Mandalorian Protectors/Legends

"This here uniform...well...it marks me fer a Mandalorian Protector. An' I think it's only fittin'...that I wear it...while protectin'!"

―Tobbi Dala

The Mandalorian Protectors—or the Mando Cabure when translated in the Mandalorian language of Mando'a—were an organization of Mandalorian supercommandos founded during the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars by the ARC trooper turned "Mandalore the Resurrector," Spar. Created in the image of the True Mandalorians of years past, the Mandalorian Protectors were formed from two hundred members of the Mandalorian police, with an additional dozen troops comprised of former members of the Death Watch splinter group, and a thousand BL-series Battle Legionnaire droids. Entering the Clone Wars on the side of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Mandalorian Protectors fought against the Galactic Republic as a hard-hitting shock force, gaining a reputation among Confederacy commanders as an in-demand unit capable of defeating foes in a single day that their legions of battle droids could not conquer in a month. However, due to the machinations of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who secretly manipulated both sides of the war for his own gain, the Mandalorian Protectors were led into a trap on the planet Norval II, where their army of Battle Legionnaire droids were destroyed by Republic clone troopers, and all but three soldiers—Fenn Shysa, Tobbi Dala, and the broken Mand'alor Spar—were killed.

At the end of the Clone Wars, as the Republic transitioned into the Galactic Empire and turned its sights on the Mandalorian homeworld of Mandalore, Fenn Shysa took up the leadership of the Mandalorians and the title of Mandalore. With the new Empire moving to establish a foothold on the planet, Shysa and Tobbi Dala began to train a new incarnation of the Mandalorian Protectors as a covert force to combat the Imperial presence should it prove hostile; his worst fears were realized as the Empire began to enslave the Mandalorians and strip-mined their world for valuable beskar iron. The Mandalorian Protectors fought against the Imperial occupiers in a guerrilla war for years, before finally killing the leader of their operations in an attack on the Empire's base within the City of Bone. Their numbers dramatically increased with an influx of freed Mandalorian slaves, the Protectors moved against Imperial Grand Admiral Miltin Takel and forced him from Mandalorian space, truly freeing themselves from the Empire at last. The Mandalorian Protectors under Shysa went on to join forces with the Alliance of Free Planets, first against the extra-galactic Nagai species, then in conjunction with the Nagai against their more dangerous mutual foe, the Tof. Shysa also rallied the Protectors in aid of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, to combat the forces of Lord Shadowspawn.

Description

Organization and philosophy

Created by Spar—"Mandalore the Resurrector"—during the Clone Wars, the Mandalorian Protectors were a group of Mandalorian supercommandos that originally numbered two-hundred and twelve soldiers strong, their ranks comprised of two hundred members of the Mandalorian police and a dozen former members of the radical Death Watch splinter group. Despite their allowance of former Death Watch troops, the Mandalorian Protectors were assembled in the image of the True Mandalorians, the army of supercommandos loyal to Jaster Mereel and Jango Fett who opposed the Death Watch during the Mandalorian Civil War decades prior to the Clone Wars. Following in the footsteps of the True Mandalorians, the Mandalorian Protectors placed an importance on high moral standards, exemplified in the Supercommando Codex authored by Jaster Mereel. The Codex outlined honorable behavior through a modernization of the ancient Canons of Honor and elaboration on the six Resol'nare, which the Protectors heeded.

Although Mandalorians of the era traditionally held little regard for official rank and preferred an informal command structure with the ultimate authority belonging to the Mand'alor, a title which meant "sole ruler" in the Mando'a language and represented the traditional leader of the Mandalorian clans, the Mandalorian Protectors instituted a more rigid structure comprised of numerous military ranks during the Clone Wars. The lowest rank in the Protector army was verd'ika, the equivalent of private in Basic, held by soldiers typically assigned infantry duties. Above verd'ika were the ranks of alor'uus and ruus'alor, which translated as corporal and sergeant, respectively. Ranks above these were considered officer ranks, and included ver'alor, alor'ad, and al'verde—lieutenant, captain, and commander. Despite the institution of more solid ranks, all incarnations of the Protectors remained under the leadership of the reigning Mand'alor.

The second incarnation of the Mandalorian Protectors, created by Fenn Shysa after the Clone Wars and upon his ascension as Mand'alor, was brought together after the Galactic Empire moved to establish a garrison on the planet Mandalore. Their numerical strength was nebulous, as their ranks were depleted by Imperial counterattacks, only to be bolstered with every Mandalorian slave the group rescued. After freeing the Mandalorian homeworld from its Imperial occupiers, the Mandalorian Protector ranks were swelled by an influx of volunteers from the countless slaves they had set free. With the Empire gone, the Mandalorian Protectors became literal protectors, establishing a patrolled border around Mandalorian space where they acted as a home guard. Occasionally, members of the Protectors during this era would take up mercenary work, but only with the express permission of Mand'alor Shysa, and only if the job in question posed no threat to innocents. That all changed with the death of Fenn Shysa and the ascension of Boba Fett as his replacement as both Mand'alor and leader of the Mandalorian Protectors. The traditions fostered under Shysa were largely discontinued, and Fett led the Protectors primarily as a mercenary force.

Tactics and equipment

During the Clone Wars, the Mandalorian Protectors wore personally owned sets of Mandalorian armor into battle, decorated with sigils on the breastplates or helmets denoting their affiliation to the Protectors. Green was commonly utilized by members of the Mandalorian Protectors to adorn their armor plates. On their backs, the Mandalorian Protectors wore jetpacks, allowing them to take to the air, and several wielded EE-3 carbine rifles.

After the Empire's presence on Mandalore and surrounding Mandalorian space was forcefully removed, the Mandalorian Protectors recovered their stolen armor and weapons, and their numbers were greatly expanded by the newly freed slaves who wished to join them. The Protectors returned to their risky but hard-hitting tactics they had employed during the Clone Wars. The Mandalorian Protectors acquired a fleet of Pursuer-class enforcement ships from the MandalMotors company, and established a defensive patrol with the vessels to defend Mandalorian space. When presented with a hostile capital ship encroaching upon their region of space, the Mandalorian Protectors would forcibly board the ship, capture its bridge, and deliver it to Mandalore's spaceport in Keldabe, Mandalore's capital city. At the time of the Nagai–Tof War, the Protectors owned a squadron of twelve Cabur-class starfighters.

History

The Clone Wars

Spar led the Mandalorian Protectors on numerous battlefields during the Clone Wars

Rebirth and insurgency

The Mandalorian Protectors attacked slaver convoys moving through Mandalore's forests.

The new generation of Mandalorian Protectors became outlaws, fighting a covert war against the Imperial slavers and their leader, an alien known as the Suprema, who had begun to confiscate the armor of Mandalore's warriors. Without the Battle Legionnaire droids they had fought beside in the Clone Wars, and Mandalorian armor growing in rarity among the troops, the Mandalorian Protectors were forced to become an insurgent force making due with their training and what little equipment they had. Shysa personally undertook victimless mercenary work to help finance the Protectors' operations, including the race to acquire the Tessent. The Protectors focused their efforts on harassing Imperial slaving operations, attacking slaver convoys, and freeing Mandalorian slaves. Reduced to hit-and-run missions, the Mandalorian Protectors' guerrilla tactics were based on their members' familiarity with the Mandalore's forests, allowing them to vanish before the Imperials could muster a counter attack. The damage these raids caused did not go unnoticed by the Empire: a bounty was put out for Shysa, and it was during one such attack that Tobbi Dala was captured by the Imperials. When the bounty hunter Dengar came to Mandalore for the price on Shysa's head, he was captured by the Mandalorian Protectors and held hostage in the hopes of initiating a prisoner exchange with the Imperials, swapping Dengar for Dala.

The Mandalorian Protectors' plans were derailed by the arrival of Princess Leia Organa on Mandalore, seeking Dengar for information on the whereabouts of her close friend and love, Han Solo. Organa became involved with the Protectors after stumbling into one of their strikes against a convoy of slavers, and upon learning that Dengar was being held in their custody, set out to free him and take the bounty hunter off world. Her plan backfired, however, when Dengar signaled the Imperials once he was free, and Organa was captured, taken to the Imperial base within the City of Bone.

Unarmored Mandalorian Protectors launch an assault on the City of Bone

With Dengar gone and Dala still imprisoned, now joined by Organa, Shysa decided to personally mount a rescue attempt. He ordered the Mandalorian Protectors to get into position at the edge of the forest near the City of Bone, and dressed himself in stormtrooper armor stolen from a scout to get himself inside. Once he had made it into the base, Shysa located Organa, knocked her trooper escort unconscious, and freed her. Together with the Princess' protocol droid, C-3PO, Shysa and Organa made their way to Tobbi Dala's cell, where they disabled another stormtrooper and freed Dala. From a window, Shysa fired a flare, signalling the waiting Mandalorian Protectors to attack; the Protectors charged from the forest, assaulting the exterior of the City of Bone. In the resulting chaos, Shysa and the others recaptured Dengar, and stole an airspeeder to make their escape, destroying the master control unit that powered the energy cuffs binding the imprisoned slaves in the process. Set loose, the slaves revolted, while Shysa and his allies stormed the Suprema's office in order to open the blast doors trapping everyone inside the base. There, the Suprema shot and wounded Tobbi Dala before being violently subdued by Shysa; the mortally wounded Dala demanded that Shysa leave him behind to open the doors so that his old friend could escape with Organa, Dengar, and the former slaves. Though the slaves and the Mand'alor's speeder made it out, Dala closed the blast doors behind them, knowing full well that the Imperial squadron pursuing them would not be able to stop or break off from their course in time, and the resulting explosion from both fuel and ammunition would consume the base from within. Dala sacrificed himself to destroy the Imperial base and the Suprema.

Most of the freed slaves volunteered to join the Mandalorian Protectors, bolstering their numbers by the hundreds, as the Protectors rearmed with liberated weapons and reclaimed armor. Shysa rallied his soldiers to strike at Grand Admiral Miltin Takel, Imperial overseer of the Mandalore sector, eventually ousting the Grand Admiral and his forces from Mandalorian space.

Protectors of Mandalore

Under Shysa's leadership, the Protectors flourished, and the reinvigorated unit of supercommandos returned to the devastating high-risk tactics that made them famous during the Clone Wars. Following the Battle of Endor and the death of Emperor Palpatine aboard the second Death Star, the Mandalorian Protectors effectively locked down the Mandalore sector, which they patrolled with a fleet of Pursuer-class enforcement ships from MandalMotors. Acting as a home guard, when hostile ships ventured into Mandalorian space, the Protectors attacked and boarded the vessel, taking command of its bridge and delivering it to Mandalore's spaceport in the capital city, Keldabe. When not defending the Mandalore sector, the members of the Mandalorian Protectors occasionally accepted for-hire mercenary work from outside independent parties, but only if the job in question did not cause harm to innocents, and only with the approval of Mand'alor Fenn Shysa.

In 4 ABY, Mandalore came under attack by the Nagai. Shysa led the Mandalorian Protectors in defense of the planet, but their forces were not enough to keep the Nagai at bay, leading Shysa to the forest moon of Endor where he and the Protectors accepted a commission with the Alliance of Free Planets, committing their troops and a squadron of twelve Cabur-class starfighters to the Alliance forces during the Second Battle of Endor, and continuing to aid in the war effort against the Nagai. When it came to light that the Nagai had arrived in the galaxy while fleeing from the aggressive Tof race, who had pursued them from their home galaxy and began to strike at the new worlds they found, the Nagai joined forces with the Alliance of Free Planets to oppose them. Though the Tof presence was eventually defeated, the Nagai abandoned Mandalore and other worlds they had won, and returned to their home galaxy of Firefist to take back their homeworld of Nagi from the Tof; Shysa led the Mandalorian Protectors to follow them, and aided the Nagai in retaking their home planet before returning back to Mandalore.

Around six hundred Mandalorian mercenaries were contracted by the Galactic Empire to defend an Inner Rim world from the New Republic. The mercenaries captured several trineutronium power plants, threatening to detonate them if New Republic vessels attempted to land on the surface, in a devastating blast that would kill more than three and half billion sentients living on the planet. Amid negotiations at an asteroid base within the system, between the mercenary commander and diplomatic negotiator Leia Organa, Fenn Shysa was asked to intervene as Mand'alor. The six hundred mercenaries were eventually won over by Shysa, joining the ranks of the Mandalorian Protectors.

Notable Mandalorian Protectors

Fenn Shysa

As the Empire established a presence on Mandalore, it was Shysa who began to reform the Mandalorian Protectors, forming them into a guerrilla fighting force to covertly resist the Empire. Under Shysa's leadership, the Protectors harassed convoys of Imperial slavers and freed Mandalorian slaves, until they finally broke the Empire's hold over Mandalore during the battle at the Imperial base in the City of Bone.

Tobbi Dala

"That's when me an' Tobbi went underground to form an outlaw band, an' we been fightin' to give Mandalore back to the Mandalorians ever since!"

―Fenn Shysa

Growing up alongside Fenn Shysa, Tobbi Dala stood together with his childhood friend whether it involved becoming constables or drinking mugs of Mandallian Narcolethe after a long day, and when Shysa readily joined the Mandalorian Protectors, Dala was quick to join, as well. Dala fought for the Mandalorian Protectors throughout the Clone Wars, until the battle at Norval II, when he was one of only three Protectors to survive a Republic ambush, along with Shysa and Spar. Dala returned to Mandalore after the battle, eventually joining up with Shysa's reborn force of Mandalorian Protectors, covertly battling against the newly risen Galactic Empire and the Imperial occupation of Mandalore.

During one of the Protectors' raids on an Imperial slaving convoy, Dala was captured and imprisoned in the Empire's Mandalore base within the City of Bone. Around the same time, the bounty hunter Dengar had attempted to collect an Imperial bounty on Fenn Shysa, only to fail and be captured by Mandalorian Protectors. The Protectors negotiated a prisoner exchange with the Empire, offering Dengar for Dala; this plan was ruined, however, by the arrival of Princess Leia Organa, who sought Dengar for her own purposes. She freed the bounty hunter but was betrayed and taken by the Imperials herself. Shysa mounted a rescue of both Dala and the princess under the cover of a Protector assault on the City of Bone. Shysa succeeded in freeing both Dala and Organa, but Dala was mortally wounded in a confrontation with the Imperial overseer, the Suprema. Dala demanded Shysa leave him behind and rescue the Mandalorian slaves that had been captured by the Empire, sacrificing himself once they were away to blow up the City of Bone and break the Imperial hold on Mandalore.

Behind the scenes

The Mandalorian Protectors first appeared in Star Wars canon in the sixty-eighth issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic series. Entitled The Search Begins, the issue was written by author David Michelinie, illustrated by Gene Day, and published in February of 1983. They appeared again in the subsequent issue, Star Wars (1977) 69, and the leader of the Mandalorian Protectors, Fenn Shysa, continues to make further appearances throughout the series.

Appearances

• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back novelization (First unnamed mention)
• Star Wars (1977) 68 (First appearance)
• Star Wars (1977) 69
• Star Wars (1977) 100