Credit to George Lucas for Star Wars, Timothy Zhan for good Star Wars, and any other author/game designer whose ideas I reference. KOTOR gets a special nod.

I obviously don't own any pre-existing characters, names, etc. This story is as canon as I felt like making it. If I disagree with fundamental aspects of the Cade era stories, it's just because I have no appreciation for them.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

STAR WARS:

Infinite Empire

The hundredth year of the IMPERIAL CIVIL WAR has passed. The TRUE EMPIRE, now led by a small parliament of second and third-generation loyalists, and the SITH EMPIRE, led by the young DARTH NARANA, have fought to a standstill. The Galactic Alliance, taking advantage of the chaos, has reclaimed numerous worlds in the Outer Rim. As the three sides duel for survival, a new disturbance is felt in the force, and a new power threatens the shattered galaxy…

Prologue: Space Junk

Twenty... Five... Thousand... Years...

234 ABY

"Dropping out of hyperspace in five minutes, people. Strap in." Setting the intercom down, the captain leaned back in the cracked and faded co-pilot's seat of an old freighter. This was the last deep space run she'd lead, she intended to head back to Couruscant with what money she'd made and spend the rest of her days in the high-rise overlooking the Senate building. A simple life, and anything but a quiet life. Twenty-five years in deep space had given her more than enough quiet for one lifetime.

"Alright, folks, we're dropping hyperdrive in 3...2...1... Now." The old ship lurched with the sudden decrease in momentum, outdated inertial dampeners straining to hold it together. The streaks of white light outside the windows faded to single points of light, small and insignificant in the endless darkness around them. It was a familiar sight to the captain, but no less unsettling in its normalcy. So much space... How can one person make a difference in a galaxy so large?

"Cap'n? Cap'n! LENEY!" Her pilot was shouting at her. The captain decided it would probably be best not to make the crew think something was wrong. She didn't want to break the news of her departure until after they'd gotten the spoils of the day.

"Sorry, Yawa, I was just thinking. Thinking about all of this... space. Everything around us, the mass of it, and what little impact we really have." Her young pilot shrugged.

"Seems ta me it's better not thinkin' about it. Too much else ta focus on 'round 'ere." The captain sighed and pulled herself out of the chair. The kid wasn't supposed to get it yet, she still had a whole lifetime of space travel ahead of her. She picked up the old hazard gear from the floor next to her, and slipped each piece on over her jumpsuit. So much space...

The freighter crept toward an archaeic, lifeless vessel. Not one among the salvage crew could guess how long it had been drifting through space, doomed to fly forever. With nothing to stop it, it was moving at almost exactly the same speed it had been whenever it had set out. Today, its journey would end.

KRRR-CHUNK. A docking clamp emerged from the freighter and unceremoniously smashed into the side of the larger vessel. It ground to a halt, pulled back by the freighter's thrust. Once the crew managed to get both ships completely stopped, a passage-sized tube extended along the path of the clamp. As it sealed itself to the hull of the vessel, the crew began the walk across, all four of them wearing the same style of ten year old hazard suit. One of them, a tall rodian, walked a few paces ahead of the rest, ready with a cutting torch to break into the untouched ship. The rest carried preservation equipment and crates to bring the spoils of the journey back in.

"'Ey Karido, you wanna hurry it up a bit? We really don't have all day." The pilot, a young Twi'lek girl, was tapping her foot against the thin metal platform inside the tube.

"Actually, we do have all day. That's kind a given, considering how long it would take for anyone else to get out here." The rodian said in a rasping, world-beaten voice.

"Nevertheless, she has a point. It's taking you an awfully long time to get through this one." The captain, too, was growing impatient. It was a day's journey back to civilized space, and she wanted to feel solid ground beneath her feet. A loud CRACK informed them that the rodian had broken through the hull.

"Sorry about that. I've never seen one this thick." As the crew walked through, they understood. The exposed innards of the hull were nearly six feet thick, with most of the depth being solid metal. There was a stoic silence as they entered the eerie ship. The interior walls were pristine, as clean as the day the ship was made. The cargo bay the crew had entered showed no signs of use, not even a bit of dust. The only thing that stood out at all was a small plaque on the far wall of the hold. The captain approached it first.

"I can't read this. Anyone know what language this is?" Another human, this one a short man wearing thin eyeglasses, stepped in front of her.

"This is Rakatan." He said curtly, moving back to the rear of the group. As he walked, he added, "Old Rakatan. Can't read it."

"Rakatan? You mean, like, the Infinite Empire? The one that every bit of technology, ever, has been credited to? They built this ship?" The captain eyed the rest of the empty hold with a sinking depression. "From the looks of it, they forgot to load its cargo before setting out." Indeed, upon entering the next room they found the same lack of anything interesting. Strangely, the ship seemed to have no crew quarters or facilities, just empty white cargo hold after empty white cargo hold. Before entering the final hold, the captain addressed her crew.

"Alright, it looks like we've got a bust. Once we sweep this last room, we'll gut the ship's internal components and set the charges. Everyone knows the drill, meet back on the Foreground when you're done." The captain absent-mindedly opened the door in front of her, wandering inside.

A deep rumbling sound emitted from the far corner of the room. This hold, unlike the rest, was not lit with the same cold fluorescents. Only a faint blue glow radiated from the far corner. The captain switched on her flashlight and slowly stepped toward it.

"What is it?" The pilot ran her hand along the edge.

"It looks like a… stasis pod, or something." The rodian growled. He, too, pressed his hand against the cold, smooth edge.

The pod began to quiver. The pilot and the rodian leapt backward, startled, falling on the clean floor of the ship. They saw, with dread, that the pod was precariously balanced on its support, and the pressure of their hands had set it rocking. Before anyone could reprimand them, the pod fell to the floor with a great crash, spilling blue fluids all over the pristine tile. As the fluids slowly leaked toward them, they heard a faint groan from inside the pod. Whatever it was, it was awake.

The captain drew her sidearm and stepped around to the side of the pod, tilting it to get a better look inside. With a shriek, she was thrown suddenly against the wall behind her, pinned by an unseen force. The rodian rushed to aid her, but was flung backward across the room. The pod upended, flinging the remainder of the fluids within on the wall and soaking the captain. Where the pod had been, a strange creature was pushing itself to its feet.

Without further provocation, the twi'lek and the short man fired their blasters at the creature. The bolts of plasma seared through the rancid, stale air, only to fizzle into oblivion a few inches from the creature's skin. The two of them were lifted into the air, their blasters flung across the room. As they hung there, held up by an unknown aura, the creature spoke. Its voice was raspy, as though it had not been used in a very long while. The creature spoke in Basic, as though it knew that was the only language they'd all understand.

"Twenty… Five… Thousand… Years… For twenty five thousand years I've lived… Alone, frozen in an endless stasis. I have not slept… And yet now you wake me… 'What are you?' Yes… I can see. I can see inside your primitive minds… for twenty five millennia I've silently honed my great power… You, Leneva Verin, you think you're lonely. You've flown through the ink for twenty five years, and now you intend to retire, to escape the silence… But you don't know the meaning of the word. For all of your meagre twenty-five years, you've never been alone. Always with someone else, while I… I have had no one, for a thousand of your pathetic lifetimes! And you…" The creature turned to face the others.

"Yawa Worth. You fly with this crew for the adventure. Space is a terror, an abysmal, endless torment, but an adventure? And you, Relen Sal," He faced the short man, "come because no one here knows or cares how many you've killed, after brutalizing their bodies. And you," He turned finally to the rodian, pinned to the floor where he'd fallen. "You run from the violence of your home world, too cowardly to stay and fight for your family's honor. You are all pathetic. You all think you know what hardship is… I have waited for THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Doomed, to forever drift in the void for my crimes!" With this burst of anger, the bulkhead behind him crumpled. Screws flew loose, the metal plating twisted and fell to the floor. The creature stood, still, where he had been since he had awakened, now taking an ominous tone in his voice.

"For twenty-five thousand years, I have waited… conscious. Alone, with nothing to occupy my mind. And yet now… now I have only one desire. For twenty-five thousand years, I have been silenced. And I… want… to scream." The creature let out a blood-boiling howl, releasing thousands of years of anguish and power into the ship. The members of the crew were smashed against the crumbling metal around them, reduced to unrecognizable gore. As the ship tore itself apart, the power of the scream erupted over the galaxy. It washed over planet after planet, but went unnoticed. It enveloped Rodia, unseen. It ripped through Ryloth, unfelt. Its power swept over Dantooine, Naboo, Couruscant… And the inhabitants heard nothing. But it would be heard soon enough.

Star Wars: Secrets of the Infinite Empire

By: Collin Turner