Fables and Future Fantasy

by PhillyCh3zSt3ak

Contained within is a repository of random one-shots and pilot chapters on a myriad of different standalone stories and crossovers of different series. Rated M for safety, true ratings and notable content included with each individual chapter. Formerly "Phil's Random Pilots and One-Shots."

9. A SW x Halo pilot

Hey there guys, I got another plotbunny for you. This is an idea that I've had after seeing some… interesting take on this crossover type. Some were good while others, well I'll just leave it at that. But anyway, as I stated in my Naruto/Star Wars crossover I am a huge Star Wars nerd, have been since I was a kid.

This story was inspired by the current duology written by UH-60 NIGHTSTALKER called "HALO: The Terran Affair" (id: 8442710) and "HALO: The Andromeda War" (id: 9053883). These two stories so far are the two best to come out of this crossover and I hope that this idea will at least be acceptable and entertaining.

Rating: T-M, depends on future content including, but not limited to gore, implied sexual settings, language, etc. Although there won't be anything more than a T rating for content in this pilot.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my copy of MS Word and my laptop. Star Wars, unfortunately, belongs to Disney now and Halo belongs to Microsoft, 343i, and Bungie (for Halo 3 and ODST currently).

XxXxXxX

"Talking."

'Thinking.'

"Transmissions."

{Suggested music track}

XxXxXxX

Humanity is one of the more resilient races in the galaxy. They've been through so much during their time of sentience. They've avoided extinction against the Forerunners, complete extinction from the Flood, avoiding extinction long enough from each other to avoid extinction from the Covenant. While some may disagree and state that there are other species that are resilient as well, none have the tenacity to survive that others have the capability to, but none to the degree that humanity has. Humanity is not only capable of greatest of good deeds, but also the darkest of deeds as well. In the past they carried out the Mantle of Responsibility, to preserve life. Now they will have to take the Mantle into their hands once more to preserve life.

XxXxXxX

Timeline:

May 5, 2552 - The treaty ending hostilities between the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios is signed by the acting president of the UEG, Lord Terrence Hood, and the Arbiter. A memorial is created on the hillside on the outskirts of Voi overlooking the now deactivated Forerunner slipspace portal device. A memorial service for the dead is held, families of the deceased attend as well as Hood himself as he gave his speech, the Arbiter also attends in solidarity of the recently signed treaty.

2553 - The first volunteers for the Spartan-IV program undergo augmentation, including Sarah Palmer. Data acquired from the program's previous iterations allow for the adult volunteers to have a 99.97% success rate of survival.

2554 - Search parties are called off for any remaining crew of the Forward Unto Dawn. The Master Chief I'd still presumed MIA. The Infinity-class battle cruiser it's revealed to the public in a christening ceremony.

2555 - ONI discovers a wrecked alien ship on Venus during a routine sweep, picking up an extremely weak distress signal in between two storms on the surface. Military and contracted civilian scientists begin to study everything on the ship from weapons to faster than light propulsion systems. The project is leaked six months later when a talkative drunk part of the salvaging teams hired blabbed about the vessel.

2556 - Engineers extracted from the Forerunner shield world designated "Trevelyan" by ONI to the lab on Infinity to study the unique plasma weaponry called "blasters" by the original owners as well as the Hyperspace generators at another location.

Late 2556 - The Master Chief is recovered from the wreckage of the Forerunner ship Mantle's Approach in high orbit above Earth after the events on Requiem. Heavy weaponry based on the unknown alien ship is installed on the Infinity and on several new ships coming out of the shipyards.

2557 - Master Chief goes AWOL with the rest of Blue Team based off a sketchy lead on Cortana possibly being alive still. Fireteam Osiris, spearheaded by former ONI operative Jameson Locke, is sent to investigate and retrieve Blue Team preferably alive.

Mid 2557 - After six months of continuous fleeing from meta-Cortana and her army of Forerunner guardians, the crew of the Infinity have an unexpected guest pop in during one of their course corrections in normal space: Cortana, but not the one that was trying to subjugate them to a perverted version of the Mantle once held by the Forerunners, but a human female that looked like a younger Catherine Halsey or Miranda Keyes. To the few that knew Commander Keyes it was like seeing a ghost. She leads them to a Forerunner shield world where for the next six months they rearmed both Infinity and her escorts with the plasma-based blaster technology derived from the crashed ship. Cortana reveals that the "Cortana" Blue Team encountered on the Forerunner world designated Genesis was in fact a corrupted fragment of the real Cortana that was transmitted into the Domain after the Mantle's Approach was destroyed. She also reveals that she became human using the Composer but got lost in a Forerunner made slipspace portal for a time before appearing on the Infinity.

2558 - The remnants of the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios mount a joint offensive at the newly rediscovered Greater Ark to prevent meta-Cortana from using the Halo array should the sentient species revolt against her perverted version of the Mantle. During the final encounter with both Cortana entities Human-Cortana is fatally wounded both physically and neurologically, forcing medics to put her in cryostasis until a treatment can successfully be created. The Cortana fragment along with her enthralled AI compatriots are destroyed along with the deactivation of the Guardians.

2565 - All ships in the UNSC are retrofitted with turbo-lasers and other plasma based weaponry after the discovery of large deposits of Deuterium among the rubble of Onyx. The Keyes-class destroyer is taken out of conceptual stages and is put into production, the first released from the shipyards being christened the Keyes. Bacta is planned to be replicated within the year. The Master Chief goes AWOL once again searching for means to save Cortana. Improvements in AI technology are taken from the Domain and extends the lifespan of Smart AIs from seven years to a hundred years so long as they haven't entered Rampancy.

2566 - The UEG and the Swords of Sanghelios ratify a law to blockade all known Halo platforms as "quarantine" zones to both prevent any latent Flood from making it off any rings as well as to prevent anyone from using them. New ships with weapons and defenses based off the crashed ship are placed into position around the Halos.

2567 - Our story begins.

XxXxXxX

Mother of Invention, in orbit around Installation 01's quarantine zone.

The Mother of Invention, the newest of the UNSC Navy's Keyes-class destroyers stood a silent watch over the ring world known as Halo. The Keyes-class were named after both Captain Jacob Keyes, inventor of the Keyes Maneuver and one of the heroes of the first Halo, and Commander Miranda Keyes, hero of the Battle for Earth, Battle of Delta Halo and the Battle for the Ark. This Keyes-class were deployed in three key places currently: Earth, Reach, and at Halo installation quarantine zones. The primary reason? Their fifty turbolaser batteries reverse engineered from the wreck on Venus, dual-phase shield generator taking the best of Forerunner and alien technologies to deflect both energy and physical impacts, and massive spinal mounted MAC cannon. Their twelve-hundred-meter bow to stern length, four-hundred-meter height, and three hundred and fifty-meter width also helped. While this specific class wasn't the largest by any means, she had a bite like a trained attack dog.

Captain Leonard Church, former civilian Ph.D. in AI development, stood with his arms crossed behind his back, staring at the starfield. "Ensign, anything on the scanners?" he asked without turning around.

A few hard light keys were tapped before the ensign replied, "No sir, nothing on scanners, slipspace or otherwise."

"Very well. Our relief arrives in forty-eight hours, Earth standard time, and we get to go home for well-deserved shore leave." The entire bridge cheered at the prospect of shore leave, after all they had been on station with nothing going on for close to four months; there was only so much the crew could do before cabin fever began to set in en mass.

As if a jinx had been placed on the crew alarms began to ring out on the bridge. "Captain, four ship signatures inbound using hyperspace vectors!" another sensors officer exclaimed.

"Ayame," Church said. At once at a holotank pedestal, a woman in a yellow hue appeared wearing a kimono and long hair that had ones and zeroes running through it. "Sound general quarters."

"Aye, aye sir," she replied politely. At once klaxons and alarms turned on, and the intercom speakers turned on. "Attention all hands: general quarters, this is not a drill." In an organized chaos crew members went to their assigned stations and all boarding crews stood ready in the landing bay.

An Interdictor-class satellite, one of many in a spherical array around the Halo, activated and pulled the four ships, a carrier length ship escorted by three other gunboat sized ships, out of hyperspace earlier than they expected by use of the reverse engineered gravity well projectors.

"Hail them and prepare electronic warfare suites," Church commanded.

"You are connected, captain."

"Attention unknown vessel, you are approaching a quarantine zone. Change your course now or we will open fire." When no reply came Church reiterated his warning once more.

It was then one of the ships replied, "You are one ship, we are four. We will kill you and enslave your crew."

"Captain, they're charging weapons!" Ayame stated.

"Begin electronic warfare and contact the Spirit of Sanghelios for support," Church commanded. "All batteries begin to plot firing solutions."

"Done."

"To...?"

"I'm in their systems. They really need to update their firewalls. Let's see... Life support? Engine controls? Ah, here we go, weapons." Ayame's figure blinked for a moment. "I've messed with their targeting systems. What else do we have? Cargo manifest?" The AI was silent for a moment before shouting, "Do not hit the one lagging behind the ship on our left side, it's carrying slaves in its cargo bay!"

"What about the other three?" Church asked.

"The others are filled with Trandoshan slavers, no others aboard them."

"Disable the carrier and destroy the escorts."

"Aye, captain. Rewriting targeting parameters. Done. MAC locked on and charged."

"Fire."

"Firing main cannon," Ayame droned. The lights flickered as the magnetically propelled ferric projectile passed the bridge. The round gutted one of the gunboats in an instant as they had their ray shields up, not their deflector shields as they expected turbolaser fire. Immediately the batteries opened fire on the two remaining escorts while pelting the carrier with ion cannon fire.

"Launch the drop ships, get the teams in position," Church commanded.

XxXxXxX

Pelican Foxtrot-362, in route to the hostile carrier.

Twelve individuals sat in the rear of the Pelican checking their weapons. All of them had the recently introduced MA5P variant assault rifle. What made this firearm completely unique was the fact it fired both the standard 7.62 NATO rounds in one barrel while the second stacked above it fired plasma based munitions reverse engineered from blasters found in the wreckage found on Venus. This allowed the user a multitude of options ranging from lethal plasma and coilgun accelerated bullets to nonlethal stun bolts.

These twelve individuals were Spartan-IVs. Six were from Fireteam Freelancer while the other five were formerly from the 88th ODST division, otherwise known as the 'Crazy Eighty-Eights' by everyone. The final individual on the Pelican was an Elite liaison. Everyone was checking over their weapons and the sounds of magazines being slammed into place and rifle bolts locking into place.

"Alright boys, lock and load! Time to earn us some hazard pay!" the leader of Bravo team shouted. He then turned to Alpha leader and asked, "So what's the plan?"

"Stacker," she acknowledged with a single nod. "As we know the lead ship is carrying slaves in its cargo hold. Alpha will take the bridge while Bravo secures the cargo hold. Schematics were downloaded to our Tac-pads by Ayame when she hacked their systems."

"We're coming up on the drop point!" the pilot shouted from the cockpit while simultaneously dodging an anti-ship round.

The back of the Pelican opened up to show The Mother of Invention showing off her weapons as another MAC round streaked out and gutted another gunboat. Everyone in the hold stood up and lined up at the ramp. "Use your packs sparingly, course correction only. You don't want to end up like Georgia," Alpha leader stated before grabbing a Brute gravity hammer. No one quite knew where she got it.

"Wait, what happened to Georgia?" one of Alpha asked, wearing steel colored armor with yellow highlights.

"Nobody knows, they never found him," another of Alpha replied.

At once the group ran forward as the drop ship flung around, throwing the two teams into space towards the carrier.

XxXxXxX

Fifteen minutes earlier. Trandoshan ship "In Chains", hyperspace transit.

To Ashoka Tano her week was going along quite horribly. First she and her master were called upon to investigate slavers that had been spotted around several star systems and had recently arrived on Ryloth. While she and Jedi knight Skywalker were able to prevent more of the Twi'lek race from being enslaved Ashoka had been stunned before she could rendezvous with her master. And here she was along with several hundred other assorted species in a Trandoshan ship's cargo hold heading to parts unknown to most likely be enslaved by some being in the Hutt cartel.

She sighed in reservation as while she could feel Anakin closing in, the Trandoshan ship, enhanced with illegal upgrades, was faster. She was huddled in a cramped cell with a twi'lek female and a mirlanian female to her immediate sides along with several humans as well. The ship shook violently as it was pulled from hyperspace. "It's the Republic, they found us!" one slave shouted.

But to Ashoka, she felt differently. This place they had stopped in felt evil. Well not originally evil, but she felt an abnormality in the Force, one that scared her immensely. There was a construct that had an aura of death and what their like the remnants of souls torn away from the Force itself. But there was something on the surface of the construct that made her even more sickened and afraid. It felt ancient, evil, and hungry. She prodded it with the Force and received a reply in her mind, 'I? I am a monument to ALL YOUR SINS. This is not your grave, but you are welcome to it,' it said in a gravelly voice. As she withdrew quickly from, whatever it was, it screamed in anger.

Her eyes snapped open while breathing heavily as if having a panic attack. "Master Jedi?" one of the slaves, the mirlanian. "Are you alright?"

Ashoka shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the ancient, hungering being she felt. She put on a false smile and replied, "I'm alright, just that abrupt hyperspace reversion didn't agree with my stomach." She reached out with the Force once more and felt tens of thousands of Force signatures in a spherical formation around the construct, most were human while others- well she had never sensed anything like them before! 'An undiscovered species!' she thought in surprise.

It was then that she sensed three hundred Trandoshans erased from the living. Before Ahsoka could ask what could destroy three slaver ships in only a few seconds, the hold she and many others were contained inside of went dark. If to answer what had happened to the ship, she heard the ion engines seize up and stop suddenly. 'Ion cannons,' Ahsoka thought. Minutes of darkness and silence later, she heard shouts and screams of pain coming from the main hangar bay; the Force telling her that many trandoshans were dying at a fast pace. "What in the Force is going on?"

XxXxXxX

Trandoshan transport, hangar bay.

The last lizard alien, or trandoshan if you will, fell to the ground in an unglorified heap of carcass as the local gravity restored in the hangar. The 'jump' from the pelican went without a hitch, other than Alpha-6 spinning out of control on the X axis as if he were doing a permanent aileron roll until he hit the artificial gravity of the vessel. Alpha-6 then proceeded to accidentally turn off the artificial gravity locally in the hangar temporarily. While the trandoshans were a space-faring species, they had no idea how to fight in Zero-G.

Jare 'Sragumee, the Elite liaison, stabbed a trandoshan in the chest with his Type-1 Energy Sword whose hilt was decorated with the sigil of his house. "That is the last of them," he said.

"Alpha, take the bridge; Bravo, the cargo hold. Weapons Master, you're with Bravo," Alpha-1 ordered.

"As you command," Jare replied, saluting in the Sangheili style with a fist to his chest.

The six remaining soldiers, five Spartans, and one Elite, stood near one of the closed doors. "Hawthorne, you're on point," Bravo-Lead ordered. The Spartan named Hawthorne racked his shotgun and aimed it at the door as another member of Bravo hacked the door panel. Microseconds passed and the door slid open with a rusty groan. "Headlamps off, VISR only."

The squad nodded and quietly made their way into the darkened ship. Sweeping corners and hallways. The trandoshans that they did come across were quickly and silently taken out of the picture before they could alert their allies either by an Energy Sword, their necks snapped, or the silent rounds that the squad's guns spat out. Finally, they made their way to the cargo hold that Ayame had marked on their tac-pads before they left the ship. As the power was out on a mass majority of the ship, they manually opened the door with their hands.

"Tossing sonar grenade," Ellert said over SQUADCOM as she tossed a Sonar Reconnaissance grenade into the room. The grenade was akin to a flashbang in size that emitted hypersonic frequencies to map a room and its occupants before a breaching team entered. Ellert looked at her tac-pad and saw the room light up as the sonic sound waves bounced and scattered, creating an accurate three-dimensional model on her device. Individuals that were unarmed were colored blue whereas those who had weapons were colored in red.

"Stack up," Bravo-Lead ordered. The soldiers did as they were ordered and set themselves up in yes of three on both sides of the cracked open door. "Strobes on, flash and clear." Bravo-3, threw a flashback grenade into the room. As the team's visors were polarized they started storming the room the moment the grenade went off. Blaster bolts flew out of Bravo's rifles and plasma bolts from Jare's plasma rifle. The trandoshans that attempted to hold their position in the cargo hold, using some of their captured prisoners as living shields. Bravo team executed each of the trandoshans with mechanical precision, leaving their hostages unharmed.

The team slowly spread out into the cargo bay and made sure to kick the blasters that were in the hands of the trandoshans away so that, if by some chance, they still lived then they would then be unarmed. "Status?" Bravo-Lead asked.

"Tangos down," Bravo-3 answered.

"Sweep the area," Lead ordered. They slowly fanned out and checked on the hostages that were held by the trandoshans before moving on to the other captured species, some human and most that the team didn't recognize. The team opened as many cages as they could by hand, busting the locks with their armored fists or slicing through lock with a plasma-based blade. As they were freed they were told to head to the hangar bay as it was secured at the moment.

"Sir, another cargo bay is on the other side of this bulkhead," Ellert reported.

"Is there another way inside?"

Bravo-5 tapped a few holographic keys on his tac-pad before replying, "There's a secondary entrance off the main corridor."

"Weapons Master, cloak and flank them."

The Elite saluted with a closed fist to his chest, "By your command." He then drew the hilt of his energy sword and he began to fade from the visible spectrum as his cloak activated.

The rest of Bravo stacked up against the other entrance to the cargo bay, that being the bulkhead entrance. Once Lead got a green light from their Elite he held up five fingers, folding one down each second. When all that remained was a fist Hawthorne kicked in the door, the immense amount of power put into his kick that it flew into an unlucky trandoshan that peeked out that caused its immediate death upon collision. Bravo stormed into the smaller cargo bay, diving behind cover as they dodged blaster bolts while returning fire, taking four of the twenty hostiles out of the fight permanently. Hawthorne moved up as rounded a corner and unloaded a 10-gauge shell into the face of one of the lizards. It was unsurprising that the now dead being fell back, spraying gore all around. The team made short work of the trandoshans until only one remained who held a vibroblade to the neck of a teenage, orange skinned alien girl.

"Step any closer and she dies," the trandoshan threatened.

"You lowlife slaver," the girl spat in indignation. She struggled little so that the knife wouldn't end her life earlier than what she wanted.

"Sir?" Ellert asked every member pointed their MA5Ps at the head of the trandoshan, ready to take the shot.

Bravo-Lead was rightfully conflicted. If they did take the shot there was no guarantee that a posthumous nervous reaction caused by the sudden separation of the brain from the rest of the body wouldn't kill her by accident. He finally made his decision. "Cook the-." But before he could finish his order an invisible force ripped the lizard's knife hand away before a semi-visible, dual-pronged energy blade entered its chest, filling the cargo bay with the scent of cooked flesh. The trandoshan's eyes widened in shock as Jare's cloak deactivated, revealing the eight foot tall being and all his menacing, elegant glory. "Never mind," Bravo-Lead concluded. "You have impeccable timing, you know that, Weapons Master?" he asked as he stepped over the body.

The Elite looked around the cargo bay. "My apologies, I ran into more of his kind and removed them from the equation," Jare replied. He then looked down at the teen who was nursing a bruise. "Are you well, child?"

She immediately looked up at the extremely tall, saurian speaker. She was immediately off putted by the being's mandibles. His stature accentuated a militaristic society based on his body language alone. While he was one of the tallest species that Ashoka had met, and the fact that she had seen General Grievous a few times in person, nothing really gave her the chills that this being was giving her, though that was due to the shadows in the room more than anything else. Despite all that, she still indignantly shot back, "I'm not a child. I'm a Jedi Padawan."

"My apologies, I was unaware that the species 'Jedi' called adulthood 'padawan'," Jare apologized.

Ahsoka blinked in confusion. "Nice joke there, surely you know what the Jedi are?" Jare and Bravo-Lead looked at each other before facing Ahsoka again. "You're serious, aren't you? You've never heard of the Jedi?" One of the Spartans just shrugged. "You know, lightsabers, the Force, we're the good guys fighting against the Sith and all that?"

"They sound like your kind of people, Weapons Master," Bravo-Lead joked.

"What do you mean?" the Sangheili asked.

"You know, the whole swordplay with energy-based melee weapons."

"I do not 'play', Lieutenant," Jare said all too seriously.

The Lieutenant placed his hand on Jare's shoulder, "My friend, you still have much to learn about human wordplay." Before he could mess with their Sangheili ally more, the lieutenant heard like a small *dink* of metal on metal, as if something was dropped. His enhanced hearing forced him to look towards the downed trandoshan who had just dropped a spherical blinking device. After training with many different weapons over his tenure as a soldier in the UNSC, he immediately knew what it was and shouted, "GRENADE!"

Immediately, everyone leapt for cover behind crates or other solid mass that would hold up against both the blast shockwave and any shrapnel thrown around by the detonation. The Spartans were the first to dive behind cover, followed by Jare, followed by Ahsoka. While Ahsoka was a Jedi, and a trained duelist, she was still prone to make mistakes due to her age and experience in age. She attempted to round a corner too quickly and tripped over a crate that would have made OSHA officials balk at the placement. She bounced weirdly off of the crate and was still a full meter inside the blast zone when the thermal detonator went off.

One moment Ahsoka was tripping, the next moment she was thrown into a bulkhead violently. Ahsoka tried to move, but her legs wouldn't respond to her. She managed to tilt her head to see that she was crumpled against the bulkhead and that there was a lot of blood on the floor. "MEDIC!" the lieutenant shouted.

As Ahsoka was slowly fading into the darkness she heard a voice, a female says, "She doesn't look good, sir. We'd have a better chance at saving her if we got her back to the Invention."

"Copy that." The lieutenant then activated his radio and connected to the BattleNet. "Mother of Invention, we need immediate medevac."

"Copy that, Bravo. But until Alpha captures the bridge and disables self-contained security measures we cannot send a Pelican for extraction," Ayame replied through the network.

"Copy, over and out." He then turned to his team. "Everyone but Doc spread out and secure the ship." That was the last Ahsoka heard before the darkness took her.

XxXxXxX

One hour later. Mother of Invention bridge.

Captain Church was pleased with the efficiency that his teams were able to execute their orders. He was also pleased at how quickly they were able to disable the approaching vessels before they broke the Maginot Line quarantine barrier. Cleanup crews, see junkers, would be en route within one of Earth's days to dispose of the wreckage so that none of it would land on the Halo, giving the Flood an opportunity to escape the ring. He was also pleased at the speed at which the crew was able to clear the entire enemy ship of its 'passengers' and appropriately triage them for possible treatment if required. The only one that required severe medical attention was the orange skinned alien girl, which the 'passengers' called togruta when initially questioned, who went into emergency surgery as soon as the vessel was docked via the ventral hangar bay by tractor beam.

"Sir," Ayame greeted as she appeared on the holotank next to his command chair.

"You have something to report, Ayame?" Church asked.

"I have the initial report stated by the medic on the state of his patient." She then brought up several reports on a smaller screen in front of her, and swiped towards the captain's screen, showing the whole reports in full screen as they appeared before him. "Teenage female of the now known species togruta, approximately 1.7 meters tall." Another report appeared in front of Church. "Shattered L1 vertebrae, using human anatomy as a comparison, and spinal column severance due to both bone fragments and shrapnel from the grenade."

"Prognosis?" Church asked while swiping through the x-ray images that showed what both the medical report and Ayame's narration of the report.

"The massive blood loss is being countered by onboard flash-cloning modules to replicate compatible blood. Metabolic accelerators as well as an IV drip containing necessary nutrients needed for accelerated metabolic healing. According to initial reports, though, she won't walk again."

"You don't seem to be convinced," Church mentioned, hearing the slight inflection of doubt she vocalized.

"There's... a way. However, it requires breaching the Cole Protocol."

"How so?"

Ayame wrung her hands together, almost nervously. "You know our facilities on board can only take care of so many patients before we either exhaust our supplies or being able to take care of certain injuries that we can only temporarily treat before they need to be transferred to an actual hospital. Due to the severance of her spinal column, we would need access to stem cells to create the appropriately compatible neurons."

Church folded his hands in front of him. "We would be causing an unnecessary risk to UNSC systems. If we were tracked home we could cause an opening for attacks not only for that colony but for others as well should hostile forces discover our data databanks with navigational data."

"That's why I suggest Reach."

"Why to Reach?"

"Even though the planet has yet to be fully terraformed from its past glassed state, the orbital defense grid is still in place and the Zero-G medical facilities are capable of taking on the wounded. ONI are also planetside setting up their bases and can have the trandoshans we've picked up taken to interrogation while the others are interviewed in a calmer setting."

"Have you shared this with the Consortium?" Church asked.

"Why would you think I would go to them before HIGHCOM?" Ayame asked innocently.

Church raised an eyebrow. "Other than AI being able you think faster than humans ever will be and be able to calculate odds and chances of things either working out or failing before we would even begin to discuss it? Because all AI are welcome to present cases and scenarios for the rest of the Consortium to evaluate."

"I didn't know that you knew that," Ayame said sheepishly.

"All captains do, my friend," Church replied. "What was their analysis and decision?"

"If we could have a preset of goodwill set up with these people, we might be able to gain valuable intelligence on boundaries of current factions, currently that being the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, we can avoid intrusion into their territories forcing them upon us to choose between both of them when we have our own government and do not wish to give it up. Plus, there are some of the former captives that say the Republic is under the control of corrupt bureaucrats. Others are convinced that something similar is happening on the side of the Confederacy as well, but it's unknown to what extent to which the corruption exists."

"And has this been forwarded to HIGHCOM?"

"One of the AIs attached to Admiral Hood should be approaching him with our analysis." Ayame then froze up for a second before exclaiming, "Sir, three cruisers were just tagged and pulled from hyperspace! They're in both sensor and weapons range, putting them on screen now!" The lights on the bridge dimmed as red lamps lit up and alarms klaxons began to activate. Church looked at the vessels on screen and saw what looked like the Keyes-class but had a command tower with its bridge prominently displayed instead of the Covenant inspired command center design where the bridge was both protected in the center of the ship instead of the traditional human method of having the bridge at the front. "Orders?"

Church sat calmly, he steepled his fingers like a certain anime character from centuries ago. "Send the standard message according to protocol, aim all batteries and missiles at the ships, lock weapons until I give the order, these ships are more heavily armed than the ones we destroyed earlier and we don't want an accidental discharge. What about the others on the BattleNet?"

"The UNSC Mobius and CAS Tempered Faith are vectoring for a slipspace micro-jump behind the ships should they be hostile."

"Very good. Open a channel to then and broadcast the message as per protocol," Church commanded.

"Aye, sir."

XxXxXxX

Ten minutes earlier. Republic pursuit fleet, Hyperspace.

Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker paced around on the bridge near the communications suite ravenously, frustrated that he had yet to find his apprentice who was stolen from him and week ago while on Felucia during an attack on a Separatist outpost. The ship, one used prominently by the trandoshan slaver rings as their ship of choice. Their ship had been jumping from system to system with no apparent reason as to why. Every day since Ahsoka's disappearance they had been playing 'catch up' with the trandoshans, arriving hours after they had already left. But less than ten hours ago that changed. The trandoshans appeared to have a rendezvous point a few parsecs outside of their home system where they met up with two other ships of the same size before booking it into hyperspace in a direction that wasn't charted to be heading towards their homeworld. The only reason they found out was because of latent transmissions was marked at being sent an hour ago.

"If you keep pacing like that you'll wear a hole in the floor," Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi jested as he watched his former apprentice.

Anakin turned and glared at his former master. "This isn't the time for joking, Obi-Wan. Ahsoka is out there in danger and it's my responsibility to bring her back safely," Anakin heatedly shot back.

Obi-Wan placed a hand on his former apprentice's shoulder. "I know, but you have to realize she too is a Jedi and is as headstrong as you are. She can take care of herself long enough for us to get her."

Anakin sighed. "I know. But I can't help but worry about her safety. I felt something through the Force; it was like she shouted in pain before succumbing to nothingness. I fear that we are too late," Anakin lamented.

"Anakin, what does the Force tell you?" Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin closed his eyes and reached out to the Cosmic Force. A moment later he opened his eyes and replied, "That she'll be fine."

"Then she'll be fine," Obi-Wan reassured him. "Trust in the Force, my friend, it's our ally and won't lead us astray."

Anakin took a deep breath to calm himself before replying, "Thank you, master."

"That's what friends are for."

A set of footsteps approached was followed by, "The general's right, General Skywalker." Anakin turned to see Captain Rex standing near the holodesk with his signature helmet under his arm. "The commander is a strong person and she's learning from one of the best. While I too am worrying about her safety, I am confident she will come out of this for the better."

"Thanks, Rex. But I-," Anakin said before being abruptly cut off as the ship shook as it was ripped from hyperspace back into real-space. Even though the Jedi had heightened reflexes, they were still subject to the laws of physics and we're thrown forward towards the forward observation viewport that was at the head of the bridge. While they didn't fall down like many standing soldiers, they still did stumble forward.

"Helm, what's happening?!" Obi-Wan asked the bridge pit crew.

One of the crew recovered and looked at his instrument panel and reported, "We've been pulled from hyperspace by a gravity well! The safety locks on the hyper hyperdrive are engaged, we cannot jump away!"

"A gravity well? I don't see any planets or celestial bodies," Obi-Wan commented.

"It might be a trap," Rex commented.

"Sensors, give me an update, what's out there?" Anakin ordered.

The clone crew quickly tapped away at their workstations to answer their commanding officer. Finally, an officer chirped up, "Sir, we're surrounded by debris."

A few moments later another clone said, "It's the wreckage of the trandoshan ships, the analogs match." Anakin looked down at the ground in anger. "Correction, it's only enough for three of the four ships," the clone corrected himself.

"What?" Anakin asked in shock.

"Where's the third?" Obi-Wan asked.

Another clone tapped away at his console before hitting the side of it. "Blasted computer," he swore.

"Is there something wrong, crewman?" Rex asked the clone.

He looked at Rex in confusion. "I think this computer's busted."

"What makes you say that?"

"Take a look at this," he stepped aside for the clone commando to look. Rex hopped down into the pit and looked over the screen. "This can't be right, right?"

Obi-Wan stepped to the edge of the pit and asked, "Well, what does it say?"

"That there's an artificial object ten thousand kilometers in diameter orbiting a gas giant a million kilometers ahead of us," Rex replied.

"That can't be right. No one's ever built anything that large. Reboot your console and check again," Obi-Wan commented.

"That's the thing, general, I did," the clone replied.

"And why would something that size be impossible?" a clone asked as if he were an analogue for someone else.

"Other than the sheer size of it being able to generate its own natural gravity if using a centrifugal force, it would have to be made of something that would be able to handle the stresses placed upon it without either collapsing in on itself or ripping itself apart, and no one has built something of that size," Obi-Wan answered.

"Well it looks like we'll get an answer to what it is in a second," Rex said, breaking up the conversation, "object coming into view... now."

Everyone who wasn't essential to keep the vessels moving stared out the window. And their eyes widened in amazement and sheer awe and wonder as the object. However, Obi-Wan was the one person who summed up everyone's mind. "By the Force," Obi-Wan said in shock.

{Halo 3: Original Soundtrack. Covenant. Gravemind. 4:10}

What slowly appeared before them in terrifying glory was a large silver, metal hoop. No, ring. As it slowly rotated, light caught the interior of the ring revealing landmasses and water on it. On the exterior faintly glowing blue lights ran across it creating an eerie blue glow at the distance they were at. There were only murmurs on the bridge as they reveled in the glory of the construct of whatever race built this giant ring. It silently and slowly rotated through space in orbit around the gas giant. However, to both Anakin and Obi-Wan, they felt a tickle in the back of their mind to which they only heard the whisper 'And so two more arrive. Interesting.'

"Anakin, did you just say something?" Obi-Wan asked his former apprentice in confusion, primarily to eliminate a possibility.

"No," Anakin answered with just as much confusion. "Was that you?"

Obi-Wan only commented, "That can't be a good sign."

As if some deity was listening in on them, alarms began to ring throughout the bridge. "Generals, two contacts just appeared on sensors!" a clone reported. Without hesitation, the clone transferred the sensor data to the holotable that Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Rex were standing around.

Two holograms appeared on the table, the first of which looked just like a Venator-class cruiser except there was no command tower, it had no colors other than a metallic shade of gray and white lettering in a language that was definitely not Aurebesh as well as the emblem of a bird grabbing a planet in its talons, the last major difference was the large hole running through the vessel's center. Though it wasn't damaged, but designed that way intentionally. The first ship's length was approximately one kilometer long and several hundred wide and approximately another hundred high. The other ship was another beast altogether. It easily dwarfed both the first ship and the three Venator-class ships the Republic sent to find Ahsoka, sensors marked it at being almost five kilometers long. Whereas the first ship was very angular, like the Republic cruisers, this one was almost beautiful and elegant to look at if it weren't so terrifyingly huge.

"Generals, they're on an intercept course and their weapons already have a lock on us!" a clone reported.

"Get a lock on them!" Anakin ordered.

"We can't, our weapons are out of range!"

"Calm down, Anakin," said an oddly calm Obi-Wan.

"Calm down? They have a lock on all three of our cruisers!" Anakin shouted at Obi-Wan.

"If they already had a lock on us, why haven't they fired at us?"

Then it dawned on Anakin. 'Why aren't they firing?' he thought. Then it hit him. "Forward this order to the rest of the group: full stop!"

"General?" Rex asked in confusion, many other clones replicated his question with their posture and facial expressions.

"Just do it!" Anakin ordered. Rex looked at Anakin one more time before one of his brothers followed Skywalker's order. Within moments of each other, each of the three cruisers stopped with only a slight drift.

The holoprojector lit up with the image of Admiral Yularen wearing a slightly angry expression. "Generals, why did you give the order to stop?" he asked.

Obi-Wan stepped forward to answer. "We believe that democracy, not a show of force, will benefit us in this situation," he replied.

"You are playing a dangerous game, general," Yularen chastised, "we have already received alerts that they have multiple locks on us and we are unable to do the same."

"General," a clone shouted out, "we're receiving a transmission from the smaller of the two ships!"

"Attention, unidentified vessels," a digital sounding female voice said.

"Unidentified?" Anakin asked. Before he could get a reply the transmission continued.

"You are approaching a quarantine zone. Turn around and leave immediately or you will be destroyed or boarded and detained as per containment protocols."

"A quarantine zone?" Obi-Wan asked. "What could have caused these people to result to such drastic measures?"

"Maybe it's something like the Blue Shadow Virus?" Rex pitched in.

"Well we can't leave until we find Ahsoka," Anakin stated adamantly.

"I agree," Rex added.

Obi-Wan sighed. He knew that wouldn't be able to sway Anakin's opinion or decision after he got it in his head. "Comms?" Obi-Wan asked, getting the attention of the clone at the console. "Can we send a live transmission to them?"

The clone looked at his console and replied, "We have the frequency they broadcasted to us, we can try to send one back."

"Do it," Anakin chimed in, cutting off any reply Obi-Wan might have had.

The clone nodded and tapped a few keys before turning around. "You're live."

Before Anakin could speak and possibly aggravate the so far non-hostile unknowns with his very... specific kind of negotiation tactics, Obi-Wan stepped forward to the microphone. "Hello there, we seem to have lost our way looking for our wayward friend. Perhaps you've seen her?" Obi-Wan said in the friendliest tone that he had at his disposal.

"Identify yourselves," a male voice replied to them with a heavy accent of some kind that Obi-Wan, Anakin, or Rex couldn't place.

"I am Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, with me are Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Wulff Yularen," Obi-Wan replied. "Now that you now know who we are, it would be only fair to know who you are."

"My name is Doctor Leonard Church, captain of the UNSC Mother of Invention. At least you're polite, something those overgrown lizards weren't. You said you lost a wayward friend, would you care to describe her?" the man named Church asked respectfully.

This time, Anakin shot forward and took over. "She's a togruta, approximately fifteen galactic years old, she can also get a bit snippy," Anakin quickly described his apprentice.

The other side went silent for a moment with only whisper-like chatter going on that came through. "Ayame, activate visual communications with them," Church said morosely.

"Are you sure, sir?" a digital female asked.

"Just do it," Church ordered.

"Aye, sir."

Without their doing, the cruiser's holoprojectors activated to reveal the two-dimensional image of a middle-aged human male with dark hair and a moustache and goatee facial hair style. He even had glasses on, a visual prosthetic that had been phased out of the greater civilized galaxy for millennia. "We have much to discuss. I welcome you to come aboard via the aft hangar bay by shuttle."

XxXxXxX

Mother of Invention, hangar. Minutes later.

Four individuals walked down the corridor that led from the ship's lift system towards the ventral hangar bay. The first of these four is Leonard Church, captain of the Mother of Invention. He wears the standard UNSC on-duty officer's uniform, his hair grayed with age, and his technologically inferior eyeglasses. He technically didn't need the glasses as the UNSC officer's health plan covered getting laser eye surgery at bargain prices as a thank you for their service. The same could be said about his choice in letting his hair gray, after all there were a plethora of products that a person could buy that would qualify as 'beauty products' to the public and while he didn't see such products as 'girly' or 'emasculating', he did see them as a waste of money, money that could be well spent elsewhere. He had no visible weapon on his person, though he had a holdout Derringer hidden on his person of the worst happened.

The person immediately to his right was Jare 'Sragumee, the Sangheili liaison, keeping pace with the rest of the group, although he could outpace them in a casual walking speed competition just like the rest of his species due to their taller stature and more 'graceful' moment style. He wore silver accented black armor that was reserved for someone of his rank. It looked shiny and spotless due to him giving his armor a thorough cleaning when he returned to the ship as it had a few marks from carbon scoring, Covenant armor proved quite superior when it came to defending against energy based weapons. He stood with the humans as he was the liaison for Sanghelios on this ship and therefore was be required to be present to report the events that would happen next. He carried his Energy Sword on his waist, as was his right, and bore no other weapon.

On Church's left was a teal armor wearing Spartan who currently had her Recon variant armored helmet under her arm. Her brightly accented red hair, a very rare natural hair color these days, lit up any room that she went inside of. Her hair color also accented and complemented, although not always positively, her attitude and temper when riled up. Her squad knew this from firsthand experience whenever they royally messed up during missions or goofed off in the middle of a mission, something that a few of her team did do. Her hair was currently worn in a short cut ponytail in order to accommodate for her helmet. A M90 shotgun was maglocked to her back and a standard service pistol was magnetically holstered to her thigh.

Next to her is a male Spartan clad in the Mark VI style of armor painted in brown and brown accents. The first thing most would notice about him was his missing eye that came about from a training accident years ago; said eye had been replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic that looked normal in regular lighting but had a tendency to glow eerie electric green in low light conditions. The man's brown hair was styled in such a way that it took the required crew cut length, as per UNSC regulations, but used a type of hair product in a an attempt to give himself a little more of a visual difference between him and his comrades. He also carried his matching Mark VI helmet under his arm as he walked in time to the rest of the group. He had a BR55 maglocked to his back and a personally modified version of the standard UNSC sidearm holstered to his thigh.

"I still believe that this is a bad idea," the woman stated.

"What's done is done, Carolina and I want you on your best behavior for our guests," Church replied.

"And if they're hostile?"

"Then they'd better quickly learn how to breathe in a vacuum," Church replied with little emotion.

"Umm, sir? Wouldn't that kill everyone in the hangar?" the man asked with great concern.

"It would, York, if I hadn't had the order issued to clear the hangar of all non-EVA equipped personnel."

Jare chose, this time, to chime in. "Do you believe that these humans will be hostile to prepare such a measure?" Jare asked carefully.

"'Be prepared for every outcome.' That's what I took away from First Contact on Harvest all those years ago. I expect a peaceful resolution, but I also plan for the worst." They arrived in the hangar where only a few EVA equipped crew members worked on various items to appear busy. Seconds passed in an uncomfortable silence until a shuttle passed through the ionization field that kept the breathable, yet chilly, atmosphere inside the hangar separate from the hard vacuum of space. The shuttle was of a similar design seen back in the records of the alien warship that were normally associated with the Republic, although it did have an updated design aesthetic. "Ayame," Church called out, "had the Cole Protocol been set up to initiated if required?"

The AI appeared in her holographic form on Church's tac-pad. "Aye, sir, it has. Your panic phrase is the same, would you like to change it?"

"No, that will be unnecessary. Are retaliation targets chosen?"

The shuttle lowered its landing struts and settled down on the hangars deck. "The flash capacitors are charged and the MAC is loaded and primed to fire on command."

"Good. Set the slipspace drive for a five-minute countdown for the self-destruct."

"Aye, Aye, captain," she replied as she disappeared. Both York and Carolina put on their helmets and got ready for anything.

The shuttle's engine shut down and a few seconds passed before the ramp on the underside of the shuttle lowered as it hissed, equalizing the atmospheric pressures between the two vessels. After finishing its cycle, two men walked down the ramp. One was older, sporting a well groomed beard and mustache combination. He also wore various shades of brown when it came to his chosen attire: robes that had armored gauntlets. If Church were to make a random guess at the man's age, he'd say somewhere in his upper thirties to younger forties. Church also identified him as the one named Obi-Wan. The one standing next to him wore much darker, but still similar in function and design, clothing. If Church could pick but one word to describe this twenty-something, it would be 'focused.' He looked as though he were on a mission, and if he was in fact the master of the girl in the Infirmary, then that was understandable why. They both carried silver tubes on their belts, and if Sangheili culture had taught him anything, those were either ceremonial weapons or some kind of marks of station.

Two other men followed them mere feet behind. They were similarly armored and stood at approximately 1.8 meters tall. Church could have sworn that they could be brothers even without seeing them yet. Two things differentiate the two. The first of which is that one is wearing orange trimmed white armor, while the other wore a darker blue trimmed armor. The orange one had a kind of ocular attachment attached to his helmet while the other had a type of antenna sticking out that had a flat top to it. The orange one seemed to favor the Spartan style of armor design, that being pretty utilitarian while the second had a type of... open front skirt, there was no other word for it that Church could think of, around his waist which had twin pistol holsters on the side of it. Church, as well as York, Carolina, and Jare all noticed that they sported weapons as well; the blue one with twin pistols and the orange one with a stockless rifle type of weapon. Knowing that these two were soldiers immediately sought the two Spartans to lower their hands to their service pistols, ready to quickdraw on them.

Church was glad to see that no one else came out of the shuttle, however, that didn't mean that there four weren't some kind of highly trained assassins. Church kept his stance casually formal, just enough to put the four men at ease. The foreign group approached Church and his. They stood in front of each other, calmly examining each other both by body language and by how each person looked at the other. Finally, Church broke the uncomfortable silence and extended his right hand. "Welcome aboard," he greeted, his Texan accent coming on strong.

After taking a moment to recognize the specific social greeting cue, Obi-Wan extended his hand as well and shook Church's waiting hand. "We thank you for your hospitality, captain," Obi-Wan replied. Both Church and Obi-Wan noticed that they both gave a fairly firm handshake. Releasing the captain's hand he gestured to his companions. "I hope you don't mind, but I brought with me a few companions."

"So long as you don't mind that I brought a few friends of my own," Church replied.

"Allow me to introduce my good friend Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Captain Rex, and Commander Cody."

"Charmed, I'm sure."

"Obi-Wan, we can't dawdle anymore," Anakin muttered to his friend with impatient anxiety.

Church noticed the man's anxious nature and addressed them, "I'm sure you are wanting to see your colleague. We do request that you holster any weapons."

"Of course, captain, it is your ship," Obi-Wan replied. The Jedi Master then turned to the two clone commandos and nodded. As Rex already had his pistols holstered, Cody complied and slung his blaster rifle over his shoulder.

Church then lead them through his ship, sending a quick message to Ayame to stand down on the Cole Protocol pertaining to the self-destruct. They walked through the ship's public areas, places that would be easy to defend if attacked in, allowing for Ayame to seal them in and vent the atmosphere of the area. After all, he didn't want these people to know how their ship worked or where the reactors, hyperdrive generator, and slipspace drive were located.

"This is quite the impressive vessel, captain," Obi-Wan commended. "Might I ask where your people got the idea for the design?" Obi-Wan knew that Kuat were responsible for the construction of their cruisers and it was plausible that Kuat was doing a similar job with a different but similar design for these people.

"While I do thank you for the compliment, that information is classified," Church replied as they reached the main lift bay.

After a fairly silent elevator ride later, the doors opened to reveal the deck that both the medbay and cryofreezing bay were located. Both Anakin and Obi-Wan noticed the all too sterile nature of the floors and walls, as well as the slight chill in the air that was unnatural, even for being in space. "Where are we, exactly?" Anakin asked.

"Medical and cryogenics," Church replied.

"Why would you bring us here?" Anakin asked more hostilely than intended.

"Everyone retrieved from the vessel," 'except for the trandoshans we kept alive in the brig' Church convieniently left out, "were brought here to be checked out by our medical officer as per protocol." Anakin breathed a sigh of relief as this was how this ship's protocols were set up. "However, your friend is in a bit of a pickle and we were about to decide how to proceed before you showed up."

"What do you mean 'in a pickle'?" Obi-Wan asked very carefully.

The doors to the medbay slid open and they walked inside. Church turned to the medical officer on duty and addressed him by his rank before walking with his entourage further inside the medbay. Church led them towards the ICU where behind 'biohazard' class glass Ahsoka laid motionless on a medical bed while a very odd visual bubble around the bed. Immediately on seeing his apprentice on a hospital bed Anakin snapped. He lunged forward toward Church and grabbed the collar of his uniform and lifted him up in the air. "What did you do to my apprentice?!" he shouted in barely controlled anger.

"I did nothing to her," Church calmly replied despite the fact that he was in the hands of someone who was emotionally attached to the girl in the other room.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan chastised his former apprentice. Anakin heard two weapons being cocked and looked to the captain's sides and saw two barrels of weapons pointed towards him, primarily his head, both weapons were held by the two humongous soldiers. Obi-Wan could easily tell that the larger bored one held by the female was a ballistic projectile based weapon while the other one held by the make was either kinetic or particle based. "Now is the time for a clear mind." Anakin looked at the captain, then at Obi-Wan, then at his apprentice, and finally back at the captain. Anakin let out a huff as he released the captain. "I do apologize for my friend's… overreaction." Church smoothed out his uniform, ensuring that he looked presentable as his station required. As he did Obi-Wan looked in on the room. "Could you explain what is going on?"

"She's currently in a temporal stasis field to prevent her status from deteriorating any further."

"Temporal stasis?"/"What?" both Obi-Wan and Anakin asked at the same time, asking questions to different parts of Church's report.

Church sighed. "Ayame, perhaps you could explain this better?" Church asked the listening AI.

"Of course, sir," came Ayame's voice from the speakers in the room. She then appeared on a holotank connected to the rest of the ship's network. "Konichiwa, gentlemen," she greeted with a slight bow as her chosen persona was that of a Japanese noble lady.

"Woah," Rex commented. While Cody didn't say anything, he was in definite agreement.

"Impressive," Obi-Wan added.

"What are you?" Anakin asked.

"I am AYM 0167-1, but you can call me Ayame," she greeted. She predicted their next question by adding, "I am a fully self-aware artificial intelligence created for the purpose of running systems, weapons, and sensors among other things. I also am here for companionship, if a crewmember needs someone to talk to, they may speak to me, should they want to."

"What?" Rex asked.

"I have access to thousands of medical journals and psychological theses to cater an appropriate response relevant to the conversation at hand."

"Oh."

"Your friend is inside a temporal displacement field, or time dilation bubble depending on your personal preference, that is set to a ratio of a thousand to one. For every thousand seconds we experience, only one passes for her." She then opened several files and displayed them on screen. "Complete shattering of the equivalent of the human L1 vertebrae and severance of the spinal column due to sharp Force trauma from shrapnel from a grenade as well as bone fragments. The fragments were successfully removed and any additional superficial wounds cleaned."

"What are you saying, exactly?" Obi-Wan asked for clarification. After all, he might be knowledgeable about many things, but anatomy was not one of his strengths.

"If she is not treated soon the damage will become permanent and she will never walk again without cybernetic assistance. That is the reason she is in the stasis field, to prevent further cellular damage before a treatment can be administered. The only other option was cryogenic freezing, which in her state might cause more damage."

"There has to be something you can do!" Anakin shouted in desperation.

"There is… but there's a bit of a snag on which we're still waiting on the green light for."

"And that is?" Rex asked. His helmet and training allowing him to keep a mostly calm demeanor.

"Bringing her into our territory to receive treatment at a fully staffed hospital," Church answered for Ayame.

"If I may ask, why your facilities? The Republic has state of the art medical centers."

"Do you have flash cloning to replicate damaged tissue?" Church asked, primarily out of curiosity rather than proving that their technology was better than this Republic. After all, his scientific mind wanted to know.

"Flash cloning?" Cody chimed in.

"Flash cloning is the process of replicating biological 'twins' to a degree," Ayame answered. "The only legal use for flash cloning is to replace failing organs, missing limbs, and the like. It is illegal under UNSC laws to flash clone a full human or sentient being."

"Cloning is illegal?" Rex asked, his eyebrow raised.

"There are many reasons for the illegality of cloning ranging from religious beliefs that one is encroaching on 'God's territory' by creating life while others see it as a human rights violation. Then there's the whole socioeconomic impact that it would have. Most decide that it's a mess that they don't want to deal with if they don't have to."

"If we could get back on topic, why flash cloning?" Obi-Wan asked in an attempt to get the discussion back on track.

"Because by introducing stem cells to recreate nerve tissue growth, we can return her ability to walk without her even knowing. As for our facilities, while we do have the capability to replicate and flash clone body parts for surgical applications, but as you may have noticed our crew is primarily human, save for the Weapons Master here as he is an envoy. When planning long term assignments like the one we've been on, the UNSC has genetic templates sequenced and stored on each vessel each serviceman is stationed in the case of a fatal or life threatening injury. This vessel nor do any in our battle group has this specific piece of equipment. While we could attempt treatment with a human's gene set, the chance of rejection is high and could cause many more problems, including but not limited to death."

"And why have you done nothing?" Anakin asked once more, once more barely containing any rage he had.

"I assume that you aren't the highest person on the food chain and therefore take orders from someone else, the same is for us." Church continued. "We have certain protocols in place in times such as these where we make contact with another civilization. This protocol has saved the lives of many and can be only overridden by one of the many heads of our government. We are waiting on that authorization and hence why the specific time ratio for the bubble."

Obi-Wan looked conflicted. He felt for his fellow Jedi, his apprentice was injured and as his fellow Jedi and friend, no, brother, it hurt him to see his friend like this. Anakin was his apprentice for ten years and whenever they went on missions that could go downhill fast he feared something similar that happened to Ahsoka would happen to Anakin. Luckily, the worst thing that happened while Anakin was under his tutelage was losing his hand to Dooku. While that had been traumatizing in its own right, this was worse for his friend as there was a chance that Ahsoka, the snippy apprentice, might never walk again.

"Captain," Ayame said getting the Church's and everyone else's attention. "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that HIGHCOM has authorized the transport of Ahsoka to Reach to hospital platform Angel on My Shoulder."

"And the bad news?" Church asked, wincing in anticipation of what the answer would be.

"She wants to speak with you."

Church froze up and slowly looked from the young alien girl towards the AI. "Her?"

"Her," Ayame emphasized.

Church then sighed. "Very well. I'll take the transmission in my quarters."

Ayame then shook her head. "No, she wants to speak. Now."

"Ayame, I hardly think that here is the place for-."

"LEONARD CHURCH!" a female voice shouted as the live transmission began. Church immediately cringed at the very specific tone used that while most would call a very irate woman's voice, he would call it 'ear grating'.

"Oh boy."/"Shit." Both York and Carolina said at the same time. York in more amusement rather than Carolina's groan.

A screen appeared on the ICU's glass revealing a blonde woman in her mid-forties who looked quote fit for her age and showed several scars from battles long gone. She looked, and sounded, quite irate at Church. "Would you mind telling me why Admiral Osman came down to my office about something you did?"

Church looked oddly nervous to everyone. "Allison, I was merely doing my job and-," Church tried to defend himself.

"And your actions following almost got you a court martial," the woman named Allison interrupted. She leaned back in her chair and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Jesus Church, what were you thinking? Suggesting to break the Cole Protocol to both Lord Hood and the President himself? Are you trying to kill your career?"

"Even if it certainly to that, I would still stand by my convictions."

Allison sighed. "I know you would. You're extremely lucky that Lord Hood has some form of foresight that none of us seem to understand. If it weren't for him you'd be in some dark ONI black site. An ONI officer will be waiting for you to debrief you when you arrive."

Away from the conversation that trailed off into a bunch of military talk about protocols and other regulations. Obi-Wan turned towards the two large soldiers and asked, "Who is she and what is ONI?"

"His wife," York replied. "As for the second, ONI stands for the Office of Naval Intelligence. You know, Navy spooks?"

"Doesn't that break some kind of regulation?"

"Not really, they're in different departments," York shrugged.

"Surely such an arrangement is stressful on their relationship?"

"You have no idea."

"What was that, York?" Allison demanded.

"Nothing, colonel," York replied all too quickly.

"I assume that you've already gotten permission to break formation and move towards Reach?" Allison asked Church.

"We received word a moment before you opened a channel to us," Church said.

"Then you'd better get on your way. While it hasn't been officially confirmed, we'd hate to cause a temporal anomaly that could start the end of the universe." Before anyone could ask what she meant, the transmission ended.

Church turned to the Jedi and two clones, "If we are going to leave, it has to be now."

"We must contact the Order to inform them of our goings on. We would hate for them to follow us here after they don't hear from us, causing them to be destroyed in some sort of misunderstanding," said Obi-Wan.

Church took a moment to think it through. If they didn't report to their superiors then they'd send more people to investigate their appearance, primarily to this location, exposing the Halo and endangering the galaxy once more. "Very well. However, please refrain from mentioning the ring-world."

"Why should we-?" Anakin got out before he was cut off by his former master.

"That is acceptable," Obi-Wan replied.

Church nodded, "York, please take them to the transmissions room."

"Aye, sir," the tan clad soldier acknowledged.

"Ayame, chart a course for Reach as per Article One of the Cole Protocol."

"Already done, sir. I'm waiting on your command to move from our position," the AI replied as she reappeared once more on her place on the holotank.

XxXxXxX

Coruscant. Supreme Chancellor's office.

"Concerning, this is," the elderly Yoda said as he soaked in the information that he was just given. Inside the Supreme Chancellor's office were Jedi Master Mace Windu, the Supreme Chancellor, Admiral Yularen, and Grandmaster Yoda himself.

"On two fronts. Not only is an uncharted part of space patrolled by these unknown humans, but Padawan Tano injured in such a way," Mace added.

"They do say that they have the means to return her to full health," Obi-Wan reported over the secured holonet transmission.

"If this is true then this medical technology could help bring our clone troopers back into the fight faster," Palpatine stated.

"Have they made any hostile threats towards you?" asked Mace.

"Only when we first arrived and when Anakin lost his temper for a split second," Obi-Wan replied.

"And where would young Skywalker be?" Yoda asked.

"He insisted on staying with Padawan Tano."

"Understandable, that is. And what of this United Earth Government, seek entrance to the Republic, do they?"

"They haven't expressed any interest to do so. They seem to have an alliance with another race or civilization, they were a bit unclear about that."

"Perhaps we should send an envoy to express our interest in their joining the Republic as well as the benefits that they would be able to take part with in joining a larger galactic community?" Palpatine suggested. "Based on what you've told us about their ship designs alone they would be a formidable ally against the Separatists."

"I can approach them with the offer, but I doubt that they will go for it."

"There is no harm in asking." Inwardly Palpatine hoped that these new humans would join his soon to be created Empire, their technology, assuming it does what they promised Kenobi, would help cement the place of his empire for centuries.

"I will try to get in contact once more after Padawan Tano has been healed."

"Very well. May the Force be with you," Mace said as Obi-Wan's transmission ended.

The group then stayed and talked about different military campaigns that they were going to brief Palpatine about regardless. Meanwhile in the back of Palpatine's mind he had to now take extra precautions with this new entity entering the fray. He had no idea about them. They were wild cards. He would have to have them tested in order to ensure that his Empire rose as he and his now dead master had once foreseen for the Sith.

'Perhaps,' Palpatine thought. 'Yes, that will work nicely. Now to plan it down to the smallest detail to ensure it goes off without an issue.'

XxXxXxX

Bridge. Mother of Invention.

Church sat in his command chair on the bridge of his ship. It hadn't been that long after the carried transmission was sent through their systems before forwarding them to the Jedi cruisers still sitting at the edge of the Exclusion Zone.

"Ayame, did he reveal anything?" Church asked his holographic companion who appeared at her pedestal at the mention of her name.

"No, he upheld his part of the bargain," Ayame replied.

"Good."

"I thought you would like to know, Jedi Kenobi requested to come to the bridge."

"Did he mention why?" Church asked as he shifted in his chair. After all, sitting in the same place for a while gets uncomfortable.

"No, but I have the suspicion he wants to know more about the Halo. It's sort of just hanging out there and hard to ignore, in case you haven't noticed."

He stood up and walked towards the primary screen that showed the stern of the Invention and the looming Halo just listing along in the gas giant's orbit as if it were nothing more than an super advanced construct instead of a weapon of mass extinction. "Permission to come on the bridge is granted, Ayame."

"Very well, I will let York know," she said as she disappeared from her pedestal once again.

Minutes passed before the doors at the back of the bridge opened and Obi-Wan walked in with his orange accented soldier following closely behind him with York following them a few feet behind them. "Captain, thank you for seeing me," Obi-Wan greeted.

Church stood up to greet them and nodded. "Of course. Tell me, what were you wanting to talk about?" Church asked.

Obi-Wan looked over towards the screen that Church had been looking at too not too long ago. "That. What is it? It's of a size that no other civilization has been able to construct."

Church sighed. Pretty much everyone in the UNSC knew what they were, even if they didn't understand the science behind them entirely. "That is Halo. It is an ancient construct built tens of thousands of years ago to serve a dual purpose: as science laboratories as well as a weapon."

Obi-Wan's eyebrows raised, "A weapon?"

"Yes, a weapon. When fired it releases a wave of radiation capable of wiping out constructs made with neural physics, as well as all sentient life in a twenty-five thousand light-years radius. And when fired in random with its sister rings when fired will wipe out all life in the galaxy."

Obi-Wan's eyes widened in horror. 'All sentient life?' "What kind of foe did these ancient beings face that would cause them to result to such extreme measures?"

Church paced towards the screen. "Before the rings were even built, our humanity fought a two-pronged war, one with the creators of the Rings named the Forerunners and a parasitic entity called the Flood. Our fight with the Forerunners was caused by a misunderstanding where we burned planets that the Flood was on in order to prevent it from spreading, to which they only slowed its progress. Due to fighting a two front war, humanity lost and the Flood retreated, but it would be seen lot long after when they went after the Forerunners in full force. As an absolute last resort they built the Halo array which would kill all of the Flood's food supply: all sentient life. We have very explicit orders to prevent anyone from using the rings unless under a extremely dire situation."

"Like if the Flood were to come back," Obi-Wan observed. "Why are they such a threat?"

"Because if even one spore is released into a population it will cause the death of everyone on the planet in less than a few days cycles of the planet."

When Obi-Wan thought about it, for some reason it made sense in terms of galactic history. It seemed as though around one hundred thousand years ago history was muddled to an extent. Sure, many historians knew the general history, but not all of it. "That clashes with what I know as history. Last I checked some historians can track accounts leading back around two hundred thousand years ago."

"It is possible that the entire array was not ironclad, leaving a pocket or two where they did not overlap like they were designed to do. Or the Forerunners missed somewhere when they ruled the galaxy," Ayame said, appearing on her holotank. "If 343 Guilty Spark and Mendicant Bias are anything to go by, the AI in charge of assisting in the setting up the positions of the array to maximize the coalescence effect could have been corrupted in some way causing some gaps where life would continue as it was before."

"That would make sense," Obi-Wan commented.

Ayame then turned to Church. "Our course is laid in and the drive is spun up."

"Good," Church replied before turning to Obi-Wan. "Unless you have any business to immediately attend to we can be on our way."

Obi-Wan looked up, pulling him from his thoughts. "No, I made my report to the Order," he replied.

Church turned to the crew, "Make weigh."

"Aye, aye, captain," Ayame replied. The Invention turned so it found the space in between several mass shadows and leapt to lightspeed, the stars stretched and the vessel vanished to those still in real space. "Ten seconds until reemersion."

"Ten seconds?" Obi-Wan asked.

"We have our reasons," Church replied dismissively. "And the slipspace drive?"

"Already spun up," Ayame replied. They dropped out of hyperspace and before Obi-Wan could ask what was going on, something felt off in the Force as a dot appeared before the vessel in space before widening into a disc large enough to encompass the entire vessel. The center of the hole was as black as any black hole and it was ringed with an off purple-white light. "Slipspace portal is stable, shields are up, and all hangar doors have been sealed."

"Then take us in." The ship slowly moved towards the stationary, disc shaped black hole. Obi-Wan found it extremely odd that these people were going to go inside of a black hole, and the fact that they were able to create an artificial one right in front of his eyes. For some reason, Obi-Wan was not scared shitless at the fact that they were about to go inside a black hole, the Force was telling him that it was completely unnatural but safe, oddly enough. To say it was an odd feeling was an understatement.

After they passed through the singularity the entire inside was pitch black with only an odd light passing by. When Obi-Wan reached out with the Force, something felt odd. It was if the Force wasn't here at all. Sure, he could feel the people around him and on the ship, but outside of the ship he could sense nothing. It was like he himself was in a black hole in the Force. "What is this place?" Obi-Wan asked while slightly shivering.

"This is slipspace," Ayame replied from her pedestal.

"Slipspace? Don't you mean hyperspace?" Cody asked in confusion.

"No. Slipspace and hyperspace are two completely different methods of superluminal travel. While hyperspace is faster, it has innumerable faults like it can be intercepted by the use of gravity wells like a planet's natural gravity well or what we use: artificial gravity wells; slipspace, on the other hand, allows for slower superluminal travel depending on the layer of slipspace you're currently in but allows for the vessel traveling through to completely avoid all celestial objects due to being in another dimension parallel to ours."

"Interesting," Obi-Wan commented in amazement. 'A civilization that developed superluminal travel not through hyperspace, but through this new type all together.'

"ETA on arrival at Reach: 20 hours."

XxXxXxX

Reach, high orbit. 20 hours later.

The Mother of Invention emerged from slipspace a few thousand kilometers from the communications zone, the zone at which all UNSC and allied ships had to transmit their IFF codes and their reason for being there. If a vessel did not transmit these two simple things within sixty seconds of entering the planet's orbit they would immediately be targeted by one of the many Orbital Defense Platforms around it. If the vessel proceeded to continue on a collision course towards an orbital installation or the planet itself without transmitting the required items still, then they would be fired upon across the bow. If they still didn't respond then they were to be fired upon by the ODP targeting them until the ship was destroyed. It was a simple process.

Thirty minutes before the Invention came out of slipspace the preparations were made to move Ahsoka from the medbay to the hangar inside of the stasis field. They had to be careful for multiple reasons, one of which being that actually contacting the field from the outside is an extremely bad idea while it is active. The medical gurney had been secured to the Pelican's deck mere moments before they came out of slipspace. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, Cody, Church, Carolina, and York all filed into the Pelican's passenger compartment.

The pilot stepped out of her cockpit as the passengers were taking their seats. "Ok, keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times or else you might lose something important," she joked. "Please secure your harness so we can get under way. Thank you."

"Well, she's an odd one," Obi-Wan joked.

"You have no idea," York replied in a more serious manner.

The back hatch of the Pelican sealed shut with a hiss and the ventral hangar doors opened below. Anakin gave the UNSC soldiers an unsure glare as the restraints that held the Pelican in place were released with a small *clank*. The engines went from their resting state to powering up to full power. Their whine filling the small cargo bay. The passengers felt themselves being pressed into their seats as the artificial gravity of the larger ship gave way to the artificial gravity inside of the much smaller Pelican. The crew then felt their weight shift to the back of the Pelican, their sides, left and right respectively as the Pelican accelerated towards the medical platform.

"Why are we going to this platform in particular?" Anakin asked.

"Because of the Zero-G surgical team on station," Church replied.

"Zero-G?"

"Yeah, the docs turn off the gravity for procedures that require more finesse and the lack of gravity helps when it comes to blood flow and not having to worry about it pooling where it shouldn't during the procedure," York replied. "A buddy of mine went through the same type of procedure years ago and he turned out fine, lost his voice because he got shot in the throat ten plus times, but he lived and is still serving today."

"Doesn't it get... messy?" Obi-Wan asked.

"If there wasn't an AI controlling a drone responsible for cleaning up and keeping the area sanitary, unbelievably so."

The rest of the flight was spent in silence. When they made the final approach Church moved up towards the cockpit and Obi-Wan, Anakin, Rex, and Cody were able to briefly see a set of two massive space stations. One of which had a huge tower on it and the other was like a blocky medical platform that the Republic had been using for a few years now to take care of injured clones. The big red cross on it gave the intent of the building's existence. The one with the large tower gave the sense of impending doom, therefore it had to have been a military installation.

The Pelican passed through the micron field and landed as light as a feather. The rear hatch opened and the medics attending to Ahsoka took the medical bed started moving the bed out into the very spacious bay. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and their clone troopers followed the two medics while a man in a black uniform of the same style that Church wore waited for him. Both men saluted to the other before they walked off to placed unknown to the group.

While Church went off to be debriefed by the ONI agent, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Rex, Cody, and York followed the medical team towards the ICU. The medics were swift in their task and brought Ahsoka to operating room. They reached the door, to which the medics took their charge inside, but they were stopped by a surgeon. "I'm sorry, you can't go any further," a helmeted, scrubs clad doctor said to the Jedi and their clone companions.

"This way," York said as he took the four towards the observation room. He stopped outside the room which overlooked the operating room and turned to the four. "I should warn you, if you have weak stomachs, you might want to wait outside." Seeing as no one stepped back, "Ok then, don't complain to me if you don't like what you see."

XxXxXxX

Unknown time and place.

To Ahsoka everything went past in a blur. Everything sounded like it was being said through the thickest batch of bacta. She could hear echoes and barely heard conversations. Something about an operation being a success. Something about going down to the surface. None of it made sense to her. If it did she wouldn't be confused right now. There was something wrong with where she was currently. She felt... echoes, echoes of the dead. They were screaming in horror as they were killed in all manners of ways. She couldn't take it any more, all the death, all the suffering; it was too much for her.

Ahsoka shot up from the bed she was on breathing heavily while drenched in sweat. Once she calmed down enough to become coherent she noticed that she wasn't wearing her Jedi attire, but some kind of clothing consisting of pants and a shirt of the same color, that being teal. She also noticed that she had a needle in her arm that was connected to a clear bag of fluid. The next few minutes went by quickly as nurses fussed over her, checking for multiple things before they left her alone.

During that entire time she felt that her master was nearby and a few minutes after Anakin came inside of the room. He looked happy to see her. "Hey, Snips," he called out as he took a seat in an armchair next to the bed, "how are you feeling?"

"A little groggy and my back is a bit sore," she replied. "What happened?"

Anakin looked a bit distressed, weighing whether he should tell his apprentice or not the exact details. "When the people who boarded the trandoshan ship found you and took down the one holding you hostage, it dropped a modified thermal detonator and you were injured by the shrapnel from it," Anakin explained carefully.

"The last thing I remember was hitting a wall. What happened after that?"

"The people that found you, the UNSC, they brought you back to their ship and that's when we showed up. After entering an agreement with them they brought you to one of their medical facilities."

Ahsoka was confused, "Why didn't you take me to one of the Republic's medcenters?"

Anakin was once more conflicted. "You were... injured beyond our current capabilities to return you to as you were before. That, and we were at least a day or two away from an close Republic held system."

"So how bad was it?" she asked.

"Let's not think about it," Anakin replied all to quickly. "All that matters is that you're better now."

"I guess," Ahsoka replied dejectedly.

"Let's go take a walk, Rex has been pretty anxious in getting to see you," Anakin said as he stood up and walked over to his apprentice.

"Rex?" Ahsoka asked as she stood up. She wobbled a little, but Anakin kept her from falling on her face.

"Yeah, he's been getting a little antsy and that's been making our hosts a little more jumpy than they should be."

"Rex? Being antsy? You have to be talking about a different person," Ahsoka joked as they started to walk slowly out of the room.

"Believe what you want, but that's what I saw."

As they walked out of the hospital room they passed by a set of windows that let them see outside of the hospital itself. Outside she saw a group of black clad male and female humans running around a track while others were doing other workout related things. Beyond that she saw that parts of the landscape were lush and prestine, but others were dead and craggily, like glass. "Master, where are we, exactly?" Ahsoka asked.

"Some kind of world that the UNSC used for years as a jumping off point for their outer colonies as well as a military stronghold." Sensing his apprentice's next question, he continued. "A decade or so ago they were attacked by a xenophobic conglomerate of non-humans and the humans here were forced to flee or die, the conglomerate then turned the surface of the planet to glass as a kind of conquering mechanic. Apparently they've found a way to reclaim the beauty of the planet to what it looked like, although the science goes way above my head."

"So if it doesn't have anything to do with machines or fighting, you know nothing?" she joked playfully.

Anakin gave his apprentice a specific look out of the corner of his eye. "Careful Snips, maybe next time you damage your fighter I won't help you repair it," he countered in a just a joking manner, although he did leave the way he said it as it could go either way.

"You wouldn't do that, you like me too much."

They walked for a while until they met up with the rest of the small group that Anakin and Obi-Wan were able to bring with them in order to come with her to this planet owned by a different, previously undiscovered civilization in a small café still inside of the hospital. They chatted for a while about things like about the people that rescued her or the giant ring that they had seen. When she heard about the ring, something deep inside her made her feel cold once more. Before she could dwell on it more to the point where Anakin would have sensed through the Force her discomfort, a man in a uniform came up to them.

"Jedi and friends," Church greeted. "I'm glad to see that your friend is up and about."

"Very much so," Obi-Wan replied. "But I sense that you didn't come over here just to check up on us."

"You're right," Church said as he took off his hat and set it on the table before taking a seat. "As you might already know, we took a few trandoshan prisoners captive to be interrogated."

"You managed to interrogate a trandoshan?" Rex asked ambiguously. "I thought that was impossible."

"We have our ways," Church said mysteriously. "We managed to come upon some information that we thought would interest you. It turns out that your apprentice wasn't the only one that these oversized lizards had been picking up over the years." Obi-Wan was shocked, he had heard of some apprentices going missing over the years as well as their masters, but for what reason? Almost as if Church was psychic, he answered the unsaid question. "They had been using them for target practice, as objects to be hunted down and killed for sport."

"That's-," Ahsoka said in shock, realizing why she had been targeted in the first place.

"Despicable," Anakin finished, filling with righteous anger.

Church interrupted their next few thoughts by continuing, "It turns out we managed to also get the star chart location of where their 'hunting ground' is and the location of their ringleader as well as where he too is located."

To be continued?

XxXxXxX

That's all I have for this one. Yes it was a long one and I sort of fell apart there at the end, running out of ideas for a single pilot chapter where-as I could have left a few cliffhangers in a chaptered story. Now I am considering writing this one in full, however I don't want to feel like or seem like I am copying others who have done the same. Maybe in the future I will do that. Plus, I do have a lot of stories right now I either have still in my mind or a lot that I have yet to still continue. I can think of a few that fit that category.

As you might have read, there were quite a few RvB references there. You can consider those characters and ship names to be quasi-crossover material. The only character that I own out of this entire chapter is Ayame. She is mine.

How I imagine this entire story playing out, assuming that I do actually do it, is that the UNSC and the Alliances they've made will be forced to enter the Clone Wars due to some attack caused by the Separatists who managed to follow a UNSC ship one way or another and attack the colony it travels to, the UNSC responds. They then participate in the war while dodging the Republic's attempts to draw them in to the Republic and the cesspool of corruption that is in there (there are a few good people in there, but you have to admit there's a lot of corruption in the Republic). That will put Palpatine in quite a pickle as he will have to recalculate his plans and the interference of the UNSC in his little war will cause things to backfire in a way for him that leaves some people that would be dead alive and others alive, dead. Fun stuff to think about.

All I can really leave off with here is for you to tell me what your opinions on this one were and if I really should continue this one. Again, as always, constructive criticism will be read and listened to while flames and troll-like comments will be ignored/snapshotted and deleted so I and a friend can laugh at them later.

Until next time!