19Disclaimer: I neither own Warhammer 40k or the Star Wars franchise.
1. Hell's Gate
CX-180 was an inconsequential planet. Far out into the Unknown Regions of space and out of the way of any reasonable hyperspace lane that it was decided that it was not even worth the trouble of naming it unless for a planetary designation and nothing more.
As far as the rest of the galactic community was concerned, it wasn't worth all that much. It was an arid planet with nothing of note to it's designation. Little water and certainly no abundance of resources to exploit.
All the while, Roan wondered what was so important about the planet that his master would come all this way into the Unknown Regions for what was essentially an archaeology trip. He knew the daytime persona of his master was that of a rather well renowned historian and archaeologist, but that was all, even if his interest in history and archaeology also extended into the history of the Sith.
"You look bored." Darth Mal observed, the sound of the excavation droids audible all around them in the large hollow cavern that had been dug out.
I am bored. Bored of all this digging, and of this planet. Roan knew better than to voice that thought. Darth Mal didn't tolerate any perceived insult into his chosen vocation, "There has not been much to do. Boredom is the only logical outcome of such a long period of inactivity."
Darth Mal's lips curled slightly upwards, "Perhaps I should find something for you to do then? Something that you will find far more active." Darth Mal was a Twi'lek of the rare Lethan variety. Her skin tone was of crimson red and much like the females of her race, she could be perceived as beautiful by many.
Beautiful and deadly for the unlucky ones to have faced her in combat.
Roan on the other hand, was a human hybrid, but from anyone that looked at his genetic base, they would see nothing more than a human being. Apart from that, he couldn't really think of anything that separated him out or made him particularly exceptional, "I think I'll be fine. From the looks of it, we shall be reaching your prize soon enough. Wouldn't want to miss such a grand occasion." They were quiet for a few moments. Although they were master and student, Darth Mal preferred silence from her student. The silence could neither be described as awkward or friendly or comfortable. It was merely silence. There was no air or 'feeling' to it.
Ever since they had set out from Corellian on this expedition, Roan had wondered what exactly had been so interesting to cause his master to suddenly drop everything she had been waking on to come all this way. On the journey here, if he hadn't known better, he was sure that she had almost been giddy with excitement throughout the whole thing.
He wanted to ask, but he wondered whether that would be over-stepping the bounds that they had written quietly long ago when she had taken him on as her apprentice. Another thought was whether he cared for her answer. Perhaps this entire journey pertained to the history of the Sith? She would not have taken him along with her if it was for something rather petty and worth not his time.
"If I may ask," Roan began, noting that the digging sounds had become rather hollow in tone. It seemed as if they were nearing the next connection of tunnels, "What is this all about?"
Darth Mal was quiet for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was soft and cautious, "Something that may change the Sith for the better."
Change the Sith for the better? Roan doubted it, "Darth Bane thought the Rule of Two would change the Sith for the better. It hasn't worked all that well from my understanding."
There was a minor shift in the stance of Darth Mal, "Darth Bane was a fool. The Rule of Two served the Sith well enough, but not good enough. The Sith has always lacked an ordered organisation, purpose, the Rule of Two didn't at all help." She rebuked him.
Roan took the rebuke well enough, but he still had his doubts. Bane's teachings about the Sith philosophy and the current Sith philosophy of the Rule of One went against his very teachings. The One Sith gave the Sith purpose. Bane taught that power itself was a purpose...but who was he to debate about philosophy? Such things didn't interest him at all, "So whatever you are looking for shall change the Sith for the better then?"
Darth Mal looked at him, there was something in her eyes, "Something like that, I suppose."
Roan understood. The philosophy might have changed, but the Sith was still the Sith. Greed would always play when it came to the Sith and whatever his master was searching for, it would happen to increase her standing within in the One Sith, or perhaps increase her own power in some way or form.
He supposed that he should feel rather elated at the notion that his master trusted him so much with such a thing, or perhaps that whatever Darth Mal was in search for, it wouldn't pose well for his own well being.
Roan found himself feeling rather uncomfortable. She wouldn't do that would she? She would. It was the manner of the Sith and the Dark Side of the Force. The Sith Emperor had sacrificed thousands, millions of Sith in pursuit of immortality and godhood. There was no limits to what a Sith could do when set course on a task.
"Ma'am, sir," the overseer droid suddenly spoke up. Attention was placed on it from both of the Force-sensitives, "Ex-109 has breached the inner chamber."
For a moment, Darth Mal's eyes seem to gleam with something, pure joy? Or perhaps elation in the depths of her yellow irises, "Good." She said, with a slight incline of the head, "Lead the way."
The droid confirmed the order before leading them towards the breakthrough point. Darth Mal was close behind, her pace brisk and seemingly impatient. It seemed as if she wished that the overseer droid could, should move faster than it's repulsorlift should make it.
Roan was a few steps behind, watching his master and teacher move with a sense of purpose in her short strides. His teacher barely showed any emotion, so he couldn't help himself again at wondering exactly what was so important that she was about as giddy as a young adolescent? Although the description would have no doubt earned him her ire if he had ever said it out loud.
In her life as a Sith Lord and her public life as a historian-slash-archaeologist she was about as graceful as they came.
They travelled through the surprisingly smooth-walled tunnel that the excavation droids had been able to dig out. As they travelled deeper into the tunnel, Roan was able to notice a change in the walls. The dull yellow-orange rock that he had been seeing ever since he came onto the planet had changed into that of a darker colour, almost black in it's composition.
There was also something about it that did not seem at all that natural and perhaps he was imagining it, difficult to think so, but he swore he could feel something coming from the rock. As little as it was, he could feel the Force in the rock.
That was strange. The Force existed in all living things, he doubted rock counted as a living thing.
Eventually they existed the tunnel to enter a large chamber that was black in colour with pinpricks of light dotting throughout it's structure as it curved up to the roof. It was almost as if the domed chamber was trying to recreate the effects of space itself, of the inky blackness and the light of distant stars.
Roan stopped short of bumping into the back of his master. The tunnel was wide and large enough for him to make his way to her side. Darth Mal was staring at something and Roan followed her line of sight and saw what she was staring at.
It was some kind of object, circular in built and structure, like a ring with rough edges that poked outwards but very wide, perhaps more than thirty meters in diameter. It seemed to hang in the air without any kind of supporting structure to it. A single pathway led towards the structure that was also suspended in the air.
Roan glanced down from the tunnel exit and noticed that like the roof, the bottom of the chamber was nothing but black with pricks of white light that resembled stars in the night sky. It was rather difficult to make out exactly how far bottom the floor of the chamber was. Roan resolved that he would keep far away from the edge as was reasonably possible.
What confused him was how he was perfectly able to see the ring and walkway without any form of clear light. The pinpricks on the wall seemed to emulate distant stars but he was rather sure that even then, that was no where near enough light to illuminate the entire place in the manner that it did.
"What is that?" The young Sith apprentice asked as he looked back towards the strange circular structure.
Darth Mal was quite for a moment, taking in the sight before her. Eventually, she answered the question that had been posed to her, "A gate." She glanced towards her apprentice, "Tell me Darth Raith, what do you know of the Infinite Empire?"
Roan blinked, "The Infinite Empire?" What did that long lost ancient civilisation had to do with anything? But his master had asked a question and he was to answer, "Not much. His isn't exactly my forte, but I know a little. They were one of the dominant powers before the rise of the Republic thousands of years ago...not many of them left."
"I've been told that extinction does that to a race." The twi'lek Sith lord said, almost amused by what her apprentice had said. There always was a certain macabre sense of humour to her young apprentice, "But you are correct, more or less. After casting down the Kwi Holdings, they went on to become the dominant force in the galaxy. Their power was well...infinite."
"Considering they are not here, I suppose they had a different meaning to infinite than we do."
Darth Mal cast a withering look in her apprentice's direction, "Talk down of them as much as you like, but many of their technological achievements of the early galaxy is still beyond the abilities of many of the galactic races of today. The Infinity Gates of the Kwi. The Hypergates of the Gree Enclave. The Starforge. Centerpoint Station. I could go on." She turned her attention back to the structure, "Say what you will about them, but they did things that we think is impossible."
"So what is this?" Roan asked, looking at the structure, "I suppose it's a relic of the Infinite Empire?"
"Correct." Darth Mal said as she began to make her way towards the relic walking upon the suspended walkway. Roan followed her closely behind, leaving the droids to hang around idly, "From my research, this was suppose to be some sort of last resort by the Rakatans in a bid to save their race from a galaxy that was hostile to them."
If any of the stories of about what the Infinite Empire did during their reign of the galaxy where true, he supposed it wouldn't be all that surprising that they would want to get the hell out of dodge as quickly as possible when things started to go wrong, "They planned to leave this galaxy for another? Where would they go, the Rishi Maze?"
Darth Mal shrugged her elegant shoulders, "Perhaps. Who knows? But I doubt they were able to do so. Their end came rather quick...and sudden."
As they neared the supposed gate, Roan looked at it once more, "So how is this suppose to help the One Sith? It's not a weapon, or something that we can use to increase our abilities."
Darth Mal laughed, "Are you so narrow minded Roan? Instead of using it, think of the things we could learn from it. The Fel Empire, the Galactic Alliance, the Jedi, with the knowledge we can gleam from this, they would be nothing more than dirt beneath our shoes."
As they neared it, an incessant buzzing began to form in Roan's ear and he could feel the Force flowing through him. He looked around the chamber once more before his eyes rested on the circle shaped structure in front of him and he found himself forcefully pushed out of his body.
When he caught himself, he found himself standing in a ruined building, with carvings and writing in some strange language written on the walls. He heard movement and the loud bark of something and he turned around and was amazed by what he saw.
Giants of some sort, taller than him by what looked like meters wearing bulky armour with over-sized shoulder cauldrons wielding weapons that ranged from over-sized looking guns and axes that had teeth on their blades. The warriors bellowed out some battle cry in their language as they met in combat.
One group of warriors wore grey and the others wore red and what seemed to be another shade of red among the others.
He saw movement once more and saw that among the battle of giants, there were humans fighting against the giants as well, although they did not seem to be faring all that well, despite a few of them making a good account of themselves.
This was a Force vision, that was obvious enough, but a Force vision of what?
And why did he get a strange feeling of sheer madness in this vision? Of revulsion? It was as if there was something wrong with the entire vision that he was seeing.
He blinked and the image changed. He stood himself in a grand golden adorned with symbols and statues. Light streamed in the hall through stained windows. The statues were of humans, some with wings on their backs, others without.
Between the massive pillars that held up the room of the grand hall that seemed to stretch high into the sky, stood silent sentinels in the same bulky looking armour of the others he had seen before, but there armour was golden. Cleaner. And more noble and grand.
He felt something staring at him.
He turned and saw a massive structure that rose from the floor and nearly all the way to the ceiling. At the base of the structure, at the stairs that led up to what seemed like a throne, or perhaps the entire structure was a throne, he saw two more of those silent golden sentinels at guard, holding bladed weapons at hand.
Looking up at the top of the structure that was adorned, with admittedly, a disturbing number of human skulls and what looked like to be bones, he could make out a figure shrouded in shadows. He stared at the figure, and the figure seemed to stare back.
Stare was all Roan could do. Through the Force, even though this was merely a vision, he could feel the enormity that was staring back at him. Whatever...this was. It had the power to render his existence a mute point.
He felt a drop of sweat of fear roll down his forehead.
He blinked and the image changed again.
This time, he was on a planet. It was night time. The sky was clear of clouds. It should have been filled with stars. Instead, there was some sort of gaping maw in the sky with a path that led straight into it's very inner depths.
In the distance, he could hear the sound of laughter.
And like that, the vision ended.
Darth Mal was staring at him curiously, "The Force granted you a vision. I could feel it through the Force. What did you see?"
Roan tried to call upon the images and the experience the Force had made him witness to and he nearly stumbled of the walkway as the feelings of wrongness, revulsion flooded him. He held himself steady, "Fighting."
She raised an elegant eyebrow, noting that his breathing had become slightly more laboured than it had been before, "Is that all?"
Roan took in several breaths of air, calming himself down, "No. There is more, but I would prefer telling you when I'm not standing on a very...unsafe structure. The vision was very disconcerting."
She looked at him for what seemed to be eternity. Roan nearly started squirming underneath her stare. He remembered of back when he was still a youngling, and fidgeting underneath the stare. She turned away and continued to make her way towards the structure, "Very well. Later it is." She stopped for a moment when she noticed that her apprentice wasn't following her. She glanced behind her shoulder to look at him, "Well, what is it?"
Roan grimaced as he looked at the circular structure. He pointed at it, "I don't know what, but I'm starting to not like that thing." Images of the vision flashed through his mind. It took all his will to not quake at the images and the experience of the vision.
Darth Mal stopped and looked at him once more, "This is very...unusual of you." She said, "What exactly did you see to make you act like this? Fear is an emotion that will get you nowhere. Purge it from your mind."
Fear? "I'm not afraid."
"You lie. I felt it through the Force. Your fear."
"I'm not afraid." He repeated.
She stepped aside, a hint of a smile on her face, "Then prove it."
...Damn, he had played straight into her hands. Roan cursed at himself, his pride was one day going to be the death of him, he figured. He stepped forward and began to make his way towards the device, "So how exactly do we take this thing with us? It's rather big for our ship."
"We will figure that out at a later date." His master told him, "At the moment, we shall check if it's still in a functioning state."
"And how do we check that?"
They arrived at the base of the structure. From an initial look, the device, if it was a device did not seem to have a control device of any kind. This did not deter Darth Mal, "The Rakatans based their technology on their ability to use the Force. The Dark side to be more accurate."
"So what, we just blast this thing with Force lightning and see if something happens?"
She was quiet for a moment before answering, "Basically, yes." She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm a historian. I figured this would be more your field than anything else."
He looked away from his teacher and towards the giant machine, "Not if it's pertaining ancient, unknown technology it's not. But I suppose it's worth a try," He called upon the Force within him and held out his hand. Streams of bluish white energy leapt from his outstretched finger tips and hit the circular structure. He cancelled the ability and waited for a moment, "Nothing happened." He observed.
Darth Mal nudged at him, "Try it again."
Roan looked at his master before shrugging, "As the lady commands." He called upon the Force once more and once again, energy leapt from the tips of his fingers and towards the structure. This time, he concentrated and added more power into the ability before cancelling. He waited once more, "Yeah, I think it's broken after being unused for-." He was stopped when he felt a reaction in the Force. He looked at the structure and noticed that it was beginning to slowly turn in a counter-clockwise manner, "Okay, perhaps it isn't so broken." The spinning slowly started to increase in speed. Roan watched for a moment before speaking, "Should we step back?"
"A reasonable idea." Darth Mal agreed.
They moved back a reasonable and sufficiently safe distance away from the machine whilst it seemingly powered up from it's millennia of slumber. The ring began to rotate slowly at first, before with each passing moment, it started to pick up more and more speed.
The rough edges with the strange spikes or points that jutted outwards were soon nothing more than a smooth blur as the ring rotated at a phenomenal speed. Within the confines of the rip, the space seemed to ripple like water displaced by a foreign object.
The space stopped rippling and became still, although it had taken on the properties of what seemed to be a rather hazy mirror fogged up by steam. Roan wasn't sure, or perhaps it was a trick of the light, but for a moment, he thought he could make out shapes from the other side, "Did you see that?" He asked Darth Mal.
His master didn't turn to look at him to answer his question. Far too fascinated by the phenomena that was happening right in front of her, "See, what?" She asked.
Roan frowned, perhaps it had been nothing more than a trick of the light. Or perhaps his mind was still reeling from the vision that the Force had granted him, why, he had no idea, "No. Nothing."
A dull flash occurred from the other side of the mirror, followed by a muffled bang.
Something wet splashed onto the side of his face.
Darth Mal grunted beside him for a moment and staggered. Roan turned his head and noticed that she was missing a sizeable chuck of the right side of her body.
She blinked for a moment and looked at where her right shoulder should have been and noticed that her shoulder was gone. So was the arm it was connected too. It was just a few feet away from where they stood.
She stared at the wound, her profusely bleeding shoulder, noticing the viscera and organs within her. For a moment, she could see the pounding of what seemed to be like a heart. Pounding quickly.
Her eyes where distant and her voice belied the confusion she felt when she spoke, "...What?" She staggered to a knee, managing to hold herself up from crumbling to the ground with her remaining arm. She blinked for a moment, "I-I don't...understand. What happened?" She was wheezing now, blood pouring out of her mouth, her body suddenly realising it was missing a rather large chuck of the right lung.
Roan watched the twi'lek on the ground beside him. There was no saving her. He could feel her very essence in the Force slowly diminish. She was well on her way to becoming one with the Force.
She turned to look up at him, "Ro-."
An image of him meeting a similar but far more bloodier and messier death than his master flashed through his mind. He immediately brought up a Force barrier to surround his person and found it hit with unknown objects that hit with the force of a heavy blaster cannon, perhaps even more.
By the time the assault had entered, what was left of Darth Mal was nothing more than the lower half of her body. The rest had been obliterated by the assault from their unknown attackers.
Through the Force, he felt a knew presence enter his immediate surroundings and something about them just made his crawl. It was just the sheer wrongness of it all.
He couldn't even feel any semblance of the Force within the new presences. That was impossible. Every living thing held within it, the Force, even droids held the Force within them.
He looked up in the direction of where the presences had made appeared from. He was surprised to see the same kind of bulky armoured warriors he had seen in his vision. They wore bulky, heavy red armour with gold out linings. Their helmets seemed to have some kind of respirator that made Roan think of a frown with two horns rising up.
They were coming from the other side of the mirror that had been formed by the Rakatan device. Images of his vision flooded his mind. The death. The rift in space. The laughter.
The chaos.
To the Jedi, the Sith were selfish and greedy individuals that brought nothing but fear and oppression to the galaxy. That was correct in a manner, but if they had to choose, between chaos and order. They would choose order. Just as the Jedi were all for order, the Sith order was far more absolute and certain.
Whatever these things were, they would ruin that.
Roan reached for his lightsaber and activated it, "I don't know what or who you are, but you came to the wrong place." The warriors tried to say something, but it seemed as if their journey from the galaxy beyond the mirror had somehow disoriented them, "You're not wanted here."
The now master-less Sith apprentice gathered the Force within him and send out a powerful telekinetic wave that sent the disoriented giant warriors back. Some went back through the portal, others found themselves falling to their doom to the bottom of the chamber that seemed to go on forever, bellowing all the while, their voices distorted by their helmets.
Still though, it wasn't enough. More of these giants from beyond the gate that he and his master, Me. He berated himself. He had been the one to open the gate. He had been the one to use the Force to open it, Darth Mal only goaded him on, Is this the price of hubris? Of pride? If so, he was soon learning his lesson.
More came forth from the gate, but like the others, they seemed to be disoriented. Some of them staggered, falling of the walkway to the abyss below of their own accord. Others were more sure footed.
He needed to destroy the gate, one way or another, but how was the question. He then remembered the droids, "Overseer!" He called out.
Thankfully, the droid was nearby and floated towards him, seemingly uncaring for the death of it's owner in the form of Darth Mal, "Yes, Master Roan?" It began, "How can I be of service?"
Roan licked at his lips before glancing at the droid, "You're equipped with a self destruct module aren't you?" He called on the Force once more and sent a blast of a telekinetic wave at the red armoured giants, sending more flying back into the portal and the rest into the abyss below.
He was beginning to like this strategy, but if it continued for to long, he was sure he would soon tire out.
"Lady Ryo was thorough in making sure that all of us were installed with such a feature." The overseer droid confirmed, "She deemed it necessary for the protection and secrecy of some of her work."
"Good." He snapped his forefinger and thumb together. He motioned at the ring portal, "Do you have enough charge to blow that up?"
The droid swivelled on it's axis to face the ring, "Unknown. The ring material is made of an unknown alloy. Judging from the lack of wear and tear despite thousands of years if it's of Rakatan origin, I unfortunately suspect that a detonation would probably not cause enough structural damage to stop it's function."
Roan groaned, "That's not what I want to hear." The next armoured warriors to come out from the portal came out roaring, their weapons firing. They were the loudest weapons Roan had ever heard ever being fired short of a turbolaser cannon.
He called upon a Force barrier to protect himself and the droid.
"Perhaps on the other side of the structure it can be destabilised somehow." Overseer offered.
"The other side?" Roan repeated, still holding up the barrier as it was pounded with what seemed to be like projectiles judging by the shell casings that were falling from the warriors pistols. Their aim left somethings to be desired, but he figured that they, like the others were disoriented and were just firing blindly, "Like through that thing?"
The droid turned to face him, "Yes. On the other side."
"Can't you just blow up this entire chamber?"
"Once more, chamber is made of a similar unknown alloy."
Roan sighed, "You are telling me to charge into what me and master theorised to be a complete different dimension and blow up the thing that could take me home."
"I would be more than willing to delay the detonation, allowing you time to escape."
The giants stopped firing their weapons to reload. Roan took that chance and once more released a telekinetic wave that pushed them away and by push, it was more along the lines of sending them flying with enough force that it would break the bones of a normal person who hadn't reinforced their bodies or wore armour.
He supposed their armour was enough to protect them. It seemed especially thick.
"Why thank you," Roan said, taking a moment for a breather, "But you are assuming I'm selfless enough to willingly throw myself into that portal. If you hadn't realised by now, I'm Sith. A certain amount of selfishness is needed to be a proper Sith."
"Oh," the overseer droid let out, "Well, I suppose that does put a damper on things."
"I suppose it does." An idea went through his head. He could just go through the way he came and blow up the tunnel that led into this area. Go back to their ship, leave the planet and pretend nothing had ever happened. Of course he would have to explain to the other Sith Lord of the fate of his master, but that was a far better alternative to the one facing him as of now, "Alright, new plan. We are leaving."
"As you wish M-." The droid was stopped from speaking when it blew up in a shower of sparks and metal.
Roan brought up his hands to protect his face as he staggered back. He had not seen that coming. He looked back at the portal and prepared himself for a fight once more and saw that no-one, not even one of those giant warriors was coming out.
"What, is that it?" He asked no-one in particular. An image flashed through his head and he immediately threw himself to the floor, a thick beam of energy missing his head just by the barest of inches. An explosion thundered from behind him where the beam had made contact with something.
He turned his head to glance behind him at the damage and cursed. The beam had entered the tunnel that connected this chamber to the other one that had been dug out. Whatever it had hit, it had enough power to destabilise the tunnel and collapse it.
In other words, he had found himself rather trapped.
"Now that's just complete and utter-." He snapped his head back to the ring portal and widened his eyes when even more of the beams were being fired out at an indiscriminate rate, not caring about what they hit. They were hitting the cavern walls with seemingly enough power to shake the walls, "Resilient my ass." He muttered when he recalled what the overseer droid had been saying.
He wondered if the chamber would collapse with him in it. Not exactly how he imagined he would go out.
The portal was still open. It looked inviting.
But that meant going to the galaxy on the other side. The galaxy with the cadaver on that golden monstrosity. The galaxy with the rift in space.
His self-preservation won out in the end.
Crafting and sheathing a Force barrier around his body like an invisible set of armour, Roan charged at the ring portal, using the natural precognition granted to Force-sensitives to try and dodge or move out of the way of any of the laser beams that could potentially knocking him off his feet and into the abyss below.
When he neared the portal, he threw himself at it, grabbing his lightsabre whilst he was at it. Who knew what was on the other side?
Travelling through the barrier was an experience that he rather not ever go through again, which probably went against his objective that he had just come up with for potentially trying to find a way back home. To his own galaxy. To the galaxy that just did not exude a sense of wrongness that made his skin crawl.
He was thrown out of the portal like a piece of discarded garbage and he hit something. Hard.
He dropped to the ground with a thud and a groan following shortly after. He would have continued to lie down on the ground if it wasn't for the fact that he realised that he had basically entered enemy territory, willingly.
He shot to his feet, immediately regretting it after. His head was swimming and the world was spun. So this was what those giants were feeling? Thankfully, it seemed that his Force-sense wasn't affected, although it did seem far weaker than rightfully it should have been, but strong enough for him to make out his surroundings.
He was in a chamber, much different from the one on the other side, his galaxy. And he was surrounded by those armoured warriors.
His vision was coming back to him and he could see reds and purples and greens and blues. They all held this taint to him that made the Force want to scream out at the wrongness of it all.
He struggled to hold back the feeling of being overwhelmed by the way the Force reacted to their very presence. He went for his lightsaber, "Gentlemen," He began, they seemed to be in stunned silence by his sudden appearance, "I'm sure there's no need for this to escalate into anything more than a simple misunderstanding. Surely we can talk this out?"
One of the giants roared and charged him.
Roan cringed at the volume, "Apparently not."
::::
In a galaxy far, far away.