So some things to just discuss, only certain Spartans have energy swords as the UNSC does not make them, and can only be given to the Spartan by a member of the Swords of Sangheili for acts of extreme honour and valiance. So far the only Spartans of Significance to have such a weapon are Spartan Commander Sarah Palmer, Spartan Jameson Locke and Spartan Kojo Agu aka Romeo.
As you can now all see the gaps between the chapters will be larger now since it takes more time to write them fully and edit, check, etc. that and I still have work to go to.
DCDGojira - Yes the planet that the UNSC is/has colonised will be seen and since it is a planet in StarWars canon there is some information on it to portray it very well and with the UNSC colony/refugee base there. Also thanks, just like the flood, the Yuuzhan Vong will be absent from the story.
Gabekaywok - This is after Halo 4 so sadly Cortana is gone and there is no Halo 5 guardian event, she is GONE. I just didn't mention any of the events since I wanted to focus on other parts and background, Blue team (including Masterchief) is fighting off the last of the remaining covenant loyalists.
Shadowninja10 - Yep definitely getting spicier, and thanks I already feel like the UNSC has the upper hand on the Republic, CIS, etc. so If I deployed dozens or even hundreds of Spartans it would be too easy.
Guest - Sorry another thing I can't really answer because of spoilers, but I will say that the arrival of the UNSC will certainly be a 'hitch' in Sideouses plans.
Chapter Six: Deliverance
The plan was set, the three Commanders Romeo, Syndulla and Ima-Gun-Di decided to coordinate their forces until they liberated the capital City of Ryloth by destroying the outer defences and storming the city wiping out any droid forces and releasing all prisoners of war and civilians, the plan was quickly worked on two the last detail, they would set up camp a couple of miles away from the city where there was a large section of foliage to provide cover and decent terrain to encamp on.
It was the middle of the night and the troops walked with their weapons ready and their pace quickened since now they were not held up by civilians and didn't have to make sure that they had ample protection. The group was made up of Clone and Rebellion forces making up the centre and rear while the UNSC forces thanks to their equipment and could see better at night were stationed at the front and flanks to watch for any possible ambush by Separatists.
Many of the supplies had been distributed in packs to each soldier to carry, including some of the UNSC medical supplies which had been asked about by captain Keeli "Commander Agu Sir, what are those canisters you have brought along with the supplies from the Republic? some of your troops were saying they are medical". Captain Keeli asked
"They are Captain, It's Biofoam, a battlefield emergency temporary medical solution for internal wounds it is a coagulant and an antimicrobial foam polymer that keeps damaged organs in place and helps stop bleeding and haemorrhaging, It is our closest equivalent of what you would call Bacta but this does not exactly heal injuries but keeps the person alive until they can be treated properly. It seems Bacta is something the Republic has over the UNSC." Romeo explained
"Is it safe to use on Clones and Twi-Leks, Sir?" Captain Keeli asked
"Yes, commander, of all the data we received from the Republic about the species on this planet and this galaxy, very few had any known natural allergies to the chemicals used in Biofoam."
While they continued to move forward it was clear that the UNSC forces were much more disciplined than the Republic clones or at least the ODST's were since many of the clones were slouching, not checking their surroundings and a lot of them didn't have their weapons in their hands but slung over their shoulders. "Republics getting a bit lazy with the help I reckon," one of the marines said to one of his fellow soldiers. "Give them a break, they've been fighting non-stop in the jungles for days," the soldier said back
However on their way towards their designated camp location scouts that had gone ahead of the troops had reported back of a droid outpost with several prisoners and CIS forces guarding them, while they were not being tortured like a lot of reports had said about other strongholds they were being held in appalling conditions were disease could roam freely and access to food and water was nearly non-existent. Romeo looked at Syndulla and Ima-Gun-Di
"We'll handle this Generals, Sgt Walker, how many hostiles did you and your scouts manage to count?" Romeo questioned
"Thirty Super battle droids, Fifty-five B1 battle droids and Five Droid destroyers reported Sir." Sgt Walker responded
Romeo contemplated a plan in his head while looking ahead at the outpost and seeing very faintly the droids as well as all the buildings and terrain around them thinking about how he and his troops could use their environment to their advantage. He turned back to Sgt. Walker to tell him what they would do.
"Have platoons Two through five equip suppressed weapons only and take up positions at the two roads entering the village and have platoons one and six hides in the rubble at the rear of the village, once the men at the entrance begin the attack and draw the attention of the droids platoon one and six attacks from the rear and we can box them in". Romeo explained his plan
"I will come to assist you and your men, Spartan" Ima-Gun-Di said.
"If you insist General but we need to keep this quiet and contained If any of these droids is able to escape or report the incident then they will know of our location and our intentions to attack, I'll call for cloaked Prowlers to take the civilians and if need be the Clone troopers to the infinity once it returns from Lucazec. Walker tells the men to stack up on the road and move out" Romeo explains to the group
"Captain Keeli, can you cover this road in case of enemy reinforcements or stragglers?" General Ima-Gun-Di asked.
"Yes Sir, they won't get by us" Captain Keeli replied with an unnoticed scoff from Sgt Walker since he too noticed that the clone troopers had let their guard down upon their arrival. The UNSC troops led by Romeo silently but swiftly moved out in separate directions to cover all the locations for the attack, Ima-Gun-Di followed close behind Romeo, as they got closer and closer the sounds of droid movement became more clear. "All platoons in position, commence attack on my shot," Romeo said over the comms with several troops and Jedi Ima-Gun-Di next to him.
He perched over the half-collapsed stone wall to get a better look and pick his target, several metres away was three droid destroyers with their shield down, slowly he rose from cover with his armours camouflage mode activated, raised his customised SRS99-S5 sniper rifle and from the darkness fired three shots which even with the added suppressor still rang out throughout the outpost, The droids didn't even have time to react before the Armour piercing tungsten bullets raced through the air at five thousand feet per second went right through each one's sensor head causing them to immediately shut down.
The second the troops heard and saw the gunshots they all fired at the droids in the village before vaulting over the rubble and coming out from the foliage cover they had been using to stay hidden from the hostile forces, dozens of muffled gunshots could be heard as the ODST's platoons made quick work of the droids with pinpoint accuracy, the first shot by the droids didn't even happen until one-third of the entire enemy force had been wiped out. Jedi Ima-Gun-Di was helping three pinned down ODST soldiers by using his lightsaber to deflect the blaster bolts being fired by the two remaining droid destroyers.
To his right, he saw the troops unable to fire at the droids without getting blasted. To his right, he saw one of the fallen troops with several grenades on his gear, he shouted out to the soldiers to cover him with suppressing fire, The second they stopped firing on him to attack the ODST's he lunged out of the way and used the force to pull the grenades from the dead soldier to within the droideka shields which then detonated blowing the two droids into pieces. The soldiers quickly left cover to rejoin the fight on the other side of the outpost.
Romeo who had been moving and firing at droids at lightning speeds thanks to his Spartan augmentations and legendary MJOLNIR was nothing but a blur on the battlefield when his weapon ran out of ammo he didn't waste time reloading but simply put it down and drew his energy sword charging from droid to droid cutting them all down. When the smoke died down and the Blaster and gunfire had ceased the droids were nothing but scrap.
Almost immediately the soldiers begun to free the Prisoners the droids had held, many of them needed medical attention, "Prowlers are thirty seconds out, Sgt Walker I want you to go with the Prowlers, make sure these civilians get to the Lucazac refugee outpost and then head back, I'll need you for the assault on the capital." Romeo ordered Walker who nodded in understanding before saluting and leaving.
The Prowlers only decloaked when metres from the ground and once their rear hanger doors opened the civilians were escorted onto the stealth ships as well as some clones who resisted since at first they had no idea who these soldiers were since they had been captured before news of the UNSC could reach them, Jedi Master Ima-Gun-Di hastily explained that they were allies of the Republic and that they could be trusted.
Once they had finally evacuated the civilians and the few clones that needed serious medical treatment they moved out on their final push towards the capital city and after not much time the forces arrived at the point they would use to mount their assault, by now it was the very early morning over the planet but it was still pitch black, Romeo decided it was time to begin the Spartan assault on the CIS ships in orbit blockading the planet, He took out his Holo communication device to contact the lone Prowler in space sitting in waiting.
"Commander Locke, We have reached the staging ground for the assault on the Ryloth capital, take your prowler and perform a controlled single entry through the underside auxiliary hatch, once inside the plan stays the same, head for the communications hub and discreetly plant a jammer, Since this is a stealth mission and remaining undetected is key if you are seen head for the bridge and wipe out the bridge crew and plant an AI remnant so that if we need to we can detonate it, we need to avoid it if possible though. We don't want them to know we are here until the latest point possible."
Space above Ryloth
"We'll get it done Romeo, Good luck with your assault," Locke said receiving a light smirk from Romeo
"I think you're forgetting which one of us is going up against an entire separatist capital ship Locke," Romeo tells Locke
"Don't worry, don't forget Spartans never die". He said before cutting off the transmission and addressing his team and Fireteam Shadow who were chosen after their brilliant display of action when infiltrating a covenant light cruiser during the requiem campaign. "You all know the drill, we dock and move though quick and clean". Locke said sternly
Not coming out of its camouflaged state the prowler flies to the located auxiliary hatch and slowly docked with it making a very quiet metal clunking noise, The two teams stacked up by the door prepared to cut down anyone that may be standing on the other side. Spartan Fry of fireteam Shadow went to open it, when he did there were two B1 battle droids on the other side who clearly heard the hatch behind them open but they barely even got a glance before two Spartans fired at them with suppressed weapons dropping them to the floor.
They dragged the droids onto the ship to avoid them being discovered and their mission compromised, with the destroyed droids hidden they closed the hatch and Locke went to one of the panels next to it and patched in BB a fourth-generation AI assigned to the mission, BB's voice was of an older gentleman with a British accent and he spoke sincerely "I have good news and bad news Sir". BB said after barely even a few seconds coming through the ship's data.
"What is it?" Locke asked
"Good news is that I was able to obtain the semantics for the ship and since all of these droids have trackers in them I can pinpoint the best route with the fewest droids," BB said
"And the bad news?" Olympia asked while checking the corridors.
"Once these droids fail to report in they will investigate the area and there is evidence besides the droids that we are here and judging by the transmission chatter from other sections of the ship, the average droid patrol passes this section every thirty-two minutes and since I can't access these droids due to the bullet holes I can't find their serial numbers which are the only way I could have maybe faked a check-in," BB explained
"So we have thirty-two minutes to get to the communication hub and plant that jammer as well as get back here and escape before we are compromised. Let's move it" Locke ordered
As he said it he pulled BB out of the system and they all began hastily making their way down the corridors using their newly experimental armour that made them completely invisible except to each other through the visor of their helmets, With the clock quickly getting shorter they had less and less time to get to the comm hud, they were dodging patrols and guards all over the ship, one nearly walking right into Fry as it made an unexpected turn and came within only a few centimetres of him only just missing and continuing to walk down the hall.
The corridors of the ship were almost reflectively grey with white lights on the curved metal struts going from the floor to the ceiling. Even though they could speak to each other through their suits and not have anybody outside of them hear it, they still relied on only using hand signals to communicate to each other, It took a lot of effort avoiding the droids in the ship even with their enhancements and invisibility. Their movements were swift and precise, already knowing what to do and where to move before they even did it. Through much skill and a lot of close calls, they made it to the door where the comms hub was. Quickly they stacked up against the door with fireteam Osiris on point and fireteam Shadow covering the two corridors that led to it.
Spartan Tanaka chucked a grenade towards Locke who was readying to breach, "Here, temporary electromagnetic disruptor, should keep them down for a few minutes while we secure the jammer." He nodded in thanks and jacked BB into the panel next to the door who opened it just an inch to toss in the grenade and shutting it again from outside the room they could hear the high pitched tone of the grenade temporarily shutting down the droids inside the room.
Once it was quiet BB fully opened the door rapidly and the four Spartans burst into the room ready to eliminate any droids that might not have been taken out but they were all down, "We don't have long, Olympia, get that jammer planted. She immediately went to work finding the best place to put it where it wouldn't be located. "Sir, if we plant it underneath the duel sensor array control we might also be able to blind their guns for when the Republic assault begins". She suggested
"Do it, they'll need all the help they can get". Locke said not taking his aim off the downed enemy forces. Moments later the device was planted and they left the communications hub making sure that they were not spotted and went back the same way they came with just as much difficulty. One bump into a droid would have gotten them caught and it almost did if not for the quick thinking of Spartan Fry, a droid that had halted unexpectedly and was walked right into by Olympia and a small part of her camouflage deactivated.
Fry was behind her and jumped above her and the droid and landed behind it and grabbed it with his right arm putting it into a headlock before snapping it off in a small display of bright sparks, fortunately, there were no other droids nearby to see or hear it. "BB is there a lift of some kind of garbage chute where we can dump this?" Fry asked quickly
"Yes, Five metres ahead on your right there is a chute big enough for the droid, it is used for scrap metal or broken droids so there will be no suspicion if it is found at the bottom," BB answered after checking the schematics.
Olympia and Fry both grabbed an end of the droid lifting it off the ground and over to the shute, once they got it in, it fell down rapidly hitting the sides making many loud slamming noises. They double-timed it to the hatch with only a few minutes to spare, they boarded their prowler, immediately detaching from the enemy ship and gaining a considerable distance, Locke used the ship's communications to contact Romeo who was still on the ground.
"Romeo, its Locke, the jammer is in place and ready to disrupt communications as well as their weapons systems for the Republic invasion once we complete our ground objective," Locke reported to Romeo
"That'll be sooner than we think, we managed to set up a long-range communication post to contact both the UNSC and Republic high command, the GAR is launching their assault fleet into the system in twelve hours." He said almost angrily, clearly frustrated at the decision. Locke was shocked to hear it.
"What!, as soon as they attack the droids holding the hostages will either execute them or use them as human shields. Does the Republic even care about the lives at risk." Locke said in an accusing manner. Ima-Gun-Di's voice was next heard on the transmission.
"Yes they do, Believe me, I understand your reasoning Spartan but I do not wish for the suffering of the planet to go on any longer". Ima-Gun-Di said to Locke
"We came to a compromise Locke, If it were not for the increased risk of civilian and POW lives we would have launched by SOEIV pods from the infinity right into the outposts and cities to wipe out the droids at the beginning so once the Republic attack begins UNSC fighters will assist and make sure no bombers reach the surface as that jammer you placed will most likely be discovered when they attempt to fire on the Republic fleet or try to contact the surface.
"While the fighters and Republic attack the blockade, the Infinity will breakthrough in the chaos and launch ALL onboard Marines, ODST's and Spartans. We're going all out. We will be attacking the city at dawn which will give us approximately two hours to storm the bridge and liberate the city. Lasky has ordered you back to the infinity for a briefing on the attack". Romeo said.
"Understood, Romeo we've only just begun, don't let the Republic forget why we're here."
Romeo nodded and cut the transmission turning towards the Jedi and Sgt Major James Head "Sgt Head, tell the troops to get some rest but have guards rotate every thirty minutes and have ground sensors placed half a mile out, I don't want to get ambushed. General, I suggest you tell your men to also get some rest. It's going to be a long day tomorrow, we'll need all the strength we can muster, I know much of the equipment and supplies you had were lost General, Sgt, tell the men to make room for the clones and Twi-Lek fighters." Romeo said.
"Thank you, Spartan," Captain Keeli thanked.
The word was sent to all the troops, it would be time to attack in five hours, guard patrols were set up and the sensors were placed, large silver constructs made of fabric but as hard as metal. were constructed, enough to hold the entire force. Many clones and UNSC forces went to the made-up tents to rest and try to relax before the battle ahead. One of them held four clone troopers wearing white armour with slightly dark yellow lines on it and one single ODST in black armour.
Inside the large room, the clones were gathered in a group, some sitting on makeshift bedrolls checking their equipment and others talked to each other while eating their military rations. The ODST who still had his helmet on unlike the clones sat cleaning his suppressed M7S submachine gun. Two of the clones who were talking noticed him just sitting there cleaning his weapon.
"Hey, You hiding from someone?" The clone asked
The ODST simply turned his head away from his rifle and towards the clone who was talking to him "What's that supposed to mean" He asked curiously
"He means don't you have a squad or something, we don't mind bunking with you especially since it was you lot that provided the shelter but why would they stick you in here alone?" the clone further back asked,
"Name is Lance Corporal J.D though a lot of the old guys I know call me Rookie, ironic seeing as a lot of them are more green than the trees out there and what's left of my squad is either six feet underground or fighting battles elsewhere, guess the higher-ups realised that I was better going it solo, a rare decision since I'm not a Spartan" Rookie said getting various different looks from the four clones.
What about you guys, I'd like to know who I'm sleeping in the same tent with". Rookie asked
"We're Ghost company, I'm Waxer, This is Boil and those two over there are Wooley and Bolter" Waxer introduced
"Four men seems small for an entire company," Rookie asked curiously
"Our company was only here temporarily to help the Republic garrison when the separatists invaded, Luckily or maybe unluckily the rest of our company was in the process of leaving the planet so we are all that remains of Ghost company until the Republic assault begins, I'm sure they'll bring them and the rest of the 212th since they are the closest full legion." Waxer said
"Glad to meet you I guess, So what do clones do when they're not fighting," Rookie asked while putting down his rifle and opening one of his standard-issue ration packs.
"Not much really there are a few places on Coruscant that I and the guys go to on leave but when we're hold up like this before a big fight we usually just rest up and wait, Not much else," Wooley said from the back
"Damn, sounds straining just waiting for a battle, nothing to take your mind off it." He said between eating.
"Well, there's always blaster practice," Bolter said from the back while eating his reaction bar, he had a great fondness of weaponry and accurate ones at that.
"Taking a break from shooting targets to shoot different targets, sounds fun, what are you eating, by the way, looks like a rock," Rookie asked Bolter
Bolter let out an audible laugh and smile "You're not far off, Standard military ration bar looks awful and tastes worse but it's what the army gives us so unless you get something from elsewhere it's what we eat, Here try one." Bolter said chucking one to Rookie who bit off a piece of it.
"I was wrong this doesn't taste like a rock because even a rock would have more flavour than this thing, damn and I thought our packs were bland, You guys eat this all the time?" Rookie asked after eating the ration bar.
"Pretty much, you get used to after a while but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't kill for a roasted Porg right about now," Boil said
"Well, I can't do that but feel free to try this" Rookie said before chucking a large silver pouch towards Boil who caught it. "Army gives us these with our dinner packs. I hate them but I'm in the minority with that opinion".
Boil opened it and used the small utility on the side of the packet to eat some, "Wow, that's pretty sweet, way better than ration bars I'll say that. What is it?" Boil asked while sharing it with his brothers.
"Its a dessert pack made from a fruit called a peach native to our home planet was always to rich for my taste," Rookie said while discarding the empty ration pack he had finished and went back to checking his weapon which Bolter couldn't be more interested in. "I still don't understand how those slugthrowers can do so much damage to droids," Bolter said
"I assume slugthrower means a weapon that launches a projectile instead of a laser bolt?" Rookie asked getting a nod from Bolter. Rookie took out his magazine and showed him one of the 5x23mm rounds. "Mine is a little different than the standard-issue ones, Tungsten rounds travelling at 1900 ft per second through pretty much anything, suppressor on the end for stealth and covert kills, that is of course unless I'm using an M41 or SRS99" Rookie explained.
"What about your rifles, they seem pretty effective". Rookie commented.
"DC-15S and A, most common rifles in the GAR, both hold around 500 rounds and though the S has shorter range they are both damn fine weapons, A clones best friend is his rifle," Bolter said, picking up his DC-15A to let Rookie have a closer look at it.
"Sturdy, I don't really know enough about them to suggest any improvements or make any comments on it but from what I saw at that canyon they seem capable." Rookie said. Handing it back carefully to Bolter
Wooley spoke up and asked Rookie something "We don't hear much in ways of politics, we're only soldiers after all but I did manage to hear some of your Admirals speech at the Senate on Coruscant, he talked about something called the Human-Covenant war, were you a part of that?"
"Yeah, I was, I fought on a lot of worlds but when the covenant found our homeworld after we had tried to keep its location a secret for decades, I was sent back to it and put with alpha nine, an ODST squad, one of our missions was to launch form the UNSC Charles in low orbit and infiltrate a covenant ship to destroy it from the inside out". Rookie said
"Sounds like a suicide mission" Waxer commented
"It probably would have been but the ship opened a slip space portal and left and we crashed into the city below, New Mombasa, when I came to it was night and the entire city was abandoned except for the covenant, Weirdly it was more terrifying wandering the streets of a city that only hours earlier was teeming with life than nearly all the battles I fought in, Eventually I found my squad and we made it out of the city as the covenant burnt it to glass." Rookie replied
"Damn, I thought the Separatists were bad but burning a city alive like that, I've never seen anything like it".
"I wish I hadn't but we did what we had to and made it through the war and now we're better for it, we are stronger and more experienced," Rookie said
Ghost company and Rookie continued to talk about various subjects from what it was like on Kamino for the clones all the way to sharing war stories from the Human-Covenant war, while they were talking though, Captain Keeli entered, the clones stood to attention and Rookie who wasn't under his command still at least stood up and faced him straight out of respect.
"At ease, Ghost company, tomorrow you'll be on the ridge with UNSC sniper and demolitions teams providing covering fire for the assault, I don't need to remind all of you how important retaking the capital is, so get some rest and prepare to move out in three hours." Captain Keeli ordered.
"Yes Sir!" All the clones said in unison
"Guess we'll all be on the ridge, suppose we better get some rest," Rookie said before putting his helmet next to him and sitting leant against the wall of the metal tent trying to get what little sleep he could. The clones did the same making sure they're weapons were near them in case of an attack or early deployment.
Three hours passed and Rookie was still asleep, at least until he was woken by one of the clones.
"Wake up Lance Corporal, we're moving out," Waxer said rather loudly.
Grudgingly he stood up putting his helmet on and putting his M7S on his magnetic holster and picking up his heavy SRS99 anti-material rifle. The clones were ready to move out after loading their rifles and making sure they had enough ammunition. Outside as all the soldiers had begun moving on the capital, Romeo contacted the infinity.
"Admiral Lasky, we have begun moving out from our encampment and are getting closer to the city, once we're in the position I'll send a signal to the infinity to activate the jammer on the CIS lead blockade ship. We'll commence our attack and with the help from the Republic and Twi-Lek forces, we should have the city clear of separatist forces in less than two hours, Once the Republic assault starts to send down prowlers to get the civilians out of here, the Republic should be able to land here and take their injured clones". Romeo told Admiral Lasky.
"We'll be waiting for the signal once received Roland will remote activate the jammer, we don't know how long it will be before they realise they aren't receiving any communications so don't waste any time, the Republic assault begins soon as well as our planet-wide rescue, luckily the Republic assault force will be focusing on areas with little to no civilian population. Good Luck Spartan" Lasky said cutting the transmission.
It took about half an hour for the large force to reach the staging area for their assault, all sniper and demolitions teams, as well as the four members of Ghost company, were hidden in the bushes and trees on the top of the ridge and the rest of the ground assault forces were evenly positioned on the right and left side of the almost mountain-like ridge passes just waiting for the word.
With all their forces in position Romeo, sent the signal to Infinity and waited ten seconds, then he contacted the head of the ridge team. "Commence the attack"
That was all the teams needed to hear before all the snipers in prone position fired at their pre-selected targets and in almost one massive single gunshot fired at the enemy, from such a distance it took almost two seconds for the rounds to hit but when they did dozens of droids seem to explode in a hellfire of sparks seemingly from nothing but that wasn't all that was coming.
The split second the sniper teams fired their rifles, demolitions teams armed with M41 missiles fired at the anti-air guns and the large blaster emplacements and in a bright fury of smoke and fire the missiles reached their targets, all while the droids were trying to figure out where the sniper shot had come from which took down nearly two-thirds of all the droids outside the city guarding the bridge across.
The Rockets struck with a blazing ferocity, detonating and destroying all of the targeted gun emplacements and as a plus wiping out all the remaining droids. "Commander, all gun emplacements are down and you are clear to begin the attack". Romeo heard from the ridge team commander.
From the ridge, all the forces could see a massive dust cloud forming as the large force of Republic, Twi-Lek and UNSC troops charged out from hiding and towards the city. The large entrance to the city suddenly had hundreds of droids pouring out of it to drive back the invaders, The ridge team was firing round after round, desperately trying to cover the approaching allied forces who had got close enough to begin firing but still with no cover. Romeo and Jedi General Ima-Gun-Di were at the front of the battle lines each cutting down countless droids, Romeo had his sword in one hand and an M6 sidearm with an extended magazine in the other.
With no cover casualties accrued but slowly the droids were being pushed back to the point where they began to retreat, this greatly boosted the morale of the allied soldier who pushed forward at the sight of it. They entered the city and immediately went house to house and street to street eliminating the droid forces and rescuing all they could. Fighting raged in the city and many troops on both sides took casualties in high numbers.
By the time the UNSC forces had reached the centre of the city, they saw the large mobile operations centre established by the CIS forces, It was heavily guarded by at least one hundred and fifty droids of various type, Twi-Lek and Republic forces regrouped and joined the UNSC troops. They formed a plan, they would spread their combined forces around the station and attack from all sides, catching the last droids in the city off guard.
It took only moments for the forces to spread out, not being seen by the droids, when they were close enough the few clones their all throw what droid poppers they had left and when they detonated and took down just under a third of the units the attack commenced with the droids being immediately surrounded with no way out, it wasn't an easy assault though even with a Jedi and Spartan it was not an easy victory.
When the last droid was decimated by Ima-Gun-Di he called out through one of the broken windows of the command centre, "Tambor!, your forces have been defeated, Surrender!" He said with a gravelly voice.
All the Clones, Twi-Leks and UNSC troops had their weapons trained on the large open space where the entrance of the commands centre once stood, slowly a figure could be seen making their way out of the ruin, they emerged into the light and it could clearly be seen as Wat Tambor. Again Ima-Gun-Di repeated, "Surrender!"
"Never" was all Wat Tambor said before pulling out a blaster and aiming it at the Jedi but he never even had a chance to fire it as several troops fired their weapons the second they saw him expose a blaster they instinctively pulled their triggers dropping Wat Tambor who fell to the ground dead. Ima-Gun-Di lowered and deactivated his lightsaber. Romeo turned to Sgt Walker who had been part of the battle and was standing next to Romeo.
"Sgt, I want a casualty report as soon as possible and not just us Civilians, Rebels and Clones too. Admiral Lasky will need it" Romeo orders
"Yes, Sir". He said saluting and leaving
Romeo took out his comm device to contact infinity "Admiral Lasky, we have eliminated the main garrison in the capital and Wat Tambor is dead, How long until the Republic assault begins?" Romeo asked.
"Mace Windu made contact with us when he and Obi-Ones fleets entered hyperspace on-route to Ryloth, they should be here in moments, as soon as they do we will launch fighters to assist and prowlers will be sent to your location to secure the area and get the civilians off the planet."
Space above Ryloth
The Infinity lay in waiting practically right in front of the enemy fleet unseen due to its advanced cloaking technology in minutes the Republic assault force would arrive and help pave the way for the invasion force On the bridge Admiral Lasky checked over all the details regarding the assault. Once the Republic assault fleet and UNSC fighters had cleared the space above Ryloth of all Separatist ships they would descend upon the surface with the Republic handling all outposts and cities in which there were little to no civilians and the UNSC forces would go in via drop pods and Pelican transports to swiftly wipe out the enemy camps in which Civilians and POWs were being held.
Beeps were soon heard from a few monitors on the bridge, "Sir, we have ships coming out of hyperspace, configuration matches the Republic fleet, It's the invasion force" An officer told Lasky who could see not too far away several Venators emerge and immediately opened their hangers to allow bombers and fighters to exit.
"The Separatists are opening fire from their capital ships, guess the jammer didn't stay hidden for long enough. Declock and move us towards the battle, Have all F-41 Broadsword fighters engage hostile vultures and Hyenas and coordinate our efforts with Republic fighters and bombers, As soon as we have an opening we head for the surface to launch our drop pods and Pelicans." Lasky issued the orders.
The UNSC Broadsword fighters met up with the Republic V-19 Torrents and together started to engage the incoming enemy fighters, As the two forces met, the inky blackness of space was gone and in an instant was filled with bright deadly streaks of blue and red lasers flying at each other with golden blurs form Broadswords high calibre guns. In the first wave of enemy fighters, only a few allied ships had been lost but it was just a test of strength as a much larger force began to approach them.
As well as the incoming fighters a worse occurrence happened, from behind left and right of the blockade ships four more munificent class ships entered the battle and started firing from its turbo laser batteries at the Republic and UNSC ships and fighters. Seeing that their plan of attack wouldn't work now the lead pilot of the Broadswords contacted the commander of the Republic fighters "This is Commander Mary Salter who is the Commander of these pilots?"
"This is Ashoka Tano commander of Blue squadron" Ashoka answered
"There's another wave of fighter coming in we can't take them head-on without mass losses, we need to split into smaller groups and attack in loose formation" Commander Salter hurriedly suggested
"No, I already told command we can get through them, we are going to make our attack run on the frigates," Ashoka said cutting the comm line between her and the UNSC lead pilot
"Infinity we need bomber support on those enemy reinforcements now, I'm going to split my group in two and flank the incoming droid starfighters." As she said that she relayed the orders to the rest of the squadron who broke away from the Republic fighter group and all gave a burst of speed to the given coordinates around the group of incoming fighters. When they reached them the fighters were seconds away from engaging the Republic, Salter and her flight group then all turned hard to face the enemy as they came in from the rear just in time to stop the Republic fighters from being decimated by the much larger and nimble enemy fighters.
In the distance, she could see several bombers leave the Infinity and the Defender heading for the enemy frigates, while the bombers were being launched the infinity launched several salvos of both archer and howler missiles at the Lucrehulk battleship, they impacted causing a great glow and seconds later the ship detonated in a massive explosion, this left the frigates without a command ship and in the panic, it was easy pickings for the bombers. Two of the remaining enemy frigates were bombed by UNSC B-65 Shortsword bombers and quickly lost shields and right after were destroyed by continuous bombings.
The Last Two frigates had their shields taken down by the Shortswords by were then attacked by Y-wing bombers that launched MG7 Proton torpedoes which impacted the two ships causing them to also explode. With the destruction of the final enemy ships, the starfighters and bombers returned to their ships, Ashoka knew that despite the victory she displayed Anakin's order to pull back and wait for reinforcements when the enemy ships came out of hyperspace.
Onboard the Infinity Lasky gave the order to descend and as soon as they could launch all loaded Pelicans and drop pods to the predetermined location, he left for the command room to oversee everything. When he got there it was full of chatter and comm activity with the pods and Pelicans reaching the ground battling their way through thousands of droids. The Republic had landed their assault ships and all their troops were on the ground moving towards the enemy locations.
Lasky had called for three Strident-class ships to escort half of the 45th Terraforming fleet in order to help rebuild the damaged and destroyed settlements once the battle was over and for the Stridents to remain in orbit until the Republic could reestablish a protection fleet around it. Once the villages and cities had been rebuilt the population could return.
Three Days Later and the UNSC rescue operations were complete and all known Twi-Lek civilians had either been evacuated or had decided to stay and rebuild. Sadly though, the total casualty report had come in and it was one of the things that Lasky hated reading after a battle, especially when it involved civilians.
Total Losses…
75 F-41 Broadswords deployed, 9 destroyed & 17 damaged
25 B-65 Shortswords deployed, 1 destroyed & 2 damaged
3000 Marines Deployed, 324 KIA & 21 Injured
675 ODST Units Deployed, 39 KIA & 3 Injured
65 M12 Warthogs Deployed, 12 destroyed & 2 damaged
7 M808B Main Battle Tanks Deployed, 0 destroyed 1 damaged
20 Spartan V deployed, 0 KIA/Injured
275 Army deployed, 0 KIA & 21 Injured
Civilian Casualties, Estimated 10% of Civilian hostages killed before or during rescue operations.
While the number of dead and killed was lower than expected for the attack it still pained Lasky at both the number of troops who died in battle but the amount of Civilians lives that had been lost. By now rebuilding was taking place and as one settlement was rebuilt after another, ships began to bring back the Twi-Lek population to its home. While they were grateful to the Republic, they were incredibly thankful to the UNSC for rebuilding their homes.
Some Twi-Lek soldiers even asked when meeting Admiral Lasky if the UNSC was accepting of volunteers or recruits which shocked Lasky as he had never even thought that any people from this Galaxy would even ask. All he could say is that he didn't know.
Soon though the Infinity left Ryloth as they had been given a new mission by President Charet involving a UNSC strange signal somewhere in the Galaxy and they had been tasked with finding it, Captain Ajex had been made temporary commander of the Battle fleets and was running successful missions for three months before he was soon contacted by the Republic with information about a planet called Lola Sayu and that they needed the UNSC or more specifically the Spartan Core's help.
Another chapter is done, this one took a lot longer since it is longer and also I am fully creating the storeys from the pre-done plans and drafts unlike the first five which I had pretty much written then released over a period of time so from now on I reckon that I will be able to write, check, etc. and then release a chapter every 1-2 weeks since as I did say I have other stuff that needs doing and also If I am writing all the time then I won't have any time to actually read anything on FanFic.
A few notes, I said Allied forces a few times in this one, that is because it felt too repetitive to say UNSC and Republic and Twi-Leks all the time and I'm sure you would have gotten irritated by reading it just as much as I would have been by writing it. Another small thing is, yes Rookie or at least JD (Only initials are known) has met up with a part of Ghost squadron of the 212th because I figured why not, I know they were not a part of the planet before the invasion but since they were going to end up being there I wanted to include a bit of UNSC/Republic troop interaction.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the review as well as anything I may have missed or done incorrectly whether it is in the story or in grammar terms, so far this has been one of my favourites to write and publish.
