Daughters of The Cosmic Force

Part 3 : Regardless of blood ties ...

         Phoenix was now 14 years old. Years passed for her and her mother without major problems; of course the Duchess had to watch out for threats, but Phoenix's special powers had always enabled them to avoid the most dire of situations.

However, Satine was well aware that there was a need to increase the security around her daughter. Her political detractors were starting to attack her family life, and sooner or later she knew that Death Watch terrorists would try to strike where they were most likely to hurt her: in the heart. She wouldn't let anyone touch her child; she loved her planet and her people, but if she had to choose between Mandalore and Phoenix, she would choose Phoenix.

At the same time, Death Watch leader Pre Vizsla, the Duchess's main opponent, was stoking a blaze of hatred, which according to his plans would allow him to seize power for good. He knew it well, Satine Kryze's weak point was her most precious thing in the world: her bastard daughter. Until then, the attacks had not discouraged the valiant leader from continuing to defend her pacifist ideas, apart from the attempted poisoning and the bombing of the palace. Rather, most terrorist actions were directed against the planet's infrastructure in order to weaken the ruling power and win public opinion. However despite the most treacherous attacks of her adversaries, the Duchess of Mandalore faced thick and thin, upright, solid, like the millennial trees of the forest moon of Endor.

              Vizsla gathered his group of mercenaries around him. "If we hit it right in the heart, even a thousand-year-old tree ends up withering and dying ... Until then we have spared the Duchess, it's time to hit her in the heart, where it hurts! "

One of his men approached him, drawing his attention to a holopad. "We were able to work out young Kryze's schedule, there is a special day where she is not in the palace. Three members of the royal guard, accompany her for her music lessons with an old private teacher who lives about twenty minutes from the palace. There is always a guard who stays by her side for the duration of the lesson; while the others return to the palace and come back to pick them up about 1 hour later ".

Another terrorist spoke: "This is more than we need to prepare our attack. If we intervene within this period of time, we can do our intervention when there is only one guard. It will be easier to remove without attracting attention. We can even create a diversion and temporarily block that intersection on the route taken by the other guards to make sure they don't reach it in time, this will give the team a little more time! "

Behind them, a little apart, stood a young woman in blue and white Mandalorian armor; Pre Vizsla's right-hand man: Bo-Katan Kryze, who was none other than the younger sister of the ruling Duchess. Differences in belief in Mandalore's future had driven the two sisters apart; because of this political rivalry, Bo-Katan chose to leave her sister to ally with the terrorist group. They had met occasionally in recent years during attempted peace negotiations, but there was little interaction between them. Oddly enough, when Satine introduced Phoenix to Bo-katan, the youngest of the Kryze had immediately appreciated the child.

In fact, Bo-Katan had always loved her sister; for her, blood ties were something sacred and she regretted that their political antagonism separated them so much. But even though she did not share the pacifist ideals of her older sister and preferred to fight to restore the bellicose greatness of the Mandalorians, she did not agree to the physical attack on her sister, let alone against her niece. She had to be part of the commando at all costs to prevent Vizsla's warm-blooded mercenaries from harming her.

She spoke in a confident voice, "I want to run this operation!"

The Death Watch leader took off his helmet to better watch his second; "How can I be sure you won't put your family ties ahead of the mission?" "