Total Population - 297.6 Billion
Two centuries have passed since Lehon was discovered and the Rakata were transformed into the Reformed Rakata. During this time the Rakata were united under the leadership of Tarlen and had formed 'The Rakata Dominion' and was officially a client species under the Veldari Imperium. Tarlen was granted the title of Archon and was given the authority to rule over the Rakata and other subordinate species that would come under Rakata control.
Though the Dominion was vast compared to how new it is, its borders and political clout were strictly bounded by the Imperium's shadow, Tarlen ruled, but every significant advancement, every innovation, and every social transformation was shaped by Veldari oversight.
Having learned well, Tarlen modeled much of his dominion on the tenets of the Imperium. He constructed the capital city on Lehon, not in the ruins of the ancient Infinite Empire, but in a newly designed metropolis, a fusion of Rakata tradition and Imperial urban design. The city's core was a cathedral to the God-Emperor, where Tarlen himself led mass ceremonies in Daimon's honor, projecting his image and doctrine with the same near-religious intensity as Progenitors Malis Kaevor's doctrine corps.
The first century of his reign was marked by a ruthless unification campaign. Tarlen marched the reformed Rakata through the Rakatan Archipelago, assimilating the last few tribes that were found. Those who tried to resist till the end were completely eradicated and their tribes lost in history. After this, Tarlen began to modernize the tribe system, making it more centralized under him and unified towards a singular goal of advancing and growing the Rakata Dominion.
For the second century, the Rakatan saw unprecedented growth across their 5 colonized worlds. The total population of the Rakata was 30 Million and would slowly increase over the next few centuries. Daimon didn't give the Rakata to the birth rate enhancement as that was something unique to the Imperium itself and not something meant to be given freely to other empires no matter if they are a client species or not. This could change over time, but for now this was his stance on the issue.
For the Imperium, the Star Forge had completed its reconstruction and was used to produce 500 ships for the Imperium. This process took two weeks which is much faster than the current ship production ability of the Imperium. This revolutionized the ship building industry for the military sector and would significantly decrease the cost for military spending.
In total, more than 40% of the military budget was able to be diverted to other projects and areas within the Imperium. 10% of that budget was moved towards the maintenance of the station which would constantly ensure that the Star Forge is upgraded as new technology is introduced and time goes on. The Star Forge itself would be turned into a military station and be the headquarters for both the Rakatan Defense Force (RDF) and Imperial forces.
The station could hold close to 200,000 crew members with ease, and its food and supply reserves (combined with advanced hydrofarm domes installed by Cortana's R&D teams) could sustain a years-long blockade if needed. In addition, the Star Forge modernized its droid forges, turning out not just crude automatons, but highly sophisticated battle droids, construction bots, maintenance crews, and service droids designed to function in hazardous environments.
Within the Lehon system, a Dimensional Gateway was constructed to offer faster travel to the rest of the Imperium. The Dimensional Gateways were something that Daimon discovered through a Holocron that he was given by the Father on Mortis over 2 centuries ago. This was one of the many technologies that he discovered but it was the easiest to build from the other things that he found and the most useful.
These Dimensional Gateways decreased travel time between systems, speeding up trade, increasing economic stability and growth, and increasing the ability to defend the Imperium's vast territory against threats.
On Veldari, Daimon was sitting in his meditation chamber as he had been getting some very disturbing visions. He keeps seeing Gen'Dai being dismembered and slaughtered, but he couldn't see who was doing it or where. Despite how strong he was, the Force was not giving him much to go off of which began to make him worried and a little frustrated.
He tried to focus on the vision, shifting his consciousness, but each time he sought the source of the carnage, the vision ended.
As he was lost in meditation he felt a presence outside of the chamber doors. A few seconds later the door slid aside, and Luna stepped in. She wore the gray her robes of her station as a Princess and an Admiral within the Imperial Navy.
"Visions again father," she asked as she sat down across from him, with her legs crossed in their traditional meditation stance.
Daimon nodded his head. "Yes, these visions are trying to warn of something, but they are unfinished and didn't provide much information. All I know is what will happen but not when or where it will happen."
"Could I see?" she asked. "Maybe I can help somehow."
Daimon agreed and the two closed their eyes. Daimon connected their two minds and began to meditate focusing on the vision once again. As soon as the vision played Luna's head experienced an excruciating amount of pain just from seeing the vision. It was not what was going on in the vision that caused her head to hurt, but the vision itself. It was as if it was something that was only meant for Daimon's mind.
Daimon stopped the connection immediately sensing her pain. "I guess it's something that only I can see," he stated.
"If that's the case, then hopefully you can figure it out before whatever the vision is trying to warn you about happens." that was the only thing Luna could say. She wished she could help, but this seemed like something that only her father could deal with.
However, what she didn't know was the fact that the vision was not just a warning, but it was a glimpse into the future, showing an event that was going to happen somewhere in the Imperium.
Daimon continued trying to figure out the vision for the next several months, until the day arrived when the vision was going to come to reality.
On the border world, N'varos, a planet that was located closer to the Unknown regions than any other Imperial planet, more than 40 Million Gen'Dai called this planet home. Its main purpose was to serve as a buffer zone and the first defense point for any unknown threats that came out of the Unknown regions of the galaxy. It had a built in Hyperspace detection system that could detect ships coming from the direction of the Unknown regions and even pull them out of hyperspace if they were unknown ships.
In addition to this, the Imperium had a strong military presence of more than 500,000 soldiers stationed on this border planet in addition to a defense fleet of 100 ships.
Just like any day in the Imperium, the people of N'varos were going about their lives as they normally would. The adults went to work early in the morning, the children went to school, and the different species worked together in unity.
The military personnel went to work, doing one of the most important jobs on the planet which was operating and ensuring that the planet was always 100% protected at all times.
Within the Shield Tower, the massive facility which projected the planetary shield, Major Xarnak had just walked in to start his long day at the Shield Tower. As he went to scan in, the guard at the front saluted him. "Morning Sir,"
He returned the salute, "Morning Chief, how's the morning going thus far for you?" he asked.
"Going pretty good Sir, honestly I'm just a little excited for next week." the Chief had a bright smile on his face since he was having his first daughter next week.
"It's already been that long. Man, I lost track of time, well congrats. Maybe I'll stop by and give you and your wife a gift." Major Xarnak always liked to maintain good relationships with the enlisted under him and this was a significant moment in the Chief's life.
"I would be honored Sir; my wife is always out with your wife anyways so she I'm sure your wife has something in mind." replied the Chief.
"Your probably right." Said Major Xarnak as he looked at the time. "But I got to get going, so I'll catch up with you during lunch time."
The Chief nodded as Major Xarnak continued into the facility. He made his way all the way to the operations room and took a seat at his little office in the corner. Around the room, the many operators and analysts who maintained the shield and monitored it every second of every day were already hard at work with their morning energy drinks.
As soon as Major Xarnak logged in, he was pulled into countless meetings as the morning went on and had to fix a few problems that often occurred and reprimand the young, enlisted soldiers for making mistakes. It was natural to make mistakes and him reprimanding them would only make them better as a soldier and as a person.
But things were about to take an unfortunate turn. On the outskirts of the system, an unknown fleet had managed to bypass the Imperial Hyperspace detection system utilizing their own advanced technology to enter the system undetected until the last possible moment.
The Imperial fleet moved in to intercept the ships, but as they were on their way, the unknown fleet released a device into space which sent out a massive pulse, disabling all communication outside of the system but keeping communication within the system active. Citizens had already started reporting outages with their external communications as did military personnel. But they didn't expect something to be an attack.
As the Imperial Fleet approached the unknown fleet, it was 100 Imperial ships against 20 unknown ships. The Rear Admiral in charge of the fleet started their first contact protocols with unknown military ships. Weapons were armed and aimed ready to fire if necessary as the broadcast went out.
"This is Imperial space, in accordance with our laws, you are ordered to identify yourselves and state your purpose. Any further advance will be considered a hostile act." For a moment, there was nothing.
Then, all twenty unknown ships simultaneously unleashed their own comms, a data-burst so dense it fried half of the Imperial fleet's translation software. Images, signals, and noise flashed across every screen. On every bridge, every terminal. It was a language, or at least what passed for one.
And then hundreds more ships appeared out of Hyperspace. The Admiral didn't waste any time nor care about the repercussions if he was wrong, he saw this as an attack and responded as such. "All ships, open fire!"
The Imperial Fleet open fired upon the massive number of enemy ships despite their overwhelming number. "Contact Veldari Command and let them know what's going on." The Admiral ordered the Comms officer. However, the Comms officer was facing a problem. "Sir, communications are blocked. I can't contact Veldari Command, but I can contact the planet's defense forces."
"Then do it!" the Admiral made a quick decision based on what he was told. "We must hold out for as long as possible to give them time to prepare." The other officers on the bridge understood what the Admiral was saying and knew that this very well might be their last time alive.
Back on N'varos, Major Xarnak was facing his own problems. The pulse that the unknown ships released had affected the shield generator for the planet, but the backup system had kicked on and regenerated the shield, although in a weakened state.
"Sir, we are receiving a planet wide broadcast from General Valdran in HQ." A hologram showing General Valdran had popped up in the middle of the room for everyone to see.
"Attention all citizens and military personnel. Our defense fleet is currently engaged in combat with an unknown fleet. Our communications outside of the system have been cut off, thus we are without any help for the time being. I am declaring martial law as of this moment and urge all military personnel to report to their defense stations. We are in immediate lockdown. All civilians are to shelter in the designated safe zones until further notice. May the Emperor give us strength and watch over us." The message repeated through every holoscreen and terminal.
In the operations room, the operators set to work with an intensity Major Xarnak had rarely seen. "Sir, shield is holding but fluctuating," reported one specialist, drops of sweat running down his face as he punched in commands. "Pulse nearly blew our core inverter. If they try again, we might lose the shield entirely. I've got all tech crews working to reinforce." Xarnak nodded. "Route power from the secondary grid. Ignore energy rations, if it burns out the capacitors, we'll replace them later."
"Sir, comm from the outer defense ring! Admiral Tressan requests direct link."
"Patch him!" Xarnak yelled, standing up. "Xarnak, we're surrounded," Admiral Tressan shouted. "They're not pirates, not Republic, nothing we've seen before. Hulls are self-repairing, and we don't have enough ships to make a difference. We can hold them, but not for long, we're bleeding ships out here." That's when the line cut before Major Xarnak could reply.
Around the planet, the garrisons scrambled to coordinate the defense and prepare for a potential invasion. Planetary defense guns were activated, and the civilians began moving to their bunkers underground which were built just for such an eventuality.
In the sky, squadrons of fighters swarmed the air in preparation for the attack, on the ground, mobile artillery units rolled into place, covering likely landing zones. The city domes locked down, covering the cities within their own shields, and security drones flew down every avenue, projecting messages to get off the streets and into the nearest shelter.
Almost an hour after the initial contact, General Valdran received a disturbing holo video from the last stand of Admiral Tressan. "General, we're being boarded by the enemy. They are not regular organic enemies; they are some weird sentient droid species or something and they have the ability to transform. This may be my last message, so if you manage to get out of here, tell my wife and kids that I love them." At that, he turned around and screamed "FOR THE EMPEROR!" as the video cut off.
Within the next few minutes, the enemy fleet started to attack the planetary shield. It was holding against the hundreds of ships, until the enemy dropped some form of weapon on the shield which tore a hole through the shield, allowing the enemy to pour through.
The defense of the planet was about to begin as for the first time in its history, the Imperium was under attack.
(A/N: For those that don't know this is the invasion of Imperium space by the Abominor, an extra-galactic droid society from the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy. I will go more in depth about the structure of the Abominor, their capabilities, and more as the story progresses.)