AN: Happy to see the Clone Wars back. If there was a ship, or other piece of UNSC equipment that exists in the Halo universe, that wasn't listed in the Codex (1st chapter), chances are, the UNSC still has it in service, but as a reserve, mothballed, etc. When SpaceCowby2013 made this story, Halo 4 was not even released. I will eventually RetCon the fleet numbers and all that. I think the way SpaceCowboy had the UNSC technology progress is more realistic than what we have in the lore, so at least that is staying.

- The UEG is a federal democracy that is believed to control around 1000 colonies, which vary in population (from a few thousand to seven billion, all of which is centered on their Homeworld of Earth). The Terrans insist that Earth is the homeworld of humanity, and that a race called the Forerunners transplanted Humanity throughout the galaxy. This is debated. The UNSC (The Military arm of the UEG) was involved in a massive 28 year long war that makes the current conflict pale in comparison, with an alliance of alien races called the Covenant. The exact cause and facts behind it, as well as information on the races of the Covenant, is very limited. What is the cause of concern is though the Terran territory is small, their worlds, the ones we know of, are highly industrialized, heavily defended, and their Naval and ground forces are all well-equipped and well trained, and VERY experienced. UNSC equipment is both very advanced, powerful, and strangely antiquated at the same time.

SEE ATTATCHMENT*

- Republic Navy Intelligence Memo-

*- We know the Terrans rely heavily on projectile weaponry; however they are not just some antique slug throwers on a backwater planet, like those that we have grown accustomed to. The Terrans have developed their projectile weaponry to a point to where it either equals, or in some cases exceeds blaster weaponry. Our forces, and for that matter almost any forces in the galaxy, have little experience fighting trained forces armed with such weaponry. Our analysts have played back footage of the Human/Covenant war, which the Terrans themselves have provided for us, and even their older models of rifles seem to have the ability to leave any clone trooper in the bacta tank for weeks.

What is more discouraging is the fact that the armor that their soldiers, at least their Marines, wear, seem to be a highly advanced power armor suit that uses some sort of fibers that amplify the wearers movements. The next fact, and most disconcerting, is that they are equipped with personal energy shields, which can take multiple hits to bring down from our standard blasters. One negative aspect of the Clone Wars for our troopers and Jedi generals is that the UNSC does not fight on the ground the same way as the armies of the CIS do.

The UNSC Troopers are trained, like our own, to fight using their heads and to not needlessly charge headlong at the enemy unless necessary. Though our troopers are capable of countering this style of warfare, the problem arises that the CIS Droid armies have always simply charged suicidally towards the most hevily defended portions of our frontlines. The months of facing these tactics have made our troopers, no matter how well trained they are, to come to expect this style of warfare. As a result, for a short time our troopers will have habits developed that will put them at a disadvantage.

(Note: we have reason to believe that UNSC firearms will catch the Jedi completely off guard, you cannot deflect bullets, especially as those of the UNSC travel near, or at hypersonic speeds)

UNSC Naval strength is the most concerning part however. We witnessed this the hard way during the Kashyyyk incident, that the weaponry that UNSC Vessels use are powerful, and we believe that they have engagement ranges that supersede ours. Their Mass Drivers, which are more complex than they seem, are the single biggest threat. The RNS Unstoppable had its bridge and tower section blown off from a single round from the Terran's MAC gun, as they refer to it as, after another shot and dozens of missile hits brought the shields down. We have analyzed the debris, and have found evidence of nuclear warheads inside of their standard missiles. We have not seen nuclear weapons used on the battlefield since the Mandalorian wars millennia before us, and even then, they weren't as effective as the Terrans' rendition.

We need to end this war quickly. Our strength lies in our numbers.

- Republic Intelligence Report to the Senate and Jedi Counsel-

Coruscant

Office of the Chancellor

Republic Executive Building

Sideous gazed out of his office window, met with the daily lives of the denizens of Coruscant's unending duracrete jungles, with a shadow cast over him by the rising Coruscanti star.

They went about their lives, blissfully ignorant to what was truly happening behind the scenes of the Galactic Theater.

The dark lord of the Sith pitied them for not being able to realize the forces beyond their control, manipulating them, and controlling them into doing whatever they willed.

Whatever he willed.

Forces that were beyond their control.

'Oh, what a gross understatement,' Sideous chuckled to himself in his office.

He closed his eyes, still smirking, and immediately began to tap into the thoughts of the citizens going about their business and routine that has been with them since they were younglings being carried in their mothers' arms.

He smiled, knowing that their incapable minds would easily bend under his prowess in the Dark Side of the Force, if he tried it.

However he had bigger scalefish to fry.

He would have never had thought that his plans, his delicately laid out plans, which had been going so unbelievably well up until this point, could be so derailed by a single discovery. He was so close to bringing in the Empire, which would've lasted a thousand years.

The existence of an entire community of humans, in the unknown regions had come as a shock to him as much as any other normal person.

"But still…" he murmured.

The shocking discovery led to another. Although the Terrans had a presence in the force, it was very faint. Only the most adept force users could sense it. There was nearly nothing in the force, almost nothing at all. A force user couldn't even read their minds; it was like hearing nothing but static.

How in the force that was possible was beyond him.

Master Yoda and the Jedi Council had about as much of a clue as he.

When their delegation had come to Coruscant, to much fanfare, the entire Galaxy had watched in wonder as they presented their history, and what they believed to be the history of the galaxy.

It had actually answered some questions, but raised more, many more.

Could an ancient race have really seeded the entire galaxy with humanity and other races for that matter? It wasn't that farfetched, and they had evidence to back it up. It stirred controversy throughout the academic institutions of the galaxy nonetheless, Republic and Confederate alike.

They had been surprised to say the least when they learned that the UN had only been traveling the stars for 500 years or so, for a race to develop so quickly was rare, though the reasoning for it that the Terrans had was sound. To be split into so many competing nations, states, and ethnicities would cause rapid development.

Then they were told about, briefly, the Human Covenant War.

To say that he himself was disgusted and shocked would have been an understatement. It surprised him. Few things fazed Sideous.

If what they had said was true, then the Clone War is mere child's play to the likes of them. It was not a struggle for control of the Galaxy like the Clone War. It was a struggle for survival. The humans, backed into the corner, fought with savagery matched by no race of the Republic in previous Galactic history.

There had been several aliens with them, called Sangheilli, which had been a former member of the Covenant, before learning the apparent truth behind the war and seceding from the Covenant, allying with the UNSC.

The UEG and the Sangheilli wanted to become a part of the Galactic community and open trade with all of the worlds, or so it seemed.

In reality, it was the truth that they wanted nothing more than to be left alone in their isolation, as evident, as they adamantly were against becoming involved in the war, the Sangheilli far more than their Terrran counterparts.

Another thing that had caught them by surprise was how the UN openly criticized the use of Clones by the GAR.

The words despicable, disgusting, cowardly, and even pathetic were commonly thrown around when Terrans and Sangheilli alike discussed the Clone War. The UEG ambassador, in one of the in frequent interviews that had been given, had openly declared the Clones to be a crime against humanity. That was when it all went sour. It also started up the debate again with Sentient Being Rights groups rallying behind the UN's declaration. They had gotten some support at the beginning of the War, but now their ranks had been filled to the brim. The Republic Propaganda Administration shot themselves in the foot with their old poster, which featured Clone forces posed heroically, and the caption, "Support the Boys in White." This acted as a grim reminder that the backbone of the Republic military was all actually around the age of 10, thanks to their accelerated aging.

It was well known that the UEG and their allies were playing both sides in an attempt to be neutral; however, when they began to give direct medical aid to the CIS, the Senate went into an uproar. It had been hard for Chancellor Palpatine to keep order during the announcement.

It only got worse from there when the Republic Center for Military Operationshad its servers hacked by a very advanced and malicious hardware that they claimed to be an Artificial Intelligence, and had extracted many pieces of incriminating evidence about the war and the Kaminoans.

Only the UNSC had technology that could perform such a Herculean feat.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. The enmity between the Terrans and the Republic all culminated in what is now dubbed as the "Kashyyyk incident," when the crew of the Venator Class Star Destroyer Unstoppable opened fire on UNSC ships in orbit of the ongoing battle of Kashyyyk after the UNSC ships had failed to turn around and leave the system, as prescribed by the Unstoppable's captain.

In the end the Star Destroyer Unstoppable was left repairable and had to be scrapped. A large UNSC freighter was decimated and a UNSC Frigate was left heavily damaged.

But that was just in space.

Before jumping away using their still mysterious Slipspace drive, the UNSC ship fired a thermonuclear device into the upper atmosphere above the main continental mass where fiercest fighting was taking place, and sent an encrypted signal to the CIS forces.

The CIS forces, droids, war machines, everything immediately shut down, leaving the Republic Soldiers confused.

However the next thing that happened left the Republic defenseless.

The Thermonuclear device exploded high in the upper atmosphere, sending out a titanic wave of EMP down to the surface.

The entire GAR force deployed in the theatre effectively shut down. Communications were fried. LAATs spiraled out of the sky. Walkers stood still or toppled over. HUDs fizzled out. Life support for the wounded shut down, leaving them to die. And even heavy weapons and some blasters jammed or misfired.

Then the CIS droids powered back on again, marching through what little resistance was still holding on, and the GAR was crushed. It turned the battle into a massacre.

The CIS withdrew from the planet, but not before rendering around 1/8th of the planet uninhabitable, burning entire continents to the ground, and killing off hundreds of thousands of Wookiees or capturing them to be put to work building the next generation of droid foundries.

That had been only three months ago, though the CIS was now only a shadow of its former self. Sideous received one of the biggest surprises of his life. He received a message from Count Dooku. Sideous donned his hooded cloak and closed the shutters on the window with a press of a button.

"What is it, my apprentice?" Sideous snarled with displeasure to the Count of Serenno.

It took a while for Dooku to explain the developing situation, but Sideous would be furious by the end of the conversation.

The UNSC had apparently found the code buried deep in all CIS War Droids (code that ordered them to shut down). They also warned the CIS commanders, whom were unexpectedly overthrown by what was called the Patriots. The Patriots were a group of leaders from the systems that most adamantly supported the CIS cause. They were the ones who called the shots once Grievious was defeated and the Trade Federation, Techno Union and the other mega corporations were thrown out, their droids, ships and resources nationalized for a true fight to gain their independence from the Republic.

Sideous ended the line of communication with Dooku, crushing the holoprojector in his old and wrinkled, but still strong, hand.

'Those damn Terrans have found out my grand strategy. It's ruined!' He slammed his ornate desk.

It took him a minute to regain his composure. He remembered that no setback had stopped his plans before, slowly revealing a sinister smirk all the while.

He had to plan accordingly. If the Clone War needs to last another decade so he could finally form his new Empire, then so be it. He knew he had to learn all he could about his new enemies. He sat on the floor, with his legs crossed and eyes closed, and started to meditate on the Dark Side of the Force.

No matter how potent he was with the Force, he couldn't affect people who were attached to the force by the length of a hair (unless he was right there in front of them).

It was obvious that they had orchestrated the affair, replacing the CIS leadership with a council recognized by them, sending military advisors to train their militias and commanders. The UEG had hardly been a neutral power during the war.

Though the CIS was not the victim of Sideous's insidious influence as it had been, the Republic could still defeat them. The strategic initiative of the war was still in the Republic's firm grip, Kamino was producing Clones at a rate never seen before, the shipyards at Anaxes and Kuat were ramping up production, and Malastare was on the verge of ceasing their neutrality and joining the Republic war effort with their vast fuel reserves.

But it still left Palpatine's plans to destroy the Jedi and turn the Republic into an Empire delayed.

No matter how much Darth Sideous hated the Jedi, they would be needed as bodies to throw at the UNSC, and changing the Republic during wartime would not work.

He was smart enough to know that if he overthrew the Republic and Jedi, now, the UNSC would certainly intervene, and put an even bigger dent in his already nearly foiled plans.

However the real problem was that, like it or not, the UEG was gaining support amongst the populace, in both the CIS and inside of the Republic itself. However, the CIS saw the most change.

The Terrans had galvanized the populations of the CIS systems, and the rallying cry, for what Palpatine had crafted as a mere deception to have support for his pawn, had turned into actual beliefs overnight.

They truly believed that the Republic was rotten and that they wanted to be free of it.

Patriotic pride swelled within the chests of Separatist men and women alike. They would die for their freedom, and would take as many Republic oppressors as possible down with them

Now citizens of the supporting worlds were lining up to join the swelling militias to supplement the vast droid armies.

What was alarming was that the militias were fast morphing from a motley bunch of armed civilians, to a legitimate military force.

And many of their tactics were clearly taught by the UNSC.

The Terrans were a threat that needed to be removed, and fast.

It was a cancer that was quickly becoming malignant.

As such, after sending out countless recon craft and gathering as much intel as the Navy could, a fleet of 255 ships that was to be the spearhead of the invasion of the UEG, was just about to launch from Taris.

It was more or less just testing the water and seeing if the UNSC were a capable foe, and if the fruits of victory shall fall in the mouth of the Republic.

Among them were three Jedi, including Aayla Secura and Shaak Ti, who would assist in whatever way the utterly incompetent council would order them to. The Jedi were decent peacekeepers, but most of them could hardly call themselves a tactician.

Their target would be one of the located colonies they had scouted out, on the very fringe of Terran held space.

The colony, located in a system with what seemed to be a fleet base and from what they could tell, it seemed to be the perfect target to see how powerful their enemy was.

The operation, named Star Fist by the Admiral who would lead it, Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin, would be the most important operation the Republic Navy had taken so far, more so than the Second Battle of Geonosis, as this battle needed to be won quickly and decisively to prove to the reluctant Jedi and Senate that the UNSC needed to, and could be removed as a threat.

Convincing them that they were a legitimate threat had been difficult enough, as any brilliant commander would be able to take a Venator Class one on one, though thankfully he was able to… sway a few dissenting senators, besides those on par with Senator Amidala, just because of his sheer control over the senate.

And ironically, he had to thank the Terrans for their dull force connection as the Jedi counsel was completely focused on how this could be so, as it nearly went against their teachings. This was making it easier to get away with his task of manipulating the Senate under the practically blind observance of the Jedi Order. Skywalker would still take some time, but if the Jedi kept up their ways, he would be swept under by his influence soon.

But alas, it was of no consequence for Sideous, as he stared into his reflection on the glass of the window, brooding over how he could finalize his plan with another variable, the final stretch that would ensure the destruction of the Jedi, and the galaxy's control being in the hands of the Sith. The Terrans would soon be shown the destuction that could be unleashed by the Dark Side of the Force. But even with his overconfidence, he still recognized how his delicately laid plan could still be fowled.

"This war will test the constraints of my power."

Taris

Republic Fleet Node 11

Republic Assault Fleet

Venator Class Star Destroyer

Aayla Secura stood near one of the large windows of the port bridge tower of the great warship, staring out at the grand fleet that was continually gathering for the assault on the UEG and its military arm the UNSC.

There were ships as far as her eyes could see their blinding lights and engines looking like thousands of glistening stars, a stark contrast to the dark expanses of space, far surpassing the glimmering surface of Taris.

Presently, there were over 40 Venator Class Attack Cruisers, just under 70 Victory Class Star Destroyers, almost 100 Acclamattor Class Cruisers, dozens of Support and Logistical ships, and ten of the new massive Imperator Class Star Destroyers, not to mention the thousands of fighters, all readily assembled to be thrown into the unknown,

If the operation went as planned, there would be more fleets, each far larger and more powerful than this, all with one target in mind, the Terrans.

The Jedi Master sighed as she reached out into the force and searched for answers to the future.

The Twi'lek reached out past the millions of souls, all with the force flowing through each and every unique signature, present in the fleet and into the Force. The sensation of falling took hold as she searched for what she was seeking, the answer.

She had been one of the first to receive that report that had floored the galaxy from Anakin. For an entire race of Humans to be so faint in the force and have absolutely no significance in the force what so ever, shook the Jedi to their core. How it happened and more importantly, why, was unknown.

Not to mention the fact that despite the debates still raging on, more and more people were beginning to believe that Earth may in fact be the true birthplace of humanity.

Their ideas on an ancient and almighty race they, and the mostly isolated Sangheilli, believed. They were called the Forerunners, having seeded the galaxy with Humanity and most life after a catastrophic war with a parasite called the Flood. It was a far-fetched theory, straight out of a holovid, but their evidence was substantial. It was possible that humanity was more or less the remnants of the Forerunners as it was known that Humans and Forerunner were very similar. It could be possibly that the Humans were as ancient as the Forerunners. Maybe after the war with the UEG was over, she could get some answers out of the Terrans.

However, that did not matter now, as the Republic was just about to launch itself into a war with an enemy whose power it did not know.

Despite its small size, the UEG had an abnormally large military, even for a large empire. The fact that, when discussing this, most of the Terran general public thought that the armies of the rest of the Galaxy were abnormally, small spoke volumes of their history (a history which Aayla herself found fascinating).

They had, in a thousand years, advanced from swinging primitive metal swords , to launching satellites and splitting atoms. In just another five hundred years, they leaped from landing on their moon, to colonizing moons of worlds, many light years away from their home system.

Aayla still was amazed at how many different cultures, languages and religions had formed and were all packed onto one world. Their history was just as interesting.

If one word was used to describe their history in a nutshell, violent was a gross understatement.

Thousands of wars, two gigantic wars called World Wars, an Inter System war, hundreds of Insurrections.

The Covenant War, however, was almost frightening to read about. There were plenty of wars and several Galactic Wars that had led to whole worlds being destroyed, but for one species to deliberately try to kill off one another at such a grand scale was horrifying.

It partially explained why Terrans seemed to be very wary of alien species.

The Force gave her the usual sensation of another person coming up beside her, and she opened her eyes to see Shaak Ti looking out the window as well.

"Greetings Master." she bowed he head.

"Aayla." Ti replied curtly, her colorful robes twirling around her form as she came to a stop next to her. Both of them appeared to be non-existent to the bridge officers, who were caught up at their stations performing their duty.

The two Jedi stood in silence before Shaak Ti spoke.

"You are still searching for the answer, no?"

Secura sighed and cast her look downwards, "Yes, I still don't know what to think about this, or the Republic and CIS anymore."

Shaak Ti frowned and stared into Secura's eyes, "The Force is still shrouded by the Dark Side of the Force, and one cannot find the answers they seek. I assume you wish to know if this war is right."

"That is correct; I don't see why we must attack them. We don't even know if we can defeat them, even with all of this." Secura replied as she turned her back to the wide window of the bridge and the otherwise bleak expanse of space.

"We can only know until it all begins, the UEG is a threat to the Republic and they clearly have supported the CIS this entire war." Shaak Ti replied.

Aayla's lekku twitched as she sensed Tarkin's presence, he was almost complete with his preparations. Star Fist was in the last stage before its execution.

"But is that such a bad thing? The UEG is a democracy similar to the Republic; in fact, it is far more efficient and wishes very publicly to not meddle in Galactic affairs. We all know that the Republic hounded them into joining the war as did the CIS. The UEG remained almost completely neutral; at least until Republic Intelligence had its servers hacked. They must have found something to cause them to drastically reverse their position on the War and the Republic."

Shaak Ti turned to face her fellow Jedi Master, and with a worried expression spoke, "Secura, the Republic has lasted for thousands of years. Yes, it has had its fair share of problems, but the UEG has openly supported the CIS and has led to the death of an entire GAR System Army. The situation with the Clones is a problematic one, and we have steadily taken measures to remedy this. A power that supports the CIS is..."

Aayla interjected, "I know, the CIS has done horrible things, and it's a creation of the Sith. However, the leaders are all supposedly dead now, and it is the people of the systems who now lead them. And they have even criticized the actions and denounced the atrocities of Grievious and Dooku. They themselves believe that they were most likely pawns of the Sith who were really pursuing their own agenda, which we all believe to be true and..."

The intercom buzzed as the door slid open.

"Admiral on deck!" A clone ensign called out to the bridge crew, promptly snapping to attention.

Aayla and Shaak Ti spun around to see the familiar face of Wilhuff Tarkin, alongside the third Jedi to accompany them on the attack. It was a human Jedi master, with over 30 years of experience, a light complexion, and blond hair (his name being Jax Sieflan).

The officers, clones and regular volunteers (or regs, as the Clones called them), all snapped to attention with crisp salutes and their backs as straight as humanly possible.

The veteran captain, who was just recently promoted, returned the salute as he went to his post, almost lazily, with Master Jax following right behind him. Aayla could've sworn Jax was mimicking Tarkin's movements.

Shaak turned to look at Aayla, who could not help but scowl as her lekku curled upwards.

"Jax may be a fellow Jedi, but he is one arrogant...as the Terrans say, Son of a Bitch." Aayla thought to herself, with a slight grin forming on the edge of her lip.

She immediately regretted her mental outburst, it being very unbecoming of a Jedi and just unprofessional in general, of her.

The war had hardened everyone, Jedi were not exempt from this either, but her occasional bits of anger made her worried.

Was she allowing the dark side to creep into her thoughts?

Ever since her brush with the darkside, she always worried about it, far more so than any other Jedi, it seemed. She knew Shaak Ti had felt her thoughts, a fact only confirmed when Shaak Ti calmly reach out into her mind.

"Aayla, I know you don't like him, and I don't either for the same reasons as you, but outbursts of anger like that will slowly degrade your morals."

Aayla wanted to turn her head away in shame.

"Yes Shaak Ti, it won't happen again."

At least she knew that she wasn't the only one who thought that, aside from Yularen himself.

Jax had been held back as a Jedi Knight due to his stated over confidence, but the strain of the Clone war had forced him to be promoted to make up for the numbers lost in battle.

He had proven himself as capable, however, his sheer arrogance still made Aayla, and anyone who had previously been acquainted with him for that matter, want to cave his skull in with a duracrete brick, as one Officer had put it.

To bring that point home, Jax immediately swiveled his head towards Aayla, "So how fast do you think we will sweep aside these Force senseless kriffs?"

Aayla felt him sneer at her through the force as she cooly replied, "Never underestimate your enemy Jax, it will lead to your doom. Besides, they aren't Force senseless, they have a presence in the Force according to Master Yoda."

Jax laughed, "Please!" He scoffed, "They still use projectile weapons for Force sake. I bet we will have them absorbed into the Republic in under six months."

"That sounds an awful lot like Imperialism Jax." Shaak Ti replied before Aayla could say something she would regret.

As if sensing the feud like a Jedi would be able to using the force, Tarkin strode over to the Masters.

"All preparations are complete. We will be launching shortly." He instructed.

Taris System

Blackcat Prowler

ONI From Dusk 'Till Dawn

"Tangos moving into a standard hyperspace jump formation, they're charging their hyperspace drives." The radar operator called out to his captain, Oni Bin Huesda, from his post. His holographic interface showed the targets in the fleet moving into position, ready to spring the invasion.

The 10 tour veteran sighed, they all knew this was coming, they had intercepted Republic communications a week ago indicating an immanent attack. Huesda's cybernetic enhancements were glowing a dull white as he downloaded the full report of the Republic invasion force.

"HIGHCOM is definitely going to want to see this." He observed quietly.

The UEG President and the General Assembly had ordered the UNSC to DEFCON level 2, as all forces were put on high alert while the Senate and Assembly began in the capitol of Washington to draft the declaration of war on the Republic and her allies.

Now the storm finally had arrived at the UNSC's doorstep.

As a grizzled veteran of the Human Covenant War, the prospect of war with the Republic didn't frighten Huesda as much as it would have ten years ago during the climax of the war, but the fear still lingered in the back of his head. But even then, he still held strong faith in the UNSC. That thought relaxed him a little; it gave him comfort that he had never felt before in his entire military career. He had been desensitized to large scale violence. He still was aware of the fact that losing a battle in space could be costly, as over 20 billion Humans had learned during their War with the, now defunct, Covenant.

The UNSC was, when compared to the GAR and the various galactic militaries at large, much more expansive than average, large enough to compete with the Republic itself, despite the small size of territory controlled by the UEG. Aside from the Galactic Core worlds, such as Coruscant and a few other places like Nal Hutta, Anaxes, Axum, Fondor, Corellia, and Taris, the UEG population was much more condensed when compared side by side.

Another less known fact was that due to the fact that the UNSC was situated on the outer arm of the Milky Way it was able to concentrate its military far better, and aside from the Covenant Remnants, who had been quiet in recent years, was not surrounded by enemies like the Republic was.

He quickly snapped out of it, after a crewman informed him that the fleet was nearly ready to begin jumping out of the system.

The Dusk Till Dawn had been stationed in Taris for three days now, watching as dozens of ships poured into the system, forming into a fleet that could conquer dozens of systems.

The scanners of the Republic Fleet were unable to even detect the sensor ghost it seemed, they had come as close as 100,000 kilometers from their nearest ship, and there had been no reaction from the supposedly powerful ships, even the new Imperators.

And now the wave would come crashing down. Hopefully, the UNSC would be the hammer and not the nail in this case.

The captain stared, with child-like wonder, as over two hundred ships winked into hyperspace, which was classified for the most part.

"Tell HIGHCOM that they have launched. Send a flash message to Washington. Tell them its beginning. And go forward with Operation Suckerpunch. As soon as we are complete with our mission, initiate a random jump, they we're heading home to Reach." He ordered.

"Yes sir!"

"What is the estimated time until they reach our border?" He asked the ship's AI.

Its ghostly avatar sprung to life on its holo-pedestal as it replied in a monotone voice.

"Five Days, they have to compensate for their inferior hyperspace drives."

Though technically, hyperspace was indeed faster than Slipspace, the fact that hyperspace was affected by the gravity wells of celestial objects, going in straight lines was impossible. Accurate star charts were needed to perform a hyperspace jump, whereas Slipspace Drives could simply input galactic coordinates and go there.

"Sir the mines have been launched. Maneuvering them into position above the planet." the officer announced.

"Good, set the timer for 9 days from now, we will show them what happens when they mess with us, Hooyah!" Huesda commanded to his subordinate.

"Hooyah!" The bridge answered back.

"Are the mines in position yet?" He asked.

"Yes sir. They are positioned in geosynchronous orbit to cover the whole planet."

"Good. Get us out of here, on the double!"

Earth

UEG Capitol

Manhattan District- Capitol city of Washington

The cityscape of Washington and what used to be New York City easily shined through the fog and two miles up into the sky.

As the UEG was formed, the old UN building was chosen to be where the capitol of Humanity was to soon be established.

As the UN, and then the UEG, grew to encompass all of humanity, the cities of the American Northeast slowly merged together, morphing into the super city what was soon simply referred to as Washington. Washington encompassed the District of Colombia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, New York, and all the way up to Boston; more space was needed for the Capital of Humanity.

Governors Island in the middle of New York Harbor was selected to be the location of the UEG capitol building, the UEG Parliament, the UEG General Assembly and dozens of administration buildings.

The island eventually tripled in total area, thanks to enhanced dredging techniques. On it rose dozens of towering buldings (which could truly be called sky scrapers), rising miles into the atmosphere. Dwarfing above them all in size, while dominating much of the downtown skyline of the city, was the Capitol Building, a work of modern art, with a few artistic Gothic and Greek classic architecture, as well as modern uniformity that rose just a few feet short of 7 miles into the sky.

Outside its lobby awaited the highest ranking members of the UEG and UNSC, the top of the top.

The entrance to the building was barred by the UNSC Honor Guard, as a Panda APC rolled up to the front entrance, and began unloading troops. Those that had dismounted were in specialized suits, with various scanning equipment, flashing lights, and fancy screens. They began flooding into building, shouting commands that would've been incoherent to most people. Those men were UNSC Ordnance Specialists, and the safety of HIGHCOM relied on how well they did their job.

"Eric, are you pickin' up anything on your end?" One of them asked across the hall.

"Nah, it's all good here. Tell the Colonel to give the Brass the all clear." Eric replied, finishing the sweep of the meeting hall with a metal detector.

The Brass was escorted inside by their armed entourage, with enough firepower to clear out a city block.

At one end of the giant semi-circular table sat the Commander of the entire UNSC Defense Forces, Lord Hood. Surrounding him were the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, General Assembly Speaker, Speaker of the Parliament, Vice President Ruth Charet, and the President of the UEG, Reagan Vladislov.

"So, we are sure that the Republic is moving against us?" The Secretary of State asked as his aid handed the sleep-deprived man another cup of coffee, all the while he read the report on his holo-tablet.

"Yes, we intercepted their communications weeks ago, they clearly indicate that they are going to attack. It was inevitable, especially considering what happened over Kashyyyk." spoke the familiar and deep resounding voice of Fleet Admiral Lord Hood, wearing his standard white dress uniform, rittled with medals.

The Sec State, who was from Reach, seemed to be only partially convinced as he frowned.

"Hood, I don't want to sound too skeptical, but could putting our fleets, marines and armies to DEFCON 2, be what sets them off?"

Hood spoke again before the Secretary of State could speak again, "We all know what ONI found on Kamino and Coruscant. We all know what is really behind their Galactic War."

The Speaker of Parliament cut in as well, "I understand your concern, Secretary, but after they fired on our ships at Kashyyyk, they proved their hostility towards us. I think that going to DEFCON 2 wasn't enough."

He turned to the titanic form of the President, who stood looking out at the panoramic view of the megacity, filled to the brim by an astonishing population of 213 million, with its accompanying never ending activity, from cars on the roadways far below, to the sky ways and the lights from the flying transport taxi's, all the way to the tiny green figure of the Statue of Liberty on its Island far below.

The skyline started fading away, slowly into the warm glow of Sol.

"Sir, the Parliament and the General Assembly both agree to the declaration of war being delivered to the Republic, but only the moment they attack, and everyone is in agreement to execute Operation Suckerpunch."

The older man from the inner colony of New Peking mumbled as if reminiscing, "Especially after what ONI found."

President Vladislov turned and strode to his seat, his muscular form seemingly trying to escape out of his black suit. He settled into his seat.

A veteran Marine, who went on to serve as an ODST during the Human/Covenant War, Vladislov was a man who was trusted and respected by most of the populace, while his enemies feared him. Their fear was only harkened by the fact his platinum hair was complemented by three gruesome scars on his left temple. It was the aftermath of a rampaging brute's handiwork. He decided it was his time to give his word on the matter.

He cleared his throat. His deep voice, tinged with a slavic accent, boomed as he silenced all of the others.

"The facts are gentlemen…" He paused putting his finger up as to emphasize his point. "That someone very high up in the Republic government, or more likely a large part of the Republic, has manipulated and LIED to a large chunk of the galactic community. Manipulating them into going to war for their own personal gain. We all can see that the Chancellor and his supporters, which are a large portion of the senate, have had their powers increased, nearly equal to that of a tyrant. That is, if the Senate keeps granting the Chancellor all these so called 'Emergency Powers.'" He began to chuckle at that thought. "Our AIs have uncovered enough credits transferred between various fronts and individuals for one year to pay for not only the GAR but the entirety of the CIS droid army as well, all from one mysterious person whom we cannot identify. Where are these funds going to? Palpatine's inner circle. The Chancellor is becoming a dictator, and it is only a matter of time before he gains total power. For the Jedi to not have known this and be in such proximity of the Government points to the fact that they have to know something or even be in the know."

He paused as fidgeted in his seat that was entirely too small for his hulking form, waiving an aide aside as his eyes quickly danced around the titanic, yet immaculate room.

"We need to go forward with our plans to set the CIS up as a legitimate government. The PATRIOTS have proven to be quite useful. The propaganda movement has spurred the populace of the worlds into enlarging their armies and drastically increasing the size of the Militias. The militias alone are enough to make up for the loss of 75 percent of the Droid armies. Our advisors are still trying to cope with training that many militia members, but otherwise, it has been very successful. We still have much ground to cover when it comes to our more… unconventional tactics but-"

The intercom rudely interrupted Vladislov as Lord Hood's personal datapad buzzed. As Lord Hood excused himself and stood up to answer the call, the dumb AI secretary's voice came over.

"Mr. President we have an urgent message from Manassas (the location of HIGHCOM on Reach)."

Lord Hood walked back through the door holding his data pad as he simply said, "It's them."

Lights dimmed as the holopad lit up, showing Fleet Admiral Cole, who immediately did a perfect salute despite his age.

"Mr. President." he then spun to the others present, "Sirs."

Vladislov waved at him, signaling to be at ease, "What do you have?"

"Sir, one of our Prowlers, the Dusk Till Dawn, which was on station at the Republic world of Taris, has just reported that the Republic Armada has entered hyperspace and is heading directly towards UEG space. Their Flash message is 10 hours old. We should be expecting the Armada to be nearing our borders in as little as three days. The Prowler has begun plan Suckerpunch, and its payload successfully deployed. Our fleets closest to the Border and at the Strategic Deployment bases are all on high alert, scrambled, and have permission to engage any and all Republic forces that enters our territory. From triangulating their approach vector, we believe the fleet to be heading straight for the Alpha Rendara system, where the colony of Ceina and Strategic Deployment Base 5 are located. Midguard is readying to deploy any fleets to any outer colony worlds and Reach is sending up the 11th and 31st Fleets as support. We have restricted as much civilian traffic throughout the outer colonies as we can and have alerted all planetary garrisons."

Vladislov grimaced as the rest of the members of the meeting cursed. Lord Hood stepped forward as Cole saluted him, Hood returning it to him in a timely manner.

"What forces do we have at SDB5? Since Ceina is more or less a colony made to support the Base, and also serves as a training facility, what kind of presence of do we have in the system that is ready for action?"

"Sir there is currently 78 ships at SDB5, with three more on the way. Two Concordia Class Carriers, fifteen Marathon Cruisers, Five Warlock Battlecruisers, 25 Midlothian Class Heavy Destroyers and thirty Andraste class Frigates. Also present are the support and resupply ships and tenders, though they are jumping system along with any civilian craft. The 10 divisions we have on Ceina are prepared, and all our ground to space batteries of PCs and the underground MAC gun will keep them overrunning the planet's orbit."

"It's a good sized fleet." The Secretary of State mumbled. "Damn good fleet."

Though it was true, it was rather unusual for that many ships to be located at such an unimportant world or sector. The whole Idea of the Strategic Deployment Bases (or Anchorages as they had been affectionately nicknamed), of which there were ten spread along the border of UEG and UNSC controlled space with around 70 to 80 ships at each, to act as a deterrent and a rapid reaction force to defend the Outer Colonies and allow the fleet at Midguard to have more time to send in reinforcements. It could buy time for many other worlds, as well as Reach and any other UNSC Fortress World or Fleet Base more time to react if caught by surprise.

Vladislov grumbled, "Our ships will be outnumbered nearly three to one."

Hood nodded, "We have sent the orders to evacuate the civilians and get them to somewhere safer. For the first time in what seems like forever, this evacuation is not mandatory. We have faith in our field intel, that the Republic will not target the civilian population centers."

Ruth Charet spoke out, "Are you sure that that's a good idea? We have never experienced an attack on one of our planets by the Grand Army of the Republic."

"Don't worry; I doubt the Republic will do that. If they do, it'll be a tremendous defeat for their home front. A war is won by the willingness and determination of the people." The Secretary of Defense tried to assure her.

The rest of the room nodded solemnly as Hood asked, "Cole what ships are inbound to SDB5?"

Cole seemed to grin, "We have the Concordia Carriers Black Dawn and Shinanio," he paused before adding. "The Medusa Class Battleship Warhound with Sierra 117 on board is also en route."

The room was silent for a moment before Hood chuckled with a wide grin plastered on his wrinkled face.

"Of course Admiral White would sprint headfirst into any battle, he probably had his ship plopped directly on the fringe of Republic space waiting for the word, hell he might've even had his ship IN Republic space! I wasn't aware that the Master Chief was deployed to Midguard."

Cole shrugged, "Ask the spooks."

Vladislov interrupted them.

"No matter how much the presence of the Admiral White and, let's face it, the savior of Humanity will effect the battle, this is still an outright declaration of war."

He turned to the Speaker of the General Assembly, "You and the Parliament approve of the declaration of war with the Republic?"

The woman immediately nodded, "Yes sir, we do. The population of Earth and every colony, supports the declaration of war by a 90 percent margin, as we need only 60 percent to do it, it is more or less unanimous."

Vladislov crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair, "I spoke to the Arbiter recently, and they will not get involved unless something drastic happens. However, they have offered to take up the slack patrolling our portion of the Loyalist containment zone and the DMZ so we can free up more ships to feed into the war effort."

The occupants of the room were all murmering and jesturing in approval of the decision.

The discovery of the CIS cruiser less than a year ago had the odd effect of making the Sangheilli and the UEG cooperate far more. Before the discovery relations had become lukewarm at best.

The two powers had agreed that they both wanted to stay out of most galactic affairs, in the case of the UEG, at least until the Clone Wars were over. The Sangheili were still… distraught, to say the least, about the Prophets lying to them, and found solace in their reclusiveness.

However ONI's hacking, which was almost routine, was actually supported by the Sangheilli, both the UEG and Sangheili wanted to find out as much as they could about the two combatants. The UEG's stance had changed violently when they found out what was being referred to as the "Imperial Files," indicating that the war was a set up to create one massive galactic mega power.

The Sangheilli simply isolated them to all but the UEG. The UEG began to support the CIS as a stopgap to prevent the so called "Empire" from forming.

"Good." Vladislov replied as he stood up. "Gentlemen, and women, this meeting is adjourned. I will make a public address at 4 in the afternoon, informing them of the rapidly developing events."

They all nodded as they got up from their seats.

"And God's speed."

AN: It's been tedious revising the story, and with school coming up, I won't be able to work 100% on this, but I WILL try. I will never quit on finishing this story. I'm trying to cram as much work into this as possible before school.