pirates held trenches and Sith troopers held hard defensive emplacements, bunkers, gunnery positions, and towers. Where most conventional commanders would begin to worry, panic, or consider retreat, Mandalore began to grin. While he still wished to modernize his clans…the thrill, the high, the draw of a challenging fight was not something so easily kicked.
"This is Mandalore to all nearby forces, land immediately around my position. Kelborn, to me, now!" The gunships formed a protective screen as the assault shuttles landed; from a far one came Kelborn, leaping from the ramp of a shuttle before it had landed to get to his leader.
"Is it time for a good fight, sir?" He asked eagerly.
"A smart one," Mandalore said before looking to Kelborn, "but it's going to be a brawl to drink to."
"I take the left; you take the right? Prioritize the Sith in hard positions over the pirates?"
"You read my mind." Kelborn grinned and darted past Mandalore, calling squad and platoon leaders by name to come to him. Mandalore did the same, gathering his assault force before ordering them forward. The gunships, seeing the advance of their friendly infantry, deployed something not often seen on modern battlefields: obscuring smoke. While both the Sith and the Mandalorians had thermal sights in their helmets, the pirates did not, reducing the effective fire of the defenders considerably.
As the pirates peered into the smoke, blaster bolts found their marks in their exposed heads and bodies as the elite warriors of the Mandalorian clans thundered forward, blasters firing, energy shields flaring as stray bolts from the pirates or precision shots from the Sith troopers landed on them. The rest of the pirates gaped in shock and horror as from the smoke came the armored figures of the Mandalorians, several of whom had forgone their blasters for their melee weapons; vibroswords, double-bladed weapons, axes, pikes, and quarterstaffs. The pirates held, only because they feared their master more than they did the armored demons before them.
The Mandalorians crashed into the pirate trenches with wild abandon, the bloodlust screaming in their minds, the drums of war booming in their ears, and the blood pounding through their veins. It was for these moments of life and death that many Mandalorians lived for; the moments where death was trying to break down their door, and they were doing everything in their power to keep the door shut. Mandalore, despite the intense desire to given into this bloodlust, kept himself focused; he was the commander, and thusly was required to lead, not brawl like he used to. Instead of being a mass of death and destruction, he instead directed his respective masses of death and destruction where he needed them.
Mandalore, quickly changing tactics, had his forces target the rabble first; crashing into the pirates to break them, eliminating the larger of the two pieces of the Sith force. The Mandalorians went roaring and screaming into the trenches, smashing into the pirates like a tidal wave. The trenches visibly splashed several different hues of blood as human and alien alike were cut down by melee weapons, and the remainder shot by blasters of varying make and model. The pirates, in spite of the fear of their master, ran; scrambling out of the trenches and running headlong back behind friendly lines.
The Sith troopers, on the other hand, stood their ground in hardened defensive positions with heavy and repeating blaster cannons. Several Mandalorians fell with smoking holes riddling their bodies as their comrades worked to eliminate the new threat. A team of three Mandalorians with a concussion mortar hunkered down in the trench, set the weapon down, and slowly began to walk in successive concussive blasts onto the enemy positions. The detonations blew the emplacements away, allowing the Mandalorians to surge forward as those who were more heavily equipped came to the fore. They quickly surmounted the challenge of the feeble wall into the Sith's position; several well-placed detonations sent significant portions of the wall sky-high, allowing the warriors access.
Inside, they found the scattered ruins of the colony nestled against the mountain and leading inside the mountain was a large archway with glowing silver-blue walls, light periodically pulsing through the arch. The path said arch was going to be…challenging; the ruins were arrayed like an old Wild Space holovid (Old Western) with a single main road going through the center, buildings on either side, and encircled by the high rocks of the mountain. Closer to the rear of town and the archway is where the pirates and the Sith made their stand with a line of defensive emplacements, sandbags, barricades, and heavy weaponry. Said line began pouring blaster fire into the Mandalorians as they began to stream through the breaches, who returned fire in kind as they went to cover. Mandalore found Kelborn coordinating with several of his subordinates behind a collapsed house.
"We're going to be pinned here if we stay!" Kelborn said as Mandalore took a knee next to him. Mandalore looked at the main road, at the spaces between the buildings before answering.
"We're going to send our boys up squad by squad, building by building. I want fresh energy shields on everyone, no matter the charge, and new power cells in all weapons!" Mandalore ordered. "I'll lead!" A moment and a flurry of orders later, and Mandalore lead the first squad forward, ten Mandalorians advancing along the left side of town, and ten advancing up the right side. Those who did not advance smothered the enemy defensive line in a storm of blaster fire, suppressing many of the defenders and preventing them from effectively firing at their advancing brethren.
A few, however, and kept firing, namely in the heavier emplacements. One such emplacement swung towards Mandalore, a heavy blaster cannon, and fired once; that's all it would take to put the attacker in the ground. Mandalore saw the blast coming, attempted to move out of the way, only to be shoved to the ground by one of his own. The blast took the Mandalorian in the chest, sending him spinning backwards, armor smoking like a dying fire, but one of his comrades caught him and dragged him to cover at the first set of buildings. He was leaned against a wall, his armor scorched and, miraculously, barely breathing. A medic came up and began to treat the wounded man as Mandalore knelt to look him in the eye.
"What's your name, Mandalorian?" He asked as the medic removed the man's helmet, revealing a dark face.
"Shaylo, Mandalore." The man wheezed. The medic turned to Mandalore and shook his head; this one would not make it. Mandalore reached out and Shaylo took his hand weakly. No words passed between the two; Mandalore stayed with his warrior until Shaylo's hand went limp in his hand. He would not soon forget the sacrifice of one of his own.
By this time, the second squad had made it to their position on the opposite side of the street, and the Mandalorians' blasterfire were finding their marks on the defensive line. As the Sith fire began to thin, Mandalore led the charge up his side of the street, halting briefly to let his men pass him. He knelt and took aim as the heavy blaster cannon swiveled, briefly exposing the gunner. Mandalore exhaled, steadied his weapon, and squeezed the trigger as the blaster's sights settled on the Sith gunner. A single red bolt hurtled toward the gunner, catching him in the chest, and sending him tumbling backwards off the cannon. Satisfied, Mandalore followed his squad as the rest of his warriors began to slowly bound towards the enemy line. Soon, as they continued their approach, the enemy fire began to die down as the pirates and Sith fell. The two lead squads vaulted the barricade with close-combat weapons and destroyed the remaining defenders.
Mandalore crossed the barricade and looked to the massive archway as another pulse of light raced from the base of the arch to the top. The design was…utterly alien, even to Mandalore who was used to strange tech. It was too smooth, too clean, unlike the Rakattan tech he and Revan had seen in their travels. This felt older…and yet it looked newer.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Mandalore said.
"Would she be the reason, sir?" Kelborn asked, appearing at his side and pointing to the archway. While Mandalore had been inspecting the design, the Sith had appeared, alone and with lightsaber undrawn.
"No; she's a welcome change of scenery." Mandalore replied, drawing his vibroblade and walking towards his new challenger. Said challenger was a young Mirialan woman in dark robes, her face tattoos on her forehead and cheeks. "So, you're the Sith that's running these scum."
"Ruling," the young Sith corrected as she let the bulky parts of her robe fall to the ground, revealing a light armored suit beneath it, "and you are interfering in my work. Be gone at once, or I will kill you all!" The Mandalorians laughed at the Sith as she fumed at Mandalore, who shook his head.
"Pardon me, my lady, but you fail to understand your situation; we are Mandalorians, and this planet is now ours. I'd say surrender, but I doubt you would. And as for killing us all, well…these men have killed the likes of you before." Mandalore settled into his starting battle stance, feet apart, blade held at a forty-five-degree angle before him. The Mirialan wasted no time, calling her lightsaber to her hand with the Force and leaping towards Mandalore. The older warrior caught the lightsaber on his blade and shoved the Sith backward, going on the offensive with sweeping swings of his vibroblade. While he could not use the Force, he had learned bladework from his time with Revan and Meetra Surik, among them was Form V. Form V, or Djem So was made use of by stronger, bulkier duelists such as Malak, allowing them to use their more powerful builds to overwhelm their opponent. Mandalore was attempting the same here; using his strength to batter his Sith opponent into submission.
To her credit, the Mirialan held her own against her stronger and more experienced opponent and utilized Form IV, or Ataru, an acrobatic form that allowed lighter and more agile combatants to dance around their foes. The Sith attempted to do the same; using her natural agility to flip, dance, and dodge around Mandalore, attempting to get inside of his guard, but to no effect. A jump slash would be countered with a firm blade and a swift slash to the torso, a jab from the side was parried and a fist would reach out to connect with her face. The Mandalorians formed a circle while the two dueled, some placing bets, not on who would win, but on who would strike the first telling blow.
Mandalore's vibroblade came sweeping from the left as the Sith leapt into the air, flipping over the blade as she shoved both hands forward. An invisible wave crashed into Mandalore, sending him backwards, feet still on the ground, leaving long marks in the ground. As he came to a stop on one knee, the Sith came hurtling towards him again with lightsaber held high. Mandalore barely brought up the vibroblade in time before the Sith's lightsaber slammed into it as she shrieked, a Force amplified scream that nearly shorted the audio-receivers in Mandalore's helmet. A small crater formed around Mandalore as the scream cracked the earth and buffeted the old warrior, still holding back the Sith with one hand.
"Die, wretch, die!" She screamed as she pulled back to deliver a rage filled overhead chop. Then came the sharp snap-hiss of another lightsaber activating, stopping the Mirialan dead in her tracks as her eyes went wide, the rage faded from her body, and she looked down to see, in Mandalore's other hand, the blue bladed lightsaber of Meetra Surik, aimed directly at her heart. It was as if time had stopped for a few seconds as the pair stared at each other, one in shock, the other with cold eyes. Time resumed as the lightsaber fell from the Mirialan's hand and she fell backward as the light faded from dark eyes. Mandalore watched as her body crumpled to the ground before standing, a little shakily.
"She fought well." Kelborn commented as he came alongside Mandalore. He nodded as the rest of the Mandalorians stood ready, awaiting orders from their leader. "What now, sir?"
"Now…we see what she was studying inside." Mangalore said, sheathing both weapons as he moved towards the archway. Inside, the archway extended into a long corridor with the same pulsing light running through it. Mandalore, now more curious than ever, continued down the corridor, followed by equally curious Mandalorians. Eventually, they came to a massive open room with a bank of strange terminals running around a large blue hologram of the planet. As Mandalore came to a halt before the hologram, he heard a faint whirring sound above and behind him. He turned to find a silver shelled machine with an eye that matched all the colors of a roaring fire floating down towards him.
"Greetings! I am 686 Innocent-Blaze, Monitor of this Installation. Who are you?" The Monitor asked Mandalore. The Mandalorians began to form around Mandalore and the Monitor, weapons at the ready if anything were to go awry.
"I am Mandalore the Preserver, leader of the Mandalorian clans. What are you, droid?" Mandalore asked.
"A droid?" 686 asked, offended. "I am no mindless machine; I am an Artificial Intelligence assigned with the caretaking of this Installation. You, like the alien before, are y invaders into my home." The Mandalorians tensed as the Monitor began to seem a bit more hostile, but Mandalore waved them off.
"What is this Installation you speak of, and what is its purpose?"
"Can you not see the image before you, invader?" The Monitor asked, flying over Mandalore to the hologram of Scourge-Haven. "This world is my installation; and its purpose was as a potential safe world for my creators before they passed. Now, it is empty, and serves as a relay for signals to other installations, in addition to research."
"Your creators made this world?" Mandalore asked.
"No; my creators dug into this world to create vast underground networks in the crust of the planet, but they did not create it." 686 explained. "Now tell me, invader, why are you on my installation?"
"This planet has been a known base for pirates in this sector; my goal was to defeat the pirates and seize this planet for our own." Mandalore replied.
"I am afraid I cannot allow you to control this world," Innocent-Blaze said, "my creators have left secrets here that were not meant to be found again. I will permit you to leave, but should you fail to do so, I will have to terminate you and any other organics on this world."
"Then why allow the pirates to remain here for so long? Scourge-Haven has been a resting place for pirates for almost a decade!" Kelborn question.
"Because they did not interfere nor know of this planet's operations until that alien woman came along. It was only recently that I began to contend with her as she sought power here. Now you know, and you must leave before-"The Monitor abruptly stopped as the planet's hologram blinked and a small section of the world began to flash red. "Oh no, that is most unfortunate."
"What is?" Mandalore asked.
"The Parasite has been released from its containment by some of these "pirates"; I must quarantine this world until the Parasite can be removed. You and your followers must go into stasis until this situation can be resolved."
"Hold on now, we have ships; we can return to our fleet in orbit and leave!" Mandalore argued.
"Negative; if even one spore of the Parasite leaves this world, this entire galaxy maybe at risk. I cannot permit any organic life to depart from this world, living or otherwise." 686 came down to eye-level with Mandalore. "This is for the good of the galaxy and for yourself; order your people to stand down so that my Sentinels may bring them to stasis."
"And if we refuse?" Mandalore asked. In response, dozens of machines, larger than the Monitor by a small margin, came down and encircled the Mandalorians, their blue eyes warming to an intense red.
"Then I shall have no choice but to exterminate every last one organic on this world. I'm sure, as leader of your people, that surrender is preferable to extermination?" Mandalore stared down the Monitor for a moment before activating his radio.
"This is Mandalore to all Mandalorians on the planet; a situation has developed that is beyond our control. The owner of this world, not the Scourge pirates or the Sith, has requested that we all stand down so that it might control the situation. Machines will arrive to bring you to safety, do not resist, allow them to bring you to safety. This is not surrender; this is survival. To any aircraft in atmosphere, land and await the machines. To all ships in orbit, send no further landing craft until I have given the word, and ensure no other ships depart from the atmosphere. Mandalore, out."
"Sir?" Kelborn questioned.
"I don't like it either…but our people must survive, at any cost." Mandalore said firmly. "We submit, Monitor."
"Excellent!" 686 said as the machines around them swirled around the Mandalorians, whisking them up in gravity fields and flying quickly away, deeper into the installation. Mandalore allowed himself to be picked up by one such machine and was whisked away. He watched the facility go by before he entered a huge room with pods lining the walls. As he beheld the massive room, 686, flew alongside him. "Your people shall be placed in cryogenic storage until I can ensure the destruction of the Parasite, which should not take long."
"Can we not help you?" Mandalore asked.
"Unfortunately, no; the Parasite is much too strong, even in its weakened state, for most organics to handle. You will be safe in stasis."
"We are not most organics."
"A statement I cannot risk verifying now." They slowed as Mandalore was brought to a pod and gently placed inside as 686 hovered before him. "This should not take long, my Sentinels are more than capable of handling the Parasite. Should it be contained locally, expect a reawakening within one standard month."
"That's quite a long time." Mandalore objected.
"When dealing with the Parasite, once cannot risk skimming the details. You will be awakened, in due time."686 said as the pod hatch closed over Mandalore. As it sealed, Mandalore heard a sharp hiss as gas filled his pod, and he felt very drowsy. His eyelids fell heavily over his eyes, and his last thoughts were of what to do after he awoke.
For the next few hours, 686 Innocent-Blaze ensured that the several thousand Mandalorians that had landed were catalogued and place in stasis as he filtered through the Sentinel engagement reports. The Parasite had not remained local, as he had hoped; quickly amassing a small horde from the fallen and the remaining pirates on the planet and spreading across his world. As the last organic was placed into stasis, 686 determined that a long-term solution was needed, recalling the Sentinels below the surface of the world before heading towards the world's weather control center, the largest mountain that reached high into the sky. Once there, he disabled a great deal of safeties and began the process of sending the planet into a rapid, deep ice age.
In orbit, the Mandalorian fleet watched in horror as the planet underwent a radical climate change, freezing the world solid in a matter of a day and a half. They waited in orbit for two weeks, hoping for any signals from the planet, but none came, and the ice kept its grip on the planet below. Those in orbit vowed to keep the memory of Mandalore alive until the planet came out of the ice age, keeping the coordinates a secret as they left the Scourge System. And for nearly four thousand years, Mandalore the Preserver and several thousand Mandalorians, slept undisturbed.
