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Section I: Aggressive Expansion

Chapter 2

1 BBY

Unknown Regions

Imperial II Star Destroyer

Main Bridge

The Imperial Captain rubbed his fingers through his well-groomed hair, quickly returning his officer's hat on his head. His eyes watched a lone asteroid flying aimlessly in the cold space until it was caught by the gravity of the orange-yellow star that glowed with a luminous presence over the small planet that the Imperial fleet orbited.

A dozen Imperial II Star Destroyers, two Imperial I Star Destroyers, and three Interdictor-class cruisers all stood without any sign of movement.

Safely inside the bridge of the leading Star Destroyer, Captain Pallaeon kept careful eyes on everything around him, both inside and out of the ship. Something felt, off, in the bridge. He turned slightly to his left, an aide walking up to one of the communication officers. They talked briefly, the officer pointing at the screen in surprise until both flinched from something on the screen.

That was more than enough for Palleaon to take an interest. He took another look out into space, then turned. A few strides proved enough to cross along the bridge. He calmly stood behind the two, arms behind his back.

"Oh, sir!" The officer hadn't realized he who was standing there. Palleaon nodded his chin forward, gesturing to the still image of green energy surging over the camera lens of the probe droid. Both stood at attention, only to sit back down with Palleaon's second nod.

"Replay the footage."

The officer nodded, typing in a simple command, and said footage was replayed. Palleaon watched silently as a group of undocumented aliens waddled around the probe droid's perimeter, their curiosity was well present.

The probe droid moved about, before stopping to examine another alien, this one was a bird like bipedal walking creature with an alien rifle.

The two engaged briefly, the surprised alien quickly disabled and the probe fired at the possibly hostile targets until it was hit by a wave of green energy, and the footage quickly ended.

"What should we do, sir?"

"Let it be captured, report any new findings to me first and foremost. I must have word with the Admiral." He rubbed under his cap.

"As you wish, Captain."

July 7th, 2532 (UEG Calendar)

High Charity, Covenant Holy City

Ninth Age of Reclamation

High Council Chambers

A hundred thousand probes tore from slipspace and scanned with electronic 'eyes' across the empty void of space. They collected data and flew across the cold vacuum surrounding them. A thousand tears in realspace darted across the area, with the hundreds of carriers and hundreds of more cruisers, all recovering the probes that had quickly analyzed the entirety of the area. A final hole torn open from slipspace, with a massive station who's bulbous exterior seemed to dominate the very heavens themselves.

Hundreds of ships of all classes were scattered around the station. From the common battlecruisers and frigates, to even many of the dreaded supercarriers, the fleet was the most massive Covenant fleet ever witnessed by any being.

Not a single rock larger than even a mere centimeter could enter a ten thousand kilometer wide perimeter without being identified, targeted, and vaporized by one of the millions of weapons that High Charity itself, and its escort fleet, all carried.

Battlecruisers floated, aided by a pair of frigates under it, and three of these trios would stand under a carrier. This formation performed efficiently in all kinds of tasks they needed to perform, such as planetary assault, defense, escort, and even glassing operations. Each battle group, each fleet, worked together and operated in a fashion of independence of other fleets, but could still function together as a unit. New naval doctrines ensured that. With humanity's introduction, the New Covenant had now vastly improved in their Naval organization.

High Charity drifted between the impervious defenses, knowing nothing in any galaxy could match the sheer power of both it and the fleet possessed.

Deep within, the holy city was filled with millions of high ranked members of all the member species. Legions of the greatest Covenant soldiers protected the entirety of the massive city, most of which guarded the high council member's personal quarters, and the great hall of councils.

Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee rubbed the underside of his mandible in thought. The holographic details displayed on the massive table of thick nanomalite. Around the large circular base was over a dozen seats, each filled by high ranking officials of each member species. Usually, there were two or more, depending on the species. The humans and Sangheili for example had three elected officials at various given times. But lower species or species that were instead represented by the Sangheili, such as the Lekgolo, were mostly not present. The Jiralhanae, more commonly nicknamed as brutes, had one High Chieftain, and the Kig-yar had a single ambassador from their Empress herself.

Standing by the right of Thel was Admiral Lord Hood, who was the military representative, just like Thel was. To his left was the often angry Chieftain, Khan. The very brute who slayed Tartarus himself and took the very powerful hammer the brute puppet once held.

"We've had reports coming in from at least a dozen systems. Random, outer colonies ranging from agriculture to research in terms of use. The reports are pretty similar, a large object falls onto the planet, releasing this construct." The Admiral gestured the models of the Imperial probe droid. "The machines seem to be programmed in a search and scout function, often getting too close for safety and wind up being destroyed."

A recording of an Unggoy worker singlehandedly disabling one was shown, followed by another probe being cut through by plasma rifles, and another of one being simply smashed by a Brute Captain's gravity hammer. The last said clip made Khan chuckle, a show of pride to the strength of his race.

"We fear, however, that they managed to transmit even the smallest amount of data to whatever pod they came from."

"We have no idea how long they have watched, or more importantly, why." Vien Zahran stated calmly, his fingers clicking together before relaxing his arms.

"Then it is obvious." Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree sat forward in his polished command chair. "We send a cruiser to their nest, snuff them out and crush whatever is causing this annoyance!" He clenched his fist with but a hint of anger, merely showing off his readiness to achieve dominance.

Many of the races' officials quietly nodded in agreement. Most were thinking to themselves, still in a bit of shock of the reveal.

Hood cleared his throat. "Well, we do have many ships following any pattern we can think of."

Thel nodded, rising from his chair and giving a quick bow. The gold armored elite turned his ceremonial cape around his back.

"If there is nothing more for me to hear, I must leave. Rumors of an infestation in a temple site beckon my fleet."

"You may leave Commander." UEG Governor Nils Thune bowed respectfully.

Thel nodded without another word, leaving the room with a pair of majors that waited for him outside the doors. The three Sangheili matched each other's walk, passing the walls littered with paintings and murals of thousands of victories the Covenant had over the many centuries.

Unknown Regions

Imperial II Star Destroyer, Chimaera

Admiral's quarters

His boots silently pressed against the floor of the hallway. Palleaon smiled slightly to a pair of patrolling stormtroopers, their bulky white armor reminding him of the stories of the clone wars. After all, they were the effective predecessors of the clone troopers from the old republic.

The two troopers remained their stance and kept quiet while passing Palleaon.

Captain Palleaon brushed his mustache with his fingers, not a hair off. He always maintained a formal posture when meeting his superior. Especially the red eyed humanoid sitting at his desk. His expressionless face looking deeply into what he had spent the past half hour reading.

Admiral Thrawn looked up to see Palleaon, casually swiping away the report on the Death Star's completion. In truth he cared little about its construction, to him, it was little more than a large target and waste of resources. But his opinion on the matter held little ground when he was always in the Unknown Regions and nowhere near the galactic center or the Emperor himself.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn, I'm here to report that our probes have found something." Pallaeon straightened his back.

"And you couldn't tell me from the bridge, is something wrong?" Thrawn's deep red eyes seemed to analyze the very soul in Pallaeon.

"I mean to be cautious. I don't trust even half the crew, especially the jumpy ones." He braced himself for anything the Grand Admiral would do.

"You've discovered something." He understood, relaxed and waiting to listen.

"Yes, sir." Palleaon took a step closer. "As of a few hours from now, multiple probe droids you ordered to be sent out are offline. Nearly half, in fact. With only a few being able to provide any footage or readings. I wager that we've stumbled into someone's territory."

"Return to the bridge, send me everything you have." The Admiral ordered without a sign of reaction whatsoever.

After a moment, Palleaon nodded, quietly leaving the room. Only till after the door locked did Grand Admiral Thrawn open a once sealed file in his holotable. In a few moments, a blurry image of a hulking, four mandibled alien appear. It's double bladed plasma sword held still in the air.

Thrawn rubbed his chin, a small sign of curiosity could be clearly seen. His breathing slowed. His red eyes shifted to the much smaller Chiss soldier grabbing at the alien's hand, which wrapped easily around the blue humanoid's neck. His thoughts paced from his youth to the present, and his mind kept going through the possibilities. There was no doubt, the technology was too identical, and the species were the exact ones that killed so many lives all those years ago.

One of his only fears had finally come.

He found them.

Now, he had to see if they would come and find him.

Sorry if this is kinda short for you guys. I'm going to try to make these chapters much longer. Unfortunately, however, school is as busy as always, so don't expect a rapid deployment of chapters. And my dog hasn't been doing too good.

Anyways, I am off!