A/N: Three bloody weeks of waiting. Sorry about that everyone, I really tried to update fast, but with school starting and all, things have been a little hectic. This chapter initially started as an introduction for a new character, but it spun out to be something so much more, a small, contained story in its own right (an 8000 word chapter? How'd I let that happen?). I hope the wait's been worth it.
Chapter 9: End of the Beginning
General Grievous felt a wave of nausea roll through him as his ship was sucked into the portal. As the ship once again entered normal space, Grievous saw a vast ship graveyard, full of ships the likes of which he had never seen. Surrounding the debris disk were eight identical blue portals, each a perfect sphere. Their serene, quiet appearance was a sharp contrast to the actively tearing and rending hole that led Grievous here. Its counterpart was straight behind him. Beyond the edge of this ring of debris and portals, a planet humming with blue lines of energy was visible. For no logical reason, it gave Grievous a distinct chill of not belonging, and he resolved to quickly leave.
"Set a course for the portal immediately in front of us." he commanded.
-Capital of the sangheili colony world Harmonious Coexistence-
Vas Jadarn was not an insignificant figure on Harmonious Coexistence. When the colony was founded over seventy years ago as a physical testament to the continued alliance and interdependence of the Covenant Separatist races, his father came as one of the tired old veterans of the war. Over a short period of time, with skill and tenacity, he climbed the ranks as was selected as the Kaidon (governor) within two short years. His rugged competence and penchant for survival helped the young colony thrive, a difficult task considering the many different cultures that didn't necessarily share the same views. As the colony aged, however, it became clear that his son, who had been raised in a political environment and whose entire life thus far had been dedicated to the study of leadership, was a better fit for the complex political and diplomatic machinations.
He had held that august position for ten years now, and the colony was prospering, a sign of excellent relations and cooperation for the races. In the more liberal and open-minded circles of the Inner Council of Sangheilios, there was even talk of allowing prospective humans to begin small trade routes. Unlike the talks of allowing less restricted human access to Sangheilios and the inner colonies, those talks were beginning to gain some traction, since many sangheili had been impressed with human valor and skill during the great Human-Covenant war.
It was another average day at the office, as Vas cycled through various reports. Colony population had been booming within the last five years, and now hovered around a strong four hundred million. One hundred million of these were sangheili, who still held the de facto leadership position among the races. Indeed, humans often colloquially referred to Separatist space as the Sangheili Empire. However, something showed up on monitor. Vas looked closely, "I want a better line of sight. Access the satellite controls."
His screen panned in, revealing a blue portal just above upper orbit around Harmonious Coexistence. For a moment, all seemed calm. Then, debris, wreckage of ships that were Covenant in design began to tumble through. They could easily be pulled into the atmosphere and cause catastrophic damage. Though the Council had not seen fit to build a full planetary shield generator here, Vas's father had placed ones in the original settlements, which had become the greatest cities on the planet. However, new development had been occurring so rapidly that if the government had the funds for more shields, which it didn't, it couldn't have kept up with the demand. The debris could easily ravage the population.
"Have the planetary defense platforms target them. Controlled plasma streams."
Vas watched with satisfaction at the efficiency of his operation as the superheated plasma easily vaporized segments of hull. The coloring indicated that they were of the old Covenant, colors not seen in a hundred years. To Vas's horror, something even more jarring followed the debris: Three ships of very strange design, with symbols on the side not corresponding with Covenant or Forerunner glyphs, or human letters. They were completely alien. Before he could make up his mind as to whether the ships were hostile, they opened fire with directed energy weapons. They seemed to be long, red cylinders of plasma, though it didn't look like it followed the physics of any plasma that Vas had ever seen. The first of his three orbital defense facilities rippled with explosions, then disintegrated. It hadn't been prepared for any true conflict.
"All remaining stations to alert status!" Vas roared. He may not have had militia or planetary defense forces on par to those of the UNSC, but every sangheili was a warrior to the end, and would fight for his home. On the planet, Vas knew the military forces by heart. He possessed about eight hundred Sangheili soldiers, two thousand Unggoy auxiliaries, two hundred Kig-Yar auxiliaries, and fifty Maegakaelo bond pairs, backed up with fifty seraphs, five scarabs, a hundred wraiths, and numerous phantoms and light infantry support. He also had a troop of twenty honour guard to protect himself. Between the three of them, the enemy likely had at least 24,000 troops. He would have to try to even the odds in space.
-CIS flagship Invisible Hand—
Grievous was startled as one of the silver-blue orbital platforms fired back, as streams of bluish plasma streaked across space and hit one of his cruisers, draining its shields. He hadn't expected stations with such elegant designs and smooth, seemingly unarmored surfaces to be able to fire such potent weapons. The second one fired and completely drained the shields off of the cruiser, leaving it vulnerable to counter fire. The three ships concentrated fire on one of the platforms, but it had a powerful shield deployed now, delaying Grievous. Finally, it exploded as well. Its counterpart survived, however, to strike out at the unshielded cruiser, melting streaks in its hull as the atmosphere billowed out and the ship ignited. The remaining two CIS vessels concentrated fire to eliminate the final defense platform.
Grievous fumed. He only had three ships, and now that number was reduced to a paltry two. His own ship did not carry a massive complement of droids, but given their mechanical nature, they were easy to pack together, so what may seem few to a CIS commander was a high number indeed for any other. Between the two ships, Grievous still had access to 32,000 combat droids of different variety, including a squad of Magna Guards. He could still capture the planet and present it as a war trophy to the Confederate Council, with the promise of many more worlds of easy plunder ahead. Grievous supposed that if such a prosperous world, with so many trade ships coming in and out, was so undefended, than many other worlds would easily fall prey to CIS fleets. This discovery could turn the tide of the war against the Republic.
He sat back in his chair. "Prepare for a planetary assault. Ready the laser batteries against targets of strategic value, and level some of their cities to instill fear."
~Excerpt from the planetary archives of Harmonious Coexistence.~
It is a beautiful blue day. The sun is out, a deep golden yellow set against the strikingly blue sky. There are a few fluffy clouds lazily hanging in the air, but not nearly enough to obscure the descent of the many dropships carrying officials for this important day. On the ground, amidst the green fields and rolling hills, a stark white pavilion stands out in the landscape. It has four metallic alloy squares on each side of it, landing pads for the dropships that draw ever closer. Some native fauna fly in circles in the sky, and a dispersed quickly by the deep humming of the Phantoms landing. Delegates and officials begin to step out. It is a peaceful day…
Bright red bolts flash out across the sunny sky, slamming into the ground with tremendous violence. Powerful explosions rock the land as the artillery continues to rain from the sky. Farmsteads are devastated and entire lakes and rivers vaporize from the energy of the weapons. In the city, there are buildings and parks that were once serene. Now, they are a hellish scene. Verdant green trees are alight with flame, and tall and proud structures collapse or melt under the onslaught.
~Excerpt from the archives~
From the phantoms emerge representatives of each major race that has chosen to join the separatist cause: The proud and might Sangheili, architects of this plan and the unchallenged masters of the galaxy. The small and cowardly Unggoy, who find in peace skills that they never had the opportunity to discover in war. The wormlike Maegkaelo, who once and still don fearsome suits of armor into battle, the bane of any without heavy fire support. The mercenary and vicious Kig-Yar, some of whom have joined the separatists if for no other reason than that the Covenant was desperately losing the war. Together, they were about to forge the first concrete symbol of their continued alliance and mutual strength. The future seems boundless, the possibilities astounding, as the races sign together the location of the new colony, and a brighter future for all.
In the city, a female unggoy flees with her young child. Explosions rock the land around them, and there are craters in every conceivable location. Her breath catches in her mouth as acrid smoke gushed out of a collapsed skyscraper, and she ducks beneath the rubble. Fire spreads rapidly as the guns continue to pour death and destruction upon the land. Why is this happening to me? she wonders. She sees the city gates up ahead. If she can make it out into the open country, where no one will find reason to attack, she will be safe. She can feel the tightness and anxiety in her chest as she begins to feel the thrill of making it. The gate is right in front of her, a charred, twisted remain of a once pristine entrance to an optimistic new city. As she begins to take her first steps towards safety though, she sees a shadow. Looking up, she sees a tall, silver-white machine. It carries energy bladed weapons. Her last thoughts are of how close she got as the thing rams the four blades into her and her child.
-Council Chambers of the colony of Harmonious Coexistence-
Vas slumped back in his chair. Despite the best attempts of the crew aboard the defense platforms, the attacking warships had dispensed of them with relative ease. Still, he supposed the destruction of one meant the destruction of a third of their forces, which would help the situation on the ground. Although, it was already a grim situation, he thought, as he looked at the monitors displaying the rain of death and destruction across the major population areas of the planet. Fortunately, all of the older and larger cities were outfitted with shields, and they were holding for now. They wouldn't stop a dedicated ground assault though. Any vehicles smaller than a very large dropship were small enough in profile to slip through the shield and directly attack the cities. Even more unfortunate were the many cities that now lay burning. Only ten had shields, dozens more major cities were unprotected. Vas had spent his entire life as a civilian leader, the first generation of such leaders in a sangheili population that for untold millennia had only known war. Now, he mused, his ornate ceremonial armor would be used in true combat, defending what was left of the colony he helped to build. He clacked his gold-armored mandibles together, and walked towards the first war of his life.
Outside, his honor guard stood assembled, some of whom were very old, veterans of the Human-Covenant war. Ironically, these were some of the sangheili who most supported better relations with the humans. Vas remembered stories they told him when he was still a child, stories of human tenacity, ingenuity, and spirit in the face of certain annihilation. If those stories were true, he thought, he could use a few humans in his army right now. He faced the crowd.
"Today, we stand assembled against a force none of us have seen. For many of us, this has been the first generation in countless millennia to live without the scourge of war. Now, it has found us once more. We must stand together to defend this planet, not only for our homes and families, but for all this colony represents: A new era of unity and prosperity. If we must gain it through another cycle of bloodshed and violence, as these foes seem intent on making us, we will. My comrades, we go to war together, as our forefathers once did, but as equals!"
A massive roar swelled from the ranks, accompanied by the squeaks of the unggoy and the rapid clicking of the kig-yar. Vas was pleased that his oratory skills hadn't gone rusty in the decades he spent behind a desk performing administrative duties. As he scanned the crowd, the shining helmets, the proud banners, the disciplined ranks, he felt an uplifting pride in his men. Together, they would hold this planet.
-CIS forward command-
General Grievous was pleased at the rate at which his droids had smashed apart the local cities. He destroyed half, and captured the other half for the resources. However, the most major prizes, the grand, glittering major cities scattered across the planet, had not been scratched. Apparently, they had energy shielding. Grievous decided that a massive strike, with all of his available droids, would stun the planet into submission. A crooked smile worked its way onto his face. This day would turn out well after all.
-2 Hours Later, Serenity Pass-
Serenity Pass was one of the more spectacular natural wonders of Harmonious Coexistence. It was a massive, deep gorge running twelve miles lengthwise, between two large, flat plateaus, with beautiful vistas, waterfalls, and plant life. It was a popular tourist destination, and a protected park in which development was banned. Now, it served a strategic purpose. It was the only pass into the capital city, as the beautiful flat plains of the capital were surrounded by steep mountain ranges. Those ranges also served as the boundary marker for the shield generator in the capital. It was possible to airlift troops over the passes, but as the enemy had recently found out in a most painful fashion, there were concealed anti-air needler batteries scattered throughout. Therefore, for any hope of an attack into the capital, one would have to march his army through Serenity Pass. Vas's father may not have chosen a great commercial location for the capital, but his military mind had chosen an excellent defensive position.
Now, Vas's troops were dispersed throughout the pass at strategic hiding points. He had many fewer troops than his foe, so he would have to make every single one of them count. He scanned the horizon with his binoculars, searching for the foe he expected to appear. Finally, indistinct shapes formed up on the plains outside the pass. As they lined up in precise, mechanical rows, Vas's heart sank. There had been many more than he had expected, at least twenty-eight thousand, if not more. They had quite a bit of heavy support as well, by the looks of it. Vas realized he wouldn't be able to hold them at the pass. He would have to cause as much damage as he could here, then retreat to the capital itself. He cursed his luck under his breath. "You have all been told the plan of battle. Ready your armaments and hold your fire until my command. When we've done as much damage as we can, retreat. There's no need to pointlessly throw you lives away. May the Forerunners watch over you."
Grievous used his eye implants to scan the imposing plateaus in front of him. He couldn't well go over them; there was heavy triple A covering the pass. He could only go through it, and he didn't like the looks of the narrow confines and rugged terrain. It was a prime location for an ambush, but he didn't have a choice. Even worse, he could only fit three AATs side by side through it. It was wider than many he had seen, but still far too thin. He'd have to forego air cover as well. He supposed that he could have assassin droids screen his advance, and have his flanks face outwards. It was an imperfect solution, but a solution nonetheless.
Vas cursed again. Whoever the enemy commander was, he wasn't exactly stupid. Vas had hoped that sangheili martial culture would give him superiority over most enemy commanders, he had obviously been mistaken. His foe was screening his advance with light infantry, and was carefully monitoring his flanks. Apparently, the enemy used an army composed entirely of machines, guided by rudimentary virtual or artificial intelligences. That would explain how so many could be packed aboard just two ships. He planned to set up a diversion.
Grievous monitored the progress of his assassin droids. They had inbuilt thermal imagery to detect organic prey, and would relay the information back to the command group. The advantage of this was that the droids could essentially see through any camouflage or cover, but the disadvantage was the very short range. At the moment, they would have to rely on analog sight. On the monitor, some dull pieces of metallic armor showed up. Immediately, the droids opened fire with their lethal sniper rifles. Grievous was pleased; so far, his plan seemed to catch the enemy napping. Then, on a high ridge, he saw a golden figure stand. Its voice boomed out, "We seek not war, but peace, in the colony of Harmonious Coexistence. We give you a chance to reconsider your course, and to leave without further bloodshed."
Grievous was surprised to be able to understand the being, but he scoffed. "You will all come to serve the Confederacy of Independent Systems."
"On your head be it."
Grievous was stunned to see several heat signatures show up on the assassin droids' monitors, but not on their analog ones. Before any one of them could get a single shot off, the shapes moved in rapidly with energy blades of sorts, and destroyed his screening force. The golden armored figure raised a similar energy blade into the sky, and all hell broke loose.
Vas raised his energy sword in a gesture of defiance, and as a command. All at once, the seventy-five wraiths he had brought with him opened fire. Many had been concealed in the rocks, many others were surreptitiously airlifted in by phantom onto the plateaus as the enemy advanced. Now, hundreds of plasma balls arced into the sky and towards the ground, slamming into enemy formations and vehicles alike with massive destructive power. From behind high up rock formations, numerous troops opened fire, filling the air with deadly plasma. The kig-yar targeted important looking droids with their beam rifles, as their partners covered them with their distinctive shields. All was going according to plan.
Grievous saw the sky fill with glowing blue balls. It was almost beautiful, right up until they started slamming into the ground and detonating with tremendous force. Grievous had expected man-portable mortars or light artillery with the enemy ambush, but nothing on this scale. He hadn't thought it possible to move such amounts of firepower in such difficult terrain. As his AATs and other tanks finally came about and tracked the firing locations of the enemies, strange dropships came down and picked the enemy mortar tanks up, adding to the already hellish firestorm of small-arms plasma fire. As they flew off, with barely any casualties, Grievous was left with a disaster zone. He had lost thousands of droids at the minimum, and dozens of vehicles, though they were all expendable. What was worse was the horrendous delay. Charred vehicle carcasses and pieces of droids and boulders now littered the pass. It would take several hours to clear.
Vas's forces retreated in the phantoms and borrowed civilian airlifters without fear of reprisal. Whoops and cheers filled the battle net comms, as the troops celebrated the first victory in the battle for Harmonious Coexistence. Vas himself knew that though they had won an important victory, it was ultimately insignificant in the long run. A relatively small percentage of enemy forces had been destroyed, so all that had really been achieved was a small delay in the inexorable advance of the invading army, and a morale boost for his men. However, it had bought him enough time to finish planting mines at the end of Serenity Pass, where he also had artillery killzones set up. He was already suspecting that the planet might well be lost, be he could make the enemy pay dearly for every inch. It was a pity, he brooded, that the enemy troops were all machines.
-4 Hours Later, outside the Capital City-
Grievous watched as his heavy lifter transports moved in on the city, and as his AAT heavy tank artillery/transports semi-surrounded the enemies. Grievous had been more cautious in his advance after the ambush, so he managed to root out the mined end of the pass. However, that really didn't help him much, because the entire time his droids were removing mines, his column was being fired upon by much heavier plasma artillery. The losses he was absorbing were at this rate still acceptable, though. The air was filled with the sound of the AAT main cannons firing on the city. As Grievous followed the arcs though, they hit a sparkling, shimmering blue barrier and exploded on it. After a half hour of sustained barrage, Grievous called them off. He would have to attack the city directly.
His heavy lifters approached the shield. If they worked on the same principles as those the Gungans had used, then they should pass through…
Instead, they bounced off of it like it was a giant rubber ball. As the transports milled around in their confused state, powerful cannons* fired into the air, shooting many of them down. Grievous cursed. He would have to think of a different approach. If he couldn't drain the shield, and couldn't go through it, how was he supposed to be able to assault the damned city?
Vas took a stroll down the main road of the capital as he basked in the golden sunset. The trees that lined the street were imported from Sangheilios, and were in full blossom. It was a beautiful sight, an one, he reflected, that wouldn't last very long. Optimistic estimates of shield strength were hovering around 80%. If the enemy decided to continue a barrage, they wouldn't hold for more than a week. It would seem that the enemy commander seemed to have gotten the impression that his shields were both impenetrable and a solid barrier though, and was holding back. Of course, both assumptions were untrue, but it couldn't hurt that the enemy thought he was a few steps away from invincible. He would have to rely on dirty urban fighting techniques. His compulsory Sangheili military training didn't extend to urban warfare; it was assumed that the enemy would be glassed long before then, and that no enemy would set foot upon Sangheili territory. The next automated ship that would bring news of an attack would arrive at Sangheilios in two weeks. The colony did not have that much time left.
-Unknown location, in slipspace, en route to Earth-
David Xiang sipped quietly at his green tea. He may have been raised in a cosmopolitan style, but his family left him with quite a few marks from his native Chinese culture. He supposed that if had ever had a chance to meet his father, that his father likely would have raised him even more traditionally. Pushing away his thoughts, he manipulated his tablet and brought up comms. "Helmsman, bring us out of slipspace for a bit, I want to update the Secretary-General on the Sangheili political climate."
As the ship neatly opened a sliver in real space and decelerated, David's tablet began pulsating softly. He checked the screen, and saw a distress signal being broadcast from a Sangheili colony world. "Curious. They're early. Helmsman! The cargo vessels that sourced the beacon can't have left long ago. We must be near the colony. Cross reference star charts."
"Our location makes it very likely that the distress call is from a colony called Harmonious Coexistence. You know it?"
David brooded for a moment. "Yes. I attended the groundbreaking ceremony. The only human in attendance. Set a course for it. Let's see if we can't lend a hand."
-Siege of Harmonious Coexistence, Day 4-
So far, the main avenue through the capital city was still lush with plant life. Three days had passed since the initial attack, and Vas was beginning to doubt his opponent's capabilities. All the other cities on the planet were undefended, since Vas had made the decision to keep all of his troops in the capital. Even if his opponent wanted a decisive blow, he should have figured out by now that the shield was permeable by smaller units. As he continued to scan the perimeter with his helmet's inbuilt zoom function, the palace facility shook.
An unggoy quickly ran in, out of breath. "Things are attacking! Things are attacking!"
Vas ignored the hyperventilating soldier and continued to focus on the perimeter. There, he saw small divisions of machines entering from multiple points, where holes had been just created in the city's hastily erected defensive walls. He supposed that it really had been too much to hope that his foe was stupid. "Get the troops into the defensive perimeters around the shield generators and government complex."
The defense strategy would rely on using the city's chokepoints and avenues to maximum effect, funneling the enemies into areas where there numbers wouldn't matter. The city had a large central government and military compound right at the base of the mountains. The four plasma generators that powered the city shields were a short distance away from this hub, one in each direction. The generators only had one immediately accessible path that led deep underground. The troops within could easily concentrate fire. Although each also had emergency exits, they were sealed by blast doors and could not be as readily attacked. Defense of the generators was critical, since the enemy would be able to bring in tanks and heavy lifters once the shields fell. The longer they remained in Sangheili hands, the more infantry casualties could be inflicted.
Within the central government district itself, smaller individual shield generators, vehicles, and heavy plasma batteries would provide a more than adequate defense. In the end, once the enemy was in possession of the city and battering on the front gates of the main palace, Vas would activate an overload sequence for the central plasma generators directly under the structure, taking many enemies with him in honorable death.
Pepem shivered as the ceiling shook from the fighting above. In his personal opinion, the unggoy were never meant for combat, but his people had a great deal better morale and performance now that the sangheili treated them as battle brothers instead of the cannon fodder that the Prophets always preferred them to be. As an unggoy holding the rank of major, he was even given a plasma rifle. Still, he would have much rather stayed home with his family. With the great Human-Covenant war over and all, he thought the military was a secure, decent paying job that demanded little besides physical fitness. He hadn't counted on a brand new war springing up out of nowhere.
The sangheili serving as the platoon major stopped speaking on the comm and walked over. "Pepem, was it? The outer containment doors have been breached. Prepare the rest of your unggoy for combat." As the shaking moved closer, Pepem realized he wasn't ready for combat at all.
The door flew inwards, propelled by a breaching charge. A few red bolts flew in, but they were met by a veritable wall of multicolored plasma. Some of the droids were nearly completely disintegrated by the amount of plasma. To Pepem's right, another unggoy was hit by one of the strange red bolts. He cried and staggered back. Pepem quickly dived to him and pulled him back into the cover of the barricade. The type of wound seemed fairly consistent with Covenant plasma weaponry, just much more concentrated and acting more like an energy bullet than an actual stream of plasma. Dadab popped back out of cover and fired off a burst of plasma blindly towards the entryway.
As the battle grew more heated, the defenders soon found themselves being pushed back by sheer numbers. No matter how much plasma filled the air, there always seemed to be more of the infernal machines pouring in. As they huddled underneath yet another barricade, the Sangheili turned to Pepem. "I'm going to send some Kig-Yar forward to try to gain back some ground. As soon as I give the order, I want you and your Unggoy to provide heavy cover fire." Numbly, Pepem nodded.
The few Kig-Yar that were in the room interlocked their shields and advanced in a formation reminiscent of phalanxes in Earth's antiquity. Behind them, Pepem and the other unggoy squads laid down heavy suppression fire. As Pepem indulged himself with a glimmer of hope of victory, six ball shaped machines rolled into the room and unfurled. Concentrated fire brought three of them down quickly, but the others activated something akin to a personal bubble shield. The plasma simply fizzled on the surface of the shields, and the droidekas unleashed a torrent of blaster fire upon the unfortunate defenders.
Pepem saw his Sangheili commander roar in the face of the enemy. He pulled out a ceremonial energy sword and charged. If a human had been there, it would have been reminiscent of the Japanese banzai charges of the Second World War. His raw strength and momentum bowled over the first droideka, which was promptly incinerated by plasma fire. As blaster fire poured in on him, his shields collapsed. With a strangled cry, he fell, as Pepem's world faded to black.
-Siege of Harmonious Coexistence, Day 7-
The main palace complex had been under siege for several days now, and Vas was down to his last handful of troops. Air cover was completely gone, and most of the wraiths were in the city proper, making it unlikely that any made it out. He did still have three large plasma cannons, many anti-air needler batteries, and his five scarabs though. He decided would use the scarabs as a diversionary counterattack, to buy his defenders some more time. Placing his golden ceremonial for what he felt was the last time, Vas stepped out onto the top of the long set of steps down into the palace courtyard, to meet his destiny.
Grievous could feel victory in the air. He had barely lost half of his cheap, expendable battle droids, and was on the verge of conquering an entire planet with bountiful resources. The battle raged heavily around the well fortified palace complex. What troops his opponent had left were the most experienced, hardened, and well-trained men on the planet. Grievous wouldn't allow himself a complacent victory celebration just yet.
Vas looked down the set of steps to his troops arrayed on the ground. They were battered and beaten, the last of the defenders of the entire colony. Their armor was scratched and burned, their equipment looked barely functional. Many had their heads hung low, a sign of their belief in an inevitable defeat, and the loss of honor that it entailed. Vas realized that the steps he was standing on top of were meant to instill awe and deference in the populace, a sign of how much higher above the rank and file he was. He also realized that morale in the compound was reaching dangerously low levels. He decided to take a drastic step, one that would overturn untold millennia of Covenant hierarchal tradition. He descended the steps until he was almost level with the men, and began to speak. "We stand here today, the last few of a valiant group. We fought our hardest, and while you may think we are defeated, I assure you that we still stand with our heads high! Are we to let our home that many of us built up from nothing with our bare hands fall to some raiding vagabonds? Are we to let our families perish while we flee like cowards under the onslaught? I say, we stand here, on this ground, where this entire planets future was once created, to fight to the very last man to keep that future alive! The enemy will only have our world when they have drowned in an ocean of blood! The roar of antiaircraft fire and explosions was drowned out by the massive cheer unleashed by the last of Harmonious Coexistence's garrison.
Grievous felt an unaccustomed feeling of fear rise in his chest as five monstrous war machines smashed through the troops that had been fighting to gain entrance to the palace compound. Blindingly bright beams destroyed everything they came into contact with, turning entire groups of droids into slag instantaneously. No tank seemed to be able to withstand the searing beam weapons either. Even worse, turrets mounted on top were free to deal with air threats out of the firing arc of the main cannon. Grievous could only see one way to destroy them. He called his magna guard.
Grievous and his guards scrambled up the side of a tall structure like a group of spiders, perching on the top to carry out their plan. They split into four groups, to deal with the threat more quickly. As the might war machines passed underneath them, sowing destruction in their wake, Grievous and his troops jumped onto their backs. Grievous himself personally led the assault on the lead walker. He would have to rely on his magna guard to deal with the rest.
Kilik 'Atrin was an honour guard in the employ of Planetary Governer Vas Jadarn, and he was the commander in charge of the last assault of the Scarabs on enemy lines. He knew he would die trying, but if he bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive, he would have a place in history as a hero of the defense of the colony. The moment he heard clanking on the hull, though, he realized something had gone wrong. The enemy had decided to board. He busied himself next to the pilot of the Scarab, pretending to be occupied as the mysterious enemies cut through his troops. On his motion tracker, he saw one get right behind him. As he deduced its strike, he swept underneath with his energy sword, bisecting the magna guard. Continuing forward, he dueled fiercely with the other five before sticking one with a plasma grenade and leaping back. He took advantage of the momentary distraction to lop off the head of another droid. To his confusion, it continued to function, trading blows with him using its irritatingly resistant staff. In a master stroke, he grabbed the energized end of the staff, surprising the droid long enough for him to slice its legs off and kick it into its comrades. As the droid flew back, Kilik slammed a plasma grenade into the machine's chest. The ensuing detonation destroyed all remaining hostiles aboard his walker.
He rushed up to the deck, only to see three other scarabs under attack. He assumed the leader of these special droids had attacked the lead walker. Kilik snorted. He must be a fool, he thought. Kilik never commanded from the lead vehicle. Doing so was asking the gods for a quick and pointless death. However, he decided that he could save the other walkers if he disrupted their command chain by killing their commander. He had seen similar tactics work on the gold-colored droids in the fierce city fighting.
Grievous smashed his first lightsaber against the shields on the tall pilot. Enemies of this race seemed to have the same resistant energy shield that the strange and green-armored soldier had back on the CIS research world. By now, Grievous had devised a method of defeating them. He quickly followed up with a second strike, since the massive energies of the lightsaber had immediately depleted the shields. The second attack stabbed straight through his foe's midsection, killing him instantly. Grievous had been hoping for more of a fight.
As he sensed movement behind him, he got it. Another tall figure, wearing elaborate gold and orange armor, and wielding one of the strange lightsaber-like weapons slashed at him rapidly, forcing Grievous up against the control console. He must have bumped something, as the walker lurched to the side and through them both off. Grievous quickly lunged into an attack, wheeling around all four of his lightsabers. Before he could strike with his deadly sabers though, a flurry of plasma was sent his way as his foe fired off one of his strange plasma weapons. Grievous easily deflected them, but was caught off guard by the primitive pistol-like projectile weapon that the tall warrior suddenly pulled out. He melted the bullets with his saber, but bits and pieces slid through. Unlike deflecting plasma or blaster bolts*, in which the saber's electromagnetic field intersects with the that of the bolt, (and being the stronger one, pushes it away), lightsaber contact with a bullet would only melt off the immediate area of contact, meaning a deflection would have to be much more precise. In addition, the remainder of the bullet maintains its velocity, continuing on to the destination as a superheated fragment. Several of these struck Grievous's armor and pushed him back.
Kilik never thought that the pistol that the strange human, David Xiang, had given him years ago would come in handy. It seemed to retain a small effectiveness against the strange energy blades. His reprieve was small though, as his chamber clicked dry, and the white monstrosity attacked again. Kilik barely managed to fend off its assault. As they dueled past the energy core, he could hear the thing issuing commands that his translator strangely thought was English. "These walkers have energy cores on the second floor! Destroy them!" As the cyborg monstrosity pushed Kilik to the very edge of the scarab, teetering over the ground below, ground that was teeming with droids firing hopelessly at the scarabs, Kilik knew that his end had come. As he made peace with his past life, the countless humans he had killed, and with his recently found belief in the sons of the Forerunners, he palmed the activation panel on his plasma grenades, and tackled his foe into the central core. He could only hope that the explosion was a big one.
From his palace, Vas watched the Scarabs slice through the sea of enemies like a hot knife through butter. Then, he saw the shapes drop from a structure onto the scarab, in a perverse imitation of the Master Chief's method a hundred years prior. An agonizing five minutes later, he saw the lead one detonated in a tremendous fireball. Somehow, from the core of the wreckage, a figure in blackened white armor emerged. Vas had to admit to himself that the enemy commander was quite resourceful, and ridiculously hard to kill, as his opposite limped away with his organs ablaze. Soon after, two more detonated. Vas supposed that Kilik had managed to save the other too. They wouldn't survive long against the heavy air assault now hitting them though.
As if on cue, a flight of heavy gunships flew in and lashed out at one of the scarabs with energy weapons and heavy missiles. Its partner used its searing beam and heavy cannon to swat them out of the sky like flies, but more kept coming, finally shooting its legs out from under it and reducing it into a heap on the ground. Swarms of battle droids surrounded the downed hull and slaughtered the passengers wholesale. Some brave soldier inside detonated the core, taking many foes with him in a final act of defiance. The last scarab plowed straight through the resistance, into the main plaza of the city.
From his vantage point, Vas could see what the scarab's pilot could not: close to forty tanks laying in wait in the plaza. When the scarab rounded the corner, the force of all forty artillery weapons mounted aboard the turrets of the enemy tanks opened up, drowning the scarab in a torrent of fire. The massive assault walker withstood the assault, though, and returned fire with its main gun, easily destroying ten tanks in a single sustained burst. The rest continued to shoot though. Droids enjoyed the advantage of having no fear, and wouldn't turn tail and flee like humans used to before the might of a scarab. The continued fire damaged a knee, but even as it keeled over, the scarab knocked out another set of enemy tanks. With its head now buried in the ground, the crew used the back mounted plasma cannon to continue fighting, even as the yellow-gold energy bursts from the machine's tank cannons reduced it to a smoldering, burning wreckage.
Vas could only hope that the time that those valiant men had given their lives to buy was worth it, as the first enemy tanks burst through the central blast wall. They were immediately destroyed by heavy weaponry, but as ranks upon ranks of enemy infantry advanced through the gap, what was a pitched battle quickly became a vicious melee. The dusty air was lit by flashes of plasma and blaster bolts as the garrison of Harmonious Coexistence made its last stand. Hanging low in the sky above, the Invisible Hand and the other CIS cruiser stood in wait, prepared to pick up Grievous and report back to the CIS council.
On the highest steps of the temple, Vas and his honour guard, no longer ceremonial stood fighting their final battle. No amount of droids could fell them. Many were veterans or sons of veterans of the great Human-Covenant war, and they would fight until the very last man. Vas knew that when his father received the news, he would be proud for the valiant stand that his son had made. As yet another droid fell, a shadow fell over the compound. Vas had little time to contemplate it, though, as the white armoured enemy commander and his elite bodyguard strode up the steps to finish the job.
General Grievous could see the enemy commander, the one that had taunted him so many times, standing in all of his shiny, gold-armoured splendour at the entrance to the palace. This foe would not live to tell of how General Grievous crushed his world, and his armies. He would just die, a mercy, considering how much trouble he had caused. Grievous had forty magna guards with him, the entire surviving complement from the Invisible Hand. His enemy had about fourteen bodyguards, with their lightsaber knockoffs and ridiculously ornate headpieces. Grievous hacked a cough. They would be no match for his magna guards, made in the image of his own personal retinue from his homeworld.
Staffs whirled and energy swords slashed as the two sides clashed. The honour guard were more skilled, but heavily outnumbered. One impaled two magna guard at once, while another barely survived as his shields absorbed the blows of several magna guard staffs. He had no time to recover, however, as Grievous plunged two blades into his chest as he used his other two to fend off other sangheili. A grenade blast threw him to the side, but the magna guard next to him wasn't quite as fortunate. It had been turned into shattered pieces of scorched metal. Grievous renewed his offensive. He could feel victory.
Vas and his guards doubled back to the palace doors under the onslaught. He could no longer see the forces in the courtyard, but the last time he could was sure many of his men were still holding out. Another one of his honour guards was cut down by the white cyborg. Vas was morbidly fascinated by the way its organic organs were still suspended inside its mechanical shell. As it tried to finish off the soldier, Vas blocked its blade with one of his own, and found himself in a desperate struggle for survival. The enemy commander turned on him, wheeling around its four blades. Its attacks were relentless, forcing Vas to stay on the defensive while probing him for a weakness. Finally, it found one, sliding an attack through a gap in Vas's defense. His shield overloaded, and he was flung to the ground. Looking out the doorway, Vas finally saw the source of the shadow as his foe prepared for the killing blow. He began to laugh. In the sky, there was a UNSC frigate, of all things. The gods had decided to help, after all. 600 ton ferrous-tungsten rounds accelerated to a fraction of the speed of light, slamming into the CIS cruiser with tremendous force. The ship literally split in two, belching out fire and death in a spectacular atmospheric explosion. The enemy commander looked up, distracted by the loss of one of his ships. Outside, four green armored soldiers leaped off of a pelican.
-Bridge of the UNSC Leap of Faith-
"Admiral, enemy vessel has been destroyed. MAC gun is recharging and will be able to fire in sixty seconds. Applying targeting solutions for longbow missiles on the second enemy vessel." someone called out.
Admiral Xiang could see the devastated capital stretching out beneath him. From the flashes of light and explosions, there were still quite a few holdouts from garrison troops. He didn't have time to rescue them all, though. That beast of a ship that the enemy had would blast his tiny frigate into pieces rather quickly. He needed to grab the planetary governor and important officials, and get the hell out.
"Target for maximum diversion. We need at least ten minutes to get a hold of that garrison commander."
-Palace Compound, Capital City, Harmonious Coexistence-
Grievous snarled, in fear more than anything else. Those four soldiers looked eerily similar to the demon-spawned one that had bested him in single combat back on that cursed research world. He lunged towards them immediately, knocking out the shields of one of them before having to back away. To him, they seemed much less skilled than the one he encountered before, but possessed much more advanced technology, and a team mentality. Grievous knew a lost battle when he saw one, and he still needed to save his ship. He scuttled away.
Vas found himself being helped to his feet by none other than one of the demons his father had always told stories of. The stories always involved heroic soldiers fighting against impossible odds, and winning. In person, they seemed much more normal, if a bit frigid. "Planetary Governer? We need to evacuate you and your guard. There's not much time. Do you have any government officials with you?"
Vas shook his head.
"We'll be going, then."
Vas grabbed the soldier's arm. "What about my people? My planet?"
He heard a new voice over the battlenet, one that sounded a little familiar. "This is Admiral David Xiang. We'll just be off to get some reinforcements."
Vas looked to his burning world. "We'll be back." he said. "I promise."
A/N: Well, here's the result of three weeks of labour and love. I've gone over it quite a few times, and for once I can say I actually rather like the result. Sure, the beginning's a little muddy, and the action scenes are unnecessarily prolonged, but I like it nonetheless. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will be forced to update less often as my classes will take up much of my time, but I hope the increase in quality will compensate. As always, please review!
*Note: Similar/the same as the heavy plasma cannons from Halo 2, 3 and (presumably) Reach. They're like the one that the Master Chief destroys in the Halo 3 mission "The Storm."