We camped with the Ordos that night. I found myself sitting beside Wylan and going over my own weapons as we sat by our firepit. He kept checking his blaster and glancing over at Tarrec, who was surrounded by a group of other Mandos and telling some story or another. Wylan had been quiet most of the time, though. The man barely spoke a singular word. I finally leaned over and glanced down at his rifle, "Clean her any more and you'll need to grease her up again."

"She can take it," he chuckled and looked over at me from the corner of his eye, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"You've been quiet."

"Maybe you're just being loud."

"Buir..."

He finally sighed and laid his rifle across his lap, taking care to run his hands over it almost lovingly before he looked from Tarrec back to me, "Just... doing some soul searching is all."

The way he watched Tarrec reminded me of Tor. There was something there, only it wasn't so much jealous envy as it was the way you would watch a wild animal. Now, I may be a bit of a stranger in the realm of interpersonal relationships, but I know a sibling rivalry better than probably any person in the galaxy with the exception of my several million identical brothers. The look I gave Wylan told him everything he needed to know about that and I saw him give his eyes a long roll before he shook his head and returned to cleaning his rifle with a quiet mumble of disapproval.

"Talk to me buir."

"Ad, there comes a time when you need to just let things lie," He spoke the words quietly as he watched Tarrec with an increasing look of disgust.

I was overhearing bits of Tarrec's story. It was back in the Clan Wars when he apparently fought alongside Talon in some grand battle against the Jedi, but with every word that came from his mouth, I saw Wylan bite his tongue more and more. "So, there we were, the three of us up on top of the ridge..."

"You weren't there you karking bastard," Wylan snarled under his breath as his hands tightened around his rifle. "I was."

"Is he talking krayt spit?"

"Making himself seem like the apple of Tal'buir's eye," he grumbled. "Little shab ran off with his girlfriend that night and got so piss drunk that he could barely stand when that battle rolled around. It was just me, Tal'buir, and my ba'vodu Jorun. The three of us held that hill against Clan Vau for an hour until Clan Vizsla showed up and saved us. It's where I got my nickname."

"So, you really were the favorite?" I asked the question half in jest, but I could tell from Wylan's bitter reaction and the acrid laugh he gave that I wasn't far from the mark.

"The apple fell far from the tree for Talon Ordo. His only blood son was lazy and indulgent. I worked and scraped for every inch I was given in the Clan. My aliit is more important to me than glory and wealth. Tal'buir respected that. I was ready to die for Clan Ordo. Tarrec only put his neck out when it got adorned with medals."

"And Talon looked at you and saw the son he always wanted."

"Exactly. Tarrec hated it. We had a rivalry that wasn't always friendly. I think Talon hoped I could shape Tarrec into someone the Clan needed."

It was beginning to make some sense. "Did he ever say it out loud?"

Wylan smirked, "He did. Tarrec tried to make a big deal about me joining Pre's mad scheme, and when he did Tal'buir looked him dead in the eye and just growled out the words "And he's still more of an Ordo than you are". You should have seen all that red in Tarrec's face go straight to white." He chuckled and got an oddly proud smirk on his face, "And when Duchess Satine made her rounds on Concordia, I got introduced first."

"Aw, did you kiss her hand and compliment her beauty?" I goaded and he gave a good-natured shove that nearly sent me sprawling off of the boulder we were both sitting on.

He laughed as he did, "I would have thrown up all over her."

I glanced back to Tarrec as I picked up some of the berries in the bowl that sat between us, "And now? How do you two feel about one another now?"

"Tarrec is my brother by virtue of him being Talon Ordo's trueborn son, but he's a snake," Wylan spoke quietly to me, his face a mask of stone and steel. "Tal'buir knew it. I know it. Now, so do you."

"Seems like one hell of a thing to say about your brother," I replied and made sure to keep my voice low.

Wylan gave a snort from beside me and poked at the fire with his stick, "I call a spade a spade. Tarrec has always been out for the mantle of Clan Chieftain since Tal'buir passed. I never much cared for it, bitter as I was, but..." His voice dropped low and came out almost as a snarl, "I regret not coming back and dueling him for it when I had the chance."

"What's stopping you?"

Wylan didn't reply at first, and I thought he wouldn't for a moment until he finally sighed, "Because I've had enough of my friends and family dying on me to last four lifetimes. I don't want Tarrec's blood on my hands."

I understood how he felt. Even when we would receive reports of our brothers getting into trouble, the last thing I ever wanted for any of them was death. I figured Wylan was in a trickier spot than most of us considering that his brother headed his clan and therefore had all of the backings he needed to hold it.

"Either way, we'll be back in friendly territory tomorrow. We'll reunite you with your vode and your jeti'ika..." He paused and looked over at me with the very corner of his mouth tugged up into a smile, "And what's this I've heard about a twi'lek?"

"Can it, old man."

*

I can't even imagine how we must have looked arriving in force to the rest of the Clones, but I knew that I felt pretty damn impressive. I stepped off of my speeder as Ros half sprinted to Wylan and grabbed him up in a hug that made Wylan give his head a toss and return a half-hearted hug in response. Red was on me faster than any of my brothers and was peppering me with all sorts of questions before Grek rolled up and asked me if I got to kill anything with Wylan. I rolled my eyes and tried to be indulgent, but I noted that Tor was absent from our little huddle when I looked up and saw him slowly making his way over with a cocked eyebrow.

"Hey there, walking reg manual," I smiled when he finally topped between Red and Grek.

"You're lucky I like you," he sighed with a shake of his head, "because this violates at least three regulations and a handful of bylaws."

I couldn't help but laugh as I clapped him on the shoulder. "Never change, Tor."

"I don't know. He could stand for laying off reporting me once in a while," Grek frowned as Tor smugly crossed his arms.

"Where's the kid?" I asked as I looked around, surprised to not see Talen anywhere on base. Judging from the rather surprised look shared between my squad, something told me I was in for a surprise. "Boys?"

"Uh..." Red passed a hand over the back of his neck and stared at me, "We thought he was with you..."

"He went missing about a day or so ago. We figured he had gone off with you..." Grek added. "Jent Squad has been out looking for you lot."

If there was one thing Talen didn't do, it was run off without telling anyone. Or so I thought.

"Kando!" I turned to Talen's voice and saw the young Jedi flanked by his Clones, all of whom looked ready to die from sheer stress alone. He had burn marks around his armor, but all-in-all looked less than a little worse for wear. "So, that canyon is guarded, but not by Seppies."

"I'm still telling Agen Kolar about this," Trill turned to him with a scowl and Talen gave him a sheepish grin.

Ros seemed to already know, "Dar'manda, then."

"Scum," Wylan snarled through his helmet. "They probably took the Isotope from the beskar'ad. Which complicates things because it means they're actually competent fighters."

"I'll say," Talen held up his robe shot full of holes, and I swore that Cobalt and I were about to have coronaries at the same time when we both finally got a good look at it.

"I leave," I held up a hand, "for a single day, and you nearly get shot to pieces."

"Nearly," Talen replied with a grin. I have never come so close to slapping a child in my life. Luckily, Seku did it for me. She had walked up behind him and delivered a very audible smack to the back of his head before she began scolding him in Ryl, and I never saw someone shrink so much without moving an inch in my entire life.

Tarrec glanced between me and Seku before turning back to me and asking, "Is she yours? If not..."

I must have turned to him looking like I wanted to murder him because he held up his hands and backed away. All Wylan did was chuckle.

*

Once the scolding had ended and everyone had reunited, we all congregated in the staging area within the old complex with Talen and Ros laying out an attack plan. The situation had intensified now that we knew we were dealing with Mandalorian trained combatants on the other side, but Tarrec seemed relatively unfazed. One thing I realized is that Wylan, Ros, and the Beroyas didn't seem nearly so relaxed. I knew how Mandos fought. I had seen them in action enough on Kamino to know that we were in for one hell of a fight, and if that was the case, then I was happy that we had the Ordos and Beroyas on our side.

"Kote and Tracyn scouted this mine a while ago. We have all of the necessary entry and exit points on lock. Now it's just a matter of making this thing work," Ros spoke as he circled the holomap. "We'll need strike teams dedicated to certain areas of the mine. Wylan, you and Tarrec know the area. What's our best bet?"

Wylan took initiative first and moved to stand beside Ros, "The main entrance has a large hillside where we can take the high ground. If we can draw attention back from the west entrance, you should have a clear shot at entering from there. If all else fails, we can burn them out."

Ros turned to Wylan and shook his head as Kothe sighed, "Do you always resort to fire?"

Wylan turned to her and cocked one sharp eyebrow, "And why not? If It worked for Mand'alor the Avenger, it works for me. What am I known for? Making tiingilar?"

"His tiingilar is really good, though..." Kote leaned over and whispered to me as Ros waved Wylan away with a good-natured groan.

"Anyway, our primary mission is extracting this Isotope-5. The Separatists want it. That means we need to take it from them," Ros continued as he addressed the crowd of Mandalorian squad leaders and Clones that were huddled around the room. "They killed one of our own, took the Darksaber, and now they're trespassing on our moon."

"Good thing we have professional soldiers here to help us, eh?" Tarrec cut in with a smug smirk on his face as he looked over my brothers and I. "Cloned from the finest Mandalorian stock!"

"Are you even taking this seriously?" Wylan's voice had dropped and an icy cold steel edge had come over it as his eyes met Tarrec's, but the other Mandalorian's face never wavered.

"Have some humor, ner vod. We're Mandalorians! We're made for combat!"

"And we're also made of flesh and bone," Wylan countered as I heard a snarl creeping into his voice. "We can die if we're not serious."

Tarrec's face fell as he turned to look at us all again, "Soldiers die. Jedi die. Mandalorians fight." he gave a dismissive wave of his hand and a small group of Mandos followed him as he turned and left the room.

Venn had been off in one corner, and none of us really remembered he was there until he spoke, "If I were you, I'd keep that pit viper as far away from you as possible."

Wylan spun to him with death written in his eyes, "And if I were you, I'd keep my tongue in my head before I'd lose it."

"I know a loose cannon when I see one, with all due respect," he pushed himself away from the corner and stood beside Talen. "You're all set to go. I got the transports prepped."

"Thank you, Major. Alright, we all know what to do. Let's get this mission done and head home," Talen shut off the holomap and nodded as we all grabbed our helmets and began heading for the landing pads where the transports were waiting.

Seku snatched my helmet from my hands as we went to board the transports and smiled up at me as her hand went to my cheek, "Stay safe, Kando." She stood up on her toes and kissed my cheek before handing me my helmet and staying back with the rest of her group.

As I stepped up into the transport, I got the distinct feeling that I was getting looked at. Grek was the one who started it this time, "Is it the lekku or the fact that she's green?"

"I swear, as soon as this transport takes off, I'm pushing you out the door."

*

The mine was lined with dar'manda. From the moment we showed up, it became absolutely clear that there was no easy way into that place. Talen offered to stay with Ros and the Beroyas to draw attention away from the west entrance to give Wylan, my squad and Tarrec's bunch enough time to get inside and either secure or destroy the Isotope-5.

I had to give them credit: they were ridiculously effective. Tracyn was an absolute madman and charged the front entrance like he was late to a party, and judging from how Orar and Kade had to scramble, it wasn't planned. Ros and Kothe moved as a single person when they fought, perfectly in sync, and Talen had teamed up with Kote to be an absolute menace in close-quarters combat. As soon as they had cleared it, my group made for the west entrance.

When we arrived, we found it guarded by several of our beskar sporting enemies, including a rather massive Zabrak and his equally imposing Devaronian companion. It wasn't too much of an issue considering that Wylan wasted little time in just... just lighting the Zabrak on fire when he tried to pull a fancy move with his beskad. We seemed to have planned to just shave a few pounds off the Devaronian by proxy as he loaded his rotary canon, but... well...

Grek, being the unpredictable mess of a Clone that he was, grabbed the Devaronian by his horns and swung him into the wall with a strength I wasn't even aware he possessed. Adrenaline is a miracle worker, let me tell you, and Grek had a surplus of it. The Devaronian was dead when we checked and Grek was prying the door open with his bare hands. It... It was equal parts impressive and absolutely horrifying to witness.

Wylan turned to me, "Did they spike his vat or something?"

"Pretty sure it was a leak," Red shrugged as we followed our rotary-gun-toting death machine into the main mining complex.

Grek was on an absolute rampage and was gunning down anyone in his path and was doing so well with it that we were all barely having to shoot anything as he kept laughing wildly and shouting something about a bet he had with Tracyn involving several cases of tihaar. Red just seemed equal parts proud and disturbed as I heard Tor muttering something about hoping he wasn't going to get charged with war crimes following the mission. Part of me agreed with him.

After, you know, Grek had mowed down every living thing in our way, we found ourselves standing in a room full of tibanna and Isotope-5 canisters. Tor moved forward and checked them one by one as we fanned out to secure the area. "They look to be stable, but we shouldn't take chances," Tor called out from where he stood.

What I failed to notice was that Tarrec and his crew had hung back the entire time we checked canisters and secured the other exits. That was when the first shot rang out.

The blast hit Tor square in the shoulder and sent him flying backward from the canisters. After he went down, I felt the sharp jerk of my own shoulder as a blaster bolt hit me square and sent me sprawling back against the wall before I saw Red get hit in the leg and Grek take a blast straight to the chest. Wylan was down beside me when I heard the telltale ringing of a shot off his beskar'gam as he swore and unholstered his rifle and shoved me forcefully to the ground. He had himself between me and the blaster fire, but I heard Tarrec all the same.

"Should have thought twice, ner vod. You can still walk away when we blow these Republic dogs off the face of Concordia."

"We can't win without them, Tarrec, you di'kut!" Wylan shouted. I had never really heard him raise his voice before, but the anger he had there was enough to make me get concerned.

"You'd pick that thing over your brother?" I heard Tarrec shout back.

Wylan didn't even hesitate, "Aliit ori'shya tal'din. And he's not a "thing". He's my son." Wylan snapped his rifle up and fired off a single round that hit a canister of Isotope-5 up on the ridge where Tarrec's loyalists all stood, and I didn't need to see past him to know that he killed a sizable chunk of them.

My first thoughts when I was able to piece them together were about my brothers. Instinct kicked in. "Red!" I shouted over my shoulder and heard Red groan behind me. "You alright?"

"Yeah... Yeah. Sore, but alright. Armor held up."

"Grek?"

"Here," I heard him cough. "Kinda stiff."

"Tor?" There wasn't a response, and I flipped over. "Tor?" He hadn't moved from where he fell, and I scrambled up as quickly as I could and began to make my way across the cave to him as I heard Wylan ignite his jetpack and take off after Tarrec behind me.

Tor groaned and held his shoulder when I knelt down beside him, "I should have seen that..." He mumbled with more annoyance than anything else in his voice. For him just getting shot, he was surprisingly self-critical.

"Hold still, vod. We've got you."

"Is he okay?" Grek asked as Red helped pull him to his feet. The two hurried their way over with the worry clear in their voices, "How's Reg Manual?"

"I'll live, unfortunately," Tor replied darkly and Red laughed at the response, but Tor's tone quickly changed as he struggled to sit up, "Wait... Tarrec mentioned something earlier about Jed- Talen! We need to get to him. Now!"