Chaper 41 – Infiltration

Concordia was one of the two moons of the planet Mandalore. Historically, Concordia was an agricultural settlement for the mandalorians. It was the case until the moon soil started to be mined to find Beskar ore. The source of Mandalorian iron, one of the few metals in the galaxy able to resist to a lightsaber blade and a unique ore found only on Mandalore and its moons.

Because of this intensive mining exploitation, the lush moon of Mandalore almost became desolate but made a recovery around now under the rule of Duchess Satine Kryze.

With her rise to power leading the pacifistic New Mandalorian faction, and the defeat of the group of renegades known as the Death Watch in what was now called the 'Great Clan Wars' in which participated Jedis such as Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi when he was still a padawan; all the warlords backed by the Death Watch were exiled on Concordia and elected the leader of the Vizsla clan as the governor of the moon.

During the Clone Wars, it would be discovered that the Death Watch was still existing and that the governor of the moon was a traitor to the anti-Mandalore regime and leader of the terrorist organization.

Layan was a bit interested by the Darksaber in the hands of Pre Vizsla but it wasn't the main point of interest that made him come on Concordia.

As he was leading in a hidden place while jamming the sensors on the planet to avoid being detected, Layan started to explain the basic objectives of the mission.

"From now consider yourself to be on hostile ground, you have to keep in mind to stay stealthy, and if someone sees you, kill him before he can even utter a word."

"Statement: Acknowledged."

While HK-47 had no problem to follow the order given by Layan, Lyn was a bit shaken by it but steeled her mind and nodded her head.

"We have three objectives: intrude upon the governor's mansion and hack into his database to find all his hidden places. Then find all the relics of the Vizsla clan which may contain the DNA we're searching for, capture Pre Vizsla and retrieve the darksaber ."

"Query: I thought we came here to kill the target?"

"He still has some uses, for the time being. Lyn, you have to steel your mind, a time of war will come, and you'll take an active part in it. You can't stay a naïve and innocent girl forever."

He saw her state of mind and knew he had to correct it, he wasn't training a padawan in an unreachable and isolated temple. He was training her to be a warrior and wanted her to take part in the assassinations he was planning.

"Yes, master."

A short time later, the Phoenix landed on the surface of the planet and soon became invisible using the cloaking device prototype Layan built during the past six months. It was not perfect, but at least no one ground would be able to locate it.

The three of them departed the ship and headed toward the governor's mansion. Meanwhile, the training droid, the MagnaGuard and the HK-61 series would keep watch over the ship under T3 leadership.

They headed toward the biggest city of Concordia, which was built in the same style as the capital of Mandalore, Sundari. Beautiful skyscrapers covered in glass and with a few shrubs.

It was currently nighttime on the moon, and a few peoples were walking through the streets and air speeders were flying in the streets. The mansion of the governor was brightly lit and peoples in the streets were talking about a visit of Duchess Satine Kryze.

"The governor mansion is up there. Pre Vizsla is the leader of the Death Watch, a terrorist organization claiming to be the heir of the Mandalorian crusaders and want to restore the old regime and custom of the past like the six actions."

"Statement: I killed a lot of Mandalorians crusaders, such a pussy isn't a problem."

"I believe you, but now let's change our appearance and get to work."

They were currently hiding their face under long hoods, but it was far to be the best disguise as Concordia was a province in autarky. No one was living or coming on Concordia without authorization. Thus, all living beings on the planet were the exiled mandalorians and their descendants. Which means that a Twi'lek and a Mirialan would be really showy in the crowd.

Layan took a small scanner and scanned discreetly a few peoples from a dark corner. Once this was done, he activated a small device hanged at the front of his belt. Suddenly, Layan appearance change for one of the Mandalorian he just scanned.

"Maybe I should learn a thing or two about mechanics finally."

Lyn was in awe in front of the device created by her master. He created this disguising device using a smaller version of what was installed in the training droid he created copying Proxy.

"You really should. Now took this and let's see what is hiding Pre Vizsla."

After taking the devices offered by Layan, they changed their appearance for something more low-key before walking toward their target.

At first sight everything appeared to be normal. No one would think this place to be the nest of a terrorist organization.

The Death Watch wanted to restore the old traditions of the mandalorians but were using terror to achieving their goal which wasn't really the best way to encourage your own people to rally your own cause.

This may explain why a warrior like Jango Fett fought against them before the rise of the anti-Mandalore faction, when himself was still entitled as Mand'alor. He also had a lot of bad blood because his family was killed by the Death Watch when he was a child.

The security around the mansion was pretty tight, and he was unable to miniaturize the cloaking technology like he did with the disguising device, at least for the time being.

"What do you think, HK? You have the most experience among us three when it come to this, even if I must say I'm pretty good at it."

"Answer: we kill them all. Why bother with discretion? All these meatbags are weak."

The droid answered straightly. He specified to stay hidden during the mission, but here he was suggesting to kill everyone in the way.

"Are you really sure to be an assassin droid? I thought stealth was your specialty."

"Statement: My specialty is killing whatever the way used. I use my assassination skills only on the strong enough targets. Why should I bother to kill a bunch of weaklings?"

"Forget it, we'll do it my way."

They walked in front of the guards and scanned them secretly. A few seconds later, they were disguised as guards in full Mandalorian's armors. They jumped above the wall, helping themselves with the force while HK-47 used the grappling hook equipped with his blaster.

"Satine presence will complicate our mission, we could kidnap Vizsla now, but the hiding Death Watch may use the disappearance of the governor as an argument against Satine saying that she killed a political opponent. They may not admit the governor as a member of the Death Watch, but may invent a covert story. We'll have to wait for her departure to kidnap this asshole."

"Query: What does it matter? We didn't come to save Mandalore or help the current leader. For all we care, Mandalore political situation can become unstable, this has nothing to do with us."

While Layan was mostly sharing the view of the droid, he couldn't ignore an evident possibility. If Vizsla disappear and Satine rule become unstable, then Dooku could use Jango Fett as a pawn to made of Mandalore a world allied to the CIS. After all, Jango was the previous Mandalore and fought against the Death Watch; This would totally legitimate his return in power.

Layan was admiring Jango, as he was admiring Boba in the past. In fact, he admires every Mandalorian warrior. They were trained to fight and able to compete even against force-sensitive individuals, one of the reasons why he wanted a Mandalorian in his crew. Furthermore, Jango killed 6 jedis barehanded in the past, he wasn't someone to trifle with, his presence in the Clone Wars may change the flow events in a big scale.

"Master, I don't think that we should trigger a war just to accomplish an objective. It's totally irresponsible."

"I know, we'll wait. Duchess Satine is useful. Even if I don't like her and her pacifistic view, I can't disturb her reign."

(Not until Jango die. Or he became my ally.)

While Layan was thinking, they were walking in formation in the corridors of the mansion, acting like the guards they were impersonating.

The party was taking place in the dining room where Satine and Pre Vizsla were eating while discussing about politics and the development of the forests on Concordia. After walking through the corridors, they finally arrived in Pre Vizsla office.

"HK, keep watch at the door. Lyn help me search for anything out of place."