Legacy of the Sith: Chapter 3 added 1/25/06

[Setesh]

Star Wars and Sar Trek are not mine, yadda yadda yadda, I'm still broke and this won't change that ect, ect.. My thanks to the Beta readers.


Legacy:Darkness: Chapter 1: 'I Have Become Death...'

Captain Fraxx Arkady stood on the bridge of the ISD Ravage as they approached the massive space station. It was a prototype of Seiners original mobile fleet resupply and repair ship. The plans had eventually been used to create the Death Star. This 100km sphere had no superlaser, its mission was more important. Crewed by Droids slaved to a central computer, this was one of the Emperor's storehouses. Arkady had found the jump point map the storehouse followed years ago, though he only pursued it since Thrawn's death. For over a year he and his crew worked to find a way past the automated defenses to no avail. Then 'he' came.

Arkady eyed the alien on his bridge, the Ubese stood silent in his black armor and leather. Seth had arrived in a shuttle ear-marked for the Imperial guardsmen on Byss. Seth claimed to be an apprentice to one of the Executors. He also came with a clearance code for entry into the storehouse. The had used a probe droid the first run, now they had to try themselves. Seth claimed now was the only time the code worked. While the station was parked near a black hole, it had a specialized droidship get closer and begin using the neutron stars massive gravity to extract Hypermatter. The security codes for the station were all time dependent on each stop along the route. This was the longest stop made only once every 3 years.

They reached the massive docking bay for capital ships in need of resupply or repair. The magnetic field opened and they were guided to a set of universal docking clamps. Arkady breathed a sigh of relief as the clamps locked down.


"Lt. you have the bridge until the XO transfers from the secondary bridge. Is the entry team ready?"

"Yes sir."

Arkady moved to the 'lift. Now that they were here he had to get the station's central computer to recognize his authority. The protocol Palpatine set up was convoluted, but effective. He and four Stormtroopers were to proceed to the central command deck. There the computer would authenticate the Troopers, than him, than have the Trooper authenticate he was who he said he was. The hard part had been finding four Troopers who had been in service when this thing was launched. Arkady stepped out into the docking tube attached to an outer airlock the four troopers following. He was hardly an imposing figure. A mere 5'5", with short brown hair and a boyish face despite hit 38 years. He led them into the stations halls there a Droid that looked like a weight lifter waited. Arkady blinked at the site of it, an E522 assassin droid, he had seen pictures but never in person. In the early days they hunted the Emperor's enemies, now it seemed they were security. It pointed to a lift not far down the hall that opened. The droid flanked them with weapon laden arms the whole way. The command deck was silent, its view screen blank. At the main computer access station an M-3PO military protocol droid waited its red photoreceptors burning from in its clamshell shaped head. Arkady handed his Rank cylinders over to start the process. It took twenty minutes.

"Your authority is confirmed Captain Arkady, command of the Mobile Battle Planetoid: Ragnos is now yours. How may I be of service?"

"Your full designation?"

"I am M-3PO-A9, Chief Quartermaster and Droid administrator. The Emperor called me 'Arcane'."

"Very well Arcane, deactivate the security systems. I'll need a cargo manifest and complete rundown on this stations systems and operational status."

"At once, sir. I should warn you sir the cargo manifest is incomplete."

"How so?"

"Many items in the cargo bays were misidentified in transit for security reasons. The lists were corrected by the Imperial guard when the Emperor visited. He has not been here for sometime."

His crew exited the Ravage and spread out over the command deck. They didn't have the personnel to man the station, but his slicers began sorting files in the computer, others cataloged the manifest. Arcane helped by pointing out the mislabeled items. So far the Ragnos was the big prize. Its was designed to resupply fleets anywhere. It had specialized drone ships that could extract Hypermatter, mine Tibanna gas, mine asteroids for raw material. There were manufacturing facilities on board, fabbers, elemental furnaces, everything from spare parts to capital warships could be built. The only limit was raw materials and the size of the factory. Nothing larger than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Arkady snapped out of his reverie as Lt. Giel approached.

"Yes Lt.?"

"Sir, we have a problem."

"Knew this was to easy. Very well what is it?"

"I attempted to test fire one of the turbolasers, it wouldn't fire. I sent a D/C team to one and they found these."

The Lt. brought a very dead Mynock from behind his back.

"They got into the Turbolaser power grids, only a few they couldn't get into still fire. The Droids weren't programed to watch for them."

"How long to repair?"

"A year maybe 2, we'd have to tear the whole system out and replace it."

"Any good news?"

"There are still 30 operational turbolasers, spread out all over the Ragnos, the Proton torpedo and missile launchers still work. The sublight engines and hyperdrive work, and the Hypermatter extractor just docked."

"Alright, program the security droids to kill the Mynocks off."

He turned to the next man waiting to see him. Wearing technician grey, a Senior Chief Petty Officer.

"Sir we've got the list of 'mislabeled' items."

"Good, start the search after watch rotation, I'll look over what the teams find tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

Arkady returned to the Ravage. He almost smiled, even without most of the Turbolasers the Ragnos had the firepower of a torpedo sphere. More than enough for defenses, he needed its manufacturing capabilities more than its firepower.

IMC Blade's Edge, Milky Way Galaxy

Captain Ryan Blade sat like a statue as his ship swung around to hit the Orion pirate vessel again. Ryan shot his weapons officer a grin that the green skinned Orion girl returned. She fired again reducing the first ship to atoms as the white bolts ripped through the small raider. The other ship retired at warp 4.

Ryan stood, looking over his crew with sparkling blue eyes, his 6'4" frame imposing as the large sword he wore. Thy'ril grinned at him again, he had literally won her at a dabo table while too drunk to see. She had been a slave all her life, she had been engineered to be one. Ryan had found freeing her not so easy. The best he got was making her a crew member. He grinned back before turning to leave the bridge. Most people, especially those from the federation, thought he was eccentric or insane.

His ship was just as odd as he was. The Blade's Edge had started life as a Klingon D-7 Battle cruiser nearly 80 years ago, Ryan had bought the decommissioned outdated vessel and took it to the most twisted arms dealers he could find, the Minosians. It had cost him most the of the crystals he had found in the ruins on Beowulf, his home colony. They had performed a full refit, it now had two antimatter reactors instead of one, between them they produced as much power as most modern Federation reactors without having the excess reactivity they used. The shield grid was upgraded with redundant generators so they could put up a second shield if the first fell, while weaker than the main shields it would give them a little extra protection. The 4 Mark 7 Disrupter cannons and torpedo tubes were removed. The nacelle mounted disrupters were replaced by two particle cannons the Minosians had gotten in trade from another customer. The torpedo tubes were replaced, the fore tube now a 'tri-launcher' that loaded 3 torpedoes and fired them in rapid succession. The aft tube was an upgraded single shot launcher but it now sported a Minosian beam cannon turret above it. The outer hull armor had been left in place but a 1cm thick layer of depleted uranium had been added. He'd be damned if he'd call it 'duranium'. The Impulse engines and warp drive had been upgraded to accommodate the increased weight. Hugging the 'belly of the ship was a new addition, an externally mounted shuttle. It could carry 6 troops plus a pilot. It was small having no reactor, instead the small craft had batteries that charged off the Blade when attached. It had been optimized for atmospheric flight making landing without power possible. There was also a boarding airlock that sealed against an enemies hull then cut through with Disrupter torches.

Ryan had gathered a crew and named the vessel the Independent Mercenary Cruiser Blade's Edge. His crew made up of misfits and outcasts from various Federation members and colonies, as well as a few from other area's. With a crew of 400 and carrying up to an additional 500 troops, depending on mission, they had made a living off protecting Cargo vessels and non-federation convoys.

Ryan came up on his troop commander, Scorrth. He looked up as the Gorn saluted. Scorrth had shown up with a bunch of other Gorn and their families fleeing a political purge at home. Most of them lived on Fortress where the Blade was based but 200 of them served on the ship about half as soldiers the rest as ship's personnel.

"Major Scorrth, the troops may stand down."

"Very well, Sir. Orions?"

"As expected."

"Its been to easy lately."

"With the Dominion war over the Feds are patrolling again. The Orion syndicate is getting paranoid now that relations between the big three aren't strained."

The Gorn nodded and walked off. Ryan entered his quarters with a sigh. Scorrth was right it was far to easy. He picked up a Padd containing their next job. A former resident of Turkana 4 was offering a small fortune to bring the colony under control. He threw the padd down in disgust. He hated these kind of missions. Not that he had any objections to pacifying the locals, it was that once Turkana 4 was stable again it would rejoin the Federation. Within a year it would probably fall apart all over again, they would pull out when the employer arrived with a 'peacekeeping' force of his own. He just wanted someone else to do the dirty work. After he ran out of Latinum to pay his 'Peacekeepers' the colonists would revolt and start all over again. The only bright spot was he wasn't the only Merc going, Colonel Holister's Marine's were as well. He headed off to the communications room, he had to call in more troops 500 wasn't enough against a colony of 3500 mostly made up of armed gangs. He smiled at the young Ensign manning the room.

"I'm sending a transmission to Fortress, for Colonel Holister, Encoding routine Red, set it then give me some privacy."

"Yes sir. Done sir."

Ryan watched the young man leave, it felt good for a military ship to actually act like one.

"Hollister, I'll be at Turkana 4 in 2 weeks, if you need more time send me a better date. End message."

He sent the message off and sat back. Fortress was outside Federation space on the edge of the Ferengi Alliance, home to thousands of Independent mercenaries. It had more space traffic than earth most days. There was a sizable civilian population as well, mostly retired mercs and families of both retirees and active mercenaries. But others had come as well, civilian businessmen suppling luxury goods, and several bars and brothels. He subcontracted another group led by a Rayne Hollister. Hollister was suppose to be even 'weirder and more barbaric' as one Federation Ensign put it than Ryan was.

Hollister’s story got weird fast, he was born in 1977. He had served as a U.S. Marine during the Eugenics wars. Shortly after he and 39 others were placed aboard a modified DY-100 space transport to pursue and neutralize Khan. If Kirk had followed the Botany Bay's flight path back he would have found the Sanction on its trail. Hollister hadn't revealed who had found the DY-100 and awakened her crew, but it had been recent 3-4 years at least. He apparently didn't like what he saw in the federation and went mercenary. These days he called himself a Colonel, and owned a Son'a destroyer, his payment from the Son'a when they lacked the funds to pay all their mercenaries. Hollister had replaced the Isolitic Subspace Weapon launcher, which the Son'a had pulled out before turning it over, with a missile launch tube salvaged from his DY-100. What he loaded it with was anybodies guess, while the Son'a had pulled the weapon they had left the sensor dampening casing that kept it secret. Hollister and the 26 remaining members of his US Marine/Airforce crew trained their new crew in 20th century military doctrine. Hollister still carried the weapons he brought with him on the Sanction, a model M1911A1 Colt automatic and an M4A1 assault rifle carbine. Hollister troops would prove very helpful.


Ragnos Cargo bay 26-C

Arkady approached the tech crew at the bay door. They stood and saluted.

"Sir, this door has an 'Eyes Only' seal: Captain or above, only."

Arkady stepped up to the door and inserted his rank cylinder, punched in his access code, and waited as the lock verified him. He was startled when the door shot open, but composed himself before striding through. The door shot closed immediately behind him. Arkady looked around the room. There were spotlights in the ceiling that created pools of light on display cases. In each case was a scroll or book, a holographic version floated above each. He approached one case, there was a set of controls set near the base of the clear display top. He touched a few, they manipulated the floating holo-image, turning pages, zoom function, etc. He started looking at the displays trying to find ones he could read. There were over a hundred display cases, but their contents seemed to be written in obscure or at least unbelievably ancient languages. At the center he found an open display, a pedestal. On it sat a pyramid shaped object made of a red crystalline material, with a rune etched metal casing. He stared at it for a moment, the runes seemed to shift as he watched.

"It’s a Sith holocron."

Arkady spun drawing his sidearm. The electronically modulated voice belonged to Seth.

"This is why I helped you, this is a repository of Sith artifacts the Emperor recovered from the Jedi."

"Why?"

"While I did receive some training Executors and dark side adepts were denied this. Palpatine didn't want to have any who could rival him. The Holocron can instruct me in the true ways of the Sith."

"And if anything you find can be of help to me?"

"I will share it."

Arkady nodded and turned to go. He was in the turbolift before he questioned why he'd believed Seth. His comlink chirped interrupting the train of thought.

"Yes."

"Sir, I think you should come to cargo bay 12-A."

"What is it?"

"You'll have to see it to believe it, sir."

"Alright I'm on my way."

The turbolift dropped him of a short distance away, the Junior officer who called him waiting outside it. The young man opened the door for him.
"What the kriff. Are those.."

"Clone tanks, yes sir."

"I hope to hear a lot of good things in the next 5 minutes."

"Well sir there are 100 tanks, they have built in flash training equipment so the clone learns as he grows. The next bay over has medical and tech droids to run the equipment as well as DNA templates, early Clone War era."

"So the genetic template of Jango Fett?"

"Yes, sir, and the Kaminoin modified versions."

"Modified, how?"

"'Optimized' would be a better word the 'Troopers' are the original clone template the produced. There are later pilot templates, special forces templates, and so on."

"How long till we can get everything this up and running"

"A week, maybe more. Depends on how munch reprogramming we have to do."

"Any idea on how long it will take to grow the clones?"

"The manual provided say 1 year minimum, any less and the clones are to unstable."

"Have the slicers track down how Thrawn got it down farther, we're going to need troops."

An Ensign walked over briskly.

"Sir, The Arc Scythe has acknowledged, the Admiral will be here within the day."

"Good, any of the others coming to join us?"

"Unknown sir."

ISD Renown, Kelsh cluster

Captain Pando Cryll, stared out into space. It was hell waiting, he didn't even want to come. But if it was the elusive Admiral Snow he had to try. She was one of Vader's chosen, one he had defied the Emperor and 11 of the 12 to get promoted (the 12th being Thrawn who was elsewhere). She just might be the salvation of the Empire. The council of Moffs and 'Supreme Commander' Palleon were making noises about signing a peace treaty with the New Republic.

With a flash of pseudo-motion the Arc Scythe appeared. Cryll had been at Kuat when it was being built along with the long destroyed Arc Blade.
"Receiving a transmission, holocom, sir."

A clear blue image appeared of a woman in an Admiral's uniform, she had shoulder length hair, which Cyrll knew was the almost blue-white of new fallen snow.

"Admiral."

"Captain, I'll make this brief, Palleon is on his way to signing a treaty with the rebels. I'm leaving, along with some other 'assets' that have been recently 'acquired', to rebuild the fleet. Are you coming with me or staying to watch the New Order crumble."

"Give us the coordinates and we'll be there."

"Sending now, I'll be there in a month, I have other offers to make."

Cryll saluted as the Admirals image faded. It was finally going to happen, the Empire would rise like a phoenix. He briefly wondered what these 'other assets' were, it felt like something more than just ships. Though Snow did command an Advanced Research Cruiser, she hadn't been seen since before Endor, had she found something out there?

Ragnos,

Arkady looked up from his desk as Seth breezed in.

"I found something. "

"Yes?"

"A place you can go to rebuild, a place you cannot be followed to."

That got Arkady's attention.

"Where and how."

"The holocron was older than I at first believed. It's creator ruled the Sith people after Naga Sadow vanished. They evacuated their entire civilization to a single world Sitheran. Then they constructed a Hypergate, a very special one. It allows travel to another galaxy, they built a second Hypergate in the new galaxy allowing passage both ways, it also 'fixed' the exit point. Then they moved the planet to the new galaxy."

"They moved a planet?"

"Not exactly, they moved the gate into Sitheran's orbital path and placed the second gate so it would emerge in a stable orbit around a local star. They then scoured this galaxy of as many traces of themselves as possible. The Holocron was left behind for any stragglers."

"This hypergate still exists?"

"It should, they used Mandalorian Iron for the outer surface, the device itself draws and stores solar power, it has been doing so for nearly 3500 years. If it has not been destroyed I can activate it."

"I'll inform the Admiral"

Arkady's mind whirled with the possibilities. If they had an entire galaxy to draw on to rebuild, they would overwhelm the New Republic and the squabbling council of Moffs with ease. The only danger was if there were locals of equal or greater tech levels who objected.

Thornal, New Republic Minimum Security Penal Colony

Nieb Noir blanched when a Dreadnought bearing Imperial IFFs jumped in above the Colony Administration facility. The Space station was to keep civilians from landing on the prison world. Six Lambda's jumped in and roared down to the planet. Each landed in a different area. Nieb watched through the security camera's as Stormtroopers stepped out and marched down the street shooting Security Droids that got in their way. They rounded up several prisoners, most of whom seemed overjoyed to see them. Neib got a good shot of one and put the image into the database. She came back as 'Blue' a captured Imperial scientist, her file was flagged 'Black' meaning her record was deleted for security reasons. There were a lot of those on the colony. The Lambda's took off again, the station guns let them pass under the Dreadnoughts watchful Turbolaser gunners. Then the guns fired, the station and the colony were vaporized. From his escape pod Neib watched it turn and leave. Only 4 pods had launched, the Imperials had covered their tracks. Blue was the only one he knew for sure had been taken, the rest would be a mystery.

Saitani system, edge of the Unknown Region

Captain Frank Reele, watched as the star lines receded into normal space. The officer on the mass sensor turned white before speaking to the Lt. running the left pit. The Lt. walked over to the Comscan station. After speaking to the tech there, said Lt. made her way over to him. Reele was not an imposing figure, except for his blue-grey eyes.

"Sir, we've detected an object, Comscan shows it matches the profile we were given."

"Sent a secure transmission to the Admiral, 'We've found it', nothing more."

"Yes Sir."

Reele continued to stare out of the window, for a second he thought he could see the colossal ring in space. He had never been the best Imperial, he didn't even like the Empire that much. But he had been born on a world outside the Republic, a world torn by fighting warlords. The Republic threw up its hands and did nothing. Then came the New Order, the Empire put a stop to the chaos, it brought order. Now the chaos had returned, this time to the Galaxy, they would restore order. Even if they had to bleed another galaxy dry to do it.

[Setesh]

Damn, lost some formatting there.

[NecronLord]

Y'allways loose formatting.

[LT.Hit-Man]

Damm this is good.

[Setesh]

Thanks, feedbacks been sparse

[LT.Hit-Man]

Thanks, feedbacks been sparse

That's a pity, I mean this is a good fic and it should be given the credit it is due.

[Mitth`raw`nuruodo]

Arg, I got your Beta e-mail, but before I could read it through, my comp died . I can now say this is a pretty damn good fanfic, and I look foward to more.

[Setesh]

Just an Update this fic is getting rewritten as 2 fics, A star wars and a seperate Star trek fic, chapter 1 is will remain the as is, and is the first chapter of the Wars side, with a new title Legacy:Darkness.
The Trek side will be posted at TrekBBS as Legacy:Contact (I'll put up a link when its up) both fics will end at some point and I'll start Legacy:War.

(any thoughts would be welcome)

P.S. if you are a TrekBBS board member please don't let on to the rest of TrekBBS I want to get their unbiased opinions of the trek fic before the war starts.

[Setesh]

This one tracks a little slow I know, read & respond plz

I don't own shit statment here.

Legacy of Darkness:
Chapter 2 .....Destroyer of Worlds
Captain Arkady looked out of the ISD Ravage's bridge windows as a trio of Carrack cruisers appeared in the pseudo-motion of hyperdrive. He heard the voice of the stations 'traffic control' giving them a flight path within the fleets 'lazy' orbit of the gas giant that hosted the Ragnos as a satellite. He paced slightly the ARC Scythe and her Admiral had yet to arrive. The fleet was now a rather motley collection of ships they now a total of four Imperator-class ships, the Renown and the Revelation being Mark-1s and the Ravage and the Tyranus being mark-2s. They were soon joined by a pair of Victory Star Destroyers, three Dreadnought Heavy Cruisers, four Interdictor cruisers, six Carrack cruisers, a Nebulon-B escort frigate, four Lancer frigates, five Correllian Corvettes, and nine Star Galleon imperial cargo haulers. Of coarse that was just the list of 'military' vessels, there had also been several odd arrivals. A Starwind-class Pleasure yacht arrived bearing several Imperial Intelligence agents, four Corellian HT-2200 medium transports, the slow, boxy ships were welcomed though for their 800 metric ton variable environment cargo bays, that would make moving cargos that required specific environments easier. There were nearly a hundred civilian transports carrying the families of many of the fleet, the ultimate irony being that most of them were old rebel transports, Gallowfree medium transports, bought from the New Republic.

They floated here waiting for the ARC Scythe and for Seth to finish working out how to active the hypergate. Lt. Giel approached him with a technician in tow, the technician was carrying a odd looking frame that had an unfamiliar life form in it.

"Sir, this is Chief Petty Officer Pelis, he helped repair the Wyland cloning facility."

"Sir."

"So, Mr. Pelis, can you explain how Thrawn got the clone growth rate accelerated?"

"Yes, Sir. This", he held up the frame so the brownish-yellow creature was displayed, "is a ysilamari, the have an effect on the force Thrawn had us put one of these near every tank, this fella's parents were extras I sorta adopted them."

"And that stopped clone psychosis?"

"I heard the Grand Admiral talkin' to the Captain, somethin' about how the clones were a little 'too' identical if grown to fast, so's they could feel each other through the force before they were finished growin'. That’s why they went nuts."

"Where do these things come from."

"That's the bad news I don't know."

Arkady slumped back in his chair his hopes dashed, "Well that's ideas shot."

"Beggin' your pardon sir but why not just clone Treehugger to?"

Arkady looked surprised, then an evil grin spread across his face.

"Chief petty officer Pelis."

"Yes, Sir?"

"You just became Warrant Officer Pelis, and your getting transferred to the Ragnos you have a whole new job now, your going to be in charge of ysilmari care and feeding.

"Yes, Sir. Thank You, Sir."

Chief Petty..no, Warrant Officer Pelis exited with a smile on his face.

"Well, that solves one problem, only a few thousand more to go."

"Yes, sir. I have the engineering report on manufacturing more of the clone tanks."

"Summerize it please. While we can manufacture more certain exotic materials are beyond our ability to fabricate, we can make another 5 to 6 hundred of them with what we have on hand. This can be extended by leaving out certain features but the new tanks would need to be stationed on a planet with a natural gravity field, something about artificial gravity fields has a damaging effect on the cloning process.

Arkady sighed at yet another delay, "Tell me some good news."

"The HT-2200's have returned, sir"

"Good their food gathering expedition went well I hope."

"Properly rationed our civilian population should become self sufficient long before they turn to eating military rations with the rest of us."

Arkady was spared responding as the commlink beeped.

"Yes."

"Seth is on the Bridge, sir. He's got a...contraption with him."

"On my way."

Arkady left his office and strode down the hall to the bridge. He found Seth near the auxiliary astronavigation station in the left crew 'pit'. He was connecting a box with several crystals in it through a power converter to the station. The crystals started lighting up and data detailing new commands flowed across the screen. Seth stood up and typed in a few commands.

"There, controls for the gate are online."

"Let's see if they work."

Seth typed several commands into the system and waited. Outside the bridge windows the huge ring of the hypergate began to glow. Lines of red energy pulsed along its surface until six blue beams lanced out from the inner surface meeting in the center with a blinding flash. A swirling tunnel of blue appeared in the confines of the ring.

"Impressed yet."

"Fire the probe droids."

Three grey egg-like shapes launched from under the Ravage and entered the gate. They were gone in an instant after clearing the gate. After five minutes, two of them returned through and made their way back to the Ravage. Everyone not busy turned and looked and the commscan station for the droid's sensor data. The junior lt. at the station studied the data for a few moments before speaking.

"One G-type star eight planets one matches the profile of Sitheran."

Arkady let everyone cheer for a moment before calling for order.

"All right, now comes the hard bit. Seth", he turned to the alien, "how many of these things do you have and how long can the gate stay open?"

"I have completed five of the control units, they also allow communication via the gate. The gate will shut down on its own after 30 minutes but it may be shut down sooner, it will not shut down as long a its being traversed."

"We'll transfer one to the Dreadnought Widowmaker and send them and two of the cruisers to secure the system before we bring the fleet through."

"Yes, Sir"

"Sir, Admiral Snow on holocom."

Arkady walked into the holocom circle. Snow's transparent blue image appeared in front of him.

"Admiral, the gate is open, I'm sending a small force through to secure the area."

"Good we have to accelerate our plans slightly, a small section of New Republic Intelligence is looking for some of the ships in our fleet. I'm transmitting instructions for a last minute 'recruitment' drive. I'll be there within the week, the fleet needs to be on the other side by the time I arrive."

"It will be done admiral."

New Republic Insane Asylum Y-432

Kant Fortuna bowed slightly to the unremarkable looking human before him. Tall and confident looking with wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes.

"Welcome, Dr. San-Sal. What can I do for you today."

"Nothing much director, I have been charged by the Senate to inspect all 'special confinement' inmates living conditions. Since you have one here...."

"Of coarse, of coarse, follow me. I don't call our inmates condition living exactly."

"Oh? Who is he anyway?"

"He's one of the Emperor's private killers, his real name is unknown but he's called as Lt.Hitman. He's sith trained that's why we've left him in stasis. Jedi Master Skywalker delivered him 'personally' apparently he, a 'Mara Jade' and Princess Leia encountered him, and dropped him into a vat of liquid carbonite. They removed a block of it with him in the center, he's still alive in near perfect hibernation."

"Near perfect?"

"His time sense is one second per every two years or so. He's probably realized what happened to him by now."

They entered a room with a large coffin-sized block of carbonite, a single hand holding the handle of an E-11 arose from the center.

"This is him as you can see his life signs such as they are, are stable."

"Thank you, that's all I needed to know, goodbye."

The false doctor pulled a hold-out blaster from a shielded holster and ended the director's existence with a shot to the head. Pulling out several devices from hidden pockets of his clothing he assembled a carbonite defrost unit. Smacking it onto the block he triggered it. The brownish material turned red and melted away. It took almost a minute before Hitman was released with a groan. He tried to look around but appeared unable to see. He closed his eyes and looked towards his rescuer.

"Who the kriff are you?"

"Jonis Caron, Imperial Intelligence, I hope you can walk cause we're in deep bantha poodoo otherwise."

After taking a few moments to straighten he turned back to Jonis.

"I can do jumpin jacks, where in the Emperors name are we."

"A new republic insane Asylum. You've been in stasis a while. Admiral Snow says hi."

"Snow still around, heh."

"She arranged this Asylum break, don't know or care why she wants you in on this but she does."

"It’s the lightsabre, chicks dig the sabre."

The two made their way back to Jonis's ship without much trouble. As the Lambda lifted off the remaining security guards watched it fly away wondering who would want a madman who'd been in stasis for almost a decade, and more terrifying, why.

The IDC Widowmaker finished its sweep of the system and returned to the Gate. Captain Reele looked on as his crew preformed their duties despite the rather troublesome discoveries they had made. He nodded to the com. officer to patch a signal through to the other side of the gate. Within moments holoimages of not only Captain Arkady but Admiral Snow and several other people appeared.

Admiral snow spoke up first.

"Your report Captain?"

"Yes Admiral. After arriving in the Sitheran system we established a perimeter with the Carrack cruisers around the gate while the Widowmaker engaged in a sweep of the system. During the sweep we discovered the Sith are apparently dead. Sitheran itself holds the remains of an ancient advanced civilization but the scanners detect no life besides a few wild animals on the surface. The same with the several hundred spacecraft we found. No life readings at all. I would suggest a more detailed examination of the planet before attempting to inhabit it."

"What about their ships how advanced are they."

"Compared to our own they're it appears they're severely obsolete. But none of the intact ships had active power so its hard to say."

"Good work, Captain Arkady."

"Admiral."

"Begin transferring the fleet to the Sitheran system. Have an analysis team investigate the surface."

"Yes, Admiral."

With a quick bow to the Admiral the Holotransmissons faded from view.

Dr. Saxton waited on the shuttle ramp eager to get down to the surface of Sitheran. On the surface a droid was doing the preliminary work to test the viability of the planet for human life. The deck officer signaled him from the overlook window to proceed. Saxton strode up the ramp of the Sentinel-class shuttle, his people and equipment were crammed in with Stormtroopers on all 5 of the shuttles going down. The tight quarters made worse by their own enviro-suits. Until the cause of the Sith's death was discovered they needed full NBC (Nuclear, Bacterial, Chemical) protection. The trip was mercifully short. The Shuttles landed on a platform near the largest city. With the troopers help the set up a temporary camp and unloaded all their equipment. The real work began then, they broke into 5 teams. One to monitor the base camp and 4 explorer units. Each explorer unit consisted of a Stormtrooper squad and three of the research team.

"This is amazing.", Heather DiMein said to her palm sized stenographer droid for later print out, "There are pyramid temples similar to those on Yavin IV spaced around the city with a gigantic one 2 maybe 3 times as large at the center. We've seen a few remains mostly picked over bones and synthetic clothing."

"There aren't any repulsor vehicles, but I've seen several wheeled ones of varying designs. No where near as many as you'd expect for a city of this size. There appear to be hitches and water dispensers for large riding animals."

"We're entering a large building that appears to be a library of sorts. Lots of dust. More remains slightly more intact. There are shelves of real books and several different kinds of data storage devices, I don't recognize all of them, part of the room seems damaged possibly by animaaaaaaaaaaaaalllls"

The Stormtrooper next to her suddenly pulled her to one side as something large and fast blurred by. It crashed into a desk as it stood they got a good look at it. Its body shape was like a great cats but it's head was almost birdlike. It was covered with scales that were slowly changing colors to match its surroundings. Its red slitted eyes narrowed at her and she felt a wave of unnatural overwhelming fear. Before it could attack again the Troopers started blasting, the creature was thrown into the wall and lay still. One of the troopers walked over to check it.

"Its dead," He said with a kick.

Alex their xenobiologist went over and leaned down to examine it. He pulled out one of his many datapads.

"Heather I want to take this back with us."
"Really, what is it."
"I can't be sure without a more thorough examination but it looks like a relative of the Hississ, the so called Darkside Dragon. Early records say the Sith kept them as pets

They continued exploring the library. Heather was able to make out a few words on the shelves, finding the history section she was able to find data disks with dates on them going back several centuries. A few minutes of scrounging yielded a reader for the disks.

"We've got enough for now, lets head back."

"Yes, ma'am."

Before they could leave one of the other stormtroopers waved them over. He was standing in front of a window into a side room. Inside an apparently mummified corpse lay on the floor. Ashley found a plaque next to the door.

"Period records, I think, Sterile Area, No liquids or containers, Airlock, Entry without permission forbidden."

"The corpse looks almost perfectly preserved. We'll have to get a team out here with stasis equipment, exposure to the air out here may damage it."

Saxton was astatic over the data they had gathered. Alex and the other xenobiologists were having a grand time with the autopsy of the sith and other creatures found. Heather was with the others transcribing the sith language. His own project had to wait for a reliable translation matrix then he could begin turning the star charts the sith had into charts the Empire could use. What little he had seen so far was slowly giving rise to a theory. The stars the, number of catalogued space anomalies, they were starting to add up to the realization this galaxy was far younger than their own. As an astrophysist he was intrigued, but the job came first. So far what ever killed them eluded their analysis. The mummified corpse from the library, and three more from a medcenter hopefully held the answer. So far they had only theory, most thought it was some kind of lethal virus with an incubation period measured in years. If true it couldn't be natural, all the evidence pointed to the entire race dying instantly

ISD Ravage, home galaxy

The Ragnos slid through the Gate leaving the Ravage to await the admiral. Arkady was uneasy around their new passenger L.T. Hitman, but ignored his presence. The scarred stormtrooper armor a silent testimony to his long years in service to the emperor. The ARC Scythe appeared out of hyperspace in a flash of pseudo-motion.

"Captain, the Admiral is transmitting on holowave."

Arkady walked into the range of the holocom's 'eye', Admiral Snow's image faded into view. Her hair was cut short now, shorter than his, though it retained its blue-white color. Several officers and enlisted men behind him made choking noises. She wasn't wearing her uniform jacket so her prosthetic arms were visible. Unlike most she didn't have a model that was indistinguishable from human. Instead she had a pair of metal arms designed under General Mohc of the ARC Hammer, the Scythe's sister ship. There were rumors about 'special features' built into the arms. Mohc's research was classified even in death, but the arms were said to have been based on a prototype wardroid's. Hitman came up beside Arkady as she started to speak.

"Captain Arkady, I take it from the lack of the fleet that they have passed through the 'Gate'?"

"Yes, Admiral. We are all that's left in this galaxy."

"Hello, Hitman," she said with ill disguised disgust, "I see they managed to drag you out of whatever hole Skywalker left you in."

Hitman performed a mocking bow, "Evil Bastards never die. I'm looking forward to meeting this pet darksider that found this 'Gate'."

"Don't do anything stupid Hitman. Lord Vader was my friend for many years, I know what you can do and what limitations you have. I will kill you if I have to.", changing her stance so she was again focused on Arkady, "There are facilities on the Agnos to hold a meeting with all rank officers?"

"Yes, there is a large auditorium throne room, it’s a duplicate of a room on byss, where the emperor addressed the entire Imperial guard, or watched entertainments with them on occasion."

"It will serve. Open the 'Gate'. Signal all Captains and the department heads of the science, engineering, and technical corps to be present, our course for the future will be planned at this meeting, Seth and Hitman are also required at this meeting, it will take place tomorrow.

With a burst of power the Gate opened and the two ships entered sided by side, leaving behind their galaxy for the refuge of another.

end of line

well?

[Setesh]

By Spock's Beard has it really been that long since I wrote a chapter?

Chapter 3
Plans within plans......

Recording.......
General Strategy planning meeting......
Identity of all present confirmed.....

Admiral Kelsh ‘Snow’ Yukiona......Supreme Imperial commander

Rear Admiral Frax Arkady.......Commander Fleet Supply Sphere Ragnos

Seth.....Self proclaimed Sith Lord, former dark adept on Byss

LT Hitman......Sith Stormtrooper, 'left hand of death'

Captain Frank Reele........Commander IDC Widowmaker

Commander Leto Qorl.......Senior Wing Commander TIE fighter corps.

Major Stormbringer .......... Commader 3rd Stormtrooper division

Major General Mark Sheppard.......Commander 125th Imperial Army Division

Lieutenant Commander Alyrium Denryle......Double Ace TIE pilot, expert TIE operations

Captain Pando Cryll......ISD Renown

‘Operative’ Jonis Caron.........Imperial Intelligence, pay grade O-3, navy rank: Lieutenant

Lieutenant Commander Curtis Saxton.........Astrophysicist, overall commander Sci-Div

Lieutenant Commander Michael ’Darth’ Wong.......Engineer, overall commander engineering personnel

John Masery......Civilian Leader

Begin Record......

ADM Snow: “Gentlemen, this meeting is being recorded for distribution to the rest of the fleet, military and civilian.

First I’d like to announce the promotion of Captain Arkady to Rear Admiral and command of the Ragnos. The sci-division has given the planet Sitheran Prime a clean bill of health, whatever killed the Sith is no longer present. Droids and troops have already been sent to clean out the cities and make them inhabitable.”

Visual:Admiral Snow activating holoprojector; EVS Construction droid imaged.

ADM Snow: “The EVS Construction droid has already been offloaded and is being used to repair and replace the support infrastructure. We ‘acquired’ the plans for several droid factory types as well as those for several models of droids. While the droids we can produce are not top of the line they will serve in most industrial and other labor intensive duties.”

Hologram image cycle, ASP-9 labor droid, WED Treadwell repair droid, Binary Load Lifters, etc.

ADM Snow: “Times will be tough for the next few months as things stand, barring emergencies the Ragnos will be used to produce the raw materials necessary to build the infrastructure. We also intend to attempt contact with several of the local governments to trade for several of the materials we need, we plan to trade them the leftover weapons and other technology the Sith left behind. Dr. Saxton if you will.”

Visual: LCDR Saxton stands and clears his throat. The hologram cycles to show an image of Sitheran Prime.

LCDR Saxton: “Our resident archeologists and cultural anthropologists have uncovered several facts about the Sith.

After leaving our galaxy they began a cycle of civil wars and rebuilding that ended only 300 standard years ago. A complete reformation of their society occurred where all knowledge of the force was purged from their history and language. This was precipitated by a small group known as the ‘Husnock’ the Sith word for one who is blind to the force. Within three generations all knowledge of the force was gone except for what they told as fairytales. They then reformed into a more technologically minded society. Within 20 years they created a space fleet that was years beyond the abilities of their neighbors. They conquered several of the smaller local systems and were gearing up to fight their first real opposition the ‘United Federation of Planet’ a human dominated alliance.”

Insert cross reference link: Implications of finding human beings in another galaxy. Possible connection to Xim the Despot.

LCDR Saxton: “The Sith had second hand information on them but here is what we know, the United Federation of Planets was founded by Humans, from their supposed home world of earth, and a near-human race called Vulcans.

The UFP was founded shortly after an interstellar war with another power called the Romulans. Along side the UFP was the creation of Starfleet. Starfleet is the military branch of the UFP, and is charged with its defense and exploration into new territory, over the 200 or so years of its existence a variety of human, near-human, and outright alien governments have joined the Federation. Humans are still at the top, and from what the Sith knew how integrated into Starfleet you were was dependant on how human you looked.

The federation has degenerated some what from its heyday several decades ago. How severely we won’t know until we can get a first hand look at them. It should also be noted that one of the Sith battle cruisers reported a successful attack on a federation colony and destroyed it with little difficulty, they estimated the colony population at 11000 or so. ”

Visual:LCDR Saxton resumes his seat, Admiral Snow stands back up. Hologram cycles to map of local system.

ADM Snow: “More to the point we believe the Federation is on its way."

Visual: Holomap zooms out then in on a distorted area of space.

ADM Snow: Based on the data the Sith left behind this matches the distortion effect of ‘warp drive’, the prevalent means of FTL travel in this galaxy. They are approaching our territory.”

RDML Arkady: “What is their ftl speed, how long till they reach us?”

ADM Snow “A little over 650 times the speed of light, very slow. We have at least a week. Com-scan believes that this is a small task force of three ships. We’re going to take the federation through guile and subterfuge not force of arms. Since it’s mostly human it’ll be the easiest to subvert.

We’ll try and convert as many officers of this Starfleet to our cause as possible. If things are as bad as the Sith believed it shouldn’t take to much ‘convincing’.”

We’re going to play the diplomat in order to smuggle some slicer droids on board their ships. The droids will render their ships helpless for capture ‘after’ they’ve left our space and reported all was well. Chief Engineer Wong will explain.”

LCDR Wong: “The droid engineers and technical crew modified a design found in the Ragnos’s database.”

Visual: Hologram cycle to a sphere with three photo-receptors. The sphere separates and moved up out of the way of the tiny droid inside. Which begins showing off its various features

LCDR Wong: “Based on the separatist confederacy’s ‘Buzz’ droids. These little saboteurs would dismantle starfighters out from around their pilots. We’ve modified these ones heavily, they’re now covered in sensor dampening materials, the thruster system has been removed allowing us to miniaturize the droid to half its original size. The droid to droid comm unit has been replaced by an ultra-low frequency transmitter.

Once released into the enemy ship they will seek out the main computer, the subspace comm. and C&C junction nodes. They’ll tap in and use the ships own comm. system to give us control of the ship. As well as, as much of the computer core data as possible. If discovered they’ll self-destruct melting into a puddle of slag. The only drawback is the ULF may cause nausea in some people.”

ADM Snow : “With the federation remade into the empire we will expand to cover the galaxy. I won’t lie to you, this is the work of a lifetime. However Dr. Saxton has some observations of his own to give.”

LCDR Saxton: “Admiral, through mapping the position of several other galaxies visible from our own we have determined that we have not only crossed space but time as well. Seth has confirmed this, the relative time on each side of the gate is different. For every month that passes here far less time passes in our galaxy. Seth assures us that this variance is constant and part of the gate. For every year that passes here 3 days pass at home.”

Audio: *muttering*

ADM. Snow: “That’s right people, we can build an empire here and have it ready to return and retake the home galaxy before a decade goes by at home. Hell, it may be that this turns into a generational endeavor, but if so it will be well worth it. We are in a situation few imperials have ever been in. We’re outnumbered and have no support beyond ourselves, there are no reinforcements. But we will prevail and the chaos that the rebels bring to our galaxy shall be snuffed out and order brought to two galaxies. Any comments or questions?”

MJR. Stormbringer: Admiral, we’ve been wondering about the clone troops, my men are ready to fight and die for the empire, but there aren’t enough of us to garrison more than a handful of planets before we have to start stripping shipboard security.

ADM Arkady: We plan to have the first wave of clone troopers and pilots ready in 6 months, once they pass your muster we’ll begin more mass production We have plans to build more clone tanks as soon as possible.

Additionally, our own resources must be conserved as much as possible so we’re going to hire mercenaries, the general chaos this galaxy is in is comparable to pre-imperial outer rim, with as far as we can determine from the Husnock database, a comparable supply/demand amount of mercenaries.

John Masery: “Where are you building these things, Sitheran Prime is getting pretty crowded as it is.

ADM Arkady: "Another area we lucked out in. The sith had colonies on each of its in habitable worlds."

Visual: Hologram cycle to planetary system map,

ADM Arkady: "There are eight planets in the system, Sitheran Prime is the 4th planet away from the sun. The closest planet was designated Sitheran 2, its close enough that the sunward side is molten, its worthless for our needs.

The next planet Sitheran 3 is covered in an ocean of near boiling ammonia. The third planet Sitheran 4 is so small its atmosphere is a fine mist a few inches off the ground, it has 1/4th standard gravity.

Sitheran 5 points out what kind of grasp the Sith had of gravitational engineering, Sitheran Prime and Sitheran 5 share the exact same orbit on opposite sides of their orbital path. Sitheran 5 was also inhabited, I’m told it’s a veritable paradise near the equator, with extensive recreational facilities, closer to the poles are large industrial areas. The planet has several native lifeforms, though nothing approaching sentience.

“Sitheran 6 has been partially terraformed, it has a breathable atmosphere, and the atmospheric processors the Sith built there are still working, powered by solar panels and geothermic energy. Other than that it’s a desert, the Sith had several prisons on the planet, clustered around large mining operations. The prisons are underground so are ideal to living there. More importantly com-scan shows that they’re still inhabited. A strike force is on their way now.”

“Sitheran 7 the last planet is a gas giant but rather importantly its atmosphere contains tibanna and other natural gasses we need for manufacturing.

ADM Snow: ”I think that’s all for now, Arkady, Jonis, come to my office. Everyone else, dismissed.”

End recording.....routing recording to archive.....


Later, in the artifact room, Hitman looked over the collection. He had seen most of them before, or rather the copies Palpatine kept on Byss. These were all the originals, taken by Vader himself from the Jedi Temples containment vaults.

“An impressive collection, yes” Seth’s electronically modulated voice came out of the darkness.

“Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“Oh some of it is. He kept copies of most of the writings on Byss, but some of the more, direct artifacts were kept here.”

“You claim to have been on Byss, but I never saw you there.”

“I was one of the ‘items’ in the vault. One of the adepts awakened me when he realized how insane Palpatine was becoming.”

“So who are you.”

“A prisoner trapped by the Jedi long ago.”

“Why didn’t the Emperor release you.”

“Fear. I’m from a much older time, before many of the secrets of the Dark Side where lost.”

Hitman raised an eyebrow to that, “You also claim to be a sith lord.”

“I am the Dark Lord of the Sith.”

“Yeah, right. The emperor left instructions on what to do to pretenders.”

Hitman’s lightsabre was out in a second as was his other hand as he attempted to force choke this creature. His powers hit a barrier around Seth. Seth gestured and Hitman felt the force leave him.

“What, how. That’s impossible.”

“Did you really think that these paltry artifacts are all that there is to know about the force. I was imprisoned at the height of my power, thousands of years before now. Now I have returned nothing will stop me.”

Hitman said nothing, then attacked. Even without the force he was greatly skilled in lightsabre combat. He could feel that however Seth was suppressing his force abilities, it was an active power. It took energy to maintain, lots of it, he would tire eventually. Seth produced a pair of short lightsabres and deflected him with ease.

“This is rather unfair of me isn’t it.”

The force flooded back into Hitman. He stepped up his attacks. Seth calmly deflected each one, it was like fighting Vader, except he would have followed up with devastating attacks. He extended his senses probing his opponent. He felt power, incredible power, the short masked figure was almost amused at his attempts. Unable to overpower his opponent with the force, he concentrated on Seth’s fighting style. It was a strange style, fast and by all right it shouldn’t have been able to block his powerful blows. Vader himself had taught him the Djem So style, but it was useless, Seth’s control of the force was to great for physical strength to matter.

Hitman slipped into Shii-cho, not an art he had mastered but one with better a defensive stance that could buy him time. Seth suddenly attacked, raining blows from a single sabre at a time, wind milling the blades so fast he had no time to counter, or even maintain a stance. Hitman backpedaled trying to get away

In flurry of motion Seth disarmed him and lightly touched his armor in several places, just to let him know how very dead he could have been.

“Your just toying with me.”

“Yes, the Sith have fallen far from my time. Swear allegiance to me, or perish. It would be easier with you, you would save me considerable time. But you could be replaced easily.”

Hitman tried to peer into the future and found none he was in where he did not serve this being. He swallowed his pride and knelt.

“I pledge my self to you, as your left hand of death. As I served Palpatine I shall serve you.”

“Good, good, now I have a task for you. A test of ability and loyalty. Somewhere on this station is a sith sarcophagus that hides it self from the force. My apprentice is inside. Return her to me.”

“Yes,” through gritted teeth, “My master.”

Hitman stormed out of the room, he hoped someone pissed him off he needed to blow off steam.

Seth sat back on the ‘throne’.

“He will succeed, if only to try and find a weakness in me. We will be reunited my love, and this time, nothing will stop us.”

End of Line

Questions,comments,flames, please?

[Admiral Felire]

I like it. I think that the story has a lot of potential. I also think that it is also very entertaining, as I read I'm wondering whats going to happen next.

[Setesh]

I like it. I think that the story has a lot of potential. I also think that it is also very entertaining, as I read I'm wondering whats going to happen next.

Thank you, the fic is actually two stories at the moment the federation's point of view can be found here

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Which I also intend to update once this one 'catches up' to the same point