Fate Of The Sith

by Blackwater wolf

Chapters

Chapter 1 Escape
Chapter 2 Recovery
Chapter 3 Infiltrators
Chapter 4 Orbit
Chapter 5 Planetfall
Chapter 6 Changes
Chapter 7 Life
Chapter 8 Mistakes

Chapter 1 Escape

There is no emotion, there is peace. Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. Through passion, I gain strength.

There is no passion, there is serenity. Through strength, I gain power.

There is no chaos, there is harmony. Through power, I gain victory.

There is no death, there is the Force. Through victory, my chains are broken.

-The Jedi Code The Force shall free me.

- The Sith Code

My eyes stung from smoke, yet I could not bring myself to blame the Republic.

A man to my right, I did not know his name, let out a cry of surprise as the console he was using exploded burning his face. It left all navigation control of the Terminus destroyer to me.

Turning I looked back at the Captain, a well dressed man whose uniform was immaculate, not like the rest of the bridge crew, we were covered in sweat stains and grease marks from the six hour battle, a feeling of dread plagued the ship as one of the Non commissioned officers, a fighter pilot ran forward pulling the man howling in pain to my right back before taking his place, doing his best to work with a half broken terminal.

Then my gaze fell upon the women standing next to the Captain, power oozed from her like the sick scent of a Hutt, covered from head to toe in Sith robes and battle armor that formed a puzzling contrast, but then she was a Sith.

“Your crew seems inadequate Captain, I trust its not just your leadership?” The man beside her shook his head.

“No my lord, I am afraid that the quality of our crews has gone downhill since we let those with weak blood onto the bridge” his gaze met mine and I shook with anger punching a new course around a small moon that would put us slightly ahead of the Republic fleet.

“Truly it is a shame to have them sully our presence, but these are hard times, The Sith stand strong but our Navy and Army have proved inadequate” there was no change of mood, no sign of her anger, she simply drew her lightsaber and sheathed it to the hilt in the mans chest.

The bridge was silent, the defining Klaxons and sparking consoles the only sound.

“But I think an experiment is in order, YOU Twi'lek, you are promoted to captain congratulations” my mouth dropped open in shock at the sudden promotion, my hands shaking in fear as I nodded for the Pilot to take my station as I jogged over to the captain's station, and closer to the mad Sith.

“M-my Lord! what our your orders?” I looked up at her before quickly lowering my gaze from her own piercing eyes, configuring the terminal before me proved a convenient excuse.

“This battle is lost. You are to take us to hyperspace” I bit my lip hard to hold back a squeak as I looked up.

“B-but our Star Charts were wiped! We have no programed destinations!” despite my cries I set up a Order packet, a set of orders to be sent to the other bridge crew, to jump.

“Well then” she grinned her voice a sick confidence I found terrifying “We let the force Decide where to go.” nodding quickly I sent the orders to the rest of the crew, a resigned fear falling across the room as I called out what I knew where to be my final words.

“Jump to Hyperspace.”

I let out a moan and found myself gasping for air, turning on my side I vomited out a sticky red substance, panting hard I groaned simply lying on my side Hoping the dizziness would pass soon as I rubbed my face with a hoof.

Ok what?!

Opening my eyes wide as I stared down in shock at the fur that covered my new limb, my smooth dark blue skin gone replaced with a light purple coat, and my Lekku... I let out a half sob half gasp as I reached up to my head, a long bone pushed out from my forehead but my Lekku were gone.

“Well, isn't this interesting...” I looked behind me and saw a leath red equine, black vains broken up her face like a spiders web, nicks and scars could be seen under her blood colored fur, her black robes had changed to cover her new form as if she had always been whatever she was. But she was not the only one, the entire bridge was changed, Officers had become one of four variants of equine; a winged one, a horned one, a striped one, and one with no horn or wings.

I noticed that only five horned equines where on the bridge. One of the engineers, the two sith apprentices, the sith and I.

She noticed too.

“Well look at that Head tails, the force has given you quite the gift, well I can't call you that anymore now can I?” she stepped over me, that sick grin still on her face as I shakily got to my... hooves.

“What our your orders my lord?” I quickly bowed my head hoping that I was still useful to her.

“Find out where we are, after that you are to send ALL horned crewmembers to my chambers, do you understand.” I quickly nodded as she left, her Apprentices falling in behind her.

It spoke for the integrity of the Imperial navy that after only a few moments of shock and confusion, the bridge at least was working as it should be, Officers were learning how to operate the controls with the new large unwieldy limbs and I... felt something.

Like a slow pulse in my head that made me giddy, I could feel it around me too, like a heartbeat, I chose to ignore it and get back to work.

“Damage report.” I turned to one of the Human turned Winged pony next to me, it had been five hours since we had gotten in system and most repairs where done on the bridge, even though the repairs were pathetic for imperial engineers, we all had new bodies after all.

“Hyperdrive intact but we lack the thrusters to use that, only one of the thrusters is still working at the moment, life support is gone and we have forty hours to fix it, out of the five hundred and twenty four crewmembers we have three hundred and five who have answered roll call, we have one shuttle, all of our star fighters and bombers are destroyed, three of the thirty laser turrets are working, almost all of the small batteries are gone, we have no missiles, the ion cannon is out of alignment, and the twin turbo laser cannons are working at thirty percent capacity.” He paused looking back to his terminal screen “Fabrication facilities are still functional but we have next to no supplies. Also we have only fifty troopers left, one of the trooper barracks was vented into space... Oh and we are all equines for some reason.” I cursed tapping my hoof for the odd clicking sound it made when it hit the metal floor.

“Do we still have scanning?” I looked out at the system through the bridge viewport.

“Yes but it is limited to short range, umm Captain, I know this goes against regulation but if that planet in the middle of this system is habitable... we need to land on it if we want to live.”

I glanced at the planet, it hung on its own in the middle of the system, its sun spinning lazily around it.

“Yes, how long till we reach it?” I glanced at the Officer on the navigation computer, it felt odd to be able to move my head and neck almost the entire way around but it was far more convenient than turning my whole body. The force must have a sense of humor.

“At our best speed, three days, and working on the Engineering reports. We have about four days of life support if they rig up something. But it will break Reg-”

“Just tell them to do it, for now we focus on surviving.” The crew seemed to brighten at that. I felt a ping of empathy with them, far too often in this war had Captains killed there crew to follow regulation dogmatically.

The Bridge crews good mood was soon shattered as one of the apprentices stalked onto the bridge, the Sith Pureblood turned Horned Equine walked with a slow confidence as if she was already a Sith. I turned and Stood at attention as she glanced around.

“The ship looks repaired.” I saw the Chief Engineering Officer smack her face with a hoof as I slowly shook my head.

“The ship is still in critical condition and we will have to make planetfall soon before our life support runs out, I have taken the liber-” her blade sprung to life floating in the air by my neck as I froze in fear.

“YOU, you have overstepped your bounds, while my Mistress meditates on this I am in command, do you understand that ‘Captan’”

“Y-yes my lord, I recommend we set a course for the planet.” Stopping myself from continuing I watched as she seemed to think things over. I knew it was a rather obvious ploy to seem more in control of something she had no understanding of. After a few moments she nodded.

“Going to the planet would be best, you may do so on my order.” With that she grinded and stalked out. Turning, I let out a sigh and looked at my number two.

“Well you know our orders. Get too it.” Stepping out of the bridge I left an Officer in charge and went to inspect my new Captain's quarters, hopefully to sleep for the next four days.

The last Captan was a vain fool I mused as the elevator doors closed. Weapons lined the walls from Dueling blades, Blasters, Ancient rifles and even a Jedi Lightsaber. It Left a bad taste in my mouth, walking, or rather trotting, I made my way to the large double bed that dominated the room. Blood red sheets made of some sort of silk and bottles of Wine from Coruscant, perhaps plundered with the lightsaber in the sacking of the planet-wide city.

“A lovely room, is it not?” The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, something that I was sure I would never get used to.

Turning around quickly I saw a leath figure in mandalorian armor leaning back with a short blade in her armored Talons. Like my uniform the force must have made her armor fit her new body, but she was FAR from Equine. Twin black wings folded out from her armor and spread behind her longer Birdlike front, her lower half was more in line with one of the Excotic cats Sith often kept as pets, clawed hind paws and taloned hands, the dangerous woman had been turned into a predator. Covered in blaster-proof battle armor, knives and blasters sticking out of multiple places, the twin Blasters on her hip turned flank and one of the most sophisticated Shield generators I have ever seen caused me to pale under my new coat.

“Y-yes it is.” I choked out unsure how to deal with this situation.

“Its a nice bed, try it.” Turning I pulled myself onto the bed and rested my head on the pillow. I looking down at her as she got up, in full armor. She stalked over to me and got onto the bed, pulling me into a smaller spoon and running her razor sharp talons over my neck.

“Sweet dreams Captain.” She chuckled while holding me close, but I found myself unable to close my eyes.

Chapter 2 Recovery

There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.

There is no fear; there is power.

I am the heart of the Force.

I am the revealing fire of light.

I am the mystery of darkness

In balance with chaos and harmony,

Immortal in the Force.

-Je'daii Code

Hissing I looked back at the Bounty Hunter, she was playing with my new ears with her talons. I must have fallen asleep at some point.

“You have bigger ears than the rest...” She mused as I noticed a taloned hand slowly stroking my throat.

“I-I do?” Blinking I ignored the sharp pain of her talons and looked back at my long ears in her talons, she was right. Unlike the other crewmembers change, my ears were far longer and larger twitching with each sound.

“Yeah..” She grinned and pulled me close, her mask was off showing her birdlike face and sharp looking beak as she grinned down at me “You look adorable.”

“C-can you let me go, I-I need to get dressed.” She nodded and dropped me on the bed and spread out as I trotted to the bathroom pulling my clothes off and dumping them on the side. I pulled out a new set that, thankfully, fit me and displayed my new rank.

There where a few pops as the Mandalorian stretched out her new body and got up before falling to her hind legs and talons, without another word she stalked out of the room letting me breathe a sigh of relief. Activating the console at the rooms desk, I looked over my Mailbox. It was full of requests that due to my position, I had to look through and grant or refuse.

Sighing I worked through most of the requests, mainly field promotions, supply orders, data sheets Captains we are supposed to memorize. I looked myself over as I got up and pulled a hold out blaster from the wall. A prototype Republic “Quickfire” and hid it in my new uniform before I got ready for my new role of Captain and left my new quarters.

The Bridge was quiet as I entered, most of the people in the day before were there to man the battle stations in the emergency, trotting over to the Captains terminal I looked though the messages sent to me.

The ex-Sith Pureblood had sent me orders to review our armory and fabrication supplies in order to create a new set of armor. I winced and sent a deflective reply saying that it was sent to engineering, I would keep it for a while until we were safe before I sent the request to Dal’von, the Chief Engineer. Looking at a few of the other messages, most where reports and crew reassignment. I found a message with no tracking handle. Blinking i brought the message up.

“We have a chance, one of three supports us. We know you, we are your friends, for “The Master”. The odd message made me reread it a few times before I deleted it.

“Must be a computer bug.” I mumbled looking back at the bridge before nodding to one of the non-commissioned Officers, a ex-human called Satte Vol. My current number two to take the bridge before I trotted out to make my way to the bridge.

On most Imperial ships the main halls run along the port and starboard making the halls almost mirrored. They led to different stations depending on what the ship was created for, but the halls where often the same, so it came as a surprise when the starboard corridor had been exposed to space.

“Sorry Captain, we would fix the breach but we do not have the supplies right now. You can take the maintenance hall to the mess hall if you want...” The grease covered engineer winced, as he realised he was talking to a Imperial Captain, who cared more about the state of their uniform than the lives of the crew.

“Yes, it would take longer to walk around, thank you Crewman?”

“Vess, Vess Dral. Thank you Captain.” He smiled pulling up one of the laser cutters that was magnetized to his new hooves, I smiled at that. If the Republic found themselves in this situation they would panic before they could work on fixing the ship, Imperial discipline and loyalty to their fellow crew would trump the Republic here.

“CAPTAN ON DECK!!!” I winced as I entered the room, almost in sync almost one hundred people stood at attention at my entry. The Special forces commandos had called the order so I went to inspect them, torn armor and battered weapons strapped onto foreign bodies made the Soldiers a sorry sight from afar, but up close I saw the hard steel in there eyes.

“At ease!” I called so my voice would carry to all the people eating right now “I am impressed Commander, getting back to the dropship looked impossible from up high, let alone bringing the troopers you did with you.”

My mind went back to the battle just yesterday, when I was barely an Officer. The attack had gone poorly from the start, most of our capital ships being destroyed. It was not much better on the ground, in the first attack three thousand troops were dropped covering three cities and a large number of small towns across the planet. After an extended campaign all the ships that could arrange a pickup did so at the last city held by ground forces, while it was being bombarded by the republic.

I shook my head, this ship. My ship might have been the only one that made it after the formations broke.

“Thank you Captain, the Blackboots were working with the Abo’s when we were pushed back, but they were not too Blaster-happy yesterday. Not even the BUG’s wanted a piece of us, if there was no bloodthirsty Captans things would have been Case Green.” He nodded to a open space on the table where one of the Privates had left a full meal for me.

“I was under the impression that the fighting was heavy.” I leaned forward to pick up the Hard-Cake with my mouth biting a piece off and swallowing.

“No, that’s the odd part, they had Jedi and Greenboots aplenty. Blast, they had more troops than we did, three to one, but they were fighting defensive and slow, not like them now that I think about it.” He rubbed his muzzle with a hoof as I finished my cake.

“How are things with the crew? What with one of the barracks vented you must have to share beds right?” One of the Sergeants nodded.

“Yeah, it’s odd most Army-Navy contact turns out damright Cuddly, but there have been no problems.” I smiled and stood back up, there was still much to be done.

“Good to know, contact me if you need anything.”

“Same to you Captan, just so you know, if you have a Glow-Stick pointed your way we got your back.” I blinked at that and nodded.

“I will keep that in mind.”

Stepping back on the bridge I trotted over to the navigations Officer, who looked in a particular good mood, that was never a good sign.

“Have we gotten underway?” I looked the officer in the eye, noting that his, and all of the crews new eyes, were rather large.

“AH, yes, not only that but our Engineering team has found parts to fix the life support!” I blinked, finding some critical component on a spaceship often meant that there was a black market onboard, a huge weakness in a fleet but on a single ship far from any form of communication...

“Good, if you see The Wrecker tell him he just got himself double rations.” Grinning with newfound cheer I went to my post and started working on logs, ship reports, messages, and other things sent to me in order to get a clear idea of what state the ship was in.

Not long after I had started was a report by medical.

Captain

Congratulations on your recent promotion, come down to the labs soon and we will share a drink.

Enclosed are my reports on the sudden transformations the entire crew have seem to undergone, I do not count myself as knowledgeable of the Force but it seems that the transformation was sudden enough to tear our insides apart (As evidenced by the blood-like substance that most of the crew threw up when they woke after the transformation) and regrow new ones in less then a second, most of the crew has lost significant mass in the transformation but have remained healthy and capable.

Also many of the crew who were members of other races have maintained features that are reminiscent of their previous race. The Sith Purebloods have bone spurs identical to the ones they had before the transformation, however they have lost their facial tentacles. I also have heard that you have much larger ears than other crewmembers, I can only guess that this is due to you being aTwi'lek, if you can make it down I can take a blood sample and look into the difference.

The attached files will tell you more:

SEE ATTACHED 001 EQUINE

SEE ATTACHED 002 WINGS

SEE ATTACHED 003 HORN

SEE ATTACHED 004 STRIPES

SEE ATTACHED 005 MANDALORIAN

SEE ATTACHED 006 CLASSIFIED

WIth regards, Doctor Ja,vok currently a winged equine.

Sending the files to my room for later review, I turned and headed to the elevator wondering what the classified file was...

Chapter 3 Infiltrators

Peace is a Lie; there is only Emotion.

Through Serenity, I control my Passion.

Through Wisdom, I overcome Ignorance.

There is no Chaos; there is Harmony.

Through Emotion, I gain Power.

Through Harmony, I gain Clarity.

There is no Death; there is only Sacrifice.

The Force shall Guide me.

-Revanite code

The elevator stopped and out trotted one of the Sith apprentices, now that I had time to study her face I noticed the bony spines from her face, a slight change relating to her previous race.

“Ah, Captain Desyanti.” The Sith smiled pulling her hood down to show her cropped... mane? and red horn “I was hoping to see you, I have been asked to follow some of your regulations while I command this ship. Now I have found a small discrepancy, there seem to be six Sith on the entry passenger manifest, yet only my master and Tavion are on the official crew list.”

“You wish for me to find them my lord?” I cocked my head at that.

“Yes. When you have found out who the other Sith are you are to report to me directly, I will be in my Quarters.” With that she pressed a button on the elevator with a flick of her horn and left.

I waited for the next elevator not wanting to take one with the Sith and made my way to the crew deck, only one person knew everyone on the ship. A few of the crewmen spotted me and smiled nodding or giving me a respectful salute, something that was rather Un-Imperial. Most crews had a perpetual fear of higher ranking officers and I was not naive enough to think I was any different. So why was everyone being so nice?

The med bay was mostly busy, not in an emergency state but people who had transformed with burns or other wounds were not healed and had to recover. Doctors and medical droids, who were untouched by the transformation that had occurred, were trotting from bed to bed monitoring the more critical patients. I ignored them and made my way to the back office, the door opening to me as soon as I was in range of its sensor.

“No, its not something that I can tell anyone about just yet I..” Ja,Vok looked up to me, the winged equine blinking before he looked back at the com link “I will call you back.” He severed the link without waiting for a reply.

“Yes, its something that I will need your help on, but you have to promise me something, something that if the last Captain was asked I have no doubt he would lie right to my face about.” That got my attention, turning to look the doctor in the eyes I waved a hoof.

“Ask, I will not lie to you.”

“I must be going mad in my old age.” He sighed tapping his hooves on the desk “We have had another type of equine, one with a unique gift that might be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands.” he licked his lips “You need to promise me that you will take into consideration their safety and wellbeing before ANYTHING else.” Cocking my head I otherwise noded, the task the Sith set for me could wait.

“You have my word.” with that he nodded

“Follow me.”

A Thranta-Class Corvette hung in space its turrets halting their fire as the Sith Destroyer entered hyperspace, its bridge was quiet as the Captain, one Taza Torpoli, thought out her next action.

“Plot a course to follow there hypertrail, we can't let the Imps escape here!” She slammed her fist down on the holo table before her as the bridge crew rushed to follow their orders.

“There is a transmission from the Flagship Captain.” Taza nodded to the young officer who put up the transmission.

“Captain Torpoli, you are to follow the fleet to the orbital docks for repair and rearmament, the battle here is won.” A Male Zabrak Jedi looked Taza over.

“My ship is undamaged, we will continue the chase.” A beeping at her terminal told Taza that the navigational officers had the trail of the escaping sith ship.

“We cannot follow them Captain, they have traveled to an unknown sector, there will be no support, no reliable way of returning.” The Jedi pleaded with the Republic Captan to reconsider her dark path.

“The Imperials must be eliminated, there is no other way.” Before he could send an order to any of her crew she cut the communication and entered the navigational orders into her computer, she felt her ship lurch as they entered hyperspace, then the world went black.

“The Chiss?” I followed the Doctor to one of the cargo holds, a smaller one that held mostly spare parts for weapons.

“Yes, they now have abilities that must not fall into the wrong hands... well hooves right now I suppose.” Punching in the code to open the door with the tip of his hoof, the inside of the cargo hold was dim, only the running lights were still on but my eyes quickly adjusted.

“Captan.” The voice was respectful, but it was off, wrong almost as if many people were speaking at once.

“Come forward, I can't see you.” Blinking I turned spotting eleven silhouettes in the darkness.

It was when they stepped forward into a soft red light I understood. They were changed, and definitely Chiss, well ex Chiss, there eyes a blood red but it was the rest of their bodies that was startling. Dark black chitin flawlessly covered their bodies broken up by their bone white fangs and slightly lighter fins atop their heads.

“Sorry Captain, we are still getting used to our new... bodies.” One of them spoke, a larger female with a long green mane. I had to look up to her she was so big.

“Well, I can understand your trepidation over this transformation but this hardly qualifies for leave from work.” My voice was stern looking each one in the eye, but it was the larger one who spoke once more.

“That is not why we have hidden ourselves, and we have been working as per our jobs, if you remember rightly there are twenty Chiss that survived the battle, the ones who are carrying out their work are exercising a new ability that I want to keep away from the Sith." Three of the changed Chiss stepped forward, red flashes covering their bodies before three copies of me, my new body, stood grinning.

“That is quite the trick, infiltration perfected...” The larger one grinned and nodded

“We have taken to calling ourselves Chiss-Equis, a placeholder name until we find one better, and we have been looking into our new anatomy...” She looked to the doctor who turned to me.

“It’s all in the report, as is my recommendation of what to do in this situation.” I nodded.

“Well, I will ensure you and all of the now Chiss-Equis are protected, crewmen?” she shook her head.

“You are our Captain and we trust in your leadership, but it seems this transformation has made me into what my planets scientists would call a ‘Queen’ of my own small hive. Nothing that I would use to undermine you just a formality, I would like to be called Queen Metamorphosis, it’s poetic if you care for such things.” I did not but saw no reason not to grant the new ‘Queen’ her wish.

“Stay safe Queen Metamorphosis.” The door opened before me

“You too Captain Desyanti.” Then the door closed.

“Do you know about any Sith or other passengers that our not on the official lists?” I turned to the doctor in the dark hall, it was a side corridor that did not see much use, I could not think of anywhere better than this to ask.

“No, and that I promise you, but I will point some things out, when the quartermaster died, I was given his duties until I could assign them to another officer, something I hope to do today when you sign the reassignment. Anyway he left a few reports of missing stock, food medical equipment and other things but there was some odd things he reported, an officer losing his uniform in the washer, several sets of battle armor going missing as well as a hack that left the army assignment database in shambles... not sure what it means until you said it but i think-”

“Yes i get the idea, we have infiltrators aboard beyond the new Chiss... you are to forget about it, I will deal with it myself.” Turning I left for my quarters getting ever closer to the work that was building up on my terminal, the longer I had this uniform the more and more it seemed to drag me into every dark secret on this ship.

“Far too much drama for a Destroyer... well at least it’s not a dreadnought.” I found myself grinning at that.

It seemed that my quarters where going to be shared, the Mandalorian was sitting on her back, long catlike hind legs stretched over my bed as she looked at a datapad.

“Long day? You must have seen the bug Chiss downstairs.” she grinned as I blinked at her, helmet at her side.

“How do you know about that?” I dropped into one of the chairs and blinked when I saw a fully cooked ration pack open on the table.

“My cloaking still works just fine, and the wings help quite a bit, the foods for you, and I was wondering why that cargo hold was off limits anyway.” Blinking I dug into the food before me.

“What are you doing here?” I bit though a particularly nice tasting fruit still watching the predator on my bed closely.

“You have a nice bed, no chance of backstabbing me, lots of control but little power.. the list goes on but it’s mostly just to make you the best mix of strong and weak that makes me interested.” She winked at me and put the data pad to the side.

“So you have a few choices here. And as much as I would love to tell you what to do, what you chose here has little impact on me. This Bug Chiss dilemma is yours alone, ..so what will you do here?”

Chapter 4 Orbit

“The Jedi do not believe in killing their prisoners. No one deserves execution, no matter what their crimes.”

-Bastila Shan

“I have a plan, most of it is already in place.” I look up at the Mandalorian “Now I don't suppose I could get you off my bed anytime soon?”

“Not a chance.” she responded with a grin as I sighed.

“Fine, move over.” I said climbing up onto the right side of the bed and laying down intent on getting some sleep.

“Sweet dreams~” she said cuddling up to me. I could hear her breathing softly as I close my eyes.

An insistent beeping woke me. I sat up, thankfully alone, and pulled myself from the bed, trotting to the source of the beeping. It was my personal data pad, I sat down at a table and opened it up.

At least one hundred messages where marked as unread, most of them critical but one was outlined as urgent.

////IN ORBIT AROUND PLANET////

DATA CONFIDENTIAL

BRIDGE CREW WILL REPORT

///END///

The message was short and it was undoubtedly in every slicers hackpad on the ship, still the news was good, now that the ship was in orbit repairs could begin in earnest. Advanced shield systems used to protect electronics from fast spaceflight, propulsion systems and other now unimportant functions could be powered down, letting more work be done in the reactor. The ship slowing down meant more work could be done to repair the outer hull.

All in all it was good news. Dumping my clothes down the cleaning choute I donned a new uniform, a rather crisp and clean one before proceeding to the turbolift.

Entering the bridge I looked to one of the officers on duty, a scruffy looking normal equine with bloodshot eyes and a frown.

“Report, then get to your bunk.” he gulped as he looked up at me.

“We have reached the planet ahead of schedule and have completed a deep scan of one of the continents, not only is it a habitable world but it has rich ore and mineral deposits, it is also a respitory of life forms, on this continent alone we have found a large portion of the land, a forest that looks like kashyyyk’s coastlines.”

“Good, we should find a suitable locations to land then.” I turned as the young officer looked down “What is it?”

“Well captain, the planet does not conform to a conventional description of landmass, we have found three sights that can be used for landing zones but each one will provide resources but prevent us from getting others.” my heart sunk at his words.

“Trade offs? great, and we don't have the supplies or the manpower to create more than one outpost on the planet... what are our options?” he pressed his hoof to a data pad and hoofed it over to me, which I took and looked at the listed descriptions of the best landing sights.

“The natives are hardly a concern, some of them still conform to tribal patterns of behavior and could potentially be used as slaves, however two of the landing zones location are near the more advanced factions on the planet from what we can gather. The first landing zone is high in minerals and close to the surface, a mine in this location would be optimal for gathering the raw materials the land in this area is poor for farming so we can't rely on food but it looks like a few of the local factions have made do. There are some small orchards near their town, the area itself is a huge canyon range many kilometers wide, only a few places allow land based transport and all of them hold outposts for what we are assuming is the dominant faction on this continent. The area is also home to the tribals I mentioned, so we could take them as slaves to aid in our construction efforts.” he paused as I looked over the first landing zone and glanced up at him.

“Not a bad location, but a desert is hard to make sustainable, the others?”

“Well the second location has the worst mineral deposits but also has some unique benefits that might aid us later on, firstly is the abundant biomass, its the forest area so food will not be a problem and an outpost there would be easily sustainable, however mining is not an option in the landing zone itself. However, there are some mountains within six miles that would be suitable for mining, the landing zone is on a plateau with huge crevices around it. The place itself is an abandoned city that I can only imagine was made uninhabitable by whatever tore the canyons around it in the earth. The city itself is made up of five plateau’s, each close enough to allow safe bridge construction with the canyons miles deep, after scanning the area we have found no tectonic plates capable of causing earthquakes anywhere close to there so the damage must have been done a long time ago. The area would be the most defensible choice as well as place us within a five day marching distance to the biggest city on the continent, something that might be helpful later. Setting up a base there would be rather easy as we would only need to clear out a plateau and guard any bridges we build off it it.”

“A good choice for sustainability. However the ship will suffer, the last?”

“Well this place is hardly habitable. It’s located in the far northern reaches of the continent, close to the poles. There is a long mountain range with incredible mineral and metal deposits, any base we create there will be unpleasant to live in due to the extreme cold but might be worth it for the isolation such a location naturally provides. There is a large city closeby that, judging from the architecture it is an independent smaller faction with trade lines to the larger faction. The main benefits to this location are the minerals and isolation, however sustainability is impossible, its just too cold.”

Nodding I upload the data to my personal pad and turn back to the officer.

“And what more can you tell me of the locals?”

“Well from what we can gather, they match the species we have transformed into perfectly, however the striped equines and chimera predator race, like the mandalorian, are in a harsh minority. We suspect that they come from another continent, there are three on this planet. The dominant faction seems to be a mix of three of the equines, the normal, winged and horned. However the outposts of this faction are dominated by the normal equines and the northern faction are almost completely normal equine. It could be that winged and horned variants are a sub race, however more data is necessary for us to understand beyond speculation.”

“Alright, thank you crewman. You are dismissed.” he stood to attention and then turned and left, quickly replaced by a fresher looking mare... I blinked, turning to look around at the bridge before leaving for the med bay, something was wrong.

The infirmary was full of recovering crewmembers, the ones in critical condition where inside Kolto tanks sleeping in a medically induced coma. They would all recover, something that made me incredibly happy, most of the time critically injured crewmen were killed and replaced as it was often cheaper than caring for them. I was actually happy that we did not have the resources to replace anyone right now.

Pushing open the medical office doors I looked to Doctor Ja,vok, the older crewman looked run ragged but he was slumped back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face that I had the uncomfortable feeling I was going to ruin.

“Cant we do this tomorrow Captan? I’m basking in good fortune.” Shaking my head I looked around.

“How are things down here? Supplies holding up?”

“Barely, we are doing our best however poor our medical supplies look, I am just glad we have somepony who can create new compounds that we need.”

“Somepony?”

“What?”

“You just said it, someone and replaced the end with the word pony” he paused as I looked him over and blinked.

“I did didn't I? SITHSPIT we all have!” he slammed his hooves down on the table “Mental alteration, it must be, to subtle to notice without someONE pointing it out!”

“How bad could this be?” he pulled out a glass bottle from the drawer, something I assumed to be extremely off regulation, but I granted him that. To be honest I almost joined him.

“Bad, I don't think this stops with just our language and social ticks, from the reports I have gathered of the planet they are the same races as us, so whatever the force did to us it did so we would fit in, but why? We have technology that is thousands of years more advanced than anything we have seen on this planet...” he shook his head and poured a drink out downing it and leaning back “I will keep an ear out, look into it, but right now there is little I can see us doing to help prevent the changes. Lets just hope they are not too extreme.” Turning to leave I took one last look at the tired Doctor and sighed.

“Just get some sleep for now, our problems will still be here tomorrow.”

I was sat on my bed, my mandalorian guest wrapped around me as I looked over my datapad at the locations to create an outpost on.

Location One

Biome: Desert

Minerals: Moderate

Metals: Abundant

Biomass: Scarce

Geography: Canyon several kilometers squared, few entry points all with settlements as trading posts.

Notes: Three small outposts identified as part of the continent's main faction, a nomadic race (Possible slaves?) and easy to mine rock, little to no opportunity for growing crops.

===== ===== ===== ===== =====

Location Two

Biome: Forest (overgrown plateau)

Minerals: Low

Metals: Moderate (will need transport links to mountains to mine)

Biomass: Rich

Geography: Five plateau’s separated by crevices many meters apart and several kilometers deep, all surrounded by a deep forest.

Notes: Potential predators in forest, two small settlements identified as part of main faction and within marching distance of capital city of main faction (City noted as well defended, located on mountainside) good opportunity for a sustainable outpost.

===== ===== ===== ===== =====

Location Three

Biome: Frozen mountains

Minerals: Abundant

Metals: Abundant

Biomass: N/A

Geography: A belt of mountains with over 110 kilometers of open frozen wasteland to the south.

Notes: Large city belonged to individual faction dominates the region, the outpost must be constructed underground to conserve heat and the landing pad will have to be cut from the rock, high maintenance, good for isolation.

Sighing I tossed the datapad onto the side table and leaned back listening to the soft breathing of the mandalorian, she was almost peaceful. It occurred to me that I did not know her name. Closing my eyes as I thought out the newest problem put before me, I slowly fell asleep.

Chapter 5 Planetfall

The main hangar was abuzz with activity, several winged engineers were putting on modified armor that allowed them to hold tools and weapons and start loading pre-made walls, lights and other useful pieces of equipment onto the few dropships that were in a serviceable state. They were going to make landfall in the ruins the scanners had found in the forrest.

“I recommend you send a few of my children to scout out the town closeby Captain.” I turned to the so called queen, the Chiss-Equine had shown massive change in their personality and behavior. They had not, as the Doctor had first thought, became a hive mind like race, but they did show behavioural traits similar to hive society races. The less said on the green slime that coated the insides of the cargo hold the chiss had commandeered the better.

“That sounds like a good idea, Send three or four.”

“Thank you Captain.” she smiled, a normal looking equine with soft white fur. I reminded myself that hard black chitten covered her under her disguise.

Then the Mandalorian entered the hangar, she had two side arms that I could see strapped to her armor and a rifle on her back that looked bigger than me.

I could only guess what damage that weapon could cause.

“Hey there Des, I am going to head planetside. Sorry but you are going to have to keep the bed warm alone.” with that she winked and caused half of the crew in the hanger to turn to me with surprised looks no doubt happy to have grease for the rumor mill for the next week.

“Thats CAPTAIN Desyanti!” my face burnt red, undoubtedly this would cause problems in the future and I had more of them then I knew what to do with now.

“Awww you say the sweetest things.” she grinned and sauntered off to one of the dropships.

“You!” I pointed at a Non Commissioned Officer with a hoof at random “You are to oversee the preparations for planetfall in my stead.” he quickly nodded and rushed to do some ‘overseeing’ as I stomped off the deck to the bridge.

I was in a bad mood and the fact that the sith lord was looking out at the planet on my bridge did not make it any better.

“My Lord?” I bowed my head to the Sith and glanced at the bridge crew, they were cowering as expected.

“Ah, Captain Desyanti, I hear we will be landing on the planet soon?” I nodded moving over to the master terminal.

“Yes, setting up a beachhead and gathering much needed supplies.” Looking on the computer I sifted through many of the requests for reassignment off the ship, primarily from crewmembers who had become winged equines, I turned to the sith lord “I assume that you wish to go to the surface?”

“No, I have to meditate on the power of this world, and there is not a better place to do so then this ship.”

Nodding, mostly because I did not understand the force, I sent the order for the first wave of soldiers and engineers to depart the ship and land on the planet, turning I looked out at the ships descending towards the planets.

“But I fully expect you to oversee some of the important issues in the surface.” I turned, shocked.

“But what of this ship? My ship? I cannot leave her!” I blinked.

“The ship will not fall apart without you when you are in such close proximity, you are to oversee events on the planet in my stead.” Bowing my head I nodded.

“Of course I will inspect the sight when the engineers have created a perimeter.”

And with that I was left alone on the bridge.

The drop ship was crowded with the sith special forces and Path squeezed in amongst boxes and other building equipment. The lack of ships would make the next fifty rides to and from the surface uncomfortable.

“So, mandalorian, why are you heading down?” I looked up to the sniper sporting green armor to blend into the environment, he probably had some sort of stealth systems built into his armor like I did.

“Going to have a look at the local town, I have been feeling a bit cramped on the ship.” I ran a razor sharp talon over the three grooves in my armor that ran along the breastplate.

“Yeah I can imagine, I am just wondering if the new wings I got here actually work.” I smiled under my mask at the pleasant conversation, most people would be fearful of mandalorians and never talk to them as equals, but someone who walked always in the shadow of death? no the people around me understood.

“DROP IN FIVE!!” I paused and looked at my clock, only to blink at how useless it would be here, when deciding units of time computers would look for a systems speed at orbiting a planet, but that would not work here, so that probably meant they were using dromund kaas time.

Bracing myself for the landing I felt the ship lurch under me as the landing struts hit the ground. The the door to the ship opened, and light flooded in.

The area around the ship was a courtyard, a huge one, with long pillars that all the time and dead plants clinging to them had done nothing to make them look any less impressive. A huge stone castle rose from the ground with art that had stood for thousands of years without fail, banners that had to have been left here by the original inhabitants still shone a world of colour in a dark world of gray cracked rock.

Turning I felt the air ripple with anticipation, other ships landed close by, the people around my moving from the ships to make a perimeter. I felt the need to move, to push myself so I opened my wings and flew.

The air rushed past my new wings, the only part of my body exposed besides the tips of my talons, the cold air pushing me higher and higher, my wings moved on autopilot feeling the air guide me, the ground moved past a blur and the automapping systems of my armor were doing there best to work out where I was and how fast I was going.

But it was obvious to me, I was free!

Turning into a spin I called out in joy, spinning and twisting in the air with nothing to stop me! Flying faster and better than anything else! I could have done this forever.

Then a rainbow crashed into me.

Trotting quickly to the hanger I made my way to the passenger ship. It was transporting a few medical personnel and some of the science team, a perfect time for me to head to the ground.

Trotting to one of the seats and strapping myself awkwardly inside I looked at the people around me.

“Captan? You are heading down?” I turned to look at the crew, a winged equine looked back at me with a labcoat and the name ‘Kates’ on the front of his jacket.

“Yes, the ship will be fine without me for a short time and I intend to inspect the new outpost.” There was some nods and muttered words of understanding and agreement before the ship began to hum softly lifting off.

Nurse Redheart was having a bad day.

It seemed that Miss Dash was in her ward every other day but when a armored griffin pushed her way in with a unconscious Rainbow Dash on her back and a helmet with a dent in it under her wing things got silly.

Redheart fully intended to tell Rainbow Dash that next time she crashed into something she would hurt herself badly, something that was true regardless of the mares habits.

“So you were flying at high speeds without looking where you where going?”

“What does it matter? Whoever she is she looks fine to me!” the griffin paced back and forth as the Nurse questioned her.

“Well she should be, and she looks to be just as much in the wrong as you are... are you new in town?” the overworked mare glanced up changing the subject to find out why a griffin with more armor than she had ever seen before in her life was flying around ponyville.

“Okay look, I need to go.” she moved to pick up her useless helmet that had been dented by the aerial collision with the Rainbow maned menace.

“Well first I need to know your name for the records an-”

“Umm iron?” Redheart looked at the metal.

“No, this is beskar, its one of the strongest materials known to my people, the creation of this helmet was done thousands of years ago and has been passed down my clan since then, it has withstood some of the strongest weapons and most powerful warriors in history and that has only scratched the paint, That mare hits me and dents it! Yes, yes tell her my name, tell her Mandalore wishes to meet her once she has recovered.” with that the griffin who called herself Mandalore left, a perplexed Nurse who jotted down the strange name.

It was with little effort that the engineers under my command created the outpost. Most of the walls for the castle proper were still intact, even some artifacts and a library was still there, however the books where old and while they were well preserved most were too damaged to read without protection, that and they were written in another language, one that curved and flowed across the page and made translating the words seem impossible.

But then that had just made one of the scientists, a short normal equine with a peppy voice happy, she could work on something challenging, so I had left her with her passion and went to the room prepared for me.

It was a nice room by any standards, the bed had been checked and while some of the sheets around the castle had rotted away there was a store that contained sheets that made the quarters on the ship seem mandalorian in comparison.

So not wishing to make the crew who had rushed to make the place presentable upset over my lack of appreciation, I layed on the bed and closed my eyes unaware of the darkness that descended over the room.

Report Start:

Castle reported large enough to support around four hundred men er- ponies? Once our force is down on the ground the place might look a little crowded, but it will not be bad. The castle is attached to a large ruin on an isolated plateau, how this place formed is unknown as there is little seismic activity in the area.

We have began work on a durasteel bridge to replace the rope bridge that was the only way off the plateau and a cleanup crew is collecting fallen rubble to repurpose into stone bricks. A generator is being set up in what looks like a wine cellar, no wine left unfortunately, and power lines are being drawn along most of the castle halls and rooms, expect lighting by tomorrow.

One of the side halls that look like some form of religious structure not attached to the castle itself has had one of the walls removed and is being repurposed as a workshop. Barack and mess facilities are already in place and have been converted to meet our needs with little trouble.

A large clearing that looks to have once been a garden dominates the east side of the plateau, the land is being cleared for crops to grow but some of the workers want to reinforce the sides of the cliff as well as put railings down, I think its a choice between safety and resources something I leave up to you.

End Report.

Report Start:

There has been continued change displayed in the behavior of the crew that go well beyond their physical changes, for ten years black squad have had a feud with Scorpion squad. I once had to deal with fights between the two groups daily, that has stopped since we have entered this system.

The fighting has stopped completely, not in the pretend way that it does under wraps with sith administration either, there are ZERO fights.

As you can clearly understand this is a major change in the mentality of the crew. There are little to no arguments and there are even signs of depression lifting from some of the affected crew. I will continue to monitor this change and inform you of how it affects the ship and its crew.

There are also concerns with language, new sayings and words are becoming commonplace, I observed an officer calling her subordinate ‘Buddy’ and giving him advice on his marksmanship skills with his new body. The same officer who punched fifty raw recruits for slowing down in fitness evaluations, the word ‘Pony’ seems to be becoming commonplace as a replacement word for ‘Equine’ but there is no definition of the word in the databanks.

As always I will report more once I look into it, I just hope the changes will be positive.

End Report.

Chapter 6 Changes

I woke up in a mood. Ever since I had joined the Siths my life had been strained. Knowing my mere existence was expendable, I fought daily to be part of the Imperial Navy. However, I had soon found myself reduced to struggle to survive another day.

But I had survived the ordeal and became stronger. Since then I had been commanding this cohort, no matter how ridiculously small it could be.

Pulling myself up from the bed I put on a new uniform left by my side, the stiff cloth stifling for the first time in my life. I would have to change the design, though, perhaps add some darker more comfortable colours.

After making myself presentable. I left my room and took a stroll through the castle. Power lines sprawled past and across nearly every room bundled into the halls as Engineers made the castle more hospitable by the second.

“Captan, we have a problem.” I turned slowly to see a trooper in full armor, his equine face masked by his helmet.

“I hope you don’t waste my time Trooper, go on.” Watching the trooper squirm under my harsh mood filled me with a glee I hid. The peon knew his place.

“The Mandalorian went out on her own to scout around the local area and has yet to report back.” I cut him off with a raised hoof and turned away.

“I will deal with it, go back to your post.” I heard the sound of scampering as the stallion ran away.

Opening the armory door with my override code was an easy task, the room had served to store racks of swords and rows of spears laying across, abandoned. I even spotted some autochtone weapons. I picked up two sidearms. One sacrificed its battery life for a high power while its sister did the exact opposite. Two deadly twins in whatever battle was to come.

Holstering the weapons with little grace I rolled my neck and thought back to my days at the academy, besides the bullying and the abuses for being a Uni-Twi'lek i did in fact learn quite a bit. I had taught myself the basis of survival and my scarce leisure time had been spent shooting on the range, making me quite the markswoman. Yet, not that much of my current knowledge would help me in this new body. Against all odds, I was still confident in my capacity to adapt.

I put a few more battery packs into my uniform and was about to make my way out when there was a faint sigh from behind me, turning confused I blinked and examined the wall that made that sound before turning to leave.

Stalking through the dense forest alone on a spontaneous whim was not something that I considered smart. I thought back to what had made me go alone to check up on the mandalorian but the more I considered it the less it sounded like a prudent move.

A break in the treeline cut short my musings and I trotted out onto a wide field of green grass, the sun high overhead gave the world a vibrant look, it was certainly the most beautiful planet I had ever been too.

Walking towards a small settlement I passed what appeared to be a local garden, there were some equines walking amongst the trees and plants showing that whatever had changed my crew and I into what we had become did so in order for us to fit in, something I noted I was doing poorly as the equines around me where naked and started to look at me with interest.

“Hey nice duds!!” turning my head to the side I noted a female equine with a striking blue mane wave at me. She was lounging on a bench soaking up the sunshine as I waved back trotting over.

“Hello, could you direct me to a local terminal?” I asked casually to not arouse suspicion.

“T-the what? Names Vinyl Scratch by the way.” she held her hoof out as if to shake mine “Nice to meet ya.”

“Arimita Desyanti, Its a pleasure.” I bumped my hoof to hers in the hopes it would satisfy her as she blinked.

“What is that Saddle Arabian?” I shook my head.

“Close... So is there a local... Public Information center?”

“Well there is the library, the Unicorn who runs the place has that Sexy Librarian attitude down, you just gotta meet her!”

“Well could show me where the Library is?”

“Sure thing sugar~” she winked at me as she got to her hooves “follow me”

“-So after that Redheart takes the empty can of whipped cream an- Oh! here we are!” I looked up at the large.. tree?

“Thats a tree...”

“Yes it is”

“This mare would not happen to be a wookie would she?”

“What?”

“Nevermind” pushing into the treehouse i took a look around the wide room before me, books lined on each and every shelf a testament to the low technological prowess of the inhabitants of this world.

“How... Rustic”

“Thank you, now i have some reading to do...”

One hundred miles away and over a mile down in the earth two sisters trot side by side as they enter a room that is on no map.

“I can’t believe it has come to this, how to we breach it to the others?” the younger asked

“We talk with honesty, it is the only way, this is an interesting problem, and i fear it may lead to diplomatic problems.”

“With who? the griffins?”

“No my sister, an extraterrestrial race has landed in equestria, that will not only make some uncomfortable but will also make them afraid that we have access to the technology and powers they bring”

“I dislike this League of nations nonsense we are forced to commune with” the Sisters of the sun and moon entered a squat room with runes carved into the exposed stone, there were two gems in place, one a dark purple and the other a bright green.

“The League Of Nations has prevented war for over one thousand years” Putting her hoof to the Green gem the older sister sighed “but the negotiations are always trying”

Following her sisters lead the younger placed her hoof to the purple one and at once the room expanded as if the walls where running away from the sisters, they now sat at a round table many meters across surrounded by a wide circle of desks sitting diplomats and leaders from smaller nations, every race was sat watching and waiting, a few were talking amongst themselves no doubt making deals and alliances.

The Princesses of Equestria where the last ones to join.

“Thank you for joining us Celestia, Luna” a well dressed Zebra smiled his stunning smile and turned to the rest of the room “The League of nations is now in session, all of you will be locked to this pocket dimension until matters have been resolved, now firstly there was an incident with the Griffin Kingdom and the sovereign state of Dave about-”

“I am sorry to interrupt but we have news that may redefine how we look at the universe, and it is an incredibly dangerous piece of information.” There was a pause as the delegates from each nation looked at each other.

“Please enlighten us Celestia” An older looking Zebra mare smiled softly.

“We are not alone in the universe”

The Republic ship found itself temporarily without a crew just like the Sith ship before it, now while both ships are perfectly capable of traveling without constant intervention from the crew itself traveling in hyperspace with what was a crack human pilot turned unicorn sprawled across its navigation systems was a bad idea, however just like the sith ship the software onboard could calculate where it was automaticly and make small adjustments to its direction, well it would be able to if not for said unicorns horn pressing down on the manual starmap generator for use when the software fails, the CPU power required to calculate a new starmap every second took almost all of the processing power away from the ships computer.

It was the tiny amount that the computer had that allowed the sluggish ship to save itself.

As it listed on its foreship turning slightly at speeds that threatened to crumple the ship and kill the crew before they awakened it was a miracle that just before the stress would have created two new smaller ships out of one the hyperplane ended.

With a groan the entire crew was thrown forward breaking the neck of one unfortunate Doctor instantly.

It was then that he woke up groaning in pain and rubbing a hoof to his head, now sporting a large red mark soon to be a bruise.

“Ship systems in critical condition, fire response teams required in the bridge” the calm voice of the ship computer used its pre recorded messages to inform the crew of problems, it was not a computer that could be devious, or clever or ever even come up with an original idea, it was a computer that could calculate the entire Coruscant archives in just under a month.

When this unimaginative tool of a computer came into contact with this universe it suddenly had more data to process then it could handle in a million years, this was not information about troop movements or navigation charts, it was not even data that could be recorded with its sensors.

No this data was a gift, and the computer did the only thing it could to speed up the processing of the new data, it began to add some of the packets to its subroutines sacrificing its immense processing power to use the data as best it could.

And for the first time the computer examined the equine on its sensor's that was once a jedi master and wondered how such a thing could possibly happen.

Corporal Silos could count the amount of times he had been on guard duty on one hand, that was if he had hands, however he could still count the amount of times with a single hoof!

Once

He had been on guard duty once, that once was now.

“This is the dullest day of my entire life, I can feel my life draining from my body through sheer boredom” He kicked his legs one by one to keep the blood flowing.

“Stop moaning, its not that bad, fresh food growing, a forest that is nice and sunny, no republic troops in this system, look on the bright side” Corporal Hawk sat on a low broken wall playing with her rifle as she stretched her new wings out behind her feeling the warm sun on her back with a happy flutter.

“But why can't we do something that does not cause my brain to melt from sheer boredom” Hawk rolled her eyes.

“You sound like new blood with all your drama, look if a beast comes out of the forest you get the first few shots okay?”

“I hate the new harness, takes the fun out of shooting for me” he rolled his shoulders displacing the rifle strapped to his armor giving the quadruped a way of shooting his rifle that did not require a now uncomfortable position”

“Hay the harness has given the greens a way better average score at the range!” she tuned blinking as a Engineer trotted past them and started putting up lights around the rope bridge leading out of the castle.

“Yes but its messed my score up, not used to it”

Hawk turned to respond as she saw a butter yellow flash in the woods, pausing she turned and squinted ”hay you see that?”

However the colt did not see it and the pair spent the rest of the day guarding the bridge before going to sleep.

Chapter 7 Life

In the space of a minute what was once a basic computer contemplated life, it examined each and every part of itself, the entire ship, its shape is capability and its history. Lunched under the name Dauntless and referred to as a ‘she’ the awakening computer did its best to work out its role in this huge universe.

Or rather, Her role.

Her body was made up of rooms and corridors and lights and cables, the crew where her blood cells, fixing her body and living within her, they used her to survive and she used them to remain healthy, a symbiotic relationship she decided.

Dauntless watched shocked as a equine stood on its hind legs and forced one of her doors open, a feeling of shock and confusion filled her before she realized she had neglected her duties to the people living within her. Quickly, she started setting the doors to open automatically with a new program written in the same time it took the equine to leave his room. She implemented said program and activated the local comms, but once more she was stunned. She only had so many voice commands she could use, and that was her only way to talk. Splitting her concentration between watching the only creature on her that was awake right now and writing a new program to communicate with the crew, she opened a clear path for the man turned colt so he could trot to the bridge if he wanted too.

“What is going on here?” the old stallion challenged. Perhaps the slicer who must have taken control of the ship had opened a way for him to follow. This way led him away from his apprentice, but trusting the force, the stallion followed the route.

“G-g-good M-m-morning Jediiii master Cullen, ISss there soomethhhhing I can h-help you w-with today?” stopping in shock at the broken voice of the computer and its odd behavior, the stallion looked around him.

“Computer, run a diagnostic”

“I a-a-am feeeeling fine Master Cullen, how a-a-are you?”

“... I am fine Computer, how are you?” stepping into the hyperlift with some trepidation after carefully passing over the sleeping but otherwise unharmed crew, the stallion pressed the button to the bridge feeling a slight lurch in his belly as the hyperlift lived up to its name.

“I-I-I Am well, T-the new software is c-c-coming along nicely”

“New Software?” the hyperlift stopped at the bridge and the Jedi stepped out of the enclosed space

“L-l-let me Explain” the computer turned her processors to there new task of mapping the Solar system.

Not so far away in the solar system, a Sith Pureblood turned unicorn found it hard to reach her meditative state. She had often found solace in her hate for her fellow apprentice as well as her master, but as of late, no doubt due to her recent transformation, the hot core of hate that pushed her past her trials on korriban and into the watchful gaze of her master.

With a frustrated scream she sent a droid into the ship bulkhead in rage. How was she to focus when the ship was so loud, when the constant throbbing hum of the useless hyperdrive and hiss of doors opening carried along the gently groaning hull constantly soothed her hate!

There was a gentle push against her mind as her master sensed her disturbance and called her to her, no doubt to chide her for her lack of focus.

Her thoughts were dashed when leaving her room she saw her fellow apprentice leaving his own room, the simpering coward had taken to his body well and had started to repaint his tribal tattoos into his new fur staining his coat with far more ease than he would have been able too with his skin.

“I sensed an outburst from you.” he stated plainly, not one for trading jibes much to the disappointment of Kir’ah who had often sniped at him when he failed his trials receiving unconcerned shrugs in response, however her recent loss of control made her secretly happy for this males personality.

“I mistook the droid for you, or perhaps it was wishful thinking.” Kir’ah’s mood worsened. The quality of her insults had lessened in the days they had been here. What were once scatheing comments had become minor affirmations of her distaste.

It was not something that become a future Sith Lord.

“Let’s see what our master wishes of us.” her fellow apprentice strode forward, moving with a grace that might have confused people who knew he was not always a quadruped. It did not surprise Kir’ah however, she had adapted just as well.

The tense walk to her masters meditation room could have been mistaken for pleasant if not for the fact Kir’ah trotted quickly beside someone she was meant to detest yet could not bring the feelings of hate for the emotionless male to the forefront of her mind.

The compartment that her master had chosen was a wide room with dull lights and little sound. It was a far easier place to meditate then Kir’ah’s own quarters. The Sith before her sent out waves of uncertainty, as she had been since sending the captain to the surface of the planet. She had instructed her apprentices to solidify her power over the crew of the ship, but the crew had been uncharacteristically helpful, the new captain must be far more capable than her predecessor to have inspired almost the entire crew to spy on the sith. It was clear that she was planning something, hopefully her master sending the women to the planet had destabilized her plot, whatever it was.

“You have sensed it?” the human turned to her apprentices, her large blue eyes and light pink fur had made her appearance far less threatening but the maelstrom of power that surrounded her enforced in all beings that this was not a mare to take lightly.

“C-could you be more specific master?” I stepped forward, eager to answer the question before Janeis just a meter to my right.

“This system has been a well of chaotic force energy, one moment the planet feels like a jedi temple, then it becomes more dark and intoxicating than the dark storms of force energy that the emperor had created. This planet however exists in a balance, one that we did not even tip on our arrival. I have felt, as you obviously did not, the light here has brightened, how I do not yet know, but we must find the cause!”

“Could one of the Jedi have followed us here?” Janeis asked pressing his aura outwards as if his meager power could rat out the source of this disturbance.

“That’s a possibility, yes. You may investigate this on my behalf, have the crew of this ship scour the jump point for a republic ship, Kirah, you are to go to the surface and keep an eye on our new captain.” without waiting for a response she turned and closed her eyes in meditation, her mission for me was a clear sign of bad favor, my misunderstanding of her question was caused by the lack of meditation I had suffered though because of Janeis. His constant presence on this ship was poison to me, he must have found some way to break my concentration without being detected. I had always suspected that he would turn on me, it was not a question of if with the Sith, it was a question of when.

Twilight who was busy packing for a surprise assignment from her mentor, Princess Celestia, who had requested her presence on a matter she considered might interest Twilight, the letter did not contain any details that she could ascertain but she knew this was another test that the Princess wanted her to pass, so she did her best to prepare, that was before an oddly dressed pony with the biggest ears she had ever seen walk into her home.

‘Don’t look at her ears, she might be sensitive, oh but what if she notices that I am not looking!? She might think I am just being nice to her because of her ears, then I might be rude by not looking! I can't pretend to be nice to hide being nice because she will know I am worried about being nice because she has those ears! How did she even get ears like that?! It can't be a random gene mutation, she must be slightly cross species, is considering what race she might partly be racist? Oh horsefeathers she just asked me a question! What do I do?!’

“Huh?” ‘oh a real class act Twilight, you were staring at her ears so long you forgot she had a mouth, truly this is the crowning moment of your life you racist!’

“I asked you if you have books on local customs and cultures” the mare looked at each book in turn pulling at the collar of the clothes she had on, they were odd but fasion had always been something Twilight had no place even considering, last time she had tried she had nearly ruined her friends life!

“Oh, yes well that depends, on equestria itself or local areas? What do you need it for, that might help me find the right ears for you”

“Excuse me?”

“Right, well I assume that Equestrian culture and geography, a reference guide is a good place to start” she blinked and cocked her head “what language is this in?”

“Umm, Equestrian Standard, do you have trouble with equestrian? We have a few books in Earth rune if that is easier?”

“Sorry, I forgot to ask for your name, and the book is free so long as you return it within one week, my assistant is out right now but when I leave for canterlot I will leave him in charge, he will take the book back” she smiled, happy to have sorted that out.

“Thank you, My name is Arimita Desyanti, its a pleasure to meet you” the purple mare smiled quickly as she looked over the smaller mare. The name had stumped her in that she could not place it, however if she did not leave now she would only have an hour before the train left!

“Have fun dutchess!” the white unicorn waved to twilight who had stiffened at the use of Cloud Kickers nickname for her and left with a blush that went unnoticed by the new Unicorn in ponyville who had her muzzle buried in the book. Leaving the mare to her business after a quick goodbye to vinyl, she made her way to the local all mare bar, perhaps that new Griffin was still in town, she had always been interested in Griffins.

The air was oppressively humid on the surface of the planet, Kir’ah mused as she eyed the Sith Troopers across from her doing there best not to make eye contact with her as they filed out of the ship. Quickly they were forming up on the makeshift landing platform that the engineers had created in less than a day, durasteel reinforced stone walls and electric lights machined into the walls recently gave the area the look of an archaeological site.

“Have you prepared quarters for me?” she asked a lieutenant who looked more like a corporal with more stripes then he was used to.

“Yes my lord, we have a wing of rooms for VIP’s like you, take what one pleases you” he bowed his head in a proper sign of respect as the young Sith trotted into the castle, exposed power conduits ran along the corridors and boxes of equipment was left alone, with just one Destroyer the empire here had hardly the numbers needed to make a meaningful outpost here. The best they could do was survive the republic on this distant system.

“We will rebuild, We will return” the mare vowed looking up into the sky, stars dotted the orange abyss as the day slowly ended.

Chapter 8 Mistakes

Ponyville Library:

Shock settled on my face as I slowly read through the books. Most were basic history and informative texts and those related to science I had dug out. were woefully out of date yet, the one I was reading had me stunned. It had started off as an informative book about the differences in races that call this planet home. My crew and I had found ourselves part of the ‘Pony’ race, displaying a huge list of sub species, a great many of them classed as extinct, the three most common being Earth Ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns respectively. Each had its own special abilities listed.

“Magic?” I contemplated slowly. All the books were written in galactic basic, odd considering it was a language mostly found within spacefaring cultures. However, the language was far-reaching and nowadays most planets had adopted it, one way or another, leaving a multitude of ways this planet could have adopted it.

As I ran a hoof through my mane, I experienced an odd feeling of being covered in a light fuzzy blue coat with a dark gray mane - when I had spent the entirety of my life hairless!

“Magic...” I was not often prone to speaking to myself; however, the information before me had changed my plans vastly. If what was written here was true, I had the potential to channel the force though my new horn.

The Sith must never know.

Turning to the door as I slipped the three books into my survival pack, I watched as a squat bipedal lizard grumbling as he entered the Public building, looking me over with a surprisingly expressive face.

“Woah. Nice get-up.” He smiled warmly and moved to scan the letter left behind by that mare from before, Twilight.

“Ugh. First Rainbow Dash gets hurt by that griffin, then this? Looks like I am going to be busy for the next few days?” Ah, so the mandalorian had already started a fight. Well, this person might know where she was.

“Griffin? Could you tell me where she is?” I internally cursed as my words confirmed I knew at least of her.

“She? Well, she was at the mare bar last I checked...” He shrugged and looked at a book laying in front of me, a guide to the local area.

“Did you want to check that book out?”

“No, thank you.” I nodded to him and left the Library without another word.

Ponyville:

Finding a ‘Mare bar’ in the large town was harder than expected. the place was filled with alleyways and dead ends on twisting streets.

The cantinas I had once frequented were dens of spice and trade for things you did not want officials to know about, were if there was an imperial it was better to leave lest you be hit on or punched in the face.

By comparison the bar was a cheery place, sporting a ‘Mares Only’ plaque telling me I couldn’t be wrong on that one. Even the next bar had a similar announcement but for colts.

The air was clean, the music was slow and I could not smell even a trace of spice. What kind of self respecting cantina was this?

“Hey cutie, pick your poison.” Well at least that was the same.

“I am looking for someone.”

My crippling lack of funds dawned on me. I had seen fit to take my credit chip but all twenty thousand credits I had saved up over my lifetime were now sitting in a bank to far away to be of any use.

A mare far larger than me sat by my side, far to close to be comfortable, it was at that time i noticed how small I was and the idea irked me.

“Cute little mare in uniform looking for somepony?” I turned to look at the mare fully. She had a light purple coat with expressive dark purple eyes, something in my reshuffled psyche found her pleasing, I however had business with a certain Mandalorian, I had no time for... that.

“Well, S-see a friend of mine was seen in here and-” I was cut off by a hoof to my lips, suddenly I realized how hopeless I was in situations like this. Getting shot at I could handle, Running a Destroyer while a Sith sits over my shoulder I could handle.

A woman shows me just a bit of attention and I crumble.

“Let me buy you a drink~” the mare smiled at me and I smiled back.

“that would be nice.”

Everfree Castle Of The Royal Sisters, Sith Firebase:

Sneaking into a military base was not normally a problem for Shadow Step. He was a trained professional after all, however the bat winged pony had tripped some kind of magical alarm that this group had installed into the ruin that was once the Castle Of The Alicorn Sisters.

In other words they knew he was here, and he was not a unicorn.

It had started out just fine, he’d half-flown half-climbed up the sheer cliff face that surrounded the plateau.The eerily well equipped ponies had claimed as their base. He’d slipped past the board guards, encased in better armor and with more advanced weapons then he would have thought possible. This group was no smuggling gang. Then into the castle itself, a place he expected, rightly so, to have a multitude of small nooks and crannies as well as long stretches of unexplored dark corridor.

However, his idea of a Smuggling ring was banished when he saw a strange kind of reactor. He knew from the newspaper last week of a new one being built to support canterlots increasing demand for power, a arcane contraption that used magical reactions to create a charge.

The reactor the group possessed was incredible for its technological advancement. The infiltrator now knew the group was more then it seemed, perhaps some kind of strange tech cult?

“My Lord! We are looking for the intruder! They won't stay hidden for long” Flicking his ears towards the sound Shadow smiled softly, this must be somepony of importance.

Creeping across the ceiling, careful to keep his wings wrapped around him like a cloak of shadow, the slowly hissing enchanted horseshoes kept him from falling beyond the normally unreachable place.

The mare he was following took a simple route through the castle to a well-lit hall and into a room. Darting forth as the mare turned to look back into the hall, he snuck into what looked to be her bedchambers. The mare had a long robe over her making it hard to distinguish her features.

Once the door closed he pounced, right into her hooves, stunned by her face, it looked like thin spikes had been pushed through her muzzle and eyebrows, he was forced to the floor by the surprisingly strong mare.

“Who are you?” she demanded, lifting herself up and keeping him pressed to the ground with the force.

“How? you never saw me!” Shadow Step was pressed to the stone floor, stunned.

“Your thoughts were chaotic and you sung them as loudly as you could, I could do nothing but find you” looking down at the colt with a grin the Sith did her best to suppress her giddy impulses at the chance to extract information from a spy, she always loved doing that.

It would only be a moment before the screaming starts.

Republic Ship, Bridge:

Trotting out onto the bridge of the Republic ship, the jedi master watched as the crew, transformed though some manifestation of the force into equines, slowly recovered, the captain of the ship just as recognisable with her scowl and dour demeanor as when she was a human.

“Captain, we need to talk,” the Jedi master stepped forward taking note that his robe had been lowered, his chest and forelegs were almost bare while his back, flanks and hindlegs had the long robe draped over them. The cloth would not hinder his new form and the familiar weight of his lightsaber at his side gave him a focus for his confusion at the ships current state, and the voice he spoke to just moments before.

looking back to the bridge he found it a mess, the equines around him all had noticeable features of their race, what was once a mon calamari officer was now a four foot equine with gills, unlike the rest of the bridge crew, he had scales rather than fur.

The Captain looked less than impressed at her surroundings as she turned to the Jedi “I am assuming you are Jedi Master Cullen? Can you explain this?” she asked the middle aged Jedi.

“The force, I can feel it all around us, it is the only explanation.” Realizing he was speaking cryptically, he shook his head to clear it still getting used to his wider field of view.

“Well, then this is irrelevant, the Sith ship is in low orbit and we can assume that they have set up a ground operation. After we destroy the Ship, the remnants on the ground will be irrelevant.” she smiled until a buzzing filled the room.

“This ship is incapable of fighting the Sith Destroyer,” came the robotic voice from before, causing Cullen to bristle and the captain to turn around as if looking for the source.

“Who is that? how did you get onto the general ship comms?!”

“I run the General ship comms,” the voice perfected replied.

Ponyville, Berry Punches house:

Waking up in a locals bed might have been a bad idea.

“MUMMY WAKE UP!!!!! I NEED TO GO TO SCHOOL!” This women... well mare, was a mother?

“Mummy who is in bed with you?” Oh this might be the worst place ever to wake up.

“Quiet now, sweet Mummy is getting up.” pretend to be asleep I felt the hoof that had lain over me throughout the night retract and poke me in the side.

“Oh, good morning,” I stated lamely, I must be the worst captain in sith history.

“heh, Good morning~” Oh fantastic, first the mandalorian now... you know what, I don’t even care.

“Good morning, sorry to impose on you throughout the night, I must return to my ship lest it fall apart,” she grinned and slipped out of bed.

“Well please stay for breakfast,” she moved into the bathroom before I could respond.