Bob2121998 - I chose the name Valon because I wanted Nox to have to his own identity rather than just be known as the descendent of Lord Kallig. Also given the fact that Aashara is closer to having mastery of both the light and dark side she made an obvious choice for me.

Doombringer

Valon and his companions raced to the bridge as activity flood the hallways. Soldiers and sailors alike rushed to their battle stations while making way for their commander to pass.

After reaching the bridge and being subjected to another security scan which seemed to take ages, the bridge guards finally let the trio through to the cavernous enclosure.

Upon first glance, Valon noticed that the blast shields protecting the windows had been locked in place indicating battle mode and in the window's place, massive view screens projected the view from outside.

Valon intently studied the viewscreens as he walked towards Moff Pyron who was busy giving orders to a squad of troopers. What Valon saw almost made him lose his usual calm composure.

A fight of epic proportions between a fleet and a single gargantuan ship greeted his eyes over a partially slagged planet almost identical to one of the ones shown to him through his force vision.

On one side, grey, industrial and primitive-looking ships fought against a single gigantic bulbous purple ship not dissimilar to those made by the Mon-Calamari yet also retaining its own unique design identities.

Questions raced through the Dark Lord's mind as he made his way over to Moff Pyron.

The Moff finally finished giving orders to the troopers just when Valon arrived and after a brief bow of his head, Moff Pyron stated, "We were en route to Rendili when a... disturbance pulled the entire fleet out hyperspace."

Before Valon could reply a humanoid Chiss woman clad in Imperial heavy armor appeared on the holo display who greeted the two high ranking commanders and said, "Moff Pyron and Lord Nox, I have finished analyzing the anomaly that pulled us out of Hyperspace and I have determined it to be a Tier 0 extra-universal Transsentient intelligence that was the cause of our arrival to this planet."

Valon was the first to digest the information and he stated, "So you are saying the Force led us here." He was deep in thought before continuing with a frown. "While I do subscribe to the idea that the Force is a living entity, such a feat has never been recorded before neither by us or the Jedi."

Moff Pyron then added, "Quite right my Lord, while I may not be a force-sensitive and I am no fool ignorant to its power but this is unheard of. Do you have an explanation for this, Raya?"

Valon frowned at the sudden use of first names but he kept silent and let "Raya" begin her explanation. Raya then explained, "When the Doombringer was pulled out of Hyperspace, I noticed trace tachyonic particles that are consistent with extra-dimensional travel."

"I have studied the quantum signature of these particles and compared them to those from Project Leap and they are identical. While Project Leap "disappeared" and was a failure, it appears that we have also "disappeared", albeit from our home universe."

Thoughts raced throughout Valon mind as he sought to control his anger, "We were on the verge of victory and yet the Force tore us away!" But not wanting to be a simple slave to his emotions like the majority of dark side users, Valon regained composure while mentally fighting to maintain a calm demeanor on the surface.

Valon then calmly replied, "We must find a way to get back." He then looked at the Chiss trooper with intent and added, "Trooper, you said the tachyonic particles emitted during our interdiction were identical to that of Project Leap. If I am not mistaken, every universe has its own "blend of particles", then there is a possibility that Project Leap ended up in this Universe as well and we can use their research to get back to ours."

The Chiss Trooper looked thoughtful and after a brief pause she then replied, "There is a 98.92% possibility that Project Leap ended up in this Universe as well but with due respect my Lord, the chances of finding them are slim because it is no indication of what point in time they landed."

A communications officer suddenly walks up to the Moff, Valon, and the holo image of the Chiss Trooper and states, "Moff Pyron and Lord Valon, we have intercepted an open transmission from the sole Alien cruiser."

Moff Pyron looks at the man and then orders, "On-screen Lieutenant."

And with a smart bow of his head, the communications officer projects the video transmission onto a holo terminal.

A beastlike alien with four jaws clad in gleaming decorative yellow armor towering over the Humans and Humanoids in the room started speaking in an unknown language.

After a moment of incoherent growling from the Alien, Raya appeared on a side holoprojector and asked, "I have finished decoding their language, shall I ready the real-time translation procedures?"

With a nod of his head, Valon orders the Chiss woman to translate the video in real-time.

The four-jawed Alien arrogantly began, "Humans, your very existence is a transgression against the gods, we are their will and instrument and we burn your filth away from the galaxy until you are no more!"

Deep in his mind, Valon thought of the possibilities. "These Aliens are indeed powerful but allying with them would be out of the question for the majority of the fleet under his command is crewed by Humans or Humanoids. Besides, he will never betray his species and race for power. That leaves subjugating them but with the small number of resources they have at hand, they wouldn't be able to win a war with another faction."

Both the light and dark sides of the force urged Valon to help the Humans but he can not understand why. He had a deep feeling in his gut that told him this was the right thing to do but he could not help but feel angry at being torn from his home Universe and into this one.

The Empire was on the verge of victory but without his guidance, it could all turn into a deluge. While phenomenal leaders, Darth Marr and Darth Fury were both short-sighted compared to himself and were blinded by dogma. Although Valon was slowly weaning them off the Sith scriptures.

Valon needed to find a way back and if this galaxy too, is consumed by war, he would have to pick a side, and perhaps then he can control them from within. If the force wanted him to help these Humans, then so be it, the force has never led him wrong before.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Valon ordered, "We will aid the Humans, there is a possibility that they have already intercepted Project Leap but we will take it from them by all means necessary, and finally find a way to get back home and into our fight with the Republic."

The Moff looked relieved at Valon's command because, given the fact that he was indeed an Imperial Moff, he was a patriot to Humanity and the Empire.

The Moff then stated with a ghost of a grin, "Then it is time to put your computational powers to the test, IA-5742, decloak and launch 30% of fighters from all dreadnaughts including from the Tears of Taris, Spiral formation, turbo laser batteries are to target the Alien cruiser."

"Raya" smiled deviously and she snapped a crisp salute before standing to attention and stating, "At once, Moff Pyron!"

UNSC Everest

Vice Admiral Cole's attention from the battle was cut when a fleet of menacingly angular wedge-shaped ships appeared 4,000 kms out from the Covenant battleship.

"By golly, look at that." Uttered a bridge officer as swarms fighters looking like insects disgorged from the unknowns.

But before Cole could order his ships to target the newcomers, countless verdant green bolts of energy shot out from the unknown fleet and hammered into the Covenant battleship. While strong against projectile weaponry, the Covenant's shields were inadequately weak against energy-based weapons. Cole's mouth would have been agape were it not for his seasoned military training and experience. So the Vice-Admiral watched calmly as he witnessed the wholesale slaughter.

To say that the Covenant ship put up a fight would be an overstatement because the Covenant ship's shields flickered and failed like an egg cracking on the ground. Within a single second the enemy's shield was gone leaving the superstructure to get torn and shattered by the wanton display of firepower from the unknowns.

Without warning, the barrage abruptly stopped fleetwide as if controlled by a hivemind overlord. Instead, individual green bolts of energy outright blasted apart the Covenant battleship's engines and comms with sniper-like precision. Unbeknownst to the newcomers, they have also taken away the Covenant ship's ability to jump to slipspace.

Without notice, Sekmet, Cole's AI appeared on a holo terminal near him and stated, "Sir, the Unknowns are hailing us, shall I patch them through?"

Thoughts raced throughout Vice Admiral Cole's mind, "First we encounter the Covenant who want to exterminate us and now we encounter new Aliens and all in the same decade." He then snarled and whispered mentally to himself, "If they are anything like the Covenant then they would find out that Humanity doesn't go down without a fight!"

Vice Admiral Cole was shocked to see two Humans appear on the Holo screen. One of which was in a foreign yet distinctly recognizable military uniform with metal pauldrons while another wore jet black battle armor and robes accentuated with red inlays but his most stunning feather was his piercing yellow eyes which seemed to inspire a primal sense of fear from within his heart. If he didn't know any better, he would say the one clad in armor and robes was one of Asian descent and the Military man was of Hispanic descent but both of which would've hailed from Earth.

The man clad in armor spoke first, "I am Darth Nox and a leader of the Sith Empire." The Military man spoke next, "I am Moff Pyron of the 2nd Imperial Fleet."

Vice Admiral Cole stared incredulously at the distinctly British accent that each individual spoke with yet the words that came out from them do not match the way they were moving their mouths. "Odd must be some sort of advanced real-time translation program."

The Vice-Admiral then spoke up, "I am Vice Admiral Cole of UNSC battlegroup X-ray, you have my thanks for annihilating the Covenant battleship."

Darth Nox raised an eyebrow at the mention of the word Covenant and he replied, "You are most welcome Vice Admiral. The word Covenant implies they are a religious sect, and what has Humanity done to provoke the ire of these so-called Covenant Aliens?"

The Vice-Admiral looked hard at the Darth Nox and replied, "Absolutely nothing, we believed we were alone in this Galaxy up until the Covenant attacked us without warning a decade ago because they believe that we are an affront to their gods."

Darth Nox and Moff Pyron looked at each other before Moff Pyron continued, "Do you know who exactly are their gods?"

Vice-Admiral Cole looked at the two men and said, "That information is classified." To which Darth Nox muttered something that the translation program didn't pick up.

Now it was Vice Admiral Cole's turn to ask questions. He looked at the two strange humans and asked, "Where are you from? All Humans are governed by the UNSC from Earth and I have never seen such ships with firepower such as yours."

Moff Pyron rigidly replied, "We are from the Sith Empire and we have reason to believe that while traversing through FTL we were pulled here, into another dimension."

Both Sekmet and the Vice-Admiral perked up at that and Sekmet asked, "If I may Vice-Admiral?" To which the Cole nodded and the A.I. appeared on the holoscreen and stated, "I detected an unusual burst of tachyonic energy near Harvest before their arrival, and tachyonic energies were supposedly linked to extra-dimensional travel in a thesis by the late Doctor Shaw."

At Sekmet's appearance, Moff Pyron's eyes lit up but the rest of his face did not betray his emotions and he replied, "Yes, it was our artificial intelligence that came to that conclusion as well."

Possibilities raced through Cole's mind and he thought to himself, "These Humans field firepower and vastly superior to anything the UNSC or even the Covenant has, perhaps if I can work up an Alliance..."

The Vice-Admiral then asked a question which contained a half truth, "Perhaps we should continue this conversation in person, the Covenant are known to possess rather advanced spy equipment."

While the Covenant does an impressive grasp of nano machines that can be used for the dual purpose of manufacture and spy ops, they have seldom used them for the latter.

Darth Nox and Moff Pyron both agreed but not before Moff Pyron added, "I will be sending men for a boarding party to the Covenant cruiser and some of which are not Humanoids, I would like to share out respective battle-nets so we can avoid friendly fire."

Vice-Admiral Cole thought for a moment and having nothing to lose, he agreed.

Doombringer - Harrowerclass Dreadnaught

The bulky form of a pelican dropship lithely entered the blue atmospheric shield that enclosed the Doombringer's port hangar. Vice-Admiral Cole felt the slightest hint of nervousness and trepidation at the thought of proposing an alliance with a civilization that managed to outright obliterate a Covenant ship that had already destroyed the better portion of his fleet.

The sight that met Cole's eyes as he descended the ramp was one to behold. Various Humans, humanoids, and outright Aliens all dressed in dark grey and black uniforms performed their daily duties.

The Vice-Admiral could feel his soldiers tense as they witnessed the sight, after all the only Aliens that Humanity had encountered up until now was the Hostile Covenant.

A squad of soldiers clad in dark grey armor with bucket-shaped helmets holding carbines that did not look to be ballistic awaited him. In the center stood a single Humanoid with a red complexion and the strangest of all were two tails sticking out from the back of what would otherwise be a very human head. The being had her hands clad behind her back standing at attention.

Once Vice-Admiral Cole had finally descended the ramp, the Humanoid gave a quick bow of her head to which Cole assumed to be a form of salute.

The Vice-Admiral returned the gesture with a crisp UNSC salute and the being said in perfect English, "Vice-Admiral Cole, I am Major Secura, I will be escorting you to Lord Nox and Moff Pyron." With a gesture of her arm, she continued, "Please, follow me Vice-Admiral."

The Vice-Admiral noticed again that the words coming out of her mouth did not match the way she moved it, again betraying the nature of how advanced this "Empire" is.

As the Vice-Admiral walked to the back of the enormous hangar, he took notice of neatly folded fighters stacked on one side while what looked like stacks of missiles on another.

The fighters were strange, their wings dominated the length of their fuselage and beyond, and in the wingtips, they sported mean-looking protrusions of which Cole knew were weapons.

The Hallways were busy with activity as soldiers clad in the same dark grey and black armor commuted about to their destination.

After finally piling in an elevator, the Vice-Admiral took notice of the writing indicating the floor they were on. It looked completely foreign yet familiar as if he has seen it somewhere before, possibly in his childhood. But he scrubbed the thought from his mind because there was no way that was possible since he spent most of his time in museums.

Cole kept returning to the thought but at last, the Vice-Admiral reached the bridge. To his dismay, his entourage was not allowed to enter but before they could protest, the Vice-Admiral raised a hand to silence them. And after being subject to a brief security scan, the heavily armored alloy door to the bridge opened, revealing a cavernous room and the center of which were two individuals, Darth Nox and Moff Pyron.

The duo was conversing amongst themselves and the hologram of a blue humanoid which Cole presumed was their Artificial Intelligence.

Bridge - Doombringer

Valon anticipated the Vice-Admiral's arrival and with the force, he could sense the nervousness and trepidation that the Vice-Admiral felt.

As Vice-Admiral Cole stepped into the Bridge, Valon could almost taste the emotions coming from the man and the uncertainty and indignation that the foreign troopers felt outside.

Valon turned to face the Vice-Admiral and extended a hand to which the Vice-Admiral firmly shook betraying none of his emotions behind his stoic and hardened face.

Valon then said, "Vice-Admiral Cole, let us skip the formalities and get straight to business."

With the faintest of a scowl, Valon then added, "As we've previously discussed, we are stuck in this Universe for the time being whether we like it or not."

The Dark Lord then looked at the Vice-Admiral with a grave expression on his face and continued, "You have stated that this Covenant is on an extermination campaign upon Humanity, this much we can back up from the data have secured from the stricken Covenant vessel."

Valon narrowed his eyes and spoke with conviction, "With a good portion of my fleet being Humans, we will inevitably become a target for these Covenant."

Valon being, a force-sensitive as he could feel that the Vice-Admiral had already figured out where this was going. But Valon did not pop the question yet, instead, he asked, "Vice-Admiral, please tell us everything you know about the Forerunners."

The Dark Lord of the Sith could feel waves of shock emanating from the Vice-Admiral, the foreigner had not expected him to find out about the Covenant gods so quickly.

Betraying none of his emotions, Vice-Admiral cole cleared his throat and answered, "Looks like your boarding parties have already figured it out, so I will cut to the chase. The Forerunners were a galaxy-spanning species that mysteriously disappeared 100,000 years ago. That is all that we know about their mysterious deities."

Moff Pyron frowned and said, "You have fought a war of attrition against the Covenant for a decade yet you have not managed capture and interrogate any prisoners or even data?"

The Vice-Admiral looked indignant and answered, "The Covenant are extremely fanatical and they would resort to death rather than be captured by someone below them yet we have only managed to interrogate a single prisoner. He refused to say anything other than to repeat their party line."

Valon allowed a ghostly smile to form on his lips before saying, "Yes, we have encountered such a problem as well, these "Sangheili" are remarkably resistant to even Imperial Interrogation but I will soon show them the power of the dark side of the force."

The Vice-Admiral frowned and he had to stop himself from asking question after question, instead, he simply asked, "The force?"

Valon looked curiously at Vice-Admiral Cole before nodding and after a moment of staring he answered, "Yes, it appears there are no force sensitives in this Universe, neither from the Covenant or Humanity." He then took a breath before answering, "The Force in scientific terms is a Tier 0 Transsentient Extra-universal entity which propagates itself through midichlorians in select individuals' bloodstream."

"It allows us to do things that are not conventionally or physically possible." Finished Darth Nox.

The Vice-Admiral looked confused but before he could voice an opinion, his eyes bulged out of his sockets much to Moff Pyron's amusement as he witnessed Darth Nox levitate a nearby datapad in the air with his a movement of his hand.

After spinning it around a couple of times, Darth Nox lowered the datapad back onto the table and looked smugly at the Vice-Admiral.

Darth Nox then finally said, "We believe the Force diverted us from our original destination to this Universe for reasons unknown."

The Vice-Admiral then answered, "Fascinating Darth Nox, outright Fascinating! But why would the Force do that?"

Valon then explained, "The Force tends to give cryptic messages but the one it gave me was clear, for us to return home we must first lend you, Humans, a fighting chance."

Moff Pyron then cleared his throat and said, "Vice-Admiral, that is why we have deemed it quite prudent and to our best interest that we begin the foundations of an Alliance between the UNSC and the Empire."

The Vice-Admiral then betraying none of his eagerness answered, "I will relay your wishes to my superiors, they shall make our final decision."

Brig - Doombringer

Darth Nox briskly walked to the stasis cell containing the infamous Havoc squad, he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

With a beep of the door, he entered the chamber, Havoc squad stood frozen in blocks of carbonite. Flanked by a platoon of Imperial Troopers, Valon orders Havoc squad to be unfrozen. Plumes of gas shoot from the ceiling, slowly liquifying the carbonite and reviving the contents within.

Meteor aka Draxis Vo awoke first coughing on the ground. Once he regained his composure, he stared at the Republic's mortal enemy, Darth Nox.

If looks could kill, the Heir to Tulak Horde and Kallig would be a smear on the durasteel wall.

"If you have come to gloat then you have wasted your time, Sith." He spat the last word with as much poison as he could.

Valon looked amused and replied, "No Draxis, on the contrary, I have come to talk." Valon then stared at Meteor's hate-filled eyes and elaborated. "The Empire and Republic as we know them do not exist anymore."

Being vaguely force sensitive but not strong enough to be inducted into the Jedi order, Draxis could feel that the Valon was telling the truth or at least partially.

"What are you talking about Nox, how long have we been in Carbonite for?" Asked the famed leader of Havoc squad.

Valon looked grimly at Draxis and replied, "No more than a day but en route to our destination the force had other ideas, we were pulled into an alternate universe."

Draxis could tell that the Sith was telling the truth yet he still scoffed and said, "Nice try Darth, that's not how the force works."

Although having predicted this, Valon was still a bit annoyed at the confused man and after a second he pulled out a holo emitter and dropped it onto the floor.

Draxis looked warily at the device as it played footage from the Doombringer's outer cameras as the Doombringer laid near Corellia.

Draxis winced as he saw the silencer cannon fire and obliterate the entire combined Republic relief fleets.

Then Valon made a circular motion with his hand and the footage speeds up twofold, by now all of Havoc squad had woken up from their dreamless coma and are watching the footage with intent.

Draxis saw the Doombringer and her escorts racing into hyperspace only to emerge a second later onto a battleground with a gargantuan alien ship laying waste to a primitive fleet of grey ships. Which cumulated in the destruction of the Alien cruiser.

Next were the recorded conversations between the Dark Lord, Moff Pyron, and Vice-Admiral Cole.

Draxis finally spoke after taking in the footage, "Why did you show us that, we are not in our galaxy anymore and you said it yourself, the Republic and Empire are gone."

Valon with the faintest of a smile answered, "Draxis, I have a proposition for Havoc squad, we managed to capture one of the Aliens but they expired before I could interrogate him. To help our new Allies and ourselves, we must find Project Leap. But before we can do that, we have to capture another Sangheili. You will have access to your original BT-7 along with the resources our fleet has at hand to accomplish such a goal.

Shall you accept, you will be pardoned for your earlier actions against the Empire and will be offered a chance to join once we have returned home."

Valon let the thought hang in the air before continuing, "Or you can sit in a cell and be executed for war crimes once we have returned to Dromund Kaas."

Draxis laughed bitterly while the rest of Havoc squad murmured amongst themselves and then he replied, "Why would we ever entertain the idea of joining you monsters?"

Valon smiled and said, "I did not expect you to reach a decision right away, I will return in 24 hours, you will give me your decision then."