After consulting at length with his Astrogaters and comparing their findings with the agonized cries of his Navigators, Chapter Master Orion Phatris of the Skywatch concludes that they have been hurled into a new galaxy (and possibly even a parallel universe) and explains such to his 3rd Company Captain, Aurelian Teks.
Upon the Imperium's arrival in the galaxy, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic — via his secret identity as the Sith Lord Darth Sidious — senses the darkness surrounding them and correctly identifies them as rivals to his plans for galactic dominion. But in blinding the Jedi Order to his true nature and ambitions, he has also rendered them unable to detect the incoming threat from such distances.
Upon receiving his scientists' report of how the Imperium's translation from Warp Space has activated Hyperspace Buoys in massive cascades, Palpatine dispatches Jedi Knight Renphi and his clone forces to escort a survey team to investigate the anomaly.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Antagonist Title: This episode's title refers to the overarching villains of the series. Darth Sidious and the God-Emperor of Mankind are the emperors alluded to by the title while the "dark gods" are the four Chaos Gods from 40K.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: During his meeting with Jedi Knight Renphi, we're shown Palpatine's opinion on the Trandoshan Jedi.It was bad enough to be a pathetic, parasitic reptile, warming itself on the power of the Republic, did it also need to be a Trandoshan as well?
- Evil Learns of Outside Context: The second half of this pilot episode has Palpatine learns of the Imperial refugee fleet being transported from the 40K universe into the Star Wars universe from his connection to the Dark Side. Sensing the psykers aboard the refugee fleet, Palpatine perceives the Imperials as rival darksiders who must be eliminated lest they become a threat to his plans for galactic domination, kicking off what would eventually escalate into a full-blown war between the Republic and the Imperium.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: By blinding the Jedi to the Dark Side in order to prevent them from sensing the darkness inside him, Palpatine also made it so that they were unable to sense the Imperials' arrival to their universe, meaning that he's the only one who is currently aware of this new threat that the Republic faces and has to pull a lot of strings in order to stage a First Contact so that the Jedi will discover the Imperials themselves.
- In Medias Res: The first episode of this series starts out after the Xek-Tek Imperials have evacuated their sector in response to a Tyranid Hive Fleet invasion and made the Warp Jump into the Great Rift that transported them across time and space to the Star Wars universe. The opening scene shows Orion Phatris trying to make sense of where the Xek-Tek refugee fleet wound up some time after the fleet exited the Warp.
- Juxtaposed Halves Shot: The thumbnail cover art for Episode 1 has this done with half of Palpatine's face on the left side and half of the Emperor of Mankind's face on the right side.
- Villain Episode: This episode shows the immediate aftermath of the Xek-Tek Imperials being transported into the Star Wars universe from the viewpoints of the series' Big Bad Ensemble. The first half is told from the perspective of Orion Pharos, the Anti-Villain Protagonist of Season 1, and the overall commander of the Xek-Tek Imperial fleet. The second half is told from the perspective of Palpatine as he senses the Imperium's arrival to his universe and sets a scheme into motion to counter them.
