AN/

' ' – character thinking

"" - character speaking

BOLD – author notes

Time skip - 50 standard days

Kori POV:

If you told her three years ago she would be leading the largest ship she had ever seen into a war against the hutts, she would've laughed at you and asked for whatever drugs you were smoking. Now though. Now she looked down at the bridge, the droids scuttling around as the few people on board rushed to each station.

She lowered her hat, pulled her collar up and straightened her lekku as she walked down the bridge, to the front scanners. Inspecting each being as she passed. All were in uniform, decorated in gold trims with the odd skull on their chest. A rather macabre design she thought but it served its purpose of intimidating well.

"How long till we arrive at the next target?" she questioned as she stood. The nearest officer stopped reading the screen he was by and looked to her. Answering almost instantly.

"We have no world to target now. We have hit twenty three pirate stronghold, seven warlords and approximately fifty groups of mercenary forces. Our next objective is to either remain in space and target convoys or return to Prospero ma'am." The office spoke.

Kori nodded as she weighed the options in her mind. Ultimately however, she needed to return. The rescued slaves should be rehoused, captive pirates and mercenaries should be given to Magnus and others should be interrogated. A small detachment of mandalorians she had faced remained in cells. They would talk soon, Magnus would make sure of it.

"We have achieved so much haven't we Kori." A voice spoke to her side, appearing out of nowhere. She turned quickly to face it, discovering Aleesha smiling. Her dark grey uniform blade hung to her figure. Magnus first student smiled as she stepped closer.

"The pirates are gone, the worlds we visited are all saved and so much damage to poor Jabba. I think we have a great success don't you?" she rhetorically asked.

"We have Aleesha. We will return to Prospero now. I see no reason to remain her. Our forces will disembark. The titans will be returned to their depots. The rubrics shall be maintained. And we will await our next set of orders." Kori replied. Stepping back and turning towards her command postion at the top of the room.

Aleesha smiled and slunk away, off to disturb someone else and allowing her to think in peace again. She smiled, looking out at the deck and looking back at her achievement. Pride. Pride filled her being and she revelled in it. Magnus always spoke of emotions holding power. To revel in them yet to control them when the time asked for it. And she had to agree. Feeling this powerful, this good did wonders for her.

She glanced down, her power sword hung in its sheath. She would need it to be repaired. The blade itself had cracked hitting the beskar armour of the the mercenary squad. She would felt insulted by it all truly. Were they only worth four mandalorians to Jabba. It was pitiful. A group of brats in armour thinking they were hot shit. The more she thought, the angrier she got.

Flashback - 1 month ago:

Kori stood overlooking the fortress. They were ready for them, it was hard to be surprised at that. Every warlord or pirate in the outer rim had heard of their exploits by now. Jabba would have had to arranged this though. No way they could afford a mandalorian squad.

She stood straight in front of the five opposite her, their leader stood at the front, beskar clad around his forearms glinting in the sun. "We have an offer for you." their leader spoke to her. She tipped her head to the side as he continued. "No one has to die now. So how about a duel. Five against five. You lead four others against us and see how you handle it. If you win we all surrender. But if we win, you're with us, and that means your ships too." He stated to her, almost as if he thought he would win. Laughable she said inwardly.

"Very well merc, I shall entertain this idea. Get them alive." she commanded to the rubrics beside her. The mark X suits beside her came alive and moved. Too fast for her to keep up with she admitted, after all, nothing that big should move that fast. The mandalorians couldn't react either. By the time their jump packs ignited and their arms were raised a large hand grabbed their helmets and yanked them down. They were pinned as the armour dropped a knee on their back. Helpless. They cursed in their own tongue, even she could hear it. Their leader caught off guard by this turned as his jump pack ignited. He launched himself up as his wrist raised and fired a small rocket.

Kori saw this coming and jumped, rolling away to the side. She got up almost instantly and withdrew the power sword from its sheath. Gripping it in her right hand she unhooked a bolt pistol and held it in her left hand. She walked forwards slowly, raising and firing.

"If you think that little slug thrower will d-" the man spike, before he was knocked backwards. His chest plate dented inwards. The next shot took his helmet off and the third went through his left knee cap. He screamed as he fell slowly. He has obviously turned his jump pack off, slowly descending into a mess on the floor. Gripping his knee with both hands to stop the bleeding.

She slowly walked towards him. Appraising him. She had heard the rumours of mandalorians. A so called honourable warrior culture that had fallen towards pacifism recently. She didn't trust them however. He had lost, but she didn't doubt he would attempt something. And she was right.

His wrist raised forward and up towards her, she could see what looked like a smaller jet on the thunderhawks on it. She swung her blade as the jet spewed fire out. Knocking his wrist away and an audible crack was heard. The blade edge had been damaged. Another suit of armour moved now. It's large frame sprinting at inhuman speeds to her side. It ripped the man's helmet off, exposing blonde hair on pale skin, and a scarred visage. "We have lost, we will honour the terms of our accord and-" he was once again cut short. A nod from Kori had the armour knock him out with a simple swing and punch to his temple.

She stood, straightening her ruffled uniform as more armours walked forwards in formation, to meet the surrendering soldiers. Around a thousand it would seem, greatly filling the rest of the cells.

She turned away, instructing the armours to strip anything of value, and rescue any people that needed it. And she slowly made her way back to the thunderhawk, taking her back to the command deck.

Interlude - Yaddle POV:

Yaddle stood in the Jedi chamber. Each of her fellow masters looked at her with an appraising eye. Five months she had been missing, and now she had finally returned to give her report. "Can I take my seat? You wouldn't make one as old as I am stand for this long would you?" she asked rhetorically, already shuffling her way over to her chair in the circular room.

"What did you find?" Windu questioned. Speaking the question everyone had on their minds.

"I found a...man. Yes. A man who was freeing slaves, and building a home for them. A place to be free from slavery and the threat of it." Yaddle replied slowly, considering each word.

"And they haven't contacted the republic? And what of that feeling, that power wasn't natural." Windu followed up.

"That too originated from him. His species can naturally use it, in his own words. He says he is from the unknown regions, and has slowly found his way to republic space. And why hasn't he asked the republic for aid? It's because he cannot afford to send people out for aid that may come in years." Yaddle once again replied. Greatly considering her words.

Windu nodded, accepting this as a base for some questions it seems, but he had far more questions. They all did, and now they had time to ask them all.

Another chapter for you all here today, slowly moving things forwards.

I skipped over Yaddle and Magnus together, i'll reveal it in some flashbacks. I just find writing that type of thing hard so i'll attempt it later.

I had a skip of five months here, just because there only so many times i can just have any pirates or resistance demolishes and it still seem fresh. It'll be a sort of background thing now. Smaller groups or raiding parties instead of the fleet i set up.

Going forwards i'll be following magnus again, now with thousands of people and a strong military compared to the galaxy, i'll have him reveal himself. Especially since now Yaddle is back with the Jedi.

Another thing i'll be doing is having is introducing more naked characters. Palpating maybe, I'd like to have some stuff on Mandalore and maybe Thrawn. Draw him in to lead a fleet could be an interesting concept.

Honestly I don't know where to drive the story other than like galactic dominance. Something leading up to a war with the Ving eventually. It's an idea that I could work with.

On the other hand, I have some other ideas for stories. I'm thinking about a Necron centred one, around multiverse travel/system/chatroom/gamer style. Any of those concepts really could be fleshed out.

Anyways, see you all soon, and happy holidays alothough it's late.