I R O N
MANDALORE - HOLOCALL
The Mand’alor was as silent as the grave as the Dread Queen of Jutrand addressed the Confederation. From behind his helm, a smile wormed its way upon his lips, slow and uninvited, the kind that did not belong to humor so much as recognition. What he had seen, what his comrades had seen, all of it aligned cleanly with the assessment made by his godmother. The so called Mandalorian question had never been a question at all.
It had been an assumption.
Or better yet, a hope.
A hope that Mandalore would fear a two-front war between the Diarchy and the Imperial Confederation. A hope that the Confederation, in any form, presented a source of anxiety to them. A hope that the credits from a joint venture could be mistaken for a shackle, that a little commerce could be dressed up as leverage, that Mandalore might drop to its knees and beg for the Confederation’s regard because a few stations exchanged hands.
Mandalore was not afraid.
And so the hope that had called this summit into being shattered, as thoroughly as the Confederation’s messaging had shattered with every new voice that tried to repair it.
Aether turned then, his gaze falling upon the visage of his godmother for a brief moment. He regarded her with a single nod, slow and certain, before returning his attention to the Confederation.
“My focus remains the Diarchy.” Aether said, his voice resonant as it finally entered the channel, calm enough to be cruel. “On bringing those who would dare threaten trillions of Mandalorian lives to the justice of the cross. These terms I offered were not mercy, and they were not negotiation. They were a stepping stone, given only because the greater offense still stands to the north, and I would rather spend Mandalorian effort where it counts.”
He paused, letting the holonet carry his words beyond the summit, beyond the council, beyond the few who believed their titles were shields, and into the homes and halls where trillions watched Mandalorian will made manifest.
Though his helm did not move, his eyes wandered as the missive from his sibling surfaced, and the shape of the truth sharpened once more. Aselia’s assessment had been precise, the Confederation did not refuse to meet in person out of caution. They refused because they planned to detain Mandalorians all along. A leverage play, dressed up in diplomacy. Give us what we want or we kill your people. Imperial duplicity at its finest.
Then came Adelle’s message, simple in its verdict, and correct in every syllable. The Confederation had said nothing of substance, offered nothing of substance, and Mandalore’s time was better spent preparing the blade meant for its adversary to the north.
Aether parted his lips, intending to make his final will known, but another Imperial voice rose.
Vanessa Vantai.
By speaking, she tested patience that was already thin, and she did so as if Aether had not spoken plainly only moments before. He had stated he would speak alone with their leaders, and yet the Confederation continued to allow peripheral mouths to fill the channel, as if Mandalore existed to be managed rather than addressed. Her words, too, slid against what Sularen and Von Strauss had claimed, another Imperial stepping forward to soften, to reframe, to polish the rot into something the galaxy might swallow.
Aether did not rebuke her.
Aselia did.
Her words cut through the noise, and when she turned her attention to him and urged a single channel and a single counterpart, the Mand’alor answered with a firm nod given to his Warmaster. Wordlessly, he keyed a missive to his Warmaster Aselia, to the Iron Wolf Adelle, and to Warmaster Renn Vizsla.
Protocol DREADLOCK.
The command moved like steel through a sheath, dismissing his warriors from the summit at once. Let the Imperials see it for what it was, a Mandalorian government of one will, not a disjointed chorus. Let them feel the sudden absence of Mandalorian patience as a thing that could be measured.
Aether returned his attention to the Imperial who had spoken out of turn, to the claim that Mandalore should voyage into Confederation space to clean up Confederation treachery, and to the demand laid atop it, a contract for trade and neutrality, as though the act of speaking it made it deserved.
The gall of it was beyond words.
But before he could respond, the Fleet Admiral chimed in, as if there was still time to steer a ship that had already struck rock.
The Mand’alor had finally had enough.
His voice thundered across the galaxy, not through volume alone, but through the certainty that made every listener understand that the moment of indulgence had ended.
“Enough.”
The single word hit like a door slammed shut in a storm.
“Mandalore is not daft.” he continued, the edge in his tone no longer hidden beneath calm. “Nothing material was contributed to that joint venture that we were not prepared to lose. Such is the gamble of collaborating with neighbors whose trust had yet to be tested. The loss of those stations was calculated, and it was accepted the moment the accord was struck. You did not take something from us that we could not live without."
His visor remained fixed on the Imperials, unblinking, unrelenting.
“And I find it laughable that you now appeal for Mandalore to clean up a Confederation mess. Your Warden Primus commits treason and you look to me to solve it, as though Mandalorian blades exist to tidy your house. If she has betrayed your government, then you hang her on a cross. You do not outsource consequence to Mandalore, and you do not ask us to validate your authority by doing your executions for you.”
Aether’s hand lowered slowly, not in surrender, but in finality.
“And let us speak of what you have done here.” he said, his voice tightening, the patience gone and the truth left exposed. “You insulted us to our faces. You made a mockery of the word truth. You dangled beskar like a trinket before a mongrel. You invoked the fucking name of Yasha Cadera, the name of Mandalore's devastation, as if the memory of our suffering was a tool to be used for negotiation. Then, after I stated my intention to speak only with your leaders, your midst continued to speak out of turn.”
The Mand’alor’s gaze sharpened further, each syllable deliberate, each sentence laid like a plank over a chasm.
“Your Confederation claims to be built on order, discipline, and the ideals of the many empires that came before it. Yet you cannot follow a simple chain of command. You cannot speak with one voice. You cannot act with one hand. You call for clarity while authorizing detainments, and you call it diplomacy because you are accustomed to the galaxy accepting your lies.”
He focused then, the full attention of his visor locking onto the councilmen, the true targets of his last words.
“The terms for your survival remain what I uttered before.” Aether said, calm again, because the storm had already passed and left only the ruins to be measured. “If you defend Diarchy soil, you may die there, and Mandalore will not lift a hand to stop it. If you cross into Mandalorian space alongside them, if you impede upon our borders, then you will be destroyed, and the cross will greet you as promised.”
His tone sharpened with a final, quiet cruelty.
“And when the galaxy looks upon the ashes of New Alderaan, it will remember a single sentence with perfect clarity: This is the nation that thought the Mandalorians were afraid of them.”
With that, the Mand’alor’s projection vanished.
The broadcast to the galaxy came to a close.
All would bear witness to the folly of the Imperial Confederation, and the grace of Mandalore.
Immediate Audience:
Her
,
Srina Talon
,
Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory
,
Ronhar Tane
,
Onrai
,
T'zarna Khab
,
Marlon Sularen
,
Aselia Verd
,
Adelle Bastiel
,
Runi Kuryida
,
Renn Vizsla
,
Raum Varad
,
Amelia von Sorenn
,
Karl Von Strauss
Galactic Observers:
Dominique Vexx
,
Sibylla Abrantes
,
Velzari Tharn
Her
,
Srina Talon
,
Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory
,
Ronhar Tane
,
Onrai
,
T'zarna Khab
,
Marlon Sularen
,
Aselia Verd
,
Adelle Bastiel
,
Runi Kuryida
,
Renn Vizsla
,
Raum Varad
,
Amelia von Sorenn
,
Karl Von StraussGalactic Observers:
Dominique Vexx
,
Sibylla Abrantes
,
Velzari Tharn
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