As the Spartans, marines and their Jedi general marched through the jungle in a scattered wedge, weapons ready just in case the enemy was to pop their heads out again. The tall basalt obelisk that acted as their guide remained clearly visible through the canopy. It was almost calling to her, like an old friend reaching out. Or an old foe, eager for a rematch.

She breathed a sigh, annoyed, as they kept walking. Shadows danced at the corners of her vision, a repeated nuisance. And it wasn't the Dark Side emanating from the Tomb ahead. She asked Richard, "How many Commandos are there?" over the com in a whisper. The Spartan flashed his identification light three times her way, then three again. Three teams of three.

The audible creak of motors rippled through the shade as well, the thunderclap of armored feet following that of boots. She hummed and whispered, "Commando Droids…" before she switched channels and looked back at the troops she had arrayed on the mountaintop, telling them, "Warhead Squad, keep your eyes peeled. Possible Commando strike team incoming…"

The audible rev of the Z6's barrel motor came as a reply. She smiled a bit, noting to herself, "Good to know you're prepared already, Warden," as she drew the hilt of her lightsaber off her belt. She gave a small flick of her wrist toward Six, who nodded and took half the team of Marines to the left, while she and the others continued advancing.

The enemy was encroaching on them, trying to see if she would open the tomb so they could get what she wanted. Guerrilla operations precluded an Ambush like this and the Mimban Commandos seemed quite capable in something like that, so she thought. She looked at Vesna and Victor, balled a fist and waved them to the front.

They joined her there, the young Romanian-born Machine Gunner quietly loading a belt of armor-piercing rounds while his wife loaded a grenade into her underbarrel launcher, both bearing stern faces. The rest of the team, seeing their TLs and General preparing, slowly did the same. As the noise drew closer, she heard Blaster rifle safeties switch off.

Casting a glance at the first of the shadows, the woman soon realized they'd reached the glade where the Obelisk stood. She arrayed her team calmly, approaching the Obelisk and trying to act as if she hadn't noticed the enemy. Any perceptive enemy Commando would know their Ambush was done and engage now, while they still surrounded them…

And as she touched the Basalt, the Mimban rifleman behind her fired the first shot. The scarlet bolt was soon deflected back with a flick of Meetra's wrist and the whoosh of her brandishing her lightsaber. The deflected bolt narrowly missed the man, who aimed and fired again, Meetra barking, "FIRE AT WILL!"

She spun about and struck down a Commando droid that ran past its comrade, trying to kill her. Took its head clean off its shoulders before delivering a straight-up kick that sent the machine corpse flying back. She charged forward, utilizing the Force to give herself a burst of Speed, before lifting her blade and pointing it at the Mimban soldier.

Her blade pierced his heart and pinned him to the tree. She withdrew, leaving a burn in the tree and through the man, before spinning about and slashing down and to the left, then up and to the right in two parallel lines, cutting down two more men as bullets zinged past her and into the enemy's forces. That was two Mimban infantrymen and another pair of Commando droids down.

She watched Dick emerge from his camouflage, blade drawn and thrusting down into the side of a Commando's neck. Blood painted the silver steel as he withdrew it, letting the corpse fall and drawing his pistol. He put two slugs into the chest of a Commando droid, staggering it. A third round tore its processor out.

The General nodded in approval, watching the Marines and Six move up to outflank the other company of enemy units. She deflected three bolts meant for a pair of her Marines, kicked another man down and was inches short of striking him before she felt a vibroblade cut a gash across her back, her cloak tearing, armor singed.

She dropped the cloak, revealing her mix of UNSC and Clone body armor. A white ODST chest plate and back plate, white clone greaves and mixed shoulders, one of which bore the symbol of the Republic. She gasped as soon as she saw that same Commando sever the head of one of her Marines. She grit her teeth as something inside her snapped, spun about just as it was to decapitate a second and stabbed it through the chest, lifting it up with a rage-filled roar and tossing it aside like garbage.

Her free hand shot out next and a spear of lightning surged forth toward the Commando Droids and their remaining Commando of Mimban on this side. The droids took the brunt of the strike, electricity arcing off their bodies, internals visibly melting as the blue electrical arcs caused short-circuits across their bodies, their eyes flickering and going out.

Meetra charged the last terrified Commando on this side, swinging her lightsaber at his midsection and eviscerating him. She deflected several more blaster bolts next, while Six and Richard pushed up to her. To their right, the Romanian and Russian Marines fired their weapons, bursts from their autoguns ripping through the Droids' armored bodies and the Commandos' armor.

The Mimban Commandos did not retreat, however, instead choosing to meet the Marines with blades drawn. Vic was forced to draw his own combat knife, dodging a swing from one of their enemy's vibro-blades. He swung low, ducking under another attack and stabbing the Mimban commando through the side. He slammed himself into the man, throwing him to the floor before lifting the Knife and planting it clean into his heart, piercing the armored vest and letting blood gush from the wound

Vesna beside him laid waste to a trio of Commando Droids with her rifle, only drawing her own knife and her pistol when the Commando got close to her. She gasped as she saw Vic take two blaster bolts to the chest, but the plasma dissipation plates added beneath the armor helped stave off any damage. He stood to his feet and lifted his MG again.

Meetra redirected her team and struck the side of that platoon of Confederate Commandos, her first blade swing severing the head from a Mimban Commando's shoulders, while her second, a low, sweeping swing, bisected a Commando droid at its thin, exposed midsection. The Spartans joined in, rifles barking.

The General lifted her hand as she watched a Mimbanese soldier appear from behind Vic, blade drawn and raised. With a flick, she snapped the man's neck via the Force, causing the corpse to fall limp. The Marine saw the man dead, then looked to the General and gave her a nod of thanks, a bit surprised. When his machine gun ran dry, he grabbed one of the Vibroblades off the floor and engaged in CQC again.

Gunfire rippled from atop the Mountain, too. Meetra looked back at their old vantage point and saw scarlet and blue bolts being exchanged, the Clone Lieutenant in charge of the squad reporting, "Confirming contact with local forces, ma'am! Commando Droids and… It almost looks like some Local Militia!"

"We'll be right back, Lieutenant! Hold!" Meetra barked.

"Negative, ma'am! Get into the temple and retrieve what we need! We'll distract the Seppies!" The Clone replied, only for the thunder of a grenade launcher's 40mm round striking a target to rumble from above. She saw a pair of Hyena bombers dive on them, only for UNSC airpower and Republic Fighters to swarm and shoot them out of the sky.

Meetra grit her teeth, then commanded, "Any and all allied units who can, redirect to Grid 1305 to support squad assigned to hilltop… We're almost done here, so I want as many of my men alive as possible," before she marched over to the temple's Obelisk. She put her hand up against it, feeling a slight chill as she did so.

The whispers of the ancients echoed in her mind, Sith spirits wanting to drag her to the Darkness, she figured, only to soon realize rather violently that they weren't to touch her, lest they wished to die a second time and forever. She put her hand up to the Obelisk fully, gently touching it with the Force. A flurry of symbols flashed around her hand before a rectangular frame formed around them and her hand.

The black stone basically disintegrated in front of her, atomizing. Six and Richard walked up to her, with Richard offering, "I can go reinforce the Clones, ma'am…" while they watched the silver metal poke out from behind the Tomb's black basalt, Forerunner tech waiting in greeting for Meetra and thE Reclaimers.

"Go," She nodded, "Take care of them."

The Spartan nodded, then vanished behind his active camouflage. The General raised a balled fist and showed the others to follow her into the place, weapons ready. She kept her own lightsaber drawn while Six moved up beside her, rifle raised and flashlight on despite his VISR systems also being online.

… Atop the Hill, Lieutenant 'Savvy' and his boys held the line, blaster rifles and gatling blasters laying down the hate on the enemy troops below. Advancing uphill, the enemy's forces were a mix of Commandos, fast and agile droids meant for high-speed special ops warfare(which made it weird for them to charge uphill like this) and a dozen or so units of local Militia commanded by Mimban Commandos, the Seps' own combat teams.

They could see firefights in the Capital of Nathema, too. The bastards had staged a massive assault across all sides as a final push to take them out, with their few remaining air assets attempting to bomb the Republic and UNSC out of the AO. Savvy barked, "Gold, Lowball, check the left! Warden, you, Punk and Mech take the right and lay'em low!"

"Sir!" The Clones replied, the platoon rearranging as ordered. The right side was the slope which also had the hole in the wall where the old ammo depot was. They'd tried clearing it out, but had only dumped enough rounds for it not to take the mountaintop with them should it blow. It was basically a directional mine at this point, though. One stray shot and whatever was even remotely close was dead…

Warden, the heavy gunner, hefted his Z6 over cover and started laying down bursts of plasma toward the enemy units. The heavy Clone spoke, "Must be hundreds of'em!" as he watched more and more local Militia armed with droid blasters appear out of the woodwork, bolts of energy skimming by them while the Mimbanese and Droid Commandos led the charge.

"Probably," The Lieutenant replied, taking a knee beside the man and firing his own DC-15. He aimed his shots carefully, nailing the enemy with blasts straight to their foreheads or chests. The Commandos were proving to be quite painful to deal with though, due to the reinforced core armor. Still, focusing them down worked pretty well.

His blaster overheated, so, with a sign from his hand, he got Warden focusing fire before hitting the emergency cooling. Four gusts of steam exited from the weapon's barrel as it began to cool. When it was done, he turned to fire, joining Warden. He primed a Thermal det, threw it down the slope and watched it land between four Locals. The blast wiped them all out.

A Commando sprung up ahead of them. The Droid kicked the Lieutenant down, knocking his helmet off of his head and shattering the visor. It pounced the Lieutenant and grabbed him by the throat, its metallic fingers digging into the flesh like claws, ripping the bodysuit. Warden quickly turned, wanting to engage and assist the Lieutenant.

A second later, the Mech was destroyed, its head ripped clean off, body kicked aside and shot to death as Richard materialized. He offered a hand to the Lieutenant, the barrel of his rifle still smoking, before stating, "I'll be keeping you company, Lieutenant! Keep this hill secure! It's the UNSC's only route to reinforce the General and her troops down there!"

"Roger!" The man replied. He took the Spartan's hand, grabbed his blaster and helmet, then went over to join his boys. Richard walked over to the edge, watching Tracers being exchanged in the city, Commander Ordo calling over the com as, overhead, more Droid starfighters, whatever was left of the local planetary contingent, presumably, engaged Allied airpower.

This was a clusterfuck…

UNSC Infinity

"Prep to deploy a counter-response force for the assault," Admiral Lasky ordered as he looked upon the ever-changing battlefield on his holo-table. Updates of troop movements, positions held by allied forces and the range and broadness of the counterattack by local Militia and Droid remnant forces played in front of him in detail. Wombat drone footage showed the engagements in the Capital, an up-close, fierce firefight. Outside, Armor from both the 337th and the UNSC's support divisions fought back a range of enemy forces armed with various weapons.

It was one hell of a trial by fire for the 337th, Lasky thought as he watched the fight. He then added, "Roland, get squadrons up from the 337th's Venators, strike the forest around the capital and the defense points. Status on Johnson and Commander Ordo's forces on my display," before he scratched his chin.

Senator Amidala walked onto the bridge, surprised to see the sheer amount of activity. In the distance, she saw the flickering lights of Droid ships. Outside the window, however, were also the wrecks of a fleet of such ships. Stopping beside Admiral Lasky and watching the ongoing battle below, she asked, "Why aren't we engaging the enemy fleet up ahead?"

"Sensors from the Venators picked up a second fleet at the edge of the system," Lasky spoke, pulling up the transmitted sensor logs and showing them to her via the holo-display. He looked at the Senator and added, "Roland made the calculations. If we go chasing those wild geese, these guys will swing in and drop reinforcements for the Militias below."

"How long has that fleet been there…?" Padmé asked with half a mouth.

"Half a day now," The man replied as he watched the sun crest the eastern side of the planet. The unfiltered light caused the ship's windows to turn opaque, filtering out the light. He told her, "You should be in your quarters, ma'am. If that fleet comes in anyway, you're safest behind the armor layers…" only to pause as he heard a mayday call. He stated, "Gunships and bombers are coming in, Lieutenant. Hang tight."

The external cameras showed the swarm of allied craft:Escorting fighters diving down to the surface of the planet alongside Longswords, Pelicans, Y-Wings and Broadswords, plus LAATs. The enemy ships launched their own fighters to try and intercept, it seemed, an airbattle beginning over the capital as the last of the Droid and CIS forces on Nathema attempted to retake the capital.

"Status on the rest of the fleet?" The Senator requested, shifting her gaze to Roland.

"Varying damage sustained across all ships. We have a couple Frigates in pretty bad shape that are limping back from patrol to board the Infinity. We'll fix them at Kuat, though, so," Roland replied as he pulled up several status reports from a multitude of UNSC ships undergoing damage control operations, their approach vectors and all information.

The Frigates looked like they'd been pounded with sledgehammers. Their outer hulls had taken severe damage and the shield emitters were flickering, while the reactor was running on emergency mode on one of the ships, due to a coolant line being struck. Crew casualties were thankfully minimal from what she was reading.

"You really should've stayed on Coruscant, ma'am," The Admiral sighed deeply. He continued, "While General Skywalker and General Kenobi are busy fighting out there, you should probably be helping draft some new bill for when this war is inevitably gonna end…" and he watched the live feed of a Wombat drone as the Dropships arrived in the city's spaceport. The LAATs dropped ropes on the main boulevard to allow platoons of 337th members to drop in hard and fast.

An AT-TE detonated with the impact of a bomb dropped by a now-destroyed Hyena. The Scorpions and the other AT-TEs gathered around it to allow the surviving crew to evacuate. Medical Saddlebacks and Warthogs rolled out, picking the wounded up and ferrying them inside the city. Inside said city, elements of the 337th still held onto all major objectives, to the point Lasky spoke, "The Three-Thirty-Seventh are damn fine siegebreakers."

"Not a single objective lost," Padmé smiled, "Clones are something else entirely when they're deployed. Especially when people seem to give a damn about them," before she scratched her chin and mumbled, "I'm surprised that you all got along so quickly, though," before leaning onto the table to watch the fighting.

Lasky stated, "Marines know comrades in arms, ma'am," and utilized the touch system on the holographic table to bring up some data he was interested in. He asked, "Roland, where're General Surik and the Spartans?" while scanning the battle-map for any sign of their General and Noble Six himself.

"We lost contact with them here, sir," Roland stated as he put a NAV Point on the map, next to a giant spire that almost looked like a holographic display glitch from the scanners. He stated, "It's a basalt pillar of some kind, but we can't make out the internal composition here… It's not seemingly native to Nathema, though. HEADHUNTER is still in play, helping defend the hilltop here…" and another ping appeared.

Lasky hummed, then said, "Suppose they've found the Tomb with the map, then," before adding, "Deploy a contingent to the-"

The alarm blared… Loud Claxons wailed.

The sensor officer called, "Sir, fleetwide warning from screening vessels. Droid Fleet at the edge of the system has mobilized. They'll be here in approximately thirty minutes," before sending the data over to the Holo-table. Indeed, the fleet, represented by a triangle, was fast-approaching the Planet of Nathema from the edge of the system.

"Guess they got tired of waiting," Lasky mumbled, then ordered, "All ships with minor damage are to deploy in diamond formation and cover both sides. If the larger fleet's moving, the smaller one's gonna encroach on us soon. Bolster CAP and put me on to the whole fleet," before getting a nod from Roland. The man leaned forward and said, "All ships, we're re-entering orbital combat operations. Remove weapon safeties and be ready to engage."

"Guess I should go to my room now. Take care, Admiral…" The Senator spoke. She looked over the map one more time, watching the Droid vessels approach and the Confed defenders below engaging the occupation force in the capital. She breathed, concerned, then walked out. Lasky looked back at her, mumbled something about politicians with actual guts, then looked ahead again.

He asked, "ETA to the Arbiter's arrival?"

"Ten minutes. They'll be here before the CIS Fleet makes contact, sir…" Roland spoke, then paused and said, "Stand-by. New Slipspace jump overhead. Marking the Phoenix-class support ship and a Republic transport. Confirming ID tags aboard are BLUE Team and DELTA Squad, with BLUE requesting priority meeting, sir."

"Send them to the bridge the moment they're in the hangar," the man replied calmly as he watched the Phoenix-class rejoin the formation and deploy her assault boats down to the planet to help reinforce it before joining the formation. He saw the Dropships touching down in the nearest hangar to the Infinity's bridge, then turned around moments later as Blue Team marched onto the deck.

He turned to salute them, pausing as he saw them covered in muck. He blanked when Chief stated, "Sir… We might have a problem," before pulling out Cortana's chip and handing it to the man. He nodded, but the Spartan added, "If we can speak privately, sir. Worrying the crew ain't gonna help the current situation."

"... Alright," He sighed, then stated, "XO, you have the conn. Tell the Arbiter to swing in and hit'em hard when he arrives," before he showed Chief and the others to lead the way. Moving to an adjacent meeting room, the Spartans activated CLEAN ROOM protocols and ensured nobody was listening. Chief motioned to the hologram display in the middle of the room.

Lasky inserted Cortana's chip, pausing only as he saw her glowing the same way she had during the recordings he saw of Chief's mission on the first Halo. She looked up, stood to her feet from a cross-legged sitting position, then said, "Sir… I'm gonna be as blunt as my programming allows me. UPSILON and CORRUPTER were just triggered."

The Admiral visibly paled, eyes shooting wide open. She told him, "We've encountered a Flood infection on board the RAS Prosecutor. We handled it and the Cleanup, sir, but the situation's got a lot more layers than just a Republic ship running into a random Flood Spore…" before she looked back at the reports she must've written on the way over.

"Obvious by CORRUPTER…" Lasky mumbled, voice audibly shaken, "Go on."

"The Prosecutor picked up a UNSC Condor-class starcraft with an exhausted FTL drive at these coordinates, sir," She stated, displaying stellar coordinates taken from a combination of Republic data sent for ease of navigation and the UNSC's own astro-nav scans. The coordinates were rough, but the Corbantis system, where the ship had been when it was found, was Light-Years away. She added, "Obviously, it contained one Spartan-IV, infected by the Flood after his Armor's containment systems failed, and approximately half-a-dozen Combat Forms from an ONI action group. It's apparently from Site-22, an ONI dig site, sir."

"What the Hell was an infected Condor here? How did they even make it out? I can see they triggered CORRUPTER and UPSILON there, too," Lasky demanded, looking over the Files displayed by the AI. Cortana shrugged, visibly annoyed she didn't know the answer either. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, then asked, "The way you're saying, it wasn't a random pickup, was it?"

"Apparently not, sir," The AI replied, her voice growing low. She pulled up a specific file and showed it to Lasky. She pointed at the signature and added, "It was a direct order from Chancellor Palpatine. Not a hint how he knew about it is in this letter, though. He just knew something 'useful' might've been aboard… And he wanted it brought to either Coruscant or some secret Republic RnD base…"

Lasky scoffed. To think General Surik asking them to deploy an ONI team to Coruscant to keep tabs on the Chancellor turned out to be a good idea. He said, "Maybe he was hoping to do what the crew of the Mona Lisa couldn't," in a mumble. The Mona Lisa incident had been one report for the ages. Classified by ONI and only accessed by Lasky with Lord Hood's and Doctor Halsey's help years later. To think they were trying to weaponize the Parasite.

"He'd be dumber than a box of nails if that's what he was trying," Cortana stated bluntly, then sighed deeply and added, "Good thing we're keeping tabs on him, sir. Your orders?"

"Keep this quiet," Lasky replied, "I'll brief the Shipmaster and Arbiter when they get here, but, for now," and he pointed down, "The planet below might need reinforcements as soon as we're done clearing out the Orbit. Clean yourselves up and maintain combat readiness in case we need Spartans on the ground."

"Sir," Blue Team snapped salutes. The CLEAN ROOM protocol was disengaged and Chief retrieved Cortana's chip. They walked out, only to see Delta waiting for them outside. While the Spartans briefed Delta on the fact they might deploy planetside to support the allied squads, Lasky walked back to the bridge, a little more apprehensive about their 'ally', the Chancellor.

He'd check in with the Team on Coruscant later…