Chapter 67 – Frozen

After a massive buy of shares, farming lands, mining rights and a few small rundown droids assembly factory all across the galaxy on Coruscant, Layan was now on Dantooine. A world historically tied to the Jedis even though now almost none came on it even with a crystal cave located on the planet.

This planet was a perfect place to farm and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

While Layan wanted to obtain some power over politics and economy to help smoothen the execution of his plan, he knew it wouldn't be easy to do it while not appearing to be a murderer killing all his opponents.

The galactic senate was mostly made of corrupted assholes and the other half is full of idealist pacifist which are against using armed troops in case of conflicts. The Ruusan reformation was the starting point of it, the Republic disbanded most of its military forces, Jedis did the same which led to several groups arming themselves for their own security.

A bit more than 100 years ago, the free trade zone was created, it came from a good idea to solve a problem but was terribly done, or may have been done by Palpatine predecessors. It was a zone of free trade with no regulations, a completely unregulated free market system.

The weak central government of the republic let the trade federations and other big groups do everything they want. At this point, the clone wars, and other conflicts could have started even without Palpatine influence.

Thus, the biggest groups with the best defenses forces and influences became the leading dogs. The blockade of Naboo was such an example. In this zone trade federations are almighty, because of their economic and military power but also because they are supplying most of the planets of the galaxy.

Hell, they were so powerful that they got a seat at the senate. The only good point is that it was constituted of greedy businessmen searching to win more credits than they already are. Nute Gunray way of taking power was bloody but he no one said a thing after the board leaders were killed by 'defective droids' delivered to the Trade Federation.

One of the few rundown factories he bought on Coruscant was located here on Dantooine as well as agricultural fields, hence the droids could start to work on the fields without any transport.

"You're sure about this? I have experience in trade, but you just gave me several dozen millions of credits. We barely know each other."

The one talking was Bibfort, a Male Twi'lek in his forty with a skin of blue pigmentation, the father of Sienn and the only person Layan knew in the current time with experience in this field and indebted to him. Beside him was standing his daughter he never let get away from him ever since last year when they reunited on Corellia.

"I can use the force and you can't. You can't lie to me and I'm sure you won't betray my trust as for just a few millions, I can gain just as much in a few hours if I want too or win an entire company at Sabacc. I don't have time to take care of the daily business, I'll give you the guidelines and a personal security team of droids. For the rest you can do as you see fit."

"I really can't understand you. When I met you, you were a slave just escaped, a Jedi and now a millionaire."

He was waiting for an answer, but Layan gave him none.

"I like to keep my secrets well hidden. So, do you agree? You can become the figurehead of a group worth several millions of credits. Not a bad deal to my mind."

"Yes, but I know how trade work. If you win too much over the interests of the Trade Federation, accidents tend to occur."

"Don't worry about it. The Trade Federation may be brazened but if they dare to harm you, I'll make them understand that no one mess with my peoples, or else there are consequences."

(In fact, I planned to kill them while disguising as his second personality to hinder Palpatine's plan, but if it can calm him down, then two birds with one stone.)

"You're sure about creating such a holding in the current times? The Separatists are growing in number and boldness, whereas the political situation is becoming more and more of a mess. The attempted negotiations between the Separatists and a group of Senators of the Republic was thwarted by terrorists."

"I know, I took it into account don't worry about it."

(Terrorists. Pff. More like Siths and those which would profit of an open war between the two governments.)

"We'll have to establish legally the holding, recruit personnel to oversee the factories and mines. It's the beauty of our society we need just a minimum number of peoples to make a large establishment work."

"The most important is to became important enough to some worlds and establish a close relationship with a few senators, it could help us. I'll take care of this personally. I know a few senators worthy of trust and which will not try to rip us off."

----

While Layan was delegating all his future work to Bibfort and Ood was searching to unveil the veil of the dark side, Lyn was frizzing her ass on Hoth during the kriffing winter.

"I want so much to smack his golden face!"

She was yelling to no one in particular as it would soon be a week since she was abandoned of this forsaken world and she was now walking in the middle of nowhere while a blizzard was blowing.

The snowstorm happened suddenly when the weather was still calm and sunny. She was now searching for a place to shelter herself from the blizzard.

When her master was talking about the unbearable heat on Mustafar, he talked about the Tutaminis, an ability to absorb heat but was too taxing to use it as a cooling fan. Right now, she would like to know a skill doing just the reverse of it.

The temperatures were freezing cold, reaching -60°C at the best moments of the days, as for when the weather was overcast, it was even worse.

She was wearing special clothes used by soldiers to fight in hostile environments, able to keep her alive, but she was still freezing and using the force to keep herself warm and boosting her body to continue moving forward.

Lyn walked for more than a dozen of minutes, bearing with the cold wind and the harsh weather before finally seeing the outline of a small cave.

Stepping inside, the cave uninhabited which was a good point as her fighting skills would be greatly impeded by the cold seeping into her body.

"Kriffing training! Why not a tropical planet with a blue sea?!"

*Yeah with cocktails and shirtless men ready to give you exotic foods while you're at it. Stop whining and survive. *

Layan was contacting her every day via telepathy, but with each day passing her mood became worse with the lack of sleep, food and warmth. Little did she realize it was exactly what Layan wanted her to feel, the most primal side of the dark side.

"Heat up! Heat up!"

She was holding small rocks in her hands and was using Pyrokinesis to heat up the rock as they were no wood sticks to burn or heat source in her survival kit as from Layan's opinion, it would be too easy.

He at least gave her some piece of advice before let her free on Hoth such as be sure to know how to use Pyrokinesis. A skill rarely used in fight but particularly useful when you have to survive in the wild and without equipment.

The small rock soon gains a yellow shade before gaining a glowing red hue and emitting a huge amount of steam because of the two extreme temperatures. She stopped her work after putting 5 rocks together and serving as a heat source. The downside of this method was that she often had to heat up the rocks.

She did her best to close the entrance of the cave, with the few rocks she had and dug from the walls with her lightsaber and the snow to keep the heat inside.

Opening her backpack, she saw her last bit of rations and sighed. Tomorrow, she will need to start hunting her food. After a small and far from tasty meal, she put down her sleeping bag near the hot rocks and did her best to not shiver from cold despite the cold.

"What's the point of make me survive here for a month? Except my ass being frozen, I noticed no changes."

She was at one fourth of her trip and didn't lose much time, even though she encountered the local fauna several times. The lack of food and hunger pushed the creatures to fight to the death, even if they knew they weren't up to par.

She fell asleep while watching the rocks diminishing in colors as the heat was leaving them.