Mantle Of Responsibility

by GeorgeQuartz

10 Years after the Human-Covenant war and an Alliance between the Sangheili and Humanity keeps that Milky Way stable, soon though, a dead battlefield is discovered and the discovery encounter leads to UNSC military forces being deployed to the edge of the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as... The Outer Rim. Ongoing (21BBY & 2564 AD Story start year)

25. Chapter Twenty-Four: Execute Order 66

Hello There, I'd apologise for the several month-long gap in-between this chapter and the last one but I know I'm making a bit of a habit of it now and wouldn't want a 'sorry' to come off as meaningless. However, considering we are now in the final couple of chapters it won't be long before the ending. It's been one heck of a long ride from when this started, like I've said a thousand times, I never expected this to become what it did.

Onto the story notes though. Partial spoiler for what's ahead though, I'm terrible at writing anything relationship/love-related so please forgive anything weirdly cringeworthy later on in this and the following chapters. Weird that I decided to jump on that train so late too. As for any ship speculations between The Captain and Ahsoka, I did canonically make Captain Jack fairly young (especially for a Spartan Captain) so that anything involving him and Ahsoka doesn't come off as weird and creepy.

Another thing, I do mention Fireteam Resolute's Condor using fusion engines/drives. In contrast, the Condor itself does not have any official details on its engines and powerplant. It is heavily based on the Pelican dropship and its variants which do have them. I also made a minor modification to General Order 098831A-1 ("The Cole Protocol") to update it, so to speak.

One last thing, I've said this before but no matter the gap in-between chapters I WILL NEVER abandon this story. Especially not this close to the end.

Replies to Chapter Twenty-Three -

Aedwards179 - Let me put it this way. I started this race on flat terrain and slowly increased the incline as the story got more complex and my writing 'improved'. However, since I eventually did pause updates to re-write the first two chapters it appears to new readers like it all went downhill almost immediately. I swear I'll go back and make 2-9 much more readable and enjoyable.

10Soah86 - Glad you find it interesting and I'm not surprised about your chapter 3 review. I'm going to go and re-write the earlier chapters once the story is finished. While I've never met a text-to-speech system that wasn't terrible, I know that chapters 3 to 10 are just god awful in terms of grammar and punctuation. Run-on sentences seem to be the main issue, It's been over 3 years since I started and had no plan at all in mind for the story and my handle on basic writing was pathetic. It's definitely improved but when I go back and read the earlier chapters I wish I could go back and drill some grammatical scene into my past self.

Guest DCDGojira - Cheers, Buddy.

Guest - No one is safe, I'll be sure to name any particularly noteworthy…fallen if it comes to it. Who knows if anything is going to happen anyway?

Krieger Techpreist - I assume that name is a partial reference to Warhammer 40K, nice. Yeah, that would be one hell of a short but climactic ending to the whole thing.

Shadowman094391 - Thanks, Mate.

Dakotarules1234567890 - You got me on that one. That was actually an editing mistake, I used the same description for the MACs as I did for the generators and changed one when I meant to change the other one. Having said that though, I'm sure the shields earned some respect when the Infinity rammed a RCS-class cruiser without scratching the paint during the second tour of Requiem.

Scarease - Found that a little hard to read mate. I can do Spanish and German so if English isn't your first language just go native and I'll respond in kind. I can make most of it out though and yeah those are all good answers to what they could/should do, we'll see.

Chronus1326 - Much Appreciated.

Jctherebel - Cheers, friend.

King of Simps - All the rookie mistakes I made in the first six or so chapters always come back to haunt me. Once this is all complete, I'm going to have to go back and do some remastering.

Guest - I'm aware of Order 65 but I don't know anything about "Order 99" even in Star Wars legends. We all know that there are 150 contingency orders but as far as I'm aware, there are only four known canon orders and another two Non-canon ones.

Ap0c4I1pS1S - Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh well, I'll have to kill the whole story because it just isn't plausible. Apologies for the dramatics, but I get this a lot and it's just old at this point. It's fanfiction and there have to be some…logistical sacrifices for the story to even exist. Besides that, my only other defence is that I started writing this thing years ago and it was my first attempt at writing anything.

Guest - I really wanted to in the beginning but I feel like I've already overpowered the UNSC and given them too many successes. Of course, John and Blue Team had their fair share of mission failures, if I were going to introduce him or them as they are in the books…the story would be over very fast.

L - Cheers, Lasky knows nobody is perfect but the Jedi sometimes seem to think they are. He reminded them of the former fact. As for Anakin, he's going to get more involved than people think in the next few chapters if there are that many left. I do wish I had included Padme at least somewhat in the earlier chapters but just like the second story I am currently writing, I had no real plans at the time. The extraction plan has technically already been done in another story I've read, at least somewhat and I wasn't going to do it but the idea still had its uses in this story.

It is certainly true that being framed or discovered trying to assassinate the Chancellor could result in a new war, another civil war or much worse so using it as a last resort is definitely what I would call wise. As for Ahsoka, I couldn't just leave out someone as important as her for the lead-up to the end. I had envisioned having her, Rex and who knows what else on the Venator in similar circumstances as to the last two Clone Wars episodes.

I was a little worried people would think I was just being cheap by bringing Echo back and I wasn't planning to but I was going through some old reviews and saw one where I promised he was coming back and the Bad Batch being introduced. I intend to keep at least one of those promises. The NOVA bomb certainly isn't as neat or absolute at removing planets from existence as the Death Star but they both result in the…area being completely uninhabitable. I'd argue the NOVA's lasting effect is somewhat more intimidating than the instantaneousness of the Death Star.

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Chapter Twenty-Four: Execute Order 66

22:00 Hours, July 4th, 2565 (Military Calander)

Andromeda Galaxy, Inner Rim, Slipspace

Winter-Class Prowler, On route to Coruscant

At less than one hundred meters in length, the ONI Acrisius, a Winter-Class prowler was nothing to marvel over. It was developed towards the end of the Human-Covenant war and even when it was first put into service, was not entirely invisible as its success as a stealth corvette came mostly from its low observable design and passive stealth features. To actively avoid detection, the Corvette was outfitted with an impressive array of cloaking technologies and countermeasures.

To Handle the thermal emissions that, in the cold expanse of space would be detected in an instant, it employed newly developed metamaterials embedded in the prowler's hull plating to break them up. As well as the metamaterials, programmable optical camouflage coating and heat sinks were integrated to prevent the release of any thermal emissions. Shortly after the war, these systems were further enhanced with the addition of emission distortion grids.

One of the clever tricks used as part of the stealth corvettes' cloaking technologies is tricking any nearby ships into identifying the Prowler as something else. Changing its digital appearance and signature to better match space debris, a low-threat vessel, or even a friendly ship. Of course, the latter could only be used if the crew had the ability to avoid the enemy making any specific enquiries into the nature of their 'friendly ship'.

After the war and several years of perfection, ONI scientists finally developed active camouflage systems that would allow the modified ships to evade all but the most comprehensive detection techniques and sensor networks. Within its arsenal of countermeasures, were remote drones designed to go and cause chaos somewhere else and draw away the attention of the enemy.

In the event it somehow is detected, the Winter-class ship has one last defence system in place alongside its small 40mm autocannons and mine layers. Three pop-up turrets, one directly behind the cockpit and two on the wings. Each of these contains two anti-missile pulse lasers and an electronic warfare countermeasures dispenser. This dispenser can release a variety of consumables from heat sinks to deception jammers to mislead enemy sensors and break target locks.

For all of its stealth capabilities, it was no wonder that it was the vessel chosen to transport Fireteam Royal to Coruscant.

"The four of us ready for this?" Lexi asked as she put down her SRS99-S7 that she had spent the last solid hour cleaning to the point it looked like it was fresh off the assembly line.

"I think it's a little bit late for doubts," Matt said, continuing to inspect his own M45D Tactical Shotgun.

The four-strong Spartan team was unfortunately, one person down and under normal circumstances, a replacement or fresh Spartan recruit would be added to replace the now Captain, Jack. However, due to the volatility and top-secret nature of their recent missions, Fireteam Royal was taking in between regular combat duties though the decision was…delayed.

Any new addition may have been a Spartan and seasoned soldier beforehand but they'd still be a rookie and constantly looking out to make sure their new addition didn't get themselves or the rest of them killed would have compromised mission objectivity. On the chance they got an experienced member, there would likely be too much distrust and incompatibility trying to work with a new untested Spartan.

"I was referring to the 'Assassination' part of the mission, it feels like they should have sent an ONI black ops team to do it," Lexi stated.

Iona understood more than Lexi knew, her past with ONI and running 'non-existent' operations during the war left her with an unpleasant taste in her mouth whenever she had to deal with the spooks. As much as she regretted some of her career, pre-Spartan, she understood that the missions they ran were vital in delaying the Covenant's advance and buying Humanity more time.

"I hope my best sniper isn't having second thoughts," Iona said, just serious enough to get her message across.

Lexi snapped her neck upwards to her superior, "Of course not, I'm only saying that were meant to be soldiers, not assassins," She said.

Having stayed silent, Kate put her active camouflage aside, "We go where we're ordered. That if we get the order, we won't hesitate when there is the possibility it could bring the war to an end," She commented.

"Like I said, no second thoughts," Lexi said.

"Good, we've already been involved in this mess for a year, I'd rather it not go on for another twenty-six," Iona said, referencing the soul-crushing length of the Human-Covenant war that had ended a little over a decade earlier.

Turning around, Iona was greeted by one of the flight officers of the prowler. She didn't know how long she was standing there, whether she had heard the whole conversation or if she had only just walked through the open cockpit. Either way, she wasn't too worried about the missions OpSec. Prowler crews were no strangers to flying in operatives for secret missions, they knew that if they ever shared any details of the mission or if it was even leaked somehow, there would be dire consequences for all of them.

They hadn't mentioned any target and Iona doubted that any of her Spartans would have used the word Assassination out loud if they knew another person was in the room.

"Warrant Officer, Wilson Ingred, Ma'am," She said as she saluted the Spartan Fireteam leader.

"What's the situation?" Iona asked, knowing that the officer wouldn't have come back simply to check up on the prowler's passengers.

"We're fifteen minutes from Coruscant, has the landing point been confirmed?" She asked.

Due to the mission parameters, no landing point was given to the crew of the Acrisius during their mission briefing. All they had been told was that they were to transport a Spartan Fireteam to Coruscant upon which further orders would be given once they arrived. Being an ONI crew, they knew this meant no questions asked that weren't strictly necessary to complete their mission.

As the team gathered around the small holotable in the centre of the room, Iona brought out a small data chip from her armour and inserted it into the table. As the dark room lit up with the display it was revealed to be an expandable map of Coruscant and an estimated approach of the prowler once they emerged from slipstream space. Warrant Offc6ier Wilson made sure to pay close attention.

"First of all, there's not going to be a landing zone," Iona said, catching Wilson off guard as she quickly looked up at the Spartan and then back down to the map.

She watched as the holographic imitation of the Acrisius appeared on the map and got closer to the planet. Switching to a much more enhanced setting the details of the city became much more clear like they were looking at direct satellite footage taken at cloud level of the city planet.

"Making sure we get to the surface undetected should be your crew's main objective so active camouflage and all other systems need to be running as we make our approach," Iona informed her, stating the importance that they not be seen by Republic forces defending Coruscant.

"They'll be operating the instant we arrive in the system," Wilson said.

Iona nodded in acknowledgement before she continued, "Once we get past the defence fleet, you'll need to bring us to this point right here," Iona said as the pinned location and coordinates appeared on the display. "Avoiding all civilian and military traffic along the way is vital to our mission," She said.

To the ordinary crewman, the point on the map she had chosen looked like no more than a vaguely obscured rooftop that belonged to one of the large apartment buildings that frequented Coruscant and went miles deep into the upper depths of the hollow planet. Each part got worse in quality and life the further down it went with only the wealthy surface class being able to afford the accommodations that saw the light of day.

While Earth and her colonies were no strangers to hard times and problems with the homeless population, even a decade after the war ended, the problems on Coruscant still bothered more than just Fireteam Royal. During the Human-Covenant war when entire planets were lost and never to be regained, the number of vagrants skyrocketed and aside from joining the military, there was little hope for gainful employment elsewhere if they survived.

On a planet as prosperous and wealthy as Coruscant though, the differences were large and clear. The Galactic Civil War wasn't an all-or-nothing affair. Of course, nobody within the UEG expected either side to put the war on hold so that each side could deal with its own internal problems. However, cutting budgets from the public sector to fund the war when they were already on their last legs started to draw some serious backlash from both the United Earth Government as well as thousands of neutral systems.

"Understood, what about extraction?" The officer asked as just like the destination, little to no information was given afterwards.

"If all goes to plan, we'll find our own way off-world," Iona stated.

Understanding the Spartan's instructions, Warrant Officer Ingred saluted and then left to report to the cockpit and inform the primary pilot of the designated landing point.

"And if it doesn't go according to plan?" Matt asked once he was sure Wilson was out of earshot.

Iona didn't turn to face Matt, "Then I'm not sure there'll be much left to extract," She said, deactivating the holotable map.

That was the last piece of conversation before the ship exited slipstream space. Acrisius' stealth and countermeasure systems were already up and running to avoid detection by any ship no matter their designation when they emerged. Making sure to put enough visual distance between the planet and the ship, the small screw of the Acrisius kept the engines at a low yet reasonable acceleration until they reached their cruising speed and they killed the engines.

If it were not for the first law of motion, keeping the engines burning would have been an impossible necessity to keep moving forward and both the optical camouflage and heat sinks would not keep the enemy fooled forever.

Monitoring the situation from inside the ship, Iona, Lexi, Matt and Kate stood hovering around the Holotable which had been reset to show their current position in relation to the planet they were approaching. However, included in the display was a very large portion of the Coruscant Defence Fleet. Despite the alarming number of ships that had been reassigned to the front lines to fill in the gaps, the fleet still numbered in the thousands. From the smaller Arquitens-class light cruisers to the versatile and populous Venator-Class star destroyer, countless ships of various classes were spread far and wide above Coruscant. All of them were ready to defend the Capital of the Republic against any enemy.

All the ship's systems showed as green and fully operational from the holotable but as they got closer to the planet, the Spartan's nerves started to jolt. Even if the ship was caught and identified as an allied UNSC vessel, it would be clear their intentions were not friendly. In the event that they were made, the Spartan Commander would have to make the difficult choice. Would they attempt to continue the mission and risk being intercepted by the Republic forces, or retreat and hope that Fireteam Resolute would succeed without them?

As Iona debated herself, the choice was made for her. For obvious reasons, there were no windows in the cabin and even the cockpit had covers that would obscure the view of the pilots and force them to rely entirely on instruments. With nothing but the three-dimensional display in front of the Fireteam Royal let out a collective sigh of relief. The holographic render of the ship showed them safely passing through the gap between a Venator-Class Star Destroyer and an Acclamator-Class Assault ship.

"Well, that's the easy part over with," Iona said as she opened her com-link to the cockpit, "Pilot, I'm sending you the coordinates for our drop location, remaining undetected is still the priority," She commanded as she used the holotable to pinpoint the location on the map and send it through to the cockpits heads-up display.

By now, they were mere minutes from their destination, "Alright Spartans, final systems check," Iona instructed.

Without any further hesitation or doubt, every member of Fireteam Royal equipped and secured any loose armour then ran several rapid diagnostic checks through their armour's onboard computer. As was standard procedure, their armour check was followed by lining up by the door and racking the slides on their weapons. Nothing was left to chance, whether they were dropping into a desolate battlefield with lethal weapons fire all around them or an urban environment swarming with civilians.

Regardless of any earlier wavering convictions or fears about the mission, none of the Spartans even flinched when it came time to do the job. Did they have ideas, thoughts, maybe even a few private undutiful opinions about the job they were ready to do? Perhaps but now wasn't the time for them. Known for uniqueness, strength and quick thinking, another trait shared amongst the Spartan Core was loyalty.

The number of Spartans compared to regular troops from the Navy and Army was of course very small, but the amount of Spartans that had betrayed the UNSC or disobeyed orders for impure intentions was small enough to count on one hand.

"ETA to target, sixty seconds," A voice announced over the ship's internal speakers.

Iona had neither the time nor interest to wonder if it was the voice of Warrant Officer Wilson, the pilot or just another one of the Acrisius' crew. All that mattered now was getting off the ship, getting into position and awaiting further orders. With each second that went by feeling like an hour, the four supersoldiers stood firm and ready until the very last moment.

Any one of them could have used their HUD to check their location but they didn't need to. Each of them could feel the speed, movement and direction of the Acrisius. When the speed decreased and the momentum tried to push them forward, the Spartans knew they were about to disembark the ship. A slow but sudden twist alerted them to the fact that the ship was now at its final destination.

"Active Camouflage now!" Iona ordered as the hatchway started to lower and the bright daylight of midafternoon Coruscant broke into the room. While the Acrisius could maintain its own active optical camouflage with the rear entryway open and exposed, it meant that anybody standing behind the Prowler would be able to see any part of the exposed interior.

To decrease the odds of them being seen Fireteam Royal would have to vacate the ship with their Mjolnir armour active camouflage, at least until they secured the area.

Half crouched, Iona and Matt departed first with their rifles raised high and ready. If ordered to fire he would, but Matt hoped that no civilians somehow found their way into their crosshairs. Luck seemed to be with though as Lexi and Kate disembarked the rooftop was completely deserted. Scanning their immediate surroundings and keeping one eye permanently affixed to their motion trackers, Fireteam Royal set up defensive positions in all directions until their Captain said otherwise.

Two corners of the rooftop were completely exposed to the open space of Coruscant's skies but the building was up high enough that there was little to no traffic that could spot them. The Two corners opposite had rough-looking walls made out of red and black bricks, none of which looked like they were properly stable or belonged on the building. Whether it was partially demolished, collapsed or never fully built in the first place, the wall offered enough cover with several scraps left on the roof to act as a makeshift sniper nest.

"Lexi, start setting up over there," Iona ordered, pointing at the small brick formation that was several feet high, pointing in the right direction and had an almost perfect hole in the middle for the barrel of Lexi's heavily modified SRS99-S7 sniper rifle.

Wasting no time, Lexi stood from her defensive stance and moved over to the formation where she'd likely be lying down for several hours. "I'm guessing that's my target," She stated, pointing her finger towards the light-scattering dome of the Senate Building.

"It's where your target's going to be," Iona replied as she turned around, "Matt, I'm not risking this mission on one sniper shot so go find us some transport in case we have to get up close and personnel," She ordered.

"Yes Ma'am, anything in particular?" Matt asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

"Fast, Big enough for four Spartans and won't be traced back to our location," Iona said.

"On it," Matt said as he approached the ledge of the roof.

Iona and Kate saw him activate his camouflage once again just as he casually walked over the edge. Neither of them knew if he had intended to use his Jetpack, Grapple or his suit Hydrostatic gel to survive the fall, but they both brushed his seemingly careless behaviour with an eye-roll. After all, They were all Spartan IVs who had gone through hell and back multiple times. They weren't reckless, but walking straight off the ledge of a cloud-touching skyscraper was nothing they shouldn't have been able to get themselves out of with very little effort.

"Kate, set up an internal sensor screen then barricade that door, we'll need to know if anybody gets close to our position," Iona commanded.

Silently, Kate advanced to the old metal door. It was rusting heavily and looked like it hadn't been opened since before Humanity had even invented Slipspace travel. Nevertheless, with a less than gentle tug from the augmented super-soldier, it soon came loose as did most of its inner workings. It was no matter, Kate's plan to blockade it wouldn't have her relying upon it being in working order anyway.

With only Iona and Lexi remaining on the rooftop, they started to make preparations. Lexi was satisfied with the improvised sniper nest she had constructed and went to work on making the necessary field modifications to her rifle. One of the modifications made to her sniper was the improved barrel and firing mechanism that resulted in the total elimination of a vapour trail. A drawback that revealed the shooter's position to the enemy, previous versions of the SRS had the unfortunate effect of leaving a very long and obvious Vapor trail in the air. Once it was traced back to the user, they were sitting ducks.

While a lot of the SRS99-S7's features made it far greater than any of its predecessors, some of its components made it a less-than-desirable weapon for its job. From secret ONI operatives to the stealth teams of the Spartan Core, its bulk made it heavy to manoeuvre quickly to the unaugmented ONI spooks. To the Spartans though, its glaringly obvious issue was the scope. There were no issues with magnification or windage, but it was still too reflective for what the teams liked.

Spending weeks if not months tracking a target, crawling through miles of torturesome environments and then lining up the perfect shot only to have the target spot the glare from the sniper's scope and retreat to safety. It was the worst possible outcome for a dedicated sniper on a kill mission.

It was for this reason that Kate started disassembling the complex scope on the rifle, taking great care not to damage it as she placed it gently on the ground. It was an unneeded piece but was also very delicate and expensive. Kate wasn't worried about how she would seek out her target though. While the scope of the SRS99-S7 was a pricey piece of equipment, the latest generation Mjolnir helmet was much, much more expensive.

Linking the weapon's optical system to her helmet rather than the scope, she would have more than enough zoom capabilities to hit her intended target at double the distance she was currently ready for.

Meanwhile, Iona kept her head on a 360 swivel to the point where it would have made a regular marine motion sick. She was analysing everything in their immediate surroundings. Looking for threats, escape routes, possible ingress points, and anything that could be even remotely related to their mission. Fireteam Royal was already the fallback plan in the event that Captain Jack and the rest of Fireteam Resolute failed. For them to fail could put their entire Galaxy at risk of falling.

As she watched Kate making the final adjustments to her weapon, Iona's eyes drifted downward as she took a short moment to stare at her armour when she was reminded of something. More and more dread was filling her by the second at the thought of the consequences of the mission failing. She needed a guarantee that if killing Palpatine was required, there would be no chance of failure.

She was reminded of how during the Republic's campaign on Umbara, the then-First Lieutenant Spartan Jack along with the clones Jesse and Hardcase had used enemy fighters to infiltrate one of their heavily protected supply ships. She had heard from him and read in the mission report that once they got inside, an internal energy shield prevented them from using the weapons at their disposal to destroy the ship's weapon cache and by extension, the ship.

The solution her then-First Lieutenant came up with was called brilliant by some and stupidly suicidal by a lot more. Overriding his suit's safety systems, he had sent a power surge to the Mjolnir's shields and managed to survive the entirety of the ship blowing up with him still inside it. Now though, Iona was considering doing the same but instead of boosting power to her shields, she'd take it one step further. Disabling the regulators completely and letting the micro-fusion reactor detonate.

If she was left with absolutely no alternatives, approaching the target solo and letting her armour's reactor go critical would be almost guaranteed to work. Wincing hard, she weighed the decision in her head over and over again. Taking out half the building and an unknown amount of civilians with her just to kill the Chancellors was a next-to-impossible call to make, even for her. However, she was certain that there was no level of power, Sith of Jedi that would allow Palpatine to survive being incinerated by the fire of a miniature sun.

"Everything alright, Captain?" Kate asked without turning her head away from her sniper. Almost sensing her commander's frustrations behind her.

"Fine," She stated plainly, "For heaven's sake Jack, don't fail," She added in a whisper under her breath.

'Well, at least the explosion would incinerate my armour,' Iona thought to herself, bearly consoled by the fact that if she did have to sacrifice herself for the mission, it was unlikely that the UNSC would ever be linked to it.

Meanwhile…

UNSC Condor

Slipspace, On route to Kamino

Since entering Slipspace, Captain Jack had barely looked up from the Condor's holotable. It had already been a daunting forty-five minutes since their departure. Only having completed half their journey, every minute that past him brought forth a fearsome drop of sweat. From the early days when he was but just another regular soldier, to the first day, he was a Spartan…Captain, Jack never expected to be put in a position where his actions and those of the men under his command would inflict the fate of unknown trillions. Naively hoped perhaps, but not expected.

The fate of the galaxies, both new and old, would likely be decided by what was about to happen within the next few hours. Over and over again he thought to himself, why did it have to be him? He was no more special than any other Spartan, all the Forerunner armour and weapons couldn't change the fact that there were hundreds of other Spartan teams out there. Admiral Lasky could have chosen any one of them to complete this mission, he was sure Roland could have run a simulation of their mission a million times over and he wouldn't make the top fifty Spartans available.

Even risking the wait to reassign Blue Team to Andromeda seemed like a better idea in his head. Who knows where they were currently stationed anyway? Probably off on some ancient Forerunner world fighting those nightmarish Promethean knights. Despite the number of droids in the war, the hostiles he had faced during the early stages of the Requiem campaigns gave him something to really be afraid of. Compared to the dullness of the B1 battle droids he now found himself frequently fighting, the Promethean knights had the combat width of a dozen of his new adversaries.

However, none of it mattered now. He and the nine fighters under his command and care were the ones assigned to the mission. The fate of the galaxy, home and away rested in their hands and nobody else's.

With the weight of duty keeping his head down, Captain Jack could not honestly say which challenge brought him more burden. Failing the mission and cementing the path for the galaxy to be ruled by a disguised tyrant, or putting his team, his men, in a position where they would have to sacrifice their own lives.

All of them were dedicated warriors of course, prepared to lay down their lives for victory and countless numbers of them already had. Captain Jack was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his men and he knew that if he asked them, they'd follow him into the deepest darkest canyon without hesitation. That was the kind of loyalty he respected and feared at the same time. There was a difference between a mission that would likely get them all killed and an order that would do the same.

Giving the order is what Captain Jack feared.

The thought of sending his loyal soldiers to their deaths was a heavier weight on his chest than failing the mission and allowing Palpatine to use the clones as mind-controlled slaves to eliminate the Jedi and the soldiers of the UNSC they'd been fighting alongside for close to more than a year.

Would he give such an order? Without hesitation. That didn't make it easy though. It was only when he felt the faintest tear well up in the back of his eye at such thoughts, that he shook his head to get himself back to mission readiness.

His sudden movement from what had been a statue-like stiffness caught the eye of Ahsoka as well as a couple of his men. Internally he cursed himself out for not only allowing himself to think such thoughts right before a mission but to show any sort of emotional display in front of his team. For the fact that he had his helmet on, he was most thankful.

None of the crew brought it up. Perhaps they knew what their Captain was thinking, or they just didn't give it any further speculation. As he moved his eyes within his helmet looking at his crew members around him, Captain Jack decided he had gone over his plan long enough.

Picking himself up and shutting down the holotable, he made his way to the primary cockpit. Marching up to the door and stepping through into the small space ahead. While the Condor was at its base, a scaled-up Pelican, it was clearly not designed with Spartan pilots in mind. Especially not ones wearing heavy-duty experimental armour.

"I'll take it from here Cadmon," He said.

Cadmon turned the seat around, "Are you sure Sir? ETA is less than one hour," He asked.

"I'm sure, I'll take us in," Captain Jack stated.

"Understood Sir," Cadmon acknowledged as he got up from the cockpit seat and shifted his way past the Spartan Captain.

Taking the seat, Captain Jack ran a quick visual inspection as he did with any piece of equipment he took hold of. Their ship's onboard AI was functioning properly and guiding them through the perilous dimensional subdomain that was Slipstream space. All other non-essential systems were running smoothly with no indications of failure.

He left the checks there, the weapons and countermeasure systems were the responsibility of the officer in the secondary cockpit below him. Of course if necessary, control over the ship and its armament could be switched between the two or handled solely by one. Captain Jack trusted Jun though who was currently manning the controls beneath, and felt no serious need to check the individual weapons for any damage or malfunction.

"Enjoying the view?" He asked openly, staring at the endless tunnel of white, blue and black outside the cockpit window.

"Leaves a little to be desired," A female voice came from behind him.

Jack turned around to see Ahsoka standing in the doorway, it was hardly a shock. Even if he had ignored one of the hundred systems that would have alerted him to the presence of somebody else in the cockpit, he never heard the door automatically shut. It was hardly in the interest of any of his crew to follow him either, so guessing who was blocking the automatic sensors was no more than an educated guess.

"Everyone's a critic," James said sarcastically, removing his helmet and hanging it on the pole-shaped edge of the cockpit seat. "How are the new lightsabers treating you?" He asked. The glimmer of Slipspace reflecting off of the freshly polished metal caught his eyes.

"I haven't had the chance to find out yet," Ahsoka said, picking up the hilt of one, "Anakin always thought I'd come back I suppose, maybe he still does," She said, letting go of the gift her old master had given her.

The smile on Jack's face dropped slightly, "I think I probably owe him an apology, even throughout all that mess on Coruscant, we still had the same goal in mind," He said.

"How is yours finding you?" Ahsoka asked, nodding towards the single lightsaber hanging from the Spartan's armour.

Captain Jack dropped his head to look at the weapon before looking back up at Ahsoka, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel guilty about using it properly for the first time against a Jedi," He said, referring to his still recent fight against Jedi Master Shaak Ti.

"Master Ti can be fairly forgiving. If she knew the truth, she'd understand," She said reassuringly.

"You know, there's a good chance we'll run into her again," Jack commented.

"Well…you've got time to start working on your apology," Ahsoka said sarcastically.

"I was never good at apologies," Jack said.

"Shocker," Ahsoka replied.

The Spartan Captain let a small chuckle escape his lips before it started to drop again. "You were a Commander for a while, right?" He asked unexpectedly.

"Uh yeah, since the battle of Christophsis," She answered with a raised eyebrow, "Why?" She asked.

"Those men out there…" Jack said, looking aimlessly towards the main fuselage, "They're trusting me to lead them into this, I can't guarantee I'll get them all out, you've been in this situation more than me…how'd you do it," He choked.

Ahsoka's look of puzzlement was replaced by a tight wince. The former Jedi Apprentice involuntarily thought back on the many Clones and Jedi she used to know before they were taken by the war.

"At first, I thought it would be easy. As it turned out, my first solo command was difficult. I was young, brash and probably even egotistic," Ahsoka said, "I led my fighter squadron right into a trap I was warned about and it got nearly every single one of them killed, including my second in command," She said.

"Axe?" Captain Jack asked softly, getting a rapid look of shock and confusion.

"How'd you know?" Ahsoka asked quickly.

"As it turns out, six months of watching and waiting to join a war…gives you plenty of time to read battle reports," Jack explained.

"And throughout those reports, which I'm sure weren't obtained through hacking Republic systems, did you notice anything in particular?" Ahsoka said, leading him on to an answer he wasn't sure about.

Staying silent, however, Captain Jack remained completely oblivious.

"The difference is, I wasn't thinking about my men before that mission, throughout the briefings and the battle I charged forward without a second thought and that's what got my squadron killed," Ahsoka said.

Once again, Captain Jack stayed silent. He was clearly thinking about what she had said as he scrunched his face.

"I was barely a corporal before I became a Spartan, I'd ordered men into the field before but…something about it was different," Jack said, struggling to find the correct words.

"Maybe you're becoming more attached to them than you thought," Ahsoka suggested, looking towards the outline of Captain Rex and Rookie whom she could see from the doorway.

Captain Jack forced his eyes to the floor, "Attachments only lead to distractions, distractions get people killed," Jack said, expressing his thoughts on getting too close.

Showing signs of clear disagreement, Ahsoka slowly walked closer to the pilot's seat and knelt down to the Spartan's level causing the Captain to casually raise his head to meet her.

"The Jedi Code said almost as much too, perhaps both could do with a bit of a change?" Ahsoka said softly, resting her hand on the Spartan's heavily armoured shoulder.

With his eyes no longer glued to the floor, Captain Jack found them almost stuck looking into the ones belonging to the Togruta opposite him. Her bright blue eyes paralysed his just as strong. The Spartan soldier had no idea what he was doing and every bit of his mind told him to slap himself in the face and stop staring at her. To each other, they had no emotions that either could read, both of them were just frozen, staring at each other.

Neither had the courage to move which only increased the Captain's shock when he involuntarily when his head inching closer to hers. His eyes were already half shut as he moved closer.

The last thing Captain Jack expected was to be violently thrown from his seat directly into the controls of the ship. In an equally intense force, Ahsoka was unknowingly pulled to the floor. Both of them hitting their heads against the rock-hard surfaces, they quickly shook themselves off and regained their composure. Following protocol, Captain Jack rapidly threw on his helmet, sealing it in place before hurling himself forward to the ship's controls.

"What was that!?" Came the nearly synchronous responses from half the crew in the main cabin of the ship. All of whom had felt the powerful force that swept through the small ship, taking most of them to the floor, walls or ceiling.

Before he could out any of the sensors or ask the ship's dumb AI, Jun was already standing by to report.

"Captain, You're not gonna believe this, but we ran into a damn Slipstream wake," Jun reported in disbelief.

Captain Jack's face twitched before he replied, "Are you kidding me right now? Of all the times!" He shouted in frustration.

"What's a Slipstream Wake?" Ahsoka asked frantically as both Fives and Rex approached the open cockpit.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Captain Jack had no time to deliver a lecture on the incredibly rare phenomenon which occurred only sometime after a ship had made a slipspace transition. It was an incredibly rare event that happened when a ship travelling through slipstream space was caught in the trail of another ship on the same path. If not dealt with quickly enough the results can become catastrophic.

Due to the use of SSEP or Safe Slipspace Entry Points by UEG and UNSC vessels, it wasn't impossible for such a phenomenon to accrue, but so rare was it that most ship Captains didn't put a thought to the potential problem when entering and leaving slipspace. After all, there were a hundred problems more likely to happen to them. Essentially during the war when the Covenant ships were hundreds of times faster than Human ones, a ship could enter slipspace knowing that nothing hostile was on the other side and emerge to meet an entire enemy battle fleet.

"Another ship must have jumped out of the system on the same SSEP as us, we're caught in their trail!" Captain Jack hastily informed them.

"What does that mean, Sir?" Fives asked from behind.

"It means our ETA just went from sixty minutes to less than ten seconds!" Captain Jack shouted.

Taking the warning, Fives immediately left the cockpit followed closely by Captain Rex. "Everyone strap yourselves in!" Jack heard Fives order out as the door to the cockpit shut behind them.

"Why now!?" Jack grumbled to himself as he started adjusting controls left and right to try and prepare the ship for the oncoming exit from slipspace. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Ahsoka.

"I'm fine," She replied, holding one hand to her head and walking forward to look out the cockpit window.

"Jun! Activate all stealth and countermeasure systems," Captain Jack ordered.

"Yes Sir, The Condor wasn't designed with stealth in mind though, it won't be long before they see us," Jun replied with a warning.

"Stealth was never an option, once we get through the fleet I'll get us in firing range for the missile," Captain Jack said.

Transferring the ship over from auto-pilot to manual, Captain Jack set the thrusters to standby mode so they'd be ready to hit their maximum output upon exiting slipspace. Ordinarily, the UNSC ship procedure would have been to run a pre-burn warm-up cycle for the fusion reactors. Such a process, however, would have taken several minutes at the best of times, and now was not the best of times as the ETA timer on Captain Jack's HUD went from four to three.

Internally, Captain Jack was securing his hopes on the civilian engineers at Misriah Armory who created the Condor, and prayed that whoever was on quality control wasn't slacking off the day their bird rolled off the assembly line. For now, though, putting the engines into standby was the best he could do as the second they emerged, he'd be ramming them up to full throttle.

In a partially dead-tone voice typical of shipboard dumb Ai's, Corsair started the countdown over the ship's internal speakers.

"Exiting Slipstream In 3…"

"2…"

"1…"

The voice cut off as the spiralling display of black, white and blue was replaced with the emptiness of space. All empty of course except for the ocean world of Kamino sat right in front of them accompanied by what had to have been the second largest fleet in the Republic Navy. However, immediately after exiting slipspace, there was something of immediate concern.

"Well, I guess we know what caused the slipspace wake," Jun commented.

Even though they were still a considerable distance from Kamino and the Republic fleet looked like ants, there was one thing missing from the defensive blockade…nearly all of the UNSC ships. Ahsoka and Captain Jack pinned their eyes on what Jun had commented on.

A short distance from the ring of Venators and Acclamators the last of what was the UNSC Seventh Guardian Fleet jumping into slipspace. Jack didn't need to use the optical enhancers to see that at least three small cruiser-sized ships were currently entering slipspace. What greatly concerned though was why. If there were any scheduled system departures of this size, Admiral Lasky would have warned them.

"Why would your fleet be leaving?" Ahsoka asked from behind Jack.

"No idea, but for a fleet that size to leave so suddenly…something big is happening," Captain Jack said eerily.

As soon as he spoke, Captain Jack forced the throttle control for the engines all the way to the limiter. In less than a second, the Condor gained a burst of continuous speed and streaked right across the empty plane right towards the ocean-dominated planet. On both the ship and Captain Jack's own onboard armour computer, the ETA to collision with the planet's atmosphere was being automatically calculated. Captain Jack had no intention of using either though, he'd get past the Republic fleet and down to the surface by his own eye.

"Captain, the active camouflage is holding but the Republic fleet knows something is up, chatter is spiking," Jun reported.

"They don't know what's heading for them, prepare to send auxiliary power to the shields!" Captain Jack ordered, sure that it would only be a matter of seconds before they started firing on the unidentified ship.

"I'm guessing lowering the camouflage isn't an option?" Captain Rex said over the comm.

"They've already clocked our ship before, if anything they'd shoot at us sooner," Cadmon casually informed the clone Captain.

With every second that passed, the ships ahead of the Condor got larger and larger. They had already been within firing range for several minutes and every hundred kilometres they closed meant that the gunners on the Republic ships would have an easier time. The only saving grace was that the electronic counter-measures and active camouflage would disrupt their aim and buy them time to break the surface.

Darting back and forth between the controls and the cockpit window, Captain Jack was prepared to go to evasive manoeuvres when they started firing.

"They've opened fire!" Jun reported in alarm.

Captain Jack needed no announcement, he could see the combined firepower of nearly half a dozen Venators racing towards him in the form of hundreds of blue turbolaser blasts.

"They're firing wide, they haven't pinpointed our location yet!" Captain Jack announced, bringing a small degree of reassurance.

"They will when they start landing hits!" Ahsoka pointed out.

"Then I'll get us past them before they do," Captain Jack grunted.

Already pushing the ship's reactors and engines to their limit, Jack's only option for avoiding the incoming shots was to anticipate their movement. Tracking the movement of blaster fire was hard enough when one ship was firing, but when a large section of a planetary fleet does so, even Spartan time becomes nothing but a blur. Luckily, Captain Jack and his fireteam were flying a small nimble ship by comparison. Not flying a capital ship or anything else that could be picked up and shot with little effort certainly had its advantages at times like this.

After every tight twist and turn that Captian Jack pulled, the artificial gravity and inertial dampeners were working overtime keeping everything on the ground of the ship and not flying off in every direction. They wouldn't have to work for much longer though, the tips of the arrow-shaped Republic ships started to get within their own effective firing range, not that Captain Jack had any intention of pitting his armoured transport against an agitated hostile warship.

Disastrously though, with every small hit the Republic vessels achieved against the small UNSC ship their odds of reaching the surface got smaller and smaller. Despite their speed and agility to outmanoeuvre the ships currently firing on them, Capital ships did have their advantages in such situations. One such advantage was top-of-the-line shields that were capable of shrugging off blasts from enemy capital ships, something the Condor wasn't designed for.

The concussion that accompanied every hit on the modified UNSC transport got rougher with each and every strike.

"Fusion reactors reaching critical, Captain" Corsair warned.

For only a fraction of a second, Jack looked at the power systems on the Condor's HUD. Almost all of them were in the red. It was to be expected, he was pushing every part of the ship to its theoretical limit. Shields, Camouflage, Countermeasures, dampeners, all of them were sucking power from the Condors fusion engines. Even if he disabled the automatic safety features that would shut them down before they went critical, it would buy him a couple more seconds, maybe half a minute at best before the whole ship and everything around it was vapourised.

On the Venators, the gunners' aim started to land more shots but they started to turn as the still barely camouflaged ship started to make it past the fleet. Soaring right through the middle of two Venators, Captain Jack managed to thread the eye of the needle and get the ship past the first major threat by the skin of their teeth. It was only by sheer luck and skill that he managed to get through before either the incoming fire became too much or the engines went critical and removed any trace of them from existence.

As the red warnings started to calm down, yet another threat made its way to them.

"Sir, fighters are launching from the Venators, they'll be launching from the city as well!" Jun alerted the captain, paying close attention to the scanners.

"We'll lose anything the Venators send when we enter the atmosphere," Captain Jack said.

"And the ones from the city?" Jun enquired.

"With any luck, we'll have bailed out by then," Captain Replied.

"Do all your plans rely on luck Spartan?" Captain Rex asked over the comm.

"You worked with General Skywalker for long enough, you tell me, Captain," Jack replied.

Hearing no reply, Captain Jack focused on staying their course trajectory which was putting them on a near-vertical dive towards Tipoca city. Piercing the upper edges of Kamino's airspace, the air resistance started to build up on the ship. Even though the atmosphere was thin at their current altitude, the plating on the front of the ship started to rapidly heat up and began to glow orange. Despite the scorching heat currently searing the titanium armour of the ship, Captain Jack showed no intent of slowing down.

The throttle stayed where it was, locked fully forward. Though it was constructed from excess D79-TC Pelican frames, the Condor was a very heavy ship with all of its extra armour and equipment. The former Gunnery Sergeant Edward Malcolm Buck went on the record as describing the Condor as "looking lot like a Pelican, although it was a good bit longer and fatter".

For all its weight, the Condor had an impressive weight-to-power ratio. In a situation, such as the one Captain Jack had put it in, it became like a charging bull. Fixated on a single point and little to no hope of stopping without serious effort.

Breaking through the first bit of cloud cover, Jack was thankful that Tipoca City was currently being visited by one of their frequent heavy storms. It would help conceal their approach until the last second, not that finding the Condor would be an impossible task for the clone pilots heading toward them from both in front and behind. Knowing that the lightning storm would scramble scanners on both sides, the Spartan Captain paid little attention to them as he started to break through the final set of cloud cover.

What would normally be a short five-minute descent to the surface, had become a several-second nose dive to the open skies of the ocean world. On the horizon, the silhouette of the Tipoca city domes became visible. Their reflective nature coupled with the permanent layer of rain sent the light waves from the frequent lightning scattering off in all directions, almost acting as a locator beacon.

"We're close enough, Jun set the autopilot and then head to the rear," Captain Jack ordered.

"Copy that, Sir," Jun said, acknowledging the Captain's orders.

"You too Ahsoka, grab a jetpack and join the others," Jack told her.

"Got it, try not to fly us into the ocean," Ahsoka said sarcastically.

"Can't swim?" Jack teased.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes and left the cockpit. Captain Jack started to ease off the engines and pulled back on the flight controls, gripping them tightly as the ship started to level out. Off in the distance, he could make out several ant-sized ships heading right towards him. Enhancing his helmet's magnification, he could make them out to be a Republic fighter squadron made up of ARC-170s and V-19 Torrents.

Captain Jack couldn't make out the pilots but he could guess they were currently determined and angry. He couldn't blame them, after all, they were an unresponsive hostile ship steaming right towards the heart of the Republic military war machine. With his weapons officer now absent from the secondary cockpit, Jack left the primary weapons unarmed. While he was confident he could stand up against the shieldless and somewhat outdated V-19s, he had no intention of purposefully killing any clones if he could help it.

"Corsair?" Captain Jack said.

"Yes, Captain?" Corsair inquired.

"As soon as we've bailed out, activate the autopilot systems and get the ship to a safe distance, plot the slipspace course back to Lucazec," Captain Jack ordered.

"Understood Captain," Corsair replied.

"You know what to do if the ship is captured," Captain Jack stated.

"Per UNSC Protocol General Order 098831B-2 Article 5B, facing imminent capture or boarding by unauthorised allied forces, the ship will self-destruct," Corsair stated, repeating the amended version of what was once Article 5 of the Cole Protocol.

Alongside four other orders, the infamous protocol called for the immediate self-destruction of a UNSC ship if it were to face capture by Covenant forces. At the time, the location of Earth and the inner colonies were vital to Humanity's survival and keeping them out of the Covenant's hands was of the utmost importance. After the location of Earth was eventually discovered and the war ended only a few months later, the protocols were modified. Still extremely wary of non-human allies, Article 5 was modified but remained in place to stop anyone, friend or foe, from obtaining UNSC technology and data.

Wordlessly, Captain Jack stood up from the pilot's seat, gave one last look out the cockpit window and marched out to the cabin. As he walked in he could see all nine personnel in front of him geared up and ready. Fives handed him his MA6-NL that he had left by the holotable.

"Thanks, Fives," Jack said, putting the rifle back onto his secondary mag mount next to his standard hardlight rifle.

Marching to the front, Fives and Jack got ready to take point. "Hit the door Fives," Captain Jack ordered as he remotely accessed the M4510 missile system through his neural lance.

From his helmet's HUD, Captain Jack could see the payload for the missile launcher. Six individual Argent V missiles were primed and locked onto their target. The firing solution was locked in and awaiting a launch order. Through the translucent display, he could see the door to the Condor start to lower and the rush of wind burst into the cabin. The small platforms of Tipoca city's edges started to become visible to them as the ship passed over.

"Hey Echo, try not to die this time," Captain Rex said, gaining a light huff from the ARC trooper.

"You worry about yourself old man," Echo sarcastically replied.

With all ten of them lined up and ready for the drop, Captain Jack sent the order.

"Missles away, Mantle guide us," Jack said, looking briefly behind him to Ahsoka, "And may the force be with us," He said before leaping off the edge of the ship.

One by one the two lines of five operatives followed him. All of them pointed straight down like arrows, they could see the ship pull up steeply. Narrowly avoiding a collision with the Republic fighters closing in on them, it then continued to fly upwards until it was out of sight and sensor range completely. Despite the relatively slow flight time of the Argent V missiles, they still streaked downwards towards their target faster than the Spartans fell.

Whistling right past them, all six missiles spiralled into one single projectile and rocketed into the domed roof of one of Kamino's smaller buildings. Even with the hurricane winds of Kamino, the smoke from the explosion still flared upwards and was visible for miles. Acting as a natural fan though, the winds started to make the damage the missiles had down very clear. The six specialist penetrator missiles had all hit at once as a singular unit and carved out a large jagged chunk of the roof of the building, large enough to fit a Broadsword fighter into.

"Everyone, form up on me," Captain Jack ordered through the comm.

Closing together in a tight formation, the ten of them grouped up in preparation for insertion. The entry point was a mere eye blink away from them now.

"Steady…Deploy!" Captain Jack ordered.

All of them simultaneously activated their jetpacks and their speed collapsed to a mere fraction of what it was during their descent. If not for their hundreds of combined years in combat and war, several of them would have likely snapped their necks or spun out of control trying to perform such a deadly manoeuvre in a confined space. Luckily, the space between the roof and the ground was far enough that all of them had enough time to slow down and hit the floor without breaking their legs.

Upon landing, they all immediately scanned their surroundings. The room they had inserted into was a large-scale storage room and was thus lightly guarded. There was no resistance, however, as the three clones guarding the room were currently by the main door and on the floor. Captain Jack would have ordered Kix to check them but there was no time, the timeframe for completing their objective was almost non-existent.

Seeing the three of them breathing and in a state of semi-consciousness was enough to satisfy him though. Confident that the area was secure enough, Captain Jack turned to the nine fighters waiting for orders behind him, all of whom were weapons out and ready, the team had set up in defensive stances.

"Alright listen up, we'll split up into two squads, Alpha and Bravo. Ahsoka, Rex, Echo, Rookie, you're with me. We're heading for the DNA archives room. Fives, you take point with Bravo squad and make for the main security room, take out their eyes and then head for the gene engineering room," Captain Jack said, swiftly assigning teams and orders.

"Any questions?" Jack asked, leaving them only a half second to answer but none came, "Good, let's move out!"

Splitting up and parting, Alpha squad headed for the main door while Fives and Bravo squad made their way to one of the secondary entry points across the room. With the five of Alpha squad stacked up by the door, Captain Jack turned to Rex.

"Captain, can you get these doors open?" Captain Jack asked.

"I can, but it won't be long before they realise and change the codes," Rex cautioned.

"Do it," Captain Jack ordered.

Holstering his stun set DC-17s, Captain Rex approached the control panel for the doors. Unsurprisingly, the lockdown had completely deactivated the normal mechanism and an override code was required to open the door to the storage room from either side. While Captain Jack or Ahsoka could have sliced their way through the door, it was likely just as fast and efficient to let the clone captain use his still-valid codes.

With a near-silent mechanical whirr, the twin-panel white doors slid open to reveal a largely empty hallway.

"Captain, I've already got twelve-foot mobiles heading this way!" Rookie warned.

Captain Jack conquered as he could see the numerous red dots on his motion sensor coming towards them very quickly. He had no time for detailed action plans or assessments, not bothering to waste time looking at his squad, he withdrew both his MA6 as well as his lightsaber. He considered using his hardlight shield instead but running and gunning through the halls of Tipoca city required speed and manoeuvrability.

Before the doors had even fully opened, Captain Jack had already activated his weapon, extending his green plasma blade to the floor. Holding his MA6-NL in his other hand ready for combat. Though the MA6-NL was shorter than its lethal projectile predecessor, long-range firing was not something the Captain was likely to encounter. He calculated that the decreased accuracy was worth the extra protection afforded to him and Alpha squadron.

"Echo, Rookie, keep the rear cover. Captain, you tell us where to go while Ahsoka and I keep you covered," Captain Jack said sternly.

With an all but clear path in front of them, Captain Jack and Ahsoka took point, sprinting down the hallway ready for any further direction from Rex. On his HUD, both Rookie and Jack could see that the incoming force was approaching from two sides ahead of them.

Captain Jack knew that if they got cut off now or pinned down in a firefight the mission would be over before it had truly begun. He could see the two side doors where the clones were likely stacking up and about to charge form. Knowing that Ahsoka had no tracker or Mjlonier helmet to see where the enemy was, he directed her to the right door.

"Ahsoka, the door controls!" Captain Jack shouted, aiming with his rifle towards the blinking side access point.

Using his suit's boost thrusters, Captain Jack made for the door on the left as fast as he could and saw it begin to open right as he came within slashing distinct of it. Spartan time allowed him to increase his response time by an unthinkable factor for a very short period of time and reaching over with his rifle, he opened fire on the first clone that was standing in the double line of clones. Immediately the stunned clone fell into the body of the one beside him whose aim was now thrown off.

If the door was open for any longer than a second they would have pilled out over the stunned clone. With his small burst of speed diminishing, Captain Jack threw a violent hack at the controls for the door with his lightsaber as the momentum started to wear off. Going straight through the panel and causing the large metal door to slam shut, he dove first into a roll as the energy started to wear down.

Over his shoulder he could see Ahsoka, not weighed down by heavy weapons and armour, perform a similar attack. Instead of attacking any of the clones, however, she expertly sliced off the edge of both front clones' weapons. Leaving them weaponless, she too slashed the door console with her lightsabers.

"They'll regroup and find another way in, we need to keep moving and FAST!" Captain Jack said as all of them continued to run.

After almost a solid minute of racing down the hallway, with several more 'run and gun incidents' they quickly came to a doorless opening that led into a large room with multiple terminals and workstations suited for Kaminoan scientists. No Kaminians were in the room though owing to the lockdown order in effect, there were, however, half a dozen shock troopers waiting.

The Spartan Captain knew that hard fighting was inevitable but he cursed it happening so quickly before they were at their objective. Luckily for Alpha Squadron though, they managed to get the drop on them and without any orders from either Captain, they all engaged the small force in front of them. Captain Jack opened fire on two clones that were directly in front of two large pylons in guard positions. The increased velocity of the rounds sent the blue bolt of energy into the clones before they had even fully raised their rifles.

Meanwhile, Rex and Ahsoka had taken the right flank and engaged the four that had been further away and thus managed to open fire as well as find some meek cover. Behind the Captain, Rookie noticed the impending delay they couldn't afford, he reached down to where his grenades were stored and pulled off a single plasma grenade. Carrying stun grenades would have been a better option but the last thing Rookie wanted was to temporarily blind Ahsoka who was currently engaged in a fight with the sergeant leading the small clone squadron.

However, the aim of the former shock trooper was not at the feet of the enemy combatant, nor was it behind them where Ahsoka might have been safer from its extreme temperatures. Instead, he hurled it upwards to the second furthest pylon away from Ahsoka and the sergeant. Sticking to the very tip of the pylon, the three-second fuse quickly expired and the 9.3 ounces of latent plasma detonated in a flash of white-blue light.

Ahsoka had seen the grenade stick just moments before it went off and jumped backwards out of the blast radius. The kill radius was less than four meters and only worked in incinerating the top portion of the pylon. The much larger damage radius of almost thirteen meters took its toll though. In addition to the sergeant, the clone closest to him had been blown forward several meters and both were knocked thoroughly unconscious by the force.

Just before the explosion knocked out two of the clones, the third remaining one that Captain missed after firing on the first two had remained behind cover, taking close but ineffective shots at the Spartan Captain. Certain that his armour shields which currently rested at 73% could take a few more hits, he moved from his own cover and sprinted towards the hidden clone.

Taking a page out of Ahsoka's playbook, Captain Jack dove over the crouch-height cover the clone was taking refuge behind. Flying right over the top of him, he aimed his blade towards the clone's blaster. The Spartan was glad that the clone was using a DC-15 and not a carbine since the 1.3-meter-long blaster rifle made it easy for him to cut through it with his lightsaber.

Not letting the element of confusion pass, Captain Jack grabbed the clone by the edge of the now useless weapon and strongly pulled him forward before ducking as the clone was pulled forward. Sending the unwanted soldier over his shoulder, Jack sent the soldier by the arm directly onto the floor head and back first.

Leaving no time for conversation, Captain Jack immediately took to leading the squad further into the facility. Approaching another sealed door, Jack didn't waste time waiting to see if the clone captain's code was still working. The door was relatively thin and unarmoured by the Spartan's estimation. Raising his lightsaber, he slashed a large cross into the door before stepping back several paces. At that very moment, several blue-blaster bolts whizzed over their heads.

On his HUD the Captain could see that the clones Ahsoka and he had blocked off before had found another way through and were currently chasing them down into the room while firing. Echo and Rookie immediately took to returning non-lethal fire to slow them down. Meanwhile, Captain lined himself up and holstered his weapons before combining both his extreme Spartan speed with his armour's boosters and charged like a bull towards the weakened door.

As the most hardened part of his armour, Captain Jack went in head and shoulders first. Against his speed, weight and power, the door held no chance of withstanding the human super-soldier. With the sounds of snapping metal, the way was now clear to pass through as a large boulder-sized hole was left.

"Good ol' Spartan ingenuity," Rookie commented as his armour took several blaster hits, his shields glowing a bright gold as they struggled to recharge under the hail of a dozen clones' weapon fire.

One by one, they all dove into the Spartan-sized hole in the door. As it got down to Echo and Rookie, the former Helljumper activated his hardlight shield just as his energy shields were fully depleted.

"I've got you covered Echo, go!" Rokie shouted as he held back the barrage of blaster fire from the still sizable clone force despite the number they had managed to stun. Moving and shooting, Rookie's fire dropped in accuracy and he focused more on suppressing fire while Echo leapt through the hole. Checking over his shoulder to see if Echo had made it, Rookie checked his shields and noticed that they were nearly a third charged when his hardlight shield collapsed from the overwhelming blaster fire.

Turning his back to the clones, he jumped for the exit while taking shot after shot to his armour. At the very moment his shields once again collapsed, he just bearly made it through the gap in the door when a single lucky blast hit the joint in the shoulder plating of his armour.

"Agh!" Rookie grunted in pain as he found himself on the other side of the doorway.

"Rookie! You good?" Captain Jack asked worriedly, glad he was at least still alive and responsive.

"I think so Sir, damn bastards got me right in-between the blades, no offence Captain Rex," Rookie said, looking towards the clone Captain.

"None taken trooper, I guess I should be proud of them in a way," Rex said.

While he checked his injury which his suit had already been injected with bio-foam, Ahsoka approached the gap in the door. Reaching out with both hands, she used the force to crush the base of a terminal pylon near the door on the other side. Rotating it vertically, she smashed it against the wall and dropped it directly on top of the arched doorway, completely blocking it off from the clones.

Before Rookie reported on the enemy soldiers, he noticed something appear on his HUD.

CRITICAL ENERGY-SHIELD FAILURE: POWER CONNECTION COMPROMISED

ENGAGING SAFE MODE

"Well shit," Rookie said, straining his neck to look at the damaged part of his armour.

"What's wrong solider?" Jack asked, noting his Lance Corpral's newfound concern.

"They hit the damn power servo link, I've still got power to everything else but the shields are dead," Rookie answered.

With another element of struggle added to the mission, the short engagement report Rookie had only added to them as he faced the captain.

"Captain, those clones…their markings, they're Coruscant Guard," Rookie informed them, still breathing heavily through the pain.

"Fox's men, that makes this more difficult," Captain Jack said, "Can you still fight?" He asked Rookie.

In response, Rookie grabbed hold of his weapon off the floor and pushed himself up, "Sir yes, sir," he said.

Satisfied enough to continue, Jack turned to face Captain Rex, "Captain, how much further to the DNA archives room?" Captain Jack asked as the five of them continued to sprint down the hallway.

"We landed pretty close, it should be just up here inside the Genetic Records Hall," Captain Rex informed them. while pointing to what looked to be a heavily armed and guarded set of doors.

As they got closer without any further resistance, Captain Jack peered around the corner to where the records room was. It was what looked to be a heavily armed and guarded set of doors. The large corridor had an entire platoon of soldiers guarding it, looking closer at them, Jack counted his blessings as none of them had any red colour markings. Instead, though, they had grey lines and coloured chest and shoulder plates, which meant Kaminoan security.

The clones assigned to the Kaminoan were by no means as elite as the Coruscant Guard despite similarly styled armour markings. However, they were by no means as inexperienced as a raw clone recruit. Getting past forty-one of them, including four sergeants and a lieutenant was not going to be an easy task for the five of them.

Far enough away that they could speak unheard, Captain Jack turned his head to look at the line beside him.

"One platoon, Kamino security force," Captain Jack reported.

"The Plan?" Echo asked.

Captain Jack took one more quick look around the corner before snapping back. "Alright, Rookie and I will use our camouflage to sneak around the corner while Echo and Ahsoka wait here. Rex, sprint past the junction and try to hit as many of them as you can, once they start chasing you we'll have them outflanked in three positions," He explained.

"Not the first time I've been bait I suppose," Captain Rex commented, "Let's do it," He said, drawing his duel pistols up high.

Silently, both Captain Jack and Rookie both activated their armour camouflage and made their way out from behind the corner as quietly as possible. Fortunately for the two of them, the hallway was wide enough that the clones were spread relatively thin and they could sneak into the grooves in the wall once they made it past the soldiers. Practically tip-toying towards their new location, Jack and Rookie both made it without alerting the enemy.

"We're in position," Captain Jack said, using TEAMCOM so as to not alert the enemy standing mere feet in front of them.

"Copy that," Captain Rex acknowledged.

Mere seconds later, Captain Rex sprinted out from the junction corner and opened fire with his twin DC17s sending out several rapid-fire stun rounds. Though they were not packed in tightly, Captain Rex still managed to hit three of the unsuspecting clone guards before the first one started to fire back. Right as the clone captain reached the edge of the next adjoining corridor, a blaster bolt skimmed his armour and singed it as he made for cover.

As the smoke rose off of his burnt shoulder guard, the clones giving chase marched right into the trap. Once they left their positions to the point when they were directly in the centre of the three-way junction, the Captain and Lance Corporal dropped their active camouflage and opened fire. Simultaneously, Echo opened fire as well while Ahsoka provided cover.

Suddenly there was mass confusion amongst the clone troopers and while it quickly wore off, there was barely two-thirds of them remaining by the time they consolidated their fire. Most of them had turned around when the shots started coming from all directions, giving Rex enough time to emerge from the alcove he was using for cover and stunned three more clones. Upon opening fire, Rookie, the Captain and Echo managed to stun and drop almost half the group.

Drawing most of the fire were Ahsoka, Rookie and Captain Jack which allowed most of the fire to be deflected by Ahsoka or absorbed by the Spartan V Captain's armour.

Overall, the total engagement time was less than five seconds and as Captain Jack fired the last shot, the final clone soldier, a lieutenant, fell to the floor with blue energy from the MA6-NL shot still pulsing through his body and armour.

Stepping over the unconscious bodies of the clone platoon, Alpha squadron regrouped at the door. By close observations alone, it was much more heavily armoured and secure than any of the others they had opened or blown through.

"I'm not getting any movement inside the room, Sir, the door might be blocking our scanners though," Rookie commented.

With an unknown number of potential hostels behind the door, Captain Jack went over their options, a familiar voice came over the TEAMCOM.

"Captain, Bravo team has taken the main security control room, We're planting charges now" Fives reported.

"Excellent work, casualties?" Captain Jack asked.

"Cadmon took a couple of rounds to the arm, he'll be alright though sir," Kix said over the comm.

"Join the club," Rookie commented.

Ignoring the comments, Captain Jack turned his attention to getting into the DNA archives room. "Fives, do you have access to the door controls from your location?" Jack asked over TEAMCOM.

"Affirmative sir, We're still under attack though, I doubt we'll be able to hold this position for more than a few minutes," Fives replied, the sound of blaster fire coming through to the captain.

"Copy that, I need you to open the door to the DNA archives room," Captain Jack ordered.

"Yes Sir, and then?" Fives asked.

"Blow the room and keep on causing as much noise as possible until we can confirm the chips are no longer a threat," Captain Jack replied.

"Understood, standby on the door Captain," Fives informed.

Captain Jack closed the line of communication and silently gestured with his rifle for them to all stack up on the door.

The five of them split with Jack, Ahsoka and Rex crouching by the left side while Rookie and Echo took the right. All of them waited patiently for the doors to open however, none of them were forced to wait much longer. Stacked up and ready for a fight, Alpha Squadron felt the ground start to rumble. Captain Jack looked down and could see some of the fallen clones' equipment vibrating and shifting across the floor.

Automatically Captain Jack knew what it was. Fives and the rest of Bravo Squadron had detonated the explosives that they'd planted in the main security control room. Before he had any time to confer with Fives though, two things happened.

The crack and clunking of the heavily armoured door's locks disconnected and started to slide open. At the same time though, above him in each corner of the room, the security cameras drooped downwards aiming towards the floor.

'Good job boys,' Captain Jack thought.

Reaching behind him, Captain Jack pulled out a grenade-sized canister. During the Human-Covenant war and the conflicts that followed it, using smoke grenades to blind enemies fell out of favour. With all the advanced technology used by the Covenant, finding humans hidden by a cloud of smoke was hardly a challenge for them. It was just as much when the UNSC joined the galactic civil war with the Republic, even the basic B1 battle-droid had no trouble seeing through thick white smoke.

Smoke grenades, however, were still very much a standard issue alongside the M9 Fragmentation Grenade. If a UNSC marine saw a cloud of smoke in the distance, he'd likely assume a supply drop was on the way or a lost patrol group was signalling their location. While Phase II clone armour could pick out any obscured droids and outline them through the wearer's HUD, Alpha team though, were no droids.

Snapping the pin from the hole, Captain Jack hurled the small grenade into the room before the door had even fully opened and the pin hit the floor. Though the door was massive and heavily armoured, the room itself was less than half the size one would expect and as a consequence, it took only a few seconds before the entire room was filled with some and it started to pour out through the door.

Bidding his time, Captain Jack raised his hand with an open palm and counted down.

3…2…1, Jack struck a fist and gave the signal to breach the room.

Lightsabers out and rifles raised, the small five-strong squadron tactfully entered the room ready for yet another fight. Once they had turned the corner, both Rookie and Jack activated their thermals to see their targets through the thick smoke. While Rex and Echo had night-vision filters in their helmets, the Phase I and II helmets used by the Grand Army of the Republic were much cheaper than the variants of Mjolnir sets used by Spartans. Therefore, they relied on their instincts and limited movement trackers to make out any targets in front of them when they burst into the room.

Unexpectedly, as they got several feet into the room and they all expected at least some blind fire to come their way, it was almost completely silent. Through his and Rookie's thermal vision, no bodies other than Alpha squadron's were to be seen and nobody else was in the room with them. Regrouping in the centre, the smoke started to clear and filter out of the room. With their heads on a swivel, they all looked around to make sure the coast was clear.

Wasting no time, Captain Jack started issuing orders, "Echo, Ahsoka, guard the door and keep watch. Rex, me, you and Rookie and gonna find out how to reprogram these damn chips out of the chancellor's control!" He stated.

"Wait!" Ahsoka called out.

Both Captain Jack and the others stopped in their tracks as Ahsoka quickly ran up to the Spartan leader and pulled something from behind her then handed him a small thump-sized data chip. Captain Jack depolarised his faceplate and looked at what she was currently holding.

"They're Anakin's access codes. Even if Rex's are still active, a general's will get you into whatever system you need, especially one that Palpatine thinks he can trust," She said, handing over the small data chip.

Letting off a small chuckle, Captain Jack took the chip from her, "Where'd you get the sense that nicking his codes was a good idea?" He asked amused.

"From him," She replied coolly, marching back to the door beside Echo.

"Of course she did," Captain Jack muttered audibly as he re-polarised his visor and gestured for Rex and Rookie to follow him.

The room was not overly large as they walked through it but had an immensely high ceiling and large and low sections all across.. At the far end opposite the door was a towering glass cylinder that stretched to the roof and looked as though it probably went higher into whatever was above them. All around them though multiple workstations had been abandoned by their operators. Their target though was clearly visible as the centrally aligned terminal in front of the circular tower was hardly invisible.

"Guess the Kaminoans never were ones for subtlety," Captain Jack commented, "Alright Captain, it's all on you from here," He said, handing over the access codes to the clone captain.

Captain Jack prepared to go into a defensive stance to protect the Captain as he removed his helmet and started to gain access to the system and tried to find a way of altering the programming of the inhibitor chips. Before he could though, he once again heard Fives in his ear over TEAMCOM.

"Captain, we have a problem!" Rex shouted through TEAMCOM, with a much larger dose of blaster fire coming through it.

"What do you mean problem? What's your position?" Captain Jack urgently asked.

Less than a second later, Fives replied, "We've fought our way out of the security room, We're currently pinned down in the outer hanger bays sir, but that's not the problem. Kix, cover the left side!" He said, trying to handle a report and firefight at once.

"If that's not the problem then what the hell is?" Captain Jack asked, only slightly concerned about the ongoing firefight he was hearing in the background. Both Alpha and Bravo squadrons were made up of some of the best soldiers and warriors that both Galaxies had to offer. He was certain that

"It's the General sir," Fives stated.

"General Shaak Ti? What's the situation?" Captain Jack asked with newfound concern

"She was here sir, then she left with two platoons worth of shock troopers," Fives answered

"And she just left?" Captain Jack enquired, his concerns growing at the news.

"Yes sir, we saw her enter the hanger but she didn't engage us, she took off almost immediately with the troopers," Fives reported.

Captain Jack already had his suspicions as to why they hadn't run into the Jedi General yet, but Fives' report all but solidified them.

"Damnit, she knows it's a distraction, No doubt they're on their way here as we speak," Captain Jack said aloud.

The field report came to both Captains and Lance Corporal like a stack of bricks to the face. Hearing the news that several dozen of the elite Coruscant Guard, accompanied by a Jedi Master was deeply worrying. The five of them comprised four experienced war veterans and a former Jedi who had gone toe to toe with the dreaded General Grievous. However, even now the impending conflict with a Jedi Master and half a clone company worth of elite soldiers, small flakes of uneasiness were apparent.

"Well Captain, I hope that's one hell of an apology you have ready," Rookie said, easing the tension somewhat.

"I think I've got it, Captain," Rex said, calling over both Rookie and the Captain.

Moving over to the terminal, Captain Jack overlooked the display of highly classified files in front of him. Skimming threw the large list, there were several parts he recognised without thinking. However, there were multiple parts he had never heard of as he scanned through them rapidly.

ORDER 14: IN THE EVENT ALL COMMUNICATION WITH GAR COMMAND IS LOST, THE HIGHEST RANKING OFFICERS OF REPUBLIC ASSETS WILL REPORT TO THE NEAREST KNOWN REPUBLIC BASE/PLANET AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTION…OPEN FILE TO SEE FURTHER DETAIL

ORDER 98: WHEN ENCOUNTERING A NEW SPECIES OR CIVILISATION WITH UNKNOWN INTENTIONS, CLONE COMMANDERS ARE TO WITHDRAW FORCES AND AVOID ANY DIRECT CONTACT UNTIL A DIPLOMATIC ASSESSMENT CAN BE MADE BY REPUBLIC DIPLOMATS…OPEN FILE TO SEE FURTHER DETAIL

ORDER 42: IN THE EVENT OF CRITICAL DATA BREACHES OR INFORMATION LEAKS THAT COULD COMPROMISE REPUBLIC SECURITY, ALL CLONE TROOPERS ARE TO MAINTAIN RADIO SILENCE AMD CEASE ALL COMMUNICATION UNTIL THE BREACH IS CONTAINED…OPEN FILE TO SEE FURTHER DETAIL

ORDER 73: IN CASES WHERE POLITICAL DISPUTES BETWEEN PLANETARY SYSTEMS THREATEN TO ESCALATE INTO LARGE-SCALE CONFLICTS, CLONE TROOPERS ARE DIRECTED TO TAKE CONTROL OF KEY INFRASTRUCTURE TO ENFORCE A TEMPORARY MARTIAL LAW UNTIL A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION CAN BE NEGOTIATED…OPEN FILE TO SEE FURTHER DETAIL

Taking only a matter of seconds to analyse the hundreds of individual files, it was clear that what he was observing, was all 150 clone contingency orders. There was no time to waste in reading through every single order. Even if there was one that could help them, Captain Jack had no way or authorisation of issuing any of the orders he saw, until he reached the end of the orders…

ORDER AUTHORISED PERSONNEL…

SUPREME CHANCELLOR SHEEVE PALPATINE

AUTHORISED USER DETECTED, ACCEPT CURRENT CHANGES?

Underneath it were no other names at all, Jack had no idea if any of the orders would change the list or modify it somehow but the option to change it was exactly what he was looking for.

"Why does General Skywalker have the authority to change who can issue these orders?" Captain Jack asked aloud.

The five of them exchanged looks at each other. Even with most of them wearing helmets, looks of confusion, suspicion and assumption were apparent.

"You said the Chancellor was trying to General Skywalker against the Jedi right?, Perhaps he was sure enough he'd finished the job," Echo said

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Ahsoka stated.

"What are our options, Captain?" Rookie asked.

Captain Jack had a look of frustration on his face, "By the looks of things, the orders are hard-coded into the chips themselves," He declared.

"So removing the orders is not an option? What does that leave us with?" Echo asked.

"Removing the Chancellor as the sole authorised person to activate the orders, we do that then blow this chamber up before he has the chance," Captain Jack stated.

"If that's all we have, do it Sir," Captain Rex said.

Working his fingers rapidly against the terminal's console, he removed Palpatine from the authorised field. Once again the same question appeared.

AUTHORISED USER DETECTED, ACCEPT CURRENT CHANGES?

He had made the changes and had hit accept before he could blink. However, his hope of providing an ending to the whole war with the push of a button was shattered in an instant. As soon as he tried to accept the now blank authorised personnel list, the who terminal started to flash red, and a new error appeared in front of him and was read audibly by the terminal's external speakers.

"MINIMUM ORDER AUTHORISED PERSONNEL NOT MET, CHANGES NOT ACCEPTABLE!"

"Damn it!" Captain Jack shouted out, plunging his right fist into the terminal next to him. Putting a large dent in the white Kaminoan pylon and spraying a small amount of sparks over the floor.

"What's the problem? Just shove your name in and finish this," Rookie said flat-out.

Captain Jack scrunched his face up hard. With their limited time before Shaak Ti and the Shock Troopers arrived, Captain Jack knew there was only one option but it was not one he wanted to take. The silence in his mind overtook the blaring sirens going off all around Tipoca City as he turned his head to look directly at his subordinate.

"I can't just replace the Chancellor with me," Captain Jack confessed.

"Why not? You're a recognised UNSC Captain and Republic ally, in the Republic system," Rookie further enquired.

"It's not about that! I replace him and the power of a Galactic army falls to me, what happens? I tell them to activate Order 65? Arrest the chancellor and then what?" Captain Jack shouted loudly.

"Then we have a shot a Peace, that's what," Ahsoka said through TEAMCOM, sincere to the internal struggle the Spartan Captain was facing.

"I'm not a General, an Admiral or a President! How do I know that much power won't go to my head?" He asked.

"Because I know you, so does your team. You aren't some mad dictator or power-hungry warlord," Ahsoka said.

Closing his eyes hard, he hoped that she was right. If the options were between himself and a Sith Lord who had started a war resulting in billions of casualties, at least he was more stoppable. If he went AWOL or was seduced by the power, at least he was not a force sensitive and if need be, could be taken down by the UNSC and Republic.

With his head lowered to the floor, Captain Jack accepted what he had to do. He'd face the consequences if the time arose, but now he had a job to do. At least he thought so.

As he opened his eyes and raised his head, he heard something fall to the ground and slowly glide across the floor until it gently came to a stop, bumping against his foot. Looking back down again, he saw what had slid against him, it was Captain Rex's helmet.

Reaching down, he picked it up and slowly turned around only to find the wavering barrel of a single DC-17 pointing directly at his face.

"Captain?" He asked innocently.

Hardly more than a few feet in front of him, the gun was trembling heavily in Rex's hand. Looking straight at the clone captain's face, he saw what he thought to be a small tear running down his cheek. From where he was standing, Jack could see the pistol in Rex's hand was no longer set to stun and despite its shaking, was still aimed right towards his head.

"I…Follow orders…good soldiers follow orders…" Rex murmured to himself in a whisper.

"No…he did it," Jack said in a whisper with hopelessness in his voice.

"Sir!" Rookie shouted as appeared from behind and grabbed Captain Jack by the shoulder in an attempt to pull him out of the way of the clone's gun.

Out of the blue, the gun went off and before a second shot was fired, a live blue plasma bolt streaked over the Spartan Captain's shoulder, past his ears and went directly into the unshielded chest of the Lance Corporal behind him.

"Agh!" Rookie groaned in pain as he fell to the floor.

"No!" Captain Jack yelled.

At the other end of the room and before the shot, Ahsoka felt something was wrong. A sharp pain started to radiate in her mind like she hadn't felt before. Faint voices were calling to her and she knew what she was feeling was a sense of extreme loss and danger. A danger she was in. Without turning her head to look at Echo she leapt high into the air, calling upon her power in the force to assist her.

Forcing herself to fly backwards over Echo's head with her lightsabers in hand, she saw as she came to the ground, Echo trying to line up the muzzle of his rifle to her body. Coming to a stop as her feet touched the ground, she slashed upwards towards the clone. Making use of the element of surprise she let Echo extend his rifle out as far as possible and before he fully pulled back on the trigger, sent her blue blades through the middle of the weapon and sliced it in two.

Taking quick advantage of Echo's disorientation, Ahsoka sent a wave of force energy towards the clone. Sending him flying backwards into a pylon that instantly collapsed, he continued to stray across the floor until he reached the other end of the room. Sprinting down to where he was, Ahsoka was aghast when she saw the display in front of her.

As soon as Captain Jack had been pulled down by Rookie, and he had been shot by the clone captain, Jack went into the momentum rather than fight it. He leapt backwards into a roll and stopped behind a small wall separating a small part of the room. From the corner, he could see where Rookie had collapsed. A small amount of smoke was still rising from the wound that he couldn't see on the other side of his body. He wasn't moving and Captain Jack couldn't see if he was breathing either.

"Fives! Get Bravo squadron to my location, NOW!" He shouted through TEAMCOM, not listening to any reply that came back.

A newfound surge of anger and adrenaline rushed through Captain Jack. He checked his HUD, his shields were full and he had reached his breaking point. Suddenly, he charged out from behind the corner wall, intent on directly colliding with the soldier. As soon as he emerged from cover, Captain Rex opened fire with both his DC17s. Even though he was only a few feet away from him, Rex managed to score several shots on the Spartan before he was in hand-to-hand combat range.

With his armour's shields fluttering in a golden hue as they fell, Captain Jack was within fighting range of the clone almost instantly. Captain Rex had not been expecting the soldier to take such brutish tactics as to straight up charge him and was not prepared. When his shields were about to fully fail on him, Jack reached forward and gripped one of Rex's wrists tightly. With it secure in his clutches, he engaged all the thrusters on the rear of his armour. A rapid thrust of energy sent him flying at such a speed that with the Captain's wrist in a tight grip, he was sent over the Spartan's back incredibly hard.

Forcing the kinetic energy through himself and into his grip, Captain Jack drove the clone captain into the floor as hard as he could, fairly certain he had broken at least a few ribs in doing so. With the force used against him being so sudden and violent, Captain Rex had his blasters knocked out of his hands when he collided with the ground. Now though, pinned against the floor, the Spartan fireteam leader had his forearm pressed against his neck and found himself unable to move.

"Jack?" The Captain heard through his comm.

He had to check the ID on his HUD to see if it was who he thought it was, when it came up he was correct in his thoughts. It was Iona.

"Iona? How are you-" He said adrift.

"I'm sorry Jack, we failed," She struggled to say, her voice sounded like she was in a great amount of physical pain.

Keeping the clone held down, Captain Rex didn't look over to where Rookie was. Staring at the soldier with intense hatred, he used his free hand to pull out his hardlight sidearm and pressed it firmly against the clone's temples. Still, under the spell of the order, Captain Rex showed no fear as the lethal weapon was placed against his skull, only a stone-cold lack of emotion.

"Jack, Stop!" Ahsoka shouted.

Captain Jack looked over, he saw her standing beside the two of them.

"He did it Ahsoka, that Sith Lord bastard activated Order 66," Captain Jack spat through his teeth, the muzzle of his pistol still shaking in anger as he rested his finger on the trigger.

"It's not his fault, it's none of theirs!" Ahsoka clamoured.

Switching his gaze between her and the clone under his arm, Captain Jack kept his faceplate polarised to avoid either of them looking him in the eye. Somehow though, Ahsoka managed it. Looking at him directly in his eyes he struggled to pull the trigger or let go completely, just frozen.

"We failed Ahsoka, I failed," Jack said achingly.

From behind both of them at the terminal, they heard a voice that neither of them was expecting. "Don't be so sure, Sir," Came Rookie's voice in a raspy and painful tone.

Looking over, Rookie had crawled over from where Rex had shot him and up to the terminal containing the order authorised personnel list. As they turned to him, he hit one button before collapsing to the floor against the pylon completely.

From the terminal's external speakers, the same automated voice was heard throughout the room.

AUTHORISED PERSONNEL LIST UPDATED…

NEW AUTHORISED PRIMARY DETECTED, UNSC SPARTAN CAPTAIN A-127 "JACK"

A new tense feeling entered Captain Jack as the voice ceased and he saw Rookie slumped against the console wall. He stared back down at the clone captain, his face unchanging in his cold determined display. While he looked at Ahsoka, hers was unchanging in her pleading for him not to kill Captain Rex right there.

Battling with himself, he finally gave over and moved his finger from the trigger and engaged the safety.

"Captain Rex, belay order sixty-six," Captain Jack said defeatedly.

Gasping as if he had been held underwater, Captain Rex's eyes went wide as the Spartan Captain let up and removed his arm from his throat. With his hands-free, he immediately rubbed his head and eyes like he had woken up from a bad dream. Before his view went to Captain Jack or Ahsoka, he saw Rookie by the terminal. Slouched down and barely alive, Captain Jack went over to check on him.

"I…didn't…I don't know what happened, I heard the voice and everything just went dark," Rex said.

Ahsoka quickly found herself by his side while Captain Jack saw to Rookie.

"He's still alive, barely." Captain Jack reported. "Bravo team is on the way, Kix will check him,"

He may have been alive, but the smouldered part of his armour told a different tale and he likely wouldn't remain alive if he didn't get help soon. Still unconscious and leant against the terminal base, he looked terrible.

"Captain…the order…it was given to all of us…agh, there's still time to stop this," Captain Rex said in between pained breaths, a consequence of Jack shattering several of his ribs.

"How?" Ahsoka asked rapidly.

Captain Rex pointed to what was probably the second-largest structure in the room, second only to the giant cylinder containing multiple specimens of clone DNA and inhibitor chip programming details. It was metallic in nature and had what looked like two spiralling probes coming out of each top corner. It was on the opposite side of the room close to the entrance.

"Communication terminal, same system as the chip programmer, stop the order!" Rex shouted out with what little effort he had left.

It had only been minutes since the order was issued, and Jack could only guess as to how many Jedi had been killed in that time. He was determined not to let any more be killed though.

"I'm ending this!" Captain Jack said.

As he hastily marched towards the similar terminal, he was blocked by a sudden wall of blue fire. Looking to locate its source, the almost hanger-sized door was starting to be approached by dozens of elite clone shocktroopers. The two platoons had finally arrived in the DNA archives room and had opened fire on them the very second their targets had come into view. Accompanying them looked to be dozens more regular clone troopers in plain white armour they had picked up along the way. The corridor they ran down was packed to the brim with clones.

To face down half a company of Coruscant elite would have been a serious challenge if all five of Alpha squadron were active and at their best. Unfortunately, Echo was still unconscious, Rex could barely move due to his injury, and Rookie was out cold and bearly alive.

Ahsoka immediately raised her lightsabers while Jack deployed his hardlight shield and pulled out his MA6-NL, Firing from the hip he tried to continue his push to the communications terminal but it was no use. The neverending fire coming from the shock troopers was too much to bear, his shields would have given out the moment he tried. Even now his hardlight shield was wearing down quickly. Captain Jack started to look around to find a way out or to get to the communication relay, every time he did though it hit a dead end.

Using the overwhelming firepower behind them, several squads of clones moved up bit by bit and then started to provide covering fire so that those behind them could do the same. Neither Jack nor Ahsoka could emerge for too long to try and deal with them without getting gunned down.

Proving their time was running short, a single blaster round clipped Ahsoka's arm as she tried to deflect several incoming bolts.

"Ahsoka!" Captain Jack shouted.

"I'm fine, it's just a graze," Ahsoka insisted.

"Stay in cover!" Captain Jack shouted, firing off several more potshots.

So far, they had managed to take out half a dozen troopers of the seventy-two elites that charged down the hallway. It still left a small army's worth by comparison trying to kill them and they were getting much closer. When Captain Jack's hardlight shield finally gave way and collapsed, he noticed just how far the hostile clones had made it into the room, when he saw one getting far too close to Ahsoka's flank, he dove towards her just as the clone rounded the corner.

Jack shot the clone right as he came out from the wall, sending the stun bolt right into his chest. As soon as he had fired, he knew they were exposed and deployed his only bubble shield that quickly enveloped them both in a powerful energy sphere. It blocked any incoming shots but also prevented them from firing back. The clones quickly realised and used the opportunity to hold their fire and move up.

With Captain Jack's hardlight shield still recharging, he pulled out his lightsaber alongside Ahsoka and gripped his rifle in his second hand. Back to back, Ahsoka and Captain Jack quickly found themselves surrounded. Bidding their time, the clones waited for the bubble shield to run out of energy and collapse, at which point they'd all open fire from every direction.

"I suppose it's too late to make a run for it?" Ahsoka said, clutching her lightsabers ready for a fight.

"I'm game if you are…at least there's still a chance Fives and the rest of them can stop the Chancellor,"

As the shield started to use up all its power, it started to make a noise which told Captain Jack they had only a few seconds left at best before it collapsed on them and they'd have a real fight on their hands. One they knew they likely couldn't win. Ahsoka and Jack gave one last look at each other before preparing to fight.

Just when the shield was less than two seconds away from failing, something large and heavy hit the shield from above. What looked like a large circular piece of the ceiling had plummeted down and slammed against the floor. More than that though, it looked as though it was red hot and singed around the outside. The Clones, Ahsoka and Captain Jack all looked up to trace the source, but before any of them had fully tilted their necks, a lone figure shot down from the hole in the ceiling and landed gracefully in front of the bubble shield.

Despite wearing a large cloak, the figure was immediately recognisable to all in the room when she activated a single radiant blue lightsaber. The main target of the clones changed from Ahsoka and Jack to General Shaak Ti. However, before any of them had a chance to pull their triggers, she sent out an incredibly powerful force shockwave towards the clones and nearly all of them were sent backwards onto their behinds.

Captain Jack would have gratefully used the opportunity to get him and Ahsoka out of the room before they all got back up. Instead of retreating when the bubble collapsed through, the Human and Togruta were met with a much more reliving sight.

From the same hole Master Shaak Ti emerged from, came all of Bravo's team.

Jetpacks all fired keeping them up in the air, the five of them started to fire on the stunned and partially incapacitated force of Coruscant Guard shock troopers. Multiple troopers were gunned down by stun rounds as they struggled to fire on both the Jedi and rapidly moving targets in the air.

A breath of relief left both Ahsoka and Captain Jack's lungs as their own reinforcements arrived. Unfortunately, there was no time for respite though.

"Kix! Secure Rookie, the rest of you cover me!" Captain Jack shouted through TEAMCOM.

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" Fives replied.

Taking his moment, Captain Jack sprinted as fast as he could to the terminal. Shrugging off several shots that managed to get through the cover, he made it to the terminal intact. While Shaak Ti and most of Bravo squadron held off the clones, Ahsoka followed Jack and proceeded to deflect any incoming blaster fire coming his way.

Hurriedly accessing the terminal, he was thankful that the two systems were linked and he didn't have to waste time with access codes. Once he got in, there was only one option he needed. Just like before, a notice message appeared in front of him.

GALACTIC-WIDE REPUBLIC COMMUNICATION DISTRIBUTION ON STANDBY

Linking the system to the communications in his suit, Captain Jack opened the line and spoke…

"Attention all Republic Troopers! Belay Order 66! Stand Down!" He shouted clear and simple.

Captain Jack hoped and internally prayed for a sign that it had worked. He didn't have to wait long before he got one.

As he looked up, he noticed…the firing had stopped.

---

Next Chapter - Final Steps To Peace

Well, here we are once more at the end, hope you guys enjoyed it because we're getting really close to the end now. I'd say we're looking at maybe two more chapters (not including an epilogue). One thing I want to say before anything else is how Palpatine issued the order to every single clone without doing so individually is somewhat debated, so I did just kind of invent that communications relay to do the same thing with Jack.

In case nobody realised, yes I did throw in a few custom contingency orders since I had to list a few and there are less than a dozen known orders officially. A few other little bits I did like giving Kenobi's sith line to Ahsoka near the end, mirroring Soap and Price's little interaction from COD MW3, the little Bond & M Skyfall interaction near the end, etc. Slipstream wakes are a real thing in Halo for anyone who didn't know by the way. UNSC Dusk took two weeks to get to Installation 05 via the Solemn Penance's weakening "wake", but came back to Earth within hours by following the Forerunner Dreadnought's wake

I know there are a few things worth calling out on for continuity like Anakin not teaching Ahsoka to go quite so far as to pickpocket a Jedi. However, I think we can all agree that he definitely taught her more than a thing or two that's not exactly Jedi learning material. Anyway, that and a couple of other things I suppose. Also, another massive thing I'll probably get comments on is the fact that I am completely making up all the stuff about reprograming the inhibitor chips. I guess I'll have to just address each one as they come since it's all been established and there's no going back now.

As for anyone asking why Captain Jack was the only available option as the replacement for Palpatine on the list…plot. That's it really I could have made up some stuff but…eh. I know the chapter is titled "Execute Order 66" and I only put it right at the end, so I apologise if you were expecting a little more of that. One final note, I had to go and watch some Order 66 scenes just so I could get the clone's reaction a little better and going through Rex and Ahsoka's scene in Clone Wars just broke be all over again.

Anyway, I think I've said more than enough here. As usual, make sure to leave a review to let me know your thoughts and suggestions regarding the chapter or story in general.