Okay, let me just say that I apologize for taking this down. Because of some personal issues, I lost inspiration to continue had decided to delete Requiem of a Jedi until I could regain my confidence. Now that I'm feeling better, I have decided to repost ROAJ as the first book of the Tri-Verse Saga. This prologue will be posted as the first chapter for ROAJ, albiet a short chapter. The next chapter, the interlude, will be a little different, as the POV of my OC will be in first person; so basically, a revised chapter. You'll also notice that the Characters and Technologies List is absent from this version of the story. Instead of having it here, it will posted separately from ROAJ, as will the Tri-Verse Saga Timeline. I'll try to update as periodically as possible, but with my vacation to Austin for the 2014 Rooster Teeth Expo coming up in a few weeks, I make no promises.

On a side note...HALO 2 ANNIVERSARY, THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION, AND HALO: NIGHTFALL WAS ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY! AND THE ARBITER IS BACK IN HALO 5: GUARDIANS! HEEEEELLLLLLL FUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKIIIIIINGGGGG YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!

Now that I got that off of my chest, without further ado, here's Chapter 1: Close Encounters

Note: I do NOT own Star Wars or Halo, so DON'T sue me because I AM BROKE! However, all original content is mine.

Chapter 1: Close Encounters

Jedi Temple, Coruscant, 21 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin)

Pained, betrayed, and saddened couldn't even begin to describe how I feel, thought Ahsoka Tano. As the Togrutan walked towards her starfighter, she thought back to the events that led to this: the attack on the Jedi Temple, the investigation, the murder of a prisoner, all leading up to a betrayal she didn't see coming.

While out on a mission with her Master Anakin Skywalker, the Temple had been attacked. When recalled back to Coruscant to investigate, they found the woman responsible, who had literally turned her husband into a walking time-bomb. Ahsoka had gone to talk to the woman, only to be stunned when the prisoner was lifted into the air by someone and Force choked. As if that wasn't enough to stun her, Ahsoka was then accused of murder, one she didn't even commit. She was then chased down to the lower levels of the planet, where she made a surprisingly temporary truce with the assassin Assaj Ventress. She was finally captured and brought back to the Temple to be tried. In the end, Ahsoka was cleared of the charges after Skywalker had captured the true traitor, Barriss Offee, Ahsoka's closest friend.

But, even when the Jedi Masters asked her to come back to the Jedi Order, she knew in her heart that she wouldn't return. The scars she gained from the whole ordeal would haunt her if she returned. The Masters didn't trust her in the beginning, so how could she trust them? The only one who had come through for her, one she could always trust, was Skywalker.

Ahsoka sighed, a single tear streaking down her face as she thought back to the conversation she just had with Skywalker, how Anakin understood how she felt about leaving everything behind to start a new life. I know, Ani. I always knew, about you and Padme, about how you wanted to have a future with her outside of the Order. Don't worry, Ani, your secret is safe with me, she thought.

It was at the end of the conversation that Skywalker had surprised her with a gift: Her lightsaber. It had been taken away from her when she was captured, but Anakin had held on to it, believing that she had been framed for everything. She had gratefully accepted it, remembering that if it wasn't for him, her life would've been over.

As she neared the landing pad outside of the Temple, she saw that her astromech droid, R6-D4, was already waiting inside one of the ships there. She flashed a small smile as she gazed at her red, green, and white ship.

Ahsoka was glad that the Jedi Counsel let her keep her starfighter. The Delta-7B Aethersprite-class Light Interceptor, also know as the Jedi Starfighter, was an improved advancement to the original Delta-7. The basic design was the same, with its triangular-shaped appearance remaining unchanged. There was, however, one key difference: The old Delta-7's had astromech droids, specifically the R3 series, permanently installed. There was no way the pilots could bring their other astromechs, without having to use a much larger transport, on certain missions, ones that require the help of an astromech. The designers saw this detail, and created the Delta-7B. This design allowed other astromechs, such as R6, to integrate with the outside of the ship, and then disengage from the ship whenever their services were required elsewhere.

As she climbed into her fighter and powered it up, R6 started beeping and whistling. His translation appeared on the screen in front of her: "Where are we going?"

Ahsoka sighed and said, "I don't know, little guy. Someplace where we can get away from this war, hopefully." She lifted her starfighter off of the landing pad and flew it up towards the sky.

As the fighter reached the upper atmosphere, the droid beeped another question: "How about Bespin? From what I can gain from the database, the war hasn't reached its system, yet."

"That may be true, R6, but with the war as it is now, that could change very quickly," she pointed out. "However, seeing as how I can't think of anyplace else to go, I guess we can give it a shot."

The Delta-7B, after finally leaving the upper atmosphere of Coruscant, glided past some Venator-class Star Destroyers towards one of the Syluire-31 Hyperspace Docking Rings orbiting the planet. After docking with one of them, Ahsoka entered the coordinates to Bespin and activated the hyperspace drives. The stars stretched on of her viewport, and in a split-second, the ship accelerated into hyperspace.

Knowing that it would take about an hour to reach Bespin, she said, "R6, let me know when we're reaching Bespin." R6 whistled an acknowledgment as Ahsoka closed her eyes and started meditating.

As she started, she felt something in the Force. She couldn't figure out what it was, so she reached out to the Force. She tried to make heads and tails of it, but all she gained from it was that it neither felt good nor bad...just odd.

As she was about to reach out again, a loud shrill brought her back to reality. She opened her eyes and realized that it was R6. "What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I don't know! Something's making us drop out of hyperspace. We're about to be near Hoth," his translation exclaimed.

The ship then abruptly exited hyperspace—right in front of a Providence-class Carrier.

"Fierfek!" she cursed.

Hoth System, 17 BBY

General Grievous watched from the bridge of his Providence-class flagship, the Invisible Hand, as the Confederacy of Independent Systems fleet continued to fire on the Republic Star Destroyers orbiting Hoth. His fleet, consisting of two Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ships, twelve Munificent-class Star Frigates, and one recently built Subjugator-class Heavy Cruiser, the Enmity, had earlier caught the Republic completely by surprise. The Enmity, at the front of the fleet, had immediately turned, so that her starboard side was facing the Star Destroyers, and fired her ionic cannon just as the Republic had launched hundreds of BTL-B Y-wing Starfighters and Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing Starfighters. The fighters dodged out of the way of the massive ionic field, but two of the Star Destroyers weren't fast enough. The field passed right through them, disabling everything on the ships, including shields, weapons, and communications. The CIS fleet had then started to fire everything they had at the two ships, eventually causing them to explode into fields of fire and debris.

"Launch fighters!" Grievous commanded.

"Roger, roger," one of of B1 Battle Droids at a console acknowledged.

Soon, space was filled with green and red turbolaser fire, Y-wings and V-wings, and Droid Tri-Fighters and Vulture Droid Fighters. Star Destroyers were being disabled and destroyed left and right. The Republic was losing and the CIS was winning.

The communicator on his command chair beeped for attention. Grievous touched a button and the hologram of his Sith leader, Count Dooku, appeared before him.

"General Grievous," Dooku began, "I assume everything is going well?"

"As planned, Count," Grievous said. "Two of the Republic's ships have been destroyed and their communications have been jammed. The whole system has gone blind."

"Excellent. Soon, this system will be ours. Continue with the plan, General. Hold nothing back," Dooku said.

"When have I held anything back, Count?" Grievous then cut communications with Dooku and said, "Ready the landing craft for launch!"

"Roger, roger," a B1 said. The droid was about relay the message when he exclaimed, "Uh, sir, a ship is dropping out of hyperspace in front of us. Design matches that of Jedi Starfighters."

"What?!" Grievous was stunned. The enemy's communications were jammed. How could the Republic have learned about the attack so quickly?

Sure enough, a red, green, and white ship dropped out of hyperspace right in front the Invisible Hand. Grievous immediately recognized the starfighter. Tano, Skywalker's pet! He then roared out one command:

"DESTROY THAT SHIP!"

XXXXXX

Ahsoka felt turbolaser fire hit the Hyperspace Ring. She quickly detached her starfighter from it and veered away from the Invisible Hand, just as the Ring exploded into metal fragments. She watched as the CIS fleet continued to fire on the last remaining Star Destroyers.

"R6, contact the Republic fleet! Tell them that we need immediate assistance!" Ahsoka commanded.

"I can't!" R6's translation exclaimed. "Communications are jammed! I can't raise the fleet!"

The Enmity fired her ionic cannon at the last Star Destroyer, and Ahsoka watched as turbolaser fire repeatedly impacted on the ship, eventually causing it to explode. The Enmity turned her starboard side towards the starfighter.

Ahsoka then had an idea. The asteroid belt! I can lose them there!

She accelerated towards the asteroid belt as the Enmity charged up her ionic cannon for another shot. By the Force, please let us get there before it fires, she thought as she kept dodging turbolaser fire.

Suddenly, R6 let out a loud shrill just before a turbolaser shot blew his head clean off. Ahsoka felt a pang of sadness as his head tumbled into space. Just as she turned her head to watch the head fly off into the distance, she saw the Enmity fire an ionic field towards her.

She quickly dove down and watched as the field passed right over her starfighter and towards an asteroid at the edge of the asteroid belt. As the field passed through the asteroid, Ahsoka felt that odd disturbance in the Force again, this time stronger than before. She was about to reach out through the Force when, suddenly, the asteroid fragmented.

In its place was a huge, metal sphere, about four hundred meters in circumference. It was smooth and gray, with some sort of weird symbol, a ring wrapped around a small circle, engraved on the front. The symbol also seemed to be glowing.

Then, without warning, a beam of energy shot out from the small circle and exploded in front of Ahsoka, creating what looked like a black hole with blue energy swirling around it. Ahsoka turned her starfighter around and tried to fly away from it, but the black hole was pulling her in like a tractor beam. Her vision started to become blurry and she became lightheaded. Before she succumbed to the blackness of unconsciousness, she heard a voice speak out in her head:

I have long dreamt of this moment, Reclaimer.

Grievous watched in astonishment as the black hole collapsed in on itself. Both Tano and the sphere were gone. It was as if they had ceased to exist.

Secure Facility, Unknown Location, Unknown Time

The man took a seat on his side of the table and looked towards the old woman sitting across from him. "Tell me about the children," he said.

Catherine Halsey, creator of the SPARTAN-II program and now a notorious criminal, didn't hear him. She was lost in thought, remembering the little boy she had kidnapped and turned into a soldier. The luckiest of the Spartans. John.

The interrogator again tried to get her attention. "Dr. Halsey?"

Halsey finally looked up at him, her eyes tired and grave. She looked at him for a long time and said, "You already know everything."

The interrogator gave her a hard look before stating, "You kidnapped them."

"Children's minds are more easily accepting of indoctrination, their bodies more adaptable to augmentation. The result was the ultimate soldier. And because of our success, when the Covenant attacked, we were ready."

The man scoffed. "Dr. Halsey, your bending history to your favor and you know it. You developed the Spartans to crush human rebellion, not to fight the Covenant."

What he said was true. The Spartans were originally developed to deal with the Insurrectionists. When the Covenant glassed Harvest in 2525, and started the Human-Covenant War, Halsey's Spartans were not ready to deal with this kind of enemy. But, they rose to the challenge anyway, and ended up fighting the Covenant for the next twenty-seven years.

She said as much. "When one human world after another fell to the Covenant, when my Spartans were all that stood between humanity and extinction, nobody was concerned over why they were originally built."

"So you thought in the end that your choices were justified," the man spat out.

Halsey put her cuffed hands on the table and replied, "My work saved the human race."

In a way, that was also true. The luckiest of her Spartans, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, had risen above the others, fighting back the Covenant, eradicating the Flood, saving Cortana from the Gravemind, and destroying a Halo ring, Installation 04, to prevent it from activating. Now he was missing in action, lost to the stars.

The interrogator, however, didn't see it that way. With venom in his voice, he asked, "Do you think the Spartans' lack of basic humanity helped?"

Halsey looked at the man quizzically. He was different than the interrogators she face before. "What are you after?" she asked. "The others before you were Naval Intelligence, but you—you're something else."

"Records show Spartans routinely exhibited mildly sociopathic tendencies, difficulty with socialization. Furthermore..."

"The records show efficient behavior operating in hazardous situations," Halsey argued. "I supplied the tools to maintain that efficiency."

"But do you believe the Master Chief succeeded because he was, at his core, broken?" he asked with spite.

It felt like the temperature of the room dropped twenty degrees cooler. Halsey narrowed her eyes at him and asked with steel in her voice, "What does John have to do with this?" Her eyes then widened in surprise as she realized what he was saying. "You want to replace him."

The interrogator looked at her coldly. "The Master Chief is dead."

"His file reads 'missing in action'," she argued.

The man chuckled darkly. "Catherine, Spartans never die?"

Halsey stood up and said, "Your mistake is seeing Spartans as military hardware. My Spartans are humanity's next step. Our destiny as a species. Do not underestimate them." She then looked at the man straight in the eye and added, "But most of all, do not underestimate...him."

Unknown Location, Unknown Time

Against the inky blackness of space, the CAS-class Assault Carrier, Song of Retribution, glided through an asteroid belt. In its path was the planet it had been searching for, a Shield World, built by an ancient race long gone, a race that wiped itself out so that others could survive.

On board the Retribution, a Sangheili Commander walked through the doors of the bridge. It was a circular room with other Sangheili at different stations. He walked up the ramp of a raised platform, where Jul 'Mdama, leader of the Covenant Remnant, was gazing at the hologram of the planet.

The commander clicked his four mandibles, raised a closed four-fingered fist across his chest, bowed towards 'Mdama, and said, "Shipmaster 'Mdama...It is where you said it would be."

The Shipmaster turned towards the commander and replied, "No, my loyal friend. The planet is where the Forerunners promised us it would be."

'Mdama turned back to the hologram. "Find us a way inside," he commanded. He then pressed his mandibles together in a smile and added, "Requiem's treasures will be ours."

Don't forget to review! Next chapter, we are introduced to both our main character and everyone's favorite Sangheili.