Chapter Three

The planet Saccoria had avoided some of the worst effects of the war with the Yuuzhan Vong. The strong presence of the Corellian Sector Fleet in the region and the Republic's empty victory at Fondor had kept the Vong at bay.

And that was the way First Lieutenant Sime Overa preferred it.

As one of the human minority on the planet, when he tried to join the Saccorian Security Force he was often relegated to menial tasks. Overa had been working the orbital tracking system almost since the Corellian crisis almost twelve years prior. It was however a job and it kept him from some of the dirty task his fellow humans often had to do.

Strange energy spikes began to fill the monitors, as dozens of ships began to appear in the outer reaches of the system and moving fast toward Saccoria. The ships were smallish, no bigger than a decent sized freighter but they kept appearing until hundreds of them filled the monitors.

Reaching over to activate the emergency comm. system Overa spoke, "The is Orbital Tracking Station One, we have multiple contacts in the outer system. System reading four hundred-eleven contacts."

"Understood," a Selonian voice responded from Defence Command Central, "Your data is confirmed. We are taking appropriate action."

The appropriate action the controller referred to was the launching of Saccoria's small defence fleet. Gathered together of the past five years from every possible source, the Saccorian fleet, numbering twenty-seven capital ships and twelve tactical squadrons of starfighters ranging from ranging from TIE fighters and X-wings to an old Preybird and a B-wing.

The invading fleet outnumbered the defenders by a wide margin but the Saccorian command was confident they could hold their own. Overa was not so confident and with good reason. The invading forces used mass missile strikes to disable the heavier warships and quickly swept passed the remaining ships to land on the planet.

Thousands of coarse furred creatures began to pour out of those craft and into the major population centres. Trained soldiers ran in fear as they watched the carnage unfold before them, these creatures descended on the population like piranha beetles, devouring flesh and tearing people to shreds.

Overa watched in horror as even more alien ships began to appear in the system, all driving for the planet below. Orbital Tracking Station One was on the Saccorian moon known as Sarcophagus, where the population buried their dead, and Overa was unable to do anything except to record the carnage.

For two days the aliens ravaged the planet until nearly a third of the population had been murdered or eaten, several more days passed by and Overa watched in horror as he saw thousands of new aliens bursting forth from the still living bodies of thousands of people.

On the ninth day of the invasion Overa finally managed to hack into the Holonet communication network and shot a message through to Corellia and Coruscant. He sent all the data he had collected from the planetary networks and a plea for help.

The communication seemed to attract some unwanted attention, the aliens tracked his signal. They were coming for him.

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"Five thousand years," Luke said with pure incredulity as Rommie tried to explain the time difference, "Your certain?"

"Not exactly," Rommie said from Dylan's side, "There is a margin for error of five hundred to a thousand years in either direction."

"That is incredible," Cal Omas said from his seat in front of Dylan's desk, "Though it explains why only a year has passed for you while well over twenty years have past for us..

"You said you needed our help," Dylan prompted wanting to the meeting to focus.

"Yes," Skywalker responded, "As we've already explained, within a few years of the events in your galaxy, the Rebel Alliance managed to bring down the Empire. We established a New Republic and set about to restore peace and good government to the galaxy.

"We had nearly succeeded when a little over five years ago we were invaded by the Yuuzhan Vong. They swept through this galaxy like a plague and killed billions on their rampage through our territory. We finally defeated them about eight months ago and we have been cleaning up small pockets of resistance ever since."

"A few days ago," Meduk continued, "while on patrol in Khomm system, near the deep core, we encountered a Magog swarm fleet. We are ill prepared to fight such an invasion, we lost so much in the last war that we wont survive another."

"I'm not sure what we can do to help," Dylan responded, "The Andromeda is here because of an accident, there is no Commonwealth Calvary coming, and even if we could we have our own Magog problems to deal with."

"We understand," Omas replied, "We aren't expecting you to abandon your own people for us. We are asking for any tactical data you may have, successful tactics or psychological blind spots we can exploit."

"Will give you everything we have of course," Dylan told them.

A chirp on Meduk's belt distracted the conversation.

Meduk demanded, "What is it?"

"Admiral," the voice said with a bit of a quiver, "We are receiving a recorded transmission from Saccoria. It appears the Magog have attacked the Saccoria system."

"No," a shocked and defeated sounding Cal Omas said getting up from his seat," It is all happening again."

"Wait a minute," Rommie interjected, "You say they are attacking from the core of this galaxy?"

"Yes," Luke answered.

Rommie looked at Dylan, "The Magog never attacked the core sectors first, always the fringes of the galaxies. If they are attacking from the Core, that must mean they originated in the core. Dylan this may be the Magog's galaxy of origin.

"Dylan," Trance called from down the corridor causing the Captian to reluctantly come to a halt, though he did not turn to face the gold skinned woman.

"What is it Trance," Dylan asked.

"Dylan, we have to help these people in any way we can," Trance told him causing Dylan to finally face her.

"Why, Trance," he asked, "What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm not sure why Dylan," she answered, "I'm really not. I just know that it is important; that it means everything."

"Dylan, you have to trust me."

"I'm trying Trance," Dylan responded, "But we already know that this galaxy is going to fall, it is five thousand years in the past Trance. The Magog still exist in our time, you can see the problem."

"Yes," Trance replied, "But even if we cannot change their future, we still might be able to save ours."

"I'll think about it Trance," Dylan told her, "I promise."

Satisfied that Dylan would do what was right Trance continued down the corridor toward the ships hydroponics gardens. Rounding the corner she was genuinely surprised to see Luke Skywalker standing there.

"Hello Master Skywalker," she said trying to slip by him, but Luke would not let her pass.

"Hello Trance," Luke replied, "I'd like to speak with you for a moment."

"I am kind of busy," she said, afraid of where this conversation might lead.

"I want you to know you were right about me," Luke told her, "A long time ago I fell to the Dark Side, I led the armies of darkness you spoke of, I became a servant of evil."

"Luke," Trance replied, "I was wrong, well mostly. You may have fallen to the Dark Side for a time but you came back. I never saw that happening, I believed that you would be even worse than your father."

"What do you know of my father," Luke asked with surprise, "Even I didn't know my father when I was in your galaxy."

"I know about your father Luke, but I cannot tell you how."

"We really got keep Trance away from the Slipstream drive," Harper said to no one in particular dodged new crew members working on the Core. The certainly wasn't the first time Trance's piloting skills had got them all in trouble.

The first time they had let Trance pilot the Andromeda through slipstream, she was still purple and innocent and she landed them right in the middle of the three-hundred year old battle of Witchhead. The next time Trance took the pilot seat Andromeda duelled with the Magog Worldship and Harper left with a belly full of Magog larva.

"Now were lost, thousands of years in the past in a completely different part of the universe," he called out.

"What was that, Harper," one of the new engineers asked.

It was Carl Thompson a Commonwealth expatriate from Terazad and somehow related to one of Andromeda's old High Guard crew, and rather proud of it.

"Never mind Thompson," Harper replied sheepishly and carried on

"It could be worse," Luke Skywalker's voice called out from the end of the catwalk, "She might have dropped you right in the middle a nest of angry Gundarks."

"Luke," Harper cried rushing to see his old friend before his mind caught up with him, "Uh, I mean Master Skywalker."

"Harper," he replied, "You can still call me Luke. It is hard to believe that only a year has gone by for you Harper, you haven't changed a bit. It is kind of like time stood still for you."

"Well it hasn't let me tell you," Harper told him, "Things are starting to get hairy back home. And I mean that literally. The Magog are growing in numbers and we've been having a hell of a time driving them off."

"I'm sorry to hear that Harper," Luke said, "I wish we could help."

"Me too," Harper replied picking up a piece of equipment to repair, "You guys may be having your own troubles with the Magog but, your ships are dynamite against them."

"Perhaps," Luke answered as he began to sense something from Harper as he worked.

Harper continued to talk about the virtues of shields and holonet technology as Luke began to focus deeper on Harper. And there it was.

"Harper, what were you just doing," Luke asked.

"I was calibrating a Exotic Matter regulator coil," Harper told him, "And now I'm going to go repair the AP injectors."

"Don't bother sir," Thompson called out, "We replaced them this morning."

"Oh, okay," Harper replied, "I guess I'll go check the Exotic Matter Lenses."

"Also already done sir," Thompson replied.

"Good work," Harper said uncertainly, "Your going to put me out of a job Carl."

"I do my best, Seamus."

A comlink beeped a Luke's belt and he answered, "Skywalker, go."

"Hey kid," a voice Harper didn't recognize called out, "Leia and I are waiting for you in the Government Buildings."

"Hello Han," Luke responded, "We'll be planetside in about half an hour."

"See ya then Kid," Han replied, "Solo out."

"Did that guy say Leia," Harper asked with a smile, "It that the same girl you were pinning over when we first met."

"Yes," Luke said with an odd smile, "Though she ended up marring my best friend, but I was fine with that."

"Really," Harper inquired, "Why's that?"

"We found out she's my sister," Luke told him and was pleased to see the strange look on the other face, "Harper, I've got to go now, but I'd like to see you later. There is something I would like to discuss with you."

Luke turned to leave and was nearly out of the Slipstream Core when something finally struck Harper, "Hey Luke, what'sa gundark?"