The violent takeover of Concord Dawn by Jaster and his followers didn't go unnoticed by the Mandalorians. What he did, despite it being for the right reasons, wasn't taken well by some of the Mandalorian upper echelon. He was to face a trial.
Brerrio Goss had been corrupt, cruel, and guilty of crimes that would have shattered Concord Dawn if they had been allowed to surface fully. But he had also been appointed. His authority came stamped and sealed by distant hands that never touched the soil. Those hands did not care about Mandalorian honour, only precedent.
So when the inquiry arrived, three officials from Mandalore, flanked by legal droids and cold, greedy bureaucrats, they did not ask why Goss had died. They only asked who had pulled the trigger.
Jaster Mereel did not deny it. What was the point? He stood by his actions and was willing to accept any punishment before he started on his quest.
He stood unarmored in the administrative hall that had been created on Concord Dawn, hands clasped behind his back, standing proudly and speaking plainly.
"I executed a man who abused his office, sold my people to criminals, and turned Concord Dawn into a resource to be bled dry," Jaster said. "I would do it again. These aren't the values Mandalorians stand for."
The hall fell silent.
Petyr watched from the rear. He had joined Jaster Mereel, fully knowing that he would be exiled from Concord Dawn. Jaster's men had offered options like escape routes and leverage, but Jaster had shot them all down. He had too much Mandalorian creed inside him for that. So Petyr offered to send the evidence they had gathered, knowing it would cripple entire trade networks of the Mandalorians. Jaster initially considered it but ultimately refused it as well. So all they did was prove Brerrio Goss' crimes and left it at that.
"This is my responsibility," Jaster had said the night before. "If we dodge these consequences, we are no better than they want to make me appear. I'm not a delusional madman, driven by greed."
Petyr had understood then that Jaster was no longer hoping to come out unscathed. He knew that he wouldn't be able to remain on Concord Dawn and keep his Journeyman Protector position. But he was alright with that, and so was Petyr.
The verdict was swift. The judges didn't need to think about it for all that long. Brerrio Goss had been a legally appointed superior officer. His death, regardless of motive, constituted murder under sector law. Jaster Mereel was stripped of rank, title, and Protectorate authority.
He was sentenced to permanent exile from Concord Dawn. However, there was no imprisonment and no execution. He was just removed. So while it was a quieter punishment, to some it might also have been the cruellest: leaving one's home.
Jaster accepted this punishment without a word and, together with his men, left Concord Dawn at dawn. There was no ceremony, no escort, no one who was there to see him go. Just Petyr's ship was fueled and cleared to leave orbit. A handful of Protectors stood at a distance, not close enough to be indicted of anything and not far enough to pretend indifference.
Petyr met him aboard the ship after liftoff.
"Where to?" he asked.
Jaster's answer came without hesitation. He had already planned this before.
"Mandalore."
"Why Mandalore? Are you going to join the Mandalorians?" Petyr asked.
"Yes. Just because you are born on Concord Dawn, and I was a Journeyman Protector, doesn't mean that I was part of the Mandalorians. I see a future in the Mandalorians and know that they can be returned to what they once were. This incident taught me that we have to change."
"You want to prevent another Brerrio Goss from appearing," Petyr concluded.
"Yes. But I also want to make our culture great again. Right now, I have no big goals, and since we will need money either way, I would much rather increase our people's renown."
.
Mandalore was powerful, yes, but fractured. Warrior clans had splintered into rival factions, some clinging to ancient codes, others revelling in brutality for its own sake, and some somewhere in the middle. Raids blurred into massacres, getting the Mandalorians neither honour nor much money, and mercenary contracts became excuses for bloodshed. Honour was spoken of loudly and practised quietly, if at all.
But Jaster's arrival changed that. At first, he merely watched. He joined the Mandalorians, and through his excellent skills and his status as an accomplished soldier, he rose through the ranks and gained fame.
The Mandalorians took notice of Jaster. Not because he claimed authority or glory, because he never did. Also, not because he demanded obedience from those under his command. But because of his character. When circumstances and missions turned ugly, when civilians or his friends and allies were endangered, when warriors crossed lines that even Mandalorians used to respect, Jaster was the one to step in.
Sometimes with words, sometimes with fists and sometimes even with brutality and blaster fire. He was a charismatic leader, proving it with his actions rather than words.
Petyr remained close, but always just slightly out of the spotlight. He never took credit for himself, and usually Jaster did it for him. Those who worked with Jaster naturally knew about Petyr. He arranged meetings, redirected conflicts, gathered intelligence, ensured Jaster was where it mattered and invisible where politics would have bothered him. When disputes escalated into blood feuds, Petyr was the one who provided all the information that ended them decisively. And he was also the one who was usually the most resourceful among all the Mandalorians.
But Jaster knew that there was more to Petyr than he let on. There was a darkness to Petyr that he hid with his good moods and carefully placed words. He was a free spirit, and sometimes it felt like he had fled from some sort of prison and was simply enjoying himself far too much. The dangers and the problems of the galaxy couldn't bother Petyr, as if he had seen far worse.
.
As Jaster's reputation grew, so did his standing among the Mandalorians. And it didn't take more than a few years of success for him to attain the rank of Mand'alor.
The title came the Mandalorian way. He had proven himself worthy to lead the Mandalorians, and he took that duty seriously. So much in fact, that he implemented a new order.
In 60 BBY, having noticed many Mandalorians' dissatisfaction with the widespread savagery that had become prevalent in certain warrior circles, Mereel hoped to hold the Mandalorians to a higher standard of behaviour.
A gathering of clans erupted into violence when two clan leaders attempted to assert dominance through sheer terror. Naturally, the dispute could have only been solved through the use of bloody violence. The clash would have spilt across the capital, dragging civilians into the killing and affecting other clans as well, who would have elongated the duration of this conflict.
Jaster challenged them both. The duels were brutal and public, for all to see. No tricks, apart from the Mandalorian fighting ones, no theatrics and just pure use of skill, resolve, and control. Jaster defeated both Mandalorian chieftains. He incapacitated one, and the other died by his own refusal to yield.
It was after this incident, which nearly ended in a very brutal way, that Jaster came up with a solution. As Mand'alor, Mereel instituted the Supercommando Codex, a new behavioural guideline influenced by Mereel's own moral ideals, in which Mereel decreed that any Mandalorians who wished to fight would be merely highly paid soldiers and should conduct themselves as honourable mercenaries.
Jaster understood that better than anyone.
This declaration shook Mandalorian culture to a degree. Warriors would still get to fight, and clans would still be able to earn money and fame by selling their skills and strength. But they would do so openly, professionally, and with limits.
Many Mandalorians resisted this change. Some left, a few tried to assassinate him, but all failed in the end.
Petyr's hand was everywhere in this phase, though his name never appeared. He helped draft enforcement structures, created extensive intelligence networks, and built financial systems that made honourable contracts more profitable than they had before. Petyr became the central piece in Jaster's time as Mand'alor.
Only Petyr himself knew that all he did was for his own sake. He came from a grim dark reality which had taught him to use everything to his advantage to win, and that morals, as Jaster represented them, were both a weakness and a sure way to die. Petyr naturally realised that the galaxy he was in now was very different compared to the grim dark one, but the fundamentals were still the same.
At the end of the day, it was all about war, fighting, power and the interests of those who sat in high places. He was going to use the chaos that the galaxy brought and use it to his own benefit. Helping Jaster, though, wasn't merely something he did to improve his own position; he also thought that Jaster was a good man. So while he was still alive, he would help him and the Mandalorians under his banner until the time came for him to take over.
.
It was during this consolidation that Jaster met the Regent of Mek va Uil, a planet in the Expansion Region.
The regent had expected a warlord, like the tales he had been told as a young boy, but what he received was a commander.
As both Mand'alor and Al'Ori'Ramikade - "Commander of Supercommandos." - Jaster spoke plainly about mercenaries. He described them, not as killers for hire, but as specialists who took responsibility for the consequences of their work. He spoke of discipline, of restraint, of reputation as weapons that were more powerful than those of the chaotic and bloodthirsty clans that they had been previously.
The regent listened, very interested in what Jaster represented. At the end of the talk, the regent of Mek va Uil was willing to give Jaster a chance and hired his men as exclusive mercenaries to do the work he asked them to. In turn, he would pay them generous payments and fund their efforts in the process. This was both a positive reputation for the Mandalorians and a secure monetary source.
Sadly, while Jaster made progress on one front, there were setbacks on others.
Mereel's ideas were not unanimously accepted throughout the Mandalorian community. By this time, many Mandalorians had joined the peaceful movement of the New Mandalorians, a reformist political faction formed in the aftermath of a devastating conflict with the Galactic Republic centuries earlier. The New Mandalorians had moved away from traditional warrior ways, denouncing the old warrior codes. They believed the best opportunity for Mandalorian survival and prosperity lay in being peaceful, neutral, and tolerant.
The primary dissent against Mereel, however, came in the form of several amoral Mandalorians who resented Mereel for his attempts to rein in their enjoyed lifestyles of unaccountability and aligning with old Mandalorian traditions. These malcontents rallied to a Mandalorian soldier named Tor Vizsla.
They therein formed a splinter group known as the Death Watch with Vizsla as their leader, under the pretence of returning the Mandalorians to their ancient roots as conquerors and raiders with the goal of instigating another war of conquest.
Though the Death Watch's goals were quite opposite to the New Mandalorians', they could neither support Mereel's faction of loyal supercommandos, now calling themselves the "True Mandalorians", for, despite his reforms, any act of Mandalorian violence was fundamentally against what the New Mandalorians stood for.
.
"This can't go on this way, Jaster. We have to do something about the Death Watch. You need to destroy them before things get out of hand," Montross said.
Montross was a brutal man; he was feared by his enemies and allies alike. He tended to be somewhat reckless in his tactics, though, and Jaster was needed to keep him in line.
"He's right, Jaster. If we don't act now, Tor Vizsla and the Death Watch will launch attacks against us," Riox said.
Jaster was unsure what to do and looked around his men. These were the men he had come to see as his closest brothers in arms. He trusted each of them with his life. But his gaze landed on Petyr eventually.
"What do you think, Petyr?" he asked.
"Contrary to what Montross and Riox believe, I know that a violent confrontation is unavoidable at this point. If we wanted to repeat what we did on Concord Dawn, then we are too late. Death Watch will attack sooner rather than later. If we do something about it now, we will be able to improve our position in this war to come."
"You really believe it will come to a civil war?" Jaster asked.
"Most definitely. We already have one; it was just a cold one until now. Your ambitions were too grand to go uncontested. Now is the time to defend what you stand for. Either that, or we will be pulled into a war by the Death Watch forcefully."
Petyr was right. A civil war soon broke out between Mereel's True Mandalorians and the Death Watch. The New Mandalorians would keep to their ideals of pacifism and non-violence, rejecting both groups and remaining out of the conflict that would come to be known as the Mandalorian Civil War.