When reading over the intel on Yavin IV, Kyn found himself relieved that at least it was temperate. Plenty of places that needed his skills were out in the middle of nowhere and home to environments so hostile that he spent more effort protecting himself from it than from whoever he was actually supposed to be fighting. The planet wasn’t known for much except the first Death Star meeting its end, but even that wasn’t much a reason to visit. The Empire had kept everyone away and now the debris had fallen into the gas giant, there was nothing to commemorate the occasion except empty space. Not that he expected to see much on the ground either, he knew there was a dig site, and that before the fall of the Empire there was a garrison from when they kicked the rebels out, no one cared enough to have much information on if any of the remnants had actually bothered to stay at the post once word that the New Republic was coming reached the planet.

Kyn checked the cockpit just to see that the droid pilot was still on its course. It was, well, to the extent that a non-pilot could discern, anyway. The droid wasn’t much good for conversation, wasn’t much good for anything except being a reliable pilot, though even that was only in normal circumstances. These glorified space taxis did not do well if they encountered any actual hostiles. At least it gave him plenty of cargo space to himself, a luxury that he didn’t have in the past when he’d been hitching a ride along with some other guns for hire. All of his gear was there, the camping and survival supplies for setting up wherever he found a quiet place in the backcountry, medical supplies in case things went bad, his trusty grenade launcher and pistols, and a probably excessive amount of explosives. Kyn always said he’d rather have too much rather than not enough. 

The next thing to do was to review the map of the planet. Yavin IV wasn’t well mapped, and the best he had to go off of was an old survey made by the empire that he got by greasing the right palm. One thing that was clear from the start was how thick the jungle was, great for hiding, not good at all for navigating. Few permanent settlements existed, and much of the planet was beyond their reach. Thankfully, Kyn didn’t have to go searching too far for what he was interested in: the old ziggurat that once held the rebel base. That was where his employer had told him to look, nowhere else. There was precious little information about what was inside. He knew that the rebellion had once used it as a base, but there were no maps or diagrams of its interior that he had access to. Whoever knew that info was either affiliated with the New Republic and unwilling to share, or still clinging to a pile of classified imperial documents and waiting for a price too high for a run of the mill mercenary to afford. His best bet might be just observing and learning from others, the kind of money Kyn’s employer was throwing around was large enough that Kyn doubted he would be the only one interested in seeing what it had to offer. 

As the ship hurdled along, Kyn checked his messages again, there was nothing new. He thought he might as well re-read the messages from his mysterious employer, someone who had paid enough to earn some protection against prying questions. Kyn liked the basics of the job. The advance was sizable, enough to cover the cost of supplies and even a droid shuttle rental. The setup was sound too, they were worked with one of Kyn’s most trusted intermediaries, were willing to provide proof of the money beforehand, and didn’t insist on any potentially dicey meetups, it was all fine as long as the artifacts made it to them safe. Those artifacts were the only part that gave Kyn pause. The job had come with a thick packet of files on how to spot exactly what the client was looking for, and included a price list for each type, this job could be anywhere from very profitable to enough to actually buy a cheap homestead on the outer rim and lay up his guns for good. That’d be the life. 

The ship was getting closer to Yavin, closer to the point where it would drop him off in thick of the jungle and then head back to orbit, waiting for his call. Kyn had done enough preparation and looked for something else to do. For a moment, Kyn stared at the messages again, hoping for something else to show up. He started to type in the search bar to re-read some old ones, reminisce about what he used to have, but stopped himself when he thought about how it would feel when he saw how long it had been since the last reply.