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Chapter 1
Corellian Freighter Excellence
Unknown Regions
Edwin Gar, Lieutenant of the Corellian freighter Excellence, was noticeably tired. The man hadn't properly slept in several days, stress and anxiety kept him from resting.
He had been stationed in one of the Corell Trading Company's many resource transports in the Outer Rim. His crew of forty-eight were mostly humans, a couple Bothans, a Zeltron, as well as some Twi'lek's that were essentially sold to them as slaves.
Small trade companies were having trouble competing with the much larger Trade Federation, which had gained a large amount of wealth since the start of the clone wars. Any company that didn't simply run out of business were purchased and owned by the Trade Federation.
Any time a company brought in any new species, resource, or found anything exciting outside the normal galaxy were often awarded by people that long searched for new things. The galaxy had been going through a massive shift in money and power. The Corell Trading Company needed something, something to give them an advantage in the economic galaxy.
Gar rubbed his eyes as the viewpoint ahead of him changed from the bright blue flashes of hyperspace to the much more calm realspace.
As if any part of space is calm around here. Gar recalled a shipment of Aurum being hit by a solar storm, the cargo ship and all of the valuable Aurum were lost.
The unknown regions were well known for dangerous nebulas, storms, and force knows what. Most ships that entered would never return. But as many tales there were of dangers, there were twice as many tales of reward. Pirates often spoke about the abundance of resources just waiting to be claimed.
A burning meteor streaked over a gas giant, making a small, and pretty ball of flame until disappearing behind the planet. Gar took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair, waiting for the ship's systems to ready their next course.
"G'morning." A soft voice said, startling Gar for a moment. He blinked twice and turned around to see Arrela, a female Zeltron. Her bright pink skin contrasted the grey and black wall she leaned on.
"Morning? We're not on any planet, could be morning on Coruscant and night on Corellia. But here, it's not really morning or anything."
"Okay, I get it." She shook her head with a smirk. "Just seeing how you're doing. Haven't seen you sleep in two days."
"Three." He corrected her, causing the Zeltron to roll her eyes. "I just can't sleep."
"Still worried about the company?" She inquired. Like many on Corellia, Gar had invested most of his time and money into his work. It was his life, of course he would be worried if they started running out of business.
UN Deep Exploration and Defense vessel, The Dragon
Orbit of Mars
Solar System, Milky Way galaxy
Aboard the beautifully crafted first major space ship of Earth, the Dragon floated over the red planet of Mars. Reigning at an impressive two hundred meters, she was the pinnacle of Earth's space and military capabilities. The captain of this vessel, Cheng Wong was born in south China, living a dull and poor life until her coming to the U.S. At age six, her family took her to the 'land of opportunity' where she worked hard and long to achieve her goals. Most children at one point in life wanted to become an astronaut, but few children would actually not only try, but would excell past all others and would lead the first of the UN planned space fleet. She was often labeled as a perfect example of how you could become anything if you worked hard enough for it.
She was athletic, tall, and sporting dark hair and brown eyes. She was always inspiring the best for people and she enjoyed every bit of it. After being placed as captain, she felt like a mother to her crew of fifty one. Most were around her age of thirty-nine, if not older, but she always was in charge and responsible for them, and her ship.
She loved the Dragon. Which was recently equipped with a type four HEL laser, The latest and most powerful version that has been shown to take out aircraft and large boats. Most navy destroyers were now equipped with a type three HEL laser, which could destroy jets and large boats as well.
Every bolt and circuit wondered her imagination to new levels. The firepower and capabilities she stored were impressive and amazing to the people of Earth and her colony of Mars. The Dragon was as state-of-the-art as she could get, and was built to represent the UN's power, which grew more as it tried to unite the Earth together.
Especially after the Mars-Alien crash incident, many countries fiercely provided everything needed to create a ship and defenses that could fight off any possible invaders from the wider universe.
Cheng was training with fellow NASA astronauts on Earth when it came. Broadcasts from the second ISS and the Martian colony had showed that the ship was massive and seemed heavily damaged, most likely from some sort of battle. The world watched in awe and fear when it crashed onto Mars' surface. Astronauts and security officials quickly formed a salvage team and entered the massive ship. The ship's occupants proved hostile at first, but were cooperative and friendly after negotiations started.
The world was again shocked as the U.S government revealed that aliens crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, years before, and that is how they created the hyperdrive so quickly and suddenly.
Since then, the Earth prepared for the worse. Yet even with this bigger challenge that was the wider galaxy loomed in front of them, countries still squabble over things like oil and territory.
Many thought the second korean war would be upon them soon, and militaries began to stock on weapons in case of new wars. North Korea had a hotheaded dictator that Chen didn't care to remember, but was worried that he would cause another war. Europe kept their eyes on Russia, who was very secretive after creating a railgun prototype and was trying to stay on the same pace as the quickly advancing United States.
Earth, as always, was getting ready for what was practically in their nature: War.
"Captain?" The cartoon-like voice of DC-0192 shook Chen from her thoughts.
"Yes Dick?" She responded to the droid lieutenant. Many droids that survived the crash had now made their way into service on the Dragon and other places of importance. DC-0192, commonly referred to as Dick by everyone on the ship, was found to be the most intelligent of the droids, and given his tactical abilities, was placed on the Dragon to assist in command.
"Ma'am, you spaced out, is something wrong?"
"No I'm fine, thanks anyways." Cheng took a deep breath and sat straight up in her command chair. Around her, a dozen crew members worked endlessly on several consoles and computers that filled the sides of the bridge. In front stood a bullet proof glass window, surrounded by lines of steel and aluminum that kept it supported. The engineers who built the vessel made sure everything was well suited in case of any dangers, as The Dragon was the most valuable thing the people of Earth possessed in space.
"What's the news saying Riggs?" Cheng asked the Senior deck officer. Marcus Riggs was an American, grew up in detroit and through years of hard work became one of the leading operatives at NASA. As Senior deck officer, important things like weapon, positioning, and shield systems were all his responsibility.
Riggs looked to Cheng with a smirk, happy to see the Captain in a cheerful mood.
"Nothing much, Captain, just more concern with Korea and Russia. Some talk about gun control and other political topics. They plan on addressing the new bill for more fundings in defense stations and other projects."
"Same old, same old."
"Captain, I'm getting reports of a disturbance near the Satellite stationed at the Ceres outpost." Ensign Miguel reported from his post.
"Have they reported anything?"
"Just that an unknown body of mass just appeared from nowhere. Nothing too large, about the size of The Dragon." He read the report sent from the satellite's scanning systems.
"Have them send a drone for recon. Let's not jump to any sort of conclusions as of yet."
Corellian Freighter Excellence
Unknown location
As soon as the freighter returned to real space, Gar immediately noticed the large asteroid fields that circle near a small dwarf planet, other planets could be noticed, and he quickly activated the ship's sensors to look for certain radiation and energy signatures of various gases and other things that could be of use.
Large gas planets reigned in the system and the systems nearby, ripe for gas mining. Hypermatter and tibanna gas could easily be produced with the tools they had access to.
Everything seemed relatively peaceful, only the small asteroids posing any sort of threat thus far.
Suddenly, the ship went crazy with alarms. Sensors came alive, warning everyone that something relatively large was heading their way. Crewmen and workers rushed from their beds in fear, many heading to the bridge to find what was going on.
Gar looked through the viewpoint with wide eyes, as a strange vessel he had never seen before appeared before them from hyperspace. Small asteroids collided with it, all simply crashed and broke apart into hundreds of smaller pieces.
The vessel was slightly smaller than their own, but had noticeably more weapon placements as well as a small bay. Several odd looking fighters flew past the Excellence in a tight formation, then scattering to avoid asteroids as they turned back around, and began circling the Excellence.
Smaller craft soon joined the unknown vessel, too small to be piloted fighters, Gar figured they had to be droid fighters.
"Wonder what the locals look like. Maybe they're friendly." Arrela crossed her arms and stared directly at the strange ship that faced them a mere kilometer away.
"Twenty credits say they're ugly bugs." One of the crewmen remarked.
"I'll take that bet. I say they're blue skinned humanoids with piercing red eyes!" Another worker said to his colleague.
"Calm down. Let's hope these aliens are peaceful, maybe they want to trade." Everyone stopped talking.
"Alright," Gar continued, "I want Gek and Omar by the hangar doors with blasters in case they try to board. I want the ship ready to return to our previous location in case they are hostile. If they aren't, we can start making deals about access to this system's untapped resources."
"Right." Many simultaneously nodded and went to stations. A bothan stayed ready at his blaster cannon placement, keeping it pointed at the unknown ship.
"I'm getting a signal from the ship! Should I patch it through?" Arella asked from her station next to Gar.
Gar took a deep breath through his nose, and nodded without a word. The screen atop the viewpoint activated, with the face of a woman sitting at some sort of command chair, surrounded by various deck officers and crewmen.
"I'm Captain Cheng Wong, in command of this vessel. Before anything, I simply ask, why are you here?"
"Collecting resources for our trading company, we noticed the amount of untapped materials and gases here. I'm assuming you haven't started mining yes?" Gar quickly replied, keeping a tone of a businessman.
Cheng blinked twice, feeling uneasy on how cooperative Gar was. She was unsure how to continue, but decided to ask some questions while she could.
"That is correct. Are there more of you nearby?"
"A few a couple systems away, we didn't realize there was a space faring race in this sector. I understand it would be inappropriate for us to do our work without permission of the people that live here."
"And if we gave you permission to mine?"
"We could both benefit in a trading agreement."
"That sounds like the most preferable choice. We would like to meet with you officially, perhaps you can follow us to the nearby red planet?"
Gar nodded in affirmation, feeling good yet uneasy at the same time. Cheng felt the same, but she could only try to do what she could.
Coruscant,
Chancellor's office
Palpatine was happy.
Everything was going as planned. Many jedi have fallen as they foolishly fought his army of droids. Hundreds had already perished, mostly from their own stupidity and overestimating their own abilities.
Going over what had happened so far in his puppet show of a war, Palpatine, the secret dark lord, finally felt relaxed. His plans were set, pawns like Dooku were well placed, and his visions of a Galactic Empire were in his grasps. His newfound joy in his work eased his resting mind into a deep sleep. His tired eyes gladly closed. And as he did, his mind was no longer in a normal defensive state that he normally had.
They are the offspring of war itself. A voice began to creep like a snake as he descended into a dark abyss of the mind.
They are waiting. The voice grew louder. Palpatine moved slightly, feeling somewhat uneasy.
They are learning. He could hear noises, like a battlefield in a way, with shrieks of terror and sounds of explosions in the distance.
They know war greater than any other. The sounds began to grow intense, images of strangely-armored soldiers fighting with weird looking rifles began to flicker like sparks before the fire. The images became clearer, vehicles charged from a dark shadow. Thunderous booms seemed to shake the very desk he was sitting at. Primitive vehicles rolled along a field in a blurry set of images.
For they thrive in it. The images increased dramatically, showing massive explosions and weapons and fighters being more advanced over time. A single figure in a suit walked on a moon slowly, a station orbited a healthy looking world, and another on a orange-red colored planet.
And they will be the very death of you. Images of cruisers being attacked by hail storms of missiles from the stations, and a strange looking ship of design he had not seen before, emerged from the flames.
His own image standing over a kneeling figure with a maniacal smile was torn away, being replaced by pillars of smoke littered across Coruscant.
"NOOOOOO!" Palpatine awoke with a scream as shrieks of terror filled his head.
A coruscant guard entered the room as Palpatine awoke, careful not to be too noisy but wanted to make sure he was heard.
"Is everything alright Chancellor?" The guard asked patiently and politely. He waited for Palpatine as the secret dark lord remedied a sudden loss of breath, slightly gasping for air.
"I'm fine, thank you." He replied with a fake smile. "Just a dream."
With that, the guard only nodded and left the room as he found it. As the door shut, Palpatine quickly activated his holoprojector, which soon displayed the body of Admiral Gul Mastruk, who seemed surprised.
"Admiral, get to Coruscant with General Krell and meet me in my office." Palpatine paused. "I have an assignment for you."
"But sir, we're still dealing with Separatist forces near the Lothal system, and we have numerous casualties-"
"I'll assign as many troops you need to refill your battalions when you arrive." Palpatine interrupted. "Just get here as soon as possible!" He deactivated the hologram and took a breath.
He didn't know how, but he knew it was a something to worry about. If his new visions were true, these mysterious beings could be a serious problem. He didn't know who they were, but he knew with meditation, he could find out where, and end the problem before it starts to even take form.
Unless someone else found them first.
Jedi temple, Coruscant
High council chambers
"A storm. The clone wars is, becoming darker it is." Yoda sat as he felt through the force. Sitting by a window, he could see the many clone battalions march in formation to show off to the rest of the people of Coruscant. Yoda couldn't help but think of the fighting on geonosis, marking the first battle of the clone wars. All the screams from fallen Jedi and clones that faced the massive droid army.
"What do you mean master Yoda?" Fellow Jedi master, Mace Windu, asked.
"Something dark in the force, I sense." Yoda closed his eyes as he focused on his movements in the force. He breathed heavily through his nostrils before continuing. "A planet, I sense, one full of both a darkness and a light more powerful than I have ever felt, yes."
Mace squinted his eyes slightly in confusion. "A planet? Where?"
"Clouded, my visions have become." Yoda closed his eyes shook his head. "Strong, the darkside has become."
"This war has spread all sorts of chaos, the darkside seems to have spread all over the galaxy." Mace shook his head with a sigh. Even before the war had started, many Jedi noticed the galaxy had seemed, odd.
"Assemble the council, we must." Yoda declared. The small green Jedi stood up and hoped of his chair, using the force to drag his walking stick to him, and started walking slowly to the door. Mace followed behind, unsure of what the Grand Master had seen.
As always, if anything feels odd or you want to tell me something, go right ahead and leave a review!