Chapter 11: New Dawn over Ryloth

Ahsoka's jaw practically hit the floor. Kathryn was not kidding; this was a city on a starship.

The Central Decks of Infinity, in all of their glory, looked strangely like a large shopping district from Coruscant. Hundreds of people of all species, native to the Milky Way of course, were strolling around boulevards and walkways. The streets each housed buildings ranging from stores, restaurants, apartments, all the way to theaters. There were actual trees all around, and it felt like a planet. The artificial sunlight coming in from… somewhere in the ceiling brought a feeling of warmth and comfort. The difference was jarring. She was used to the internals of a starship being cold, metallic, and barren.

Just a mere few minutes ago, Ahsoka was lying in the medical bay of a massive starship, surrounded by beeping and droning machines. Now, she couldn't even tell that she was on a ship. Between the artificial sky, the warm temperature, the groups of civilians, and the city streets and parks… she would have trouble setting this apart from a utopian garden world.

Kathryn simply watched with an amused expression on her face as Ahsoka looked around. "Well?" She asked, looking to the shorter girl with a grin.

"This is amazing!" Ahsoka declared, looking to the silverite metal of Forerunner Alloy clashing against the greenery of trees and bushes. "How many of these ships do you have?!"

"Hundreds." Kathryn answered, nodding for Ahsoka to walk with her. "Only about three dozen of them are dedicated combat vessels, though. The rest are scientific, logistics ships, or colony ships."

"What's this one?" Ahsoka asked, following Kathryn down a narrow street. A few of the Humans and other GC Species glanced over to her, a few giving her a wave, or a short bow of the head in the case of the Sangheili.

"A scientific vessel." Kathryn answered.

"Your science ships can fight in battles?" Ahsoka wondered.

"This one's a bit more of a… hybrid." Kathryn explained. "It's named after the original Infinity from the Human-Covenant War. That ship was a science ship, but it wound up serving in combat as a flagship. We built this one, which is the first of its class, as a sort of way to honor to old Infinity. A lot of this ship's crew is the crew of the old Infinity, actually."

"How's that possible?" Ahsoka asked. "Wasn't that war you mentioned from, like, a thousand years ago?"

"Admiral Lasky wasn't the only one who was composed." Kathryn explained. "The entire crew was. Almost all of the old crew jumped at the opportunity to serve under Lasky again."

"He must've been a great commander." Ahsoka said, still taking in the wonders of the cityscape around her.

"They made him Lord of Admirals for a reason." Kathryn returned, smiling.

As the two simply walked down the glistening walkway under an artificial sky, Ahsoka couldn't help but wonder about the GC. If this is what their starships were like, what were their planets like? What did the homeworlds look like? She wanted to pick apart every little bit of information she could about these strange extra-galactic aliens. They were millennia beyond anything that the galaxy she called home had ever achieved, mastering the universe in ways that were thought to be impossible.

As she walked, a million questions started piling up in her head. She knew that Kathryn couldn't answer all of them… but it couldn't hurt to try. "How many people are in your galaxy?"

"Are we just talking Humans, or are we talking about other species too?" Kathryn asked, finally making their way through the main walkway. There were hundreds of people walking along their paths, many of them being so used to seeing diverse alien life that they paid Ahsoka little mind. They passed all manner of buildings, from apartments to nightclubs.

"Both, I guess…" Ahsoka shrugged.

"Well… there's around one trillion Humans in the Milky Way." Kathryn started, basing her numbers off of the decade-old census data that she remembered from Civics courses. "Give or take a few billion here and there. We're actually the minority in the Galaxy, compared to the Unggoy that is. They've got around six trillion people. All in all, there's around forty six trillion sentient beings in the galaxy, counting Prometheans and AIs, of course. If you count individual Lekgolo in these numbers, it's probably in the quintillions."

Ahsoka's questioning carried on all throughout their short walk around the spacefaring city. Ahsoka spent much of the time between their little exploration gawking at the strange technology all around her. Kathryn was more than happy to answer all of the Padawan's questions.

After finding something on the Decks that Ahsoka could recognize as food, she was more than happy to indulge in non-hospital food. Afterwards, the two returned to the militarized sectors on the massive starship. "Alright…" Ahsoka conceded, stepping off of the elevator and back onto Deck 3. "Your galaxy is officially way more interesting than ours."

"I wouldn't go that far." Kathryn countered. "You've got several hundred more species than we do, and a lot more diverse technologies. All of our tech is uniform, very little deviation if any at all." Kathryn laughed. "I still can't understand how your lightsabers even work, they shouldn't even be possible."

"Neither should interdimensional travel." Ahsoka rebuked.

"Fair enough." Kathryn accepted.

As the two walked back towards the crew quarters for this deck, the ship-wide intercom buzzed to life. "All hands, this is Admiral Lasky. Report to your stations immediately, we will be entering orbit of Ryloth in ten minutes. All Republic officers and your SPARTAN companions report to the Bridge for briefing."

XXXXX

Lasky stood at the helm of Infinity, watching as the rift back into real-space opened. The ship's resident Jedi and their SPARTAN shadows were standing around a briefing table, a hard light projection of Ryloth dancing across the surface. As the rift opened, the Jedi looked over, and fell slack-jawed at the sight before them.

Well over a hundred GC vessels were pounding a crippled CIS battlegroup into dust. The dozens of massive vessels surrounded the planet, and were tearing Banking Clan Cruisers and Lucerhulks apart at the seams. The flagship of this fleet was a massive Terra-Class Command Carrier.

Only six of these ships existed, due to their designated roles as Armada Command Vessels. They were utterly massive, rivaling even the Mantle's Approach in size. The only difference between the two vessels was size and purpose. The Terra was dedicated solely to war, and its imposing appearance highlighted that. It was far longer than an Infinity-class, but was slightly wider and much thinner. While an Infinity-class had over five hundred decks, a Terra-class had only fifty.

The GC fleet around Ryloth was almost entirely made up of capital ships, mostly Singularity-Class Heavy Cruisers, Nebula-Class Battlecruisers, Unity-Class Dreadnoughts, Pulsar-Class Supercarriers, and Constellation-Class Light Cruisers. There was a new class of vessel that the Republic had not seen before. It was about the same size as a Singularity-Class, and appeared to be making micro-jumps through Slipspace to flank CIS fleet positions. It registered as a Phantom-Class Support Cruiser, and there were about six of them hopping about.

"Are you sure we were needed here?" Anakin asked, staring as the GC armada speared through the final Lucerhulk with a massive broadside barrage from the fleet's cruisers.

"We're carrying most of the ground forces for this operation." Lasky answered, watching as GC fighter wings moved to mop up any remaining Vulture Droids and hunt for any life pods among the wreckage. "Our little diversion to Naboo put us an hour behind the rest of the fleet."

"Admiral, communication coming in from the Terra-Class Command Vessel Arminius!" The communications officer declared.

"Patch them in." Lasky said, turning to a hard light projection of a Sangheili in gold-plated Forerunner Alloy combat armor.

"A pleasure, Lord of Admirals." The Sangheili said, bowing his head in respect. "We have eliminated all hostile fleet presence in this system and are prepared to offer orbital support."

"Excellent." Lasky said. "Casualty report?"

"No capital ships were lost in the engagement, Admiral." The Sangheili commander responded. "We did lose many of our light cruisers, frigates, corvettes, and fast-attack ships. We have suffered about thirty losses, with most of the crews escaping into lifeboats. Casualties are expected to be under four thousand."

"Could've been worse…" Lasky mused, still not liking the idea of his people's lifeless bodies drifting through the empty maw of the void. "Republic ground forces are fifteen minutes out, establish a holding perimeter around Ryloth and await further orders."

"As you command." The Sangheili responded, clasping a fist over his chest just before the projection fizzled out.

With his impromptu conference over, Lasky turned and strolled over to the briefing table, where Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Fireteam Gamma were waiting. "What's our plan, Admiral?" Anakin asked.

"I've been coordinating with the Jedi Council and Republic High Command, and we've decided to play this one slightly more cautiously than Christophsis." Lasky answered. "A massive, planet-wide invasion would put the civilians on this world at risk, and I will not allow that."

Lasky highlighted a small city on one of Ryloth's many continents, sitting on the edge of a massive jungle. "This city will serve as our landing zone for the wider armies, as well as our primary operations headquarters for this campaign. The ODSTs will coordinate with General Kenobi's 212th and General Skywalker's 501st in a joint assault on the village. General Kenobi's forces will land in a large clearing two kilometers south of this village and proceed from there. General Skywalker's forces will provide support on the Eastern and Western flanks. The ODSTs will drop on the edge of the jungle, and will initiate the assault."

"For the beginning of this operation, we will not have air superiority." Lasky continued. "The Separatists are highly entrenched and scans of the planet show an immense anti-air screen, as well as large patrols of fighters. Our Falchions will escort the Acclimators down to the surface, but they will be providing air cover at the 212th's LZ only. Until we secure this town, our air support will be limited."

"We also need to remember that we're here to aid the Twi'leks, not destroy their homes." Kenobi added.

"Precisely why this initial assault will not be preceded by an orbital bombardment." Lasky nodded. "GC forces on the ground are restricted to their small arms only, no explosives or heavy vehicles will be used in urban areas. Republic ROE is the same. Once we're in this city, keep an eye out for civilians and watch your fire."

Lasky's Neural Lance lit up with notifications of six Acclimator Assault Ships entered the system behind the GC fleet. "Alright… the 212th and 501st detachments are here. SPARTANs, you're all cleared to drop with the ODSTs."

XXXXX

Eighty four SOEIV pods slammed into the loose dirt just outside of a small Twi'lek village on Ryloth, all of their occupants pouring out into intense blaster fire. Most of them managed to take cover behind their Forerunner Alloy drop pods, but a few unlucky troopers were taken out by the heavy E-WEB emplacements or a well-placed shot from a droid marksman.

A few moments after the drop pods finished their screaming descent for Ryloth's surface, the Clone Company concealed within the tree line opened up on the droid positions on a massive defensive wall. Kenobi spearheaded the assault with his small detachment of the 212th, occasionally deflecting blaster bolts from the droids that dared fire on a Jedi.

The clones began exchanging fire with the droids, occasionally managing to take one down with a hasty shot. Kenobi's use of the Force to assist a clone's thrown EMP grenade knocked out the E-WEB emplacement on the western side of the wall, freeing up the ODSTs on that side. A few of the dropped GC troopers were neither Sangheili nor Human, but Promethean.

A few of the Promethean soldiers launched themselves from behind their pods, their plates shifting to escape the occasional blaster bolt. They opened up on the droid positions, throwing insults all the while. "What pitiful machines!" A Soldier Captain shouted, firing his Light Rifle through the torso of a B1 battle droid.

"This is the best these creatures can muster?" A Shadow Soldier shouted, de-cloaking atop his drop pod and firing a single shot from his Binary Rifle, over-penetrating the droid manning an E-WEB on the eastern end of the defensive wall, killing the one on the other side as well. The Shadow Soldier let out a deep, mechanical chuckle as he faded out of vision once again.

One of the three Promethean Paladins that dropped alongside the Soldiers and ODSTs let out a deep, warbling war cry as the plates along its back shifted and twisted. Six Crawlers materialized around the Paladin, all of them quickly scampering towards the wall and beginning to scale it.

SPARTAN Team Gamma pushed up with the Promethean forces. Once the final bunker on the edge of the wall was taken out by another Force-assisted EMP grenade, the remainder of the GC and Clone forces pushed for the wall. Once the final droid was destroyed by an expertly-placed shot from a Clone Marksman, the Crawlers set to work.

The Crawlers, all of them having scaled halfway up the wall with a ten meter spread between them, began burrowing into the stone of the wall. Once they reached the halfway point between the Southern end of the wall and the Northern end, they placed Pulse Charges in their burrows and jumped. "Everyone pull back!" Alice shouted, causing the ODSTs, Prometheans, and Clones alike to pull back from the wall.

Once everyone was at a minimum safe distance, the Paladin ignited the charges that were placed in the wall. The brown stone of the wall was torn apart at a molecular level, disintegrated in a similar manner as the target of a Binary Rifle. As the middle of the wall was torn away, the upper half tumbled into the lower half and brought the entire edifice down, allowing the forces access to their first staging ground.

"India Company, fan out and recon this village!" Alice commanded. "PC-129 through 131, gather up the wounded and prepare them for Medevac."

"As you command, SPARTAN." The Paladin Commander, PC-129, answered.

Obi-Wan jogged over to where Alice was barking out orders. "I've ordered my men to recon the village. We need to find the source of that anti-air fire."

"Agreed." Alice responded with a nod. She had lost almost twenty drop pods to ground-based AA fire from this village. Alice's attention was grabbed by a notification on her HUD from one of the Watchers that the Paladins dispatched. "C'mon, Watchers have identified a good FOB."

As the two leaders of the Republic/GC assault on Ryloth moved with the bulk of their forces for a large, gutted building nearby, something was off about this village. Despite the large, clustered nature of the buildings, there was no life to be found beyond the soldiers walking the streets. "Something's not right…" Obi-Wan commented. "This village has a population of several hundred."

"Had, more likely." Alice said, her voice thick with disgust. "Gamma, fan out and report any hostiles to me. Do not engage alone unless absolutely necessary."

"Aye, Ma'am!" The three other SPARTANs of Gamma Team called out.

XXXXX

Willow and Kathryn moved through the thin streets of the small village, their respective weapons primed. Kathryn carried her normal Light Rifle while Willow carried her heavily-modified Binary Rifle. Unlike the standard-issue long-pulse Binary Rifles that were distributed to GC snipers, Willow's was more akin to an older model. It fired a single, quick bolt as opposed to a long pulse of energy. "I don't like this at all." Kathryn said, scanning the windows of the buildings they passed.

"No kidding…" Willow returned. "Too quiet."

Just as Willow made that comment, she came to regret it. "Probe Droid!" Willow whispered, ducking into an alleyway, Kathryn just a millisecond behind. Thankfully, the grey droid did not notice them, and continued on its path deeper into the village.

"We should follow it." Kathryn said, watching the droid on her motion tracker. "It might lead us to the droid base."

"Agreed… let's move." Willow said, activating her active camouflage and following the small blip on their trackers along the back alleys of the village.

After trudging through almost a mile of empty back-alleys and blown-out buildings, the SPARTANs stopped dead in their tracks. The two of them could make out a massive ground-based anti-air battery made up of about ten strange-looking guns manned by B1 Battle Droids. There was a Tactical Droid standing on an elevated bit of ground, directing its forces around the small valley that they occupied. There were a few CIS Battle Tanks with these forces, which came in at about battalion strength with around 350 droids and 12 tanks.

What truly grabbed their attention was what laid in the center of the formation. It was a group of around one hundred Twi'Leks, all of them bound at the wrist and situated in front of the main droid formation. The droids were using the locals as shields. "Goddamn savages." Willow muttered to herself.

Kathryn established a secure link to the FOB's communications array. "Firebase India, this is Force Recon Group Foxtrot, we've found the Separatist anti-air batteries and headquarters. Grid reference A-2231 by F-4191."

"Excellent." Alice responded to the comms. "What kind of defenses are we looking at?"

"Battalion-strength , twelve MBTs." Kathryn responded, succinct. "Six anti-air guns, ten visible HMGs, and deployed cover. They've also taken about one hundred Twi'Lek natives prisoner and are using them as shields."

"Goddamnit." Alice cursed. "Report back to Firebase India immediately."

"Understood." Kathryn returned. "Be advised, the Separatists have deployed probe droids, and one just returned to their HQ."

"Copy that." Alice responded. "Firebase India, out."

"Let's move." Kathryn said, standing up from her prone position behind a collapsed wall.

Willow silently cursed. She had the perfect shot at that Tactical Droid's head.

A/N:

A bit of a shorter chapter, and I apologize for that. I just felt like I needed to get something out after putting this update off for so long.

I've made a bit of a decision regarding this story, and it's not going to just be restricted to the Clone Wars. For this reason, there will be a few time-skips here and there to get the Clone Wars moving along a bit faster. As much as I enjoy writing invasions and fleet battles, there's just too damn many in the Clone Wars. I'll still be covering a lot of the major plot points of the Clone Wars. As for which ones, I'll be keeping that a bit of a secret for now.

You can expect the first time-skip to happen after the next chapter, which will wrap up the Ryloth arc a bit more cleanly than the show did.

You can also expect a lot of characters from the EU to show up, including everyone's favorite Grand Admiral and Heir to the Empire. And for all of you Old Republic people, boy do I have a surprise for you.

I promise that future chapters will come quicker, and will be much longer than this one. I've neglected this story far too much, and I do plan to fix that.

As always, I love all of you guys and I appreciate all of the reviews, favs, and follows.

Until next time,

-TallYapflip