GRS Eclipse

Location: Ryloth

Master Kenobi found himself lost in thought as he stared at the map before him. For a number of years the war had been over. Darth Sidious had been successfully found out and kill during the battle of Coruscant. The military had begun demobilizing. Peace returned and the CIS rapidly tore itself apart from infighting. All the Republic had to do was nudge it along and let them do the rest.

However with them dealt with, the Republic set out on a new mission. The Jedi council, including himself, had began feeling large disturbances in the force. Billions of lives dying within days. Some began having visions of burning planets and images of deaths in unimaginable ways. The Senate tried to ignore it, but soon found itself unable to argue with the whole council plus several knights having the visions. What finally pushed them over the edge was when an outer rim outpost started receiving signs of live in a nearby galaxy and transmissions in basic talking about a protocol and other sporadic transmissions that pointed to a war.

"General," Admiral Yularen said as he walked up, "The Allegiance has arrived and we are ready to proceed."

"Very well. Set a course for this area," Kenobi ordered, circling a small area on the map.

"What planet, General?" He asked quizzically.

"Pi-... um… that one." Kenobi replied, responding to a sudden push by the force to that planet.

"Sir, without a more accurate star map it would take days to get there. What about outer systems."

"No. Trust me. That planet"

"Yes, general."

Trust the General, Yularen did. They had served together for the duration of the clone wars, and he had learned to trust Kenobi's judgement. However, that didn't mean he always liked it. This was one of those times he didn't. However, with that he began necessary orders for the jump. Out the view port the stars began to turn into streaks, before turning into a blue and black tunnel as the ship jumped into hyperspace.

It was about three weeks. before the ships pulled out of hyperspace for their jump. What was seen made Kenobi reconsider the last jump.

"What is that?" wondered Kenobi as it came into view. The object in question was a

large ring orbiting a gas giant.
" Sir, contacts on the rear side of the planet." called out one of the crew members from "pit".

"All ships stick to the shadow of the planet." The Kenobi ordered.

"General, isn't the point of this mission to make contact and find out what is going on." pressed Yularen.

"Yes, but I sense we're about to find out." Kenobi answered, staring at the tac board.

"I see, now is the time for observation, but perhaps we should send out a stealth ship to see of we can learn anything about the ring." suggested the admiral.

"I agree."

"Launch the Chrystosis, and find out what you can about the ring."

"Sir, there's an energy spike in front of the moon!" called out a crew member.

"Additional contact. Another ship just came from that portal looking thing." reported another crew member.

At about that point the Chrystosis had cloaked and was nearing the ring. Yularen and Kenobi stared at the image, being feed to them via said ship, in curiousity. The ship, named the Pillar of Autumn, held a roughly cylinder shape to it. Starting narrow in the bow and getting bigger as it went further back. The ship had no shield that could be detected, but instead seemed to rely on large sections of slag armor. To the credit of the designers, the ship was built to deal with abuse and was made for one purpose. That was to dish it out.

"The ship's taken quite the beating." Commented master Kenobi.

"Yes, it has. It's primitive, but the intent is clear." Yularen.

"Hail the fleet on the far side," ordered Kenobi, "get the fighters ready to launch in case things go south; and get Ghost Company and Raptor Company on standby to land."

"Understood. …. Sir, what about the rest of the men?" Asked the Yularen, looking up from the screen.

"Keep them here in case of boarding action." replied Kenobi.

"Sir, the fleet is responding." interrupted another crew member.

"Very well, put them through." Ordered General, striding toward the holotable.

Before him stood a large (at least 7 feet tall) humanoid with 4 jaws and some sort of armor. Kenobi could immediately sense the hatred in him

Despite that the General try to communicate still. "Greetings. I am General-"

"I know what you are, and you shall soon die with the rest of the heretics!" Yelled the humanoid, before terminating the transmission.

"Well, I would say that went well," Obi Wan replied sarcastically.

"Yes, I would say we know who to side with," replied the Admiral.

Pillar of Autumn

"Cortana, did we lose we lose our Covenant tail?" stated Captain Keys as he stared out the view port.

"Come on. You and I both know that would be to good to be true." replied the human, woman, looking avatar on the holoprojector.

"Then how did they get here first?"

" Covenant ships have always been faster. As far as tracking us all the way from Reach, that might be because my maneuvering options were limited."

Keys sighed. The last several days were catching up to him.

"What's our status?"

"Our fighters are mopping up the last of a Covenant recon picket. It's not anything we need to worry about, yet." Cortana answered, putting enough emphasis on "yet" to get her point across.

"What about the unknown contacts?" Keys asked running through his mental list of questions.

"The eight unknown contacts are keeping their distance. However, scans show that something just happened. It appeared that they were trying to make contact the Covenant. The same reading came in our direction next, and energy appears to have been diverted the forward part of the ship, possibly shields of some sort, and to their cannons." replied Cortana.

"Sounds like something worried them. Do we have any way to hail them." Asked Keys, growing more nervous.

"No. We lost our communication systems on the way out of Reach. However, we have more pressing issues. The main Covenant fleet is ninety seconds out and closing. On top of that the unknown ships are moving too.

"Exact course?"

An intercept course between us and the Covies." Cortana answered.

"That does it," replied Captain Key, shaking off any remaining mental cobwebs, "Bring us back up to combat alert Alpha. I want everyone at their stations."

"And the Chief?"

"I did say everyone, Cortana." replied Keys.

Down in the cryo bay, the spartan, John 117 (Chief) was being prepped. Not maybe two minutes ago the Chief was in a cryo tube a sleep. Now he was being prepped for what he was trained to do, battle. While the process was more rushed this time, it was the same routine he had done at least a dozen times over.

"Time to get you to the bridge. Do to time you'll have to get a weapon later." stated the crewman. As if to prove his point, five Covenant soldiers forced their way into the control room for the cryo bay and made quick work of the terrified crewman inside.

It was madness as the Chief worked his way toward the bridge. Boarding parties had entered the ship, forcing marines to seal doors. Adding to things, his escort was killed in a blast not long after leaving the cryo bay. The sounds of gunshots and plasma fire filled his ears.

However, it wasn't until he reached the bridge that he totally realized what was going on. Outside, what looked like a light show, was going down. Several wedge shaped space ships had engaged the enemy fleet.