Chapter 38
Chaos
Author's Note I know that it's been awhile, I decided to do this chapter so that people would see that I haven't abandoned this story. I can't help but feel that this story is heading south, in part due to me not trying hard enough, let's see if I can't save it.
Thel raised his energy sword to block an overhead blow from Grievous, then quickly darted down to block another swipe from the side. Grievous had been pressing in on him for some time now, swinging all four light sabers relentlessly, but he had been unable to so much as scratch Thel.
"This is the legendary General Grievous that has slain so many Jedi?" Thel asked, as he jumped down from the podium, landing with a thud in one of the lower pods. "I am unimpressed," he said as Grievous jumped down after him, letting out a roar of rage. Grievous stabbed forward with all four of his light sabers, forcing Thel to jump back to avoid them. As he did, Thel slashed at one of Grievous' secondary arms, severing the hand.
Reaching forward with his free hand, Thel grabbed the light saber, which was still airborne. "This blade is not yours is it?" Thel asked, as he attached the light saber to the magnetic clamp on his thigh. "You slew noble warriors and took their blades as trophies," he said, a disgusted look on his face. "Disgraceful," he said, spitting the word out as if it was a repulsive taste.
Dashing forward, Thel swung at Grievous, only to have his sword blocked inches away from the cyborgs face. "Who are you to say that?" Grievous said angrily, as he launched a vicious barrage of swings and stabs, only to have them all blocked "You are nobody!"
"Is that how it works here?" Thel asked calmly, as he sidestepped a particularly vicious swung from the General. "You are incapable of being strong, or seeing what is true unless you have a well known title?"
"SILENCE!" Grievous roared, as he swung at Thel again, only to have the Sangheili dodge it.
'He's is losing his temper,' Thel thought to himself, as he stabbed at Grievous, only to have his blade blocked 'As a result he is dropping his technique, he is getting sloppy. It will be the end of him.'
"This is fucking ridiculous!" Amber shouted angrily as she jammed down on the trigger for the turret, spraying bullets at passing vulture droids. "Exactly how many droids are they putting into this invasion?"
"As much as I agree with you Amber, I really think this isn't that best time!" Aaron shouted as he leveled his sniper rifle and leveled off a shot, taking the head off of a battle droid. 'I hope Ahsoka's alright,' he thought as he lined up another shot.
"There's a bright side to this," Emily shouted, as she drove the Warthog, intentionally running over a group of super battle droids. "The CIS would only launch an attack on the capital of the Republic if they were getting desperate to end the war. I think they now that they can't beat both the Republic and the Allied Species combined, that's why they wanted to use Halo. Since that plan went to Hell, they're trying to make up for it by launching a desperate attack on the Republic to take them out of the war."
Aaron paused for a second as he took in his mother's words. From what they had heard the Allied Species had continued their policy of Total War throughout the Outer Rim of the Republic, reportedly destroyed all CIS hardware and equipment on dozens of planets. Aaron had been so focused on current events that he had never really occurred to them by just how far of a margin that they were winning this war. 'I just hope that we all get out of this alive,' he thought as he shot another droid, as Emily steered the Warthog around a corner.
"FUCK!" she swore at the top of her lungs as she found a CIS tank facing them, it's main cannon adjusting to aim at them. "EVERYONE OUT!" Emily shouted as she jumped out of the Warthog, Aaron and Amber right behind them. As they did so, the tank's cannon fired, hitting the Warthog head on, reducing it to a pile of fire and scrap.
"Son of a bitch!" Amber swore as she dashed towards the tank, reaching into her backpack and pulling out an anti-tank charge. As anti-infantry blaster on the tank opened fire, Amber slid under the fire, slapping the charge on the tank, pushing off of the tank with her feet as she did so. The charged detonated, causing the tank to explode, bits of shrapnel flying in various directions as it did.
"Amber you alright?" Aaron asked as both he and Emily helped her to her feet.
"Define alright," Amber asked in a weary voice as she got to her feet. "I feel like my insides were stuck inside a blender then put back in me. After this war is over, I think I might retire from the ODSTs and I'll find work somewhere on Horizon."
"Trust me you're not the only one," Aaron said, as he and Emily rested Amber against a nearby building. "I'm thinking maybe I'll go to medical school and become a doctor."
Amber smiled weakly as she looked at her brother "That seems like a good idea," she said, as she turned to face her mother "What about you mom?"
"I'm not the same person I used to be, fighting isn't all I know anymore," Emily replied, smiling warmly "Maybe I'll write an auto-biography, people just love reading about SPARTANs. Maybe I'll write some books about this war, the Human-Covenant War, and the War on Salvation while I'm at it."
"Sounds like a plan," Amber said "Just one question Aaron, when exactly are you going to pop the question?" she asked, smiling slyly. "I think practically everyone that knows about you and Ahsoka knows that it'll work out in the long run."
"I dunno," Aaron replied, used to his sisters teasing "Maybe after the war is over, hardly seems romantic to propose in the middle of a battlefield."
"Hey you never know," Emily replied, putting a comforting hand on her son's shoulders "It might be if you pull it off right, like after a major victory, or while your on a ship of a station that gives you a good view of space. I swear there's something about a view like that is just plain captivating."
"I'll think about it," Aaron said, smiling slightly, which faltered as a rumbling noise was heard. The Coltons turned around weapons raised, to see a Scorpion rolling around the corner.
It came to a stop as the hatch was opened. "Anyone need a lift?" Johnson asked as he poked his head out of the hatch, and James waved from the gunners position.
"Nice," Emily said as they got to their feet.
"You can thank James here for finding this thing," Johnson said, pointing with his thumb at James. "He knows what the ladies like."
"I thought we were supposed to keep the Chancellor safe!" Ahsoka shouted so that she could be heard over the roar of the wind as she and the others stood on top of a speeding hovertrain. They had jumped onto one that passed nearby the Senate Building and were ridding it to the Chancellor's bunker. "I really doubt that the top of a hovertrain is the safest place for someone of his age Aayla," she said, turning to face the Jedi Master, her Lekku flowing in the wind as she did so.
"I assure I will be just fine miss Tano," Palpatine said, as he crouched on the top of the hovertrain, smiling slightly "I'm not completely helpless." 'Far from it,' he thought.
"It take us around ten more minutes to get there," Aayla said, looking at the tracks on front of the hovertrain. Like Ahsoka, her Lekku were flowing in the strong wind. "We've got company!" she shouted, pointing towards series of oncoming distant shapes. As it drew closer, it became obvious that they were hover bikes, each carrying a Magna Guard with the exception of the one in the middle, which carried a man. "Dooku," Aayla hissed as the bikes flew overhead, the Count jumping off and landing on the hovertrain along with the Magna Guards.
"Master Secura, Master Fisto, Miss Tano, it is truly wonderful to see you," Dooku said, maintaining his usual polite voice. "I really see no need for this meeting to turn messy, simply hand over the Chancellor and we will walk away."
"And become disgraceful whelps in the process?" one of the Honor Guards said angrily. "I think not," he said, as he activated his energy stave, causing the blade to glow bright blue, his comrade mimicking his move.
"We are not ones for surrendering," Vadmare said dangerously, activating his energy sword, as Ahsoka, Aayla and Kit ignited their light sabers.
"If you insist," Dooku said calmly, igniting his light saber as the staffs of his Magna Guards burst to life. Dooku lunged forward, stabbing at Aayla, who quickly blocked his lunge, countering with a swipe of her own, with was also blocked. Dooku made to strike again, but was forced to block a swing from Ahsoka, who had flanked him, attempting to catch him off guard.
The Magna guards, six in total, charged forward, only for two of them to be impaled and collapse as the Honor Guards threw their energy staves at them. As the remaining Magna Guards closed in on the Sangheili and Kit, the Honor Guards took energy swords from their place on their thighs and activated them.
Swinging widely, the Magna Guards attempted to skewer their opponents, only to have their staffs be blocked by their opponents. Vadmare blocked the staff of one Magna Guard, before ripping the staff out of the droid's hands and impaling the machine with it, kicking it off of the hovertrain afterwards. Kit blocked the staff of another Magna Guard, then quickly crouched and cut one of the droid's leg, stabbing it as it fell to the ground.
Swinging their staves in wide sweeps, the remaining two Magna Guards pressed forward, actually forcing their opponents onto the train cart behind the one that Ahsoka, Aayla and Dooku were fighting on.
Aayla and Ahsoka began a relentless assault on Dooku from both sides, and despite the Count blocking a handful of blows by the skin of his teeth, he remained unharmed. Jumping back, away from Ahsoka and Aayla, Dooku saw the Magna Guards fighting their opponents on the car behind theirs. Grinning, Dooku threw his light saber, guiding it with the Force, and watched as it severed the cable connecting the two cars. While the car they he was standing on continued to speed forward, all of the cars behind it began to slow, as they quickly dropped out of sight.
On the slowing car, Vadmare stared at the hovertrain speeding away while the Honor Guards dispatched the remaining droids. "It is in your hands now Secura, you as well Tano," he said to himself.
Ahsoka and Aayla glanced around and quickly realized that they were alone on the car with Dooku and Palpatine. 'Gotta remember that one if we're ever on a hovertrain again,' Ahsoka thought.
"I see age as not dulled you speed Dooku," Aayla said, looking at the Sith "Rather the reverse."
"I thank you for your kind words Master Secura," Dooku said, bowing his head slightly "But it will not save you."
"Shame," Ahsoka said, grinning slightly as they began to swing their light sabers again.
"Fire MAC!" Hackett shouted, as he leaned forward in his chair on the bridge of the Twilight. The ship's main gun fired, tearing a hole in a CIS ship as it did so. The seventeen ships that had survived the battle of Instillation 03 were in tight formation, firing everything they had at the CIS and doing their best to help the Republic, which had been caught off guard.
"Damn it this isn't going well," Nicole swore, as she typed into a terminal, issuing commands to the rest of the ship. While the CIS were mostly focusing on the Republic ships, the Allied Species ones were taking a ponding, eight having lost shields, and the ones on the other nine were dropping fast.
'She's right," Hackett thought to himself 'We're too heavily outnumbered. If this keeps up I'll have no choice but to give the order to retreat.' Hackett grimaced, the last thing he wanted to do was abandon the Republic in it's time of need, but there was no way in Hell he was going to sacrifice men just to make the Allied Species look good.
"Sir!" Nicole shouted, looking away from her terminal "I'm picking up a slipspace rupture not to far away from the battle zone. The IFF from the ships registers them as Allied Species!"
Hackett's earpiece beeped the moment she finished speaking. As he raised his hand to it a feminine voice spoke into it. "This is Admiral Jane Patterson, all Allied Species ships hold on, we are on route to assist in repelling the CIS. We have SPARTANs on board, these bastards won't know what hit em.
Author's Note: Once again I know that it's been awhile, but I hope you enjoy it. Please note what with me writing two fan fics, school about to start, me getting a job in a few days, and me writing my original work on the sidelines I won't be able to update my fics as much as I would like. I hope that you can wait and will still enjoy them.