Chapter 52

Proposals & Alliances

Unknown Location

Craftworld Siam-Hann

Anakin stood in a circular chamber which was considered completely alien to his senses. This was ironic since he had visited and grown accustomed to many alien societies in his past life, both when he was a Jedi knight and later as a Sith Lord. The room, the entire world like vessel was made of a substance called wraithbone, a material which shimmered and rippled from a simple psychic touch, which could change colour based on a person's emotion.

For a moment Anakin stood there, transfixed on this material until the wraithbone lit up like a torch above him, illuminating six chairs placed in a semicircle several meters above. Sitting on these chairs were the six Eldar of the Seer council. Starring down upon him with harsh eyes, some were difficult to read, their emotions firmly hidden behind psychic shields while others let their disgust radiate through the chamber as swirls and waves of dark colour. Anakin didn't back down from them, instead he held his head high and returned their stares.

Finally the Farseer's seat illuminated itself with the beautiful form of Stormwind, dressed in a simple set of crimson and white seer robes. Their eyes locked and memories flooded through the two of them, showing each others lives before this meeting. The Farseer sifted through Anakin's memories, how he was born as a slave on Tatooine, how he was found by the Jedi Order, the trials to his knighthood, the Clone Wars, his fall to darkness, his years spent hunting the remains of the order down, the Galactic Civil War and finally his redemption and death at Endor.

The Farseer's eyes widened once she reached his first death, she had never heard of a mortal, even one with the potential of Anakin returning from death. She schooled her expression and sifted through the last of his memories before closing their connection. She then relayed what she had learned to her advisory council of seers. Many were surprised, some frightened, others suspicious.

"Anakin Skywalker" one Seer finally said, a beautiful female Eldar with perfect porcelain coloured skin and long pitch black hair "We thank you and your forces for your…assistance in ridding our Craftworld of the Darklings"

"Assistance" another said, this one an aging male whose skin was lined with wrinkles and grey streaked white hair, his black eyes starring at Anakin with unconcealed revulsion "If that's what you can call it Seer Talinythy…I call it endangering the entire Craftworld with their vile presence. We could have dealt with the Darklings on our own Mon-Keigh, we didn't need you!"

"My apologies" Anakin replied calmly, though his dark impulses were to force choke the life out of the senile old man "But one of our own was on your Craftworld at the time of the raid. We couldn't just leave her and her newly born child. You may not have needed us honoured Seer but if we hadn't have intervened your loses would have been greater"

"Your reckless and stupid actions nearly cost the life of our Farseer and several Seers" the old man retorted before sitting back in his chair with a smug expression "But what could we have expected from your kind. You Mon-keigh are a stupid race after all"

Anakin bristled at that remark but by some miracle kept his anger in check, instead he clenched his teeth for a moment before giving a completely fake smile. That one he learned from Padme, where was his wife when he needed her? She would have been best at this.

"If we are stupid honoured seer we have a good excuse. We can blame it on our races youth" he began, his voice still cool and controlled "What excuse can you give for your arrogance old man?"

It was the old Seers turn to bristle, his very eyes were suddenly alight with warp power and his teeth were grinding together in barely contained fury "You arrogant little-"

"That's enough" a voice, soft yet carrying incredible power resounded through the chamber "You mock us with your pettiness Seer Silghall"

The old Seer grimaced and became silent, but his cold, disgusted eyes did not leave Anakin.

"My apologies for my Seers behaviour Anakin Skywalker" the Farseer began "But he has lived a long life and feels that humans are not to be trusted"

"I do not blame him for his mistrust honoured Farseer" Anakin replied with a deep bow "I was out of line myself"

"You have another reason for your visit son of the suns" she continued, surprising Anakin for a moment by using the name the ancient Jedi used to affiliate the Chosen One.

"Yes I do honoured Farseer" Anakin replied and prepared himself both mentally and through the force before he began "We wish for Siam-Hann's aide in this war against Chaos. You're experience in dealing with these daemons would be invaluable to both us and the Alliance as a whole"

The room was ghastly silent, there were no insults thrown, no words exchanged between the Seers but the wraithbone seemed to shine with swirling waves of thousands of colours, some which Anakin's sight could not register. Finally the Farseer spoke.

"We understand the position your galaxy is in son of suns" she began "But we neither have the numbers or the willpower to face Chaos in open war. Even with a galaxy-spanning empire like the Alliance beside us. I am afraid that unless our race is directly threatened then we will not interfere"

"The gateway to your home galaxy is closed honoured Farseer" Anakin began, knowing that if he heard that in his youth then he would have blurted something he'd regret and make a fool of himself, oh how living with nothing to lose for two decades could change a person "Chaos continues to overflow our territories like a raging tidal wave. At this rate, even with the Imperium backing us the Alliance will crumble and die under the onslaught. I have seen it in my dreams. Eventually once the main threat is taken away Chaos will spread and take over the last few pockets of resistance. That includes Siam-Hann as well"

Stormwind was completely silent, taking in the words from this Mon-Keigh and measuring them in her mind. Her memories returned to the vision she had when Mara Jade appeared on her Craftworld nearly a year ago. Her homes fleets fighting alongside their vessels against an unknown and terrible foe, she had shared this vision with her council of Seers. It was the main reason they had allowed Mara to stay. They had not forgotten her vision, for she felt some of her Seers express their wavering thoughts to the rest of the council.

"I feel that we may need to debate over this son of suns" she said finally "Do not take this as a good sign for we may still not fight in your war"

"Thank you Farseer" Anakin replied with a deep bow before continuing "My fleet is set to move out soon to a nation known as the Imperial Remnant to try and end a Chaos spawned civil war but I will have several of my vessels stay behind with you and move your Craftworld to a safer location"

------

Luke sat on the edge of the white hospital bed looking down upon the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. Mara lay under the opulent white blanket, her chest rising and falling with her rhythmic breathing. Their son Ben lay curled up against her stomach while little Eliza lay asleep in a makeshift crib beside her bed. He breathed out a sigh, after several hours of tearful and joyous reunion everyone but him was asleep.

Many of her wounds had been healed by the Eldar's advanced technology, the gashes had been resealed and the dark Eldar toxins had been removed from her body. Her recovery would be slow, but she would recover. On the bed to his wife's right and left lay Jaina, sleeping off the anti-venoms that the Eldar supplied her and Tahiri, her leg and ribs tapped up with bacta rap, also blissfully unconscious. Jacen had betrayed the Jedi and joined the Sith and in the room adjacent to them lay the blanket covered bodies of two Jedi masters and seven Clones. Victory had come at a terrible cost and Luke knew that it was just the beginning.

At the moment though that did not matter to him, as he saw his wife and two children together again after a year apart he felt more at peace, more happy than he had in a long time. Mara was with him again and the galaxy seemed a little brighter because of it. He would worry about the War in the Outer-rim, the Imperial Civil War, the Sith's rebirth and Chaos later.

As he felt himself finally seep to blissful darkness for a few hours he was roused by a blunt object as it connected rather painfully with his knee. He jumped up with a yelp and scanned the entire medical wing, looking for anyone who would have thrown the object, a small gimmer stick which lay on the floor several feet away from him. As he knelt down to pick up the stick he noticed a small set of green clawed feet under the other side of the bed.

He stood and slowly walked around the bed, trying to see who the visitor was before the gimmer stick flew out of his hands and spun around the bed. The little green visitor grabbed it and started laughing before beginning to move, leaning heavily on his cane while he walked.

"Sleep later you will" the little creature said as he rounded the corner of the bed and starred back up at an awestruck Luke with slightly teasing eyes.

"Master Yoda" Luke gapped before clamping his jaw shut and falling into a small arm chair beside his wife's bed. Who by some miracle of the force was still asleep with their two children.

Yoda limped up toward the chair that Luke just fell into and after a moment of comical silence smacked his former pupils left leg with his cane. The present Grand Master jumped out of his chair with another yelp, favouring his leg for the second time in the last ten seconds of meeting his formerly deceased Jedi teacher.

"Sleep later you will" Yoda repeated "Needed on the bridge you are. Let your spouse and younglings rest you should"

Before Luke could respond the little master turned and started hobbling out of the medical wing. Shaking his head at what had just occurred Luke jumped out of his chair and jogged out after the former Grand Master, letting his wife and children sleep peacefully beside his niece and his ward.

"Master" Luke began with a stutter "How did you? When did you?"

Luke's sudden stuttering had Yoda croaking laughter, stopping and leaning on his little cane to stop himself from keeling over with mirth. Luke found himself smiling slightly at his own stammering. In two days he had been reunited with his wife and his newly born child and now he runs into his former Jedi teacher, the man who had held the position of Grand Jedi Master before him. Finally after the little troll regained control of himself he explained.

"Apologize to you I do, meet with you when you first arrived I should, but need for secrecy there was"

Luke nodded.

"Gone against the old code you have" Yoda said "Given into your emotions you have, explain this to me you shall"

"Yes master" Luke replied with a nod and, taking in a deep breath started to say the words that he had been turning around in his mind since he founded the New Jedi Order "I feel that the old code was flawed in many ways. One of the worst in that code is that the Jedi were not allowed to love, the old order was supposed to be peacekeepers, watching over the republic but how could you have watched over the masses when you kept yourselves confined to your ivory towers" he gauged the ancient master, looking for any sign of emotion but Yoda's face was set in stone.

"You separated yourselves from everyone else, your predecessor of untold centuries ago stopped your knights from feeling emotions, outlawing it and turning the Jedi into magicians who the people considered more to be feared than seen as defenders" Luke continued, pushing his point home "I felt that in order for the Jedi to gain a fresh start we needed to abolish the old code, break the barriers, show that the Jedi are made out of normal people"

Yoda was silent as Luke finished his explanation, weighing the argument in his mind down to the finest detail before looking up at his former pupil again "You love her"

"With every fibre of my being master" Luke replied "And that love gives me more strength than anything else in the galaxy. Ask any one of my knights who are married or seeing someone, even those who are not and you will hear the same answer"

"Easily backfire on you it can" Yoda pointed out "Losing a loved one fills the other with sorrow and fear. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate-"

"Hate leads to suffering" Luke finished solemnly.

"Remember what happened to your father in his past life you should" Yoda continued.

"He was alone with no one to converse his feelings to but a madman" Luke retorted flatly "He was afraid of going to you for help because Jedi were not allowed to love according to the doctrine of the time. That was a major reason for his downfall master"

Yoda continued to stare into the eyes of the younger man for several moments before slumping his shoulder in defeat "Made a good argument you have" he conceded "One that my support and the support of many others you have"

Luke found himself gawking once again at the diminutive Jedi master, he had run over how this talk would go a hundred times and each time he had thought that master Yoda would have come up with some argument against how he revived the Jedi order. In all his thoughts he had never considered that his teacher would side with him.

"Surprised you I did" Yoda said with a good hearted cackle before he used the force to open the turbolift to the bridge and stepped inside, Luke following close behind.

"Completely master" Luke replied as the lift flew from the floor they were on all the way to the bridge within the time span of a few seconds. The doors opened and both the former and current Grand Masters stepped out into the controlled chaos of the bridge.

"Master Yoda" Anakin greeted with a nod from his place at the edge of the command deck, starring out into the long star lines of hyperspace.

"Knight Skywalker" Yoda returned as he hobbled beside the elder Skywalker and leaned against his gimmer stick. Luke walked up and stopped to his fathers left.

"How's Mara?" Anakin asked.

"Sleeping" Luke replied with a smile "How are things here?"

"We'll be entering the Remnants space within the next three hours" Anakin replied, speaking to both Yoda and Luke "We will set a course for Bastion and offer our help. I think its time the Jedi stepped out of the shadows"

"Agreed with this I do" Yoda replied "Stop this civil war we must or destroy the remnant it will"

------

The Imperial star destroyer started to slowly spin out of control as its engines exploded in a cascade of blue fire. Its opponent didn't halt the attack but instead continued firing their main turbolaser batteries until the battered and crippled destroyer exploded, spraying fire and debris everywhere. The culprit, another destroyer with the chaos eight pointed stars engraved over the old Imperial insignias continued on into the main battle.

Gilad Pallaeon, Supreme Commander of the GADF watched the battle with both great anger and almost overwhelming sorrow, how did it come to this. How did this civil war come to be? He looked out at the battle taking place around his command shipas star destroyers, both loyalist and traitor exchanged fire in close quarters. The battle had spread across the system, deteriorating into several large skirmishes.

An explosion rocked the bridge of the 19km long behemoth as it continued its advance, several consoles sparked and exploded under the strain, sending the operators attending them crashing to the floor, some on fire from the explosions, others groaning before stumbling back to their feet.

"We're in the middle of it know" Pallaeon grunted as another series of tremors assaulted his ship. A bright explosion signalled the death of another warship, traitor or Imperial, he couldn't tell, for his gaze was firmly set on the Grand Cruiser ahead of him.

"Gather the fleet" Pallaeon growled "Reform the lines and call in the reserves!"

"Yes sir"

Slowly the surviving star destroyers reformed into a tight circle surrounding the Leviathan, their weapons firing long lances of ice blue and crimson fire upon the surrounding ships. Five more star destroyers jumped in a few moments later and fired in unison upon a duo of traitor destroyers, punching through their shields and disintegrating their armour with the fire of their main turbolaser batteries.

Their momentum was short lived however as the Grand Cruiser flew in towards the outer destroyer at ramming speed, its guns firing streams of lance fire. The star destroyer positioned at the far side took the brunt of the attack, losing its shields within the first volley. Small explosions and fires sprouted from its superstructure, opening several decks up to space before it simply detonated, vanishing in a flash of white light.

The main turbolasers of the surviving four returned fire upon their much larger adversary, breaking off their original formation and fleeing in different directions as their gun batteries continued to fire. Their squadrons of Tie fighters and Interceptors flying through their hangers and diving towards the Grand Cruiser like a swarm of insects, only to meet a horde of the Chaos ships own fighters.

If there was one ship that the Leviathan needed to take out of the fight it was the Grand Cruiser, it was tearing their escorts apart with its massive guns. This was proven as another volley of lance beams shattered the shields of another destroyer and sliced through its starboard hull armour, crumpling the durasteel before detonating.

"Hard to port" Captain Natha growled "Ninety degrees, take us on an intercept course against that ship" he pointed at the Grand Cruiser and gained a grim set of affirmatives as a response as the bridge crew relayed the orders and the pilots turned the star dreadnought towards her opponent.

"Silence the guns"

"Sir"

"I said silence the guns" Pallaeon repeated angrily, gaining a fearful nod from his captain. The Supreme Commander watched carefully as the weapon batteries of the super star destroyer silenced themselves one by one "Full ahead captain, all available power to the shields!"

"Yes sir"

The surrounding traitors opened up upon them as they passed, bombarding the shields with their ion and turbolaser batteries, causing them to flicker blue. More control consoles on the bridge began to spark and explode as they were overwhelmed, alarms started to blare as the shields started to falter but still the Leviathan continued on its course, taking the beating that she was receiving.

"Sir"

"She's a big ship captain" Pallaeon muttered as another set of tremors assaulted the bridge "She can handle it!"

They were beside the Grand Cruiser now, the smaller but still powerful vessel firing what guns it could upon the super star destroyer. The alarms seemed to increase in volume, the shields had failed. The lances were eating through hull armour now. Several explosions that could have decimated a normal star destroyer rocked the flagship and Pallaeon found himself holding onto the arms of his chair to keep him steady.

"Sir!"

"Full stop" Pallaeon ordered briskly "Fire!"

Hundreds if not thousands of weapon batteries from main to point turbolaser and ion cannons opened up with such noise that it popped Pallaeons ears. With such a mass of crimson and sapphire flashes that it temporarily blinded him. Beam after beam of the Leviathan's weapon batteries collided with the enemy flagships void shields, eventually shattering them with the intensity of the bombardment. The pure magnitude of the barrage then started to eat through the adimantium armoured hull, sections were completely opened up to space, and explosions dotted the 8km long Grand Cruiser until it could take no more.

The enemy flagship suffered several catastrophic detonations across its entire superstructure, the size of the explosions covering the ship like a blanket from its engines all the way up to the tip of its shield-shaped nose before one final detonation erased its vile presence from the space ways.

"Damage report" Natha boomed.

"The main front turbolaser batteries are down, shields are completely depleted, we have several decks open to space and we've lost all power to the engines. We may be able to manoeuvre sir but not much else"

"Evacuate the affected decks and seal them off, get repair crews to the crippled weapon batteries and divert any unnecessary power to the shields" Natha shouted before surveying the damaged bridge, over a quarter of the control consoles in the crew pits below him were sparking or on fire with several officers and crew members lying on the floor, injured from nasty cuts and burns. Some weren't moving, others were screaming in pain "Get me medical teams to the bridge and all affected areas immediately. The sick bays going to be overflowing"

Another explosion rocked the ship and both the Supreme Commander and Captain looked out of the main ports to see a line of traitor star destroyers approaching them, firing continuously in a hope of silencing the Leviathan once and for all.

But even as damaged as she was the Super Star Destroyer was more than a worthy opponent. All of her still functioning point and main turbolaser batteries opened fire in return, destroying a star destroyer outright and crippling another. The ten survivors continued to batter the pocketed hull armour of the command ship, creating more openings. Clouds of oxygen, equipment and personnel billowed out of them to the deathly silence of open space.

Just as defeat was certain Pallaeon noticed a mass of white flashes in the distance. He quickly called up a hologram of the area of space, magnifying it to the point that he could see who the recent arrivals were. He finally found himself grinning at the wall of armour and weapons approaching them, the Imperium had arrived.

------

Lord Admiral Hunt sat on his black command chair surveying the battle taking place before him with the aide of several holo-screens. The bridge of his flagship was dank and dark with its only sources of light being glow-lamps, consoles and other computing systems which were arrayed below him, the serfs inputting commands and the astropaths hooked up to their consoles by sockets in their necks and helmets, conversing with the machine spirit.

"Has the crusade fleet arrived?"

"All six hundred and fifty seven vessels reporting in and ready for your orders sir" the head astropath replied from the console beside him "The emperor smiles on us today"

"Indeed" Hunt replied as he continued to gaze into the battle, taking in everything and nothing with his hollowed eyes. The battle for Yaga Minor was a widespread one with skirmishes both large and small taking place across the system. The orbital shipyards had been properly shielded from the Chaos led traitor attacks but it had cost the Imperials of this galaxy dearly.

"My lord the Leviathan is failing"

"Where is it?"

An image appeared before the Lord Admiral showing the impressive star dreadnought floating in a mess of wreckage and debris. Its once proud white hull was scorched black and in some places covered with cracks and holes, opening her up to space. Half of her gun emplacements had gone silent including almost all of the main cannons. The scars of a long and gruelling battle were prominent on her, a battle which was further in evidence by the remains of a Grand Cruiser and five of their own destroyer-type vessels.

"My lord the machine spirit is restless for a proper fight" Tech-Priest Lathar said from his own console, speaking with his battleships machine spirit. Hunt closed his eyes, yes it had been a while since he and the crew of the Crying Saint had seen a proper battle. His crew was restless. The entire ship seemed so tense that it was palpable in the very recycled air that they breathed.

"Power up the weapons" he ordered sharply and felt a sense of pride when he saw the crew move with the speed and precision of the professionals they were, the countless drills had done them a world of good "Raise shields, engines to full power. Take heed men for no matter where we are in the universe the emperors blessing will forever be upon us, let us continue his work to cleanse the wicked and show the vile heretics the errors of their ways. Let us show them with rivers of their own blood!"

A chorus of whooping cheers and chants almost drowned out all other noise as the men showed their support, fired up by his speech and ready to destroy the traitors until not one remained in the system. He hid a grin. Let us show the Alliance what the warriors of the Imperium were truly capable off.

"Forward Lance batteries fire"

The main batteries of the Crying Saint released their barrage of destructive beams, each one specially placed to clear a path between them and the struggling Leviathan. Traitor vessels that got in their way disintegrated under their bombardment as the battleship was joined by the guns of over six hundred of her fellows.

Eventually the Leviathan and the Saint were side by side, protected by a barrier of armour and weapons as their respective fleets joined forces, firing upon the traitor fleet squadrons even when they broke formations and fled to open space. The battle was won but the Imperium had given into their bloodlust by now and didn't stop until the last surviving traitor vessel jumped away.

By then the area of space where the battle waged was littered by the twisted wreckage of warships and starfighters, both loyalist and traitor alike. The Imperium had lost three frigates and a cruiser had suffered minor damage, but nothing that couldn't be repaired within a few hours.

Hunt slumped back in his chair as the men surrounding him began to cheer, enjoying the sweet taste of the first battle and victory that they had fought for in this galaxy, but the Lord Admiral knew that this was only just the beginning.

"Tech-Priest" he said calmly "Get me Supreme Commander Pallaeon"

------

Pallaeon winced as he regained consciousness and placed a hand on his forehead, feeling the warm flowing blood stream down his features, dying his white hair and moustache crimson. Slowly he sat up to survey the state of his Flagships Bridge, feeling his joints and spine scream with the effort as he did so.

The bridge was a mess of sparking and charred control and communications consoles, severed cables hung dangling from cracked and damaged bulkheads, their stumps sparking with electricity and exploding fuses. The dead and wounded were laid out across the floor with medical teams moving as fast as they could to tell who was dead and who was injured badly enough to be moved to a probably overcrowded medical wing.

One medic, a young Zabrak woman with long raven black hair tied in a bun, revealing her small crown of horns on her forehead bent down and gently tilted his head to get a better look at his cut. He made a move to resist her and tell her to move on but she stayed doggedly with him.

"The cut is deep sir" she said, her brow furrowed as she continued to sanitize the wound "You'll lose consciousness if it isn't dealt with"

As she finished cleaning the cut and started pulling out several rolls of bandages he was called back to his chair by the captain, the Lord Admiral wished to see him. Pallaeon allowed the medic to support him as he limped to his command chair and started to push a few buttons on the arm, answering the Lord Admirals hails.

Hunt appeared before him, sitting stiffly upright in his command chair, his cool eyes falling on the medic. To her credit she ignored him and continued to bandage her superior's forehead with bacta rap.

"Lord Admiral" Pallaeon boomed, sounding stronger than he felt "We thank you for your aide"

"Glad we could be of service" Hunt said as his eyes left the medic and settled on him, his eyes were accusing and his jaw was clenched but besides that he kept himself professionally "What damage did you receive?"

"Shields are down, hyperdrive offline, sublight damaged, all but the starboard main turbolaser batteries offline and several decks are open to space" Pallaeon listed off "It will take the Yaga shipyards a month to fully repair her, and that would be the patch up work"

"How is the medical situation?"

"I'll tell you when I get the report" Pallaeon said before summoning Natha to him and asking the same question.

"The medical wing is overcrowded sir" Natha whispered "There are just too many injured and not enough healers"

"Thank you captain" Pallaeon replied as he turned back to the Lord Admiral "Our medical wing is getting dangerously overcrowded"

"Then I will give you the full resources and staff of our medical wings" Hunt replied "I'll have shuttles full of medics and supplies ready and sent within the hour"

"Thank you Lord Admiral" Pallaeon replied "Also send the majority of your crusade to Bastion. We have it on good intelligence that the traitors are preparing a major attack on our capital"

Hunt nodded, traced the sign of an aquila along his chest and then signed off leaving the Supreme Commander to prepare for the Imperium medical shuttles. He turned to the medic who had just finished rapping his head with bandages.

"Permission to speak sir" she asked.

"Granted"

"He scares me" she said hesitantly "The way he looked at me made me think that he was going to pull a blaster"

The Supreme Commander nodded, knowing that her fear was well founded. Although Hunt was not as xenophobic as some of the others he was still not above pulling a bolt pistol on a random alien or droid and squeezing the trigger. Pallaeon tightened his jaw. The Imperium delegates just gave him a bad feeling.

"I want an extra few squads of stormtroopers to be placed on guard duty wherever the Imperium medics set up" he said quietly to Natha "Just as a precaution and to break up any…disagreements"

Natha nodded, like every other high ranking officer he had read the incident reports that had been streaming through the Alliance command about how certain groups within the Imperium relief forces had attacked Alliance civilians for no foreseeable reason other than they being alien or droid, there were even a few reports of them attacking humans who didn't share their beliefs. Naturally if word of this got out into the main populations it would start a mass panic.

------

As Hunt signed off from his communication link with the Alliance Supreme Commander he turned to his second in command and saw the disgust clearly set in the middle-aged mans features.

"Prep six Thunderhawks for emergency take off and fill them to bursting point with medical personnel and supplies captain"

"Aye sir" the captain replied, traced an aquila across his chest and spun on his heel to leave.

"An alien" Hunt growled inaudibly "He allowed an alien to heal his wounds, it's blasphemous to say the least"

"That it is sir" Tech-Priest Lathar replied as he stalked up towards the Lord Admiral's side, his crimson cloak billowing as he walked. He stopped alongside his superior and tapped the butt of his tech-staff against the steel grating as if to show his arrival. Hunt liked Lathar, the Mechanicus tech-priest was good at what he did and he was also not afraid to speak his mind, even to someone of his rank.

"And what is the Adeptus Mechanicus's opinion on this matter" Hunt asked, knowing the answer from the gleam in the Tech-Priest organic right eye.

"With all of the new technology coming in we couldn't be happier. Not since the Great Crusade when the Omnissiah led us did we have so much to pull apart and put back together again" the Tech-Priest swept his staff in a slow swing as if to add weight to his speech "The machine spirits of their vessels are more aware than our own and considerably better conversation, if a bit squeamish when we take it apart. Their vehicles, weapons and other technologies are also very fascinating. There is enough here to keep us busy for decades, maybe centuries to come"

"I see" Hunt replied "So the position of the Adeptus Mechanicus is friendship with these people instead of extermination?" he knew that the Mechanicus didn't really care about the xenos and AI which would make any normal individual scream heresy. As long as they had machines and new technology to research they wouldn't care about the greater workings.

"That I cannot say my lord" Lathar replied "But I do know that the Fabricator General is one of the main supporters of the Alliance within the Imperium, although he would still support the Imperium if he was outvoted and the High Lords decided to go to war"

"Which sadly will not be for a few more decades" Hunt added, biting his lower lip and drawing a slight drip of blood "No matter. Get me Admiral O'Connell, we will send him and a half of the crusade to Bastion to reinforce their defences. I shall remain behind until the Supreme Commander attains another command ship"

------

Another set of flashes heralded the arrival of yet another fleet squadron, this one made up of twelve Imperial II star destroyers with over three hundred escort and picket vessels. Several support ships followed including a handful of missile frigates and a single wedge shaped Interdictor-class star destroyer, the four domes situated on the sides a testament to the gravity-well generators they possessed.

Daemon Prince Kabaal looked upon the new arrivals and then back at the mass of warships arrayed around him. It was an armada worthy of Chaos. His battleship, the Warp Dragon stood out in front of the armada with over two thousand warships of varying sizes arrayed behind her from Imperial-class star destroyers to Defender, and Nebula-classes. Star Cruisers were in turn surrounded by them which were between 3km to 8km in length. There were even a few Executer star dreadnoughts and a cluster of their predecessor Super-class star destroyers.

Chaos had a presence as well with frigates, destroyers and cruisers dotted within the well organised Imperial traitor fleet squadrons. The sorcerers within casting spells and chanting incantations to prepare the recently gathered armada for the approaching battle, the very dark gods must have been smiling upon them in order for so many to have come, victory was a dead certainty.

He turned around to inspect the council of separatist admirals and chaos lords arrayed in front of him. The lords standing out by towering over their new found 'allies' by at least a full head, their armour ripped and dented to show their frequent use in battle and their weapons sheathed proudly at their sides. In contrast the admirals who were once of the Imperial Remnant but now called themselves the Imperial Separatists wore olive coloured uniforms with insignia badges pinned proudly to their chest, blaster pistols at their hips and standing at attention with military precision.

"My brothers" he began with a grin, showing his filed sharp teeth "Today will mark the beginning of this galaxies true downfall. We of the forces of Chaos, messengers of the dark gods will fall upon this lowly Empire and wipe its stain from existence" with a lightning quick reaction he drew his daemon sword from its scabbard and held it high over his head, tip pointed to the ancient ceiling of his ship "For the dark gods!"

The chaos lords drew their power-swords and battle-axes in return, raising them up over their heads and repeating the chant he had shouted with a fanatical reverence. The daemon prince grinned savagely, his pitch black eyes gleaming with a fanatical need to cause suffering.

"And to our Imperial brothers" Kabaal continued "Fight with us and the remains of this empire will be yours. You will be warlords holding full dominion over the territories that you conquer for the glory of the five gods of chaos"

The six admirals inclined their heads in stiff nods, repeating the dark prayer with their heads held high "For the dark gods"

"Return to your vessels my brothers" he ordered as he sheathed his daemon sword and spun around to view the assembling fleet once more "Prepare your armies and assemble your fleets, we leave for Bastion and the Empires fall in two hours!"

Little did the daemon prince know that far off in deep space floated a kilometre long ship, its basic shape similar to the dagger-like designs of human star destroyers yet different. Its command tower was not in full view but lower down to the main deck, half hidden by a ridge of thick armour, alien weapon batteries dotted its hull and its engine nasals glowed with an eerie, alien green light.

The alien vessel continued to wait, suspended in the starry darkness of deep space. There was a set of distortions several kilometres away and three tiny craft appeared. Their cockpits were similar to that of an Imperial TIE fighter but instead of having solar panels they had four curved wings, their basic design made the approaching fighters look like claws, hence their name.

The three Clawcraft cut power to their engines as they approached the alien destroyers hanger bay doors and activated miniscule thrusters dotting their cockpit and wings. They executed flawless ninety degree turns which would have been impossible for an X-wing or TIE and hovered into the hanger, the monolithic doors closing behind them.

As the doors closed the ship began to move, turning around faster than any normal ship of its size would and started moving away from the armada. A few moments later and it vanished, jumping into hyperspace to wherever it came from.