Chapter 5: Christophsis Invaded

The Separatist Blockade over Christophsis sat in geosynchronous orbit over the green planet with a sense of arrogance, this arrogance brought out even further by the husks of three Venators drifting through the blackness of space. A few squadrons of interceptors and bombers left the hanger bays of the six Lucerhulks in orbit, bearing down on the planet's surface. The fifteen Separatist Frigates drifted lazily in-between the gaps created by the Lucerhulks.

The Admiral of the Separatist fleet sat at the commander's chair on the central Lucerhulk Battleship, watching the empty void with a disinterested look on his face. The Admiral was a thin, slightly greyish-green Nemoidian with a single cybernetic eye over his right eye. His attention was caught by a Tactical Droid off to his right, which began speaking in synthesized monotone. "Admiral, five Republic cruisers are leaving Hyperspace just beyond our maximum range."

"Hmm…" The Admiral said, leaning back in his chair. "The Republic must be getting desperate. Launch all fighters and prepare to repulse their fighter screen."

"Affirmative…" The Droid responded, stopping once it looked back at the scanner station. "Admiral, we have three strange energy signatures just behind the Republic fleet."

"Energy signatures? What kind?"

"Massive Dark Energy signatures. They appear to be somewhat disc-shaped with no depth to them, beyond that there is no data I can draw from these strange readings."

As the Admiral looked out into space, he saw the small specks of the Republic Cruisers out in the distance, accompanied by three massive… holes in the fabric of space itself. As the Admiral looked out in interest, three ships came from the massive tears in space, one of them exponentially larger than the entire Republic Fleet, with two others being about twice the size of a Venator. The largest ship completely dwarfed the Lucerhulk, and probably dwarfed the entire Separatist fleet. "Bring the whole fleet to alert!" The admiral shouted, prompting every droid on the Lucerhulk's bridge to spring into action.

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Lasky looked at the green, almost crystalline surface of Christophsis as the Infinity left Slipspace. He watched as the ship's AI fed him sensor and logistics data directly into his highly computerized brain. "Launch all strike craft, bring the ship to Combat Alert Alpha." Lasky squinted as Infinity's forward batteries opened fire, launching massive bolts of Hard Light at the Separatist Fleet. Two of the Separatist Frigates simply shattered as the superheated mass of light splashed across their hulls, while the remainder of the bolts were surprisingly absorbed by Lucerhulk shields.

The Infinity shuddered slightly as a full barrage of turbolasers landed across her bow shields, causing them to flare up with a brilliant golden light. Lasky was rather surprised by the power behind the Separatist weapons, which actually managed to slightly drain the shields. The Republic ships quickly began moving to close the gap between the two fleets while the Singularity-Class vessels in the fleet began firing a full barrage from their missile tubes. Most of the missiles were blasted out of space by Separatist CIWS, but a handful managed to find their mark on a Lucerhulk's shields. Lasky smiled as the Cesium-137 warhead met the oxygen cell located in the rear of the missile, causing a series of massive detonations across the hull of the Lucerhulk as the two elements reacted explosively. The strange, circular ship's shields flared, and then sputtered out. A final missile from the Singularity finished off the weakened Separatist Battleship.

The Separatists returned fire with their own volley, most of the turbolasers focused on the bow of the Infinity. One of the Venators took a rather nasty strike to her citadel, while a Singularity's shields actually fell to the Separatist barrage. The swarm of GC and Republic strike craft made contact with the Separatist fighter screen, a small explosion occasionally lighting up the otherwise black void of space between the two fleets. Lasky watched as two Reaver Interceptors blinked off of his tactical display, destroyed in dogfights. A group of Republic Y-Wing bombers managed to punch through the fighter screen, escorted by GC strike craft. The bombers released their payloads into the bridge of a Lucerhulk, causing it to erupt in flames as the Turbolasers ceased firing.

All at once, the GC fleet fired a barrage from their forward batteries, shattering many of the small Separatist frigates almost instantly. Another Lucerhulk detonated, sending flames arching through space from the central sphere as Hard Light struck against their target. The Lucerhulks sent out one final barrage in spite of their blatant disadvantage, all of them focusing fire on one of the elongated, blocky Singularities. The Singularity's shields held for a time, but eventually sputtered out, allowing turbolasers to slam into the hull of the GC warship. Dozens of decks were depressurized as armor plating was stripped and burned off, invariably sending GC military personnel into the blackness of space.

Lasky let out a grim sigh as another full volley from the fleet obliterated the remaining Lucerhulks and Banking Clan Support Frigates. The GC and Republic strike craft began returning to their respective ships while the damaged Singularity Cruiser limped towards the Infinity, eventually docking with the starboard side of the massive warship for field repairs.

Lasky received a notification from the tactical display before him, notifying him that six Acclimator Assault Ships arrived just behind the Infinity. These smaller carrier frigates began moving towards the crystalline surface of Christophsis, flanked by the Venators. The GC battlegroup followed behind the Republic fleet, which had begun launching LAAT dropships towards the surface of the planet. "Launch all landing craft, prep SOEIV Pods for deployment."

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The first wave of GC forces flew through heavy flak, a few of the Pelican dropships shattering under the oppressive fire from the planet's surface. As they came closer to the glassy, crystalline surface of Christophsis, the Pelicans opened their rear doors, allowing 25 Marines to pour out. "There's the 501st Forward Operations Base." Alice said from her position in the rear of a Pelican. "They're currently under attack by the Separatists, and our orders are to provide support. Lasky wants us and the Marines Fifth through Tenth companies to push through and open up a lane for armored support." As the Pelican landed, she motioned with her right hand. "Everyone out! Move, move, move!" At her word, the entirety of her fireteam, and 22 Marines poured out of the back of the Pelican, seeing the full scope of the damage.

Most of the buildings in the massive crystal city on the surface were shattered, collapsed, or heavily burned and battered. Only a few small buildings had no damage. Hundreds of GC Marines advanced across a large boulevard, ducking into cover as a burst of blaster fire was fired at them from an advancing droid column. A dozen SOEIV pods impacted behind the advancing droids, twelve ODSTs in their black Forerunner-Alloy armor jumping out and immediately firing their weapons. The rear-most droids, not expecting such an attack, were quickly cut down before the rest could turn and open fire on the ODSTs, forcing them into cover.

Alice motioned for her team to follow behind as she called her weapon into existence, moving at speeds only a SPARTAN could ever achieve. They quickly joined up with the advancing Marine company, sliding into cover after firing a few well-aimed shots at a group of B2 droids. Gamma took part in a quick firefight, felling numerous droids with the assistance of the Marines around them. The Sangheili in the Marine detachment let out a powerful war cry as a Mgalekgolo bond pair stomped out from the rear of a Pelican and fired concentrated beams of superheated gases through the hull of a Separatist tank, reducing the tank to little more than molten slag before its reactor detonated, sending shrapnel in all directions.

"Gamma, break off!" Alice shouted, highlighting a building 300 meters ahead on their HUDs. The SPARTANs quickly broke off from the Marines, activating their active camouflage units as they sprinted through the empty field of broken droids. Once the SPARTANs regrouped at the building, they began moving forward once again, coming upon a Marines Force Recon team 200 meters down the boulevard, which was holed up behind a destroyed train car of some sort.

The Force Recon team was comprised of mostly Kig-Yar and Kig-Yar Skirmishers, with one Human and one Sangheili Ranger. "What's the situation, Sergeant?" Alice asked, jogging up behind the Kig-Yar NCO.

"Going to plan, Ma'am." The Kig-Yar responded in his very high-pitched, almost scratchy voice. "GC forces have landed and secured a successful LZ for the armored divisions, but the Republic's having a bit more trouble on the eastern end. Skywalker's legion is pinned down in their FOB, Kenobi's is locked in a stalemate against a large droid battalion, and we've lost contact with a FORECON team that was sent to investigate. Sending orbital data to your HUD."

Alice scanned over the tactical data, sending it to the rest of her team as well. "Gamma, we're moving forward." She said, highlighting a section of the city on their display. This section was locked between the 501st FOB and their current location, roughly 600 meters away. "Let's see if we can't find that Recon team."

The SPARTANs moved out from their cover, beginning to advance along the boulevard again. The massively wide street was scattered with the wrecks of vehicles, both civilian and military. As they advanced, a few stray droids attempted to fire on them, but they were quickly dispatched. As they neared an intersection with a smaller street, they saw few blue bolts scattered among the barrage of red bolts, signifying the existence of a few Clones. As the SPARTANs approached, they found a group of seven clones, all of them with blue accents on their armor, pinned down behind a wall of rubble. They occasionally popped out to return fire, but were quickly forced back down by the sheer volume of fire from the advancing droids. The SPARTANs sprinted forward, their shields taking a few stray blaster bolts before they ducked into cover. "Are you the support Skywalker promised us?" The clone leader asked once the four strange looking soldiers in silver armor slid into cover next to him.

"Yeah, we are." Alice responded, poking her head out to fire a few rounds downrange, striking a B2 droid in its chest. She was quickly forced back into cover.

"I don't know who, or what you are…" The Clone said. "But I'm not one to turn down help. We got cut off from the FOB a few hours ago, we've been trying to fight our way back ever since!"

"You've got a full armored division coming in from the West." Alice responded. "We'll do what we can for now." Alice nodded to her team, letting them know that it was time to get started. In perfect synchronization, Jane and Kathryn vaulted over the rubble, activating their wrist-mounted Hard Light projectors. Their projectors created a large shield of blue light, which began absorbing incoming blaster fire. Willow and Alice followed behind, using their squadmates as moving cover. Jane and Kathryn drew bolt pistols, firing their sidearms at the droids while Alice and Willow fired their Lightrifles. The droids seemed completely confused at the rather bold tactical decisions, and momentarily forgot about the existence of the seven clones, which also popped out from cover to start firing. The droids all quickly fell under the combined firepower of the clones, and the accuracy and speed of the SPARTANs.

As the strain began to feel much greater against the Hard Light Shield, which began waning slightly, the SPARTANs quickly moved back into cover, tossing Area-Denial Pulse Grenades, which sent out pulses of energy and dismantled the droids at an atomic level. After a few moments of waiting in cover for their shields to recharge, a large artillery round landed a few meters away from the Clones and SPARTANs, kicking up gravel and rubble in all directions. The SPARTANs were forced to remain in cover as the remaining droids advanced. A pair of Vulture Droids dove on the Clone position, strafing their cover. One of the unlucky 501st Clones was struck in the chest by the heavy repeating blaster cannon on the droid fighter, killing him instantly. After the Vulture Droids left, the metallic sounds of droids marching sounded off again.

As the droids were mere meters from the cover that the Clones were using, a large explosive bolt of Hard Light landed at the front of the droid lines, sending arms and legs flying in all directions. The Clones looked back, seeing the strange tank that had come to their assistance. The tank was a large, Forerunner Alloy construct which hovered a few inches off the ground. It had two massive cannons on the top of its sleek, sloped armored chassis, as well as two heavy machine guns in a coaxial position. Four Sangheili-led Marine squads followed behind the tank, which continued firing. The tank, which was of the Panther armored platform, rolled up just behind the cover and opened up with the Hard-Light Splinter Cannon, firing off hundreds of rounds in a few seconds. The four Marine squads moved up, taking up positions alongside the Clones as they fired.

After a few moments of constant fire from the Panther tank, the droids had all been reduced to smoldering wrecks. A few Marine Corpsmen ran over from the advancing GC lines, their biofoam injectors and medical kits prepared to assist any wounded Clone or Marine. "Ha-ha!" One of the Clones shouted, seeing the sheer number of GC forces pushing forward. "That's a gorgeous sight."

"Gamma, ready up!" Alice shouted, motioning with her Lightrifle that it was time to move. The SPARTANs moved towards the spearhead of the advancing armored division, which consisted of the relatively light Panther tanks, a few of the heavier Hood-VI Heavy Tanks, and a pair of Hellcat Super-Heavy Tanks. The Hellcats were truly a sight to behold, stretching almost twenty meters in length, they carried a massive tri-barreled turret that fired a variety of Hard Light ammunition. It also had four Splinter Anti-Air Defense emplacements mounted on the rear, a collective sixteen heavy machine guns, and the capacity to carry two full platoons of soldiers in the back.

The convoy moved forward with ruthless efficiency, flattening entire companies of droids at a time. A few Marines experienced some minor wounds, but the advance was simply too much for the droids to effectively counter.

After a few minutes of hard advancing towards the 501st Legion's forward operations base, the massive complex came into view. It had massive concrete walls with guard towers strategically placed every 200 meters, a hefty metallic gate, and a relatively massive amount of E-WEB emplacements on the walls. Near the front of the base, however, was a massive concentration of droids. A collective 200 floating CIS tanks, a few thousand droids, and a large concentration of Vulture Droids were focusing a massive volume of fire on the Clone defenders.

The massive Hellcat tank leading the armored convoy let out a massive, earth-shaking barrage from the main cannon. The three incredibly powerful rounds slammed into the center of the droid lines, detonating with enough force to throw CIS tanks aside like ragdolls. The high-explosive round sent a massive number of droids through the air, or simply reduced them to ash on the spot. The Marines rushed out from behind their rolling and floating armored cover, taking up positions on one end of the massive square as Falchion fighters dove down, intending to "boom-n-zoom" the Vulture Droids.

The Clones began returning fire, as their morale was almost instantly restored when they saw massive tanks roll into the square, fire an earth-shattering barrage, and open up enough of a pause in the droid fire to allow six thousand strange soldiers to funnel in from behind the tanks. The battlefield was quickly turned into a brilliant display of blue, red, and golden light, especially whenever one of the tanks fired or took a hit, as the GC tanks were equipped with a Hard-Light shield generator. Streaks of brilliant golden light were sent into the sky as the AA defenses in the GC lines started firing on the surviving Vulture Droids.

The droids, despite putting up surprisingly stiff resistance when faced with such overwhelming power, eventually fell under the combined weight of the Republic-GC forces. The SPARTANs spent almost the entire engagement on the front lines. As the fighting finally died down, the SPARTANs observed their handiwork. Between the four of them, Gamma had reduced almost three hundred B1 droids, one hundred B2s, and fifty Droidekas to scrap metal. GC Marines rushed over to start securing the perimeter of the massive square in the Christophsi Capital city. Marine Corpsmen and Medical Clones alike rushed over to assist any wounded.

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After an hour, the four SPARTANs of Fireteam Gamma walked through the fields of wreckage, searching for any remaining droids as Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and two Clone Officers came up to them. One of the officers was clearly Rex, but the other had a golden stripe down the center of his armor. "Generals, Commander." Alice said, saluting the three Jedi.

Obi-Wan waved off the salute. "Your assistance was well-timed, SPARTAN." He said looking around the field. "Well-timed and very effective."

"No kidding." Rex said, looking around. "Wasn't expecting reinforcements like THAT when your Admiral radioed in."

"SPARTAN Alice." Obi-Wan began. "I'd like to discuss a few things with you, since the Council seems to have a new mission for me, and you by extension."

"Of course." Alice said. "Gamma, group up with your Jedi counterpart and prepare to move out. Willow, you're with me for now. We're not done here yet."

"Aye Ma'am!" The SPARTANs responded, giving a salute, which was quickly dismissed. Willow followed behind her CO while Jane and Kathryn followed behind Anakin and Ahsoka.

"Well…" Anakin said, walking back towards the FOB. "We've secured the capitol of the planet, but we still have an entire continent to secure. GC's sending down support constantly, so it shouldn't be too much trouble." Anakin led the way through the large complex, eventually stopping at the set of deployable structures that the GC technicians were working on setting up. Most of them were medical facilities and living quarters. "We're moving out in two days, get some rest everyone."

A/N:

Sweet Jesus, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to update this story. I've had the most severe case of Writer's Block Syndrome, which was only perpetuated by Fallout 4 and Halo 5. The fact that I started writing a RWBY/Halo crossover probably didn't help either. I'll do my best to make sure this story is updated far more regularly, even with all of the Wandering, Synth killing, and Halo Multiplayer I'll be doing. Sorry about this chapter being slightly shorter, but I plan for Christophsis to be a world-building arc, so other chapters will be less combat-heavy.

As usual, I appreciate the comments and suggestions, so keep 'em coming.