(Imperial Year 158 (6830 BBY))
After years of searching, they had finally found Lehon. The importance of this planet was mainly because of the history and hidden technology that it had, in addition to the Star Forge. The Star Forge would increase the strength that the Imperium had as it was capable of producing Capital ships, droids, and various types of military equipment at insane speeds.
Of course, this is what Daimon knew from his previous life. He would have to first see it for himself to see if it was actually that impressive. The planet had already been scouted along with the system, and it was discovered that there were no ships or advanced technology present within the system.
As such, Daimon assembled a small fleet of 10 ships and traveled to the system. Aboard his flagship, the bridge lights flickered as they dropped out of hyperspace at the edge of the system. Lehon, the fabled ancient homeworld of the Rakata stood in front of them, surrounded by a ring of asteroid debris and ancient defense satellites that had long since gone dead.
To the east of their position, Daimon felt the presence of a massive sinister object floating in space. He immediately knew that this was the Star Forge or at least what was left of it. Daimon sat, arms crossed, watching the sensor feeds as the fleet got closer. Just as they deducted, there was no sign of any space activity allowing them to get close to the station without any problems.
The fleet stopped some distance from the station as it was surrounded by debris. From what Daimon could see, the station was not at all operational. Its surface was battered, scorched by ancient orbital weapons and covered in black stains from fires that happened over 20,000 years ago. But one thing was certain: it was still massive. Even in its ruined state it dwarfed the largest Imperial station that has ever been built.
One of the officers turned from his station and projected a rotating holoscan of the station, "Structural assessment confirms it's held together by some kind of self-healing alloy. The station's core is still intact, but only twenty-five percent of external hull machinery is functional."
Another officer chimed in upon hearing this assessment, "If it has any automated defenses, they might still activate when we approach. Best to send in a large force to secure the entire station or what remains in a swift manner."
Daimon nodded, agreeing with the officer. "Prepare a boarding party, include myself and the Empyrean Guards among that party." The officer nodded, adding no objection, as he started preparing the boarding party.
"Cortana let's get going and see this ancient station in person," Daimon turned to Cortana who was standing at his side.
"I agree, it's about time we have found it, even if it's not in optimal shape. This gives us a chance to rebuild and enhance it to another level." she had already begun to formulate her own redesigns of the station including some more modern features.
Within an hour, several boarding shuttles detached from the fleet and maneuvered through the debris towards the station. The shuttles latched onto docking rings and several hangers that were open due to loss of power and boarded the station. The Imperial soldiers started to clear the corridors and secure the station in a swift but efficient manner.
The station's automated defense system had detected intruders and had started to produce hundreds of droids to combat these intruders. Thousands of models activated and gave pursuit to the soldiers across the halls. Parts of the Star Forge had been derelict for so long that even the droids themselves were damaged, but as they entered the occupied sections of the station, they took full advantage of its power reserves and began repairing themselves.
Despite their rapid numbers, they were no match for the Empyrean Guards. Daimon's legion advanced through the dimly lit passages, cutting down the droids swiftly.
Daimon leading the charge with Cortana moved through the halls like a wave. It had been sometime since he could have some fun, even if it was just fighting droids.
He was at the front of the formation with Cortana beside him dual wielding two blue lightsabers in each hand. Behind him came the Empyrean Guard wearing their signature purple armor and wielding their vibroblades and Kyber rifles. (A/N: Kyber rifled are essentially just blaster rifles infused with Kyber crystals and enhanced with the Force making their power output much greater than blasters and overall superior to other weapons.)
The droids came in waves wielding outdated kinetic weapons and ancient vibroblades. But outdated or not, they were built by the Star Forge, and their numbers were endless.
"Push Forward!" Daimon shouted as he crushed the bodies of about a hundred droids in an instant, providing them with a clear path to keep moving. But even then, after a few seconds, dozens of more droids filled the corridor.
The Empyrean Guards followed, unleashing volleys after volley upon the droids. Each of them was a master of destruction, created for this exact purpose and honed to be able to outperform anything in battle. The Force wielding Empyrean Guards had created Force barriers, blocking the incoming fire from the droids and occasionally sending some of the projectiles back to the droids.
"Contact on the left flank!" one of the Guards called out.
An auxiliary vent burst open, releasing a wave of pressurized steam, and a cluster of multi-legged droid forms came crawling out, clinging to the walls and ceiling. Cortana turned her head seeing this, "I'll handle this," she said and with a flick of her wrist, she hurled a charged electro-disc into the swarm. It detonated midair, sending arcs of electricity surging along the walls. Dozens of the droids spasmed before falling to the ground.
Daimon moved to the blast doors at the end of the corridor, the main entrance to the control chamber. He blew away the doors with the Force revealing the massive empty chamber that had several ancient consoles.
Cortana moved in behind him and placed her hand on one of the consoles. "I'll start establishing control over the station." Daimon nodded his head as he waited for her to get it done. The Empyrean Guards formed a perimeter in front of the door, holding off against the droids which tried to swarm their position.
After a few minutes, Cortana had given a thumbs up, "Mission accomplished," she stated.
"Good. Now let's finish establishing control while the technicians get to work." Daimon sent the order, and several teams of Technicians and Engineers had come over and started their work in the control room with Cortana and start their survey of station.
The rest of the Imperial forces simply checked each part of the station and reported what they found. This took several hours, but it allowed them to learn more about the station in the meantime.
Cortana was already using the information to find ways to enhance the production capability of the station and modernize its systems to be up to date with Imperial standards.
Daimon on the other hand started to cleanse the darkside which filled the station. This would have proven a problem for the soldiers if they were not already resistant to darkside corruption due to Daimon's presence. Because of this, the darkside couldn't cloud any of their minds, allowing them to move throughout the station without worry.
Daimon created a temporary fix for the darkside problem, but had a permanent solution which involved creating a massive Kyber Crystal that will manifest the balance of both the light and dark side into the station and prevent it from corrupting people to either side. While the materials for the Kyber Crystal was being shipped from Imperial space, he turned his attention to Lehon.
With the Star Forge secured, Daimon left 2 ships with the Star Forge while he traveled to Lehon to see the ancient Rakata and how society had turned out on their capital world. He wanted to see if it was the same as the other outlying colonies or if it was different because it was their homeworld.
As the fleet neared the planet, Daimon reached out and sensed the presence of numerous Rakatan minds, confirming Lehon was also home to tribes. From above, he saw the traces of ancient cities overgrown by jungles and other parts of nature.
Now that Daimon sensed that Rakatan tribes on the planet, he moved on to his next objective which involved meeting with the Elders Tribe. The Elders Tribe is a tribe of the highly respected Rakata who guard the lost knowledge of their species' history. From his knowledge they lived in their secluded compound away from the surface tribes.
He took a shuttle to a mountain plateau dotted with ruins and landed with a small party. Above them, ancient stone towers poked through the coiling roots and flowering creepers. Signs of primitive Rakata camps lined the path, but there was a sign of the Elders themselves.
After an hour of hiking through the jungle, they reached a secluded underground bunker structure which was enclosed behind some doors. The bunker was extremely hard to find if not for the Force.
Behind the doors, the Elder Tribe began setting up defenses, preparing for whoever was about to burst through the doors. Unlike the primitive Rakata tribes, the Elder Tribe had access to some advanced Rakata technology which is how they managed to stay secluded for so long. In the front, they put their slave warriors who were ancient slave species whom they kept for thousands of years and continued to breed to keep their numbers up.
These slave warriors ranged from humans, Selkath, to ancient Twi'leks. Slaves was something that Daimon didn't have a very strong opinion on, but when it came to the situation at hand, he was actually a little upset the even after 20,000 years the Rakata kept these enslaved species and continued to use them.
He blew the doors to the bunker open and knocked out the slave warriors leaving the Elder Tribe to try and fend for themselves. He motioned for his Empyrean Guards to kill them as he moved deeper into the structure towards a certain room which he noticed was tightly guarded.
After killing the group that was protecting this room, he moved in and found a singular Rakata who started to speak in their ancient language. Daimon reached out, pulling the Rakata to his hands, and using the Force to go into his mind. He extracted the knowledge of the Rakatan language from the person but continued to hold his head in his hands.
"Please!" The Rakata shouted, struggling to remove Daimon's hands from around his neck.
Daimon released his hold and watched the Rakata fall to the ground and then prostrate himself before Daimon. "You are not a Rakata," the Elder spoke.
"Tell me your name," Daimon ordered surprising the Elder that he could speak their language.
"I am called Sulara, Chief Archivist of the Elders. Keeper of what was lost." He slowly raised his face. "If you intend to kill me, may I atleast know who you are."
Daimon smiled, "I am not here to kill you. Your people have forgotten who you were. I am here to change the Rakata to become something new and better than what they were."
Sulara understood what he was saying, but to simply believe an alien that storms your home would be extremely stupid. "Why?" Sulara demanded, his voice mixed with fear and wonder. "Why help us? We were the greatest that ever lived and now you see us as we are. Our tribes are scattered. We have forgotten the old ways."
"In time you will discover why I made the decision I did. But for now, you will do everything I say unless you don't want to see this future." Sulara reluctantly nodded as he had no choice.
With this Daimon was granted the ancient knowledge that the Rakata had and began to transfer some of it back to Veldari for research. The Elders were the only tribe on Lehon that Daimon personally visited. The rest of the tribes were left undisturbed, watched closely until the time came for them to become ready. Everything had gone according to plan. In a hundred or so years, the Rakata would turn into the first of many client species under the Imperium.
They would essentially be reborn, their history erased and a new Chapter in their existence would begin.
(A/N: For those interested in the different Ascendant Legions, I have released the auxiliary Chapter in addition to this one)