Sorry for the wait but couldn't get a chance to edit this for a while.
Actually, you can say that about a lot of things at the moment. Even so the show must go on, so without any more delays let's get to it!
As always, all credit for this story idea goes to Worldwonderer and all rights go to their owners. As I own nothing!
P.S. I'm still looking for a beta reader, if you're interested PM me and we can talk about the details, and I'll credit you at the beginning of each chapter.
"We're coming out of hyperspace," Valerie called back to the others just as the view outside returned to real space.
For Chief and Cortana this announcement had come as something of a relief; as the two of them had found themselves feeling rather uneasy while they had been travelling through hyperspace.
Cortana herself couldn't understand why that was for her, but she managed to distract herself from her discomfort by theorizing as to how this form of travel was even possible. While John simply used the time to read through the reports that Cortana had prepared for him ahead of time, while also taking the time to work on his Mando'a.
Following the advice, the Historian had given him. So that the Spartan could blend in better with the locals and not draw any more unwanted attention than he was already getting.
"Are there any ships on the scanners?" Ijaat asked as the Chief joined him and Valerie in the ship's cramped cockpit.
"They're just coming back online now," Valerie informed Ijaat as she brought up the display.
In all honesty, Valerie was still learning the control layout of the Kom'rk. As the ship's control layout wasn't like most other vessels she had flown before. Even so, Valerie did know enough to infer where the controls for most of the ship's major systems would be which was more than enough for the moment, as she then pulled up the scanner on the display in front of her; but when she saw what the display showing her; Valerie's whole body go ridged.
"There's a kriffing heavy cruiser on scanners, dreadnought class. Its weapons are hot." Valerie informed her compatriots that the ship kept on its current course.
"Can you get an ID of the ship?" Ijaat then inquired.
Because Ijaat knew depending on the answer he got from Valerie about the identity of the vessel this might heavily affect their plans for dealing with the ship. As Ijaat couldn't help but feel as if he had seen this ship before.
Something that only served to fuel his bad feelings as the only time that he had seen such a Dreadnought heavy cruiser was when…
"I have an ID on the dreadnought. It's the Bloody Talon!" Valerie called back in alarm.
As she knew the ship's reputation even though it had primary hunting grounds had been based in the Corporate Sector; as the Talon had made a name for itself raiding shipments in the sector for over ten stander years, costing the Corporate Sector Authority millions in loss credits in revenue in stolen assists.
So, to see her so far out of her natural territory was completely unexpected. But then again Ijaat wasn't surprised, as the Devaronian had already managed to survive several attempts by himself to collect the bounty that had been placed on the red devil's head.
But personal scores could wait for the moment. The main priority was to make sure that they weren't vapped before they reached the Talons hanger bay.
"Of all the kriffing pirates of the galaxy; why did it have to be the Scourge?" Ijaat muttered to himself.
"Who is this Scourge? And what threat does he pose to us?" Chief then asked in the usual military fashion.
As he needed to know what exactly they were up again if he was going to act accordingly.
"What galaxy did fall out of to not hear of the Scourge?" Valerie asked sarcastically.
"…" Chief didn't respond to her jab, as he knew better than to reveal information such compromising information.
Not when either of them had earned the right to know any of it. At least not yet at any rate, still if this went well enough the two of them might be well on their way to learning a bit more about the Spartan.
"Fine, the Scourge is an infamous pirate that's been plaguing the Corporate Sector for over a decade now. Do you know where that is aruetii?" Valerie asked the Chief.
"What is he known for?" Chief asked completely missing Valerie's sarcasm.
Or more simply not understand it, as such he just focused on what was relevant to the mission. Because he knew what kind of person he was dealing with.
"The barves wanted for multiple crimes, some range from assault, bribery, all the way to the biggest offence. Such as slaving, illegal drug trafficking, and ship jacking, the works." Ijaat explained as he was very familiar with the Devaronians recorded given that he had spent over eight months trying to bring him in.
Chief quiet process what he had been told, all the while Cortana started to dig for files for this so call Scourge on the Holonet so she could create a more comprehensive target profile for him to use.
"Understand, the rules of engagement?" Chief inquired turning his head to face Ijaat a little more.
"There's a bounty to take him alive, but honestly shot to kill. As it will be easier that way," Ijaat informed the Chief.
As this advice was informed by Ijaat's own experience; as he had tried and failed to take him alive once before. As such Ijaat didn't care too much as to how the Devaronian was dealt with, just that he was put down, for he had already proven himself too much of a problem to let run around the Mandalorian sector.
"…" Chief didn't say anything as he replied with a nod just as an alert came from the console.
"The Talons Comming us," Valerie informed the others.
Knowing what they had to do, both Ijaat and the Chief step out of the view of the Com as Valerie opened the link.
"Star hawk, this is the Bloody Talon. State your business here or be prepared to be boarded." The voice of the Com officer of the Bloody Talons came through.
'At least he's in a good mood.' Valerie thought sarcastically to herself.
Even so, this was a good sign, as the Talon wouldn't usually attempt to communicate with any ship that crossed her path but would merely shoot them on sight. This meant that Valerie had this small window to convince the Coms officer to allow them to dock with the Talon.
"Talon, this is Star Hawk, board us and you'll find that you'll have more than a voided deal to worry about." Valerie then threatened the Com officer while hinting at the reason why they were here in the first place.
"What's your authorization code Mando?" The Com operator then asked, just as weapon lock alarms started going off across the ship.
"I've already sent them to you sleemo, as they should be already on your screen," Valerie said, as she transmitted the stolen codes they had found while searching for the bodies to the Talon.
All the while hoping that no one had warned the Captain of the Talon of what had transpired on Concordia. As they waited for the Talons' response; Chief under Cortana's guidance made his way over to the Navi-computer and started punching in the numbers for an emergency jump in case this whole thing fell apart
"We confirmed your authorization codes, Star Hawk. Still, you were supposed to be here with an escort; where are they now?" The operator demanded to know.
"Our meeting was interrupted. We've got part of the cargo, and we wish to play half now, and we'll negotiate the rest to be settled at a later date." Valerie informed the person at the other end.
"It's your funeral Mando, you're clear to land. Also don't try anything funny, as we've already got a tractor beam locked on you." The Com operator warned them.
To which a glance at the readouts showed it to be true. As the Bloody Talon did have a tractor-beam lock on the ship.
"Understood, just light up the hanger bay for us," Valerie said as she then cut the link.
Once the link was cut, Valerie then turned around to look at her two compatriots.
"So, what's the plan once we are inside the hangar? As we can't leave the adiik here by themselves even if they're armed." Valerie then asked, pointing out this rather obvious fact to them.
"Once we're in the hangar, we'll need to clear out any potential hostiles. From there one of us stays behind while the other two go to deal with the Scourge and the tractor beams." Ijaat then stated his plan, so that if either Valerie or Chief had any they wanted to add then they could do so before they landed.
"I would also recommend that we also knock out the weapons. Are they connected to the ship's main computer?" The Chief then inquired.
"Unfortunately, with old ships like this, they tend to have back systems built into them; which makes them rather different to take down." Ijaat pointed this fact out to Chief.
"Can those areas be vented from the computer core?" Chief then asked.
Because even though he probably knew the answer would be to this question, John knew it was better to have it confirmed than to get there and find that he and Cortana weren't able to complete their objective.
"You can, but you would probably still have to clear any survivors afterwards. As that's the problem with Dreadnoughts; they have more local controls and overrides due to their age and design." Ijaat explained to Chief.
"So, the question becomes, who's going to take out their tractor bream?" Valerie said making his presents known in the conversation.
"I will," Both Chief and Ijaat said at the same time.
This surprised John a bit, as he hadn't expected Ijaat to volunteer for this mission. Then again if there was one thing that the Spartan was learning about the Mandalorian people, it was that they didn't back down from a challenge.
"You have more experience with the Scourge. I'll handle the computer core, while Valerie deals with the weapons." Chief said leaving no room for argument from either of them.
Because as much as this departed from their original plan; John had accepted that the three of them would have to leave the ship and deal with whatever the Devaronian had prepared for them. Besides, it made the most sense for him to go the computer care, as John with Cortana and he was certain she could deal with any dead man's switch that might be in play.
Even so, he wasn't going to tell his temporary allies about her, as the Spartan knew that they would ask too many questions. Besides from what he understood; Cortana was something extremely special in this galaxy, so if word were to somehow get out about here there would be people that would want to get their hands on her to see how she ticked if they knew of her existence.
So, for her safety, John mentioned nothing about the AI to his two temporary companies.
"What makes you think that you can handle this on your own Chief?" Ijaat challenged the Chief.
But Chief also saw what he was attempting to do. Draw out more information from him, like Valerie had tried to do earlier. Still, he wasn't going to get anything either, as he, like her, had yet to gain his trust.
"I'm at my best when I work on my own," Chief left it at that, as Ijaat looked at him.
As if he was trying to measure the truth in Chief words; but Ijaat seemed to then realize that there was no way that he could sway Chief from this course of action, even if that was the case. Ijaat wanted to ensure that he could at least judge whether the Chief was bluffing him into allowing him to do this, as Ijaat didn't need the Spartan getting himself killed for no reason.
"Okay, but until we part ways we work as a team. No heroes, we need this done cleanly without getting anyone killed. Does that work for you Chief?" Ijaat then asked him.
"It does; Commander," Chief gave this to Ijaat.
Because so far this had been his operation so far, he would show him respect until he showed he wasn't worthy of it.
"Drop the formalities Chief, we're all vods here," Ijaat said, as Chief caught the double meaning of the word he used.
"…" Chief simply nodded as he decided that he had enough talking for now.
As he then watched as Ijaat made his way over to Valerie to talk over the plan.
"You'll have to keep an eye on him. Ijaat seems interesting." Cortana then commented as Chief then turned to look out of the view screen.
As they could now see the hull of the Talon, as they passed by the ship Cortana used MJOLNIR sensors and started to get a better read as to the current configuration of the ship since they didn't have access to the Star Hawks.
"Speaking of Interesting, it seems there seems to be something unusual attached to a part of the Talon's hull," Cortana stated as she brought a base schematic of the Dreadnought heavy cruiser on the Chief HUD.
Having seen this schematic before Chief had already concluded that the Dreadnought heavy cruiser was a respectable design. As it was a ship that could fill multiple roles, such as being used as a command ship, freeing up heavier units that were more suited to ship-on-ship action.
Still, this didn't mean that it couldn't pull its weight if it found itself on the front lines, as Cortana had shown him combat logs in which the ship had performed rather well given that it was crewed well and was commended properly.
But that the ship's past combat history wasn't Chief main concern at the moment. As he like Cortana were trying to figure out just what was attached to the hull of the Dreadnought.
"Any idea as to what it is?" Chief asked as he then found the anomaly that Cortana had picked up.
For a moment Chief thought about informing his two companies about this but quickly decided against it. As that wasn't something they needed to know about, Cortana would've told him to do so anyway.
"I can't tell, as I would need to ship sensors to get a better look. But I would guess that it's a ship of some kind." Cortana said, not entirely sure as to what she was looking at.
"See if you can learn more about it once you're in the ship's systems," Chief said as they started their final approach to the hanger.
At which point Chief went back to brief the kids as to what they were planning. Thankfully, it didn't take him long to explain the situation to them. By the time Valerie brought the ship down in the hangar all of them knew what was expected of them.
Once this was done John then turned to return to the cockpit only to find Ijaat and Valerie existing it. Doing some last-minute weapons checks while grabbing whatever they needed from those weapons they had stored here earlier.
"I've already briefed them on our new plan. They are also aware of what they should do should we send them the signal." Chief informed his compatriots.
"Good, hopefully, we don't have them to enact the contingency plan," Valerie said.
This contingency plan she was referring to was to have those remaining with the ship send out a signal to the Mandalorian Patrol.
But everyone knew when they sent that signal that they would then be on the clock.
As Ijaat had explained rather definitively that the Patrol wouldn't care if they were still aboard the ship when they arrived. All they would care about at that moment would be crippling the ship by whatever means so that it couldn't escape. But if they couldn't do so then they would simply destroy it.
Knowing this Chief could understand why Valerie would be apprehensive about this. But this was something that came with this line of work and was something she would have to get used to.
"Is something bothering you John?" The unexpected voice of Cortana unexpectedly came from his helmet speakers.
For a moment John thought about saying nothing, but he knew that Cortana wouldn't be asking this if she hadn't noticed something that tipped her off. Knowing this John tried to give her the best answer he could.
"It's just…" The Spartan then trailed off, not sure how to explain this to her.
"It's the whole situation, isn't it?" Cortana said to which John responded with a small nod.
"If you want to talk about this afterwards, I'm here for you Chief," Cortana said.
As she knew that situations like the one, he was currently in would only continue to multiply, as the AI knew it would take time for him to finally accept that he would be dealing with situations like this regularly.
"I'll keep that in mind," John said as he made his way over to the ramps release.
Looking over and getting a nod of confirmation, Chief lowered the ramp as moments later the three of them exited the ship.
Needless to say, it came as something of a surprise when they found the hanger bay all but empty. But taking this opportunity, the three of them managed to reach the second set of blast doors within the ship before they ran into what Chief assumed to be their welcoming committee.
Needless to say, they weren't happy to see their 'guests' outside of their ship and immediately demanded to know why they had left their ship.
Ijaat then explain he wanted to meet with the captain face-to-face. In response to this request, they had drawn their weapons and demanded that they were to return to their ship.
From there the whole situation quickly turned into a fully-fledged firefight, as Ijaat simply gunned down their welcoming party once they had made their demands; leaving them no other option but to fight their way deep into the interior of the ship.
"This aruetiise are starting to get on my nerves," Ijaat commented as he popped up from his cover and quickly fell two of his attackers.
"It's almost as if their lives mean nothing to them," Valerie commented, as she then watched as Chief took down a couple of the ship's defenders with a couple of well-placed shots from his slug thrower.
Only seeming to confirm her suspicion that the only reason why they were even making progress deeper into the ship was because of Chief and Ijaat.
As the two of them seemed to possess an unnatural ability to land shots that would put most other Mandalorians Valerie knew to shame.
Even so, Valerie knew the reason why they weren't making any faster progress was because of her. Unlike both Chief and Ijaat who had experience with this kind of situation. Valerie hadn't, at least not on something on this scale and it showed.
But her lack of experience didn't seem to matter in this situation, as both Ijaat and the Chief as they were also taking slower; ensuring that everything was clear before they moved up.
"Last hostilities down." Chief then called out, and it took a moment for both Ijaat and Valerie to realize why he had made this call.
As it turned out that during their firefight against the Talons' crew, someone had sealed one of the blast doors leading further into the ship. Meaning that they hadn't so much as won their engagement, more so the enemy had simply lost the ability to replace their fallen numbers, leading them to die by attrition.
But this was the last thing on anyone's mind as Ijaat then when over to check the door controls.
"Shab," Ijaat cursed as he inspected the panel, "They've locked the blast door from the other side. It will take kriffing forever to slice through this." Ijaat grumbled as he started working on the control panel.
For his part, the Chief approached the controls and inspected them; while conferring with Cortana as to their next course of action should be.
"Is there any way that you can interface with the door controls?" Chief inquired as he looked for anything he could use to open it from this side.
"Maybe, unless you want the ship to be put into lockdown," Cortana replied sarcastically.
Cortana could easily open this door in front of them, but she hadn't done that because she knew that such an action would trigger alarms and fail-safe throughout the entire ship. Alerting the crew of the Talon that their ship's system was compromised, this in all likelihood would have switched over to manual controls and lockdown ship computer systems.
If they did it would only create a whole host of different problems for them to deal with, knowing this Cortana didn't want to play her ace until they were close to the ship's main data core. As they never knew what problems they might encounter, besides the AI knew that John wanted to capture this ship if he was able to. For the simple reason that despite the ships' current state, it was nothing short of a wealth of resources and information for them.
But Cortana knew that if they couldn't capture the ship then John would at least ensure that he at least got some useful information that they could use later on.
"Can you at least access that base layout of the ship interior?" Chief then asked.
"I should be able to scan through their files without tipping off anyone; give me a moment," Cortana informed her partner, as she did a quick scan of the ship's files.
While he waited, Chief watched as Ijaat and Valerie stood together, trying to figure out what their next course of action was.
"I have it, there should be a ventilation shaft located there. I'll set a waypoint for where it should be located." Cortana informed the Chief just as it popped up.
Seeing the waypoint, Chief immediately went over and inspected the area that Cortana had highlighted for him. Sadly, there didn't seem to be any signs that he would be able to simply punch a hole in the metal and open an entryway through that method. Nor did he know how much force it would take to crack open the wall in front of him.
Still, the fact that Chief had spent an unusual amount of time inspecting the wall hadn't gone unnoticed, as Ijaat then came over to see what Chief was doing.
"What are you looking at?" Ijaat asked as he came to stand beside him.
"There's a part of the ventilation system here, is there any way that we can gain access to it?" Chief then inquired.
As he knew that Ijaat would be most familiar with the best way to gain access to the ventilation shaft.
"That battle-grade Durasteel, unless you got enough explosives or a laser cutter. You won't be gaining access to anything." Ijaat said as he knew what Chief was already thinking.
But unless the Spartan had brought with him a couple of high-spec thermal detonators, then he wouldn't even starch the Durasteels paint. Even so Chief did have something better on hand, as he then realized what realized he had to do he then opened a hidden compartment in his armour; out of which, he drew an energy sword.
Knowing what their reactions might be, what it would look like to them. Chief made sure that they could see the weapon as he activated it, it's cool blue blade springing to life.
Upon seeing the blue blade of the energy sword, the two Mandalorians took a step away from the Chief. Completely taken aback by what the Master Chief was now welding, without wasting a moment he then thruster the brilliant blue blade into the side of the wall and started making an opening.
"YOU'RE A KRIFFING JETII?!" The shock in Valerie's voice was completely understandable.
As Valerie knew that she was deep poodoo now, for she knew that the Chief had been able to play both of them. Even so, she couldn't understand why he would-?
But just as that line of thought was going through Valerie's head; Chief then spoke.
"No, I'm no jetii," Chief stated in a way that didn't leave to question, as he continued cutting through the wall.
As he and Cortana were more than aware of these so-called Jedi, and honestly neither one of them viewed them very favourable; mostly because as far as they were considered they were nothing more than religious extremists in their eyes.
For it hadn't escaped the notice for every conflict since they had discovered that the Jedi were often fully involved with it. This wasn't even mentioning their religious feud with this so-called Sith.
Because of these two factors and many others, both John and Cortana were extremely wary of getting their attention, especially given how they were essentially lap dogs to the Republic at this point. Knowing this, Chief and Cortana knew that if he wanted to remain independent and out of the public eye, he needed to stay away from both the Republic authorities and this so-called Jedi.
"But who did you get that lightsaber? As the only to get one is to kill a jetii to do so," Ijaat asked even as he had his blaster levelled at him.
As he was becoming more and more certain that this Master Chief would be a major figure for the Mandalore sector in the coming years.
"It's no lightsaber. But it was a gift, from a friend." Chief then stated just as he finished cutting the hole in the wall.
"There's more to that, Isn't there?" Valerie pushed the issue, having regained her composure.
"…" Chief said nothing as he stepped away from the entrance, he had made for her.
Knowing that there was nothing more she was going to get from the Spartan. Valerie quickly made her way over to the opening that Chief had made, looking at him as if trying to read him before she slipped into the exposed vent.
An uncomfortable silence then followed as Ijaat and Chief simply waited until Valerie had made it to the other side and opened the blast door from them. Seemingly having enough of the silence that had followed Valerie's departure; Ijaat decided to give Chief a quick bit of advice.
"Word of warning Chief, don't go waving that thing around Mandalorian space unless you're looking to start a fight. As most Mando'a hadn't forgiven the jetii for pushing the Republic to execute the Dral'Han." Ijaat warned the Spartan.
To which he got a small nod in response, as the Chief knew full well about that. And honestly, it made him realize just how dangerous the Jedi were. As on their word alone, they had helped convince the Republic to attack what was justified.
Of course, this hadn't been the deciding factor; both the AI and Spartan knew that. As the Republic was still afraid of what Mandalorians had once been and could be again. Given the history between the two governments, Chief wasn't surprised, even though it had helped to cement his views on the Jedi and Sith as nothing more than dangerous cults that would destroy anything that could threaten their power bases no matter what the other claimed.
As by attacking Mandalore both the Republic and Jedi had killed any chance that the Outer Rim would have the possibility of stable leadership outside of the Republic. This was, of course, the point of the attack, because despite Mandalorian's reputation John had learned that so long as you played fair with them, they would do so in return.
This only made the situation worse in both their eyes, as the Republic and their allies hadn't wanted to see the Mandalorians rise to a position where they could challenge the Republic's authority in the region. Or more accurately the Core itself, something that wasn't lost on the Spartans as to the simultaneity between this galaxy and their own, as the current situation mirrored that of the tensions between the UEG's inner and outer colonies.
There was so much that they could learn here; Chief had to admit and so did Cortana; who without even needing to be told so was already creating a report for the UEG and ONI for when they got back to their home galaxy to review.
Still, this was a report that would be worked on later; as the Chief's main attention was on the sounds, he could hear coming from behind the blast door. As it was obvious that Valerie had run into some difficulties while trying to get access to the door from the side vent that Chief had opened for her.
Moments later the blast door started to slowly open, and on the other side, they could already hear the sounds of multiple blaster fire. Knowing what they had to do, both Chief and Ijaat waited until the door was open enough that they could fit through it.
Once it had opened wide enough Ijaat with Chief following shortly behind him quickly moved into the next area. Helping to secure the foothold that Valerie had gained for them.
Despite having made it through the first blast door, it quickly turned out to be the first of many.
Even so, the three of them have fallen into something of a routine to deal with them. As they would clear out the area and then depending on the circumstances, they would have Ijaat slice the door, Chief would cut a hole in which Valerie would slip into an air vent to bypass the locked blast door or simply rush the blast doors before they even close. As Cortana would inform the Chief that if they were closed then there would be no way to get around them.
At this point, John showed off some of the things he was capable of doing. Such as dual welding twin blaster rifles to allow them to make the push necessary to get to the blast door before it closed.
Still, the fact that John had to scavenge weapons from his fallen enemies only hammered the point home that he needed to find a manufacturer that could create weapons more to his specifications.
As most of the stander size of most weapons wasn't cutting it for the Chief, as he couldn't even weld a stander pistol properly given the size of his hands.
But this was a matter that Chief and Cortana could tackle later. As this was something that had come up during their attempts to manufacture more ammunition for all the UNSC weapons they currently have in stock.
As John had already burned through all the clips, he had brought for his assault rifle had only highlighted that he needed to get this sorted sooner rather than later.
Even so, that was something for later, as John had a more pressing matter to deal with, as they were about to beach into what they had identified as a room of interest and needed to be focused on this.
"-after which they go off, we'll move in and clear the room." Ijaat was just finishing explaining his plan to them.
To which Chief hadn't seen any problems with what Ijaat was suggesting.
As so far Ijaat had shown himself to be on par with some of the best veteran ODST, both in his planning and combat skills. A fact that gave Chief a healthy respect for Ijaat, as for Valerie however…
There was something up with her, he could tell that much from her body language when they spoke. As such he would be keeping a close eye on her for the time being.
"Anything you want to add Chief?" Ijaat then asked him.
To which Chief shook his head no, as he then took his position beside the doorway. At which point they followed his example, as Chief watched as Ijaat and Valerie threw their flash bangs into the room. It took a moment before they went off, after which the three of them stormed into the room and came across something they weren't expecting.
"What is the name of Manda," Ijaat muttered in shock as he took in what was contact within the room.
As the only way that it could be described as a trophy room of sorts.
One that was seemingly basic on dead Mandalorians, as there were Mandalorian helmets lining the walls around them. Deeper in the room there was also what seemed to be an assortment of weapons that Ijaat and Valerie recognize as being Mandalorian in origin.
"Well, someone's been busy," Cortana commented as they moved further into the room.
As Chief then picked up a shield and looked it over. It was like that of the Spartan of old Greece, though he knew their shields had been made from both wood and bronze.
What Chief had in his hands was a pure beskar shield. Still, he wanted to check and make sure, so he turned to Ijaat.
"Is this authentic?" Chief inquired as he looked at what looked like an old spear that went with the shield.
"The shields are real, the spear and most of the helmets are fakes, but it's not uncommon nowadays. As Satine's opened the Mandalore sector up to trade, knockoffs of certain things are more common now." Ijaat explained as the three of them continued and moved further into the room.
For her part, Valerie wanted to get a better look at the Mandalorian helmets that were lining the wall. As she knew that they would often have some way of identifying the wearer. But as she lifted one of the helmets, Valerie came face to face with something she hadn't been expecting.
"WHAT IN THE NINE CORELLIAN HELLS IS THIS!?" Valerie cried out in surprise.
As she hadn't been expecting to find a skull underneath the helmet she had lifted. Upon seeing this, both Chief and Ijaat went over to the nearest helmet, removed it, and found the same thing as Valerie had found.
"There are more than three hundred of these scattered across the room." Chief then commented as he started taking video.
As he hoped that they would be able to ID any real Mandalorians that had been killed trying to take down the Scourge once this mission was finished.
"Why would he go after Mandalorians? As it's not like others had been hunting him for all this time, unless… he's started to hunt us for sport." Valerie said, hoping that this wasn't the case.
Still, she was certain that they would've heard about that if this had been the case.
"No, this is to mark every person he's killed, the Scourge takes their heads and places a Mandalorian helmet over them," Ijaat explained, as it was the only thing that made sense to him.
"By why use Mandalorian death shrouds? As there are over a dozen different bounty hunters that have tried to take him down. Why would he use our image to signal his victories?" Valerie asked aloud, as Chief continued moving through the room.
Looking at all the weapons that the Scourge had acquired, John wondered for a moment if he should take one of them for the Historian to use in his museum.
"Because," Ijaat started saying as he then took the helmet of one of Clan mates, "It was a Mandalorian that nearly killed him," That Mandalorian being him.
"Any idea's as to who nearly vapped the sleemo?" Valerie then asked in a cool voice.
As she was becoming rather angry; so was Ijaat. But he couldn't allow his emotions to distract him, as he then turned to face Valerie. But just before Ijaat could answer that question a hologram appear on the room's only table.
On which appeared a half metal half flesh Devaronian, his half-metal face impassive as he looked upon his guest. As if he was measuring them for a coffin. While he was doing this Chief studied the red-skinned Devaronian, for it was his first time seeing one.
For starters, he had two horns on his head, one of which was cybernetic so that it would match his other side. Also, what was noticeable was the fact that both his left arm and leg were completely replaced with cybernetics.
As it was obvious that whatever happened to the Devaronian had cost him greatly in terms of his flesh. Even so, he seemed unconscious that there were essentially three people on his ship who wanted him dead, but this was because he wanted them here on his ship; especially one of them who the Devaronian had hoped to find standing there before him.
"Hello Ijaat, I'm so glad that you took up my invitation." The half-cyborg finally spoke with a wicked smile that spread across his face that said otherwise.
Mando'a Dictionary:
Beskar – Mandalorian iron
Vod – brother, comrade, *mate*, sister
Aruetii/Aruetiise – traitors, foreigners, outsiders
Adiik – Child aged 3 to 13
Jetii – Jedi
Jetiise – Can mean Jedi plural, or Republic give the contect
Manda – A collective soul or heaven - the state of being Mandalorian in mind, body, and spirit - also supreme, overarching, guardian-like
Dar'manda – A state of not being Mandalorian - not an outsider, but one who has lost his heritage, and so his identity and his soul - regarded with absolute dread by most traditional-minded Mando'ade
Aruetiise – traitors, foreigners, outsiders
Di'kuts – idiot's, useless individuals, waste's of space
That's all she wrote, I hoped that you enjoyed it at the very least.
So anyway, we've reached over 1,000 followers, and as such, I've prepared a special something for you all to celebrate this achievement. Especially considering that this is my first story to reach this milestone…
Anyway, here's another snapshot into the future of the story!
A draft document from Spar the Resurrector:
So, you want a report regarding the Master Chief, well here it is.
Currently the Ultimate reborn as certain Jetii now refer to him as being the major unofficial muscle behind the Council of Neutral systems and in that largest unofficial supplier to Republic insurgents behind our lines.
According to the numbers I've gotten, the Reclaimers are responsible for several ship's disappearances in and around the Mandalorian sector and those of the Council of Neutral systems. But then again this isn't surprising considering that you di'kuts tried to build a secret base in Mandalorian space.
As to what happened to those ships and droids, well it's rather obvious what happened to those which he hasn't destroyed.
The fact that his small faction has been appointed by the Council of Neutral systems to act as their Merchant Fleets escorts just shows the trust, they have in their ability to defend their charges.
So anyway, you aruetiise want my recommendations on how to deal with the Chief.
Simple stop kriffing provoking him!
That attempt to set up a base within Mandalorian space would be forgiven, but the fact that did it with the KRIFFING DAR'MANADA COULDN'T!
You're just lucky that I have made certain… arrangements with the Chief.
If not, you would not only be dealing with him but myself as well. But given I have my reasons for wanting the jetiise to fall and the fact that you've cut all ties with the kriffing dar'manda, I'll use my influence to make Chief… reasonable.
But I have my price for this, as only personnel appointed by myself and Admiral Teach choosing that will negotiate this possible truce with him.
This will be the only chance you'll have to make him stop interfering with CIA operations throughout the Rim; as such I strongly suggest that you negotiate peace with him alongside trying to reach an official arrangement that would allow Reclaimer vessels to escort CIA merchant vessels through neutral space.
Still, I wouldn't hold my breath on that. Even so, the truce will ensure that more ships can be freed up to deal with advancing GRA forces, as we opened ourselves up to a possible counterattack since the beginning of Operation Durge's Lance.
This report had been drafted by Republic Intelligence agent Meeber Gascon for Supreme Chancellor Palpation:
To the Supreme Chancellor, it has become obvious to the GAR high command alongside GRN that this matter must be given your utmost attention, as I have come to believe that mishandling this situation could quite possibly lose us this war.
For your convenience, I've included a Bio of all the information we've managed to gather concerning the Mandalorian Reclaimer's leader: The Master Chief as he is known.
The history of the SPARTAN is completely unknown to us.
What we do know about him however is that he first surfaced in the Mandalorian sector on the moon of Concordia.
After this, he ended up falling in with an old member of the True Mandalorians that had been led by Jaster Mereel. Apparently, because of this and other events that are unknown to us, he started to collect a small but loyal following.
His small faction: The Reclaimers, as they call themselves, only rose to prominence after the battle of Geonosis, after which it was the Master Chief himself that kept the system of Mandalore neutral in this ongoing conflict.
It is currently believed by Republic Intelligence that he also had a hand in the establishment of M.E.A.T. and other companies that had been providing the vast majority of small arms and other necessary equipment to Republic-aligned groups from to Core out to the Outer Rim.
But there is nothing to confirm this; still, the Reclaimers come to the attention of Republic Intelligences after the second battle of Jabiim that saw the planet join the Council of Neutral systems.
High Jedi General Die d'Act, was the one who filed this report that brought the Chief to our attention once he was forced to break off his attempt to recapture the planet.
Currently, Republic Intelligence believes that the Master Chief is responsible for over 8% of all casualties in this conflict. Some reports attributed the Master Chief with killing at least fifteen to twenty Jedi alone and over a million-combat personnel KIA.
Which in my opinion seems to be on the lighter side, as he and his Reclaimers had seen many worlds from both the CIS and the Republic fall to him and join the Council of Neutral systems.
An interesting note, in one of their conflicts the 3rd Clone Reserve Battalion was caught without their weapons. To which the Chief allowed them to gear up before killing them.
This is the only time that such an event has occurred.
Moving onto the tactical side of things, simply put we're completely outmatched in terms of strategy; something that became rather apparent to the command staff after the failed attempt to recapture Jabiim.
In an attempted counterattack against the Reclaimer's vessels the GRN losses according to currently estimated to be between 120-150 ships lost, and somewhere between 20,000 to 28,000 GRN in our attempted counterattacks on Reclaimer forces.
The tactics that have been used against us have made it so that we've stopped engaging them conventional simply put; we've got no countermeasures to employ against the rather unconventional weapons and tactics they employ against us.
There is also the political element to consider as well, as the Council of Neutral systems had condemned most attacks on Reclaimer vessels.
My recommendation would be for us to try and negotiate if not an alliance, then to at least get a binding agreement that would see them sidelined for the rest of this conflict. As I believe that we will need all military assistance available if you wish to take any sort of action against the Master Chief and his faction of Mandalorians.
It has also come to my attention that certain factions amongst our establishments headed by High Jedi General Die d'Act have made a major push to remove the Master Chief from the field by other means.
I would strongly advise against such an action, as even if such an action were to be successful, I fear that we would only give our enemies a well-trained and motivated force that would be under the sole command of who is probably the second most effective commander the CIS currently has in their navy.
But if such an attempt were to take place and were to be unsuccessful then all military models show that the Reclaimers entering the war on the side of the Separates would ensure a 90% chance of a CIS victory against the Galactic Republic given their proven capabilities.
As such all attempts should be undertaken to ensure that this, Master Chief does not enter into the war. The risks outweigh any benefits that his entry into the war might bring.
.
.
.
I know that this might be rather unprofessional, but I must once again express my feelings that the Jedi I heard of had fallen from what I originally believed to be.
I hope that the Jedi can return to what they were once this war is over…
Anyway, I hoped that you enjoyed those two short reports from both the Republic and CIS about the Chief and his faction.
So, until next time have a good one.