Hello, theotherpianist back with a revised chapter three. I have spent the greater portion of four hours cross-referencing it to the story in question. I hope this finds a better audience this time.
**This chapter contains the name of an actual Neimoidian Admiral and is completely canon.**
Chapter Three:
WARNING! MULTIPLE SYSTEM FAILURE; ATMOSPHERIC BREECHES DETECTED ON ALL DECKS!
RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF ALL PERSONAL FROM VESSEL!
Error: Critical calendar malfunction/reboot sys./ November 22nd, 2559: 00:12 hours
Allied Species CAS Class Carrier Salvation
Will's eyes flew open in an instant to see a painfully gray world. As he processed this monochromatic environment he became aware that he was in pain everywhere. He ignored it and took stock of everything around him. The gray gradually became a large pile of snow and he was lying face down. He struggled to lift his head above the snow that was now falling around his face. He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name. He raised his head slowly and he felt a sudden bite of cold as his helmet fell off his face.
He opened his eyes again and took in the scene around him. The hangar was relatively clear except for a massive hole above him where snow steadily fell through all the way to the bottom. Two massive fires on both sides of the ship outside the now unshielded exposed hangar bay doors lit up the area for about 100 meters. It did little to stifle an icy wind that was ripping through the unshielded bay with a mighty howl and it looked like a blizzard was setting in.
"About time you woke up," Ripa grunted behind him.
William turned around to see his blood brother standing over him looking concerned.
Will put his hand to his head. "How long have…?"
"You were only out for ten minutes," Ripa said finishing the question for him. "You had the fortune to be standing underneath an entire section of plating when it collapsed on you after we ceremoniously landed. We've just finished evacuating the wounded and dead in here to the rear half of the ship. What's left of our reactors are currently in emergency mode and only powering interior lighting, heating, the armory and what's left of communications."
William looked around at the dark interior of the hangar lit up harshly and nodded once.
"Well any place that didn't sustain major damage," Ripa said as an afterthought.
"I thought you were on board the Dauntless." Will grunted as he shifted around.
"I was, right up until I was transferred here to load some plasma coils back on to the ship."
"Glad you could join. Where's Sarah?" he queried
"Right here Captain." She said as she materialized on the holoprojector right next to them. "Enjoy your nap?" she said with mild sarcasm.
"Loved every minute of it." He grunted. "How did you slow our descent?"
"Well, not to brag or anything but I rewrote the firmware that runs the shaping of the plasma for the weaponry to fire a beam of energy that created an opposing magnetic reaction that I used to slow us down." Sarah smugly folded her arms.
"You turned the ships energy projectors into an electromagnet?"
"Basically." She replied as William staggered to his feet. Noticing his shields were down he restarted the system. He waited until with a pop and fizzle his shields re-materialized.
"You took a nasty bump. It's a wonder you're still alive." Sarah said.
"It'll take more to kill him." Ripa chuckled but suddenly fell silent.
William's face flashed with concern. He had learned that to trust a Sangheili's senses often meant the difference between life and death.
"Hold friend, something's coming." He growled.
"Sarah, have anything on sensors?" William said groggily as he shook off exhaustion.
"I don't have too much left to me to use but I'm scanning." She said her avatar bowed its head in thought.
Ripa gripped his Energy Swords suddenly wary.
"Nothing on long range, but… wait," her face showed confusion for a second.
"What?" Ripa and William said simultaneously.
"Oh, you're not going to like this. Scanners are picking up multiple unidentified contacts in the air descending towards us. Scans indicate they may be…"
She didn't finish as a howl swept through the air and something in the air above them fired. They all turned to look up to see ruby red bolts of energy spinning towards them.
"Fighters! Incoming!" roared Ripa
William yanked his helmet on ignoring some of the snow that landed on his neck. The HUD lit up and he activated the flashlights on his helmet. He grabbed the two M6 magnums from his legs and fired alternating shots upwards instinctively. He must have hit something right because it spiraled downwards in a ball of flame and crashed on top of the Carrier it gave a muffled thump as it landed.
Another fighter sent a hail of ruby bolts towards them. They connected with the ground directly ahead of them knocking the two of them back.
"Now would be a good time to leave!" Sarah advised.
William ran over to the holoprojector and yanked Sarah's chip out and into the slot of the back of his helmet. He registered the icy sensation and then turned and ran with Ripa.
"Sarah! See if you can launch some flares or lights or something! Give us a little more light to work with!" He yelled. He vaulted over a pile of rubble and into the bowels of the wreckage.
"Just how many things want to kill us today?" He thought as he ran down the length of the ship.
He ran through a room where a bunch of Marines from the Dauntless sat numbly in a corner.
"We're under attack!" roared Ripa scaring the nearest Marine right next to him jumping back in fright.
As if to emphasize his point the ship echoed loudly as another fighter fired at the wreckage again.
"What the…!" cried another Marine.
"You heard 'em! We're being attacked!" growled a Sergeant and the squad was mobilized at once. He yanked on the bolt of his MA5D and ran down a hallway leading his squad.
"All of you get the word around the ship!" yelled William. He grabbed another MA5 from off the ground next to a dead body and racked it. Satisfied it had ammunition he ran off to spread the word.
Over the Battle-Net the word began to spread as more and more people began to report attacks.
"The main hangar is the one closest breach to our position but there's no way we could hold out if they land troops!" Ripa shouted as he and William dashed down another corner. As the made their way through the destroyed ship, they passed various scenes of death and carnage.
Ripa stopped suddenly again.
"Look there!" He hissed stopping Will. He gestured to a pile of corpses in front of him. There was a trio of Sangheili minors and two Jackals that all had burn marks from something that resembled an energy based weapon. Most eerily were the slash marks on some of their necks. Something had brutally cut them.
"These bodies are fresh!" look at the blood stains.
"The blood's fresh as well," Will whispered to Ripa. Noticing a faint trickle of blood coming from one of the Kig-Yar's necks.
"Something's not right," said Will again. They both proceeded along carefully not making a sound. They heard a scuttling sound and all of a sudden the two stopped with weapons raised. Will flicked his head towards the ceiling. They proceeded like nothing had happened. Will gave a silent nod and the two of them fired at the ceiling. Suddenly six black figures dropped down from the ceiling with blood red eyes. One gave a howling scream and pounced on Will. Knocking him to the floor where he was able to get a good look at it.
His assailant wasn't a living combatant but rather a robot and its eyes were a giant pair of menacing red colored photoreceptors, a quarter ton machine with an arm-mounted blade of what was obviously razor-sharp metal struggling to slice his neck open. He struggled in its vice-like grip as he struggled to get free. He used his augmented strength to his advantage and flipped it off smacking it into the wall where it was skewered by a jutting piece of metal. It howled and struggled to extricate itself which didn't help its situation tearing off its sword arm in a shower of sparks.
He rolled the other way knocking a second off its feet trying to catch his breath. Ripa took the advantage slamming into his attacker and stabbing the one Will had just knocked off with an ignited energy sword bisecting it in half.
"Behind you!" roared Ripa as he gouged another's legs and sword arm of. It fired a shot from its blaster which ricocheted off the wall and took the photoreceptors of another out. It blindly wobbled about until it was knocked to the floor where it as smashed by Ripa as he swung at another disarming its sword and slicing the blaster.
Will rolled backwards and smashed another assailant behind him to the floor. He came up from the roll and flipped the robot again and hurled it into the bulwark. The two armored combats grabbed each other and clutched each other. He saw in his peripheral vision another coming up at him. He swung it around and its ally stabbed and shot the one Will was grappling with. It shuddered and fell lifeless.
Will followed up by grappling the one now bearing down on him. William grabbed a large twisted piece of metal that was forked on the end and brandished it like a spear. It tried dodging to the side but Will caught it and shoved it back as it was caught between the prongs. He stabbed again causing internal damage. The robot screamed and knocked the spear by countering with a sword strike, but it overshot.
Will closed the gap as the spear broke and caught the arms of the killing machine knocking the gun from its hands and with a heave, severing the sword from its other arm. It gave a screech of fury and it punched Will. He gave a grunt as it smashed into his torso and the shield bar whined as it instantly drained. The robot, on the other hand, looked up surprised as it crushed the crystalline layers of metal leaving its hand mangled it and making it useless.
It recovered quickly and savagely sliced at him with the other arm. William ducked and it overshot giving him enough time to deliver a solid kick that gave a mighty CLANG before buckling it underneath the weight of the shield and armored boot.
It staggered and Will pinned it to the ground before it could do anything else and in a single fluid motion pulled one of the Magnums of his leg and fired. The round penetrated the eye and embedded itself in its brain and the cranial case shattered. Will shot it again with the other as it twitched.
Ripa had meanwhile ensured the remaining attackers were completely dead.
"Who are these people?" Will asked as he reloaded both of the Magnums he had and placed his fallen Assault Rifle on his back.
"Are they even people? Looks like they're all machines." observed Ripa with a scowl.
The two ran through the rest of the ship making sure they weren't being followed by whatever those things were.
"They had to duck underneath a pile of rubble that was threatening to come down and block the passage.
"Come on, let's seal this." Will pointed.
It didn't take much for them to seal the passageway with a mountain of debris and they continued on.
The corridor opened up on a motor pool that had a massive hole in the side with a ragtag group of Allied Species soldiers trying to organize a defense.
"What is our condition?" Ripa asked a Sangheili General as the two ran into the main hangar, who was organizing the defenses in the massive space.
"Ill," replied the General, the moonlight and snow both reflecting off his golden armor. "Conservative estimates list half of our number perishing in the crash along with the Shipmaster and Fleetmaster. Nearly all of our vehicles were destroyed or made completely useless. However, if we can maintain strategic positions throughout the ship, keeping an even number of supplies flowing in-between them, then we should be able to hold out against their ground assault until help arrives. The Shipmaster put me in charge as he died. I would appreciate it if you were to help organize the defenses. Ahh! We have a Demon!" he growled in approval as he spotted the Spartan.
"Where do you want me?" Will asked. The General grunted and pointed to a spot where they were completely exposed.
"I want those who are qualified to use the few vehicles we have left. There are a dozen Banshee fighters in the central hangar and a trio of Wraiths. I need brothers in them now! I want a squad down there retrieving plasma turrets that can be salvaged and set them up all along the perimeter." He ordered over the Battle-net.
"Sirs!" Sarah said over what remained of the Battle-net within the Carrier. "I'm detecting multiple dropships of unknown origin entering the area! Launching flares and activating all exterior lights!"
"She's right! Incoming! Twelve o'clock high!" shouted a female Marine on a plasma turret, as it roared to life. The world suddenly lit up outside as thousands of floodlights activated themselves lighting up the pale cold world outside. William dashed over and looked up. There were indeed many of what looked like dropships roaring overhead and deploying their contents fire from the wreck.
William yelled for the soldiers to duck as a fighter streaked towards them firing its guns. One caught William as he ducked and he watched as he shields were almost depleted. He grunted from the force of impact and after a second popped up again. The Hunter pair stationed there immediately fired their arm-mounted weaponry and the fighter tumbled to the ground in a heap sealing up part of a hole in the wreckage. Behind him, a pair of Banshee's broke through the safety of the Carrier and emerged into the outside world.
A dropship had now landed and enemy soldiers were making their way out, firing out the hole in the hull. Their fire was very inaccurate though,
"Kig-Yar in front! Shields down!" roared the General as he systematically fired a Particle Beam rifle to great effect.
"Heads up! They've got laser mounted weaponry! Keep your heads down!" William ordered and the Allied Species soldiers quickly returned fire, the enemy soldiers quickly collapsing underneath the strain. But as they fell, they did not bleed, for they were…
"Machines?" shouted William, as he fired a burst from his MA5. "Again? Is this an army entirely made of these things?!" he asked incredulously to Ripa standing next to him firing with a Carbine.
"Not the time Spartan, look!" shouted Ripa. More of the dropships were landing, but these ones were landing even farther away, out of range of most small arms, with the possible exception of a sniper. More machines, some taller and gray, some silver, and some spherical that seemed to roll and deploy in spherical bubbles of energy. "Unless I am mistaken," said Ripa "I would say they are attempting to place a siege on us."
Will subconsciously felt sick. Staring out at the dropships numbering well above several dozens, he felt his stress levels spike suddenly.
"Watch the rollers!" a Minor roared as it leaned out of cover to fire a burst from a Covenant Carbine only to be shot dead by one of the larger machines. Around him, the other Sangheili roared in anger and immediately charged forward annihilating the offending attacker. They took up positions outside the Carrier behind two wrecked Phantoms.
William grabbed the Covenant Carbine from the recently deceased Sangheili and fired a shot desperate to now seize their advantage of distance. Despite the fact that they were out of range of the Carbine, one of the machines stumbled backwards and fell over, not to get up again. He switched targets to a couple of the taller gray robots that were closer and fired until they collapsed with smoking holes inside them discarding the now empty Carbine.
Ripa laughed bitterly, "Good shot brother! But I hope you have more in you, we shall need much more than that."
"Let the Hunters take care of it." Will said gesturing to the massive aliens who were proving to be the most helpful.
Upper Atmosphere:
"I understand my mistake General Grievous," said Nemoidian Captain Mur Tuuk cautiously as he stared at the bleached, white armorplast face of General Grievous. He gave a shudder as those yellow sallow eyes stared back at him unforgivingly. "But I have a plan to rectify my error. May I remind you, you sent a message to the fleet? Already I have droids swarming the downed ship. They will kill everything down there, no record of our deed here. Better yet, we might even be able to fool their leaders into thinking that the Republic did it if we can-"
"Mark my words, if this situation grows out of control, it will come down on your head! Your luck on Rhyloth has only extended so far. If you fail, I will kill you." With that, the angry cyborg general walked out of the room.
Captain Mur Tuuk gulped nervously, he was not having a good day. What started as a hush-hush effort to halt a Republic incursion had quickly devolved into the stuff of nightmares. He had most of his ships concentrate on the utterly enormous behemoth which had destroyed a most of his fleet before they had sent it down to the planet. He gulped again and tapped a button on the armrest of his chair. "Double the number of droids to be deployed," he gulped. He looked as another Banking Class Frigate exploded as it swerved to avoid a missile strike only to hit a Lucrehulk class Battleship which started flaming until its reactor overloaded and detonated.
He growled about the incompetence of his slowly dwindling fleet. That other gargantuan, single, and in his opinion ugly vessel that had remained had taken out many of the fleet's assets through a combination of utilizing slingshot maneuvers around the Planet's moon and then running around in orbit of the planet. Its two smaller escort ships were providing no entrance to the fighters and bombers he had sent.
A fact that was becoming painfully clear to the Neimoidian Admiral as it watched the ship turn away again and begin fleeing again after reappearing from a cloud of Vulture droids. Suddenly he was shocked as it suddenly disappeared into the void it loved to create and reappeared a second later right in front of the Neimoidian's ship. He yelped and as he watched stunned he caught a glimpse of someone, probably the Captain on the bridge that was grinning wickedly. His shock turned into fury as it raced sidelong past his ship and unleashed a firestorm from all starboard side weapons, which from the amount of fire erupted was a lot. Just how was this thing surviving?
The fiery salvo of projectile rounds, anti-fighter guns, and ship to ship cannons started ripping apart more of his fleet. Another volley of missiles stopped nine more ships in their tracks more but thankfully didn't destroy them.
The Neimoidian Admiral was appalled.
"I want that slugthrower dead! Order the fleet to boost their particle shields! I want nothing getting through."
He was slightly relieved when the vessel fired its horrifically powerful slugthrowers again and to have his fleet not suffer any casualties.
"FIRE ALL BATTERIES!" he roared in a triumphant fury. His mouth stretched into a smile as his fleet unleashed its own storm of turbolaser bolts. His face fell sour again as the ship's shielding absorbed the damage. He was pleased after a moment to observe that it had hurt the vessel as much as it had his as an explosion rocked the side of it. It suddenly turned and ran again, albeit much slower than before.
"Attention all ships. To anybody that can disable that ship I will give you 500,000 credits plus a spot on the war council! Just knock out that ship so that they can't send reinforcements. And for goodness sake, someone give me some Intel on who in the nine Corellian ****'s is operating that ship! Captain Tuuk out." He finished his transmission then yelped feeling a sense of dread creep up realizing he just broadcast an open message by accident. He started praying that the Republic wasn't picking this up.
The only time he had ever felt this sick with fear was when he was placed to oversee the blockade of Rhyloth and prevent the Republic from providing humanitarian aid with Military support. He had been way too proud and arrogant when negotiating with Skywalker, the Hero Without Fear as the Holo-net was now dubbing him. He had thought he had effectively countered Skywalker's brashness when he attempted to deceive him with an offer to surrender. That plan failed when the Jedi use his own ship as a weapon smashing apart his Command ship.
It had been his Apprentice that had taken the crotian pastries for the day by angling a single Venator sideways and at an angle to absorb fire from the rest while fighters and bombers took out the rest of the blockade.
He had escaped barely on a shuttle back to friendly space which nearly cost him his life when he was forced to endure the wrath of his superiors. Now his chance at redemption was quickly disappearing and he wasn't sure how long he could hold out before the advantage fell firmly to the enemy. He really hoped the Republic didn't pick this up.
CT-2282-440WA "Watcher" was bored. He had been stuck on this small Republic Cruiser that was given the job of silently scouting systems that bordered regions owned by the Confederacy. The ship he was on was coming out of hyperspace to the Tobali system to pick up a probe and retrieve its data. Nothing particular special.
"We're coming out of hyperspace in five." their Sergeant informed the tiny complement. "Let's make this fast."
Watcher looked out the viewports as it transitioned and almost instantly the tiny ship swerved to avoid hitting the wreck of something.
He and the Pilots suddenly cursed with the other Clone's on board as they avoided the near-death impact.
"What the?" he exclaimed as his clone brothers ran towards the same viewport.
The wreckage of at least eight different Separatist vessels lay strewn about in chaos with evidence of something incredibly violent having been used against him.
"What's going on here?" asked the Sergeant who had just walked out of the comm room.
He stopped dead in his tracks. "Send a report to Coruscant, to the Jedi. Tell them the Separatists have invaded the system!"
"Roger!" said another Clone running off to complete the assignment.
"Wait, Sarge. How were they destroyed? There's no Republic fleet in the vicinity of the system," said a Clone looking over a scanner.
"Picking up some strange activity on the other side!" said the Pilot. We'll be able to see it in five seconds. Watcher and the Sergeant moved to the other viewports with the other clones.
They all gasped.
Ahead of them surrounding the planet Rhen Var was a firestorm. There was one single ship of a design he had never seen with two smaller ones flanking it engaging the Confederacy in an explosive battle that had obviously gone horribly wrong for the enemy.
"Pilot, you getting this?" asked the Sergeant shocked.
"Yes, sir."
"Sarge!" We're picking up a distress beacon said another Clone with a pair of headphones on. The Sergeant walked over and listened for a second.
"Tell the Jedi we need assistance in the Tobali system! We have a first contact situation in progress and there are survivors on the surface that need help and relief, now!"
RSS Resolute, Thanium System
Outer Rim Regions
Lightyears away from that on the bridge of the RSS Resolute, two Jedi sat in council with a Republic Admiral when suddenly a Clone Officer ran up to them.
"Sirs, urgent transmission from Coruscant."
"Let's hear it then." said the Admiral.
They walked over and keyed the holoprojector to see the blue visage of Mace Windu appear.
"Greetings Master Windu." The bearded figure of Obi-Wan Kenobi said in greeting.
"And to you Master Kenobi, Skywalker, and Admiral Yularen. We have an urgent matter that requires immediate attention."
"What would that be Master?"
"We have received reports from our scouts in the Tobali System that Rhen Var has been invaded and some unknown power entered the fray accidentally - judging by the nature of communications between the two. There are survivors from another ship that crashed on a surface and the Separatists are besieging the wreckage. Your task is to ensure they make it back alive to Galactic City for questioning."
"Understood Master." Said Obi-Wan.
"You have done a great service by finding this industrial planet in this sector, but this is more important. Link up with more ships and go immediately to the Tobali system, others can handle the siege. May the Force be with you."
He closed the connection and Obi-Wan sat in a nearby niche in the wall. with his hand clasping his chin in deep thought.
"Did I hear that right?" asked Anakin. "Tell me I heard that right."
"New design?" mused Admiral Yularen.
"Perhaps some corporate dealing went sour. Admiral, prepare to link up with the fleet. Send a message to the other fleets, siphon off as many ships as you can muster. Anakin? Tell Rex and Cody to prepare landing parties for our arrival." Obi-Wan said.
"How long until we reach Rhen Var?" asked Anakin.
"It's a short trip. The question though is not how long," said Obi-Wan turning to face the empty space before him outside the bridge. "It's can they hold out in time?"
There you go! Hope this appeases you guys. I'm sorry for not realizing the error in this. I will try and fix this as it comes. Thanks for patience as well through this period of technical difficulties. And special thanks to Battle Bruva Volks and phantom00 for noticing the errors. More fixed chapters to come soon. Remember to read and review.
Yours in writing,
thotherpianist