The Saurora shook and rumbled as it made its way through the blue Vespian atmosphere. Eventually the shaking stopped and Jason relaxed a little. Even though he loved ships and cool technologies, Jason always found planetary entries to be a little nerve racking.

Their ship cruised over large canopies of forest and clearly visible ahead; was a small town at the base of a large mountain. Directly above the town stood a large cliff with a beautiful waterfall rolling over it, the water landing in a small garden just outside of town, throwing a light mist into the air. Surrounding the village was dozens of farms lining the rivers that originated from the waterfall.

Unlike most worlds which usually had an even balance between light and dark sides of the force, this world was oddly more immersed in the light side. These overwhelming light side force energies surging from the planet's life flowed through Jason like water, clearing his mind of all distractions and putting him into a relatively calm state. For the first time in a long time, Jason felt his soul was at peace.

He turned around in his seat and smiled at his Master. Keelu too had a shadow of a smile on her face, a result of the powerful force energies pulsing from the life below them.

She looked at her apprentice, "do not let the force distract you from your duty Jason," she advised, the small smile gone from her green lips; "we could very well be walking into a trap, from either those aliens or the Sith, and you must be alert at all times. Do you understand?"

Jason rubbed his temples to clear his head, "yes Master."

They both turned away to resume their examination of the planet below them. The Saurora had just passed over the town and neared the mountain when his ears began to pop, suggesting a change in altitude.

Jason decided to check back in with the alien ship, hoping to find a clue to their plans in this system. He shut his eyes and focused. He ignored the buzzing noise of the world around him and found his target in orbit around the green world. It felt the same as before, only this time there was more movement, more action. The aliens were doing something, something productive. Jason had a nagging feeling, which had nothing to do with the force. It told him whatever was going on wasn't anything good.

The nose of the Saurora dipped up slightly so they were traveling parallel to the mountain side. The ship eventually evened out and an old monastery filled the forward view screen, a blinding snow storm battering the ancient stones that held it up.

Tana brought the Saurora into a hover in front of the monastery, and with great skill she set the clumpy looking ship down into the snow without the slightest jolt. Jason let out a tired breath and began unbuckling his safety straps.

Once ready, the four of them left the warm interior of the ship and emerged onto the cold, windy mountain peak. "Master Keelu!" Tana called over the howling wind, "you two should probably go inside, Keth and I will wait for the Sith diplomats!"

Keelu nodded her approval and stalked off in the direction of the monastery with Jason at her side. Slowly but surly, the two Jedi pushed through the mountain snowstorm and into the shelter of the stone monastery.

They didn't dare move any deeper into the monastery, fearing for their new friends wouldn't be able to defend themselves if things with the Sith went awry. From inside the doorway Jason examined his new surroundings.

All of the stones which made up the old building bore faded graceful swirls and geometric shapes. Using the force to heighten his senses he learned it was repetitive, it was some kind of ancient language. But not any kind that was familiar to Jason.

As a youngling, Jason was taught about some of the earliest events in recorded galactic history, which involved the Rakatan Empire, and the origins of the Jedi and Sith. He even learned some of the basic language spoken by these ancient people, so the Jedi could decipher some of their knowledge filled writings they might happen to stumble across on their missions.

But these writings were definitely not Rakatan, or ancient Jedi or Sith. And they were older, much older. He had heard stories of ancient beings with immense power, such as the ability to create worlds or even entire star systems. But of course they were just superstitions, or at least as far as Jason knew they were.

A flicker in the force snatched his attention away from the stones, directing his head to the sky. His curiosity over the old inscriptions faded away as six dim landing lights sliced through the blinding snow.

Keelu and Jason left their cover and made their way back into the storm. With his cloak wrapped tightly around him, Jason shuffled toward the black, deadly looking ship.

As he came to a stop in front of the ship, anger flooded through him. These people killed his Jedi brothers and sisters, and at the moment Jason didn't want anything more than to walk aboard the ship and cut down every Sith in his path. He stood there pondering the idea, but slowly the anger disappeared only to be replaced with an intense self disgust and embarrassment.

Anger lead to the dark side, every Jedi knew that, from the youngest to the oldest. Jason was sure his Master had sensed his slip in emotional concentration, but she chose to keep silent. He knew he would have to keep his emotions in check throughout the treaty signing; it wouldn't benefit the Republic if he suddenly attacked the people they were trying to make peace with.

The boarding ramp slid down to reveal an interior that could have rivaled the Saurora. Four black robed beings stepped down the ramp, the wind buffeting their black cloaks as they stepped onto the mountain. "Let's get this over with." one of the Sith lords said through gritted teeth.

Cris gave a fierce yawn and leaned back in his chair. "I don't get why your getting all worked up over that dumb cruiser" he said while staring out of the cafe window. Helen just stared at her drink, thinking lightly.

Who was inside that ship? She kept asking herself, and why are they here? Her brother decided to drop the topic, he was getting tired about their frequent debates about the ship's mysterious appearance, and it seemed Helen felt the same way. The two siblings paid their bill and stepped out into the warm midday sun.

They had just reached their land speeder outside the cafe when Helen heard her name being called. She turned slowly to see Celia, one of her school friends, waving at her from across the boulevard. Helen waved back and told her brother to wait a minute, he groaned in protest but she ignored him.

She moved quickly across the boulevard, hoping whatever her friend had to say wasn't too important.

"Hey" Helen greeted.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to do something this afternoon" she said.

Helen shifted uncomfortably. All she really wanted to do was watch that cruiser in orbit, but if her friend knew that she would probably think she was crazy.

"Umm, I was going to help Cris upgrade the speeder later," she lied.

"Really?" he friend asked skeptically. Helen nodded slowly, but Celia just shrugged. Helen's curiosity got the better of her.

"What were you planning on doing?"

Celia smiled, "we were going to go speeder bike racing with Charlie and Ziek. Charlie just installed a new thruster pack in his air speeder and he wanted to show us, well, mainly you. You know how he's always trying to impress you."

Helen felt her cheeks flush and looked away. It was obvious to everyone that Charlie had a thing for Helen. Charlie was one of those guys every girl at school wished to be with, but not Helen. Sure he was good looking, athletic and the most popular guy at school, but to Helen he was just full of himself. He beat up younger kids for fun, he lacked any academic skills, and he was a jerk on a date. It only took one for Helen to figure this out.

"Sorry Celia, I can't, I promised my brother I'd help with the speeder. Besides, you know how bad he is at working with machines." her friend just shrugged again

"Oh well," she said sadly, "there's always next time right?"

Helen forced a smile, "sure" she said reluctantly, "Chris is going to get mad and drive off if I don't get back. I'll see you at school."

Celia gave a curt nod, "sure. I'll tell Charlie you said hi, ok?"

"Uh, yea, sure"

Helen would have protested against it but she needed to get back to Cris. She waved goodbye to her friend as she ran back across the boulevard to their parked land speeder.

Helen's little brother was reclining in the passenger seat with the music blaring. Helen slipped inside and turned down the volume on the radio.

"Hey!" he cried, "I was listening to that!"

Helen looked at her brother with an annoyed look on her face. "It's still playing, just listen to it quieter."

Cris slumped in his seat and stared out the window, sulking. Helen went to start the engine but a rumbling noise stopped her cold. She turned in her seat and stared into the sky, dreading what was coming.

She couldn't see the ship clearly from where she was, it was just a grey dot in the sky, slowly growing bigger. She quickly searched for her macro binoculars, which she found stuffed under a stack of data pads in the back seat.

Helen rolled down the window and lifted binoculars to her face, searching for the spot.

"Are we going or what?" Cris demanded.

"Shut up and give me a sec," his sister snapped.

Cris fell back into silence as Helen kept looking for the dot she saw only seconds before. When she found it, relief flooded through her. It wasn't the aliens, just one of the diplomats coming for the peace conference.

The ship looked pretty dumpy; Helen wondered why anyone in their right mind would drive something like that to a peace conference. Just as Helen was turning away, she spotted another ship in the sky. She had to increase the magnification in order to get a better look.

This one was black, sleek and shiny. It looked like it was made for war with its sharp angles and blade-like look. She figured that the second one belonged to the Sith and the first to the Republic. Before stuffing her macro binoculars away, she decided to check up on the alien cruiser.

She pointed the binoculars almost straight up and increased the magnification as high it would go so she could see through the bright atmosphere and into space. Hoping the ship hadn't orbited to the other side of the planet she started searching.

Her effort was rewarded when she spotted the purple alien ship against the background of space. It looked the same as always, if you excluded its constant changes in position. After several seconds she heard her brother complaining again.

She began to shut down the binoculars, but some movement on the ship caught her attention. What she guessed to be a hangar door on board the ship started to open. Helen held her breath as she watched in fascination and dread.

The door stopped moving and six purple dots shot out from the now open hangar. The dots grew bigger and bigger until she could get a better view of them. They looked like some kind of sea animal, with small bulbous heads and large bodies.

Helen could only guess to what these smaller ships were, but she only hoped she was wrong. Helen lowered her binoculars and turned to look at her brother, terror flooding her pretty face.

Cris's own face quickly changed from boredom to worry. "What's wrong? What did you see?" Helen didn't know how to answer. So she said the words that were filling her head.

"I think they're sending drop ships"

Salleema took in his surroundings with satisfaction. The crowded Phantom drop ship, drop ship alpha, was packed with the best fighters his crew had to offer. But even these fighters were unique amid the rest of the Covenant, for his crew carried prototype weapon systems which would fare much better than previous utilities

Among the dozen or so Sangheili warriors stood several Kig-Yar, a flightless avian race. These creatures were small compared to a Sangheili, but Salleema knew size wasn't much of a problem for them. Where they lacked in size and strength the made up for in their accuracy with a long distance rifle. They all carried either a plasma carbine or a beam rifle instead of the older needle or focus rifles. Salleema respected the Kig-Yar for this reason, and knew they would be crucial for their invasion as snipers and recon.

The other alien race standing in the troop bay was the Unggoy. Small, noisy, methane breathers that were commonly used as cannon fodder in battle. Just like now. The Prophets had been designing several new life support systems for the Unggoy, and it seems that they finally found a design that works.

Salleema had no idea what kind of defences the humans had on planet, but he did know that the Unggoy would charge them or else be accused of heresy, something no being amongst the Covenant wanted.

Crammed inside drop ship Theta were two pairs of aliens known by the Covenant as Mega-Lekgolo. These tanks with legs weren't even a single being. They were actually an assemblage of skinny orange worms collected inside their armour.

The large colonies of Lekgolo worms were in their own way intelligent, but only if it involved combat, destruction or eating. If not for their armour and weapons the Lekgolo would have come across as a bunch of harmless worms, but no thanks to the Covenant they had become fearsome opponents.

It was common for every Mega-Lekgolo in the Covenant to carry a huge triangular shield of pure metal on one arm, and a large fuel rod gun on the other. Each of these weapons were grafted into their armour itself, seeing as the monsters had no real "hands" to hold onto them otherwise.

Salleema knew they were ready, with forces like these it would have taken several of the human "Demons" to stop their invasion forces. Salleema had never fought any of the fabled Demons, but he knew that any being who ever had, had died brutally.

The Covenant knew the Demons were human, but they were different. They were the size of a young Sangheili but they were faster, stronger and harder to kill than most Sangheili are in their prime. This combined with the technology of their armour turns them into force to reckon with.

The humans call them by the name "Spartan," but to the Covenant this word had no meaning, it was for that and several other reasons that the Covenant calls them Demons.

They were a true force to be reckoned with. This was why Salleema had to choose their next step carefully. If the Demons were on planet, then their invasion could end in a miserable failure.

Salleema clicked on his suit's communication array so he could speak to all of the drop ship pilots at once.

"All drop ships report in" he ordered. In perfect order the drop ships checked in; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta, and Omega.

"I want drop ships Alpha and Theta to continue to the selected co-ordinates." He ordered, "the rest of you will remain on standby until further notice."

Salleema wanted face these new arrivals head on, and with the help of the Mega-Lekgolo, victory would be pretty well guaranteed.

In unison he heard confirmations from all of the drop ships as they flew toward their destination on a large mountain. Finally, the pilot spoke over the intercom.

"We are approaching the drop point, prepare yourselves, we will be coming in fast."

Salleema felt the drop ship dip slightly forward, gaining speed as they shortened the distance between them and their target. He felt the thuds in the floor as plasma rockets were launched to test the anti air defenses.

When it was confirmed there was none the drop ships sped on, anti gravity generators humming as they traveled over the mountain. The drop ship came to a lurching halt, the ship's side panels slid down and the anti-grav drop chute activated.

Not wasting any time, Salleema gathered his strength and leapt out of the left side hatch, his fellow Sangheili doing the same. As he fell toward the monastery floor Salleema unsheathed his energy sword, watching as his enemies grew nearer.