Angery Katte: *In Star Wars, there's nothing with no presence in the Force. Well HALO is not in Star Wars. And probably never will be, as 343 and Microsoft are pretty distant from Disney but who knows, maybe Mickey and the gang will take over the world one day. But since, for now, HALO is not a part of Star Wars, and it would be ridiculous to assume that the Force has any presence in the HALO galaxy. Just as it would be ridiculous to say the Precursors created the canon Star Wars galaxy.

But that's the magic of a cross-over. If I wanted to say Precursors created the Force, I could. If I wanted insanely OP Sith Brutes, I could make them. Or I could decide to say that since there is no Force in canon HALO, the populace of HALO is a void in the Force. No midichlorians at all. Their ships, their tech, their AI, themselves, none of it has any Force presence at all, because its my AU, and that's how I want to meld these universes.

LadyKDQ: Yea we're going pretty slow. Not slow enough that I want to write out the ten or so years I summarized below, but definitely not gonna have any major conflict for at least ten or fifteen chapters. You'll see what I mean...

Chapter 4

The Politics & The Life

2561 (July)- Following First Contact, a large delegation from the Republic traveled to meet the Allies on their central world of Horizon. Led my Chancellor Valorum and accompanied by Mace Windu and Yoda, the group saw many of the sights on the UEG world, and met with the ruling bodies of each species that constituted the Allies. Among the less important members of the delegation was Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore and the newly elected Naboo Senator Sheev Palpatine.

Before meeting with the ruling body, the delegation received front row seats for a military parade through the center of Port New Melbourne. The 4th of July celebration was a relic kept around from one of the central nations that formed the original United Nations and later UN Space Command. The politicians saw ground units from Unggoy squads and Marine platoons all the way up to Grizzly and Locust tanks and a single Sangheili Scarab. The idea was to show the natives that the newcomers were well able to hold their own.

Unfortunately, the display seemed to intimidate the natives greatly, as the Allies only found out later that they operated one of the largest standing militaries in the Andromeda Galaxy at that time. The civilian leadership representing the UEG, however, made an excellent effort to ease such fears, using their past as an excuse for their seemingly excessive militarism.

Treaties and charters were eventually signed and the meeting ended in success. Civilian freightlines now had permission to use Andromeda shipping lines to transport goods.

2562 (Early)- Following early tensions and suspicions, a period of great prosperity occurred as the new faction in the galaxy gradually made itself known to the whole. The Allied Species of the Orion Arm were seen by most of the galaxy as an isolated and rather backwards collective, an idea largely skewed by false interpretations of the UNSC's use of projectile weaponry. Initial tensions were quelled quickly and most of the galaxy ignored the Allies as anything more than a minor new conglomerate.

2562 (Late)- The first Allied corporations begin shipping goods into the Andromeda Galaxy following a successful pilot. While weapon sales found little success, the distribution of food and cultural products proved far more fruitful. Space X becomes the first company to establish shipping routes in Andromeda, followed soon by Virgin Galactic, Amazon, and FedEx. The first routes are fairly small, connecting Mandalore, Naboo, Alderaan, and Coruscant, though plans are drawn to add more in eventually.

Under the cover of secrecy, Operation UNDERGROUND begins, with specialized Kig Yar crews smuggling aged and scaled back Covenant weapons to the extremist group Death Watch, fueling the continued civil war on Mandalore. The weapons are scaled down and redesigned by Huragok teams to make them less easy to trace back to the Allies.

2563- Following the revelation that Allied ships use a far more advantageous and less restricted means of FTL travel, the ever cautious Allied Species draft the Mueller Doctrine, which states that under no circumstances can an operational Slipspace Drive be sold or come into the possession of a non Allied entity, under the penalty of sixty years in prison.

2564- Blue Team, the most effective combat team in history, finally retires as the aged Spartans are finally decided to be no longer healthy and effective enough for combat deployments. Fred, Linda, and Kelly retire on massive UNSC pensions, while S-117 applies for and receives a commission from the UNSC Navy to join their ranks, taking command of the brand new Fury class destroyer UNSC Vice Admiral Stanforth. His body may be aged but his mind and his luck are sharp as ever.

On November 12th, 2564, the Allies go into mourning as news spreads that the great Lord Terrence Hood has past away. The Shipmaster of Shipmasters will be remembered for centuries to come as the leader who guided humanity through their darkest hours.

2565- Following the success of the Allied trade network, the Allies decide it would be more profitable for them to become more engaged in galactic affairs. The first Allied Embassy is constructed on Coruscant just a few short blocks away from the Senate building. Each of the seven Allied Species selects an ambassador to represent them collectively before the Senate.

ONI releases a top secret memo stating that work on the Greater Ark has yielded results, but they won't expect the installation to become operational for decades.

2566- In an incident that will soon become infamous, a UEG operated freighter traveling near Hutt space gets jumped by pirates employed by Jabba the Hutt. Expecting it to be easy prey, the pirates receive an unwelcome surprise when the ship's vast point defense network activates, annihilating most of the pirates. A single transmission is enough threat to convince the Hutt crime syndicate to leave the Allies well alone, despite their border with said entity.

Following this incident and the Hutt's response, many civil rights and anti-slavery groups across the galaxy implore the Allies to take action and use their power over the concerned Hutts to help free enslaved peoples, but the isolationist Allies refuse, stating it is not their place to become entangled in Hutt affairs. Soon, the Allies are once again largely forgotten on the galactic scale.

2567- Scandal erupts when proof is presented that a Kig Yar operated vessel was selling vast amounts of weaponry to the Death Watch movement. The Republic decries this action but does not goes as far as to place sanctions on the Allies since the Allied trade is now a source of great prosperity for the Allies, meanwhile, a junior Naboo Senator named Palpatine uses adds this incident to his growing repertoire of inaction by Chancellor Valorum and as ammunition to convince a certain viceroy to take overly drastic action in the near future...

Secret ONI construction on the exoplanet Midnight is completed, and valuable fleet assets are moved there from Fortress and Xihost. The secret Allied world is shared between its species, and becomes home to a number of CSO and Infinity Class supercarriers. The world is equipped with a vast sensor and early warning array and is completely cloaked using Sangheili cloak towers. The Allies have hidden their fleet assets.

2568- Following tighter security on Mandalore and a peace treaty banishing Death Watch to Concordia, Operation UNDERGROUND comes to an end. The Allies see Mandalore as a valuable trading partner that they do not wish to lose, and have made a vast profit from sales to Death Watch. By all Allied accounts, the operation was a success. Death Watch feels abandoned by their extragalactic allies and will not forget this...

2569- Horizon becomes the first Andromeda world who's population surpasses one billion. Oasis and Xihost are close behind while Vtlar and Frontier lag behind. Co, Fortress, and Midnight do not count.

2571- The Senate passes a bill placing taxes on use of trade routes by mega corporations. Chancellor Valorum is hoping to improve his popularity by helping smaller operators and cutting down on the mega corporations. The Allies are not affected by these laws, as Slipspace travel does not require specific routes, and their profits are increased even further, as competition is diminished.

2572- The Unggoy, Jiralhanae, and Yanme'e see the success of the Andromeda sector of the Allied economy and begin to immigrate into the Andromeda Galaxy. The Sangheili allow the Unggoy to settle on Vtlar since that world remained largely unpopulated, and allow the Yanme'e to build hives there as well. The Jiralhanae claim a new system and settle there, on a jungle world they name Dolomir. With the new arrivals, Allied economy booms even farther.

2573- The Senate's trade bill is squeezing mega corporations tight, and the Trade Federation in particular is feeling the pinch. Ever since the creation of Allied trade networks, the Allied economy had grown at the Federation's cost, and following the Hutt incident, their margins only grew further while the Federation's continued to shrink. As their profit margins past an unacceptable value, Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray moved a fleet of fifteen Lucrehulk class battleships to the Naboo sector, blockading the world in protest of the Senate's new laws. A Nubian class cruiser, however, breaks the blockade and makes to Coruscant following a detour to Tatooine, as the young Queen Padme Amidala attempts to plea her case before the eyes of the Senate and the galaxy...

...and the Allied Ambassadors...

A/N

Yes, I know, this feels like a big jump from Chapters 1 and 2, and might make them feel irrelevant. I initially planned to start here, but I couldn't bring myself to skip First Contact and the discovery of the Forerunner Stargate, so here we are. I know the last chapter in particular might feel irrelevant but the point of that was mostly to establish an idea of Allied ideology and begin construction on Midnight.

Again, huge credit to UH-60 Nightstalker, as his story inspired all of this.

Hope you're liking it so far, will try to get a story chapter out today.

-EliteArbiter