Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo ❯ Under New Management ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

“What are you saying?”

The woman closed her eyes once more and Meia began to get even more worried as she looked the woman over for any possible injuries and thankfully found none, but that certainly didn't mean that she didn't have any possible internal injuries at all. She looked and found her communicator as Jura and Dita arrived, and both of them were stunned to see the strange woman..

“Who is she Meia?” The blonde asked her leader.

“I don't know…but she needs help fast.”

The aqua haired woman took her communicator and made a call.

“This is Meia, I need some clothes and medicine here on the double, and make sure to have Paiway with you.”

**************

As the Paeksis continued it's work…

Magno realized that with what had happened, she needed to go to the source of the sudden changes herself to assess the situation, she had heard from Buzam that the crystal corrosion had spread through the ship, Gascogne had reported that her crews could not free the ship, even with their lasers, and Parfet had reported that there was no way for them to activate the ship's engines. She had then received Meia's call and had brought Paiway along with her medical sachet.

As they arrived, she was in awe at what she saw as she stepped out of the shuttle along with the small force she had brought with her.

“Amazing…of all the things I thought I'd see, this wasn't one of them.”

As she walked and descended down the ramp, Meia stepped forward as Dita and Jura, as the young woman bowed and spoke in a sad tone.

“I'm really sorry that you have to come all the way out here Captain.”

“No need to fret Meia, this was something that I needed to see for myself, the Paeksis was an amazing power source…but this was not one of the things I heard that it was capable of doing to a ship…let alone what it's doing now…”

The elderly woman then turned and spotted none other than Hibiki Tokai, who was still very much unconscious at the moment, and next to the Tarak youth was the small robot which still had static on it's view screen. The woman looked on as Meia decided to tell the Captain what had happened and who this person was.

“This was the man that Dita was chasing when we came here in the Paeksis chamber to look for her.”

“I see…It's been quite a long time since I've seen a man, let alone a young one, but I certainly don't recall their faces looking this funny before.”

“Forgive me Captain, but there's more, we found a woman here as well, alive but very weakened for some reason, she was not wearing any clothes when I found her in this chamber, and she seemed to be delirious.”

Magno turned and followed Meia as she let the older woman and the group to where she, Meia, and the Jura had taken the woman, one of the security members handed a blanket to Meia as soon as they arrived and they saw the woman lying down, still alive and breathing.

“You found her here, on the male ship?”

Buzam was very surprised as there had been no reports of any female prisoners onboard the Ikazuchi when they had attacked and took over the old section. To suddenly find a woman here in the male ship right after the explosion was very, very odd indeed.

“We did…we were stunned to find her, she doesn't appear to be a prisoner of the men as she has no injuries that we saw…though she might have internal ones.”

“Hmm…she's very strong looking, not someone to look down on…did you get her name?”

“I'm afraid not Captain…all she said before she slipped back into unconsciousness was `John don't leave me' I have no idea who this John is at all.”

The captain was intrigued by that bit of information.

“ That's not very surprising to me…There's a reason why that name is not familiar to you Meia, that is an old Earth name given to men.”

“ A man's name?”

The other women were stunned at that announcement and they all looked at the woman as Meia wrapped the offered blanket on the woman, they then noted that as soon as she was done with that part, the aqua haired woman aimed her laser ring into the shadows, as if expecting an attack of some sort.

“What's the problem?” Gascogne asked the Dread Squadron leader.

“We ran into another person when we chased Dita…when Jura and I turned at a corner, we spotted a massive armored being holding that man and walking towards Dita…I fired my laser ring at him, but it didn't work on him at all.”

“That's true!” Jura added.

“I saw Meia's laser just break down as it hit the man in armor and a golden wave of light showed itself around him! It was rather scary.”

“Where is he then?”

The women got their answer as they heard loud footsteps coming to the side nearby and spotted a massive figure looking at them, when they turned their lights, they spotted a man wearing a green and black colored armor suit and wielding a strange but deadly looking weapon in both his hands. The armor concealed everything and they couldn't see his face as the lights they had reflected on his golden visor.

“What the?!”

“By Grand Ma! Look at him!”

The women backed away a bit and aimed their laser weapons at the man…or whatever that being was as he looked back at them. The women of Megele were now finding themselves looking at one of the UNSC's finest warriors apart from the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the Spartan II, and the most famous of them all…Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. Magno was stunned as well as the others as she moved back a bit…something about the armored man was rather intimidating to her and she was curious as to who this person was…their data didn't indicate that the men had soldiers like him on the ship when they attacked.

John looked at the women and studied them carefully, not making a move as he was not here to start hostilities. Having been a soldier for all his entire life and growing up as a Spartan, he knew professional soldiers when he saw them, and while the women armed with the rifles were showing signs of combat experience, they were not professional soldiers, and they were not militia as well. Not to mention the apparent lack of any military grade armor on them. He knew that they were not military since there was no way any well trained, equipped, disciplined, and paid soldier would go anywhere without any form of protection. Some of the women were dressed in very outlandish clothes, including the blonde and the redhead. The clothes were vine on civilians, but certainly not for soldiers, though he could tell that the clothes could catch a man's eye easily. They resembled civilians more than military personnel.

He however was more concerned for locating Cortana, when he had recovered his senses, he was able to free himself and began to search for Cortana and her data crystal chip as the device had apparently been loosened from his helmet. He had been looking for it when he heard voices and climbed over the pile of debris that blocked his way to the objective when he spotted the group below. The Spartan then placed his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle on the back and the people heard a slight clash of metal on metal as the weapon was held by the magnetic pads on the Mark VI. He then leaped downwards…stunning the women and they recoiled backwards as he landed on the ground and a massive crash was heard, the crystals below were crushed and the metal buckled under the strain.

Magno and the women were stunned to see the man place his weapon on his back and leaped down towards them, the reason for this was the fact that it was nearly two and a half stories from the pile to the floor and the man just leaped off. They all aimed their weapons right at him as he stood up…revealing himself to be at least 7 feet tall. The sight of this man in armor jumping off the two and a half story high pile of debris and standing up as if it was nothing but a simple skip was very scary. The only one among the women who was not frightened by the events was none other than Dita Liebely who was in awe at the new alien's powers and abilities…she wondered what sort of other abilities he had, apart from being able to create energy shields to deflect lasers, as Meia had said.

Meia however then told them to be careful.

“He has some sort of energy shielding system that makes him highly resistant to lasers built into that armor suit of his…be very careful…”

The Spartan however was not concerned with them, their weapons would not stop him, but they were human and were not his enemy and he would not attack them, he then turned as he spotted another woman, who was awaken and had turned towards him…and to his absolute shock, the person looked like Cortana, he ignored the women and their weapons and made his way to the person and as he got closer to her, his shock grew as it was indeed Cortana and not some sort of trick. He looked at Cortana and couldn't believe that she was now…human.

“Cortana…is that you?”

The woman's eyes widened a lot as she seemed to finally be able to see him, her voice came out and it was certainly the AI's voice he was hearing, not someone else's.

“John…what happened to me…I feel…weird…and I.”

She gasped as she looked at herself.

Cortana was stunned to suddenly see her arms…and they were not in her normal form…but human flesh and blood, there was no data streams or any coloration that she normally had, just healthy human skin and flesh. She looked at her hands and arms, she felt her body underneath the blanket…trying her best to figure out what was going on and whether all that she was feeling and seeing was real.

She looked at the Spartan's visor and saw her face…her human face.

“I…I…I'm…I'm human?! But how…when did this…happen?! What's this feeling I have…I feel so weak…”

“Cortana!”

John felt some measure of panic when she closed her eyes and seemed to fall back into unconsciousness, she placed her scanners on her and found that she apparently fainted and it was due to…hunger and thirst. It seemed that not only did the AI somehow wind up with a human body…but she also had the same needs of a human being as well.

He was very concerned right now for her safety but seeing as he would need help to tend to his friend, he decided to weigh his options, he could try and tend to Cortana himself, but he had no idea as to what had happened on the ship ever since the explosion and he had no means of transportation or had any of the needed supplies, and the next, while completely against UNSC combat protocol concerning unknown contacts, was to ask for help from the unknown people, they apparently had supplies, equipment, transportation, and more, but it too had risks, there was no guarantee they might take Cortana hostage and harm her, or they could use her as a bargaining chip for him to reveal UNSC military secrets, or Earth's location.

Despite his loyalty to the chain of command however, he was not going to let any harm come to Cortana…and as he saw her weakened condition…he made his choice.

He turned and faced the pirates and spoke to them.

“I am not here to fight you, I'll put down my weapons and consent to be you're prisoner…in exchange…take care of Cortana until she recovers and do not harm her.”

Magno looked at the man and she considered her options in this situation, the man could be lying and could be waiting for them to lower their weapons, and when they would do that, he might attack them. She could tell from the condition of some sections of his armor suit that he had seen combat, and the way he moved showed that he knew how to fight, plus the weapons he had on his armor made him a great danger to her crew if they lower her guard. That was when she decided to call his bluff.

“We'll help her, but you'll need to give us ALL of you're weapons, and you have to be restrained, if you harm any of my crew, then you're friend's safety is no longer my concern, I don't want to do anything rash to her, but that is up to you're cooperation, do you agree with my terms?”

John looked at the elderly woman and saw that despite her age, she was strong willed and determined, almost like the daughter of his former Commander Jacob Keyes, Miranda was not the kind to be forced back by anyone…and he respected that quality well, many of his Spartan comrades had it, and so did many of the UNSC Marines, especially Sergeant Major Avery J Johnson.

“You're the Captain ma'am?”

“Yes, why, I'm not what you expected?”

“I meant no offense by that question ma'am, I'll do as you ask.”

John proved his point as he removed his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle, activated the safety switch and placed the weapon on the floor, he then took off both his M7 Caseless Submachine Guns and did the same and placed both weapons alongside the MA5C and then took out his Fragmentation grenades, checked their safeties and placed them on the floor, and finally took out his Combat Knife and placed that too with his weapons. He then placed both his hands forward to prove that he was willing to be restrained.

Magno looked at the man, amazed that he didn't try to argue with her deal, it seemed that he was very concerned for the woman's safety and was willing to comply with the demand she made without any argument. He carried himself in a very serious, efficient, and professional manner…showing that he was a highly trained soldier. She then nodded to Buzam and the woman moved and took out a pair of Megele manacles while under the watchful eye of the security personnel. She looked at the Spartan's wrists and made the right adjustments and tightened the strength of the manacles to be safe. She then placed the manacles on the wrists of the Spartan, and Gascogne walked over and the strong woman then carried the still sleeping woman named Cortana.

Several of the security members then took the weapons and made sure to not mess with them and the others flanked the Spartan, with Buzam leading them. As the group moved out to the rest of the ship that was still not being transformed by the Paeksis, they also made sure to take Hibiki and the robot with them. The Spartan then did a silent check on his Mjolnir and was surprised to find some rather unique changes to it's systems, but decided to put it aside for the moment as there would be plenty of time to do his work on the Armor. Despite the manacles and the lack of weapons on the armored male…many of the security personnel were still very wary around the 7 foot tall male in the Mjolnir Mark VI, and even Buzam was keeping a wary eye on him.

Only two women wanted to get closer to the Spartan, the first among them was Parfet because she wanted to figure out what sort of armor was the Mjolnir Mark VI as she had never seen it's design before and wondered what it was capable of doing. And the other was naturally Dita, as she was still intrigued by the Spartan and also wanted to see how Hibiki was doing.

**************

In a cell on the male side of the ship… a few minutes later…

“Don't make fun of me! The name's Hibiki Tokai! And I am no mere Third Class Citizen!”

Hibiki was not in a very good mood, as he had awakened from a very strange and confusing dream and now found himself in another new cell. He was even made more angry as he was being questioned by none other than the young 1st Class Citizen Tarak Academy Graduate Duero McFile. Apparently the young man had to be with the rest of the Megele crew when it was discovered that the last life pod had already been launched.

“I know you, you're the one who made quite the mess in the ceremony, just how did you manage to get on the ship and past security?”

“There's so many darn questions today…”

“So you're name's Hibiki Tokai huh?”

Hibiki looked and gulped as he then found himself staring back at the Spartan who had been aiming that weapon at him only a few minutes…or hours before, he didn't know. He was surprised that he was along with them, and bare of any of his weapons, despite the fact that he was unarmed…the mere sight of him was enough to intimidate Hibiki, but not for long…

“Yeah, that's my name, anyway…”

The conversation was stopped when the Tarak youth saw the robot he had carried with him begin to shake and move, and then the robot suddenly sprouted both arms and legs and the static on it's screen was replaced by two large eyes, the robot then began to look around scratch it's head with it's fingers.

“Where am I? Who am I?”

Hibiki looked at the robot and was dumbfounded by the transformation.

“You've changed a bit, haven't you?”

“Huh?”

Duero then looked at the armored Spartan and was intrigued…like the elder Captain, he could tell that the man in the armor suit was a consummate professional soldier. He then decided to find out just who this new man was.

“And you are?”

John-117 considered not answering the man's question, but seeing that he had nothing better to do until he was sure that Cortana was all right, he decided to stick to only giving his name, rank, and number as was standard UNSC Marine protocol.

“United Nations Space Command Navy, Master Chief Petty Officer, John-117.”

“John-117? That's a rather odd name.”

“You asked…now do I get to ask something?”

“What is it?”

“What is going on here? Why are men and women fighting each other, when they are on the same race?”

Duero then decided to tell the Master Chief as to what was the situation between the people of his home-world and that of the women. The Spartan said nothing as he listened to the doctor, this was his best chance to find out just what was the deal with the situation that he and Cortana had just found themselves in. And he then wondered how Cortana was right now, he hoped that the elderly woman would keep her part of the agreement that he made with her.

**************

In the Register…

“Wow! We're connected from the inside now Miss Gasco!”

One of the female crew members said as Gascogne was back in the Register and doing what she could to stop the Paeksis from consuming the entire ship completely. The head supply officer sighed as she saw the state of the ship and her Register.

“Well, that settles it…I never knew that the Paeksis had this much energy and power…and by the way…”

The woman then glared at the young woman who had green hair and then spoke, scaring the young bridge crew member.

“It's not Gasco…it's Gascogne!”

It became apparent that the head supplier was not very accepting of the nick name that every other woman on the ship had given her.

**************

Parfet was giving out several more orders to her fellow engineers as they tried their best to get the Paeksis under control as the crystals continued to spread all throughout the ships, including the unknown ship that the men had taken before. The head engineer then called out for the insertion of Linestar particles into the main cables in order to get some measure of control to the energy flow of the Paeksis.

She had hoped to examine the Mjolnir Mark VI, but had to do this first before that as she was needed by the others to stop the corrosive spreading of the Paeksis and to get the ship under control.

**************

Bart Garsus gulped as he was led towards the exit by Meia Gisborn, the cowardly Tarak cadet had been able to leave the statue that he had been hiding in ever since the attack on the Ikazuchi and had been exploring the hanger, but had been scared by a collapsing piece of debris and he was about to crawl away and then found himself staring at Meia's laser ring.

He now found himself a prisoner of the women.

**************

In the De-contamination Room…

Barnette was hitting the glass door as hard as she could as she and several other women were stripped to their under-garments and were being decontaminated by Paiway, though the fact was, that the Megele way to decontaminate themselves was by being soaked in freezing water. However, it was then that Paiway left the area t deal with another matter.

**************

Later…in the Medical Bay…

Cortana opened her eyes and groaned a bit as a strange feeling of need was felt in her now human body. Though the former UNSC AI Construct had no idea as to how she had gotten a human body, she tried to get used to it…and right now, she felt these cravings for something that she still couldn't understand, she opened her eyes and looked around to find herself in some sort of facility and on a bed, she then tried to lift herself up and look around, she then found herself to be wearing some sort of tank top to cover her considerable bust and then she turned and spotted a young girl who appeared to be dressed in some sort of maid outfit, and the young girl was carrying a tray of food and a glass of water.

“Here, you should eat some food, the scanners said that you're fine…just exhausted from not eating and drinking anything.”

Cortana slowly reached out with her new human hands and took a sandwich from the tray that the young woman had placed on a nearby table, she looked at the sandwich carefully, along with her hands and then felt the same gnawing feeling in her belly.

<I must be feeling that urge called hunger…so this is what hunger feels like…no wonder the Marines eat the way they do when they get back from the fighting.>

Cortana opened her mouth and bit the sandwich and chewed the food carefully, allowing the bread, meat, cheese, and vegetables to be tasted by her new taste buds. She moved the food in her mouth, trying to get used to all the new sensations that flooded her mind as she chewed and then swallowed the bit of the sandwich she had taken.

The former AI always had a curiosity as to what it was like for humans to be able to do the things they did and to feel as well, though this was only a simple curiosity and yet, she was actually doing it now and it felt very unique to her. As she felt the food settle in her new human stomach, she felt the satisfaction of eating and therefore she resumed to finish the sandwich, she took in bite after bite slowly as to savor each new…human…sensation she was feeling and took great care to remember it all as she felt them. As she was still very hungry, it didn't take long for her to finish the tray of sandwiches she had been given. She took the glass of water…and slowly drank the glass, savoring the feel, temperature, and taste of the spring water…as this was the first time she had ever tasted water or any drink of any sort.

As soon as she was done, she placed the glass down and sighed a bit, getting used to the feeling of being full and quenched of thirst. She then looked at the young girl.

“Thanks for the food…uh, what's you're name?”

“My name's Paiway, Paiway Underberg, and what's you're name?”

Cortana thought it over and replied.

“My name is Cortana.”

Paiway noted the name and was a bit confused as she had heard no family name, as every woman she knew, including her best friend Dita Liebely, so like any precocious eleven year old girl, she decided to ask.

“You don't have a family name?”

“N…not right now as I recall…my name's been Cortana for a long time now. Wait…where am I? What am I doing here?”

The door opened and in walked Buzam, flanked by several more security members, armed with laser rings and laser rifles, the tall silver haired woman then walked over to Cortana and answered her questions.

“You're in our Medical Bay as we have managed to gather enough energy to keep the place operational despite the current mess we're in, and as to what you are doing here, you were taken here for treatment, in exchange…you're companion John agreed to be our prisoner.”

“John's a prisoner?!”

That statement did not sit well with the former UNSC AI as she had been wondering where he was after she had awakened to find herself completely human. There was no way she was going to allow any harm to come to the Spartan, despite the fact that she knew that with the long years of combat he had, and the training he had undergone in Reach as a child and naturally his augmentations, John-117 was more than capable of taking care of himself.

“He did so willingly, he didn't argue with the Captain and we currently have him locked up in a cell with the other men we have on this ship. He has not been harmed, that much I can assure you Cortana.”

Cortana sighed with relief and then looked at Paiway, she was curious as to what was the role of the young girl on this ship.

“What are you supposed to be anyway Paiway?”

“Me? Can't you tell, I'm a nurse, this is a standard Megele nurse uniform.”

Cortana was surprised as she could tell that the girl was barely in her early teens, why was she in such a very complex and serious position?

“Aren't you a little too young to be a nurse?”

“What's my age got to do with it?”

Buzam decided to cut in as she had a lot of things to take care of and the last thing that they needed on the ship right now were distractions. She then called both the attentions of Cortana and Paiway.

“I'll explain to you what is happening as we go Cortana, you need to come with us as proof to you're companion that we have kept our side of the bargain, besides that, Captain Magno would like to talk to the two of you, you two are not from around here from the way you act, therefore, I'll explain things to you along the way.”

**************

Later…

“Hey, let me see if I can fix you up.”

Hibiki said to the small robot and the robot reacted very appropriately as it glared and spoke in an angry voice.

“Don't say that! I am not broken!”

Hibiki's retort was cut short with the arrival of Buzam and several of the security forces, the young man and Duero looked at their captors. The Tarak medic was somewhat surprised to see at least a dozen heavily armed women in the group and wondered why there were that many as there were only three of them in this prison cell, then he realized that the security personnel were not there for him or Hibiki, but for the Master Chief.

The women began to laugh as Hibiki commented if they were going to kill them and eat their livers, even Buzam managed a smile, but one woman who the two men didn't recognize gave the young boy a glare and snorted.

“That has got to be the worst form of description of women kid, just who told you that sort of garbage anyway?!”

Hibiki and Duero looked to see a tall woman wearing a tank-top of some sort, had short brown hair, pants, boots, fingerless gloves covering her hands, and a vest of some sort. Both the pants and tank top hugged her frame well showing off her curves and swells nicely, plus the muscles in her body were well shown, making it clear that she was not one to be taken lightly. (**)

The new woman then turned to face their comrade in green and black armor and instead of glaring at the Spartan, she smiled at him, relief in her face.

“How are you holding up John?”

Inside his armor and behind his helmet/visor, the Master Chief was relieved to see Cortana to be up and about and had to admit, the clothes she had suited her very well. He then replied with a bit of Spartan language and made a smile on the front of the helm with his fingers and replied.

“I'm fine, you seem much better now yourself.”

“Hey…why are you talking to that woman, don't you know she might eat you're liver too?!”

Cortana gave Hibiki a very irate glare and replied.

“That's disgusting!!! John and I have worked together for a long time, and there's no way I would try and harm him…so shut it kid.”

Buzam looked at the exchange and saw that Cortana was indeed serious about saying that she and this…John had been partners for a very long time and had a great deal of trust and respect towards each other. She sighed and then mentioned to them all that they were going to be take to the Captain for questioning. She then turned and spoke to Cortana.

“We're about to deactivate the bars, so please make sure you're friend doesn't try anything to the crew.”

Later…

As the group made their way to the room where the elderly Captain was going to meet them, the women who were heavily armed were behind both the Spartan and Cortana, still in unease at the sight of the massive 7 foot tall and armored male, they were also stunned at Cortana as she seemed to be totally at ease with the massive Spartan, and wondered if what they heard was true about Cortana, that she had been working with this man for many years.

“I've just managed to hear the history of the women John…and it's just weird, what did we get ourselves into here? And why does that kid think any woman would eat a man's liver…the thought of it is disgusting!”

“You should try hearing the men's side of the story Cortana, I'm having trouble understanding it too.”

“No thank you John, I'd rather not get into that right now. I don't want to know what they taught their kids about women.”

The two then noted that Hibiki was commenting on the breasts and the butt of the women and from what they could see, the kid was about to touch on the security personnel's…well…posterior.

John knew for a fact that no woman, either civilian or military would tolerate such an immodest action…and Cortana knew enough about human etiquette and behavior that Hibiki was about to do something that was considered very improper back on any UNSC world and the two of them knew the results of that as well.

“I wouldn't do that if I were…”

However they were too late as Hibiki touched the young girl's posterior and naturally the girl turned around and gave Hibiki a very unfriendly glare and she then lashed out and shouted.

“WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?!”

SLAP!!!

Both Spartan and former UNSC AI looked at the scene and finished their combined comment.

“…Never mind.”

**************

Later…

“Oww…why did she have to hit me that hard?”

Hibiki complained as the Tarak youth was sitting down and trying to relieve the pain as he had a large hand print in red on his cheek. Behind them, the young girl that he had touched on the posterior was looking away with a look of absolute disgust on her face…while her companions were looking at then men.

“You should know that it's impolite to do that to a woman.”

The robot said in a reprimanding tone, that did little to help the Tarak teen understand just what was going on here so the two once more get into a slight argument, while The Spartan merely observed, with Cortana sitting beside John and observing the people before them. The two of them had each learned the culture and history behind the all male planet and the all female planet respectively and the current conflict between the two cultures…and they were still baffled by the whole thing.

The door opened and in walked Meia still keeping Bart as her prisoner. The moment the Spartan and the former UNSC AI spotted the young Tarak cadet, they could immediately tell that the young man was not a soldier, let alone someone who should be anywhere in the front lines of combat, he might get himself and others killed. The Spartan and the UNSC AI merely looked on and watch just what was going to be the outcome of this discussion between the two cultures.

The situation ended when the doors opened and in came none other than Captain Magno Vivian herself as she looked over the numbers of people that were before her, and when she spotted the young Hibiki and Duero, she snorted in disappointment.

“Well…I was expecting men, but instead we wind up catching a bunch of kids.”

The robot then leaped towards the older woman and began to speak.

“It's interrogation time! I'll be ready to tell you everything I know at the moment.”

Magno looked and smiled at the little robot and replied.

“Well, well, It's been quite a long time since I've seen a Navi-robot, let alone a fully functional one.”

“You seem rather familiar with this ship and it's technology, I find it odd that an elderly woman such as you would know much about this ship since this has been on Tarak for nearly an entire century.” Duero asked the elderly woman.

“That's right! How can an old hag like you know about the Ikazuchi?!” Hibiki asked Magno.

The elderly pirate glared at the young man and gave her answer with a slight smirk.

“I'll have you know young man, that this ship that you claim to be you're world's personal property was actually part of a colonization fleet that took off from Earth countless years ago, a century in fact, and this was before you're fathers were ever born, but then…you're cowardly and sneaky grandfathers stole this section of the ship at the dead of night and took it with them.”

“That is correct, they overhauled this section and added living quarters as well, so this was not intended to be battle-ship but a colonization vessel.” The robot finished the explanations.

Meia sighed and replied quickly.

“Telling them the history is a waste of time captain, we should just dump them off the ship and spare us the trouble.” Meia commented as she stood next to the Captain.

“Relax Meia, I doubt these three could cause that much trouble to us, there are only three of them after all…normally this would be the part where I say that maybe we should just roast you over an open fire, but that is for a different time…I am more concerned with our other guests.”

Magno then directed her gaze at both John-117 and Cortana, who had secretly been having a conversation between themselves and the two faced them, and the elderly woman studied both the Spartan.

“Judging by the way you act around each other, I can say with an absolute certainty that you both are not from either Tarak or Megele…so you two are unknown to me…so then, care to tell us who you two are?”

John and Cortana thought it over and then the AI decided to ask some probing questions first. The two of them had come up with a very radical theory as to why the ships' records had no mention of the UNSC, the UEG, the Covenant, the Flood, or the Halo Rings, but they still needed to be absolutely sure about several key facts that could support what they had used to explain this situation they were in.

“Before we tell you anything, what year is this?”

Buzam looked at the chronometer and answered Cortana's inquiry. “It's March 12, 2818.”

“Do you have any records of the Jovian Moons Campaigns, the Battles on Mars ,the terrorist attack on the UN on Io, and the Rain Forest Wars?”

“No, there's no mention of such things in the records.”

John then asked the next batch of questions.

“Do you know about the scientists, Shaw and Fujikawa? Their discovery of Slipspace and the development of the Slipspace Drive, and the Odyssey? And the formation of the Inner Colonies and the Outer Colonies?”

Magno shook her head.

“I am afraid not, there has been no mention of either those scientists, or this Slipspace discovery you've mentioned, or this Slipspace engine, and there is no mention of any Colony ship known as the Odyssey on the records we have. I am a member of the First generation, and am therefore privy to the records, but all those events, places, names, and more were never mentioned in the history books and we have had no contact with Earth for nearly a generation or so.”

The two looked at each other and sighed, The Spartan then replied solemnly. The data that they had been told had finally proven that their supposed far fetched theory was actually right on the money, though it was hard to explain, and it would be going against UNSC protocol, they were technically no longer within UNSC jurisdiction…since here in this world…the UNSC didn't even exist.

“What we're about to tell you might sound rather outlandish ma'am…you might not even believe us.”

“Try me.”

John looked at Cortana and she looked back, a silent conversation happened between the Spartan and the newly transformed UNSC AI and it was in the lines of…You first.

“The events we told you about were from our dimension…”

“Pardon?”

“The reason we said you might not believe us is because we come from a parallel universe, where Earth does exist, and there is actually no difference with our two respective dimensions, but we have a far more radical history. We both belong to the United Earth Government's military, scientific, colonization, and exploratory arm…The United Nations Space Command, namely the United Nations Space Command Defense Force.”

The people began to listen in as the former AI began to tell them the history of the UNSC.

“In the year of 2160 to 2164, Earth was suffering a massive overpopulation problem as many humans were born and there were not enough resources to go around and the massive gap between the social circles as well, similar to your own dimension, these events and problems were further compounded by a series of brutal wars with two powerful and determined political and ideological entities, the Frieden, a neo fascist movement that was supposedly funded by the United German Republic, and the neo communist faction known as the Koslovics, these factions began the wars by attacking the UN military advisors delegation on the colony on Io, one of the moons near Jupiter. The results were several wars on the surface of Mars, then the forests of South America, and the Jovian Moons.”

“After the defeat of the two factions, this turned the UN from a purely diplomatic entity to a full scale military power, thus becoming the United Nations Space Command, with all the armed forces of each country melded to create the UNSC Army, the UNSC Navy, and UNSC Marine Corps. The battles also led to the creation of the United Earth Government to lead humanity in the year 2170. The wars brought all the problems down upon the Earth and the colonies that existed, the Rain Forest wars also added another problem, which was food distribution, the famines and the social problems after the wars created the government that exists in our dimension.”

“This led to the need for space exploration and colonization beyond the Earth Solar System…which is similar to you're dimension's own Colonization Era. The program started in the year 2310 in order to ease the burdens on the already struggling worlds, including Earth, back then, it was not possible to leave the Earth Solar System until the creation of the Slipspace drive in the 22nd Century. It took at least 52 years for the program to get underway, and this when the first UNSC Colony ship, the Odyssey was launched and so were a vast fleet of colony ships which were all equipped with Slipspace drives. These ships colonized the closest planets and Star systems, creating the Inner Colonies, all of the crews on every ship that formed the Inner Colonies, from citizens to soldiers were methodically selected, thus they are the `elite' of human society, in both physical and mental attributes.”

“By the year of 2490, the UNSC had colonized over 800 hundred worlds, and the colonies ranged from well tamed planetary strong holds to small settlements. Outward Expansion continued and the Inner Colonies became the economic and political hub of the Human Empire, so to speak, but they relied on the raw materials and resources of the Outer Colonies.”

“One of the key UNSC fortress worlds was Reach in the Epsilon Eridani sector. The planet was the prime naval yard and training facility. It produced many war ships and served as the key training hub for UNSC covert operatives for the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, and special forces divisions.”

“The colonization and expansions came with a price however.”

“ A price…what sort of price?” Magno asked carefully while BC and Meia listened intently along with Hibiki, Bart and Duero.

“There were ideological and political differences that occurred and these led to some Outer Colonies to open rebellion with the UNSC, these events started bush fire wars and hundred more threatening to erupt everywhere. At the year 2517, UNSC analysts predicted the all out and uncontrollable rebellion would happen in twenty years' time. In order to ensure that rebellion and insurrection was defeated without massive civilian losses…the UNSC allowed the start of the Spartan-II Program.”

“What's this Spartan-II Program?” Duero asked.

John-117 took over, as he had very intimate knowledge of the Spartan II program for a very good reason…which was he was part of the same program.

“The Spartan-II Super Soldier Program, was named after the legendary Spartan soldiers of the ancient Earth Greek city-state of Sparta. In those days, the people of Sparta were all bred for warfare…male children were meticulously checked for physical weaknesses and defects, those who were found to be at the peak of human physical and mental ability were to be trained in the arts of warfare in the barrack as soon as possible…those who didn't pass the examinations were left in the valleys to die. By the time they were in adulthood…every male Spartan was a full fledged warrior, and even the women who lived there were at the peak of physical and mental ability as well.”

“The UNSC then began a massive screening process to select children, both male and female with the needed physical and mental attributes to be part of the project and while 150 were chosen as viable candidates, there were only 75 who were conscripted to the program due to funding restrictions…These children were taken to Reach and for eight years were trained in the art of war, the use of all UNSC weapons and vehicles, UNSC technology, battle tactics, formations, field strategy, team-work, and more…Eight years in their time in Reach, the children were subjected to biological and cybernetic augmentations, and were then subjected to the final augmentations, those augmentations had complications attached to them however…and there were several high risks that many of them would not survive…”

“Out of the 75 children who were subjected to the program, only 33 children were able to survive the augmentations without the complications and fully recovered. 10 more survived, but were subjected to the complications and were no longer fit for combat duty and were reassigned…the rest died.”

Magno looked at John-117 and wondered about how he knew so much about this Spartan II Program.

“You seem to know a lot about this program John, why?”

The Spartan looked back and replied.

“I know it well…because I am one of the 33 children who survived the augmentations without the complications and fully recovered ma'am…I am a Spartan II Super Soldier of the UNSC.”

The women and men gasped at the revelation and looked at him with stunned eyes. The only one who was not frightened was Cortana herself. John still felt guilt about that event, but pushed it aside for now.

“When the others alongside me recovered and began to get used to the augmentations, they had given us quite a number of advantages in both normal conditions and combat.”

“We could lift three times our own weight, our reaction time was 20 milliseconds and we could move and react even faster in combat conditions, we could run up to 55 KPH, we had unaided night vision, our bones were virtually indestructible, we could work together to the bordering of telepathy, and we had no physical or psychological problems. And all these results were only after a few months after the augmentations. Now…I can do even more than before Ma'am. And those abilities I mentioned are independent of the armor I wear.”

“We were meant to be a covert strike force, go in, eliminate insurrection and rebellion before they could spread. However, after our first mission, we were all debriefed for a brand new threat…one threat that the UNSC was not prepared for…on Oct 7, 2525.”

Cortana took over when the others were confused.

“On Oct 7, 2525, one of the UNSC battle-groups came to the UNSC colony world of Harvest and to the horror of all the crew and officers, they found the planet completely rendered lifeless, every continent, every mountain, every plain, every forest, every grassland, every jungle, every swamp, every river, every lake, and every ocean was completely incinerated and reduced to glass. Nothing alive was detected, not a single animal, plant…the entire planet was reduced to a massive ball of glass. And nearby was a single alien ship, the ship then attacked the battle group and wiped out almost the entire battle group except a heavily damaged ship. They were able to get intercepted communications from the ship. It was there the UNSC learned that the foe that attacked and obliterated Harvest and the battle group, was from a caste driven, theological society made of several alien species known as the Covenant and they left one message in perfect English.”

“What was the message?” Bart asked.

John spoke the message.

“You're destruction is the will of the Gods, and we are their instrument.”

Cortana continued the explanations.

“The first contact began a war between the UNSC and the Covenant that spanned 27 years and it was a losing war. The Covenant were very much holding all the aces, they had numbers, technology, and firepower on their side. Our Fleets, no matter how many we had, were being massacred, for every Covenant ship we were able to take out, we would lose four ships in the process. Only on the ground battles did we have the edge, though we had deadly numbers of loses, the Covenant had even more. But even with a good number of tactical victories, the Covenant still had the edge…by the nearing of the 27th year of fighting, we lost 260 colonies, the entire Outer Colonies were totally obliterated and reduced to glass, and even some of the Inner Colonies were also attacked, the only thing that kept UNSC morale up were the Spartans, who had been fighting the Covenant ever since.”

“How many battles have you been in anyway?” The Navi-robot asked the Spartan.

“Over 207 battle engagements.”

Hibiki gulped and looked at the UNSC Spartan and blurted out.

“You survived 207 battles?!”

The Spartan shrugged his shoulders, and Cortana then smirked a bit, finding their expressions of shock at that statement to be somewhat…funny, she then decided to add some more details to the story.

“And John has won every UNSC military decoration, the Purple Heart, the Basic Training Honor Graduate Ribbon, Medal of Honor, the Bronze Star, The Colonial Cross, Red Legion of Honor, and the Silver Star, in fact, if I were to recall, the only award you never got was the Prisoner of War Medallion. Not to mention that in the past 27 years of combat with the Covenant, you and the other Spartans got the nick-name Demon from them. You got that from them since you've killed more than 1000 of their forces singlehandedly, and thousands more with the others if I recall.”

John shrugged once more, as he was not the one who dwelt too much on awards and ceremonies, but he knew their importance to the morale of the UNSC so he went along with it without question, and he never really made a count on how many of the Covenant he had killed.

“The nick-name doesn't bother me, and I never worry about the body count anyway.”

The entire room went silent at the last statement as they realized that they were dealing with no ordinary soldier…the women for that matter made one conclusion on the Spartan…and it was that…this Spartan… this was a man who was NOT the kind to pick a fight with, or to try and intimidate. Any normal person who would try to take this man head on in combat would have to be either extremely brave…or totally insane.

The men were stunned as well, and they wondered how the war between their world and that of the women would have gone if they had soldiers like this Spartan with them.

**************

In another part of the Nirvana…

“Oh dear…nothing matches the charts at all! I just don't get it.”

Ezra said as she looked through her special camera as she and the redhead Dread pilot were busy lounging at a terrace in the newly made garden showing the void of stars.

“You don't get it? It's an amazing thing to actually come across and alien, let alone two of them.”

“You're right, it is amazing…but we all heard once that the Paeksis was a powerful source of energy. But we had no idea that it could do this to the whole ship and restored it!”

“It made it like brand new Ezra! I wonder if I would be changed if I was abducted...” The young Dread pilot asked to herself loudly with a blissfully curious expression.

Alongside her was Ezra taking a deep relaxing breath, as if trying to calm something down, namely in herself, that naturally got Dita's attention.

“What's the matter Ezra…are you feeling all right?”

“I'm fine Dita…I was just thinking about the others.”

Dita then looked back to the stars and replied.

“I think about them too…all the people we had to leave behind at our base back home.”

Ezra sighed and thought on the people back there as well.

“I really wish we could go back soon.”

She stopped as she spotted Dita cried out and then pointing at the void with a deep look of excitement.

“Dita? What is it?”

“Look at that! There's something coming this way!”

Ezra took a look through her special camera, and saw a trio of dots appear heading for them. “What could those objects be?”

Dita gave a glazed over, starry look on her face coupled with cat ears as several images came into her mind… concerning little green men and floating discs. “You don't know Ezra? Those are more aliens!”

**************

Back in the room…

The silence was deafening until Magno sighed and looked at the still calm Spartan and his companion. To hear about the fact that they had a man of this caliber with them were very discomforting, and it made her very wary of him. If what they said was true, and what she heard about John-117. She knew from her long experience that this was someone who was very, very capable, and if it was true that he had killed more than a thousand enemy forces, then they had to be careful around him, however she decided to ask him a question.

“John.”

“Yes ma'am?”

“If you and I were…for the sake of argument, if you and I were enemies, would you kill me even if there were many of my crew in front of you?”

John looked at the women, namely Buzam and Meia who were tense and the security forces behind him were as well, he didn't know why he was being asked such a question and how come the elderly woman asked him that in the first place. He then decided to answer her question.

“Ma'am… for the sake of argument…if I was you're enemy and I was sent to kill you…do you believe you're crew could do anything to stop me, considering what I am capable of?”

The women were noticeably more edgy at that and Meia was ready to use her laser ring. Cortana however spoke at Magno in a very serious tone. The former AI had seen John's records and his battle files, he may not have his weapons right now…but his abilities made him more of a weapon, with or without the Mark VI.

“Captain Magno, I have no idea as to why you asked that question, but I will tell you this much…if, for the sake of argument, John was going to attack you, he could just move forward before you could back away…and with one finger on you're chin, twist you're head and break you're neck before either of the two women beside you could react…I know this…because I've seen him do it before.”

Buzam became even more tense at that statement and Meia was even willing to aim her laser ring at the Spartan.

“We should just dump them in deep space Captain…”

Magno looked grimly at the Spartan and then with a sigh and a smile relaxed.

“No need for that Meia. Sorry if my line of questioning seemed odd and unexpected John, I just wanted to know how you would react to that question. Now then…all that you have told me, though I have no doubt there is more to it, puts me in a very unique situation. You see…if you both are from another dimension, then the rules of either my world or that of the men do not apply to the two of you. You two no doubt have no idea as to how you two got here, am I correct?”

The Spartan and the former UNSC AI shook their heads in answer. Magno then replied to that.

“I see…so technically, that would make the two of you refugees on this ship…and since you've been fighting for humans, I think you don't see us as enemies…am I correct in that regard John?”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Well then…until I decide what to do with the two of you, I guess that you both will have to remain with us until I make a decision, until I do make that decision then you will have to remain as prisoners in word only. That means that you will be given full freedom until I say otherwise…is that all right with you?”

John and Cortana looked at each other and weighed their respective options, they could ask for a shuttle back to Earth, but they were in a new dimension entirely and the UNSC didn't exist at all, and it was doubtful that the Covenant existed because if they did, the human race in this dimension would have had records of them. Considering all this, they would have little choice but to remain with the pirates until the time came for them to have other options available to them once the Captain gave a decision. With that in mind, they decided to agree with the Captain's offer.

“We agree.”

“Of course, the both of you will have to pull your own weight while you're on this ship. You may not be prisoners in the full sense but I expect you to contribute something to keep this ship from falling apart, is that understood?”

“Yes Ma'am.”

Magno smiled a bit at that and then looked at the three other men from Tarak.

“Now that that's out of the way…the next thing we need to settle is what to do with you three?”

“How come they get special treatment and we don't?!” Hibiki fumed.

Magno sighed and answered him.

“In case you may have forgotten boy, they are from neither you're world or mine, as such, the rules we have for each other's culture does not apply to them. As such, they don't need to be in prison cells for now.”

Buzam then told Magno about what she had learned about Duero, and Magno smiled a bit at that and wondered a bit about the other two, she knew from his clothes that Bart was a First Class citizen, but the younger one, the shorter boy was a Third Class Citizen, and it made her curious as to what he was doing on a ship which only housed selected crew members.

“So the long haired one with the trench-coat is a doctor? So what about the other one, the one dressed up in the Third Class clothes?”

“He's an attacker.” Meia answered for her Captain, having recalled seeing Hibiki enter the Vanguard that was there in the reactor room previously.

“Hey! Wait a bloody minute! I'm not a! Owww!”

Hibiki was about to argue his case when Bart suddenly elbowed him in the chest…stopping him from saying what he wanted to say. He then glared at the First Class Citizen and spoke in a grim and angry tone, while the First Class Citizen smiled smugly.

“Why you!”

Meia then continued with what she was reporting to Magno when she had seen Hibiki.

“I saw him climbing into of the powered armor suits of the men when we were already leaving the area.”

“Oh? So this is a combat pilot then.”

Before Hibiki could refute the argument however, an incoming message came to Buzam's communicator.

“There's some unknown objects approaching.

The dark skinned woman wasted little time and took out her communicator and spoke through it as to find out just who were their unexpected guests in the middle of nowhere.

“Is it male reinforcements?”

“I'm not sure Commander…they appear to be…”

“UFOs!” Dita's voice shouted.

**************

Outside of deep space the unknown objects that Dita claimed to be UFOs appeared. They resembled octopus like fighters with four arms/legs, in a segmented body and had one glowing eyes that apparently doubled as a laser cannon. There were several of them and they wasted little to no time attacking the still transforming ship.

**************

Several massive cracks began to appear on the ship's internal sector, namely in the same room that the others were in. And the roof and walls began to crack as well, dust and rust began to fall in, along with debris and mortar. The Navi-robot panicked and moved about while the announcement came on the speakers that the unknown forces had just attacked the ship without warning or provocation.

**************

As the attacks grew in intensity, the ship's automated shielding systems did their best to hold off the attacks, but with the ship still transforming itself, the ship had no way to protect itself well from the attacks from the unknown forces

**************

“Dreads are now moving out!” Meia said as she quickly rushed to the place where her Dread, and that of Jura and Dita were located as well. They had to hurry and hold off the enemy forces until the rest of their fellow Dread pilots could get out and fight back at their new opponents.

“Parfet, can you get us to move?” Buzam asked the head engineer on her communicator.

“It's impossible Commander! I have no control over the Paeksis or the ships at all, and the automated defense systems are barely functioning properly to hold on in defending the ship.”

The attacks continued as the pirates did their best to react to the sudden attacks, but with no measure of defense available to them, they were rapidly running out of options.

**************

“Barnette? Where are you/” Meia asked as she was still running towards the area where their Dreads were, and she hoped that Barnette was still able to get to her Dread and fly with them in order to beat back the attackers.

**************

“Paiway's locked me in the shower room! I can't get out!”

**************

“Miss Gasco…what about you and the other Dreads?”

**************

In the Register…

Gascogne took the call as the Register was rapidly being consumedb

“The Dreads can't get out Meia, their launching bay's been completely consumed by the Paeksis so you're on your own out there, there's nothing I can do and we have to move too since we're being forced out by the crystal as well.”

“Roger!”

“Listen Meia, my name is not Gasco, it's Gascogne.”

**************

Meia then decided that since her Dread was with Jura and Dita's, they would have to be the ones she would have to contact, she only hoped that bother her comrades were ready and able to respond to her calls and get to their fighters as quickly as possible.

“Jura! What's you're location?”

**************

“I'm heading towards the platform right now, I should be there shortly!”

The blonde pilot ran as best she could and turned to enter the platform, but stopped dead in her tracks in surprise as she looked at the Dreads that they had been piloting, they looked completely different from their normal configurations and seemed to be unlike any Dread design she was familiar with.

“What is going on around here?!”

Dita rushed in as well, and looked on in surprise and awe at the sight of their transformed Dreads, and her one comment pretty much summed it all up.

“Wow!”

**************

As the fighting continued outside of the ship, the sections of the ship that were still exposed were destroyed, and a part of the Megele cruiser was blown off as well.

Inside the platform, Meia and her two fellow pilots did a quick systems check and the leader saw that most of the core systems had not been altered too greatly by the Paeksis when they were seemingly turned by the crystal's effects, their hard points still existed for their missile payloads.

“Looks like the systems haven't been altered too greatly, how about the two of you?”

`I think I can fly it well enough.” Jura answered.

“I bet that they must have been powered up! This is so exciting!' Dita said with joy.

“Just remember not to get reckless, let's move out!”

“Roger!”

All three Dreads took off and were fighting with the alien forces…well one of them wasn't fighting just yet as a certain redhead tried to talk to the forces that were attacking the ship and now her and her comrades.

**************

A few moments into the fight…

Meia shot down another of the strange fighters as her Dread seemed to accelerate at a much faster pace than before, much more than the specifications were capable of using.

“The instruments respond differently this time.”

Jura then contacted Meia.

“I'm not sure what to make of these units, they certainly aren't men.”

Dita then called in with an angry voice and expression.

“Don't you understand it yet, they must be bad and evil aliens!”

“Oh boy…”

The three Dread pilots however were treated to another shocking sight as a massive white metal covered ship that resembled a seed, the front of it seemed to have a maw of some sort and then the maw opened and out came two cubes of mental that suddenly glowed and expanded…revealing more of the same fighters that were currently attacking the ship.

Meia was very much surprised, maybe Dita was right, these must aliens of some sort as she had never seen that kind of unit delivery system before.

**************

In another part of the ship…

“I was really stupid coming here! Maybe I should have just stayed back on Tarak and be content with being just a Third Class Citizen!”

Hibiki said as he sat on the floor of another cell. He had been taken there under the protective eye of the Spartan. Bart had managed to make a deal with Magno for himself and his fellow men.

The cowardly cadet had managed to convince the captain, despite the warnings of the Navi-robot that he was a helmsman, while Duero, with him being a doctor was slated to take care of their wounded and injured. The Captain agreed, but reminded the cadet that they were not friends, the reason she agreed with it was for the survival of the crew, nothing more.

Cortana however asked to be taken to the bridge, citing that she was more useful there than anywhere else at this point. John agreed to take Hibiki to the hanger bay where his Vanguard was, despite his protests that he was not a pilot of the Vanguards. The boy struggled hard, but the Spartan held him in a firm but gentle grip…as the Spartan can manage. Buzam wanted to make sure that Hibiki would actually fight, but she decided to let the UNSC Spartan do the convincing.

“Really? So why are you here?”

Hibiki moaned sadly and replied.

“It was because of a stupid bet I made with my big mouth, I bet that I could steal on the Vanguards that was marked by the others to prove that I could, I wanted to back out, but they wouldn't stop so before I could think about it more…I bet I would not only steal the whole Vanguard with the marked part…but bring it back to Tarak! I wanted to see if there was more to life than just doing something day in a day out…and not being able to see just what else was out there in the world… I should just been silent instead of being so hot headed and stay a Third Class Citizen…I don't know what to do.”

John-117 however saw things differently, he saw that all the boy needed was a push in the right direction, and despite the fact that he was not qualified to be this young man's commanding officer, he had to do something to inspire him to do the right thing. Hibiki was on a cross-road and if he was not told to do what he felt was right, he was going to be stuck there forever, and he did have some measure of promise, in the eyes of the battle hardened Master Chief Petty Officer.

He thought about what he could say to the young man and then remembered a very important lesson he learned back on Reach when he was still young and not yet a full Spartan. And in truth it seemed appropriate for the situation he found himself in with Hibiki.

“Hibiki…let me tell you a little something about myself.”

“Huh?”

“Listen…when I was on Reach years before…I was not a good team player or leader, I wanted to do everything myself and I despised working with others. One day I was paired with two other Spartan trainees…Sam-034, and Kelly-084. We were supposed to move through a network of ropes, beams, bars, and bridges to reach the top of the mountain like play-ground to ring a bell on the top. The rules in that exercise were that the first team to ring the bell gets to have a lavish meal, and the last team to ring the bell had no dinner that night.”

“I didn't want to work with either Sam and Kelly and said that I could ring the bell myself, and I did, I left them behind and rang the bell first, Sam and Kelly soon followed. My trainer Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez was not happy with what I did and told me that my team lost, along with me and we were not going to eat dinner that night.”

“Why did he do that to you?!”

“He explained his decision in these words. `You're team loses, you lose. You don't win until you're team wins.' That night neither me, Kelly, nor Sam had dinner while the others had their meals. I realized how my words got me and my two fellow trainees in a serious mess, as my growling stomach that day can attest to. I learned a valuable lesson that day and the next time we had that same exercise…I made sure that Kelly and Sam were there when we reached the top and rang the bell as the first team on the top. I learned team work that day and I made two friends that I worked with for a long time…”

John then took Hibiki to the area where his Vanguard was and as the young man was looking at the newly transformed Vanguard with awe, and the Spartan then decided to finish saying what he wanted to say.

“We sometimes say things we can't take back once we say them, and we then regret the decisions we make because of what we said. But we have to be responsible for the choices we made then…and the choices we make now. You have a choice now…to either stay here and hide, and prove those men back on Tarak right and give up on what you want because of being afraid… or you can fight and prove to them and yourself that you are a man of not just you're word but you are willing to fight for what you feel is worth it, you are not on Tarak anymore Hibiki, you are here and now…and it is up to you, to cower, or to fight. I won't make you choose either…it's all up to you now.”

With that, he then made his way into the bridge, leaving Hibiki to reflect on his words.

It didn't take long for Hibiki to reach a decision as he weighed his options and took the Spartan's speech to mind.

**************

In the bridge…

“Hmm…not the same as the bridge back on the Pillar of Autumn or the Cairo station, but comfortable enough.”

Cortana commented as she was now in the new bridge of the combined ships, she along with Bart were now in the bridge as Belvedere Amarone, and Celtic took their current positions on the command areas along with Ezra. The battle was very much in full swing and explosions were everywhere. Bart was being led to the front part of the bridge as there were two massive pools of light in wells there…one was in deep purple for some reason, while the other was deep emerald green, and the pool of purple seemed to reject Bart when he was brought close to it. So they wondered just what this was going to do…however, as Cortana came close to it, the pool glowed softly and it seemed not to reject Cortana.

The former UNSC AI felt something tugging on her mind and it certainly didn't feel the least bit threatening. She stepped on the pool of water and stood there for a minute and then the pool swallowed the woman and a massive lid sealed over the pool, the others were shocked and Bart became even more frightened. However the surprise didn't last very long as a crystal seemed to appear on top of the lid and out came Cortana…but she was different, instead of being a human being clothes, she was now back to her AI form and was now human sized as well. The woman turned to admire herself a bit more and smirked.

“Well…At least I'm human sized this time.”

“Cortana? Is that you…and are you all right?!” Buzam asked.

Cortana smiled and replied.

“I'm fine Buzam…just getting used to being a human sized AI this time, back then, I wasn't exactly human sized to start with and I was…”

“Slow down…what did you say? You used to BE and AI?!”

Cortana then replied to the shocked look of everyone in the bridge at her announcement..

“I'm really sure what happened, but the Paeksis may have something to do with it and now isn't really the right time for the discussion, don't you think?”

The others then turned to the sound of an opening door and in walked the Master Chief without Hibiki, the women then looked at him with concern, but the Spartan was more concerned with Cortana as he was surprised at the sudden changes she had undergone. He walked over to her and studied her now human sized AI form and Cortana decided to tease him a bit.

“Keep that up John and I'd say you're becoming a pervert.”

“Sorry, just didn't expect you be back in you're old AI form all of a sudden, where are you?”

“Judging from where my, well, my human body is, I'd say I'm in some sort of holo-tank, and it must allow me to retake my old AI form through the display crystal on top, though as you can seem, I'm human sized this time. And it seems I can still do my old functions, with a lot more power this time.”

“Good.”

Magno and Buzam then decided to ask the Master Chief as to where the young kid he was escorting earlier was. The elderly captain was the very first to ask the Spartan.

“Where's the short one?”

“I left him in the Hanger with that Vanguard he was trying to steal before the whole mess started.”

Buzam was a bit concerned by this as she had thought that maybe the young man would take the Vanguard and flee the scene, and that would lessen their chances to win the desperate fight that they were in right now…if they didn't get the ship out of the area, then they would be in serious trouble.

“You let him go? What if he decides to escape in that Vanguard?”

John-117 looked at Buzam and Magno and replied.

“He won't.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Cortana then touched her forehead and smiled a bit.

“We've got an incoming message from the Hanger Bay area…seems like a young kid wants to speak to us here on the bridge.”

The bridge crew turned and there appeared Hibiki, the boy looked very determined and spirited, unlike before when he was looking rather dejected and sullen when he was taken to the Hanger by the Spartan.

“I want to fight!”

“Really now?”

Magno asked, a bit surprised at the sudden changes in Hibiki's actions and voice.

“Yes! I may be here on the Ikazuchi for the wrong reasons, I may not be a First Class Citizen, I may not be a trained Vanguard pilot, and I'm no soldier…But I am not going to stay here and do nothing and let my chance to see where my decisions take me be taken away by anyone. I'm no skilled pilot, but I don't care! I will fight!”

Buzam couldn't help but smile a bit at the show of courage the boy had and decided to release the manacles on the boy's wrists, as soon as the manacles were removed, she looked at the young man as he flexed his wrists and she then saw the Spartan walk over and speak to Hibiki.

“Are you ready for that?”

Hibiki looked at the Spartan and did something that no one expected, with the exception of the Spartan. The young boy nodded and gave a salute and spoke in a very strong tone.

“Yes I am, Master Chief!”

Hibiki apparently decided to address the Spartan with his rank, and incidentally, one of his nick names among the UNSC Marine Corps, Navy, and Special Forces teams.

John gave a slight nod and saluted Hibiki back.

“Then good luck, and don't get careless.”

“Yes sir!”

Cortana laughed a bit and looked at the Spartan with a bit of a smirk on her face as the communication lines were put off. The restored AI then commented at what she had just witnessed

“Wow…who knew that you could actually turn that kid around and make him want to fight? Who knew?”

The Spartan shrugged his shoulders. And that was when Cortana picked some incoming signals.

“I'm picking up more faint contacts, moving in fast, they don't seem to be the same as those units that the Dreads are fighting, they seem to be moving very fast towards us. They will be on top of us in five minutes.”

“More fighters?”

John asked Cortana as he looked at the display screen and there indeed were three more contacts that were not closing in towards the still transforming ship. They were moving rather fast and were far away from the battle, showing that they were being sent to attack the ship in a far more direct and precise manner. And they were moving in very quickly.

“I don't think so…wait, they're closer now. They appear to be smaller craft, and are not the same as the fighters, judging from the profiles they have and their design…they must be transport units and that means only one thing.”

“Boarding craft.” The Spartan finished.

**************

The new contacts were fast…very fast and resembled small sea cucumbers as they were shaped like them and it seemed that they were concerned only to attach on the ship and deliver their deadly cargo of attack units. Inside the bowels of the ships, which hideously enough, resembled bio-mechanical walls of one's stomach, large figures seemed to be held by cables and appeared to be resting. However, as they closed the gap towards the still unmoving ship, the cables were detached from the bodies and they began to move, and three eyes began to glow, along with what appeared to be weapons, as if they were now waiting for the right time to strike once the craft had latched on the ship.

Out in space…

The Dreads were now getting some back-up in the shape of a gold and white Vanguard. After making a slight mishap, Hibiki managed to get the hang of using his Vanguard's weapons, which included a long sword made of solid green energy and another smaller one. After he took out several fighters with the weapon and got used to fighting at close combat, he tried to charge, but several more Cube Fighters came on the scene and blocked him and the Dreads. Several of the alien fighters then broke off and then covered the boarding craft…firing at the ship and acting as sacrificial meat shields to block the attacks made by the Dreads, who were forced to break away and deal with the main vessel.

**************

The bridge…

“Contact Meia and the others, see if they can intercept the boarding craft!”

Buzam ordered as Bart was pushed towards the next well. The cowardly cadet moved reluctantly and that allowed the incoming craft, at least three in number to get closer to the ship.

“Roger!”

Belvedere, Amarone, Ezra, and Celtic tried then to contact the Dread pilots, while Cortana tracked the incoming units. The AI shook her head just as Bart was now inside the forward well of energy as Cortana had made some estimations and calculations as to where the boarding craft were going to hit..

“The Dreads are not going to make it in time…by the time they can break through, those boarding craft will have already deployed their units on the ship and the units they might have with them will have already entered the ship and do severe damage to the ship.”

Ezra then gave the report to both Buzam and Magno.

“I'm sorry Captain, Commander, but Dita, Meia, Jura, and that young one Hibiki can't assist us right now, they still can't seem to get past those unknown fighters and they are only able to keep them from attacking us.”

The two officers looked worried, until John-117 decided to take care that matter personally, he then turned to Cortana after looking at how fast the boarding craft were coming in.

“How long will it be before they attach to the ship?”

“At least 2 and a half minutes at their current speed.”

“Can you determine their most likely target?”

“Maybe the Paeksis core…if they can shut down the engines, the ship will be completely helpless and so will we.”

“Can you determine their exact landing area and if there are any other people on the section?”

“They are aiming for the side of the Megele ship that's still intact, that would give them a fairly close run to the engine sector. And there seems to be no one else in the section John…what do you have in mind?”

“Have the area sealed off from the rest of the ship, use the blast doors if you can, I'll be there to take care of them…I'll make sure that they don't get any further into the ship and harm both the engines and the crew.”

“All right…but come back alive, you hear me?”

“I will.”

The Spartan then directed his attention to both the officers who looked at him with shock on their faces. He shrugged and replied.

“Don't worry, have you're security teams there as well to support me once you get them ready. Make sure to have them fully outfitted with heavy weapons and body armor before you do however, and then have Cortana open the blast doors. But I will need my weapons back.”

Seeing as they have no other options at this point, the two officer agreed to allow him to get his weapons. Buzam then guided the Spartan to a nearby room near the bridge, and there were his weapons, the MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle, his Combat Knife, the grenades, and his M7 Caseless Submachine Guns, he then placed them in their needed areas, with the exception of his Assault Rifle…with that done, he took off and moved at high speed to intercept the incoming boarders as Cortana showed him a timer on his HUDS to tell them when the boarding craft were going to connect.

It was not surprising that several of the crew who were nearby were stunned to see the Spartan move past them at a speed which was indeed super human, and it was proof that he was indeed a Super Soldier as he moved through the corridors as Cortana provided him a NAV marker to the section where the boarding craft were going to be in.

Apparently, Cortana's now enhanced AI form could guide, communicate, and aid John-117 even if she was no longer in the Mjolnir Mark VI. John-117 then noted that his Mark VI had undergone some radical changes as he made his way to the section.

**************

The Dreads and the Vanguard were able to even up the odds, but they were now too late as the boarding craft latched on the section of the ship. However, it was at that same moment that the once motionless ship came online and ran away from the battle.

“Well, what do you know…the ship's moving!” Magno commented as Bart moved the ship away from battle, this was where his cowardice actually became an asset.

But the sudden movement and direction of the ship was not enough to force the now attached boarding craft off the ship as they stuck there like leeches as the front of their hulls opened up like sucker mouths and held fast to the ship even when it was moving away from the battle. The sparks that were seen in the area proved that the units inside the cucumber-like boarding craft were already making their way through the hull of the still fleeing ship.

The Dreads and Vanguard were forced to follow the ship while the unknown forces continued their attacks on both the ship's defenders, and the ship itself.

**************

In the section of the ship…

“They are nearly through John, and they are breaching the hull. I can fix the gravity in the room to protect the atmosphere once the area is depressurized, but you'll have to be careful as that it will take a few moments.”

“Got it Cortana…have they broken through?”

“Not yet John, you're already in the section so they will be in there soon enough.”

The Spartan nodded as he rounded the next hallway and looked to find himself in a massive room filled with pillars of Paeksis crystal and piles of debris, good enough cover for him as he looked at the now glowing hull areas far away that told him that the boarders were now making their way into the ship. He made sure to run a quick check on his shield gauge and medical systems, along with his ammunition reserves. All were in good working order, and his shields seem to be a lot stronger than before…making him wonder if the Paeksis had done something to his Mark VI Armor, it certain moved and acted differently and seemed to be upgraded, he however push those thought s aside as he heard Cortana's voice in his COM system.

“They're just about through John, get ready!”

The hulls finally were melted off and in stepped the first of the boarders, apparently the thing had not spotted the Spartan just yet, allowing John-117 to study this new threat, his helmet cameras already recording the new attacker.

It seemed to resemble the Sangheili that he fought with before in the early years of the 27 years war with the Covenant, namely in terms of height, but it was not the same as well. It appeared to have three eyes and no mouth, as the majority of it's face, except the eyes, was covered in pseudo-organic metal, that seemed to be deep black in color, the metal alloy seemed to cover the not on the face, but the upper chest region, small ridge-like plates on the abdomen and the fore-arms, along with the sides of the hips and the lower legs. The rest appeared to have exposed flesh which was in a dull brown color. The strange thing was that his scanners registered no life signs on the first of the units, and the unit seemed to be totally automated, meaning that the flesh was only for show, this meant he must be dealing with some sort of biomechanical unit. On the right arm appeared to be some sort of Directed Energy Weapon and it seemed to have been grafted directly onto the arm. The machine was a vaguely humanoid shape and had several large metallic spines on it's back, but they appear to be used for intimidation and there appeared to be a blade attached to the left arm, no doubt for close combat situations.

Whoever these guys are, they were certainly made for combat, but he had a feeling that these were merely sent to destroy whatever was in their current path and their objectives. The feeling of weightlessness began to affect him, but he quickly used the magnetic pads on his boots to hold himself in place, the effects didn't seem to bother the first unit as it then moved out of the way and the rest followed, all of them appearing the same type as the very first, he then did a quick head count and determined at least three dozen at best. As soon as the gravity came back, he deactivated his magnetic pads and took careful aim…

And fired…

The units turned and one of them got hit by the 7.62mm x 51 FMJ rounds that came from the weapon, the bullets tore into the armor plating and the exposed fleshy sections. The armor buckled and showed signs of damage and fell to the barrage, while the flesh was torn off and the biomechanical units released a stream of dark magenta fluid. The one that was hit recoiled and managed to get back up from the initial impacts, but got a face full of the rounds and those tore through the head and throat. The unit had not been able to fire and was about to use it's main ranged weapon when the second burst of rounds hit the head, blowing off half the face of the unit splattering magenta fluid/blood, flesh and face armor over the others as the unit fell to the ground.

The other boarders in the first group directed their attentions to the Spartan as he fired another volley of the rounds and injured several others and spent the clip, the others merely waited for their own turn to attack the Spartan…seemingly confident that they could handle this new intruder on their operations, the Spartan quickly released the spent clip and got out another clip and loaded it as the units then began to open fire…just as Cortana sealed the blast doors, making sure that neither him nor the boarders were going any further in the ship. The units then fired deep red beams of plasma that slammed into the wall section the Spartan hid behind on. The bolts sizzled the metal and the smell of ozone and hot metal filled the air as the Spartan cocked the Assault Rifle and fired another barrage at the enemy units, while the plasma bolts either hit the walls, hit the walls behind him, or slammed into his shields. The shields flared from the impacts of the plasma bolts and the Spartan saw the shield gauge lose a small portion of the energy reserve in it, but he was not yet in danger as he quickly rolled to the side to a crystal covered crate and quickly got into a kneeling firing position and unleashed another volley of bullets into the first group…

One boarding unit got several bullets in the leg and faltered, allowing the Spartan to fire another spray of bullets into another unit, spilling more of the magenta fluid and coating the walls and floor, and that was when he fired another barrage and hit both units right in the face, the second unit that got hit in the chest had several bullets rip into the face and the kneeling unit got hit with another barrage right in top of the head, ripping the head of the unit off in a hail of bullet rounds. The other units fired more plasma bolts at the Spartan, and John quickly moved to the wall and took out one of his grenades and tossed the weapon into the group. The units seemed not to notice the explosive weapon and the weapon detonated. The explosion decimated the group and blew off several of the units to pieces, their severed body parts, both internal and external flying off everywhere, along with spatters of their fluids, while others were too badly damage and ceased functioning and those units were now only bleeding out their fluids all over the floor.

Some of the first group that were enveloped in the explosion were bare of sections of their organic coverings and were bleeding profusely, some had even portions of the decimated fleshy coverings falling off, creating pools of the magenta fluid. The Spartan quickly charged in with his Assault Rifle and fired another barrage at full power at running speed, the majority of the concentrated attack ripping through the chest of one of the intact units, and it fell down, it's main power cell underneath the armor completely shredded, the Spartan then fired short bursts from the Assault Rifle's remaining clip into several of the badly damaged units, either in the head or the exposed and mangled yet intact chest area…taking the units out quickly and efficiently.

He then moved out of the way and dropped his Assault Rifle as one of the units attacked with it's blade, the Spartan moved rapidly out of the way and launched a punch right at the face of the attacker, the blow was amplified by the Mark VI and even further, much to the Spartan's surprise as his punch crushed through the face of the attacking unit, covering his arm with the fluid as the unit fell to the ground with it's head crushed into pulp by the Spartan's punch. John grabbed his Assault rifle and then took out one of his M7 SMGs and fired a barrage of rounds into another boarder unit as he ducked from the unit's plasma attack. The caseless rounds shredded the torso section and the Spartan wasted no time to quickly place the Assault Rifle on his back and take out the other M7 SMG…and used the other to unleash another withering barrage into another trio of the boarding units, the bullets may not be very accurate, but since each M7 SMG had at least 60 rounds of it's 5x23mm Caseless FMJ ammunition, the very area was filled with bullets and those ripped into the trio that tried to attack and the damage was considerable as they were close together. The Spartan then watched as his apparently reinforced shields took another barrage of plasma bolts and took far more damage than it normally could handle, he then moved away as he was bathed in massive amounts of shimmering and flowing golden energy, he took cover behind a nearby pillar of crystal and he rapidly reloaded his M7 SMGs and then did the same with his Assault Rifle and he finished off the last of the first dozen with a blast of Assault Rifle rounds right in the face.

The Spartan checked his ammunition reserves and they were still good as his shields began to quickly recharge. He then turned his attention to the remaining two groups as they fired their own weapons, the groups were in even spacing but seemed to move like a single wall of units…just like an old Earth style battalion. There seemed to be no form of advanced military tactics and formations with them. The Spartan realized that whoever sent these units into the ship must not care very much about tactics, strategy, and infantry formations. The creators seemed to believe that only through overwhelming numbers could they win this fight. The veteran warrior knew that while such tactics were flawed in situations like this, they were deathly effective when the enemy had massive reinforcements to commit to the attack.

He then realized what that meant and he quickly contacted Cortana as he checked his weapons and began to study the next wave coming at him.

“Cortana! Are there other boarding craft units coming?”

“Hold on John…I'm scanning right now…that's a negative John, there's only those three and those units in them.”

“Got it… what's the situation outside? And where are the security teams?”

“The Dreads and that Vanguard are doing what they can and they are keeping that thing focused on them alone, but the security teams will take a while to assemble…apparently they were not expecting themselves to be boarded.”

John grunted and moved away from the glass and fired another barrage from his freshly loaded Assault rifle and then charged at the first three that came at him as the bullets he fired ripped into their ranks, the others from the second unit apparently were not heeding the other in front of them and bombarded their own comrades, and the ones being subjected to friendly fire didn't seem to notice, their only concern was to take out the Spartan and the Master Chief used that to his advantage as his shields continued to hold, several more units were forced back as they were cut down by the hail of bullet fire.

The lights then went out in the section they were in, and the emergency lights bathed the area in a faint blue light, but he knew that those enemies of his must have vision modes…and in fact…so did he, as he was given unaided full night vision by the augmentations so he could see them well enough even in the barely illuminated darkness. As the place was lit up by plasma bolts from his foes and flashes from his guns.

Two units were peppered by the FMJ rounds and several sections of their lower torso were blown off by the attacks, the Spartan then placed aside his Assault rifle and took his also loaded M7 SMGs and fired at them, further cutting his foes apart as he moved faster before they could, far beyond even his natural reflexes…apparently the Paeksis had not just boosted the strength and integrity of the shields and their recharge time, but apparently had boosted the power offered by the reactive metal liquid crystal in the Mjolnir, explaining the massive increase in his reaction time and speed. And it seemed that his own body had been affected to boost the overall performance of his naturally existing traits and his augmentations, no doubt in order to match up with the massive upgrades to the Mjolnir Mark VI.

Despite these changes, the Spartan knew better than to push his luck in dangerous efforts that won't work… and placed the Assault rifle aside on his back and spotted a small metal rod and grabbed it and tossed it forward like a javelin at another of the boarders, the weapon had only a semi sharp tip, but in the hands of a Spartan, it became a powerful missile of death and passed clear through the body of one of the boarder units…destroying the `heart' and causing it to bleed out profusely from both the front and back. The missile then skewered two more of the boarder units in the chest, placing them together and the results were both of them shutting down as the same time and bleeding profusely all over the deck and covering the crystal floor.

The Spartan then took out his SMGs, and rushed in towards the ones who were still trying to get a bead on him…several units got their bodies riddled with bullets from the two SMGs and the Spartan then moved towards a large pile of crystals and used them to cover him as he recharged his shields and when they were fully charged, he then aimed the weapons to the roof as he spotted an unstable section of the roof covered in crystals. The bullets slammed into the weak supports and the boarders were crushed as the roof fell on them…crushing them flat and spraying more of their magenta colored fluids all over the place.

The sight on the section he was in was ghastly as pools and streams of the magenta fluids were everywhere and there were massive amounts of the fluid sprayed all over the walls in very morbid patterns, and there were bodies of the boarders everywhere, and body parts as well, from the grenade explosion.

The Spartan didn't consider the utter carnage he was waging on the enemy and quickly moved in with both SMGs ready and fired at the survivors. One such unit had it's right arm ripped off at the middle of the upper arm by the concerted assault. It then attacked with it's blade which the Spartan ducked and he placed one of the SMGs aside and took out his Combat Knife and jammed the weapon at the neck of the creature…between the armor plating it had at the time and pierced the neck and with one powerful swipe…decapitated the attacker, the Spartan turned and threw the knife right into the eye of another unit that attacked him with it's plasma weapon, the enhanced energy shields on his Mark VI blocking the attacks and allowing the Spartan to turn and fire another barrage of bullets at the remaining targets with the SMG in his left hand fully extended and he moved to the crystal behind him and used it as cover as the plasma bolts flew over his head.

He then noted that the armor of the units appeared to be somewhat like passive energy shielding, similar in the sense of massive coats of high grade titanium ship plating used to block the massive amounts of plasma torpedoes on certain classes of UNSC ships, as the plasma bolts that slammed into their backs from their comrades' weapons seemed to dissipate over time with lower damage. This meant that the units' integrated body armor must be energy resistant, in a way like a solid non-energy version of his Mark VI's shields, and that of the Elites…but apparently they were not able to handle solid projectile weapons well, like his Assault Rifle and his SMGs, meaning that his weapons were more than adequate to deal with them quickly and effectively.

As he fired another barrage from his fully extended SMG, he then took out his last grenade and tossed it into their ranks and the explosion had another messy effect as the explosive weapon tore through the ranks of the enemy and splattered them all over the place.

However, it seemed that some of the units got wiser and began to hide themselves from the eyes of the Spartan and use cover as he did, though not as effectively as he could still see them. He took out another unit as it tried to hide and moved out, placing back the SMG to it's compact form and took back his knife from the still dead body of the unit he had thrown the knife at. With the weapon back, he moved towards another crystal pillar and spotted another enemy moving and firing at him, he took his Assault Rifle and loaded a fresh magazine in, and when he had a clear shot, unleashed a hail of bullets at the attacker, shredding off a large portion of the torso and sent the foe down from the impact, it got up, only to have more of the Assault Rifle rounds rip into the face and the amount ripped the head clean off…sending out more splatter all over the place and letting the body drop dead. The Spartan did a quick head count and found out that there were only a small group that was left and from the looks of things, they were not going to last very long…with that in mind, he decided to mop things up and wait for the crew to get into position, he then hoped that Hibiki and the others fighting the enemy outside had better luck right now.

As the last units of the unknown alien hostiles' boarding group managed to hold the Spartan off, he then began to move from area to area, firing rapid suppressing fire from his Assault rifle and moved behind cover to load his weapon and took out his SMGs to even up the odds…filling up the areas with bullet holes and more splatters of blood and broken crystals as the fighting in the section that was sealed off by order of John-117 began to die down.

**************

Outside…

Hibiki managed to finally strike down the last pair of alien fighters that were before him and he then decided to take out the main unit by himself, hoping to finally prove that he had what it took be stronger and better than he was now. With that in mind, he launched his Vanguard straight at the mother ship. The Tarak male and the other Megele pilots had been able to hold their own, but they were still trying to find a way to end the threat of the aliens, and it seemed that Hibiki decided to take things into his own hands.

“Dita! What are you doing?!”

Meia cried out as the bubbly redhead suddenly directed her Dread to follow Hibiki's reckless charge to finish of the enemy by himself, and the redhead decided to follow him in the attack.

“Don't worry Leader! Mr. Alien here can do it! I know he can!”

“Come on!”

Hibiki led his Vanguard closer and slashed down a few more of the fighters that tried to stop him and it seemed that his sudden and unexpected charge had an effect on the enemy's main ship as it halted it's attempts to release more of the fighters to engage the Dreads and the Vanguard and seemed to be rallying the surviving fighters to it's side to try and halt the Vanguard's charge towards it.

Several of the alien fighters finally managed to stop the Vanguard, just as Dita's Dread came in close and then the Seed like ship fired out a mass of tendrils towards the restrained Vanguard. The tendrils slammed into the pile as the Dread arrived and a massive explosion engulfed the entire area.

“DITA!!!” Meia cried out in shock and horror as the explosion consumed the Dread.

“That…idiot!!” Jura said with a sound of sadness as she turned her eyes away from the explosion.

In the ship's bridge…

Magno sighed at the explosion and looked down, she was starting to like the young loudmouth Tarak youth as he held his own despite not being a professional pilot, Buzam also looked saddened somewhat as she would then have to tell the Spartan of the boy's death.

“I guess the miracle we hoped for t\didn't arrive after all.”

Buzam nodded at the comment and reached for her communicator.

“I'll have the crew begin evacuation procedures…we might to abandon…”

“Don't count that kid out just yet Buzam…this fight is far from over.” Cortana said with a smirk as she was picking up movement and a power-source coming out from the explosion.

The women and the Navi-robot looked on as a massive hand appeared and crushed the tendrils before it, along with wiping off the burning wreckage of the fighters that tried to stop it, and then a massive figure appeared in the light and heat of the explosion. It was massive…

The machine appeared to be of humanoid form, but was armored head to toe and shaped like a powerful armored warrior with two massive cannons on it's back and those appeared to have massive energy focusing crystals on it as well. The machine lost the fiery red color and was decked in deep navy blue armor and had green energy flowing out from several areas along with sections of green crystals…there were also blades on the fore-arms as well.

“What is that?!” Both meia and Jura said at the very same time as they looked at the massive machine that appeared from the explosion.

“Well…that's interesting…” Cortana commented as she looked on, somewhat impressed by the sight.

“What is that?! Some new weapon of the men?!” Magno said in surprise.

“Is this a real miracle?!' Buzam said as well.

The massive robot then charged right for the main ship as several smaller fighters were released to try and stop the new unit from attacking the main ship, but they were pushed away like gnats as the robot went on with the attack, the ship tried to close itself up but the robot merely jammed it's arms forward and began to rip the closed maw back open and then the cannons on the back slid over to the shoulders and they powered up and fired a massive energy beam right into the exposed maw of the ship. The beams ripped through the ship and the ship was consumed in a fiery nova.

“Well…it looks like we're not going to have to abandon ship

Inside the massive mecha's cockpit…Hibiki opened his eyes slowly and felt good about himself, he had done something and won…but his relief was replaced with shock and disbelief as he found his hands on a pair of other hands and he then noted that he was not alone in the machine as a certain redhead was on his lap and she leaned back into his chest and sighed happily.

“What's going on here?!”

“Hmm…I just knew Mr. Alien was going to save us!”

Hibiki felt shock in him as he wondered if this was the limit of what he could do on his own.

As they all returned to the ship, the crew then tried to contact the Spartan, but when no response came, they decided to go and see what was happening as the security teams were now ready to move in and support the Spartan.

**************

(Okay…on the topic of pairings with the Master Chief…well, that is up to me, but Cortana is pretty much having more leeway that the other soon to come candidates as she knows him a lot more than the others, having worked with him for many years, so expect things to get more interesting as the story develops as there are just as many viable candidates to hook up with the Spartan.)

(On the subject of…well…John-117's reactions to the female species…the Catalytic Thyroid Implant may suppress sexual drive…but that does not mean that it's gone permanently now does it? It's just suppressed and could come back, though not very intensely. So yes…John-117 in this story is attracted to the fairer sex, like any normal human being, despite the augmentations and his lifestyle as a Spartan. Happy now?)

(*) Yes…that's Cortana in her human form, and she is following the same body design as she had in her AI form in Halo 3 and in human flesh and blood. As she is human now, she can do things and feel things that all human beings can do, which can be rather new to her as she had been an AI before all this happened. Though she however has some abilities that are exclusively her own and no other human can match.

Just so you know…this IS her first time being human so the things we do and the feelings and m\emotions we feel as part of everyday life are completely new to her, so in respect, this would mean that in human terms, she's a child in an adult body at this point.

(**) Imagine the same outfit Barnette wore in the Second Stage when she filled in for Gascogne.

**************

In front of the blast doors…

Several groups of the Megele pirates' security teams were now carrying their standard issue laser rifles and laser rings as well, and were even wearing their space suits as they got ready to enter the area. Next to them were Buzam, Cortana, Gascogne, Magno, Barnette, Duero, Hibiki, Meia, Jura, and Parfet, along with her engineers. They had not heard anything from behind the blast doors and wondered what had happened with the Spartan.

Barnette snorted as she readied her Calico submachine gun, an antique fire-arm that she had in her gun collection. Among the women, Barnette was somewhat odd as among the women who used advanced weapons, she still favored solid projectile firing weapons over them. She had not been in the room to hear about the Spartan's history so she assumed that the worst has happened to the UNSC Super Soldier.

“That man must not be still around, no doubt he's gone.”

Meia however had her doubts, she has seen how fast the Spartan could move, and after hearing his combat history and records, she doubted that he would be easily dispatched.

Jura remained silent as she merely decided to see just what that lone warrior could accomplish by himself against an alien force as she was also not present when the Spartan had revealed his origins and history.

Hibiki however was there in the room and he reacted to Barnette's bard at the Spartan.

“That man's survived 207 battles in 27 years of his life and won every military award! Not to mention he's already killed over 1000 enemy troops by HIMSELF! He's not going to be beaten easily!!!”

“Yeah…sure he did, who would believe anything a man says anyway?” Barnette retaliated.

Several of the security personnel thought the same thing, thinking that the man was lying, though there were some of the women security members who were there in the room, so to them, this was the time to see if the man in green and black armor could prove his words.

“Quiet…Parfet, have you managed to get power back on the section so we can open the doors?”

The head engineer was working with her lap-top and had tit connected to a nearby port. The connections to the section that the Spartan had gone to had been cut in the fighting, so power to the place had been cut. Thus a manual approach had to be taken by the crew open up the place.

“Hold on…there! Lights should be up once we enter the section!”

The doors opened and the women stepped in as the lights came back on…to reveal the carnage of the room. There were splatters of dark magenta colored fluid everywhere on the walls along with bullet holes as well, there were also burned sections of the walls by energy weapons. The ground had pools and streams of the fluids everywhere and then they saw the bodies of the invaders, some were badly ripped apart by bullets and others had their parts blown off as well and those were littering the area…along with chunks of the pseudo-flesh as well. They even saw the ones that were brutally blown up by the grenades and the ones that were crushed to a pulp by the falling roof.

The sight of the carnage stunned and shocked the women, only Magno, Buzam, Cortana, and Gascogne managed to keep it together, the others were not so lucky however as they looked at the mess seeing bodies ripped apart and even saw the one unit that had it's head crushed by John's fist.

Naturally more than a good number of the women made their discomfort known.

“By Grand Ma…”

“Oh! I'm gonna be sick!!!”

“This is…disgusting!!!”

“Oh…I don't feel so good…”

“One man did all THIS…?!”

Barnette was stunned and felt VERY queasy and cold at the sight of the massacre and tightened her grip on her weapon as she realized that one man could do this much damage. Jura felt like her stomach was going to loosen all the food she had in her body. Meia herself managed to keep a straight face, but she too felt a shiver go up her spine at the sight…if that Spartan could do this much damage to an unknown force…what could he have inflicted if he had been their enemy.

As they walked in and saw the carnage in more vivid detail, many of them were still trying not to lose their lunches at the sight.

They then spot one of the units move…as if trying to get away and continue it's mission, but with it's right arm ripped off above the elbow, it's legs ripped off, and it's left arm mangled, it was not getting to go anywhere, plus it still trailed a large stream of it's fluids. Then the Spartan showed up…

The women who had never met the man gasped at the sight of the armor man who was seven feet tall, and they were horrified as the Spartan simply walked over to the unit trying to escape and he placed his Assault Rifle on the back of the unit's head and pulled the trigger.

The sounds of gun-fire filled the air and the sounds of flying liquid filled the room as the women reached for their weapons and aimed it at the Spartan as he finished off the last of the invaders. The captain and the Commander were all tense as the Spartan turned to look at them. He then walked over towards them, with his rifle in his hands. The women were still very tense as the Spartan was now only a few feet from them. Barnette was tense as she looked at the massive Spartan, while Jura kept her hand on her sword, Meia aimed her laser ring at him, and Gascogne kept herself ready and the security personnel were very wary of him.

Duero and Hibiki however were stunned and looked only at the Spartan, they couldn't see his face with his helmet on, but they were hoping that he was not going to suddenly turn on them as well.

Magno however gave them the order to stand down. After seeing actual evidence of how lethal the Spartan was in combat and the utter carnage he could inflict, she doubted that anyone in her crew could take this man head on, if he wanted to protect Cortana and eliminate them to take over the ship…then she had no doubt that he was more than capable of accomplishing just that.

Their fears however were put to rest as the Spartan placed his Assault Rifle on his back and then saluted Magno and spoke in a professional, military voice.

“All hostile forces have been eliminated ma'am, you're ship has been secured.”

Magno nodded and decided to follow military tradition and saluted the Spartan and gave her thanks.

“Thank you for helping us defend the ship John.”

“Not a problem ma'am.”

The Spartan then left the room, accompanied by Cortana, while the other women gave the Spartan a wide area to pass through, not even the man hating Barnette was willing to try and get in the way of the massive and tall giant of destruction and death. As she looked at the back of the Spartan…Magno sighed with relief and slight unease.

This whole situation was going to take a LOT of getting used to…

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To be continued…

Author's notes:

This is it for today as I have other things to take care of so I hope that you readers would like the story as I take a break and made up more ideas for the plot of VanDread - Halo.

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The Mjolnir Mark VI has been fully upgraded to maximize it's combat effectiveness in this new environment and the new enemies he will be encountering the VanDread universe, plus other deadly threats to both him and the Megele pirates as they will make their way in the universe.

It now has stronger and more resistant shields and could have more energy and recharge much faster than before, the medical system has been fully improved so it could do well in healing injuries the Chief might sustain, it has much tougher armor plating then before…without being bulky and retaining the same shape and form, giving him greater protection in the chance that his shields are completely drained and need time to recharge. It has an improved hydrostatic gel layer for better protection from heat, cold, and impact trauma, an increased breathing supply of air at a maximum of 240 minutes, an improved reactive metal liquid crystal that increased the speed and strength of the Spartan, and an improved fusion reactor to provide efficient amounts of power to run all the systems.

Those, along with improved onboard systems will make this Mark VI the most advanced powered armor suit of this story, and will be an edge in several soon to come battles with the Harvesters and their forces…but things will not be easy still as there will be times that even this newly upgraded Mark VI will be put through it's paces very strongly, so it's performance will still be upgraded to utilize the new features

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If you're wondering why the Master Chief seemed to be unstoppable in the first encounter, then don't wonder for too long. Don't forget that this was only the initial encounter between the Harvesters and the UNSC Spartan and the Harvesters are not going to forget this battle anytime soon, they will learn from this and come up with ways to counter the Spartan and his arsenals.

This naturally means that in the coming chapters, there will be some new units in the Harvesters' arsenals and the ones already sent will adapt and become more effective fighters in the coming encounters. So the Master Chief will not always have it this easy in the soon to come battles.

The original Harvesters in VanDread did develop newer weapons when they fought the pirates in the series and modified their existing ones…and therefore, the same could be said of their forces when they face off with the Spartan, they will adapt and grow stronger in the coming battles.

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Well…that wraps up this chapter for today…I'll be taking a break for a while so take you're time and send me those comments and reviews and like before…keep in mind that constructive critiques are welcome so I can see if any errors were made in the making of the story and chapters.

However…no flames, and if I get some, I will throw them out immediately.

See you on Chapter 3 - Trash Disposal.