Chapter 28
A Proper First Contact
The skies of the temporary Alliance capital world of Denon, a city world within the galactic core, similar to what Coruscant once was came alive with light blue energy as the wormhole materialised just over a hundred thousand kilometres away from its orbit, the defence forces acted immediately as just over a hundred Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Star Cruisers of different types broke orbit from their docking platforms and surrounded the newly created rift in space, their weapons primed and their scanners at full power.
A 19km long Executer-class Star Dreadnought known as the Leviathan, recently commissioned into the Alliance navy from the Mon Calamari shipyards, stood out from the others, dwarfing the smaller cruisers with its intimidating sword-like design, from the bridge Gilad Pallaeon, Supreme Commander of the combined Alliance space forces watched the beautiful swirls of the wormholes maw, the Supreme Commander wasn't a young man, in fact at eighty years old most men his age would have retired by know, but his eyes were as sharp as a hawks, showing that despite his age he wasn't decrepit, and his combat experience made the former Grand Admiral an essential part of the naval forces.
"Send in a probe droid" he said simply "Let's see where this wormhole leads"
"Yes sir" his aide said before relaying the order to the rest of the bridge, by the messy look of her long auburn hair the supreme commander guessed that she was asleep when the alarm sounded.
The Leviathan fired a probe droid from one of its two dozen frontal proton torpedo tubes, it flew across space and vanished through the void, once at the other side the probes pod disintegrated allowing it to escape into the new system, it immediately lengthened its communications antenna and started babbling old Imperial codes back to the other side, images appeared on the super star destroyers holo-projectors, showing a city planet similar to what Coruscant once was, surrounded by the deadliest orbital defenses that the Supreme Commander had ever seen, lines of powerful defense platforms that looked like they could tear an armada to pieces dotted the planets orbit, with several massive, spire shaped space stations, and thousands of warships of different shapes and sizes clustered in and around the defense zone, Pallaeon heard the gasps of amazement and fear from his bridge crew.
Over a hundred ships broke orbit and hovered towards the wormhole, their sizes ranging from a kilometer in length to twelve kilometers, their armoured hulls covered with hundreds of deadly weapons. Without taking his eyes off the sight the Supreme Commander spoke.
"Order the entire fleet to break orbit" he said to his aide "Every combat ready ship, just as a precaution, and get me the Senate"
Even as he spoke he saw yet more warships launch from their docking platforms, from Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers of varied type to older Dreadnought Cruisers, Providence-class Destroyer/Carriers, Nebulon-B Frigates, Hapan Battle-Dragons and Nova-class Cruisers, a swath of escort and picket ships swarming around them, from the far orbit of Denon's moon he saw the similar form of the second Executer-class vessel in the planets defense force, Nightshade, hover towards the strengthening line of warships.
"Supreme Commander" he heard his aide say, pointing towards the probes feed "Those ships there look like some of ours"
Pallaeon turned back to the feed and saw what his aide was pointing at, a small group of battered warships, docked in one of the many orbital docks surrounding a red planet; he recognized those ships immediately as four old Imperial-class Star Destroyers.
"Sir we're being hailed from the other side of the wormhole" an aide shouted from the crew pits "Its registering as an old Imperial code under an Admiral Halos"
"Joseph" Pallaeon said almost instinctively, he knew of the strange disappearance of the admiral's fleet over Coruscant nearly a year and a half ago, most of the galaxy knew about it "Put him through"
"It's nice to see a familiar face Grand Admiral" Joseph said as his image appeared on the deck, Pallaeon looked the man up and down, he seemed exhausted from lack of sleep, his skin was pale and there were noticeable bags under his eyes.
"Admiral" Pallaeon greeted, keeping his surprise at seeing the man in check "I heard from reports that your fleet was destroyed in the defense of Coruscant"
The admiral managed a tired smile in response "Reports of myself and my fleets destruction have been greatly exaggerated sir, with your permission we would like to return home"
"Permission granted admiral" Pallaeon replied.
"Thank you sir" Halos said "And I have several members of the Imperium of Mankind who are also asking for permission to pass"
"Imperium of Mankind" Pallaeon asked.
"That's the name of the most powerful empire in this galaxy sir" Halos replied "In fact we are in their capital system now"
"You and your fleet may come through admiral" Pallaeon said "But the Imperium officials will have to be cleared by the senate, can you tell them that"
"Two of their leaders are right here with me sir"
The image wavered and flickered as another two beings appeared on the deck, both were human, one was dressed in black robes and held a long staff in his pale right hand while the other wore red robes and seemed to be half machine, with implants and mechanics covering much of his exposed skin.
"Grand Admiral" Halos began "I introduce to you the Master of the Inquisition and the Fabricator General, two members of the ruling body of the Imperium"
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The atmosphere was so tense that it could be cut with a knife, the six Jedi masters stood unmoving in their lightsabre combat positions, a mixture of blue, green, red and violet blades alive and humming in their hands, at the other side of the chamber were the three armoured forms of the intruders, their wings spread out like a group of predatory birds ready to strike, their hued blades held in their hands. Finally Mara broke the silence.
"Who are you?" Mara asked "What are you?"
"We are Warp Angels" one said, the voice feminine "Who are you?"
"We are Jedi" Kyp answered, his crimson lightsabre held firmly in his two hands.
"Jedi?" another said "What are Jedi doing in the warp?"
"What do you mean" Cilghal said "You just appeared in our meditation chambers, this is the Jedi temple of Ossus and if you do not sheath your weapons we will be forced to act, there are a lot of younglings and padawans here that we are obligated to protect"
The three beings looked at each other and sheathed their swords, in response the Jedi deactivated their lightsabres and clipped them to their belts. Finally the lead Warp Angel took of her helmet, letting cascades of golden hair fall past her shoulders, as she finished taking it off the Jedi saw a beautiful, human-like woman with long gold hair that fell to the small of her back like a mane, pale yet smooth skin and red eyes that seemed to flare with some kind of incredible power, she glanced at each of them and bowed deeply, catching the Jedi off guard.
"My apologies for the intrusion" she said, scanning each of the six masters in the room, they were all powerful, she realized, but the man with ice blue eyes felt different from the others "I am River, Warrior-Priestess of the Temple of Fire, these are Fire-Guardians Tirana and Ikari" The two others simply nodded, not moving to take off their helmets.
"I am Luke Skywalker" the ice blue eyed human replied "This is my wife Mara-Jade Skywalker, Kyp Durron, Cilghal, Kirana Ti and Corran Horn"
"And you are six of the highest ranking Jedi here" she asked.
"I am the Grand master of the Jedi" Luke answered "My fellows are High Masters, half of the recently elected master's council"
The warp angel nodded, once again running her gaze over all present and smiled warmly, she drew her sword, making the Jedi immediately place their hands on their lightsabres, but instead of moving in to attack she simply threw it to the ground, her two guardians following suit.
"We have no cause to fight you Jedi" she said simply "In fact we have a favor to ask of you"
"Such as?" Kirana asked, River looked the woman up and down, she wore the simple brown robes that the rest were wearing, her hair was a deep auburn and long, running down past her shoulders, her eyes and skin were a dark brown and besides her strange energy weapon she also held a sort of staff, made of a strong wood in her right hand, a symbol of another force-sensitive order, she realized.
"We ask for sanctuary"
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After a full two hours of recalling patrol fleets from across the sector, the supreme commander considered that they had a fleet about the same size as the one the Imperium had on the other side of the wormhole. Thousands of starships had answered the call, with an additional four Executer-class Dreadnoughts and three 17km long Mon Calamari Viscount-class Star Defenders adding their considerable firepower to the already impressive welcoming party.
The four Star Destroyers under Admiral Halos had already come through the wormhole and one look of them told the supreme commander that they had been through hell, three of them were practically running on fumes, their hulls dotted with quick repair jobs that he hadn't seen since the fledgling Rebel Alliance, only the Vengeance, the new flagship of the admirals fleet was in descent shape as it came up alongside the Leviathan, docking along its portside.
The Supreme Commander waited for just over ten minutes until the admiral arrived on the massive bridge of the command ship, looking just as exhausted as he had looked on the hologram, the armour of the two stormtroopers that had accompanied him were chipped and sliced in several places, making them look like they had survived a number of deadly battles.
"Admiral Halos" Pellaeon greeted "Welcome home"
"Thank you sir" Halos said, a smile forming on his face "It's good to be home"
"The senate has agreed to allow the Imperium's diplomats to enter the system" Pellaeon said "But before we give them permission to enter our space I would like your opinion, what can we expect?"
"Well sir" Halos began, taking a deep breath "The Imperium's methods will seem barbaric to you at first, they are xenophobic and have a strong taboo against artificial intelligence, so I would recommend keeping their forces away from non-human worlds if you allow them access, they can also be rash and quick to judge, even before they fully understand a situation" he stopped and studied the old man before him, wondering if his words were having any effect, the Supreme Commanders face remained impassive "However after seeing the enemies they had to face over the last few millennium you would understand that they appear barbaric because those were the methods they needed to take to survive, there are enemies in their galaxy that would give the Yuuzhan Vong, or even the Galactic Empire in its prime a real run for their money"
"Go on" Pellaeon said simply.
"There was a time sir when they weren't such a militaristic power" he continued "Their leader, an immortal being known as the God-Emperor embarked on a great campaign to bring all of the human worlds in the galaxy together, protecting them against all threats, at their height they had the potential to turn into something similar to the Old Republic in its prime, it had good relations with several other alien powers. But that promise died when the leader of the military, a Warmaster named Horus and half of his Primarchs, the emperors own generals turned their backs on the Imperium and began a deadly, galaxy spanning civil war, they took half of the Imperium's space and ground forces, including half of their greatest warriors, the space marines with them" he took a deep breath and started again "The war was brutal and devastating, many worlds, along with their inhabitants were exterminated, after several years they attacked Terra, the Imperium capital directly and with the aftermath the Warmaster was killed, his forces scattered, but the battle cost the Imperium, they lost their God-Emperor, whose injuries were so severe that they had to place him on a life-support machine known as the Golden Throne, ever since the Imperium slowly began to deteriorate into what it is today"
"I see" Pellaeon said thoughtfully as he turned back towards the view-port, showing the breathtaking display of power and beauty of the wormhole "Admiral, our first duty is to defend the Galactic Alliance, and all of its citizens and worlds against any threat, therefore if these people present a direct threat to the populations, including the alien populations you would tell me, wouldn't you?"
"Yes sir"
"Well, are they a threat?"
"Definitely sir" Halos replied steadily "However I have made an offer to their ruling body, the High Lords of Terra that I think you will find interesting"
"Oh"
"Our medical technologies are far superior to theirs" Halos began "And I have made an offer to use a supply of our Bacta to replace the fluids in the Emperors golden throne, with him once again at the head of the Imperium I feel that our future developments will go smoother"
The former Imperial Grand Admiral thought this through and had to admit that it was an interesting proposition, with what he had just heard about this God-Emperor of man he would feel much safer in negotiations "I have to admit Halos that you may have a good idea, but what other offers have you made them?"
"Trading agreements sir" Halos replied "Schematics for an older version of the hyperdrive, the turbolaser battery and the tractor beam projectors, among a few, more minor arrangements"
"How old exactly was the hyperdrive schematics" the Grand Admiral asked pointedly, knowing from the preliminary reports sent to him that the hyperdrive was one of only a few advantages that they had, if it ever came to war, he knew he was being pessimistic but a military leader had to consider such things.
"I gave them the hyperdrive schematics from the Ruusan era sir" Halos answered with a smile curving his lips, the Ruusan era, or the New Sith Wars as the time was more commonly known happened over a thousand years ago "While it is considered fast to them, to us it is obsolete, being five sixths slower than our own, I had my engineers down tune our own hyperdrive's to make it look like we had given them our best faster than light technology"
"I have taught you well my student" Pellaeon appraised.
"One of the first things you taught me sir" Halos agreed "Never give away state of the art tech to a power that may become a threat to you"
"Well spoken" Pellaeon replied with a smile "I might make a Grand Admiral out of you yet"
"I look forward to that day sir" Joseph said with a smirk "So when are we expecting our guests to arrive?"
"Within the hour"
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An hour later the Imperium fleet came through the wormhole, first to arrive was at least twenty small ships, ranging in size from 500m in length to the size of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, they peeled away from the wormhole with military precision to allow the bigger ships access, eight bigger ships where next to come through, ranging in size from 4km to 9km in length, they too peeled aside, finally two large warships came through the wormhole, at least 12km long each, their hulls covered with plasma and lance batteries, the smaller vessels formed up alongside their larger comrades and firing up their engines came forward. From the bridge of the flagship of this expeditionary force recently made Lord Inquisitor Silvermaine starred out in awe at the incredible display of firepower set out before them, he knew exactly what this meant.
Welcome to our yard, but don't try anything funny.
Standing beside him was Inquisitor Vallace, her delicate, beautiful features also starring out at the welcoming party in awe, her gaze seemed fixed on one vessel in particular and as her teacher followed her stare he saw that his old apprentice had a good eye, a massive warship, at least 19km in length, 5km longer than the Retribution battleship he was on, approached them, its design was sleek and deadly, similar to that of a power-sword, he smiled. So that is an Executer Star Dreadnought, it's bigger than Halos described.
The battleship, with an escort of six new stream-lined Galactic-class Star Destroyers came up to them and stopped alongside them, showing them just how large the dreadnought truly was, he heard a snort from beside him and turned to see the military leader of the force, he was a fairly old individual with short white hair and beard , his eyes were a sharp blue with a scar running down his left eye, this was Admiral Alexander Julius, a man who was present at the last two Black Crusades.
"Sure it's big" he snorted "But looks aren't everything, I bet with two battleships I could blow it out of the sky"
"Keep your weapons powered down admiral" Silvermaine replied, meaning not just the ships armaments but his tongue as well "I don't think testing their most powerful warship would be what they consider peaceful negotiations" he then looked out at the clouds of warships surrounding the city-planet "And that Dreadnought isn't the only one in their arsenal, there are seven similar sized vessels in this system"
"Very well Lord Inquisitor" Julius replied, obviously disappointed at not being able to test the Leviathan. But if these negotiations went well then he may see such vessels in action soon enough, hopefully alongside his forces.
"Sir we are being hailed" one of the officers reported.
"Put it through"
The holographic image of an old man, wearing a white uniform encrusted with gold appeared before them, he looked around eighty years old, his face showed the signs of age with trimmed white hair and an equally well trimmed moustache, his brown eyes seemed to stare into their very souls, and when he spoke the voice demanded attention "Inquisitors and Admiral, welcome to the Galactic Alliance, I am Gilad Pallaeon, Supreme Commander of the Alliance Starfleet"
From the shadows of the bridge the Lord Inquisitor, along with Robyn and the Admiral stepped forward "Supreme Commander Pallaeon I am Lord Inquisitor Silvermaine, we request permission to board your vessel"
"Permission granted Lord Inquisitor"
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Far away from the monumental events of Denon, between the world of Bakura and the anomaly a full fleet squadron of warships, known as Reaper Squadron, travelled the hyperspace ways, one 3km long Gauntlet-class Star Destroyer, three Galactic-class Star Destroyers and two Liberty-class Mon Calamari Star Cruisers made up the bulk of the force with over seventy support and picket vessels.
At the lead of the fleet, onboard the Gauntlet Star Destroyer Deliberator, Admiral Vensis sat on his command chair starring out at the streaming star lines that passed by his fleet, no matter how many times he travelled through hyperspace he would always consider this sight one of the most beautiful in the galaxy. He relaxed into his command chair listening to the steady hum of the ships great engines, the beeps and hums of the control consoles and communications systems of the bridge, inside the man was an explorer who had always wanted to travel unknown routes and discover new worlds and races, he smirked at this, he should have been born several thousand years earlier when such a thing was commonplace.
The Arkanian Admiral also relished the chance that his fleet was going on a simple investigation mission and not as part of an invasion of an enemy stronghold, or defence of a threatened world, this would be simple, he and his men would be the first to see this strange phenomenon that enveloped the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, little did he know that this seemingly simple investigation would be anything but.
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The Thunderhawk transport fired its propulsion systems as it entered the massive hanger of the Leviathan, coming to a halt in the centre of the kilometre long hanger, the ramp-way lowered and Lord Inquisitor Silvermaine, followed by Inquisitor Vallace, Admiral Julius and a full squad of heavily armoured Battle-sisters walked onto the metal decking, ahead or them, positioned in two long lines on either side of their route was a contingent of blue robed Alliance Honour Guard, not a simple squad like on Halos ships but a full company, their blaster rifles shouldered and their vibroblades sheathed. Behind the right line was roughly a battalions worth of Alliance marines, set out in at least five lines, their blaster rifles held ceremoniously against their chests.
As the Imperium contingent began their march forward the Lord Inquisitor took a passing glance at the guardsmen, many were human but there was also aliens among their number, his psychic senses showed that everyone was tense, including his own contingent, this was obviously a new experience for both the Admiral and the Battle-Sisters who on a normal day would usually shoot an alien instead of walking by them.
He looked up to the rafters of the hanger and immediately saw why there weren't many fighters in the bay, they were above them, hundreds of them set in racks, one on top of the other from X-wings and A-wings to TIE Interceptors and Defenders. They continued walking until they reached the Alliance contingent, at the lead was Supreme Commander Palleaon with a small group of admirals behind him, including Admiral Joseph Halos and a man dressed in the brown robes of a Jedi knight.
"Lord Inquisitor Silvermaine" Palleaon began "Welcome to the Leviathan"
"Thank you Supreme Commander" the old Inquisitor replied "This is Inquisitor Vallace and Admiral Julius"
He then swept his gaze over the other members of the Alliance contingent, one he recognised easily as Admiral Halos but the other three he didn't know, two were dressed in the olive coloured uniforms of Alliance admirals, one was a middle-aged woman, although she looked considerably young, she had long coppery hair that seemed to stretch down to the small of her back, her features were smooth yet slightly pale and her eyes were a deep green, the other was a middle-aged man with dark brown hair, showing the first signs of going grey and brown eyes.
"You already know Admiral Halos" Palleaon began "This is Admiral Daala, General Antilles and Jedi Master Kyle Katarn" the Jedi then raised his hands and pulled back his hood showing a man with brownish-grey hair and beard, his eyes were a dark brown, the Jedi Master greeted them with a nod.
The Supreme Commander and his entourage led the Imperium delegation through the vast corridors of the Super Star Destroyer, the ships interior design was similar to one of Admiral Halos Star Destroyers, the white walls were similarly an immaculate white and well lit with aides, soldiers and, to their surprise droids going about their daily duties. They continued on until they came to a briefing room, similar in design to the one on the Vigilance but it was three times the size.
"First of Lord Inquisitor I would like to say welcome to our yard" the Supreme Commander began.
"Thank you Supreme Commander"
"However we are worried about a few things that were in Admiral Halos report" Palleaon continued "Including his encounters with Imperium forces, one thing that concerned me was the constant hostile run ins with the Inquisition, first an attack by an Inquisitor called Delshon and then a surprise attack by an Inquisition fleet over your chief forge-world with the lose of one of our Star Destroyers, the killing of its entire crew, plus over fifteen thousand casualties on the other Star Destroyers"
Robyn flinched instinctively at the mention of the incident; Joseph had been like a ghost afterwards, as if the deaths of each man and woman under his command had put a weight onto his very soul, he had mistrusted the Inquisition before, but the incident at Terra had been the final straw, she wasn't surprised that he had reported about the incident.
"We apologize for our brethrens actions sir" Silvermaine said "It was inexcusable and I assure you that they have been arrested and tried for their actions"
"Nevertheless for future encounters we must ask that the Inquisition keep its black-ships out of our territory unless it has been agreed unanimously by the senate" Daala interjected "However the Admiral has expressed that you, Lord Inquisitor Silvermaine and Inquisitor Vallace are trustworthy and honourable people, you have earned his respect and trust over the last year and a half"
"We are honoured by his trust" Silvermaine said "And we will contact the High Lords and let them know of your request"
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Deep within the dark energies of the second eye the spirits of all those who died began to gather, morphing together and forming a blob of warp energy, the blob slowly began to take shape, taking the form of a giant cocoon. All around the recently created cocoon were thousands of Chaos vessels of different shapes and sizes, their numbers creating a black mass, blotting out the swirling clouds around them.
They knew that this would happen, the incantations that the Black Legion sorcerers had used to create the second eye were forbidden by the four Dark Gods, even the God of Sorcery, Tzeentch, considered the incantation to be forbidden, because it was known to create powerful beings in its aftermath.
All that was needed was a catalyst, an emotion that dominated all of the others and in this case the Daemon Princes and Chaos Generals within the fleet felt that emotion as clear as day, they revelled in the feeling, like it was an addictive drug, this emotion was fear and it spread out across them like a tidal wave, its tendrils reaching out past the boundaries of the eye in a new breed of shockwave.
These waves of dark warp energy would only grow in intensity until the creature was born, and like the Eldar's fall, where Slaanesh was born the warp would echo and pulse with the laughter of another bloodthirsty dark god.
Well what do you think, I've been planning on this chapter for some time and have been looking forward to putting it up, anyway in the next chapter the shockwaves from the second Eye will not go unnoticed for long.