Prologue – Darkness Falls

Nine Months Later

"I will not allow it!" shouted Galic Orenex, the diminished Chancellor of the Republic as he slammed his fists against the briefing table. His Government was now fragmented and his power was so small that he could only count on the beings in this room to carry out his orders without question and even then it was a gamble sometimes, "The people do not understand what unconditional surrender to the Sith Empire would mean for everyone, the way of life of every single Republican Citizen in our territory would be mired in oppression. I understand their fear, the fact that we are now seven times as smaller then when we initially went to war with Revan would send fear through anyone, but not through me and it is my hope that the Senate and the people will give me a chance to prove that it is still w-…"

The four human men sitting at the table were the most powerful men in the Republic, if that meant anything anymore was debatable, but to Chancellor Orenex it meant the entire Galaxy. Lately, in the past few months, whenever he had come to these meetings, he got the distinct impression that they were beginning to look down on him and as much as he wanted to correct that, he knew that they had every reason to do such a thing. Frankly, he had overseen the decline of the most powerful Government the galaxy had ever seen and he had lost that position to a former champion of the Republic. Galic knew two simple things: Revan was almost invincible against a little over 200 Jedi compared to his estimated thousands of Dark Jedi and his Military forces looked more like a Militia compared to Revan's Military. Not to mention the Economy, in exchange for taking 20 Percent of everything that passed into the Republic's Territory, the Sith allowed the transports in and if they had refused, they would have redirected everything to Coruscant and left the Republic dead.

The President Pro Tempore of the Senate, who sat in for the Chancellor in Senate sessions shook his head and sighed heavily, "The decision has already been made Galic, your Majority has eroded and you have no more legislative support to overturn the measure, no one voted against the measure. An instrument of surrender is already being drawn up and we will overview the terms that the Senate initially wants, then we'll submit to the Sith Consulate here and from there we'll hopefully enter negotiations with Revan soon after that."

He blinked, and suddenly the Supreme Chancellor saw red, "First of all, who allowed the Sith to establish a Consulate here and second, I'll veto the action, I will not allow this government to be dissolved at the whim of that madman."

"The Senate approved the request from the Sith to establish a Consulate here yesterday, they've already bought a building and we've already cleared it and transferred the land that the building is on to officially be the sole territory of the Sith Empire, we expect the new Sith Ambassador and his staff to arrive tomorrow," The President Pro-Tempore reported, "And they've extracted your vetoing power from the Constitution, in effect you are simply the Head of State in name only, I'm sorry Galic, but it has to be this way for everyone."

He slumped back in his chair and rubbed his face, "I don't understand this way of thinking, why shouldn't we fight for the Republic?"

"There isn't a Republic left," responded the President Pro-Tempore, he was growing quite tired of this, "The Government has never been this small and the Military has never been so demoralized, we're losing 10 Percent of our Military to defections each month."

Galic looked up and there were tears in his eyes, he had never, ever felt so helpless in his life, "Do you have any idea what it feels like to be the very last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic?"

"We don't, not at all," He answered, shaking his head, honestly, he felt sympathy for the pathetically idealistic man, "But this is happening Galic, you need to get used to it."

That was easier said than done for Galic, but he had no choice, he couldn't dissolve the Senate and he couldn't veto any legislation coming from it.

He had lost.

OOOO

It was the prerogative of the Internal Protection and Stability Service of the Sith Empire to ensure that Lord Revan's will was dictated without force, but through espionage, double agents, and sabotage. What the Military, Dark Jedi, Legislature couldn't do, they did and they were used in all sorts of issues. Disputes between Labor Unions and Managements on key words were resolved by them by infiltrating both groups and moving them into positions that were compatible, they were used to bring Governments and Planet Leaders down if it was saw fit to do so, but their primary objective was to bring the Republic down from the inside and they had officially done that. Their contact inside the Republic had brought forth a piece of legislation in their Senate to authorize unconditional surrender to the Sith.

They had just received word from him that the Republic had all but officially surrendered to them, the Supreme Chancellor was powerless and the Senate was drawing up the Instrument of Surrender as they spoke, "I can't believe that it was that easy."

"It was," Admiral Yarr handed the datapad to Revan across his desk, "The IPSS Director tells me that the Senate should have their first terms drawn up by the end of the week and to our new Consulate shortly after that."

The new Emperor of the Galaxy and the infamous Dark Lord, Darth Revan smiled and as his eyes skimmed across the report, he finally came to the name of the informant, "The President Pro-Tempore of the Senate, how did they manage to get him on our side?"

"It was easy," Yarr smiled, "We offered him a high ranking position in the planetary Government here on Coruscant, and an advisory role to your Council for the Imperial Government."

Revan thought about that for another moment, he hadn't anticipated the final destruction of the Republic to come so soon, with someone like Galic Orenex at the head, he counted on its death throes lasting at least a year, perhaps two, but not nine months. This operation that his intelligence service was running in the new seat of their power must have been more effective than they were letting on. The entire operation resting on the President Pro-Tempore of the Republican Senate seemed a little more farfetched then he was willing to believe and as he turned his gaze up and ran awareness through his Grand Admiral's thoughts, she must have been at least less vigilant then she would have liked to admit because she believed it. Clearing his throat, he took a sip of his Caf and set the cup down, "I want you to call in the Director of the IPSS later this afternoon. The three of us need to sit down and have a little chat. I don't like that this man just accepted a high ranking position within our Government in exchange for betraying a Government he worked for his whole life."

He read the Admiral's thoughts again and he found that she was starting to reach his line of thinking, "I'll arrange it immediately."

"Good," Revan said, picking up the datapad and turning in his chair to read it more definitely, "That's all."

OOOO

Eight Months Prior - Dantoonie's Outer Orbit

"So you're saying that Darth Revan… is my father?" asked five year old Breiel Staten, her tone was drowsy, but she fully comprehended what the man was telling her.

The young girl was beautiful, she had long brown hair and Jaq could see Revan in the girl's brilliant blue eyes and when he had touched her in the force, it was as if he had been as if Revan was right next to her. The girl had been a pleasure to know for the past month and he had a feeling that he would be seeing a lot more of her in the future. He sensed that the girl was confused, but willing to accept this situation.

Jaq turned to her and smiled, "Yes, I was sent by him to retrieve you."

Breiel thought about that for a moment, she hadn't even given thought to her parents before, she had been so happy with the Jedi. All of her life, she had been taught to fear and to some extent hate Darth Revan, but now with the realization that the man was her father she didn't know what to think or believe anymore. She was uneasy about it, anyone would be, but she was willing to be cooperative, and who knew, maybe she'd end up liking her father. With that in her mind, she shrugged uneasily and hopped up into the co-pilots chair, "Where are we going?"

"Coruscant," Jaq answered.

Breiel had to be honest with herself, she was excited for this new journey, the fact that it would be severing her from everything that she had known and loved.

OOOO

Revan leaned back in his chair and he looked out to the landscape of the planet and the vast cityscape.

Things had never been better for the Galaxy and all signs confirmed that the people of his Empire agreed, the standard of life had went up 110 Percent since the Republic had been conquered and overthrown. His Military had increased by that roughly the same margin. The Star Forge had churned out 500,000 new Interdictor and Capital ships, over 1,000,000 new fighters and not to mention the defensive grids that they had put in place around critically important areas and planets. Four months ago, the defense scientist bureau had developed these self-powered, shield generating turrets. If there were enough of them, they'd create a powerful shield that defended anything that they were placed around, and the powerful turrets offered them protection from the beings that attempted to break through their shields. Coruscant and the Star Forge had the the vast majority of the units that had been produced, the rest were around critical resource centers throughout the Empire and even though more were made every day, that little fact of the shortage scared him.

Two months ago, the IPSS had detected large movements in the unknown regions and he knew it was them. He needed all of his cards in place before the game began and he only had most of his cards on the table.

"Master," His attendant's voice interrupted his thoughts over the office in-built communicator, "Mistress Kai, Mistress Shan and your children are here to see you."

Revan turned in his chair and smiled, "Send them in."

Oh, this was the brightest part of his life by far, if he wanted to escape the confines of running and ruling the galaxy and maintaining his power, he had only to visit his daughter, hold his month old son or speak to either Bastila or Arenna. Revan's relationship with Arenna had never been stronger and that was saying a lot – he had actually appointed her the Commander of the Sith Military to run the Military and command it when he choose to stay on the Capital and to be honest he had never seen her enjoy something more – other than just being with their daughter. Revan, from the moment he had laid his eyes on the girl, was taken with her. He found her funny, sweet, charming as beautiful as her mother and she was very powerful, both with her powers and fighting skills. He loved her terribly and along with his son, he was confident that his children would be very powerful. His son was still an infant, but he was confident that his son would be very similar to himself, "Guess what your daughter did today?"

He looked down at the little girl and smiled mischievously, "What?"

"I broke through a wall with the power of the force," The girl announced proudly.

Revan smiled and opened his arms, taking that as a sign, Breiel leaped forward and leaped into her father's lap, "That is delightful sweetheart, You have such great potential and I think that you're going to go on to do even bigger things."

"Not to mention what your son did to me today," Bastila announced as she stepped through the office door, "I went to change him and he knocked me down with a force push."

There was something in the image of Bastila, being knocked clear off of her feet by a one month old in a crib was something that made him chuckle hardily. He hadn't known anything more comical then that image, when his son was born, it really was a magnificent day to experience. One of the many things that had happened to him since he had conquered Coruscant, besides the birth of his son and his reuniting with his daughter, was his marriage. Yes, Bastila was his wife and officially, she was Empress. In the High Society on Coruscant, her company was always wanted, everyone wanted to be at a party with the wife of the Supreme Leader, the Empress, her Imperial Majesty. Bastila didn't much like that aspect of the position, but she found that she liked a peaceful existence, though she had expressed a willingness to assist Revan if he ever needed it, "I think he put you in your place your Imperial Majesty."

"That would be a nice surprise," Bastila quipped looking down to the swaddled bundle in her arms, "He's growing quite big as a matter of fact."

Revan smiled, "Perfect."

Yes, for all intents and purposes life was perfect for him, but there was something, on the periphery of his mind, that was telling him that it was all about to change.

OOOO

They were massing, that much was clear.

In his growing anticipation for the coming confrontation with the True Sith in the Unknown Regions, Revan had deployed an army of Sentry Droids. It was mainly to track what the droids interpreted as ship movements in their sight, but it was also to give him an early warning if they were coming. He had more than enough ships to hold that border. Revan was quite aware of the possibility of espionage by the True Sith, and let them, as long as sensitive Military Secrets stayed with those he could trust. Such as the Star Forge, its location was restricted to himself, Arenna, Admirals Yarr and Karath and a few of the senior Vice Admirals. Whenever a ship needed to return to the Forge, a program was activated which set the course, but overrode any ability to track the way to get there. In the ships logs, it was recorded as being overridden and with those security measures in place, he was sure that it was safe.

He needed it to be safe, he had assembled the largest fleet since the start of recorded history and even then he suspected that it was the largest beyond those founding records. He could fend off any attack and his forces were so numerous in size that if one planet fell under attack, an entire detachment of ships was no less than five parsecs away. The Republic knew this, that's why they didn't foolishly try to martyr themselves and the other, smaller Governments had as well and that's why they all joined him willingly in exchange for being self-governed. Revan had no qualms with that, he knew that he couldn't exercise absolute rule on all of these planets and that's why he had allowed them to operate under the banner of the Empire. However, he did require that a planet wide representative be sent to him and to inform him on the goings on around the Empire.

What he didn't tell them was that when they had signed their sovereignty over to him, he had hidden a clause in their remade constitutions that gave him the ability to suspend their self-governing and for the Empire to directly take control of the planet. He wouldn't use it unless it were absolutely necessary, such as with the soon-to-be invading True Sith and any desire expressed to make peace with them, he'd step in and assume personal control of the planet then and squash all who recommended that. There would be no surrender, no peace and under no circumstances could they be allowed to gain any alliances or footholds in the Galaxy. He wouldn't allow it, if it came down to it, he'd personally go to whoever arranged an alliance with them and strangle them until they changed their minds.

OOOO

This journey had taken a lot of effort and a lot of course changes.

When he had finally left Dromund Kaas, he had to navigate around the thousands of detection sensors in that region and slip past the massive fleet presence on the border. Lord Saraock had been given the honor by the Emperor himself to deliver the instrument of alliance to Revan himself and the three week journey seemed worth it. He had never seen Coruscant before and he had to admit that it was breathtaking. The entire planet was a giant city, and it was thoroughly defended he noted lightly. With the hundreds of large vessels orbiting the planet and in holding orbit and these strange floating turrets providing even more fire power. Saraock was at a loss for what he could do next, the only way it seemed to get near the planet was to go through inspection and he had passed himself off as a regular transport until that moment without having to speak to any official, but if this planet was anything like Dromund Kaas, he'd have to speak to someone. This would pose a huge problem for him and for a moment he considered just coming out with it.

"Unidentified vessel," A female voice appeared to him, "You are entering a restricted orbital zone, you pose a threat to Government Sector of the Planet and if you do identify yourself and submit to inspection, you will be fired upon."

Lord Saraock sighed and pressed a button on his console to respond, "I bring bearing a document from Dromund Kaas and from the Dark Council, you don't know what that means, but your master does, transmit that message to Revan."

"I will not," The Sith Captain hissed back, "We get people like this all of the time and every time they seemed to be mentally unhinged."

"You will, because if you don't, it might well start a war," Lord Saraock began to grow angry and with that emotion, he reached out in the force and began to grip the Captain's neck, "As you can feel, I can kill you from the safety of my ship, deliver the message."

OOOO

"Master," Admiral Yarr's voice broke through the silence in his office, Bastila, Arenna and the others had left a short while ago and he had begun to read over the agenda for a meeting that he had later that afternoon, after his meeting with the Head of the Intelligence Services. He sighed and reached for the response button on his desk, but before he could say anything, the Admiral spoke again, "We have a situation developing in the restricted orbital zone, a ship has dropped out of hyperspace and the pilot says that they are carrying an official message from a planet called Dromund Kaas and from an organization called the Dark Council. There is nothing in our database that can tell us what that planet and organization are, though, I suspect that you will know what they are, care to explain it?"

Revan had stopped listening around the mention of that accursed planet, oh yes, he knew exactly what this was about. The only thing that was in his mind at that moment was the fact that they had shown up this way. Not in force, not with turbolasers blazing, one ship that was violating one of the most secured pieces of space in the Galaxy and that was it. He was thinking now, thinking faster than he ever had in his entire life. The invaders were finally at his gate and he needed to move quickly. Scratching his chin, he stood up and cleared his throat, "Allow them to land and have a fighter detachment escort it to the front landing pad, if this ship diverts from the assigned course, they are to be fired upon and the wreckage is to be vaporized. Send a detachment of our best Commandos and Dark Jedi to the landing pad to wait for me, and send word to General Kai to drop whatever the hell she's doing and meet me down there. We need to leave the possibility open that this is some sort of trap, take all necessary precautions to neutralize this threat if we need it."

"I have corresponding Orbital Defensive Platforms standing by to vaporize the ship if we need to," Admiral Yarr said, "Everything that you asked for will be there when you arrive Master."

Revan nodded once and left his desk, making sure that his lightsaber was on his belt by touching it once, he left his office. He was taking a massive risk to do this, letting them on the surface could spell disaster if they couldn't contain it. He would need to do everything he could to keep them contained. Throwing his robe around his body and raising his cowl, he tightened his gloves and quickened his pace towards the end of the corridor and to the turbolift, "Revan to IPSS Director: Do you still have those magnetic interlocking port clamps built into the front landing pad? Because if by some chance they are still built into the pad, I need you to use them, and at the very least, do you think you can intensively scan that ship as it enters the atmosphere. I'd like your best readout of that ship as it approaches us."

"I had the clamps removed a month ago," The Special Services Director responded, "However, I can procure a material sample from the ship if you keep this visitor occupied long enough and I can scan the ship so intensely that I can get a read out of the pilot's blood cells. I'm triggering the scanners in and above the Sector right now."

Revan smiled, "Perhaps readouts of the pilot's blood would be useful as well, for biogenic weapons."

"Excellent thought sir," The IPSS Director sounded pleased by the notion of creating biogenic weapons, "If they pose a threat, we could quite possibly develop some atmospheric war heads that we could detonate over them."

Revan smiled at the irony of his statement, the simple director of the IPSS didn't know what he was saying would actually have to be considered. Weapons of Mass Destruction were used on a case by case basis. If he was going to wipe out a planet or kill millions of people, it would be for the necessity of winning whatever battle they were in. But with these True Sith, he'd use it without blinking, millions of potential threats on one planet.

"Have blueprints drawn up for a biogenic warhead that can be deployed in standard torpedo design," Revan commanded as he stepped onto the turbolift, "And when I'm finished with this matter, you and I need to talk."

"I had a feeling that you knew more about this then you were letting on," noted the Director with a bit of amusement in his voice, "I look forward to your explanation."

OOOO

Authors Note: I'd been thinking about expanding this opening chapter, but I looked over my notes that I had written up and I found that it would throw my plans completely out of sync if I went any further. The first story was the end of the Republic, this will be something else entirely and it will not be as long as the first one, but I will try to make this as good if not better than the first one. If you would please leave a review for me, I would much appreciate that.