Where is Here?

A What-if Kind of Thing.

So I am doing this... Not super sure what 'this' is exactly, considering it came to me in the shower and I didn't flesh the idea out very much. Essentially, this is going to be a-- hopefully-- realistic crossover between StarWars and Halo. That's... Really all that comes to me while writing this author's note, so I will just let the story shape itself as I write it and take whatever advice you guys give me. I can say that this is going to be very AU, so don't be suprised if I make something up to make the plot flow better. Enjoy?

PROLOGUE

TATOOINE, 20 BBY

Lieutenant Commander CT-8032 looked up from his station at the sensors console on the bridge of the Venator, Resolute. Something odd just popped up on scanners, alot of somethings odd, actually. Sixteen unknown vessels entered subspace orbit around Tatooine on the far side of the planet, and they were emitting power fluctuations, big ones.

"Admiral," He began, snapping to attention as he turned to face Admiral Yularen, commander of the forces in space attempting to crack the Seperatist blockade over the desert world. "Sixteen unknown ships just showed up on the far side of the planet, whatever they are, they don't look like Seperatists, and they are giving off massive power readings." The Admiral frowned, one hand moving from behind his back to scratch his chin as he observed the battle in front of them thoughtfully. He then turned to the comms officer, CT-4021.

"Attempt to contact them, if they do not respond, send a fighter picket to investigate." Admiral Yularen ordered, bringing his wrist up to eye level and activating his comlink. "General Kenobi?" He asked. The general soon answered.

Meanwhile...

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi's wrist comlink went off, beeping and flashing a yellow light. He answered the call. "Admiral, what is it?" Obi-Wan asked. He was currently in the main hangar bay of the Resolute, where the 212th and the 501st were preparing for the invasion of Tatooine. The bay was full of clones moving munitions and fuel to and from transports, engineers making pre-flight checks on LAAT's, as well as making last minute repairs to walkers.

"We have detected sixteem unknown ships exiting hyperspace on the for side of Tatooine, you may consider it wise to hold off on your invasion. The ships could be enemy reinforcements." Yularen stated. Obi-Wan nodded with a heavy sigh. The Tatooinians would have to hold out a bit longer until this issue, and the blockade, were taken care of.

"Very well Admiral. Have you made contact with the ships at all?" He questioned. After a short silence, the reply came.

"No, General. They won't respond to our hails." Yularen said. "We are assuming they are hostile, we've sent a squadron of fighters to investigate while we prepare to deal with them."

"The more the merrier, so they say. May the Force be with us all." Obi-Wan says before cutting the call. He looks to Commander Cody and Captain Rex, both were still giving out orders. "Halt the landing, we have sixteen more hostile ships..."

On the far side of Tatooine...

Thel'VaDam listened to the general frequency broadcast recieved by one of the ships occupying the system prior to his fleet's arrival. He sat in his command chair, his battle harness gleaming in the bright lighting of the bridge. He moved his mandibles slowly.

"This is the Resolute of the Grand Army of the Republic. This system is currently blockaded by the Confederacy of Independent Systems. You have entered a warzone. Identify yourself, or turn away." The message repeated once or twice. The accent was not one Thel had heard spoken often but he immediately recognized the language. Humans. What were they doing here? And how did they get here?Not that it mattered. They required purging, like the rest of their kind.

"Deploy the fleet in offensive formation." He ordered. "Come about the right side of this world, behind their fleet. Alert the Minor Prophet." He said, and the fifteen CCS battlecruisers began moving around the desert world, along with their supercarrier. As they began moving, they recieved a second broadcast. It was the same language but it did not sound human.

"This system is under the ownership of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Identify yourself or be destroyed." The almost robotic voice droned. Thel chuckled. Two warring nations in the same system. One was definitely human, the other was unknown. He would take the latter.

"Put us through," He said calmly to his comms officer. He then spoke. "Confederacy of Independent Systems, I am Thel'VaDam of the Covenant Empire. We do not wish to stir trouble, we are here as a consequent of a randomly plotted slipspace jump." The robotic voice replied.

"The Covenant is not on any known star charts. You must be either very new, or from the Unknown Regions." It seemed intelligent enough.

"We are most likely the latter. Pray tell, you wouldn't happen to have any humans aboard your ships would you?"

"Negative. We have no life forms aboard." The robot stated. And so, the decision was made. They would need at least one friend here, if only temporarily.

"Interesting. We would like to offer our assistance in your battle. Please give us the position of your ships, and the enemy vessels, if possible." Thel said, before giving the order to his weapons officer to charge the plasma coils.

"Affirmative..." The data was sent, and the ships prepared launching fighters, as red lines spread across the center of the ship, growing steadily brighter. Thel cut the call as he looked to his crew. "Everyone, to battlestations. For the time being, we have an ally."

At the same time...

The seven ARC-170 starfighters of Hawk Squadron came around the planet, just barely making their way around the CIS blockade at full speed without getting caught by Vultures. But, the current battle kept the clanker's attention focused on the main fleet, and not the small fighters. As they went around Tatooine, the unknown ships came into view. They were massive, purple vessels that were very streamlined, and along the center of each of the vessels, especially the larger one in the rear, a bright red glow lit up the space around them.

"Hawk 3, start transmitting sensor data." Hawk 1 said in a hushed voice. The size of the fleet and ships was truly awe inspiring.

"Copy that," Hawk 3 replied, in an equally quiet tone. He hit a few switches and began relaying the squadron's sensor data to the bridge of the Resolute. "That is one heck of a ship."

"I'm picking up more signatures... Hundreds of them!" Hawk 7 gasped. This caused the other pilots to look at their consoles. Hundreds of red blips, maybe even thousands. Proximity alerts began going off as the Resolute contacted the group.

"Hawk Squadron, pull out of their now!" The comms officer said quickly. The craft broke formation, turning tail and running. Ten of the blips followed.

"Incoming, ten ships at six o' clock!" Hawk 4's gunner said as the rear cannons of the squadron picked their targets.

"Reroute power to rear deflectors, gunners, hold your fire, they might not be hostile." Hawk 1 ordered.

"Sir, one of those thing is looking at me fun--" Hawk 2's gunner was cut off by an explosion that cut the ship clean in half.

"Evasive maneuvers! Fire at will, try and regroup with the fleet!" Hawk 1 shouted over the comms as he banked his craft down and to the left, his gunner letting loose a hail of blaster bolts at the much larger enemy craft. The ship glowed a bright silver, but no damage was done.

"They have shields!" Hawk 5 said, his voice strained as he attempted to keep away from the pulses of blue laser fired by the opposing fighters. "Strong ones, t--" His fighter spun out of control, ramming into one of the enemy fighters, just managing to break the shields. Hawk 7's gunner took the chance to open fire, and did so. The ship seemed unable to recharge it's shields, and the armor only held up for so long. The enemy ship exploded in a purple and blue flash of light.

"So they can be killed." Hawk 1's gunner said as he pumped bolt after bolt into a craft that had entered range. Hawk 1 banked right as a blue pulse shot past and he came around at the side of the enemy who had turned with him. He fired his cannons, and a proton torpedo. The torpedo was enough to shatter the shields, which practically blinded Hawk 1 with it's bright white explosion, before being followed by the ship exploding as well.

"Hawk Squadron, clear eachother's six's." Hawk 1 ordered. "Proton torpedoes do the trick." The ships began a crisscrossing pattern, firing at the trailing purple craft as the passed eachother and then crossing with other pilots, rinse and repeat till all enemy ships are destroyed, which is eventually what happened, at the cost of Hawk 3 and 4. They then turned to race back towards the fleet as more of the enemy fighters began to approach.

Back on the Resolute...

The battle had clearly taken a turn for the worst. The Seperatist vessels were in full retreat, but they were heading towards the unknown armada, and given the results of Hawk Squadron's reconnaissance, the CIS were definitely working with the new enemy. Yularen sighed. Even with four Venators, eleven Arquintens, and a mess of smaller vessels, they wouldn't be able to take on two fleets at once. He opened comms to the fleet.

"This is Admiral Yularen. All ships begin retreat. Plot course for Naboo." He said, as the Republic forces began to turn away. At this time, another blip arrived on sensors. Right in front of the Resolute. It was brown, stubby, and looked kind of like a cardboard box. It almost immediately contacted the fleet around them.

"This is Captain Jacob Keyes of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, do NOT fire, we are not hostile." The broadcast said. Yularen looked to his comms officer.

"Patch him through." He ordered, and the comms officer got to work. A few moments later, the Admiral was now in direct contact with this Captain Keyes fellow. "Greetings, Captain. I am Admiral Yularen of the Republic Navy Vessel, the Resolute. We will hold our fire, but it would be best if you got out of here. We are about to leave the system, and we might be chased by enemy forces."

"Negative, we have to wind down our slipsoade drive and then charge it again. We don't have starcharts here, either." Captain Keyes replied.

"We will relay you starcharts of the galaxy." The Admiral nodded, and his comms officer sent the information to the Pillar of Autumn. "We are headed to Naboo."

"That's almost a year away, isn't there anything closer?" Keyes said, suprised.

"A year? We can get there in a few days." Yularen answered. What kind of hyperdrive was this guy using, class 1? The Captain of the Pillar of Autumn didn't reply for a moment.

"We're detecting a Covenant armada, with some other ships. Assuming those are the guys you are running from, I have a plan." Keyes stated.

"I'm all ears, Captain."

"Since the Autumn is alot slower than your vessels... I could unload my crew onto your ships... and leave the Autumn here as a decoy... they might go after my ship, and let us escape." Keyes said slowly, still fleshing the idea out as he spoke.

"That sounds like one of General Skywalker's plans." One of the bridge crew said with a chuckle, joined by a few others.

"It is absurd but it makes sense. We shall begin opening our hangar bays, you best get started. We don't have long."

"I'll get started right away. Thank you Admiral." Keyes said, ending the call. Yularen turned to his crew.

"Open all main hangar bays, get ready to take on some extra crew, perhaps even wounded."

"Aye, Admiral!" The crew replied, and they got to work.

One hour later:

The Autumn's charts were purged, the entire crew loaded onto the four Republic capital ships, and the AI Cortana was handed off to Master Chief John 117 for safe keeping. The hyperspace drives were charged, and everything was ready to go, as Keyes walked onto the bridge of the Resolute with the Master Chief in tow. The crew stared at the Spartan II for a solid couple of a seconds before returning to their consoles as the Admiral approached them.

"Everything is all set, Admiral." Keyes saluted, along with the Chief. The Admiral returned the salute.

"Good to finally meet you in person Captain, if only it was under less tenuous circumstances." He said with a nod. He was very proper, and suprisingly cool headed. Keyes looked around at the bridge, taking in the odd design, with the crew lowered from the rest of the command center, before noticing something. Everyone here looks identical. He had noticed that alot of the infantry all seemed similar, but often the Marines had that problem with the similar uniforms. But this was... Too much to be a coincidence. He looked to the Admiral again.

"Uh... Might I ask why everyone looks exactly alike on this ship aside for you?" He said. Whether or not John wondered the same was, as always, a mystery.

"Ah, that is because they are clones." The Admiral said, as if this was nothing new, which it probably wasn't for them. Keyes waited for further explanation, but after getting none, he simply nodded. The Admiral then turned to the bridhe crew again. "Make the jump to hyperspace." He said, as the stars in the windows stretched outwards, and they were gone just as the first plasma torpedoes and turbolaser bolts were fired.

So I hope this was good, it certainly was interesting to write. I don't really like using canon characters from a series like Star Wars, or Halo, because I am always worried about getting their characters right. Did I accomplish that task? I dunno, you tell me. Hope you guys enjoy this little thing, chapter 1 coming out as I get it written, because I also need to rewrite The Misadventures of Buckethead, and Legend of Zelda: Art of War. So yeah, we'll see how all this goes. Please R and R, and I will see you guys later!