The void of space stretched endless before Jango Fett. His ship, the Prowler, slipped silently between stars, escorting a convoy of automated drones carrying the Matter Extraction Engine toward its first target a barren system with no habitable worlds, only a swollen yellow sun.
Jango's hands hovered over the controls, his jaw tight."Shepard… if this thing doesn't work, we're dragging half the Clan's resources out here for nothing."
The machine was a beast, kilometers wide, wrapped in black plating infused with beskar. A ring of spires bristled like a crown, its core thrumming with dormant power. It looked less like a tool and more like a weapon born to tear apart the galaxy.
First Test
The engine ignited.
Arcs of gravimetric energy coiled outward, latching onto the sun like invisible chains. The star buckled, a portion of its matter drawn into the machine's maw. Alarms filled Jango's cockpit as the sensors lit with readings: hydrogen compressed into hyperdense alloys, plasma condensed into energy crystals, metals that had never been seen in any Republic trade market.
Jango blinked, breath catching as automated freighters began filling with newly forged ingots. Tons of material, flawless and ready for Shepard's nanite printers.
"…By the Core," he muttered, slamming the comms open. "It works. It actually kriffing works."
He sat back, staring at the sun still burning, only slightly dimmed. The system would survive. The galaxy would not notice. But Mandalore now had access to a resource stream no other world could dream of.
For the first time in his life, Jango admitted something he rarely allowed himself:"My brother's a genius. A terrifying one."
Returning to the shipyard moon, Jango watched as the Infinity-class Supercarriers rose from drydocks carved into the rock itself. The scale was monstrous each vessel stretching kilometers, larger than anything the Republic had fielded in centuries.
Construction drones swarmed across their hulls like insects, welding, assembling, slotting in weapon systems Shepard had designed. With the influx of stellar matter, progress had increased tenfold. What was once a seven-year timeline was now projected to finish in half.
Jango had once laughed at Shepard's ambition. Now, seeing it firsthand, he wasn't laughing anymore.
Then came the Spartans.
The first waves of transformed warriors trained in the yards below, their strength, speed, and endurance beyond anything Mandalore had ever seen. Jango sparred one in the training pits out of curiosity within seconds he found himself thrown to the ground, wind knocked out of him.
And he wasn't weak.
The warrior helped him back up, saluting with pride in his new body. Jango grinned despite himself, brushing the dust from his armor."Alright… I'll admit it. I want in."
He could already feel the itch in his blood. His brother had built a path not just for Mandalore's survival, but for its dominance. And Jango Fett refused to be left behind.
The Future Forged
Shepard stood before the Council later that week, his arms folded as shipments of stellar matter filled holo-charts behind him."With Jango leading extraction missions, we now have a steady flow of material. The Infinity fleet is ahead of schedule. Automation handles the rest. Mandalore is no longer dependent on anyone."
The councilors were awed some fearful, others exultant. But no one could deny the truth. Shepard had taken Mandalore from a fractured world scarred by civil war into an empire in the making.
Jango, armored and standing taller than ever, met his brother's eyes across the hall. He had seen the power of the Spartans, the promise of the carriers, the raw force of suns being devoured and repurposed.
And deep down, though he would never say it aloud, he thought the same thing every Mando now whispered in private:
If Shepard wills it, Mandalore will eclipse the Republic itself.