March 9, 22ABY
Planet : Coruscant
Imperial Royal Palace
Throne Room
Darth Sideous

Sideous was in a particularly bad mood today.

This morning, he woke to find that his usual breakfast was not there. The serving droid had stopped working. He also found that his royal spa's hot spring system had a heating coil failure. Then, to top it all off, he had an array of meetings and assemblies to attend throughout the day to fulfill the tedious task of running the Galactic Empire.

However, none of that was the what put him in this bad a mood. No, it was the dream he had last night. A dream that seemed all too real, and one that depicted events he didn't quite care for.

In that dream, he saw a tall, heavily armored humanoid standing face to face with him, a strange weapon of some kind aiming at his face. In the background, hundreds of Imperial-class Star Destroyers falling from the sky in flaming wrecks, as a few, much larger vessels descended through the sky, all of them unscathed. But to top it all off, he saw Vader and his son standing behind the armored being, staring at him. That stare...

Sideous pushed the thoughts of his apprentice to the side and focused on the ships he had seen in the dream. They were completely unfamiliar to him, which was impossible. He was always up to date on the latest of Star Ship technology, as well as versed in the full history of space fairing technology. It was the only hobby he could maintain outside of his role as Emperor.

That begged the question, what were they.

He began to dive into the force for answers. He didn't expect to find anything useful from this, it was only to satisfy his curiosity. Unfortunately, the Force had other things in mind, as it presented him with the image of a humanoid in armor similar to that of the figure from his dream. This humanoid was surrounded by a ring of some kind, that looked as if it held a planet within its inner surface.

This only served to put Emperor Palpatine in an even worse mood.

March 9, 2653
Planet : Trevelyan Dyson Sphere
CoAS Key of Discovery
Bridge
Fleet Master Vuvo 'Gozumai

Vuvo is a proud warrior in every sense of the word. We lived by the Sangheili Warrior's Code without deviation. It was common for him to be found honing his swordsmanship skills in one of the numerous sparing halls scattered throughout his 80,700m long vessel. Today was no different, as he stood in the captain's nest of the bridge of the CoAS Key of Discovery, having arrived there five minutes before he was scheduled to, as always.

He observed as his bridge crew, mostly consisting of Sangheili and Humans, worked tirelessly to maintain and organize the ship's millions of systems. Through the view ports in front of him, he could see the deadly beauty that is slip space, a dimension of reality where the correlation of time and space is undone, allowing for a ship to travel a large distance in little time without having to actually accelerate more than is necessary for the vessel to enter slip space in the first place.

This was all routine for the aging Fleet Master, as he has seen it hundreds, if not thousands of times. What wasn't routine, however, were two elements. The first being that his ship was en-route for the de facto capital of the Coalition of Allied Species, and the second being the rather beautiful blue skinned alien from another galaxy standing next to and slightly behind him.

"Helm! Pull us out of Slip Space!" Vuvo ordered in a half yell, so as to be heard over the noise.

"Sir, yes sir!" replied the human helm officer who began to manipulate the hard light terminal before him.

Soon enough, the back drop of slip space was replaced with the back drop of a giant metal structure floating in space. As he looked back at the inter-galactic alien with him, he was pleased to see that her face was that of utter amazement. Clearly, she had never seen a Dyson Sphere before.

"Pick your jaw up, my guest. You have seen nothing as of yet." Said Vuvo to the alien known as Secura.

Secura looked at him, speaking in her language, which Yaolin automatically translated.

"I have seen a city within a ship dwarfing any other, housing over eighteen different species, only one of which I recognize, and I have seen nothing yet?" she replied, obviously dumbfounded by the casual tone of the being before her.

Vuvo, for his part, simply looked back towards the view port, as did his guest. Soon, the entrance into the facility began to open. As his ship entered, the two beings present were presented with a view unlike any other. Inside the gargantuan structure, was a large, yellow star, surrounded by seven ring-like structures. On the inner surface of the sphere was vastly varying terrain, divided into sections that supplement specific species. Now they were inside the shield world of Trevelyan.

"Come, I do believe there is someone here who wishes to speak with you, while the ship resupplies." Vuvo remarked to Secura, as she was again in awe of what she saw.

"Okay..." was all she said. From behind her, the Spartan known as Haley, dawned in full armor, waved her hand in front of the extra-galactic alien to grab her attention away from the Halos she was staring at.

"Common, you will get to have a closer look at Halo soon. Madam President is there waiting for you." Haley told Secura, as she began to lead her out of the bridge.

Vuvo simply looked on as the two left his bridge. As soon as they were out of sight, he set about the task of organizing the resupply of the Discovery, as well as its accompanying fleet. This was going to take a while.

March 9, 2653
Planet : Trevelyan Dyson Sphere
Halo installation 01, inside Trevelyan
Control Citadel
President Megan Harper

Megan stared out of the window onto the snowy mountain the Citadel was built into, off in the distance, the curvature of Halo clearly visible. It never ceased to amaze the Leader of Humanity that such a devastating weapon can be so beautiful. That, however, was not the matter in the for front of her mind.

In just a few minutes time, she is to speak to the first extra-galactic visitor to the Milky Way Galaxy. From what she had been informed, the alien is a blue skinned humanoid female with 'Head-Tails'. She is apparently most cooperative with humans, likely because there are humans, or a species very similar to humans, in the Andromeda Galaxy. She seems to be entranced with a few basic commodities in society, in particular Earth Cotton Clothing and Sanghelios Squouch Fruit, an odd combination. According to the communique she got from Thel, she is also eager to return to her home galaxy, which would be ideal, as she could hopefully act as an intermediary when making contact with the local governments. Over all, it was vital to get this alien in an ideal mental position to assist in proper first contact.

Her she comes... thought Megan as she watched a Phantom come in to land on the platform outside. She proceeded to make her way to the entrance of the massive hall that is the main chamber of the Halo Control Citadel.

Soon, the massive, silver doors began to slowly open, revealing a blue skinned alien and a Spartan chaperone. Putting a friendly smile on, President Megan Harper of the Unified Earth Government approached the duo. Upon the approach, the alien seemed to become a little surprised, while her Spartan counterpart snapped to a crisp salute that only a Spartan could give.

Directly looking at the Spartan, Megan said, "At ease Soldier.", with the expected result of a more relaxed soldier. Now turning her attention to the alien directly, she tapped a small button hidden cleverly in the cuff of her left sleeve to activate the translator, and said, "Hello, I'm Megan Harper, President of the Unified Earth Government. May I say it is a pleasure and honor to meet you."

The alien, for her part, seemed to become far more amazed than she already was, which was an odd response to receive. Said alien then spook her own greeting. "Hello to you, ma'am. I am Jedi Master Aalya Secura of the Galactic Republic. It is pleasant to meet you as well. I must say, however, I am amazed that a structure such as this exists. Its beauty puts even the Jedi Temple to shame."

"Well, there are likely many who would disagree with you on that. Have your accommodations been pleasant thus far?" Responded Megan to the slightly odd statement.

"Far better than I expected, actually. I feel as though I have been treated like a Queen." Said Secura, thinking back on the luxuries she was given that had been better than anything she had ever had before.

"Anything specific you enjoyed? Mabey something that would become popular in your galaxy?" Asked Megan, hoping to get some information on possible trade opportunities.

"Everything." Secura responded bluntly, to the shock of Harper.

With a blatantly suppressed face now plastered on the human leader's face, she said, "Okay then. Please, follow me. We have a room set aside for this discussion. I would like to ask a favor of you."

"A favor?" Secura asked, unsure of what said favor would be, several ideas running through her mind at once.

"Yes, I have been informed that you wish to return to your galaxy as soon as possible. We would happily arrange that for you, as we intend to travel there ourselves, now that we have a reason to. In exchange, I would like to ask you to act as an intermediary. Someone familiar to the locals to introduce us." Replied Harper in detail.

Now thinking about it, Secura could understand why these people would want her to act as an intermediary. They can't just walk into a completely new galaxy and expect to be welcomed with open arms, especially with the size of their ships being larger than any in her home galaxy. Her presence and testimony to their good will would hopefully keep the galactic community from reacting harshly to their arrival.

"Intermediary work is the true calling of the Jedi Order, I would be happy to assist you, even if I got nothing in return." Secura responded, accepting the request, as any proper Jedi would do.

"Great, though you are getting something in return. It would be rude of us to give you no thanks after the help." Megan stated.

"If that is your wish... I must ask, how did your peoples' make these things? Even the most skilled engineers and builders in my galaxy could never even fathom how to create such beauty on such a large scale." Secura questioned, stunned by the natural beauty of the ring world, as they pass a window to the outside world.

"Well, if you must know, we didn't build them. They were constructed by an ancient species known as the Forerunners over one hundred thousand years ago. We only recently managed to find them all and bring them here to study. At the current rate of research and development, it won't be long before the Coalition of Allied Species can make Halos of their own, but that is still a way off." Megan educated secura, still holding off on the Halo Rings' true purpose.

"Intresting..." Secura said, as the trio enter into a small side room.

March 9, 2653
Planet : Trevelyan Dyson Sphere
CoAS Key of Discovery, in dry-dock
Tertiary Research Lab
Dr. Dag Zuq

Going over the DNA test results and comparing them with the modern Human genome, there was no doubt in Zuq's mind.

"Ancient Human... with trace elements of Forerunner, mixed in with a hodge podge of unknown genetics." He thought aloud, though no one could hear the Kig-yar scientist's ramblings.

Adenine to Thymine, Cytosine to Guanine, Adenine to Thymine, Cytosine to Guanine, repeatedly. This is a genetic coding system that Zuq is unbelievably familiar with. Genetics is one of the easiest systems to understand, at least in his opinion, and for how unbelievably complex the Human Gene Pool is, he managed to memorize it. The same can be said for all species except the Huragok, because the Huragok don't have any genes.

This cadaver is clearly a descendent of the peoples from the Milky Way Galaxy. However, the unknown codons are clear indications of minor cross breading with native peoples from the Andromeda Galaxy. If anything, this is a clear sign that the species in the Andromeda Galaxy, or at least some of them, are fuckable.

"Fuckable..." Zuq muttered.

"What was that you said, Zuq?" asked an all too familiar voice, accompanied with the sliding of the automatic doors and footsteps on the cold, metallic floor.

"Fleet Master Vuvo! Ahh, nothing, just thinking aloud." Panicked the Discovery's head science officer, as the highest-ranking person on board came into his favorite laboratory.

"Are you sure, because I'm quite sure I heard something relating to possible reproduction." Vuvo teased his Kig-Yar subordinate.

"Well, it's well known that the basic reproductive organs here in our galaxy are generally compatible, male to female. It seems that it may be the same case in the Andromeda Galaxy." Responded the embarrassed Aves-like being. "There are several unknown genetic codons in the cadaver's genetic structure, but the core bulk of said genetic structure is clearly human."

"Hmm, so the human presence in Andromeda is originating from the Milky Way. Is it possible we could find entities descendent from Sangheili or Kig-Yar in Andromeda when we begin exploration operations?" Vuvo questioned the Doctor, as usual trying to stump the being.

"It is a solid possibility, but not one hundred percent." Responded the doctor, now regaining his posture.

"Of course. Though it would be interesting to see the culture that would develop in a separated population of our many species." Added the Fleet Master.

"Yes, but there are a few parts of our cultures directly caused by an RNA codon. For example, Sangheili's innate sense of honor, or human's drive to develop more and more." Concluded Zuq.

"Well, I suppose we will see. The ship is having an over haul of its slip-space drive. Once that is completed and the fleet is fully resupplied, we will be underway to the Andromeda galaxy." Finalized Vuvo, to the surprise of Zuq.

"Don't we need to have a meeting of the galactic leaders before such a mission is enitiated?" Zuq questioned. Something like this should take weeks, if not months to plan out before being executed, yet the mission has been finalized in less than a day. Something was off.

"Normally, yes. However, the precedence of this discovery, along with substantial evidence of extra-galactic life, has propelled the So.S and UEG to take immediate action in exploration and diplomacy. And besides, it's not unknown that said governments are the only ones with any real say in the matter." Vuvo answered casually, as if the political inequality were nothing important.

"Yeah..." Zuq muttered, not liking said inequality. At least he was under the domain of the UEG, rather than his own people's government. A fact attributed to the fact that he was born on a human colony, and under human law was granted automatic citizenship and all the rights that came with it.

With an acknowledging grunt, the Fleet Master turned and exited the room, presumably to attend other matters. Leaving Zuq to continue to ponder on the state of his home galaxy, and the prospect of introducing themselves to a potentially unstable galactic neighbor. Well, if worst comes to pass, at least their ships seem to be poorly designed, and would be easy to destroy.

March 9, 2653
Planet : Trevelyan Dyson Sphere
CoAS Key of Discovery, in dry-dock
Internal Maintenance Hangar 3
Manager-class Engineer Duyziz

For an Ung'goy, Duyziz was considered extremely successful. An engineer aboard a Fortress-class starship. Very successful. However, never did Duyziz expect he would be analyzing and repairing a starship from an entirely different galaxy.

However, there is one thing that he can agree on that everyone else aboard the ship has been saying. Whoever the engineers in the Andromeda Galaxy are, they need to take a course in proper starship design.

Blantantly exposed bridges.

Highly concentrated areas of defense.

Not enough gun emplacements for the ships size.

Basic Carbon-steel hull.

Extremely weak shields.

It's like this ship was designed without any concern for durability, poor defense (let alone offense), disregard for radiation defense. It's like the ship was designed for the soul purpose of looking nice, which, in Duyziz's opinion, it failed at miserably.

If there was one thing Duyziz was looking forward to in the Andromeda galaxy, it was the chance to lecture their engineers on proper starship design.

Here is a long-ish chapter. Be happy.