DESTINY ASCENDANT
MAIN HANGAR

“Sierra Mike One Zero Three you are clear for departure. Come right and proceed out of hangar at relative bearing zero eight zero.”
Flight control cleared the transports as they vacated the hangar. Muriel bid them good riddance as she worked over her plans.
“Shuttlecraft B-1 clear for departure. Come around left and proceed out of hangar.”
The fleetmaster was slow on his departure. His ship sat landed in the hangar for an extended amount of time. “Flight control, get me a targeting solution on covenant envoy craft. Tactical, track this targeting solution with the number 3 main turret.”
“Commander if I may beg par-” the XO’s protests were cut short by Tactical.
“Copy, tracking target. Fire condition?”
“Hold. Wait for my call,” she answered.

She wasn’t sure she could get away with this, nor did she want to end him so impersonally. However she recognized the value that eliminating him posed and the risk that such an easy opportunity would not present itself again.
“If I may beg pardon ...,” Dyykes forcefully interjected, “if we take that shot, we are starting a war. A war that will go very badly for us in the immediate short term.”
“I’m aware Lieutenant. I have a way that somewhat mitigates that risk. Right now I need everyone to trust the strategy. This is what we do best: plan and execute.”
Flight control interrupted the conversation. “Covenant transport is clear of the hangar.”
“Call torpedoes!” Muriel ordered, “We’ve made the plan. Execute.”

The CO started running for the bridge. Everything was going to go down at breakneck speed. Every second counted. “Torpedoes five hundred clicks out, covenant shuttle at three clicks.”
Her headset kept her virtually in the room as the plan unfolded. The ship shuddered as the rear guns fired towards nothingness. All part of the biggest bluff she dared to make today. The jolt broke her stride and she nearly fell face first into the metal floor grating. “Torpedoes at four hundred and closing; Covenant transport seven clicks. Thirty seconds to impact.”

The CO made it to the bridge shortly after. Nobody bothered with the formalities of her arrival, nor would she have wanted them to. They stayed focused on the operation exactly how she would have wanted. “Torpedoes at two-fifty, fifteen seconds to impact; Covenant transport at ten clicks, running fast.”
Ten clicks was still basically point blank. The number 3 railgun was loaded with its lighter 55mm shells for the tiny target. Ten kilometers was a flight time of under four milliseconds: instant impact for all intents and purposes. The ship was creating distance very fast though. “Ten seconds, check jump coords and shield integrity.”

Tactical had effectively assumed command. Muriel remained silent and let them do their job. The flash-jump was a risky maneuver that only black ops ever even attempted. “Five seconds, target at twenty five clicks.”
That was starting to get farther downrange. It was still an easy shot no doubt, but the increasing distances pressed on her mind. The tension in the air slowed down the seconds. “Three... tw-”
“Fire, fire now!” she preempted the countdown.
Tactical was still tracking. The fleetmaster’s fate was sealed with one trigger pull.

The thud of the number 3 gun was indistinguishable from the feigned fire towards a pursuing enemy that would throw the Covenant off. Fifty five millimeters of precision-engineered devastation crossed the thirty kilometer distance faster than anyone could blink. At the speed it flew, the metal of the Phantom didn’t react like metal. The slug tore through the center of the ship, pulverizing nearly half of the craft into a hail of debris and shrapnel. The three large chunks left were thrown hard away from the previous flightpath, cast off into the vast blackness at incredible speed from the sheer impulse of the slug. “Confirmed hit!”

The CO smirked visibly at the notion the fleetmaster was most certainly dead. A weapon meant to take down far larger ships would have left no survivors on such a tiny target. “Brace for torpedos!” the tac officers both yelled.
The ship shuddered hard as all six fusion torpedoes detonated in close proximity. Warning alarms blared as the shields nearly overloaded from the energy surge. In the blinding nova engulfing the ship, the Destiny jolted into frameshift, disappearing from the battlespace behind the spectacle of the fusion blast.

---

“AURORA” STAR SYSTEM
INTERPLANETARY SPACE

Destiny jolted back into the static fabric of space, leaving behind the high-speed subspace rift that carried it here. The jump brought the ship into close proximity with with the Asari forces. The inner rails on the rearward guns glowed a dull red. Parts of the ship’s composite armor plating also glowed, the shield emitters having dumped their excess heat into the secondary subsurface cooling manifold.

“Compile all the data & records from our time in this system and push it to subspace relay, stat. Our first priority is getting everything on record and in the database,” Muriel ordered.
Her XO got to work on it immediately. She turned her attention back to the holotable, where Natka had already pushed a projection of the immediate space. Muriel was confident that whatever this entity wanted, it could not be more irrational than the Covenant she’d just dealt with.

Pious Transgression, Illuminated Consecration

Both the Arbiter and Prophet of Mercy observed the holo-table as it displayed the destruction of the fleet-master's phantom. This was an act of war, there was no doubt. The negotiations was the only thing holding the Covenant fleet back. The Prophet simply muttered; "A shame." before nodding at The Arbiter. He knew what to do. While the negotiations had gone on, he'd formulated an aggressive, fast paced plan. Ships within the fleet began changing formations. Smaller transport frigates alongside escorts began descending upon Aurora, dispersing over the planet-side. Their task was easy; clean the planet of taint. While a planet-wide invasion was in the works, three battle-groups was formed. One to hold their position, one to initiate a blockade of Aurora and the last one would search for the Destiny Ascendant. To conduct such dis-honourable actions couldn't go unpunished. A group of five Battle-cruisers and one Assault Carrier began their way with great speed to scout the system. If they had luck, the Ship couldn't have gotten far.

The Arbiter had, with the blessing of the Prophet, sent a Strike-Group to the Vault. This Strike-Group consisted of Zealots and Ultras. The elite of the Sangheili.

---

Aurora, within the Vault.

Tartarus and his pack put up a good fight, despite their significantly lesser numbers. The rather confined space made the following-conflict a cluster-of-confusion. The Jiralhanae took this to their advantage. But in the end, most of Tartarus' pack laid dead on the floor. Only four, including Tartarus survived the ordeal. All injured in some way or another. The Chieftain of the pack regained consciousness when a Genshati stomped on his chest. Still suffering from the unconsciousness, Tartarus didn't get a full image of the situation at first. But his vision quickly recovered, making the magnificent room visible for him. The dead littered around him, of both friend and foe. Then he heard the Hirule speak.

"I must see to final preparations. If you imbeciles have learnt anything from the death of your comrades, you won't try anything stupid until I come back."

The anger within Tartarus begun to rise, a dangerous anger. The Jiralhanae species are known for the frenzy when seeing their pack-members die. But the Chieftain knew better than to fall victim to the frenzy. His only objective now was to find a way to make this go in his fortune. His inaction proved some fruit, as he heard some static chatter from the surface. Tartarus could only assume the forces on the surface had made their way into the Vault.

"Tartar-...We've infiltra-...The Vault-...Engineers-...Hacking into-....The System."

Only time would tell if the Covenant forces would be able to access the Genshati systems.

Dreadnought Madron

The meeting halted quickly after each of the officers were informed of the Destiny Ascendant's ftl jump. That and the use of several Tier III WMDs helped grabbed Admiral Naari's attention. When the Admiral arrived on the bridge it was in a flurry. It showed that even the approach of a single vessel necessitated proper fleet coordination and much of that was done here. Of course along with the sudden change in Covenant fleet movement mean the fleet was on high alert.

"Set up a comm channel with the cruiser. If the Covenant comes within firing range engage them. I'm positive that little explosive demonstration possibly antagonized them." After those orders she left for the briefing room.

In orbit of Aurora the recon probes continued sending information about Covenant activity. Constant monitoring of Covenant ground and space assets showed even more troops being deployed. The main settlement was currently being destroyed. NIA continued to process this information along with trying to figure out the Covenant’s strategy. There were massive Covenant ground vehicles moving to an unknown location. The VI decided to send this information to the Admiral when she was ready.

”AURORA” STAR SYSTEM
INTERPLANETARY SPACE

“Nat keep a close eye on subspace sensors; I wanna know if anything jumps anywhere in the system.”
The CO was busily handling the change of situation. Caution was warranted in case the massive heat signature the Destiny was throwing off for the moment was detected. While the flash-jump stunt could fool enemies momentarily, any officer with a brain would realize it was a trick once the sensor blindness cleared. The energy saturation of the fusion blast was merely a temporary measure of distraction. “Ops see that a full systems check gets done. Tell me if anything is not operating one hundred percent.”

“Commander I’ve got a communications protocol coming in from local; ready to receive?”
“Affirm, play incoming on speaker for the record.”
Natka pushed the incoming transmission through for Muriel to address. “Commander Dar’Tuura, Destiny Ascendant. To who am I speaking?”
And now the second diplomacy dance was afoot. The commander pushed the Covenant incident to the back of her mind, trying not to let it taint her attitude any further as her tone was already growing short.

AURORA - SHADOW STAR
Combat Information Center

"...They've expressed an interest in setting up a forward base with the SCR-1. In my opinion the situation has not escalated to a degree where we would need that much presence..."

Kel'ar stood at one of the central holotables, dictating to High Command back in Hasrya. The room was relatively empty save for a few database operators hard at work on the info the away team had collected. As large as the fortified command deck was, Kel'ar still felt it was quaint, accustomed to the sprawling decks of the flagship.

"Noted, Commander. The council will review the situation within the hour. The civilian proximity should prompt some response; expect infiltrators at the least."

"Thank you. Comms, out." Kel'ar deactivated the relay, pulling up the data sets they had on the three contacts. She frowned at the first, finding it difficult to believe what the program was indicating. It would be incredibly improbable to simply run into the empire so soon...

The other factions concerned her more. Their aggression didn't sit well with the kyrian. And whatever they were after seemed to block any reasoning with them; it would be almost hopeless to attempt further negotiations.

The black kyrian jumped and let out a small cry as the ship's red alert siren blared, orange illumination replacing the normal light blue. For a moment her eyes were as wide as the other officers on the deck: she coughed and straightened up, pulling up the tactical map. Red lines were extending from Covenant ships they had been tracking, signifying abrupt changes in velocity, and the last-known position of the Destiny Ascendant was designated with a large red sphere.

"High alert. Large fusion detonation detected, range seven-seven-five-zero. Contact Alpha status unknown. Large portion of Covenant ships under propulsion, moving away from the planet, assumed hostile."

"Kriek..." Kel'ar punched in a code and reactivated the line to Command. She hardly waited for the man on the end to greet her, barreling through the formalities. "Get me on the line with the council, there's been a development."

Dreadnought Madron

Comm Room

"This is Admiral Ralla V' Naari commander of the Asari 12th fleet." At this point Ralla hoped the translation was working properly from her side. "That was a impressive display Commander, but the hostile polity known as the Covenant has taken notice." As the Admiral spoke the Asari fleet was moving in anticipation for combat. "We're assuming hostile intent and are preparing to respond accordingly. I would like to ask for your assistance in eliminating the enemy." she asked simply without caring to waste anytime. Getting assistance from a unknown alien polity to attack another unknown but hostile faction wasn't covered in training. It was just something she needed improvise.

"We suspect they're endangering the lives of innocent citizens and are a threat to those I serve. I won't ask for you to risk your life, but even information on defenses and weapons will be enough." she realized that maybe this wasn't the best way to handle first contact, but for the moment this would have to be enough.

DESTINY ASCENDANT
INTERPLANETARY SPACE

The commander looked to her crew. “How long before we can make the jump to Tiir?”
“With cooldown and spinup time accounted for, about four minutes.”
“Good, get on that. Let me know when we’re ready and I’ll cut this conversation short.”

The commander turned to the holotable where the comms channel to the admiral was patched in. “If they saw what they were supposed to see then they believe I am dead,”Muriel answered confidently.
The flash-jump trick had fooled enemies before. This case would be no different. For a ship in black ops, there was great power in being dead. Of course, it usually only worked once. Enemies fooled once were seldom stupid enough to believe the trick a second time.

The admiral wanted to eliminate the Covenant forces. Muriel thought that was cute. When her assistance was asked for, she could no longer contain her laughter. “Ahahahaha! That’s funny,” she returned to seriousness after her brief outburst.
“You’re outnumbered .... not quite two to one yet,” she consulted the holotable to verify the numbers, “and I’m doubtful you can avoid a broadside duel against this fleet.”

Broadside dueling, or a slugfest as many Imperial Navy officers referred to it, was the least favorable way to engage enemies as it involved the highest risk and highest cost to allied forces for each enemy vessel destroyed. In close range engagements, shells did not miss ever. The engagement would no longer be a contest of skill, but instead a contest of durability and destructive power. Even the winning vessel would be heavily damaged, often forcing their early retreat and nullifying any numerical advantage gained.

“Admiral I may have more of those fusion torpedoes ready to go but I alone do not wield the power to equalize this engagement.”
It was then that the admiral mentioned their awareness of risk to civilians. Again Commander Muriel suppressed a chuckle. “You’re on the right track but you’re a half dozen pages behind. They’re not just reckless around civilians, they were actively engaging civvie population centers last we saw,” she reported, “and to make matters worse, they’re not the only force down there doing it. That said however, their recent reinforcement makes it unlikely that second force will remain a player ... in this contest at least ... for much longer. To be brutally honest, it grows more likely by the minute that any of your people who were on the surface are already dead.”

PLANET “AURORA”
UNCHARTED SPACE

The frenzy of Covenant activity above Aurora was visible on sensors anywhere in the system. Fires on the surface could be seen from space. The rocky backwater dustball nobody could possibly ever want was the center of a vicious siege. An innocuous burst of white noise had brought the belligerents here, toiling endlessly for some gods-forsaken vault beneath the arid soil. The chaos of battle makes a perfect cover.

A single subtle subspace disturbance rippled high above the battleground. Not even the keen eye of Natka on the Destiny Ascendant caught it at first. When she finally did call it out, the reaction amidst the bridge crew was nothing short of panic. This was not yet another player; it was far more worrisome.

”They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you ... you will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.”

-Prophecy of the Concordia Knights

A single ship slipped from the roiling tear in spacetime into the calm between subspace and the fury of war far below upon the surface. Not even a quarter kilometer, the small craft did not even battle the gravity, falling gracefully towards the surface. The spaceship itself was a marvel and an abomination of flesh and metal somehow braving the harsh void. The mechanical engine nozzle to the rear glowed as it began to travel the vacuum under its own power. Its tendrils lazily waved, stretching behind it from the flanks. Four enormous eyes, the larger being at least ten meters, peered out like telescopes, searching for signs of life.

Aboard Destiny the entire chain of command scrambled to make a plan of action. In the frenzy they had rudely ignored the Asari fleet with which they previously were conversing. Muriel insisted this took precedence; she was not without justification. The alien creature-ship closed distance to the planet. Soon it would be entering the Covenant’s battlespace. As it approached the very fabric of space around it began to sparkle. A thousand pinpoint lights flashing dim to bright to dim again, growing in intensity with each flash. In a single blinding cacophony of luminescence fifty ships flashed into existence as if the light itself had coalesced into being.

Each form that joined the first was new and ugly in its own way. A group of smaller crafts with long slender limbs resembling crab legs darted swiftly through the formation. Their crab legs reached well over three hundred meters in length. They nimbly formed a circle behind their companion creatures, legs extending wide to form a giant ring shape. A yellow lightning crackled between the far ends of the legs completing the circular form. Space began to bend and boil and tear within the ring. A burst of the lightning erupted from nothingness within the center, and a terrifyingly massive structure forced its way through, tearing the fabric of space asunder to assert its will on anything in its path. The pillar had arrived.

Behind it another swarm of vessels followed through the portal. Most were small, under two hundred meters long. Only a few crafts spanned over half a kilometer. Yet the pillar, the enormous structure the swarm formed to escort, stretched over six times that length. Two and a half kilometers of jagged metal and bits of flesh, folded and constructed and packed away to be transported across the blackness. Its ultimate destination lay below: the very ground the Covenant fought so hard to hold. The escort fleet around it now was quite numerous. Though small in size and power, a little beyond a hundred vessels encircled it as it dove ever faster towards the crust, racing past the Covenant forces in orbit and destroying everything in its path.

The smaller ships branched off to strafe cruisers which came too close to the descent path. Swarms of light vessels, perhaps frigate or corvette class should they have a classification, extended away from the escort formation to give close passes. Yellow lightning shot out from fleshy tendrils attacking the Covenant ships. Shields shimmered and glowed under the blows and overloaded under the surge that the swarm put out. The arcs burned into the hull leaving glowing red gashes. The small ships escorting the pillar darted into incoming fire, blocking the shots aimed for the pillar itself and protecting it as it struck the atmosphere.

The raging fires of reentry seared at the armored spike that headed the giant construction. The metal burned red and small pockets of exposed tissue smoldered in the inferno. The small creatures that had escorted the megastructure had scattered and descended into the atmosphere with a circling grace that the many thousands of tons did not. The radiant heat alone from the burning plasma shell encasing the pillar often killed most beings present at the point of impact. The heat preceded touchdown by less than a second as the leading spike pierced rock. Hundreds of meters of the pillar structure had crushed or disintegrated on impact, but the solid rod that ran through its core pierced the crust intact. The weight coming down at once crushed the ground beneath, fracturing the land and leaving a sunken bowl spanning five kilometers. The vault had been directly beneath, now smashed to nothing under the arrival. The harvest began at once.

The pillar began to unfold, its large metal barbs stretching out into arms which held platforms for other craft, spikes armed with lightning, and ramps to release the hordes within. The top arms did not level, instead extending out rods which spread and began to create the familiar circle of lightning from which the last fleet had come. The escorts had begun to near the surface as the sky rippled within the lightning and the portal formed. Direct reinforcement would arrive soon. Nothing would stand in the way of the harvest.

On the second moon of the fourth planet from the star, a research base sat on the barren surface overlooked by a brown gas giant. Having grown to the size of a small city in the century since it was founded, the Zaxoid runs research station had become one of the largest colonies to be founded on an inhospitable world. It had a few transparent bio-domes connected by passages and tall pressurized buildings towered over them, many passages wove between the debris which was scattered around the site and provided easy transport between the 5 ancient crashed Zaxoid ships.

Inside the base tens of thousands of Kriptoids lived and worked to maintain the colony and investigate the debris. The colony administrator sat in his office when suddenly one of the scientists burst in. "At least knock." says the admin, seeming rather annoyed. Short of breath from running there so fast, the scientists says "No time, this is big." The admin's curiosity was peaked but before he could ask for clarification the scientist continued, "One of the Zaxoid wormhole beacons has detected something. Well, more than one thing. Multiple radio transmissions and space distortions." The admin began to look annoyed again as he said "We've investigated those before, they are usually just black holes or pulsars." "I know, " the scientist says, "but none of them have been anything like this." The admin puts down his papers and says "Go on..."



Amix floated through his bioship which he named Calis, doing a few routine checks and talking to the ship a bit in what seems like a very one sided conversation. The interior was completely filled with water and lit with bioluminescent lights, and although there were some metallic components around the place most of the walls were very fleshy. The communications officer swims up to him and begins speaking, "Commander, we have-". Amix is startled causing him to emit a small electrical shock. "Sorry commander, but this is important." the comms officer continues, "We have a direct communication from the capital, from the Guardian herself. She wants to talk to you in person." Amix stops what he is doing and darts over to the bridge where there is an open comm channel. "Kana, this is certainly a surprise." he says. Kana replies "Commander Amix, I have a mission for you. Recently some crazy stuff has been detected by a Zaxoid wormhole beacon, it is sending back a lot of interesting data. Either it's aliens or a crazy anomaly unlike anything we have ever seen, either way I need your fleet to check it out. Set a course for the Kiram wormhole station."

"Roger that, mission accepted." replies Amix as he slips into the captain seat and ends the call. "You heard her Calis, plot a course to the wormhole station." he says, talking to his ship. Within the ship's nervous system it quickly calculates an efficient trajectory using it's instinctual understanding of orbital mechanics. The crew is instructed to get the ship ready for departure, the 500 meter long ship warms up it's thermonuclear engines and releases the docking clamps. Before long it begins the transfer burn.



An asteroid with a strange looking machine built into it orbited high above Kiram, and a fleet began to assemble near it. When Amix's ship arrived there was already a small science vessel waiting nearby, being another bioship much smaller than the Calis. The capital called both ships again for a briefing given by Kana herself. "The wormhole station is being prepared now. We have no idea what is on the other side, and although you should always be prepared for alien contact it is more likely then usual this time. Crew of the science ship Yenix, your job is to collect data and stay out of trouble. Crew of the Calis, you are to initiate diplomacy if needed and defend the Yenix. Amix will be the fleet admiral. Any questions?"

Everyone stayed relatively silent. The mission was pretty strait forward, but the suspense seemed to permeate the water around them. Another voice came onto the comms from the wormhole station on the asteroid, "Destination locked, singularity reactor online, we are ready to engage. Clear the business end of this thing." The two bioships backed away as the radiators on the wormhole generator began to glow a bright red.

At first nothing much seemed to happen but soon noticeable gravity waves began coming from the device, getting stronger and stronger. There was a gravity well for half a second followed by a negative gravity well, pulling the ships in a bit and then pushing them away over and over. Soon they were so strong that they started bending light around a small area in front of the wormhole generator. Suddenly the gravity well shot up stronger than before and stayed that way, in the center of it was what looked like a sphere, and light came through it revealing different constellations. They were much denser than those near Kiram, as one would expect from being near the center of the galaxy. The wormhole had been opened.

The two ships fall into the wormhole under it's gravity well, with gravitational forces getting so strong that they would easily be fatal if not for the crew floating neutrally buoyant in saltwater. Once inside things began to get rather weird, going through a tunnel of space shaped like a 4D cylinder caused ghost images of the ships to appear, being distorted by the strange spacial curvature. Light and even normal matter could move right, left, up , or down only to end up where it started. It only lasted about a minute before the ships shoot out from the other end of the wormhole at escape velocity.



As the wormhole snaps shut behind them the science ship Yanix immediately begins scanning the area. Before long they discover an interesting planet, a desert world with a few sparse oceans. It seems to be the source of all the strange signals, and under continuous acceleration they could get there in just a couple hours. The two ships set their course for Aurora to get a closer look.

(By the way, all communication is done by emitting electrical pulses picked up by the electroception sense in Kriptoids. I have just been portraying it as speech to make things easier. Even telecommunications and intercom systems do this, being among the few electrical devices to be widely used by Kriptoids.)

Aurora Vault

Move…

His eyes slowly opened as the sounds of battle radiated all around him. Bodies dropped from both sides as weapon fire and foreign languages bounced of the vault’s walls as the dark armored Sith struggled to rise.

Move…

He could feel it. Something was approaching, a danger that he did not comprehend but the urgency in his bones forced the fatigued Sith on to his feet.

Move…

Dragos grasped his lightsaber that lay in the heads of a dead brute and activated the weapon as he sprung into action towards the vault’s entrance. This was his only opportunity to escape, he had to take it. The fighting was intense in the vault’s corridors but he had the advantage of being a lone target, swiftly moving through the ranks as he fought his way out.

Move…

His helmet remained intact, his radio, his enhanced optics all of it. The communication back and forth from the Sith Lord and his recently arrived men was quick and decisive, both parties taking advantage of the chaos. As Dragos emerged from the vault he could feel the incoming presence closer and closer but fortunately his troop transport hovered in the sky waiting to retrieve him. With a mighty leap Dragos launched himself into the air, his hand just grasping the edge of the extended entrance ramp. With the aid of the very captain that refused to abandon his commander, Dragos hoisted himself into the fleeing vessel.

Move…

The transport accelerated into outer space before the sight of the arrival of a new invader caught their eye. Moments before the transport jumped into hyperspace they watched this new foreign invader rain death below to the very location they just escaped from. It was obvious that due to the recent events the galaxy would never be the same.

Outskirts of the Galactic Center system

The Sith transport stumbled out of hyperspace, its engines slowly propelling the craft forward to the massive armada before it. It was fortunate they did not have to travel far as their craft had taken considerable amount of damage in the rescue attempt of the Sith Lord but fortunately they were home. Dozens of mile long Imperial Class Star Destroyers floated in defensive positions along the gargantuan super dreadnought that lay in the fleet’s center. To the enemies of the Sith, the Invincible represented the absolute pinnacle of Sith might but to the newly arrived men, it was home.

Dragos was the first to walk down the loading ramp as a small crowd had gathered in anticipation for his arrival. As the Sith surveyed the massive hanger along with its assembly, he took a deep breath as if to relish moment that he had just evaded death. While the minor officers were there to simply serve as assistants, a pair of individuals in the form of the blue skinned humanoid alien in Grand Admiral Thrawn and the elderly grandfather like figure in Grand Moff Tarkin served to be quite the entourage. As Dragos moved to greet the assembly, it was apparent to all in the room that three of the most powerful and decorated individuals in the Empire were gathered in this small hanger and it was not coincidence.

“Lord Dragos” Thrawn announced with a small bow. “It is an honor to see you again my lord”

“Lord Dragos you seem well. It seems that your brief entanglement with the enemy was nothing more than exaggeration. I should have figured that such foreign scum stood no chance against our greatest warrior” Tarkin added on as he too offered a quick head nod to pay his respects.

“Grand Admiral Thrawn, Governor Tarkin I was not expecting such an esteemed audience.” Dragos replied.“I’ve heard of your intentions but the vault has been destroyed. Let’s see to it that our outlying defenses remain on high alert in case something tried following us.”

“Unfortunately my Lord that is not the case” Dragos gazed at Tarkin with a slight annoyance. Even though his armored helmet masked his facial expression, Tarkin could feel the Sith’s eyes gaze back into his. Tension grew in the moment, Dragos knew that having Tarkin and Thrawn gathered aboard his ship meant plans were in motion and these plans had yet to be consulted with him. “The Emperor has taken quite an interest with the variety of civilizations you encountered”

Thrawn nodded in support, “It is true. The Emperor himself requested I return from my post on Cardia and once more serve as your fleet admiral”

Before Dragos could respond the hanger’s door opened again, this time a hooded female approached the crowd, her presence completely changing the atmosphere in the hanger. While Tarkin and Thrawn exhibited an aura of calm professionalism, the hooded female walked with a certain royal confidence. She was incredibly beautiful, capturing men’s hearts was easy for her yet her eyes possessed a certain passion, she was without a doubt just as dangerous as she was attractive. As she got closer she smirked slightly as she stood before Dragos, not bothering to acknowledge the other gathered imperial officers.

“Of all the people here, I expected you to be the first to see me” Dragos spoke, commenting on the female’s late arrival.
“Forgive my lord but the Emperor desired to speak with me and now that you have arrived… he demands an audience immediately” Tarkin smiled at such punctuality, “It seems the Emperor himself wants to inform you of our plans regarding this new region of space. Lord Dragos we will hold you no longer, I’m sure you and the Emperor have much to discuss” Tarkin stepped to the side, gesturing Dragos to make his move. With little choice in the matter, Dragos made his walk towards his meditation chamber.

The room was empty save for an elevated platform that lay in the middle. Stepping forward Dragos and his female companion both fell to one knee, their heads bowed as they could hear the transmission coming through. Within moments a holographic figure of an elderly hooded man appeared before the two Sith, yellow eyes focused downward at his kneeling apprentice.

“What is thy bidding my master?” Dragos asked as he tilted his head upwards to meet the Emperor’s holographic eyes.

“Lord Dragos, it seems we have new enemies”

“Nothing we cannot deal with. Should they come within reach of our empire then I’ll be sure to be the first to respond.”

“On the contrary Lord Dragos, you will go on the offensive.” Dragos paused for a moment as if to contemplate he heard the response right.

“You cannot reasonably expect to take the Galactic Center by force? We cannot defend our territory and launch a massive invasion against these various civilizations, not at the same time” Dragos argued but his defiance was met with anger.

“You forget my apprentice that a Sith is more than a warrior. A Sith is a manipulator, a tactician, an orchestrator of events. Brute force is not the only way you can conquer your enemy. You will return to the Galactic Center, you will meet with these various faction leaders, you will befriend them, you will learn from them and then you will take from them when their use has expired. Who you decide to align with or manipulate is all up to you. All that matters is that you set the foundation for ultimate Sith triumph”

“Such… tactics are rather beneath me.” Dragos replied, even though his helmet hid his facial expressions, both master and apprentice could feel the tension growing between them.
“And your sense of honor insults me. You will do as I command.” The Emperor's voice gradually grew harsher, his blood starting to boil.
“Your suggestions require time and patience, resources…” Yet an excuse. Dragos was one to usually never to complain but as he voiced his rather obvious disdain for the Emperor's plans, the hooded female had glanced over and offered to make a defense to ease the tension but the moment she opened her mouth, the Emperor had raised a hand to silence her, his gaze never leaving the kneeling man.

“Time is our ally. By pushing our reach outwards our enemies will rush to meet it. The citizens of the Empire continue to enjoy their petty peace, they care little for the wars raged beyond our borders. You have no excuses”
“If this is what you wish.” Dragos relented but his frustration still filled the air.
“It is. This will be your greatest challenge yet. Completion of this task will set a foundation that will allow our Empire to prosper for a millennia. Do not fail me.”
“I understand, my master.”
“Good. See this through at once, I’ll expect an update soon.”
Dragos rose to his feet, preparing to leave the room but the transmission continued. “Oh and one more thing Lord Dragos… the traitor that resides in the Republic lives. He has grown stronger… I foresee that you two will meet once more.”
Dragos paused at this sudden news as his hands clenched into a tight fist. “If I see him… I’ll kill him” The Emperor visibly smiled, approving of the response.
“We will see…. We will see” the transmission faded into nothing ending with the Emperor’s laughter of amusement.