Caster was not a nice planet, Jyn reflected on it as her Tramp Freighter (The “Blue moon Wandering”) entered the atmosphere of the industrial world.

While the planet was at a decent distance from its red star, the atmosphere was thick enough to still make the planet swelteringly warm from the perspective of anyone who didn’t grow up on a desert planet.

The planet technically was called Caster-three, but Caster-one and Caster-two were completely inhospitable so the third planet became the primary colony of the system and so it got the same name as the system.

Landing in Caster’s capital city, Jyn paid the docking fee and headed away from her awkwardly shaped ship. She had instructed her crew to begin selling cargo, but not to take on anything new. That would likely take too long and she was making preparations for if there would be trouble.

She had a strong suspicion that something was very wrong with this job. She trusted the client about as much as she could but that didn’t mean there wasn’t danger involved in this.

Bodyguarding and escort services was something that she did often enough. Generally it was for those that the empire had grown angry at and who wanted a quick getaway. Either that or aliens that the empire had decided no longer belonged on one of their so-called precious worlds.

She’d even done a job like this before, keeping a young maid who’d learned too much of her noble boss’s secret dealings safe.

Heading out into the smog-filled industrial city, she thought more about the planet. Caster was one of the planets known for creating much of the empire’s war supplies. Many of the empire’s Imperator-Class Dreadnoughts would have been constructed here, or in the planet’s atmosphere more likely. She’d seen some massive orbital shipyards on her way in.

She checked her communicator. She was meeting up with her client at a small dive bar called “Prime Star” managed by a local criminal syndicate. The plan was simple, get there, find out what he actually found and then get to the spaceport. If there were no problems, he could settle into the ship while they took on more cargo. If there was trouble then they’d likely have to make an emergency take-off.

“Of course, doing any of that requires me actually reading the map properly.” She muttered to herself, looking at her datapad which had the map up on it.

She muttered to herself before finally deciding to ask for directions.

She knew what to look for when it came to criminals, look for the big and buff guy who not only looked completely out of place but who looked to be judging the people he was looking at.

Oh wait no. That was the undercover cops.

No, look for the lean man, the thin man who hasn’t eaten enough but who still looks at you like he knows how to kill you.

Strolling up to one such man, she leaned over slightly.

“Could you tell me the way to Prime Star?”

“Prime Star? Sure, I can give you directions.”

Apparently the criminals here were of more responsible stock, as he didn’t even try to send her into a trap. She had just been given actual directions. It still took her about half an hour to reach her destination though.

It was near the city center, but all of the buildings on this street looked improperly cared for. Well, everywhere in this city looked something like that, but the people in these buildings hadn’t even tried to wash the dust and grime off. 

The Prime Star’s name was projected over it by an old hologram projector that was flickering slightly. It seemed to be afflicted by the same decay that had this whole street in a vice grip.

As Jyn headed down into the underground bar, the smell assaulted her. Cheap alcohol and smoke from pipes. 

Frowning, Jyn tapped her belt to check if her addiction of choice was there. It was, but it was too early to take a dose now. 

…But she really wanted it. It would give her the confidence for this. She might not be strong enough without it.

She breathed out. No, she didn’t need it yet. She could put it off until later.

Jyn continued walking down the steps into the dingy bar.

The odor grew until it was all that she could smell. Her other senses were quickly overloaded too, her vision was filled with the dozens of hologram projectors that the wide bar had. It was more of a club than just a bar. There was a large stage on one side whose punk band was filling the air with music.

She headed over to a staff member. He probably worked for the criminals in charge here and would likely know where her client was. She asked for him by the pseudonym he’d told her to use.

“Is a ‘Mr. Ricky’ here?”

The tall bouncer-looking man gave her an appraising look.

“You meant to be Jim? I expected a man.”

“Jyn.” She corrected “But yes, I’ll assume you just misheard.”

The man scratched his head before sighing.

“...screw it. Sure.” The man nodded “Mr. Ricky is this way.”

He led her into a back room, the walls had just enough soundproofing on them that the music was dulled into just thumping. Within the room was a table, and two wide sofas to sit on.

Her client sat on the sofa further from the door, likely because he wouldn’t have been able to watch the door as easily from the other sofa.

He also wasn’t human.

“Mr Ricky.” Real name: Exile Rikee, was a Trader. A species of insect-like humanoids. Typically they lived as part of giant trader fleets, but Rikee had been exiled from his fleet and had come to try and make a living as an engineer for the empire.

He made a clicking noise and then asked “Miss Sternstrider?”

Jyn nodded “I’m here to take you offworld as promised. But first, I want to know what you found.”

That had been part of the deal. She wanted to know the information that had put his life at risk. If you were to ask her if she was afraid of being targeted for knowing it to, she would have shrugged nonchalantly.

Jyn sat down opposite Rikee as he pulled out a small data tablet. He turned it on then put it down on the table and slid it across to her.

“Everything I found is on here.”

Picking it up, Jyn began to look through it. Most of it was in the form of a database of job orders that had gone through Rikee’s department. 

Jyn didn’t wait long before she broke out her trick though.

Most people don’t understand psychic powers. If you asked the average imperial citizen, most of them would claim to not even believe in them, but they were real.

Jyn had a talent for Ergokinesis- that is the control of energy, normally in the form of electricity. She read the binary of the system itself and picked out the information that had been studied the most intently, a set of records for jobs, seemingly unrelated. However they were all for the same thing, in the same quantity, but for businesses that shouldn’t need them.

The items in question? Force Bucklers, a kind of hand-held force shield. Technically they were called force shield bracelets but most space knights just called them force bucklers.

And the companies in question? Were they arms manufacturers or imperial security (Who had space knights of their own they would need to equip)?

No, they were a food distribution company, a branch of the imperial bank and a charity that maintained small libraries across the galactic core.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Jyn muttered.

Rikee nodded “It doesn’t. But when I submitted a report up the chain about possible errors that needed to be looked into, my requests were denied and two days later even the original reports had been edited to hide this. I was lucky that I’d taken an offline copy myself before it was buried. And I thought if they were willing to hide this, they might try to shut me up.”

Jyn nodded and stood.

“Very well, let’s get you out of here then.”

As she spoke though, there was a loud crash and a scream from beyond the near-soundproofed room. Muffled speech could be heard. An authoritative voice yelling orders.

Jyn focused herself. She recognised this for what it must be, a raid. And a raid perfectly timed to catch her and her client below ground without an easy way up.

“We need to find a way out.” Jyn muttered “Any criminal hideaway should have some.”

The problem was that they wouldn’t be accessible from this small meeting room, would they?

…why not? What was a criminal executive meant to do if a raid came while they were having a meeting here?

As she looked, Rikee was on the edge of panic from the sounds outside.

There was something she noticed. A slit in the back wall of the room. A hidden door perhaps?

Jyn smiled and stood, walking over to the slit to examine it.

“What is it?” Rikee stood up slowly “You’ve found something? A way out?”

“A hidden door.” Jyn explained as she ran her finger along the crack, “Now if only I could find the mechanism to open it.”

“Show me where the door is.”

While Jyn showed him the crack,they knew they didn’t have long. The raid was apparently winning out against the resistance the criminals were putting up. The sound of blaster bolts firing could be heard quietly thanks to the soundproofing.

Rikee examined a patch of wall next to the door and nodded. He stuck his fingers into a small indent in just the right way and the door slid open silently.

"It was just on something like a latch." He said in a smug way.

The two of them rushed through the passage which closed silently behind them a moment before imperial security agents broke into the meeting room.

They weren’t safe yet though, if someone had planned this out well then they would have also tried to find out about the hidden passage, and even if they couldn’t they’d put plans in place to stop Jyn and Rikee from making a clean getaway.

Reaching the end of the tunnel, Jyn headed out first.

It had led them to an area of the sewers near an access ladder. Once again Jyn headed up first and it came out onto an empty alleyway a ways away from the dive bar.

“Do you know the fastest way to the starport from here?” 

“No, this area is unfamiliar to me.” he clicked

Jyn considered the moves they could make from here. None of the agents had seen Jyn in the bar during the raid so there shouldn’t be any way to connect her ship to Rikee. If they could make it there with Rikee having not been recognised (And these were imperials, all aliens looked alike to them) then they were clean and free.

“Then…” Jyn noted in response to what Rikee had said “Let’s just ask for directions?”

Jyn found a criminal willing to talk after that raid and bribed him a little to loosen his lips now that he was afraid of a crackdown. Besides, it was a harmless enough question.

They were answered easily and were soon heading in the direction of the spaceport. They strolled over there, keeping calm to avoid attracting attention. Eventually they made it to the terminal. Only a short distance now.

They were almost out-

“Freeze.”

Neither of them had seen the man in black armour. He’d blended into the terminal’s shadow.

Jyn looked up with a smile.

“Is there a problem officer?”

Officer, now there's a joke. This was clearly no ordinary officer. This was an Imperial Space Knight, given authority to investigate from the emperor himself. Well, maybe not directly from the emperor, but all of the imperial factions with space knights only had them because the emperor allowed them to.

The space knight looked at Jyn for a few seconds. As if trying to… Oh dear. He was trying to read her mind.

Jyn's mental defenses could probably be better. He could probably even hear these thoughts. That could be an issue.

“Woman, do you know your Trader companion is wanted on multiple counts of fraud and theft of company funds?”

Jyn forced her mind to clear as she tried to answer.

“Oh that can’t be right, my friend Lee here is an honest Trader.”

The knight paused for a moment before tilting his head slightly to the side.

“Why even bother to lie if you know I can read your mind?”

Jyn flashed a smile “Well, you can’t win ‘em all.”

She went for her weapon.

It all happened in an instant of movement. Jyn and the Imperial knights both reached for their belts and ignited their force swords simultaneously. As both blades were just finishing forming (Jyn’s grey blade and the knight’s red one), Jyn swung her force sword down two-handed at the knight’s torso armour. Sure, it would have the best protection but she wasn’t technically striking to kill here.

As her attack slipped past his guard, and clearly struck the flesh beneath.

The Knight cried out- clearly pained. He staggered back from the heavy blow and slipped backwards.

She needed the knight to not just fall but stay down, with a quick move she cut at the arm of the fallen knight. In his stunned state he couldn’t do anything to resist as she neatly cut right through the armour on the arm and severed the limb.

While not a lethal blow, it was one bad enough to knock the knight out from the pain.

Jyn looked up. There was a crowd of people around her. The people that had been coming here for normal reasons.

Jyn held her force sword up and pointed it in the direction of where her ship was docked.

“Rikee with me, anyone who wants to stop me dies just like this knight did.”

Of course the knight wasn’t actually dead, but the crowd didn’t know that.

As she started to run, the crowd made way for her, falling back like the sea splitting. 

While he was stunned for a few moments, he did begin running after Jyn while muttering about how risky this all was.

When they reached the Blue Moon Wandering, Jyn yelled out to her crew “Prepare for take off, this is going to be a messy one if we can’t get out now!”

Even as she and Rikee ran up the boarding ramp it began to close and the generators began to whir around faster.

Jyn ran to the pilot’s seat and jumped in while her co-pilot shifted over.

“Calculate a jump!” Jyn ordered as she began the ascent into space. It had been maybe five minutes since she disarmed the Space Knight and that was enough to call in planetary defences if the empire was being quick about it.

Jyn's Co-pilot was looking panicked as she held her data pad.

“Where to?”

“Balor, and after that we’ll try jumping to the Orochi Belt to refuel.”

Her Co-pilot nodded and began running calculations.

By some miracle, they had enough time to get out of there. A full fifteen minutes without getting shot down. They managed to make a clean getaway into hyperspace.

Jyn collapsed into her chair.

“A miracle.” She muttered “Praise be… etc. etc.”

“Boss… what did you actually do?”

Still with her eyes closed, Jyn noted “It’s the Centaurus debacle again.”

“Ah.” Her Co-pilot did not look impressed. “Should I call the bounty hunters to save our enemies some time?”

Jyl laughed and stood up, stretching. The particular course they plotted would take… about three days, give or take. Plenty of time to rest.”

“I’ll be in my quarters.” Jyl noted aloud to no one in particular. She needed to rest after all that.

She lay down on her bed and sighed. She heard the door hiss open and she looked up to see her other crew member, he was in charge of managing freight.

“Hey boss, do you intend to shoot up?”

Ah damn. She really wanted to.

“Sure, I’ll be with you in a bit.”

Rolling off her bed, she brought out her drug case. Inside were five small injection guns. The kind that could just be pressed into skin to have them injected. The liquid inside each was blue.

Blue Stiletto… A lithian drug, normally used by bodyguards or others who needed to be as sharp as possible. It helped her move faster and kept her energy up. She really should have taken some earlier before going into the bar, it would have made her way more confident when it came to dealing with the Imperial knight.

She pressed the injector up to her arm and sighed as the drug entered her system. She only needed one dose for now. Sometimes when going into a dangerous situation she took two to get the best boost she could out of it. It was that habit that had gotten her addicted in the first place.

Granted, being addicted to a potent stimulant while spending so much of her time just waiting around the ship did invite some boredom.

She’d almost kill for a training partner. Someone she could test herself against when she was this fast.

Rikee was staying in the ship’s guest room. This was the first time he’d felt safe in days. He was glad there was nothing to worry about now.

The drug began to wear off after a few hours. She knew the signs easily. Her hands began to shake, she’d develop a stutter and her motor control would go a bit funny. When that happened, she just excused herself. She’d sleep the side effects off.

She did sleep for a time. Then she heard the blaster shot. 

Rikee felt the pain through him. He’d left his room to wander around the cargo bay but now…

He turned around to see his killer. Then he saw the pistol flash again.

Ha, hilarious. He’d run all this way, and it hadn’t saved him.

All went dark

Jyn awoke with a start at the sound. She heard it again a moment later, and a scream for help.

She forced herself up and turned on her room’s light. Her finger missed the switch before she managed to get it on the second try.

As Jyn stepped out, her Co-pilot ran right by her, she looked to be running towards the cargo hold which is where Jyn had heard the shots from.

When they both entered the hold, what could be seen was a grizzly sight- Rikee was on the ground, bleeding out. Jyn’s freight manager was nowhere to be seen.

The manager was missing, but he was really the only possible culprit. He couldn’t have passed her and the Co-pilot, so he was still in the cargo hold.

Jyn nodded to her Co-pilot who had drawn her own blaster. With shaking hands, Jyn drew her force sword.

Was this the only reason that he’d come to suggest for her to take her drug, because he knew the effect that it had on her after it wore off?

Jyn stepped forward first, her force sword casting silvery light onto the walls of the cargo hold. The effect was like light off the water's surface. A shimmering glow.

A shot from an unknown direction suddenly caught the Co-Pilot in the back. She was thrown to the ground.

Spinning to look, Jyn didn’t know if that was a lethal injury, but she needed to deal with the freight manager before she could give first aid. She looked around for the manager.

He was hiding behind some boxes. He had a blaster pistol in his hand and it was pointed squarely at Jyn. The distance was too long to cross quickly. He’d get at least one, maybe two shots off against her.

Jyn stepped into a two-handed defensive stance. What she was about to do was thought impossible by most people in the galaxy, and yet-

A blaster bolt travelled blindingly fast. Nowhere near light speed but close enough that the idea of blocking or parrying a blaster bolt was impossible by any normal measure. You could in theory dodge one though, if you got a good read on where it was pointing before it was fired.

But Jyn was psionic. While it isn’t known quite how, all Psis can get flashes of precognition in combat. She could see the shot coming before the trigger was pulled and move her force sword to block it.

Even so, as Jyn raised the force sword to block, her hands shook suddenly and fiercely. Her drug…

It was strange. When people said an addiction was going to kill you, it was because of it messing with your body in the long term. Not short-term after effects like these.

Jyn saw it all as if in slow motion. All things drawing to a crawl. Her freight manager’s blaster shot out a bolt that crawled ever so slowly to her eyes. It slipped by her shaking force sword and struck her chest.

Oh.

She fell. The pain blinded her.

…Ha.

So this was… how it… ended for her.

Jyn’s head hit the ground and she passed out.

Above her, the man she’d hired to be her freight manager looked down at her form.

“You shouldn’t have accepted this job boss.” He said quietly, pointing his blaster pistol down at her “No one must know. Tyrant’s orders.”

His blaster reported once more.

And Jyn thought no more.