The dark green colored Pelican slowly touched down on the landing pad at HQ on Ares.

Steam billowed out from the landing struts as the hatch opened revealing Admiral Runion and his Spartan escort.

Awaiting him were hastily assembled lines of UNSC soldiers, rifles at the ready and their white armor reflecting the light from the sun.

It was midday.

Admiral Runion made his way down the lines of the soldiers to a Lieutenant waiting for him. The man spoke up as Runion and his escort came closer.

"Sir, please follow me, the others are waiting."

Runion acknowledged the man's request with a nod, he was nervous again, though this time for different reasons.

He had assumed that he would be meeting with the sector commandants and maybe one of the Strategos. But all ten of them at once, and with the Polemarch?

And the Hegemon himself!

A sort of childish glee came over to him, mixing with his prior anxiousness.

The Hegemon, Brian Silva, was perhaps the most powerful man in the galaxy, even seeing him was considered an honor. He was well loved amongst the populace, which had earned him nearly 4 terms in his office. He was largely responsible for the cleansing of corruption from the Office of Naval Intelligence, notoriously having several members of the quote on quote "deep state" arrested after nefarious details came out about the agencies many doings.

Having a strong post-war economy and giving off the air of a caring man, whilst also having a backbone certainly helped his popularity with the populace as well.

And the Polemarch, the grizzled war vet Craig Loukes, was not someone to be ignored either, he was notorious for being extremely efficient and even ruthless against the enemies of the UNSC.

This would certainly be an interesting meeting.

The room Runion entered was dimly lit, the only light coming from the table in the center which was projecting a holographic region of space into the air, Runion was knowledgeable with regions of the Milky Way galaxy and the map that was being displayed was unfamiliar to him.

Strange.

Standing already at the table was the man in charge of his ground forces, Chief General Jeff Summers, alongside the commander of the Spartan Vs, Commander Richard Beckham.

Elsewhere around the table were the ten Strategos, Polemarch Loukes, Hegemon Silva, and another woman that Runion didn't immediately recognize.

Suddenly it hit him; the woman was Carol Dovington, the head of ONI.

Runion swallowed.

While the Office of Naval Intelligence had seen significant improvements in ethics in recent years, they were still spooks as far as he was concerned.

He made a mental note to watch what Dovington said closely.

Hegemon Silva was the first to notice Runion, "Ah, Admiral Runion, very nice to see you here in attendance," Silva said with a warm smile.

"Sir, it's an honor to be here."

Silva's smile only deepened, "I would say it's more of an honor to finally meet you, you have a very impressive reputation and track record."

"Which is precisely why you have been chosen to lead this mission," Polemarch Loukes spoke up.

"You are to be promoted to Fleet Admiral of this new battlegroup, which is why your ship, the Architect has been designated as the flagship, the other Admirals will be subservient to your command."

Runion looked up in shock. Fleet Admiral? It was the highest rank in the UNSC navy besides the Strategos, one rung above Vice Admirals.

"Sir, I can't thank you enough-."

"The thanks will have to wait for now," one of the Strategos cut him off, "The only two who know of this mission are the Polemarch and Director Dovington, and we are apparently low on time."

Loukes spoke up "Dovington, you're up."

Dovington nodded and stepped closer to the table.

"As you can see here, we have a map up on the holo, it's probably not recognizable to any of you and it shouldn't be."

She stopped for a second to point at the map, "This part of the galaxy, which is known as the Arctic sector, has been explored, but the area is completely unguarded and uncontrolled by anyone. Our closest territory near it is hundreds of light years away."

The Polemarch spoke up, "It also has no strategic, or tactical importance to any faction in our galaxy, all of the planets there cannot support life, and their natural resources are negligible and hard to find."

Dovington nodded, and continued, "It's a fairly empty region as well, the nebula near the center of the region is the only unique feature. Now, with all territory outside our borders, we have been monitoring it and for the past week have gotten nothing, but silence."

Hegemon Silva furrowed his brow, "I thought we liked silence in our border regions?"

Dovington shook her head, "The silence is precisely the problem Hegemon."

Runion thoughts became confused. What was wrong with silence? After all, UNSC protocol dictated that silence on certain border regions constituted very little of a threat and fleet movements were adjusted to cover areas that required more attention.

Then he remembered who the woman was and suddenly the answer became very clear.

"You had one of your Prowlers combing through that region, didn't you?" he spoke up.

Dovington looked at him with a grim smile, "Indeed we did, Runion, the prowler, The Shadow, has not relayed back to us in over a week."

One of the Strategos crossed his arms, "Could it have gone through the nebula?"

Dovington shook her head again, "The nebula is obviously not the problem, because the second prowler we sent to investigate, The Eclipse, has also disappeared."

The Hegemon frowned, as the Strategos looked at one another in silent shock.

The Polemarch spoke again, "This is highly irregular and-," he cleared his throat, "We might have a First Contact Situation on our hands."

The air in the room was thick with tension.

"We don't really know for sure, we have received no message like we did on… Harvest" Dovington said cautiously, "but it is a possibility nonetheless."

The Hegemon looked at Runion, "Then it is settled, you must leave with your fleet immediately, and figure out what happened, please inform your troops and crew of the situation as soon as you return to the ship."

"Shouldn't we discuss this further," Runion hastily said, "The potential political ramifications of this mission are staggering!"

"Whoever cut our contact off with these ships clearly aren't going to play nice," Summers spoke up, "those scout Prowlers aren't heavily armed at all from the experience I've had with them."

"And whoever took out those Prowlers also can detect our stealth units as well," one of the Strategos pointed out.

"Then we must identify and eliminate this threat at once," said the Hegemon.

Another one of the Strategos stood up, "You must depart at once Runion, my fleet will be prepared to reinforce if need be."

"Then it is settled, Operation Discovery is a go, you are all dismissed."

Back on the bridge of the Architect, Runion looked out at the vast fleet that he was charged with. Shifting his gaze down to the data manifesto in his hands, he began manipulating the holographic screen.

Would you like to see ships in BATTLEGROUP ALPHA by class?

Hitting the affirm button on the holo, the list popped up.

BATTLEGROUP ALPHA

Assigned to OPERATION: DISCOVERY

Ship types:

2 Architect-class super cruisers

3 Infinity-class super carriers

3 Punic-class super carriers

4 Phoenix-class carriers

5 Epoch-class carriers

10 Halcyon-class cruisers

15 Autumn-class cruisers

18 Marathon-class cruisers

20 Halberd-class destroyers

23 Paris-class frigates

*24 Strident-class frigates

*Located inside Infinity-class super cruisers

Runion closed the pad, and looked to the larger view screen on the ships bridge. On it showed all one hundred ships assembled in their miniature forms, with eight smaller ships representing the Strident-class frigates inside the Infinity-class super cruisers.

Runion turned to a deck officer, "Patch me through to the rest of the fleet, we are about to begin."

The deck officer nodded and began tapping at his console.

"You are transmitting now sir."

"This is Fleet Admiral Runion, all ships, form up on the Architect in a checkered formation, once you are in your positions, give an affirmative. Once all of you are ready, I will give the order for slip space to the exact coordinates HQ has provided you and your ships AI, Godspeed, Runion out."

Runion watched from his viewport as the ships danced around each other, the blue, red, and orange lights of their sub space engines flaring.

The formation Runion had them forming up in was a simple one, strongest ships in the front, with the support carriers in the back, while the destroyers and frigates arranged themselves randomly in a checkered format.

It provided plenty of guns and heavy armor at the front, while also allowing enough room for the anti-fighter guns of the frigates to protect the larger ships from bombers. A good offence, but also a good defense.

The only flaw in the plan was being outflanked, which is why Runion made sure to keep the backup fleets constantly updated as to what would be going on. Communication had been a large problem with the first encounter on Harvest, and with improvements in long range communicators, it would no longer be a problem.

All the ships of the fleet were green on Runion's screen.

It was time.

Runion opened the channel to the rest of the fleet and made sure his voice would project throughout the ships so the crews could hear his voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we will embark on either the single most impactful military mission in recorded human history, or this will be the single biggest dud. Whatever is out there that took our Prowlers out, well take care of, whether it be outsiders to our galaxy, or those who already, unfortunately, live here."

"And when we find the lousy sobs we're gonna show them just who they are messing with!"

Around Julian, the troops all chorused an "Ooo Rah!"

"Keep each other's backs and give them hell, all ships, pull into slip space."

Julian felt as the ship rumbled again, looking out through the viewport he could see nearly one hundred small tears in space appeared.

Julian turned to Peters, a grin on his face, "Well sir, it looks like you got your wish for action after all."

Peters returned the grin, and turned to face the viewport again as the ship passed through the portal.

"This is where the fun begins."

A/N: Another chapter done, feedback is still appreciated, I will update again tomorrow. Thanks!