Triple Zero

Scorch: "I think Sev might have an anger problem." Sev: "I think you have an intelligence problem.

We have an understanding. I don’t laugh at his skirt, and he doesn’t rip my head off.” -Fi Skirata

Your boys okay?” “Tired, edgy, but giving it all they’ve got. One of ‘em has sworn to get Vau, another is having a love affair with a woman he shouldn’t even look at, I’m collecting waifs and strays like an animal shelter, and we nearly killed a treasury agent. But if I told you the really bad stuff, you’d think I have problems.

[After a horrible, crazy speeder race by Bardan] “Thank you for flying Jedi Air.” Jusik grinned and shook their hands. “Have a nice afternoon.” “You’re all insane,” said Sev.

Do we get to do assassinations?” “If we do, they never happened. You imagined them.” “Whoops. My trigger finger just slipped, Sarge. Honest.

That’s the worst thing about having chakaare like us around. We just wander off, find someplace you don’t know about, and hole up in it and get into all sorts of mischief that you know nothing about. And then we bill you for it. Dreadful.” “Dreadful. Is this the kind of thing that CSF might notice?” “Were we to get out of hand, I imagine very senior officers in CSF might need to be reassured, but not by you.” “Dreadful. Hypothetically, anyway.

Darman: I want my HUD back. I want my enhanced view. Fi: But you get to wear face camo instead. Makes you feel wild and dangerous. Sev: I'm wild. And then I get dangerous. Shut up. Fi: Copy that. [exits Sev's comlink channel] Miserable di'kut. Scorch: Don't mind him. He'll be fine once he's killed something.

Mandalorians are surprisingly unconcerned with biological lineage. Their definition of offspring or parent is more by relationship than birth: adoption is extremely common, and it’s not unusual for soldiers to take war orphans as their sons or daughters if they impress them with their aggression and tenacity. They also seem tolerant of marital infidelity during long separations, as long as any child resulting from it is raised by them. Mandalorians define themselves by culture and behavior alone. It is an affinity with key expressions of this culture—loyalty, strong self-identity, emphasis on physical endurance and discipline—that causes some ethnic groups such as those of Concord Dawn in particular to gravitate toward Mandalorian communities, thereby reinforcing a common set of genes derived from a wide range of populations. The instinct to be a protective parent is especially dominant. They have accidentally bred a family-oriented warrior population, and continue to reinforce it by absorbing like-minded individuals and groups.

It never ceased to amaze Skirata how much simpler it was to buy and sell death than it was to pay taxes.