Mandalore Defense Resolution/Legends

During the Clone Wars, an initiative for an occupation of the Outer Rim world of Mandalore was introduced to and voted upon by the Senate of the Galactic Republic. The initiative was proposed in response a sudden increase of violence on Mandalore instigated by the Death Watch movement. Death Watch leader Pre Vizsla orchestrated the attacks on Mandalore in order to destabilize the peaceful New Mandalorian government led by the pacifist Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze. Backed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Vizsla was able to create the impression that Death Watch was a significant threat to both Mandalore and the Republic as a whole. This, in addition to rumors that Kryze herself was working alongside the Confederacy, prompted the Galactic Senate to call a vote on whether or not to send the Republic's Grand Army to Mandalore to restore order.

Duchess Kryze, who desperately wished for Mandalore to stay neutral in the Clone Wars, resisted the idea of an occupying force from the Republic's clone army, as she believed it would push the Mandalorian people into the arms of the Death Watch insurgency. Pre Vizsla and the Confederate Head of State Count Dooku also shared this belief, and attempted to prevent Kryze from making an appeal against the initiative to the Senate. Although their attacks on the Duchess failed, Kryze's appeal to the Senate was derailed by a holographic testimony from Mandalore's Deputy Minister Jerec, which indicated that the world was in need of Republic protection from the Death Watch. As a result of the testimony and an attempt on Kryze's life, the Senate accelerated the vote on the initiative and approved it. Jerec's testimony was later found to have been doctored, and the true recording was presented to the Senate just before the Republic peace-keeping force was dispatched to Mandalore. In light of the new evidence, the Senate voted to rescind its earlier approval of the occupation, killing the initiative.

Description
The resolution was created to authorize a military occupation of the Republic world of Mandalore in the Outer Rim Territories. The occupation would be a defensive maneuver carried out by the Grand Army of the Republic with the intent of protecting the people of Mandalore from the terrorist Death Watch movement and its allies in the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Terrorism on Mandalore
"This goes far beyond vandalism. This is a political statement against your government. And against you."

- General Kenobi after the bombing of the memorial shrine



Prior to the pan-galactic Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the ancient Mandalorian warrior clans virtually destroyed themselves as a result of the violent nature of their culture. From the ashes of their repeated battles and wars rose the New Mandalorians&mdash;a political movement based on the Outer Rim world of Mandalore that emphasized the importance of pacifism and placed nonviolence as its highest value. The New Mandalorians eventually claimed their place as the dominant Mandalorian political faction and rulers of Mandalore before exiling all warriors who still upheld the violent traditions of the past to the moon of Concordia. Although the New Mandalorians believed that the warriors died out, they in fact became members of the Death Watch movement which advocated for Mandalore's return to the violent ways of the ancient Mandalorians.

By the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Mandalore had joined the Republic and was being led by Duchess Satine Kryze, who herself epitomized the culture's ideology of nonviolence. Kryze was also the head of the Council of Neutral Systems&mdash;a coalition of Republic worlds that fundamentally opposed the Clone Wars and so chose to abstain from contributing to the war effort. In the early years of the war, the Republic's Galactic Senate was presented with a resolution that would authorize a military occupation of Mandalore after the body was fed rumors that Kryze was leading the Council of Neutral Systems into an allegiance with the Confederacy and creating a personal army which she would dedicate to fighting against the Republic. These rumors were reinforced by the appearance of the Separatist-aligned bounty hunter Jango Fett prior to the war and a Confederate saboteur who attacked a Republic cruiser around 22 BBY. Both individuals were garbed in Mandalorian armor, prompting the Jedi High Council to dispatch Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mandalore on a fact-finding mission. While on the planet, Kenobi was assured by Duchess Kryze and Prime Minister Almec that the Confederate operatives were simply radical Death Watch terrorists who did not represent the entire Mandalorian government.

Their claims that Death Watch was a small fringe group of vandals were undermined by a bombing of Mandalore's memorial shrine. After the incident, Kenobi and Kryze travelled to Concordia to meet with Governor Pre Vizsla, who was leading the search for the Death Watch headquarters. After Kenobi was captured by Death Watch agents, it was revealed that Vizsla himself was the leader of the organization. Kryze rescued the Jedi from the warrior-terrorists and the two of them escaped the moon. Now knowing the truth behind the Death Watch movement, Kryze planned a voyage to the Republic capital of Coruscant to plead with the Senate to vote down the resolution and allow Mandalore to remain neutral in the Clone Wars.

The Duchess falters


As the Senate prepared to debate the resolution, the Duchess travelled to Coruscant alongside a retinue of senators who represented worlds on the Council of Neutral Systems. Senators Orn Free Taa, Onaconda Farr, Kin Robb, and the Mandalorian senator Tal Merrick all accompanied Kryze aboard the Duchess's luxury starship, the Coronet, which was under the protection of Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker and a full contingent of clone troopers. Although Kryze herself protested the presence of the Jedi and their soldiers, a majority of the senators requested their attendance, should the Death Watch make an attempt on their lives. While the Duchess and senators discussed the resolution with the Jedi in the Coronet ' s upper decks, the clones in the lower levels discovered that someone had smuggled assassin probe battle droids aboard the vessel. Unbeknownst to the troopers, it was Senator Merrick, who was in fact a Death Watch agent, that had smuggled the droids aboard. Once the Coronet entered hyperspace, the droids attacked the clones and attempted to kill the Duchess and senators.

Kenobi, Skywalker, and the clones destroyed all of the droids, but were uncertain of who brought them aboard the ship. After the senators were interrogated by Kenobi, Merrick revealed his true allegiance and took Kryze hostage. While holding her at blaster-point, the senator killed the Coronet ' s bridge crew and took control of the ship to bring it out of hyperspace. Once the ship reverted to realspace, Merrick was reinforced by Confederate battle droid forces delivered via Droch-class boarding ships. General Skywalker and the clones destroyed the enemy droids while Kenobi confronted Merrick, who revealed that the ship was wired with explosives he planned to detonate should the tide of battle turn against him. Although Kryze was able to escape the senator's grasp, neither she nor Kenobi moved to kill him, as it would be a violation of her pacifist ideals. He was instead killed by Skywalker, saving the Coronet and allowing Duchess Kryze to complete her journey to Coruscant.

Upon her arrival to the galactic capital, the Duchess travelled to the Senate Dome to address the leaders of the Galactic Republic on the state of Mandalore. Within the Grand Convocation Chamber, Kryze listened as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine declared Death Watch to be a significant military threat to the Republic and the Mandalorian government. The Duchess took to the senate floor to rebut the Chancellor, explaining that the terrorists would not be able to destabilize her government, and that any response to the movement should remain an internal affair of Mandalore, lest her planet become a military target in the war.

Mandalorian Neutrality
"Mandalore is making great strides to find the leaders of this terrorist movement. They are not powerful enough to destabilize our government. We will resolve this without conflict. If the Republic gets involved in our affairs it will lead to further violence. Thus I will reassert our position of neutrality."

- Duchess Satine Kryze