Sorry for the rather long wait time, I heavily revised the previous chapters and online school was just a huge drag.
RNS Intrepid Computer System
Inside cyberspace, a world defined by ones, zeros, and countless exchanges of data and code, an advanced program streaked through the calm and ordered regions of the Republic computer system, wreaking havoc and creating chaos.
Firewalls and antivirus routines tried to stop the rampage, but were frozen and deleted line by line with incomprehensible speed.
It was a digital battle between millions of virtual armies against one seemingly unstoppable foe.
That foe happened to be the most advanced Human made artificial intelligence in the known galaxy.
It, or she as the program called herself, was a program so fast and so unfathomably capable, that it was a copy of one of, if not the most, complex machines in the galaxy, the human mind.
So advanced was this program that it was beyond all the combined power of the programs and subroutines that stood against her.
This program could not even only be described as artificial intelligence.
No, this program was true sentience, true emotions and true life likeness, not just intricate copies of a person to mimic sentience with pre-programmed actions and reactions that numbered in the trillions.
It was the first metastable Terran AI.
She was Cortana.
Cortana could not help but smirk as she deleted yet another hundred thousand attackers from the Republic anti-intrusion systems, whose attacks were so futile Cortana had to try to notice them as she casually cast them aside with impunity.
‘I must say, I am quite disappointed with their cybersecurity systems. It would’ve been totally inadequate, even for the UNSC before the Insurrection.’ Cortana thought to herself.
She sighed as she took down barrier after barrier that stood in her way to her goal, the communications of the enemy flagship.
With one last digital ‘punch’, she burst through the last firewall and led herself into the communications systems that were organizing the enemy determined to destroy the UNSC defense.
‘Gotcha.’ Smirking, she cut the life from the Republic system, locking them out of their own comm arrays.
She used the camera system to take a look around at the situation in the real world, the world where John was.
Cortana took a quick ‘moment’ to make thousands of copies of herself to insulate the system, securing and expanding her ‘beachhead’ in the system.
Cortana looked on as John ignited his energy sword and charged into battle against the Jedi.
Cortana wished she could do more to help him, but he had faced far worse and had almost literally ran through hell to save her. As much as she longed for him, she also knew that he would be fine, and she had a job of her own to do.
RNS Intrepid Bridge
“We just got locked out of our communications!”
“We’ve lost control of the helm!”
“Weapons systems going offline!”
Frantic cries reached out as Tarkin and his crew slowly began to become helpless passengers on their own ship.
“What’s the situation!?” Tarkin called out as he watched his fleet charge into battle with no direction from him while the infected Intrepid began to drop out of formation, its engine's shutting down without the prompting of her crew.
Tarkin strode over to the senior computer officer at work at his station, the man clearly overwhelmed by what was happening.
“What’s the status of the ship?” Tarkin asked.
The man paused to wipe the sweat from his brow before answering.
"Admiral, this thing is unlike anything I have ever seen, our firewalls were actually turned against us if they weren’t simply deleted. This was before the program began to make copies of itself. This must be some sort of artificial intelligence package or something for it to adapt this quickly and actually lure our spyware systems into traps, something I have never even heard of before."
The man paused as he sighed, the rest of the bridge crew almost one by one calling out that they were losing control of their prospective systems.
"Sir, the only thing that I can think of that would work would be for us... to disconnect or wipe our computer systems and use manual controls." He timidly finished.
Tarkin had to blink to make sure he understood correctly.
"Lieutenant, if we did that, then we would be unable to make hyperspace jumps without making the calculations manually, which could take days. Then there is the problem with us going into battle with no ability to attack targets unless they are at point blank range with manual control and manual targeting."
The man sighed. "I know, sir, but that is all we can do. I can get some of our comms back online but it will still take time."
Tarkin weighed his options, and he didn't like what he saw.
"Do it."
Imperator-Class Star Destroyer, RNS Accuser
"Enemy ships are closing to two hundred ten thousand kilometers Sir, weapons range in three minutes!" The weapons officer on the Imperator Star Destroyer called out.
Its commander, Captain Piett, calmly stood at the front of the bridge with his hands folded behind his back. Through the holoscreen in front of him, he watched the Terran ships that had caused the Republic to experience some of the most lopsided naval casualties in recent history.
His experiences in the Ciutric Planetary Security Forces had taught him not to take outnumbered opponents lightly, but for the UNSC fleet to have been outnumbered four to one yet still have caused the once 310 warship strong Republic fleet to be reduced to 107 while only taking 50% casualties in return was completely unheard of.
Piett scratched his chin and pondered the tactics that the Republic would need to counter the now undeniably powerful UNSC Navy. It would only be a matter of time before the enemy would crest over the horizon of the planet and have a clear shot at his forces.
The main strength of the Terrans were their ships’ ability to pick off their targets at extreme range with devastating power, usually outright destroying or damaging most ships in a single shot.
This power lies in their so-called MAC weapons, or Magnetic Accelerator Cannons.
Piett hadn’t devoured all of the reports that intel had provided as much as Tarkin had himself, but he still thought the Terrans an appreciable threat.
However, it wasn't until he was forced to watch Republic ships be cracked open by ferocious amounts of kinetic energy did he realize that they were grossly underestimated, like most of the damned UNSC technology.
He admitted that at face value, a magnetic projectile launcher seemed very primitive and underwhelming, but with the right technology and expertise, which the UNSC seemed to have mastered long ago, coupled with reactors large enough to power a city, then the supposed ‘primitive’ weapons became a scientific marvel as well as a military nightmare for whomever was on the business end of the weapon.
The UNSC, by his rough mental calculations, would be able to get in two shots from their MACs on average before the Republic turbolasers could fire back due to the range of the weapons themselves and the UNSC's targeting systems. It was an untenable way to wage war for the Republic.
As proven earlier, the Republic could win at close to medium range with their faster firing weaponry, but the problem remained of surviving long enough to close the gap.
And it wasn't that the UNSC were not deadly themselves in close range fighting, just not specialized in it. Their secondary armaments were powerful and could take away some of the Republic's edge at medium to close range as did their heavy missile armament, but the Republic still would win if they could get to their optimal range and if they retained a decent numbers advantage.
In the several hours since the initial start of the battle Piett had run several simulations on how to best fight the Terrans, and ways to at least survive fighting the UNSC at range.
The only way that he could, with the time given, find a way to survive the MAC slugs was to cut all engine power, letting momentum take over, and shunt as much power to the shields as they could handle while every watt remaining would be allocated to the main batteries.
There was a very grievous fault in Piett’s speculation. The heavier Accuser and the Imperators like her would be far more adept at fighting this way with their much stronger shield generators and more gun centric design with the Venators close behind, but the other ships in the fleet simply couldn’t fight like that. The Victory IIs weren’t as heavily armed or armored and neither were the Acclamators.
All of this was merely idle speculation, for it was the UNSC fleet trying to close in on Piett, not the other way around. On top of that there was an even more pressing issue at hand with regards to the fleet’s flagship.
A few minutes after the unknown craft had penetrated the Intrepid’s defenses and blew its way on board, communications with the vessel went dark.
Piett was still unsure about his last set of orders, and wished to confirm with Admiral Tarkin. The situation planetside seemed to grow more and more hectic by the moment; there was no telling how many of Commander Bly’s troops were able to withdraw from the frontline. Piett himself had yet to tell the rest of his men what they were about to do. For all they knew, they were merely escorting the withdrawal of the landed ships.
"Sir, the UNSC ships are about to enter into position." Piett’s executive officer informed him.
The Terran colony had grown to take up almost all of the bridge windows as the range between the opposing fleets dropped slowly. The largest Terran settlement, very near to his ordered target in terms of turbolaser firepower, was close yet too far at the same time.
The UNSC forces were moving around the planet’s orbit to get a shot at Piett’s detachment all too quickly.
Sure enough, the energy readings were skyrocketing amongst the battered yet painfully defiant defending warships as their mass drivers prepared to take more Republic lives.
Piett knew he had to act fast.
He decided to take matters into his own hands.Turning to the communications officer Piett spoke. "Inform the entire fleet that I am assuming command. Tarkin is not responding and the Commodore is dead. Tell our detachment to shunt all power to their rear shields and to cut their engines."
"But sir…" The comm officer began to argue before Piett slapped the man, the entire bridge of the ship recoiling in unison from the shock of such an action.
One could have heard a pin drop in the resulting silence.
"Do it! Or you will be responsible for the deaths of even more!" He hissed as the man began to sweat uncontrollably, beginning to pour down the man's face.
"Y-.yes sir!"
He gave one quick look around the dull grey interior of the Accuser's bridge at all of the consoles and the men at them. Most hurriedly turned back to their tasks at hand out of fear that they too would be next.
‘If this doesn’t work, it’s Tarkin’s operation anyway. If it does work, I’ll come out of this with my life and a nice promotion.’ He thought as the executive officer turned to him, the man himself clearly still shaken by Piett's actions.
"Sir, all power from the engines have been shunted to our shields and they have all been focused rearword, we still aren’t in weapons range for a Base Delta Zero, our target is still on the other side of the planet, but our vectors are stable, we still have control with our secondary thrusters to fine tune our approach." Piett looked on the holoscreens to confirm that the engines were now essentially shut off and their power shunted to the shield arrays.
The comm officer called out. "Sir, about half of the fleet are approving of your orders but half of them are demanding that contact be reestablished with the Admiral instead."
Cursing, Piett grabbed the officer's handset and all but screamed into the fleet wide communications.
"Listen! For all we know, Tarkin is dead! We have no time to argue power plays right now as…"
"Massive energy readings from the UNSC fleet... UNSC ships are firing!"
On the displays and the enhanced zoom optics from the telescope arrays Piett watched as the 39 remaining UNSC ships fired in unison.
Most of the surviving ships were the heavier ships which mounted more than one mass driver or ‘MAC’ which meant dozens of projectiles streaked towards Piett and his battlegroup.
"BRACE FOR IMPACT." A crewman called out.
The slugs that weighed hundreds of tons, packing hundreds of gigatons of kinetic energy, punched into Piett’s ships.
Piett fell backwards as the Accuser was hit by two direct shots, one from a frigate and another from a carrier, the titanic force of the projectiles and the shields fighting each other felt like it was going to shake the ship apart as the bolstered shields held, but were dropped to 35 percent as they frantically recharged, racing against the clock.
Across the battlegroup the projectiles impacted with devastating results, even with Piett’s countermeasures.
An Acclamator acting as escort for one of the remaining Imperators was struck by a slug fired from the heavy cruiser DeAngelo. The heavier 900 ton slug going a quarter the speed of light cracked the shields open with raw kinetic power and the forces exerted upon it boiled away nearly 400 hundred meters of the bow armor. The bridge was left a charred remnant of metal.
The slug, unabated and only slowed by half of its speed, punched through the ship and ripped almost half of it apart, turning the debris into one giant expanding cloud of high velocity shrapnel.
The DeAngelo’s second heavy MAC slug that it fired a second later drained the reinforced shields of a more powerful Victory II and overloaded them to the breaking point as the ship violently rocked from the impact. Another MAC round quickly dispatched the maimed ship.
A Venator meanwhile was the victim of no less than two UNSC frigates and the destroyer Problem Child. The dual MACs of the destroyer and one of the frigates dropped the focused shields while the last round from the other frigate Ankara tore through the ship, its armor and size doing nothing from keeping the MAC round from almost splitting the ship in half as the ship began to tear itself apart.
Several seconds after the salvo was over, the energy projectors of the three carriers and the enemy flagship took out another Victory II, an Acclamator and a Venator, whose shields gave out after the two beams from the flagship struck, leaving it to be sliced open by the last beam of hyper accelerated particles and condensed plasma from the carrier Black Dawn.
After he regained his footing, Piett clenched his fists as he looked at the tactical display.
The whole salvo lasted only a few seconds, but its effects were impossible to overcome.
He still had lost a crushing 14 ships to the Terran attack, 3 Venators, 4 Victory IIs and 7 Acclamators, who were all now either broken husks of their former proud selves or an expanding debris field that the surviving ships were forced to plow through.
The Accuser, for the most part, was undamaged; its already powerful shields were reinforced and focused to take the assault in order to keep them from being destroyed.
"Time to our new target?" Piett asked.
“The UNSC fleet?” The weapons officer asked.
As Piett leaned in to show him on the console, the man's eyes widened.
"Ten minutes sir. I’ll input the firing calculations for our projected trajectory." The weapons officer gulped as the deck shook from the turbolasers firing at the UNSC fleet.
Piett grimaced before turning to the helmsman. “Fly us directly over the city, we’ll have to be a diversion for the rest of the fleet.”
UNSC Warhound
"Fourteen kills, MAC capacitors and energy capture systems recycling and recharging, ready to fire again in fifty seconds at maximum output." MacArthur informed Gregory as the bridge crew continued on with their grave duties as if oblivious to the success, their professionalism drilled in and honed by both years of experience and training (which they took a fair bit of pride in).
The Admiral kept a stern mask on his face as he merely nodded.
As the UNSC fleet formed around the Warhound into a roughly pyramidal formation, Admiral White frowned.
They had done less damage than they should have.
"Damn! MacArthur, by our estimates we should have gotten thirty clean kills, it seems that their shields have been reinforced somehow. Do you have any clues as to how they are countering us? We need to take those ships out, Fort Longston is getting pounded to hell!" He inquired of the AI.
MacArthur nodded. He read through hundreds of thousands of lines of data in the span of a few seconds before answering. "It appears that all ships cut all their engine power and diverted it to their shields, or as much as their capacitors can take anyways. This looks to have increased their strength by twice as much on their capital ships.”
As some of the remaining fighters flew past the bridge, Gregory walked to the window to take in the view. With his back turned, he spoke. "Not too bad on their part. Order all ships to focus..."
He didn't get the chance to finish before Captain Haithum shouted. "Incoming enemy fire!"
Admiral White was caught by surprise this time, spinning around at breakneck speeds.
"All ships go evasive! Break up into squadrons!"
Alarm klaxons blared as the flagship and the other ships in the UNSC fleet all quickly threw themselves onto new headings using their emergency thrusters. Turbolaser bolts streaked towards them, the way the Warhound was moving made them look like comets flashing into and out of existence.
Gregory was forced to clinch his fists in frustration as he watched the turbo laser bolts containing countless joules of power fly past each ship. A volley managed to score some hits on one of his destroyers, though it was absorbed harmlessly by the ship's shields.
While the deck rumbled, Gregory cursed. "Tricky bastards are trying to stall us and throw off our next volley, we need to end this quickly before they can support their troops on the ground!"
As if to punctuate his sentence, more volleys of super hot plasma sped towards the UNSC ships. Once again the UNSC ships evaded, the larger ships and especially the Warhound moved with speed that belied their size.
This time there were noticeably many more streams of plasma hurtling towards his forces, and this time three UNSC ships were hit. One of the remaining Warlock Battlecruisers took a salvo of three hits, harmlessly absorbed by its shields. It would take much more than that to break through, that was for sure.
Unfortunately the Republic would be able to deliver the amount of firepower it needed to do real damage soon.
"MACs at full charge in five seconds. We’ll be in for a beating by the time we fire." Captain Haithum announced.
"Reform the fleet into a tighter formation, but keep us moving." Admiral White barked out, watching the tactical screen, viewing the reticle of the Warhound’s MACs locking onto their single target while turbolaser bolts continued to pound into the ship.
"More enemies firing!" MacArthur called out.
Again blazing green turbolaser bolts streaked towards the fleet. The UNSC ships couldn’t evade, they were too close. Their shields glowed golden with each hit, absorbing tens or even hundreds of megatons of power.
The Warhound vibrated slightly under the Admiral's feet as it was struck by ten consecutive turbo laser blasts, its shields flashing with each hit.
"Shields holding at 93 percent. Our MACs are charged and ready to fire." The weapons officer announced.
The UNSC ships held strong. The worst damage inflicted was on three frigates, each of them losing their shields. One of them was struck on its port side soon after, the armor did hold but a twenty by twenty meter section of its armor was now blackened and scorched.
"Return fire by all means." Gregory commanded.
The 4 MACs on the Warhound spoke as one, sending screaming tungsten slugs weighing hundreds of tons into the enemy at relativistic speeds. The other MACs of the fleet followed suit.
This time four Venators (one of them a victim of the Warhound), five Victories and three Acclamators shattered under the assault, yet again spraying debris around or going up in fireballs.
Another Venator crumpled as two heavy slugs from the Warlock Battlecruiser Gungrave blew half of the ship into oblivion. The star destroyer's reactor went critical and it formed a new star for a brief moment.
The UNSC fleet had no time to celebrate as the Republic fleet continued to fire with everything they had, they didn’t even bother trying to evade what looked like a solid wall of plasma flashing towards them.
The Warhound’s shields flared brilliantly, trying to hold back the power while other UNSC craft did the same.
This time many were unsuccessful.
The three frigates whose shields were already depleted flashed out of existence. Two more frigates and a destroyer joined them in horrific explosions as their armor and hulls succumbed to thousands of direct hits. Their fusion reactors went up in bright messy firestorms, vaporizing the warships and taking all of their crews with them.
A destroyer lagged out of formation with its thicker hull slagged and burned through in a dozen places, its engines failing and its crew abandoning ship.
One of the powerful Warlock-Class Battlecruisers, the Nassau, was the target of the main batteries of a few Victory IIs, an Imperator, and one of the Acclamators. The combined volleys of the enemy cracked open its shields and started to spend themselves on the thick armored plating which shrugged off the powerful hits but became blemished with burn marks.
In total 7 UNSC ships were either destroyed or adrift, leaving 32 UNSC warships to return fire with MACs, energy projectors, thousands of missiles, particle cannons, railguns, coilguns, and several nukes as the Republic detachment fired with their own armament.
Time was not on the side of Admiral White, as the main Republic force began to close in. He would be sandwiched if he didn’t end this quickly.
The two fleets passed into point blank range as more vessels from either side were crippled, spewing their crews into the icy vacuum of space, or started to put up increasingly more resistance.
This was the last ditch effort for Admiral White. If they lost in orbit, it wouldn’t be long for the ground to follow suit.
Now, it was a dance to the end, to death, or victory.
RNS Intrepid
‘He can dodge a Force push?’ Shaak Ti shockingly thought as the giant supersoldier sidestepped her force push in a blur that was almost impossible to track. She’d only ever seen one other being do that, Grievous on Hypori.
Thinking back to the now late Jax's words while stealing a quick glance at his gory body, she mentally gulped. ‘Yes, way worse than General Grievous.’
Not even Grievous could cause this much carnage on his lonesome.
The Spartan then ignited a bluish lightsaber in his right hand. However this lightsaber was unlike any she had seen before. It had two curved blades that extended out from the grip.
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Shaak Ti again tried to reach out and feel the man in the Force, but again she was met with nothing as she felt the Force inside her flash in warning of danger.
She began to circle the soldier carefully anticipating the next engagement. One wrong step and she would be dead.
“I must warn you, I am a Jedi Master well trained in lightsaber combat.”
From behind its helmeted visor, she could not see the flash of bemusement that crossed the Terran’s face, but from the way the visor steadily gazed at her made her uneasy, as if she was fighting against something inhuman. As if she was standing in front of nothing more than a cold hunk of metal set out to kill her.
The deep voice that came through the speakers of the armor was slightly different than what she was expecting, but it told her a little bit more about the person inside of the armored suit.
The voice she heard was the voice of someone who was clearly a soldier through and through, one that was a veteran of many battles, was full of intelligence yet was also one that exuded fear onto his enemies.
The armored warrior simply spoke. “I’ve fought worse.”
And it was then that Shaak Ti felt the tingle in the Force warning her of his attack.
Unlike previous times where she had multiple seconds to react, she was lucky to have a scant second to counter him.
The soldier sprung forward impossibly fast and made a vicious slash at her with his sword, which moved so fast she could have sworn she saw an afterimage.
The only reason she survived was because, unlike Jax who had let emotions cloud his perception, Shaak Ti had let the Force flow through her and guide her. Being the most skilled lightsaber combatant in the Order meant nothing against a combatant this fierce. The green warrior certainly didn’t wield his weapon with the elegance as might be expected from a Jedi, but with a tremendous amount of power and speed that she simply couldn’t counter with her own skills.
Even then, her eyes widened as she lept back with a scant inch to spare from the blade melting open her face, the scorching heat from the blade almost making the skin on her left cheek blister.
Shaak Ti back flipped through the air and sent another Force push in the direction of the supersoldier, which he simply sidestepped. He pulled out an enormous pistol that he had holstered and aimed it at her.
Without any time to spare, Shaak rolled to the left just as the unfamiliar crack of the slugthrower resounded throughout the hangar bay that was littered with the carnage her opponent had wrought with casual ease and unbelievable speed.
Normally her Force enhanced senses would have allowed her to avoid the attack with more than enough room to spare. However, that was against normal opponents, and they were armed with blasters.
The speed of the Spartan's aiming which allowed him to snap the weapon up in a flash, and the fact that it shot a high speed projectile which was invisible to the naked eye for the most part meant that Shaak Ti was lucky to be alive.
A bullet clipped her left cheek and her left lek, putting a nice cut into both as she rolled to a stop behind the wreckage of the wrecked AT-ST. She winced in pain as the blood started to flow out.
Quickly thinking, she used the force to leap up into the air. Before the Master Chief could shoot her to bits, she threw another Force push at him.
This time he was only partially successful at dodging, throwing off his aim as he was hit on the right side, knocking him back a step as his personal energy shields flickered for a split second.
Shaak Ti landed right where she had wanted to, behind the burned out frame of the AT-PT that the super soldier had obliterated earlier in his rampage.
Knowing that in any second the Spartan would probably leap behind her to kill her, she gripped the small vehicle's wreckage with the Force and sent it flying at the Master Chief.
Shaak thought that at this close, even he wouldn't be able to dodge something like that coming at him.
It was to her great shock that the wreck abruptly stopped with a crash and a screech in mid air where the supersoldier was standing.
The vehicle stayed still in midair until it slowly rose up.
It was being held in the two hands of the Spartan supersoldier, his weapons lying on the ground as the armored titan held it above his head.
"By the Force..." was all that she could say as she took in the sight before her. A man, with no power in the Force, but was instead made into a superhuman by Terran technological prowess, was performing a feat with his body that even some Jedi Masters could not do without using every last bit of their strength. It was a humbling sight indeed.
It also showed her just how much in danger she was when the man actually threw it back at her.
As the multi-ton machine came sailing towards her, she saw an opening and dove under the machine, using the Force to propel herself.
*z*z*z*
John had to give the xeno some credit, she was as creative as she was stubborn.
She had managed to put up more of a fight than he thought. Especially when she threw the wreck at him with the Force, an ability that he was going to have a hard time countering, even simply wrapping his mind around the existence of some ‘magical’ powers was proving to be troublesome for him.
Though, if he had to guess, he probably had given the Jedi quite a shock when he simply caught the walker like a child playing catch.
John let out a short grunt as he threw the ruin of the AT-PT at the alien Jedi.
Normally, a SPARTAN-II like himself could lift on average anywhere from 1200 pounds on the low end, to one ton in the case of some larger Spartans by themselves without the assistance of their MJOLNIR armor.
With the MJOLNIR power armor, a Spartan could lift up to four times that, John was easily able to lift close to 3 tons himself with little effort, up to 5 tons if he pushed himself.
So when he merely caught the walker's husk and then threw it back, the Spartan hardly even noticed.
As the oversized projectile flew through the air, John began to go back for his weapons, anticipating the Jedi’s survival.
To no surprise, the Jedi slid under the wreck speedily in the few feet she had from impact. With her lightsaber securely held, she extended her free hand, sending out yet another ‘force push’.
The burst of pressurized air sent his M6D pistol flying, clattering about down the floor, far out of his reach.
Though he could fight with his energy sword, John found it much more efficient to simply shoot your enemy than to duel with them.
John began to reach for one of his SMGs, prompting the alien combatant to rip it off his thigh plating. He analyzed the situation, it would be too risky to reach for his other gun as the enemy would be on top of him before he could bring it to bear.
John grabbed his energy sword and ignited it just as the Jedi jumped up and attempted a hacking downward vertical slash.
The lightsaber met the magnetically focused plasma of the Sangheili energy blade which he had acquired years ago from the Arbiter during the official signing of the UEG-Sangheili Defense Pact in 2554. Most Spartans, and even some veteran ODST's now carried one as well. Even if the ODSTs couldn’t fight an Elite Minor in a duel with it, it was a great cigarette lighter and fire starter.
The Jedi had swung with all her might, yet with John’s superior strength, both as a result of his augmentations and MJOLNIR armor, her blow bounced off his guard slightly, not even making a dent in the Spartan's defense. It wasn’t even a contest between John and the Jedi.
‘This is taking too long, I need to end this now.’ John thought.
In a blur, he twisted his right foot to lash out with a vicious kick to the alien's chest as the Jedi reformed her defensive stance.
*z*z*z*
The soldier's blade did not move an inch.
She had swung with all her might, and when her saber connected with his, she might as well had saved her energy and not attacked at all.
This was definitely a problem.
His speed in blocking her attack even when she had the advantage, coupled with his unbreakable strength, meant that taking him down with her lightsaber alone was out of the question.
She would need to use a different tactic.
After landing the failed blow on his lightsaber, she began to set up for her next attack, recomposing herself to follow into the next strike.
It had all happened so fast that she missed it in the blink of an eye.
All she was able to process was the sudden blaring warning in the Force of his attack just as his armored left leg lashed out in a blur. All she could do was prepare herself for the oncoming pain.
The leg hit her chest so hard and so fast that she felt her left ribs painfully shatter as her body gave in to the enormous energy from the towering behemoth’s kick.
The only reason she survived was her ability as a Jedi to use the Force and direct it into her body, as Jedi were known to do when running at superhuman speeds or jumping multiple stories into the air.
But alas, it was far from enough.
She let out a breathless cry as she flew twenty meters like a ragdoll before hitting the deck hard on her back and sliding another six. The back of her Jedi robe tore off from the friction, leaving only her inner clothing intact.
She stared up at the ceiling of the flight deck as she did her best to fight the agonizing pain. She gasped for air as she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The world began to spin as she fought through the pain and focused, using as much of her power as she could.
She began to list off her probable injuries. ‘Shattered ribs... and probably a punctured lung.’
She knew she wouldn't have much time until she passed out from the pain, so she had no choice but to numb the pain with the aid of the Force.
She heard the Master Chief casually walking towards her with his recently retrieved pistol in hand, his intent to simply finish her off was obvious, both in the Force through the feeling of danger she had received, and from the way he menacingly strode over to her, like a hunter coming towards a wounded game animal.
She frantically looked around for a way out, finding none as the soldier strode towards and coldly began to aim the pistol at her.
Fear began to take hold as she heaved and raised herself to her knees, the world started to spin faster as she tried to focus both on staying conscious and on surviving. She finally saw a way to at least buy her some time.
And it wasn't a pretty one either, but it was a choice she had to make.
Lying a few meters from her were bodies of clones that were riddled with bullet holes, their blood beginning to dry in the stale air of the Intrepid.
Gulping at her grizzly solution, she picked their limp bodies up and threw them at the Chief, who simply batted them aside like a fly, but nonetheless it allowed her to get to her feet and ready her lightsaber with a slight hobble.
The Chief stopped and simply aimed the weapon at her, not caring to engage in the ‘heroic’ or ‘honorable’ duel with a lightsaber like most of her enemies would have.
He stopped a dozen meters away from her with a gun aimed at her forehead, his size and his armor coupled with his speed and superhuman speed made Shaak Ti begin to see the fear and intimidation that would be set into his enemies.
The golden reflective visor simply stared at her, she wasn’t completely sure whether it was more machine than man in there.
"You cannot defeat the Jedi Order and the Force. We have been around for countless thousands of years and beyond. Even if I die here today I will live on in the Force." She spoke to the stock-still titan who was planted firmly in his stance like a statue.
She was only trying to buy more time as she summed up her powers, letting the Force flow throughout her wounded body.
Shaak Ti began to think of her next move.
"How sure are you?" The Spartan asked, the weapon still pointed directly at her.
Shaak Ti grinned. “Very."
She shot forward with the speed granted to her by the Force while she grabbed the pistol with her powers and tried to rip it from the Master Chief's ironclad grasp.
This time the man was ready for her trick, he held onto the weapon despite the invisible pull of the Force and pulled the trigger.
*z*z*z*
As the Jedi was only mere meters away flying through the air, everything played out in slow motion.
John had already activated his energy sword and brought it to a defensive stance as he began to analyze everything in Spartan time.
This allowed him to see why his Magnum failed to kill the Jedi.
By an immeasurable stroke of chance, the weapon made from titanium parts gave in to the opposing and unyielding force of the pull of Shaak Ti's power despite the Chief's vice-like grip.
The barrel snapped up and the scope broke apart as the weapon shattered in John's right hand from the Force, leaving him holding the grip of the weapon as the rest of the pieces flew through the air.
Before the first pieces of the gun hit the floor, the two blades slammed into each other with the hiss of ozone as John blocked the forward thrust of Shaak Ti, twisting to the right at the same time.
However, the Jedi managed to slow herself down and turned to face the Chief before trying to slash him across the back using a backhand strike, again resulting in failure as the Spartan quickly blocked the blow.
*z*z*z*
Shaak Ti twisted on her heel and gritted in pain, following up with three more strikes that put the Spartan on the defensive, but she knew she could only last seconds in a real fight.
So she evened the odds.
Throwing a Force push right into the armored and massive chest of the Chief, the supersoldier found himself flying back before quickly landing on his feet out of a backwards roll.
Annoyed that it had taken him this long, the Master Chief reached for his M7 on his right thigh plate before he saw a loading dolly being thrown at him, forcing him to roll out of the way. Shaak Ti didn’t let him have a respite, quickly launching another set a furious attacks
This one, however, was new.
He saw her extend her right and instead of the typical Force push, he felt himself begin to feel lighter, he immediately knew what was happening. The Master Chief had felt this before when confronting the Didact.
She was simply going to hold him telekinetically in the air and kill him as he was helpless to defend himself.
As his body began to feel the all too familiar feel of zero-G, he grabbed his 10 inch combat knife off his right chest plate and sent it hurtling towards the alien.
Shaak Ti was immediately forced to break her grip on John and cut the terrifyingly fast flying knife out of the air with her saber. This time she looked up in time to see the Spartan charge at her, going in a sprint at almost a hundred kilometers an hour, moving so fast that were it not for the Force, she would have been dead before she knew what hit her.
She moved to block his horizontal slash but she immediately saw her mistake.
She physically could not block his strike.
The power behind his attack coupled with his speed meant stopping it simply would not happen. It would be easier for a podracer to go straight through a mountain than for her to block the Master Chief’s attack.
When his sword hit her lightsaber, her weapon flew out of her grasp without even taking notice of her grip.
Desperate to save herself, she tried to send a push at him as he towered over her.
This time, when the condensed air focused by the Force hit him, his heels dug into the floor plating.
Her push had little effect on him, his stance barely budged.
The cold truth began to settle in on her as she accepted her fate.
She extended her right hand to try and summon her lightsaber, but it was in vain. The Spartan simply grabbed her right arm with his cold gauntleted hand, twisting away from another Force push in a green blur of superhuman speed at the same time. With a squeeze, he crushed the bones in her right forearm with a sickening and sharp snap.
With her adrenaline pumping, she hardly noticed the pain as she saw what she knew would be one of the last images of her life.
The reflection of her face with its alien features stared coldly back at her through the golden visor of the Master Chief.
What she could feel in her last fleeting moments however was not hatred or a bloodlust that she was so used to from the enemies of her past, but merely cool, hard professionalism that was only following orders to simply eliminate a threat, nothing more and nothing less.
Something told her that, despite her still not having any feelings in the Force of the man who was about to take her life, that had it been any other less pressing of a situation, he would have let her live.
She could tell from the first few seconds of their encounter that he did not consider her an enemy soldier; an enemy? Yes.
A trained soldier? No.
And he was right.
Despite the Jedi Order’s forced learning during the Clone War, Jedi were not soldiers.
They never were and most likely never would be; she never considered herself a general even though she was graced with the title when leading the Clone Troopers, troopers that gave her respect, even if at times duly fleeting, that she did not and never had felt that she had deserved.
She was a peacekeeper and an intermediator, not a soldier, or more importantly, a trained artisan of war.
She and other Jedi like Aayla Secura and Obi-Wan had kept those beliefs that they should never have gotten involved as deeply as they had, unlike Anakin Skywalker or Mace Windu.
That was what the Master Chief was.
A professional soldier.
Period.
He had no wish to kill her personally, he merely had an objective, and she happened to be in his way.
As she looked again at the man towering over her about to deliver her death blow, Shaak Ti pondered how many enemies had seen the same reflection in that visor.
And how many more would as well?
The Spartan twisted her shattered arm behind her head and spun her around to face her back towards him, forcing her to her knees.
As he twisted his grasp on her arm with his right arm raised with his energy sword ready, Shaak Ti began to think. ‘How many more of these Spartan supersoldiers are there?’
She closed her eyes and made her peace. ‘May the Force be with the Order and that with you. Be strong Aayla and you will survive.
I did my best and now my time has come.
May the Force guide me.’
*z*z*z*
The Master Chief brought down the metal hilt of the plasma sword onto Shaak Ti’s head, knocking her out cold.
After a second, he let the limp and bloody body collapse to the grey coldness of the flight deck.
John looked at the carcass for a full two seconds before placing the sword back into its compartment. He gathered up his weapons that had been ripped from him and scattered about.
He couldn't help but admire the tenacity of the Jedi woman he defeated.
Despite her clear lack of experience, she did possess one of the most important traits that any being, alien or human, could have in his eyes.
Courage.
If John hadn’t been able to use his knife, she would’ve killed him with her telekinetic hold which restrained him in place.
An opponent who, as he could tell from her body language despite her efforts to hide it, knew she couldn't win, yet had fought him anyway.
She had fought without the foolhardy arrogance that her partner had charged in with, who quickly and stupidly paid the price for it.
He had to respect that.
As he walked to the terminal where he had transferred Cortana into, he also thought of how he and the other Spartans could better fight the Jedi in the future.
On the face of it they were a very easy opponent, but in reality they were very unpredictable due to their unique abilities that one really could not train for, only think their way out of it fast and counter them on the go.
And that in and of itself was dangerous.
Fighting enemies that shot at you or tried to stab you with burning plasma or riddle you with bullets or energy was something that all UNSC personnel understood.
Combatting opponents that could apparently sense danger and use supernatural abilities to fight was something that he and the UNSCDF didn't quite yet understand, and that ventured into the unknown.
Fighting dangerous opponents was one thing, fighting unknown opponents was another.
As he checked with Cortana on her progress, which was going along perfectly as usual, the AI asked him. “Glad to see you in one piece. It was almost getting dicey for you out there.”
“Glad to see you too Cortana.” Chief replied. “Are you ready to go?”
Cortana nodded. “Yank me”
He reached out his hand, allowing Cortana to re-enter into the MJOLNIR’s systems. He let the icy chill of her sharing his head set in and fade. He walked into the main elevator system and started to check all of his equipment.
The turbolift doors closed and the SPARTAN-II ascended to the starboard command bridge.
RNS Intrepid Bridge
"Sir I have no control, the virus has more or less taken over the ship." The chief engineer sighed in defeat with his shoulders slumped.
Tarkin walked over to the man's console and pounded his fist on it in frustration.
Here he was, the commander of the Republic fleet in this operation and he had no way to communicate with his own forces, much less control over his own flagship.
Luckily Piett seemed to have taken over in his spot and was currently engaged in very heavy combat with the UNSC, but they were currently grinding each other to scrap as the Terrans fought with ferocity not seen earlier, as ships from both sides exploded in fantastic displays of devastating firepower.
It was one hell of a lightshow, that was for sure.
"I thought we could cut the computer core from the rest of the ship?" Tarkin asked as the officer shook his head.
"It wouldn't matter, the virus took over everything before we could do anything about it. It was even faster than my most wild estimates had predicted, sir."
Tarkin shook his head as he turned to his flag captain.
“We might as well abandon ship. At least in one of the shuttles I can stay in contact with the fleet and link up with another ship. Start destroying and erasing anything we can that we are not locked out of, no matter how superficial.”
The crew looked at him. They were obviously demoralized, and very tired.
"We did our best and that is what matters." Aayla said, to the ire of Tarkin.
Suddenly, Aayla looked at him with surprise and sadness in her eyes. “Master Shaak Ti… I can no longer feel her.”
The bridge was silent for a full five seconds before Tarkin opened his mouth to respond.
“The Spartan?”
“He must have killed her. Jax died almost as soon as they ran into the Spartan.”
The clone troopers manning the entrance from the turbolift looked at each other as the officers showed clear horror on their faces.
“Shaak Ti was killed that quickly? She was on the Jedi Council.”
Aayla grabbed the admiral's wrist.
"Sir, we have to get you off of this ship."
Warlock-Class Battlecruiser, UNSC Gungrave
The chaos of battle in the high orbit of Cienna was astounding.
UNSC and Republic ships were set aflame as beams, bolts, or slugs shot back and forth between the opposing sides as the brawl all but destroyed the beauty of the stars.
The once perfect formations were now thrown to tatters as ships broke into squadrons as the large ships miles long or more unloaded their weapons into the hulls or shields of the enemy with destructive yields enough to slag cities.
The Warhound crumpled the forward bow of a Victory II with its coilgun batteries and burned the upper lateral armor of one of the few remaining Venators with a beam from one of its energy projectors as one of the UNSC cruisers, the DeAngelo, rolled on its lateral axis while firing a swarm of Archer missiles into an Acclamator, blowing apart a full hundred meters of its underbelly and exposing a dozen decks to space.
On the bridge of the warship, Captain Xu Xiangshu gripped his seat as the Gungrave took yet another hit to its starboard side from heavy turbolaser bolts that further strained the armor that had kept the ship intact after its shields failed.
Xiangshu was a 45 year old veteran of the Battle of Reach who had served on the destroyer Beirut above Tribute and Reach with distinction. He frowned, his oriental features and short jet black hair swung with him as he turned to his XO.
"Status on those damn shields?”
“They’re almost back, but because of the stress on the generator and the emitters we will only have coverage on our engine block, portside and bow, and only at 70 percent." He huffed.
Xiangshu sighed, watching through the tactical view screens as the remaining Fascines and Longswords strafed the exposed and unshielded engine cones of a Victory with their coilguns and the last of their missiles, perforating it with thunder and fire.
“Bring us around towards that Venator on the Warhound’s ass and get our energy projectors locked on.” Xu commanded as the ship's helmsman acknowledged.
The engine cones on the nearly 3500 meter long warship flared white hot as they sent the Gungrave onto a new course to give the ship's 3 energy projectors a clean shot at an offending Venator which was a stone throw’s away at a mere 100 kilometers distance. The Venator was giving the already heavily engaged Warhound serious trouble.
The energy projector turrets rotated into place, charging up and taking aim at the Venator.
"Charge nearing 90 percent." The weapons officer called out. "Locked on."
Xu rubbed hit palms together in a nervous twitch as a UNSC destroyer, the Constantine, was hit by volleys from four heavy turbo laser batteries of another surviving Republic Victory II, ripping the already wounded ship open and spilling its crew into the cold, unforgiving vacuum.
One of the last frigates, the Maelstrom, managed to align its bow towards the vessel and send one of its dwindling 600 ton MAC slugs into the aft section of the recently unshielded Victory, shattering its engines open and causing the tower and command section to be ripped off.
The Maelstrom was then forced to immediately disengage as a Venator began to pound away at it with its many turbolaser batteries. The frigate used its engines to propel itself downwards on the y-axis, avoiding the main batteries of the enemy.
"Ready to fire sir." The weapons officer grimly confirmed.
"By all means, do so." Xiangshu obliged.
The ship shuddered as the energy projectors shot away at near light speed and tore into the offending vessel's shields. The enemy ship’s shields struggled to stay online before collapsing. The energy beams cut through the ship, permanently taking it out of action.
The other Venator began to return fire at Xiangshu’s ship. He was far too close to avoid the turbolaser fire.
Cienna now filled the bridge window as the ship shuddered with yet another plasma bolt cutting into its starboard side.
“Hull breach in decks five and six, already sealed.” Xu's XO called out.
“That Venator is rolling to its dorsal side to fire on us with all of its guns." His AI warned as the tactical display showed the triangular ship rolling over.
“MAC ready to fire.”
"I want our MAC to target their main reactor, at this angle it’ll just pass straight through their hull without hitting anything else important, all secondary batteries focus on that Imperator coming up.” The captain replied. “Are there any friendly forces in that area?”
“No sir, none present, we're the closest ship."
“Alright, launch a shiva at that Imperator too.”
“Aye aye sir.”
The MAC fired, sending a white hot streak down into space, promptly hitting the Venator right in the reactor, shutting down the entire ship.
The Gungrave’s hundreds of secondary guns fired at the menacing Imperator, shaving away at its shields. Return fire finally began to strike the Gungrave which rocked in return as the lone Shiva missile streaked away from its electromagnetically assisted launch silo in a fiery plume, avoiding the point defense of the Imperator before a blinding white light engulfed the vessel.
As it died down, all that remained was a lifeless vessel.
“All secondary guns hold fire. That ship’s still intact! Mark it for recovery. If we win, I’m sure ONI would love to pick apart that vessel.” Xu commanded.
Xu looked on in mute satisfaction as the enemy vessel disappeared from the display, hopefully for good.
The crew only nodded their heads in approval as the Gungrave’s engines flared again and placed the warship, which sported noticeable slagged armor and a small hull breach near the bridge section, onto a new vector that finally gave its armament a clear shot at several enemy vessels, but also a grim picture of the greater battle.
There were only about 18 fully active UNSC warships left, 5 more were heavily damaged, and the others not destroyed were not much better than being disabled.
The carriers had been ordered to pull back to the dark side of Cienna's largest moon after running the initial gauntlet. Though they could fight at any range, they were too valuable to risk losing them in close combat. Even then, there were only two of the Concordia-Class Carriers left, the Black Dawn and Admiral Graf Spee. The Shinanio had been disabled in the heavy fighting from severe damage to its engines and had to be evacuated.
However, the Republic had paid dearly even with their advantage at close range. They only had roughly 70 active vessels as a Victory II went up in flames from the combined fire of the destroyer Lawrentz and the Marathon Fusillade.
Both sides would be lucky to have anyone left after this.
"Sir, the Nassau just went down and their captain is not abandoning ship." Xu's XO announced. Pausing momentarily, the whole bridge watched in mute silence as the Nassau, damaged earlier in the battle and now reduced to a mass of warped titanium with engines strapped on, accelerated well past the safeties of her somehow still active thrusters while escape pods shot away from the ship.
Xu saw its target, a hapless Acclamator which was only a few kilometers away.
The ship tried desperately to maneuver out of the way. The wreck of the Nassau was moving far too fast. It closed the distance with frightening speed as its reactor, already pushed to the limits, began to melt down.
The Nassau rammed the much smaller Republic ship, which crumpled from the impact as its lighter, unshielded, frame gave in.
As the two hulks fused together to form an almost unrecognizable mass of debris, the Nassau detonated its reactor and whatever other explosive ordinance it had on board, including its Shiva nukes.
Even from thousands of kilometers away, the blast was uncomfortably bright as a new star formed temporarily high above Cienna.
“Godspeed.” Xu whispered.
The crew was silent for half a minute before the comms officer went to Xu's side.
"Sir, Admiral White wants us to reform with what's left of the fleet."
Cienna, 327th Star Corps
“Where is my orbital fire support!?” Bly all but screamed into the handset as what was left of his once proud force was now fighting for its life.
The UNSC successfully cut off his withdrawal with their remaining airpower and orbitally inserted soldiers launched from their ships. They had trapped the Republic out in an open plain, between their armored units as well as their few but devastatingly elite ODSTs, supported by airpower that seemed to increase by the minute.
Some of his troops were currently encircled while the units that had been able to link up with the landing ship were trying to break them out. To make matters worse, the command force was only a few hundred meters away from the frontline. Bly stood outside the wreck of his former Command AT-TE which had been disabled by Terran artillery, holding a large handheld uplink to his forces while looking at a rolled out holomap.
The roar of gunfire, the whine of blaster rifles, and the boom of cannons was only growing closer.
Three AT-STs exploded as a large black winged UNSC aircraft streaked overhead with its heavy cannons roaring, sending troopers and himself diving to the dusty, grassy ground.
"I am sorry but we’re engaged with Terran forces in orbit. Hold out for a few more minutes, Commander Bly.” Captain Piett, who was now the commander of the fleet for some reason, informed.
Bly threw the handset to the ground, muttering a stream of Mandalorian curses.
His instincts had overwhelmingly told him to push on the offensive when the Terrans had started to run. If he had pressed the advance, Bly was certain he’d already be inside the city gates. But to Bly, orders were orders, even stupid ones.
His lieutenants and adjutants looked at him with a mixture of shock and mute resignation.
“Get the Indignant on the line for a fire mission.” Bly ordered, referring to the Acclamator assault ship that was on the ground evacuating their forces. “I know it’s risky, but we’ll be as good as dead if we don’t.”
“Right away, sir.” One of the clones said.