Chapter 20

10 Minutes Earlier...

"We need to hold out until Palmer returns from the surface or until we get communications back online," Lasky said. "Can we do that, Roland?"

"It's very likely, sir, but we can't hold out forever. Who knows what other weapons the Empire might use against us."

"Infinity, this is Warwolf. I'm seeing some movement behind the enemy line, but I don't know what it is. How copy?"

"Clear copy, Warwolf," Lasky replied. "Can you try to get a closer look?"

"Negative. There are a lot of fighters and their ships would tear me up."

"Alright, just keep those TIEs off us then."

"Copy."

The firefight between the two major fleets continued, the UNSC proving to be more than a match to the Imperial SDs. With every 2 UNSC frigates lost, 4 Imperial star destroyers were also lost. However, the Imperials had a significant advantage over the UNSC in terms of numbers. Their tactic of overwhelming enemy opposition was proving effective now that they were prepared for the engagement.

"Captain, I'm detecting more enemy guns locked on Infinity!" Roland reported.

Lasky, believing it was just another artillery barrage by one of the Imperial star destroyers, remained unconcerned for the moment...

But it wasn't just any artillery barrage.

The shots hit Infinity's shields and immediately they were shut down, allowing more of these strange blasts to hit the armor. The Infinity began to list to the side and slowly fall out of formation.

"Mayday Mayday! This is UNSC Infinity to all ships. We've lost all power and are falling towards the planet!"

Every communications station was going off with similar reports from other ships while Lasky watched as the Imperial fleet forcefully retakes control of Mandalore space.

...

"Chief!" Cortana shouted in the Spartan's ears. "Look over there!"

Chief followed the small arrows in his HUD until they rested on the Infinity appearing from the clouds. The sight quickly reminded him of his fight on Requiem against the Didact. Chief didn't need to ask what was going on, he only wanted to know their destination.

"It looks like they're going to crash behind enemy lines," Cortana said.

"Is there a way we can get through to them?" Chief asked.

"I'm figuring that out. We might have to break through the Imperial lines to reach them," Cortana said.

"There's no time for that."

The Chief scanned the Imperial lines and the falling Infinity.

"If Infinity fell," a marine began, "then we're done for."

"It's not the first time I've seen this," Chief said.

"It looks like it was hit by some sort of EMP," Cortana said.

"Chief?" Fred asked.

"I'm going ahead," he replied. "We need to get to the Infinity ASAP."

"This isn't the Covenant," Kelly said. "One of us should go with you."

"No. I need to do this alone. You three need to protect the formation. The sooner we can knock out their Academy and surrounding forts, the quicker it will be to get off this planet."

"Fine, but first we'll need a plan to get you there faster," Fred said.

"The sun looks to be past noon already," Cortana pointed out. "Chief, plug me into a terminal, would you?"

John pulled the AI chip out of his helmet and plugged it into a console inside the Mammoth. Immediately, the blue, female AI appeared and opened a map.

"I was thinking maybe using a Warthog and rushing to a weak point in their lines, dropping Chief off just outside," Fred suggested.

"That won't work," Cortana objected. "The Warthog is too loud for something like that so a night operation with it would fail."

"Do we have anything silent?" Chief asked.

"Not that I know of," Cortana answered. "We might just have to go on foot."

"The Imperial line is still a good long way away from our current position," Linda said. "We could take advance by air to a specific LZ for quick deployment..."

"No," Kelly said. "We'd still be very far from the front line. If they were to see our aircraft flying so close, they'd get suspicious."

"We will need to break their line, then," Fred said.

"Cortana, how about a false air raid?" Chief suggested.

"I'm listening," the AI replied.

"We gather some Wasps and rush their lines, pretending to soften it up while our aircraft secretly diverts from the 'battle' and drops us off behind their lines," Chief explained.

"That could work," Cortana said after thinking for a moment. "But doing that in the day..."

"We launch at dusk. Fly at low altitude to avoid detection and would catch them by surprise," Fred suggested.

"Well that could work, but you could still be spotted afterwards," Cortana said. "There's not exactly a lot of cover out here."

"Then we'll have to use Active Camouflage," Chief said.

"Each of us gets a Wasp," Linda began. "Chief would need to fake being shot down."

"Or make it real," Chief said. "And to decrease the chance of casualties, I'm going alone."

"You actually want to be shot down?" Cortana asked.

"These guys aren't stupid, Cortana. They'll have to actually shoot me down. Make it real."

"Alright."

"So after you get shot down, what'll happen?" Kelly asked.

"I'll leave the wreck and run towards Infinity's location under the camouflage," Chief said.

"You'll have to be very fast. Once you're down we can't help you," Fred said.

"I know."

"This isn't the first time Chief's done this," Cortana said.

...

"How did Infinity fall?" Ezra asked the Spartan Commander.

The group of Spartans, marines, and Mandalorians were sitting in a Pelican, flying at high speeds towards the UNSC FOB not far from Infinity's crash site.

"It had to be some sort of EMP. This has happened once before, but last time I was on board to protect the Captain," Palmer said.

"Lasky?"

"No, Lasky was the XO at that time. Captain Del Rio was the first captain of Infinity, but after abandoning the Master Chief on a hostile, Forerunner planet, he lost his command. Lasky took over as the new captain and he's done one hell of a job keeping her afloat," Palmer explained.

"Until now," Sabine said.

"We're coming up on our FOB. Stand by for landing," the pilot announced.

"Everybody gear up. We're about to step foot on a warzone! Do not let your guard down under any circumstances. Am I clear?"

The bay was filled with the UNSC's battle cry as the Pelican landed and the bay doors opened. The small Spartan team and Marines ran out of the bay and towards the Mammoth, which was sitting still for the moment. Ezra and Sabine, and the rest of the Mandalorians, watched in awe as Scorpion tanks rolled around, forming a defensive perimeter, along with the Mantis walkers to assist them. Warthogs were patrolling the surrounding area, their crews making sure there weren't any scouts or probes spying on them. The looked over to the Mammoth and saw snipers watching ahead of the Mammoth, occasionally reaching for their radios to relay something in the distance.

"You lot coming or not? These doors won't stay open!" Palmer called out to them.

...

An excited Imperial officer struggled to keep his composure as he stood outside of his boss's office. In his hands were the latest reports from the ground and from space. The ground reports were just the same as before, but the reports from space came as a surprise. A very welcome one at that for the Imperial.

He hit the button by the door and heard an authoritative "Come in!" from inside. Hastily, he opened the door and approached the desk where Saxon sat. He was looking outside the window at the landscape, a glass of some fancy Mandalorian drink sitting on his arm rest.

"I have the latest reports from our forces, sir."

"Ah yes. Let me guess, there's nothing to report? Nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Our ground forces are not reporting anything out of the ordinary, but our space forces are reporting mass reinforcements. They've broken the UNSC blockade, sir."

Saxon stood up and approached the officer, snatching the data pad out of his hands and reading through it quickly. When he finished, his face broke out in a grin.

"That's really good news. I take it our suggestion worked?"

"The ray shields held, sir."

"Perfect. Get those troops where they need to be. They'll likely try to knock out any bases we have out here to get to us," Saxon said.

The Imperial officer saluted the mandalorian and left his office. Saxon looked back out the window and folded his hands behind his back.

"Your fleets are broken at last. Nothing can save you now. Your InterGalactic Alliance will fall, as will your UNSC."

...

Sparks were flying all over the place as massive power fluctuations continued throughout the 5 kilometer warship. Lasky stumbled to his feet, battered and bruised, but still alive. His left arm was twisted at a painful angle and after a quick roll call, he found that almost half of his bridge staff survived the crash.

"Roland, are you still here?" he called out, hoping the AI was still active.

"Barely, sir. The EMP barrage and the crash nearly knocked my systems out cold." The orange AI sprung up out of a holo terminal in a corner of the bridge.

"This is too much like Requiem, sir," Roland added.

"I have to agree," Lasky said. The pain in his broken arm flared and he winced, clutching his arm. "Do we have medics around?"

"Looking through security footage... or any that's still active, I'd say yes. There's a squad making their way up now," Roland said.

"Good. Everybody listen up!" Lasky called out to his bridge crew. "This is not the first time this has happened. We've survived on Requiem, and we will survive now. Just get to your stations and try to restore power before the enemy arrives. Chances are they know we're still intact. We've got medics en route to the bridge so as soon as out wounded are stable, get to work. Roland, can we get communications out to our ground forces?"

"They're not reliable, sir. Any attempt would either be in vain or open comms. Anybody could listen in on us and reveal our situation."

"I suppose then that's not a good idea..."

"They probably saw us going down," a marine said. "They'll come for us. Both our people and the Imperials."

"Then we'll just need to hold out until help arrives," Lasky said.

"I'm detecting a large number of people converging on our location. Whether they're friendly or not, I'm not sure."

"I doubt it's friendly," Lasky said. "Alert all hands to report to combat stations. Put the ship on lockdown!"

...

"Chief, you are getting close to the enemy lines. Remember, you need to get to Infinity before the Empire does under any means necessary!"

"I got that," Chief groaned. He's been told this several times already. He knows the drill. He was there on Requiem when it first happened so this time shouldn't be too different. Just him against an army, fighting to get to one objective. To most people, this is suicide. To the Chief, it's no more than another day in the office.

"We're nearing the combat zone, Chief," Cortana said.

"Good. The drones still working?"

"Perfectly."

"Good. Begin the engagement."

With that, the Chief sped up his Wasp and soon found himself face to face with a wall of anti air fire.

...

Imperial FOB. Time: 2200

"Another crate?" the stormtrooper asked.

His partner nodded, just as frustrated and annoyed as his friend. They have been tasked with checking crates of munitions and weapons and just when they were about to finish, they saw a bunch of lights in the distance.

"Alright... let's get this over with."

"Wait a second..."

The first stormtrooper looked to his partner in confusion, but of course his helmet concealed his features. "What is it now?"

"I don't think those are crates..."

"Why do you think that?"

"Those lights are orange... and there's quite a lot of them."

The first stormtrooper started to radio the commander of the forward operating base. "SS-7189 reporting from the west gate. Do we have anything scheduled for arrival at this time?"

"Negative 7189. What do you see?"

"There are a bunch of lights heading our way, bearing 280."

"Acknowledged, we have them on our scopes."

The alarms started going off as an alert message was repeated throughout the base. Incoming enemy aircraft.

The anti air guns started firing as the sound of engines were finally heard. Projectile guns were heard firing faster than anything the Imperials have ever heard before while missiles flew everywhere. Many of the missiles hit the empty ground while some hit piles of empty boxes, vehicles, and even some of the anti air batteries.

However, soon the Imperials got a grip on the situation and began shooting down multiple craft every couple of seconds with their own anti air missile batteries. Of all the craft that were shot down, one of them started falling outside the base perimeter and behind the line.

"Sir, there's a downed craft behind our lines. What are your orders?"

"Take your squad and search it. If there are any survivors, bring them to me!"

"Yes sir!"

...

The right wing was hit.

Definitely going down.

"Chief, we should jump now!" Cortana shouted in the Chief's ears.

Still, he remained silent. Right before his "out-of-control" Wasp hit the ground, he regained some control and brought it out of a death spin and into a more controlled crash. The Wasp hit the ground and the Chief was thrown around the cockpit, but his physically augmented body and armor prevented him from feeling any pain.

After the aircraft stopped moving, he popped the canopy and looked around. Sure enough, he was behind the Imperial line.

"Chief to FOB," he muttered to himself. He was under strict radio silence. "I'm through. Cortana?"

"Sending the rest of the Wasps home," she said.

Immediately, the Wasps turned tail and sped back towards the UNSC FOB, all of them damaged, but still able to fly. As for all the Wasps hit with missiles, they went down fast.

"What a waste of resources," Cortana muttered.

"It was a necessary one," Chief said, though he felt the same way. "Let's get moving."

He pulled his weapons of choice from the cockpit and armed himself. His MA5B assault rifle rested on his back, an M6 series handgun locked on his belt hardpoint, a couple frag and plasma grenades, and an active camouflage projector for stealth, as well as a Z-4190 bubble shield to protect himself from any possible bombardment. He even brought an SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle. He switch his primary to his MA5B and clipped the SSRS99 to his back instead. After grabbing his loadout, he closed the canopy and locked it.

"May I suggest blowing this ship?" Cortana asked.

"Do it," Chief said.

Before Cortana could do anything, a bunch of lights shown towards the crash Wasp and stormtroopers were heard running towards the wreck.

"On second thought, let's wait a bit," Cortana said. She updated the Chief's HUD to a crater in the ground not far from him. "Hide in there. While these guys are investigating this, I'll detonate it."

"Great idea. Keeps them off our trail," Chief realized. He ran over to the waypoint and slid into the crater right as a troop carrier lit up its spotlight on the wreck.

Several stormtroopers surrounded the wreck and ordered the pilot to surrender.

Cortana just scoffed at them, "They have no idea what's about to happen, do they?"

Chief remained silent as one of the troopers approached the canopy and attempted to open it to no avail. He heard them shouting that it's been locked and calling the pilot a coward.

One of them, Chief presumed was their squad leader, ordered they force the canopy open using laser cutters of some kind.

"Whenever you're ready, Cortana."

"Detonation in 3... 2... 1... Boom."

Right at her cue, the engines revved up and overloaded, blowing the ship apart and killing all but one. The shuttle hovering over the wreck maneuvered in a perfect position for the Chief. Quickly thinking, he dropped his MA5B and grabbed his SRS99 and took careful aim. As soon as the shuttle banked to counter its own movements, he took the shot at the pilot and the shuttle came crashing down, exploding into a ball of fire upon impact with the ground.

"If they weren't alerted to attack before, they definitely are now," Cortana said.

"We should leave," Chief said, turning around and heading for the new waypoint updated into his HUD.

...

"Chief made it to the other side of the Imperial line," Kelly said. "He's on a one man mission to get to Infinity."

"Why didn't he bring the rest of you?" Ezra asked.

"By the time they broke through the Imperial line and made it to Infinity, it could be too late," Sabine said, making her best guess of the situation.

"Precisely," Kelly said. "You really seem to know your battle strategies."

"She's a mandalorian. They're known for their wars and combat abilities," Ezra said.

"I suppose that would be a great ally to have," Palmer said.

"We've been through so many wars in the past before," Sabine said. "We can help you fight the Empire, but we'll need to rally our warriors."

"I guess that answers our question about liberating this world," Fred said.

"What do you mean?" Sabine asked.

"Infinity can't stay here forever. There are other fronts to fight on. After your people are rallied, you could continue the fight to take back your homeworld," Fred explained. "Of course we would still have our own troops fighting alongside yours, but that is up to you."

"We would have to be grateful for your assistance," Sabine said. "But... you have a point. My people don't like receiving help from off worlders."

"We can discuss these terms after we win support of the people. Taking out that Academy would cripple the Empire's ability to recruit any more Mandalorians to their cause!" Palmer said.

"They have forts protecting the academy," she continued. "Those forts are what's making up this Imperial front line. It's the backbone of their defense operation."

"We take out a couple forts, their backs would be broken," Ezra said.

"Giving us an open shot at the Academy," Palmer agreed.

"Where's the nearest fort?" Sabine asked. "I don't recall seeing them here."

"They must have been constructed after Lothal was taken from them," Buck said, walking up to the Spartan Commander. "The perimeter is secure. So far there is no counter offensive from the Empire."

"Good," Palmer said, nodding.

"What's our next move?" he asked then.

"We're about to choose which fort to attack first. We might have the manpower and the supplies, but with Infinity down we are severely limited," Palmer said.

"We're thinking that if we attack a fort, it could distract the Imperials and divert their attention away from Infinity, giving the Master Chief enough time to get there and help secure it," Sabine said.

"Wouldn't we need to scout the fort first before blindly attacking?" Ezra asked.

"Yes, we would..."

The holomap of the entire war zone appeared; all the Imperial forts and friendly locations spread about in two lines.

"Since the Empire's air strike, we've had to thin out our lines quite a bit. We're still a wall of steel, but no doubt they're the same way. We have open fighting every day in fields as much as in nearby towns. So far, the nearest major city is where that Academy is," Fred said.

"Dropping right on it would have left us surrounded," Ezra realized. He always wondered why they didn't just drop on top of it in the first place, and now he has his answer. How he didn't realize it sooner he doesn't know.

"DId you just figure that out, Ezra?" Sabine asked him.

"Maybe," he muttered.

"So what are the rules of engagement against the forts?" Buck asked.

"The only air forces we have available are a few Broadswords and Longswords that landed in makeshift airfields somewhere behind our lines, plus whatever Wasps and Hornets we brought with us here. We're limited in air power so we'll have to revert back to long range missile combat," Palmer said.

"Long range missile combat?"

"Our fighters would stay out of visual range from the TIEs. Judging by their designs and how they fight, I'm guessing they don't have any missiles at all equipped."

"The TIE Defender has those," Ezra said.

"I bet they're not as long range as ours, though. Besides, we took out their factory on Lothal. All production is gone and we scrapped whatever was built," Buck said. "I saw to that personally."

"By the way," Kelly began. "Commander, are we the only Spartan team down here?"

"Blue Team plus whatever Spartans I brought with me. Fireteam Osiris is covering our left flank while Majestic has our right," Palmer replied. "The rest of the Spartan Fireteams were stationed on Infinity, waiting for deployment."

"Should we contact Osiris and Majestic on our attack on our nearest fort?" Buck asked.

"No. We'll need them to cover our flanks in case other forts attempt to counter us. I'll be relaying our plan to the other platoons," Palmer said. "Also, Buck."

"Yes, Commander?"

"I'll be taking Commanders Bridger and Wren under my watch from now on. You should report to your old Fireteam," she said.

"What? Why?" Ezra asked.

"He's not part of Blue Team or my personal team. His team is further north," Palmer said.

"Don't worry about me, you two," Buck said. "If anything, I'd rather you two stuck with Commander Palmer for the meantime. She is the commanding officer over all Spartan Fireteams aboard Infinity after all."

He pulled on his helmet and left the Mammoth's control room and boarded a Pelican to his post in the north. His current Fireteam, Alpha-Nine, is still on Infinity. With no way to get there quickly, he's headed to his old Spartan Fireteam, Osiris.