Mandalore

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Blog Entries posted by Mandalore

  1. Mandalore

    Strike Two

    By Mandalore,

    Over three months. I should've got this done much, much earlier. I apologise.
     
    Running log #010...
    We had our own little piece of deep space to call our own, we had a Lethisk armed freighter to disrupt the Republic with, and we had an entire Republic task force deposited in our bit of the galaxy. Overall, things were going well after that first attack.
    We sat down and looked over the Republic HoloNet feeds to see if our strike had attracted any attention, and where there were ships being diverted from to look at the site and survey possible damage. Some scouts had been diverted out of Bothawui, with more ships prepared to enter the area of attack if required. Excellent. Being told exactly where the optimum targets are is both useful and timesaving when you're trying to take over a galaxy with twelve people and a stolen ship.
    We waited a few days, just letting the Republic scouts examine our handiwork and report in. Then the other ships that were on standby went out and had a look, and we took that moment to strike. We powered up the hyperdrive, all weapons on standby, and jumped to Bothawui.
    The Bothan defences had somewhat anticipated an attack from the same people who took the task force they were investigating - not knowing it was us, of course - and had all perimeter defences on alert. That made things interesting. It actually allowed us to test our ship's weapons against more than just fighters, gave us a chance to see what it could do in an invasion. No, we weren't planning to take over the whole planet. We'd need more than twelve people for that. We just wanted to leave it scared and ready to be invaded - bluffing a full assault force can sometimes be as effective as actually having one.
    Anyway, let's get on with how we did it.
    We first sent out the same message as before, "surrender or we'll beat the fierfek out of you until you do" (not those words, but words to that effect). Again, they refused. And again, we engaged their forces. They threw some light assault ships at us, thinking we were no more than Exchange muscle trying to bully our way into the planet (it happens frequently when you're that close to Nar Shaddaa). Obviously, they were wrong. Those light assault ships didn't get far before they were absolutely destroyed. That made them take us more seriously, sending their full defence force out against us. One ship against a planet's worth of defences. Time for some real Mandalorian fun. We stretched the freighter to its limits and a bit beyond, flying through defence lines, below heavy cruisers, above and around pretty much everything they had, blasting them with everything we had in the process. It was a real feat of piloting expertise, and really showed exactly why our pilot had been selected for the Bralor Twelve. It was a lengthily, exhilarating battle, but in the end we'd fought long and hard enough for the enemy to surrender. We ordered the crews out of their ships, and then took the remains of the defence fleet back to our space hideout with the task force we already had there.
    Well, we began to. Then we ran into a problem.
    We chose to attack Bothawui at that time because, as I said, there was a load of ships off investigating our previous target. We were too excited about the attack to factor in their return. They found us dragging the planetary defence force off into deep space with absolutely no opposition, and decided to become the opposition.
    Even more fun for us. We met them head on as soon as they requested our identification, not even leaving them time to fire before they were obliterated. They were all destroyed, so we didn't have to take them out to our base as well. It was a simple destroy-all-opposition-and-continue-with-the-mission tactic. Highly effective. By the end of it, we ended up with enough Republic ships in our patch of deep space to quite possibly turn the tide in whatever war would come next. Very useful indeed. Satisfied with a successful mission, we started talking about what would happen when Revan and Malak returned, and the looks on their faces when they heard what we'd done to their precious Republic.
    I'll be talking about what we did next in the next log.
    END OF LOG #010
  2. Mandalore

    Our Next Move

    By Mandalore,

    Running log #011...
    Twelve people managed to become targets for the Galaxy's biggest criminal organisation and the Republic, with enough ships stored away to conquer a planet. And it was only just after the war. Pretty good going, if you ask me. Though, saying we had enough ships to conquer a planet doesn't affect much, as even we couldn't man them all at once.
    Anyway, onto what we were doing next.
    We decided that if our crusade was to be a success, we needed what pretty much ran the galaxy (beyond violence, food and gravity): money. At first, when the subject was brought up, we thought the only way a strike team of Mando'ade could get money was by selling ourselves out to people like the Exchange - and I'm sure you know how they'd feel if we came asking for a job. But then we thought of a better idea, one that could prove interesting for us, wouldn't soil our honour, and had more benefits on the side.
    We set a course for Tatooine.
    It's well known that Mandalorians can build camps faster than any civilisation in the history of the Galaxy, and we decided to prove that. We landed our ship (only the freighter, which we decided to call the Gra'tua) on Guermessa, the planet's second moon, and set up a camp as our base (one of the Republic ships had communications equipment and that sort of tech that we could use there), as we'd all got a bit tired of living literally in the middle of nowhere. Also, having a base on one of the moons of Tatooine let us make use of the Czerka Corp. outpost on the planet itself - no, of course we weren't going to go down there and buy stuff like normal customers. We began the very, very lengthly process of bringing the entire Republic assault force we'd collected to the edge of the system, and I really won't bore you with how long that took, I'll just skip to what we did when we finished the job.
    We docked in the only docking port on the planet, known as Anchorhead. We were stopped by an official from Czerka, who demanded we give him some money. We said no. He insisted. We shot him. A pair of guards came over to us with blaster pistols. We shot them. We walked through to the Czerka office, where we met the person in charge. She tried to pay us to kill some people. We refused. She tried to pay us more. We refused. She was confused, but asked us what we wanted anyway. We requested that we be given 35% of all the money made on Tatooine for the rest of Czerka's occupation of the planet. She refused. We asked her to scan for all ships in the system. She found our assault force, which she believed was manned. She accepted our terms.
    And that's how we got a permanent source of income without soiling our honour, which proved very important in operations to come.
    I'll tell you more about them in future logs.
    END OF LOG #011
  3. Mandalore
    I am truly sorry for having such gaps between my posts, especially when I tell you all it won't be long...
     
    Running log #007...
    Now, before I get into what I did after I fled from Malachor, I should probably tell you about some people that are instrumental to all my actions post-Malachor. These people are the Bralor Twelve, my personal strike team. We were the best at our respective specialisations in Clan Bralor, and we were all SuperCommandos. Well, they were and I was the SuperCommando Captain leading the team. There were, as is obvious, twelve of us, and we all had our own skills, as I said. Stuff like elite piloting, demolitions, technology, fast shooting, that kind of thing. We were the best at all of them, when we worked as one unit. Which we always did. Oh, and I'm using the past tense because it happened in the past, not because any one of them is dead. They're not, and we still fight together like we always did. It's not easy to kill the twelve best soldiers in the Galaxy.
    Now that the introductions are out of the way, I'll tell you what actually happened after Malachor.
    I said in my recount of the battle that I flew off with the B12, breaking the Republic lines and escaping; following that we did exactly what all the other war veteran refugees did. We ran away and got lost on Nar Shaddaa. There was a problem with that plan, however. We were landing on Nar Shaddaa in a Mandalorian shuttle, and walking through the streets of Nar Shaddaa in Mandalorian Neo-Crusader armour. In other words, we weren't all that inconspicuous.
    Due to this, almost immediately after leaving our ship, we were taken by Republic soldiers (Galaxy knows what they were doing alive on the Smuggler's Moon) and loaded at gunpoint onto their ship, to be taken to a high-security prison facility.
    Once we arrived at the asteroid prison (to this day I don't see why the Republic is so fond of asteroid prisons) on the fringes of Republic space, we were locked away in small one-person cells. Big mistake there. They locked the whole of the Bralor Twelve away in the same cell block, which is stupid in itself, but what's more is that they locked the Bralor Twelve away in the same cell block as a whole load of murderers, terrorists and other Mandalorians.
    So, we began formulating a plan to get out.
    We didn't try anything for the first week, we simply got used to the routine of doing absolutely nothing all day, then having the prison guards open a hatch in our cell doors and sliding in what appeared to be the stuff we used for emergency battlefield rations. Then, on the eighth day of our stay in the facility, our demolitions expert did what made him our demolitions expert. He got his "meal", and he made some rather powerful explosives out of it with a method I still don't understand. How he did it is unimportant though, what matters is that he had some explosives in his cell. As you would expect, he then used them to destroy the walls of his cell. Then a prison guard came over to him with a Bothan stunner, which was no help at all, because he was dead before he could raise his hand. A dead guard is a guard that can't stop a Mando from stealing his keycard to open the cells, and that's exactly what our demo man did. He simply took the keycard and went to each of the B12 cells (besides the remains of his own) and freed all of us. We then went round and freed all the other Mandos, and then freed all the people who we thought could be of use in a takeover. Following that, we went to the armoury and took our beskar'gam and weapons back, and the non-Mandos took whatever they could find.
    Then came the breakout.
    It was a simple operation really, especially since we were leading it; just a straightforward overrun of defence posts followed by takeover of the central command station, then taking the landing pad to prevent the arrival of reinforcements. I like to call that sort of thing a reverse siege.
    That just proves that you should never, ever lock up the Bralor Twelve, because all you're going to do is lose the prison facility to an Empire that doesn't even exist anymore. That's right, we were claiming the former prison as Mandalorian territory. It was about a week after the end of the war, and we'd already won the first battle of the next one.
    We then stole the same Republic shuttle that took us to the prison, and went off to continue our crusade against the Republic. Again.
    END OF LOG #007
     
    I hope that's sufficient.
  4. Mandalore

    Malachor

    By Mandalore,

    I do apologise for the excessive wait...
     
    Running log #006...
    This was it. The last stand. The final culmination of several years' worth of Mandalorian victories, countered by Revan's involvement, thus causing a sudden fall in the amount of success we had, eventually driving us back here. Malachor V. We would have rather fought the Ani'la Akaan anywhere else, but the simple fact of the matter is that there was nowhere else to go. Revan's forces had us hemmed in. It was either take the fight to Malachor or surrender to the Republic. And Revan knew our reluctance. He knew it and used it to his advantage. But ancient taboos so old that most Mandalorians couldn't even remember their origins had no place in this war, so we tried to ignore our feelings on the location and simply put up the best damned fight we ever had.
    We now know that it was a mistake to go to that place, not because of any tradition or anything, but because at the time we knew nothing of Mass Shadow Generator. With hindsight, it seems obvious now that if Revan didn't have a weapon of mass destruction ready to obliterate our entire fleet at his command, then he would've sent a far, far larger force in against us.
    To this day I still think that Revan denied us a fair fight in that battle, using secret weapons and the dark power of the planet itself to give him and his Jedi soldiers the edge. Without the Fore Nexus that was the Trayus Core (yes, I know of the Sith artefacts held on the surface of the planet) he would never have been able to kill Mandalore the Ultimate, and without the MSG, he never would've been able to take down our fleet.
    It was really the death of our leader that marked the turning point of the battle. It stripped us of absolute coordination, forcing myself to take tactical control and Canderous to lead the forces in combat. It felt like we were leading another early battle, except we didn't win. And I blame mainly Canderous for it going so rapidly downhill. He wasn't fit to lead in that battle. He was a good fighter, that can't be denied, but he was one of those who were still apprehensive toward fighting on Malachor. I honestly didn't care about the location, as long as all of us gave it our absolute best and made the Republic fear our might even in death. And there is no place in command for people who don't want to fight.
    Still, we fought on as best we wanted to. Then the Mass Shadow Generator was powered up, when Revan realised we weren't going to give up before dying. It was a coward's tactic. To send your own troops to their deaths purely for the purpose of defeating the enemy. Regardless of what people say about sacrifice and all of that osik, there is no honourable way to kill off your own people and make it look like an act of courage.
    The action did its job perfectly, it must be said. It killed most of us, and the rest surrendered. I didn't, however. I took my chances, running the Republic line when they least expected it and making the jump to hyperspace as soon as I could. I hit Nar Shaddaa, taking my personal strike team with me (I'll tell you about them later) and getting lost in the crowd.
    I think that's enough. My actions after the war will follow when I get round to recording it.
    END OF LOG #006
     
    I do hope it's been worth the wait.
  5. Mandalore
    OK, Sith Holocron, you wanted a list of every single mod I use with links, so here goes:
     
    KotOR 1:


     
    Lightsabre Choices
    Allronix Dialogue Pack 2.1
    Bastila's Extra Dialogue on Tatooine
    Black Vulkar Base Restoration
    Carth's Fighting Spirit
    Garrum and Tar'eelok Restoration
    Glow Rod Restoration
    Improved Dark Jedi
    Mandalorian Ultimate Mod
    New BIK Movies
    Revan's Flowing Cape and Belt Fix 1.1
    Remove restriction to Force Powers by armors
    Sharina Fizark Restoration 1.1
    Taris Lower City Restoration
    Taris Undercity and Gamorrean Stronghold Restoration
    Cassus Fett's Battle Armour Reskin
    Dak's Sword Pack
    New Underwear
    Utility Armbands
    Lost Modules
    Jedi Robe Models
    Darth Malak - Dark Lord of the Sith

     
     
    KotOR 2:


     
    Bao-Dur Shader Fix
    Bao-Dur Charged Armour
    Better Male Bodies
    Coruscant High Resolution Textures
    A Darker Peragus
    Goto's Yacht Window Upgrade
    Droid Enhancement
    Enhanced Merchants
    Fixed Kreia's Fall Movie
    Fixed Mandalorian Banners
    Invisible Headgear Mod
    Kill the Ithorian
    Kreia Green Fix
    Lightsabre Parts Icon Fix
    Movie-Style Retextures Version 7 with Flickering Blades (I use this for K1 as well)
    Movie-style Jedi Master robes v1.0
    No Lightsabre Quest
    Peragus Tweaks
    Remote Tells Influence
    Remove Restrictions for Force Powers by Armors
    Realistic Nar Shaadaa Skybox
    Darth Sion's Arrival to Peragus Fix
    Skip Telos' Surface
    Telos Shuttle Crash Movie Fix
    Full Force Mod Pack
    Trayus Rank Reformation
    Galaxy Map Fix
    Coruscant Jedi Templeand the Expansion
    Ultimate Sound Mod (I use this for both games)
    HandSister Fix
    Hi Poly Tin Cans
    Workbench Crystal Attunement
    Weapon Finesse Icon Fix
    Movement Animation Fix (both games)
    Kill Disciple
    Powered Battle Armour Reskin
    Matrix Armour Reskin
    Darth Nihilus - Lord of Hunger
    Bodies Stay
    Combat Suit Replacement
    Curse of the Sith
    Cyan Lightsabre Fix
    Dak's Armoured Robes
    Enhanced Lightning - Sith Edition

    And TSLRCM, of course.
     
    Yeah, I use a lot of stuff. And KSE.
  6. Mandalore
    I got extremely bored, so I decided to write some in-universe stuff about me during the Mandalorian Wars (I am Mandalore, aren't I?)
     
     
    Running log #001:
     
    I'm starting my logs with an account of my training and first missions in the War, before Revan came into things.
     
    The training was hard, but I expect you know that if you're reading this. What you don't know is exactly how hard it was for me personally. Because I always had to be the best at everything. Well, almost everything. Everything I enjoyed. And I was very good at almost all of that. I mean, I was the best under-Rally Master strategy planner & tactician in all of clans Bralor, Ordo & Fett. But although I liked piloting (it was seriously fun) no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't keep control of the fighter when I was distracted. Now Basilisk piloting and front line combat, now that's something different. I was easily the best non-Rally Master in Fett & Bralor, but Clan Ordo I couldn't beat. They held my rival. Canderous. Now he was really good, as good as some Field Marshals, despite being the same rank as me.
     
    What I didn't enjoy, now that's something I hardly ever think about. Mainly *shudder* territory defence. That's the standing in a trench, shooting at the enemy from behind a wall of mud, being starving and sleep-deprived because you know that if you stop for a second, you'll be killed. On several occasions I was known to actually jump over the trench and join the front-liners in a charge.
     
    Canderous was a different story. He had no preferences for positions, he just liked to kill Republic soldiers. He couldn't care less about the conditions he was fighting in as long as there were enemies to fire his chaingun at.
     
    And he knew I was trying to beat him. So he studied how I fought, and he took advantage of my weaknesses. It was that that made me want to be the best at everything, but it also made me hate having someone better than me. So I did the same. He was best at killing people, but his tactics and strategy planning was generally along the lines of "just send everyone off to shoot things". So, in a full-scale battle simulation, I asked that we be in duel control of a unit, and that request was granted. That way I could show him exactly what he was awful at. To give him something to be ashamed of. It worked. I made him look like a complete idiot in front of command, and made myself look that much better than Mandalore's star recruit.
     
    I think I've done enough. If I get round to it, I'll do something on my first real battle.
     
    END OF LOG #001
     
     
    So, what do you think? Should I do another one?
  7. Mandalore
    Sorry it's been a while, my hard drive nearly died, but anyway...
     
     
    Running log #003:
     
    You could feel the tension in the air from the hangar. The anticipation of blasting down on the Republic, taking yet another planet without a challenge. It almost felt routine now to get into a Basilisk, be told to deploy, and start crushing resistance.
     
    Well, it was probably like that. I wouldn't know. Because while the front liners were doing that, I was sat in a small command chamber not debating tactics with the other strategists. Why wasn't I putting my ideas across to the rest of the tacticians? Because they had Specialist training, and, despite my recommendation from the Field Marshals, they wouldn't listen to a recruit. I was better than most of them, even though I was fresh off Dxun, but they refused to acknowledge the evidence.
     
    Whenever I did actually bother to say something to the arrogant fierfeks, they just totally ignored me. I mean, I would put forward an idea that none of them had even considered but would be extremely effective, and they would just totally disregard it. If they even bothered listening to it.
     
    But then the troops were given the order to engage the Republic in combat, and after that, things got really frustrating. Because that was the time when what everyone said was supposed to matter, and they actually bothered to consult me once every century. Of course, when they did ask me for my worthless opinion, they always "corrected" me with their strategies, which weren't actually as good as what I had said. And that's why I simply shut up and let them argue over their failed tactics.
     
    After about half a battle of this, I got tired of being ignored by people who weren't actually as good as Command thought they were. So I contacted the Flagship, and requested a position transfer. That's right, I was joining the front liners. I'd bailed out on territory defence several times, as you know, but this was the first time I'd left tactics. They knew my prowess with where I was going as well as my skill in the station I was leaving, so they granted my request, then themselves gave me a request. They wanted me to lead a squad. That was the perfect position. I could be front lining as well as doing tactical work. So I got my newfound soldiers together and headed off to the hanger with the spare Basilisks in.
     
    Even that couldn't get me away from the tacticians. I still had to follow their orders over comlink, or so I thought. I decided to plan my own strategies from there, show the people up in the control room I'd come from just how good I was, so I simply cut my connection to Tactical Control, ordered my men to do the same, and told them I would be taking over our plans.
     
    I'm not going to bore you with the strategic information, or at least not now. If you want me to, I'll make a log detailing my various strategies. But I digress. Back to the battle.
     
    You know how things go in a fight like this from last log, and if not, then I advise you to read it and find out. The assault succeeded and Dagary Minor fell from the Republic. My squad was instrumental in the victory, and I imagine things would go differently if I did what I was told. The officers who had recommended me for tactics could see that, but most others couldn't. It was only due to intervention from one particular Field Marshal that saved me from a fair load of punishment on the grounds of Failure to Follow Orders.
     
    And not only did the Mandalorians win a battle that day, but I did personally. I showed Canderous Idiot the importance of having a fully functional brain, and also won an entry into Advanced Tactical Training. If you actually want the Log of Tactics and Strategies written, I'll write about that for you.
     
    END OF LOG #003
     
     
    I've written 3 and had no complaints, what could I do better?
     
    Also, where should I do the next one?
  8. Mandalore

    My First Real Battle

    By Mandalore,

    Running log #002:
     
    Us Mandalorians hadn't been in a real fight with the Republic recently. In fact, they virtually gave us most of the Outer Rim. So it wasn't entirely expected when we came for Taris. Of course, we'd had word of the attacks on the Jedi Enclave there, and that gave us a bit of a morale boost, knowing that the "Force" wouldn't be there to help our enemies. And, due to the fact that the Republic Fleet was too busy getting shot elsewhere, there wasn't quite so much resistance as we'd hoped (a large opposition makes for a fun battle).
     
    But enough about the build-up. Onto what I was actually doing there.
     
    For this siege, I'd been posted to Basilisk & Front Line Assault. Now for those of you who read my previous log, you know how I was at that, and for those of you who didn't, well, go read it.
     
    I can still remember exactly what I was feeling when I sat in my Basilisk in the hanger of the dreadnought that held not only myself but Canderous Ordo, and his walking cannon friend Gorse Bendak. We were together because we were the best of our rank. The fact that I always had to be sitting with those two idiots was yet another reason why I had to be so much better than them.
     
    Now, if my intense hatred for those utreekovs doesn't get me sidetracked again, I'll talk about the fight.
     
    When the order came to rain hell down on the Republic, I was already breathing adrenaline. Well, I thought I was until I felt the hanger bay doors open. Then I felt what it was truly like to experience battle frenzy. I unhooked my Basilisk from the hanger, fired up the engines and plummeted down to the surface of Taris. I felt as though that was what I was born to do, as if there was nothing in the Galaxy that could compare to the euphoria of falling down to a planet, shooting at everything you see. Of course, there were missiles and starfighters trying to destroy me. That's just one of those things you have to compensate for when you're a soldier. But when you're in control of one of these machines, going through the atmosphere of a planet with barely anything between you & certain death, things like avoiding projectiles becomes reflex. Along with blasting Republic structures.
     
    Before I realised my altitude (or lack thereof), I was on the ground. Well, in a crater. The only thing that told me "you're not in the sky anymore" is the jolt of me touching down. That impact is one of the greatest things ever. After doing so many training drills, it felt wonderful to actually do it for real.
     
    After locking my systems down, so no one could steal it, I got out my rifle, opened up the cockpit and left the Basilisk in its hole in the ground, ready to join the other front-liners in a charge on the Rebublic lines. Turned out I was the first one to arrive. I guess Bendak & Canderous were too busy on the guns to actually carry out the mission. So I figured: "they're gonna be a while, I'm the best here at the moment, why don't I do it myself?" That I did. I led a one-man charge against the enemy, or tried to. The first person I found was a Jedi Knight, one of the ones who had survived the attacks on the Enclave. So I adopted a more subtle approach, but then realised they could probably sense me anyway, so I lobbed a grenade at him. Simple yet effective. Just as I watched the fierfek die, the rest of the front-liners arrived. Then we stormed the enemy. I'd like to tell you exactly what happened during the assault, but all I felt was a rush of emotions. Namely anger, excitement and hatred for the people who killed all the Jedi and robbed me of a longer fight.
     
    After we took care of the main Republic forces, I returned to consciousness. We had the various resistance groups to deal with. Mainly the Tarisian Resistance, and its various constituent parties, some stronger than others. I think the Home Guard was the best of them. Still nothing compared to the Republic Navy. The swoop gangs were pathetic, those fights were just boring. It didn't take long to establish ourselves though.
     
    In the end, it was a double victory: we controlled Taris, and we also got to finish what we started at Cathar. Did I not mention that? Oh, well, there were a number of refugees from when we nearly destroyed the species. To be honest, I think the genocide was a bit unfair. Never thought you'd hear that, did you?
     
    END OF LOG #002
     
     
    Feedback?
  9. Mandalore
    Running log #012...
    After we'd set up the credit transfer lines from Czerka, we decided to move our Republic ships back to our bit of unused space, as it'd look a tad suspicious to have an unexplained task force orbiting Tatooine. After that was done - and I needn't say how long it took - we returned to the base, which we named Keldab. There, we decided we'd strike back properly at the people involved in causing our defeat in the war - that was to become our primary objective. We would do as much damage to the Republic military forces and the people who contributed to the defeat of the Mandalorians, and only them. Those without involvement in the war - civilians, politicians who stayed out of it - would only be harmed if absolutely necessary.
    Now, after we decided to first hit the military, or what was left of it, we looked over the records the Republic ships had on board (we moved them to Keldab when we set up), and found that the dry-docks orbiting Corellia were still in use. Our first thought upon considering an attack on Corellia, or any Inner Rim world for that matter, was that it was absolutely insane. Our second thought was that it would be challenging, fun and generally kandosii if we could pull it off. And we didn't doubt our ability - after all, we'd taken down a fair chunk of their forces in Bothan Space already.
    So, we set off down the Corellian Run in the Gra'tua (we briefly considered taking one of the Republic ships, then realised they'd probably know which ones we'd taken) with intentions to wreak havoc.
    Because we were looking to have fun when we got there, we thought to make our plans as clear as possible to the authorities. So, we entered the system, approached the dry-docks, and were stopped by a patrol force that requested identification. We told them we were the Mandalorian ship Gra'tua, in the Corellian system on business of causing significant damage to Republic military forces. Our bold honesty momentarily confused the patrol leader, so we blew him to pieces, and then dispatched the rest of the patrol. This brought the attention of all the defence forces in the system, which gave us the opportunity to really enjoy ourselves. We flew around the dry-docks, blasting everything we could see, and evading enemy fire at the exact moments to make the Republic forces hit their own structures. After one of the greatest, most exhilarating fights I've ever had since the end of the Mandalorian Wars, we looked around at the damage we'd caused. We saw the wreckage of hundreds of Republic ships, burnt-out hulls of half-constructed ships in the dry-docks, and the dry-docks themselves damaged beyond all hope of repair. Leaving the site of our display, we broadcast a message on all Republic comm channels in the vicinity, thanking them for their time, effort and ships, and promising them we'd return soon.
    It was kandosii.
    I'll write more some other time.
    END OF LOG #012
  10. Mandalore

    Going Freelance

    By Mandalore,

    I really am sorry for missing so many opportunities in which I could've done this earlier...
     
    Running log #008...
    OK, I'm going to pick up exactly where I left off last time. Right from when we took that Republic shuttle and flew off in it, working out where to go along the way.
    Once we'd entered deep space away from any Republic territory, we decided that it wouldn't be very easy for 12 Mandalorians to destroy the Republic. Not impossible, I'm sure, but it would be far, far easier if we had some more people behind us. The only problem was, all the Mando'ade we'd got out of prison took the other shuttles and went to find mercenary work. And any Mando willing to fight for nothing more than money would rather have guaranteed income than possible galactic domination. So we headed to Nar Shaddaa again, to try and find some refugees willing to join the Second Mandalorian Crusade.
    I won't bore you with the conversation that went on while we headed there, it was primarily about how best to fight the Republic without an army. That and debating the reasons for our vode to forsake their honour and get paid for nothing in the currency of our enemy.
    Once we docked, we came surprisingly close to a replay of what happened last time we came to the Smuggler's Moon. This time, however, we didn't stop to think about how Republic officers could survive in that area, and simply said to ourselves "they don't". I'm sure you can guess how we acted on that, I'll only tell you the details if you ask me to. That act brought the attention of some local (non-Mando) Exchange muscle in the form of a Devaronian holding a vibroblade. However, contrary to our expectations, he didn't attack us but spoke to us, trying to soften us up with empty compliments about our style of murder before attempting to make us the hired goons of foolish not-actually-crime-lords-who-have-inflated-opinions-of-themselves. We took that as an insult to our honour, and did much the same thing to him as to the Republic officer.
    We then walked through into the main part of this portion of the Refugee Sector (the one we landed in - Sectors of Nar Shaddaa are huge places), and found some worn, malnourished looking people of all species that appeared to have no fighting spirit whatsoever. That led us to believe that there probably weren't any Mando'ade around, but we looked anyway, just to be sure. Most of the refugees ran away in fear of 12 warriors in beskar'gam, so that meant none of those that did were people we were looking for.
    About half-way of our tour of the area (by which we had found no one) we were stopped by 3 Gammoreans; we then found ourselves with 3 Trandoshans behind and 2 Weequay either side of us. They seemed to be angry about us killing that Devaronian, and the way we were walking around as if we were the owners of the Sector (here they referenced a person named Goto, who I'm guessing from the name is some kind of droid overseer). They then ordered us to go to the local Exchange building, and pointed to a large structure to the left of us. We killed them all and then decided to go there anyway.
    Just to inform you of the kill count against the most powerful force on Nar Shaddaa since our arrival, it's now 9.
    By now the Exchange presence in the area was furious with us, so we thought we could have some fun along the way to their HQ. That generally involved the death of every enforcer they had in the area (all the armed ones, at least. The unarmed ones weren't worth the energy), and since they were rather pathetic fighters, I didn't go into the bloodlust I usually do in battle, so I can tell you exactly what each kill was like. They were, as I said, pathetic fighters though, so there really isn't much to say. I'll skip onto when we reached the doors of the compound instead.
    Now, when I say "doors", when we reached them they could only be considered such for a short time. They were then only able to be seen as burning wreckage. As our demolitions expert said, "use all the mag-seals you want, but nothing can stop a well-made bomb". That explosion spared us the effort of killing the unlucky or'diniie that were meant to be guarding the door. Blowing the door up also served as a very clear notice saying "the Bralor Twelve have Entered the Building", causing most Exchange muscle in the compound to come at us with force pikes, vibroblades and rifles. That was the most fun we'd had since coming the Nar Shaddaa. Suffice to say strength in numbers didn't work for the Exchange that time.
    Killing almost everyone in the building meant that looting it was boring, as there was no one to stop us. I won't tell you what we got, as you can probably imagine what an Exchange compound contains. Instead, I'll get to when we came to the local Exchange overseer's office.
    We were expecting to see someone who actually looked the part of a person who wants to look like a powerful crime-lord, but instead we came across a small green Twi'Lek with one lekku and four angry Gammoreans with large axes. What happened next was very, very similar to the conversation we had with the Devaronian at the docks, only longer, and with more fear on behalf of the Exchange representative (you've just had every single one of your men killed by the people standing two feet away, it's quite scary). Eventually we got bored of his monologue and shot him, then shot his bodyguards. And that's the end of the Exchange presence in Nar Shaddaa Refugee Sector Complex Grek. That's also the end of our stay on Nar Shaddaa in general. Yes, we were pursued by people with weapons, yes, they died, and yes, we were pursued out of the Nal Hutta system. No, the shuttle we arrived in didn't have weapons, but we stole a craft that did. It was much faster than the shuttle, and had decent weapon systems (decent for normal ships, awful by our standards). Yes, our pursuers in space died as well.
    Next log will follow on, I'm not recording any more now.
    END OF LOG #008
  11. Mandalore

    Advanced Tactics

    By Mandalore,

    It's been a while, hasn't it? I'm back, and with a proper working log recorder. Now to business.
     
    Running log #004:
    I've been through quite a few battles now, earned myself a reputation as a tactician, and where does this get me? Back in training. You could argue that it's elite training, but I'm still back in the training facilities. I had enough of it before. What's worse it that I wasn't even allowed to leave and fight a few battles on my days off. I was trapped in the same place I started in, even though people knew I had gone through it all before and done it successfully.
    But that's not even the most irritating of the various problems with what was going on. What I hated the most was the fact that I already knew and used all the stuff they tried to teach me about strategy and tactics. It was a total waste of my time, a total waste of the instructor's time, and a total waste of the time and resources of the Mandalorian Empire to keep me locked up in a hall of people who they pretended were as good as me. To this day I'm wondering why they didn't just let me return to the war instead of making me go through all the things they could quite clearly see I'd demonstrated in the past.
    At least I didn't have to worry about Canderous distracting me from the real business of telling him what to do. He wasn't there, he was still shooting things on the front line. At least, he was until he gained admission into Advanced Assault Training. Then we were reunited, much to my displeasure as well as his. Granted, he was in a different wing of the facility, but we were in the same compound. That was bad enough. To make matters even worse, we had to practice what we'd learnt (or, in my case, knew beforehand and simply revised) by the Tactical class directing an operation carried out by the Assault class. So I was still ordering Canderous around. Which meant we were still competing, despite the fact that we were doing completely different things.
    Well, at least I had the edge over him this time. I could say that I was better since I had qualified for Advanced Training before him. He replied by saying that his job was more important because without him there would be no war, as there would be no one to do the fighting, to which I said that he would be stranded with no orders if it weren't for my area. This argument repeated itself every day for most of the Training. The only times it didn't were when he was off on exercises and wasn't in the compound. Lucky di'kut, he was allowed out of the cage. What makes his experience even more pleasant was that he actually learnt things, therefore he wasn't wasting his time. He wasn't so bored he was seriously tempted to hijack a supply shuttle and get out onto the front lines just to escape the monotony of re-learning what you already know. I was, by the way. I nearly went through with it as well. I got the timings for all the supply shuttles inbound, compared them with the defence shift change times, worked out which shuttle was least protected and formulated a plan to get myself on there fully armed. Then I was given a test assault to command and I had to postpone the operation, so I decided not to bother and just suffer in silence. At least I'd be an official Tactical Specialist at the end, so I wouldn't be ignored by all the other strategists like before.
    And so, time went on, in exactly the same pattern of tedium as described, until my training sentence was finished and I was allowed back to the action. The first battle I worked on after leaving the Training Compound was sheer ecstasy. I loved every second of it. Not just because Canderous was still in Training, although that did contribute. The amount I enjoyed my battles was all that changed about my leadership, by the way. I still used the same tactics as before, and people listened. OK, that makes two changes. I enjoyed my job more and people cared about my opinion and even went so far as to appreciate it.
    I think I've done enough.
    END OF LOG #004
     
    So: what do you think? That new log recorder works a treat from this end of the recording.
    What could I do better? I've had barely any criticism and I've done 5 now, there must be some thing I'm doing wrong.
  12. Mandalore
    Now, in the previous log I said I would explain the strategies I used and what it was like in Advanced Tactical Training in another log. If I can get this damned machine to play back custom logs, it'll be this one.
    WHAT THE-? As soon as I actually manage to access the damned custom log folder, the stupid thing crashes! OK, I'll get in through the back door.
    NO DISK IN DRIVE ERROR? OF COURSE THERE'S NO BLOODY DISK IN IT, THE LOG IS SAVED DIRECTLY ONTO THE BLOODY MACHINE!
    Oh, for the love of...What are you doing now, you stupid piece of junk? Error message? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU NOW??? IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO THIS AGAIN, YOU COULD AT LEAST TELL ME WHY YOU'RE CONTINUING TO ENRAGE ME TO THE POINT WHERE I'M ABOUT TO SHOOT YOU, YOU USELESS FIERFEK!!!
    Oh, this is great. This is really fantastic. Now you're just formatting yourself, are you? At least I've got a backup copy of everything...
    That's one thing Clan Ordo got right when Canderous was Mandalore. There's no point trying to get any form of technology to work on Dxun.
    OK. I'm going off to buy a decent log recorder, and this hut'uun is getting the first ship to Raxus Prime.
  13. Mandalore

    Heading Out

    By Mandalore,

    It's been far too much of a wait for this.
     
    Running log #009...
    We'd just stolen a Lethisk armed freighter without even looking at what we stole. This armed freighter, funnily enough, belonged to the Exchange. We were just leaving their centre of power after destroying a fair bit of their administration, and we were leaving in one of their ships. We might as well have been an openly declared target for them. Fighters came swooping towards us, so we chose to use them as test subjects for an examination of our new ship's capabilities. The weapons were, as I said in the last log, decent for conventional ships but sheb for Mando ships. They were good enough to blow apart our pursuers though.
    I've summarised the battle already, so I'll stop repeating myself and actually get to what I did next.
    We decided that if we were going to succeed in destroying the Republic and restoring the Mandalorian Empire, we needed to stop destroying criminal organisations that were employing our vode. Elek, it might bring our efforts to the attention of the Mando'ade and act as a call to stop soiling honour and return to the Crusade, but it might also make them hate us. And we may be the best in the Galaxy, but even we couldn't face up to that many of our brothers. So we went out into deep space, heading west-north-west from Nal Hutta until we were south-west of Ruusan and direct south of Manaan, and there we drifted until we formulated a plan to gather an army and crush the Republic. In the end, we came up with a few possibilities:
    1. We disguise ourselves as mercenaries to get inside the organisations our vode were employed in, then take them all with us and leave the employers to die
    2. We go to one of our old bases and issue a galactic rally call
    3. We don't bother with an army and wage a shadow war.
    We then ruled out option number 1 because it would mean destroying our own honour. We then ruled out option number 2 because it would mean declaring ourselves to the Galaxy in its entirety, and the Republic would come and kill us in an instant. That left us with option number 3, which we ruled out because no one could possibly keep their presence a secret long enough to remove political figures and set events in motion that would bring about the downfall of the Republic. We'd be found, and that would end everything.
    So in the end, we chose to improvise the Second Mandalorian Crusade.
    We tapped into the Republic Holonet info feed and discovered that General Revan and his second-in-command General Malak had disappeared from the known galaxy. It was odd that General Surik hadn't gone with them, but we didn't think much about that when we heard the news. We simply took it as a time of confusion for the Republic, especially its military, and decided to use such an opportunity to cause some commotion of our own.
    We went off to the nearest concentration of Republic forces, told the person in charge to either stand down or prepare to be annihilated, and waited for a response. The commander didn't believe that twelve people in beskar'gam and a stolen freighter could take down a Republic task force by themselves, so we set out to prove him wrong. We destroyed the Republic fighters sent to try and take us down with the confident ease that only a Mandalorian who knows they're going to come out victorious can, landed on the nearest ship and did everything we could to neutralise it as a threat as quickly as possible. I went down with most of us to the crew areas and took out everyone who opposed us, our demo expert and pilot destroyed or disabled the ships in the hangar (besides ours of course) and our stealth expert went to the bridge to assassinate the captain before we all went over there to completely take the ship. We all did our jobs with the perfection that got us the honour and glory we received during the War, and the ship was ours in about five minutes. We then contacted the force commander again, this time from one of his own ships, and gave the same message. He claimed he was prepared to fire on the ship, but we knew he wouldn't destroy one of his own. We called his bluff, and then repeated the message once more. In the end, it took longer for us to take the abandoned ships out into deep space after all personnel evacuated them than it would've done to simply take them all out ourselves. Regardless, that was mission accomplished and the Republic wounded once more. In high spirits, we chose to make the most of the disappearance of the two leaders until they returned by causing as much damage as we possibly could.
    I'll tell you more of it later, but this log is ending now.
    END OF LOG #009
  14. Mandalore
    I apologise for leaving such a huge gap between posts, but anyway...
     
    Running log #005:
    I'd finally got used to the feeling of being listened to in the tactical command centre. It was routine now to go up to the bridge of the flagship, report in, and start arguing with people. It was actually fun now. Especially since full command of the Republic fleet was transferred over to a proper Jedi. And this guy wasn't what you would expect of a wartime Jedi Knight. When we heard he was in charge of the enemy forces, we expected it to be exactly the same as before, since everyone thought of Jedi as people who would never fight back, and simply let people whose job it was to lead the army do just that. This general was different. He was a damned exceptional leader. He was whom I now know, years later, to be Lord Revan. He just hadn't become Lord yet.
    Anyway, his strategies actually proved challenging to counter, and he'd been getting stronger every battle. By this time, he was very good. And it was now my official job to deal with this, since I was Deputy Assault Lieutenant General, after the previous Dep.ALG had been made full ALG, because the old ALG had become Deputy Campaign Major General, due to the old Dep.CMG becoming the full CMG. All of that happened because the old CMG was Cassus Fett, and he'd had to stay under the radar since his absolutely kandosii display at Jaga's Cluster. And the proper ALG couldn't do it because he'd got shot in the head at that same battle, and the genetic restructuring on his brain was still fresh, meaning he wasn't allowed to think too hard or he would die. Something like that, I never did advanced medical.
    Enough backstory. Onto the battle.
    The Republic assault started with a strike team of Jedi landing just outside the walls of Iziz. There's no definite explanation of why the turrets on the walls didn't blow them out of the sky as soon as they came in range, but my theory is that there was a slicer working for the Onderonians that managed to neutralise them. It doesn't matter though, because the turrets weren't working, and that's the important part, seeing as the only way of invading the planet is through the only undefended access point due to the malfunction. The strike team then proceeded to use the Force to get themselves onto the walls, where they faced heavy resistance from our shock troopers. This was when Revan ordered one of his absolutely fantastic tactical manoeuvres that would work perfectly against anyone except the Mandalorians, as we were quite clearly stronger than the average military force.
    The manoeuvre in question I shall try to explain using as little strategic terminology as possible.
    It involved a series of carefully timed distractive troop deployments, with the continuous fighting between the Mandalorian Wall Guard and the original Jedi team being crucial to its success. While this fighting was going on, the Republic sent down additional reinforcements to the wall, creating the illusion that the invasion would start from the walls inward. However, while that was going on and we were expected to reinforce likewise, Revan would send a huge force right into the centre of Iziz, intending to take us at our weakest, yet most valuable, point.
    This didn't work. We did indeed send additional forces to the wall, but the fact that we had executive control over the Onderon Military was not included in the calculations of Republic Fleet Command. We ordered General Vaklu to lead his troops in dealing with the Republic forces in the centre, and he took a large part of his forces to the landing site of the invaders.
    It turns out that Revan was fine in not having included General Vaklu in his plans, because he betrayed the Mandalorian command, contacted the Iziz Royal Guard, took control of them as well, and they both became known as the Onderon Resistance. It really didn't make me look good having sent a large number of traitors off to the position of most enemy soldiers, as the Republic and the Resistance promptly joined up and started fighting us in the centre of Iziz as well as having Jedi still trying to take the wall.
    The Jedi kept coming. Whenever we dealt with a significant number out on the walls, more arrived. In the end, we abandoned the walls and focused on ridding the city itself of hostiles. Fighting retreats are terrible tactics when the people you're retreating from can sense the future, and move to cut you off before you've decided where you're going. So I gave the order to begin evacuation of our warriors, then start orbital strikes against Iziz. Just as I did that, Revan's forces moved into tight-blockade formation around the planet. That meant I couldn't get the Mandalorians out of the planet, and I couldn't bombard the city from above.
    It was the final nail in the coffin of a Mandalorian Onderon. Tactically beautiful, but deadly. Certainly the most fun I'd had in months, but we'd lost the battle on my watch. And it finally showed me exactly what Revan was capable of.
    Not that I'm one of those short-sighted Mandalorians who worship Revan for beating us. We were outnumbered, and he led an army of Force-Sensitives, and we still made the Republic tremble. I'm going to stop now.
    END OF LOG #005
     
    Was it worth the wait?