It had taken much discussion but eventually a decision had been made between the two Skywalkers aboard the Jade Shadow in regard to Abeloth and the Sith, with the power of Abeloth aligned with them it was possible that the Sith would next turn their attention upon the Galactic Alliance and therefore a warning would have to be made upon their allies at the New Jedi Temple, ironically the New Jedi Order was currently deeply entrenched on the capital world of the Galactic Alliance as Natasi Daala was sieging the New Jedi Order but apparently reports had just reached the Shadowthat the Force psychosis had been suddenly cured and Daala had released the pressure on the New Jedi Order… somewhat.
"We need to go after the Sith," started Ben, but Luke simply shook his head.
"We don't know where the Sith are going, what resources they have, or who they have seduced to their side. It would be a fool's errand," countered Luke, as he bridged his fingers and rested his chin on his hands.
"Actually Master Skywalker, I have to divulge information to counter that belief," announced Jedi Master Cilghal, via Holocommunication. "There have been reports of a fleet of new Imperial Vessels – the only fleet of their kind, while patrolling the Felucia system they have gone silent, however it is very possible that the planet Felucia has been made a bastion for Sith activity in the region."
"Then we should head there?" asked Ben, however Cilghal shook her head.
"There has also been a similar odd situation, a business takeover of the Cloud City tibanna gas mining colony has gone to records far too smoothly than previously expected," continued Cilghal, briefly looking off in another direction, to judge the data she was bringing up. "Incidentally it and another few companies that were recently taken over, have fallen prey to an almost undetectable percentage of transferred resources to an untraced source, although minor in percentage over time it does add up and…"
"And the Jedi cannot be seen interacting with it directly as it would make the Chief of State... uncomfortable and suspicious, therefore, it is down to me and Ben to search out both areas at once?" asked Luke, before giving an annoyed sigh. "Ben shall go to Felucia; I will go to Cloud City, meanwhile I hope the Order attempt to overrule as many laws against the Jedi that have been founded. We cannot function, with the entire Galactic Alliance and its laws on our back."
"As you… request, Master," agreed Cilghal, before she cut the communication.
"As you can see, Lord Stygius," motioned Plagueis, as he continued the tour of the large Space Station built into the side of a giant – Hyperspace surviving – Asteroid, a mass production factory of gigantic scale. "I hope that the Foundry fits up to your expectations, it was once a legendary source of the Rakata Infinite Empire's Droid armies, a place in which to generate an infinite Army and a sibling of the legendary Star Forge."
"Which is out of our reach, giving that it blew up," commented a male voice, and a masked man with a hood stepped out of the shadows ahead, his Sith Armour had spikes coming out of its shoulder.
"Ah, Darth Marr, how good that you could join us. I feared that you would be still… recovering," announced Plagueis, with arms held wide, a smile on his face. "We were just getting ready for the meeting."
"This one also has the scent of the dead, on him," muttered Abeloth, tense beside Stygius, but looked thoughtful. "Are you really the same Darth Marr? A Dark Lord of the Sith, that sat as head of the Sphere of Defense of the Empire, during the reign of Emperor Vitiate?"
"Forgive me, my Lord," bowed Darth Marr suddenly, causing Stygius to raise an eyebrow. "I am one of the loyal Sith during the reign of our Sith Emperor, that became interested in the prophecy surrounding the Lords of Chaos, I am glad that the Prophecy is back on track and that one day the Empire will once again rise from the ashes under your command."
Nodding, Stygius led the group as they moved into the Inner Sanctum of the Foundry where a woman with short black hair framing her face stood waiting calmly, she had her arms crossed and her robes fit her frame nicely. The only ugly feature about her was possibly the glare she had, burning out of her chocolate brown eyes, which could turn yellow at an unexpected moment of rage and fury.
"Ah, my Lord, forgive me for not briefing you sooner. A most recent talent that I have found among the Sith, this is Darth Temero," announced Darth Marr, calmly. "Just as I specialize in the best usage of military Forces to defend the Empire and the breaking and corruption of Force-sensitive to the Dark side, Temero here is a Master of Sith Alchemy and Sorcery to alter beings and even combines this with Cybernetics, however her true research field is also in the manipulation of genetics and the creation of Bioweapons."
"And on that note, my apprentice is currently working on a new type of Sith poison to be used on Force-sensitives at her lab on Felucia, additionally the Genesis plague that we unleashed on the Imperial Forces in the Felucia system have left us quite a number of Military reserves. Plenty to begin our first actions against the Galactic Alliance!" announced Temero, as she stalked towards the group.
"We need more than a Fleet or a Droid Army, Lady Temero," cut off Stygius as he continued to walk, cleanly, passed her and made his way to the main console. "We will require Soldiers and well trained Sith, resources and worlds, to gain these objects we will need to be swift and smart."
"When I returned to Muunilinst earlier today, I found it much worse for wear than when I left this living world to begin with, but it seems that in his sentimentality, my former apprentice made my island of Aborah and its underground labs into one of his hidden Secret Storehouse. It went totally ignored by the Yuuzhan Vong, therefore everything he stored there went unharmed," inserted Darth Plagueis, as he came to stand behind Stygius, who worked at the main computer. "This included a seemingly small, by most standards, but impressively sized and active Cloning Laboratory. Additionally, with the aid of enough Ysalamiri for the Cloning laboratory we can begin producing, not the largest living army in the history of the Universe, but enough well trained soldiers to fill in the gaps of our Droid Army."
The Dark Lords of the Sith all considered this as they thought of their own ideas and methods to contribute to the growth of their near born Empire, each and everyone here had devoted their lives and their resources to the act of forging a new Empire from the ashes of the old Empire and desiccated corpses of failed Governments and Companies, indeed everything would need to be done quickly and go exactly as planned lest the Jedi or their precious Alliance catch wind of what was happening.
"Interesting, then I encourage all of you to take at least one apprentice and multiple Acolytes under your wing, we need to start also on founding a Sith Academy," requested Darth Marr, and nodding began among the gathered Sith.
"I will also be retiring shortly to the Dromund Kaas system, there is a technological project in orbit of the Star Dromund that is based off a design from Lord Marr's time – known as the Sun Razer, based off the Star Forge's capabilities I believe this modern day version will allow us to correct our… naval lacking in a very short amount of time. Until we have someone to head our Sphere of Technology, I will fulfill the required task," announced Darth Temero, bowing once, she made her way out of the room as construction machines throughout the facility whirled into production.
Ben Skywalker found the planet Felucia odd as he orbited it in his mother's modified Z-95 Headhunter and overlooking the world that seemed a mixture of shades of green, the planet was whirling in the Force and to an untrained Jedi the planet seemed to be deeply enthralled by the Dark side of the Force and therefore a danger to Galactic society, but Ben saw the truth rather clearly: the planet was in harmony with itself and the typical rules of the survival of the strong at the expense of the weak – harsh but in no way evil.
The new Cardan V-class space station, which had been placed in orbit to repair and resupply Imperial Forces patrolling the sector on behalf of their Treaty with the Galactic Alliance, was evil. The Dark side of the Force that he sensed permeated it like the odour of a massive Hutt in space, around the station seemed to be utterly immobile and unique Vessels that Ben recognised from the only records garnered on the new Imperial Vessels, Imperial Vessels that currently didn't exist in the minds of high ranked Imperial Politicians and Military Officers and in no less time than being lost a few days they had been covered up and forgotten.
Ben found it unlikely that such revolutionary Vessels would be opted from the minds of over a hundred people willingly and that human beings were capable of a memory wipe, it was highly likely that shortly before the schematics of these Vessels was uploaded to the flagship they Sith responsible for having them engineered had erased the memories of those that had known about the project, then the soldiers on board working in complete radio silence would have been either brutally killed or converted to the allegiance of the Sith and Ben sure hoped that it wasn't former of the two.
Suddenly, he felt a spark of Danger sense as he flipped the Z-95 Headhunter in another direction as the new Starfighters that had been previously frozen had suddenly powered up and were chasing him, additionally the people within those Starfighters were Force-sensitive and… wielders of the Dark side at varying levels – Lost Tribe Sith, obviously.
"Kriff!" cursed Ben, as he ducked his Starfighter under a new Vessel, a cruiser-analogue.
That was an Eidolon-class Cruiser, a powerful cruiser 1,100 meters long Imperialized equivalent design to a heavily upgraded and customized Bothan Assault cruiser, and to think that the Empire or whoever had inspired their creation had been planning to mass produce the monsters!
The Starfighters chasing Ben were Supremacy-class starfighters, also a new design they had the traditional ball-shaped Cockpit but on their back they had two connected pipes that were in fact extremely powerful thrusters, on their sides and flowing back onto the thruster pipes were wings with two smaller ones on top of the wings being S-foils that gave the Vessel better maneuvering during dogfights, the cockpit ball had two Laser Cannons and a single Ion Cannon but the Wings themselves had two powerful Assault Cannons that while packing a hell of a wallop seemed to do no recoil and the wings also contained multipurpose missile launchers for Proton Torpedoes and even Concussion missiles.
Ben cursed as he noticed that he had gotten too close to the Space station and its batteries rained down green fire towards him, turning he gained a number of hits by the Sith Starfighters chasing him and cursed as he pulled himself into the atmosphere of Felucia, his displays making him wonder if the Headhunter would make it down to the surface without being torn apart.
"Lady Aprepeia, the Jedi has been forced down into the atmosphere," announced a Sith Acolyte, via Holocommunication.
"Excellent, capture my new Test subject, I have a great many tests I want to try out. And I always wanted to see the effects my toxins would have, on a Skywalker," commanded Aprepeia, her crimson hair tied back in a loose bun.
Her Yellow eyes dilated in glee, she headed off deep into the Space Station to a location she had dubbed her 'inner sanctum', to prepare her lab for the new test subject she would soon get from the planet below.