[A WORK IN PROGRESS]
Chapter 1: The Discovery
"General, we are nearing the edge of the galaxy!"
General Grievous looked out through the window, at the new frontier. His ship, The Malevolence, was upgraded so that it could warp between galaxies, something unheard of, and officially, still so. He was excited, he imagined all the new planets to be conquered, more beings to serve the separatists... He sank back into the captain's chair. He had to be careful though, no other ship could reach him to send backup, for a few days at least. He was alone with his droids, an annoying thought. Oh well. They were nearing a common yellow star, approaching at hyper-warp speed.
"General, we are nearing a star system with approximately nine main planets. No lifeforms detected so far."
Grievous still sat up in his chair. This is the first of many, he thought. He fantasized about taking control of all the systems in this galaxy, one by one. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the battle droids.
"General, we are passing the outermost planet."
Grievous looked out the window and saw a desolate, ruined planet. It was very small, pockmarked by craters. Then passed a much larger planet with unusually wide rings. He spotted what looked like a space station.
"Scan for life forms," Grievous commanded.
"Scanning."
Grievous waited.
"No life forms detected."
Grievous slumped back into his chair. he had hoped that they would find some life early on, but apparently this wasn't the case. They went farther into the system, into an asteroid belt. Grievous saw ruins, real ruins. There was salvage everywhere. Luckily he had a tactical droid as a navigator, because the ship expertly weaved through the twisted metal. Grievous could have sworn that he saw one of the ships move, but he dismissed it. Everything was a mess here, and the ship only had enough power to scan once more, so he didn't want to waste it here. The Malevolence moved between the blue-green planet and the red-orange planet.
"Scan for life forms," Grievous commanded one more.
He waited, the tension rising.
"Life forms detected, lots of them," the droid announced.
If Grievous could smile, he would be grinning right now.
"Go to the blue planet, it looks as if it is the most habitable."
"Roger Roger."
Chapter 2: The Arrival
Back on Earth, the tower was bustling with activity. Guardians were moving about, buying weapons, handing over engrams, organizing their vault. Commander Zavala was in the Vanguard HQ, making sense of what he was seeing. He looked at the bluish screen, not believing his eyes. A ship had entered from outside the Sol system. It was no fallen skiff or cabal command ship, it was much, much bigger.
"A new enemy, sent by the Darkness maybe?" Ikora Rey, the warlock vangaurd, had suggested.
"No." Cayde-6, the hunter vanguard, stated. "The Darkness travels in packs. This is just one ship."
Zavala broke away from the screen and looked at the two vanguards.
"This ship must be from somewhere else, a conqueror's ship, from the looks of it. It actually has laser cannons, based on the design of its guns. It is also heavily armored, even a fleet of fallen skiffs couldn't take it down."
"I think you are over-exaggerating," Cayde said. "Skiffs are tough."
"Well either way we need to be prepared, since it is heading our way." Zavala said bluntly. "I will alert all the guardians. Ikora, go tell The Speaker. Cayde, grab your rifle, because it's going to be a helluva fight, from the looks of it."
Chapter 3: The Invasion
"Count Dooku, I request some reinforcements. From my observations, These creatures are well armed. They can easily fight my battle droids and win. I need deadlier reinforcements, commando droids."
"I will send you reinforcements, General. But keep in mind: They will take a while to arrive. And also, I am only doing this because of the importance of your mission."
"My thanks, Count. I will not fail," Grievous stated.
"So you say." The hologram faded.
"Approaching the surface," The tactical droid said.
Grievous went to the intercom: "Prepare for landing," he announced.
The Malevolence barely fit on the rugged terrain of this planet, and almost ran into an abandoned building. They had landed on the outskirts of what looked like a populated city. Perfect, the general thought. New life to conquer, and intelligent life at that. As the droids unloaded from the massive Malevolence, a spotter from the wall of the Last City looked upon the vast army of robots. He turned on his comms.
"This is Titan-Alexander from section 1-2 of the wall. The code of the day is Pluto." (The military had established a code system to avoid false calls.) "I have spotted a class 5 freighter on the outskirts of the City. It looks as if an army is marching towards us."
"Alexander this is control. Wait for the other guardians to show up. Do not engage until ordered to do so."
"Understood."
As he looked at the approaching army, he wondered if the guns hey carried could pierce his beloved Firebreak armor. He was one of the last surviving members of the Firebreak order and carried his blue-gold armor with pride. He doubted it. He loaded his Jigoku Scout Rifle and waited, watching their stiff, mechanical movements from his perch. The robots he saw resemble the ones from the tower, except they were armed. He saw the bulk of the army, tan-colored, skinny droids with a square torso. He looked back a bit and saw bigger, more powerful looking droids, greyish-blue, armed with a wrist mounted cannon from the looks of it. He looked at the back of the square formation to look for the commanding officer, and saw a tall, bone-white robot that stood out like a sore thumb. It wore a greenish cloak and looked like it had no weapons. Good. From what Alexander saw it looked like the whole Vex army was marching toward him. He heard footsteps and shouts. Backup had arrived.
Chapter 4: The Preparation For War
Grievous looked upon the amassing army of the City. He thought the rainbow of colors of their armor meant that they were disorganized. Not at all. The force marched towards them, the seemingly most heavily armored in the very front, the sharpshooters in cloaks on the flanks, and soldiers who donned robes in the back, whose purpose was unclear, since they didn't seem to contribute anything. His army, however, was vastly superior in numbers. He wanted to wait to use his droidekas so that they battered the enemy when their explosives ran low. As the two armies advanced towards each other, Grievous noticed small things about these creatures. They seemed so familiar. Then it hit him: these creatures were humans. He recognized their gait, they way they held their weapons, with pride. He had found the human home world. His superiors would be pleased. As the armies drew nearer and nearer, about a kilometer apart, Grievous got ready for the massive battle waiting to unfold.
"Ready weapons!" He commanded.
The droids raised their blasters.
On the guardian side, Commander Zavala held his Thunderlord machine gun and marched in front of the formation, leading the assault. Cayde was on the right flank, his custom Prudence II at the ready, as always. Ikora Rey was in front of the warlocks, her Invective shotgun, an antique from her childhood, was locked and loaded. Alexander marched with the other titans, at the front. he was on the right of Commander Zavala, this being the second time he had ever seen him in person. Zavala was wearing superdense titanium plate reinforced with 5 centimeters of various shock absorbers and more metal plate, which was usually reserved for tanks, which they had none.
"Ready Weapons!" Commander Zavala's voice was so loud that even Grievous heard it from the edge of the battle.
Grievous tensed up. He didn't know why, but this army's demeanor almost shook him. They walked like they weren't afraid of anything that was living or dead, and as the command boomed, they simultaneously raised their various assortment of weapons of the likes he had never seen before.
"Fire!" Grievous and Zavala shouted the command at almost the same time, and chaos ensued.
Chapter 5: The Battle of Section 1-2
Fire and bolts erupted from both sides of the battle. On the droid's side, battle droids were being slaughtered, mowed down left and right, but there was always another to replace it. The super battle droids were faring better, taking bullets and shooting back with little casualties. Grievous finally figured out the purpose of the robe wearing people: artillery. They were throwing balls of energy ah the droids, scattering them.
On the Guardian's side, they had less soldiers, but were more skilled than the battle droids. The titans were absolutely tanking bolts, absorbing the shots as if each bolt was a drop in a rainstorm. Zavala was charging forward, holding a Thunderlord in one hand and a Harbringer in the other. A few unlucky titans were shot and killed by the storm of red, but were being revived by others and were instantly back into action, fueled by hatred of their death. The hunters were also faring well. They casually picked off battle droids and super battle droids alike. Unfortunately, droids started shooting back, and hit some of the hunters. Hunter armor was not made to be as strong as titan armor, but it was thin nonetheless. Hunters were being shot down, but luckily were at a range were they could be safely resurrected. The warlocks were hurling orbs of energy at the opposition, crushing them. they were in the back, mostly because they had even less armor than the hunters, and depended on their personally generated force field.
Grievous saw the massacre of his droids and sent out the Droidekas. The Droideka was as close of a walking tank as a titan was, with an impenetrable force field surrounding it when it stops moving. And in an instant, as soon as the Droidekas started firing, the tides turned immediately. They were much more accurate, like stationary turrets, and started to gun down titans and hunters alike. Alexander, being a defender titan, threw up a defender bubble, and watched as the bolts thumped harmlessly against it. The two armies were practically right next to each other at this point, and a bunch of titans rushed out to fight the droids in melee combat. The hunters, on the other hand, were focusing on taking down the Droidekas. Cayde took out a modified golden gun, holding 8 shots in the chamber. He shot at a Droideka, punching through its shield and destroying it. The Droideka exploded, taking out more droids in the explosion. He did the same to seven others, clearing a decent area in the opposing army.
General Grievous was not pleased with what he was seeing. His army was being destroyed by the hundreds. He looked up though, and saw a separatist dropship heading in his direction. He was relieved. Reinforcements had arrived. But when the dropship landed and opened, it was not a team of commando droids, but Count Dooku.
"Where are my reinforcements?" Grievous demanded. He was furious.
"They are on a neighboring planet, one that the natives call Venus. Withdraw your remaining troops, General. Fall back to Venus, and we will fight them there."
"Grievous was fuming, but before he did anything, Count Dooku went back into the dropship and lifted off to orbit.
"Push them back, Guardians!" Zavala's voice was heard and the Guardians fought harder, seeming to force the droids back. Alexander was fighting near Zavala, and was expertly picking off targets with his scout rifle. All of a sudden, he heard a yell, and Lord Shaxx and Lord Saladin were charging into battle with crucible guardians, colliding into the wall of droids and knocking them over like bowling pins. Lord Shaxx was holding an Invisible Hand shotgun, shooting it as fast as possible and brutally beating the droids with it. Lord Saladin was gunning down droids with Jolder's Hammer. 7 fireteams worth of crucible guardians were charging through the ranks of the droids, trampling them. Zavala, inspired by this, charged forward while yelling, "Go forth Guardians! Destroy them!" The Guardians made one final push as the Malevolence was flying into orbit. The Guardians surged forward, obliterating any droid that got in their way. Meanwhile, General Grievous was speaking to Count Dooku.
Chapter 6: An Odd Plan
"I could have beaten them!" Grievous roared.
"No you couldn't have." Dooku replied. "These Guardians can revive themselves instantly and without any side effects. They would have outlasted you."
"Bah! I almost had them! Where are we going in this Venus anyway?"
"We will regroup in front of what the Guardians call, 'The Vault of Glass.'"
"Why?" asked Grievous.
"Guardians are afraid of going through to the Vault of Glass. It is the perfect place to regroup."
"Fine" Grievous said. "But I better have my reinforcements when I arrive."
"As you wish." Count Dooku motioned to a fleet of dropships, all filled with commando droids.
"Good, good." Grievous said as they descended into the acidic clouds of Venus.
Chapter 7: Going Hunting