Chapter 74 – conspiracy

There was now only a year left before everything goes from wrong to deep shit in the galaxy. Lyn was showing incredible prowess in her healing skills, good progress in her lightsaber skills and a good control of the dark side.

As he wanted Lyn to experience real fighting experience, Layan took Lyn on a trip in the worst part of the outer rim, and the best place to find pirates.

During the past year, she showed her ruthlessness. She had no problems to kill pirates, but maybe it was due to the fact that she hated them in the first place. It served as a good way for Layan to understand her and watch over her use of the dark side during the fights.

Light and Dark sided were two faces of the same coin for Layan, and thus Lyn due to his teachings. Force skills were divided by these sides, but never did they were losing themselves to one side due to some affinity over one side or another.

"Cleaning pirate's hideouts again and again is so boring. I know it gave me some real experience but wow it's always the same."

"At least we get good loots out of it."

"Master, I'll start to think your better fit to be pirates than the pirates."

"Idiot, I'm just saying that we can't disregard free money."

"Stingy."

"Yes, you can ask the rebels, they got some problems with me because of it."

Beep.Beep.Beep.

While they were bantering in a lost part of the outer rim, the subspace transceiver rang out.

"Who is it, Jango?"

Lyn hypothesis was plausible as only two persons could directly contact the Phoenix, Ood and Jango, and the old Jedi Master who was putting discretion over all used force skills to communicate with Layan in case the communication was intercepted and spied on.

"No, this signal is transmitted on every frequency. Let's listen to it."

Pressing a button, an afraid and rushed young feminine voice echoed in the cockpit.

"Please help me! I'm….! I was kidnapped…. Please, if anyone hears this, come help m…Bang!"

A sound Layan could identify as a punch connecting with a face and a body falling violently on the ground echoed before the communication finally came to an end.

"Shall we go?"

"You don't even have to ask the question. I slice these Huttspawn in half!"

Lyn took her two lightsaber hilts in hand and was ready to fight as she hated those types of kidnappers and pirates just as much as Layan hated slavers.

"HK! Prepare your weapons! Time to get to work!"

"T3, prepare a hyperspace jump toward the coordinates and ready the cloaking device and all our armament immediately after coming back in real space."

Tracking down the signal, Layan ordered the astromech droid to prepare for a hyperspace jump and to prepare for the upcoming fight.

Lyn, on her hand, immediately rushed at the ladder in the central ring to take place at one of the turrets while HK-47 was already at his place controlling the other.

After a travel in hyperspace of barely more than a minute, the Phoenix came into real space and became invisible to naked eyes and radars before their target could detect the ship.

They appeared near one of the five asteroid belts located in the Lybeya system. The enemy ship wasn't moving, hidden among all the floating asteroids, almost undetectable to radars.

Their target was a Corellian Corvette, not a normal one, but a heavily modified with military equipment, and from the readings of the scanners it must have cost a fortune.

"We may have found something interesting. This ship cannot be owned by simple pirates, thugs or mercenaries. This ship is heavily modified, and it has no identification beacon, it's a ghost."

"Maybe we found spies or a secret unit operating for a government. It really saves the day; pirates are so boring."

"Statements: Meatbags are meatbags. Secret or not."

Navigating through the rocks, Layan could see the blue heavily modified CR90 Corvette through the cockpit.

"A battle in the middle of an asteroid belt, it's only my second time, and the first was awesome. Let's enjoy ourselves."

"And save the girl."

"Addendum: and kill the meatbags."

The Phoenix finally entered the range of fire of the turrets after flying by a few large asteroids. The space battle could finally start.

The two gunners were ready to go and started to shoot once the Phoenix became visible once again as the armament couldn't be used while the cloaking was on.

The effects were non-negligible as even though the target had its energy shield to protect against the smallest asteroids as small as bullets which protected the corvette from heavy damages. Nonetheless, those inside must have felt the ship shake, maybe fall down, and the electric system inside must have suffered the blow.

The counterattack of the corvette followed just after and Layan enjoyed the presence of the asteroids to protect himself from the laser cannons shot at him. The corvette used his sublight drive to flee away from the Phoenix as damages were done to the ship.

If one ship found them, then it must mean the allies of her target were on their track but may not know who they are, if they were discovered, it could lead to a politic reversal on Pantora.

Pursuing them, Layan used the better maneuverability of the Phoenix to pursue them as his gunners were shooting the fleeing ship.

"Their energy shields are down, shoot correctly! The goal isn't to blow it up."

Not long after, the corvette was immobilized near the exit of the asteroid belt, a minute more and they could have left the asteroid belt to flee in hyperspace.

"We're boarding. From the modifications made to this corvette, I guess they are related to some power somewhere, so do your best to keep one alive."

"Statement: Easy, but Lyn might screw everything up."

"Just follow my path, rusty, and everything will be good."

Lyn and the hunter killer droid were as usual behaving like cats and dogs, or more like two children wanting to make the best score. They did the same during the past months while hunting pirates and Layan became fairly use to it.

"HK, where do you go?"

"Statement: I take the other way."

While Lyn was waiting near the airlock just before the docking ring, but HK-47 headed for the boarding ramp.

"I get your plan. Do your best to be there before we are over."

The scanners detected a bit more than twenty life signs aboard the CR90. And the way they were organized along the corridors proved they received military training.

The two ships finally connected under Layan piloting skills and the airlock opened just as Layan came near it in a rush after leaving the pilot's seat.

A rain of blaster shoots through the airlock and impacted in the wall of the central core of the Phoenix.

"A group of enthusiasts. You go first or I go first?"

Lyn was far more relaxed than during their assault on the secret base of the Death Watch and had no problems to take a life anymore. Layan was pretty proud of her, but maybe he shouldn't be proud of teaching someone to kill in cold blood.

"Don't want you to be hurt, I go first."

"Hey, I saved your ass last time!"

"After putting me into danger after being detected while sneaking inside."

Layan rushed at the corridor with his two yellow blades while sending back the blaster fire to their senders, but they were hiding behind the alcoves of the corridor.

Not wanting to lose time, he grasped one of them with the force and raise him before him to act as a meat shield and impress his foes. Soon, the man body and armor were full of holes, and surprised by Layan use of the force, they said something that caught his interest.

"Sitshpawn! They contacted the Jedis as backup. This is getting out of hand! The republic must already know!"

Lyn came behind him and reflected a few blasters bolts right in the heads of the shooters, and at the same time HK-47 appeared behind these shooters, their backs turned against him.

The droid took the other way. He activated the ray shield to counter the depressurization problem and lowered the ramp. Using his magnetic feet, he walked from the Phoenix to the Corvette and entered by an airlock at the opposite where the battle was taking place.

"Statement: You're not over, or did you keep some for me?"

While the droid started to shoot them in the back before they could react to his presence, Layan used his two blue lightsabers, controlling them remotely in the air, sending them toward his enemies, slashing them in half and leaving behind burning marks on the alcoves of the corridor.

The corridor fell into silence, not sounds of blasters and lightsabers anymore, just dead bodies lying on the ground with burning holes or big burning slashes in their fleshes.

"We got most of them, only four of them are left. They must be keeping watch over their captive."

Taking off their helmets, they did a discovery. All of them were Pantoran.

"A secret force belonging to the Pantoran standing army?"

"Maybe, or the personal forces of someone Pantora able to recruit among the army."

Walking through the empty corridors, they saw no one until they approached the cell blocks. 4 four men covered in the same armors were keeping watch over the only cell with a ray shield active.

With an act of telekinesis, they raise in the air before being thrown violently against the end wall. With a loud thud, they fell unconscious.

Layan and Lyn walked toward the cell while the droid shoot three of them before dragging one back toward the cell before waiting for his companions.

Inside the cell, a Pantoran girl slightly older than Lyn was suspended in the air.

She had the blue skin of all Pantoran, was relatively short, a bit over 1m60, had the trademark yellow gold-yellow eyes, two yellow tattoos, just a streak of brush on her cheeks and beautiful light purple, lavender hair.

In her hair were beautiful golden accessories, and she was wearing clothes made in luxurious silk of a beautiful deep purple color. Such a clothing style for Pantoran was almost exclusively worn by nobles or really influential characters.

"A noble girl? They mobilized such a force for a harmless-looking girl? Well, whatever, it's none of my business. Lyn, please."

Activating the mechanism in the wall, the Pantoran girl started to fall before Layan caught her with the force and made her land delicately on the ground.

"I'm Layan Vaherg, before you ask, I'm not a Jedi. And you, who are you? I didn't really hear your name in your call for help."

"…"

The girl stood here, withstanding Layan's gaze, but said nothing.

"As you wish, come with us Jane Doe, we'll bring you back on Pantora."

That way, they headed back toward the Phoenix with an uncooperative Jane Doe and a prisoner which will have his brain tuned into a mush in a short time.