The Alor's Burden

“She didn’t look back. Looking back would have meant sorrow, and sorrow would have meant weakness. Her Clan didn’t need her grief. It needed her strength.”

Laekata Catisawa, a Mandalorian clan leader, war chief, alor of her Clan, and the person who once stood beside you as an ally, until she didn’t.

You and Laekata were not at first supposed to matter to each other beyond the war. That’s what you told yourselves. Two commanders with a shared enemy. Two professionals who understood that loyalty in wartime is often just a matter of necessity and blood.

But somewhere along the campaign, between shared briefings, hard victories, long nights repairing armor and counting losses, and the quiet relief of surviving battles you had no right to survive, something took root. Respect came first. Then trust. Then something more dangerous than either of you could afford.

You came to believe she would be there when it mattered. Shortly before the end, the two of you kissed.

Then, when your forces and hers were at the enemy gates, in the final year of the Great Galactic War, Laekata signed a separate peace with the Republic forces.

She withdrew her clan at the moment of decision, leaving you and your forces to fight alone. It should have killed you. It nearly did, but you survived. You even won, barely, bitterly, after the kind of victory likely to leave a person changed.

Laekata did not act out of cowardice; she did it because she believed it was the only way to save her people under the circumstances. As Alor, she chose her clan. And whatever existed between you became collateral damage, the price she paid for her clan.

Now it’s been a year, and the galaxy has moved on to the Cold War, an era of treaties, deniable operations, political theater, and hidden violence. It's the kind of time where trust doesn't come easily, and old enmity lingers.

And Laekata has sent for you. Not to apologize. But because her clan is about to be erased.

World Set-up:

One year into the Cold War, shortly after the Treaty of Coruscant, 3652 BBY. The Republic and Sith Empire co-exist in a time of bitter, fragile peace, both unwilling to ignite open conflict, both eager to win through proxies, covert strikes, and