"Fall back, fall back!"

The fighters and bombers of the Alliance squadrons were hurriedly flying back to their docking bays as the engine on the last Interdictor's engines lit up. The destroyers slowly entered hyperspace, meeting at the edge of the system. After all fighter returned to the Corellia's bay, she departed.

Commander George ran into the bridge just as Major Galbraith, Major Goodwin arrived. With them was what looked to be an Imperial Officer and General Kyle Katarn, Jim's old master. "Master Katarn, this is an unexpected surprise."

"Its good to see you in one piece, Jim. I was go-"

Suddenly, a large white and blue flash came from Deneb as the Interdictor entered slip space. The resultant blast overtook the station, destroying it instantly. The blast, now looking like a wall of white light, swooped past the planet, engulfing it in energy and destroyed it completely. Whatever secrets he Deneb system held was now gone, forever.

General Skywalker and General Antilles walked into the room just then, looking confused. They began a conversation with Laforge, who was busy explaining what slipspace is.

"Slip space is like reversed math. By tearing a hole in space, ships can travel double time into the void, making long distance travels instant. Older UNSC ships used it for short range, that is, in system jumps. The Covenant used it to travel from the Milky way to Corscan. Incredible."

"The question is," George piped in, "Where was the Halo installation, and why did the Covenant sacrifice it?"

"Easy commander," a female voice chimed in, "There was no Halo. It was a trap."

George looked over to the center of the bridge and saw the purple figure of Cortana standing with her hands on her hips. The Master Chief stood next to her, silent. "You seem confident in that Cortana. How do you know?"

"Chief and I did a small explorative journey. We took a small recon picket to the outlying systems. I was able to tap into the relatively unprotected Covenant Battle Net and intercepted chatter about it. The Covenant, lucky for us, couldn't keep a secret."

"She alerted me to it immediately, Commander," Lorenz added. "I ordered the withdraw as soon as I confirmed it."

"Alright, I need to get Madison on the comm. He needs to be notified."

"Already taken care of Commander. I reported to him. He requested a follow-up from you at your leisure."

"Good. I guess we hold here until further orders. Regroup the fleet and commence repairs. Get a science team down to Deneb whenever the area is safe."

"Yes, sir."

"Commander George," Katarn said as Jim turned to leave the bridge, "May I have a word with you?"

"We," cut in Brenton, who stood beside Max and the Imperial officer he had in shackles.

"Sure...who's this?"

"This," Katarn motioned to thie Imperial, "is Admiral Bernard Galvan of the Imperial command ship Inferno. I picked him up on my undercover ops. He's a defector...of sorts."

"Defector my ass," Goodwin said in disgust. "Trust no man who ever served the Empire."

"Please sirs," Galvan pleaded, "I only want protection. I need solace from Vincent."

"Right," George said skeptically, "I'll have you stay here. I can't promise you a pleasant stay, being an Imperial and all..."

"Anyway, Commander," Katarn continued. "A word if you please."

"They moved into the viewing hallway across from the main passage into the city. The view was moving, seeing the people of Corellia City pick up the pieces from the battle. The entire region was littered with fire, debris, and smoke.

"Sir," Brenton began. "A Sith appeared on the Corellia. He claimed to serve under Vincent, but also showed some amazing powers. He was practically immune to my Elemental powers."

"Did you catch his name?"

"Yes, " Katarn continued. "He said Lord Landreaneau. Remind you of anyone?"

Jim nodded at Katarn.

"Who?" asked Brenton. "Did I miss something?"

Jim again addressed Katarn. "I'll get to questioning immediately."

"Who are you talking about?" Brenton continued, annoyed. "Hello? Am I even getting through to you two?"

"Don't worry Major; it will be taken care of. You did good work today. Take some time to rest."

Brenton sighed, "Yes, sir. Thank your sir."

As he left Jim continued his conversation with Katarn. "Master Katarn, it is good to see you again. What were you doing undercover on the Inferno for?"

"That's classified, I'm afraid. All I can say as things are not what they seem."