I arrived on Radnor literally two days later. Lora had already started moving, searching for the group working for the Black Sun. Which meant I'd have to join her. What kind of planet was Radnor? It was located on the Corellian Run, in the Mid Rim, Deimar Sector.
Radnor
Ayubendo
The planet was covered in seas, and on a single continent there were two cities: Ayubendo and Takto, which were classified as city-states, but the sector still had just one senator. The position alternated — one term the senator would come from Ayubendo, the next from Takto. The politics of this planet didn't really concern me at the moment. I vaguely remembered some story connected to Anakin Skywalker.
But that was still far off, and the story could only develop with him once he became a Padawan. That was a long way away. The version of the galaxy far, far away I'd ended up in was, more or less, the classic one. Though Feemor himself was slightly older than his canonical prototype, as was Qui-Gon, most likely. But I hadn't found any other major differences, so I wasn't counting on Anakin appearing here. Besides, I would have known all about it by now. So, with no Chosen One around, and knowing that nothing too extraordinary would happen on the planet — I calmly landed my ship at the Ayubendo spaceport. The only sign that things weren't entirely simple was Lora's Dreadnaught hanging in orbit.
It was hovering near a defense space station and two Dreadnaughts with five Gozanti-class cruisers from the planetary defense forces. The planet was clearly not poor. The Radnorans made a living by creating high-tech weaponry. The inhabitants lived mostly in the cities or urban settlements. The density and height of the buildings didn't quite reach the level of recognized ecumenopolises, but it was still impressive. The tallest buildings were over twenty, and sometimes fifty, stories. The economy was based on exporting things like EMP bombs, stun batons — like the one I'd seen in one terrible movie, number seven, which had recently, through some misunderstanding, become "somewhat canonical to Star Wars" they also produced electrostaffs, vibro-swords, and upgraded blasters.
Of course, the weapons produced on this planet fell into the "elite" category. Weapons in the galaxy far, far away are divided into two blurry types. The first is mass-produced weapons that almost any sentient can afford, naturally without fear of having a means of causing lethal harm to other living beings registered in their name. Though there are also weapons where the registration number has been "tampered with," or not entered at all, like that G8 rifle I'd been sporting a couple of days ago. And then there are elite weapons, which they either make for very wealthy clients, or for themselves. And while the laws of the Senate and the Republic can control the creation of such means… Well, it's like the capital ships that Kuat builds for themselves and wealthy clients.
Forbidden, of course, it's forbidden. But if you really want to… you can. Especially if you can sponsor the oversight committee from the Senate. A Jedi is rarely bribed; not all of us have such obvious weaknesses as a fondness for credits. Asceticism is drilled into us, even into titular aristocrats like me — by origin, I belong to the so-called "court nobles," a family that "has the right to serve an entire King." Unlike aristocrats who truly possess power by right of birth, like Dooku. He's actually the son of Count Sereno and could, in fact, lay claim to the governance of that planet. But for a certain time, as a Jedi, he couldn't care less about power. Though you'd think… The fact of your origin, your family, and so on. But no… And even those Jedi who come from the poorest strata of the population are almost never bribed. Cases happen, but they aren't statistically significant. We have far more problems with ideology and actions taken within its framework. We're the shining knights for all that is good, against all that is bad. And what's the result? Rampant crime, corruption among our fellow senators and others, the slave trade, resurgent organized crime… And yet we don't even always have the right to intervene!
Okay... I've already thought this through a thousand times. A lot of people understand that "something needs to be done here!" Either reforms, or war with some sectors. You can already hear notes of discontent. Notes that will lead us to many wars. Which conflicts are closest? First and foremost — the Stark Hyperspace War. Iaco Stark is already a fairly well-known smuggler, sometimes a pirate and bandit. In some ways he's similar to Gaven Hornly in the lore. More precisely — Stark initially positioned himself as someone who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Of course, it's not as clean as it might have seemed. Which is why, incidentally, I never believed Laura's words that Gaven was "a fair man who wants to rid the Galaxy of the 'Black Sun.'"
Truly a "fair-minded sentient." And the fact that he once worked for Dalridn, who was a Vigo of the Black Sun and loved to eliminate his competitors by dunking them in fuel tanks that were mined on Malastare. That fuel was incredibly toxic, even for the monsters from that planet called Zillo beasts. "Cute little creatures" nearly a hundred meters tall, next to whom the rancors I trained with are just little children. In short, I didn't trust Gaven and was preparing to eliminate him... And what to do with Iaco Stark? I could find him easily and perform the same operation on him — body here, head there, about five meters away.
And no one would do anything to me — Yako is an outlaw, ran into me by accident, I put the poor bastard down. But no, killing him now, in my opinion, would be premature. The problem is that Yako's actions will trigger a cascade of various events that are beneficial to a sentient of my worldview. The Stark conflict will bring Ranulf Tarkin into the light, the cousin of that very Wilhuff Tarkin and a militarist. Sure, he died, in some sense, like an idiot, this Ranulf Tarkin. But in another sense, not so much. But there's an undeniable upside — the Militarist faction got a strong reason to push for army reforms.
And the Republic needs an army. It really needs one... And this isn't about Sidious or even the Yuuzhan Vong. No... The essence of any state is the monopoly on violence. And the army is part of that monopoly. Crime is so rampant in large part because neither the police nor the army can simply fly in and blast the criminals with everything they've got. These scumbags, like Alexi Garyn, or Gaven Hornly, Kabra, Jabba the Hutt, the Pyke Syndicate, and countless other organizations — they understand this perfectly. So they do whatever they please. But — the reform of the security forces, which will begin with the Stark Hyperspace War and essentially end with the formation of the GAR — will help us, will help the whole Republic.
So I'll let this conflict play out, even though I could nip it in the bud. Speaking of nipping things in the bud... My own actions have essentially kicked off a conflict of nearly comparable scale. Only among criminal syndicates. And I intend to use it — destroy Alexi Garyn, or beat the Black Sun's information out of him. I'll decide what to do with him when we meet, but for now I'm thinking — kill Garyn and inject a virus into his organization's network that would spy for me. Then I need to eliminate an unknown variable — my temporary allies from PMC Luna. To me, they were no better than the Black Sun. Laura can believe whatever she wants about Gaven Hornly, but he's the same kind of scum as all the other criminals. The same Alexi Garyn, who's now something like an executioner for the Vigo Council — he's done plenty of dirty work, along with his associates. Gaven, who worked for Dalridn, is just as tainted. As for what to do with the Hutts. And what can I do with them right now? This requires a full-scale military campaign, with a fleet of line ships, cruisers, small craft, escort vessels. Full logistics by the logic of war. And it'd be good to Base Delta Zero their bases, in that scenario, but no — even if that scenario came up, I'd be asked to "take the bases by storm," which would also require full-scale assault units.
Well, to destroy the Black Sun completely would require the same thing. But PMC Luna would take far less effort. So they can be dealt with afterward, but first — our showdown with the Black Sun. While I was thinking through all these twists and turns, I reached a small building in the industrial sector of Ayubendo. The building was five stories tall, and according to the information I'd obtained, it used to house a speeder and droid manufacturing facility. I'd been supplied with intel on where a Black Sun cell was located, and Laura had headed there too — I hadn't managed to contact her because she'd already started the operation and was in radio silence.
Suddenly, explosions rang out from the roof.
"Looks like she's having fun up there," I said, clearly sensing Laura's moving aura above. She was definitely fighting and... yeah, she was using a jetpack, firing at someone with both hands. Hopefully she won't kill all ten people currently fighting against her. And her group was there too, fighting alongside her. Well then... I need to get up there quickly. Using a grappling hook, I jumped first to the first floor, then to the second, third, fourth, and after clearing the last one, I soared above the roof. Briefly, though. But it was enough to analyze the situation. Laura's soldiers were outnumbered by the Black Sun's soldiers. And the Mandalorian's troops were clearly losing. Laura herself was fighting professionally, killing three enemies — one of them just as I rose into the air.
Time for some fun. Using the grappling hook, I pulled myself onto the roof, activating my lightsaber.
"What the fuck?" one of Laura's soldiers asked. I stood with my back to them, clearly showing I wasn't their enemy. The Black Sun also stopped firing, obviously realizing they'd run into a Jedi.
"You — what are you doing here?" Laura appeared nearby, landing on her jetpack.
"Is that your version of 'hello'?" I asked Laura. "Chatting in the middle of a fight isn't the best idea. But I can tell you this — I've made a temporary agreement with Gaven Hornly. I guess you didn't get the message."
"I was told about a new ally, but I thought Gaven had convinced the Hutts to join, or brought in someone from outside, but that it was you..."
"Still unexpected, I take it," I said, studying the Black Sun fighters. Six of them were on their feet and ready for battle. The fight had just started — three had been killed, one more wounded. Which of them would know the most? Using my sensory perception, I tried to find the one with the better equipment. And I found him. A human male, with red, curly hair and a well-built physique. So — keep him alive, eliminate the rest. I took a step...
"Stop, Jedi! Don't come closer!" They opened fire. I charged, deflecting their shots on the move. Throwing grenades? I deflected those with telekinesis. Closing in on the first thug, I slashed him across the torso, dodged the second one's shot, threw my activated lightsaber from my left hand at the third, and pulled the second one with the Force, using him as a shield against incoming fire. I threw the commander against the building's superstructure, knocking him unconscious. Only one remained. The enemy I'd thrown my lightsaber at had been killed by it. I pulled the second saber back to me.
"No... no... no... no, please!" the man screamed, dropping his weapon. I started walking toward him, then stopped. A blaster bolt cut through the air, hit him, and killed him.
"What was that for?" I asked, deactivating my sabers and looking at Laura.
"Well, you're a Jedi, and you're not supposed to kill unarmed people, right?" the woman remarked, landing beside me.
"We have a Jedi fighting for us," one of her warriors said reverently. "This is very good."
"Don't be so naive," Laura said loudly. "He's not a permanent ally. And..." I sensed her irritation. I'm sure she was grimacing under her helmet. "He's clearly the type who'll use allies, even behind their backs."
"You're still mad about my 'strategic trick'?" I asked her, pulling the red-haired commander toward me with telekinesis and holding him in front of us.
"Of course! You used me and my company!"
"Oh come on, Laura," I shrugged. "No one got hurt."
"Except my reputation," she hissed.
"Look, you're not some civil servant caught taking bribes by a journalist. You just lost face in front of your soldiers. I'm sure a couple of raids against the Black Sun and everyone will forget about my trick and how you fell for it. Won't they? And yeah, we don't have time for settling scores. We have a prisoner here, by the way, waiting to be interrogated..."
"We'll revisit this," she promised.
"Yeah, we'll have a drink after all this, we'll talk..."
"I'm not drinking with you!" she snorted, turning away. "Come on, bring him around," the Mandalorian demanded.
"Why me?"
"Because you're the one who slammed him into the superstructure, so you know how to wake him up."
Fine, fine... I pulled an ammonia analogue from my medkit and floated it to his nose with telekinesis. The man twitched and opened his eyes.
"YOU!"
"Yep," I said, putting the bottle away. "Us."
"Kkh," he grimaced, clearly reacting to the smell in his nose. "What do you want?"
"Gurzer Nzeur," Laura introduced the man to me. "Wanted in five systems: torture, murder, pedophilia, kidnapping, and, just a little bit, spice trafficking. Here he's a scout working for an acquaintance of Alexi Garyn, who was flying with him to fight us."
"Acquaintance?"
"A certain Mighella," Laura said.
"Hmm. She's a Dathomirian witch. I don't like them. One of them got my mentor killed," because of my stupidity, I admit. "So, Gurzer. You're Alexi's spy, so you must know where he and his fleet are now."
"Go fuck a Hutt, you goddamn Jedi!" the thug cursed, spitting. I caught his spit and sent it back into his face.
"Do you really think we're going to be polite with you here?" I asked Gurzer. "Spill everything you know. And you'll end up in a Republic prison, instead of with Gaven Hornly..."
"What, you're not ashamed to buddy up with that piece of shit Hornly, are you, Jedi? I remember him from the Black Sun — he's a real scumbag who stabs everyone in the back." Laura's emotions flared up hard at that, and I even had to put a hand on her back, "cooling her down a bit." "You know about him, don't you, Laura? I bet he introduced himself to you as a hero who thinks of the Outer Rim's people like his own children. In reality, he's just a traitor. Dalridn, his boss in the Black Sun, lost to Kabra. That's it. And Hornly just wants revenge, to snatch a bigger piece of our organization for himself. But Alexi will put him in his place, heh heh heh... You even allied with the Jedi to find him. But it won't help you! You can kill me, but it won't change the outcome. Alexi will come for you, he'll come and he'll kill you!"
"So much melodrama," I sighed, pulling a dose of a drug from my pouch. "I guess I'll have to make you talk..." Damn it... That feeling. In an instant, I shoved Laura and her warriors away with telekinesis. A volley of rockets hit us — from what I could tell, nurses (Author's note: unguided aircraft missiles. The official name is 'nar,' but Light calls them 'nurses'). I jumped back myself, holding Gurzer with telekinesis.
Enemy? Looking toward the position where the nurses came from — I had to absorb the explosion with Tutaminis — I noticed a Theta-class shuttle.
Generally, its standard armament is only laser cannons, but it can be modified. And this one had nurses mounted. Soldiers with jetpacks flew out of the shuttle's interior. A Hutt, everything just changed. There are fourteen of them, plus we're standing on the surface and our formations haven't scattered, so the shuttle pilot can fire without worrying about hitting his own. However... I absorbed a lot of energy using Tutaminis on the explosion, so pointing my hand at the soldiers that had just flown out, I hit them with Force Lightning, which split into many branches. The enemies were about seventy meters away, and the shuttle itself was a hundred meters from us. The lightning reached the soldiers, and I heard screams of pain and terror as it hit part of them.
"NK, do you copy?" I'd activated him shortly before visiting this building. I had ordered him to take a sniper position on the neighboring building, and now I was getting involved in the conflict.
"Joyful: Master, I have detected many flying meatbags."
"Excellent. Destroy everyone except the Mandalorian Laura — her signature is uploaded into you. Don't touch the surviving soldiers on the roof. Don't kill the ones I knocked out."
"Joyful: It will be done, Master. Mild regret: It's a pity I cannot eliminate them all."
NK started picking off enemies, while I decided to focus on the shuttle. They'll regret this... A bang rang out. I dodged a bullet from a kinetic sniper rifle, but I didn't have time to pull Gurzer away with telekinesis. The man's head exploded from the impact of a round from a local analogue of the SVD.
"Incredible audacity," I hissed angrily, watching a warrior in Mandalorian armor take flight. Throwing Gurzer's body onto the roof, I decided to focus on eliminating the Mandalorian, whom Laura was already charging at. Her soldiers and NK engaged the troops that had disembarked from the shuttle. And the pilot in the shuttle, it seemed, was preparing another volley of nurses. He fired — the rockets streaked toward the roof... Heavenly Palm... I used the technique through my right eye, spending a charge. Swapping places with the rocket that had just been launched, I attached myself to the shuttle with my grappling hook, then used my lightsaber to get inside. Inside, there were no turrets or other crew members. The pilot clearly had no idea what had happened. I took advantage of that, entering his cockpit.
"What the—" he only had time to turn in his seat before I activated my lightsaber and ended his life with one swing.
"I'm expropriating this," I said, shoving the man aside with telekinesis and sitting down at the shuttle's controls. Let's see... Quickly studying the ship's control panel, I steered it toward Laura, who was flying further and further away, and the Mando who had interrupted my interrogation. Laura was firing at him, and he was firing back. "Laura, it's me, I'm in the shuttle, don't fire at me."
The woman understood. I made it look like I was going to attack Laura, then sharply pulled the ship upward. Distracted by Laura, who was pressing him hard, the Mandalorian didn't immediately grasp the essence of my plan. I brought the shuttle right across his path. He didn't have time to react and slammed into the shuttle's nose at a decent speed. A funny sound... I immediately snagged him with telekinesis, and Laura knocked out his jetpack. About five minutes later, we landed the shuttle and the assassin on one of the roofs... And had to explain ourselves to the Ayubendo police. However, once they learned I was a Jedi conducting an operation, they decided not to make a big fuss. Plus — the building was abandoned and no civilians were hurt. Though they did demand that we clear out of their territory.
We conducted the interrogation of Gunos — that's what the Mandalorian called himself, whose armor bore the Black Sun symbol — already on Laura's dreadnought. He put up just as much of a fight as Gurzer had. But this time, no one interfered, so I injected the drug, and Gunos drifted off.
He told us that Alexi had decided to fake an attack on Tatooine. The Corellian Run led to it in part. It was only partially logical. The most logical thing would have been to destroy Gaven Hornly, who, according to rumors, was on Rishi, or in the Rishi system. But...
"We reeeceived a reeeport," Gunos said, his eyes glazed as he stared at us. "He heeeaded there... The Deeeeath Wind Corridor."
"That can't be, they found out," Laura said, shocked. "But how? Who gave you the report... Hey, what are those tattoos, Light?!"
Strange tattoos were spreading across his skin, glowing with an ominous green light. And the Force emanating from them... That can't be.
"Laura, run!" I grabbed the woman, opened the door, and jumped out of the cell with her in my arms. An explosion rang out... Later, standing inside, I noted that the cell walls were bent inward, and blood and the remains of Gunos were splattered all over the room.
"What was that?"
"That's what Mighella did to him. She placed... something like a mark that would destroy him if he talked too much about a certain topic. It's..."
"Ritualistic," Revan said, appearing beside me. "A ritual at the intersection of Sith and Dathomirian witch knowledge. Removing the seal with your current abilities would have been impossible. Even I would have had to be in my physical form. It seems that in your time, there are still some scraps of knowledge that would be better forgotten."
I relayed Revan's verdict to Laura.
"Good news — they can't put such seals on everyone. Bad news — we know he intends to use the Death Wind Corridor. What even is that? A hyperlane?"
"Yes," Laura confirmed my guess. "A secret hyperlane running from Ryloth to the planet Roon. Alexi somehow found out where Gaven's base was... He also learned about this route..."
"But Ryloth is deep in Hutt territory. In this conflict, how does he plan to get there? From the name, it sounds like the route is dangerous and the slightest deviation could lead to death..."
"Even among the Hutts, not everyone supports war with the Black Sun," she grimaced amusingly, looking at Gunos's remains. "A prominent supporter is Jabba, but there's also Dengo Hutt, his distant relative. He supposedly had ties with the Black Sun. Dengo currently controls part of Ryloth's trade."
"Where does this hyperlane start from..."
"Besides," Laura continued, "the Hutts aren't interested in us getting off lightly. Ideally, they'd want Alexi and Gaven to destroy each other."
"That's not surprising," I said as we left the cell. "Scum like them only know the word 'honor' from children's fairy tales. Come on, Laura. If that's the case, then Alexi's fleet is on its way to Ryloth, and we'll head there, wait... And do whatever it takes to win."