Creative Synthesis

Tulak Hord never made it to Iokath. In fact, he never made it anywhere close to that system. However, he still found the remains of several ancient Xylan-created droids floating out in a cold and empty system well beyond the edge of known space. It is unknown where exactly this point of contact was, as it was obviously not yet mapped and Hord's own records are sparse, but the legends of this discovery inspired later generations of Sith Lords to pursue finding these enigmatic beings, most notably the Sith Emperor Vitiate who found them over three thousand years later.

Hord entered the system circa. 6,902 BBY. The system had a small star and several rocky planetoids and asteroids with a large cloud of comets. It was another normal boring relay jump. Due to the dangers of hyperspace travel in the Unknown Regions, the small fleet had to take it slow and make careful notes on the condition of every major gravity well before taking off into hyperspace. Hord and other Dark Jedi would often use their precognitive abilities to find stable routes, but it was not very reliable.

On this particular hyperspace relay jump, the crew detected a strange gravitiational anomaly. There was a large planetoid nearby but according to gravitational scanners, the world had a very low mass- as if it were hollow. Additionally, the world was radiating a noticeable amount of heat radiation, as if there were geothermal or nuclear activity in the hollow core. Hord was alerted. At first he scoffed and told everyone to stop playing around and get back on track. To him, a slight disturbance was nothing to get all worked up about. However, as the engineers kept telling him that this was highly unusual, he became curious.

In his ship logs, Hord wrote that while out in the depths of the unknown regions, he was searching for any further remains of the ancient Rakatan civilization. He was fascinated by the Star Forge's wonderous technology and its connection to his homeworld. Specifically, he was looking for anything related to them in the hopes that they would have left behind vast troves of alchemical wisdom or advanced technology that could be used to his advantage.

The more he thought about it, the stranger such a gravitational reading sounded. He debated with himself over what to do. On the one hand, the ship did have pretty poor quality scanners and it was probably nothing, but then again, he didn't know the first thing about how gravity manipulation technology worked so if it baffled his engineers, he should check it out. Plus, the trip was very long and very boring. He was getting sick of sitting around in the ship week after week. In the end he decided to lead the expedition to the surface.

According to his sparse logs, the world upon closer inspection seemed to be made completely out of some type of metal. The surface was battered from micrometeors and other debris but on the whole the outside appeared to have a rough but unnatural feel- as if it were just a front. He entered the strange object through what looked to be a gaping chasm. The ships scanners recorded that the walls appeared even more unnatural from the inside. Huge metal pipes and beams ran along their length and the whole thing had the look of a massive tube, like some type of gun barrel.

When he reached the end, there was a series of large reflectors, but something was off. These reflectors appeared to be constantly shifting without moving an inch. Space itself seemed to bend into strange alien geometries, although it could have been a trick of the light. Still though, the overall gravity seemed off. A powerful light seemed to be in the distance, shining from behind an even bigger reflector. The ship was dwarfed by comparison and they easily slipped around to emerge in a large hollow sphere.

Sure enough, the planet was hollow and in the center was a dim red orb like a blazing ember. For hours, the ship slowly orbited the red ember scanning the interior and making careful notes. Even Hord was speechless and struck with awe at what they were seeing. In the end, the crew decided to report back. The small craft flew out back down the same corridor.

The rest of the scientists and engineers were awestruck at the discovery. They wanted to stay and launch a lengthy investigation on the sphere. Hord granted their request as he was just as interested in it as they were, although for different reasons.

The ship stayed parked in orbit around the planetoid for weeks as crews explored the surface and its interior corridors. Some of the higher ups remarked upon the similarities it bore to the massive Star Forge. Others, who were Corellians, remarked that it appeared to be similar to the ancient construct known as Centerpoint Station in the Corellian system. As they mapped the interior, they concluded that it was some type of gravity manipulation device. More importantly, it appeared that it had some sort of central command computer.

The sphere sent out gravitational pulses at odd intervals. These were not powerful enough to be felt except by the sensors, but they appeared to be too ordered to be random. Some got the idea that maybe it communicated in gravitational bursts and thought that they could try to make contact. After a few weeks, a repulsor was set up on the surface to emit and detect pulses. This emitter sent out a series of simple binary codes.

After a few hours, the sphere did seem to register the presence of the strangers as it emitted a code in response. After a few more hours, the energy in the core seemed to flare up. However, after a day the sphere seemed to panic. Several blasts of radiation came from its scanners, and it released a long string of gravitational bursts before coming to life. The energy in the core flared up and with a sudden jolt, the sphere disappeared into hyperspace.

The scientists were astonished and the code was passed onto a team of codebreakers. After a few hours, they were able to match up the patterns and decipher some type of meaning. It was difficult to make out exactly what it said, but it seemed to be a name, a number, and a short message. The crew panicked. It is unknown what the code said as the data was deleted from the file memory.

A quick but urgent relay droid was sent bearing a message to known space. However, Hord did not want to let the sphere get away. He tracked the hyperspace vector and was able to follow it further and further into the unknown regions. The chase lasted for months. Whenever it seemed that one of his scout ships had been able to track the sphere down, it would jump again. When he finally caught up to it, it was hiding out in yet another unknown system. However, in this system, there seemed to be multiple spheres and a few other vessels of various sizes waiting there.

They were clustered around the edges of the system. These massive vessels of various shapes and sizes just waited there. They seemed to be communicating, but they seemed to be unaware of the fact that their pursuers had arrived. However, after a few hours, they seemed to detect the scanners from the Dark Jedi ships. Again, they seemed to panic. Without warning, one of the mysterious vessels fired a powerful laser blast in their direction. It didn't come close to hitting their ships instead hitting a large nearby asteroid. This created a plane of debris preventing them from getting closer. The spheres then panicked and jumped away again.

At this point, they were so far into the Unknown Regions that they feared going further would lead to them being locked inside a hyperspace maze. It was simply too risky to continue. However, to keep a watch out for the strange spheres, Hord left a series of mobile probes to scan and patrol the area. These probes would send back a message if the spheres ever came back.

After this, they began the long trek back to known space. After a few months, they reached a far out rendezvous point where a message was waiting from the Dark Jedi high command. It told him not to venture too deeply into unknown space and not to attack any unknown entities, but to just patrol the area and wait.

The Departure:

Reconstructing what happened to the droid superweapons has been a challenge, but many historians who specialize in the area have been able to construct a plausible picture of what happened.

Apparently, the superweapon A.I.s were coming awake one by one, each at a slightly different time. They had originally planned to find Iokath, the Eternal Fleet, and its droid overlords so that they could continue their mission. However, they were confused as to what was happening in the Galaxy. Their probes indicated that there was some type of war going on so they decided to wait and see how it played out. Now at this stage, it is important to remember that only about half of the superweapons were operational and only a fraction of them were in communication with the others. As a result, these were simply the ones that had awakened first.

They wanted to see what would happen so that they could strike when the Galaxy was weakest. After all, if they invaded during an economic high generated by the war, they would likely be repulsed and destroyed. However, if they invaded during a depression or slump generated by the destruction or disenfranchisement of the Galactic citizens, they would have a chance.

However, the longer their probes watched in secret, the more uncertain they became. They detected a fleet of black ships with markings very similar to those of the Rakatan Infinite Empire ships. They became worried as they feared that the Rakata, the only species that their masters feared, could be back. Suddenly, a previously unaccounted for gravitational superweapon contacted them with an urgent message. Some of the black ships had found and were pursuing it!

This message was quickly related to all known units with messages being sent to the likely locations of any unaccounted for units. The fleet panicked and sent out a distress code to all listening A.I. superweapons. The emergency protocol was in the event of their premature discovery to avoid returning to Iokath at all costs. The A.I.s believed that they were being pursued. They were not warriors and so they would have a hard time fighting an invading force without the Eternal Fleet to back them up as they were built for controlled demolitions, not warfare. All active superweapons jumped into hyperspace along escape vectors heading past the depths of the unknown regions and towards the edge of the Galaxy.

It is thought that by 6,900 BBY they had all gathered and were making their way past the edge and into the Intergalactic Void. Where were they heading and what was their final fate remains unknown. There have been a few reports over the years of strange sightings of vessels similar to their design or to strange spheres being found, but in the end they were simply never heard from again. Whether they were destroyed or remain lurking beyond the rim remains to be seen.

Pall's Reaction:

When Pall received the message from Hord, he knew that the mysterious spheres had something to do with his visions. He immediately took an indefinite leave from the war effort to comb his records for anything that could be related to the discovery. His searches turned up mostly empty, but he was determined to drive off the invading threat. However, as time passed on, his visions became less and less severe. Rather than seeing the death of the Force, he saw life flourishing and the Force being set right.

For Pall, even though he commanded vast and powerful technological and biological terrors, this war was never about metal or flesh, but about the Force. On Lettow, he fought with the mystics over the correct doctrines of the Force but in time came to see these as meaningless nit-pickings as no one Order could claim absolute truth. On Tython, he experienced the Force open in its entirety and came to see it on a cosmic scale.

He saw the Force as not a static thing written about in the teachings of the Jedi, but as an ever increasing essence that permeated life and was deeply related to it. He saw the Jedi not as people, but as the static embodiment of the constant and unrestricted light side while the Dark Jedi were the opposite eroding away at this bedrock. These two forces had been locked in combat for over a hundred years ever since the prophet Ku'ar Danar had brought back his cursed teachings sparking the dialectic shift. However, instead of one or the other pervading and becoming stronger or a new synthesis forming, leading to the greater flourishing of life, they had remained in a state of stagnation and decay as life died.

Pall saw the monstrous spheres not as technological terrors but as the non living poised to exploit the decay in the Force. They represented a cancer, the inanimate threatening to destroy the animate- the ultimate failure of the Force. When Pall started the war, he believed that if he could recreate the Jedi Order from scratch, the Force would be set right and this cancer would somehow be avoided.

He saw himself as the only one capable of recognizing this threat and taking action, perhaps even being sent by the Force itself to do so. Ever since he was young, he recognized that he was different. Not only did his power far surpass the other Jedi initiatives, but he could see through their lies. Perhaps, he thought, he was an avatar of the Force that the sages of Lettow prophesied about. As such, by committing acts of horrible evil, his actions would ultimately be vindicated as being the will of the Force.

For the last four years, ever since the war turned, he believed himself to be a failure. He had been unable to recreate the Jedi Order and prevent various corrupted Dark Side sects from spreading, all the while, the visions remained. However, now he saw things clearly. He did not have to win, all he had to do was fight. His struggle would collect together the scattered remains of the dark side and ultimately force the Jedi to confront its own problems and become better for it.

He had been the fire to finally burn out the decay. The Galactic economy was once again awakened and patriotism in the Republic was high meaning they they could combat most any external threat- should it come back. He had introduced new technological developments into galactic society stimulating research. And most importantly from his point of view, the Jedi would have to finally adapt. The cancer in the Force was fading.

However, at the end of the day, he was still leading a doomed movement plagued more and more by infighting and insubordination. Perhaps now, with the blood of billions on his frail hands, it was time for it to end.