Among The Asteroids

Hello everyone and welcome to chapter two of Path of Kan Taro! We've got a lot of setup happening this chapter so the pace is gonna be a little slower, but I think you'll find it interesting, nonetheless. Also, feel free to check out my Pat reon for updates on this and other new stories I got in the works! And that's actually about all I got to say for the time being so with no guest review questions this week, let's head on to that galaxy far far away!

Outer Rim: Asteroid field

'Finally making it back,' he thought as an alarm went off to inform him that his destination was near. The Starfighter pilot took a moment to collect himself before pulling back on the hyperdrive lever. Almost instantly the blue and black tunnel of hyperspace disappeared and was just as quickly replaced by stars, the blackness of space, and a large asteroid field. Each piece of space debris in the field ranged in size from smaller than his fighter to as large as a heavy freighter.

They were also numerous, so numerous that it would take days for even a large force of ships to map out and/or patrol it. Even better was due to its location in the outer rim, the empire didn't bother sending many ships to this particular area to begin with. Caution was still paramount, however, which is why he'd done a couple short, random jumps to shake off any imperials who might've spotted him while he was on his way over. 'Now for the next part,' the pilot mused, 'checking to see if anyone is here.'

He switched on his comms and adjusted the frequency to an encrypted channel. "This is Hawk-bat calling Neebray Den, can anyone here me?" He got his answer after a moment of static.

"This is Neebray Den, good to see you made it back in one piece, Hawk-bat," the speaker on the other side answered.

"You know me, I always take care of my favorite fighter," the pilot quipped, "what about everyone else, have they all made it back?"

"Tae's still out there but we received word he'd be here soon," his ally informed, "in the meantime you'd best get aboard. The general's gonna want a debrief sooner rather than later so just head to the usual spot."

"Acknowledged," the pilot answered before clicking off his comm and speeding up slightly. It had been difficult at first, but eventually he'd memorized the general area where their main ships stayed. In truth this location wasn't their base by any means, just another of many rendezvous points, albeit one of the more frequently utilized ones. He took a quick look at the charts on his fighter's computer before swinging around and through a few of the smaller asteroids.

Kan then curved around a much larger one after that and breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw it: the Perseverance. Such a name belonged to another Republic ship once but it had been changed some years ago. This particular vessel he was looking at now was known as a Rescue Frigate. Quite a fitting coincidence considering their missions for the last ten years had often involved the extraction of those being pursued by the empire.

Its design was Corellian in origin with a visor-like cockpit whose front resembled a helmet with a rebreather attachment. The ship's long neck was connected to a saucer-like body that sprouted four very distinct engines from the back along with a sensor dish and an array of antennas in the center of the body. Its original red color had been stripped, leaving it a more grey color that blended in better with the asteroid field, save for the blue line circling one part of the neck. The pilot made his way to the underside of the ship where a pair of bay doors slid apart and allowed him to guide his fighter upwards with his repulsors.

It took only a moment for him to extend the landing gear and set down on the now closed doors before quickly shutting everything off. He opened the canopy of the fighter then and hopped out, setting a round, metallic hat on his head while adjusting the cape around his shoulders and taking a quick stretch. "Good to have you back, Kan," a technician in a blue shirt and white pants greeted before getting right to work on examining his fighter, "you didn't have any trouble with the thrusters this time, did you?"

"None that I noticed," Kan informed while patting the side of the cockpit, "the shield generator held incredibly well too. I did have to use more missiles than I originally planned, unfortunately."

"Logistics won't be happy to hear that," the Technician commented while looking at the readouts on his data pad, "those concussion missiles don't come cheap."

"I had to do maximum damage in as short a time as possible," Kan reminded, "kind of the downside of a solo strike. The more I take out in one pass the better."

"Well you can explain all of that to the general and logistics," the technician shrugged, "me, I'll worry about making sure you can still fly this thing."

"Take your time," the pilot encouraged, "my next few assignments should have me back on the Herald for a good bit."

"You never know, Tano might want to take this out for a spin again," his ally commented, "now you'd better hurry to debriefing. You know how the general gets."

"I'd say I'm used to it after nearly a decade, but I'd be lying," Kan quipped as he turned to leave but waved back as he went on his way, "just let me know if you find anything extra nasty on the fighter."

"You'll be the first to hear if I do. Or Tano, whichever one of you happens to be here at the time," the technician commented, "and good luck with the general!" 'I just might need it,' Kan thought as he exited the hangar through a pair of large, sliding metallic doors and made his way up to the bridge. The Perseverance wasn't a capital ship by any means, in fact it was basically a corvette, meaning the walk to the bridge didn't take long at all. It truthfully reminded him of the C70 chargers they often employed in the Clone Wars, some of which happened to be part of their little fleet.

The coloration of the bridge itself was a standard grey, but unlike an imperial vessel, small decorations characterized more than a couple of the stations and there was even a nice couple of drawings on the walls in the far corners. Some artists they'd rescued a couple years back had done them, saying they were reminders not to become soulless as the empire had become. Given that some of the artwork was of a jedi and a rebel fighter, Kan hadn't had the heart to tell them to remove it. Surprisingly even the general had agreed to leaving them up.

Speaking of which, the commanding officer was currently standing in his usual place in the center of the bridge, gazing at a holomap of the sector where all the ships were gathering. "I take it your mission was successful," the old man asked without turning around. His outfit was about what one might expect from an old Clone Wars general with an armored chest plate and shoulder pads with the addition of brown boots, a split brown cape and brown pants. A pair of gauntlets on his arms contained comlinks and a couple of other necessities for when he was out in the field.

"I definitely got their attention," Kan reported, "but we won't really know the effects until we get more Intel about the empire's movements in that sector. Optimistically a lone strike craft taking out two Gozantis and a number of fighters will scream jedi loud enough for them to send at least a few more resources to that system and create an opening or two for us."

"It drew enough attention for us to deliver those supplies to Ryloth," the general mused aloud, "if we're lucky the empire will at least be confused as to where best to concentrate their resources. Unlike many other planets the inhabitants of Felucia can hide easily so the empire will have a hard time attempting their usual tactics, especially when they can't identify the culprits."

"Still, you know who they'll send to the system the minute they have reason to believe a jedi is prowling around," Kan pointed out, "I hope we don't have anywhere to be in that sector for a while."

"We shouldn't, but you know how that goes," the old man reminded, "for now we'll be returning to our main planetary base with an escort. The rest of the fleet will proceed to headquarters and work on sorting out our latest intel."

"You're sending the Perseverance to our planetary base," Kan questioned with a raised eyebrow, "does this have to do with the individuals we sent Tae and Daizo to pick up?"

"It does," the general confirmed with a curt nod, "we received a transmission from them not too long ago. Obviously he couldn't tell me everything over a hologram but he did confirm that our suspicions were correct."

"That's good news, in a manner of speaking," the pilot mused, "was Tae able to confirm if the empire knew about those two?"

"If they did know I feel like Tae and Daizo wouldn't have made it out," the general answered, "either way we'll need to be cautious until we know we can trust the new arrivals."

"Guess that means it's my job to play the friendly welcome party, again," Kan remarked with a sigh.

"Of course, I've got a small fleet to manage and almost no time to be nice about it," the old man reminded, "I know you caught onto that after ten years."

"There was admittedly a moment," Kan began, "a fleeting instance where I thought 'hey, Master Rahm Kota's alright deep down'. Then you dropped me on that mud hole, Jabiim, for a week. I doubt I'll ever be so naïve again."

"Good man," Kota quipped with a nod, "now get going. I sense our guests will be arriving soon."

At About the Same Time: The Grinning Gundark

"How is he," Tae asked, approaching Lop and her father. The man had finally removed the mask on his suit, giving the pilot a clear view of his face. He'd suspected the man wasn't a Lepi based on his physiology and clear lack of giant rabbit ears. Now he had confirmation the man was human, and a pretty beat up one at that.

He was an older man with a large mustache, dark hair and sideburns which went down either side of his head. What was most eye catching, however, was the numerous scars on his face. His left eye was closed and useless thanks to a scar running down it with another going across his face above his nose. But the right eye was the most recent scar, being less worn than the other and the fact that his right eye was mechanical with fresh pink skin indicating the surgery hadn't been terribly long ago.

"It's not the first time I've been shot," Yasaburo informed, "thought I'll admit I'm starting to run out of places to get new scars."

"It's my fault," Lop apologized, "I should've used my saber sooner and covered you."

"Don't put this on yourself," her father put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "we were trying to keep a low profile and I'm just not as spry as I used to be."

"Speaking of which," Tae spoke up, "did you construct that lightsaber yourself?"

"No," Lop revealed as she pulled out the saber, "this has been in my family for generations. It was given to an ancestor of the Yasaburo clan by a jedi who retired on Tao and taught them lightsaber combat. It's been passed down from parent to child ever since."

"Kan is gonna love to hear that," the pilot commented as he examined the saber hilt. It was bronze and faded gold with most of the hilt having a ribbed section around the grip, save for a decorated section on one side. It had four curved protrusions around the bottom end with one of them resembling a curved cloud. A tsuba of sorts also decorated the area right below the emitter, acting almost like a small cross guard.

"Who's Kan," the rabbit girl asked with a tilt of her head.

"Someone who knows a lot more about jedi stuff than I do," Tae answered before the sound of the ship's intercom switching on drew his attention. Daizo's voice barked over the speakers then, informing the pilot of their current status. "Looks like we're about to arrive. RN, get Yasaburo cleaned up as best you can, we'll need to transport him to the medical bay once we dock."

"That's right, you never mentioned where we were going," Lop realized.

"The rendezvous point isn't much to look at," he admitted, "unless you've never been to space before."

"I haven't, actually," the lepi girl revealed with her hands behind her back while shyly rubbing her foot on the floor, "I've been aboard a few ships over the years but this is the first time I've left the Tao system."

"Oh, in that case come take a look," Tae invited as he headed up to the cockpit. Lop followed him after a moment's hesitation. Daizo gave a quick greeting to them without looking away from the controls as the pilot took his seat. The Tao girl stood behind them and held on to what she could as the ship came out of hyperspace.

Her eyes widened once the blue tunnel of hyperspace disappeared, being replaced by the most gigantic rocks she'd ever seen! "This is…an asteroid field," she realized, recalling some of her schooling back on Tao, "I never realized how…enormous space rocks could be."

"All the better in this case," Tae commented as he brought them around, quickly but carefully maneuvering the Grinning Gundark through the various asteroids. Soon enough, they came in sight of the small fleet which made Lop's eyes go wide again.

"You have that many ships," the rabbit girl gasped slightly as she took in the sight. There were a few hammerhead-shaped CR-90s along with a Gozanti cruiser and three Sphyrna-class corvettes sporting their trademark, angular vertical bows. And leading all of them was the rescue frigate Perseverance.

"We have a few," the pilot confirmed, "but it's not as impressive as you'd think. It's hardly a fraction of the capital ships the empire is currently capable of employing. Even after ten years it'd be unwise for us to try getting into a straight up fight with them."

"But you've fought the empire before, haven't you?" Lop asked in confusion.

"Oh we're more than capable of giving them trouble," Tae assured, "we just got to be smart about it." He would've said more but a beeping from his console alerted them to an incoming transmission.

"Grinning Gundark is that you," a man's voice asked as a communications officer appeared on the holopad.

"It's us Neebray Den," Tae confirmed, "transmitting codes now and sorry if we're running a little late."

"You're not late, don't worry," the comms officer assured, "the general's gonna be grouchy either way."

"What about Kan, is he back," the pilot questioned.

"Funny thing about that, he's going to be meeting you at the docking port," the man revealed, "don't know who you brought but they must be important."

"A potential student, I'm guessing," Tae responded, "but I hope he's ready to answer some questions because I got a few."

"He's ready and waiting for you," the officer informed, "hopefully with some good news."

"We'll find out," Tae sighed before the hologram went off.

"'Potential student'," Lop repeated, "Kan is some kind of teacher?"

"He'll teach if he needs too but it's not his favorite thing," Tae informed while angling the ship next to the Perseverance. "You'll understand once you meet him." The Lepi girl wasn't sure whether or not that was good news but decided to hold her remaining questions for the time being. The ship shook slightly then as it completed its docking.

Everyone got up and gathered in front of the airlock in short order, waiting a few moments for the seal to pressurize and fill with air before opening the mechanical door and proceeding onto the flagship. As promised, a man was waiting there for them wearing a brown cape and a hat that looked like a smaller version of Daizo's. "Tae, Daizo," the one likely known as Kan greeted by shaking each of their hands, "glad to see you made it back in one piece. I heard you ran into some trouble."

"They had a rapid response team waiting," Tae explained, "we were lucky they put us were they did. If we'd been in range of that Star Destroyer's tractor beam we would've had to come up with another plan."

"Odd the turbolasers didn't fire on your position," Kan mused.

"I can answer that," Yasaburo grunted as he walked forward with assistance from RN, "the imperials were given strict orders to take us alive, if possible. The rapid response team must've decided it wasn't possible after these two started shooting. Likewise, the fighters may have been trying to disable the ship and not destroy it, but that second one is just speculation."

"Which does bring up a few questions," Tae spoke up, "did you know that Lop was a jedi?"

"So that's your name," the Starfighter pilot turned to the Lepi girl and bowed to her in the traditional Tao fashion, "introductions first. My name is Kan Taro, I'm a jedi."

"You're a jedi," Lop's eyes widened before bowing, "pleased to meet you, I'm Lop."

"And I am Yasaburo," he introduced, though unable to bow due to his current condition.

"It's an honor meet you both," Kan nodded, "RN, go ahead and get him to medical, we've kept our injured guest here long enough. I'll send Lop along after a quick word." The Lepi girl glanced at her father who nodded before being guided down the hallway by the former commando droid. "And to answer your question Tae, no, I didn't know that she was a jedi, only that she was force sensitive."

"I'm actually not a jedi," Lop revealed sheepishly before showing her lightsaber to the man, "this lightsaber was given to my family generations ago. I only recently awakened to the force."

"So that's what I sensed," the jedi mused with a hand to his chin, "interesting. It's not unheard of for someone to awaken to the force later in life, though it is rare." He leaned forward then to examine her weapon. "And I recognize this style. Bronzium was more commonly used during an age when more artistic sabers were being created."

Daizo made a couple of remarks in his language. "Yes," Kan pulled out and ignited his own blue-bladed weapon, "a lightsaber is still a lightsaber and a fancy hilt doesn't make the blade any less effective. At some point the jedi simply decided it was best to appear more humble and started creating less ornate sabers." Indeed his own lightsaber wasn't the most artistic, consisting mainly of a silver cylinder, a large round emitter with ancient symbols circling the body beneath it and a rounded pommel at the end.

He deactivated the blade and held it out for Lop to take a better look at. "Amazing," Lop gazed at it in wonder, "I've never seen a modern lightsaber."

"Tao has been a peaceful planet for quite a long time," the jedi explained while clipping his saber back on his belt, "even during the Clone Wars its strategic value was seen as inconsequential. I can only assume the empire discovered its resource deposits after investigating it. Of course, even if it wasn't a resource-rich world the imperials would still try to stake a claim there."

"They've been there for seven years now," Lop's head drooped forward in sadness, "little by little the world is losing its beauty and being replaced by factories and mines. They're even making use of slave labor."

"You said as much when you asked us to get you out of there," Kan nodded while recalling what he'd read about the planet's conditions.

"Do you," she hesitated to ask, "Do you think you can help us, help free Tao?"

"Our combined firepower is more than enough for any single star destroyer," the jedi crossed his arms, "we could even handle the garrison on the planet. The trick will be keeping Tao free once all that is done. Even with jammed communications the empire will notice if one of its outposts fails to check in after an extended period of time or fails to meet its quota of mined resources."

"But Tao's also one of the least defended outposts we've come across," Tae pointed out, "at least as far as the presence of Star Destroyers goes. If we come up with the right plan we can deal with the imperials and come out ahead."

"If you've got a few ideas the general will love to hear them," Kan responded before turning back to Daizo, "would you mind showing our guest where the med bay and her quarters are going to be?" The Kyuzo nodded as the jedi turned to Lop. "Go check on your father and get settled in. The general will no doubt want to speak with you before long and when that happens, you'll have a choice to make."

"But I already want to fight for Tao," the Lepi girl stated in confusion, "What other choice would I make?"

"First, learn about the true magnitude of what we're up against," the jedi insisted, "believe me when I say, this is not a decision you want to make while ill-informed." Lop wanted to protest this statement but Kan's tone was not one that invited argument. So instead she nodded before following after Daizo.

"I doubt she's gonna change her mind," Tae commented as the two turned and headed towards the bridge. "I didn't."

"You know it's different for those of us who can use the force," Kan reminded, "if the emperor can't make use of us he'll kill us, it doesn't matter how little of a threat we pose. And since she revealed her lightsaber on Tao, it's very likely they're about to get a bit more attention."

"Merde, I forgot about that," the pilot cursed while rubbing the back of his head, "how long do you think it'll take for more company to show up in the outer rim?"

"Hard to say right now," the jedi answered while reaching out with the force, "but recently I've been feeling-."

"Kan!" A female voice interrupted him as the two looked over to see a friend approaching. At first glance one would mistake her for a human due to her long brown hair which fell below her neck, save for the two long strands in front of her shoulders, and her body type. But upon closer inspection one would note her pointed ears and pale, purple-blue skin, along with two red marks beneath her eyes. This denoted her as a Sephi, a humanoid species from the planet Thustra, which also explained the deviations in her outfit. It was a grey bodysuit with multiple blue markings on it including a blue arrow pointing downwards on her chest.

Her outfit also had large rolled up sleeves behind her gloves and black boots, similarly, decorated with blue lines. Since it accentuated her slender body no one would mistake her for the opposite sex, though unlike most of her species who were known to be tall and long fingered, this particular friend of Kan's was on the shorter side. "Lera," he greeted, "how long have you been back?"

"Since yesterday," she informed, stopping a few feet from them with her hands on her hips, "been running new slicing programs and doing checks on the Herald. And keeping DT entertained." As if on cue, a droid with a sideways facing oval body and two large curved fins attached to either side floated over her shoulder and excitedly circled around Kan.

"Hey, watch it," Tae barked while ducking under the floating ASN-121 Courier Droid, or rather former courier droid.

"Hey DT," Kan greeted, patting the brown and yellow droid right above the top part of its body as if he were stroking a dog's head, "you can't miss me already, I wasn't gone that long."

"You haven't set foot aboard the Herald for three days," Lera informed, "I know we needed to head separate directions for separate missions but try explaining that to DT." The droid turned to her and barked a few words in the form of electronic beeps. "And I reminded you repeatedly that Kan has flown far more dangerous missions."

"But since you're here perhaps you've got news that involves me getting back on the Herald?" He asked.

"Kota sent word to me a few minutes ago," Lera sighed, "there's something he wants us to investigate."

"Must be serious if he's sending us out right after I got back," Kan observed, "did he say anything specific about it."

"He sent the mission details to the Herald, we can go over it there," the Sephi informed, "but he did say one thing: there's a disturbance in the force."

"Never a good sign when he puts that in a message," the jedi crossed his arms, "and this mission just came in now?"

"It did," Lera nodded, "more than likely he's thinking the sooner we check it out, the better."

"Guess that's that then," Kan sighed before turning to Tae, "it looks like you'll be the one to introduce Lop and Yasaburo to everybody. Just remember the most important detail."

"Inform her that Rahm Kota doesn't know the meaning of the phrase 'good mood'," the pilot quipped.

"Good man," the force wielder nodded before turning and heading off with Lera and DT. Tae just shook his head. 'Maybe one of these days I'll understand all this force stuff, but today's not that day.' With that, the pilot continued on to the bridge, wondering what the general would need him to do next.

The Planet Tao: Imperial Landing Pad

"Is the loading near completion," Ocho barked while standing in front of the ship she'd be using for her pursuit: a Crusader-class Corvette. It was like many of the Imperial ships she'd studied after joining the empire and yet unique in a number of aspects. One of the things it had in common with other Imperial ships was that it looked fearsome with jagged lines and contours, its rectangular front sporting a bridge that angled out in a vertical triangle. Also like many imperial ships it was well-armed, possessing a chin-mounted dual laser cannon along with two more dual laser cannons on the top and bottom of its central body.

Ten point defense laser cannons, five on each side, stood ready to swat any and all nuisances away who attempted to approach the ship. But this was also how it differed from other Imperial vessels. While most were designed with the idea of large ship-to-ship combat or capital ship support in mind, this ship had been designed with the sole purpose of dealing with Starfighters and other corvette-sized vessels. It was also designed to be extremely fast, as evidenced by the four massive pipes, two on each side, which ran from the center of the ship back to its three rectangular engines which stood upward at vertical angles.

It would be an excellent pursuit craft, much better than scouring the nearby systems with just a thrown-together fleet of shuttles. "We estimate ten more minutes until all the necessary supplies are loaded," an officer with a datapad informed her, "the requested shuttles are loaded and ready to depart as soon as the Setsukon is cleared for takeoff."

"Good," Ocho tightened her fists that she was holding behind her back, "the sooner we leave the sooner-."

"Specialist Ocho," a smug voice called out, causing the female officer to tense, "you seem to have been quite busy in my absence." She turned to the source of the voice, a man in a white uniform top and black pants that denoted him as a member of the ISB. He stood out a bit more than most thanks to his hair falling over the left side of his face while the hair on the right side of his head had been shaved in such a way that it looked like black lines were running along it. He also sported a small goatee, black lines running from the sides of his eyes and green decorations on his ears that gave them a pointed quality.

In other words, he didn't look like the most pleasant of individuals. "Admiral Pheros," Ocho saluted, "I hadn't been informed of your return."

"Naturally, I haven't been back an hour and I insisted that I be the one to announce my return," Pheros smirked like he'd just caught her red handed, "where, might I ask, are you taking our new corvette?"

"I intend to patrol this and other nearby systems," she explained, "I regret to inform that the leaders of the terrorist cell managed to evade capture and escape off-planet. I intend to take full responsibility for this and bring them in pers-."

"Ordinarily I'd chastise you for not getting authorization to perform such an action," her commanding officer put his hands behind his back before walking past her slightly, "but as the officer left in charge and not expecting my return until tomorrow, I can overlook it. And as luck would have it, we've been ordered to do exactly what you were about to do."

"We've been ordered to patrol the system?" Ocho surmised in confusion, "has the escapee's capture been made a high priority?"

"In a manner of speaking," Pheros hummed, "it came to my attention that a system-wide alert had been sent out, though you neglected to contact me directly. But it just so happened that the ship and crew who assisted the terrorists in escaping are actually part of a known rebel cell who's been responsible for multiple attacks against the empire over the last few years. ISB command suspects that they may be in this sector of the outer rim. Of course, in this particular instance it wouldn't matter what we suspect."

"Why is that?" The imperial girl asked.

"Because," Pheros held out his hand as two figures clad in black approached, "they claim to know that our enemies are close by." Ocho's eyes widened as she took in the two figures, noting the distinct weapons hanging on their belts. She'd heard the rumors and other wild stories but never thought them to be much more than Imperial conspiracy theories. But they were real, and they were here now: Inquisitors.

And there you have it, events have begun to unfold and two forces shall soon collide in the Outer Rim! Which is another way of saying there will be a bit more action next chapter since this one served as more of a setup chapter. Even so I hope you all enjoyed it and as always feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters! Also, don't forget to check out my Pat reon for news and other little goodies! Last thing, stop in next time as our heroes encounter a strange sight on a tropical world and learn of its implications! 'Til then.