Public They're Building a Castle on Mandalore!

[Jerec Asyr]

The northern hemisphere of Mandalore was a nightmarish world of sullen bleakness. Cesspool reservoirs, larger than most cities, bubbled noxiously as winged terrors soared and screeched overhead. Mountains of black soot and rusted metal rose high into the sky in concentric circles encircling the globe, the scars of the Sith's depraved ambitions to bleed Mandalore dry of its most valuable resource.

And in that wasteland, at the dawn of 903 ABY, the Dark Lord Jerec Asyr did claim a peak of surpassing grandeur for his own nefarious ends.

---

TIERS: 4
STRUCTURES: 6
DEFENSES: 2 quad lasers, antipersonnel fence, bridge
POPULATION: 38 Ithorians, 12 mercenaries, assorted others, 47 construction droids
MYTHOSAUR EGG STOCKPILE: 4
MYTHOSAUR DUNG COLLECTED: 40 tons

The peak had been stable for decades, but sinking permacrete pillars had been the first order of business. Now the base comprised six prefab structures - a command-and-control center, a hangar, a machine shop, two bunkhouses, and an egg storage site. There was a powerful need for additional capabilities, or so Jerec's cousins informed him at length.

A dedicated dung hut came to mind.

At least three known Mythosaurs were roaming the plains of the southern hemisphere now, and about twice a day small transports disgorged mythosaur dung from their cargo holds. The stuff had extraordinary bioreactive properties and decomposed in unique ways. Dozens of tons of dung splattered onto the ruined land around Jerec's peak, in company with Ithorian-grade biodigestive supplements and seed bombs. Authentic Mandalorian dirt, eventually. And even more dung aged in certain ways on site, on the slopes of the mountain, so its full environmental and pecuniary potential could be unlocked.

Another construction effort he desperately needed down the road, once the funds became available: expanding the egg storage. When mythosaurs had been brought back recently in very small numbers, it had become apparent that these creatures were not fully extinct on one specific world not too far away. Ithorian Combine forces had moved in that effort's wake and secured half a dozen hibernating mythosaur eggs at a terrible cost - for a transcendent profit. Selling only two of the Hutt-sized eggs in the Denon underworld had funded this entire operation.

Right this second, Jerec looked over the egg storage building and the rest of his domain from a vantage point on the long bridge, and pronounced it good.

---

ARE YOU:

• One of the mercenaries - sniping winged horrors, watching out for hostiles, glaring at visitors?
• Other staff, Ithorian or non-Ithorian, here to tend eggs or gather gigantic mythosaur dung or rebuild the local ecosystem?
• Someone who vehemently or violently objects to Jerec's presence, claims, operations, or sources of revenue?
• Someone with assets to sell - prefab buildings, equipment, vehicles, systems, weapons, desperately needed stink mitigation technology?
• Just here to buy eggs?

Hop on in, the water's great.

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

He had noticed from his forge the activities and dismissed them at first. Just an Ithorian He knew of Jerec and approved. But when the sale of the eggs had reached his ears, he had become enraged. But in the cold way that would, or should, frighten the Ithorian. And so the plan took place, and had joined the Mercenary band guarding Jerec. He didn't intend to stop the sale. That ship had sailed. But you didn't do what you did without paying your respects.

As the Ithorian turned from whatever it was he was doing, the armor of Ijaat rippled, the camo-paint from Hyperion failing. He cursed, lunging forward in a blur to knock the two guards to his side out with one swing of the mighty power-hammer he carried and flinging it into the face of the third with a sickening crunch that spoke of a broken jaw and nose, but not death. The color now showed of a Protector, if Asyr knew that, and he radiated rage in the Force and in body language in general. Drawing a short, curved beskad and his battered DE-10, he strolled forward toward the crime lord.

"Msr Jerec, let's talk percentages, since you've decided to rape the sacred beast of my people, eh? You've nothing to fear from me unless you call for more guards, and then you'll die before your transmission is even sent. Trust me on that. But we can come to terms and conditions, if you'd prefer..."

He said this slowly, with a natural drawling accent deep, and almost slurring in the nakedness and rage of the man from Concord Dawn's words.

Jerec Asyr

 

[Julz]

Julz was one of the bodies guarding the place. The only ones she had cared to check in on were the Ithorian's that the Jor-ack had made clear weren't supposed to be bothered.

Not caring for any kind of familiarity with the others that had taken the gig.

Credits were credits and so long as the credits hit her account, she could tolerate the absolutely horrid smell of the dung that was here. A normal being wouldn't catch the scent, but having the lovely enhanced senses of her kind. There wasn't any way of avoiding it really.

Trying not to sniff too hard at the people that kept coming and going.

"Gonna need a good spa day after this." Tongue repeatedly rolling over her teeth to push the taste out of her mouth.

It did little to help the lingering smell as her eyes watered. Thoughts on finding a shirt she could steal when the sound of a squabble caught her attention. If it had been one hit, she might have ignored it. Three? That just made her curios as she walked back to see what the fuss was about.

Finding someone pointing a sword and a Blaster at the Jare-ock Ithorian along with an impassioned speech that had her cackling.

"Blah blah blah. HAH! Shoot him or don't." His presence in the Force matched with her own as she watched them. She was spoiling for a fight, staring at the offending party and dragging her nails along the wall. Deep gouges left behind as she stalked closer.

"The sacred beasts of my people. But everything, sacred, has a price I guess." Mocking and goading the man on as she grinned and cackled. She was close enough to smell the blood through the stink of dung. A groan told her they weren't dead though, and that disappointed her more.

Jerec Asyr Ijaat Mereel​

 

[Korso Rook]

"Crazy old man."

Korso extended the slender monocular to get a better view. He could just make things out from the mast of his langskib hidden in the shadow of Mandalore's broken landscape. Ijaat Mereel had been passing through and bartered for passage. They were returning from a trinitaur hunt to one of many hidden gardens scattered beneath their homeworld's blasted surface when Ijaat warned them about far off signs of habitation.

"Let's see how this plays out."

His crew of nomad cultists had kept busy challenging themselves against the elements while they waited for their people to return and unite under a new Mandalore. Until then Korso and the others lived by the ancient traditions. Cracks in beskar hinted at the nameless horrors they'd contended with. If 'negotations' with Jerec Asyr failed the langskib was ready to hunt.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec would've been quite chuffed to be called a crime lord. It implied a certain level of dignity. He took in the sight of one of his mercs turning on two others. Hiring Mandos for this work had been a wild card of sorts, and he was more than happy to watch that play out, even if it led to situations like this one. Especially, in fact.

Jerec cracked his neck, a bit of a process for an Ithorian, and put his hand to the plain lightsaber at his belt, but didn't draw. Instead he shifted to put his back to one side of the bridge.

"Wondered how long it'd be until someone wanted a cut. And I've got no problem cutting'em in. I'm a little low on liquid currency just now, but we can talk tons of dung per month, how's that sound? My only real hitch is, whoever you are, you won't be the only one wanting protection money, so-"

"Blah blah blah. HAH! Shoot him or don't." His presence in the Force matched with her own as she watched them. She was spoiling for a fight, staring at the offending party and dragging her nails along the wall. Deep gouges left behind as she stalked closer.

"The sacred beasts of my people. But everything, sacred, has a price I guess."

"Merc work's got one rule, kid: don't act against your employer's interests, and right now your employer's interested in figuring out who he's talking to. So stand the feth down or I'll punt you off this bridge."

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

Lights blinked on the armor he wore, which should be a warning if the interloper knew anything. Probably didn't, but if the Force or anything else warned of any worthwhile threat, he'd be able to release a dart coated in a lovely poison from his knee. The other was clearly darksided, and if they were hit with that, they'd find things complicating fast. Contingency planned, he summarily ignored the newcomer to all appearances. A barely imperceptible shift in posture showed hed readied himself to receive a rush from them though.

"An interesting play in words, paying us in dung... I'd leave the saber be though."

He let the words ring out coldly, smiling under his t-visor almost like a still would when hunting. A century or more of life had taught him to read body language like a scribe would a scroll, even without the Force.

"I'll even help you with your operations. I have plenty of friends who can invest and expand your operation. You just need to splice a portion of what you wind up making back to the planet. For enrichment and resettlement. Hiring preference in staff goes to any Mando wanting or needing a job under you. And no beskar leaves the planet, and no direct sales to the Sith. In those last two, I won't budge. My name's Ijaat Mereel, by the by. We met, once ago."

Jerec Asyr | Julz

 

[Julz]

"Merc work's got one rule, kid: don't act against your employer's interests, and right now your employer's interested in figuring out who he's talking to. So stand the feth down or I'll punt you off this bridge."

The smile changed to a scowl, grumbling and letting her hands fall to her side.

"Ugh! Fine." She didn't like it, but he had one of those laser sticks. Plus he was the bankroll for this whole thing so he got to call the shots.

Instead of advancing, she let the man handle his business as he saw fit while she found a spot to lean.

Carefully fishing out a datapad from her pocket to play with. Eyes settling on the screen as she waited for him to holler or something. Idly scrolling through her downloads to find something to fill the time.

Jerec Asyr Ijaat Mereel​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec nodded once to Julz . "Good. Know what, the two he knocked out, get'em to a medic just in case that power hammer was more than a love tap. Then I wouldn't mind knowing if there's more Mandos around - but don't engage. No fething fighting unless I say so."

He refocused on Ijaat Mereel .

"Doesn't ring a bell, but I meet a lotta mercs." Jerec scratched his foreface and pondered his more and less concussive options. He had a pretty good feeling about his ability to take this guy in a straight fight. But the other merc was the kind of wild card he didn't feel like playing, and an earbud comm from another merc suggested that more Mandos had been spotted some distance away.

"That all works for me. Mostly I'm already doing it. Whole area's gonna be a garden by the time I'm done, got plenty of plans there and folks that know what they're doing. I'm not here to mine beskar; this is a slag heap. The Sith took all that. And no, I won't sell to Sith. I know how your people feel about'em after all they did here, and that'd make my stay here untenable from day one. The jobs thing's the only sticking point. I'll hire those that need work if I've got the funds, but I've made the same kinda promises to my cousins. If you can live with this growing as an Ithorian and Mando place, I can live with what you're talking about. Hell, even if it undercuts me, I've got a good-faith reverse housewarming present: the coordinates of the forest where we got the eggs."

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

A flip of the wrist and a drawing up of stance and both weapons were sheathed. His helmet came off, placed on a nearby console. While he didn't ascribe to the stricter parts of the old ways of the Deathwatch, being of Jaster's line made that laughable, he didn't often remove his helmet once hostilities had been joined. It was a gesture of goodwill that he did it now. He reached forward a hand to seal the deal.

"I can agree to that, and welcome your cousins, brothers, nephews former roommates if they want to come and aid in healing our home. And the coordinates would be very welcome. I have my own plans once I can find a reliable source of eggs."

He grinned at the medic comment as he addressed it.

"Just a love tap. They'll need jaws set and such, but nothing too bad. Not bad sorts, just couldn't have the reacting predictably."

Still his hand out, he spoke only once more.

"I am not surprised you don't remember me. I changed my hair..."

Jerec Asyr | Korso Rook | Julz

 

[Julz]

Letting the datapad fall forward a little in her hand, she kept the grumbling to a minimum as she put it away and stared at the two still standing. Frowning before looking to the two on the ground.

Thanking the stars she'd never had to say the Ithorian's name till now.

"Come on then chit-heads." She didn't let the guards walk, scruffing both by their collars and dragging them out. Her hold secured by the holes she'd punched in their shirts.

Knowing nothing of healing or medical practices and dragging them the entire way until she'd found the proper place to drop them off. Sharing enough to get them sorted out, she made her way to the wall to see about anymore bucket heads.

Jerec Asyr Ijaat Mereel​

 

[Jerec Asyr]

"And there's a bonus in it for you if you find'em!" Jerec called after Julz as he shook Ijaat Mereel 's hand. The lightsaber at his belt was, for now, forgotten - though he made a mental note to see if he actually could take Ijaat, on nonlethal terms, once their business arrangement firmed up. "Let's get hospitable."

Not so far away, a shuttle dumped several tons of mythosaur dung from the southern plains. The smell made Jerec's large eyes water.

"I see why your people wear sealed clothing. That's potent. What do mythosaurs even eat? My dung collector ships keep a safe distance; they go where the mythosaurs have been, not where they are. Do they have enough food?"

There were implications for operational sustainability. Also the environment, as it happened.

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

"They appear to eat whatever they care to, at a glance. I saw one chewing a boulder. And another swallowed a murder-tooth whole the other day. It's beyond my ken of biologics to know what that would mean to a dietician. But they seem to not need much, compared to their size. as far as intake goes."

Unclippping his sword and gun belt, he draped them next to his helmet and took a seat. It wouldn't disarm him, but the implication would be clear, just as the bit with the helmet.

"Though honestly, even with the filters, if I don't rely on recycled or scrubbed air, I almost gag from it. It's.... Pungent..."

Jerec Asyr

 

[Korso Rook]

"Look sharp. Think they've spotted us."

With strength forged from survival on a dead world, Korso pulled the mighty mythosaur axe free from where he'd left it embedded in the langskib's hull. Even though Ijaat Mereel still looked calm, activity at the underworld camp meant possible trouble. His crew prepared for glorious battle.

"Load the whistling birds!"

Lacking a steady supply of munitions the mandalorians could only manage a single volley but jetpack fuel was just as hard to come by in the wasteland. They would have to unfurl their sails and close in on Jerec Asyr to launch boarding raids.

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Jerec, too, took a seat on the edge of the bridge. Runoff from various deposits and fields made a river of sorts far below. His earlier threat to punt the Shistavenan had been...multilayered. So had his maneuver to put his back to the edge. One had to be strategic when one was in the business of bulk monster shavvit.

"That goes a long way toward explaining the difference in...I won't say quality, because we don't exactly know yet what a quality mythosaur dropping is for our purposes...but consistency. I get more staff turnover from-"

He paused. He might not (or might!) be a master of the Force, but he'd certainly been an adept for decades and decades. He'd trained with the Circle of the Light Hand and with a former Inquisitor; he'd gone toe-to-toe with Sith Lords and beaten down his share of random Jedi for their lightsabers or on general principle. So when the Force whispered to this particular used ship salesman slash mythosaur dung merchant, he knew what it sounded like. Specifically, he knew what it sounded like when things were about to go sideways.

"Look sharp," he said to Ijaat, and got up again. "Something shifted, don't know what or where." He toggled his ear comm and had the mercenaries report in. He'd hired 12; Ijaat had knocked out two; that left Julz and nine others. Reports began to come in. Everything was sounding normal so far, no winged horrors, no nothing.

Jerec took the saber off his belt.

Ijaat Mereel Korso Rook

 

[Julz]

The sound of the ship bringing in more of that accursed dung should have been a clear warning. But having listened to them now for a hot standard minute, a thought hadn't even been given to preparing for the smell. Until it had wafted up to where she had perched herself with the electrobinoculars.

Throughout the halls, everyone could hear the wretched gagging from Julz.

A slew of curses and finally finding a cloth to cover her nose with, she began to look again. Not having to look for very long, or with great difficulty when she saw something glint in the distance. The rough shape of a weapon and bodies moving around in the bino's making her squint.

Not entirely remembering the stupid things before sprinting back down with the news with an excited smirk.

"I think more bucket heads are coming our way. A crew of them. An angry crew."

Jerec Asyr Ijaat Mereel Korso Rook​

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

Well that was a wrench in things. Standing, calmly, Ijaat walked out to be clearly visible. Extending his arms to the sky, the Force shot out from him as they cupped around his mouth, an echoing roar sounding from him far louder than any sound he made had a right to be. The call of the Mythosaur itself. A summons and a command. Rook should hear it, and know what it meant. Others might too.

He then turned to Jerec, shaking his head.

"Those are my men, or I suppose you could call them such. I just told them to stand down. Their leader will be here shortly. They likely think you're holding me here, or threatening me...Let's see if I can calm him, and get him to agree. His people never left here, so their help would be invaluable in our efforts."

Korso Rook | Julz | Jerec Asyr | Mia Monroe

 

[Korso Rook]

In response to the call of Ijaat Mereel boomed a ragged horn. Sails caught the wind and a mandalorian longship rumbled forth. It looked surreal like a primitive pirate vessel challenging a coastal fort on some backwater island world. Only enough crew left on board to handle the rigging after their losses to the trinitaur but against criminal scum Korso still liked those odds.

"Spill no blood until my signal."

A lone contrail marked his path through open sky. Fiery plumes softened the tribal chieftain's descent. Draped over one pauldron the pelt of some mutant canid beast leered back at them with dead eyes. In both hands he carried a crescent axe carved from the bones of Mandalore's apex predator. Korso towered over them all except for Julz who he paused only to growl at.

"So, these are the outlanders who despoil our sacred lands."

His helmet must have taken battle damage because the voice came out in a guttural static rasp. Korso glared at Jerec Asyr through a cracked visor radiating menace just underneath his beskar mask.

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia had opted to stay behind on the ship she and Ijaat Mereel had travelled in on for two reasons. The first, she needed to process wat she was seeing, to understand the scale of the challeneg that lie ahead of them. The second, 'because someone will need to pull you out of shavvit goes sideways.'

She didn't know if it had gone sideways, but she heard the call, and she would answer. She'd settled back into her armour, like it was a second skin. With a sigh, she kicked her own jet pack into action. Following the lone contrail up the mountain, landing behind Korso Rook .

"Bold words from a Clan who hunted their own." Mia growled, fingers itched to reach for her blade, but she would follow Ijaat's lead.

Jerec Asyr Julz

 

[Ijaat Mereel]

Eyebrows twitched, and he stepped towards Mia and Korso, hands raised in a gesture of encouraging calm and peace.

"Udessi... The past is the past. Cin vhetin. We work together now, whether we like it or no. Too much at stake otherwise..."

Turning to their... Tenant? Host? Associate? Ijaat turned to Jerec and gestured.

" Jerec Asyr , allow me to introduce Korso Rook and Mia Monroe . The former is a newly met associate and one of the few who didn't abandon Mandalore during the Desolation. Mia is a fellow Mandalorian... They are both here at my behest or recruitment. Korso, I was just speaking to Jerec about potential for an arrangement between us that would benefit everyone in this room. We've come to terms on the basics, no Sith customers, no use of beskar, a cut of dung profits to the Mandalorian restoration efforts. Preference to Mando'ade for employment. And the particulars were next. Jerec, i'd like to talk to you about a cessation of the selling of the mythosaur young and eggs, in return for access to a life-vault of my people, rife with native Concordian and Mandalorian plants and fauna. Murder-teeth embryo. Ter'rekr. Strills. Dragon bears. Shriek hawks. Many things are extinct thanks to the sith. These we would lend to your restorative efforts, and allow you to train and domesticate in certain numbers. In return, no further living Mythosaur's will leave the planet... We would even pay to have your aid in creating new varieties of the aforementioned. "

Turning to Mia, he spoke low in Mando'a. Korso might hear it and understand. Jerec likely would do neither.

"Udessi, kar'taylir darasuum. Vi an jorir tal..."

Vren Rook | Mia Monroe | Jerec Asyr | Julz

 

[Jerec Asyr]

Julz , having provided forewarning enough for Jerec to think through some angles before people arrived in bulk - and having, moreover, not shot anyone at all - could be assured of a very, very healthy bonus. And in actual coin, Huttese wupiupi and GA standard credits, not just dung futures.

On the one hand, giving up a fortune in mythosaur eggs would stick in any sensible person's craw. But on the other hand, what Ijaat proposed had reasonable middleman value if Jerec could find the right angle. Plenty of Ithorian interests right off the bat would pay for access to those genomes. More than they would pay for mythosaur genetic material, frankly. And Jerec could cut way down on the overhead: the employees lost in egg matters. Gathering, incubating - why just last week he'd lost a third cousin who was incautious about rotating them.

Yes, the more he thought this through in the limited available time, the better it sounded. Sure better than a lot of 'I am altering the deal' situations he'd encountered back on Denon. Sure better than a lot of ways this could have gone, with this many Mandos on his bridge.

"Done," he said. "If you can get me all that, I'll even throw in the four eggs I've got left and the contact information for the buyers of the other two. They're Denon collector types, upper crust. Very persuadable."

Ijaat Mereel Mia Monroe Korso Rook