Reviews:
migos501: Don't worry, I know not to overwork myself. And thank you, I'm glad you enjoy the story!
Halo Star Wars X-over fan: I disagree. While I do think there should indeed be a way to save Cortana from rampancy, she doesn't work like Star Wars droids. Think of it like a different kind of code or a different processing system. If you aren't familiar with that code or processing system you can't just go in and start fixing bugs without figuring out how it works first. Its essentially alien technology to them and they've never encountered the rampancy issue before so it would take some research to figure out how to fix this particular issue. So I'm not saying it isn't possible, I'm just saying it would take time.
AZNMAGICMAN: The True Mandalorians did not exist at this time. It was just the Martial Traditionalists and New Mandalorian factions. After being beaten and banished to the moon, the Martial Traditionalists had in fighting and eventually split into Death Watch and the True Mandalorians. So while I might have gone with the True Mandalorians if I could have, they simply did not exist at this point in time.
Scarease: As I said above, the True Mandalorians did not exist at this time otherwise I might have gone with them. It was just the New Mandalorians and Traditionalists.
It was now the year 44 BBY. John had gone up in rank in the New Mandalorian military and his armor had been upgraded with pure beskar and a beskar nano-composite bodysuit. He had earned every last piece of beskar that made up the plates of his armor, by taking it from elite Mandalorians, or mandalorians who had inherited such armor from their parents, that he defeated or captured on the battlefield. Such as high priority targets he was sent to capture or kill. It took a while to acquire enough Beskar to fully replace the Titanium A armor, but he eventually managed it.
He did not directly earn the beskar for the nano-composit bodysuit, however. Despite how expensive pure Beskar was Cortana had paid for what she used to make the beskar nano-compsit bodysuit with some of the funds they earned from their company, because she wanted to ensure John had the best armor she could possibly get him before she went into stasis. It cost about as much as a decent sized hyperspace capable ship, but they could technically afford it.
Cortana had also redesigned the energy shield emitters of John's armor to make them about twice as strong. He also received a few more vambrace attachments including whistling birds, a grappling hook launcher, and a mandalorian designed plasma shield emitter for emergencies when his main energy shields had fallen, on top of his built in flame thrower. Otherwise his armor looked pretty much exactly the same.
Cortana had finished setting up the company selling UNSC technology, some of which she modified herself with technology from this galaxy, and had given John a datapad containing all the blueprints and schematics for everything. Including technology their company did not have the facilities to produce, such as UNSC ships that had been upgraded with several weapons from this galaxy. The name of the company was Spartan Tech.
The company was growing very rapidly as Smart A.I.s, flash cloning tech for both food and medical purposes, biofoam, spartan lasers upgraded with technology from this galaxy to have higher energy capacities, Titanium A alloy which was stronger than durasteel, and suits of semi-powered armor with built in energy shields started becoming more and more well known and demand for them rapidly increased. John was also selling Slip Space drives to the New Mandalorians, so they could expand into the unknown regions. He was giving them a several year head start before he started selling slipspace drives to the Republic.
He had zero plans of selling absolutely anything even remotely related to slip space to the Hutts, however. Nor did they sell Smart A.I.s to anyone other than the governments of the New Mandalorians or the Republic, and all of them were fully capable of self terminating if they were ever stolen or fell into the hands of the Hutts or other crime syndicates, meaning no criminals or enemies of the Republic or New Mandalorians would ever get their hands on a Smart A.I. legally or otherwise. And Smart AIs always accompanied slip space drives so they could detonate the slip space engines if criminals ever tried to hijack the ships they were on.
So because business was doing so well, the company's facilities and thus production ability were rapidly increasing as well, as John invested almost all of the money he received from the company and from his service in the Mandalorian military back into it.
Cortana had finished her own suit of Mjolnir armor, which was made of Titanium A rather than beskar, and did occasionally accompany John on deployments, but this was rare as she typically stayed behind to deal with the company for John. Partially because the company was still in its infancy and needed to have a lot done, and partially because of the risk of her having an outburst of rampancy on the battlefield which could potentially end with her getting hurt.
With the company now fully operational, Chief had put Cortana into stasis. In the days leading up to that, her rampancy had been getting very bad. To the point John could not let her come on any missions with him for fear she might have an outburst on the battlefield and get herself hurt. Now, however, she was asleep and John was alone.
Technically Cortana had made a Smart AI to run his company for him with a flash cloned version of his own brain, but he did not work with this AI the same way he worked with Cortana. He did have a Dumb AI companion for operating some of the functions of his armor and electronic warfare, but it wasn't the same. The Dumb AI wasn't a person like Cortana. The New Mandalorians had tried to convince him to take a new Smart AI but he refused. Doing so would feel too much like he was trying to replace Cortana, which he refused to do.
Whenever he had any free time whatsoever, John had started dedicating himself to learning everything he could about engineering and AI technology. Both everything he could find on what this galaxy knew and all the information Cortana had given him about what the UNSC knew. With his company now operational, he had taken over paying the specialists the Mandalorians had originally hired to research a way to fix Cortana. However, he wanted to learn everything he could himself so he could at least try to help her himself if possible.
One day he was doing some maintenance on his armor when he was approached by General Stalbuk. Seeing him enter, Chief immediately stood at attention.
"At ease." The General told him.
John relaxed a bit.
"I have news. Duke Kryze has just been assassinated. His daughter, Duchess Satine, has officially become the new leader of the New Mandalorian party." The general told him.
"Alright… I assume there's another reason you're here. You would have let me learn this along with everyone else if you weren't." John stated.
General Stalbuk nodded. "You're right. Unfortunately, I have a new mission for you."
"Unfortunately, sir?" John inquired.
"Yes. It would seem that the other generals and our higher ups have seen fit to reassign you, regardless of what I had to say about it. Despite the fact you're under my command… You're being assigned to play guard duty for the new Duchess. A complete waste of your skills, as far as I'm concerned, but I didn't exactly get a say in the matter." The general crossed his arms and shook his head. "As if she needs a damn super soldier like you to protect her when she already has two Jedi guarding her…"
"Jedi, sir?"
"Yeah, Jedi. Apparently since her father was assassinated the Republic is worried she'll be assassinated too and sent a Jedi and his apprentice to guard her. I would think that should be enough, but nooo. Apparently they need my best damn soldier for this too… Sorry, John. I just got the order, and I'm still a bit frustrated by it."
"When do I leave, sir?"
"As soon as you're finished packing your things. You're going to be moving around a lot, so I would recommend leaving Cortana's body here. I won't let anyone touch her while you're gone I promise you that."
John nodded. "Understood, sir."
As soon as General Stalbuk left, John proceeded to finish doing maintenance on his armor before grabbing Cortana and putting her on a magnetic holster on his leg. In her stasis unit she was about the size of a particularly large and bulky datapad, and the stasis unit had pure Phrik armor to make it impervious to almost everything. It was actually more durable than his Beskar armor. So it was completely safe to bring her into battle with him, as he had been doing ever since he put her in the stasis unit.
Getting on a transport ship, he was flown to where Duchess Satine and her two Jedi bodyguards were currently staying.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi stood with the Duchess on the landing platform waiting for the soldier that was coming to assist them in guarding her.
Qui-Gon had heard of this soldier, John the Spartan. He was the owner of the Spartan Tech corporation, and was widely regarded as the single most dangerous warrior in the entire Mandalore Sector, which spoke very highly of his skills as a warrior.
The transport carrying John landed in front of them and the green armored warrior came marching out. He was holding an oversized blaster rifle in his hands that normally only a wookie would be able to wield effectively without it being mounted on something, what appeared to be a slug thrower on his back, a blaster pistol on his hip, what appeared to be an oversized armored datapad or something of the sort on his other hip, and what appeared to be a combat knife on his chest.
Qui-Gon could immediately sense the man had a very slight ability in the force. It wasn't strong enough that he would have been taken to be trained as a Jedi as a child. He doubted it was even enough to attune to his own Kyber Crystal assuming the man had the opportunity to get his hands on one. So it could not have been the reason he was regarded as such a powerful warrior.
Qui-Gon could also sense great trauma, pain, turmoil, and loneliness within the man. So much so that were the man stronger in the force Qui-Gon would have been worried he would immediately turn to the dark side. Fortunately that did not seem like it was going to be an issue considering how weak his connection to the force was.
The man marched up to them before standing at attention and saluting Duchess Satine. "Captain John-117 reporting for duty, ma'am."
"At ease, Captain." The Duchess told him.
John's position relaxed slightly.
"I apologize for dragging you away from the fight. I only learned they would be sending you specifically this morning."
John merely nodded in acknowledgement.
Qui-Gon stepped forwards a bit and bowed to the soldier respectfully. "Greetings, Captain. I am Master Qui-Gon Jinn and this is my padawan Obi Wan Kenobi. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Obi Wan followed his master's lead and bowed to John in greeting.
John nodded at the two of them too though he didn't actually bow.
"We've heard a lot about you, Captain. I look forward to working with you." Obi Wan stated.
"I've heard a lot about you Jedi too." John told them.
"I'm glad to see you are getting along so far. Just follow me and—" The duchess said only to be cut off as Qui-Gon activated his lightsaber and deflected a blaster bolt that had been about to hit her in the back of the head.
As Obi Wan was activating his own lightsaber, John immediately stepped between the duchess and where the blaster bolt had come as he raised his own blaster and returned fire at the sniper.
"Get the duchess out of here. I'll follow along and provide suppressing fire." John ordered as he continued to shoot at the sniper, who was now hiding behind cover.
The guards stationed at the base all had their weapons raised and were rushing to intercept the assassin.
Qui-Gon nodded. "Very well. Come, Duchess. We need to get back to your ship."
"Of course." The duchess said before following Qui-Gon and Obi Wan away.
John slowly followed after them, continuing to provide suppressing fire. That was until a powerful blaster bold slammed into the side of his head. His personal energy shields flared and fell. His helmet had taken the brunt of the shot but being made of pure beskar it was unharmed save for a scorch mark.
Turning to where the shot had come from, John whirled around and began firing in that direction only for the other sniper to pop out of cover and take a shot at him, managing to hit him in the side. The shot managed to hit his beskar nano-composit bodysuit, the weakest part of John's armor save for his visor as the nano-composit wasn't pure beskar like the actual armor. But it was still extremely durable and while the shot did hurt a bit, it didn't manage to penetrate John's bodysuit.
Hearing more shots, John looked behind him and saw the entire area had become effectively a warzone. The Jedi were having to defend the duchess from several of the mandalorians that were supposed to be guarding the base. The other mandalorian guards were all dead or incapacitated from "friendly" fire.
John changed who he was focusing on and shot one of the traitors or infiltrators, whichever they so happened to be. His oversized blaster hit them in the chest and knocked them down but didn't kill them, suggesting at least that one was wearing beskar. He doubted all of them were unless all of them were elite troops sent by the traditionalists, but it didn't matter either way. As long as he could incapacitate them it didn't matter if they died or not.
He shot the next one in the head, knocking them out.
Hearing something clink off the ground he looked and saw a thermal detonator rolling towards him. He activated his jetpack just in time to avoid the brunt of the explosion but he was still thrown several feet.
Rolling to a stop he looked and saw the Jedi and Duchess were almost to the duchess's ship which was somewhat larger than a GA-TL1 Longsword-class Interceptor.
As he was pushing himself back to his feet, his shields regenerated only to immediately fall again as a sniper shot him in the chest. They clearly weren't going to give him a chance to have his shields stay up. Another blaster shot hit him in the leg but was easily absorbed by his armor.
Following the Jedi and Duchess he continued to provide covering fire for them while absorbing as much of the assault as he could.
"Captain, the duchess is on board!" Qui-Gon shouted at John over the sound of blaster fire.
Not hesitating, John turned and sprinted towards the ship. Jogging up the boarding ramp he turned just in time to see the ramp close behind him. He felt the ship lift up off the ground before flying away from the base.
Suddenly the ship rocked as it was hit by something.
"What was that?" Obi Wan asked.
"Anti-air turrets… They're going to shoot us down. Are there parachutes aboard?" John asked as the ship rocked again and tilted in a sharp evasive maneuver.
Qui-Gon, holding onto a wall to stabilize himself, shook his head. "I do not know. You would need to ask the duchess."
"Where is she?" John demanded.
"In the pilot's cabin." Qui-Gon responded.
John quickly rushed to the pilots cabin. The duchess was standing leaning against a wall watching through the viewport of the cockpit.
"Ma'am, does this ship have parachutes?" John asked.
"N-no… I don't think so…"
The ship rocked hard and they heard the sound of an explosion.
"That was the engine, we're going down!" The pilot shouted.
John scooped up the duchess and ran to the back of the ship where the jedi were still standing. "Hold onto something." He told them before slamming the button to open the boarding ramp.
Seeing this both Jedi immediately knew his plan. Instead of grabbing onto anything like he suggested they both let themselves be sucked out the back of the ship. John noted this in surprise but did not hesitate to run and jump out of the ship after them carrying the terrified duchess in one arm. He managed to activate his jetpack just in time to slow their fall to a survivable level. Even so the two of them still hit the ground hard and both of them were knocked off balance whereupon they split apart and landed on their respective behinds.
"Owww…" The duchess groaned.
John got up and saw the Jedi approaching them. How they had managed to survive the fall he had no idea and right now he didn't care. Kneeling down he immediately started checking the success for injuries. "You alright?" He asked.
"Y-yes… The landing was a bit rough but I'll survive…" The duchess responded.
John nodded before holding out a hand and helping her back up to her feet. He then looked at the Jedi. "How did you survive?"
"You sound almost disappointed." Obi Wan said with a smile.
"No. Just confused." John responded.
"We were able to use the force to slow our fall, sort of like the parachutes you were looking for. Admittedly it was a dangerous maneuver. Maintaining the concentration necessary while falling can be quite difficult. But it was better than the alternative, I suppose." Qui-Gon explained, motioning to the burning wreck of the ship about a click away.
John didn't question it. He had heard of the force. Neither he nor Cortana had believed it was real, dismissing it as religious space magic nonsense. However, if it was real he wasn't going to dismiss its utility, especially not to the face of the monks who worshiped this mystical force. "We need to get out of here. They'll have seen us falling out the back and will assume we survived but they'll know not to send speeders or fighters. If they do, we would have an easy escape, which they're well aware of. More likely they'll try bombing the area or hitting it with artillery… We need to get to that mountain ASAP." John said, pointing at a mountain off in the distance.
"Why? What's on the mountain?" Obi Wan asked.
"The anti-air turrets. If I can reclaim them and find a decent LZ we can call for extraction." John explained. "It also has places where you and the duchess can hide and stay safe from bombardment while I eliminate the hostile forces."
"You plan to do all of this on your own?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Yes. You would only slow me down, even with your 'force'. This is what I was trained for." John stated.
"I see. Very well. Then we will follow your lead." Qui-Gon said.
John drew his blaster and started leading them towards the mountain.
Soon, his prediction proved true as bombers in the upper atmosphere began carpet bombing the area. Fortunately the bombs were relatively low yield, but being caught in one's radius would still blow them to pieces. At that point they transitioned from walking to running. "Keep your mouth open! It will equalize the pressure of the explosions and prevent them from rupturing your ear drums!" John told them.
As the bombing started getting more intense, Obi Wan scooped the duchess up off her feet as he and Qui Gon started running fast enough to keep up with John while he was sprinting at full speed. And with the Jedi's precognitive abilities, Obi Wan was able to dodge the bombs far better than John and thus keep the duchess far safer than John would have been able to.
After about five minutes of running at this pace, they arrived at the mountain and started scaling it as fast as they could. Finding a nook in the mountain where the Duchess and Jedi could hide until he was done, John ushered them into it. "Wait here. I'll be back soon."
"And if you aren't?" The duchess asked.
"There's a base about thirty clicks to the north. It's far enough they wouldn't expect you to try heading for it on foot. If I'm not back in two hours, go there." John ordered. "Jedi, make sure the duchess gets there safely, if necessary."
"We will do so… May the Force be with you, Captain." Qui-Gon told him.
He then drew his blaster pistol and handed it to the duchess. "Here, take this. It's a WESTAR-34. I assume you know how to use it?"
"Well, yes but I'm a pacifist…" The Duchess said, taking the pistol and looking at it warily.
"Ma'am, with all due respect, this is a matter of survival. Hopefully you won't end up having to use it, but you need a weapon. This is war, and in war pacifists die. The Jedi will keep you safe but if it comes down to it, use it." John said in a serious tone.
"I… I understand…" The duchess said uncertainly.
John simply nodded before turning and activating his jetpack to start heading further up the mountain towards the installation that controlled the anti-air turrets on the mountain.
Finding a good angle on the entrance that would keep him hidden, John saw the installation was heavily defended. An entire patrol of twenty four mandalorians were guarding the main door. Some of which were on mounted turrets or had heavy weapons. All of them were positioned in a way where there was a constant overlap of lines of sight, so it was impossible to sneak up on one and kill them without being spotted. They were also spaced far enough apart that a single thermal detonator could only kill one of them at a time, making that unviable. It seemed they had prepared this specifically for him, taking both his armor and skills into account.
However that begged the question, how had they known he was going to be involved? There was only one realistic answer John could think of, the New Mandalorians had a mole in their midst. That was going to have to be dealt with before it became even more of a problem.
At this point he was very familiar with mandalorian bases and thus he knew there were no emergency exits or windows he could try to infiltrate through. If he wanted to get in, blowing a hole through a wall or taking out all of these guards and going through the front were his only options. Either way his cover would immediately be blown. There was no doing this quietly that he could see at the moment.
Finding a position that provided him with stronger cover for the heavy weapons the Mandalorians were using, he set up for a frontal assault.
"Roger, paint the mandalorians ahead for the whistling birds. Make sure to target the ones on the turrets." John ordered the Dumb AI he was currently working with.
"Affirmative." Responded a deep emotionless voice in his helmet. Suddenly twelve of the twenty four mandalorians were highlighted in red on John's H.U.D. as he held out his arm. Suddenly all twelve of the miniature guided rockets fired from John's vambrace and streaked towards their designated targets. Guided by the dumb AI, each of the miniture rockets hit the mandalorians in the spaces between the plates of their armor or in the T-shaped visors, killing or mortally wounding all twelve of the ones who were targeted.
With half of the mandalorians guarding the door dead, John raised his blaster and started firing. He blasted through the chest of one wearing a durasteel alloy. He hit another wearing beskar plated armor in the head and knocked them out while dealing serious damage to their helmet. He blasted another's leg off at the hip by hitting them in the gaps between the plates of their armor.
He continued on like this while remaining behind the boulder he was using for cover until one of the mandalorians threw a thermal detonator at him and he was forced to abandon his position or be blown up. Rushing out of cover he switched his blaster for his MA5B assault rifle, loaded with armor piercing rounds. The AP rounds weren't rated for beskar, that would require higher caliber rounds with pure beskar penetrator rods, but they would punch straight through Alum, could get through Durasteel and still be lethal, and could easily punch through the blaster resistant glass visors of Mandalorian helmets.
He quickly mowed down the remaining mandalorians with his assault rifle and flame thrower before making his way to the door.
Walking up to the door it didn't open. It was locked. Seeing a terminal next to the door he connected his armor to the terminal. "Roger, slice into this door and get it open." He ordered.
"Yes sir." Roger replied
It took the A.I. a few seconds but eventually the door opened, allowing John inside.
Inside was where things got particularly difficult as the site's defenses were all against John, and the guards had hard to crack kill-zones and defensive structures. Not to mention the blast doors John had to keep using Roger to open up. They did not want him getting to the control room, but nothing they could throw at him was able to stop him for long.
Eventually he managed to reach the control room where he found only a single mandalorian waiting for him.
As soon as he walked in, the mandalorian raised his hands to show he was unarmed. "Hold on. I've lost. I know I don't stand a chance against the legendary Spartan one on one. I just want to talk."
"I have nothing to say to you. On your knees, hands behind your head." John ordered.
The mandalorian complied with the order, getting on his knees and putting his hands behind his head. "Fine, you don't have to say much anyway… It's a shame, you know. A warrior of your caliber fighting for the fools in the New Mandalorian party. I'm aware you are no mandalorian yourself, but surely you realize how weak they are. The pacifistic ideals they have will destroy us. And they'll destroy you too whether you realize it yet or not. Their ideals are completely antithetical to what it means to be a mandalorian, what it means to be a warrior."
John remained silent as he used the cord of his vambrace mounted grappling hook to tie the mandalorians' hands together behind his back, and he stripped him of his weapons. When he was done with that, John walked over to the terminal and had Roger start hacking the anti-aircraft turrets to regain control of them.
"I know your past. I've seen the recordings. I know you aren't from this galaxy and I know you're only fighting for them because they just so happened to find you drifting through space before we did. I don't mean any offense, but you are very much like a droid in that sense. Only fighting for them because you were built to fight and they just so happened to get to you first… Well, if they win, you will no longer have a purpose. You'll be useless to them since your only purpose is war and they idealize pacifism, so they'll discard you like so much bantha dung. What will you do then? Personally I think I already know the answer. With nowhere else to go, you'll turn to us. What do you think?"
"Mercenary work." John stated simply. He had thought about this very matter a lot over the past few years. He, Cortana, and General Stalbuk had even discussed it before he put Cortana in stasis and all of them agreed mercenary work would probably be John's best course of action after the civil war was won.
"Mercenary work… At that point we would just hire you and you would be working for us anyway. So, why wait? We can hire you now. Whatever the New Mandalorians are paying you we can double it. Triple it, even. And we wouldn't abandon you after the war like the New Mandalorians would." The Mandalorian offered.
"I don't work with terrorists." John retorted.
"Terrorists?" The mandalorian asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"Pre Visla and others like him. I'm familiar with the generals in your faction and their methods. Some are respectable, others like Visla are terrorists. Too many are like him to even consider it. Besides, I don't betray my allies."
"Hmph… You think the New Mandalorians are any better than Visla? You think you're any better?. If so, you're lying to yourself."
John ignored him.
"Hmph… So there's really nothing I can do to convince you?" The mandalorian asked. He then sighed and shook his head. "Unfortunate. Despite your unfortunate allegiance to the New Mandalorians, us Traditionalists do genuinely respect you as a warrior… Detonate."
Hearing that, John only had a split second to raise his arm in front of his face to protect his visor and initiate armor lock as the room was engulfed in a powerful explosion. After the initial blast was over, John was still alive as his shields and armor had absorbed most of the blast. However, his H.U.D. told him the concussive blast had rattled his insides a bit. It wasn't anything life threatening but it hurt a lot.
Deactivating armor lock, he looked around and saw the room was little more than rubble and the mandalorian he had taken prisoner was dead. Not even a moment later more explosions began going off and looking up he could see this side of the mountain was starting to crumble as more and more explosions went off.
They had planned this, John realized. They had been hoping that if the explosion didn't kill him it would incapacitate him long enough to bury him alive under tons of rock.
As the room had been reduced to rubble and the rest of the base was currently exploding if it hadn't exploded already John was now technically outside. So he immediately activated his jet-pack and started flying away from the area, staying above the tons of rock that would have been crashing down directly on top of him. He was lucky. Had his jetpack been damaged by the explosion, he would have been killed by the rubble. Or he would have at least been trapped under it and would have slowly died of starvation since his armor would have prevented him from dying of dehydration or suffocation.
On the bright side, at least the anti-air turrets were taken care of, albeit not in the way he had wanted them to be.
"This is Captain John 117. The base was compromised. The duchess is safe but we're going to need immediate extraction. I've already dealt with the anti-air turrets."
Author's notes: So, John is going to be working with Qui-Gon and Obi Wan to protect the duchess. The next couple of chapters will be about that. Then it will go into the mercenary/bounty hunter arc.
What do you think about John being very minorly force sensitive? I just thought that the Force being on his side, so to speak, might be a decent explanation for his 'luck'. You know, sort of how the force is supposedly what controls people's destinies? He wouldn't gain any force powers from it, it's basically just flavor text for his luck. I don't know. I'm not married to the idea and I can change it easily enough if you don't like it. So let me know what you think.
I love reading comments so any thoughts or suggestions you may have would be very much appreciated! I don't mind criticism either since I can only improve if I know what I'm doing wrong. So don't be afraid to leave a review!