The star was small by cosmic comparison an aging red dwarf, its light dim, its gravity waning .But here, in the Unknown Regions, beyond every charted hyperspace lane and every Republic sensor net, it was perfect.
A star no one would miss.
A star that would be reborn into something else.
A star that would feed the future.
The system hung silent, save for one artificial object cutting through the cold darkness: a titanic ring of metal surrounding the dwarf star like an execution collar.
The Material Extractor, now in its first complete prototype form.
Its superstructure glittered with black durasteel, layered plasteel shielding, and thick energy conduits that pulsed slowly like a heart-beat .It dwarfed destroyers. It dwarfed cities .Its geometry seemed wrong almost alive, as though the angles themselves bent toward unseen gravity.
In its command spire, deep in the central core, stood Palpus.
Black robes. Golden eyes burning beneath a hood. The air around him thrummed not with heat but with power.
Behind him, countless holo-displays flickered in a mechanical aurora reactor readings, gravitational flux charts, stellar density maps.
All of them responding to his will.
He did not build this alone.
But it could only exist because his mind had imagined it.
And because he had the ruthlessness to see it through.
Behind him, the doors opened.
Darth Sidious entered hooded, his expression a shadowed mask of pleased amusement
The galaxy saw one man.
But here, in the dark?
Two Sith Lords moved as one.
And the son who would surpass them both awaited acknowledgement.
Sidious's voice slid into the air like silk.
"Magnificent."
Palpatine stepped forward, eyes scanning the vast holo-projection of the ring encircling the star.
"You have accelerated progress beyond my estimates," he murmured, tone betraying pride. "And all without drawing attention from the Senate or the Jedi."
Palpus smiled.
"To deceive the blind is not difficult, father."
Sidious chuckled quietly.
"But to deceive the Force? That is where genius reveals itself."
Palpus lifted his hand.
The holoprojection shifted showing the extractor's inner systems:
• Graviton Compression Lattice• Quantum Phase Conduits• Tri-layer Self-Repair Nano-Forges• Hyperdense Mana Reactor
(He still called it mana—a habit from his past life. Power was power, no matter the name.)
Palpatine stepped closer to the central viewport.
The star pulsed weakly beyond the durasteel glass.
"So this is it," he said softly. "The first real demonstration."
Palpus nodded.
"Today, we harvest a star.And tomorrow"
His voice darkened.
"we build our empire from its ashes."
Sidious's smile sharpened with delighted malice.
Palpus raised both hands.
The air tightened, humming with tension.
The lights in the command chamber dimmed.
"Shield your minds. "His voice was calm, controlled, absolute.
The two Sith closed their eyes.
Together, they wove a Veil in the Force a great black curtain pulled over this system, drowning it in stillness.
No Jedi meditation would glimpse this event. No vision. No disturbance .No prophecy.
They were invisible.
Palpus lowered his hand to the control panel.
Fingers hovered above the primary ignition.
He did not press the button.
He commanded it.
"Begin stellar conversion sequence."
The Extractor answered with a deep, resonant hum.
Like something ancient awakening.
The ring flared brilliant white along its internal circumference, arcs of lightning dancing between anchor pylons as gravity fields twined and tightened.
The star shuddered.
Plasma rippled across its surface like ripples on water.
Panels glowed .Reactors roared. Space itself seemed to bend.
Sidious did not blink.
Palpus closed his eyes and felt it.
The star's life.
Fiery. Old .Tired. Alone for eons.
He whispered to it not with words, but with the Force.
Come to me.
The Extractor's core ignited.
A beam of condensed gravitational force lanced into the star.
The star screamed.
Not a sound sound cannot travel through void.
But the Force carried its agony.
A white-hot wave of power hit them.
Sidious shuddered with pleasure, Palpus's eyes flashed like twin suns.
The star collapsed inward, compressed to densities nature did not intend.
A second beam fired.
Extraction Initiated
Stellar plasma surged through impossibly large conduits converted into exotic matter, pure energy crystals, transmutable alloys raw fuel for war.
More than any Republic fleet could produce in a century.
In hours.
The Extractor was a god-machine.
A factory that drank suns.
And it worked.
Perfectly.
The lights stabilized. The hum leveled. The star burned dimmer now-smaller.
But alive.
Harvested. Not destroyed.
Controlled.
Sidious inhaled.
"Unlimited power.
"And with this… we will never again depend on corporate shipyards .No Senate committee .No planetary tithe. No merchant guild."
Palpus turned to them.
"This is only the first."
"There will be more?"
He smiled.
"Solar Forges. Planet-Factories. Fleet-Foundries. War is coming. And when it does, we will not build a fleet."
He looked back at the star.
"We will build a dominion.
For a breath, none of them spoke.
Not as Sith.
Not as rulers.
But as creators of something unstoppable.
Three shadows stood watching a dying star.
And all of them knew the same thing
This was the moment the galaxy truly began to change.
This was the moment destiny snapped and rewrote itself.
This was the moment the Sith won.