This chapter has been edited and revised to correct grammar and other mistakes. I've purged the old comments and reviews on here.
Shoutout to EternalCanadian for noticing this fiction was the 117th of its kind in the Halo x Star Wars crossover section.
Please enjoy!
Chapter Four
CSO Class Supercarrier Crash Site,
Uncharted Arctic Planet, Andromeda Galaxy
November 2nd, 2559: 03:15 hours
"Out!" William cried as he reflexively reached for a needle caddy he had scooped off the ground into a Needle rifle and fired without a moment's hesitation. The massive jagged crystal stuck itself in the abdomen of one of the smaller machines. He adjusted his aim and fired. Two more crystals slammed into its abdomen before detonating in a purple mist that tore the combatant into sending a billion crystalline shards tearing into the others.
As he ducked to avoid enemy fire a Jackal was instantly killed as a blaster bolt caught its shield making it recoil and flail backward until another shot from one of the larger machines killed it instantly. William scowled and avenged the fallen Kig-Yar soldier by placing several needles in its joints causing it topple over. The defenders of the Carrier were being slowly whittled down bit by bit as lucky shots from the haphazardly firing machines claimed lives.
"Have we heard back from the scouts we sent down?" Ripa asked the Sangheili General. "Surely we can get them to flank the enemy and draw their fire!"
"They're still under siege and they can't break through. They have to hold their own," the General growled in frustration as yet another dropship swung overhead.
There was a howling sound overhead as one of the few surviving Banshees popped out of cover and peppered it with plasma fire causing a fireball to burst from it's left wing. It proceeded to stop flying and instead crashed down upon their enemy's ranks.
By now William had a basic idea of the composition of its forces, with the exception of those freakish things he and Ripa encountered, the army consisted of a rank and file force of almost skeletal looking robots... no, droids. They weren't particularly intelligent and their weapons weren't particularly accurate, but they were lethal in large numbers.
The next unit of the army was made up by the taller blue-gray ones that were bigger-brained, bigger-gunned, and more armored. As a whole, they commanded squads of the smaller ones or operated in battalions of their own.
The final variant they had encountered were the rollers. They were the most lethal as they spewed incredibly large salvos of fire from behind a protective shield bubble. They had almost routed the defenders in this ship when a squad approached them while they were distracted by an incursion of the heavier droids wielding jetpacks of all things.
When they had deployed, it was too late to save the Unggoy caught by the flanking ambush. Eventually, someone figured out that plasma pistols were the most effective tool against the shield and the incursion was promptly halted, but it took long and far too many lives. The rollers had also given the rest of the army a chance to gain more ground and get much more accurate at the same time - a fact that was becoming all too obvious for the besieged.
"Fall back!" roared the General over the Battle-Net. "We cannot hold out here. Move the wounded further inside and seal the entrances. We will make them for every meter of this ship with their own!"
Will ducked again as one of the taller droids marched into the hangar firing as it went. He fired the needle rifle again and this time the projectile buried itself in its arm-mounted blaster cannon. The droid stopped and examined it giving an Unggoy the chance to stick it with a plasma grenade that claimed the lives of the droids in the nearby vicinity.
"Go! We'll cover you!" William yelled to the survivors behind him. The General emerged from the other side of the hangar, shields flaring as a couple bolts impacted on it. Behind him, the surviving conglomerate of soldiers including two or three Marines from the Dauntless' retreated into the bowels of the ship. The Hunter pair that had joined reluctantly retreated filling up the rest of the corridor with their massive bulk and shields creating an almost impenetrable wall of angry worms bonded to
armor.
"I need one of you to retrieve a heavy weapon from the armory and help seal this area off!" the General roared as he fired a burst from his dual rifles.
"I will not fail!" Ripa replied as he gunned down another with a scavenged plasma pistol. He tossed the expended weapon to the side and darted into the ship.
"Go!" yelled William popping out of cover and tossing a liberated plasma grenade farther away at a cluster of the flying taller gray droids.
Several of the taller ones collapsed and tripped four of the smaller droids behind it as one of them slipped on a fallen comrade. The grenade Will had thrown detonated in a shower of blue plasma in the center of the group melting through armor and circuitry.
The banshee made another appearance and tore a jagged gap in the droid advances. It wheeled about and William saw a brief flash of green and he shielded his face for a second as the projectile crashed into the droids nearest the hangar with a tremendous explosion. Radiation washed over him and his visor screen fizzled for a moment before clearing. He silently thanked the creators of his armor for making it impervious to it. A quick glance of the area revealed that most of the droids in the blast zone had been atomized.
The needle rifle suddenly clicked empty and William tossed it as hard as he could. The rifle decapitated one of the rank and file soldiers causing those nearest to flee back in panic.
"We're being overrun in the aft section!" came the cry of a desperate Sangheili.
"Where is your armor support?"
There was no response back.
"Fall back! Seal off any and all entrances you can!" yelled the General as he knocked another trio of droids down with the heated plasma shots. He cursed as the weapon stopped firing, its power cells depleted.
"I got it!" Will yelled as he finished off the droids the General had been firing at.
Suddenly four of the rollers sped into the hangar.
"Get down!" he yelled at the General.
But it was too late as they unfurled and deployed within their spheres of protection as they filled the area where the General was with a stygian inferno of fire.
Will yelled but he heard no sound come out as he watched the shields take many of the bolts. He jerked and suddenly collapsed, armor charred and steaming in many places.
Behind him a massive roar was given and twisting his to look behind, he saw Ripa staring at the corpse of the General carrying two Fuel Rod guns. An additional plasma launcher was strapped to his back.
He tossed one of the fuel rod guns towards Will, giving another roar. Will caught the hefty weapon and immediately filled the space with the Destroyers with radioactive bursts. The shields fizzled out and they exploded from the force of impact of the rounds.
The Sangheili, in an impressive display of firepower, managed to empty his gun in a matter of seconds clearing the droids that had advanced behind cover.
Ripa passed him in a charge, dropping the cannon and ignited both his swords. He began twirling through the ranks of droids slicing them, creating white hot gouges in metal. The droids attempted to shift fire but this resulted in a number of friendly-fire incidents.
Once the area had been sufficiently cleared, Ripa rolled out of the way and this time brought the plasma launcher to bear.
Not one to be outdone and left behind, Will emptied the Fuel Rod and picked up a pair of fallen Plasma Rifles attached to the corpse of an Ultra. He charged forward as well ducking behind an enormous pile of bodies as Ripa moved out of cover to cover the area with plasma bolts.
droids. The droids hesitated for a second as another rank succumbed to the withering tongues of plasma that exploded from the bolts. Ripa dashed back into cover and William rolled out and opened up on the droids carving more and more of them away. His shields whined as the heat from the plasma began to scorch him.
Suddenly too hot to handle, he chucked one of the steaming and hissing weapons and scooped a needler off the ground and brought it to bear. He fired and a pink crystal sprouted from the top half of the gun. With an enormous bang, a group of droids found themselves bursting apart from a makeshift plasma grenade. The needler empty, he grabbed
one of the weapons from off a fallen droids. His armor took a second before a schematic appeared on his HUD.
He fired and was almost taken aback when a ruby red bolt of energy exploded from the weapon with almost no recoil and dropped one of the droids to the Earth.
They had pushed the droid advance to about 200 meters away from the entrance to the hangar, and as both he and Ripa pushed forward using whatever was available for cover, Will found himself outside of the hangar.
The Banshee made another appearance and the alien craft dove out of the sky to try and began tallying more enemy kills. The droids, now fully aware of the flier's threat, began focusing their attention on it. The pilot immediately began retreating to safety, but the wind made it almost impossible for it to keep its formidable evasiveness.
Suddenly, the vehicle exploded in a bright purple explosion as a large burst of energy connected with it. William's eyes immediately began scanning the area for the source.
The wind dropped for a moment letting his gaze pierce through the shifting veils of snow and spotted two craft approaching them that looked suspiciously like tanks.
As if to confirm his suspicion, the turrets started training on them and one of them fired. A second later, a small section of armor plating was blasted off one of the pillars of the hangar bay and the ship gave an ominous creek.
"Back into the ship!" Will cried as he realized it wouldn't be long until the guns trained on them.
He hit a snowbank as a massive blast shook the ground as the other tank fired. He burst out of the snow and ran for the safety of the Carrier firing the fuel rod as he did so. Ripa took a brief moment to use the plasma launcher on one of the tanks knocking it to the ground in a ball of fire.
"We need to seal the entrance!" Ripa grunted as he found safety behind one of the curved walls."
"No need to if these tanks keep hitting the inside of the hangar," he pointed out."
The remaining tank fired again and blasted a huge snowy pillar into the air 200 meters to their left.
"Or they could hit us first," the Sangheili eyed the tank. "We've done what we could here. Let us link up with our allies."
Will eyed their enemy. The next wave was still beyond accurate firing range and they seemed to be a bit more cautious. Perhaps that was a sign that they were starting to be a bit more stingy with reinforcements.
He could only hope so as he hastily retreated with Ripa back into the relative safety of the Supercarrier.
RSS Resolute
Space above Rhen Var, Tobali System, Outer Rim.
High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Stang!" cried one of the troopers onboard the Resolute's bridge as it reverted to real space.
Obi-Wan Kenobi had to admit that comment described what he was seeing almost perfectly.
All around him in front of the small rescue fleet lay the wreckage of numerous Separatist vessels, all competing in some grotesque competition to see who suffered the most violent death.
"By the force..." Anakin trailed off as he observed the scene.
"What did this?" asked his Padawan, Ashoka Tano.
"I don't know, but we're about to find out." Her Master replied.
"Generals! Incoming contacts slipping around the far left side of the planet!" yelled an Officer as the situational display resolved for a moment to show three blips approaching them rapidly.
The Bridge paused to view the far side of the planet. Without warning, three ships of a design Obi-Wan didn't recognize. At the center was the largest, a monster almost four kilometers by the looks of it, flanked by two much smaller vessels, barely a tenth of its length.
"Visual contact established. Can we identify it?" asked Admiral Wulf Yularen as the contacts sped around the planet in high orbit.
"It's certainly not one of ours," Obi-Wan observed.
"An independent group maybe?" Anakin asked.
"Negative Generals, it doesn't match anything in our database! There isn't anything remotely like it," an Officer quickly reported."
"Try hailing it," Anakin suggested, "Find out if they're friends or not."
"They're not responding to any known frequencies. Perhaps if we do a general radio transmission?" the Comms officer suggested.
"Wait a second," Obi-Wan replied to the Officer. "Do we know if they are friends?"
"I'm more concerned with whether the Separatists know we're here. We have our orders, who says we can't convince them to be friends by taking out a common enemy?" Anakin asked.
"I think they're more focused on finishing their fight, they haven't seen us yet." Obi-Wan pointed out as he observed the unknown ships doing everything in their power to remain a small target.
The Admiral cursed.
"Look at behind it!" another Clone cried.
All eyes looked to behold four, six, suddenly twelve ships emerge from the far side and pursuing with a reckless frenzy. They continued to tail the unknown ships and fire everything they had.
"Obi-Wan makes a good point. Are they friendly?" Ahsoka asked.
"They're certainly not making efforts to come after us. Perhaps they ended up on the wrong side of the fight." Another Officer suggested.
"Well they're certainly not friends with them," Ashoka pointed to the enemy fleet.
"But how can we be sure that they're friends towards us?" Yularen countered.
"Sirs, what if there are more them?" Captain Rex of the 501st legion spoke for the first time in this exchange.
"They are calling for help. Perhaps they have friends nearby." Ahsoka replied.
"All the more reason for us to help them out," Anakin replied antsy.
"Sirs, enemy fleet is breaking off to engage us," another Officer in the data pits reported.
"It looks like our choice has been made for us, Obi-Wan commented. "Admiral, engage the fleet and hail the ships. Anakin and I will prep the ground teams now."
Yularen nodded and immediately began giving orders to the fleet.
The bridge flew into a frenzy of action as the Separatist vessels drew closer and closer. Some of them changed course again and began doggedly following the unknown ships.
When they reached the Hangar, Ahsoka was still trying to wrap her head around the situation. She had been sleeping when she had been summoned to the Bridge only to find out they were en route to a planet seldom to perform a rescue mission. This whole sector was an active warzone and technically the unknown faction had broken laws by operating without coordinating efforts with the Republic. They had been given orders to ensure that survivors made it back to Coruscant for questioning.
Ahsoka had her doubts. As she suited up in cold weather gear she seriously doubted that there would be any survivors on the ground.
She was snapped out of thought by the call to battle stations being blared throughout the ship. She boarded a Gunship with Skywalker and Kenobi already clutching at the safety handles. On board, various attachments of the 501st and 222nd legions filed into Gunships. As soon as she had entered, the doors closed behind and the ship rocketed out of the safety of the ship and plunged into the coldness of space as Yularen moved their fleet to provide cover for them.
Gradually she felt the tug of the planet's gravity increase as they entered atmosphere and less of the artificial gravity of the Gunship.
"Generals, incoming transmission from the Admiral." Their pilot reported.
"Go ahead!" said Anakin over the howl of the wind outside as they honed in on the signals.
"Generals? It took a little bit of effort and experimentation but I contacted the unknown faction. While the Admiral is a very proud fellow and at first was openly hostile; we were only able to communicate briefly and we have formed a temporary alliance. I'm transmitting the location of the crash site and some brief data to your men now.
"Thank you, Admiral, good luck," Obi-Wan replied gratefully.
"To you as well Generals. Yularen out." He said closing the connection.
The gunship bucked suddenly jarring everyone.
"What's going on?" Ahsoka asked.
"Bad weather making it a little bumpy. My apologies Commander." said the pilot. "ETA is ten minutes."
"Looks like the Separatists bit off more than they could chew," Anakin observed as they flew over the wreckage of a Commerce Guild frigate that had de-orbited violently and was burning on the ground far below.
"How did they take out so many with so few?" asked Obi-Wan further breaking the silence.
"I guess we'll figure that out." Responded Anakin at a loss of anything else to say looking at a data-pad with some newly acquired intel.
"Initial data says the crew is part of a collective known as the Allied Species." Ahsoka read off. "Most of the factions use plasma based weaponry but there's a subculture, the UNSC that's perfected the use of projectile weaponry,"
At this, the Clones in the gunship started laughing.
"Slughthrower's?" one of them snorted.
"How ancient can they get?" said another punching the shoulder of the man next to him.
"Ancient enough to take out all those vessels in orbit. Now shut your mouths! There is something to be learned from this. If they can do that much with what they have, and we have all this? What does this say?" barked Cody.
The troopers instantly fell silent.
"Figures we'd have to save a bunch of slugthrowers," said one of the troopers under his breath.
The rest of the trip became more and more turbulent as they descended deeper into the heart of the storm. Nobody would say it outright, but she could feel the anticipation palpably emanate from everyone in the gunship.
When they broke through the clouds, Ahsoka failed to restrain her gasp of disbelief.
Below them was an enormously large vessel with much of it obscured by darkness or heavy smoke. From this distance, she could observe a certain aesthetic beauty to it even in defeat and destruction. It was no doubt a warship, but it was the prettiest warship she had ever seen.
They drew closer and suddenly she could make out the outline of the droid army besieging it. There were four access points the droids were attempting to breach at various intervals along the ship.
Multiple flashes of yellow, green, blue, purple, and red indicated there was some sort of defense organized and survivors still.
"General? The crash site is broken up into many sections. Where do you want us?"
"Put us right down in the middle. Tell the others to secure the other areas."
The Gunships accelerated towards the ground and the Pilot announced they were about to land. The troopers readied their weapons and the Jedi their lightsabers.
The Gunship landed with a thump in the snow and the bay lights turned green. The doors swung open and the Republic charged forth into the storm.
Ahsoka lit her lightsaber and ran forward cutting through the now confused droids. She watched as Rex and Cody led the troopers forward. She and the two Jedi Masters began cutting their way through a group of droids attempting to enter the ship via a small hole in the exterior.
A sudden explosion rocked their ground and Ahsoka stumbled, her legs sinking deep into the powdery snow.
"Squad of tanks is moving our way but they don't know where we are!" Rex informed them. "Our heavy weapons landed to our north."
"Into the wreckage then! We're exposed out here!" Kenobi yelled through the howling wind.
The three Jedi lit their lightsabers and began carving a large enough hole for them to enter. Ashoka met some resistance with her blade, but a sufficiently sized hole was formed in seconds. They all piled inside and the Clones hefted a large piece of bulkhead plating against the hole they had just made it sealing it somewhat from the outside.
Once this was done, they moved away from that corner and allowed themselves a small breather. Ahsoka gasped again. The ship was beautiful inside and out. This fact was marred by the presence of several, definitely, alien bodies. They were tall, muscular warriors incased in armor. They had split mandibles and were vaguely similar to a species she had met on an assignment to Wild Space.
"Rex, Cody, we're going to try and clear the droids from the inside of this ship. Those tanks are going to remain a problem if we don't take care of them soon. Take 'em out as soon as you can link up with the heavy weapons platoon. If you make contact, be diplomatic about it."
"We can do that." Cody nodded.
"Right, good luck then." Obi-Wan nodded and he started proceeding down the hallway followed by herself and Anakin.
For ten minutes they made progress down the hallways, occasionally coming across more bodies strange and unfamiliar to her. An avian bird-like species, a squat and stubby species, and once, a massive hulking assemblage of biological material.
"Listen!" Hissed Anakin suddenly as they approached a bend in the corridor.
Ahsoka peered around.
Ahead of them, a group of Commando droids was probing ahead pushing their way past a section of the interior that had been shredded apart from the impact. Further ahead a voice, deep and somewhat guttural growled a warning.
"I think more of those abominations are here. But where? I can't see them on motion trackers at all!"
Without warning, the Commando droids sprang into action and disappeared down another corridor. A flurry of loud bangs filled the hallway along with a strange hissing sound.
"Come on!" yelled Ahsoka running towards the sounds of the chaos.
Obi-Wan and Anakin had no choice but to follow.
Ahsoka rounded the bend to see another one of the reptilian looking warrior bisecting a droid with the most intricate lightsaber she had ever seen, dual bladed in a single direction, a glowing iridescent triangle of shaped plasma that left a ghostly contrail. It sizzled as it burned away the droid impaled on its blade.
Behind him stood another enormous humanoid figure in a massive suit of powered armor of some sort. She wondered what lengths a Mandalorian would go to get a suit of armor like that. It carried two weapons of some sort. Probably slug throwing pistols of some kind. It also stood barely shorter than the other warrior.
It was clear that both of them were on-edge. If they were to make contact, they would have to be careful about this.
"I don't understand why you have to smash into them. A sword is just as lethal on its own. Why even carry one if all you do is stomp on them?" Will asked as he examined another one of those freakish droids that had attacked them. It now had the large imprint of Ripa's hoof.
Instead of answering he froze.
"Hold demon, something else is here," Ripa warned.
The two spun around one eighty to each other and scanned the opposite sides of the room. Satisfied there wasn't anything immediately there Will relaxed slightly.
"Uhm, excuse me." A female voice said.
Ripa spun around so fast Will thought he would have whiplash. As it was he immediately snapped both of his M6G's up to bear on a young, looking alien. Behind, two human males in cold weather gear holding two cylindrical objects ran up behind her wary.
"Whoa whoa whoa- let's put the weapons down for a second. The younger man said in a non-confrontational voice.
"And why should I do that?" Will said every nerve focused on the three alien figures.
Suddenly an explosion ripped apart a walled corridor to reveal two much taller cloaked droids wielding massive staffs snarling with an electric current.
"Magnaguards!" yelled the younger man.
The three figures ignited three swords of some type that glowed similar to an energy sword and went on the attack.
Will ducked as one launched a savage swipe and fired eight times. The world descending into what had been dubbed 'Spartan Time'. The rounds bounced off and moving Will made to grab a Plasma Rifle off the ground when suddenly the world reverted to real-time and Will had to grab the staff to avoid being smacked with it. Once again he found himself grappling with the machine. Ripa had charged and succeeded in loping of its head. Turning thinking his opponent was done, he was unprepared when suddenly the droid attacked and knocked Ripa to
the side with another strike.
William continued to wrestle with this immensely powerful droid. Suddenly with a savage back hand that depleted his shields half way it broke out of it only to be impaled by one of the energy blades. The other one was quickly dealt with.
"Is that a good enough reason?" asked the older man.
Suddenly exhausted, Will retrieved his magnums off the ground and nodded once.
"We don't have lots of time so we'll briefly introduce ourselves. I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Jedi Council, We've come to rescue you.
"I don't understand. You're what? From where?" asked Will suddenly left with more questions.
"How much support did you bring?" probed Ripa cutting straight to the point, ignoring his comment.
"Five cruisers engaging the enemy who shot you down and several brigades of clones."
"Clones?" asked Will not sure whether to believe what he was hearing. Behind him, Ripa made a sound of disgust."
"I think it's clear we have much to talk about. I'm afraid you'll just need to have faith for the moment in us." Said the younger man.
Something beeped on the man named Kenobi's gear.
He pulled his arm towards him and activated his comlink.
"General Kenobi, what's the situation?"
"General, it's Cody. We've routed the droids and we commandeered one of their tanks. All others are down. We must have hit their control array because the rest of the droids just powered down. The Admiral is reporting that another ship came out of some bluish white portal and is offering assistance to us overhead. Boarding operations are being undertaken on the last Separatist ship. We should have answers soon.
"Slipspace," said Ripa to Obi-Wan who simply nodded.
The second that this was said, a signal crackled through Ripa and William's helmets.
"This is Sesa 'Chevam of the CCS-battle cruiser Morning Light. We are here to rescue the survivors of the Rising Flame."
"Thank you," breathed William finally.
In orbit of unknown planet:
Sesa 'Chevam, a Sangheili shipmaster sat in the Shipmaster's chair and looked out at the battlefield before him. Many corpses of a large fleet lay strewn about. 'Chevam was impressed. It looked like the Dauntless had proved a worthy foe to their adversary.
Ahead of him, two sides were trading fire. One side with Red and Gold markings on their hulls made to protect two UNSC human frigates from being torn apart by the other side.
"We have a contact, far side of the planet coming around to meet us." A Major announced.
"Enemy?" 'Chevam asked.
"It doesn't appear so. Wait, looks like it's a Human Ship."
The all turned and looked to see the Dauntless streaking around in orbit from the other side of the planet being pursued by a dozen or so warships. Aft and stern weapon emplacements were firing at their pursuers to little avail.
"This is the UNSC Dauntless reading an allied warship in the vicinity! We need some help now!" Sesa recognized the voice as Admiral Del Rio. He grimaced. He was one of the less honorable humans he had met but he was a good tactician employing one of the Humans best strategies to good use.
"Admiral this is Shipmaster 'Chevam, hold fast and get behind us. There are another few warships from another faction currently engaging the enemy that shot you down I would advise you try and help."
"Copy that. Would you please clear out the warships behind us?" Del Rio said, not entirely pleased that he wasn't out of the woods yet.
"Request granted," said Sesa as he closed the connection. "Charge pulse lasers and load plasma torpedoes. Target the bridge of the farthest ship. Launch our fighters and try and deploy surface parties to assist the Survivors. Raise communications with the other fleet and inform we are allied." He raised his hand to his com link again. "I request the demon in the hangar bay at once."
Surface of the Planet:
"Good thing you came," said William as he rested in the abandoned infirmary in the bowels of the Carrier. "Do you have any idea who the people who attacked us are?"
"They're called the Confederacy of Independent Systems," said Ahsoka.
"We've been in a civil war with them for nearly two and a half years now," explained Obi-Wan
"Why did they attack us if they're fighting you?" asked William looking away from the M6 he was examining at the present. "We were without power drifting through space. We didn't do anything except be here when they arrived."
"They probably confused you for a Republic vessel of some sorts." Anakin replied, but it was clear that he didn't have a clear explanation.
"These dishonorable Separatists will pay for what they have done," Ripa grunted angrily. "When the leaders of the Allied Species hear of what has happened, there will be war.
Orbit of the Planet:
Sesa 'Chevam made his way through the Morning Light heading for the hanger bay. He had left his second in command on charge of engaging the enemy warships. The veteran Shipmaster was confident in his crew and his ship's abilities.
Sesa entered the hanger to find it mostly empty, most of the fighters and Phantoms having already been launched to provide support, but in the center, one person stood. It was a Human, around seven feet tall, wearing white EVA armor with a rifle on her back. A demon. The Human saluted Sesa as he drew close. She had been transferred aboard before they had ventured through to find the Rising Flame.
"Demon," said Sesa "I have a mission for you. We've disabled the last ship and we need any and all intelligence that we can get. I'm looking to keep the ship engaged so that they don't get too many ideas. Your orders are to board the ship, capture key personnel, and retrieve any relevant data."
The Spartan saluted and clambered onboard the phantom with a fully prepped insertion squad... that was all there was to it. A Demon was always a good Commander of troops but an even better follower and achiever of objectives believed impossible.
Sesa 'Chevam had been lucky enough to have one of these super soldiers stationed on his ship. He had seen their kind do terrible things to his. He knew what they were capable of.
That was how when he turned back to the bridge, he knew that the mission was good as complete.
CSO Rising Flame Crash site, Arctic Planet Rhen Var, Tobali System, Outer Rim Territories, Andromeda Galaxy.
5:00 hours UNSC standard military time.
Spartan William Gunther
"How many of these things to they have?" William asked as he observed the carnage on the battlefield.
"The Confederacy has billions of, if not more, droids in their army," said Obi-Wan. "What we see down here is not even a fraction of their strength," he said as he walked over a pile of circuitry.
"How?" Ripa asked.
"Industrializing planets I guess." Anakin shrugged.
"So are you suggesting we really did manage to hold out against an army that was twenty-thousand strong?" asked Will as he kicked a droid head into a snowbank.
"You apparently did."
Will felt another wave of that spine-tingling fear and dread wash over them. He had to stop and take a break he looked up and saw the last warship entering low orbit as Rhen Var's sun gradually rose and illuminated the planet.
Confederate Cruiser:
Chelsea examined the pile of disabled and destroyed machines before her and regarded her enemy with curiosity. She had never seen an army use mechanical beings to fight their battles in such a way. She knew that there was a brief period on Earth where automated machinery was foretold to be the future of combat but that never quite materialized. Humanity had instead discovered slipspace, and the rest was history.
She massaged her aching shoulder, a parting gift from a close encounter where a machine quite unlike all the others had burst past her. He had seemed to be in a hurry to escape. She pursued until he had activated two objects that in behavior were akin to the Sangheili's energy swords. ONI would most certainly want to see that.
They had briefly tangled in combat but it was ended when the machine threw a crate that caught her on her shoulder.
"Demon, what is your progress?" the Shipmaster asked.
"Almost to the bridge I think," she said lowering her shotgun and opening up the door that lay before her.
"Hasten. The ship's orbit is deteriorating rapidly."
She entered the bridge without a fight. The guards were simply motionless.
"What do you mean you abandoned ship General?" a reptilian and certainly alien voice shrieked from somewhere in front of her.
"This is your mess, not mine."
Chelsea turned the corner to see a hologram of the machine she encountered earlier. She silently berated herself. If that was an HVT, she certainly lost a chance to avenge the UNSC of their loss today. She recoiled slightly as she saw the alien, with mottled
gray-green skin leaned over the console.
"I told you Admiral Mar Tuuk." the General said coldly. "That if this situation grew out of control you would suffer the consequences of your incompetence. Now you will deal with this foe on your own, and I don't think that they'll be very happy with you." and with that, he severed the communications.
The Admiral sat back and rocked nervously back and forth.
"Admiral! We've managed to get the hyperdrive back alone!" one of the machines reported from an armchair console.
"That's not good." Chelsea thought.
She drew her pistol and stepped forward.
"Prepare to activate the hyperspace drive!" the Admiral said to the two still alive and lucky droids manning the controls "Get us to Felucia!"
Chelsea took aim and fired at the machines carrying out his commands. The shots reverberated around the tiny space and the droids collapsed, several holes appearing in the back of their heads. The Admiral turned to see her standing at the entrance to the bridge.
She took several steps forward and the Admiral started backing slowly away shrieking pleas for mercy.
She seized the alien and pistol-whipped him. His cries stopped and Chelsea watched as the thin green scaled alien collapsed unconscious, but still very much alive.
She produced a small cyllinder and held it near one of the computer terminals. It took a few seconds, but eventually a green light winked on and the ONI infiltration spike she held began to download everything and transfer it back to the Shipmaster. When she was done, she triggered the self-destruction sequence, and ran off to the escape pods with her prisoner in tow.
"I think that's the last of them," said William as they finished loading the wounded survivors onboard phantoms.
"Thank goodness for that," breathed Ahsoka moving her lightsaber through the air back onto her belt
"Telekinesis…" he said softly to himself. "How?"
Ahsoka gave a little smile. "There are a lot of things we can learn from each other."
"Likewise," William responded awkwardly, unsure of how to respond as he turned to survey the battlefield.
Before the two could continue their conversation, an object whistled through the air and slammed into the ground just outside the ship. Lightsabers reignited, and rifles were pointed at the pod, located just outside the wreckage.
"That's a Separatist escape pod!" A clone shouted as all approached. The door opened, and two figures exited, a seven foot tall Human in white EVA armor, with an unconscious reptilian creature over her shoulder.
Chelsea snapped her free arm to a salute when she caught sight of William.
"Commander, good to see you!" she said crisply.
William stared at her for a second.
"At ease Castle Four. I'm too tired for any formalities." He said wearily sitting down on a barrel of what used to hold plasma.
"Sir? I didn't realize you were down here. How did you...?"
"It's a long story." He said waving her a side.
"Who is that by the way?" he asked pointing at an alien who lay unconscious in her grasp.
"The enemy commanding officer," said Chelsea neutrally. "Pardon me for a second," she continued as she pressed her free hand to the side of her helmet. "Watch the fireworks people." The remaining CIS ship in orbit exploded and began to fall miles and miles away. William whistled as he watched the spectacle.
"Most impressive," said Obi-Wan.
"Morning Light this is Sierra-271, requesting pickup of a POW and survivors of the ship." She requested turning away.
"Who are they?" she asked pointing at a couple Clones and the Jedi.
"Allies, at least for the moment anyways." Will sighed.
"So now…" said Ahsoka turning to Chelsea, "Who are you? How do you know him?" she said pointing at William.
She chuckled and removed her EVA Helmet revealing her Golden Brown hair.
"It's a very long story isn't it." She said glancing at William and sharing a sad smile through polarized helmets. The two chuckled briefly.
"I suppose we have our leaders meet with you and we talk out what to do next," Obi-Wan said at last.
"In the aftermath of an event like this, the Representatives of the Allied Species will probably convene together and officially declare war on this Separatist Movement in your own galaxy. I imagine it would be prudent if you were to accompany us as we are unfamiliar with your galaxy." William said removing his helmet. "While you're at it I could offer a little bit of our organization on a more civilized place."
As always read and review. I hope you enjoyed an expanded chapter.