The Mandalorian Fundamentals

[Hawkins Grime]

Orar sidestepped and then lunged. Morrolan caught the boy's wrist but jumped away as the dagger in Orar's other hand snaked out from seemingly nowhere and caught the top of e'Drain's glove. The taller man hissed only in slight surprise, spitting as he took another step back. He took a breath and glanced to the small hovel where a Mandalorian in full armor sat, seemingly bored and complacent. Quite the deceptive guard.

That hovel led to a ladder that then fell into a dark labyrinth of tunnels. These tunnels ran far and deep and enough so that e'Drain was glad to be sparring with the ambitious, young knife fighter rather than follow the Boss down there to where ever he went with Bretak and a few of the other senior Mandalorians.

=======

"Corsec never ran like this."

"You're a long way from Corsec now. We do it my way around here."

The first speaker shrugged, raising his hands in a gesture of no offense.

"I'm not saying that there was a problem. I'm just saying I've never seen such... bold tactics."

The large man between the two of them at the table leaned forward in his seat, hands on his knees, giving a hearty chuckle.

"By bold, you mean ruthless."

=======

They sat around a holodisplay, that conveyed a strategic representation of the Mandalorian assets on Onderon.

"I don't get it, Bretak, or any of you others. You bide your time here in the Wilds, and for what? Your prodigal relatives hold Mandalore in a grip of economic control. They're diplomatic in nature, no longer proud like you or yours. But they've still got what you want and you don't seem too close to doing much of anything."

One of the Mandalorians stared at Hawkins Grime for a moment, then snorted audibly from underneath his helmet and shook his head, as if in disgust.

[Hawkins Grime]

"You want to add something, Janus?"

Grime slid his eyes across the room to the Mandalorian who snorted. Grime was not a fan of the man's taste in armor, wearing older padded armor with plates colored like dirt and sand, but Janus Malchoir was a man after Grime's own rotting heart.

"You know so little of us, A'den. We are alone here, in the Wilds, where we prepare for war, but there are many sleeping warriors in our soft relatives. Those are pretenders who claim Mandalore and the system as their own. Many would turn on them for the chance of a return to the old ways."

The Mandalorian sitting beside him brown and green armor shook his head, staring from Janus to Grime and then back.

"No. There are not enough. The time is not right. The people there are not ready yet for what they were and truly are."

The Mandalorian who spoke was only known as Tor, meaning Justice. Bretak had told Hawkins that he was some kind of legal mediator or codifier within the group and a respected warrior. Regardless of that, Grime had seen him spar with e'Drain a few weeks ago and he knew that his subordinate had been limping for days afterward.

Janus shook his head, sneering again beneath his helmet audibly.

"Tor, you and all your predecessors have all said the same thing. We are near ready, I say. Very near."

"I know this is only my fourth time to be invited to these meetings but why haven't you ever said this before then, Janus?"

Grime could almost feel the contempt in the Mandalorian after the question was asked. He couldn't tell if it was directly aimed at himself or if this had been a mounting issue for Janus and at this point, Grime was just the catalyst.

"Four times and this is the first time I've heard you say anything worth while, A'den."

[Hawkins Grime]

Bretak made a cutting gesture with his hand and the other Mandalorians quieted down. Grime made a facial gesture that suggested something towards contempt but let the man continue.

"No. The insurrection of our home planet is out of the question for now. The CIS has an investment there against the Galactic Empire and our presence and motives would only bring their wrath down on top of us. We continue to prepare though."

Grime leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he pointed at Janus.

"See? That's all I needed to know."

He then turned back to Bretak.

"Allow me to make a recommendation though..."

[Hawkins Grime]

The air was tense in the small cave. Grime relished it; the Mandalorians were so stoic and all it took was time before he found the right buttons. About bloody time too. In all the training that Grime had been through with the Mandos so far, Grime knew their blood lust, their desire to excel in combat and establish martial superiority.

=======

You make no friends out of your enemies, my monster.

CENSORED opened his eyes, looking side ways from where he was laid out on the bench, supposedly napping. Chaltatha did not look up from her work though and CENSORED sat up with a smirk on his face.

"Would you really expect me to? I stop by to say hello and pay my respects and you want to lecture me?"

You know what I mean. You aren't fighting in the lowers any more in front of an audience. You are a hunter of men now and you work for a jealous boss. There is no need to advertise.

"I've got a name to make. You know that. People should be afraid to say CENSORED when they are alone and in the dark. And if I continue the way I am, it won't be too long."

You are still so young, my little monster, I'd almost forgotten that until today.

=======

"Allow me to make a recommendation though, your hunting parties coordinate and take many a monster down but how effective are we really against armed contingents-"

Tor cut Grime off mid-sentence.

"We?"

He was clearly directing the question towards Bretak. Janus took the moment to rejoin the conversation, pointing his armored hand at Grime like a knife, a gesture that Hawkins remembered seeing usually used during some sort of reprimand.

"Before our Mandalore came, we kept the weaklings of Iziz in constant fear. We ran coordinated attacks against them without giving them a breath's moment-"

The temperature in the room began to rise and Grime sneered in interruption.

"And so what then? Settling into complacency, satisfied with just keeping the beasts of the Wilds off your backs so you can slip slowly but surely into negligence?"

[Hawkins Grime]

A man sitting in the corner leaned forward. He had faded fatigues on his legs and a black tank top, not anything near full battle kit like the rest of them.

"A'den. You talk of complacency as if we are those soft people of Iziz, behind their walls. We do not simply sit here in the Wilds."

Grime pursed his lips, enjoying the simple gesture of contempt as he raised his hands as if in no offense.

"Too true, too true. You do not sit in the Wilds. You crawl around on your stomachs like worms-"

Janus was on his feet, knocking the small table beside him over in the rush to stand over the reclined figure of Hawkins Grime.

"You are a guest here, A'den. I might agree with your point, but disrespect the Mando'ade again and be wary."

The armored Mandalorian startled at the hand on his shoulder. Bretak shook his head as he eased Janus back and then sat down.

"Enough provoking then, A'den. Get to your point."

[Hawkins Grime]

"Before I do, and honestly..."

The smile on Grime's face might have meant to look innocent but every Mandalorian in the room saw it like a krayt dragon's sneer before it bit down on its bleeding prey.

"To make sure I'm not off base here, I need to know exactly where you, as Mandalorians, are coming from. I'd hate to be wasting your time..."

=======

"These six basic steps are called what?"

"Resol'nare..."

e'Drain scratched the back of his head as he listened to the boy, Orar, explain. It was tough, asking these questions, when the whole scenario was canned. The Boss sat off to the side, 'resting' he said. About an hour ago, Grime had told Morrolan to ask Orar these questions at about the current time. What his angle was and why he didn't do it himself was beyond e'Drain, but in the end, he wasn't too bothered by it. Honestly, he was starting to become a bit intrigued himself.

"So what are the six steps of this Resornare?

Orar lifted his lip a little in a sneer. How was this man so stupid and yet still so gifted with the use of knives and his outdated slug throwers?

"Resol'nare... the first is wearing your armor. We believe every Mandalorian maintains their own armor and weapons as befitting any warrior who truly seeks glory in conquest and war."

From where he lay, leaned against the side of a communique pillar camouflaged like a tree, Grime could see how the boy reiterated the Resol'nare to e'Drain. He could tell from here how they had been beaten into him, body, mind, and soul.

"One must speak like the Mando'ade. It is the warrior's language and to speak Mando'a is to speak of glories past and future. The third step is defending oneself and the clan. The Mando'ade will never be vanquished and though hidden among the shadows of the Wilds, we will rise again to defend our clan's home system from the false usurpers."

Beneath the cold, face plate, his expression hidden from the night sky and the glow of the fire before e'Drain and Orar, a smile slid across Grime's face like a serpent.

"A warrior of the Mando'ade will always contribute to the clan. The strength of a warrior should reflect the strength of his clan. A warrior without a clan is alone and in war will know defeat."

Grime liked the collective common sense. He wondered how long it took the Mandalorians to develop these. How many glory-staved crusaders had to die alone before they made it traditional law to fight a war en masse.

"When called, a warrior must rally to the Mand'alor for it is Mand'alor who will lead us to the greatest glory of the clan and all the Mando'ade. And finally, raising children in the ways of the Mando'ade is necessary in order to ensure that we are always prepared to answer Mand'alor's summons. These are the tenets, Resol'nare, and they must be revisited daily by each one of the Mando'ade."

[Hawkins Grime]

Janus gave something to an exaggerated snort at Grime's last sarcastic remark. Tor sat up a bit and the man sitting in the corner in fatigues glanced at the others sideways from where he had been intently cleaning his disruptor rifle. Grime wasn't sure if he caught a slight nod of the head from the man in the corner but either way, Tor began to speak.

"We follow the ways of old, the ways of the true Mando'ade, not the false usurpers who now claim our home world as their own. We seek glory and conquest for our clan and for Mand'alor, while they scratch and beg for their meaningless wealth. They fear death and they fear the heat of battle. We welcome it all for the sake of glory and conquest, as true Mando'ade should."

The man in the corner nodded slightly, his eyes still fixed to whatever residue still remained on the polished barrel of his rifle.

"We prepare here, in the Wilds, where our glory and conquest is known only to the unforgiving life of Onderon, for now. We prepare and we wait for when Mand'alor will lead us on to the greater wars and we will once again be known to the galaxy..."

[Hawkins Grime]

Needless to say, Grime was a fan. Whether the Mandalorians on Onderon knew it or not, they shared a common goal. Their glory found in conquest and war was just another way of going about destroying things. They just appreciated different aspects of the same results.

"Good enough for me. But now to my point..."

Janus snorted again, obviously a trademark expression for him.

"I'm surprised there actually is one, A'den."

Grime's intolerant expression reflected his lack of appreciation for Janus' humor.

"So, my point is that we share more than you might think. In another life, a boy grew up in the Blood Pits of Nar Shadda. He knew what each fight was worth, the glory of each victory, the sensation of achieving victory, of conquering one's foe. In that other life, how far from the Mandalorian ways was he? And how different am I now?"

[Hawkins Grime]

The man in fatigues, sitting in the corner cleaning his weapon still didn't bother to look up, but he did smirk and make a sound something similar to harumph before he actually spoke.

"You may not be knowing me, A'den. But I am Theolodius. They call me Akaan within the clan for in terms of a warrior I am ancient and I've seen the galaxy a few times. Your point don't mean much to me unless you got more to back it up. I heard from the others about how you saved Mand'alor on ol' Coruscant. But I also heard that you be weaker than you be likened to speak."

Grime could sense the room revolving around the man as he spoke. He must have underestimated his silence then, this Akaan.

"So we'll settle this as proper, eh, A'den? We go top side and I be showing you how similar you aren't to the Mando'ade."