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Harrower, the capital ship, was called Drea within the medium sized fleet of the Sith Empire. It was on its usual patrol around the borders of its territory. Nearby were the unknown regions, a place that no pirate or smuggler would ever dare to tread, for the unknown anomalies and black holes could be found there and for which it had been nicknamed The Devil's Labyrinth. For many who have entered it, very few return, only to regale horrific tales of unimaginable abominations and horror. No sane or insane minds of all sentient beings would ever imagine this place but the crew within this fleet was battle-hardened and trained to ignore such tales of fantastical drunken smugglers and pirates as they would tell after a few rounds at any cantina throughout the galaxy or within the boundaries of the Sith Empire.

Within Harrower, Darth Kharr was in a deep state of meditation within his private quarters. The room was perfectly designed to block out all forms of sound. Even if the Dreadnought ship surprisingly attacked, this room would remain silent and still; not even the alarms would sound while the Dark Lord was in deep meditation viewing the darkness inside himself. Within the dark side of the force, he could see a small spark disturbing the black that surrounded him. The spark began to grow brighter and brighter, burning away against the darkness that was the Sith; for the light was the Jedi. The Dark Lord did nothing within his vision but witness how it would unfold. When the light consumed the darkness, a small shadow remained. Rather than fade away, the shadow fled to where the light could not find it. Then the vision ends. Darth Kharr opened his eyes, letting out a sigh almost as if he were holding his breath the whole time that he was in his vision.

Like an omen, he stood up and stretched his body, popping a few bones and letting out a single moan. "Something's going to happen to the Sith. What exactly I do not know. This is very troubling; perhaps I should contact Sith Sorcerers on Korriban. Perhaps their wisdom inside will bring greater clarity," he says to himself. He wasn't deeply worried but it made a heavy burden on his mind to see visions of things even he could not interpret fully. At least he had gained great wisdom from his former Master. He could remember how he ascended the ranks on that fateful day.

After he reminisced, he headed over to his mirror and looked upon his youthful face, seeing a pale skinned human with raven black hair and glowing yellow eyes. He put a hand over his chin and checked for any facial hair. He prefers to keep unruly facial hair in check as he wants to remain a continuous example to his crew. After finding no trace of facial hair, he donned his Sith robe, then calling upon the force, he raised his right hand to reach out and grab his lightsaber as it flew through the air and into his hand. He holstered the finely-crafted lightsaber of gold and silver onto his belt as he began to walk down the ship's corridors. He was on his way to the bridge.

The captain was standing firmly on the bridge admiring the fleet; he could see the four Terminus in between the capital ship of the fleet, Dreadnought. He couldn't help but smile because he holds the honorable title as Captain of this mighty ship of conquest. The only thing that broke his focus from the fleet was the sound of the bridge doors opening far behind him. The captain quickly looked and saw his Dark Lord Darth Kharr, and he immediately saluted. "My Lord what brings you onto the deck of the ship? I thought you would remain in your private quarters for the rest of our Patrol." He had a pinch of fear that his question would bring out anger in the Sith Lord.

It took a moment for the Sith Lord to process the question, still reeling from his vision. "I thought moving about would be good for me and I heard that admiring one's own fleet is good for the mind. Don't you agree captain?"

Kharr started to grin, seeing the fear as well as sensing it through the force as he reached out and put a hand on the captain's shoulder. This action bewildered the middle-aged captain. Kharr started to say, "You need not fear me. Even if you do anger me, I will not strike out like other Sith would have. I do not believe in slaying my own troops including my own captains, so you can relax. This is also the main reason why I selected you; you have the ability to remain focused no matter the situation, even in combat, no matter the circumstances." Kharr then slowly pulled his hand away from the captain's shoulder.

After letting out a sigh and his body partially going limp, the captain took in a deep breath the steadied himself. "Thank you, my Lord. I've never served under a Sith Lord before. I didn't know if I should act formal or as a true example of a member of the Empire Fleet Captain." The captain was still surprised that his own Lord had helped ease his mind despite the tales he had heard. The rumors were that some would kill their own captain for the simplest of mistakes. Even during his Fleet Academy days, he saw his own teacher beheaded by a crimson lightsaber. That event had planted a seed of fear in him that fateful day; now, he must learn to adapt as he always has.

"You may act and behave however you wish. You are a captain at all times. I'm not going to hold you to a standard only in the presence of other Sith. I expect you to act like an outstanding captain. Let us move on. Tell me about the fleet. What were the recent reports during our patrol?" Kharr tried to inquire on the information that he had missed during his deep meditation since the beginning of this patrol.

The captain looked at an intelligence officer. He didn't need to ask for the data that had been collected for the last few days since the beginning of the patrol. The information was downloaded onto a Holopad. It was handed to the captain and in turn, handed straight to Kharr. He skimmed through the large amount of data that was primarily made up of simple reports of pirate sightings and smugglers who were dealt with. These kinds of interactions didn't require the attention of a Dark Lord such as Kharr. He continued to scroll down but couldn't find any information relating to the Republic or any Jedi.

"Is there something that you're looking for, my Lord?" The captain asked as he now knows he doesn't need to fear his Lord. He was eager to serve his Lord and to prove himself worthy.

A long silent pause by the Sith Lord filled the room before he realized what the captain had said. "I'm sorry. Whenever I get focused on something, I tend to block things out; there is nothing I'm looking for in particular. So, only pirates and smugglers have been in this sector of space? I'm surprised. Either a Republic scouting ship or a Jedi cruiser could have used this route yet they haven't. Strange, a perfect path to sneak up on to the nearby Sith occupied planets," he said. Honestly, it was a reason why the fleet was formed like a single capital ship along with the company for destroyers as most would have said it was overkill. But to continue to control a territory the Sith had gained; there is no such thing as overkill especially in the eyes of the Sith.

"I apologize that the information is not to your satisfaction." The captain lowered his head as he felt useless in the attempt to help Kharr to find whatever the Dark Lord was seeking.

The communication officer rushed onto the bridge with a worried look on her face. "My Lord Kharr, there is an emergency broadcast from Central Command! It's for all Sith within the territories of the Empire, and outside, you must come," she said, out of breath. She clearly had run a great distance just to inform the Sith Lord of the news.

Kharr looked at his captain and then quickly moved into the communication room. The communications room was a great ways away from the bridge, a redesign that Kharr had wanted. He did not want communications to be cut off in the event of mass destruction on the bridge. The ship can be controlled by other means than just from the bridge. Just in case in the situation that the shields ever went down and the bridge was attacked, he could control the ship even in a critical state. He also incorporated other designs that allow him to still have command of the ship without it going into a state of disarray or complete chaos. Reaching the communication room, Kharr went over to a console and gave the command to play back the last communication received from Central Command. The holographic display showed the Sith Lord who was in charge of emergency communications.

"To all Sith Lords-return to the Capital World of the Empire. This is an emergency situation." As the holographic message repeated, both the communication officer and the captain walked into the communication room to see the holographic display for themselves.

The captain was jaw-dropped at what the message could mean. "Is the Capital World under attack by the Republic? My Lord should we..." The captain was about to suggest that they take heed on the message and that's when he saw that Kharr's hand was raised.

After a long moment continuously repeating and examining the same message over and over again, the captain was feeling anxious. And he was not the only one as the communication officer was feeling the same way as well as a few other officers that were tasked at operating the communication room. After examining it for a moment, Kharr revealed what he believed the messages were. "This is fake! Why would the Sith Lord, head of the Communication Bureau, initiate an emergency broadcast calling back everyone to the Capitol World without a discernible reason being stated? For that matter, why would the message not be encrypted so that it would require another Sith Lord or a Grand Admiral to decipher it? This is a trap by the Republic. The only way for them to send a broadcast like this is if the Capital World has fallen, and the Emperor is dead." Kharr's teeth clenched and his internal rage started to boil his blood as he clenched his fist so tight that even the bones started to pop in his knuckles.

The crew that was in the communication room, including the captain, was taken aback by this revelation made by Kharr. Whispers could be heard among the crew in the communications room. The captain was looking toward the general direction for the whispering voices. He felt that he had to do something. Stepping up right next to his Lord, he asks, "What must we do my Lord if the Empire has fallen and if the Emperor is dead? What is it that we need to do to bring down our enemies for this cowardly deception?" the captain said boldly and very loudly, making sure the whispering voices would be able to be heard by everyone in the room.

A smile began to crack on Kharr's face along with a hearty chuckle. In less than a second, the small bit of laughter from the Sith Lord had ended. "We will flee into the unknown region, where the Republic won't dare search for us." He starts to think back to his vision seeing the shadow that was himself fleeing from the light and straight into the void of uncertainty. The possibilities of landing somewhere with fertile ground for the Empire to thrive once again seemed to be as possible as squeezing water from a rock at this point; yet desperate times require desperate measures.

Everyone in the room was completely surprised by the suggestion of going into the unknown regions, yet the captain stood by his Lord's decision. "On your command, we will head for the unknown regions, but I do not know if we will survive it." It was honest, yet the idea of jumping into the unknown regions seemed more appealing than facing battle against the Republic and possibly being branded as a war criminal. Even though he didn't participate in any campaign, as he was only recently assigned into the services of Darth Kharr, he was more than willing to take a blind jump to avoid possible imprisonment.

"Then you don't need me to explain further what we need to do. Send a communication to the other destroyers. I will be in my quarters to draw upon the force to guide our heading. We must make fertile ground for us and destroy any ships that dare try to leave my command," Kharr said with a cold tone as he headed off to his quarters. Once the door was closed and he was back into a meditative position he focused his mind and body. He could see the vision of the light overtaking the darkness far more clearly, with better understanding. He could see the small shadow that was resisting the light even with no ability to know that. He could already sense that the ship was moving into the appropriate position for a jump into hyperspace.

On the bridge of the ship, the captain had given a command to the four Terminus informing them of the information that Kharr had revealed, as well as to inform them that deserters from the fleet would be destroyed immediately. Now the captain stared at the blackness of space decorated only by a few unknown star systems that could be seen from a distance; he looked at his helmsman and nodded his head. The viewport of the bridge was a decorated line of stars followed by a large blue tunnel of light from hyperspace. Immediately after entering hyperspace, the Harrower shook with enough force to knock down a few officers that were standing on the bridge, including the captain. "Damn! What's happening? Is there something altering our path? I've never felt a ship shake like this in hyperspace before." The captain was desperate to know what was going on.

The helmsman following the lieutenant in charge of monitoring the hyperspace navigational computer was trying to analyze the situation. The lieutenant came to a conclusion. "We're passing by a few black holes. The gravitational fields keep on brushing against the Harrower, but it seems like it's not taking us out of hyperspace. We might be at the very edge. The gravity wells affect our hyperspace tunnel, but I don't think we could last long in this form of turbulence without the structural integrity at critical risk or a complete structural collapse," the Lieutenant delivered his analysis.

"Communication from other Terminus are reporting the same thing which is that they're able to maintain hyperspace travel, but are beginning to find structural integrity issues," the communication officer reported, giving the status of the other ships.

Afraid for himself and the crew, he entertained the idea of disturbing the Sith Lord who could likely be deep in meditation. He reluctantly entertained the idea, and then he remembered Kharr's previous words-that he would use the force to guide the ships. He hoped the words were true.

In the dark vision of Kharr, he could see the small speck of shadow avoiding the hungry hands of silver reaching out to claim its life. Kharr could only interpret this as black holes and the hands its gravity wells as he used the full power of the dark side. The feat of altering the path of his ships wasn't unheard of for a Sith to do. All that it required was a continuous line of focus. It is the main reason why his quarters was designed in a specific way to eliminate any forms of stimuli. It could allow him to focus purely on the dark side and nothing else as the silver hands reached out for the small fragmented shadow. Kharr could use the dark side to pull away, out of reach, before having to pull away again from another direction. The number of hands reaching out for him seemed to have no end, yet beyond the horizon clearing to be seen, he guided himself towards a small opening. It was in that moment that multiple hands reached out, blocking the path forward. Mixed with anger and frustration, he poured more of the dark side of the force into himself in an attempt to drill a hole through the silver hands that prevented him from passing at that moment. The silver hands parted ways allowing the past behind him to vanish.

Back on the bridge, the captain had witnessed the ship exiting out of hyperspace without his order. He turned to the helmsman with a look of anger. "I did not order you to take us out of hyperspace! Explain yourself now," he commanded, wanting to know the reason why the ship had exited into real space.

Kharr walked onto the bridge. "You need not worry, it is I who took us out of hyperspace, and I have helped guide us through the worst of it. It would seem that I've developed a new power, one that I need to further study but not now." He looked out the viewport and started to close his eyes, reaching out with force trying to find the light. However, he could find nothing. The darkness is absent the same as light, an untouched and unspoiled region of space, yet he could sense a small conflict nearby. He opened his eyes and turned his head toward the left into the general direction of the noise. Focusing his sight, he could see small tiny flashes.

The captain was completely amazed. He had only heard rumors that the Sith could do many things but nothing to this extent. It was beyond belief. The idea that his Lord could do something like this, pulling a ship out of hyperspace, was not even in his wildest dreams. It would serve a Sith Lord as powerful as Kharr. "My Lord, what do we do now? What are your orders?" He tried his best to stand firm while speaking, not allowing his composure to falter.

For a moment Kharr was thinking and deciding whether or not he was ready to engage in another conflict but this time it was a conflict that he could just avoid by going the opposite course. This caused him to Green as a small potential opportunity had presented itself. If there were two enemies fighting it would give Kharr a good layout of the technology the sentient beings were capable of in this corner of the Galaxy. "Our heading is a small distance away, perfect for our sublight engines. Turn on fleet port and head forward at maximum speed and load every pilot in there. Arm our cannons and torpedoes, set our turbolaser to maximum charge." Kharr smiled at the opportunity to test his fleet.

A surprised expression was visible on the captain's face as he quickly scrambled to bark out orders to everyone on the bridge. He also gave orders throughout the ship, along with the neighboring Terminus destroyers. As expected, the orders were being carried out and followed as commanded. After three hours of traveling forward, far away flashes could be seen growing bigger and bigger and becoming more evident of a space battle in progress. Kharr could feel the thrill of fight, his heart beating as the emotions of the sentient beings fighting among each other filled with fear and anger-common emotions between enemies. Such things were fuel to the Sith Lord. He could feel his strength grow stronger by taking in the passionate emotions of these two adversaries.

After half an hour of moving forward, the two enemies were visible. They differed greatly from each other. The small fleet consisted of two capital ship sized vessels, accompanied with a few support ships. There was nothing that a single Dreadnought capital ship couldn't handle. On the other side was a larger fleet but with more numbers of smaller ships. They looked almost like support ships but with a more elegant design and nice metallic silver look. Compared to bulky ships, it was clear enough that the elegantly designed sliver ships were losing the battle with only three of the ships left after continuous assault on the larger ships. With our supporting ships, destroying any ships that were crippled didn't require the full attention of the two main ships. The technical advantage belonged to the larger ships, yet to Kharr the more elegantly designed ships screamed out riches and wealth. Despite the battle damage they were considered fine in his eyes compared to other ships that seemed pretty bland and not as elegant.

Both the crew and the captain were observing the battle just as Kharr was analyzing the two different ships. He needed to decide which side he would align with. "Captain, we will separate the capital ship from our company of destroyers, and make it seem like we're just a single ship. We will lure them with our turbolasers' firepower. Within a safe distance, when their attention is on one of them, they will come close enough for our destroyers to surround them. We will annihilate the one battleship and after that we will form up into a unit with destroyers in the front and the other two to our side. We'll press the offensive either to cause the enemy to flee or to destroy them." Kharr lay down the groundwork of the battle plan. He just hoped that the opposing ships weren't equipped with adequate shielding. That would pose a serious problem and that would also mean he would have to modify his plans and possibly sacrifice a large number of his fighters; something that he's quite reluctant to do.

The surprised captain, having listened to the strategy, quickly saluted. "It will be done my Lord. I will inform the fleet." It took him no time at all to bark orders as well as arrange communication with the destroyers. They were to begin to get into position far off-almost out of range-of the sensors of the Harrower. This would be the first ever mission in this new region of space.

The two battleships were in the range of the turbolasers. "Fire at will," Kharr gave the order to commence the attack. The turbolasers started shooting a large barrage of Green Lasers through the void of space, hitting their mark on the two battleships. The lasers caused small explosions that could be seen from a distance.

"My Lord, it doesn't appear that they have strong shields because long-range sensors are detecting multiple forms of damage. Yet, it appears that none of them have charted a coarse towards us at high speed," one of the Intelligence Officers on the deck said while reading information on their screen.

This was puzzling to Kharr. He could see that the battleships seemed powerful by its looks, but through his own experience he knew that looks are deceiving. This was not the first time he had entered or started a battle during his brief encounters with the Republic. "It would seem that they cut corners to create massive ships with poor defenses. They probably used their resources to develop stronger offensive capabilities than defensive ones. Even if they are destroyed, before we can snap the Trap, then we should move in and take care of the last battleship in this sector of space," he said to himself and the captain. They continued to watch the explosions on the enemy ship as it began to move closer and closer with very little sign of slowing down or stopping. They could only conclude that the Admiral or Captain who was commanding the ship is an idiot or someone filled with too much pride.

Within a few minutes, the battleship reached what would be its final destination. As for the destroyers moving quickly to surround the battleship, they unveiled their entire valley of turbolasers. It took less than a few minutes before the battleship was torn into pieces with larger explosions could be seen across the hull of the ship. Harrower fixed its position in the middle of the four Terminus as they started to move in a spearhead formation to the last remaining battleship.

The battleship itself turned to face its new enemy as they began to unleash their full power, both lasers and long-range missiles. All of them seemed to hit their target with very little effect. "My Lord their weapons don't seem to be penetrating any of our shields, their laser or missile fire," the intelligence officer said out loud.

"Then we'll continue to press the offensive, but I don't want this ship destroyed or damaged. Let them spread a rumor that a new player has entered the system and has sided with the enemy. This will work to our favor as well as to build towards our new potential ally." Kharr was making a strategic move that would force the enemy to try getting a better grasp of the new player, especially if you could destroy one of their larger ships with no difficulties and without receiving too much damage yourself. This would help to establish a foothold in this new region of space.

Once the battleship was in range, the turbolasers began firing, hitting multiple critical systems and damaging the ship. It began to turn it away, and it was in that moment that the turbolaser fire began to cease as the last battleship left the space battlefield. "They have escaped my Lord! What do you wish to do with the surviving ships?" The captain reported what was clearly obvious through the viewports.

"After establishing some communications, and to see if they need any assistance, bring the protocol droid. I don't want any mistranslations, so get the newest model that we have from cargo. Establishing a foothold here is crucial not just for our survival, but the survival of our new Empire. Do not appear aggressive. Harrower will move in closer to those two smaller ships, what I assumed to be frigates. Power down our weapons but leave our auto-cannons available just in case of anything." Kharr continued to look at the viewport but this time he stared at the two ships. One he could clearly see was heavily damaged so it was most likely that there would be some injured on board.

Harrower started to break formation and began to get close, but not too close. It was just enough so the shuttles would have very little time between travel. The protocol droid was standing on the bridge of the ship waiting for communications to start so it could begin to serve its purpose. Kharr looked at his communication officer and nodded his head-the sign to begin the attempt to establish broadcast. "I Am Darth Kharr, Commander and Admiral of this fleet. If you are in need of any medical assistance, communicate with me now and do so with great haste." The communication officer recorded Kharr and set the verbal communication on repeat until a dialogue could be reached.

After half an hour of silence, the communication officer stood up. "They're trying to contact us. Do you want me to allow it to be heard from the bridge?" she asked.

Kharr looked at the communication officer then said, "Yes, play it on the bridge. We need to familiarize ourselves with the alien language these individuals will be speaking. I doubt they can speak basic so gives the reason and purpose why we have a protocol droid here." The communication officer began to open up a channel to receive the message clear enough. The alienist speak was not basic. It was what sounded like a complicated language, but had some similar traits of basic in it. The protocol droid received the audio feed and began to read into the language. It would take it about 15 minutes with its processors to have it fully translated.

The droid moved closer to Kharr. "They gave their thanks for our help, and they also said they do not understand the message that we are presenting to them. They did say that they had injured crew members on board including their Admiral." The protocol did his best to translate to Kharr.

"All right, we will send another message this time, but the droid will translate it for us. The message is going to be much shorter. Here is the message: "'We will send medical shuttles to treat noncritical injured but if possible, we would be willing to accept critically injured onto our own ship.' That should be good enough for them to understand." The droid took all that was said by Kharr and had a full translation already in process as another broadcast was sent following with a quick reply.

"They are willing to accept any form of medical assistance, but their Admiral is primary at this time. They will allow us to bring him here but he will be accompanied with security personnel," the droid translated to the crew on the bridge. They all looked at each other, thinking to themselves and afraid to whisper what would be the obvious concern which is how could they allow aliens onto the ship along with them being armed?

For a hot minute, Kharr thought about it and then let out a sigh. "We will allow them. Tell them it is not really necessary to have security but if it makes them feel more comfortable, we will accommodate their request. But also warn them that a random straight shot at one of my crew members will result in deadly consequences. That should be an acceptable response to their request." He then looked at his captain with a serious stare. "Captain! Inform all the men on the ship. No one is to open fire on our VIP, if they are fired at, use stun on the adversaries. Do not shoot to kill, at risk of harming our high-profile patient seeking medical attention on our ship. If anything happens, I'm holding you completely responsible, and there will be consequences for your failure." Kharr let his stern words sink into the captain's mind.

"Yes, my Lord. I'll see to it that no one will fire upon our guest. If one person does, I'll send them straight through the airlock even if I have to throw them in myself. Your plans will not bear spoiled fruit." The captain quickly announced to all the crew members to set their weapons to stun and not to fire at the alien guests. He warned them that the first person that does will be the last time for them to make a mistake on this ship, as he explains that he'll be throwing them into the airlock and let space do the task. He also informed the pilots to ready the shuttles with medical supplies along with some medical infantry that was ready for transport. They were given the go-ahead as they flew off from the hanger and headed towards the first frigate. Another medical infantry transport headed off to the other frigate less than a half an hour following the first one. The first shuttle returned to the hanger opening up and transporting the Admiral who commanded the two frigates during the battle, straight towards the medical bay.

Kharr made his way towards that direction wanting to see what species he's dealing with. He knew that Bacta in this situation would be the best choice given its universal use for all species including insect-like species. As soon as he reached the medical bay, he could already see the medical droid at work using its multiple arms cutting and removing what could be seen as metal shards in perfect view of the alien but looked like a young adult. The Bloodhound humanoid with both dark and light brown fur with some small traces of torn uniform still on its body makes Kharr think of a similar species that exists in the known galaxies. They were mostly the canine species that could be found as he's seen a few and have heard rumors that there were even more exotic looking species similar to canines. As far as he could tell from this one, his body was similar to that of most humans without accounting for the fur and other small differences.

The medical droid soon was done with its surgical procedure. A few medical troopers helped the Bloodhound on to his feet as they transported him into the Bacta tank after removing some non-essential clothing, leaving only undergarments on. Soon enough, the tank was filled with a transparent fluid called Bacta. After that, the room was sterilized with a bacterial laser scanning over the entire room finding and vaporizing any microbes present. Troopers went into a separate room to remove their hazmat suits when the room was completed with its quarantine procedure. Kharr stepped into the sealed room and walked over to the unconscious Bloodhound watching him breathe through the breathing tube in his mouth.

The medical droid could see that Kharr had stepped into the room and made its way over to Kharr. "The patient is stable. A great number of metal shards were embedded in his left long. Small injections of Bacta came to the body to save his long along with a sealing agent to prevent further bleeding. My estimation time for being fully healed is two months if this unknown species of canine has in its possession fast regenerative ability, then I will compensate for that factor for more accurate calculation." The droid followed its programming to give all information to the next corresponding person that would enter the room that had taken any interest in any patient that would be in the medical Bay especially in the quarantine room.

"Thank you droid, go ahead and power yourself down and recharge. I have no further use for you right now. After your recharge, I want you to monitor this one's life readings around the clock. If he wakes up early, inform me immediately." Kharr continued to stare at the Bloodhound male.

The droid did as commanded going to its charging station and plugging itself in before shutting down. Meanwhile, Kharr could feel the pull of the force calling him, guiding him, and whispering to him. But this one was the key to an opportunity that would soon present itself.

To be continued...