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Chapter 4: Evasion 101

Perhaps it was blind, dumb luck, Captain Keyes didn't know. All he did know was that the Covenant seemed to be a whole Hell of a lot more concerned about something a couple of kilometers behind their current location than they were of the escaping command crew themselves. Briefly he had heard Ensign Ellen Dowski's voice, first petulantly telling them that she was right about surrendering to the Covenant and then, hours later begging them to help her as the Covenant tortured her. At some point it became incoherent and a single plasma bolt brought an end to the noise. Captain Keyes shuddered momentarily, ignoring the guilt that somehow entered him. Ensign Dowski had been insubordinate and bordering on treasonous when they had abandoned her and she had even wanted to surrender to an enemy that did not take prisoners. The Covenant's sole purpose seemed to be to exterminate humanity and the Captain turned his thoughts to another young woman, the unconscious stranger they had found. If the level of technology required to make her laser sword wasn't enough to exclude her from ONI, her youth was. Crewman Abaid had said she looked like his little sister, who was close to Eighteen and the Captain was happy enough to accept that.

On another part of Halo, the ODST or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers under the command of Major Antonio Silva, moved from their HEV's, or Human Entry Vehicles. The ODST's were the toughest soldiers the UNSC had next to the Spartans and their lives were no less dangerous. The soldiers made high orbital drops in pods that frequently burned up on descent, often times with the soldiers inside. The 105th ODSTs were nicknamed the Hell jumpers accordingly and of those that had survived Reach to make it to the Autumn, Silva had secured the Autumn's second AI construct, Wellsley. Wellsley, unlike Cortana was a dumb AI. While having only seven years of operational lifetime, smart, AI's can adapt and perform millions of tasks. Dumb AI's are assigned a single task and while still brilliant by human standards, cannot adapt like their more advanced comrades, they are reliant on human orders. Silva's second in command was First Lieutenant Melissa McKay who, while wounded defending the Autumn still managed to survive the orbital drop and with a hundred and thirty ODST's took a Covenant held mesa, which was shielded by cargo containers and a strange, alien structure built into the superstructure of Halo. With the Captain MIA, Major Silva quickly took control of the situation, using captured Covenant equipment to defend the area they called Alpha Base and sending Lieutenant McKay to the wreck of the Pillar of Autumn to secure supplies.

Bastila Shan came to the surface of her healing meditation, taking in a deep breath and releasing it as two gray eyes opened and focused on the end of an MA5B assault rifle.

"She's awake, Captain."

Lieutenant Aki Hikowa called, her face expressionless as she narrowed her black eyes. Captain Keyes shook off the light sleep he had been in, glancing at the sky before looking down at their uninvited guest.

"I suppose an explanation is in order?"

Bastila began pleasantly, despite how unnerved she was at the woman before her's stoicism. Captain Keyes nodded to Lieutenant Hikowa and the Japanese woman sighed, moving the end of the assault rifle from Bastila's face.

"Thank you."

Bastila began, standing and stretching as she rolled her neck. Captain Keyes opened his mouth to say something about her wound until he saw the young woman remove the dressing and, to his utter amazement, reveal a completely healed area.

"How-"

Shaking his head, Captain Keyes forgot his curiosity, getting straight to the point.

"Never mind that. Do you mind telling me why two of my crewmen are dead and what a human is doing on this structure?"

The young woman seemed to frown, looking off in the distance to where they come from.

"To be perfectly honest with you, Captain. I have no idea where here is. My name is Bastila Shan, I am a Padawan in the Jedi Order and a Fleet Commander in the Republic. I was born on the world of Talravin and joined the Jedi Order at the age of six where I was trained in the ways of the Force. Does- Does any of this sound familiar to you at all?"

Captain Keyes glanced at Lieutenant Hikowa, who merely shrugged, seemingly more interested in polishing her assault rifle than listening to the woman's story. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Captain Keyes shook the cobwebs from his brains and let out a deep, steadying breath.

"Have you ever heard of Earth?"

Captain Keyes asked. The woman paused, her eyes narrowed as she thought of that word.

"It has no meaning to me... It would seem my... enemies were right about this place..."

The feeling of knowing something he didn't want to settled in Captain Keyes' stomach. A brush of wind in the distance announced the return of Corporal Wilkins, Lieutenant Hall and Crewman Wang. Crewmen Singh and Abaid greeted them and took over the watch. Halo's orbit had carried it partially into the shadow of Threshold and darkness covered everything around them.

"I suppose I should start with the Republic then. The Republic is a group of thousands of worlds and species that has agreed to a single set of trade regulations and currency. It was established some ten thousand years ago and has been under the protection of the Republic Military and the Jedi Order. The Jedi Order is I suppose you could say an elite organization that trains children gifted in the Force from birth. Its origins predate the Republic by hundreds of generations, so many in fact that much of the knowledge has been lost. They are the guardians of peace and justice in our galaxy... Which I suppose brings me to the Force."

Lieutenant Hikowa froze as her assault rifle was suddenly lifted from her hands and hovered in the air. The rest of the Command crew as well as Captain Keyes gaped at the spectacle.

"The Force is an energy field that surrounds all things. It binds all things in the universe together and if one is gifted in the Force it allows them to effect objects and other things..."

Bastila returned the weapon to Lieutenant Hikowa's hands and the Lieutenant blinked, recollecting herself.

"Are you telling me you can move things telekinetically?"

Bastila smiled at the generalization.

"In a manner of speaking. I can move objects much heavier than anything I could lift physically, I can glimpse into another's minds... I am rather sorry about that Corporal Wilkins but it was a matter of life and death..."

The Corporal blinked, nodded absently and stared at Lieutenant Hikowa's assault rifle in disbelief.

"In essence... I can do a great many things that traditional science cannot explain. It may seem magical or unnatural by I assure you it is completely possible."

The Padawan paused, glancing off in the distance once more, a nervous look entering her eyes before her Jedi mask covered her emotional slip.

"Which... brings me to a rather delicate situation..."

Captain Keyes seemed to be the first, aside from Lieutenant Hikowa to recover.

"There is a rouge order in my galaxy who, it seems has an interest in your galaxy. I was part of a special strike team sent to capture their leaders but we were discovered and all of my companions died before we arrived here. I have no idea how this happened and I suppose my only hope would be to ask them... they're likely to place a lightsaber in my face though."

Lightsaber, Keyes looked down at his hand and the device he had been trying to figure out for some time.
"Do you mean this?

Bastila nodded, frowning at the Captain.

"Speaking of lightsabers, may I have that back? We may be attacked and I don't want to be unarmed..."

Looking down at herself, the Padawan's frown deepened.
"Or in this state of dress."

Spotting her bag, Bastila knelt beside it, throwing her Jedi robes over herself and pulling her hooded cloak over her shoulders. The Captain and his crew turned away, aside from Lieutenant Hikowa who still didn't trust the stranger and the Captain sighed as he took in the person before him. The robes were simple yet well made and they gave the wearer the same freedom of movement any fighting suit would. Looking down at the cylinder in his hand and then back to the young woman, Captain Keyes decided the woman could have the weapon. After all, how dangerous was a sword against a hail of bullets.

"Very well, you can have your weapon back if you elaborate a bit more on these enemies of yours..."

Bastila nodded gratefully, taking her lightsaber and strapping the weapon securely to her belt.

"The rouge order in my galaxy is known as the Sith. The Sith were once a powerful alien race that could control the Force. There were several great wars between the Sith and the Republic until they were eventually vanquished and died out..."

The Captain read between the lines and assumed genocide was what the young woman meant.
"About twenty years ago another race of warriors, these absent in the Force but still formidable attacked the outlying worlds of the Republic. They killed billions and while they were a great threat the Jedi Order and the Republic refused to get drawn into the conflict. Shortly after the Genocide of Cathar a young Jedi Knight named Revan and his friend Malak formed a resistance within the Jedi Order. Hundreds of other Jedi followed them and they held off the Mandalorians, eventually Revan became the Supreme Commander of the Republic's 3rd Fleet. General Revan drew the Mandalorians into an ambush on a world called Malachor V and used some unknown device to destroy the entire planet as well as a good portion of the Mandalorian Fleet and his own. Hundreds of Jedi and millions of others died there..."

Bastila shook off the feeling of death that had clouded the Force with the Battle of Malachor V, every Force sensitive had felt that.
"Following the destruction of Malachor V, Revan located the leader of the Mandalorian Clans, Mandalore the Ultimate and defeated him in single combat... Revan and Malak were heroes to the Republic but then... the war changed them..."

Again, Bastila looked towards where she could sense Revan, knowing he was close, but not dangerously close. Yet. Lieutenant Hikowa seemed to catch on and pointed her assault rifle in the direction the woman kept looking, her eyes moving between Bastila and the tree line.

"No one knows what happened but Revan and Malak and their forces vanished... The Jedi could sense nothing until after a year, an unknown force attacked the fleet's shipyards at Foerost and the attackers claimed to be Dark Lords of the Sith. They called themselves Darth Revan and Darth Malak..."

That had to be tough, Captain Keyes thought as he narrowed his eyes, reading the girl's face. She seemed to be telling the truth.

"We don't know what happened to them for the year they were gone. But they had more ships than we did and despite having fewer Jedi, Revan in particular and Malak were very powerful. The Force is divided into two sides, the Light and the Dark. The Jedi use the light and train to better themselves and the Sith use the dark side of the Force, using it towards destructive ends... In essence they've started a civil war within my galaxy and I fear that it is one we will not win... The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities that some may call unnatural... Revan has been rumored to be able to drain the very life from anyone he wishes and I don't need to tell you the dangers of his mental abilities. Your projectiles he could stop in midair, he could cause your soldiers to be unable to move or he could crush every bone in their body... That and he is an accomplished swordsman, able to best many of the Masters of my Order..."

Captain Keyes sighed, exchanging looks with his command crew.

"I suppose we can extend the sanctuary of the United Nations Space Command. We don't have much to offer you at the moment, but should this Darth Revan want information, he'd have a Hell of a time getting it out of us if what you say is true. Anything you can tell me about their technology?"

Bastila nodded, beginning to pace as she went through her mind for any advantages the Sith had over the Republic.

"They have vast amounts of war droids similar to the one that attacked us though... slightly weaker. They also have ships capable of incinerating a planet from orbit, hundreds of fighters and heavily armored ground soldiers. Thousands of soldiers. As of now they only have two ships in your galaxy but I know that a single shot from one of their main weapons can destroy one of those Covenant ships with its shields fully charged."

Several of the Command crew paled at that. It took two hits from the Pillar's gun to knock out a Covenant ship and usually it had to take another shot before the Covies were off them. The sheer power needed to destroy the Covenant shields had to be astronomical.

"Artificial gravity, advanced hyperspace drive engines, Interdictor class gravity well generators that can pull ships out of hyperspace, deflector shields, heavily armored plating on the ships as well as from what I could tell forty Dark Jedi near to or exceeding my own strength. Ten on Malak's ship and Fifteen on Revan's with another twenty five.. no twenty four on the surface of this... structure... one must have been slain. They'll have air superiority within a matter of hours and will likely have ground superiority soon after. Hover tanks, swoop bikes and transports. Ion cannons able to pinpoint and destroy a power relay from orbit as well as their turboblasters. The more I think about this the more I think we are going to lose. Darth Revan recently hunted down and assassinated one of the most skilled martial artists of our time over a simple border dispute and dozens of Republic Senators have gone missing... The Standard Sith wears full body armor which as far as I can tell is thankfully made of Durasteel. If it were Mandalorian Metal or anything stronger a simple Sith soldier could take down a Jedi. In addition to their armor, each Sith soldier carries several grenades of various design, a sidearm, a blade for close combat and a blaster rifle. The more advanced units carry heavier weapons and some even have repulsor packs. In addition each suit has a self-sustained life support system... as well as a powered exoskeleton to grant the wearers more physical strength and speed."

At that last part, Keyes took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. It sounded almost like they were mini-Spartans. If that were the case, he was half a mind to let the wolves have their meal but somewhere his own morality felt the need to speak up and Keyes sighed heavily, shaking his head.

"If its too good to be true it usually is. Guess we're not getting mysterious alien allies... and do you mind telling me how you're human and speaking English if you're from another galaxy?"

Bastila stopped pacing, raising a brow as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Humans are indigenous to dozens of worlds in my galaxy and I am speaking Galactic Basic. A human language, yes but one that has been used for thousands of years as the standard for galactic trade. Why, is it different here?"

Keyes frowned.

"Humans are only native to Earth in this galaxy. We've expanded for the last several hundred years and are terra forming planets but the galaxy we inhabit is mostly devoid of intelligent life. Well aside from those Covenant bastards. We don't know exactly what we did to piss them off but they've been hunting down humans and exterminating them for years now... They even glass the planets, destroying them from orbit with their plasma until it gets so hot the ground turns to glass, the oceans boil away and the atmosphere dissipates... Seem to think we're some kind of disease on the galaxy..."

Horrified, Bastila opened her mouth, unable to reply a moment.

"Are- are you serious?"

Captain Keyes nodded, unfazed.

"Its actually nice to know there are humans out there, out of the Covenant's reach. We're pretty much fighting a delaying action and praying to God that they don't find Earth. They found Reach though... and glassed it. Reach was the last stronghold between the Covenant and Earth and we're pretty much waiting and hoping now for a miracle..."

Bastila seemed to be lost in thought and Captain Keyes waited calmly, glancing at Lieutenant Hikowa as she rose and excused herself.

"The Jedi Order never intended to kill Revan or Malak. Our goal was actually to redeem them and give them another chance. While they've been labeled traitors to the Republic, they still haven't incurred the death penalty and if the Jedi Order offered them sanctuary they could go on with their lives. We wanted to find out what the reason was for their turning. If it was the war or something... something else. Many want justice for those that have died against the Sith but in truth... they haven't yet crossed the line. They haven't yet begun killing innocents, there is always a motive behind each killing. Either defense or political gain... Perhaps if we confronted Revan with what is happening here he would do something. It wouldn't be the first time he's thrown out his values to defend the helpless. Revan was an emotional man, part of the reason for his fall, the Masters say."

That sounded strange, but Captain Keyes wasn't going to argue with the woman. She sounded a hell of a lot more hopeful than he would in her situation. If Revan were a UNSC officer, he'd have every Spartan in the galaxy gunning for him, not to mention ONI and the entire UNSC fleet. Traitors were not given very humane treatment in a time when the human race faced extinction... in the Milky Way at least.

Darth Revan, at that point was standing on a tree branch, fifteen meters from the ground as a u-shaped Covenant dropship hovered over a fresh set of dead Grunts. Revan sighed as he thought of the way the little creatures ran away in terror of him, all that fleeing so useless as he strangled the life from them with the Force. Amusing, but useless. Watching the ship hover over the bodies, Revan slowly gathered the Force around him, smirking when the side of the ship opened and several Elites dropped to the surface, growling to one another as they kicked the dead Unggoy bodies. Amusing, but it simply wouldn't do. Raising his left hand towards the Covenant dropship, Revan slowly lowered his hand until it was pointed to the Shangheili on the ground. The Elite's energy shields shimmered as the Covenant dropship was pulled from the sky and a second later violet blood splattered as their shields failed and their bodies were smashed under the craft's weight.
Shouting came from within the ship and Revan watched without emotion as the unfortunate Grunt that had been flying the craft was executed. Running along the branch of his hiding spot, Revan leapt into the air, coming to land on top of the Covenant ship. Thumbing the switch to his lightsaber, the Dark Lord quickly decapitated the Elite that had spotted him and was aiming its plasma rifle at him. A Kig-Yar emerged from the dropship, hidden behind an energy shield as its hand pulsed green with a charged plasma pistol. Revan rose a brow at the weapon, waiting as it fired. The shot, to the Dark Lord's annoyance followed him and Revan lashed out with his lightsaber, clipping the energy bolt and watching in distaste as it dissipated on his blade. There wouldn't be any reflecting the energy back. Turning to the Jackal, Revan slowly stalked towards the bird-like alien, his lightsaber a blur as he calmly intercepted the Jackal's rapid plasma shots. The Jackal raised its shield desperately as Revan's lightsaber lashed out, cleaving the device in two. Covering its face, the Jackal cried out as it blindly shot at Revan, turning its back and fleeing. Revan calmly sidestepped the shots and spun his lightsaber in his hand until he held it backhanded and aimed the blade at the creature's back. Throwing the weapon like a spear, Revan did not even bother using the Force to guide it as it sailed through the air and into the Jackal's spine, killing it instantly.
A Grunt emerged from the dropship, its eyes widening as it took in the demonic form of Darth Revan. Revan extended his right hand to his lightsaber, calling it back and pointed his left hand at the Grunt at the same time. Blue-white lightning arced from the Dark Lord's fingertips and fried the small alien. A moment before the creature died from the lightning, its methane pack ignited, the following explosion splattering its blue blood and body parts over the dropship's side. The survivor to this carnage, a single Covenant Elite activated his plasma sword, charging Revan with a war cry. Revan leapt over the horizontal slash of the plasma sword, kicking off the Elite's helmet as he jumped over it and followed through by delivering a kick to its spine, sending the powerful alien to the ground. The Elite rose quickly, charging again. This time, the Dark Lord of the Sith brought his still active crimson lightsaber upwards, severing the plasma field surrounding the blade and overloading it. The Elite stopped, gaping at its weapon's failure and then looking up at Revan's mask. Revan brought his lightsaber to his side, lowering his stance into a crouch and delivered a lightning fast slash across the Shangheili's throat. The Elite dropped, dying as it struggled to reach out to a needler at Revan's feet. Darth Revan calmly knelt, prying the alien's fingers from the weapon and lifting it in his left hand. Standing once more, Revan aimed the weapon into the center of the Elite's face and fired a single needler round into its head. The Elite gave a strangled bellow of outrage before its head disappeared in an explosion of violet mist.
Tossing the Needler aside, Revan boarded the transport, sitting awkwardly in the pilot's seat and calmly pressing buttons at random as his mask's sensors logged their uses. In the back of the transport the body of Ensign Ellen Dowski lay amongst the bodies of the dead Covenant, a scorch marking the center of her skull where a Covenant Shangheili had put her out of his misery. The human's pathetic wailing had been too much for his ears so he had given the coward an honorable death. Revan soon logged the function of the Covenant dropship's controls and rose, leaving the dropship and seating himself calmly on his swoop bike. Lining the front of the bike up with the dropship, Revan fired the swoop's main blaster twice, watching as the Covenant dropship exploded in a flash of blue, white and violet. Transmitting the information about the Covenant ship as well as their weapons capability to his men and women on the surface, Revan turned the bike in the direction he could sense HK-47's weak presence.

Simple, primal, animal. Rage is the most basic of emotions, the strongest and the most destructive. Other emotions can trigger rage of course but few hold a candle to its power. From the bridge of the Interceptor, Darth Malak stared at the burning hulks of destroyed Covenant and Sith fighters. The Covenant had launched several waves of fighters from their capitol ships but nothing too impressive. A bulk of the two Sith vessel's fighters and bombers were engaged over the Forerunner structure known as Halo and Malak had merely been diverting stationary units into dozens of dogfights and bombing runs. It was boring and a simple footsoldier could likely have done it but Malak did as Revan had said, holding his ship and soldiers back from the fight to safeguard the Revenge, the only real chance of them getting back to their own galaxy. The Revenge was nearly five times larger than the Interceptor and while slower, boasted five times the firepower and fighter wings. Malak's ship was small, maneuverable and fast and while the Interceptor did not have the firepower of the Revenge, it was more than a match for a Covenant warship.

"Lord Malak, I am getting some strange readings from the Covenant Capitol ships... High powered pinpoint transmission directly towards the Revenge. I'm still not certain Captain Desara has the ship up and running yet."

Darth Malak frowned, slowly walking to the officer's station and staring blankly at the readings.

"It's a file transfer... What-"

The Dark Lord of the Sith's eyes widened as he turned to his communications officer.

"Have the Revenge boost all power to her counter intrusion software. They're sending a virus."

Virus was an understatement. From the Covenant fleet a Covenant version of an Artificial Intelligence Construct had invaded the computer core of the Revenge and was systematically taking over the Sith flagship's systems. Aside from sabotage it was the Revenge's largest weakness. With her computers offline from lack of power and internal damage from the hyperspace jump, the Revenge was a sitting duck. A muscle clenched in Darth Malak's jaw as he crossed his arms and watched the Revenge's lights flicker as the Covenant AI began diverting power.

"Are we still in communication?"

Malak asked, glaring at the larger ship, his eyes searching the weapon batteries.
"Negative, Lord Malak."

The tall former Jedi cringed as white mist appeared around the Revenge.

"They're venting atmosphere..."

Malak had not needed to hear that, he could feel the deaths in the Force and he was fairly certain Revan was going to be taking a few heads when he got back. Then again, he had his own ship to worry about.

"Have all Astromech and protocol droids as well as any slicers we have get into the network and keep that thing out of our systems."

The crew did as ordered, working with admirable speed and efficiency to save their ship. By the time the Covenant had directed a similar virus towards the smaller ship that they had deemed the lesser threat, the ship was secure and the AI was diverted, cut to pieces and discarded by the maintenance droids of the Sith vessel. On board the Revenge, Captain Desara lay, dead on her bridge along with the rest of the crew as the atmosphere drained into space. Several Sith soldiers, fully armored and bearing the mark of the Star Forge's First Legion checked the consoles. All were inactive and the Covenant AI began rerouting power to the Revenge's weapons, turning her to face the Interceptor. Seeing it as their only option the members of the First Legion, who were spread all across the ship with surviving elements of the Second and Third Legions placed charges on the ship's vital systems and made their way to any escape pods, transports, fighters or anything else that could carry them.

On Halo, Darth Revan paused his inspection of HK-47's severely damaged frame to look skyward. In the night sky the death of the Revenge merely looked light a simple blinking light but within the Force, the echoes pounded upon the Force sensitives. Curling his right hand into a fist, Revan grabbed HK-47's remains, loading the droid onto his swoop bike and turning the swoop back towards where he had come from. Talia Ors or whatever the Hell her name was could wait. There would be serious repercussions for the loss of the Revenge. Reaching up, Revan boosted power to his mask's communicator, searching for an active Sith frequency. Malak's line soon appeared and Revan felt a small amount of relief when he realized his friend was still alive.

"Malak, can you hear me?"

Revan asked, his swoop bike weaving dangerously close to trees and rocks that littered Halo's surface as he sped towards the landing zone where they had begun establishing a Sith ground base. Static rang in the Dark Lord's ears and he nearly threw his mask from his face before it cleared and Malak's voice, faint through the static though still distinguishable answered.

"The Revenge is lost with most of her crew, Revan. We managed to recover a couple thousand Legionnaires from the First, Second and Third as well as several pilots but we've lost our main ship. I'm recalling all nearby fighters and loading the transports I can to send you more supplies. We're going to make a run for the far side of The Gas Giant and pick off the Covenant ships as they spread out. I have three on an intercept course now and my fighter support is limited at the moment. Their fighters are trying to take out our shields first so the Capitol ships can actually do some damage..."

Revan narrowly missed a large gray boulder as he pulled his swoop bike into a quick turn and gunned his engines, the repulsor booming as the swoop rose above the tree line and Revan reached its maximum speed.

"What happened, Malak?"

Darth Malak let out a calming breath, his face red with anger as he glared at the Covenant ships moving to intercept his own. In the backdrop the remains of the Revenge burning orange in the blackness of space, her metal hull splintered into a thousand pieces as bodies and debris floated around her remains.

"Some type of intelligent virus. Without their engine core online, the Revenge couldn't mount a good defense and the AI decompressed all of the ship. Only the soldiers that were on standby to reinforce our ground operations were able to survive. We scuttled the ship, there's nothing the Covenant can take with them."

Angry, but knowing a bad situation could be much, much worse, Revan relented, his leather gloves creaking as he tightened his grip on his swoop bike's steering bars. The rage he felt burned, so much so that he completely dismissed the Jedi's importance as he turned his attention to one simple thing. Revenge.

"Do what you have to, Malak. Send what you can to Halo but keep the Interceptor alive. I'll coordinate with the other landing groups and we'll move to establish a base of operations. Send any transports and fighters that can't get to you to my landing coordinates... May the Force serve you well, Malak."

Malak sighed, rubbing his bald head in irritation.

"And you, Revan."

The comm went silent and Malak moved to the display of the pursuing Covenant ships.
"Relay Revan's orders and keep our slicers working on a way to keep that blasted virus out of our ship."