Mandalore. Sundari. 4ABY 7pm local time
The Thishian opened his eyes and immediately shot up thinking that he had fallen asleep during a criminal recon mission. But soon enough he realised that he was in the safety of his ship and not in the line of fire.
"Where are we?" The Thishian asked i2 as he walked into the cockpit.
"Sundari"
"We are on Mandalore" The Thishian said to himself
"No, we are in deep space." i2 said sarcastically. The Thishian rolled his eyes as he sat down.
"How long was I out?"
"Oh, not that long, only a few hours. I also found a smith who was willing to forage the Beskar for us."
"Good, download the map and let's go"
"Copy that," I2 said, plugging himself into the ship's maps system. The Thishian went to the cargo bay and unhooked a secret panel where he kept all his credits, it was where he had put the Bescar. He collected the Beskar and the Calamari Flan. Together they walked out of the ship and started making their way down the long path toward the smith.
"Why do you not just download the entire map?" The Thishian asked i2
"Why would I bother carrying around an entire map of all the systems equating to hundreds of terabytes worth of calculations when I can just leave It on the ship's storage systems and let it do all the work?" i2 asked in return
"Now you don't only have an attitude, but you are also lazy."
"I am going to remind you that some of my tech is over 100 years older than you are and very unreliable"
"Fine, fine, I will shut up!" The Thishian said defensively
They entered the city just as the sun started to set, its shine reflecting through the glass dome covering the city.
"There it is," i2 said, pointing at a building with a sign saying "smith" on the front.
They entered the door and were immediately blasted with a wave of hot air. The room was dark and lacked many colours. There was a large furnace in the centre where blue flames blasted out. A masked figure appeared wearing the traditional Mandalorian armour.
"We need a smith who can forage this Beskar" The Thishian asked, opening the carrier to reveal the Beskar ingots.
"I can do that, do you want it in the style of your current armour?" the Mandalorian asked
"Yes"
The Thishian threw her the pouch of Calamari Flan.
"Will that be enough to cover?" he asked
The Mandalorian opened the pouch and had a look inside it.
"Yes, do you want armour for her as well?" the Mandalorian asked, nodding to i2.
"Can you?"
"Yes, I just need his outer plates to mould them"
The Thishian nodded to i2 and she started to take her outer plates off revealing her internal mechanics. The Mandalorian looked over the dura-steel plates.
"Everything will take at least a day to forage and mould. You must go while I make the armour, the droid may stay but his sensors must be deactivated. The foraging process is after all: a strict secret."
"Very well, I trust you to take care of the ingots and old i2 here," The Thishian said as i2 powered down.
"You can trust me," the Mandalorian said as The Thishian walked out.
He looked back at the Mandalorian as she began to move the Beskar into a large crucible. He looked over the streets as people sucked drinks through straws and vendors haggled people to try and upsell them. The Thishian looked at a stand roasting Colo Claw Fish, he was hungry, he had not eaten for a while he thought as he walked over to the stand.
The Mimbanese vendor looked up at him.
"Now that is something I thought I would never see, a Thishian, keepers of the kyber planet ilum, speakers of the unknown language, I thought your people were enslaved and sent to the mines after the rise of the galactic empire." the vendor said in a questioning manor.
"Clearly we didn't"
"How did you survive the purge?"
"I didn't, if you could say so. They took me prisoner and intended to feed me to two Rancors. After I killed them both they offered me work as a bounty hunter… My family was not so lucky" the thishan said, lowering his head in sorrow.
"My family was killed last year during the imperial invasion of Mimban" the vendor added
"My condolences."
"It seems we share a displeasure with the empire." the Mimban man said. He suddenly backed in closer, "I can help you, together we can attack the empire." he looked around before grabbing a small device out of the underside of his stall, it was a communicator.
"I have a perfectly good life and I am trusted by the empire, why would I just throw that away?"
"Hīr sīeuē ēsōcaog wēts" *to follow your brothers* the Thishian stood in stunned silence, he was not the only Thishian who escaped the empire's clutches, there were others.
"H-how do you know Thishian?" the Thishian asked, stuttering.
"Too many worlds and populations are being destroyed by the empire, I felt sympathetic for yours as your planet had just a population of 5000 centiants. After the empire came and wiped out the clans, I took it on myself to learn the four languages of the four clans, no one before me was able to translate it, so I tracked down an elder who had managed to escape slavery and swayed her to continue her culture and teach me the ways of the four clans."
"How many are there left?" asked the Thishian after regaining his composure.
"Only a few elders remain of the Turukian clan, that was your clan, was it not? At least the emblem engraved in your helmet says so."
"Yes, It was" The Thishian said, looking over his shoulder and seeing the squad of stormtroopers heading in their direction.
"Do you ever wish you could do anything about the empire" the Mimban asked.
"Yes… what are you proposing?"
"The rebel alliance?"
"Yes, a ragtag group of rebels?"
"Well yes, but that is not the point, they fight for what they believe in."
"If we want to create a rebellion, we are going to need soldiers, have you got a magical plan for that?" the Thishian said, waving his hands in a mocking manner.
"As a matter of fact, I know of an old separatist droid holdout that not even the empire knows about"
"I thought the empire got all of them?"
"No, it is a ship that I was serving on" the Mimban man said as the Thishian took the communicator. "I was serving as an overseer on a supply ship when the droids were shut down, the ship was ripped out of hyperspace when they shut down, I was lucky enough to not be seriously hurt, I then used one of the shuttles to get out."
"YOU WERE A SEPRATIST?"
"Yes… there is no need to rub it in my face… we all made our mistakes"
"Fine… do you have the coordinates of the ship?"
"Yes, i still remember them"
"Ok, good, I will be sure to communicate with you in the next few hours." the Thishian said as he started hastily walking away from the squad of stormtroopers that were heading toward them.
"Wait, what is your name?" the Mimbanese man quickly asked
"Kehi" The Thishian said
"Saktin," the mimban man said in response. Kehi nodded and walked to another stand to buy some food. Soon he would be creating his own rebel cell.
The Mandurer. Several hours later
Kehi looked at the miss-fitting panel on the floor of the ship. It is where he kept his most valuable secrets all of which not even I2 knew about. He had gotten an overwhelming urge to one again feel the connection with the items he kept there. He gave in and walked to his bed and felt around the far corner where he felt the small switch and flicked it. Kehi then went to the far corner floor panel and lifted it up, revealing a box full of kyber crystals. He picked up the box and ran his hands through it. He knew why he felt this connection: the force… he had met many jedi and guided them to the crystal deposits. They used them for their lightsabers… too bad they committed treason, all of them were very nice, peaceful even. He hid the kyber crystals because the empire looked for them, they were using them for unknown reasons.
There was the sound of a notification in the cockpit.
Kehi rushed and put the kyber crystals back into their hiding place and walked into the cockpit. There was a notification that the smith had finished the armour.
"Finally" he said with relief.
Kehi walked out of the cockpit and started making his way back to the smith's workshop. The light of Concordia filling the dome cities with light. Imperial patrols were everywhere to enforce the local curfew but kehi got past them by walking on the roofs of buildings.
He finally jumped from the last roof and landed directly before the door of the smith. The door opened with a light swoosh, the heat once again hitting him hard. The mandalorian came around the corner to greet Kehi.
"Here it is," said the Mandolorian, placing the armour on the table. It glowed red from the inferno that was the furnace. He immediately started replacing his existing armour with it, it felt good, more comfortable than his previous dura-steel armour. He turned away to face the corner as he switched out his helmet so as to not reveal his face. A mandalorian trait that he abided by since he was a child.
"Thank you" Kehi said
"This is the way" the Mandolorian said, going back around the corner.
Kehi went to i2 who was still slumped over his chair, flicking a switch to activate him.
"Help me get your parts on" Kehi said to i2 when he stood up. "There has been a change of plan, we are going" he continued.
"First, we never have had a plan… and second, why?"
"Because we are going to need a crew."
"A crew? Why do we need a crew?"
"Because we are going to be doing a little thing called piracy." Kehi said
"That is a bad idea, the probability of getting caught is nine hundred…"
Kehi cut him off saying "I don't care, now let's go" and walked out of the shop with i2 in tow. He pulled out the communicator he had collected from Saktin and with a few buttons there was a map of the city. Kehi marked the position of his ship and sent a message to Saktin to meet him there immediately as they had many things to get done.
The Mandurer
By the time Saktin arrived the sun had already risen and the signs of imperial occupation were once again drowned by the local populations. I2 was filled in on the ideas and introduced to Saktin.
"Do you have the coordinates?" Kehi asked Saktin
"I sure do." he said, pulling the small holoprojector and placing it on the table. It flickers to life and displays a map of the kashyyyk system. He pointed to a spot in the system. "Here it is, i was about to arrive to kashyyyk to support the offensive"
"Ok, I2, plug in the coordinates and let get there"
"On it." She said, taking the navi chip from Saktin's outstretched hand before moving into the navigator's seat. Kehi and Saktin took their respective positions and before they knew it, the stars had transformed into the blue mist of hyperspace.
