[Sidious]
There! He saw them. Ships – ships with intelligent life aboard, thinking beings of a species he was familiar with. Warships. He drew himself together, coalescing as a thinking being himself. He'd been so long a part of the Force, years or even decades. But his power was such that he'd left a deep shadow across the galaxy. He was remembered and known, which made it easier to resume his old form.
He touched each ship in turn with his awareness, unsurprised to find the one directing them all to be on the largest vessel. He was mildly surprised to find the individual was not a complete stranger to him. Enric Pryde had been an associate of Brendol Hux and while that wasn't much of a connection, it was something of one. He'd take what he could get.
Speaking of which, he attempted to take Pryde. The man collapsed to the deck of the bridge, gasping and shaking as Sidious tried to fit himself into his brain and oust whatever irrelevant personality Enric possessed. He kept trying until they were in the medbay, with the droids just as confused by the readings as the chief medical officer.
Well. Apparently it wasn't enough of a connection. Sidious withdrew. He would have to find a better route to a physical manifestation. When Pryde had recovered enough to string thoughts together coherently, Sidious appeared to him and clarified who was now in control. Thoroughly convinced of his identity and legitimacy, Pryde acceded to his command with gratifying alacrity.
The next thing to do was understand what had transpired since Sidious had last walked as a mortal man. His luck was good. It seemed the same rift in the Force which had allowed him to manifest was involved in catapulting some Empire-like military government into control of the galaxy. It was an amusing synchronicity – he'd died in one rift in the Force, now he was reborn from another.
This 'First Order' was controlled by another master of the dark side. Sidious needed to learn more of that one before challenging him, but then Snoke conveniently died the very next day, succeeded by his apprentice Kylo Ren, who was understandably suspected of having assassinated him. That Ren was a Skywalker gave Sidious pause. He laid low and waited to see how that would stabilize.
The orders for the Allegiant fleet remained unchanged – monitor the system, deal with interlopers. Only a few called on Pryde for his input on Kylo Ren. It was easy to bow out of the High Command meeting where charges were brought against Ren. He was deposed that same day and escaped from custody hours later. It was almost predictable – it would have been a boring drama to watch from a distance, had something not come up which made Sidious very invested in the proceedings.
That was the discovery that one of his clones, Brendol Hux, was believed to have produced a bastard son. That son was now, in the wake of Kylo Ren's ouster, in uncontested control of the entire First Order. It was the sort of perfect confluence of events that showed the hand of the Force moving through them all. Sidious knew Hux was his intended vessel. It was meant to be.