Alright, well here's the next chapter of Intention's Eye. The three way battle between the Covenant, Shadow Collective and First Order reaches its climax. What will happen next? Well, read on to find out.
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, Star Wars or anything else that appears in this story.
Captain Phasma watched as the Shadow Collective forces all but disintegrated under the combined assault of the First Order and Covenant troops. All their artillery was wiped out and they were left with a few scattered speeders and surviving infantry, leaving Phasma feeling grim satisfaction.
Of course, she would be more satisfied if she didn't have to fight these Covenant at the same time. They had primarily focused their efforts on the Shadow Collective, but had no hesitation in targeting her troops as well.
Even now, they turned their barrage towards the First Order lines, Phasma not even flinching as a plasma mortar landed several dozen meters away. Return fire took down some infantry and vehicles, but the damage was minimal to the Covenant as a whole.
As for the Scarab, they might as well have been throwing rocks at it for all the good their missiles were doing. Her tactical musings were interrupted when one of her soldiers came up to her.
"Ma'am, our saboteurs report that they've found the Shadow Collective landing site."
Phasma smiled behind her helmet. "Give them the order. Don't let them leave here alive."
"Yes ma'am. And what of these Covenant?" The soldier hesitantly asked.
Phasma looked back to the battle, as a Banshee airstrike annihilated one of their hovertanks. While both the First Order and Shadow Collective had only sent small regiments, it appeared that the Covenant were here in force. There was no way the First Order could fight them all off.
"Everyone else, regroup." She ordered. "We're scrubbing this mission."
It was a terrible situation for the forces of the Shadow Collective. Between the forces of these Imperials and the Covenant that had appeared out of nowhere, the criminal alliance was getting hammered by both sides.
Already, most of their armor and air support was gone, leaving them with a few light vehicles and infantry, which wouldn't last long under the onslaught of these dedicated war machines. All they could hope to do now was run.
The Defiler led his forces back towards the landing zone, hoping to get off this planet before they sustained any more damage. As soon as they closed to the makeshift camp, the warrior activated the holoprojector, creating a hologram of their master, the Sith Lord Darth Maul.
"Status report."
"My Lord, we've suffered heavy casualties." The soldier replied breathlessly. "We're under attack from some sort of Imperial PMC, along with a faction of Covenant!"
"Are they working for ONI?" Maul asked.
"No sir. They appear to be hostile towards each other as well. But we can't sustain these losses. We're going to have to scrub the mission."
"That is... unfortunate." The Sith sighed. "Very well. Retrieve what you can and return to base."
"Yes, my lord. We'll-" The Defiler was interrupted by some sort of explosion off to the side. Pulling out his blaster, the soldier screamed. "Take them down! Take them down!"
A roaring blue armored Elite broke through the defenses as the holocomm shut down. The Defiler unleashed a burst of blasterfire that drained the Sangheili shielding considerably, then a single frag grenade finished it off.
More Covenant poured through the camp opening, causing the surviving Shadow Collective forces to flee as the alien horde rushed through the makeshift buildings, cutting down every soldier and droid that still remained behind.
The Defiler led the retreat back to their bunker, as the Covenant forces plowed through their forces. The soldiers were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned against such a large force, and it appeared their Imperial opponents weren't doing much better against them, seeing as they appeared to be in full retreat.
He had no idea where they had come from, but it really didn't matter right now. This mission was clearly a failure, at a time when a significant amount of the Shadow Collective's military forces had been annihilated by ONI and the UNSC. Lord Maul was not going to be happy.
But the Defiler would deal with that when he came to it. First things first, they would have to get offworld. Rallying the remaining soldiers, the red armored soldier ordered them back to their ships, which the rest of the mercenaries were all too happy to comply with.
So naturally, that was when he got a transmission from the guards that their ships were under attack. The more hysterical of the soldiers, consisting primarily of Blue Suns and Eclipse forces, rushed to the ships, only to run into the crossfire between their guards, and what appeared to be CAT6 mercenaries.
The Defiler was confused by their pesence amongst all these other factions, but ultimately pushed those thoughts aside, and led his troops against them, making a break for their vessels.
One of the CAT6 mercenaries was a powerful Biotic, tossing their guards aside with a clear determination to take their ships. The pilots had other plans, activating the weapons and targeting the attackers.
A heavy laser cannon ripped the attackers apart, and forced the biotic and the rest of the CAT6 forces into cover. This gave the rest of the Shadow Collective forces time to retreat to their own vessels as the Covenant began making their way into the landing site.
Strangely, the aliens didn't fire on the CAT6 forces, in fact, they seemed to be aiding the mercenaries. Plasma, needles and spikes flew through the air, tearing the Collective forces apart in a constant crossfire.
By now, it appeared that the Imperial forces were all but gone, leaving the criminal organization facing the brunt of the Covenant's wrath. And wrath was an excellent word, as there seemed to be a level of maliciousness to this assault that went beyond simple bloodlust.
The battle was really heating up when all of a sudden, every ship on the landing zone suddenly exploded one by one. The combatants who weren't immediately incinerated were sent flying by the shockwave, which was the case of the Defiler as well. He hit a nearby wall and blacked out.
...
When the red armored soldier woke up in a daze, he took in the scene before him. Dozens of Covenant soldiers were sweeping the wreckage, with Drones, Grunts and Jackals tearing the ships apart, clearly looking for something. CAT6 soldiers were present as well, strangely working alongside the Covenant in their search.
Overhead, a Lich hovered, its gravity lift in place to deploy its forces. In the center of the landing pad, one Jiralhanae stood out among the rest. He was a Chieftain, that was clear by his ornate armor, but even besides that, he was clearly taller than the rest of the Jiralhanae.
Having taken stock of his situation, the red armored soldier concluded that he needed to leave, and quickly. But, as the Defiler slowly shifted, he couldn't help the pained groan that escaped his lips. Unfortunately, an Unggoy heard it as well.
"We've got a live one!"
The Defiler quickly reached for his blaster but when he tried to lift it, the weapon wouldn't budge. It soon became clear why when a Sangheili foot shimmered into view on top of the gun. The Elite's other foot lashed out and gently kicked him, causing the soldier to see stars in his vision. When the dizziness cleared again, he found himself being held in the air by the leader of the attack, the Chieftain's claws wrapped around his neck.
"Well, this is a fortunate day." The Jiralhanae growled. "A Defiler, one of the Shadow Collective's more important agents. You will be instrumental in leading us to Darth Maul."
At that thought, the Defiler's conditioning kicked in. Every Defiler went through training that made them thoroughly loyal, originally to Tyber Zann, but now to Darth Maul. They would serve the Sith unconditionally, and would rather die than betray him.
"I will never betray my Master." The Defiler mumbled, and quickly bit into the cyanide capsules implanted in his teeth. A crude but effective method. As the cyanide entered his body, the Defiler managed to say one last thing before everything went black.
"For the Shadow Collective."
Laccabeus snarled in frustration and tossed the body aside. He had ordered that his forces take the soldiers alive, in order to learn the location of Darth Maul, but the sudden destruction of their ships had killed most of them (not to mention his own men) before that could happen.
Then, just when they happen upon a survivor, the man kills himself to avoid having to talk. It seemed that Maul was either that terrifying to them, or the soldier had been extremely loyal. Either way, it was a loss of a valuable source of information.
"Scavenge the computers and see what you can find." Laccabeus ordered the nearby technicians. "The rest of you, figure out what happened to these vessels." He gestured to the dozen burning hulks that surrounded them.
The surrounding soldiers immediately moved to follow his orders, leaving the Shipmaster to stew alone in silence. Eventually, his comm unit began indicating an incoming transmission, which the Chieftain immediately answered.
"Report, Makterbus."
"The asari have been returned to their cells." His second in command replied. "They will be waiting for you to decide how to deal with them."
"Good." Laccabeus paused, then asked another question. "Were you able to trace the Imperial exit?"
"Yes Shipmaster, it's faint but I believe we would be able to track them if need be."
"Good, we will keep that option in mind." Laccabeus hesitated, then gave one last command. "Ready the ship for takeoff, and begin packing up our heavy equipment. We may need to leave soon."
"Your will be done, Shipmaster."
Laccabeus shut the comm down and sighed inwardly. It was pointless to stay here anymore; the Forerunner signal turned out to be worthless, one of their captured PMCs had attempted to betray them, and judging from the frustrated noises coming from the camp, they had lost any lead of figuring out where the bulk of the Shadow Collective forces were. There was little reason to stay on this world anymore.
"Shipmaster!" Someone shouted, as Laccabeus turned to the source, he saw one of his Jiralhanae officers sprinting towards him. "We've figured out what happened to the Shadow Collective vessels. They were sabotaged."
"That figures." Laccabeus murmured. It seemed unlikely that the destruction could've been wrought by anything else, but it payed to be thorough. "I'm assuming those Imperials were the culprits?"
"In all likelihood." The Jiralhanae replied. "They were very thorough as well. We can't access the ship computers for any information."
Laccabeus snarled, clenching his fist. These Imperials, this 'First Order' had bloodied their noses and cowardly retreated once they had, denying his army the rightful retribution they deserved. This transgression would not go unpunished.
Laccabeus now had a new target, one which would no doubt galvanize his crew. It was something to focus on, an enemy to fight, an enemy to crush underneath their heel. One way or another, the First Order would suffer for this.
It was at that moment that Sato and her forces reappeared. They had been scavenging through the remains of the Shadow Collective forces, looking for ways to keep their home equipment running. It seemed that they were finished with that.
"What's our next move?"
"We're leaving this place." Laccabeus replied. "Gather any equipment you may require." He turned and headed back to his Lich. "In the meantime, I need to take care of something."
D'ranna woke up in a cell, in the same holding area she had been led to when the Athame Sisters and CAT6 had been imprisoned in when she was first brought onboard. Once more stripped of her weapons and equipment, and clad only in the heavy armor plating, the ex-Spectre rose to her feet.
One of the first things she noticed was that every asari in the cells across from her had some sort of strange blue and violet collars around their necks. Upon a quick inspection, D'ranna found the same thing around hers. She tried to pull it off, but it was stuck fast, and wouldn't budge.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Startled, the asari saw that Laccabeus had arrived and was standing in front of her cell. "D'ranna, D'ranna. You disappoint me. I offer you food, shelter and a purpose in life, and in return you attempt to take over my ship."
D'ranna defiantly remained silent, which didn't bother Laccabeus at all. "Fortunately for you, I've decided to grant you and your asari one last chance to prove your worth to me." D'ranna couldn't help the expression of surprise that appeared on her face, which the Shipmaster easily picked up on.
"Do not mistake my mercy for stupidity." Laccabeus warned. "Try that same stunt again, and you will not live for very long."
To demonstrate the point, Laccabeus pulled out a strange device and hit a button on it. In the cell opposite one of the collars on an Asari began beeping. Seconds later, she was consumed in a blue explosion which briefly blinded the witnesses. When their sight returned, there was no trace of the asari victim.
"Any attempt to remove the collar will trigger the same reaction." Laccabeus said. "Do you understand?" D'ranna nodded reluctantly. "Good. Now, I'll let you stew on this for a bit." Laccabeus walked away, leaving the asari to stay in their cells.
...
Several hours later, the Intention's Eye had picked up all its soldiers, equipment and all the salvaged technology they had recovered from the Imperial bases on the planet. Once they were onboard, the ship lifted off into the sky, setting course for the same coordinates the First Order had left towards.
They left behind a planet ravaged by the conflict, with many inhabitants dead on all sides.
Ok, I know the ending was rather abrupt, but I just ran out of steam at the end there. Nevertheless, I hope I did well here. I'm not sure when I'll get the next chapter done, but hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later.
Still, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and reviews are always welcome.