Came to Lao-Mon in:
Wearing:
Gladiator Armor (Lynda)
Piloting Catsuit (Lana)
Armed with:
Dark Five Rings (Lynda)
Double Bladed Lightsaber (Lana)
Configuration: Lynda, Lana Layne (See Bio)
Objective: Goshen War Camp
The Copy of Westenra-Prime known as Lynda, one of the earliest direct Copies of Westenra ever made, had a stake in the coming conflict, whether she appreciated it or not.
Part of her nigh-endlessly adaptable physiology was derived from Shi'ido DNA. She had a stake in what was going on with Lao-Mon. Without Shi'ido, she could not have been created.
Lynda sat on a comfy sofa, petting a gray rabbit that snuggled against her as she watched the news reports, most of the lights in her apartment turned off. The AC and the NIO had failed to take Ziost, and Korriban. It was a set of humiliating, unexpected defeats for a war that was supposedly over. And Laertia had been right in the middle.
As much as she decried what Laertia had done, since participating in the counter invasion of Nar Kreeta, the planet where Laertia's life had been partly destroyed, changing her whole destiny, Lynda had begun to get the terrible, unsettling feeling that perhaps she had been too quick to judge Laertia. She had never fought opponents of such savage strength before, her combat protocols forced to expand exponentially. They called her a hero for killing so many Bryn'adul, having among the highest individual body counts when all was said and done. Some had even called her a threat comparable to the Black Knight herself.
The GA had offered her an official place in the military as part of their Special Operations. Real influence. The Android had hid her absolute fright at the prospect and declined, as it would have meant coming under more scrutiny. She preferred to keep fleecing the GA for every credit they had. You can't exactly make a hero (in this case, essentially a tool for Propaganda) out of someone who won't fight unless paid first.
She didn't keep the money for herself of course, not beyond what she needed. Most of it was donated to the refugees fleeing the Maw, The Bryn'adul, and even the Ashlan Crusade.
But she herself remained alone. In a luxury high rise, but alone. Save for a Rabbit and a pet Turtle. Even dating had lost its fascination because she never knew if she could trust the person dating her.
She found herself staring at old photos of her and Laertia just after rescuing Moya from the Sith. They had spent the day after hanging out on her ship, playing with Laertia's rabbits.
Eventually, when the news got too repetitive, she shut it off and stared, as she often did, at the Coruscant skyline. Staring in near total darkness out into the night, a faint purple glint at the center of her eyes piercing the dark.
There was a door chime. Lynda was surprised, for her nose detected the bodily chemicals of another Westenra Copy nearby. She was up in a few seconds, but not before gently setting aside her now sleeping rabbit.
She headed to the door and opened it. It was the other Copy operating in GA Space, Lana. She had more of a noticeable tan and sharper facial features with long brown hair and metallic pink eyes.
"Hello Lynda. Is this a bad time?"
"No, Sister. Come in." Lynda said with a gesture. Lana seemed to have adapted far better to life in the GA Navy than Lynda had as a mercenary within it.
"Are you hungry? I have food..." Lynda offered going to the closet...
...and pulling out a captured Maw Brotherhood Cultist, who was tightly bound, with a number of implanted cybernetics that kept him paralyzed. More generosity than he deserved...had he been the captive of her Sister, Vera, he would have been missing those limbs...
"Oh, no thank you, I fed earlier..." Lana said, taking a seat on a leather couch next to a stand that houses the transparisteel terrarium where her pet turtle rested.
"So, what brings you here so late?" Lynda asked stuffing her suddenly awake prisoner back in the closet.
"I heard you turned down the GA's offer to join their special ops program on a permanent basis."
Lynda fidgeted, pulled out a puzzle cube from the same closet the now wide awake Maw Prisoner was in.
She always did her best to scramble the cube, mix and match it's colors, but due to her own memory database and high intelligence she would always solve it in seconds.
She sat next to Lana, fiddling with it idly.
"So?"
"I think you could do a lot more good than you are currently..." Lana replied slowly. "You're limiting yourself. I heard about what happened at Nar Kreeta. You caught a
ton of eyes. The right eyes."
"Sister, we weren't sent into the GA to play hero. We were sent in here because Mother wanted eyes and ears in everyplace and near everyone who mattered.
"You helped save the life of
Thurion Heavenshield
." Lana said. "If he had died at Nar Kreeta, it would have been a devastating morale blow to his world. The Alliance needs champions."
"If you want to go native, Lana, that's your choice. You and I both know that if they knew what we were they would have us imprisoned, dissected, or worse. I'm here as a Double Agent for Mother. I simply choose to remember that fact."
"The Galactic Alliance stands for a lot of good things."
"The GA fethed off the Bryn'adul to fight the Sith. The Sith were more important to them. Or we wouldn't have needed to invade Nar Kreeta. What I saw there was an Atrocity. These people don't have answers. Not good ones anyway."
"They were in an impossible position. If they hadn't gone along with it, the New Imperials, they would have harbored it against them. The NIO would have probably declared them enemies also. It would make our position against the Bryn'adul even worse if we hadn't helped them."
Lynda raised a brow at Lana as she worked the puzzle cube, solving it once again. Chit.
"So it's 'we' now? You
have gone native." Lynda muttered.
"The GA Navy helps protect dozens of worlds. We stopped disasters. We fight for the oppressed. These are good people and you're turning your back on them unless they continue to pay you exorbitantly."
"I'm not one of them, Lana. I don't
want to be. Besides, I'm part of the reason The Black Knight got so powerful. They'll have my ass in front of a firing squad if they ever learn that. They're only as good as the Galaxy allows them to be. Them being practically married to the NIO proves that. Or are we going to pretend all the lives they threw away to destroy
Ideas isn't evidence?"
"I fought alongside brave people who gave their lives for what they believed in. Don't dismiss their sacrifices like that. It's cruel." Lana replied, face hardening.
"Their sacrifices were in
vain." Lynda replied flatly. "Sacrificed in the name of the vanity projects of their leaders. Not that I'd ever do what Laertia did, but after Nar Kreeta, I totally understand why she was disgusted with them enough to rebel. They want my help? I'll squeeze every credit out of them for it. They all keep pretending the Sith are defeated. The Sith are an Idea, just like The Mandalorians are, or the Jedi. Like they aren't already scurrying into the walls of the galaxy. Wouldn't surprise me if they have a few plants in the Senate already--"
(Narrator laughs in
DARKCOM
)
"--all the GA wasted it's time doing was destroying property and locations. They haven't killed the Sith. They haven't even weakened the Sith. All they've done is make them harder to spot when they try and cut your throat from behind. They have never needed an empire to harm the Galaxy. They want me to fight alongside them? I'm perfectly happy to do it. But I'm not doing it without being paid first."
"For someone who says she wouldn't do what Laertia did, you're starting to sound an awful lot like her." Lynda noted, growing more concerned.
"Maybe I didn't consider her point of view as well as I should have." Lynda countered.
"Lynda, Laertia Io became a
Terrorist."
"Like the NIO and the Ashlan's
aren't. Yet we don't slap their hands away. They're perfectly happy to let them do as they please as long as it's to people they hate.
"She killed Jedi, Soldiers fighting for their families."
"So does everyone else. The only difference is the level of state backing one side has. I used to think the GA was on the up and up too, Sister. Nar Kreeta showed me the truth. They aren't any more legitimate than anyone else is. You might find some comfort pretending the people you're fighting alongside are your wingmates, who would stand by you when the truth is revealed. They won't, however. Nobody is our friend in the Alliance. And frankly? I wouldn't want them for friends..."
Lana's mouth tightened a bit at the corners.
"I trust then, you intend to charge an exorbitant price for your involvement in the Lao-Mon operation?"
"Yes. And they'll pay it, because they want dead Maw Cultists. I'll give them exactly what they paid for. No more. No less. But I'm not interested in being their friend."
Lana sighed.
"You used to be more open minded. Open hearted."
"Yes, and that kick started Laertia's downfall. I learned my lesson." Lynda replied, glum at solving the puzzle cube in seconds yet again.
Lana stood up.
"I'll be heading to Lao-Mon myself. I don't suppose I could politely ask you to wave your fee, in light of the fact our DNA is derived from Shi'ido."
"I'll
halve it. I won't
wave it."
Lana nodded. "Thank you, Sister. I'll pick you up in a few hours. Be ready..."
"Wouldn't dream of being anything less..."
Lana departed to make final preparations herself.
Lynda went back to snuggling with her rabbit in the dark, in hiding from the Galaxy and herself.
Present...
The Lambda Shuttle Lana had chosen to pilot them both in jumped out of hyperspace onto a besieged world. It was about a few weeks after what had happened to Xiphos on Kerest.
Lana had picked up an extra straggler, a strange man in an all white version of Senate Commando Armor, heavily armed. He had a Katana, a Lightsaber, a Shotgun, and pistols, and generally seemed to give off the impression he was not to be fethed with.
Lynda, in her blue and red hoplite type armor had brought a big sword enchanted vambraces, and her aggression for the ride. Every Westenra Copy was a lethal threat, but they grew especially skilled and dangerous the longer they were in a chosen form.
"So..." Lynda asked
The Man in White
, father of
Starlin Rand
. "Ever fought Maw before?"
"I was killing garbage like this for decades. They all blend in together..." The Man in White answered. "You'll see. Feth the Maw."
"Where'd you find this guy?" Lynda asked Lana.
"He volunteered to the GA Military to fight the Maw for free..." Lana answered as she expertly evaded Maw Starfighter screens, even shooting some down as she descended into the atmosphere.
"The Dark Side is very strong here..." The Man in White noted.
"You a Jedi?" Lynda asked.
"No."
"That's okay, neither am I. I'm Lynda."
"Zabka." The man answered back politely.
They dropped down in the Jungle, which was currently being held by Shi'ido Rebels.
The Man in White was the first off the craft, and without waiting or coordinating, he immediately set off for the camp where he sensed his son, as much to help him as observe what he was capable of, what Syd had shown him. Lynda had gotten the APB from Nine herself: Don't go anywhere NEAR that kid. He'd already encountered Westenra Copies--the blonde ones who identified as Laertia's Sisters. If he spotted another Westenra Copy operating in the GA, it would almost certainly clue him in on how wide reaching Nine's tentacles were.
Unfortunately, neither copy currently on Lao-Mon knew he was here, else they would have stayed far away from the War Camp they now headed to full of terrible thunder and evil.
Neither Lynda nor Lana held back as Mawites shot at them, both taking advantage of their armor's repulsor flight capability as they flew at their opponents in a frenzy of sword slashing and the spins of Lana's double bladed Lightsaber, savagely cutting down the Camp Defenders.
Not three seconds here and she already hated the place. She regretted halving her pay as she beheaded a Sith with her black Odachi, resisting a lightning blast from a Sith due to her own physiology as well as her armor, hurling her sword like a spear to his face while Lana took a number of machine gun rounds to the chest but refused to stay down, snapping the shooter's neck as she closed in melee range.
But the Man in White was a Force all his own. His kills with shotguns were all head shots, and when he finally ran dry on that he pulled out a long, green Lightsaber and began hacking apart Maw challengers, shooting with a pistol in his other hand as he fought the mad fight to his son...
Lynda found herself admiring his rip and tear instincts...