Chapter 5


Infinity appeared from Slipspace at the Yavin system. They were personally delivering the two rebels back to their home, but what they found was surprising. Ahead of them, there was a fleet of ships, all shown to be of military use.

"Captain, they are trying to contact us," Roland said.

"Send them through," Lasky replied. A green Twi'lek appeared on the screen.

"General Syndulla, I hope you are still not upset from our previous disagreement?"

"Why are you here? Did you finish the mission already?" she asked.

"Indeed we have. Were you going to help us?" Lasky asked.

"We were just about to jump when we saw your slipspace rupture. What happened?" she asked then.

"We're only here to drop off two of your people. Lieutenant Commander Ezra Bridger, and I believe Commander Sabine Wren," he said.

"I've thought about Ezra's demotion, and decided it wasn't just. He's still a Commander," Hera said.

"As you wish. I'd like to inform you that they are both alright. Sabine needs some rest as the Covenant… at least these remnants of the old Covenant, treated her as a prisoner of war," Lasky said.

"How do they treat their prisoners?" Hera asked.

"Electric shocks, all sorts of chemicals and burns: Plasma more likely. Fortunately for her they decided to use what we call the Living Hell," Lasky explained

"How is that a 'fortunate' thing?" Hera asked.

"Least physical and psychological damage. A serum is injected to increase the sensitivity to pain receptors to three times the normal sensitivity. Any electric shock felt, three times worse than normal."

"Electric shocks are a very common interrogation tool used by the Empire, but the injected substance is new," Hera said. "Where are they?"

"They as in, Ezra and Sabine?" Lasky asked, just to be clear.

"Yes, where are those two?" Hera asked.

"In medical. I've already placed a transfer order for one of our Pelicans to deliver your people to your base. My team will be with them."

"Why don't we take it from here?"

"Because we had an encounter with a familiar figure to you," Lasky said, a bit uneasy. "Does Thrawn sound familiar?"

"Yes we've encountered him before. He almost killed all of us at our last base before this one. He's a brilliant strategist, do not underestimate him," Hera said.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Lasky said. "A Pelican has been deployed. I have also ordered a few of my Broadsword interceptors to provide escort."

"I'll send a squad of X-wings to help," Hera said.

The Pelican landed on the surface of Yavin 4, right in the primary landing area. All the X-wings and Broadswords broke formation and began heading back to their ships. The Rebels on the ground stared at the strange looking ships. They were even more confused when they saw the soldiers escorting Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren to Rebel security teams.

"Hey! Are you the guys who captured Commander Wren?" a voice called.

The UNSC soldiers turned to see a group of very angry Rebel soldiers.

"If we were the ones that captured her, we wouldn't be returning her now would we?" the UNSC squad leader shot back.

"Perhaps you don't know who you're talking to!" the Rebel growled. "We're Rebel special forces."

"And we're not, I get that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Lieutenant Rory, that's enough!" an old looking man yelled.

"Sorry, sir. It's just these men..."

"Are friendly! Leave them alone!"

"Yes sir, sorry sir!"

The Rebel SpecForce walked away, grumbling.

"Sorry about that. He's always had a short fuse. I'm Captain Rex, it's a pleasure to meet with you."

"The honor is mine. I'm Colonel Jackson of the UNSC Marine Corp. We were only dropping off your two rebels," the UNSC squad leader said.

"Are you staying or... I suppose you have orders to return to your ship, don't you?" Rex asked.

"Unfortunately, we do. We don't want to attract the Empire to this system," Jackson said.

"I also suppose you're all neutral in all this?"

"Indeed we are. We can't help you guys in any way unless the Covenant is involved. If the Covenant was to attack the Empire, we'd still move to help," Jackson replied.

"I suppose that's alright," Rex said, though he didn't like the sound of it. "I shouldn't keep your pilot waiting any longer. See you around, Colonel."

"Likewise, Captain."

The Marines boarded the Pelican and returned to the Infinity.


Later that night, the Rebel SpecForce team was plotting a way to get back at the UNSC, still believing they were the ones that captured their Commander.

"We can do it guys. We're the Special Forces of the Rebellion for crying out loud. We're trained for this sort of thing!" Rory said.

"But you heard the Captain today! He said these guys are friendly!" a SpecForce sergeant said.

"Kix, listen. I don't buy that one bit and you know it. I don't like the look of those guys at all. My gut tells me we go for it," Rory said.

Kix thought for a moment, then nodded confidently. "You're right. We can do this."

"That's my team! Alright, the guards change shifts at 1100 hours. Security is the lightest after that time until the morning shift. We can slip past the guards and get into our ship undetected. As for takeoff, we can just say it's a highly classified mission," Rory explained. "Didi, did you place that tracker?"

"Yes sir," the female SF marksman said.

"Good," Rory said as he picked up his gear bag. "It's 1059, we should get moving."

The 6 team Special Forces unit snuck their way to the hangars and, as expected, the security was light, so they could get to their UT-60D U-wing in Bay 5.
As soon as the team was settled in their seats, Rory started up the engines and immediately received an incoming transmission.

"Attention pilot, you are not authorized to liftoff."

"This is Lieutenant Rory, my team and I are on a highly classified mission. It's so urgent, we can't wait for authorization."

"I'm sorry, but no mission, no matter how urgent, cannot skip authorization unless I am informed otherwise by high command."

"Too bad, cause this one is," Rory said as he flew the U-wing out of the hangars and into space.

The entire base was alerted to the unauthorized launch, and soon, multiple X-wing fighters were launched to intercept the rogue SpecForce ship. Unfortunately, by the time the X-wings were scrambled and in space, the U-wing was already in hyperspace.


Couple hours later

Something hit the Infinity but there's no telling what it was. Scans didn't show a ship or any objects nearby, but there was a hull breach on level 5 on the starboard side.

"I need repair teams dispatched to level 5 immediately!" Lasky ordered as he sent the area code to the repair teams.

"All nearby repair teams are on their way, Captain," Roland said. Suddenly, Roland began to flicker slightly.

"Roland?" Lasky asked.

A disturbed Roland looked up, "I'm picking up intruders on the affected level... Our repair teams are down, power levels are failing."

Lasky activated the intercoms, "All hands, lockdown all stations. We have intruders on level 5, dispatch security teams."

The entire ship lit up red from the security lights, but the alarms stayed relatively quiet.


"They're onto us, Rory," Kix said.

"Shouldn't be a problem. Let's just make our way to the bridge," Rory said.

Him and his team began hacking into the system to find the bridge's location, and they got close to finding it before something locked them out.

"I'm locked out of the system, but I have a general idea where it is," Keith said. He was the team's technical officer.

"Lead the way."

The RSF team slowly made their way to the bridge on Infinity, much to everyone's surprise. Every security team they came across was taken down by concentrated blaster fire.

Lasky initially didn't want to send the ODSTs or Spartans after the invaders, who they now have identified by security cameras, and a communication signal received from Rebel command, as a rogue Rebel SpecForce unit, but he was running out of the usual Marines. Before he could send his ODSTs to intercept the invaders, there was a sound coming from the doors. A couple ODSTs were standing guard at the locked door when it was blown open, killing them almost immediately. The remaining security forces and ODSTs took cover and pointed their weapons at the open door as the rogue unit ran through, weapons firing.

Many Marines fell to the blaster fire, and a few ODSTs were wounded, but after they patched up their wounds, they kept holding the invaders back.

"These guys are different!" Kix called out to his squad leader.

"You can say that again!" Rory said as he poked around the corner, just to get thrown into a wall by an armored green hand.

A deep, gravelly voice yelled at everybody to hold their fire, and both UNSC and rogue Rebel forces held their fire. The rogue team, turned to see Rory pinned against the wall by a very tall, green armored man. Some other very tall armored soldiers ran through the gap in the door, and one panicked rebel fired at on of them... but it didn't seem to faze the soldier. Instead, the grey-armored soldier threw that particular rebel to the floor and held a gun to his head.

"Kelly, you alright?" the taller, green-armored man asked.

"Never better, Chief. These weapons have a pretty decent kick to them," Kelly said as she kicked the A280 blaster rifle away from the rebel, just as the others dropped theirs.

"You can say that again," a third soldier, identified as S-058 from the numbers on her armor.

"Who are you guys?" Rory asked.

"They're Spartans. They're the special forces of our special forces," Lasky said.

"What does that mean?" Kix asked.

"The best of the best," Lasky replied. "Now, if I may begin to ask, why are you doing this?"

"You took our commander from us. We're only trying to show you that you can't mess with us!" Rory said, defiantly.

"We never took your commander in the first place," Chief said.

"I don't buy it," Kix said.

"You killed many of my men. All to prove a point?" Lasky asked.

The rebels stayed silent. Lasky turned to the comms officer then. "Send a signal to the Rebellion. Tell them we've apprehended their rogue unit."

"Yes sir."

Chief looked over to S-058, "You good, Linda?"

"All good. All too easy if you ask me," she replied.

"Yeah, too easy," Spartan 104 said, disappointment heard in his voice.

"Fred, it's good that this was easy for us," Kelly scolded. She turned to Lasky, "Sorry we couldn't have gotten here sooner."


A little while later, a Rebel battle fleet consisting of eight GR-75s, two MC-80s (Liberty-class), four CR-90s, and two Nebulon-Bs appeared from hyperspace in front of the 5 kilometer long UNSC Infinity. A shuttle was allowed to board the Infinity, under one condition: they had to be under UNSC escort. No armed rebel officers were allowed at that time. Ezra and Sabine were the only ones who could join Hera.

Hera walked into the bridge of the Infinity to meet Lasky about the matter.

"Captain Lasky, I sincerely apologize for this incident. Rebel leadership had no intention of attacking you," she said.

Lasky held up his hand to silence Hera. He was flanked by the famous Spartan Blue team; John-117, Kelly-087, Linda-058, and Frederic-104.

"I understand this unit in particular defied orders?" he asked.

"Yes. They never had clearance of any kind to even board their ship," Hera replied.

"What kind of ship is it exactly? I don't recall seeing it in any records," Roland asked.

"It's a modified UT-60 U-wing starfighter. It usually doubles as a fighter and troop transport, and this one in particular was specially modified for Special Operations: Advanced hyperdrive, cloaking device, heavy weapons, better shields... pretty much better everything," Sabine said.

"You're not going to turn your guns on us are you?" Ezra asked.

"No of course not. I understand their confusion, but this never should have happened," Lasky said. "If it weren't for Blue team and some ODSTs, I may not even be here."

"My condolences on your fallen soldiers, Captain. I assure you this will never happen again," Hera said.

"If it does, I'll send my ODSTs or Spartans after them, under orders to kill and not restrain," Lasky said, obviously not too happy about the whole thing. Repair crews were replacing the broken bridge doors and all sorts of damage the invaders did.

Chief turned to his team and looked them up and down, inspecting their armor. Linda took notice and rolled her eyes.

"John, we're fine. Our shields held up."

Kelly and Fred tensed, hearing Linda call the Chief by his name which was something he wasn't used to.

"Linda, you know he doesn't..." Fred began.

"It's fine," Chief said, turning back to the Rebel leadership. He noticed Ezra staring at him.

"I remember you," Ezra said, but received a smack in the shoulder by Sabine.

"Don't be rude!" she hissed.

"It's alright, I remember all of you very clearly. Though it hasn't even been two days since our assault. Which reminds me..." He pulled out a chip from the back of his helmet and plugged it into a terminal. "Cortana?"

"We have identified this rogue group of former Covenant as one of the Banished ships," Cortana said. "Our friends from our Covenant allies have given us all the details they've learned from their time with them."

"That's very good. Where are they now?" Lasky asked.

"They're resting for now. I don't think they even woke up to our alerts."

"Well we didn't exactly have our sirens blaring so it makes sense," Fred-104 said.

"Very true," Lasky said.

"Well, we should get these guys back to Yavin. We can handle everything from here," Hera said.

"Understood, General. To be clear, there's no hard feelings," Lasky said.

"Thank you, Captain. It was an honor to see you again, but unfortunate it was by these terms."

"Indeed. Perhaps..." Lasky began but perimeter scans went wild.

"Captain, we're picking up Imperial signatures off our starboard side!" Roland said.

"How many?"

"I believe it's the same amount as the last time. We're really cutting it close again," Roland answered.

"All hands, stay alert. We're not done just yet," Lasky said. He turned to the Spartan Blue team. "Be ready to deploy in case things go bad."

"Yes sir," Chief said. He led his team out of the bridge and the ODSTs escorted Hera and her people to the hangars.


"Grand Admiral, we have opened a channel. You're on, sir," a Comms officer said.

"Acknowledged. This is Grand Admiral Thrawn. Our scanners have picked up an unusually large amount of ships in this area. State your business."

He noticed the Rebel fleet then. "May I ask why you are with the Rebel fleet, Captain Lasky?"

"I'm afraid I can't share the details, but I assure you, it's not what it looks like," Lasky said through the comms.

"Don't you remember my warning? And did you forget what you told me?" Thrawn asked.

"Of course I didn't. I keep records of any conversation I may have with everybody. I was only... returning a loose prisoner that found his way into my ship," Lasky explained. It was partially true.

"All prisoners should be sent to the Empire. We don't give second chances as you may already know by now," Thrawn said.

"I understand, but these are Rebel prisoners. Even if you two are at war, you should respect their views on justice," Lasky said.

"Raise the shields, commander," Thrawn said quietly before turning his attention back to the Infinity. "We won't tolerate any support for the Rebellion."

"We aren't giving any information about anything to them except for that Covenant carrier. We will gladly share any new information about it with you as well," Lasky said.

"That won't be necessary, Captain. We already have every fleet in the galaxy on alert for that ship. The might of the Empire will crush them whether it's in space or on the ground," Thrawn replied, coldly.

"I don't doubt it..." Lasky said.

The Rebel ships finally jumped away and the nav officer reported their jump coordinates.

"I should be going now. We'll see you around, Captain." The channel was closed as 7th fleet jumped after the Rebels.


Lasky managed to contact the Rebel fleet and tell them the Empire was following them.

"Don't worry about it. We manually pulled out of Hyperspace when we were outside sensor range," Hera said. "We'll be headed back to base. See you around, Captain."

Lasky chuckled as the communication was closed. "Open a channel to the rest of the ship."

Roland obeyed and he nodded to Lasky. "This is Captain Thomas Lasky. All hands stand down. We're in the clear."


I hope this chapter was alright with you guys. Imperial, Rebel, and UNSC protocols could have been different than what I had, but again this was mostly prewritten. Feel free to send your opinion, just don't be vulgar in them.