Notes: Shorter chapter then normal. Mr. Krogan needed my attention this weekend so uploading took a back seat. Next week longer again. Word of the day! Though bit of a spoiler...
Ori'vod: Big brother/sister (brother in this case)
Chapter 15: Ori'vod
Dyn had never been more disturbed by the lack of security in his life. As the Razorcrest jumped out of lightspeed he saw nothing on radar over Nirauan. No Clawcraft, no Ascendancy cruisers, nothing was in orbit over the planet. Perhaps it was simply a case of Ottolah's security team not paying attention to the holonet, not even noticing a bounty was on his head. While that would make all of the Mandalorians work a million times easier, it just felt too convenient. Luckily, his scopes weren't picking up that the palace was on fire so, either everyone else was taking a stealth approach or by some miracle they were the first here. That possibility made him uneasy, the Ordos in particular wanted the child so they could remove Boba from his leadership position. So where were they even? Had they invented some sort of new experimental stealth drive?
"What's wrong?" Rey asked knowing him well enough by now to know him not immediately heading towards the planet was a bad sign.
He didn't answer right away coming up with a plan on what to do. His first thought was to charge at the palace to try to eliminate Oyeyh while no one else seemed to be looking. The back of his mind however kept reminding him that Mavik and the other Mandalorians had several hours of a head start with much faster ships not designed before the Clone Wars. If it was so easy to get to Oyeyh Ottolah, one of them would have done it already. Despite the fact that it could take valuable time away from the mission, his best bet was to scout out the area before going directly inside. Maybe he could observe why the Chiss were apparently so confident in protecting their defense minister that they didn't put their fleet over the planet.
Making up his mind Dyn finally replied, "I don't like how we're the only ones here. This is the capital of the Chiss Ascendancy, it should be swarming with ships but there's literally nothing on scanners.. It's almost as if..."
Yarv finished his sentence for him, "Almost as if the palace is being left purposely open for us.. I don't like it either. Something is off about this place."
Rey had a more optimistic tone, "We still don't know a lot about the Chiss in general. Their fleet could be performing a military exercise in the next system over, or they could be fighting a war against a species they haven't told us about. I don't know if we should be jumping to the worst conclusion yet."
Technically Rey was telling the truth here. Even when the two governments had extremely close relations, King Sonir wouldn't discuss anything really about life in the Ascendancy with the various Chancellors of the New Republic. It was comforting just to imagine their fleet was busy at the moment and wouldn't come back to bite them in the shebs. Relying on that comfort though was a recipe for disaster. Dyn had learned early in his bounty hunting career that just counting on luck that everything was just going to work out often led to a job's failure. Being paranoid one hundred percent of the time certainly didn't help his long term health at all but, it was the way he operated.
Thankfully Yarv seemed to share his skepticism, "That would work in our favor right now...I'm afraid this feels different than something going well for us."
Dyn turned his helmeted head around to glance at the Lasat, "Are you sensing anything specific?"
Yarv's frown deepened staring out the viewport, "No and that's what worries me. It just feels cold down there, not just from the weather either. I have a bad feeling about this Ben."
Dyn bit his lower lip under the helmet still having a hard time being called that, "I'm going to bring the ship down about a klik away from the palace. We'll use my macrobinoculars to see if we can figure out what's going on."
The last fourty eight hours had been semi awkward between the two of them. Ok no, if he was honest with himself it was actually fully awkward. Neither one of them seemed to know how to bring up the fact that he had stared at Yarv in the fresher. He hadn't initially meant to, it just sort of happened and he had lost himself to it for a few minutes. How did one go about telling one of your previous best friends that you were too distracted looking at them to give them their requested towels? Should he say he was sorry? Was he sorry at all? On the one hand, he didn't want to jeopardize the potential of getting back together with Goran if they really did share a moment at the bar. On the other, he might have just been reading far too much into Goran getting so close, and despite it making a million complications for himself, he was attracted to Yarv. Frustratingly, Yarv hadn't confronted him about it either making him wonder what was going through his head. They had time to figure it out later, he had to focus on the mission.
Nirauan looked just as much of a frozen wasteland in the air as it did from above the atmosphere. Sparse communities scattered the surface making him wonder if this wasn't really the legitimate capital of the Ascendancy at all. Why wouldn't the Chiss make somewhere else their capital if they supposedly had such large swaths of territory just beyond known space? Dyn assumed the only reason Chiss still stayed on the planet at all was because it was the face of their society to the rest of the galaxy. If they were smart, which by all accounts they were, they would make that face as humble as possible so no other government would be able to really tell what kind of power they were dealing with. A part of him wondered if that secrecy would die when Sonir met his end. From holo news reports he was well aware Jagged Fel wanted a closer relationship with the New Republic.
Getting the Razorcrest to land just a klik away from the palace was also disturbingly simple. No turbolaser fire, no Chiss Clawcraft fighters rushing to meet them, nothing despite being a foreign ship so close to the homes of the King and Queen of the Ascendancy. Either it was the weakest security system he had ever seen, or this was a trap. Knowing his luck as well as he did, and just common sense told him something more sinister was happening. Stepping outside to get a look around, Dyn observed the palace through his macrobinoculars with a suspicious gaze. The building itself was tall and appeared to come out of a childs fairytale story with large cylindrical towers ending in a pointed top as well as meaningless walls that looked out along the wastes. What caught his attention pretty quickly was the unique landing arms in exchange for the more traditional pads. Ships hung from arms extending out of the palace. There were multiple Clawcraft along with a strange golden orb.
Dyn couldn't help but stare at the orb for a moment due to the fact that it was so out of place compared to the rest of the ships presently attached to the docking arms. Unlike the Clawcraft, which clearly took inspiration from the Imperial Tie fighter with it's solar panel wings, the orb didn't have any obvious propulsion systems. At least he didn't see any weapons on the ship yet, the surface of the ship appeared to have a multitude of hatches that could open at any time. The viewport for the vessel also had a strange design, taking the shape of a Human eye. Staring at it for too long gave him the uneasy feeling that it was looking right back at him. The sensation was so strong he started to worry someone was inside the thing and had spotted the Razorcrest. Upon scanning it for life signs his HUD saw nothing. It was probably just his nerves getting to him wanting this to be over as fast as possible.
He started to sweep his vision in another direction when the central viewport of the orb turned as if it spotted him, "Jeeeddaaaiiiii...why do you hide Jeeeddaaaiiiii? I see you Jeeeddaaaiiiii!"
The voice was cold and menacing, yet worst of all, it had been coming from inside his head. He had closed himself off from the force just to stop these kind of intrusions from happening, however, he couldn't deny that's what he was hearing. Could it be the Sith Lord Yarv claimed Luke was trying to kill? Unlikely, Dyn was positive baby or not, Yarv would've put up a lot more resistance in coming here if he knew this was the Sith's lair. Perhaps he didn't know? Not all spies in the history of spying had perfect intelligence sources. The way it kept saying 'Jedi' like it was a poison gave him enough confidence to guess it wasn't friendly. Then looking back at the orb, he realized it's eye was staring directly at him.
Yarv came running out of the Razorcrest towards him, "Ben, we have to go now! Something is seriously wrong with that building!"
Dyn didn't make any sudden movements lowering his macrobinoculars, "Too late its already seen us. I think the voice is coming from the ship at the end of the docking arm."
Yarv stared at him confused, "What?"
"The orb, the voice is coming from the orb." Dyn proclaimed with the certainty of knowing he was right despite having no idea how it was possible.
Yarv stared out into the distance before taking a few steps back, "That's..that's impossible."
"Trust in your feelings young one, isn't that what the Jeeeddaaaiiiii teach? Come to Ship. Learn from Ship. Ship can give you anything you want. Come to Ship Jeeeddaaaiiiii." The voice in his head was much more sing song esque.
Since Yarv was still in a state of shock, Dyn took it upon himself to ask the open air, "What are you?"
Ship as it constantly referred to itself had a proud tone, "Once Ship fought. Now Ship educates and protects apprentices. Ship teaches apprentices to fight Jeeeddaaaiiiii."
Rey got out of the Razorcrest wearing a heavy jacket to meet them, "What's going on? Are we going in or waiting for later?"
"Why hello Jeeeddaaaiiiii, the force is strong in you isn't it? Yet it is...trapped? No...suppressed. Let Ship help you!" To his horror, Ship started detaching itself from the docking arm.
Yarv and Dyn glanced back at each other knowing exactly what it was talking about, "Get back to the ship!" Both of them shouted in unison.
Unfortunately, Rey was just staring off into space with a glassy expression on her face. Ship must've been in her mind removing all of the blocks Kate Kestis had put on her memory forcing Dyn to carry her back to the Razorcrest. This was far worse than encountering Chiss security, at least he knew how to handle them. This orb coming at them with sail like wings at an unatural speed was unknown to him, and he had a feeling all of the equipment he packed wasn't going to really do anything against it. Still, he couldn't turn back now his ad'ika needed him and any second Mavik was going to come running in with other Ordos to finish Ottolah while he was here playing babysitter to Jaina.
Yarv rushed to the controls of the Razorcrest while he gently put Rey down on the couch, "I'm sorry Ben, we're going to have to get out of here and get more Jedi reinforcements to deal with that thing."
Dyn whipped his head around storming towards the cockpit, "No! Drop me off on top of the palace if you have to. This is my only chance to get to Ottolah and I have to take it! You agreed with me getting the baby to safety has to be a top priority."
"Such anger! Ship will mold you. Ship will guide you. Ship will bring you power. Come to Ship!" Getting this voice out of both their heads also had to be a priority he discovered pretty quickly.
Yarv bit his lower lip still debating on what he should do while clinging to the controls, "Ben, that is a Sith meditation sphere, it only follows the commands of Sith. We don't know what we're dealing with in there."
Dyn made his way to the E-Web cannon controls on the back of the ship, "It's a good thing I'm not your average bounty hunter then isn't it? Just get me to a place I can get onto the palace then get Jaina out of here, I'll deal with the sphere."
The possibility of a Sith in the palace of the Chiss Ascendancy was definitely worrying. Did Luke know the Fels might be going to bed with a Sith every night? Yarv's worried reaction suggested this was something new, although that didn't make a lot of sense. How could another Sith just come out of nowhere while Luke was busy going around the galaxy looking for a fabled dagger to kill the first Sith. It sure seemed like the prophecy saying Anakin would bring balance to the force by destroying the Sith was turning out wrong. At first he brushed that idea aside when Jacen was the only one to have fallen. The prophecy didn't have to cover Jedi who fell later, they were usually pretty vague. The problem was Sith were starting to pop up everywhere making the prophecy appear wrong. Ultimately that was something for Luke to worry about, he just had to get the sphere to peel off long enough for Yarv to get them to a relatively safe place to drop him off.
He started by taking just a few test shots to see how the ship moved. His best description he could come up with was alien. Ship twisted in ways that shouldn't have been possible in this low atmosphere only with the power of it's sails. When he attempted to fire at one of the sails, the entire vessel collapsed in on itself to drop a few degrees before instantly deploying the wings again. Wherever he tried shooting at it, Ship would come up with some exotic maneuver to avoid the blast. This thing didn't have force sight necessarily it was just reading his mind to determine where he was going to fire. Dyn thought about firing randomly in the hopes a stray shot hit the mark only to stay still knowing nothing was ever truly random. How could you defeat an enemy that could read your every thought? Dyn had to have something surprising happen that was outside his control. That way it couldn't predict how to avoid the danger. With no help coming to help them, Dyn had to be content with the fact that it wasn't shooting back at them yet.
"Careful what you wish for Jeeeddaaaiiiii." Ship teased his thoughts sounding amused.
Out of nowhere a very modern looking turbolaser materialized out of the bottom of the sphere firing green blasts in their direction. Dyn knew for a fact that specific turbolaser design couldn't have physically fit inside the sphere. So where did it come from? The fact that it had emerged only after he himself thought about getting shot at was telling. What if the weapon wasn't real? A force vision designed to make him panic and make mistakes. That thought didn't last long when one of the blasts hit them making the ship shake violently. So not only could the sphere read his mind to dodge his attacks, it also was capable of giving itself weapons from his memory in order to defeat him.
Yarv's panicked voice rose above the alarms, "What's the plan Ben?! The shields are already down, I don't know how much more the Razorcrest can take."
Dyn was desperately trying to come up with a plan that didn't involve leaving Nirauan, "I'm working on it! Just give me a few more seconds."
The sound of light laser fire outside made him glance at the E-Web cannon camera to see a Delta-8 Aethersprite all in black taking out one of the sails from behind, "Razorcrest this is Jacen Solo, what do ya say we take this thing out together? Follow my lead."
It was like being smacked in the face extremely hard. Did he hear that right? Was Jacen trying to pretend everything was fine and he was still a Jedi? Did he somehow believe Dyn had no idea Jacen and Kylo were the same person? Jacen had to know he was in possession of the Razorcrest after their brief reunion on Tatooine so it wasn't like he was trying to fool some other pilot that didn't know any better. So why the game of pretend? Another question he was just now coming to was, what was he doing here? Jacen wasn't a bounty hunter, yet he was here right now. The reward! He was here to try and kill Ottolah so he could acquire the baby for the Empire. Why didn't he think of that from the beginning?
Yarv took him out of his thoughts with his down right friendly tone, "It's good to hear-"
He didn't have time to finish what he was going to say when a very familiar repeated twang filled the comm. Slave 1's blasters were firing over and over again satisfyingly at Jacen. The iconic sound reminding him of home on Mandalore. How had his buir known to come? Dyn was embarrassed he hadn't told Boba what he had gotten himself into when it could effect him so heavily but it didn't matter now. He was here to help potentially killing Jacen in the process. The exhilaration of hearing something so familiar made him forget whatever Yarv had been about to tell Jacen. For all he knew he was about to say how good it was they had both Sith in the same place so they could get rid of them both. His tone didn't suggest that, Dyn was merely choosing to take it that way. There was no way he could handle Yarv working for the Empire with Jacen.
His heart swelled with joy and also a little surprise hearing Goran's voice on the comm, "How about no? Brace for impact Dyn, you're all too close together for this to not hit you too."
Yarv once again made him uneasy when he started shouting, "Wait! You don't understa-"
What was Yarv consistently trying to say? Dyn didn't have a long time to think about the implications of that before he felt his stomach fold inside out. Goran went straight for the kill firing a seismic charge into the middle of the pursuit. With the shields already down on the Razorcrest, they were going to go down hard. And on Nirauan they weren't going to be able to get repairs. Losing his mom's ship was going to be hard on him but if it meant Jacen went down in flames he accepted it as a fair trade off. That is, if he wasn't going to die too. The ship was spinning rapidly even though Yarv was trying to keep them stable. He lost track of what happened to the other two ships behind them in the chaos. A second later the ship hit the palace sending him flying into a wall of the ship making everything go dark.
Hours might have passed, or just a few minutes. Regardless, eventually Dyn woke up to the light on Goran's blue helmet staring at him, "Dyn?! Dyn?! Say something, anything. Please."
Dyn didn't stop himself from reaching out to cup the side of his helmet to pull him forward for a gentle Keldabe kiss, he had a head injury after all. "Can I say I love you?" His tone was lighthearted in case it wasn't mutual.
While Goran stayed motionless in the 'kiss' another familiar voice filled the silence, "Typical ori'vod, can't get his head focused on a job for two seconds as long as Goran is around. At least you admitted it finally."
Goran pulled ever so slightly away from him to turn his head around, "I told you to check on the other two here Mirta." He glanced back down at him, "It's time we finish the oya'karir, ner...riduur."
Notes:
To the legacy of the force fans that may have read this far, I know I've changed Ship's speech pattern a bit but I wanted to give him a more...otherworldly vibe. It just seemed strange he talked normally in the books given his origin. To everyone else, you can look at Jag's pov chapter again to get a strong clue as to where Ship comes from but, rest assured he will be back, just not soon.
