Chapter Four

Simple Words of Fate

"You found what?" The scout flinched as he was snapped at, trying to avoid the flying spit of his commander.

"Radio signals, sir. Not ours, but something else's," Krav'kenitt'itaawn reported. "I noticed them while the ship was scanning, but they were at a frequency our ships are not equipped to receive. We're no longer alone on this planet, Commander."

"Tch," his commander swore before continuing. "We haven't had Csilla to ourselves for years, Kenitt. Not since those idiots thought we could live beyond our means."

Kenitt felt an old rage rise up in his chest. When times had been good, there had been a faction of Chiss hellbent on leaving the Aristocra's policy of solitude behind, thinking they were strong enough to conquer the whole galaxy. Thousands of Chiss were swayed by a their lies, and set out into a hostile galaxy. Only a small fraction returned after their resounding failure.

But they didn't have the decency to return alone. No, they had to bring… him. It.

Mnggal-Mnggal, they called it now. Double death, as it were. Because not only did it kill your body, but also your soul. Your loyalty. Your sanity. Once it killed you, it took over your body and attacked your kin. Even if you died uninfected, it could take your corpse. Those who committed suicide spared only themselves. Bodies had to be burned or at least dismembered.

There was panic. Chaos. Left and right, the Chiss were abandoned by their own. Those that had claimed they would find help outside Csilla had done so as a ruse to leave their world behind. That was the only explanation that existed.

"Do you think it has something to do with the ship we saw overhead a half-cycle ago? Can you track where the signals are coming from on the surface side?"

"Perhaps it does. And yes, Commander. We will do so." Kenitt wasn't sure what to think of the ship some of his compatriots had claimed they saw. He hadn't seen it himself, nor had he ever seen a ship the Chiss hadn't made.

"Good." His red eyes looked ragged, tired out from the constant battle that survival had become. The commander's once-vibrant blue skin was greying and beginning to sag. But at least it wasn't blackening, and nor was Kenitt's.

Every day, Kenitt had to remind himself to be grateful for the dubious gift of health. He knew he was luckier than most, but what good was it? Why be thankful for not dying when it meant everyone else died around him? So long as his body was not used against others, he was fine with reaching an end to his suffering.

There was no hope left for the Chiss people. Anyone who thought otherwise was deluding themselves. They were on the path to certain extinction. Their only choice was whether to take it fast or slow.

It was with this cheerful demeanor that Kenitt set out on his mission, already wishing it to be over.


"I don't think this is the right way."

"Trust me when I say it is!" Their navigator insisted. "You're really close to another settlement."

"Is this another town of corpses?" Gordon looked queasy.

"I don't think so. We're too far out to scan for sure, but our telescopes are picking up movement in places your team isn't. Most likely Chiss."

"This is where you come in, AP-9," Kalvnik reminded the droid, who grunted.

"We should use Sy Bisti. I know far more of that language. Our conversations will be far more meaningful."

"Assuming more Chiss than just Thrawn knew it, is the Grand Admiral's view. She doesn't want to risk a misunderstanding or incident of any kind." They were reminded from the team aboard the ship.

This was quite the departure from previous Imperial policies when they reached new worlds, but if there was one area that Kalvnik could agree with the Grand Admiral in, it was that the Empire no longer had the strength and confidence it once possessed. That didn't mean they should show weakness, but they did have to be realistic. And a little more humble.

"We may not be in contact with you when you make the first encounter, but do try to keep us updated. The Grand Admiral will be interested to know how things proceed. Don't be surprised if she's on the line for your next check in. You might even-" And before anything else could be said, the call went to static.

"Woah, what happened?"

"Did we just lose signal?"

"Is that not obvious?" Grey snarled at the two men, hand going below her cloak as they looked around.

The team of Imperials didn't notice anything at first, but then came a rapidly descending… cloud?

It was followed by a large shadow falling over them. The team all looked up simultaneously, then gasped.

Above them was a large, sleek ship, colored a cold, matte grey that blended well with the Csillan clouds. It didn't have the propellers necessary for space travel, but seemed quite adept at making fast and silent trips over the planet surface.

"It's a stealth ship!" Mikhail, the only party member with any real flight training, cried out. "Watch out!"

Out of instinct, the group of eight scattered. Even AP-9 wanted out of the way. Kalvnik and his men searched for cover, only to realize there was none.

How long had they been following them? Who were they?

It was just before the group was out of earshot from each other that Kalvnik realized. "Wait. They aren't shooting! Stand down. I repeat, stand down. Do not draw your blasters just yet."

That got everyone to stop. They stood still in the knee deep snowdrift as the ship descended, making sure they were close together. They wanted to have each other's backs if a fight broke out.

So maybe Kalvnik's team wasn't the best for what boiled down to a diplomatic mission. Nothing could be done about it now.

Time stood still as the first few Chiss descended from the ship. They were, surprisingly, outnumbered by the group of humans. That was far less than the size of the ship suggested.

Now these creatures looked more like the Chiss Kalvnik had expected. The three males looked almost exactly like Thrawn's holo-image. The two females were a bit more slight, with a figure not unlike a human woman's. Had it not been for the blue skin and red eyes, Kalvnik might have thought they were.

They stopped about five feet away from Kalvnik's group, weapons in their hand and distrust in their eyes. They looked ready for an excuse to fight.

The lieutenant kept a neutral face as he spoke. "Your turn, AP-9. Greet them."

The group of Imperials went silent as AP-9's voice box contorted into a complex patterns of syllables, seemingly with no space between words. In his mind, Kalvnik knew the message was supposed to be: "Hello, Chiss of Csilla. We are humans of the Galactic Empire, here in peace." But to him, the two languages sounded nothing alike.

They could only hope AP-9's data was accurate. And sufficient for the task.

Kalvnik's observed the group's facial expressions carefully as the droid spoke. The initial surprise was to be expected, but what was the look they shared with each other afterwards? Fear? Concern? Restraint?

They spoke in their twisted language, sounding just like how AP-9 had. It was a short message, one that Kalvnik waited until the end of to ask for a translation. "What did they say?"

The protocol droid paused. "They said that we should… We should…" It shook its head. "I don't know what was said after that."

"Tell them you only understand simple words, and to speak clearly." Grey suggested. They could only assume AP-9 took her advice.

What sounded like a snort came from the Chiss side. It was at times like these that Kalvnik wish he knew a language other than Galactic Basic. But he'd been raised in an Imperial household, one that considered the skill useless.

Basic was the language of the galaxy. Just… not this portion of the galaxy.

This reply was just as short, but it came slower and more enunciated. All heads turned to AP-9 for a translation.

His words were grim. "'Leave Csilla now. You are not wanted. You will die here.'"

"Cheery," Grey noted. "Ask them what's been going on on Csilla. Tell them we saw fighting."

AP-9 went back to speaking their language without another comment. The Chiss looked irritated with their question, glancing among each other and shaking their head. They argued amongst themselves for a moment, then turned back to the Imperial squad. The male who seemed to be their leader spoke.

AP-9 translated the reply as thus: "'Many years we fight our enemy. Fire kill them, but they kill twice and more fast. We call it…' I don't know what this word means, but they call it 'Mnggal-Mnggal'."

"Mnggal-Mnggal." So that was the Chiss's adversary's name. It felt weird on the lieutenant's tongue. "So... they're losing their fight. Ask-"

Before Kalvnik could finish his query, the leader spoke again, this time more harshly. His men had their hands poised at their sides in a gesture he knew all too well.

"'You stupid humans! You bring enemies with-'"

Shots rang out before the droid could finish his translation. At first, Kalvnik thought they might have been firing at them, but none of the shots hit. He and his men were too close for all of them to miss.

Then he turned around.

"Holy shit," Kalvnik pulled out his blaster as well, falling back as his men got into formation aside the Chiss.

Their enemy? More Chiss. Blackened Chiss, not unlike the corpses they'd seen in the village. They didn't have weapons, and approached the group at a stunted pace. Despite this, the scouting party seemed terrified. After a minute, Kalvnik realized why.

Both Imperial blasters and Chiss guns were firing on these intruders, yet none that fell in the snow remained there. How could that be?

One by one, they all rose again. Injured and dripping black goo, but advancing all the same. One even used its blood (goo? Liquid?) from a shot to the arm to flail at its adversaries, hitting a blue Chiss female in the face. She fell to the ground slowly, seemingly paralyzed.

Kalvnik instinctively ran over to help her, but was stopped by the leader he'd been talking to earlier. As the female cried out in anguish, she shouted in the Chiss language, a dire cry the human wished he could understand.

The Imperials were so lost. They just kept firing at the advancing foes, growing increasingly frustrated with the act's unrewarding nature.

Crying out incomprehensibly, the Chiss raced back onto their ship, using their guns to stall the approaching adversary. After a few shouts at AP-9 (who had been utterly useless in the skirmish), the droid finally translated the Chiss's words.

"'You are not safe. Come with us or die.'"

Kalvnik looked back at the black-stained Chiss. She had lunged after one of the bodies, wrestling with it in the snow. Was that common policy among this species? The lieutenant thought he saw the liquid sliding toward her mouth. Almost as if it had a mind of its own.

But that was crazy, right? There were no more sentient diseases in the galaxy. They'd been long since exterminated.

"What do we do, sir?" Gordon asked, arms shaking. His eyes kept going to the Chiss ship, but he wasn't about to move without orders.

"...Get on. We have no choice. We don't know a thing about what we're up against."

His men still looked confused, but they obeyed. As the ship doors closed, he and the Chiss leader locked eyes, each recognizing the other as the one running the show. At least, from where things on the ground were concerned.

The lieutenant gave a nod of acknowledgement. "Lieutenant Chris Kalvnik, at your service."

The leader was silent, watching Kalvnik's body language for an indication of what the man said. After a minute, the male replied, his phrase as short as Kalvnik's.

"Krav'kenitt'itaawn."


Kenitt watched the strange beings as they languished inside his scouting ship, conversing among each other in their outsider language.

They had introduced themselves as humans. History spoke of limited encounters with such creatures, but Kenitt still hadn't been sure of what to expect. The one that knew their language seemed to be made of metal, like a complex machine. And their weapons, while not too different from Chiss guns, had a sleek compactness to them that Kenitt envied. Wherever this Galactic Empire was, it had good resources.

Galactic Empire… did that mean they ruled the whole galaxy? They certainly didn't rule Csilla, and as far as Kenitt knew, no Chiss had ever encountered their on their journey off-planet. How could one claim to rule the whole galaxy if they had never been seen in this part of it? How big was the galaxy, anyway?

The man with yellow hair had said something to him after boarding the ship. Lutenchris'kalvnik, it sounded like. Kenitt had assumed it was the man's name. So humans named themselves the same way Chiss did?

Next to Lutenchris was a female human, the only one among them. She seemed to be touching a device on her ear, the thing that had been putting out the radio waves before. It must be a communications device of some kind. Was she talking to the rest of her empire?

Her face grew increasingly angry, then the fiddling stopped. No luck, then. Something about this ship cut off their radio, he guessed.

Kenitt turned away, looking at his three remaining warriors. Two flew the ship, while two others were like him: sitting about and waiting. Thinking about their next move. They had caught the intruders, as requested. The Chiss didn't know what was to be done with them. That was for the Aristocra to decide. But for now, he supposed there was no harm in leaving them to rest.

The humans looked tired, but not ravaged. It was clear they had never faced Mnggal-Mnggal before, but how could that be? Kenitt thought Mnggal-Mnggal was everywhere.

He walked up to the complex machine human, phrasing his words carefully. "You have not seen Mnggal-Mnggal before?"

Kenitt waited as the machine human translated his message to their language. The Chiss thought his question had been simple, but it required a full minute of discussion. It seemed especially ridiculous when they finally gave their answer.

"No. Tell us about Mnggal-Mnggal?"

What was Kenitt to say? Did their machine possess the ability to understand half of the danger they were now in? If this Empire had come here without knowing the danger, perhaps the disease wasn't as widespread as the Aristocra seemed to believe.

Or maybe these people were just like the Chiss: setting out into the galaxy proper for the first time with their sights on conquest. Well, they were in for a treat.

Kenitt did his best to relay as much, pausing only when the machine didn't understand. If these humans knew a place Mnggal-Mnggal hadn't touched, they should flee back to it as soon as they could. Why they weren't listening to his warning was a puzzle he could not piece together. Not until Lutenchris finally said:

"'We cannot go home. You not the only to lose your war.'"

The pursuit of something greater, only to be met with failure. Facing an insidious enemy you don't suspect, only for it to topple you at the last second. Such was the simple fate of those with ambition.

That Kenitt could understand.


A/N's: It took longer than expected to get a new chapter out, and for that I am sorry. I've been working on it periodically, but school has been hectic. I wanted to tack on another scene to this chapter, but I also wanted to post, so I think my idea can go with the next chapter just as well.

I'm trying to add a little more action to the story, since I feel like this setting the scene stuff and introducing characters can get a little boring. Don't worry, the next chapter will be the last of the character intros for this arc. It's there that the Empire will be in contact with the Aristocra, and the objective of this arc is revealed. The Chiss and their failed bid to rule the Unknown Regions (as well as a bit more on Thrawn, though it isn't the focus) should serve as a warning to the Empire. That what they want would be difficult if they had their full strength, but nearly impossible as they are. Nearly.

It's kinda fun writing about the Imperials as the heroes of this story. I make no excuses for their actions, but the moral relativity that can be invoked is something I wish the SW universe had more of. One of the reasons I like Sloane is that she's a mostly moral, mostly admirable character who unironically and intentionally serves the Empire. Not everyone who serves Team Evil is a crazy bad guy or forced into it. They have their reasons too, some of which are just as noble in their eyes as the reason the rebels fight the Empire. It doesn't make it right,but it does make it interesting.

But enough of that. Who's excited for the Solo movie? I can't wait to go. I get to see it as soon as school is finished.

Thanks for reading, hope you don't forget to review, and I'll see you on the far side!

UPDATE: The string of reworked chapters has ended. All updates after this are truly new chapters. I also have a RL collaborator, so hopefully between the two of us, the updates will arrive sooner rather than later.