March 10th

2583/20 BBY

10:30 am UNSC time

Galactic Republic Acclamator-class star ship

Orbiting Esfandia

Nobody's POV:

Over 2 months had passed since the Galactic Republic fateful encounter with the UNSC.

A temporary alliance was set up with the UEG and their most trusted allies, the Sangheili race and negotiations to make their teamwork even greater had started. However, talks with governments they just discovered can't slow down the Grand Army of the Republic in their goal to defeat the CIS.

Admiral Wullf Yularen, who is leading a fleet of 10 Venator-class Star Destroyers, leave from the newly established fortress world of Esfandia. Another Republic fleet and found and attacked a CIS fleet in the Gradilis System, but they successfully fled the Republic and entered the Unknown Regions, now called UNSC space.

"Alright, clones. Here's our mission the Chancellor has given us. We jump into UNSC space, destroy the fleet that fled into their space and leave as soon as possible. No matter what our opinions of the UNSC and Sangheili are, they will not take our entry into their space without authorization lightly." Yularen said over the speaker system and projections so the entire fleet could hear his words.

He knew that the clones, even Commander Fil who is accompanying him on this mission, have a very low opinion of them, just because they use their primitive slug throwers or crude plasma technology. But Yularen was not of the same opinion. He heard rumors of the destruction they were capable of, and that alone made him very uneasy about doing their mission they were assigned.

Without another word, the clones start operating the ships and calling up various status reports on the ship and its condition. But the last one is the most important. "Sir, our hyper drives are ready to go."

"Right. Men, hit the hyper drives." Yularen orders, then watches as the clones' act on the orders. Within seconds, the ships start speeding up and the familiar sight of hyperspace meets their eyes. Now that Yularen thought about it, he secretly wondered which are more efficient: Their hyperdrives or the UNSC and Sangheili's famous "slip space" drives.

Two entire hours pass in silence, the crew ensuring the ship holds together, before it starts rocking heavily. Yularen took it as a good sign, meaning that they have entered UNSC/Sangheili space. "Sir. The homing beacon planted on our missing enemy fleet is pinging. We've found them."

Admiral Yularen smiles in triumph. "Excellent. Send the word across all of our ships and pull us out of hyperspace."

"Yes sir!" The clones chorus then start operating their various stations. All at once, the 10 Acclamator-class star ships pull out of hyperspace and return to normal space.

The planet they found themselves at is truly amazing. It is large and dark red, as if the whole surface is made of red sand and green oceans on its surface. But the amazing part is that a dozen of the Sangheili Carriers are engaged in combat with 2 surviving CIS Providence-class Destroyers, and the Sangheili are obviously winning, evidenced by the massive amounts of CIS ship guts flying around.

"Come on, men. Let's assist our allies and take out that ship. All ships, prepare to prime the missile launchers, then fire on my mark." Yularen said sternly, his last sentence said over the comm lines between the ships. The minutes' pass in tension as the missiles are put into the built-in launchers. As they are being loaded, the CIS ships finally take notice of the Republic's presence and start aiming their cannons towards them.

"Sir, their cannons are pointing towards us. What do we do?" One of the clones asks.

"All clones on deck, fire the lazer cannons, just do anything to but us time so we can hit them with our missiles." Yularen orders over the ship speakers. The clones in the main bow of the ship jump on the orders, and start firing back on the CIS, but they are much weaker after fighting the Sangheili Carriers, who are still firing on the CIS's remaining ships. After another few seconds, Yularen hears those sweet words.

"Sir, all missiles are loaded and ready."

"Fire!" Yularen shouts, staring at the battle with his hands behind his back. Within seconds, blue streaks of light start flying towards the CIS ships. All of them strike the 2 weakened ships, causing them to finally up. Three torpedoes fly towards the same spot and impact at the same time, causing an even greater explosion. Over the communication system, the clones and even Commander Fil cheers in triumph over their victory. "Men, mission accomplished. Let's inform the Republic about our victory." Yularen said, letting out a sigh of relief. At least nothing bad happened on this mission, he thought to himself as the ships entered hyperspace and left UNSC/Sangheili space. Even though he was sure deep down that their interference in foreign space might have consequences.

2583

12:40 pm UNSC time

UNSC Transport ship, 'Titanic 2'

Pegasi Delta

What Yularen didn't know was that he was right in that the Republic's assault already has consequences.

For when the 3 Republic torpedoes hit the CIS ship, the 1st one penetrates the ship while the 2 others fly right through the hole made and hit an unsuspecting UNSC transport ship, which landed here due to a malfunctioning slip space drive, and decided to assist the Sangheili here in obliterating the CIS fleet, which appeared and began invading.

Once the UNSC ship was hit, it temporarily lost power and in a moment, it was caught in the planet's gravity and pulled towards the planet's surface. After many tense minutes, the ship crashes on its side into the planet's surface, kicking up red sand and creating an earthquake that rumbled and destroyed a nearby Sangheili plasma factory. Suddenly, the sides of the door burst open and a bunch of marines climb out, helping each other out. The last ones to climb out are a bunch of armored soldiers of different colors who were being transported from an Outer Colony world. "What in Sam Hill happened?" Sarge asks in his usual gruff voice. He was promoted to Colonel during the battles on Chorus and saving the planet. The UNSC were so happy with their great heroes and what they did that he, along with the rest of Red team, Blue team, Doc, Lopez, even Agents Carolina and Washington, were allowed to keep the military ranks they were given during the battles on Chorus and the 2 agents were given full pardons, even though they were part of a now outlawed organization. They were supposed to be transported back to Earth as heroes, but the ship's slip space drive malfunctioned and landed them in this mess.

"A giant blue ball flew at us before blowing up. I wanted to play with that ball, too." Captain Michael J. Caboose said in his usual childish tone.

"No, numbnuts. It's who had the audacity to actually hit us?" Sarge said, sounding gruffer than ever.

"It was those Republic assholes we've heard about who intervened in the fight. I saw them launch those missiles and hit us." Captain Lavernius Tucker Sr. said.

"Are you serious? I've gotta say, you have good eyes." Agent Washington said, honestly somewhat impressed with Tucker's eyesight.

"Yeah, I need good eyesight because back in my days at Blood Gulch, I never got to use the fucking sniper rifle that Church hogged. The one time I did get to use it, I accidentally shot Tex in her ass. Bow chicka bow wow." Tucker responds.

"Wait, seriously?" Carolina asks, shock and mild amusement in her voice at hearing such an event occurring.

"What I want to know," Captain Richard 'Dick' Simmons pipes up, "is how a state-of-the-art navigation system on a brand new transportation ship that should have prevented us from crashing like this failed."

"You just answered your own question, Simmons." Captain Dexter Grif answers gruffly. "Besides, I'm sure none of us are responsible for it."

Flashback

UNSC Transport ship, 'Titanic 2'

12:35 pm UNSC time

Orbiting Pegasi Delta

The ship is in chaos as the marines aboard the Titanic 2 are firing their cannons against the CIS ships.

Suddenly, the ship starts rocking back and forth, which meant only one thing. The ship was hit and the lights flickered. Suddenly, the ship starts pulling back. The Head of Navigation realized that with the moment of power loss, the Titanic 2 is being pulled towards the planet. As quickly as possible, he runs to his work station to stabilize the ship. Only to see the most horrifying thing imaginable in any situation.

His equipment is sputtering and sparking dangerously, liquid seeping over the controls and a can of soda on its side. "Oh my god! Who put their soda on my work station?" He shouts in shock.

"You asshole. You spilled my damn soda!" Grif said, running up to the Head of Navigation. Before he could sputter and ask if Grif was crazy, the ship bucked violently again, causing both of them to crash to the ground, giving the Head of Navigation a concussion.

Present Time

"Well, it doesn't matter. We need to alert the UEG and the Arbiter about what has just happened as soon as possible." Wash said matter-of-factly, then adds, "As for how we leave. I have no clue."

"I can help with that." A voice said. All of the Humans turn around and look at Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum approaching, an escort of Sangheili at his side. "I too have seen those Republic scum attack your ship and nearly killed several of our people who were working at the nearby factory. Come aboard my ship, and we will return you to Earth to deliver this news."

The Humans look at each other for a second before nodding in consent. Just then, all of the Sangheili Carriers flying overhead appear a beam of light comes to life on the bottom of the ships. All of the Sangheili and Humans simultaneously fly up into the ships. Once inside Rtas 'Vadum makes his way to the bridge of his ship and calls to his crew. "Heed my words. The Republic has stomped on our alliance and attacked our people. We must make haste and hold an emergency meeting for the Swords of Sanghelios and UEG on Earth." Rtas announced to his crew as he sat down in his shipmaster's chair.

The crew, knowing what to do, start operating their holographic stations and priming the ships. "What about the humans on the other ships?" Wash asks.

"They will be returned to human colony worlds. But we have the mission." Rtas responds then continues watching as the ship enters slip space and after 2 more hours of travel, pull out. When they do, they find themselves in front of the human homeworld of Earth. The many defensive stations orbit the planet ready for any enemy fleet to approach.

"Greetings my friends. Shipmaster, please state your name and why you're here." A voice with a slight German accent to it said.

"I am Rtas 'Vadum and I have an important message to deliver to the Swords of Sanghelios and UEG." Rtas said calmly.

"Oh yeah. The emergency meeting has already started and they are waiting anxiously for you. Welcome to Earth, my friends." The voice said then cut out. While on the 2-hour trip, Rtas contacted the Arbiter himself to call an emergency meeting as events have gone down involving their newfound neighbors. Another event on the flight was that Wash and Carolina tried and miraculously succeeded in keeping the Reds and Blues from doing anything stupid aside from just standing around and talking. Soon, Rtas's ship flies down and enters Earth's atmosphere. After another couple of tense minutes, they land in a UNSC landing dock. The main crew remains on the ship while Rtas and the Blood Gulch Crew exit the ship.

"Greetings. The Heads of our governments are waiting for you. Follow me and I shall take you to them." A Marine in full body armor said to them. Rtas nods and walks behind the man with the Blood Gulch Crew in tow.

"Guys. Can you believe this? We get to meet the madam president." Doc said enthusiastically.

"[Only you would get excited about shit like that.]" Lopez mutters.

"Why do we have to meet the women? I've told Dad all my life that all I want to be is a mathlete." Simmons said as they follow single file. They leave the underground fueling station and head up the winding concrete staircases towards the surface. Once they reach the top, the gleaming tall and futuristic buildings of New York surround them. They head to a cable car which takes them to the remodeled Empire State Building.

Carolina stares out at the peaceful city, but instead of taking in the scenery, she has flashbacks of the battle at the former Chorus capitol city of Armonia. The trip doesn't last that long before they are inside and board the levitating elevators that take them to the top floors. The trip passes in silence until they reach the 2nd to top floor, where a giant conference room is set out at. There, all of the heads of the UEG are present and even the leaders of the Swords of Sanghelios are present. Including an aqua-colored alien Tucker knows all too well. "Hey Junior. How are you?" Tucker asks his son Junior.

"Good, Dad." Junior responds, but Mitchelle Peterson cuts off any more talk.

"Greetings Shipmaster Rtas and welcome to New York. I must say, I am honored to also meet the great heroes who brought Project Freelancer to justice and saved an entire planet. But now, to business. Why have you called us here for an emergency meeting rather than just using our communication technology to inform us about what happened?" She asks in a calm manner.

"Madam President, I didn't want to just use communication technology to speak to you all in case our transmissions got intercepted. We may have had massive upgrades in technology, but that doesn't make us invincible. No, why I asked to see you all is to inform you that the Republic has betrayed us." Rtas answers darkly and a hint of anger in his voice.

Several members look shocked at the words that were spoken. "Tell me. What do you have to back up such claims?" Arbiter Thel 'Vadam asks coldly.

"OH! What are we claiming? Candy?" Caboose asks eagerly.

"No Caboose. Anyway, as for the proof, we have it all recorded here." Carolina said, then took out a thumbdrive taken from the Titanic 2. She then inserts it into the slot and a holographic projection of the video appears. It shows the ships engagement with the remaining CIS fleet. Things are going well, until a fleet of 10 of the Republic's Venator Star Destroyers appear and start firing on the CIS. Several of their shots impact the Titanic 2, causing it to crash into Pegasi Delta's surface. The video ends.

Thel 'Vadam is almost at the breaking point in rage, seeing these events occur. "They must be punished for treachery like this."

"I promise you, Arbiter, they will. Even if it was probably an accidental shot, them illegally entering our territory and destroying one of our ships must be punished." Peterson answers, looking deeply troubled.

"Agreed. Rtas, I give you full approval to take a fleet of ships and destroy those traitors." Thel says to his old friend. Then adds, "Also, since the rest of you were involved in these events, I would like your assistance in this mission. Do you accept?"

The Blood Gulch crew looks at each other before nodding. Suddenly, Wash gets an idea. "Yes we do. However, we know of a powerful frigate ship that's crashed in the Outer Colonies. Just rebuild and refit it with new technology and it will help you in this assault."

"Wash, what are you doing?" Carolina asks, confusion in her voice.

"Alright. I'm listening. Which planet is this ship on?" Peterson also asks.

"This ship is crashed on an ice world called Sidewinder." Wash said, smiling under his helmet. Time to give an old ship a new purpose.

AN: So, the Republic has accidentally aggravated the UNSC and Sangheili, who want revenge.

Will they succeed?

Find out next time when the wars start getting even more dangerous.