Evil Dark Lords and Pretty Pony Princesses

by Praeco Nigrum

Chapters

Map(s)
Star Wars Timeline: Darth Marr's Rise to Power
Ch-0: Prologue - Maelstrom of the Force
Ch-1: First Contact
Ch-2: City of Fire and Ashes
Dictionary - EDL&PPP

Map(s)

Where the Neo-Sith Empire is located in the galaxy ... And it's final size.

Blank map of the Planet-Solmnous

This is where the majority of the first Arc is going to take place.

Star Wars Timeline: Darth Marr's Rise to Power

Darth Marr’s Rise to Power

783 BBY: A small child is born to a Human and Anzat Couple – they are ostracized from the Anzat community and exiled to unknown parts.

777 BBY: The child begins training to become an assassin like its Anzat Father.

770 BBY: The Child shows exceptional power in the Force when it suddenly lashes out at its father during a Training exercise. The Child is then shown how to bring its new-found power under control by its mother. The father, unwilling to teach such an abomination anything about its past or its people, leaves.

768 BBY: The Child and its Mother fly into the unknown regions of space in search of a better teacher. They stumble upon something much greater than either would have thought possible.

767 BBY: The Child and Mother are officially inducted into the Sith culture by the Council of Lords Led by the Grand Lord. They settled on Kesh and quickly learned the ways of the Sith. The Child’s Training then took off with the aid of competent teachers. The Mother was also able to sharpen her skills.

745 BBY: The Child is given the name Marr, a name given to one other Dark Lord in the annals of Sith History. The child, now a man of 38 standard years and a squad of other Sith under him, outpaces the Mother by leaps and bounds.

727 BBY: Marr and his Mother are gifted a ship, the Eloi, a Fury-class interceptor, and told to find the homeworld of their ancestors.

723 BBY: They find the planet, which they find to be named Korriban. Marr, his mother, and his few soldiers search the valley of lords for anything they could possibly take back to their superiors. When excavating a tomb, a horde of Tukatta rush them and overwhelm many of their fighters. Marr comes out victorious over his foes but finds that his Mother and many of his soldiers have died in the ambush. At the sight of his Mother broken upon the red grit of Korriban, Marr unleashed a maelstrom of Darkside energies into the air, he tore asunder the great tomb of Ajunta Paul. He then gathered the few remaining soldiers under his command and left for Kesh.

687 BBY: Marr is gifted the title of Master, and is given leave to take on his own apprentices at his leisure.

681 BBY: Marr strikes down a member of the Council when they are found guilty of treason against the Sith peoples. He is granted their seat as a reward for his services to the Grand Lord. He takes on the monicker Darth Marr – The Bloody-Handed Sith, do to his signature way of killing his opponents; expanding their blood-vessels until they ruptured under the strain.

634 BBY: Darth Marr trains his seventeenth Apprentice and becomes renown as one of the greatest teachers the Empire had ever known.

598 BBY: Darth Marr creates his own circle of masters and sabers under his direct control. Away from the Council, they act as his personal forces. The Council of Lords takes exception to this but says nothing.

583 BBY: Darth Marr celebrates his two-hundredth Birthday.

579 BBY: Darth Marr, under orders from the Grand Lord, takes his men and a detachment of soldiers to a nearby planet, they set up a small outpost. They quickly furnish it in such a way that colonization would be possible.

531 BBY: Darth Mar’s personal forces reach to the hundreds in manpower. The council grows weary and issues a proclamation; all Council members may only house a hundred Sith, anymore must be placed under the purview of the Grand Lord.

530 BBY: The proclamation backfires, Darth Marr is given even more soldiers by writ of the Grand Lord, the council is infuriated.

526 BBY: Darth Marr is ambushed by several members of the Council. With nary a scratch to him, Marr appears triumphant over his foes. Several seats on the council are filled by his own soldiers. The Grand Lord is infuriated by the acts of the previous council members, hence his appointment of Marr’s most loyal forces.

490 BBY: in his sleep, the ancient Grand Lord dies, natural causes are more than apparent. All mourn his loss. Darth Marr secretly plans a celebration of the life the Grand Lord had lived, his life and current standing all there in thanks to the ancient being.

489 BBY: A new Grand Lord is chosen, many lament that fact that Marr did not request a running position in the draw.

483 BBY: Darth Marr Celebrates his three-hundredth Birthday. Darth Marr’s influence in the Sith culture is apparent, more than half the peoples of Kesh follow his less aggressive ideals of the Sith, more tolerance, and less unrestrained aggression.

479 BBY: Darth Marr is propositioned by a beautiful Kehsirie woman, they fall in love afterward and miraculously have a child.

475 BBY: Darth Marr goes on a rampage across Kesh looking for the assassin that slew his wife and their three-year-old child. The world of Kesh trembles at the might of one of their eldest Sith Lords.

474 BBY: After a year-long search, Marr apprehends the assassin. The public trial and later execution of the assassin grants Marr an even more respectable image within the mind’s eye of the public. All the Lords and Ladies of the Sith, High and Low cast, rain upon him accolades for his ‘honorable’ dealings with the assassin.

439 BBY: Darth Marr expands the reach of the Sith, using a highly unorthodox way of capturing ships from outer space and bringing them down to Kesh, he expands their fleets.

427 BBY: Darth Marr sets out on an expedition with seven thousand Sith to colonize a new world. Incidentally, they fall upon Ziost and Thule. With no way of knowing how they got there, or how they would get back, Marr issued orders to investigate the rest of the star system, search for other inhabitable planets and such.

419 BBY: The Following systems soon fell under Sith occupation, however light it was: Thurra, Ziost, Horuset, and Mirial. Thurra, Ziost, and Hourset all held strong Sithly influences, but as Darth Marr demanded, they did not proclaim their affiliations with the Sith openly. They knew of their people’s reputation in the universe as evil monsters out to get the peoples of the galaxy. So they bide their time and increased their numbers.

417 BBY: Cultural laws were placed down by Darth Marr for his new people; one of which was that all women were to be treated as if they were the most precious of gifts. But, they were to never take a husband and were to lay with as many males as possible and produce children for the new kingdom they were building. None dared question Marr on his reasoning, but when he was, it was simple genetics that fueled his decision.

405 BBY: Population of Marr’s colony expands from seven thousand to almost twenty thousand in twelve short years. Life among the colonies is sedate and peaceful.

393 BBY: Marr is crowned Liege-Lord of the Colonies. Marr is surprised, yet humbled by his people’s decision. The population has risen from twenty thousand to thirty-seven thousand. Young girls across a small colony in Sivvi are impregnated by a deviant. Marr and several trusted guards hunt him down and deal with him severely. The people of Sivvi regard their Lord as a hero and proclaim the day of the deviant’s death as a planetary holiday.

392 BBY: Darth Marr adopts several of the children that were products of the rape, most mothers of these children did not survive the birthing process. These ‘Children of Marr’ soon became symbols of their leader’s benevolence. Darth Marr fathers them, treats them with the same care he would have provided his own children had he any.

386 BBY: A ship of republic make comes out of light speed and streaks across the skies of Ziost. The ship crash lands in the northeastern hemisphere. Marr sends out a platoon of soldiers to deal with the survivors. The group comes back with over a seventy individuals from the crash, several of which are of different species. They are, relatively, quickly brought into society. None question their veracity, as it would be more than suicide to go against the Sith Colonies of Marr.

379 BBY: Population spikes to ninety-two thousand. The first child born of interspecies relations is had, the entire civilization is rocked at this phenomenon, a rush to preserve their new allies is made. Several breakthroughs in genetics is made within the year and a host of new couples begin plans to have children of their own.

250 BBY: Darth Mar celebrates his five hundred and thirty-third birthday. The population of the Colonies reaches an all-time high, seven hundred and sixty thousand.

231 BBY: A skirmish between the Colonies and an unknown alien vessel caused the Colonies of Marr to solidify their standing in the Galaxy. Among themselves, they reached a consensus to become a true empire, while on the outside going by a different name entirely. Thus became the Neo-Sith Empire and The Conglomerate Systems of Marr. Under both names, Darth Marr was proclaimed leader. The Miralain people of Mirial did not mind the inclusion into the Conglomerate, especially after talks between their planets senator and Marr cleared up many an issue the Mirialian peoples had.

214 BBY: Population of the CSM/NSE skyrockets with the full induction of almost half the Mirialian population. Numbers reach into the hundreds of millions overnight.

209 BBY: Darth Marr begins construction on a massive set of shipyards over Ziost and Thule. The entirety of the Galaxy is struck by this undertaking by such a new power. All nations of the Galaxy are weary of this new predicament but do not publicly question the motivations behind this new development. Population Census ends: three hundred and sixteen million, eight hundred and seventy-six thousand two hundred souls reside within the empire.

192 BBY: Darth Marr receives an interesting vision from the Force, but does not speak of it with anyone. Population increases to an estimated seven hundred million. Interbreeding produces interesting results as most children who have been the product of interbreeding found to have a higher connection to the Force than normal. Darth Marr takes a consort, but it is found that she is infertile. Neither minds this and adopts one of the many orphans in the small empire.

189 BBY: Construction of the Ship Yards in both Ziost and Thule are completed. Production of their first ships begins immediately. The ships in production are ancient in design but hardier than most anything that the Republic, or its allies, field.

186 BBY: Darth Marr takes his first apprentice in several hundred years. The Empire solidifies its armies, creating a formidable fighting force. Where the entire population of Marr’s colonies had once all been fighters, now most were content to use their skills in mock combat for entertainment and training purposes. In less than a year, the army forms and several hundred thousand sentients rush to into its service.

184 BBY: The army stands at four hundred and seventy thousand souls. Ziost and Thule have produced their first batch of ships, twenty Atgeir-Class Battlecruisers. The Galaxy marvels at such a feat, as many nations remember the Republics challenge at even trying to field one of the massive ships.

183 BBY: Darth Marr celebrates his six-hundredth birthday. The entire realm rejoices at his long life and heralds him as a hero of the people for all he had done for them. The entire Mirialian people throw a planet-wide celebration; Marr is both Humbled and awestruck by the dedication of his allies and their people. He announces a realm wide holiday – Liberty Day.

179 BBY: Korriban opens its ninth academy for the Gifted(read Sith Academy) and invites much of the population to attend these buildings as a secondary learning experience. Much of the CSM/NSE is Force Sensitive but has little to no training save for those given attention by the House of Lords and other lower masters.

163 BBY: Whispers of war spread through the Conglomerate, but nothing comes of them but a heightened sense of paranoia from the people, and a more rigid set of patrols. Population reaches one billion, a systems-wide celebration is passed to mark the occasion. Much debauchery ensues and the population explodes overnight as millions of families produce offspring. A new law passes that allows women and men to form true family units within the Conglomerate’s society, it passes with some hesitation from the High Lords and Ladies of the realm. Cohabitation and unity spring forth like a tidal wave and sweeps the nation off its feet. A supreme golden age is brought forth.

132 BBY: A single Jedi, by the name of Yaddle, comes before the Dark Lord, seeking answers to questions long since asked and answered over the last five hundred years. Seeing an opportunity for cohabitation to commence, Darth Marr invites the aged creature to walk with him through the halls of his small palace. They talk and debate the nature of the Force. They talk disciplines, both Jedi, Sith, and others that they had personally encountered. They talked of things that worked for each sect of Force Users, and what didn’t. They became so engrossed in their talks that their shields had come down, both accidentally revealed themselves to each other. Granted, Marr already knew to whom he spoke. The small Master was visibly shaken when she figured out why it was all Jedi had distrusted the man standing before her for so long. He was Sith, and he was powerful. Darth Marr stopped all needless violence with one simple question though, ‘Why not live in peace? We do not wish to conquer, and we have enough on our own to sustain our growing population indefinitely. You and I both know how many Force Sensitives live within my borders, I simply wish to see my people free of the great evils of the Universe, and then free of want. I would not begrudge working with the Jedi to better ourselves, your Order is far older than mine after all.’

129 BBY: Three years after the meeting with Yaddle, Marr and several of his most trusted, and level-headed, officers travel to the center of the Galactic Republic. Coruscant. There they meet with the Supreme Chancellor, his advisers, the Grand Master of the Jedi, and several of its most renown masters. Marr accepted a Senate seat and placed his Consort as its sole occupant until someone could be better trained to take up the mantle. Marr then talked with the Jedi. Tempers rose on both sides, but both Darth Marr and Grand Master Yoda kept emotions form simmering over. By the end, a simple camaraderie had been established with at least half of each delegation with the other. The other half of both delegations simply opted to glare and pout at each other. Both sides agreed to a truce, and a possible exchange program at a much later time after intentions had been made clear.

121 BBY: Marr sends ten masters and their apprentices to the Jedi temple on Coruscant, while the Jedi do the same in return. Tensions raise unexpectedly when both ships meet in real space just outside the Bandomeer System. They come under attack from a whole fleet of pirate ships. Most of the Jedi are captured when they evacuate the ship they are on, it had sustained heavy damage upon forced reentry to real space. Several Sith died in the boarding action, but the rest are captured and ransomed alongside the Jedi. In a show of unity, Both Jedi and Sith form a unique detachment of troops that combine upon meeting to save the captured members of their orders. Both Marr and Yoda headed the rescue mission, neither willing to forgive the actions of those that would hurt their students.

115 BBY: The Jedi and Sith manage to build a system of trust amongst themselves, though the greater Galaxy does not know of the Sith’s reemergence. Yoda and Marr have both found that those being taught under both practices of the Force seem to have a better moral grounding than those that only have one side of the proverbial coin to pull from, and then they create a much larger exchange program. Peace reigns within the Galactic community. The population of the Conglomerate reaches a new High within its golden age – three billion souls now reside within its borders the largest community outside of the Mid Rim and a select few outer rim sectors.

94 BBY: Darth Marr, Liege-Lord of the Neo-Sith Empire celebrates his six hundredth and eighty-ninth birthday. Yoda and Marr hold a special conference and speak on the advantages of revealing the Sith to the Galaxy at large.

83 BBY: Darth Marr Celebrates his seven-hundredth Birthday and puts to rest his loving consort after almost a hundred years of love and happiness. The entire Empire, a select few Jedi, and a few Senators mourn the passing of a truly great friend.

82 BBY: Sheev Palpatine is born.

71 BBY: The Neo-Sith Empire has constructed a total of thirty Agier-Class Battlecruisers, three hundred Terminus-Class Destroyers, seventy Cal-Class Battleships, Thirty-Eight Sith Destroyers, and a host of smaller carriers and other support vessels. Their Armada is vast, and the largest the Galaxy has seen. But with the resources Marr has at his fingertips, he does not want for materials for construction.

53 BBY: Sheev Palpatine is fully inducted into the Banite Sith under Darth Plagueis. Marr and Yoda do not know of this insidious seduction, but they feel a heavy veil fall over the Force. They know that dark times, not just for themselves but the entire galaxy, are ahead of them.

41 BBY: Anakin Skywalker is born

32 BBY: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Gin, and a host of other important individuals meet for the first time. The battle for Theed happens, Qui-Gon dies, The Trade Federation takes a hit, and Anakin is inducted into the ranks of the Jedi. Obi-wan takes him as his Padawan learner.

22 BBY: The Clone Wars begin and plunge the Galaxy into a Civil War the likes they have not seen in Millennia. Yoda and Marr meet after the events of Geonosis and speak on the ramifications of other Sith Orders in the Galaxy at large. The fact that Marr knows of Kesh, but will not say its exact location, does not help. Marr does give evidence that the Sith behind it are not the same ones he used to live with; ‘If they were, they would have found me out and killed me by now Master Yoda… None is more dangerous than a Sith Scorned!’

19 BBY: Darth Marr, after helping with as much of the Jedi’s war effort as he could while staving off the Confederate horde, feels a sharp plunge in his gut from the Force. Within hours he learnt that the Jedi have been betrayed and that a Galaxy spanning empire has taken the Republics place as the greatest Super Power in the Galaxy. Marr is rocked to his core. The Dark Lord then takes up his mantle of Darth with renewed vigor and searches out all Jedi in the Galaxy, rescuing them from the clutches of the new Galactic Empire. Many Jedi do not make the Purge, only a handful are rescued by Marr and his Armada of ships. Luke and Leia Are born to Anakin and Padma Skywalker.

12 BBY: Darth Marr and a man in black armor who calls himself Darth Vader duel on the planet Mandalore when evidence of Clone Wars era Refugee’s is found. The Dark Lord gives enough time to the refugees to escape before he has to deal fatally with the Dark Lord. Liege-Lord of the Neo-Sith massively underestimates the black-garbed creature and is almost fatally wounded. Darth Marr only manages to escape when a gunship manned by several of his own students drops in suddenly to distract the Dark Lord. Many die as they move to rescue their Liege-Lord.

9 BBY: Marr brings a good portion of his Forces to bare when he hears of a Rebellion forming against the Empire. He reinforces as many of the Rebelling Systems as he can, but his Empire does not hold the required resources to build so many ships in such a short amount of time.

7 BBY: Darth Marr meets with the leaders of the Rebel Alliance for the first time. Princess Leia Organa, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis, Bail Organa and a few others stand before him, each surprised and fearful of his true position in the Galaxy. They talk, Marr reveals his long-standing relationship with the Jedi of old. Things progress in an upward direction from there.

0 BBY: The Liege-Lord of the Sith hears of a massive battle taking place from one of his officers within the Alliance High Command. He does not send any forces, as they are preoccupied with a different war front. When he feels a massive loss of life, a second in almost a weeks time, he rushes to the Rebel’s closest base and demands an explanation as to the nature of the deaths. He quickly learned of the destruction of both Alderran and a massive space station called the death star. When he hears of who destroyed it, he almost falls out of his chair.

1 ABY: Lord Marr, as he is now more commonly referred, meets with the ‘Farmboy’ that made the impossible shot. The young man is young, younger than he would have thought, though still the same age as Leia. Marr is also surprised at the amount of Lightside Energy coiled up within the young boy. To a practitioner of the Darkside, it is almost blinding. ‘Hello there! My names Luke Skywalker! Nice to meet ya!’ the boy says enthusiastically. Marr raises a brow at the last name, but says nothing in fear that he may be wrong; and with the force telling him nothing as of late, he knows not to say a thing. ‘Likewise young man, I am Marr, Liege-Lord of the Neo-Sith Empire, and the Conglomerate of system Colonies. Please, sit with me I wish to talk.’

3 ABY: After Hoth, Marr gets a message from Luke, telling him where he can find one of his once thought lost friends. Luke and Marr go on a trek to Dagobah. There the to meet up with Master Yoda and begin Luke’s training to become the next Jedi into motion. After the mission to rescue Leia and the rest of the group from Vaders clutches, Luke sends for Marr. The duo talk and Luke reveals his parentage, unwittingly also confirming Marr’s greatest suspicions of the boy’s origins. They talk at length and many things come of it, mainly a deeper friendship between the two men.

5 ABY: The New Galactic Republic is built, Marr and his systems become the First to join.

19 ABY: Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker are wed and brought before the ‘Dark Council’. They are given a gift of friendship by more than a few Lords and Ladies of the court. The couple, along with whatever family they might ever have, was more than welcome to live out their lives in the comfort of Marr’s palace. Marr extends the same invitation to Leia and her family.

22 Aby: After seventeen years of fighting, a semblance of peace is found in the Galaxy. Luke Skywalker has founded a new Jedi Order, one built on tolerance and common sense. The young Jedi Knight and Dark Lord became fast friends during the years leading up to the creation of the New Galactic Republic. Marr’s Force Sensitive population is enthused at the thought of a new Jedi Order to rise up and take the old’s place in the galaxy.

25 ABY: Horror strikes the entire Galaxy as a Foreign Race of invaders comes from beyond the darkest reaches of space to destroy everything the common people hold dear. Darth Marr, the Masters Skywalker, and their respective Orders band together to defend the Galaxy from the new threat. The Yuuzhan Vong war. Within the First year, Chewbacca was killed, a boon dropped on him by the enemy.

26 ABY: After fighting a disease wrought upon her by the Vong host, Mara Jade gave birth to the first child of the male Skywalker line – Ben Skywalker. Much rejoicing was had throughout the Empire and much of the New Republic.

27 ABY: Borsk Fey’lya dies at the first battle of Coruscant. Coruscant falls and is completely engulfed by the bong. Anakin Solo dies while defending his friends and siblings from the Vong threat while they escape the Myrkr World ship Baanu Rass. Several other Jedi die in the mission. Jacen Solo is captured by the Vong and tortured.

28 ABY: A creature by the name Vergere begins training Jacen, all unwittingly, in the ways of the Sith. Many Jedi have been hunted down and killed by the Vong, more systems fall to their might.

29 ABY: Word spreads about a living planet in the galaxy. Luke and the Jedi search it out while Marr and his forces distract the Vong away from the Jedi’s actions beyond explored space. Marr is captured by the Vong and held captive in one of the many torture chambers on Coruscant. The Vong Shapers experiment on his body, trying all sorts of biologicals on him, and an assortment of genetic changes. Seven months later, Zonama Sekot flashing into existence above Coruscant. Marr, fearing his friend’s survival, send a shout through the Force to try and dissuade him from his course of action. Luke disregards his friend’s words of warning and charges in any way with his friends and family. The battle for Coruscant last little over a week with small skirmishes exploding all over the surface. Marr is rescued by Jacen, Luke, and Mara. The war ends not long after and the galaxy begins to repair itself.

35 ABY: Killiks were discovered in the Galaxy again, and all hell broke loose. A war between the new Chiss ascendancy and the Killik colony worlds quickly engulfed a number of Jedi and Sith, chiefly the Skywalkers and Solos. Marr swiftly jumped to their defense and tried to help, but his injuries from the last war prevented him from fully committing himself to a new conflict, so he quietly bowed out to let his friends deal with the issue personally. Marr did, however, send soldiers to help with the war effort. Marr watched the war from the shadows and lent his young friends his advice when he could get it to them. Many a dangerous thing happened in the year and a half that encompassed the swarm war, and not all of it was by the hands of the Chiss and Killiks.

36 ABY: Allana Solo is born, but hidden away by Jacen and Tenel Ka, the child’s parents, before anyone finds out about her parentage. The Killik swarm war ends with the defeat of several dark Jedi that had hidden within the insect race. Many people were lost and never found, most notable of all deaths was Sien Sovv, a Sullust Supreme Commander form the Yuuzhan Vong war.

37 ABY: The Neo-Sith Empire rebuilds its navy, and adds a host of new ships from many of the mothballed fleets of the Galaxy. A fleet of Star-Destroyers joins them along with a few Super Star-Destroyers. Their ships are now legion with a population spike to match. Twelve billion souls under Imperial protection. The systems of the Empire now include Elom, Almania, Vaynia, Ruuria, Telos, Tiss’Sharl, Ord Radama, and the entirety of the Corporate sector. All systems that needed a helping hand in the area fell under the sway of Empirical purview as they enjoyed the peace the Empire brought them after the Vong war.

38 ABY: The latest census on the NSE has reaped an astounding number; Twelve Billion Three Hundred Million Seven Hundred and Sixty-Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty-three sentients live within the Empire. Two million plus of these citizens are confirmed Force Sensitives and are quickly inducted into special schooling programs run by the Empire. Marr and his Sith are now the largest concentration of Force able beings in the entire Galaxy. No other Empire has ever held within its borders a number greater than that of trained Force Users.

40 ABY: Galactic stability is in shambles as Governments see threats where there are none, and seek to beat them back. Correlia and the Galactic Alliance come to an unease head as they begin fighting for their own version of peace. Corellia to be free. The GA to have a United Galaxy once more. In the midst of the turmoil, a plot develops that goes unnoticed by all parties. Save for Ben Skywalker and his Mother. After a series of events leading up to now, Mara Jade Skywalker cornered Jacen Solo, now Darth Caedus, in a tunnel on the planet Kavan in the Hapes Cluster. The two talked, Mara tried to dissuade Jacen form the path he was following, but failed and ended up fighting the New Sith Lord. Mara failed in her attempt to kill the Nubile Sith Lord, her life being penance for her failure. Marr and the rest of the Sith hear of Mara’s passing and fly into a rage at what has happened. They send out words of warning to all Jedi in the Galaxy … There is a Jedi hunter out there and it has already claimed a prize.

40 ABY: Luke, Marr, Ben, and many others figure out that Jacen was the one that had killed Mara Jade. The outrage at such a betrayal rocks the Galaxy. The Jedi and Neo-Sith are then demonized by the Galactic Alliance, and the Jedi split, the Order led by Look flea’s to Sith-controlled space while the rest takes roost on Galactic Alliance soil. Ben Skywalker becomes a spy and seeks out his Cousin to define the truth so that he might strike him down with justice. The Corellian alliance fails and dissolves. The Hapes Cluster is pulled back into the GA by Jacen. Marr and his forces spread this, they try to defend their sector of space from incursion from GA forces.

40 ABY: Darth Mar, Dark Lord of the Sith, Liege-Lord of the Neo-Sith Empire, leads the seventh patrol fleet against an incurring armada of GA ships. Little did the Sith Lord know that his world was about to be turned upside down.

Ch-0: Prologue - Maelstrom of the Force

Maelstrom of the Force

Book 1: Prologue

The Jedi have their Code, and the Sith theirs... Both speak of passions and Peace. But, what if you decide that both are broken, and both are right? What then? Well, you fix it, that's what!

Though Peace, Passion lives
Passion gives me strength
when all else fails.
Strength gives me Power
to Achieve Victory
Through Victory, I gain Freedom
Through Freedom, I gain Peace

Darth Marr on the Tenents of the Sith - A talk with Luke Skywalker

The Atgier-Class Battlecruiser, Malevolence Rising, shook under the onslaught from the three Alliance-Class Star Destroyers arrayed against it. The rest of the Seventh fleet waged war around them, red and green turbolaser fire lanced back and forth in continuous waves of death across the empty.

Darth Marr’s forces consisted of three Atgier-Class Battlecruisers, seventeen Sith Destroyers, nineteen Guardian Cruisers, and seven Sith Interdictor-Class Cruisers from the age of Revan. Dozens of support craft littered the area around these massive ships of legend, scores of fighter wings blazed around the ships under Marr’s control as they fought off the increasingly suicidal forces of Head of State Jacen Solo.

Jacen Solo’s fleet consisted of several dozen Alliance and Imperial-Class Star Destroyers, a dozen cruisers, and several hundred support craft. at the back of Solo’s armada stood a single massive vessel; the Super Star Destroyer Magog. Modeled after Darth Vader’s own personal SSD the massive wedge-shaped vessel poured heavy fire down upon the large vessels of Marr’s fleet. Marr’s personal ship, Malevolence Rising, took the brunt of the fire as it cut a jagged swath through Solo’s front lines. Six of the seventeen destroyers and five of the Guardian Cruisers flanked it in a mock fighter screen type pattern.

Jacen Solo’s flagship, Anakin Solo, sat in the middle of the enemy formation, its long-range turbolaser batteries pounding the shields of smaller vessels in an attempt to thin the herd. What none of the GA had ever realized, though, was that Marr and his Admirals had unanimously decided to retrofit every ship in the fleet, that had the room, with higher quality shields made by the scientists of Marr’s Empire.

Between both the GA and the NSE nine ships had been lost. Most of which came from the Galactic Alliance’s side. Two Imperial-Class Star Destroyers from Marr’s fleet drifted among the nine, while three Star Destroyers and four Broadside Cruisers broke apart under the weight of Elom’s gravitational pull. Fires broke out across the ships and burned even brighter as they got closer to the planet below.

Marr’s flagship, Malevolence Rising, strode forward across the inky-blackness of space and rained red fire down upon the enemy vessels trying to make it into his Kingdom. Another Star Destroyer fell to his ships overwhelming power, just as two Guardian Cruisers exploded under the weight of the SSD’s long Range Turbolaser fire.

Thousands upon thousands of fighters dueled in the void, their personal shields flaring every-so-often when a laser bolt slammed into them. Explosions of every color bloomed in the darkness, their sizes differing on what ship, and what side fired them. Marr, if he were any other man, would have been mesmerized by the colors and the awesome destruction being wrought around him. Thankfully though he was not like other men, he was a Sith, an ancient Sith no less. Eight hundred plus years of warfare and death sat under his belt. He built a Kingdom on the backs of his friends and subordinates that has lasted almost a millennia, he would not let an upstart like Jacen Solo encroach onto his Kingdom and take of it what he would. At least, not while he still walked the galaxy.

"Lieutenant, report!" The Captain of the Malevolence shouted. The vessel rocked under a salvo from the Anakin Solo but held strong as it pushed farther into the enemy Armada.

"Reports of hull breaches on the lower levels, sir! Nothing major, no casualties!"

"Good. Reroute power from the engines to the shields, we aren't going anywhere from here!" the Captain ordered.

Marr sat on his command throne with an impassive air about himself. Those that knew him though would realize that he was furious with the turn of events taking place. The Darkside corruption in his eyes glowed slightly as an indicator of his mood; the more anger he felt the brighter his eyes became.

"I will be taking the Eloi out, Captain. You have the Bridge," Lord Marr stated with indifference before he suddenly strode from the room. No one had even noticed him rise from his chair, neither had they seen him move before he was suddenly at the back of the bridge.

Marr stepped out of the turbolift and strode out onto the flight deck of the Malevolence Rising. His cloak billowed out around him and his lightsabers glinted in the bright white lights of the hanger. His cowl slipped back and fell across his long brown locks. His Yellow eyes dimmed somewhat when he looked upon the visage of his personal starship - The Eloi.

The Eloi was an ancient Sith Interceptor from the First Great Galactic War. It had several modifications done to it, but most of the ship was simply refurbished and buffed. The ancient armor that held the craft together was far superior to any other starship of similar make save the Corellian Freighters.

Marr walked right up to it, his long legs doubling the stride of a normal man. He pressed his hand against the fuselage of the ship and closed his eyes. He concentrated his will within the Force and unlocked the boarding ramp. This modification was one that Luke Skywalker had gifted him as a sign of prolonged friendship between their Orders.

"Sire, it is good to see you again!" A voice buzzed from within the confines of the ship. When the lights turned on, they revealed who it was that had spoken along with the insides. A tall droid that looked like a cross between a Protocol Droid and a Hunter Killer Assassin Droid stood off to the right of the boarding ramp. The inside of the Interceptor was white and muted grey with black and red accents. The central room was circular with a beveled pillar in the center. There were six rooms that shot off in all the cardinal directions from the center of the ship. One was the mess with its chrome covered appliances. Another was the ship's sleeping quarters. Beside it was the Captain's quarters. Last was the engine room and the workroom. The last room was not a room per say, but the small bridge for the Interceptor.

"Is the ship ready for launch TC?" Marr asked his ancient companion.

"As ready as a war vessel can be, Sire. Shall I warm up the weapons?"

Marr nodded. He swept by his droid ally, his cloak billowed behind him and barged on into the Bridge. He pulled his cloak off and tossed it across the back of his Captains chair before he plopped down into it. TC rushed after him, his much shorter legs reducing his travel time by half.

"This is Eloi actual, Hanger Bay three, respond - over," Marr toggled the comm.

"This is Hanger Bay three, how can we serve Sire - Over?"

"Ready for insertion, T-minus ten. Do I have a rendezvous?" Marr asked as he double checked his controls.

"Tempest Wing has been designated as your insertion point, Sire. They are directly off our bow. They are engaging the Alliance ship Anakin and its fighter escort, they say they can get you on the ship, Sire - Over," the Hanger crew informed him. Marr sent his acknowledgment and disembarked from the ship. The Eloi bucked for a split second before it leveled out. He then turned it around towards the large blue glowing expanse that led to the void.

"Ready when clear - Over," Marr relayed.

"Clear!"

The Eloi shot off like a rocket and swerved when an I4 Ionizer Starfighter came streaking out of nowhere and slammed into the energy field for the Hanger bay. Marr spat out a litany of curses and growled. He leveled the Eloi and searched for his RP.

"Sire, portside, thirty degrees up from two'o'clock!" Marr acknowledged his co-pilots words with a grunt and flipped the ship on its side to avoid a stream of green laser cannon fire from their aft.

"We got you, Sire!" A voice shouted over the Wing Comm. Suddenly there was no more fire coming from the rear.

"My thanks!" Marr shouted into the mic. He depressed the activation studs on his controller and let loose a barrage of red laser fire upon a squadron of Tie Fighters. Seven of them were utterly obliterated before they could even figure out where the fire was coming from. The rest of the squadron was dispatched by the duo of Z-05 headhunters that had seemingly come out of nowhere to aid him.

"Tempest, this is the Eloi, status report!" Marr shouted. He juked the ship and let off another stream of laser fire at a pair of Tie Defenders. The left one exploded in a shower of flames and smoke, the right rolled to the starboard side and let loose a pair of proton torpedoes.

"We're at half strength, Sire! The Anakin Solo pounded our escorts into dust, now it's just us, the fighters, and our bombers!" A shaky voice shouted over the comm. Marr could hear shouting in the background and a lot of screaming.

"Get those bombers on the Anakin! I want those shields down so we can board!" Marr growled. Marr cut out his engines all of a sudden and flipped his ship around using the maneuvering thrusters. He then set it in a spin and depressed the activation studs on his controls. In a matter of seconds, a trio of Tie Advance's exploded into a giant fireball a dozen meters behind him. He vaguely heard the shouts from his wingmates but paid them no mind as he let the Force guide him.

"Sire, Blue Squadron, and Daniel's Claws have begun their attack run. Pheonix wing has moved in to support!" Marr recalled that Pheonix consisted of six fighter Squadrons, two Tartan Cruisers, and a complement of three Sith Interceptors. Three squadrons were made of Sith FIghters, two were a mix of old X-wings and B-wings, and the sixth was made up of all A-wings.

"Have Arcturus squadron and the Interceptors form up on me. The rest are to aid in bringing down those shields. I want the Tartans to perform overwatch, don't let anything creep up on us!" Commanded Marr, he put the ship into a rising corkscrew and dodged a hail of blue laser fire. He got a lock on a Xj-12 series X-wing before he realized who it was.

"Hows it goin' Marr!" A cocky voice broke over the Interceptors internal speakers. Marr sighed and unconsciously smiled wanly.

"As well as can be expected from Solo," Marr snarked.

"At least it's not boring!" Kyp Durron snarked right back. His X-wing cut to port and unleashed a hell upon an unsuspecting Tie Fighter. Marr barely even noticed a small black object then get propelled from Kyp's fighter in the general direction of the massive Star Destroyer.

"Nice shooting ... For a Cadet!" Marr sniped. He jerked hard to Starboard and slammed his thrusters into the red. "All Tempest and Pheonix Forces! Break!" Marr ordered his forces to break off their attack run. Something much bigger than a few Ion torpedoes was about to crack the Anakin Solo's shields wide open. A chorus of affirmatives rang out as dozens of friendly IFF's broke away from the massive ship.

Mar and his allies watched with baited breath. Then, with a blinding light, a massive explosion enveloped the angular nose of the Star Destroyer. The shields that enveloped the ship then shimmered for a split second before they dissolved like gossamer in the sun. Marr marveled at the sight for a second before he was interrupted by Kyp's voice.

"What do you think!?" He asked, amusement and awe in his voice.

"Spectacular! But what was that!?" Marr asked; he was already zooming towards the Star Destroyer with his men in toe behind him. He could feel Kyp and his Dozen right on their tales, not even a second away.

"A little gift from Han and Leia... I'll tell you about it later!" Kyp laughed.

Marr blinked. Instead of questioning it, he simply grunted and twisted his ship to the left to avoid a strafe from a trio of X-wings running Alliance colors.

"TC, what is the status of the Anakin's Turbolasers?"

"Unresponsive, Sire. It seems that Master Durron's weapon did indeed knock out most of the systems aboard the Star Destroyer. We are clear to board."

"Attention Tempest, Pheonix, and Kyp's Dozen! Boarding Action on the Solo! All other forces are to cover our approach! Keep those other ships occupied!" A stream of affirmatives and acknowledgments buzzed across the comms not a moment later.

Over a hundred ships now assailed the Anakin Solo, Fighters, Bombers, Interceptors, and Small Cruisers littered the space around its Hanger Bays. Everyone apart of the boarding party had donned EVA suits just for that moment. With a barrage of laser fire, the forces under Marr and Kyp's command brought down the emergency shields protecting the Hangers. Within moments a host of ships filled the port and starboard side Hangers while the Tartan Cruisers pushed into the belly of the beast to unload their complement of soldiers.

"Marr!" Kyp's voice rang out from across the Hanger. The Dark Lord looked up from his datapad and shot Kyp a questioning look. "How many Sith did you manage to bring with you?"

"About a hundred all told. There is ten with us on this side," Mar showed Kyp a diagram of the ship and pointed to the Portside Hanger Bay. "And seventeen on the starboard side. The rest are aboard the Tartan's and are currently fighting their way free of the Hanger. I've sectioned us off into three strike groups. We're Alpha, Starboard is Bravo, and the ones below are Charlie."

Kyp nodded, he motioned for the pad with a nod of his head and a motion of his hand. Marr lent it to him easily.

"I have three other Jedi with me here, the rest of the Dozen are non-Jedi... I see you have Charlie going after the Main targeting computers along the fringes of the ship. Hmm, Bravo is going after the reactors?" Kyp asked.

"Aye, I plan on sending this Chutta back into Alliance lines and redlining the reactors... Should be a pleasant gift for our friends outside," Marr shot Kyp a grim grin. Kyp shot him a nasty smile and nodded along with the plan.

"What are we going to do about Jacen?"

"Either capture him... Or kill him. There's not much else we can do," Marr pulled back the pad and issued his orders. A trio of green lights appeared in the top hand corner of the small screen letting him know they had been acknowledged. Kyp nodded slowly to Marr's assessment, the Sith Lord knew that many of the Jedi agreed with him, including the last of the male Skywalkers. But neither of them wanted to kill a young man that had once been apart of their lives not so long ago.

"Sad, but true. I assume we are going to fight our way to the bridge?" Kyp asked.

"As best we can, yes. Granted, Jacen might try and cut us off. I would not be surprised if he tries venting the oxygen before he lets us get any further."

Kyp growled at the prospect of that happening. It would do nothing to anyone apart from the strike force, but any of the crew that did not have an EVA suit would surely die within minutes.

"How many hostiles do you think we'll deal with?" Kyp asked. The two of them looked over at the rest of their forces as they formed up on the turbolifts leading out of the Hanger bay.

"If memory serves, roughly forty thousand crewmen, and around ten thousand possible extras... SO anywhere between thirty and sixty thousand enemies lay between us and our prize," Marr growled and placed a hand upon one of the many lightsaber hilts that lined his belts. Kyp whistled at the estimates. Neither was too happy at the prospect of facing so many combatants in such confined spaces, but thankfully they would be spread throughout the ship. That also happened to be one of the many problems they faced. They would have to leave almost half of their forces behind to defend their avenues of retreat. This would allow Jacen to cut them off and just throw bodies at them until they all died. SO they had to act accordingly.

"We can bring the Astromechs and my personal Droid with us to help lock down parts of the vessel ... This should allow us an easy way out. Do you think?"

Kyp nodded slowly, his gaze locked on the turbolift doors.

"I have a bad-" He was cut off as two of the Turbolift doors opened up and unleashed massive gouts of flame from within. The white-hot flames incinerated a dozen of Marr's men before they suddenly stopped and started back up again. Marr and Kyp unknowingly shared equal looks of horror and dread at the sight of such brutality.

"Kill them!" Kyp shouted. The shorter man ignited his violet saber and vaulted into the action. He used the Force to guide the flames away from their intended targets and up into the air to be harmlessly dissipated. Marr unclipped two of his sabers and thumbed the activation studs with his thumbs. the saber in his left hand ignited with a blade of the deepest crimson while the blade in his right came to life with a blade of the most virulent of greens.

"Don't stand still!" Marr shouted while he vaulted through the air towards his target. He crashed down with an audible thud of heavy metal against the thick deck plating. His heavy boots made a click-clack noise when he stepped. He made two strides and brought both sabers across himself in a horizontal slash. The fire suddenly stopped and the sound of two metal clad things hitting the floor followed. His men cheered from behind him, a second cheer went out when Kyp dispatched his own adversary.

Both the Sith Lord and Jedi Master froze when they heard the tell-tale sound of machinery moving from within the Turbolifts. They and the rest of the strike force looked on in slight fear as a dozen YVH hunter-killer droids marched out of the lifts. Marr took an involuntary step back in surprise when he realized how close they were.

"Orders?" an anonymous soldier asked. Their voice shook with fear and adrenalin, that much Marr could tell.

"Fire!" Marr shouted; he charged into the ranks of the droids, the rest of his Sith and Kyp's Jedi joined in a moment later. Greens, Blues, Reds, Oranges, and Purples flashed about like massive, deadly, glowsticks as the twenty or so Force users fought the Vong killers. Blades met and sparkes lept as the two forces clashed in hectic close melee. A chromatic array of colors danced around the YVH droids, just as the black cortosis covered swords of those same droids danced along to their unbidden dance.

Cries of rage and death were soon heard over the clash of weapons. Marr felt the pang of loss within the Force as his soldiers died and the battle raged on. He felt every death, every mutilating blow, and every hint of rage that began to envelop the ship. The Sith fought Harder, and the Jedi became ferocious. Swings became faster, deadlier, and the droids were being driven back by the overwhelming force.

Marr sidestepped an overhead swing from his left, he stepped into the droids side which threw it off balance and carved through its body with a simple upward swing. He threw the bifurcated droid into one of its brethren. The droid fell over and was quickly dispatched by a fellow sith who simply decapitated it.

Kyp and his last remaining Jedi pilot finished off two other YVH droids on their own. Both were slightly suffused with the Darkside but thought nothing of it. Marr shot them a worried glance, but thought better of saying anything should they not be in complete control of themselves. He knew the power that lurked in the Darkside, it was what had sustained him on many a perilous occasion during events long past. It was a long time companion of his, and he knew the limits of its power, small they may be.

"Into the lifts everyone! TC, direct the Astromechs, I want these taking us as close as possible to Jacen!" Marr ordered his personal droid. TC snapped off a mock salute and hurried to follow his master's orders. Quicker than most had expected, the little droids got the turbolifts under their strict control.

Within minutes the lifts were manned and sent on their way. Marr and Kyp joined their troops and ascended with the first wave. Almost thirty seconds later the lifts opened up and expelled them out into an open corridor, at either end was a well-established blockade of GA troopers and Special Forces. The Dark Lord sighed and stepped out into the hall with both sabers in hand lit. He was put on the defensive almost immediately. Kyp and the rest of their saber wielding men joined him. Their blades batted aside hundreds of bolts a minute as the regular troopers moved out into the hall and returned fire. The lifts shot off, back down to pick up more men.

Marr growled and grunted as the hail of blaster fire rose and fell with the loss and replacement of bodies. Marr finally annoyed enough with the firestorm around him shoved his hand forward and blasted apart the enemy barricade. Bodies and bits of plasteel flew down the corridor. Many a man, woman, and alien, were rent asunder in the storm of moving things. Blood and gore littered the hall after the storm of Force energies had subsided.

At the opposite end, Kyp and a few of Marr's Sith did the exact same thing, though not as spectacularly. The might of their enemies were broken upon the obstacles they had erected to stop them, none survived the onslaught for long.

Marr and his forces marched purposefully down the corridor towards the next set of levels turbolift junction. Kyp had made off in the opposite direction with several of his men and a hand full of Sith Sabers. Now, left with only ten Sabers to his name and two squads of soldiers, Marr felt that he was severely undermanned.

Out of the ranks of his remaining Sith walked one man he had thought gone with Kyp. He stood at six foot three and was almost two and a half feet wide at the shoulders. He struck a very imposing figure against the stark white walls of the Star Destroyer's halls.

"Why did you let Kyp drag off so many of our men, Father?" Dromas Karr asked. Dromas was one of the last surviving children that Marr had adopted several hundred years earlier. Dromas was a member of the Feeorin species, a race of long-lived aliens that looked similar to Nautolan's in physical looks, though most Feeorin's grew to be much taller than any Nautolan. Dromas was the generic blue-green color his race usually displayed, though his skin was weathered and wrinkled from his long life. He wore similar armor to his Father; black Beskar with red trimming and gold piping. He, on the other hand, did not ware the same type of Warriors mask that their ancestors used when going into battle. He wore a mask modeled after the Eternal Warrior Malgus. The rebreather wrapped around his neck and traveled up the back of his head, it then changed from a hard metal to a fabric type material that spread out and covered his many montrals to the tip. The eye sockets on his mask shined red with Darkside energies and power derived directly from the depths of evil.

As much as Dromas' dealings with the Darkside worried Darth Marr, he knew that his son would be more than capable of dealing with the temptations. Especially after three hundred years of delving into its depths. Marr smiled behind his mask and sent a wave of tainted appreciation towards his last living son.

"I sent them with him because he will need them more than we will. Without Kyp here to taint with the darkness, we can unleash more of our power on Jacen's lackeys. I want all sabers in front, Pilots and Troopers are to hold this intersection and keep it under our control!" Marr informed his son. He turned to the rest of his people and issued a few commands. Every one of them jumped-to to defend the evac point.

"As you wish Father," Dromas bowed his head. He stowed his saber, one with a green-white blade, and pulled out a knarled fleshy hilt. It was the remnants of a Sith Basilisk that he and his siblings had killed a few centuries ago in his youth. The blade that lanced forth when he thumbed the activation stud was a sickly orange with a crimson core. The hateful blade seemed to warp reality around it as if it had been forged from the Force itself and not by the hand of a mortal man. "I am ready Father."

"All Sabers, Battle Formation Zion. We are killing Darth Caedus tonight, whether the Skywalkers wish us to or not."

Lord Marr and what was left of his entourage arrived at the last turbolift junction leading to the bridge. Several of his Sabers had been killed in the ensuing firefights, but Dromas and a few others had made it. Dromas had lost his rebreather and knew that if Caedus wished to vent the atmosphere, he would surely die. But, instead of being consumed by fear and terror, Dromas used it to push himself forward with the Darkside of the Force.

"I want three of you to stay here and watch the lifts if anything comes down here that isn't us, I want you to Slash and Burn," Marr solemnly ordered his remaining men. Marr knew in his heart that Dromas would most likely die in their coming battle with the insane Dark Lord. So, rather than take all his forces and risk them all dying, he opted to take the best with them and assure that those that did die, at least had a fighting chance.

"Father, we both know what will happen in there," Dromas grunted through slightly labored breaths. Without his breather, his lungs could barely stand the ionized air in the corridor. Dromas looked into his father's eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We both know who is going to make it out of there in one piece," Dromas smiled wanly to his Father.

"I know Dro'... But I will not be able to defeat him without you, and that is what hurts the most," Marr let out a shuddering sigh as he looked upon his son. He placed a hand on the Feeorin's shoulder. Without a second thought, he pulled him into a tight embrace; Marr's chin rested atop the crown of Dromas' head easily. With barely any hesitation the younger alien embraced his lord Father and returned it twice over.

"I will be with you, always, Father," Dromas whispered before he pulled away.

"And I with you Dromas."

The two Sith, a Liege-Lord and a Master, walked into the Turbolift. AS the lift ascended towards the Bridge, they felt a searing pain shoot through the force. Dromas and Marr both felt the painful death throws of their subordinates. After what felt like hours, they felt the last of their soldiers that had gone with Kyp die. All that was left was Kyp and his fellow Jedi. But that was also shortened when they felt the life force of the Jedi snuffed out as well. Marr and Dromas shot each other worried looks of concern. Both had trained with Jacen when he was younger, and Marr had even trained him in some of the Sith ways. But neither had ever known someone so strong as to take on so many Sith at once singlehandedly. The only ones that had ever gotten that strong were few and far between. Marr, Yoda, Anakin Solo, Luke, Ben Skywalker, and Anakin Skywalker, were the only ones that came to mind when thinking of those strong enough to take on more than one Sith at once.

"Be ready Dro' we will have to end this quickly if we wish to survive."

"Aye, Father, we will."

Kyp danced away from Jacen's red black blade, his blue saber having batted it aside in the process. He swung back and clashed overhand with Jacen, their blades hissed and sparked before they backed off and struck once more. Kyp jabbed at the Fallen Jedi's chest, but Jacen leaned out of the way and tagged Kyp's thigh with the tip of his saber. A hiss of burnt flesh and a scream Kyp flinched back.

Jacen cackled and smirked insanely at the Jedi Master. His skin seemed pale and taught against his bones as if it didn't quite fit right. Kyp had to repress shudders whenever he looked upon the man he thought he once knew.

Jacen parried a slash from Kyp that was aimed at his shoulder and slashed along his arm. The smell of burnt flesh got even stronger; Kyp yanked back and screamed at the pain. He lashed out with his free hand and blasted Jacen with a massive wave of Force energy. The younger man flew back several feet but managed to catch himself with the Force and land safely. Kyp, no longer able to grip his saber any longer, dropped the lightsaber. He knelt down and tried to pick it up as fast as he could, but Jacen was already on him.

Massive forks of purple sith lightning arced from Jacen's fingertips with impunity and raced across the Jedi's body. The tan robes that once hung primly from his shoulders were now baked, burnt, and bloodied from their fight. The right side was missing from the waist up and the sleeve on the left side was gone from mid-bicep down. Now they were smoking from the power burning away at them. Kyp thrashed and howled at the pain Jacen inflicted upon him.

Just as Kyp thought he was going to die at the hands of his best friend's son, the turbolift doors opened and admitted Lord Marr and his Eldest Son to the bridge. They immediately brought their sabers to bare and charged at Jacen.

"JACEN!" Marr shouted hate and loathing at the young man. Kyp silently wept at the look of hate on Marr's face. He knew how the man felt, to have such a close friend and ally betray them all like Jacen had. Jacen turned towards Marr and his approaching son with hate-filled yellow eyes. He raised a hand and launched a wave of shadowy black energy at the two men. Marr, who had gained a slight lead over his son, was immediately thrown back by the wave. Dromas, on the other hand, braced himself against the wave and ushed through it with little trouble. He did end up falling short though and landed in a crouch. When he stood up though, Kyp managed to catch a glimpse of the ancient man's eyes.

Black. Pitch black with a single white dot in the center; power radiated from their unknowable depths. It made even his pain riddled body still with fear. Though it seemed Jacen was not even phased by the sight of Dromas' alien-looking eyes.

"Hellow Dro', it has been a while!" Jacen smirked at the Feeorin. The taunting way in which the creature with Jacen's skin said the Feeorin's name just seemed to set the Sith Master off even more. The Dark Jedi lifted his corrupted blade up and saluted the Sith. A sickly sweet grin slowly spread across his face when it was obvious that the Feeorin was not going to acknowledge his show of 'respect'. "I think it is appropriate that those here know my true name now...," Jacen turned an eye upon Kyp, which made said man cringe in disgust at how vile the young man looked in that moment.

"Oh? And what is that Jacen, what is your true name now?" Dromas asked with a raised brow. A dark greenish aura began to form around Jacen and Dromas' eyes the longer they talked. It unnerved Kyp to such a degree he had to force himself not to puke. "We've heard of Caedus, what more could you think of yourself - Traitor," Dromas scowled at the young man. Dromas' weathered skin crinkled around the eyes when he sneered at Jacen. Kyp shivered at the sound of Jacen's Sith name. He knew the language it was derived from, it was apt. Slaughter... and slaughter Jacen had.

"I am Caedus Iator... The Harbinger of Slaughter!" Jacen, Caedus... Caedus Iator ... Whatever the hell he wanted his name to be, cackled with insane laughter. He snapped a mock bow off towards Dromas and waved his saber off to his side in a flurry of movement before keeping it still.

"And you will die," Dromas snapped. He stepped forward and brought his alien looking saber up in a classic Sai Cha strike. Jacen easily ducked underneath the strike thanks to his smaller stature. The Feeorin shot his knee up towards Jacen's face but missed. The younger Sith Lord weaved around the strike and aimed for the five hundred and thirty-two-year-old Sith brought his other hand forward and punch Iator in the face with the Force.

Before the warped Sith's blade could even make contact with Dromas' body he was propelled backward and slammed into the far side of the bridge where he collided with the plexiglass viewports. The mentally unstable Sith got to his feet after a moment's hesitation and spat on the floor. A large glob of blood and mucus, more black than red, plopped onto the deck.

At the other side of the room, Marr struggled to get to his feet. His hands slipped on a bit of blood that had fallen from a wound on his forehead he had gotten when Jacen threw him. THe dazed Anzat hybrid stumbled to his feet after a second try. He looked around the room. Everything to him was a haze. He could barely make out the glow of some lightsabers at the other end, but with what little blood had gotten in his eyes, it was almost impossible to see.

From his spot on the floor, Kyp could see that Marr was having a rough time. But, with how beaten his body felt, the Jedi Master knew he was not going to be able to help the Sith Lord.

Marr looked over and watched the fight between the deranged thing that used to be Jacen and his son. He can see the red and orange blades clash in quick succession before they break and distance themselves. He stumbled forward at a slow pace but quickly picked speed as the Darkside picked up in its intensity. He roared out in anguish and hate as he flew through the air at the darkly armored Jacen.

"MARR!" THe young man laughs with hate and twisted glee.

Marr brought his sword down with all his might and clashed against Jacen's sword. All were surprised though when Marr was held aloft for a moment before his weight began to pull him down to the floor. The entire time, neither of their blades ceased their connection. Marr, Dromas, and Kyp are all stunned at the physical strength Jacen had just shown off in a single instant.

Just as Marr and Dromas were about to engage Jacen, or Caedus Iastor as he now called himself, the entire ship rocked violently from side to side. Kyp felt himself roll across the floor as almost unimaginable pain shot through his body. The pain receptors in his skin fired in overdrive after having been subjected to the torturous whiles of Sith Lightning. He came to a stop at the unstable feet of Marr and Dromas.

The ship rumbled with great tremors as explosions could be felt from far beneath in the reactor room. Jacen, or at least the twisted facsimile that now inhabited his body, laughed with unrestrained glee.

"You bring death upon me by trying to sabotage my ship?!" He cried with a cackle. "How quaint!" Marr and Dromas both took a step back as Jacen's more deranged side came to the fore. Marr pulled Kyp along with the Force, not having wanted to leave the tortured man anywhere near the corrupted thing that used to be Jacen Solo.

Just as Marr was about to suggest that they run, Dromas was yanked away and brought before Caedus. Caedus grabbed hold of Dromas' arm and twisted it at a vicious angle that it made the Feeorin scream in pain. Caedus brought his other hand up and smashed it against Dromas' chest. It caved easily under the Force-enhanced punch. Dromas tried to scream, but couldn't under the assault. Caedus brought his fist down on the Feeorin's elbow and shattered it; he let go of the arm and grabbed it at the bicep and with his free hand he punched Dormas in the shoulder. The force of the punch and the strength of Caedus' grip tore Dromas' arm right out of its socket. Blood and bits of gore flew from the devastating wound as Dromas flew back toward Marr and Kyp. Caedus was having none of that though and caught the aged Feeorin in the Force and brought him back. The downed Jedi Master gapped in disgusted awe at what his one-time friend had done to the ancient Sith Master.

Marr screamed in anguish at the sight of his son being mutilated but could not get his body to move. It was paralyzed with indecision. Marr could only watch on in paralyzed fear as his son tried to fight back.

Dromas tried to punch and Caedus with his only remaining hand, but this was an attempt in futility as Caedus caught the offending appendage in his hand. With a sick grin, he tightened the grip he had on Dromas' hand ... ANd shoved an inordinate amount of energy back into the Sith's body. The Feeorin Sith screamed in extreme agony as his arm suddenly ballooned up from the pressure. WIth a sickening pop the arm exploded. There was nothing left of the limb below the elbow, save for the gore-ridden remains of his flesh.

"NOOOOOOOoooo!" Marr shouted with animalistic rage. The giant of a Sith launched himself at Caedus and interposed himself between his wounded son and the deranged monster. He cut off Caedus left arm at the elbow and his left at the wrist. The deranged thing that once was Jacen Solo, and possibly once a Sith, howled with rage and pain. It flinched back and curled in on itself to get away from the pain and the one who caused it.

Marr did not press his advantage as his only concern was his last surviving son. He picked the Feeorin up in his arms, cradled him like one would a newborn, and dashed over to Kyp. The Jedi Master was finally able to get to his feet, even though his spasming muscles left him more than a little shaky. The Star Destroyer rocked heavily as another explosion went off in the bowels of the ship, Kyp and Marr struggled to stay upright but managed all the same. Both sprinted towards the turbolifts and quickly got inside. Only Marr spared a second glance at the seething form of Caedus.

It was at that moment that Kyp Durron truly looked at the bridge, truly looked and saw what had become of the crew. Bodies strewn about, many cut down by the blade of a lightsaber, and much more were battered and burnt. The Jedi shivered at the sight and prayed to the Force that whatever it was that Jacen had become would die with the Star Destroyer. As the lift doors close, neither Jedi nor Sith share a word. There is nothing to say how terribly wrong their venture had gone. Dromas - mortally wounded and dying in his father's arms, Kyp - tortured and almost unable to stand, Marr - beaten and bloodied though still somewhat able to fight.

Marr and Kyp arrive at the junction where Marr left a few of his Sabers. With a quick word, Marr instructed them to follow. The group of Force users ran down the long hallway and quickly arrived at the next Lift junction. The three sabers boarded one lift while Marr, still holding Dromas, and Kyp boarded the other. Within a minute they were at the last juncture leading to their fortified position.

When they disembarked, they were assaulted by the sounds of battle. Marr and Kyp looked out and saw that their position in front of the other lifts was under heavy assault from GA troopers armed with concussion rifles and blaster repeaters. The men they had stationed there barely seemed to be holding out under the massive onslaught. Marr looked to the growing offensive and then back down to his dying son. He could either make a run for it and take the lifts down to the Hanger bay, or he could help his men and evacuate the rest of them post haste.

With a determined grunt, Marr made up his mind.

"You three, take Dromas and head for the Eloi! I want him in the ships bacta tank and the cloning tools already working on replacements! Kyp, you go and get in your fighter, you're too injured for this fight! I'll pull our guys out of the fire and meet you down below! May the Force be with you!" Marr handed Dromas off and quickly dashed over to his men. The Dark Lord brought out his lightsabers and ignited the two blades with a flurry of movement. He leaped over his soldiers and right into the enemy lines. He came up in a running dance and cut through the GA soldiers.

With the enemy now suitably distracted, Kyp and the other Sith made a break for it.

Marr deflected a trio of bolts from his right and sent them right back at his attackers. He brought one blade overhand and struck out sideways with the other to cleave one soldier in half vertically and to relieve another of their legs. He then spun around and used his cape to obscure his attackers while he literally disarmed a group of GA Concussion troopers. Marr was then struck in the side which brought his dance of death to a sudden halt. He cried out in pain, his ribs and side throbbed from the concussive blast. His head shot over to a frightened-looking GA trooper; Marr snapped his hand out at the soldier and balled it into a fist. In almost the blink of an eye, the soldier was a ball of gored meat and plasteel plates. The mass of gore twitched once and fell still.

The rest of the assaulting force looked at Marr with abject horror and disgust. The men under Marr's command shouted a rallying cry and charged the GA position. Marr wasted little time in dealing out more death. He tossed the ball of gore at his enemies and started tearing them apart by the dozens. Within moments, the entire corridor was bathed in blood and gore; bits of flesh hung from the ceiling panels and the stench was overwhelming.

"All soldiers back to the ships! We are leaving!" Marr used his sabers to move them towards the lifts. The fifty or so soldiers that still stood quickly embarked onto the lifts and began the short transition to the Hanger. Marr stayed behind and helped move the wounded onto the lifts as well. One man was missing both legs and Marr had to pass him off to a couple of troopers that had hobbled into the closest lift. Marr then ran back and picked up a woman who had lost both her left leg and arm. He carried her gently into the lift and motioned for one of the men to get the controls.

As the moments slowly ticked by, the woman in Marr's arms passed on. The last thing she did was smile up at her Lord before the Force finally took her. She had thanked Marr for his efforts in saving her and had even told him that her family had been one of the original ones to come with him on his original voyage in 427 ABY. At her passing, Marr lets a single tear trail down his bloodstained cheek.

The lift door then opened and the dim lights of the Hanger billowed into the dimly lit lift. The occupants swiftly left and made for their respective ships. Marr took the body of the woman he had tried to save and carried her onto the Eloi. Once inside he put her in one of the three free Medical beds. The fourth bed, occupied by Dromas, was covered in blood and surrounded by a varied host of medical equipment.

"TC! I want this bucket up and att'em ASAP! We are first in last out!" Marr shouted to his eternal companion.

Marr reverently strapped his son into the bed with crash webbing. Marr waved his hands over the woman's corpse and chanted a few words in Ancient Sith. The room then filled with dark purple light that quickly gathered over the body. The miasma then collected around Marr's hands and seeped into his skin through his armor. The Corpse that once laid on the med

"The last ship is away Sire!" Marr blinked and shook his head. He knew that the ritual usually took a few minutes to perform on a single body, but he did not think it had taken longer than usual.

"Then get us out of here TC, The Solo is sure to explode soon enough as it is."

Just as the Eloi was about to lift off, a wave of energy surged through the ship. Marr ran to the fore and gazed out of the Forward viewports. What he saw left him perplexed and a little afraid. Massive tendrils of light, that looked eerily like the inside of a Hyperspace tunnel, had wrapped around the exterior of the Anakin Solo and had now reached into the ships Hanger bay. The massive tendrils spread out like an invasive root system and latched onto anything and everything it could reach.

Just as Marr was about to slam the Eloi's engines into overdrive to try and escape, the entirety of the Anakin, and everything inside it, was sucked into a massive Hyperspace anomaly. Both the GA and Sith forces were gobsmacked at the event that had just transpired. But were quickly knocked out of their shock when they noticed a massive wave of energy rushing towards them. The first ship it reached was torn apart and twisted beyond recognition. All ships in the sector rushed away from the blue wave of death.

So begins the end of an Era and the beginning of one man's journey to self-enlightenment. Love once lost can be found, all in the unlikeliest of places.

40 ABY: The Galactic Alliance loses a tenth of its entire fleet in one of the bloodiest space operations since the Yuuzhan Vong war. Close to a million sentients are lost - Only the Neo-Sith Empire is left without a leader. The Anakin Solo and the Eloi are lost when Hyperspace anomaly opens up and swallows the Anakin Solo whole. The Star Destroyer and all hands are lost. It is later determined that the Eloi was still aboard the infamous ship when the anomaly struck. The Sith Empire mourns the loss of its First, and greatest, Ruler.

41 ABY: Luke Skywalker and his Son Ben Skywalker, as per Darth Marr's testament via Holocron, are instated as the new Royal Family. The Galaxy shakes at the thought of a Force Sensitive Empire.

Ch-1: First Contact

First Contact

Book 1: Chapter 1

”Knowedlge of the unknown is what we seek every day of our lives. We seek to understand the universe around us, even as we have yet to understand ourselves. This is something that has been embedded into our peoples very DNA, and it does not matter who or what you are, every person wants to seek that which they do not know.

So, when given the chance to do what no other has done in over several thousand years... It is an experience that most would crave. I myself have been in such a situation. First contact; the fabled thing that all races of the Galaxy went through when they managed to make it to the stars. I, on the other hand, managed to perform the reverse and crashlanded on an unknown planet, in an unknown galaxy, in the middle of a skirmish. What I have learned from the experience and the many that followed it, is to never ask for more than you are truly ready for.”

Darth Marr - a tentative diolauge on his first expierences.

The massive wedge-shaped vessel hurtled through the blue-whiteness of Hyperspace at incalculable speeds. None of the crew who did not possess even a shred of Force sensitivity survived the initial lurch into Hyperspace. The Ship looked far worse for wear as it hurtled through the blue of hyperspace, plates shifted and buckled under the stress, and hundreds of explosions marred the surface of the near mile-long vessel.

In the Hangar bay, the Eloi rocked on its landing gear. TC, Marr's eternal companion, ran through the ship's list of sensor reports. The shields were down, the engines were offline, and the life support was running out of power fast. TC himself could also feel his own power supply slowly draining, but only slowly. His power supply was shielded against most forms of interference, but whatever kind of anomaly they had found themselves in had found a way to drain his energy anyway.

Once the HK-protocol droid was done, it checked on it Master and his progeny in the med-bay. The interior lights for the Eloi were dimmed or, as in most cases, extinguished by the loss of power. He quickly arrived at the med-bay and assessed the situation. His Master, ancient though he may be, looked like a babe asleep in their crib. The ancient Sith was laid out on the ground with his cloak wrapped around himself like a snug blanket.

The droid filed away the picture for later use, blackmail, and stepped over his Master. He checked the straps wrapped around Dromas and found that they were snug enough to keep the Feeorin in place. TC then picked up his Master and easily strapped him into one of the other beds in the room. he checked the monitors around both his and Dromas' beds, their brain waves were erratic, more so in Dromas' case for obvious reasons, but outside the norm for any sentient being.

TC made a snap decision in that moment that would send the Eloi, and her crew, on an adventure like none other. The Droid quickly marched back to the cockpit and rerouted as much power as he could into the engines before there was nothing left to give. With a massive boost of forward momentum, the Eloi was launched out of the Anakin Solo at close to Mach 1. The instant the ship made contact with the Hyperspace anomaly outside the ship, the Eloi almost instantaneously reverted back to real space. The jarring effect of this, coupled with the overwhelming effect of the Anomaly, drained the ship of the rest of its immediate power and knocked TC into a reboot loop.

The Eloi, which was now stumbling through space at sonic speeds, was set on a degrading course away from the Anakin Solo's flight path. Incidentally, the ship was also, almost immediately, caught in a massive planet's gravity well. What little power was left online allowed the ship to do a simple scan of the planet.

A simple mathematical equation popped up on the ships main screen. 44,000Mi X 44,000Mi. A list of further equations then popped up under the first. At the bottom of the screen, a set of flashing numbers appeared.

Surface Area: 2.1 Billion Square miles.

Continentes: 10, 5/10 = Supercontinent, 2/10 = Avg. Contintent, 3/10 = Sub. Continent.

Water%: 56% water, depth max = ~20,000Ft, Sensor obstruction = possibly deeper.

Sentient lifeforms: List = inconclusive, Sentient Life Confirmed~1 Absoluute.

Temperature: Avg. = 85.6F’, Max Temp. = 175.9F’, Min. Temp. = -130.92F’.

Magnetic Poles~Error: Magnetic poles are in flux, advise caution!!!

The screen died moments later. A loading bar appeared on a smaller data pad attached to the Captain’s chair. On it, a list of emergency reroutes for power consumption and generator reboot came online. The readout indicated that all emergency power was being routed to the medical bay to sustain its sole injured occupant.

The ships minimal computing power tried to manage what little power was left to restart the generator, but could not, with its limited processing power, figure out how. The ship had one of two choices; reroute all power to the generator to jump start it and cut the life-support to the med-bay, or reroute all power to the med bay and cut all other functions save for shields and let the ship crash.

The choice was made for it when the gravitational pull of the planet became even stronger than it was previously. The ship hurtled down towards the blue-green ball of epic proportions at thousands of miles per hour. As the ship entered the atmosphere it became a long streak of red against the night sky. The ships reentry was violent and explosive as the ship cut through the sound barrier a little over three times, almost making a fourth sonic boom just moments before it magically leveled out mid-air.

The ship flew over a vast ocean, larger than any ever seen outside of the true water worlds of the galaxy. It slowed drastically as it neared one of the largest landmasses on the planet. It then lost altitude at a significant speed and arced towards a short mountain range. It leveled out again suddenly and took a straight on landing into a large forest the sat at the feet of the mountains. A large trench, almost a mile long, stretch out behind the Fury-class Interceptor before it came to a halt.

Half buried under a metric tone of dirt, the Eloi smoldered. Steam and smoke in equal parts rose up from the crashed vessel. A few minutes passed and the forests occupants began to encircle it, but just as everything thought it was over with, the ship fell back from its slanted nose first position. It crashed back on his aft section, bent a wing, and settled on to the ground. The wildlife fled in terror from the sound. Nothing in the forest came back to see what it was after that.

The wreck smoldered and smoked for what seemed like hours before life seemed to come back to it. Lights came on inside the craft, a soft red to illuminate the interior, and a soft wiring could be heard coming from the aft section of the ship. Inside, a life of another sort seemed to be coming around...

Darth Marr’s POV

I achingly raised a hand to my face and rubbed against my eyes. They felt heavy from sleep. ‘How in the hell did I get down here?’ I wondered to myself when I opened my eyes and saw that I was on the floor of the med-bay. my cloak was wrapped around me and my body ached. It felt like I had been put up against Luke and Ben in a no holds bar sparring match ... And then fed to a rancor!

“My damn head...,” I growled. I could feel a lump forming at the back of my head, and I could tell that I had a few symptoms of a concussion. “Where the Force is TC?” I moaned. I pushed myself up into a proper sitting position. It was at that point that I noticed that my helmet was gone and that I was breathing fresh air. Not my proudest moment seeing as I freaked out. I wrapped my hands around my mouth screamed and scrambled around for my helmet.

Before I even found my helmet though, I realized I wasn’t chocking, and I wasn’t dying. So! I was an idiot, no mistakes there, I calmed myself and moved to my feet. I looked around the room, noted my son, and slowly dragged my sorry ass over to his bedside. I ran a hand over his chest; it rose and fell slowly and shallowly under my hand. I looked mournfully at his mutilated arms, both gone thanks to Caedus, or whatever the fekking hell that bastard decided to call himself anymore. I used the life force I had taken from the woman earlier and forced it into Dromas’ body. I knew it wasn’t much, but it was enough to help kickstart his bodies healing ability.

I felt the energy leave me and enter him with a sense of loss. I then latched onto the Force and began to pull the energy through me. I channeled it into my hands and molded it into healing energies that I could use to help heal my son. I moved my hands first over the stump that was his right arm where the monster had ripped his arm off. I used the energy I was gathering to staunch the bleeding before I moved to the other arm.

His left, while more of it remained, was an even grislier sight to behold than the entirety of his missing right arm. The fact that there were still strips of flesh still hanging from him almost brought me to sick up all over the floor. Tears of anguish spilled from my eyes in droves as I looked upon my eldest living son. I staunched the bleeding as best I could, but I had to remove most of his upper arm with my lightsaber to keep him from bleeding to death.

When I knew he was no longer in danger of bleeding to death I began working on his ribs. I could see through the armor he wore that most of his ribs had been shattered by whatever it was that monster had done.

“I won’t let you die, my son, not while I still hold life within me!” I promised him, tears streaked down my cheeks as I pushed as much energy as I thought safe into his body. I used what medical knowledge had been passed on to me from Jedi Master Cilghal to mend his ribs the best I could. I will say, for posterities sake, that mending ribs that have been turned into shards of their former selves is a bitch and should always be done in the presence of a master healer...

It took me three hours to fully mend his ribs, and relieve the pressure his collapsed chest had had on his lungs. I stripped him of most of his armor and made him as comfortable as I could. I needed to see what happened to TC and why the ship was running on emergency power. The door to the med-bay was open and the main hub of the Eloi looked to be in fair shape, so I searched the rest of the ship for my missing HK-P droid. TC, my ever eternal companion, has been through worse crashes than a Tatooian podracer on spice, so I wasn’t too worried for his wellbeing.

I walked into the cockpit and looked around for my eldest friend. What I found was somewhat perplexing at the time, but anymore I know that Tc had saved my life and the lives of others with his snap decision. My friend was seated in my chair, hunched over and all but completely drained of power. Next to him was a small screen with a blinking light on it signifying a missed message.

I gave my friend a cursory glance and plucked up the datapad. I rested a hand on the back of the chair and used the Force to pump some power into the little device. With a blink of white light, which quickly turned blue, the pad went through a quick bootup. seconds later a list of calculations and estimates appeared on the screen.

Surface Area: 2.1 Billion Square miles.

Continentes: 10, 5/10 = Supercontinent, 2/10 = Avg. Contintent, 3/10 = Sub. Continent.

Water%: 56% water, depth max = ~20,000Ft, Sensor obstruction = possibly deeper.

Sentient lifeforms: List = inconclusive, Sentient Life Confirmed~1 Absoluute.

Temperature: Avg. = 85.6F’, Max Temp. = 175.9F’, Min. Temp. = -130.92F’.

Magnetic Poles~Error: Magnetic poles are in flux, advise caution!!!

I scanned over them and blinked in surprise at the sheer size of the planet we had apparently crashed on during my slumber. The planet was massive! I had never seen anything of its size in my long life. Granted, I had sequestered myself away in my empire for most of that time, I still have seen much of the Galaxy. But still, the oceans must be massive! Especially if they account for a little over half the planets surface... and twenty thousand feet? That’s a rather... Disturbing depth, and for it to just cut off? I know for a fact that my skin shivered at the thought of what could be under that much water.

No, I have never liked deep water, and I never will ... Not after Mannan and sure as Sith after the Yuuzhan Vong war... Fek those fekkers.

Inner monolog over, I guess. Needless to say, the information I got from the Datapad left me somewhat poleaxed. I was on a planet with sentient life, my ship is crashlanded, and I don’t know what part of the Galaxy we’re in anymore ... If we’re even in the same Galaxy, to begin with. I have head stories of ships traveling through time, across impossible distances, and disappearing altogether thanks to Hyperspace Anomalies.

After I finished with the datapad, and my own little freakout session, I walked around to the front of the chair and knelt before my comatose droid. I pushed him back in the seat and checked him over for any signs of obvious damage. I found none. Damn droid is hardier than you’d think, but still far more fragile than you’d expect from an HK unit.

I popped open the cover for his power core and quickly diagnosed the issue. He was simply out of power, nothing major. I collected a bit of Force energy into my hands and slowly pushed it into the droids power pack. This was something that I have done hundreds, if not thousands of times before. With his power core fully charged, I slipped it back into place and closed up the cover. I gave his chassis a firm knock and watched patiently as his systems came back online.

I moved over and sat against the back of one of the other flight seats at the fore of the Cockpit. I watched my drab grey and green droid with interest as his systems came online. His limbs twitched erratically and his photoreceptors flickered several times before his entire body jerked once and his eyes beamed up to full alertness.

“Master!” was the first word out of his mouth before he lunged across the open space and engulfed me in a simile of a hug... you’d think an HK droid would be without any sense of emotion, but TC is far too different, and ancient, to be considered normal by any measure of the word.

“Its good to see you too TC, I hope your nap went well?” I jibbed with a small laugh as my arms wrapped around the droids shoulders.

“Very funny Master, but what happened?!” he exclaimed. He got to his feet and pulled me up in the same motion. He stared me in the face with his gold-colored lenses. “All I remember was getting the ship to launch out of the Anakin Solo and straight into a blue vortex... Then nothing.”

“That would be because you were drained of power my friend. I recharged your battery and I’ve also fixed Dromas up as best I could... He needs medical attention. I am going to check outside and see where we are, maybe send out a probe after I do a quick recon... We need a Doctor to finish getting Dro’ fixed up. While I’m out I want you to get the cloning machines up and running... Along with the generators. I want this junk heap at least shielded before I set out on any expeditions.”

“Thank you, Master, I will do what I can to get her working again. I will watch over Master Dromas while you are gone, be safe, Sire!”

I bid TC farewell and went off to search for any of the small personal probe droids we had stashed aboard the Eloi.

I searched the cargo hold for any of the droids I knew had been stockpiled onboard. I pried the lid off of one of the crates and peered inside; six probe droids and a droid controller stared up at me. the little black insect looking droids creeped me out with their soulless look. Nothing that moved like they did when activated should ever be painted black and made to look like that!

“Let's get you little fekkers up and running. We need to know what its like outside,” I muttered to myself. I carefully prised them out of the crate and set them up on the box next to it. I brought each one up to my ear and tapped it real quick, just to see if I heard anything rattle around inside of course. When I was satisfied and heard nothing out of the ordinary, I put the droids down and checked on the controller unit.

The controller was a bit larger than the probs; seeing as it was the centerpiece of their entire network that was to be expected. I rubbed at the large dome-like eye on its underside and checked it over thoroughly for any sort of damage. I hummed in satisfaction and placed the bug-like thing down on the crate.

I lifted all seven of the black fekkers up with the Force and levitated them across the room towards the loading ramp. I set them off to the side and glared down at the ramp with distaste. I looked behind myself at the door leading to the bridge and hollered at TC

“Hey, is the fekking power working yet?!”

“Not yet Master, why?”

“No reason...,” I then proceeded to use the Force to unlatch the ramp and lower it. I also used the Force to simultaneously lift up the back end of the ship just enough so that I wouldn’t damage the ramp. Better to make sure shit doesn’t get destroyed now than having to go back and fix it later when we try for space. The creaking, and scraping of metal on metal, reverberated throughout the ship like a bad omen. I clenched my jaw at the noise and battled through it easily. “I’ll be back in a bit TC, just going to let the droids do their thing,” I remarked before I set out. As I passed the seven black abominations they floated up and behind me like the dutiful little menaces they were.

“Be safe Master,” TC remarked joyfully from the bridge.

There was little to no light that came down from the heavens as I walked outside. The air was cool, though I felt the ebbing heat from the Eloi against my skin with every change in the breeze. The air smelled of earth and burnt wood, but a pleasant undertone of fresh wood and old undergrowth seeped in the longer I inhaled. I felt at ease all of a sudden, like I had found a nexus of the Lightside, and had stepped out of the Dark entirely. It was the most at peace I had ever felt in my almost nine hundred years of life.

I took in a long breath of fresh air and held it for a moment longer before I let it out in a slow exhale. When I went to arrange the droids on the ground in front of me I felt the Force rush into me. It was like a waterfall had been formed right over my head and let to wash over my body. The deluge I felt was intense, to say the least. It wasn’t heavy though, it was light and welcoming, even if it was invasive and all-consuming. The depth and width of the Force as it flooded my body was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I could feel everything around me, the earth, the grass, the trees, the animals, the air, and even the clouds were barred openly to me to see and feel within the Force. If you have ever had someone bare their soul to you, and be told everything about them... Then you know but the tip of the iceberg that is what I felt that night. I fell to my knees and wept for joy at the sensations I was feeling.

My mind brought up every single moment that I had ever been happy, in a futile attempt to try and compare that moment to anything else. The only things I can think of that came close were the days I married my loves, and the day my First and Only biological son was born.

Once the influx of emotions and sensations was brought to an end, I collapsed down to my hands and knees. I gasped for breath and tried to steady myself after the high I had experienced. I slowly sat back on my heels and looked up at the night sky. I gasped and could feel my heart shudder in my chest. The stars were incredible, more numerous than I had ever seen them, and far brighter than they should ever have been.

Something that I will later know for sure, but suspected then, was that we were no longer in the same Galaxy as we were before. I knew on an instinctual level then that we were far from home, so far in fact, that things would never be the same when we returned - if we returned.

After I set up the droids and got them to launch, I cast once last furtive glance at the surrounding forest and the long track of burnt ground that led up to my ship. I scowled at what I thought was a cross between some sort of avian thing, and a large cat, as it jumped behind a jumbled mess of fallen trees and overturned bushes. I stopped for a moment to contemplate what I should do, but when I didn’t see it again I simply shrugged it off and went back inside the Eloi. In hindsight, this was possibly one of the best things I have ever done ... Next to-ah ah ah! Spoilers!

Anyway, I went inside and almost instantly noticed that the lights had come back online. The air was recycling and the hum of the generator could be heard, along with the deep-seated thrum it gave off reverberating through the deck of the ship. I sighed in relief and looked around for TC. When I didn’t see him I shrugged and figured he was busy. To that effect, I went to the med-bay and checked on my son.

When the door to the med-bay swooshed open I stopped in surprise at what I found. Dromas was no longer on his bed but instead was safely secured in the Eloi’s one and only Bacta Tank. His montrals floated effortlessly in the blue tinted liquid. His face was peaceful looking, but the twitch of his arm and shoulders told me that he was still in quite a bit of pain.

I walked up to the tank and placed a hand against the glass. I stared at my son for what felt like an eternity. My thoughts went back to the moment my body had frozen, I tried to think out the reason behind my freezing, but could rationalize a concrete reason. My only hope after that was that my son lived and that the cloned replacements for his limbs would be good enough for his body to accept. The thought that his body might reject the cloned limbs sat heavily on my heart and mind, but after a minute longer I looked away from him and his tank and went looking for TC.

I turned left out fo the med-bay and walked down a short corridor that led into the cargo bay. I clambered over a few of the fallen boxes and made my way to the common room. Opening the door I looked inside and saw that the door to the conference room was open. I walked over and peeked inside; TC was leaning over the ships Holographic table looking at the images the Droids were sending back. I knocked to alert him to my presence and strode up next to him.

When I looked down at the table I was struck by how green everything was. The forest we were in was massive for one, and there was a huge mountain range not far from us to the east that was covered in snow. To our west, I saw that there was a large town situated in what appeared to be a large clearing. There were a few trees scattered about, but nothing that you might consider any sort of grove or forest. There were a few hundred houses scattered around a castle in the center of town, and beyond the houses were large swaths of farmland that seemed about ready for harvest.

“Seems like we’ve landed on a backwater world, Master,” TC chortled. He always had a thing for the simplicity of backwater planets, how simple the people lived compared to the bustle and hustle of Galactic Civilization.

“Seems that way-” Before I was able to continue though I was cut off by an alert from the probe droids I had set loose. The Holo map zoomed in on the situation quickly. TC and I found that it had zoomed in right on the clearing right outside the ship. Over two dozen of the same creature I had seen duck behind the fallen trees not moments earlier was now outside. Each of them was armed with primitive armor and weapons, a metal of some kind is what I had guessed at the time.

“TC, I’m going to go out and meet them; lock down the ship, grab your rifle, and spring a trap if necessary. I’ll get kitted out real quick and take care of them.”

And just like that everything was set and ready to go. I marched back through the door, across the common room, and directly into my private quarters. To the right of the door as you enter was my desk, which was now tossed up against the adjacent wall thanks to the crash. Everything that had been on it, magnetically clamped down, was now on the floor. To the left of the door was my floor to ceiling locker. Straight across from the door was my bed, still pristine even after the crash.

I rounded into the room and knelt before my locker. I popped open the bottom two draws on it and fished out a few things: a second pair of lightsabers, a pair of Model 22T4’s, and an extra pair of clips and energy slides. I clipped the saber hilts to the back side of my belt and slid the two pistols into their own custom made holsters on my boots.

I shut the drawers and locked them down with a quick swipe of my hand and a bit of ‘magic’ with the Force. Striding out of my room I made a beeline for the med-bay where I had left my helmet. I quickly located the black and red piece and swiftly placed it over my head. I tossed my cloak off to the side, where it landed on a bed with a soft *wumph*

“I’ll be back when I get back TC!” My modulated voice carried throughout the ship. With a wave of my hand and a bit of concentration, I lowered the ramp once more and marched outside and into the unknown. I could clearly see the group of twenty plus creatures inching towards my ship from the direction of the trench. The closer they got, the more I was able to passively pick up from their emotions. None of it was good.

So, in an effort to better understand my chances of coming out more or less ahead of the competition, I cast my Force Perception out to see what kind of reactions I should be expecting, what I got was far too similar to what I had left behind.

Anger, hatred, greed, fear, loathing, lust, and pride. The strength of their feelings had almost made me stop in my tracks, it had almost been like I was looking into the Darkside of the Force and that alone, not the minds of whatever these creatures were. I steeled my nerves and pulled out both of my long Sabers just to be safe. I may not enjoy Niman style fighting very much, but I am not considered a master in the style for nothing either.

As the group got close enough to see me, they raised their swords, shields, and pikes against me -but did not advance. A single member of their group, a creature with white and red plumage coming from its helm, walked forward on its three free legs. It, like the others, had armor on almost every part of its body. The only places they didn’t wear any armor were their faces and their forelegs. Those with shields had them attached at the shoulder like massive pauldrons and they carried their sword with the other leg. Those with Pikes or spears held them aloft with one clawed hand while the rest of their body stabilized them.

The one that walked forward stopped a few paces from me and looked me up and down. The look of disgust it gave me made me want to punt the little fekker like a Corellian football. I glared at it from behind my helmet and gripped my sabers tighter. I took a moment to solidify my stance, my right foot forward a bit more than my shoulders while my left moved back to brace my body in case I had to move quickly.

“Under ordairs oph his adgestay the King Leritose oph the Gryphon Esire, your sossessions rhelong to us now!” The creature stated in a heavily accented basic. It was only thanks to years of language interpretation that I was even able to understand most of what he said.

“Your King has no say over my possessions, Gryphon,” I stated plainly and levelly. My voice came out slightly modulated and horse, but clear nonetheless. I twitched my head away from them and glared even harder behind my mask. “Leave on your own, or I will be forced to make you,” I growled the last part and hovered my thumbs over the activation studs on my sabers.

“Dphying ‘y King whill cost you, creature. Hand opher your things and liphe, or don’t hand the’ opher and die!” The Gryphon growled through its thick accent. The little quadruped glared at me with prideful hate and undisguised greed for what felt like an eternity. It was the cutest, and most disturbing, thing I had ever witnessed as an eight-hundred-year-old Sith. When I made no move to relinquish my weapons and belongings, though, he growled and jerked his head in my direction. On his unspoken command, the rest of his soldiers charged.

I was not impressed, to say the least. They swarmed me, in mass. I lazily lifted my hand towards the one in the center, their apparent leader, and hit him with a mild Force shove. He tumbled ass over teakettle and landed in a mud puddle. The rest of them only flinched slightly at the sudden attack but continued on nonetheless.

The first to reach me was a shieldsman; it tried to bash me with its shield while it swung at my midriff with its sword. I easily blocked the swing with my hand -I grabbed its claw and broke it easily with my Force enhanced grip- and spun around it while still holding his claw. I redirected the howling Gryphon into the ground and stomped my foot into its back legs. A wet snap quickly followed and the Gryphon howled in pain. I left it there and activated the saber in my left hand just before I plunged it hilt deep into the next Gryphon’s chest. It twitched at the pain for but a moment and then stopped. The rest cawed and screeched in rage and pressed their attack against me.

Sidestepping I brought my sabers up and cut through the first next one to reach me. My blades cut through its chest and neck easily - all three-thirds of it fell to the ground with a wet plop while the rest tried to get at me. The next came low and tried to cut into my calf; I stopped it with an armored boot to his skull. His head caved like paper mache behind the force.

Next, one tried to cleave me in half at the waist with its sword, but my armor stopped it with barely a scratch. I coldcocked it in the face with barely even half my strength to fend it off. I watch in morbid fascination as its head crushed inwards from the strike like a tin can; these creatures were not as tough as I had first thought I guessed. But, what I had not realized in my battle-fueled high, was that I wasn’t reeling in how much I was augmenting my body with the Force. So, while I was, in fact, pulling my punches, it was like cutting the force of a Turbolaser down to a fourth of its strength.

Two more tried to stab at my face with their swords, but I simply cut their swords in half, then their arms off at the bend, and finally, I cut off their heads all with a few simple flicks of my wrist. Their deaths were so fast that the rest of their cohort thought them still alive when until the pair landed in the mud in pieces. With my back turned to the rest, one tried to jump me, to wrap its clawed fingers around my neck and choke me. The instant I had felt something on my back I shifted my shoulder, hunched over sharply, and chucked my enemy to the ground where I then stomped on its neck with all my might. I lashed out with my hands to either side and bifurcated two separate Gryphons from beak to tail. The two halves of the two Gryphons fell to either side of my blades and emptied their entrails upon the muddy ground.

The soil around me was now soaked with the blood of these Gryphons, even as my swords cauterized their wounds the effect of everything else falling out simply reopened them. The smell, thankfully for myself, was dulled because of the helmet I wore, otherwise, I might have wretched at the stench it all made.

A single Gryphon tried to spear me with its pike, but the wood behind the blade simply shattered under the weight and force of the attack when blade met armor. The air in my lungs was driven from me and I doubled over. I grunted and lashed out with a hand at the offending party. I grabbed it with the Force and made it explode from the chest up. I had made a significant air bubble form in its lungs where I compressed it almost instantly. When the tension was released it exploded outwards the same way a grenade does when the timer goes off.

Gore and bone fell to the ground alongside streams of blood. Intestines now covered a few of my other attackers, but it did not seem to dissuade them from their goal of killing me.

“Leave! And I won’t kill you!” I shouted. My modulated voice sounded more like a roar than a yell, but still did nothing to stop them. Only a few were left now, several having been killed in the explosion I caused.

I danced to and fro between wild swings meant for my chest and legs, each time one swung - I took an arm, each time one charge - I beheaded them, each time one tried to hold me down - they were torn apart by the Force. The last one to attack me of the group came from behind. It tried to shove a small dagger into my back, but I whipped around and cut the blade off. It then tried to gore me with its claws, but it broke them against my armored abdomen. It tried to go for my eyes, but I swatted it away.

From down on the ground, it looked up at me with hatred in its golden yellow eyes. Its beak contorted in a way that should not have been possible for such a stiff piece of anatomy and sneered at me. I looked down at the creature with contempt, not too far from hatred since it, and its compatriots had just tried to kill me. I waited to see if it would surrender, but what I was given instead was disappointment.

It lept up once more, is beak and broken claws ready to try their luck once more. I ended the farce with a simple horizontal swing. I removed the top of its head right at the crux of where the top and bottom halves of the beak came together. The Gryphon crashed to the blood-soaked ground with barely a twitch.

I stared at the massacre around me with barely restrained disgust. The power of the Darkside, or at least a facsimile of it, could be felt leaving their bodies.

Just as I was about to turn back and head inside to rest, I was bowled over unexpectedly. The Gryphon I had tossed aside, their leader, now stood over me with a sword poised to crash straight through my helm. I brought my sabers up to take the Gryphons claws off, I was surprised however when my swords clashed against the Sword.

Sparks flew, and smoke began to rise from our intertwined blades. I could tell that the metal was beginning to melt under the heat of my blades, but not fast enough that it would count for anything. I shoved the Gryphon back with the Force and vaulted to my feet. Once vertical I stared at its sword with interest. The blade, now that I was able to actually see it, had had some sort of blue glow to it. the metal underneath the glow also seemed to repair itself and return back to pristine condition. It was not a very ornate sword, as you might have imagined, it was just a simple gladius with no designs or sigils wrought into its surface. The only part of it that seemed out of place was the small ruby embedded within the pommel. The ruby seemed to glow with ethereal light for a moment, but when it no longer shined I noticed that the sword also had stopped glowing and had finished its repairs.

My simple analysis at the time was that it was some sort of power gem, imbued with the Force, that allowed the sword to resist the extreme temperatures my weapons used and also that it allowed for simple repairs to be done automatically. It made me pause for but a moment in awe at the genius of it, but only a moment.

I Readied my blades and glared at the Gryphon. It snarled at me with its sword at the ready, its armor was covered in mud and a bit of gore. Blood seemed to drip from around its barrel, but I could not tell if it was simply the mud rolling off its body, or its own lifeblood seeping through. Out of the Blue, it screeched and threw itself at me like a berserker.

it swung overhand at my head, but I handily deflected it and shoulder checked it and pushed it away. I tried to deliver a roundhouse kick to its head, but the Gryphon ducked under my sweeping leg and tried to instead stab at my groin. Instead of dodging I continued the motion and used my other leg to smack the back of his head with the heel of my boot. I bound away, spinning on my heels, and landed with my feet shoulder width apart and my swords at my side. I took notice that I had knocked its helmet off once I came to a stop, I also had to stop myself from chuckling at the comical sight it made when it gripped its head.

With its helmet now missing, the little fekker looked far less intimidating than it originally did. Granted, it wasn’t that intimidating in the first place. The Gryphon snarled at me. It gripped the back of its head and winced; its claw came back with fresh blood from the impact site.

“Master, our scan of the area has been updated! There is a town of sorts off to your southwest, sire. It seems to be under attack by the same creatures you are currently engaging. Advised caution: If you plan to go into town, make sure the milk’s not bad, Sire,” TC suddenly pinged in over my helmets builtin communicator. I grunted in response but did not pay his words much mind since I was a little preoccupied.

The Gryphon wiped its claw against the ground, an attempt to get the blood off methinks, but a futile one. It snarled, again, and charged. By this point, I will say that I had thought these creatures to be woefully inept at fighting and warfare in general ... How badly I was mistaken.

The Gryphon swung at my head, and I rose up to meet it, but just as our blades were about to meet it used its wings to bost over my and perform an aerial flip. Just as it had used its wings to move through, I had felt a subtle surge of power course through it and into its wings... It was not too unlike the Force, but still different enough that it had caused me pause. It swung mid-air and clipped the back of my head. I could feel the reverberations from the strike in my skull, the jarring effect of it all made me stumble forward and clutch my head. The Gryphon continued the assault and barreled into the back of my knees. They immediately folded under me and sent me down like a massive sack of rocks.

I yelped and swung out wildly for a moment to try and catch myself, self-preservation is a bitch. Instead of catching myself, I ended up killing the Gryphon that had incapacitated me and made a fool of myself. I laid flat on my back, covered in blood, gore, and mud, with my sabers splayed around me. The sound of water and mud boiling under the intense heat of the blades was the only sound now besides the ever-present sounds of the forest.

I groaned under my own weight, seeing as having your legs basically kicked out from under you is not a pleasant experience in the first place, getting the air knocked out of you on top of it because of your armor just compounds it all even more. The fact that I accidentally killed my enemy only adds insult to injury.

“Is it too late -cough- to call in for the night, TC?” I groused around a chough. My chest hurt, my back ached, and my knees felt like overworked hinges with no grease. I depressed the activation studs on my sabers and let them fall into the mud from my hands. The sound of their iconic thrum going away let me know that they had fully powered down. I rolled onto my side and relieved the pressure on my aching knees. I groaned at the release and grit my teeth. I slowly pushed myself to my knees and tried my best to get ahold of myself.

“Why is it pick on Darth Marr week?” I grunted out between gasps. While not exactly expecting an answer, I received one anyway. All I can say is that I am happy that I left my cloak inside...

“Because you woke up and declared it was your week, Master,” TC snarked right back. I know I had this look of absolute nothingness on my face for about a full minute, and I do laugh about it now because it was the most perfect response I have ever received in that kind of situation. Granted, I was not happy at the time.

“I will smelt you down and turn you into a gaunk droid,” was my immediate response.

“You always have the nicest things to say, Master. But, there is still that town I mentioned. It is being sacked by the very same kind of creatures as the ones you just bested. I am wary of sending the probe droids closer in fear of them being spotted by these ‘Gryphons’, but I would advise caution if you decide to go out there, Sire. The night is Dark and full of Terrors.”

I knew before he had even finished talking what I was going to do, as I'm sure any self-respecting man would agree was the right thing. I looked around at the state of things; my ship was crashed and half buried under, possibly, a literal tonne of dirt and burnt plant matter, I was covered in mud, gore, and blood, and there were over two dozen dead bodies littered around me. For a first contact sort of scenario, this was pretty fekking shit by anybody's standards ... Except possibly the Yuuzhan Vong. They usually left bodies after every first encounter they ever had.

“Okay, I'm coming back in. I need to gather up my cloak, grab a pack, and a few other supplies. While I’m gone, I want you to do an autopsy on the bodies things out here, the Gryphons. I want to know what I’m up against, and how to easily kill it. I also want their genders, I don't want any sort of confusion if I end up helping the Locals. Also, try and get a pic of any of the ones in the city, I want to know who it is I'm helping in there. I don't care if we end up losing one of the Probes, we have a couple more crates of them in the hold."

“Right away, Master. I will send along the relevant information post haste as I acquire it. Good hunting, Sire,” With that the channel went dead and silence once again had become my companion. I sighed, contemplated what that the Force had planned for me, and then got up off my knees. I brushed as much of the mud off my body as I could, but it proved a trial in futility as quite a bit stuck in between the crevices of my armor and the fabric underneath.

I recalled my blades with the Force, they slapped against the palm of my hands with a reassuring weight. I carefully placed them on my belt and checked over the rest of my armaments. Nothing was amiss, both my blasters were still in place, all five of my sabers were where they should be, and my armor was as intact as it was when I first put it on, that is excluding the fact I was still covered in quite a bit of mud and blood.

I centered myself in the Force for a minute, not to expel my emotions like the Jedi do, but to simply get better control over them. I searched the Force for guidance, like many who have come before me. I found that the Force did indeed seem to pull me in the general direction of the town TC had mentioned. It was that moment, and many like it afterward, that set me on an ever greater adventure.

With my course in mind, I went back inside and readied for my excursion into the unknown.

Ch-2: City of Fire and Ashes

City of Fire and Ashes

Book 1: Chapter 2

Life is precious in all its forms. We are charged with keeping it in balance with the Force, between the Light and the Dark.

Darth Marr - Excerpt from a discussion about the Yuuzhan Vong

I slung the pack filled with rations over my shoulder. It contained a few things I knew I would need, and then a few I hoped I wouldn’t. First aid kits, thermal blankets, ration bars, and a few other things I tossed in. I adjusted the straps that hung over my cloak, the fabric chaffed against my armor and made it a bit awkward to move, it took me a bit to get the pack situated correctly.

“Do you have everything you need, Master?”

“I believe so,” I looked around and glared at the inoperable piece of bantha poodoo that sat in the corner. My ships only source of transportation outside of itself was a refurbished bloodfin speeder, whose power core just so happened to be shot after our trip through the wormhole. I know it was childish, but I will admit that I stuck my tongue out at it in a childish display of displeasure. I may be almost a thousand years old, but that doesn’t mean I have to be an adult all the time.

“Master, you’ve being childish again...,” My friend trailed off when I shot him a glare as well. It has always astonished me, and will continue to astonish me, how lifelike and Human that droid acts ... Then again being almost as old as I am without any memory wipes pry has had its impact. I would not doubt it if TC had somehow managed to remove the function from his system completely.

“Very funny. I will be off now. Remember, Autopsy and a full report as soon as you can,” I called over my shoulder. I slipped the helmet back into place and flipped the hood of my cloak up. I called on the Darkside then to help cloak myself against prying eyes. Darkness filled my cloak, which hid my face and distorted my outline some. Excess darkness then gathered on the fringes of my person and distorted my outline by adding swirling bits of shadow that reacted like flames in a fire. Those that have seen this ability of mine have stated that it is rather offputting and nerve-wracking, seeing as I become almost one with the shadows.

With a sigh of relief, I drew on the lighter side of the Force and let it fill my limbs with excess energy. I could feel my muscles bulge at the influx, almost as if drinking in the very essence of the Force to feed themselves. Even though I am a practitioner of the Darkside, drawing in the Light is something that has to be done after using the Dark, and never in reverse. The Darkside is corruptive and can cause great damage to the user if practiced incorrectly and each user must find the correct way in which their own body can use them. For some, it is both at once, while some it is one or another, and then there are those like myself that have to use them in a specific order Dark, then Light.

With the energy of the Force flowing through me, I began to run. It was not a simple jog, or a sprint, no! No, this was a Force enhanced run. Each stride of my legs carried me ten times my normal pace and set me flying above the ground, to less perceptive eyes it would look like I was literally flying whenever using this power, but for those accustomed to the ability, they would have seen how hindered my pace truly was.

I cleared entire acres of forest in a few leaps and entire glades in mere moments. Any Jedi, Sith, or any other Force User adept with Body Enhancement could perform the very same feat, but fewer would have the ability to go as far and long as I could. That list makes up the highest echelons of both the Sith and Jedi orders.

I vaulted over a small ravine that had opened up in the earth and landed on the other side in a roll. I came up out of the roll in a dead run. Still moving, I put a finger to the side of my helmet and signaled TC for a course correction.

“Minus three degrees and continue straight. Once you pass the river minus another thirty and continue on until you make the town. There is a large group of Gryphons antagonizing a small group of inhabitants there.”

“Roger.”

“Your inhabitants are Equine in nature, but differ on their outward appearances. Some have horns, and others have wings. Further intelligence has been scrapped since one of the Gryphons tried to burn out our droids with some form of Force ability. Looked like Pyromancy.”

“Roger that! Over and out!”

I lept over the river and stumbled just a bit. I managed to keep my balance though and made my last course correction. It is a special feeling, knowing that the ground under your feet is bending to your will as you run. For with each step I had made during that run, a boot sized indentation was made in the ground. The force of my steps, coupled with the speed at which I was going, made it so that my footfalls left inch deep divets in the earth.

I sped towards where I thought the town might be. Though when I saw the light from the flames that illuminated the night skies, I know I was headed in the right direction. I pushed my legs as hard as I could to get there any faster. But there are limits to what even the Force can do with a body.

I came to a stop at the outermost part of the small city. There was a large earthen wall that seemed to wrap around the entire township, it had spikes and a few pitfalls built into it. Most of it was set aflame, though, with entire sections of it completely destroyed or blown apart by giant boulders. The giant rocks littered the area, what seemed to be almost every few feet it seemed, and many of them had landed in the few houses that dotted the expanse behind the earthen wall. Around the houses though were large expanses of fertile land. What used to be farms and crops was now a massive field of flames and rocks.

I heard a scream suddenly from the south. I sprang into action. I jumped over the wall and took out both of my sabers in the same motion. I landed atop one of the boulders where the fire was thinnest and continued my search. I felt the Force direct me more towards the North, away from the City for some reason. I decided not to fight the feeling and let it guide me instead. I ghosted over the land, between the great fires and what little cover was left, and moved northward.

What I came across was a group of five heavily armored Gryphon soldiers attacking one of the locals. Instead of a helpless citizen though, I found that they were, in fact, attacking what looked to be a guard. Granted, the silver and blue armor they wore was more decorative than it was practical. They had its hindquarters pinned up against the side of a burning house. I crouched down behind a small wall that used to make up the side of a building and listened in for a moment.

“You will pay for what you did here, Gryphon!” The local said. Its voice was far more feminine than I would have thought. Their tone spoke of anger and fear. I could almost feel what she, I tentatively labeled the local as a she, was afraid of. I felt a pit form in my gut, and to this day the very thought of anything like it fills me with dread. I have known too many females that have been caught behind enemy lines... What remains of them all too often is little more than a vegetable.

“You are a śize śony! Our co’ander gaphe us all sśeccial śersission to haphe our way with the śośulous!” I know I bared my teeth at that, even to this day that memory, that moment, is still fresh in my mind. I Sprung up over the short wall and landed not a foot away from the first assailant.

“Back off,” I snarled. My helmets vocalizer turned my already deep voice into such a low bone-rattling timber that even I was taken aback by the sound. I glared down at the Gryphon as if to dare it into action. All six of them were frozen stiff where they stood. None dared to move in my presence, not even the female local behind them.

“And who are you sśosed to ‘e?” A cocky little Gryphon growled once it had gotten over its fright. I glared at it from behind my helmets black lenses, which I know for a fact glinted in the firelight. The menacing look I had about myself apparently wasn’t enough to quite his cockiness.

“Your executioner if you do not leave her alone,” I snarled.

“As iph you could ‘ake us, creature,” The Gryphon that had spoken before growled at me. It pulled a glowing short sword from a scabbard located on its side. The rest of the group followed its lead. I eyed their weapons with a bit of trepidation, I knew that they would be able to block my sabers. So it would be a bit more of a fight than the last.

“I will make you regret that decision. You still have the opportunity to leave, otherwise, I will kill you all.”

The female that stood behind them looked at me with wide eyes. Her ears snapped back against the sides of her head. I will admit freely that she looked rather adorable like that, but I felt a pang in my chest at how terrified of me she was.

“Back away from the Po-” I was cut off by the sound of a set of hooves pounding at the ground towards us. I caught the female, a pony apparently and a soldier, gasp at something behind me. I flipped around, brought up a hand and pulled the Force into my fingertips. What had come rushing towards us was a small pony, most likely a child given its size. It was flanked on either side by a pair of equally heavily armed Gryphon soldiers. Sadistic grins could be seen on their beak-like mouths. I grimaced, I knew what they had planned for the little one, and it made me sick just to even think about it.

So, instead of unleashing the Force upon them, I used it to pluck up the little one in my telekinesis and bring it to me. The little one gave a girlish scream when she shot through the air and into my waiting arms. The pair of Gryphons slid to a stop and stared at me with shocked faces. I could feel the shock emanating from the rest of the beings around me through the Force. The little one in my arms squirmed and cried out in panic.

“Lemme go!” They squirmed around in my grasp and tried to pummel me with their hooves. I held them tight against my breasts. I dare not let them go for fear of what the Gryphons might do to them.

“Hush child! I will keep you safe,” I muttered into the fur on its head. Its hair, which I had likened unto a mane, despite its accuracy, was the color of starburst red. The rest of their fur, which would be their coat I had assumed, was burnt orange. They had splotches of mud splattered across their face, legs, and underbelly; they looked no worse for wear though and held no sign of injury on their body.

“Lemme go! I don’ wanna die!” The child screamed. It seemed to have some sort of shift then, and burrowed into my grasp and pinned itself against the metal plating of my armor.

“They will not hurt you while I draw breath,” I whispered. This seemed to comfort the child some, but not much.

The group of Gryphons seemingly broke out of their shock at this point. They all had unsheathed their swords now and had them pointed at me.

“See’s that the creature has the śony’s magic in the’... Guess the shords whill work śost whonderously...” The same Gryphon who had spoken before commented with a sadistic smile. It lept at me from behind and struck at my spine with its sword. I simply danced out of the way and kicked them in the ribs with all my Force enhanced might. The armor around its midsection caved and buckled like wet flimsy. The soldier rose only a few feet higher into the air before it dropped back down to the ground. It didn’t even twitch upon impact. Its innards were pulped from the strike, heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, all of it was now a gelatine inside its body.

“I would take that as a lesson and lea-” I weaved around a blade meant for my head. I easily transferred the child in my grasp to one arm instead of two. I pulled out one of my sabers and deflected the blade easily away and out of its clutches. The appearance of my sword further shocked the Gryphons and single Pony soldier, but not enough for the former to reconsider. The Gryphon soldier flew over my shoulder and landed in front of me. I went in for the kill but had to jump out of the way of another Gryphon. Just as I was about to stab the tip of y blade into the gap between its armored spine and its helmet a blade came up and intercepted me.

The clash of metal on saber made the Gryphons hiss, the sound apparently hurt their ears. The Pony simply winced for but a moment. It had yet to move, as it was still cornered by the other four Gryphons that had planned on assaulting her.

I disengaged easily from the clash and spun on the balls of my feet. I whirled around and cut off the claw of one of the other Gryphons that had been chasing the child. It howled in pain, but I gave it no quarter. I stepped into the Gryphons space and brought a knee up into its face. The Gryphon lurched upwards at the sharp strike and squeaked unexpectedly. I reversed the grip on my lightsaber mid-swing and punched my fist downward past its chest. The Gryphon fell into halves, bifurcated from head to tail it spilled its intestines upon the ground with a telltale sound of gore and heavy meat.

The Gryphons all cried horrid avian shrieks and cawed in horror at the simpleness of it. It seemed that these few had more of a conscience than the ones I had fought in the forest. Their reactions never phased me though; I turned slightly and kicked out with a foot. My boot collided with the Gryphon behind me right in the chest. The Gryphon went soaring back and impacted one of the few buildings that littered the farmland around us. The building, having been weakened thanks to the fire, collapsed on top of it crushing the Gryphon almost instantly. If my kick hadn’t killed the fekker, then the building falling on top of it did.

With, again, only four combatants left I turned back to confront them once more.

As I stood there, I realized how much taller I was than all of them. The Gryphons were the tallest and came up to my hip at their shoulders. The pony was the shortest since she came up to mid-thigh on me. It was rather shocking really, I had been so used to everyone being only slightly shorter than myself that I hadn’t really ‘looked’ at anything here. I was not too unlike a giant unto these peoples, it was a sobering thought to have in the middle of a conflict.

“Will you leave now?” I asked. My ire was raised and I did not want to let them go without recourse, but I was not about to let a child be subjected to more violence than was necessary.

The Gryphons backed up a bit as if contemplating their retreat. But a sudden flick from the leftmost one signaled something most bizarre. The one on the far right chanted something under its breath, its words lasted but a moment. IN a lightning quick move it raised its claw at me and fire jutted forth like a geyser. I flinched back in shock and surprise. I had not seen them use that type of power yet before, so I understandably overreacted and lept away as far as I could. I sailed up into the air almost twenty feet and away from them another thirty. I landed in a crouch with the child still in my grasp. her shivering form was still held snuggly against my breastplates. I snarled at them, my modulated voice came out in a loud snarl that, surprisingly, had not frightened the youngster in my grasp.

“Pyrokinesis!” I hissed. I Looked beyond the group of Gryphons to see how the Female Pony was fairing. She was shaking like a leaf in the breeze; her eyes were wide, her ears were depressed, and her tail was tucked up underneath her body. She looked absolutely frightened. She stared at the Pyro-Gryphon with fear in her eyes. Her gaze darted from the avian thing to look at me and then back. She tried to inch away from them, but one of them noticed. It flipped around on her, seized her by the neck, and hoisted her up into the air above its head. It pinned her to the wall of the house. The Gryphon pushed her even higher and used her as leverage so it could stand on its back legs. With its free arm, It trailed a talon down her chest and towards her groin.

I growled lowly in my chest then, my rage heavy and my hate overflowing. I checked the child to make sure she was secure before I reentered battle once more. I siphoned the Force into my body once again; I submerged myself within the Darkside and let it fuel my power once more.

I leaped across the great distance with ease, my blade glowed brightly at my side. I landed among them within the span of half a breath. I ducked low under a sweeping strike, almost parallel to the ground with barely an inch to spare. I took off the foreleg of the one attacking me; its stabilizing limb cut in twine at the wrist made it tumbled down hard. I faltered in my balance and finally fell to the ground, face first. I rolled out of the way of a downward stab and pushed off with aid from the Force. I came up with my blade thrumbing and impaled the second Gryphon through the open face of its helmet.

The third Gryphon tried to blast me with another gout of fire, But I managed to snuff it out with the Force before it got too big. The Gryphon gaped in fearful awe at what I had done - this was its undoing as I flicked the tip of my blade across its throat. It gasped for but a moment and then flopped to the ground. It gasped for air and tried to plug the hole in its throat. I smiled grimly down at the floundering Gryphon. Its pain amused me, especially knowing what it would have done to the Female. I left it to its doom and stepped over to the one missing its claw. It looked up at me with fear in its eyes and cried out with a shriek of terror. I ended its existence with a flick of my wrist.

No, I did not use my lightsaber to kill it. Nay, I used the Force to Boil its blood in its own veins. It cried out in horrific pain for but a moment before it fell dead at my feet. Blood then bubbled out of its nostrils, eyes, and ears. The last Gryphon, the one that still held the Female Guard, stared at me with horrified disgust. It apparently had never seen someone boil another living thing alive like that-and without any sort of energy transfer.

I did not rush the Gryphon, as its claws were still clutched around the Female’s neck. I simply took one step forward after another. But I did take a few extra measures to put the fear of the Sith into this fowl creature before me. I pulled on the Force, for the inth time that night, and garbed myself in a Nightmarish illusion. I reinforced the glow of my helmets lenses, deepened the shadows that lurked within my cloak, and darkened the very light around us. The only one that saw this though was the Gryphon, as it would not do to fill the Guard with fright in the process of rescuing her.

“Set. The. Pony. Down,” I snarled. My voice came out in a low rumble, but I am sure that it was more of a snarling monstrous growl when the Gryphon heard it. I saw something golden leak down onto the ground, a swift trickle if anything. I knew, without really thinking about it, that the Gryphon had just pissed itself. It quickly let go of the Female and backed away. Its entire body was shaking from the terror I had instilled within it. I was both pleased with myself, and also slightly disgusted with myself.

Instead of trying to flee though, it charged me with a feral scream ripping from its very soul. I only needed but a moment to act. My sword flashed, red passed through flesh, and the Gryphons head fell to the ground with a soft thump. Its body continued the momentum and crashed at my feet. I sighed. I pushed the power I was containing back into the Force. I instantly felt my shoulders slump forward a little and my body began to ache some from the excessive use of the Force.

The Female had since slumped to the ground and leaned up against the building. Her foreleg was pressed lightly against her throat and she looked like hell. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs and her eyes were a pinkish red around large Teal globs. Her midnight blue colored fur was stained with mud and blood, some of which I could tell was hers while other spots were so muddied that it was nigh impossible to tell at first glance. In a swift motion, she ripped off her helmet and wretched into it. Her lips quivered while she fought to control herself. Her mane, a Royal Purple, stuck to her scalp in large swatches of sweaty hair. One thing I had not noticed upon my first inspection of her though was a rather interesting protrusion at the crown of her skull. A single horn, about the length of one of my Lightsaber hilts, stuck out like a beacon.

I stepped forward, barely a foot, and waited. I wanted to gauge her reaction to me, so I moved slowly, and purposefully. She didn’t react outwardly, though her eyes did shift to me for a moment before they were screwed shit in another fit of sick. I took another step, and she repeated the gesture, though not always with the same sickened wretch. Her tears, whether from the small skirmish or her sick, streamed down her cheeks in large swaths. The trail of tears wiped clean most of her face, or those spots around her cheeks and jaw at least.

With my last step, I ended up next to her, less than a foot apart. Now, now she stared up at me with her large, Teal, bloodshot eyes. The look she gave me sent shivers down my spine; only on those soldiers that have seen too much and suffered for it have witnessed such a look. I slowly, and gently, all the while still holding the terrified child, knelt down next to her.

She tried to cower away from me then, but when she tried to move away, I stopped. She froze and looked at me with fear in her eyes. I slowly, and with practiced ease, put my saber back on my belt. She watched all of my movements with keen eyes, where I put my hands, how I held the child, and how I made sure not to overcrowd her. Once my weapon was back on my belt she seemed to relax, if only marginally.

“Ar-are you going to hurt me?” She asked, her voice stuck for a moment, but she powered through it. I didn’t answer her right away, instead, I simply reached out and grasped her shoulder and pulled her to me. She dared not make a sound when I did this and she froze up almost immediately. Once she was firmly held against my body I gripped her tightly and rested my head upon hers.

It took her a moment to realize what I was doing before she simply started crying in my embrace. She wailed and cried against my cold armor plates without a care. I ran my hand through her hair and dared not make a sound. At least not until I had an opportunity to remove my helm and talk without my vocoder making any more terrifying for her. The Ponies cries soon started to taper off. She leaned her weight into me and simply stared at the ground in tired weariness.

“Why did you save us?” She asked me with a tired voice. I once again did the contrary, and instead of answering, I moved my arm. She froze up again when I moved. I removed the helmet from my head with a soft click, a hiss could be heard coming from it as I removed. Up until that point, she had not moved an inch, but when she heard the sound her head jerked up and looked at my face. She saw me remove my helmet and, for the first time, something on the planet had seen my true face.

My long dark hair fell out of the helmet and cascaded around my shoulders, and my skin felt the prickliness of the cool night for the first time. She looked upon my face and saw something that struck her as .... hmm Spoilers. Well, my face, my nose is rather large, closer to my Father’s than my Mother’s slender nose. My eyes are slightly slanted. I also had a beard, as thin as it was, that lined the very trim of my jawline. And on each cheek rested a single flap-like tube, just on the outer side of my jowls, that housed the very thing that my Father’s race was known and feared for - Life Sucking tendrils.

She stared up at me in wonder. It seemed she had not expected me to look as I did underneath my helmet. I smiled down at her kindly. I latched my helmet to a specialized loop on my belt before I placed my hand back on her shoulder. She tentatively smiled up at me. AS the silence carried on, the child in my other arm became curious. They had gone quite when the Female had started wailing as if sensing her distress. But now that everything was over, and the Pony was no longer crying, they looked.

The child’s Stormy-Grey eyes looked up at me with mesmerized awe. They almost glowed with something I could not explain.

“Yah has pretty eyes, mister!” The child blurted out. I blinked and looked down at them with surprise.

“Thank you young one, I have been told they are passionate, and that they are wise, and I have been told they were handsome, but never have I been told they were pretty,” I smiled with care at the child.

“Yer welcome!” The child beamed up at me. Their look then turned thoughtful as they looked at me. “What’s yer name, mister? I’m Midnight Sun!” The child beamed and I suddenly felt something buzz against my body - it was coming from the child! I lifted my arm away from them slightly and saw that they had a small pair of wings attached to their body. I blinked in surprise and subconsciously tilted my head at them.

“Oh! Ah’m a pegasus!” The child blurted out again. The Female pony suffered through our interactions with a silent continence and barely broke sight with either myself or the child.

“Well, Midnight Sun, my name Is Marr. I am the only son of Jezabeth Gilroy,” I do not know what prompted me to part with such information, it was not important, but it seemed to bring some life into the Guard and also a little more life into the child in my arms.

“Oh! Ah’m the daughter of Morning Sun and Nightly Sun ... But ... But Ah haven’t found ‘em since the Gryphons attacked. Ah, think they’re in the city! But Ah’m not sure! Could ya help me find’em!?” The child, a little girl, asked. I looked down upon her tear filled face and nodded. I had come here looking to aid them, and there was a child looking for aid. It was the most fitting thing I could do right then, to help a child in need.

“I think I can do that Midnight. But I will need you to help me find them. I don’t know what they look like after all,” I told her.

“Sir, not to be rude ... But you never answered me,” The Guard said. Her voice was soft and timid, almost a whisper, but still audible at such short distances.

“Somebody like me has a duty to protect those that cannot protect themselves. It is one of the maxims from where I come from,” I told her. And indeed, it was an unwritten law where I had come from, as it was my own moral code that brought it into being. And with the help of those like the Skywalkers, it was widely accepted by most Force Users as the best philosophy.

“I-I guess that makes sense?” The female hazarded a guess. She looked up at me with confusion in her eyes, but I had apparently cemented her trust in myself with how I had talked with and treated the little girl.

“I will help you Midnight, but I must ask our friend here a few questions,” I looked to the child to see if she understood, she nodded her head fiercely. I looked to the Guard and addressed her fully. “I need to know the state of the town and castle if you can supply those. I also need to know who’s in charge here and where we can find them - the sooner we find her parents and get you all to safety the faster I can get back to clearing the menace from the streets of this place.”

“Um ... The township surrounding the castle is in ruins, and the Castle’s under siege. I was part of a group escorting a few civilians to safety. I'm all that’s left of them,” She shivered. Her eyes took on a hollowness that I knew all too well. I pulled her against me once more and muttered soothing things into her ears.

I knew that the next few hours were going to be ... interesting.

Author's Note

Change note-the guard’s eyes have been changed.

Dictionary - EDL&PPP

Author's Note

Upon popular demand, these terms may change. But reasonable explanation must be given.

Dictionary - EDL&PPP

Draconic Terms: Male=Drakon, Female=Drakaina. Uknown sub-species at this time. Hatchling(s) Male=Wyrm, Female=Worm
Pony Terms: Male=Stallion, Female=Mare. Alicorn=Pony with all three base racial traits, Earth, Pegasus, Unicorn, Crystal(varients). Foals Male=Colt(s), Female=Filly(ies).
Cat Terms: Male=Tom, Female=Molly, Uknown sub-species at this time. Kittens Male=Hob, Female=Gill
Gryphon Terms: Male=Griffon, Female=Griffin, Uknown sub-species at this time. Cub(s) Male=Cub, Female=Kit.
Changeling Terms: Male=Dirk, Female=Leto. Queen=Last molt for a Leto, Base, Magiling, Darkwing. Larva Male=Charr(s), Female=Chell(s)
Diamond Dog Terms: Male=Dog, Female=Vixen. Uknown sub-species at this time. Puppy(ies) Male=Jack(s), Female=Jill(s)