Chapter 27

The Second Eye

Admiral Sre'Awl scanned the flickering holographic images, showing a battle taking place just outside of the capital world of the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, several dozen Ssi-Ruuk capital ships, with at least two hundred picket ships were exchanging fire with a massive force of Chaos warships, the supreme commander of the Ssi-Ruuvi space forces flinched as another battlecruiser flickered from existence, along with at least a half dozen pickets, the Chaos fleet was at least three times the size of their scouting fleet and the admiral knew that this was just a first wave, to test the combat capabilities of his system defence forces.

This war, being quickly known as the Ssi-Ruuk/Chaos Conflict had been raging for near three months know and three quarters of the Imperium had been taken over by this new threat, the attack was quick, sweeping over the sector under the control of the Imperium like a stream of water over rock, over ninety percent of the already decimated fleet had been destroyed during these few months, along with at least three planets and their overall inhabitants. To put it short, the ruthlessness of the enemy was winning the war. A beeping sound drew the supreme commanders attention back to the hologram where the last battlecruiser had been destroyed and the first wave was jumping towards the defence lines of the home-planet.

Lwhekk, the capital world of the Imperium and the home-world of the Ssi-Ruuk race was the last real barrier, the last real fortress that kept these forces of Chaos from completely taking the Ssi-Ruuk's territories. As he looked across the war room at his fellow officers including generals, admirals and rear-admirals, all talking to each other in hushed tones about strategy and how impossible it was to stem the advance of these monsters when they had failed at Keerama, Lythena and Felonne which were all as heavily guarded as Lwhekk and yet still fell to the Chaos invasion, the numbers that seemed to get in under their radar were just too many for the Imperium to repel and considering that they attacked well into their territories and moved outwards like a cancer only made things worse.

"Supreme Commander" one of the aides roared from the radar stations of the war room "They have arrived"

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From the bridge of the battleship Eternal Agony daemon prince Anubis surveyed the defensive lines of oval shaped warships and defence platforms with an amused expression, the war was not completely one sided, the defence that these reptiles put up on Lythena was valiant and brave, managing to repel the first wave of Chaos ships before the second wave destroyed the surviving defences and the world itself was exterminated, just like Felonne and Keerama before it, the destruction of these worlds was not random, on a galactic map the worlds that they destroyed made up seven points of an eight pointed star, with this planet making up the eighth point, once this world was destroyed then his true plan would be realized and the forces of Chaos would have a true foothold in this new galaxy.

With a pointing of his clawed right hand the daemon prince spurred the two battleships, ten cruisers and thirty support craft of different classes into action, firing continuously with their hundreds of lance and plasma batteries, thousands of Switdeaths and Doomfires launched from the hangers of the Chaos vessels in clouds of metal and weapons, engaging the pyramid-shaped droid fighters of the Ssi-Ruuvi's defence forces in amazing mass dog-fights. Small explosions surrounded the traitor warships as they pushed forward towards the battle line of orbital defence platforms.

Once in range they combined their firepower into the centre, tearing platforms and picket vessels to pieces, clearing a path for the small force to move through, it was then that the second and largest force jumped in from the warp right behind them, just within range of the orbital defences, made up of at least ten battleships, fifty cruisers and over two hundred escort vessels, they were brought under fire by the defences almost immediately, thousands of silver energy beams and clusters of torpedoes sped towards the traitor lines demolishing dozens of escort vessels and leaving cruisers, battlecruisers and battleships heavily damaged, some were floating lifelessly away from the battle line, their hulls punctured and smoking in several key places.

The remainder of the Chaos vessels returned fire, their lance and plasma batteries destroying countless warships and orbital defences, the few remaining ships that survived the barrage charged forward, their weapons firing continuously and their hangers releasing swarms of fighter drones, the main vessels were picked off one by one by the heavy lances of the chaos capital ships, the drones were another story, too small and fast to get a lock the anti-air weapons of the fleet were firing sporadic volleys, their own fighter escort being overrun by the swarms of drones, but the only thing that they were good for was quantity and the chaos fighter pilots, hardened by hundreds, perhaps thousands of years of dog-fighting with enemy ships proved the better over the drones, unknowing that with every ship that they destroyed they released an imprisoned and tormented soul to the afterlife. Eventually only a handful of drones remained and Anubis, ignoring them as a nuisance pointed towards the planet.

"Place the fleet around the planet" he ordered "Our conquest here is almost over"

As the surviving Chaos vessels positioned themselves around the planet the Ssi-Ruuk called Lwhekk, they immediately came under fire from dozens of planetary defence batteries, destroying six more escorts and two cruisers before they were finally in position.

"Unleash the Exterminatus!"

As one the warships fired their lance batteries upon the capital world of the shattered Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, targeted cities were turned into smouldering craters, sudden earthquakes, tidal waves and volcano eruptions ripped through and across the planets surface, completely remaking the landscape from a forest covered paradise to a scene of smouldering planet-wide fires, continents were broken apart and the great oceans themselves began to boil and evaporate, the daemon prince felt the deaths of millions, perhaps billions of beings and relished the feeling that the warp sent. The warp around this star cluster began to change, its pure feel giving way to swirling dark colours of pain, anger and most well felt…fear.

The planet exploded under the stress of the orbital bombardment, but instead of falling apart its surface turned from red fire to pure black as the shadows of the recently contaminated energies of the warp began to pour into the world once known as Lwhekk, onboard his vessel dozens of Chaos Sorcerers sat in a circle, their heads bowed, mumbling dark, forbidden incantations and spells, energy spilled out around them, a mixture of many hundreds of dark colours, some of which the human eye could not interpret swirled around them like a tornado of screaming voices.

This same congregation of sorcerers was repeated on the other battleships, the black legions entire contingent of sorcerers all taking part in this amazing and terrifying display of warp mastery. Like a star going supernova the world exploded outwards, unleashing dark, swirling tendrils of colour in every direction, the tendrils extended to the far reaches of the star cluster and encompassed it in its terrifying and insane power.

The Second Eye of Terror, the bridge between galaxies had been born, its birth sent powerful shockwaves streaming across the entire galaxy, tearing open recently closed wormholes, no one was excluded from the shockwaves, and it hit the force sensitive's the most.

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The death screams of the star clusters original inhabitants echoed out, not just through the warp but the force as well, on the planet Ossus, where the Jedi had rebuilt their main temple Luke Skywalker was forced out of his meditation by the powerful shockwaves, he rose instantly and scanned the faces of the other masters around him, including his wife Mara-Jade Skywalker, they were all forced out of their trances, lest they be thrown like rag-dolls across the meditation chambers by the incredibly powerful shockwaves.

"Sith-spit" Kyp Durron spat, his features going pale from the outburst of dark energies "What in the name of the force was that!?"

"I now that disturbance" Luke said gravely as he breathed in a steady flow of oxygen to calm himself "When the Death Star destroyed Alderaan, when the Yuuzhan Vong decimated Ithor, only on a much larger scale"

"The Chief of State needs to be informed of this" Cilghal added, the Mon Calamari females usually salmon coloured skin seemingly drying out from the psychic shockwave.

Luke nodded and closing his eyes felt the distress and shock from every single master, knight and padawan within the temple, all slowly calming themselves down, it wasn't them he was worried about, it was the younglings in the crèche, they including his four year old son Ben were terrified beyond rational thought.

A flare of warning from the force made him bring his attention to where Kirana Ti was sitting, the former witch of Dathomir looked up at him curiously before he realized what was about to happen.

"Kirana" Luke said, his voice laced with worry "Get away from there!"

Kirana hesitantly rose to her feet and walked over to his side, the other masters within the meditation chamber following suit, they all felt it within the force, something was about to happen, a portal tore through the air where Kirana once was and dropped several beings into the meditation chamber in a heap, they immediately jumped back to their feet and in response the entire chamber resounded with the activation of a half dozen lightsabres.

The beings spun to face them, each one carrying a sword that's blade seemed to glow with barely contained energy, they were fairly human like in appearance, except they each had a pair of white feathered wings that sprouted from their backs and they wore shinning armour that was silver and gold in colour, they looked truly intimidating, yet beautiful at the same time.

Luke and his fellow Jedi didn't back down, instead they fell into lightsabre combat stances and waited for their strange opponents to make the first move. They didn't move, instead they looked at each other as if wondering where they were, drawing slightly confused looks from the Jedi, it was Luke's wife Mara who finally broke the silence.

"Who are you!?"

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On the planet Bakura, the only barrier between the Ssi-Ruuk and the rest of the galaxy recently elected Prime Minister Malinza Thanas glanced at the datapad in her hand, her people had just gained a full sector fleet from the Alliance as a thank you for their help during the Yuuzhan Vong War, she managed a tired smile, her planet had been trying to gain a sizeable defense force for decades, know with three Mon Calamari Home One-class Star Cruisers, five Victory-class Star Destroyers along with another thirty support craft to reinforce their three destroyers and two Ssi-Ruuk carriers, recently captured from the Ssi-Ruuvi's failed attempt to invade Bakura just two years ago, they could properly defend their little sector of space.

More good news followed, the P'w'eck who had rebelled against their former masters were settling in well with the human population, with many becoming a part of the defense forces both in space and on the ground, they had also brought a further three Shree-class battlecruisers with them, after freeing the entrapped souls and re-modifying them with Alliance technology they were ready to be added to the fleet, let the Ssi-Ruuk try to invade them now.

She relaxed back into her chair and silently thanked the force, Leia Organa had lived up to her word, she would have expected no less from the sister of Luke Skywalker, the man who helped take care of her when her mother, whom was a close friend of his was killed during the Correlian Insurrection. As she sat remembering the past her aide rushed into her office, his face a mask of horror.

"Madam Prime Minister" he managed "I think you should see this!"

Malinza got up from her chair and followed her aide to the main office of the planets parliament where a small crowd of politicians had gathered around a holo-set, she glanced at the hologram and froze, it showed the Ssi-Ruuk star cluster, only it seemed encompassed by swirling colours of energy.

"These images are just coming in from a spy satellite outside of the Ssi-Ruuk star cluster" the news reporter, a female human explained "As you can see the sight is incredible, its almost like the entire cluster vanished under this unnatural cloud of energy, the chief of state, Cal Omas, has called a meeting of the senate to decide on what course of action, if any, there is to take, meanwhile Imperial Grand Admiral Gilad Pallaeon, also Alliance Supreme Commander of the GACF has made it abundantly clear that he will send a fleet squadron to investigate"

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Deep within the daemon infested bowls of the Eye of Terror, where the traitor legions of Chaos called home a massive rip in the warp itself opened, shining with the daemonic energies of the warp, it stretched out into the void between galaxies, its openings large enough to swallow up an entire solar system, within the warp trillions of Daemons of different shapes and sizes howled their cursed war cries and cackled with evil laughter, gaining the attention of the four Chaos gods.

Khorne, the blood god, slowly began to take form several thousand kilometres away from the opening that lead to the newly created second eye, his entire body covered in bronze armour, with gold embroidering, the armour along with the exposed skin seemed to be covered by running layers of blood, his face, which was half covered by his helmet showed a pair of blood red eyes, he finally took form and unsheathing his ancient sword, pointing the blood covered blade towards the opening, the entire weapon pulsed with barely contained power and its whispers drove any daemons nearby into a frenzy.

He sensed where this portal lead and he revelled in the thought of a new galaxy, one that had never known the horrors of Chaos and therefore wouldn't be ready for them, but that galaxy, he knew, was only half of the battle, there were daemons in this new area of the warp, daemons who were unspoilt and untainted by the ruinous powers of chaos.

However he also felt the shockwaves of the second eyes birth rage through the two galaxies, reopening rifts in space, wormholes recently closed were forced open again and as he focused on their unique signatures he screamed an angry cry of rage, a wormhole had opened, and of all the places in this wretched galaxy it had to open in the Sol System, where the corpse emperors capital-world of Terra was situated.

Well what do you think, it's my first time writing about a Chaos god so bare with me on this okay? Anyway who are these people who appeared in the Jedi's chambers and what will happen know that a wormhole is opening between Terra and the SW galaxy? Find out in the next chapter.

Jedi Master Sabbath