-1Star Wars: Combat Evolved

A New Galaxy...A Familiar Threat

The image of a man faded into blackness in Revan's mind's eye. Furrowing his brow, He thought about what he had just seen and heard. It seemed to him that an unknown species from an uncharted Rim World, (though armed with technical and mechanical equipment light years ahead of anything on Corusant) decided to pick a fight with the Mandalorians. Not only had these aliens fought the Mandalorians, they also fought the Serreco. What's more, These newcomers not only defeated the Mandalorians, but they also reduced the surface of the planet Serreco to glass craters. After this attack, they simply vanished. Revan was stumped. Why had these creatures fled when they could have easily taken the planet Mandalore?

A low, mystic voice broke the silence "As I hope you can see, this motley collection of aliens is a threat to every human in our Galaxy." Revan looked up into the face of his wisest instructor. Kraya's face was covered with deep creases and age lines. Her eyes hidden beneath a hood. She continued, "These creatures left after destroying Serreco, obviously thinking they had destroyed the only human inhabited planet in this area of space. I fear, however, that they may, one day, begin to feel and see through the force as sentients tend to do with enough years. If they can feel through the force, there is a chance that they will return. As you saw, their weapons far surpass those of the Republic. Not even the most skilled of Jedi Pilots could destroy one of their capitol ships. Clear your mind Revan. Stretch out as far as you dare. Stretch until you feel the pain of a burning planet"

Revan closed his eyes and felt as though he were traveling the universe in all directions at once. He could have been sitting like this meditating for days, hours, minutes, perhaps even seconds before he felt it. A world was being destroyed but it wasn't one he could place. It seemed to be beyond the scope of the known universe.

"Ah, you have felt it, have you not? The echo of cry's stretching across time and space. The cracking of a planets surface. This is the power of their Covenant. If they are not stopped, they will return and they will attempt to slay us all. Use the force to follow them. Use what I have taught you. If you are caught, If you are found, all will be lost. Am I clear?" Revan nodded and stood to leave. Before he left, he turned to face his master

"What if I don't come back?" The question was light and carefree. As was the response of, "Take as many of those retches as you can, but be wary, for these creatures are as dangerous to you as they are to the galaxy they will be attacking in a months time."

Revan turned from his old master and made his way back to his vessel, the Ebon Hawk. Night had fallen long ago, and the crew were all fast asleep. not wanting to awaken them, and hoping to be swift, Revan set to work making last minute modifications to his Lightsaber. After wiping T3's memory, Revan left the Ebon Hawk. Succumbing to an older entity, Revan did what was necessary to commandeer a different ship. He left the bodies of the previous crew safely concealed in the cargo hold. Revan sat at the controls for a moment, feeling across the galaxy. After a moments meditation, Revan ignited the engines and flew from the hangar. He kept the controls in manual so he could continue following the faint echo's of restless spirits on a dead world far from known space. Revan activated the hyperdrive engine and was off to find this Covenant...

Revan had been flying for nearly two months when at last he could feel more clearly through the force. The planet he had heard weeks ago had long since been silenced however, there was another planetary scream which Revan followed eagerly. Revan reached the site too late however, the planet was being glassed as he came within viewing distence. Using the ships stealth technology (as well as his own force powers) Revan did the best he could to keep his ship from being seen. It looked as though this planet had once been a heavily fortified planet. It bore signs of once being heavily populated, and through the force, Revan could feel the pain, and fear, of what felt like millions of people being ripped suddenly from life. Revan flew, observing these ships as they destroyed the planet but noticed how some areas were left untouched. After what seemed like onoly a few moments, the cannons finally stoped. Revan was reminded of Malak and how long it took him to destroy the surface of Telos. These beings truly were light years ahead of the Republic Revan left behind.

He watched many of the ships leave. Those that stayed behind moved to the untouched areas of the planet. Revan wanted to know what was going on down there but didn't want to place himself in the dangerous hands of these unknown beings. Revan pressed a series of buttons on the console before him and within minutes a remote sensor was progressing towards the planet. Revan watched through a live camera feed as the remote breeched the atmosphere of this world. Craters of glass shown up at the remote between the ruins of what were once large buildings, air defense towers, and many other indistinguishable pieces of debris. The remote flew towards a small camp inhabited by the invaders. Revan activated it's stealth features, fearing the remote wouldn't do so of it's own accord. The remote stationed itself about 15 meters away from the nearest creature, a small blue sentient wearing a large cone-like object on it's back. Revan, utilizing the remotes thermal, night, and default camera modes, observed these creatures for nearly three day night cycles of this planet. It seemed the smallest ones wore large tanks on their back containing air breathable to them. They seemed to be the only ones in need of air tanks though, unless the armor-clad sentients were utilizing a sort of breath filter.

Although they were all wearing some sort of armor, the larger of them were wearing some sort of energy shield as well. The weapons they used were unlike any Revan had ever seen. He hadn't seen any of these in action yet, but they looked completely alien to him. Their technology was also completely new to Revan, who thought he had seen it all. What's more, these creatures didn't have, or seem to need, droids or any kind.

It was on the third day that a that something unexpected happened. There was a lot of activity in the small camp, as what looked like a human breeched the camps defenses and slew every alien therein. This human used a weapon Revan had never seen as well. It fired volleys of super heated metal. After killing one of the smaller aliens, he took it's weapon which, as Revan finally saw, fired super heated balls of plasma. The human who caused so much destruction was clad from head-to-toe in green armor yet, he moved faster and with more precision than Mandalore himself. This human, or perhaps droid, also seemed to hit his mark on every shot. Revean was convinced that this creature, though humanoid, was either not a human, some type of Jedi that has passed by the notice of the order, or some other type of alien sentient.

Revan considered sending the remote to follow this killing machine, but decided against it lest he sense the droid. Revan had seen enough, he recalled the remote but continued patrolling the planet looking for any sign of this green humanoid, the covenant, or a surviving human. After several more day-night cycles of the planet, a ship unlike those of the Covenant broke through the planet's atmosphere. Acting swiftly, Revan launched a tracing sensor, which attached itself to the hull of this new ship. It seemed only Revan noticed this ship however, for the other ships remained stationary.

Revan waited for several more day-night cycles before making any sort of move. The Covenant ships hadn't moved and Revan hadn't learned anything more about them. Another factor in Revan's leave was a disturbance he felt through the force. Somewhere, in the direction the ship had flown, Revan could feel a sense of great apprehension, and fear. He could feel a coming conflict. Abandoning his recon mission, Revan flew to the source of the disturbance, a job made easier since he was going in the direction of the ship he had watched escape the planet. Revan didn't know how far he needed to go, but he did see the ship enter Hyperspace. Throwing caution to the wind, and relying completely on the Force to guide him, Revan entered Hyperspace himself.

It took a remarkably short time to get to the source of the disturbance. The planet that met Revan's eyes looked very much like Corusant was rumored to have looked hundreds of thousands of years before cities overcame the natural landscape. The planet was mostly blue, with several large continents ranging in color from green to brown. Surrounding the planet where large space stations and an armada of ships. Every ship and station looked primitive to Revan; Where his ship was sleek, theirs were marred with crude, sharp edges and an odd rectangular look about them.

The feeling of fear and apprehension was severe. It seemed the entire planet and every ship was emanating a feeling of great fear. There were traces of hope intermingled with the other negative feelings, and as the fear reached a deafening crescendo, the source of it was finally revealed. Revan cleared his mind, using the force and the ships cloaking technology, Revan hid himself from the small group of ships that just exited Hyperspace. Revan could feel the upcoming battle before the first shot was fired. It seemed the structures Revan took to be space stations turned out to be equipped with some sort of heavy weapon. Like the weapon used by the green humanoid, the space stations launched a super heated piece of metal at an extreme rate of speed.

There were far less ships at this planet then the last. The first planet Revan had seen in this galaxy was surrounded by a small armada of ships. Only about a dozen capitol ships arrived at this planet. Based upon what Revan had seen, it was very likely that these ships would be able to break this planet's defenses. Revan launched several stealth remotes, which he sent to several of the space stations. Revan cleared his mind and willed the force to assist the primitives. For the most part, the remotes were only able to show the exteriors of the space stations. One of them, however, was able to enter a station. As far as Revan could see, these space stations were filled with humans. There were humans all over the place too, all at differing levels of apprehension.

Most of these humans were clad in dark green armor. They carried weapons that, Revan assumed, also fired super heated metal. Nowhere on this station did Revan see a droid. There wasn't so much as a droid component. Revan couldn't help admiring these people, if only slightly, for going so long without the service of droids. Within the station, red lights began to flash and the humans began running around, readying their weapons.

After a few minutes, the aliens and humans were close enough to begin their battle. The ships flew to each other at high speeds, firing at each other and causing either explosions of bright, fiery yellow, or an eerie blue. Several small boarding crafts were able to break past the main battle. They dug themselves into the space stations and Revan watched the view screen for only a minute before he could see the aliens in action again. The boarding party seemed to have been made up of the blue shielded aliens and the small ones who wore air tanks. He could hear the humans shouting about 'grunts' and 'elites' and thus assumed they were referring to the alien invaders. Revan chanced a guess that the little ones were grunts, as a group of them were just killed by only two humans.

Revan was amazed by the speed and efficiency of these alien invaders, for they too moved with the speed and attacked with the precision that would make a Mandalorian green with envy. What's more, he was surprised to hear everyone speaking galactic basic. He watched as the humans and aliens threw taunts at each other for a long time before, the aliens began to fall back. The boarding crafts filled with survivors and left the ship at once. Revan sensed danger, and tried recalling the remote from the ship but before he could the space station exploded.

Revan may have lost one remote, but was content to know the other two had found their way into the other stations. Revan was watching the battles on both remote's view screens when he saw it again. Revan saw the green humanoid who had caused so much devastation to that other group of aliens. The green humanoid looked slightly different then before but he also seemed to fight differently as well. He possessed a greater speed and a skill as sharp as ever. Revan watched as the humanoid was fighting a small battalion of the aliens in what could have been a cargo hold.

The aliens were already fighting a small group of humans. The humans were dying at the hands of the alien invaders. Not only did the elites have overshields protecting them, their weapons seemed to eat through the humans armor. When the humanoid entered the room, one awestruck human muttered something that sounded like, 'chief' before taking a shot in the back. The warrior survived and returned to the fight. The chief ran to the group of attackers, taking out several of the small ones, and threw a grenade into the rest of the group, which was made up of three elites and four more grunts.

The blast took out all but one grunt, who was shot almost immediately after by one of the other humans, and one Elite. The surviving elites seemed to have lost their shields, because a human behind a turret was able to shoot it to death as the final elite jumped behind a large box. All was quiet for a moment, then came a roar and the sound of energy being released. The elite ran from the box wielding the oddest, yet largest lightsaber Revan had ever seen, and, in a single slash, finished off the human who had been hit earlier. The human behind the turret began firing at the elite but it's shield must have come back, because it was able to kill him in one slash as well. The chief and the elite were the only two left in the room.

"Come out, your death will be quick and painless," the elite taunted. A clinking sound was the response, and a second later, the elite had to jump sideways to avoid the blast of a grenade. Unfortunately for the elite, another grenade had been tossed right where it had leapt. The second grenade went off but the alien survived. It's saber, however had deactivated and fallen away. The elite got up and roared in anger, "Miserable vermin!" It was now wielding a plasma weapon Revan had seen before. He knew it fired super-heated plasma, like most of the Covenant's weapons, but this one had a high rate of fire.

The elite was walking backwards, aiming in different directions. When it reached it's fallen comrade, it bent down and collected it's weapon. The alien was now wielding two of the plasma-blasters, and was looking around the room waiting for the chief to reappear. Minutes passed in silence, until once more Revan heard the sound of energetic discharge. The green humanoid was running toward the elite, who was shooting more plasma at the chief then Revan cared to count, yet still was cut down in a single slash.

Had Kreya's fears already come to be? Did the creatures of this Covenant know of the force and how to use it? Revan watched the chief exit this room, still wielding the odd lightsaber. Revan thought of how easy it was for this, 'Chief' to use the lightsaber. Perhaps he was a force adept? Or perhaps he was trained at an unknown Jedi enclave? Revan was confused by this new development.

The thought of force adepts among the Covenant had been stricken from Revan's mind as another space station was lost, and a single capitol ship flew threw it's debris toward the planet. Revan recalled the surviving remote, fearing that it might also be destroyed if left for much longer. By the time the remote was safely back in Revan's ship and uploading the contents of the video file to an archive Revan was keeping, another capitol ship was attempting to fly towards the planet. This one, however, was successfully attacked. Explosions blossomed on the ships hull and moments later, the ship itself exploded in a blinding blue flash. Revan, for whatever reason, thought of the green humanoid as he watched the spreading debris of the Covenant capitol ship...