"In my book, experience outranks everything"

Deliver Hope

Halo: Reach

Light beamed into the family kitchen showing the perfect balance of safety and transparency. Baby boy toys of sorts were scattered around creating a messy environment. Picture frames on the wall held a cute family with a young mom and a father with their little boy.

The man clearly shown in the picture was an officer within the United Nations Space Command, specifically the Navy. His bright white formal uniform was decorated on his breast with all these stripes and badges telling of his touring prowess and service. Face clean-shaven and with a stern gaze, this was a true seaman.

Now in the kitchen, was a little boy playing with two toys. He was on a high chair of sorts and had just finished his food. A bib draped from around his neck with slight baby food dripping from it. A laid-out family living room with an advanced television in front told of the quaint and humble nuclear family lifestyle.

The boy stopped for a moment putting down his two toys. They were toy UNSC Spartans, with blazing plastic/rubbered guns in hand, the lore behind these soldiers was insane to this child within his mind.

But on the television however was something else, something that captivated his spirit and attention more than his toys ever could.

But now the mom came into the room, a skinny frame with thick curly dirty blond hair. An afternoon summer skirt with a few clothes in hand with a dedicated soul in her body.

She could see the boys struck average, to which she giggled, "Whatcha looking at hun?"

"Mommy?" the boy pointed to the television in the front living room.

The woman was completely stunned just like her child. It was the SEEN (Space East of Earth News). Another woman with bright skin and red hair sat in their news anchor chair. Her face was deeply serious and stunned as well. She held a clipboard of sorts in hand and the shock upon her posture was beyond just simple words.

As she spoke, it was with slight hesitation like the words themselves were spoken in disbelief.

"I don't know how to report this. But the siege of New Kong has come to a complete halt."

Both child and woman were baffled at the sight. A massive army of robots marched into the wrecked city in perfect formation. Their numbers are endless like an ocean of staggering metal. Terrifying sounds of thunder clapping each time the army took a step as if something from above sponsored the horde.

The footage shifted to the top left corner of the main screen showing the main news anchor back on the view. She cleared her throat before responding,

"We do not know who they are, but they have single-handedly halted the Covenant advance for now. The General of this said army we are told by the Office of Naval Intelligence is named 'Grievous'."

Displaying the next scene was awe-striking. The huge dragon figure of Grievous Gram standing upon a pile of grunt bodies all mangled and sliced by bladed attacks. Wielding a Covenant Energy Sword in one hand, and a blue lightsaber in the other.

He stared menacingly at the camera, breaking the fourth wall for a moment, then back to the battle at hand.

The news anchor said sternly before cutting off the live stream, "More news about the siege will be reported as soon as more information is released."

General Grievous personally oversaw the front-line assault. Both Covenant and Jedi on each hand, he truly was a behemoth to behold. An army of B1 Battle Droids behind him fired their red blaster bolts in a straight direction down to the area where the enemy lay, this severely caught the Covenant off guard. Elite shields are stripped twice as fast due to the droid's energy-based weapons (compared to the UNSC ballistic/kinetic-based). Even still a single minor elite would drop ten or so droids before fleeing due to his shields "popping" and deactivating. Grunts were helpless in the fire. Even at some point, they were quite the fighting force as the droids approached closer.

Two grunts lept from a rubbled building's second story on top of a single B2 Super Battle Droid digging their mangy claws into the droid. It took serious damage as the weight of the two heavy space penguins held down its arms for a moment. But even so, this Super Battle Droid was far stronger. Bending one knee as a fulcrum it flung one grunt off its arm with easy force causing it to slam into a pile of trash debris, a methane tank popping in the process, making it flail and scream in agony.

The second grunt was smacked in the face by the now free arm of the droid. Breaking free of its grip, the blaster arm of the B2 snapped to a 'cocked' state and loaded with full ammunition. Letting loose blaster rounds into the two grunts their desperate state, they stood no chance.

B1 Battle Droids were easily taken down by any forces of the Covenant. They were quickly seen as mindless and unintelligent. However, even the elite officers who were commanding the troops were not used to such tactics. They were almost always on the offensive, very rarely would humans exhaust resources to fight them head-on, it was almost always out of defense. But this was much different. A mindless army of robotic automatons firing blasters that cripple their shields was strangely flabbergasting to them.

But Grievous was the true prize and trophy. He stood just as tall as a Sangheili and was just as menacing. Any elite begged for the chance to face a demon face to face (a spartan) but this new threat, this cyborg who cackled with unfamiliar blades to these Sangheili, was asking for a challenge. Strange straight blades that the most mighty of Sangheili would be bewildered by in combat.

As the General stood on top of rubble and destroyed Covenant vehicles behind him, an army of the Separatist Alliance marched, firing their blasters at all alien enemies in their sight.

To Grievous' surprise, however, he noticed that his strike army had taken many more casualties than he initially would calculate. These 'Covenant', primarily the elites, were far more deadly than he initially anticipated. His army however brainlessly marched into the fray without a guess or a second thought.

Pinned-down squads of grunts, jackals, and elites were scattered here and there making it easy pickings for the Droid Army. This was due to the city itself. New Kong, lying in rubble and destruction much like New Mombasa and New Alexandria, wasted away with their natural human presence. As a result, most patrols from the Covenant were only a few squads at most, looking only for survivors still trapped within the city.

They, however, did not account for the Droid Army personally led by Grievous himself.

Blaring blaster fire and plasma rounds from the pocketed patrols exchanged blows as both droid parts and Covenant bodies littered the streets with oil and multi-colored blood. The Droid General again was mostly concerned about how fast his droids were dropping to even just a few squads here and there, more than that he was used to with clones.

The thunderous March paraded its accompaniment to a source of fear throughout the city. It was impossible not to hear. Every head and ear perked up to hear the sound of this army on the move.

The fires from the top of the buildings were isolated and small now with burnt cityscapes telling of a raging inferno probably just days before the droid's arrival. Smoldered and faded crips from the once fire that consumed this whole section of the city must have recently died out.

Every human and Covenant body, car, city service, and building was charred to a disgusting and abominable black. It was as if Satan himself breathed his breath from Hell upon the landscape, scorching everything it touched.

Eventually, the fighting ceased as the last of the patrols was eliminated on the way to the city center. Red blaster marks left black wounds upon the bodies of mostly grunts they interacted with. Elites would see the robot's stupidity and barrage fire easily taking two or three down single-handedly with one burst, but that opening would lead to only a few blaster bolts that would be required to drop their shields, letting it free to be slaughtered in such a damaged state. The Covenant Battle Net itself was in such disarray that no one could figure out what was going on, this type of mechanic would be rinsed and repeated for almost every engagement.

Grievous, with both an energy sword and lightsaber in hand, jumped on top of a scorched semi-truck of sorts. Seeing the elevated view, his eyes peered as he let out a soft bellow.

This was the center of this capital city. A huge open courtyard of once a grassy field blazed to a dark ashy tone. They all connect like a road from all the piers and fronts and alleys to this one open area of the city. They are all blazoned in char.

A clear large stone fountain that used to have water in it stained from the sins of the Covenant. As Grievous approached this fountain, he held his fist up sharply as a command telling the entire army to halt. As they did, their last booming steps echoed in the distance along the buildings and cityscapes.

The fountain as he approached seemed dead and empty. He may be empty in the Force, but he could see the death and destruction around him. He did not care, he did not feel any such pity or any sort of empathy, he was for lack of a better term, dead inside.

Any such feeling was sucked vampirically out long ago and left a husked creature in the form of a cyborg. These dead, inside the very city they called home, clumped in areas rather than scattered told of their demise, they were brutally rounded up and slaughtered. What remained was consumed in the city fire and left as a humped black stain that only their ancestors up in the heavenly realms could recognize. This strangely gave a sense of respect to the shattered soul of the Kaleesh Warlord. Civilians just get in the way in his mind, 'removing' them in this was the most effective and efficient.

A shimmer caught the General's eye. Looming over what obtained his attention was a plaque. Rusted over and hardly applicable to reading, he moved his long and Krampus-like metal fingers over it, swiping away the dust. Words and characters he did not understand being a different language, he chuckled to himself. He may not know what it said, but he could see the message it was trying to tell. It was hope. Something that is clearly shown around has not worked for these innocent people. It is ironic in a way, that so many making this area their tombstone amongst such a place.

The cloak of Grievous passed over the plaque as he ambled by. It wiped off the last of the dust as he went in the other direction. Revealed in perfect English was the destroyed fountain with its rusted message on full display, it read,

"HOPE OVERCAME."

Glaring up to the sky he was strangely bewildered. A ship's engine began to roar closer as it came through the clouds. A UNSC Military Grade Pelican came down to the city below. Deep green was its color, and the General almost told the droids to open fire rashly. What stopped his temptation was the fact that the Pelican turned around doing a 180-degree turn. Its backside opened as two hatches opened revealing the passengers inside. The vehicle rocked back and forth for a moment as the landing wheels sunk into the ground. The engine died down as the vessel came to a stop.

Stepping off the vehicle was an officer he could see with two marines as escort following.

The officer had red hair and brown eyes, freckles covering his face like sand. He had the most focused of fixtures despite the situation.

All three of them were utterly undone and starstruck by the Droid Army, let alone the seven-foot cyborg standing in front of them. The officer however did his best to maintain posture. His uniform was a deep green with an officer cap with the symbol on the center revealing his rank. The two marines had their standard BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) acting as bodyguards. As the group approached with an upright posture Grievous squinted his eyes again.

"General?" asked the UNSC officer, "I am Colonel Hendrix, and I would personally like to thank you for your support."

Grievous cut him off, "Spare me your pleasantries. What do you want?"

Both marine guards were uptight by such an abrasive response and tightened their grips around the handles of their assault rifles. Nonetheless, still a bit surprised the Colonel responded with shocking cool, "Not the introductory type, I see. Well, I will get to the point," he cleared his throat, "Covenant patrols thanks to your help have mostly bugged out of the area and are fleeing to a nearby CCS Cruiser on the far side of the city, Covenant never retreat for long, so they will be back in much larger numbers."

Pulling out a disc, this portrayed a blue hologram much similar to the model that the Droid General would use, but he could tell it was still very different, a strange alien Grievous had never seen before, it had a long neck and small head, but slightly hunched over possibly due to its age. It was hovering in a chair of sorts, and it was decorated with colors likely telling of a regal status.

"The Lesser Prophet of Penitence is onboard the cruiser, we eliminate him, the entire system has no Covenant Head Leadership, and we can do the cleanup."

Grievous bent over getting directly into the eyeline of the Colonel. When he did, the officer could feel the thick and cyborg-ish breath on his face, it smelt awful. The eye goop around the General's eyes was gross and showed off his unkempt nature. Thick reptilian eyes instantly stuck out, he was not human. This 'cyborg' was something else.

"Bold of you to come down here in front of my army with little protection," he cackled once, to which Hendrix looked to his marine guards concerned, "if I am to commence this operation, we are to do this under my command."

"I… can't do that," said Hendrix sternly.

"Then there will be no operation. Take this and come back to me with your cooperation," Grievous turned around for half a second presumably to walk away, before he gave Hendrix a holo disc projector. The Naboo model has been mass industrialized so that everyone in the galaxy has use of them. Small, cheaper, and simple no wonder why most people within the galaxy liked them.

"What is this?" asked the Colonel.

"You will see."

Sometime later…

"Captain Del Rio!" said a deck attendant in a dark black uniform approaching a commander. Del Rio was his name by of course the callout, as well as the badge on his shoulder with the name branding "DEL RIO". His other shoulder had the tank insignia of a captain, and his chest had the letters of 'UNSC'. He was the captain of the UNSC Infinity, the most powerful and advanced battleship the UNSC has ever made, it created a striking resolve and set of justice for any military personnel who set eyes on it.

Short dark hair with wrinkled skin telling of the captain's service, as well as a resting angry face. He was slightly hunched forward with hands folded behind his back. The weight of the most magnificent warship in his government's history lay on his shoulders, there was no room for error.

The bridge was busy with people and staff moving about. As the yellow deck staff whispered some information into his ear, the captain's face went from natural anger to unsettled fury. He huffed a thick breath in annoyance, before approaching the front observation window. Staring out to the planet below, there was a fleet of UNSC ships harboring just above the planet's atmosphere.

Most notably, everyone quickly saw the black-uniformed person, as they were not a normal member of the staff. Branded to their shoulders and breasts was the Illuminati. The black triangle with a circle reflected something else, the logo of the Office of Naval Intelligence. An ONI agent here on the bridge demanding the captain's attention sparked the captivation of all the busy workers (of course looking within the peripheral).

Colonel Hendrix also came in behind the ONI personnel. He was very timid and uptight unlike before on the surface. Taking a deep breath he followed in behind. The spiritual presence of the room changed the moment they entered feeling its thick and intense atmosphere. Even the crew's hands could feel it up to their fingertips.

"Where is this 'Grievous' now?" said the captain with a sarcastic tone saying the word 'grievous'.

The ONI Agent responded with a soft tone, "He's in the city center with his army of robots, they have about five thousand."

Snapping his fingers, "Are there any Spartan Fireteams in the area to do a covert instead?"

Looking down at a holographic clipboard in hand, the ONI operative continued, "No, and neither is Blue Team. Colonel Hendrix is back onboard the Infinity now," (he gestured to the Colonel).

"I will not let this other creature have our men!" he said aloud angrily. To which at that point the rest of the bridge turned to be abruptly interrupted in their duties. After a moment of silence and boiling stares from Del Rio, the crew returned to what they were doing still weary of their commanding officer.

Unfortunately, Hendrix and Del Rio were the same rank within the UNSC as an O-6, as his personality was seemingly rash and upfront. Everyone on the deck of the UNSC Infinity knew that from the beginning and of course most of them enlisted could do nothing about it. Most officers just dealt with it as it seemed as little to bother for their attention.

"This is an order," he showed the clipboard of a readying platoon of ODSTs in the hangar of the UNSC Infinity. The massive capital ship of the UNSC Navy itself. Readying up weapons and munitions into pelicans, they looked like they were getting ready for battle with all types of explosives and medipacks, about forty troopers total.

"You can't order me around on my ship? Who do you think you are?" His tone was pissed off, to say the least.

"This is coming from CINC Osman herself."

He grunted seeing Hendrix's side eye, "What now?"

Stepping forward Hendrix gave Captain Del Rio the Naboo holographic disc Grievous gave him, "he gave this to me captain, we think it's a transmitter or some sort."

Rio paused for a moment confused before looking down to the disc that was only a few inches in diameter. A smooth circular thin donut figure is brown and sleek. The filler inside the hole had tech and a metal grid that was in a barred design. Three silver prongs stuck out in a curved way clockwise along the edges.

"Seriously?" he huffed, "what is this?"

At that moment of beeping sound came from the device. A faint blue glow pulsated from the inside, attracting the officer's attention. As it grew brighter for a moment it grew hot in his hand. A faint sound was heard as the captain was irked in slight pain from the heat dropping the device. As it grew louder and louder until a loud popping sound was heard. A blue projection shot out of the disc revealing a hologram. It was Grievous himself, standing over seven feet tall with hands crossed behind his back he loomed around inside the hologram, looking into the others inside the room. Slightly hunched over, he was surprised to see three officers standing in front of him. Everyone in the room regardless of position darted eyes at the General. They were shocked by his robotic figure in his almost unholy stature. Being completely dumbstruck by the cyborg. Staring at the Covenant was already bewildering enough, but this was even weirder, this was not even humanâ It was a half-machine. With ripped chili eyes that did not look like a man, this was something else, something almost sinister.

"General," said the Colonel.

Captain Del-Rio immediately changed the tone, "Why are you here."

Silence followed as Grievous chuckled, and they were all surprised by his thick Scottish accent in an auto-tuned voice. It sounded human, but not, "Do you have what I requested?"

Raising his hand was the ONI operative stopping the captain from continuing any line of questioning, "Yes we do, a platoon of our elite shock troopers are reading and will be deployed in the meantime."

"Good, I see the battle ahead, and I am eager to see them in action."

20th of June 2557

31 days before The Release

LESSSGO next chapter! Sorry, this took so long I had some personal stuff to attend to. College fill-outs, that sort of thing (GCU for the dub!). It's just been unbelievably busy, which is kind of annoying because I haven't been able to sit down and write this chapter until the past couple of days but anyway, there should be smooth sailing from here because I got out of finals for the rest of the summer. I hope you guys are doing well! It's been a while since I've checked in on you. don't worry, I'm not dead lol. I feel like some of you guys use these chapters as my wellness "check" hahaha. There are no plans of stopping as I now have an end goal and end timeline for the story and I plan on finishing it at the rate at which the story is moving. It'll probably finish by sometime around next year but don't hold me to that lol. Schedules can change.

you guys support through all of this means a lot to me. I am, of course, writing this for myself, but a lot of the reason why I wrote this FanFiction originally was because I thought it would be interesting to see how fans would react to this type of story just because it's so different from the average Halo X Star Wars crossover. Can you guys seem to like it so I will keep doing what I'm doing?

HUGE FIGHT SCENE NEXT CHAPTER! The build-up is here! we're finally getting into the politics of the UNSC and the Separatists! The amount of research that I've done into the UEG, which is the United Earth Government on Halo and the separatist alliances Insane, I wanted to make this as close to lore as possible at the same time making it easier for you guys to understand.

Anyway! Comments! :).

Ranger2287 - you will see just soon enough I cannot confirm or deny anything :).

hermandadrb - I think the second half of your question kind of cut off. It is fine. The concept of the story is very eluded within the politics of both Star Wars and Halo, but it will make more sense as more chapters progress as to why specifically Palpatine and Duku did the thing they did, I don't like keeping my readers in the dark because I think that's dumb, I don't understand how you're confused, I would like to know as I could elaborate! ;))

SupremeSongLeader - I might be getting held divers soon, as I'm getting rid of my Xbox as I'm getting ready for college in the fall because I'm unfortunatelyâ Xbox is just not useful anymore unfortunately it's very obsolete. Getting a gaming laptop is better which also gives me an excuse to buy hell divers haha.

I mean for me to be honest with you. I think the Battlefront classic collection is awesome. I haven't had a single issue playing it with most people who I play it with. Have a very interesting thought process on this.

My friends and I have this theory that a lot of people who shaped their opinions on the Battlefront collection, have played it and they're going off of what other people saidâ This is horrible because if you go on Xbox looking for group posts or LFG, the only complaint that I've heard in consistency about the battlefront classic collection is the triple burst weapons, take The Award Rifle that you get with the basic trooper if you get a certain amount of kills, or Han Solo, or Boba Fett, for some reason triple burst weapons don't register very well. To be honest, I also get it Asypr didn't do the greatest job on launch but also when you look into their back history and how the game was, a lot of it was kind of rushed in the back end by corporate and they also were an independent studio which also made that difficult.

yeah, I was kind of really depressed so I figured I wanted to write her depressed chapter hah. The chapter is pretty impactful as we got to remember I love Halo 4s approach. It takes the stand, that these are not just some invincible, super soldiers they actually are human beings with feelingsâ When you put that in perspective, the level of PTSD and straight horror that they've probably encountered is actually impossible to comprehendâ It makes him feel more human.

I haven't really familiarized myself with the modern Halo lore just because a lot of it is very uninteresting to me, I don't know why the Banished as a faction in general is just uninteresting. Thanks dude! your comments always bring a smile to my face after a long workday lol. I mean it :))).

TheEarthquake - yea, I seriously think they're gonna be no better song to pick for the scene. I searched for a couple of hours to find a good one and I honestly think I couldn't have found a better match.

Guest - honestly most of the actual issues at the battlefront classic collection have been on PC. I don't know why I guess it was probably the server issues or something. I could be wrong but most of my Xbox friends rarely had issues. gotta remember that this is a 2005 video game being rebooted by an independent companyâ I think people are a little too harsh.

Guest - Yeah I do see what you're saying. In military terms and politically it makes perfect sense. However, from the perspective of a writer seems kind of like a boring climax to the storyâ. as I kind of want to create a really BIG climax. You know?? Could just be me. I just think I want to take you guys in a direction with my story that is unpredictable and interestingâ and that just seems a predictable route. I just want to entertain you guys and give you the BEST story possible! :)

Guest - Oh yeah dude the Malevolence being spared from its canon fate was a neat concept. Sad that it went down the way that it did. You will see soon enough about the UNSC and Separatist Alliance and how that goes down :). Stay tuned! History usually repeats itself hah.

Guest - The Yuuzhan Vong comparison to the Covenant is well thought of, HOWEVER, you must remember that this is a couple of years after the event of the Human-Covenant War so the Covenant as a whole is shattered and are just remnants of the empire. So these "remnants" are going to be less organized and less powerful than they used to be ten years ago during the war. However, this does not diminish their power in any shape and form, and they are still very destructive. I would actually still argue that the invasion fleet of Reach would have a very capable ability to even glass Coruscant itself. This is my own personal theory, though, but yeah. I do agree with the ending portion of your comment, though, and there's more in that regard to come, don't worry!!!

Again, sorry for the long wait, you guys know how life goes. I am back again and continuing onto the next chapter with all your comments, as I always say so much to me and always bring a smile to my face, regardless if they are lore, criticizing, or praising. If any of you guys are taking the time to write a comment on my story, it means a lot to me regardless of how it is happening. no real new announcements, as you can see I did change the art for the story a little bit by editing, the original one just didn't look right.

Anyway, I'll see you guys in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! You guys mean so much to me!

Stay safe, and I love yall!

~ 1DL1NG KN1GHT