May 16th

2583

7:00 am UNSC time

Memorial Hill*

Earth

Nobody's POV:

Word had spread like wildfire around the United Nations colonies and the Swords of Sanghelios planets about the Flood returning to the galaxy, escaping from Halo 07.

The citizens are going crazy and the 2-government's military's morale are flocculating, all of them calling for the destruction of the Republic for their actions.

However, all of that is nothing compared to the harshest change of them all. The UNSC's leader, Lord Terrence Hood himself, was at the Halo Installation so he could personally order the space ring to be destroyed via nuclear bombing to keep it out of enemy hands. He, along with over 3 dozen UNSC marines and 20 Sangheili soldiers, never escaped the Installation when the evacuation order was given.

Now, 2 dozen soldiers, a dozen Sangheili on the left and a dozen marines on the right, stand at attention as the Senators lay out possessions that once belonged to Terrence, such as pictures of the UNSC leader and his 1st handgun when the joined the military. "May we always remember Lord Terrence Hood and all those for their sacrifice. May we never forget their courage, their will to fight the battles needed to ensure that we shall live in peace. Rest in peace, Fleet Admiral." President Peterson says, bowing her head lightly in respect to the pictures of all those who lost their lives in the Human-Covenant War. Then she turns around to look at the crowd before her. "For his sacrifice, we will never give up. We will not stop fighting until we have destroyed the Jedi Knights who think they can defeat us."

"Present, hut!" A UNSC sergeant shouts. As one, the UNSC and Sangheili troops raise their weapons and point them in the air. Three gunshots go off before the troops lower their weapons.

"Now, we shall rebuild what was been lost. Admiral Hood, please step forward." A man in his mid-30s with pale skin, thinning black hair and hardened blue eyes, walks up to the Madam President. The 2 officials salute each other for a second. "Hold up your hand." He immediately does so and listens as she continues. "Do you, Admiral Lawrence Hood, grandson of the late Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood, pledge to lead the UNSC in honor of your grandfather?"

"I will." He responds in a deep, tight voice.

"Do you promise to never be swayed by the words of others, to lead the armies of Sangheili and human alike into battle against all odds? Do you pledge yourself to the people and ensure Earth, Sanghelios, and all of their colonies will be safe?"

"I swear."

"Then as of this moment, you are now Fleet Admiral Lawrence Hood. I shall also award you the posthumous metal. Your grandfather was a good man." She adds, opening a velvet case to reveal the specific metals.

"Thank you, Madame President. I promise not let you down." Lawrence says, but before much else can happen, a marine in full battle armor runs up the hill, past his fellow marines. Judging by how hard he's breathing, he has been running for a while.

"Madame President, Admiral. We have received a transmission from the ONI." He says after he has caught his breath.

"Not now. Can't it wait until later?" Peterson asks stoically, but holding a hint of warning in her voice.

"No, Madame. It's about the Insurrection in general. They are on the move." He says quickly.

All of the angry looks at the marine turn to shock then frustration from the UNSC soldiers. All of them have had experience with fighting the occasional Insurrection attack, but all-out war with the Insurrectionists again is the last thing any of them want to hear, especially when they are all at war with 2 more governments and their armies. "What was attacked?" Lawrence asks, looking at the man intently.

"Halo. I'm sorry, sir, but we can't bomb the ring as Lord Hood wanted. The Insurrection has claimed air dominance over the ring and are already making to leave UNSC space." The marine says quickly, not wanting to hold it in much longer.

Lawrence then looks towards the orange sky, as the sun is rising. "What game are you playing at?" He murmurs, asking more to himself than anything.

May 20th

10:23 am UNSC time

Banks of the East River

Bakura

Jedi Master Tiplee hisses in frustration as blaster shots go off around her.

She had been sent to the distant and neutral world of Bakura to cooperate with the local government and hopefully establish a new Republic-friendly base there so they could have another vantage point from which they can bring the war to the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios.

That was before the 7 CIS Providence-class warships arrived to conquer Bakura and also use it as a base. So, after assuring the Bakuran government that the CIS will be removed from the planet, she leaves the city with a clone army of 200 men to fight the ground battle with the deployed battle droids while her twin sister, Tiplar, and Clone Commander Doom return to their Acclamator starship, which is escorted by 4 Venator stardestroyers, so they can lead the space battle.

The battle on the ground…is at a stalemate. The battle droids managed to make it to the East River, but the clones manage to stop them in their place, keeping them on the forested side of the East River. Everything is at a stalemate until Tiplee senses a very familiar Force signature. Sure enough, the B-2 battle droids stop firing, raise their blaster hands, and step aside, allowing Count Dooku himself to walk to the front of the battlefield. "Ah, Master Tiplee, it's been a long time."

"Dooku. I should have known you were going to lead this battle. Surrender or I will have to kill you and destroy your troops." Tiplee says angrily. After years of clones and Jedi losing their lives to the CIS, with the UEG and Swords of Sanghelios just joining, she is ready to be done with war.

The clones around her glance up, surprise radiating from the Force. Dooku, however, smirks. "So you want to kill me so the war can end. The Jedi are starting to learn what needs to be done. But I will not be the one who dies today. All troops, forward." With that order, the battle droids resume firing on the clones who were using the natural trenches as cover. The clones return fire, but as the 2 armies clash, Count Dooku leaps high into the air and lands in the middle of the clone ranks. Luckily, Tiplee runs to the ex-Jedi, clashing her blue light lightsaber against Dooku's red before he could decimate the clone ranks. Then the 2 Force-users clash, fighting behind the clone lines as the clones are slowly being pushed back by the onslaught of battle droids. Tiplee fights with everything she has, but she is far less experienced in combat than Dooku is, eventually forcing her to take a defensive stance.

The battle rages on until a massive explosion goes off. The Force screams in pain, enough for both Tiplee and Dooku to look up to the sky. What they see is truly shocking. A Providence-class starship explodes and starts falling to the planet. But the shocking part is that one of the Venators stops firing and starts turning towards the Acclamator. Then, in a burst of speed, the Venator charges towards the Republic capitol ship and smashes into it. The Acclamator splits in half and the Force screams in pain once again. Thanks to Tiplee's strong connection to the Force, she can sense all those who died in the backstabbing.

"Sister!" She screams to the sky, sensing her life go out when she, along with Commander Doom, are pulled into the unforgiving emptiness of space. The Acclamator then explodes, causing the traitorous Venator to also explode.

"What in the Force?" Dooku murmurs, staring at the ships. He had never seen this happen nor did he send battle droids to infiltrate the Venator and destroy it. Something else is going on.

Even the battle droids and clones stop fighting and look to the sky to see what the explosions were. After a few seconds, a small grey escape pod with red stripes on it and 4 thruster engines can be seen rocketing towards the battle field. Tiplee tries to sense whatever is inside, but she can feel nothing. "No…" She murmurs, fear crawling into her voice as she suspects who is in the pod. Soon, the escape pod crashes into the ground on the East Bank, the side where the clone forces are. For once, the clones and droids stop fighting each other and point their weapons at the pod, expecting anything. Even Tiplee and Dooku stop fighting to see who or what is inside.

Suddenly, the escape pod doors smash off their hinges, flying towards he clones and knocking a few them off their feet. Two women in heavy, black armor walk out with helmets covering their faces. A cherry red stripe makes its way down the center of the armor and their facemasks have completely different paint jobs on them. The woman's mask is a series of crescent moons making a laughing look while her partner has the shapes making a sad face. On both of their broad, rectangular-shaped shoulder plates are the symbol of a fist surrounded by a circle, both of which are dark red. Together, they lift the massive missile pods in their hands and pull the triggers. The missiles launched from the pods strike the clones, making their mangled, bloody remains fly into the air and land on the ground, the blood spreading on the ground. The clones start firing on the 2 women, but their armor is so thick that it just absorbs the blaster shots with no problem. Dooku leaps out of the blast radius and lands in front of his droid ranks.

He can't help but raise an eyebrow when he realizes that they are just targeting the Republican's armies, not the battle droids. "Stand down. Let's see who's side they are on." Dooku orders to his droids as they prepare to fire.

"Roger, roger." A battle droid with a yellow stripe on it responds and lowers its blaster, along with every other fighter for the CIS. As that battle goes on, they hear a loud engine. Dooku looks to the sky to see a whole barrage of UNSC-modeled Pelicans, with the same dark red fist in a circle, flying away from the battle, towards any major cities. The leader of the CIS is starting to suspect that they are part of some other faction. In the distance, a massive explosion goes off as a single Paris-class light frigate hovers over the city, reigning down explosions. As if that isn't enough, the sounds of an approaching Warthog make itself known and a whole mess of clones run towards them, firing behind them at the transport Warthog and missing.

"General!" A clone shouts, "We need to atop these people. They are trying to take the…gah!" The clone never finishes his sentence because his head gets blown off by a sniper rifle shot from one of the soldiers in the Warthog, covering Tiplee in the clone's blood. Her face changes from shock to anger at how her soldiers are being mercilessly cut down and she lifts her lightsaber in front of her, planning on cutting into the Warthog and dismantling it so she can get the opening she needs to kill these strange attackers in completely black armor that are styled similarly to the ODST soldiers Kenobi and the rest of the Jedi who made it off the Halo Installation described.

As the Warthog approaches, however, the male soldier riding shotgun has different ideas. He lowers a slender, prosthetic arm with a shotgun in his hand, and fires. Tiplee is so distracted by trying to use the Force to block the shotgun blasts that she fails to notice a stray missile strike at the Jedi's feet, sending her flying into the air for 3 seconds before crashing to the ground, in the middle of the field covered in the blood of the fallen clones. The Warthog stops in its tracks just as the 2 missile-launching psychopaths stop firing. "Nice shooting." The male says in a deep voice.

The 2 just nod as a Pelican flies into view, the grass and trees rippling against the wind being produced by the ship's engines and touches down on the ground in front of Dooku. The hatch opens up and 4 more black-armored soldiers run out, looking around for any stragglers with assault rifles in their hands, before a 5th man walks out. Unlike the other soldiers, this man isn't wearing any armor and his red robes make him look like an important official. He has fair skin, with sharp blue eyes and brown hair that stretches into a beard, almost like Obi-Wan Kenobi's does. "Area is clear, sir." One of the soldiers says. The man nods, but then they all hear stirring.

Tiplee is trying to get up, but her legs are mangled and she falls back down. "Let this mark the day your precious Republic falls. All those who stand with them, including the UNSC, will perish." The man says with a cold voice, then raises a pistol hidden in his robes and fires. The red-skinned Jedi is in too much pain and disconnected from the Force to block the bullet, which punches through her brain.

Jedi Master Tiplee is dead before her head hits the ground, her blood mixing with that of the fallen clones'.

The man then looks at Dooku, who is staring back intently. "Impressive, for a non-Force sensitive. Who are you?" He asks.

The man bows in respect. "Of course, Count Dooku. I should have introduced myself. My name is Daniel Clayton, and I am a Colonel for the Insurrection. We, like your group, want to be separate from the UNSC's oppressive control. My commanding officer is also here and we would like to strike an alliance with the CIS."

Dooku looks at the man, Clayton, and deduces that he is telling the truth. "What can you do to make me think that you truly are on our side?" Dooku asks. He hopes this Insurrection is truly on his side, and the Dark Side is whispering in his ear, telling him that this army can be trusted.

"Well, considering my people are currently taking over this pitiful planet and that we've already destroyed their capitol city, yes, we are on your side."

To Clayton's slight surprise, Dooku laughs out loud at the blunt response. "Indeed. Take me to your commanding officer, and I will help start our alliance."

"Alright, then, if you will come with me. Men, secure the area. Kill any clones that remain." Clayton orders then walks back into the Pelican.

"Get all the supplies down planet-side. And send a message to all troops and captains that the Insurrectionists are with us." Dooku orders the command droid, then walks into the Pelican with Daniel.

Within seconds, the Pelican's hatch closes up and the ship rises into the air, flying towards the capitol city. Dooku walk to the pilot's area of the Pelican and witnesses the black smoke pillars curling into the air, away from the demolished city. The frigate is still floating high above the city, gleaming brightly in the sun. Within minutes, the Pelican flies to the ship which is opening its docking bays to allow the Pelican to enter safely. The hatch opens up and Daniel walk off, Dooku following close behind.

The docking bay is full of men and women in the same black armor with the bright red stripe in the middle, who are standing at attention. "So…you finally brought our guest. I was getting bored with bombing these pathetic people." A voice says and another man walks into view. Dooku's eyes widen when he sees that this soldier has completely different armor than everyone else. He has steel armor with orange trim all over his body and a strange symbol on the top of his helmet. A white skull with 3 lines curving down on either side. It vaguely reminds Dooku of the symbols the mandalorians would use.

"Indeed, I lead the CIS. May I inquire as to who you are?" He asks cautiously. This man, while sounding cocky, also has a layer of madness to it, like he would do anything that would get in his way.

He can't tell for sure, but he suspects the man is smirking under his helmet. "Oh, the name is Felix. If I heard everything about you right, you and I are going to get along really well. Now, I would stick around and ask if you would like to help destroy more cities, but my boss has asked me to bring you to the bridge to meet him." With that, Felix starts walking away from the leader of the CIS.

Dooku follows, suspecting that everything is about to change.

AN: Well, that last part was fun to write.

The Insurrection has finally made an appearance, Felix is alive (you'll find out how later) and a known Insurrection member is revealed.

For all those who don't know who Daniel Clayton is, he is the illegitimate son of Captain James Cutter and his secret mistress. Think I'm bullshitting you? Look him up.

*I don't know if it's actually called Memorial Hill, but I thought the name fit, considering it is used as the major funeral center in Halo 3, after the Human-Covenant War.

See you next time, when Red vs. Blue lore is delved into again.