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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2766892" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 307: The Dark SideEverywhere in the galaxy there were stories about the smuggler and pirate hubs that were cobbled together and held in one piece more by luck than anything else. It was hard not to hear about these kind of places, and while it was assumed some did, in fact, exist few ever actually confirmed this. Jyren had, up to this point, never been sure of it...but obviously Shadow had, considering she’d given the coordinates and done the flying herself, despite some complaining from Loki that he could do it himself and he remembered exactly where it was thankyouverymuch.    It didn’t even require a hyperspace jump, which was probably part of the reason that Loki got annoyed. Lately, he didn’t get to do much flying anymore. Sure there was the adrenaline(or whatever Kanyaks had) rush on Hoth, but that was pretty much it. But Shadow was being surprisingly stubborn, and Loki was forced to give in. It was almost worrying to Jyren, as she was getting back into her old ways of dealing with people. From before...before...before everything had changed.    “I’m fine, Jyren,” Shadow said without even turning to look at him.    “Yeah, but—“    Shadow cut him off before he even knew what the rest of his sentence was going to be, “This isn’t Nar Shaddaa and this isn’t Ord Mantell. You need to keep your mouth shut here and let me do the talking.”    “Right, right,” Jyren nodded, deciding that she knew best at this point and not really wanting an argument anyway, “Stand there and look tough. I know the drill.”    “No,” Shadow shook her head, “Just keep up and keep your eyes open. This is the last place you want to try and look tough.”    Jyren’s tail flicked to the side in annoyance, but he could tell she wasn’t lying. Still, he asked the dumb question, “Its really that bad?”    “It might be,” she responded, this time glancing to him with her old emotionless face before nodding forward, “Look in the moon’s shadow carefully.”    After one last long look at the side of her face, Jyren turned and attempted to peer into the blackness where Shadow was mentally pointing. He couldn’t see anything but black. It was a hard thing to accept the fact that there weren’t even any stars in the view, but after so long in space, one got used to the actual emptiness of the whole thing. But still...through the Force there was a faint...a faint something.    “I can’t see anything,” Jyren mumbled to himself before taking a quick glance behind him, where Tobias was sitting and playing with some of his small, Dragon-shaped toys. At least he was being manageable for once.    Shadow nodded and smiled finally, “Exactly.”    It made sense. They were still in the Sluis system, with the shipyard planet of Sluis Van only on the other side of the system’s single, orange star. They were farther out in the system and heading around one of the medium sized rocks that orbited the star. This particular planet was red and covered in craters, but it was the moon that their attention was set on...the boring, dead looking moon. Somewhere back there was that station, in likely in a stationary orbit to keep it behind both the planet and the moon that did not orbit its mother planet. Cover after cover after cover...it made too much sense.    And now the moon was filling most of the view, yet Jyren still couldn’t see any space station...or even an installation on the moon’s surface. Just nothing. Jyren bit back a question, but Shadow wasn’t a fool. She picked up on it right away and, as she started to slow Loki down, said simply, “I still remember the way in. Don’t worry about that part.”    “Oh, good,” Jyren sighed, “When should I start worrying?”    Shadow smiled warmly before turning back to the viewport and making a few careful adjustments, “Well, they probably won’t be too happy to see me. I’d expect at least ten armed guards. Last time they even had a few disrupter pistols! Made for some very, very interesting times there. I’d suggest doing all your worrying now so you can enjoy it when it starts.”    Silence. Well...no. There were ‘rawrs’ and other noises from behind them as Toby somehow managed to entertain himself. It was a fact they didn’t even speak of over the link, for fear of calling in fate and ruining the relative peace it provided.    Then, as Shadow’s grin began to grow even more, Jyren glared at her and grumbled, “That wasn’t funny.”    Right on cue, Shadow started to laugh, a sound that was still rare but was very nice to hear in Jyren’s opinion...despite the fact that she was being evil. When the laughing stopped, though, she said through the grin, “Oh, it was, Jyren...”    Something about the way she said that...    “You’re serious, aren’t you?!” Jyren yelped, “They actually use disrupter pistols?!”    “I believe I saw a rifle or two, also...” Shadow said before trailing off and putting her ‘I’m working, leave me alone’ face on.    It left Jyren to remember the only disrupter pistol he’d ever seen. It had been roughly the size of a normal blaster pistol, but sleek in design and much more angular. There was no barrel, per se, but definitely an end from which the weapon shot out whatever it was that was shot out. He’d never actually seen the thing fired, but he knew what they did. Blasters, essentially, burned...it was why there was always a horrible, ozone like smell around after a shootout. But disrupters...supposedly they tore apart their target at the molecular level. Those were the pistols at least...Jyren had only heard stories about the rifles. Stories that he definitely preferred to forget. They were illegal for a reason, and most had been phased out well over fifty standard years earlier.    And then he noticed something. The empty blackness around them had a bit more...colour to it. A silvery sheen here and a greyish tone there. After a moment of his brain compiling the information, the view was put together. Not only was the station in the shadow of both a planet and a moon, but it was coated by...by something.    Again, Shadow picked up on the thoughts as they approached the darkness that was now starting to surround them completely, “Stygian-triprismatic polymer, if I remember right.”    Jyren blinked. At first it meant nothing to him, but he started to dig through memories...then, “Wasn’t that Imperial stuff? Kind of like a fake cloaking device?”    “Something like that,” Shadow said just as Jyren started to notice that they were in a hangar. It was dark, yes, but he could see a couple of other ships and a few people moving around here and there, “Helps to decrease the sensor detection. Its why you have to fly in blind.”    “Thank you for not telling me that until now,” Jyren said with a sigh.    Shadow smiled and shrugged as Loki set down and began to power most of his unneeded systems down, “There’s a few other things I haven’t told you that you’ll appreciate later. I’d suggest carrying a weapon or three...they know me, but its always a good idea to keep some protection if you’re a new face...” she paused, let out a deep breath, then got up and said very quietly, “Stick to close to me in here. We’re going to get in, acquire the weapons, and then get out.”    “Acquire?” Jyren raised an eyebrow, “I know we don’t have any credits, but these really don’t seem like the kind of people you steal from...”    “I’m calling in the last favors I’ve got left,” Shadow said before telling Loki to make sure Toby didn’t leave the ship and to stay locked up while they were gone. She then looked to Jyren and added, “The weapons will probably help, too...oh, and you might as well bring what valuables you’re willing to part with just in case.”</blockquote>

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