CHAPTER ONE
In a Galaxy far, far away…
*The constant beeping machines cease as the hiss of oxygen floods the container*
I feel a shiver down my spine abruptly stop as the slow sensations of my body return to me. Cold, being my entire universe for now as I sluggishly try to realize where I am and why it feels so damn cold. I don’t know how long I was there floating in this endless void, not sure if I was alive or dead, but knowing that I was frozen to the core of my being. Off in the unfathomable distance something sparkled, a pinprick of light entered my view. I stared at it, baffled as to what it may be or if it was just another coping mechanism I was experiencing from the bitter cold that permeated throughout my being. I stared at it, well as much one can stare at something but have no eyes to look with, wishing with what meager thoughts that slowly permeated the film of being so cold that I could approach the light. To my surprise the light was indeed a light as the diminutive light slowly got bigger, and bigger as it moved towards me. I watched in awe as the light went from an inconsequential dot amongst the void that I found myself floating in, to now a ball of light rapidly getting larger as it approaches my sense of self. The light now blindly bright fills my view of the void when I hear something other than my own thoughts reverberate throughout my entire being.
“Goodbye…”
*The metallic locks disengage and the sealed vacuum is breached*
Warmth. The first sensation that I feel that is no longer the mind numbing coldness that was spread throughout my being is the heat of something warm being distributed amongst my chest. As the heat slowly spreads from my core pulsating out, fighting back the chill that has penetrated my body I hear the sounds of a hermetic sealed door being opened. As the door slides opens I smell the pungent smell of harsh chemicals that one would find in medical facilities anywhere mixed in with the unrelenting smell of cold hard steel. As I lay there I start to experience an old friend of mine but yet not, pain, as the feelings of my limbs come back to focus.
I can feel it radiate out in waves as the chilled numbness fades away from my body and can hear what sounds like ice cracking as I attempt to flex my body. As I open my eyes, my vision is terribly distorted with everything in my coffin having a red hue to it. I can see that I was hooked up to various machines of unknown origins that had to have been plugged into my body guessing off the amount of tubes that were running into my box of cold and pain.
Worst of all was trying to look down to see what state I was in just to mentally cry out in agony as a sharp skull piercing pain erupted in my mind at the thought of even attempting to physically move or think about in any shape or form. So I decided that I would just wait until my vision seems more normal and my head stops trying to jam a spike into my brain before going on to see what kind of state I am in. After waiting an indeterminable amount of time, with the pain receding I looked down and saw various tubes plugged into me all over my body draining me of some kind of clear frosty liquid.
I watched in fascination and soon realized that whatever that liquid was, it was definitely the cause of the extreme cold I had been experiencing for so long as the last bit was sucked out of me I was no longer cold anymore. Then the tubes made a suction like noise as they separated from the holes that were scattered throughout my body and were sucked back up into the machines above me. As I watched what was left of the tubes snake their way back into the machines the red hue that was illuminating my coffin changed to a nice lovely blue that permeated throughout the room and I could hear a single beep from outside my tiny box and then silence.
As I sat up using the edges of the box to pull myself upright the dichotomy between the hard metal and how weak I felt was extremely noticeable, but yet I had the sense that I was supposed to be far stronger than this, regardless of current medical outlook. As I sat up I glanced around to find myself in some kind of makeshift medical room where it was noticeable that the room’s primary purpose was to be storage of some kind empty as it is and not a medical facility yet unknown medical machines crowded around my metal coffin. Seeing the door with the blue light over it, I pushed away the machines and got out of the box and approached the door intending to open it when it opened on its own. I stopped, realizing that I have no idea as to where I am or really who I am, but decided that I have to go forth if I am to seek answers to my questions that I have about this unknown place.
Going through the doorway I stepped out into a hallway with unknown letterings adorning the walls made visible by the blue light that was also outside my door. Giving up the attempt to decipher what it means as none of it looks familiar at all I inspected the rest of the hallway to see more doors like the one I had passed through, although the lights above these doors were either out or had a red hue casting over the door itself.
I walked over to the door on my right that had a red hue over it and saw that the door was not automatically opening for me as mine had. After doing a quick glance over on the door itself to see no way to open it nor leverage it, I decided to leave it be as somebody must be around to help me. Trying to kick in the first door I see that denied me access was a nice thought but might not land me on the best of terms of whoever might be around. I checked a few other doors walking down the hallway just in case but they all seemed to be sealed shut for unknown reasons.
After coming through a couple of different intersections and choosing a direction at random with some doors being significantly larger than the one I had in my room I stumbled upon a door with a blue light that opened up to a flight of stairs going up. Seeing as this is the only door I have been able to access since leaving my room I followed the stairs to the top. Reaching the top there was one door left with a blinking blue light over it with more lettering than usual on the door itself. I approached and was greeted by a decently sized room.
The first thing that came to my attention was a statue of a man sitting on a golden throne of some kind, and seeing it just filled me with irrational anger and hatred that I had for this statue but also knowing that I have no clue as to why. After giving the statue a long hard look, I looked at the rest of the room and saw it was bare with the exception of a single standing terminal before the statue with a blinking notification of some kind on the screen.
I approached it and saw something for the first time since I’ve awakened that I could read.
Shielding: None…
Hull integrity: Compromised…
Power: Critical Systems Only…
Main Systems: Offline…
Sub Systems: Offline…
Emergency Systems: Offline…
Critical Systems: Online…
Reactors: 1 Online, 5 Offline…
Sensor Suite: Online…
Distress Beacon: Lowband Active - 582 Years, 231 Days, 13 Hours, 21 Minutes, 12 Seconds…
Pod 1 Power Failure…
Initiating Self-Preservation Protocols…
Rerouting power from Pods 2-538 to Main Array…
Pod 1 Power Restored…
Distress Beacon: Lowband Active - 27 Years, 125 Days, 6 Hours, 41 Minutes, 33 Seconds…
Pod 1 Mental Capacity expiring - Suggested to use Tidebreaker Protocols…
Tidebreaker Protocols Approved…
Pod 1 Mental Capacity Restored…
Entering Highband range of Galaxy-428…
Sensor Suite: Seeking Higher Forms of Life - None found - Seeking Equitable level of Life - None found - Seeking Life…
Sensor Suite: Life found - Activating Highband Distress Beacon…
Communication Suite: Offline - Power rerouted - Status Online - Receiving Transmission…
Communication Suite: Transmission Ignored - Activating Protocol-5928 ‘First Contact…’
Protocol-5928 Executed…
Communication Suite: Package Delivered - Power rerouted - Offline…
Engines: Offline - Power rerouted - Online - Course Set to Planet-282 - Power rerouted - Offline…
Initiating Starlight Protocols…
Starlight Protocols Executed…
Awaiting Confirmation…
Place Hand Here…
Giving the statue a quick glance of disgust, assuming that it had to do something with this situation I placed my hand on the terminal and waited to see what happened.
Identity ******* Confirmed…
II Legion Status: Dead…
Crew Status: Dead…
Primary Databanks: Corrupted…
Secondary Databanks: Corrupted…
Emergency Databanks: Corrupted…
Physical Databanks: Lost…
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Ship Access: Restricted…
Epsilon Protocols: Engaged…
Distress Beacon: Received…
GLORIA ET HONOR LEGIONI…
"Glory and honor to the Legion huh?" A raspy voice sounded out in the room.
Hearing my own gravelly voice out aloud was good as I can still talk, what was not good was up till this point I forgot how badly I needed something to wet my mouth with. I spent a few minutes trying to click on the terminal to see if anything new was going to show up but to no avail. After giving up on the terminal I decided I was done with this room and gave the statue one last dirty look before I left. I mean if I could've spit at it in revulsion and I would have if not for my lack of readily available body fluids.
Leaving the room and heading back down the stairs I decided to see if anything had changed with all the doors after that small stint with the terminal upstairs. After wandering around for some time I came to another fork in the hallway where I stopped. I was initially going to go down the left corridor since that one had more lights on then the right, however I heard something down the hallway to the right. More specifically it sounded like something had breached the hull of the ship and the noise was louder from that hallway.
Seeing, well more like hearing that the terminal might have actually changed something by sending out that distress beacon, I started to walk down the hallway to the right. After about what I guess was a few minutes of walking down the hallway I came across another door with a blue light, though the doors for this one were significantly larger. As I approached the door it automatically opened up for me and I stopped in the doorway staring at what seemed to be a squad's worth of BX Commando droids dismounting from a craft of some kind that bore through the wall on the far side of the room.
How I knew they were BX Commando droids I had no idea but they were black with blotches of gray splattered all over their bodies. All of them were carrying a blaster of some kind and a flat one-sided blade strapped to their back, with what seemed to be grenades and other utility equipment of unknown use around their waists. The only exception was the one who had dismounted first and was moving to me, as this one had white accents all over it, as well two swords strapped to its back instead of the one. While the other droids were fanning out to secure the empty hangar the leader with the white markings addressed me.
"Welcome back Lord Sacriel we are ready to bring you to the General at your convenience"
"Lord Sacriel? The General? Why do I know that you are BX Commando droids but I can't seem to recall how I know of your kind?"
"I'm just a droid sir, the General said he would have most of the answers you were looking for on the ship."
"Okay and what ship might that be?"
"The General is stationed on Battleship Night and is prepared to help you with anything you might need.”
“Okay well if you can’t answer my questions then lead the way, as I have been wandering around this ship for who knows how long and I have yet to get anywhere meaningful” I said.
The droid commando put his hand to head and the other droids started to fall back to the landing craft while he gestured to me to follow him. He turned around and started walking to the far end of the room. While I only quickly glanced around before I started talking to the droid, the room was honestly massive, more like a hangar in size but without anything to mark it as such though. On the farside of the hangar was a small circular hatch that clearly led to the landing craft that these droids came from.
As we approached I realized that it was actually just some kind of breaching craft that had drilled through the hull and was still latched on. Upon getting closer to it the hatch opened up to reveal a small tube like room, with racks on either side meant to hold the BX Commando droids before dropping them through the hatch, or allow them to walk out depending on the orientation of the breaching craft.
“I don’t think we all are going to fit in there” I said after my cursory inspection of the breaching craft.
“Well you being 12 feet tall does not help us in this regard sir, but it is fine as some of the others will be staying here to secure the beachhead while we escort you off and get you back to the Night.”
“So be it” I said as I shuffled my way into the transport headfirst since there wasn’t a whole lot of standing space to be had by someone my stature sadly. Looking back at the droids at the mouth of the craft after ensuring I was as far in as possible a few of them boarded, including the droid commander. The remaining ones fanned out in a defensive circle to hold the entrance to the hatch.
After the hatch closed the entire transport shuddered and detached from whatever ship I found myself in. Glancing around in the dark as I have been since I woke up with the exception of the occasional door light, nothing gave me any more clues as to how and why I know about things that I feel that I shouldn’t. As we traveled through space the interior started to get lit up by an outside light by a viewport that was just above my head. Pushing some of the racks aside to get a better view was a hassle but I managed with how small this craft is.
Looking outside the viewport was just plain beautiful, seeing all the sparkling stars that adorned space made it seem like a much brighter universe than the one I distinctly dark one I remember coming from. With nothing else to do at the time I just laid there and enjoyed the view while I had, not really knowing what was to come of this meeting with the supposedly called General.
After a short few minutes the craft changed its heading and my view shifted to see what the planet below looked like and what was in orbit around it. The planet itself was a nice green lush world, with what looked like two huge continents adorning it separated by a huge gulf of water and seemingly an uncountable number of smaller islands dotted the dark blue oceans between and around the two bigger continents. Lighting up the world were two suns, one of them being a much smaller blue dwarf while the other was a giant yellow sun. In orbit of the planet itself was an armada of ships that I distinctly recognized but did not know the true significance of them being here. I counted four Lucrehulk Battleships, fourteen Rescuant Destroyers, forty-three Munificent frigates, and about a few hundred or more smaller support vessels all surrounding an orbital shipyard.
“Why are there so many ships orbiting the planet? I don’t know the specifics of most of them but this armada seems like an invasion fleet to me, also I never got your name” I asked the droid commander on the rack next to me.
“You can call me ND-981 but General Crimson has been subjugating the local cluster now for about 18 years and building up our forces since the supposed end of the Clone Wars. We used to send out a frigate or two to get more speciality equipment and designs from the Supreme Leader when we could, as travel through this region of space is difficult to say the least and took a vast amount of time to traverse but we stopped a long time ago. The General believes that the cease and desist order that said to stop the continuous expansion of our forces here was a ploy by the Republic, as it came not that long after our last expedition returned. The General said that any Republic force capable of spoofing our encryption channels to that degree would be capable of destroying us whole, and must have picked up something from our expedition for equipment and designs and were actively hunting us. So we initiated our Omega Protocol that called for radio silence and to continue to expand till we had face-to-face contact with our leadership, or we were found by the Republic.”
“You said 18 years of building up your forces? How many droids did you start off with originally? Also the Clone Wars? What is that?” I asked even more confused now than I was beforehand.
“Yes 18 years, what originally came to this system was just a few Munificent frigates that could be spared to see if the first new Super Tactical Droid could manage a self-sufficient, self expanding foundry if it had the necessary designs and equipment to build said foundry. Well the General managed it, he suppressed the local population and put them to work on building everything he would need. But over time he swapped to using droids instead and had the locals train to be navigators instead due the difficulties of navigating space here in this region” said ND-981.
“As for the Clone Wars up to this point it's a long story but we have some time before we land on the battleship Night.”
After receiving a very abbreviated story on everything up to this point I finally had a general picture of everything going on in the galaxy, well up to 18 galactic years ago at least. Finally we landed in the hangar of the Lucrehulk Battleship and upon exiting the hatch I was greeted by an honor guard of seven IG-100 Magnaguards, three on each side holding an electro staff. These ones had the rest of their bodies hidden by the cloaks that they were wearing which was a black with a deep blood red trimming on it as well as their accents on their body themselves being the same red. The one in the center which was obviously the commander who was not carrying an electro staff and the difference in its cloak was instead of black with the deep blood red trimming it was opposite, with the main color being that deep blood red and the trimming and accents being black.
“Welcome Lord Sacriel, General Crimson awaits you on the bridge” The Magnaguard Commander stated.
“Well let’s not keep the General waiting shall we hmm. Also what shall I call you?”
“You can call me anything you wish Lord Sacriel but the General just refers to me as Vicus or V when referring to the others.”
“So be it, and thank you again ND-981 for your assistance on getting off that hulk and for the small history lesson.” I turned back to Vicus and gestured for him to walk on as I followed him. As we left I glanced over my back to get an idea of the craft that shuttled through space and to say it was familiar looking to say the least. The tube-like insides was actually part of a massive cylinder shaped head that was propped up by 4 legs with the opening at the bottom of the head, making it look oddly like a squid. To say the Battleship was expansive was a bit of an understatement to say the least, as everywhere I looked the corridors and occasional hangar doors we passed were just filled to the brim of different droids with different markings. After a short walk through the hangar and a few corridors we eventually made it to one of the central elevators and made our way up to the bridge.
Upon entering the bridge the first thing that got my attention was just the glorious viewport that held a fantastic view of the world down below us. The next thing was obviously General Crimson as he was pretty hard not to notice due to him being so stalwart looking. He was a Super Tactical Droid by nature but with the same deep blood red color scheme as Vicus’s cloak but instead of black trimming and accents he had gold instead. The General who had been standing next to an impressive looking chair turned and greeted me and Vicus.
“Lord Sacriel, welcome aboard the Battleship Night and I am General Crimson, now your second-in-command, your will is my command” bowing to me, then after a few seconds raised himself and looked at Vicus.
“I hope that there were no problems retrieving Lord Sacriel?”
“No problems arised General, I have also tasked three of the V’s to be your bodyguards while I lead the other three personally for Lord Sacriel.” stated Vicus as the three Magnaguards on the right side of me left and went to go stand behind the General. The remaining three shifted to stand a few steps directly behind me in a line with Vicus being slightly behind me to my right.
“Well this is a surprise to me when you say that my will is yours to execute since I don’t ever remember owning a CIS Expeditionary Force or an CIS armada.”
“Well truthfully speaking you never did until just recently as a few solar cycles ago we received a distress beacon originating from deep space, beyond the Great Hyperspace Barrier. Normally we would never answer such distress beacons even as far as going to them just to eliminate whatever was there to ensure operational security for our cluster but your distress beacon was different” He paused thinking for a moment before continuing.
“For the lack of vocabulary in basic the distress call was of a higher being, one might equate it to a god amongst A.I life. This superseded all other protocols we had in place here as for one it was not a scenario in which my programming allowed for, and two it was incredibly powerful to the extent that we had no choice to answer it lest the Republic pick it up and inadvertently discover us here. Upon answering the distress beacon our central communication ships were remotely taken over and issued multiple Omega protocols and sent a software update directly to me to change my primary directives. I now only answer to you who was listed as the sole survivor of the space hulk and named Supreme Leader. This data packet also informed me that you were originally from another galaxy but due to betrayal from an Emperor of some kind you took who you could with you and started to traverse the deep void. The last line of the data packet stated that due to the extreme long period of cryogenic sleep you were induced to, it has severely affected your memory but not your skills, with the last word being a Goodbye, signed by a MoI.”
Slowly as Crimson talked throughout I had plenty of questions till I heard him say Goodbye and then the visions struck me. Scenes of being found, the eternal love that was given freely regardless of my unique void-inducing nature. The satisfaction of helping Him find my other brothers. The unification of the stars together brother next to brother, sons with their Fathers. All until the discovery on a barren wasteland of a planet. Devoid of all and any organic life there was just one Man, standing there looking at the stars waiting to greet me. The hard fought camaraderie that was bled over broken over one single decision. The refusal to send one more of their fallen race to the grave. The call to answer Him for my decision but I refused, citing that I would have no more to do with this farce of a truth. His punishment came in the forms of wolves and angels, those that ripped my sons apart as I could only flee in desperation to protect those ideals I once held true. The inevitable march of time consumes my stores and I send what few remaining sons I have to sleep, praying they will wake to a new world that we can settle on. I remember saying Goodbye to my last friend before I went under, hoping He can repay me for all that I sacrificed to save Him.
As I finally came to, I noticed that I was still trembling with rage and glanced around my surroundings. Most of the bridge was now destroyed including all the B1 droid pilots that were manning the battleship as well as a few security droids. However General Crimson and Vicus with their guard were just outside the door leading to the bridge standing expectantly. Looking down I saw my hands slightly bruised from what seemed massive dents in the durasteel walls and on the floor, as well as a few windows being blocked off by metal shutters of some kind. I turned around and addressed the General.
“I’m not entirely sure what just happened now but thank you for telling me this tale General Crimson. For now I must retreat to my quarters as I just had some terrible flashbacks and wish to relieve myself of my anger. If you could repair the bridge and replace the crew, as well as send some clothes and refreshments to my room that would suffice. I am still nude from my awakening on my original craft and have been since I left. I was not whole of mind till now since your tale jogged my memory a few things that should not have been forgotten nor will they now.”
“Of course Lord Sacriel, will you need anything else other than that?”
“No and I do not wish to be disturbed as I have some thinking I must do before I come to a decision on what is to happen regarding my new forces.”
“As you wish Lord Sacriel, Vicus, would you please lead the Lord to his new quarters and ensure personally that his new clothes will be made to the highest order possible?”
“It will be taken care of General Crimson, Lord Sacriel please follow me.”
Vicus led the way to my new quarters while the other three magnaguards followed in lockstep behind me. As we left and before the doors closed completely on the bridge I could hear General Crimson instructing one of the other V’s to call up the repair druids and some new pilot droids to repair the damages I left in my wake as well as to man the ship. It seems like I have much to think about.