Prologue

One hundred and fifty thousand years ago…

A long dead race, who would later become known as Celestials, tore a hole through reality. They were looking for nothing but a power source, but what they found was something much more…

Thirty thousand years ago…

The Celestials were all but gone. Their fall, unknown to the species' that would rise after, was of their own making. From their ashes, the Rakata rose to become the dominant force in the Galaxy. Using salvaged Celestial technology which they could barely comprehend they tore holes through Hyperspace, allowing them to move across the vast emptiness of space in an instant. Their advanced technology allowed them to dominate other species, who they either slaughtered or forced into slavery. Their Empire grew quickly, and became one of the largest – and most feared – in recorded history.

But the harsh reality was that they were nothing but slaves themselves. All of their advanced technology, and they failed to sense the Darkness which had taken control of them. This was the legacy that the Celestials had left behind… the Force. By the time the Rakatans realised that their minds were not their own, they were too far gone. The power that they held was their only reason for being now, and they were desperate to maintain their iron grip on the Galaxy. To this end, they built a vast manufacturing plant in space, designed to quickly build fleets of powerful warships. Its size was so great that it needed nothing less than an entire star as its power source. It was christened the Star Forge.

But, despite their power, the darkness in which the Rakatans shrouded themselves proved their undoing.

Twenty five thousand years ago…

Five thousand years after the Rakatan empire first rose, treachery and mistrust caused it to implode. Many factions had formed, each striving to gain more and more power over the others. The Rakatans destroyed themselves.

In its wake, the Galactic Republic emerged. Their philosophers had spent many years studying the mysterious Force, though they did not know of its origins. They knew its power, but believed it had a benevolent side as well as the Darkness. A group of Force users emerged, calling themselves 'Jedi', and they worked alongside the politicians and military to try to ensure that this young Republic would stand the test of time. But there were many threats to its stability…

Five thousand years ago…

One of the greatest threats to the Republic came twenty-thousand years into its life. Ravaged by a war with the aggressive Mandalorians, the Republic came under attack from an old enemy… the Sith. The Sith were dark mirrors to the Jedi, diving head first into the darkest corners of the Force, and drowning themselves in it. They attacked with a military might which seemed impossible… a fleet of thousands of ships. They overwhelmed the Republic forces, and took the Jedi to the brink of extinction.

However, a small group of misfits emerged to fight this threat. They discovered the source of the Sith's military strength. They were using the Star Forge, built long ago by the Rakatans, to create their ships. Once this fact was revealed, it was quickly attacked and destroyed. The Galaxy, it seemed, was safe again.

More threats came and went, but none brought the Republic to the brink of destruction as the Star Forge had.

One thousand two hundred years ago…

The revolutionary Sith Lord Darth Bane travelled to the Lehon system, once home to the Star Forge, in his search to find more about the history of his people. He discovered the wreckage of the space station, still preserved from battles four thousand years before.

Darth Bane recognised the power that the Star Forge held, and secretly hatched a plan to reclaim it for his new Sith.

Two hundred and twenty years ago…

The Republic fell, and it was down to one man. Darth Sidious. Born a human on the Outer Rim planet of Naboo, Darth Sidious, then known as Palpatine, was discovered and corrupted by the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Over the course of many years, Darth Pagueis worked to manipulate Palpatine into following the malevolent Dark Side of the Force, exploiting his resentment for his father, a wealthy aristocrat. The culmination of this manipulation came when Palpatine's anger grew so great that he slaughtered his entire family, including his own wife. It was at that point that he was christened Darth Sidious, the newest Lord of the Sith.

Like his master, Darth Sidious kept his former identity and continued his political ambitions, becoming a well-known ambassador for Naboo. His role eventually led to an association with the Council of the Republic, putting him in direct contact with the Jedi. His power was great, and he was able to conceal the darkness inside him from even the most powerful of the Jedi while he waited for the opportunity to put his plans into action.

This opportunity came in the wake of a Galactic crisis, secretly exacerbated by Sidious himself. The Trade Federation conducted an illegal blockade of the planet Naboo, causing major political outrage in many corners of the Council. In the wake of this crisis, the Republic chose to vote Palpatine into the role of Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, a long dormant title which allowed its wearer almost complete control of the Council. At this point, Sidious was the most powerful politician in the Galaxy, as well as the secret Lord of the Sith, working to destroy the Republic from within.

Ten years after ascending to power, Darth Sidious orchestrated the Clone Wars, a devastating conflict which ravaged the Galaxy. As Chancellor Palpatine, he controlled the Galactic Republic, and as Darth Sidious he also controlled their enemy, the Confederacy of Independent Systems, playing both sides against each other to further his own plans.

In the wake of the billions of deaths caused by this conflict, public support for Chancellor Palpatine grew to unprecedented levels. Palpatine used this to his advantage, working to abolish sections of the Galactic Constitution, which had been formed almost twenty five thousand years previously, transferring much of the power of the senate to himself.

It was around this time that Palpatine revealed his identity as Dark Lord of the Sith to a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker. The young Jedi had always been conflicted, but was a passionate supporter of both democracy and the legal system. He immediately informed Jedi Master Mace Windu of Palpatine's betrayal. Windu confronted the Dark Lord, attempting to destroy him rather than arrest him. This went against Anakin Skywalker's beliefs and, in a moment of blind panic, Skywalker murdered Mace Windu, sealing his conversion to the Dark Side. Sidious took Skywalker as his newest apprentice, christening him Darth Vader, and ordered him to lead a slaughter of all Jedi in the Galaxy.

With Darth Sidious now in control of the entire Galaxy, and with the Jedi almost wiped out, the Old Republic, which had stood for 25,000 years, was disbanded and the new Galactic Empire was formed.

Almost as soon as the Empire was formed, another group formed to oppose it. They called themselves the Alliance to Restore the Republic, but later became known simply as the Rebel Alliance.

Two hundred years ago…

Public support for the Empire was initially high, but years of tyrannical rule and needless slaughter changed that. The Empire ruled absolutely for 23 years, opposed but rarely threatened. That all changed at the Battle of Endor, when a young Luke Skywalker broke through Sidious's manipulations of his father, Darth Vader, and reminded him of the goodness in his heart. Vader turned on his master, killing him. The death of the Emperor marked the beginning of the fall of the Empire.

In the wake of the Battle of Endor, the people of the Galaxy looked to the Rebel Alliance for guidance and rule. The New Republic was founded, dedicated to bringing democracy back to the Galaxy.

The Empire was not completely destroyed, however, and war continued on and off for decades, swinging back and forth in favour of the Alliance or the Empire.

One hundred and seventy years ago…

Twenty five years after the death of Darth Sidious, the Galaxy faced a new threat the likes of which it had never seen. A race of violent religious zealots, known as the Yuuzhan Vong, invaded the Galaxy. Their four year campaign to wipe out all mechanical technology ravaged the Galaxy, resulting in the deaths of trillions of life forms. Unlike the Sith, who sought power over the Galaxy, the Yuuzhan Vong seemed to only crave destruction. It took the combined efforts of every military force in the Galaxy, but the Yuuzhan Vong were eventually defeated. However, the Galaxy was left in ruins.

It was during this war that the New Republic was devastated. In its wake, the Galactic Alliance was formed, focusing more on a military front to repel the invading Yuuzhan Vong. This new Alliance was not only formed from former members of the Republic, but also members of the Empire and other major Galactic Organisations as well, making it the first truly unified government in the history of the Galaxy.

Peace did not last. Partly due to manipulations from the resurgent Sith, the Galactic Alliance became much more domineering, to the point that many planets came to view it as a new Galactic Empire. This was worsened when the sections of the Council which favoured the old Empire once again seized power. However, unlike before, the Empire was viewed as the more benevolent faction, and gained public support. On the surface, this new Empire worked to help planets, and acted in a manner closer to the Old Republic than the Old Galactic Alliance. However, behind the scenes the Sith once again worked to corrupt this new government.

Sixty years ago…

Civil war once again broke out. However, this time the Empire was divided. Some were tired of the constant war and bloodshed, and only wished for a fair and efficient government. They joined forces with the remaining remnants of the Alliance and waged war against the Empire, which had by that point fallen under Sith rule. The war was long and bloody, but this Alliance eventually won out and the Empire fell, seemingly for good.

However, the reinstated Alliance Council were left reeling by what had happened. This wasn't a case of military power ousting them from government, but a genuine political party taking power away from them through public support. This led them to rethink the way they ran elections, tightening their grip on their democracy. Within three decades, elections had become simply side shows, where only government approved candidates could stand for office. Tensions quickly rose between the government and the people it was meant to represent.

Twenty years ago…

Protestors began demonstrating against the government. As they grew in popularity and frequency, the major players joined together and formed a group which they called the New Rebel Alliance. Initially, they were dedicated to peaceful protests, trying to sway public opinion, which was already turning against the Alliance, and force the government to change its policies. For many years this continued, with frustrations building on both sides at the lack of change being made.

It was the Alliance who first took military action, opening fire on a large but peaceful protest on Coruscant. The Rebels, who by then had grown in number such that they almost rivalled the Alliance in numbers and resources, responded by launching structured military attacks on Alliance outposts in the Outer Rim. Full-scale war erupted once again.

The Jedi, who had played a major role one way or the other in every conflict in the previous few centuries, elected to stay out of this war. They reasoned that they had no right to interfere in a political conflict, and, while morally they agreed with the Rebels, they would not assist their military.

Five years ago…

Ten years into the conflict, however, sections of the Jedi Order began to grow unsettled. There had been countless deaths, and still there was no end in sight. Some of the Jedi felt that they should move to end the conflict to stem the loss of life. However, the Jedi Council refused to change its stance.

In response to this, some Jedi began to act against the Council's wishes in secret, aiding the Rebels in many of their military actions. Initially, they worked separately. However, as their numbers grew they saw no choice but to officially establish themselves as a separatist group. Calling themselves the Grey Order, they officially joined the conflict on the side of the Rebels, helping to sway the war in their favour.

Three weeks ago…

One of these missions involved attacking the Alliance's flagship, the Endor. Two Grey Jedi, Jani and Gabe, went along for this mission, assisting the team of Rebel ships which were sent in. The plan was to capture the Endor, liberating it for the Rebels to turn against the Alliance. This plan did not work.

A small team comprising the two Jedi and two dozen Rebel soldiers boarded the Endor. While the soldiers engaged the Alliance forces, the two Jedi snuck into the bowels of the ship and made their way to the bridge, planning to assassinate the Alliance commanders. When they arrived they dropped into a trap. The Alliance had planned for the Rebels to attack, using the Endor as bait. They had joined forces with the Jedi Order, several of which had lain in wait for Jani and Gabe.

Meanwhile, the two opposing sets of soldiers were battling their way around the ship. As the battle quickly turned in favour of the Alliance, the Rebel Lieutenant in charge of the boarding party, Garin, ordered a full retreat, leading his surviving soldiers to the escape pods. They jettisoned the escape pods, assuming that the remaining Rebel ships would stop to pick them up. However, these ships jumped out of the system, leaving the escape pods to drift in space.

Meanwhile, close by on a backwater planet called Socorro, a young man named Marc hated his life. His father was a drunk, and regularly beat Marc and his mother. His only friend was another boy called Sar, who he often travelled to the nearby mountains with. He would share his dreams with his friend – dreams of leaving Socorro and seeing the Galaxy.

Though Marc's father was strict – or perhaps because of it – Marc was drawn to danger, to doing things which he knew would get him in trouble. One of these stunts landed him in more trouble than he could have expected. Sar's uncle was the owner of a small casino, and they would regularly run a scam in which Sar played cards and his uncle fixed them. Marc took part in this scam once. His parents, who had come into the village to visit the local celebrations – stumbled into the casino. His father confronted him – an action which alerted Marc's fellow card players to their scam. These men were criminals, and would not have thought twice about killing Marc and Sar's uncle. So Marc ran, dragging Sar along with him, with the men in pursuit.

They managed to evade them for several minutes, but eventually they were cornered. Feeling that his death was inevitable, Marc closed his eyes and accepted his fate. But they were rescued at the last second by a group of Rebel soldiers – the survivors of the battle on the Endor who had drifted to Socorro.

Marc was overcome with wonder at the thought of talking with real soldiers. So overcome, in fact, that he had forgotten that his father would still be angry with him. He was beaten – worse than ever before – and, when his father's fists became too sore, he was thrown outside into the deadly sunlight, which would burn his skin and cause severe radiation poisoning.

Though he was severely injured, he managed to make his way to the village, collapsing outside the house of a girl called Elle – a pretty girl who Marc had a secret crush on. She spotted him outside, and, despite the danger, rushed outside and dragged him to safety. They soon fell in love.

Marc remained unconscious for two weeks. When he finally awoke, Elle was taking care of him. Her and Sar convinced Marc to tell the local authorities about his father's abuse. Reluctantly he did so. When he travelled with the sheriff to confront his father, his mother screamed that he was a liar and scratched at his face.

When he returned to his friends he refused to speak of what had happened. Instead, he led them into the mountains. There they were confronted by the men who Marc had cheated at cards two weeks earlier. They were chased through caves, managing to escape when they fell through a hole in the ground. They emerged in a large structure – it looked like a temple, older than anything they had seen before. At the centre there was a pedestal, which held a purple fragment of what appeared to be glass. When Marc approached it it started to glow, and he felt it invade his mind.

When the feeling passed, and they had all come to their senses, they left the cave. They made their way slowly home, exchanging their life stories as they travelled. Before they reached their home they encountered Garin once more – he asked them for help. He needed to get off the planet, but he didn't know where to begin. Marc agreed to show him the way to Hathrass, the largest city in the area.

While Garin set off to find a vehicle to take them there, Marc and Elle walked in the sand dunes surrounding the village. They had a picnic, and talked about what they would do after they had left the village. Their fun was interrupted, however, by two fighter ships suddenly entering the atmosphere high above them. The two ships were involved in a fierce dogfight. One of the ships was catastrophically damaged, and crashed to the ground near to where Marc and Elle were eating. Elle was frightened and wanted to go back to the village, but Marc insisted on investigating. His instincts proved correct; the pilot was still alive. Risking his own life, Marc dived into the flaming wreckage to drag the woman out.

Her wounds were severe – she had burns, a nasty bang on the head and a wound in her stomach. Marc knew that it would take too long to take her to the village doctors, which left only one option; they would have to take her to his parents. His father had been an army medic, and his mother a nurse, during the war.

Though his father was obnoxious – even vicious – when he saw Marc, he agreed to help the woman. Marc felt that he could not stay in the same room as him, so he and Elle left. As they walked outside, they heard loud noises in the distance. The village was under attack.

They sprinted towards the village, but by the time they got there only devastation was left; buildings were lying in smoking ruins, and dead bodies lined the streets. They wandered through the wreckage in a daze – past screaming children who had watched their parents die, past countless dead bodies – and eventually made their way to the remains of Elle's home. There, they collapsed and wept.

A voice broke through their sorrow. It was coming from underneath a pile of wreckage near to them. Marc dug through the wreckage and found Garin, badly injured but still alive. This one small piece of good news was enough to shake Marc out of his sorrow, and he resolved to find Sar.

He headed to his friend's home, expecting it to be ruins like the rest of the village. To his surprise, the house was still standing, untouched. He nervously made his way inside, and found Sar's mother, mutilated on the floor. Someone had tortured her. At first he thought she was dead, but she suddenly started to writhe in pain and gurgle. A woman appeared behind Marc – it was the woman he had pulled from the wreckage and taken to his parent's home. She convinced him that Sar's mother was suffering, and would be better off dead. Marc wrapped his hands around her neck and ended her suffering.

Elle, meanwhile, was on the brink of hysteria. She couldn't understand how Marc could have abandoned her there, alone with Garin. She started to drag Garin away – she knew that the sun would be coming up soon and that it would kill everyone if they didn't get to shelter. Marc appeared, with the mysterious woman.

They learned that the woman's name was Jani, and that she was a Grey Jedi. She explained that she was drifting through space when she suddenly felt a disturbance in the Force, which called her to this planet. Unfortunately, it also called to a Dark Jedi, who attacked her as she entered the atmosphere, leading to her crashing to the ground where Marc found her. It was this Dark Jedi, she claimed, who had destroyed the village.

They were both being drawn to Sar's house, and to the pull of the fragment which Sar had secretly taken from the cavern in the mountains. The Dark Jedi took both the fragment and Sar, and he planned on taking them to a distant planet where he intended to reunited the fragment with its other half. Unfortunately, the only way to unlock the path to the second fragment was to force the first fragment to glow, like it had when Marc approached it. As the Dark Jedi found the fragment with Sar he must have assumed that it was he who made the orb glow.

They managed to drag Garin to shelter, and the next evening they set off to Hathrass to find a way off planet.

Through a series of complicated circumstances, they ended up hitching a ride from a smuggler called Garr, who had recently lost his ship, and then regained it with the help of Jani and Marc. Unfortunately, in the fighting Marc was seriously injured, and had to be taken to the Medical Bay on Garr's ship, unconscious.

They headed to Dantooine, where Garr planned to meet up with his partner. Jani, Marc and Elle intended to acquire a ship of their own and follow the Dark Jedi to the distant planet and rescue Sar, while Garin planned to separate from them on Dantooine and travel to Tatooine to reunite with the Rebels, determined to inform them of the Jedi Order's betrayal and the threat that the fragments represented.

On the journey, however, Jani revealed that she had ulterior motives. She told Elle that if it came to a choice between saving Sar and claiming the fragments for herself, she would choose the fragments and kill anyone in her way. Elle was shocked, and hurried off to tell the others. Jani moved to Marc's unconscious body and revived him. They talked about the nature of the Force, but then Jani seduced Marc and the two had sex.

The news that Jani was not everything she appeared to be concerned Garin. He reconsidered his decision to separate from the others, even though he knew that in a straight fight he would stand no chance against the Jedi.

When they arrived on Dantooine, problems ensued immediately. Garr's partner was making her escape from unknown assailants, who turned out to be people she had stolen something valuable from. Garin left to prepare another ship to take them after Sar and the Dark Jedi, but while he was gone Garr's ship, the Raven, came under attack. Because of this, they were forced to leave the planet, leaving Garin behind on the surface. This meant that not only were Marc and Elle left with Jani, and Garin on the surface of Dantooine, but also that Marc remained in critical condition – which was made worse by the fact that the Raven was chased and badly damaged, and the turbulence this caused worsened Marc's condition.

As the Raven drifted in space, tensions built. Jani blamed Garr and his partner, Batalla, for their situation and the enforced delay in their pursuit of the Dark Jedi. Suddenly, the Endor, the Alliance ship which the Rebels attacked at the beginning, appeared beside them. The Alliance Admiral demanded that Marc be turned over to them.

Garr argued that the only place within reaching distance that has the medical facilities to treat Marc was the Endor, and Jani reluctantly agreed. Elle refused to stay behind on the Raven, and insisted that wherever Marc went she would follow.

Elle, Marc and Jani were incarcerated on board the Endor.

Meanwhile, on a faraway planet, the Dark Jedi had taken Sar to an ancient temple. He demanded that Sar make the fragment glow to lead the way to the second fragment. Though he delayed as long as possible, Sar was forced to admit that he wasn't the one who made it glow in the first place. The Dark Jedi lost control, and caved Sar's skull in with a rock. He set off in search of the right person – Marc.

He reasoned that Jani must have found who they were both looking for, and so he followed his senses to where he knew her to be. He attacked the Endor shortly after, boarding the ship and battling his way to the medical bay where Marc was being kept. He kidnapped Marc and took him back to his ship. Jani used the distraction to escape from her cell using the Force. Elle was being kept in a cell opposite her, but Jani left her behind. Elle realised that Marc was the one thing that she wanted – the one she had always wanted – because he could help her get the fragments.

The Dark Jedi and Marc travelled to the faraway planet with Jani in pursuit. During this journey, Marc awakened from the coma that he had been in. He quickly deduced that the 'Dark Jedi' is in fact Gabe, the Grey Jedi who was with Jani when they attacked the Endor at the very beginning of the story. Marc also knew that Gabe and Jani were lovers, because Jani talked about him before, though she said that he had been killed.

Marc then plunged his mind into the orb, which showed him visions of a strange and faraway place. He was greeted there by a vision of his brother, though Marc sensed immediately that it was not really his brother, who in reality had died many years ago. He saw a large structure, filled with highly advanced equipment and strange creatures – resembling octopi, but the size of buses and with the ability to float in the air as though weightless. Marc's brother called them 'Architects' or 'Celestials', and revealed that they were watching events which had happened 150,000 years ago. They were about to witness the 'birth' of the Force.

Marc's brother explained that the Celestials were searching for an unlimited power source. They believed that they could make a tunnel to another reality and siphon energy from there. However, they had not calculated the possibilities for damage. When the Celestials initiated their experiment, Marc saw a rip appear in the fabric of space, which apparently went unnoticed by the Celestials. The rip glowed purple, and expanded until it filled Marc's vision completely, blinding him momentarily.

When his vision cleared, he was no longer where he was. He was in deep space, but everything was on fire. Somehow he could sense that the entire Universe was burning, and that every living thing was dying in agony. His brother appeared again and revealed that now he was witnessing events that were destined to happen five years into the future. His brother told him that this is what will occur – the end of the universe – unless Marc was able to prevent it.

Marc's third vision was the most personal. He witnessed his own birth from his point of view, but instead of a normal birth he saw himself inside a purple 'egg', which he forced his way through. When he had broken out of this egg, he found himself inside a dark cave. He cried, and a figure emerged out of the darkness – it was his brother, his real brother, as he was fifteen years ago. He picked Marc up and carried him back to his family's ranch, and he pleaded with his parents to keep the baby. Marc realised then that his parents were not his real parents.

Once Marc's visions had ended, he and the Dark Jedi arrived back on the distant planet, closely followed by Jani. She made her way to the temple to find Marc and Gabe waiting for her – Marc appeared to have lost his mind, and simply sat there clutching one piece of the orb to his chest. Jani and Gabe talked, during which time Gabe reveals that the orb had infected both of their minds, and charged them with one mission – get Marc to this place. Jani misinterpreted this and only lusted for the power that the orb promised, but despite that she still helped in that mission.

Gabe revealed that Marc was the only person that the orb would react with because the orb was the egg out of which Marc was born. Jani did not believe this story, but played along in an effort to deceive Gabe.

They were interrupted by a group of Alliance soldiers, who forced Elle to join them in the hope that she could be used as leverage to get Marc to give the orb to them. Jani and Gabe slaughtered these soldiers, and Elle hid. As the two Jedi turned to move back into the temple, Jani pulled a small dagger out and stabbed Gabe in the back. He collapsed to the ground and died slowly.

She then forcibly took the orb fragment that Marc had been clutching and united it with its other half. In this instant, a massive shockwave was sent out through the Galaxy which overwhelmed almost every Force sensitive for thousands of light years. Many of them were so overcome by this sensation that they lost their minds, and became savage, murderous beasts. This did not bode well for the battle above, as the Jedi ships – both the Grey and the Jedi Order ships – became completely erratic, sometimes firing on their own allies, and sometimes simply drifting, unmoving.

But, down on the surface, Jani was not pleased. The orb was whole again, and she could sense the enormous power held within it, but it would not let her access that power. She screamed at Marc, becoming paranoid and saying that she knew he had sabotaged it somehow. She strangled Marc, who died.

She then turned her attention to Elle. They had never liked each other, and she delighted in torturing her – Jani snapped Elle's bones with the Force one-by-one. But then she heard a deep intake of breath, and turned to see that Marc was alive again and had stood up, his eyes burning with a bright purple glow. Jani refused to give up the orb, and grabbed Elle and backed away out of the back of the temple. Marc simply walked after her, slowly.

Outside, Jani was still screaming that the orb was hers. Marc eventually spoke, only to say that 'everything you know will end'. When these words were spoken, the orb glowed again, and it blinded Jani who fell backwards over a cliff. Elle fell to the ground just by the edge, as did the orb. Marc came to his senses and raced forward, reaching out. At the last second he managed to reach them, but he grabbed the orb first and did not have time to catch Elle as well. She slipped over the cliff edge.

Marc was devastated, but he quickly realised that he could hear the sound of a ship's engines below. The Raven floated up in front of him, and he saw that Elle had fallen safely onto the hull of the ship. Marc boarded, and they quickly left the planet, which was becoming unstable, and left the battle behind.

Shortly afterwards, Elle awoke in the medical bay of the Raven, with little memory of what happened. She searched the ship and found Marc in the cargo bay, staring at the metal box which now contained the complete orb. They shared a tender moment, and Elle said that they had to find a way to destroy the orb, because it was too dangerous to be left whole.

Marc stayed silent.

Now…