Very AU. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… This fic has been plaguing my mind for a long time. It's kind of a cross with OUAT - Star Wars - and Star Trek. It has taken over a large part of my life and I hope you enjoy it. Characteristics and relationships are somewhat altered - it is AU after all. I understand it won't appeal to everyone but please give it a look over. Ensemble cast. Primarily Emma and Killian, but with most couples in there as well, along with some not so canon couples. Let me know, please, kudos, reviews, and comments keep me motivated and encouraged.

A quick note to those who may also be reading my other fic, The Dauntless. I have not forgotten it and I will be returning to it shortly. My muse kind of took a vacation but I feel it may be returning soon.

A huge thanks to ultraluckycatnd who had taken on the arduous task of beta-ing this creation. Without you, this fic would not have turned out as it has. I will initially posting every week, but this could change, depending on the response it gets.

I will also be posting this on tumblr and AO3

Chapter 1 - Once More into the Breach.

They moved across the surface, scrambling for higher ground. The night skies of the foreign world were illuminated by the endless firefight. Killian looked to his right and then grabbed Arthur, dragging him over the barrier as he searched for his team. Liam was still missing, and he had no idea where David was.

…

"How much longer?" Penelope asked.

Liam looked at Penelope and shook his head. They were scheduled for evac in less than thirty minutes, and those minutes would fly. Chances were, they weren't making it. He should have left her on the transport. He watched irritation and anger flood his wife's face. She hated losing.

Setting the charges, he tossed another pack to her. The substation was key in the planet's defenses. If they could remove it, the sub-field protecting the planet would fail and the invasion would begin. Their holding planets were already weak, and the Legion now ruled more than three-quarters of the known star systems. The war was going badly, and its end was near. Liam swallowed the bitter pill that the Royals were losing, and thus the Galaxy Warswould end soon with their surrender. But that didn't matter. This planet was theirs.

…

Killian felt the vibrations of incoming missiles before they hit. He rolled and folded into a ball to protect his softer parts. He cursed as the impact vibrated around him, the ground shaking and debris flying in all directions; he felt the sting of something burning as it pierced his side. The Legion weren't budging. They were fighting back and holding the Royals in check. Sitting up, Killian reached behind him and pulled out a large, hot piece of shrapnel. It burned his hands and it took three tries to remove it, but leaving the shrapnel in would have been worse. The material was a liquid heat alloy that melted into the skin and poisoned the blood supply. He preferred not to have toxic material in his body.

"Arthur, let's move. Dust-off in twenty, and we're going to have to haul to get there."

Killian reached for his Com officer to pull his hand free of his body. Looking down, he registered the smoking remains of Arthur and the fact that the incoming round had torn Arthur's body into three parts, scattering pieces everywhere. Taking the com unit from his dead friend, Killian also took Arthur's dog tags, placing one in what might have been his mouth. He didn't know if they would, or could, clear the field and process the bodies. But just in case, it would be nice to return Arthur's genetics home.

Killian rushed the field, creeping along the embankment, using its higher rise for cover. It was the movement of Will over the top that caused him to pause. Grabbing Will and pulling him next to him, they sheltered for a moment.

"You set them?"

Will nodded, gulping a harsh breath to fill his lungs. He had breathed in the gas as he infiltrated into enemy lines to bury the live rounds under their feet.

"Yeah, along the ridge and three clicks in. The detonation sequence is set to go in eight minutes, so we need to haul ass."

"I've got boomers on the left crawling into the field. Arthur is down; Walt took it back sixty feet, and I haven't seen the B-boys."

"I saw them," David said, tumbling down the dirt bank to join them. "Bark and Brine are both toast. They took the left ridge down and out. The Legion were using the targeting laser as a heat seeker. They never stood a chance."

Will bent his head forward as the rush of air in his tortured lungs made his dizzy. "Cap?"

"I don't know. He and Penelope went into the access port. We've got to hold the line and maintain the right until he can set the charges. This substation sub-field will be re-enforced after tonight if we fail."

"Killian." Killian took the com unit and inserted it in his ear at the sound of Liam's voice.

"Go, Cap. What's your twenty?"

"Charges are set, but the Legion are moving fast. We're coming out. Dust-off in ten. Get your men there."

"Aye, Cap. Don't be late, Liam."

Killian took out the unit and looked at Will and David. "My men? Guess that would be you two." Everyone else was dead. Hooking an arm under Will's shoulder, Killian hauled him to his feet and dragged him along the bottom of the ridge, David crab crawling behind them, back to their landing location and the evac transport. Along the way he spotted Graham, still working on their boys who had been in the initial spill from the transport, thus taking the first direct hits. Three hulls of other transport ships were burning in the distance, their fires lighting the sky.

"Graham, it's time!"

Graham just kept working on the body laid prone before him, applying pressure to a wound that was pumping out blood at an alarming rate and ignoring Killian's voice.

"Graham!" The man was unrecognizable, covered in the blood of their massacred team. David looked at Killian and nodded. The two men each grabbed an arm and dragged Graham away.

"Wait, there's someone out there." Graham dug his heels in the soft ground, causing Killian and David to stumble slightly, Will slipped from Killian tentative hold.

"There isn't," David yelled. "Everyone is gone." He looked to survey the landscape before them again, smoke spiraling up from lumps he couldn't decipher as bodies or machine. But then a figure appeared in the distance, a lone man who watched the small group before him stumbling down the dirt slope. David tensed immediately, knowing who that man was.

"James." His voice was low and resigned. He didn't want this. He didn't want this confrontation here. Now. They were running out of time.

"David." James' voice still held that cockiness that buzzed through David's head in his sleep.

"James," he answered, his eyes sliding sideways to Killian. "Move out."

"Not on your life," Killian returned, biting back the nagging pain in his back.

"We don't have time for this," Will ground out.

"I can't let you leave," James told them as he got closer. "You knew this as soon as you set foot on this planet."

David acknowledge that with a tilt of his head. He'd sensed his twin the moment he'd jumped from the transport, and knew only one of Ruth's boys would leave.

"We don't have time for this." Killian repeated Will's words, all too aware time was running out.

James moved first, bringing his blaster up and aiming it at Killian. "You always were a pain in the ass, Jones," he spat out.

David leapt before his brain kicked into gear, tackling his brother around his legs and bringing the two of them down.

"Get back to the transport," he yelled as he rolled, and his brother's fist collided with his chin.

"No!" Killian shouted as he attempted to rush in and help David. It was Will's hand on his arm that stopped him.

The deck officer came down the loading ramp, calling across the barren landscape to them. "Sir. Command has ordered dust-off in three. The fleet is jumping the portal. Legion battlecruisers have just entered the system."

Behind them, they heard the growl of David as James hit him again, and Killian turned just as a phaser blast ripped through the air. This was followed by another, along with a scream of anguish and Killian ran to his fallen cousins. He pulled James' bloodied body off David. "Oh Shit, Oh shit. No, David. You hold on." He watched as David's eyes rolled up into the back of his head and hauled the man up, over his shoulder, his back screaming and his friend's blood flowing over him.

With a swift kick in the direction of James' lifeless body, Killian stumbled back to Will and Graham, placing David gently on the ground beside his grieving friend. Killian grabbed Graham by the face, his burned hands stinging. "Read the field, Graham. Feel it! Is there anyone left alive?"

Graham concentrated, reaching out to his fallen comrades. Nothing. Sweet death hurled them into the flight of angels, and the field was rotten with their decaying flesh. "No," he said quietly.

Killian looked back over his shoulder. All these men laid to waste in the field, and for what? Before they could take the world, they were fleeing. James' body laid smoking slightly from the deadly wound given to him by his brother. Killian knew all too well the kill or be killed mantra. He lifted David again, struggling with his pain and loss of blood as Will grabbed Graham, dragging the man back to the transport and up the ramp.

"Cap is on his way. We wait," Killian instructed to the deck officer.

"But, Sir!"

"We wait!" Killian pushed Will and Graham into the transport and placed David on the floor, tugging on some restraints he hoped would secure him for the ride back. He seriously hoped David survived the trip. With a quick look at his last few men, he shoved Will in a seat. "Graham, Will sucked in the creeper gas. His lungs are fried. And David needs some serious attention."

Graham hurried over to David and went to work, triaging him as more critical than Will at that moment. He was a first class healer, but the fellowship of death was shutting him down. Empaths such as Graham rarely survived battle. Witnessing the fleeing of men's spirits as they died painfully usually drove them insane. With half an eye on David, he reached into his medikit and pulled out an oxygen canister and tossed it to Will.

The pilot stepped into the hold and told Killian they had to leave or miss the hyperjump. Killian just swore under his breath. He was normally the pilot and tactical officer, but because the mission was a 'Red Mission' and all bodies were needed on the field, the pilot and flight officer were loaners. This had been a suicide mission from the start. Peering out in the dark, he could see the boomer creeping forward slowly along the back ridge. Taking out a control box, he hit the switch and detonated the live mines they had set. Liam, get the hell out!

…

"Penelope, the back corridor is filling with Legions! We have to go around."

Penelope nodded and, reaching into her pack, she took out an explosive charge with a delay nitro switch and tossed it down the escape corridor. Liam swore and grabbed her body, slamming her hard against the wall and shielding her as the charge exploded. The complex was deep in the earth, and the charge could have collapsed the support struts. They needed to leave. Liam looked at his timer. No time. They had less than two minutes to get out.

"Corridors cleared, honey." Liam laughed at his wife's tone.

Liam kissed her quickly and then dragged her behind him down the clearing corridor as the smoke and debris dispersed. The upper girders were groaning under the stress of the weakened substructure caused by the explosion. Rushing forward, he could see the access port and freedom.

Penelope heard the sound first - the strain and then crash of the rallying Legion soldiers rushing the corridor behind them - not taking heed of the already dangerous situation. She could feel the heated pulse of their pulsar rifles laying down the pursuing fire along her back. Liam turned and looked at his wife in confusion as she staggered. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out another detonating charge and he shook his head no. It would bring the mountain down on their heads.

Penelope simply turned, in her last act of life, and tossed the charge down the corridor they had just cleared. Liam looked at his wife's back in horror. She had taken a pulsar blast in her back and half her torso and head were gone. All that remained was bloody pulp. He grabbed her close as she sank to the ground.

"Penelope!"

"Go!" Her voice was already far away and he watched her eyes roll back in her head as she slumped into death.

It was the explosion of the blast that sent him propelling towards the access port as the mountain roared and the corridor collapsed. A burning, searing pain moved across his back as he fell forward into nothing.

…

Killian looked out towards the access port as the explosion was heard topside. The evac shook as a mini seismic event rumbled the ground beneath it. Killian felt the strain on his connection to his brother. No!

"Sir, this ground is unstable. We have to go!"

Killian took out his gun and put it in the man's face. "We go nowhere!" Killian turned to look at Will who took up his own weapon and took out the deck officer with a single shot. "Will?"

"I got them! Go!"

"No one leaves until I've got the Captain."

Will sneered at the pilot. "We're not going anywhere." He lifted his gun, coughing, and motioned for the man to take a seat. "Jones!" He turned back to Will. "Be quick!" Killian nodded and ran.

Killian was through the loading doors and into the access port before Graham could look up, his attention completely on David in that moment. The area was covered in smoke and debris, and Killian coughed as the materials hit his lungs. Working his way forward and low to the ground, he came to the caved-in corridor and found his brother, Liam. Reaching down, he felt for a pulse, already knowing that Liam was barely alive. He couldn't have felt him if he wasn't.

Liam was unconscious and scarcely breathing. Quickly scanning the area, he saw no sign of Penelope. Knowing his brother wouldn't have willingly left her behind, he understood for her to be another loss in the raging war. Scrambling to dig his brother out, Killian pulled Liam free and found he had a large piece of shrapnel embedded in his back. Killian, cursing against the pain in his hands, pulled it out and ripped off his shirt to wrap around Liam's wound to try and stop the bleeding, refusing to acknowledge that the amount of blood he was seeing meant it was unlikely his brother would make it.

Picking up his brother as he had David, he slowly moved them out of the tunnel and back to the transport, his back screaming in protest. Coming up the last rise to the ship, he noticed boomers moving in from the right. They were toast. Suddenly he saw the core of them explode and a barrage of fire fight. Looking at the loading doors, there stood Will laying down a suppressing fire to give him cover.

Quickly Killian climbed aboard past Graham and dumped his brother in a chair, belting him in. Rushing back to the door, he pulled Will back and hit the airlock. The doors sealed as Killian propelled Will with him to the forward compartment.

"Graham, I'm afraid I have another for you." Killian rushed forward pass the pilot and Will.

"Killian, Penelope?" Will asked. Killian looked at Will and shook his head. Will's sister was dead. Will had known it, but he had to ask, to hope. Buckling into his normal seat, Killian ignored normal dust-off procedures and punched it, leaving that world of death behind and rejoining the Royal fleet.

"Omega Tango transport, do you copy?"

"This is Omega Tango transport one. We are in the air, and five by five."

"Transport, what is your twenty?"

"Eight parsecs and ten on the outside."

"Transport, we've got you in our field, but hyperjump is in two. Can you make speed to coordinates zero-two-twelve-mark-one?"

"Negative, command. We are floating armor. Best we can haul is in four."

The command deck com officer looked at his commander. They weren't going to make it before the fleet jumped to hyperspace.

"How many on board?" The fleet commander asked his officer quietly.

"I've got six, Sir. The other three ships were lost." The commander nodded. The aborted operation was a wash. Over a hundred men had gone down with only six coming back, and now they were forced to abandon them as well.

The door to the command deck opened and a figure dressed in black Royal robes entered the room. All the men cleared their way as she came forward. She was the Eminent.

"What is the situation?"

"My Lady, the final assault crew has cleared the planet, but they left dust-off too late. They won't make rendezvous in time for the jump, and they'll be pulverized in the wake."

"What unit was deployed?"

"The Jewel."

Regina looked at the star field, then at the monitor showing the fast-moving transport. The entire monitor glowed, and she turned again to search the field for them. "Can the onboard set jump be aborted?"

"No, M'Lady. We're locked into the fleet's central command. The entire fleet will jump at the same time. Controlled jump is the only way to make sure that the battlecruisers and armor don't collide on the other side of the stream."

Regina felt the glow and pull again. She needed those men. "Give me the com."

An officer came quick and handed Regina the receiver and scurried away quickly. "They disturbed the matrix. I need them," she said to no one in particular. She put the com on and called through. "This is command. Omega Tango, proceed to the following coordinates..." Regina looked at the monitors to confirm. "Three-two-two-mark-seven. Do you copy?"

"Affirmative, command. That's three-two-two-mark-seven."

The operations officer looked at his monitor and frowned. "M'Lady, that will place them within the engine's backwash. The hyperjump will fry their portal cells and their hull plating will buckle under the heat."

Regina looked at the man. "Jump is in one. They can ride in the wake and maybe they'll fry, but if they stay here they're dead. This is a chance."

An area on the planet below suddenly exploded and the sub-field protection grid flickered offline. They looked at the open planet and then turned away. It lay there–all ready to be taken–and no one available to do the job. It was nothing but a waste.

…

Killian double-checked the coordinates and made for the backwash area of the larger battle cruiser, shaking his head. They would fry in the hyperwash when the engine heated to hyperjump. Still, he increased all energies to his shields and disengaged his engines. He wouldn't need them. They would ride the wave and either they made it, or they were dead. At least using the extra power to re-enforce his shields gave them a somewhat better chance at survival.

…

"My Lady, Omega Tango has reached the coordinates and cut their engines."

Regina nodded. "Brave man. When we come out on the other side, I want a full-spread search for them. His energy will be gone, and life support will be offline. We'll need to find them fast."

"My Lady," the man affirmed as he began programming the search mode into his console as the countdown began.

"Hyperjump in seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." Regina stood firmly upright as the ships moved into the slipstream and the ship elongated. In an instant, all the molecules of her body seemed to dissolve and coalesce on the other side.

…

Killian could feel the pull of space as the larger ship dragged them forward. The last thing he felt was the ripping of oxygen from his lungs.

…

"He's waking, M'Lady." Regina turned to the hospital cubicle and watched as Killian's eyes slowly fluttered open.

"Good, you have returned." Killian just frowned at the Eminent One.

"My brother? The rest of my men..." His voice was deep and rough as it whispered against the dryness in his throat, stripped by the loss of oxygen.

"They are recovering." She paused, unsure of his reaction to what she needed to say, to what she had to ask. "Two are in regeneration. One man's lungs were ripped to shreds from the inside. He's been submerged into regeneration fluid. He should be recycled in about four days. The empath was removed to protective sheltering. He sustained emotional trauma from his empathic links. Medical is giving him a neutral environment so his internal balance can be restored."

"My brother," Killian pushed, fighting the swirling pain as it pulsed through his body and the fog that was currently threatening to take over his mind.

Regina schooled her expression, her eyes turning sympathetic. "I'm sorry, but your brother died. The medics did all they could for him, but his injuries were too severe."

Killian just nodded. He'd known; of course he'd known. The moment he swam to consciousness and didn't feel his brother, he had known he was gone.

"Your injuries were not light either. You took three rounds to your back. They removed residual shrapnel and want to submerge you in a regeneration tank, too. I forestalled them so you could know how your crew is; know about your brother."

Killian's eyes narrowed at the mythical creature: An Eminent One. "There's more," he croaked out.

"Commander, we have one more thing to ask of your brother; to ask of you."

Killian looked at her confused. What more could they want from a dead man. "You were the one," he said instead. "The one that told me to ride the wash." Regina just nodded. "Why?"

"You bent the matrix. I could feel a movement in the fabric. Someone, or perhaps all of you on that ship, are important. Why is unclear, as are all things unseen. Time will play the game and the journey's walk will write the yarn."

"You're definitely an Eminent One. Damn riddles and parables." Killian shook his head.

Regina just smiled at that. Yes, she found it irritating too. She could almost remember a time when she was normal, before her body was altered for the higher purpose. Now the visions and words tumbled from her body almost without her control, as if she were two people sharing a single form.

"Regina. Call me Regina." Regina sat next to Killian's bed. "Our lives are joined. The threads are unclear, but the twists are there. This war is over. The Legion will win, and the star systems will run red from the Dark One's tyrannical reign."

"You see all that?"

"Yes. It was apparent since the last full cycle." Killian swore. A whole damn cycle? A year?

"Then my men, my brother, died for no cause?"

"No. They did not."

"You should've stopped the operation. Ended the mission. What's the use of being able to see the future if you don't do anything with the knowledge you gain? My men, my brother, his wife...none of them needed to be sacrificed."

Regina just gazed at the man and felt his anger. "Seeing a path is different from walking it. You are mistaken if you think I can alter what fate has already designed. It was my fate to save you and your remaining men; that is the truth I see. We have a journey to fulfill. This war is over and the Empire ruled by The Dark One will reign in terror, but we're far from through. The One will come."

"The One?"

"All is not clear." Regina stood to leave and the men around them bowed to her. She frowned. Of average height, slim and regal, she stood impressive and strong, cloaked in black with the emblem of the offices of the Eminent around her neck. She was a genetically altered humanoid, designed to have increased mental abilities both in power and thought. Such beings were alterations of a construct and feared by most, because their power and the extent of it were unknown. Regina looked back at Killian. "You and your brother, you are Areenian?"

"Yes. And others of the crew, Will. He was…his sister was my brother's bonded mate. And David, a cousin."

Regina nodded. "And your mate?"

Killian just shrugged. So what? He was a freak. "I don't have one. I never bonded."

Regina stopped at that and looked back at the man. Interesting. An anomaly. "That is unusual; a rarity. I thought such situations to be a myth."

"Might as well be. One in every sixty billion births is born unbonded. Just my birthright." Killian looked at the regal woman with her eyes brimming with power and intelligence. "An Eminent One. I thought you were a myth as well."

Regina understood the man's bitterness, to be a freak among his own kind. Areenians were a warlike race that took their species to the brink of extinction over a hundred thousand years ago. They fought everyone and everything - killing their own clansmen and brethren. Civil war and blood feuds almost eradicated them. On the eve of their extinction they initiated a new system of breeding which bonded the members to a mate almost from childhood. At eight the bond would initiate and each person would find their intended. When they came of age, they married. Same-sex bonds were outlawed in an effort to repopulate their dying race, as was genocide, and Areenians never bred outside their own race.

"It is legend that an unbonded male would have strengths untold and a superior destiny."

Killian just shrugged. Yeah, those Eminent creatures searched through ancient prophecies, always hoping to find an answer to all the chaos and bloodshed. He couldn't care less. His own circumstances occupied his mind. It was a source of dishonor, a blight on his family name and bloodline, the humiliation of being a freak. When he came of age and his brother married, the great houses of his world hid their daughters from him to prevent him from wanting to ally with their houses without a bond. His only destiny was to be a freak and alone. "It doesn't matter. My world was one of the first taken by the Dark One."

Regina nodded. That was true. But at least his world still existed. Enslaved, but they existed. So many others did not.

The Dark One had destroyed numerous worlds, entire solar systems and those races had ceased to exist. He took Areenians for their warrior genetics. The Dark One was a collector of genetic material. He took the best from the genome and then destroyed what he didn't want, genetically altering his next race of clones until there was nothing left except to fight his created super race.

"Did he take your genetics?" Regina asked.

"Most of them. Those he didn't, he destroyed. The rest he enslaved. We, a few of us, were already engaged in the war effort for the Federation, hoping that the Royals could restore the balance to this galaxy. Will's wife was on a penal colony, one of the first destroyed."

"I am sorry."

"Not your fault, and Will didn't care. He bonded to his wife at eight, married ten cycles later, and on their wedding night she tried to strangle him to death. He tied her to the bed, finished his wedding night, and the next morning called authorities to have her arrested for attempting to murder a member of our race. She has been there ever since."

"Real love match," Regina said with a muffled laugh.

Killian was confused. There was no word for 'love' in his race's vocabulary. They married for alliances, to build bonds and strength, and to breed. But for emotions? Emotions were what brought their world to the brink of extinction. They were forbidden. It was the bond that kept a man and wife together, and in the best case scenarios there were hoped-for feelings of fondness. Killian's own parents spat at each other when entering a room. Killian couldn't believe that he could envy that, but he did.

Regina studied him for a moment, her mind whirling with possibilities, but she knew she could wait no longer. "Commander, one for your men was mortally wounded during the attack."

"David," Killian acknowledged. If Liam was already dead, she could only be talking about David.

"Yes, he needs a new organ, one that your brother could supply," Regina said as she stood, moving to the side as a med tech came with an injection. Killian was going to be taken to the regeneration chamber. He was scheduled for a three-day cycle.

"My brother," Killian slurred, fighting the effects of the soother the medics had given him in preparation for his regeneration. "He would want to do anything he could to continue helping. Especially for David. Dead or not."

Regina nodded in understanding. "It is time for you to sleep, Commander. I will keep watch over you and yours. You have my promise."

"Wait!" Killian looked on in irritation as another soother was given to him and everything faded to black.

…