"Another false alarm?!" Jag asked furiously. "That's the third one this week!"
"Yes, Head of State Fel," the meter-long holographic representation of Admiral Vitor Reige replied stoically. "This one diverted two of our Star Destroyers from the Chintaka system to the Fuyias system."
"And as a result," Jag said, as if he heard this story before, "the forces that were left behind at Fuyias II lost a significant amount of their forces to a Mandalorian raid while the forces sent to Chintaka V saw that everything was just fine."
"That is correct, sir."
Jag sighed in frustration. "Admiral Reige, see to it that our encryption protocols, security clearance codes, everything in our military communications must be doubled; do everything you can. I want to see no more of these false alarms that are allowing our forces to bleed away from these Mando surprise attacks!"
"I will do what I can, sir."
"Let's hope that what you can do is what we'll need." He then cut off the signal before sitting back in his chair and letting out an even bigger frustrated sigh than before.
But before he could decide whether or not he should bury himself back into his work of administering the Imperial Remnant or allow himself to just take a nap as a brief reprieve from all of these politics and this recent war, his intercom chimed.
"Head of State Fel," his secretary's voice said, "your wife is here to see you."
"Send her in," he replied.
Moments later, Jaina entered his office and gave him a loving smile. "Hi, Jag. How are you today?"
He returned her smile as he straightened up in his seat. "Better now that you're here; but not by much, if I'm being honest."
Jaina's smile dropped. "The Mandos are really giving you some trouble now, huh?"
"For a civilization stationed around one planet," Jag said, "they really know how to stretch their forces. Not surprising, though, considering that they're a military society; imagine if they had the numbers of the Remnant. They'd be unstoppable with those beskar ships."
"But they're not completely indestructible," Jaina pointed out.
"No, just mostly indestructible."
"You shouldn't be giving yourself over to cynicism, Jag," Jaina said.
Jag frowned at her. "If you're in a job like this where you have no choice but to sit all day behind a desk, even you'd get cynical, Jaina."
She gave him a conceding look. "Maybe I would. After all, I haven't gotten any luck reaching out to Mirta. I think the fact that I'm married to you may have something to do with that."
Jag raised an eyebrow. "I hope you're not considering a divorce." His tone was only half-joking.
"Oh, no, if my parents can stay together after everything they've been though and the things that came their way, I can put up with some politics in our marriage."
Jag grinned again. "Best thing I've heard today." His smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "Still, the Remnant's not gonna win this new war through the power of love; at least not by itself, anyway. Did you find any evidence as to whether or not Belok Rhal and his mercs were the ones to kill Boba Fett instead of my government?"
Jaina shook her head. "No luck there, either."
Jag let out yet one more frustrated sigh. "Well, let's hope Tahiri's doing better."
. . .
As if by the will of the Force, not two days after Tahiri got out of the hospital on Gleros, she and Partner managed to track down the missing Imperial Inspector Velias on a pastoral-seeming moon just outside of Remnant space.
Of course, it had been due to some work that Partner conducted while Tahiri was still recovering in the hospital; he found that, indeed, the bomb residue that destroyed the forensics building on Gleros was of a type used by Mandalorians to ensure an efficient form of destruction.
And as it just so happened, Partner had a few favors he was owed by some Mandos who weren't as loyal to Belok Rhal as they were letting on (monetary compensation only went so far even among Mandos). Those mercs couldn't provide any concrete proof that it was Rhal who had Boba Fett killed, but they were each willing to drop the names of a few locations where a mole working for the Mandos, like Velias, could be hiding after going missing.
This moon, Candrous VII, was the most likely place in which Velias would hide.
On a bright and sunny day on this part of the moon, Tahiri and Partner found him in a farm in a valley not far from where the Mandalorian parked his Firespray. The former Jedi and her mercenary companion had to wait for a little less than a minute after the former knocked on the door of Velias's house.
But when Velias finally answered, the first thing he received was a punch to the face by Tahiri that knocked him to the floor. The former Jedi then used the Force to drag him bodily out into the open so that she could place a boot squarely on his throat.
"Where's the beskar?" Tahiri asked. Her tone was almost too calm for what she was feeling.
"What?" Velias gurgled from beneath her heel. "I have no idea what you're-" He struggled for breath as pressure was once again placed upon his neck.
"Okay, okay, okay!" Velias managed to blurt out. "It-it was taken away! Diverted from the rest of the convoy that was headed for Gleros!"
"Where?" Tahiri asked.
"I don't know where!" Again, pressure was applied to his neck. When it was lightened up, he continued with, "All I know is that it was given to a Mando convoy. They never said what they were going to do with all that armor."
"If I were to show you a few holopics of some friends of mine," Partner said, "would you be able to ID 'em?"
"If they were the ones we gave the beskar, then... sure," Velias said with the same panic that he had since this conversation began.
Partner then pulled out his datapad and opened up a file before turning it to face down at Velias. He then went through a series of images that appeared to be taken from guerrilla-style shots that displayed various helmeted and armored Mandalorians in different locations and performing several actions, whether it was relaxing, being in a firefight, or some other type of action.
Velias was able to identify about five of the Mandalorians who were there.
"We got what we need here," Partner told Tahiri as he replaced the 'pad back to his belt.
"We're not done yet," Tahiri said darkly.
After she took her boot off of Velias's throat, she used the Force to lift him into the air by his throat. Then, with her other hand, she broke every one of his bones in a slow, excruciating way that prompted a pained and gurgled howl from Velias each time.
His neck was the last thing Tahiri broke; she then allowed his corpse to drop to the ground.
She turned to look at Partner with a satisfied look in her eyes. "Now we can go."