The preflight countdown had begun. In four days time, the two hundred ships of the Third Alliance Fleet were to be completely prepped for departure. The Corellia was the last ship to arrive at Earth, and was ill prepared to depart. Commander George was everywhere trying to re-supply and rearm for the coming battle. He was directing many different weapon and vehicle deliveries when he was visited by several unexpected guests.
"...those AT-MT's must be put in the fourth bay, General. We need all ground troops to be in the same location. Organization is a key factor in tactical combat. Commander, what is the status of the Skipray Blastboats I requested.... Somebody get Mr. Frost on the comm., I need to speak with him before the new sensors are tested..."

"You seen very busy these days, Jim. We are here to help."

Jim turned around to see the smiling face of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, dressed in his Jedi robes, and flanked by several of his students. Jim laughed and threw a big hug around Skywalker and replied, "I figured as much. Nothing could keep the Jedi from getting their noses on anything in the M-way anymore."

Luke laughed and turned to his processors behind him. "Well, we are here to keep the peace. I figured you would need it before the battle as well as during it. I've brought help too. The Jedi are stretched very thin these days, and we want to see what kind of potential lies at Deneb. May I introduce Hmfrey Cabala and Sarah Typho," he motioned to a large grey Wookie and a small human girl to his right. "Our newest trainees."
Jim gave a smile to the two, and then looked to Luke's other side. "I see the Solo twins couldn't stay away either."

Jacen and Jaina Solo ran to embrace Jim, who somehow managed to get his arms around the both of them. Jacen, now very tall and broad shouldered was almost as big as Jim, which was nothing or a surprise considering his bloodline. He gave Jaina a kiss on the cheek, and grasped her shoulders. "Look at you two. Jedi Masters at last."

"What can we say?" Jaina smiled in response, "Uncle Luke taught us well."

"I can see that, but youve grown so much since i last saw you."

"You last saw us when we were nineteen." Jacen said, "We are just more in tune with the Force."

Jacen was one of the few Force heretics that remained after the war with the Yuzzan Vong. He believed that the force directed all peoples actions, rather then their thoughts.
Jim smiled again and said "The force brought you here. Let's get caught up over dinner, right now I'm a little busy with loading. We don't need more than one Jedi doing the loading."

"That's why I asked them to come."

A roar of an engine went overhead, which echoed thought the small section of the docking bay the group of Jedi was in. The familiar horseshoe shaped hull of the Millennium Falcon spun and landed across the platform, and the engine whined at they shut down.

The boarding ramp opened up and a small, blue droid rolled out, followed by none other than Han Solo, and his furry Wookie companion, Chewbacca.

"Han Solo, never thought I'd see you come to the Corellia this close to an engagement." Jim said in a broad tone.

Solo looked to his left, then his right. He met eyes with Jim and pointed his forefinger to his chest, and mouthed "Who me?"

He laughed and shook hands with Jim, and then embraced Jacen and Jaina, and then Luke. Meanwhile, Chewbacca nearly bear hugged Jim into submission. "We thought you could use some technical expertise, considering the battle ahead."

Jim nodded, looking around the bay, "We can use all the help we can get."

Jim motioned for Laforge, who was installing new power couplings on the service lift. "Laforge, Chewbacca has come to help you in whatever you need."

Jordie smiled, "Chewie, nice to see you again. I have lots of work to do. Shall we start?"

Chewbacca growled an approval, and the two walked off to the service lift.

Han turned to Jim. "We have a few things to discuss before we get down to the nitty gritty.

Jim suddenly became more serious. "What's the problem?"

Luke spoke this time, very seriously, "What we need to tell you isn't going to be easy."

"Let's step inside then," Jim said, hoping he wasn't going to be upset by their news.

Jim stepped into the meeting room on the bridge to see many familiar faces. Admiral Picard, who came with two federation guards, had his familiar "friendly scowl" on. General Petriarc, representing from the Galactic Terran-Vasudan Alliance, and his famous Super-Pilot "Alpha One" sat next to Picard. Across the table sat Princess Leia Organa Solo, envoy to the New Republic. Other leaders were there, including those from DB-Earth and those from the Pok sector. The Protoss envoy, arriving to earth from Auir, brought Jim Raynor, who represented the Terrans still living in the Koprulu sector. The American envoy, Supreme Allied Commander Madison, sat at the head of the table next to the United Nations Space Command Admiral Whitcomb, chatting with the Vulcan ambassador, Spock. The whole Alliance was represented here, which took Jim by surprise, seeing as he was expecting an empty bridge for the next few days.

As soon as he moved to his chair, the room silenced, and Admiral Petriarc spoke first. "Greetings everyone; and thank you for coming at such short notice. I know this may be unexpected," he looked at Jim, "but Princess Leia and I called this meeting to inform the leaders of the Alliance of something...quite extraordinary."
Leia spoke next. "The recent signs of fringe warring and subspace breakdowns have led us to believe that the Empire has found itself some new allies. We have seen specific signs of the old Earth nemesis the Cov-"

She was cut off when a large, green armored soldier entered the room, grenades clipped to his belt and an assault rifle strapped to his shoulder. His orange tinted visor reflected the lighting of the room back toward Jim, who was not expecting to see the soldier to arrive.

"Master Chief, this is...unexpected" Whitcomb, the Chief's superior, said.

The Spartan super soldier didn't respond, but moved behind the table and stood next to Jim.

"As I was saying," Leia continued "The signs of war found on the fringe show two distinct properties. The Empire has an at Deneb, and they continue to relay communications through computer systems last seen from the Covenant."

Whitcomb suddenly became tense, shooting a gaze toward Master Chief. He battled the Religious Covenant years before, nearly destroying Earth in the process. Seeing them emerge again was quite frightening.

"What scares us the most," Petriarc said as the murmur among the delegates quieted down, "Is the technology they use. With the discovery of the ancient alien construct, Halo, during the war with the Covenant, we have found that the creators of it, whom the Covenant calls the "Forerunners", have been revealed before."

"During the sub-space war with the Vasudans, an alien race called the Shivans blasted both sides, and an alliance was formed. The Terran-Vasudan alliance used technology dug up from a ruin on Deneb, which belonged to the mysterious race known as the "Ancients", to defeat the ultra powerful Shivans. The Ancients have been found to resemble the Forerunners, a lot."

Skywalker stood up, and began to speak, "This similarity has also being shown among the old Corscan nemesis, the Yuzzan Vong, as well as the Xel-Naga from the Koprulu sector. It seems that the Yuzzan Vong, the Protoss, and the Zerg were all created by the Xel-Naga, who is the same race as the Forerunners."

The Protoss ambassador knodded his head, saying, "The Jedi is correct. This alien race is our mother race, and their mysterious destruction bothers our psychic matrix greatly. A great dark void encompasses the Protoss race."

Without warning, Master Chief pulled out a small data chip from his helmet and inserted it into the computer terminal that Jim occupied. The holo-projector in the middle of the table hummed, and a purple woman figure emerged from it. It was Cortana, a powerful Artificial Intelligence being created by the UNSC.

"To make a long story short, delegates," Cortana said, "A connection has been established between the oldest races known to both Corscan and the Milky Way. Once race ruled these galaxies billions of years ago, and somehow they disappeared."

"What is this race called, exactly?" Admiral Picard asked.

"We call the Humar, deciphered from old hieroglyphic displays in their ruins. The most recent ruin explored was....Halo."

Everybody looked at Master Chief again. He escaped that ring world alone, making him the sole person who saw the ruins of the Humar.

Now, Commander Madison stood up, "Our orders are, ladies and gentlemen, to proceed to Deneb, retake control of this communication station ran by the Empire, and..."

He paused, looked at Master Chief, and then Jim directly in the eyes, and said "Take control of the Halo installation that they discovered at Deneb. The Empire found something there that they like, and I want it..."

Jim sat in his apartment room in the south city that night going over what had happened on the bridge. He was invited to attend a meeting of the Alliance command staff, without being given as much as an order, just a blank stare.

Why him? What did Madison see in him. The Master Chief had been on Halo 04, not Him.

The questions continued to run through his mind until he fell into an uneasy sleep.

The trip to Deneb wasn't too pleasant to the crew of the Corellia. Rumors of another Halo, as well as the Empire's alleged alliance with the Covenant, were common. Ben Sika was busy getting the Pennsylvania ready for the coming battle. Although the large docking bay of the Corellia was a perfect place to test the Pennsylvania's flight control system, he had trouble even getting the repulsor system to work. Repulsors were designed to allow the ship to hover while engines were offline, allowing speedy take offs and landings in case of emergency.

Commander George also had a rough time. It had been months since the Corellia had been in a dry dock, and as the commanding officer of the Corellia he had the responsibility of maintaining the safety of all the civilians living in Corellia City. To aid in this, the designers of the Corellia created the "Emergency City Protection System", called ECPS, to help. The ECPS could virtually lower the city further into the Corellia's hull and encase it in three ray shields and one deflector shield generated from the city square. It took three hours to fully initiate the ECPS so drills were constantly commencing during their travel through hyperspace. Jim, on the other hand, continued to modify his own fighter, and aided in the engineering deck. There was so much to do, it was overwhelming. How Laforge did it all own his own was a mystery to Jim. Luckily, Chewbacca was there to help.

"Watch that containment field generator, its unstable!" LaForge directed to the crew working on the Napoleon's engines. "Careful, careful..."

Chewbacca howled in a rage as the generator spout out gas. The two crewmen who were carrying it dropped it and fell backwards. The generator began to spark as the deck alarm went off. Captain Whitmer and three crewmen at the cooling stationed hurled themselves over the safety rails to avoid the fire as Chewbacca attempted to put the fire on his fur out/

LaForge put his face in his hands in disgust.

"Is there a problem here Mr. LaFogre?"

LaForge turned around to see Lieutenant Frost smirking at him.

"No, this has been happening all day. Petty carelessness mixed with exhaustion on everyone's part isn't something that works out too well."

A large crash came from Chewbacca's direction, followed by a howl of disgust, and the crewman started laughing. Frost smiled. "I understand. We all are under extreme stress. Let me give you a hand."

The turbo lift stopped on the main street level, and the cloaked Jedi stepped off.

They must have already reached Earth, thought the Jedi, Ill have to see Master George as soon as possible.

Corellia City was a large place, and finding who he was looking for would be a challenge.

He continued to walk toward the command deck witch loomed above the whole city. Certainly he would find a way to the bridge when he arrived there.

Suddenly a woman screamed across the alley. A masked man with a blaster ran straight toward the Jedi with a large bag full of credits and began shooting at the security forces tailing him.

The cloaked man drew his light saber and commanded the man to stop running. The thief began shooting at the Jedi, each blaster bolt ricocheting off the swift orange saber as it sliced through the air. Suddenly the man flew into the air and everything he was carrying fell to the floor.

The security forces stopped behind the thief, now hovering in midair. The Jedi then flung the thief toward the police cab that had landed next to them and shut the door with the force. He then recalled his light saber, which had rolled toward the apartment to the left, and continued walking, with his pathetic accomplice following, ignoring the calls from the police stop for questioning.

"NO!" Jim shouted to the deck crew. "This one goes here, that one goes there."

The commander was in the docking bay getting his Incom T-65 X-Wing fixed. The last battle at J'P'Tan damaged his ship, and he wanted it in good shape for the battle at Deneb.

"But sir, "Ensign Jason Nesmith started, "the EPS conduits will overload if you..."

"They won't overload, I modified the lateral thruster to compensate. They should be fine. Reinstall that and come over here, I can't figure out what is the problem with the targeting computer."

"Yes sir."

They moved over to the counsel displaying a set of cross hairs and a blinking red target. The deck was covered in wires and cables. The entire room was flooded with pilots, officers, and engineers frantically preparing for the battle. Jim looked down at the target, and prepared to begin the test fire.

"Clear the deck, fire in the hole!" Jason shouted.

The crew around the X-Wing cleared and Jim pushed a blue blinking button. A deep humming came from the cooling unit display on the side of the computer station. The X-Wing's top left s-foil erupted with a red blast of light that shot towards the target. The bolt hit the target, but then caused the s-foil to spark, setting off several alarms.

"I stand corrected", Jim said, amused. "Reset the chamber, let's try it again." George hit the com button on the panel, "Mr. Laforge I need a new maintenance coil in bay fifteen as soon as possible."

"Yes Commander. I'll have one sent up now. Laforge out."

Jim pulled open the hatch on the bottom of the S-Foil, obviously annoyed. He turned something inside the wing and then pointed to the ensign at the control station. "Fire it again, Jason."

Jason toggled the blue button on the display again. The humming began, only this time a large eruption of fire came out of the back of the X-Wing. Alarms went off again, causing the deck officer to rush over with a fire extinguisher.

Jason felt a powerful gust of wind, and looked over toward the X-Wing. A blue aura surrounded Jim, with in a howl of rage, sent his fist into the open hatch. Sparks flew around his arm as the X-Wing lost power. He ripped off the three ton foil, and held it above his head. Blue lightening surrounded his entire body as he threw the wing across the docking bay. He calmed down after it hit the ground, collapsing into a chair. As the wind died down, he came over to Jason's station, pushed the communication button, and keyed Laforge again.

"Jordi, you had better come up here with more than a maintenance coil."

Crash.

The two lightsabers crashed against each other with a spark of energy and a crackle of lightning. Jacen Solo backed off his sister, then lunged over toward her left side. She had to stretch to block it, but was able to counter it with a downward slash. Jacen was knocked backwards by the thrust, but rolled into a flip and landed a few yards away, challenging her with a counter stance. She ran forward, jumped into a front flip, and landed behind him. She put her lightsaber behind her head pointing down to block his attack, and spun around to begin her counter attack.

"Good Jaina," Luke coached from the side of the room. "Let the force decide your actions. Feel; don't think."

Jacen heard his uncle help his sister and attacked with a deadly force push. She went sailing backward, losing her lightsaber. She hit the wall and when she opened her eyes she saw Jacen above her, gasping for breath. Skywalker ended the fight, taking their training lightsabers.

"That's enough for now. Commander George needs you two on the bridge for a briefing from the Jedi Council."

"No, Commander, he is dangerous. He is unfit for command. I want him off this ship. Allocate command to me."

Vice Admiral Walker Russell shouted into his command screen aboard the Corellia. Supreme Allied Commander Madison put his hands into the air, trying to calm the Vice Admiral down. "What occurred to have you lash out at Commander George like this? He's a brilliant tactician, a skilled mechanic, a great pilot, and a hell of a warrior. He is a great leader, what's the problem?"

Russell shouted into the screen. "He nearly destroyed half of deck four when he lost his temper. There are still static pulses flying around the ship, causing massive EMP failure on nineteen decks. Nineteen decks! That expands right in to the residential area."

"We all lose our temper, Walker..."

"But George is different sir. He is not human. His powers are a danger to this crew and I trust that Allied Command will not risk losing them because of some freak with a short temper."

"Your concern is noted, Walker, but he is too human. Don't let me hear that from you again. The campaign at Deneb is very important. I believe that George is the only one capable of puling of a successful capture of the ring that hides in the system."

"With all due respect sir, if he's not in the bay working on his fighter craft, he is out of communication with the crew. He disappeared for four days last week, and the first officer had to command the ship through another hyperspace jump and two subspace jumps. Powerful or not, sir, he is unfit for command of the flagship."

"There are things about Commander George that you do not even understand, Vice Admiral. We shall see how he acts in Deneb. Madison out."

The four week journey to Deneb passed quicker after Jim's incident in the docking bay. By the time the Corellia arrived in Deneb, the remainder of the fleet had also rendezvoused at the fourth planet, Asarco. The time for the battle was at hand.

The whole command crew, including Commander George, had gathered on the command deck to await orders. George commed the Commander Madison at Earth.

"Supreme Allied Commander Madison on screen. Transmit to fleet, all frequencies, all modulations. Begin Transmission when ready, Commander." George said at attention.

"Attention all Allied ships, fighters, crew, and civilians," Madison began. "Today is a day long coming for the Alliance. For many years we have fought the Empire and lost. Planet by planet, they take away what the Alliance has fought hard to protect. We have lost many brothers and sisters over the course of this war, but their sacrifices are not in vain. Today begins the era where the Empire never again sees Victory. The Covenant Alliance with the Empire has troubled us greatly, so the coming battle begins a long and tiring encounter with the Galactic Alliance. They will feel the wrath of all species persecuted by Lord Calrissian and his Imperial Traitors. We will take this vital location from the Empire and use it to better the cause of freedom and liberty for all species in both galaxies. Allow no Imperial to escape, let no Covenant sacrifice himself. Today we take Halo, and tomorrow we take back Corscan.

Cheers could be heard throughout the spanning confines of the Corellia, and cheers were heard from the two hundred other battleships over the comm. "Commander George, deploy the fleet."

George issued the command, and saluted the Commander. He turned to prepare for battle.

"Oh, and Commander..."

George turned to face the Admiral.

"Give them hell."

George smiled, turned, and headed for the docking bay.