Book Six will be the last part of this story.
Dramatis Personae for Book Six
On the Good Side:
With Primus:
Cody Jones—Male Human from Earth (originally from TMNT Fast-Forward)
Yeyinde—Male Yautja Hunter, OC, (Species is the same as Predator)
Durga Besadii Tai—Male Hutt, OC, (Namesake from Star Wars Legends)
Blade—Male Yautja Hunter, OC
Hekka—Male Rakata, OC, village leader (Species from Star Wars Legends)
Primus—Force Ghost, male Rakata, biological brother of Unicron, adoptive son of Primacron (Character from Transformers Canon, species from Star Wars Legends)
With the Grey Jedi:
Mirta Rau—Female Human from Concord Dawn on the run from the Quintessons, OC,
Tesar Sebatyne—Male Barabel, Grey Jedi Knight (originally from Star Wars Legends)
Muni Patel—Male Human from Earth, Grey Jedi Padawan, OC
The Cybertronians:
Silverbolt—Male Maximal, eagle (From Beast Wars and Beast Machines)
Nightscream—Male Maximal, bat (From Beast Machines)
Ratrap—Male Maximal, rat (From Beast Wars and Beast Machines)
Skybyte—Male Predicon, shark (originally from Transformers: Robots in Disguise)
On the Evil Side:
With the Foot/Sith:
Darth Shredder/Zed Ram—Male Triceraton, Chaos Bringer, Sith'ari, and leader of the Foot clan (Based on Trishreddatron concept from unaired second season of TMNT Fast Forward)
Supreme Arbiter Alðerata—Male Quintesson Magistrate, supreme leader of the Quintesson Empire, OC
Darth Galvan/Quoreal Rapuung—Male Yuuzhan Vong Warrior, herald of the Chaos Bringer, OC (Species from Star Wars Legends and possibly Star Wars Canon)
Darth Cyclone/Meewal—Female Noghri, minion of Darth Galvan, OC (Species from Star Wars Canon)
Darth Shadow/Sizhran Savazh—Male Falleen/Zabrak Hybrid, former master to Darth Shredder, current minion to Darth Galvan (OC from my story "Shadows of the Sith"
Atrilo—Female Quintesson Warrior, OC
Inquiriata—Male Quintesson Scientist (From Transformers G1 episode "Forever is a Long Time Coming")
Hexato—Female Quintesson Scientist
Flashback Characters:
Unicron—Male Rakata's essence inside a planet0devouring Transformer, biological brother of Primus, adoptive son of Primacron, former Chaos Bringer (Character from Transformers G1 1986 movie, species from Star Wars Legends)
Primacron—Male dwarf primate from Milky Way, adoptive father of Primus and Unicron (Possible a separate individual of the same name and species as the character from Transformers G1 episode "Call of the Primatives"
Deliberata—Male Quintesson, Magistrate Caste (From Transformers G1 miniseries "Five Faces of Darkness")
Grey Jedi Knight Tesar Sebatyne twirled mid-run and slashed his lightsaber across the Xenomorph's chest, splitting the parasite in two. What was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission had gone horribly wrong. He and his Milky Way Human Padawan, Muni Patel, had come to Dathomir to investigate the rumors that the Quintessons were breeding a weapon, the threat of which had cowed the mighty Hutt Kajidics into practically giving Hutt Space's sovereignty to the Quintesson Empire.
While Tesar had been distracting the Quintesson commander Atrilo, Muni had been crawling through the ventilation ducts. He'd managed to get back to Tesar outside the compound only after Atrilo had sounded an alarm. Tens of Sharkticons stood between Tesar, Muni, and their ship. Normally that would not have been a problem, but the ship had blown up almost as soon as they had regrouped. Their only option was to flee into the forest.
They had tried alerting the Council via Tesar's holoprojector, but only certain frequencies seemed to make it past the Quintessons communication's jam. A few days trying to figure out a way to flee Dathomir and alert the Council, but all space traffic was directed to and from the Quintesson compound. Sharkticons, being robots, were not susceptible to mind tricks, nor were the ancient galaxy-wise Quintessons—and the entry points to the compound were under constant surveillance.
Earlier tonight, they thought an opportunity had finally arrived. A ship entered the Dathomiri atmosphere, but then passed by the compound. They tried to follow its direction but that was when they were ambushed by five Xenomorphs. What made these parasites so deadly was that the Quintessons had used nanites to alter their genetic codes at the points at which the Midi-Chlorians bonded to their DNA. The result was that these creatures with shiny black exoskeletons could send powerful shockwaves through the air with the Force. Muni had collided with a tree when Tesar grabbed his apprentice's neck and pulled him forward. They had only separated when Tesar turned to dispatch the Xenomorph behind him. Muni now crouched with his free hand extended outward and the other tightly gripping his lightsaber.
There seemed to be a moment of calm as Muni concentrated on building a barrier with the Force around himself and his master.
His attention dropped when one of the Xenomorphs let out an ear-piercing howl and then—shot Force lightning out of its tail…!?
Both master and apprentice backflipped farther back to avoid the bolt.
"Master, this should be impossible…it takes years of practice to use Force lightning," Muni said worriedly. The only individual in recorded history to summon it with no training was Darth Shredder, and he had had to be in a heightened state of anger.
"Quintesson alchemy," Tesar hissed. It was obviously part of the genetic modifications that the Quintessons had made to the Xenomorphs, but the term "Sith alchemy" had long existed, and often it involved a scientific component, so "Quintesson alchemy" worked just as well.
Suddenly, blaster fire tore through the skulls of the two Xenomorphs farthest from them.
The Grey Jedi looked up. Tesar didn't know the olive-skinned human female who'd come to their rescue but Muni remembered Mirta clearly.
Slashing forward, Muni plunged his blue blade into a Xenomorph 's chest, while Tesar decapitated the lone remaining Xenomorph with his own green bladed saber.
"Mirta-ji?" Muuni said, surprised, as he and his master deactivated their blades.
Mirta nodded.
Tesar asked, "You know this woman, Padawan?" as he regarded her suspiciously.
"She was one of the people from your galaxy when we crashed here, Master," he explained.
Tesar inquisitively looked to Mirta.
"Why are you here now?"
"Until a few days ago, I was the Quintesson ambassador to Mandalorian Space." She looked down at the Xenomorphs. "Then I found out what the Quintessons have been up to all along. It was Deliberata who killed Rukh."
Muni took a deep breath unsure how to process this.
"The Quintessons need a powerful Force-user?" he asked.
"They found one, but they cannot control him. In fact he's giving orders to them now," Mirta paused for a minute remembering the friendship the Dark Lord had shared with the boy. "It's Darth Shredder." She said. "He has Unicron's spark and powers beyond anything I've ever seen."
Muni looked down sadly. Zed Ram had actually been his friend and protective of him—probably because both had grown up as Force-users in a galaxy where the Force was not understood...but now it seemed that Zed Ram was gone forever and only the Shredder remained.
"You mention Unicron," Tesar said. "This one has heard of him…the planet-sized Transformer that eats other planets."
Mirta nodded. "He's dead, but Shredder now has his ability to rearrange matter and energy. He wants to use the Quintesson's plan to avoid heat death to control space time…I think that's what they were after all along."
"Then the danger here is far greater thany any weaponized lifeform," Tesar said.
Muni felt even worse hearing this. Shredder would probably try to rewrite his own past and Muni's as well. Shredder would probably see it as helping them, but it would be erasing who they were, and if he needed the Quintesson's help he would probably alter history in some way to advance the interests of their twisted empire.
"And Shredder can rearrange matter inside individuals and make them Force sensitive. He's already turned two of the members of our old group into Sith Lords. He called them his 'heralds.'"
Muni grew worried at the idea of losing more friends.
"Meewal is now Darth Cyclone, and Quoreal is now Darth Galvan, Shredder's second-in-command."
Galvatron and Cyclonus—two of Unicron's Decepticon servants, Muni realized.
"Is there a third?"
"Shreddr's old Sith master, Darth Shadow, reduced now to a minion."
Other than Darth Shadow who was now widely known for reviving the Sith, Tesar did not recognize any of these names, but grasped the threat.
"He can make people Force sensitive?"
"Even Quoreal," Mirta said, "A Force-blind Yuuzhan Vong."
"So Uinicron is here," Yeyinde summed up what Cody was saying.
"Well not Unicron, exactly, but Shredder has Unicron's spark."
Yeyinde clasped the section of flesh between his lower mandibles. "The Quintessons wanted a powerful Force-user here as part of their plan to defeat heat death."
"There is supposedly a Force nexus on Dathomir from where Unicron was created," Cody said. "Whatever Shredder is planning, he's a threat to the stability of space time throughout the universe."
Yeyinde stepped back for a moment and placed his mask back over his face. He half turned to face the younger hunter. "Blade!"
The other Yautja raised from his knees looking at the bodies of Scar and the Ssi-Ruu. The Ssi-Ruu had fought with honor to protect his friends—he was certainly worthy prey—but know shouldn't he have been regarded as an ally? Scar's threatening the ooman and the Hutt was not honorable hunting.
"Sei, Yeyinde?"
"The Kiande amedha are no longer our priority. The Chaos Bringer himself is here."
Blade twitched his mandibles behind his mask.
"But Unicron is dead."
"Well, he isn't exactly Unicron."
"Wait!" Durga said. The three Milky way vertebrates fixed there gaze on the Hutt.
"Lwothin said, that we needed Primus' help to defeat Shredder."
"The Transformer's creator?" Yeyinde said with a snarl. He was at first ready to dismiss the suggestion as mere myth-chasing, but then in light of the discovery of a new galaxy in the past few years, anything seemed possible. "Where?"
"Your friend killed the only one who knew where to find him," Cody pointed to Scar's body.
Blade looked at his fallen comrade with a new disgust. He had sacrificed the safety of the universe in a quest for personal glory. The more he thought of it, Scar only talked about the prey he wanted to kill. The bloodthirst in him seemed greater than the quest to prove himself, which to Blade, was what the Hunt was all about.
"Did your companion say anything about how to find Primus before my misguided brother slew him?"
"Only that we were close," Durga said.
Cody suddenly felt re-energized.
"We re close to where we need to be! All we have to do is search!"
Yeyinde trilled.
"Did Lwothin say anything about Primus that could help us know where to look?"
"Only that he was likely in a cave and that his species was—
"Rakata," Durga interrupted. "They were from this galaxy. They had an empire about 25,000 years ago."
That didn't make sense to anyone listening.
"Trnsformers have legends of Primus dating back twelve million years!" Yeyinde emphasized the number. "The period you mentioned is well after the Quintessons brought Humans and Yautja to this galaxy!"
"The species could have been around for a long time before that," Durga said.
Yeyinde heaved out an exasperated breath.
"Fine, what do you know of their biology?" He prepared to ggle his mask's visual controls.
"They were vertebrates, amphibians, ectotherms, very tall."
"Like them?" Cody pointed to individuals approaching from the depths of the forest.
They were tall, with eyes on ends of horizontal stalks, clad only in loincloths.
"We were expecting you," one of them who held an elaborately designed spear that that that had what looked like a palm grip.
"When Primus died, it sent shockwaves among us through the Force..."
"Primus is dead?" Cody asked.
"Slain by the Chaos Bringer. My name Hekka. I lead the descendants of the Rakata Infinite Empire here on Dathomir."
Everyone stared at him, confused.
Durga exploded with questions.
"How did you survive all these years without the Old Republic, the Republic, the Nightsisters, the Sith, or the Quintessons finding you?"
"Your question has a long answer, which I will tell as you follow us." Hekka gestured to those following him. The four arrivals followed the Rakata deep into the forest. Eventually, they came upon a river, which they followed for nearly an hour until they came to a large lake.
"Camp by the lake shore. My people live in the lake." He looked to Durga. "As to your question, twelve million years ago, the Quintessons ravaged our howeworld of Lehon. Everything about our past was destroyed. We were reduced to a stone age. We were content without our place as fishers and seaweed gatherers. It was when the Mando'a, Yautja brought to our galaxy began hunting us that we re-emerged. All of my people are Force-sensitive, and we fed on our anger and hate to gain knowledge of the galaxy and how to subdue it. We formed a galaxy-spaning empire powered by the Dark side of the Force."
"Why did the Mando'a hunt you?" Blade asked.
Hekka laughed. "The same reason they always hunt. To best the ultimate prey. We became that when they discovered us and our Force connection not long after."
Blade had just seen was the quest for glory could do with the loss of someone they had needed, and now saw how it had unleashed a dark force in this galaxy's past. He had to wonder if there was any value at all in the quest to prove oneself.
"Our ancestors were meant to colonize Dathomir and bring it into the Infinite Empire. There was after all, a massive Dark Side nexus here. But here we met Primus, a Rakata descended from the First Empire we had long forgotten. He knew what it was to be consumed by rage and over time persuaded us to abandon our warlike ways."
"How did he live such a long time?" Cody asked.
"His lifeforce was linked to a specific task. He could not die until it was time for someone to take his place."
Suddenly a sense of dread fell on all of the off-worlders.
"How are we supposed to take the place of someone who created a species?" Cody demanded angrily.
Hekka did not seem to notice Cody's anger. He merely said, "The Cybertronians…Primus always regretted what he did with that world."
That was all he said, but it made the three beings from the Milky Way question everything they thought they knew about Cybertron.
