Chapter 23
A Spark in the Dark
"Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new"
Obi-wan Kenobi
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Deep space, far away from any inhabited planets and star systems, far away from any prying eyes, the perfect place for a gathering, as the Firestorm and the Shades of grey came out of hyperspace they were about a hundred kilometres in front of a motley fleet of warships. As they got closer a swath of data on the ships came through showing each of their names, ship classes and types.
"I read about twenty vessels captain" a radar operator called from the crew pits "Nineteen of which are Imperium cruisers of different types, all centred around an Emperor-class battleship"
"A vast majority of those are imperial ships" Ishta said uneasily.
"Many of them were either taken during raids or gifts from thankful systems that we helped defend" Revan explained "The battleshipthere was the sole survivor of a planet that fell during the 13th Black Crusade, it was drifting in deep space with a damaged warp drive when we found it"
"We've just been given clearance to dock with the battleship Reverent Blade"
"Very well" Mynn replied "Begin docking procedures!"
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The star destroyer came up alongside the battleship and manoeuvred itself into the proper docking position on her portside, she was immediately caught in several large clamps and a walkway from the battleship connected with one of the Firestorm's openings.
Waiting on the other side of the airlock was Captain Mynn, Gabriel, Revan, Alana, Ishta and a small group of alliance marines, dressed in dark blue uniforms with black piping, their hands gripped on the stocks of their blaster rifles as they were lead through the opened airlock into the walkway between warships.
Waiting for them at the other end of the walkway was a group of people, guarded by a group of soldiers wearing silver and black armour with featureless facemasks similar to those of the Sith soldiers of the Jedi Civil War era, they were armed with an exotic type of blaster pistol and power sword on their waists. Besides the 'Sith soldiers' were another three figures, two of which, to Gabriel's surprise were dressed in the brown robes of Jedi knights which completely hid their forms, the third was a human dressed in a crimson uniform with golden piping and the cap which used to be worn in the days of the Jedi Civil War by an admiral of the old republics navy, he was fairly old with trimmed white hair and a face which was both scarred and weathered from hundreds of battles, but his hazel eyes were as sharp as a hawks, strapped to his hip was a deadly looking, long barrelled blaster pistol.
"Welcome back master Revan" the old man greeted before gazing at the newcomers "I see that your trip was successful"
"Very much so admiral" Revan replied before turning to Mynn and the others "Captain I would like to introduce to you Admiral Saul, commanding officer of this little band of vessels"
The old admiral bowed deeply before the alliance entourage before walking towards them and shaking Mynn's hand "Welcome aboard Captain Mynn, master Sabbath, warlock Taldeer and padawan Varne"
"Thank you admiral" Mynn replied, wondering how he knew all of their names "This is an impressive fleet"
"Thank you captain" Saul said "But if I may ask where is the one known as the healer"
"She is in meditation in her quarters onboard our ship" Gabriel explained "I didn't want to interrupt her, I am sure that she will join us eventually"
"If I may interrupt?" Ishta asked "It is strange that you have been around for around four thousand years and that we have rarely heard of you, if ever at all"
"That warlock is because we know how to go around without being seen" one of the brown robed figures behind the admiral said, the voice feminine and silky "We usually stay on the fringes of the major empires like the Imperium's or your own, away from any major ship concentrations, in fact there are only a handful of worlds who know of our existence"
"This is Jedi masters Aisha Calisto and Seth Vao, two of the oldest Jedi masters of this order and two members of the Jedi council" Revan introduced, the two jedi bowed respectfully before pulling back their hoods, Aisha was a human woman with shoulder length black hair and dark skin with a pair of brown eyes while Seth was a Twi'lek with cerulean blue skin and dark eyes, both wore exo-skeleton suits with loose black belts tied around their waists, these belts held a number of small pockets with the silver hilts of lightsabres clipped to their sides.
"Please everyone come in" Saul said while indicating to the entrance to the battleship "We can't stay out here all day"
Everyone agreed and walked through the corridor into the Reverent Blade, Ishta had been in a few Imperium vessels before but was surprised to see that the interior of this vessel was very different, instead of the corridors being dreary and dank like so many captured Imperium ships she had been in they were well lit, similar to that of the alliance star destroyers, they were crowded with droids, curriers, soldiers and amazingly enough a few Jedi who were going about their daily business, a few stopped for a few seconds to look at the visitors curiously but besides that they were left alone.
"Is this the only fleet under your command?" Mynn asked the admiral curiously as they walked down the corridor.
"No there are a few others" Saul answered "But for their own safety as well as our own we do not know where they are half the time"
"How have you survived out here this long?" Gabriel asked.
"We survived thanks to trading agreements with worlds, both alien and human who are outside of the major empires reach as well as secret alliances with several outer Imperium worlds and colonies, we also have good relations with the Eldar Craftworlds of Saim-Hann, Lyandan and Ulthwe"
"You have relations with Ulthwe?" Ishta asked hopefully.
"Yes we do" Saul answered, turning to the young warlock "And we will contact them to let them now that you're safe"
"How many people do you have in this fleet" Gabriel asked "Are they fully crewed?"
"Yes master Sabbath they are fully crewed" Saul answered "In fact for interior defence we have three regiments of Imperial Guard scattered among this fleet an-"
"You have a force of Imperial Guard!?" Ishta butted in.
"Yes we do" Saul replied.
"We saved them when the planet they were defending fell to a Necron invasion" Aisha added "After that they just stuck along with us and eventually joined us"
"We also have another four divisions of our own defence forces or Shadow Guard as they like to be called" Seth said while indicating the soldiers dressed in the old Sith armour that accompanied them "Two companies of our own space marines legion, an order of Battle Sisters along with around five hundred Jedi knights and masters"
"You have your own order of Jedi knights" Gabriel asked, obviously surprised until he opened himself up to the force, then he felt hundreds of force signatures reach out curiously, the warmth and peace that emanated from this place was amazing.
"Yes we do" Revan replied "But there's only about a tenth of them in this fleet, many are what the Eldar call wanderers while others are out on missions or with other fleets"
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Sasha sat cross-legged on the floor of her quarters, her mind completely submerged in the forces currant, the force was in turmoil in this galaxy, it felt stormy in some places while in others it just felt like voids had opened up, the darkness within them whispering into her mind, stretching out with shadowy tendrils to try and overcome her mental defences, immediately she retracted her touch from that part of the force and concentrated more on the calmer flows.
She was meditating because she felt something familiar in the force, it was feint, like it was very far away, perhaps several light-years or half a galaxy away but it was there. She relaxed into the forces flow, confident that she could find the source of this power, all she needed was time. Silently she reached out across the void of space, touching the power source and immediately retracting her touch as it was returned, a mental voice whispered into her head.
"Sasha?"
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If there was one thing that Gabriel had to admit about Alana it was how far she had come since the day he had first started to instruct her, she was no longer the timid little girl who didn't know one end of a lightsabre from the other, in fact she had become quite the skilled duellist who was close to mastering the basic strikes of the Shii-Cho lightsabre form as well as beginning studies with other, more difficult forms like Soresu and Makashi, she was even trying her hand on the acrobatic Ataru form.
Now however she was in the training chamber of the Reverent Blade, a chamber that he guessed once was a part of the once massive hanger but was now cornered off and walled, bright lights illuminated the now painted white walls, the floor was made of black marble with black training mats dotting it. On one of these mats was his apprentice, her lightsabre ignited in her hands as she danced and whirled like an expert, deflecting low-energy blaster bolts from three hovering training drones, her every movement flowed like water, she had obviously been practising.
She wasn't the only one in here, there were dozens of Jedi knights in the chamber, either duelling each other in impressive, gravity-defying lightsabre duels or practising alone against training droids and drones, many of these Jedi were humans but he also spotted individuals from different alien races whom he had never seen before, probably from the unknown regions of the galaxy, he also spotted aliens that he had heard off.
Sighing Gabriel rose from his sitting position and wandered over to his apprentice, they're master/apprentice bond telling her that he was approaching, she deactivated her lightsabre and turned to her teacher, her youthful features practically glowing with force energy, ever since she set foot on the Reverent Blade she seemed at peace for the first time since he had meet her, not that he blamed her, the force signatures of so many Jedi made even him feel at ease.
"I hear from Ishta that you are improving vastly" Gabriel said, smiling.
"Really?" Alana replied, quirking an eyebrow disbelievingly "I still think I need a lot of practise"
"Not from where I'm standing" Gabriel countered "And I think I'll prove it to you"
He then unclipped his lightsabre and activated it, Alana got the point and activated her own and the two blades met in a hail of sparks, as fast as they met the blades disconnected, both Alana and Gabriel spun, their blades spinning in their hands as they attacked and countered each others moves, each one dancing around the others attacks and as they duelled Gabriel smiled proudly. She was getting stronger, faster, realising her potential piece by piece and he had no doubts that with a bit more guidance and discipline she would surpass him.
Leaning against the entrance to the training chamber Ishta watched the girl she had helped train and smiled appraisingly, Alana had taken her advice and training very seruiously, her movements, her stance, her strikes were as elegant and unpredictable as an Eldar Banshee's. she had a belief in humans that a farseer, a friend of her mothers once said, Humanity mean't well but they were too young to fully understand the consequencies of their actions, she had always thought of Macha as a strange one, even by the standards of a farseer. The human Jedi were different, they seemed older than their race was and were much more cautious, with this train of thought she turned around and walked down the spacious corridors of the rogue battleship wondering where the future would take them.
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Revan sighed tiredly before running his gaze over the confines of his quarters, on the walls of the chamber were display cases full of weaponry from sets of rifles, pistols, melee weapons. There were different types of blasters, lasguns, plasma-rifles, bolters, splinter weapons, power-weapons, vibro-weapons, witchblades, war-hammers and standing out from the rest was a weapons case made out of oak, within were the hilts of a least twenty lightsabres, as Revan walked by he put a hand on it, feeling the life energies of their previous owners, friends and family who lost their lives in this monstrous galaxy. As well as the weapon cases there was a comfortable couches and chairs as well as a large desk, made out of polished oak, the legs made to look like the ancient Sith hounds of Korriban. Calmly he walked behind the desk and sat down on the chair, he took off his mask and setting it on the desk ran his turquoise eyes over the shadowy room before managing a tired smile. With a flicker of his thoughts lights came on illuminating the entire chamber.
"You can come out" he murmured "I sensed you the moment you stowed aboard my vessel"
The ranger appeared from the decreasing shadows like a ghost, his mesh armour and green cloak caked in mud and gravel, his exotic sniper rifle leaning against his shoulder as he took several steady steps forward. His head turned to regard the room before it resting on the immortal Jedi.
"I heard that you'd have a collection of weapons to rival any privateer" he said, his gaze suddenly rested on a display case that held the lightsabres of his fallen brothers and sisters.
"Why is a Ranger of the infamous Biel-Tan wandering around one of my vessels" Revan said before smiling wryly "I doubt it is just to see my weapons collection"
"If there is one thing I can't stand about your breed of humans it is the sarcasm" the ranger growled before reaching into one of the many pouches in his armour and pulling out a data-chip, uncaringly he threw the chip at Revan who caught it instinctively and pushed it into his holo-computer, an image of a planetary system appeared in front of him, it showed thousands of warships that he had never seen before, orbiting a number of strange moons that he guessed weren't created through natural means.
"What is this?" Revan asked.
"A possible threat to the entire sector" the ranger replied "One of my fellows sent me this, the system in question was empty six months ago and suddenly this massive fleet appears, no ship movements, nothing"
"What do your Farseers say about this?" Revan asked as he scanned the images.
"I haven't showed them yet, or the council of the young king" the ranger replied "I thought you would know something about them considering you are from another galaxy"
"I have never seen them before" Revan replied.
"My fellow was able to see them in action against an Ork fleet" the ranger said as he sat down on a chair on the other side of the desk "Their technology is considerably advanced and not of any race he had seen before"
"I know what they are" a voice said telepathically, the door opened and master Sabbath entered, immediately the Eldar ranger jumped to his feet, drawing an elegant combat knife from his waist sheath, Gabriel jumped back and grabbed the hilt of his lightsabre.
"You do" Revan said calmly as he rose "Then who are they?"
"They are known to my galaxy as the Yuuzhan Vong" Gabriel said as he let go of his hilt but continued to eye the ranger "And they are feared in my galaxy as bloodthirsty monsters and religious fanatics, especially the warriors"
"Really?" the ranger asked as he sheathed his knife, but kept his gauntleted hand on the hilt "And why exactly are they remembered so infamously to you humans?"
"Not just us but every race in the known galaxy" Gabriel replied calmly as he took a deep breath and began to recite a tail he had told a hundred times since coming here, a story of a bloody, galaxy spanning war that cost trillions of lives, sent several sentient races to extinction and devastated countless worlds.
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Meanwhile at the very edge of the Tau empire a massive battle was taking place on one of their outer colonies, in space around the main planet hundreds of Yuuzhan Vong warships exchanged weapons fire with Tau vessels and defensive platforms, on the ground thousands of Yuuzhan Vong warriors, backed by their living war machines clashed with the planets Tau garrison.
Platoons of fire-warriors poured plasma fire from their entrenched positions, dropping dozens of Yuuzhan Vong warriors and providing fire support to their Kroot allies while high up in the ruined tops of buildings, units of Tau crisis suits poured constant salvoes of plasma and rocket fire into the enemy lines mowing down dozens of Vong warriors.
The Yuuzhan Vong were gaining ground however as their siege creatures, massive 20m tall dinosaur like lizards named Rakamats ploughed through the defenders, their armoured bodies protected by specially modified void-shields and units of Yuuzhan Vong who manned projectile weapons on the siege monsters shoulders, dousing the Tau and Kroot who were lucky enough not to get crushed with streams of plasma as well as with razor and thud-bugs. Following the towering Rakamats were at least a hundred four-legged creatures, each one with a Yuuzhan Vong warrior riding on its back as they pounced on bewildered Tau warriors, tearing them to shreds with sharpened claws and teeth.
In space onboard the Vong's flagship Claws of War commander Har watched the space battle with interest, his vessels plasma projectors firing continuous salvoes of plasma while their torpedo tubes and missile launchers firing clouds of magma missiles which rammed into the Tau's front line of ships, the Tau in return firing back with plasma, ion and lance batteries, at the moment the battle was even both on the ground and in space.
Commander Har knew his duty and he knew his orders, this wasn't a battle of conquest but a diversion, his superiors, the Council of Supreme Commanders had ordered him to draw as many Tau defence forces to this place as possible to weaken other worlds, especially a little known planet known as Kilikas, nothing special besides the small shipyard in its orbit.
More Tau warships jumped into the system, the second wave of reinforcements to come into the system in the last hour, they were a little far from the battle however and uncaringly Har drew his attention to the explosions and flashes of weapons fire of the main battle, a Tau Orca-class frigate disappeared, its elegant, long necked, bird like design vanishing in a ball of fire and wreckage. On his side a massive flash of light brought his attention to one of his flagships escorts, a Matalok cruiser was cracked in half by combined long range fire from the first wave of Tau cruisers.
Commander Har grinded his teeth as another Matalok took the destroyed ones place on the battle line, firing continuous streams of long ranged plasma fire from multiple plasma projectiles. His reserves were starting to slime but he knew he had to hold this position or his invasion force on the ground would be cut off, he only hoped that Commander Jym's raid on Kilikas was successful.
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Commander Jym watched from the pulsing command throne of his flagship, the Poison as another wave of Tau warships jumped out of the system to reinforce the planet that Commander Har was invading. His force was fairly small being made up of a single battleship, three Matalok cruisers and ten smaller gunboats, small but more than enough to cause serious damage in a hit and run attack, he picked up his amphistaff and pointed the snake-like living weapon towards the main viewport, the mouth of the deadly weapon hissing venomously.
"Let us begin!" he spat to his pilots, in unison the fleet jumped into darkspace and re-entered realspace right in the middle of the orbital shipyard, one of the gunboats smashed into the skeletal frame of an incomplete Explorer-class battlecruiser, the small warship vanishing in a ball of fire and tearing a massive, gapping hole in the side of the incomplete metal vessel, Jym growled, such risks were necessary.
Suddenly his fleet opened fire with every weapon system, streams of plasma and clouds of magma missiles crashed into the shipbuilding docks, the skeletal structures of incomplete ships and into the small attached space stations, within moments everything was either on fire or exploding, the main space station bulged in several places and exploded, the connecting walkways and restraints snapping like twigs as its burning husk fell to the surface of Kilikas.
Jym grinned, his ripped lips showing his deadly razor sharp teeth, he pointed the head of his staff to open space and in a rasping snarl of laughter ordered the fleet to jump away before the Tau defenders could react, they were quick though as streams of plasma and ion fire erupted from two charging Tau cruisers tearing another two gunboats to burning pieces and hitting one of the Matalok cruisers in several places on its portside hull, Jym heard the cruisers telepathic screams of agony before his fleet jumped into hyperspace. Mission accomplished.
"Order Commander Har to initiate a tactical withdrawal now" Jym shouted "We'll meet them at the rendezvous point!!!"
Well what do you think? Sorry it took so long to update. I think that I was beginning to forget all about the Yuuzhan Vong and so decided to add a little on them this time around. In the next chapter I'll go back to the events on Terra, a meeting with the high lords, assassination attempts and the possibility of a major standoff. Wait for the next chapter…Factions of the Imperium.