Intending to stop by Concordia on their way through to asation, the X-70 leapt along the hyperlanes faster than most vessels were capable of, with their modified class 0.5 hyperdive allowing them to shorten the times needed considerably.
Once they rejoined the inner rim hyperlane, the Hydian way, their progress across the galaxy was swift, with immediate access to mandalore with it bring directly connected to the hyperroute.
And so, after spending a couple of days in the luxury of his ship, moving through his favoured lightsaber form- the form tailored by tulak hord- in practice or studying the artefacts of knowledge and ancient history he had collected, the ship dropped out of hyperspace in the mandalore system, hurtling towards Concordia with the goal of making use of the death watch, using them to further his goals.
...
Once more the deathwatch gathered before his ship, it was only when the gathered lay eyes on Nox that the suggestion implanted in their minds unravelled, allowing their own minds access to the conversation Nox had with their leader a month earlier.
And since the helmet of Mandalore the Ultimate had been revealed earlier, yet they were completely unable to force themselves to take the helmet from the strange droids that held it, nor could they make their bodies move to conquer the vessel they arrived on.
It was only now, that Nox had reappeared, that the answer to the reason they werent so much as able to take a step toward the helmet of mandalore, was revealed.
And now, rushed into Vizla's office, Nox found himself rather amused by the agency being shown not just by Vizla himself, but by deathwatch as a whole, now that they knew him to truly be in possession of the helmet of Mandalore.
For the helmet of Mandalore, Vizla was willing to stake anything, whether it be his children, his lover or the deathwatch itself, using them as leverage for the chance to obtain the helmet in the possession the man he knelt before.
" What is your bidding, milord" And so he did, he allied himself to this man with strange ships and even stranger droids. Not even knowing this mans name but giving him his loyalty anyway. He knew that the future he sought now had a clear goal, an objective within reach... if he simply obeyed.
" Your duty to me is three fold" Nox turned to stare out of the window to Vizla's government office towards the barren moon surface.
" I require the use of your contacts throughout the galaxy, I will also require the use of your forces if and when and where I say so, And finally... I need you to search for some things for me along with seeking information for me, keep an eye out in certain circles for artefacts or scripts of dubious age and origin, when you encounter these objects, inform me of them, i will send payment and you will purchase them for me and i will come and collect them" Nox placed a holocommunicator on the table, setting up a solid method of communication between the two." use this as a method to communicate with me, never tell anyone this exists"
" Of course, what information do you seek" Vizla asked, a single minded determination to earn his reward driving him forward.
" All of it ... every scrap of information you can get your hands on, no matter the subject no matter the validity... I want everything" He went on to explain that not only would Vizla be gathering information personally, but wherever he visited he would be installing transceivers connected to Scyva, and she would use these devices to monitor and listen to everything she could at once throughout the galaxy .
Several of boxes of these transceivers were placed within the room by Scyva, as Vizla opened and studied the devices that sat firmly in the palm of his hand closely.
" Spread these throughout the galaxy, build an information network worthy of my use through this and build allies with those you meet under the guise of establishing connections, Do all these for me ... and I will give you the helmet in due time"
With that, Nox began to depart, leaving his final parting words to Vizla, passing by the kneeling man.
" And if anyone ever finds out about this deal, My existence or the work you will be doing for me. I will return and raise your people to the ground. I will send my legion of warships to burn what remains of mandalore to dust, I will enslave the survivors if any remain until the last draws their breath in my dungeons. Nothing shall remain should you even whisper of my presence to anyone beyond your fold" With that, the memory of the strange warship still burned in Vizla's memory, and imagining a whole fleet of those vessels, a fleet that shouldn't exist since the republic didn't allow for such large masses of ships to exist without their consent, it made his spine tingle at the prospect of his betrayal. An unknown fleet of ships with an unknown man at the helm, whom could come and go without anyone remembering, who believed in might makes right. Vizla considered himself lucky he had chosen to listen that day when the man first appeared a month ago, rather than making an enemy out of him.
He swore to himself and for the future of Mandalore he would reveal nothing, promising the man who stalked away through his halls, his calls echoing with promises he would keep or die trying.
Nox made sure to let Vizla know that he held all the power, the power to give him the future and the power to take it away in burning flames.
" Perhaps a demonstration is in order" There was no real need he knew, his personal power enough proved the validity enough of his words.
But that would be for later, if Vizla ever heralded thoughts of treachery, he would put the man in his place, before removing him entirely and have someone else take his place.
With nothing left to do on world, Nox departed for Asation, heading from mandalore westward across the galaxies smaller hyper routes towards the next step of his journey of discovery.
.... ASATION....
The world, whose atmosphere was tinged blue thanks to the wetlands that covered the slimy lands, sat at the fringes of unknown and wild space, near the west of the galaxies borders.
Almost entirely covered in this long stretches of land, much of the land teamed with life of all sorts, crawling within the under brush, swimming below the surface of the shallow waters, bugs rutting under the mud.
From the skies, the X-70b hurtled through the skies towards a series of dark grey and blue coloured technological constructs carved into a mountain range, oddly shaped geometric shapes, alien architecture far more advanced than any machine or piece of technology found in the galaxy to this day.
" They still stand" Nox smirked from the viewport of his ship, almost laughing as he felt out to the many lives of various age littering the Gree construct.
" Take us down" And so the X-70 landed on a geometric platform of strange shapes, with the ships reactor beginning to charge through unknown means and unknown connection.
Stepping out of the ship, he was met with three gree. Usually he would be disgruntled at seeing such alien creatures.
With their bulbous eyes, and octopus like heads with five large tentacles and sacks spurting from the backs of their strange heads, they had several tentacles in place of legs, with four arms each tipped with smaller but no less nimble tentacle appendages.
Typically for seeing such alien and strange creatures, many would become disgusted at their wet and slimy skin and strange complexion. But Nox held a sort of respect for these creatures.
Among the first species in the galaxy, for long their hidden peoples lived undaunted by time, theirs was a species who stood tall against the currents of time until this very day where he stood infront of them once more. And he treated them with the respect they deserved, but he was in for a surprise... a pleasant one for what it meant for him.
" Greetings" Their initial reunion was out of respect for a species whose secrets crossed stars.
They met him with similar greeting, their translator's working to convey their thoughts as masks covered their gill like flaps on their necks.
Translator droids stood next to them, translating the words of geometry and colour they spoke to him.
With quick conversation he explained his reason for approaching, how he wished to establish trade with them if favour of goods they were willing to sell.
Seeing this, he found it strange that they so readily agreed to his proposal, he discovered that the gree meeting him were the senior assistants of the preciding guild master with control of the Hypergate. Sent in his stead to greet him .
" We will take you to the guild leader to discuss terms" They turned and began to guide him intonthe large alien structure riddled with Gree behind them, leading him through a large triangular shaped door .
Taking the chance to speak and pose questions to them as they moved through the terminal, they spoke at length about their society. Speaking of their jealousy of the knowledge their masters hoarded and their masters above them.
About the fact their society was a caste system based on intelligence and implied worth . Grand masters took at the pinnacle with a council of no more than eight presiding over their entire race.
Below them were regular grand masters not permitted into the council yet retained the absolute mastery over a field needed to broker the title of grand master.
Everyone else in Gree society served these grand masters, with guild masters their immediate successors, below them on the totem pole.
Guild masters who presided the local guilds that governed planets and clans. Each guild master covered the masters of their guild with each one afforded great respect by the others of their society. Any master had a seat of council within their guild and anyone not on the level of a master was considered 'lesser' in the eyes of their society. These masters and those above them operated the technology belonging to the Gree, jealously guarding their knowledge with zealous intensity, for if anyone learned what they knew their own position became worthless.
Below these masters were masters in waiting, waiting to reach particular skill in their chosen field of study or waiting for a council seat to open up at the passing of another master. These were the assistants that Nox found himself in the company of, each one holding knowledge of a diggerent field of society, each one waiting to become a master themselves.
Below these assistants themselves, there was students, but the assistants admitted the chances of these students ever rising above their station was a pipe dream at best.
" So you do little more than assist the master with menial tasks he doesn't want to perform" Now feeling rather incensed, the master thought meeting him was a menial task' How pretentious '
' They hoard their knowledge like scored lovers, It's a wonder any of them retain knowledge at all' And it showed, their tendency to refuse to share their knowledge lead to what Nox was observing around. Sluggish almost mindless Gree strode along, performing menial tasks in order to simply earn enough to survive, their attention spans were short and their intelligence was low, sickening.
" If you don't mind me asking" He observed a Gree attempting to deliver several boxes to its master, its movements slowed and berefit of thought." How goes your defences, are your A class assassin droids still functioning well with intended function"
Seeing nothing wrong with his question, assuming him to be simply asking out of curiosity, they answered. In truth they saw no real need for the droids, very few times had they ever faced any kind of conflict except for the times since the inception of their race. Infact they saw the droids to an afront to their knowledge and looked down on them, instead they favoured artificial AI integrated with their technologies. Though they looked down apon these creations as well, they fared better than the droids they had in storage and didn't even want to look at.
' So they're defenceless because they assume nobody has the gal to come and take them' A vicious smirked toyed on the fringes of his lips, eyes lighting up in thought. " In terms of exploratory function, how many ships and methods out of Gree space do you have"
Once more than answered with innocent honesty, all of their vessels had been hosted within the Enclave for some time, most inoperable due to losing the ability to fly them. There remained only one automated vessel that made routine excursions from the Enclave to Asation and other external worlds, the rest remained firmly stationed in the enclave in favour of other means of societal favour and belief.
" How ... wonderful" Few more questions that were asked had a growing sense of darker undertone on his way to meeting the guild master, before finally he found himself infront of the master preceding over asation.
" What is it I can help you with" The guild master spoke as he focussed the majority of his attention on a cube structure he was attention to decipher.
" I would like your permission to remain on Asation for several days to a fortnight at the longest whilst I organise trade with your people " The guild master didn't so much as look his way, almost dismissively waving it's tentacles appendages.
" Yes yes do what you must, conduct your interactions with my assistants" With a smile tugging his lips, nox chuckled and left the guild master to his studies.
' Wonderful ' One of the assistants accompanied him back to his ship, where nox was quick to make hismelf scarce and draw Scyva into the conference room.
" Call the fleet, All of them, prepare for an invasion of the Gree colonies" Scyva whirled around and began communing with Iokath, amassing the fleet and automated forces to converge on their location at once.
As she did that , Nox made use of the long range holoterminal, connecting with corellia his call was quickly connected.
Telros answered within moments of his beckoning, the weary eyes greeting him, awaiting whatever request that would drop from Nox, he wasn't disappointed yet found himself surprised none the less.
" Divert all traffic away from Asation and the Gree enclave at once" His harsh voice crashed through the holocall, his initial smooth features shifting as he spoke, pinning telros with an intense stare that made the board member shiver.
" Of course, I'll put up a notice of scheduled maintenance, only ships bearing a certain IF tag will be allowed past, should this suffice" The man inclined his head, He wished not to be apart of whatever was to come, simply moving to do what he was ordered and wash his hands of the situation. Whatever became of this situation and the Gree was of little consequence to him.
" Perfectly, send me the IF signature and wait for word to return everything to normal" He ended the call, receiving a chime from his datapad which was handed to Scyva to organise and integrate with the fleet already mobilising over Iokath.
....
For the next week of preparations he played nicely, learning what remained of the Gree's once impressive history which now lay almost entirely lost from the Gree themselves because of their tendency to hoard their knowledge .
He spent time with their historians, with their engineers and architects those who were considered lower in their society, he mingled with their mindless workers, gauged their defences if any. Set up several devices around within the storage unit that held their assassin droids, sabotaged communication networks and broke generators across the settlement . He layed the groundwork for a seamless takeover, all the while playing nice with the guildmaster and his assistants, playing the trader until the day finally arrived, one week to the day after his arrival.
He waltzed right into the guild masters room, before the master could even pose his question, Nox had already reached out to him through the force.
" Gather your assistants and your assistants, Gather everyone infront of the grand Hypergate" Under hisnurging the guild master let out a note of musical sound through the air, echoing through the building and out through the lands before he himself rose and proceeded to guide Nox through towards the platform which the Grand Hypergate sat apon.
One by one, all the Gree from the masters assistants to the mindless workers from the bottom levels, they came to stand before their bewitched guild master, standing side by side with Nox as he looked apon those gathered.
' An opportunity seen since the inception of the stars ' Nox tugged the smile blooming on his face into a mask of neutrality. Yet he couldn't quite help the curling of his lips.
He strode forward before the Gree, each of then studying the human that had interacted with them for the better part of the week , his arms spread as he began to speak, a wide smile birthing across his quickly twisting features.
Scyva joined at his side as energy began to surge within her core, activating features hidden within, the green of her lenses being replaced with turbulent blue as Nox spread his gospel.
" Your Gree gathered before me, those who have lost the gift of thought and idea, those who hide the precious knowledge for themselves" He spoke to the species so ancient they counted as some of the first races in tha galaxy" Rejoice for salvation has landed apon your shores. Fear not the Decay of your race any longer, for those who govern you shall prosper no more, for each and every one of you... are under new management "
As he spoke, a legion of warships dropped out of hyperspace, numerous enough to block out the stars, their large bulk forming into cross formations as far and wide as the eye could see, five hundred thousand warships moved to coverage on Gree space, above the blue tinted world.
" Welcome to my empire... be grateful "
Before the Gree could so much as sound alarm to the enclave at the sudden incursion, a great pulse escaped Scyva amd swept over everything around in a great blue wave , whose highly compressed systems released a great wave of electromagnetic waves apon the Gree technology, similar in function to the weapons of Iokath used to knock out organics.
All around, lights within the Gree settlement went dark, robbed of power and energy as even their masks began to malfunction, forcing them to remove them in order to breath.
" I would suggest you surrender and come peacefully, I hold a great respect for your ancestors, I'd hate to disrespect them by felling their descendants" The Gree looked around, the A-series assassin droids stored in their containment units failing to activate due to the EMP that destroyed their circuits.
" There's no need to fret" Nox walked past their trembling forms as the reconstituted eternal fleet warships dropped into the atmosphere, a legion of droids and ships deploying from their hangers, enough to blot out the sun in swarms of shadow stretching the horizon." The rest of your technologies and people will join you on my world, you will be provided for, everything you desire shall be yours and all you have to do for me ... is build "
He came to a stop before the grand Hypergate, staring at the only entrance to the gree enclave save for the ship serving as alternative transport.
" Now then " As the ships of iokath wardroids leapt from shuttles, grabbing and dragging the Gree onto the ships that touched down with quick speed and brutal efficiency. The Gree were powerless to resist, taken into the bowels of the shuttles that quickly ascended back up to the ships descending into the skies, clouds parting around their bulk.
Apon boarding the vessels, the near mindless Gree and those with thought were each contained in laser gates, stripped of the bare necessities but what they would need to survive their relocation.
" Make sure they're treated well, but do not give them access to anything technological until my say so" Behind him stood a legion of Iokath wardroids and the bulk of the eternal fleet, All pointed at the inactive hypergate that loomed over them on its alien splendour.
The silent and inert guild master at his side came forward at his beckoning, tentacles trailing in the air as it moved to listen.
" You will call the Grey Secant from its voyage immediately " His hand wove as the Gree turned around, it's slimy tentacles flying over the nobs and nodes , song vibrating across the machines and intertwining with the notes that escaped the Gree controlling the devices.
An alien language of shape and math spoke from its folds and flaps, before turning back, not several moments later, the Grey Sevant materialised over the Hypergate as if it had always been there the whole time.
Though it housed no Gree, he knew it could have gone and drew unneeded attention should it be unaccounted for. The glowing orange and black orb that sat under the centre of its frame shifted as it simply.floated above the base.
' Near instantaneous travel ... remarkable' The ship didn't respond to any external stimuli, as if waiting for orders.
" Send it to these coordinates " His hand wove once more as the coordinates of Iokath fell from his mouth, and not moments later the ship appeared to fold in on itself, sucked into a blue haze at it's centre before Scyva informed him of its immediate arrival at Iokath.
" Wonderful... Now turn on the Hypergate, destination ... Your Gree enclave" With no means of escaping the Enclave remaining since the Grey Secant was on Iokath,and their ships grounded in the enclave. t
Their impending incursion of the Enclave was all but assured to be a sweep, brutal and efficient, however, He couldn't risk escapees.
" Neutralise any that come back through this gate" As the Blue Hypergate above began to swirl to life, it's blue haze spreading to fill the entire circumference of the cage it sat in,Nox stared ahead.
" Begin the invasion" His command was met with instantaneous response, as all the ships as his command surged towards the Hypergate at once, rumbling overhead as the ground shook, Nox smirked to himself as three warships vaisnihed before tens more followed, swallowed by the gate and transported across the galaxy in an instant.
" You ... are coming with me " Under Nox's control,the Guild master followed as he stepped into the gates semitransparent blue barrier, vanishing with it and Scyva as he stepped directly into the Gree enclave across the distance of space.
...4 DAYS LATER ...
When the hyperlane Asation reopened and the citizens of the galactic republic returned to gree space, fear and panic spread far and wide from the inner core worlds to the farthest outer rim territories.
For Gree space lay berefit of not only the Gree themselves, but their ancient long standing technologies that had been to guide the galaxy throughout the eons.
All of it, from the smallest computer terminal and battery to the towering hyergate larger than dreadnaughts that sat at the centre of their territory, everything save for the very buildings the Gree dwelled in vanished without a trace.
An entire civilisation along with what made them what they were, vanished from the face of the galaxy without anyone's notice. And panic spread as many within governments and other establishment's realised what had happened.
...IOKATH...
The entire gree species stood before him, each one controlled by the hands of an Iokath wardroid. Those with thought looked at him with nothing but acceptance, the understood their future was no longer in their hands to control. The mindless drones simply stood staring thought, unable to do little more than breath and waste carbon.
" What are you going to do with us " The several grand masters of the governing council stood behind Nox and Scyva as he overlooked the race in silent judgement .
" Your technology now stands as alien to you as it does the rest of us. I will be taking several if not most of your species and genetically modifying them to revert them back to their previous intelligence and capability, augmenting them and attempting to relearn the ways of building such technogical marvels" Not only did he plan to bring them back, but he planned to make use of their innate drive to build and expand apon their knowledge to train several generations in quick succession .
" You seek to return us to the old ways" One such grand master crawled forward on his tentacles, the other grand masters behind speaking amongst themselves inntheir alien and utterly foreign language.
" through several hundred tests and alterations, I intend to do just that ... I intend to rediscover how to build your technologies alongside you" It wasn't a request to have them build, he would be taking the secrets they would rediscover, whether he had to take it from their cold slimy dead tentacles or not.
" Take them, take as many as you need, all of them if you must. If you can do as promised, we will swear untold loyalty to you and your empire, as long as we get to express our creativity and desire to build once again " It vowed, not only it but the others alongside it. The knowledge of how to build their machines alluded them for the entirety of their lives.
' It won't exactly be a choice ' He planed not only to bring the great architects of their species back from extinction, but to program them much like one would do to droids, make them utterly and completely loyal to himself and his empire above even themselves. And if it went the way he sought, Gree technology would become synonymous with the technology of Iokath, becoming one and the same.
" I'm glad we're in agreement" He turned to Scyva" Take half of all of them, Use the grand masters as the base template, we'll start with them and begin building up from that"
The grand masters that were selected didn't resist as they were taken away to have their bodies scanned and their brains mapped, their days would end today and the future of their kind would be built apon their genetic material.
For the last thing to be done was to have the knowledge held within their brain cases forcefully extracted by the twisted machines of Iokath, everything they knew would be added to a single codex which they would build from the minds of all the Gree, all the knowledge they held in a single point ,, where nobody would be able to hoard it, and then they would start planting the data on this codex into the minds of the Gree they would grow at an accelerated rate.
These Gree would then be put to work analysing smaller, lesser Gree constructs, learning how to deconstruct and rebuild them, worming their way up until they rediscovered how to build each and every piece of technology they had forgotten how to use.
It was similar to how one trained AI m, Having thousands of smaller AI project what they learnt into a single matrix . He would just be making use of that resulting matrix, duplicating it a thousand times over and starting the process over again, forcing these newer smarter matrixes to train am even more power matrix than themselves, stacking knowledge apon knowledge thrice over.
Then Nox would use these final resulting Gree, ripping the relearnt knowledge from their minds and using that knowledge to reverse engineer every piece of technology the Gree knew how to build.
As his plans began to be executed , the Grand master that had spoke with Nox watched half of the members of the grand master council be taken away by the droids with uncaring coldness.
" You're not upset at this" Below enmasse the Gree were split and taken to be harvested, they each understood what was to come but didn't resist. Those without thought had to be dragged away to he repurposed for the greater good of their kind.
" Our future has never been brighter, if so much as one of our kind grows to have the intelligence of our ancestors, than every sacrifice we make will be worth it" It spoke, feeling nothing but expectation of what was to come.
" How very machine like... wonderful " With that amused thought, Nox left the grand masters under the watch of Scyva and her drones, intending to access the data contained on the great technological fortresses they had liberated from Gree control.
He hoped that these technologies, atleast some of them, worked as a repository of knowledge, hopeing to find any trace of their history back during the first days of their people. He wanted to learn just what had occurred back then. And if he couldn't access the data through extraction and translation and reconstruction , he would be forced to use psychometry not only on their technology but their worlds too, sifting through many hundreds of thousands of years of engrained memory.
' Hopefully it doesn't come to that '
CHAPTER COMPLETE
I HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THIS CHAPTER, IF ANYONE HAS ANY THOIGHTS OR IDEAS PLEASE LET THEM BE KNOWN AS I LOVE HEARING ANY FEED BACK YOU GUYS PROVIDE . UNTIL NEXT CHAOTER FIRENDS