Sword of Change
Chapter 8
Darkness versus the light. An overly simple concept in a universe of many colours, where there are so many shades of gray that the concept of a world of black and white is in no way near possible, except in the minds of the deluded. The Republic, defended by the protectors of the light, the Jedi, had stood as a beacon of hope for countless millennia, the Jedi being the peacekeepers and peacemakers of the galaxy.
The Separatists on the other hand were controlled by the Sith, a force for darkness and a collection of power hungry madmen, though some were just simply after knowledge, others were after the power to control and dominate the galaxy. One of these Sith Lords was in control of the Separatists, Darth Tyranus, also known as Count Dooku, but he was however not the real master, he was only the apprentice to a much more powerful Sith Lord, the ever elusive Darth Sidious.
Onboard the Iowa class Fast Battleship Iowa, which was now in orbit of Coruscant along with its battle worn battlegroup, Doctor Catherine Halsey was studying the recent ONI Intelligence reports on the Clone Wars in the comfort of her recently assigned quarters, she had an exceptionally high clearance due to her involvement in the Spartan II and the new Spartan IV projects, and now after three months since the official First Contact with the Galactic Republic the war was soon heading towards its projected conclusion.
The UNSC had struck hard and fast at several Separatist holdings throughout the galaxy, mostly shipyards and various munitions depots, cutting off vital supplies from the front. They had also hit as many of the droid factories as possible that produced battle droids for the Separatist military. The latest attack on a droid foundry on Mygeeto was spearheaded by the legendary Spartan Blue Team who had just returned from combat for some R&R on Coruscant, though Doctor Halsey had asked them to meet with her first on the Iowa. The good doctor smiled as she read her Spartans after action report, they had torn through the tin cans that the Separatists used for combat like they were nothing, set the small 'clean' Fury tactical nuke and blew it sky high with no losses of any of her Spartans, which in her opinion was always a good thing.
From the door controls embedded into the wall next to the entrance of her quarter a beeping sounded, someone had rung the doorbell.
"Enter," she responded and soon four towering giants in Mjolnir mark VII armour, though two were slightly smaller and more feminine, and they were all wearing their trademark helmets.
"Okay all of you, please take off your helmets, and that includes you too Linda," she said, looking sharply at the smallest of the two female Spartans. They all took off their helmets quickly, their enhanced speed and strength most evident, the fastest was Kelly-087 with brown hair with natural red highlights and striking blue eyes, with Fred-104 and John-117 following shortly after, while Linda reluctantly pulled hers off, revealing her blood red hair and bright green eyes.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why I asked for you to meet me here as soon as you arrived." She pulled open a small drawer from her desk and brought out four small data crystal chips, similar to what were used to house a Smart AI, though each one had a slightly different colour and a number, which matched the number designation of each of the Spartans before Halsey.
"Within these data crystals are the Smart AI that you will each carry. So far only Blue Team will have a Smart AI for each Spartan, as the last surviving Spartan IIs you have more than earned the right to carry them into battle, and each has been specifically made with each of you in mind," she said and the Spartans took a closer look at the crystals before them, each were coloured differently, matching the colour of the Spartans armour. Linda's was coloured blood red, the same as her hair and her armour, though this didn't really affect her camouflage system built into her armour, basically the same but updated photo-reactive panels found on the Spartan IIIs SPI armour.
The one with Fred's number was a shimmering grey colour, same as his armour, though somehow it also seemed to glow. Kelly's own was a bright green, the same as her eyes, while John's was glowing blue and purple and seemed to shift between the two, in contrast to his dark green digital patterned camouflaged armour.
"I believe that you will be pleasantly surprised by yours John," said Halsey as John picked it up and inserted the crystal into the data crystal port on her desk. Seconds later a hologram of a blue woman covered in only lines of code appeared, seemingly crouched in midair in the fetal position, seemingly sleeping, then she stretched out, stood tall and opened her sparkling eyes.
"Hello John, long time no see," she said cheekily.
The Master Chief was astonished, for the first time in a long time he was near speechless, only the slight widening of the eyes betrayed his emotions, and Kelly walked up to him and put a comforting had on his shoulder.
"How is this possible? You died, not long after the mission to capture the Shield World; we were all there to witness your death. Doctor Halsey I thought there was no way we could stop Cortana's rampancy and reverse the damage done to her by the Gravemind?"
"There wasn't, I had to let the rampancy run its course, she didn't survive, but just before she died I saved the memories of her experiences and her core programming, her essence you could say and the sum of her experiences. I managed to have her rebuilt and now here she is, and she also doesn't have the seven year lifespan limit anymore, if anything she'll certainly outlive me," said Doctor Halsey as she slumped back into her chair. Though she took good care of herself, and cryogenic suspension and the time dilation effect of being trapped inside the Onyx Shield World had effectively slowed and stopped her ageing, biologically she was in her late sixties, though from a twentieth century standpoint she looked to be in her early fifties. She still had another half century of life left in her, but age seemed to be catching up to her, no matter what she did.
"Both Cortana and you, my Spartans, are my legacy, and Cortana is the closest thing I have to a daughter, and I was not about to let her die after living such a short lifespan..."
Suddenly the Iowa was shaken hard and alarm claxons sounded throughout the ship. The Spartans began running for their personal locker room to get their weapons while Doctor Halsey began running for the ship's CIC, with John following her shortly after, equipping himself with only an assault rifle and a hand gun from the weapons locker while the rest of his team reported to their assigned battle station.
In the CIC of the Iowa the commanding officer for the UNSC task force operating inside Republic space, who had just entered was treated to a sight he had hoped would not happen for at least another few days. Admiral William Nimitz's task force had not yet completed resupply operations and almost a third of his crews were down on the planet on R&R.
"What the hell is going on?" the admiral barked.
"Admiral, Separatist warships just jumped into Coruscant orbit. The defence fleet is already mobilising, but the enemy outnumbers and outguns them nearly three to one in capital ships alone," answered Captain Jennifer Keyes. "We're currently recalling all ship personnel and are deploying our embarked ground forces to the planet and are coordinating with the GAR."
The admiral took a look at the disposition of his forces. Right now his entire task force was in a high parking point, but still inside the gravity well of the planet, which was hampering his task force's movements, all fifty ships of the UNSC, ranging in size from frigates to the massive Kitty Hawk super carrier.
"Have all fighter squadrons begin combat launches immediately, the enemy will soon be launching swarms of droid starfighters and I want our fighters out there doing what they do best," the admiral ordered, just as Spartan John-117 and Doctor Halsey entered the CIC.
"Master Chief, I was just about to call you, but Doctor Halsey you should stay in your quarters where it is safe."
"Admiral, there are over a thousand Separatist warships out there facing off against a little over four hundred Republic warships and fifty UNSC vessels, with all due respect Admiral Nimitz but I believe the CIC is the safest possible place for me and I may be able to lend you my knowledge and experience," she said as she raised her right hand to forestall any objection the admiral and captain had.
"Very well Doctor Halsey, you may stay here in the CIC," said the admiral reluctantly, knowing it was less trouble to let the good doctor stay than have security escort her out of the CIC, he still didn't like having a civilian right next to him, no more than any other soldier would.
Outside the battle was raging. The Home Fleet had been caught completely off guard, no one thought that the Separatists would launch a direct assault upon the capital, and no one had ever thought that the enemy could possibly commit so many ships to the battle. On the ground the GAR were preparing to face the enemy. A tall dark skinned man in Jedi robes was heading down to his fighter when he was approached by another Jedi, SaeSee Tiin.
"Master Windu, our boys and the UNSC are taking a beating up there," said Master Tiin.
"Take as many fighters as you can get up there and take command of our space forces, and coordinate with Admiral Nimitz, I'll handle the droids down here," replied Master Windu as they got to their Jedi Interceptors, Master Windu's a dark purple while Mater Tiin's was silver and green.
"May the Force be with you," said Master Windu.
"And with you," replied Master Tiin as they sealed their cockpits and took to the skies. Master Tiin was followed by almost a hundred squadrons' worth of ARC-170 starfighters and V-wing interceptors and pushed for space. As they broke out of the atmosphere Master Tiin looked over the battlefield with an experienced eye. The UNSC task force was holding out along with several Republic battle groups, mutually supporting each other with heavy weapons fire, though to his horror he saw and enemy Providence class cruiser come out of hyperspace only to crash directly into a Venator class cruiser dead centre and split in two, the Providence cruiser ploughed through the wreckage, its bow extremely damaged, and it command crew most likely dead as the cruiser continued straight for Coruscant and nosed straight down into the atmosphere, the planetary defence guns quickly shredded it before impact, leaving what was left to burn up in the atmosphere.
Master Tiin quickly spotted a squadron of enemy bombers escorted by another three squadrons of droid starfighters. He checked his scopes and found he had two squadrons of ARC-170s available.
"Talon and Claw squadrons, form up on me, we're going to take out some droid bombers and their escorts," he ordered.
"We're on our way General. Lock S-foils in attack position," the commander of Talon squadron replied and the two squadrons formed up behind Master Tiin's fighter.
Two of the droid starfighter squadrons peeled off from escorting the bombers and moved to intercept Master Tiin and his two squadrons. The two sides quickly clashed together in a firestorm of laser fire, the clones were almost all dead on target, blasting several droid fighters away before they could react. Master Tiin blasted his way through the droids and continued on to his objective, his squadrons keeping in a loose formation and allowed the droids to pass between them, letting their tail gunners get some hits in.
The droid Hyena bombers were soon on final approach to their target, the UNSC Essex class carrier Ranger, and they had a deadly payload of anti-ship grade proton torpedoes to unload into her. The last squadron accelerated forward to distract the Ranger's point defence systems while the bombers opened their launch tubes, their mass accelerators ready to fling out their deadly payloads.
Master Tiin closed quickly with the bombers and launched a pair of concussion missiles at the two leading Hyenas, hoping to take out a few more with their debris, but the Hyenas saw it in time and launched countermeasures, two small pods deployed and detonated, scattering shrapnel in the missiles path and they detonated prematurely. Master Tiin quickly took action and pressed down hard on the firing triggers, unleashing a storm of green energy from his blaster cannons, taking the bombers down quickly one by one as he shifted his fire, but he was too late. Five of the twelve launched their entire complements of proton torpedoes before he could get them and they sped off towards their target. The Ranger's own point defences opened up with rapid fire gatling laser cannons, but the torpedoes were so small and fast and the Ranger's AI had several thousand more tasks and targets to deal with that two of them slipped through and impacted the shields. The shield glowed golden and rippled in waves as the torpedoes hit, adding to the hundreds of pinpricks that the Ranger had been hit with in the past hour of combat.
Master Tiin blew a sigh of relief then continued on his hunt for more droids to scrap, fighting his way across the battle field that was Coruscant orbit, and soon found his old command ship, the Undaunted, and it was mostly intact, though it was obviously out of the fight with its main turbolaser batteries blasted away, and several decks exposed to space, including the Command Bridge. He flew into the main launch bay and quickly found the highest ranking officer on the ship.
"General, the ship is lost sir," said the clone commander.
"It's time we got another ship," said the Jedi Master. "Have all combat capable clones don full armour and thruster packs, we're going to be taking this enemy ship," he said as he accessed one of the computer terminals, quickly finding a Providence class cruiser just begging to be taken off of the Separatists hands.
Very soon every clone trooper was in armour and waiting underneath the doors of the main launch bay, their Jedi General just putting on his combat EVA helmet, customized for his species.
"Prepare to board," he ordered and the clones readied their rifles. As the cruiser passed them by, their guns silent since they didn't regard the Undaunted as a viable threat, its own guns silenced by enemy fire, the Undaunted's main launch bay doors opened up, revealing an army of clones ready to deploy.
With a single leap into the void the Jedi general began his attack; his loyal troopers following close behind him with thruster packs. In mid-flight he activated his green lightsabre and aimed straight for the closest section to the enemy warship's bridge. A few moments before the first clones touched down onto the hull the cruiser began firing its point defence laser cannons, killing several dozen in seconds, but hundreds more came flying in and magnetized their boots to the hull. Master Tiin immediately cut a circular man sized hole in the hull then jumped in, followed by several more clones. Like a whirlwind he swooped in a cut to pieces several battle droids as he dashed forward towards the bridge, cutting down any droids in his path, his clone troopers quickly following in right behind him.
He quickly reached the bridge and systematically decimated the droid crew and had the clones take care of the organic neimoidian captain; a sharp hit to the back of the head by a blaster put him effectively out of action. He quickly had the ship's point defence guns stop firing on his troops and instead opened fire on the enemy droid fighters, and aimed the ship's main guns on the closest enemy warship, another Providence class cruiser that was engaged against a pair of UNSC frigates and was steadily losing its shields. As soon as the cruiser's shields were down he opened up with a full broadside, blasting away at the cruiser's exposed hull as the clones continued to secure his new ship, blasting every droid onboard into scrap. With three short volleys from the ship's main guns the enemy cruiser was crippled, the two UNSC frigates unleashed a hail of Longbow missiles, a signature move of the UNSC, and finished off the cruiser, then fell back into formation with the rest of the task force.
On the ground things were starting to get messy. Tens of thousands of battle droids had landed on the city planet and the skies were plagued by droid fighters, filling the sky like locusts and shooting anything that moves, including helpless civilians. In the streets of Coruscant clones and battle droids clashed, the mechanical monstrosities pushing into Republic lines with mechanical precision and lethality, while the clones held the line and fought with strength, determination and a passion that gave them a slight edge over their droid counterparts, but they weren't the only ones resisting the droid armies on the ground.
From above hundreds of Pelican gunships came swooping in, unleashing a hail of weapons fire from their chin mounted triple barrelled spinning laser cannons and ripples of missiles, clearing away a landing zone and began landing their troops. They lightly touched down; the troops quickly dismounted from their gunships and took up positions on the firing line, allowing several wounded clones to pull back as the marines provided covering fire as the gunships lifted off again into the sky and provided some much needed support.
From the cockpit of an Albatross landing ship Colonel Walter Watanabe watched as the first platoons secured a landing zone for his small army of marines that were coming down to Coruscant. In mere moments his Albatross transport and mobile command centre touched down, and his troops disembarked, entering the action and began to drive off the enemy droid army.
Also deploying from the Albatrosses were several Challenger VII MBTs, the replacement for the recently retired Grizzly MBT. It had the same basic tread and body design as the Scorpion, but its turret was placed near dead centre, more reminiscent of the tanks of the 20th century, was also larger and required a crew of three, a tank commander, a gunner and a driver. The tank's main gun was a 120 mm hyper-velocity railgun capable of accelerating a one kilo projectile to mach 10, and for secondary weapons it had a turreted six barrel rotary blaster cannon, or simply known as the chaingun to the tank drivers, on top of the turret and a slightly more powerful single barrel light laser cannon mounted coaxially next to the main gun. To the rear of the turret was a pair of missile pods for long range bombardment or anti-air, which gave the new Challenger an impressive combat capability far above the older Scorpions or Grizzlies.
Colonel Watanabe left the cockpit of his command post Albatross and headed down to the command & control level where several officers were pouring over information being transmitted to them via the battle-net from both the troops on the ground and from scans made from ships in orbit, with a single Smart AI sifting through all the information and providing the most pertinent information to the soldiers in the field.
"What's the status of Republic forces?" the colonel asked.
"They've been hit hard, there has been a severe amount of casualties, both military and civilian, but their fighting back now, the Jedi are really doing a number on the droid army," a lieutenant reported.
"Have our force move to engage the enemy, Major Reynolds I assume your tanks are ready to go?" the general asked over the battle-net.
"My tanks are ready to get some sir, just tell us where you need us," said Major Malcolm Reynolds from his own customized Command Challenger MBT, an otherwise standard Challenger VII, except for its custom paintjob of digital patterned camouflage and a scorecard on its right hand side depicting several dozen really good kills, including oddly enough a droid landing craft, a score it had earned when it had managed to get a shot straight into the ship's disembarkation area and managed to hit the internal fuel tanks of the transport, causing a chain reaction that destroyed it.
"Very good Major, move your tanks into position at this bridge and engage the enemy with long range fire, take the pressure off of the clones while they regroup and counter attack," said the Colonel.
"Yes sir," said the Major with much enthusiasm. A second later over a hundred tanks began rolling forward towards the battle line, the streets wide enough for four tanks to roll side by side, the marines following behind them, using the tanks as shields from enemy fire, the tanks rolling over the broken forms of enemy war machinery without a care in the world.
The Major sighted a number of enemies through his scopes and gave a wide grin.
"Big bunch of tangos, going loud on the chaingun," he said as he took control of the chain gun atop of the turret and started blasting away, tearing through the lines of droids in seconds then he sighted an enemy battle tank about to open fire.
"Gunner, enemy tank sighted, eleven o'clock, range five hundred meters, take it out."
"Roger that, arming with AP round, target acquired," said the gunner as the tank's auto-loader armed the tank's gun with the chosen ordinance. "Fire in the hole." With a loud boom the AP round left the muzzle of the gun at mach ten, created a short lived sonic boom and hit the enemy AAT tank, punched through its armour and hit its fuel cell, causing it to blow up and took with it several dozen B1 and B2 battle droids that were too close.
An anti-air threat alarm sounded suddenly and the Major took a few precious seconds to look at his radar screen.
"Oh shit, all tanks incoming missiles, reset your chainguns to anti-air mode, take them out," Major Reynolds ordered over the radio as several hundred missiles came flying in straight for the tanks. With surprising speed the chainguns on every tank on the battlefield turned to aim up into the sky, locked on to a bunch of missiles and let rip with a hail of blaster fire, gunning down hundreds of missiles in seconds, but a few managed to get through, only to impact the strong hull hugging energy shields of the tanks, shimmering golden as they hit, rippling like water, but not all of them were so fortunate.
One tank at the front, right next to the Major's tank, lost its energy shield to the missile barrage, leaving it open to an attack from the front, a battle droid with a rocket launcher. It fired and a tank buster rocket crossed the airspace between the droid and the Challenger VII and hit the forward right tread pod, crippling it and holding up its part of the column.
"This is Lacrosse 4, one of those droid bastards took out one of our tread pods, we've lost some mobility but are still combat capable, but recommend that we return to base to replace the pod," said the commander of the stricken tank.
"Copy that Lacrosse 4, move over to the side of the street and provide some artillery support from there while you wait for a repair crews to get to you," the major responded, watching on his scope as Lacrosse 4 moved to the side of the street, near continuously blasting away with its chaingun and light laser cannon with the occasional shot fired from its hypervelocity cannon that destroyed any heavy enemy vehicle it hit.
At a bridge not too far away from the UNSC marines tank column an infantry battalion of clones were trying to hold the bridge, with little success as they were slowly pushed back. The Clone Commander in charge in red patterned armour along with his men were blasting droids left, right and centre, but they just kept on coming in an ever growing tide. He soon saw no choice but to retreat.
"Fall back, fall back," he ordered, just as Master Yoda came jumping over their heads, lightsabre in hand.
"Hold you position," the Jedi High General ordered and he cut deeply into the droids lines, giving the clones hope, as he went on to chop up dozens, then hundreds of droids. As he battled the droids a vulture droid came careening through the air with Mace Windu perched on top of it, his had entangled in the fighter's wiring. He let go and dropped to the ground, the vulture droid having lost its guiding intelligence crashed in the droid army and split the droid advance in two, yet the battle droids continued forwards.
The two Jedi teamed up and with their lightsabres and the Force they managed to hold the line and even pushed back the droids with a combined Force push, shoving the droids away from them and over the sides of the bridge. Soon after the UNSC tanks arrived, all guns blazing with a massive barrage of weapons fire, which overwhelmed the droid army as they attempted to regroup after the Jedi's attack, forcing the droids even further back.
Major Reynolds sighted a tall sphere-like droid with four long legs and laser cannons on the top and bottom of its body, with several missile launching wheel droids following behind.
"Big spider, twelve o'clock, hit its central body," he ordered his gunner, with a loud boom the hypervelocity gun fired and the round punched straight through its thin armour and hit a wheel droid that was trying to use the spider droid as cover, blasting away its right side wheel and crashed down to the ground, its missile rack hit the ground and ignited the missiles engines, aiming straight down it destroyed itself in a conflagration of fire, along with several others of its kind that were too close.
"Yes, buy one, get several free," Reynolds cheered his gunner and slapped him on his combat helmet.
In an office well outside the combat area an old man in elegant, but simple, robes was drinking a cup of hot caf, watching over the battle as it unfolded and all of his plans unfolding just as he had foreseen, though he had to modify his plans slightly to accommodate the new player in the field.
His doorbell rang and he allowed them entry, a trio of Jedi, a Togrutan, an Ithorian and a Talz along with a squad of clone troopers rushed in.
"Chancellor we must get you to safety," said Jedi Master Shaak Ti urgently.
"But the battle is so far away, and our forces as well as our allies seem to be defeating them," said the Chancellor, seemingly without a care in the world.
"Chancellor we must follow protocol and get you into your secured bunker," Shaak Ti tried again.
"I will not be chased away from my place of residence by a bunch of Separatist thugs..."
A deep growling sound was soon heard, the Jedi and the clones, along with the Chancellor's guards, tried to place the sound, but couldn't quite do it, but it seemed to give Master Ti the shivers, then with a horrified gasp she shouted, "We must leave, NOW."
It suddenly stopped; the Chancellor's residence in near complete silence, only the sounds of battle in the far distance was heard.
"There, you see, nothing to be worried about," said the Chancellor cheerfully.
With a mighty crash a tall being busted straight through the Chancellor's window and stood challengingly in front of the Chancellor and his guards.
"I have been looking forward to this, Jedi, and nice to see you again Master Shaak Ti, this time I will finish what I started on Hypori," said General Grievous, one of the galaxy's most feared generals and war criminals of the Clone Wars.
The battle on the streets of Coruscant was soon coming to an end. The droid army had quickly lost too many droids and were now being decimated by both the GAR and UNSC reinforcements that had just arrived from the Outer Rim Sieges. Jedi masters Windu and Yoda had moved away from the centre of battle to Colonel Watanabe's Albatross Command Centre. Using the command centre's holo-tank to get a general overview of both the battle on the ground and the battle in space, the two Jedi Generals suddenly felt something was wrong. They looked at each other and Yoda gave his quiet assent.
"Colonel, may I trouble you for a squad of your marines and one of your gunships?" Master Windu asked.
"Why?" the colonel asked suspiciously.
"A disturbance in the Force," Windu answered directly.
"Senses tingling?" the colonel asked a little sceptically and the Jedi Master responded with only a raised eyebrow. The colonel nodded. "Lieutenant, are there any ODST squads available?" he asked one of his aides.
"Yes sir, Dino Squad is returning to base now aboard Pelican D48 escorted by a pair of Sparrowhawk gunships, they read as fully combat capable and have only just been resupplied, they should be here in seconds," said the aide. Master Windu raised both his eyebrows in surprise and the colonel merely said, "I served alongside one of your knights on Ryloth when we broke the Separatist blockade and liberated the planet, he saved my life quite a few times in that hellhole and I've learned the hard way to trust you Jedi's instincts," he explained.
Master Windu could only bow in gratitude then set off outside well before the sounds of a Pelican, along with a pair of Sparrowhawks, coming in for landing, the Jedi master ran up its briefly open rear ramp then it dusted off seconds later, its escort following in close formation. He ran past the bewildered ODST squad and up to the cockpit.
"Pilot, fly in that direction at best possible speed," he ordered.
"Sir?" the pilot of the gunship asked the commanding officer of the ODST squad, 1st Lieutenant Alfred Higgins.
"Follow the general's orders, I just got word from local base command to follow this Jedi's every order, within reason, now fly damn it!"
Properly chastised the pilot gunned his Pelican's engines and flew hard and fast past the thousands of Coruscant Skyscrapers. They soon came in sight of a small ship on a landing platform, just above the entrance to Chancellor Palpatine's reinforced bunker, and Palpatine was being forced up the ramp and into the ship by a pair of Magna droids with General Grievous following close behind. The ship fired upon the Pelican and its escorts, their pilots pulling every trick they could to avoid being shot down, but the Pelican got hit twice on the starboard wing, damaging its wing mounted engine assembly and sending it careening down.
"You've got to bail out folks, I don't know how long I can keep this thing in the air, good luck," the pilot said as the co-pilot opened the rear hatch. The ODSTs and the Jedi general jumped out, the ODSTs used their built in thruster packs to slow down, a recent addition to the ODST armour's repertoire, while Master Windu used the Force to slow his descent, and they all landed hard but safely onto the ground.
Surprised by the Jedi and ODST squad's arrival General Grievous span around and drew his four lightsabres only to suddenly feel something crushing his metal frame as if caught in a huge vice and began crushing what was left of his internal organs, he was forced to make a quick withdrawal into his ship and it quickly lifted off. The two Sparrowhawks tried to disable the small ship, but to no avail as it fired its turrets at them again then blasted its way out of the atmosphere and escaped into space.
"Damn it," said Higgins as he got on the comm. to local HQ, telling them what had just transpired. The Jedi general could only narrow his eyes in disappointment, then ran off down to the Chancellor's bunker, the ODSTs following shortly after him. Several hundred meters down and past several metres thick blast doors they soon reached the inner sanctum of the bunker where they found the Chancellor's three Jedi protectors, two dead, one tied to the ceiling with electrified wiring, keeping her in constant pain.
"I failed," said Shaak Ti in despair and then fell unconscious. Master Windu quickly cut her down and with a gentle manipulation of the Force removed the electrified ropes as the ODST medic moved forward and assessed her condition.
On General Grievous' shuttle Chancellor Palpatine remained stoic and stone faced, but on the inside he was smiling in satisfaction. Everything was proceeding according to his design, even the arrival of the UNSC and their contribution to the war had been though unexpected, he had managed to keep them in the dark more or less, and soon the final act of this war would come and the Sith's revenge upon the Jedi would be complete, and he would have a new apprentice, one far younger and vastly more powerful than his current one.
AN: I hope my readers found this to your liking, I'm surprised that I managed to get this down so quickly. Any thoughts, criticisms, please share them in a review.
