Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo ❯ Trash Disposal ( Chapter 3 )

VanDread - Halo

Disclaimer: The Halo series belongs to Bungie, and VanDread belongs to Gonzo, I am not making any amounts of money out of the series and this story.

Chapter 3

Trash Disposal

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

In an unknown sector of space…

The still transforming combination of ships was still there on it's current location, with the ruined husk of the alien ship a fair distance away, and for the time being, it seemed that things had finally calmed down and no sign of more attacking forces had been detected by the pirates, this naturally didn't meant that everything was going to be all right however.

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

In one section of the now transformed ship…

“WHAT HAS IT DONE TO MY ROOM?!”

Both Barnette and Jura shouted in shock as they had found their respective rooms totally changed and covered by the Paeksis, however, they were not the only ones as the crystal had literally converted the entire Megele ship into something else.

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

In the Conference Room of the ship…

“Our Megele cruiser has been fully converted and swallowed by the Paeksis Captain, The bridge, the Living Quarters, and the Engine rooms have been completely altered and cannot be accessed. The good news is that the Dread Launching Bay and the Register system have taken less to no damage and we are in the process of installing the new software and information now, along with clean up and modifications work. The transformations done by the Paeksis have also finally ceased and things seem to have calmed down somewhat as most of it's spread has died down. The bridge we will be using now Captain has finished sliding and is now on top of the ship's bio-garden. All changes to the ship has also ceased as well. You're report Meia?”

Buzam reported as she showed the others the images of the changes that Paeksis had done, in the Conference Room were not only Buzam, but Magno, Meia, and Cortana as well.

“Thank you Buzam…the three Dreads that were consumed and transformed by the Paeksis including my own no longer can be launched from the Dread Launching Bays due to their size and new design, as such, we have decided to have them launch and be stored from the Cargo Bay on the men's side of the ship, though modifications to the Cargo Bay were needed. While we did so, we made some discoveries about the ship's condition, and it's not good, the ship has not been used in very long time and most of the circuits and wires are decayed and useless, and will need to be replaced soon.”

“Hmmm…anything else to report BC?”

“Yes…it appears that the Paeksis has also affected the ship section that the men had tried to acquire, and we have send some of our people there as well…However since the ship appears to be of UNSC design, we had Cortana brought with us to begin the major assessment of the transformations Captain…she will give the report herself to you.”

Magno then turned to Cortana and smiled.

“I guess it's you're turn dear.”

Cortana smirked slightly and showed images of the UNSC Frigate that had merged with the Ikazuchi.

“The Forward Unto Dawn has been fully melded with the Ikazuchi Colony ship and most of the designs of the UNSC frigate have been accessed by the Paeksis from the data cores to rebuild and meld it from there…this isn't the first time a UNSC ship was melded onto another ship…we did that before with the Covenant flagship, the Ascendant Justice at one time with the UNSC Gettysburg though that was done with the aid of Covenant Engineers.”

“The Living Quarters have also melded with the colony ship's own, so in all, the melded ship has the ability to house at least 300 to 350 people, with all the basic amenities and utilities as well, that also includes showers and locker rooms as well. The Training and Recreation Rooms are also there as well, along all the needed equipment and gear. The HEV Bay is also present and all pods are ready with full supplies and gear for aerial insertion into the battle-zone.”

“What are HEVS?” Meia asked.

“The HEV is the shorter terms for the Human Entry Vehicle…essentially it's a one person pod with supplies, ammunition, a stored cubicle, and some weapons that is deployed with one ODST inside and is constructed from Titanium-A, Lead Foil, and ceramic skin. The HEV is used by ODSTs as one of their more recognized methods of insertion to the surface of a planet for rapid deployment to or near an objective. They are smaller and travel very quickly…minimizing the risk that they are shot down by anti-air defenses. And the supplies and shelter means the soldier can fight from the cubicle without need for re-supply for a time.”

“But the HEVs can malfunction in a few ways, the metal drag chute won't open and the pod will not slow down and stay on course and send the pod crashing down, or the secondary chute will not also work once the main one is released after providing deceleration and crashing to the ground, or the retro rockets that re for landing don't fire, and the ceramics skin may not be enough to keep the occupant from dying from the intense heat of re-entry.”

The women looked at the HEV pods and shuddered at the thoughts of being in one of those things…how did human beings in the UNSC military survive being in them/

“Who uses the HEVs?”

“The ODSTs or Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, they have other methods of entry into an objective area, but the HEVs are quite the most common. They are a co-gender force, like the UNSC Martine Corps, so it's not surprising to find female ODSTs who ride the HEVs, they are all volunteers and apart from the Spartans, are the elite fighting Special Forces of the UNSC Marine Corps. The rest of the ship has been fully rebuilt as well…the Garage and Vehicle Hanger is still there, fully rebuilt from the specs up by the Paeksis, along with the Armory stations that have been made by the Paeksis as well. The cryo-tubes are still fully functional and ready for use, just case we need long term travels.”

“The mess halls and the kitchens are still very much rebuilt, and the Paeksis has added several new features to the ship…namely in the shape of manufacturing facilities for personal weapons, armor, ammunition, personnel field equipment, medical kits, vehicle ammunition, vehicle engine parts, vehicle armor, vehicle systems and the chassis, and vehicle weapon systems, along with other…more lethal weapon systems. So far the factories have been able to restock the Frigate's Armory stations with full weapons, armor, equipment, medical supplies, and ammunition, along with several new Warthogs, Scorpion MBTs, Mongoose ATVs for the vehicle Hanger and the Garage, along with several newly created Pelican Drop-ships, two Clarion spy drones, one functional Albatross drop-ship/command ship, and a small band of Longsword fighters, ready for combat. The Paeksis also managed to create several of the Archer missile pods that we had on the Frigate, but they are not yet fully functional, the Paeksis even managed to get the data concerning the creation of an MAC gun and we have at least two MAC guns on the lower front of the ship, however those are not yet operational as we still need to have the ammunition for them.”

“MAC gun?” Magno asked with a curious look.

“The MAC gun or the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is a basic armament for any UNSC ship, it's essentially a massive coil gun that is used to fire a massive slug of high density metal like tungsten or depleted uranium with the aid of massive magnetic coils, suffice to say, most human ships and unshielded Covenant ships would be in serious trouble if hit by it. The Paeksis provides more than enough power for the guns along with the newly restored deuterium fusion cores on the Frigate, though the Paeksis still hasn't been fully active and controllable yet. The MAC gun design is in various forms…the largest can slice through a Covenant ship like it was butter. However the MAC guns are purely stationary and are not meant to be used on fighter sized targets and fast moving ones as well. It seems that Bart is not allowed to use the MAC guns…but I can as I have been able to find out. The sad thing is that we don't have the Slipspace drives functional…they took too much damage from the escape we had back in our dimension when we fired Halo beyond the Milky Way, and even the Paeksis can't fix it yet, by my estimation, it would take about a year and a half for them to fully back on operational status and even then, I'm not sure of the physics laws that Slipspace works with exist here in this universe, so even if I can access the Slipspace drives, I don't know if it will work, plus I need coordinates to use them properly. The factories can also produce other things, and I might even manage to make some Covenant based equipment as well, though that will take some time to do…”

“Overall, the resources of the UNSC are ready for any battle field scenario we find ourselves hip deep in.”

Magno nodded as Cortana finished her reports and the turned to face Buzam.

“And what's our current location BC?”

“That I'm afraid is the hard part Captain…we seem to be in an entirely different nebula and therefore it would mean we are very much out of the system that has Tarak and Megele, and according to our current data analysis, it will take at least 270 days for us to return home Captain.”

Magno sighed as she fanned herself with her paper fan, due to the situation they were in, power supply was still questionable. Thus, they had to cut down overuse of several systems…one of them being the air-conditioning system and the elderly woman knew for a fact that a good number of her crew would already be complaining about the heat, and yet they could do little until all of the needed work was completed.

“Why did we get to have ourselves slingshot halfway across the universe and wind up like this?” By the way…have we managed to convince John to take a physical examination and some tests?”

Buzam nodded.

“He's currently in an unused portion of the ship and is being attended by several of our security teams, along with Duero…we had to use a heavy lifter to carry his Mjolnir Mark VI to the Engineering section for analysis and study Captain, once we got him out of the suit.”

“A heavy lifter?”

“I'm afraid so…that powered suit of his nearly weighed at least one thousand pounds… nearly a ton! There was no way for anyone, even Gascogne to take the suit to the Engineering section for study with just their bare hands.”

Magno was surprised that the Armor weighed that much, if the Spartan could move that fast and fight that well in such a suit, then it must be truly advanced for such a suit.

Cortana sighed mentally, normally she would have not allowed the Mjolnir to be in unknown hands, but she and John had little choice at this point to argue it over, and the people in the pirates were at this point, not their enemies…she however knew that any attempt that the women would try to replicate the Mjolnir would be met with failure, the Mjolnir got it's namesake for a very good reason, as only Spartans could wear the suit and use it to it's full power, anyone who didn't have the Spartan's augmentations risked severe/critical injuries, or death if they tried to use it, that much she already knew and learned about. So far however, with the ship still in a mess, she was to be out of the holo-tank and had to do her best to help out with the maintenance of the ship. As such, she decided to help with the repairs of the Register, this would help her get familiar with just how the ship operates.

“So what about the enemy we faced today…what's the information we can get out of the wreckage, plus the…bodies of the boarders?”

Cortana took over at this point.

“The Engineers have managed to get as much of the still intact and relatively whole bodies of the boarders and have made sure to keep them offline to prevent sudden activations from them. So far, all we can say is that they are biomechanical and have none of the normal organs that we could use to consider them living, but their internal systems function close to the real thing as well. The Engineers should have the data within the hour. Though I can bet you're cleaning crews are not going to be happy in cleaning up the mess John left behind.”

Magno chuckled at the joke and looked at Meia.

Meia looked a bit startled but followed through and gave her own report.

“My teams is still under staffed at this point with Jura moving out her possessions as her room was among those affected by the Paeksis when it absorbed the living quarters, and with the Register and the Dread Launching Bays still being cleaned and being installed their new information, I can't send out any of the other pilots as well, so I had to send out some…ah…volunteers to check out the site.”

Magno was a bit confused as to why Meia seemed a bit unsure about the ones she had just sent out to get some information from the wreckage of the alien ship.

“Volunteers? Just who did you send out?”

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

In a certain Dread…

“Wow…this is so exciting! I'm finally going to see the insides of a real UFO!”

Dita Liebely was very excited at being selected to go to the wreckage of the alien ship that had led the attack on the ship earlier, along with her was Gascogne who was not very enthusiastic with the whole idea, while she had nothing against the bubbly and cheerful redhead, she was not very comfortable with being with Dita as she might have to not only work to get the data they needed, but to babysit the excitable redhead as well.

Dita then turned to look at the side and took out her trusty camera and called out to her passenger.

“There! That was an Adamsky type UFO! Did you see it Miss Gasco?”

Gascogne sighed once more and hoped that it would be over soon since she had to help out with the setting up of the new Register.

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

In yet another part of the ship…

The Master Chief was busy with his latest battery of tests, the high command of the pirates had requested him to be examined by Duero in order to see his full capabilities. This actually was not the first time this had happened to him in his life. When he was fresh out of his augmentations, he had been scanned and tested by the scientists and military analysts on Reach, so this was not very new for him.

The one thing that was different was the fact that he was not wearing his Mjolnir Mark VI Powered Armor Combat Suit and was only dressed in the same clothes as the UNSC Marines wore, and thus for the first time in many years before wearing the Mark VI he was now out of his Armor and the results of his time spent in wearing the Armor was seen.

John-117 was pale…snow white pale, a testament of his long time inside the Mjolnir Armor, namely the Mark IV, the Mark V, and now the Mark VI, though the Mark IV was the one that he wore the longest above the others. He had deep green eyes, and the same brown hair he normally had, though it had been shaved, keeping up to UNSC Marine Corps regulations, it was not surprising that his hair was now in a short style cut, and his freckles had disappeared over the years as well. And the gap between his teeth had already closed, making him appear like a pale but attractive man, though he hardly had the time to look at a mirror. His body however had the build of a soldier, slim, but well muscled and properly formed in all the right places, a testament to his lifelong regime of combat, training, discipline, and hard work. The fact was that despite not being in the Mark VI armor, the Spartan was far stronger than a normal human being, far greater than any of the crew for that matter. Without the Mark VI, he was in his normal height of 6'6 and was only around 287 pounds in weight.

The women who were escorting him to the testing area were shocked to see him so pale without the Armor and wondered briefly if he was a ghost, and they looked at the signs of scars on him, yet another indication of his status as a soldier of the UNSC. The women were commenting that with his pale skin, he looked rather ugly and scary with those scars, but he paid them very little mind as he faced the young doctor from Tarak.

Duero looked over the equipment one more time and made sure that they were all ready. The Tarak medic had been hosed down by the Megele pirates in their version of the decontamination process, along with Bart and Hibiki, and he recalled how angry Hibiki was as well as how Bart yelped, he could understand the anger and discomfort as the women had used very cold water to decontaminate them, though how cold water would kill the so-called germs that they had was beyond him as it clashed with the medical practices of his own home world. He was the only Tarak male out of the cell, while Hibiki and Bart were still in the prison cell, once he was done with the tests, he was to head back to the cell and await the decision from the Captain and Buzam concerning him and the other two men from his home planet.

He put those thoughts aside as he finally was ready to begin the tests on the Spartan, though he also took the time to study the women who were there to keep an eye on both him and the Spartan as he still wondered just what was it about women that got his attention. He then decided to do his duty and focus on his tasks and attention on the Super Soldier.

Like the women, he was stunned to see how utterly pale the Spartan was when he was bare of the Mark VI Armor, but didn't dwell on it. The tests were going to be in two stages, the first was the one they were working on right now…which was to test the Spartan's physical abilities and traits, namely his speed, reflexes, strength, eye-sight, and more. Though he had heard about what the Spartan was capable of due to the augmentations he had been subjected to as a child, the doctor still wanted to see those abilities in action. He then noted the slight look of discomfort on his patient.

“What's wrong?”

“Don't feel very comfortable right now.”

The Tarak medic was confused at first, but then realized that the Spartan must have been referring to the fact that he was not wearing his Mjolnir Armor. The medic then guessed correctly that the Spartan was more comfortable in the Mjolnir than any other form of clothing or suit and therefore was not very happy with being forced to leave it.

“Don't worry, the Mark VI is with the Engineering group and they're going to make sure to keep it in good condition, now then, are you ready for the tests?”

“As I'll ever be…”

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

In the bridge…

Amarone turned and looked at Ezra while Celtic's position was occupied by what appeared to be a massive bear costume, the dark haired and dark skinned girl was curious as to why Ezra seemed to be a lot more tired than she normally was.

“Are you feeling all right Ezra?”

“I'm fine…just a little tired.”

Amarone sighed and replied to her friend as she sat down.

“I know what you mean.”

Belvedere was very uncomfortable in the heat and tried to fan herself with a small card, but was not getting anywhere fast as the heat seemed to grow even hotter than before in the bridge. And she was getting even more frustrated by the temperature.

“What's going on with the air-conditioning?! It's so hot in here!”

She then activated the communications system and contacted the Engineering section of the ship and decided to complain as to why the bridge felt like a hot sauna bath.

“Could you do something about the heat up here? It's nearly 31 degrees in here!”

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

Engineering…

“We're not having any luck in here either you know, it's already 36 degrees here with us too, so stop complaining!”

The answering engineer replied to Belvedere's complaint as her fellow engineer went over to speak to Parfet, who was still in her space suit, taking advantage of the protection and the temperature regulation systems as she worked on the Paeksis.

“I'm still not getting much response, how about you Parfet?”

In the reactor room, Parfet was still busy wither work in trying to figure out how to control and repair the Paeksis core.

“The system running the Paeksis is so ancient…it must be some prototype, that must explain a lot on why it's power seems to spike up a lot, won't it?”

The engineer then turned as another engineer called for assistance.

“Hey! Come on and help me out over here!”

The engineer was having a lot of difficulty as she was trying to keep a certain Navi-robot from buckling free from her grip, the Navi-robot was supposed to help them interpret the data and language of the men, however the Navi-robot was far from being cooperative.

“Let go of me!!!!”

“Hold still will you!? How are we supposed to interpret the data if you keep trying to get away?!”

The bodies that could be salvaged from the battle where the Spartan was were also there…waiting for their turn to be examined, even several container filled with the magenta colored `blood' were there, and nearby was the Mjolnir Mark VI. When the other engineers saw the suit, it sent goose-bumps up their skin and chills on their spines just by looking at the suit, but Parfet was eager to find out as much as she possibly could about the massive and intimidating armor once she was done trying to figure out what was wrong with the Paeksis.

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

Meanwhile…

Paiway was busy riding an elevator as the rest of the Megele pirates were busy making the needed operations in order to move their supplies, equipment, and possessions to the new sections of the ship, thus quite a lot of things were happening in front of the preconscious eleven year old nurse, who was supposed to be in the Medical Bay, and she was recording everything, but like before, she was busy making a story about the whole thing.

She was being called at by her fellow pirates more than once to help them out and do something…to which she replied that she was doing something and that was diary work.

She then turned to the side as Barnette and Jura arrived, with a good amount of their belongings in their hands. The two best friends were not happy with the fact that they would have to leave their old rooms and move to new ones, as she placed down the heavier parts of her gun collection, Barnette was not happy to see that Paiway was once more slacking off and not helping the others out with the mess they were currently in.

“Are you slacking off again Paiway?”

Jura likewise was not very happy with the fact that she had to move out of her room and seeing that Paiway was not contributing to helping out the others, she also scolded the young girl alongside Barnette.

“Instead of just sitting there and writing, why don't you do something that can be helpful.”

Paiway however had an answer to that question as she looked at her two fellow pirates and showed them her book.

“I am doing something you know…”

She then took her frog bag and began to speak to in the very same way a ventriloquist would throw his/her voice to another object and make it seem that it was doing the talking, however, she was still new to the art as she opened her mouth while doing so..

“Barnette and Jura sure have a lot of stuff, don't they?”

She then turned to face her own puppet and spoke in her normal voice.

“I'm happy that our room wasn't affected so we don't have to move, right?”

“Kero!”

Jura glared at the young girl and spoke to only Barnette.

“She's really pushing my buttons again…”

“You're not really helping at all right now…you know that Paiway.”

That was when Barnette then noted that there seemed to be a rope tied to Paiway's waist, she wondered why would the young girl would need a rope on her waist when she was already on an elevator.

“What's that rope doing on you're waist anyway Paiway?”

“This elevator's only a temporary one, so it won't be my fault if suddenly stops, breaks down and falls down, that means you're on your own from here on out, bye. Kero!”

Paiway said as she was then lifted off the elevator by the rope and waved to both Barnette and Jura, who were understandably shocked to learn that they were on a possibly malfunctioning elevator and they looked at one another and fervently hoped that the young nurse was not being serious and only playing around with them.

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

In the unused section of the ship…

John-117 checked his MA5C and made sure to take out a maintenance kit to clean the weapon and to keep the weapon he wielded in good condition, and he then deactivated the electronic suite on the weapon and then took the weapon apart and began to clean it, moving at a speed that made his observers wonder if he was a cyborg. He had already disassembled a Tarak assault rifle with amazing speed and accuracy, he then reassembled the weapon with amazing accuracy and then he fired the weapon at a small target, with the weapon working in perfect order, showing that the Spartan was indeed very skilled, he then did the very same thing to a Megele made laser rifle, one of the women showed him a diagram of how a Megele laser rifle was made and constructed. He studied the blue print intently and was able to disassemble the weapon with notable accuracy, and he then reassembled the weapon and fired it at the next target…hitting the target dead center…and the weapon functioned well, without complications…further making the women even more stunned at how rapidly the male was able to master the weapon that their world used exclusively.

They were not aware of the fact that John, like his fellow Spartans, had received a particular surgical augmentation known to the surgeons and specialists in the Spartan II Program as the Superconducting fabrication of neural dendrites, or in more simple terms, the augmentation altered the normal bioelectrical nerve transduction associated with normal humans to shielded electronic transduction. This naturally had an effect of increasing the subject's reflexes by three hundred percent, along with a marked high increase in the subject's intelligence, memory, and creativity. This meant that as soon as he had the basic data shown to him, John was able to understand how something functions and how he can best use it…or if needed and if possible…modify it somewhat to be a lot more effective in it's original functions.

The procedure however was extremely painful and like all Spartan augmentations, had considerable risks, including increased risks to suffering Parkinson's disease and Fletcher's Syndrome. He was able to adapt and grew quite skilled at the augmentation, though the others were far better than him.

As John finished his work in the UNSC weapon, he quickly reassembled it and got into firing position and fired at the third target with good accuracy at the range he was given. As he was done, he turned to face those who were still observing him, namely Duero and the other women security members. He then placed the weapon on the table and activated the safety feature as he faced the young doctor.

“Got the data you need?”

Duero nodded as he added the last bit of data into the computers and began to have it made in the required order for the records to have. The Tarak doctor may have had a calm façade throughout the entire session, unlike the women who were constantly stunned, amazed, and a bit terrified, but he was very much still amazed at the things he had seen the Spartan do…without the Mjolnir Mark VI, further adding weight to what he had said before in the room about what he was very much capable of doing, even without the Mark VI on.

“Yes, the computer should finish all the data compilations within half an hour. I should get going back to the cells”

This naturally got John's attention as he looked as the doctor was once more restrained.

“Why's that?”

Duero answered the Spartan as he was being led away by the women security personnel, while two others stayed closer to the Spartan to keep watch over him with heavy laser rifles…apparently, despite the fact that he was bare of the Mjolnir, none of the women were ready to take any risks concerning him of all people.

“I am still a prisoner John, so I have to be sent back with the other men.”

John looked on as Duero was being taken back to the prison cells where Bart and Hibiki were. He then decided to keep the other men company, even though he was not a man from Tarak and was not bound as a prisoner, at least by most standards. He faced his escorts and placed out his arms, confusing the women as to what was it he was trying to say. He then simply replied to the question of the women with the same patient tone.

“I'll keep them company.”

Realizing that they would have no further argument, the women then decided to manacle the Spartan as he was guided alongside Duero to the section where the cells were located. The Spartan wanted to keep the women of Megele calm about the situation, as they might still think of him as a freak. While he had dealt with that kind of stigma for quite a long time in the UNSC, he was in a whole new world, and the women would be highly uncomfortable with someone of his caliber wandering their ship with impunity. He decided to keep his cool and focus on doing what he could while he and Cortana were under the Captain of this ship.

The women had already subjected the three Tarak men to their form of decontamination as he was there to see it, they however stayed clear of him as they didn't subject him to that kind of procedure, showing that they were afraid of what his reactions would be if they tried it on him, as some of the women who were doing the decontamination of the men were among those who had seen the utter carnage he had inflicted on the aliens that had boarded their ship a few hours before.

As they arrived in the area, he turned and spotted Cortana as the former UNSC AI was busy running through a checklist on the items she had been able to list down on the UNSC section of the ship. The former AI then walked over to him and sighed as she noted the manacles on his wrists.

“They still don't trust you John?”

“Not really, figured I'll keep the men company for a bit until the others make up their minds on what to do with them.”

Cortana sighed as she joined the Spartan as they all went back to the cell, once there, she decided to ask his leave and she then headed off to the UNSC section of the ship to make a quick inventory checklist to make sure that everything was in good condition…leaving John along with Hibiki, Bart, and Duero…and all four men were now being monitored by the two female officers.

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

In the Conference Room…

“So…have you been able to find out anything about those units that tried to board our ship Parfait?”

The two head officers listened as they were finally able to get word from the head engineer that she had been able to make some head way in studying the bodies of the alien soldiers that had been sent to attack their ship from within, and they were halted and annihilated by the UNSC Spartan. The two women were very anxious as to what these units were able to do and what they were…and finally, who were the ones who made these biomechanical units.

“These units seem to have some form of manufactured flesh to act as an overall cover for the body and to regulate the fluid we've found. The magenta fluid is actually a highly advanced energy solution that acts like a combination of lubricant, fuel, and coolant at the same time, the power cell inside the chest region seems to charge the fluid with minute but powerful amounts of energy, the fluid then transfers the energy all over the body the same way our blood sends nutrients, and oxygen throughout the body as well. The fluid also seems to fuel the plasma weapon that they have as their main ranged weapon.”

“Can you tell us anything about the rest of the thing's features?”

“The `eyes' appear to be a set of cameras that have a set number of settings, allowing them to have exceptional vision capabilities, though these seem to be sealed. Apparently the designers merely programmed them to search and destroy anything they see. The plasma weapon used high grade energy condensers to create the plasma, and super heat it, and the magnetic field generators can shape and fire them at high velocities, and the damage to a human would have been horrific. The blade on their left arm is very strong and solid, so this is purely designed for close combat and seems sharp enough to slice through our space suits. These machines seem to have some sort of armor that is grafted into their bodies.”

“Anything on what the armor is and how much damage can it sustain?”

“Well…it seems to have some ablative properties to dissipate heat, namely from energy based attacks, I've tested both out laser rifles and laser rings on it and it seems to have a considerable tolerance to those energy weapons before it collapsed, there's also some sort of coating solution that's on the artificial flesh that is somewhat refractive towards energy weapons. This means that whoever designed these units made sure that they could withstand energy weapons, including our lasers, it would still be over powered, but with sufficient numbers, they would have overwhelmed our ship and the crew in an hour. However, seemed that the armor and coating were not made to withstand solid weapons, I've tested the Tarak weapons and found them to be effective on the armor of these units, and since the Spartan's weapons are all projectile based, they were able to inflict this much damage on them.”

“Hmm…can you make any modifications to our weapons so we can be able to fight these things just on the off chance we encounter them once more Parfait?”

“I can try, it might take a lot longer since it would mean we will need to re-design the laser weapons on the ship though.”

“Better to have options just in case…what about that Spartan's armor Parfait, did you manage to have enough time to study it?”

The head engineer shook her head and replied.

“I haven't gotten the time to study it properly Captain, since I have no data to work with, but I can give out some of the findings. The suit appears to have a very powerful fusion reactor as it's main source of power and it seems that the suit has a large array of features to make it a highly effective defensive system. The armor plating seems to be a combination of high quality reinforced titanium that has been chemically treated with a high degree refractive coating to increase it's resistance to energy weapons fire, including our lasers, and the thickness of the plating gives it considerable resistance to solid weapons as well, and a special alloy/ceramic mix armor skin that doubles it's protection. It has powerful shields, of a design that appears human built, but of a level I've never seen before, they are quite resistant and rapidly recharge after being struck, the suit also has some sort of metal crystal in liquid form, it's something I've never seen before…from what I can see…it can adhere to a person's frame and enhance locomotion, and flawlessly enhances both the strength and speed of the user. I have managed to determine that it has compartments to store ammunition and explosive weapons, and magnetic pads on the things, waist, and back to hold onto weapons and other items, and magnetic pads on the boots to move on the surface of a ship in deep space. There's also some sort of built in medical treatment system that can heal minor to moderate wounds…and some sort of material weave that I've never seen before, almost like the memory core of a high grade super computer, but much faster and stores more memory.”

“This suit is very advanced and all this data is what I can find with some searching, but there is so much more information in this suit's systems that I can't access. The only way I can do anything with this study is if someone who knows how this suit works is in here to help me as well.”

Buzam and Magno looked at one another and then the elderly Captain decided to ask the head engineer the important question.

“I know you don't have that much data yet about this suit Parfait…but can you access it and try to copy it's designs?”

Parfait shook her head.

“I don't think I can do it here or even on Megele Captain…this suit's unlike anything I've ever seen before…whoever designed it knew what they were doing, and the suit is a very powerful system…it's both a hazard suit, battle-armor, mobile computer drive, medical care system, and more rolled into one…this makes even our world's most advanced military suits look like dresses. This must be horrendously expensive to make, I made some estimations and it would take almost ten times the salaries of EVERY member who worked for three or more years nonstop to pay for even just one of these systems…plus, I don't think anyone on our crew can wear this thing…I've run it on a simulation and it appears that only someone with massive physical and mental process can handle it…as anyone who does not handle the qualifications would be critically injured or killed by the sheer power of the system.”

Magno and Buzam were a bit unnerved by the information and then the commander recalled what John had said about him being augmented in biological and cybernetic areas, and what were the results of those said augmentations.

“Do you think his augmentations were the reason he could use that armor as if it was merely a simple suit Captain?”

“I guess so…and if that is true…then he is not one we can mess with, even without the armor, I just hope that we can at the very least gauge some of those abilities once the young doctor comes back with the results of the examinations. Thank you Parfait, keep up the good work.”

“Thank you captain!”

The two then looked at a certain image of a cell that had four men in it.

“So these are the only men we have on the ship? Not much to work with from the looks of it.”

Buzam looked at the image of the three Tarak men and the UNSC Spartan, the sub commander had to admit that while he was out of his Mark VI, John-117 looked like normal male from Tarak with his height, form, and gender, minus the fact that unlike the three men who were tanned, he was as pale as Megele snow, a testament to how long he must have been wearing the Mjolnir Mark VI Armor.

“It seems we'll need to rely on them until we can better understand the functions of this ship's new systems Captain.”

“That's true…I never saw anything like before in my whole years in this lifetime…it was as if this ship had a will of it's own somehow, it's very unnerving.”

The elderly woman referred to the time after the fighting had ceased out there in space, along with the fighting within the ship as well. The Navigation Well then released the young cadet named Bart Garsus and deposited him to the floor.

Buzam however had a far more important concern…one UNSC Spartan, she then focused the camera on the Spartan as he was sitting there on the floor of the cell. After seeing the utter carnage this one lone man could do on his own, she was fearful that as long as he was not kept under surveillance, he might decide to rebel. She felt that it would be best for him to be given some sort of duty onboard the ship in order to keep him under their watchful eye and to make sure that he was not going to fight them. She knew enough from what she had heard and seen of John to know that he followed the chain of command without question, and considering how protective he was of his female companion Cortana, he was human being despite his military skills and abilities that bordered on superhuman, or was beyond that…still it made her uneasy that he was onboard.

“Captain…what will we do with Cortana and her friend, that Spartan? He could be a very valuable ally…or a dangerous enemy to us.”

“I can understand you're concern BC, he is a powerful and dangerous man…unlike those three kids from Tarak… I have no doubt that John is more than capable of taking us on and defeating us. If there was such a project on Tarak that created soldiers like him, then things would have been very different for us if we had taken the Ikazuchi and they were onboard. There would have been very significant losses and worse for us. However, we do have several things going for us.”

“Such as?”

“One, he does not consider us his enemies since he is a soldier who fought to protect humanity in his world and time. As such, he won't fight unless he is threatened. Two, he has no place to go, and neither does Cortana, and for now, we are the only people he knows, I hardly think he would know anyone in this universe who could help him. And lastly, he will not leave Cortana anywhere, and as long as she is here and is unharmed, then he will not try to fight us…besides, I don't think he was ever trained in his younger days to kill civilians, while we are pirates, I believe he considers us as civilians and non-combatants. Going against that will be a violation of his military training and discipline, not to mention his humanity. However, we cannot take advantage of those things, so we must be patient at best.”

Buzam nodded a bit at the elderly woman's reasoning, though as to what will the Spartan be doing on the rest of the voyage was still a very difficult question to answer, but had to be answered soon as there was not much time left.

“So what do we do with him? He can't very well remain locked up for the rest of the voyage back to Megele and Tarak…his combat expertise might come in handy, considering that we might face more hostile threats in this region of the universe. He did manage to defeat at least three dozen of the unknown boarders that tried to infiltrate the ship before.”

Magno nodded as she recalled how skilled the Spartan was when it came to combat, and that could be helpful indeed. However, with things as they were, they didn't have a lot of time on their hands to find a proper place for the Spartan.

“We'll find a way to deal with that once the time comes…now we have to deal another matter…how to get this ship to move.”

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

In the cell…

Bart was busy talking about how unnerving it was for him when the ship had been taken over, while his supposed audience which was of Hibiki, John, and Duero. The Spartan pretty much ignored the blonde cadet as he knew that the young man was being talkative merely to keep his nerves cool, and nothing was to be gained by either listening to him, or entertaining his ramblings.

However, Bart was not deterred by the silence that greeted his story and as soon as he was done, he waited for any response, but then directed his attention to Hibiki who was at this very moment, sulking in the corner.

< I thought I was going to finally change my life for the better…but now I'm in this mess…what am I going to do now? And what the heck…?>

“What the heck happened back there by the way?”

Hibiki broke his train of thought as he looked to find Bart looking at him with a very confused and suspicious look.

“What?”

“I was asking who made you're Vanguard, it certainly wasn't in the ship from I just saw and it doesn't match any of the production models, and why did somehow combine with the Megele fighter to turn into that last time?”

“How am I supposed to know how in the heck did it happen anyway?! Forget that! Don't think for a moment I'll let you get away for hitting me on the stomach with that elbow of yours!!!”

“Hey calm down, there's no need for you to be upset, I was only concerned for you're best interests.”

Hibiki wasn't buying it and glared even harder at Bart.

“You really don't know when to shut up do you?! There's enough…”

“And you're shouting's only going to make it worse Hibiki, so both of you cool yourselves and knock it off.”

John said with a the slightest hint of impatience, as even the most guarded Spartan would be irritated with all the noise going on. That was also when Duero decided to diplomatically end this mess, though even he was getting annoyed by the words being exchanged between Bart and Hibiki, the situation was still very uncertain, and arguing was not going to help the situation.

“You both should try to forgive him, he's trying to keep his mind off the situation through conversations, it's a pretty normal reaction.”

“You're pretty sharp Duero, so what do you guys think? Can we pull a special plan I have in mind off?”

John then gave the young Tarak cadet a tired look as he knew what this young guy was going to say before the words would even come out of his mouth.

“Let me guess, with the doc's brains, you're fast talking, Hibiki's Vanguard, and my combat abilities, we can beat the women and take over the ship, am I right?”

“Uh…yeah, how did you know?”

The Spartan shrugged a bit as he answered the awed teen's question on as to how he had figured out what the blonde cadet had in mind, after all, he knew enough on his days as a soldier to deal with such things.

“Wasn't very hard, but you've got two things to worry about.”

“And those are?'

“One, I am not from you're world, so I have no quarrel with the women in this ship, and they are not my enemies. And two…you've broken the first rule of military intelligence and secrecy with that mouth of yours. If you plan to take the enemy on with a plan…make sure that they don't get any tactical information about it.”

“Surely you're not going to tell them our plan?!”

“He doesn't need to…because we were here and already listening to begin with.”

Bart gulped at the sound of that particular voice and then turned and found none other than Buzam A Calessa and a pair of her fellow female pirates looking at him with very serious and unfriendly expressions.

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

In the Conference Room…

Magno listened in to the incoming communications from Gascogne as the head of the Register began to deliver her report as she and Dita began to do their work…that is, Dita was busy recording the scene with her camera and moving around to explore the ship of the unknown alien forces that had attacked the ship.

“So Gascogne…what can you tell me about this ship that led the attack on us?”

“I can pretty much say that there is no way this ship belongs to the men, let alone being made by human hands, and to tell you the truth, I think this is more a factory than a ship.”

“How so?”

“Well…the interior appears to be similar to an assembly and storage plant, which could explain why it was able to send those cube like things out that became those octopus like fighters that Meia and the others, including Dita and that Tarak kid fought with. This ship is a mobile platform that can pretty much handle most small scale operations by itself as well.”

Dita was still moving about and looking at the rest of the ship and seemed to be very happy at the sights she was seeing right now.

“I see…how long will you be there?”

“There's not much to go on, the mecha that Dita's Dread and that Tarak kid's Vanguard turned into certainly did quite a number on this thing, which is why it's amazing this thing's still out here after all the damage it took. The data extraction will take us a lot longer and…”

“ Miss Gasco… can I take a look around, please?”

Dita deactivated the masking system on her space suit's face visor so Gascogne could see here, along with Magno as she was very much eager to explore the ship.

However, Gascogne was not in the mood to baby-sit the young woman all the time and made it clear to her companion that they had a job to do as she reached out with her hand and placed a finger on Dita's face plate and answered her question.

“Absolutely not Dita! We came here to do a job, not go around on a sight seeing tour!”

The Register head then pushed back on the face visor of the young girl and send her flying back, and since the young woman had not activated her suit's thrusters, it was understandable that she was unable to stop her momentum.

“Whoa! I can't stop!”

The elderly woman then got a call from Buzam and after finding out that her second in command had brought the navigator with her from the cell.

Magno sighed and smiled a bit as she then decided to let Gascogne and Dita complete their mission.

“All right then, call us once you've gone you're mission and head back to the ship as quickly as you can.”

“Roger.”

She then let the chair she sat on, move on a special tread and she left the Conference Room and was now riding her way down to the bridge and fanned herself a bit more as the chair locked into the Captain's section of the bridge…just as Bart was now in front of her. Buzam was naturally nearby to keep an eye on the young man to make sure that despite him still being manacled, he would try anything. That was when Cortana arrived on the scene, having completed her duties.

“Hello there…I hear that you want me to do something?”

The old woman nodded and pointed towards the navigation well. "Yes. That thing. We haven't been able to interface into it and operate it, so you'll have to tell us how you did it."

“Uhh…okay…yes of course. Given the current circumstances and my situation, I don't have much in terms of choice."

He held up his manacled hands, indicating to Buzam that he needed his hands to be free. The first officer complied and activated the release for the manacles as Cortana stood by and was curious as to how the Navigation Well functioned. Bart then moved to the direction of the well.

“Now listen very carefully. This is a male ship, so therefore only men are capable of operating it. So I suppose that it was rather fortunate that I was around. In fact, you could say that I'm indispensable to you and… whoa!!!!!!"

At that point the well flared up and sucked the hapless man into it again.

Magno sighed as she leaned back and shook her head. “I really doubt I'll ever understand this system at all."

Cortana also replied.

“I'm not all that sure that we ever will anyway, if there's nothing else for me to do…I'll head off and take a break.

Inside the Navigation Well, Bart found himself once again naked and surrounded in the holographic display of the outer environment of the ship.

“Okay… let's see here…uhhh…okay…"

All of a sudden, the ship's systems and main drive system came online and the vessel leaped forward and began to accelerate away from the wreck of the alien vessel. The sudden movement caught everyone off guard as the inertia dampeners and stabilizers were unable to cope with the sudden movement. Jura and Barnette were thrown off their feet in the elevator and their possessions went scattering all over the place.

Back on the bridge, the crew tried to stop the ship but wasn't getting anywhere.

“The system just booted up and we're now on some unknown heading!" One of the bridge officers called out.

Magno wasn't in a good mood as she got in touch with Bart at the navigation well and shouted. “What in blazes did you just do in there?!"

The image showed Bart as he shook his head. “Hold on! I didn't do anything! The ship seems to be on auto pilot!"

Buzam then turned to Cortana who had managed to retain her balance well after the sudden acceleration and made a quick inquiry and indicated the holo-tank that Cortana had used a few hours before, during the battle.

“Can you try and log into the system and get the ship under control Cortana?”

The former UNSC AI looked at the holo-tank and quickly moved to it and then stood on top of the holo-tank as it registered her arrival and replied to Buzam's request.

“I can try, I might not be allowed into the system but I'll do what I can.”

The holo-tank glowed brightly as it swallowed Cortana, the hatch covered it and the crystal on the top of the hatch glowed brightly as Cortana then appeared in her AI form. The female UNSC AI wasted no time and tried to hack into the main drives and systems and try to bring them under control, along with the ship's navigational systems. However she sighed and broke the connection and faced the two women.

“I can't get through the system, and there are suddenly new firewalls I can't seem breach no matter what route or method I try, apparently the Paeksis has taken over most of the ship, and has cut off all main and emergency access paths from both the Navigation Well and my own section as well…the only sections I can command are the UNSC sections and several other parts of the ship…but I can't get command of the engines and systems…whatever the Paeksis is up to…neither me or Bart can do anything about it.”

“What is the Paeksis up to this time?” The elderly Captain wondered as the ship raced out of the area.

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

Back at the wreckage of the alien ship…

Gascogne watched as the data loader they had brought now reached the full numbers indicating the amounts of data was now fully transferred, the moment that the numbers stopped flashing, the data card was ejected from the unit, she wasted no time and took the card into her hands.

“All right, we've got what we came here for…let's hurry back to the ship, the sooner we're out of this wreck, the better off I'll be.”

“Roger Miss Gasco.”

As Dita made her way to the opening that she and the head supplier had gone through, using her suit's built in thrusters. However, the moment she looked out to where their ship was…she gave a cry of shock as the didn't find the ship in the area…just empty space.

As soon as Gascogne arrived and saw the situation, she wasted little time and began to try and establish a communications link with the ship once more. She had been somewhat concerned when there seemed to be no response to her calls after the data had been extracted and she and Dita were on their way out.

Something was apparently not right if the ship was no longer in the area.

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

In the bridge…

“Miss Gasco! Can you hear me? Miss Gasco?”

Ezra tried as best she could to re-establish contact with Gascogne, and Dita while the ship seemed to continue on with it's unknown heading, however, the monitors on her console showed only static as there seemed to be no way they could establish contact with the two that were suddenly left behind when the ship took off. She suddenly felt very faint and seemed to be sweating a lot more.

Buzam walked over to Belvedere and took stock of the situation and then gave the order to release the marker buoys so the others left behind could easily find them. The silver haired woman then turned quickly at the sound of Cortana's voice, which seemed to be in panic.

“Ezra! Are you all right?!” Cortana asked, just as Buzam reached the now unconscious woman, and she too wondered what had happened to the young woman. Cortana could only see Ezra and couldn't check her vital signs herself. All UNSC personnel, regardless of rank and position were all armed with neural interface implants that could at least allow AI such as herself to monitor their vital signs, as she had done when they tried to rescue Captain Keyes when he was taken by the Flood. Since Ezra had no such implants, there was no way for her to determine what was wrong with her.

“I can't read her vital signs Commander Buzam since she has no neural interface implants I can detect, she needs to be in the Medical Bay ASAP!”

Cortana then turned to Magno and spoke calmly.

“I can still gain power from the fusion reactors in the UNSC section Captain, but I can't do much right now, even routing power from the cores is somehow disabled, but I will remain here and keep an eye on things that I can access.”

Magno smiled a bit at the UNSC AI.

“Go ahead, keep us posted if you pick up anything.”

“Right…hold on…Oh my god…the Paeksis is heading right towards that nebula at full speed!”

“Are you sure?!” Magno asked the UNSC AI as her crew also began to spot the nebula that the ship was heading towards at high speed.

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

Back at the navigation well…

Bart was in full panic mode as he saw just where the Paeksis was heading towards…

“We're going in there?! How do I stop this crazy ship?!"

The ship didn't seem to care much about Bart's complaints and dove headlong into the mix of gases of the nebula's outer ring. Various chunks of ice and debris flew all around the ship and smacked into the hull of the fused vessel. Unfortunately for the cowardly Bart, due to the neural interface link between him and the ship, then anything that collided with the ship came to hit him in the form of PAIN. A stray chunk of ice smacked into the top near the bow, which caused him to yelp in pain. As the hit felt like a blow to his head and that threw him back a bit.

“Will somebody please raise the shields?!" he called out while rubbing his head.

Cortana however seemed to be shielded from the injuries as she does not suffer from the impacts. This meant that when she was in her AI form, she was still shielded from harm from the attacks on the ship, just like back on the Pillar of Autumn when it was being bombarded by the Covenant forces over the first Halo Ring they had found.

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

Bart wasn't the only one with problems on the ship. At least ninety percent of all operating systems were offline. Parfait was informed as she was working on her last tests on both the bodies and the Mjolnir Mark VI that crystalline response was down by 45%, further dampening the amounts of power and it seemed that getting power from the fusion cores of the UNSC frigate was not working, and the temperature had risen…she went over to the engineer who was supposed to be checking the Navi-robot…only to find the robot mumbling the word sick.

Jura and her buddy Barnette found themselves trapped inside the elevator, buried underneath their own possessions. They were in a rather difficult situation as along with their belongings, which were clothes and personal items, were also some firearms and live ammunition.

Meia on the other hand was in dismay as she had found out that the Dread platforms were also offline. That naturally meant that she couldn't send anyone to rescue Gascogne and Dita. And due to the fact that they were in a nebula now…it would be impossible for her to launch even her own Dread and Jura couldn't launch either as she was still trapped in the elevator.

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

In the Medical Bay…a few minutes later…

Duero ran his checks on the young woman named Ezra, who according to what he had been told, had somehow fainted and was suffering a slight fever at the moment. He was currently running a scanner on the young woman which showed an image of the woman's body and he seemed to note some very peculiar patterns and signals from within the female. He had been brought out from the cell a few minutes before after he had been forced to do a make-shift medical checkup on Hibiki who had been mumbling something in his sleep.

The young boy reacted with understandable surprise when he saw the doctor leaning on him. John did nothing as he had his thoughts on other matters. After he had asked Hibiki who was this Grand Pa he kept mentioning while asleep, he was curious as to why it seemed that a First Class would actually associate with a Third Class Citizen, before he could get anymore information out of the young man, he was picked up by Buzam.

When he learned that he was supposed to examine the young woman who was on the Medical Bay bed, he was somewhat confused, as the women were supposed to be highly advanced in medical care and technology, why then would they need him? The commander smiled and commented that he indeed deserved to be of the First Class on Tarak, and told him of the current mess they were in right now and the power supply was still a mess, so they needed all the help they could get…plus he might learn about women while he was here.

He agreed and was in his current situation as there was still power in the Medical Bay…but that was not going to last long as the power suddenly faded out of the Medical Bay. He quickly took the communicator from the thigh holster of one of the Megele security girls, who was surprised and glared at him for doing that. However he paid her no mind and quickly made a call to the Engineering Bay, he was not going to get anything done with his examination of Ezra if there was no power for the instruments to work.

“This is the Medical Bay to Engineering, I'm working on a patient here, I need power to the Medical Bay a top priority now!”

Parfait had her hands full as she took the call.

“I wish I could accommodate you there…but we're having problems by the bucket load down here as well! I can't do a single thing until I find a way to read the men's language!”

“Hmmm…”

With that thought in mind, Duero then turned to faced Buzam.

“I can go there and help them interpret the information, the sooner we know what's wrong with this ship, the better off we all are, and I can finish the examination of the patient once power has been restored to the Medical Bay.”

Buzam smiled a bit at the young man and replied.

“By all means, but be sure to come back…you do have a patient to tend to.”

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

In the Engineering Bay…

The moment Duero stepped into the Engineering area, the reaction to his presence was simple.

“It's a man!" One of the engineers under Parfait screamed as she caught sight of the young Tarak doctor as she was moving to help Parfait with translating the Tarak language encoded information from the Navi-robot.

Parfait simply glanced at Duero and nodded her approval of his arrival, since this was the language of the men on Tarak, who better could read it than a man of Tarak?

“Oh, you're here. Good."

She then led the doctor over to the worktable where the little Navi-Robot was hooked up to one of the consoles.

“I can't do much with all this data if I can't read it."

“It's just a Hi-type #6 data feed."

Duero replied as he examined the data being shown on the Navi-Robot's screen. He was rather curious about the little setup the engineer had going on. “What exactly were you trying to do here with the robot anyway?"

Parfait began to explain with a little sheepishness to the young physician that the Navi-Robot and the ship's reactor somehow seemed to be linked together. She had thought that the robot would make a good sensor. However, with the language of the men in front of her, she couldn't figure out the reason for the ship's current condition.

Duero nodded as he looked a bit more at the data. “According to this readout, there seems to be a massive built-up of impurities, probably from the merging of the two ships."

“Maybe, so can you fix it?" Parfait asked as she gazed at the young medic.

“I'm sorry to say this, but I'm a doctor, I'm no engineer."

This made Parfet a little bit mildly irritated. “That's no excuse! Everything that moves is alive! It's a doctor's duty to fix all living things, right? That's what I always believe in!"

Duero's curiosity was peaked as he gazed at the feisty female engineer before him.

“You have a very interesting view of things." He replied as he removed his trench coat. The ship then once more shook hard as the ship now entered the nebula.

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

As soon as the vessel's lower section immersed itself into the nebula's outer gas ring, the engines went on full shutdown. The ship was now propelled by pure momentum now.

“Engines have now shut down, captain." Amarone reported as she was able to still access the condition of the ship's engines despite having no access to the controls of said engines herself.

Magno sighed as she was now being cooled by an ice pack over her head and a portable fan was nearby as well. “Just when I get the good news that we've stopped, we now are in a nebula of all the places." It was then that the fan near her shut down as well.

“Captain! Sensors indicate that another section of the ship is now transforming again." Belvedere reported as she began detecting massive energy fluctuations on the arms of the still fused ships..

Outside of the ship's hull, near the arm areas of the ship, new crystal formations appeared as the ship once more went into a transformation phase.

Cortana then noted the very same thing happening to the fused Forward Unto Dawn section as she tried to access what was happening to the UNSC Frigate, though the data was still very much scrambled, the ship section appeared to have not suffered any harmful changes…in fact, it seemed that the crystals were once more upgrading the ship even further.

“I'm picking up massive changes to the section of the Dawn as well…I can't make out what it is, but most of the core systems seem relatively intact and usable…I'll keep trying to find out what is happening.”

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

“Curious." Duero commented as he checked the data being displayed through the Navi-robot's screen. “It seems that the ship is reacting to the gaseous composition of the nebula's outer ring and seemingly absorbing portions of it into the system core."

Parfait considered the data for a moment then smacked her fist into her open palm. “That's it! The ship must be trying to use the gases in the nebula to neutralize the impurities inside its systems!"

Duero nodded as he was in full agreement to the engineer's answer. “It seems that the ship is reacting like a living thing. If that's the case…we'll need to find a solution to the problem soon."

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

Back at the wreckage…

Dita looked through her binoculars. “All I can see Ms. Gasco are the markers." She reported back as soon as she looked through and spotted the buoys deployed under BC's order.

“Something must have happened then." Gascogne thought about the change of events for a few moments, and spoke. “Well, we're already finished here. So we'd better get back to the ship now."

“Roger."

They both activated their thrusters and moved out…but just as the two women were now making their way back to Dita's Dread, the ship's supposedly destroyed systems came back online.

The sensors detected the presence of Dita and Gascogne and when they were least expecting it, the sensors ordered the trap to be sprung. The supposedly destroyed ship then deployed massive metallic tendrils that moved like snakes aiming to snare one of the female pirates, which happened to be none other than the chief supply officer Gascogne who was behind Dita.

Before the older woman knew it, she was now the proverbial fly trapped in the spider's web as the tendrils surrounded her in a metallic cage.

“Ms. Gasco, look out!" Dita cried as she saw the tendrils capture her comrade but was a little late in delivering the warning.

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

Back at the pirate vessel…

The ship seemed to be coated by some sort of the crystalline shell and in a few more minutes, the shell cracked and portions were flung away as the ship took on a very different look and tone as well.

“Captain, I have an idea." Buzam called in as she got into contact with the bridge and to her commanding officer through the active communication systems. She was currently in the sub-bridge of the former Ikazuchi colony ship.

“Go ahead BC." Magno sighed as she continued to try her best to remain cool despite the sweltering heat, which indicated that the temperature had just hit a few extra degrees in the bridge.

“Since the Dread launching platforms are offline, we can't launch any of the Dreads to retrieve Gascogne and Dita. However…"

“However?" Magno inquired as she tried to shift to a more comfortable position on the command chair.

“However the Vanguard launching platforms are still operational. It's a potentially high risk, but we could have that young man go out and go look for them." BC spoke earnestly

“Hmmm…. Not a bad idea despite it's risk, BC. All right then. Explain the situation to him and see if he agrees to it."

“Thank you, Captain." But just as BC was about to sign off, Magno took a look at the second in command's location.

“By the way, BC. What are you doing in the men's section of the ship?"

BC gave a slight smile. “Just… fulfilling my duty as your first mate, Captain. Over."

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

At the alien wreckage…

“It's no use, Ms. Gasco!" Dita cried as her latest attempt at freeing her comrade failed.

At this point the older female and the pirates' chief supply officer was more concerned about her current predicament than reminding the young Dread pilot that her name was Gascogne. The metallic cage that trapped her was well designed and kept her from escaping. Dita had attempted to use the built-in blasters of her suit, but the metallic tendrils were too dense for the lasers to cut through.

“Well this is comfortable…I should have known that whoever these aliens are, they were not the kind to leave something behind just in case we got curious…I really screwed this mission bad.”

Dita then got an idea. “Hold on Miss Gasco. I'll get the tools from the Dread!"

Gascogne shook her head in disagreement at that. “Don't bother with that now Dita. Have you forgotten our mission here? Someone has to go to the ship with that data in that disk! You take your Dread and head back to the ship!"

Dita looked horrified at that and shook her head. “Ms. Gasco! I can't just leave you here like this!"

“Who said anything about you leaving me here to rot anyway? This isn't some third-rate soap opera! You can come back for me with more help, right? Now hurry up Dita and get going!"

Dita nodded reluctantly as she knew that Gascogne was right, she turned around and headed for her waiting interceptor.

However, the moment she was out of sight, the insides of the ship reactivated itself again. Panels all over the section of the wrecked vessel opened revealing more of the alien fighters and several smaller types, which could be repair drones of some sort. Gascogne immediately began to have this sinking feeling behind her spine.

“Looks like I'm not going to be alone today.”

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

In the cell…

“Damn it…it's so hot in here!”

Hibiki was currently wearing only his loin cloth style briefs with a weird smiling face that had sharp teeth in the mouth in the center of the flap. He had been forced to strip down to the odd clothes due to the heat, while the Spartan was still dressed in his pants and boots, and tank top, not minding the heat, the Tarak teen wondered how could the Spartan seem not to care about the oppressive heat, but decided not to find out. He then thought back of the time he had been asleep…

He saw himself in the field of blue-green light and asking the strange voices as to what was it they wanted from him, what was that strange robot he had been piloting along with the redhead Megele girl and he asked just what was the plan the voices had in mind…however he was struck by several energy bolts and screamed in surprise…to find himself remembering his Grand Pa, the man who had raised him when he was young…

He had always wondered why his Grand Pa tilled the vast wastelands of Tarak with his hoe day in and day out. He admitted that it no doubt kept him in good physical shape for his age, but there was nothing to be grown on the barren landscapes. He then recalled the house he had stayed in, the windmill moving in the breeze…and the windows. He then recalled his Grand Pa who had been sitting outside of the house on a crate looking at the sun and then facing him and calling his attention.

“Hibiki…”

“Grand Pa?”

“I want you to go the city Hibiki.”

The old man said as he was on the door way of their house on the outskirts of the vast Capital City of Tarak.

“Why?”

“In order to know yourself…”

“I already know enough about myself.”

“No you don't.”

Grand Pa then tossed a Third Class Citizen ID card to the floor to him as he stared back at the old man with a confused look.

“Friends are like mirrors, you can see you're reflection in them, go there and meet some people, make some friends…so you can learn more about yourself.”

Hibiki looked at the ID card and that was the last he ever saw his Grand Pa as he made his way into the City a few hours later.

“Grand Pa…”

Hibiki then recalled how shocked he was when he found none other than Duero placing his face on his forehead…he managed to move the Tarak male out of the way in a panic and demanded just what was Duero trying to do. Duero told him that he was checking his temperature. He told the doctor that he was fine and nothing was wrong with him…that was when Duero said that he was indeed fine…but he was mumbling in his sleep about Grand Pa, and he was curious as to who this person was. Hibiki told him that Grand Pa was Grand Pa, not anyone special and was the one who had raised him when he was still little.

Duero found that peculiar, as he found it hard to believe that a member of the First Generation would have contact with Third Class Citizen such as him. It was then that he was asked by Buzam to accompany them for something important.

The Spartan seemed to be very silent, almost brooding, so he decided to leave the Spartan alone for the time being.

John himself didn't like the heat, but paid it no mind, this heat was nothing compared to the many things he faced when he was young up to now. He was more concerned about what he recalled ever since the day they all had fled from the Ark and the newly constructed Halo Ring. It was hard to imagine what had happened ever since then.

He was in a whole new dimension for unknown reasons, Cortana had somehow been turned into a human being right before his eyes, he faced a brand new alien force, and was now in a literal gender war between men and women. He had a feeling that he was going to be in for a very long trip. He had observed Hibiki and wondered why was it he seemed to have this connection to the strange boy.

Hibiki wasn't from the UNSC, and he was certainly not a Spartan…not that he wanted Hibiki to go through the procedures, but there was something about the lad that seemed to get his attention, not in a strange way, but the Spartan had a feeling that this boy had something, a secret of some sort or another, and somehow…something in him told him to keep the boy safe until that secret was revealed, it was somewhat the same when he had been assigned to protect and guard Cortana years back.

“My my, what an interesting outfit that is, don't you have any shame?” Buzam said as she looked to see Hibiki lying on the floor, she made no comments towards the Spartan as he was still very much dressed up.

Hibiki looked at Buzam and sighed with a glare.

“Let me guess, it's my turn to do out with you, right?'

“Quite the contrary actually, I came here to ask you a favor.”

Hibiki looked suspiciously at Buzam, wondering just what the female officer had in mind, with John looking back her as well, curious as to what favor the female officer had in mind.

“There's not much time left, and considering things as they are, I'll be honest with you, we left two crew members behind on a mission to gather information about those alien forces we fought with before. I would like you to help us get them back.”

<Hmmm…rescue mission.>

The Spartan noted that very quickly and wondered just what Hibiki was going to say, would he agree with the favor being asked of him or not. The words Dr. Catherine told him about saving all lives as best he could made sense as they were still in unknown lands and surrounded by hostile forces, they needed everyone to be on their stations and alive to make it through.

However, Hibiki didn't seem to share the sentiment the Spartan did as he snorted and looked away from Buzam.

“Give me one good reason why I should care about helping you?”

Buzam glared at Hibiki's words and replied.

“Now is not the time to be thinking about the war between men and women or fighting with each other, you saw that unknown enemy, their forces…and their units that have tried to board us. I had figured that you were willing to help us since you were able to beat them before.”

Hibiki looked back at her with a slight glare, but before Buzam could say anything, John answered.

“He's going now…and I am coming with him.”

Hibiki looked at the Spartan shocked at his words and defiant, but John looked back at him with a blank and emotionless stare, making Hibiki pause in what he was about to say.

“We are in the middle of unknown territory, we have an unknown foe that will not hesitate to kill us all on sight, and we don't have much time Hibiki. This is not the time to think about this pointless war between you're people and Buzam's, it's a waste of you're time and hers, we help them, and they help us…is that clear?”

Hibiki sighed a bit as he decided to follow John.

“Fine, I'll do it, but I'm not revealing anything more to her, she had better not be threatening me again!”

Buzam looked at Hibiki with a smirk at that remark as she deactivated the laser bars of the cell.

“Was I threatening you? I hardly think so…I was merely stating facts, and it is the rule on Tarak for the strong to help the weak and those in need after all.”

Hibiki snorted as he changed clothes as the Spartan merely walked over to the youth and spoke.

“That was no threat but a favor, and now, something of an order, you don't have to like it… but you have to do it.”

The Spartan then faced Buzam and made some inquiries to the silver haired woman.

“Where's my Mark VI?”

“It's in the Engineering Bay, you can pick that up anytime you wish, just make sure to tell Parfait you're the owner. Anything else?”

“Is Cortana on the bridge?”

“Yes, you can contact her now if you like.”

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

In the bridge…

Magno looked at the screen to find the Spartan looking at them all and Cortana as well. She wondered what the Spartan wanted and she decided to ask him what was it he needed from them at this moment…though she decided to call him by his rank in the military so as to make it seem more appropriate for a soldier like him

“What is it…Master Chief?”

“I want to accompany Hibiki on the rescue mission ma'am.”

“Hmmm…I don't see what's wrong with the request, so you may do so, anything else?”

“I need to get my Armor back and I need to speak to Cortana as well, is she there on the bridge?”

Cortana smiled at John as she turned about to face the image of her chosen guardian and friend for many years of her existence then as an AI, to now.

“I'm right here John, what do you need?”

“Do we have any ships needed to fly out from the Hanger Bay?”

“Yes…we have some of the Longsword Fighters ready, along with a few Pelican drop-ships, and the Hanger Bay is ready to send them out.”

“Have one of the Longsword Fighters ready…plus I might need to access our munitions stores…do we have any FURY TAC weapons left on the ship's stores?”

“Quite an amount John, though we never got to use them on the Ark, how many do you need anyway?'

“Just one will do.”

“Got it…the FURY and the Longsword will be ready at the Hanger Bay as soon as you are done. Good luck…and try not to get killed, okay big guy?”

There was a bare hint of a smile on his face as John replied.

“Don't worry.”

The women were confused as to what a FURY TAC weapon was, but neither John nor Cortana gave any proper explanations to their question on what the weapon was. But that also told them that it must be very dangerous indeed. The Spartan then gave Hibiki orders to head for his Vanguard as he made his way to the Engineering Bay to pick up his Mark VI.

It didn't take very long for the pair to leave the area, with the Spartan now in his Mark VI and in a UNSC owned Longsword Fighter, and the Tarak teen in his Vanguard. When he had arrived in the Engineering Bay the engineers, even Parfait were somewhat stunned to see him enter their section, but he wasted little time and told Parfait that he needed his Mark VI back, and the head engineer allowed him to take it. John offered his thanks and made his way to the Hanger bay on the UNSC section and sure enough, the things he needed were now there, he then grabbed a M90 Shotgun and a pair of M7 SMGs, with full ammunition, and the weapon he had asked from Cortana. Once he got word that Hibiki was now out, he launched the Longsword Fighter

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

Back at the nebula…

“Sensors have detected a massive object, which has a direct collision path with us. It appears to be an asteroid-sized chunk of ice." Amarone reported to Magno as her sensors confirmed the object heading for the ship.

“Did you hear that? Do something now!"

Magno cried out to Bart who was still in the navigation well.

However, Bart was in the middle of a hysterical screaming fit as he also spotted the incoming asteroid, and was now of no help to anyone whatsoever.

“He really needs to have a backbone.”

Cortana said as she pinched the bridge of her nose as she listened to the shouting of the Tarak youth, while the rest of the still present bridge crew were in agreement with the former UNSC Ai who was now in her AI form once more.

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

In the Engineering section, at the mean time…

“The input/output ratio is off. If we don't do something now, the pressure with destroy currently link routes we are using."

Duero remarked as he checked the readouts in front of him. Through using the screen display of the Navi-robot.

“That's because there aren't enough link routes to handle the strain!" Parfait declared at her own end of her monitor.

“But the existing ones can't handle the strain on their own. Any more pressure and changes on the links and there's going to be no way to fix the Paeksis and the ship!"

“Don't give up yet! There HAS to be an answer!"

The physician thought for several moments, considering the situation they were in, then he decided to approach this situation the way Parfet viewed and thought of it. If it really was behaving like a living organism, then perhaps his training in medicine and his doctoring skills would apply.

“How about a bypass then? In medicine, when there is a blocked artery, then all you have to do is make an alternate route to clear the path and relieve congestion."

Parfet nodded, as she understood what Duero had in mind. “A detour huh? Great idea doctor!"

She reached him and patted her hand on his left shoulder in agreement.

“You know… you wouldn't make a bad engineer!"

She turned and directed her attention to her staff and began giving new orders.

“Listen up, everybody! We're going to get busy!"

Duero on the other hand, looked down at his shoulder and contemplated Parfait's touch.

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

Back at the wreck…

Gascogne looked in morbid fascination and amazement as she witnessed the alien fighters and the smaller drones begin their repairs on their mother-ship with clean-cut efficiency, which confirmed her suspicions that the so called alien vessel was actually a massive mobile factory.

“They can repair and function even under these conditions and this much damage?" The head supply officer remarked.

It was then she caught movement through the corner of her eye, she turned and saw something very large and rather ominous heading for her direction. The machine looked like some massive bug, with a massive array of clawed appendages, and two large soulless eyes focusing solely on her. She had a very accurate idea that this machine wasn't here to have a civilized conversation with her.

The head supplier laughed nervously as she focused her own gaze at the massive sezed mechanized bug as she said.

“I guess I know what you want for dinner."

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

Out in deep space…

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! NO!"

Dita cried out as she was now running for her life, as several enemy fighters were chasing her and taking pot shots at her Dread. She used every evasive maneuver she had learned from her fellow Dread pilots and her comrade and leader Meia, and any other maneuver she could think of at the moment. But the alien fighters remained behind her and had no intention of letting the young redhead escape.

“I REALLY HATE ALIENS WHO DON'T KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP!"

It was at this point that her ship's sensors warned her of another approaching blip heading for her.

“From the front too?!" Dita asked in growing panic.

At that instant, one of the fighters pursuing her managed to hit near her Dread, the fighter rocked by that near miss, making accidentally activate her ship's weapons and firing them. Twin beams of destruction lanced forward and caused a small explosion some distance away from her as soon as they struck their target.

However, as soon as the explosion faded, several barrages of missiles were suddenly launched back. The missiles however, passed over Dita's Dread without hitting the fighter and turned her pursuers into scrap metal. It was at this moment that Dita was close enough to spot who were in front of her. One appeared to be some sort of massive fighter craft that was not the same as her Dread, and next to it was a machine she was quick to recognize.

Hibiki was not in a good mood, as he got into contact with Dita's Dread. He was already making his way to where the women were when he was hit by weapons fire…thankfully, the weapons didn't seem to harm his buddy too much, but that still didn't mean he was happy at suddenly being shot at.

“HEY! IS THAT ANY WAY TO THANK THE PERSON WHO CAME OUT TO GET YOU OR WHAT?!"

He knew now that the redhead's weaponry didn't seem to harm his Vanguard's armor, but even so it still ticked him off that he was shot at by the person he was looking for.

Dita however became overjoyed at seeing Hibiki. “Mr. Alien! You came for me!" She then made her Dread accelerate towards the Vanguard.

“Hold on! Wait a minute here!" The young Vanguard pilot tried to activated his Vanguard's braking thrusters to decelerate, however since he was still not used to flying a Vanguard, he didn't find the braking thruster controls in them, and as soon as his Vanguard and the Dread were in close proximity to one another, there came a bright flare of light. Vanguard and Dread once more became the VanDread.

“Wow! What is all this?" Dita asked in delight as she tried to gaze at everything she could see, as she now sat on Hibiki's lap in the cockpit of the massive mecha.

“Hey! Will you please stop moving around so much?"

Hibiki didn't like the way she was moving and squirming on his lap for one second, as her movements on his lap begun to make things hard for him to operate this mecha they were currently in…not to mention that for some reason, the movements of the woman on his lap began to affect a certain part of his male anatomy, though why he had no idea.

The young Dread pilot smiled as she turned to face her Mr. Alien. “I just want you to know, that I believed that you would come, and I knew that you would rescue me."

Hibiki glared as Dita's face was at least half a foot away from his, and part of his natural male instincts were sending certain thoughts into his brain. He retorted angrily at the young woman as he was still not very happy with the idea of working with women all that much.

“I didn't come here to save you! I… just went out to look for you… that's all."

“Well thank you." Dita said happily, though blissfully unaware of what her smile was doing to the young brown eyed Vanguard pilot.

It was then that they were receiving a call from the unknown fighter that had destroyed the alien fighters that had pursued Dita when she tried to get back to the ship to send the data back and get help for Gascogne. The two looked and Dita beamed at the sight that greeted them, it was the green armored and gold faced alien that she had met with Mr. Alien before, she didn't know that he could fly a fighter before.

“Mr. Green Alien! It's nice to see you!”

The Spartan merely shrugged his shoulders a bit and then asked the young woman the important question as to where the other crew member in her party was. He had been told just who the two crew members were and to find only one of them made him curious.

“Where's you're other comrade?”

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

Back at the wreckage…

Gascogne was definitely not liking her situation as it unfolded in front of her. The mechanized bug began to efficiently cut away the tendrils that held her. She knew that the machine was only doing so to get to her.

“You guys work pretty efficiently. I don't suppose I could make you consider working for us?"

Gascogne tried to sound confident which was a sharp contrast to the fear she was feeling as the automaton came closer to her.

The response of the machine was simply extend a wicked looking appendage with claws that looked VERY sharp.

By then the chief supply officer for the pirates was sweating.

“So, now I guess it's my turn now, eh?"

However, the automaton couldn't reach her with its surgical arm, as the thing was suddenly swallowed by something metallic and rather huge. It was instantly crushed into a mangled mess of parts as Gascogne looked out and saw the VanDread outside.

Gascogne sighed with relief, as she was now sure that Dita had brought in the cavalry.

“You guys put off saving me until the last possible moment, but I guess I couldn't have asked for a better stage ending."

That was when she spotted the movement of green metal and into the area walked or rather floated the Spartan. She was not expecting to see the UNSC Super Soldier with the rescue team of Dita and the young Tarak lad who no doubt was with the redhead. She then got to speak to the Spartan as John managed to get into her suit's communication systems.

“You all right?”

“Do I look all right to you?”

The Spartan shrugged and then used his Mark VI's amplified reactive metal liquid crystal layer and his own amplified strength to move aside the metal rods that held Gascogne…this made the others, including the trapped supply officer wonder in awe as the Spartan began to methodically rip aside the metal bars that held her prisoner.

<Whoa…he's strong!>

Hibiki thought as he saw the Spartan bend and tear open the bars as if it was nothing more than a routine thing for him to do. He then saw the Spartan do the same thing with the inner bars and did so without harming the woman or damaging her space suit.

<Wow! Mr. Green Alien is so strong! I wish I could be like him!!!>

Dita was in awe at how strong the green armored alien was as he was able to use only his hands to do what she could not with her suit's laser. She wondered if she could convince him to show her just how she could be as strong as he was.

Gascogne, having been among those women who saw the utter carnage this man could do was not entirely surprised to see him bend and rip aside the bars holding her as if it was nothing but a routine thing for him to do, it was however SEEING it up close and personal as he methodically bent the bars of high density metal that made her very aware of just how strong he was…and since she couldn't see through the Mark VI's polarized golden visor, she had no idea what were the emotions on his face as he did this…she had no trouble seeing him being able to break and shatter bones as well. She calmed down as the Spartan managed to free her. He then began to circle around her, momentarily confusing her as she wondered what he was doing, until she realized that he was checking her space suit for damages.

The Spartan then spoke to her via comm.-link.

“Get outside, my Longsword Fighter's bay is open, get in and wait.”

The Spartan then reached behind him and took out what appeared to be an oblong shaped object, an object that seemed to resemble an overinflated old Earth style football, but in dull metal grey and appeared to have some sort of time and access panel.

Gascogne looked at the thing and decided to ask her rescuer what it was.

“What is that thing?”

The Spartan began to type in the sequence and decided to tell the others what this weapon was that he was currently arming.

“This is a FURY Tactical Nuclear weapon, it has a low level yield of nuclear material, but has a blast range of at least 1.2 Km. Essentially, it's a nuclear grenade, standard UNSC issue weapon.”

That got Gasco's attention very quickly, she had known about nuclear weapons, they were supposedly no longer in use, but the military of Megele were rumored to have some stockpiles of nuclear material for making nuclear weapons. She knew how destructive they were and to find out that this man could carry one on his back made her VERY nervous.

“Are you telling me that thing's a nuke?!”

“Yes, we use this to blow up bases and enemy ships, don't worry, it's pretty clean so no need to worry about radiation poisoning.”

Without another word, the Spartan tossed the weapon into the area and it landed right into a crack in the wall, with that done, the Spartan placed his feet on a nearby wall of debris and pushed himself out and then dragged Gascogne with him, and headed straight for the open bay of the Longsword Fighter.

As soon as they were in, he sealed the bay and the two of them were now inside the cockpit and the group left the area…just as the FURY TAC nuke detonated and destroyed the rebuilding hulk of the alien ship for good as there was not enough time for the aliens to try and disarm the weapon thanks to both it's size and the time of 45 seconds that the Spartan had logged into the firing system.

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

Back at the pirate ship's engineering room…

“We've managed to secure at least thirty-six bypasses to the reactor and the main systems of the ship!" Parfet declared as she checked in through the monitor on her console. “How are things on your end, doctor?"

Duero sighed as he closed the Navi-robot's panel and faced his colleague. “I can't do any more back here I'm afraid to report. We'll just have to make due with what we have now."

Parfet knew that despite then newly installed bypasses, those were not enough. “The balance ratio will be completely thrown off if there aren't enough link routes!"

“Do you know what doctors do during a time like this and when in this kind of situation? We then believe in the patient's desire and will to live."

The female engineer smiled and nodded.

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

Outside…

The massive chunk of ice continued it's path of collision with the fused vessel as the crew frantically try to avoid disaster.

On the Command Bridge, Magno's mouth was in a tight straight line as her bridge team continued to report.

“Distance is now twelve hundred kilometers and closing…" Amarone reported as she stayed at her station.

It looked like the end to Magno; however that was until the fan near her suddenly came back online…

“Huh?" the pirate Captain could say in surprise.

Belvedere gave a cry of joy as she checked the readouts on her console. “The system just rebooted itself!"

Cortana likewise gave confirmation that she now has full control of the sections of the fused ship under her control and began to take over those said sections, but she still did not have the authority to override the Paeksis and take over the steering of the ship.

Down at the engineering section, the Navi-robot became active once more, stood up on its feet and smartly saluted both Duero and Parfet.

“Beep! I'm back in service!"

“Yes! We did it! We make a great team!"

Parfait whooped with joy as she reached out clasped Duero's hand in her own, then she looked down at both their hands for a moment and blushed as she gazed briefly at Duero.

Duero also felt rather… odd, as he also found his gaze torn between his hand held in Parfait's own and her face.

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

In the bridge…

“HARD TO STARBOARD, THIRTY DEGREES!"

Magno shouted to Bart in the navigational well. Cortana quickly joined in and shouted at Bart as she contacted him in the Navigation well, unmindful of the fact that he was very much stripped down and naked.

“HURRY UP AND MOVE THE SHIP!!!!!”

“AAAAAHHHHH! IT'S TOO LATE!" Bart screamed in fear as he immediately braced himself for imminent destruction.

Then, there came a massive explosion in front of the vessel, but it wasn't the ice colliding with the ship's hull. Bart opened his eyes as he felt no pain at all, all he could see was that the asteroid was completely vaporized and in the thing's place was the VanDread flying in front of them.

“Hmph! So he saves the day once again!" Bart said with disdain.

That was when the Spartan appeared in the communication system and he replied to Bart.

“Which do you prefer…being alive because he did…or dead because he didn't?”

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

Inside the VanDread's cockpit…

< Man! I am SO tired! > Hibiki sighed as he leaned back on the command chair.

“See! I told you it was amazing!" Dita said excitedly as she bounced up and down on Hibiki's lap, making the young pilot even more agitated and nervous, as she was bouncing once more on a certain part of his anatomy. Though considering his current state of exhaustion, he could do nothing but groan and wish that all this was over so he could get some sleep. He then managed to get enough strength to guide the VanDread towards the ship and make sure he didn't hit anything along the way.

In the Longsword Fighter, Gascogne was now bare of her suit and in her normal clothes as the Longsword maneuvered towards the open Hanger Bay. She then turned and faced the Spartan who was still on the controls, she had to admit that when looked at in a certain point of view…the armored giant of a man was…interesting. She then put that aside as the fighter began to dock into the Hanger Bay.

As the fighter landed, and the bay door opened, she and the Spartan left the fighter and she then faced the tall warrior and gave him a smile.

“Thanks for the lift, I doubt it would have been comfortable if I rode with Dita and that kid in that machine of theirs.”

“No problem ma'am.”

“The name's not ma'am, and no mater what you hear the others call me, my name is Gascogne…Gascogne Rheingau, not Gasco.”

“I understand Gascogne.”

With that the Spartan left the scene and went to place back his weapons in the Armory Station near the Hanger Bay, leaving the head of the Register to smile as he was the first person on the entire ship to call her by her full name of Gascogne. She then made her way to the Hanger Bay in the men's section of the Ikazuchi to make sure Dita still had the data they had been able to get from the ruins of the ship.

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

In the Conference Room…

As Magno looked over at the information that Gascogne and Dita had been able to retrieve from the now obliterated ship. She decided that with what they have learned…

They a LOT of things to do in order to get back home.

She however already knew what to do with a certain pair of individuals, she then turned as Cortana and UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 entered the room, Cortana merely smiled at the elderly captain, but John, being a military man all his life saluted the woman. Magno didn't say anything as the Spartan was showing her respect in his own way, and with that in mind she saluted him back.

“You wanted to see us Captain?” Cortana asked.

“Yes, and it has to do with what I have to soon say to the others.”

Magno then showed them the data and allowed both the woman and the Spartan to know what they were dealing with at this time and place. As she finished showing them the information, she spoke to Cortana.

“Cortana…you and John are not from this dimension, so technically, I have no right to keep you on this ship as prisoners. But seeing as we are facing an unknown force that will no doubt attack us again and again, the idea of leaving you two alone without support is not something I want to consider nor approve of. However, you both possess great talents and abilities that I don't want to waste at all. I have no doubt that those aliens might soon hunt you two as well. So instead of keeping you here as prisoners, even if it is only in name, I want to offer you both a place as members of my crew…officially, there will be now hiding it now as I plan to tell the others about you're new status as members of this crew. I hope in you're case Cortana, you can serve as the operations officer of whatever missions that are within the parameters of you're current capacity and that of John as well. Is that all right with you?”

Cortana thought about it and nodded.

“Of course Captain Magno…I'll what I can here.”

“Thank you Cortana…and as for you Master Chief.”

“Yes ma'am?”

“I want you to serve as our ship's Combat Specialist, you have the most battle field experience than any other member of my crew and also you possess remarkable fighting skills that are very powerful. I am including you in our roster not just for you're skills though, you might be aware of this, but I want my crew to know you are on our side and not the enemy's. Once they know you are an ally, the less likely things can get rather messy around here on the ship. You helped protect us with the boarders that attacked the ship and that is why I want you to serve as our Combat Specialist when things of this nature happen. Is that all right with you?”

“Sounds all right to me ma'am.”

Magno smiled and then had a thought as she looked at the two of them.

“And I would like to see you're battle records as well. There might be many of the crew, that when they find out about you're real origins, might consider it all lies, so if you have records to show them the truth, I would appreciate it if you will show the records to the crew.”

The two looked at each other and Cortana asked the Captain.

“Are you sure about that Captain?”

“Positive.”

Cortana sighed, she had copied ALL of the John's battles with the Covenant, the Flood, and the Covenant Loyalists from the Mjolnir and could still access the files in her AI form, though it was somewhat against her nature to reveal the records…the situation as it stood, plus the fact that they were in a universe where neither UNSC, the Covenant Separatists, the Flood, the Forerunners, or even the Halo Rings didn't existed meant that all the files were very much redundant to hide. She then gave Magno a small smile…

“I'll start compiling the information and the records Captain…but it will take me quite a while to get all the data sorted out.”

“That's all right…until then, I'll see you both later…Dismissed.”

Both Cortana and John saluted her and left the Conference Room…Magno then got the call from Buzam that the rest of the crew were now ready to listen to her announcement, along with her second in command informing her that Ezra was well enough to resume her duties and was being escorted back to the bridge by Duero. She sighed as she moved back to the bridge on her chair to being giving her speech to the crew.

Things were about to get even more lively in this ship once she gave her announcement…that much she could be assured of.

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To be continued…

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Author's Notes:

This officially ends this chapter of VanDread - Halo and we now move on to the next chapter. If you're wondering why I somewhat shortened the ending, well, I have a special plan for the rest of the story as I do plan to have some changes to it in the coming time frame.

On the next chapter, I'll try to have a bit of change in the story, namely with the relationship between John and Cortana, along with his other interactions with the rest of the crew, and his new found obligation to keep an eye on Hibiki and keep him from getting killed.

In this case, we can expect Hibiki to get lessons about team-work, discipline, honor, combat, strategy, tactics, and more from the battle-hardened and decorated Spartan. Hibiki might even serve as not just a protector to Hibiki but as a mentor and maybe even a father/brotherly figure to the young teen…though John-117 will probably use UNSC Marine training and discipline to keep Hibiki from making a fool of himself if he gets over his head and acts all high and mighty like he does in the original series.

And the way the Spartan will correct Hibiki will be a lot more difficult than just forcing Hibiki to be scrubbing toilets and mopping floors in a dress…that's for sure.

As to how the others will react to the news that the Spartan is now a member of their crew?

Here's a little trailer for you readers:

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Meia couldn't help but look with some surprise as she walked into the training room in the UNSC section of the ship. She had wondered just what the Spartan had said about leaving Hibiki to him…ever since he had taken the boy after she and the Tarak youth had argued about his leaving the ship and engaging the enemy on his own without orders.

On the mat was Hibiki doing push-ups with weights on both his arms and legs, along with a vest on his body, no doubt with weights sewn into it as well. The boy was covered head to toe in sweat and all the while, the Spartan was watching him with a very blank stare wearing his Mark VI but without the helmet hiding his face.

“101…102…103…104…105…106! Can I stop now?!”

Hibiki said with pants and gasps as he looked at the Spartan who was still in his Mjolnir Mark VI without the helmet.

“No.”

“How many more do I have to do?!”

“At least 500 more…do that all in one hour, and I'll let you eat…if you don't finish all those push-ups in one hour…you're not going to have dinner. Period.”

“You've got to be kidding?!”

“I'm not kidding. You've got one hour Hibiki, don't waste it.”

John said with a blank and yet very serious expression on his face as Hibiki groaned and went on with the push-ups. Looking at what he was subjecting the cocky Tarak teen with made Meia think that maybe the punishment she had in mind for the Tarak youth wasn't going to be used after all.

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See you on Chapter 4 - Team Work!