Another short update. Sorry.
Harry floated an inch above the hull of his ship, a hazy black field blocking the radiation and light from the sun they were heading towards. Cocking his head, he looked in on Hinata, sitting in his rocking chair, cycling through baby names. He felt his hand rising, the Force welling around his being, ready to crush the life in her womb. His hand stopped. It dropped and he looked to the secretion hole that was the beginning of this universe.
Even with magic, he could discern nothing, save for the absolute lack of heat seeping through the fields he maintained around himself. Sara's hologram appeared and began signing that they were thirty eight seconds from their targets.
He dropped through the ship and used his shadow form to rapidly follow electrical impulses on their route to the bridge. Shifting back, he dropped into his seat and spoke. "Tac report. Arm all weapons. Prepare for global sterilization." Holograms floated in front of him, reporting on the planet and ships they approached.
His ships opened fire. There was no warning, no order to surrender. Harry had only one goal. Eradicate the Sith. All collateral damage was nothing before his power.
"I have killed mothers and their babies. I have killed great philosophers, proud young warriors and revolutionaries. I have killed the evil, the good, the intelligent, the weak and the beautiful. I have done this in the service of the Sophoncy and I have never once shown any mercy," whispered a voice in his ear. Harry ignored it. It was only his conscience. And it was lying as usual.
Hinata watched from across the bridge as Harry ordered a cup of Dagreshian tea.
Bored, she idly kicked the padded panel in front of her as the technician finished fixing the console's damaged display beside her. The rune panel on it protecting it from the magic auras had cracked and the magicks crackling through the ship had imploded the display. It had been a pretty fireworks display aside from the minor burn it caused the young female sophont manning it.
Their ships were tracking the trail of one ship that had escaped. Long-range sensors revealed it was heading to a massive space station, hidden in an hitherto unknown bramble patch of space with open hyperspace lanes to Republic space.
"Sire, we're receiving an Imperial eyes only transmission. Ships unknown."
Harry turned and stared at the small shimmering of light in front of him. A blink of his eyes activated the transmission and he waited.
The shimmer of light disappeared as an immense flash filled the space in front of the fleet.
Three ships were revealed, wholly unlike any known in the Imperium or in the Republic. They were dark, twisted, covered with runes. As if a normal sleeper ship had been twisted by an enormous being, angry at it. Blood-red runes glowed with sick power, then the screens activated, showing three elderly men, just as twisted and old looking.
"My liege," they spoke at once. "We serve to live and live to serve."
"There are open pathways. Are you prepared?"
"We exist to destroy."
The screens blanked as Hinata approached Harry. "What are they?"
"The destroyers of paths, the enders of life. They patrol the outskirts and end that which would threaten the empire. They volunteered for the duties fifteen thousand years ago," he softly told her. "They left behind all they knew to travel in ships that would warp them, destroy their minds. The only thing that keeps them sane are the wards on the ship, holding them to my will. Wards they designed themselves. Soon they'll die. When the Empire no longer needs them. And I'll stand at their graves and sacrifice a planet's ransom to their memories. Because they were my greatest friends."
He walked off the bridge. She rushed to follow him as an admiral watched the door close behind them, then settled into the command chair. "I have command."
The AI appeared and nodded. "Command transferred."
Cort studied the prisoners, their clothing hanging off of them in strips and dried blood covering their body. Their torture was against the laws of the Imperium but Cort had kept them hidden away in a fortress few knew about and financed out of the funds set aside for helping planets struck by natural disasters.
His daughter entered the room, glanced at the prisoners, then turned back to him. "Sir, your ship awaits you. Seven days traveling time to rendezvous with The Emperor."
He could hear the smile in her voice and resisted the urge to slap some sense into her. The Emperor was like a father to him and his daughter's crush on the man seemed the most disturbing thing.
"Load them aboard. His Highness can decide what to do with child killers. It's always amusing what he does to them."
His daughter smiled behind her mask. The darkness in her father's tone reminded her why she liked the Emperor so much. He walked so well between Lightness and Dark, that the Emperor was a uniform gray.
Hinata half-listened to the briefing from the Admiral as she sipped at her tea. Her mind was more on how rough Harry had been with her that morning. She had had to take an analgesic just so she could walk unimpeded, though she admitted to herself she had greatly enjoyed being dominated and how he had rotated his hips on the down strokes.
"Highness?"
She blinked when she realized the person was referring to her and turned. It was her new handmaiden. "Yes?"
"It's time for your new training regimen to begin."
Hinata nodded and followed.
In a room that was fully sealed off from anyone seeing in, Tsunade set up an easel, then placed a thick posterbook on it. Flipping it open, she began, "Long ago, in the countries of the Ninja Clans, there were nine demons. As each demon aged, they grew another tail until they lost in battle and then they were frozen at that level. All of the tails were numbered, one through nine, on the different demons.
"The one tailed demon was a Tanuki, a now extinct raccoon-dog. Nekomata was a two tailed cat. Three Tails was a turtle. Four tails was a cockatrice. Five was a Houkou. Six a Raiju. Seven a phoenix, twisted by dark magicks before his arrival in Japan. Eight a dragon. Nine was a fox. The most dangerous of them all. For he had greater intelligence, cunning, and in time, made a deal with his gaoler."
Tsunade flipped to a new page.
"All of the demons were sealed into people. To ensure they would end up dying when that person died. Some of the containers were driven off. Others let their prisoners take over permanently. In the end, it was decided that one being could contain them forever, hopefully never failing in his duty." Hinata gasped and Tsunade nodded. "Yes. His Highness accepted all of them into him. It's one of his darkest secrets. It's the cause of his more manic moments, for there are always nine voices in his mind, whispering, threatening, begging for release. That's why we made the deal. Why we ninja are his weapons. We fight for a man willing to give up his own sanity just to help us.
"Now we go back to nine-tails for a moment. He was once held in a young ninja named Naruto. His Highness met him one day and made a deal with the young man. He would always be watched by the Emperor's Own, then when his life ended, the Demon would be imprisoned again. Naruto agreed immediately. Though his training helped keep the demon at bay, he was slowly allowing it out all too often. There were fears the demon was going to escape at his death as it was. It had happened in two other cases.
"With the power of all nine demons at his beck and call, the Emperor decided it was time to leave Earth for a while. Many Shinobi began to call him 45 tail demon in jest, until one day a Ninja said it to his face. There was a moment of silence, then the Emperor laughed and slapped the man on the back.
"It was at shortly after this time we were ready to send out our first colony ship. He left his descendant in charge of the throne and left."
The lesson of the history of Hidden Ninja Villages continued until they were alerted it was time to join the Emperor for dinner.