Chapter 16 – Ysanna

After boarding, Layan stripped off his wet clothing before putting new ones and going back to sleep. Lyn got nervous after what happened but fall asleep after some time as Layan's presence was reassuring her.

Soon, the sun rose on Ossus and after a good night's sleep, Lyn and Layan were ready to start their exploration of the ancient desolate world. Currently, they were having lunch inside the ship's lounge.

"So, what are we searching for?"

"A place somewhere near interesting ruins, sheltered from the bad weather and which we could use as a training place for you. I hope we'll find some interesting piece of technology."

"Master, you're sure you will train me in the ways of the force and not as an engineer?"

"You're spoiling my good mood. This world is just so perfect, old knowledge maybe even lost that could give us an advantage in the years to come and old pieces of technology are everywhere. This world is made for me."

"So, you like to dig up dirt to find antics and be covered in grease while assembling droids?"

Seeing the good mood of her master, she resumed the conversation to know him better as they met each other not so long ago.

"My main hobbies, with a good lightsaber fight from time to time. And you, what do you like?"

"I'm a normal girl, except for my love for speed when I pilot my speeder and I loved hunting with my father…"

When she reached the part about her father, Lyn's voice died down and the ambiance became gloomy.

"So, you know how to shoot?"

"Yes, my father taught me, when my mother learned about it and that he let me shoot with a blaster, she totally freaked out. She slapped him so hard that he had my mother handprint on his face for a day."

Thinking to this alleviated her mood, and a small smile came to her lips. Layan took off one of his holsters with a DC15s blaster sheathed in it.

"Take it, if you know how to shoot, you'll be able to protect yourself."

Lyn didn't hesitate and put it at her waist and started to unsheathed her new weapon while assuming diverse postures.

"You will take poses later, now is time to start exploring."

After washing the few dishes they used for their lunch. They put the 74-Z speeder bikes on the Cargo lift and ordered T3 to lower it down.

"If you like speed so much, you will love this. These bikes are military equipment, can reach incredible speed and are highly maneuverable. They are also equipped with comlink, commlink-jamming device and a single cannon."

The girl was beaming with joy when she saw the two speeders, compared to her hold speeder that her father bought her, it was the top technology. She loves the feeling when sitting in position to pilot it.

"We'll go north, they seem to be more ruins in that direction. I know you love speed but stay near me. We still don't know what came near the ship last night."

Lyn simply nodded her head, waiting for Layan to depart and enjoy the feeling of speed and the wind in her lekkus.

Layan turned the hand clutch forward and the speeder bike engine roared, Lyn follows behind him as the bikes soon reach more than 300km/h. Capacity wise, they weren't at top speed, the 74-Z could reach 500km/h, but without intensive training or a force sensitivity improving your reflexes and intuition, it was tantamount to suicidal to go at such speeds.

Ossus surface was a wasteland, almost no greenery and faunas were present on the planet, and the few traces of the past left of the planet remind you of the cataclysm that happened.

"We'll slow down in the ruins in front of us to see if there is something worth searching here. "

He contacted Lyn with the comlink integrated into the speeder as they saw vast ruins before them. It may have been a city in the past, but nothing is left of it except rubbles. Slowing down to around 30 km per hour, they looked around them searching for something but nothing was visible at first sight.

"This planet was popular as an archaeological site during the Old Republic era. I think we'll have to dig if we want to find something interesting. But later, for now, let's continue scouting the vicinity of our landing site."

They resumed their travel until Lyn contacted him using the comlink. "Master, I feel eyes on me."

"Me too, something is spying on us. Many eyes and these are not animals like I thought at the beginning. Something is spying us and waiting in ambush. Only 2 possibilities, outsiders like us, or this world has an indigenous population."

"What do we do now?"

"Let's find an open space where those spying on us couldn't hide anymore. I'll call T3 to bring the ship above us and provide us a backup with the turrets of the ship."

After the plan established, they used the speeder bikes at full speed and headed back toward a place they just went through, a vast plain with no place to hide. They reached in a few minutes and waited nonchalantly for their stalkers in the center of the plain.

A while later, they heard discreet sounds coming their way, and a primitive group appeared all around them. These individuals were wearing tribal clothes, trinkets they apparently crafted themselves and old concussion weapons. After the firsts appeared, a larger group appeared seated on the native animal species they saw previously.

Something took Layan attention. It was the masks they were wearing to cover their faces.

"Sith masks."

"Siths? All of them are Siths?"

Lyn was surprised, in history books Siths are said to have disappeared. Layan didn't tell her about Darth Maul's supposed demise on Naboo ten years ago, or about Palpatine's existence. Information's about his origins and the future would be taught to her only after she proved herself to be trustworthy. And if she proves to be not, he would kill her even if it would hurt him to do so.

"I don't know, their presence is still hidden in the force. Maybe they are just a group of savages using these masks, as for these masks I know nothing about their functions, maybe it is it that hide their presence."

"Poonto kroova slyptudd! Knuuto!"

The one who appeared to be their leader howled in a language that Layan couldn't recognize. All the indigenous around him raise their weapon ready to shoot them down.

"Lyn, behind me!"

She hurried behind him just as they shot at them. Layan activated his lightsaber and parried the gun-fired arrows that were shot at him easily.

As they were now attacking him, whatever skill they were using to hide their presence disappeared, exposing to Layan senses a shocking truth.

"They are using the force! All of them are using it to guide their projectiles! We may have found a non-affiliated group of force-sensitives individuals!"

(If I play my cards correctly, I could become their leaders and obtain an entire group of force-sensitive as my personal army. It will be helpful for whatever plans I will have in the future.)

Seeing their offensive to be totally useless and easily fend-of, the chief dismounted his mount and stepped forward in the center of the plain where he started to make some strange gestures while singing in his language.

"What is he doing? Dancing?"

"Don't know but he is accumulating the force. Maybe some sort of sorcery like the Nightsisters."

As they were watching, the indigenous leader ended his dance or ritual and stretch his palms toward Layan, what came out was a simple force push that Layan has no difficulty to counter. The leader seems surprised, and his gaze becomes interrogative through the mask.

"Their comprehension of the force is instinctive. They have excellent potential but don't know how to exploit it."

While Layan was explaining what happened to Lyn, the man who just attacked him seemingly reached enlightenment, as he starts to run toward Layan with open arms and joyful expression.

"Tsan mch sonta Jedi."

"Master, did I understood right what he just said?"

When she heard the last word pronounced by the man coming toward them, Lyn was stunned, and she wasn't the only one.

"Jedi. Everything is piecing together. A group of Jedi must have survived the cataclysm somehow, and these indigenous are their very descendant. This is how these people with their backward culture know about the Jedis, their history must have been past from mouth to mouth through the generations."

Finally, the leader reached Layan and gave him a bear hug while repeating 'Sonta Jedi'