Due to the well thought out and presented opinions of several readers, I have decided to take a higher road and not follow through with my counterattack against the onslaught of flames as I had previously suggested, although support for it was astoundingly high. Nevertheless, tempers have cooled, as I knew it would in retrospect, and I am choosing to move on. Thank you to those who weighed in their thoughts and perspectives, they were needed at the time. Anyway, onward with the plot.
Chapter Sixteen
Tales of the Past
Hermione was only mildly surprised to learn, so soon after the bill was passed enabling New Terra to become a primary factory world for the new Republic fleets that a ship from the Jedi Council was on its way to inspect the world and meet with her specifically.
She had never met a Jedi as of yet, and idly she wondered what it would be like to meet one of the telepathic warrior monks that helped protect the Galaxy. She had actually paused several of her projects for the day, and went about cleaning her office and personal residence for the group's arrival, as these were special guests that ought to be treated with respect.
Theodore had gone out to purchase several items for the evening meal that were New Terran specialties, and Hermione hoped that her husband would return quickly so that the servant droids could get the meal cooking before the emissaries from Coruscant arrived.
She was just putting the final touches on her desk, adding some fresh flowers to liven up the otherwise rather sterile environment, something that she had wanted to do for a while but had never had the time to focus on, when a clerk from the lower levels pinged a communication to her office, stating that the Jedi and their group had just landed in the hangar.
Turning to her large windows that overlooked the peaceful and rather earth-like world, she smiled down at the landing facility, located directly below the Magi-Tech compound and surrounded by beautiful lakes and parks, allowing visitors to the world to see the beauty and splendor that their magic had brought to this previously lifeless planet.
If she strained her eyes, which had needed special corrective lenses for almost half a decade now due to the strain she had put on them over the years, she could see a small party exiting the hangar, dressed in robes and being led by a pair of Magi-Tech security guards toward the main building.
"Director," the communication system pinged again, "the Jedi delegation from Cosecant has arrived."
"Excellent, send them right up, we will have a short meeting in my office, before retiring to my private residence." Hermione replied, checking herself once to make sure that she was more than presentable. She had decided on more formal robes that were reminiscent of the dress robes from old earth, a style that had endured for the fancier of wizard-born gatherings, but otherwise had been outdated by the more mainstream galactic styles.
The lift doors opened out in the hall, and Hermione turned her face toward the wide doors to her spacious office, smiling as they hissed open. "Welcome, Master Jedi…" she said respectfully as the lead pair entered, a woman about her early thirties, as well as a goblin of all creatures, in the traditional brown and tan robes of the Jedi order. Behind these was a younger pair of Jedi, only about eleven or twelve each, judging by the young human boy that followed the woman, while the other was a fur covered race that Hermione knew only from recordings: a Bothan.
The last three to enter were an even greater shock than seeing the goblin. "Miss Granger, so good to see you again, or ought we to call you Director Granger now?" said Professor McGonagall warmly as she entered, looking almost the same, aside from a greater amount of grey in her hair and age lines on her face.
Tiny Professor Flitwick smiled up at her, looking all the same from her days in Hogwarts so long ago, and the last was Professor Trelawney, while not one of Hermione's favored Professors, still a welcome face of familiarity. "Professors!" she said, shocked and surprised. "I had no idea that you three would be coming with the Jedi ambassadors."
"Just as we had no idea that you would be here, the head of a Galaxy spanning corporation about to launch into military ship building…" Professor Flitwick replied, the words sounding extremely strange from the man who had taught her charms for seven years.
"Well, Theodore will be so delighted to know you are all here as well." Hermione said, bustling behind her desk to send him a small message to prepare places for seven guests, "He's out at the moment preparing for our evening meal, which we'd be more than honored for you all to join us at."
"The honor would be ours, Director," the woman Jedi said, bowing slightly, "Although I am surprised you do not recognize me as well, although it may not be surprising, I was in Gryffindor while you were in Ravenclaw, as well as a year behind you…"
Hermione paused, just after hitting send on the text message to her husband, "I…" she said, looking at the female Jedi again, trying to remember where that face made sense, "Luna… Lovegood?" she asked, earning a smiled and nod from the lead Jedi.
"It is good to see you again, Hermione," Luna said, "Obviously you would not know Jedi Knight Yoda, but he is descended from the goblins that ran the British branch of Gringotts, and very familiar with what had happened on our mutual home world so long ago."
"And these two are?" Hermione said after a nod at the goblin, looking at the two Jedi children, the boy watching her every move with strangely different colored eyes, which seemed to track not only her movement but something… else. It was mildly off putting, but Hermione was used to the strange and different.
"These are our Padawans, Jedi in training if you will, this," Luna said, introducing the young man, "is Leon Rousuff, while this," pointing at the Bothan, "is Ist Nanraah."
"My pleasure to meet you both," Hermione said with a warm smiled, which was returned by the pair of Padawan learners.
"So," Hermione said, momentarily glancing at the reply from Theodore on her terminal, "we still have some time before the meal is ready at my personal residence, so we can get down to the official business that you came here to do, as I'm sure we'd all like to catch up on more personal matters."
Picking up her wand from the desk, she waved it once, conjuring extra chairs for them all to sit upon, before taking her own place behind the large desk. To their credit, the two young Jedi didn't seem surprised at all by the magic, and Hermione presumed that they had been taught what to expect from Wizard-born. A tiny pity, as it usually was always worth the initial look of shock when magic was used, especially on the faces of the young, but Hermione didn't comment.
The group of three wizards and four Jedi took their seats, and Luna smiled pleasantly, "Officially, we are here to investigate another matter altogether from the construction of the shipyards actually."
"Oh?" Hermione asked, somewhat surprised. She was so sure that the Jedi would have wanted to oversee their production facilities, making sure that nothing untoward or behind the scenes would happen with the Republic's fleets. "Then what is it that you are here for?"
"What do you remember of Colin Creevey?" Professor McGonagall asked, leaning forward slightly and catching Hermione off guard.
"Colin Creevey…" she repeated, struggling to remember, "You mean, the younger year boy that was always trailing after Harry and Draco…?"
"The same," Luna confirmed.
"I… can't remember seeing him any time after I awoke here on New Terra, so I can only assume he stayed on old Earth, and probably perished in the chaos there with the muggles." She said, unable to not notice the looks of concern that were exchanged between the Professors and elder Jedi.
"What is it?" she asked, looking between them all, the urge to know what they were hiding overwhelming.
"Colin is on a list of missing wizards from earth," Professor Flitwick said after a moment, "If he's not here with your people, and not on earth, we need to find where he is and what his intentions are…"
"I still don't understand…" Hermione said, genuinely confused and not liking the sensation. For one of her intellect, not having an answer was near enough to uselessness as one could be.
"Someone recently infiltrated the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, for the second time in a rotation, once to kill an important refugee, and then again to steal an important piece of Jedi history." Luna explained. "Professor McGonagall herself confirmed that the infiltrator's description matched Colin Creevey, albeit older."
"I'm sorry, but New Terra has no information regarding him," Hermione stated, feeling woefully out of touch with the rest of the Galaxy all of a sudden, if she had not heard of such a development.
"Your worry, unfounded it is," the goblin said, catching Hermione off guard with the bluntness of the statement as well as the awkward syntax of the words, "Know of our plights in the Temple, you could not have."
"I… yes that true…" Hermione replied, recovering from her momentary pause. "If it helps, we could use some of our Magi-technology and keep an eye out for Colin, if he shows himself again."
"Whatever aid you're willing to offer would be most appreciated." Luna said with a small bow. Hermione smiled, happy that things looked to be working out from the strange set of happenings that had come up so suddenly. Her messenger pinged again, Theodore stating that the meal was ready for their arrival whenever they concluded their business.
"I have just received word that our meal is ready for us, if that is all that is needed for official business between New Terra and the Jedi Order?" she said, smiling at the looks on the two children's faces at the mention of food. Jedi or not, it appeared that children were children.
"Yes, I believe we can conclude on this satisfactory note, and move to a more comfortable setting for personal reminiscence." Luna said, standing, and quickly followed the rest of her party. "Shall we adjure to your residence, then?"
"Yes, let's go." Hermione said, standing as well and leading the way out of her office. Instead of the larger public lift, she led them further down the corridor to her private lift, which led further up the building to the executive hangar, where a shuttle awaited to take them all to Granger Manor.
Hermione was quite proud of the large and rather spacious home she had worked so hard to create, appearing like the old Pureblood manors of earth, but with a more galactic modern design and interior. Sleek metal walls lined the corridors and the large dining hall, with tasteful heirlooms from Theodore's family, arranged with new artwork made by the wizard-born of New Terra.
As the group of nine took their seats around the large magically reinforced table, carved from wood that had been locally grown with the same magic that had terra-formed their world, the servant droids came out with various dishes from old earth.
The travelers from Coruscant seemed to greatly enjoy the nostalgia of the old British dishes, and the pair of young Padawan learners seemed to find the cultural food very interesting and delightful to eat as well.
"Yes, we've tried to keep as many of the old traditions alive as we could, while still embracing all the newness that the Galaxy and the Republic have to offer." Theodore explained when questioned about the food and furnishings around the manor.
"Of course, there are various groups that disagree with trying to merge the old with the new, on both sides, but as a whole I think our people have done more than a decent job in retaining our heritage in this new world." Hermione added.
"If only such brilliant sentiments had been in old earth, then maybe we'd have avoided many of our blacker moments in wizarding history…" Professor Flitwick commented, smiling in memory.
"Yes, thanks in a large part to Harry's initiative in moving all those who were willing here, preventing so much more tragedy and pain." Hermione replied, smiling in thought of all the black haired boy had done for their people.
"But that does raise the question of how you all came to be here?" Theodore asked, setting down his utensils and leaning forward on his elbows, "We haven't heard any news from old earth since we left, how is it that you all made it to Coruscant, let alone finding us out here in the Outer Rim?"
"That would be a long and complicated story," Luna replied, "It's probably sufficient to say that a lot has changed over the last few decades."
"Yes," Theodore replied, and Hermione caught a glint of something odd in her husband, suspicion perhaps… "I suppose much has changed since we departed so long ago."
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The evening meal could not have ended soon enough for Yoda. Granted, the nostalgia of old Earth British food was a welcome change, especially for the pair of Padawans to experience, but the goblin was deeply concerned with all the intrigue that seemed to hang like a shroud over the planet.
The group of Jedi and Wizards decided that they would retire to their ship for the night rather than enjoy the hospitality of the Granger family, or entreat a local place of lodging to house them. It seemed a far better location to avoid unwanted eavesdropping on their now direly important conference to discuss what they had learned in only a scant few conversations with locals on their way back to the Jedi ship.
"Something is terribly wrong on this world…" Luna said as they took their seats. "I can feel it in the Force, as well as see it in the people."
"I sensed it too, Master," Padawan Nanraah said, turning to Yoda, who studied the Bothan for a moment. Yoda had not been desirous to take on a Padawan learner so soon, only accepting when he learned that Luna had accepted as well. He had been under the impression that they would roam the Galaxy together for a while longer, doing their duty as a Jedi team before settling down to Temple life and teaching the next generations, but that had not factored in the war that had started or the need to protect their younglings from the machinations of the Sith.
"I was deeply concerned," Professor Trelawney said, her large glasses adjusting as she looked around at all of them, "at how quickly Mrs. Granger would praise Mr. Potter as their savior and protector from some unknown catastrophe that happened back on our home world. I may be wrong, but from my tower in Hogwarts I can recall nothing drastically terribly happened between Mr. Potter's time at the school and our departure from the world, surely nothing around the time that she describes."
"And yet, sure of it, she was," Yoda commented.
"And then there were all those Wizard-born that we encountered on the streets," young Padawan Rousuff added. It had been the boy who had first noticed that the wizards of New Terra were significantly different from the three Professors that had come with them. Aside from obvious cultural differences, there had been a significant lack of warmth that could be felt through the Force around these other wizards. It was something that the goblin Jedi Knight had difficulty placing.
"I checked the official registry of what families had originally come to New Terra," Professor McGonagall said, placing a datapad in front of her, "and I have to say I am shocked at what I found. There are well over seventy-five different families from earth here, many of whom I know for a fact are still on our home world, or at least were at the time we left. It is impossible for them to have come here."
"This mystery keeps getting more complicated as it goes along," Luna said, staring out one of the observation windows and across the gardened area next to the hangar. "There is something here, hidden just out of sight, but I can't pinpoint where it is…"
"It is also strange how young Mr. Creevey was a complete mystery even to these people." Professor Flitwick added, pacing around them all in thought, "We know that he went missing with several of the others who we now know were part of the original group that started this colony, but there's no record of him ever setting foot on this world. Most mysterious…"
Luna stood after a short moment of silent thought, "I'll make my initial report to the Council now, and see what orders they have for us, whether to remain and continue the search, or leave this world and return to the Temple."
As she left, the three wizards continued to stew over their current mysteries. "I just don't understand how all this could have been put together in the space of time they've been here," Flitwick continued, scratching his head in puzzlement, "even if you take their estimates of how many came originally, it would take twice as many wizards almost three times as long as this world's been active, performing many complicated and advanced ritual spells to even begin transforming a dead planet into this effective paradise. It just can't add up. The Arithmancy calculations alone for it to happen, its staggering the amount of magical energy that would be required to power the spells, even Professor Dumbledore wouldn't be capable of such a thing singlehandedly."
Even as the three wizards continued their conjecture of the many strange goings on of the world and its origin, Yoda felt his thoughts wandering elsewhere. The flow of the Force waxing and waning through the system called to him, and the goblin Jedi found himself half meditating, half lost in the wake of the unbridled energies.
Despite all the clear signs of some artificial means that this world came about, the Force was abundant here, in every living and nonliving thing, connecting them so much closer than on the old Earth they had come from. It was no wonder that the wizards had chosen to stay and make their own world here, whatever their reasons and means of doing so. Yoda remembered, back in the tunnels of the Goblin kingdom under Gringotts, the almost lack of energy that the world brought.
Certainly the Living Force was there; ever present in all living creatures and influencing the tide of events throughout history, but there was almost little to no power in the cosmic Force, which was clear from the lack of any Force adepts on the world. Wizards certainly were a type of Force user, but somehow, different. Since meeting and learning as a Jedi, Yoda had come to realize that there was some strange, fundamental difference between the magic of the old wizarding world, and the Force of the Jedi Order.
Sure, they were similar, related perhaps, but there was a lack of order and rules to wizard magic, as though it existed purely to achieve the otherwise impossible, while the Cosmic Force lived and worked in the laws of nature, bound to amplify those skills and traits that were already present in an individual.
And it felt the same here. Plenty of living force, bind and connecting all the matter that comprised this artificial world, but little to no Cosmic Force balancing out the wild randomness of the Wizard's magic.
It was a puzzle that Yoda presumed none of the others would think about as of yet, with all the political and war related questions that seemed so much more pressing to answer. But perhaps, if he was still and listened, Yoda would be able to help find answers to both deep questions…
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Veneficus stepped off the personal shuttle that he had taken out to what had once been Great Hangleton, specifically the Manor that was owned and enchanted in his name, protected from intrusion all the time he had been gone, and a perfect base of operation as he worked to put the finishing touches on securing this world once and for all.
Keying Diábolis into the wards was a simple matter, as all the magic had been inherited by Veneficus himself upon Millennial's death over two decades ago. Everything in the manor responded to his commands, even his very presence, just as it had since the mutant's death. It was the majestic thing of the galactic technology on this primitive planet, enshrined in magic that really impressed the Sith Emperor however.
Not only would it last, because of maintenance droids that still scurried about cleaning and repairing minor damage, but the magic in the air from the wards protecting the manor kept out many outside influences that usually corroded and destroyed the more sensitive components, even if kept underground in plasteel bunkers.
Veneficus wandered the manor for a short time, relishing the feeling of power that he had here, able to modify or augment anything on a whim, before deciding that nothing needed to be hidden away in the underground base that could fit in the manor properly, and commanded the droids to start moving the important equipment to appropriate rooms above ground, where it could be easily accessed.
Several teams had checked in with his guards, who had reported the information directly to him, that various magical creatures had been captured and loaded onto the orbiting ships, ready to be taken to various parts of the Galaxy as his will determined.
Smiling wickedly at the thought, Veneficus opened a channel to the commander of the particular ship that housed them. "Captain," he said, allowing the man time to properly address his Emperor.
"My…my Lord! What an unexpected surprise, how may we serve you?" the man said, recovering admirably from his shock at the sudden communication.
"Your ship has just been loaded with some precious, and live, cargo from the planet, yes?" Veneficus asked, knowing the answer but wanting the man to confirm it.
"Yes, my Lord. It is being locked down as we speak." the man replied, looking nervous. This was good, it meant that the man was no fool and had made sure to know what exactly had been placed on his ship.
"Excellent," Veneficus replied, "take the cargo to the Khar Delba system, and inform High Prophet Ocraadi Nuhok of their contents and importance to me personally. She will know what is to be done with them. You may leave as soon as the last specimen is properly loaded and handled."
The man visibly paled. Veneficus smirked from under the hood of his robes. It seemed that Bellatrix and Ocraadi Nuhok had cooperatively made their vicious reputations know throughout the Empire. Not an unexpected result, although he personally was surprised that the pair hadn't attempted to tear each other apart on first sight, seeing how each insane female was nearly identical, aside from abilities and race.
Loyalty was however, a precious commodity in his ranks, all the more when it was blindly given with little justifiable reasons, which made it all the easier to manipulate the pair into doing the tasks that would made a lesser minion cringe and reconsider their options.
Oh how Voldemort must have enjoyed the madwoman's enthusiasm, Veneficus mused. How much more the dark wizard would have fumed to know that his destroyer had not only taken his most valuable servant, but had another equally dedicated working alongside her…
Still, their current task completed, as they had communicated several times to him already, Veneficus was eager to see what the pair of madwomen would do with the list of creatures he had requested sent to them for study and preparation for Sith Alchemical transformation. It had been surprisingly easy for the Sith, it seemed, to capture a handful of dementors from the wizarding prison, as well as several dozen different large, dangerous or extremely dark creatures, such as Dragons, Merfolk, Acromantulas, and the like.
Having intensively studied the process of creature modification personally, Veneficus was eager to see what useful beasts of war would be created from these magical creatures, especially if and when they were pitted against the Jedi.
Such a course of thought reminded him of his lycanthrope project, especially the strange, mutated Wookiee that he had purposefully released back into the Shadowlands under the large trees of his home world. Kashyyyk was a densely foliated planet, and difficult to place under orbital observation, so Veneficus had elected a twofold plan to keep tabs on his little pet, a tracking beacon injected deep into the muscle tissue of the beast's neck, and a swarm of remote observation droids that would follow the Wookiee Lycan discreetly as it moved through the forest.
The tracker showed that the beast was still alive and in good health, which was promising, but even better was the footage returned from the probes, showing the monster mercilessly attacking even the apex predators of the forest floor, tearing them apart and claiming a wide territory for itself near the base of a particular Wookiee settlement.
There was even footage of when the monster would go up into the trees, to spy on what was once its home, presumably, although Veneficus found himself disappointed that as of yet the fellow Wookiees had not discovered the presence of the infected one among them yet, nor had any other Wookiees been attacked.
The Emperor of the Sith had anticipated that the beast would resist the primal urge well, as they were a proud and quite stubbornly honorable race, already holding in their normal rage, but he expected that the bloodlust inspired by not merely one, but three different lunar satellites would slowly break down the willpower of his little pet, and the rampage would begin in its own due time.
The humans that had been infected were also thusly monitored, but unlike their Wookiee counterpart, the pair had already succumbed to their bloodlust and attacked their own kind, predominantly killing, but there were a few cases of the infection spreading, at least until Jedi showed up and slaughtered each in turn.
Veneficus knew that the disease working through a human population wouldn't be as easy to keep or maintain, if only because of the human faction's close ties to the Jedi and the Republic. At least now, with the capture of old earth, he had more than enough access to more werewolves of the human variety, so he could just as easily seed them throughout whatsoever worlds he wished.
Returning to the task that had originally brought him to the manor, Veneficus arrived in the deepest level of the base, where behind blast doors the wardstone of the entire estate lay. A massive piece of rock, nearly ten feet tall and six across, the stone was covered with a plethora of runes that were carefully carved into it in Arithmetic sequences, outlining each and every spell that protected the facility. A true work of art, and the reason that most wizards hired others to perform the laborious and very demanding work; these stones represented the fundamental key of Wizarding security.
Running a hand over a particular set of runes, Veneficus disabled the Fidelius Charm, revealing the location of the manor to those who would be able to see it properly. The many other defensive wards and technology would be more than suited for Governor Umbridge's needs, and if the squat toad couldn't keep her world in line, then it would be no titanic loss if she and the manor fell.
Originally the woman had thought that she would be ruling this world right out of the castle, or even the ruins of the Ministry, but Veneficus had more important designs for each of those locations, and had easily persuaded the woman to take up his offer of the estate he controlled to be her center of government.
Keying the woman into the basic part of the manor, excluding the hidden subterranean base with its extensive weapons cache and built in hangar, Veneficus would be more than able to keep the woman content, as well as have more than ample means of keeping an extra close watch on her and this world from now on.
Foolish though it may have seen to completely leave the world in the hands of his previous servants, Veneficus knew that this world had only just started into its needed role for the future, and want nothing more than the perfect excuse to invade it outright, but events had to happen in a specific order for his vision to continue being clear.
He had foreseen that Lovegood would return and take people from this world, who and why were not important as they would be dealt with in due time, by the will of the Dark Side no less, but with those people gone, any resistors that would work to stop his takeover, and have hopes of actually succeeding, were now gone, clearing the way for his complete control of the system.
And soon any hope of recapture of the planet would be nonexistent, as while he set the groundwork for the administration of his newest puppet government, the fleet in orbit was hard at work putting up a barrier ring of defensive satellites, that would protect the planet for a time while warning the rest of the Empire of any fleet without authorized codes approached.
All was proceeding exactly as foreseen through the Force, and Veneficus was pleased with the outcome. As he oversaw the refitting of the manor and underground complex, a communication came in over his personal channel, from New Terra.
Intrigued, Veneficus opened the channel, wondering what his little songbird of an investor was up to now that his spy was contacting him directly.
"Speak, Nott…" Veneficus said coldly, making the man cringe even from thousands of light-years away.
"My Lord, there are people from Earth on New Terra, including some of the Professors from Hogwarts…" the man said hastily, keeping his voice low as though trying to not be discovered.
Losing all attention on anything but the cowering worm of a Pureblood, Veneficus looked at him fully, "How many, and when…" he demanded.
"Seven, and they're still here, waiting on their ship after meeting with the Director and myself…" Nott said, his terror of Darth Veneficus palpable through the Force even through the image before the Sith Emperor.
"Who…" he pressed, desirous to know which of his adversaries had escaped his tightly wound net.
"Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Trelawney…" Nott stammered, "As well as four Jedi, a goblin I don't know, a young human boy, a small Bothan female, and…. Luna Lovegood…"
Veneficus looked away from Nott for a short moment, thinking hard. So, the Jedi had discovered New Terra's abnormalities far quicker than he had supposed. And they had sent those who would sense it quickest to investigate. Something would have to be done to either distract them from looking to hard, or shift their suspicions away. Veneficus doubted that eliminated the group would be possible, even if he directed all his assassins there at one time.
"Do nothing…" he commanded Nott, "but don't give them any reason to investigate too deeply into New Terra's origins, nor allow the Director to have more contact with them than absolutely necessary."
"As you command, my Lord." Nott replied, just as Veneficus cut the feed.
Three elderly professors, Lovegood, her goblin friend, and two young Jedi, presumably Padawans… Veneficus laughed at the thought. They were his true enemy, those who still knew the truth of who he really was, and part of what he was capable of. Casting his mind into the future, the Lord of the Sith could see that the war was the key of luring his foes out of their blankets of security.
As for Lovegood… he smirked evilly… her apprentice would easily prove to be her undoing…
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Bellatrix was greatly pleased with the improvement to her and High Prophet Nuhok's task once they fully moved their operations to the moon of Khar Shian. Deep in the Force protected recesses of the base, there resided a perfectly operational terminal that held records from the time of Naga Sadow, recording the movement and statistics of the various beasts that had once roamed the planet below them, which cause the Togruta no end to her delight, albeit frustration that all her work had been pointless.
Something that greatly assisted with her pleasure was the retrofitting of Bellatrix's new ship. The once pirate vessel had been upgraded with Sith technology, and outfitted to be easily operated by a single pilot. The joys of flying under her only power even eclipsed the disappointment of learning that the Emperor was sending a ship filled with creatures for the crazed Sith High Prophet to experiment upon, and that Bellatrix would be needed to remain and act as both security and lab assistant for a time longer.
She spent much of the time waiting for the ship carrying their precious cargo to arrive out in the space around the moon therefore, practicing with her new ship and pushing the limits of the new magic based technology. Wherever her Lord had acquired such marvelous ingenuity was sheer brilliance, the magic weaving perfectly into the circuits and systems, amplified by the magical core of the pilot to create an almost symbiotic mesh between living creature and metal ship.
Bellatrix had taken to calling her ship the 'Death Eater,' in part for nostalgia of her own past, and fitting for the weapon filled behemoth that could now lumber through a battle, tearing apart anything that it came across with little more than scratches upon its hull.
It was out on one of these patrols that Bellatrix first caught sight of the massive capital ship entering the system, sending in the correct codes that they had been supplied for the vessel they were to expect. What Bellatrix hadn't expected to feel, as the cruiser passed by her smaller freighter, was the unnatural wave of very familiar cold, and the terror that it brought back to her memory.
A cold prison cell, madness in the air, and the screams of her fellow captured. The Dark Lord had sent them a Dementor…
Shivering in both suppressed fear and anticipation, Bellatrix turned the Death Eater back toward the base and pelted ahead of the cruiser, clearing the way for the shuttles that launched from the ship to deliver their new specimens.
They began their landing in the hangar even as Bellatrix exited her own ship. The Sith under Ocraadi seemed to sense something more than just the cold terror of the Dementor aboard, and shifted with suppressed excitement as the first ship touched down and its landing ramp lowered.
A large cage appeared out of the massive hatch, and a beast roared angrily inside of it, the durasteel rattling as it thrashed inside its prison. Small jets of flame were shooting out of several ventilation holes, but not nearly enough to cause anyone harm, but still Bellatrix knew what creature lay inside. "A dragon…" she breathed, watching the cage float past, followed by several more of similar size and shape.
And it still wasn't the end of the many, many crates that were offloaded from the five different shuttles. She knew immediately which contained Dementors, but the others were a mystery to her. What could the Emperor possibly have in mind for them with these beasts and monsters? Bellatrix knew from the many records she had read what the Sith Alchemists of old had done for their wars, having been part of the many parties hunting their old creations, but this would prove to be something interestingly new.
Knowing that the cunning of Lord Voldemort had been imparted upon the new Emperor Veneficus, Bellatrix had an idea of what to expect from the man with these resources and ingenuity, although even she had been lately impressed with what she had both heard and seen happen throughout the Galaxy, which had surpassed even her lofty goals for her old Master's successor.
It was hard to imagine all the changes that had taken place after she had been sent out to this wide galaxy by the Dark Lord, ordered with supporting and obeying his heir after his time had expired. She had been out in space when her Lord fell, probably at the hands of Dumbledore, upon whom she had been promised that Veneficus had exacted revenge tenfold, before the boy had moved on to preparing for this current campaign.
Although thoroughly angered that she had not been there to protect her Lord, Bellatrix had stayed true to her word and protected the heir to the best of her ability, serving him as she would have the Dark Lord, but sometimes… sometimes she felt as though there was something missing, that she didn't understand perfectly.
She remembered far back, in the languishing hell that was Azkaban, that she simply had known that her Lord would come for her, that he had promised that he would, but at the same time she had no memory of such a promise, merely that it was so. It could be easily explained that she was obliviated for secrecy and so the Dark Lord would not be discovered prematurely, but still there was a small question of doubt in her mind.
Was she herself beyond manipulation? She doubted it, but the itching in the back of her mind was not something that could be easily ignored.
For now however, she pushed those traitorous thoughts aside, refocusing on the important task set ahead of her, making certain that the Sith Emperor had beasts and monsters up to par with fighting the Republic and the Jedi, even if that meant that she had to slaughter hundreds of the creations to make sure that Ocraadi got it right.
Her own honor would be stained if the Togruta made subpar creations, and Bellatrix would not allow the tentacle headed insane creature such power over a witch of her caliber. She would rather kill the High Prophet herself than allow the man alien to even think of failing the Emperor, although it was highly unlikely that she would allow that of herself, as whether Bellatrix wanted to admit it or not, they were drastically similar.