Unggoy Star Empire

As the Covenant literally fell apart, rival factions turning against each other, the Unggoy found themselves far from the most pressing of their concerns. With the New Covenant, Blood Covenant and Sangheili Armed Forces too busy trying to wipe each other out, the Unggoy rose up, declaring the Glorious Unggoy Star Empire, and making and consolidating swift gains. Methane-rich worlds near Balaho had long been denied to them by the Ministry of Concert for fear their population would spiral out of control, overwhelming the Covenant and leading to another Grunt Rebellion. These were immediately claimed by the Star Empire - with little else of interest, none of the other factions bothered to contest it. Capturing more than twenty warships from the Oldaraman Shipyards, a buying or recommissioning others, the Unggoy Star Empire Navy numbered less than a hundred ships, but it was enough to get their colonisation effort under way, and by 2561 a sizeable portion of the Unggoy population was in the process of colonising their new worlds, and making the prospect of invading and conquering their worlds a more troublesome business than it was worth.

Unfortunately for them, neither the New Covenant nor the Sangheili were eager to see a species that can reproduce so rapidly establish itself as a major force in the Orion Arm, and were equally uneager to go up against their vastly superior numbers. Separate strikes on severanl fleets and shipyards crippled their naval contingents, isolating the colonies. Lacking the capacity for shipbuilding themselves, the Unggoy were stranded on their colonies - with their rapid breeding, and without the harsh climate of Balaho to offset it, they would soon overburden the planets with their population. A few Unggoy hopefully bartered what they could in exchange for small ships, attempting to reestablish the colonisation effort, but for the most part the Unggoy remained trapped in their own empire. Breeding programs, attempting to control their growth, have largely proven a failure, and within a few generations the Unggoy would have reached a critical point.

UNSC peacekeeping forces moved in swiftly, as much to protect the Unggoy's resource infrastructure as their existence. Unwilling to subjugate the Unggoy again, and just as unwilling to use such ineffective warriors in their military, the Sangheili agreed to economic and diplomatic ties with the Unggoy Star Empire. In return for cheap labour, and the creation of Unggoy construction yards, the UNSC would provide the Unggoy access to their interstellar commercial shipping - limiting and controlling their spread through the UNSC Department of Colonial Affairs. The Unggoy in turn benefitted from UNSC medical advances, including gene therapy to reduce their breeding rate. Not all Unggoy agreed to this, however, and broke away into a number of smaller secessionist factions. The Balaho Civil War is a footnote in the pages of the War of Vengeance, but a major footnote nevertheless.