Meetra was awed.

Upon touching down in one of the cavernous hangars of the UNSC Infinity, the woman and her escort were greeted by the UNSC's standard complement of Marines, all neatly lined up with several Spartans. They saluted them as they disembarked from the Pelican, with Palmer nodding wordlessly to Lasky. She and her Spartans peeled away from the party, with Meetra wanting to follow B312 along, as it seemed.

She, however, stopped as she looked over to Lasky, then sighed, following the man along and gazing upon the technological, industrial and utilitarian marvel of the UNSC's flagship. With a hum, she smiled as she watched the ever-active deck crews working their magic, with the shifting aircraft and vehicles going up and down via large cargo lifts, so on and so forth. She looked to Lasky and asked him, "Take it Coruscant wasn't exactly friendly? Ship is still in Yellow Alert."

"We're a rather large naval force that did just arrive in this part of the Galaxy. The Republic Navy presence got tense the moment we jumped in after master Yoda's ship," He replied, clearly impressed at her ability to notice things as he arranged his white uniform and scratched at his collar. The young woman continued to marvel for a moment at the ship, the Eagle of the UNSC embedded into parts of the walls, standing over a globe representing one planet.

She hummed and said with a chuckle, "Spooking the Navy is no small feat, Admiral."

"I bet," He replied as they climbed a stairwell up to one of the hangar's multitude of trams. He turned to her as they boarded one of the trams, watching her sheer awe at the size of a ship that needed Trams, before starting, "If I can ask, ma'am, why did you want to stick with us? Why not help in the war effort? Going by the armor you're wearing and how worn it is, I doubt it'd be that bad for you..."

She shrugged, "Like I said... Things have been getting monotonous in the Galaxy."

"And we're the wildcard that switches things up, are we?" He inquired, a bit dumbfound. How could a galactic war be monotonous, honestly? Something didn't add up with the woman's story. That, or she was just keeping things secret for the sake of keeping them secret, honestly. Tomas didn't know at this point and the man had dealt with ONI spooks way beforehand, when first meeting the Chief. Before the Spartan program became public, the survivors of Corbulo were ordered to keep it hush-hush.

"Indeed... Also, stop calling me ma'am, Admiral," She smirked, "I know I'm old. I don't need to be reminded every time I talk to people..."

Lasky seemed confused as he turned to stare at her. She chuckled and waved it off. Better they didn't know the whole truth yet, quite honestly, she thought as they marched forward. The tram began its route with a quiet hum of the maglev rails and Meetra held on, smiling and looking around. Certainly the tech was not primitive. It resembled what she had seen along time.

"So, ma-... Meetra. Do youi have a family name?" He asked, which caused the young woman to turn toward him, taken out of her thoughts. She seemed surprised by the question, presumably, considering the face she assumed she was making. Like a Huurton in the headlights of a Speeder. She took a moment to actually register the question, then hummed.

"Full name is Meetra Surik," She replied softly, "Though I really haven't used it in a while..."

"Oh?" He raised a brow.

She waved it off and added, "Listen, it's a really long story. I wanted to tag along with your people to see what you're capable of." And she turned back to look at the sights of the vessel, murmuring to herself, "Once I got some context, maybe I will reveal everything that needs to be revealed..." which seemed to give Lasky pause. The transport stopped at one of the stations, one that both occupants soon read was the Labs.

The elderly figure of Doctor Halsey stepped aboard, her eyes shooting wide open for a moment, "Oh, Admiral..." and she turned to Meetra, "And our new guest... Good morning, madam." as she started tapping at her tablet. She whispered to herself, "I genuinely did not think we would have our own Jedi aboard, but here we are..." as the tablet beeped with each tap of a letter.

"Hello," Meetra waved. She could feel the uneasiness of the old woman. The woman nodded back, before humming and whispering something to Lasky. The man gazed at the doctor with a raised brow for a couple moments, before shrugging. The Jedi didn't know how to take the secrecy at first, but decided against any sort of snappy comment, considering she was still not going to reveal everything to them either.

"... I am doctor Catherine Halsey, miss Surik," The woman ahead spoke.

"Good to meet you, Doctor," The Jedi replied, shifting a hint. She was surprised at being called by her family name. A bit too much respect for an old girl such as herself.

"Likewise," Halsey replied, "I must say, I am quite intrigued by your kin. The Jedi, or, well, 'Force Users' in general, are a strange subject to a people who has never seen this kind of..." She hesitated and sighed deeply, "For lack of a better term and courtesy of our Marines, Space Magic..." and that got a laugh out of Meetra. She could hear the contempt a woman of Science had for the word 'Magic' in her voice.

"Oh, it's explainable by a few things," Meetra replied, "And if you need someone to learn from, I'm willing to act as your subject."

Halsey's eyes widened for a moment, but she replied with a hint more warmth in her otherwise cold voice, "My thanks, miss Surik... I suppose I'll be getting off here." And she stood to her feet, "Visit the laboratories whenever you have time. Admiral. Been a pleasure..." then she exited the tram as it reached the dormitories. Lasky was slightly impressed by the fact the doctor was going to sleep, obviously. Meetra chuckled.

"The doctor's a bit eccentric," Lasky quipped as the vehicle approached the other end of the vessel, namely, the Bridge area. Meetra nodded, then stood to her feet with the man as they walked out onto the deck. Entering the main bridge of the UNSC Warship, the young woman was met with a crew that was actively working. Lasky ordered, "Stand down Yellow Alert. We're in the clear. Let's get ready to go reinforce Generals Skywalker and Kenobi on their little trip."

As the flashing alerts fell back and the normal, cold lighting ot the deck came back, Roland appeared on the holo-deck and saluted, "Admiral. Welcome aboard. The Arbiter's apologizing for not being present for negotiations and hopes you signed for them as well. He's off doing something with the Shadow and some Republic ships that left just recently for another system."

"That's fine. And yes, we did sign for them as well," Lasky sighed and let out a short snicker as he sat down. He looked to Meetra, who was staring with wide eyes at Roland, enamored by the AI's avatar, before smiling at her and saying, "This is Roland. One of our AI and the shipboard Smart AI for the UNSC Infinity. One of our best." before giving a thumbs up to Roland.

"Makin' me blush, sir," Snorted the AI. He looked to Meetra and gave her a quick salute, "Roland's the name indeed. Welcome aboard, ma'am."

"Glad to be here," She replied with a smile, then chuckled, "Honestly, the UNSC continues to impress me, but... Arbiter?" And some of the confusion in the woman's obvious reaction showed from the tone of her voice. Indeed, to a newcomer, the confusion about aliens must've been present, considering the UNSC's military was obviously human-centric in nature.

"One of our alien comrades," Lasky clarified. She nodded understandingly, before looking around at the UNSC deck crew. A couple of them were whispering stuff. She couldn't quite make out what they were talking about, but aside from male gazes, there were females intermixed, too, some of them giggling. Confusion seemed to strike Meetra yet again, even while Roland let out a short laugh. Lasky hummed, then asked, "Helm, Coordinates for Teth set?"

"All clear, sir," Replied the crewman. Lasky gave the go-ahead and the craft and its escorts powered their fusion drives. A faint hum and the ship's micro-vibrations told Meetra they'd begun to move. When she looked out the window, she saw the ships all break orbit together, before the Helmsman reported, "Slipspace drive charged and ready. Powering for synch-jump... Three... Two... One..."

Yet again, the Jedi woman's eyes shot wide open as she saw the massive portal ahead tear open with a ripple of azure energy and electrical arcs. The vessel dived into the portal with a flash of light that was shorter than the Jedi's time spent on the ship. She hummed, watching with muted awe as the warship entered the new dimension, a whirlpool of azure. Beside them, multiple ship silhouettes winked in. The rest of the UNSC fleet, obviously.

"Well, this has quite honestly been an incredible experience, Admiral," She stated as she stepped up beside him, "But I have to ask something of you." And she watched the man turn toward her, gaze inquisitive and a brow arched up. Her clarification was, "I want to find the soldier of yours that spotted me first... One of your escorting Spartans, I mean."

"Oh, you mean Spartan B312?" He hummed, then looked to Roland and asked, "Can you find his tag?"

"Sir. Where it usually is, at the memorial..." Replied the AI with a half-smile. Solemnity overtook the bridge as several of the people that had overheard this frowned, a couple bowing their heads. Lasky gave a nod to Roland, who went on to say to Meetra, "Take the tram you took about five stations, then take the first left. You'll find an elevator to the Dome area atop the ship... Should find B312 sat somewhere around there."

"Thank you..." She replied and waved. With a nod, Lasky 'dismissed' her, allowing her to depart. Taking the exact guidance given to her by taking the tram for five stations, which included being ogled at by both UNSC Males and Females, the woman exited at the fifth station and took the first left she found, entering into one of the turbo-lifts belonging to the UNSC flagship.

Once the elevator reached the top, the woman disembarked and walked over to the 'memorial' area, following the arrows pointing her way through. She was, however, awed. Green, lush and beautiful, a massive park lay in the dome that protected the UNSC warship's recreational areas, as it seemed. It was a right forest, in fact, with paths and everything. So, she followed the path down to the memorial, only to see a massive wall with the UNSC emblem emblazoned at the top and the writing 'For Those Who Fell In Defense of Earth and All Her Colonies' in a ribbon just below the emblem. The wall was lined with various names and stood face-to-face with a bench.

Meetra had slowed down, noting some of the people mourning at the wall. Family, comrades and the likes, leaned against the wall themselves. At its base were flower bouquets and candles lining the wall from one side to the other. And there, she saw a lone figure sat on the benches in front of one specific row of names. His helmet rested on his thigh, held in place by one hand. In the other were dog tags.

A handsome man, with short black hair cut to military standard and scars marking his face, including burn marks and gashes on his cheeks. One cut went from the outer end of his right nostril down to his chin and looked deeper than the others. His blue eyes glimmered a bit in the lamps lighting the wall, but his expression remained impassive, almost like a mask of stone... She had seen that kind of stare before... So, she walked up to him and sat down on his right, quiet. He didn't even flinch...

She wondered privately, what was going on in the mind of the soldier?


As blaster bolts fell all around them, plus the heavy cannon fire of the Spider Droids on the sides of the wall, Richard poked his head out. A bolt struck his shields and caused them to shimmer and dip down by a decent chunk. He swore and ducked back into cover, checked his weapon and asked Skywalker and Ahsoka, "So, how do we do this?! Air Support's bound to keep'em pinned if we wanna go up now!"

"We have a couple ideas!" Anakin smirked. He turned to his clones and ordered, "Rex, cables!" before he watched the Troopers pull out cable launcher attachments and sling them below the barrels of their weapons. He looked to Ahsoka and Richard and said, "Race you two to the top!" with a smirk on his face. Richard blanked for a moment, looking at the General.

Ahsoka smirked back, "I'll give you a head start!"

"Hey, wait, I didn't agree to-"

"Your mistake!" Anakin interrupted Richard with a grin. As the cables lanced up with surprising length, the General mounted one of them and started climbing, as did the troops. Beside them, their two AT-TEs started their own climb up, with Ahsoka looking to Richard, flashing the man a grin and jumping onto the next cable. Richard hummed, then grinned behind his helmet and looked to Blue Team.

"Blues, Jetpacks!" Chief ordered, powering on his own jump system. Richard smirked and powered on his, the roar of the small jet engines echoing from behind him as he jumped up. He jumped next to Ahsoka, using one of his feet to bound up a rock outcropping, before jumping yet again by utilizing small impulse bursts from the Thrusters themselves.

"Hey! No fair!" Ahsoka called out.

"Keep up, Tails!" Richard replied, before stopping atop an outcropping and raising his rifle. He squeezed the trigger and a burst came out, silenced, as blaster fire raked the areas around him and Spider Droids let loose with their own cannons. Two Pelicans swept in and fired missiles at a crowd of Spiders on the rock wall, sending several of the machines tumbling down.

Chief appeared beside him and boosted up, firing a burst from his own Assault Rifle, all while Linda sniped off another pair of droids in the distance, their corpses tumbling to the floor. The right-hand AT-TE's cannon roared as the gunner aimed, bracing himself. Return fire came, striking the angled armor of the beast and heating it up as its four main anti-infantry cannons shot volleys forward.

A clone trooper got nailed and fell limply down below the clouds, while the Jedi and Spartans pushed on up. Richard found himself under a volley of fire and was forced to jump down, grabbing onto one of the edges and holding onto it as his rifle whispered death at the enemy. He watched Linda stop, slamming her armored boots into the rock to stabilize herself and aiming her sniper again.

Gazing down, the young man saw the AT-TE Climbing up next to him. To their left, the second one's cockpit burst aflame as it was shot, before the legs lost their clamp and the machine tumbled on backward, ablaze. The return fire from the Air Support was swift, autocannons raking the top and staggering the droids. The Spartan dropped down onto the tank itself, sliding down between the two points at its midsection, right next to the gunner. He scoped in the targets as Ahsoka landed on the front as well, before starting to call out, "Adjust fire by 23 degrees left!"

The gunner swiveled the turret and aimed, to which the Spartan yelled, "Watch for elevation! Depress point-nine degrees and fire!" before watching him do as instructed. Two magnetized shells wrapped in plasma struck a pair of Spider Droids that'd climbed out of some kind of hole in the wall, shattering the machines in the blast. The return fire came from Droids atop the landing platform of the monastery, with the gunner being hit and thrown out of his seat, missing an arm as he fell down to his death.

The Spartan swore to himself and clambered onto the turret, aiming it as best he could with the joystick controls, before thumbing the fire buttons as Ahsoka deflected bolts away from the transport's cockpit. The cannon volleys intensified in speed as the young man aimed and learned the controls. He told Ahsoka, "If you can keep'em off me, Tails, I'll hammer them out so Air Support can flatten them!"

"Gotcha!" Ahsoka replied, "And it's Ahsoka, by the way!"

"Right, right, what am I thinking?!" The boy shot back with a rhetorical question, before turning his turret. He heard the hiss of engines, then turned to see Droids on what looked to be floating segways flying toward them, their blaster cannons spitting scarlet lances. Before they got close, however, a UNSC Gunship got in-between them and the walker and hosed them with its main cannon.

As the debris fell, the vehicle took a blast from one of the droids and was forced to back away from the cliff. Blue Team soon landed next to the boy, with Chief telling his team, "Kelly, take Fred and move up. We'll back up Five," before opening fire with his assault rifle at another pair of droids on spiders. Richard looked to the Chief, who gave him a thumbs-up, then continued firing. Richard did the same, smiling now.

Ahsoka called out, "We'll be hitting the last bump soon!"

She ducked as the main cannon roared again and a chunk of the landing pad was taken off. The UNSC gunships rolled up now, missile and cannon screaming in unison as they cleared a path. Skywalker was, of course, first up on the top now, watching as the UNSC Marines deployed off the vehicles, taking cover behind them and opening up with assault rifles and battle rifles toward an advancing quad-team of Droidekas that were rolling toward them.

The bullets sparked off the armor plates and one of the droids collapsed, shattered and shredded. Another stopped and prepared to activate its shields as it rolled itself out before a standard-issue SRS-99/99 Sniper Rifle snapped off a shot and punched clean through its CPU. The next two were shredded to pieces by the AT-TE's cannon, with Skywalker and the Marines turning toward the AT-TE to see the Spartans and Ahsoka.

"Told ya I was right behind you, master," She smirked as she descended. She looked to Richard and complimented, "Not bad..." before adding, "For a buckethead..."

Richard shot back quickly, "Thanks, Tails. Good to know those things don't get in your way..." as he stepped off the tank with the Chief and Blue Team. Kelly let out a short chuckle as she walked up beside the Chief, turning to him. The man shrugged as he heard the Jedi Padawan and the Spartan behind him start going off at each-other, though going by the tone, they were joking.

"Reminds me of us when we were little... Remember, John? After the training when you left us behind?" The fast scout of the team asked. John hummed and sighed, then nodded. Yes, the memories of their training on Reach were still present and vividly available for the Master Chief to recollect, but this wasn't the time, nor the place. Their objective was dead ahead of them. Finding the little alien slug was more important than reminiscing.

Chief saluted Skywalker and said, "Sir, our troops are securing the perimeter as we speak. We'll find the little Hutt..."

"Thanks, Chief," The man replied, then crossed his arms, "Let's hope the inside of the Monastery's going to be just as easy to clear. Tell air support to be on stand-by in case we need to bug out quick with the kid..." before sighing and scoffing, "Still can't believe we're helping the Hutts of all people..." only to turn and tell the Chief, "For context, Chief, they're basically mafia bosses. Slavery, extortion, you name it, they probably do it..."

"I see, sir..." Chief replied stoically, "Still required, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Anakin sighed, "I'm sure you heard the whole thing with them letting us use their Hyperspace lanes for the transit of troops and everything else that's needed by the War Effort here in the Outer Rim..." before he looked to Ahsoka and Richard still talking smack to one-another and snorting, "They seem to be getting along... Though Richard's a bit more calm than I'd expect."

"Spartan training, sir," Kelly quipped, watching the boy reply to Ahsoka while just standing straight, "Even a III will act like a II if given enough of it."

Skywalker replied, "Good to know," with a grin. He looked back at the kids and sighed, before turning back to Chief and telling him, "If I can ask you to take a platoon of Marines and Clones and check the place, Chief, would ya mind?" making the four elder members of Blue Team snap-to. They rallied up a platoon of Troops as per request just as Rex walked up to Skywalker.

"Sir, perimeter's secure... We're rallying up to find the Huttling now, but it's going to take a hot moment for the boys to get their feet steady again," Rex explained to Skywalker, his hand clasped around one of his pistols. He looked around the place, then murmured, "Abandoned... Gives me the creeps, sir... Something ain't right about it, honestly..."

"Well, the Monks must've left it for a reason. Let's not find out what it is," Anakin replied. He watched the UNSC Gunships taking off, one of them that was damaged in the gunfight flying back up toward the orbiting fleet in order to receive repairs. The Republic Assault Ships hanging out in low orbit maintained a blockade, with the UNSC's frigates and Cruiser at the ready to be the bulwark.

Another gunship came in, though, the Pelican dropping off a fighting vehicle with a 30mm Autocannon and missile launchers before lifting back off and preparing its weaponry. This one carried anti-tank guided missiles and a smaller rotary cannon in its nose, so it was probably going to be working more to wipe out any enemy heavy reinforcements, like AATs or Snail Tanks.

They watched the UNSC Marines sit themselves down nearby within the defended courtyard, some of them exchanging MREs. A squad of Clones went to join them, with Rex commenting, "Seems like Tup's new girl's had a positive effect on relations between our units. Here's hoping they can keep it up... Heh..." as Anakin could swear he heard that smile.

He watched Ahsoka step off, while Richard ran at best speed to join BLUE within the confines of the monastery, then looked to Rex and said, "Things are slow, Rex, but we'll be friends with the UNSC just yet..." and he paused as his com rang. He tapped it, then said, "Skywalker here. Go ahead..." all while bracing for any oncoming bad news. Thankfully, it was quite the opposite...

The UNSC, Swords of Sangheilios and the Republic were now officially allies...