Chapter 3: The Republic

Kathryn and her team stepped out of the Republic LAAT Gunship which ferried them aboard the Venator Cruiser: Endurance, followed by Rex, Bly, and the three Jedi. The hanger bay of the Venator was rather empty, save a few strange looking three-winged fighters and pilots milling about. The SPARTANs drew quite a few strange looks due in no small part to their silver armor which seemed to glow beneath the plates, as well as the fact that they stood a full head and shoulders above the Clones.

The SPARTANs were greeted by a group of four Clones with blue accents similar to Rex's, a robed man with a lightsaber at his hip, as well as an older man with greying hair and a large mustache who was wearing a light gray uniform adorned with medals. Anakin stepped forward, addressing the Officer first. "Admiral Yularan, I'm glad you could make it." Anakin said, the slightest hint of a joking tone in his voice.

"And I'm glad to see you all got out alright." Yularan replied. "I assume that these are the extra-galactic soldiers you were telling me about?"

"Yes, they're called SPARTANs."

"A pleasure to meet you…" The Admiral said, giving a respectful bow. "I am Fleet Admiral Yularan of the Grand Navy of the Republic."

"A pleasure." Alice responded. "I'm SPARTAN Alice, leader of this fireteam. The others here are Willow, Jane, Kathryn, and Aphrodite." Alice pointed to each of the SPARTANs in kind.

"General Skywalker tells me that you've declared war against the CIS?"

"Not officially, but I have no doubt we will." Alice responded. "The weapon that the CIS used down there is reason enough, but I'd imagine that it doesn't end there."

"If only you knew the half of it…" Yularan said.

"From what Anakin's told me, you certainly know how to handle yourselves." The bearded, robed man responded. "I'm General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight."

"A pleasure to meet you." Alice responded.

"Please, come with me." Yularan said. "If your people are truly declaring war against the CIS, I figure that I should probably bring you up to speed."

The SPARTANs and Jedi followed behind the Admiral as he stepped into a large elevator, pressing a few buttons that were labeled in a foreign, runic language. After a shot elevator ride, the Admiral led his company onto the Bridge of the Endurance. The entire Bridge crew stood up and gave a crisp salute, which the Admiral dismissed casually. He led the SPARTANs and Jedi towards the front window, overlooking the planet and the small Republic fleet in orbit.

"Wait…" Ahsoka said. "Didn't you say something about a fleet?" Ahsoka asked, looking up to the SPARTAN.

Aphrodite seemed to zone out for a few moments, followed by a frantic cry from a Clone Ensign. "Admiral, massive energy readings across the system!"

"Energy readings?" Yularan asked, looking outside. What he saw brought a sense of undeniable awe to him. He saw twelve massive rifts in space open up, each of them crackling with arcs of energy. From the smaller of the rifts came six strangely shaped vessels. These ships were almost rectangular in shape, and stretched about the length of the Endurance. From five other rifts came three kilometer long ships with a heavy slope to their plating. What truly amazed the Admiral, as well as the entire crew, was the image of the largest rift unleashing a fifty five kilometer long vessel into real space, dwarfing the Venator Cruisers and GC vessels alike. On the side of the massive vessel, written in incandescent white lettering, was Infinity.

Alice grinned to herself as she watched the Admiral and Jedi stand their slack-jawed at the sight of the GC fleet, which took up most of the Venator's viewport. "What is that?" Yularan managed.

"The largest one is the GCSS Infinity, which is an Infinity-Class Carrier Dreadnought." Alice explained. "The ones with the sloped armor are Nebula-Class Battlecruisers, and the smallest ones are Singularity-Class Cruisers. This is Infinity Group Alpha. It was meant to explore this galaxy and look for life, and we found it."

"Ma'am." Aphrodite began. "I have Admiral Lasky on comms, he wishes to speak with you and the leadership of the Republic Fleet." Aphrodite produced a small disc-shaped object from Slipspace and tossed it to the floor of the Bridge, activating it remotely from her own Neural Network.

From the small disc came a slight shimmering effect, followed by the gold-hued hologram of a humanoid Android covered in silver plating. From beneath the plating emanated a slight glow, which was especially apparent in the glowing eyes of the Android construct. Unlike Aphrodite, this Android wore Forerunner Alloy armor for its outer skin, but still retained a distinctly human appearance, right down to a moving mouth. "SPARTAN Fireteam Gamma, I've gotta say, you never disappoint." The hologram said, giving a smile.

"Thank you, Admiral." Alice responded, standing at attention.

"Now onto the matter at hand." The Android began, turning to face Yularan and the Jedi, who were still staring at him in awe. "I'm Admiral Thomas Lasky of the Galactic Coalition, Commanding officer of the Infinity."

"I am Admiral Yularan of the Galactic Republic." Yularan responded, returning his face to its normal professionalism. "I must say, I wasn't expecting the Galactic Coalition to have Droid commanders."

"I don't exactly fit with your definition of 'droid', Admiral." Lasky explained. "I'm light years ahead of these Battle Droids you're familiar with. Most people in the GC refer to my kind as Prometheans. But nevertheless, I'm excited to speak with you. Considering that this is a First Contact scenario, I feel it only fitting that we discuss in person before we inevitably meet with your government."

"I agree, I'll have the Endurance's hanger bay opened for one of your transports."

"Perfect." Lasky said. "I, along with a few representatives from other races within the GC, will be aboard in a few moments." With that, Lasky cut the communication, leaving the bridge of the Venator missing the golden glow of the emitter.

Yularan was the first to compose anything even resembling a sentence as he managed to pull his gaze away from the massive GC starship before him. "I… I'm honestly speechless, this is unbelievable."

"A lot of people say the same when they first see our technology." Alice responded. "There's the Admiral now." She pointed to a small dropship which bore the same silverite armored plating as all other GC technology. The dropship, the Pelican Mk. X, carried over the same general design as its Human-Covenant War predecessor, but each Pelican under GC control was nearly twice as fast, and even more heavily armored.

"Open the Hanger Bay doors!" Yularan ordered, sending the Clone ensigns back into their duties. The Pelican ducked into the Venator's Hanger, which closed behind the entering dropship.

The Venator's crew remained in a strange state of limbo for a few minutes, some of the Ensigns unable to take their eyes off of the marvel of engineering that was the Infinity. The remaining Ensigns attempted to carry out their duties, but found themselves distracted by the imposing nature of the GC starships. The Jedi managed to keep an image of professional self-control, at least until the elevator opened.

From the elevator came an escort of two Clones, accompanied by a seven foot tall Promethean Android, A Sangheili in ornate runic armor, and an Unggoy in dark blue robes. Accompanying the GC dignitaries were four GC Marine Honor Guardsmen, two of them Sangheili and two of them Human. The Marine armor vaguely resembled the SPARTAN armor, but appeared less intricate and more mass-produced. It did away with the silver-blue color scheme and replaced it with a blue-black-gray digital camouflage pattern. The Sangheili armor appeared similar to their traditional Combat Harnesses, but covered almost all of their tall, powerful forms. The only uncovered section of the Sangheili Marines was their faces, carrying an imposing appearance thanks to their quad-mandible jaw and rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The Promethean stepped over to Admiral Yularan, all of the Bridge's eyes fixated on him. His metallic face shifted into a smile as he bowed his head. "A pleasure to meet you in person, Admiral. I'm Admiral Thomas Lasky, this is Field Marshall Aiter'Vadum of the Sangheili, and Representative Nawaz of the Unggoy species."

"A pleasure to meet all of you." Yularan replied. "I am Admiral Yularan of the Republic Navy. The people to my right are Jedi Generals Aayla Secura, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Commander Ahsoka Tano."

As the Jedi were introduced, one of the Sangheili marines muttered to his compatriot. "What warrior wears robes into battle?"

"I believe that the Chancellor wishes to speak with representatives from your government in person, as does the Jedi Council." Yularan replied.

"Understandable, should I have any of our ships follow?" Lasky asked.

"Of course, but I'd imagine that it would be preferable for you to bring a smaller one."

"Alright, I'll order two Singularity-Class Cruisers to tail your battlegroup. Now, shall we discuss a few things before we leave?"

"Indeed…" Yularan began, turning to a Clone crewman. "Set Hyperspace coordinates for Coruscant, replay coordinates to the GC fleet."

"SPARTAN Fireteam Gamma, you're relieved for now."

XXXXX

The SPARTANs sat in the Mess Hall of the Venator Cruiser, which was moving through Hyperspace towards Coruscant. Following the Venator were two Singularity-Class Cruisers. Ahsoka and Anakin sat with the SPARTANs while Obi-Wan moderated the discussion between Yularan and Lasky.

"I still can't really wrap my head around that…" Anakin began, addressing Alice. "You travel through dimensions for your FTL travel?"

"To a certain degree, yes." Alice explained. "Our ships aren't actually moving faster than light, they're moving at normal speeds in a dimension where the relation between time and distance is different. It actually isn't much faster than your Hyperspace drives, you're only about .5 percent slower."

Anakin nodded, another voice cutting him off before he could continue his questions. "Entertaining the locals, SPARTAN?" Lasky asked, stepping into the room with Yularan, Obi-Wan, and Aayla Secura behind him.

"Admiral!" Alice said, standing at attention with her team. They relaxed as Lasky waved them off. "When are we slated to arrive at Coruscant?"

"In a few moments, actually." Obi-Wan said.

"And apparently the plan's changed." Lasky continued. "We're not going to meet the Senate. The Jedi Council apparently wants to speak with a ranking officer from our fleet, and the team that saved the crew of that corvette. That means we're going to their Jedi Temple while one of the Singularity-Class Captains represents Humanity to the Senate."

The Venator lurched slightly as it dropped out of Hyperspace. "I'll get to the bridge and coordinate the landing. There's an LAAT in the hanger for you." Yularan said, stepping out of the Mess.

XXXXX

The LAAT gunship carrying the SPARTANs, Lasky and the other representatives, Jedi, and Captain Rex and Commander Bly left the hanger bay of the Endurance just in time to watch the Singularity-Class Cruisers leave the black void of Slipspace. The blocky warships stood in stark contrast to the sleeker Republic Cruiser that they fell into formation with.

A Pelican Mk. XI Dropship left each of the GC Cruisers, falling in behind the LAAT as it descended towards Coruscant. The planet itself was more akin to a single massive city as opposed to a planet. The massive monolithic skyscrapers stretched past the planet's cloud layer, giving the planet a cramped feeling.

The LAAT broke off from the two Pelicans and made its way towards a large rectangular building near the end of a massive courtyard. The two Pelicans continued towards the base of a massive domed structure on another end of that same courtyard. The LAAT set down at the base of a long flight of stairs, leading up to a massive entryway into the Jedi Temple. Obi-Wan led the way out of the strangely shaped dropship, with Anakin and Ahsoka following behind. Lasky and the SPARTANs left after them, with the four GC Marines following their commanding officer.

"Impressive." Lasky said. "Your planet is quite possibly the most developed one that I've ever seen."

"It's been the capital of the Republic for well over one thousand years, even then it hasn't changed much." Obi-Wan responded, leading the way up the steps and into the temple. The temple itself had a simple architectural style, with mostly flat angular design choice. The walls were colored a rather dull shade of light brown with red accents on various places. As they stepped into the main hall, a long hallway with massive pillars lining either side, every set of eyes in the area turned to look at them. Among those eyes were some children who appeared to be as young as six years old, joining their elders in staring at both the massive Promethean before them, and the group of SPARTANs

"Master Kenobi!" One of the younger aliens asked. "Who're they?"

Kenobi smiled at the young Twi'lek girl. "They're friends; I'm taking them to speak with the Council." The young Twi'lek waved to Lasky, who couldn't help but grin as he returned the gesture.

"Come." Obi-Wan said with a smile. "We'll have time to introduce you formally once you've discussed with the Council."

Lasky and the GC personnel followed behind their Jedi escort through the hallway of the Jedi Temple, drawing stares as they climbed the stairs towards the Council Chamber. In the chamber sat thirteen Jedi, all of varying species. Facing the entryway was a darker skinned human, flanked on one side by a small, green alien with thin white hair and a wrinkled complexion. Throughout the room was also a green alien with tentacles running from the back of his head, as well as a woman of the same species as Ahsoka, and a Jedi with an almost cone-shaped head and white beard. As the GC personnel stepped into the Council Chambers, all eyes turned to look at them.

"Welcome to Coruscant." The darker skinned human said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. His tone was indifferent, bordering on distrusting. "I am Jedi Master Mace Windu, and this is the Jedi Council."

"I'm honored." Lasky said, bowing his head. "I'm Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky of the Galactic Coalition First Fleet. I've got a representative of the Sangheili and Unggoy species, as well as the fireteam that saved the crew of your corvette on the fringe world with me."

"I can see… and who do you represent?" Windu asked, looking Lasky up and down.

"I'm the representative for Humanity, as well as the representative of the GC Armed Forces."

"Why is a machine representing Humanity?" The Togrutan woman asked, her voice carrying an air of authority.

"I'm not a machine that falls in line with what you understand." Lasky explained. "About a millennia ago, I was just as human as one of the Marines standing behind me. An accident aboard my old ship caused the entire crew, including myself, to have our minds composed into a digital format and uploaded into artificial bodies."

"You've had this technology for a thousand years?" Windu asked.

"Not exactly." Lasky explained. "That incident was a freak accident while we were investigating old ruins in our own galaxy."

"I see…" Windu said, leaning back. "What are your intentions here?"

"Well… initially our intentions were purely scientific. We wanted to explore this galaxy when we first arrived. Once we discovered the exact nature of the Separatists, thanks to their appalling weapon they deployed against pacifistic civilians, we retaliated."

"Why would you get involved? Our war isn't exactly related to you." The green-skinned alien with tentacles on his head asked.

"Our society is built on the preservation of life. A weapon like the one the Separatists deployed goes against everything we stand for." Lasky explained. "This ideology is the driving force behind our actions more often than not."

"Well, the Senate has already held a preliminary hearing." Windu said. "And it looks like they'd like to have your GC as an ally in this war. If the discussions happening today go smoothly, I think the GC and Republic will be working side by side in this conflict."

"Good." Lasky said. "Our own Parliament has held a hearing as well, and the result was similar. The President of the GC wants our forces working alongside Republic forces."

"Really?" The cone-headed humanoid alien asked. "How many of your forces are currently in our galaxy?"

"A small fleet of seven vessels, a ground army of around four hundred thousand soldiers, and a few armored divisions." Lasky answered. "If the Republic formally recognizes an alliance, I'd imagine that the President will allow more reinforcements to be sent."

"I certainly hope so." Windu said. "The CIS can roll soldiers off of an assembly line."

One of the Sangheili muttered under his breath. "Interesting statement coming from the General of an army of clones." The Sangheili found many things dishonorable, clone armies were certainly one of them.

"Before we go on…" Lasky said. "I'd like to propose something that could help both of our organizations get a better understanding of one another. I'd like to ask if I can attach a few SPARTANs to a Jedi, simply to shadow them and better understand the nature of the war and the workings of the Order. Think of it in the sense of fostering understanding between two allies."

The Jedi councilors looked to one another, almost all of them nodding to Windu, who remained stoic. "I'm inclined to consider your offer, but how many of these soldiers do you want to attach to a Jedi?"

"No more than ten." Lasky answered. "Specifically, I'd like to attach the members of Fireteam Gamma here to a Jedi of their choice. They've had the most interaction with Jedi out of any of our ground forces."

"Very well, I think that can be arranged." Windu said. "Are there any Jedi you had in mind?"

Lasky turned to look at the SPARTANs, who began looking to each other. "Gamma? The choice is yours."

Alice shrugged. "I suppose I'll work with General Kenobi, if he'll allow it."

"I'd be honored." Obi-Wan replied.

Jane looked to Anakin. "I'll work with General Skywalker."

"I'd be happy to have you, SPARTAN." Anakin said with a smile.

Willow shifted her stance slightly, finding all eyes focused on her. "I'll work with General Secura and he forces, if she'll let me."

"I'd be happy to, I'm interested in learning more about you." Secura responded, giving the SPARTAN a nod.

Kathryn thought for a moment. "Ahsoka?" She asked, looking to the younger Jedi.

"Me? I'm just a Padawan learner." Ahsoka said, unsure. "Master?"

"It's up to you, Snips." Anakin replied. "You're a Jedi just like everyone else here."

Ahsoka thought for a moment, and nodded. "Alright, sounds good."

"Aphrodite, I need you back on the Prowler coordinating data between Republic and GC fleet assets."

"Aye sir." Aphrodite responded.

"Now, where is the GC needed?" Lasky asked. "Once the Senate and Parliament come to an agreement, I'll be in command of all fleet movements within this galaxy. I'd like some insignt as to where our forces would be most useful."

"There's a bit of an incident on a relatively close planet called Christophsis. A Clone army is blockaded on the planet by a Separatist fleet and is currently under siege." The Togrutan woman responded. "The Separatists have been making a massive push in these past few weeks, and Christophsis is essential to the Republic's war effort."

"The instant the treaty is struck, I'll give the order." Lasky responded.

"Thank you, Admiral." The Togrutan replied.

"I think that'll be all for now." Windu said. "I'd imagine that a lot of the Jedi and younglings outside are interested in meeting you."

"Of course, I'll keep you all posted on any major changes." Lasky said. Lasky motioned to the group of GC personnel, who relaxed their posture. Obi-Wan, Anakin, Secura, and Ahsoka led them out into the courtyard. "That honestly went better than I expected." Lasky said.

"I'm inclined to agree." Obi-Wan said. "I was expecting much longer and more heated discussions."

Lasky shrugged. "How would you prefer we go about the attack on Christophsis? I have my entire fleet on standby ready to move. The only question is the Republic Fleet. The way I see it, Infinity can carry however many of you three will be joining, and do enough damage to the Separatist blockade to allow GC and Republic forces to land."

"Probably the most sound plan." Obi-Wan said. "Republic forces are spread quite thin, and most of Anakin's and my own battlegroups are going to be in dry-dock for the foreseeable future. I only have a single combat-ready Venator and four Acclimator Assault Ships."

"I've only got two Venators." Anakin replied. "I lost most of my forces in the battle before your Prowler found us."

"Alright… the Infinity is open to whoever needs transport to this planet." Lasky said. "Your remaining ships can come in a few minutes after the GC fleet leaves Slipspace."

"Well, most of Anakin's legion, the 501st, is trapped on Christophsis after the attack. My Battalion, the 212th, is here on Coruscant. They can be moved on the Acclimators and Venators."

"Alright, then it's decided." Lasky said. "I'll order the Infinity to Slipspace in at some point in the next two days, then we can get started. Until then, I've got to answer the same question a few hundred times." Lasky said, looking to the gathering crowd of Jedi, Padawans, and Younglings standing at the base of the staircase.

"Snips and I will show everyone around." Anakin said, motioning for Ahsoka and the SPARTANs to follow him. "I know a few good places around the Upper Levels."