NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2644446" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 287: More Interesting Than PlannedKuat. The ugly sphere sat there in the small star system on the edge of the Core with an artificial metallic ring of shipyards in orbit above its equator. Ships were everywhere, as were random pieces of half-built ships, so much so that it felt like there was more traffic here than Coruscant could have ever managed.    And it all looked the same. Near three...no, nearly five years and still that damned planet looked the same. Jyren could close his eyes and see the view of the planet from the cockpit of the old X-Wing. He could see Mare’s X-Wing off to the side at his wing, and the sensor board alight with TIEs on their way in. Was it really that long ago?! It was almost terrifying how quickly it could all come back with a simple closing of the eyes...    “Hellooooo...? Jyren, wake up. This is no time to go all glazed over,” Shadow’s voice snapped him out of the odd moment a little too quickly.    His eyes shot open to see a hand wave in front of his face and he nearly jumped into it out of surprise. Thankfully, he managed to grip the seat and shake off the memories. Taking a deep breath, Jyren sat back and tried not to focus too much on the view that was far too similar to the one all those years before, “Hm? What is it?”    Shadow was giving him a careful look, but pointed out the viewport to the planet, “I sent a signal to the place that the message originated from in the shipyard ring. Loki’s locked onto their beacon, but this place is a mess...”    “You want me to fly him in manually?” Jyren asked after a moment.    There was a strange sound in his mind that almost could have been Loki trying to say something...but Jyren knew full well that it was impossible to hold a Kanyak’s mouth shut as it spoke for the simple reason that they didn’t have mouths. Either way, it had that sound to it. But Shadow simply nodded.    Something was up...Jyren was sure of it. Yet, for some reason that was completely beyond him, he shrugged it off and sat forward to take the relatively unfamiliar control yoke. Though he had never actually taken direct control of Loki, from the looks of it the controls were pretty much the same as every ship anywhere in the galaxy was. The yoke worked the same, and the few switches and interesting looking bubbles that were probably some form of gauges or buttons likely were the same too, it simply too figuring out which was which. And, thankfully, Jyren had the help of the link which gave him access to Shadow’s knowledge of all the workings...and it was all very easily accessible. More so than anything usually was through the link.    Shadow sighed quietly to herself and sat back to watch the approaching planet. They’d just gotten past Jyren’s problems with his old wingmate and this was not the time for them to reappear. No, Loki wasn’t particularly happy about being painted as an idiot, but Shadow had given him a sharp talk and the ship had complied. Now, according to the whining in the back of her head, Loki was stuck being assault by a barrage of questions from Tobias, who was now awake and, as usual, wild. But at least he was contained for now. That little brat was just one more thing to worry about and Shadow still couldn’t believe that Jyren had talked her into bringing him along.    But it seemed that the crisis had been averted. With a little help from the Force, she had managed to keep Jyren’s mind away from any questions he’d normally have asked. Sure, it was manipulative, but it could have been worse. He could have gone back into his childish state and hidden himself both in the Force and from the link again. Maybe, finally, they could track down whatever this was that was going on.    “They didn’t say anything else?” Jyren asked as the ring of shipyards grew much larger in the relatively small viewport ahead of them.    Shadow blinked, then realized what he was talking about, and answered, “Nothing...well, nothing except the usual ‘we’re so glad you’ve stopped by’ and other talk that most of these administrators try.”    Jyren sighed and shook his head, “I’m not sure I like that.”    It didn’t take much effort to pick up on his train of thought. Thinking out loud, she said, “Whatever it is, it hasn’t been delivered. Probably not finished either. I used the confirmation code we found.”    “You actually remembered that?!” his voice didn’t hide any shock at that, nor did his face.    Shadow grinned and shrugged, “It looked important. But either way, it means whatever we’re looking for is probably still here. And...”    “...and Jen might be, too,” Jyren finished. That sure sounded good, but something was bugging him. When he figured it out, and after maneuvering Loki around some of the nearby space junk, Jyren asked, “We should know already if she’s there, Shady.”    “Not necessarily,” she said quietly after a short while, quietly watching the large mass of shipyards encompass their view. There were so many different things out there, half finished hulls of ships and beat up pieces of junk that were being dismantled, that it was hard to tell the ships that were moving in to the ones that were going out. Glancing back to Jyren, she went on, “This entire thing is a longshot. You know as well as I do that she should be dead. But...this chance that she’s not feels very dangerous. And...and if she can survive that fall on Nar Shaddaa, I don’t think hiding from us here would be very difficult.”    “You think she knows we’re here?” he asked, finally entering the main bulk of the Kuati Division 37B-9 Shipyard where they had been headed the entire time. It was not the circular tube-like thing that Jyren had encountered years earlier...those were mainly only used to built the great capital starships. This reminded the both of them more of an old Golan Orbital Battery, and it may have well been an old converted one. A spire in the sky, with a huge, main section on its ‘top’ like the great floating cities that populated so many gas giants throughout the galaxy.    “No, I’m not saying that,” Shadow said as Jyren brought Loki in to the docking bay that was now straight ahead of them, slowing the ship down carefully and getting the angle just right. Shadow looked a bit closer and noted a large number of figures scattered in the bay that looked to be just barely large enough for Loki to set down in, “But someone sure knows we’re here.”    “What do you mean by that?” that question caused him a momentary glance away from what he was doing, and normally that would have meant flying straight into the edge of the docking bay thanks to the lack of a tractor beam. However, at this point Loki very carefully cut in to make sure this didn’t happen. He was smart enough to do so just gently enough that Jyren still didn’t notice.    Shadow nodded back out to the figures that were station all around the grey and blue docking bay they were slowly entering, “There’s about thirty security troops out there and all of them are holding blaster rifles...” trailing off, Shadow allowed herself a grin, “This may get more interesting than just talking with some boring administrator after all.”</blockquote>

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