The Intergalactic War

By Chief Ratchet

(A.N: Thanks to all the reviewers who, well, reviewed. Sorry if the last chapter was rushed, this one will hopefully make up for the relatively short chapter. Finally, ground battles, aren't you glad? There will be space action, and the Alliance will meet the Brutes in combat. Also, I apologize about the misconception about the destruction of Yavin 4. It happens forty years after the Death Stars destruction, not a hundred and forty years, sorry! Happy reading, and sorry about the long wait!)

Reviews:

Star wars 2136: Well, that depends on how the situation goes. Having Jedi in the story might be good, but the Jedi are to strong. Still, a few might appear. Keep reviewing!

Wirespeed91: Yes, I forgot to mention that I suck at summaries. Still, never judge a book by its cover. Thanks for the review!

brian: Thanks, and here is the next update for all you fans out there!

kwangmablade: Thanks and here is what happens next!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, or anything related to Star Wars. It belongs to George Lucas. I do not own Halo, or anything to do with it either. Halo and everything related to Halo belongs to Bungie.

Chapter 4: Liberation of Dac, Pt.1

As the Fleet of Retribution exited from Slipspace, the CIS was already hard at work preparing for yet another assault on a helpless planet. It so happened that the staging area for the assault on Mon Calamari was extremely close to where the Fleet of Retribution had entered the galaxy. A full three hundred ships were ready to subjugate Mon Calamari under the CIS.

On the bridge of the Divine Blade, the Arbiter stood and looked out at the stars. They were very different from the ones he was used to seeing on his side of the galaxy. He knew that they were in a different galaxy when all of the scans of where the planets should have been were not there. As he walked around the bridge, he looked over at the various consoles that a human or an Elite operated.

Most of the consoles had readouts about the system they were related to, but the one console that caught his attention was the active scanner. It showed a large cluster of dots not far from their position. The scanner could not identify if they were hostile or allies, so it coloured the dots orange for either neutral or unknown. The scanner managed to detect that they were large enough to be capital ships. To the Arbiter, it was troubling to have seen so many ships clustered together.

"Cortana, scan these ships and match up their profiles with any of our ships and see if it matches." It had taken him a long time to get used to calling the human A.I by her name, as well as most of the A.Is. He had only gotten used to it in the last few cycles.

"Arbiter, I have done the scan, and compared them as you asked, but none of them matches the shapes of any of our ships. They don't even come close to matching ours, in fact." Cortana stopped as she continued to analyse the ships and the shapes. They were very different in design from the Covenant ships, with skeletal structures and with exposed superstructures and most of them featured larger cannons on the underside of the ship.

There were five larger ships in the mix as well; ring shaped ships with a core in the middle. The more detailed scans revealed the ring ships were about three kilometres in diameter. "Arbiter, I suggest that we attempt to raise a communication line with them as the protocol indicates. However, I suggest that we leave about a quarter of our strength here in case it is a trap."

"Very well then, Cortana. Sound the alarm, and order everyone to their battle stations. Cortana, warm up all our weapons, and push the weapon reactors to maximum; we have a lot of weapons to charge, if you haven't noticed. Make sure that all the missile turrets are loaded and ready." Ordered the Arbiter.

The missile turrets were the latest in missile technology. It was based around the fact that though missile pods were effective, they were fixed, so they could only fire to a certain degree. The missile turret was essentially five Archer pods locked into a rotating turret. The turret could rotate a full three hundred and sixty degrees, as well as being capable of facing ninety degrees vertically. There were ten missile turrets arrayed across the entire ship.

The Arbiter watched the status of the weapons charge through the main control screen in front of him. The plasma torpedo launchers were ready, the plasma lances were almost ready, and the Accelerated Particle Cannons were ready. The Divine Blade had two of the Cannons, and they were very deadly. They were the same weapon used in the UNSC over Reach.

Then, he checked the status of the human weapons. The five MAC Cannons were fully charged, with three of the turrets mounted at the bow of the ship, and two mounted at the stern. All five hundred missile pods were armed, and the Super MAC was at eighty percent charge, and climbing. Although he didn't want to fight, he was unsure about the warships. They were very sinister in design, hinting about the style of the manufacturers. Still, he wasn't about to start a war, or lose a potential ally. As soon as all the weapons were charged, he ordered fifty of his ships to

When they were in range, the Arbiter opened a communication line with the vessel in the lead. "Unknown vessel, identify yourself. This is the Arbiter of the New Covenant and in command of the Divine Blade. Respond."

When no answer came back, the Arbiter repeated the message through the link again. And again, the vessels did not respond to the communication link. The third try was more successful.

The warships slowed, and turned to face the Fleet of Retribution. "Arbiter! The weapons on those ships are charging, and there is a spike in the energy levels that are directed to the engines! They are engaging us!" Cortana's voice sounded through the speakers. Her holographic form appeared on the holopedestal near him. "No diplomatic solution this time. Much like when we met you."

The Arbiter gave a small smile, the top mandibles moving ever so slightly, showing razor sharp teeth. "True, but we did send you a message." He pointed out.

"A message talking about our doom." Cortana shot back.

By this time, the CIS fleet was getting closer to the Fleet of Retribution. On board the Lucrehulk-class battleship Profiteer, the captain watched with shock at the size of the lead ship. It was as large as the feared Super Star Destroyers, and was strange in design as well; it had flowing curves, and was sleek. It didn't resemble any ship he knew, so the Neimodian captain ordered all the ships to attack the 'Fleet of Retribution' as they had called themselves. He settled back and hoped for the best.

Boom. The Divine Blade shook from another minor hit on its shields. Still, the Divine Blade was performing grandly for her first combat experience. The enemy ships were designed for attacking in numbers, as the Arbiter had found out. On their own, only the ring ships could hold their own. The ships used, curiously enough, some form of laser, which had some explosive properties. The bolts were fired together, as a single bolt couldn't do enough damage, it seemed. However, the most of the ships possessed large laser cannons, which was quite effective, when they were fired in groups. . The shook from another minor hit on its shields. Still, the was performing grandly for her first combat experience. The enemy ships were designed for attacking in numbers, as the Arbiter had found out. On their own, only the ring ships could hold their own. The ships used, curiously enough, some form of laser, which had some explosive properties. The bolts were fired together, as a single bolt couldn't do enough damage, it seemed. However, the most of the ships possessed large laser cannons, which was quite effective, when they were fired in groups.

"Fire Plasma Lances three, five and seven, consecutively at the ship at port." Ordered the Arbiter. One after the other, three thin beams of plasma shot out from the left side of the Divine Blade, and punched through the shields and armour of the Recusant light destroyer on the left hand side of the Divine Blade. The Recusant exploded into a fireball a moment later.

The Plasma Lances were numbered according to their position on the Divine Blade. All the Plasma Lance turrets on the left were given all the odd numbers from one to nine. All of the Plasma Lances on the right were given even numbers from two to ten. The Plasma Torpedo launchers were numbered in the same manner. The MAC Cannons were always fired in groups, so the firepower was always optimal.

Things were going well for the Fleet of Retribution. Over a hundred enemy ships were destroyed, and for the loss of about twenty five ships. The Seraphs were bombing enemy ships, as well as the Longswords. The Divine Blade was cutting a path of destruction where ever it moved, as the pulse lasers, plasma weapons and MAC rounds tore through the enemy fleet.

"Weapons, charge the Super MAC and fire when ready. Cortana, have you finished hacking into their database yet?" asked the Arbiter.

Cortana replied a second later. "Yes, I have hacked into their database. Not much, but I do know that this galaxy is in a state of war. We are fighting the CIS, which consists of droids. The ships here are the Recusant light destroyers, the Munificent frigates and the Lucrehulk battleships. They're all expendable, mass produced. Their ground troops consist of droids as well." The Arbiter grunted in response to her statement. The battle was going well, though he had lost even more ships in the fierce fighting. He knew now that they would never retreat. He was going to have to turn every last CIS warship into floating space debris. He didn't mind. It was a long time since he had experienced a battle of this magnitude. He enjoyed the adrenaline rush every time the ship shook.

At long last, he had a battle to fight.

An hour later, all the CIS warships were floating hulks in space. So were the hundred ships he had lost in the engagement. He ordered the rest of the fleet to form up, and recalled the fifty ships that had remained behind. "Cortana, have you detected anything that might be related to the Brutes? We came here to find them, not get into a war, as enjoyable as that last battle was."

Cortana activated the long range detection software. The detection programs were improved vastly when they had found Forerunner artefacts related to the field. It showed how advanced the Forerunners really were, and Cortana now understood why the Covenant revered them so much. There. She found readings similar to a plasma torpedo discharge, as well as particles produced by Covenant engines that were not in this area. However, many ships were damaged. It would be better to stay here and repair them first, thought Cortana.

"Arbiter," she began. "I have located where I think the Brute fleet is positioned. But, under the circumstances, we should be concerned with the repairs to our fleet. It would not be wise to attack the Brute fleet with half of our ships damaged, as well as having only half the fleet. We could destroy them, but not with damaged ships. I suggest that we wait until every ship is reporting that it is one hundred percent functional."

It was true, the Arbiter knew that. Normally he would attack, but they couldn't miss the opportunity just because they had not taken the time to repair. "Very well then, Cortana. Order all ships to begin repairs, and begin salvage operations, from our vessels, not the CIS ships."

Meanwhile, far away on Coruscant, a Bothan spy ran through the halls of the new Fleet Command Centre. He knew about the destruction of Yavin 4, and so did many others. After the destruction of Yavin 4, an Alliance fleet was sent to deal with what ever had destroyed it. Everyone thought it was the CIS, however, when the fleet got there, there were CIS ships alright. Destroyed CIS ships. In orbit of the glassy moon was two hundred odd looking ships. The enemy fleet fired without hesitation, and in the confusion, no one noticed that he had snuck into an enemy ship, and retrieved information about them. Not much, but hopefully enough for the commanders.

The Bothan skidded into a room, and snapped of a salute. "Sir!" he addressed the Supreme Commander, Gilad Pellaeon. Pellaeon gestured to the Bothan to lower his arm. "Yes, what is it?" asked the Commander.

"I have found information about these new attackers at Yavin 4."

The Supreme Commander suddenly looked interested after hearing that. "Show me." Ordered the Commander. Wordlessly, the Bothan handed the report he held to Pellaeon. The report had details on the technology, and just a little about the ground forces the Covenant, as they called them selves, employed. The Covenant employed Brutes as the main soldiers, as well as Jackals and Drones.

As for amour and turrets, all Covenant vehicles use anti gravity propulsion. All weapons they use fire plasma, and the names of the turrets and vehicles were there.

The Commander studied the report for a long time, before finally handing it back to the Bothan. "Excellent work, now give that report to all the Generals and other Commanders. Everyone needs to know about this threat, so hurry!"

The Bothan took off at a run, and hurried to meet everyone else.

On another side of the galaxy, the CIS Council sat and reviewed the latest defeat and victory. They were in the process of taking Kamino, the Empire's main source of clones for their Stormtroopers. However, the biggest lost was the CIS fleet tasked with attacking Mon Calamari. The entire three hundred ship fleet was lost to one hundred and fifty alien ships. Everyone continued to read the reports, and everyone knew that the war was going very well for them.
Meanwhile, on Kamino…

"Cover that doorway!" yelled the Alliance officer. Blaster fire flew in every direction, and the commanding officer wondered how the situation got this bad. They were tasked with defending Kamino and its precious cloning facilities that the Empire needed to supply Stormtroopers to the Alliance military. The CIS had attacked, and they had landed Battle Droids as well as Super Battle Droids in the hundreds. Droidekas were rolling, deploying and gunning down the troops with ease.

Strike Force Ten was the group of Imperial Stormtroopers and Alliance Troopers designated with the job of guarding a vital chokepoint from CIS forces. One Trooper, Dac Sunder fired at the tide of metal he was facing. The droids dropped easily, though there were many more to take its place. Next to him, a Stormtrooper, TX-224, lobbed a thermal detonator into the midst of the droids. The explosion took out half the droids. Luckily, the droids could only come through at them from one direction; all the other entryways were blocked off and barricaded.

Sunder felt his back grow hot, and then an explosion hurled him to the ground. Everyone else turned around to see that the droids had blown through the east barricade with an explosive charge. Droids swarmed in and gunned down half the team before blaster rifles could be brought to bear. Sunder threw a thermal detonator, watched it explode, and suddenly, a blaster bolt hit him on the back. He died with the image of droids exploding.

Hours later, Kamino had fallen. The droids destroyed all resistance, and all the clones being bred. The facility, however, was not destroyed. The CIS would use it to clone more troopers for their army. They just had to find the right person. It was only time.
On the watery world of Dac, the Brutes had taken hold of the world, and the word spread to Command and Control Centre on Coruscant. A large force was assembled to meet and take back the planet of Dac from the Brutes. A total of one hundred Star Destroyers, seventy Mon Calamari Star Cruisers and thirty other ships, two hundred in total were ready to jump into hyperspace. The Captain of the Fleet was Captain Chad Piett. "Everyone, on my mark, activate the hyperspace generators and make the jump in to hyperspace. Three, two, one, mark!"

At that time, all the ships in the fleet made the jump to hyperspace, leaving nothing behind to suggest that there was a fleet of two hundred ships there as moment ago.

On the world of Dac, the Brutes were setting up a camp in one of the main cities. The whole city was reinforced with anti-air turrets, and it was surrounded by a cliff that was too high to climb on three sides. The fourth side was a beach, but there was a path to climb up and to reach the city. That was why many Shade plasma turrets were set up, as well as the smaller, more portable plasma turrets.

In orbit around the planet, the reduced Brute fleet was there. It had encountered and destroyed a CIS patrol, at the cost of thirty ships. The lead ship, an Assault Carrier, the Brute captain sat and watched the display. Why they couldn't glass the planet right here and right now mystified him. Still, he didn't dare question the Prophet, as the Prophet must have something in mind for the planet.

The Brute's thoughts were interrupted by an insistent beeping from one of the consoles. "What is that noise?" he demanded to know.

One of the Brutes at the consoles answered "The scanners have found a disturbance," he then glanced at the console again "Two hundred ships are heading for us." Said the Brute.

The Brute captain contemplated the new predicament they were in. The fleet wasn't at its best, and the Fleet of Retribution could arrive anytime. The captain decided on one thing; let them come to him, and then attack or defend with everything he had. Yes, that was it. It was the decision that could let him win. "Tell the troops on the ground that the enemy is coming. We will defend this place to the last Brute, Jackal or Drone!"

The fleet commanded by Captain Piett emerged from hyperspace about three hundred thousand kilometres from the Brute fleet. Almost instantly the Brute fleet fired their plasma torpedos at the Alliance fleet. They were expecting us, thought Captain Piett. "All ships, break and attack the enemy! Spread out now! Navigation, full power to engines, and weapons, Warm up the turbolaser batteries."

The Alliance fleet moved out, and the ships carrying fighters launched them to compete against the Brute controlled Seraphs. The Vengeance was in the middle of the battle, firing turbolasers and proton torpedos at the Brute ship. The battle was much harder for many of the Alliance ship captains, as the Brute ships were shielded more heavily, and had different weapons. The tracking plasma torpedos was difficult to evade for some of the larger ships, but eventually, five GR-75 medium transports made it through the battle, and plunged down into the atmosphere.

Once in the atmosphere, the transports came under heavy AA fire from the Covenant plasma AA. One of the transports exploded under such fire, as their shields were weakened during the dive into the atmosphere. Once they were ready, they powered down and landed in the water, facing the Covenant controlled city. The main cargo bays opened, and from each transport five Amphibions were dropped into the sea. Each one carried twenty troops, so four hundred soldiers were going to make a landing on the beach, and liberate the city.

The Amphibions carried mixed personnel, as some carried Sea Commandos, and some carried Imperial Seatroopers. Others carried both Sea Commandos and Seatroopers. The Amphibions moved forward, slowly at first, and then picking up speed. On the beach, the Shades mounted by the Brutes saw the Amphibions coming towards them. The Brute commander saw them and then promptly barked an order for all the turrets to fire.

On board the Amphibions, the troopers saw the plasma heading towards them. "Keep your heads down, people, or stick them up if you want to lose them!" shouted the commander. The plasma that hit the water threw up steam, and the bolts that missed flew overhead and warmed up the air. One of the Amphibions was struck with multiple plasma bolts, and eventually, the armour melted and the water poured in.

The Amphibion sunk moments later, sending the crew and passengers to a watery grave.

Plasma bolts continued to pound the area around the Amphibions, and sometimes, they were hit and sank, sometimes they were hit, but nothing more than a gash was made. When they were closer, the smaller, more portable plasma turrets opened up. While not as powerful as the Shades, they more than made up for it with their higher rate of fire. Holes were punched into the Amphibions, and a few more sunk beneath the waves.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity for the troops, the Amphibions made it to shore. Almost immediately after landing, Covenant artillery shelled the shore where they landed. The plasma mortars blew holes into the ground as well as the landed assault force. Many of the troops took shelter under the large rocks that were strewn around the beach, which barely held off the barrage of plasma mortars. Luckily for the ground troops, the Brutes weren't known for their intelligence, or even accuracy for that matter. Many of the mortars were off, and merely turned the ground into glassy craters. The bombardment lasted for a long time, and many troopers were hit.

Commander Corr looked up in frustration. They were pinned down, and the remainder of the taskforce, about two hundred and ninety seven men, were getting nowhere. The Wraiths were still there, hurling mortar after mortar at them. The commander keyed his com link with the taskforce in orbit. "Vengeance, this is the commander of taskforce seventy nine. Our original commander was hit as soon as we landed on the beach. We are pinned down at the beach, with two hundred and ninety seven men, and we have about a dozen tanks up on the cliffs firing mortars at us. We need some air support now!" yelled the commander.

The com link answered back. "Commander, this is Captain Piett of the Vengeance. We have received, and two Y-wings are en route. Sit tight, and enjoy the fireworks." The link faded out.

Moments later, the link came back on again. "This is Captain Kenai of Y-wing Y-56. We have a visual on the target now. We spotted hostile AA so we might not be here much longer. We are thirty seconds away from targets. You might want to watch your head for flying shrapnel!"

Corr heard the approach of the Y-wings, and then turned around to look. The Y-wings roared overhead, and then unloaded their deadly payload onto the tanks that were pinning them down earlier. After, the Y-wings moved to fire proton torpedos at the remaining tanks. Four proton torpedos left each Y-wing, and the remaining tanks turned into a burning hulk that spewed forth pieces of metal. The Y-wings executed a sharp bank, and accelerated forward into the sky, heading for the battle above.

Corr watched them with a grin. "Come on, you maggots!" he shouted "Haven't you seen a Y-wing before? Move it people, we still have a whole city to take! Last person to get up the slope will be the distraction for the plasma turrets!"

The assault force needed no more encouragement as they all scrambled up and ran up the slope, as well as taking cover to avoid the blasts from the plasma turrets and Shades. Corr smiled again. It was step one of the liberation. All they had to do was survive the treacherous journey up the beachside slope, and there would be the city. They had the advantage of knowledge. However, as it turned out, things would not be quite as easy as Corr would have hoped.

(A.N: Phew, this is one of the longest chapters I have ever wrote. Just a note, this chapter used to be part of another 2000 words, but I thought that it would be to long to read as a whole document.Also, I apologize about the constant switching of POVs.Anyway, I hope you enjoy! The real action comes next chapter (Which is already half finished). Read and Reivew please!