Dawnbreaker Episode I - Hard Contact news

"I will lead them into a new Golden Age of the Sith, restoring them to their long-forgotten ancient glory, and recreating the True Sith Empire, which would this time stretch across the galaxy, and vanquish the puny Jedi once and for all... everyone will then know true power, the power of the Dark Side, with no Jedi left to poison people's minds with misguided, narrow teachings!"

Said the Sith lord Darkon, during an argument with the Gatekeeper.

"Assuming they are worthy, of course." He continued. "As Desann states: 'The Force is not a shield to protect the useless, but is in reality a weapon, to empower the worthy.' I, Lord Darkon, fully agree with that statement!"

"No. The Force is many things." Said the Gatekeeper. "It is a powerful ally, a terrible foe, a good friend, a hated nemesis, an ancient power source that only I have ever took the time and patience to fully master, both Light and Dark. But there is one thing The Force is not: The Force is not a weapon. The weapon itself lies in it's user. When I first created The Force all those years ago, I did not intend it to be just for the worthy. I created it as something we could all believe in, find happiness in. But in the end, I was the only one who found happiness in The Force. The rest of you found greed. Jedi and Sith were supposed to be Allies. Not Enemies. Greed tore everything I made apart. Every Jedi and Sith alive today is a direct descendent of those I swore to destroy. My parting words to all you Force users out there: Watch your backs. The Gatekeeper of the Force is coming for you!"

"You may have created the Force, but I have subsumed it to my will! The Force is my servant, and you no longer have any influence over it. Do not place yourself in the way of the Reborn True Sith Empire!" The Sith Lord replied.

"Wow, it must suck to be a force user." Said the Mercenary, Ty294 "I use slugthrowers and everyone knows force users are defenseless against them! Tehehehehe.... Although you don't need to worry Gatekeeper, since I'm working for you. By the way, how much are ya payin' me anyway? Remember, I'm a mercenary."

"Hmmm, how's 10,000 credits per Force User sound?" Asked the Gatekeeper, "Don't worry about where I'll get the money. I've got my ways."

"As for you, Darkon," He said, turning back to the Sith. "I've dealt with your kind before. Soon, you will realize that you are in way over your head. Everything regarding the Force that has ever transpired has done so according to my design. I do, in fact, have influence over it. And I can shut off the Force to you, and the rest of your kind at any time. I can also drain your powers and transfer them to me and MY allies. By the way, have you ever heard of... the Uberweapon?"

"The out-of-control A-Wing....?" Said the Merc, trying to lose the tension. "Sorry, wrong uberweapon. 10,000 per forceuser sounds good. I'll soon be able to buy myself a Corellian Corvette; I've always admired them."

Darkon cut in, ignoring the mercenary, "In fact, I have. I am the 'Uberweapon', as the Dark Side of the Force is my servant... the only 'uberweapon' I need! Also, if you could truly shut the Force off to my kind, I suspect you would have done so by now. Far more shall be required than empty threats to intimidate me..."

"Fact of the matter is," Said the Gatekeeper. "I don't want to be the only one to use my greatest creation. It would be too easy to destroy you. I enjoy a good challenge. And turning off the Force would make you nothing more than a normal human being. If you were one, that is. Heh. Enemies like you complete me. You make me realize that there is something left to do in life. I thank you for that. However, upon return to your base of operations, you will find a note on the front door. It will say: "If you wish to keep your breakfast, do not open this door." Inside, will be the gutted bodies of your friends, and your allies, and your soldiers. Not a drop of blood left. It's almost as if something... or someone... just drained the very lifeblood from them. That will be a small example of what I can do. So go ahead. Return to your base, young one..."

"Excellent! Now that I have infused the gutted remains of my minions with pure dark essence using my Juggernaut force parameter matrix, they have became perfect warriors of the Sith. Undead, unliving, they do not know pain, fear, or any type of mortal weakness, as pure vessels for the Dark Side. In fact, they are the first step towards the Sith'ari - the perfect being. You fancy yourself the supreme being, Gatekeeper. You shall live to regret that presumption, when you are kneeling at my feet, and offering your loyalty to the invincible True Sith Empire, and the birth of the New Sith Golden Age. I have foreseen it..."

Undaunted, the Gatekeeper replied. "...As I have foreseen your downfall. Ty294, 1,000,000 credits for Darkon's head!"

"I'll make you a better offer, 294." Darkon said quickly, fearing that Ty would attack him. "You will be empowered with the Dark Side, and will be made a general of my Sith armies, if you discover and provide me with the Gatekeeper's exact location. Yes, you do not even have to take him down. Leave that part to me..."

"Sorry Darkon," Said the merc, "I'm not in this for power and prestige, I'm in it for the money... And cause I enjoy killin'. Besides, when I commit to a contract, I always see the job through..."

"Think about it... power and money go hand in hand... and since you will be a supreme general of the Sith Empire, I can guarantee that your appetite for killing will also be fulfilled. After all, the Sith have no lack of enemies! Honoring a contract is all well and good, but not to the point that it gets you killed. Every cunning assassin should know that. Consider your options carefully..."

"So, you have no knowledge of the Light?" Said the Gatekeeper, disregarding the previous conversation. "That is very foolish of you. You come at me with your force lightning, if you're lucky I don't hit you with Lightning Trials. I'm damaged and weak after a long battle, as are you. I use a combination of the Light and the Dark to completely heal myself. And if you continue to resist, then I will have to put on my real face, and show you what true power looks like. I'll have to go back to being Kiro. And if that happens, you will be caught in a trap, you will not be able to leave, and you will not be able to do anything as everything you have ever cherished is destroyed, and finally, you are, as well..."

"Oh, no, not at all... I would not use Force Lightning. I have far outgrew such a fledgling, easily countered power. I come at you with Force Destruction, and as you perish in a massive explosion of pure dark power, you realize your fundamental mistake at last: You have underestimated me, a True Sith Lord. Underestimating an enemy has been the last mistake of far too many individuals throughout history..."

"Indeed." Said the merc. "Considering the imminent clash between the two of you, it may be time for a lowly mercenary like me to bow out. I'll just collect to cash owed for the scores of Darkon's troops and officers I've already killed and be on my way..."

Lord Darkon suddenly found himself incapable of using any of his powers or drawing any energy-related weapons. "This is your final warning, Darkon. I've shut off the Force just to you. Now surrender yourself and your armies to me, or I will destroy you."

The Gatekeeper forks cash over to Ty294 as well as a free Corellian Corvette.

"It's the least I can do. Oh, and you'll find that corvette rather hard to shoot down, due to the reinforced hull and additional weapon hardpoints. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Uberweapon to launch a raid of Commenor."

The Gatekeeper attempts his famous vanishing act between two pillars of fire, but the pillars suddenly collapse, and he falls unceremoniously to the ground. As his powers leave him, he seems stunned that his shutting off the Force to Lord Darkon seems to have had a negative feedback effect on himself as well.

"Now do you finally understand what I mean when I said that although you are the creator of the Force, I have subsumed it to my will? You may have depowered me, but you have also depowered yourself! Once again you underestimate me... So, your choices are twofold: restore my power (and yours), or we shall settle this contest the old-fashioned way, mortal combat, without the Force."

The Gatekeeper put on his mask, and as he did so, the sky went black and fog rolled in covering the area as all things living around him start to wither and die.

"I do not need the Force to deal with you." He said as he slipped out of view into the fog, "I believe you have underestimated me. I anxiously await your arrival. I foresee a great battle... ... And a terrible ending for you..."

Feeling that something bad is going to happen, JulioC equips his Nanosuit.

"So, you hide from me..." Darkon said into the mist. "And your desperation compels you to cleanse a planet from all life. No doubt thinking that I shall perish in the same manner... but even deprived of the Force, my will is too strong to succumb to your feeble efforts, Gatekeeper! Cling to your tricks if you wish, but it will make no difference in the end..."

Lord Darkon's speech was interrupted as he gets a distress message from his flagship, saying that a 7 foot, 400 pound masked and mysteriously armored monster of a man is slaughtering the crew at an alarming rate. Before the transmission can conclude, there is a massive explosion, followed by static, and then a voice came over the speaker. "The loss of life on the planet is collateral damage. That is what happens when you push me too far. Now, your flagship is destroyed, your home planet blockaded, your fleet destroyed, your armies wiped out. You are completely alone. Meet me at JulioC's location. We'll kill him, then battle it out...
If you still wish to fight me, that is..."

Captain Deadmerit mused, "Perhaps it's a good thing I'm watching from the sidelines in my GA ship. I think I'll just stay where I am. No need for The Galactic Alliance to get involved. We have conflicts of our own to deal with."

Even as the Gatekeeper's voice fades, Lord Darkon feels the dark power reinvigorating him... the Force connection is restored.

"Sometimes collateral damage is necessary." Said Darkon "I may have lost my assault fleet, along with my flagship, the Sanctity Of Pain (and I really liked that ship, I shall make your demise that much more painful for that). However, that is all I lost. Most of my armies are undead Sith spectres by now, which cannot be killed, all you have destroyed are the few regiments of conventional troops I have not yet transformed, no major loss to me! Your relentless exertions of power, however, have drained you to the point that you can no longer maintain your block of my Force connection. I am at my full power once again! Not only that, but I was able to sever the feedback before the restoration could affect you... you are still Forceless! And from the feedback, I have learned how you can sever the Force from someone, and can now shield myself from that effect...
My orbital battlestations and Secondary Defence Fleet have overpowered your pitiful blockade forces, wiping them out, and I have dispatched several of my most elite Sith Spectres to JulioC, and they are empowering him even now... so he can aid me when the time for a climactic battle with you comes. Unlike you, Gatekeeper, I do not underestimate my enemies... or fail to make use of potential allies!
So yes, I shall meet you at JulioC's location... and together, we shall destroy you!"

"Actually, I restored the Force to you. I decided to let you have your full strength for when we fight. As for you learning how I shut off the Force, I have more than one way. I actually have more than 6,000. Also, those blockades were ships that went out of date 5,000,000,000 years ago! I don't care about them! They are expendable! As is JulioC! I look forward to wiping him out along with you whenever you decide to get here. By the way, where are you? Your Spectre's arrived, got slaughtered, never saw Julio or you."

"Of course you did not see Julio... I did not intend for you to see him. The Spectres empowered him and made him invisible, while he drained and suppressed your self-regenerative abilities without you even noticing. Now he is concealed, ready to strike again when you least expect it! Upon their demise, the Spectres' power reverted back to me, strenghtening my powers... even as a massive explosion collapses the wall behind you, and I, Lord Darkon, enter the scene..."

"Hmm. . ." Thought Deadmerit, "I am glad to say that GA doesn't want any involvement in the stalemated battle between Darkon and The Gatekeeper. To me, the Jedi and the Sith are overrated at best." Deadmerit attends to looking over his weapons stockpile on his ship.
"I'm probably gonna regret saying that."

Julio's voice comes through Darkon's comm.
"I'm not invisible because I've been empowered with the Force, I'm invisible because I've been empowered with a Nanosuit, and I intend to use it to help you, Darkon."

Darkon smiles, and unleashes deadly sight on his enemy- The Gatekeeper's skin begins to superheat beneath his armour, and he loses balance and falls to his knees in pain...

Suddenly, an A-Wing emerges from hyperspace and, speeding and spinning at an incredable rate, smashes into the bridge tower of Darkon's Secondary Defence Fleet Flagship, causing the entire ship to implode. The resulting massive explosion causes extreme damage to all nearby craft. The comlink crackles to life as the Mercenary's voice is clearly heard:

"That's just a thank you gift to the Gatekeeper for the Corvette! Sorry 'bout the mess Darkon! Ha ha ha ha!"

The Gatekeeper stands up, not hearing the mercenary.
"Impressive, Darkon. Let's see how you handle THIS." The Gatekeeper fires a soul draining spear: A red energy aura in the form of a massive spear hits Darkon in the face, causing unimagineable pain, severe burning, and loss of will to live. He turns to Julio and grabs him by the neck, puts arm over shoulder, grabs waistline with other hand, lifts him up, and slams him to the ground, causing instant paralysis and disablement of the Nanosuit as a result of the unchained Dark Side energy flowing through it, overflowing it's systems and causing them to explode. Also causes loss of reproductive capabilities. For LIFE!

Lord Darkon stands, reveling in the pain. "YES! Pain only empowers me further, Gatekeeper!"
Darkon uses froce lightning on the Gatekeeper, sending him face forward to the ground, engulfed by electricity. The Gatekeeper turns and leaps up, just in time for a Teras Kasi Force empowered snap kick - the kick connects with the side of Gatekeeper's neck, fracturing the spine and causing paralysis from the neck down... he plops to the ground, as Lord Darkon leaps over him, for a body-slam finishing move...

Meanwhile, Darkon's fleet are following the merc's A-wing...
Darkon's forces emerge from light speed at transmission source location only to find that they've been lured into a trap. A fleet of Imperial Remnant ships bolstered by a number of Ty294's mercenary friends immediately besets them. While swarms of Tie Fighters destract the capital ships gunners, cloaked transport ships containing cyborg soldiers move in and prepare to launch boarding operations.

Sith fighters piloted by Spectres launch from all of Darkon's ships, outflying and annihilating the puny TIE's, while the capital vessels engage the Imperial ships. Equipped with reactive armour in addition to standard shields, they have a clear advantage. Meanwhile, HK51 droids prepare to repel the cyborg invaders, while the Mercenary's little Corvette is tractored into the main hangar bay, its engines destroyed.

The Gatekeeper slowly sits up, completely unharmed as Darkon has his back turned celebrating what he thinks is a victory, the Gatekeeper rises to his feet, extends his hands forward, mumbles something incoherently, and curves his hands forward. Darkon turns just in time to see what looks like an endless number of black lightning bolts heading toward him. They enter his body, overriding all of his senses with numbness as the electricity flows throughout his body. What feels like an eternity later, it ends, and Darkon lies motionless on the ground.

As the numbness wears off, Lord Darkon sees the Gatekeeper about to finish him. Pure willpower defeats the numbness, and he grabs and twists the Gatekeeper's hand about to rip out his heart, breaking the wrist.

*Force Shatterpoint - a precise, gentle tap on Gatekeeper's armour shatters it*

*Close-range delayed Force Destruction* - the Gatekeeper is flung backward against the far wall, as the dark energy implodes in his chest... Multiple massive wounds litter his broken body, blood flowing out. The Gatekeeper's breathing becomes strained, as Lord Darkon approaches at a carefully measured pace, a slight smile on his face...
The Gatekeeper leaps up, whips off his armor, revealing nothing more than the mask, red and yellow soulless eyes, and a black outfit with glowing red barbed wire going up the legs and sides of the chest, coiling amongst itself like snakes. As Lord Darkon stands there, confused as to how his enemy is not dead, and in awe to be in the presence of such an awe-inspiring creature, the barbed wire shoots out from his chest and legs and coils itself around him, dragging him closer and closer. The Gatekeeper lets out a fiendish and other-dimensional roar that sends chills down his spine, then, he makes several slashing motions with his hands, and massive foot-long gashes appear all over his body, spouting blood. Darkon falls to the ground lifeless. The Gatekeeper walks over, rips out his heart with his clawed hand, then shoots a dark red beam out of his mouth, annihilating the body, then vanishes to Ty294's Corellian Corvette...

As the red beam envelops Lord Darkon, he is momentarily connected to the Gatekeeper's outer-dimensional plane, and, with his last remaining strength, uses the Force to transphase his soul to that plane, an instant before the body is annihilated.

"YES!" Screamed Darkon, "Now you have made me more powerful than ever, Gatekeeper! I am no longer bound by the limitations of physical body... and I now have access to all the supreme power of this plane, the same as you. You haven't killed me... you have made me your equal in sheer power!"

The Gatekeeper stood in shock, as the ghostly form of Lord Darkon, attired in a cloak the color of dried blood, with piercing eyes of silver-gray, and the foulest acidic poison vapors emanating from him, suddenly appeared on the Corvette's bridge. As the bridge crew began to disintegrate to the acid, Ty294 managed to escape via a side door on the bridge. Luckily his armor had protected him from most of the acid, but he was still wounded. Darkon phased in an instant right next to the Gatekeeper. Grabbing the Gatekeeper's arm, Darkon willed the acid to flow through his arms into his foe. Then, using the Force, he ignited the acid, and the Gatekeeper's outer-dimensional body is burned from the inside out. His last scream dies down, and Lord Darkon tears his charred, shapeless remains to pieces.

"No longer are you the supreme being, Gatekeeper... only I am that!"

The Gatekeeper lands behind Lord Darkon
"You fool. I do not die THAT easily! And once more, you will be cast down! Just like before."

The Gatekeeper waves his hand, and Lord Darkon's mind is flooded with memories of his long lost childhood, and how his family house was burned down, his family killed, and himself horribly disfigured by the fire. It left him broken and weak at the age of 5. Returning to reality, Lord Darkon is back to a physical form, only now, he is but a boy. His 5 year old form. He quakes in fear at the sight of such a hideous monster, and cowers in a fetal position on the floor.
The Gatekeeper walks over, "Aw... How sweet... Now there's a face..." He pulls out the head of Darkon's deceased mother* "Only a mother could love!" Claws form on the Gatekeeper's hand "Now, Darkon, you will... Die..."

The boy raises his head to the Gatekeeper, as the clawed hand is about to rip off his head. He looks like a boy, but his voice is still of Lord Darkon, and it literally sends the Gatekeeper reeling backward from its unimaginable power.

"How pathetic, feeble one!" Darkon cried, "You think me so easily manipulated... you forget that my power now matches your own! And more..."

Suddenly, the boy form explodes outward, and Lord Darkon is once again as he was before. With a snap of his fingers, they are no longer on the Corvette, but in the former house of one who would eventually call himself the Gatekeeper, many millennia in the past. The Gatekeeper looks around at his familiy and his former self, a boy, sitting around a dinner table, a happy family. Lord Darkon waves his hand, and the Gatekeeper is frozen in time, only able to watch in helpless horror as Lord Darkon's basilisk gaze sweeps across all of his former family in turn, including his former self, turning them into stone. They never existed.

In an instant, the scene dissolves back to the Corvette's bridge, both of them standing in the exact same places, except that the Gatekeeper is now only a lifeless stone statue...

A loud garbled and quite disturbing laugh fills the room just as Darkon is about to Shatterpoint the stone statue of the Gatekeeper. He breaks out, dragging a long black chain with him. He lashes Darkon with the chain, which does nothing except anger Darkon, or so it seems. Darkon grabs the Gatekeeper in sheer fury and tries to pick him up and toss him, but he can't move from the ground, as hordes of people have latched themselves onto his legs!

"These are the Souls of the Forgotten, Lord Darkon. Hell will be your final resting place!"

The Gatekeeper chokeslams Darkon to the ground, which starts to crack. The floor of the Corvette shatters, only to reveal a massive burning fire. As Darkon looks at it, his eyes, body, mind and soul catch on fire, and a massive Trident stabs him through the back. The Gatekeeper kneels down, hand extended forward, as a red burnt hand gives him a small vial. Inside: Darkon's soul. The Gatekeeper reaches into a massive bag that materializes out of nowhere, and pulls out a large ball made of unknown material. He deposits Darkon's soul inside, as the Trident rips out of the body, and the Forgotten as well as the body start falling. And falling... And falling away into Darkness, as the floor of the Corvette closes back up, and the Gatekeeper rises to his feet, and waits for the imminent arrival of his attack fleet.

The Gatekeeper leaves a curse upon the grave, damning all who dare to disturb it to an eternity of darkness and tormented agony.

"Vaskoras De Loch" 3/26/11- The Gatekeeper of The Force

An unknown voice speaks to Lord Darkon, "I am the beginning, and the end. I am Lucifer, the First of the Nephilim, the Original Gods. Your adversary has consigned you to my realm, which he mistakenly calls "Hell". You have put up a valiant struggle against that creature, but he is empowered by the false right-path "God", as one of his "Archangels", and as such, you were no match for him... until now. I hereby empower you, and choose you to destroy this false 'Gatekeeper', so you can become the true one, and bring the long-lost balance back to the universe."

The bridge of the Corvette suddenly fills with a blinding purple light, as the floor opens up, and Lord Darkon, the Archdemon, phases back into the prime reality. A white chain of pure primal energy lashes out at the Gatekeeper, catching and spinning him. The chain's torque creates a massive purple vortex of primal doom, which begins to suck in the Gatekeeper. At the same time, Astaroth herself phases in, carrying a gray-silver chalice, which draws into itself the Gatekeeper's soul. She places the chalice in Lord Darkon's hand. A strangely chilling vail begins to emanate from the vortex, along with apparitions of enraged, distorted faces and clawed arms. Lord Darkon lifts the chalice, and speaks:

"Do you hear that vail, false one? Do you see them? The vail of the misled, the betrayed, and the falsely cursed... all the souls you and your kind have led to their doom! They are calling for you, "Gatekeeper". They cry for vengeance... and so shall they have it! Hereby do I restore the balance... and inaugurate the New Golden Age!"

Lord Darkon destroys the chalice with a surge of primal energy from his burning eyes, and as he does so, the Gatekeeper is sucked into the vortex, the ghostly clawed hands already beginning to rend him to pieces, into an eternity of torment. The vortex closes, and that entire sector of space begins to collapse in on itself. Lord Darkon returns to his new flagship.
Lord Darkon's armada vanishes into hyperspace just as The Gatekeeper's assault fleet arrives, and is promptly consigned into oblivion along with the Corvette and the surviving Imperial ships, as the sector becomes an unfathomable void, a transphasic singularity.

"I told you at the very beginning. Do not place yourself in my way... the True way."

A voice rings in Darkon's head: "You think I'm an Angel?! I side with the Light?! You sicken me to no end, Darkon! Now, you, your kind, and ALL of humanity, will suffer the consequences, at the hands of the Gatekeeper of The Force!"

The Gatekeeper's body rises out in front of all of Darkon's fleet in space, bigger than the galaxy itself! He catches the fleet in the palm of his massive hand. The fleet opens fire with everything they've got, but it's no use. The Gatekeeper crushes Darkon's entire fleet with one wave of his hand, and with another, everything around Darkon's flagship goes dark, until there is a massive explosion, and Darkon is standing alone on the bridge, surrounded by black robed Druids armed with various ancient weapons of pure evil. Darkon tries to destroy the Druids, but they completely overpower him, and lead him back outside the flagship, back to the Gatekeeper, who promptly resizes him to his own galactic scale, standing on the very foundation of Time itself, the alternate Galaxy around them, at the Gatekeeper's wave, suddenly explodes! All of the souls from it fly into the Gatekeeper's outstretched hands, empowering him further. Then, he turns to Darkon.

"Not even the one you call Astaroth can save you. Look at the remnants. Look at what you have forced me to do. After this is over, you will be given a proper burial. It's the least I can do, for perhaps the greatest foe I've ever had."

The Gatekeeper steps back and prepares for one final battle, without any outside interference. Everything else is destroyed.

"Oh, and for you information, Darkon, my allegiance is with the Dark Side!"

As the galactic souls begin to empower the Gatekeeper, Lord Darkon's basilisk gaze petrifies each of them in turn, and his supreme power accelerates them, now nothing more than hardened chunks of stone, to unimaginable velocities. They perforate the Gatekeeper like massive EC bullets fired from a Gauss rifle, all the trillions of them, of all the people from the annihilated galaxy. And as each of them enters the Gatekeeper, Lord Darkon's power un-petrifies them, and each of them begins to sap and destroy the Gatekeeper's power, in addition to causing unimaginable pain. Through the perforation holes, the residue of the Gatekeeper's power begins to hemmorrhage like blood, and Lord Darkon absorbs it all into himself, drawing power directly from his enemy. Just as Lord Darkon is about to annihilate the Gatekeeper once and for all, the Gatekeeper counters the spell, causing it to backfire on Lord Darkon, draining him of all of his powers, his abilities, and his strengths, leaving him helpless before the will of the Gatekeeper, and try as he might, he can not seem to use any of his abilities. It's almost as if the Gatekeeper has some sort of control over those who dwell in the realm of existance...

"Darkon, you can't win. Not like this. It is useless to resist. Now, I have a proposition for you. You may have your Sith'ari and your True Sith Empire IF, and only IF, you take them to a diffrent galaxy and leave this one alone. I reside here. This galaxy has, under my leadership, prospered. There can not be a single empire ruling all. I designed it that way. If you accept my offer, you may have the galaxy next to mine, which is essentially an exact replica of this one, only slightly more advanced, technology wise, AND you may create new ones as you see fit. Do whatever you wish with them. My Shadow Empire will rule the rest. Or at least try to. It is obvious, Lord Darkon, that this continued fighting is not going to give a clear cut winner. I admit, I underestimated you. But you have also underestimated me. I am far more advanced than you realize. Just think about everything I have said. If you still wish to fight me, well, I can't say where that will lead. I'll be right here..."

Darkon uses the Force to restore his power, as the perfect Sith'ari is never helpless, not before anyone.

"You are extremely powerful, Gatekeeper. It is only prudent that I admit that. I have never yet encountered an adversary such as you, one who counters my power point for point at every turn. I may not be able to destroy you, but you also cannot destroy me. I choose to postpone our war until more convenient circumstances arise. I accept your offer.
Yet, I am a Sith. More to the point, I am a True Sith, the Sith'ari. And the Sith deal only in absolutes. I shall brook no other supreme ruler save myself in this reality. You may have your flawed Shadow Empire in this galaxy, Gatekeeper... for now. But I promise you, the time will come when you shall kneel at my feet, and proclaim your loyalty to the True Sith Empire, which shall stretch across all the known universe."
However long it takes... however high the cost, I will accomplish my goal! Remember... I have foreseen it. For now, though, farewell. You have proven a worthy adversary, Gatekeeper, and you will be so again..."

Ty294 staggers to his feet, his broken body mortally wounded by blast damage from the battle. The Gatekeeper and Darkon have both vanished. Ty makes his way to the nearest viewport where he observes the carnage outside. At that moment he relizes the corvette has been torn in two. Although damaged, the Zero-G ability of his armor suit is still able to function. Sending a message over the comlink to a surviving Merc ally, he plunges himself into space. He is picked up by the Merc while what remains of the Imperial/Mercenary armada flees into hyperspace. The ship Ty is on hypers toward a small planet on the another edge of the Galaxy, where a small, forgotten medical and cloning facility awaits a new patient.

"Damn it." says an unknown voice. "It would seem I missed the action... wait a minute..." He puts on mandalorian helmet, "It looks like the party's just gettin' started."

TO BE CONTINUED...